Challenge #5

Ok, so either I'm VERY late for the last challenge, or I'm early for the next one. Let's go with the second option there. :o) Things have been a bit busy here with school preparations. Our school books were in dire need of an organizing specialist, but since there are none around, and I'm the resident teacher, I simply did my best at sorting through and figuring out what should go where. Twelve years of curriculum is a LOT of books!

Anyway, with the books all sorted, cataloged and put back where they belong, I didn't have much time left for finishing my challenge, but I managed to get it done. See:

This was probably the easiest layout I've ever done. I had printed this photo out with the scripture verse on it a few weeks ago to go in a frame here in the house, but printed it too large and it didn't fit so I decided to put it into one of our albums. All I did for this layout was matt the photo, emboss the dark blue strip on the side and add some snowflake embellishments that I had.

Let's see, this week's challenge will be to do some watercoloring on a project. You can use watercolor pencils, ink, watercolor crayons, or grab your kids' watercolor paints and have some fun. Michelle's birthday is coming up quick, so I'm sure I will get some watercoloring done and have some projects to post for you next week. Till then--God's love and blessings.

Week #4

Aaah! I can't believe I didn't get this posted yesterday. I even had my projects all done and pictures taken and uploaded and ready. Oh well, better late than never. I'm so excited to have my sister joining us for these challenges. (Hi Pam!)

Here's a picture of the layout I did using a chipboard letter.

I had a hard time figuring out how to incorporate a chipboard letter onto this layout because there were too many options, but I did it! I had fun using my SU butterfly die and some Brilliance ink I bought a long time ago. You can't see in the picture, but the ink on the letter and edges of the butterflies is a very iridescent red and gold color. I followed Sonja's lead and started a photo album on my Facebook just for my Challenge projects so they are all in one place.

This week's challenge is to use dry embossing on something. You can use a die cut machine with an embossing folder or do it the "old fashioned" way with a template and stylus, or any other way you know of dry embossing an image. Try it for your main image on a card, or a background texture.

Well, I picked up 2 new bookshelves yesterday and need to get my boxes of books unpacked and our school curriculum organized before I can play, so I better get off of here and get busy. Till next week...God's love and blessings.

Sunday Challenge #3

I'm so glad Sonja has made it home safe and sound and has joined me in finishing these challenges. I hope we can get some more ladies to play along. Last week's challenge was to use ribbon. I did on a few cards I made, but forgot to take pictures of them before I sent them out. I did however finally finish a layout for one of the frames here in the house using a little bit of ribbon. It's an 11 x 14 frame, so I couldn't print a picture big enough to fit it and decided to do a layout. I loved the rose that was printed on this paper and didn't want the photo to completely cover it so I cut out the edge with an X-acto blade and tucked the photo under it. The ribbon simply helps soften the line where the 2 different papers come together at the bottom.


This week's challenge is to use chipboard letters. Cover them with paper, paint them, ink them, distress them, whatever you like, but use them on a project this week and tell me all about it. Since my printer is working again, I am hoping to get some of Angel's pictures printed and do a few pages for her album this week.

In other news, I'm hoping to get my Stampin' Up! business up and going again soon. I think I'm going to start with a card swap. I just got my new catalog in and am in the middle of sorting through my retired stamps and reorganizing them. Hopefully I'll have that done today and start making a few things with my current stamp sets. It's good to get my office put together and have a place to be crafty again. :o) Especially one with such a beautiful view to look at while I'm working!

One more bit of crafty news. Today was the first Sunday of the month which means we had "potblessing" at our church today and I made a cake honoring all those with a Birthday or Anniversary in August (which includes Mike and I--21 years together and he's still my Knight in Shining Armor!) I decided on a picnic theme for this month's cake. This was so much fun to do. I felt like I was back in art class at school again playing with play-do. :o) Here's a picture of it. I'm going to upload some close-ups onto our Picasa site if you want to check them out.


Well, I better close here and get busy on these stamps. Till next week, God's love and blessings.