Eterno-ly Yours

Game On!

2012-01-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

I've been working fast and furiously on my December Daily and I am up to Day 5. Yes, Day 5! Guess I need to work a little faster and a bit more furiously if I want to finish it up by the end of the month. I honestly don't know how some people finish their DD up by Christmas week. That just wasn't in the cards for me this year. Besides, I am not the thought of making pages a ahead of times. Although my DD pages are not as involved as my regular layouts, they still revolve around the pictures for that day. Making foundation pages ahead of time was not an option for me. In fact, the thought of that supposed stress-relieving task was more stress inducing for me. So I will be scrapping my December Daily in January, thank you very much, and posting pictures probably until Valentine's Day! A few dark and dreary days have prevented me from taking pictures of my progress if, in fact, you can call getting to December 5th on Jauary 13th progress! In the meantime, I do have another layout to share with you from our trip to Disney last February. Here it is:

I primarily used a mixture of Sassafras Lass, October Afternoon and Studio Calico patterned papers and embellishments for this one. For my title area, I layered two different number papers to represent our arcade scores. I punched the tops with the notebook punch, distressed the edges with ink and layered one of the transparencies from Basic Grey's Take Notes for the wander collection. I thought the "observation" tab on the transparency was perfect for this layout since my journaling really is an observation..

I duplicated the notebook punch on the journaling card. The journaling reads: Sal, you are not a very competitive person but that all changed when we went on the Toy Story Mania ride in Disney's Hollywood Studios. As soon as you put on your 3-D glasses, it was game on!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon (Rocket Age); Sassafras Lass; Studio Calico (Autumn Press);

Embellishments: Basic Grey Take Note (Wander); American Craft Thickers; October Afternoon Journaling Card; October Afternoon Stickers (Rocket Age); Sassafras Lass border Sticker; Studio Calico arrow sticker (Memoir); Tim Holtz idea-ology mini paper clip; Making Memories brads.

Stamp: Papertrey Ink (Library Ledger Year Additions);

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress (Vintage Photo); Ranger (Jet Black).

CAS-ual Fridays -- Chip Off the Ol' Block Challenge

2012-01-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

I decided to play along with the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week by creating a clean and simple project using chipboard. Here's my card:

I cut white cardstock down to a standard sized card and scored it so that the fold would be at the top of the card. I seem to do this a lot! Next, I cut a piece of red cardstock to measure 4"x5.25" and a piece of kraft cardstock to measure 3.75"x5." I used distress ink to stamp the background and distress the edges. The sentiment was stamped with the same ink on a strip of white cards which I trimmed with two strips of scalloped patterned paper. I adhered this to the card using foam dimensionals and added some buttons and twine for good measure. I added the chipboard cupcake which I decorated with Stickles. After all, shouldn't all cupcakes be decorated!

Supplies

Cardstock: Papertray Ink (Stamper's Select White; Pure Poppy); Stampin' UP! (Kraft);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Happy Definition;Happiness Messages );

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Barn Door);

Patterned Paper/Chipboard: Basic Grey (Sugar Rush);

Embellishments: Buttons (Making Memories); Twine (Martha Stewart) Ranger Diamond Stickers.

A Christmas Thank You

2012-01-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

What a nice surprise I had in the mail a few weeks before Christmas when my cousin sent me the gift that every crafter covets: a Michael's gift card. And the only thing better than getting a Michael's gift card is knowing that it is actually worth twice as much as it says because who,after all, buys anything at Michael's without a 50% off coupon. (Yes, I even turn up my nose on those 40% off coupons and patiently wait for the 50% off coupon that inevitably shows up!) So, with such a wonderful scrappy gift in mind, I knew I had to make a crafty thank you card. Mind you, not one product used on this card came from Michael's but I don't think my cousin will know. Here's my card:

I knew I wanted to play along with Ellen Hutson's Hero Arts Cling Take 'N Make Challenge so I pulled the wrapper off of the Indie Bloom Hero Arts Star Blooms Background Cling Stamp. (I did forget to take a picture of the card with the stamp before mailing it. Oops!) I was also anxious to use the new seasonal distress inks from Tim Holtz so I decided on an embossed resist technique. I inked up my background stamp with Versa Mark and heat embossed with White Zing. Next, I swiped some of the Festive Berries and Evergreen Bough inks on my mat, spritzed with a little water mixed with Liquid Pearls and began painting in the image with my aqua brush.

To finish off the card, I wrapped some twine around the card, stamped the sentiment on the die cut piece and affixed to the card using foam adhesive, and scattered some rhinestone stickers for a little added bling!

Supplies

Cardstock: Neenah (Solar White); Papertrey Ink (Pure Poppy);

Stamp: Hero Arts (Star Blooms) Papertrey Ink (Mat Stack 1 Collection);

Ink: Versa Mark; Tim Holtz Distress (Festive Berries; Evergreen Bough);

Misc.: Zing embossing powder (white); Martha Stewart twine; Recollections rhinestone stickers

Blog Your Heart*/One Little Word

2012-01-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

One little word. Select a word for yourself or let it find you and live it for the year. Sounds simple, right? That's what I thought this time last year when I picked my word. I thought long and hard about my word. I thought about my word in the shower, as I was sorting through junk mail, as I drifted off to sleep next to a night stand piled high with scrapbook magazines. And it came to me as if in a dream. Or maybe it was a wish. My word for 2011 would be organize. Surely picking the word and writing a blog post about it would mean that I would live this word and, as a result, all the clutter in my life would vanish -- or at least be neatly put away into one of the many bins I continue to buy in my never-ending quest for a clutter-free life. Ha!

It's January 1, 2012 and I am back to report that I failed miserably. Yes, it was just one little word but I couldn't embrace it. Those eight little letters got the best of me! With the exception of a stack of magazines which finally made their way into the recycling bin, clothes that went to Good Will and my stamps which I organized into labelled binders, my house is no more organized at the start of 2012 than it was at the start of 2011. I did make two cabinets a Gluten Free zone for Melissa but now when I cook, I can't find my spices because they are no longer in the place they have been for the last 18 years. More organization is definitely needed in this department! I still can't figure out how to make the most of Photo Shop so I never get around to posting my pictures on Shutterfly which is something that my sister in California always asks me to do. My Project 12 became a Project 3 as everyday life got in the way of scrapping these monthly recaps in March. My December Daily has turned into a A Week in December but I did take all of the pictures so who knows!

Maybe guilt, or frustration, or defeated should be my word for 2012!

Or maybe patience is the word for me this year. Patience to accept the non-perfect days as my reality now. Patience to get through some of the tedious tasks that need to be done (like photo editing) in order to get to the good stuff -- like scrapping! Patience with my kids. With two teens in the house surely I need to embrace this now more than ever! Patience with myself to find a way to eat better and maybe get to the gym. Who knows, maybe I will even have the patience to organize my house or at least go through another pile of magazines!

It's just one little word. How hard can it be?

*Blog Your Heart is a monthly challenge created by Stephanie Howell who brings a refreshing honesty to all of her blog posts. Thanks for always telling it like it is, Stephanie!

Joy to You and Yours

2011-12-31T16:09:00.001-08:00

...and best wishes for health and happiness

in 2012!

Christmas Boxes

2011-12-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

Oh, you just have to love Pinterest! Where else can you store all of your ideas and inspiration without adding to the clutter on your desk? I found the tutorial for these little gift boxes on Jillibean Soup's blog, saved it to my Gift Wrap board on Pinterest and knew exactly where to find the instructions when I started to wrap my presents! So, here's the gift boxes I made:

Just a note on dimensions. I cut the paper for the bottom of the box to measure 7x7 as stated in the instructions. However when I cut the lid as a 5x5 and scored as instructed, it did not fit as snugly as I wanted so I cut a new piece to measure 4 5/8" x 4 5/8" and scored at the 3/4 inch mark. The result was much better! As you can see, I was able to make two boxes from the two coordinating sheets of patterned paper.

To decorate the boxes, I cut a belly band 3/4" wide and added two punched snowflakes (the top one adhered with pop dots) that were adorned with rhinestone stickers. My nieces loved their Christmas presents -- inside and out!

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: SEI Winter (Winter Song; Blaze Velvet);

Tools: Martha Stewart (Scoring Board; Nordic Snowflake punch; Icelandic Snowflake punch);

Embellishments; Recollections rhinestone stickers

Noel Tag

2011-12-28T19:06:00.001-08:00

Whew! Is it the end of December already? I feel like this month has really flown by as evidenced by my absence here on the blog. Between Christmas preparations, a nasty upper respiratory infection, taking my mother to physical therapy, shopping, making my Christmas cards and a broken washing machine, I feel like my excuses for not being here could fill Santa's sleigh. Luckily, I was a little crafty this month and even worked on a December Daily for the first time. These are all projects I will be sharing with you over the next week or so.

Today, I want to share my folded Christmas tags. They were inspired by this challenge at Papertrey Ink. Here is my tag:

I started with the Papertrey Ink's Mat Stack 3 die. I added a strip of velvet paper which was left over from my Christmas cards I stamped a label using PTI's Label Basics, added the sentiment and brad and adhered it to the tag using pop dots. The snowflake was something I had in my stash. I bought a pack of four last year at Michael's for $1. Now, I wish I had bought more!

Supplies:

Cardstock base: Georgia Pacific;

Patterned Paper: K & Company;

Tools: Papertrey Ink dies (Mat Stack 3; Label Basics);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Label Basics; Think Big Favorites 8);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Riding Hood Red); Memento (Black);

Embellishments: Snowflakes (Michael's); Brads (Anna Griffin)

It's In The Bag!

2011-12-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

Remember this post from last year? Well, the holiday shopping bags are out so I thought I would challenge myself, once again, to use one as the basis of a card. So, here's the bag:

As luck would have it, this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner was to make a project with a Christmas tree. Here's my card:

To create it, I stamped my tree onto the shopping bag and cut it out. To give it more definition, I ran the edges along my black ink pad. I also stamped my tree onto my card base since I was only popping the top. For the background, I used Versa Mark ink to stamp the snow line and ran over it with some liquid glue so that the glitter would stick. Next, I spritzed the card with some Mister Huey in Calico White. Finally, I sprayed some Mister Huey Calico Shine over the entire background before adding the tree and the ribbon.

It's so hard to photograph the shimmer on this card but hopefully the photo below gives you an idea of why I love Calico White and Calico Shine!

If you are inspired to make a card from a shopping bag, please link it up to my blog in the comment section. I would love to see them!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Stamper's Select White);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Merriest Wishes);

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black); Versa Mark; Studio Calico Mister Huey (Calico White; Calico Shine);

Embellishments: Recollections Rhinestones (Red); Martha Stewart Glitter (Crystal Coarse); Making Memories Ribbon;

Misc.: Bath & Body Works shopping bag.

Welcome Beautiful Fall

2011-11-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

This past week was a hectic one. I was busy taking Melissa to see this fabulous concert:

Then, a day later, I was busy preparing this:

And the day after that, I was up early to do this:

I did, however, manage to squeeze in a night of scrapping before Thanksgiving week. Here's my layout:

This layout is pretty clean and simple for me which, I guess, depicts the frame of mind I was in when I created it. Kind of like the calm before the storm, so to speak. Under the pictures, I stamped a line of text using the Technique Tuesday Studio AE stamps from October and the limited edition Tim Holtz distress inks. Love them both!

I was scrapping at a friend's house and realized I didn't bring any letters to create a title. Oh, what's a scrapper to do? Luckily, I had a bin of Fall goodies with me so I paired the "Welcome" and "Beautiful" die cut pieces from the Little Yellow Bicycle collection with the "Fall" Flair from American Crafts' Nightfall Collection. Here's a closer look:

I kept the journaling simple by combining a rub-on with a hand-written note.

The most important thing I learned from doing this layout is that rub-ons do come off. I had added some rub-ons of brown leaves to the green paper and immediately felt that they drew the eye away from my pictures. When I googled how to remove them, I learned that adhering scotch tape to the top of the rub-on (repeating as needed) did the trick. Imagine that! You just have to love Google!

Supplies:

Patterned Paper and Die Cuts: Little Yellow Bicycle (Hello Fall!);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Studio AE -- Give Thanks by Ali Edwards): Papertrey Ink (Label Basics);

Ink: Tim Holtz Autumn Seasonal Distress Ink (Gathered Twigs, Seedless Preserves); Stampin' Up! (Dusty Durango);

Embellishments: American Crafts Flair (Nightfall); Me & My Big Ideas rub-ons;

Tools: Papertrey Ink Die (Label Basics); Spellbinders Nestabilities 9Scallop Rectangles Large); Fiskars Border punch (Scalloped Sentiment); White Signo Gel Pen.

Tuesday Trigger: Fall is in the Bag

2011-11-20T18:14:00.001-08:00

I have been missing in action for the last few weeks. My mother (who is 80) fell and fractured her hip. She needed surgery and then spent some time in rehab. Frequent trips to the hospital left little time for blogging. Thankfully she is home now and doing really well. Unfortunately, she won't be able to drive for a while so I will be pitching in by taking her to physical therapy, grocery shopping and doctor's appointments. The doctor has assured us that she will be dancing in no time which may not be such a good thing since she broke her hip while doing the Electric Slide at the community center of her Senior apartment complex. I kid you not!

Anyway, it felt great to get the creative juices flowing again this week after not scrapping for almost a month. So, when I spotted this week's Tuesday Trigger photo just as I was finishing up a layout using Little Yellow Bicycle's "Hello Fall!" collection, I knew I had to play along. Instead of putting my scraps away, I decided to make a card or two for Thanksgiving. Here's the trigger photo:

And here are the two cards I made. First, the clean and simple design:

And next, one with a stamped background:

Both cards feature Papertrey Ink's Wreath for all Seasons and Technique Tuesday's Studio AE -- Give Thanks by Ali Edwards stamp sets. The background stamp on the second card was created with Hero Arts Large Plaid Pattern background stamp.

Let me know which design you like best!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' UP! (Very Vanilla); Papertrey Ink (Chocolate Brown);

Patterned Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle (Hello Fall!)

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Wreath for All Season); Technique Tuesday (Studio AE -- Give Thanks by Ali Edwards); Hero Arts (Large Plaid Pattern);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Dusty Durango; Tim Holtz Distress (Gathered Twigs);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Classic Circle; Classic Scalloped Circle Large); EK Success Corner Rounder.

Just Treats

2011-10-30T18:18:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post tonight to share a Halloween layout that I did a while back. I have spent the last two days at the hospital with my fell. She fell and fractured her hip. However, I've been saving this layout to share with you on Halloween so here it is:

To create this layout, I used a technique that Kristina Werner highlighted a while back on Basic Grey's blog. As you can see, my page is a scraplift but I certainly plan to use this technique again. What a fun way to use up scraps or 6x6 pads!

Here's a closer look at the title and yes, I even hand wrote one the word "Just"!

Here's a closer look at some of the embellishments.

And, a peak at some quick journaling with the "who" and "when."

Supplies:

Pattern Paper: Basic Grey (Basics Manila); Cosmo Cricket (Matilda);

Stickers: Basic Grey (Urban Prairie letters); October Afternoon (Farm Fresh Journaling label);

Stamps: Making Memories (Spellbound);

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black);

Embellishments: Jolee's (candy and pumpkins); EZ Designs die cut; Recollections ribbon

"Leafing" Memories Behind Blog Hop

2011-10-13T11:51:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the "Leafing" Memories Behind Blog Hop. A few of us on the Club CK Forum (17 to be exact!) are sharing projects that incorporate leaves. If you didn't arrive here from Mandi's blog, you may want to hop on over to Amanda's blog so you can start the blog hop from the beginning and enter Amanda's blog candy.

So here's my layout:

This layout all started with a piece of patterned paper that I never even used. I hate when that happens but my design took a left turn when I saw Nichol Magouirk's October Scrapbook Stamping class over at twopeasinabucket.com. Her challenge this month was to stamp a scene on your scrapbook page. Because I was creating a busy and colorful scene on my page, I opted to use the more neutral papers from Little Yellow Bicycle's "Hello Fall!" collection.

To create my scene, I pulled out an old stamp set (Branching Out from Stampin' UP!) and used my new Tim Holtz seasonal distress inks along with some other distress inks. For the title, I used the die-cut letters that was part of the LYB collection along with two Technique Tuesday stamps. Here's a a close-up of the scene I created for my title block:

For the journaling, I created a little banner using yellow and cream banner stickers from Studio Calico. At first, I journaled straight on the sticker but the combination of my brown marker ink and the finish on the sticker yielded a lot of smears. To cover them up, I traced and hand cut banners from the paper left over from my title block. To adhere the banner, I tied my twine into a bow with one long tail. I put a dab of Glossy Accents behind the knot and affixed it to the page. I draped the longer of the two tails to the edge of the page and used the Tiny Attacher. I popped the banners on foam adhesive. Here's a closer look:

The journaling reads: I long for the days when we spent time as a family picking apples and pumpkins. What beautiful memories I have!

The cluster of leaves on the bottom of the layout is from the LYB cardstock diecuts and corrugated shapes. Because the brown color on the maple leaf was so intense, I sprayed it with Mister Huey in Calico White. I arranged the cluster around the quote that appears on the bottom of the patterned paper.

Thanks for visiting. Now, hop on over to Devra's blog.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle (Hello Fall!);

Stamps: Stampin' Up! (Branching Out); Technique Tuesday (Amazing by Ali Edwards; Favorite Memories by Ali Edwards); Papertrey Ink (Library Ledger; Library Ledger Year Additions):

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Gathered Twigs; Ripe Persimmon; Seedless Preserves; Shabby Shutters; Scattered Straw); Studio Calico Mister Huey (Calico White);

Embellishments: Little Yellow Bicycle cardstock diecuts and corrugated shapes (Hello Fall!): Studio Calico label stickers (cream and yellow); My Mind's Eye twine (Lime Twist); October Afternoon label stickers (Seaside);

Tools: Fiskars border punch (Scallop Sentiment); Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.

Bootiful!

2011-10-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

It's starting to look like Halloween around here -- although you would never guess that judging by today's temperature which reached 84 degrees! Anyway, I thought I would share a layout I made using last year's pictures. Here it is:

I started this layout wit two matching pieces from the Basic Grey Basics line. Does anyone know if the are phasing this line out? I didn't see it at CKC but I just love it! It's a great alternative to cardstock. But I digress! I adhered the stripe paper about one inch off the bottom. To frame my pictures, I fussy cut the wonky frames from the journaling spots on Jillibean Soup's Pinch of Hair. I cut a third journaling spot and stamped

Inspired by PageMaps

2011-10-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a sketch proves to be truly inspiring. Such was the case with Becky Fleck's October Pagemaps. When I saw her sketch, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Here's Becky's sketch:

And here's my layout:

(I have to apologize for the blueish tinge on my photos lately. Sal got me Photoshop Elements for my birthday and my learning curve is rather steep. If anyone has any tips, I would love to hear them!)

As you can see, I kept pretty true to the sketch. I switched out the 4x6 photo and used a 5x7. I love this photo of the kids watching the fireworks! Instead of a circular element in the bottom left corner, I added a rectangular transparency. Love how the shiny stars help anchor the corner. I am finding that I love using transparencies as mats more than I do as overlays. The title is from the My Mind's Eye accessory sheet which I customized with Stickles. Here's a close-up:

I used a Papertrey Ink Tag Sale die to created the journaling label. I added a strip from the accessory sheet and stamped using Technique Tuesday stamps for further customization. I was so happy with how the tag came out that I used the rest of the lined paper to cut out journaling tags for my stash.

The journaling reads: One of my favorite summertime traditions is the 4th of July BBQ at the P***'s. Good friends, good food and fireworks -- what more can you ask for!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper and Accessories: My Mind's Eye (American Made);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Good Times; Everday Life);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Night of Navy; Riding Hood Red);

Tools: Papertrey Ink die (Tag Sale #1); Spellbinders Shapeabilities (Lotus); Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher;

Misc: Transparency (My Mind's Eye/Lime Twist); Button (Doodlebug/Ladybug); Diamond Stickles by Ranger; Twine from my stash.

World Card Making Day (Or Should I Say Weekend?)

2011-10-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday was World Card Making Day and a previous commitment (like babysitting for my adorable two year-old nephew) meant that there was nothing crafty happening here. Today, Mark and his high school band marched in the Huntington Columbus Day Parade so nothing crafty today, either! However, to honor the day, I thought I would share a card that I made recently. This one was for my niece, Lisa, on her birthday. Here it is:

This card is pretty self explanatory. The music paper is actually real sheet music that my friend salvaged from her elementary school's recycling bin. To add some texture to it, I stamped it with Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background stamp and then distressed the edges. I thought this was the perfect touch for my niece's card since she is a Music major! I added the same background pattern to the sentiment piece. Here's a close-up:

In honor of World Card Making Day, Michele Kovack has a giveaway over at her blog. You can find it here!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts; Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Sweet Threads); sheet music;

Stamps: Hero Arts (Envelope Pattern; Antique Engravings); Technique Tuesday (This Is the Day by Ali Edwards);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Elegant Eggplant); Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Labels Three; Labels Four);

Misc.: brad (Karen Foster Riviera).

Slip 'n Slide

2011-09-30T19:36:00.001-07:00

I have a clean and simple layout to share with you today. I created this one at the "crop" that Lissette and I set up in our hotel room when we went to CKC. Since our space was limited, I kept my supplies to a minimum. Here's our cropping space:

Not bad for a hotel room. We had everything we needed -- even the M&Ms!

And here's my layout:

Since there was so much white space in my design, I trimmed my card stock 1/4-inch on two sides and adhered it to the yellow cardstock leaving a 1/8-inch border on each side. I thought that this served to add a little pop of color while grounding the elements in the layout.

I found the journaling spot on the Cut Outs patterned paper. To personalize it, I added the "Hello sunshine" stamp. In addition, since the art from the journaling spot had "staples," I decided to add my own for more texture and dimension. I love the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. The journaling reads: Melissa, you wanted a slip 'n slide for the longest time but the stores were always sold out when we thought of it. Finally, you got it with birthday money in 2009! Here's a closer look:

To mimic the dimension of the "splash zone" embellishments, I dry embossed the splashes on the patterned paper. (I did this at home so as not to travel with my Cuttlebug.) After fussy cutting the splashes, I popped some using foam adhesive. Finally, I used a brad for the dot over the "i" and wrote the "'n" on a pre-made embellishment using my white Signo pen.

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper & Embellishments: Bo Bunny (Sun Kissed);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Awesome Days of Summer by Ali Edwards;

Ink: Stampin' Up (Dusty Durango);

Tools: Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Seeing Spots);Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; EK Success Border Punch (Postage Stamp); EK Success Corner Rounder; White Signo Gel Pen.

I Will Always Remember

2011-09-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I am not a chronological scrapper. And, I don't consider myself an event scrapper either. Yes, I do scrap trips and pictures from birthdays and Christmas but I do those pages as much to tell a story about that period in time more as I do to tell about the particular event. Maybe this is why I have had so much trouble doing a layout about Melissa's first day of school. You see, her first day of school was September 11, 2001. I have always felt a need to do a layout about this day but I have never been able to capture the emotions of that day on paper. That is, until this year. Possibly it was the magnitude of the 10th anniversary or the inspiration I drew from the My Mind's Eye sketch and there American Made collection, but I finally felt ready to create this important layout for her album.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

To create this layout, I started with the blue on blue stripe from the Lime Twist collection. (The white that you see is the background where I photographed my layout.) I pretty much followed the sketch using patterned papers from the American Made collection and then I got to the journaling. I knew it had to be typed since I had so much to say and I thought that two columns, commemorating the Twin Towers, would be appropriate. You can double click on the photo above if you want to enlarge it and read the journaling.

To create my title, I combined American Craft Thickers with a stamped image. I fussy cut the word "remember" and adhered it with foam adhesive to give it the same dimension as the rest of the title.

I didn't want to add a lot of embellishments. After all, this layout is about the journaling. However, the layout needed something. I thought butterflies would do the trick. I first tried punching different sized butterflies from the patterned papers but they all looked to fussy. Then, I pulled these Jillibean Soup corrugated shapes, distressed them with some mists and added the buttons and twine. Finally, I found the small word stickers in my stash, added them using foam dimensional adhesive and drew a dashed line around three sides of my page.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye (Lime Twist; American Made);

Vellum: The Paper Company;

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Studio AE -- April);

Ink: Stampin' UP! (Night of Navy);

Letters: American Crafts Thickers (Sweet);

Mists: Tattered Angels (Frost): Studio Calico Mister Huey (Calico White; Calico Shine);

Tools: EK Success Border Punch (Double Embossed Dotted Lace); Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment);

Misc.: My Mind's Eye Accessories (American Made); Jillibean Soup Corrugated Shapes (Corrugated Butterflies); Doodlebug buttons (Ladybug); twine (recycled from my stash); word stickers from Girl's Paperie.

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday -- Frosted Images

2011-09-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have a second post today -- a card I created using the Frosted Images technique highlighted in Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday video from last week. Here's my card:

As Lisa Johnson explains in the video, I stamped my images first using a grey ink and then after quickly swiping my stamp on a wipe so as not to ruin my ink pad, I stamped the image over the first using Vintage Cream. I did not "frost" the sentiment. Another clean and simple card today. Don't know what has gotten into me LOL!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Fine Linen);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Botanical Silhouettes);

Ink: Stampin' UP! (Basic Grey);

Ribbon: American Crafts (Grey)

Misc.: Queen & Compan pearls (Black & White)

PTI September 2011 Blog Hop & WMC69 Challenge

2011-09-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

It's time for another Papertrey Ink Blog Challenge. The challenge this month was to create a project based on the photo inspiration.

When I saw the inspiration, I knew I wanted to play along since I had two masculine birthday cards to make. As I was definitely short on time this weekend, I decided to keep my card clean and simple and use patterned paper which just happened to be the Scrappy Saturday challenge at Wee Memories. Here's my card:

I wasn't kidding when I said it was clean and simple! To create it, I cut a standard size card. Next, I cut a piece of white cardstock to measure 5" x 3.75" and embossed it using a PTI embossing plate. I cut a strip of patterned paper 1" wide and a piece of Terracotta Tile cardstock 1/4 inch wider. I adhered the patterned paper strip to my embossed cardstock, stamped the sentiment and then adhered that piece to the card using foam adhesive. It doesn't get easier than that! Here's a close-up of the embossing. It didn't photograph as well as I would have liked it but it definitely adds interest and texture to the card.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Stamper's Select White; Terracotta Tile);

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye (Lime Twist);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Fillable Frames #1);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Soft Suede);

Misc.: Papertrey Ink Impression Plate (Linen & Canvas -- Side 1)

CR84FN Challenge & A Winner

2011-09-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo! Is anybody here? That's probably what you have been wondering. It has been a whirlwind this past month. Since I wrote my last blog post, I have experienced an earthquake (a rarity in New York); prepared for Hurricane Irene; spent hours on the phone (mostly on hold!) rearranging our travel plans because of said hurricane; went on a wonderful 7-day cruise to the Western Caribbean; had said cruise turn into a 9-day cruise because of Tropical Storm Lee; and missed the first day of school because 7-day cruise was now a 9-day cruise. You get the point. It seems like we jumped off the high board into the deep end of the pool this September. There was no time to gradually get back into the swing of things so blogging has taken a back seat. It's taken a month, though, but I think I can come up for air! So finally, I have a project to share.

Today's card uses the colors from the CR84FN38 challenge.

Here's my card:

My sister is a francophile and her home pays homage to her love of all things French. There are Eiffel Towers everywhere. (She even has a purse shaped like an Eiffel Tower!) She loves Paris as much as I love scrapbooking and if I tell her that I am going to Paris this weekend, she knows that I am scrapping! On a recent visit to her home, Melissa and my niece, Sarah, went from room to room and counted more than 75. It was their own version of Where's Waldo! So, you can understand why I hoard any papers or embellishments that picture the Eiffel Tower to use on her birthday card each year. The paper on this card was from Echo Park's 2010 Be Mine collection. (Yes, I've been saving the paper for that long!)

To create the card, I cut a piece of Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow cardstock to a standard size. I cut the white cardstock 1/2-inch smaller on each side so that the finished card would have a 1/4-inch border. Next, I cut a piece of patterned paper 1/4-inch smaller and stamped a background image on it. For the focal point, I matted the journaling card onto a piece of Smokey Shadow cardstock. I used Distress Stickles to add some bling to the Eiffel Tower as well as the ornate trim along the top of the card. Finally, I stamped the "Happy Birthday" sentiment, added a row of pearls to the top of the mat, adhered it to the card using foam dimensional adhesive and added a ribbon from my stash. Here's a closer look:

Now for some unfinished business.... Last month, I participated in the August Sketch Blog Hop and I offered a little blog candy for those who left a comment and became followers. At last, I have a winner. Drum roll please! The winner is:

True Random Number

Generator

Min: Max:

Result:

12Powered by RANDOM.ORG\

That means the winner is photochic!

photochic said...

I LOVE the paper! So cute! Great layout.

Please e-mail me with your name and address so that I can get your prize to you. I will be putting in an extra goodie or two to thank you for your patience!

Supplies

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Stamper's Select White; Smokey Shadow);

Patterned Paper: Making Memories (Sabrina); Echo Park (Be Mine);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Classic Fabric Design); Papertrey Ink (Birthday Basics);

Ink: Stampin' UP! (Basic Grey); Ranger (Black);

Embelishments: Pearl Stickers (Recollection) Stickles (Diamond); Ribbon from stash.

August Sketch Blog Hop and Blog Candy

2011-08-18T19:45:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the August Sketch Blog Hop! A few of us on the CK Forum (23 to be exact!) are sharing projects based on the wonderful sketch created by Amanda. I am sure it will be a lot of fun to see what everyone has done with the same sketch. If you did not arrive here from Mandi's blog, please return to Amanda's blog to follow the hop in order. Okay, so let's get started! Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

When I saw the cluster of photographs in the middle, I knew that I wanted the look of Polaroids on my page. I have been loving the look of the projects created with the Lawn Fawn Polaroid stamp from the Say Cheese set. Since I don't have the set, I decided to try my hand at making my own Polaroids with white and black cardstock. I was really happy with my faux Polaroids!

As you can see, I stretched the sketch a little. I usually try to make sketches my own. In stretching the sketch, I switched out the title block for an embellishment and moved the title down to the bottom of the page. As a result, I clustered the photos and journaling on the right to add balance and interest to my page.

Thanks to Nichol Magouirk, I have been so inspired to stamp on my layouts and this one is no exception. In addition to stamping on the faux Polaroid, I stamped the "On the Road" sentiment on the blue strip as well as the roadway under the cars. One other thing I would like to draw your eye to is my title. It's no secret that I love Thickers. However, since the Basic Grey collection pack came with stickers, I felt compelled to use them. To get the dimension of Thickers, I stacked my stickers two high. Lucky for me it was a short title and I had enough letters! Here's a closer look:

I have a confession to make: I am a latecomer to scrapbooking. While I do not scrap chronologically, nor do I fee the urge to "catch up", I look for every opportunity to group pictures from different events together. When I was playing around with the Wander collection for a travel layout that I will share next week, it occurred to me that these would also be great papers for a layout showing Mark from 1998 and Melissa from 1999 playing with the same toy. My journaling reads: Talk about getting a lot of mileage from a toy! Mark and Melissa both loved taking the Cozy Coupe out for a spin.

So, how about a giveaway to reward you for reading to the bottom of this post! I have a package of Jolee's Boutique Sightseeing Dimensional Stickers up for grabs! These should come in handy as you scrap pictures of your summer vacation! If you leave a comment and are a follower of my blog, you will be entered to win. I will randomly draw the name of a winner on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for hopping by! Your next stop is Devra's blog. And when you are done with the hop, return to Amanda's blog to see how you can enter her blog candy. In addition, check out Clever Creations for a chance at some more blog candy! And, finally, The Twinery is celebrating their anniversary and has a fabulous prize up on their blog.

Supplies

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper & Stickers: Basic Grey (Wander);

Embellishments: Maya Road Microchips (Motif Buttons/Neutrals); Tim Holtz (Mini Paper Clips; Tiny Attacher);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Good Times; Borderline--Time and Space); Hero Arts (Travel Journal);

Ink: Ranger (Black; Coffee)

Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment); EK Success Edger Punch (Postage Stamp)

Tuesday Trigger: Girly and Gutsy

2011-08-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's time for another Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger. The challenge was to create a paper craft project inspired by this picture:

As soon as I saw the beautiful rug in this photo, I thought of the Hero Arts Classic Fabric Design background stamp and created this card:

In an effort to duplicate some of those glossy surfaces in the trigger picture, I decided to heat emboss the background. I chose Papertrey Ink's Smokey Shadow cardstock for a more subtle effect.

The focal point mat is actually made up of four layers which include three PTI die cuts as well as a Martha Stewart die cut lace tag.

Supplies

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Stamper's Select White; Smokey Shadow);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Classic Fabric Design); My Mind's Eye (Stella & Rose/Gertie "Girlie); Papertrey Ink (Label Basics; Fillable Frames #4);

Ink: Stampin' UP! (Basic Grey); Versamark;

Patterned Paper: Making Memories;

Tools: Papertrey Ink Dies (Limitless Layers Collection; Mat Stack 3)

Misc.: Stamp n Stuff Embossing Powder (Detail Clear); American Crafts Thickers; Martha Stewart Die Cut Lace Tag; Ribbon from stash.

On the Road Again!

2011-08-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge where I had a great time scrapping and shopping. Tomorrow, I am headed back to Pennsylvania with Melissa to visit my sister. Since I have been spending so much time in the car lately, it seems fitting to share the card I made for my brother-in-law's birthday last month. Here it is:

I was inspired to create this card after a recent family gathering where we were all talking about our talents. Sal gardens. Mark runs. Melissa dances. My sister, Diane, speaks French and Spanish fluently. My niece, Lisa, sings. And Frankie drives. Frankie is the type of guy who would drive 200 miles for an afternoon visit. He has logged hundreds of thousands of miles behind the wheel of the car so we tease him that driving is his talent!

Here's the inside of the card. I thought the sentiment was appropriate!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Wander);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Happiness Messages; Travel Journal);

Ink: Ranger (Black);

Tools: Cricut by Provo Craft (Graphically Speaking)

Pen: Uni-ball Signo Broad (White)

Sketchy Thursday -- Full Circle

2011-07-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Last week, I stumbled across the Sketchy Thursdays blog and I decided to play along. Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

The journaling (which I printed on vellum) reads: Mark, I love how Thomas is looking up to you in this picture. It reminds me that we have come full circle because just 14 years ago, you were looking up to Michael in much the same way. I am so proud of the choices you make and hope you will always be someone your little cousins can look up to!

The layout is pretty self-explanatory. After adhering the various strips of patterned paper to the cardstock, I stamped the Tattered Angels clock right onto the Pebbles patterned paper. Like the sketch, I stamped part of the clock off the page. For the hands, I stamped off onto a piece of scrap before stamping on the page so that they would be lighter. I wish I could say that the time I chose has some significance but it doesn't. I felt that 10 o'clock would balance out the image which was a little bottom heavy and not get in the way of the phase (life moves so very fast FREEZE) which I stamped in blue.

I stamped another circle partially off the bottom right of the page and added my title with rub-ons and Thickers. I am usually a pretty symmetrical person but I decided to add a 6-inch Crate Paper border to highlight the picture. I topped that off with some Lime Twist twine from My Mind's Eye and a button from my sewing box. As for the metal clock, I have no idea where I got it. It has been in my jewelry box for years!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: Pebbles (Happy Go Lucky); Crate Paper (Toy Box); Basic Grey (Life of the Party; Basics/Kraft)

Stamps: Tattered Angels (Clock); Technique Tuesday (Studio AE April; The Family Circle);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo); Stampin' UP! (Blue Bayou);

Punch: Martha Stewart (Scallop Dot);

Alphabet: American Crafts Thickers (Sweet); Fancy Pants rub-ons;

Twine: My Mind's Eye (Lime Twist).

Ad-spiration

2011-07-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Mark is turning 16 in a little over a week. Yikes! A year of learning to drive, PSATs and college trips is upon us. Realizing this, I thought I would share a birthday layout I did last summer. Don't know why I never got around to posting it. The inspiration for the layout came from this advertisement for the Imaginisce paper:

When I saw those colorful papers, I just knew that this was a layout I wanted to scraplift. Since I didn't purchase all of the embellishments, I made my own. Here's my layout:

Let me walk you through some of the handmade touches I made for just pennies! The banner at the top of the page of the inspiration piece was actually two different packages of paper ribbons, one with flags and the other with the sentiment. I created my banner by fussy cutting a piece of patterned paper which I purchased at just a fraction of the cost. After stitching the banner string, I added the sentiment on foam adhesive.

I also didn't purchase the Springing Stackers so instead, I die-cut a circle, stamped random dots using the back of a patterned circle stamp and added a chipboard number to create the "Celebrate 4" embellishment.

I did purchase two Snag 'Em stamps at $1 each. I heat embossed the "Make a Wish" stamp on red cardstock to add another texture to the layout.

I stamped the "For Me" stamp three times and used paper piecing and foam dimensionals to create a custom embellishments.

Journaling reads:

7/99 -- Knowing how much you loved firetrucks, cousin Marie sent this for your birthday.

This layout is not all I made with my three pieces of patterned paper and two stamps. You can see the cards I created with this collection on this blog post.

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce (B-Day Bash);

Stamps: Imaginisce (B-Day Bash); Papertrey Ink (Label Basics); Technique Tuesday (The Family Circle);

Ink: VersaMark; Stampin' Up! (Riding Hood Red); Ranger (Coffee); Ranger Distress Ink (Vintage Photo);

Embossing Powder: American Crafts Zing! (white);

Pen: Stampin' Up! (Chocolate Chip);

Embellishments: Recollections;

Tools: EK Success Circle Punch.

Acadia

2011-07-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have been in such a card-making frenzy lately so I thought it was time I shared a layout. I am determined to finish scrapping last summer's vacation before we go on vacation this year. Wish me luck on that one. LOL! Anyway, today's layout is based on Nichol Magouirk's Scrapbook Stamping class from March. I love how Nichol uses lots of pictures on her pages and she has inspired me to keep my stamps handy as I work on a page. Here's Nichol's sketch:

And here's a layout of one of my most favorite days from our cruise to New England and Canada:

As you can see, I stretched the sketch to include four small pictures on the top half of the page. I also balanced the circular title mat with a circle for journaling. The bicycle was stamped four times with the help of my Stamp-a-ma-jig and heat embossed. Since I don't have fringe scissors or a grass punch, I created the grassy border underneath the four small pictures with the help of my Martha Stewart Icicle Punch!

For the title block, I cut the circles using my Spellbinders Nestabilities. After stamping the leaf, I added some of the Basic Grey stickers on foam dimensionals. The leaves from the Basic Grey elements sticker sheet were a perfect fit!

I typed the journaling and ran a piece of patterned paper through my printer. Then I cut the circle using the same Nestabilities. Finally I added the Basic Grey elements sticker as a subtitle. I used element stickers and glazed brads to add more circles and finished off the layout by stitching a border around the top half of my page.

The journaling reads: The Sweetest Memories. It was a 1-mile ride on the scenic carriage roads around Acadia's Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond for Sal, Melissa and me. Add a couple of extra miles for Mark who kept riding ahead and doubling back with words of encouragement for those of us who "lagged" behind. Oh to be 15 and in incredible shape!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper, Stickers, Brads: Basic Grey (Marjolaine);

Stamps: Unity (Bicycle); Papertrey Ink (Turning a New Leaf; Library Ledger);

Ink: VersaMark; Tim Holtz Distress ink (Shabby Shutters); Ranger (Coffee);

Embossing Powder: American Crafts Zing (Brown Sugar);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Classic Circle): Martha Stewart Edge Punch (Icicle).

June PTI Blog Hop

2011-06-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the June Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. This month's challenge was to use a photo as inspiration. Here's the trigger photo:

And here's my card:

There's something about the photo that reminded me of the patterned paper which I matted on Dark Chocolate cardstock. I stamped the main image on a piece of cardstock that I had cut with PTI's Mat Stack 3 die. To get the two-toned berries, I stamped my image, turned my stamp about 90 degrees and stamped again without reinking. I love the depth that this technique gives the wreath. Finally, I used distress ink around the edges, tied the ribbon and adhered the mat with foam adhesive.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream; Dark Chocolate);

Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket (Honey Pie):

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Wreath for All Seasons):

Inks: Ranger (Coffee); Stampin' Up! (Regal Rose); Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen;

Tools: Papertrey Ink Die (Mat Stack 3);

Ribbon: EK Success

Tuesday Trigger: Rainbow Bright

2011-06-20T20:14:00.001-07:00

The inspiration for today's card came from the Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger.

When I saw the trigger, I was immediately drawn to the colors and created this:

This was pretty simple to create. I cut a standard size card out of red card stock and rounded the opposite corners. Then I cut Stampin' Up! Naturals Ivory 1/4-inch shorter on each side. I stamped the various medallions in the inspiration colors, stamped the sentiment, rounded the corners and adhered to the card base. I added a few gem stones for texture. This card should be easy enough to reproduce since I need five "thank you" notes.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Pure Poppy); Stampin' Up! (Naturals Ivory);

Stamps: My Mind's Eye (Stella & Rose);

Ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink;

Tools: EK Success Corner Rounder;

Embellishments: Recollections Rhinestones

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

I was running low on time and had seven cards that had to be made and mailed by Friday so I took the liberty of casing a clean and simple card designed by Ginger Williams. I made two variations. Here's the one I made for Sal:

With the exception of the card base, all of the papers used on these cards were scraps from a layout I was working on. Here's the design I made for Mark and Melissa to send to their godfathers:

Sometimes clean and simple is the way to go and this was certainly one of those times. I will have lots more cards to share with you this week. Like I said, I made seven cards on Friday and I need to make about ten more this week between birthdays, graduations and thank yous. Yikes! I better get stamping!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! (kraft; Dusty Durango);

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon (Rocket Age); My Mind's Eye (Alphabet Soup);

Stamps: Inkadinkadoo (Happy Everything);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Blue Bayou);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities;

Stickers: American Crafts Thickers (Meadow);

Button: Walmart

Thomas the Tank Engine

2011-06-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

My great-nephew Thomas is aptly named. At age two, he has developed a love for Thomas the Tank Engine. He pours through the Thomas catalog and books naming every engine and pushes the trains around the track with delight. When designing his birthday card, it was a no-brainer. I had to make a train card. Here it is:

I die cut the train using the Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge. I just love getting double duty out of my supplies and cutting a design for a birthday card from a Christmas cartridge made me feel like I was getting my moneys worth out of this cartridge. I cut the train twice so that I would have two extra cars -- one for each letter of his name. I then cut out letters and adhered them to punched circles. To finish off the cars, I die cut a flourish for the smoke coming out of the locomotive and used silver brads on the wheels. I cut out some clouds from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, stamped the sentiment and then dry embossed them with a Cuttlebug folder. Here is a close-up:

Since the track for this die cut was an oval and I wanted my track to go straight, I improvised and stamped my track using Papertrey Ink's Just the Ticket stamp set.

The card was a big hit with Thomas. Upon opening it, Thomas studied the card then surprised us all by reading the letters of his name. Here he is reading his name:

and posing with his card:

Supplies

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce (Scooter's Vacation); Jilllibean Soup (Monster Stew); October Afternoon (Farm Fresh);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Just the TIcket)

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black):

Tools: Cricut by Provo Craft (Joys of the Season; George and Basic Shapes; Graphically Speaking); Cuttlebug (Swiss Dot Embossing folder);

Embelishments: brads by Making Memories.

Gone Are The Days

2011-06-10T21:11:00.001-07:00

I was talking with a friend recently about how I wish there were digital cameras when Mark and Melissa were small. In hindsight, I realize how after the first few years of their lives, the camera mostly came out on special occasions and I rarely took pictures of everyday moments. Today's layout tries to capture some of those everyday moments that my camera didn't. Here it is:

The inspiration for this layout came from this layout by Kelly Purkey:

There are several things that drew me to this layout. First, I loved the aysmmetrical placement of the photo. And I love how she created her title with different fonts. But, I think the thing I loved most was the tone-on-tone scallops that created spots for Kelly's journaling. As you can see, I kept the overall design intact. While I loved the scallops, I felt that they were too feminine for a layout about Mark so I swapped out the scallops for randomly placed punched circles. I stamped the lines on the journaling circles and edged them all with distress ink. I added some circles punched out of corrugated paper for even more texture. I also replaced the pleated ruffle with a Basic Grey border strip which I customized with Perfect Pearls. Here's a close-up:

The journaling reads: Gone are the days

...of Pajama Sam and computer games.

...of playing with Lego and firetrucks.

...of reading Harry Potter together.

...of riding the school bus.

...of not liking chocolate.

...of swimming lessons at the town pool.

...of collecting Pokemon cards

...of watching 101 Dalmations 101 times.

...of Happy Meals and single-scoop ice-cream cones.

...of taking karate classes at CAPE.

To finish off the layout, I added a stamped frame around the top half.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill; Creative Imaginations (Kraft Corrugated Paper);

Patterned Paper and Sticker: Basic Grey (Pyrus);

Tools: Stampin' Up punches (1 3/4 Circle, 1 1/4 Circle, 1/2 Circle, Spiral); Martha Stewart Punch (Scallop 3 Dot Punch Around the Page); McGill (File Tab);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Bits & Pieces by Ali Edwards,Everyday Words by Ali Edwards); Papertrey Ink (Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger, All About You);

Letters: Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chipboard (Licorice); Making Memories (Tiny Alphas);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pumice Stone); Ranger (Jet Black); Stampin' Up! marker (Basic Grey);

Misc.: Adirondack Dimensional Pearls (Mushroom)

Hello!

2011-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would dust off the blog today and actually post a project. I know it's been a long time -- too long in fact -- but sometimes life gets in the way of doing all the things you want to do. That and the weather. Can I just tell you how hard it was to take a decent picture of my projects in May with all the gloomy, grey, rainy days we had here in New York. And then there was the problem with the Internet. Hard for me to live without for a week but nearly impossible for the kids! They felt like they were living in the Stone Ages! Anyway, I am back and although I haven't been posting, I have been creating so I will have a lot to share in the coming weeks.

Today's layout was inspired by a sketch Jen Gallacher created for the March Stretch Your Sketch class over at Two Peas. Here's the sketch:

Here's my layout:

As you can see, I stretched the sketch by using one 4x6 photo (which I trimmed slightly smaller) at the top in place of the two smaller photos. Because the paper was so busy, I converted my photos to black and white, matted the smaller ones and kept my embellishments to a minimum.

I stamped lines directly on my background paper and worked the title right into the journaling. The journaling reads: Melissa, from a very early age, you loved the phone. You would talk on your play phone or ask to say hello! to whoever called. You even pretended to shop by catalog. That's why you were so excited to get your first cell phone in June 2009. Here's a close-up of the journaling block:

Here's the cute phone I cut with my Cricut. I also stamped the dot on the tan piece to give it more texture.

Finally, I added a few heart brads to the layout.

Okay, so in rereading this post, I realize just how much things have changed in Melissa's lifetime. Who shops by catalog anymore? Not me. I am an Internet shopper and proud of it! LOL!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper: American Crafts (I Heart You); KI Memories Lace Cardstock (Fruit Punch Streamers;

Chipboard: American Crafts Thickers;

Stamps: Hero Arts (Raindrop Background); Papertrey Ink (Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger);

Ink: Versamark;

Embellishments: Martha Stewart baker's twine; Making Memories brads (Mini Hearts);

Tools: Cricut cartridge (From My Kitchen); Fiskars border punch (Scallop Sentiment); Stampin' UP! punch (Photo Corner); McGill punch (File Tab);

A Moxie Fab/Color Challenge

2011-04-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have been crafting up a storm this week but, unfortunately, not a scrapbook page was made. You see, I am in the midst of birthday season. Instead of scrapping, I have been making cards. So, I am interrupting LOAD, again, to share some cards for the next few days.

The colors for today's card was inspired by this color challenge:

And here is my card:

To create this card, I cut my white cardstock down to a standard size card. I cut the brown mat

to measure 5.25"x4", and the kraft piece measures 5"x 3.75". Next, I used white ink to stamp the Dots and Flowers. I cut a piece of coordinating cardstock to measure 1.75" x 3.75". I stamped the Happy Definition in brown so that the print would run vertically. When the ink had dried, I stamped the Stripes Pattern horizontally in VersaMark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I used a stamp border punch on the green piece before adhering the layers, and adding a sentiment and ribbon.

So that's that for the color challenge. But remember how I said I needed a lot of cards this month. Well, it just so happens that the Moxie Fab World has a challenge to make a card set so, using this design, I did just that. And here it is:

And here's a close-up of each one. First up is Pink Pirouette:

Next is Spring Moss:

And finally, the Baja Breeze card with a peak at how I decorated the envelopes:

Come back tomorrow for a look at how I used the Happy Definition Stamp two other ways for another challenge!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink: (Stamper's Select White; Spring Moss; Dark Chocolate); Stampin' UP! (Kraft; Pink Pirouette; Baja Breeze);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Dots and Flowers; Happy Definition Cling Stamp; Stripes Pattern Cling Stamp; Thinking of You; Happiness Messages);

Inks: Stampin' Up! (Whisper White; Pink Pirouette; Baja Breeze); Ranger (Coffee); VersaMagic (Tea Leaves); VersaMark;

Tools: EK Success Edger Punch (Postage Stamp); EK Success Corner Rounder;

Misc.: Making Memories Ribbon (Passport); Stamp 'n Stuff Embossing Powder (Detail Clear)

Layered Background Challenge

2011-03-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

The Hero Arts challenge this month was to create a card with a layered background. I thought I would give it a try. Here's what I came up with:

To create this layered background, I first stamped the Happy Definition stamp using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Next, I inked up an acrylic block with Antique Linen, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo Distressed Inks, spritzed with water and "stamped" my cardstock. I repeated this step several times until the block was the color I wanted. (Be sure to start inking the block with the lighter colors first so as not to ruin your ink pads.) Once the color block had dried, I stamped the wildflowers with VersaMark ink, purposely letting the image go outside the inked mat for added impact. Finally I embossed the flowers with white Zing and distressed the edges. Here's a closer look:

The sentiment was also embossed. I used two different scallop edges to set it off.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Fine Linen);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Romani);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Happy Definition; Wild Flowers; Everyday Greeting);

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo; Antique Linen; Scattered Straw; Spiced Marmalade); VersaMark;

Tools: Martha Stewart Edge Punch (Doily Lace); Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment): Tim Holtz Paper Distresser;

Misc.: Recollection Adhesive Rhinestones; American Crafts Zing (white); twine from my stash

LOAD -- Day 9

2011-03-30T07:24:00.001-07:00

Back in October 2009, Sal surprised me with tickets to see Brandi Carlile. Unfortunately, Sal's father was admitted to the ICU a few days before the concert. Needless to say, neither one of use was in the mindset to go to a concert. We tried giving the tickets away but to no avail so, as the saying goes, we ate them. Gulp! Well a year later, we tried it again and because date nights are so rare and this one was such a long time coming, I thought I should document it. Here's my layout:

The journaling reads: We originally had plans to see Brandi Carlile at the Beacon Theater in October 2009 but life got in the way and we didn't go. When you found out that she was opening for Sheryl Crow, you surprised me with tickets and we finally had our date night!

The inspiration for this layout came from the scrap of American Crafts music paper that I had in my stash. I thought it's peach tones matched the hues in the pictures, but I don't know what I was thinking when I bought some of the other papers in the collection because I didn't have enough complementary patterns and the ones that I did have totally clashed with the color of the ticket stub. Oh, what's a scrapper to do? The answer to that question is simple: create your own pattern paper. So that's exactly what I did. I used the Hero Arts Flourish Background stamp to create the yellow paper on the bottom of the layout. Not only was the pattern a good mix with the others, I thought that the yellow took some attention away from the color of the ticket. (If anyone from Ticketmaster is reading this, could you PLEASE find a more scrapper-friendly color for tickets? I'm just saying!

Anyway, the rest of the layout is pretty self-explanatory. I used a TRIPLE mat as the foundation for the layout. Then, after rounding the one corner, I added the pattern paper blocks. The strip across the middle is actually four papers. The line of hearts was fussy cut from a bigger pattern. For the title, I used my Cricut to cut the word "date" and stamped the letters for "night" on tickets that I created with a Papertrey Ink stamp and die. I added some more tickets and embellishments to the journaling area and sprinkled some hearts and rhinestones to create a visual triangle. Here's a closer look:

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper: American Crafts (Dear Lizzy); October Afternoon (Fly a Kite);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Flourish Background; Curly Alphabet); Papertrey Ink (Just the Ticket); Technique Tuesday (Today You By Ali Edwards):

Inks: Stampin' Up! (Crushed Curry); Ranger (Coffee);

Embellishments: American Crafts Flairs (Dear Lizzy); Basic Grey Bloomers (Oliver); Recollections (Adhesive Rhinestones);

Tools: Cricut by Provo Craft (Sweethearts cartridge); Fiskars border punch (Scallop Sentiment)

LOAD -- Day 8

2011-03-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight I have another LOAD (Layout a Day) page to share. Finding time to scrap and blog everyday is really difficult. Add to this mix laundry, cooking and grocery shopping plus making cards for a busy month and, well, you can see why I took a little hiatus. I can also see why people plan for LOAD. Anyway, my LOAD hiatus is over and I am here to share another layout. This one was based on the sketch Jen Gallacher used for her February Stretch Your Sketch class over at Two Peas in A Bucket. I love Jen's sketches. They feel very authentic to me. While I may stretch them to fit my photos or page size, her sketches feel comfortable to me. Anyway, here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

I felt it was so important to document the historic winter we had on Long Island both in words and photos. I knew the journaling would be long for this layout and Jen's sketch readily accommodated it. I typed the journaling out on the computer and then stamped a border. I think this is a layout we will keep coming back to for years on end whenever we say, "Remember that winter..." You can click on the photo below to read the journaling.

For the title, I used a mixture of Thickers and letters cut from my Cricut. Whenever I use my Cricut for a title, I stack multiple cuts to give my letters the look of chipboard. In this case, I cut the word "snow" three times from patterned paper and then I used the shadow cut on the black cardstock. Here's a closer look:

Basic Grey's Jovial collection had two identical snowflake patterns -- one black and one turquoise. To give the black paper a little pop of color, I cut out a few of the turquoise hexagons and placed them over the black. I really love the effect. One final detail to point out is the glitter snowflake embellishment. It's actually a gift wrap ornament that I picked up for $0.30 at Bath & Body Work's post-Christmas sale. It's amazing where you can find ideas for scrapbooking!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts (black); Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Jovial; Basics); My Mind's Eye (Holly Jolly);

Stamp: Hero Arts (Dot Snowflake Border);

Ink: Technique Tuesday (Caribbean Sea);

Stickers: American Crafts Thickers (Sprinkles -- Chestnut);

Tools: Provo Craft Cricut (Winter Woodlands cartridge); Fiskars Border punch (Scallop Sentiment); Stampin' Up punch (Photo Corners);

Misc.: Little Yellow Bicycle Favorite Felt Stickers (Christmas Delight); Ribbon (Target); Glitter ornament (Bath & Body Works)

Project 12 -- February 2011

2011-03-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

So far, so good. It's the second month of Project 12 and I'm hanging in there. I decided that three elements -- the calendar, the font for the months and the shape of the journaling block -- will stay the same for all 12 layouts. With that said, I have to admit that I struggled a little with this layout. I just couldn't get the sketch to work for my pictures and then, I let go of the sketch -- or at least some of it's elements -- and my mojo came back. The other thing that pulled this layout together was stitching the brown border around the page. Yes, I took out my Janome Sew Mini and learned how to change the bobbin just like I promised myself I would when I started the Finding My Way class at Big Picture Classes. (It helps to have ahusband who used to watch his grandmother sew. Thanks, Sal!) Once that stitched border was there, the rest of the pieces fell into place. I think stitching (especially brown!) may be my new favorite addition to my scrapbook pages! Anyway, here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

The journaling is long so rather than retyping it, you can click on the photo below to read it.

I did some stamping on this page. To create this cluster by the calendar, I used what may possibly be my new favorite stamp set from Papertrey Ink. Label Basics has the look and feel of the October Afternoon sticker label stickers that I love so much but gives me the ability to customize them to match all of my papers. I may never put this set away! The "Take Note" sentiment is from a PTI's Fillable Frames #1. Since I hate cutting my stamps, I masked it so that the sentiment would cover two lines. I also stamped the heart using one of the patterned hearts from Hero Arts that matched my paper.

Okay, so remember how much I liked stitching the border. Well, I couldn't put my sewing machine away without stitching a border on the heart too!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper: Jillibean Soup (Pasta Fagioli); My Minds Eye (Dreamy 2); Reminisce (Unwritten);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Label Basics; Fillable Frames #1); Hero Arts (Design Accents: Pattern Hearts);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Riding Hood Red; Crushed Curry ); Ranger (Coffee);

Tools: Cricut cartridge (Designer Calendar); Spellbinders Nestabilities (Labels Four; Classic Circles); Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment); EK Success Edge Punch (Double Embossed Dotted Lace);Janome Sew Mini;

Misc.: Ormolu Package Tags (Hooray Calendar); Making Memories buttons (Chloe's Closet).

Delightful Dahlia

2011-03-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post tonight to share a birthday card I made for my best stamping friend. I've had the idea for this card in my head ever since she gave me this stamp set for my birthday. Here's the card:

To create it, I cut a standard size card and, using my Martha Stewart Scoring Board, created a frame for my mat and stamped image. Before I began stamping, I used scrap paper to create a mask for the large flower and leaf, plus two masks for the smaller flowers. For the stamped image, I started stamping in the lower left-hand corner. After stamping the first large flower, I covered it with the mask and stamped the other large flower above it. Keeping the first mask in place, I added the small flower and then covered it with a mask before stamping the leaves. Finally, I masked the leaf and stamped the remaining flower. I stamped the sentiment and used a Spellbinders Nestabilities to cut it out. I adhered the stamped image to the mat, tied a ribbon and adhered it to the card front. Finally, I added some bling and the butterfly pin.

Because creating masks can be time consuming, I plan to keep these masks with the stamp set for future use!!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (White); Stampin' UP!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Delightful Dahlia; Vintage Labels);

Ink: Stampin' Up (Rich Razzleberry; Wild Wasabi); Ranger (Jet Black);

Tools: Martha Stewart Scoring Board; Spellbinders Nestabilities (Labes One);

Misc.: Recollections Rhinestone Stickers; Webster's Pages Butterfly Push Pins; Ribbon from my stash.

Labor of Love

2011-03-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

That's what this card was. Melissa's 13th birthday was on Monday and since she is my biggest fan, I knew I had to make her an extra special card. Besides that, she kept asking for a really special card. The pressure was on! I knew I wanted to ink up a new stamp for maximum impact on the birthday girl, so I chose the Hero Arts Circle Design stamp. I kept playing with different designs and different colors and finally after close to 3 hours (which is about half of the time I was in labor with Melissa!) I came up with this:

To create this card, I cut the circle base and patterned paper mat with my Cricut. I made the lacy die cut with my Cuttlebug and the Spellbinders Lotus Pendants Nestabilities. Next, I stamped the Hero Arts Circle Design three times -- once on the kraft and two times on the patterned paper. After fussy cutting the leaves of one of the patterned paper images and adhering them to the kraft layer, I centered the medallion from the Nestabilities to the other image and ran it through my Cuttlebug. I adhered the top two layers with foam dimensional adhesive and finished off the card with some bling, faux stitching and a ribbon. Here's a closer look:

I am back to doing a Layout A Day (LOAD) and will start posting my layouts again next week.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Dark Chocolate); Stampin' Up! (Kraft);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Perhaps);

Stamp: Hero Arts (Circle Design);

Ink: Ranger (Coffee); Signo Gel Pen (White)

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Lotus Pendants); Cricut (Wild Card cartridge);

Misc.: Recollections rhinestones; ribbon from my stash

We Interrupt LOAD...

2011-03-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

..to bring you a card. Unfortunately, I needed to make a sympathy card. Hands down, this is my least favorite kind of card to make and I usually procrastinate doing so. This one is late but it will be sent with love later today. Here it is:

To create the image, I used a technique that Jennifer McGuire introduced called smooching. She has a great video tutorial on her blog. Basically, you ink up the stamp, kiss it to another stamp and then slide or twist the inked stamp across the stamp it is kissing before lifting it up and stamping. For my card, I inked up the Hero Arts Poppy Background stamp and smooched with with the Stripes Pattern. I like that it looks like the flowers are against the siding of a house. Here's a close-up:

To finish off my card, I scored a border around the edge of the card, added some pearls to the stamped image, stamped a sentiment, and used some embroidery floss to make a bow. Here's a close-up:

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (white); Stampin' UP! (Soft Sky; Blue Bayou);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Poppy Background; Stripes Pattern; Deepest Sympathy);

Ink: Stampin' UP! (Soft Sky; Blue Bayou);Ranger (Jet Black);

Tools: Martha Stewart Scoring Board;

Misc.: Recollections White Pearls; DMC white floss;

Disney World -- LOAD Day 7

2011-03-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today's layout is a total scraplift. Some days, laundry needs to get done, dinner needs to be cooked so any craftiness has to be quick and easy. Anyway, when I first saw this piece of paper in my package of Basic Grey Basics...

...I had no idea what to do with it. I just didn't get it and figured I would never use it. Then I saw a layout by Sande Krieger, the paper's designer, and I couldn't wait to put it to use! Here's Sande's layout:

Here's my scraplift:

Let me tell you a little be about my layout. For the title, I combined Pink Paislee's chipboard alpha with a Christmas stamp! Yes the word "world" is actually part of the "joy to the world" sentiment in Technique Tuesday's Peace, Joy, Love by Ali Edwards set. I also substituted a Micky ears brad for the dot over the "i".

For the main photo block, I had two pictures that I had taken of Mark in the parks. Notice the bottom picture. It was an "imperfect" picture. There were two people in the foreground which took the focus off of Mark and his friend who were running to check in with their chaperones. Since I only had four pictures of Mark in the park, I knew I wanted to use this one, so I masked its imperfection with a journaling sticker.

I also make note of the fact that I do not have one picture of Mark looking at the camera in the journaling which reads: With the exception of the Electric Light Parade and a few rare sightings, we never saw you in Disney World. And that's just the way you wanted it!

The extra blocks gave me room to log the trip's itinerary (which included a 3:15 AM meeting time on Friday morning)...

...and Mark's entrance ticket. I also included the photo of the band marching (which I had used on a previous layout) with an arrow pointing to Mark.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Basics Collection);

Stickers: Basic Grey (Basics, Wander); Pink Paislee (Denim Weathered Wood Chipboard Alphas);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Peace, Joy Love by Ali Edwards; Summer Words; It's a Date);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pumice Stone); Stampin' UP! (Riding Hood Red);

Embellishments: Disney brad from my stash;

Pen: EK Success Zig Writer (Black).

EMHS Band -- LOAD Day 6!

2011-03-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you mix a fabulous sketch designed by Allison Davis with a Moxie Fab World Cityscapes Are On The Rise Challenge? A layout that came together with relative ease. Here's the sketch:

You can find more of Allison's sketches on her blog. The thing I love most about her sketches is that the accommodate lots of pictures I kept the placement of the pictures the same as they are in the original sketch design but I flipped the mat and, with a little help from my Cricut, I turned the swoosh from the bottom of the page into a cityscape at the top of the page. Here's my layout:

Here's a close-up of the journaling block and the cityscape. I cut it out using both the regular cut and the block shadow cut so that it would really pop.

The journaling reads: October 2010-- Mark, what a busy weekend you had. First, you marched in the Columbus Day Parade in Huntington on Saturday and then in New York City on Monday. I hope you always remember the excitement you felt when you first stepped off onto Fifth Avenue and started to play for the cheering crowd. All you hard work and practicing paid off since EMHS placed third in the competition!

I've had those music brads in my stash forever and thought now was the time to use them. However, when I matted them on just the labels and adhered them to the layout, they seemed like they were missing something. That's when I got the idea to make my own rosettes using this tutorial. It was really simple to do but I would not recommend making them without a scoring board!

I'll be back tomorrow to share my 7th LOAD layout.

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: Doodlebug (Blue Jean Filigree): American Crafts (Dear Lizzy Friendly Finch); Making Memories (Black Small Dots); 7 Gypsies (Kilburn);

Tools: Cricut (Plantin School Book): Martha Stewart Edge Punch(Stars); Martha Stewart Scoring Board;

Stickers: American Crafts (Sarah Script Black); American Crafts Thickers (ABC Letterman Mustard); Basic Grey (Basics Sticker labels);

Embellishments: Music brads from my stash.

Christmas in Brooklyn -- LOAD Day 5

2011-03-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

Quick post tonight to share the results of my fifth day doing a Layout a Day (LOAD). The layout was inspired by a sketch from a free Two Peas in a Bucket class called 4x6 Photo Love. I love this sketch and think I will be using it again since I scrap a lot of 4x6 photos! Here's my layout:

Journaling reads: A spontaneous stop in Brooklyn to see the decorations turned out to be a highlight of the 2010 holiday season. This stop was so spontaneous that I didn't even have m camera with me. The pictures are from Sal's cell phone.

To created this layout, I used one of my favorite papers from Basic Grey's Basics collection as a foundation. These papers seem to be showing up a lot on my layouts lately. They really have become one of my Go-To supplies. Next, I cut the different pattern blocks from the My Mind's Eye patterned papers, distressed the edges with some distress ink and adhered them to the foundation. For the title, I cut the glittered shape from one of the patterned papers, stamped one part of the title and used Thickers for the other. I really like the look of multiple fonts on a title.

To ground the upper corner of the layout, I fussy cut the banner from another piece of patterned paper. I can't believe I cut up one entire sheet for that small banner. Oh well!

Finally, I added my journaling on the bottom right corner. After writing it free-hand, I felt that it too needed to be grounded so I stamped some faint journaling lines with distress ink.

Well, the company is gone, the good china is put away and I have leftovers for dinner tomorrow night so it will be back to LOAD on Monday!

Supplies

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Basics); My Mind's Eye (Lost & Found Union Square);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen; Vintage Photo): Ranger Jet Black):

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Initially Yours - C; Initially Yours - The Little Words); Papertrey Ink (Library Ledger);

Stickers: American Crafts Thickers (Dear Lizzy);

Bling: Recollections Gems

So Grateful -- LOAD Day 4

2011-03-11T08:25:00.000-08:00

In addition to tackling new layouts, I decided to work on some unfinished pages as part of my commitment to LOAD (Layout A Day). This page was from a Creating Keepsakes class that I took at last year's convention. Here it is:

Journaling reads: We were very grateful to have Thomas and Paul spend their first Thanksgiving with us!

As I so often do when working on class pages, I tried to make this page my own and in doing so, I had an "Aha" moment. I like patterned paper -- lots of it. I also like journaling labels. And, I DON'T like big orange silk flowers on my layouts. Ha! So after finishing the layout according to the printed class instructions (but without the BIG, orange silk flower which should have been put on the right side of the page below the title) I dug through my stash and found the yellow polka dot fabric paper. It only took a half-inch-wide strip on each page for me to feel that the page looked more like mine. I also added the stamped journaling stickers and the title which I cut with my Cricut.

One thing we id in class that I really like is added a dot of red Stickles to the center of each flower. I really like the dimension and sparkle it lends the page.

I'm so looking forward to having those sweet baby boys (and their moms and dad) over for Easter. I hope the weather is nice enough for an egg hunt!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill (Kraft, Apricot, Fresh);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Corsage); American Crafts (Dear Lizzy);

Stamps: Inkadinkado (Flourish); Papertrey Ink (Fillable Frames #4));

Ink: VersaMark; Ranger (Coffee);

Stickers: October Afternoon (Various Collections);

Tools: EK Success Punch (1 3.4 circle); Papertrey In die (FillableFrames #4);

Misc.: Ranger Stickles (Fired Brick Red.)

Marching in Disney -- LOAD Day 3!

2011-03-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

Mark was lucky enough to have the opportunity of a lifetime last month when he and his high school marching band led the Electric Light Parade. Since it's not everyday that my son gets an opportunity like this, Sal and I pulled Melissa out of school for a day and flew down to Disney for the weekend. After all, someone had to take pictures and scrapbook this event! Here's my layout:

The band stepped off at around 6:45 on Saturday night so we started scoping out a front row viewing spot at 5:30. Between the band's quick marching pace and the darkness that had settled over Main Street, all my scoping was for naught as my pictures did not turn out great. I accounted for this in my journaling which reads: Mark, it was a thrill to watch you march in the Electric Light Parade. You marched so quickly, it was really just a blur.

I am not one for themed papers and embellishments anymore (which is a shame since I have a stash full of them that I will probably never use) but when I saw this marching Micky, I couldn't resist buying it for this page. With that being the inspiration for my page, I pulled out my Disney papers and cut them into strips for the right side of the page. I added two vertical punched strips (one black and one striped) to tie the two sides of the layout together.

Because I wanted to emphasize the musical aspect of this trip, I stamped one of the yellow dotted strips with the Hero Arts Music Background stamp. You can see a close-up below. I finished the layout with some Basic Grey stickers from the Basics collection. If you look closely at the bottom, you will see that I stamped one with a sentiment that reads: the wonderful bits and pieces of life.

Well that's all for LOAD - Day 3!

Supplies

Cardstock: American Crafts (black);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Basics); EK Success (Disney);

Letter Stickers: American Crafts Remarks Stickers (Sarah Script White); Basic Grey (Micro Monograms);

Embellishments: EZ Laser Designs (Disney Title); EK Success Disney (Mickey Parade Dimensional Stickers); Basic Grey (Basics Sticker Labels); Creative Imaginations Epoxy Sticker;

Stamp: Hero Arts (Music Background); Technique Tuesday (Bits and Pieces by Ali Edwards):

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black);

Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment); All Night Media (Small Mickey Head Punch).

Finding My Way

2011-03-09T18:50:00.001-08:00

I know I have been conspicuously absent from my blog for the last week but I swear, I have a good reason. You see, I won a spot in Karen Grunberg's Finding Your Way class. This 8-week course is a process-based class designed to explore different areas of scrapping in hopes of finding what Karen calls your "authentic self." Anyway, one of the things that Karen encouraged the first week was to embrace LOAD (Layout A Day) for a month. Well, I never in my wildest dreams ever considered doing LOAD. As you read in last week's post, I couldn't even commit to Project 12 so a layout a day for 30 days seemed impossible. However, the more I was reading, the more it made sense. So, I organized my photos, streamlined the way I printed them and started scrapping. And yes, I made 7 layouts in 7 days. I just didn't have the time to take pictures and blog about them before now. So here goes!

First up is a layout I did using a digital collage that I made for free using an online coupon at Walgreen's. The photo is a little dark, but in addition to learning to streamline my scrapping process, I am also trying to embrace imperfection. So here it is:

Journaling reads: Our holiday visit with the Slomovitz's was a little different this year. After enjoying pizza and Christmas cookies at our house, we went to an Islander game and sat in a luxury box!

To create the layout, I first trimmed about a half inch from two sides of the ledger paper and adhered that to a kraft cardstock foundation. Next, I cut squares (or boxes!) from different patterned papers and randomly adhered them inside the grids at the bottom of the ledger paper. The photo collage was printed with a white mat. I added orange and blue mats to replicate the team colors. Since the layout has such a large photo block, I mixed large and small letters for my title and I used a journaling sticker to ground the Tiny Type letters.

At the top of the page, I adhered my ticket stub to some journaling stickers to create a cluster of embellishments. To ground it, I used a thin strip of paper that was punched with the EK Success Postage Stamp punch. And yes, I overcame my fear and pulled out my sewing machine for this one! I duplicated the punched strip and sewing to ground the bottom of the layout and finally added a few threaded buttons for texture and dimension.

So that's it for LOAD Day 2. (LOAD Day 1 was actually my Project 12 layout which I shared last week. ) There will be plenty more layouts to share as I did a layout a day for seven days. I am taking this week off from it since I am preparing for Melissa's birthday. I do, however, plan to start it up again next week!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill (kraft);

Patterned Paper: My Minds Eye (Lush 2);

Stickers: October Afternoon (various collections); Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type; American Crafts Thickers (Dolce -- Apricot)

Tools: EK Success Edge Punch (Postage Stamp); Janome Sew Mini;

Buttons: Making Memories (Chloe's Closet);

Pen: EK Success Zig (black)

Project 12 -- Take 2

2011-02-28T19:28:00.001-08:00

Two years ago, I started Project 12. I thought it would be a great way to document a year in my life. It wouldn't require the diligence or time that Project Life requires yet I would have a comprehensive look at our what we did (big and small) by year's end. Sounds good right? It was...for the first three months. Unfortunately I picked a format that didn't really work for me. I liked my January layout but by February and March, I started feeling very restricted by this one-page, mini picture format. Oh, and the papers I chose really seemed so fussy for this snapshot of everyday life. After turning 40, I no longer finished a book just because I started it. I had to enjoy the book in order to finish it. And, since I was no longer enjoying Project 12, I abandoned it like a bad book. That's not to say that I didn't like the idea of it. I just didn't like what I was doing with it. So , I sat on the sidelines for a year and a half and watched what other people -- most notably, Davinie Fiero -- did with Project 12. I watched and I learned. Today, I am back with my Project 12 -- Take 2! Here's me layout:

Sorry for the quality of these photos. I usually like to take my pictures in natural light but today was the dreariest of days! For this layout, I used Becky Fleck's phenomenal sketch:

As you can see, I stuck pretty closely to the sketch, only adjusting it to accommodate my picture size. Here's a close-up of the first page.

Davinie's use of chipboard frames on her January layout inspired me. I used the same technique to fill up my blocks of white space. I think this added more visual interest than a rectangular block of patterned paper.

Since I've been trying to use my stamps more, I punched out a file tab and stamped the words using two different ink colors.

Here's a close-up of page two. Some elements to note are the calendar tag from Ormolu, the shaped mat on the journaling, and the script title which I created by adhering four Cricut cuts together to create the chipboard look. I plan to use these elements on each of my Project 12 layouts this year to give them a more cohesive look. Since the journaling is quite lengthy, I won't retype it here. Instead, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

I'm really happy with how this layout turned out. I don't think I'll be giving up on Project 12 any time soon!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper, Stickers and Brads: Basic Grey (Basics, Oliver and Olivia):

Buttons: Making Memories;

Tools: Martha Stewart Edge Punch (Scallop Dot); Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment); Spellbinders Nestabilities (Labels Four); Cricut cartridge (Designer Calendar); McGill punch (File Tab);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Everyday Life by Ali Edwards);

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black); Technique Tuesday (Tempting Turquoise);

Misc: DMC Floss; Ormolu Package Tags (Hooray Calendar).

Invitation Inspiration, Make It Monday Challenge & Blog Candy Winner

2011-02-21T17:57:00.000-08:00

When Melissa received this invitation in the mail...

... I immediately knew that I wanted to use Scor Tape to add glitter to a card. Lucky for me, this is the Make It Monday Challenge over at Papertrey Ink. Here's the card I created inspired by this invitation:

To create this card, I cut a standard sized card out of white cardstock and rounded the corners on the right side. This card has a lot of layers and I just started building from the left. First<>

I added the scallop layers to the top of the cardstock that was stamped with the background and used ribbon to hide the seam. Next, I added more layers (three to be exact) for the sentiment. For the inside of the card, I created a sentiment on my computer, die cut it to match the front and added the stamped border and leaf accent. Here's a look at the inside:

Now before I go any further with this post, I want to sing the praises of Fiskar's customer service. As I mentioned above, my border punch broke. I was very surprised when it did break because the paper I was punching was very thin and didn't put any pressure on the punch. Anyway, I contacted Fiskars, filled out a form on-line, sent them a picture of my punch and Voila! I had a new punch delivered to my door within the week!

Just so happens that the dress Melissa chose for this Bat Mitzvah also matched the invitation. LOL! Here's my beautiful daughter all dressed up and looking way too grown up for her father's taste:

Now, if you have read this far down, it's time to announce the winner of my Valentine's day Blog Hop Blog Candy.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-02-22 03:58:09 UTC

This means the winning comment belongs to Briana!

Briana said...

What a great photo! And 22 years? That's awesome!
My favorite Valentine's Day was when DH made me a "fancy" dinner at home all by himself. It was a total surprise!

February 11, 2011 5:29 AM

Briana, you have until Sunday, February 27th to claim your prize. Please e-mail me your full name and mailing address.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Patterned Paper: Making Memories;

Stamps: Hero Arts (Large Fabric Design); Papertrey Ink (Mat Stack 2 Collection; Mat Stack 1 Collection);

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black); Stampin' Up! (Pink Passion);

Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment): Martha Stewart Border Punch (Modern Garland); Papertrey Ink Dies (Mat Stack 1; Limitless Labels); Scor Tape;

Embellishments: Martha Stewart glitter; Michael's ribbon.

Invitation Inspiration

2011-02-09T10:38:00.001-08:00

If you are here for the CK Valentine's Day Blog Hop, scroll down one post!

Bat Mitzvah season has begun! It's only the middle of February and Melissa has already attended three Bat Mitzvah celebrations and I have been told that that there are more to come. Rather than mass produce one card, I decided to personalize each by drawing my inspiration from the invitation. So, here's the invitation for one of the parties she recently attended:

And here's the card it inspired:

As you can see, I used the same colors as the invitation thanks to Papertrey Ink! Bet the Bat Mitzvah girl didn't know she was picking Aqua Mist when she chose the paper for her invitation! LOL! I used a Hero arts stamp to recreate the swirl pattern from the invitation on the top half of my card. For the bottom, I embossed the dotted patterned onto my cardstock, cut it into strips and punched to create the ruffled layers. The sentiment background of the sentiment was also embossed using PTI's Mat Stack 1 Collection. I have a feeling that this set is going to be my "go to" stamp set! I finished off the top of the mat with a Martha Stewart doily tag which I cut in half.

I will have the next installment of Invitation Inspiration next week.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (White, Aqua Mist);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Mat Stack 1 Collection; Mat Stack 3 Collection -- sentiment); Hero Arts (Flourish Background; Raindrop Background);

Ink: Versa Mark; Ranger (Jet Black);

Embossing Powder: American Crafts Zing! (white); Stamp 'n Stuff (Sterling Silver)'

Tools: EK Success Border Punch(Double Embossed Dotted Lace); Papertrey Ink die (Mat Stack 1);

Embellishments: Martha Stewart tag; Recollections rhinestones; ribbon from my stash

Valentine's Day Blog Hop and Blog Candy!

2011-02-08T17:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Club CK Valentine's Day Blog Hop! You should be arriving here from Gina's blog. We've all created projects --18 in all-- featuring Valentine's Day or love. Hope you are inspired!

If at any time you get you get lost, hop on back to Amanda's blog. Also at the end of the hop, head on back to Amanda's Blog. I hear she has some sweet Valentine's Day blog candy! And, if you read through to the end of my post, you will find some blog candy here as well! Now on to my project:

This picture was taken of Sal and I on our cruise last summer. It was Casual Portrait Night, the kids were off with their friends and we found our favorite photographer who had coaxed a natural smile out of Mark on the previous night. Anyway,the shoes came off and Voila! We have what Sal calls our Matt Lauer/Katie Couric photo. (I keep reminding Sal that Meredith Vieira is Matt's sidekick but he is out of the house long before the Today Show starts.

Since the photo was very white, I wanted it to blend into the background so that the focus of the page would be on us. I thought that the Dear Lizzy Hearts worked beautifully to do this. I added some chipboard hearts and the transparency from Sugar Rush and grounded the picture with the thin scallop from the same collection. For the title, I used a combination of pink Thickers and grey letters which I cut from my Cricut four times and stacked to give them the same height as the Thickers.

I felt that the title said it all so my journaling is simply the yellow punched tab that ran through the computer to add the date.

Now, since this is the first time I have participated in a blog hop, I thought I would give you the opportunity to win some blog candy right here. If you would like the chance to win a set of the Sugar Rush chip stickers that I used on my layout, please leave a comment here telling me about one of your favorite Valentine's memories. If you become a follower or subscriber, leave me a second comment telling me you did and your name will be entered twice. Once your've done that, hop on over to Becky's Blog for some more inspiration!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: American Crafts (Dear Lizzy); Basic Grey (Sugar Rush)

Embelishments: Basic Grey Sugar Rush (Take Note and Chip Stickers); American Crafts Thickers;

Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment); Marvy Uchida Punch; Cricut Cartridge (A Child's Year);

Adventures in Babysitting

2011-01-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

If you are ever in need of inspiration, check out the monthly classes at Two Peas in a Bucket. That's what I did for this layout. Actually, the inspiration for this layout came from two classes, namely Nichol Magouirk's Scrapbook Stamping and Jenn Gallacher's Stretch Your Sketch. Here's Jenn's sketch:

And here's my layout:

As soon as I saw the sketch, I thought of using this series of pictures. I just love how Thomas is studying the page of his book, then noticing something and asking Melissa about it!

The journaling reads: October 2010 -- Two or three nights each year, Melissa and I drive into Manhattan to babysit for Thomas. It's a win-win situation! Michael and Jennifer get a night out on the town while Melissa and I get some precious one-on-one time with Thomas. Reading stories, singing nursery rhymes, playing with blocks and trains is all an adventure when we do it with Thomas!

Nichol's challenge this month was to dig out the word or phrase stamps to create a title or border on a layout. I used Technique Tuesday stamps to stamp a border under the journaling. The stamp reads: This moment. This story. This day. This experience. This life.

I also stamped on a label sticker, layered it on another sticker and added a flower and some buttons to ground the pictures.

I love stamping and I love sketches so I think I will be playing along with Two Peas all year long!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill (Kraft);

Patterned Paper: Sassafras Lass (Indie Girl); October Afternoon (Farm Fresh); My Mind's Eye (Just Dreamy 2);

Stickers: Sassafras lass (Indie Girl); October Afternoon (Thrift Shop, Farm Fresh); Making Memories (Tiny Alphas); American Crafts Thickers; Basic Grey Bloomers (Pyrus);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Ali Edwards Today You, Little Labels ); Hero Arts (Design Accents: Patterned Hearts);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Taken with Teal); VersaMark;

Tools: EK Success Edger Punch (Postage Stamp); Martha Stewart Edge Punch (Scallop Dot);

Misc.: Martha Stewart twine; Making Memories buttons (Chloe's Closet).

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

2011-01-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, so let me go on the record and say that for all intents and purposes, my Papertrey Ink stamps are not collecting dust. I only found these wonderful stamps about a year ago and surely that's not enough time to collect dust! There are, however, some stamps that see more ink than others. So with that said, when I saw that Papertrey Ink's January Blog Hop Challenge was to use a PTI stamp that has yet to see ink or was collecting dust, I knew I was up for the challenge! Here's the card I made:

I used a sentiment stamp from Birthday Basics to create the background. To start, I cut a standard sized card and used my Martha Stewart Scoring Board to create the decorative border. Next I cut a piece of white cardstock small enough to fit inside the border and penciled in some grid lines. I started stamping in the center of white cardstock and worked my way out (left and right), then down and up changing the color of ink each time. (Make sure your ink is dry before erasing the grid lines!) When the background was complete, I adhered it to my card. Next, I added the die cut labels on dimensional adhesive and personalized it for the occasion with Thickers. A little bling gives it the finishing touch!

Here's a look at the inside of the card:

Be sure to check out all of the fabulous projects created for this blog hop. Also, there is some blog candy over at Moonlight Creations!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Specialty Paper: American Crafts (blue glitter);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Birthday Sentiments, Fillable Frames #4);

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black); Stampin' Up! (Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac);

Chipboard: American Crafts Thickers (Lax);

Embellishments: Prima (bling);

Tools: Papertrey Ink dies (Limitless Labels, Fillable Frames #4); Martha Stewart Scoring Board

In Just 10 Years...

2011-01-20T18:38:00.000-08:00

In looking over my blog, I realize that I have been posting lots of cards lately and not too many scrapbook pages. In reality, I scrapbook far more than I spend time making cards, unless I am in a card-making frenzy like I have been this last month. So, why do I spend more time on my blog talking about the cards I make than the pages I scrap. The answer is rather simple. Cards are easier to photograph. So, with that said, I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog. First up, a layout I made last January to mark the new decade. Surprisingly, I like this layout as much now as I did when I made it!

For this layout, I wanted to tell the story about what Mark and Melissa had each accomplished in the first decade of this century. To accomplish that I created a separate journaling blocks for each of them and used pictures from the 2000 and 2010 holiday seasons. For added emphasis on how much they grew, I had them hold a tile that they had made with their hand prints on January 1, 2000 in the December 2010 picture.

The journaling reads:

How time flies! Mark, in just 10 years, you went from kindergarten to 9th grade. You went from learning to read to reading Dickens, Poe and Homer. You learned to ride a bike, ski, in-line skate and skateboard. You can play the trumpet, dive off the high board, and run a 5k race. You lost your baby teeth and had your braces on and off. You went from playing with Legos to playing the XBox. You went from being a little boy to shaving.

Melissa, in just 10 years, you went from playing with dolls to helping with your baby cousins. You learned to ride a bike, ice skate, swim, ski and play the clarinet. You can dance ballet, tap, jazz and modern. you got your first pair of high-heel shoes and your first Coach pocketbook. You went from singing nursery rhymes to singing every song on the radio. You went from being a toddler to being a young lady.

One detail I would like to point out is the Glossy Accents and jeweled eyes I added to several of the birds. This just gave the page added texture and dimension.

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts:

Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket (Earth Love);

Letters: American Craft Thickers; Making Memories Tiny Alphas;

Embellishments: Chatter Box (Chipboard bird); Prima (flocked bird); Pink Paislee (rub-on); Cosmo Cricket (ribbon); Recollection jewels;

Tools: EK Success Border Punch (embossed Curve Edger Punch);

Misc.: Twine and buttons from stash.

Nifty at 50!

2011-01-15T07:54:00.000-08:00

I have no recollection of my parents turning 50. No recollection at all! In fact, the first person I can remember turning 50 was a woman, Elaine, who sat at the next desk over at my first real job nearly 25 years ago. And, although 50 seemed "old" to me then, Elaine was in no way "old." What I do remember most vividly about Elaine turning 50 was that she purposefully stuttered every time she said ffffff-fifty. It became quite a joke around the office. Fast forward 24 years (and I do mean fast forward) and now I have a husband who is fffffffff-fifty! Yes, Sal celebrated his 50th birthday earlier this week and here's the card I made for him:

To make this card, I covered a standard size base with pattern paper. I cut the blue paper 1/4 inch smaller and stamped it with the new Hero Arts Happy Definition cling stamp. Next I inked up the Technique Tuesday tile and stamped that with the wood grain pattern. I distressed all of the edges in keeping with the 50 theme. LOL! I stamped a sentiment from a travel set on the red strip and finished off the edges with a postage stamp punch.

For the inside of the card, I cut a square mask. After inking the center of the square with blue, I stamped lightly with the Happy Definition stamp. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and used clear embossing powder. Here's a look at the inside of the card.

Finally, here's a picture of the birthday boy with 51 (fffff-fifty plus one for good luck!) candles all aglow!

Happy birthday, Sal!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (White);

Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket (Cogsmo);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Happy Definition, Designer Woodgrain, Travel Journal;

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo); Ranger (Coffee); Versamark;

Chipboard: Technique Tuesday Technique Tiles (Postage Frames); American Crafts Thickers (Jewelry Box);

Tools: EK Success border punch (Postage Stamp);

Misc.: Twine from my stash

The Positive (and Negative) Thing About Masking!

2011-01-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

This week, I created a card using the masking technique and for the first time ever, I used both the positive and negative masks. After finishing this card, all I can say is, I'm hooked on this technique! I love the rich textures and colors achieved by stamping and inking with the negative mask in place. Here's my card:

The colors for this card were inspired by the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger:

You can read more about the Tuesday Trigger and see the other projects it inspired at Moxie Fab World.

Now, here are some step-by step instructions for making this card. The first thing I did was create a positive and negative mask by stamping the flower on a piece of computer paper and cutting it out using an craft knife. (I found that the negative mask I first created with cardstock was a little too thick to stamp a pattern on the flower.) For the card, I stamped the background with Hero Arts' Dots and Flowers and then I stamped the large flower. With the negative mask in place, I stamped the flower with Old Letter Writing and colored it in with distress inks. I started with the lighter ink and added the darker inks as I went along until I got the color I wanted. I switched the negative mask for the positve and added the leaves. Once again, I used the negative leaf mask that I had created to color the leaves in. Here is a closer look at the flower:

You can see a full video tutorial of this technique at Hero Arts.

I mailed this card to my niece, Jennifer, for her birthday and it was only a day late. My One Little Word is really starting to kick in!

Supplies

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (White, Chocolate); Stampin' Up! (Crushed Curry)

Stamps: Hero Arts (Dots and Flowers, Engraved Flower, Old Letter Writing, Big and Small Flowers, Scroll Frames & Messages);

Ink: Ranger (Coffee); Stampin' Up! (Crushed Curry); Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo, Shabby Shutters);

Embellishments: Queen & Company bling;

Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop Sentiment).

The Starbucks Bag

2011-01-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

So last week I showed you the card I made using a Bath & Body Works shopping bag. You can see the post here: http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2010/12/finding-new-use-for-christmas-shopping.html. Today I have a card that I made from a Starbucks shopping bag. Actually this pretty bag (which I forgot to take a picture of before I cut it up) was the one that inspired me to take a second look at all of my shopping bags. All that kraft and white...I was in paper craft heaven! Anyway, here is the card:

First I cut the tag from the bag using Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale 1 die. I stamped over the tag with a spray of leaves from PTI's Turning A New Leaf in green. The white leaves are part of the bag's design. Next, I created my background using the grid from PTI's Library Ledger and stamped more leaves over the grid. It was really easy to match the pattern and make the grid go half-way up the cardstock. Finally, I used the Mat Stack 2 stamps and matching die for the label and sentiment, and added the ribbon and bling! Here's a close-up look at the tag.

On the inside of the card, I stamped the sentiment and a smaller spray of leaves.

I mailed this birthday card to my sister who loves Starbucks coffee. I will have to ask her if she recognized the piece of bag I used on her card!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (White); Stampin' Up! (Wild Wasabi);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Turning a New Leaf, Library Ledger, Mat Stack 2, Birthday Basics);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Wild Wasabi);

Tools: Papertrey Ink dies (Tag Sale 1, Mat Stack 2) EK Success punch (corner rounder);

Embelishments: Recollections (bling); Cosmo Cricket (ribbon);

Misc.: Starbucks shopping bag.

One Little Word

2011-01-06T18:54:00.001-08:00

For the last couple of years, Ali Edwards has been choosing "one little word" to focus on for the year. According to Ali's original post on the subject in 2007, one single word "can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow." You can read Ali's original post here: http://aliedwards.com/2007/01/one-little-word-3.html. So instead of making a New Year's Resolution this year, I decided to join to join Ali by choosing my own "one little word."

organize

There are several definitions for this verb but these are the meanings that I plan to focus on:

to systematize;
to give organic structure or character to;
to put (oneself) in a state of mental competence to perform a task

I hope that by living the word "organize" and inviting it into my life, as Ali suggests, it will have ripple effects that positively impact my life throughout the year. I am well aware that focusing on my word will include the mundane like not letting the mail pile up and putting away the laundry as soon as the dryer buzzes. I'm hoping, however, that this will put an end to early morning searches for missing socks and actually give me more time to do the things I love like scrap and stamp.

If you would like to be truly inspired, check out the wordle Ali created with all of the words her readers have chosen by visiting her blog at http://aliedwards.com/2011/01/one-little-word-2011-the-words.html. And, if you are participating in this challenge, please leave a comment telling me what your "one little word" is for 2011.

And because I couldn't post without a project, here's a card I made back in November for my friend's son who turned 18. I was looking through my pictures to find a card with one little word on it but alas, I only found one with two. Here it is:

I created the background by inking Papertrey Ink's Fillable Frame #4 with Stampin' Up! Night of Navy ink. I then went back and filled in each frame with the "happy birthday" sentiment from PTI's Birthday Basics, stamping it once in Dusty Durango and twice in Crushed Curry. For emphasis, I die cut one image from Dusty Durango card stock and put ribbon behind it to anchor it.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream); Stampin' Up! (Dusty Durango);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Fillable Frame #4, Birthday Basics);

Inks: Stampin' Up! (Night of Navy; Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry);

Chipboard: Heidi Swapp;

Ribbon: Cosmo Cricket;

Tools: Papertrey Ink die (Fillable Frames #4); EK Success Corner Rounder punch.

Finding a New Use for Christmas Shopping Bags

2010-12-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

Did you happen to notice all of the great shopping bags this holiday season? From Starbucks and Trader Joe's to Whole Foods and Bath & Body Works, it seemed that graphic artists had their mojo on this year when creating these beautiful bags. As I was cleaning up after Christmas I took another look at these bags and decided I couldn't part with any of them. Instead, I decided to create with them. First up, Bath & Body Works. Here's the bag:

Here's the card I made with it:

I die cut that cute little house border using a Spellbinder's Nestabilities. Next, I used Glossy Accents to adhere some Martha Stewart snow glitter to the image. I'm not usually a fan of glitter but the Glossy Accents seems to keep it all in place. I added a little more shine with Perfect Pearls. Here's a closer look:

After mounting the image with pop dots, I set it aside and stamped and embossed the snowflake background. To further the economies of this card, I used ribbon from a 5-pack that I picked up at Target today for 75% off the original price!

I'll have another card to share using the Starbucks bag in a few days. I think I will save the others for next year! In the meantime, I better go shopping to see what bags I can add to my stash!

Happy New Year!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' UP! (kraft); Papertrey Ink (white); American Crafts (red);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Snowflakes; Merry Christmas Trees):

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black); VersaMark;

Ribbon: Target;

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Classic Rectangles Large; Classic Scalloped Rectangles Large) Fiskars border punch (Scallop Sentiment);

Misc: Zing embossing powder (white); Perfect Pearls (white); Bath & Body Works shopping bag

Christmas Joy

2010-12-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have one more Christmas card to share with you before the Christmas decorations come down. I bought the paper for this card about a year ago with my mother in mind. She loves angels so I thought this would make the perfect card for her. Here it is:

This was a very simple card and came together in a matter of minutes. I started by cutting my card base the width of the angel image. I cut three rows of coordinating scallops from two-sided patterned paper, inked the edges with distress ink and added them to the card base. I went around the rectangular frame with Diamond Stickles to add some shine, tied a bow and voila! My card was finished!

As for those Christmas decorations, I won't be ready to take them down until after January 6th!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: Graphic 45 (Christmas Past)

Ribbon: EK Success Adornments (Tonal)

Misc.: Diamond Stickles

Tools: EK Success Slim Profile Border Punch (Double Embossed Dotted Lace)

Christmas Card 2010 -- A Variation

2010-12-28T18:42:00.001-08:00

Another quick post tonight to share the card I sent to my friends who celebrate Hanukkah. The card is a variation of my Christmas card. I apologize ahead of time for the poor picture quality. Sal got me a new camera for Christmas so hopefully the blog pictures will be better! Anyway, here is my card:

Again I used Basic Grey papers and relied more on the blues and browns for less of a Christmas-y feel. On the right side of card, I used a distressed blue paper which I stamped with brown snowflakes. I think I LOVE brown snowflakes! The snowman was paper pieced from a cut I made with Cricut's Winter Woodlands cartridge. You can't tell from the picture, but I added shine to the buttons with Glossy Accents and distressed the edges with ink. The eyes are brown pearls. Here's another open view of the card:

To answer a few questions that were left on the previous post, I made a total of 65 cards -- 60 with Christmas trees and 5 with snowmen. I started early in December and worked in an assembly line fashion. As for how long it took, the answer is way too long. LOL! The cards were all mailed (with the last few going out on Christmas eve) and my dining room table was ready for Christmas Day dinner with only a few hours to spare! All I can say is that it was a labor of love!

I'm already getting ideas for next year's card and have promised myself that I will start earlier! Now all I have to do is get Mark and Melissa to pose for a picture!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream; Pure Poppy);

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Jovial; Figgy Pudding);

Stamps: Hero Arts (Merry Christmas Trees; Snowflakes);

Ink: Ranger (Coffee: Tim Holtz Distress (Antique Linen)

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink (Pure Poppy);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities ( Large Classic Scalloped Rectangles); Cricut Cartridge (Winter Woodlands); EK Success punch (Vertical Slot);

Bling: Recollections

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T22:44:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post tonight to share my 2010 Christmas card.

This year, I was inspired to make a bi-fold card and I have to admit that the Martha Stewart Scoring Board made the job so much easier.

Here's another view of the card:

To make the trees, I first stamped the image on the cardstock. I then stamped the top of the tree three more times on patterned paper. After cutting out each tree top, I scored each triangle and folded it in half. Then I glued the bottom of the right side of one triangle to the bottom of the left side of another. I repeated this and then glued the resulting 3-D triangle down to the card.

For the ribbon treatment, I used EK Success' Vertical Slot Punch to cut a small slit in the fold of the card before feeding the ribbon through.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. Watch my blog next week for a surprise guest poster!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Jovial);

Stamps: Hero Arts ( Merriest Christmas Trees);

Ink: Ranger (Coffee);

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink (Pure Poppy);

Tools: Martha Stewart Scoring Board; EK Success Vertical Slot punch; Spellbinders Nestabilities (Large Classic Scallop Rectangles); Fiskars Punch (Apron Lace).

Cheers!

2010-12-16T20:23:00.004-08:00

If you are anything like me, you bring a bottle of wine with you when visiting friends and family during the holidays. And, if you're like me, you forget to ask the liquor store for a cello bag and red woolie to wrap your hostess gift. I can't even begin to count how many times I've had my coat on ready to leave the house and have been scrambling for a bow to put on the wine bottle. So, this year I decided to make gift tags especially designed for a bottle. Here it is:

I cut the main tag using Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4 and then cut the hole for the neck of the bottle using the circle Nestabilities. The collar was then cut using a die from the circle and scallop circle sets. The rest is Hero Arts stamps, Tim Holtz distress inks and LOTS and LOTS of Perfect Pearls mixed in water to give it a beautiful shine!

I do have one helpful tip to share with you. Score the tag before you start spraying with Perfect Pearls otherwise your paper might be damp and you won't get a crisp score line.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Stamps: Hero Arts (Merriest Wishes; Outline Bold Flourish);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Fired Brick; Antique Linen; Vintage Photo); Ranger Black;

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Label 4; Classic Circle: Classic Scallop Circle);

No Tricks Here!

2010-10-31T18:17:00.000-07:00

October has been an incredibly busy month so sadly, there was no Halloween crafting this year. In lieu of a Halloween card or layout, I have a three birthday cards to share. All were made with scraps of paper from the Imaginisce B-Day Bash collection plus Imaginisce Snag 'Em stamps. Here's a look at all of the cards:

I bought three 12x12 patterned papers from this line and in addition to making these cards, I also created a layout. I have used up just about every inch of paper. I have a few tiny scraps that I can probably use to make another card but other than that, it's all gone. I don't know if that's a good thing since I don't have to find room for it in my stash or a bad thing since I really love this paper. LOL!

The first card was inspired by Kristina Werner's card which you can see here: http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=3865. Here's my take on Kristina's card:

I used Versa Mark ink to stamp my card stock with a Hero Arts background stamp and then used embossing powder. I punched all of the circles from leftover scraps of paper and adhered them to the card front. This is a great way to use up small scraps of paper. The orange stripe at the bottom of the card is a scrap that I had left over from CKC Make and Take. I embossed my sentiment and added bling to the candles for a little sparkle. Since this is a one-layer card, I cut a little slit in the fold of the card and threaded my ribbon through it. This is another tip that I have picked up form Kristina Werner!

Notice the blue circle with to the upper right of the sentiment. That was originally puched from a solid portion of the paper. I added the present using a Snag Em stamp and Versa Mark ink.

Now on to the second card:

For this card, I stamped my image twice -- once on white card stock and once on the blue pattered paper so that I could paper piece the package. I added the white faux stitching on the brown circle to ground the image and popped it on foam dimensionals for added impact. I also added brown faux stitching to the outside edge of the card to mimic the faux stitched circles in the patterned paper.

Finally, for my last card, I used a stamp set from Sassafras Lass. When I bought this set of arrow stamps, I knew that I wanted to stamp the entire set as one stamp to create a background so without taking any of the stamps off of the packaging sheet, I inked them up with brown ink and laid my paper on top of it. After pressing down for even coverage, I had an arrow background paper. I added the dots with a Hero Arts stamp and some Versa Mark ink for some added interest. This card was for my nephew's 30th birthday. I really wanted to say something "punny" but when that failed, I popped an arrow on foam dimensions and added a sentiment to the inside. Anyway, here's the card:

Well I hope I have made up for my lack of blogging by sharing three cards today. Stay tuned this week for the B-Day Bash layout featuring a very young Mark!

Supplies:
Cardstock: American Crafts (brown, white); Stampin' UP! (kraft);
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce (B-Day Bash);
Stamps: Imaginisce (B-Day Bash); Hero Arts (Raindrop Background); Sassafras Lass (This Way Arrows);
Ink: Versa Mark; Ranger (Coffee)
Embossing Powder: Stamp N Sstuff (Detail Clear); American Crafts Zing! (white);
Pens: Signo Gel (white): Stampin' Up! (Chocolate Chip);
Ribbon: Michael's (brown); American Crafts (gold);
Embellishments: Recollections rhinestones and pearls

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop

2010-10-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

This month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is dedicated to creating a card to celebrate a winter holiday other than Christmas. Since I don't have any PTI winter themed sets nor do I have the Mazel Tov set, this was a challenge for me. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that I could create a Hanukkah cards by using one of the elements in the Vintage Labels Set. Here's my card:

To create the Star of David, I simply took the scroll with the straight line and stamped it to create two overlapping triangles. I love how the scrolled images came together in the middle to create a kaleidoscope effect. I added gems to the star where the lines intersected.

I created the blue mat using the Fleur De Lis Nestabilities. The first time I ran the paper through my Cuttlebug, the mat got stuck in the die and ripped when I removed it. To remedy the situation, I put waxed paper between the die and the paper before running it through my Cuttlebug. The paper came out of the die easily and the waxed paper pealed right off!

If you want to see more projects created for the Blog Hop, head over to http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2010/10/october-2010-blog-hop.html

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Patterned Paper : Basic Grey (Granola)

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Vintage Labels)

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Night of Navy)

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities ( Labels One; Fleur De Lis); Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Swis Dots); EK Success Punch (corner rounder);

Bling: Recollections

Happiness Is Dance

2010-09-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Recently Two Peas in a Bucket celebrated Pea1's birthday with a challenge to create a layout inspired by one in Kristina's gallery. Here's Kristina's layout:

And here's mine:

I loved how Kristina built her page with strips of patterned paper that stretched two thirds of the way across the page. I tried to duplicate her layout in a 12x12 format with the beautiful papers and stickers from Pink Paislee's Bayberry collection.

I don't know why "c" in dance looks like it has a different pattern but here's a close-up to prove that the letters are all the same!

In addition to the chipboard letters, I layered tags for the title. Then I used a K & Company rub-on to ground it.

I used Jenni Bowlin butterflies and some bling to create a sense of movement along the page.

Supplies:

Card Stock: American Crafts
Patterned Paper, Clear Sticker. and Die Cut Tags: Pink Paislee (Bayberry Cottage)Wood Alphas: Pink Paislee (Blackberry)
Rub-On: K & Company
Embelishments: Prima rhinestones, Jenni Bowlin butterflies
Punch: Martha Stewart (Double Loops)
Pen: Signo Gel (white)

6 Things

2010-08-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

School starts in less than one week, so I thought I would post a layout I recently created using Melissa's 6th grade school picture. When Melissa started middle school last year, her teacher had each student create a flower using six prompts. Each petal of the flower answered a question. I loved that the answers to these questions encapsulated who she was at that moment in time so I thought I would create a layout based on these six facts about Melissa. Here it is:

Journaling reads: In the future, i would like to ... be a teacher. My favorite possession is ... my iPod. In my spare time, I like to ... dance. I worry about ... dying. My favorite place is ... the beach. My pet peeve is ... when people are sick. I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I read that last little tidbit of information about my daughter.

For this layout, I dug through my stash and used papers from Basic Greys' Lily Kate collection which I've had for over a year. I created lots of texture by fussy cutting and popping some of the flowers as well as adding silver gems to the patterned paper designs. I used my new Martha Stewart Modern Garland punch to create even more texture. I love how the tone-on-tone punching looks.

I used my Cricut to create the title. Because I wanted the title to have the dimension of chipboard, I cut out two sets of letters and stacked them before adhering them to the layout. I popped the "6" on foam dimensionals and outlined it with faux stitching for added emphasis. I carried this faux stitching around the purple block to anchor it to the page. Using a flower from the patterned paper to dot the "i" adds a little touch of whimsy.

Supplies

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Lily Kate)

Embellishments: Cosmo Cricket ribbon (Fleuriste); Prima Glazed Brad (Sasha); Recollections Metal stickers

Tools: Cricut cartridge (Calligraphy); Martha Steward Punch (Modern Garland)

Pen: Signo White Gel Pen

Turning the Calendar Page

2010-08-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

August has come and gone without one single blog post from me. What can I say? August was a crazy month. In addition to vacation, getting Mark ready for camp and back-to-school shopping, the month started off with great sadness. My father-in-law passed away on August 3rd after a long illness. Although we were preparing ourselves for the worse, I've learned that you are never quite prepared when the time comes. There is great comfort in knowing that he is no longer suffering and is at peace. I'm looking forward to scrapping a page about him real soon.

Vive la France

2010-07-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that my sister, Diane, is a Francophile. Diane loves all things French and probably has more French stamps on her passport than I have pairs of shoes. That's why when, a week before her birthday, I saw this paper...

...I knew I had to buy it. Here's the card I created:

I used both the A and B side of the paper as well as a dot from another paper for the front of my card. To get the Eiffel Tower perfectly centered in my die, I taped the Spellbinder's Nestability to the paper before running it through the Cuttlebug. I used black embossing powder for an understated sentiment on my focal point image. I really wanted this card to be all about the patterned paper! After putting all of the garnet-colored gems onto the scalloped oval, I used foam dimensionals to adhere it to the card.

Here's a look at the inside of the card:

Happy birthday, Diane. Or should I say, "Joyeux Anniversaire!" Hope this glimpse of Paris holds you over until your next trip!

Supplies:

Cardstock : Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: Graphic 45

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (happy birthday sentiment from Delightful Dahlia); Hero Arts (Enjoy the Moments)

Ink: VersaMark

Embossing Powder: Ranger (black)

Tools: Fiskars punch (Scallop Sentiment); EK Success punch (Double Embossed Dotted Lace); Spellbinders Nestabilities (Petite Oval --Small, Petite Classic Oval -- Large)

Ribbon: EK Success Adornments (yellow)

Bling: Recollections

Intrepid

2010-07-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Just nine days to go until my annual trip to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge. To make room for all of the new goodies I plan to buy, I've been trying to use my stash more. The layout I am sharing today, uses the Basic Grey's Boxer collection which I bought at my first CKC in 2008. I was actually planning to buy Pink Paislee's new Starlight collection for these pictures but I felt a little guilty about buying a red, white and blue collection when I had this one in my closet. So here's my layout:

The kraft background paper is from Jillibean Soup. (I bought it at Scrapbook Expo in 2009.) JS makes the warmest color kraft papers. I must remember to pick some more up next week. The only piece of new paper on this layout is the white ledger paper from Basic Grey's Basics collection.

I have been wanting to create a banner for a scrapbook page for a while now and I thought that this layout finally gave me the perfect opportunity since the banner would mimic the flags on the ship. I cut the triangles for my banner using the George and Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge. At first, I made all eight triangles using a one-inch cut but some of my letters (notably the "n" and the "d") wouldn't fit. To remedy the situation, I cut four more triangles using a 1.25-inch cut and alternated big and small triangles on my banner.

For added interest, I popped a star on the sticker embellishment. I also used the scraps from my star-punched border to decorate the page.

I didn't journal on this page because I don't remember all of the details of this day in August 2001. What I do remember is how we had planned to go to the World Trade Center later in the day but by the time we finished up at the Intrepid, everyone was tired so we decided to wait for another day. Sadly that day never came. I'm not sure whether or not I should journal this. (If I do, it will be handwritten journaling on the white ledge strip.) What do you think?

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Boxer, Basics); Jillibean Soup (Cup of Yak)
Stickers: Basic Grey (Boxer)
Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop); Martha Stewart Border Punch (Stars); Cricut Cartridge (George and Basic Shapes)
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (numbers from For the Graduate)
Ink: Stampin' Up! (Night of Navy)

Adventure in the Everglades

2010-07-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today, I have a hybrid layout to share. I made it using a digital collage that I created on Riteaid.com. While I found the site a little more difficult to navigate than Shutterfly or Snapfish, I thought the collage mode was great since it allowed me move pictures around once the original collage was made. It was printed on Fuji paper and the quality is good. The cost was $2.99 which I thought was reasonable. I got it for free with a coupon which is even better! Anyway, here's my layout:

Since the photos were all together on one 8x10-inch collage, the rest of the page came together pretty quickly. I tore the edges of my patterned paper strips to make them look more natural and fit in with the theme of the page. After adhering those to the background paper, I affixed my collage. Photo corners in the upper and lower right-hand corners keep the collage mat grounded. Because there was a lot of white -- or in this case blue -- space in the lower corner, I stamped some greenery and dragonflies using Hero Arts stamps.

For added emphasis, I cut out two dragonflies and popped them on the page. I ran my title across the bottom photos for added interest. I've always wanted to do this but never had the right photos.

Journaling reads: The thrilling fan boat tour of the Florida Everglades was a highlight of our trip to Marco Island. Skimming the surface of the water as we raced through mangrove creeks was just like a scene out of CSI Miami!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee (Captivating); Basic Grey (Mellow); My Mind's Eye (Quite Contrary); Making Memories (Passport)
Stamps: Hero Arts (Real Flowers; Antique Engraving; Trees, Birds & Messages)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Shabby Shutters, Walnut Stain)
Letters: American Crafts Thickers (Rocketeer/Leaf)
Canvas Embellishment: Making Memories (Passport)