Ribbon flowers at Let's Scrap

This week's DT Challenge at Let's Scrap was to create a card or LO using three different kinds of handmade flowers. What a fun challenge to work on. I decided to create three very different ribbon flowers, and this is the result:

And here is what they look like on the card:

I think it's the kind of card that could make any day brighter!

Getting to know Saltaro

I'm determined to finish at least my Stockholm album! I don't have that many pictures of that trip (as least not as many as of other trips!) and I'd like to have a finished album to show people when they say: "so, what is scrapbooking?" or "what is it that you make?". I always end up showing incomplete albums and sort of apologizing for the gaps, otherwise. So, these past three days I've completed three layouts from that trip. One for Practical Scrapper's April sketch feature (thought I was doing March's), one for March's feature, and one for this week's sketch reveal at Let's Scrap. This sketch had a big tree on the left side and I loved working on it! Plus, I loved using these yellow flowers that have been in my stash forever but never found their place.

Here is a close up of the flowers and tag:

Late for March sketch

I was late for this morning March sketch feature at Practical Scrappers. Part of the problem was that during the weekend I worked on April's sketch by mistake, thinking it was March. The other - big- part of the problem was that I underestimated the time it took to hand cut the flowers in this yummy MME Lush paper. I finished it late last night, but there was no light at all for a pic. Anyway, here it is:

Nature month at Sunday Shutterbugs

I've been meaning to take nature pictures for this month's challenge at Sunday Shutterbugs for a couple of weeks already, and it would have been so easy to just go out and do it in the garden, but I wanted sth different this time. Yesterday we went to visit Fort George, an old British Fort overlooking Port of Spain, and it was the perfect chance. My first pic is one of a plant similar to grass and the view of the city centre and the sea. 

The other two pics are from a tree we saw at Fort George. It is called calabasa, which is very similar to our word for pumpkin in Argentina (calabaza). I found this to be such an interesting tree to represent nature, lots of different shades of green, tiny plants growing from the trunk and branches, and those amazing fruits!!!!!!!!!! Love the trees around here, they are just amazing!

I was planning to take pics for the Let's Photograph challenge as well, but forgot I had to take two pics of each object, a good one and bad one, so will have to work on that another day!

Mia loves Toy Story 3!

And 1, and 2, (and 4 and 5 if they were ever made). Toy story has beaten every record in our house, and the Toy Story craze came right in the middle of our moving process. Not surprisingly, during our stop in London we bought every Toy Story toy the Disney store had to offer. This is the story behind this LO, based on Pencillines' sketch 230. Not very happy with it, I really can't make character stickers work the way I want them too, and at the same time I felt I couldn't leave them out. Still, it's a colourful LO and I love those pics, so it's going into the album (so many pictures to scrap I can't waste time re-doing LOs!!!)

Handmade Flowers at Practical Scrappers

The feature today at Practical Scrappers is handmade flowers. We've already had medallion flowers and rolled flowers so I needed to try sth else. I wanted to give a try to some vintage dressmaker patterns I got with my JBS kit, so that's what I used for the flower, topped with a BoBunny Olivia Chipboard element and accompanied by leaves from the same set.

I used the flower in a card.

I don't like fact that the stamp is too high, but could do nothing about it once it was stamped, just colour the letters darker!

Notepad

It's sketch time again at Let's Scrap. And this time I used 1/4 of a sketch. Yes, you're reading right, just 1/4. I used the left half of the left side of the sketch. I altered a notepad, and I think it looks cute, though I'm not 100% sure about the ribbons on the top, so I may take them out.

These My Little Shoebox papers are so colourful, I feel like using them for a million projects! 

Two cards

I have two cards for you today. I wanted to use up the Echo Park For The Record Scraps before moving on to sth else and cards were the perfect choice (I still have one complete sheet of patterned paper but it's got flowers I can probably use to embellish LO's made with any other paper). I made a card for Practical Scrapper's feature for today: rolled flowers. I made several small flowers, but they somehow didn't look right when I put them on the page, so I finally made a big one. 

 

I've also made a card for Let's Scrap's challenge 89. For this challenge you have to go to the gallery and look for the LO/card that was posted right after your last post, and scraplift it. If you haven't posted anything to Let's Scrap yet, you can then choose any layout/card from the gallery and scraplift it. This is the card I made, using For The Record - again!

You can still play until Friday, it's a fun challenge, so why not join?

More Echo Park

More Echo Park For The Record today, as I worked on the page that will go next to yesterday's in the album. I was looking for a sketch to work on this, and Pencillines had the perfect one! They were really similar and matched perfectly. The pics are from a trip to Stockholm we took two years ago, in the middle of summer. DD was so excited to see some green plants (everything dies in the Libyan summer) that she started kissing the trees! I'm so happy I captured that moment, as it tells what we always felt when we saw green. Now we're on this green island, we may forget what it feels like, though we haven't lost the feeling of wonder yet. 

I also made this for the Scrap our Stash challenge #1 at Let's Scrap. As required, it has two different colour ribbons, three metal elements, and I used 3 punches. I love the antennae on this butterfly:

If I continue using three or four metal elements per LO, Brenda Sue will have  a new order quite soon! The next pic is a close-up of the title:

I love how that metal bow looks on the flower! I still have enough For The Record paper for some cards and maybe even another LO, so you may see more of it in the near future!

JBS overdose

Skybox guy just came. He had some hangers for DD's doll clothes, my Cards and Scrapbooking Trends Magazines (that was the Crafty Steals pack), and... listen to this: Just got my JBS January kit, January project kit, January add-ons, February kit and add-ons, plus some hodge podge tins and extras I purchased (not that they didn't send them on time, there was a problem at my skybox's warehouse). I am stunned. There are so many beautiful things I can't even breathe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am having a stash overdose!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even think I'll be able to scrap today, I will just sit and stare at the stuff (and maybe take a peek at the magazines!!! LOL).

For the record

There was a challenge going on at Echo Park Papers until yesterday using either the For The Record or Springtime Collections. Having no LSS nearby, I always look at these contests and sigh, for I never have the right paper at hand, and any order takes weeks to get here. This time I had a new set of For The Record papers and stickers that I've jut got with my Scraproom kit, so I wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, I left it for the very last minute and I am not completely happy with the result, but there was no time to change it. I like the design, but I would have liked the circle to be a little bigger. 

I also got some of the metal embellies I ordered last month just before starting to work on this LO, and I decided that, since the church (Riddarholmskyrkan, in Stockholm) had golden ornaments, a touch of "gold" was perfect for this LO. 

The skybox guy just phoned and said he has four packages from me. I know one is my JBS february kit that got lost in their (the skybox's) warehouse, one is a pack of sth I bought from Crafty Steals but can't remember what (must be yummy, though), but the other two, I have no idea. 90% chances they are scrapbooking stuff, though. Can't wait to hear the bell ring today!!!!

I'm feeling lucky!!!

I'm feeling lucky today. Maybe I could win some fantastic Glue Arts products today?

Oh, so happy to have you!

This is a card I created for this week's sketch challenge at Let's Scrap. I started with the sentiment cad and chose the cardstock, papers and embellies to match it. I have already said this, but I LOVE these Martha Stewart butterflies!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Green day at Practical Scrappers

The feature today at Practical Scrappers is GREEN. I tought it would be hard to create sth for this feature at first, as I don't usually do monochromatic LOs, and I couldn't think what pics to work with. Then the Carnival Jump Up came at DD's school and Pre-K was... the green lantern band!!!! That was lucky! Here is my green LO:

Oops, I see the "E" has fallen, better glue those stickers with sth else, the glue on the back was not very good...

Cosmo Cricket Challenge

After a lovely day at the beach yesterday, it's been raining all day long today, so our hiking plans have become movie plans. While DH and DD watched Toy Story (they've been so good today, leaving me time to play!!!), I prepared this layout for the Cosmo Cricket "Wanna get published" challenge. I do know the chances of getting published are slim indeed, with so many people submitting gorgeous stuff, but I've had these papers for a few weeks now and had even printed the picture I wanted to scrap with them when I read about this challenge, so I decided to play along.

The LO is called THE PICTURE, and it tells the story of this photo I really wanted to take with the pyramids behind us, and the only way to get it was riding a camel, which I hated every minute of!

Butterfly Blog Linky Party

And, I managed to steal some time from family (DD and DH are playing the saxophone he got for Christmas - noisy, but it keeps them entertained!!!) and found time to make a simple card for the butterfly blog linky party. Love these Martha Stewart butterflies, and will be using them often!

Flowery rainbow clipboard

It's rainbow day at Practical Scrappers, so I have created a rainbow full of flowers to decorate a clipboard. I couldn't have done this without my Silhouette!!!!

I couldn't resist the temptation of taking a close-up pic of the flowers, so much texture in there!

I am hoping to participate in Eva's Butterfly Blog Linky Party, but I'm not sure I'll make it... I find it hard to make scrapping time on weekends!

Pink is my favourite colour

Pink is not my favourite colour, but it is my daughter's. That's why when Challenge 87 at Let's Scrap asked for a LO using paint chips, that is the only colour I had, the paint chips we used to choose her bedroom colour. I used the chips for most of the elements in the LO: two of the flowers, the title, the journalling strips, the strip below the photo, and even to cover the chipboard butterfly. I made the butterfly's antennae and a leaf for the flowers with wire and beads.

Down on the farm at Drusillas

I have been making all one-pagers lately, which is a pain in the neck when you want to put the LO's into albums. I don't mind if the LO is not a double one, but I hate it when the pages totally clash because I haven't planned it properly. Sometimes (in extreme cases) I prefer to leave the page next to a LO empty and put some nice matching patterned paper next to it, rather than having a clashing LO. I have found that it's easier to match things if I work on pages that go next to each other consecutively, or not very far in time from each other, as I still have the same materials and, especially, I remember what I did in the previous one. So I created this page to go next to the Thomas page I prepared a couple of weeks ago. It is based on Let's Scrap's sketch 3-9-11, which is gorgeous and full of circles, don't miss the chance to scrap that LO. Although Drusillas park is a zoo, most of the pics we took were in the Farm area, so I decided to give it a farm theme (I was dying to try those MLS farm stamps, too!).

Rainbow card

So many rainbows around these days, I couldn't help creating my own. I've seen gorgeous glitter rainbows, patterned paper rainbows, even butterfly rainbows! Mine is a ribbon rainbow. I didn't want to add much else to the card, the rainbow was enough, so I just added the phrase "make a wish" below it. 

The ribbon rainbow looks yummy in a close-up, doesn't it:

There are lots of rainbow projects coming soon at Pratical Scrappers; don't forget to have a look!

Happy Bird-day!

Today's feature at Practical Scrappers is layouts and card with banners. I created this card, with a banner made of curio decorative stickers... aren't they just yummy?

I've already depleted one third of the pearls I bought last month, I guess I am at a pearly stage right now! I used them on the envelope too; I have such fun decorating envelopes!

Don't forget to visit Practical Scrappers for a look at the banners other DTs and our readers have created.

Red close-ups

I've been playing a little with my camera this afternoon. Debby has started a great photo group with tips and challenges at Let's Scrap. The challenge this week was getting closer - using the macro funtion. Also, Sunday Shutterbugs had a red colour challenge, so I chose red flowers in my garden as the subject of my first two pics. The third one, the one I like most, is the stem of a cactus-like plant in our front yard. 

Pink Paislee giveaway at Practical Scrappers

You will not want to miss this one! There's a yummy Pink Paislee giveaway going on at Practical Scrappers. I presented two projects for this feature: one is the layout with acrylic banners I posted some time ago, and the other is this card, created with the same paper. The trim comes from my grandmother's sewing box and, yes, I couldn't stop embossing on that day!

There are four different ways you can get a chance to win the Pink Paislee prize, so don't forget to visit Practical Scrappers and find out how!

Live laugh love - Be happy!

"Live laugh love - be happy" is the sentiment in this card I created for challenge 86 at Let's Scrap. The challenge was to use a transparency, paint on the back side, and print on the front. I can't print on my transparencies as the ones I have are for the wrong sort of printer and I haven't found the right ones since I moved, so I used rub-ons instead. 

I'm having fun making matching envelopes for my cards, and I think this will also help them sell better, so here is the envelope for this one. It is simple, but I like the finished touch it gives to the card/envelope set.

When layouts take a life of their own...

I feel I need to explain how I got to the layout I'll show you today. I wanted to work on this photo as I only had this copy, no back up, and it's been on my desk, risking misting, coffee spills, glue, DD's messy fingers, etc! It's a special photo as we took it on our second day in Trinidad. DD was very sad after leaving Tripoli, and was disappointed that when we arrived we were in a hotel and not a house. All she wanted to do for a couple of days was watch TV, which she never does, she always has sth better going on, even if the TV is on. Then we found out the local cable company had a show in the hotel we were staying and Doki (the Discovery Kids Mascot) would be there. The queue was endless but at least DD left the place with a smile and a story to phone her friends and talk about. So, I started working with this picture using Let's Scrap's sketch for this week:

I love this sketch because of the big pictures, and the multiple layers you could add behind the photo. So, I started working with this picture, had cut, distressed and misted patterned paper squares, and only needed to start gluing and embellishing. Then I went to pick up DD from school, and on the way started thinking how I didn't like the background of the photo, and decided to cut out DD and Doki. Of course, once I'd cut them, they didn't look right in those big squares, and I had to change everything! Here is my final result, and my favourite part is that little Doki on the banner:

You have the whole week to show us your take on this fantastic sketch at Let's Scrap!!!

Barbados

Hi, I am back from a gorgeous long weekend we spent in Barbados. After the car crash, and the awful things that have been going on around so many of our friends in Libya, we really needed some relaxation, and Barbados (less than an our away) looked like the right place. It was! Te beach is great, the island is beautiful, and the sea breeze makes the weather perfect! Here are a few pics:

Taking a walk after breakfast. This is my Aleida's Challenge pic for February. 

Ready for the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is a photo I took for the Sunday Shutterbugs' January theme: shapes. I loved the shape of the things inside the flower the bee is feeding from (sorry, lack the word for them!), they are all shaped like tiny bottles. Just like bottles of honey! Maybe you can see them better here:

And, yes, I do realize we are in March already, but I read some older Sunday Shutterbugs post and didn't see the date, so I kept looking for shapes!!!