Hello Spring and Skrapn'Chat blog hop

Welcome to SnC's Spring blog hop! You should have arrived here from Heather's blog. If you didn't check out the bottom of this post so that you can participate in the full hop. Our theme is Spring Projects and you can hop through all 7 blogs. Be sure to leave comments for your chance to win goodies along the way. The hop will be live from April 4-6. I will be drawing for a little something from all those that leave a comment. And if you haven't checked out our online community please do so at Skrapnchat.com we'd love to see you around!

It's been a long winter and by that I mean it's been snowing since October and it's now April and the white stuff is still around... Here's what my car looked like the other day, sadly.

I don't know about anyone else in Canada but I am ready for some SPRING!!! So regardless of it still being Winter here. I am happy to welcome you to my blog for the SkrapnChat spring blog hop. Bringing a little spring to the world even if it's only the virtual world.

So it's been a month since I ventured into my scrap space so I was really itching to be creative. Instead of doing a traditional layout though I decided I would do some art journaling. I was inspired by a couple pieces of chipboard I had on my table and knew that I wanted to bust out my gelatos and get messy! What's spring without a little mess- mud on the ground etc.  

I first primed my background with gesso and then began to play with gelatos and my water pen. This is the background. 

Then I used my gelatos to color my chipboard. I scribbled the gelatos right on the chipboard and then blended with my finger. I took a picture of the pre-blended gelato. 

And here is the finished result. The journaling on the page reads I am so ready for you to show up! It's been a long winter and we're ready for some fun and warmth" - April "14 I love how the gelatos turned out on the chipboard they blended so nicely! 

Hope you enjoyed my project and thanks for stopping by. You are now off to April's blog! Here Enjoy! 

Here is the master list of participants just incase you ended up here from somewhere else and want to start at the top!

1. Karen  http://sitscrapandrelax.wordpress.com

2. Emily   http://scrappingsomememories.blogspot.ca/

3. Dana   http://scrappingtherapy.blogspot.ca/

4. Heather   http://www.heatherscraftyheart.blogspot.com/

5. Stacy   http://creatingbeautyfromashes.blogspot.ca/

6. April   http://livewelllaughoftenscrapmuch.blogspot.com/

7. Robyn   http://cozienookhomestead.wordpress.com/

Art Journaling

I have neglected this blog for awhile. I admit grad school, working full-time, and maintaining a blog was not that realistic but since school is done and we hosted that blog hop through SkrapnChat  I've had a renewed interest in paying more attention to posting my projects.

Tonight I spent a bit of time in my scraproom and worked on a page in my art journal. It was a lot of fun. I didn't start with any end in mind other than to have some fun. A song was on my Songsa playlist about the sky so I decided to start with a blue glimmer mist background and build from there.

I pulled out a couple of stencils that I've had for a while and just started making dots in orange paint and then built up with the three blue stars in paint. I then flicked some orange glimmer mist and sprayed some yellow.

Black sharpie around the stars along with gold gelato added a lot of depth to the stars. I finished with black gelato around the edge to frame my page. The arrows are acrylic stamps and the destination is an old (like 6 years old) Heidi Swapp Stamp.

Here's the final product. I am quit happy with how it turned out! Thanks for popping by and have a great day!

BLOG HOP WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Thank you everyone for playing along with SkrapNChat's first ever blog hop! We had a blast and I hope you did too. If you were inspired why not pop by our little piece of heaven on the internet and play along with us on a regular basis. And I'm not talking out of class when I say that we had so much fun that we'll likely be doing this again in the near future!

So now time for the big announcement!

I used a random number generator and the winner of the $10 Michael's gift card is:

ready?




Number 5 wins! Congrats Kelsey!!!!!! Thanks for playing along!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:5
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

SnC Spring 2013 Blog Hop

I've never participated in a blog hop before so this is pretty exciting for me to welcome you to this blog hop!

If you are coming directly to my blog you may want to start at the beginning at Karen's blog. Basically the low down is that some of us gals over at SkrapNChat  decided to host a blog hop. Our theme for the hop is stencils or masks. I cannot wait to see the other lovely creations the other girls are posting on their blogs and was really excited to play with masks/stencils for my post!

I LOVE stencils and have amassed quite the collection over the last couple of years! I usually use my glimmer mists or other inks with them although I would like to try some modeling paste one of these days.

 This was actually a perfect challenge for me as I have had this (see below) sitting on my desk for sometime now just waiting for me to do something crafty with it.

The bird cage image was produced when I used the white paper as a scrap while I was spraying the bird cage resist canvas (from Prima) that ended up on the LO below.

I loved the stencil image that had been left behind on the scrap paper and decided to keep it thinking that I could use it in the future some time. I think we often think that we have to buy fancy tools to create the effect that we want when really a lot of the time our scrapbooking supplies can do double duty as is the case with my misted image. Now I am sure that I could go out and purchase a bird cage stencil or mask but why not use the image that was created by spraying the resist canvas? I mean the image was completely free!

I knew as soon as I had lifted the resist canvas off the paper that I wanted to use the left behind image on a card. It was WAY too cute continue using the paper as a scrap paper and or to let the paper go into recycling. So I did exactly that on Sunday night in prep for this blog hop and the image below is what I ended up making.

As you can see I cut the bird stencil into a rectangle, traced around the white image, backed it on some black polka dot paper and adhered it to my card.

Card details: 
Image: stencil of prima resist canvas sprayed with glimmer mist ink, traced with American Crafts journalling pen, backed on older Costco pack polka dot paper (don't know the brand-sorry!)
Backgound:  I used a cuttlebug geometric rings embossing folder like this one  that I recently picked up at Michaels. I inked the embossed image with baha blue Stampin' Up! ink
Embellishments: The doily is actually from the dollar store. I got 32 of these babies for $1.25. Awesome deal. I misted it with glimmer mist and inked the edges with pebbles cream chalk. The sequins are from a the $1.50 bin as Michaels. The flower is prima. The greeting and rinestone in the flower are both from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for popping by my blog and I hope I inspired you to find shapes around your craft area that you can use to make negative images for your next project!

Now you can head on over to Kelsey's blog here: HERE

PRIZE INFO: 
And for everyone that leaves a comment here I will be drawing for a $10 Michaels gift card. So be sure to leave a comment! The winner will be announced on Friday, April 12th.

Also everyone participating in the blog hop will go into a grande prize draw to be announced on Friday as well.

Double your pleasure....double your fun!

I am still scrapbooking, just not posting here as much anymore but thought I had better get back to this blog a little bit.

Here's my latest LO. I used a challenge on the twisted sketches blog (http://www.twistedsketches.org/2012/05/twisted-sketch-150.html) to inspire me as well as a challenge from Skrapnchat.com (thanks Jess!). I also added in a little twist of my own that I've been wanting to try for some time- using the same picture twice on a LO in two different sizes. I tend to sometimes print a picture in two sizes and then when I'm creating my LO I decide which of the sizes I want to use and which ends up in the recycle bin. This time I used both sizes and I really like the effect that it created.

Why don't you give it a whirl yourself? Thanks for stopping by!

Getting there.....

So I am slowly working towards downsizing some of my stuff as I try to live up to the word simplicity for this year......I am thinking that it may take me several years of living with this word to truly get through everything I have to get through YEESH! I wouldn't call myself a packrat by any stretch of the imagination. I do regularly try to get rid of stuff, but we haven't moved in the last 6 years and that has really thrown off my game.

I used to purge our stuff every time we moved and I really did have it down to a managable bit for awhile. Not so now......I have decided that while I am living with the theme simplicity this year, I am going to think as if we are moving so everytime I see something I am going to ask myself- "do I really need this" I hope this will really help me let go of some of the stuff in the house and take a realistic view and our posessions.

So as I was cleaning out the office today- I still have a long way to go- I came across these business cards.....they are mine from a former position 6 years ago. I have had 3 position changes since then......I don't know why I felt the need to hang onto a whole pile of them. Maybe I thought that I would scrapbook one of them on a LO, but seriously a WHOLE PILE?!?!?!? what are you thinking woman? I really don't know, that's the sad part. So into the garbage all but one of these went. I will add it to a LO I am working on about the job I had back then. :)

So wish me luck as I continue embracing simplicity- this could be a wild year! If I don't burn out from purging exhaustion!- just joking, I hope!

Pacing Myself for the New Year

So I will admit that I indeed failed for the December daily posting. I don't know why it's so hard for me to commit to a blog post a day but I guess at this point in my life, it's not really my thing. I have to be okay with that!

For the new year- wow 2012 already!- I didn't make a new year's resolution. I never keep those things and they always end up weighing me down. I am however adopting another word of the year. This year my word is simplify and this is what I am focusing on this year.

Basically if it crowds my life I am getting rid of it. Now more holding on to baggage and extra's that hold me down. I am also starting into some routines that will help simplify and create an easier life for our household. I am going to undertake 1 achieveable goal each month to align with my word- simplify

So far I am working on a 12 week rotational meal plan complete with shopping lists. So far I have completed 7 weeks of that rotation and will be completing the shopping lists this weekend.

For January I am committing to downsizing my closets. I have worked hard over the last while to send some things to consignment and it paid off $60 in my pocket. I have more that I need to get rid of and am going to work on that. By the end of this month I want to have all my clothes in one closet.....yikes! I admit I have a full closet and then am using 1/2 of another. There are dresses that I'm holding on to that I'll never wear again and odds and ends that need to go. So this is my goal for this month. Should be able to make that happen!

Please stop by and cheer me on throughout the year!