scrappassion

"Pagerize This Challenge" + other goodies

Among other fun challenges, at Scrap Our Stash there is a Pagerize This Challenge which is a sort of scraplifting challenge. 

I won Joni's Pagerize This Challenge with this layout.

It's a layout in grid form about my American sisters and Mom who came to visit us in 2004. I used Glimmer mists, Glimmer Glaze (on the birdie) and Glimmer Glam (on the leaves die-cut) and Wendy Vecchi's background stamps. I also made my first Rosette with Tim's alteration die. Loved that! The journaling is written on a Prima Marketing packaging.

And now it's my turn to provide a page for the other readers to "pagerize". Here is the one I've chosen.

I submitted my page for Joni's challenge last weekend while I was watching the news on Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Many of you may not know that my daughter Valentina was living and studying in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. By Monday we were convinced that it was best that she returned home. She arrived on Wednesday after having spent long and exhausting hours first at Narita airport and then on the plane. To make a long story short, we are just enormously grateful that she's back home. The previous post was about a layout I made after she got home.

Now that we can breathe again, and life is returning normal here in our household, I've done some layouts for various challenges.

 

This is for The Color Room's color palette #50. There's also a blog hop going on there. So many beautiful projects for everyone to enjoy and take inspiration from.

Loved playing with gesso and paints and stamps and inks and mists (used everything I had to get the right colors!). And of course I used my sewing machine.

 

This next layout is for Cocoa Daisy's March sketch/lift challenge.

Also here I played with mists and Distress inks + my sewing machine. And with some paint.

 

On the Italian blog Scrappando Carta e Ricordi the challenge for March is to do a layout with a big title, using a border punch and hand written journaling. The theme is Food and/or Beverages. This is my page.

I really don't get Fried chicken and Waffles for breakfast but maybe it's just me:)

 

 

Last tags

I'm finally done with Tim's Tags! It was a fun adventure, I learned so much... also about my frustration when I didn't have the right supplies but I learned also to make do with what I had. And I'm sooo happy I finished them all! I've been known to leave projects at halfway... *blush*

Here's Tim's #3 and this is mine. Had a fair amount of difficulties but loved the alcohol ink technique. I do own glossy cardstock, I know, I bought it last spring, but for the life of me I couldn't find it so I had to use glossy photopaper. It didn't get sticky like Tim warned, but I had some bleeding when I tried to enhance Santa Claus's beard with white dabber and the red alcohol ink changed it to pink °_° 

This is Tim's Tag #4 and here's mine. This one I like a lot. I didn't have all the things needed like the memory glass! When I bought the memory frames and the memory capsules I kinda forgot that I was supposed to buy also the memory glass, duh. But I cut a piece of thick cardboard and put it in the frame.

This is Tim's #8 and this is mine. Here too I had to improvise but the tag turned out ok at the end. My lamp post is so tiny that the key would have been too big so I hung a little ceramic angel ornament from a clock instead.

 

Here is a picture of all my 12 Tags of 2009.

 

Wow, now that all these tags are done, I can finally concentrate on other things like work... and some layouts...

Here are still a couple more pics of our Christmas.

This is the hazelnut cake with frosting, our chocolate frosting didn't turn out so we made a white sugar frosting instead. The cake was yummy!!

Picture of me (one of the few ones because I'm always behind the camera) taken by Andrea. I just love it with the soft lights of the candles and with the tree on the background.

    

On Boxing Day evening Franco, Andrea and I went to see A Christmas Carol. It was really funny!

So now that Christmas is over we can start waiting for New Year :)

  

Tim's Tags #9 and #10 + other Xmas stuff

I played this morning in my scraproom and finished other two of Tim's tags.

This is Tim's tag # 9  and this is my take. Very similar to that of Tim's. I just substituted the metal numbers to metal letters and didn't make the metal poinsettia - I thought my tag was already pretty full. This is another tag I didn't like so much when I started but which ended up as one of my favorites.

Here is Tim's tag # 10 and this is mine:

I had a lot of difficulties with this one, mainly with the metal sheet which I didn't have so I used aluminum foil but it didn't adhere very well and tended to rip. But I'm happy this one is done too and I've learned so many new techniques, wow!

Here's a picture of our tree upstairs. This year it was trimmed by Andrea since Valentina is in London. It's all blue and silver whereas the tree downstairs is all red and gold.

And here are the oatmeal cookies I always bake for Christmas. You can't get oatmeal in Italy, at least I haven't found it so I bring the oatmeal from Finland or some of my friends bring it over.

We're ready for Christmas!!! 

  

Two more sleeps

I've created other three tags. Who knows, I might even get them all done...

This is Tim's # 7 and this is mine (second attempt):

On the first one, the golden embossed writing got all smeared and so I had to make another one. On this one I used by mistake the smooth side of the tag and honestly didn't like at all how the Distress Inks blended. Too smooth. I used the stickles and stamps I had which are not the same Tim used. But I'm pretty happy with this tag.

This is Tim's # 6 and this is mine. 

At the beginning I was not enthusiastic about this tag: I don't have the plain grungboard nor Tim's spruce or vintage car stamps so I used a grungeboard shape for the tree (cut it on the bottom to make the stump) and used a car image on a wrapping paper which I put on chipboard and embossed with black(dabbed on different parts of the car with distress embossing ink). I embossed the tree with Distress Ink Pine Needles and Peeled Paint and then used white Liquid Pearls for the snow since I didn't have the Fluffy stuff. I'm very pleased how the tag turned out at the end.

And here is Tim's tag # 5 and here is mine:

Oops, forgot to put the ribbon. I used some vintage images of St. Nicholas and used what I had but I'm not really happy with this tag. I think my white embossing powder sucks :(

Onto other things. Here's a photo of the coconut cookies which Andrea was supposed to make but then he didn't feel like it. "If you want to do them, Mom, you can." Thanks, babe!

I started craving artichokes today, so I cooked some ready for Christmas Eve. Valentina is going to kill me when she sees this photo. She loves artichokes and I very rarely make them. And now she's not at home I did...

And last but not least, broccoli and sausages which I will do with pasta tonight for supper.

  

  

Christmas countdown and more...

It's been awhile...

Many things have happened, good things, bad things, many changes but I'm on track once again.

I'll start with showing other 2 of Tim's tags. These are numbers 11 and 12. I'm planning on doing them all, but I won't be stressing over them. "No stress" has been my motto for a long time and it really applies to scrapbooking (if I stress, it's not fun anymore hence it has lost all its purpose of being a healthy creative outlet) AND especially to Christmas. I decided long ago that I want to enjoy the Christmas time and not be cranky and tired and ruin the festivities for the whole family so I usually plan everything ahead of time and try to cook and bake beforehand and freeze everything so I won't be in the kitchen for hours on end during Christmas. The same with the trimming the tree (this year Andrea and I had a really early start at the end of November), making and sending the Christmas cards and hunting for Christmas presents. What gets done, gets done. What doesn't, there's always another year:)

So here we go with the tags.

This is Tim's number 11 and here is mine:

 I used Little Yellow Bicycle's fabric buttons instead of making my own, and I don't have plain grungeboard so I used the reindeer shaped grungeboard, stamped some random stamp on it with Distress Embossing ink and used black embossing powder. I also didn't have any Christmas rub-ons so I embossed a Happy Holidays stamp with white embossing powder.

This is Tim's number 12 and here is mine. This is probably my favorite tag of all. I just love those grungepaper roses. Yummy!!

 

I have perfect pearls but no Distress re-inkers so I used Glimmer mists. Worked just fine for me. I also didn't have Tim's adage ticket so I used one that I downloaded somewhere (can't remember it now).

I'm working on a couple more right now and will show them when they are ready.

Now a photo of some of the Christmas cards I made this year: thanks Martha for the sample!

Here are a couple of photos of our tree downstairs (still have to get some good pics of the tree upstairs and have to change my 50mm lens to a zoom lens to get the whole tree!)

  

And yesterday's Christmas baking. Actually there is another cake and brownies too.

This hazelnut cake needs a chocolate frosting but we'll do it tomorrow.

  This is a gingerbread cake. Yummy! I tasted the dough :)) 

Craving to scrapbook

Ho sentito sintomi di astinenza da scrapbooking per tutta l'estate visto che l'ultima volta che ho pasticciato con carta e colla è stato ai primi di giugno. Ieri sera finalmente mi sono concessa qualche ora di relax tra foto, patterned ed abbellimenti vari.

Il primo su Andrea l'ho fatto con il kit di luglio di Cocoa Daisy che mi avevano mandato come premio dopo aver vinto la sfida di aprile con questo layout. Avrei dovuto creare una mia interpretazione sulla sfida di luglio ma visto che le Poste Italiane mi hanno portato il kit dopo un mese (quindi la sfida era bella che finita), ho creato un layout libero. Ho usato solo una patterned montato su cardstock tagliando una striscia a dx. Ho creato dimensione usando il bubble wrap con l'acrilico, facendo cuciture e creando un insieme di fiori, tag e die-cut sulla parte inferiore. Il colore fuchsia è usato più volte: nelle cuciture, nell'acrilicio e nel fiore grande di feltro. Come sono contenta quando posso usare fiori in un layout maschile:) L'armonia è stata ottenuta anche usando delle foto delle stesse dimensioni e poi posizionandole a mo' di griglia.

I've felt really bad withdrawal symptoms from scrapbooking the whole summer. The last time I created something was at the beginning of June. Last night I decided it was time to play with paper and glue and these are the results.

I created this layout with the beautiful Cocoa Daisy July kit. The kit was the prize for having won the April Challenge with this layout. I should have given my interpretation for the July challenge but thanks to the Italian postal system the kit arrived at the end of July when the challenge was already done with. So I created a layout just for fun.

I love grids and so I created a grid with photos of my son from 2006 until 2009. The grid of even sized photos gives also balance to the layout. I used a piece of bubble wrap to stamp on the background with acrylic paint (Ranger's Dabber) to create a layer. Then I attached the photos, used machine stitching to give some dimension. Also the stitching on the upper left corner of the grid gives a starting point for the eye.
I created a cluster of flowers, journaling labels and the die cut tree on the lower part of the layout. The big fuchsia felt flower ties nicely the color of the acrylic paint and the stitching. I'm very happy every time I can add flowers on a "boy" layout. 

Il secondo layout è del nostro ristorante di pesce preferito a Roma. In verità è il miglior ristorante di pesce in tutta Roma! Ci portiamo sempre tutti i nostri amici stranieri e sono rimasti tutti folgorati dalla bontà, dalla varietà e dalla quantità di pietanze squisite che Isola d'Oro ci offre. Isola d'Oro si riferisce alla Sardegna, l'isola amata dei proprietari. In questo layout ci sono le foto delle nostre amiche australiane Lisa e Vicki, mio cugino Jussi (sua moglie ha scattato la foto), i nostri amici dal Canada C.D e suo marito Cam e i nostri amici greci Elina e John. Guarda caso, a parte mio cugino, gli altri amici li ho (e di conseguenza anche mio marito) conosciuti tramite lo scrapbooking!

The second layout is about our favorite seafood restaurant. To tell you the truth, it's the BEST seafood restaurant in Rome! We always take our foreign friends there and all of them have appreciated  the variety and the quantity of the exquisite food they were offered at  "Isola d'Oro".  Golden Island is the translation of the name and it refers to Sardinia, the home island of the owners. In this layout are featured my friends from Australia: Lisa and Vicki, my cousin Jussi from Finland (his wife took the picture), my Canadian friends C.D and her husband Cam and our Greek friends Elina and John. A part from my cousin, all these other friends I have met through scrapbooking!

 

Varie fasi della preparazione del layout:

How I created the layout:

                 

white acrylic to mute down the patterned paper  -  circle stamps to create more layers

tags underneath the photos and ribbon to create more layers

Rimandendo nel tema dei piatti squisiti, ho fatto questo layout sulle prelibatezze greche che mi diletto a cucinare ogni tanto. Di solito facciamo una serata greca con la famiglia e con i migliori amici delle ragazze. Ormai è diventata una tradizione anche quella in casa nostra.

Speaking of fabulous food, I made this layout about Greek delights that I cook sometimes. Usually we organize a Greek dinner with the family and the girls' best friends. It has become a tradition in our house.

 

L'ultimo layout è "un casino" . Foto della mia povera camera scrap quando non è in ordine, e ciò purtroppo capita più spesso di quanto volessi.

In tutti questi layout ho utilizzato materiale contenuto nei kit di luglio di Cocoa Daisy e di Girl's Loft.

The last layout is literally about the mess in my poor scraproom. The journaling is about how I try with all my heart to clean my room but unfortunately way too often I just seem not to be able to KEEP it clean.

In all these layouts I've used stash from the July kits of Cocoa Daisy and the Girl's Loft.

Un nuovo chef in casa / We have a new chef

Lunedì scorso mio figlio Andrea (10 anni) ha deciso all'improvviso che voleva fare un ciambellone. Niente di male in questo, solo che avevo un'amica scrapper a casa e volevamo scrappare tutto il giorno. Alla fine ho ceduto, anche perchè Andrea non prendeva un "no" in considerazione (è un tantino testardo il ragazzo!). è andato a comprare quello che mancava e si è messo all'opera.

Con l'aiuto di Silvia, la mia amica scrapper, ha preparato un ciambellono delizioso.

Foto dell'evento che aspettano di essere scrappate.

Last Monday my son Andrea ( 10 yrs) decided that he wanted to make a sponge cake. Nothing wrong with that, only the fact that I had a scrapper friend over and we had decided to dedicate the whole day for scarpbooking. At the end he won (quite pig headed the young man I should say!). After running to the grocery store to get the ingredients that we didn't have he was ready to go.

With the help of my friend Silvia he made a delicious cake.

Some photos of the event waiting to be scrapped.

 

   

Ieri sera ha colpito di nuovo! Un altro ciambellone ma questa volta ahimé non era per noi. L'ha portato a scuola per tutti i compagni. Beati loro!

Last night he made another cake but sadly enough it wasn't for us to enjoy. He took it to school for his classmates. Lucky kids!