Shopping Time

Another layout for my daughter. The shopping carts are from the My World cartridge and sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmermist Artic Blue. The diamond pattern paper (from DCWV Botanicals) reminded me of the floors in older grocery stores. I really liked the contrast between my handwriting and the clean lines of the font and grocery carts. The font is cut with the Street Sign Solutions cartridge. The shopping carts are on the front of a pocket so I can add stories as they come to mind.

I stamped the tags with a background stamp from Papertrey Ink's Beyond Basics: Retro and their Chamomile Tea ink. It broke up the solid blue and provided journaling lines. I also used it to ink the edges of the tags.

Mojo Detection

This is one of my favorite projects from last year and my entry in the Ultimate Card Kit drawing. This layout started out as a some reminders to myself about finding creativity, writing down ideas on the Library Cards. The Eiffel Tower and pen were stamped at O'Hare Airport after the CHA Supershow last July. 

The following Papertrey Ink 2010 products were used: Library Card Mini stamp, Woodgrain Impression Plate, "b" from the "best" stamp in Four of a Kind stamp set, All Booked Up (sentiment and tag image). I hinged all the library cards that I had written notes on the back. The snowflakes on the top middle card are punched from a PTI stamp set label.

WOYWW 87, some redos and don'ts

I'm shuffling some things on my desk and took some pictures as I went :D. The first don't, don't use Chalkboard Paint on nonstick work space... it sticks and is the dickens to get off. 

I adore the itop snap series, but the snap daddies are difficult to find and shipping costs push them into true luxury items. On a hunch I scouted these out at my local Joann's and (although you can only see the top of it, they fit. So if I buy them on sale or with a coupon I have options for snappy happiness for less money :D. 

Under the snap package is one of my little experiments with photographs. The punch that did not want to work at all with the cardstock last week, worked wonderfully with photopaper. It was also good for stamping and using my small collection of copic markers. I've never used the Glossy Paper, so I have no basis for comparing photograph paper to it.

My favorite Marshmallow Glimmermist clogged in the middle of a project with a deadline, what's a crafter to do? Mini mister to the rescue (it really needs a little super-hero cape). I just poured some of the glimmer mist into the mini mister and spritzed away.

In general I was really happy with the snowman I made from homemade boxes, except the top lid was creeping over his eyes, so I cut it shorter with a pair of scissors. I also hotglued some sticks for arms which will have mittens on them. I'm thinking I'll also add a little stickles to the scarf and the snowflakes.

My second redo is a scrapbook layout I just wasn't happy with, so it had a major facelift. I added stamping to the background (a compass rose from a stamp set I had close to hand, I will try to look up the brand later).  I added a pocket for extra journaling. I just used those tags to illustrate the pocket. I think I'm going to use a larger tag with a close up of different aspects of the photograph, like the sister on the right looking like she's plotting to breakout, the sister on the left holding her hat for dear life and me (in the middle) looking like popeye. I made the layout for a challenge and it had to have butterflies on it.  There are four sisters in our family but the youngest wasn't born yet so I put the little butterfly without any holes as a representation of her.

The butterflies didn't cut out completely, but I decided to use that as part of the design taking out some of the cutouts.

I've been sooooooooooo good about not buying paper, but I caved when I saw this stack and it was 50% off. Some of the images are "iced".

Thanks for having a gander! If you'd like to see more work desks or better yet join in the fun hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Hip to be Square

The challenge was to scraplift something from the Circle Blog. My personal challenge was to do it without going out lol. The project I chose was Kristen Swain's Snowman made with round paper mache boxes. I didn't have any of those so I made some square boxes out of kraft cardstock. I spritzed it with Tattered Angels Marshmallow Glimmermist, which got clogged in the middle so I poured it into a mini-mister and spritzed the rest Easy Peasy. I used Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Calico paper to make a scarf.

I cut the face out from the Snow Friends cart and covered the eyes and nose with Stickles. The snowflakes are from Gypsy Wanderings.

Beachy Ornament Souvenir Second Set

I made a second set from a different trip. It needed a different box so I could easily sort out which souvenir was which because not everyone went on both trips.

I can't stress how much I love Inkessentials Glossy Accents for sealing the little holes in the ornament topper. Trust me, you need to seal them or you'll be saying as I did, why is there sand all over the table? I just put a little over each hole and you really have to know it is there to see it. Sand weighs a lot, so a little bit of sand in each ornament is all you need. Plus this way you can sort of shake it like a snow globe (again important to seal up the top). The sand also makes it not a typical Christmas Ball in that you can set it down and it doesn't roll. It could of course be batted about by cats if they gave it a go.

It's lovely to see how different sands look up close. Oh to have some of the lovely black sand from Ms. Dunnit's recent vacation lol.

Learning my lesson from the first set of boxes, I scoured the local Hobby Lobby for six identical sheets of sturdier cardstock. I found the kraft cardstock was my best bet, and decided to just punch a little border with this EK Success beach punch. Wonderful except there was a little glitch in it that prevented the paper from cutting clean away so it had to be wrestled after each cut. At the end of the second strip I realized I had a Martha Stewart beach edge punch that might have been a little easier to use. See what happens when you put things away? I abandoned the idea of using a different ornament so I could use the same Gypsy file for the box (one of the boxes from the Cricut Wrap It Up cartridge).

Off Label ScrapCessories Usage

You just never know when scrapping tools will come in handy for off label usage. The ScrapCessories were the perfect size to weight down the bin that contained the mouse so I could go cut the cardboard and scoot it under the bin.

Life Expectency for a mouse that breaks into a house with 4 cats and a dog is not usually long. Except that I caught the mouse with an empty sweater box (being extremely mindful of the fact that mice do play possum and can jump on your shoulder from the floor per DD's personal experience last year). The cat who had to drop it was quite miffed BTW.

So I get the mouse outside (yes I really do wish I had gotten properly dressed today) the mouse ran off through to snowbank, back to the plowed driveway, straight under my car. Then there was prolonged blinking whilst I processed this new development. I was no longer caring that I was just wishing that I'd gotten properly dressed today.
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Another example of no good deed goes unpunished lol.

I need to get dressed properly so I can look for little pawprints leading away from my car. I still need tea or something.

UPDATE: The pawprints went under the car, towards the front porch, veered away suddenly (sometimes neighbourhood cats shelter under the porch) and then there were bounding pawprints leading away from the house. Where the quick retreat I saw the pawprints were maybe 3" apart at the point of prolonged bounding they are at least 8" apart. Fast, fast mouse. The cats, however, are still miffed.

Holding the Line Layout

It's not easy being the oldest, and this scrapbook layout touches on that. The butterflies are from the Picturesque cartridge. The Look Here is from Printing press. The base is cardstock from a package of scrapbook paper, too nice to throw out. The large mat is Aqua Mist by Papertrey Ink. The yummy brads are from Tim Holtz. The red cardstock is from my stash. The sombreros are from my grandparents lol. Very jaunty, no?