I love scrapping and I love sharing what I know so I will occasionally apply for a design team position. I have learned the hard way that not ever site is a fit for every scrapper. However I found a site that is a great fit for me: Scrapdango.

I just learned that that I'll be on the DT at Scrapdango for the next six months! They have some beautiful kits that I am looking forward working with.

Here are the other fabulous team members:
Shannon Blinn,
Ana White,
Jessica Jennings, and
Kimberly Hornikel

Toy time!

It has been a long time since I bought any scrappy things besides tape. Let's be honest, I feel like I own most of it anyway. I have a tote of paper, a rolling tote of embellishments, a Revolution die cutting machine and dies for it. When you add those to stamps, inks, paints, and powders I have at least a little of everything.

I also have a Slice electronic die cutting machine that has proven NOT to be my wisest purchase. The first one had an issue. Fortunately something odd happened. It actually broke down while still under while it was still warrantied. I sent it in and it was replaced.

Now I have to say that I was VERY impressed with Making Memories customer service. My machine was replaced and when I got the new one it was filled with goodies too - stickers, rub ons etc.

I used that machine for about a year. Then the problems began. First it lost the capability to be used cordlessly - which was one of the reasons I got it. It was an inconvenience but at least I could still use it. Then slowly it began performing more and more poorly. When the second machine was about a year old, it stopped cutting altogether. Now it is out of its coverage and I would need to spend quite a bit to send it to Making Memories then pay for them to figure out why it is not working, then maybe more to fix it.

I have had enough. I sadly put away my machine and just accepted that I wasn't meant to have one. I missed it but learned to live without it.

Then just last week a friend of a friend posted on facebook that she is moving and wanted to get rid of her Cricut. So for less than I would have paid for a new Slice I have a slightly used, but perfectly functional Cricut and 3 cartridges. I have been playing making things all afternoon. It is a great feeling to have a machine again - now I just need to figure out how and where to store it.

challenge #3 - 4th grade

The challenge this week was to use the following:

Stickles or glitter

A clock or watch face

Trims

Hand written journaling

Postage stamp

Embossing

I went a little wild with the embellishments it is a bit different style but considering the subject (my youngest) and some serious play time I am happy with the results.

Week #2 at the Next Crop Chef at Cookin' Up Creations. The "recipe" for this challenge was tp use the following ingredients: jewelry or other small tag, a heart, and a boarder. The "special ingredient" is an old book page and the technique to be used was inking. Here is what I came up with:

The boarder is the stitching - that took more time to do than the entire rest of the layout. The tags are hand cut and in the title. The page is the flower and the hearts are little heart punches rather used as leaves. There is inking on the pattern paper and the tags. All in all, I am happy with the way it turned out.

A challenge

I am applying for a design team position at Sarapdango. I hope I get it because I really like the site and I think that it would be a good fit. I just mailed off my application so now it is just a waiting game.

One of the requirements for the application was to create an original challenge and then make a layout to fit the challenge. Here is my challenge:

"Pick a card, any card"

Choose a card from a deck of playing cards (You remember what you used to play solitaire with before we had computers) or if you are too young for that you can choose one from here: http://www.random.org/playing-cards/

Add the embellishment according to suit:

clubs = flowers

spades = metal

hearts = some sort of chipboard shape (square, heart, circle etc.)

diamonds = bling

If you drew a number 1 - 5 then that is the number of pictures that you need to use

if you drew a number 6 - 10 then that is the number of embellishments you need to use. They do not need to be the same thing, but it could be for example if I have a 8, I could use 8 flowers or 3 buttons, 2 stickers, and 3 brads.

If you drew a jack then include at least 40 words of journalling

If you drew a queen then you need to use at least 3 different patterned paper.

if you drew a king you need to use some sort of stamping.

Now that you are done with the front of the card, use this card back as inspiration:

I drew the 9 of hearts. Hearts meant that I had to use chipboard shapes. I used the 2 small circles with the date on them. I also chose the number 9 so I used 9 flowers as my embellishments. Here is the layout I made:

So now you get the idea. Grab a card and give it a try.

These pages were made for the Next Crop Chef non-elimination challenge. The requirements were

Here is your first challenge "recipe":

Your ingredients -- remember , you must use EACH one:
Punched shape(s)
Doily
Photo(s) of your pet or an animal
Dotted patterned paper

And this special ingredient:
a bottle cap or something metal (if you use a bottle cap, I'll give you an extra participation point)

And you must use these techniques:
double mat your photo(s)
make photo corner(s) out of ribbon (here are a couple of tutorials -- http://hopestudios.blogspot.com/2009/06 ... ibbon.htmlor http://www.ehow.com/how_5759574_make-ph ... ibbon.html)

The journalling says:

Hope Nicole was not my first choice for a kitten. I had done a Pampered Chef show and brought home her sister, Angel. There was a tragic accident and Angel died. So I brought home Angel’s sister who looked exactly like her. We named her Hope.

She was beautiful and very graceful. She could be found just about anywhere – including on top of open doors or walking across the curtain rods to get from one side of the room to the other. When now prowling around the house, she could often be found attacking and playing with her tail.

Hope was not a cuddly cat. She didn’t care to be hugged or handled. However she had an amazing sense of empathy. If someone was sick (and it didn’t matter who) she would stay with them in bed for as long as they were there. If someone was crying, she would rub up against them and purr trying her best to comfort them.

Hope was always a skinny little cat. Because she was the smallest, she was spoiled. She was treated with table scraps. Cheese was one of her favorites.

In the middle of the summer we noticed that she had lost interest in getting her table treats. She was getting even skinnier. We took her to the vet and found that she had untreatable liver disease. We had to send her to heaven on August 1, 2011.

It is amazing how much we miss out “Baby Girl”. Things around here just don’t seem the same without her chirpy meow or her habit of sleeping with me under the covers. We miss her so much. Even months later, we still feel the loss.