Three, Count Them, Three Layouts!

Life is getting in the way of my blogging but I am finally back with three layouts to share! I have been realizing that I really don't like using kits and I would rather break up the elements to mix and match. I used a variety of products on all of these layouts.

Full of Grace


This layout is actually based on a Becky Fleck sketch (www.pagemaps.com) although I didn't follow it too well. I did this page at a crop and of course I didn't have all of the supplies I would have liked. I didn't intend for the background to be black but the pink I had picked out didn't really match even though it came from the same kit as the pink flowered paper. The journaling spot is actually a clear sticker but I had to adhere it to some white CS so you could read the writing when I ended up with the black background.

Directions: Cut pink flowered pp. Punch circles from purple dot pp and attach to back of pink pp so half sticks out. Attach to black CS. Adhere purple border sticker below circles. Overlap purple pp on pink then attach photo on top. Write journaling and attach to white CS. Cut out, ink edges and attach. Use border punch on strip of white CS. Adhere letter stickers and attach with two brads and photo prongs. Thread ribbon through buckle, wrap around background and attach ends to back. Embellish buckle with flowers, attaching one with brad and place a gem in the center of the other one. Add heart sticker. Attach letter stickers to tab for date, embellish with gem and adhere. Rub gold ink pad around edges of pad.

Supplies: Black & White DCWV cardstock, K&C. purple dotted paper, ? pink flowered paper and photo prongs, Making Memories velvet letters, ? gold letter stickers, American Crafts journaling spot, KI Memories tab, border sticker and photo corner, Stickopotamus heart sticker, Me & My Big Ideas chipboard flower, Prima flower, ? chipboard buckle, Martha Stewart border punch, gold brads, black SlickWriter, sheer ribbon from grab bag, black Staz On, gold Colorbox ink pad, purple gems


Silly Lollipop Foot = Tease

This is such a silly picture of my niece putting a lollipop in her mouth with her foot. I use a rebus style title since I had the foot sticker and then saw the lollipop sticker at Target (now I have a whole sheet and no idea what I'll use them for...) Iwas glad to mix some old patterned paper with some new paper and finally use one of my Making Memories clear flowers that I got from the Two Peas clearance.

Supplies: White carstock, DCWV pink cardstock, Pocket Full of Posies pp and Spring Stack border sticker, Frances Meyer Dizzy Dots pp, Making Memories journaling stamp and clear flowers, Stickopotamus foot and lollipop sticker, KI Memories word stickers, white Uniball gel pen, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment border punch, Broken China Distress ink pad, foam tape, Studio 88 gem

Directions: Scallop edge of white CS and attach to pink CS. Cut pps to fit next to photos. Stamp dotted paper with journaling spot and write journaling with white pen. Add border sticker. Top with clear flower using foam tape. Add gem to flower center. Arrange stickers to create title.


MIL

This layout features me and my new mother-in-law. I liked how we were both wearing similar shirts and wanted to echo that with the background paper. This page was pretty straight-forward to create but I did smudge the journaling. Hopefully it adds to the grungy feel of the page.

Supplies:
My Mind's Eye Bohemia pp, gray cardstock, K&Co. chipboard letters, Prima flowers, Chatterbox Fabulous date tag, photo mat and word art, Studio 18 gems, K&Co. brad, Daisy D's journaling spot, white Uniball gel pen, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch, foam tape

Directions
Cut patterned paper (pp) to 8.5 by 11. Edge gray CS with border punch, cut to about 1/3 of page size and attach across middle. Arrange photo, journaling spot, tag and flower on top of mat and attach all. Poke holes along top edge of gray area and around photo corner and draw lines between holes to simulate stitching. Attach chipboard letters above gray section. Attach "thoughts" word art below photo area with foam tape.

Quick update, nothing to show

Bad blogger I have been, but not a bad scrapper! I have done six pages since I last checked in, which is like a record for me! Some were done at the all-day crop I went to three weeks ago but some I just worked on in the evenings. It has been taking me two evenings on average to complete a layout so that could be 182.5 layouts in the next year... Yeah, right!

OK so I have done the pages but I have no proof since I keep forgetting to bring them into my office to scan them and my photographing attempts at home are awful. I'm out of town for the weekend so I will likely get no more pages done, so next week I will definitely scan at least one or two and have something for "show and tell."

Meanwhile, it's almost 5:00 on Friday and I need to finish up my actual real work so I can get out of here. Let the weekend begin!

Internet Inspiration

The Internet never ceases to amaze me. I just went on a wild web ride that took me all over the place and I ended up finding some good resources that are just too fabulous not to share.

It all started out because my Creating Keepsakes magazine is up for renewal. Now I think that I should still have several issues left because I was not only a CK subscriber but also Simple Scrapbooks and Digital Scrapbooking, both now defunct. Not the point of this post though.

I went online to see if I could find a better renewal rate than the $23.97 they were offering me. And I found out that CK Media was sold in September. Where have I been? And to a company that's here in Cambridge? Unbelievable. What on earth is going on in this industry?! I mean, I should have seen it coming with the demise of SS and Digital, and also Memory Makers, but still.

So in my quest to find out more about this (and try to determine if it's worth renewing CK or if this one's going belly-up too) I stumbled onto www.scrapbookupdate.com. I'd been on this site before and forgot how informative it is. Good stuff! There I saw that Becky Higgins has left CK so wandered over to her site www.beckyhiggins.com to read more and found this cool Life Story template: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/ADULT.life.story.pdf that I'm itching to use.

Scrapbook Update also led me to Renee Pearson's new blog, which I'm looking forward to exploring when I've got Photoshop on my mind.

Somehow I then ended up at Angie Lucas's blog "yeah, right," (www.angielucas.com) which I am going to have to follow because I just love that she is a self-professed "word nerd" and scrapbooker! Gotta love someone whose post title is "A Quick Grammar Lesson." Angie mentions that she was a guest blogger over at Write.Click.Scrapbook and I got excited all over again about this inspirational site that I had first seen several months ago (then promptly forgot all about), started by ex-Simple Scrapbookers .

Angie also mentioned her e-book company site, www.ellapublishing.com and get this -- they have a FREE e-zine! I love e-zines and I love them when they're free even better! Check it out! Their cover story featured a layout by Moon Ko and a link to a short Q&A with her, which excited me since I have followed her work on TwoPeas because she is an 8.5 by 11 scrapper like me. So off I went to explore her blog, but not before I discovered 8.5 by 11 scrappers Diane Herman, Waleska Neris, Erin Sweeney and Caroline Ikeji. Can't wait to fully explore their blogs for more layout inspiration!

OK, now I have to go. No time for blogging, I have too many blogs to go read! So do I really need that CK subscription too? Yeah, I do, even for $23,97, or whatever it costs. I think I need to do my small part to keep this industry alive and if no one is willing to pay for content, there's no incentive for anyone to keep producing. The Internet is amazing but really, nothing in life is truly free. But that's a post for another day -- I'm off to soak up inspiration and play!

Quick Girly Card

Today's card was such a rush job and I thought I was going to hate it but I think the Making Memories Glitter Glaze turned it around in the end! I read to a public school student once a week at lunchtime through the Everybody Wins! Power Lunch program. I had my session with her this morning and realized last night at like 8:00 that her birthday was yesterday. We are not supposed to buy the students presents as they are supposed to learn to value the time we spend together reading but we are encouraged to give them cards so I like to make her a little something pretty. I know I would have loved this when I was 10!

This card was an inexpensive endeavor for me since the white CS was leftover from my wedding invitations and the pink, lavender and flowered papers were from a scrapbook page that I am still finishing up. The flower center and sentiment embellishments are just a circle punch from the pink CS with one of the many purple gems I got at the Christmas Tree shop for like $1. The letters in the name aren't stickers as they appear but the same letter stamps I used on the last cards I made. The Glitter Glaze I brushed onto the cardstock was an after-thought but I love it! Really hard to see in the scan but it looks go nice and girly in person.

Directions: Trim cardstock to 4.25 by 5.5 inch bottom-opening card. Brush with glitter glaze and let dry. Scallop the edge of pp and pink strips. Trim pp to cover about 1/3 of the card and pink CS to matte underneath. Stamp letters on lavender CS with Wisteria ink and cut each one out. Glue top edges to back of bottom of layered papers. Adhere entire piece to card. Punch lavender CS with word tag punch and stamp top tag with birthday sentiment (save other tags for future project). Attach to card and trim excess. Layer flowers and attach to card with glue dots. Punch two 1/4 circles from hot pink CS. Layer with gems and attach to flower center and edge of sentiment tag.

Supplies: White & lavender cardstock, DCWV Spring Glitter Stack hot pink CS and flowered pp, Studio G birthday stamp, small alpha stamps, Prima flowers, adhesive gems, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment border punch, circle hole punch, McGill retro word tags punch, Wisteria chalk ink, Making Memories Glitter Glaze, Zots glue dots

Still Stuck on Pink

What can I say? I seem to be stuck on pink lately! Well possibly because now I have a bunch of pink scraps on my desk since I haven't cleaned it off since my other projects.

This card is for my friend Kristina whose birthday is actually today but I am a bit late in the mailing. It's a bit of an odd size, slightly smaller than 5 by 7, but is is going in a box anyway. It is going to be sent with a hat and scarf that I knitted for her in this soft variegated-blue suede yarn and a pair of red, silver and black earrings with a matching bracelet that I also made. Yes pictures of these items would be nice but really I barely had time to finish them, never-mind photograph them!

I am not sure that I am loving the blue on this card but I thought it sort of went with the scarf. I also think maybe I overdid it with all of the gems AND the Stickles. Oh well, it was really late when I finished it last night so I can't claim it is my best work but hopefully she will like it.

One cool technique I did discover was that my black India ink pad stamps really well on coated cardstock and looks fabulous with this reversed alphabet (meaning the stamp makes the background and the letters stay the color of the paper). I think it will make me use this alpha more often!

Directions:
Cut card to 5 by 7 side-opening and scallop the right edge of the front panel. Trim strips of patterned paper to 4.5 inches wide and approximate heights as shown. Wrap ribbon around pink panel and tie bow around the ribbon. Attach all strips to card, aligning with the fold. Glue strip of black pp inside the card front so it shows behind the scalloped edge. Punch scalloped circles from black & pink pp and layer with foam flowers. Top with rhinestone flower and tiny clear gem. Die-cut swirls from white CS using Slice. Position above and below flower embellie on blue panel. Slide corsage pink through the bow and into small foam flower. Top flower with small clear gem. Stamp name with alphabet stamps using black ink on glossy CS. Cut out individual letters and attach. Edge strip of black dotted pp with upper crest punch. Attach tiny gem in each "valley." Apply Stickles to ends of each swirl.

Supplies:
Strips of patterned papers left over from other projects (bottom pink strip is DCWV Summer stack, blue is Target $1 spot, white swirl I stamped -- see the previous post, pink strip is cut from a gift bag), black & white ribbon, white cardstock, Icicle Stickles, foam flowers from kid's craft dept, corsage pink, letter stamps, rhinestone flower, tiny gems, Slice, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment & Upper Crest punches, Marvy scallop circle punches, Xyron

Pretty in Pink

I have two new cards for you today! Both of them are pink, which seems odd, considering it's October. The first one is a birthday card for my friend Katie. It's a bit of a takeoff on the last birthday card I posted. I bought her two books (craft cozies -- knitting fiction!) for her birthday and the gift bag I used was black, white and hot pink with dots and swirls. I'm not sure that these are really her colors, but I figured I'd make a card to match. We are going out to dinner tonight and I am excited to see her reaction.

I recently mentioned to Katie that I had crocheted some small flowers to use on cards and scrapbook pages and she said she hoped her birthday card would include one of the flowers, since we often "Stitch 'n' Bitch" together. I didn't use a birthday sentiment on the outside because I know she is sentimental and will probably keep the card, and this way she can put it in a frame if she wants. The card is 7 by 5 inches. I was excited to find in my stash the pink dotted flower but had the hardest time figuring out how to use it. I was happy to finally use some of the black flock that JoAnn's sent me (four containers instead of one!)

Directions
Cut white card to 7 by 5 bottom opening card. Stamp swirls repeatedly on white coated cardstock with black Staz On. Let dry. Trim, along with three other patterned papers, into 1.5 by 5 inch strips and attach to card. Use Treading Water punch along bottom of front panel of card. Trim black paper to 2 by 6 and round the corners on one end. Pierce holes around the edges and draw stitching lines with white gel pen. Wrap pink ribbon around bottom and tie bow. Die cut swirls from black paper and letters from white cardstock using Slice. Run through Xyron and then brush with glitter glaze while still attached to backing. Let dry. Attach letters to black panel. Attach panel to right bottom. Punch scalloped circle from white cardstock. Apply glue rub-on and cover with flock. Press in and then brush off excess. Attach pink silk flower and white crochet flower with crystal brad. Attach to card with foam squares. Attach swirls to card, applying gems to the ends. Attach flower gem to dot "i" with small glue dots.

Supplies
White cardstock, white glossy cardstock, scrap black glossy paper, DCWV Summer Glitter Stack pink patterned papers, unknown black dotted paper; Inkadinkado and Autumn Leaves swirl stamps; Black Staz On ink; Marvy scalloped circle, Fiskars Treading Water punches; K&Co (?) rub-ons for flocking; Black Stampendous flock; Slice die-cutting machine; White Stabilo gel pen; Making Memories clear glitter glaze; Xyron adhesive machine; Pink silk flower (from JoAnn's but unsure of brand); Crochet flower (I made it!); Offray ribbon; Making Memories crystal brad; Pink self-adhesive round and flower gems (unknown); foam squares; Zots glue dot


The second card is rather like the one I made for my husband's grandmother's 80th birthday, but I forgot to scan or photograph that one before I gave it to her, so I somewhat recreated it for my stash. What I like best is that I cut around the stamped butterfly wings, leaving the body attached, so the wings fold out from the card. I also messed up and forgot to add the stitching before I glued down the pink and flowered papers, so I cut a strip and attached it behind my scalloped edge to cover the stitching inside. Awkward to explain, but it looks really good, especially since it it two-sided paper so the flowered pattern make a border on the inside.


Directions
Trim ivory cardstock to 5 by 7 inch side-opening card. Scallop the edge of the front panel of card with border punch. Stamp butterfly on pink paper with brown ink. Trim around wings, leaving body attached and fold wings out. Stamp leaves below butterfly. Trim to fit, leaving scalloped edge showing, and attach to top half of card. Trim flowered paper, wrap lace around and attach to bottom of card. Stitch along edge. Trim strip of green paper (opposite side of flowered paper) to about 1 inch by 7 inches and attach to inside edge of card to cover up stitching. Layer pink Prima on cream one and attach to card with glue dots. Attach flower gem with glue dots. Attach pearls and pink gem to body of butterfly.

Supplies
Ivory cardstock; Pink SCWV paper; K&Co. Brenda Walton flowered paper; Lace scrap; Prima flowers; K&Co. butterfly stamp; Chestnut Roan and Olive Pastel Colorbox Chalk Inks; DMC brown embroidery floss; Fiskars border punch; Flower gem (unknown); adhesive pearls and pink gem (Nicole?); Zots glue dot

World Card Making Day is Tomorrow

Saturday, October 3 is World Card Making Day. I wish I could report that I have some kind of exciting plans, but I thought I had a conflict with a family event so I didn't schedule anything. Nonetheless, I'm planning to make three birthday cards tomorrow in my craft studio. I'm excited to use some new supplies that I picked up at an odd place -- the Christmas Tree Shop! Enabler alert: They have Martha Stewart punches for $3.99. Only two styles at my store but yours may have more!

I'll be sure to post my creations over the weekend or next week, but I wanted to leave you with some cards I made a few weeks ago to rev up my inspiration.


This first one was for my niece's 8th birthday so I made sure to use lots of pink and a little bling. I made the flower embellishment on the left side actually extends off of the card, so the card base is only 5.25 inches wide, allowing it to fit in a standard size envelope. The letters were made using my Slice, which I haven't been using enough. I brushed Stickles all over them to give them a bit of shine.

Card directions
1. Trim white cardstock to 5.25 by 8.5 and fold in half so the opening is at the bottom.
2. Trim flowered patterned paper to 5.25 by 4 and attach to card so .125 inch shows at top and bottom.
3. Die cut letters from white cardstock using Slice. Brush with Stickles and let dry.
4. Trim pink patterned paper strip so that it is taller than your letters and ink the top edge with brown ink.
6. Edge strip of white cardstock with scalloped border punch and attach edge to back of pink strip.
7. Wrap ribbon around seam and tie knot.
8. Stamp sentiment with brown ink on white cardstock and trim, round top corners, ink edges and attach edge to back of pink strip.
9. Attach pink strip section to middle third of card.
10. Glue on letters, leaving room for the flower embellishment.
12. Punch scalloped circle from white cardstock.
13. Punch flower from patterned paper scrap with circle punch and attach to white scalloped circle with foam tape.
14. Cut leaves from patterned paper scrap and attach to flower circle.
15. Spread stickles on flower and adhere gem to center.
16. Attach flower so that it overhangs the edge of the card by .25 inch.

Supplies
Paper: White cardstock, DCWV Summer Glitter stack patterned paper
Stamp: Studio G
Ink: Colorbox Chalk Chestnut Roan
Ribbon: Target
Punches: Fiskars Treading Water, EK Success scalloped circle and corner rounder.
Die cut letters: Making Memories Slice limited edition Seasons card
Gem: Nicole
Glitter: Stickles either Diamond or Crystal

The second card was for my Mom's birthday, only ten days after my niece's. This one is a similar design, with the scalloped circle flower extending off the right side, but with a more muted color palette. The little butterfly and staples give some added dimension.

Card directions
1. Trim ivory cardstock to 10.5 by 4.25 and fold to make a side opening card.
2. Trim blue cardstock to 5 by 4 and adhere.
3. Trim flower paper to 4.75 by 3.75, ink edges with pink and adhere.
4. Punch pink strip with border punch.
5. Trim strip of striped paper and adhere to pink strip.
6. Wrap rickrack around seam.
7. Attach pink strip.
8. Stamp sentiments on ivory carstock with purple ink and ink edges with pink.
9. Attach sentiments as shown, using staples on ends of bottom sentiment.
10. Punch butterfly from purple scrap cardstock. Fold in half, open and attach with staple.
12. Punch scalloped circle from blue cardstock and dot scallops with silver gel pen.
11. Punch circle from ivory cardstock and draw circle with template and silver gel pen. Attach to blue circle.
12. Punch three sizes of flowers and attach with foam tape to each other and ivory circle.
13. Finish flower with adhesive pearl.

Supplies
Paper: Ivory and light blue cardstock, scraps of pink and purple cardstock, Making Memories (floral print and stripes), DCWV (pink swirled)
Stamps: PSX (alpha), K&Co. (birthday sentiment)
Ink: Colorbox Chalk Wisteria and Pink Pastel
Punches: EK Success flower and butterfly punches, Martha Stewart border punch
Rickrack: Offray
Staples
Pen: Silver Uniball Gel Extreme
Pearl: K&Co

Chipboard alpha and paper flower reorg

Happy fall!

This weekend ended up being a hectic one. I thought there would be plenty of time for crafting, but all I manage to get done was a quick birthday card and a little much-needed reorganization. Even though I swore off buying any new crafty stuff until I sat down and did a few scrapbook pages (or at least printed some photos), I got sucked in by the Target Dollar Spot.

I am such a sucker, I know, sometimes the items aren't even worth a dollar! But chipboard alphas for $1? Can't pass it up. I got four (two sheet of multicolored Halloween-ish letters and two packs of glittery orange letters). I also got a pack of Halloween paper, some ribbon and two cute plastic bins that I needed to find a productive use for.

Add all of this to my JoAnn and Two Peas in a Bucket purchases that arrived last week and I could barely walk to my craft table, never mind sit down and be productive. Yet I was going to my friend Jackie's son's second birthday party on Sunday and knew that a store-bought card just would not do. So I piled the stuff up even higher on the floor and got crafty for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, after my exhilarating but exhausting zumba class that morning.

No, there is no photo of the card. Oops. I really need to get a new camera. Or a scanner at home. It was cute though, used some birthday themed paper (also from the Dollar Spot, but not this trip) in primary colors and a foam number 2. Not my best work but my desk was so messy, there was barely any room.

Sunday after the party I took some time to organize, deciding to move my adhesive gems and other bling from the acetate box they were squooshed to one of the new Dollar Spot bins. Still haven't figured out where the bin goes yet.

The I focused on my chipboard letters. I have been wanting to store all them together by letter but the compartments of the embroidery floss boxes I had them in were too small. I finally put my chipboard letters into the the nuts and bolts organizer that my husband got me at the local hardware store. Unfortunately there are only 25 compartments, so I get to be creative and mix the Ms and Ws together since they can be used almost interchangeably. Still not sure what to do with the numbers, so I may have to do more combining.

Because I had to combine, I could only fit the letters that were already in the floss boxes -- mostly ones that are mix and match type letters and not whole alphas that look the same. I still don't know what to do with these. I have about 8 packs, from Making Memories, K&co, Basic Grey and a few random ones from Target. Some are in sheet form and some are separate letters. Right now they are standing up in a plastic box but that's temporary. I also have sheets of plain chipboard letters looking for a home. I put them in an ArtBin Super Satchel box but not sure I am loving that. I am torn as to whether I should punch out the letters or leave them in sheet form. Not sure which will make me more likely to use them.

I then tackled my growing paper flower collection. I originally sorted by material/flower size, with different colored flowers from the same manufacturer stored together. Then I bought a lot of 50 assorted Primas off of eBay, a bottle of yellow Primas (on sale at Michaels for $1.99!) and a tube of Primas from Two Peas (on sale for $2.50) that were not going to fit into the box I was using. Never mind the giant tube of white Primas I got from Two Peas that I intend to dye to match my projects.

First I thought I wanted to sort by color and store each color in a separate bottle. I thought I's use the Making Memories flower bottles:


I have six of them from ordering from www.cropchocolate.com. (If you haven't checked out this site, it's pretty cool - they feature one item and it's usually about 50% off. I also got four sets of MM clear stamps from them.) Plus I have a few Prima bottles I could use.

I sorted my flowers thinking this was the plan but then realized I need more order than this. I don't think I want to have to sift through an entire jar, even one sorted by color, to find the perfect flower. I know many people do this and use the bottles as a decorative display, but I need my storage to be more functional than decorative. So I sorted by color and by type into two plastic embroidery thread boxes. I had to put them sideways on one of the wire shelves of the door of my craft closet, but I think they will still stay pretty organized.

So now I am excited to get my craft on this weekend! I need to make three birthday cards and am thinking about making a set of thank you cards as a birthday present. My craft desk is still a bit of a mess but I plan to concentrate on putting more stuff away tomorrow night. Oh how I miss half day summer Fridays!

Couple Friends

Two posts two days in a row, whoo-hoo! Go me.

This is a page I did over the weekend. I was doing some cleaning and came across my friend Jackie's wedding invitation from 2005. Looking at the invitation got me thinking about how I regret not having gone to her wedding. One of the main reasons I didn't go (besides it being 7 hours away and on Labor Day) was because that weekend I moved in with my husband, who was just my boyfriend at the time.

But another reason was because the guys hadn't even met each other yet and she was really little more than a girl I met on Craigslist that I scrapbooked with. I guess there was no way then to know that we would all become such good friends! I do feel fortunate that we all hit it off since I know it can be hard to find couple friends where both girls and both guys get along. I'm not sure that I captured that message as much as I would have liked but I guess it's an idea for a future layout.


I started with the invitation, which was printed on white cardstock, and built the layout around it. Then I saw the small aqua friend tag (top right) that came in a large coordinating kit I recently picked up at BJSs and it became the basis for my color scheme. I recently bought a bunch of Basic Gray paper off of the clearance rack at AC Moore (25 cents apiece!) that coordinated with the aqua. I selected two sheets from the Blush collection for the top and bottom of the layout.

It took me forever to find letter stickers that worked until I remembered these from K&Co. They were on a sheet with fall colored letters that surprisingly contains an entire alphabet in each style. I wanted to emphasize the ampersand and again it took awhile to find the perfect one. First I thought chipboard but I couldn't find anything the right size. Finally I found this aqua ampersand on a sheet of pastel colored letters (not sure of the brand as I had removed it from the original packaging).

The K&Co journaling tag, from the Wild Saffron collection, just randomly seemed to work as I sorted through my recent purchases. I liked that it used both the aqua and the red from the papers and it was (almost) big enough to tell my story. When I wanted to add just a bit more, I saw that the red label (also K&Co Wild Saffron) would be perfect, plus there are so many of them in the package that I don't know how I'll ever use them (a good problem to have I suppose).

I've been thinking about paper flowers lately, having recently bought some Primas from eBay (50 various sizes for $2.50 -- good deal?) and a whole can of white Primas from Two Peas that I am still waiting for. I am trying to find a better way to store them, as right now I have them in a small divided box, separated by type, which I will obviously outgrow. I also think I'd like to sort by color.

So while I was looking at my current stash, I saw the large gridded cream and aqua flower, which I have several of, and it seemed like a good opportunity to pair it with the dotted aqua flower that came in the same set. I thought a brad would be good in the middle but then I saw the K&Co Wild Saffron felt embellishments and liked that I could incorporate the red and a bit of yellow. I thought the bottom needed a bit of pink to bring in the pink of the top patterned paper so I used a small pink paper flower with another felt embellie. I attached the flowers with Glue Dots.

I put the friends tag underneath the top flower a bit and added "Couple" using small Making Memories ledger stickers. Finally I added some hand stitching to bring in some more brown and help ground the letter stickers. I made the stitching holes using a template that I made by piercing through a sheet of plastic packaging and then sewed some zigzag stitch using two strands of DMC embroidery floss. The top right corner seemed bare (I seem to have a problem with that) so I lightly traced around a random die cut swirl that was on my desk, pierced holes and back-stitched.

Daddy's Girl

OK, really bad blogger I have been. But it was kind of starting to feel like work, with how nice it was outside there for awhile (finally!) and I said that I was out when it started to be too hard.

However I have actually done some scrapbooking lately and I thought I'd share one today. It uses an old photo as I am in a quandary about photo printing. More on that later. First the layout:

This one is me and my dad, as you can see by the cute little Studio G stamp that I used for the subtitle. This is an OLD photo, from 1994, that is in one of the four icky magnetic albums that I am trying to redo. Yes I know I should pull all of the photos out to minimize further damage, but the idea of having to store all of those photos in some organized way or risk having to resort them is too much for me to handle. So I am s-l-o-w-l-y redesigning these pages.

I knew I wanted to use this cute bird background paper from the DCWV Glitter Summer Stack (or is it spring?!) and the cordinating DCWV chipboard flower, which I ended up topping with a blue foam circle and clear gem to minimize the hot pink. Then I found the red vinyl stickers in my stash that I bought last year from Michaels' holiday clearance, figuring they didn't really scream "Christmas." I thought the black Making Memories rub on letters were a nice constrast.

It took me awhile to settle on the b&w polka dotted paper, which has been in my stash forever. I used my newish Fiskars Upper Crest border punch. The photo mat is a randomly a page from a yellow lined hotel notepad that was on my desk. The ribbon was already cut in my ribbon scraps bin, it's $1 kind from Michaels. I added the green dotted Making Memories leaves for a little contrast. The subtitle lable was the only item I used from the large K&Co kit I got at AC Moore, even though I planned to use more of that kit on the page. I stamped it with Staz On using the aforementioned Studio G stamp.

Finally, I though the upper right corner seemed a bit bare so I back-stitched with some black embroidery floss. That made the center seem a little bare so I added the sentiment sticker, the negative from punching the black dotted border and some cross-stitches. Ta da! Nice father-daughter moment captured.

So as to my photo printing quandary, the printer I have does not play nice with Vista and I have no way of knowing how much ink is left. I also think it is just not printing as nicely and I have started wondering how long the pictures are going to last. I thought it was more economical to print myself, and also more freeing since the pictures can be any size. I was also doing a lot of digital scrapbooking so it made sense.

But I am starting to think that for longevity's sake I should get my photos printed professionally. I want to use more of my paper scrapbooking stash and I think this will encourage me to not just default to digital. Also it is taking me so long to think up layouts with different sized photos and I think I am falling into the trap of thinking I need to scrap every photo. Maybe it would be easier to go back to having mostly 4X6s?

I am thinking about checking out www.scrapbookpictures.com but I'm open to suggestions.

Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. I am a bad daughter in that I forgot to call him and he had to call me! But he didn't know I didn't call since he wasn't home and figured I'd just left a message on his answering machine. Yes most people would call his cell (which he was calling me from) but my parents never have their phones on. So annoying!

Anyway, I don't feel that I'm too bad of a daughter because I did send him this lovely birthday card, which should have arrived on time.

I finally used the rub-ons for glittering that I bought months ago. They don't work quite as well as I hoped but not bad. Also the blue glitter didn't quite match the DCWV patterned paper (summer stack, I believe) which was leftover from creating this layout:

This layout was one of the first that I actually used a sketch to create. I used stickers from the 2008 DCWV spring sticker stack. Some of them are flocked and glittered and I always like the bling. I also make the brown letter stickers by inking up some white ones. I added a little glitter shine with Making Memories glitter glaze paint.

I also made my dad this rockin' Father's Day card so I think he should know I love him! I think the bird and branch are Autumn Leaves stamps.

Happy birthday, dad!

Cleanup Weekend

Busy weekend, although very little crafting. I sat down to craft on Saturday afternoon, thinking I would finally make my husband a birthday card (his bday was Sunday). But my craft table just seemed such a mess that I couldn’t get started, plus I had picked up some new goodies at AC Moore on my way home from work on Friday and I wanted to play and find a home for them.

Highlights of my purchases: the Fiskars scallop sentiment and upper crest border punches, which I have been wanting forever! Well the scallop sentiment at least. I have the threading (or treading, I’ve seen it both ways) water punch and I love it but wanted one without the holes. I would have actually like one with a little bit bigger of a scallop and I think possibly the Stampin’ Up one may be, but the Fiskars one was right there at the store with no waiting, no shipping charge, and at 40% off, so it is now mine (I think I paid about $9.50 each?). I can use my Fiskars Cloud scissors for larger scallops anyway, which I have finally mastered now that I realize I need to draw a pencil line to follow to exactly line up the cuts. Eye-balling it just doesn’t cut it.

I also got some Basic Gray patterned papers off the clearance rack, 25 cents apiece. I really love their papers but the collections are so expensive! One day I’ll use a 50% off coupon and get a whole set, but for now I am happy to combine bits of the patterned papers with cardstock I already have.

Another purchase was that Ranger Teflon craft mat. Not really sure I needed it and I am positive that I had bought almost the same thing to use with my Melting Pot, which I haven’t used in, well, so long I can’t remember. But I can’t find that other mat anywhere and this one is much bigger anyway. What I am really hoping I can do is heat emboss right on top of it without melting my cutting mat underneath. There’s already a bendy spot on my cutting mat from an earlier unfortunate incident with the heat gun (and a melted spot on the carpet) so I am a little nervous about trying this but the instructions say it can be done with no adverse effects to your work surface. We shall see.
Update: I tried this and it seemed OK. Yay!

I had rearranged my punches last week, moving my giant scalloped circles from a tray on my desk to one of the large drawer in the Iris cart next to my desk that my Ribbon Ring allowed me to free up. Really don’t know what I was thinking, filling that drawer with rolls of ribbon, what a waste! (If you haven’t yet seen the Ribbon Ring, check it out! Love mine). I also moved my large circle punches, large scalloped circles and miscellaneous large punches (like the EK Success Whale of a Punch ones) into the same drawer, freeing up the top drawer of the Iris cart. I’ve decided to treat is sort of as a junk drawer but with little containers that I had picked up at Target storing various embellishments by color. These are mostly one-off embellishments that I made and had no other home.

Now my back-up Fiskars trimmer that I mostly use for scoring these days after getting my Making Memories cutter can no longer fit in the top drawer. Right now I have it on top of the MM trimmer which is on top of a large file box full of letter stickers underneath my desk. Not sure if this is going to work out but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put it. It seems too large in the center of my Making Memories carousel organizer. I did move one of my rulers there, the 12 inch metal one, and put a push pin into the window frame to hold the 15 inch one. I also cleaned my entire craft table, sorting the scraps (for the most part) and putting everything back in its home. All of this so I could lay down the Teflon mat.

I never did make my husband a birthday card. I think he had a nice birthday though. On Saturday night I took him to a Polish restaurant we had never been to. He has this thing for goulash and has been talking about it forever so even though it seems like winter food, we decided to try out this new place.

YUM! If you are ever in Boston, try Café Polonia in South Boston! It’s right on the Dorchester line. I wasn’t sure about the neighborhood so was happy it will still light when we go there, but it seemed fine, and parking was easy, with plenty of resident spots that non-residents can park in for two hours. Mike started with beet soup and I had soup pickle-cabbage soup which was unexpectedly delicious. Then he had goulash with potato pancakes and I had the Polish platter, which was three pierogies (I had cheese, cheese and potato, and cabbage. The cabbage was so good!), kielbasa, Hunter’s stew (cabbage and meat, and surprisingly good!) and stuffed cabbage (not like mine or my mom’s, but still enjoyable).

Funny, I had bought a head of cabbage and 3 lbs. of ground turkey at the supermarket on Friday and was thinking about making stuffed cabbage. I think now I’m going to make unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot this week. Tonight we are having roasted chicken with vegetables. So easy and yummy! And cost-effective. It’s a big 6 pounder and was on sale for 79 cents/lb. We’ll have plenty of leftovers for sandwiches and such and I will probably make chicken broth/soup with the carcass. It’s probably a little warm for matzo ball soup but I am betting I can still tempt Mike with it. Mmm, the chicken is smelling so good, I can’t wait until it’s done!

On Sunday Mike and I went up to his parents house in NH and had a big lobster dinner. Well his mom and I had salmon but Mike and his dad are allergic to it. I also had two lobster tails. This is turning into the summer of lobster! I think it’s the fourth time we’ve had it. The best was when Mike cooked the giant 4 lb. lobster a few weeks ago. So good, although I’m still finding bits of lobster shell around the house!

Gold Ball

Another layout with old photos from 2006. I'm trying to catch up. Also practice new techniques on pages I don't care about so much anymore.

My husband's company has this ball every year to recognize the high achievers (of which he is one). I originally planned to do this as a single page digital layout but I printed the photos and not the background I created. I wanted to use gold but knew that I really couldn't print metallic gold from my inkjet. The photos sat around in a to-be-scrapped folder for months because I couldn't find a layout I liked for so many pictures. Finally I decided to make it a two-page spread and try out some new techniques on it.

One of the new-to-me techniques was using paint. I recently bought a few Ranger Paint Dabbers from joann.com. First I thought they didn't work right because I didn't realize they weren't supposed to go on smoothly. I actually liked the texture they provided and the gold is really vibrant IRL. The backgrounds are just regular cheapo black cardstock but I used the paint dabber on to "dry brush" around the edges.

I made the Gold Ball title using the gold dabber on an also new-to-me product, Tim Holtz's grungeboard. I picked up a pack at Michaels with a 40% off coupon. Interesting material. Not sure why I'd want something bendy on my page but I will try experimenting more. If I can get past the smell! Really odd smelling product.

Anyway, after dabbing the grungeboard letters and the small heart on the second page with two coats and emphasizing the bubbly texture of the dabber, I rubbed the edges with a Ruby Satin pigment Colorbox Cats Eye. I have a few of these ink pads but rarely pull them out since they are rather small and it seems like a lot of work to ink up a stamp with them. But it worked wonders for inking edges and getting into the small crevices! I wasn't sure that the pigment ink would dry on the painted grungeboard and wondered if I would have to emboss, but it dried just fine.


It's making me think I should get some more Cats Eyes. On sale at joann.com for $1.49... I usually wait two months in between orders so I have time to play with my new goodies but there is a free shipping coupon for July and a few things I have been wanting.

Anyway, I also inked the edges of the gold mat on the second page with the Ruby Cats Eye. Then I stamped on the cream ribbon several times with a swirly scroll border stamp from Inkadinkadoo and the Ruby ink. This was more successful than I thought it would be, as I had stamped on ribbon before and it was blurry. The pigment ink came out clear and it dried fairly quickly. I'll be trying this again!

Another new technique for me was stamping with paint on transparencies. Well I actually used cut up packaging from some glitter rub-ons I bought. How very green of me, I know. Or cheap. I used the Ranger ink dabber in gold with various clear stamps. The swirl corner is K&Co Amy Butler lotus. The little journaling spot is from one of those $1 Studio G sets. The flower medallion is from Making Memories.

I wasn't sure how I was going to attach the transparencies ater I cut them out but I discovered that Zots glue dots really are totally clear! I usually get the GlueDot brand (3L maybe?) but I had bought a pack of the mini singles Zots and I am impressed! I had planned to put a purple gem in the flower centers, thinking it would cover the adhesive but I really didn't need to as you could not see the Zot at all. I added the gems anyway to bring in some more purple and give it some bling.

Of course I figured out the Zots were truly clear after I had already stapled on the small journaling block, which is the one part of this spread that I am really not happy with. Oh well. I did color the staples with a black Slick Writer before stapling so at least they aren't too noticeable. This is a good way to color your staples to match your layout -- color the staples before you put them in the stapler, then you can touch them up in necessary after you staple.

I used a purple Slick Writer to write on the plastic. Not sure it really matches but I was trying to bring in some purple since I used the "Rock On" and "You're An Original" die cuts. These were from a K&Co tin that I picked up at a discount store in NJ. I would guess it is discontinued since it was steeply discounted. I attached them with foam tape.

The "Friends" strip actually was inside of the large medallion on the second page. That and the "Love" and quote die cuts are K&Co Amy Butler Lotus. They are attached with foam tape. I bought the diecuts, chipboard letters, sticky ribbon and matching clear stamps when it was on sale at Michaels. The I got the two paper packs on sale from joann.com so you'll probably see more projects using these supplies.


The journaling block on the first page is s a digital element that I typed my text on, printed out and cut. The journaling block on the second page is from the DCWV Le Creme sticker stack as are the photo corner, "All Dressed Up" sticker that I used to cover the hole in the large K&Co medallion, and the cream flourishes on both pages. Some of the flourishes are actually cut from the sticker backing sheet as the actual stickers weren't quite the shape I was going for so I cut around them and used the excess instead.

This is the spread that the swirl glitter paper came from that I used on yesterday's wedding card. The dotted gold paper was also from that same paper pack from Target. I totally cheated to stretch the paper but gluing down my photo collage on the first page and then cutting squares of paper to fit behind and make up a square shape with actually cutting a large square from the paper. I love to do things like this to stretch my supplies, especially when I only have one sheet of something I like. I am trying to get away from just using the fancy papers as backgrounds.

Iused my trusty Dymo label maker for the small subtitles on the first page. The final embellishments were some white feathers that I bought forever ago at JoAnn's thinking I might use them in my wedding centerpieces. I thought they complemented nicely the feathers that my goofy husband put in his shirt collar.

That's it! It took me a few days to finish this spread as I kept it out on my craft desk and kept rearranging the elements until I thought they worked. I actually finished it over the weekend, not last night but we were at my SIL's rehearsal dinner last night so no craftiness for me. One very cool things is that her future MIL made baseball hats for everyone at the dinner and used the monogram/logo that I designed for them. I will have to take a pic and post.

Tomorrow is the wedding and my parents are coming to town so I probably won't be back until Sunday the earliest.

Wedding Card

The wedding card I promised. This look me FOREVER to put together for some reason. I just couldn't get started on it. I knew I wanted to use the monogram in the center (that I designed for them and they used on the invitations, menus, programs, etc.) and the piece of goldish cardstock that my SIL left at my house when she was here folding the covers of the programs. I also had some gold patterned paper lying around that I used on a scrapbook page a few days ago (hey, I should post that!) And their secondary color is pink.


I used a cream card like I used for their shower card. Which I actually think came out better than the wedding card, but oh well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to scan that before I gave it to them so will have to ask for it back one of these days since the photo I took of it is awful.

I cut the goldish cardstock .25 inches shorter on both sides than the 5 by 7 card I made from cream cardstock. I cut the swirl patterned paper (from Target! Love the $ spot) .25 inches smaller than that. I ran both pieces through my Xyron 900, layered them and then wrapped wide gold ribbon (leftover from wrapping the bouquet stems from my own wedding) around it lengthwise and attached to the card.

I cut a piece of pink paper from my scrap folder into a 3.5 inch square and rubbed it with a Frost VersaMark pad (new purchase from Joann.com) to make it shimmery. I cut a piece of the gold cardstock .25 inches smaller and rounded the corners. I ran both pieces through my Xyron and attached to the upper center of the card.

I printed the monogram on the same cream paper as I made the card with. I punched it with my Marvy scallop circle punch and attached it with foam squares (love those!). I painted a grungeboard heart (new purchase from AC Moore) with pink Making Memories paint and let it dry. Then I painted it with Aleene's tacky glue and dumped Martha Stewart's white glitter on it (on clearance at AC Moore recently). I'm finding that this method of glittering chipboard works really well for me, although I'm open to other suggestions.

I attached the glittered heart with glue dots. I adhered the chipboard sticker (Marcella, I believe. 99 cents for a whole sheet of glittered chipboard wedding stickers. From a lucky jaunt to a discount store in NJ.) Then I cut off three separate strips of pearls and attached them over the ribbon and then stuck a larger pearl in each corner of the pink mat. The pearls I think are from Michaels.

I didn't intend this to be a budget project but it certainly worked out that way! Which is a good thing since it will be accompanied by a check...

A Digital Layout

OK I promised a crafty project in my next post so here you go. This is a digital scrapbook page I finished a few days ago. I am absolutely terrible at keeping track of the digital elements that I used so I apologize. I guess I'll have to get better if I'm going to post my work. If you believe I've used one of your elements, please let me know and I will be happy to give you credit for it.

This picture is actually an old one, from 2006, when my grandmother was still alive. It was taken at my niece's 6th birthday party but that's not the story I wanted to tell. I will do another spread about the party, but here I wanted to focus on the relationship between my mom and her mom. I am trying to move toward including this type of scrapbooking, with layouts focusing on relationships and memories, versus the primarily event-based pages that I usually do. I am starting to see this hobby through the eyes of my future children and thinking about what would be meaningful for them.

Anyway, as you can see I scrap 8 1/2 by 11. I generally scrap chronologically. I use Photoshop CS3 for my digital pages. I mix together traditional, digital and hybrid in the same album. Although I suppose the majority of my pages would be considered hybrid since I just about always print my photos digitally at home even when doing a traditional paper page. And when I create a digital page I usually print it out in pieces and glue it together since my printer can't print borderless 8 1/2 by 11. This one I will print out the area on the white mat and mount it on brown cardstock and then print the flower separately, cut it out and attach with foam tape (which I am loving lately!) Many would say it defeat the purpose of digital but it works for me. Plus I really love the cutting and pasting aspect of scrapbooking.

There's nothing terribly unique about this page so it's odd that I started with it. More of just a timing issue I suppose. Although for me the one photo page is unusual. I am usually a multi-photo kind of girl. I do like the freedom the one photo gives you to embellish. I am loving the swirl brushes!

Also the digitally inked edges -- can't get enough of layer styles! I made the inked edge on the diamond paper by adding an inner glow- layer effect using Hard Light blending mode. Opacity 100, Noise 51 (nice round number?). Softer technique, edge, 5% choke, 10 pixel size. The default contour with 42% range and 65% jitter. Saved it as a style so I can reapply it in the future. Just changing the color really changes the effect.

In other news, we are preparing for my husband's sister's wedding this weekend. Tomorrow (or soon...) a peak at her wedding card!

Why?

So, why the blog? I suppose that's what everyone's first post is about. The pontification, the reasoning, the justification. Excuses about "jumping on the bandwagon," especially now that blogs seem to be becoming passe and it's all about the Tweet. Which I still do not understand, but Twitter will have to be another post for another day.

I am listening to Candace Bushnell's book-on-CD, "One Fifth Avenue," which I'm not sure I'm loving but I don't exactly relate to rich middle-aged New Yorkers (yet?). Nevertheless, snippets of it have really resounded with me. One of the characters decides to start a blog, which she originally dismissed as being too common because anyone could do it and did. She then rationalizes it by saying that is has become one of the new obligations, like having children, for smart people to make an effort to get some sensible opinions out there.

Interesting. Of course this foreshadows all kinds of disaster that will surely befall her from writing the wrong thing about the wrong person on her blog. I am hoping my road will be a little bit smoother. And I am not calling my blog, "The Joys of Not Having It All" so I am thinking the content will be a lot less controversial. I'm also not really sure I have sensible opinions that mean much to anyone but paper crafters, and really right now if I were picking a social obligation I would prefer to have children, but we'll see how all this goes.

I am here because I see that blogs can easily combine a number of my passions -- writing; design; Photoshop; scrapbooking of the traditional, digital and hybrid varieties; card-making and other activities crafty. What an amazing way to bring all of these things together and, much like a scrapbook, document my creative journey.

I also knit, crochet, cross-stitch, make beaded jewelry, dabble in polymer clay, read, cook and play tennis when I've got a partner, some of which may or may not make their way into my posts. I have a lot of hobbies, which is why I'm not totally convinced that I have time for another. Not that I'm sure that blogging is actually considered a hobby, but it's just one more thing to take up chunks of precious time that I choose to devote to my creative pursuits.

Professionally, I also do a lot of writing and design work. I manage a Web site. I sit in front of a computer most of the day. I hate for my avocations to feel too much like my vocation. As soon as this feels like work, I'm done. Fair warning, right?

I did really enjoy creating and updating my wedding Web site when I got married last year. It was fun to be able to write freely for others and not worry that the PC police were coming to take me away. Several people commented that I should start a blog. I have no idea who because stupid me forgot to copy our guest book entries before our site expired so now they're gone forever. Yeah, especially embarrassing for a scrapbooker.

So, what if no one reads this but myself? I think I am okay with that. My professional work is read by thousands, although I often feel that no one really notices whose name is listed as Managing Editor. My personal writings can be just for me if that's what they end up being.

Of course I suppose if I didn't want to share at all I would make this private. But I have gotten so many ideas from other people's blogs in the craft world (yes I will add a blogroll when I figure out how) and I thought maybe I could give a little something back. My creations are not always innovative. I often don't know what products I've used to make them (bad habit). But maybe they can inspire someone else in some way. Not to justify why I'm here or anything...

Next post, I promise, a picture of something crafty and an explanation of the blog name. I have been working on a number of projects lately but I am going to guess I need a Picassa account or something to post photos. Nothing like just jumping in before you really have a clue what you're doing. But if we always waited until we did know, would we ever do anything?