monday's mentions 31 october 2011

Both Sarah and Cherubs are favourites at Sketchy Thursdays from last week's challenge.  Always love the work those two ladies produce!!!!

Has your work been mentioned or featured anywhere recently??? Let us know in the comments below - or, let me know at anne.pennington@xplornet.com anytime you want to share your news!!

fave fridays 28 oct 11 ...

Well, I joined Stumbled Upon at the suggestion of my daughter and guess what they suggested I  might be interested in this morning??? Check out Leigh Ann's tutorial on hand stitching here!!! Very informative and inspiring!! Think I'll check out their suggestions more often!!

Of course, joining a website like Stumble Upon has it's own risks - some websites might record a lot of information about the websites you follow.  Always read the terms and privacy policies of any area you visit on the website before joining!!

november's guest design team member

Anne

My name is Anne and I am French. I live in a small rural village in the UK with my two children and my husband Andrew. I run my own company, teaching French to young children and adults.

I come from a very crafty family, starting with a grandmother who knitted and crocheted anything she could, including fruit bowls !!.  My mum used to knit and sew most of my clothes and I have lots of embarrassing pictures to prove it! She then tried her hands at framing and quilting and she is very good at it too. My sister started knitting at a very young age and designed a whole new wardrobe for my dolls and teddies. She has since become an expert quilter and a fantastic artist.

And then, there was me !! I have, unfortunately, not inherited any sewing or knitting skills, but I have always enjoyed making cards and just messing around with crafty things. I only came across scrapbooking , a year and a bit ago, after meeting the lovely Lisa (http://scrappyfairies.blogspot.com/ ) at swimming. She and I just started chatting one day instead of watching the progress of our darling cherubs! (As you do !! ). She was the first person who showed me a mini book and pictures of some lay outs she had done. I can honestly say I had never seen any pieces of art as beautiful and meaningful as these.  Lisa has since then become a good friend and remains my inspiration and role model.

I would like to describe my style as clean and simple but in reality I am a very messy scrapper and my style often reflects my personality! I love to scrap moments in time more than big events and I hope that future generations will look at my work and understand where they come from. I love pretty papers and ribbons, anything girly and lacy. I love working with masking tapes and stickers but I struggle using mists and paints.

 Anne's blog can be found at hobby d'un jour!!

monday's mentions 24 october 2011 ...

Anne was a fave at Sketchy Thursdays this week!!

Lee made it to the 4th round of Practical Scrappers' card making challenge!  Please go and vote for her to make it to the finals!!!


Sarah Groen was a winner for Bird is the Word's Share challenge!!!

technique twenty-second - October 2011

I have added some instructions and with photos here to a cute little spinner album I made and taught a class with a while ago using double sided paper from Basic Gray.  Basically I told my students to look for natural embellishments that may be in their paper before they committed and cut the paper for use as background in their pages of the spinner album.  Some papers had some nice scallopped borders that students could cut out, some had beautiful flowers or other natural lines that could be used in borders. You will find suggestions I gave them for cutting their papers and some photos of the finished album here, as well I provide some photos of the finished album below. The whole album was made with less than 10 double-sided pages and some ribbon, flowers, a few tags, inks, embossing powder, and buttons. The pdf instructions I have attached to the post on my personal blog show some of the natural embellishments I cut from the papers.  As well, the next pages I included in the .pdf show some of the completed pages of the spinner album.

If you can get away with a beautiful economical project using paper wisely to make embellishments - why not do so????

fave fridays 21 oct 11 ...

I've been having fun on the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine blog - I was published in their current issue (Fall 2011)! A lot of the ladies from the magazine were at Scrapfest this past weekend - I spent a wonderful weekend in Oshawa Ontario Canada with girlfriends at the event.  I even took a class with Becky Fleck there!!!

Where have you found inspiration on the web this week????

monday's mentions ... 17 october 11

Lee Schertzing made it to round 3 at Practical Scrappers' card making challenge.  Please click on the link to vote for her card every day this week!!!!

Also Donna O'Leary was a winner over at Scrapbookers Anonymous for their tag challenge!!!

Congratulations ladies!!! 

15th sketch 15 october 2011

Wow - already time for another sketch challenge!  We are playing for the 25 dollar gift certificate from the scrapping bug for October's challenges.  Here is our sketch:

For this game we challenge you to feature yourself in costume, or a costume that you have made or inspired, incorporate the colour purple somewhere in the layout, place a surprise somewhere in the layout .  If you do not celebrate Hallowe’en where you are - scrap about dress-up – either for a formal affair, or for play!! Now - you are welcome to play along and post your layout even if you are stumped on any of these requirements - we encourage you to play along regardless!! We don't penalize - we like everyone to have some fun and play along in the spirit if they are able to!

Beverley Cunningham 

Sarah Groen

Mia Montalvan-Castrillo

Donna O'Leary

Sandi Taloumis

Karen Wray

and me :)

 

Just link your layout to Mr. Linky below!!!

fave fridays 14 october 2011 ...

I'd like to share a link to a fun and informative Canadian magazine that is offered online - Scrapbooks and Cards Today.  The hard copy magazines are available at Canadian scrapbook stores free of charge - usually the stores will offer them with purchases of $25 or more until supplies run out.  They also published each issue digitally on the website.  You can find the magazine at: Scapbooks and Cards Today

Where have you been online this week?  If you have a link to share - add it to the comments below!!!

more shake-ups

Due to popular demand we will now extend the playing time for the challenge on the 1st and the 15th of the month through to the last date of the playing month.  So any of October's challenges are now due by the 31st of October to  be considered as a fave or as the winner of this month's prize.  We hope you'll take advantage of the extra play time to play along with us!!! The more the merrier!!

freaking HUGE shake-up and change here ...

I know, I know, we are creatures of habit and we all hate changes - but ...

... i have a really good reason for this assault to your senses -  i am getting confused sometimes ...

It seemed like a good idea at the time when I started this blog - but because our 30th prompt challenge is, in fact a challenge for the next month, and not for the month that the 30th falls on, well, it is confusing me and some other people.  It is hard to remember that you are playing for the next month`s prize along with the 15th sketch challenge of that month - so we are going to do something pretty radical here - yes, the 30th prompt challenge will now be the 1st prompt challenge ... yes, i am serious, we are going to do something that radical ...

not only are we changing the date of the prompt challenge - we are not even going to give you some time to get used to it - we will start on the 1st of November - yes, of this year ...

i`m sorry - but you will like it eventually - and I will not change the date of Christmas ... or your birthday ...

monday's mentions 10 october 11

Yay - our awesome designer Donna O'Leary was a winner over the Little Shop of Sketches for her interpretation of one of their sketches!  Way to go Donna!!

Anne was a winner at Sketches in Thyme for her work - loving what you did for their challenge Anne!! But then again, I love all your work ...


Lee Schertzing has made it to round two in the card competition at Practical Scrappers!!!

some freaking faves for 30 aug and 15 sep challenges and a winner for September's prize!!!

Oh my gosh - I am so very late with this posting - my sincerest apologies to all.  But I have a really good excuse for this rudeness ... I forgot.  This blog is so new that I haven't got the rhythm yet.  I have a new list of TO DOs for all my blog deadlines - and, well, I forgot to put this on the list. I am so very sorry!!!!

Faves for 30 August challenge were:

Theresa

Puskis

Lizzy

Faves for 15 September challenge were:

Mitra

Patrice

Sue

And the winner of our 25 dollar prize to Scrapbook.com is no other than Jennifer R. Jennifer - please contact me at anne.pennington@xplornet.com to give me your e-mail address so I can send your gift certificate to you.

shining stars on the seventh - our first!!!

Angela's (Toucan Scraps) daughter TJ has been busy scrapping away and showing her stuff online. We think her work is MARVELLOUS!! Here is a layout she made of her recent birthday party with her friends!! TJ's work was recently featured on some other scrapbooking challenge blogs - she is really quite a creative young person! Thanks so much for sharing TJ's work with us Angela!!

design by T.J.

And speaking of creative, Mitralee's daughter Lexi is quite an artist herself.  You can read the story of this featured piece of her work here: (please go to Mitralee's blog for the story - it is so funny!!) Lexi has an incredible talent for capturing emotion with her pencil - just a few short strokes and she has managed to capture a myriad of emotions on her faces in this piece of work. Thanks so much for sharing with us Mitralee!!!

design by Lexi

If you have a young artistic geniuis with a flair for scrapbooking, card-making, altered objects or other paper art, please send along his or her work to us to feature on the 7th of each month.  We will not accept work submitted directly from children, but would love to hear from moms who hang out here on our blog regarding their children's work.

fave fridays 7 october 11

I have a link to share this week.  It is to Scrapfest in Oshawa Ontario this week.  Lisa Furtney - owner and organizer - always puts on a wonderful crop, merchandise mall and classes at her events.  Anyone near enough to participate should do so at this event, or at her spring event in April at Kitchener Ontario.

http://www.scrapfest.ca/

monday's mentions ... 3 october 2011

I have recently subscribed to scrapbook magazine and my new issue arrived today.  What a nice surprise when I turned to page 49 and saw a beautiful layout by our designer Sarah Groen!! Gorgeous layout of course - as is her usual!!

Well, after I got over that wonderful surprise, I turned the page to 70 and saw a wonderful layout Mieke Nagtegaal had made as a tribute to her wonderful Mam.  Gorgeous work, Mieke!!

The good news just keeps coming.  Mia Montalvan-Castrillo was the winner of ScrapFIT's button challenge this past week!!!