Happy Earth Day!

Here's a card that is suitable for an Earth Day post. It is made with the new Trendy Trees set from Stampin' Up! In keeping with Earth Day, the patterned papers came from my scrap bin. How's that for recycling! Here's the card:

I started with a standard size piece of SU Wilda Wasabi card stock cut down to 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches and scored it at 4.25 inches. I cut a piece of Very Vanilla card stock to measure 5.25 x 4
Next, I used my flexible BoBunny ruler to get the curves that I wanted for my patterned paper and tore the paper using the ruler as my guide. After inking the edges of the patterned paper and adhering it to the vanilla card stock, I stamped the tree trunks and leaves using my Stampamajig to line them up. The lighter trees were done using the stamping off technique. Finally I adhered my ribbon and stamped the sentiment.

Recently I undertook the arduous task of sorting all of my scraps. I put them in an accordion file by color. Now, my scraps are at my fingertips. And, no longer plagued by the thought of digging through the minefield that was my scrap bin, I am actually reaching for my scraps and saving paper (and money!) at the same time.

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock (Wild Wasabi and Very Vanilla) and patterned paper; Stampin' Up! (Wild Wasabi) and Anna Griffin (brown) ink; Trendy Trees stamp; Bobbin Ribbon; BoBunny ruler and Stampamajig.

Project Twelve -- I'm All Caught Up!

I did two more layouts for Project Twelve (see original post here http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2009/04/project-twelve.html) and, for once, I'm all caught up. I knew this project was going to be something I could keep up with and, at the same time, enjoy. So here are my layouts. First February:

At the top of the photo pyramid is my beautiful new grand nephew. His birth was certainly THE highlight of February. And, yes, that is a picture of two bottles of Motrin. With Mark and Melissa sick with the flu for a combined total of 15 days, Motrin was a very big part of February 2009.

I used my Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut out the bottom border and I hand stitched the top embellishment. (I told you that I was hooked on sewing!)

For my March layout, I repeated the overall layout design with only slight variations. I layered two Basic Grey stickers to make a unique border for the top of the page and instead of stitching, I used the Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut out a corner embellishment.

I realized, after taking the picture, that I forgot to add my journaling to the bottom square of patterned paper. For this page, my journaling will read: Snow day...Trinity Church...Adventures in babysitting...Melissa's birthday...Mark's wrestling match. Hope it all fits! As a final touch, I added my favorite pearl bling to the flowery vine.

Ingredients February Layout: American Crafts card stock;Basic Grey Romani patterned paper; Heidi Swapp chipboard letters; Bazzill In Stitchz flourishes template, Bazzill piercing tool, DMC embroidary floss; Cricut Storybook cartridge.

Ingredients March Layout: American Crafts card stock; Basic Grey Boxer patterned paper, stickers and rub-ons; Heidi Swapp chipboard alphabet; Cricut Storybook cartridge; Michael's pearl bling.

Sweet 16

Oh, Sweet 16! I remember turning 16. We all wore Gunnie Sax dresses to my party, sang Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light at the top of our lungs, and danced to the BeeGees. My friends carried out the ritual of cutting off a lock of my hair, putting it into a brandy snifter with 16 pennies plus other memorabilia, and sealing the glass with wax. Anyway, back to the post. I have a Sweet 16 card to share with you today. This card was pretty simple to make... once I finalized the design. You would never know that from the pile of scraps left over from the numerous false starts I had. I think I spent more time on the cards that wound up in the trash than I did on this one. LOL! So, here is my card:

I started by stamping the swiss dot pattern onto my Stampin' Up! card stock with Versamark ink and heat embossing it. I added the patterned paper and covered the seem with my ribbon. Next, I arranged my alphabet stamps to spell out "Sweet." Again, I stamped using Versamark ink and embossed it. I ran that piece through my Cuttlebug using a Nestabilities die to cut and emboss the oval. I also cut the scalloped oval using my Nestabilities. Finally, I added the oval layers to my card using dimensional foam squares. Adding the bling probably took as long as it did to make the card but I think it was worth it. After all, it's not everyday you celebrate being Sweet 16.

As I was finishing this post, Melissa took one look at the card and said, "Mom, you scraplifted yourself." Check out this post: http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2008/11/all-she-wants-to-do-is-dance.html. I guess I did!

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock; KI Memories Pop Culture patterned paper; Technique Tuesday (Swiss Dot) and Heidi Swapp (alphabet) stamps; K&Company Wedding stickers; Versamark ink; Stamp 'n Stuff Detail White embossing powder; Dashes, Dots & Checks ribbon; Michael's rhinestones; Nestabilities; and Cuttlebug.

A Tisket, A Tasket...

...look how I made my Easter basket. I made it using my Cricut and my Cuttlebug to be more specific!

First, I used the Doodlecharms cartridge to cut out a 4-inch basket. Next, I took my Distressed Stripes embossing folder and swiped white ink across the inside front panel. I placed the basket in the folder so that the stripes ran horizontally and ran the folder through my Cuttlebug. Voila! The basket was embossed and inked. I love this technique.

Next, I used my Cricut to cut out the Easter eggs. This was my first time using this cartridge so after a few tries, I found out that the egg size is proportionate to the basket size. So, to cut these 1.5 inch eggs, I left my setting on the 4 inches I had used for the basket. Makes sense. I'm just a little sorry that I can't cut out 4-inch eggs for cards.

I don't have a grass stamp, so I used the tulip leaves from Stampin' Up!'s Spring Garden set. I used a Martha Stewart punch to create the grass in the basket. I popped the basket using foam squares to give the card some dimension. Finally, I added the butterfly using the two layers I described in this post: http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2009/01/quick-post.html.

That's it for today. I hope you have a Happy Easter!

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock (whisper white and kraft), patterned paper (Fall Flowers and misc. scraps); Stampin' Up! ink (Whisper White and Always Artichoke); Stampin' Up! Spring Garden stamps; Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge, Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes embossing folder; Martha Stewart (butterfly) and Stampin' Up! (ticket corner) punches; Michael's pearls.

Sew Simple

Whether I'm reading the latest issue of a scrapbook magazine or visiting one of my favorite blogs, I find myself admiring pages and cards that incorporate sewing. I love the added texture and design element it gives to a project. I think that any combination of sewing and paper crafting is sew (pun intended) beautiful! So, I finally decided to take the plunge when I was doing my Pool Play page.

I wanted a clean look for this page since these pictures of a nighttime swim were a little on the dark side so I decided on white card stock. I only used two wavy strips of my patterned paper. (I find myself doing this more and more lately.) To lay out my pictures, I followed the principle's I learned from the CKC Scheming Around class and then used the white space on my grid for a hand-stamped title. It was only at this point that I felt the page still needed something. I added the brads but this still was not quite enough. That's when I decided to add some stitching. I used the swirls on the Bazzill In Stitchz flourishes template and voila, my page was finished. I'm happy with how my paper, stamps font and stitching all complement each other.

Since completing this page, I have taken my needle and thread out for another layout. I guess you can say that I'm sew hooked!

Ingredients: American Crafts card stock; Making Waves by Flair Design patterned paper; Autumn Leaves stamps; Stampin' Up! ink, Signo pen, Imaginisce brads; Bazzill In Stitchz flourishes template; Bazzill piercing tool, DMC embroidery floss.

Project Twelve

If you're like me, you always take way more pictures than you will ever be able to scrap in a single lifetime. Thankfully, in the two years that I have been seriously scrapping, I have moved away from feeling obligated to scrap every event and include every picture, and more towards trying to use my hobby to tell the stories of our lives. However, I still have the nagging feeling that I want to scrap certain occasions and, of course, there are always so many more layouts in my head than I have time to actually put down on paper. That is why I was intrigued when I read Davinie Fiero's blog post about Project Twelve. (You can check it out here: http://davinie.blogspot.com/2009/01/challenge.html) Davine challenged readers to make just 12 layouts -- one for each month -- to tell the story of their lives. One layout a month -- I could do that and maybe not fall too far behind.

So here is my January layout for the Project Twelve layout. (Just for the record, I created it in February -- right on schedule. It just took me two months to post it. LOL!) It includes pictures from sledding, New Year's Day, Melissa's Winter and All County concerts, as well as Sal's birthday.

The hardest part of this challenge was coming up with a color scheme since the pictures are all so different. I decided on red as my dominant color since a majority of the pictures had some red in them. From there, I knew that I wanted to use my new grey fabric Thickers so I pulled out my Basic Grey scraps and got to work. I started with a plain piece of American Crafts cardstock which I stamped with VersaMark ink to give it a slight pattern. I rearranged my pictures several times and finally decided on a placement that was not dictated by chronological order.

I used my new Stampin' Up! Curly Label punch to create journaling spots from grey cardstock. Next, I added some snowflakes which I cut using my Martha Stewart punch. (This is one of my favorites!) Just a note: when adding the snowflakes I used the same principle as I do when stamping. I let some of the flakes fall partially off the page and trimmed them out with a scissor. I also tried to make a visual triangle with the snowflakes to carry the eye around the page. Finally, I dug into my stash for the pearls to embellish the snowflakes. For $1.99 a pack, pearls and rhinestones add so much punch to a project. I now store them in my crop bag so that they are always at my fingertips!

I have already completed my February layout and have even printed the pictures for March. I told you that this is a challenge I could keep up with!

Ingredients: American Crafts cardstock; Basic Grey patterned paper and sticker embellishments; Autumn Leaves stamps; VersaMark and Colorbox inks; Martha Stewart (snowflake) and Stampin' Up! (curly label) punches; American Crafts Thickers; pearls from Michael's.