A Pleasant Surprise!

I got a nice surprise last night when I saw that I had received the honor of being chosen the Freak of the Week at ScrapFreak! One of the fun things the Freaks do is to require you to answer some questions before they give you the FOTW blinkie so I thought I would share the questions and answers with you all.

1. Whats the one scrap tool that you can't live without and why?
I guess that would be my paper cutter since it is the one tool that gets used for each and every project.

2. What was your favorite game as a child?
I don't really recall playing board games but my favorite make-believe game was to play in the woods and pretend that I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.

3. Where do you find your inspiration
Oh, gosh, everywhere! Ads, clothing, nature, blogs, online galleries, etc.

4. Tell us about your scrap space or scrap room.
I do have the luxury of having a scraproom (it was Kacie's nursery when we bought the house). It's not fancy but it is comfortable and functional. And my sweetie refinished the hardwood floor and painted the walls for me in paint custom tinted to Stampin' Up! certainly celery green.

5. In your introduction thread, you mentioned that you used to stamp alot. Do you still stamp? and Do you incorporate your stamping into your scrapbooking at all?
I had been drifting away from stamping but doing those tags this week reminded me how much fun it is to play with ink! I was an SU! demonstrator from Feb 2002 through Oct 2006 and started out scrapping with cardstock and stamps. A couple of years ago I started adding non-SU! stuff to my pages until I was doing more scrapping than cardmaking and rarely stamping on my pages. This was in part because I started doing dt work for message boards/online stores. Now that I am not selling SU! and taking a break from dt work I am enjoying the freedom to do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it!
I have been enjoying getting to know all you Freaks and participating in the fun challenges here.

PS- As an extra bonus I also won the Quickie Crop prize of a $20 gift certificate to the ScrapFreak store! Can you can Grungeboard?

Messy Fun!

I haven't played with ink in a while but the tag projects Tim Holtz has been posting on his blog at www.timholtz.typepad.com are so inspiring that I just had to pull out the ink, embossing power, paint, glitter, etc. and have some messy fun!

I don't own most of the Ranger products used in his examples so I improvised with what I do have and pulled a few things from my bag of trickes learned when I was an SU! demonstrator.
Tag 1: I don't have any crackle paints so I just dry-brushed the tag with a little MM banana acrylic paint. In hindsight I wish I would have used a bit more! I accented the tree with a little Liquid Applique puff paint.
Tag 2: The only thing I really did differently here (other than using SU! inks and EP) was to use clear flowers from Queen & Co. inked with StazOn rather than alcohol ink.
Tag 3: Regular EP instead of distress powders.
Tag 4: I haven't done this one , yet.


Tag 5: Instead of Ranger alcohol inks I used an old marblizing technique. I saturated a cotton ball with alcohol then put one drop of SU! brilliant blue ink and two of ballet blue on it and dabbed it onto the glossy cardstock.
Tag 6: for this one I made my own glimmer spray by taking a travel size hairspray with about an ounce of hairspray left in it and mixing in about 12-15 drops of ballet blue ink and roughly a 1/2 teaspoon of micro pearl PearlEx powder. The hairspray acts as a fixative so the PearlEx does not rub off after it dries.



Tag 7: I do own one Distress Ink in weathered wood blue so I used that for the base tag. For the stamped and embossed top layer I used this cheat to emboss my SU! dye inks: First ink the stamp with Versmamark watermark/embossing ink then apply dye ink on top of the Versmark. Your stamped image will show the color of the dye ink but the embossing powder will adhere to the Vermark.
Tag 8: Here I used Making Memories paint then inked over it with the weathered wood distress ink.


I'm looking forward to seeing what Tim has up his sleeve for days nine through twelve!

A Couple of New Pages

This week's contest challenge at Scrapperie is to "go 3D" and to use a photo with the subject/s engaged in an activity rather than posing for the camera. I decided to use one of the photos I took of a few of my nephews and grand-nephews at our family gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving.
In this first layout (inspired by the challenge but not my entry) I cropped the image down to just Zach because the way he is jumping in the air just nakes me smile! :)


For the contest entry I "went 3D" by layering and pop-dotting the photo. Brandon (holding the football)and Jake are four layers thick, Nick is three layers, Zachary is two layers, and for Max I just cut around his head and arm with the craft knife and slightly lifted them.




Now that I got these done I am spending the rest of this evening participating in a mini cyber crop with my new friends at ScrapFreak. :) I am a cybercrop junkie! I had fun with the crop last weekend at The Scrapbbok Site and even won two crop prizes along with a third one for participating in their November challenges.

Cyber Crop

Need some help to get the mojo flowing? The Scrapbook Site will be having a cybercrop the weekend of Nov 30th - Dec 2nd. They always offer such a variety of challenges that you are sure to find something to spark your creativity! And, hey, we can all use a little "me time" between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My Hero

Our challenge at Scrappeie this past week was to scrap a page about our superhero. I thought about it all week trying to come up with a different subject but, even though I've scrapped about it before, there really isn't anyone in my life that I admire more than Kacie.

Journaling: When they told me that you weren't likely to ever walk or talk I couldn't help but wonder what I had done wrong or what my sweet baby had done to deserve this. But as I have watched you grow and learn and achieve all those milestones that we were told never to expect I am constantly amazed and inspired by your determination and positive attitude. I wish that I could be as strong as you are!

I'm a freak! LOL

Cherie mentioned this site before but I finally got around to checking out Scrapfreak this week. I am in love! It is a very active site just full of friendly people. Add this one to the short list of must visit scrapping sites.

A Mini Album, Some Cards, and a Contest

After a little time off I am back to creating!
I finally got the photos printed and finished up the Flat Meg project. The backstory: Lady Meg is a local renfaire participant that Tom and I met through RenaissanceFestival.com. She was fortunate to be accepted into an acting program in Ireland this semester but that meant that she missed out on most of the season at the Michigan Renaissance Festival and her home-sickness was showing in her posts at the R/F forum. Since Meg couldn't be there herself, I got the bright? idea to have "Flat Meg" join us for the final weekend at MIRF. I didn't have an appropriate photo in my files so Ladyfair came to my rescue and emailed me a photo of Meg. I blew up the image and printed it out in about 15 sections which I adhered to foamcore to produce Flat Meg. We took Flat Meg to the faire on that final Sunday and opted to leave her at Things From rings while we wandered Hollygrove. All the time on my feet that weekend caught up with me so Tom and I headed to the parking area so I could take some pain reliever and sit and rest for a while. When we didn't make it back in time for the R/F group photo, Lady Ann escorted Flat Meg to the photo shoot then let her tag along to the wenches guild party. Most of the photos used for the album were taken by Lady Ann with Ladyfair's camera. Thanks for your help, ladies!











I've also been participating in the card-a-day sketches challenge at Scrapperie. You still have a chance to get in on this before the end of the month. These are a few of the cards I've made using Martha's sketches:




Now is the time to sign up for the Nov./Dec. non-elimination 8 week layout challenge that KimL141 will be hosting at Scrapperie.com. You'll need to sign up by Nov. 2nd to be eligible for prizes though you are welcome to do the challnges just for fun at any time.

Inspiration!

Two new little boys entered our world last week and, of course, I HAD to scrap their photos! :)

This is Max Robert born on September 18 to my "other daughter" (my oldest daughter's best friend).



This is Lucas Robert, my cousin's grandson, born on September 16.



On Sunday I visited the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park with my cousin, her daughter, and her three grandsons. I got some nice photos of Lucas's older brothers playing in the children's garden including this one of Blake that just screamed to be scrapped.



I love this photo of Kenny but it is still sitting on my work table waiting for page inspiration to strike.

Faire Photos

Tom and I spent Labor Day weekend at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. We had a WONDERFUL time meeting new friends and getting to know others better. Most of these photos were taken by others (well, I guess that's obvious since I'm in them, huh LOL) Even though this is an Elizabethan faire it was Bucaneer Beerfest weekend so on Saturday Tom wore his 18th century (Golden Age of Piracy)shirt and pants that I made for him and I wore my pirate outfit. This was the first outing for the blue coat. You may recall my agonizing over the fabric choices last spring and my excitment over ordering it (before I took up sewing my own garb). I wasn't quite so excited when I received it and it was ill-fitting and poorly finished. Even after sending it back for alterations I still was disappointed in it and wouldn't wear it. Last week I pulled it out and made some alterations of my own to make it wearable so that it wasn't a total waste of money. Halfway through the day I ended up ditching it because I was just too darn hot!LOL


Tom, myself, Lady Ann, Stephane, Connor Savage hanging out at the Guiness Pub


Lady Gwendolyn, myself, and Tom in Ladyfair's garden


Saturday's R/F forum members group photo


The lovebirds (planning to be married next summer)


Me being greeted by a dashing cast member

Sunday was another fun day! I decided to forgo the pirate garb in favor of my "middle-class" merchant garb.


Mistress Katherine, The Seamstress of Hollygrove (and me)


The girls decided to join us on Sunday. Kim and our friend Brooklyn above. Kacie (who stole her father's hat) below. It is actually Brooklyn's parents' fault that we got involved in this whole Rennie thing! LOL Her father, Jeff, married Kim's friend, Casey, three years ago in Flint over Labor Day Weekend and when I was looking for things to do in the area I stumbled onto info about the ren faire and decided to check it out.



Sunday's R/F forum members group photo


Some of us hanging out in the "private" area behind Ladyfair's booth












Monday Tom was tired and I was achy and just couldn't walk anymore by lunchtime so we decided to head home early.

A Little Scrappin'

Um...okay...scrapping has taken a back seat to sewing costumes this summer. I have made time for a page a week, though, by participating in the So You Think You Can Scrap challenge at The Scrapbook Site. With a different DT member hosting each weeks challenge there has been a lot of variety and it has been a blast! Thanks to them for all of their hard work and for forcing me to make some time for scrapping!

Week 1: old School
1. Using old supplies (a mixture of papers, embellishments and alphas. New items can be used but please keep them to a minimum).
2. Scrapping a picture from in or around the year you began scrapping.
3. Using one of the first techniques you tried.


Week 2: sketch Play
1. Use an Elsie Flannigan sketch (file attached and there are 28 to choose from! Here’s the link: http://elsieflannigan.blogspot.com/2007/02/just-for-fun.html)
2. Scrap a minimum of 3 pictures
3. Use at least 2 different pattern papers from at least 2 different collections/manufacturers



Week 3: Lucky Sevens
create a layout entitled, "Seven Things I Am Lucky to Have".
Your layout must also include the following:
7 photos
7 buttons
7 journaling strips



Week 4: Memories
The Challenge- Create a layout about a childhood memory and how it relates to you now. Include meaningful journaling.
We were allowed to skip one week and this was the one I ended up skipping because I was just too busy to get the challenge done and do it justice.

Week 5: Sing Me a Memory
1. Find a song with meaningful lyrics.
2. Use at least 4 lines from that song on your layout. You will need to include the song title and the singer in your description when you post your layout to the gallery.
3. You will need at least 2 photos on your layout.



Week 6: The Power of Three
3 pictures
3 buttons
3 different ribbons
3 different patterned papers (can be from same or different manufacturers)
3 word title
3 extra embellishments of your choosing (this can be ANYTHING not listed above and also
can be 3 of the same things or 1 each of 3 different things just as long as
it is not something already listed).



Week 7: Ordinary Objects
Journaling is a must. Tell me why each item is important in your daily routine and why you couldn't live without it at this point in your life. If journaling is hidden – please post a separate picture with the journaling so we can see it!
Patterned papers – use at least 2 - you can use more.
Ribbon OR fiber – you can use lots or as little as one piece of either.
You can do any size layout you would like.
You can use anything else you want for this layout – cardstock, embellies, ink, chipboard – no limits!



Week 8: DIY
CREATE YOUR VERY OWN EMBELLISHMENTS!!