Celebrating 50 Years of Me!

I just had a birthday and it was a BIG one!  I still can't believe I've been around for 50 years.  I still feel like a kid and so I had a big birthday party to celebrate.  It was one of the best birthday parties I've had.

For this layout I was inspired by the February inspiration photo at www.Scrapstuffz.blogspot.com.   I was inspired by the bright colors, the cupcakes and those wonderful layers.  I chose to include the scalloped layers like the ones on the cupcake tower. And added the sprinkles because I liked how all the cupcakes were decorated.  What a fun picture and a great way to show how much fun I had at my birthday party.

Here is the inspiration:

Here is my layout:

 

Crazy for Cake

Thanks for stopping by!

Snowy Season

I have been wanting to update my blog for so long now.  Just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do.  And when I do have time, I usually either am not home with access to my pictures or I am at home with no energy to blog.

This year we are having a rather hard and long winter.  While we have it easier here than in other parts of the country, still we are having some serious winter blues.  Everyone is so ready for Spring to arrive. I have to say that my favorite part of winter is that I get some additional time to scrapbook.  If I'm stuck inside I might as well make good use of my time to use up some of my stash.  So here's a few of my projects that I've managed to make in the last few months.  I seem to be doing a cleaner style than my more elaborate pages.  I think that is because I am trying to play catch-up and because I try to finish many of my projects within the same day rather than having the same layout on my desk for several days.  I miss doing the mixed media and blog inspired challenges so I'm hoping to get back to doing those again soon.  

 

Thanks for stopping by... have a blessed day!

 

Crafting Christmas

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is to make homemade cards, gifts and home decor items.  I had gotten away from it for the last few years but am truly enjoying returning to it this year.  Past years have found me so busy with gift wrapping, cookie baking, shopping and practicing for Christmas plays that I had forgotten how much I like making things for the holidays.

I saw this banner in the Hobby Lobby scrapbooking publication in an advertisement for Glue Dots.  I loved it and decided to replicate it using my own materials.  The only things I needed to purchase were the burlap and canvas.  Burlap is so trendy right now that when I went to buy it I had to get specialty burlap (it has silver in it) because they were sold out of the regular kind.  Here's what it turned out like:

I knew just where I planned to hang it...in the cutout window between my kitchen and living room.  Then I realized I would have to make the other side pretty too.  So I decided to cutout a fancy design from the Damask Decor Cricut Cartridge with a snowflake motif and used some of my lovely snowflake embellishments that my friend, Heather (ScrapHappyLady) sent me last Christmas.  I knew just what it needed to say HOPE.  To remind me of The Lord and to keep my faith strong and Hope in Him for a bright New Year.  

Christmas is on its Way

I have been busy reading my emails and browsing Pinterest lately finding inspiration for my Christmas cards.  I look forward each year to making them and usually start by July.  This year I started in late September.  Once I started I really haven't felt like doing much else in the way of layouts or other types of cards.  It has been so much fun.

My first one was inspired by an email I received from my local StampinUp! Demonstrator, Carolyn Serviss oh2bstampin.com.  Loved the look of the stamped gold stars on the white background.  The die-cut was from the Damask Decor cricut cartridge.  Added some glitter and colored a clear rhinestone with my alcohol ink marker to match.

This next one was in an email from Paper Crafts magazine.  I bought some sequins a while back and thought this was a great way to showcase them.  I didn't have any paper with writing on it so made my own using a font called Christmas Card.  The Christmas tree was cut from the Christmas Cheer cartridge.

 

I.have a couple of friends who are really into the Country Primitive decor for their homes and wanted to do a simple country berry wreath but couldn't find a stamp or image to use so I doodled out the simple  wreath design.  Love the contrast of the dark red with the white dry embossed snowflake background. 

 

I have made some other designs too and am about halfway there with the number of cards I need this year.  With less than two months to go, it may be a challenge but I think I am up for it!

Longwood Gardens Special Moments

Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday Challenge - April 27, 2012

I love the look of using rolled paper on layouts but had never tried it before.  This layout was created for both this challenge and the April color challenge at Club CK to use green, black and yellow as your main colors.  I had a lot of fun creating this layout.  The rolled paper in DCWV cardstock that I used Tattered Angels Mist in light shades of yellow and green.  This helped me get the paper more flexible for distressing and rolling.  Then I used my Stampin Up! roller to add some green ink on either side.  The patterned paper and quote are Quick Quotes - Damsel in Distress line.  The flourish was hand-sewn using a Bazill Basics Template.  The flower is Prima.  Definitely one of my favorite layouts!

Butterfly Tag Tutorial

I have a fascination with all kinds of techniques and I think that's why I like making cards and scrapbook pages so much!  I saw the May 2012 issue of CardMaker on the newsstand long before I ever got my subscription issue and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it.  The front cover has a beautiful Tim Holtz distressed butterfly tag on it.  Fortunately for me, there were directions inside on how to make it!  Now, I have to tell you that I never follow directions!  So here's my version using some of my materials on hand.

1)  Cut out manilla tags from recycled file folder.  5" high and 3" wide.  I used "A Child's Year" Cricut Cartridge - tag feature.

2)  Grab some white acrylic paint and a paint dauber.  (I bought these foam pouncers in the acrylic paint section of Michael's.)

3)  Next select a large background stamp.  Since I didn't have one, I used these Inkadinkado Floral Damask stamps and covered a large block with them.

4)  Apply acrylic paint by using a light coat of paint so keep your dauber fairly dry and evenly coated.

5)  Stamp onto tag.  Do not press too hard and be sure to remove very carefully.

6)  I bought some Ink Potion #9 to help blend my inks.  I inked the fantastix with the ink pad and then swirled it into the Ink Potion # 9 on my plastic lid.  (A craft mat would be ideal!)  Also if you don't have any Ink Potion # 9 - the magazine article said to simply apply the inks with a blending tool and then take a damp paper towel and wipe across it to blend your inks.

7)  Apply the ink with light strokes to the tag in desired areas.  For this tag I used orange in the upper left and lower right and teal in the upper right and Antique Linen in the lower left.  Then I used the SU! celery to blend in areas since it is the lightest color. 

8)  I then inked the edges with the Antique Linen Distress Ink.

9)  I used Black Archival ink to stamp a butterfly (Recollections by Michaels) image.  I think Staz-On or Adirondack ink would have been better.

10)  Then for just a little more dazzle - I added some Versamark Dazzle in Champagne all over the top of the tag.  The embossing ink seemed to bring out more of the original painted stamped images.

11) Added a circle reinforcement sticker I've had forever in my stash.  Love to use my oldest supplies on a project!  And stamped a little $1 g-Studios image on the bottom of the tag.  Then I created a sentiment tag to add on top.

12)  Cut a small rectangle from brown cardstock with a height to fit my sentiment and the width at 3" like the tag.  Added a bit of the acrylic paint to the stamp and stamped it in place.  Goofed up a bit and had to remove a little paint from the inside of my "a's" with my paper piercer.  Then took a brown marker to cover up my goof - worked great!

13)  Got my Cuttlebug out and a small embossing border and embossed the sides of my cardstock tag.  Had to turn the embossing folder upside down to do the other side.

14)  Inserted a couple of brads, added a scrap piece of manilla folder to the back to secure the brads and added some pop dots to adhere it to the tag.

And once again, here's my completed tag!  I think I'll follow Tim's lead and attach it to a card and give it to my Mother-In-Law for Mother's Day!   Hope you enjoyed my tutorial!  Have a blessed day!

ClubCK Weekly Card Challenge April 15 - 21, 2012

Every week I look forward to the Card Challenge that is posted on the ClubCK website.  We have such a wonderful and creative group of ladies and we take turns posting challenges.  This week, our hostess was Patti and she presented us with some beautiful cards she had made that move.  And her challenge to us was to make a card that had movement.  Well, I decided to make a card with a kite that would fly.  I used the Cricut Craft Room to cut out the die-cuts.  The Kite and the white cloud are found on the Nate's ABC's cartridge.  I used the Christmas Cheer Cartridge to cut out the banner from the cloud paper.  Then after cutting out the die-cuts and assembling them.  I put a small brad through the center of the kite.  Then through the negative image of the banner from the front of the cloud paper.  On the back side of the cloud paper, I attached the brad to a circle of cardstock.  This allows the kite to move back and forth through the banner cut-out.  Adding a piece of twine allows you to "fly" the kite.  Definitely an interesting challenge.  I had never done anything like that before!  The patterned paper is from the Summertime Collection by Echo Park Paper.  Below is a short video showing how the kite moves.  I have never made a video before so this was a challenge too!  If you are not familiar with ClubCk, then I would encourage you to check it out at www.clubcreatingkeepsakes.com.  Have a blessed day!