4 Challenges In One (2 Sketches 4 You, Use It, Bitten By the Bug, Pile It On) ~ Way to say Happy 4th of July!

I found this new challenge called Pile It On and the purpose of it is to do it as a challenge + as many others as you can in the same project! Wow! Sounds hard but actually this project ended up easy to use them all! This is actually a door hanging. I got the idea from one of the design team members of Bitten By the Bug. Here are the challenges:

Bitten By the Bug - Use jumbled freedom words from Cricut Graphically Speaking (Independence is also from the same cartridge!)

2 Sketches 4 You, Laura Sketch #29 (used that for how I set it up!)

Use It #16 - Use Polka Dots, inspired by nature (the little owl!), favorite embellishments (I used the ribbon, flowers, button, and die cuts), and send to someone you care about. In this case I'm going to hang this on my door at work because it will cheer everyone up! So all those people are special! Hope that counts!

Pile It On #4 - Use 4 Buttons.

As I said in an earlier post for the same Use It challenge, I've been cleaning and reorganizing my scrap space and so I "found" the red polka dotty paper and didn't realize just how much fiber I had and this was a fun way to use it! I can't wait to take this to work tomorrow and hang it on my door!

2 Challenges In One ~ Thank You Card

For this card, I combined the Use It #16 Challenge with the Card Patterns #21 Sketch!

The Use It #16 Challenge was brought to us by Kay Sibley and was to be:

**Polka Dots (check, check ~ got lots of polka dots going on here!)

**Something from Nature (check, check ~ turtles and flowers)

**Favorite Embellishment (check ~ I have lots of faves but I love stacking flowers right now and putting a button on them! I also love die cuts with the cricut so the thank you is from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge)

**Send it to someone special (this will go to my parents who had my kids visit for a little over a week ~ I think it is great for my kids to get to know their grandparents but it still is hard to be patient when you haven't had kids around for quite awhile!)

And, for extra points I actually "found" both of these cool papers as I've been going through and reorganizing my scrap area! You wouldn't believe all the cool things I've found! I shouldn't have to shop for a long time (but will I???? Maybe I should Use It more often!).

2 Challenges in One Card (Card Patterns #19 and Use It #14)

I have had this cute Revolution Penguin (Archiver's Exclusive) for quite some time. There are no Archiver's here so my sister Teresa who lives in Texas got it for me and mailed it to me! He/She is so cute.

The Use It #14 challenge this week was to:

**Use Pink

**Use Scallops

**Use a tag

The Card Patterns #19 sketch had a scallop on the top so this was just so natural to put them together! And I got to use my cute penguin. I even doodled on this card!

Use It ~ Challenge #7

Wow! This was a tough one!

I don't know if I got everything in but it was a great way to get my daughter's birthday party invitations done! She is only inviting 2 girls because we are going to a small amusement park in Portland and then they are staying the night. So it wasn't one of those massive card making exercises!

I knew I wanted to make a shaker because I found this cool confetti that was tropical themed! We had bought a bunch of cool tropical party stuff last year thinking ahead for now! So, let's see how I did on the challenge:

**Use black or white cardstock as the base: I used both (sneaky, huh! maybe I'll get extra points when I don't have one of the other elements!)

**Use 4 different patterned paper: green on the tree is DCWV Christmas Glitter stack from years ago, Brown on the tree is Basic Grey, flip flops are WR Memory Keepers, and the yellow sun is making memories

**Non-scrap item: This is where I have some problems, unless you count the confetti which is technically not a scrap item but I bought it with the intention of making shakers!

**Doodling: Yeah - I did it!

**Use whatever is laying around: I had this tropical flower ribbon that I used in another project 2 years ago and was able to use it all up! Whoo Hoo!

Have a great rest of the week and Happy Scrapping!

2 Sketches 4 You week of 4/13/09 and Use It #6

I used Kazan's sketch #24 from 2 Sketches 4 You and the Use It #6 challenge to create this card. The Use It Challenge was to:

• ~Make a masculine card. My son is going to be 12 on May 7 so this was the perfect challenge - I'm done with my card early!

~Use Heat Embossing. This is really cool because I just did a make and take at our local scrapbook store (Scrapbook Fever) and they did heat embossing. I had a bunch of stuff to do it but I'd never tried it. This was the perfect opportunity to do it again at home!

~Use some of your favorite things. Ever since I got those quickutz birthday candle numbers, I have used them a ton! I don't know how many Oregon 150 Birthday cards I've made with them ~ almost 60! I think these count as one of my favorite things.

~ Use something you have been hoarding. So there are several things in this I've been hoarding. The heat embossing tools and powder (heaven knows how long I've had it - can you believe I have one those heat embossing "hair dryers" that I'd never taken out of the box!!!). I also have been hoarding stamps. The magnifying glass and the "I detect" stamp are from club scrap ~ my sister (Tscrappingblog - see the link on the right) belongs to club scrap and they had a sale so she ordered these for me! You've got to love your sisters especially the ones that feed your scrap habit! These are just 2 of the stash of stamps that I haven't used yet. I actually bought the other stamp (it is from a Technique Tuesday birthday set) on monday at Scrapbook Fever (it was double punch day so it is all good!). I just knew this particular stamp in the set would go so good with the others.

I finished this up with some ribbon that I had from Michael's and cut out the happy b-day to look like ransom letters! The background pattern paper is from a DCWV stack that I've had around for awhile and the paper in the middle is from the Making Memories Chloe's Closet set.

I feel like I'm really on a roll this week, getting all these challenges done early! It is hard to believe! Have a great week!

Use #5 and 2 Sketches 4 You week of 4/6/09

This was a really fun card to create! I used Laura's sketch 23 from 2 Sketches 4 You along with the Use It Challenge #5. The Use Challenge was to:

• Use an old die cut. I didn't have many of these around since I have started buying die cut machines several years ago (quickutz, sizzix, cricut) but I found this cool 4th of July hat in my stash.


• Use a technique you used to use. I used to piece my die cuts together and chalk them (not the little cats eyes everyone uses today but the old kind with a q-tip!). Luckily I had 3 different colored hats so cut them apart and then chalked some of the pieces!


• Use a patterned paper over 2 years old. I don't know how old this paper was but I have a whole stash of 4th of July paper and I know I haven't purchased any for quite sometime!


• Use something on clearance. The trim on the hat was on clearance at my local scrapbook store a month or two ago. Seemed to work great with the theme.

I completed the card with the star and usa cut with a sizzlet (also an older set) and a me and my big ideas sticker and stickopatumus 4th of July letters (also been hanging around for quite some time) and the America ribbon was from Walmart (I purchased this in the last couple weeks!). The cool thing about this card was that I used a few more things than even the challenge called for! Loved it!

Have a great week and a very Happy Easter everyone!

Card Patterns #7 and Use It #3 + a few more pages of the Silverwood Book!

I liked Card Patterns Sketch #7, that I used it again! I actually used the outside of the oval frame that I used in the card I posted yesterday! Can't let anything go to waste. I used the sizzix bunny and some little flowers that someone sent me in the card challenge on scrapbook.com a few months ago! I stamped "some bunny loves you" on cardstock and then used the cuttlebug embossing to see how it would look afterwards. There is a first time for everything! I'm not sure I like it a lot but I'm going to give it one of my kids for easter!





My second card if for the Use It #3 challenge. Use eyelets (yes, Heidi you are right, I do have tons of eyelets!!!), something more than one year old, and polka dots. When I saw the challenge I thought of the XO eyelets I bought many, many years ago. The red heart was actually from a package of die cut hearts that my sister, Darleen gave me (again, many, many years ago!) and the flowers were probably from one of the first bottles of primas I ever purchased. The red heart paper behind the hearts is also at least 2 years old! This was incredibly fun! Can't wait for next week!



I'm also posting 3 more sets of pages from my altered Silverwood books. I will try to post a couple pages each time so that the suspense (LOL) keeps building! I actually counted out and I only have 6 more sets of pages to go (then times by 4!!!). I'm hoping in a couple weeks I get it finished!

Silverwood is an amusement park in Northern Idaho. The first picture is outside the corkscrew which is an upside down roller coaster that they got from Knotts Berry Farm.




I had a ton of fun with this ice cream picture. The patterned paper was from the DCWV 2007 summer stack and I remember looking at that big ice cream cone on the paper thinking, I'll never use this! Well, I think this turned out great. I stickled the ice cream cone and then cut all the letters out with the cricut! I would have never been able to do this without it! Thanks to my sister, Teresa, I am now a cricut lover!!!! (PS - you can check out her blog - see my side bar - Tsscrappinblog!)






And the last pages this time are from the tilt a whirl - I had to put the little circle around my kids because it was really hard to get a picture!

Have a great week! I'm hoping to do some more this wee!