Ranger Mat Meets St. Patricks Day

Recently I purchased a Ranger craft mat and was having trouble traveling with it and not bending it up. I asked my friend, "catinthegrass" how she totes hers around in her scrap bag and she said she uses an empty toilet paper roll to keep it from unrolling during transport. What a genius idea!!! Why didn't I think of that?

I began using the toilet paper roll and realized it was reminding me of the one thing we all dread. Walking into the bathroom to find the roll was left empty only for me to change it out for a new roll while doing the potty dance. So, I needed to make my roll a little more appealing and less of a horrible reminder. I decided I would alter it but, I can not stop at just one roll. I will need one for every holiday. At least that is the plan for now. Who knows I may get sick of making them after the third or fourth one.

So the alterations to the toilet paper roll begin. With my new S.E.I paper pack "Pistache" just arriving in the mail I have found my inspiration. Good timing S.E.I! This paper pack is great because it covers many holidays plus it has other amazing coordinating sheets. Why not kill two birds with one stone, part of this upcoming Scrap Agains challenge from the embellishment table is to use green flowers, buttons ribbons and brads. I am well on my way to finishing one of this months design team projects.

Below are the pictures that show the before and after of my Ranger Mats first new friend aside from me, the one who abuses it!

I used the following products to complete this project. One toilet paper roll, a 6 X12 piece of S.E.I (Pistache) paper, yellow ribbon to hide the paper seam, two green flowers and buttons, green embroidery floss and a chipboard tag. I then added the word "Lucky" to the tag with a Sharpie pen.

January's Design Team Challenges (Scrap Again)

This was the first official month for my design team projects to be submitted and ready for the all day crop on January 9th. I am looking forward to next months crop since I am also teaching the lunch and learn. You can find the upcoming crop schedule at http://www.scrapagain.com/.

Challenge #1 was to alter a composition notebook. Now that I am on a design team, I wanted mine to be a place where I could store pictures and details of all my layouts and projects I have completed this year. I will also keep data on all the page contests I enter for the year in my book. To date I have about six entries in my book and it will grow alot since I forsee a busy year.

Challenge #2 was to use a product called Kaiser droplets. Kaiser droplets were the January giveaway at the all day crop for bringing a friend. My layout is of my son playing soccer this season. Soccer is his all time favorite sport. The Kaiser Droplets are on the bottom left corner and are used as bullets for each phrase. I actually liked the sheer effect the droplets have so I was able to put one over the top of of a photo and you can still see the detail thru the droplet.

Challenge #3 use items from the emelishment box. The embelishment box this month contained 3 themes.

• Metal items
• Blue, white embelishments and snowflake items to represent winter
• Red and green embelishments for Christmas.

These embelishments are displayed as complimentary items to use at the crops and change each month. My layouts are below:

"Freezin for a Reason" I used snowflakes, ribbon and brads from the box. These pictures are from from the snow in Susanville, CA when my daughter was 3. The pictures are of us and my friend Carrie's family having a little winter fun."Christmas" - I used metal key chain links, flat jewely charms and a flat jack as my star on top the tree. This layout is a photo of my son and our 4 legged children Athena and Luna Christmas morning 2009.

A Big Dream, A Little Nudge and Here I Am...

Many of us from time to time wonder: do I have time, am I good enough, will others like my creative side. Well with a little nudge from a friend about 4 months ago my fears started to dwindle away.

With the encouragement of a good friend, my friend and I submitted for our first design team. This is when the dream started to become a reality for me. With sadness in my heart she was not chosen to be by my side on this first adventure. I believe there are other little monsters behind this story as to why she would not be. Then again maybe there is something bigger out there for her and she is about to find it.

So with a little nudging from one friend to another here I am. My friend has and continues to inspire my creative side. I could only hope I am inspiring her to realize she is an amazing artist that has alot to share with others like me. Although I don't think I will need to nudge her along, she will be the one with the gentle tap saying to me, "what are you dragging your feet for" or something along those lines. Thanks friend for the gentle push...