Scrappin On The Side

I may not have blogged much lately, but I've still been scrapping

2012-01-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

If you have kept with me this far, thanks. Sorry for the crickets around here. I'm coming back with a bunch of eye candy though because even though I have not been blogging, I have still scrapped a little bit.

Today I have 4 pages to share. Three of them I started on Christmas break up in Montana. My mother-in-law and I had to get some craft time in while we were together. :) Of course, you never have everything when on the road though, so the last touches had to wait until I had some time here at home before they were truly finished.

This first one is a fun page about 5 years with my husband. We happened to be in the same spot in July 2010. I thought it was a great way to reminisce.

This second one is actually a 2011 page. My husband and I ran in the 100th running of the Bay to Breakers race. We got nice medals for finishing too. That is probably one of the heaviest embellishments I've added to a page! But we'll enjoy it more on the page rather than in a drawer.

This one was the oldest 2010 page I needed to do. This was quite the celebration to launch RunMonster out to the App Store back in May 2010. I had made a RunMonster for a different page way back when and it seemed only fitting to try it again for this page. So after finally getting my Silhouette software up to date and reinstalling Illustrator, I was back in business. And to add more fun, why not cut the letters and glue each one separately too...hee hee!

And the last page is another one that I did just this weekend. Since I was using my Silhouette for the RunMonster page, I figured to keep going (keeping with the green monster theme too) and do this Pixar page. I made the "patterned" paper myself with coloring pages found in the Internet set in a collage. I found Mike Wazowski at this site with great SVG files. It was a fun page to create.

And this batch helps me finish my 2010 group of pages...yay!

Well, hopefully that makes up for some of the lack of posting around here. Thanks for stopping by.

Doily Congrats with WMS

2011-08-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

I needed a wedding card for the wedding DH and I will be attending this weekend. As the bride and groom are more outdoor people and the wedding is in Yosemite, I went with a green and brown color scheme. But then to add some daintiness to the card, I went with Waltzingmouse's Doily stamps and some seam binding lace. I think it will go along well with the wedding in the great outdoors!

As for me, I'm also looking forward to my first trip to Yosemite!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday with Lace and WMS

2011-08-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

Hello! Just a short post as it is getting a little late here, and I need to head to bed! I just finished this card for a friend I'll be meeting up with tomorrow. I will miss her birthday this weekend but we're going to meet up for dinner and a drink for the occasion. :)

I used some of my seam binding lace in various yellows, oranges, and reds. Then all the stamps are from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Marin County Fair

2011-08-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

It's so great not doing pages in chronological order. If I did, I would be about in May 2010 for my general scrapping book and then July 2009 to get my wedding book even started! I had made the switch a while ago, but just being able to do another page from just last month still makes me happy. I thought the pictures from our trip to the Marin County Fair were just so fun and would be a fun page to scrap. Coming off the page about the Sonoma State Beach page, this is another in that weekend.

I wanted the pictures to tell the story more than anything. And as I chose this particular fair because of the graphic promotional materials (that's what DH says anyway), I had to include one of the main graphics from the map brochure. :) This was also the opportunity for DH to try out cotton candy for our "cotton" anniversary. We ate some of it, but it was more just the thought that counted since it wasn't his favorite.

Thanks for stopping by!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop - Flower Power!

2011-07-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to the next stop on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop. You should have come from Rachel's Blog. If not, be sure to start at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog for all the hop participants.

This month those hopping along are showing off creative ways of using flowers with our counterfeit kits for July. Now my entry in the hop is about Christmas, and no, I wasn't trying to do the whole "Christmas in July" thing...it just happened that way! I was inspired by one of the Gallery Idol participant's take on the current fabric challenge for the Top 10. She did embroidery with the help of this great stitch tutorial. To make a long story short, I figured the same could be done with crinkle ribbon, or in my case, lace trim!

So in the bottom right is my take on the flower challenge. I did the lazy daisy stitch with the help of drawing a circle on the layout and punching holes with my Big Bite. I then threaded the lace ribbon in petals of the flowers. I finished the flowers off with some fun Christmas brads. On top of that, I used the Twisted Sketches #111 sketch from this week as my inspiration for my layout.

And there you have it. Thanks for stopping by. Your next stop is off to Glinda's Blog!

Here's the list in case you are interested:

Counterfeit Kit Challenge: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Karen: http://icouldbescrapbookinginstead.blogspot.com/

Milissa: http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Angela: http://colestoucan.blogspot.com/

Christy: http://myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/

Emily: http://aplaceformyscraps.blogspot.com/

Alanna: http://scrapping-and-life.blogspot.com/

Linda: http://lindaspaperie.blogspot.com/
Caryn: http://thescorpiancrafter.blogspot.com/

Rachel: http://creativekokes.wordpress.com/

Laurie: http://lalybi.blogspot.com/

Glinda: http://razzledscrapper.blogspot.com/

Gabrielle: http://nomorelittlemonkeys.blogspot.com/

Sonoma Coast - Counterfeit Kit Challenge Layout

2011-07-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I'm finally posting a layout that I've had on my desk a few days, just waiting to be glued down. This is a layout from July 4th weekend with my DH as we explored up north in Sonoma County along the coast. I was inspired to do these pictures now due to one of the pieces of paper in my Counterfeit Kit with a bunch of summery sayings by American Crafts. Instead of using the page whole, I cut apart the sayings to make my own kind of paper. And some of the little flower images in the page turned into cool buttons with the help of my new button tool! :)

I can barely believe that July is almost over! Summer is going by too fast!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sometimes good things take time...

2011-07-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

So in May I posted a layout about my trip to the Great American Ballpark with my bestest friend in Cincinnati. It fit the Waltzingmouse Stamps waltz theme for red, white and blue. It used the Bitty Banners from WMS.

I was happy with it, but after taking the picture of it to put on the blog, the layout sat out of an album (I need to reorganize what I'm doing with my albums since the latest one is bursting...but that's for another time). Every time that I came into my craft space I felt there was something missing to the layout. So one day I just tried a few more things: added the white stars from the Way Out West WMS set and the chipboard sayings. I also had the bright idea to emboss the stars....

DO NOT PUT A HEAT GUN BY SPORTS TICKETS!

I accidentally started to turn the tickets on the layout black on the side! So then the layout sat out of an album again for a few weeks. I needed something to hide that unsightly burn mark. Enter the star from The Craft's Meow set designed by Claire of WMS! This was what I needed for the theme of red, white and blue and the baseball theme of the pictures.

So here's what it now looks like. I think I'm finally happy that the layout has that extra punch that it was lacking. I even added a baseball with an epoxy pop dot sticker. Nothing like making your own embellishments! What do you think? The second round a bit better? Would you have even known that I had burned the tickets if I hadn't told you?

July Counterfeit Kit!

2011-07-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

It may be halfway through July already, but I didn't want to miss out on participating with the July Counterfeit Kit Challenge. I had a great time picking papers for this kit. As there are a lot of little pieces in the original kit, I just plan to put those in as I create my projects rather than pick them out. But I was able to include a few fun other things including polka dot letters, travel Thickers and a Smash book date stamp. See, it's new in the package...I think it's time to take it out!

You might also see I got another fun toy thrown in there too. I was so lucky to get picked for the June prize over at the Counterfeit Kit blog! Woot! I'm going to try to use it in my July kit for sure. Thanks again to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge coordinators and SoCal Scrapbooks (the June sponsor).

Now to make some fun projects!

Mojo Monday #198 - Happy Birthday

2011-07-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

A simple red, white and black card for the latest Mojo Monday contest. I was inspired to use just one accent color due to the buttons for the flowers. I even included a little lace...a rarity for me! Stamps are Papertrey Ink (Everyday Button Bits) and Waltzingmouse Stamps (Frame It).

Thanks for stopping by!

July 4th Weekend and WMSC54

2011-07-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little post about the July 4th weekend and a card for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #54.

My card for WMSC54 is the card that I gave to my husband for our anniversary this past long weekend. It's our second anniversary so the theme is cotton, but I couldn't help but to incorporate a little paper too. For cotton, we got some cotton candy at the county fair that we went to. :) It was the first time my husband had ever tried cotton candy! The sentiment for the card is from Half Pint Heroes.

Here's a few other pictures from the weekend. We drove up to Santa Rosa Sunday after attending the Marin Country Fair. Then Monday was a tour of the coast at Sonoma Coast State Park with stops in Sonoma itself and Napa. We even caught some fireworks Monday night back at home...a perfect ending to the anniversary weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop!

2011-06-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

It's that time again...the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop! This month the theme is "The I's Have It," where each counterfeiter shows how they interpret the challenge incorporating the letter "I." If you have come from Milissa's Blog, you're on the right track. (You can refer to the list below or return to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog if you get lost along the way.)

With that out of the way, I present to you my interpretation of the challenge. I don't usually do layouts just about myself, but since I had a birthday photo from last month that I wanted to scrap, I thought I would give it a try. The picture was a fun one of the Angry Birds that my DH got for me. Pair that up with the calendar page from Fancy Pants Designs that I have now included in two counterfeit kits, I was determined to use it this time!

I found some fun number/calendar stamps by Autumn Leaves at a recent used stamp sale at a LSS too. I found these were perfect for the calendar blocks. And the title, since it was my 29th birthday recently, seemed appropriate. :) You can always hope to not turn 30, right? Hee hee!

So there you have it... Thanks for stopping by my little blog on your hopping journey. Your next stop is Amarilys' Blog. I can't wait to see what everyone came up with for this challenge. I hope you enjoy the hop!

Here's the blog hop list for reference:

Counterfeit Kit Challenge: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/

Karen: http://icouldbescrapbookinginstead.blogspot.com/

Milissa: http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Laurie: http://lalybi.blogspot.com/ <--- You're here!

Amarilys: http://amadrian8.blogspot.com/

Rinda: http://gallorganico.blogspot.com/

Stacey: http://ohschwietscrap.blogspot.com/

Helen: http://craftimperfect.blogspot.com/
Emily: http://aplaceformyscraps.blogspot.com/

Becca: http://lajoliefleurrouge.blogspot.com/

Glinda: http://razzledscrapper.blogspot.com/

Jen: http://jennifer-shaw.blogspot.com/

Bethany: http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/

Ad-Inspired Card Layout

2011-06-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, one of the June mini challenges is to create something with inspiration from an advertisement. I found this Citi ad and thought it would make a great card layout.

Here's the ad:

Here's my take with a card using papers from my June kit:

A fun challenge! And I used my June counterfeit kit! This is only my first project for the month I've posted, but I am ready for the Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop on the 28th, so this card is actually my second project I've created. With a few days left of course, I hope it isn't the last.

Thanks for stopping by!

WMS June Waltz - July 4th/Americana!

2011-06-17T00:27:00.000-07:00

So there was no need to schedule this post. I just finished this page for the waltz today. Doesn't get more Americana than a baseball game, does it? This layout is from my trip to see my best friend in Ohio for a Cincinnati Reds game, which happened to be opening night of the Reds' season. And this California girl had to borrow a winter coat that night cause it was a little chilly by the river! Hee hee! I used Bitty Banners for some fun Americana banner embellishments to the page.

Okay, a short post cause I'm now going to head to bed. I look forward to seeing what everyone else creates for this month's waltz. Be sure to check out the WMS Forum for all the waltz details!

Thanks...now to catch some zzz's! :)

WMSC #51 & Gallery Idol

2011-06-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today. I wanted to make sure that I got this card submitted as I've been working on it for the past two evenings. It has a lot of fussy cutting to get all those flower layers. I did think that layering the little flower images in the Say It With Style set was the perfect excuse to combine the WMSC51 sketch (by a good friend even!) and a submission for the Gallery Idol open auditions. It was the inspiration for the scored box and the three flowers. I want to say that I just flipped the sketch so it was from the left instead too. You can see it right? I teamed the flowers with the trusty "Congratulations" sentiment from the same set.

Here's the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - The June Kit

2011-06-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

After participating in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge a few months back and skipping a few months as I was busy with school, I am happy to say that I'm all ready for June! I enjoy putting together the counterfeit kit based off a brand new kit because it helps me shop my stash, where in some cases I find papers I didn't even know I really had! That goes for this June kit, for example. Here's my kit:

There are a lot of flowers and pink in this particular kit. Flowers and pink are things I like about the papers when I am shopping scrapbook stores, but I seem to keep to simple designs and even plain cardstock a lot lately in my scrapbook pages. But by trying to stay as true to the challenge inspiration kit as possible, I'm hoping to stretch my creativity limits with the pages and projects I use it for this month. I have no particular projects, photos or layouts in mind when I look at this kit right now, but I am looking forward to what I'm going to do with it. (One thing I do have in mind is making my own embellished butterflies, hence the inclusion of my trusty Martha Stewart butterfly punch.)

Best of all, I get to participate in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge again! I look forward to seeing what others do with the same kit as inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

WMSC #50 & June CASE Competition

2011-06-07T19:18:00.001-07:00

I needed a birthday card for a friend. I never seem to have enough birthday cards on hand. Heck, I don't have the biggest stash of cards to just give out...need to work on that! But when I do need one, I know the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge is always a good place to look for inspiration. Sketch #50 was no exception. I also decided to base my card off of DT member Anya's card she made for the same sketch. I just changed around which WMS stamps I used: the cupcake from Frame It and the polka dots from Off-Beat Backgrounds. I really liked the simplicity of the design.

Be sure to check out the WMSC50 and June CASE competition going on. :)

Now off to the post office with this one so it can make it to its destination on time, hopefully!

Thanks for stopping by!

New additions to the family

2011-05-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Little did we know when we adopted two new kittens into our family how helpful around the house they would be. They help you use your computer (or iPad) and then even help with the laundry! Guess they are keepers! Also, since they have now been officially scrapped they have to stay in the family now. :)

Meet Pixie (the black and white) and Micron (the grey and white). They are our two new members of the family. We got them last weekend and have been working on getting Hannah used to not being the only cat in the house. So far, so good, as long as we take it slow. She at least stays in the same room as the rest of the family now. The first few days she wanted nothing to do with us if we had kittens in our laps. But can you blame her? If anything, having the kittens has brought more kitten-like qualities to her though. She loves that we have new toys and play with her fishing pole and feather toys more now, even if she does have to share them with these newcomers.

For this layout I was inspired by the sketch over at Sketch Support. It looked like a fun sketch to try out and I'm liking the use of the four different papers. Sketches are good at making me stretch out and do some more papers on a page than just one or two. I even got to use some old embellishments that have been in my stash for a while. Win-win!

To close out this post, here's some more pictures of our new additions.

Love, Honor & Cherish - Wedding Card

2011-05-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

Have a good high school friend getting married this coming weekend so I made this little card using her colors from the save the date and invite that we got in the mail. I really like the royal blue with the black. I tried out my new Momento Tuxedo black ink with this one. So nice to have fast-drying ink! I always want to do a card start to finish so I think this ink will be a great way to do that without the chance of smudges. :)

A pretty simple card really, but I think it's effective. I've since sent it on its way to Iowa. :) I hope she likes it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Congratulations - WMSC48

2011-05-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Over at the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge there is the challenge #48 going on right now. I always find great inspiration from the sketches over there and today was no exception.

I needed a congratulations card and the many circles were my inspiration for all the hearts. First, the box was going to be full of the hearts, but I decided instead to change it up a little and use the Say It With Style frame and sentiment in the middle. Also tried a new trick to get my ribbon through the card front but only in the space of the center square. I'm pretty happy with the result. :)

Be sure to head over to the challenge blog and play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Wedding Layout

2011-05-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a layout from a May 2010 wedding DH and I went to in sunny Florida. The couple had the wedding on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. (Actually, it was exactly one year later today!)

The picture I used is one of their professional photographer shots. They had group photos with their guests after the ceremony. This shot was of most of the crew from Peoria. Since it was of high DPI I decided that it would be better to make it fit over a good portion of the page so that all these people were not tiny in a regular 4x6. I'm kinda liking the different style even.

Well, I should be off to study, but I think instead I'll try and work on a few things in the craft area. I did learn of a new engagement card that I need to make now. I'll be getting a SIL here pretty soon!

May WMS Waltz - Masculine Cards

2011-05-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Just getting this card in a little late (but it is still the 17th here in California!). I was inspired by what I was seeing people do with the Western sets for this month's WMS Waltz for masculine cards. So I got out my own set and tried my hand at it. It took a little work to get the right difference in ink coverage for the three western rider and horse, but I think I got it now.

The card was missing a little something so I added some twine (the substitute for ribbon but still okay for guys, right?). I think it finishes the card off nicely.

Thanks for stopping by my little blog. Hopefully this will be the start of my comeback to the paper crafting world. Just two finals left this week and then I'm free for the summer!

Two cards for WMSC44

2011-04-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #44 for these two cards I created today. For one, it was a great sketch that reminded me to use those Cuttlebug embossing folders I had in my stash! I sometimes forget how cool an effect these little folders can make, and such a simple technique too.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my two takes! For both, I turning the sketch on its side. I tried out the sketch with this first one, which is a basic interpretation of the sketch. The stamps used here are from Holiday Labels 14 and Frame It. This is a card being sent off to two friends that found out they are having a little boy come August. :)

And then also wanted to try it out with some paper with a white core so I could sand the embossing a bit for a fun, distressed look. More of the crinkle ribbon was used on the second. The stamps used here are from Holiday Labels 14 and Frame It once again. I did some masking to the sentiment so it would fit inside this small label.

And now I've sent off all the packages and cards I need to for the lot of birthdays of family and friends that happen about this time. Some will even get there early...some about right on time. But they are all out, so that makes me happy. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

WMSC42 - Birthday Wishes

2011-04-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of getting together a few birthday cards in the mail here today. I needed another and turned to the trusty Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge blog for some inspiration. The sketch for WMSC42 was just perfect for what I wanted to achieve with this card. I simply asked DH for a color and went from there. It had been a while since I had done a WMSC challenge so it was high time to submit again. :) And great news to see another Mischief Maker has been added...congrats Kelly!

I did do one little trick for this card. Did you catch it? I used the March released Bitty Banners for my sentiment part of the sketch. Only thing was that I wanted it a little longer so I stamped it twice for almost twice the length. Just masking off the particular end I didn't need for each time I stamped accomplished this quite easily. I also pulled out my trusty Martha Stewart butterfly punch and some pearls for a little added touch.

Here's the sketch:

Okay, off to get these cards in the mail!

WMS SOAP CASE Challenge

2011-04-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

(Do I have enough acronyms in that post title?)

Waltzingmouse Stamps Stamp Of Approval Copy and Steal Everything Challenge.

Yay for Fridays! I just finished my first week at my new job and so far so good. I'm in training right now of course, but things are looking good. I think I'm going to like this new company and job. I even had a little bit of time to get out some WMS stamps!

Here's my entry for the CASE challenge. I CASE'd Anya and her great gradient stamping. I switched to the Say It With Style set (one of my all-time favorite sets). Also in there is the sentiment border from Fancy Phrases. And from a purchase from the Scrapbook Expo a few weeks ago, I used some of my new crinkle border ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dam Dog

2011-04-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

She ate the whole thing too. Finishing up the pages from my time in Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam, is this page about the Dam Dogs. They serve a huge hotdog over at the restaurant by the Hoover Dam. It's definitely a gimmick for the tourists to try and eat this foot long hotdog, and even my friends and I had to take part. My friend Alicia even accomplished the task too!

To keep with the fun of the event, I went with papers from American Crafts' Celebration line. Don't you think it makes the page a bit more fun? I'm pretty happy that I separated out the hotdog photos from the other pages. And I think I should get an award for finally using that rippled blue piece...that has to be one of the first scrapbook supplies I ever had in my stash. So happy that it finally made it on a page!

Thanks for stopping by!

Queen Mary Wedding

2011-03-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

In October 2010 we headed to Long Beach for a wedding of two friends on board The Queen Mary. I have to admit, it was a pretty cool place for a wedding! As a bonus we got the self-guided tour of the ship. I finally got to see more of the ship, such as the engines and propeller. (I didn't get to see these on my previous tour way back in 2005 when I was in Long Beach for the Society of Women Engineers Conference.)

A little story about this layout now. The recent stamp releases of Waltzingmouse Stamps and Lawn Fawn played a part in the concept of this layout. Waltzingmouse Stamps recently released the Way Out West background set and Lawn Fawn released their Say Cheese! set. Inspired by the wood paneling of The Queen Mary (did you know that it served as an advertisement for all the different types/vaneers of wood paneling?), I used the woodgrain stamp from Way Out West to create my paneled floor. Then as a lucky winner of the Say Cheese! set, (Thanks, Kelly Marie & Lawn Fawn!), I knew these pictures would be perfect for my first project with the polaroid set. For this wedding came at a time when Instagram (developed by another friend) came out and we were all using our phones to snap photos with the various filters. Conveniently the photos from Instagram are already cropped down to squares even!

So I think this layout was just begging to be made when all these pieces came together so nicely. I hope you like it! :) I was going for a scene layout I guess: I wanted it to look like the invite, room key and pictures were just laying on the paneled floor. Does that come through? If you can imagine, I was "randomly dropping" the polaroids on the page until I got a configuration that I liked. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Lake Tahoe

2011-03-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

It's only, what, two days to go in the month of March? Well, here's my first project using my March Counterfeit Kit. Unfortunately March got a little busy and I didn't get as much time to play with this kit as February, but I'm still very happy to be participating in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge!

I don't know if I would have put these papers together otherwise. And it was nice to have the kit on hand to use for this layout. It was going to be a two-pager but then I just liked this one and didn't want to add much in the green space to make it correspond to another so it stayed like this. I feel these pictures summarize the fun on our Labor Day weekend trip nicely too.

Everything came from my kit except the ribbons.

I'll be scheduling some other layouts for the rest of the week. Hope you come back! And as always, thanks for visiting!

Just had to share...

2011-03-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever spent so much time on a custom piece of cardstock! But when you have a vision for something, you do whatever it takes, right? And yes, I think there's a patterned paper somewhere that is this kind of concept, but making it myself is cooler! So here's my wood floor inspired custom work with the help of the latest Waltzingmouse Stamps Way Out West background stamp set.

Now I set my sights on what goes on this little wooden floor. A hint is that in includes the Lawn Fawn Say Cheese! stamp set...

I'll have a layout (maybe even this one) to post Tuesday!

Hoover Dam

2011-03-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

I'm on Spring Break! Woot!

I took yesterday to do a little shopping, but today is all about being at my craft desk. (And while I don't want to admit it, Monday and Tuesday will be homework days.) But back to the happiness of finally getting another layout finished, right?

This one is about the Hoover Dam trip I took with my two best friends. It's a part of the Las Vegas trip that we took in August 2010. As engineers, we had to make this detour to see this great engineering feat. For the layout I went a little crazy with circles, I'll admit, but I think it makes it fun, and the pictures included in here were all about fun too. We took the obligatory Arizona/Nevada pic and then did you know there are moose at the dam too? :)

Thanks for stopping by! Now back to my craft day. I'll have more to post throughout the week.

Yes, I'm alive...

2011-03-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since my last blog post, yes. I did just want to drop in a quick moment to say that I am still alive. And I have a little card to show that I haven't put on the old blog yet, so thought this would be the perfect time to do so.

The past few weeks have been interesting in my job life, but that should be settling down here pretty soon. With that settling, it should give me a bit more time, which is hopefully some craft time, since I won't be worrying about it as much anymore. Of course, school is always bound to pick up. This week I have a midterm to study for so even though I have a little time right now and my craft desk is calling my name, I'm going to be a good student and keep to the books tonight. (Hence, this side track into at least a blog post.)

So the card I have to share today was one I submitted to the recent Paper Crafts Go-To Sketches call. Unfortunately the sketch that I chose was also one of the most popular so it had a lot of competition. But I got out my cute little Critters in the Burbs stamps from Lawn Fawn for this one. I also used some patterned tape that is all the rage in the scrapping world, a find from the Michael's $1 bins. I think it came out cute, don't you think?

In other news, I did head over to the Scrapbook Expo that was held in Pleasanton on Saturday. I forgot about the possibility of paying for parking, so it was a little high to get in plus parking, but I made the best of it since I'd already made the trip in the rain. Loved looking at all the papers and embellishments. I tried to get a few pieces that would be fun to use for a little something different and also as possible Counterfeit Kit pieces. And thank goodness for those exhibitors that took credit card, cause most of my cash went to my ticket and parking! The one that didn't...well, they didn't get my business...

But of course the best part about Saturday was seeing one of my favorite crafters!! Ren-Yi was in town due to a wedding and we met up at a local In-N-Out Burger for lunch and the mall. It was way too short a visit but good all the same. She has the photos or I would post them now. We talked crafts when we had a free moment of course. So glad that we were able to meet up. :)

So, thanks for sticking with me on this little hiatus. I sure can't wait for summer when it will be just working and crafting like the good old days in Peoria. This whole student thing is just cramping my crafting style!

March Counterfeit Challenge - The Kit!

2011-03-09T22:40:00.000-08:00

I just finished putting together my March Counterfeit Kit! The challenge was to go off of the popular Studio Calico "Into the Woods" kit this month. I have a friend that gets the Studio Calico kit so it will be fun to make pages with her but with my counterfeit kit. And for that I tried to match the papers and style of the original kit as much as possible.

I don't think I would have figured to put some of this together on my own, but hey, if I learned anything last month, just go with it. I even think the pages that I finished last month were some of my better ones too. Although who can pass on an opportunity to scrap a pic of Hannah the pirate?

So I have the main kit done. We'll see if I want to do some of the add on kits too. :) Yay for another month of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge! Do you think you can handle the challenge? It definitely is a great way to shop your scrapbook stash and find papers that you might never have put together or known you had into a fun kit.

Thanks for stopping by...

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop!

2011-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hello! Welcome to my post for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop! You should have come from Glinda's Blog. If not, be sure to head over the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog for all the details on the hop and to get the entire list of blogs participating today. All of the projects along the blog hop today are showing off interpretations of the Scraps of Darkness sketch, which is the same place the kit for February was the Counterfeit Kit Challenge's inspiration for shopping our stash of supplies to make similar kits.

The sketch we went off of was the following:

And here's my take:

This marks the second project I have made with my February counterfeit kit. But even so, I found once again that having my supplies in a kit made for a fun challenge as I was limited in what I could use and it made me stretch my stash of supplies. Elements such as the flowers, heart brads and the papers have been in my stash for quite some time. And with already having it in a kit of papers that I felt went together, it was easy to use multiple patterns all together! (Look, no plain cardstock on this layout!)

The layout is about my sweet husband just from this past Valentine's Day. He made me yummy homemade pizza with all red toppings for dinner that night. It was a welcome surprise to come home to as I had class late that night. I love that we're able to have a little fun on Valentine's Day and really, every day. That's what I wanted to capture with this layout.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hoppers. You're next stop is Margie.

Thanks for stopping by!

WMS February Waltz - Buttons!

2011-02-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my little blog during the Waltzingmouse Stamps February Waltz! Those of us that like the great stamps Claire comes up with always have a little fun the 17th of the month making projects with our stash of stamps. This month the theme was buttons along with WMS stamps.

I don't use buttons a lot, but they are fun. I was at a loss for what kind of a card I could make that incorporates buttons though. But when I needed to wrap up my husband's Valentine's Day present I had an idea that I thought would work for using some pretty cool WMS stamps and letting me get some buttons into the project too.

So here's what I came up with:

I used the heart from Celtic Heritage and one of the text background stamps from Text It. And tada! a custom bag fit for Valentine's Day. I'm picturing it here with the card I made and even posted about earlier (but hadn't specifically said it was for DH at the time...but who am I kidding, it was). It was my inspiration for making the hearts match the card with the white Text It stamp on top of the red.

I just used a mask with some scrap cardstock that I had stamped the image on and cut out. Overlaying that over each of the hearts on the bag made sure the text was only on the red. Imperfections I figured were just part of being homemade and rustic since I used twine in the buttons (no naked buttons!) and the bag handles were with the same type of material too.

Here's a detail shot:

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to see all the waltzers this month by heading over to the Waltzingmousehouse Forum. There's always lots of good dance partners at a WMS waltz! Now off to see what others did with the button challenge!

Hawaii Book, Post 5

2011-02-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

This page is about our adventures along the northern part of Maui. We had some time to kill before the luau that evening so we drove up along the shore. It was really cool to view the rain in the distance and the resulting rainbows over the water, being blown away with the wind (very windy on that part of the island), and the homegrown pineapple stands. We saw some awesome views of the island geography too.

I kept the page pretty simple, but did use a fun laser cut I got at the Maui scrapbook store Island Paperie. The title is a long ago bought set of stickers. I thought it was appropriate. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hannah as a Pirate

2011-02-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

So over the weekend I had a little fun with my Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit. But to be able to use these reds, pinks and blacks I needed a picture that was going to work with them. While going through my iPhoto app I spied the Halloween picture DH took of dear Hannah as a pirate. I remember that she wasn't very amused but it was just such a good shot (she actually held still long enough for it) that I wanted to make sure to scrap it.

To help with that, I found a bit of inspiration over at the blog Moments of Tranquility. I don't know her at all but I came across her beautiful pages with fun lacing and just had to try it. Course, for a page about a cat pirate mine would be okay to look a little rough. Planned it that way of course. And I was also inspired by the latest PageMaps sketch challenge, and even used some Basic Grey cause I had pulled some for my kit!

Here's my take:

Here's the sketch:

So with those three things to inspire me I set out to do this page about Hannah as a pirate! I even pulled out my Silhouette machine and with not too much headache made the little pirate flag and her name with that. My distress tool got a workout on the paper, I ran out of gold eyelets and had to get more (oh darn, a trip to Michaels), and maybe had a little too much fun with my antique linen distress ink and twine. But, what do you think?

The page is an 8x8 because that's the size book I have saved for Hannah. Yes, she has her own book! This is only the second page in it, but we have lots of Hannah pictures so I know that it won't take much to fill it once I start doing her pages.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Hawaii Book, Post 4

2011-02-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here's another fun Hawaii book page complete. This one is about our time at the luau that we went to one of our first days in Maui. We missed on doing this type of activity the first time to Hawaii and I didn't want to miss out on it this time. It's just one of those things you have to do, you know?

The show and food was pretty good. I also liked the leis of course...my favorite flower. :) We took a picture with our server who was also in the show as a drummer (the bottom picture). And while putting this photo together I noticed there was a lot of pictures of our 4-person group individually, but with limited space and wanting to capturing the essence of the luau, I decided instead to include a shot of the roasting pig. HAHA! The layer below the page is the program from the night. I thought it doubled as a good accent piece quite well too. The stamp border I used is another Island Paperie stamp.

More to come!

It's A Boy!

2011-02-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we already knew it was a boy for quite some time now, but it is exciting once again when they are born, right? No, not me...two good friends in Minnesota had their baby early this morning. I've been thinking about them a lot today so I thought I should use some of my creative energies in making them a card. This should, if I can get it off in the mail here soon, make it in time for when they return to their home. :)

The challenge sketch I used for this card was the latest WMSC#33.

Ever have one of those cards where it turns out not quite how you were picturing, or even figuring it would go? This is one of those cards. But, I'm liking the result and just went with it. I used some Martha Stewart baby stamps for the main panel. The background and race cars are Waltzingmouse Stamps. And well, it just had to be blue!

So congrats, Mike & Katie! Can't wait to see the little one sometime soon in person!

Hawaii Book, Post 3

2011-02-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here's just a fun little page I've done for the Hawaii book. This one is about our adventure playing mini golf. We passed this mini golf place every time that we went from the middle of the island to our hotel, so we knew that at one point we'd be stopping here for a round. Unfortunately we didn't know the hours of the place before we did finally stop and our round of golf was kinda crazy to try and get 18 holes in about 40 minutes, but it was still fun, and maybe that was just part of the challenge too.

I employed a fun circle stamp from Waltzingmouse Stamps' Faux Fun Circles set as my background. I've also had that "Good Times" rub on forever, and I figured a page like this was as good as any to use it!

Hawaii Book, Post 2

2011-02-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

I'm back with another Hawaii book page that I finished. This one was super fun to do because it consists of the underwater camera pictures that we took on our snorkeling day. Maui offers great snorkeling just off of the beaches right by the hotels even. We took advantage of this one of the days with our snorkel gear in tow.

I used some embellishments my friend got me cause she knew I would be scrapping this trip. Isn't that super nice of her? I then went with the orange and blue theme and found some letters that went perfectly, in my opinion. And if you notice there's some Waltzingmouse Stamps background stamping going on. That's the Free Spirit circles background stamp. I think it has a tendency to look like bubbles too, so I thought it fit in well to use for this page. Oh, and see those three circle pictures? Those are real fishes that we caught on film! I had to be sure to include them!

Just for anyone curious about snorkeling in Hawaii...when we went to Hawaii the first time in 2009 we rented gear and went snorkeling too on Oahu. The bay that we were in was awesome to snorkel in, but our gear was not the best. This time in Maui we researched snorkel gear a bit and went with a company that we could rent it for the entire week. These places had really cheap to slightly better stuff to choose from. We all went with the sets that allowed for not getting water up the air tube. Thus, if waves were hitting us or we went just a bit too far underwater, we weren't getting a mouth full of salt water, just no air. I was a little skeptical about snorkeling this time since I didn't have the greatest luck with it last time, but I think the gear made a big difference! So, when in doubt, go for the slightly better gear and you'll have a much more enjoyable time. :)

Trying out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge

2011-02-06T16:29:00.000-08:00

I saw this group appear on 2Peas last month but missed January's challenge. I did want to try this out though...the basic premise being to take one of the available kits in scrapbook land and make your own using products from your stash. Like many scrappers, I knew I probably had a fair amount of supplies that I could use to make a similar kit. So with another month, the crew over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog chose a kit for all participants to base their February stash kits off of. And here's my interpretation:

I don't usually incorporate a lot of embellishments in my pages even though I have plenty. But maybe with them already being in a paper keeper for the month along with all my chosen papers, I won't forget to include them. As I am a great hoarder of Thickers, I had to include one trusty set within my kit. I'm excited for what the challenges will be and it should be fun to have a "kit" of supplies to work with as well. Check out the challenge blog yourself if you are interested in joining along for the month of February.

Hawaii Book, Post 1

2011-02-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

After successfully finishing the general book pages of 2009, DH has directed my attention to the January 2011 trip we took to Maui as my next project. I usually do vacations/trips that have a lot of photos in separate mini scrapbooks in order to use a bit more of these photos than what could possibly be done in a few 12x12 layouts included in the general books I do. I also like that these mini books offer a great opportunity to use techniques, embellishments, and papers that I don't normally use.

For this 2011 Hawaii book though, I am moving away from my usual SEI green 8x8 books. Instead, while in Maui I found these great 4x6 photo holder albums that I thought would make a great, unique scrapbook instead. It diverts from the usual size of typical scrapbook pages (these are 9.5x6) and there aren't page protectors, but even with only one page done so far, I'm enjoying this different process already.

I found that the 9.5x6 requirement comes from the spacing available when considering using the entire space allotted for two 4x6's on the page. The book will limit me to only 20 pages for the entire book, but that just means only the best will be able to be included!

And here's my first page. It's centered around the trip we took to see the Iao Needle in the Iao Valley nestled in the Maui Mountains. The "hike" to see the needle wasn't that difficult but luckily there were some off-the-beaten-path trails around for a little more adventure (seen at the start with the picture of our one friend by the "stay on the trail" signs and also the middle picture). Unfortunately, we didn't know how far this trail continued because it started getting pretty steep after awhile. A good place to go for a nice view in Maui. The valley is quite impressive.

On the more crafty technical side, I decided such a book required distressed edges for the pages. And DH even pointed out that my pictures could go to the edge because there was the border of the page itself to consider too (see, isn't he so helpful?). And faintly, you'll notice I took another stab at making my own patterned paper. The green has been stamped with a Hawaiian border stamp (exclusive to Island Paperie in Hawaii...they make their own stamps!) in green itself. I alternated the orientation of the stamp for some difference. A ribbon from Target and trusty Thickers finish the layout.

Color Inspiration Challenge

2011-01-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

Just a quick little post tonight. I wanted to submit an entry for the Neutrals Color Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Weekin the Moxie Fab World. This is also another CASE of a Waltzingmouse Stamps DT member too! This time I was inspired by Lisa and her frame card. Following the great directions she provided, I was able to do something similar with my Grand Calibur for this little card with my Labels 1 dies. The little cupcake stamp used is from Waltzingmouse Stamps' Frame It set.

Here's the colors for the Color Inspiration Challenge: (there's still time to enter too...)

WMS CASE Challenge, Take Two!

2011-01-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

The girls of Waltzingmouse Stamps introduced WMS fans to the new Grand Calibur machine that is new from Spellbinders. There's still time for the challenge, so be sure to check it out! Here's my second entry...

This project is a case of Sandie's Birthday Heart Card. Elements that I kept in mine include use of Waltzingmouse Stamps' Seasons of Love Tags heart, the basic layout of the card, and the monochromatic color scheme.

So here it is...see if you can find the cased elements...

The card mat is from Basic Grey's Sugar Rush 6x6. Other stamps are WMS Half Pint Heroes for the sentiment and one of the WMS Text It background stamps.

And be sure to enter yourself. There's a GRAND prize in the form of some grand nestabilities and a WMS stamp set for the winner! Here's the post with all the details: WMS Case Challenge.

Wedding Page & Last of 2009

2011-01-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

So with this first wedding page (as there's an entire album left to do...yes, I got married in July 2009) I am not finished with my general 2009 portion of my scrapbook. I'm having this one wedding page go in the general book since it was kinda a big deal in 2009. It was also a great start to what I might do in my actual wedding album, or at least got to play with some of the elements I've been gathering for such a book.

I'm surprised to find that I used 4 different border punches on this page! I made that flower vine embellishment by painstakingly cutting each flower bud and gluing it on the green version and putting little pearls in the centers. I think it turned out pretty good, don't you think? And the little die cut embellishment people are from a very long ago eBay purchase before I owned things like a Silhouette. I probably would have bought it even if I did own it though because they were just too cute. They originally had blond hair, but I modified them to match DH and I. :)

DH approved of this page, for which I'm happy. He said the page turned out "in your usual scrapbook style with a wedding flair." I guess I can be happy with that assessment. So maybe there's hope yet that I can do my wedding album without all the worry of messing it up. (I'll admit, I've thought about what I want to go on these wedding pages for quite some time and am almost too intimidated to work on it!)

I hope you're not too tired of wedding photos...I bet more will be coming on this little blog...

Thanks for stopping by!

WMS Grand Calibur Event - Case a Project Challenge

2011-01-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Last weekend the girls of Waltzingmouse Stamps introduced WMS fans to the new Grand Calibur machine that is new from Spellbinders. I received this machine for Christmas from my mom (Thanks Mom!) and was particularly interested in learning what all could be done with it. After seeing the projects over the weekend, I now have some more ideas of just how to utilize the greater surface space for embossing and die-cutting! And Claire's great posts about embossing are something I just must try!

Now this week WMS asks us to case a project done by the design team. I was already working away on one Sunday. :)

This project is a case of Belinda's "Beach Stud" scrapbook layout. Elements that I kept in mine include use of Waltzingmouse Stamps' Free Spirit background stamp, an offset matting to the picture, a little Labels 1 tag on the side of the picture, and I would also count that the layout is about my husband as well. That counts right? This picture is of DH and his youngest brother at Christmas time in 2009 (see, more 2009 pages getting completed!) as they prepared to go out in the cold Montana weather to help their dad with some farm chores. DH hadn't dressed up head to toe in farm gear for quite some time and his mom and I took advantage and made sure to snap a picture of the two of them. Aw, good old brother bonding! (Ok, DH isn't going to like that this post got so mushy...lol!)

So here it is...see if you can find the cased elements...

And be sure to enter yourself. There's a GRAND prize in the form of some grand nestabilities and a WMS stamp set for the winner! Here's the post with all the details: WMS Case Challenge.

Half Moon Bay

2011-01-23T22:53:00.000-08:00

Here's just a simple page for today. I am working my way to finishing 2009 (even though I've done bits of 2010 already since I decided that chronological just wasn't working for me anymore) right now. This was our trip to Half Moon Bay for the first time. It's only 30 minutes away from our house so that means so is the coast, but it took us until November of that year to finally go. We've since been there another time for a yummy seafood dinner when my mom came to visit.

Here's the sketch:

I followed a PageMaps sketch that I found in my great search of some challenges to do. This one wasn't attached to a challenge but I thought the photos fit too well not to try it out. Plus, it's just a fun little sketch! I have decided that I'm not one for big embellishments, but I did incorporate a little raffia ribbon along the bottom. And because I don't have the notebook paper border punch, I just used some paper that was around (ah, yes, being a student has helped in scrapbooking!). I distressed it with some Antique Linen distress ink as well.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Las Vegas Girls' Weekend

2011-01-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun two-page layout that I just finished. The subject of this particular layout is my Girls' Weekend with my besties last August. These girls were my bridesmaids in my wedding and this August weekend was our next time all together.

For this layout I just let things flow after deciding to loosely base it off a PageMaps sketch by Becky Fleck I had from the sketch book I got for Christmas. (Thanks Deb!) It is a loose interpretation of the sketch but basically has elements like the strip of photos along the bottom, the vertical element cutting into the strip and a bigger image cutting over the two pages. The sketch had a line of like 4 bigger photos along the bottom and just one bigger photo. Since there were just too many photos I liked from our trip, I changed it into more like a filmstrip. :)

I also used my new Grand Calibur for the cutting with my new nestabilities. (Guess this page just likes to incorporate new Christmas presents! These were from my mom.) And finally the fun swirly paper was from Alicia herself. I got the fun paper for my last birthday...lol! My good, old Silhouette was used the title. It needed some love.

Now to figure out where our next Girls' Weekend should be.... I guess it can be about anywhere, except Springfield, Illinois. We've already done that one! HAHA!

Hannah's First Bath

2011-01-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

As promised (although I do admit, a little later than I had hoped), here's another post! And I'm also showing off one of my new layouts I finished this week. This one is about Hannah's first bath adventures. I've had the Walgreens collage print of these photos for quite some time so it was due that I finally get them scrapped. I like to get many Walgreens collage prints when they are on sale. It makes the prints all the more worthwhile to just let them do the printing than making them at home. Although I should make some sort of template sometime...I do have the 8x10 paper already.

But anyway, here's my layout. I even did not go off a sketch for this one. This one is just my own doing. I pulled out my sewing machine for around all the main rectangle and on the strip of solid. And while I wasn't trying to necessarily match to any particular embellishments in my stash, the page just needed the Splishin' and a Splashin' sticker for the final touch. :)

Hannah wasn't too bad a sport about this whole bath thing the first half of the procedure. It was more the drying off that she didn't like because she doesn't like hair dryers or towels and she was cold. The final picture on the bottom is of her huddled on the Apple TV for warmth. We occasionally found her on it even when she wasn't wet because she liked how it was a warm spot in the house. We've since upgraded to the new, smaller Apple TV and I think she misses her warm spot. Luckily for her, the old one is now in use again as my music streaming device for the new speakers DH got me for Christmas. And of course, Ms. Hannah found it the other day. I have a feeling we'll be finding her curled up on it when I'm in my room scrapping in the near future.

And just for a bit more fun to finish off this Hannah-themed post, here's the spoiled princess playing her iPad game. Yes, there's a Game for Cats game on the App Store! She loves it!

Later!

Catching up...

2011-01-18T11:24:00.000-08:00

Yay! An update on this poor, neglected craft blog of mine! If you are finding this page, thank you for sticking with me even though my updates have been few and far between. Life got in the way mostly, as it usually does. Juggling master's classes and an internship during the semester took its toll on our house (we just finally got that cleaned up this weekend) and my time for craft projects.

The semester turned out well though, even with all of what was going on. But I'm enjoying my off days from my internship, that is still going, to be able to just have some "me" time. That will hopefully include some craft projects and catching up with what I've missed in the paper crafting world.

But if you're here, you probably want to see something crafty, so here's some late, but at least now shared craft projects I was up to in the meantime.

First was a birthday and anniversary calendar I made for my grandfather. I compiled pictures of everyone in my family and used the Michael's $1 spot cardboard mini-album sheets as my base. Distressed a little around the edges and used some fun Thickers on the different pages. It was a present that I got to present in front of my extended family at our usual Christmas Eve get-together. I think he enjoyed it and I hope he's getting some good use out of it. My plan next is to make one for DH and I with family and friends in it.

And I did get handmade Christmas cards out to everyone! Go me! They were quick and simple but I was happy to have found a way to still make homemade cards and get them out (almost) in time for Christmas. I think some were more on time than others. Of course, being quick and simple meant that they weren't using a lot of my supplies that I had gathered specifically for the occasion, but I guess there's always next year! Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of my cards though. Once they were made they instantly went into the mail. :)

And just cause....here are some Christmas pictures. (Guess this is my belated Christmas post)

I'll be back hopefully soon with a new project that I plan on working on today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #21

2010-11-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

So this card came to thought at 3am this morning. I was thinking this was what I wanted to do for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #21, but it wasn't until 3am that I really figured out how to do it. I was tempted to just get up right then and tackle the project, but I knew sleep was slightly more important then.

This is a card for a family member who recently had a birthday (yes, it's slightly late). But, hopefully its coolness factor will counter the lateness. Here's the sketch I followed:

And here's my take. I used Half Pint Heroes for this card, putting a little head that kinda looks like the recipient into the rocket ship. Then to make good use of that pocket I decided to have it take off! :) The sentiments are also from the same stamp set, although I had to get a little creative and use bits and pieces to make my "blast off!" one. Claire..."blast off" is missing! LOL!

And by the way, that grass is handmade...I might need to invest in some Martha Stewart fringe scissors! And my husband is already making a request for a card like this too...hee hee!

I hope you enjoyed your visit. And now to get this card in the mail!

Other challenges:

Cards for Men - Anything Goes

Tag! You're It! Post 2

2010-11-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

So while the first tag had four Waltzingmouse Stamps sets used in its creation, this one only has one. And it's fairly simple too. This one doesn't even include paper. While I was finishing up the first I saw one of these glittery snowflakes I picked up at Target last year. I don't remember what I was going to do with these, but I have them, so there you go. I thought that maybe just attaching a sentiment on transparency might be a quick and easy way for some tags...since I did have fun with this challenge, I might try doing some more of my own tag making!

I went with a different sentiment from Compliments of the Season and stamped it on a transparency. I then embossed in silver ever so carefully. I then cut it out and attached with vellum adhesive. Using some of that darn ribbon I needed to get for tag one I attached this one to a bag all prettily. Cute huh?

Here's a close up too...

Be sure to check out the challenge over on Claire's Blog. There's still some time to enter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tag! You're It! Post 1

2010-11-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hello there! I was able to finish up a tag for Claire's Tag! You're It! contest going on right now. Claire and the Waltzingmouse Stamps design team want to see beautiful Christmas tags for the chance at winning an awesome prize. I thought it would be fun to participate and try something new. (I've never made my own tags before)

So here's my first tag (I have another up my sleeve to post too). This one uses 4, yes 4!, Waltzingmouse Stamp sets. I'm quite impressed with that feat. I wanted to try out my new Label 14, Compliments of the Season, and Text It stamps, but then I thought it was missing something so added in a tag shoulder from Labels 1. I went with a kraft, Broken China distress ink, and silver color scheme.

I got the tag part done fairly easily on the weekend, but it took finding just the right ribbon on a side trip to Michaels to finish it up. I then tried out some ribbon combinations on both ends of the tag, but eventually went with these fun snowflake brads. Aren't they fun?

Be sure to check out the challenge over on Claire's blog. There's plenty of time yet to play! Good luck!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything crafty for Halloween to share today, but I do have some pictures of my cat!

DH followed Hannah around the house taking pictures of her in her pirate costume this evening. Here's two pictures that I personally liked.

The Pirate Queen herself...

A worn out pirate...

Happy Halloween!

Scrap Our Stash: October Challenge

2010-10-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

So the Scrap Our Stash October Challenge is to do "that" page, meaning a page you've been meaning to do but just haven't for whatever reason. It's been really interesting to see the design team's take on this challenge. A wide variety of topics!

For my challenge page, I did one from September 2009. Not terribly long ago, but one of the earlier pages I need to do to finish up 2009. I've had the memorabilia on my craft desk for quite some time, but yet still hadn't done the page yet. I finally got the needed photo printed and did the page!

It turned out fun to do. I took a page of patterned paper and first wanted to use some circles cut out from it, but then I tried using the negative spaces instead. I liked this technique a lot more and even added two more circles for the full effect. I don't think I would have paired purple with this on a normal day of scrapping, but it made the tickets, which I wanted to include fit in a bit better. :)

By the way, this is our trip to the San Jose theatre to see Spamalot. I was the luck recipient of the Best Peasant Award since I "helped" them find the grail. Going on stage was a different type of experience, to be sure. I've wanted to do this page for a while because it is such an interesting and unique experience.

Be sure to check out the design team's take on the October challenge. There's still plenty of time to head over to Scrap Our Stash to play too!

Waltzingmouse Stamps October Blog Waltz: Fall

2010-10-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my little blog. I hope you're enjoying the Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz featuring Fall themed cards. I love blog waltz days and even though my little blog hasn't been as productive since I started back at school, I just couldn't miss the October waltz. Of course, this was helped by my new stamps arriving just in time for me to play this weekend!

I pulled out Frame It for all of the stamps used on this card today. That little leaf is just too cute and I can't wait to try other stamps in the little lined square and rectangle. Such a simple concept but by having it as a stamp, it's just so much easier. For this card I also tried the trick Claire featured on her blog during the release peeks with offsetting the frame a few times for a fun effect. :) A quick and easy CAS card technique I think I might just use again and again.

Well, thanks for stopping by my little neck of the woods. Be sure to check out the WMS Forum to see all the other waltzers today!

I'm here, really!

2010-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

I know it has been quite a while since my last post. Not to say things haven't been happening, but sitting at my craft desk took a back seat to it all...

Today I had a little time (even though I should be doing homework) to get a few projects I wanted to do done. Of course, DH wanted some scrapbook pages, so happily I got two of those done. The first one you'll see below. The other, you'll see soon. :) And, as was the cause of my great want to get to my craft table...I got my new WMS stamps! I went a little crazy with Claire's latest release and many sets came to my little home this time. (In celebration of my new job starting Monday!)

AND...I got a card finished for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz taking place tomorrow! So woot! Two posts right in succession from me!

This layout I want to share today is another from June 2009. I'm getting ever closer to finishing 2009! This was our trip to Alcatraz. The great thing about taking the tour of Alcatraz is that it also includes a ferry ride so you get to see SF from the bay too. For this layout I focused on the pictures from the prison island.

This great paper was a find on a different trip to SF. I cut up the 12x12 sheet so that it would better fit in placement with my pictures. I kept to the yellow-tan tones, but brightened it a little since our pictures were not completely dreary. I had our tickets and the brochure too, but for this page, I thought it was better to let the pictures do the talking. I always stick the brochures behind the page at the very least for safe keeping.

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to come by tomorrow for my card for the WMS blog waltz!

Muir Woods and Running!

2010-10-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay in getting this page put up. If you frequent the Scrap Our Stash challenge blog (which of course you should!), you have seen this page already. This page uses border punches, which was the September challenge. Be sure to go there now to learn about the great October challenge.

I decided to actually put my border punched borders actually on the border of the pages instead of as accents in the center like I usually do. I like how they ground the page. Another cool trick on this page was using the Muir Woods maps as my main accent and title with the help of an invisible pocket courtesy of a transparency. :)

And yesterday marked a fun accomplishment! I have now been running for a year! And here's the proof:

That's September 30, 2009, when I started the C25K program on the left and yesterday's run on the right. So nice to have it recorded on RunMonster too, eh? :) I remember last year being very proud with being about to do that first day of C25K! Here's to more running!

A scrappy page - San Francisco

2010-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

My latest scrapbook page is one from June 2009. My DH has challenged me to try and finish up 2009 so I have taken him up on the challenge by heading back to June of that year. His mom and brother were in town for DH's graduation, so naturally we had to take them to San Francisco too. We hit up many of the usual tourist spots and if you ever come to visit us, we'll take you to these too. :)

This page mostly focuses on the fun of the cable car (a must do in SF!) and Fisherman's Wharf. In a recent trip this year I found some scrapbook pages at Fisherman's Wharf and that is where my title comes from. It's a page full of fun accents. I have Alcatraz yet to do from June 2009 so I'll also get to use that paper included in the pack. Stay tuned!

Baby Whale Card

2010-09-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

So it was my hope to show some weekend pictures, because DH and I went to the SF Zoo, but they are still on his phone so you'll just have to do with a crafty post instead. :)

I did get this little baby whale card done over the weekend. I thought it would be fun to go along with the gift that we found to send along to my two friends expecting their first (and recently found out it was a boy). I find baby stuff fun right now probably because I'm not the one that is going through it. I'll live through my friends' experiences for now.

I wanted to ink up my Lawn Fawn Critters in the Sea set that has been neglected until now. The little whale just fit the bill for the type of card I wanted to do. And I had a little background whale I could use from a Martha Stewart baby stamp set (a Big Lots find for $1! woot!) just finished the deal for this card's theme. The sentiment is part of two sentiments in the Martha Stewart set as well.

A fun card to make and even more fun to send it off, which I did this morning. :) I hope my friends like it.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to get some zoo pictures up soon.

WMS September Waltz - Halloween!

2010-09-17T00:00:00.001-07:00

I was stumped at first on what I could do for the September WMS Waltz with its theme as Halloween. I need to remedy my lack of Halloween stamps! Then, I knew I had a page from last year's pumpkin carving party yet to scrap. So armed with my trusty Waltzingmouse Stamps Off Beat Backgrounds I tackled a Halloween page!

I stamped the checkered background stamp all over my purple cardstock. I tried the measured grid trick Claire shared with the WMS fans a little while back to help me with aligning my stamp. Things went pretty well as I practiced stamping, but I kept the rougher stamped images too cause I think it adds character to my page. I kept that distressed look to the photos too by matting them on black but then distressing all the edges. Distressing is also on the patterned paper edges. Finally, I added some Halloween ribbon I had picked up at Target last year and some fun lime green Thickers!

Thanks for stopping by. I can't wait to see what all the friends of WMS make for this waltz. Be sure to visit the WMS Forum for more information and the links to all the waltzers.

A wedding card

2010-09-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hello, faithful followers! Sorry for the lack of posts on this little blog of late. With school starting and a job interview this week my craft time, which is now more or less limited to the weekend, has been non-existent.

I did make this little wedding card the other day in a free moment as DH said he needed one for a family friend in the near future. I pulled out my trusty Waltzingmouse Stamps for this one. The polka dot background is from Off Beat Backgrounds and the sentiment is from Fancy Phrases. My main focal point is a recovered chipboard element. I personally like the simplicity and I got to try out matting the layers in black. I've seen it around my travels to other blogs and have wanted to try it. So I kept to a simple cream, black and teal color scheme.

Thanks for stopping by! Now wish me luck on my interview! :)

Weekend Snapshots - Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

In lieu of my 10 year high school reunion I went to the Lake Tahoe area for some much needed R&R. My bestest friend Susie was in town to see me since Friday, and after the boys finished up work for the week, we all headed East.

We set up a little camping area at one of the resorts. Not completely roughing it, but enough for my taste. :) Nice to find a campground that had walk-in tent sites so there wasn't constant cars going through the area. A nice meal of hotdogs, potato salad, watermelon, baked beans and s'mores was enjoyed by all. We spent the days hiking: the first around Spooner Lake and the second around Tahoe itself on the Rubicon Trail. I recommend the Rubicon...great views!

Now it's back to reality with friends gone to their respective places and school days tomorrow and Wednesday. I have a feeling I'll get some homework this week.

Bay To Breakers 12K

2010-08-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! I have a two-pager about the 12K that I ran in May of this year to share today.

I finished this page over the weekend, having started it on Thursday conceptually. It uses 5x7's, a size I don't normally try to use in multiples on a page. These were the pro photos taken at the race. I also have some huge bib numbers to deal with. Taking those things into account this had to be a two page spread!

I enjoy the puzzle piece look of a stripe of photos/memorabilia on pages so I took that as my challenge to fit everything on. Adding in some photos we took ourselves, the course information from the race guide, DH's timing chip and some journaling the puzzle came together pretty nicely! Then...a title/embellishments....

As I'm just getting into using my little Silhouette machine again due to its easier accessibility, I searched for a SVG file of the Golden Gate. Turned out to be super easy to find and a few unsuccessful attempts at getting the cutting right had the third attempt being what you see here. I'm pretty proud of that title work! Overall, I'm really pleased with how this spread turned out. I hope you do too.

Now the next running spread will hopefully be a successful Half Marathon race. I'm doing the training now. My (targeted) race is in November.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flower Challenge - Scrap Our Stash

2010-08-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

The August challenge over at Scrap Our Stash is to use flowers in a layout or card, with preference to homemade. I took this challenge as a means to try out a new (to me) tutorial in making paper flowers. I used the tutorial found here.

I'm not one that does a lot of flowers on my layouts, but doing this challenge made me realize its potential. I did then do another one on the Grad Formal layout I already shared. So, try it out even if you're skeptical is my advice cause you never know, you might just start thinking about incorporating them more.

Oh, and this layout is from a visit to Muir Woods (think big redwoods) not too far away from San Francisco. We found this hollowed out trunk and we each had to take a picture in it. :)

WMSC11 & Color Throwdown 107 - Thanks for being my friend

2010-08-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

Over at the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge there's an interesting scalloped circle sketch this week. And my color inspiration was from the Color Throwdown challenge. I'm intimidated by circle cards, I'll admit it. But I was up for a challenge today (what's one more today...as today also starts graduate school! YIKES!). So here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

The scalloped circle edge made me think of flowers once I had my two scalloped circles, one red, one yellow cut out. I used my Silhouette....DH will be proud I put it to good use today! I offset the two circles and then I thought I had a pretty fun flower. I made the center with more red and a circle stitched stamp from the Waltzingmouse Stamps set Faux Fun Circles. And what's a flower without a butterfly? So I pulled out Waltzingmouse Stamps Earth Angel to create my own pink and green butterfly and sentiment. :) It's a little bit of a stretch on the sketch, I'll admit, but it got me to think outside my nice square-card box!

Thanks for stopping by!

Grad Formal 2009

2010-08-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

I'm catching up on a 2009 layout today. The event was the Stanford Grad Student Formal. As there were many of the gang that were attending Stanford at the time the girls convinced the guys that we all should go. I don't remember who it was that decided we should all dress up fancily, but it was fun to do so, although not required. Held at the Mountain View Computer History Museum, it was an evening of dancing, music and fun. Before the dance we all went to a little diner in downtown Palo Alto in our fanciness...a thing that caused a little confusion to the other patrons there as we show up in dresses and tuxes yet we were not of the high schooler age.

For this layout I decided to use more of the formal pictures. I didn't go to Homecoming or Prom so I guess that's why I wanted to finally be able to do one of those types of layouts. (The formal pic of DH and myself was a student group providing "prom pics" for a small donation.) The other two pictures are out on the dance floor and at the diner.

I just love the font of these American Crafts Thickers, don't you? I'm a Thicker fanatic, but these have to be one of my favorites and I'm so happy to have gotten to use them! I had the layout about complete yesterday but it was definitely missing something in the top left. I'm not one that puts big embellishments on my pages, but after doing the Scrap Our Stash August challenge earlier in the week (that page will be shown soon) I was all into the make-your-own flower mode and tried this one with my crepe paper. It's a modified version of a tissue paper flower tutorial I found in an old issue of Creating Keepsakes. I distressed the flower with my distress ink and pulled the layers apart, finishing it off with a few pearls.

As I didn't think journaling fit too well, I decided to journal on the back so to remember the fun of the evening. I also taped up some of the funnier pictures on the back cause they were already printed out anyway but not enough for another full page layout. It will just be a hidden surprise later! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Polson Memories

2010-08-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's become a tradition since I've met DH to take a trip to Polson, Montana, every year. It was the first place he took me during the July 4th holiday in 2005 and would be the eventual location of our wedding in 2009. This year we went back with nothing but relaxation in mind. I made this layout with many of the pictures from our time there...there were just too many not to include them all!

I took advantage of the Walgreens week of sales in their photo printing to get a bunch of collage prints done this week. I find this is a great way to get many different sizes of pictures and makes me think differently than just in 4x6. Cutting up all of these prints then let me group them in various ways until I came out with something I liked and simply started gluing them down.

The journaling for this page consists of words from some travel stickers I've had in my stash for quite some time. They originally make travel phrases but I just took out the words that worked with my journaling to highlight key words instead. To finish off the page I used some of my trusty Thickers from American Crafts and a Martha Stewart border punch with some patterned paper.

Lawn Fawn {Hearts} Cards For Kids Blog Hop

2010-08-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

"Hello and welcome to the Lawn Fawn Hearts Cards for Kids Blog Hop! We have all come together today to make cards for a wonderful cause, Cards for Kids! We hope to encourage you to also make cards for this great cause and have fun along the way, too! So please hop along with us, and make sure to leave comments as there will be prizes for commenters and participants! So let's get going! Also, if you are lost in the hop, you can always start at the beginning at the Lawn Fawn blog. Thank you so much for hopping along with us today!"

You should have come from Hannah's Blog. Your next stop will be Terri.

When I saw this on the Lawn Fawn blog I knew that I wanted to participate. It was also a great way to get out my Lawn Fawn Stamps. For this card I chose Critters In the Burbs. The little animals in this set are just so, so cute. I kept the card simple and decided to use the little snail stamp.

Inside:

Thanks for visiting my little blog. Remember, your blog hop continues by heading over to Terri's Blog next!

Friends of Waltzingmouse Stamps August Waltz

2010-08-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Being that it is the 17th of the month it's time for another Waltzingmouse Stamps blog waltz! After missing last month's waltz due to vacations, I knew I wanted to jump right back in and make sure that I made it for August. Then, I hear about the theme: Shabby and Vintage....

Not exactly my go-to style but I thought I would give it a go. For one, Claire's stamps fit into so many themes, but vintage and shabby are definitely what they excel at. Second, I remembered Paper Crafts just came out with their Card Styles issue about all of the different crafting styles. So set with great stamps and a little research, I embarked on my quest to try something new. Here's my final result (a little on the simpler side, but I think it has the necessary elements):

If you can believe it I did have lace in my stash but this is the first time I've used it. I then figured going with Fancy Phrases and Say It With Style were good choices that wouldn't let me down. I went with a feminine approach in my color choices. Finally, I thought some distress inking and sewing was just what this card needed. I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually liked the result when it was complete and I hope you do too. :)

So thanks for stopping by on my shabby and vintage adventure. Be sure to check out the rest of the ladies participating in the blog hop by checking out the Waltzingmouse Stamps Forum.

DETAILS:

Paper - Solids (Martha Stewart, DCWV)

Stamps - Say It With Style Flower & Sentiment, Fancy Phrases Label (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Embellishements - Lace (JoAnns), Ribbon (Stash), Ink (Colorbox), Distress Ink - Antique Linen (Tim Holtz), Sewing

Wicked Inspired

2010-08-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

So over on the Waltzingmouse Stamps blog there's this little competition going on to use one of Claire's cute (and free!) templates. I viewed all of the templates available in the store and couldn't think of which one I wanted to use for the longest time. Then I became inspired by the music playing while I was scrapbooking yesterday. This music was from the soundtrack of Wicked. Teaming that with the little witch head template and I had a project idea!

I present Glinda and Elphaba!

I did take a little liberty with the template and cut out the top square so that these could be little candy holders! (I had to go to the store specifically to get some candy to fill these up with even! Not that DH minded getting our candy bowl refilled in the process.) Together, I think these make a cute little pair. They were fun to make, especially the easy way to do fun "hair."

So now it's your turn! :) Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:

Paper - Solids (Martha Stewart), Shimmer Black (Stash), Swiss Dot Green (Bazzill)

Embellishments - Lips (Cut from a chipboard label by Making Memories), Chipboard Buckles (Stash), Circle Punch (EKSuccess)

Template - Witch Template (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Hat Directions (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Key West Revisited

2010-08-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

I previously posted some pages on our trip to Key West and southern Florida. Here's yet another about visiting the shipwreck museum. This was actually one of the great highlights of the trip as it was interesting to just hear about Key West's fortune-laden past from collecting from the various shipwrecks along the islands. The museum is housed in the original lookout tower and is full of things that were salvaged. I highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in the area. Then, on the top is the bell to signal if you've seen a shipwreck. None on our watch though....

I tried a new technique on this page. Instead of just a solid paper or a patterned paper as my background I decided to cut up a patterned paper in triangles on my page. I glued the down but then did some sewing around each piece with my trusty sewing machine in a zig-zag stitch. For the first time attempting this, I'm pretty impressed with the result! I think it gives the page a little more personality, don't you think? Then I thought my color palate went perfectly with these fun cursive letters by Colorbok. I have been meaning to use them for a while. Some accents with some more Colorbok chipboard and the layout was deemed finished!

Thanks for stopping by!

You're My Star

2010-08-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

Following the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge, I created this fun little card with the star stamp from the Sewing Box Christmas set. The sentiment then comes from the Seasons of Love Tags set.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:

Paper - Georgia Pacific

Stamps - Sewing Box Christmas Star, Seasons of Love Tags Sentiment (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Ink - Colorbox

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

2010-08-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here are two layouts I haven't shared yet but were finished before I went to Las Vegas. These pictures are about a year old and when we met up with DH's cousins for some fun on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. I took the liberty to use some more outlandish colors and these bold stripes to go along with the fun of the place.

The log ride photo is one of those that you buy after the ride. One of the cool things is that the photo comes in a fancy little photo holder and by cutting it up a bit, I had the "Santa Cruz Boardwalk" wording on my page! It was also some of the inspiration for the colors in the layout papers.

The second page is of a photo DH took of one of the rides. I just really like this picture and wanted it to be the focus yet still match with the other page to make a set. I included punched circles glued at different levels to add some interest and then some fun chipboard elements from my stash. I also tried out layering border punch borders and I'm really liking the look! Finally, I had a little fun with my white gel pen and added lots of dots to many of the red layers. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
Paper - Blue Swiss Dot (Bazzill), Solid and Patterned (Crate Paper)
Embellishments - Border Punch (Fiskers), Circle Punch (EKSuccess), Chipboard circles (Colorbok), Chipboard butterfly (Making Memories), Enjoy Chipboard (Making Memories), Labels 1 Die-cuts (Spellbinders), White Gel Pen (Sakura)

Vegas Weekend

2010-08-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

No craft projects for this post and sorry for the sporadic posting of something crafty lately. This past weekend I actually had an excuse though since I was in Vegas with my two best friends. I hadn't seen either of them since my wedding last July so it was good to be able to catch up. Here's a few snapshots of our adventures.

Susie sported her RunMonster support on her way to Vegas (she is head of Midwest marketing, you know). We did lots of exploring in the casinos and shops, including M&M World. Saturday marked our trip to the Hoover Dam. A pretty nice picture of the Vegas sign if I do say so myself! (that picture was taken from our bus) Then a night out that included a trip up the elevator of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and a great view of the strip. Finally, SF is never too far away as we checked out the Fremont Street Experience and the Golden Gate Casino. (I highly recommend the restaurant there!)

So that's what I've been up to. I hope to get back to posting some craft projects soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Swapping Sistahs - Hello Card

2010-08-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

I just have a simple little card for the blog today. The supplies that I used are those that I sent out to all of my Swapping Sistahs participants. They are The Paper Company solids and American Crafts patterned papers. I added some ribbon for embellishment and a jeweled leaf (although I didn't use it here in this card) as well. I can't wait to see what my friends came up with.

I decided to use a Fiskers border punch to add some fun to my propped up panel using the patterned paper. I also embossed the brown with the diamond folder. Finally, a Waltzingmouse Stamps sentiment stamp from the Fancy Phrases completes the deal.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my friends' blogs on the link to the right!

Scrap Our Stash Christmas Blog Hop Winner

2010-07-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the delay in getting my post up about my Scrap Our Stash Christmas Blog Hop Winner!

Congrats to...

BETTY!

Thank you to all that stopped by on the hop! I hope to see you participate in the Scrap Our Stash challenges!

Betty, please send me your address so I can send you my blog candy.

St. Pete Beach

2010-07-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

(If you are looking for the Scrap Our Stash Christmas in July Blog Hop post, please visit here.)

Another layout from our trip to Florida. This was us heading to the beach in the morning for a little relaxing swim before the busy part of the day of attending a wedding on that same beach in the afternoon. A simple page but it's always good to have a few complicated pages and then a few not so when they will be next to each other in the book, right? I followed the sketch over at Creative Scrappers and the prompt over at Creative Prompts 4 U.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

I wanted that blue sky to pop so I went with a neutral background. I found the tropical paper in my scraps and cut two strips. I tried putting more but it then looked cluttered, so I stuck with two. Found the little bottle cap embellishment in my stash so thought it would be fun to use. The chipboard is from my stash too.

Challenges:
Creative Scrappers #112
Creative Prompts 4 U #22 (paradise in a picture)

The Everglades Layout

2010-07-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

(If you are looking for my Scrap Our Stash Christmas in July Blog Hop post, please visit here.)

Hot off my craft table is this layout about the recent trip we took to Florida and the Everglades. The photos lent themselves pretty easily to the sketch that I had in mind to use. That sketch was the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge WMSC6. I know, I know, these are card sketches, but after doing WMSC4 as a layout I wanted the added challenge to try and make the sketch a layout once again. Add on that making sure to use Waltzingmouse Stamps and it turns into a pretty good challenge! The perk, of course, is that I get more layouts completed, which my DH reminds me regularly on how behind I am.

So anyway, here's the sketch and color inspiration (As I must have had the last Friend of WMS blog hop on the brain cause I stuck to green and blue, which works for this week's Color Throwdown #102!) :

And here's my take:

I first drew my quarter circle on some scratch paper and then figured out how the photos were going to be placed. I knew I wanted the one big 4x6 and then went from there. These photos worked well because with different cropping aspects I could get interesting environment pictures (ie. the warning sign and the tram) and then smaller parts of a bigger picture could be easily cropped out and showcased (ie. the bird and alligator small pictures). I did cheat by gluing down all my photos on the green cardstock, cutting the perimeter of the arc, and then cutting and attaching strips of the remaining sheet to look like I had spaced out the photos perfectly for a grid-like feel. Do you like?

A busy photo collage means I wanted to go less so for the background. I used Waltzingmouse Stamps Off Beat Backgrounds for the grid and zig zag embellishment to my page. I'm thinking I might need to add in some Free Spirit stamps here soon cause my layouts tend to be more masculine than flowery anyway, but for now Off Beat Backgrounds is just the perfect set. I love how the stamps are big to cover a 12x12 with only two across and maybe about eight down! They are so big that I use my cutting mat from my cuttlebug right now as my block! It works!

So, another layout complete. This one was fun to make. Now maybe you'll consider to take on the WMSC challenge? As a layout?

I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Challenges:
WMSC6
Color Throwdown #102

DETAILS:
Paper - Solid (Martha Stewart)
Stamps - Off Beat Backgrounds (Waltzingmouse Stamps), Ink (Colorbox, Studio G)
Embellishment - Thickers (American Crafts)

A Christmas in July Blog Hop!

2010-07-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Scrap Our Stash: Christmas In July Blog Hop July 22-25

Hello! Today is the start of the Scrap Our Stash Christmas in July Blog Hop. The design team and guest design team members of the Scrap Our Stash Challenge Blog are in a Christmas mood and sharing holiday-related projects. I'm the last stop on our blog hop so if you've come from Stephanie's blog you're in the right place. If you happened to have just stumbled upon this post, be sure to start at the beginning at Scrap Our Stash so you don't miss anything!

My Christmas-inspired project today is a layout about last Christmas up at my in-laws in Montana. When you find yourself in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you have to get creative! My DH and I had the thought to make up massive batches of gingerbread dough for four different pairs of the family to work on their masterpiece gingerbread house. It was a 3-day affair to make all the dough, cut out the pieces, and assemble. My layout features some of the pictures throughout the process, including the Marmon Tower!

I used DCWV papers for my main base to my layout. Accents were added with Making Memories cut-outs on chipboard for some dimension and Making Memories felt letters for my title. Click the image to view it blown up. :)

A little about Scrap Our Stash...
At Scrap Our Stash the challenges are all about getting you to use your current stash of scrapbooking supplies to create layouts and cards. Each month two challenges are set forth for readers: one to use a particular item or technique in their project and one based on a sketch. Readers then submit their entries directly for chances to win guest design team spots or prizes! Consider taking on one of the monthly challenges yourself!

And for getting this far in this long post....there's a chance for some blog candy! Just leave a comment on this post telling me what type of gingerbread house you would make. I'll pick one lucky winner to receive this:

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to head back to Scrap Our Stash to find out how to enter for the grand prize of our blog hop! Oh, and your secret word from my blog is "FRIENDS." Remember, you have until 8PM Central on Sunday to get your entry in!

Another Altered Project

2010-07-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

I tried my hand at another altered project yesterday with just a few finishing touches (ie. putting it back together) today. Maybe you remember that I started off with one of these the last time I did an altered project...

Well, I had bought two at the time so I did the other one now. I tried to match my patterned paper to the original painted piece rather than paint it and then cover it. I think this paper worked great and is fun too. What do you think? The paper is We R Memory Keepers.

This little project is heading on to Iowa now for a slightly late bday present. I hope she likes it!

Remember to stop by tomorrow for the Scrap Our Stash Blog Hop!

Scrap Our Stash Christmas Blog Hop July 22-25

2010-07-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love Christmas? But once Thanksgiving comes - so does all the hectic preparations for Christmas. Who has time for Scrapbooking in December?

Scrap Our Stash will be sponsoring a Christmas in July Blog Hop! It will be from July 22nd - July 25th. Many of the Design Team and Guest Design Team members are preparing a special "Christmas" type post for you to visit on their personal blogs, and many of the blogs will also be offering blog candy for comments and/or following. There will also be a prize awarded for the Scrap Our Stash Christmas in July Blog Hop Contest.

This will be a fun filled weekend you won't want to miss. Mark your calendars now - and watch Scrap Our Stash for further information.

Tuesday Morning Sketches Celebration Week 3

2010-07-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

Over at Tuesday Morning Sketches a celebration is going on. A year anniversary is happening with challenges that let you pick your own sketch (one of the 52 from the year) to participate. This week's sponsor is Lindsay's Stamp Stuff. They have very cute images over there so be sure to take a peek. And in order to win, be sure to head over to the challenge blog, find a sketch that speaks to you, and create!

Back in February I was a guest designer for Tuesday Morning Sketches. I was just tickled to be asked to design! It was my very first "gig." Now, as a means of celebrating the year previous guest designers were asked to help with each week of the July month by creating a card from their favorite sketch.

Using three images from the Birds & Branches set from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, the sketch that spoke to me was Sketch #44.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

I decided to fussy cut around the entire image and set it upon some blue Bazzill swiss dot paper. Then, as the theme this week is "thinking of summer," I used some fun patterned paper. I made the card base and my mat to match my coloring of one of the bird houses in the image. The images are super simple to color and even easy to cut out. Thank you, Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, for being this week's sponsor!

Remember, you have until Sunday to get your entry in! Be sure to check out what the other designers did with the summer theme here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Color Throwdown Inspiration

2010-07-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Over at the Color Throwdown they are celebrating their 100th challenge! I have been following this challenge blog for some time and I think I might have entered once or twice, but I do know that each week I've been inspired by the color choices and the DT's cards. This week I made a point to be sure to participate...

As I hopped along all the DT and Guest DT blogs today I noticed a theme: Basic Grey patterned paper. When I sat down to do my own card I turned to my own small BG stash, and behold! the Euphoria paper instantly caught my eye. Going with this as my base I decided to pull out one of my DRS Designs stamps. I'm always in need for birthday cards, July being no exception!

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully you might consider taking the challenge too.

DETAILS:
Paper - Solid (Stash), Patterned (Basic Grey Euphoria)
Stamp - Celebrate Cake Silhouette (DRS Designs), Ink (Colorbox Chalk Ink)
Embellishments - Chipboard Flower (Making Memories), Border Punch (Fiskers), Ribbon (Martha Stewart)
Techniques - Fussy Cutting, Sewing

CAS Fun

2010-07-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Today just called for a cute and simple (CAS) type of card today. I thought I would finally get to the Swapping Sistahs kit Ren-Yi sent us for June too. Yes, the kit was supposed to be for June, and here it is July! (Sorry Ren-Yi!) Once I dug into it though, and with some inspiration from the latest Tuesday Morning Sketches sketch, this card came together quite easily. Unfortunately I started right away and didn't take a picture of the papers that were sent....oops! I did use three of the four provided and supplemented with some green that went with my focal image, which was part of a patterned paper of birds and birdcages...very cute!

So here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

Enjoy! And be sure to check out the other ladies in our little swap, including 2010 Gallery Idol winner Belinda! Yea, that's right, I know a paper-crafting celebrity...lol!

Southernmost Point - Key West

2010-06-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

My pictures from our Key West trip went well with the layout sketch over at PK Glitz so I had to try it out. I also tried something new for me - that background is a little bit more on the wild side per my usual - by matching up with the marker in the pictures! So that I didn't cover up too much of the background, I used a transparency sheet embossed with the cuttlebug circles folder under my photos. My journaling square turned into a triangle that also matches the marker. It was a fun page to make...hope you enjoy!

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

DETAILS:

Paper - Solids (Martha Stewart, DCWV)

Stamps - Alphabet (Hampton Arts), Flower (Studio G), Ink (Colorbox), Embossing Powder (Stampendous), Journaling lines (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

First 5K

2010-06-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

My page for the Scrap Our Stash challenges is up! This page fits in with the June challenge - Stitching (an entry is due by tomorrow if you still want to participate!) and the Sketch #2 challenge (this one is due by July 15!).

There's lots of stitching going on with this page: the background patterned paper is a series of stitch lines and I stitched all of the red and green panels. The sketch that fellow DT member Robin submitted went perfectly with my photos, which were part of a collage print that I had printed at Walgreens that I just simply cut apart. That tip was part of my Frugal Friday post on the same site and here on this blog.

This page is about my first 5K race back home in Iowa. With working on RunMonster, I've now turned into a runner as I do testing of the various features in the app. I completed the Couch 2 5K program in time to make it for the Symphony of Lights 5K around Thanksgiving. It was DH's first 5K too although it wasn't as big of a challenge for him to run the race, hence why there are photos of me running because he decided to run backwards during some of it. The experience was great fun. We later did the Bay 2 Breakers 12K in May....a layout of that race will be coming soon. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas 2009

2010-06-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to get a Christmas page done when I saw the latest Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge. I think part of it was also my friend Belinda's little wreath on a window sample too. But anyway, here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

I went back to the first Waltzingmouse Stamps set that I purchased: Sewing Box Christmas with the little holly leaves. My craft desk was littered with the little leaves last night as I turned it into an assembly line of stamping, clear embossing, and cutting. It took until today to really set up the wreath on the paper how I wanted it (which including needing about three more leaves). I decided to add some dimension by popping up a leaf here and there. Buttons in pearl red completed the deal. And what's a wreath without some sort of bow, or in my case a star tag from the Seasons of Love - Tags set!

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
Paper - Solid (Martha Stewart, Making Memories - Fa La La), Patterned (Making Memories - Fa La La)
Stamps - Holly Leaf (Waltzingmouse Stamps, Sewing Box Christmas), Star Tag (Waltzingmouse Stamps, Seasons of Love - Tags), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Pine Needes, Color Box - Black and Maroon, Ranger Watermark Resist), Embossing Powder (A La Mode)

Frugal Friday Tip - Scrap Our Stash

2010-06-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

This week's Frugal Friday Tip for Scrap Our Stash is by me! (since the post is already up on Scrap Our Stash, I decided to move up this post...)

For this Frugal Friday tip, it sometimes pays to pay attention to your junk email, specifically those that offer things for free! It was by doing this that I stumbled upon a Walgreens email that offered a free 8x10 collage print. No strings attached, just a free 8x10. I've since seen that they do the same promotion every few weekends, especially for holidays (one such offer was just last weekend for Father's Day).

Anyway, I've found collage prints to be a fun and easy way to get a variety of picture sizes for a one-page layout with multiple photos. With my series of photos in this post you can see I start off with one of these collage 8x10 prints I had printed of a recent trip to the Hemingway House in Key West, Florida. The process was easy to create the print online: just upload your photos, select collage print, and shuffle the photos around until you get the proportions that you desire. Getting the print can be done in a store or shipped (for a little extra).

For this particular event, I wanted the picture of my DH and his kitty buddy on the bench as my focal point. I simply shuffled the photos on the store's website until I liked the proportions of the resulting collage layout with a bigger picture of my focal image. The sketch below the print and furthest to the right is one I found that would work for multiple photos of about the same size as I have here. (As a side note: you may have a sketch in mind when you make your collage print or do what I've done here and find a sketch after the fact; either way works!)

My second picture shows all of the photos cut apart. As the photos have whitespace between them you could also leave borders around the photos.

Finally, my last photo shows the completed page following the sketch and allowing for different photo sizes. I find this is a great way to get out of a rut of only 4x6 photos, which I was currently in. I would trim up the 4x6's but now collage prints already scale the photos to the various sizes for me!

As another example, here is a layout that merely uses a 5x7 collage print entirely.

Of course, Walgreens (or any other drug/pharmacy store) is for convenience due to the prints being on sale or sometimes free. This tip can easily be done at home with your desired photo paper size and a photo printer. Just start off with a canvas in Photoshop of the same size as your paper and drop photos in scaled to different sizes. Thanks for letting me share my Frugal Friday tip! :)

Baby Congrats!

2010-06-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

When I heard about two friends of mine that were expecting, I instantly came up with some cards that I could send them to celebrate the occasion. I thought that if such big news was being shared, a card was definitely needed. It was also a great excuse to get out my Who's That Girl? - She's Having A Baby set from My Favorite Things. (I got the set cause I found it cheap and I knew I would be needing it someday...this is that first someday!)

I followed the sketch over at Cute Card Thursdays:

Here's my take:

I went to one of my favorite techniques, paper piecing, for this card. I then used the same paper for the two horizontal panels. Using my resist watermark ink, I stamped the "congratulations," one of the sentiments in the set.

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
Paper - Solids (Wausau Papers, DCWV), Patterned (K&Co)
Stamps - My Favorite Things - She's Having A Baby, Ink (Colorbox, Watermark Resist), Embossing Powder (A La Mode - Black), Colored Pencils
Embellishments - Bling (Studio G)
Technique - Paper piecing, Sketch

Yet another guy card

2010-06-18T00:26:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda having fun making guy cards right now, so I decided to make one more. :) I went in search of a sketch, of course. Having a good sketch is the best starting block I need when creating a card. The sketch I found was the one over at P K Glitz for their guest designer challenge.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

One requirement of the challenge was to use glitter/embossing powder. I decided I would try out my glittery Stampendous embossing powder in royal blue. I teamed that up with Waltzingmouse Stamps Off Beat Backgrounds, the zig zag stamp. I also used the polka dot pattern in the same stamp set. And finally, continuing from my card yesterday I took some more chipboard stars and recovered (they had started out pink), distressed, and made them into buttons with a little twine.

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
Paper - Solids (Wausau Papers), Patterned (Karen Foster)
Stamps - ZigZag/Polka Dot Stamps (Waltzingmouse Stamps - Off Beat Backgrounds), Watermark Ink (Ranger), Royal Blue Glitter Embossing Powder (Stampendous)
Embellishments - Chipboard Stars (Stash), Twine (Stash)

Waltzingmouse Stamps June Waltz - Guy Cards

2010-06-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Happy WMS Waltz Day! It's the 17th of the month so another waltz is underway at Waltzingmouse Stamps! This month's theme piggy backs on that holiday coming up this weekend, Father's Day. Cards on the waltz celebrate the guys in our lives.

Masculine cards are not always easy to come up with, but Claire has greatly helped the card making community with her Free Spirit stamp sets (sets I still need to get!) and fun plaid patterns in her Off Beat Background and Pic Nic Patterns set. Off Beat Backgrounds was my stamp set of choice in the cards I have to share today. Of course right after this blog post I need to get these little guys in the mail so they even have a chance of getting there at a reasonable, if only slightly late timeframe.

CARD 1:

I did this card last weekend to be on top of my game (why I didn't then take a picture and get it in the mail, I'll never know). Making a plaid pattern with the smaller plaid set was my go-to stamp of choice. This card is the first time I've tried out the plaid, so forgive a few crooked patterns in there. :) The process was quite fun and I know I'll be trying it again soon. Finishing off the card I used a Vintage Labels #1 border stamp and had just the right letters in my stash with these metal coins to spell "father." A little bit of ribbon tucked in opposite sides and the card was complete!

CARD 2:

This one was finished last night. No plaid here, but Off Beat Backgrounds grid lines (engineering paper! and the reason I got this set...hee hee) and faux stitching stamps were itching to be used. I got a little bit of inspiration from a new blog I found Sketches! by {tamara}.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

I'm in the mood for distressing lately so this sketch followed my mood exactly. I found the "Happy Father's Day" sticker in my stash right away and knew it would fit in perfectly. The grid lines are stamped with my watermark ink pad (love that technique!) and then brown stitches complete the frame. A little twine and a chipboard star that started its life pink is now a rough distressed orange with a little paper coverup. :)

With that, I thank you for keeping up with my long post...I just got so excited to show you both when it came down to it. And I do love Waltz Days! Be sure to check out Claire's post with more information on how to participate and win great WMS stamps!

Thanks for stopping by!

Miss You Tree Card

2010-06-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little post here as I make sure to make it for the Mojo Monday 142 Challenge. :)

The sketch for this little card is of course inspired by the Mojo Monday challenge, but the colors were from a CARDS magazine publication call. They wanted projects with red, orange and yellow. I set out with those colors and came up with a card but I later deemed it not worthy to submit (maybe it will be posted on this blog sometime). Tried again with these colors the day after the deadline and wondered why it couldn't have been this easy the first time, you know? Anyone ever have that problem: you get some challenges/submission requirements and the day AFTER you figure out something much better?

Anyway, I'm kinda liking the simplicity of this little card and I hope you do too! Now off to scrap some more! :)

DETAILS:
Paper - Solids (Wausau Papers)
Stamps - Grid Background (Waltzingmouse Stamps Off Beat Backgrounds), Ink (Ranger Distress Ink - Antique Linen); Tree (Studio G), Ink (Ranger Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick, Colorbox - Yellow & combined to create the orange); Miss You (Studio G)
Embellishments - Ribbons (Target)
Techniques - Scoring (Martha Stewart Scoring Pad), Distressing (EK Success tool)

Moxie Fab Bicycle Challenge

2010-06-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

Over on the Moxie Fab World blog Cath has challenged her readers to create projects with a bicycle theme, specifically the "I Want To Ride My Bicycle Challenge." This is inspired by the many items in the craft world that are starting to take note of the whimsy in bicycles. As I was printing some photos for some other layouts my eye came upon a photo my husband had taken using his iPhone in April. It is a shot of me riding through the sea of yellow flowers along the path that runs along the trails in the South Bay by the Google campus here in Mountain View. I remember being in that field of yellow was quite impressive and I think this photo captures the experience well.

To try and translate that on a scrapbook layout meant that I went outside my usual scrapbooking style, but I wanted that photo to definitely be the focus. I found a stamp that I felt went along well and a perfect vellum sticker from amongst my stash. As I'm getting some enjoyment out of my new scoring board, I figured it would be the best compliment for the rest of the page. I have to admit that it was kinda fun to make this page. And thank you, Cath, for this challenge so that I got to use this little photo! :)

DETAILS:
Paper - Solid (Martha Stewart)
Stamp - Silhouette Spray (Hero Arts), Ink (Color Box - Cocoa)
Embellishments - Phrase Sticker (American Traditional Vellum Sticker), Scoring (Martha Stewart Scoring Board), Corner Punch (EK Success)

Final Peru Page: Plaza de Armas - Cusco

2010-06-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? I'm finished with the Peru scrapbook! This was the last page that I needed to do due to needing to reprint one of the pictures, but I got that done today and now the page is complete too. I started this book back on January 20 (or at least that's when my first blog post was about it) and I guess that means it took me 6 months. The pages are in a black All My Memories scrapbook which I like because it could handle a bigger page count and has a strap for keeping the book together when closed. Not terrible that it was on sale at Archivers long ago too. :)

This book only rivals the two-week European vacation book about DH and I way back in 2006. It is fun to see my style has changed a bit since then. I wasn't aware of scrapbook/card blogs, challenges, sketches and the like. Most of the pages in this Peru book are based on various challenges and I have found that this makes the pages more unique as I tried new techniques and color combinations. So thank you to each challenge that made me step out of the box in my scrapbooking.

This final page fits in with the Creative Prompts 4 You challenge, "Be Green." (No, I didn't plan the green page to fit in too..haha!) For my recyclable I used a bag that we got in Peru from the place we bought some postcards from. Always being one to keep anything in case it might be good for a layout, I stumbled upon this bag when I was making sure I had hit all the high points for this book. I thought it would serve well in creating my own patterned paper. I just simply cut the strips of the Nasca Line drawings apart and put them at an angle, easy!

So with this page I complete the Peru portion of my blogging...haha! I've tagged all of the pages I've posted on this little blog with the label of Peru, so check them all out here if you're interested. Of course not all pages were on my blog, but a good portion of them were. And hopefully if anyone is ever interested in visiting Peru my pages might help you see how much fun it really is.

Thanks for stopping by!

LIM to SFO

2010-06-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

With DH off to San Francisco for Apple's WWDC, I find myself with the house to myself for a few days. Of course the cat and my craft desk keep me company too. :) I thought I would take a little break and try to get a few scrapbook layouts finished. My deadline for getting this honeymoon book done is coming quickly (family visits are coming up in July)...and I think I'm ready to move on too. Not that Peru hasn't been fun to scrap!

Towards the end of the book there's always the need for a flying home page. So here's my LIM to SFO layout consisting of pictures of us waiting at the gate for our flight out of Peru. Our time in San Salvador was very brief: get off one plane, go through a bit more security to go to the US, and get right back on another plane, so no pictures there this time. Hubert joined us at Gate 23 in Lima this time though. :)

I found it interesting and worth showing in this layout the tax to get out of Peru ($31.00) seen on the one boarding pass. Every time we were on a flight we had some sort of tax in Peru. I think it was $8 each way for Lima to Cusco. It's an extra step that needs to be done at the airport on top of going through security and getting to the airport with plenty of time helps. And influenced by my DH, I used two sets of my American Crafts Thickers to create the LIM (small airplane) SFO title. DH likes to do that sort of tweet whenever we head out on a plane so I thought it was fitting.

On another note, I got my little photo studio set that I ordered from ThinkGeek. Using a gift card I got for my bday (thanks Mike and Katie!) I decided the sheet and overturned IKEA table was due for an upgrade. I'm already liking the fact that I can do layouts in it too. Hopefully my pictures will only get better from here. Here's my fancy new setup:

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrap Our Stash Sketch Challenge

2010-06-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

Be sure to check out the Scrap Our Stash blog today! Yours truly has a layout featured using the first sketch in the Scrap Our Stash Sketch Challenge. The challenge started May 15 and goes until June 15, so still plenty of time to participate.

Fellow design team member Robin provided the sketch:

And here's my take:

This layout is of the food from my travels to Peru. We liked this place so much that we went there twice for the yummy brownie desserts. I tried to incorporate many elements of the sketch with the striped and angled background, title placement, number of focal elements and circles made from ribbon. The ribbon was just something fun to do and I think it turned out pretty neat!

I hope you consider participating in the challenge! :)

Lawn Fawn Kitty Critter

2010-06-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I finished this little cute and simple card last night, but as I'm still waiting for my photo box and my previous one (consisting of an upside down table from IKEA and a white sheet) has been dismantled so the table can actually be used as a table, I needed to wait for the morning to take the picture. :)

I got out my new Lawn Fawn Critters in the 'Burbs stamps (The critter sets: Critters in the 'Burbs and Critters in the Sea were too cute to pass up!). Also, my scoring pad, the Martha Stewart one that was on sale at Michaels recently. And using the color combination over at Embellish Magazine, this card was made! I thought a big sentiment went well with the little yellow cat. I'm partial to yellow/orange cats since my own Hannah is an orange tabby. Sometimes she likes to help write us with our computer work even.

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:
Embellish Magazine (Color Combo)
Pile It On Challenges (Quirky)
Splitcoast CAS Challenge (Sentiment as focal point)

DETAILS:
Paper - Solids (DCWV & Wausau Papers)
Stamps - Cat (Lawn Fawn Stamps - Critters in the 'Burbs), Ink (Colorbox - Cocoa), Embossing Powder (A La Mode - Clear)
Embellishments - Scoring (Martha Stewart Scoring Pad), Alphabets (American Crafts Thickers)

Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #1 & CPS 170

2010-06-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Long time no post, right? I kinda took a break from my craft desk for a better part of a week to focus on some computer programming, you know, that thing that I went to school to do. With the release of RunMonster to the App Store, things have gotten a little more exciting around here as we try to answer user feedback and start hyping the app to new customers. We had one big break last week that gave many hits to the website and we now have more than 3500 downloads! Cool, huh? Of course, all good apps need to keep updating so there's always more work to be done!

But today after successfully moving my craft desk to our spare bedroom I had a little time to play. First off was to make sure to get an entry in for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge #1. Claire and her design team kicked off a new challenge blog Saturday with the first sketch. As a big fan of WMS and sketches, this is right up my alley!

Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:

I decided to use Faux Fun Circles and Fancy Phrases for my card today. I am also very much into using my distress inks and pulled out my new Worn Lipstick color for the first time. I love how the color just fills in the background of the stamps with this technique! This was my first time using the Fancy Phrases stamps too and I am liking that many of them fit in that fancy little circle space. :)

Challenges:
* WMSC 1 (sketch)

And once I got going, I couldn't just stop at one card. I needed a graduation card here soon too, so that inspired the theme of my next card.

I used CPS 170:

Here's my take:

Keeping this card simple was the name of the game here. For one, it's for DH's cousin so I didn't think he'd appreciate girly elements. I did make it fun by being sure to use the school colors (Oregon State) though since he's in the band. As a band geek myself, I know school pride runs pretty high. I did take liberty in flipping the sketch vertically. The main focal point is a graduation sticker from a set I've had in my stash forever. So nice to use my stash!

Challenges:
* CPS 170 (sketch)

So I know things got a little long here, but thanks for sticking with me. I hope to get in a few more projects along with my coding to keep up the blog with fresh posts. I do enjoy this little blog of mine. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

DETAILS:
(card 1)
Paper - Black Polka Dot (DCWV) & Stash (don't you love it when scraps can be used?)
Stamps - Waltzingmouse Stamps (Fancy Phrases and Faux Fun Circles), Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick), Embossing Powder (A La Mode)
Embellishments - Ribbon (Michaels), Button (Stash), Dry Embossing (Cuttlebug Folder - Swirls)

(card 2)
Paper - Patterned (Basic Grey), Solids (DCWV)
Image - Graduation Sticker (Sandy Lion)
Embellishments - Border Punch (Fiskers)

Happy Holidays Snowflakes

2010-05-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

A quick little card following the Paper Crafts Go-To Sketch #3. I wasn't exactly trying to do a Christmas card but when I started going through my stamps I came across the snowflake in my Waltzingmouse Stamps - Sewing Box Christmas set and thought it would do nicely for the sketch. I also got in a little bit of sewing machine practice in. :) A pretty easy card to make so it might be good to keep this one as a possibility for mass production come later in the year.

DETAILS:
Paper - Martha Stewart
Stamps - Snowflake (Waltzingmouse Stamps Sewing Box Christmas), Happy Holidays (Waltzingmouse Stamps Seasons of Love Tags), Ink (Colorbox, Studio G)
Embellishments - Corner Punch (EK Success), 1" Circle Punch (EK Success), Bling (Studio G), dimensionals

Graduation Card

2010-05-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post this card on the day I was supposed to since I was so worried about the recipient seeing it before they got it.

So here's a little graduation card I did to try out my new distress ink, a present I received for my birthday. I tried out the water spritz technique after applying the ink. I like how as it dries you get to really see the final result materialize before your eyes. :) I will admit that the first scalloped circle went to the trash because I put WAY too much water on it. This second attempt was only one spray.

I also tried out my sewing machine once again. I really am liking the kraft paper with brown sewing around the edges and then distressing it. For one, this lets me somewhat hide the not so straight sewing job. I'm working on it but it's a practice makes perfect thing. Finally, a slight modification to the little graduation hat in the recipient's school colors and it was set.

Congrats once again Stephanie!

By the way, this card was my entry for the "Out of the Box" challenge over at Scrap Our Stash. Be sure to check it out. Great prizes this month!