It's a Boy!

I love sketches! Sometimes they are all I need to get the creative juices flowing. Here's the sketch I saw on the Moxie Fab World' blogs Go To Sketch Challenge:

Here's the baby card I made using the sketch:

There's a lot of paper piecing on this card. After cutting my card stock and patterned paper to the desired sizes for 4.25" square card, I stamped the clothesline in black in. I stamped it again on white card stock with blue ink, red ink and yellow ink. I also stamped it on my patterned paper. I cut out all of the shapes and pieced them together. For added dimension, I "hung" the clothes on pop dots! I used my Cricut to cut out the speech bubble and popped the top layer of that too. You can also take a peek at the stamping I did inside the card.

If you want to read more about the Go To Sketches Challenge head over to Moxie Fab World at http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2010/04/get-sketchy-our-go-to-sketches-week.html.

Supplies

Card Stock: Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: DCWV (Nana's Nursery)

Stamp: Inkadinkadoo (Baby Boy)

Ink: Stampin' Up (Bayou Blue); Ranger (Black); Technique Tuesday (Sunlight, Lava); Signo Gel Pen (Black)

Tools: Cricut (George & Basic Shapes)

My Grads

When I graduated elementary school the same year that my sister graduated college, my parents gave us a joint party. Mark and Melissa's back-to-back graduation days last June also called for a joint celebration and a layout about my graduates. Here it is:

With the exception of the stamps, all of the supplies for this page are from Pink Paislee's new 365 Degree collection. I just love the colors of this collection and see myself buying more of it.

I started my layout by using the ledger as my base. This was the B side of the beautiful red and white patterned paper. Since I had only purchased one piece, I cut a square piece from the lower right corner since the hole would be covered with the circle paper. This was an economical move but I so wish I had bought another piece of this paper! Before adhering the red and white design to the ledger paper I used my exacto knife to fussy cut it.

Journaling reads: Two days, two graduations! Mark earned an award for outstanding achievement in computers. Melissa received the Music Excellence Award and the prestigious Superintendent's Award. I am proud of you both!

I definitely recommend getting the punch-out die cuts that go with this collection. I used four on this layout alone -- one for journaling, another to stamp the word "my" in the title...

...a third for Class of 2009, and the last one is popped in the lower right corner. I also liked the cork elements that you see below.

Finally, another new product I used on this layout is the Pink Paislee Artisan Elements. These self-adhesive embellishments feel a little like Silly Putty. In their raw state, they are white but you can ink them or paint them like I did.

Supplies

Patterned Paper, Punch- Out Die Cuts, Cork Embellishments, Chipboard Alphabet: Pink Paislee (365 Degrees)

Embellishments: Pink Paislee Artisan Elements (Swirls)

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Initially Yours); Heidi Swapp (Alphabet)

Ink: Ranger (Black; Shabby Shutters Distress Ink)

Paint: Tim Holtz Distress Crackle (Shabby Shutters)

Tap & Jazz

I have an old project to share with you today. I took Melissa for her dance photos over the weekend and remembered that I never posted the layout I created in July 2009 with last year's photos. At least scrapbooking gives me a reason to buy all of the pictures that I ultimately forget to give out to family and friends. Here's my layout:

Starting with two 5x7's (which justifies my excessive purchase) did not leave too much room for creativity on a one-page layout. I opted for paper blocking with patterned papers from a past Studio Calico kit that I received as a RAK. To soften all of those straight edges, I distressed the papers and pictures. The letters were cut on my Cricut using black specialty paper from a Halloween line. I love when I can do that!

For the center of the page, I covered and off-color chipboard circle with my patterned paper and put that on top of the strip of felt flowers. I embellished both with some rhinestones. After all, what dance page doesn't call for a little bling!

Finally, I added butterflies which I made using my favorite Martha Stewart punch and Glossy Accents, and hand-stitched a swirly trail for each of them to give movement to the page. As for the numbers rub-on, finding the "5, 6, 7, 8" in my stash was just serendipity!

I pick up this year's pictures in two weeks and will have to get busy on scrapping new layouts.

Supplies

Cardstock: DCWV (Brights)

Patterned Paper: SEI (Poppy); Making Memories (Spellbound)

Rub-Ons: K & Company (Classic); Pink Paislee (Vintage Moon)

Chipboard: Making Memories (Jigsaw Shapes Neutral)

Letters: Cricut (Storybook Cartridge); Making Memories (White Black Tiny Alphas)

Embellishments: Martha Stewart punch (Butterfly); Ranger Glossy Accents; Queen & Company Felt Fusion; Michael's rhinestones; DMC floss.

Up, Up and Away

Has a patterned paper ever inspired you to do a layout and then when you sit down to do that layout, you don't use the paper that inspired it? That's what happened to me. When I saw this:

I wanted to scrap this:

And this is what I wound up with:

Do you see any blue cloud paper? Nope. I see yellow cloud paper but not blue -- a little decision that cost me an extra trip to the local scrapbook store which is 16 miles away. In fact the only piece I used from that beautiful blue cloud paper is the 3/4-inch strip of the B side that I used for the journaling.

The journaling reads: 8/08 Conquering a collective fear of heights and boating, we soared high above the Gulf of Mexico in Marco Island, FL, with Danielle & Kevin.

Now you may be wondering why I didn't use the blue cloud paper. The answer is simple. It didn't match the blue ric rac ribbon that I bought with the intention of using on this layout almost two years ago!

Now one other thing I have to confess about this layout is that these papers were released in February so they had a bit of a Valentine's theme. This required a little camouflaging on my part. I used the left side of this paper:

with fussy cut clouds and my own para sailing embellishment.

As for the hearts that were scattered throughout the polka dots, I simply covered them up with brads.

And yes, that required a third trip to the local scrapbook store because I didn't have the right colors in my stash. Let me know if you think this layout was worth three trip (96 miles round trip) to the store. LOL!

Supplies

Card Stock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: My Minds Eye (Love Me Do); Imaginisce (red dot from Scooter's Vacation)

Stickers: American Craft Thickers (Rainboots); Jolee's Dimensional Stickers (Para sailing)

Tools: EK Success (Slim Edger Punch -- Embossed Curve)

Embellishments: Basic Grey Brads; ribbon from stash

Pen: Stampin' Up!

Two Challenges -- Just For You

I played along with two challenges to create this card for my brother-in-law's birthday this week. First, I incorporated the colors from this challenge:

Then I added a bow for the this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner which you can find here:

http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/2010/04/occ-challenge-bows.html

The result is a birthday card that will probably arrive late. Here it is:

To create the image, I used two Hero Arts background stamp. First I stamped the main image using the Dots & Flowers. Then I punched a one-inch strip using the Stripes Pattern cling stamp. I just love making horizontal stripes. After punching a decorative border on the strip, I distressed all of the edges and inked with distress ink to give a "vintage-y" feel. After adding the ribbon, I attached the main panels to the card using foam dimensional squares. I added the sentiment and then inked the edges with Papertrey Ink's Vintage Cream pigment ink. This is the first time I used PTI ink and let me tell you that it is the creamiest ink I have ever used. Can't wait to get it in other colors!


Thanks for looking!

Supplies

Card Stock: Stampin' Up! (Kraft; Very Vanilla Naturals)

Stamps: Hero Arts (Dots & Flowers; Stripes Pattern: Happiness Messages)

Ink: Stampin' Up (Riding Hood Red); Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo); Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream)

Patterned Paper: October Afternooon (Katie)

Ribbon: Cosmo Cricket (Honey Pie)

Punches: Stampin' Up! (Circle; Scallop Circle); Fiskars (Upper Crest)