Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tea!

First, sorry about the lack of posting. Life got in the way, even now both of my kids are sick and I think I'm coming down with it myself. Sigh...

But on a more fun note, I finally got my new Papertrey Ink stamps, Tea for Two. Oh my gosh, I love this set! And best of all I was able to make the invites for my birthday tea with them. Gotta love the timing of that!

These are very simple invites. White put through the printer to print all of the black invite stuff. I used the tea pot with the leaves and the "You're invited to tea" from the Tea for Two stamp set using Hibiscus Burst ink. Then I stamped the leaves from Beautiful Blooms (that just happen to match the leaves on the pot! I'm telling you Nichole at Papertrey Ink is brilliant!) with hibiscus burst ink and stamped a second time without inking to get the shadow. Matted with Hibiscus cardstock and then matted with true Black cardstock.




I also stamped the envelopes so that everything coordinated. Pardon the blurring of the identifying addresses but I don't think you really need that info now do you? :)

Supplies:
Stamps: Tea for Two and Beautiful Blooms from Papertrey Ink
Paper: Stamper's Select White, True Black, Hibiscus Burst
Ink: Hibiscus Burst


Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Friday, April 17, 2009

I was inspired by this card to create my own version. Not sure if I'm happy with it or not.


I used pink cardstock from an old DCWV matstack. The dark pink is hollyhock cardstock from CTMH. The white cardstock is from Papertrey Ink. The ink is blush and white daisy by CTMH. The stamps are Damask designs and Women of Life from Papertrey Ink. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the jewels are swarovski. I guess it's pretty enough. :) It certainly used enough products from different companies for such a simple card!

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Halloween Family Page

Halloween continued. No, it isn't deja vu. Well okay it might feel like it! This is the 2 page layout for Halloween that goes in our family album. The single pages you saw on the last post go in the children's individual album.

Do I always do this? Not always, but I like to. I like to have a page in the kid's albums documenting the holiday, but I like it to be in the family album too.

So what to do? The LAST thing I want to do is make 3 copies of the exact same layout.

So I do a 2 page spread for the family album that talks about the pumpkin carving the trick or treating and so forth. The kids pages so far always focus on an individual shot of them with a story about the search for the costume. I figure that's fair. Stories that focus on one child or the other go in their individual albums, events that the entire family participate in go in the family album. And this way I don't lose those cute little stories about their search for the perfect costume. To simplify things I use the same paper line for all the pages. I cut and put together all the pages at the same time, seems to save me some time doing it that way with just a little pre-planning.

Enjoy (and don't forget you can click on the picture for a larger image)!






Supplies:
Little Yellow Bicycle Paper and transparencies
Marvy cat punch
Stickles from Ranger (diamond on the pumpkin face, patina, starry night & copper on cat punches)
Pumpkin stamps from Papertrey Ink
Cherish layout from Close to my Heart



Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Monday, April 13, 2009

Halloween

Hmmm...yes Halloween. 2008. That's right. I just now scrapped the Halloween pictures. I can't blame it on the lack of paper, I bought this Halloween stack from Little Yellow Bicycle way back in September planning to use it for Halloween. Can't blame it on the photo developing, I print my own photos at home and these have been on my computer since, oh I don't know, Nov. 1st? :)

But here they are finally. You can click on the photo to see the enlarged version. I know the mats and writing are crooked. I'm trying to focus less on everything being perfect, so I eyeballed it. Obviously I need more practice. Or rather, I just NEED to use my ruler and magnetic mat again!!! Not much to note, the little cat images are a punch from marvy, and I used stickles (copper) to make them sparkle. I didn't even use any ribbon! Or a stamped image???!!! Oh geez....


Supplies:
Paper & transparency title and frame: Little Yellow Bicycle
cat punch: marvy
copper stickles by ranger
black brads (I think) from Stampin' Up
green felt photo corners from Fancy Pants Designs

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Hmmm....

It has been a tough week. My husband was out of town add in a bout of insomnia and it was crazy.

But I hope to be back soon. :)

Monday, April 6, 2009

Third Birthday

Here's a layout I finally did. This was my dd's birthday, 2 years ago! HaHa! I told you I don't like doing those big events. And LOOK! I didn't stamp a single image. Shocking I tell you, shocking!

The 2 page layout (and click on the images to get a larger view):



Close up of individual pages:





Supplies:
All paper, cardstock, and ribbon: Close to My Heart
Swarovski crystals
Chipboard letters from Die Cuts with a View
Princess ribbon slide: unknown.
Layout sketch from Cherish from Close to My Heart


I also wanted to point out that the layout with papers was done using Cherish from Close to My Heart, a book of layout sketches. I did that some time ago, and just this weekend added the photos, crystals, ribbon etc. I find this to be an excellent way to get beautiful layouts done in a very short amount of time!
Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Christmas 2008

So yes, I'm just now getting around to scrapbook Christmas of this past year. Wanna make something of it? How about the fact that I haven't scrapbooked Christmas 2007 or 2006 for that matter?

LOL.

I'm an everyday scrapbooker. I don't like scrapbooking the big holidays and events. But I want them scrapped. So I have to do them. And I'm really working this year on trying to scrap regularly and not sporadically.

Remember you can click on an image to see the enlarged version. Hopefully these are clear enough to see! ( I replaced the original fuzzy nighttime photos.)

Here's the 2 page layout:


And here's a close up of each individual page.




Supplies:
All cardstock, paper, ink & ribbon: Close to My Heart
Markers: Copics, American Crafts pen, Silver pen by Marvy
Stamps: Christmas & trees by Close to My Heart, small wreaths by Papertrey Ink
Stickles by Ranger: Xmas Red, Holly, & Fruit punch
frame overlay on first page by Little Yellow Bicycle
Silver charm from Oriental Trading Company
Layout sketch courtesy of Close to My Heart Evensong Workshop on the Go

Do I take photos of every page I do? You bet, even if they never get posted anywhere online. I either take a picture or scan them in (a real pain since I've started doing 12x12 layouts and I don't have a large bed scanner). Why? Because if something happens to my scrapbooks, I have a record of each page. I would never redo those pages. But I might be tempted to print them out and place them in albums as a replacement.

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Friday, April 3, 2009

Butterfly



I have to explain where this card came from. I found a butterfly rubon (yes I know there is no rub on on this card, bear with me for a moment) that was torn. I wanted to save 1/2 of the butterfly for a project, and a metallic pink paper that I have seemed perfect. Then I had this little piece of metallic pink paper sitting in my hand and looking at the black silhouette of the butterfly on the other piece made my mind start working.

During the last bloghop, Terri E. stamped a background, then clear embossed a larger stamped image over it and filled in the background with ink. That means you could only see the background in the large stamp. Check it out. It's awesome!

So I started thinking this pink metallic paper would be nice done like that, just use the metallic paper as the background itself. Forget the fact that the metallic paper would start to melt with heat embossing, forget that black ink doesn't like to adhere to metallic paper.

I thought, as I realized I used the UTEE instead of the fine, as the paper started to melt and again as the black ink wouldn't stick to the metallic paper, "This is nuts. This is never going to work."

Once I had finished though I really liked the look. Just goes to show, you should never give up. I thought for certain the butterfly panel would end up in the trash at each point. But I like the finished card. I really do.

Here's a different angle so you can see the metallic effect in the panel.


And here's the inside. Once again I thought I had made a mistake. Somewhere on my stamp was some residual black ink, so when I stamped it with the sweet blush for the tone on tone look inside, I got this grey contamination. But I think it looks better this way, makes it more rustic like the front.


Supplies:
Stamp: Stampabilities
Cardstock: True Black, Sweet Blush, & Plum Pudding from Papertrey Ink
Ink: Sweet blush from papertrey ink, versamark, Black from Close To My Heart
UTEE


Tell me what do you think? And thanks for visiting!
Cindy