My Brother

This layout is about my brother Steve. The journaling says: Steve is shy around most people, but we all know his goofy side. He is a simple man with a big heart. I am proud that he is my brother!

The papers, title and journaling card are all from the Bohemia collection by My Minds Eye. The extras I used are some woven ribbon, Bordering Blue cardstock, white craft pad, pewter brads, ticket corner punch and photo corner punch. I also inked the edges of the cardstock, journaling card and title with a sponge dauber and Bordering Blue ink.

TIP---One thing I tried and was thrilled with was inking the edges of the three smaller photos with white craft ink. I wanted to emphasize the edges of the photos, but didn't want to add any more layers of cardstock under them. This trick was perfect for defining those edges! Just one more reason to love my white craft pad!

After I did this page, I realized I had never really done a page about just Steve. He doesn't really like his picture taken as you can tell by the hand over his face in the larger photo. Either that or he's making a goofy face and ruins the whole shot! LOL He's my sweet, funny brother!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to share more layouts and tips this week....in between preparing my tax info(yes, I know.....it's almost April! LOL), watching American Idol (woot woot to David Cook!) and recovering from long days at work. Once I sat down to post this, I realized how tired I was tonight!

Hope you have a blessed week!

Whew! What a week!

I haven't posted in six days! I have had a busy week with work, organizing my craft supplies, watching American Idol (go David Cook!!), cooking, cleaning, paying bills, etc. I got to have another wonderful scrapbooking marathon with Mom and Tammy on Saturday. This week I will post some of my creations and get back in blog mode. Thanks for stopping by!

Time to Organize!

Ok, I officially have spring fever....spring cleaning fever that is...LOL I am totally revamping and reorganizing my craft area. I am touching every piece of paper, every embellishment and all my stamping/scrapbooking supplies. I'm preparing for a sale of the items I no longer use, want or need. I am truly drowning in stuff!!!! It's time to organize!

Mom, Tammy and I are getting together again on Saturday for an all-day crop here. I should have more stuff to share after that! Have a good week! Thanks for stopping by.

Julie & Brooke

I did this layout last weekend at a crop. These are my nieces Julie and Brooke. I layered the scalloped paper over a sheet of SU! Chocolate Chip. First, I inked the edges with my little chalk ink pad. The flowers are a rub-on from the set I got free during Sale-a-Bration. I just added photos, a Heidi Swapp bling frame, some ribbons, eyelets and felt letter stickers. I punched the holes for the knotted ribbon pieces and set the eyelets with my Crop-a-Dile Big Bite. That thing is awesome for punching holes and setting eyelets anywhere on your page.

Although it is officially Spring, we got some snow today in Ohio. I just turned up the furnace and am heading downstairs to organize (reorganize) things in my craft area. OH ,and I guess I should tackle some laundry, too. Brrr...hope everyone is keeping warm. Thanks for stopping by!

My Kevin

Here's a page about Kevin that I did on Saturday. I had sorted all the supplies months ago, but finally did the page. The background paper says "You Color My World". I still have to journal on the little pull-out tag. This picture was taken at Christmas 2006. I love his orange shirt. He sort of has the "are you done taking pictures yet" look. LOL Below is a close-up of the journaling pocket.

Hope everyone is having a good week. Thanks for stopping by!

Charles & Grandee

I did this layout about my nephew Charles and my mom Stephanie (aka Grandee) at a crop yesterday. My nephew's mom passed away a few years ago, so the women in our family try to give him the nuturing he so desperately needs now that his mom is gone. I coordinated products from Stampin' Up!, SEI, Creative Memories, American Crafts, Bazzill and more to complete the layout. I was inspired by the soft colors in my mom's striped shirt.

This is a close-up of the felt letter stickers and the layered shapes. I used my SU! punches for the square and circle shapes. I rounded the corners of the squares with my CM corner rounder. The edges are inked with SU! white craft ink.

This is a close up of the SU! chipboard heart. It is covered with the back side of the striped SEI paper(I love double-sided papers!). I used a sanding block on the edges. I then layered the punch-outs and another sticker. I want Charles to always remember he is so very loved!

I have two more layouts to share from the crop so check back later this week for those. Thanks for stopping by!

Cookie Monster!

A cookie monster (or two) has invaded our house! This is a treat after a hard work week....a cookie sampler plate! You gotta try all the kinds, you know. *wink* Kevin had his fresh coffee and I had my glass of skim milk. (Does drinking skim milk help negate the calories of those yummy cookies?! LOL) These little yummies only come once a year and today was our day to indulge. Hmmm...wonder how long these five boxes will last with TWO cookie monsters in the house? Just one of the little things in life that makes us smile. My favs are the Samoas and Trefoils. Kevin was just rolling his eyes at the fact that I wanted to take a pic of our crazy indulgence. He should know by now that his blogging/stampin'/scrappin' wife takes pics of EVERYTHING! LOL

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I am heading to a 12-hour crop tomorrow and have to go pack my goodies now. I will have super duper sugar energy to do so! LOL *wipes cookie crumbs off mouth* Uh, could someone pass the Rolaids? LOL

Scrapbook Layouts

This 7x7 page will go in Macy's doggie scrapbook. Yes, I scrapbook about my dog. After all, she is my "baby", you know. LOL Her birthday is this Saturday the 15th...she'll be 6 already! Time flies! She is such a girly girl pooch so this page will suit her well. The Apricot Appeal cardstock looks mustard, but it's really a yummy sherbet color. I created some glittery page accents by first coloring my chipboard M with white craft ink, then using Stickles once the ink dried (I speed the process with my heat tool). The flower center is a silver ribbon slide to which I also added Stickles for some sparkle. Lastly, the large flower petals got some bling and I layered the ribbons across the bottom and through the flower center. A girl's gotta have bling!

These last two photos are of a wedding layout I created and framed for my aunt and uncle. They were married in November of 2000, just a month after Kevin and I. My mom is going to Arkansas tomorrow and will deliver it to them. I've had the pictures on my craft table for months (shame on me!) and finally completed it Sunday. When I originally started creating this layout, I naturally started gathering "white" and "ivory" embellishments. Then, I decided to root through my paper stash, ribbon, tags, flowers, etc. and ended up with this warm, yet elegant layout. I was pleased. The second picture is a close-up of the details. I love those self-stick pearls for the flower centers!

I have to say...God is good! I give Him all the glory for my creativity and ideas. He just uses me in the process. I am blessed that He allows me to create!

Glittery Neopolitan!

With over a foot of snow this weekend, I was forced (LOL!) to stay indoors and stamp. I actually stayed up 'til 5am. I like to do that every now and then, especially since I am a night owl. Our pastor called to say church was cancelled due to the weather, so I thought "why not".
I slept in today and ended up in my craft area again. Anyway...these cards I'm posting today were all made with pieces of a 12x12 sheet of polka dot paper by Close to My Heart and a piece of glittered 8x8 paper from my Glitter Stack. I accented with Stampin' Up! colors: Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose and Pretty In Pink. I challenged myself to use supplies, paper and stamps that hadn't been touched in a while. I had fun. Hope you like what I've shared!

This card is made with the stamp set How Swell! by The Angel Company. It is hands down my favorite pregnancy set. I just love this girl's hat and her cute round belly. This set is only $11.95. You can't beat that! Their stamps are blue rubber on a cling foam. They mount onto any acrylic block, then you clean them and put them back in their clear box. Easy! I colored the stamped girl image with Prismacolors and blended with Gamsol. I added some Stickles glitter glue for accent. The sentiment is stamped in Close to Cocoa, then I "traced" the letters with my Pretty In Pink marker to add some color. I layered the sentiment on circles and a tag punch, then added some yummy glittered brads. It says "Girl, it's all about the belly". :)

This card uses stamps from The Angel Company (flowers and miss you) and Stampin' Up! (dotted circle). I was thrilled that the flower stamps were exactly 6-petal ones just like the patterned paper. I get excited about the little details! I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the flowers and dotted circle in just the right place. I layered that onto Apricot Appeal cardstock and distressed the edges with my scissors for some texture. The clear button is adhered to a circle of Apricot Appeal using Stickles. I also added Stickles over the sentiment. That way the sentiment, flower center and patterned paper are all three glittery and it helps unify the design. Got bling?...LOL

Here's an overhead shot of the 8 cards I did with this color scheme. I had neopolitan ice cream yesterday and I think that's where this color scheme all started....yum! Remember, you can click any of the photos for a close-up.

Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll share two scrapbook pages I made this weekend. One is the neopolitan color theme and the other is a wedding layout I framed for my aunt and uncle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ice Ice Baby!

We got blasted with ice this week in Ohio. Ice can be so dangerous! It coated every single thing in this town. Thank goodness I never fell, but I about did three different times. Some places suffered through a power outage, some trees lost branches or even toppled over. Thank goodness our house had none of that! The worst we had here at home was the coating of ice on everything and Kevin using hot water to thaw the car door so I could get to work. (Yes, I lost my garage months ago so he could "tinker" in there.) Once I forgot about the slippery driveway or the inconvenience of chipping it off the windshield and stepped outside to look at the beauty of it all, I saw this: tiny little bird tracks on an ice and snow covered rock and the intricate pattern of ice on the dogwood branches. In the still of it all, I was in awe of God's beauty just a few steps away from our back door. Look around, forget about the worry of the world sometimes and take in the little gifts of your day. These things of beauty blessed me yesterday. I needed that! :)

Busy Stampin' Weekend-Part II

Here's the first project from Saturday's workshop. We used the Sale-a-Bration set Lots of Thoughts and some of the white rub-ons from the A Perfect Day rub-ons set in the Occasions Mini. The 5-Petal Flower punch coordinates with the one style of rub-on perfectly! The colors used are Blue Bayou, Real Red and Soft Sky. The Real Red layer is our textured cardstock and the Soft Sky layer is a piece of double-sided paper. I am really happy with the quality of the Stampin' Up! rub-ons. Some of the tiny ones can easily be done using your fingernail. Another great feature of the Lots of Thoughts stamp set is that you can easily use your marker to ink just one line of the sentiment, then stamp that. You are really getting 4 greetings from each block in this set. I think I will use mine a lot!

The second card has a simple, yet elegant look. We used Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava and the Shimmer White cardstocks. The flowers are from the set Together Forever and the sentiment is from Warm Words. Both are stamped with Groovy Guava ink. I love the little ribbon slide from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware in the Occasions Mini. Depending on the sentiment you stamp on this card, it would be appropriate for sympathy, birthday, thinking of you or even a wedding card.

I decorated this tin for the hostess gift. I used the Sale-a-Bration rub-ons set Love & Happiness. What is so neat about rub-ons is that you can easily apply them on a curved edge. I layered our fun Flower Fusion felt flowers, added a gold brad and adhered them with mini glue dots. I put a few smaller rub-ons on the lid, then added some fun ribbon.

My hostesses are quite special to me. I really love giving them a handmade gift from the heart. I also appreciate that they invite me into their homes so that I may share my love of stamping with their friends and family. As a special thank you, each of my hostesses (July 2007-June 2008) will be invited to a Hostess Appreciation Event this summer.

Busy Stampin' Weekend

I've had a busy weekend with back-to-back workshops. Today I wanted to share with you the projects and hostess gift from Friday's workshop.

This card is a very simple design. Sometimes I really like a simple card. It's kind of hard to tell, but the base is Sahara Sand cardstock. It looks more gray in this photo. The other layers are Whisper White, Certainly Celery and Groovy Guava. I stamped the images from the set Artfully Asian in Staz-on black ink. I really like the true black this pad gives. The image was then colored with the brush tip of two Stampin' Write markers; Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal. I added a bit of Two-Way glue to the flower centers and sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to add a simple touch of bling. I tore the Groovy Guava layer for a hint of texture and to break up all the straight lines.

For the second project, I focused on a monochromatic theme and also showcased the ease of using Stampin' Up!'s color-coordinated products. Each guest chose the color they wanted and created a pocket card using solid cardstock, double-sided patterned papers, ribbon, and a button. The technique shown was heat embossing. We used a Versamark pad to create the tone-on-tone background as well as to heat emboss the scalloped flower image. This set So Many Scallops is one you can earn free during Sale-a-Bration and it coordinates perfectly with our Scallop Circle Punch.

I decorated this fun photo cube for the hostess gift. Thanks again to Melissa for being a fabulous hostess! I am always looking for neat alterable items when I am out and about. I came across this one at Drug Mart of all places. It has two pieces that pull apart and inside was a thin cardboard "box" with photos of strangers, much like what is in any photo frame you buy. I actually carefully tore apart the box, flipped it inside out and adhered it back together again so that the white side was showing. I cut various pieces of double-sided patterned paper for the base pieces, then embellished with eyelets, rub-ons and punch outs. The rub-ons Love and Happiness are also a free Sale-a-Bration item you can choose with any order of $50+. I took two pictures so you could see all the sides. I left the bottom blank of course. All Melissa has to do is add photos and enjoy!

Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll share the projects and hostess gift from Saturday's workshop.

Thanks for stopping by!