Scrapbooking again

I haven’t been scrapbooking, as in creating pages for an album, in some time. It seems there is always another project that needs to be completed first.

But, I did find two layouts I did recently that I neglected to share …

This one is of our 10 year wedding anniversary. We cooked a nice dinner at home, complete with candlelight and wine.I recorded this memory on Mosaic Moments grid paper … it is just so easy! I love working on grid paper.

This one is done on traditional scrapbook paper (vintage Webster’s Pages). It showcases the parsnip we found with a perfect heart inside.

 

What have you been working on lately?

 

Linnie Blooms Canvas Journal

Today is my second time as a guest designer for Linnie Blooms.

This time, I created a mixed-media canvas book.

 

Here’s a peek at some of the inside pages …

 

To find out how I created this book, visit Linnie Blooms’ Blog!

 

The Colors of My Kitchen

This month’s challenge at Scrap It Girl is to use the colors of your kitchen to create a card, layout or altered project.

I decided to create a card using the colors in my kitchen — red, blue and yellow.

First, I thought I would share a couple of photos of my kitchen. It is the smallest kitchen I have ever had, but it is also my favorite.

It is a little bit vintage

A little bit ecclectic

a little bit chicken

and full of color

So, I used the main colors in my kitchen, red, yellow and blue, to create this card:

The stamp is from Melissa Frances and colored with Copics. The papers are from Bo Bunny and Fancy Pants Designs. The washi tape is from Tim Holtz and We R Memory Keepers and the little embellishment is from Webster’s Pages.

Now it is time to create a project with the colors from your kitchen. Once you are finished, post it at Scrap It Girl and you could win this amazing gift donated by Kelly, one of the designers for Scrap It Girl:

Good luck!

May Graphic 45 Calendar Page

Better late than never, right? It is May 6 already and I am just now getting to posting May’s calendar page. If this is any indication of how the month will go, I am in big trouble!

For May, I decided to keep it simple by using mostly the patterned paper from the back side of the cut aparts page by Graphic 45. I added some of the decorative strips, one image and a premade bow from Webster’s Pages. Simple, but still beautiful!

What do you think?

 

Bottle of Angels

The challenge this month on Scrap It Girl is Angels or Arrows. For me, angels was much more challenging, so of course I had to choose angels.

I selected paper from KaiserCraft’s new baby boy line and cut out the banner, title and cherubs.

 

After I cut them out, I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to color the edges. This helps to soften the edges, covers up the harsh white line around the paper and helps to cover up any cutting errors. Notice the difference in this photo with the cherubs on the left, uninked, and the one on the right, inked.

Then I coated the cherubs and the banner with a thick coat of Glastique. This will make the paper cut outs look like epoxy. It will also make them durable, so the piece can be dusted without tearing the paper. And, it will allow me to mold the images to add a bit of dimension. (If your store doesn’t carry it, you can get it online by clicking the Globecraft & Piccolo Shop Here link on the side of my page).

While that was drying, I grabbed an old bottle I had.

 

Prima sold these little milk jug bottles, several years ago, filled with tiny paper flowers. While I have used most of the flowers, I kept all of the jars for a future project — like this one.

I used Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to attach everything to the bottle. It dries quickly and holds well. I wrapped the jar in papers, ribbon (May Arts) and lace (Webster’s Pages). Then I added feathers, the cut outs, flowers (KaiserCraft) and Dew Drops (Robin’s Nest).

For the lid, I wrapped some twine and added a bit of paper to the top.

You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

so that is my angel project. It is now your turn … you can create anything: altered art, a card, a mini album, a scrapbook layout or anything else you want and submit it to Scrap It Girl this month. There is a HUGE prize package for the winner and I hope it goes to you!

Click here for details.

 

 

 

 

Chopping up the Sleeping Bear Dunes

 

 

 

The latest challenge for Mosaic Moments was to create a page on Bahama Blue Grid Paper. I chose to record the memories from our day at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, along with paper and stickers from Webster’s Pages.

Click over to my Journella entry to read the story behind the page and cheer me on!

A Special Birthday Card

In a few weeks, my baby boy will be 21.

I know. I cannot believe it either. It seems like just yesterday I was meeting him for the first time.

I always thought I would be with my kids when they turned 21 and I looked forward to buying them their first drink. But, since my son is halfway around the world, serving his country at a Naval hospital in Guam, I won’t be able to share the special day with him. Instead, I thought I would send him a very special card …

This card was created by Kathy at Paper Phenomenon. You can follow her step-by-step directions, here …

It can be used as a mini-book, added to a scrapbook page or whatever. It’s super adorable and I’ve already made several. But this one I wanted to serve as a card for my favorite little boy!

It opens …

And opens …

and opens …

And opens …

And then it has three little tags that come out (I made mine with the Tiny Tabs & Tags Sizzix/Tim Holtz Die and the Cricut Gypsy & Old West cartridge).

I love it. It only takes one piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper to make the base. Then I used scraps from Bo Bunny, American Crafts and Webster’s Pages, along with some leftover rub ons, Jolee’s and a few metal pieces from Ideaology.

Soon, it will be off to Guam to welcome my baby boy into adult hood!

On the move

I am in the middle of moving from one house to another.

Moving is nothing new to me … I’ve moved 14 times in my lifetime — including 2 cross-country moves … but that doesn’t mean I like it.

This time is more difficult than most because we are drastically downsizing — our new house is less than half the size of our current one. On top of that, we seem to have accumulated much more during the eight years we have lived in this house than I have at any other time in my life. Needless to say, my house is currently filled with boxes for the new house, boxes for a storage shed, boxes for eBay, boxes for charity, boxes for other people and boxes that we don’t know what to do with.

My scrapbook room is partially packed — I have yet to find the right boxes for packing my collection of 12×12 paper, since I don’t want to break anyone’s back when they attempt to move it — but most of the rest has been placed neatly in boxes and is unusable for the next couple of weeks. To prevent myself from going through a crafter’s withdraw, I kept my Copic markers, my basic tool kit, some of my rubber stamps and few sheets of paper accessible. I figure at the least, I should be able to make a card without ribbon, charms, buttons or embossing powder, but at least I’ll be able to color until I get all unpacked and settled in at the new house.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a layout I did about another kind of moving — taking a train ride.

I wanted this page to show the train ride as much as possible, so I played with stripes, checks and other repeating patterns that remind me of train tracks.

The papers are from Webster’s Pages. They are actually part of the Spring Market collection, but I just used portions of the papers that didn’t have jars of peaches and fruit on them. I think they worked well.

The patterned cardstock is from Bo Bunny, the sanded cardstock is from Coredinations and the rest of the cardstock is from American Crafts.

For the title, I used some of the light patterned paper from Webster’s Pages and stamped on it with Hero Arts stamps (the words) and a Studio 490 stamp (the button holes). Then, I did one of my favorite techniques: I stamped Maya Road chipboard letters with a Studio 490 background stamp, then colored it with Distress Ink and then added shine with Diamond Glaze. I used the same technique on the banner (stamp from Technique Tuesday).

The tag was made with another Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stamp. I stamped on patterned paper, crumbled it a bit and used Distress Ink to help age it. Never be afraid to stamp on softly patterned paper. It gives you a bit more dimension than plain cardstock. I used the same technique on the facing page.

And then I added a few brads and a photo corner (Tim Holtz) to finish it off. Since trains are so masculine and industrial, I thought a bit of metal was crucial to this page.

This one’s for the birds

This is one of those you must see in person. Somehow the depth, warmth and softness of the vellum falls apart in the photo, but here it is …

I made this 5×7 card from navy blue cardstock. I added a piece of white cardstock slightly smaller than the blue and then covered it in a piece of vellum from Webster’s Pages. I cut an additional piece of vellum from another portion of the same sheet and added it to the top left. The effect is soft and warm and really, really beautiful.

Next, I added a piece of ribbon from Making Memories. Then, I stamped the bird and nest (from the Crafty Secrets) using Memento Ink onto X-Press It Blending Card and colored with Copic Markers. I cut them out, inked the edges in Walnut Distress Ink and then attached them with dimensional foam. I then stamped the saying with Staz-On.

It’s a perfect birthday card, don’t you think?

Framed in flowers

I love Prima flowers, but they are often too dimensional for a scrapbook page.

So, I decided to use them and a cheap Wal-Mart frame and some Art Glitter to create this for Art Glitter’s blog …

I started by adding a strip of Art Glitter’s Double-Sided Sticky Tapearound the frame. I then topped it with Gold Leaf for an elegant addition.

Then, because everything needs to sparkle, I altered some Prima flowers with glitter (518 Oak Microfine Opaque and 517 Aged Gold Microfine Opaque) and Small Clear Glass Beads. This process is really simple – I took Designer Dries Clear Adhesive and dabbed it randomly onto the petals I wanted to sparkle. Some flowers have a tiny bit and others are nearly covered. Then, I used a spoon to pour the glitter or beads onto the flower, shook it upside down and let it dry. It is that simple!

That finished, I began adhering a variety of flowers, charms and buttons to the frame. The birdhouse, birdcharms and all of the flowers, with the exception of the one in the lower left hand corner, are from Prima. The one in the lower left is from Petaloo. The heart charm is from My Mind’s Eye and the sparklers (buttons) are from Webster’s Pages.

I used Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to adhere everything. This is my absolute favorite wet adhesive and I use it all of the time, but I was still impressed when I used it on this project. For starters, everything, including the rather heavy (for papercrafting) bird cage is held on by a tiny drop of the glue. All of it is extremely secure.

But, although I know it “dries clear” I didn’t realize how clear until I used it to attach the clear sparklers. I’ve included a close up photo because you can’t see any adhesive at all … it looks like they are simply floating on the frame. AMAZING!

Even if you don’t go quite as elaborate as I did on this frame, I hope you’ll consider applying some of these techniques to a frame you own to make it special.