2011 Year in Review

If you are looking for Pages with Papertrey, scroll down.

I've decided that I would join my blog friends for a Year in Review. The only problem is that I started blogging in September. So, I decided that I would share my 12 favorite creations from the last few months. These are in blog post order.

Hubby's birthday card

Make-it-Monday birthday

Make-it-Monday birthday

Valentine's Day

PTI September blog hop

 

PTI November blog hop

CAS-ual birthday

Make-it-Monday birthday

Make-it-Monday and CAS-ual birthday

ColourQ Christmas

Play Date Cafe and CAS-ual birthday

December PTI blog hop plus more

Join us for a Year in Review!

 

Pages with Papertrey, sketch #4

Today is the last day for the Pages with Papertrey sketch challenge. I am so excited to be able to share these 2 layouts with you. Leigh has done a fantastic job heading up all of these challenges over the last few months. Because of these challenges, I have been able to complete several layouts for my daughter's school album and my son's baby album!

Here is the sketch:

Here is my take on it:

I rotated my layout because of the striped border on my patterned paper. The paper and chipboard stars are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. I used PTI's Grunge Me stamped in Vintage Cream. The journaling is from my new Ali Edwards stamp set: Favorite Memories stamped in Dark Chocolate. I received it from my hubby for Christmas. I know you will be seeing more of the stamp set, for sure.

Here is the other page of this 2 page layout:

Again, all of the elements are from the kit. I added some machine stitching, used my Tim Holtz tiny attacher on the tab and the stamping is from the same Ali Edwards stamp set.

Thanks for looking!

December PTI blog hop...plus more

It's that time of month again, Papertrey Ink's blog hop. This month is the "Traditional Holiday leftovers" challenge:

 " use wrapping paper, bows, ribbon, tags, canceled postage from holiday cards you have received, photos from holiday cards and anything else you might have laying around after the
holiday preparations have ended. "

I used a gift bag that once held an ornament that I received from an ornament exchange.

I hand cut some of the presents out and adhered them to some kraft cardstock to give them some sturdiness and cut them again. Once I added the kraft gift tag with bakers twine to the main present, I realized that my card could play along with CAS-ual Fridays.

 Then I layered them onto the card front of Spring Moss which I had run through my Linen/canvas impression plate. I finished it off with a strip of Pure Poppy cardstock that I also added some more bakers twine with a bow.

After taking a final look at my card, I had another realization. These are the fun holiday colors over at the ColourQ Challenge and Play Date Cafe.

Here is another close up. Thanks for looking!

Pages with Papertrey, challenge #4

I realize that the month of December is nearly over and I am just getting to making and posting my Pages with Papertrey challenge. With the busyness of the season, Leigh, over at Life to the full, has challenged us to complete a layout in 30 minutes. This is a daunting task for someone like me. It can seriously take me hours to complete a simple layout. But I was up for the challenge.

Since I am working on my son's baby album, I decided that I would attempt the title page. I thought this would be a doable task given that I wanted it to be very similar to my daughter's title page. So the design was already in place. I set the timer... couldn't find the thread that I wanted to use for my stitching, wanted to make sure things were straight...30 minutes and this was as far as I has progressed...

I had completed the journal blocks, the photo was matted and it stopped there. So I continued working, knowing that this may take me another 30 minutes... all together it took 1 hour and 20 minutes. Sigh. It took longer than I had hoped. I really did think that the slow poke scrapper in me could do it in 30 minutes. But despite the overtime needed to complete the layout, I am pleased with the final result. Who would've thought that I would be scrapbooking my son's baby album on the eve of Christmas Eve!

I added some zig zag stitching onto the patterned paper and alpha stickers for the title. I used PTI's Boy Basics: circles, stamped in Spring Moss and punched with my 3/4 inch circle punch. I topped it with my 1/2 inch clear epoxy sticker. The rest of the page elements are all from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit.

Christmas cup tag

Yesterday I had a coworker ask me my opinion regarding a gift she bought for her family for Christmas. It is an online store credit and she had bought an espresso cup and was going to place a card inside explaining the gift. I offered to make a tag for her to attach to the handle of the espresso cup. So I whipped one up for her last night using this week's Make-it-Monday technique. Using the folded tag will allow her some room to write the information regarding the online gift.

I used my pinking shears to cut the Pure Poppy saddle stitch ribbon. Three different die cuts were pieces that were not used on previous projects. I love it when things come together like that!

Make-it-Monday #46, folded tag

It's been a while since I've participated in a Make-it-Monday challenge. This week's challenge was to use any die and make a folded tag. I decided to created a matching tag for this card. I used Botanical Silhouettes for the image and distressed the edges using Antique Linen and my blending tool. I opted to use my rectangular nestie to mimic the card. The inside was stamped with 2008 Holiday Tag Collection.

Believe Christmas banner

I am excited to finally share with you the Christmas banner I created to hang on our picture ledge. I had tried to use some patterned paper like I did for my fall banner. Nothing I tried turned out how I had hoped. So I decided that I would use solid cardstock using my PTI linen/canvas impression plate for a little umph. I bought some holiday glitter ribbon on sale at Michaels to string the pennants together. The letters were cut with my Cricut using my Alphalicous cartridge.

A birthday splash

Today's project I am submitting for two challenges: Play Date Cafe: a splash of Teal and CAS-ual Fridays: signed, sealed & delivered.

I created a birthday card with matching envelope using Papertrey Ink's Botanical Silohuettes. This stamp set is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The images and sentiments are so beautiful and classic. I added a border strip of True Black cardstock to add more black to my card and give it some grounding. I also hand cut the sentiment and attached it using foam adhesive. I cut teeny, tiny pieces to achieve this.

 

ColourQ Christmas

I have another ColourQ Challenge card to share. It is bittersweet, since this may be the last Christmas card I share. I believe that I have finished making all the necessary cards to send to friends and family. The last ones are waiting in the mailbox right now. Thanks ColourQ for providing me with such great inspiration!

ColourQ Challenge #115

Today's card plays along with this week's ColourQ Challenge.

This is such a beautiful photo. I love the bright ribbon. I chose to mimic the solid mini grosgrain by grouping a few diecuts from my double ended banner die. I kept the rest of the card clean and simple, but added some texture using each side of my linen and canvas impression plate. I finished it off with a little bling.