Creating Keepsakes Published My Layout!!! :)

This month I had the pleasure of having one of my layouts featured in Creating Keepsake's October issue!!! This was my first time being published in this particular magazine so I was pretty excited when they contacted me. It actually completely took me by surprise as I had submitted this layout to them back in May 2010--I must have just missed the deadline for Halloween submissions so they held onto my layout for 11 months and contacted me this April to see if they could still publish my layout. I honestly couldn't remember what layout it was anymore. Anyway, very exciting all around (I only wish they had spelled my name correctly... They're sadly not even close... Oh well).

Thanks for peeking! :)

An Owl Themed Birthday...

I'm finally getting around to sharing the birthday invites I made for my oldest daughter's 11th birthday coming up. She made a very specific request for owl themed invites (and since I am forcing her use a mish-mesh of party themed plates and napkins so we can use stuff up before we move) I was only too happy to oblige.

I got my inspiration for the patchwork style owl from Pottery Barn style bedding and some adorable owl pillows I found here

Anyway, I had a ton of this Pebbles, Inc. paper (as much as I love it, Pebbles in My Pocket required that I buy them in multiples of 2) so I was super happy to find a way use up some of my extras. :) I also used my Silhouette to try to speed up the cutting process although with so many little pieces they still took quite a bit of time, but I think they were worth it. Here's the finished card:

My daughter doesn't really care for cake and chocolate and has requested a giant cookie from Walmart as her "cake". To suppliment that, I'm going to try my hand at making these adorable owl cookies I found here.

Aren't those too cute? Hopefully I can do them justice. We're celebrating her birthday slumber party style and these cute little things are titled "Night Owl" cookies so I thought it was quite suiting.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

2Peas Stretch Your Sketch- July/August

I decided to play along with Jennifer Gallacher's "Stretch Your Sketch" class over at 2Peas this month. This is the sketch she challenged us with...

I was particularly taken by Jennifer's version of the sketch...

Anyway, here's my humble take on the sketch challenge...

There was the added challenge to add shimmer and shine to our layout so I played with American Crafts New Pow Blue Glitter paper and DCWAV white glitter cardstock. Also used some foil Alphas for my title for added shine. Fun stuff! Anyway, thanks for the inspiration Jennifer. You rock and I adore your style! :)

Supplies:
Kraft Cardstock
We R Memory Keepers Yankee Doodle Papers
American Crafts Pow Glitter Paper
DCWAV Glitter Cardstock
Papertrey Ink Star Dies
EK Success Edger Punch
Doodlebug Buttons
Silhouette Banner Shape
Spellbinders Circle Dies
American Crafts Thickers
American Crafts Alpha Rub-ons
Ribbon & Star Buttons (craft supply)

A Happy Bumblebee Card

My oldest started her first day of overnight church camp today.  At least for now my ears are enjoying the vacation from screaming and fighting between her and her little sister, but I wanted to hurry up and make her a special card to mail her while she's at camp.  She's extremely shy and after over 3 years at our church she still hasn't found a little girl to connect with.  Last year she went and was miserable (they took an entire bus full of kids, but there was no other girl in her grade and she hated the food and the dirty gross bathrooms).  This year they're trying a new camp and it was a super tiny group--only her, 2 other girls and 2 boys so I am hoping and praying that is the perfect combination for her to finally make some lasting friendships at church.  She actually tends to fall back from large crowds so it may be just what she needs.  Anyway, I thought I would share the card I made her today...

I did a tiny bit of airbrushing on the white background along the edges with my copic marker to sort of help frame the image. The papers are completely ancient scraps I found in my scrap file--In fact the scalloped edge was left over from some picture frames I had made earlier out of the same paper. I ended up tracing the edges with a sharpie over a piece of scratch paper to give them the same outlined feel as the stamped images. Stamps are by Hero Arts "Be Happy" stamp set. Glossy Accents and stickels glitter glue were added to the butterfly wings and flower center.

Thanks for peeking. :)

Page Maps July 2011 Blog Challenge

I just had the pleasure of scrapbooking with my friend Pamela this weekend and once again I turned to my favorite Page Maps blog for inspiration and they came through with a fun challenge.  Nothing like submitting at the last minute, but this was just what I needed to jump start my creativity. 

I ended up using a couple of my favorite photos of Yoshi and I from several years ago that we took at his sister's wedding rehersal in Wyoming.  I was happy to finally add them to my scrapbook after so many years of passing them by in my photo box.  As I was making this page, my hubby had come home from working a 60 hour week at work and was sitting outside my window laboring on yet more yard work so it wasn't hard to come up with some very heartfelt journaling.

I did some major fussy cutting on the flower lace paper.  It had more of a border than I wanted so while we sat and talked I cut and cut for over an hour.  It took longer than I planned, but at that point I felt commited.  LOL!

Thanks for peeking and thanks to Page Maps for letting me play along!  :)

Supplies:
Basic Grey "Lemonade" Papers
Basic Grey Paper Lace
American Crafts Glitter Thickers
American Crafts Alpha Rub-ons
American Crafts Glitter Buttons
Prima Flowers
EK Success Border Punch
Queen & Co. Rhinestones
Quickutz Label Die
Ranger Glossy Accents
DMC Embroidery Floss

Papertrey Ink's July 2011 Blog Hop

I've been wanting to play along with papertrey ink's monthly blog challenge for over a year now and I finally did.  Yeah!  This month's challege was to create a card taking inspiration from this photo:

I was drawn to the clean lines and texture of the white bench, the green cushion and the aqua pillow with the butterflies so with that in mind here is the card I created...

Supplies:
Papertrey Ink Butterfly Die
Papertrey Ink Edgers #1 Die
Papertrey Ink "Butterfly Dreams" stamp set (butterflies)
Papertrey Ink "Everyday Button Bits" stamps (sentiment)
Papertrey Ink Felt (ocean tides & simply chartreuse)
Basic Grey "Kioshi" 6x6 pad
Bazzill Basics White Cardstock
Cuttlebug 5x7 Embossing Folder
Spellbinders Circle Dies
Versafine Ink (sentiment)
Ranger Adirondack Dye Ink (butterflies)
Misc. Pearls/ ric-rac


Thanks for taking a peek! Make sure to check out the rest of the blog hop by visiting Nichole Heady's blog here

July's Craft Warehouse Design Team Projects

This month for the Craft Warehouse Design Team assignment we had the pleasure of working with the brand new company's Authentique debut paper lines.  Only 4 of us received the yellow Blissful line and I was escatic to be one of them as it is definitely my favorite!  So fun to play with.  :)

Our assignment was to create one layout with an altered paper technique so I made my focal point flower using only various scalloped circle dies by Spellbinders and the wonderful paper.

...One layout featuring Bazzill's awesome new resist chipboard (so in love) and glimmer mist,

From Craftwarehouse Scrapbook Design Team

...And one card featuring a Unity stamp we were given to work with.

Make sure to check out more detailed photos and all of the other team member's beautiful work using these papers at Craft Warehouse's website here and here.

A Fourth of July Layout! :)

I thought I would share a layout I just put the finishing touches on late last week.  I made this one as a display for one of my favorite local scrapbook stores "A Joy Forever" in Milwaukie, Oregon.  She wanted me to use My Mind's American Made collection.  I wasn't sure how I felt about this line at first glance, but after I found some old photos that still needed scrapbooking and started playing with it I found it really fun and easy to work with.  I also used a new banner border die by Quickutz (although there are so many other great options in that department too).

My original plan was to put my title on the banner, but after I got it made I realized it was just too busy that way so I was left scrambling trying to find a new spot to squeeze in my title.  I used the light blue banner paper as a guide to create a scalloped edge out of the red checked paper.  I also cut out some extra pin wheels and popped them up on foam tape for some added movement.  :)

Thanks for peeking.

A Sympathy Card...

I'm finally getting around to sharing a card I made for my dear friend who lost her mother to a brain tumor a few months ago.  I can't imagine the pain she is going through...

I started by stamping the flowers with Memento ink and then colored the stripes using a Copic marker just a shade darker than the cardstock.  I then topped off the stripes with the Stardust Stickles glitter and for the center layered glossy accents over the stickles for a shiny center.  I don't know if these two flowers were really supposed to go together (they were released at separate times), but they were just screaming out to me to be layered so I popped them up with a little foam tape between them for some added dimension. 

Complete Supply list:
Basic Grey Cappella 6x6 Paper Pad (CAP-2411)
Bazzil Cardstock
Hero Arts Large Flower Cling Stamp (CG134)
Hero Arts Small Striped Flower Cling Stamp (CG256)
Hero Arts With Sympathy Clear Stamps (CL476)
Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Doily Accents (S5-042)
Copic Marker (to shade flower stripes)
Ranger Stickles Stardust Clear Glitter Glue
Ranger Glossy Accents
Colorbox Chalk Ink
Memento Rich Cocoa Ink
Scotch Foam Tape

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Some Teacher's Gifts and Cards

I have some teacher's cards and gifts to share tonight that I made over National Scrapbook weekend. For these I challenged myself to use SUPER DUPER old school themed products that I came across when I was cleaning out my stash. I don't know why, but for some reason I had trouble parting with this particular stuff even though it's older than dirt so I decided it was time to finally put it to good use.

Each of my daughter's have two teachers so I decided to save time and energy by recreating the same card 4 times. For the paper, pencil and ruler border, I used Hero Arts "Just A Note" clear stamp set.

One on of the crop days at the Vancouver Craft Warehouse they gave us these $1 chipboard cover notepads in our goodie bags as a challenge to decorate. Many of use took a screw driver to them to remove the post they came with and put them on a binder ring instead. They turned out to be so quick and easy to personalize and a great way use up some of those ancient supplies.

On our other crop day, Craft Warehouse presented us with the challenge to decorate these $1 wood plaques. These turned out to be my favorite surface to alter. I had fun personalizing them so they could be used as a decoration in their classrooms or even as a hall pass.

And that Red bow motif you see on all 4 projects... They were all re-purposed red ribbons from Gymboree's Holiday gift boxes! Love that! Another clever ribbon re-use idea is cutting the ribbon handles off of store bags before recycling (I do this often with Ann Taylor loft bags) or the ribbons at the shoulders of your sweaters (ya know the ones that are supposed to hold your sweaters on the hangers, but instead pop out when you're wearing them). I love taking these and turning this trash into treasures on my cards and projects! :)