Linen and Lace Challenge

I completed this card for the Linen and Lace Challenge at Scraptures  and I used my new Jan. Scraptures Card Kit which I just love.  Check out the kit reveal at the Scraptures Blog, they offer such wonderful kits at great prices.

Saturday Sketch challenge and some colouring

It's been a few days since I last posted, it has been a bit more difficult finding the time to post to this blog than I thought it would be but I do enjoy it so am going to make my best effort to find the time as often as possible.  This week I completed a layout for the sketch challenge at the Kaisercraft Blog 

Here is my layout

Sorry about the glare from my flash I am still trying to find the best location for taking pictures of my work.

For quite awhile now I have been wanting to add copic markers to my supplies but unfortunately they are just too expensive.  I do really enjoy colouring in images and have been finding lots of digital images on the internet that I would like to try my hand at.  I found a You tube video yesterday where the person coloured in their image with prismacolor premier pencil crayons and blended with some odorless mineral spirits.  That's when I remembered that I have an old set of prismacolor scholar pencil crayons and a colourless blender pencil.  So I got them out and this is what I did with them.

Obviously I still need to work on my shading and blending techniques but I had a blast colouring in the image.  I think what I am going to do is hopefully use a Michaels coupon and invest in the 132 set of prismacolor premier pencil crayons, some blending stumps and odorless mineral spirits.  I can't wait to start adding digital images to my collection.

Simon Says Stamp and Show Your Newest Stamp

The current challenge on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Blog is to use one of your newest stamps.  So I thought I would share with you a new stamp I recieved from my latest Simon Says Stamp order and it is the Flower Bird Garden stamp from the new Hero Arts catalogue.  I love hummingbirds and I love the size and look of this stamp.  My order arrived yesterday and here is the card I created with it last night.

Let The Organizing Begin

Now that I have more time my plan is to get all my genealogy data, paper and pictures organized.  This is definitely going to take more than one day but at least I can get started today.  I found a file cabinet and some hanging files (will have to buy more though) and I have a plan in mind.  It has taken me a long time to decide how to organize all this information.  I had tried a binder system in the past but it wasn't working out very well for me so I have decided on a file system that hopefully will work out better.  Here are some before pictures.

My plan is to get everything organized and then begin searching through information again and following up on leads.  Since I have been in school for the last 2 years I haven't had the time to do any research and I am looking forward to getting back at it.  I hope to share some stories and pictures here on my blog as well. 
The one thing I learned first hand today is when you are doing research and you jot done a note make sure to put down all the information, don't assume that you will remember it when you come across it again.  I am finding a lot of bits of papers with half written notes on them and I honestly have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote it.  Lesson learned, and hopefully with my new system I can prevent this from happening in the future.

Scraptures Challenge



I completed this layout for the Creative Flourishes challenge at Scraptures as part of their anniversary celebration.

Happy Birthday/Anniversary Scrap~tures!!!

Welcome to a brand new year!

January 2011 is a special month here at Scrap~tures – we’re one year old! Thanks to your support and participation we’ve had a great first year and want to show our gratitude by celebrating all month long with games, prizes, a blog hop, AVATAR challenges (on the forum) and lots of inspiration and fun!!

We have been working hard behind the scenes to provide inspirational challenges, based on “traditional” anniversary gift lists, to run all month long and for every one that you do (and post in the particular challenge thread AND note in your “birthday book” (master challenge list thread) you will receive candles! Yes, that’s right, for every challenge you complete, you will receive a little candle blinkie to put in your siggie line! How fun (and cute) is that?

We would love for you to join our forums so you too can participate in all the fun! If you would rather not, but want to participate too, I will be posting each challenge here , along with Mr Linky so you can upload a link for us to see. I will be providing a special prize for those that participate through the blog only!

AND!! if that isn’t enough, we’re going to have an ANNIVERSARY CROP the weekend of January 21, 22 and 23 so mark your calendars and invite your friends! The crop challenges will start with an early bird challenge (you’ll love it, I guarantee it ;-) ) on Friday at noon and go all weekend long.

This same weekend, we'll be having our Anniversary/Birthday blog hop so if you are interested in being part of the hop, send me an email at steeles4u@aol.com so I can add you to the list and send out the details prior to the hop! There will be a prize given to one of the participants in the hop as well, selected by random draw!

The crop will give you many opportunities to gather more candles for your birthday book. Not to worry though, at the end of the month, we’ll give you some time to “catch your breath” and catch up with more candles if you want!! The only way to be eligible for the amazing prizes offered at Scrap~tures is to join the forum and earn 'candles' The prizes being offered here are separate from the ones being offered on the forum.

February 1, we will announce our Anniversary Prize Winners! Yes plural!! There will be a grand prize and two runner-up prizes for the month that are based on how many points you have. REMINDER: Points are the candle blinkies that you’ve added to your siggie line AND noted in your birthday master list book. Don’t worry, the blinkies are fairly small so as not to take up too much space but here is what it looks like...

Come to the party and be ready to meet some “old” friends of ours who are celebrating with us this month and some of you will be surprised I'm sure by "who" you see....

Questions? Fire away or get out your adhesive and be ready to play the winter away!!

NOTE: We realize that we’ve used the words ANNIVERSARY and BIRTHDAY inter-changeably in this letter, but just know that whatever you call it, it’s all going to be FUN!

Scraptures and Creative Scrappers Challenge

I completed this layout as part of the One Moment In Time challenge at Scraptures and for sketch #137 at Creative Scrappers

Scraptures is the January sponsor at Creative Scrappers.  Check it out at January sponsor

Goals

Okay so it is the 3rd day into the new year and I am already falling behind on one of my goals.  One of my new years goals was to participate in the picture a day challenge but I am already having a hard time keeping up with the idea of taking a picture everyday.  I am going to revise my goal and instead of taking a picture a day I am going to pledge to take pictures more often.  As well I will be more consciously aware of the content of the pictures and try to remember to record the everyday events.  I think this will remove the pressure I am putting on myself but still allow me to challenge myself photographically.