pure joy {purple pumpkin December sketch challenge}

Good evening everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the last few days of this holiday week and wrapping up your 2011 with some fun, friends, food and family. I have had the last 2 days off and have been able to get a little crafty time in. It seems like there is never enough time to scrap as much as you want to! But I find that if I steal away a few hours a week it really makes me happier and it's my 'ME' time after work and everything else. It's back to work for me tomorrow, but luckily only 3 days and then I'm off for New Year's day. Hopefully we can get a little celebrating in and kick off 2012 right! I have a feeling it's 

going to be a really good year!!! 

Okay, enough of my chit chat, tonight I wanted to share a LO I did this afternoon for the Purple Pumpkin crafts December Sketch Challenge. I know I am getting it in just under the deadline, but I wanted to be sure to enter because the prize is some of their handmade goodies!!! I placed my first order in November and am absolutley in LOVE with everything I got in my Mixed Lucky Dip bag. It seems you can't ever make a LO where there's not a place for a PP goodie :) So here it is, the title is 'Pure Joy' and the photo is of my step sister and her daughter, my niece Zoe from last Christmas!
This was the original sketch, designed by Sara Noendeng. 

And this is what I came up with:

Another full page view. I am really happy with how this turned out with the mix of Christmas colors I used some traditional and some non traditional. I really funked it up with alot of Tim Holtz distress stain in vintage photo and fired brick. Everything on the page was inked, distressed or spritzed in some way.

 The beautiful crochet circle from my PP mixed lucky dip was just a little to bright for my color scheme, so of course I inked it! I finally got a Tim Holtz blending tool for christmas so I went crazy with that thing! I love though and I love how you can use different strokes to give the page a different effect. Tucked in underneath that is another gorgeous PP goodie, a med red fabric covered button.

 In this shot I was attempting to get a good one of the title, but since I put glossy accents over the 'pure' part of the title and it wasn't quite dry, it's hard to tell what it says here. 

 here you can see a close up of the stickles I did in swirls near the poinsetta flower and another fabric button.

 I covered the chipboard tree with 2 different colors of stickles, but they again weren't really dry when I tool the picture. I think once they dry it will look even better! Next to the tree is a piece from Tim Holtz acoutrements, and a scrap of fibers from my ribbon stash that was snowy white, so of course I inked them too with TH distress stain in vintage photo.

That is all for tonight folks! Hope you enjoyed this LO and the rest of your week. I will be submitting this shortly. Until next time, peace y'all~VV

Supplies List:

background papers-"naughty or nice" christmas paper pad by Recollections

large circle- Prima marketing "North Country Collection" 'snowfall'

white cardstock- photo mat

Prima- poinsetta flowers, brown flower, chipboard christmas tree, snowflakes from "enchanting" collection

Tim Holtz distress stain in vintage photo and fired brick

Tim Holtz distress stickles in fired brick

Tim Holtz acoutrements- white and gold flower button

brown glitter chipboard letters-American crafts

stardust and platinum stickles

Smooch Spritz in vanilla shimmer

red metallic paper-smaller circle from my stash

misc. fibers and tinsel from my ribbon stash

dark green crochet circle and red fabric button- Purple Pumpkin Crafts

'a creole christmas' {mini gift album}

happy Saturday everyone! it's an especially great day today since I was able to take an extra day off and end up with an impromptu 3-day weekend!  I'm hoping to get alot done in the craft room the next few days:) got some Xmas projects in the works and of course more scrapbooking! I just wanted to take a minute to share an album I did a few weeks ago as a gift for my sister. I didn't put it up on here at the time because it was supposed to be a surprise for her bday! But I'm giving it to her tonite at dinner so I figured I would go ahead and share it. It turned out really really cute and the best part about it was I used stuff that I already had in my stash, not one thing bought! I have a growing stash and craft room so whenever I am able to complete a project using all things I already have, it's super great! Makes me feel really more accomplished for some reason! LOL okay, so here are a few pictures for everyone...some really good lookin' Xmas eye candy on these pages...:lol

 here is a side view of all the ribbons and scraps I added!! Love the Christmas color combo with all the black too!

 and here you can see the album standing on it's side, it turned out super fat!!

 Okay, here are some close ups of the pages so you can see what stuff I used. It didn't take me all that long to do, just 3 late nights in the craft room to complete it all, and like I said I used all stuff from my stash! This is the first 2 pages, highlighting our beautiful hotel room!

 This is always one of my favorite things about visiting New Orleans, all the iron gates and lamp posts everywhere!

 One of my favorite Christmas songs!!

 This pic is kinda blurry, but it was my fav meal while in town, and also a cute little tag explaining the Creole Christmas tradition of the 'Reveillion' dinner.

 a close up of that tag, along with a cute cluster of an ornament, green button, black tulle, and fabric button. 

 My daddy and my sister!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE them both.

 Dad posing on the bench outside the Southern Food and Beverage Museum at the Riverwalk mall.

 not the cutest pic of me, but I HAD to try on the crawfish hat! LOl

 The back page of the album, I combined a pic I took along with one I cut out of a brochure, I really liked all the decorations we saw it was really something to see New Orleans all dressed up in lights!

Okay,  that's all for today folks! hoping I complete another project or challenge tonite or tomorrow to share :) I will also be submitting this in the Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge, the challenge this week was to use GLITTER on any type of layout, album, craft project, or page. I used glitter all over this album, not just stickles, but mainly the letters in the title on the front page of the album, as well as a few other places you can see the diff colors of glitter I used. In a bit, we're heading over for a night of dinner and games with my family on the other side of Mobile Bay. Should be a good night, lots of photo ops!!! And I get to see my niece and nephew :) Eveyone, enjoy this weekend and stay warm! It's even quite chilly here in south Alabama, getting in the low 30's tonite I think. Until next time, PEACE Y'ALL~ VV

Supplies List:

paper, stickers, and flat embellishments- 'holly holiday' activity pad Me&My Big Ideas

red flowers, paper ornaments, holly leaves- Prima Marketing

 Fleur de Lis- Jolee's 3D embellishments

jumbo black sharpie

black chipboard spiral bound album (this was from a prize)

fabric colored old world Christmas buttons- Oriental Trading Co.

Colorbox chalk inks- black and lipstick

Stickles- gold, platinum, silver,stardust

Stickles, Suze Winberg collection- tiara and sequins

Stickles, Tim Holtz distress collection- fired brick

adhesives- glossy accents, glue stick, tape runner

fleur de lis brads, black tulle, glitter sticker letters & stamp; other from my stash