I can read

Switching focus this layout is about my daughter. After having a bumpy start with learning to read, we decided an incentive, My Little Pony amusement park, was in order. Less than 6 weeks later she had earned that toy.

Supplies: Paper & Library card stamp is Close to my Heart. Ribbon is American Crafts. Chipboard is Making Memories I believe. And of course, I had to use stickles from Ranger.

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Some scrapbooking

I've done some scrapbooking which always makes me happy. This layout arose because of that swimsuit picture of my son. I couldn't help but look at it and think it looks like those pictures you would see in the teen magazines. Makes me wonder what my son will be like as a teenager then an adult. Perhaps we get a little glimpse of the future in our kids faces. What do you think?

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Reindeer Christmas

I was inspired by this blog to make a similar card. I'm pretty happy with the results, though it isn't quite the same.



Cardstock is Kraft & Enchanted Evening from PTI. Ribbon is fresh snow velvet from PTI. Ink is enchanted evening (PTI) and white daisy (CTMH) with seafoam embossing powder from ranger. Stamps are CTMH (reindeer), Paper Studio (Snowflakes), and PTI. And the bling is from CTMH.

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Halloween Family Page

Here is this year's family page for Halloween. Remember you can click on a picture to see a larger version.





Paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle (from last year).
Chipboard letters: unknown
stickles: Diamond from Ranger
Pen:American Crafts
MS bat punch

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Another one...

Here is another sympathy card I made recently. The idea for the card came from an old cards magazine I was browsing a couple of weeks ago, but of course for the life of me I can't find it now.

Supplies:
Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, patterned paper and aqua mist ribbon from Papertrey Ink
stamps from Close to My Hearts
pearls from Martha Stewart
ribbon slide from my stash

Ever wonder why things seem to happen in 3s? Last month this card was for a friend who miscarried. The card in the previous post was for friends who lost their daughter this last week. And now I've discovered that a friend from college died this last week as well, leaving a family with 4 young daughters behind. I'm so not ready for all this loss. At 36 you don't really think these things will happen to your family or your friends.

Tomorrow I'll be back. With a happy halloweeny scrapbook page I think.

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And almost 3 months goes by....

Such is life. Sorry I haven't been blogging more. Part of it has been time, part of it has been motivation. There just hasn't been any.

But I have been creating stuff, cards, scrapbooking pages etc. I just haven't been posting. I'll see about getting some of that stuff up in the next couple of weeks.

And I'm sorry to use these cards as a getting back into things, but it is one of those parts of living that one must accept. I've had to do more than my share of sympathy cards recently. They aren't necessarily enjoyable (in the way I enjoy scrapbooking my kids for instance) but they are a necessity.

This first one is an almost exact case from this blog



I used Enchanted Evening cardstock and ink, Dark Chocolate ink, and Mega mixed messages (with sympathy) stamp set from PTI. I used Colonial white cardstock and Treasures stamp set from CTMH. The brown cardstock is a bazzill bling, and the brown brads are from my stash, probably some old ones from Oriental Trading Co.

1st Day

Continuing on our journey through my daughter's first year album, these pages are from my daughter's first day.





Metal brad and turn are from Oriental Trading Company. The transparency overlays are from Little Yellow Bicycle, black letters are unknown, and all papers are from Close to my Heart. Once again I used sketches from one of the Close to my Heart's books.

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Before you were born

Thought I'd take a look back at some of my daughter's scrapbook pages, most of these have just been done recently even though she is now 5. :) Oh, well. Have I mentioned I'm not a chronological scrapbooker?

This is the page of her ultrasounds and her nursery.




Papers and letter stickers are from Basic Grey, flower ribbon was from my stash but must have been Michael's or Hobby Lobby, the large paper flowers and blue gem brad are from Oriental trading company, smaller white paper flowers and small flower gems are from Close to my Heart. The sketches I used are from Close to my Heart.

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You're So Sweet

Another one using Everyday Button Bits from Papertrey Ink. I'm really loving this set, it gives me an excuse to use all those buttons I have. All supplies are from Papertrey.

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Enjoy the ride part 2

Basically the same card as yesterday with an Enchanted Evening color scheme. All supplies are from Papertrey Ink. The blue cardstock doesn't look crooked on the card, I'm trying to figure out why it looks crooked in the picture. Oh well!

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And the month of July goes whizzing by...

Yeah. The entire month, whoosh, and it was gone. It's hard to believe school starts in just a few weeks! Yikes!



I have been busy, but it has been puzzle pieces and journaling spots for swaps and I'm not quite ready to show those yet. Today, with a little prodding, I did finally ink up my Everyday Button Bits stamp set from Papertrey Ink. Love this set. Everything is Papertrey ink except for Bamboo ink and vineyard berry cardstock from Close to my Heart. Very simple.

In this next photo I think you can see the 6 pointed depression in the front wheel button. I love these interesting vintage buttons from papertrey ink! So cute!!

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4th of July Thank you

This is a thank you card for the hosts of the 4th of July party we went to on Saturday. I had to make it a 4th of July feel to it...



The cardstock is Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White. The stamps are from several star sets I have including Papertrey Ink's Star Prints and Close to My Heart's Shining Star and Wishing Star. The "Thank you so much" sentiment is from one of my favorites for the font, Damask Design (Papertrey Ink). The ink is Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink) and Star Spangled Blue (Close to my Heart). I used a bone folder to dry emboss the rectangle. Oh yes. Can't forget the stickles. I used diamond stickles (Ranger) to make the popped up stars shine.

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And a week goes by...

Hmmm.....I'm not even going to comment on that. So a week goes by with nothing blogged. That's okay right? After all it's summer. Go outside....play with your kids. :)

But I do have another gift tag to show you.



This little boy was turning 1. The stamp is from CTMH (The Best Way). I colored the image with my copic markers. PP is from a DCWV stack. Ribbon is from PTI. Rubon is from MM. Letter stickers were from Basic Grey, but they didn't match the pp. So I colored them with my copics. (See? I'm using my stash, making do with what I have and justifying my expensive marker purchases at the same time! Ha.)

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Thinking of You

I made this card for my husband's Grandmother, who is not feeling very well right now.



Cardstock is all Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream & Night Sky Shimmer).
Ink is Vintage Cream & Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink), Broken China (Ranger Industries), and Outdoor Denim (Close to my Heart).
Stamps are all from Papertrey Ink (Background Basics: Text Style, Life, Simple Little Things, Paper Tray).
Ribbon is from My Mind's Eye (Bohemia collection I think).
I used Diamond Stickles (Ranger Industries) on the "YOU" to help it stand out a bit.

Here's a different angle so you can see how shimmery the Night Sky paper is. I love this paper.


A quick note on pigment inks. I used Vintage Cream pigment ink from Papertrey Ink for this card. The pigment inks from Papertrey Ink are the best I've ever used for complete coverage. They have 2 colors in pigment inks: Vintage Cream and Fresh Snow. I never use my other cream or white pigment inks anymore, not even my White Daisy from Close to my Heart (well okay, occasionally I use the white daisy). But Papertrey Ink's pigment inks are the best, easy to work with, thick and opaque.

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Scroll Down for 3 new posts

I'm really sorry about this. I wrote these posts on Monday of last week and scheduled them to post. Unfortunately the scheduling didn't seem to work. sigh.

Anyway, these are the posts that should have been for last week.

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PTI June Blog Hop

It's that time of the month!

This month's challenge is:
Summer is FULL of so many wonderful colors, sights & sounds! This month your challenge is to get inspired by the lazy days of summer and reflect your inspiration in a project of your choice! Whether it be the colors in your favorite summer treats, the pattern on your bathing suit & beach towel or even the texture of the sand between your toes, use any or all of these things as a springboard for your design. Please be sure to share an image found online, in a magazine or a photo you have taken yourself that communicates your point of inspiration within the body of your blog post! With everyone's amazing contributions, this ought to be one of the most colorful Blog Hops yet! We look forward to seeing you there!

So here is my inspiration--a picture of the kids in their bright bathing suits playing in the wading pool:


I decided to use this challenge for a scrapbooking page. From the picture I focused on three colors: Hibiscus, Summer Sunrise, and Spring Rain (all from PTI). Then I went searching for some patterned paper to match those colors. I had almost given up hope...




But then I found these papers from Little Yellow Bicycle--Sharon Ann Delightful. Aren't they perfect? The colors so closely matched the PTI colors I was looking for. I used Spring Rain cardstock and hibiscus twill ribbon to mat my photos and the spring rain cardstock create the fish strip. I used stamps from Pond Life and Pond Life sentiments to stamp that strip with Spring Rain ink (I stamped them several times so they would show up better). And I used an EK Success border punch for the scalloped top border. I used stickles on the two fish in the spring rain strip and to outline some of the pattern on the right side page (the left side page already had glitter on the design). The journaling card is from a journal spot swap I participated in, the orange was just right to match the patterned paper. The orange brads are from bazzill I believe.

The sketch for this layout can be found in the CTMH Reflections book. My sincere apologies for the blurriness of the last photo. I don't know what happened.

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Scooter Fun

These are some pictures from March. The sketch is from Brenda Arnall's Easy Patterns book. One of those great books that not only shows you the sketch but tells you how to cut the paper. Gotta like that.


This is one of those layouts that has me stumped. I'm exercising extreme restraint with it. No ribbon, no flowers, no bling or stickles. It just doesn't feel finished. But this is one of those times, I think it's better to leave it be.



Remember you can click on a picture to see a larger version.

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Tea Thank Yous

I realized I never posted my thank you cards for my birthday tea party. They weren't all exactly like this one, but some variation of this.



Supplies:
Cardstock: Rustic Cream from PTI
Stamps: Tea for Two, Damask Design from PTI
Ribbon & Ink: Ocean Tides from PTI
Buttons: my craft stash
Twine: PTI
Nestabilities for embossing

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First Year Title Page

So I have been busy. But the big project has been the PTI blog hop for the 25th, so that will have to wait.

But here is the title page for my DD's first year album. I can't take credit for this layout. It was part of Kelly Goree's class at Creative Escape 2008.



It's Bazzill cardstock, Heidi Swapp transparency I think, and the rest is all Basic Grey.

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