SNR Spotlight Scrapper

Just a toot that I am featured as the Reader Spotlight Scrapper for the month of April in the on-line magazine Scrapbook News and Review. I submitted a layout for the call "scrapping your heritage without photos." SNR notified me that they liked the layout and wanted to feature me as as the spotlight scrapper. To stay with the heritage theme, I submitted my altered art sign "Babcia" that depicted my grandma the seamstress and my Irish layout "Lucky Sister". So the three layouts are under my name in the spotlight section. There are two staffers and two readers showcased this month. The work featured in the SNR on-line magazine is incredible. I am humbled and honored to be included.

Our Family Tree

This is my "Spring is in the Air" sketch challenge entry for the Birthday Bash on the Creative Scrappers site. I once saw in a magazine a layout called "Our Family Tree" which really was about a tree, not genealogy. We have two such trees in our backyard. Meg claims the pink dogwood. Andy claims the white dogwood. We have lots of photos of them in or near those trees. This challenge was a great way to start documenting how both the trees and the kids have changed over the years. This family picture was taken some time ago, as you can tell by our stylish outfits. However the challenge was to use birds or butterflies to denote spring is in the air. So I distressed some Maya Road birds with Ranger crackle paint and used a great two-sided patterned paper that came in my BINGO prize from Coordinates Collections.

Name Tag

Our Prairie Stampers Club met Monday night. Some of us are newer members and don't know everyone by name yet. So we made name tags. The two women who signed up to teach the evening's craft brought cardboard outlines of birds, wings and crowns. It was up to each of us to create our own special name tag. I glued on the paper I brought and, after looking over the stash, chose to use some feathers, a button eye, wire feet, and a branch. I had to finish mine at home as I never bring the right stuff to the meetings. I decided that for sure it needed some distress ink that was back on my craft table. So I spent tonight adding a pearl necklace, some gold leaves for more feathers, bling on the crown, green leaves on the branch, and most importantly--- I did my first alcohol ink object-altering my bamboo bead and then stamping "the Queen" on it. There's a long story there which I plan to have done for a layout by tomorrow night. But the short version is that my dad's family has a nobility title. Let's just say that for now I'm using the title for "the Queen of scrapping".

Happy SIxtieth Mom

What a milestone birthday! I've had a great week (or should I say "month"?) celebrating. This is the best gift ever--a scrapbook page given to me by my three twenty-something children. Aren't they talented??? The three of them went to the scrapbook store together, bought the supplies, and created the page before my hubby and I arrived to celebrate my birthday at a restaurant. I was totally surprised. This is such a special gift because they took the time to make something for me, using the art medium I have come to love as my very special hobby. This page is proudly posted on the easel on the kitchen counter. I have a short counter top to the left of the refrigerator. It's supposed to be my baking center, but I hardly ever bake because I spend all my time scrapping. So I use it for a seasonal display area that includes an easel with my latest scrap page. The easel is supposed to hold my cookbook, open to a recipe page. But there again, that hardly ever happens. I'm still in shock. It's all I can think about. It was worth turning sixty in order to have my kids make me feel so special.

How GREAT is This???

Yesterday I became a GREAT auntie for the 12th time. Will it really be "cheaper by the dozen" when we get them all together? Congrats to the parents and "big sister" and (most importantly to me) our next door neighbor sister-in-law who is the proud grandma.

HAPPY EARTH DAY APRIL 22

Things are finally green and blooming around here. Hubby's busy working in the garden. Here's a layout showing what's growing in our yard. I created this for a Coordinates Collections challenge. And I got it done in time to show it off for Earth Day.

FIRST IN A SERIES

I love that both my hubby and I come from large families. However, this also means that I have a plethora of photographs of all of these relatives. When I started scrapping two years ago, one of my priorities was to get all of these photos into a meaningful album for my children. Two years later, the photos are still in piles, drawers, and boxes. Last month my last surviving aunt passed away. I asked for this portrait because it has a special meaning for me. It had hung in her living room in a grouping of her favorite portraits. Whenever I visited her, I always complimented her, telling her she looked like a movie star in this photo. The flower embellie in the top right corner even holds her hatpin. So kids, this one's getting tucked away in the family album as the first in a series. But you get to see it here as proof I've started the huge job of documenting the family tree. Supply notes: Papers: Black Bazzill card stock; Colormates Deep Berry Red, Little Yellow Bicycle Red Herringbone. Die Cuts With A View "La Creme" collection: flocked paper, chipboard stickers and epoxy alphas. Hero Arts cream Art Flowers. My two kit clubs, Coordinated Collections and A Kiss on the Chic, provided the black buttons and red roses.

Recently I entered a card swap on the Coordinated Collections site. Five of us signed up for birthday cards and 6 of us signed up for general cards. So I made and mailed off 5 of the same birthday cards and 6 identical general cards. Today I got a fat envelope in the mail containing one of each of the other cards from the folks in the swap. Here are the cards. In each photo, the card I made is in the upper left corner. This was my first ever card swap. I'm glad I didn't sign up to make more than what I committed to as I had some family emergencies come up. I love what everyone made so I'd be happy to sign up for another swap. I'm not a card maker so I'm usually scrambling to make a card for whatever (fill-in-the-blank) occasion. I finally have some cards in my stash for when I need one.

LAUGH OUT LOUD

My sister-in-law checked out my blog and sent me this email. It made me laugh out loud so I thought I'd share it.
Great site. Great job. What a fun hobby. If I did it, mine would look like this.

Vicki

BLOG CANDY

I'm a big follower of blog candy. You never know when you will win something in a random draw! Here's one I just found that you may want to hurry and sign up for. It's on the Phoenix Crafts blog site. You'll find the link to the right under Blog Candy. I may add a few more this weekend so check back. Somebody's gotta be the winner! So let's share the joy. And it's a great way to see who else is blogging in the craft world.

BINGO!!!

Just look at all of this yummy two-sided cardstock that is my prize for winning the March Bingo game on the Coordinates Collection site. I LOVE BINGO. Always did. I recently discovered that several scrapping websites play the game, "calling" products and craft vocab. I have to choose 40 of the 100 words listed and send them in. Then each day 3 or 4 words are called on the site. It's fun checking in each day. I was the first to type "BINGO" into cyberspace last month. I would play the game just for fun and bragging rights, but it sure was nice to get such a wonderful surprise in the mail today!

NAME THAT KIT

On the Coordinates Collection website, members can submit names for the monthly kits. I submitted the names "Puddles" and "Petals" for the two April kits. The Pink Paislee "spirited" patterned paper (the paper in the middle with the circles) reminded me of molecules --perhaps in a raindrop --hence the name "Puddles". The other kit had a lot of glittery flower paper in it so I chose "Petals". I thought the two names had some marketing value--catchy, easy to distinguish, and short for the computerized on-line store. Much to my surprise my submission was chosen!!! I feel like a marketing /advertising executive!! I ordered the Puddles kit. It arrived in the mail today. Here's what's in the Puddles kit that I named:

I really like the Prima clear stamp for the month of April since this is my birthday month!

I got some product for naming the kits.
Here's what I bought in the C.C. store:

My Heritage

I just finished this layout as my attempt to Heritage Scrapbook WITHOUT Photos. It is my interpretation of many Polish items that I've grown up with. A Polish folk art form of paper cutting (I think about this every time I'm using my little Cutter Bee scissors to cut out butterflies or flowers.)is called Wycinanki (vee-chee-non-ke). If you look it up on the internet, you will find many beautiful examples of these intricate paper cutouts. I have several that have been handed down in my family. I also have multiple sets of these Polish dancers which are simple versions of paper cutouts. (not made by me--creators unknown) Each region in Poland has its own costumes. The dancers in this layout are depicting costumes from Krakow. I recently found this Polish blessing framed by my aunt. It actually was a "Thoughts Worth Recycling" greeting card that she received from a friend on one of her birthdays. I bought BasicGrey Pattern Paper from the Boxer collection: bowling shoes, vintage tee, and slim fit as well as Anna Griffin Inc. (AG1353) patterned paper to fit the folk art motif of my layout. I also have acquired from elderly aunts quite a collection of beautifully carved Polish wooden plates and boxes inlaid with copper as well as a couple pieces of copper jewelry. So I used some copper German scrap to trim the roof of my Polish house. Peacock feathers also are very important in Polish culture. My Unikat Polish pottery features designs inspired by the eye of the peacock feather. So I had to add a couple of feathers to my layout.

USING LAYOUT LEFTOVERS FOR CARDS

This is the card I made from the monthly sketch for April at Coordinates Collections (CC). (See the link on the bar to the right under My Favorite Kit Clubs.) When I saw the butterflies on the sketch, I immediately thought of my scraps of Kimberly Poloson flocked paper from the CC Spinsters add -on kit that I used for
an earlier layout. I also used brown and grey cardstock. I cut out the butterflies from the patterned paper. I added some Scattered Straw Distress Stickles to the Tim Holtz plain gray grungeboard alphas that spell "HOPE". A little Making Memories trim, a Kaiser Scrapbook rubon completed the card. I curled the wings so they'd be 3-D. With the left-overs, I made this "junior" card with a quote I stamped at my retreat. I punched 3 tiny flowers and curled them as well as the butterfly wings for some more 3-D effect.