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.