Bliss

Oops! Between my trip to CKC Valley Forge and my vacation to California, I have fallen a little behind in sending out anniversary cards this month. So, here is card I made for a July anniversary. I'm posting it along with my best wishes for those who did not receive their cards in August. Anyway, here's the card:

It was inspired by the beautiful Brenda Walton chipboard piece that I had found on sale at Michael's. To make the butterfly, I first stamped with Versa Mark ink. I sprinkled gold embossing powder on top of the stamped image. Before heat setting it, I brushed a little of the embossing powder off for a distressed look. I colored in the image using distress inks (my new favorites!) I did not use dimensionals for the butterfly since this card had to go through the mail.

Hopefully I'll catch up on my card making in time for those September birthdays and anniversaries but there's no guarantee since I'm off to the Scrapbook Expo in Somerset, NJ this weekend!

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! (Whisper White) and DCWV (Brights) card stock; K & Company
(Brenda Walton) patterned paper and chipboard; Hero Arts (Heart Winged Butterfly) stamp; Versa Mark and Tim Holtz Distress (Shabby Shutters and Broken China) inks; Stamp-n-Stuff embossing powder (Gold Tinsel); Martha Stewart border punch (Doily Lace).

Oh Baby!

Just a quick post tonight to share a baby card and matching gift bag. This set was very special because it was made to welcome my new great nephew into the world.

Here's a close-up of the card. Notice the zigzag stitch at the top of the orange layer. That was made with my new Janome Sew Mini that my mother gave me for my birthday.

As much as I wanted a sewing machine, I have to admit that I was a little intimidated about taking it out of the box. As I was reading the directions, Sal came into the room and pretty much took over threading it. Apparently he knows how to use a sewing machine from years of watching his grandmother do so. Who knew that after 21 years of marriage, I would uncover this hidden talent!

This card was cased from the fabulous Carla Peicheff. You can see her fabulous original here: http://moralia.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/a-few-baby-cards/. While you're on Carla's blog, take a look at some of her other projects. Her work is stunning and a constant source of inspiration to me.

Card Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock; DCWV patterned paper (Nan's Nursery Baby Boy); Making Memories ribbon (Passport); Stampin' Up! border punch (Scallop Edge); Making Memories stickers (Tiny Alphas); Signo pen (white); Cricut (Graphically Speaking).

Bag Ingredients: Michael's gift bag; DCWV patterned paper (Nana's Nursery Baby Boy); Fiskars border punch (Threading Water); Inkadinkadoo stamps (Baby Boy); Versa Mark ink; Stamp 'n Stuff embossing powder (detail white).

I'm Back!

...from the Creating Keepsakes Convention, that is and I've been feverishly working to finish up the projects from five (yes, five!) wonderful classes including the very latest (and I mean hot off the CHA press latest) from Basic Grey for a total of 12 layouts and five cards. It was the best CKC to date. While I work on finishing up my projects and getting pictures, I have some layouts from the beginning of the summer to share.

When Mark received his Four Sport Award at the Sports Awards Ceremony in June, it drove home the fact that I had not scrapped a single team picture or portrait from his middle school years. So I set about changing that. Here are the four layouts:

7th Grade/Fall:

7th Grade/Spring:

8th Grade/Fall:

8th Grade/Spring:

Okay, so before I tell you about these pages, can I just say that I can not get over the remarkable transformation Mark underwent in only 18 months!

Now, back to scrapbooking. I bought these papers at last year's CKC (I think Hartford) and back then, I bought two or three of every piece of pattern paper. My style has evolved since then and now I find myself truly using scraps. In one recent layout, I only used a 1-inch by 12-inch piece of patterned paper. Therefore, I had more than enough paper to complete all four layouts even with the wood grain pattern being the B side of the track paper.

Other common elements included the journaling. For each page, I used kraft card stock and Ali Edwards stamps to give "the details." The journaling is simple -- Mark's location in the team picture (as you never know who will be looking at these books years from now) and his best time for that season.

I used two of my favorite border punches -- Upper Crest by Fiskars (seen above) and Spiral by Stampin' Up! (seen below).

Finally, I bought so much of this paper (what was I thinking!) that I had enough left over to make a card for Mark to give to his godfather, another running enthusiast. Here's the card:

Layout Ingredients: American Crafts card stock; Rusty Pickle patterned paper and stickers (Run It Game Time); Technique Tuesday stamps (Today You Journaling Frames) Fiskars border punch (Upper Crest) and Stampin' Up! border punch (Spiral); EZ Laser designs and Sticko embellishments; Color Box chalk ink.

Card Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock; Rusty Pickle patterned paper and stickers (Run It Game Time); Technique Tuesday stamp(Simple Sentiments ); Versa Mark ink; Ranger embossing powder (black); Maya Road Micro Chips (Neutrals); twine from stash.