Zoo Day

Yesterday I picked up Madeline, and we spent a really nice day at the Dreher Park Zoo. I haven't been there in several years, and was surprised at how much admission has gone up. Even with my senior discount, admission was still $29+; and I don't know how families can afford to go.  I was afraid we were going to get rained out as it sprinkled to and from the zoo; but as I explained to Maddy, I carried my umbrella all around the park as a bit of insurance that it would NOT rain. It worked!

I let her take the lead and go down whichever path appealed to her, and I think we pretty much saw everything. She's old enough to be very interested in reading the signs and identifying the animals in each area.

We stopped by the bear exhibit at feeding time, and learned that the two bears, Lewis and Clark, were orphaned at about 3 months of age. Consequently, they didn't learn to hunt and don't like meat! A diet of fruits, vegetables and dog food keeps them healthy. The trainers have taught them to stand up on the fence, and also to  roll over onto their sides, so that they can inspect their paws and undersides to make sure they don't have any injuries. Maddy asked an intelligent question about why the mama bear got hit by a car (it was dark and she's black). I love that she's not shy about speaking up.

We enjoyed a nice lunch at the zoo (she pronounced her mac and cheese "the good kind" as opposed to "the gross kind"), and then headed to the fountain which anchors the zoo paths, where she had a ball playing in the water for an hour.

Our last stop was the little trading post next to the exit, where Grandma bought her this piece of agate that was her heart's desire:

We had a delightful day and it was great to have some one-on-one time with Maddy, able to give her my undivided attention. I look forward to having more fun days with her now that her parents are moving back to town!

Scraptastic Club May Challenges

Yikes! I'm way behind on what I want to scrap because I have a new computer that's taking up all my time. I've spend hours installing software and moving files. And every time I think I'm done, I think of something else. Fonts. Brushes. The current tax return. Music. Sheesh. I think I'm nearly done at last. Now I need to get busy and make two birthday cards and three Father's Day Cards. And I'd really like to finish the LO's I started at my last crop. And there's 3 challenges ready at Scraptastic, with 2 more to come in the upcoming Thursdays. So to kill two birds with one stone, here's the first challenge, which is a birthday card.

Challenge #1 -- use a punch creatively on a project. I learned from my friend Lynn a while back that you can use a border punch to create a curve, by snipping apart each little element, and gluing the pieces in a curve, so I added a border to a birthday card. The cupcake is stamped and watercolored and sprinkles added with Liquid Pearls. Love that stuff!

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On to the next challenges, I hope.

6/3/12 update. Twelve hours of cropping yesterday and I'm exhausted today! But I got the rest of the Scraptastic challenges done!

#2 -- Use a song title and include some hidden journaling or photos. I couldn't wait to use the cute little flags included in the new PB&J kit; and I cut the little envelope with the Cricut, and wrapped the edges with twine. We still think of our son (now 42 -- egad!) as Mr.-Don't-Worry-Be-Happy. I had planned a different LO entirely, until I saw the words "Be Happy" in the kit!

#3 -- Use your stash and include buttons, brads and flowers. I'm not good at combining a lot of things, and I have the hardest time with buttons, although I love what others do with them. Here's my effort:

#4 -- Use the sketch and include a scallop shape. I love this sketch, and I love this kit!

#5 -- Make tags and use them on a page. Didn't think I'd get to this one, but I did and I like the way my tags came out:

Love challenges! They give me a deadline with specific criteria to meet and I get so much done.

Mother's Day Cards

My beautiful mother and my wonderful mother-in-law are just warm memories now; but I do celebrate two daughters-in-law and a daughter that I love to remember on Mother's Day. I made these cards for them this year:

The butterflies were stamped in black and then watercolored with distress ink and cut out. The "ribbon" is actually seam binding.

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms everywhere!

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.