In The Cat Cave

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Mojo Monday 271

Did I mention its my birthday???

For my gift from my family I get the day to spend how I want!!! Its a dreammmm! I've done a couple projects already, largely for the Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop that I am participating in. STAY TUNED FOR TOMORROW.. there might be a prize in store!

In the mean time, I ran across this blog called Mojo Monday and since I am in the card making mode, I thought I would give it a whirl. Here's the card I came up with:

Supplies Used: MME 6x6 Lost and Found paper pad, Stampin Up Old Olive ribbon, Stampin Up linen thread, MME Wonderland stamp, SU dazzling details (cherry cobbler, SU very vanilla card stock, and SU basic pearls.

And here's the sketch that went along with it!

Have a great day!
Cathy

Advent calendar

Hi bloggers!

This is a project that I have been working on for a few weeks and finally finished it off for December 1st... just in the nick of time! Not because it takes this long but because I was only picking away at it as I finally brought my son into the world. Unfortunately I hadn't documented until now!

Here's the end result!!

Let's get started!! I picked up this Kaisercraft advent calendar for my daughter and I have since picked up a similar one for my newborn son. Here's the pieces!

Next, I painted all the edges with an acrylic white paint, over that I put Tim Holtz distress ink.. firebrick red!! I love how this gives uneven shades. Keeping in mind that although this appears put together in the picture, it's actually only laid together - in other words, there's no glue and it will topple over!! This is necessary to get into all the grooves when covering everything with paper.

The next step is to pick out the paper - I decided to go with the FancyPants Saint Nick's collection - love, love, love!! I then covered the back tree. You'll see there's a couple colors but that's only because I ran out of paper - its the same shade so it works.

I then started putting paper on the "benches" that link together to created the "shelves". I glued this on using tombeau glue. Once the glue dried, I sanded the edges to smooth out the paper and applied the Tim Holtz red seasonal distress ink to color the edges. Note that you will need to take an x-acto knife to cut out the 'slots' where the shelves link together.

Once this was dry, I started to glue everything together one piece at a time. I used fabric/wood glue but there's lots out there as long as it works on glue. Take all 25 boxes and begin to cut strips of paper to fit the box. glue in place using the tombeau glue. Sand and distress the edges of each box.

I struggled to figure out how I was going to set the numbers but in the end I settled on the jillibean alphabeans. I used a 1 inch circle popped off each "drawer" and put on a number. I have yet to seal this calendar but I would recommend either mod podge or a sealant.

I've submitted this layout to "Spark Your Creativity" challenge on the Pin and Tack Blog. You have until December 31st to do your own project. It's 'anything goes'! Cheers!

Have a great day!

Cathy

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

cards, cards, cards!

As most of us are in Christmas mode, its no different at my house! I cannot believe that we are nearing the 'teens' of December. The truth is that I had about 10 Christmas cards done up to today... yikes!

This is only the second Christmas that I have actually made my cards as this card making obsession only started a short while ago. Last year, I largely did a couple of the same cards and reproduced that. But I am realizing that I love the creating so I am doing a couple cards and changing it up a little bit at a time to keep it merry & jolly! LOL

I have about 50 to 60 people on my list for cards. Next year I vow to fix up my list... perhaps electronic... :) But I am going to take Sara Strickland's advice from her blog today and do about 10 cards a month so that by the time December rolls around you can still have fun with creating cards but not have the stress. Check out her blog here.

First on my list was 'casing' a card made by some friends in my scrapbooking circles named Natasha Connelly and Rhea Somorowki. It's likely that they cased from somebody else. Of course, these are changed to accomodate my taste. I loved the embossing look.. and went with my 'go to' white on white trend.

Supplies Used (All Stampin Up products):
Card 1 - perfect polka dots embossing folder, snowflake punch, Christmas Greetings stamp set, basic pearls rhinestones, pop dots, crumb cake cardstock, early espresso cardstock, red glimmer paper, and cherry cobbler baker's twine.

Card 2 - perfect polka dots embossing folder, snowflake punch, Christmas Greetings stamp set, basic pearls rhinestones, pop dots, whisper white cardstock, island indigo cardstock, silver glimmer paper, and island indigo baker's twine.

Supplies used (All Stampin Up): Evergreen stamp set, Christmas Greetings stamp set, cherry cobbler baker's twine, Snow Festival DSP, merry mini punches (star), cherry cobbler card stock, lucky limade ink, cherry cobbler ink, crumb cake card stock and whisper white card stock.

After a couple of cards, I realized that I needed to make a sympathy card for my brother's girlfriend. Her father passed away and its been a rough week. My heart goes out to her and her family. This image was created by inking my acrylic block in ink. I then used a retired stamp set for the flowers.

Supplies used (All Stampin' up): Petite pairs stamp set, acrylic block, lucky limeade ink, painted prints (retired stamp set), basic black card stock, lucky limade card stock, very vanilla cardstock, basic black ink and soft suede ink.

And finally, I'd like to share the table numbers I did over the weekend for my family's business Christmas party. Instead of table numbers, each location had a couple tables. I have a set of holders but I added the wired ribbon from Costco for a bit of pizazzzzz. I used the Stampin' Up window framelit to create the shape and also the paper piercing mat to get the stitched detail.

Supplies used (All Stampin Up): Lucky limeade cardstock, silver glimmer paper, merry mini punch pack (star), Evergreen stamp set, illuminate ink, basic pearls, retired Christmas paper, paper piercing mats, and whisper white paper.

Did I mention that I am just loving Christmas? Being home with two kids and my husband has its ups and downs but I can honestly say that I have never done so many Christmas activities. I am trying to take a moment at each between the hustle and bustle to enjoy.And so far, I think I have done so. I just wish that I would take some initiative to sstart document some of the moments so that when I finally scrap them, I won't forget the feelings I had.

Have a wonderful holiday!! Tomorrow is my birthday... and I get to have most of te day in my scrap room!! Well, I can choose to spend it how I like. Its great and I am really excited. :)

Cathy

Washi Tape challenge

Hi all!!

I am LOVING Christmas but I am SO behind on Christmas cards!! Today's job is to get the cards for the States sent out... Wish me luck!

Over the past couple months, I have been buying washi tape in the hopes that I get motivated with this new trendy product... that time is NOW! My local scrapbooking store, the Paperie, had a weekly challenge this week to use this product. As soon as I saw this challenge, I got to work. I knew what I wanted to use (MME All is Bright collection) and I had a couple projects in mind.

Supplies used: My Mind's Eye All is Bright collection, unknown twine, SU crumb cake paper, Tim Holtz vintage photo distress ink, and SU metal buttons

I started out trying to make a card. I stress trying because I was unsuccessful!! I had no idea how to use washi tape and what to do with it. However, I did come up with a nice card for the challenge.

Supplies used: My Mind's Eye All is Bright collection washi tape, unknown twine, SU whisper white paper, Stampin' Up Christmas Greetings stamp set, staples, SU victoria trim and Recollections poinsetta

Once I completed this, I saw this reindeer food on the My Mind's Eye blog. Princess J and I got to work to get this done for all her friends at daycare. She decided that Rudolf loves pink sprinkles. Yummmm!! We followed this recipe but added some hot chocolate, lots and lots of sprinkles and a little bit of fine glitter (gotta watch out for those birds). We then used baby food bottles to hold the contents.

Supplies used: Stampin Up Retired 'Deck the Halls Fabric' *, SU cherry cobbler baker's twine, downloadable tags from the MME link above, two way glue with irridescent ice glitter, Tim Holtz vintage photo distress ink, Cherry cobbler marker, unknown twine and MME's washi tape.

* This is only $1.19 on the SU clearance rack. Weehoo!

I had a great time!! More cards to come!

Cathy

Monday, 10 December 2012

Jade 1

Hi all!!

Looks like I am going to get a third layout done in December!! With only an hour I was surprised with how quickly it came together. The lighting on this page was pretty bad so I may retake this in the natural light. This layout has been a long time coming - I have a big pile of Princess J's "artwork" and I have no idea what to do with it. You probably can't tell but this layout is built on a large "pocket" so that I can put in some of her drawings. This is in line with the title and the journalling.

Supplies used: SU tempting turquoise DSP, SU whisper white 12x12, Heidi Kress "In this House" paper, Bo Bunny noteworthy die cuts, SU paper piercing mat, Tim Holtz vinage photo distress ink, October Afternoon 'carbon copy' sprinklers, SC mask, AC thickers, Authentiqe 'Carefree Elements', BG woolies felt stickers.

Here's the sketch that it is based on (Jade 1B). Unfortunately since I like to do things last minute, there's little time to get in on the action for the weekly prize but you can still do this layout and try for the big series challenge. Check out this link for more details:

You'll notice a few things on this layout besides for the 'hidden pocket'. The journalling surrounds the picture - Like previous posts, I have to stress the journalling. Its exactly what future generations will be looking for. Get into the details. On this layout the journalling says "We spend many minutes in day painting. We are still working on painting between the lines but we always have fun. Usually you mix all the colors together to create a colorful masterpiece. We also draw a lot of circles, snakes and birds." I've got to get the exact date on this as well as her name. I plan to write this on the top left corner.

Don't be afraid to play around with the title. I had some great fun mixing and matching and even ad a dab of 'splatter' on the '8'.

And finally, I intended to sew the pocket on but I have yet to set up my machine. As a result I did some fake stitching and I'll have it in my pile of "to stitch" later. I really hope that I get this set up over the holidays.

Have a wonderful day!!

Cathy

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Its a Sketchy Challenge: December 2012

Hey there!

Here's the layout I did for the Canadian Scrapbooker Its a Sketchy Challenge!!

This sketch that was prepared by Sue Sykes!! You still have plenty of time to enter this challenge as it ends December 31st. Click here for the link. I would also encourage you to enter your layout at Sue Sykes blog as well - see here!

This picture was simply a quick snap as I asked my Princess to turn around a smile - this was the result. An every day smile that melts my heart. And so I wanted the picture to really be a focal point.

This layout started out with just a plain white background but I splattered ink to get some color. There's an easy trick to get this effect and its to unscrew the top of the bottle and shake it. This is what I mean:

I have been loving vellum lately and have been playing with adhesive and different things with it. I did a couple things with it on this layout. Firstly, I used rub ons for the title although it was a little "slippy" so I would caution you to be careful. I also sewed it on... now, I have been lazy and haven't set up my sewing machine (STILL?!? Gaspppp)... so I simply used the Stampin' Up paper piercing mat and did the holes to ensure it was exact and uniform. Then I just used a regular sewing needle to sew it.. machine sewing would be much faster! I also inked some vellum with a script stamp from Harmonie (Shabby Love).

You'll also notice that I have been "doodling" a lot on my layouts lately... I love it! And even more so, I love the AC precision pens! I also have some journalling going around the edge to personalize this for my Princess.

Click the images if you want to see it up close

Materials Used: Stampin Up 12x12 textred whisper white cardstock, Studio Calico Mr Huey's, Harmonie Shabby Love stamp set, Harmonie white trim, Lilybee Laugh rub-ons, Bella Blvd Baby boy collection (paper +stickers), Tim Holtz distress marker, MME wild asparagus paper, SU metallic brad

Have a great day!!

Cathy

Monday, 3 December 2012

Coral 10 scrapbook steals

It felt good to get some inspiration from scrapbooksteals.com this week. I had yet to complete a scrapbook layout since the little newborn arrived... and with so many pictures left to be scrapped and so many new memories coming up, it was good to get my groove back. Although it shall be short lived as I have a few more tag orders, some work for table numbers, etc for a Christmas party and I have birth announcements and Christmas cards to do! Wowzers!! Not sure it will quite be reality to get it all done. Regardless, here's my take on the sketch:

Supplies Used: Stampin Up 'Tea Time' Simply Scrappin Kit (retired), SU vintage faceted buttons, SU linen thread, SU baker's twine, SU Victorian trim, SU pink pirouette ribbon, SU PS. I Love you stamp set, SU Hand Penned Holidays stamp set, vellum, SU basic pearls, dried leaves, SU twitterpated buttons, bashful Blue, crumb cake inks.

Here's the sketch:

This challenge is now closed and its the end of a 10 week series of challenges. Which means that I highly encourage you to start up with the new series next week. Sketches are released on the www.scrapbooksteals.com blog every Wednesday!!

In this sketch, you'll see that I have a journalling card underneath. See below for more details.

I cannot stress the importance of journalling and really getting those memories down on paper. Its what melts my heart when I look through my children's albums. A couple weeks ago, I wrote a letter to both my children talking about the day my newborn son was born. I wrote to him about how I felt when he came into this world. But I also wrote a letter to my daughter about how special she is and her reaction to her little brother. I'll eventually put these in pages. But I can guarantee you that these letters will be cherished for years to come. :)