Top 9 of '09

Well I am getting on the bandwagon here with some others who are posting their top 9 layouts of 2009.  This wsa such a hard decision, and goign through my stuff, I noticed how much my style has changed over the year.  I think it might have to do with the fact that I have a new little subject to scrap about!  :)

I would love to hear which of these LO's are your favorite, so please let me know!  Thanks for looking!

Natural Beauty

Ten

Sweaters from Grandma

First Fall

Enjoy the Journey

Winter Warmies

Mother

Sweet Dreams of Baby

You're the Coolest!

A HUGE scrapping resoultion...help me...

My word for the year is RENEW. I am making a huge resolution when it comes to scrapping this year, which focuses on this word. This is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and has encouraged me to explore the same type of approach with other things in my life as well. My scrapbooking stash is getting so big that I hardly know what I have anymore! As for my scrapping and crafting goes, I have decided that I will not make any purchases of any new scrapping products or crafts products for the entire year of 2010, with the exception of items that are consumables such as glue, other adhesives, pens that run out, and possibly an album or two to store LO's in.

My main source of new products will be entirely from Design Team compensations, or from prizes won online, if I am so lucky. This is an extremly difficult task, although I am really looking forward to the challenge. I intend to really explore the items I have and find new and creative uses for them and to revive some of these older products and make then new again. This means no new papers, no new tools like punches, no new stamps, no scrapbook kit clubs, etc., etc. (*NOTE: I am getting the Jan. kit for Cocoa Daisy b/c they need 30 days notice of cancellation, so my last kit with them will be Jan.) As with any mission, you need to have a plan of action, and this is how I am going to accomplish this task:



1) Every month I will create a scrapbook kit for myself using the items that I have on hand. The kit will include at least 8 patterned papers, 4 cardstock, two alphas, ribbon, and an assortment of other embellishments. I will post a photo of this kit at the beginning of each month on my blog, and I vow to create at least 3 products (LO's, cards, alterted items) with my kit. Any leftover items of my kit will be put back into "circulation" with the rest of my stuff.


2) I will try to use my scraps as much as possible and explore creative uses for scraps both online and through experimentation. I will post these ideas and creations on my blog.


3) I will clean my scraproom at least once a week, including vacuuming.


4) Once a month I will purge a few items and put them into a box. At the end of the year I will donate the entire box of items to a school or someplace else that would use them.


5) I will repurpose things from around the house and turn them into great crafty products ( frames, boxes, etc.).


6) I will have a "sit-down" with my cricut once a month to create embelishments and other items to use on LO's and cards. I also resolve to cut additional items specific for a LO or card at least once a month. (I can use Challenge Masters and other bug blogs to help me!)


7) I will put $50 a month away in a special account. If I complete my task as planned, then at the end of the year I will have $600 saved. I will then use this to buy whatever I want in 2011! :)


8) I will try to avoid scrapping sites or threads on forums that deal with "amazing sales" or "great deals" on scrapping products and instead focus my time on searching for inspiring blogs and other sites.


9) I will update my progress on my blog at a minimum of once every two weeks and discuss my obstacles and my accomplishments.




So this is going to be a very interesting year. I am going to need all the support and encouragement I can get!! But I am looking forward to this challenge and to RENEWING my supplies. I would love to hear any more suggetions and tips if you have them!

There is more to come about my word RENEW for 2010...

Ch{all}enge Masters sketch

Well it is FINALLY the third Sunday of the month which means the sketch is up for Ch{all}enge Masters! 
All creations are due by Dec. 31 in the gallery.

Here is the sketch:

and here is my example!  I made this using products from the Cocoa Daisy Dec. kit and Urban Anthology Nov. Kit.

Good News!

WOW!  I am so excited to announce that I will be joining Scrapbook Kit Club as part of their Design Team!!!

I have been doing a lot of LO's this week and working on finishing up some Christmas Presents.  I got this AWESOME kit from Urban Anthology from winning the Got Talent contest and these are the LO's I have made with it so far:

I still have a LOT left to work with.  I think I will have to make a few cards with this, too.

I am using some stuff from the Cocoa Daisy kit and also trying to do some LO's for Ch{all}enge Masters challenges for Dec, too.

Blog Hop RAK Winner

Thank you everyone for visitng my blog and leaving such nice comments!  The blog hop was so much fun!  Without further ado, the winner of a set of labels from me is Sally Cranney!!!
Sally, please pm me your addy through the Ch{all}enge Masters site!

Ch{all}enge Masters Jingle Bell Hop!

Hello and Welcome to the Ch{all}enge Masters Jingle Bell Blog Hop! My name is Audrey and I am the Sketch Designs Team Leader at CM. I am happy to tell you that you have reached the LAST BLOG for the blog hop! This is blog #22 in the list, and you probably just came from Pat's site. If you just happened here by chance, you can start the blog hop HERE at the Ch{all}enge Masters Blog.

How to do the Blog Hop:

1. Start at the Ch{all}enge Masters blog and visit all 22 Design Team members blogs. Leave a comment on EACH blog.

2. After you have visited all the blogs and left some love, return to the Ch{all}enge Masters blog and post a comment that you have finished. One random winner will get a $25 gift certificate to the online store of their choice.

3. To win the RAK for my blog, you have to read to the end of my post!

The Ch{all}enge Masters community offers TONS of challenges every month in every category you can think of. At the end of the month, a random draw of all entries determines the winner of the monthly prize. Check out the Ch{all}enge Masters community HERE.

For my project today, I am sharing some of the pages from my December Daily album and some cards that I recently made.

I was super excited (see previous post!) because my album was on the top ten list at 2 Peas! Click HERE to see the link.

First I want to thank all the people who inspired this album. Of course, Ali Edwards and all of her wonderful work and ideas. From her blog, I was also inspired by Amanda to do some masking for the cover, and Shabby Chic crafts for the date labels. The fabric pages were inspired by Kim Watson at Cocoa Daisy and her fabric album project at the Fall Crop in November.

I titled my album “The Season” because for me, it was more than just Dec. 1-25. I started on Thanksgiving Day and will go to New Years eve, which means there are 36 pages in my album!

For the cover, I used a tree die cut piece of paper from Deja Views as a mask and sprayed it with green glimmer mist and added rhinestones and stickles for the star. The title was printed on a transparency and glued to the cover. For the spine I used some old MM foam stamps.

I used an 8 x 10 gift box for the covers. I opened all the flaps and added some chipboard to reinforce the spine. I covered the outside with batting and cut some muslin for the covers. I sewed the muslin like a book cover and just slid the album inside. I then punched holes for the rings in the spine. I loved the look of grommets for the spine, but it was too thick to set them, so on the outside I just used some photo turns to make it look like grommets.

The inside pages are a mix of different media. There are cardboard pages, transparencies, patterned paper, envelopes, file folders, chipboard pieces, and fabric pages. On the fabric pages, I cut out some 4x6 photo pages from one of those $1 albums and sewed them to the fabric. They flip open so you can put a photo on each page.

The labels I made using SCAL. I just used different fonts for the numbers and surrounded them with the bracket and circles. I had to cut out three layers for each label.

Here are some Christmas cards that I have made so far this year, too. Last year, DH got me the “Joys of the Season” cartridge, and since it was after Christmas, I didn’t use it much. I wanted to make sure he felt like it was worth getting for me, so I have been using it a lot this year for cards. Here are just a few of the ones I have made.

NOW for the RAK from me! If you would like a set of the custom labels that I made in the photo above, please say so in your comment!!! Of those of you that are interested, I will pick one random winner. You do NOT have to become a follower of my blog, unless you want to (I would love to have followers). But it is not a requirement for my RAK.

Well I hope you have enjoyed the Ch{all}enge Masters Jingle Bell Hop. This should be your last stop! Now all you have to do is go back to the Ch{all}enge Masters blog and leave a post that you have finished. Thanks for stopping by!

Awesome Blog giveaway:

Checkout All Scrapbook Steals for an AWESOME blog giveaway:

2 Peas TOP TEN!

Holy cow!!!  My December Daily Album is in the top ten at Two Peas today!!!!!  WHOOO HOO!  I am going to post pics of it here later, for the blog hop this weekend!  But here is the cover and the labels that I made.

My other awesome news is that I did a sample card for the December Page Maps Card sketches!!  Here is my card based on Becky's sketch:

Cocoa Daisy Crop and some Ch{all}enge Masters challenges...

Well a few weekends ago I participated in the Cocoa Daisy crop which ran from Fri. til Sun.  I did a LOT of projects and was so inspired by all the wonderful creations of all the ladies there.  I won TWO RAKS on Friday night, and I won one of the challenge prizes, too! 

Here are the LO's that I did:

This was based on an ad for Hugo Boss cologne.

This was based an the album cover of NKOTB!

This was also based on an ad that had a tree on it made out of words and text:

This one we had to be inspired by the Twilight books covers.

We had to find something in our house that inspired us, so I choose a window in my bathroom and my bathroom is also a deep purple.

And this one was based on a sketch by Anna!

Plus I also did a few of the projects:

There was an AWSOME class on a fabric mini album, which I can't believe that I got done so quickly.

And this simple, pretty photo wallet, which was such a cute project:

I have also been busy working on some challenges for Ch{all}enge Masters, too!

The scraplift:

The Sketch

And more to come, soon!