Happy New Year's Eve - Crop Style!

If you are staying in for New Year's Eve and feel like scrapping, there is a mini-crop going on over at Life Preservers Club.  Check it out!

I decided to celebrate a little early and play along with the Life Preserver's Blog Card Sketch Contest.  Here is my entry for the LPS Blog Card Sketch Contest.  I used the Cricut Wild Cart Cartridge for the shape.

This card was created using the December Featured Kit.  Non kit items used were:  distress inks, thread, rub-on sentiment from October Afternoon, 2 Doodlebug sugar brads and 1 flocked brad.  Some diamond stickles on the pointsettia leaves.  Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy New Year!

Happy Final Moments of December to You!!

Greetings, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the holiday season.  It has been so exciting to watch the boys enjoy Christmas.  To see their wonder and the splendor of lights on the tree and the sheer excitement of Santa Claus!  This was the most memorable Christmas of my life, ever.

Part of my Christmas giving this year involved a little home made gift for my Mom.  I altered a picture frame for her and she loved it!  This is created using the December featured kit from Life Preservers Club. 

I used some Basic Grey and Fancy Pants papers, a Cosmo Cricket naked chipboard star, some Tim Holtz keyholes, key, swivel bracket and distress inks and crackle paint.

I really wanted to scrap the baby's first Christmas.

The papers in this kit are truly beautiful!  They are extremely versatile, not necessarily Christmas.  I find that for me they have a true timeless feel.

A Very Merry Christmas!

Wishing you the Merriest Christmas as we celebrate our saviour's birth today!

It is really snowing hard here in Minnesota, more than 12 inches so far!  We are so excited to see our friends and family today.  If you are traveling, please journey safely and be well. 

Peace, joy and God's blessings to you all!

~Rhonda

Prayers for Norah

One of my Life Preserver's sisters, Andrea has a very sick little baby girl in ICU today.  I'm asking if you read this to please pray for Norah and her family.

Peace and Blessings to you!
~Rhonda

MME Blog Challenge #6: Paper Flowers

Here is my interpretation of the sketch using Life Stories and my favorite wedding photo:

*Note, This layout was selected for publication in the January 24 issue of Scrapbook News and Review. 

1.  Created using cricut, cut out 3 variated sized, inked and rolled.  The brad is a metal brad that I hand covered with the matching paper.

2.  Created using cricut, cut out 3 variated sizes, inked and rolled.

3.  This is the rose taught by Tim Holtz for his 12th tag of Christmas this year. Learn How!

4.  Created using cricut, cut out 5 variated sizes, inked and rolled. 

5.  Lollipop flowers scrunched and misted.  Cut 4 circles, 3", 2.5", 2", 1".  Spritz with water, then glimmer spray.  While wet, scrunch and fold together.  Use heat gun to set this in place.  Looks like leather flowers when done! 

6.  Heart Rose technique.  Heart Rose Tutorial!  (Warning - these are HUGE!)

7.  Vintage Brad Flower.  This is quick and easy.  You just need a large brad.  I made mine using a 1/2" brad and a 4x4" square piece of paper.  I tied mine using string versus a rubber band.  I saw this on another site and thought it was a cute idea. I placed a part of the Prima bling in the center for fun. Learn How!

Non-MME Items:

- Prima Say it in Crystals

- Thickers

- Brads

- Inks & Shimmer Mist

- Thread

- Sentiment Rub-On

- Kaiser Pearls on Butterflies

Thanks for stopping by!

Cuttlebug Challenge Winner!

Obviously I have been distracted lately!  I had a few minutes to check up on some of my blogs that I follow.  This evening I discovered that I am a winner of the November 12 Cuttlebug Challenge for my "Give Thanks" layout!  The prize is a Teresa Collins kit. 

Have I mentioned how much I loved Teresa's projects at ScrapFest09?!  They were amazing and I hit that booth every single day.  It's all their fault that I had to get a zutter bind-it-all.   I'm so completely excited!!  What an unexpected surprise!  WOW!

Thank you Cuttlebug Challenge and Teresa Collins! 

Twelve Tags of Christmas Finale - Tag #12

I can not believe that it is over!  As you know, I have been following Tim Holtz on his blog and his 12 tags of Christmas. It started out as an idea that maybe I should do this, I have tons of Tim's stuff and am a self professed addict.  There are no 12 step programs for that, other than the 12 Tag series!

A very special thank you to Tim (and Mario!) for hosting this special event complete with blog giveaways for his 3rd year running.  It was amazing to learn all kinds of new techniques and expand my creative brain.  That's what crafting is all about isn't it? 

Tag twelve...

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #11

As you know, I have been following Tim Holtz on his blog and his 12 tags of Christmas. We are almost to the finale~ which I can not believe!   I've had to slow down a bit since I had a sick child who needed me.

This afternoon, his sweet Daddy gave me a break so I could complete this one.

Tag eleven...

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #9 and Tag#10

As you know I am following Tim Holtz on his blog as we go through the 12 tags of Christmas.  We are almost to the end which is so hard to believe! 

I must admit that I had a slight inspiration speed bump in between, but I did recover.  Without further delay here they are!

Tag ten...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Tag Nine...

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

Prima Mania!

Guess who has a fabulous new array of gorgeous embellishments out?  If you guess Prima, you would be correct!  Check out this super selection of deliciousness:

Some of my favorites are the butterflies and the sprays!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #8

As we follow Tim Holtz on the journey through his 12 tags of Christmas, today brings us to tag eight.  His tag used a gorgeous lamp post and a key complete with some beautiful vintage style music.  Just stunning!

Tim's technique for the curled music on this tag is truly one of my favorite things to date.  I improvised and made the tag my own by using a songbird instead of a lamp post (since I don't have the lamp post stamp).

Here is my take on tag eight...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As always, thanks for taking a moment to stop on by!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #7

On the 7th day of Christmas Tim Holtz designed a nostalgic Santa tag for me...

Well, ok I know it wasn’t just for me, but anyone who knows me or my work, understands my adoration for all things vintage! It’s just so warm and comfortable don’t you think?

Tim's technique for this tag was some masking and using snowcap acrylic paint as a relief medium. I had that paint and have been happy to use it several times for my tags. What fun! 

Here is my take on tag seven...

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #6

Today brings us to Day 7 of the 12 days of Christmas tag series that Tim Holtz is doing on his blog. I'm a day behind but definitely wanted to share with you my tag #6!   What a completely fun idea to do a tag for bringing home the tree!

I wasn't sure when I saw this one, exactly what I was going to do.  Right now my motto is "use your stash, save your cash!".  Then I suddenly recalled some vintage stickers that I had gotten at a crop rummage sale and went digging for them.  Voila~!  Vintage vehicle problem solved!  I used my stampin up tree stamp, some flocking and several types of stickles on that tree.  What a fun tag!

Here is my take on tag six...

As always, thanks so much for stopping over!

So many exciting things going on!

I'm so excited I had to make another post!  Several very exciting things have been happening...

• October Afternoon's blog - I'm a winner and they are sending me a scrappy prize!  Woo Hoo!
• Bo Bunny called out my sketch challenge entry, and my fellow Life Preserver girl Andrea!  Scroll to the bottom of the post.  Yea!!
• ScrapFit's gift package arrived at my house and that kit is gorgeous!  Please check out their blog hop if you have a moment. 
• Want a little more fun?  There is also yet another chance for a prize over on Lydia's Blog!

No, I didn't win the lottery or anything, but right now I'm in my happy place, and that is mighty cool!  I'm still pondering my tag idea for today's tag 6 in case you are wondering. 

Happy Sunday!!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #5

Today brings us to Day 5 of the 12 days of Christmas tag series that Tim Holtz is doing on his blog.  I was excited to see this tag because I have these fragments and already had an idea in mind the moment I saw his inspirational tag! 

Here is my take on the series for tag five...

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #4

Warning...  Tim Holtz and his amazing 12 tags of Christmas are very addicting! 

I have to admit that for me, tag four was by far my biggest challenge.  I could not find the photo corners anywhere in the Twin Cities metro area or outlying shops.  I found one and only one shop, We're Stampin Mad!, that had the memory glass, capsules and frames.  A special thank you to Scrapbooks Too for the referral!

At any rate, I will use the jewelry that I created on another tag or project as the scale of it did not work for this one.  I promised that I would post each of the tags that I made, good - bad or far worse!

Here is tag four...

Thanks for stopping on over!  Have a super scrappity Saturday!!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #3

As you know, I'm following along with Tim Holtz and his Twelve Tags of Christmas blog event.  I'm trying to keep the momentum going!  I think it would be fun to follow and actually complete all twelve tags. 

I would like to say a special thank you to Sharon who is also a design team member with me at Life Preservers.  She is also playing along in creating them.  Stop on over to check out Sharon's Blog to see her gorgeous interpretations!  We are having a lot of fun learning new techniques.  Are you game to try?  I will warn you now, they are addicting. 

As you know, I don't always have every single item on hand, such as glossy white cardstock.  Today, I was looking around my studio and found some Prima Say it in Crystal's packaging.  It is finished with a gloss and a good solution for what I was missing!  That is used for the Santa tag.  The Tree tag was done using a glittery white finish cardstock.   

Here are my versions of the Day #3 tags, yes, a pair!...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As always, a big scrappity thank you for stopping by!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #2

I was so inspired by Tim Holtz's first tag in his Twelve Tags of Christmas series, that I just had to see what he had up his sleeve for tag #2!  Check it out - I just love how the colors blend together on his tag.  Those foam blending pads and the tool are the total bomb!

I improvised with what I had on hand in my supplies to create this, using Tim's fabulous tag for inspiration. One thing that I can not wait to try out is making the amazing metal rose he shows in his tutorial! 

Here it is...

Thanks for stopping by and have a super scrappity day!

Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #1

Tim Holtz creates a tag each day for Christmas and I thought I may try to follow along.  We will see if I am successful or not!  Here is the first tag.

This was fun, yet challenging as I do not have every item that he used to create his.  That being said, the inspiration was fantastic and did kickstart my creativity which is always a huge bonus!

Here it is...

Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!