Monday, December 31, 2012

Wild about winter

DD liked my previous layout so much, that she wanted EXACTLY the same with a photo of hers. Well, I managed to make it almost the same. I loooooooove this line of Bo Bunny!!! So my colors and the perfect motifs for fussy cutting. 

I used again sketch 240 from creative scrappers. It worked perfectly with my papers and the photo. 

I fussy cut those pretty ornaments, added pop dots and pearls. 

With the distress stain Picket fence, I created these splashes which should look like snowballs. I then added a bit of bling (Bo Bonny Midnight frost). 


Today, I took the kids to the city center to see the afternoon celebrations for the New Year. We had fun! 
The sky was just so pretty!

Have a great New Year!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Nap

As sweet and wonderful as our little boy is, he is NOT a good sleeper - at least at home! There he naps for max 45 minutes. But when we are out and about, he can sleep for up to 2 hours! Go figure. 

As we are having a house guest over Christmas, I was trying to be nice to him and not have him woken up by the kids by 5am. I managed to keep the kids quiet until 7 and then took them out for a walk in the nearby castle's gardens. Not 5 minutes into our walk, DS was sound asleep!


I used the Powder Mountain line from Bo Bunny for this layout. I just love the colors! And the embellishments are super cute as well. 

I used my Tim Holtz distress stain picket fence to create the dots that look like snowballs. I fussy cut the snowflakes and decorated them with liquid pearls. 



The frame around the picture is puff paint and I folded lace and secured it with Washi tape.



 Lots of 3d dots to add dimension.



I based it on the sketch by Creative Scrappers Nr 240.I replaced the pie charts with the snowflakes.

Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Happy Birthday - 2nd layout

Here is the second layout I made using the My Minds Eye kit. 
This time, I based it on the sketch by Let's Capture These Sketches. 



Since I only had the paper kit to work with, I got a bit creative with the papers. I pleaded the paper strips in different ways, layered many of the cut outs to make it 3dimensional.  










Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Laugh

It is the 30th of the month and therefore time for SKETCHABILITIES! This week, the sketch is simply amazing. Really got me out of my comfort zone and I love the result. 



Here is the sketch Nr 82

 It is great to scrap "off season". Especially in winter time, it is wonderful to be reminded of the warm and sunny weather, with great colors.

Here is the small flower cluster with the heart and the rub-on butterflies.


The "LOVE" banner is actually the cut off from the main paper. 


The rub on from Kaisercraft as the title and all daisies had to have some bling to it per request of my sweet DD. 



How are you going to celebrate the big day tomorrow? Big party? Lots of fun? 
With 2 small kids, we are just going to have a quiet evening, tuck the kids in and watch a movie together. This year will be decidedly better than last year when I was still in hospital recovering from the emergency caesarian and DH being home sick with 40° fever!

Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Happy 1st birthday!!!!

Wow. This year has gone by fast!!! A year ago I started having contractions in the morning, got a really high fever. By 10am, I called the hospital to get some advise, by 10:30 my  water broke. 11am rushed to hospital with the ambulance, then the terrible time, waiting for the test results, discussions with 3 different doctors if we should wait (I really wanted another natural birth) induce, or have the caesarian, if i should be transferred to a different hospital because of the bad test results then the decision. At 14:56 Michi was delivered by emergency caesarian. I was only able to see him for a short moment, then he was rushed away for the tests - luckily DH stayed with him the entire time, but the next 3 hours while I was sown back together and put in the recovery room seemed like an eternity. 

Then the relief: the decision was the right one and baby was fine. I was put on heavy antibiotics but the baby was healthy! (After I came home, I read up on the internet and got really scared. Had the doctor not acted so quickly, Michi could have died or be severely handicapped.)

At 6:30, my sister and her family brought Sarah to the hospital to see her little brother. 



Then at 10pm when everything was quiet, I just laid there, admiring my little miracle. 

And now, a year later: He has been running (not walking) for 2 months, has 8 teeth, uses 6 different signs of the baby sign language, climbs up everywhere and is the cheekiest rascal a mom could wish for. Yesterday, while I baked the cake for his birthday,  he stole my oven mittens and thought it was really funny running around with them.



I pre-made this layout using the My Minds Eye kit. I bought it here at SCRAP ME. 


This layout is based on a sketch by "let's get sketchy!"


Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Fall down - get up - fix your crown

Christmas is over and we had such a great time. Simple, low key but "gemütlich" (comfortable does not really describe it, rather cozy or something in between)

Today, I started writing my classlists, getting my teacher's planner ready - I will be back to work after a year of vacation (aka maternity leave). Since there was no teacher's planner left in the office, I decided to make my own - and make it sparkly. 

The sketch from the Sampler was perfect for the backside of the planner. Simple but effective. 


I have to apologize for the blur - we have had terrible weather for the past few days and this is the best shot I could get using an OTT light and in real life, the ribbon is straight - I even used a ruler!  

The text says: fall down, get up, fix your crown, carry on. 
This is a reminder for me to accept that mistakes will happen...  For me, my job is very, very important - teaching children and young adults is a huge responsibility. So, when a lesson does not go so well (fall down), I will analyze what happened (get up), learn from it (fix my crown) and move on. 

I will leave you with our family photo - I am so happy that I have those two cute kids and my wonderful husband. Now I just have to wait for my Swirlydoos December kit to scrap this photo! 





Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Birthday card for a wine lover


A dear friend of ours is celebrating his birthday. Since he LOVES wine, I made this card for him. 


I find it very hard to make masculine cards -the colors, the items, no flowers, no lace etc. 

I do hope he likes it anyway. 

As soon as DD comes home from the rehearsal for the nativity play, we will trim the tree! YEAH! She has been waiting forever - we had the tree on the balcony for about a week but tradition is tradition - only on the 23rd when it gets dark.... 


Edited: Here is the tree. The whole room smells so good - nothing better than a real, fresh tree in the house. 


 

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! 
Thanks for stopping by
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Friday, December 21, 2012

Really cool card for my nephew

The last thing is done for Christmas. My nephew got a laptop for his birthday and Christmas combined and everybody is helping to pay for it. My contribution is hidden in the card.


I loved playing with all kinds of metals which I added into the mod podge.



The front looks like this: 
And when you open it, the money slides right out. 


DD got an early Christmas gift from a sweet friend of ours a Wii - probably so they can play already before Christmas when he visits - LOL. 
Both of the kids are having lots of fun with it. I am aware of the fact that this counts as "screentime" and therefore the playing time is very limited and DS is only allowed to watch a tiny bit. 



My sweet DD loves to take photos! This time I had to be the model because her little brother does not hold still!


Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth



Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Sometimes I just need lots and lots of kitsch

Sometimes I need an overdose of kitsch. With the horrible news everywhere, the dreadful winter weather and all the pressure, I just wanted an overdose of sweetness. 



 
This is my niece now 3 months. She was born 3 weeks early with emergency caesarian (runs in the family!) with the umbilical chord wrapped around her neck 3 times really tight - so tight she was TINY when she was born. Well, thanks to my sister's excellent milk, she has caught up quickly and is now a real sunshine - with her chubby cheeks and that fabulous hairdo (it is ALWAYS like this!!!!) she makes everybody smile. A really fast layout (58 minutes start to finish) using up my stash. 

I based it on the sketch by My Creative Sketches. 

Thanks for stopping by, 
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Cold...

I don't know what it is but I LOVE opening up a new package of Bo Bunny papers. There is something really special about it - the smell, the texture, the promise of some cool new layouts. Sigh....Too bad I can only get the collection pack here in Austria. For all the embellishments, I would have to order it from the USA and that is sooooo expensive. Double sigh. 

Well, enough complained. Here is the layout:


I based it on the Dec 15th challenge from Get Creative. 



I fussy cut the snowflakes from the paper, added diamond dust to it and layered it. I also fussy cut the blue paper underneath and added a matching piece of cardstock. The edges of that is covered with a thick layer of diamond dust as well. Unfortunately, you cannot really see it in the final layout anymore.

 
The little snowflakes (leftovers from the border punch) were too cute to throw away. So I drew that big heart and added every single snowflake, bending it and twisting it to add dimension. 


The sweet snowman in the corner needed a bit more definition. So I added my journaling with the mini alphas. I also added glossy accent to give more dimension.


I really like how it sparkles. 

Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Party

Yeah, we are on Christmas break! It is fun to have DD home all day, but that also means there is more time to fight with her little brother LOL. 

On Friday, we had her Christmas party at school. Games, music, dance and lots of yummy food. Here she is chowing down her 5th sushi! 


I am using up my last papers from the November kit from Swirlydoos. First I did not know what to do with that BIG teal flower. It just would not fit anywhere. So I cut it in half and tucked it underneath the photo. I really like the effect. I was about to clue down the diecut, but it felt a bit bland. So I added some stitching, some stamping and the prima bling as flowers on the branch. The dusty attic piece has been treated with gesso, teal ink and lots of diamond dust. I based the layout on the sketch from Let's Get Sketchy!




And our little one? He is keeping us busy. I had to replace a child safety lock in the kitchen, since he has broken it already. I think we could make some serious money using him as a test baby for safety manufacturers- he can get into anything if he wants to!!! Whenever he concentrates, he sticks out his tongue. So cute!


Thanks for stopping by!
All the best, 
Elisabeth

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Kiss

So, this is my first layout as a member of the sketchabilities design team. Karan's sketches are so inspiring! 

Here is my take on sketch 81


Here is the sketch on which I based it. 

Since this sketch is so great, I took it quite literal. 
 
Here is a close up of the Christmas trees - for a mini tutorial, scroll down to the end of this post. 


Here I layered the cardboard stickers. 

The title


Now for the tutorial. It is actually quite simple. 

1. Cut out a triangle. Preferably out of green paper. 
2. Take a ribbon made out of fibers such as this one.   


Get the fibers off the ribbon and cut them to the desired length. Mine are about 1/2 an inch long


Cover the green paper triangle with modge podge. Working your way UP, add the fibers and layer them like a roof. 

To seal it, cover the entire "Christmas tree" with a good amount of modge podge. This way you wont lose any fibers later on. 

And the finished product. Just add a star at the top and you are done. Simple, right?


Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to hop over to the other design team members to see what they did with the sketch!

All the best, 
Elisabeth

Frosted Design

Frosted Design

November Guest Designer

November Guest Designer
Yeah! My first Guest Design assignment

Sketchy Thursday