HMITM #186 - Be a Star

OK... this week at HMITM they have really gone crazy lol. The consulted a calendar of strange "holidays", and compiled this list...

December is Bingo's Birthday Month.

It's also Rising Star Month.

And it's National Tie Month.

The first week of December is Cookie Cutter Week.

December 5 is Bathtub Party Day!

 

And then came up with this challenge:

So...I challenge you to use:

* A bingo card (if you don't have these in your stash, just google "bingo card" under Google Images, and you'll find a gazillion).

* Use something that you can tie--ribbons, twine, raffia, etc.

* Use at least 5 stars.

* Use punches or cutters or a shape templates.

* Use your imagination and whatever product you want to create "bubbles" on your page.

 

Crazy I tell you. 

I was stumped... I had no bingo cards, I don't use stars ever... The other 3 criteria were good though. 

So this is what I came up with: 

The photo here is not bad - the photos in the layout are bad but that's all I had to go with from our Weekend to End Women's Cancer 32 km walk.

Back to the criteria...

• BINGO card - yes. Found a cute Maya Road rub-on set, and used the "Live" card on white cardstock to make it stand out. I really like this set as there are a bunch of little ones - this is the largest (Cuz I'm not so sure I'm into bingo cards)
• Something you can tie - twine, tied around the rectangle photo (I had to tie it... they said you had to be able to so I did lol)
• At least 5 stars - I used a star template I have to draw 5 stars beside each other for the border at the top of the rectangle photo. Then I added foam glittery stars to the middle of three of those stars (so that's 8 stars). Then I put the word "star" in stars for a grand total of 12, 13 if you count the word "star" as a star
• Punches, cutters or shape templates - I used my Creative Memories ovals set to cut the angled photo and its mat
• Bubbles - originally I planned to stamp using bubble wrap, but the wrap I had didn't have a side of exposed bubbles, so that didn't work. So instead I used my dabber and pink and white chalk ink to dot "bubbles" all over the left of the page... it really helped to add the details

Well... I hope you enjoyed... and join in next week for more craziness!!!

  

HMITM #184 - Mix it Up

This week the challenge at HMITM was not as difficult as the two previous (thank goodness!).

So here's the challenge:
- Eight different patterns, none to match the holiday
- The word 'happy'
- Any holiday picture and embellishments. ( Embellishments can match the holiday)

Now from first glance this seems kind of hard. But I don't really use holiday papers that often (even though I own a ton) so I wasn't too worried.

Once I had this done... I had a revelation:

Everyone (yes, even you) should be doing the HMITM challenges every two weeks!

Why?
Because they are the ultimate stash busters! If you're anything like me you have your stash everywhere... ribbons over here, papers over there... and generally you have too much of one theme (for me it's Hawaii) then you could ever use for the album you originally bought it for.

Plus - my scrap bin is positively overflowing! I use scraps all the time, and try to use up every little bit of my papers so my scrap bin has itty bitty bits, big bits, and even 12x12 pages with only a bit out of them. This challenge was the challenge to empty that bin (well... not empty. but I did use 7 patterned papers out of it).

So here's my LO:

I really don't have many holiday photos. I am really good at celebrating holidays, but I never do with a camera in hand. So all I had was a few photos of random holidays, and these that I took of the kittens on Halloween this year.

I really do suggest kittens, puppies or babies if you're not a photographer. Magically you metamorph into this camera wielding crazy intent on catching all the cute and new things they do. (Last night they caught their first mouse.... forgot to hand hubby the camera for that one :( )

How did I do on the criteria?

Happy - yep! Its in the title

Holiday - yep! Halloween pumpkin carving with the kittens

8 patterned papers - check! Seven in the circle border, one for the strip across the bottom, and a re-use of one of the papers to mat a photo (I used a new 12x12 for that one).

I decided that the challenge said nothing about not using traditional holiday colors.

Top down on the circles:

• Rainbow stripe is from some random old 8x8 pack. I have bits of this paper all over my scrapbooks, as it seems it breeds in my scrap bin - I never run out!
• Gren dotty - I think its from the same pack as the stripes.
• Blue circles - DCWV The Glitter Stack (old!) 8x8 stack
• Yellow with dots - my old favourite, Creative Memories school - this was piece of a journalling card I had cut up a while ago
• Green flowered print - also DCWV The Glitter Stack
• Blue flower dots - no idea. Potentially the same pack as the rainbow stripe and the green dots
• White multicolor dots - my cat pack I have (possibly DCWV or Deja Views). The only non-scrap I used

The stripe is another random paper I picked up at some point and am slowly whittling away the scraps.

The tag is from my Cat pack (it's called Cat's Life or something like that).

Most of the buttons were from a 1 lb button bag I got from Michaels, and the two glittery ones are Recollections.

And here are some detail shots:

Journalling

Stitched Circle Border - not sure where I scraplifted this from... but all I did was cut out 7 circles with my Creative Memories cutters and then used one glue dot in the middle to hold them steady, and stitched down the centre with my machine. I then bent up the edges to give it a bit more texture.

Cat Border - I marked my paper at 1 cm intervals and then drew a centre line on my punch (this doesn't have to be accurate, its just for lining up). I then punched with the lines lined up (not forgetting the 0 cm mark on the edge of the page). If anyone is interested, I can post a tutorial. The punch is a $1.50 cheapie from the bins at Michael's. I really love the extra detail this adds... and I did it all with a cheap punch rather than an expensive border punch!

Not sure how I came up with this - it just came to me. Planning on going home and doing something similar with my tiny heart and flower punches too :)

Hope you all enjoy, and as always, please comment and follow my blog!

Thanks

HMITM Challenge #183 - Gifts

UPDATE: Thanks so much to the HMITM team for picking me as the winner this week! Good work to my fellow scrappers who also participated, I think we did a great job at using up our stashes  :)


The challenge over at HMITM this week was fab and fun! You had to include your best/greatest gifts, and also the following list of details:
Frame your page with an edge of background paper, a doodled/stitched border or a frame!
Use at least one stamp/digital brush/rub-on
3 ribbons/strings
6 circles
8 brads or buttons
10 flowers
2 elements that bleed off the page
4 crocheted or felt accents

I really love these challenges because they force you to use a lot of your stash you have lying around!

Originally I had a different plan for this LO, but when I couldn't find the photo I wanted, I looked around... and saw Casper sleeping in with all my scrapbooking stuff - his head on a stack of albums and his body on a pile of markers (crazy cat!)

And I realized, they are really a blessing in my life. They make me so incredibly happy when I come home and they missed me, and I love their little faces and attitudes they are developing. I had to put down my cat of 18 years (I had him since I was 3!) which was a very traumatic experience for me, so I shied away from having a cat. Having these kittens though is perfect. They are so much fun and keep me so happy... I think its true what they say that people with pets live longer... I certainly feel less stressed and happier with them as part of our family :)

So here they are... Casper (the friendly ghost) is the black kitten and Precious is the torti.

So back to the requirements:

Frame your page with an edge of background paper, a doodled/stitched border or a frame! - I doodled using Creative Memories templates for the top and bottom of the page with some pink Studio G glitter glue, and then did the sides free hand to "frame" the page.

Use at least one stamp/digital brush/rub-on - I used the kitten footprint stamp everywhere to add a feeling that they had been there when I made it (Casper was, but he was sleeping). I also stamped originally only on the N of Kitten, and then loved how it looked so went back in and stamped a bunch more times on the letters to make them all look walked on. I love this stamp - its of 4 feet and then has 3 other stamps on the other sides (its a cube stamp) including the little fishbone to the left of the title.
3 ribbons/strings - I used my brand new twine I just received in the mail - one to wrap the photo, one for the bow on the CM journalling card (Cheerful pack), and one to underline the title. I see twine quickly becoming my favourite!
6 circles - I may have cheated here - I am counting the 6 "bling" rhinestones in the frame as my circles.
8 brads or buttons -  There are actually 10 total brads in the LO of 3 different kinds - metallics, rhinestones, and the fabric wrapped one on the large flower.
10 flowers - 10 flowers made of various layers of almost all the paper flowers I have
2 elements that bleed off the page - The little kitten footprint stamp bleeds off the page in a few locations... see below for two examples

 

4 crocheted or felt accents - Four of the flowers have brown felt centres

Overall I loved this challenge and I love this final layout even though its kind of cute and juvenile, I think it fits as the kittens are silly babies!

Thanks for looking!

How Much is too Much challenge #182

The Oct 10 - 23 How Much is Too Much? challenge was to use a list of items on one LO.

• Leaves in some form
• Distressed edges
• Something orange
• 10 jewels, pearls or brads
• 10 ribbons

I was really excited about this challenge because I love ribbon and generally only use a small amount on my layouts. Also, with the requirement for something orange, it fit perfectly into my wedding theme colors, so rather than doing a fall layout as this was intended, I went with a layout for the wedding.

The only thing I was originally stuck on was how to incorporate the leaves. I flipped through all my paper stacks until I got to the DCWV Photo Stack 2. Inside I found this lovely green ivy wall sheet, and decided to use it for my background.

I distressed the edges on the ivy leaf photo stack, and inked those edges plus the base cardstock with Tim Holtz Walnut stain to tone down the color.

My something orange is all over this page - orange ribbons and orange flowers...

I used 10 brads total - two to anchor the photo of me & dad, two on the vertical ribbon, 3 at the end of the arrow and  3 more as the dots on the RHS.

I used 10 ribbons in a variety of places on this LO, including on the top and bottom of the photo in front of the house.

This was another fun one that I found challenging, just because of the requirement for so much stuff. I sat down and planned this layout out first as I would be attending a crop, which is where the difficulty came, however it made me think more about how to use everything strategically. :)