2 Scrappy Chix Oct kit reveals

Here are a few things that I made with the American Crafts Moda Bella side of the 2 scrappy chix october kit.





I got this wooden flower shaped container at the dollar store. It was light pink with a pretty awful looking ballerina painted on the front and a bit of fabric glued on for her dress. I picked it up because I thought it looked like fun to alter. Used Zip Dry as the adhesive. And now I have a new holder for pens and scissors and stuff in our kitchen. The cup that we were using keeps falling over because it is too full and too top heavy.




In other news - Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends out there. We had a great dinner last night and will have another tonight. Since DD has the day off today, she spent the night at my in-laws' and is going to services with them. Makes me feel happy to be at work today. Yeah, everyone knows I am not a fan of services.

Next round Bad Girls

Here is the page that I made for the latest round of the Bad Girls top designer contest. The challenge was to use white space. I really liked how the colors in this page play off of the colors in my brother-in-law's shirt. And I thought I did a nice job of balancing the dark colors with the vast 'blank' aread of lighter color. Apparently the judges did too because I made it to the next round. woohoo! The next challenge will be posted today!

Scrapwords Star Contest

If you love elimination style contests (like I do) and you might want to be on a DT for a GREAT site, you need to check out this new contest at Scrapwords.


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Do you have what it takes to be a Scrapwords Star? We are looking for 3 talented ladies to design and write for one of the fastest growing sites on the web-Scrapwords.com
Our community is full of amazingly talented and friendly women, daily journaling challenges tohelp you tell your story and preserve your precious memories, artistic pages and tips as well as inspirational prompts and ideas for helping you be your creative best.
We currently have 4 Wordsmiths (designers) creating layouts and altered items as well as sharing Challenges in the Forum. We are looking for 3 more designers to share their talents on Scrapwords!
Here's how Scrapwords Star is going to work...
The search begins Wednesday October 8th and runs through December 17th. The new Wordsmiths will be announced no later than December 20th with duties beginning January 1st, 2009.
Scrapwords Star is an Elimination type contest consisting of 5 rounds. Each participant will have 2 weeks per round to finish their project.
Round 1 will be announced on October 8th and be due October 22nd.
You will be judged on the following:
1-Your interpretation of each round theme
2-The overall look of the page, design, etc.
3-How well you told the story using words, products and photo(s). Do the products used and the photo(s) support the story being told?
4-Participation on Scrapwords. We'd love to see a minimum of 30 posts a week. Each participant should create a Scrapword's Blog and share layouts, thoughts on life and anything else relevant to our community. This is an excellent way for us to get to know you and see your writing style.
Term runs from January 1st, 2009 through June 1st, 2009.
As a Wordsmith you must...
-come up with monthly challenges
-post at least 30 times a week in our forums. Be active!!
-LOVE the Scrapwords community and share on other message boards and in your Blogs with your own Wordsmith Scrapwords Blinkie. We want our site to GROW!!!
-Create layouts and altered items to share in your Scrapwords Blogs
-Come up with 1 contest during your time as a Wordsmith
-Be positive with everyone on the board
As a Wordsmith you will receive...
*15% off products in the Scrapwords store
*A Scrappy Kit every other month filled with products to create your pages...plus I always throw in a few extra goodies!
*First chance at our monthly Kits with a 10% discount on those
*The chance to show off your artistic talents, make friends and have fun
I will announce Round 1 October 8th-STAY TUNED and tell your friends!!!!

Random Vent and they're back!

I apologize for not having any new scrappy stuff to write about or show you, and for just, well, whining. So if you don't want to hear me whine, this is your warning.

Ok first, ugh - just my life in general. Why is it so busy?! I just never seem to get ahead. It is like I am jumping from one thing that needs attention to another, and while I work on one thing, the other gets so far behind that then IT is a crisis. Now, to be fair, I am not talking actual crises. But I mean, there are lots of different areas of my life that demand attention - scrapbook DT obligations, scrapbook stuff that I just WANT to do, the house, the dishes, the laundry, the gardening, my TV shows (which build up on the TIVO until I have to watch them or delete them), DD and DH, personal care stuff - like dying my hair and painting my toenails. So it seems that I am not good at multitasking because I can only seem to be on top of one or two of these things and then when I get it under control, I notice - oh crap now the laundry is so piled up that I HAVE to do that! or, oh crap I need to do 5 DT projects this weekend, because last weekend I didnt scrap much but spent lots of time with DH and DD.

Then of course, you have to throw in the wrench of Ellie and I getting sick. UGH! like I needed that! I SHOULD have come home last night and done some scrapping - or at least cleaned my scrap room so I will be ready to scrap on saturday, but I was just too tired, so I thought, ok, I will watch some TV. And DH had done his homework so he could watch Heroes with me. But I was just too tired. So I put ellie in bed and then I got in bed. I fell asleep at 8:30 - BEFORE she did! The last thing I remember before falling asleep was her calling for me and me telling DH that he had to get her becuase I was asleep. lol - which I guess I technically wasnt, because I could talk, but I was more or less there.

So yeah, right now I am behind on scrapping, TV and weeding. I think I am going to let the weeding go for another couple weeks and then just do a fall cleanup. Oh and I am behind on the house stuff, I need to at least straighten before the cleaning people come, but like always, I tell myself that I should do it a little bit each night but end up running around on Sat morning right before they show up. What can I say? My mornings are : go running (ideally), take shower, get ellie dressed and fed while I pack her and my lunches, and do some dishes, and feed the fish and the dog, and give ellie and me our vitamins then take her to school (which we ALWAYS seem to be a few minutes late to) then work and get home at 7 or 7:30 have some dinner put her in bed maybe watch some tv or do some dishes then put myself in bed. Really, is there any room there for compromise? Do you think I can really streamline my week days any more? I think my only option right now is to give up my every other friday off and work 8 hour days instead. See, right now I work 9 hour days so that I can have every other friday off. I LOVE my fridays off. I don't want to give it up. But if I gave it up then I would get home an hour earlier and it would make me feel more like my days arent TOTALLY spent at work. Am I being selfish for wanting to keep my fridays off? I use those fridays to get caught up on all the stuff that I am perpetually behind on - lol - but maybe if I worked 8 hour days then I wouldnt BE behind all the time? but lets get real, I probably still would be.

ok, whine over. Well THAT whine is over. Now, guess what? the abortion protesters are back. From sept 24-Oct 4 (or so the sign says) they are doing their fall 'speak up' thing. Ugh, it soooo gets on my nerves. I know I know, free speech and freedom to protest and all. And I totally believe in that, but if I got out there with a sign protesting their protesting, I would be criticised for being confrontational. I just hate being confronted with their crap every single day! ugh. I want to get signs for my car to hold up when I drive past them, but then I am afraid they will egg my car or something because my parking lot is right next to where they protest. ugh, it just gets me all worked up. I know I should ignore them, but I hate all their self righteous hypocrisy. I mean, they are exercising THEIR freedom of speech and demonstration and they will argue to the last that it is THEIR right to do so, but they want to take away MY rights? come on! get off your high horse and live your own life and let me live mine!

A gift

Here is a gift that I made for Seth's cousin, Miri's, engagement party.
It feels like a bit of a cop out for me to just give this small gift, but we are on a tight budget right now and I had to buy a bridesmaid dress for me and a flower girl dress for ellie, and then there will be a shower, so this is what I decided on.

the finished product

'
the gift part - 4 cards all wrapped up pretty.


one of the cards - what bride to be doesnt need thank you cards?



the card from us that accompanied the set of cards.

RAK winner and Next round of Bad Girls

Wow, I had a busy weekend! I didnt even get around to posting this.

The winner of the RAK (as chosen by the random number generator) was #10 Nicole
"Nicole said...
Ornaments always sell at craft fairs. I have seen them made from CDs. Very cute! The garlands are also a hit. I also saw somewhere, if I think of it I will PM you on WT, using old clear packaging and altering them into ornaments. Hope you get your mojo back!
September 16, 2008 4:14 PM"

Nicole: if you can PM me on WT to send me your address that would be great! I will get a RAK out to you asap (although, I should mention that I usually take a while getting boxes to the post office, but I will do my best)

Anyway, here is the page that I entered into the second round of the bad girls top designer contest. The challenge was to use at least two different patterned papers and to use a gallon, quart, and pint color scheme.

I made it to the next round with this page!

been mia

I know, I have been away for a while. I know that lots of people stopped reading this when I stopped posting. Makes sense I guess. What have I been up to? I guess I have been a little down lately. Stressing about Seth being back in school full time. Ellie is in preschool full time. I just never seem to have enough hours in the day and on top of all that, I kinda lost my mojo! It happens to the best of us, so I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I blame it on the craft show. My mom and I are trying to be in a craft show or two, and whenever I try to think of things that someone would want to buy from me, I just get depressed. I do my art for myself, so it is really hard to imagine what other people might want. Then I guess another part of it is that I start wondering why would people ever want to buy stuff from me?! what do I have to offer? then I get depressed and just plain dont want to scrap.

Yep, so there it is. Anyway, I think I am starting to get a handle on it. It is always like this when I try something new. So I am not going to give up, I just need to find a groove - both with my new schedule and with my scrapping to sell.

Some things I have been making - halloween wall hangings, packs of cards, explosion boxes and these cute journals. I LOVE making these, but I think I am going to stop making them, they just take too long and I can't charge enough money to make back my supplies and time. Although I am not really trying to make back a lot of time - I know I can't charge like $10 an hour because I put a lot of time into things, but I would like to get a couple bucks an hour anyway. Plus, like Seth said, can't you just buy notebooks? so yeah, I love them but I dont think they are really a great idea for the sale. Here they are though. The bigger one I made to accommodate the Fancy Pants large journaling cards as dividers. The small one was made from the scraps of paper and chipboard that I had to cut to make the bigger one. I also made one for myself and that was SOOOOO much fun! I will have to show you that later. I put patterned paper pages in, and used deco scissors and ink on the edges of some of those. I probably wont write on them, but they make me happy, so why not?!










What else is new? I have been slacking on all of my DT duties - sorry guys. But I am determined to get back into it as of now! There was a crop this weekend at YMBD and at 2 Scrappy Chix. I totally forgot to post it here and announce it, but they were fun - I stopped by a few times.

And now there is an elimination contest going on at Dreamer - Dream youre a scrap star! I love these contests! I can't actually participate in this one but it is so much fun to watch! the first challenge was posted yesterday.

Oh and I am in the Bad Girls top designer contest. I thought about dropping out since I have been stressed and depressed, and I really dont need something else on my plate, but I had so much fun last year and maybe this is just what I need to kick my own butt! I have to do pages for myself for the top designer assignments because you can't use DT stuff and you can't post your pages anywhere else, so it is kind of refreshing in a way - not being able to multitask my pages. I posted last week's page and I made it to the next round. This week the challenge is to use at least two different patterned papers. That is such an easy challenge for me, its ridiculous! I mean, I use lots of PPs on all my pages. But of course, just doing the challenge isnt enough, it has to be a good well presented page. So, I will be putting my thinking cap back on and trying to get some mojo flowing.

Last but not least, I just signed up with Alyssa at YMBD to do a challenge to lose 20lbs by Christmas. Anyone who joins the challenge and succeeds will get RAKs from all the other participants. I totally need to do this! I had planned to start running this week then I had a migraine and then today I was just lazy, so this is going to be my kick in the rear. Come over and join us if you want. We capped the participants at 5 because I can't afford to send that many raks, but so far it is just the 2 of us and we could use some more support.

Oh and if you have any ideas for Christmas like altered items, ornaments, gifts, etc. that I could make for my craft show (instructions, or links to instructions or photos are preferred but not necessary) - leave me a comment. I will draw a name on Saturday and send a RAK to the winner.

bad girls round one entry

This is my entry for round one of the bad girls top designer competition. I think maybe I shouldnt have entered because I just have so much going on right now. anyway, I did because I love it, but if I get elminated I think I will see it as a blessing almost. This layout took me FOREVER!! I cut out the birds and the branch and the border and popped them up on foam squares. the class this round was layering and I layered the pop up stuff, but also the papers, the photos the flowers. So, I really like this page. I think it 'pops' but I just dont know if it is bad girls style enough to make it to the next round - we'll see I guess.

digi page

I told you I was eventually going to take my own challenge and scrap the everybody's free to wear sunscreen thing - so here it is:

I told you I was eventually going to take my own challenge and scrap the everybody's free to wear sunscreen thing - so here it is:

journaling spot and doodle are emily powers, and quote is baz lurhman

Here is a little accordion album that I made for my craft show. I will probably post instructions sometime next week, because this album is soooo easy! All you do is take one sheet of sturdy paper, and cut it into 12x4 inch strips. Then you fold each strip in half and set it upright to form a 'W' and then use the third piece to reinforce the center part and hold the thing together. If that doesnt make sense, I will show pictures next time I make one.

wii box

So, I was just talking to my mom and she was telling me that they got a Wii. So I thought I would share this layout that I made for the page maps sketch contest this week, but I didnt post it for that because I dont like how it turned out.

Anyway, here it is - Seth and Ellie playing Wii boxing{readmore}.

black scallops and journaling card are yourmemoriesbydesign.ca

Its my life

I was thinking about the Scrapping the Music challenge for this week - Its my Life. Then Les at Scrapwords challenged us to scrap about something that we have always wanted to do. and voila! this page was born from sheer inspiration. I mean, I could barely hold myself down long enough to find the photos. I am so happy with this page!

AND since the challenge was just posted today, I made it in time for the Scrapping the Music challenge this week. I just never seem to make it because even if I scrap something in time on Saturday, I always forget to upload it in time.

So here it is. The sunlight was fading outside so the pics of the page arent the greatest.

These photos are just random stuff I found online, because obviously, I havent been to everest. But this page is about my life long dream to see everest - it is something I really want to do before I die!





what did I use on this page, hmm, a lot of stuff from the Scrapperie Feb kit - Collage Press paper, heidi swapp ghost clock, fabric, and some fibers. I also used the red Chatterbox letters, and white yourmemoriesbydesign.ca foam letters, the mini clock and key are from the 2ScrappyChix August kit, tag is from 7 gypsies, and I used a lot of red paint! I cut the design from the center of the paper and slipped the photo underneath. But first I outlined the deisgn in red paint. I also painted on the similar design that I didnt cut out on the left side, and I painted all around the edge of the paper.

Oh and I used a lot of fibers and fabrics to echo the prayer flags in the one photo that you can't really see because I put the title over it