Try Something New!

After I wrote my blog post yesterday about my aversion to banners, I started working on this layout. I had the blocks of patterned paper and photos in place and I was trying to decide how to embellish the page. I decided to put a banner on it!! I thought the top right corner needed a little something and it worked well with my farm theme. And... I liked it! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I used my Cricut to cut out the triangles, glued down a piece of twine to "hang" them from, and slid the triangle flags underneath.


What are you afraid to try (in scrapbooking or otherwise)? Go try it, you may like it!

August Calendar Page

I finished my August calendar page just in the nick of time! :) For this one I used the Sketch Challenge over at Global Scrappers which used this fabulous sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches.

I really liked this sketch and stuck pretty close to it. I didn't do the banner... I was tempted, but, can I tell you a secret? I'm a little afraid of banners, they seem very tedious to me. Not sure why the tedium of banners gets to me, because I will spend lots of time doing other tedious things, but I just seem to shy away from them. Anyway, here is my layout using pictures from Will's Baptism last August.

Oh, and Sketches in Thyme is currently doing an open challenge which means you can use any sketch to enter this week!

One is Fun!

I am here with a layout I did last weekend for the journaling challenge at Global Scrappers. The challenge was to use strips to print or write our journaling on. I use this technique pretty regularly so this was a pretty easy challenge.



To make the large polka dot paper on the right a little more festive I stamped the balloons and "smile" circles and then used embossing powder and heat embossed them. The border in the middle of the photo collage is made up mostly of leftover die cuts from other projects. I made the cupcake, present and hat using my Cricut and "Doodlecharms" cartridge specifically for this layout.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #20

Today a new sketch was released at Frosted Designs! This week's sketch is really pretty with some layering, something I have been working on lately (trying to use up my stash!). I used mostly KaiserCraft "Magic Happens" for this one. The embellishments across the top are a hodgepodge of manufacturers.




Thanks for stopping by and check out the Frosted Designs blog to see what the other design team members did with the sketch and to enter your take for a great prize!

Project 365 Week 49

Only 3 weeks left! We had some kid free time this week so there are very few photos of the kids this week!

7/18 A "self portrait" of Ellie and me. Thought I should get one of me in here!


7/19 Will climbing the stairs of the "Lego" castle at the Children's Museum.


7/20 "Clans" board game. Rick found this at a thrift store for cheap, it is pretty fun!


7/21 Jim Thome doing what he did best at this game: getting a strike (see the ball in the catcher's mitt?). Rick and I went to our first Twins game at Target Field. It is a very nice stadium and the weather was nice, however, the Twins' playing left a lot to be desired... They lost 6-2 to the Detroit Tigers.


7/22 Garden goodness! Green beans, snap peas and cherry tomatoes straight from my garden.


7/23 We went to the Community Theatre production of "Footloose" in New Prague, and on our way home, at 10:30, we decided to stop at Mystic Lake! This is the ceiling in the casino, I thought it was pretty cool.


7/24 Today we picked up the kids from my parents' house. We had lunch at Pizza Ranch and then checked out "The Way of the Cross" which is an outdoor stations. Here is Addy looking at one of the statues.

Project 365 Week 48

Another week over! We (especially I) had some fun this week.

7/11 Will doing one of his favorite things: dumping out things. Here he is dumping out a bag of toys Addy had collected.


7/12 I want my fairy godmother to look like this, don't you? :)


7/13 Another of Will's favorite things: eating stuff off the ground. He also thinks it's funny to shove even more in his mouth when I say "No!"


7/14 Addy saying "Hi!" to one of the penguins at the zoo.


7/15 My friend Taryn and her brother Ben (aka Oak Ribbons) playing at the 331 Club.


7/16 Girls Weekend! It was HOT and HUMID! What better way to spend the day than in the pool chatting!


7/17 Baby Shower Time! Karen, guest of honor Lily and Taryn with the gifts.

Month of Cards: Part 4: Finally Done!!

Whew, I think we have made it to the other side. Don't get me wrong, making cards is fun in its own way, but when I spend so much time just making cards I really start to miss making layouts! I am hoping I will be able to find some time next week to work with photos!

I drew inspiration from several places for these last cards. This one, for Will's first birthday last weekend, started as deciding which cut to use from my "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge. The colors then came from the background paper I chose. I have had half a sheet of that license plate paper sitting around for a couple of years now, I thought it was about time to use it!


Next, I used a video tutorial from Frosted Designs for this wedding card. It was so easy and fun! If you have a wedding card to make any time soon, I highly recommend trying this design!


For the last two cards, I turned to some trusty sketch blogs. For this shower card, I used the current Cardabilities sketch. Everything except the scalloped circle were cut using the "New Arrival" cartridge. It is a little hard to see, but the letters in the banner in the top left spell "baby."



Last, but certainly not least, is this graduation card. I used the current sketch at Card Patterns for this one. Another great sketch to work with! The only thing I did to deviate from the sketch was to add the cut sentiment.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #18

Yesterday a new sketch was posted at Frosted Designs. It was another one with just 1 photo, which I stuck to this time. I turned the sketch 90 degrees since that's how my photo was oriented. I used the photo and cluster of circles to make a pocket to hold my Mothers' Day cards. This is probably the most unique pocket page I have made, and I like how it looks!




Head on over to Frosted Designs and check out what the other design team members did and post your take on the sketch for a chance at the fabulous prize!

Frosted Designs Blog Hop Winner!!!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and left a comment! Thanks also to those who have become followers! I hope you find inspiration here!

I had 21 comments so I entered that into the random number generator and it gave me 7! The #7 comment was from Elizabeth:

Elizabeth said...

I love white cardstock too! My favorite thing about birthdays is our "Birthday jar" tradition where each year relatives and friends write something they love about the birthday boy or girl. We put them all into a decorated canning jar and throughout the year when that child is down, sad or just in need of encouragement they open their jar and read why they are loved! Your layout is adorable!
July 8, 2011 1:11 PM

Elizabeth, please e-mail me your address at jlshurts(at)gmail(dot)com and I will get your prize out to you!

Project 365 Week 47

Looking for the Frosted Designs Blog Hop? Click here!

We celebrated Will's first birthday this week! I can't believe he is that old already! It was a hot and sticky week weather wise, but we did get out to enjoy the summer.

7/4 Will meeting some baby pigs on Grandpa and Grandma's farm. He was not afraid at all! He stuck his finger in a baby pigs mouth and even wanted to pet one of the sows!


7/5 Addy showing off a leaf she found in the yard.


7/6 Today I started TEAM Fitness. It is basically a class that meets 3 times per week with a trainer to work out and we are held accountable to one another for getting 3 cardio workouts and 2 strength training workouts per week. Part of the program is also keeping a "food journal." I think that is the thing I will benefit from most because it has made me pay attention to what I am eating and make better choices.


7/7 After lunch and watching the magician at a local park, the kids played in the water features there. It was a hot day and they had a great time cooling off!


7/8 Will's first birthday card! After oohing and ahing over it and putting it right up to his face he set it down and started clapping. He was pretty excited!


7/9 Will's birthday cake



7/10 Will loved when we lit the candle on his cake. So much, in fact, that he cried when his sister blew it out! He was happy again when we gave him some cake to eat, shoving it in his mouth as fast as he could!

Frosted Designs Blog Hop!!

Welcome to Our First Birthday Ice Cream on The Beach Blog Hop!
I’m so happy you're still with us, you are almost done!! If you came here from Debbie Bakk’s Blog you are in the right place, if not please stop by Frosted Design where the Hop starts.

Here is my question and answer that you need to know to enter to win the grand prize:

What’s your favorite color of cardstock?
My favorite color of cardstock is white. I like that it is a "blank slate" and I can color it and decorate it any way I want to work with my pages.

Not only is Frosted Designs celebrating a birthday, we are celebrating a birthday in our house this weekend. My son turns 1 on Saturday!! So, in honor of the birthdays, I will be giving away this prize of Birthday stuff!!



To be eligible to win the prize, simply leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite thing about birthdays is.

This week’s challenge at Frosted Design is a Recipe Challenge: Ribbon/trim, charm, rhinestones/pearls and summer celebration (beach, pool, birthday, picnic, etc.). Here is my take on the challenge. I based this off a layout by Jennifer Perks in the February issue of Scrapbooks Etc.






Thank you for stopping by and your next stop is Libbeti.

Month of Cards, Part 4: More Sketches

I made a few more cards to share: 3 birthday and 1 anniversary. I used sketches for two of them and played with my alcohol inks for the other 2. I'll start with the sketches.

For this one I used the current Card Pattern. I also did this month's stamping/card challenge at Global Scrappers. The challenge was to use scallops and a bow. Since the sketch called for both of those things as well, I stuck pretty close to it.



This week is Card Week at Sketch Support so I used that one for my next card. It made a great masculine card, but you could definitely replace the stars with little flowers for a girly take on it. This is also a great sketch to use up scraps- look at all those strips!! Once I got this one put together I inked the edges to give it a distressed feel.



Finally, here are a couple of cards I used some glossy cardstock and alcohol inks on. For the first one, I did the plaid on a scrap of the cardstock and then cut the hearts out using my Cricut. If you want to see the tutorial on how to make this plaid, you can check it out here, on Tim Holtz's very own blog.


Last, I used my resist ink again on this card. I stamped the trees and sentiment and then heat set them. Then I rolled over the card with Chipped Sapphire ink on top and Forest Moss and Walnut Ink on the bottom. For the clouds I dropped Pearl Mixative in clumps. The bear was stamped and cut from regular textured cardstock and then I used foam adhesive to attach it to the card. I added the knotted ribbon for a little extra interest and to direct the eye to the sentiment.


There you have it, 4 more cards! I only have 2 left!

Project 365 Week 46

What a busy week! We started with the remainder of our vacation/ family reunion and ended with 4th of July festivities.

6/27 The girls and their cousin singing "I'm a Little Teapot" on their "stage" at the resort.


6/28 Sugar Bowl Island, on the Wisconsin River. We saw this during our Duck Boat ride.

6/28 Our nephew playing in the pool at the resort. He is a little guy, but loved playing with this big beach ball!


6/29 Ellie playing mini golf at Pirate's Cove. We all had fun, but it got to be a little too warm for the girls around hole 12.


6/30 Ah,home sweet home, sleeping in our own beds!


7/2 The girls and their cousin dancing on the "stage" at Grandpa and Grandma's. Rick is in the background watching "Mr. Busy" Will climb the stairs.


7/3 Ellie and her second cousin watching fireworks.