Sketch Friday!!!

My latest sketch hot off the presses for todays challenge on SCS!!! YIPPEE!
I have a few others that I have not "formally" posted on this blog, but all of my sketches are available in the sidebar below, or you can visit my gallery to see them all. Happy scrapping!

A Page...

...with no PICTURES? Yes! This was a challenge from my friend Peggy on Splitcoast. I had been kinda wanting to do a page with all my crazy ;) lists and a photo was actually my only holdup! I'm freeeeeee! My page has a few drawings but no photographs, and I'm thrilled with how it came out!
Aside from the grocery list these lists reflect different things I need or want to do any day, any week...hopefully this year!!! And yes, I do LOVE wasabi peas a little TOO much! ha ha

Toot Toot

My pal Vicki is the BESTEST! She gave me this award: I feel so honored, thank you so much Vicki!!!
Make sure you visit her blog Stamped Smiles...it's linked on the right! :)

On another note, I was honored to be the Sketch Artist of the Week over on Sisterhood of Scrap!
Here's the article:
Featured Artist April 5, 2008
Thank you ladies for this, I can't wait to see some new interpretations of my sketch!!!

Punch Drunk

Hola! I found a small amount of time to post and wanted to share some purty things I've been hoarding from you...not really, life has just been busy for me lately!
I've been wanting to make one of these boxes for quite some time now. Love it in this paper!! If you haven't done one, it's made by covering square drink coasters with patterned paper. I used ModPodge to keep the paper uniform with the entire surface.
As much as I love this paper, I decided to paint one coaster with white acrylic paint to add some contrast. Then I stamped on it. The brush strokes gave it some nice texture and made the stamped image appear distressed so I decided to enhance the look further by dragging my Apricot Appeal craft pad across it. Isn't it delicious? I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes and simply knotted ribbons to hold the box together on the corners. The bottom piece is glued with ModPodge.
My last open house was earlier this month and we made this sweet card and a little stand up photo thingy...that's the technical term! *wink* The card includes a clear button, and I stamped the images you see through it! This photo doesn't do it justice, give it a click and you can see more detail in the background. I used a marker on a background stamp to give the rounded yellow card stock piece some texture.
More coasters, made into a mini photo frame. Super easy. I used the designer label punch from Stampin' Up! to do faux metal hinges! I just punched a cardboard box right over the edge so it was pre-scored in the center. You know, like a cereal box. And then I coated the cardboard with VersaMark then gold embossing powder, and heat set! Whip out the Crop-A-Dile again and secure with brads.
I had a ton of fun making these favors for my attendees and they were a little time consuming to put together, but oh so cute, and I love punches!!! Whoops I forgot to photograph the tab punch...that is the one you need to make these baskets; well that and the two ovals, and a few flowers. Aren't they adorable??
I'm still in the planning phase for my next workshop, but it will be all about punches! We will stamp and punch and CREATE! It'll be almost too much fun!!!

Whaaaaa???

...and just where have YOU been? Is what you must be thinking. Well being a cookie mom for Troop 920 has taken over my life and there has been very little time for crafty creations. But I have some things I never got around to posting, that I will be following up with later.For now, I have THREE sketches to share. I wasn't overly thrilled with the 5 photo layout, but it has had a great response so far. Check out these pages that were done with it!
HUGS,

Sally

A Sketch for VSBN...

Saturday March 1st at 11:00 AM CST I posted this sketch for Virtual Scrapbooking Night (VSBN), and yes I realize it wasn't night, or even in the afternoon. But by the time ALL the challenges were laid out it was WAY dark outside!

I scrapped a sample page using my sketch, and it really came together fast! It is so unlike me to only use one picture on a layout, but every now and then you have to try something different, and for this particular page I honestly only had one picture to use!

The challenges that followed mine continued though out the weekend, for a total of 12. If you have a gallery on SCS, it's not too late to check them out and submit a page of your own. CLICK HERE to see them all!

My crazy schedule over the weekend prevented me from doing more than one myself. But I was still online right after my challenge (chatting mostly) and I was eager to try a technique I wasn't familiar with. Anita introduced us to the Glitter Window, SCS has a tutorial for it, but it's really simple:

Just punch a circle (or any shape really) in your desired card stock, add a piece of clear packing tape over the punched opening, and sprinkle glitter on the sticky side. For my page I decided to minimize the spread of glitter by punching around my circles with the scallop punch. I just put it right onto my page glitter side down. Which means there is clear tape on top. I guess I could have "sandwiched" it with another punched piece, but I like my shiny "flower windows" with sparkle in the middle! This is the page I did using one of my sketches (backwards), and a close up of one of my "windows" above on the left!

Challenges a Plenty

A Sketch:

Well it's Friday again, and I've posted a DPS this week. It's not too fancy, but I think it'll be a fun layout to use, and once I pick up my photo order this week end I should be back on the road to Scrapville! hee hee


Something REALLY Unique:

My gal pal Peggy has come up with another really fab, think outside the box, scrapping challenge. First you take this test to reveal your crayon color. CLICK ME
Then you scrap "your color" and include it's opposite on your page. Your color should be the focus, and you can include other colors too, this should be FUN!
Here are my results...

You Are a Red Crayon

Your world is colored with bright, vivid, wild colors. You have a deep, complex personality - and you are always expressing something about yourself. Bold and dominant, you are a natural leader. You have an energy that is intense... and sometimes overwhelming. Your reaction to everything tends to be strong. You are the master of love-hate relationships. Your color wheel opposite is green. Green people are way too mellow to understand what drives your energy.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Delicious Divas:

Another regular challenge we have on Splitcoast is the Diva Designer Challenge. This week Ngaire Bartlam joins us and her challenge is a simple one. "To create a collage using LOTS of different stamped images. You can use this collage on wall art, or a card, or a scrapbook layout, or an ATC.. or what ever your artistic heart desires!!!"
She made an index book for her unmounted stamps, very cool!

An Announcement:

Once again it is time for Virtual Scrapbooking AKA VSBN! Tomorrow at 1:00 PM CST the first challenge will be posted and it will be followed by 3 others. Each challenge allows 2 hours for you to create, and then TIMES UP! Well you don't have to scrap the challenges as they are posted, you don't have to do them in order or even do them all. But it's always a lot of fun, and I usually get a lot done during VSBN, so stop by, we'd love to have ya!

Sketch Friday!!!

I'm really excited about my newest sketch. I actually just did this yesterday afternoon while my sickly 3 year old was napping.
Once I had it done I was wishing I could go ahead and scrap with it, but she did not sleep long enough for that...I am a pretty slow scrapper. I do have plans to use it ASAP! Hopefully I can squeeze in a little "me time" tonight or tomorrow.
I actually wish I had a specific event or series of photos in mind, but I haven't sorted through them lately and I have a BUNCH that have never seen the light of day (they're still on my laptop)!

I hope you are inspired and if you scrap with it, please link back here with a comment or on SCS, I would LOVE to see what you do!

My Valentine!

I spent a few minutes this afternoon working on this card for my dad! It's not real masculine, but I like the colors and that little mouse with the GREAT BIG heart is just so darned cute!!! I'm thinking if I get it in the mail today he'll have it by Thursday! My dad went through a knee replacement a few months back, and over all he's doing GREAT! He is incredibly resilient for a man of his age, and since he was the "first man" in my life, he deserves something special!

Last Friday I got to run off and leave my family behind to spend time with my friend and upline Debbie! She had her monthly stamper's club meeting and even though I'm not really a member, my sister and I are always welcome to drop in. We had a good time stamping together...it had been a while, and it's always nice to sit back and do someone else's projects for a change...aren't these cute???
The candybar wrapper, uses the set "Simply Said" and was a fun project. It was quick and really easy to do!
The card involved masking off the word "hi" and sponging on Old Olive at the bottom. If you haven't tried this technique before, it's a simple way to make a BIG difference and I'll be focusing on that again in more detail soon! It also features a stamp from "So Many Scallops" available FREE in the Sale-a-bration mini. It's really cool to stamp an image and then punch it out with a coordinating punch! Another fun item from the mini is the "Love & Happiness" rub-ons, isn't this little candle ADORABLE!? I think Old Olive is one of my favorite colors!

Itichin' for Stitchin'

If you are following my sketch challenges, you've already seen this one from last Friday, but I was pretty impressed with myself for getting it done. YAY me!

I've had computer issues since the end of May 2007...SOMEONE put scrap paper in my CD drive and I hadn't taken the time to make an appointment and have a Mac Genius evaluate the situation. Well now it's come back to bite me. Somesort of system glitch is causing a problem with some of my applications. I need to upgrade my system software (or just reinstall), and in the meantime, I cannot use Photoshop, Illustrator, or any Microsoft applications.


With this issue came another, my inability to create sketches! Oh NO!!!! Well, I couldn't let that stop me, and since I had a pretty simple idea in my head, I decided to try MS Word as a sub. I use it at work for letters, and my desk isn't so demanding that I couldn't spend a few minutes a day tweaking my creation until Fridays post! So there it is above.

Over the weekend my WONDERFUL husband Gabe managed to get the paper out, and my CD drive is operational again. *YIPPEE* Can you believe there were FIVE small pieces of card stock in there!? I don't think I have to worry about a repeat incident. When I first discovered the paper in there, the girls were pretty bummed because we were on a road trip and they couldn't watch DVD's .

Here is a page I did Sunday using the sketch. The "innocent" child you see there is VERY LIKELY the cause of all my laptop grief! Can't sell her in a garage sale, heck look at that smile, how could I? She sure makes me appreciate her sisters a bit more, and I guess payback is hell...right Dad? LOL!!!

The page itself came together really fast. I just drew a heart on the backside of this patterned paper I had and trimmed it out. After taping it down, I ran it through my sewing machine. I adore using machine stitching on my layouts, if you haven't tried it you should. There are LOTS of ways to play with stitches and faux stitches are ALMOST as fun!

Basically Blue

I don't normally do photoless layouts, but I did this one for my friend Darcy and wanted her to use it as she wishes. I gave them to her at her bachelorette party last Friday night, so they are no longer "top secret."
Also, since she is one of my cyber sisters, I figured it would be appropriate to share them with you here! Hi Darcy, hope you are having a FABULOUS time on your honeymoon!!!

I used one of my sketches (see below) as the initial inspiration, but I decided to change it up a little. The truth is, after I created that section on the bottom left, I didn't have the heart to cover it up! What? you say, that's not patterned paper? No it is not, I stamped that part using my own crazy version of emboss resist. I guess we could call it "Silly Sally's Sloppy Emboss Resist!"

I used VersaMark clear pigment ink and stamped an image from Brocade Basics. Then, taking my sweet time about it, I sprinkled clear embossing powder over the image. I was NOT careful to cover the stamped images completely before I heated it with my heat tool. Then I brayered over the top with Classic ink and the brayer picked up and ghosted some areas that weren't fully embossed. I was really pleased with the distressed/aged look I achieved, and will certainly be experimenting with this again!

The right side of my layout has some freestyle paper piercing. I lightly drew a swirling design with a pencil and "traced" back over it with the piercing tool before erasing any residual pencil marks, and went back over it with my white get pen. I love the texture this creates! No page would be complete without some smudges of craft ink, so of course I did that too!

I really like the effects of blocks on a page. Blocks of color, blocked photos, blocked papers with photos overlapping...
I'm hoping to get some more mileage out of this sketch. I would also LOVE to see what you can do with it!

Use it or LOSE it!

I scrapped last night, I scrapped last night!!! My first pages of the new year, and I used my sketches from Friday's challenge. It's a miracle! ;)


I thought I was going to do the reverse masking technique to create the circles, but I decided to dig into my stash of patterned paper and use something I had. It's all about satisfying my 2008 scrapping goal, and I really need to use the old before I can buy NEW!

The pictures I used are from my daughters 10th birthday. It was her actual birthday, not a party, but I feel strongly about singing "Happy Birthday" and celebrating on the DAY even if your party can't be on the day. I intended for it to be a little hokey. We used baby shower napkins and the cupcakes included a fabulous "must have" fashion accessory...My Little Pony rings! hee hee
Here are my pages:

For the second page I decided to hide some pictures in a "waterfall" style, and I rotated the sketch to make it work with my landscape photos. I used my round tab punch to create hinges for attaching the matted photos with. A super easy way to get extra photos on your page...and I hid my journaling too! It's not that I really dislike my handwriting, but the page seems less "messy" to me.

For a complete recipe of the papers and products I used, visit my gallery!

Whew...Christmas IS Over!

I am sad/glad the holidays are over. I no longer have house guests. There is no pressure to keep the house super clean, or cook a big feast. It is actually a BIG relief!

I guess it's time to pack away my paper ornaments and Christmas layouts...
My craft table is surprisingly clean at the moment. I guess that's what happens when you don't USE it for a while. *yikes*

I had a pretty uneventful New Years Eve. I actually spent the evening painting a shared bedroom for my two youngest daughters. We are in the midst of a MAJOR overhaul, and I have girly stuff deposited in every spare corner of the house at the moment! Yet ANOTHER reason to be thankful the holidays are over! ;)

While we're on the subject of the new year, I meant to share a picture of one of these 2008-2009 planners. I altered the covers and I made several with different stamp sets, but basically the same colors. Unfortunately the photo doesn't really do it justice, but if you click on it you can see a closer view. This was done with the technique I shared over a month ago, Emerging Color, or Joseph's Coat Inside Out (as Jan Tink calls it). I am pretty pleased with the results, this is one I kept for myself - isn't it gorgeous!?

GOALS
I decided to set a scrapping goal for the year, and owe the idea to Lela on SCS. Several of us have set goals for ourselves, and the catch is, we can't spend money on new stuff unless we meet the goal! I plan to do 100 pages this year, so I set a goal of 8 pages this month which will allow me to spend $24 on new goodies....whoops, I haven't scrapped a thing yet, and I spent a $1 in the Target spot the other day. Ain't these cute!? They are self adhesive chipboard pieces. My 6 year-old is DYING for me to use them, because she knows she gets the leftovers. She is such a scrapper in the making!!!


EXCITEMENT BUILDS!!!!

The NEW Stampin' Up! catalog is HERE!!!!!
I'll be giving them away FREE to anyone who:

• joins my mailing list
• places an order
• signs up for my monthly club
• hosts a PARTY!

Contact me to get your copy while supplies last! In the meantime, enjoy the online version!

Got The Bug!

...the Cuttlebug that is!

I actually bought one quite a while back, but I haven't used it much because of my limited collection of embossing folders and dies.
Well, Tuesday night I decided I just HAD to bust out with my new Christmas stamps from the Holiday mini...it would be a total shame to put them away until next year! So I knew I wanted to use the tree stamp, and I liked the word block, but hmmm colors, and maybe use up some of this mega HUGE mat stack of Christmas paper I bought on sale in 2005! Well, let me tell you after I chose Stampin' Up!'s Gable Green as my card base, and picked the pretty striped paper I knew embossing it with the Cuttlebug was MANDATORY! I used my latest JoAnn coupon and ran out to get the D-Vine Swirls embossing folder everyone but me has been using for ages, and these cute little cards practically created themselves!

Friday's Sketch

I have a new DPS up for this week on SplitCoast!!! I'm posting them here too, simply because I want to share. I sincerely hope you like them and will put them to good use. I haven't scrapped them yet myself, and have big plans for last weeks sketch. I'm just waiting for the pictures to come in. I really need to finish up my Christmas cards though, so depending on how this weekend goes, there's a small chance I'll get a little scrapping in! TTFN!!!

Where Has This Month Gone???

You might remember I'm having an open house this weekend. I have been like a crazy woman with my head cut off!!! Holiday decorations...shopping...housework...kiddos -- CALGON TAKE ME AWAY! hahaha J/K
This little 6x6 is one of the make and take options this week end. It uses a mix of old and new. The background was stamped with a hostess set that will be featured in the new catalog, and the patterned paper is currently available. It's called Designer Prints and comes in several pretty patterns and colors. Other projects we'll be doing include a fun holiday card that features a retiring set, and a little candle!
I made several paper ornaments and decorated this "Charlie Brown" tree, these are my giveaways for attendees!

I didn't get a chance to snap a pic of the doorprises...I'm headless, remember? Anyway, it's going to be fun!!!