Very Mary

Challenge #4 (with Laura and Heather)

Welcome back to our very sporadic product challenge, in which Laura and I make scrapbook pages and attempt to inspire the masses! This will be Challenge #4, and this time around, we have invited our talented friend Heather to provide a third take on our challenge items:

1. Scenic Route Paper Co. patterned paper: the stash is large, but the paper is oh so yummy!

2. Buttons: sneaking their way onto every page these days...

3. Heidi Swapp plastic letters: I saw Laura use these on a layout, and I remembered that I still have some or lots, depending on your perspective. Time to break them out again!

4. Brads: a scrapbooking staple.

Here's my page (with home-printed photos that are soon to be replaced):  

For the layout design, I started with KP's January Super Sketch, but as you can see, I changed it up by centering the foundation and flipping the location of the title with respect to the photos. It made it much easier to have a starting point. I've actually had these photos and papers pulled and sitting out for some time now, but just hadn't had the opportunity to get the layout started. On a sidenote, Sadie had discovered the supplies I piled together and had taken to carrying the photos ("See-dee pitchoos") and the green felt ("geen bink-eee") around the basement. One day, I even found them in the dryer, carefully loaded with several pairs of her socks.

The cute little flowers are from Banana Frog's adorable Funky Flowers set, which just so happened to match the flowers on Sadie's bathing suit! I stamped the flowers with Versamark onto two different colors of yellow cardstock, then I heat embossed with clear embossing powder for a subtle tone-on-tone effect. The flower stems were handcut from felt and stitched with my sewing machine directly onto the page.

 

I also used the polka dot stamp (with Versmark) from Banana Frog's Backgrounds set to add a little interest to the kraft background.

One of the things I love about these challenges is finding new ways to use my supplies. I added brads to the center of my one of my button flowers, which is a technique I had to try after seeing it popping up here and there in magazines and on the web. Laura also used this one on her challenge layout!So be sure to check it out on this fun layout of her cute daughter! And not only did Heather rock the challenge by creating TWO layouts, she gave us a great idea for layering sticker letters over mega-size alphabet letters for a fun, unique look with lots of dimension. Check out these adorable layouts about her baby boy here! Thanks ladies for another great challenge!

And hey, should you all be tempted to play along, don't forget to link us up!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Scenic Route Paper Co., Buttons: The Paper Studio, Chatterbox, Letters: Heidi Swapp; Stamps: Banana Frog

For the foodies...

Either I take a mean photo of birthday cake or there are a lot of closet foodies reading this blog because I had quite a few requests for my Triple Decker Peanut Butter Cake recipe! Well folks, the honest truth is that the recipe comes from the genious of Ms. Anne Byrn, otherwise known as The Cake Mix Doctor. If you've never seen her cookbooks, the concept is simple. She takes cake mixes and ready-made items (canned soups, bagged salads, rotisserie chicken, etc.) and adds a little bit of this and a little bit of that and creates a super tasty dinner, or in the case of our Triple Decker Peanut Butter Cake, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The Triple Decker Peanut Butter Cake is from the book The Dinner Doctor. The actual recipe includes peanut butter frosting, but I've opted for chocolate because I like the combination of the two flavors.

 

I pulled the Fluffy Chocolate Frosting from The Cake Mix Doctor, but there is also a chocolate frosting recipe in The Dinner Doctor. Anyway, recommended books if you don't mind cooking or baking or eating food, but you happen to hate being chained to the stove.

  

Hopefully I haven't broken any copyright laws by posting these here, but if so, they might be missing later, so get them while you can and in the meantime, enjoy!

And....the digital elements used to make these recipe cards come from the free kit HapPea Birthday by Tia Bennett.

Thank You Very Much (a card)

A fun little card using paper and colors from the American Crafts Moda Bella line.

The original idea went through several transformations before settling into this design, to which I'm kinda partial. And as you can see, I'm only slightly obsessed with the Swiss Dots. Perhaps I'll use it enough to actually justify the cost of the Cuttlebug...   

And those layering circle stamps from Hero Arts? Well-used, I tell ya.  

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts, Stamps: Hero Arts (circles, sentiment), Hot Off the Press (swirl), Punches: Marvy Uchida; Eyelets: Making Memories, Paper Frill: Doodlebug Designs

Evidence...

that there are indeed two children in this household.

 

Three, if you count Sadie.

Twenty Months

Dear Sadie,

It is entertaining indeed to call Mommy by her first name, so whenever the mood strikes you (especially first thing in the morning and after naptime), I hear your little sing-song, "MAY-REE! MAY-REE!" Daddy's name is a little harder to say, but you've mastered that too and I often hear you saying, "DAY-RICK! DAY-RICK!"

Some of the things you say that just melt me: if I ask you to do something, "HO-KAY, Mommy;" if I am lying down, "Gebb up, Mommy;" and after I say "how are you, Sadie?", you say, "Goot. Howie you?" You call strawberries, "saw-bee-os" and pillows, "peer-ee-os."

You love Winnie-the-Pooh, your Cabbage Patch doll, and anything kitty. After a spectularly overindulgent Christmas, you came home from Grandma's house with, not one, but five new kitties. All of which you love fiercely for brief moments throughout the day. You cuddle them and snuggle them and whisper, "meow." You push them around in the play stroller, stopping only to insist that Mommy change their "poopy diapoos." We change them at least five times a day. Each.

Music. You call it "moosing," and when you listen, you like to dance: stomping your feet, clapping and spinning in circles. You like it best when Mommy and Daddy dance with you, so you'll say, "Dance, Mommy! Dance, Daddy." (You think watching Daddy square dance is positively hilarious.) If we're listening to music in the car, you like to hear us sing. And I think it's fair to add that you are the only person who has ever requested me to sing. I love that about you.

During a very girly moment, Mommy painted your toes with a bright red nail polish (Big City Apple). Mommy thought you would really enjoy it, but surprisingly, you went slightly hysterical, screaming and crying and trying to rub the polish off. We only managed the left foot. But several hours later, you decided they were pretty, and you called them "pretty toes" for the rest of the month.  

Speaking of feet, you still hate wearing shoes or socks, and if you can manage, you always, always remove them. It doesn't seem to matter to you if it's -10C outside with two feet of snow. You still think life is better barefoot. Maybe so you can admire your pretty toes.

You love nothing better than to sit in Daddy's chair with all your stuffed animals piled around you, then you yell, "AHHHH!" and shove the animals out of the way, watching with delight as they cascade to the floor. After which, you sweetly request, "Again? Again, Mommy?" 

This month and always, we love and adore you.

Eat Cake.

Derrick was touched by the birthday greetings from my lovely scrappies, but he wants to know, "when will the gifts be arriving?"

This year, he very conveniently did his own birthday shopping, so with no shopping required, I devoted my energies to a culinary masterpiece, fit for peanut butter lovers everywhere, Triple Decker Peanut Butter Cake with the Best Birthday Cake Frosting in Very Chocolate ("TA DA!"):

 

My assistants were very helpful...     

...although, the plan to "help" unwrap the peanut butter cups dissolved into an early morning feeding frenzy...  

...evident by the tiny teeth marks left on some of the cups...    

...and zero interest in traditional breakfast food...

Turning 31

Wishing a very happy birthday to the one who makes every day possible:

 

Venice (A Layout)

I created this page for the Chatterbox Design Team Call last summer, and I held on to it thinking I'd submit it. It ain't got no love...

 

My challenge was to use the Artsylicious line in Ruby. I'm not typically into monochromatic layouts. They just don't excite me, so I added some kraft cardstock and some tags. And a little white Staz-on.

The white-ish block tucked under the kraft mat? That's my Staz-on, applied over flocked paper.  

See the flourish under the title? That's an imprint created with the flocked paper inked in Staz-on and stamped onto a transparency. That's a little thing I like to call "paper prowess."  Heh. Heh.

So now, what to do with this page that is too pretty to toss, but just does not fit into my Italy album?

Supplies: Patterned Paper, Chipboard, Flower, Ribbon: Chatterbox, Stickpin: Darice, Metal: Making Memories; Tags: Avery

From the Heart (a card)

Planning ahead for Valentine's Day...

(And also an excellent excuse to use my new Swiss Dots embossing folder, which by the way, was ridiculously hard to find, nevermind it being the sole reason for my purchase of the Cuttlebug machine.)

   

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Heart Accent: Heidi Grace; Stamp: Hero Arts; Stickpin: Darice; Buttons: Paper Creations; Frill: Doodlebug Designs; Swiss Dots Embossing Folder: ProvoCraft

Picture Perfect (A Layout)

It was a busy weekend in the MacAskill household, but then again, when is it not? One of these days, I will get around to finishing starting to edit those photos I've so recently complained about, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share a layout I did a while ago. Same sort of tone as our weekend: familial bliss and all that jazz.

A couple views to help you see that funky clear acetate title "picture perfect." I used my Xyron to attach that sucker to the layout, which was no easy feat, let me tell you.

 

I have a mini Xyron, so I had to take the damn thing apart and unroll the tape and feed it manually. But! It worked. Attached cleanly with no visible adhesive! (insert self-satisfied sigh here.)

 

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, sticker: Scrapworks; Heart: Around the Block; Font: Clarendon