Top 13 Projects of 2013: Year In Review

Hello everyone. I can't believe a new year is dawning!  As 2014 approaches, I wanted to look back at my creative projects from 2013 and post a few of my favorites.  I love seeing these types of posts on your blogs and wanted to follow suit. 

Below are 13 of my favorites in the order that they appeared on my blog this year. The blue titles hyperlink back to the original posts and tutorials. 

At The Sea - Pebbles Inc. 

I'm All Ears - October Afternoon

Welcome Little One - Echo Park Paper

Lollipop Tents - Echo Park Paper

Delight - Little Yellow Bicycle

Sailboat Tag - Pebbles Inc.

Silly Amazing Handsome You - My Mind's Eye

The Race - My Mind's Eye

I Fell In Love - Fancy Pants Designs

Tuesdays With Cory Mini Album - Fancy Pants Designs

One Fine Day - Fancy Pants Designs

Toilet Roll Reindeer - Fancy Pants Designs

Shaker Card - Crate Paper

Do you have a favorite among these?

As it turned out, 2013 was the Year of the Pub for me. I had 38 projects in print publications this year including work in Paper Crafts Magazine, Creating Keepsakes, Better Homes and Gardens (specialty issue Make It Yourself), Scrapbook and Cards Today, Scrapbooking & Beyond, CARDS, Scrapbook Trends, Create and Simply Handmade.  Sadly, most of these magazines have either ceased publication or will publish only (or primarily) in digital form in 2014. 

I hope 2013 was a wonderful year for you. If you've written a list of favorite projects from the past year, I'd love to see your post. Please link it in the comments. 

Happy New Year!

Paper Bow Tutorial: My Creative Scrapbook

Do you ever look in your card pile and realize you don't have enough basic sentiments?  This happens to me sometimes, so I tried to remedy that a bit with this card that simply says: Noted.  I think it will work well for a thank you card or a congratulatory card or teacher card. 

I made this card with the March kit at My Creative Scrapbook. The kit features the pretty Collectable line from My Mind's Eye. 

To give this card a little extra flair, I made a simple paper bow. 

I started by cutting 3 strips of paper the same width but different lengths: 5.5 inches, 4.5 inches and 3.5 inches.  I notched the end of the longest strip. This will be the base of the bow. 

The next step is to fold over the two smaller papers to form a circle.  Press the circles down in the middle and secure.  I secured them with stitching but adhesive would work too. 

I layered the smallest circle on the larger one and placed them in the middle of the notched strip. I punched a small scallop circle from patterned paper and put it on top. Then I used a hole punch to go through the center of all the layers and added a brad in the center. 

To curl the edges of the bow, I wrapped them around a pencil. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend. 

Oh So Loved: My Creative Scrapbook

Hello and happy Friday!  Today I have another layout that I made with My Mind's Eye, featured in the March kit at My Creative Scrapbook.  I also have a winner to announce from the PaperHaus Magazine spring hop. 

Let's start with the layout.  When my son was 6 weeks old, we took a family trip to the beach.  It was late April, but unseasonably warm, even for South Carolina.  

We put Cory in a little sunsuit, wrapped him in a blanket and took him down to the shore. I snapped this photo of my sister with him just as we were headed to the ocean. 

To draw the eyes to the photo, I made a colorful mat from a mix of patterns. It really was an excuse to use all the pretty paper! 

Now back to PaperHaus.  Thanks so much for everyone who stopped by the blog hop and left a comment. We are so excited about the Spring issue of the magazine. I had 42 comments on my post.  I used random.org to pick a winner. 

Comment # 37 was PattyK:

Patty, I will email you to get your mailing address.  Have a great weekend, everyone. 

The Race: Using Border Strips As A Photo Mat

For the PaperHaus blog hop and giveaway, please see this post. 

I had so much fun with the new March kit at My Creative Scrapbook.  The colors and patterns of the My Mind's Eye line in the Creative Kit were just yummy and happy. 

One of my favorite papers in the kit was this pretty, sunshiny Polaroid paper that I used as my backdrop here: 

If you look closely, you will see that the Polaroids are upside down, so don't look too closely!  I turned the paper upside down because I liked the burst of color in the upper left corner and it gave me more design room on the rest of the page. 

To make the large mat under the photo, I cut apart the border strip paper in the kit.  I left a little bit of white space between each one and staggered them a bit to give a sense of movement. 

The photos fit nicely on the mat. I left a spot to the left for the title. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow with another project from the March kit and to announce the winner of the giveaway for the PaperHaus blog hop. 

My Creative Scrapbook March Kit: My Mind's Eye

The PaperHaus hop and giveaway is here.  Entries close at midnight Thursday. 

Reveal day is here for My Creative Scrapbook. I love seeing all the new kits. Drool-worthy!  I worked with the March Creative Kit, which featured My Mind's Eye.

All those pretty spring colors!  Loved the orange, blue and yellow palette.  So versatile and boy friendly.

This is one of the layouts I made with the kit. I thought the floral paper gave the page a beachy feel.

I used a journaling spot as a banner and mixed it in with chipboard and patterned paper pennants. Here's a closeup:

I'll be back this week with more work from this kit.  To see all the March kits from My Creative Scrapbook, please visit the home page.

My Creative Scrapbook March Sneak Peeks!

For the PaperHaus blog hop and giveaway, please see this post.

It's almost reveal day! Tomorrow, My Creative Scrapbook reveals the new March kits. Oh, are they lovely! 

Pam, the owner, already gave away some hints on the My Creative Scrapbook blog so I think it's safe for me to say that two of the kits include new collections by My Mind's Eye and Little Yellow Bicycle.  If you follow my work, you know that made me a happy girl! 

Here are some sneak peaks of the work I did with the Creative Kit: 

Tomorrow, I'll be be back with the full kit reveal.  If you haven't entered the PaperHaus giveaway, you still have time. Entries are open until midnight Thursday.  You can find the details here.

Easy Summer Cards: What's the Scoop?

I love the way that so many manufacturers make it easy to add a bit of whimsy to layouts and cards.  I am particularly fond of the die cuts that come with each line at My Mind's Eye.


This die cut sheet from On the Sunny Side is a case in point.  Look at all those fun summer icons.

You can use the die cuts as is or you can doctor them up.  I used the ice cream truck (upper L) for my card and altered it by adding brad wheels and a layered sticker with ice cream icons. I used foam tape underneath to give it dimension on the card.

For the card base, I used a folded card from Memory Box. Love those.  There you have it.  A quick and easy summer card.

I hope you have a great day.  Me?  I'm off in search of ice cream.....

Altered Frame: Hexagon Punch

Hi!  Today I have an altered summer frame using hexagons as my backdrop. 

For my project, I altered an old picture frame. I used patterned paper from Canvas Corp and Bella Blvd, cutting them with a hexagon punch, and adhering them them to black cardstock. 

I used seven patterns from Canvas Corps White Basics line and two patterns from Bella Blvd’s Sunshine and Happiness collection for the base of my project.

Then I used a hexagon punch from Creative Memories to punch a bunch of shapes for the base of my project.

I arranged the the hexagons on black cardstock and stitched around the edges to form the base of my project. I love the way the black makes the color pop. Using black also gives the project more depth when inserted in a frame.

Here's a closeup of the top of the altered frame.  I used a large burlap flower from Canvas Corp as the sun and added a tag as a title spot.  Alphas are Webster's Pages.  Banner pieces are October Afternoon.

Here’s a closeup of the bottom of the frame. I added a photo of my son in the pool and a piece of chipboard from My Mind’s Eye to the hexagon background. On the frame itself, I added waves punched from Canvas Corp paper and a large felt flower. I wrapped some burlap string around the flower stem to echo the burlap sun at the top.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Tutorial : How To Make A Pinwheel and Other Tricks

Today I’d like to show you the fourth layout I made with the June Creative Kit at My Creative Scrapbook and a couple techniques I used. This kit feautured On The Sunny Side from My Mind’s Eye.

 

This is my preschooler taking a test drive on his new bike in our backyard. I wanted to show a sense of movement on the layout. I used a circle punch on the kraft cardstock to make a negative circle, then backed it with colorful geometric paper that was sort of arrow shaped. 

To emphasize the arrows and to suggest the forward roll of the bicycle, I punched small corners from white cardstock and stacked them together for thickness. Then I placed the corners like arrows across the negative punched circles and stitched them on the page. I repeated this in the opposite corner to help take the eyes around the page.

Another technique I used on this page was to make my own pinwheel. The kit included two small pinwheels with brads and I wanted to make a third and cluster the three together.

Pinwheels are super easy to make. Just start with a square, any size, from double-sided patterned paper (both sides with show).

Here, I used a 2-inch square punch but you could also cut your own square or use a die cut machine.  Fold your square til the corners touch and crease the fold marks, then fold the square again from the other corners and crease. 

Use the crease marks as guidelines for cutting the pinwheel. Cut halfway down every other crease, then fold the corner over to the middle.  Place a brad or button in the center.

Thanks for stopping by. You can find more information about the June kits at My Creative Scrapbook here. For information on the June Prima contest, click here.  It's super easy to enter; just submit your answers to three questions about My Creative Scrapbook.

Clean and Simple Pages with My Creative Scrapbook

I’m back today with two more layouts from the June reveal at My Creative Scrapbook. These pages show how to use the “Creative” kit in a clean and simple style. I love to use grid designs. It’s an easy way to show off bits of patterned paper yet not overwhelm your page.

I do believe that an old-fashioned square punch is my favorite scrapbooking tool. Here I used a punch to cut 4 squares to add a bit of color and pattern to a simple page.

The kit came with a plain chipboard branch. I painted it brown, then snipped it apart to make two separate perches for the sweet little birdies. The watermelon was a die cut and I backed it with cardboard and added gem seeds to give added dimension.

My second layout follows a similar design, but I used strips of patterned paper, instead of squares. This is Cory on his second birthday.

We had gone to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend and on the way home, we stopped by McDonald’s. As a special treat, he got an ice cream cone as his bedtime snack that night. The ice cream patterned paper and embellies in this kit were perfect for this photo.

Below is a photo of the June Creative Kit. It’s full of My Mind's Eye goodies from On The Sunny Side. I love that collection.  You can find all the June kits here at My Creative Scrapbook. 

June Kit Reveal Day at My Creative Scrapbook

Today is reveal day at My Creative Scrapbook and I’m so excited to share the kit and the first of the layouts I have been working on. I used the “Creative” kit which featured the Sunny Side collection by My Mind’s Eye. It’s such a pretty, playful kit full of summery goodness.

This is a layout celebrating my son’s favorite ice cream man. Earlier this year, my parents bought an ice cream vendor business and my preschooler loves going to festivals and venues in search of his favorite vendor. The top photo shows my Dad handing Cory a free dish of vanilla and the bottom photo is Cory adding sprinkles. My little one is very serious about the sprinkles!

I loved how perfectly the summer theme of this paper fit my photos. This kit has the cutest embellies. This little ice cream truck was one of my favorites. The kit also includes a die cut sheet and I sewed the banners from that sheet down the side for a festive look. The title says: Found A Favorite Vendor.

I have three more layouts to show you with this kit. I’ll be back tomorrow with two clean and simple pages and on Friday with a technique page and tutorial. You can see all the kits and reveals in the design team gallery here.

There are so many exciting things happening this month at My Creative Scrapbook. We are launching two new monthly add-on kits: Dusty Attic and Mixed Media. You can find out the details on the My Creative Scrapbook website here. 

We’re also holding a Prima contest and there are some seriously fabulous prizes up for grabs. (See pic below!!) 

To enter the Prima contest, just answer three questions, which are posted on the blog for My Creative Scrapbook here.