Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Sketches 4 All 1st Anniversary Party and Blog Hop

NOTE: If your looking for my blog candy giveaway then you can find it here

Fia from Sketches 4 All is celebrating the 1st anniversary of her group and they have a week of celebrations with challenges,games, prizes and a great Blog Hop.  If you have never been to the Sketches 4 All group you should check it out.  Every month they have lots of challenges going on and you can win prizes for your submissions.  What better time to join them then during this great celebration when you can win even more prizes.

 Here is the sketch that you will be using for your entry for the blog Hop.  The main prize will be ECHO PARK paper from winter/holidays and and a $15 and a $10 gift certificate(1st and 2nd prize) from a scrapbook store that Fia will be giving away.



Many of the Dt's hosting the Hop also have challenges you can do to win a Rac from them.  To help you get started here is the first stop on the Blog Hop - Melissa's blog - make sure to follow her instructions and she will have a link to the next person hosting the hop. I hope to see you over at Sketches 4 All.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

My First Blog Candy Give Away

     Yesterday was my birthday and I was amazed and extremely touched by all the birthday wishes I received from my internet friends, especially the ladies I’ve met who love to scrapbook.
     A year ago I took scrapbooking classes at my local scrapbook store but never used the layouts I made because they didn’t suit the pictures I had. I seldom did any scrapbooking at home because I had such a hard time coming up with ideas on how to do a page.
     In January I started joining different scrapping groups online. It opened up a whole new world to me. Some of the groups were mainly for us to chat with each other and occasionally share a layout and others were scrapbooking classes. With the encouragement of people I met there I started my own blog. I then started finding groups that had challenges and sketches. I fell in love with these groups and I couldn’t believe how many layouts I was getting done.
     If you are already a follower you know that my favorite site is Let’s Scrap.  Everyone is so friendly, encouraging and helpful in the group.  The sketches that Cheri and Kimmy give us are phenomenal. I especially love that the layout sketches are 2 pagers. For me it was perfect because I always do 2 page layouts and it was hard to find sites that had them. For people who only like to do 1 page layouts it’s great too, because you get to choose from either side of the sketch. They also have weekly challenges. The winners are chosen by a draw so everyone has a chance at the prizes and I have been fortunate to have won 4 different times. I love it there so much that I became a Design Team Member and when my term was up I stayed on as a Contributing DT.
     But no matter what group I belonged to, I found that I met wonderful people along the way. I think someone should make a sign that says Scrappers make the Best Friends because I have had the privilege of making so many great friends these past few months. All of you have become just like family to me and I love to chat with you, hear about your families or what’s going on in your life. I enjoy following many of your blogs to see what wonderful scrapping projects you have been doing.
     So that is why I decided to give away some goodies and I’m calling it Special Friends Blog Candy. It’s because of all the wonderful friends I have met and hope to continue to meet. Here is a picture of all the scrappy goodness you can win.




Here is what you have to do to get your name in the draw.

1. Become a follower

2. Put the above picture on the sidebar of you blog or post it on your Facebook Page with a link back here.

3. Sign up to Let’s Scrap  – when you sign up it will ask how you heard about them, just write Betty’s Blog. You don’t have to do any of their sketches or challenges but I’m hoping that once you have had a chance to look around the site that you will see how wonderful it is and will want to join in.

4. Then come back here and leave me a comment so I am sure to put your name in for the draw.

5. What happens if you don’t have a blog or Facebook and you’re already a member of Let’s Scrap? Then let me know in your comment and tell me what it is you love about Let’s Scrap and I will make sure your name goes into the draw. Or if you don't have a blog or facebook but aren't a member then go join up and come on back and let me know.  I want everyone to have a chance to win the candy.

     I will be drawing the name for the Blog Candy on Dec. 31st. Make sure to come back here and check to see if you won. On that day I will also be announcing something I’m organizing over at Let’s Scrap where you will have a chance to win lots of prizes. So don’t forget to come back so you can hear all about it.
     As always, I hope you are having a great week and Happy Scrapping.

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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Letter Stash Challenge That I won

Last week Debby over at Let's Scrap had a great challenge.  Here is what she had to say about it.

     How many sheets of letter stickers do you have lying around that you don't use anymore simply because you're out of the 'a', 'y' or 'e'? I know have quite a few.

     This my my challenge: Try to use the left overs and see if you can make it into the letter you need. The 'w' most of the times can be used as a 'm', simply turn it upside down. The 'u' can be a 'n', the 'q' a 'b', a 'p' becomes a 'd' (only lower case). The upper case 'Q' can be easily transformed into an 'O' by cutting of those little extensions. An 'i' can be made out of almost any letter. The 'y' can be made out of a 'x', just cut the right bottom leg of.
     By looking at your letters you can probably see some more possibilities.  Besides that you can also combine different types of stickers in a title, or use one uppercase letter when you're out of lower case. You can also replace missing letters by stamps or die-cut letters. My challenge for you: Try to make a layout based on a Let's Scrap sketch with the tips I gave you.

     At first I had a bit of trouble coming up with how I would do the challenge.  I don't tend to use very many sticker letters.  I prefer to use my cricut to cut the titles out or my computer to print them.  But I wanted to do the challenge.  I picked the title Fall Fun for my layout and then started going through my letters to find ones that I could change.  I used E's for the F's by cutting off the bottom stem and then cutting the ball off of that and re-attaching to the bottom of the F.  The L's were made from upside down T's with one stem cut off and the N is a Z turned sideways.  It was fun playing around with the letters to turn them into other ones.

Here is my layout



    The pictures are of my brother Jim and his beautiful family. There were 6 kids in my family 5 girls and 1 boy.  As my only brother he has a very special place in my heart.  I left the journalling box empty but will add their names before I put it in my album. 
     Today I found out that my name had been drawn for the challenge and Debby is sending me some Fall Stamps.  I was so excited to have won a prize and can't wait until they arrive so I can play around with the stamps on some other fall layouts I want to do.  It may take a bit of time for it to arrive though.  Debby is in The Netherlands and I am here in Canada so the stamps have quite a distance to travel.
     I hope all of you are having a fantatic weekend and Happy Scrapping.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

You Can Run But You Can't Hide

     It's Wednesday and that means there is a new sketch up at Let's Scrap.  Cheri never ceases to amaze me with all the great sketches she gives us. Here's what this weeks looks like.


     Isn't it great.  I decided to do another layout from my Son's wedding but this time I used some of the fun pictures that were taken throughout the day.  They just seemed to work well together and gave me a bit of a laugh. 

And here is a closeup of each of the pages



      I've noticed lots of you are using your sewing machine to sew on your layouts so I decided to dust off my Mom's old machine and give it a try.  I love how it looks even though I did hid a lot of it with the pictures. I will definitely will be using it again.  The punch I used is one of the Martha Stewart ones that I punched in the two different colors.  I really love her punches.

     I have been having a bit of trouble finding paper that goes well with the bridesmaid dresses.  I bought several packages of the paper I used in the layout from CTMH quit a while back because I thought it would match well. But I was wrong, the girls dresses are more bronze then I realized and although there is a cream sash it doesn't tend to show up in a lot of the pictures.  I'm hoping to come across a line of paper that will compliment the pictures better.

     After having such a problem with the paper I contacted my oldest son's girlfriend and told her that when they get married that she has to pick out the perfect scrapbooking paper for her album and then she can find bridesmaid dresses to match.  Can't you just see the lady in the bridelshop when a bride to be walks in with scrapbooking paper and says ok I want dresses to match this LOL. 

    I have been having so much fun scrapping this week but have made a real mess of my scrapbooking room. So I think I better get back to cleaning it up.  I hope you are all having a great week and Happy Scrapping.

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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Our Little Pumpkin

Cheri Johnson O'Neill's gave us another amazing sketch this week over at Let's Scrap . Here is what it looks like, don't you love how many photo's she is able to get incorporate into one sketch.


and here is my take on the sketch



This is my little Grandson Jacob and his Mom Katie.  They came over to carve the pumpkins Grandpa had gotten for him.  Although he is still a little young to actully get into the carving he did have some fun helping cleaning it out.  He also got a kick out the play hats I bought for him. 

It sure feels good to be back scrapping again.  I've missed it and also missed visiting all my favorite blogs so I'm off to see what all of you have been up to this week.  

I hope everyone has had a great week and Happy Scrapping.

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