Vive la France

Anyone who knows me knows that my sister, Diane, is a Francophile. Diane loves all things French and probably has more French stamps on her passport than I have pairs of shoes. That's why when, a week before her birthday, I saw this paper...

...I knew I had to buy it. Here's the card I created:

I used both the A and B side of the paper as well as a dot from another paper for the front of my card. To get the Eiffel Tower perfectly centered in my die, I taped the Spellbinder's Nestability to the paper before running it through the Cuttlebug. I used black embossing powder for an understated sentiment on my focal point image. I really wanted this card to be all about the patterned paper! After putting all of the garnet-colored gems onto the scalloped oval, I used foam dimensionals to adhere it to the card.

Here's a look at the inside of the card:

Happy birthday, Diane. Or should I say, "Joyeux Anniversaire!" Hope this glimpse of Paris holds you over until your next trip!

Supplies:

Cardstock : Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: Graphic 45

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (happy birthday sentiment from Delightful Dahlia); Hero Arts (Enjoy the Moments)

Ink: VersaMark

Embossing Powder: Ranger (black)

Tools: Fiskars punch (Scallop Sentiment); EK Success punch (Double Embossed Dotted Lace); Spellbinders Nestabilities (Petite Oval --Small, Petite Classic Oval -- Large)

Ribbon: EK Success Adornments (yellow)

Bling: Recollections

Intrepid

Just nine days to go until my annual trip to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge. To make room for all of the new goodies I plan to buy, I've been trying to use my stash more. The layout I am sharing today, uses the Basic Grey's Boxer collection which I bought at my first CKC in 2008. I was actually planning to buy Pink Paislee's new Starlight collection for these pictures but I felt a little guilty about buying a red, white and blue collection when I had this one in my closet. So here's my layout:

The kraft background paper is from Jillibean Soup. (I bought it at Scrapbook Expo in 2009.) JS makes the warmest color kraft papers. I must remember to pick some more up next week. The only piece of new paper on this layout is the white ledger paper from Basic Grey's Basics collection.

I have been wanting to create a banner for a scrapbook page for a while now and I thought that this layout finally gave me the perfect opportunity since the banner would mimic the flags on the ship. I cut the triangles for my banner using the George and Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge. At first, I made all eight triangles using a one-inch cut but some of my letters (notably the "n" and the "d") wouldn't fit. To remedy the situation, I cut four more triangles using a 1.25-inch cut and alternated big and small triangles on my banner.

For added interest, I popped a star on the sticker embellishment. I also used the scraps from my star-punched border to decorate the page.

I didn't journal on this page because I don't remember all of the details of this day in August 2001. What I do remember is how we had planned to go to the World Trade Center later in the day but by the time we finished up at the Intrepid, everyone was tired so we decided to wait for another day. Sadly that day never came. I'm not sure whether or not I should journal this. (If I do, it will be handwritten journaling on the white ledge strip.) What do you think?

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Boxer, Basics); Jillibean Soup (Cup of Yak)
Stickers: Basic Grey (Boxer)
Tools: Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop); Martha Stewart Border Punch (Stars); Cricut Cartridge (George and Basic Shapes)
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (numbers from For the Graduate)
Ink: Stampin' Up! (Night of Navy)

Adventure in the Everglades

Today, I have a hybrid layout to share. I made it using a digital collage that I created on Riteaid.com. While I found the site a little more difficult to navigate than Shutterfly or Snapfish, I thought the collage mode was great since it allowed me move pictures around once the original collage was made. It was printed on Fuji paper and the quality is good. The cost was $2.99 which I thought was reasonable. I got it for free with a coupon which is even better! Anyway, here's my layout:

Since the photos were all together on one 8x10-inch collage, the rest of the page came together pretty quickly. I tore the edges of my patterned paper strips to make them look more natural and fit in with the theme of the page. After adhering those to the background paper, I affixed my collage. Photo corners in the upper and lower right-hand corners keep the collage mat grounded. Because there was a lot of white -- or in this case blue -- space in the lower corner, I stamped some greenery and dragonflies using Hero Arts stamps.

For added emphasis, I cut out two dragonflies and popped them on the page. I ran my title across the bottom photos for added interest. I've always wanted to do this but never had the right photos.

Journaling reads: The thrilling fan boat tour of the Florida Everglades was a highlight of our trip to Marco Island. Skimming the surface of the water as we raced through mangrove creeks was just like a scene out of CSI Miami!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee (Captivating); Basic Grey (Mellow); My Mind's Eye (Quite Contrary); Making Memories (Passport)
Stamps: Hero Arts (Real Flowers; Antique Engraving; Trees, Birds & Messages)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Shabby Shutters, Walnut Stain)
Letters: American Crafts Thickers (Rocketeer/Leaf)
Canvas Embellishment: Making Memories (Passport)

A Passion for Purple

I am not much of a purple person. Plum, maybe. Eggplant, definitely yes. But lilac, lavender and plain old purple have never been my thing. However, like most girls her age, Melissa has a passion for purple. So when it came to making a birthday card, I reluctantly pulled out my purple inks and began stamping. Here's my card:

Using Papertrey Ink's Dot Spot stamp, I inked the stamp with the lighter purple. Then, I "kissed" the edges of the stamp with the darker purple and stamped. I love how the two colors mixed where they met on the stamp and created a third purple. Here's a close-up:

I stamped my sentiment using Papertrey Ink's Fillable Frames. I just love this concept. To finish off the card, I added a little bling to the center of the spots and the corners of the sentiment.

So as I'm seeing some sneak peaks of products from the upcoming CHA, I'm noticing a LOT of purple. Who knew I'd be ahead of the trend. I only hope there's some plum and eggplant in the new lines!

Supplies:

Card Stock: Papertrey Ink (White)

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Dot Spot; Fillable Frames #1)

Inks: Stampin' UP! (Orchid Opulence; Lovely Lilac)

Bling: Recollections

Tools: EK Success (Corner Rounder)

Fibers: DMC Floss

Lucy's Cards: Button Challenge

If you are like me, sometimes you need a little challenge to jump start your creativity. So, while I had the basic idea for this card in my head, when I saw this...

I knew just what I had to do to jazz up this masculine card: add a few buttons. Here's my card:

I started with a 4.75" square card. Using my square punch, I punched out squares from a Mini Deck of Cosmo Crickets' The Boyfriend collection. (I love these papers for teen or masculine cards. ) I also cut out a square of scrap paper and, using removable adhesive, I adhered it to the exact spot where I wanted to place my window. Then, all I had to do to cut my window was align the punch with the pre-cut square. Easy Peasy! Next, i affixed my four patterned paper squares - three to the outside and one to the inside of the card. To attach the ribbon, I knotted the ribbon on the left-hand side and attached a button on top of the knot. For the small piece on the right, I used Glossy Accents to hold down the ends on the inside of the card. I also used Glossy Accents to glue down my buttons. Here's a a better look at the window and ribbon:

Finally, I stamped my two sentiments -- the one you can see through the window as well as the one on the inside of the card. Give or take a few minutes, this was easily a ten minute card -- if you don't count the time I spent designing it in my head. LOL!

To see other cards created for this challenge, visit Lucy's Cards at http://hedgehogsandladybirds.blogspot.com/2010/07/lucys-cards-challenge-12-and-challenge.html

Supplies:
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! (Naturals Ivory)
Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket (The Boyfriend)
Stamps: Hero Arts (Trees, Birds & Messages; Happiness Messages)
Ink: Ranger (Jet Black)
Ribbon: American Crafts
Tools: Marvy Uchida punch (Giga Square)
Buttons: from my stash

A Scraplift

In case you haven't noticed by now, I'm a big fan of Kelly Goree. I love her clean, layered style. I love the way she enhances her layouts with the snip of her scissor or the stroke of her pen. I guess you can say that she is one of my scrapbooking idols. LOL! Anyway, whenever I look through her on-line galleries, I never see a layout that I don't want to copy. Naturally, when I came across a layout she did in 2008 using Basic Grey's Granola line I though, "I can scrap lift that!" Although I have already used papers from this pad, I still had a lot left collecting dust in my scrap closet. So it made sense to "scraplift" Kelly since she uses five or six pieces of patterned paper in a single layout. So drum roll please.....here is Kelly's layout:

Here is my scrap lift:

As you can see, I only made several minor changes. First, I changed the page size to a 12 x2. Next, I made my title two lines to accommodate the over sized Pink Paislee letters I wanted to use. I did not have all of the same stickers that Kelly had so I incorporated brown rub-ons in the lower corner and next to the brown letters.

Finally, I moved my journaling from the cream strip to a journaling spot that I created using a Unity I won on the Paper Crafts magazine blog.

Journaling reads: Melissa, you always complained about being the youngest in the family. Then Thomas came along and you became the big cousin!


Well I hope you enjoyed the Unofficial Kelly Goree Week here on my blog as much as I did. I have some other class layouts to finish (just need pictures) as well as a few scrap lifts I'm itching to do so I'm sure you'll be seeing more layouts inspired by Kelly. In the meantime, you can check out her blog at: http://kellygoree.blogspot.com/.

Supplies:
Patterned Papers/Sticker Elements: Basic Grey (Granola)
Chipboard Letters: Pink Paislee (Weathered Wood - Cotton)
Rub-Ons: Pink Paislee (Enchanting); Fancy Pants (Bright Alphas)
Stamp: Unity
Ink: Ranger (coffee)
Pen: Stampin' Up (Chocolate Chip)

Sugar Rush

Welcome back to Day Three of the Unofficial Kelly Goree Week on my blog. In May, I was lucky enough to take Kelly's Three for Three class at Scrapbook Expo which featured Basic Grey's Sugar Rush collection. Unlike last year's class, this one featured all single-page layouts. Here's the layout from Kelly's gallery which has a few minor changes from the class sample:

I loved this design as is but when I got home, I realized that I wanted to use it for a layout about Melissa performing in the school play when she was in 4th grade school and I would need to use more than one photo to tell the story. To make the original into a two page layout, I extended the light green block of patterned paper across the spread so that my pictures would have a block to rest on. After that I pretty much mirrored the first page. Here's my layout:

We created these flowers in class. After crumpling (yes CRUMPLING!) up punched circles, we distressed the edges with a file from Basic Grey's Precision File set, layered them and Voila! We had an economical embellishment that perfectly matched the layout. I have to admit that I did have trouble with the "Crumpling" step. It just goes against my grain to take a beautiful piece of paper and ball it up! LOL! Here's a close-up of the flowers:

The pearl bling was part of the class kit and made a pretty addition to the flower. I did some fussy cutting for the leaves using the grey patterned paper you see above. You can also see Kelly's signature doodling around the outer edge of the page. I really have to remember to do that more often!

Once I completed the second page, I did have concerns about the amount of green paper that was showing above my pictures. It just looked so empty. To fill it up, I went through my stash of rub-ons and found the quote, "You put a song in my heart." It seemed to fit perfectly with the theme of this layout. The rub-on sheet also had the cute birds and flowers so using my Basic Grey Rub-On Roller, I created a little scene and finished it off by embellishing a few of the flowers with green pearls.

Come back tomorrow when I have a scraplift to share with you.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper, Stickers, Brads: Basic Grey (Sugar Rush)

Rub-ons: Little Yellow Bicycle (Cardmaking Sentiments)

Pens: Stampin' Up! (Old Olive); Signo Gel (White)

Another June Bug Layout

Okay so it's officially Day Two of the Unofficial Kelly Goree Week on my blog. Today, I have another layout from the June Bug Triple Double class that I took last year. The June Bug collection is predominantly primary colors.

Leave it to Kelly to create a pastel layout by using the B side of this very busy floral paper.

Here's the layout:

Doesn't this layout have such a different look from the one I posted yesterday? You would never even know it was from the same collection. I just heart two-sided papers for that reason!

Another thing that Kelly did to give this layout a unique look is to use the chipboard elements from Basic Grey's Offbeat collection. I love mixing and matching manufacturers and collections in my own designs since I seldom buy an entire collection. :(

In the original design, Kelly used four 3.25 x 4.75 pictures. However, since I was using old prints from film, I had three vertical and one horizontal picture. I tried scanning the one picture but the integrity of the colors were lost. After pondering many solutions, I decided to move the word "sublime" onto the yellow mat. To fill up the space on top of the photos I drew in a trail for the butterfly with my white Signo pen.

Come back tomorrow for a look at how I took Kelly's design for a one page layout and made it a double page layout.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper/Stickers: Basic Grey (June Bug)

Chipboard: Basic Grey (Offbeat)

Pen: Signo Gel Pen (White)

June Bug Layout

If you ever get the opportunity to take a class designed by Kelly Goree, do it! Kelly is uber talented and designs the most beautiful layouts. After I took her class at Scrapbook Expo in 2009, I began to think about paper in a whole new way. (Alright, so the fact that I think about paper at all may be a sign that I need a 12-step program but you scrappers out there know what I mean.) Anyway, take this June Bug paper for example:

When I saw it in the class kit, I hoped we were going to use only the B side. We don't have any pets so what would I possibly do with any of those pups on a page. Well here's the page designed by Kelly:

I don't think I ever would have scrapped those pictures let alone have created such a whimsical page. In fact, I would have neglected those doggone cute pups and just used the dots on any page I created on my own but Kelly Goree is the Queen of Fussy Cutting. And, those two pups...

...really make this page (and yesterday's card) so doggone cute!

In addition to fussy cutting, I noticed how Kelly likes to doodle around the edge of the page. No machine sewing here. Just draw a quick free-hand line and Voila, the layout is grounded. Love this easy technique.

I took another class designed by Kelly at Scrapbook Expo this year. Unfortunately, she didn't teach it but the designs were equally as fabulous. I'll share those later this week. I guess I'll officially make it the Unofficial Kelly Goree Week on my blog. LOL!

Supplies:

Paper, Stickers, Brads: Basic Grey

Pen: Stampin' Up (Black)

Tools: EK Success Corner Rounder punch

Happy First Birthday!

My Grand Nephew just celebrated his first birthday. As I prepared to make his card, I was coming up with zero inspiration. You see, I have another Grand Nephew who celebrated his first birthday in February. I didn't want to make the same card yet I'm a little lacking in the juvenile boy stamp department. Anyway, two days before the party, my niece called and told me she was making a puppy cake. A light bulb went on in my head and this is the card I created:

To start, I cut out one of the adorable pups from a scrap of Basic Grey June Bug I had left over from a layout I created in a class designed by Kelly Goree. (I'll share that layout later this week.) Next, I cut a dog house out on my Cricut and stamped it with the Hero Arts Woodgrain stamp. (I think that is one of my favorite stamps because it is so versatile!) I added the banner and Happy Birthday sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Fly Away set. The banner is actually inverted so I had to affix the sentiment stamp to my block accordingly. I love how you can "mold" an acrylic stamp to fit your needs! After finishing the dog house I stamped the clouds on white card stock. For the grass, I scalloped two strips of patterned paper plus a strip of green card stock that I stamped with stripes.

When I put all of the pieces together on a 4.25 x 5.5 card, my scene seemed too crowded so I opted for a 5x7-inch card instead. To ground my scene, I stamped a scrap of kraft card stock with the dots and scalloped the top edge. For a finishing touch, I used the sun from the Elements Stickers. Since it was hanging off the edge, I adhered it to scrap cardstock and cut it out before putting it on the card. The "1" is actually a white Thickers that I inked red to match my card. I used craft ink for the best results.

Hope you enjoyed your day, Paul!

Supplies:

Card Stock: Stampi'n Up! (Kraft, Wild Wasabi); Papertrey Ink (Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening)

Stamps: Hero Arts (Clouds, Designer Woodgrain, Stripes; Technique Tuesday (Swiss Dot)

Ink: Versa Mark; Stampin' Up! (Brilliant Blue, Real Red); Ranger (Jet Black)

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (June Bug)

Stickers: American Crafts (Thickers); Basic Grey (June Bug Elements)

Tools: Cricut (Puppy Love), Fiskars Border Punch (Scallop); EK Success (Corner Rounder)