iCraft Blog Challenge: The Elements: The Wind

I've started a challenge over on iCraft's blog.  We are making something that represents the Wind.  It can be flying things or stormy things or sky colours, etc. - however you want to represent air and the wind.  Here's a sneak peak of what I made:

But you're going to have to go to my post on iCraft to see the full submission!

- Scrapninny

Give a Poem a Home - Baby Shower

My sister was due in June, but her second son, Callum, came earlier than anticipated.  A week earlier than the baby shower, which is the same thing that happened with her first son!  I'm traditionally very busy at work in April and this year was no exception.  Since the shower was going to be small, I volunteered to do the planning.  Lucky for me, other family members volunteered to help too!

I did make all of the invitations though.  I learned how to make this onsie card from a tutorial by Lauren Meader.  I first made the green ones, with scalloped trim.  My sister said the scalloped trim would make people think she was having a girl when, at the time, we didn't know what gender the baby would be.  Her mother-in-law said the green wasn't very baby-ish.  So, I made the second half of them yellow with green trim.  (I like the green one better.  It was green for boy and frill for girl, so a little of both in my mind.)

(It's very hard to see in the picture, but I did put a score line underneath the dew drops which represent snaps.)


The shower was great.  I made 27 invitations and about 15 people came.  My sister-in-law made the cakes from scratch with the help of her mother.  They were thoughtful enough to make one for the baby and one for his big brother.

I was very pleased to see that my workshop girls in attendance all gave handmade cards.  They were excited about them too.  Here's the picture of them.

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From left to right: B is for Baby - Norma's card for the mommy; Baby Mobile - Claire's card; Baby Bears - Norma's card made for her daughter to give with her gift; Duck family - My Card; C is for Callum - Norma's card for Callum.

My card is the ducky card.  It is my very first use of a digital stamp!  The image was the "Spring Things" freebie from Pollycraft.  I coloured it with Copic Markers.  I did have some trouble with the printer ink bleeding, even though I held it over the toaster first to try and seal the ink.  (I dont have a heat gun.)  Still, it turned out okay.  I printed it on Bazzill Cardstock, but next time I print a batch, I might try cardstock meant for stamping as it will be more absorbent.

(click picture for bigger view)

On the inside, I wrote a poem that I will share with you.  Mine opened with "Conner and Callum" which are my sister's two sons' names, but for general use, we'll start it with "Two little ducklings" instead.  Here goes:

Two little ducklings follow their mom,
Because mothers are wise, loving and strong.
Mothers are comforting.  Mothers are true.
Wishing a happy new motherhood to you!

-Scrapninny

Father's Day 2010 - Sketch Challenge

My new favourite challenge finder site is this one: The Daily Dare.  It's a challenge cataloguer that links to all sites with card or scrapbook challenges.  I created a sketch challenge once (you can see it here) and it magically found its way to this site's list for that day!  I love it!

So, I happened upon Sketch Girl Annie's blog.  I really like how her sketches are coloured.  Sometimes, when it's black and white, I have trouble separating the layers of the sketch into separate pieces.  Sketch #18 is the one I've answered today.  Here is her sketch:

 
First of all, straight and clean is right up my alley.  This card is so geometric, though, that it spoke to me as a "masculine" card.  So, I made a father's day card with it: one for my father and one for my father-in-law.

While it is hard to see in the photo, the tie is made black of ribbon.  Boy, they were hard to make, I tell you.  Those teeny knots gave me so much trouble!  I think I made five ties to get two survivors!  Once again, I should have inked the edges of the shirt, but I didn't.  I was afraid it would make it look like a soiled shirt, so I forwent the inking.  However, it's hard to make out the collar with out it.  Oh well, I still like it!  I debated using the faux stitching on the blocks (because it was A LOT of piercing) but I do really love the patchwork look.  So, I decided to do it.

I added the sentiment flags to the sketch for my card and handwrote the message (totally love the Sharpie pens!).  I forget where I learned the trick to get the notch on the sentiment strips, but it's a good one.  Write your message on a rectangular strip and then use one corner of a square punch to cut the notch in it!  Easy!

Hope you like my card.  Now I just have to find some nice wording for the insides.  I think this is the earliest I've been ready for ANY card giving event!  Woo hoo!

-Scrapninny

A New Soul in His Flock

Whew - I finished another custom order with little time to spare!  This one was a most pleasant surprise!  A co-worker of my husband, Sheena, recently had her first baby boy.  She is planning a Baptism party.  She said she went to the big box stores for some invitations but nothing really spoke to her and her husband.  So, they started looking online but the shipping lead time just wasn't working for them.

Then, she thought of me.  My goodness, I could not be more flattered!!  My husband is the talker in the family and, as much as he pokes fun at my craft, he does talk me up at work.  So, credit is due to him.  Sheena remembered him telling her about my very first custom order, which was a Christening party down under in Australia (also for a boy.  Am I a baby boy magnet?  I now have 3 nephews and no nieces, so I guess I've developed some expertise in the baby boy market?  lol)  Before the baby, Shena had also been to a few of my workshops at home, so she is familiar with my work and my style.

Sheena was more than reasonable, not expecting something ultra elaborate in a short period of time (and being patient enough to wait until tax season was over).  She asked for simple.  Yes!  That's my style!  But, I wanted to add a little twist... just a wee one.

So, I plunked myself down at my computer and designed a pocket tag that is the size of a standard A2 invitation.  It's a tag from the front, but has a small pocket in the back to hold your event details.  (I was so pleased with it, I tweaked the dimensions to make a little one to hold gift cards too!)

Sheena and her husband liked it.  Sheena told me that her son, Ethan has a little lamb toy of hers that he loves.  So, the lamb die cut (by Quickutz) is perfect for this event.  It has meaning for Ethan and a religious meaning (you know, the whole "the Lord is my shepherd" thing).

I got to meet baby Ethan too, and boy he is darling!  It's no wonder - Sheena is a beautiful lady who has a complexion that just makes a room fill bigger, fresher, and brighter.  Baby Ethan has her stunning eyes.  Lucky boy!  My husband is jealous that I got to meet him.  In the several trips to work with Ethan, he has never been in the office at the right time to meet him .  She brings him right to our house and he's at Rona with his dad to fetch things for the garden and completely misses his chance again!

Win one for me!

-Scrapninny.

Paws for Thought - Papertwirlies Challenge

I've been a very busy body in life for the last 5 weeks straight.  So, this Papertwirlies Team challenge entry was built in bits and pieces.  The challenge is "Nature's Beauty" - Take your inspiration from nature - directly or indirectly through colours, patterns, etc.


I have been lamenting over the difficulties of doing anything dog shaped.  There are SO many breeds and SO many shapes and sizes, I have been paralyzed with options!  My first attempt at dog quilling has been floppy-eared doggies on this fire hydrant tag and this puppy ACEO.

So, it was time to try again.  Long before I got my Boss Kut Gazelle and tried my hand at die cut dogs, I had hand drawn a sketch that I wanted to use as a guide.  I never did use it as a drawing guide, but I decided to use it as a quilling guide.  This quilled dog is the result!

This dog adorns a fridge magnet that holds sticky notes and a pen!  It's my Papertwirlies Nature's Beauty Challenge Entry because, well, dogs are part of the animal kingdom, which is all natural!  Plus, I put it on a very dark brown java bean colour of cardstock which are earthy colours.  To me, the browns in this project make it very ubran chic and more to the masculine side.

Some of the proceeds from the sale of this notepad holder will go to SOAR: Southern Ontario Animal Rescue.  That's why I titled it "Paws for Thought".  It has a surface meaning but also a deeper meaning.

I'm finally 100% satisfied with a quilled dog design of my own.  I hope you like it too!

-Scrapninny.

Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies of the world!  It's a very special Mother's Day for my sister.  Her second child, Callum, was born yesterday afternoon!  Now she has two wonderful little boys to celebrate Mother's Day with.

En route to my father's 60th birthday party (being held two hours from home), my sister felt like she was going in to labour (early, AGAIN!).  So, they turned the car around and headed for the hospital.  We left for the party with big brother, Connor, in tow around 2 pm and Callum was born just after 4pm!  Good thing they did turn the car around!

Callum was 5 lb. 11 ounces.

He has such dark hair, just like his big brother, Connor, did when he was born, almost 6 years ago.

The family is doing well.  The baby shower is planned for next weekend.  When Connor was born (early), he came one week before the shower too.  If my sister is having a third child, she's on her own for the shower!!

I also made a Mother's Day card today for my Mother in law, who is the only Mother I got left!  I quickly mirrored it for my sister as I whisked off to the hospital to see the new additon.

This card features my latest butterfly designed for cutting out on my Boss Kut Gazelle electronic die cutter.  I like how its fat wings allow me to bend and curl it a little bit.  It's hard to see, but the strip behind the sentiment is actually white glitter.  Maybe I should have bordered it with glitter colours to make it stand out more.  Oh well, live and learn!  The sentiment was written with my Gazelle and then cut out in the square I made by welding brackets together.  SO handy that I can swap out the blade for any pen I want!

Here's a thing about mothers that came to me in an email long ago.  It hits the nail on the head!

The Images of Mother:
4 years of age -- My Mommy can do anything!
8 years of age -- My Mom knows a lot!  A whole lot!
12 years of age -- My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 years of age -- Naturally, Mother doesn't know that either.
16 years of age -- Mother?  She's hopelessly out of date!
18 years of age -- That old woman?  She's way out of date!
25 years of age -- Well, she might know a little bit about it.
35 years of age -- Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 years of age -- Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 years of age -- Wish I could talk it over with Mom.
--- Author, Unknown

- Scrapninny

Mojo Monday 137

I promised I would post my dad's 60th birthday card before I gave it away.  Here it is!  I used Mojo Monday's Sketch 137 for this design.

What I liked most about this sketch was that the strip on the side reminded me of a paint chip.  Having stared at a whole bunch recently for weeks deciding what colours to paint our main floor, visions of hardware stores immediately came to mind - and that's typically mannish!  So I thought this sketch would be great for my dad's card.

Here's my take on the sketch:

I am so in love with this teal patterned paper by Chatterbox.  I bought a handful of sheets and then went back to grab another handful.  Teal is an in colour right now and it's right up my alley.  I have always loved blues - espcially the open sea kinds of blue.  So there, dad, there's a little piece of me in your card too!  (Well... that and the cake die cut was digitally drawn by me and cut out with my digital cutter.)

Hope it will be a hit!
-Scrapninny

Double Challenge: Paper Play and Pile it On!

Well, I just haven't been blogging like I meant to.  Tax time was busy for me - not so much for processing taxes, but I somewhow always find myself busy in the tax season.  December corporate year ends just sneak up on me that way!

So, I really needed a way to get my mojo back.  I decided to practice what I preach!  I always tell people who are in a slump to try a sketch challenge or some other challenge.  So... here is mine!  I participated in a double challenge!  Pile it On's challenge #17 is to use boyish colours.  To qualify for Pile it On challenges, one must combine it with at least one other current challenge.  So, I paired it with PaperPlay's 2010 Week 17 challenge to use pastel colours.  (Two 17's - it's like these challenges were MADE for each other!)

Woohoo!  Not only did I complete TWO challenges, I was inspired to actually CREATE!  So, I drew a new dragonfly die cut.  I just love his little antennae!  (I'm surprised they actually cut out well too.)

I actually spent all of Sunday just crafting.  It was long overdue!  I have a butterfly buddy to go with this dragonfly, but it bothered me to have designed one and not the other.  So voila - a skinny buddy for my plump butterflies!  I didn't have a pastel blue, but the dragonfly's body is pastel green and the scalloped oval is pastel purple - just doesn't look it in my photo.  (Sucks to take photos after dark!)  The dew drops are a new go-to embellishment for me, and these are a pastel green.

 Overall, I'm very pleased for the kick-in-the-pants challenges I needed.  I have another design in mind for this little fluttering fellow.  But first - I need to make a birthday card for my dad - he's turning 60 this week!  I'll try to remember to post it before I give it away!

Cheers,
-Scrapninny