Doily Congrats with WMS

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

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!

Sometimes good things take time...

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?

Mojo Monday #198 - Happy Birthday

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!

WMS June Waltz - July 4th/Americana!

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

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!

Congratulations - WMSC48

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!

May WMS Waltz - Masculine Cards

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

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

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

(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!

Queen Mary Wedding

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!

WMS February Waltz - Buttons!

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 3

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

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. :)

Color Inspiration Challenge

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!

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.

WMS Grand Calibur Event - Case a Project Challenge

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.

Tag! You're It! Post 2

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

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!