Fifty

This month Berry71bleu is collaborating with Once Upon A Sketch.

To enter this month's Berry71bleu challenge you must use the sketch provided by OUAS and incorporate numbers anywhere on your project.  In addition, you need to use chipboard on your project which is Berry71bleu's part of the challenge. Here is my layout for the May Challenge at Berry71bleu, a layout of my sister celebrating her 50th birthday.

The DT was provided with papers from Lucky 7 Factory, our main sponsor this month.  We all worked with their Technologie Collection which is part of our main prize.  We were also fortunate to work with chipboard provided to us by Scrap FX.

Here are a few closeups:

And here is the lovely sketch I worked with from OUAS:

We have lots of prizes up for grab this month so the rest of this post is going to be a long one, but well worth it!

Main prize for May: Lucky7 Factory
 

The Lucky7 Factory is a young company in Quebec, Canada. It all started around a table practicing our favorite hobby, scrapbooking. Our friendship circle then added another string to its bow; by becoming business women.

For 3 years now, we offer collections that include double-sided papers and handmade ornaments. We are now in our seventh collection (Technology). With the latter, we offer handmade flowers, buttons and alphabets stickers. Together, they are perfectly coordinated.

Our goal is to create a quality product while respecting our beautiful planet. That is why our paper is 100% recyclable. It is thick enough to make cards and is the perfect support for mix-media techniques. It is quite versatile. The handmade ornaments are made with lots of love and care. To ensure customer satisfaction, we try to surpass ourselves with each new collection.

In addition, via our blog, we love sharing tips and tricks to create while recycling everyday objects. Twice per month, we create challenges that help motivate or get you out of your comfort zone.  It is also a great way to get to know each member of our Design Team (DT) and follow the evolution of the company.

Through this adventure, we love talking to our customers and share our passion with them.  These moments are always filled with small joys and madness. This represents us very well!

Come discover us by visiting our blog, our Facebook page and Pinterest.

Blog: http://thelucky7factory.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucky-Seven-Factory/104851736221583
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/frarin/lucky-7-factory-scrapbooking/

First Prize winner will receive these new collections from Lucky 7 Factory

Second Place Prize:

Rapakivi

Rapakivi is young Polish company that designs original scrapbooking papers. We love our work which is also our hobby and we want to share our passion with other scrapbookers. Our papers are always full of colours and beautifull patterns. For our designs we use only acid & lignin free, thick (250 gsm) paper with FSC certification. In our plans we have also other product dedicated to paper crafters. 

Second place winner will get Just a Note collection from Rapakivi.

 The owners of Rapakivi were so nice to get you two sets of it!

Just A Note Collection

and a collection from

Sweet Melody Collection

6 double sided papers

Third Place:

 3rd place winner will get a collection from Rapakivi BE OPTIMISTIC. 

The owners of Rapakivi were so nice to get you two sets of it!

 

Random prizes:

ScrapFX

and

Studio75

We are a polish producer of scrapbooking papers and other craft embellishments.

Special Moments collection:

I hope you will join us this month at Berry71bleu.  Create a project and link it here on our blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

. . . Debbie

Little Girls Are Precious Gifts . . .

If you are here for the Berry71Bleu Blog Hop please click here.

I have a layout to share with you today that I created using the February kit from Artful Delight which I combined with a couple of challenges.  The first challenge is the February Sketch Challenge at 

Once Upon A Sketch with the theme of "love" and the second challenge is Challenge No. 14 "hearts" from Scrap Africa.

Here are a few closeups:

 Tucked beneath my punched border is a journaling tag with a personal note from a mom to her precious daughter.

Thanks for stopping by!

. . . Debbie

Supplies Used:

Artful Delight February Kit

Dienamics Vintage Flourish Die

Martha Stewart Lattice Heart Punch

Martha Stewart Doily Lace Punch

Martha Stewart Vintage Doily Punch

Bo Sunny Stamps

Sizzix Flourish Die

New Year, New Start, New Me

I have a lot of goals for the new year.  The year 2012 was a difficult  for me.  So much loss and heartache.  I spent last year taking care of my mom.  Most of you know that she was diagnosed with Alzheimers.  It's been heartbreaking for me to lose my mom little by little.  I miss her terribly as the part of her that use to be the caring and loving mom is gone.  I miss those moments of talking to her about my day, my children and life in general.  I've experienced emotions that I never knew I had and have struggled with depression.  I know that changes have to be made for me personally.  When I saw the January sketch challenge at Once Upon A Sketch I knew it was the perfect challenge for me:

The new year is among us. What better way to celebrate change, renewed hope and having a positive attitude than with a brand new year? A new start...a new horizon and the start of something new! A new year is full of possibilities. So in honor of the start of 2013, we would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "The start of something new..." however you like. Whatever that sentence inspires you to scrap then go for it.

I am also entering my layout in the February Challenge black and white photo at Inkido.

 I have to mention that my son criticized the picture of me on this layout.  He questioned why I had to use a picture of me that was so serious, yet so sad.  I told him that I wanted to use a picture of how I am now,  and hopefully down the road will do another layout of myself with a cheery smiling picture.

I loved working with Nadia's sketch:

My favorite part of the layout is the bottom right hand corner.  I used a large fabric button from Purple Pumpkin which symbolizes me caring for my mom. I surrounded her picture with flowers as she loved to tend to her flowers.

The boots and umbrella symbolize the rain, which Mom always said, "I never mind a little rain, as it saves me watering".  

My title, so important to me:

Here tucked beneath the paper is a green journaling tag.  A personal and private note from daughter to mother.

A lovely cluster of flowers a reminder of the gift of gardening that my mom taught me.

Last of all I dug into my rub on stash and used lots on my layout:

I shed a few tears working on this layout. I reminded myself that I need to start taking care of me. One day at a time Debbie, one day at a time. . .

And yes I can smile . . . here is the proof:

Thanks for stopping by!

. . . Debbie

It's A December Winter Wonderland

I'm so happy that I got a layout completed!!!  I've been super busy spending most of my time caring for my mom and haven't had much "me" time lately. Hard to believe that I hadn't been in my scrapbook room for almost two weeks. There are a couple of challenges that I wanted to do and my layout fits both! 
First off is Once Upon A Sketch December sketch and theme It's December.  

The first thing that comes to my mind is Christmas, and when I think of Christmas I think of snow.  I thought about when I was little and how much I always wished for a white Christmas.

I am also entering this layout in the White Christmas challenge at Berry71Bleu.  This challenge is hosted by Vicky and you must use a white background as your base.

My daughter took the picture in December 2010.  Love this picture!

I did a lot of masking, inking and embossing on this layout.  Messy but fun!

My journaling tag is hidden beneath my picture

I've added some Purple Pumpkin embellishments including cream doilies

paper doily with musical notes

musical note button

Used up lots of my stash and a new Martha Stewart Punch Around The Page Large Set, Winter Snow that I found in the clearance isle at Michaels on Tuesday for $9.00.  Gotta love a bargain!

Thanks for stopping by!
. . . Debbie

Key To My Heart

I'm trying to get in a couple of challenges before the end of the month.  I always enjoy the sketch challenges at Once Upon A Sketch and put this layout together last night.  The theme this month is anything goes and I chose a picture of my friend, and best hairdresser in the world, Julina and her sweet little one, Zoey.  For those of you who are wondering why I scrap so many pictures of Julina, I have been working on an album for her. 

and here is Nadia's gorgeous sketch:

I dug into my stash again and used up lots of those "oldies" by 7 Gypsies, Jenni Bowlin, 

Glitz Designs and Prima.

One of the requirements of Once Upon A Sketch is journaling.  Tucked behind the doily is hidden journaling with special words from a mother to her daughter:

I added a lot of masking and stamping and machine stitching:

Love this cluster with a large Prima flower, along with two Maya Road flowers and a Recollections bird:

For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday, 

wishing you a wonderful day spent with family and friends.

Thanks for stopping by!

. . . Debbie

Capture The Good Times

I'm really enjoying adding some mixed media to my layouts.  Still taking baby steps though.  Love the texture it adds to the layout.  I create this layout using the October sketch at Once Upon A Sketch and Bellaidea's Butterfly Challenge at Inkido.  Lately I've been creating layouts for my friend Julina.  I think her first album is just about full and I know that there will be more to follow.  I love looking through her pictures on Facebook and  found one of her youngest, Zoey and fell in love with it.

Here is the sketch:

 and their theme is the following quote which you can interpret any way you like

I drew from the words capture the good times.

Some masking using modeling past and a touch of  pink ink:

The required journaling.  

Mine is hidden as it is a personal message from Julina to her daughter.  

You can see a little bit of it here:

And a beautiful cluster of flowers that I had in my stash by Recollections and a little pebble by Prima.  Loved how well they coordinated with the Bo Bunny Country Garden papers!

Thanks for stopping by!

. . . Debbie

Supplies used:

Bo Bunny Country Garden Collection

Masking Templates:  Studio Calico, The Crafters Workshop

Prima Pebble

Recollection Flowers and Pearls

Vintage Fancy Flowers - A Million Memories

TCP Studio Classic Border Stamps

Fiskars Paper Edger Scissors - Victorian

Die-namics Vintage Flourish Die

Martha Stewart Floral Crochet Deep Edge Punch

K & Company Frame

Doilies

Paint, Ink and Modeling Paste