Holidays

Found this kit of pattern papers at Oriental Trading. It does make the job quite easy!... :-) Of course I added some Stickles here and there... ;-)

I said I wouldn't make holiday cards this year but I figured I might need a few to put in gift packages...

Piggy Bank

I found this little white piggy bank at Target in the $1 bin...

So I took him home and gave him a little makeover with my permanent markers... :-)

Cuttlebug card

My point with this card was to make a card using only my Cuttlebug (well almost, since I also used a ribbon and 2 eyelets ;-)), no stamp, no coloring, just cut and/or embossed paper.

It came out Ok, I really like that color combo. If only I hadn't been experimenting with glue again and ruining the sheen of my ribbon in the process (maybe it will be less obvious once it's totally dry)... I should have known better! *facepalm*

Naomi's card

Naomi started making cards with me, a thing I am delighted about. She really surprised me taking my stamps and doing her little business.

She made this drawing for her aunt's birthday and she actually got the idea of stamping the happy birthday like a rainbow all by herself. That's where I see she pays attention to what I am doing because she did breathe over the stamp before stamping to revive the colors! :-)

Lizzie Anne Contest

I told you a few posts ago, about the Lizzie Anne contest.

I don't own any Lizzie Anne stamps (yet, LOL!) and it was the only requirement of the contest. The cards will be donated to Cards for Cancer afterwards.

So Lauren very kindly offered to send me some stamped images of my choice... They arrived yesterday and my card was in the mail this morning. Phew, now that was some deadline!! I hope my card makes it on time!....

I already told you I don't make holiday cards (yet) so I wanted to make one for a change...

I had the vision in my head, so when the images arrived I went right to work. And I already had my background ready, (thanks to playing with my Cuttlebug the day before...).I cut the window (that was the hardest part!!) with my X-acto blade to show the blue paper behind where I drew snowflakes with my watercolor pencil, and I added this tiny little snowman in the low corner... Of course the window is popped on double-sided foam tape, which you can't see from my lousy pic....

The big snowman is also on foam. I didn't have colored Stickles so I decided to use my daughter's 3D glue pens. What a sticky mess, the mittens took forever to dry!! :-S Looks like there is a reason why they make adult versions of that stuff!! LOL

I used gold glitter glue to stiffen the little thread that was holding my mittens so that they don't fall on each other (and stick to each other!).

As usual by clicking on the pic you get a huge version that will enable you to see details if you wish...

I kind of like the result, even though it is a "childish" card (but winter holidays are all about childhood memories for me), but given the time it took (2 hours?) I am nowhere near starting to make that kind of cards in a mass production! Or I would have to start January 1st to have them ready for the following December... I keep telling myself that once I am more experienced I will work faster but so far I am a slow learner! LOL!

ETA: I just checked the winners'cards on Lizzie Anne website... Waow!!!

There was obviously no way I could have been up there but it was a fun experience all the same!... ;-)

Best recycling ever!!!

Ok, you are gonna love this!

Since I started scrapbooking I have been paying (even!) more attention than ever to tissues boxes. I always tried to buy somewhat nice ones anyway but now I actually keep the empty boxes just in case I could do something with the cardboard.

Recently Puffs came out with a new tissue that is Vicks (Menthol & Camphor) scented.

They remind me some great Kleenex tissues we have in France (they're green and strongly scented with Menthol and Eucalyptus!) so I bought a box last time I had a cold...

When the box was empty I checked it out and was delighted to discover that the inside looks like foil. So of course I put it away for a project... :-)

Yesterday I had insomnia (Dr Pepper in the evening does this to me...) and I decided to play with my new toy (Cuttlebug) to lull me back to sleep....

The pics you see right there are the result of embossing or die cutting the tissue box. Pretty cool huh? At the left is the empty box to help you spot it on the shelf of your supermarket ;-)...

I was so happy with my find that I am almost looking forward to my next cold!! (I said almost...)

I just love it when you can recycle something and turn the ordinary into extraordinary!!

What do you think?

O.M.G I have a Cuttlebug! :-)

My husband is the coolest.... After work yesterday (yes, Sunday) he made a detour to the closest Michaels store because he saw an add with the Cuttlebug on sale and he knew I wanted one as holiday gift...
Turns out this week all Cuttlebug's stuff (as well as Sizzix and Cricut) is on sale 30% off.
So you can't use your Michaels coupon but if you buy more than one thing you really get a great deal right there. Especially since the alphabets cost as much as the machine itself (ouch).
I checked internet and you can find the Cuttlebug for less but then with the shipping it comes to the same or even more...

A few months ago I didn't even know those little machines existed and now I'm like I absolutely need one!!! LOL
At 1st I thought "what would I do with a die cut machine?" Even though I like using the one at my daughter's school when I volunteer there... :-)
What convinced me was the embossing folders. I just LOVE embossed paper, it's one of the most beautiful thing for me, so after trying templates that take forever to rub in I was attracted by the bug..... The great thing also is that you can use the kids' die cuts from the new cuttlekids in the Cuttlebug! So my daughter -who's 6 1/2 and just LOVES all that scrapbooking business ;-)- will be able to use it with me, which was a big selling point for me....

Did I mention how happy I am right now with my little gadget?.... :-D

Trip down memory lane, bath towels and baby blankets...

So I was on Lauren's blog (http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/), it's the 1st one I visit, almost every day, she is wonderfully inspiring in many ways :-). If you never visited her blog, hop over there, you'll thank me later!

She had posted this beautiful baby frame she just made for her friend and asked what was the most original baby gift we had done.

My 1st thought was "huh, I am not original in my baby gifts..." and since I only just started making cards and such....but then all of a sudden I remembered!!!

I remembered my sewing projects! :-) I made those as baby gifts for my (twins) niece & nephew, then did it again for my niece on the other side of the family.

So I went to fish the pics in my sewing box and scanned them. I didn't have a digital at the time and the picture are not wonderful but it still helps getting a better idea of the end product!....

That was quite an adventure and I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into when I started this!! The sure thing is that when I was done I swore I wouldn't do it again! LOL

It wa hard work and took me forever and I thought it would end up in the trash more than once! The bath towels especially were a nightmare because of the tiny details and the bulk of the fabric.

For the bath towels I bought matching bath towels and handtowels from Martha Stewart (quality plush for the bottoms of my nephew and nieces! ;-)) and I made the hood from the hand towel. It was easier than starting from scratch and I was sure the towel wouldn't fray afterward.

Then I made little animals faces on the towels, a cat and a dog for the twins, a frog for my other niece. Too bad I don't have a picture of the frog, I really liked it! :-( ...

For the baby blankets I did the same thing than done before for my own kids.

I bought cute matching fabrics and white fleece and sandwiched the fleece between the fabric. Then I sewn little random patterns on the fabric so that everything would stay together after it was washed. For the twins I put their initial also. For my niece I didn't even know if it was a boy or girl at the time I bought the fabric so I went with neutrals (gingham with little embroidered dragonflies), and with the leftover fabric I made a little bag holder for plastic bags. Those are really convenient next to the changing table, and pretty easy to make, it's just a tube with elastics at both ends (and a little pocket or 2 just for the fun...). I sure used mine a lot!

Thinking about all that, I remembered I did those blankets for both my babies, and my little guy still likes to snuggle with it at night (it was a baby snoopy fabric). And I also made matching changing table covers, little pillow cases for the little pillow on the changing table.

I even made curtains to block out the light in their room (of course they were not cut straight! LOL) a padded blanket for the baby carriage, a matching padded belt : → in France you can strap the carriage (whitout the wheels obviously) on your backseat using the safetybelt buckles, and the baby has a large padded velcroed belt around his/her belly that's buckled in the sides of the carriage. That allows the baby to be completely flat, like in a crib. I'm sure this would never be allowed in the US!... ;-). And I even made little door holders (with the blankets' fabric's leftovers) so that they can't slam the door and pinch their fingers in there (from a Martha Stewart project)...

So, this made me realize that I made quite some stuff for my babies (and others!), and it made me all happy and proud! *pat on the back*

And it's good because I needed a little mood lift today. ;-)

Fluffles is back...

Ok I couldn't stay very long without putting Stickles on something so I got my dear Fluffles out so I could make the flowers sparkly... I stamped my image in brown which I think gives a softer feel than black, and it goes with my ribbon better ;-) ...

Of course the Stickles made the bee's wings smear... :-( I really need to get permanent ink!!

If you read this, please feel free to tell me which one you use! ;-)...

I am really confused by all the different kind of inks on the market!!! :-S

I made the card for a friend of mine who had surgery a couple of weeks ago and is still pretty tired. I thought Fluffles might cheer her up. That's why I went with the polka dots paper also, I thought it was happy paper....I think I will stamp some kind of sentiment inside maybe...

I didn't have any Prima so I made a flower myself with white carstock and paper and Stickles (what else!?;-)) but I would have loved to use a little sunflower, it would have been cute, or even a brown Prima would have been nice there....

Believe it or not, I haven't bought any of those yet! :-P

Coloring

Not much to say about this super simple card, I was in the mood for some coloring (with regular colored pencils, since this ink would run with the watercolor ones...)...

I admit the coloring is a bit "childish" but I don't own minerals to blend it all. I hope one day I can splurge on copic markers but they are really too expensive! :-(... I really like the effect they give!

I like the distressed look of the sentiment done by rubbing against the ink pad (yep it's a new cool thing to me ! ;-)) and I went through the troubles of coloring the stamp with my stamps markers so that each element had the color I wanted. I really like that effect, opposed to stamping a monochromatic image. I think it looks more alive that way.

The colors I used for the background were matching a pattern paper I finally decided not to use, oh well!... :-) I like brown lately, it must be the season...

And I resisted the urge to put Stickles all over!... ;-) (it's still itching me though! LOL Especially since it looks even more dull on a picture)

Winter/holidays stamps

I just stumbled upon those stamps from a SCS banner.

They are really cute, check them out:

http://elzybellsna.typepad.com/my_weblog/winter-collection.html (winter)

http://elzybellsna.typepad.com/my_weblog/stamps.html (holidays)

Birthday pocket

Another double pocket. This one involved a lot more layering since the paper wasn't double-sided and I think I didn't use the right glue for the task... it is so much simpler with double sided paper. In the end there was so much glue smears on my workstation that I had to put paper on the back of the card too.

I like that funky-disco paper with lots of overlapping circles, the yellow circle next to the happy birthday is part of the paper print actually...

The colors are off on the 1st pic but I still haven't figure out how to adjust that on my camera...

I am having a crappy day and things really aren't going my way, it seems to me that I should probably avoid doing anything crafty on days like that. The inspiration just isn't there and I don't have the patience to deal with things not going according to my mental plan! :-( But I wanted the card to be mailed tomorrow so...

Brown medallions card

I made this card today for my aunt (who's also my Godmother) who just turned 60.

It is belated but better late than never, right?...

I love this stamp set and I think it works very well with heat embossing.

I used copper brown powder, I wish it looked a little more brown and a little less copper but I like the monochromatic result.

Update on cards for the troops.

I'm happy to report that the donation box at the local scrapbook store on WCMD brought us 80 cards to send to the troops (7 of which are mine).
It feels good to be a part of this and help people stay in touch with each other at tough times.
I've always loved writing and receiving letters, and I love the idea of being sort of a messenger for someone else's words to their loved one. What could be better than that?... :-)

Somebody told me I should enroll in the RAK (Random Act of Kindness) group at Splitcoaststampers. I'd love to do that but I'm afraid it would be time consuming and I (unfortunately) don't do well with deadlines!! :-(
We'll have to see, tomorrow is another day!, and I try to take my days one at a time...

Connect

Another one for the troops. I really like the soft colors of that paper, and this stamp set is very dear to me since it was made to benefit autism research.

It finally occured to me that I could remove the runner on my table when I take pics... *duh*

Missing You

I really wanted to use navy paper today, (blue is my favorite color, in case you still haven't figured that one out... :-)) and I really love this new set of stamps called Carte Postale, which is french themed...

It's a very simple card, I just wanted to showcase my little embossed medallion...

I just wished I had different ribbons in stock...I think a blue organza ribbon would have been nice....it is a little bit plain Jane like that.

I'm sending it in the cards package for the troops, I think it would still be a nice card to send to your wife.

I wanted to make cards for kids but didn't have time :-( but I am sending my Ladybug and my Fluffles and the Flower Power, I think they're all suitable for a little girl. I don't have much for little boys, I guess I should get one of those sets with wild animals, that would be fun! :-)

Mini recipes-book

So I just sent an e-mail to my friend asking that she doesn't visit that site for the next couple of days (I don't know if she does visit or not, but just to be sure! ;-))

I have been bad because I made the mistake of telling her I was working on a little surprise for her...that was months ago and I thought my little project would be ready in no time, but then life got in the way and also my biggest problem was that I actually had to cook/prepare some dishes just so I could take pics to make my little book!

I considered making it without pics at some point, that would have enabled me to put more recipes also, but I thought it wouldn't be as nice. Somebody suggested I just take pictures from a cookbook but that would be cheating to me...

So this project dragged on and on, even though it was fairly simple to start with, especially since I bought a themed mini-album for that purpose, I added a little rafia tie to close the album and match the rafia I put throughout the booklet.

The cat keeps on coming to try to chew on it so it is perched on top of the bookshelf till it's mailed!!

I was not teasing my internet friend on purpose but I hope I have learned a valuable lesson and will be able to keep it to myself next time I plan on making someone a little surprise!! :-S

Because once I promise someone (or myself) that I'll do something, I do! Only problem is sometimes it takes forever!! :-(

The recipes I put in there are just a few of my favorites, nothing fancy but things I really like (or grew up with) and I thought it would be fun to send some french recipe (one is actually morocan and comes from my husband's Grandma and is a family favorite) to an american girl who likes to cook!! It was actually hard to pic the recipes to start with, because I could only put like 5 of them.

Making the little book was fun though and it made me want to make a Recipes Book for my daughter one day, where I would put recipes from my Mom and my Grandmas, and then when she's grown up she would take it with her in her new household and keep the tradition alive! :-)I don't know when I'll find the time but even if it takes me years, I'll get there... ;-)

So anyway, Happy Birthday Catherine, (since it's her birthday today) and thanks for your patience!! :-) ....

P.S: Since, as always, when you click on the pics they get larger, I recommend that you do so and try some of the recipes yourself!.. ;-D

Happy Thanksgiving! (Canada)

No I didn't completely lose it yet...but it was brought to my attention that it is Thanksgiving in Canada this week-end!

So I just wanted to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to occasional visitors from Canada!

The first one...

OK so I was absolutely convinced this card was already on my blog, because it was my 1st experiment with pattern paper, and layering. I didn't have much of the stuff I have now but used whatever little gadgets I had, like the punches and my new embellishments like brads and Stickles! Now it makes me laugh because I put Stickles pretty much everywhere, and I see brads as a basic!! ... ;-)

So this card was kind of a big deal for me !

And it's really funny to see it again because if I was doing it know I would probably come up with something different...

Turns out I didn't put it up here because I didn't want Erika to see it in case she would wander on my blog!

You see, every Friday Erika (http://stampinmama.typepad.com/) has a "groovy give-away" and I was the very lucky winner of one of those and received a wonderful book from her! :-)

So I was waiting for the book to arrive to send my card and post it here, and then I guess I forgot and assumed it was already there at the very beginning! (probably because I posted it on SCS...)...

P.S: If you are familiar with Erika's blog and her beautiful creations, you won't be wondering why I had to use some kind of glitter on the card... ;-)

Double-pocket Birthday card

Following the tutorial from Beate (http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/) I made a double pocket card for a friend's birthday.

I like how my little scallop circle is part of the design but also removable, and I really like the colors of this paper (it's a double sided paper and I didn't have to add anything on it which was cool!!).

After trying stamping my image in black and coloring it i didn't like the result, and the stickles made the ink run a little which was really ugly (for example the candle's flame). That's when I got the idea of stamping in colors instead and I really like it. I think the result is softer but also more crisp, more "fresh" in my opinion. I don't know if that makes any sense for anybody else! LOL!
So there you have it, my 1st double-pocket card, and much likely not the last one, since this was fun and I love tucking whatever in the little pockets!... :-)

Sand dollars, 1st attempt at resist

More new things for me!

This time I tried the resist technique, (and tearing paper)...

It took some experimenting, especially the resist technique...

A word of explanation for those not familiar with the stamping world/words:

I stamped the sand dollars (those cool Florida's shells) on a light blue paper, using a special ink that's slowdrying and very sticky(Versamark), then I sprinkled transparent embossing powder on it, shook off the excess, and used a heating tool (sort of a hair dryer for crafts, gets very warm but doesn't blow as much as an hair dryer ;-)). That powder then turns liquid and glossy and solidify when cooled down, giving a slight raised effect and a nice "glazed" finish. Then I took a piece of sponge (cut a piece of a (clean ;-)) kitchen sponge) and wet it lightly, then ran it on a blue ink pad and then colored my paper. Afterwards I dried my shells with a paper towel to remove the ink from them. That's what's called "resist" because the areas that were embossed first are protected and reject the color...

It was harder to see what I was doing in terms of heating up the powder, with the transparent one than with the black one, and the card actually went into a different direction than what I had initially in my mind (I was gonna use a paper with pictures of shells on it and add as an accent one embossed sand dollar on a piece of torn paper, attached with a paper clip...)

In the end the card is nothing spectacular, but I really like the soft colors, and am really happy to have learned a new technique... :-)

Fluffles

If you don't know Fluffles the cat from Stampendous, it is time to meet him!

I use the little bee over the bouquet on the back of my cards, as my signature, that was the primary reason for getting a stamp with a bee but Fluffles just cracks me up...

My favorite one (which I don't own...yet...) is "Life's uncertain, eat dessert FIRST", you can see it here, it's called "Fluffles full" (sorry I don't know how to hide the link, feel free to help me with that BTW!!) : http://www.allthatscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=360_363_417&zenid=8214370af1b68dfcaf3ff97008631325

And the one where he is dangling in the Christmas tree is really fun too!...

When I was done with this card I thought there was something missing and that's when I added the little bees everywhere...

Bonjour!

Another cool stamp from Stampendous called Ooh-la-la (how could I pass owning that little beauty when I'm french!?), another attempt at heat embossing.... The greating is from my new Stampin'Up set called Carte postale which is (you guessed it, I'm sure) french themed...

The paper is one of those awesome finds on sale on http://www.allthatscraps.com/ , it's called Marmalade/Tangerine megaplaid by Doodlebug. And the ribbon is a Halloween left-over from a craft project from last year! ;-)

Ladybug

New stamps, new tools, new papers...and a little time for me, what could be better? :-D

I had been waiting for those stamps forever so it was great to finally ink them!

So this morning my friend Sandrine came over and we gave heat embossing a try.

I think she is now convinced that she absolutely need to invest in rubber stamps and embossing powder and a heating tool!... LOL! ;-)

Here's my 1st card, with a cute little ladybug by Stampendous.

I'm very happy with the result, especially since this is all new to me. I used versamark for the little ladybugs all over, I just wish I had made the pattern a little less random but that's just the OCD in me talking right now!! ;-) ....

Dreamcatcher

Naomi, my 6 yo daughter, has been having nightmares lately and I decided to make her a dreamcatcher.

For those who don't have a clue what this is, a dreamcatcher is a part of the native american folklore. It is supposed to trap bad dreams in its web and let the good dreams flow to the sleeper through the holes in the web. The feathers at the bottom then release (get rid of) the bad dreams...

I google searched "how to make a dreamcatcher", and after a frantic search for the perfect ring (I finally used a tapestry ring that I covered with a suede lace), TA-DA, here is my work of art, hung in her new canopy above her bed.... (click on the pic for a more detailed view).

Here's a link for those interested on how to knit the web : http://www.nativetech.org/dreamcat/dreminst.html

After losing my sanity and eyesight making said web (which was either too loose or too tight, or so it seemed!!) it became obvious to me that :

1- It's no wonder I was never able to learn how to knit...

2- I was not a native american in a previous lifetime!... ;-)

Pink bling

A quick one, because I'm tired and dying to go to bed!!...

I started this card this morning when my friend Sandrine was here for our weekly scrapbooking/card making morning...I had pretty much no inspiration at all today! :-(

So I just went with the flow...

I find the card a little "weird", I can't quite put my finger on what's bugging me, but it's OK because I like to try and see what happens... Maybe it's too much of the same colors together and it needed a little zing, like a more pronounced color ribbon... or maybe... oh, well!!... ;-)

With my crappy pic you can't really see but some flowers and leaves are propped up on foam tape...

For Victoria

Today was not my scrap morning but after I found out about victoria yesterday I decided to make a card for her this morning.

Victoria is a young girl fighting cancer, and her teacher decided to try and reach out to people to send cards to Victoria and let her know they're praying for her. She gave Victoria a card and they are monitoring where the cards come from.

The full story is here: http://createdbycourtney.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-candy.html

Courtney is offering a blog candy for that occasion.

There is a deadline of September 27th.

If you would like to send Victoria a card (it doesn't have to be homemade), here is her address :

Victoria Enmon

1205 Red Bud Circle

Orange, TX 77632

Have you noticed there's victory in Victoria?...

Please try to pass this info so that Victoria gets cards from all over the world!... :-)

I'll put my card in the splitcoaststampers' gallery with a little note to redirect people here...

About the card? Well same concept as yesterday with the tag pocket made from a library card pocket (I even made myself a template so that I can make it with whatever paper afterwards...) and I used that pattern paper that I love so much (think it's from dooddlebug designs)... I got the idea for this color scheme because of the picture of Victoria I saw, she was wearing this big turquoise necklace so I thought she'll love this color.... :-)

Spring is in the air! ;-)

I know, I know, it's fall almost everywhere (except for my friend who lives in New-Zealand ;-))...

I keep seeing Thanksgiving or autumn themes cards or even Christmas cards on most blogs....

But you know what, I live in Florida and we kind of live "backwards".

We stay inside in the summer because it is way too hot to do anything outside (except jump in the pool...) and come winter we get out of our house and start enjoying the cooler weather (70s F, alias 21 C)...we go back to the park and playground and reappropriate the gorgeous surroundings, it's our revival! :-)

So even though I crave Autumn colors and really miss Long island's Indian summers... this card is a little bit of spring!!! Actually the colors were kind of dictated by the green tag pocket I found in a store for school supplies (this is a pocket for library cards) and for whatever reason I was in the mood for daisies today...

So here you have it!! As usual my picture is crooked and not top quality...but you can guess that the daisies are made with 2 layers, one is white cardstock and the second one (that looks grayish on the pics) is actually shimmery vellum paper.

Maybe I should save this card and send it in the middle of the winter to someone who is buried under snow, as a reminder that better days are coming.... ;-)

Baby variation

Babies seem to be "blooming around" so I needed another baby card... :-)

Since I liked my little gift card holder so much I made a card with the same flair and patterns.

The card opens just like the gift holder but there is just a little note glued in there since it was designed to accompany a gift.

I think I need new baby stamps! ;-)

Gift-card holder

My 1st gift-card holder, inspired by Erika's tutorial (http://stampinmama.typepad.com/stampin_mama_a_mama_that_/files/thank_you_issue.pdf) Yes, I still don't know how to put links under a cut, sorry!!!......

The only think I knew when I started was that I wanted to use this dark blue paper (blue is my favorite color and the baby is a boy) and the sweet pea stamp (huh, I don't have any other baby stamp actually, but this one is so darn cute anyway!...).

Instead of an enveloppe I wanted to use the same paper inside that I had used under the pea, of course I didn't cut it right (twice, LOL!!) so I ended up with a pocket much shorter than planned but it still works OK.

I wish I had had double-sided paper, it would have been perfect, but of course I didn't have any!....I used a little bit of the same paper to make a little card that I will slide in there with the gift card after adding a few words.

Mazel Tov means "congratulations" in hebrew.

The top of the card slide behind the pea picture and that's what holds it into place. I mounted my pea and leave on pop-a-dots, and also the pea frame (the green one).

It took me forever because it was the 1st time I made this (and because I screwed up with cutting the paper) but I'm sure it will be much faster next time ;-)

I wanted something very simple and not overdone and I must admit I am quite pleased with the result...but I am partial to that cute stamp anyway!... :-)

Naomi's "masterpieces"

My daughter, Naomi, is 6 years old and she has been very interested in my new passion of scrapbooking and card making. Her eyes twinkle when she looks at my nice papers and all the little tools like punches and, of course, the glitter!!.... It doesn't matter that I bought her a huge box of Elmer's glitter glue pens this summer, she still has to use my Stickles!! :-(

She cracks me up because she always refer as what she does as her "masterpieces"... :-)

The problems arise when she starts doing her crafts when I am busy doing something else... This week-end she got a hold of the gift ribbon and proceded to put some everywhere to make the house look good (I still have pieces tied to all the chairs in the dining room...).

I do like that she expresses her creativity but when she decides to use my nice paper for that instead of the construction paper I bought her, I tend to be a little less enthusiastic about her projects!! >:-(

Of course the autistic little guy is also interested.... and he comes and borrows the scissors... Argh! ... >.<

This week-end she made a little frame for her room (under my supervision and with a little help....) with blue paper and stickers of The Little Mermaid... Once she was done she used the paper that the stickers were on and made this original piece of art that you see up there, alongside those little leaf-sandwiches. (That explains why you have a Disney logo there!!)...

I took her 1st "work of art", punched a little hole in it, threaded a ribbon and hung it up as a sun catcher. Of course she got upset that I did so without asking when I thought she would be happy that I showcase her masterpiece... *sigh* but she finally agreed to the display!....

1st attempt at tag holder....

Yesterday I had fun trying to make a pocket for a bookmark...

I had the concept in my mind and I just went with it, it evolved as I was working on it...

The pics are of the finished card, the front of the tag and the back of the tag, the little piece of blue paper is just what I used to write a little note to my friend and slided into the pocket as well.

Of course as it was going I realized I should have done some things differently. Like for example I wanted to add some brads (on the dots of the paper) but should have done that before gluing my layers on top of each other! (duh!), or I would ideally have liked the ribbon to go under the polka dot border, and the "thinking of you" medallion should have been mounted on cardstock and then propped on pop-a-dots, it would have looked much nicer and then the ribbon wouldn't have shown through..... (but when I was at that point I was starting to be tired and my eyes were burning and I just wanted to finish !! )

This is the nice thing with experimenting though, I learn from my mistakes and it's actually interesting and I might even remember it for next time!! ;-)

And I think my friend (the recipient of the card!) won't mind too much that she is my guinea pig and that the projects aren't perfect!... :-)

Still having a lot of trouble taking the pics, I move like I have Parkinsons, it's awful and it gets all blurry. I think it is really time for me to read the booklet that came with the camera and try and figure out what the buttons are for....

Also the colors are a little off!! :-(

But I'm having a lot of fun and you have to start somewhere, right!?...

Note to self : Try to keep scrapbooking for when the kids are asleep or at school and the cat is outside....

Autumn

This morning my friend came over and we did some scrapbooking. We didn't have any project in mind so we let our mind wander....

I made a few tags and this card with a fall theme. Even though it was still 96 degrees here today, I was in the mood for Fall!!

As usual my pic isn't very good ;-) and with the flash you cannot really see, but the ribbon is orange with fall names written on it like acorn, pumpkin, harvest, squash, cider, sweater....

Of course I couldn't resist playing with my metallic gel pens (but I did stay away from the Stickles!)... ;-)

I don't have a clue whom to send the card to, but it doesn't matter, I had fun making it... :-)

The scrapbooking contest

There's a cool new scrapbooking store that opened not too far from here and the owner, Sonja, had a contest a few weeks ago.

She had prepared some kits containing each : 1 sheet of decorative paper, 1 sheet of plain cardstock, 1 embellishment, 2 to 4 pics of her kids.

The requirement was to use everything that was in the kit, we were free to add to that...
I was the 1st one to pick up a kit and I was drown to this beautiful pink paper. The cardstock was white and the embellishment in my kit was a little bottle of stickles! (Glitter glue).

This is the pic of the "finished product"!

There were only 8 contestants and one didn't finish for the deadline so we were only 7. The customers of the store voted...and I was number 3!

I was very happy! I won a magazine and a store discount and am planning to buy a heating tool with it! :-) I have been eying it for a while now, I want to learn how to emboss stamps!...

The funny thing is, I was never a glitter kind of girl, but since I used the Stickles I am crazy about it and use them all the time!! This just goes to show that you never know!!....(especially in scrapbooking!!)....

Sweet Pea

It's the middle of the night and I'm fighting my insomnia by uploading my latest cards. Those are my first baby cards. I made them tonight for cousins (2 sisters) who are both pregnant.

The pink one is for the one expecting a girl, I don't know for the other one so I went with cheerful colors....

Inspired by a card from Momontherun I printed my sweet pea on white paper first (and punched it out) then printed it again on different colored papers.

I cut each pea and the leaf out and glued them with pop-a-dot for some dimension (which obviously you don't see on my lousy pic...).

I added a little more definition with my metallic gel pens and used colored pencils, then of course I thought a little glitter (stickles) would finish it off nicely.

I punched 2 little holes and threaded a ribbon in it and added a little flower brad.

BTW, a big Thank You to Erika who sent me the nice stamps set from Stampin'Up that contains this sweet pea... ;-)

P.S: I don't know why the pictures I'm taking are always crooked, I swear I try to get them horizontal ! o_O