HELLO My Name is Red Fox

Few days ago I was looking through the papers in my brand new Jenni Bowlin September kit and at the same time looking at the pile of random pictures that accumulated on my desk. There it was, the picture of the fox that visited our yard this winter, just begging for the name tag.

 

Supplies: (from Jenni Bowlin September 2012 kit) cardstock (Bazzill), patterned paper, name tag, word stickers, enamel dots (My Mind's Eye), vintage inventory sheet, stencil (Jenni Bowlin), label stickers (Jillibean Soup), letter stickers (October Afternoon), sprakling tecture medium (Martha Stewart), corner punch and heart punch (Fiskars)

This layout came together pretty quickly. I knew I want to keep it simple and I just had to use the exclusive stencil that came with the kit.

I punched two small hearts, folded in half and adhered side by side. I like how my  heart has two little wings. I cut out "the sweetest thing" label from the packaging and layered under the picture.

The white stuff is Sparkle Texture medium by Martha Stewart. I used it before mixed with acrylic paint but here I used it as it. I think it looks like a big sparkling snowflake.

 

I still didn't use my most favorite product from the kit - the deck of JB Silhouette cards. It would be fun to make a sweet girly layout with one of the cards. Maybe tomorrow.

Take Twelve - March and June layouts

I can say it now - Take Twelve is my favorite scrapbooking project. My most favorite part? It looks like I am able to keep up!! Not always I am making layouts the same weeks as I take the pictures but I am making them. So far I made 8 layouts, I am missing July but my pictures are printed and cropped and they wait patiently for me in a neat pile. I think the secret of my success is that I made it simple, really simple.

• double 12x12 layouts.
• square pictures. The size varies from 3" to almost 4", depending how I print them.
• American Crafts white cardstock for the base.
• Lifestyle Crafts Diesel alphabet dies for the titles cut from American Crafts colored cardstock. 
• 1.5" strip of patterned paper under the title.
• printed journaling using Traveling Typewriter font.
• three very small embellishments or embellishment clusters.

Every month I pick another color of the cardstock for the title and I change the placement of the pictures.

Here is my March layout. I wrote about the pictures back in March.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (Basic Grey), canvas tag (Basic Grey), alphabet dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), glimmer mist (Tattered Angels), buttons (American Crafts), heart punch (Fiskars)

I made the yoyo flowers from misted fabric.

 

June layout next. the journaling is from my blog post in June. (I just love that I can go back to my blog and just copy the journaling!). Another super simple layout.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper, stickers (American Crafts), alphabet dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), adhesive sequins (Pebbles)

 

Things I need to improve: figure out a way to take better pictures of the double layouts!! I had to straighten the pictures in Picasa and that makes them blurry :( 

Today I finished the September layout, I will practice taking better pictures and post it soon together with the August layout.

Take twelve 2012:

January

February

March (this post)

April

May

June (this post)

July (wip)

August (coming soon)

September  (coming soon)

Switching gears now. It was a while since I bought a scrapbooking kit so I am super excited to play with my new Jenni Bowlin September kit. Isn't it lovely?

I took this photo with instagram. It is the first app I installed on my new smart phone. Yes, I joined the civilization and got me a smartphone. Now I am trying to find my way in the sea of filters, hashtags and what else. Do you instagram?

Happy Jewish New Year!

We are getting ready to celebrate the beginning of the new Jewish Year - 5773!
I wish all my Jewish friends and family happy and sweet new year!

 

Take Twelve - September

September 12th sneaked up on me and caught me unprepared. I wasn't sure what pictures I want to take and that made me think about other things I am not prepared for, like Rosh HaShanah that is coming this Sunday (gasp) and Eli's 4th birthday this coming Thursday. That gave me an idea to devote my September's photos to Eli. Now it sounds like the obvious thing to do since I devoted July photos to Ella, so I don't know why I was even considering other options.

1.  Milk and cereal for breakfast.

2.  Morning bike ride in the driveway before the school bus comes.

3.  Zoom! Zoom! He is getting fast!

4.  9:45am - the school bus had arrived.

5.  3:30pm - Eli's new afternoon school has the best playground.

6.  Time to go home.

7.  Afternoon snack - yogurt with M&M's.

8.  Much needed haircut.

9.  First time in a big chair by himself.

10. Backyard ride on Power Wheels Kawasaki.

11. Bath time. 

12. Everything is more fun with Thomas and Percy.

Guess what pictures I will be taking in November?

Scrap It Girl September recipe challenge

What happens when you take some twine, an arrow, a circle (or maybe few), a bird and mix it with color red? 

Depends who is cooking of course! I cooked a Halloween dish to accompany the cutest photos of Eli sporting his first Halloween costume. This is my take on the new Scrap It Girl challenge. We have something different this month -  a recipe challenge. Yes, you already guessed it - you need to use twine, arrows, circles, bird and color red.

Supplies: patterned paper, diecuts (My Mind's Eye), sticker (Making Memories), tub-on (Recollections), thickers (American Crafts), raindots (Cloud 9), circle rubber sticker (KI Memories), white pen (Uniball Signo), tab punch (Fiskars), twine (unknown)

I challenged myself not to use orange other than the light orange lines in the patterned paper. The papers along with the arrow diecut and the journaling tag are from the last year MME collection. I added Making Memories circle bird sticker, an old spider web rub-on and few other doodads from my Halloween drawer.

I finished with white fax stitching along the edges of the photos.

You have the whole month to submit your take on this recipe challenge. The prize is fabulous so what are you waiting for?

First day of school - 9.4.12

Hello high school!

Hello 9th grade!

Hello middle school!

Hello 6th grade!

Hello 3K!

 Hello to three full days in school!

Few things on Friday

Few things I wanted to share on this last day of August:
- Tomorrow is September 1st and although our schools don't start till September 4th, tomorrow is the first day of Shimelle's class "Learn Something New Everyday".  I signed up for this class last year (or maybe it was two years ago) but didn't do much except gathering the supplies. This year the focus is on simplicity and Shimelle promised that no preparation is required. I am hopeful that I will be able to follow along this year. I am looking forward to the first prompt tomorrow morning. Are you in?

- The next thing to look forward to is the "Big Idea Festival" from Big Picture Classes. It starts on September 4th and it is free. 14 days with 14 instructors sharing they ideas and tips. Free. Sounds like fun!

- If you are looking for an eye candy, check this post by Rita Barakat. She explains her creative process and what products she is using to create her amazing drawings. I am absolutely in love with them!

- Finally, I want to share this layout that I made based on the sketch from My Scraps & More I used a picture of Ella with her 4th grade teacher Mrs. Mattson. I used a lot of Bella Blvd from my stash.

Supplies: patterned paper, letter stickers, circle sticker (Bella Blvd), small circle journaling tag (Jenni Bowlin), ribbon (unknown), button (American Crafts), 3D embellishments (K&Company), star punches (Fiskars)

 The big star is handcut, all other stars are punched with Fiskars squeeze punches.

I love how it turned out and that Ella helped me with the journaling. 

Three more days till the new school year! I am doing something special tomorrow with the girls and I plan to spend the rest of the weekend catching on the paper works, organizing, cleaning and maybe even scrapping!

Three wedding cards

It doesn't happen that often that I have a chance to make a wedding card. This month I had not one but two occasions. Ella's gymnastics teacher Ms. Melissa got married and my mom asked me to make a card for the wedding of her friend's daughter.

The first card is made using three layers of white cardstock punched with Fiskars corner border punch. The stamps are from an old Fiskars stamp set. I embossed the image with heat embossing, it can be seen better on the second picture.

Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), punch (Fiskars), stamps (Fiskars), ink, embossing powder

For my second card I wanted to do something similar to this design but decided to make hearts instead of flowers. I punched two hearts, folded them in half and adhered side by side. I like the simple and elegant look. I made two cards with slight variations.

 

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts, Bazzill Basics), heart punch (Fiskars), border punch (Martha Stewart), stamp (Fiskars)

 

The last two cards traveled from Wisconsin to Israel to my mom's house. From there one of them will travel to Italy (it's a destination wedding!) and from Itanly it will come with the newlyweds back to their home somewhere in US, I think New York. I find it pretty cool!

Inspiration Elevator

These photos were sitting at my desk for months, since March actually. Two printed photos, ticket stubs and and the Lorax activity booklet that I planned to use for my layout. The pictures were from Eli's first visit to the movie theater, but they were not that great. I wanted to tell this story but wasn't really inspired by the pictures. Until few days ago I came across this post on Lisa's blog. Any post by Lisa is inspiring but that one pushed me to take my "not so great pictures" and see what I can so with them. At first I had Truffula trees all over the page but eventually I just left one small Lorax that I cut out of the activity booklet.

Supplies: patterned paper, stickers (Basic Grey), letter stickers (Bella Blvd.), film ribbon (Tim Holtz), white pen (Uniball Signo), buttons (American Crafts), twine, staples
 

I am still not sure if I actually like this layout but I am glad that this memory is in Eli's scrapbook now.

Go check Lisa's blog and all other blogs that participated in the Inspiration Elevator challenge. And after that go find a blurry photo to scrapbook. We all have one, right?

Authentique card

Simple card based on the sketch posted on the Authentique blog. I love punching butterflies from butterflies paper. So easy! I used my favorite papers from the Carefree collection here.

 

Supplies: patterned paper and letter stickers (Authentique), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), pearls (Kaiser Crafts)