October Giveaway WINNERS & a Layout too~!!

**For my November giveaway, please go HERE**

Good morning my dear scrappy friends~! I hope you are well :). I have a busy post for you this morning, so we best get to it. I'm going to announce both the winner of my October Giveaway, as well as the BONUS winner~ but because I love to make you wait it out, first I'm going to share a project with you that I created just a couple days ago.

Do you ever have those days where all of your problems and all the things that you've been trying to ignore just seem to come crashing down on you?? Well, last Friday I had one of those days. One of those days where the realization that no matter WHAT you do, it just ISN'T enough...slams into you like a train. I really had a BAD day...and I just felt like I NEEDED to create something, just to get through it. I hopped on the internet to find a sketch and discovered that the beautiful and talented Steph Devlin was this month's creator of the Prima BAP. I loved it immediately and the new Spring/Summer/Winter/Fall challenge at Bird is the Word spoke to me as well...but not in a traditional "seasonal" way. For some reason, the title "Fallen" just seemed to strike me as the word for what I was going through. Maybe that sounds stupid...but I can't explain it. I was feeling dark, dismayed, hurt...I felt like a fallen soul. So I carelessly cropped a terrible picture of myself and was like "okay, let's go"...

And honestly, I still don't know what to think of this one. I'm much more positive now than I was a couple of days ago...so I guess I look at it a little differently. At the time, I wasn't worried much about design or...anything, really! But now there are a couple things that don't sit too well...but that's okay!

Here's a look:

"Fallen"

**This piece of chipboard is from Scrap FX**

I guess sometimes you've gotta create to help you through something...and for me, just writing down my realizations was simply therapeutic. :)

BUT~!! I know why you're all REALLY here, ha! On to my winners...

Firstly, the winner of my October Giveaway is.........................................

PATTY O'MALLEY (from ????- sorry, Patty- not sure where you're located!)

A BIG congrats to you!!! Please contact me (erin_divisionair@yahoo.com) within 7 days to claim your prize!!

 

Next, the winner of my BONUS giveaway, which is a random pack of chipboard is..........................

 

AMY VOORTHUIS (Netherlands)

CONGRATS to you too, Amy~!! Please contact me (erin_divisionair@yahoo.com) within 7 days to claim your prize as well~!!

As always, a big THANKS to everyone who took part in last month's giveaway! As you probably have noticed, I have a giveaway going on for November as well...at this point, I'm uncertain whether or not I will be doing a December giveaway due to the holidays and you all know how spendy they can be!! So I might be taking a break next month...so get in on my November giveaway okay?

Have a great rest of the weekend (unless you're already facing Monday!) and thanks for stopping in~! Take care,

BITW "Reach" (a personal challenge to myself)

**For my Giveaway, please go HERE**

Okay, first of all SORRY for being so quiet lately here on my blog! After taking off nearly two weeks last month, I'm trying to play catch-up with my DT work and a couple extra special assignments ;)- and there has been NO personal scrappy time. But last night, I put a stop to that! My husband and brother hauled home my "new" (new to me) scrap desk- so good-bye kitchen table!!!! We got it all set up and it was 9:30 at night. I was tired- and trying to make an excuse to go to bed. But I thought about my poor, neglected blog and said NO!- I'm going to make something TONIGHT- and I've got ONE hour...

Yikes. I'm more like a 5 hour scrapper- but I grabbed up the new "Romance Novel" collection from Prima, grabbed a bottle of gesso and some masks and mist- and just went to work. I didn't over-think things at ALL (I'm one of those who can stand and stare at my page for 20 minutes, just thinking)- just started throwing stuff together. And I'm pretty happy with what resulted! 

Here it is, my entry for the "Reach" challenge at Bird is the Word...

"Out of Reach"

I thought that the fussy cut elements from this range were perfect for a "reach" page. As many of you know, I've had a tough time letting my middle child Gunner grow up. So my journaling let some insight into that struggle..."It's difficult for me to admit that keeping you little is beyond my control. You just turned 2 and all the sudden you say all kinds of things...at least when you weren't talking, I could pretend you were still a baby. But every day, you prove to me yet again that you're growing up. And that stopping that is simply out of reach..."

Here's a closer look:

 The main bloom in my cluster is one of the gorgeous Winter Releases from Manor House Creations, available for purchase HERE in the C'est Magnifique store. Freaking gorgeous, if I do say so myself...

 For the hot air balloon, I took my Crafter's Workshop Reverse Chicken Wire mask and some texture paste, added some embossing powder and dried with my heat gun :).

 A little look at my gesso/mist/stamped background- I tried to create a "sky" scene here.

Hidden journaling :).

Supplies Used:

Prima Marketing "Romance Novel" papers

Manor House Creations, Prima Marketing, & Petaloo flowers

Prima Marketing Shabby Metal Treasures (goose)

7 Dots Studio letter stickers

American Crafts Thickers

The Crafter's Workshop reverse chicken wire & wall masks

Martha Stewart Texture Effect

Tattered Angels "Rum Punch" glimmer mist

Maya Road "Hydrangea" mist

gesso, cardboard, Prima packaging

So there you have my personal one-hour challenge! Basically what this shows me is that I tend to generally REALLY over-think things...and perhaps I just like to waste my own time, lol. Actually, what I think it is is I really enjoy the process of creating, and so I take my time...just so I can enjoy it that much longer. But it's nice to know that I can pull something together when given a time constraint :).

I hope you're all doing well. We're nearing the weekend- so have a safe and good one. See you tomorrow with a DT page for Scrap FX!! :D