Bath-time for foster kittens

My family fosters 3-4 litters of kittens for our local animal shelter every year. Taking care of these tiny creatures is a lot of fun for my kids (a lot of extra work for me, grumble grumble) and living in a family home makes the kittens a lot easier to adopt.

I have to be honest and admit that, for the most part, I don't like kittens - they are messy, destructive, demanding, and there isn't a lot of personality. Yes, they are cute and adorable and watching their antics is better than TV. But young kittens are all pretty much the same and it isn't until after they leave our foster home that their personalities develop and they become individuals. 

But every once in a while there will be a special kitten or litter that does stand out. Late last year we fostered a litter of orphans who stood out, although not for their personalities. These little monsters were eating on their own - barely - but this involved them swimming in their food. Every meal, every kitten needed to be bathed. This went on for almost 2 weeks. 

This month's major case file challenge at Color - Stories - Inspiration (CSI) used a grumpy cat image for inspiration and I immediately thought of this bunch of kittens for a layout. So here is my entry:

I used scrap papers from a couple of Basic Grey collections and the filmstrip is a digital stamp. The layout and colours come from the CSI inspiration board:

Another challenge that inspired me:

• Love to Scrap! Challenge Blog - use a stamp (digital photostrip) and use at least one item starting with blog initials. L(ayers) - T(iny kitten) - S(tripes) - C(omputer journaling) - B(asic Grey papers)

It took 70 years to get this awesome

Today I'm sharing a layout that I just completed celebrating my father's 70th birthday. Although I'm not thrilled with the final page, I keep reminding myself that it's better to have finished pages than perfect pages. LOL.

I used a piece of green cardstock for the background but added watery paint to create a watercolour effect. I also used paint (Tim Holtz Wild honey) to edge all the papers and drag across the background for more texture. The rub-ons and pattered papers are all scraps from Basic Grey Lime Rickey.

I found inspiration in many places:

• Sketch N Scrap provided the sketch 

• CSI provided the colour scheme and prompts 

Corset card

Today's project is a combination of card and gift packaging. I got my BFF a necklace and wanted to wrap it in a special way so I pulled out my brand-new Lace It Up diecut from Tattered Lace, did some research on the internet for styles and then created this corset card.

I had such fun making this. The corset itself is patterned paper over textured white cardstock that is wrapped in silver patterned ribbon. The laces are cut from a shiny silver paper and I made the ruffle from netting which I recycled from some packaging. The last step was punching a couple of holes so that the necklace could be strung through the card. I'm so pleased with how this worked out!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

• Cute Card Thursday - use something new (the Tattered Lace diecut)
• Card Mania - make it sparkle
• Love to Scrap - use an item beginning with at least one letter of our challenge blog initials (L, T, S, C, B). I used Lace, a Tattered Lace die cut, and made a Corset.
• The Paper Girls - sparkle

Cards for boys

After completing the scrapbook layout I shared in my last post, I decided to try and finish off the rest of the paper pack since it was down to scraps. I made a half dozen boys' cards (using sketches from the Scrapbook.com January Sketch Challenge) and then turned the rest of the scraps into Father's Day card kits for the Childrens' Hospital (via Send A Smile 4 Kids Canada). I'm happy to say that I've used up all but two sheets of the Sassafras Robotics paper collection! Yippee me!

I'm entering these cards into the following challenges:

Clear it Out: Anything goes using stash
Creative Card Crew: For a child
Scrapbook.com January Sketch Challenge:

• Sketch #1
• Sketch #3
• Sketch #4

My handsome sons

I'm really going to try and scrapbook more this year (and post photos of some of the more successful projects). My first completed layout of the year is this one of my son's current school photos.

I was inspired by the following challenge:

From my stash, I used T(wine, on the chalkboard sign) - W(ave, shape across the page) - I(nk, my journal pen) - N(umbers) - E(yelets, holding the chalkboard sign). I also used up quite a bit of scrap paper from a Sassafras pack that I had. Yay me!

I used a sketch from SketchSavvy but can't for the life of me track it down to link it here. I found it through Google search and printed it off for reference. But now I can't find it online anywhere (not even on the SketchSavvy blog). Urggh. But if you love sketches be sure to check out http://sketchsavvy.blogspot.ca/. Her sketches are really wonderful!

That's all for now. Have yourself a creative day!

Stickles carrying case

I love, love, love my Stickles. So, of course, I had to make a special carrying case for them (something as special as glitter glue shouldn't have to be carried in a boring plastic container). I picked up this lunchbox-style case at the dollar store - ugly design but with the addition of several Basic Grey patterned papers (all from the "Lime Rickey" set) and some decoupage'd tissue paper, a fabulous & fun case was born.

 

The original (ugly) box

Completed, altered box - isn't it bee-u-ti-ful

Holds all my Stickles with room to grow

Challenges:

Craft My Life - anything goes
Not Just Cards - anything goes

Christmas tag inspired by Tim Holtz

Inspired (OK, pretty much scrap-lifted in its entirety) from one of Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas. The tag doesn't photograph great but looks really awesome live because the snowflake embossed clear plastic front sparkles.

  

Challenges:

Craft My Life - anything goes
Not Just Cards - anything goes