Merry Christmas to my Parent-In-Laws

It's been a while since I've last posted but I've been spending that time debating on what and how to make my Christmas present for my new in-laws.  I know that family is VERY important to them.  Therefore, I created a 'family' page for them and framed it in a 12x12 display box.  The photo I selected was our 'first' family photo taken during my wedding in Hawaii, which included my two parent-in-laws, my two sibling-in-laws, B and I, and of course, my own parents.  There were quite a lot of problems creating this layout.  Firstly, I was stressing out how to make this VERY nice since it's my first present for my new 'parents'.  Secondly, I screwed up a few times - making the flowers too poofy for the display case.  I almost had to redo the whole layout.  Good thing I found another 'flatter' flower.  I shouldn't have stressed out too much since at the end of the day, it was done and mailed.  I overheard the phone call between B and 'mamee' and they loved it.  Although I gave B some credit on the present (I had him write the Christmas card), they could tell I made the present.  Haha.

Paper: Can't remember!
Techniques/Tools: Cricut Pagoda, Paper Lace, Ribbons & Rosettes, Gypsy, Cuttlebug
Embellishments: Jolee's Boutique

Ireland Scrapbook ... done

The title of this post says it all, it is finally done. Well, of course, I could think of a few other photos I can put into it but why?  Maybe when I have time.  Now, moving on, the England portion of this Europe 2010 trip.  Hopefully it won't take long since I only stayed in England for a few days.  But since I have full time work, and I just signed up for a 14 week course, I don't see it being done for another year.  Sigh.  

The final pages:

Paper: DCWV, Me and My Big Ideas, scraps

Techniques/Tools: Cricut Blackletter

Embellishments: Pendents

Paper: Pink Paislee, scraps

Techniques/Tools: Cricut Paper Pups

Embellishments: Thickers, chipboard stickers

Paper: BoBunny, My Mind's Eye, scraps

Techniques/Tools: Cricut Car Decals, Gypsy Wanderings, distressing

Embellishments: fabric flower

Paper: s.e.i., Bazzill, scraps

Techniques/Tools: Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up, Walk in the Garden, Cuttlebug

A Month of Scrapping

Unbelievably, a month has passed since I last posted.  However, I've still been scrapping hard; so hard that I am stuck in a rut - scrapper's block.  This time round: all Ireland pages.  Is the end near?  Maybe.

2nd Warrior Pose
After the cliffs, we decided to have some fun.  We did some yoga poses for fun, and Joni just captured it just right.  What a fun picture for a fun layout.

Paper: BoBunny, Echo Park, Bazzill

Techniques/Tools: Cricut Wildcard 2

Embellishments: Rub on

Cobh

Cobh was a cute port town.  It was also the last port call before the Titanic set sail for North America, but unfortunately sank in the middle of the Atlantic.  We were here for a quick evening for photo opportunities and some exploring.

Paper: Tinkering Ink, DCWV, gcd

Techniques/Tools: Life is a Beach

Embellishments: stickers, clear skittles

Kissing The Blarney Stone
The goal of climbing the Blarney Castle is to kiss the stone.  Kissing the stone will endow the kisser the gift of eloquence. SWAK!!!

Paper: Core'dination, scraps

Techniques/Tools: distressing

Embellishments: stickers, fabric flower, punch out, Thickers

Fetch

Roshi learned how to play fetch when he was only eight weeks old.  Then for some odd reason at around five to six months, he had absolutely no interest in it.  After he got neutered, he started playing fetch again, and loved it ever since.  He would just pick up either his ball or rope, and dumps it at my feet and gives you this look that demands "THROW IT".  If you ignore him, he will just pick it up and throw it at your feet again.  Silly dog.  This picture took me quite a few tries to get the right shot.  It was definitely worth it.  It came out so well!

Paper: Bazzill, Echo Park,

Embellishments: Stickers, Thickers

Cliffs of Moher

One of the highlights in Ireland was the Cliffs of Moher.  They were absolutely stunning.  Seeing these cliffs gave me the same tingly feeling whenever I see the Rocky Mountains.  When seeing something like this, how can one say there is no God?

It's been a few weeks since I made this page, and I didn't write out what I used!!!  Oh well, I'll leave them out for this layout.  

Road Trip

My work at Sintra Engineering involved inspecting damaged buildings.  Most of them were local, but there would be a few occasional ones that were out in the middle of nowhere in Alberta.  Some were an hour away, and some were four hours away.  I had some fun days on the highway.  To keep myself entertained on some long road trips, I would take a photo of the 'Welcome' signs at the town's border.  Oh, the fun.  This was a very fun page to make.  I haven't put that many photos onto one layout for a very long time.

Paper: DCWV

Embellishments: Thickers, stickers

More Layouts from the Crop

The crop was a total of 18 hours.  I got quite a bit done, including two of my Ireland layouts.  It's great!  I really need to go to more of these crops to get things done!  Just a few more pages to go, and I think the Ireland Scrapbook will be done!  Yesssss!

Pi (Poulnabrone Dolman):

Paper: TPC Studio, Echo Park, DCWV, Bazzill, Cosmo Cricket

Techniques/Tools: Cricut Indie Art, Memento ink pad

Embellishments: Thickers, stickers, brad 

What Do You See in the Clouds:

Paper: Chatterbox, Cordination, Bazzill, scraps
Techniques/Tools: Circle cutter, stamps,
Embellishments: Vellum (title), rub on

Master Roshi

One of the layouts I got to do at my crop was Roshi's introduction to my general scrapbook.  Boy, does this layout look cute.  I've been collecting dog papers for a while now and finally got to use them.  This page was tons of fun to make, since I've been eager to make it for so long, but just didn't have the time to do so.  I think Roshi's pretty proud of me too.

Paper: Cosmo Cricket, We R Memory Keepers, Echo Park, DCWV
Techniques/Tools: Distress Ink pad, Cricut Don Juan
Embellishments: stickers

Crop!!!

I went to my second crop this weekend (my first one was a few years ago, and that one made me feel weird being among married women bragging about their kids all night, and so I never went to another one again).  The crop was held at a scrapbooking store, Creative Scrapbooks.  I heard about this crop through the email newsletter and as well, an advertisement in the store.  My coworker, C, also told me she was going.  I thought why not give it another try, since I'm so behind in my scrapbooking anyways.

The crop was $65 (not including anything you want to buy from the store, so it was more like $65+) for Friday night and all of Saturday.  Usually, I'm quite against crops because I can scrapbook at home for free.  However, now with a dog, the moment I sit down, he will decide that his bladder will need to be released.  I also need to cook and do other stuff, and with all these interruptions, I could not accomplish anything (I think having kids will be worse).  This crop helped, and it was great.  Besides being talented paper crafters, the ladies of the store were also master chefs.  They cooked us awesome tasting meals, and I even got some of the recipes.  There were games and contests.  One of the draws was 'mystery bag'.  We were given six (garbage) items, and we had to use all six of the items in a project in order to enter a draw.  The objects were:

1. rubber elastic band
2. swirly clip
3. paper tag
4. black hair pin
5. plastic pick (of some sort)
6. feather

At first, I was like wtf am I going to make with all this crap?!  However, on my drive home on Friday night it dawned on me and ta da... my project:

I like it very much.  All the projects were displayed later and I have to say I like mine the most, not like there weren't other nice ones.  However, mine, of course, was the most colourful, brightest, and cutest (kiddish) looking.  Seriously.  The other nice ones looked really 'adult' like.  All distressed, vintage, and had a more mature stamped image. How can a gnome not outshine those?!  Too bad it wasn't a judging contest (probably didn't want to hurt anyone's egos), and I didn't win the draw.  

Can you see all the objects used?

Paper: Scraps

Techniques/Tools: rubber stamp, Prismacolor pencil crayons, Memento ink pad, flock

Embellishments: paper flower, wood flower (gift from the crop), 

Others: mystery bag items 

Goodbye Gifts for the Ladies

I recently resigned from my current job.  I worked in a relatively small office, and so, everyone knows everyone.  Even though I didn't work with everyone, I still talked to them either before the weekly staff meetings, lunch gatherings, or office activities. There were only eight ladies (excluding me) in the office, and so I made each of them a rose with a personalized tag.  This was not part of the plan, but Michael's had a Cricut cartridge sale, and so I bought the new Giant Flowers cartridge.  These roses turned out AMAZING.  They took a lot of work, a lot of glue, and a lot of paper.  However, seeing how happy the ladies were when receiving their rose was well worth it!

Paper: Recollections

Technique/Tools: Cricut Giant Flowers, Memento ink pads, spray mists

Others: Green flower tape, wire, wood floral stems, Christian Dior Forever and Ever perfume

The Cliff at Dun Aengus

It's been two weeks since I posted my last creation.  I could have gotten it done sooner, but I was a little stuck on paper selection (either I didn't know what to choose from my paper collection, or I didn't have the one among my collection, sigh), and the proper colours I want on my page.  Decisions decisions.  At the end, the time spent was well worth it.  I love it.  Everything about it is different than what I usually do: the vintage paper design (that I newly bought at Winners!), the feminine look that does not match the photo theme, handwritten calligraphy, and pencil colour blending.  It all turned out well!

Paper: My Mind's Eye, Coredination, paper lace

Techniques/Tools: Handwriting/calligraphy, Prismacolor color pencils and blender

Embellishments: Paper flowers, stickers

Kinsale

Yes, another Ireland page done.  I really like this page.  It's everything I like - simple, clean, and colourful.  Although I had a pagemap for it, but it took a while to figure out the colours and shapes I wanted to go with it.  At the end, it all worked out.  LOVE it!

Paper: Echo Park Paper, Basic Grey, Coredination, cardstock, scraps

Techinques/Tools: Cricut American Alphabet, clear stamps

Hear No, See No, Speak No ...

It's been a while since I last crafted. Rephrase, crafted for fun. I did do some crafting for my wedding (of course, else it won't be my wedding). So now all that is over, time to start scrapping again. I have TONS to scrap, but I will finish my Ireland scrapbook first! So here's my page, turned out quite well! Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle, Coredination, DCWV Techniques/Tools Cricut Opposites Attract, Martha Stewart punch

Busy Busy

Wow, it's been more than two months since I last posted! However, I haven't been slacking, but rather the opposite. Besides wedding planning and Christmas, I got quite a bit done with my Ireland scrapbook. So much done, I don't remember much of the specs of my pages. So for these pages, no specs! Whatever!