Winner!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Inspiration Elevator post for April!  We were celebrating our Blogaversary so I offered a $20.00 Gift Certificate to Two Scrapbook Friends to anyone who posted a comment and who follows my blog.  Tonight, with the help of my son (who was tucked in bed, eating chocolate and working on his laptop), a winner was picked from those who qualified.

And the winner is...

MaryAnn!  There will be a Gift Certificate waiting at Two Scrapbook Friends for you!  You can also use it for an online order is you wish.  Congrats!!

Little Red Wagon #235

Good Morning! Jodi's challenge at Little Red Wagon this week is to use a DIY flower on our card.  Such a perfect challenge to encourage Spring!

Here is my card with a flower I made using the We R Memory Keepers Flower Punch Board.

The background for my card was created by using strips of Washi tape.

A simple sentiment sticker finishes my card.  I hope you visit each of the DT blogs to see their DIY Flower projects this week.  Then I hope you create your own and link it up at Little Red Wagon!  See you there :)

Easter Blessings!

I think that Easter is my favorite holiday. I love the celebration of our risen Lord and the hope of our life in Him!  I also love that Easter coincides with Spring - that beautiful season with all it's promises of warmer weather and the awakening of nature all around us!  It is a time when my heart just sings.

Here are a few of the photos of Easter at our home.

 

My sweet little family - my greatest blessing of all!

Coloring Ukrainian Easter Eggs with my lovely friends!

 

He is Risen! What the day is truly all about!

I hope your Easter was equally blessed ~

Little Red Wagon #234

Happy Wednesday!  It has been such a busy couple of weeks that I am surprised that I was actually able to make a card for this week's challenge!  But I grabbed a few minutes and whipped up this little card for someone special - my great-nephew, Nolan, who turned 3 last week.

This week's challenge, from Tracy, is all about numbers!  

I used some left-over papers and did some die-cutting to create the balloons, numbers and gift.

I hope you head over to Little Red Wagon to see what the other Girlfriends on the DT have created! Then be sure to join in the fun by linking up your own project featuring numbers.  See you there :)

Little Red Wagon #233

Happy Wednesday!  Jayne's challenge this week at Little Red Wagon is to create anything with an Easter theme. I decided I needed some decorations for our dining room so I made up an Easter banner. 

I really wanted to keep it simple, so I began by choosing three colours that would work with my decor - teal, lime and yellow.  Then I cut the banner pieces on my Silhouette and added a paper doily with a letter to each one.

Next, I took three rolls of washi tape (in teal, yellow and lime) and added a strip to the top of each banner piece.  I also decided to add three extra banner pieces with rabbit silhouettes on them. I love how they turned out!

In order to thread my ribbon through the banner, I punched 1/2-inch circles near the corner of each piece.  When I saw the brightly coloured circles the punching left behind, I decided to add them randomly to the letters :)

I hope you give this week's challenge a try.  Create something with an Easter theme and then link it up at Little Red Wagon.  We love to see your creations!

Have a Happy Easter!

Inspiration Elevator - April 2014

Welcome to our April Inspiration Elevator challenge. Each month our group is challenged to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. Be sure to check out our Inspiration Elevator Blog to see all of our previous challenges.

This month we are celebrating our anniversary with a BLOG HOP! So be sure to hop from blog to blog as listed below.  Some of our designers are even offering prizes! We also welcome Katherine Sutton as a guest designer to Inspiration Elevator this month! Katharine has Guest Designed for us before and her fabulous style will inspire you to take your scrapbooking to a new level!

Now for our challenge:

"It's a 2-part challenge since it's created by Christa and Ann!

The first part of the challenge is to use a selfie. We are all a part of social media to some extent, so selfies are everywhere. "Call it another trend in narcissism, or call it art, but the "selfie" has become a mainstay of our virtual identity." 

Now for the second part. Every month the reveal preamble begins with:  "You may recall that the purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and extend ourselves."

So this month we'd like you to share something about scrapbooking. It could be why you scrapbook, what you love best, what you get out of it, your most amazing experience or, where you see your craft/hobby/art in the future."

What a fun challenge, Christa and Ann - well except for the selfie!  I swear I am totally selfie challenged!!  I took quite a few selfies and finally managed to end up with one that I would be willing to share with the public.  Then I did some fancy editing on it to make it black and white with an overlay and some text.

For the second part of the challenge I decided to focus on one of the reasons that I scrapbook - I get to be creative with color, texture, patterns, and different mediums in any way that I choose. There are no rules, and you can’t say that about too many things in life.

To express this aspect of scrapbooking I decided to take some photos of my supplies.  Different patterned papers, ribbons, lace, buttons, washi tape and even my favorite scissors made their way onto my photos.

I thought it would be fun to make my pictures black and white except for the COLOR photo. I wanted to let that picture 'pop' with color!
 

I created my title using my Silhouette and a font called 'The Lost Paintings'.
 

I also added some hidden journaling behind my selfie. 

I scrapbook for many reasons. First and foremost to preserve memories – to combine the photos with the stories for future reference. To be able to look back someday and say, “This was us! This is what we did!” will be an awesome experience.

I also scrapbook because it is an artistic expression of ‘me’. I get to be creative with color, texture, patterns, and different mediums in any way that I choose. There are no rules and you can’t say that about too many things in life. But the bottom line – scrapbooking makes me happy. From the blank page to the finished layout – it just MAKES.ME.HAPPY! #whyIscrapbook

My finishing touches of ink splatters, sequins, wood veneers and sprinkles were added simply because I love them!

I am offering a special prize to celebrate our anniversary!  If you follow my blog and leave a comment on this post, I will add your name to a random draw for a $20.00 gift certificate to Two Scrapbook Friends!  It can be used in the store or towards an on-line purchase.  My draw will take place on April 30th and the winner will be posted here on my blog.

Remember to hop around to the other blogs and see what out designers have created and what prizes are up for grabs! (Be sure to read the instructions as each designer has her own requirements to win!)

Ann Jobes

Christa Uttley

Joanne Burton - you are here!

Lisa Moen

Lisa Spiegel

Michelle Hernandez

Guest Designer:  Katherine Sutton

I hope you feel inspired to play along with our challenge this month, and when you do, please share it using the linky tool on our Inspiration Elevator Blog and/or our Inspiration Elevator Facebook page. We'd LOVE to see what you made!

Little Red Wagon #232

Hello! Rosanne is challenging us to use wood veneer on our project this week at Little Red Wagon.

Perfect! I have had this little wooden light bulb forever and I was finally inspired/challenged to do something with it.

 Clean and simple with a fun sentiment!

And there you go! I really hope you join in the fun at Little Red Wagon and link up your creation.  I would love to see what you do with a wood veneer element. 

Little Red Wagon #231

This week's challenge at Little Red Wagon is brought to us by Jan and she wants us to Make it Masculine. Easy enough!

I decided to color up this adorable image from The Doodle Garden called Little Sailor Boy.

I used my Copic markers on the image and then I paired it with some nautical themed paper I had in my stash.

I just adore Jennifer Nilsson's handdrawn digital stamps!  They are my new favorite!

I hope you check out what the rest of the Girlfriends created this week for our challenge.  I also hope you decide to play along!  Just link up your creation over at Little Red Wagon.  We love to see what you create :)