When is a Flower not a Flower?

Posted on September 18, 2012 by daydesigns

Today over at the Practical Scrappers Blog, we are giving you 9 ideas that will answer that question. My answer?

When it’s a BUTTERFLY!

This card is destined for someone I’ve never met in person but who I’ve become online friends with through my ScrapHappy group. (If you are interested in joining Scraphappy just click on the link.) We were challenged by Stacey Julian at Big Picture Classes to send out “Happy Mail” so this is what I am doing. What is Happy Mail, you ask? Real letters and cards that you send for no reason other than that you were thinking of that person and wanted to let them know in a non-electronic way! WAY better than the usual bills and junk mail fliers you find in your mailbox, right?
Anyway, I’m off topic. Here is a quick tutorial showing how I made this butterfly out of my flower punch.

Step One: Stamp this image from Mixed Bunch. I used Midnight Muse ink on Summer Starfruit card stock.

Step Two: Punch it out using the coordinating Blossom Punch.

You are left with a flower that looks like this. Can you see the butterfly hiding inside it?

Step Three: Cut out the butterfly as shown.
Easy right? Now you just need to attach it to your card or layout and embellish as desired.
Thanks for stopping by today. If you haven’t yet seen all the other ideas of what to do with your flower punch, I encourage you to pop over to the Practical Scrappers Blog and check them out.
Here are your links for Stampin’ Up! products used on this card.

Posted in Cards, Practical Scrappers | 1 Comment

LGS Challenge #29 – First Day of Preschool

Posted on September 17, 2012 by daydesigns

Hi everyone and welcome to another sketch challenge reveal for Let’s Get Sketchy! It’s Design Team A’s turn again which means … MY TURN!! 🙂 I hope you have already visited the LGS site and seen all the other  gorgeous layouts but if not, simply click here.

Here is the sketch we are working with this week.

And here’s what I came up with.

Continuing my theme of scrapping things immediately, these photos were taken last Monday on Christine’s first day of preschool. She is our “baby” so this is a pretty big deal for us! As I’m sure you can tell by her grin, it’s a pretty big deal for her too!
Some of you may know that our older two girls attended a Parent Participation Preschool here in Ladner but as it closed down at the end of Paige’s two years there we knew we’d be sending Christine somewhere else. We chose the Community Centre run preschool and so far are really happy. There are about 25 kids enrolled so Christine will have lots of playmates (to terrorize! LOL!) 

Some close ups of the layout – starting with the title cluster. I was originally going to use ‘1st’ instead of the whole word ‘first’ but with the style of lettering I chose it looked like ‘IST’. Gack! When pulling off the letters there was a bit of ‘stickage’ so the heart cluster had to go where it is! Sometimes these little mishaps work in our favour. Instead of using paper to create the circle in the sketch I used a combination of paint and glimmer mist. It was a bit too subtle so I added some doodling around the edges.

I tried to use themes that were “school-ish” hence the alphabet paper choice, the notebook punch border and the apple sticker.

More apples! I found this punch in my basket o’ punches!!
Thanks for coming by today to check out my layout in detail. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section. I also hope you’ll play along this week. You’ve got til Sunday Sept 23rd at 8PM MST to add your link to the challenge post. To be eligible to win the monthly prize (a $20 gift certificate to ScrapTastic Club) you need to complete 2 of the 4 sketch challenges this month. This week is the third challenge for September so it’s not too late! I will be looking for your layouts over at Let’s Get Sketchy!!

Posted in challenges, layout, LC, Let's Get Sketchy | 7 Comments

Playing along with LGS Challenge #28

Posted on September 14, 2012 by daydesigns

I took some time yesterday to play along with this weeks sketch challenge over at Let’s Get Sketchy. As a reminder, here is the sketch for Challenge #28.

And here’s the layout I came up with.

I am attempting to scrap moments shortly after they happen (as well as catch up on older stories) so these pictures were taken on Tuesday of this week. This is Paige showing off her new desk and posing with her new teacher. She is in a split Grade 1/2 class this year which I hope will challenge her just enough!

I really had fun with this sketch and since I’m also entering it into the Seriously Creative September Challenge, I used several textural elements (there’s a close up at the end of this post). There is cork behind the two photos, the clocks are cut out of a canvas piece of patterned 12×12 and the cardboard I found in my stash. It’s probably old packaging material or something. As far as the text print … I kind of forgot that was one of the challenge elements to be honest. But I do have numbers on one of my patterned papers so maybe that can count!! 🙂

I have had these alphas forEVER and they are seriously depleted and lacking in stick now so I made an ‘r’ out of an upside down ‘j’ and an ‘a’ out of a ‘d’. It’s always fun to see what you can make out of what you have!! Oh, and to ensure they stay stuck I used micro glue dots on the back.

Here’s that close up I talked about showing all the different textures. And what do you know! A text print in there after all!! On a recent trip to Michael’s I found piles of cool textures. The sheet of sticky back cork was one as well as the canvas clock prints. Love finding cool products like that!

Last close up for today – just showing more of my fun circles.
Thanks for stopping by! You’ve still got a little bit of time to get in on the fun over at Let’s Get Sketchy! To be entered into the monthly draw you need to complete 2 of the 4 weekly sketches. I’d love to see one of my friends win the prize which is a $20 GC to Scraptastic kit club. Layouts based on this sketch are due by 8PM MST on Sunday the 16th. 
Have a great weekend everyone!! 

Posted in challenges, layout, Let's Get Sketchy, Paige | 3 Comments

Grade One Tradition

Posted on September 13, 2012 by daydesigns

Two years ago when my eldest daughter, Marley,  was about to start Grade One I surprised her with a fun cone of goodies hanging on her door in the morning. I’d heard about the idea from Big Picture Classes Big Idea Festival (actually a combination of two different ideas) and ran with it. I almost forgot to do one for Paige this year but managed to squeak out this little beauty after she’d gone to bed. Sorry about the quality of the pictures but it was pretty late!!

The two ideas I combined were 1) to make a paper cone and fill it with summer goodies and 2) in Germany it is tradition to give a gift to your child on the first day of Grade One. Marley actually reminded me several times to do this for Paige!
Paige got to pick the paper but had no idea what it was for. She chose a paper from Floral District and I picked out some coordinating papers to make the butterflies. I made them using my Beautiful Butterflies Die for the Big Shot. Here’s a close up so you can see the layers and the added rhinestones.

I kept the wings popped up by using Snail adhesive in the centre of the butterfly and Stampin’ Dimensionals under the wings.

This butterfly was found at Michaels – it’s a little clip. So ridiculously delicate (it broke pretty much immediately!) but so beautiful too!

I filled the cone with school-ish related supplies – a Hello Kitty mini white board, a journal with some matching pencils and another smaller journal with attached pen. All things I knew Paige would love to have and use. She is my little artist and as such is always looking for paper to draw and write on!

Another view looking deep into the cone.
Thanks for stopping by. It’s been a crazy week and a half since school started. I am WAY behind in my crafting, my blogging and just about everything! Hopefully this is the first post of many as I catch up. 
Have a wonderful rest of your day!! See you soon.

Posted in Paige | 1 Comment

Practical Scrappers Feature on Grandparents

Posted on September 3, 2012 by daydesigns

WARNING: THIS POST MAY CAUSE YOU TO NEED A TISSUE!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!! 🙂
This is also my second post today – for my Let’s Get Sketchy post please scroll down.
Okay, now that the business part of this post is out of the way, let’s get on to the fun part. Today on Practical Scrappers we are featuring layouts and cards about Grandparents. My children are very fortunate to have 2 sets of loving, available and invested grandparents – Grandma and Grandpa Day (babysit when we need them, run “Granny Camp” for a week in the summer, shower gifts for no reason other than the fact that they can) and Ammee and Poppa (a.k.a. Grandma and Grandpa Graham – babysitting providers, scooter fixers, chaos instigators {there are 14 grandkids on that side} and all around fun people to be around). I could have done any number of layouts celebrating my kids relationship with either set of these wonderful people. But I chose to talk about the Grandparents that left us before they were born. Grandma and Grandpa Campbell. MY parents. 
I am using this Sketch Inspiration sketch (#335).
Clearly I deviated a bit!! 🙂 I mostly used the sketch to place my background papers and then to help me know where to place my other items, but the number and orientation etc is different. But hey, that’s what a sketch is for, right? Give you a general starting place for you to make your own!
Let’s talk details now.

I’ve titled it “The Ones You’ll Never Know”. The large black letters started off as plain wood veneer but I felt I needed something dark up there so I sprayed them with my Warm Calico Mister Huey. The little hearts I’ve scattered around the layout were also from this pack of letters and I coloured them Mister Huey’s also.

I created a pocket to hold my journalling and the order of service from their funeral. On top of the pocket I attached a couple of old passport photos I found in a box of papers I have (I hope to create albums for my brother and myself … one day …) The date is the date the photos were taken and I woke up this morning thinking it was confusing and maybe people would think that was the day they died so I have added the words “passport photos taken” above the date sticker on my layout. 

Here are the items in the pocket. The journalling reads (get your tissues ready!):
“Grandma and Grandpa Campbell … or Mum and Dad as I knew them. These are the grandparents my 3 beautiful, loving, fun, wonderful daughters will never know. They’ll never know how Mum used to huck caramels at Campbell’s Quiz winners. They’ll never know that Dad used to fall asleep in the oddest places – like the bus home from work or the church pew (bent over his bible so people thought he was reading scripture!) They’ll never hear my Dad read Arabian Nights or wait forever for him to get the “perfect picture”. They’ll never get to taste my Mum’s cooking. So much lost. So much to tell them!”

The large picture is from their wedding and – before you freak out – is NOT an original. I took the original and scanned it before printing off the copy I used here.

Tucked down at the bottom and barely visible (on purpose) is this little tag. 
Well, there you have it. This was truly a labour of love for me. The journalling is probably the most personal journalling I’ve ever written for a layout and I freely admit to shedding a few tears. Mum and Dad went to be with Our Lord on April 27th 1988 and not a day has gone by since then that I haven’t missed them. My Graham parents are SO wonderful and I love them deeply but boy do I wish these two were still around! I know my Dad would LOVE the fact that Marley stays up way past her bedtime reading and can finish books like Alice in Wonderland in 2 days!! She’s 8 by the way!! I know my Mum would have some deep wisdom about Paige and calm my heart about her future. And I know the two of them would love to laugh at Christine’s antics – probably all the while telling me she is a chip off the old block and I was just as ‘troublesome’ when I was her age. One day I’m sure we’ll get to do all that but for now I can only tell my girls as much as I remember in an attempt to keep them from being forgotten.
Thanks for coming on this journey with me today. Please be sure to check out all the other beautiful projects on the Practical Scrappers blog – no tissues required!
Posted in layout, ME (Alison), Practical Scrappers | 1 Comment

What a Difference 10 Years Makes

Posted on September 3, 2012 by daydesigns

Happy Monday morning everyone! If you’re in Canada (like me) you are likely enjoying the last day of summer holidays before the kids go back to school. It’s Labour Day today and I for one am going to a bar-be-que later! How about you? Any special plans?

Today I’ve got something extra special to share with you. This is my first layout as a new Design Team Member on the Let’s Get Sketchy Design Team! If you are coming here from the LGS site then welcome! I love to hear your feedback so please feel free to leave me a comment. If you are a regular visitor then I do encourage you to pop over to the LGS blog to see all the other beautiful layouts my fellow Design Team Members have submitted. They are truly a talented bunch and I am honoured to be included!!

Here is the sketch for Week 1 in September:
And here is what I came up with.
Greg and I recently celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary and I had a layout like this in mind so when I saw the sketch it all came together pretty quickly. The hardest part was finding a picture of us from our wedding! I ended up taking a picture of this photograph from our wedding album – turned out great! Will definitely remember that trick for future!
I flipped the picture orientation around from the sketch but the rest of it is pretty well as Laurie laid it out.

I debated adding any journalling at all because I find that using a longer title can sometimes explain a lot of what is going on in the pictures. But in the end I found there was more I wanted to say so I added a little Elle’s Studio tag behind the main block. It’s sort of hidden because while the sentiments are addressed to my husband, they are not completely private. Plus I liked the way the circular journalling spot echoed the other circular piece (a doily image cut out of a piece of the new My Minds Eye – The Sweetest Thing line).
Here’s a closer look at the tag.
See, not too private!

I liked the horizontal elements on Laurie’s sketch and thought a strip of washi tape would work perfectly here. When I looked in my stash I found this ‘WITH LOVE’ one in an appropriately complimentary colour. Don’t you just love it when that happens?  

A quick word on these flowers. There were originally bright yellow and a pale pink. Really! Neither colour worked but I liked the shapes so I used my Mister Huey mists to change them. I used Heirloom Blue and Plum Thumb (and also splattered some Plum Thumb on other areas of my layout). Now they work perfectly!!

Another look at the flowers.
Thanks for stopping by today. I’d love to see what you do with the week’s sketch. There are 4 sketches a month at Let’s Get Sketchy plus weekly favs and a monthly prize (please go here to read all the details about how to enter) so I hope you’ll join us.
Have a great week!

Posted in challenges, layout, Let's Get Sketchy | 6 Comments

Patio Party Birthday Card

Posted on September 2, 2012 by daydesigns

Patio Party DSP is fast becoming my favourite set to use to make birthday cards. My daughters were recently invited to the 5th Birthday Party for my upline Sandra‘s daughter so I got out the Patio Party and got busy.

My middle daughter, Paige, got to give input into the design as she is closest in age to Sandra’s daughter. She wanted the bunting pattern paper, a stamped cupcake and the butterfly. She even picked out the Pool Party card stock base. I think she may have a future in this business!!
They had a great time at the birthday party although the Birthday Girl was definitely more interested in the presents than the cards! C’est la vie!! 
Thanks for stopping by today. Here are the links for products used on this card:

Posted in Cards | 1 Comment