What's Up, Doc? Thank You Card

For those of you not into layouts, I do apologize for the last 4 or 5 consecutive blog posts.

Here is a card as promised (with others to come).

So when you have a chronic illness like I do, it's so important to have a great GP who should be your first port of call.  These gems can be hard to find and sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error before you find "the one",

I've been meaning to make this card for the last few years and finally I did it!  It's a hybrid card of two basic types of cards that I found on Pinterest.

I've often thought of our GP as a super doc and used many graphics I've found on the web to convey this (just do a Google image search for "super doctor" and you'll see what I mean).

Anyways in the hours I spend on Pinterest, I found lab coat doctor cards with a stethoscope around the neck and this super dad card by Kaminski's Creations which I also found on Pinterest.

Now I know doctors here in Australia don't wear lab coats, but it's a pretty synonymous image with doctors worldwide so I decided to do a lab coat revealing a superman logo (as opposed to a shirt opening to show the logo like Erin Kaminski's blog post).


I guess I could have found a template or folding instructions, but I didn't.  As per usual I went rogue.  I pulled a few sheets of paper out of the printer and began folding and unfolding until I was happy with the symmetry and overlap.  I noted down how far from the edges the folds were and did the same with a sheet of white A4 cardstock.  I wanted a big card so I just used the whole sheet,




Next step was to find a printable superman logo, resize, print and cut out to use as a template,  ahhh takes me back to old school crafting before dies and die cuts and letter stickers!  Now this would have been easy peasy if:

a) I had a Silhouette (which I don't YET, but watch this space)
b) a certain SCD* hadfn't misplaced my good crafty knife,  SRSLY?

What I didn't expect to find was an entire alphabet of logos in the Superman stylie so I picked F since both the doc's first and last names start with that letter.



A Silhouette would also make the stethoscope issue much simpler since I could size it in the software to what I wanted, but I was pumped and ready to take rogue to a new level.  No templates this time...just a set of oval nesting dies and trial and error!

The little ear bud bits were done using a punch designed for making little paper bows.  There is a larger oval bit with rectangles on the ends which if cut in half in the centre was the perfect size and shape.  I did have to round the corners slightly.

Then I used a few nesting circle for the round bit and since I'm a stickler for detail, I found the logo of the company virtually ALL doctors use for stethoscopes and printed their logo just as it appears on the actual ones.

I used a small square stitched die with the dip cut off and glued around the edges for a pocket and shoved a couple of small BandAids inside.

Lastly I tried to paint the red part of the superman logo with Glossy accents to have it stand out a bit, but even with a few layers, there are still visible brush strokes and I kinda wish I hadn't done it.

So there you have it...a big thank you card for a big thank you to a great GP who has looked after us these last 5 years.

* Acronyms in the left sidebar <---

Love and happy rogue crafting!

CKC Challenge 2 and Mercy Tiara Sketch Challenge

Layout number four for my CKC November kit.  I suspect this will be the last one for my November kit.  Ironically the two sets of photos that I specifically wanted to scrapbook using this kit are still unscrapped.  Oh well.  These things happen. 

I have a couple of cards coming soon to change things up a bit so long as NCC* doesn't try to Halp too much.

 
This layout takes care of two challenges.  One is a mini challenge from Mercy Tiara's 27 Day Challenge.  The deets can be found in her Facebook Group. 





 

The mini challenge is a sketch challenge set by Moira O'Reilly.  Click on her name to go to her blog post detailing the challenge itself and the actual sketch.  The sketch comes from Kristine Davidson.  Kristine has a blog for sketches and a new book out (I believe this sketch comes from that book).






 

The second challenge is CKC Challenge 2 for November.  The title says it's about star signs which I don't "do", but using stars is an interpretation along those lines.  I used stars in place of most of the circles on the original sketch.

I also mirror imaged the sketch to allow for the direction in the photo.  The journalling proved a challenge given the the diagonal lines.  Rather than adding a journalling card or trying to write across the lines, I just went with the flow and used what was already there.

My Very Own Wonder Boy

 

I'm guessing most of you are familiar with the lovely Shimelle Laine and how she refers to her mini man as Wonder Boy so you should "get" the reference.  It's mentioned in the journalling which is why our very own SCD* is also a Wonder Boy in our eyes.









As soon as I saw him drinking from my Wonder Woman Mug, it his me.  As these things often do.

Please check back soon for some fun cards and more CKC madness once the December kit is revealed!


*Acronyms in the left Sidebar <---

Love and Happy Cat Wrangling

CKC Challenge 1 for November

Just a very few days left of the CKC Kit challenges for November.

CKC puts out a few challenges each month to help inspire us to use those kits.  

Minor Mishap At The Zoo

 

Challenge 1 was all about a story focusing on the positive,  I used a story about a minor injury during an outing and how Disney Princess BandAids turned the whole thing around (I mean why wouldn't they??😍).  And how adorable do my little nieces look sporting those BandAids??

I cheated with a sheet of white cardstock, since nothing else I at left at this point was looking "right" and Shimelle's layout about Wonder Boy's first and last day at school was the perfect scraplift for these photos.





The seemingly random animals make more sense given we were at a zoo! (not that you can tell from the photos, but there are plenty more layouts to come from that day that are far more zooey)

Well I'm not sure there's much else to say about this one - still need to catch up my blogging before the Mr Linky closes on CKC

Love and happy blogging!

Mercy Tiara 27 Day Challenge Tic Tac Toe and CKC Nov Kit

Every month, Tracy aka Mercy Tiara (known best for her YouTube vids) throws out a challenge in her Facebook Group lasting 27 days and winner of said challenge picks the next month's challenge and so on.

WELL Tracy's right hand, Moira O'Reilly, puts out some really fun mini challenges and this layout is the result of one of them.

Sweet Dreams

The main challenge for the month is about scrapbooking yourself and while it's something I have done on rare occasions, I'm just not feeling it at the moment.  I know it doesn't have to be an actual photo of me (and that's something you REALLY don't want to see), but I believe in going with what inspires you at the time.

I love the idea behind the challenge since we don't always remember to scrapbook ourselves, but it's something for another day for me,

So...one of the mini challenges is a Tic Tac Toe and I love these!  They're really fun!

This is Moira's Tic Tac Tor for November.  I followed the bottom row.

The layout itself is based on one from Shimelle's most recent Disney class which you can find here.


I also used the supplies from the kit I put together for the November Counterfeit Kit Challenge.  

I was good and didn't cheat, so I wasn't completely thrilled with the title.  It helped after I added a label sticker underneath it (from the pile of random die cuts I added to the kit)

The (loose) diagonal line of embellishments comes from the cork circles (from two different collections) and the wood veneer stars.  You can't have a nighttime layout without stars, right?





Aqua/mint and coral?  Check!  

My colour scheme came from the background paper from One Canoe Two's "Hazelwood" collection.  The photos are warmish (and I'm sure heavily corrected) since they were taken rather stealthily with just a nightlight for illumination.

It simply didn't look right without gold mist.  Probably that celestial thing again.

Like everything else, my personal philosophy is "More is More" so there is an awful lot of mist there! 😳😳😳



 

I'm thinking this layout will probably go in SCD's* album rather than the family album due to the colour scheme and story.  

I try to make the stories that go in his album reflections of his personality.

As for the last prompt - fortunately the patterned paper from Amy Tangerine's "Hustle and Heart" is a dense floral with tigers peeking out here and there, so while I chose it for the tigers, there is just enough floral pattern to get a tick here as well.




So until next time,

Love and more and more misting!



*Acronyms in left sidebar <---

Stuck?! Sketches 1 Nov using November CKC Kit

So...I finally broke into my kit for November!  Well...the first thing I did was make 3 page kits last week, but didn't get around to actually chopping and sticking until three days ago. 

Finally had the energy to finish the thing! 

Quilty Cat

 
You can find the deets to the November CKC here.

So I kicked off with the sketch from 1 November from Stuck?! Sketches.  They release two per month and I hope to make a layout for the second one too.

The sketch looks like this and while I originally printed three photos, one of them (while taken in the same series) just looked too different and out of place.

The warm colours that make up so much of my Counterfeit Kit for November was perfect for this photo.  I don't use orange an awful lot - especially in such a large expanse so it was a challenging layout, but the orange isn't harsh,  It's a softer orange with watercolour streaks through it.

I decided to cut it to the exact size I'd need and mount everything onto a sheet of carstock I knew I would probably never use.  I declare that's not cheating).  



I also went into my scrap box for a bit of white (with black text) paper to mount the photos on.  (also not cheating since scraps are a bonus if you actually use them!)

I have to confess I very nearly cheated for real when I tuned to my stash of Sassa embellies since I knew some of the Whimsies had a fabric like texture.  They were just too big.  

 
The chipboard flowers in the kit had a little fabric texture so adding a fabric brad from my trusty pink tray (along with flower shaped buttons from there) helped get that vibe across.  

BTW several of the patterns in the Hustle and Heart collection by Amy Tangerine (I used a red behind the photos) have a pattern that sort of reminded me of a knitted jumper (sweater).

I gathered together a bunch of die cuts from that pile of extras and made three slightly awkward, but OK looking clusters.



The borders on the top and bottom of the page are two sides of the same paper and I found a section of the colourful one without green since I didn't want add it in...and it looks a but like a somewhat crazy quilt!

I'm a little late with my blog posts due to technical difficulties so please stop by often this week since I have another two layouts make with the kit and hope to get a fourth done.

Love and successful scrapping!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge for November

I love these challenges - or just making a scrapbook (or card) "kit" similar to those offered by subscribing to a monthly kit club.  Unfortunately I kinda suck at it.  I can pull out 50 sheets of paper in the first 3 minutes of searching and still want more.  😞
Counterfeit Kit Club is a really fun blog where each month a past kit from a real kit club is chosen for everyone to use as inspiration for their own kit that month.  You can learn more about the process HERE.

It doesn't have to look as close as possible.  There are many ways to interpret a kit.  This month it's the November 2016 kit called "Emerson" by Citrus Twist Kits.  Unfortunate timing means the kit details have dropped off the bottom of the website.

Before I start pulling papers out of my stash in a wild frenzy, I USUALLY take some time to analyze the colours, patterns and motifs in the kit and figure out which of those aspects I will and wont include in my kit. (i cant help it - its the scientist in me 🤷)

It's harder without the kit details to scrutinize, but there are a handful of YouTube videos showing unboxing videos and Citrus Twist have a Pinterest board where they put photos of their kits.

I have actually been a Citrus Twist subscriber for a while a few years back so I know (more or less) what add-ons they offer and what I used to order.  I would sub to the main scrapbook kit and their pocket page kit, but would typically get extra pattern paper (doubles of the main kit), their add-on scrapbook kit, Pattern Paper Play (different to the papers in either scrapbook kit but designed to co-ordinate) and their embellishment kit since kit clubs typically don't have enough "stuff" for me.

I wouldn't separate the components, but rather put them all together into one monster kit.

When making up a kit - whether it be a page kit or a larger, I start with one item which has as many of the colours and/or motifs that I want to include and keep it close to hand when choosing supplies. The colourful chevron in the bottom left corner by JillyBean Soup caught my eye first.  While I do have this exact paper, I wanted my kit to have more saturated colour.

Rather than being Autumn here in Australia, it's the end of Spring so while I don't scrapbook chronologically, I admit I have some photos from a day out a few weeks ago that I have wanted to scrapbook and I know I want to use at least some papers from Amy Tangerine's Hustle and Heart collection.  When I thought about it, it WAS just a more saturated version (colourwise) of that chevron paper,

I decided that I would pull extra pattern papers in addition to the main kit, but rather than getting two of every sheet (which I may not have), I would pick one paper to represent the "A" side and one for the "B" side.  Thanks to being familiar with many of the papers and YouTube videos for the rest, I was able to find out exactly what each side looked like and how I would interpret this,

My paper choices (which represent the side reflected in the original kit photo) are shown below

One major difference is that I didn't pull out any cardstock.  I picked subtle patterned papers to take their place.  The rightmost two papers on the top and bottom are my "cardstock" picks.

Embellishments.  Each thing I picked has a counterpart in the original kit,  Some of mine are a bit more generous sometimes (like a couple of 12x12 and a small extra sticker sheet to represent a cut-apart sheet) but I did my best.

Apologies for the sun glare over the stamp set!  

I also have a tray with wood veneer, brads, gems, buttons and clips etc which gets used by pretty much every kit and add-on this month.

Next up are the extra pattern papers I mentioned before.  The side you can't see in the original kit photo.  For example, that bright chevron has an aqua star print on the reverse and I picked an aqua/blue heart paper to represent it.

I haven't picked "duplicates" for the cardstock of course.  The extra paper kit only has the six pattern papers in it.

Next is the Pattern Paper Play.  I can,t find a photo of it online, but one of the YouTube videos showed the papers.  There are four papers in the kit and my picks represent either the front or back.  Whichever reflected the directed of my kit best.  I didn't duplicate this just to get eight choices (although now that I think of it...😉)

Next up we have the add-on scrapbook kit called "Falling For You".  The pic below is the original kit by Citrus Twist.

My papers (and cardstock equivalents which are top and bottom right):

And my embellishments:

And the Pocket Life Kit by Citrus Twist looks as follows:

My version is below.  I didn't count the cards.  I simply grabbed some that were floating around in my not-yet-properly-organised die cuts.

Now I'm not sure whether it's an ongoing or one off thing, but November 2016 had two embellishment kits.  The "Sprinkles" kit as shown below:

And mine:

And the Citrus Twist Embellishment Kit:

And my version:

So that's a lot of stuff, right?  Well I just can't stop and decided I was going to include the following.

Yes the pile of die cuts is pretty huge, BUT many are really quite old and so I think it's fine to include them.  Maybe with enough practice I'll get the hag of this kit gathering business.  Would you believe me if I said it's actually pretty good for me?  Certainly where paper is concerned,  Probably not!! 😂

Well. love and happy kit counterfeiting!

Victoria Marie Fall Crop "Make it Colourful" Challenge

It's been a busy time of year craftwise - lots of challenges finishing up this week, so I only got to try a single challenge (other than the one I hosted).

The one that most sparked my interest was hosted by Beth Soler and was colour based and messy! (Yay!)

This is her challenge:

"Your challenge is to create a colorful background with whatever medium you have that can work as watercolors. The twist is that you must use your favorite color and tell your thoughts and feelings about the photo!" 

Naturally the first order of business was to over complicate things unnecessarily - check! 🙄 I have plenty of watercolours in various forms and qualities, but Beth's words "work like a watercolour" made me want to try something that isn't really a watercolour to see what I could do.

Distress products are cheating since everyone knows how beautifully they work as watercolours, but the idea of using spray mist came from that.

The paper I chose to spray over was in keeping with the story.  I was continuing with my "Dyan" layouts and this is number two.  Any sketchy black on white design really reminds me of her stamps and this was a stamping class.

I started by gathering all my pink mists.  I had about 12 (!) 😮 in various brands and formulations from very shimmery to a bit shimmery to no shimmer.  From a deep hot pink to the palest blush, from opaque almost painty mist to very translucent.

My first mistake was not applying clear gesso first.  I thought it would make the paper too slick.  The mist absorbed quickly and didn't really run down the page the way I imagined.  It looked almost passable for able three minutes, but as it spread and dried, all the colours started mixing together and I basically just had a pink paper (sob). 😢

I set it aside preparing to start again after cooking dinner since the FamBam wanted to eat (again??!)  😝.  It was a warm evening and it had dried and the paper felt a lot less porous, so before starting again, I gave it one more chance.  This time I was prepared to dry between colours with the heat gun but it came in more handy blowing the paint down.

Adding a bit of opaque white gave just the extra bit of interest I wanted, so in the end it wasn't half bad at all.

Plenty of paper layers and embellies as is my norm came next.  I'm trying to continue using many of the same supplies throughout the layouts.  There are a few things I have failed to include for the second layout running now and it's starting to bug me!

Anyway,  how perfect are those Heidi Swapp phrase stickers?? 😍😍😍  I did come armed with several bottles of Diet Coke as always.

 So back to Beth's challenge - Pink was an easy choice.  Not only because it's my favourite, but because it featured heavily in the story.  While we ended up swapping the warm paints with cool paints halfway through the classe, I pounced on the pink ones each time.  Dyan likes pink too!

As for the photo - I took it early in the class.  I was struggling with a flare in my jaw that triggers a hard to control migraine, so despite pain meds and copious ammounts of Diet Coke, I struggled through the stamping class and managed to screw up a simple masking exercise when I do much more fancy masking at home. 🙄


In addition to the pink paint, I also managed to snag the cat stencil to use so that photo is definitely a "happy place" photo despite being in pain.  I really needed to get away and crafty - preferably away from home distractions and using messy things.  I got all that and more and have come away much more inspired and motivated since then.

The smaller photo shows how messy my hands still were after I got home.  They really don't show how bad it actually way!  The sure sign of a day well spent.

Basically after the layout is all done, this is about the only bit of the background left, but you still get the idea I think!

Love and happy misting!

Cat Lovers Hop 2017

One of my favourite blog hops of the year!

It comes at the end of a busy week - 27 October is (Inter)National Black Cats Day, 29 October is not only Psoriasis day (a predisposing factor to my particular flavour of Arthur*) and...

...(inter)National Cat Day!

Every year Janis at HerPeacefulGarden hosts a blog hop full of all kinds of crafty cat projects.  Please click on the blog hop image or clickable link and see the full line up of awesome cat projects!

Last year I did a layout so this year I thought I'd mix it up a bit with a card...or two!

This year's cards started with this:

I had a fair bit of my franken pink marbly embossing paste left from yesterday's layout, so I grabbed a sheet of white cardstock and my Dyan Reaveley cat stencil and salvaged the rest to use later.

It occurred to me that it could make a nice background for a cat card so I went in that direction.  Choosing a stamp would be harder.  I have as many cat stamps as I do coffee themed ones, but in the end I decided to go with a Saturated Canary image called "Crafty Cat".

I wanted to bust out the Copics again since I feel really rusty and I'm trying to get more practice with smaller images and more detail - not to mention practising various cat breeds and colours.

I still want to improve with black, grey and white cats,  I'm not sure I'll ever get the hang of the complicated coat that is Torbie with its colouring and then unique markings on top of that!

I discovered a friend has a Bengal cat a few weeks ago!  A very cool and unique breed! I tried colouring the second of my two Crafty Friends as a Bengal.

SmallCraftyDude has been obsessed with Egyptian Mau cats.  These guys are really unique so if you have some time, have a read about them.  I find it fascinating that many of their physical attributes are still very similar to ancient breeds rather than modern domestic cats.

So cat trivia aside, back to my cards.  I rarely
colour just one image at at time - it eases the pressure of not making mistakes and helps ease back into something I often feel a bit rusty with.  I remembered how much I need more markers!  I'd like to do a greater variety of skin and hair tones at the very least.

So...I fussy cut my images, trimmed the pink embossed cat card fronts to size, rounded corners and I used whatever ink was left on my ink blending tools from my last few galaxy cards just to define the edges a bit.  I love how Distress Ink feathers softly as it wicks into the paper.


The twine and button came after a sleepless night knowing my cards didn't look quite "right".  🙄

I have a few craft themed stamp sets and the sentiment is from "Crafty Friends" by Altenew and the thought bubble from "Just Thinking of You" by Neat and Tangled just managed to squeeze around the sentiment.  Some vellum heat embossed in black was softer than cardstock and I decided I was done!

(oh except for Ranger's Glossy Accents over the glasses!}

*Acronyms in left sidebar! <----

Love and happy colouring!