Halloween 2012

For my birthday every year, I treat myself to a day off from work (my day job).

It's a "Me Day!"

This year it was extra special because I treated myself not only to a day off from work but a complete guilt-free day in my craft room. Well, at least until 5pm when I had to pick-up my son from daycare. 

My focus for the day was to create a 2 page layout of my son's first Halloween using this kit that I purchased at Scrap en Masse.

The kit is perfect. It has pictures of little monsters, it has colours that go well with his Halloween costume and it has a very boy feel to it, but if you think about it, what Halloween paper doesn't?

I really stepped out of my comfort zone on this one. I enjoy creating subtle layouts. Whereas this one is very busy. There is a lot of things going on within these pages.

To protect the privacy of my family and friends - all identities in the photos will be blurred. 

I realized two things while scrapping these memories. You use a lot more supplies in scrapbook pages than you do in cards (see the list of supplies below) and each item that you add to the page needs a little extra TLC to make them stand on their own. A picture is just a picture until you frame it; a piece of paper is just a piece of paper until you stamp it, distress it, pop it up; a die cut is just a die cut until you ink it, or draw in some details. Without the extra attention to each element, the paper, embellishments and photos just seem to melt together into one big layout puddle.

The fence started out as plain yellow cardstock suitably shaped using the Sizzix Fence Die. When I placed it on the background paper, the fence disappeared, swallowed up by all those monsters. I stamped the fence with Magenta - Crackle Background and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink. Still it was missing something. The stamping helped but the fence was being swept away by the loudness of the background paper. I inked/distressed the left side of each piece of wood with the same Vintage Photo ink and that appeared to do the trick.

Other elements that were getting lost were the sign and my son's picture. The picture was a simple solution. I gave it a much bigger black mat. For the sign, I chose to outline the iron hanger with a silver pen and distressed the sign with Tim Holtz Forest Moss ink.

To protect the privacy of my family and friends - all identities in the photos will be blurred.

I am definitely going to take a different approach on my next scrapbook layout, giving each element a little extra attention. 

I am presenting this layout in PJ Challenge "Our very first motivator" on June 30th. Their September motivator is to use new techniques in our projects. I can't wait to push my comfort level again.

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions"

                             - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Supplies from my inventory:

• Tim Holtz distress inks
• Dusty Concord
• Vintage Photo
• Rusty Hinge
• Forest Moss
• Scotch Advance tape glider
• Cricut Expression
• Cricut Cartridge - Paper Doll Dress Up - Costume-s
• Scrap pieces of cardstock
• Tombow glue
• Fiskars paper trimmer
• Recollections - spiced market cardstock
• Sizzix Die - fence
• Magenta rubber stamp
• Copic B91
• Tim Holtz - Hanging Sign die
• Creative Memories
• fine tip marker
• precious elements pen
• Glossy Accent
• Zapdots
• ContainYa Crafts - Scrap'n Easel

Purchased:

• The scrapbook kit

Happy Father's Day

My dad has always taken interest in our activities and all events of our lives. He is the only male in a family of 4 (although he now has 2 grandsons and a granddaughter). He had no choice but to take interest in some of the more girly aspects of our lives, one of them being crafts.

A while back my dad gave me a piece of birch bark and said that it was a nice piece with some nice usable areas. He had collected the bark on one of their nature walks and thought I might be able to use it somehow in one of my cards.

When someone contributes to my love for crafts, I try to use their present, be it a stamp, paper supplies, even a piece of nature, in a gift I can give back to them.

I knew I wanted to use the bark in my dad’s father’s day card. It took a while to come up with a masculine idea that would display the precious piece of nature. I love the slight irony of stamping an image of a tree on a piece of a tree.

 

 

 

 

Heather’s Stamping Haven and a camping weekend at Murphy’s Point was a huge help towards the production of this card. I spoke to; whom I can only assume was Heather – what a helpful, knowledgeable woman who has tried many products and techniques including stamping on birch bark.

I told her what I was looking to do, what my vision was and she suggested the best products to use and the best methods to apply to increase my rate of success.

Heather brought my attention to the beautiful Cling Tree Poem stamp. My first intentions were to heat emboss the image but she recommended because of the details in the words that I simply stamp the image using StazOn, an ink that is suitable for all sorts of surfaces including a possible nonporous bark.

Her concern, and mine, was that she had never stamped on the back side of the birch bark and I did not have enough bark to do a test run. That’s where the camping weekend comes in. At Murphy’s Point, we were surrounded by fallen birch trees. Some bark samples made their way home with me, along with a few tiny black ants (I think I am going to stay away from including nature in my projects. I do not need little critters crawling around my craft table).  

I am glad for the bark samples. It took a couple of tries to get the right amount of applied stamping pressure. I stamped the image onto the piece of bark and stamped the same image onto the white paper, each seperately. The two images were taped together aligning the images like you would with wallpaper.

I am pleased with this card. I think my dad will be happy with what I have done with his gift.

Happy Father’s Day to my dad and to all you fathers!!

From my inventory:

• Fiskar paper trimmer
• Tim Holtz scissors
• Creative Memories paper trimmer
• We R Memory Keepers - Urban Window Collection
• Recollection - Green Faux Canvas
• Tombow glue
• Various cardstock
• Birch bark
• Kool Tak - 2 sided tape

Purchased:

• Stampendous - Cling Tree Poem stamp
• StazOn - jet black ink