My Mind's Eye Blog Card and Layout Challenges #26!

I had to finally get in on one of the awesome challenges happening over on the My Mind's Eye blog! It's been awhile for me, and I really loved the sketch for the card this month because it uses tags, which I think is a super way of embellishing a card front! So here it is...

  Style, Beauty... You've Got It, Friend!

By the way, here's the sketch from Anam Stubbington...

Card Challenge #26-

And, some more details of the card...

I used a few different paper lines from MME, including Stella Rose, "vintage" Wild Asparagus and Life Stories.  The flocked brown alpha chipboard letters and decorative brads are from the MME Lush collection. Those awesome butterfly and flourish design tags were cut using the Cricut Picturesque cartridge,  and the dressform accent was from the Summer in Paris cartridge.  Aside from the sketch, I was also inspired to create this card from a challenge at the Nook to incorporate things that are typically considered "masculine" onto a feminine card, or vice-versa.  I chose to use masculine elements for a girly card, so I incorporated some conventional masculine patterns and colors such as plaid, woodgrain and brown tones.  I also punched a notebook paper edge and distressed it because to me, distressing feels more rugged and masculine. 

I also had a special photo and some MME  "the Spider's Web" papers set aside for quite awhile, so I finally took the opportunity and used the MME layout sketch #26 challenge to help me get this page scrapped.  Here's the layout sketch, again by Anam...

And this is what I did with the sketch...

 Our Wee Punkins

Again, I also used some fabulous Life Stories on here and then a bit of the So Sophie and Lush lines.  I loved the detail of the embroidered lace patterned paper from the Witch's Lace paper and fussy cut some of that design as well as some of the folksie pumpkins from the Pumpkin Patch paper (all from the Spider's Web collection).  All this fussy cutting was perfect for challenge # 12 at the Nook's weekend virtual crop! 

Well, that's all folks, but thanks so much for stopping in... hope you've enjoyed my projects as much as I've enjoyed creating them!

My Scrapbook Nook's A Midsummer Night's Virtual Crop!

Are you looking to get some scrapping in this weekend?  Cuz that's what I'm doing!

And the Nook's virtual online crop, "A Midsummer Night's Crop" is happening right now!

All the Nook designers have been busy putting up some wonderful and creative challenges to help get the creative juices flowing.  Here's the deets...

Drop in this weekend and enjoy some great challenges, straight from the Bard of Stratford on Avon!

The winner will be crowned with roses, lilies, hydrangeas, daisies, pussy willows and all manner of delightful blooms from Petaloo - to the tune of a $100 gift box!

Join us here: http://myscrapbooknook.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?26-Virtual-Crop-This-Weekend!

I feel like I've been scrappin' up a storm all day, but in all actuality, I feel like a storm has come through and caused a path of destruction... seriously my scrap spaces are a sight for sore eyes.  I've been making more messes today then getting anything else done.  I opened a cupboard to get out my stand of embossing powders and in the process knocked over a container of glitter which was partly opened.  ALL. OVER. THE. FLOOR!  Then I went to grab something off the counter and SLAM went the tilt bin of buttons (seperated by colors).  ALL. OVER. THE. FLOOR! Urghh... you get the picture?! Anyway, I've got one page finished so far to show for the day.  I really had hoped to have much more done, but tomorrow is always another day :)

So before I scoot off here to get back to the croppin' here is my page, which I am thrilled to have finished because I've been wanting to do this layout about my gram for awhile now. 

This is for the Challenge #1 which is basically to create a page using the provided sketch and to use photo/s of someone who inspires!   I used lots of My Mind's Eye products here and Core'dinations!  The flower, leaves and flourish are cut using the Cricut Picturesque cart... love that so much!

Thanks for stopping by and if by chance you do venture over to the Nook this weekend, you could even mention that you were cordially invited by ME ... and I could get some extra sweet points!  All you need to do my friends is confirm in the following crop thread that I invited you, and complete and upload at least one challenge for the crop...

http://myscrapbooknook.org/forum/showthread.php?5347-Breathe-life-into-a-stone-bring-a-friend-VC-points-involved 

Hope to see alot of my friends in attendance!  :)  Have a great scrappy weekend!

An August Core Colour Challenge and More!

Are you all ready to play along with another colorful challenge with Core? 

Here is the inspiration piece for this month from Pinterest that Debbie Standard pinned for us from the shepaperie.blogspot.com.

Isn’t it beautiful?

SIX gorgeous colours to play with…..

For the Colour Lover’s Challenge you must use a noticeable amount of Core’dinations Cardstock

on your project. And since we are technique junkies here…we wanna see some technique, too! Sanding…embossing…sky is the limit!

Link your submission to THIS post or post on our Facebook account by August 30th for a chance to win some fabulous Core’dinations Cardstock!!!

And here is what I did with the combination of all these delightful colors...

For my card I used several colors of Core Essentials and some fabulous WhiteWash which I fringe cut for added texture.  The stamps used are from the BasicGrey Marjolaine collection and I also created that super plaid edging with my favorite plaid EK Success border punch! And thank you, Ellen... for letting me use your favorite American Crafts Charcoal Pigment ink-pad for my stamping!  It really is a wonderful gray ink ;)

Next up, Core is also pleased to be partnering with Paper Trunk this month!  This is the first time I had the pleasure of creating with their pretty paper designs, and I must say that they are beautifully textured! 

Core'dinations is so excited to bring you some fun Paper Trunk projects over the next few weeks.

Make sure you head over to their blog today for some awesome inspiration, too!

Keep commenting on both the Core and Paper Trunk blogs and you just may win some cool prizes for yourselves! Just sayin'!  ;)

And here is a card that I made with Paper Trunk patterned paper and alpha stickers and some BasicGrey Core Impressions and Core Essential cardstock...

The chandelier embossing is from a Sissix folder... definitely a cool one to add to the ever growing collection of folders! 

In other goings-on here at home, must say it's been a very productive week since the hubs has been home on vacation!  We decided to stay home and get some projects done around the house so now the garage doors, the porch banisters/railings, the window shutters and both the front and side doors have all been re-painted now.  It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do!  But we still have plenty of rooms to paint inside and I don't even want to think about starting them now, lol!  Think we will wait till the weather cools down a bit.  After two days of sprucing up around the home we took the day and went to one of our favorite local amusement parks, Knoebel's!  We had a beautiful day of bright blue skies and we took my mom along too.  She hadn't been to the park in at least 15 years, so I was glad to see her enjoying the day there as well! Now tomorrow we may escape to Lancaster for the day... the QVC outlet is calling my name, lol!  Have another wonderful weekend, everyone!

Already August!

The months sure are flying by... especially these Summer months!  Can't believe it is already the beginning of August, but I'm not complaining of course because that only means my favorite time and season of the year is almost in sight!  I'm already starting to enjoy the Fall scents in the house... I can't resist, lol.  Over the weekend I was in Wal-Mart and ended up in the candle aisle (no surprise there).  They had a new item from their Better Homes collection, Scented Wax Cubes... their version of the Scentsy warmer bars! I guess they had them in the stores last Christmas season, but I missed them some how, and other Wal-Mart stores have carried them for months now, but it's the first I've seen them here at our closest WM. Let me just say they smell just as great and are much cheaper at $2.00 each! I got the Vanilla Caramel Spice to try and I'm in scent heaven because it makes the house smell just like Cinnabon!  Seriously, I keep getting cravings for sticky buns now :)  Yep, I will be stocking up on these, and they (Wal-Mart) better not go and discontinue these anytime soon like they did when I was in love with buying their wall plug-in scents they used to have that were like the Bath and Body Wall Flowers!

Since it is August now, I thought today I would show some of my past publications that were in the June/July issue of Cricut magazine.

 You know I love my Cricut and I love to share what I do with it... and I also can not say enough about the Cricut magazine!  It is my favorite publication and I can happily relay that I've had and will have some of my work featured in every single issue (regular and special issues) since the magazine has been in publication up to and through the January 2012 issue.  That's very exciting for me! 

Anyway, here's a look at what all I had featured in this particular issue (their final bimonthly, because starting with the August issue they are now MONTHLY)...

My "Lazy Days" card featured the Life is a Beach Cricut cart and the Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection.

This next layout, I used BoBunny papers and cardstock along with a combination of the Don Juan,Stand and Salute and Wild Card cartridges to create the layered title words and stars...

(Don't forget you may click on the images to view them larger!)

And here's a layout where I got creative with embossing the diecuts... aren't those cute crabbies?

The Life is a Beach and From My Kitchen carts were used for this along with Kaiser papers.  The bottom border was created by using the negative cuts of the crab border to mask and mist with Glimmer Mist spray.

I do also have 2 more cards and another 1 page layout that were published in this issue as well, but I have seemed to lost my images on the computer, so I can't share those, but maybe later. 

For now though, I am about to go get busy in the kitchen.  I have been wanting to try to make those super yummy looking cake ball truffles that are all the rage now in the world of sugary confections!  Have you seen them?  If not, this is what I am talkin' about...

And, here's a recipe! They are really dense and truffle-like because you actually fold the frosting into the already baked cake pieces, making it both dense and moist.  You really can use your imagination and do any flavors or combination of flavors you'd like!  I just went and bought some candy melts today and I'm going to first try making some lemon cake truffles with cream cheese frosting, because that's all I have here at home right now.  I'm going to coat them with both white and dark chocolate though.  Ohh, you all... I just can't wait anymore, so I'm off... but I'll be sure to let you all know how they look and taste! :)   Good day everyone!