Day 212: #1 Soccer Player

Tonight I worked on 2 soccer pages for my son.

For the left page, I used a soccer background from Bella Blvd, the big round soccer ball paper from Reminisce, chipboard embellishments "soccer" and "#1" from Little Yellow Bicycle, and soccer ball stickers from Karen Foster Designs. I think it is pretty self-explanatory how this page went together, so I won't give details about what I did.

For the right page, I used a soccer collage paper from Little Yellow Bicycle as the background.  I selected 3 photos of my son and cropped them to fit inside the postage stamp frames (die and Big Shot machine by Sizzix; black card stock by Stampin' Up!). In the center of the two larger photos, I added a "soccer champ" sticker by Karen Foster. I used my date stamp from Office Max to stamp the month and year around the cluster of photos.  I used three epoxy soccer stickers from EK Success to add a triangle shape to the paper that helps to keep the eye moving across the page.  I added some info about the team, coach, etc., to the words at the bottom of the page with a journaling pen from Creative Memories.  Finally, I added my son's "soccer card" photo to the bottom right of the page and tucked another soccer ball sticker under the left side of the picture, further adding to the collage effect.

Day 211: OOPS!

I was flipping through the kids' Halloween albums for one last time before I put them away when I realized I was missing a photo of my son in his costume from 2005!  So, I had to search for my photo, as we have had several computers between then and now, and my husband just labels the folders things like "old computer pics" and "old, old computer pics".... Once I found what I was looking for, I printed it out and added it to the  ring of vintage Halloween post cards.

I also noted as I was flipping through that I needed to relabel some of the photos.  For whatever strange reason, my Dymo Caption Maker drops the letter "r", so if I  tried to print out the word "years", the "r" would not show up.  I tried scratching the "r" in with my paper-piercer; using a pen, and then tracing over it with a white gel pen; etc.  While I thought it looked "okay" while trying to add that mischievous letter "r" to the labels, a second glance today made me realize it didn't look so hot.  So, I instead of "3 years" or "10 years", I printed out "age 3" and "age 10" for a better look.

(Oh, and note to self...labels remove more easily from photos with a glossy finish than from photos with a matte finish.)

I am a perfectionist, I guess....who else would take this many days to add 2 photos to 2 albums?!

Day 210: Using Dymo Caption Maker in Scrapbook Albums

As I said yesterday, I was updating my kids' Halloween Post Card Albums when I realized I needed to label the pages with the kids' ages and the year the photo was taken. Today I used my Dymo Caption Maker to add labels to my son's album. Now we will know how old he was when he was into Thomas the Train, Spiderman, and Batman!

Day 209: Updating Halloween Post Card Albums

Tonight I decided I would add Halloween photos from 2010 and 2011 to my kids' Halloween scrapbooks. Each year, I adhere a photo of each of the kids in their costumes to the back side of reprinted vintage Halloween post cards. I have them on a single ring to make a cute flip book.  As I was flipping through the albums, I realized I needed to label each photo with my kids' ages and the year of the photo; otherwise 20 years from now, we will be wondering about those things. I thought about using stickers, but then the idea to use my Dymo Caption Maker popped into my head.  So, I made labels for my daughter's Halloween book tonight.

Day 208: Tag Album: Part 3

Today I selected the photos I wanted to use, uploaded my photos to a photo website, and had them printed in sepia tones so they would not compete with my papers.  I added the photos and embellished the tag pages.

Materials:  Papers: Generations by Simple Stories; Mod Podge by Plaid; pearls: Jolee's; metal bird, key, key hole: Tim Holtz; ribbons and lace with pearls, door handle, heart:  from my stash; crochet ribbon on page 6: Stampin' Up!; flowers on page 1 and wooden clock on page 2: Prima; tags:  Gallery J Creative Crafts

Since I always cover up the faces in my photos, I have shown you the tag book before I added the photos in the pictures below:

Completed Tag Album

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Day 207: Tag Album: Part 2

Today I added the hinges to the big tags.  The idea is that the tags stand up in an accordion-fold style so that it is not just 6 tags all lined up next to each other.  In order for this to happen, there have to be hinges on the back side of tags 1 and 2 , then on the front side of tags 2 and 3, then on the back side of tags 3 and 4, then on the front side of tags 4 and 5, then on the back side of tags 5 and 6. I did two sets of hinges on the back sides of the tags, one upper and one lower.  On the front sides of the tags, I only did a set of hinges on the upper part of the tags.  Reason 1:  since I had combined two kits that were supposed to make a tag book of only 3 pages, I didn't have quite enough hinges.  Reason 2:  I would have covered up important design elements if I would have used hinges on the lower fronts of the tags.  Surprisingly, it took me a couple of hours to get these hinges on!

Day 206: Tag Album: Part 1

Today I started working on a tag album.  A couple of years ago, I had purchased a couple of kits by Gallery J Creative Crafts that had these big press board tags inside.  I didn't want to make the kits; I just wanted the big tags.  I have always loved the saying "...all because two people fell in love..." and I wanted to put some pictures of my family on the big tags.  I finally found some paper by Simple Stories with the "...all because two people fell in love..." theme when I was at a scrapbook store and knew that I finally had what I wanted to make this come to life.  So today, I cut out all the papers and adhered them to the big tags with Mod Podge.

Day 205: Me and My Guy Dance

My daughter and my husband went to her Girl Scout "Me and My Guy Dance".  She wore the zebra print dress I scrapped yesterday, but this photo was printed in sepia, so I used pinks and browns to match the sepia tone of the picture.  Papers from Bo Bunny.  Flower buttons from Stampin' Up!  "Memories" title from Colorbok.

Day 204: Zebra, Zebra, Zebra

My daughter had her photos taken in this zebra-patterned dress, and I knew this zebra print paper by Recollections would be the perfect background page.  I used "pacific point" and "basic black" card stock from Stampin' Up! to mat the photo.  I made flowers using my Big Shot and a Sizzix flower die.  The leaves were some that I had punched from scrap paper while on a trip (see Day 145).  I used silver glitter brads from Stampin' Up! to add a little more glitter to the page.  The photo collage was made at Sears Portrait Studios, and the zebra print in the background of the collage is actually my daughter's dress!  How fun is that!!

Day 203: Thank You For Being A Friend

Our pastor preached about friendship today, and it got me thinking that I needed to let my friends know that I appreciate their friendship.  I made about 15 of these cards tonight.  All papers, stamps, and inks from Stampin' Up!

Day 202: It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Yes, I know it is July, but I needed to make a page for a picture of my kids with Santa. I used some designer series paper from Stampin' Up!; snowflakes, title, and journaling stickers from October Afternoon; and red "dew drops" from The Robin's Nest. The aqua and red give a little lighter twist to Christmas pages, and the patterns of the papers meld well with the colors the kids are wearing and Santa's patterned vest.  This page is for my son.  I made a similar page for my daughter, see Day 141, A Pastel Christmas.

Day 201: "Wild" Scrapbook Page

My son and I attended a Mother-Son Dance at his grade school.  The theme was all wild animals, so I chose to use several animal print and textured papers to create this scrapbook page.  I matted the photo on a golden yellow mat (Making Memories), then on a leather look mat (Marcella by K), and then on a black mat (Stampin' Up!). I cut four different prints into 6" x 6" squares and then attached them to a 12" x 12" piece of card stock [which is a good use for a paper you are not so keen on!].  The two papers on the left side of the page are from the "Safari Kids" collection from DCWV.  The flocked leopard paper is by Anna Griffin, and the brown zebra print is by Moxxie. Once I had all my different animal prints in place, I added my matted photo to the center of the page. I felt like the upper left print and lower right print were not as strong visually, so I used my "wild about you" stamp from Stampin" Up! to add even more texture to the prints. I spelled out my title "wild" using giraffe stickers from Momenta on the same brown leather paper I used as a photo mat. I layered that on top of more black card stock and trimmed the edges with my scalloped scissors from Provo Craft. Since the giraffe print letters were a little pale, I used a yellow Stampin' Write marker to add some yellow to mimic the layers of the photo mats. I punched a scalloped circle from black card stock to use as a background behind a re-purposed lion pencil topper.  Finally, I added black photo corners in each corner of the page to pull it all together.

Day 200: Future Football Star Scrapbook Page

I always get my kids' photos taken at Sears Portrait Studios.  They always do a really nice job on them! My son really wanted to take a photo with him catching the football.  The photographer managed to get the shot, then converted the photo to black and white, added two small color insets of other photos, and then did this great title "Future Football Star" and my son's name in an orange font with a royal blue shadow.  Orange is my son's favorite color, and the royal blue matched his shirt.  In order to keep most of the focus on the photo collage, I used a "varsity" numbers background paper from Jillibean.  I added two title strips from Creative Memories to make help emphasize the royal blue and orange font on the photo collage.  Then I added two arrows (Little Yellow Bicycle) pointing up, to help draw the eye up to the football in the photo.

Day 199: Touchdown Scrapbook Page, Continued

Today I continued working on the "Touchdown" football page of my son.  My chipboard letters were dry, so I added some silver dots to the letter "D"( it was manufactured by Deja Views) to match the "MVP" letters made by Little Yellow Bicycle. I used StazOn ink from Tsukineko and silver (heat) embossing powder from Stampin' Up to alter the color of some star clips purchased from Oriental Trading Company.  These added a little bit of pizzazz to the dark letters, and, also covered up a flaw in the letter V.  Sometimes having to fix mistakes or flaws ends up adding a little extra "something-something" to your work!  I also ended up trimming my son's 8" x 10" photo to 4.25" x 10" so that more of the football would show.  Don't be afraid to crop your photos...all I lost was some blue background , but I gained a much more interesting scrapbook page because I used an unusually shaped photo.

Day 198: Touchdown Scrapbook Page

I started working on a scrapbook page of my son tonight.  He had some photos taken for his birthday with a football as a prop, so I used a football field paper from Reminisce as my background paper.  Over that I layered a football die cut, also from Reminisce. I spelled out the words "Touchdown" and "Daniel" using letter stickers by EK Success. There were no numbers in that particular set of stickers, so I had to use some from Echo Park Paper Company to spell out "is 7" and the year "2010".  I want to add his initial "D" and the letters "MVP" to the page, so I inked them with black ink and will need to let them dry overnight.  I will finish this page tomorrow.

Day 197: Birds Sympathy Card

Unfortunately, I had to make a sympathy card tonight.  The birds stamp is from Just For Fun.  All other stamps, paper, ribbon, and punches used are from Stampin' Up!

Day 196: Cherish Anniversary Card

The punch and all stamps, card stock, and ink used to make this card are from Stampin' Up! The stamp set used is called "Baroque Motifs". I used Garden Green ink to stamp the swirled vine on to Very Vanilla card stock.  I then used Purely Pomegranate and Cameo Coral to randomly stamp flowers on the vines.  I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to align "Cherish" along two sides of the flowers and vines. I used my ticket punch on each corner of the Very Vanilla card stock.  I layered this on to Cameo Coral card stock and then on to a base of Garden Green card stock. This design was inspired by a card I received from a lady in my stamp club, so thank you MF.

Day 195: Card Prep

I need to make 6  cards for upcoming anniversaries, so I am going to make 6 all the same design.  Therefore, I cut all my card stock for my base card and two layers tonight.  Tomorrow I will stamp them.

Day 194: Curious George Birthday Card

I made this cute Curious George card for my nephew who will be turning two in a few weeks. I used Curious George paper from a kit by Blue Sky Designs and Real Red card stock (Stampin' Up!) as the base of my card. I used a piece of yellow fun foam as a base for a rectangle of the Real Red (SU) card stock and the Curious George punchout (BSD). I added that on top of the card base. Yellow ribbon and two red brads add the finishing touches.

Day 193: Adding Inside Sentiments to Pre-Made Cards

I usually make several cards ahead of time that are able to be used for several different occasions.  I wait until I need a card before I stamp the inside sentiment. That way, a card with a flower image could be used for anniversary, wedding, sympathy, female birthday, get well, etc.  Tonight I added verses to the insides of cards I needed for occasions for the rest of the month.

Day 192: Just Flying By...

I was inspired by the airplane card my son made for his dad yesterday to create this "Just Flying By..." card for my teenage nephew. I used card stock from Stampin' Up as my background for the sky and as the card base. I used masking to make it look like the clouds (All Night Media) were in front of or behind the hot air balloons (Commotion Rubber Stamps) and the plane (unknown). I used a cotton swab to pick up ink off my Stampin' Up! Craft White ink pad and swirled it inside the outlines of the clouds to make them look fluffy and airy. I colored the hot air balloons with my Stampin' Write markers.  I used Martha Stewartink on a cotton swab to color the plane silver.  I layered the sky scene on top of a gingham plaid photo frame I had in my stash and backed it with some white mulberry paper (Paper Reflections). I made the "Just Flying By" banner by using my square punch diamond style on each end of my rectangle.  I wrote "Just Flying By..." with a silver gel pen from Marvy, then wrote over that will a sparkly turquoise Gelly Roll pen (Sakura). I made another banner and continued the sentiment on the inside with "To Wish You a Happy Birthday!". I added a green metal swirl (Creative Impressions) as an accent on the left side of the card. Finally, I used Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up! on the airplane to bring it into the foreground and give the card some dimension. I allowed it to dry completely before scanning it to share with you.

Day 191: Making Cards with the Kids

Today the kids made birthday cards for their Dad using a variety of my stamps. My daughter made an animal themed card.  My son chose a plane as his main focus, since Dad is away for his job and "he will be flying back to us in a plane".

Day 190: Papa's Pocket Card

I used "Papa's Pocket" from Stampin' Up! to make a birthday card for my husband.  He collects pocket watches, pocket knives, and coins, so these images really suit him.  I stamped the images on an 8.5" x 11" piece of "Crumb Cake" card stock and then cut a section out to adhere in the center of my card.  I used a sheer ribbon on either side of the strip as a frame.  I fussy cut some of the remaining images and layered them on the first stamped image with glue dots to add dimension to the card.

Day 189: Painting a Sun Catcher with Copic Markers

Today my son asked me if I would paint with him.  I had a sun catcher that I had picked up at a garage sale that I wanted to paint and hang in my window; however, I did not find any paint for sun catchers in the kids' paint box. I decided I would try to use my re-inkers from Stampin' Up! Some colors adhered well, but others did not.  So, I thought I would try using my Copic markers.  They worked really well.  As I colored each section, I dried the sun catcher with my heat tool to make sure the color was permanent. I used Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up! to give it more dimension. I am excited to know that I can use my Copic markers for another craft!

Day 188: Books of Note Journal

I like to read and I like to write down summaries of the books, or sometimes even take notes chapter by chapter.  Rather than just using a plain old notebook, I buy a black and white composition book and cover it with scrapbook paper and decorate it.  For this one, I used a beautiful bird paper by Prima Marketing for the cover, and purple card stock from Stampin' Up! for the inside and back covers.  I used Smooch pearlized top coat to add some glimmer and depth to the pastel flowers and the bird's wing and tail.  I used some pearls from Jolee's to accent the center of the flowers, the bird's eye, and the keyhole (Tim Holtz). I tied a ribbon around the key and used Lock-Tite glue to adhere the key to the cover. I had some light-colored velvet letters in my stash and altered them with my Stampin' Up! markers for the "Books of Note" title. (I even altered a couple of numbers: turned my 9 into an "S" and turned a 3 upside down to make an E!) I added a multi-layered butterfly to add some more dimension to the upper left of the journal. Finally, I used a pretty variegated pink and purple crochet trim to accent the spine of the notebook.  Now when I write about the books I have read, I have a pretty journal to use to record my thoughts.

Day 187: A Boy Is A Joy

For this page of my son, I used this brown football paper from Echo Park Paper as a background to coordinate with the sepia tones of the photo.  The red wood paper I used as a mat for the photo and for the tag is from My Mind's Eye. I made some photo corners from a fabric tag by Making Memories and put the photo corners under the upper left corner of the tag and the lower right corner of the photo mat.  Usually I would put them on top; however, I think because the texture and color of the fabric made them look heavier than the red paper, they looked better underneath. The sign " A Boy is a Joy" was by EK Success.  I punched out the spots for the brads, added red brads from Oriental Trading Company and some twine from my stash.  I also cut a football  out of the background paper and used it to fill in the "o" in "boy". I used a football-shaped sticker from 7Gypsies to cover up the "o" in joy; the sticker says "amazing".

Day 186: Wild About You Card

I made this cute card for my nephew using "Safari Kids" prints from DCWV and solid card stock from Stampin' Up!  I ran the green paper through my Sizzix machine in a Cuttlebug embossing folder inked with VersaMark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder from Stampin' Up!

Day 185: Sailing Card

I made this card using scraps from my scrap basket.  The globe and travel log background was from a previous card project, as was the boat stamped on glossy white paper.  I sponged the glossy paper with blue ink, layered both pieces onto a piece of blue card stock and added a postage stamp of a sailboat that was also in my scrap basket.  All papers, inks, and stamps by Stampin' Up!

Day 184: Hat on Bench Card

The top note label was in my scrap basket, as was this bench with hat.  I layered both of them onto a piece of pink card stock to make a very feminine card. 

Day 183: Flowers and Gingham Card

I had this stamped and water-colored border in my scrap basket, added a gingham ribbon, and layered it onto pink card stock.  There is plenty of room left to stamp a sentiment such as "happy birthday" in the lower right corner when I decide who will receive it and for what occasion. Stamps, watercolors, and papers all by Stampin' Up!

Day 182: Hello Card

I made this "Hello" card using scraps from my scrap basket. I layered it all on orange card stock.  All stamps and papers by Stampin' Up!