December 2011 Scrapbook Kit Week 4 Challenge

This is my last week for guest of the month at Scrap~tures. For my final challenge I designed another sketch to use. Please don't laugh at my sketch as I am still very new at this whole designing thing....so here goes

Here is the sketch

And my layout done using the Bo Bunny Blitzen line that is in the December 2011 scrapbook kit from Scrap~tures. ***I haven't added a title yet as I don't know what picture I am going to use

Thanks for looking

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish all my friends and followers a "Vary" Merry Christmas. Hope you all have a wonderful day with your families.

Our Tree

Just thought I'd share some photos of our tree.

I took some bokeh pictures of my tree. Don't know what bokeh is? In photography, bokeh is the blur or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of the photo (or the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light). Still don't understand? Here, have a look...

You can even place an object (or person) in front and achieve this...here is one with my Christmas 2010 Royal Doulton

Want to know how to achieve this effect (great for Christmas lights), try this tute on Photobucket (this is an easy one that explains it for both DSLR cameras and point and shoot cameras) or here (a video that explains it). Give it a try....it is not hard at all. I even want to make shapes for my lens and try it...like here or here.

Let me know if you give this a try!

Thanks for looking!

Scrap~tures December 2011 Scrapbook Kit Week 3 Challenge

Here's a card that I did using the December Scrapbook kit from Scrap~tures

Here is how I did it;

• I just cut four 1 inch wide strips of paper and punched four 1 inch circles out of the same paper.
• I then cut a scrap piece of paper smaller than the combined width of my strips and a little shorter than the strips and adhered the strips to that
• Then clued the circles to the strip.
• Punched a border with a scrap of red cardstock
• Adhered it on top to hide where the circles meet the strips
• Wrapped my ribbon around the cardstock then glued that whole piece to the front of my card
• Stamped my quote and glued it so that it was under the flower....and viola you have a card! 

Go ahead, give it a try!

Thanks for looking!

Scrap~tures December 2011 Scrapbook Kit

I am the designer this month for the December scrapbook kit over at Scrap~tures and I wanted to share with you 2 challenges that I have done this month with the December SB kit featuring the Bo Bunny Blitzen line.

This is the sketch (that I designed) and layout that I did for week 1. Everything but the Stickles, Tim Holtz Distress Ink and Cricut cartridge is from the kit.

Supplies used: Pattern Paper~Bo-Bunny Blitzen (Blitzen Stockings; Blitzen Stripe; Blitzen; Blitzen Gifts; Blitzen Sentiments); Cardstock~Bazzill Cardstock (Pomegranate Splash; Crush); Brads~ Blitzen Brads (glitter red; glitter green); Stickles~Golden Rod; Xmas Red; Green; Ink~Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Festive Berries); Cricut Cartridge~Plantin SchoolBook

And here is the tissue box cover that I made from a Splitcoast Stampers tutorial. I love it and may have to adapt it to fit a standard tissue box. Everything on it (aside from the cream coloured cardstock) is from the kit

Supplies Used: Cardstock~Bazzill Cardstock (Pomegranate Splash; Crush) and Recollections (Cream); Pattern Paper~BoBunny Blitzen (Blitzen Gifts; Blitzen; Blitzen Sentiment; Blitzen Stripe); Flowers~Girls Paperie (Tinsel and Twig Poinsettias); Rub-Ons~BoBunny Blitzen

Thanks for looking!

I can sew....kind of!

Ok...this post is not so scrapbook related but is about some of my scrapbook tools!

My Mom was here last weekend. It is kind of our tradition to have her come here and we go Christmas shopping together. When she asked what she could bring, I answered "your sewing machine". See, I bought some beautiful fabric at Wal-mart (of all places) back last year with the intent of making a dust cover for my Cricut Expression. Well after I moved some of my scrapping stuff around last winter I realized that I needed covers from my Xyron 510 and now for my brand new Big Shot (that was an early Christmas present from my loving husband! MWAH!). Thankfully, there was enough fabric in the bundle to make covers for all 3!

So on Saturday Mom and I got down to work. I cut and pinned the fabric for the Cricut cover, while she sewed it for me (I was too chicken to use her beautiful, brand new Janome sewing machine). I used a PDF pattern from Custom Crops, found here but tweaked it a little from my tastes.

On Sunday, we were going to do the other 2, but Mom said that she trusted me to use her machine, so I did both the Big Shot (that one was tough sewing the sides) and the Xyron on my own. I basically just lid both on their sides and traced the outline on to paper, then added a 1/4 inch seam allowance...and viola, you have dust covers!

I am so happy with the final result. I even have some scraps left over that I am thinking of using to make a strap cover for my DSLR. Who knows....I may have found a new hobby (sorry Honey )

Thanks for looking!