Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad!

Can you believe that Easter is here and I am still working on my December Daily. Yep! I have two days to go plus a layout with all of the Christmas cards we received. But, since it is Easter, I am going to take a little break from posting my December Daily. So today I have an Easter card to share with you.

My Pinterest board is filled with inspiration for Clean and Simple card designs yet, when I sit down to make a card, I do anything but. Well, it's amazing how Clean and Simple one can get when it is two days before Easter and the mailman will be by in 20 minutes! Here's my card:

I told you it was clean and simple! To create it, I stamped the fabulous sentiment in black ink. Then, I used markers to color my flower stamp, starting with the lightest color and working my way to the darkest. Once I was done coloring, I huffed on the stamp and Voila! Clean and simple! I did add a few gems to the center of one of my flowers. I just couldn't help myself!

I wish you all a wonderful Easter or Passover!

There's a fun new blog you may want to check out called Kristin Wilson Handmade. Kristin is offering great blog candy for her followers!

Supplies

Paper: Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream);

Ink: Tsukineko Memento (Tuxedo Black); Stampin' Up! Markers (So Saffron; Regal Rose; Bordering Blue; Always Artichoke );

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (This Is the Day by Ali Edwards; Growing Wild);

Embellishments: Recollections Rhinestones

Gone Are The Days

I was talking with a friend recently about how I wish there were digital cameras when Mark and Melissa were small. In hindsight, I realize how after the first few years of their lives, the camera mostly came out on special occasions and I rarely took pictures of everyday moments. Today's layout tries to capture some of those everyday moments that my camera didn't. Here it is:

The inspiration for this layout came from this layout by Kelly Purkey:

There are several things that drew me to this layout. First, I loved the aysmmetrical placement of the photo. And I love how she created her title with different fonts. But, I think the thing I loved most was the tone-on-tone scallops that created spots for Kelly's journaling. As you can see, I kept the overall design intact. While I loved the scallops, I felt that they were too feminine for a layout about Mark so I swapped out the scallops for randomly placed punched circles. I stamped the lines on the journaling circles and edged them all with distress ink. I added some circles punched out of corrugated paper for even more texture. I also replaced the pleated ruffle with a Basic Grey border strip which I customized with Perfect Pearls. Here's a close-up:

The journaling reads: Gone are the days

...of Pajama Sam and computer games.

...of playing with Lego and firetrucks.

...of reading Harry Potter together.

...of riding the school bus.

...of not liking chocolate.

...of swimming lessons at the town pool.

...of collecting Pokemon cards

...of watching 101 Dalmations 101 times.

...of Happy Meals and single-scoop ice-cream cones.

...of taking karate classes at CAPE.

To finish off the layout, I added a stamped frame around the top half.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill; Creative Imaginations (Kraft Corrugated Paper);

Patterned Paper and Sticker: Basic Grey (Pyrus);

Tools: Stampin' Up punches (1 3/4 Circle, 1 1/4 Circle, 1/2 Circle, Spiral); Martha Stewart Punch (Scallop 3 Dot Punch Around the Page); McGill (File Tab);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Bits & Pieces by Ali Edwards,Everyday Words by Ali Edwards); Papertrey Ink (Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger, All About You);

Letters: Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chipboard (Licorice); Making Memories (Tiny Alphas);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pumice Stone); Ranger (Jet Black); Stampin' Up! marker (Basic Grey);

Misc.: Adirondack Dimensional Pearls (Mushroom)

Embossed Butterfly Cards

I needed to make a lot of cards last week and had very little time to do it. So, inspired by a card a saw in CARD magazine, I created this one. I switched out the sentiment to fit my needs and went to work on a card-making assembly line!

I tried a new technique that I learned from Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking class to make the butterfly super shiny. (You can view a video and the pdf at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&forum_id=52&thread_id=2832083 .) After punching out the butterfly, I stamped the entire surface with VersaMark ink, sprinkled it with embossing powder and set it with my heat gun. Now, here's where the new technique comes in! While the butterfly was still hot, I sprinkled it with more embossing powder and heat set it again. In total, I probably used five or six layers of embossing powder to achieve an acrylic-like look on the butterfly. Here's a close-up of the butterfly.

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock; Basic Grey patterned paper (Romani); Martha Stewart Butterfly punch; Cuttlebug embossing folder (Swiss Dots); Technique Tuesday stamps (Simple Sentiments); EK Success corner rounder; bling from Michael's; black ink; twine from my stash.

At Sunset

Do you remember what paradise looked like from a few posts back? Well this is what it looked like at sunset. With the exception of one or two nights when a thunderstorm blew through (probably the remnants of Tropical Storm Faye) this layout depicts what I saw at sunset. Sal was always behind the lens of his camera, the kids were horsing around on the beach, and the sky was painted with the most beautiful colors! The pictures in this layout may not all be perfect but the memory is.

The papers are all from Basic Grey's Granola collection. Have I ever told you how much I love Basic Grey? LOL!! I cut the word "sunset" using my Cuttlebug dies. (This layout is BC -- before Cricut!) I didn't want the word "at" to have as much emphasis so I stamped it with my Technique Tuesday Endless Summer stamps. I inked the edges of the layered papers and even distressed the journaling strips for extra texture. Two of the shell die cuts and the middle paper are affixed with 3D foam squares to give the layer added dimension. (Sorry for the shadows on the picture)

Ingredients: Basic Grey paper; Deluxecuts embelishments (shells); Technique Tuesday Endless Summer stamps; Stampin' Up! ink and marker; Cuttlebug dies.

I'm Back...

...with a post from Christmas past. I did do a layout from this Christmas, which is something that I'm very proud of, actually, but I just didn't get the chance to take a picture of it. So after a long vacation of sleeping late and eating way too many Christmas cookies, here's my layout.

I always loved how the monuments seemed to fade into the sky while the colors of the subjects are so vibrant.

Here's a close-up of the beautiful Basic Grey paper and some of the embellishments. Can you believe that the velvet ribbon was something I got in the Dollar bin at Michael's? It matched the paper perfectly.! And the candy-striped ribbon was from my favorite local scrapbook store which went out of business in 2008. SIGH!

Oh, and about the title...it was created after many attempts with a very limited alphabet. Even with two brand new packages of these epoxy alpha stickers, I still couldn't spell out my first three titles. So, I just kept reworking it until I had one that worked for the limited number of stickers in my supply! I wish all manufacturers would think about commonly used letter when packaging alpha stickers.

If you love those snowflake brads, they are in the Clearance bin at Michael's this week. I paid full price for these but I picked up another package. Just a note, I added the rhinestone to the center.

Ingredients: Wausau Card Stock; Basic Grey Blitzen Collection; Making Memories Holly Berries; K & Company Christmas Cheer Brads; Technique Tuesday Tile; Holiday Cheer Epoxy Alpha Stickers; Imaginisce Warm Memories Rub Ons; Rhinestone Stickers; ColorBox Dark Brown Chalk ink; ribbon from my stash; Fiskars Leave It To Weaver Border Punch.

The Not So Latest But Still Greatest Basic Grey

I finally finished the layouts from the Latest and Greatest from Basic Grey class that I took over the summer. You may recall the layouts from this post (http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2008/10/latest-and-greatest-part-2.html) and this post (http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2008/09/basic-grey-latest-greatest-part-1.html). They were also from the CKC Valley Forge class. Here are the last two from that class:

Journaling reads: From the first time we met Jenn, we had all hoped that she was the "one" so we were thrilled to welcome her into the family.

As soon as I saw this beautiful Basic Grey's Sultry paper, I knew that I would be using it to scrap Jim and Jenn's wedding. It's just so elegant. In addition to the gorgeous paper, my other favorite things about this layout are the doodling around the circular mat...

and the rhinestone embellishments I added to the center of the flowers once I got home from the class.
Ingredients: Basic Grey Sultry paper; Stampin Up! marker; American Crafts stickers; Technique Tuesday tile; rhinestone embellishments from Michael's.

The next layout uses Basic Grey's Ambrosia paper. I had been looking for paper to scrap Mark's Confirmation and I thought these had the right amount of elegance with out being too thematic.

Here's a close-up of some of the embellishments.

Ingredients: Bazzill cardstock; Basic Grey Ambrosia paper and embelishments; Imaginisce
embellishments.

I have two more layouts to complete and share from the fall class I took in Hartford. My goal is to get that done by the end of the year so that I can justify taking another class in 2009!

All She Wants To Do Is Dance

I've been scrapping up a storm lately but more scrapping time has meant less blogging time. Sorry. Anyway, I did this layout a few weeks ago. I usually have trouble editing my pictures for scrapping. As a result, I mostly do two-page layouts with lots of photos. Melissa's dance pictures gave me the opportunity to do a one-page layout with just two pictures which is totally out of my comfort zone but I'm really happy with the result. I've also been trying to justify many of my recent purchases by actually using my stash. LOL! So this layout includes stamping, heat embossing, use of a border punch, ribbon, flowers and a brad! Here it is:

I loved this laser die cut but I wanted to personalize it so I used my Technique Tuesday Swiss Dots stamp and heat embossed it to match the embossed cardstock. I then added the Making Memories tiny alphas to make the die cut part of my title.

Ingredients: Bo Bunny Homespun Collection Pink Punch KI Memories Pop Culture and Bazzill papers; EZ Laserdesigns die cut; Fiskars Threading Water Punch; Technique Tuesday Swiss Dots stamp; Making Memories tiny alphas; Ranger Black embossing powder; Trademark ribbons; flowers and brad from QVC.

Scheming Around

I took the Scheming Around class at CKC Hartford last week. The class, which is based on Donna Downey's book, A Photos-First Approach to Designing Layouts, required a lot of preparation to gather and cut pictures. It was also overcrowded, extremely fast paced (3 layouts in an hour!) and very noisy despite the fact that we were using "silent" setters to punch holes in out paper. I have to tell you that I left the class feeling a little disappointed and very stressed. However, once I got home and put Donna's approach to work with my own tools (a Big Bite!), paper and stamps (Technique Tuesday), I loved the results and am happy that I took the class.

So, here's the first layout. It's based on a sketch that uses eight pictures that were cut into 2.5" squares. Now anyone who knows how I obsess over picking the "right" paper to go with my photos will know how out-of-the-box it was for me to cut pictures ahead of time not knowing what my paper even looked like. I got lucky since some of the sunset pictures picked up the coral from the paper.

So, I finished the first layout in class (adding the letters was a personal touch I put on it at home) and began the second layout. Here's where my frustration set in. The design of the second layout centered around using the Dot All Around template from Crafter's Workshop. You can find it here http://shop.scrapbooks.com/cf-tcw78.html. Everyone had to share the few templates that circulated the room and, to make matters worse, they were not available for sale at the Vendor Fair. (If anyone from CKC is reading this, take note: I would rather pay a few extra dollars for the class and walk out with the template.) Okay, so once I drew the circles, I had to wait for one of the silent setters to become available. At my table, there were six people using two setters because the third setter was missing a mat. Many people turned to their Fiskars Eyelet setters which is what made this the noisiest class ever! (I started to use my Fiskars Eyelet setter but it always jams and there were so many holes to punch so I waited for the setter.) While we waited, we stamped the circle pattern on the paper using a Stampin' Up! stamp. However, the stamps were in desperate need of a cleaning so I wasn't happy with the result. To make a long story short, when I came home, I took my own cardstock and, using the class project as my template, I punched out the holes using my Big Bite, stamped the circles using stamps from Technique Tuesday's Back Rounds Medium set and added Thickers which I distressed with sandpaper. The result is one of my favorite layouts.

Journaling reads: Watkins Glen 2005...Watkins Glen 1966

If it wasn't for this class, I don't think I would have ever combined pictures from a childhood vacation with a recent one.

There was no time for the last layout in class which was not surprising. When I got home, I took the Bazzill watermelon cardstock (which was supposed to be the background for the second layout) and paired it with Around the Block's Maple Leaf patterned paper. I distressed the patterned paper with Cat's Eye charcoal ink and used the edge of my scissor to distress the cardstock.

Journaling reads: Instead of going to the CN Tower, we surprised the kids with tickets to a Yankees/Blue Jays game and went to the CN Tower the next day!

For this layout I used Technique Tuesday's Endless Summer stamps. The word "BALL" is not included in this set so I used the "B" from Barbeque, masked it and added the word "ALL." I just love my Technique Tuesday stamps!

I know this is a long post but I have one final tip to share. Since I was using such a big block of cardstock on this layout, I cut a 6"x6" square from the center of the patterned paper so that I could use it to embellish my layout. Here's how the layout looks from the back.

Ingredients: All supplies, except those noted, from CKC Scheming Around class kit.

Finally...A Post

With a hectic back-to-school schedule, helping with homework and studying, as well as putting "Mom's Taxi" back on the road, I haven't had much time for scrapping or blogging. Finally I have a layout to share. Mind you, I completed most of this layout at the CKC Crop back in July. All I had to do was the journalling when I got home. Bestselling novels have probably been written in the time it took me to journal. So, here it is. Hope you enjoy the layout and the journalling!

Journalling reads: How could we go wrong when we accepted the rental car agent's offer to give us an upgrade? But parked next to the sporty convertibles and the cool SUVs was this burgandy albatross. Melissa burst into tears and, despite 95 degree temperatures, Mark pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head to make sure that his friends -- who were 1,000 miles away -- wouldn't see him getting into this car. As for Sal and I, we suddenly felt the urge to look for an early-bird special! After the disappointment passed, we laughed about the car we now call the Grandma (r Quis)!

I used a lot of materials on this one page -- some planned and some unplanned. The half circle from Making Memories' Noteworthy Collection and the Technique Tuesday stamp (seen in green and black) were items I acquired at CKC. I love how these extra elements added personality to the layout. Oh how my CKC trip has paid off. LOL!

Speaking of CKC, I'm headed to Hartford for the day in early October. This time around, I've signed up for more classes which will save me a lot of money at the Vendor Fair.

Ingredients: Creating Keepsakes and Making Memories paper; Technique TuesdayBoho Buzz Stamp; VersaMagic "Tea Leaves" green and Archival Ink Jet Black ink; American Crafts Thickers; Making Memories 3-D Metal Tag; Bazzill Garden Flower chipboard; Ranger pink embossing glitter; flowers from my stash; Michael's Rhinestone Stickers; Stampin Up! black marker.

CKC Layout

Lissette and I got together to scrap the other day and thought it would be fun if we each worked on a simple layout of our trip to CKC. Well it was fun, but I don't know about simple. I started with a sketch from the Scrappy Chick's Scrappy Sketch Sunday (http://scrappychick.typepad.com/scrappy_chick/2008/08/scrappy-sketch-sunday.html). But even with Cyndi Bundy's great sketch as a road map, I spent over an hour moving pictures around. (Of course I had one too many horizontal pictures.) I was happy with the final layout. Here it is:

It was one of those Murphy Law kind of days where everything I touched went wrong. Thank goodness for the circle elements in the original layout because that giant brad is covering a big ink stain on the Technique Tuesday Tile!

Journaling reads: Lissette and I shopped and cropped until we dropped at CKC Valley Forge. Highlights include winning door prizes, meeting Stacy Croninger and talking to Ana at the Technique Tuesday booth!




Another problem I had with the layout was that I felt there was too much black space showing on the top and bottom of the mat on the second page. To fill it in, I stamped the image I used on the tile with VersaMark ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Ingredients: DCWV Cardstock; Basic Grey Scarlet Letter patterned paper; Studio G Series 11 stamp; Archival Ink Jet Black, Stampin Up! Bravo Burgundy, and VersaMark inks; Kaiser brads; Technique Tuesday Square Tile; Clear Stamp N Stuff embossing powder; Stampin Up! black marker; EZ Laser Designs die cut title.

The Love Bug

No, not the movie, the layout. This is the project I made at the Techinique Tuesday class at CKC. Isn't it cute?

Journaling reads: July 1999, Cape Cod, MA -- Snuggling with Mom. Snuggle, cuddle, you are my love bug -- even 9 years later. Please stay my love bug!

Now you can see why I am of fan of Technique Tuesday. First, I love how the stamps inked up. The butterfly image was stamped by first stamping the back (or smooth side) of the clear stamp with the green. Then, after cleaning the stamp, I stamped the detailed side in black ink. Isn't that a great way to get two stamps for the price of one? The ladybug was actually three stamps (body, head and spot). Yes, each spot was stamped one by one. When I first heard that this was how we were supposed to fill in the dots, I almost reached for my black marker but I have to tell you, using a clear stamp made adding those 40+ dots a snap! Same thing for the little black scrolls. Oh, and I almost forget to tell you about the best technique. Do you see that green scrollwork on the inner circle and the black pattern on the flower? That's the wing of a dragonfly! After this class, I am going to look at each and every stamp I own in a different way!

I also loved working with the Technique Tuesday tiles. (And I'm glad I ordered a few more!) This layout didn't even use half of the tiles in the kit so you'll be seeing more of them. The only thing I added to the layout was my own ribbon.

Ingredients: Cosmo Cricket Patterned Paper; Bazzill Cardstock; FUNdamentals of Flowers Technique Tiles; BoHo Buzz stamps. Technique Tuesday Red Ink; VersaMagic "Tea Leaves" green ink; Doodlebug buttons; Dashes, Dots & Checks Ribbon.