Surprises

I found a treat and flower pot on my desk for my birthday, last week on Oct. 16 left by a mystery friend.
Thank you Phebe for the beautiful red gerbera daisies and chocolate dessert! I could not for the life of me find out who brought it on my birthday until I read your post.

This card design was a big hit at the Birthday Bash Class. All papers and stamps are CTMH. The tiny green flowers were a gift from Phebe.

It is made from a 5 1/2 by 12 inch piece of cardstock scored at 2" , 4", 8" and 10" . Slits are cut 1 1/2 " from the top and bottom edge between the 2" and 10" fold. Then it is folded m/v/m, v/m/v, m/v/ m ( m = mountain fold, v = valley fold )

You can google the template for this fun, interactive card. It begs for add ons and dangling features.

Birthday Bash

More Bracket Cards... These 2 are from our Birthday Bash class on October 14 last week.

The ladies attending were fabulous! I could hardly keep up with them. We did heat embossing, cuttlebug embossing, and 2 tri-shutter cards .

These 2 are masculine and feminine versions of the bracket card. All products are CTMH.

Milestones

My 18 year old daughter and I at Crabbies, for my birthday party October 16, 2009

I turned 50 this past Friday and I had a party! It was a ball. I danced, sang , and enjoyed myself. I want to thank ALL of my friends for the wonderful wishes...

Of course, being 50 has many advantages, one of which is you are finally entitled to speak your mind (tempered by tact). Of course I received a few funny cards about turning older. My favorite of this type was:

Dont worry about your age, celebrate your birthday like a teenager...

Get a wrinkle pierced!

Design Element: the Curly Bracket

Most scrapbookers would agree that we are artistically inclined in more than one area. But there is also a connection to math in scrapbooking that works its way in over and over. Estimating measurements and lining up paper edges and centering shapes takes good mental math.

Along comes the latest trend : the bracket! It is found both in math, music, and language (and is great for conversational asides). A bracket in architecture supports or carries weight!

according to Wikipedia:

Curly brackets (also called braces, or "squiggly brackets") are sometimes used in prose to indicate a series of equal choices: “Select your animal {goat, sheep, cow, horse} and follow me”. They are used in specialized ways in poetry and music (to mark repeats or joined lines). The musical terms for this mark joining staves are accolade and “brace”, and connect two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously.[9] In mathematics they delimit sets. In many programming languages, they enclose groups of statements. Such languages (C being one of the best-known examples) are therefore called curly bracket languages. Some people use a curly brace to signify movement in a particular direction.

Julia sent me some beautiful Key to my Heart papers which I used on these cards that feature a stitched bracket stamp by Close to my Heart. We will be making some of these bracket cards at my Birthday Bash Class October 14.

Mega Crop 3 : Elora Gorge Layout

This third layout was done after lunch at the Mega Crop in Chatham.

I used the reverse side of Outdoor Denim textured CS for the grey-blue background. I was inspired to block in the photos over a horizontal band by a layout Heather had in her display album. I added a thin torn piece of blue patterned vellum to enhance the water theme.

Once again, I used the quickcutz tool for the lettering in the title. I pencilled in the swirls using a fancy stencil I got at Christmas time . Speaking of which, I bought a second stencil with graduating circles at 50% off. This was a Good Idea, since I am forever using lunch and dinner plates as my circle templates .

Elora is a very beautiful little town north of Waterloo near Listowel. The gorge is breathtaking from the top . Rick drove me down one night after dinner in August on a whim. I am always interested to explore places like this! I like the photos of Rick and his dog Zowie in this layout. They look so peaceful.

So that was it for the weekend. coming soon: birthday cards!

Mega Crop 2 : Holy Communion

This is a photo from the one end of the Kinsman auditorium in Chatham. There look to be about 50 croppers and 6 vendors at the event. I will say the food was fabulous... we could help ourselves to coffee, banana loaf and cookies all morning and there were 4 kinds of wraps at just $2 for lunch, and then a huge fruit plate with more cookies.

There were door prizes for everyone, classes, a silent auction and a garage sale of new and used items. Of course I did a purge of my hoard in the Studio and brought in 3 boxes of stamps and papers for the garage sale. 25% of the total went to charity so it was a Win/Win/Win situation for myself, the croppers with cash, and the charity .

The Holy Communion layout was done with one piece of embossed paper which i purchased at Skribble and Skraps this summer ... because it was so beautiful . I knew I would find a use for it. My niece's blue headband and white communion dress were the focus of the Communion photos and fit in nicely with the colourful floral paper. I just cut it into strips and made a quick background with it. Then I went shopping for something else to add. I found the perfect items in the exact colour ! And... they were 50% off! The frames really did it. I also got some great brads and paper flowers. It all came together quickly after that. I just punched a few more quickcutz letters using Phebes new punch (since Peggy was still Somewhere Else and hadn't unpacked her Sizzlits for me to use).

and ... Voila! Blingy scrapbook perfection. Just the way I like it sometimes.

Mega Crop 1 : College Freshman Layout

I went down to the Mega Crop in Chatham with my friend Peggy N. I got 3 two page layouts completed in about 5 hours and spent 2 hours walking around, shopping, and talking to Phebe and Amy. I met a really nice Ctmh consultant named Heather down there who sold me 2 sheets of cardstock in desert sand, bamboo, colonial white, and vanilla cream and 2 sheets of textured outdoor denim. She also happened to be a teacher, AND her 9 year old daughter was named Chloe! Coincidences! After looting her stash and getting what I needed I was ready to roll out the creative truck and away I went.

For the College layout I wanted to use Caprice paper to bring out the yellows and blues in the photos. The photos were taken on the morning my ex and I and his wonderful wife moved my eldest into her brand new college dorm at Fanshawe. I needed some tiny letters for the Fanshawe College title so Phebe offered to lend me her quickcutz toolkit that she had just purchased used. I learned how to use it and off I went making the letters in different colours. No sight of Peggy , so I worked away on 2 complete layouts without any further interruption other than 2 breaks for coffee and a chicken wrap. Peggy wandered back to find me after doing some Copics card classes around 2:30 and offered to buy me lunch. "Peggy", I remarked, "if I always waited for you to buy me lunch I would lose 15 pounds!" Not that I have 15 pounds to lose... I only have about 7 ... ish. but that is Another Story. I am turning 50 this month, and in Turning 50 , one wants to appear at one's most desirable weight. Thus, eating light for the next 12 days. Whatever eating light means... more salad, no desserts, smaller portions might work. At least I am hoping it does. I will join the gym later.

Back to the main narrative :

Peggy proudly showed me the turkeys and hippos she had been working on. I asked her what the worms were doing at the bottom of the hippo. "They are not worms, they are supposed to be ribbons!" she insisted. Apparently, she did not use the Copics markers which give the correct 3D effect on the ribbon. After my insensitive remarks, she realised that she really needed to purchase several colours of Copics markers and 8 blending pens and acetate, after which she felt artistically fulfilled. This is what happens when you love the tools as much as the craft.