Challenge #14 Resolution and Memories.

I like Crafting with Cristina and there is a challenge over there which I adore! Resolution and Memories I am an avid goal setter and love acheivement of dreams. This year is no exception. I have made plenty of plans! I also have made a commitment to be more thankful for the little things in my life that make me happy and bring me joy, so I made a 2011 Gratitude Calendar. 

 

Every day I write something I am thankful for in my day. 

 I was recently given a cute water bottle by one of my girlfriends and yesterday I wrote thanks for it, it has made me drink more water than I usually do and I am feeling awesome! 

Recently, my new following bloggers got a mention for making my day with their lovely comments. 

Like everyone, I have my challenges in life. But they are easier to face when you are reminded daily of the goodness around you. After a year of doing this, suddenly you are surrounded in 365 things everyday to be thankful for.

My intention is to unbind them at the end of the year, use ribbon to re-bind the booklets and put them into a 2 page layout to keep in my album forever.

I have these saved as templates if anyone is interested in making their own. 

The little stand is a Kaisercraft mini-album stand. 

Thanks for looking. And thanks Cristina for letting me craft with you!

Scrap Jacked Challenge!

While the boys were asleep at lunch time today I had some fun with the Scrap Jacked challenge.

All you have to do is choose ONE DT's sample and use it for inspiration and create a scraplift of it. Either a layout/card/Off The Page. I love Christine's scrapping style and I am exploring new ideas lately so I thought I'd give hers a go...

My poor mum didn't get any granddaughters... just all boys! And we always take the opportunity during Christmas to photograph all the boys together. 

This is Christine's layout I scrapjacked:

So in the spirit of the scrapjacking:

Hello Kitty! Flaunt it Friday #6 Challenge

For this week's challenge at Flaunt It Fridays they are flaunting the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge and the cut is the Hello Kitty with Airplane on Page 65 of the handbook. 

I don't own HKG, but I own HK Font, so I used the head and then used Design Studio and SCAL2 to design the rest.

 I'm so blessed in my life to have done some extraordinary things and met some amazing people so I wanted to scrap the day I flew a plane! I have 148 Life Goals and my gorgeous friend Karin read them and organised a surprise flight for me on her husband's plane, 'The Lady Karin'. I took the controls of the plane for about 20 minutes. It was amazing. 

All my clouds really do have silver linings. 

  

She is sooooo cute!

The urge to ink her up was very strong as I normally ink EVERYTHING! But I opted to keep her fresh and clean like her cartoon.

 

I inked the edges of the page and added some stickles for silver cloud linings and the airplane trail. Apart from that, it is just plain bazzills. I love how a cricut can turn plain bazzills into amazing creations.

For more inspiration head over to my girlfriend's blog Me n' Miss Pink Cricut to see how Carlene grunged up Hello Kitty! She didn't fight the urge to ink like I did! It looks fantastic.  

Thanks again to the ladies at Flaunt it Friday for giving me a great inspiration to complete another layout for my album!

 Thanks for looking! Chloe x

2011 Calendar... Finished 7 days in! Plenty of time.

Over the last twenty days I have made three calendars. One for our house, one for my mum's and one for the in-laws!
Thats 36 layouts! Phew.

It was worth it. They look great. Before I sent them, I added photos of the kids for their birthdays and holiday information. 

 Bound with the Zutter! 

 

Life is a beach with some Big Shot fun!

 

Sure Cuts a Lot 2 and the Sew Easy got a workout. 

 

All you could need for it on SCAL2

 

Robotz cartridge. 

 

Love the Cindy Loo Font! Hand drawn freedom, Gel Pens in the machine too.

 

A bit of Heritage, Twiddly Bits and a little bit of Songbird.

 

Paper Dolls and Stretch Your Imagination, Stamp masking, inking galore!

  

Looking into SCAL2 fonts for pictures.

 

Walk In My Garden

 

Happy Hauntings. 

 

I-rock and Cropodile

 

PaperDolls, SCAL2 and Ribbon threaders. Finding inspiration in unexpected places. 

 Over the next few days I will post some of the ways I put these together will some mini-blog tutorials. I learned so much about SCAL2 while I was playing!

Good news! Since I am a blogging newby along with my friend Carlene, we are encouraging followers. SO...to my 33 current followers...Thank you! You have a chance to win one of these calendars for Christmas present for your relatives (or yourself) in December, 2011. 

Follow this blog and Me n' Miss Pink Cricut. On December 1st 2011, if you are still in our following lists and so are three of your followers... You are in the draw to win a handmade calendar which I will post Dec 10th, 2011... just in time for a Christmas present for one of your family. Now that I have the hang of SCAL,  and from all that I will learn from seeing other great blogs it will be even better! Thanks for blogging with us!


 

Found Altered Challenge! My new Pink "Get Em Girls!"

I found a pair of shoes in my cupboard. I've hardly worn the poor things, opting for my favourites all the time. I wear them maybe once a year... IDEA!!! Dress them up for an annual event. I'm entering in the "Found Altered Challenge" on the Imaginisce blog that Pinky is hosting.

Watch out shoes!!! Your boring black is about to get pretty! 

Every year I attend A Girls Day In event for Breast Cancer. This year is particularly special for me as we are celebrating 20 years since my mum beat breast cancer! She was diagnosed at the young age of 39. Being 35 years old myself I am very vigilant. Last year I received genetic testing for the aggressive BRACH2 cancer gene and tested negative! So rather than 80% chance of cancer, my odds are now 1 in 11 like the general population. (Still very high odds to me!) so I'm all for promoting awareness. 

 

So once a year, I'll be wearing my old/new breast cancer "Get em-girls"! (More often than I wear them now!)

As you can see I covered the black using the new range of Imaginisce Enchanted range... which I was lucky that my local shop was unpacking Tuesday morning! 

I used my I-top to make a large brad for my buckle. 

 

I cut out two different sized flowers from the Princess Posies paper and cut the petals on one and frayed it, placing a small i-top covered brad in the middle. I cut the pink ribbon from SCAL and i-rocked it! 

I papermache'd the back using the crowns paper and placed a thick layer of glossy accents over it. I also love using the i-top punch shape occasionally, like I did here, to create an embellishment. 

Some matching enchanted ribbon by Imaginisce and I'm all finished. Ready to party. 

 Thanks Pinky and the team at Imaginisce for such a great challenge. I loved taking the time creating these reflecting on what an awesome strong woman my mum was to survive chemotherapy and the great job Breast Care Nurses and research companies such as K-Confab do.  

I'll wear them proudly, if only once a year. 

I know you are all waiting for my calendar... well at least two of my followers are! lol. I'll be posting tomorrow (If I don't get distracted again!) AND there is a prize too! See you tomorrow! x

 

Snowflake Challenges Galore!

Thanks to Fantabulous Cricut blog for their Challenge me Monday! I also found The Paper Variety,  Jitterbuggin Challenges,  Cooking with Cricut and Made by Momo doing similar challenges so I'm entering all of them! I love the theme/sketch challenges because it keeps my layouts rolling!  I am making a calendar for 2011 as a gift for my mum, my in laws and one for home. I got stuck for ideas on July and then I saw this challenge. 

I've never played in snow. I have only seen it from an aeroplane so making a page with snowflakes appealed!

I used Everyday Paperdolls for the cute people. The Snowman comes from Stretch Your Imagination and I designed the template on Sure Cuts a lot2.  


LOVE looking into my crazy fonts on my computer when I am in the Sure Cuts a Lot program... The snow splats and balls are hidden in a font called Smudge and the font for the title was Chiller. 


The snowflake I stickles-ed with Waterfall is from Accent Essentials. The hills are from Everyday Paperdolls too. 


Of course Distress Inks, I used LOTS of colours.

Mini Tutorial on stamp masking:

This cute stamp was from Print Blocks. I wanted to use it in the snowflake layout but I didn't obviously want the  writing or border, just the cute snowflake in the middle. So here is what I did...



  

Apply the stamp to some unwanted cardstock.

 Cut out JUST the part you want to stamp. I cut the snowflake out carefully.

  

Then place your cardstock over desired area and apply stamp again ensuring you line it up correctly with your previous stamped image.

All you will be left with underneath is the part of the stamp you wanted. 

 

Makes you want to look through all those forgotten stamps and look at parts you can use! 

So there is a sneak peak at my Calendar! Can not wait to show you the rest. I only have to finish the cover! 

See you tomorrow!

So much Blog Candy you'll become diablogbetic.

Head over to Taylord Concepts, and check out the blog candy Erika has on offer! It's beyond a prize... it's a bounty. Such a great blog too!

Flaunt it Friday #5 Challenge

The challenge this week over at Flaunt It Fridays is to use the "martini" cut from the "From My Kitchen" Cricut cart. 

 Easy one for me... This has been a saying of mine for years.  You can shake me, but you'll never stir me!

I loved making this layout. I often scrap the boys and forget about my thin album.  I used From My Kitchen Cricut Cartridge for the Martini glass and designed my own shape insert to make it look like liquid inside. 

The title frame comes from the cartridge Storybook. Love it! I used Webster and Artise fonts on Sure Cuts a Lot for the titles and the little circle shape is cut from Storybook using the Clover function (but I cut the clover off).


I use Distress inks on nearly every layout. This layout uses  Peeled Paint and Spun Sugar. Added Kindy Glitz to the liquid and also my new Pentel outline pens to give movement to the word Shaken and depth on the glass. 

Thanks to the ladies at Flaunt it Fridays for a great opportunity to make a girly page for myself!

While you are here you should check out Carlene's blog, she has completed this challenge using Sex and the City Premiere photos! Perfect martini setting! Plantin Schoolbook has so many hidden talents!

3 new things to know on the 3rd January

1. Pentel Outline markers are CUTE!!! 

They are only about $3 each. 


Although they look like ordinary markers, as you can see in the picture, it looks as though you painstakingly traced around the edge of a silver pen with another fineliner. 


No effort at all required. 

I used them on my daily gratitude desktop calendar recently.

I made a gratitude calendar so that every day I can think about the little things to be thankful for. 

I did something similar last year and it is amazing how blissful your life can 
 be when you consider daily how lucky you are. I have templates if anyone is interested, just message me your email. My idea is to unbind each month when done and bind with ribbon, and make a 2 page layout of 2011 gratitude for my scrapbook.


This was my first entry. My dishes haven't been done and clothes are piling up and my husband never complained once. I got to scrapbook intermittently throughout the last week whenever I could.  I'm calling it my annual leave. 


I can't wait to show you what I was up to... I'm making a calendar that uses a heap of different cartridges. It's a great Xmas present for the relatives next Christmas (giving you plenty of time to plan)


2. Sure Cuts a Lot has a few new functions in the free upgrade if you own it and it is well worth downloading. I LOVE IT now... whereas before I used it only occasionally, now it is a constant at my scrap desk. 
 

 My favourite new function without a doubt is the Rhinestone function under object. 


There are so many awesome possibilities.

 Just write a word on SCAL or draw a shape - see below picture, there are new flourishes in the basic shapes section.

 

 Then select Rhinestones function.

 Choose the size and shape of your intended rhinestones (or i-rock gems) and the spacing you want for them.


You will have to use a pin pen to push out the holes that you want. You don't have to cover your letter in rhinestones, you can just select one side of your letter. 


The beauty of this is you can cut your template, undo the rhinestone function, change your font/shape into 'Shadow' and cut your word/shape so that the rhinestones fit beautifully.  

Then click OK and you can cut a template for laying your rhinestones/gems on your layout. Use unwanted bazzill colours to cut your template

You can also complete a layout, slide it into the cricut, cut a flourish that goes over photo corners, etc and simply glue your gems on the actual layout.

You will see the rhinestone function results in my project being posted tomorrow! 


3. A Xyron holder... my new invention. Get one!

 See you tomorrow!

My escape from the boys noise...My New Cupboard for my Cropodile!

Loving my scrap space at the moment. My boys both have albinism and rarely like to step outside, so in summer I always feel trapped in a box... therefore I decided to create a little sanctuary box inside my house box. I am slowly but surely turning my little box into an amazingly cute area.

This is a little cupboard I created much the same as my Sew-Easy and I-top one but getting better at this chipboard thing as I go.

Again, inspired by the art of Amy Moss and her cute icecream parlour.  There is something about a pretty sorted space that make me smile. If it all it takes is a simple Kaisercraft creation to make me smile... I'm the luckiest person ever.