Heritage Printers Tray

Greetings!  Today I wanted to share with you the 7 Gypsies Printer Tray that I Decorated for Archivers “One of a Kind Wall Art Contest”.  The rules of the contest that can be found at http://www.archiversonline.com/pages/one-of-a-kind-wall-art-contest-official-rules I took this tray to the Archivers store at the Eden Prairie Center on August 13 for judging that took place August 15 to August 21.  This morning Jen at Archivers called and said I was their winner!! So I won a $100 Archivers and will be in the finals at Scrapfest and eligible for a $1,000 cash prize!!

When my Grandmother passed away last February all of the family members shared heritage photos that Grandma had and that other family members had in their possession.  I knew that I wanted to display some of these photographs but was really struggling with how to do this until I came across this contest.  Once I decided on making a printers tray, everything else fell into place relatively easy. 

The photos tell the story of my family history from my grandma’s birth to my sister, brother and I.  Except for the printer’s tray, the majority of the products were from Tim Holtz.  Here is the finished product.

The first photo in the upper left hand corner of the tray is my grandma taken when she was 17 or 18 years old.

One of my absolute favorites is next!  It was taken in 1911 on a Sunday afternoon drive.  Grandma is the little 4 year old girl standing in front of the rear door.  Check out the beautiful bow in her hair.  My Great-grandfather Brehmer is driving the car, her brothers and uncle (the man in the shadows) is in the front.  The lady next to Grandma was her uncle’s fiancé and then my Great-grandmother.

This is a family photo of my Dad and his brothers and sisters taken in 1947.  From left to right is my Dad (my son looks ALOT like Dad), Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Norma, Uncle Roger, Aunt Fran and Uncle Ronnie.  The baby photo directly below is Grandma’s one year photo.

My Dad’s confirmation photo was taken when he was in the 8^th grade and a picture of my brother, John, sister Judy and me is below Grandma’s baby picture.  The photo of my siblings and I was taken in the fall of 1966, I was in first grade and remember having this picture taken.  What I remember the most is John did not want to smile and the photographer really had to work hard to get this picture.  It is funny what a person remembers!

The last photo is of my Grandpa and Grandma Petersen o their wedding day.  Grandpa passed away two years before I was born and this is one of the few pictures that I have of him.  So it is a treasure to me.

The rest of the photos are of the embellishment and the grunge flowers I made.  Instructions to make the grunge flowers can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWscqwfY5o   

I love You Tube for new crafting Ideas.

That is my heritage printer’s tray and I hope you enjoyed looking at it!! 

Take care and I will see you soon on my gravel road.

Sketch Support Guest Designer, Parts 2 & 3

Hi, everyone!! Didn't get to post last week but wanted to share my Sketch Support Guest Designer Post from August 13 and today!! 

Here is the website: http://www.sketchsupport.com/     Hope you enjoy.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

••••••••••••••••••••••••

Add-on Sketch #8

Birthday Hat card by Mary Bezdicek



Supplies used: Paper & stickers, My Minds Eye “Home”; Bazzil and Coordinations Cardstock; Versa Color Ink, Chestnut Roan; Brad, Spare Parts; Marvy Liquid Appliqué; Pink Paislee Artesian Elements, Tattered Angels Black Cherry Glimmer Mist; Straight From the Nest Cricut Cartridge.

Variations:

·        For this card I used my Design Studio to weld two party hats (using the Shadow Creative Feature) together from the “Straight from the Nest Cartridge.  I cut then cut a single of the Shadow in pink and 5 of the hats (Creative Feature off) 1 in white cardstock and 4 from a different sheet of the MME paper.  If any of you would like the cut file I made for this contact me at my blog.

·        Layering all of the patterned paper together, I cut the hats in fourths so my lines would match and adhered them to the white base.

·        I cut four of the hat pom pom and layered them to create the “fluff”.  I layered the base and the pom pom on the pink Party Hat.  The “fluff” was adhered by a brad.  I then put this on top of the card.

·  The Pink Paislee Artesian Element was sprayed with the Black Cherry Glimmer Mist and adhered over the paper seam.

·  The Marvy Liquid Appliqué was applied on the hat trim and once dried I ran a heat gun over the top to create the dimension on the trim.  It was then adhered to the bottom of the card.

  • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

"Christmas" by Mary Bezdicek

Supplies used: Paper , October Afternoon “Very Merry”; Bazzil Cardstock; Ofray Ribbon; Color Box Ink, Chestnut Roan; We Are Memory Keepers Floss;Thickers, Foil Accents; Stickles, Gold and Icicle; Cricut George and Basic Shapes and Beyond Birthdays Cartridges.

Variations:

·        I pretty much stuck to the sketch design.

·        The pom pom was changed to a star and covered with Gold Stickles.

• The ornaments were made with the floss using a French knot.
• I put Icicle Stickles on the striped strips of paper.
• The trunk was cut from cardstock and ran thru my Sizzix Texture Boutique.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Two-page Sketch #18

"Anthony & Grandpa" by Mary Bezdicek

Supplies used - Paper and stickers: Bo Bunny “Block Party”; Embroidery floss: We R Memory Keepers; Stickles: Ranger, Star Dust; Cardstock: American Crafts; Ink: Color Box, Chestnut Roan; Star border punch: EK Success; Other: Cricut Tie the Knot and Don Juan Cartridges.

This page was very bittersweet to make as “Grandpa”, my husband’s father passed away June 7, 2011. These pictures were taken during our family Easter celebration this past spring, our last family celebration with Dad in attendance. It was just two weeks later that Dad starting failing…this page really brings home the reason that I scrapbook.

Variations:

• I used two 6X4 vertical photos on the left side of the page.

• The title was wrapped around the photos.

• The waves were replaced with 1 ¾” X 12” red paper and I layered two 1/4” X 12” strips of striped paper on the top and bottom of the red strip. The star boarder was placed in the center of the two striped strips.

• The star boarder was punched from double sided paper, so I took the stars, flipped them so the coordinating color was face up. I then glued them down and covered them with Star Dust Stickles.

• The swirls were cut from the Cricut Tie the Knot Cartridge. I stitched on the blue swirls for an accent.

  • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

"Jenny & Andy" by Mary Bezdicek

Supplies used - Paper: Basic Grey “Bittersweet”; Cardstock: Bazzill; Border punch: EK Success; Glimmer Mist: Tattered Angels (Vintage Pink, Black Cherry, Iridescent Gold); Ink: Versa Color (Black); Crackle accents: Ranger; Tools: Sizzix Flower Layers die, Cricut George and Basic Shapes Cartridges; Crystals: Zva Creative Crystals; Brad: unknown;

Variations:

• I used 9 X 5 ½” photo on the left side of the page.

• The sun embellishment was replaced with a flower on the lower right corner of the photo.

To make the flower, I soaked with Glimmer Mist three of the large flowers, two of the medium flowers and 1 small of the flower dies and crumpled them up while wet. I then flattened them and finished drying them with my heat gun. After the flowers where dry, I punched a hole in the center and added the brad.

• The waves were replaced with 2 ¾” X 12” paper and I layered one ¼ “ X 12” strips of striped paper on the bottom and one ½ “ X 12” strip of paper on the top. The heart boarder was placed in the center of the two striped strips.

• Hearts cut from the Cricut George and Basic Shapes using coordinating papers were adhered to the boarder using foam dots and covered with Ranger Crackle Accents.

• The journaling was the cover of Jenny and Andy’s wedding program.

• The waves were replaced with Zva Creative Crystals.

These were my takes on the two sketches and I hope you were inspired.

Guest Designer and a weekend crop.

Wow.....hard to believe that is has been over two months since my last post!  Life has kinda taken over and we have been dealing with many struggles, from the death of a parent, family illnesses and surgeries to challenges at work.  It has kinda been one of those "One darn thing after another kind of summers".  We are getting thru it all with faith, prayer and for the most part, positive attitudes believing that what does not break us will only make us stronger!!

This weekend I am taking a break with a group of friends and we are scrapbooking and some are quilting at the Granada Getaway in Granda, Minnesota.  It is a great place and is probably close to the tenth time I have been here.  I love the set up and the opportunity to let my creative juices flow and catch up with good friends.

The exciting thing for me is that I have been chosen as the August Guest Designer at  http://www.sketchsupport.com/ and today marks the first time my designs are featured.

Here is the sketch:


And my takes on it:

I will have two - two page layouts featured next week.  Hope you visit me soon on my gravel road.

Sketch Support Creative Team Call

Hi, everyone!!  I have been working on my submission for the Sketch Support Creative team.  This is one of my favorite websites for scrappin' inspiration!  It can be found at http://www.sketchsupport.com/  Here are my submissions for the Creative Team.

I made this card for one of my husband's aunt for her 80th Birthday this past weekend.

This layout I made to celebrate the arrival of my first great nephew.....Yikes, I can't be old enough to have a great nephew.  Needless to say, I think all my nieces and nephews are great!

This layout is of my daughter documenting her college days.  I want to thank her assistant coach for taking these pictures and seeing that I could get copies.

In other big news........I GOT A NEW RANGE AND REFRIGERATOR TODAY!!

I am pretty excited and just another sign of age that home appliances get me so excited.

I want to thank you all so much for sharing my excitement and wish me luck with my entries for the Sketch Support Creative Team.  Until we meet again On My Gravel Road.



Happy Mothers Day!

I hope that all of you moms had a great day!! Mine was so very enjoyable, however, didn't really start out that way......had trouble sleeping last night and at 4:30 I got out of bed wide awake.  Knowing I needed to pick up some photo paper to finish up my projects for our Moms, I headed to Wal-Mart.  I definitely have decided that is the time to shop! No lines, no crowds......but it also means that I would have to wake up at 4:30 to shop.  So despite all the pros, I am pretty sure that my shopping will be done during "normal" hours.  Oh, yeah, one big con to shopping at is that it is soooooo easy to browse and along with my photo paper, I walked out with 2 six packs of petunias, onion, garlic and elephant ear bulbs, seeds for my gardens and a new pair of pajamas.

After returning home from my shopping trip, I was able to put the finishing touches on the mother's day projects for my mom and Ron's mom.  I made them both the same thing and got the idea for the frame from My Mind's Eye blog.  You can look at my inspiration here: http://mymindseye.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/mothers-day-frame.html
Here is my take on it and the card that I made:

I found $5.00 frames at our local Pamida store, sanded it lightly, and applied crackle glaze.  Once the glaze dried, I applied white paint.  I used Fancy Pants Road Show papers for both the cards and the frames.  Other supplies I used was the Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Tim Holtz stamps, Doodle Bug and October Afternoon rub-ons and Thickers.  The flower on the card was made with ribbon I had on hand and Cosmo Cricket Glubers......love these........they are awesome. 

Now, for the rest of my Mother's Day.......my son, Tyler, took me out to lunch at Ground Round.  We had a great time and so enjoyable to be able to spend time just the two of us and catch up.  In case you are wondering why we left my hubby at home, Ron has been going pretty much 24/7 all week planting corn.  We had enough rain this morning that he couldn't get back in the field and he decided to stay home and get some much needed rest.  The only thing that would have made it better is if my daughter could have made it home from college and have lunch with us.  Tyler also presented me with a gift certificate to a local green house.  When we got home, I had a much needed nap as my early morning shopping trip caught up with me. 

So looking back on the day, even with the early morning shopping trip, it was a great day.  Did some crafting, shopping, lunch with one of my two favorite guys and a nap, yes it was a pretty darn good day.  Until we meet again on my gravel road.

Yes, I am a Nerd!!

I have to admit it......I am a big nerd and hopeless romantic.  In the past months, I have been so excited for Kate & William's wedding.  So true to form, I woke up at 3a.m. this morning, turned on the TV or should I say, tellie, to watch this moment in history. 

My sister and I woke early on a July morning 30 years ago to watch Diana & Charles' wedding.  Even though 400+ miles separate us now, Judy woke up at her home and we have been texting each other regarding everything royal wedding......so we are together in spirit!!

The dress:

I have to say that this is one fabulous dress!!  Simple, elegant and something that will be just a beautiful in 50 years as it is today.

Well, that is my thoughts today...

Bo Bunny Layout Challenge!

Hi, everybody!  Back again with my re-entry to the Bo Bunny Layout Challenge of Friday, March 25, 2011.  I had originally posted my entry with my April 1 post.  But when I looked at it this morning, I decided that it was missing something and so I deleted the photo from the post, went to my craft room and zjooshed up my layout.  Now I am happy with it and it is done!   Here is a link to the challenge: http://bobunny.blogspot.com/2011/03/layout-challenge-friday_25.html Immediately I was drawn to this challenge and thought that it was so much fun and plus scrapbooking is all about telling your life stories.  What a great way for those that will see this layout to get a snapshot of who I am right now!! 

The title is "essential to me" and the journaling reads, "Crosswords for when I am waiting. IPod so I will remember to buy a power cord. Wad of keys so I don't lose my frequent shopper card. Nail file, tape measure, screw driver, cough drops, Tylenol & Sudafed and....A cork screw because you never know when you might need to share a glass of wine with a friend".

Here is a look at the layout....."pre-zjoosh"

Yep, definitely better.  Till we meet again On My Gravel Road.



Bo Bunny Challenges!

Here I am again with another Bo Bunny Card Challenge!  This Tuesday Card Challenge from the March 29 edition of the Bo Bunny Blog. Here is the sketch that the challenge is based from:

And here is my interpretation of the sketch.  I made this card for my daughter and will be giving it to her tomorrow, April 2nd.  The outside reads "Did You Know?" and the inside says "That you are my hero?".  She truly is my hero, she has overcome so many obstacles and I am so proud of her...this is for you, Megan.

Hope you like it.......until we meet again on my gravel road.



It's Been Awhile

I know that it has been awhile since I posted but life has just sorta taken over since my scrapbooking weekend with the girls.  Along with recuperating from a bout with the respiratory flu, I have been working on my year end reports at work and also preparing a curriculum for a "Cricut Basics" class thru JCC Community Education.  The class will be on April 12, 2011 at 6pm at the JCC High School.

Tonight I am very excited as I won a card challenge on the Bo Bunny Blog here is the link: http://bobunny.blogspot.com/2011/03/bling-it-on.html 

Bo Bunny does have some of my favorite papers and here are some layouts using them:

My scrapbook room

Dad & Tyler's Birthday, 2010

I absolutely love this picture of them!!

This is the church where my niece was married

My son and his show pig business

Finally, me & what makes me happy...

That is it for now!!  Take care and take time to do what makes you happy!

Great Weekend

It is Sunday evening and I am home from my scrapbooking weekend with a group of friends in Granada, Minnesota.  We had such a great time and it is just a little bitter sweet packing our gear up and heading home.  Despite recuperating from the respiratory flu that I battled all last week, I was still able to complete 20 pages.  That is quite the accomplishment for me considering that I am a very slow scrapper.....well maybe if I would spend just a little less time talking........here is a peek at some of my layouts.  I used Sketches for Scrapbooking as a starting point for my layouts.  These books are my go to reference when I start a page and can be found at http://www.scrapbookgeneration.com/Shop_Online.html   The papers that I used on my layouts were Bo Bunny Block Party and Olivia, Basic Grey Green at Heart and Bittersweet and Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety.  Hope you enjoy!!