Super Smore’s

This past summer, my husband and I decided to go camping by ourselves for the first time.

We bought a tent, reserved a campsite and planned our trip west.

We planned to use the campground like a hotel room — traveling along Michigan’s west coast during the day and spending the evenings camping.

One of the things I was really looking forward to was the campfire. While many people may have fire pits or outdoor fireplaces, our only chance to enjoy a fire outdoors is to go camping. I was so excited to have the fire pit, I refused to buy things to eat that couldn’t be cooked over the open flame.

So, when I stumbled across giant marshmallows in the grocery store, I knew we had to try them. Combined with gluten-free graham crackers and chocolate bars, we made amazingly HUGE smore’s. One marshmallow used an entire pair of graham crackers (before you break them into parts along the dotted lines) and a whole chocolate bar. Needless to say, we only ate one a piece and then gave the supersized marshmallows to our neighbors who were camping with their grandchildren.

Even though it lasted only a few minutes, it was a fun memory and I wanted to preserve it in my scrapbook …

I used these adorable papers and die cuts from Imaginisce, along with cardstock by Coredinations. It’s a relatively quick and easy layout because I used so many of the die cuts (they are so cute, I couldn’t resist!)

I did use a bit of sandpaper to distress the background and some 3D Dots to raise some of the images.

Under the sea

I decided to participate in the iCopic challenge this week. The challenge was high contrast: using makers in their lightest shades all the way to the darkest shades. Still learning to blend, I found this challenge harder than many, but here’s what I came up with:

All of the papers and the stamps are from Imaginisce. I used the following colors: R46, Y35, BG000, BG02, BG05, BG09, RV10, RV11, RV14. It topped off the flower on the octopus with a pearl from Kaisercraft.

ABC: Autumn Birthday Card

The CMC Copic Challenge Group’s new challenge is to create a Halloween or fall card using Copic markers.

Since I love Riley, I immediately reached for a Riley stamp and came up with this …

The paper is from Moxxie and cardstock is from American Crafts. I also used a stamp from Imaginisce and a few brads from my stash. Can’t you just picture Riley playing “Happy Birthday” on his banjo?!

It was as easy as ABC …

Photo Block

Sometimes a vacation deserves more than to be hidden inside a scrapbook.

Or, perhaps you just want a little something extra for your desk.

Either way, this is a cute and inexpensive project to make.

It started life as a styrofoam block from the dollar store.

I then added tan velvet paper to the top (to give it a sandy feel) and covered each side with paper from Imaginisce.

It does require a bit of patience and a strong liquid glue, but it will, eventually, stay stuck.

I then attached photo frames, cut from the same paper,  from Dies Direct http://www.diesdirect.com on each side. I filled two with photos, but left the fourth for journaling.

I then added some stamped images that coordinate with the paper, colored with Copic markers, to the front.

For the top, I cut out the beach chair, umbrella and sea shells with dies from Dies Direct and used Memo Pins from Tim Holtz to attach them.

Another Memo Pin holds a final photo.

This one is simple, but imagine what you could do with lace and flowers and ribbon, oh my!

Just have fun!