Snowflake Birthday Card

I got another card done this afternoon. I'm trying to be a little ahead of the game with birthday cards since I don't know when this baby is going to decide to make his/her entrance into the world. :)

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch and decided to try a circular card.  I saw this circle card cut on my "Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2" cartridge when I first got it and I have been itching to try it.

I also worked the 7th day of Christmas challenge from Frosted Designs in.  The challenge was to include 7 snowflakes on a project.  I have two that I cut out using my Cricut and the same cartridge I used for my card, 4 that are dry embossed into the white and one more stamped on the inside of the card.  I also had fun with some more glitter- I am LOVING this color!  

January 2013 calendar page

Happy New Year's Eve!  Can you believe it is the end of another year?!  Today I am sharing my January 2013 Project 12/calendar page.  This is the beginning of my second year scrapping in this format. I really enjoyed making these recap pages over the past year, so I look forward to continuing.

I based my layout of Sketch #245 from Nuts About Sketches.  I also plan to continue using Shawn's sketches in the year ahead because her two pagers usually include space for lots of photos which is perfect for my pages!

I also worked a couple of challenges into this layout.  The first is the 12th day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs which was to use at least 12 brads.  I ended up using 19!  I used sets of them in the place of the stitching in the sketch.  I liked the whimsical touch it gave.  

I also did the 12/19 scrap(word) challenge at My Scraps and More.  The challenge was to use the word "Everyday" on a layout.  I ended up stamping it as part of an accent in the bottom right as part of the phrase "cherish everyday".  

I received a huge set of American Crafts glitter from my sister-in-law for Christmas, and I had a blast playing with that on this layout.  After I had cut my title with the Cricut, I put glue in strategic places and sprinkled on some white tinsel glitter to look like snow.  I also covered the smaller circle snowflake accent on the right page with the white tinsel glitter.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts, Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Recollections

Brads- Basic Grey, Making Memories, Deja Views

Pens- Sakura, Marvy, Tsukineko

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Stretch Your Imagination

Software- Sure Cuts A Lot

Font- Backhand Brush

Journal Spots- Recollections, Bo Bunny

Stickers- Cosmo Cricket, EK Success

Glitter- American Crafts

Punch- marvy

Stamps- Fiskars

Ink- ColorBox

Mist- Ranger

Birthday Card

I've been busy scrapping today. I completed a layout and a card, both for the 12 days of Christmas challenges at Frosted Designs. I am sharing the card now and will share the layout tomorrow.

 For this card, I did the 9th day of Christmas challenge which was to use 9 pearls or gems. The gems are from the Michael's "bling on a roll". The gems come clear, but I colored mine with some purple alcohol ink to make them match my card.

I also did the 12/23 card challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use at least 3 triangles on a card.  I decided to make a banner with my triangles.  The paper I used was white with glitter embossed snowflakes.  I inked the paper with purple and pink Distress Ink to make the snowflake stand out.

To be honest, I am not totally thrilled with how this one turned out, but it was fun to play.  :)

2013 Calendar Reveal!

Here it is, the entire calendar!  These are the 8 1/2 x11 pages, I also made a 8x8 calendar, using the same papers and sketches.  All of the sketches were from Nuts About Sketches, the sketch number is listed and linked below the calendar page.

Sketch # 224

Sketch #227

Summer 2012 Design Team Search Sketch

Sketch #222

Sketch #230

Sketch #225

Sketch #235

Sketch #210

Sketch #233

Sketch #237

Sketch #238

Sketch #220

A Couple of Calendar pages

I have two calendar pages to share today, I will be revealing the rest tomorrow! I am posting these two today because I did them for a couple of the 12 days of Christmas challenges at Frosted Designs.

The first day of Christmas challenge was to use a bird.  I used a scrolly Glimmer Glass bird on my November calendar page.

The 4th day of Christmas challenge was to use 4 different patterned papers.  Three are pretty easy to see, the presents in the bottom left were cut from the 4 sheet.  I will be adding photos to this layout later.  I wanted to include photos from Christmas, and since this is a Christmas gift, this is the best option I have found.  

20 Weeks

This is the first layout I've done (other than calendar pages) in a long time!  I had so much fun playing on this one.  I used some of the images from my 20 week ultrasound, which was 3 1/2 months ago!

I started with sketch #95 from Sketches in Thyme. I worked in the stitched circles from the 12/21/12 scrap(find) challenge at My Scraps and More. Finally, I also was able to work in the 3rd day of Christmas challenge from Frosted Designs: use three inks, mists, or paints.

As you can see, I stuck pretty close to the sketch, except that I used rectangular photos instead of square ones. It was pretty easy to incorporate the scrap(find) challenge since there was a large circle element in the sketch.

The large circle element also allowed me to play with my new Inkadinkadoo Stamping Gear. I used the circles stamp included in the kit and first stamped it in pink, then flipped the paddle and stamped it in black. I am excited to play with this more! The third ink that I used (for the Frosted Designs challenge) was Weathered Wood Distress Ink around the edges of my papers.

For my title letters, I had these chipboard letters that punched out of chipboard squares.  I didn't have an 's' or two 'e's', but I had the squares that they punched out of.  I cut around the letters to leave a border, glued those frames to patterned paper and then cut them out.  I filled in the letters with Glossy Accents and then pressed beads into them.  I know I saw this idea some time ago in a magazine, so I cannot take credit for it, but this is the first chance I've had to use it, and I am happy with the results!

Materials:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper- October Afternoon and Echo Park

Chipboard- Lil Davis Designs

Ink- Ranger, Colorbox, American Crafts

Stamp- EK Success

Rub Ons- American Crafts

Sticker- Hambly

Vellum- K and Company

Beads- Me and My Big Ideas

Journaling card- October Afternoon

Pen- Zig, Provo Craft

Twine- Pink Paislee

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- All Mixed Up

Glitter Glue, Liquid Pearls, Glossy Accents- Ranger

Man Cards

Today I have two masculine cards that I made recently to share. I have two brothers-in-law who celebrate their birthdays this time of year.

This first card I made using scraps from my November calendar pages (which I will be sharing very soon, I have one more to give!)  I did this one for two challenges: the 12/9/12 card challenge at My Scraps and More (use chipboard) and the 2nd day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs (use two stamps).  The brown piece is chipboard that I colored with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I let that dry overnight and then I stamped and heat embossed the fox.  The sentiment is also stamped and heat embossed.

The second card used the current sketch at Unscripted Sketches.  I also did it for the 5th day of Christmas challenge at Frosted Designs which was to use 5 gold/yellow items.  I used yellow patterned paper, yellow ink for the leaf, and yellow embossing powder on the three words of the sentiment.  The leaf was stamped with Resist Ink on Glossy Cardstock.  I dried it with a heat gun and then used a brayer and Wild Honey Distress ink over it.  I then fussy cut the leaf.  For the background of my card, I used the Inkadinkadoo Stamping Gear that I received as a Christmas gift.  I got to try this out at Scrapfest and really enjoyed the effect so it went on my Christmas list!

Christmas Crafting

I've spent the last month doing several "off the page" projects as Christmas gifts. It has been fun to play with some different media and try some new things, but it was also great to make a layout again today.

My first project was a set of coasters for my grandma. I decided to use photos of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I used a digital glitter frame on all of them that I had recolored using the Hue/Saturation sliders in PSE. These coasters were super easy to make and you can find all kinds of tutorials all over the Internet. I give a quick step-by-step of what I did.
1. Select photos, crop and add any design elements in PSE.
 2. Print on regular copy paper. Cut out photos.
 3. Brush a thin coat of Mod Podge onto white ceramic tiles. Lay photos onto wet Mod Podge.
 4. Brush a thin coat of Mod Podge over the photos to seal them in.
 5. Allow to dry then coat a second time.
 6. Spray with two coats of Acrylic sealer, allowing to dry in between.
 7. Glue felt to the back of tiles.

Our MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers) group did an ornament exchange for our Christmas party.  I decided I wanted to try my hand at making an ornament.  I found this great tutorial on how to make a paper pinecone ornament.  This was relatively easy and didn't take a lot of time (probably about an hour and a half).  

Finally, I made a Christmas card for our priest to hold our gift to him.  As I was making this card, I realized that all of my Christmas paper, stamps, and other crafting supplies are very secular.  I will definitely have to do something about that!  I ended up searching the Internet for a free digital image to use on my card.  I found this one here.  I also used the current sketch at Sketch Saturday as inspiration for my card.  The base of the card was embossed using the Tim Holtz Alterations Snowflake folder.  I edged the card and all the pieces with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I also lightly ran my inking tool over the snowflakes to make them stand out more.

I have some more projects to share in the coming days, so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!  I hope to be back later this week with some projects!

Advent Chain

Today, instead of sharing one of my projects, I am sharing something my kids have been working on. Simcha Fisher, a Catholic mom and blogger at The National Catholic Register, shared a file that can be used to make an Advent chain.  I had saved the link and finally this week, with Advent upon us, came up with a plan and got it rolling.

First, I had my kids color the pictures that are on each "link".  This worked out nicely because there are 6 sheets of links and I have 3 children.  :)  After they finished coloring, they cut the strips apart.

Yesterday we took the strips and made a chain out of them, taping the ends together with a piece of Scotch tape so they will be pretty easy to remove from the chain.

Starting tomorrow night, during our bedtime prayers, we will remove one link and read the Bible verse on it. Then they will cut out the picture on that link and I will punch a hole and add a piece of string and they will add it to the little tree the girls have in their room.  If you were following me when I did my Project 365, you may remember this:

Not exactly a Jesse tree, but we are going to make this work with what we have!

There you have it, I am very excited for this because I think it will make us all reflect a bit more on the season and "the reason for the season."  I hope you all have very blessed Advents!

Welcome Baby Boys!

I had two friends have babies within about a week of each other again, and this time they were both boys. I decided to make two of the same card to speed up the process and since I was using larger scraps, it wasn't too much of a challenge. :)

 I used this week's sketch from Unscripted Sketches as inspiration. I also did this for the 11/4/12 Card Challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use stars on a card.

When I looked at the sketch with the idea of making a baby card, the banner across the top made me think of a wash line with baby clothes on it.  I used the "New Arrival" cartridge for the baby and onesies.  For the background of my card, I ran a sheet of Core' dinations  Whitewash cardstock through my texture boutique for some texture.  I sanded off some of the white layer of the paper and then inked the edges with two colors of blue distress ink.  I wrote the baby's initials on the punched star by the sentiment with a Souffle pen.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts, Core'dinations, Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Creative Imaginations, Paper Adventures

Embossing Folder- Sizziz

Pens- Sakura, Provo Craft

Ink- Ranger

Punch- Marvy

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- New Arrival

Twine- Queen and Co.

December Calendar page

Yes, that's right, I have my December page done a week early! I've had a bit of a lull in my Christmas calendar making as I wait for a few more photos from November.

For my Project 12/ calendar layout this month I used Sketch # 239 from Nuts About Sketches:

I love how many photos Shawn makes room for in her sketches!!  I managed to get a few extras on this one by splitting a few of the photo spots.  Since my November page had a large circle on it, I decided to skip that part of the sketch this time.  For the background I used a scrap from punching out board game pieces as a mask with some dark green mist.  The ornaments across the top were fussy cut from a sheet of We R Memory Keepers paper.  My collection of Christmas paper is dwindling so I ended up pulling out some papers that weren't necessarily Christmas, but had the right colors.

I am also entering this layout in the Scrapping Everyday Miracles challenge for this month which is to make a layout about family.  December is definitely a time of spending time enjoying the company of family, as you can see from the photos on this layout.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill 

Patterned Paper- We R Memory Keepers, Echo Park, Basic Grey, Provo Craft

Stickers- Echo Park

Rub Ons- Daisy D's

Ink- Hampton Arts, Clearsnap

Pen- Marvy, Creative Memories

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- New Arrival

Glitter Glue- Hampton Art

Punch- EK Success

Stamp- Stampin Up

Trim- Other

More Cards!

I have been working on layouts too, but they have been for calendars, so I can't share them quite yet.  I have them completed through August though, woo hoo!

I have two cards to share today, a masculine birthday card and an anniversary card.  The first is a birthday card for one of our friends who celebrated his 30th birthday tonight.  I used the new Unscripted Sketch and the papers I had laying on my desk from the calendar pages I was working on.

For the bottom part of the card, I used an embossing folder and ran it through my Texture Boutique. I rubbed some Distress ink over the embossing to make it stand out more.  I used another of the stamps from the Autumn Leaf prints stamps set and heat embossed that in gold.  For the number, I used some grungeboard letters, ink them in blue, rubbed a little Versamark over them, and heat embossed with gold.  I taped one end of the twine to the back of the middle piece of paper, wrapped in around the piece three times and then taped the other piece to the back.  To finish off the card I used a dot stamp to stamp the border.

Materials

Cardstock- Bazzill, American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Fancy Pants Designs, Paper Salon

Ink- Ranger, Tsukineko

Stamps- Stampin Up, Hampton Arts

Embossing Folder- Spellbinders

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Grungeboard- Ranger

Twine- Queen and Co.

My next card I made earlier in the week, but forgot to post.  I used last week's sketch from Sketch Saturday.

This was a card for my parents for their 31st anniversary. The flower frame I cut out using the Botanicals Cricut Lite cartridge. I colored it by rubbing Distress Inks over it.  I stamped the word love inside the from and the sentiment where it was suggested in the sketch.  To frame the circle, I used Liquid Pearls.

Materials

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Robin's Nest, Crate Paper

Punch- Martha Stewart Crafts

Ink- Ranger

Liquid Pearls- Ranger

Stamps- Hampton Arts, Stampendous

Eyelets- Making Memories

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Botanicals

Birthday Card- Unscripted Sketch #183

My brother-in-law's birthday was on Saturday. For his card, I used this week's Unscripted Sketch and the papers that were on my desk from working on my November calendar page.

I love fall and the leaf motifs that go with it.  I did a little stamping and heat embossing on the large leaf, and then cut the two smaller leaves with my Cricut and then inked them with several colors of Distress Ink.  I also crumpled them a bit to give them some realistic texture.

Materials:

Cardstock- The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants Designs, Crate Paper

Ink- Tsukineko, Ranger

Stamps- Stampin Up

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Stretch Your Imagination

November Calendar Page- NAS #234

It took me a couple of days into the month, but I finally got my calendar/ Project 12 page done! I used a Nuts About Sketches sketch that was posted early in October. I had a lot of fun playing with texture and making a homespun feel to the layout since most of the photos were from Thanksgiving.

I combined papers from a 6x6 paper pad by Jillibean Soup with some 12x12 papers from some other companies.  For the large circle in the center, I used my Cricut and the "Live Simply" cartridge.  I took the center circle and traced around it on scrap paper.  I then cut up the circle into wedges and then traced the wedges onto different patterned papers.  If you ever do this, I HIGHLY recommend numbering your pieces so you know what order to place them in the circle, otherwise you will have a very difficult puzzle to put together...

I wanted some larger red flower accents on may page, but I couldn't find any in my stash, so I ended up cutting my own from felt and then accenting them with orange fabric paint.

Materials

Cardstock- Bazzill, The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- Crate Paper- Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants Designs, Die Cuts With a View

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Live Simply

Stickers- October Afternoon, Karen Foster Designs, Little Yellow Bicycle

Spray Ink- Studio Calico

Ink- Ranger

Punches- Marvy, Martha Stewart, Tonic

Chipboard- Studio Calico

Tape- Target

Rub Ons- Fancy Pants, Pink Paislee

Fabric Paint- Duncan

Pen- Creative Memories

Button- Jesse James Co.

Ribbon- Stampin Up

Other- Felt, Thread

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 11-4-12

We enjoyed lots of fall/ Halloween activities this week! The prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday were pretty open ended this time, so I was able to find photos that would work.

Wild
All three kids dressed up as animals this year for Halloween, so I thought this photo of the three of them in costume (and smiling goofy) fit this pretty well.

Welcome
These are the pumpkins that greeted trick-or-treaters as they walked up the steps to our house. The girls chose the designs for the pumpkins, I did the carving.

Adventure
Rick and the kids had a great time trick-or-treating on Halloween. I followed them around to the first few houses so I could get some photos. Here they are trudging through some leaves in the street on their way to the next house.

Vibrant
Last Sunday evening the kids painted their pumpkins with vibrant tempera paints. Here's Addy working on hers.

Classic
A "classic" fall activity: raking leaves! We have 4 large maple trees in our yard, so we always have LOTS of leaves to rake!