Challenge #157 - Counting down to Christmas

Yesterday (28 November), was the first of Advent, which to me is the beginning of the Christmas season. In Sweden, many families have an Advent candle holder with four candles, symbolising the four Advent Sundays before Christmas. On each of the Sundays an additional candle is lit until all four are burning. This tradition always created a great sense of anticipation for us when we were kids.

I would like you to do a layout with a Christmas or winter theme, and using:

1 heart
4 tags
12 buttons (for December being the 12th month of the year)

Have fun! I am looking forward to seeing what you create!

Anna-Karin: I love this time of the year with preparations for Christmas, candles, decorations and the whole feeling and spirit around Christmas. I was planning to have done a layout about our Advent tradition, but didn’t have any good photos that were developed regarding that theme, so instead I used a childhood photo. I used four shipping tags which were coloured with an acrylic block technique that Jennifer McGuire taught in Holiday Thinking Inking. The tags were stamped with black, brown and green ink, as well as gold embossed a bit. The chipboard heart was embossed with several layers of UTEE, with a layer of gold embossing powder on the top.

Journaling: This Santa has been around for a long time. I am not sure if he was new here on my first Christmas or if he is even older. He has posed on many Christmas photos and has stood faithfully under the Christmas tree together with the Christmas goat for many years. Now he looks quite worn and has lost his shirt. The beard is no longer as white and fluffy, but he is still my favourite Santa.

Janet M- Fun challenge and I have so many pictures that work for this but I went back and used one from my childhood, when we really had some rough winters. I enjoyed them more then than I do now.

Thanks for the great challenge.

Elizabeth:
I had fun going through some older Christmas pictures for this one. I used some tags from one of the My Mind's Eye collections and my buttons are actually brads shaped like buttons that I used on the note paper. Thanks for the fun challenge Anna-Karin!

Debbi T: What a fun challenge, Anna-Karin, and so neat to learn about a new tradition! I used a Christmas picture from my childhood, and it was fun figuring out what to do with the buttons and tags and heart. I promise I have 12 buttons (topped with pearls)--one's peeking behind the tags. I always have a hard time using tags on my layouts, for some reason. I was trying to figure out how to use four larger tags, and it just wasn't working, and then I thought of using three tiny tags to document our ages. I actually cheated and added an extra heart on my page to add some color to the heart-shaped brad, which I embossed with silver powder.

Have fun and thanks for playing! Remember that at the end of the week one participant will be featured as our "How Awesome is Too Awesome - Weekly Wow" and will be in the running to win a RAK at the end of the month! Post a link to your layout in the thread at Two Peas.

Challenge #156- November 22nd Let's Be Thankful

Hi everyone! Francine back at ya with a challenge this week!

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here but I love the idea of being thankful. I've also always liked the idea of doing a gratitude journal or list, so this week I challenge you to do a layout that lists 5 things you are grateful for today.

On your layout include:
5 patterned papers
5 stamped images
5 pieces of ephemera/vintage items

Francine
I almost gave up on my own challenge when it came to the five stamped images and the vintage ephemera! The patterned paper part was easy since I have been into garlands and buntings lately. And then I decided to group the other elements into a collage and voila!

My journaling talks about some big things I am very thankful for right now: like watching Kieran grow every day and doing what I love for a living.

Janet M :

Great challenge and I did have to leave off one thing because my stamps are either packed or not here as a friend has them, so I just did my best. I did some rub-ons in place of them under my flower.

5 patterned papers was easy, the empemera/vinatge items were a fun thing to use.

I did an approach about the things I was thankful for from growing up.

Journaling is: When I stop and think about the things that I'm thankful for of course I have the ones that everyone has but then I think back about the things that got me where I am today.
I'm thankful for having parents that cared and guided me.
I was surrounded with good relatives and friends that gave me balance and a sense of the things important in life.
That I was raised with a belief in God.
I had fun childhood mixed with time to play and time to work.
My community was a caring and good place to grow up in.
You can't go forward into the future without balance and direction in life and I'm so thankful that I had them.

Thanks for the great challenge.

Debbi T: I'm in the midst of working on my projects for Work in Progress, and this month's kit, which features the new Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 collection, was perfect for this challenge, so that's what I used. I was watching Glenn Beck last night, and he was talking about Thanksgiving and how it's the people that we need to be most thankful for, so that's the angle I took with my page.

Anna-Karin: I loved doing this layout. I’ve wanted to do something on the topic of gratitude lately and my layout is about treasuring each day and being grateful, because it can all change in an instant. The layout is done on a piece of canvas and the hearts were die cut from canvas. The canvas and the hearts were soaked in water and then painted with watered down acrylic paint. I sprayed the hearts with a mix of Perfect Pearls and water which gave them a nice shine. Thank you for this great challenge Francine!

Challenge #155 - November 15, Route 66

We just bought a new travel trailer...we plan on doing lots of traveling.

Create a layout about a vacation or trip you have taken.
Use at least 6 pattern papers.
Use at least 6 circles.



Anna-Karin: This was an awesome challenge! I love circles. I used 8 patterned papers and 6 circles on my layout and also used the circle theme in the title and the topic (circle of life). I needed some leaves for the tree, to symbolise spring and new life, but didn’t have any which were small enough, so I cut off the petals of a green flower to use as leaves. Thank you for this fun challenge Michelle!

Journaling: A view over the Amphitheatre on the path to the Thukela Gorge. The Amphitheatre is 5 km across and 1 km high. On this hike, I almost made it through the tunnel to see the Thukela drop down the mountain, but the weather was starting to look bad so we had to turn around. Some day we might make it to the top, but for now we are happy to see the gorgeous view from below. This time we visited at the end of winter and it was dry. Fires are a part of the circle of life in the Drakensberg and we could see many traces of them.

Debbi T: I made my first-ever digital layout yesterday, and I decided to make one for this challenge. We haven't been able to travel ever since my husband opened his business two years ago, so I decided to document that.

Janet M: 6 circles and travel paper was a great challenge this time. I was actually the one that stayed home and everyone came to my house to vacation. It was a cousin reunion in Florida and we had a wonderful 5 days together, this picture was taken with two many camera going and everyone saying look at me now.

Elizabeth: Love using circles and patterned paper, so this was nice and easy ;) (sorry for the wonky scan)

Weekly Wow #153

Thanks for all that played along for last week's challenge. We loved all of the entries! The winner for Challenge #153 is Ging, from Queensland, Australia! I love all the little details on your page.



Your entry will go into our voting for the {How Awesome Is Too Awesome} drawing for the $15 gift certificate at Two Peas at the end of the month. Congrats!

Remember This... HMITM 154 (November 8-15)

Here in Canada we will be celebrating Remembrance Day this week, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a layout 'remembering someone'. You can interpret that however you like, plus add...

• 1 felt embellishment
• 5 rubons
• 4 flowers

You can link your layout to the comments here or also at The Pub on 2peas. Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Elizabeth: For this challenge I scrapbooked the photos from the tradition of our daughter's birthday. 4 years ago we lost our baby girl at 7 months gestation and every year we visit her grave and think of her. The butterfly rubons and flower embellishments were perfect for this topic.


Janet : This is really a wonderful challenge to do and even though it was a difficult one I'm so glad to have done it. My niece's and nephew's came up with Florida one weekend about 6 years ago and came to our lodge to spend some time in the outdoors. It was always a struggle to get my mother to want to come there but she enjoyed it every time she came. We all went down and had a wonderful weekend together.

This is the last and only picture I have of my niece Courtney and her together from that weekend and she had this one made into a card and mailed to my mother. Since then our family has lost both of them so it's a memory to treasure.

 Journaling is: We always say we should value people and time together and when I see this picture I know that I did this weekend. Mom enjoyed having her grandchildren up from Florida for a visit, it was the first time all four of them had been here as adults. We had campfires, sat and visited and just had a nice weekend. Of the whole weekend I think this is the only picture that I have with just mom and Courtney in it. With both of them being gone it's a picture and a moment in time to treasure.

Debbi T: It's been about ten years since my GrandPaul died, and I can't believe it's been that long. I call him GrandPaul because his name was Paul. He wasn't my "real" grandpa. I never really had a grandpa growing up. My Gram married Paul when I was in my late 20's, I think, and he so easily became a part of the family. He was loving and had a generous spirit and an awesome sense of humor that made him fit right into our clan.

I used Pencil Lines Sketch 211 and a Studio Calico kit to make this page. I wanted to go for a quiet color scheme, with a few bits of color. I thought the owl was a perfect embellishment because it looked a little sad and has a childlike feel that goes with the journaling--me sort of wishing I'd had him as my grandpa growing up. I added gold embossing powder to the border to go with the gold sequin flower centers.

Anna-Karin: I really enjoyed doing this layout about my grandfather who passed away 12 years ago almost to the day. It was so nice to sit a think about him and I wrote a long piece of journaling about my memories of him (which is tucked in behind the layout). I used a photo of him which was taken before I was born. He was very enthusiastic about photography and developed his photos at home. But, since he was often behind the camera, there are quite few photos of him. I used a felt car, 5 rub-ons to embellish the chipboard house and four die cut flowers. The papers, stamps and embellishment all have a meaning relating to my memories of my grandfather. Thank you so much for this challenge Elizabeth!


I know this challenge will not be an easy one, but it is so important. I hope you accept the challenge! Love, Elizabeth

Challenge #153 - The Office

Amanda: I love the TV show The Office! Plus I work at one everyday. Looking around my desk, I realized how much fun office supplies could be used on a layout. Use the following on a layout:

- 10 staples (plain or colored)
- 3 paperclips (plain or decorative)
- ruled/graph paper
- some kind of tape (or decorative tape)
- some kind of office stickers/labels/flags/post-it notes
- pen or markers/highlighters
- hole punch (or decorative punch)
- use numbers somewhere on your layout
- and finally, some kind of typing (in your title, or journaling)

So for my layout, I decided to scrap about what inspired this challenge theme in the first place...all of the stuff on my desk that's from the TV show The Office. (I see I wasn't the only one who loves the TV show! haha) On my desk I have The Office bobbleheads, stress ball heads, pens, pencils, notebooks, monthly wall calendars, daily quote desk calendars, magnets, dry erase boards, signs, mugs...just little reminders of how much I love the show to help me get through the work day!

Elizabeth: Love the Office, love the challenge. Worked out perfectly with the school layout of my ds. I used a tape measure sticker instead of actual tape :P and the typing part is actually a date stamp, but I thought it looked like it was typed, so that counts right?! Here's my layout...

Janet M - What a fun challenge to do and create, I used bits and pieces of the files from building our new house. It's perfect because I'm just starting a album on the construction of it so having some of the other parts in the book is fun.

Journaling is: Files, reports, phone calls, appointments, expense projections, redoing the expense projections and paper work. Planning a house is exciting and making decisions a little stressful at times but overall the excitement is worth all of it. The kitchen designer said that you make over 2,000 or 12, 000 decisions when you built a new house , I'm not sure which one she said that day I was to busy deciding on something at the time. I do know that the whole thing is made so much better by the contractor that we have used for over 30 years in the business and personally, Shel at the office taking care of the billing and a good partnership with the two of us. We've been down the remolding road a few times, built from scratch and we know that this is the final project for us at this time in our lives, the house where we want it, back to enjoy our sunsets every night, handicapped accessability if we ever need it. I can't wait to finally see the dream place come true.


I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else creates.




Debbi T: What a FUN challenge, Amanda! The Office is my favorite show, so I thought this challenge was a good opportunity to profess my love for The Office. I used a kit called Office Party by Noel Mignon to make my page, plus a few odds & ends from my stash. I had bought these The Office magnets from the Target Dollar Spot eons ago--before I even knew about the show--and I finally got to use them! I used my staples to attach the ruler trim. (You can click on my layout for a larger view to read the journaling, if you're interested.)

Kathleen: Thanks for the challange Amanda! Most of the items on your list feature in my pages on a regular basis, so was right up my alley, but the office sticker/label/flags/post-it notes one was alot of fun! I chose the post it notes, and teamed it up with Bo Bunny's Learning Curve range which features the ruled/graph paper, numbers and typing :)

Georgia: Thanks Amanda, I had so much fun with this challenge! The first thing which came to mind when I read the criteria was a really grungy, boyish look - which is why I somehow ended up with a pretty, girly page lol. Most of the elements I use fairly often anyway but I did have to go on a hunt to find some paper clips! They were great for winding the thread from my bumble bee around though so I will have to use them again.

Anna-Karin: I loved this challenge, especially since I love office supplies. When I was around nine years old I used to wish for office supplies for birthdays and Christmas and was so happy to get a stapler, hole puncher, pens, erasers etc. On this layout I used 10 mini staples, 3 heart paper clips (which have been in my stash forever), graph paper, Dymo tape, office type label stickers, a marker to draw a simple frame, notebook border punch, numbers and a # character, and typed journaling strips with a type writer font printed on plain white paper. Thank you so much for this fun challenge Amanda!

Journaling: You smiled for the first time when you were 5 weeks. After having practiced for a while and mainly smiling at us, you really got going with the smiling and since then you have smiled at everyone. Family, friends and strangers in the shop, the post office queue, at the bank, on the street. Everybody gets a shining smile. It is very appreciated. People often exclaim ‘oh, he smiled at me’, and you spread lots of happiness with your smiles. You fill my and other people’s days with joy. It is impossible to be in a bad mode when you get such a smile. I hope you will keep your friendliness and happiness. These are some of my favourite photos of you smiling and laughing, taken from you were 8 weeks old until you were 8 months old. You are wonderful.

We hope you will play along. Post a link to your layout in the HMITM thread at the Two Peas Pub, and you could be chosen as our Weekly Wow and be eligible for our monthly prize of a Two Peas gift certificate!