The Happiest Place on Earth

and also the fullest.  Wow!  We did the meal plan at Disneyworld, cause it was included in our vacation package for essentially free.  Wow! Do they ever expect you to eat a lot!  We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort right in Disneyworld.  I think my husband has fallen on his head recently, but hey it got me in Disneyworld and then it got me an iPad, so who's complaining?  Everywhere you go at Disneyworld, you go by bus, boat or monorail.  For the four days and five nights we were there, the car never left the spot we initially parked it. 

So back to the food.  On the meal plan each person gets 1 snack, 1 walk-up meal and one sit down meal a day  At first you might think that this is a little skimpy, but don't be fooled, its far, far from skimpy.  What we ended up doing was only using 2 walk-up (quick-service) meals between the four of us.  A quick service meal includes an entree, drink and dessert.  At breakfast it becomes 2 drinks.  The serving sizes were more than generous.  This way we had our snacks left over to do with what we wanted.  The sit down meals can't be split.  The other thing to remember is book the sit down meals right away.  Some restaurants are busier than others, but if you don't book ahead, you could wander around and spend your whole time waiting.  Pick some restaurants and book em.  You're at the park for a few days, book the restaurants and work out where you'll be around it.  The food quality varies at the sit down restaurants, but there is always something that the kids will like on the menu.  The restaurant at Animal Kingdom, Tusker House served an all you can eat with a north African flavour buffet.  For the kids, a make your own PBJ station.  How can you miss?  The other highlight was the Artist Point restaurant at Disney's Wilderness Lodge.  This one uses two sit down tickets per person, but was well worth it.  We're lucky, our kids will eat almost anything, so we ordered a variety of meals and add-ons and everyone got to try.  It was really good!

We did all the other Disney stuff too.  Bestest rollercoaster: The Aerosmith ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  AWESOME!!

I got to sleep (Sorta) and my car went for a ride.

When my husband suggested that we drive to Florida, I had a physical response of total revulsion.  Total revulsion!  No way did I want to spend some 24 hours plus in a car over 2 to 3 days.  NOT my idea of a good time.  But then my husband said he wanted to do the Amtrak car train.  What?  We've been on more than one ferry, across Georgian Bay and across the bay of Fundy.  It's a great way to cut some time and adds a little something different to your trip.  So, I was skeptical, but he had booked Disney already and really, I don't think he'd have cared if I said no. 

Check it out here.

I don't really have good pictures to share, what can I say.  The service was lovely, the food great.  We got two roomettes, one for my husband and I and one for the girls.  The roomettes are small and you share washrooms.  Sleeping was a little interesting.  As I find moving and sleeping to be mutually exclusive activities, I did not sleep much.  Oh well.  In the end still way better than driving.  We left Lorton at 4 pm and arrived early in Sanford at about 8:30 the next morning.  Once the car was taken off the train, we drove about 45 minutes to Disney, checked in, dropped the car and were at Epcot by lunch.  Quick, easy and relatively painless.

Washington D.C. or How I walked my legs to teeny tiny painful little nubs.

In Washington DC we discovered a cantilevered highway on our drive into town.  This may not be all that weird and hey they sort of happen all over, but it was kinda cool nonetheless.  This particular highway, Hwy 29 or Canal Road runs along the canal which runs along the Potomac river.  This is a beautiful quiet spot filled with greenery and the loudest cicadas ever.  It seems to be a favourite spot for runners and joggers, as we saw tons in the few minutes we walked around. 

This little drive really reminded me of Toronto's own Rosedale Valley Road.

After settling into our hotel, we walked over to Georgetown just a few short blocks away.  Besides the Paper Source store, which was quite a heavenly find for a paper crafter, the stores were typical of shopping malls everywhere.  One thing we did notice though, was that fine dining in Georgetown was just not going to happen for us, we simply were not dressed for it.  In this political town, people dress for dinner.  You'd be hard pressed to find a restaurant in Toronto with anything resembling a dress code, but here, no jacket, no service.  As the light of the day faded, out came the bling and the glitz.  High heels, pretty dresses and shirts and ties were everywhere.  Subway was about our speed that night.

The next morning dawned hot, hot, hot and soupy.  Off we swam to the Mall and the slew of Smithsonian museums on its shores. We walked from our hotel, which it turned out was quite a jaunt. The farthest point on our outing that day was the Air and Space Museum.  It is about 4.5 kilometers from our hotel, the Marriott at 22nd and M.  So just walking there and back was about 9 kilometers and doesn't count walking around in three museums.  They were awesome museums though.  We went to the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum in addition to the Air and Space.  I would highly recommend skipping the Natural Science Museum on the weekend, as it was crammed especially with strollers, babies and very small children, many of whom were not thrilled to be there.

We got back to the hotel, pizza picked up along the way and ate in our room.  We then soaked in the hot tub and passed out in our beds early.

The next day we headed out to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.  So well worth the drive.  An amazing museum!  We followed a guided tour led by a very knowledgeable and friendly docent.  Our group had the pleasure of hearing first hand from Robert Harris about his record breaking high altitude flight in the Grob 102 Standard Astir III that belonged to him and is now on display at the museum.  He was in our group, following the tour.  Very Cool!  I have to admit I got a bit teary eyed walking into the room consumed by the shuttle craft Enterprise.  The tears didn't last long as my daughters and husband started looking for all the little jokes on the alien space ship used in the filming of Close Encounters.  From the surreal to the sublime.  Great, great time spent in Washington.

Where have the last two months gone?

I don't know what black hole I fell into, but it ate 2 months of my life!  I have not scrapped a single page since sometime in August.  Now half that time disappeared into an amazing trip to Florida and home again.  In the true spirit of a road trip, the trip was a huge part of the awesome.  I'd share a picture today, but the one I really want to share is of Falling Water, a Frank Lloyd Wright house outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The ticket says you can only use the photo's for personal use and you're not even allowed to post them on line in any way.  Wow.  Do they have people searching the nit continuously looking for people breaking the rules?

The house was awesome, but in a way that I did not really like per se.  It was cool to know a little about Frank Lloyd Wright and his extreme need to control his design past his control.  He was an artist, but he was a total control freak, whose need to pound you over the head with his ideas is reflected in almost every aspect of the house.  The house, which is situated adjacent to and cantilevered over a water fall, allows no view of the water fall.  Wright was enamored with the sound of the water fall and thought it the most important element, as far as enjoying the water fall went.  Well, don't try looking at the water fall.  Without hanging over a balcony wall, and endangering your life, you can't.  Wright couldn't stand the thought of some uneducated slob not getting it.  I think that's the part of his designs that kill me the most.  He didn't trust the person paying the bills. 

I am sure that students of architectural history will disagree with me wholeheartedly.  I do concede he did some cool things with architecture, but without factoring in the personality of the man, you can't really appreciate the extent of what it was he was doing with his designs.

Make your own Background Paper with Stamps and Mists

I just started fooling around and this is what happened.

I think it turned out beautifully and it was all done with stamps and Glimmer Mist and a Glimmer screen.

Here are the steps.

1. Use a foam applicator and ink far right edge of paper with Peeled Paint Distress ink.  Try to get a smooth gradation from darkest at the edge to lighter towards the centre.  
2. Stamp with Tattered Angels Blossom Trees in Peeled Paint.
3. Now place the coordinating Glimmer Screens on the page and spray with Seashell Glimmer Mist.  I sprayed half, moved the screen and sprayed again.  Be careful, the screen gets pretty wet and will drip if you are not careful.
4. I next stamped with a Prima stamp, Vintage Script.  I inked it with Peeled paint, but used the foam applicator in order to achieve a lighter tone. 
5. Next I used a stamp from Crafty Individuals; Deco Foliage Large Corner.  Again, I wanted this element to remain soft and distant.  I used Antique Linen Distress Ink and a foam applicator to get the soft image.
6. Last but not least another stamp, this time from Sparkle and Sprinkle called Chrysanthemum Medallion.  I wanted this to pop a little and went for full on Vintage Photo Distress ink.  The upper corner needed a little masking.  When I mask I always use a mouse pad underneath to get the image right to the edge of the mask without leaving a gap.

You don't need the exact same stamps or inks.  The biggest ideas are tone on tone stamping, ie. inking the page and then stamping in the same colour.  Using that and the foam to apply the ink turns one colour of ink into almost three, but three that automatically go together.  The other idea is to layer, layer, layer.

Give it a try.

In love with Graphic 45

I am still working my way through last summer's trip pictures.  I just have one set to go and then I think I can call it done.

Graphic 45 has me completely captivated.  Their beautifully coordinating papers are just so easy to work with.  In my Newport RI layout, I used the On the Boardwalk line with bits from Transatlantique.  I used some ink, passed one sheet through a crimper, added Glossy Accents, Glimmer mist and accented with butcher's twine.  Simple, simple, simple.

This layout is all about old institutions and no paper better reflects this than Venetian Lace from the Renaissance Faire collection.  Finished off with gold pen accents, Dew drops, 7 Gypsies tag, Prima stamps and Stamp It stamps. 

The Summer is Going Way, Way, Way too fast!

I can't believe that it's the end of July already.  EEEEK.  I've signed up for my classes and I guess I'll be buying books soon.  The stores are already filled with clothing for fall.  I haven't bought all my summer clothes yet!  Oh well. 

I did have the opportunity to spend some time at a cottage.  Here are some pictures of some lovely Ontario lake scenes.

So now that you've been refreshed by some lovely scenery, get back to scrapping!  Maybe start with a deal from Scraptivity.  Check out the blog to see what's on this week.

Gave Blood Today

I gave blood today and got my 10 donation pin.  Woohoo.  I thought I had done it more than that, but time sort of distorts these things.  I give much faster now.  I used to take forever and it got to the point where I thought they would have to hang me by my heels and squeeze me to get out the full donation.  Now it's about 10 minutes and I'm finished.

At the end you get to have cookies, or even Bits and Bites and something to drink.  Pleasant conversation accompanies the process.  I can't say I truly enjoy it, but there are things much less pleasant without nearly as positive a benefit.

Animals doing Strange Things

This weekend we were at a cottage and saw this interesting sight.

I imagine the dog must actually like this, otherwise how would you get the dog on the seadoo.  He looks happy enough.  Later, my husband on a boat ride in another area of the lake, saw another dog on a seadoo.  Apparently, it's just a better form of sticking your head out of the window.

A Long Time Ago....

It may seem that November 2007 was a long time ago, and well in some ways it was, but the kit from November 2007 is as current as ever.  The reason is that it is all about time.  Month stamps, blank calendar pages in two formats and beautiful papers provide the basis for a very solid kit.  With Christmas just around the corner, my corners are maybe a little longer than yours, now may be a good time to get started on a gift calendar project.  The calendar components also make good journaling spots and embellishments.  Have fun, play around, but mostly don't miss this deal.  At $19.99 it's a great value.  Also, don't forget to check out the Blog for other great deals.

Made with the November 2007 kit, Rock Candy Stickles, Liquid Pearls, MME Lush brad.

Cards are possible too.

Genealogy and Volunteerism

There are many ways to volunteer your time to worthwhile causes.  I volunteer at the Bata Shoe Museum giving tours, mostly to school groups, and really enjoy that experience.  It fits with my love of history, particularly the everyday aspects of how people lived in various times.  It's surprising how much a shoe can tell about a person and the society they lived in.

Another aspect of my love of history is genealogy.  I've been tracing my husband's family tree for a number of years now.  I am slowly becoming the family's historian, getting calls when babies are born and people die just for the purpose of keeping records straight.  Sad and happy, but with the wide spread of families and very few family bibles, important.

This past weekend my Aunt-in-law called to give me some info and told me about her trip to Pier 21 in Halifax.  Her husband's father was a Homechild or Bernardo child.  He knew very little about his family, but while there found his father with two siblings on a ship arriving in Canada.  Well, I have an Ancestry.com membership and told my Aunt I would look into seeing if I could find anything more.  The miracles of the digital age meant that a few hours later I had his family researched back 4 generations.  The best part is that some very fuzzy family stories now have some answers and answers that remarkably fit to elements of the stories.  I am packaging up everything I have found and hope it gives my Uncle some delight in learning about his family.  I am sure it will.

You're asking now what this has to do with volunteerism.  A few years ago I tried doing some transcribing for the Free Gen project in Scotland.  At first I thought it was a doable project.  Transcribe the returns for an entire district for the census year 1841.  One year and over 1000 records later I felt like I had hardly made a dent and the guilt in being so slow was really bothering me.  I handed the project back unfinished and hope that at least the work I had done was able to be used.  Ancestry.com must have understood some of the challenges and potential of a public willing and eager to help transcribe.  They have created a wonderful method with software , the keying tool, and data to download in manageable chunks.  I am talking transcriptions that can be done in under one half hour.  You can be bored, pull one up, and finish it off while supper is cooking.  You need to be registered, but you don't have to have a subscription to participate.  All the records transcribed via this method will be made available to search for free.  Check it out under the collaborate tab on the main page.  It's like a do good quick fix!

Just sharing a little smile.

Kit Sale Continues

This week it's the March 2010 kit.  This lovely kit has some gorgeous papers from Shabby Green Door's On the Wing of a Dream collection.  The beautiful, softly toned papers blend beautifully with Ella Blue from GCD, which continues the theme of blue and brown with the addition of flocking and lacquer.  Add to that some fabric elements and pretty stamps and you are already well on your way to beautiful layouts.  The technique is using Shimmerz and Shimmerz Blingz.  Fun, fun, fun and just one more way to add sparkle for all you magpies.  Head over to Scraptivity and check it out.

I've been using this kit with the April 2010 kit to put together my daughter's Paris album.  Lucky duck had her 16th birthday on a class trip to Paris.

July Challenges

In the summer we're all busy.  BBQ's, summer camp, trips to the cottage and road trips with the family, nights sleeping in tents and oppressive heat all contribute to a hectic time that seems to move at all too slow a pace.  We all think we can cram in a little extra.  Well we thought a good July challenge would involve less, not more.  The point of this month's challenge is making the most of those hot summer days, without adding to the already hectic pace.  Summer living should be easy and so should our summer challenge.  Be quick, be easy, be uncomplicated.

To kick things off, I made a quick hostess gift to take to a friend's cottage when we go.  Their cottage is such an inspiration.  Simple, homey and filled with things that are meaningful to them.  Almost every object holds a story, but at the same time is displayed in a very easy simple way.  Last year I made them a glass mushroom, but this year I thought a pack of homemade blank cards and what better way to honour the cottage tradition than by using Graphic 45's On the Boardwalk collection.  What makes a whole pack of cards simple is the way these papers coordinate and the elements that can be cut out of the cards.  Pick a coordinating cardstock and you are good to go.  I picked a burnt orange, turquoise and ochre linen card at Bizzy B's, where I also picked up the Graphic 45 paper.

The whole project took about an hour and a half.  I did have to split my time over a couple of days due to the use of Glossy Accents and Distress Crackle paint in clear.

See the challenge over at Scraptivity.  There will be quick project ideas throughout the month.  Come over, have a look and pick up or share an inspiration for a quick summer project.

Kit Sales!!

Each week a new kit is featured at awesome savings!!!  Check out the Scraptivity blog regularly.  Today, there's a $1 stamp!

July Kit

Well, it seems as though there will not be a July kit from Scraptivity.  I sure hope Barb can make some headway on feeling and getting better. 

No new kit does not however have to mean no new fun.  Check out the Tim Holtz challenges !  Maybe we can lure him to sample the delights Toronto has to offer.

I also have another victorian paper project to share and will be doing so shortly.

Stay tuned, check back often, play along and have some fun!

June Kit

It's time to play some games and June's kit makes it easy.  Check out the gallery for some great ideas and inspiration.

Victorian Flowers Part Two

These instructions are from Cassell's Household Guide via Marjorie Henderson and Elizabeth Wilkinson from their book Whatnot: a compendium of Victorian crafts and other matters, published by Morrow in 1977.


This set of instructions was a primer for what the Victorian housewife was intended to do to create realistic paper flowers.  After practicing with patterns she was to go on and dissect real flowers using those as a guide to her own creative endeavours.

A Mrs Delaney, who lived sometime in the late 1700's was so known for her abilities with the recreation in paper of real flowers, that the King and Queen sent new floral discoveries to her first, so she could immortalize them in paper. Unfortunately, this photo is in black and white, but the intricacy can still be appreciated.

So let's get started.
Get the directions and template here.

These are the shapes.  I cut them out and numbered them with the number of petals required of each.  If you do them out of tissue, just cut lots.

Here's the little ball.

 This is for crimping.  I found after a while, that crimping several petals at once worked better and the tissue didn't tear.  Wrap loosely, push the petal up to the end against the finger of one hand and use the other hand to force the petal together from the bottom.

There the petals are crimped.

and grouped ready to go.

Make the next set of petals curve.  I used the end of my awl on a mouse pad.  The shaft of the awl comes in handy later for the last set of petals to help create the reverse curl.

So here's where I think I messed up.  After getting to the end, I am pretty sure that the balls belong on the inside of the rose and maybe those petal should also go the other way, bending towards the centre.  See why you need to be looking at the real thing.

The last set of crimped petals go in between the others, again refer to my comments on the last step.

So here go the out petals.  I am pretty sure that they are going on the right way.  If you were a Victorian lady doing this, it would be about the time in the afternoon that you would be expecting your tea to be served and you would be wondering where your housemaid was.  You'd wander into the yard to find her collapsed under your 100 pound oriental rug that she had to drag outside to beat the dirt out of, a job she naturally does every Wednesday.

I added a little tab for gluing, because just looking at the bottom of this rose, I knew it wouldn't work otherwise.

Voila, you think, one done!  The maid had better get up before the neighbours see her and think you allow her to nap midday in the yard.

Only 10 more, the stems and leaves and careful arranging in a papier mache vase and you're all done.  Won't the ladies of the Temperance League be impressed.

Have fun and happy crafting!

Victorian Paper Flowers: Part One

Or the Pastimes of the Newly created Middle Class Woman:
Or Anything Worth doing is worth doing Well
Or Making or Doing it Yourself is more Economical

It is interesting, when reading the manuals created for women in the home, to note the tone with which the advice was given. For a woman brought up in 20^th Century North America, or Europe, the paternal tone might be a tad abrasive. If we delve deeper, we see something quite different, I think. The authors of these tomes expected their readers to carry out and distinguish themselves in very complex tasks that required a great degree of skill, patience and most importantly, time. They did not think of their readers as dullards, silly or incapable, but rather the opposite.
But what was the point of it all? Was it just to fill the new amounts of time that Victorian middle class women found they had? Why did they have all this time? I hope to answer some of these questions for you and not to bore you too much.
One of the points was economical. Cassell’s in his household guide stated,
“For we believe it will be found by many that when they have learnt how to obtain economically the necessaries of the household, and to do for themselves what hitherto they have had to get done by expensive assistance, they will have in every case something left with which they can augment the convenience, the comfort, and possibly even the luxury of their house and living—bettering at once their mode of life and their measure of enjoyment”
The belief in the economical running of a household was extolled by Samuel Smiles, an influential author of the time, in his book “Thrift”. Thriftiness was a virtue Smiles encouraged and he believed that an intelligent industrious woman was the key to a happy well appointed home. “Men themselves attach little or no importance to the intelligence or industrial skill of women; and they only discover their value when they find their homes stupid and cheerless.”
Paper flowers could be produced for a third of the cost of real flowers and thus create beauty in the home, but use the family’s resources in a responsible way.
Time, as the cabbage flowers I will show were supposed to take about 3 days to create, was the primary resource used by the Victorian housewife. The Victorians were obsessed with the newly discovered germs and cleaned like crazy. Fortunately, labour was cheap and most middle class homes could afford at least one servant. She was expected to rise by 6 a.m. and it was called “considerate” to release her from her duties at 10 p.m. She didn’t get a lot of time off, even to go to church on a Sunday. The housemaid was expected to proceed directly from church services back to the home of her employ. With household chores cared for by the housemaid, the lady of the house did have larger amounts of time on her hands. This time might be spent visiting with friends, attending social/church groups concerned with helping the poor or unfortunate, or she worked on various projects to create a cheerful home.
If you would like to read a couple of resources about Victorian life and middle class ideals, “Thrift” by Samuel Smiles can be found at http://ia311324.us.archive.org/1/items/smilesthrift00smiluoft/smilesthrift00smiluoft.pdf
And links to all three volumes of Cassell’s Household guide can be found here
University of Toronto Library

Preview

So, I spent some time today at the Royal Ontario Museum Library.  Bet you didn't know they had a library that was accessible to the public.  I didn't.  I was looking for some information on Victorian paper crafts, not just the directions, but the directions as the Victorian ladies who would have used them would have found them.  Well I found an awesome book describing not only Victorian paper flower making, but how to make your own scrapbook which isn't very scrapbook like and an oriental accordion book which is very recognizable as a mini-album.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the Reference Library to look at a book on the history of Scrapbooking.  I love history, I love looking at the origins of things and I love scrapping, so why not combine my loves and then share.  I am hoping to share all my finds here on my blog.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed finding them.

Scraptivity May Kit

Well April didn't bring us much rain, but Scraptivity is fulfilling the promise of May anyways.  The May kit is all about you letting your creativity bloom by creating your own flowers.  You can make them out of paper sure, but the kit also includes ribbon, paper towel and coffee filters.  You heard me coffee filters! I played with magazine pages and the other designers had other ideas.  Go over to the gallery to check it out.

National Scrapbooking Day

Saturday is the big day and for me a total Scrapbooking immersion.  I'll be at Bizzy B's all day working and hopefully fitting in some cropping too.  At Scraptivity they can't help but join in too with an online crop and a huge past kit sale.  This is a great time to try one, or three out and see what you think.  They are great kits and at these prices an awesome value.


The online crop will be a riot too with the first challenges being posted this evening.  Go on over to the forum and check it out.

Have a great day celebrating the paper page!

See you online!

April Kit and Projects

Falling behind in my blogging because I am so busy scrapping.  April's kit is great!  Love the Mama-razzi papers.  I have to admit that at first I had my doubts.  A paper line dedicated to mom taking pictures of presumably her precious little ones did not have me all fired up.  My precious little ones are both teenagers that won't hold still or growl at me if I try to take a photo.  I have to be thrilled when all they do is ham it up and goof around.




  This paper line though, is so much more versatile than that.  Who would have thought that it could so beautifully showcase a monastery. As all the papers are double sided, there is at least one side that can be used, although there is often difficulty choosing which side.  The Tim Holtz film ribbon adds a lovely transparent touch.  Check out the Scraptivity gallery to see the many innovative ways this item was used by the design team.  All in all a great kit.  Currently, I am combining this line of papers with the papers from the March kit to create an album of my daughter's trip to Paris.  They actually combine beautifully.  I'll post as soon as I'm done.

April First

No I am not going to play a joke.  I am rotten at them anyways, so I won't trouble anyone with my less than stellar efforts.  My husband tried one on the kids which flopped.

The one thing about April first that's no joke is the new Scraptivity kit.  I have been working with this kit for the last week and LOVE IT.  It is awesome and I am sure that it will be well received.  Versatile, modern and lovely are words that come to mind.  Go to the site and see the reveal.

Trying out Windows Live Writer

This is supposed to be somewhat easier than using the dashboard, we’ll see.
First, I’ll try changing fonts.  A lot of scrappers love fonts, Well that went well.  Took a bit more to change it back, mostly figuring out which font the default one was. 
Now I’m going to add a picture of something.

Well that was pretty easy and gave me a few extra options to play with too.  Cool! 

Well it's cool in Writer, but is a giant pain to publish the photos, had to host it and that still didn't work.  Oh Well.

The next step is to see how well it publishes.
(By the way, the layout was made with Bobunny and Primas from the Christmas Scraptivity kit.  Thrown in too were Basic Grey alphas.)

Ooo The March Kit

The launch was on Monday at Scraptivity and the design team created a gorgeous array of layouts, cards and other cool projects.  The focus of this month's kit was the use of the Shimmerz and Blingz paints.  These really pretty paints add either a subtle shimmer or in the case of Blingz, outright glitter.  They layer wonderfully over printed papers and depending on how thickly you apply them, the print shows through.

 

Olympic ATC Challenge

I loved watching the Olympics.  All the athletes were just awesome.  The personal triumphs and tragedies were inspiring to me.  What some of these people overcame either on the way to, or during the games and yet still went on to compete was incredible.  The Slovenian cross-country skier, Petra Majdic, skiing with 4 broken ribs and a collapsed lung went on to win a bronze medal and then went off to the hospital.  All I can say is WOW and I should really shut up when my ski boots rub a little.

Of course the other huge story was Joannie Rochette losing her mother the day before she was to compete.  The grace, poise and dedication she showed was amazing.  Her mother would have been proud.

This brings me to another part of the Olympic story, that of the Canadian female athletes.  Lets give them all a big cheer.  The Women's 2 Lady Bobsleigh teams winning gold and silver was exciting to watch and a little scary. 

All this Hurray, though is heading to a point.  That point is my challenge.  Now that the Olympics are over there are loads of images available.  Heck you may have your own.  Create an ATC, or series of ATC;s the subject of which shall be the Olympics.  Use the images to create something unique.  You can do it digitally or you can do it with stamps and ink and paper and whatever you feel like.  Make it your own and reflect something about how the Olympics touched you.

 

Here's my example, I Can.

I used a really cool image of the bobsleigh team and one of Jennifer Heil after her silver medal performance that had the Olympic flag in the background.  I added some brushes and layered the images via colour burn and colour add.  Some bling and stamps and it was done.  Post here by Monday March 8th at midnight and I will draw for a prize.

A New Year and a New Space

I've had a sewing/craft room for a long time. It was always intended to also serve as a guest bedroom. Not that we have guests that often, but we had no where to go if one of us was sick. My girls share a room and dh and I have found that sometimes you'd rather sleep on your own, than with someone else. Mostly, you don't want to disturb the other person's sleep.

We needed a solution that would give both a bed and plenty of storage for all my stuff. Well just before Christmas, we got a daybed from Ikea. It actually pulls out to a king size bed and has great big drawers built right in. To that we added 2 tall Billy bookcases. Some baskets and a few homemade dohickeys and I think my room is great.

This is the daybed and the sliding door that makes this tiny room work at all.  The curtain slides across the door for privacy.

This is Diana, my dress form.  She spent a few days in my daughter's room before I was told to remove her as my daughter was getting totally creeped out.

The paper trays were a lucky garbage find.

I added a bit of Basic Grey Pheobe to the front of the boxes and baskets for a little colour and well, you know, we're paper crafters and can't help ourselves

This is my solution to having my heat gun handy but out of the way.  It's just a bullnose clip that I clamped onto the skirt board of the table.  Works great.

OK, this was just way too easy.  I bought these springs to make a bead loom, but they must have come in a pack of four.  So..... now it holds some of my carded embellishments in a way that allows me to see them.

To top it all off I added this Calendar made with the cork and patterned paper from the January Scraptivity kit.  The ribbon is from Old Navy, yep Old Navy had this ribbon for Christmas a couple of years back.  The calendar blanks are from the November 2008 (?) kit.

Now I am all set to take part in this weekend's CHA crop, well tomorrow morning's CHA crop at Scraptivity.