~Magpie~

I received the fabulous November kit from Magpie Club and have had such fun playing with it!!! Tara includes a magnificent assortment of goodies in her kits! I just can't get over all the unique and intriguing embellishments. This layout, "That Way" is based on the November Sketch designed by Julie Bonner over at Magpie. Check out that vintage viewmaster reel. I just love it!!! And that flower on top of it -came all done, just like that! I simply opened the brad up and attached the viewmaster reel to the back!

I began this layout of my Tin Man with a sketch by Helen Croft

I used this glittery scrap of fabric that Tara sent in the kits:

it just inspired the entire layout. My fabric edge was a little crooked after I got it on my layout so I added the little plastic ball trim that I found in my kit. A perfect fit!


The balloons are hand cut from a sheet of Webster's. I have seen them done like this on lots of other layouts so I thought I'd give it a try. It was HARD! I pop-dotted them so they look like they are flying~

Off to a day of watching the kids in sports: two soccer games, one basketball practice and one STATE CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL GAME!!! Go team!

~Mysteries of Me Class~

I had the pleasure of taking Elizabeth Kartchner's very first online class. It was called "Mysteries of Me" and it involved making a mini-album all about me and tucking it into a hollowed out vintage book. (I picked up the vintage book at a local antique store for only a few dollars.) Hollowing out that vintage book was a real task. Cut cut cut, cut cut cut, cut cut cut, cut cut cut.

 

 Finally all cut out~

Then on to designing the cover. I used rub-ons, a bookplate and a giant Bazzill flower along with some punched flowers from the leftover page or two that I had after cutting out the middle of the book. ;) Then I did the Tim Holtz keyhole frame thing. There is a teeny tiny picture of me inside that keyhole, can you see me? If you click on the picture it gets BIGGER!

The doorknob is my favorite piece on the cover. I made it from a button that I picked up at Joe's and several knitting spacers. I just stacked and glued until I had the look I was going for. Love it, and IT WORKS!

On to the mini-album that goes inside the book. The album uses a variety of materials including tickets(House of 3), tags(office supply store), chipboard(packaging from patterned paper), ribbons, felt(Joe's) and patterned papers(Cosmo Cricket and Crate Paper). I didn't purchase the class kit as I wanted to use up some of my meager little stash. ;)

 

 This is my opening page. The ticket says "What makes my heart sing" and my answer is written on the back of the tag. Okay, so it's not quite written there yet, but it will be, soon, really! That cute little house is Maya Road. Oh, by the way, the tags are just standard tags that I got at an office supply store. I colored them using a variety of Distress Inks.

These pages are dedicated to the love of my life. The ticket says "My rock during tribulation." Catch the theme? Forever, clocks, time? Doesn't he look sharp pulling that wagon! The clocks are Paper Studio as are the brads that I used to make the clock hands with -I just put them in backwards!

My Perfect Day -the beach of course. I used some more Bazzill flowers for this and inked them a bit, well, looks more like a lot. Then I stitched my FAVORITE photo of the kids onto a piece of stiffened felt that I got at Joe's. Love the texture of the felt in this album. When Elizabeth told us to use felt for our photo pages I was really skeptical but the stiffened stuff works great!

 

Oh, this is a good one. A time when I laughed. This IS journaled. Last Christmas our annual gingerbread house suffered structural catastrophe shortly after construction wrapped up. I couldn't stop laughing. Not exactly sure what gave me such a case of the giggles but my crying children certainly did not appreciate it. Ah well, they got to eat the thing, that made them buck up. And hey, we got pictures! It's in the scrapbook. Isn't that the whole point? Gee, I'm STILL laughing!!!  The little hanging frame is a Tim Holtz inspired project.

 

Note to self: Friends are a good thing~

I know this will be a HUGE surprise to all of you. I nurture my soul with a nice latte in my scraproom. Anyone astonished out there?

 

Well, there you have most of it. I thoroughly enjoyed constructing the album and designing the pages. Journaling...well, some of it is complete.

~October~

This has to be one of my very favorite layouts. It is another photo from Gentry's Farm, imagine that?!? This is made with lots of Amber Road from Pink Paislee.

I hand stitched the swirl after using a Basic Grey pattern to mark my holes. It took me a long time but I really like how it came out.

I did some seriously fussy cutting on the flowering tree. ~Got the idea from the amazingly talented Gabrielle! I also added some liquid pearls on the flowers, each and every one of them.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques: Embossed Sanding

I made this quick little card using a fun and simple sanded embossing technique. This works with both embossing folders and thick (chipboard) die cuts. Actually, it works with anything that is raised at all, including stickers, paper clips, buttons, rick rack...the possibilities are endless~ So, you don't need a fancy embossing folder or die cut machine to try this technique out.

Here are the supplies you need to get started:

White core cardstock

Embossing folder or something that is raised

Sanding stick or block

I cut my cardstock to 4 by 5-1/2 inches and placed it in the embossing folder.

 

Next, I ran it through my Sizzix. I just love that I can use embossing folders from a variety of manufacturers in my Sizzix!

 

Here is what it looks like with just plain embossing. Yes, I agree, looks pretty just as it is.

 

Time to sand! I just rubbed my sanding block lightly over the surface until I liked the look.

 

It's like magic! Now the card is all ready to embellish.

This is my finished card, ready to send to a friend.

  

The same technique was used to make these impressions of a fence and a star. I used some leftover chipboard die cuts for this. I simply put the chipboard under the cardstock, held it down with my finger and sanded away.

Happy Sanding!

~The Phantom Door~

Took the kids downtown to play with my camera. I only took a couple hundred shots. N told me if he ever becomes famous, he won't even notice the paparazzi...these are from the phantom door.

~Played with the color on this one~

 

 

 

Faded the color on this one, the boys think it's cool~

Have a wonderful week!

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques: Storage Jars for TRIMS

I LOVE TRIMS! Especially ric racks and pom-poms. I freely admit it, I am not one of those "super organized, neatly wound on color coded ribbon cards" people. When I am creating, things are flying all over my scraproom. So, for me, jars are often the storage type of choice. For my trims, I started with the little plastic jars that fit oh-so-neatly in my wall mounted storage shelf. That worked for -oh...about a month. I quickly accumulated waaaaay more trims that would even come close to fitting in those jars so into those jars moved little buttons. By little, I mean little! Watch for that in an upcoming post.

For today, I am sharing photos of my Ball jars that I found at a local antique store. I just love the slight blue tint to the glass and the lids keep everything nice and clean -and contained when I am not trimming a layout. When I am trimming, I love to pull them all out by the handfull so I can see what I want.

 

And just in case you were wondering... no, I have never had them get tangled up.

~Pumpkin "Cake" Bread~

Here is some more of my design team work for Creative Cookbooking. This week I put together a layout about my family's favorite "bread" of the season: PUMPKIN CAKE. It is truly a quick bread but I simply bake it in a bundt pan and tell the kids it's cake!!!

These adorable patterned papers and dimensional stickers are from Cookbookin. Aren't they fabulous!?!

This cute little blingy pumpkin is from Basic Grey.

Don't forget to hop on over to Creative Cookbooking and join the scraplifting contest this week. The prize includes Domestic Goddess papers from Graphic45 and some fabulous kitchen goodies!