painting, painting and more painting

I wish I could say I've been crafting away, but I have spent the last week painting the cottage for my father in law.  Got the renter out, ceilings and walls degreased and paint on most everything.  Just need to finish the trim in the kitchen and living room.  Second coat in the bedroom and then I can work on the bathroom.  Hope to be done sometime next week.

Try something new at lasting memories

This weeks challenge at lasting memories is to try something new. 

 I know I'm late to the washi party, but I finally got hooked and am on a roll.  Actually 16 rolls so far.  I picked up a half dozen or so at a cute little scrap book store in Lincoln City, Oregon.  A couple of the ladies I went to retreat with had never seen washi or mist before, so I guess I'm not that much of a late comer. 
 

So now on to my first ever layout using washi tape

I used the tape to create the background on my  plain white card stock

close up of journaling

I cut the cup from gypsy wanderings.  The pattern coming through the swirl on the cup is more washi tape lined up so the dot pattern matched.  Popped the whole cup up of the page with foam dots

 

So what have you tried that's new?

Why don't you show us at lasting memories this week

Some of the DT sisters at lasting memories are also doing a 50 layout challenge in which we are busting stash.  Most of us have restricted our purchases of crafty stuff until we hit the 50 mark.  We're also encouraging each other and checking in weekly to keep motivated.

This is #2 of 50

My only other washi venture was this card I made for my husbands birthday

I layered the tape on top of a white piece of card stock then used the happy birthday folder and ran it through my cuttle bug.  Clear Happy sticker. Cake die cut recycled from a card plus some numbers cut on the cricut and a few stickers. 

 

 

50 layout challenge

Some of the DT sisters at lasting memories are also doing a 50 layout challenge in which we are busting stash.  Most of us have restricted our purchases of crafty stuff until we hit the 50 mark.  We're also encouraging each other and checking in weekly to keep motivated.

This is #1 of 50

I used this scrappy sketch

I based my color scheme on the darker blue patterned paper.

Picking out the pink, light green and baby blue for my embroidery floss

I have a sew easy tool, but not the circle maker, so I just went around the outer edge of my jumbo cutting circle from CM.  Love the overall effect, but it's a good thing it overlaps and is partly hidden as the circle was a little wobbly. Guess I should get the sew easy circle at the end of my challenge.

Only 49 more to go

close  up

of the circle

 

Fustrated with CM

My order was placed on 7/16 and my card was deactivated on the 30th of July due to potential fraudulent charges.  This is why payment will not go through.  Why wasn't my card charged at the time I placed the order then this wouldn't be an issue.  I have tried calling CM but they are currently not taking customer calls.  So how am I supposed to correct the problem?  At this point I rather cash out my credits then be threatened with collections.  I have been loyal customer since 1999 .  I'm frustrated and am seriously looking at other options for my future scrap book needs

Trying not to be to harsh,but I think they need to know that shutting down customer support is not in their best interest.

 

Thanks for letting me vent

 

I've tried posting to the CM facebook page but that's moderated so probably no one will see it

 

by the way I just got notification of the problem today 8/21/13 and have till Friday to fix it

Winner of my blog hop bling

 

Joefil Cates will be receiving some

Heidi Grace Rhinestone flourishes as well as some assorted bling from me

 

 

Wondering if you won one of the prizes from our sponsors or even some of the DT?

Check out today's winner's post to find out.

 

Joefil please contact me bhamacher2@msn.com this week to claim your prize

 

look at how we've grown

Has your style changed since you started scrapping?  Do you keep up with the latest trends and gadgets?  We want to see how your scrap booking has grown from the early days till now. The DT at Lasting memories is sharing some of their first LO's  as well as a more recent one. 

 

I started scrapping in high school in the early 1990's

what I did back then I don't have anymore as I took it apart to save my memories from those nasty glue backed photo albums.  I still have a few more mementos to salvage.

 

So what I'm sharing now is from 1999 when I started in the acid free paper scrapping.

My husbands cousin was just getting started with creative memories and I had just had my first daughter.  My how times have changed

 

This is one of the first that I did using the CM oval and circle cutting system.

Every photo is matted and the corners are triangles from the short cuts pack.  I know the border sticker wasn't CM because they weren't making them back then.  Everything is mounted directly on the album page as I hadn't got into using background pages.

 

Flash forward to July 2013

 I just did this layout at the scrap retreat I was at.

I always have a base background paper to build on and I've moved away from shaped photos a bit.

I'm mostly into rectangles and squares right now.  Not everything is matted either.  Just a few pops her and there.

 I'm also trying to use up some of my older stash so the photo corners, arrow and center sticker are from the CM rugged collection from a few years back.  I also do a most of my titles with my cricut instead of stickers although it's kind of a mix though right now as I'm trying to use up stash.
Got to keep chipping away.

 

 I also tend to use sketches for inspiration .   With 4 kids, work and scouts that it's a huge time saver to already have a basic design to work from.  This layout however is more of a just throw them on there type of layout.  I was trying to recreate the chaos that descends on the house after a weekend camping trip

close up of my title using the cheerful font from CM cheerful seasons cartridge. 

 I outlined the letters with brown pen to make it stand out from the background

journaling "This is what the house looks like after a weekend camping trip"

 

Hope you've enjoyed a peek into my past scrapping and seeing where I'm at today. 

Why don't you do the same and share it with us at lasting memories

 
Check back on Monday for the winner of my bling pack
 

Scavenger Hunt Birthday Hop

 It is PARTY time at Lasting Memories today! We're celebrating Karen's special day with a "Scavenger Hunt Birthday Hop"  It's her 40th birthday tomorrow and what better way to celebrate than to have a hop in blogland. Before we get started, you better get yourself a pen and paper because you're going to need it. There are 10 blogs in the hop and each person has chosen an element to use on her layout. Your job is to find all 10 elements, write them down and choose FIVE to include in your layout. Be sure to keep your eyes open because we have sponsors as well as DT members giving goodies away. You may have to do a little something more for the DT candy, so be sure to read every post. Sound like fun?? We think so! Ok, lets get to it! You should have arrived here from Elizabeth

and if you're just coming by, start at Lasting Memories because you don't want to miss a thing! You'll also find the master hop list there too. For my layout today, I chose Bling for my element.

I used a lot of my go to Bling from Heidi Grace  rhinestone stickers.

I love that I can cut apart the flourishes to get just the look I want. 

The rest of the shinnies are random brands of rhinestone bling. 

As you can see the flourish can be manipulated to fit into the paper flourish cut on my cricut.

couple more piece I cut off the main cluster of rhinestone flourish. 

 I got all the cut little swirls from one package of Heidi Grace.

The flower/ snow flakes are the negative cut from my border punch jazzed up with more single rhinestones. The Giant snowflake is a doodle tracing of a cricut cut that I also used as a mask on another layout.

 

If you like what I've done and want a chance to win some of the Heidi grace rhinestones and other assorted bling, leave a comment with a link to your layout entry and use some bling

 I'm also showing off one of our sponsors as well. I am promoting Template-Dreams
who is giving away a digital template prize to one lucky winner.

 All you have to do is complete the hop, enter your layout using FIVE elements you've found a long the way and be sure to comment that you've done everything!

Thanks so much for joining us. You're next stop is

Kimberly

 

Happy Birthday Karen and happy hopping to you

 

Stars and Stripes

So, before I announce this weeks challenge at Lasting memories, make sure you mark your crafty calendars for a super fun  scavenger hunt blog hop starting next Sunday.

Ok, so lets get to this weeks challenge, which is all about Stars and Stripes! We're looking for lots of stars and stripes this week  and here's my LO I went with the fire colors for my stars and stripes I like that the stripes are a bit wavy kind of like a flame.
I was inspired by this sketch at LCOM I flipped it on it's side to work for my photos and added the arrow through my photo, but I pretty much stuck to the rest of the design.
I had a bit of fun getting the circles and stars cut on my circuit. Did a bunch of welding on the gypsy. I cut the dotted paper first then decided I needed the white layer underneath. The orange are circles with the star cut out so you can see the background paper through them.   Hope you'll join us for this weeks challenge and don't forget to stop by for next weeks blog hop