Mom and Me

OK, so I'm not big on one page layouts but this didn't need a companion photo! My DIL took her new baby for the one month checkup and took this photo in the mirror holding the baby and the camera phone. I tried to hide the camera with a Damask flourish from Cricut, a strip of beautiful lace and some really funky ruffle I found at Joann Fabrics. Its too cute and girly to boot! The white cotton doilies added more texture to the page. Mom loves it. I hope you do too.

The Zoo

I really enjoy doing a two page layout in my scrapbooks. Maybe I need an app to eliminate the flash reflection for my posts! K & C Co. had this really cute animal paper and matching Zoo Animal Dimensional stickers - just right for my project.

This image shows the Zoo Animal dimensional stickers as well as the Cinnamon Stickles used as an accent on the lettering.

X's and O's

I made the red flower Valentine Card as a Mak'N'Take at Archivers...it was fun, it was cute, and I wound up buying the tools and punches to make more and different flowers. Sorry I didn't take picture as I was making the Pink Flower card when I got home...but I will make more flowers soon and share pictures of the tools and how to make the floweres...when I get my Craft Room painted and everything unpacked. (I may still stickles all the edges of the flower...so it shows up better maybe in silver or white)

Photo Cubes

These are 3 1/2 inch pine photo blocks that I purchased from http://www.craftparts.com  part # SQH350.  They are $3.50/each.  They do have various sizes to choose from, however for the directions for cutting your photos, I have used the 3 1/2 inch size photo blocks.

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I used  Rub 'n Buff  gold leaf and a cosmetic sponge to rub gold leaf on all the edges.  You could paint with acrylic paint too in your color choice.

Here are my blocks with all the edges rubbed with gold leaf.  They are ready to put the pictures on now.

Cut your photo template at around 3 3/8 inches square(or slightly less) for the 3 1/2 inch pine photo blocks.  You could cut this out of tranparent plastic like tranparencies you would use on a projector.  This will allow you to see your picture before you cut it.  Use the template to cut your photos to size. 

Paint one side with Modge Podge adhesive brushing out to the edges.

Center a photo on top of the Modge Podge.  Left dry for a minute before moving on to the next side.

Once you have all your sides covered with photos....put an additional layer of Modge Podge OVER each photo painting it on evenly.  You will want to do the 4 sides first and let them dry for a while before doing the top and bottom photos.  You don't want to smudge your sides by trying to paint on the Modge Podge to the top and bottom photos before they are completely dry.  Layout your photos like the template below. The reason for rotating the photos is if you put all 4 sides with the photos right-side up....you will never see your photo on the bottom.  If you put them like the template below..you will always have 2 photos side by side with the photos upright...which allows you to turn your photo block upside down to see the bottom photo.

Happy Birthday Betty

Sunny and bright birthday wishes to our friend Betty! Who couldn't use something cheerful during the dreary days of winter? This 5' x 7" card was made using Bazzill solid color papers, CoreColors by coredinations and BoBunny Back to Basics Dots. I used the Cuttlebug dotted folder to add texture to the green leaves and ran an ink pad over the dots for a little more color. White stitch lines added even more interest and the buttons were just too cute to pass up. Check out the video on uTube with instructions unmaking a bow using only a fork. Really cool and you don't have to fumble making the traditional ones!

Christmas 2011

It's not too late to start getting ideas for next year's cards! LOL Here are the two I made for 2011. The Flower Soft idea was something I'd been toying with for a while so it was time to finally use it! Very pretty; I can't wait to try out their spring colors and flower pots to decorate.

A close-up of the tiny Flower Soft pieces: Vintage Christmas and Polar White. The lantern scenes and the gold adhesive braid is from flower Soft. Maybe someone knows a trick to using it but it acted just like glitter: all over everything ! Great effect though; the cutaway deckle edge on the card front and the deckle edge trim inside really made the colors stand out.

This card was made by layering your Christmas papers and using the BIGZ die, Tree, Christmas Layered. It was fun to use up all those small scraps of paper. The tree was glued to a white card distressed with Tim Holtz Tea Dye. I distressed some of the paper edges, pierced the corners and used a dimensional glue dot only on the star.

Gift Card Holders

This year I decided to give all our kids gift cards to Red Lobster, so I made Christmas envelopes to hold the gift cards then just put them in the Christmas Tree for decoration since I didn't know where to put them...I thought they came out pretty cute and look nice in the tree. I learned how to make the santa tags on a Ustream that Heidy Swap had last week. (Its pretty unprofressional but if you would like to learn how to cut the fringe and make these, check it out!) http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19069141 I attached the tag to the back side of the envelope so that they don't have to turn it over to open...just open under the tag.

Snowman

The girls that I scrapbook with every week came across this project pattern for a snowman at Archivers ...so we just had to make it...since I love snowmen and collect them, he just fit right in to my snowman family.

Go to http://www.archiversonline.com/ideas/home-decor-rosette-snowman-3414 for the directions...oh in addition to the directions...my friends husband made us a 4 or 5 inch round platform and glued a dowel rod into it...so that the rosettes are stacked with the dowel rod going thru the center, which makes him very sturdy! Traditional snowmen are white but I wanted to try a tattered sort of look so I use 12 x 12 music note paper instead of white paper.

More scalloped Christmas Trees

Betty shared such a neat idea for paper trees. I made mine using My Mind's Eye Lost & Found papers; glitter everywhere! I had seven sizes of dies for each tree and short bamboo skewers, about 8 inches. Some trees were layered with 3 of each size and others with 4. Both look wonderful! Thanks Betty!

Paper Ring Garland

List of supplies:

6 different digital designed papers

12 pages of matte Presentation Paper

Paper cutter

Scissors

Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher Stapler

Printer

I printed on both sides  of (12) - 8.5 x 11 inch Presentation paper(using a different pattern for the opposite side).  I printed 4 of each combo I chose to put together. 

After printing, you may need to trim off the white edge on all 4 sides of each paper.  Then place each paper lengthwise in your trimmer and cut into 1 inch wide strips x roughly 10.5 inches(remember you trimmed off the white outer edge.)

Cut a piece of plain white paper the same way in a 1 inch strip x the same length of your patterned strips and then fold it in half and cut along the fold. You will use this 1/2 strip to help you place the long strips back on your cutter to cut each long strip in half.  This will save a lot of time cutting multiple strips at a time.

 

Line up all 8 strips and cut them in 1/2 all at once.

You will get (16) 1/2 strips out of each page.  You will end up with (192) 1/2 strips in all.

 

Remember these are all printed double sided so find a pleasant color pattern before you start stapling.  Below are the opposite sides of each of my 6 patterns.

 

Now get your Tiny Attacher and start making loops and overlapping at the ends about a 1/4 inch. You can put one staple in the middle of each overlapped end. Keep your 6 stacks of paper in a row and just use one of each and then start over again.  Doesn't the inside look pretty with a patterned printed on both sides?

I ended up with about 18 feet of garland when I was finished!

It went around my tree about 3 times.

And here is a closeup of the garland on the tree!

The digital designs I used were from the Jessica Sprague Christmas Blog Train(2010)