Anatomy Of A Layout: November Kit

Hi everyone. Today, I have the reveal of the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook and a tutorial on how I used the kit to make a Fall layout. 

The kit featured the versatile Home + Made collection from Pebbles Inc. While the collection isn't specifically Autumn-themed, the colors and icons worked perfectly for my photo of the kids at our local pumpkin farm. 

I started the layout my piecing together the background on white cardstock, then I stitched the whole background onto a 12 x 12 sheet of kraft paper. 

The mask in the kit was perfect for creating a journaling spot. 

The kit included some cute script word stickers. I used the sticker that said "friends," inking it to make it pop against the background paper. 

I loved the sheet of Crate Memo paper in the kit and cut apart several elements from that sheet, including the arrows. It was perfect for adding little touches to complete the layout. 

I cut the phrase "Life Captured" from the Crate sheet as well. Here's another look at the completed layout.

Below is a photo of the November kit I used to make the layout. You can see more details of monthly kits at My Creative Scrapbook here.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Shaker Card Tutorial: My Creative Scrapbook

I'm taking a little break from layouts today to show how to make a shaker card.  

I used the new Bundled Up line from Crate Paper, which was included in the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook. As soon as I saw the theme of this collection, I immediately thought it would lend itself well to a shaker card. I used sequins and tinsel from the kit as snow. 

To get started, I used a chipboard frame in the kit. I thought the frame would have just the right depth for the sequins to shake and fall like snow and it did.  

To the front of the frame, I attached a piece of transparency.  Vellum would work well too. I just stitched the transparency on. It is quite fast and easy to run chipboard through a sewing machine and I didn't have to worry about adhesive showing through. 

After stitching the transparency on, I cut a piece of patterned paper the same size as the frame and embellished both pieces with chipboard. 

I glued the paper to the back of the frame -leaving a small opening for the sequins and tinsel - then sealed it completely shut. Then I added the shaker to a card base. 

Here's a final look:

A fun and festive card!  I'll be back tomorrow with a project for Fancy Pants Designs.

Let It Snow: Using Paint On A Layout

We don't get a lot of snow in the Carolinas but when we do, it's cause for celebration.  When my son was 11 months old, he saw his first snow.  

For this layout, I used the cute Bundled Up line from Crate Paper, which was included in the December Kit at My Creative Scrapbook.  The kit was perfect for this photo of my little one being pulled around in the snow in his beloved red wagon. 

My favorite sheet of patterned paper in Bundled Up is this red snowflake one with the cute polka dots on the flip side. I only had one sheet of this double-sided paper, so I carefully cut out the middle and flipped it over. 

I wanted to bring in another color on this layout and chose an aqua paper with big pink polka dots. It was a little too much, though, so I toned it down with paint. I thinned the paint with water then white washed the pink polka dots. 

I loved the snowy effect the paint gave the paper.  Now the layout has a pop of color but it doesn't overwhelm the page.  

One last look. Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back on Wednesday with a tutorial for a shaker card. 

Bryson City: My Creative Scrapbook

I love this time of year with all the sights and sounds and smells of Christmas. One special treat for us this holiday season was a trip on the Polar Express. We took the train in Bryson City, NC, and enjoyed walking around the quaint town while there. 

My parents with with us on this trip. I love to watch the relationship between my Dad and my son and wanted to document it here.  I made this layout with the new December kit at My Creative Scrapbook, which featured Crate Paper. 

I loved the cute little tags and die cuts in the kit.  They made it so easy to put together this simple page, allowing the focus on the photos. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'll be back this week with more holiday projects. 

December Kit Reveal: My Creative Scrapbook

Eat, drink and be merry.  Even if - or especially if - it's hot chocolate!

I had so much fun with the December kit from My Creative Scrapbook.  I worked with the Creative Kit, which featured Crate Paper's Bundled Up collection. 

My family recently took the Polar Express train to the North Pole. My four year old loved everything about the trip. The highlight for him - other than meeting Santa - was the big mug of hot chocolate they served on the train. 

The winter theme of the kit was perfect for these photos. The kit included a pack of sequins, which made a fun addition to the tree die cut for a little sparkle and dimension. 

Here's a photo of the kit I used. 

You can see the full reveal of all the December kits on the My Creative Scrapbook website.

December Sneak Peeks: My Creative Scrapbook

December is here!  It's the most wonderful time of the year. Bring on the holidays.

With a new month comes a new reveal from My Creative Scrapbook kit club. Here are peeks at four winter projects I made with the Creative kit this month.

The full reveal is December 5th. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year! / MCS Sneak Peeks

Hello and Happpy New Year!  I always love the first day of January. There's something magical about the hope and promise of new beginnings.  I'm excited to see what 2013 will bring. 

And, with the first of the month, comes sneak peeks from the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook.  Here's what I had been working on during the last few days of 2012.

Do you recognize this collection?  It's a great one. I have enjoyed working with it so much.  The full reveals are Jan. 5.

Just for fun (not with the kit), I made a New Year Countdown card:

Supplies:
CS: Memory Box
PP: Echo Park
Stickers: Cosmo Cricket, Crate
Wood Veneers: Studio Calico
Twine: The Twinery
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a wonderful new year! 

A Twine Birthday Giveaway!

The design team at Trendy Twine has a little something up its sleeve today:  a surprise birthday party for Lesley, the owner.  Today is her big day and to celebrate, we've each made birthday cards for her, which we mailed earlier this week.

Each team member is spotlighting Lesley's card on our blogs today. This is the card I made.

I tied a bit of Twisted Lime twine around the chipboard vase then curled it for a decorative effect.  To curl the twine, I wet the twine with a glue medium and rolled it around a toothpick to dry.  When I removed the toothpick, the twine held its curlicue shape.

The team invites you to join the party with a hop to each blog. You'll find lots of great tips with twine along the way and a few prizes too.

The next stop on the hop is Jamie. If you get lost, just pop over to the Trendy Twine blog for the full lineup.

The prize on this stop is 20 yards of holiday twine.

You'll get 5 yards each of the holiday colors: Berry, Holly and Holly Berry plus 5 yards of Orange Truffle which we are featuring this month (not pictured).  To enter the drawing, follow this blog and leave a comment here on this post by 9 pm EST on Tuesday, Nov. 20. A winner will be chosen by random.org and posted here on Wednesday, Nov. 21. 

Happy birthday, Lesley!  

Products used:
CS: American Crafts
PP: Crate
Chipboard: Crate
Stickers: Pebbles Inc (sentiment), Echo Park Paper (flower)
Pearl: Close To My Heart
Wood veneer: Studio Calico
Twine: Trendy Twine
Sewing Machine: Bernina 

36 Hours in NYC: How To Make The Most Of A Quick Trip

A few years ago, I had to go to Manhattan for a Monday morning meeting. Since I would only be tied up for a few hours, I decided to make the most of the quick trip and take an early flight up Sunday morning and a late flight home Monday night.  I took my best friend with me and we made the most of our 36 hours in New York City.

The meeting was at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, which was also where we stayed. It’s the kind of job perk that I miss. Travel is limited now, but on this day, we tried to do it all.  We shopped on Fifth Avenue (where we ran into Katie Couric), checked out the view at the top of the Empire State Building, saw a Broadway show, took a stroll through Central Park, ate lots of great food and took several death-defying taxi rides (the only kind there are in NYC).

I also bought a scarf from a street vendor and posed quickly for this photo in Times Square.

The layout is primarily Little Yellow Bicycle from the Escape and Splash collections with a little bit of Crate, Echo Park, Studio Calico and October Afternoon mixed in.

Here’s a close-up of the layering in the middle. The cute chipboard from LYB worked perfectly with the page.

The "new arrival" tag under the photo is from Crate's baby line, but I thought it fit here too.

I love New York!

PaperHaus Magazine Blog Hop & Giveaway

Hello and welcome!  I’m so excited today to be part of a blog hop of contributors for PaperHaus, which is launching Sept. 1.  PaperHaus is a quarterly publication for the scrapbooker, card-maker, mixed media artist and crafters of altered projects and mini albums.  The magazine will feature articles, trends, tutorials and, of course, a multitude of beautiful projects.  And it's all completely free.

You can find the full line-up of participating bloggers on the PaperHaus Magazine blog. Nearly all the bloggers on the hop are offering RAKS along the way, plus the magazine is offering BIG prizes by several manufacturers.  All the details are posted on the PaperHaus blog and Facebook page. The blog hop will be open all week, concluding Sept. 1 with the reveal of PaperHaus' first issue. 

If you are visiting my blog today as part of the hop, you should have arrived here from Aimee Maddern’s blog.

  

For my project, I wanted to express how appreciative I am that you stopped by and are supporting the magazine launch.

I used a mix of products here. Patterned paper, border sticker and covered brad are Crate Paper; doily is Webster’s Pages; sentiment is Jillibean Soup.

The RAK on this stop is a package of camera wood veneers from Studio Calico and a brad set from Echo Park Paper. To be entered in the drawing, follow this blog and leave a comment.  Comments will close on Sept. 1. A winner will be chosen by random draw and announced here on Sept. 2. 

The next stop on the PaperHaus blog hop is Jess Mutty. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Journaling: 20 Random Things About My Life

Like many scrapbookers, I began this hobby when I had a baby, or more accurately, when I adopted a baby, as a way to document my son’s early life, recording his photos and capturing his milestones.  Along the way, I’ve found that, every once in awhile, I'd make a page about Mommy too.

This particular layout, though, isn’t about me as a mommy. It’s just about me.  Just random things about my life before my son came along. Twenty things, because that is a nice round number and because, well, that’s all that would fit on the page.  In truth, when I went to design the page, I needed to cut the last three items from the list to fit the journaling block so I added those three things to the tag under the photo. It's always a bit of a design challenge to fit in a lot of journaling.

I used a mix of paper lines here: Cosmo Cricket, Little Yellow Bicycle, Crate Paper and October Afternoon. The border sticker is from Echo Park Paper and the alphas are from Bella Blvd , October Afternoon, Studio Calico and Basic Grey. Chipboard is American Crafts and Cosmo Cricket.

How about you? Do you make layouts to capture you? If so, feel free to link your projects in the comments or tell a random fact about your life.

Spring Cards

We’re having the most beautiful spring here in North Carolina. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming and all over the neighborhood, I hear the hum of lawn movers. On days like this, it’s impossible not to find myself wanting to create something bright and sunshiney.

The first card, "Let The Fun Begin," is a hodge podge of stuff laying on my desk and things I eyed on my Clip-it-up. This project started life as a color challenge to use yellow and pink. That’s where I got the yellow base (Pink Paislee’s Hometown Summer) and large pink scallop (Making Memories journal book).

　

Then I started poking around my desk, adding this and that. I had just gotten a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper‘s new Storyteller and I pulled the blue ledger from there. On top, I added a scallop border sticker from Studio Calico, a bit of twine from The Twinery and a trio of Crate chipboard birds. The sentiment sticker is from Amercan Crafts's new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. Love that collection! I nearly stopped there, but then decided the sun and kite stickers from My Little Shoebox would add just the right touch of whimsy. There, now the card feels complete.

The second card, "I Really Bike You," features Echo Park’s paper and stickers. I love orange and blue together and took advantage of that combination here. To make the bicycle pop against the background, I whitewashed the paper with thin white acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top, then added my own sentiment with alphas under the bicycle.

　

I submitted this card to Scrapbook & Cards Today, the terrific quarterly Canadian magazine, and was delighted to see my card featured on its blog here.  I hope you're having a beautiful spring day wherever you are.

Winter Cards

Although it's sunny today and near 70 here in North Carolina, the calendar tells me it's winter.  I'm not sure if we'll have snow this year or even weather cold enough to lend itself to winter layouts.  So I thought I'd make some cold weather themed cards instead.

I am crazy about the Pink Paislee Snow Day line. It's the cutest collection and looks even better in person.  I recently used some of the Snow Day paper on a beach-themed layout and it worked perfectly.  I considered using this paper for a Valentine with the sentiment, "you warm my heart," but then decided to use it as intended - for winter.

The sentiment, "warmth and winter wishes" is from a Unity Stamp Itty Bitty co-branded with My Little Shoebox.  I love the Itty Bitty stamps. They're just right for card-making. The journaling block is Jillibean Soup and the chipboard mittens are Cosmo Cricket.

To shape the twine into a heart, I rubbed a bit of gel glue on a length of twine and while the twine was still wet, I shaped it into a heart.  It dried stiffly in just a few minutes.

For my next card, I used Crate Paper's Peppermint collection. I love all the cards I've seen popping up that use the negative from a punch or die cut and I wanted to try my hand at that. 

I used large and small snowflake punches on teal cardstock, then cut the cardstock to make a card front, affixing it on top of cream patterned paper, and stitching in white around the edges. It's a fun and easy way to make a card.    

I Resolve: Things To Do In 2012

With the New Year rolling in, I decided to document a few of my goals for 2012. Well, 26 goals to be exact. I made a list of action verbs that started with each letter of the alphabet. A couple of letters were tricky. My action for Z was zoom. And my action for X was to give kisses and hugs (represented as xoxo).

When I put my list into a Wordle, I got a word cloud like this:

I used the Year.o.graphy line from Simple Stories for my layout. Love that collection. It lended itself so well to this type of page. The white banner stickers and the scallop border sticker are Echo Park Paper.

This was my list of things to do in 2012:
Adapt, Balance, Create, Donate, Experiment, Fix, Garden, Hug, Invest, Join, Kneel, Listen, Make, Nurture, Organize, Pause, Question, Read, Snuggle, Try, Understand, Visit, Wander, XOXO, Yield and Zoom.

This was a really fun way to document my goals and was based on a challenge for Birds of a Feather Kit Co.

Supplies:
CS:  Bazzill Basics
PP: Simple Stories
Stickers (non letter): Simple Stories and Echo Park
Alphas: Crate Paper
Sewing Machine: Bernina

An Early Valentine with Trendy Twine

I'm a firm believer that it's never really too early - or too late - to send a Valentine. I made this card using Little Yellow Bicycle's Cupcake Love and Trendy Twine's new Valentine twine.  The sentiment says: I love you cherry much.

The cherry was super easy to make. To wind twine into a circle:  punch a circle from cardstock and cover with adhesive of choice.  Cut about a foot of twine.  Tie a knot in one end.  Put the knot in the center of the circle and tightly wind the twine around the knot until you reach desired size. Trim any excess cardstock.  

Here's a closer look at the cherry on the card:

And here's a closer look at Trendy Twine's new Valentine Twine: It's pink and red swirled together.  Love that!

You can find our more about Trendy Twine here.   This card and other projects using the Valentine twine are featured on the Trendy Twine blog today.

Card supplies:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Little Yellow Bicycle and Crate Paper
Die Cut: My Mind's Eye
Felt cupcake: Little Yellow Bicycle
Border Punch: Fiskars
Paper Clip: K & Co.
Alpha Stickers: Lily Bee and Cosmo Cricket
Twine: Trendy Twine
Sewing Machine: Bernina