Feb09VSN and a Scrapbooking Challenge

Well, the Feb09 VSN at Splitcoast Stampers is over and I'm SO bummed! I had to work this whole weekend so I only had time to make one card, and I barely got that uploaded on time... I hate work! It seriously interferes with my stamping and scrapping and blogging time... lol... I Do wish they would give you a few extra days to upload since I'm sure I'm not the only poor sap who gets stuck working weekends, but they always cut it off on Sundays. Anyway, they had a lot of challenge ideas I really liked and that actually inspired some ideas, so I may still do some as I have time just for fun.


Anyway, the challenge I was able to complete was based on the Sound of Music - specifically that one song... these are a few of my favorite things.... I'm not sure what the actual song title is. I've always loved that song and the movie, so it was easy for me to get some inspiration on this one. Anyway, you had to pull from colors in the song, use ribbon, and use some kind of image from the song, like whiskers or snowflakes, etc. I chose white and blue for my colors and the line "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes...." - so here's my card:


That patterned paper I used is from Melissa Frances - the Girly Girl kit. I also used a Stampavie stamp, ribbon from SU and from May Arts, pearl bling from Kaiser, stickles from Ranger, and cardstock from SU: Whisper White, Mellow Moss, and Brocade Blue.


I want to thank the ladies over at Splitcoast for how take their own personal time to come up with the ideas and moderate these challenges - I always have so much fun and get a lot of great ideas, even if I don't get to play along as often as I'd like!


Last week at the MDC Challenge blog we challenged our designers to use the new lace cardstock we got in from sei. I'm just in love with this product - it is die cut and white and very versatile! You have to check out the challenge blog to see all the different ways our designers used lace cardstock - I made this page:



The lace cardstock and the background paper are both from sei; I printed the title on my computer and cut it out with a Marvy Uchida scallop punch; the pearl bling is from Kaiser, the butterfly is from this May Arts ribbon, and the pink gingham ribbon is from SU.

I cut the lace cardstock into a frame for my photo, and also wove ribbon through it. It's so funny, this page, because I used the picture only because it matched the paper I wanted to use, which is the opposite of the way I normally work, but since I needed to use the lace cardstock everything was kind of built around that.

Anyway, my dd had a hard time from about 4 weeks old until she was almost a year old - she had acid reflux so she cried a lot, and she also always HATED it when we left the house, so any time we were out in public she would either shut down and sleep the whole time, or fuss the whole time. Then the instant we arrived home she was an entirely different kid! She's still that way - she's super sensitive to noise so she really hates leaving the house and argues about it a lot.

Anyway, this particular day, she was just fussing and fussing and fussing and I was so h*** bent on getting the perfect picture because back then I thought everything was supposed to be perfect and I had to have professional photos of all the milestone ages.... I know - all you mothers of one are saying 'of course you do!' and all you mothers of two or more are laughing! Now I go entire years and forget to get any professional pictures taken! So, the photographer kept putting dd's binkie in and then pulling it out and trying to snap the picture before she started wailing, and we ended up with this odd 'kissy' face look which is really the beginning of a good old fashioned scream. So, everytime I see this picture that's all I can see is how silly her lips look, and I remember how awful that day was! So, I was pleasantly surprised that after I scrapbooked it, I actually liked it better than I did before! It changed it for me... looking at how the pink ribbon and lace cardstock echo the trim on her dress... and, IRL the back of the sei paper that I used has a slight pearl finish and the whole thing just looks very soft and feminine and pretty.... so now I am thinking of all the thoughts I had BEFORE the actual picture was taken, how I picked the dress because I thought the color would compliment her skin and eyes, and how excited I was when I found the little shoes. I guess there is still a little of that 'perfect' mom syndrome buried down in there somewhere, under the hectic, crazy life that we actually lead! Hope you guys all have a wonderful day and remember some long lost part of yourself too:)