Another scrapbook page and a scrappy challenge!

I finally finished another scrapbook page! This is Jack almost 2 years ago grabbing eggs for an Easter egg hunt by our grocery store.

I did this page as a challenge for AllyScraps. I joined this website as a way for me to get back into scrapbooking. They have challenges all the time, and this is perfect for me!

This challenge was to use die cut alphabets for the title, although when I told the challenge hostess that I don't own a die cutting machine, gasp!, she said I could use stamps! Woo hoo! So, after 3 tries to get the right look that I wanted, I came up with the little chicks. It's Eastery so whatever! The other part of the challenge was when using die cuts, we had to put die cut shapes on our page as well. So, I incorporated the eggshells which are ovals from Nestabilities, and the chicks are circles and then I used a 1" circle punch from SU! for the head. I used the small star punch from SU! and then cut the points to make the beaks.

I ran the circles both bodies and heads through my Zyron and then adhered white Fun Flock over them to make them fuzzy like baby chicks are. I adhered everything together with Crystal Effects. I popped them up on the page with pop up circles.

The colors: Sage Shadow, Barely Banana, Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal. And I have no idea where I got my 12 x 12 paper. It just appeared in my collection! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Scrapping! :D

Redo!

Here's the redo with the coconuts. HELLO! How could I miss that!

And to tie it all together, how about a picture of the "inspiration" room:
http://www.burlingtoncoatfactory.com/IWCatSectionAndProductView.process?Section_Id=44858

Happy Stamping!!!

It's a Jungle Out There!

This frame was made for a friend of ours who are expecting a little baby boy in February! The nursery theme is Jungle, so I thought I would make a different type of frame to match the decor. The usual frames I make are traditional blues and silvers for boys. I think I like this one the best! Haha! To really make it a baby frame, I added a rattle charm and pacifier charm and attached them to the monkeys. I had to draw the palm trees because I don't have anything that would fit. Everything I have is too small. I used my white pen to add a little detail on the trees. I just remembered that I forgot to add coconuts to the tops of the trees! Ooops! I'll have to add them later!

Thanks for stopping by!
Make something different than a card today!
Happy Stamping!!!

General cards

I have started a new set of cards for a friend for a very belated Christmas gift! I already made her a set of teacher cards. So, these will be fresh and fun to use for non teacher things!

This first card uses last year's Scrap Pack Hostess Level 1 item. The roses are from Kitchen
Sink Stamps. The sentiment is from Fancy Flexible Phrases.

This next card is one of my favorites! This is the first time that I have actually used one of my cupcake stamps that I purchased last year at a local art store. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color the cupcake in. I put Crystal Effects over it and then lightly sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds over it to mimic the cupcakes in the background paper. The diamonds in the back are also to mimick the design in the paper. To add a little sparkle, I also put Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds on the brads in the corners.

This last card was also made using the prints pack. I used half pearls from the Pretties Kit by SU!. The hydrangea and pot are from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I had not been using this set very often, so I thought I would pull it out. I'm quite satisfied at the outcome. What do you think???


Happy Stamping!!!

Starbucks clipboard

For those of you who don't know me very well, I work at Starbucks part time. My husband works there as well part time for some extra money. He's a teacher by day, and a barista by night! I stay at home all day, and work on the weekends as a Barista. The store manager that hired both of us is leaving our store to go to a closer store to her home. My husband wanted me to make her something special. This past spring, I made her wedding favors. The eggplant and saffron 2-5-7-10 boxes. So, we decided that I would make her a clipboard to help keep her organized. This is what I created.

Happy Stamping!

Go to your local Starbucks today and enjoy a fresh cup of coffee!

Stamping for a Cause

This card was made for a challenge on Jen del Muro's blog found here. I didn't do this challenge to win the prize (worth $450.00), but because I felt like donating a card! I was already hooked on the color scheme, so I just went with it. Also, to challenge myself, I wanted to see what other creation I could make using this color scheme. What do you think?

If you would like to make a card and send it, click on the link above for all the details. You have until Jan. 31st at midnight.

Happy Stamping!!!

Ways to Use It Challenge!

Today I decided to do a challenge. I look at them daily and I end up not doing them. But today's challenge caught my eye. We had to use a color combo from a website that we frequent for color inspiration. I get weekly color combos from Kristina Werner's blog, but no where else. So, Julia, the hostess of the challenge, uses Kuler as a guide. And let me tell you, you won't go wrong going to this site! I chose Zen and Tea combo. So, to me, the colors translated to SU! colors are: Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Mellow Moss, Not Quite Navy or Night of Navy, and Sage Shadow or Going Gray. I used Not Quite Navy and Sage Shadow. I thought these colors went well with Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss and Whisper White!

The stamp set is Artfully Asian. When I picked the color combo, I knew that I wanted a calm stamp, and I feel like I achieved that with Artfully Asian. I'm so glad I bought that set! I love it! The bottom layer that has the sentiment was cut with decorative scallop scissors, and then I used a 1/8" hole punch. The rest of the circles was done using Classic Large Circle nestabilities. I sponged the edges with Not Quite Navy. The white ink is White Craft and I just let it dry. I didn't emboss it. The paper piercing was done using a circle template. I needed to add some more elements besides paper, so in came the buttons! I used two different buttons, and since I couldn't find a large white button, I took a jumbo brad and painted it white. Serves the same purpose!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!!!

Christmas Thank You's

Let me start off by saying that I am really bad about thank you cards. I start out making them, and then never finish them. Or, they get made, even the message is written inside, and then they never get mailed. I really don't know what my hang up is with thank you cards! Those and Sympathy cards. I can't do those either. I never know what to say in sympathy cards. It's not really like you can say you know what it's like, or know what that person is feeling.

Anyway, off track! So, I decided to make some thank you notes for my friends and family. I still have a few more to make, as I forgot some people. Not surprising, given that our holiday was absolutely CRAZY!

So, this evening I started thinking about the design. What stamp set would I use? What could I add to it to make it a card, and make it good. I grabbed the Bubble Cuttlebug folder and Lovely As A Tree stamp, along with my Many Thanks. I think that's actually the most used stamp I have. I keep it in front of me on my desk at all times. And after looking at the white paper, I decided to make it stand vertically instead of horizontall. I also used some Shimmerz from My Favorite Things on the snow to make it shimmery. This bottle, along with two others, came from my friend Karolyn! If you would like to be truly inspired, go to her website! Scroll down on my blog until you get to her name, Karolyn Loncon and take a peek! Cute, cute stuff!!!!

All right, I'm falling asleep!

Good night everyone!

Dream about stamps! Hopefully I will too!

February Swap cards!

Well it's time for another swap for my swap group! This time the theme is Valentine's Day! I made it easy on them too! The requirements are as follows: 1. Use hearts however you wish; 2. Use background paper or make a backround with stamps; 3. Use 2 or more layers; and 4. Use metal on your card.

So, I decided to switch things up a bit and make a Triangle Tri-fold card. Tutorial found here. I always have to be different. And I'm tired of making A2 cards. I needed to do something different from the norm!

I used Regal Rose for the base c/s. The lined designer paper was found at a scrapbook store in Greensburg. And it came in a pack and I have no idea who the designer is. Sorry! I sponged Wild Wasabi on the edges of the heart on the outside. I used Wild Wasabi ribbon, because that was the closest I could get to the color green on the designer paper. And plus it had dashes on the paper and the stitching on the ribbon is kind of like dashes. I used heart brads for my metal. I almost forgot that little detail! Oops! The rose and sentiment on the inside are from Hearts and Roses from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I used Regal Rose to stamp on the inside and sponge around. I paper pierced the edge to give a little more detail.

Happy Stamping!!!

Scrapbook Pages!

Well, I have been stamping for quite a few years now and have grown as a stamper. I actually started scrapbooking before I dove into the stamping world. Once I figured out that it took far less time to make a card than to make a scrapbook page, I scrapped the scrapbooking, literally, and went into all out cards.

I am trying to get back into scrapbooking, to make an outstanding page for a design team submission, and also to get rid of the pictures that have been sitting by my desk for ages and ages! Well, 4 years at least! The thing that scares me the most is the fact that I have 4 years to chronicle, and that is looming over me like a dark cloud. But, if I can just pick and choose what I want to work on, then it's so much easier to whip up a page and be done with it. And there's no pressure! So, that's what I'm going to do! And maybe by the time my last one is in college, I'll be right on schedule again! Maybe!

Anyway, so, here are a few pages that I worked on the last two days.

This was my first page that I created. I was looking through our pictures when we spent the day in DC. I was struck by how awesome these pictures of Jack are, all by himself. Olivia was still too little to walk around with him, as he's 2 and she was just born! I used my nestabilities for the ovals and scallop ovals. I used liquid pearls for the splashes from picture to picture.

This page is just awesome! When Olivia was little, like last year!, she was in love with her hula skirt. She was ALWAYS wearing it! No matter what clothes she had on, the hula skirt went on over them! As I was looking through my pictures, I found that I had quite a few of her in different hula outfits. What a cool page to do for all the different outfits! Since I didn't leave any room for journaling, I thought I would put it behind and have a pull out page. The hula skirt was cut with my paper cutter. Then I inked it up with my Versamark pad and then heated Heat and Stick powder. Then I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds over it to make it shine.

I truly love these two pages. This is my true scrapping style. It only took two other pages (above) for it to come out! I drew the pumpkins for the wagon title, made the wagons out of paper, and the tires are actually the smallest circle nestibilities (I never spell this right!) with brads for the metal rims. I also drew the pumpkins in the top page under Olivia's picture, and the pumpkin that I journaled on. The leaves are from Fall Whimsy (SU!).

And that's it so far!

Happy Scrapping!

The finishing touch!

Since I was unhappy with the dry erase frame, I decided to make a set of cards for my son's teacher to add to the Christmas gift. I stuck with the apple theme, and made these simple cards. I am really liking Sahara Sand right now, so I pulled that out, and two different nestabilities squares and did a little dry embossing. If you put two of them together, nested, on the cuttlebug, and run it through, you get this look! Cool! I actually put them upside down, because I didn't want that ridge where it would normally cut, to show through. Much nicer and cleaner look. I figured this out by trial and error. The apple and sayings are from School Days from Kitchen Sink Stamps. If you don't know anything about these stamps, they are wonderful to use. They are layered stamps. Kind of like Stampin' Up!'s 3 step stamping. But, the way these stamps are created, it's almost like they took an image and ran it through an MRI machine and cut each layer. That's the best way to describe these stamps. Just for this apple, there were 4 different stamps to make up the apple, and two for the leaf. They are clear, so it's easy to see where the last layer was to be able to line up your next layer.

The colors that I used for the apple are (in order of layers): Blush Blossom, Ruby Red, Ridinghood Red, and Red Brick by Memento. The leaf is Old Olive, both layers. The sentiment was also stamped in Old Olive to continue the theme.

Happy Stamping!!!

I received this Scrabble frame as a Christmas gift from the family who I babysit for. The mother had asked me several months ago to give her a list of "favorites" and things about our family. Of course, living in a cloud, I had no idea what she was doing! Needless to say, I was very surprised when I opened this! This is such a wonderful personalized gift! She used an actual playing board and used Sticky Strip to adhere all the letters. I can't believe that she found a frame that's just the right size!

So, here's another idea, if you have the time for it, for a gift for someone special!

Have a great day!

A late Christmas gift

I subscribe to several blogs and every day there is new inspiration waiting for me when I open my email! How exciting! What a way to start the day! One of the blogs that I subscribe to is Jill Hilliard's, who is a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. One day she decorated a frame and used it as a wipe board, like a dry erase board. What a great idea, I thought! She got the idea from Valerie Stangle (no link because the post for her wipe board is buried! I think she's one of those once a day posters! LOL!) If you would like to see her stuff anyway, her blog is: http://www.valeriestangle.blogspot.com/. She has some fabulous stuff on there!

Anyway, so I had the idea for a wipe board since I saw these posts, and thought what a great Christmas gift this would make for someone! Well, I decided that I would make one for my son's teacher this year. He's in pre-school, so it's not a huge deal, but he goes 3 days a week, so I wanted to make her something special.

This frame is super simple. I'm actually not in love with it, as I bought the thing at Wal-Mart. I really wish I could have made it to Michael's but I'm currently staying away from all craft retailers until I use up what I have first! And we all got sick, so I just never made it over there. Anyway, the paper inside is actually 12x12 and are two separate pieces of paper. The ruler is twill ribbon adhered w/ sticky strip. And the apple in the top corner is from School Days by Kitchen Sink Stamps. I scoured online for a "good apple" to copy, because if you don't use the right color combo, you might as well throw your stamped image away. But, since the design team for Kitchen Sink Stamps mainly uses Memento Ink, and I only just recently started to collect that ink, I had to use what I had, so it's all Stampin' Up! colors. I think it turned out pretty good though! That's about the only thing I like about this. I just might make her a set of cards to go with it, because I'm seriously not liking this. But, all you need to include (if you're making a gift), is to include a set of dry erase markers that you can get at Wal-Mart as well. And you're set!

But, at least you get the idea for the wipe board, and you can make your own! It's very simple, get a frame from anywhere but CHEAPO Wal-Mart and decorate away!

Happy Stamping!

Christmas Gifts 2008

I finally had some time to get into my craft room and create! YEAY! I've been really missing my desk and all my stuff! But, when your whole family gets the flu and Christmas comes around, there's not much time to sit and play! Our family exchanges gifts with some of our extended family on New Years Day because it's less chaotic and my parents always have a New Years Day party at their house, so it's an extra day to look forward to!

Every year I try to make things for my cousins and aunt because I know that they really like my stuff. At least, that's what they tell me! Haha! So, last year they got a set of Christmas cards and coasters, and a block with pictures. I will NEVER make those blocks again! There's a reason why photos should NOT be bent! Anyway, this year is no different. I had to create something cool that they could use, because they are all busy and need something that's efficient and useful. Not that a set of cards isn't, but I wanted to do something different. So, I had my mom drink the rest of her Starbucks Frappucino's and save me the bottles. I still have a few to finish up, but here are a couple that I made. I received the gingerbread man as a gift from Virtual Stamp Night. I LOVE this little guy! He's just SO cute! I tried to make the bottles completely different. That's hard when it's 1am on New Year's Eve!!!!

For the jars of candy, the paper is all from The Christmas Stack from a few years ago. I used an oval nestibility for the middle and a circle nestibility for the lid and then cut to size. The pink tree is from Lovely As A Tree by SU!. On that jar, I stamped some snowflakes with versamark and then clear ep. and then embossed. I painted that ArmorEtch all over it and let it dry. I think I shoudl have put another layer on top. Oh well! The sparkly red on the gingerbread men is red stickles. The snowflake and some of the rhinestones on the blue jar are also from My Favorite Things. It was a special that they were having and I knew that I would use those snowflakes! They are perfect for this!!!!

And then my last gift is a clipboard for my cousin who's little girl is in school. This will be a storage place for all of her important papers for school. I wrote with a Inkssentials Opaque white pen the alphabet and numbers along the edge. To get it black, I sponged StazOn Black ink all along the edges. The pen and the sparkly ribbon are from My Favorite Things. I'm sure you could find them elsewhere, but that's where I got my stuff. The ribbon is from Scrapbook Station. I'll show you the real reason why I bought that particular ribbon in a later post. I have to finish that project this weekend. The paper is from the 8x8 Grade School stack by DCWV. And I have no idea where the rhinestones came from. I received those as a gift from VSN, so the wrapper is long gone, and I have no idea who makes them or where they were purchased. I adhered the paper with Craft Bond Spray Adhesive. I find that this works better than decoupage. It's cleaner, it's not as time consuming, and did I say it's cleaner?! I just love this, and will never use decoupage again! Talk about freakin' messy! And streaky! UGH! I adhered the ribbon by running it through my mini xyron. Instant sticker! And that's it!

Ok, that's it! I have to go bake now for my parents party! Blue Cheese stuffed mushrooms and sausage cheese balls! YUM!
Have a wonderful New Year! I hope you all have a happy, healthy and wonderful 2009!