April Challenges at Scraptastic Club

Well, guess what? I was the lucky random winner of the March challenge at Scraptastic Club! I'm spending my $20 gift certificate on one of the past kits that I've had my eye on. After a whole year of missing Coordinates Collection when it closed, I  picked up a couple of sale past kits when one of my online friends pointed me to Scraptastic. The kits are a good value and nicely put together, and I joined! It's SO much fun to have a box of treasures delivered to my door every month again! Now I'm having fun participating in the challenges, admiring the daily DT projects, and joining in the conversations on FB.

I used my fun new Great Adventures kit to tackle Challenge #2 -- two borders, two patterned papers, two different alphas and two embellies. This checkered pp and the bright colors reminded me of a 50's diner, and seemed perfect for these photos of my granddaughter eating her creation at Cheeseburger Bobby's.

04/23/12

Challenge #1 this month asks for flowers made of 3 or more paper layers. Mine are die cut, inked, crumpled, curled and layered for this "bloom" card.

Challenge #3 -- use an old kit and stitching. Well, fortunately when a friend first told me about Scraptastic, they were having an awesome clearance sale, and I bought 3 kits that were old to the store, but new to me! I still have most of them all, as well as the current kits I've been purchasing. I have a favorite kitchen bowl that serves better than any scrapbooking tool to make big circles, so I traced it in pencil and punched holes for the stitching. The Farm Fresh sticker was perfect, since Dean was born on a farm and has fond memories of his early days there! I cut a slight curve on the memories and date stickers so they'd fit the circle better. Alphas from my stash. So here's my LO using the November Home Sweet Home kit:

Last challenge was posted Thursday, and I just finished it. Heather provided a sketch, and our interpretation just needed to include at least one circle, and some visible journaling. November kit to the rescue again. The flower stuck to the "notes" journaling block in the package; and I had to figure out how to use it that way! Autumn words and letters from my stash.

Hope more folks will be posting their challenge entries in the next few days -- I always love to see what everyone does within the same parameters!

Scraptastic Club March Challenges

Know what's great about challenges? They're a fun little push to use supplies I've forgotten I had, and to try new ideas and techniques. I'm a new member at Scraptastic Club, and am taking part in a couple of their challenges for the first time.

Challenge #2 is to recycle something, and to use a mask. When I got a new phone at Christmas, the pack rat in me just had to save the silver cardboard it was packaged in -- it says "hello"! How could I discard that? It was too reflective to photograph well,, but this is what it looked like if you can imagine shiny silver.

I've also had a pretty mask with a butterfly on it for over a year -- and I've never used it! Not once! I sprayed silver mist on black cardstock, matted it on the silver background and cut out the "hello". Here's the resulting card:

I had so much fun with the mask that I used it for a second card (nothing recycled, though--doesn't qualify for the challenge):

Both times I outlined the design in gel pen. On the blue-on-white one, I colored in the butterfly with glaze pens. What I took away from this challenge is that at least with this particular mask, there is too much white background showing. I got away with it on the silver-on-black, but the other one would have looked better masked on lightly-patterned paper.

Challenge #3 is to use a banner and staples on a project. Now, I'm probably the only scrapper I know who isn't in love with banners. But I do have a stamp I've never used, and it seemed like a good time to try it out! I stamped the banner multiple times across the card front and embossed them in white. It needed a little color, and I remembered some thread that came with a couple of the sale kits I recently purchased. Instant color! I also have a stash of staples that I never think to use -- maybe now that I've dug them out, I'll use them now and then! I sure loved the sample provided by the DT for the challenge.

There are two more challenges that I hope to get to at my crop next Saturday, if not before: Challenge #1 is to use a song title and filmstrip photos. I'll have to think about that one as I can't put it together in my head yet. Challenge #4 is to use a yummy palette of aquas, soft yellows and cream. I have just the photos for that one, I think!

So much fun to have challenges to stretch with! Come have some fun with me!

Update 4/1/12. I did get one more done at my crop yesterday. This is for Challenge #4, using the aqua and yellow palette. The photos of my grandson on Destin beach were just made for this color combo:

Update 04/03/12  I actually got one more challenge done! Challenge #5 was to use 20 or more of the same type of embellishment; and I added some die cut fish. I like them around the journaling; but I'm not sure I like them in what would have been "white space", nor am I sure it was a good idea to dab them with a little platinum ink. A few lines from Taj Mahal's "Fishin' Blues" is printed on the border paper. I asked my DIL to get my granddaughter to suggest the journaling -- I love that she typed up what Madeline said about her first fishing trip! This was my first project with one of my Scraptastic kits; and I love the papers in it.

March Challenge at Operation Write Home

Every month Our Daily Bread Design has been kind enough to donate a prize for two randomly-chosen winners who participate in the Operation Write Home challenge of the month. I was lucky enough to be one of the winners the first month, and I'm not looking for another win, but I like to participate because the best part is that ODBD will donate the cost of shipping one box for each 25 entries -- a very generous offer!

This month's challenge is kind of fun, with a "bingo card" menu of choices. One of these will be my entry, using the bottom row of the bingo card: die cut, fun fold and ribbon:

Scrapbook Projects

It's been a while since I posted any scrapbook projects I've been working on. Then I realized that except for the crop I went to weekend before last, I haven't really done any scrapbook projects. When I've had time to scrap, I've been making cards, cards, cards -- Christmas, Valentines, birthdays, anniversary. But I did do a layout about the aprons I took a notion to sew for my daughter-in-law and granddaughter, using leftover fabric from the aprons instead of patterned paper:

I also decided this was the year I would do a book about the happenings in my rather dull life. I'm using Simple Stories Year-o-Graphy collection in a 6"x12" format, which I've never tried before, and finally figured out a format to accommodate journaling, photos and embellies. At the end of the year I'll either bind it with my Bind-it-All or with rings. As it turned out, January started the year with a bang when I got to take a trip to Arizona (which will get a book all it's own!); and January and February pages came together nicely at the crop. Now if only something interesting happens in March -- or I may just have to take photos of the neighborhood!

Now it's back to cards for a while -- some for the gazillion April birthdays in my family, and more for Operation Write Home. I try to make 2 cards a day. I have another crop on the 31st so I'll probably dedicate that to more scrapbook pages.

Painted Buntings

I usually see one every year, but this year there is a pair of painted buntings that come regularly to my yard. He usually hides in the shrub outside my kitchen window while she flits to the feeder. Sometimes he gets brave and makes a run himself. She is slender and a lovely olive green; he is, well...magnificent! This isn't my photo, (I'm not quick enough to get one!) but one I found on the net to show you what my visitors look like:

It sure starts our day off with a smile to see these two!

Arizona Adventure!

One of my scrapbooking friends, Liz, travels quite a bit with her job. A couple months ago at a crop, she asked me if I might like to travel with her sometime, to which I replied, "sure!" and promptly forgot about it. In early January she e-mailed me that she had to go to Arizona, and that if I wanted to come with her, perhaps we could make a week out of it and see some sights. Jack encouraged me to jump at the opportunity. Yes, yes and YES!!!

So that's what we did! We flew into Phoenix and drove to beautiful Sedona, where we spent 3 nights. On one of those days we took a Pink Jeep tour to the Grand Canyon. It began snowing as soon as we reached the entrance, and at the rim we saw -- NOTHING!

Our guide tried his best to find a spot where we might see a little something, and eventually the mist/fog/snow lifted slightly in spots just enough that we could see what we were missing. It did have a pretty watercolor effect though.

Sedona was beautiful and we loved it. The spectacular red rocks are everywhere! Our hotel had a beautiful view from the balcony, and was in the heart of Uptown, a short walk to all the shops and restaurants.

From Sedona we poked around the shops at Tlaquepaque, and enjoyed the view from airport mesa. Tuesday morning we took a Pink Jeep tour to the Honanki ruins, where Sinaguan Indians lived perhaps 1000 years ago:

We also visited Holy Cross Chapel, built into a rock face, with a gorgeous view of surrounding rock formations.

We were brave girls one night, and shared this fun appetizer at the Cowboy Club. Rattlesnake meatballs, buffalo brochettes, cactus fries with prickly pear sauce and cilantro flatbread with chipotle peanut butter. All good. Really!

Liz had to work Wednesday and Thursday, so we drove to Scottsdale on Tuesday evening. On our way down, we stopped at the amazing Montezuma's Castle, which has nothing to do with Montezuma; nor is it a castle. I was able to buy a (lifetime!) senior pass, which got us both into this National Monument. Had I lived up that cliff, I would have made that climb just once; and then someone would have to bring me food and water forever after!

I chilled out at the hotel on Wednesday while Liz was working; but on Thursday I got the hotel courtesy van to take me into town to a Native American culture event. The costumes, the music, the dancing and the explanations of some of the native culture were all fabulous.

Friday was to be our last day in Arizona. We had originally planned to visit the Phoenix Botanical Garden, but decided we simply couldn't go home and say we had been AT the Grand Canyon, but didn't SEE the Grand Canyon. We found a tour with Arizona Frontiers that would take us there, now a 4 hour drive from Scottsdale, and as luck would have it, we were the only two on the trip that day! Our guides were great, and we learned a great deal about history, geology, flora and fauna, anthropology and the like, which made the trip go fast. AT LAST, we saw the Grand Canyon. Pictures can't begin to show it's depth or breadth or beauty.

Liz and I were very compatible traveling companions. We decided in the beginning that if we came home tired, it would have been a good trip. We both came home exhausted! There are things we would have liked to have seen that we just didn't have time to get to. Sunrise and sunset in the canyon. Mule train to the bottom of the canyon (if I could work up my courage!) In summer I'd love to take the white water raft trip down the Colorado River. We would have liked to have toured Tucson. There are also a number of wine tours, and an olive factory, and of course the botanical garden we missed. And lots more Indian ruins.

And I'd go back just to buy the t-shirt I didn't buy while I was there: It pictured five Native Americans in full regalia on horseback, and was captioned:  "Homeland Security. Protecting our borders since 1492"

Homemade Doggie Toy

I had a lot of fun making this toy for Muffin for her first Christmas. She loves tags and strings, so I went around the house snipping labels off of pillows, mattresses and clothing, then added bits of ribbon and string and pieces of an old toy she had destroyed (by chewing of course). My circle templates were useful to trace some circles, which I stitched together with the tags and bits hanging off the edge. I even had a chance to use some  of my decorative stitching cams that I haven't used in years. One of her old squeakers from another destroyed toy was sewn in the center.

Muffin seems to enjoy it and has already decimated that blue string. Now my entrepreneurial son wants me to market them. Hah! He forgets that I'm retired!