Go Fish!

That's probably what you want to say to me for not blogging for an entire month. My only excuse is that February was absolutely crazy. Unfortunately my big scrap weekend was sidelined when Melissa got some sort of fever virus which had her sick in bed for 8 (yes, count them, 8!) days. Mark followed suit with the same virus. (His lasted 6 days.) Add to that Winter Break and a few business trips for Sal, and you get the picture. While I wasn't blogging much, I did carve out a little creative time. I'll be sharing those layouts with you over the next few days.

The first layout is titled "Go Fish." As soon as I saw these pictures of Mark & Sal's afternoon at the lake, I knew that I had to scrap them. These father/son moments are rare with a teenager.

So, here's the layout.

I made a special trip to Michael's to find the K & Company pewter fish. I just knew that I had to use some twine to catch that little embellie around my title. As you can see, I mimicked the idea with my journaling spot.

As you can see, I mimicked the idea with my journaling spot.

I created the leaf and swirl pattern on the frame with Technique Tuesday's Petal Pushers stamp set. To create my own patterned paper, I used VersaMark ink to stamp the words from Technique Tuesday's Endless Summer set along with the leaf. I used clear embossing powder to finish the look.

In picking my colors, I used the quart, pint, cup ratio. (A quart of green, a pint of blue, and a cup cream) I threw in a tablespoon of orange for good measure! The birds are 7 Gypsies rub-ons that I won in a RAK on the CK message board. (Thanks alisonm!) The rub-ons were a little close together on the sheet so Basic Grey's rub-on tool really came in handy.

Ingredients: American Crafts Card Stock; Making Memories (Animal Crackers) and Me & My Big Ideas (orange) patterned paper; Making Memories Puffy Alphas (green); Technique Tuesday Fundamental Postage Frames; 7 Gypsies rub-ons; K & Company metal embellishment; Anna Griffin, VersaMark inks; Technique Tuesday Petal Pushers and Endless Summer stamps.

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Tag, I'm It!

A few months ago, I was looking for some inspiration over at pagemaps.com (http://www.pagemaps.com/) when I noticed that the talented Becky Fleck was also looking for something. She put a call out to scrappers to contribute samples based on her sketches. If picked, your work is included in her monthly newsletter alongside her beautiful sketches. Of course I threw my name into the hat. And, to my surprise, I was contacted last month and asked to create a tag. Everything had to be on the hush hush and I couldn't post a picture of my project until Becky published her February newsletter. Well, thanks to Super Bowl Sunday, Becky posted her newsletter a day early so, at long last, here is my tag:

Have I told you how much I love the Martha Stewart butterfly punch? In case you missed my last post about it, I double punched each butterfly. The bottom layer was glued down flat to the paper, while the top layer was only affixed in the center. I bent the wings upwards to give it a little dimension.

Make sure you visit pagemaps to see all the great sketches Becky created for February!

Ingredients:

Paper: Creating Keepsakes (cardstock and patterned paper)

Embellishments: Creating Keepsakes (rub-on letters) Queen & Company (felt border) Michael's (pearl stickers)

Ink: Signo (white)

Tools: Martha Stewart butterfly punch

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.

A Quick Post...

...to show a quick card I made this afternoon. I needed a sympathy card, and I needed it quick so I came up with this:

I ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug, punched out the butterfly and stamped the sentiment. The card took me about five minutes to make, once I settled on the design. Unfortunately, I went through several designs and inked up several stamps that I didn't use. The clean-up took longer than the making the card. UGH!

Anyway, I broke open the Martha Stewart butterfly punch that Sal and the kids got me for my birthday. I think I'm going to be using that punch a lot. Note that I punched the butterfly out twice to make it two-dimensional.

Ingredients: Cardstock: Stampin' Up; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Stamp: Hero Arts; Ink: Stampin Up!; Bling: Michael's; Tools: Cuttlebug Leafy Branch Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart Punch.

I have a few more layouts that I need to photograph so that I can share them with you later this week. So far, 2009 has been a very scrappy year!

Another Day in Paradise

Well not quite. It barely got out of the 20's today and there was a frigid wind howling most of the day. To make matters worse, snow is on the way. So could there be a better day to scrap our trip to Marco Island? I don't think so!

Another Day in Paradise is based on Deanne Burton's Saturday Sketch at Sisterhood of Scrap. It also marks the first time I used my new Cricut (thanks Mom!). Well, almost the first time. I used it earlier in the week to cut out letters for Mark's Math Fair display board but that shouldn't count. Anyway, my Cricut is amazing. Even Mark thinks so!

Okay, drumroll please. Here's my first Cricut layout:

I used a row of tags and, with the exception of the top tag, I stamped my journaling using Technique Tuesday's Endless Summer stamp set. I have found this stamp set to be very versatile. The combinations of words are, well, endless! Here's a close-up of the journaling strip. It reads: Marco Island, Florida...August 2008; endless fun; swimming in the pool; sun; lazy days at the beach.

Ingredients: American Crafts CS; Making Memories Postcard PP; Basic Grey Cupcake PP (letter shadow); Technique Tuesday Endless Summer and Stampin' Up! Friendship Blossoms stamps; Stampin' Up! Always Artichoke Ink and Pen; Imaginisce Petal Pushers and Deluxe Cuts embellishments; Queen & Company brads; Making Memories Tiny Alphas; Cricut George and Basic Shapes Cartridge.

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 Divine Sisterhood of Scrap

Every Saturday, Sisterhood of Scrap (http://sisterhoodofscrap.blogspot.com/) spotlights an artist's sketch. When they put the call out to scrappers to design a layout to feature with the sketch, I gladly answered the call. This week I had my fourth layout featured. Here it is:

I don't know if you can see the detail on the solid card stock. I ran it through the Cuttlebug. To get the embossed image down the entire 12-inch strip, I placed the embossing folder sideways and passed the strip through three times, moving the folder as I went along. Next, I sanded the raised images to make them pop. I love how the diamonds mimic the pattern on Mark's sweater!

I'm usually behind in my scrapping so I'm pretty proud of myself for actually doing a Christmas layout in December -- even if it's a layout of Christmas 2002! LOL!

Ingredients: Bazzill card stock; Imaginisce patterned paper; Imaginisce embellishments and rub-ons; American Crafts; Queen & Company Felt Fusion; Cuttlebug Diamonds in the Rough embossing folder; Signo white pen.

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