Finishing 2010

Sheesh. I finally got to finishing the last two layouts for my kids scrap calendars. I just wasn’t feeling motivated to get them done. But I finally found the energy. Part of the problem was that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with the photos for my son’s layout. Then I saw the current sketch over at Sketch Inspiration and thought that it could work. And while I was working on my son’s layout I decided to just go for it and finish my daughters. I kept everything really simple so I could just get it done. It feels good to finally get those all wrapped up!

Challenge Card

One more post for you this weekend. I am still going strong with creating for challenges. This one comes from two challenges:

the Moxi Fab World Tuesday Trigger about comfy cozy. I used the fabric & colors from this image.
The Paper Variety sketch for this week. I used the general layout and theme from this sketch.

So here you go…

Recipe:
cardstock, twill tape, punch, ink: Stampin’ Up
stamp: Technique Tuesday
buttons: Buttons Galore
pattern paper: stash

Showing off

I’m gonna show off in this post. This layout is all about how I made my own wedding dress.

I learned to sew in high school and took to it right away. I made several clothing items and at the end of the year I made my prom dress. Years later when I was getting married, I decided to make my own wedding dress. It was a wonderful experience. I really had a lot of fun doing it (despite the fact that my sewing machine died right in the middle of things!).

I’ve been married for almost 17 years and these are the first photos from the wedding that I have scrapped. All my photos are tucked into a photo album since those pictures were taking in my pre-scrapper life. Someday I will get to scrapping a few more of them. But for now I was feeling motivated to scrap something I feel very proud of.

Recipe:
pattern paper: Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon
vellum: Stampin’ Up
alpha: Jenni Bowlin, October Afternoon
punch: Fiskars
paper tape: 7 gypsies
stamp: Technique Tuesday
bling: Want2Scrap
markers: Marvy
paint: Delta
inks: Ranger, StazOn

This layout was inspired by two things. First I used a sketch from Sketch Inspiration and I also played with “get darling with decorative tape challenge” on Moxi Fab World. I took the large background heart from the sketch and worked it with decorative tape. I also recolored the same decorative tape with alcohol ink and made some flowers. I’ve been using more and more tape on my layouts and I am really loving it.

Birthday Snow

We haven’t had more than a dust of snow this winter, which has been a big disappointment. We always look forward to at least one nice blanket of snow each year. So when we woke up this morning, on my daughter’s ninth birthday, to find a fluff of snow we were all happily surprised. Birthday snow! It isn’t a blanket but it sure is better than the whole-lot-of-nothing we’ve had this winter! And it made a great photo op.

Blog Spotlight!

I just got word that one of my projects was featured on the Club Creating Keepsakes blog! The specific post is available here. And what did I get spotlighted for, you ask? Well this Valentine’s Day project that I hadn’t posted here to my blog yet. Good excuse to get it posted.

Recipe:
cardstock, felt heart, chipboard bird, brads: stash
pattern papers: Basic Gray (bird), DaisyD’s (background)
alpha: October Afternoon
runbon: Hambly Screen Prints (“Valentine” word)

Cupcake saga continues

My latest challenge from The Paper Variety was to make something involving a cupcake. Oh how perfect since I’ve spent the last two weeks in cupcake land. Well I couldn’t just submit the cupcakes that I already made. That wouldn’t be in the spirit of a crafty challenge. I had to figure out how to incorporate those cupcakes. I decided to make a cake plate out of paper to display my cupcakes in my scrap room. I’ve been decorating my scrap room in a “Creative Cafe” theme and these little delights will be displayed to spruce up my space. What better way to present paper cupcakes, than with a paper cake plate? So here it is…

I used my Gypsy & Cricut to design and cut the stand. If you really want all the complicated details read more below. The stand was a little off from what I had envisioned. If I feel up to it, I will enlarge the circle plate at the top to make it more in proportion to the size of the stand. Other than that, it was a fun project and a neat way to decorate my space.

Recipe:
I took the letter L from a font (can’t remember which one). I flipped it horizontally and welded the L and the upside down L together. Then I flipped this vertically and welded then together again for form half of the stand. I cut two stands–each was 4 layers of heavy cardstock glued together that all fit on one sheet of cardstock. I sliced a slit in each stand about half way down and then slid them together. I don’t know if any of that made sense. I really should have taken photos for a better description.

New Video

Hey everyone. I’m happy to report that I finally got to making my second video. I was waiting for a data cable to arrive in the mail so I could switch to using my regular video camera instead of the video feature on my still camera. I was hoping the quality would be better. It is a little better but I am still having some trouble with the auto-focus. I’m going to have to play with it some more.

So here is my fun video presenting how I made these sweet cupcakes from a previous post.

Anti-trendy?

I usually go through this gut reaction to the latest trends. I get annoyed and then bored of seeing project after project with the latest trend. Then something clicks inside me and I give in. I go for it. I use that almost-cliche trend on a page. Well it is that time again for me. That click happened and I used that trend. This time it is banners.

First I did this card several posts ago.

And now… (notice I’m a krafty kinda gal?)

Recipe:
cardstock: The Paper Company
pattern papers: Stampin’ Up, Scenic Route, stash
stamp: Technique Tuesday
ink, punch: Stampin’ Up
pen: Ranger
buttons: Buttons Galore
ribbon: Cream City Ribbon
paper tape: 7 gypsies

Did you see those little ribbon curls through the buttons. I had this fabulous ribbon in my stash from a few years ago. I really loved it back then but for some reason it went missing in my stash and has been hiding. When I made this party page I knew I wanted some curled ribbon in there. And it dawned on me that I had this ribbon in my stash. Bingo! Oh this ribbon is so fabulous. It was originally provided by a company called Little Black Dress Designs. I’ve been looking for them but can’t seem to find them anymore. Must have disappeared in the economy bubble. The lucky thing is that I noticed on the packaging that the ribbon is produced by Cream City Ribbon.

The world is a small small place. Let me explain. In my quest to find wonderful scrappy products made in the USA (an obsession of mine) I found Cream City Ribbon. I book marked it in my favorites right away. And then I notice that this cool ribbon from my stash was made by the very same company I had found only weeks ago! Sweet! The cool things about their ribbon is that

it is made in the USA
it is made with cotton responsibly grown and dyed
it is individual threads that are adhered together so you can strip it, fray it and more
it is stiff so you can print on it, fold it, curl it and more

It is just fabulous stuff. I mean just look at these colors and projects

Go get yourselves some Cream City Ribbon and cook up some crafty soup!

Cameo Challenge

The Moxie Fab World blog is having a cameo challenge. There are some really gorgeous examples of cameos over there so you really should go check them out. The challenge was to “create a paper crafted project (card, gift bag, tag, layout, home decor item, mini-book cover, etc.) that incorporates a cameo/cameos in an innovative way.” I had a couple of different ideas for this but decided on this idea here…

Recipe
cardstock: Stampin’ Up (Kraft), Wausau (white)
die cut: Cricut (Heritage cart)
ribbon: Offray
spray mist: Tattered Angels (used to dye white ribbon pink)
computer: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, font (Bell Gothic Std)

It is funny that cameos are hot right now. I thought they were pretty cool when I made this card last June…

Why don’t you go cook up some crafty cameo creations!

Valentine’s Day goodies

My kids’ homeschool group will be having a Valentine’s Day party next week so I thought we should get to work on their “cards.” Most years we (I!) really do just make cards. But this year I wanted to do something that would be a little less time consuming. I was inspired by three things this time around.

Paper Crafts Magazine did an article about making photo Valentine’s and I though that would be a great time saver to just print multiple copies, trim and go. And I’d save even more time since I wouldn’t have to sit down with three kids and get them to write their names on each of 30-40 cards. It is obvious who the card is from by the photo! Whew. Big time saver!
Creating Keepsakes Magazine did an article a while back on using the white space in photos to journal on. I had my kids purposefully create me some white space to write our Valentines day message. I just cut the largest heart I could with the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge on my Cricut and had them hold it while I took their pictures.
Finally, The Paper Variety gave us this little photo to draw inspiration from.

So using all those inspiration pieces I came up with the above goody bags. I photographed each child holding up the heart and cropped the photo to 4×3 so I could fit two up on a 4×6 print. I then overlayed the heart with our message in a font called Plastique. I then cut some brackets on my Cricut (Blackletter cart) and ahered to the photo. Then the photo is placed on a topper card that is cut to 4.25 x 5.5 and folded in half. The photo extends above the topper card but I like it that way.

Enjoy!