Gearing up for Halloween

Halloween is less than a week away and Mari Koegelenberg is having a week-long sale (ETA: the sale hasn’t started yet, but will very soon!) on a kit that works great for both creating hybrid spooky projects and scrapping your Halloween pictures:

I had fun making a shaped little card with it:

And here’s a look at the back of the card too:

Too cute to spook! πŸ™‚

Last Week

I’ve been playing in the Scrap Your Freakin’ Heart Out contest at the LilyPad in the past 3 weeks. I’ve had a blast! I really loved my week 1 page; I was pretty happy with my week 2 page also.
For the final week, I did this:

Journaling:
Oct. 23 2010, just another gorgeous fall day….
We have been living in this house almost three years now. It feels like home. We are so lucky to have such a gorgeous backyard, with bunnies, squirrels, foxes, deer, groundhogs… When I think back to our life in the big city, there is nothing I long for now. That life is gone now; I enjoyed it while it lasted, but now that I have tasted what peace being in the nature gives me, I have no desire to go back. I like to sit here and marvel at the seasons that go by.


Credits:
Paper, house, tree, flower and heard from Cottage Garden by Kaye Winiecki
Paper branch, green paper and acrylic alpha from So Grateful by Sahlin Studio and Sugarplum Paperie
Fancy Flourish Stamps by Jenna Desai
Foam Stamp Alpha Black by Sahlin Studio
Unseamly Stitched Alpha by Jenn Barrette
Fonts: Revista, Traveling Typewriter, CK Noah

I loved the idea I had for this page (taking pictures in my backyard in a full 360 degree turn), but it’s a real pity that the pictures look so small in the 600 px web version! Plus, I botched the exposure in a couple of the shots, stupid me! Oh well. πŸ™‚
It would be fun to do this again when the snow arrives, and then in spring when the leaves grow back, etc. Sounds like a nice plan! πŸ˜‰

Since you can enter as many pages as you want in the contest, I also made this page, because I had been thinking for a while to document this, and this challenge convinced me it was just about time to do it. I’ll be printing this and putting it in my art journal.

Journaling:
There was a time, not too long ago, when I believed that the world was a good place. Good things happen to good people, bad things to bad, right? Well, not exactly. Not anymore.
The world is a scary, evil place. There are days I cannot even get myself to read the news because the knot in my stomach is too tight and I cannot bear to hear any more bad news. But there’s no running away. A dear friend of mine was
brutally attacked and I will bring with me forever the shock and dread I proved when I first heard about it. That was the day I finally understood, and there’s no going back.
Most of the bad news we read in the papers don’t happen to criminals who were bound to end up that way. They happen to nice, normal people like us too. And it is so scary.
When I was little, I loved to ride the bus in my city and look at all the people walking on the street, wondering who they were and regretting not being able to get to know them all. Now, I think I was such a fool back then. Now, I keep away from people as much as possible. Keep at a safe distance to feel safer, but is anybody ever safe?
I don’t know if this fear will ever leave me. I hope one day to gain back a brighter view of the world. I long for that naive attitude to come back. I am hoping it is just buried beneath all the horror and waiting to resurface.
I long to reconcile the sheer happiness and contentment I feel about my personal little world with the dread of the big world. I long to find that balance.
But I can no longer be deceived. The world is not a happy place. I really don’t buy that anymore.

Credits:
Background: black paper from Mod Me by Jacque Larsen blended with newspaper print paper from Capture the Moment by Kate Hadfield and Designs by Liii
Fonts: SS Whimsy, CK Cursive

So anyway, I didn’t win (so far… LOL… voting for this week hasn’t even started yet) but I am not really disappointed because there is some serious, amazing talent in the gallery and the people who have been chosen so far all really deserved it. But of course one can hope, right? πŸ™‚
The prizes for this contest are just amazing. There are 3 weekly winners (one for Design, one for Photography and another for Journaling) and they each win $30 to the TLP store. The contest runs for 3 weeks, and after that one of weekly winners is chosen in each category to be the overall winner: and among other great prizes, the 3 overall winners get to be a guest CT for 1 month! So yeah, it’s not hard to see why I’d love to win. πŸ˜‰

If you have some spare time, go check out the galleries for this contest. The pages there are just amazing!

I Forgot!

I forgot to show you another new product by Jenn that was put in the store yesterday: this fabulous alpha!

I am a sucker for alphas, and this is an absolute must have!
I combined it with another of the kits Jenn released at SSD in the past few weeks that is perfect for this season:

Those owls are so adorable! I made a page for my calendar with it, but I turned into a LO as well because I liked how it turned out:

Credits:
Pumpkin Spice and Unseamly Stitched Alpha by Jenn Barrette
Photo action by My Four Hens Photography
Font: Vintage Typewriter

Only 1 more page to go for the calendar. Yay!

Told You I Would Be Busy!

I told you I would be busy catching up with Jenn’s latest kits, so next I scrapped with this jaw-dropping kit:

The colors are just amazing and inspiring! So here’s what I did with it:

Credits:
Pieces of You by Jenn Barrette

Ever since I’ve seen those number templates in Erica Zane’s store I’ve known I would use them for my calendar cover, and I finally did! πŸ˜‰ I LOVE how the cover turned out!! Now 2 more pages to go, then I can finally have them printed. πŸ™‚

Also, today Jenn is re-releasing her gorgeous Fly Free kit in her store, and it’s 20% off! (you can check it out in action two posts down)

Have a great weekend! Mine’s been going pretty well so far. I have work to do, but I haven’t started yet; I have finally finished the ScrapMatters Nov. newsletter project on which I’ve been working for the past week, and this time I cannot double guess myself because I had a very special friend come visit and show his approval! πŸ˜€

He liked it and I’ve decided he’s a much better sport than DH! πŸ™‚

Some Very Cool News!!

Finally I can spill the beans! I am so excited and happy and I’ve been dying to tell everyone!! πŸ˜€
As you probably know, as of October 1st one of my favorite designers, Jenn Barrette, has left ScrapMatters to move to the Sweet Shoppe Designs. She recently had a CT call, I applied, and she picked me to be on her hybrid team!!!!

How amazing is that?? I am super excited to be on the team! And even though she’s been at her new home for just under 3 weeks, she has so many beautiful new kits already! I can’t wait to be all caught up with all her creations! You can check out her shop here.
I started with her Halloween collab with Lauren Grier:

The papers in this kit are stunning! I put together a card in no time:

Too bad you can’t really see the glossy accents I used on the clock from the picture. This card turned out so pretty and is already in the mail on its way to my mom!

CD Calendar

I really don’t know how to stop: I’m working on… let’s see, 2 hybrid projects (the Dec. daily – which by the way is huge – and the Nov. newsletter project) and one digi project (2011 8.5×11 calendars) all at once, yet when I saw these new templates by Mari Koegelenberg for a CD calendar I couldn’t help myself. So I am now doing a CD calendar too. πŸ˜‰

These pages are so easy to put together! I have designed 4 pages (but only printed 2 out so far because I ran out of time) and what took me most time was picking the pictures. πŸ™‚ Here’s the cover:

Credits:
2011 Calendar Template by Mari Koegelenberg Creations
Fly Free by Jenn Barrette

Mari also put in the shop today one of the gorgeous kits with which she won the designer contest at DSA:

So I used it for my September page:

Credits:
2011 Calendar Template and Fallin’ For You by Mari Koegelenberg Creations

I’m having so much fun putting some pretty embellishments on these calendar pages! πŸ˜‰ At first I wanted to do it with pictures of us, but then I got bored because I’m already doing the digital one and there’s only so many pictures of us, so I decided to go with some of my favorite pictures. I’m not sure yet if I want to bring this calendar at work or keep it safely at home, we’ll see! πŸ™‚

Don’t You Just Love A Great Sale?

As you may have noticed, the $2 Tuesdays at the Digichick are long gone. But, being the great person as she is, Mari Koegelenberg has decided to make her own weekly sale: each Tuesday, one of her kits is put on sale for 25% off, for a whole week. This week, here’s what you can score:


I used it to make a quick card to send to a friend:

(sorry for the poor picture, I had to up the ISO quite a bit…)

Work in Progress

OK, in one week, I only worked on the album 20 minutes tonight. But hey, at least what I did is pretty important, it’s the cover! πŸ˜‰ I need to find more time to get this done fast!
I simply used a reflective tape to cover the chipboard of the album. (Pictured: back cover)

Too bad the picture does not show how nice and shiny it is. On a whim, I inserted a tree shape cut out from a cereal box on the back cover before applying the reflective tape. So pretty!!

We Have a Pumpkin!

We’ve been in this country 3 years and we’ve yet to carve a pumpkin. :/
Three years ago, DH was out of the country (for a 5 week trip nonetheless!) during Halloween. Two years ago, we went to a tea party at which they showed us how cool it was to carve your own pumpkin and we promised “we’ll carve a pumpkin next year!”. Last year, DH was busybusybusy so by the time we got around to looking for a pumpkin (Oct. 30th or thereabouts) they were all sold out. But this year, we made it! We secured our pumpkin! Now, I don’t know if we will actually get around to carving it, but at least it’s a step forward, right? πŸ˜€

Credits:
Background paper from Hoo-hoo-hoo by Karah Fredricks
Foam Stamp Alpha Black by Sahlin Studio
Alpha from Around the World by Sahlin Studio and Britt-ish Designs
Stripey Line Alpha by Kaye Winiecki
Doodled pumpkin from A Day of Giving by Valorie Wibbens
Other pumpkin (used also for photo mat and frame) from Halloween Goodies by Britt-ish Designs
Heart from Cottage Garden by Kaye Winiecki
Font: Traveling Typewriter and Pea Olson

I only accomplished about half of the stuff I’d been meaning to do this weekend. :-/
On the plus side: got a much needed haircut; came to the lab to take some pictures I need for a presentation; did the above LO; started the hybrid project for the Nov. ScrapMatters newsletter.
On the minus side: not finished the hybrid project for the Nov. ScrapMatters newsletter; not finished the 2011 calendar I need to get printed soon so it can get here in time for Christmas; not done a hybrid card I was hoping to squeeze in.
Why are weekends never long enough??

Anyway, I have some very very exciting news I’m really giddy about. I should be able to spill the beans soon! Stay tuned! πŸ˜‰

Getting Ready for Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas with a fall page??? Yes, because I made this for the October page in my 2011 calendar, that I will give to our parents for Christmas as usual. πŸ™‚ And since I loved the page (especially the blending of 2 papers for the background, isn’t it pretty? πŸ˜‰ ), I turned it into a regular LO too:

Credits:
So Grateful by Sahlin Studio and Sugarplum Paperie
The Alpha Files no. 1 by Krystal Hartley
Font: Traveling Typewriter

I’ve owned this (and 2 others – pictured in the post below) brush alpha by Krystal Hartley for almost a year and hadn’t used it so far, for some reason (forgot about having it…….) – but it is SO pretty and versatile! I’m glad I dug it out again! πŸ™‚ I love stamped alphas and having them as brushes makes them so much easier and quick to use. πŸ™‚

Anyway, I’m down to 2 pages to go for my calendar, plus the cover. Now I’m hoping to find a good offer like the past 2 years to get them printed. And I need to order them quick so they can get here before my trip home for Christmas!