Day 91: Poppy Card in 3-D

We are travelling today.  I worked on this 3-D floral bouquet card while my husband was driving the van. This card is one of three from a kit by Dufex Crafts.

Day 90: Lisa Bearnson Cards

Tonight I made three cards from a Lisa Bearnson card kit.  Lisa Bearnson founded the first scrapbook magazine, Creating Keepsakes, in 1996 and she also had a series of DVDs you could purchase.  When you bought the DVD, you got free card kits with it.  I had purchased two of her DVDs and I had these card kits tucked away and finally got around to working on some of them tonight.

Day 89: Repeat and Get Ready

I'm calling today's post "Repeat and Get Ready" because I needed to stamp one of my light switch plates over again.  I don't know if I didn't let the ink dry enough before I sprayed the sealer on it, but I couldn't see any of the lines of the stamped images at all.  It just looked like I had a bunch of blobs on the light switch plate instead of a bird and flowers. I finally got tired of looking at it and being disgusted, so I took it down, dug out all the stamp sets I had borrowed images from, and re-stamped over my chalk coloring.  It looks like it should now.  So that is the "repeat" part of the title.  The "get ready" part of the title is because we will be travelling and I wanted to bring some things with me that I could work on.  So, I gathered together some supplies to make some 3-D art for some cards.

(Please note, I may not have computer access, so will have to write my daily blog posts when I return.  But, I will take photos and keep notes .)

Day 88: No Bones About It

I have two photos of my son that are exactly the same pose; however, one is in color and one is in black and white.  I ordered the color one and when I went to pick up my photos the next week, the photography lab had enhanced some of the photos, and I fell in love with how my son looked in the black and white photo, so I bought that one too!  I had purchased a scrapbook kit from my local store, The Scrapbook Corner, with the title "No Bones About It...I'm Cute", that featured  three paper-pieced dogs holding bones in their paws.  I had also purchased another kit from The Scrapbook Corner that had toads and the title for it was "Toad-ally Cute", but I didn't want to have the word "cute" in both titles, so I decided to title the dog kit "No Bones About It...I'm Adorable".  Then when I was playing around with the layout design and deciding where I was going to put the three dogs, I decided to put one dog on the left hand page and two dogs on the right hand page and change the title to {left hand page} "No Bones About It..." {right hand page} "I'm Adorable...x Two" to give note to the fact that there are two pictures of him in the same pose.

Day 87: Playing with Paint

I needed to scrap my son's school kindergarten photo, but to coordinate with the next page, I couldn't use the typical primary colors.  I went through my stash of papers and found "Khaki Plaid" by Kelly Panacci for Sandylion.  It is a blue and green plaid, set on the diagonal. One of the shades of blue looked good with the shirt my son was wearing, and the paper coordinated with the grandmother and grandson page I completed a couple of days ago.  But how to make the page look "school-ish"?  I jumped on the internet and typed in scrapbook school page to get some ideas.  One idea I liked was to use a piece of notebook paper behind the feature photo.  I found some ledger style paper in a pack of designer paper from Stampin' Up, and used a punch from EK Success to make it look like torn out spiral notebook paper.  Then I roughed up the edge of the notebook page so it would look ragged, like it does after you tear paper out of a notebook. I wrote the word "Kindergarten" and "2009-2010" with the teacher's name and the name of the school at the top of the ledger page (journaling pen by Creative Memories).  I found the class list and wrote all of the kids' names on the ledger paper. I set the ledger paper at an angle and then placed my son's photo on top. I used some ribbon that looks like a tape measure across the bottom of my son's photo, and attached a "k" stencil over the ribbon.  I also added a soft yellow "k" charm from Around the Block to the stencil.  Beneath the ribbon, I used some white sticker letters that look like a child's handwriting to spell out "Kindergarten 09".  I added a large letter K from Deja Views with star clips from Oriental Trading Company to the upper right hand corner of the page. I liked how the page looked, but thought it needed something else.  So, I got a sponge brush and a bottle of white paint (Plaid) and smeared it on the page randomly, even on my son's photo.  Too much white...so I got out a bottle of lettuce paint (Ranger) and added that.  Then a little more white. I never had so much fun making a scrapbook page and playing with paint!

Day 86: Lamb of God Easter Card

Tonight I made more Easter cards.  This one I call "Lamb of God".  The cross stamp, all papers, embossing powder, and markers used are from Stampin' Up.  The lamb stamp is a retired PSX stamp.  The names of Jesus background is from Morning Star. I used VersaMark ink to stamp all images on "crumb cake" card stock and heat embossed with brown embossing powder.  I colored the cross with markers, cut it out, and attached it with pop dots.  I also cut out the lamb and attached him with pop dots. I like the dimension the pop dots give to the card. This is one of my favorite Easter cards that I have made.

Day 85: Ode To Spring Easter Cards, Continued

I used my Big Shot die-cutting machine and the oval scallop frame die by Sizzix to cut an oval around my stamped image ("Ode to Spring", by Repeat Impressions) and to make a scalloped oval border (paper by Stampin' Up!) to frame the image. I guess I could have just folded my card and stamped right on the card and added the border after, but I had originally thought I would use a floral patterned paper behind the stamped image.  Then last night when I was in bed, I thought about using the scalloped oval frame to highlight the rabbit. It sort of looks like you are peeking through an Easter egg. I think these cards turned out really cute and I can't wait to give them to my family at Easter.

Day 84: "Ode to Spring" Easter Cards

Tonight I started to work on my Easter cards.  I am using "Ode to Spring" by Repeat Impressions (http://www.repeatimpressions.com/images/2605.gif ) as my focal image for my cards.  I covered the flowers with painter's tape and used VersaMark on the rabbit portion of the stamp, wiped off the painter's tape with an alcohol wipe, and then stamped onto white cardstock.  I then poured a pastel embossing powder (Stampin' Up!) over the VersaMark rabbit image.  Despite having the painter's tape on the flowers, embossing powder still wanted to collect where the flowers were supposed to be.  I just used a sponge paint brush to brush off the embossing powder in the areas where I didn't want it.  Then I heat embossed the rabbit. Using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line the images up, I then over-stamped the flowers in brown Memento Ink, and colored the flowers with Copic markers. Tomorrow I will finish the cards.

Day 83: Grandmother and Grandson, Continued

Today I dug through my stash of embellishments and found the perfect additions to my page. I found a blue and yellow title "Memories" (source unknown), which works with the blues and yellows of my papers. I used my white craft ink pad (Stampin' Up!) to lighten the blue a little bit. I found a title frame edged in green (3 Birds) that has a blue background with white dots, which echoes the green and blue dot pattern in the paper I chose for my photo mat (Stampin' Up!).  I also found two "love" embellishments to put in the corners of the photo (round gold love, unknown; rectangular love: Making Memories).

Day 82: Grandmother and Grandson

I started working on a page featuring a photo of my son and my husband's mom.  I have a background paper with sayings about grandmother (Masterpiece Studios), and I have layered several other papers (Stampin' Up!; My Mind's Eye) as mats, photo corners, etc. but it still needs something else.  I am going to go to bed and will work on this some more tomorrow.

Day 81: Stamped Flower Pot

My Mom's Book and Bible Study group is going to decorate flower pots for our United Methodist Women's Mother-Daughter Dinner.  I used a sponge paint brush to paint the terra cotta planter white, then used Ranger paint daubers to add blue and green to my butterfly stamp (Stampin' Up!).  It was a little hard to stamp on the pot, sometimes the edges of my wings are missing, but it looks cute.  Perhaps a smaller stamp would have stamped more fully. I added an orange ribbon with blue and green butterflies around the top of the planter (ribbon from Michael's). Once a flower is added, it will make a pretty centerpiece for one of the tables.

Day 80: More Die Cut Storage

I spent about 4 hours cleaning and organizing my scrapbook room today, so I am tired.  I made another container to store my butterfly die cuts.  I used a pretty flocked paper by Anna Griffin to cover my peanut can, and now I have pretty (and almost free) storage!

Day 79: Do Over

Okay, I looked at those "get well"cards again this afternoon and thought I would try a lighter color palette for the background.  I like the look of these cards a little better. They still need something else, though.  Maybe a floral print behind the argyle?

Okay, so I added a background paper and a ribbon:

Absolutely amazing what another piece of paper and a ribbon can do to dress up a card!

Day 78: Get Well Card

Tonight I stamped a wishing well (Sweet Impressions) on Neenah paper, then colored with Copic markers and Koh-I-Noor pencils.  The darker wishing well was colored with the Copic markers, the lighter one was colored with the Koh-I-Noor pencils.  I used gelly roll pens by Sakura to add some shine and glitter to the water and the roses on the cards. I used an argyle embossing folder (Cuttlebug) and tried to do the same heat embossing that I learned at the Stamp Scrap Art Tour workshop, but I had trouble getting results I was happy with.  I used the same technique, so either my VersaMark is old, or maybe it is the Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I do recall the instructor saying she found the Sizzix folders a little easier to work with for this technique.  I stamped "Get Well Soon" (Repeat Impressions) on a scrap of yellow paper (all papers by Stampin' Up!), added a couple of eyelets and used foam tape (Scotch) to add dimension to the wishing well and to the sentiment.

Any comments on which wishing well you like better?  I think I prefer the lighter one, which was done with the Koh-I-Noor pencils. The one with the Copic markers is a little dark; however, I don't have all that many Copic markers yet.  Maybe when I get a few lighter colors, I will be able to create lighter images with the Copic markers.

This is not one of my favorite cards I have made...still needs to be tweaked, but I'll get it figured out.

Day 77: Take Me Out To The Ball Game

I got my son's baseball layout all put together today.  I used two papers from my stash (manufactures unknown) that looked good side by side as the background pages.  On the left page, I used royal blue title strips from Creative Memories to back my title, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". I like to use hodge-podge alphabets, which are just a bunch of different styles of letters combined.  This is a good way to use up extra letters from prior projects.  These letters were from Colorbok, Around the Block,  and Buttons Galore, but they all worked together because they were all round and blue. On the right hand page, I just arranged the photos in a pleasing manner, then added some adhesive foam to the back of my son's baseball card to lift it up off the page and add some dimension.  I used some blue Sticko glitter letters to add "June 2009" at the bottom of the page. I will have to post photos tomorrow.  I have to go sell Girl Scout cookies with my daughter.

Day 76: Before the Game Show

It's late and I need to plan out what papers I am going to use for a layout for my son's baseball photos.  I know I have some baseball paper in my stash. ....ummm....NO...I don't!!..l Luckily I do have papers with circles on them.  Baseballs are round, so I will just have to find papers with circles that coordinate with royal blue, the team color.  I find two pieces of paper that work well side by side.  I decide I will use round blue letters to create a title,so I pull out all the ones I can find.  I sort through the photos I took of my son, choose 5 of the best and set those aside to use with the team photos.  Now, off to bed.

Day 75: Storage for Die Cuts from Peanut Cans

I have been organizing my scrapbook room and one thing I really need storage for are my die-cuts. I saved up some peanut cans, removed the labels, and added paper that reflects the style of die-cut that is stored inside.   I used a floral paper (Stampin' Up!) to cover one can, and I cut out the style of flower that is stored in the container and attached it to the cover.  I did the same to store my snowflake die cuts. The peanut containers are large enough to store several die cuts, and decorating them to reflect what is stored inside will make finding the die cut I need very easy.

Day 74: You Are My Sunshine

This scrapbook page needed to coordinate with the "Bob the Builder" page I designed yesterday, and the spattered background paper (manufacturer unknown) I used on this page works perfectly.  It has browns, grays, yellows, and of course orange.  I cut the sunflowers from another scrapbook paper (TPC Studio) and used pop dots to raise them up. The chipboard letters in tones of green, orange, and yellow pull the whole page together.  (Chipboard letters by 3 Birds and Colorbok; yellow paint,used to color cream letters, by Ranger.)

Day 73: Bob the Builder

My son took tumbling and had a routine to the theme music of the  "Bob the Builder" television show.  His costume was pretty simple, just a t-shirt, shorts, a hard hat, and a blow-up hammer. The photo was taken outside of the gymnasium at school.  I thought the gray brick paper (unkown)  and the red brick paper (Miss Elizabeth) would complement the brick wall seen in the background of the photo.  I used yellow letters from Creative Memories to spell out  the title and the date. The "Bob the Builder" figure on the left side of the photo is actually from the shirt he was wearing in the photo.  I cut it out and ironed fusible web on the back of it to give it body, and I used double-sided tape to attach it to the scrapbook page.

Day 72: Ballet Dancing Doll Card

I made this card for a little girl who is in the hospital with heart failure.  I thought it might entertain her since the ballerina moves (note the brads at her shoulders and on the tutu). The stamp is from Limited Edition.  I used Memento ink to stamp the ballerina doll on to Neenah paper and colored her with  the Copic markers that I won at the Stamp Scrap Art Tour. The background paper is from BoBunny.

Day 71: I Followed My Heart Card

Tonight I created this card using Darcie's U-Cuts :

Day 70: Stamp Scrap Art Tour: Day 2

Yesterday we made lots of goodies.  Today we shopped....and shopped....and shopped till we dropped!  I purchased stamps and supplies from:  Tessler Stamps, Seaside Stampin' Ink, Peddler's Den, Rubber Cottage, Repeat Impressions, Darcie's, Endless Creations and Everyday Cards, Just For Fun, and Morning Star. (If you are looking for nice, Christian rubber stamps, Morning Star has a wonderful selection.)

The first 100 people at the door of the show received a key to a treasure chest for a chance to win $100 in Tour Bucks to spend at the show. I arrived at 8:10 AM (doors opened at 10 AM, but since we had spent the night at the hotel that was hosting the show, when I woke up early, I decided to go sit by the doors).  I was number 3 in line.  I called Denise and Lisa's room and told them to come get in line.  We all got keys for the treasure chest, but unfortunately, none of them worked. There were six more chances to win $100 throughout the day, but none of us won those either.

At each show on the Stamp Scrap Art Tour, there is a charity raffle that supports Shriner Hospitals for Children. The winner gets a basket of up to $500 retail value.  We each purchased $10 in tickets, and,
drum roll....the winner was....ME!!  Denise and Lisa started screaming and pointing at me when my name was called!  It was a lot of fun looking at all the goodies in that basket on the way back home!  Many thanks to all the vendors that contributed to the basket and especially to Darcie's*, which contributed the vast majority of the stamps in the basket.

*Darcie's:  www.darciesllc.com

Here are three items from Friday's Make and Take that needed to get completed at home, so I finished them tonight:

Stamps and Card Design by Art Gone Wild (I think)

Stamps and Card Design by Seaside Stampin' Ink;
I added the lighthouse and shells from Buttons Galore
when I got home because I thought the card needed
something else

 Box, Stamps and Design

by Repeat Impressions

of Freeport, Maine

Day 69: Stamp Scrap Art Tour Day 1

I and two of my friends, Denise and Lisa, traveled to Rockford, Illinois, to attend the Stamp Scrap Art Tour.
We signed up to take an afternoon class on how to use embossing folders from Cuttlebug and Sizzix, VersaMark ink,embossing powder, and heat embossing to make beautiful cards.  The class was taught by Beth Wagner of Endless Creations and Everyday Cards from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Here are the photos of what we created at the Embossing Folders Class:

Stamps and Card Design by Endless Creations and Everyday Cards

Stamps and Card Design by Endless Creations and Everyday Cards

Stamps and Card Design by Endless Creations and Everyday Cards

Stamps and Card Design by Endless Creations and Everyday Cards

We also attended a Make and Take Friday evening.  The following pictures show what we made:

Stamps by Rubber Cottage; I altered card design to suit me

Stamps and Card Design by Raisin Boat

Pendant Using Glue; Technique taught by Tessler Stamp Company

Stamps by Stampscapes; Card Design by Peddler's Den

Stamps and Card Design by Just For Fun

Day 68: Sadly...More Cancer

A young (age 40) mom in my Mom's Book and Bible Study Group shared with us today that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I spent my time tonight making her a "What Cancer Cannot Do"* card in pink.  Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

* see Day 56

Day 67: Soccer Layout

I completed a two-page soccer layout for my son's scrapbook very quickly.  It just seemed to come together! I used soccer ball paper from The Paper Studio for my backgrounds.

My left-hand page just looks like one big soccer ball.  Then I have a horizontal 5" x 7" photo centered 0.75" from the top of the page.  I have two 3.5" x 4.5" photos that I placed on the bottom corners of the larger photo, angling them inward.  I used a soccer ball and a "swoosh" sticker in the space created by the three photos.  I cut a 2" x 12" border from a photo paper of grass and adhered it 0.50" from the  bottom of the page.   I thought the grass title strip tied the page all together, since all you see when you take photos of soccer games is lots and lots of grass! I used a 1.5" x 4.5" "Soccer" border by Laserline in the center of my "grass" strip.  On the left side of the "Soccer" title, I used stickers to spell out the month and on the right side of the title, I used numbers to create the date (these stickers from Creative Memories).

My right hand page is a black background with multiple photo images of soccer balls repeated over and over. I had 5 photos that I wanted to use, but a couple of them were shots from far away, and I wanted to be sure years from now we would be able to see our son, so I cropped out a lot of the background and made really narrow pictures. I angled them off from my longer photos.  I used some epoxy soccer embellishments from Creative Imaginations to add some visual interest, and this layout was complete!

Day 66: Birthday Party Invitations

Tonight I helped my daughter to use the Sizzix die cut machine and the "birthday cake" die to design her birthday party invitations.  She chose scraps of paper from my scrap folders and created six party invitations.  It was fun for me to assist her when she needed it and also to see what a good crafter she is becoming.

Day 65: Candy Land Layout Assembly

Today I attached all my photos and embellishments to my layout.  Here is the finished product:

 

Day 64: Candy Land Title and Cards

I wanted to place the title "Candy Land" on the first page of my two-page layout, and at first I thought about using some colorful primary alphabet stickers I had in my stash; but then I decided I would really like the title to use the same letters that are on the Candy Land game itself.  I wanted to work on this layout now, and not have to search the internet and then wait to receive something in the mail days from now, or run to area scrapbook stores to see if they had a Candy Land title.  So, I copied the letters on the cover of the game box, reduced the size, printed them out  on white card stock from Georgia Pacific using my HP Printer, and then fussy-cut them for the title.*  I ran the letters through my Xyron adhesive machine. I punched out nine 1.25 inch squares with a punch from EK Success using Real Red paper from Stampin' Up! and attached the letters to the squares. Then I punched out nine 1.375 inch white squares with a punch from EK Success on card stock from Georgia Pacific and attached those to the back of the smaller red squares.  I edged the squares in Real Red ink from Stampin' Up! to make it look like there was another layer of red beneath the white.  I thought there was not enough contrast between the white squares and the white background paper, but I did not have the next larger size square punch, so this was my quick fix.  However, that still didn't give me enough contrast.  I really wanted a red title strip to go underneath the letters, but the only red paper I had was 8.5x 11 inches and my scrapbook pages are 12 x 12 inches.  I have seen where people paint or ink acetate plastic, so I decided to do that. I have a stash of acetate plastic I have collected from product boxes, so I found a piece that was longer than 12 inches, and cut it to the dimensions I needed to make a title strip for my page (1.75 inches wide by 12 inches long).  I inked the acetate plastic with Blazing Red StazOn Ink by Tuskineko and left it to dry overnight. (StazOn ink is permanent on plastic or other slick surfaces, but drying time varies depending on what you are inking, so leaving it to dry overnight was a precaution so I would not smudge the ink.)

I began critiquing the second page and decided that the two matted photos, one embellishment from Jolee's and my journaling block were not enough, and that the page needed more. I decided to copy some of the playing cards and print them out and mat them and then lined them up down either side of my photos.

Satisfied with my progress, I decided to leave this and come back to complete the assembly of the pages tomorrow.

*Advice on cutting out the letters A and D:  to cut out the middle of the letter D: there is a slight separation where the D starts and stops at the top left of the D.  Using scissors with a very small, fine blade, cut along that separation and then cut out the center part of the D, following the inside of the D until you get back to the beginning.   Advice on cutting out the letter A:  make two copies for each A; then cut out the crossbar of the A on one copy and set aside; then cut through the crossbar on the second copy, following the lowercase "n" or upside down "u" shape; glue the crossbar on top of the "n"/ upside down "u" shape.

Day 63: Candy Land Layout Planned

My little boy has loved playing the game Candy Land from the time he was little, and still enjoys playing it, so I wanted to document his love of the game with a layout.  I selected "Bubble Gum Popsicle" paper by BoBunny to use as the background for my two-page layout.  This paper is printed on both sides; I decided to use the white side with multi-colored polka dots.  I thought the primary colors of the dots mimicked the colors in the game board. Since my son was wearing red, I matted my photos on "Real Red" card stock from Stampin' Up! I had purchased a set of Candy Land embellishments by Jolee's to use, so I arranged all of my photos and the embellishments where I wanted them on the background paper.  I will work on this more tomorrow.

Day 62: Fairies

I found this great paper by Graphic 45 that has these beautiful fairies all over it. Titled "Once Upon a Springtime", it made the perfect background page for this photo of my daughter.  In order to save the fairies that would otherwise be hidden, I cut out the center part of the paper behind the 8 x 10 photo and rose mat (American Crafts).  I fussy-cut the fairies out and will use them to make greeting cards.  From the text portion of the paper I saved, I punched out four photo corners using a corner punch by EK Success.  In each of the photo's four corners, I placed the photo corner, added two leaves from Jolee's, and a rose from Stampin' Up! I chose to use two blue roses and two dark pink roses because I wanted to pull in the colors from the fairies on the paper.  I wanted the photo to be the focal point of the page, therefore I did not title the page. I simply wrote my daughter's name and the date beneath the photo using a journaling pen from Creative Memories.

Day 61: Boy with Flower

How do you make a scrapbook page for a boy without having it look too girly?

From the time my kids were little, I always told them if they blew on the fluffy white dandelions gone to seed that they could make a wish. We always called them "wish flowers".  I wanted to capture that memory so on Mother's Day 2009, I snapped some pictures of the kids wishing on dandelions.

I used "Cotton Candy Popsicle" by BoBunny for my background paper. The wispy white flowers put me in mind of dandelions gone to seed.  I didn't want to embellish the flowers too much, but I thought the lime green brads (Oriental Trading Company) added a little dimension to the page.  The fuzzy blue letters from Pressed Petals convey the feeling of the wispy dandelions.  The green dragonfly (American Crafts) makes me think of the dandelion flying away on the wind once my son made his wish.  The words (My Mind's Eye) convey all those things we do when we make a wish; we dream, imagine, wish for the impossible.  I used letters by Marjolein Bastien to record the date.  Those letters were great to use as they are half blue and half green.  I tinted the photo yellow and added the writing on the photo at www.picnik.com. I think it is a great way to journal that does not use up other space on the scrapbook page.