Crazy for Minis

I've been on a kick lately making mini albums.  I am fascinated with all the different types of minis you can make and have been researching and oogling the beautiful creations of other crafters on You Tube. So, today's post features one of my recent creations -- a mini album I made to commemorate a trip my husband and I took to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary in 2002.

I used chipboard for the base, My Mind's Eye Lost & Found 2 paper and embellishments, twine, ribbon, glitter, Um Wow Studios mini chipboard embellishments, letter and word stickers from Creative Imaginations, rub ons, Prima flowers and some other fun do dads.

Here is the video (my first) of the project:

Hope you enjoy the video -- I tried to keep it short and sweet.

Leave me a message and let me know where you find inspiration for new projects.  Do you make minis?  If yes, do you give them as gifts or keep them yourself?

Next week I'll be posting videos of some other minis I've made, each using a different binding technique and all very different and fun.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Card for Presley

It's been a hot summer and I haven't been spending too much time in my scrap cave since it's very hot upstairs.  I did find time to create this cute birthday card for my nephew, Presley using some of my favorite October Afternoon paper -- Cake Walk.

I am entering it into sketch challenge #34 at the Paper Girls Challenge Blog which you can find here:  http://thepapergirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2013/06/challenge-34.html


In addition to the Cakewalk paper and embellishments, I also used some cool chipboard stars from UmWow Studios, AC Thickers, Authentique letters and background paper from Echo Park.  I'm sure Presley will like the little raccoon.

Here's a photo of him. He lives in Ohio and we don't get to see him very often so I always try to make something special to send him for his birthday.  His birthday isn't until November so I better put this somewhere I won't forget -- that would be just like me to have it done this early and then not be able to find it come November.  Ha!

A Happy Spring Banner

Big Winner!

Thank you all for visiting my NSD blog post and leaving your wonderful comments.  The winner of a little package of fun scrapbooking stuff is...

ShalahMay 10, 2013 at 2:53 PM

I love your beautiful cards! Miwa did a pretty good job of summing up what I love about scrapbooking: the chance to be creative (and play with such pretty and fun toys!), producing something for someone else to enjoy (whether it is a card for a friend or a SB page that my family will have years from now) and, perhaps most of all, the wonderful friendships with people who enjoy the same thing!

Congratulations!  Please email me your contact information and address so I can send you your goodies!

Hooray for National Scrapbooking Day and Blog Candy

Spring is in full swing here in sunny California. My garden is going crazy with cucumbers, chard and spinach. Still waiting on the tomatoes but they'll be here before you know it.

Another Spring event that I hate to miss is National Scrapbooking Day! This year it falls on May 4th and I'm participating in a fun week of challenges at my favorite "scrappy" website, Crop Chocolate.

I partnered with my fellow Design Team member, Jennifer, to come up with a "Bling it UP" challenge: Make a Card or layout using two different kinds of bling (rhinestones, glitter, Stickles, pearls, etc). You can find the contest by clicking here: Bling it Up Contest

Here are two examples I created for this contest.  This first card is a double-dutch style card using My Mind's Eye Indie Chic paper and stickers. The bling are rhinestones and pearls. I love how it opens up and gives me lots of space to write my greeting.

  

This next card is also my entry for the "Homage to Summer" challenge from Jasmine and Miwa which can be found here: https://www.cropchocolate.com/contests?page=8

 

 I hope you'll swing on by and participate in all the challenges. Who knows, you might just win a nice prize. Oh, and speaking of prizes... I'm giving away a little blog candy to one random person who comments on this post telling me what they love about scrapbooking! Good Luck.

Basic Grey Galore!

Hello everybody, I've been having some fun in my scrap room lately and wanted to share.

To start, I played along with a Basic Grey sketch challenge using the PB and J 6x6 paper pad and am so happy with card I made.  I just love the designs in this collection and had fun mixing them up.

Here is the sketch:

Don't you just love the doily and banners? http://blog.basicgrey.com/?p=6470

I actually stayed pretty true to the sketch but added some extra elements just for fun.  Here is my card:

 As I mentioned, I used the PB&J 6x6 papers and sticker, BG red button, American Crafts twine, Spellbinders Lacy Doily dies, and Martha Stewart Crafts bumble bee.  The sticker says "my baby bumble bee" and I'm thinking I'll send this to my daughter in her next college care  package.


Another thing I love about these PB&J papers is how they can be used for both feminine and masculine projects.  Here is another card I made using the 6x6 paper and got a really different look:

Lastly, here is a project I completed for a challenge at Crop Chocolate using Basic Grey's beautiful Kioshi paper and stickers.  I think I'll use this one for my Mom's birthday, it's so springy and delicate.

I hope you enjoyed these cards and thanks for stopping by.  If you can, leave me a comment and let me know which Basic Grey paper line is your favorite.

Welcome to the Blog Hop Celebrating Friendship and Julie's Blogoversary!

March 3, 2013 Winner update:  I used Random.org's randomizer to select the lucky winner of my blog candy.  The number selected was 5 -- Miwa!  Congratulations, and thank you to everyone who joined our hop.  I loved reading your comments.

If you've hopped in order you're probably tired but have seen some great work -- thanks for hanging in there and making it all the way to my blog.  I'll keep it short and simple and I have a give away for one lucky person.  To win the prize you must both leave a comment and become a follower of my blog.

I was inspired to make some cards and a tag using some great Carta Bella paper I got at Crop Chocolate.  The collection is called Traditions and it includes beautiful, rich reds, blues and yellows.  I have the 6x6 paper pad and I love the smaller prints for making cards.

You may recognize the card on the left from this week's challenge on Crop Chocolate -- I know, I cheated and double-purposed the card -- I hope you don't mind.

I was having so much fun playing around with these papers that I also created this tag --

I used my Spellbinders heart dies to make those sweet hearts and pieced the sentiment together from some word stickers, my newest go-to scrapbooking supply.  I can't seem to get enough of them.

Anyway, thanks for visiting and I hope you'll leave a comment and follow my blog so you can be in the running for some sweet blog candy.  I'll announce the winner on my blog on Monday.

Now, on the to final stop of the hop:

Laura Sanchez

http://lauraannsbreakfastpizza.blogspot.com/ You are here!

Next up:

Theresa Krout

http://inkyfingers1.blogspot.com/

Two of A Kind - February Crop Chocolate Design Team Project

For a twist on Valentine's Day, the Crop Chocolate February Design Team Challenge was "Fur Babies". Of course, I knew exactly what (or should I say who) I was going to feature in my layout -- our darling Border Collies, Dublin and Kona.

My challenge with layouts is always the same -- how do I get lots of photos on a page without it looking junky. So, for this challenge I decided to use lots of photos of our fur babies and create a custom file folder to hold them on the page. I ended up getting six 4x6 photos on one 12 x 12 page and kept it clean and fun. I also customized an embellishment sticker to fit my subject matter. Here's how I did it:

I started by gathering all my supplies:  Echo Park This and That Charming paper, brads, chipboard and stickers, Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circle Dies, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and Black Soot and Snake Tape adhesive -- all purchased from cropchocolate.com.  Coredinations  Foundations Card Stock in Caspian and Olive Green, Creative Imaginations Word Stickers, Marvy Uchida heart punch, Scor-Tape, Therm-o-Web large Zots adhesive, Glue dots, Fiskars Adhesive Foam Squares, October Afternoon Washi Tape, Hero Arts Stamp, Spellbinders Grand Cailber Die Cutting Machine and a Zig Writer in Pure Black.  Buttons and twine from my stash.

Step 1:  Create the folder to hold the photos.  I cut designer cardstock to 6 1/2" x 10", scored and folded it in 1/2 so it folds to 6 1/2" x 5".  I figured out how wide and deep I wanted my tab, traced it and cut so my final folder (not counting the tab) measures 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" when folded.  I decorated the inside with a journaling mat on the top flap, a mat to go behind the photos on the bottom flap and then stapled a strip of paper across bottom to tuck my photos behind and hold them in place.  Lastly, I used a generous amount of Scor-Tape on the back of the folder to adhere it to the page.

Step 2:  Customize the embellishments.  The sticker sheet for this paper collection had a sticker I wanted to use but the saying just wasn't right for my theme so instead of searching for something else, I decided to customize it.  I die cut a little circle, matted the sticker with coordinating card stock, inked the edges and added a number sticker, adhered it with a pop dot and voila, it went from saying One of a Kind to 2 of a Kind.

Step 3:  Decorate the inside of the folder and add photos and journaling.  I wanted to record the date we got the puppies and tell the funny story of how we tell them apart.  I used the letter stickers from the collection for their names, cut out a little tag from the patterned paper and stamped the paw prints across the bottom.  Then, just slipped the photos behind the stapled strip of paper and finished decorating my page with other circle cuts, buttons and washi tape.

Here's a close up of the journaling:

Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed my post for today.

Vroom...

Today's post makes me smile. I created this card for a challenge on the Play Date Cafe blog that featured the following prompt:

Make a project using black, white and a splash of emerald green.  With this challenge I riffled around my ever-growing stash of lovely paper and found the perfect collection  -- Happy Days from Echo Park.  I love the bright, retro imagery and have been wanting to use this car sticker ever since I got the collection last year from Crop Chocolate.  So, here's my happy card:

As I mentioned I used Echo Park paper and car sticker, SRM sentiment sticker, Queen and Co. rhinestones, foam adhesive from Recollections, Silhouette label die and Grand Calibur die cutting machine.

I hope you like it.

Snow Globes and Icy Snowflakes

Today's post is inspired by winter, snow and ice.  Although I live in Southern California where we never get snow, I love being in the mountains and watching snow fall -- especially when they're those big, fat snowflakes that slowly spiral down from a night sky.

It is with that in mind that I challenged myself to create this snow globe card.

I looked on You Tube for some tutorials to get me started and got some construction ideas from Libby Hickson's blog, Libby's Little Addiction.  But, in the end, I kind of winged it.  Here's how it did it:

Step 1: Gather your supplies.  I used paper and stickers from the Peaceful collection by Authentique that I purchased at cropchocolate.com, kraft, brown and green paper from Bazzill, twine from The Twinery, Color Box chalk ink in Moss, and pigment ink in Frost, foam adhesive and sparkle embossing powder from Recollections, Holiday stamps from Hero Arts, Perma Tac adhesive from Glue Arts, Beacons 3 in 1 glue, and buttons from my stash.

Step 2:  Cut brown cardstock to 11 1/2" x 5" and fold in half.  Using a circle cutter positioned slightly off the top of the fold, cut a 4 1/2" circle in the brown card -- CAUTION:  Do not cut a complete circle -- you need to leave the fold intact at the top of the card and leave the circle connected to the base at the bottom.

Step 3:  Cut the inner circle 3 1/2" -- this will be the opening of the snow globe. Then make angular cuts on the sides of the base of your snow globe -- 1/4" narrower at the top of the base than the bottom.

Step 4:  Cut a 4 1/2" circle in contrasting paper, make a straight cut across the top to fit the inside of the snow globe and adhere.

Step 5: Now for the fun stuff -- the decorations!  I cut pieces of patterned paper and Kraft card stock to layer on the base on the front and inside of the card.  I also fussy-cut the bird from the Authentique Peaceful Collection (Solitude pattern paper). Next I inked the edges of all the papers and applied foam adhesive to the bird.  I placed some pinecone stickers on the green cardstock and then adhered the bird on the green circle cut paper.

Step 6:  Cut a 4 1/2" circle out of acetate or plastic.  I used some packaging I had laying around.

Step 7:  Stamp snowflakes on the plastic circle using pigment ink, cover with sparkle embossing powder, remove excess embossing powder and set using a heat gun.  Be careful not to overheat the plastic -- it will melt.  (I found this out the hard way!) Now, glue the plastic to the inside front of the card with the  embossed snowflakes facing outward.

To finish, decorate the front of the card using stickers from the paper collection, buttons and twine and you're done!

Here is another card using this same technique I made for Christmas using Echo Park This & That Christmas Paper and stickers from Carta Bella Christmas Day collection.

New Weekly Challenge at PDC

It's another week and therefore another challenge at Play Date Cafe http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/.

I loved this week's color prompt:

I decided to use some oldies but goodies from The Paper Loft.  Here is the card I made using paper from The Paper Loft (fussy cut flower and rust-colored paper in the back), card stock from Canson, bling from Making Memories Paper Reverie line, sentiment sticker from SRM, card stock from Bazzill (2 shades of chartreuse/green), stamp from Stampers Best and tag and twine from my stash.

Blog Candy Winner

What a fun Crop Chocolate Blog Hop!  Thanks to everyone for stopping by and for all your sweet comments.  I hope you'll check back often and see what's new in my crafty world because I plan to make 2013 a busy, crafty year!

Now for the good stuff:

I used a random number generator to select two blog candy winners from my commenters/followers this weekend.  Drum roll please...the winners are:

#19:  Karen (Karey 2005)
#22:  Misty W

Please send me your contact information (to lauraann562@gmail.com) and I'll get your prize packages out today.  Thanks again to everyone for all your support.

Crop Chocolate New Year's Blog Hop

Happy 2013 Everyone!  I'm excited to be a new member of the Crop Chocolate design team and a part of this New Year's Blog Hop.  I've admired the fabulous projects the past design team members have created ever since I stumbled upon Crop Chocolate and their fantastic deals a few years ago -- and now I get to be part of the fun.

If you've hopped in order you've just come from visiting Becky (Becky - http://onceuponadelight.blogspot.com/) and you're almost done  -- thanks for stopping by. You are at lauraannsbreakfastpizza.blogspot.com and I'm Laura Sanchez.  If you want to start at the beginning, go to Amber's blog - http://ambaju.blogspot.com/ . And as a special thank you I'm going to select 2 people who leave a comment and follow my blog to win a little blog candy!

Here are few fun facts about me:

1.  My favorite season is Fall/Autumn because I love it when it's windy and cool and it's time to light a fire in the fireplace.
2.  I am still best friends with my high school girlfriends.
3.  I love to cook and I won a chili cook-off contest at my work.
4.  I have a huge scrapping area in my home and I've run out of space for my paper hoard!
5.  I am an 18 year ovarian cancer survivor (this is my favorite fun fact).

I also wanted to share the 2 projects I submitted when I applied to be on the design team:

#1:  Exploding Box -- I made this box using paper from Echo Park's For The Record collection that I purchased on Crop Chocolate.  I love making these and giving them for gifts.  They are so special and can be customized with photos and journaling.

#2:  Congratulations on your Baby Pop Up Card -- This was made using My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Boy paper, also purchased at Crop Chocolate.  I was inspired by a card and tutorial posted to CC by Scrappy Canuck.

Our design team will be posting new projects throughout the first half of this new year on cropchocolate.com and from what I've seen of the January projects, I know you'll love them.  You'll also love the great deals and fun, supportive community there.

Thanks for visiting.  Now for the sweets. Two lucky people who leave a comment and follow my blog will be selected to win a blog candy prize. I'll post the winners on this blog January 15th so don't forget to check back to see if you've won.

Now, on with the last stop of the Crop Chocolate Design Team hop!  Next up is Michele:

Michele - http://stuffbybelle.blogspot.com/

Card Entry for Play Date Cafe Challenge

This year I've challenged myself to get more involved in the scrappy community and one way to do that is to enter more challenges.

Today's post is to feature a card I made for challenge #163 on the Play Date Cafe blog. http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/ The challenge was to create a project using the colors champagne, sky blue and tangerine.

When I saw these colors I immediately thought of the Stella & Rose Mabel paper I had purchased at Crop Chocolate about a year ago.  I love these colors and they fit well into the challenge.

Here is my happy little card:

For this card I used the following:
My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Mabel designer card stock, chipboard sticker and trim.  The pearls and card base are by Recollections and the tangerine card stock is by Coredinations.  I also used Zip Dry glue.

Happy New Year - Welcome 2013

This is going to be an exciting year!  I am thrilled to have been selected for the Crop Chocolate design team and have already gotten started on some fun projects for the team.  We're having our first Blog Hop from January 11 - 14.

In looking back on 2012, I can definitely say it was a year of change.  Tyler headed up to Humboldt for college and we were faced with an "empty nest".  I was a little apprehensive about what that would be like, but have been pleasantly surprised with the changes in our lives.  We have gotten out more and found time to have fun and reconnect as a couple.  We even tackled a home improvement project (removing wallpaper and repainting our kitchen) and were happy with the results.

On a sad note, we lost my Dad in October.  We'll miss him dearly but know he's in a better place and rejoice in the fact that we had him in our lives for such a long, happy time.

As I look back on my crafty adventures in 2012 I am really proud of how I've pushed myself to learn new techniques and venture out of my comfort zone.  Here are some of my favorite projects from the past year:

#1:  I made these cards to thank two of my Dad's special care givers: 

#2:  I just love this cute little journal project I submitted to Instructagram:

#3: A card I made for my God Daughter for her birthday:

#4:  A card I made for one of my Instructagram.com tutorials -- Fussy Cutting:

#5:  The card I made for my Mom for Mother's Day:

#6:  A happy little card I made using S.E.I. paper and embellishments:

#7:  A card I did for a Crop Chocolate challenge using houses I made from Fancy Pants, It's the Little Things paper:

#8:  My two favorite cards from the Operation Write Home drive this past summer:

#9:  A card I made for my Sister In Law's birthday:

#10:  My first Design Team project (it's only a sneak peek since it doesn't debut until later this month):

Join me back later this week for the blog hop!