Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge 30 – The Ballet Studio Scene

Dani came up with a really creative challenge theme for us this week – the  ballet scene in Twilight.   You have to love the ones that get  you thinking!  Click here for all of the challenge info, and visit the blogs of the design team to see what they’ve prepared for this week:

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

Because I’m me, my project focuses on Edward’s point of view during the ballet studio scene.  While I was working on this layout, I kept thinking of Midnight Sun – if it ever gets FINISHED (and yeah, it’s hard to hide my impatience on this) – we could hear all about what Edward goes through during this scene!  But…I should move on.

My goal with this digital layout was to portray Edward’s experience during the ballet studio scene.  So on this layout, I’ve included photos from some key moments for Edward – the moment after he arrives there when he sees that Bella is hurt, watching James bite Bella, discussing his options with Carlisle, and finally – his biting of Bella to remove the venom from James.  When Edward expresses his fear of being unable to stop biting Bella and therefore killing her, Carlisle tells him that he will find the will, hence the title.  I find that scene so moving – when “Let Me Sign” begins…oh, man.  I centered this layout around that beautiful image that appears in the movie during this moment – Bella and Edward laying in the snow.  So serene and pretty.

Layout details:

All photos property of Summit Entertainment

Font: Carmilla

Overlay:  Designer Digitals

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge 24 – Carlisle Cullen

Happy Tuesday, Twilighters!  So, does everyone have their DVDs (or is that a dumb question)?  And have you gotten through the movie, the extras, the commentary?  Rob made me laugh out loud many times in the commentary – funny boy!  Be sure to listen for his declaration that Mike  Newton’s dance is “saucy.”  That was one of my favorite moments.  But enough about Rob – it’s time for this week’s Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge theme! 

This week our theme, chosen by the very sweet Dani, is Carlisle Cullen.  Isn’t this a great topic?  I love this character – and who doesn’t love Carlisle?  There is so much good about him.  And I would really like to hear more about him – it would be really very cool if Stephenie Meyer decided to write more about the Cullens and explore their history.  I’d love to read about Carlisle’s early days!  I really do hope that she is not done with these characters.  Dani asks us to create a project about an aspect of Carlisle’s history; you can get all of the details on the challenge here.

And be sure to look around on Twilight Tuesday.com while you’re there – we have a TON of things happening right now – there are lots of ways to get involved!  Check out this stuff –

• Scavenger hunt contest 
• Blog candy giveaway
• Monthly sketch challenge
• Visit us on Facebook to become a Twilight Tuesday fan
• Visit our forum to chat

And as always, be sure to visit the blogs of the design team members, who always have beautiful Twilight projects to display!

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

For my project, I made a little tribute to Carlisle.  I have done cards a few times for other Cullen characters, much in the same style.  In particular, I modeled this card after one I made for his wife,  Esme.  I was thinking that one of the most important events in Carlisle’s history was when he met and changed Esme – so I thought that making a matching set for them was appropriate.   I used a a bunch of blingy elements to bring out the sparkly nature of those beautiful Cullens, like Bazzill Bling paper (my Twilight card stand-by), metallic silver cardstock, metallic silver Dew Drops, metallic ribbon, Stickles – you get the idea!

And as with the other Twilight character cards I’ve made – Carlisle got his own keyword – his  is “compassion.”  In Twilight, Edward told Bella that :

“Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us… I don’t think you could find his equal throughout all of history.” (Twilight, page 288). 

What a lovely thing for him to say about his “father.”

Card components:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white; Bazzill Bling in Diamond (white) and Prince Charming (blue); The Paper Company metallic silver cardstock

Stamps:  none.  Photo property of Summit Entertainment; fonts used: Zephyr (Carlisle and Porcelain (compassion)

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: textile texture and Swiss dots embossing folders & Spellbinders ribbon slide die; silver metallic Dew Drops; ribbon; dimensionals; EK Success deco corner punch; Stickles

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge 23 – A Cullen St. Patrick’s Day

Happy Twilight Tuesday, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  This is a BIG week for Twilighters – in just a  few short days, we will finally have the DVD in our hands!  Ah, the waiting… it’s feels like we’ve been waiting forever for this DVD to be released, but we are so close now.  And this is a big week for the Irish, Irish-Americans, people who wish they were Irish, people who enjoy their beer green – you get the idea.  Now, to combine these things – our theme this week is a Twilight-styled St. Patrick’s Day!  Beth issued our challenge this week, and all of the details can be found here. 

This is a really good time to visit Twilight Tuesday.com – there is a ton of stuff happening over there!  We have a scavenger hunt underway now (details here), so play along for your chance to win awesome prizes.  Also be sure to check out this month’s blog candy giveaway.  We also have a card sketch posted for March, and as always, lots of talk happening in the forums, including this month’s book club discussion.  And as always, be sure to visit the blogs of the design team members, who always have beautiful Twilight projects to display!

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

For the creative portion of the challenge, Beth asks us to create a Cullen-style, St. Patrick’s Day-themed project.   I decided to focus on the surname Cullen, which is, fortunately for this week’s theme, of Gaelic and Irish origin.  I read online that the name has a few different meanings, and they all seem very appropriate for the Cullen characters.  One site said that the name means “chieftain"; another site claimed that Cullen means – get this — “good-looking lad, handsome.”  Now doesn’t that make a lot of sense for the Cullen family? 

Twilight movie viewers will likely have noticed that the entire Cullen family wears a form of the Cullen crest, pictured to the right.  The very knowledgeable Larry Carroll reported on the MTV Movie Blog that the crest was designed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke and her team.  I looked around for an actual (non-Twilight-related) Cullen family crest and found that the movie crest shares several elements with the real-life crest (pictured above), like the hand symbol and the shamrocks.

My card for this challenge is based around the Cullen crest from the movie (that I found at Twilight Guide.com) with a few other Celtic touches thrown in there for St.  Patrick’s Day.  Of course I had to go with green along with white and a little black.  I used Bazzill Bling paper in Diamond (white) and Emerald City (green); unfortunately, that green didn’t seem to photograph well.  I embossed the Diamond layer with the Cuttlebug argyle embossing folder.  I  never seem to find a use for this embossing folder and thought that since argyle is a Scottish thing, and that is part of the Celtic world, that I could finally find a use for it!  I stamped a strip with a Celtic knotwork stamp and added a little glitz to that with a Sakura Jelly Roll pen.  Their clear pen works so well for quickly adding a little sparkle without the wetness you’d get with other products.  And finally, I added some green metallic brads that I happened to have around (go figure!).

For the comment portion of the challenge, Beth asks us about our own St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.  I am Irish, and I am from a very Irish-American town that treats this holiday as a major event.  People use their vacation time to take days off and the events go on all week.  They hold an annual Leprechaun Convention, and the main hub for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations (a bar and restaurant) is so crowded for that entire week that it is literally standing room only in there.  So St. Patrick’s Day is definitely in my blood, but I don’t actually do much celebrating myself anymore.  I am not up for facing the crowds – I will just play some Irish music today and that will be that!

Card components:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white and black cardstock, Bazzill Bling cardstock in Diamond and Emerald City

Stamp: Inkadinkado Celtic set

Ink: Stampin’ Up! Handsome Hunter

Accessories: Cuttlebug argyle embossing folder and Nestabilities rectangle dies; Stampin’ Up! ticket corner punch; Sakura Jelly Roll glitter pen in Clear Star; dimensionals; metallic brads

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge 19 — The Villains

Hello, hello Twilighters! This week’s challenge theme is an interesting one — the villains of the Twilight saga. This one should make you think a bit! All the details of the challenge can be found on Twilight Tuesday.com. As always, we welcome everyone to join in and participate! Our forums are pretty busy, so check those out as well.

For my project, I chose to focus on Laurent. I find him really interesting; he really is a bit of a contradiction. A bad guy, no doubt — but one that regretted the trouble that was stirred up in Twilight, and one who went to live with the "vegetarian" Denali family for a time. So, totally bad or not all bad? Hmmm…

I just finished re-reading New Moon yesterday, so with that on my mind, I focused on a specific scene from the that book for this project — the chapter where Bella finally finds the meadow again. When she arrives there, she encounters Laurent. I love this part of the book — I think it’s really significant for a few reasons, and it also marks the first time that Bella sees the wolves. I found her reaction to seeing Laurent so fascinating — she was so happy to see a vamp – any vamp – that she reacted like she had seen a long-lost friend, when in reality she was in serious danger. So weird — she was really off kilter here, which is stating the obvious to anyone who has read New Moon. And this moment was one of those adrenaline-rush times when she "heard" Edward’s voice in her head, and because I apparently cannot leave Edward Cullen out of any challenge, I have worked him in there – more on the layout in a minute.

I think that the whole "hearing Edward’s voice" thing is fascinating. It makes me wonder — did Bella actually think at that point in the story that Edward was the best thing about her, the one that would give her the best advice? Clearly her own intuition was advising her and not Edward, so it’s interesting that she thought it was him, that she didn’t give herself the credit for knowing what to do. When I first read New Moon, my reaction to this hearing voices thing was just that it was a reflection of the depth of how much she missed Edward. (Hey, who can blame her? I haven’t seen Twilight in several weeks. I’m hearing his voice now as I type this. So?) But this time reading, I just wondered why she didn’t just take the credit for having her own good instincts. I am so looking forward to seeing this scene on the big screen!

Which leads me back to my project about the encounter in the meadow. There is Laurent, front and center. And why I included Edward — I wanted to find a way to include a visual representation of Bella hearing his voice, and I thought putting him the background, in a subtle way, would work. I can’t tell you how hard I looked to find the right photo of him! Those who know about my obsession with Twilight photos (or, let’s be honest, with Rob photos) will believe me. I wanted him to look vaguely menacing; I was happy with the one I found since he’s looking over his shoulder with this "I’m watching you, Laurent" vibe. I typed out the advice Bella heard in her head in the now-famous "Edward’s handwriting" font, since she believed that it came from him. Although ultimately, Bella could have trusted in her own instincts, hence my title (done in the "Bella’s handwriting" font). I also threw in a little reference to the debut of the wolves that happens in this scene — see if you can find it! (This project is a little tough to see in a smaller format; click the image to view it in a larger size.)

A little blast from the past is in this layout — the very first Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge I did was the third challenge about Edward’s meadow in October 2008. Was that really only four months ago?! There’s been a lot of Twilight in those four months, let me tell you! I used the same photo from that card on today’s project; I enjoyed that little call-back.

Onto the actual comment portion of the challenge -the villain that totally freaks me out is Jane. I think that Jane is just horrifying — she messes with Edward’s head, which is an unforgivable offense! The combination of her childlike look and her scary power makes for one frightening villain.

Digital layout elements:

Paper, ribbon wrap, stitches from Midnight Garden set by Monika Digital Designs; flourish frames by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals

Three photos (Edi Gathegi, Robert Pattinson – property of Summit Entertainment & meadow) found online

Fonts: title and Laurent’s name: Pablo; advice: Carmilla; New Moon info: Zephyr

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge #15 — The Cars of Twilight!

Spoiler Alert!  Breaking Dawn spoiler ahead!

Happy Inauguration Day!  It’s time for another Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge!  This week’s theme, chosen by Margie, is the cars of the  Twilight saga.  The crafting portion is to  make a creation using the cars from Twilight as your inspiration.  And the comment portion:  What would be your ideal Twilight car, and why?  Leave your comment on that at our new home for the challenges, Twilight Tuesday.com, where you’ll find all the details on this challenge.  Come and visit us there — the activity on our forums is picking up, so come and chat with us!   Also, don’t forget that the drawing for this month’s Twilight blog candy will be happening soon, so please play along and get your chance to win!  And that is not the only way to win, visit here or here to get the details on the blog candy.

So…cars. I’m not all that much of  car person. I mean, I would definitely notice if a Cullen-style car rode by me (and I would notice if someone who looked like a Cullen was driving!), but otherwise, it’s not a big deal to me.  But, if I won the lottery, I’d be driving something good (but environmentally friendly) — that I do know.  So my ideal Cullen car would be the Aston Martin (pictured at right).  I mean it is just so beautiful — that’s really all there is to it.

Cars really figure quite prominently in the Twilight saga.  Here are a few key automotive-related Twilight things:

• Edward.  Of course he’s first.  Edward’s a car collector and his cars are as beautiful as he is; the silver Volvo is practically a character in Twilight.  And he also has an Aston Martin, pictured above!  The only other person/character I’ve ever heard of with an Aston Martin is James Bond.  James Bond and Edward Cullen — yeah, sounds about right.
• Rosalie, the unlikely ace mechanic with the flashy red BMW
• Alice and the yellow Porsche that plays such a key role in New Moon.  (Seriously, what if Alice wasn’t able to steal such a fast car?!  Heaven forbid!!) 
• Emmett and his enormous, tricked-out Jeep, so like him
• Carlisle and his tasteful Mercedes, again – so like him.
• Come to think of it, what do Jasper and Esme drive?  I mentioned this to Tonya, and I think we figured it out.  Esme seems to be a homebody, so driving’s not very important to her, and I think that Jasper is just content to be with Alice, so I  imagine that he’d go along with her car of choice.
• Jacob, another mechanic (he actually has something in common with Rosalie!).  He helped with Bella’s truck, he rebuilt that VW in New Moon, he rebuilt the two motorcycles that play such an important role in New Moon.  (Yes, I know they are not cars, but they are really significant.)  And he even gets to drive the above-mentioned  Aston Martin in Breaking Dawn.
• And..finally Bella and her red truck.  Like Edward’s Volvo, the truck is basically a character in the books and the movie.  It’s such a part of her,

And that leads me to my own project, which concerns Bella’s "before" car.  (This is the spoiler warning; those who don’t want to spoiled about the plot of Breaking Dawn, read no further!)

In Breaking Dawn, Bella’s "before" car was the fictional Mercedes Guardian, based on the very real Mercedes Guard.  Edward’s thinking is that Bella needs the safest vehicle imaginable while Bella is still in her vulnerable human state; of course Bella wants to resist accepting his gift, but she does in the end.

Doing some research into the features of the real-life Mercedes Guard, which I believe is priced at around $400,000, was actually quite amusing.  Check out these safety features, courtesy of carsarmored.org:

• Comes fully armored. 
• Made of bulletproof glass and steel designed to thwart the following: gunfire, B6 and B7 protection levels secure passengers from rifles, hand guns and all military-standard small-arms in general. 
• Passengers are protected against grenade fragments

You know, I don’t think that Stephenie Meyer gets nearly enough credit for her wit — that is some funny stuff.  Why aren’t the troops driving these cars?!

So, my project — I did a little advertisement for the Mercedes Guard, with some of those key features listed, and a little Edward joke thrown in there.  My idea was to do a sort of spec sheet for the car, something that Edward might show Bella to tell her about the car he was getting for her.  So, it’s got a photo of the car, some of the safety specs listed below…and Bella’s rather crabby reaction to the car.  I did this on a notepaper to look as if Bella wrote a note and stuck it on to the paper — I was happy to even find a digital staple to use!  I used the font for Bella’s handwriting that was used in the books; it’s called Pablo.   Bella’s note, which is a quote from Breaking Dawn, is as follows. I actually think that Bella’s being hard on Edward here; when would Edward ever laugh at her, behind her back?   I just don’t see that happening. 

Ha ha. Because I was so fragilely human, so accident-prone, so much a victim to my own dangerous bad luck, apparently I needed a tank-resistant car to keep me safe. Hilarious. I was sure he and his brothers had enjoyed the joke quite a bit behind my back. (Breaking Dawn, page

Show some love to the design team by visiting their blogs to check out their creations for this week, and play along with us!

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

Digital card components:

Car photo found online; all text computer-generated; fonts used: Times New Roman and Pablo; Digital notebook paper and staple by Katie Pertiet, from DesignerDigitals.com