More Flower Power

For my big self challenge on flowers I only came up with two layouts and one card, which I find pretty sad. Problem is it is fall and all I really want to do is jump in big old pile of leaves. Not that the leaves have fallen yet. Nope. I just find it necessary to prepare for that time by spending extra time jumping on the trampoline. I need to work on getting more air.

Flower Power

I am finally able to bend my fingers. It's a dang miracle. I don't like to whine, but today that seems to be all I am doing. So I finally got back to taking aqua aerobics after being a LOAD for nine months. What a mistake taking that time off was. Every muscle in my body disintegrated into shriveled strings of goo and is now revolting. I used to think aqua aerobics was kind of wussy. I still loved it, but I had a "nose up in the air" attitude about it. I loved being the youngest, most flexible and in shape person there. Not anymore. Those seventy year olds are making me eat their dust (or I should say splashes). Ugh.

So let's quit the whining. Below you will find one of my flower challenge layouts. I love it, because I used the Jenni Bowlin rub-on that I never thought I would use. Honestly, how awesome am I? Don't answer that. Let me live in my little world of Denise denial.

That's it for today. Thanks so much for stopping by. I am now heading back to my reclined position. I'm not going to whine, but could someone please bring me an ice pack and a Tylenol? ;o)

Caardvarks' Sketchfest

This week I have been joining in on the SketchFest held at Caardvarks. For each of the last seven days a sketch has been provided and your were to make a card based on the sketch. I've been having fun playing along. Today is the final day and here is the sketch provided:


And here is my take on their sketch:

And here are the other six I made throughout the week based on sketches you can find on their site:

Weekend Challenge: Floral Frenzy

Image found on Prima Marketing

Nothing to share today as it is rainy and beautiful outside, which prevented me from taking a photo of my layout. Yes, I did say beautiful. I love rain. I love storms. This year we haven't had enough, so today I am squealing with delight - even though I am stuck at work. I would rather be home watching a movie, eating cookies and scrapping. Wouldn't we all? Anyhoo...on to the real business of this post. The self-challenge for this weekend is flowers. We all have oodles of flowers - Prima, Creative Cafe, etc. I have Prima coming out of my nose. Not really, but it is close to being true. If you wish to deplete a bit of your stash, join in on the fun. As usual, I will post my creation(s) on Monday or Tuesday. If you play along, please place a link in my comments. I would love to take a look at what you come up with.

Have a gorgeous weekend. Tomorrow I will be playing with alpaca at my friend's farm. Honestly, how cool is that?

A Few Rolls of Ribbon

It's amazing how much ribbon you can shove in a jar. What I thought was a large collection surpassed the word large. By a landslide. It is HUMONGOUS. Yet I am now to the dregs of my pink collection and that makes me giddy. Pink is a color rarely used in my scrapping. Sad fact...the girl is not too girly. She loathes the color pink, because her BFF Henry loves pink. However, she seems to want to wear it everyday. Whatever. You have to love the age of seven. Anyway, here are a few of the layouts I "tied" together:

I want to state that the pink layout with all the ribbon was inspired by Judi's Laughter layout. It is her I have to thank for helping me deplete the pink. Thanks Judi. :o)

Now I promised to post this. Em came into my scrap room while I was working with ribbon. She asked why ribbon was hanging everywhere, so I told her about the challenge. Instantly out of her mouth came...Oooo a contest. What can I win? So this is what she came up with, because I told her she could win five bucks. Come on...I know there's no prize, but she's seven. And cute. And also wearing pink despite the hate. Go figure.

For some reason she has winter on her mind, so she used up all my snowflake ribbon. But most amazingly is that she found my collection of Paperkin punches and FREAKED OUT. Let's just say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Paperkin Love is in the genes. ;o)

Hello Dolly (not the dog)

OK...Greta will love that title. It will remind her of a little puppy that is worming it's way into her heart. LOL! But this is what the name Dolly should be about. A girl and her dolls. Dolls that seem to be glued to her arms as she never leaves home without them. The only place they haven't gone is with her when she is riding her bike. They fall out of her basket and nothing is worse than seeing two American Girl dolls splatting on the concrete. She will figure out how to fix that soon and I am sure it will involve bungee cords around her waist. The entire layout was made using one Studio Calico kit - Cotillion and the add-ons. I've never made a layout specifically using items from one kit, so this is a first. I like it. I guess that is why one gets kits...to make coordinating a breeze. Gee...that only took me two years to figure out. Duh.

Tomorrow I will post the ribbon layouts from last weekend's challenge. I started aqua aerobics last night and it kicked the butt out of me. Not literally. I wish. I was so tired from actually moving that I overslept this morning and didn't have time to photograph them. Tonight I will. If I can move.

Project 12 Challenge

I started this project with the best intentions of keep up with it monthly. However, I should know me better. I guess I don't like to face that reality and, well, being five months behind isn't that bad, especially when you do catch up. Rationalizing things is my forte. So without further stalling...here are my photo of the day layouts:

The layouts for January through March were posted earlier on this here blog. If interested: Here's January. Here's February. Here's March.

Thanks for stopping by. :o)

BASB Challenge: Go Mini

The new BASB challenge is now posted. This time hosted by Greta. In her words this is the "what's up":

My challenge to you is to go mini. Use mini photos or embellishments on your layout, create a mini layout within a larger layout, or take the "go mini" theme in your own creative direction.

It's an awesome challenge and I rolled my rub-on challenge right into it. I used rub-ons from Jenni Bowlin, Doodlebug and Pink Paislee. See....you never knew I was a multi-tasker and a multi-user, did you? Surprise. Well, check it out and hopefully you can join in!

Last weekend I also worked on a challenge that was posted on the Studio Calico blog. Basically use girly perceived items on a boy/man page. I finished it on time for the deadline, but then got all involved in my neighborhood campfire and forgot to post it. Didn't know I was an airhead either, did you? Nah...most know that. So this was the layout:

Finally, it is time for the weekly self-challenge. This weekend I am going to blast through my ribbon. I have enough ribbon to tie up half the country. It is time to make a dent in it.

Alrighty...have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Sometimes I Like Scrapping

It's true. Sometimes I do like scrapping. I actually love it all the time. What I meant by that title is that I love when I throw somethings together, doubting it the whole time and when finished I like it and don't call it crap. This layout was one of those times. I sound like a snob admitting I like my own work, but trust me it is a rarity. So to say it once out of 100 times I think is ok. Plus if you can't build up your own ego, who will. I am trying not to laugh at myself over that remark.

Please check out this challenge: Breakfast. I think it is awesome. Many of you know Barb from over at Studio Calico. The very first memory I have of Barb is cupcakes. I was new to Studio Calico and she was posting about cooking and cupcakes. I instantly knew I liked her. She now has a cooking blog, which I am loving and want to share with all. I have and hope you like it, too. BTW...anybody that shares recipes with Nutella in it is A-OK in my book. For sure.

Difficulties with Rub-Ons and Hoarding

I have a problem. The television show Hoarders is turning me into a clean freak. Not such a bad thing to be, but I don't display this freakish nature until after it is dark. Therefore, I start cleaning after the show well into the night, which results in two things: Being tired the next day and throwing away things I need, since I am cleaning in a half stupor. Whatever. Last night's cleaning session resulted in multiple bags of garbage/recycling and a Goodwill pile the size of an Escalade. Goodwill has already hauled it away, so there is no going back to get that pair of pink plaid pedal pushers from the 1980s. Dang. I looked pretty tripendicular in them. Ugh...gag me with a spoon.

OK....end the whining. At least I am not climbing over a mountain of empty pop bottles and pizza boxes. Yet.

The past weekend's challenge of using rub-ons was exactly that - a challenge. I was stumped and ended up making cards. I eventually just started slapping rub-ons on paper and ended up coming up with three layouts. Here's a few cards and a layout I made:

I decided to channel my inner Anilu and did much of this on the computer. The paper version of this layout wasn't working as I wished. After I finished the tree I looked at it and said wow...I just channeled Dawn. So you get two BASB channelings for the price of one. Really? Could you ask for more? ;o)

Weekend Challenge: Part Three (or is it Four?)

Lily Bee Design Rub-ons - Laugh

The self-challenge for the upcoming weekend will be rub ons. Honestly, it's another thing I have a drawer full and never use. They intimidate me. I see people use them stunningly. I try...it looks like...cra.....ehhhh....a hot mess. So they get shoved in a bottom drawer, but this weekend they are front and center. Why? Because the drawer is so full that the rub ons are getting rubbed off on everything. So if you wish to join in....rub away. As always, no prize...just a big smiley face of content from using something you paid for and never used until now. It's a good thing.

Party Horns and Such

I woke up early. Do you hear the party horns? Waking up early doesn't happen often. Even rarer is me doing something requiring thinking, creating and rolling out of a fetal position before seven a.m. So I was up and sitting in front of my August Studio Calico kit. I need to use it up before I open the box that is sitting by my front door. That contains the SC September kit. Pressure. For once I wanted to use up one kit before starting another. I'm close, but not close enough. Oh well. There is always next month to achieve that goal. This is what I did this morning. I never know what to do with that JB tissue paper stuff. Care to share what you do with it or have seen what others do with it? I need all the help I can get.

Hmmm...not only is the photo on the layout not the greatest quality, but neither is the photo of the layout. I apologize. The older I get the more shaky I get and the slower my eyes focus. New rule...no taking photos before work and after the age of 40. I guess I'm done. LOL!

A Bundle of Brad Layouts

This little girl loved going to school the first day. Can't you tell? Yeah...not so much. She and her brothers provided many minutes of comic relief to a rather busy morning. Comic relief in the way over tiredness and photos that will never grace the cover of Popular Photography. Oh well...they tell a story of imperfection and reality. So they - the kids - are the reason the week is just zipping by and I have yet to prove I did the brad challenge. So to keep it short and simple, here they are:









Have a happy Wednesday.

Blow Through Your Brads Challenge

It's official. The self-challenge for the weekend is brads. I have a drawer full of them. I am certain some of them have been in there since 1995 - the year I began "real" scrapbooking. I have always had a weirdness of not being able to leave a couple brads, rhinestones, etc. left on a sheet, so this little challenge will surely kick me into a permanent OCD outbreak. Such fun things to look forward to, don't you think?

The first email I read this morning started my day off perfectly. It seems my friend, Jen, knows my sense of humor and knows just what I would do to rile up the neighborhood. For your entertainment:


Denise – Did you post this on Craig’s List? J/K – Jen

minneapolis craigslist > dakota/scott > for sale / wanted > items wanted

Clown for Kicks (Mendota Heights)
________________________________________
Date: 2009-08-28, 11:12AM CDT
________________________________________

I am looking for someone to dress up like a Clown and hang out with me. I would cook you diner - or we could BBQ something. I'm interested in making my neighbor lady wonder. I have already had a man in a panda costume last month - and also had a heard of sheep come in for the day to cut the grass. (sheep do a good job by the way). A clown would be something.

Maybe you could bring some balloons - or make balloon animals to hang in my tree. I'd like to have this done some evening between 6pm and dark. The longer you can stay the better (like if you could stay for the whole 3 hours). Do you have any tricks you could do?

Like I said - I could cook diner and get you drunk - I'd even be willing to pay your cab fare to and from. I don't have much to offer - and my neighbor lady is driving me nuts - so I want to drive her nuts. If you had a Mime friend - it would be cool to see you two chase each other around the yard or do relay races while I time you.

Let me know your thoughts - open to Men and Women Clowns.
• Location: Mendota Heights
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I love this person. Wish he was my neighbor. Either that or I wish I had thought of this first. Dang.

Happy Friday! Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

BASB Challenge: Title Envy

The new BASB Challenge is now posted. In Liz's words:

This next challenge is super simple and super fun! Rock your stamps, sticker letters, whatever you got and create a kickin' title for your layout! The fun thing about this challenge is that when you play up the title, it leaves short work to complete the rest of the layout!

So game on.

This is what I came up with:

Now to finish up the Thicker theme of the week. This would be the layout that I love the most. I know...not a masterpiece as I promised, but it makes me happy. I love how using the Thickers as a mask worked. I used a paper bag, stuck the letters down and then spray with Walnut Ink. Easy. Most of all I love the photo and the memory that accompany it. Sigh. She won't be that excited this year.

Thanks for stopping by today. I appreciate all the comments you have left this week in regard to my Thickers challenge. I have a challenge idea for the upcoming weekend. I need to lessen my stock of brads. Don't we all?

Get Rid of the Thickers: Results, part 2

I'm tired today.

And old, but that's nothing new.

I spent last night bar hopping. Wait...that is a term of the past. I guess it is now club hopping or something like that. I really didn't hop. I went to one and planted my behind. My godson's band was in a battle called The Last Band Standing. They did an awesome job. The drumming was spot on. I wonder who plays drums? Duh.... Anyway, I was priveleged to be able to see bands ranging from "boy band" to heavy metal. Did you know Satan plays the Didgeridoo? Well, his identical twin does. Crazy. I will have to share photos once I track one down. Not sure who won, because I left before the last three bands played, but I am hoping it was Postina.

Let's get to the real stuff. These are some of the cards I made for the Thickers challenge.

Most are pretty self-explanatory. The yellow one with all the letters is the "foot in the mouth" one. The message inside will say something like I don't have the right words to say I'm sorry. Something like that. If you can think up something better, please share. :o)

Well, that's that. I have one layout left and I will share that tomorrow. I know...you can hardly wait. LOL!