Joy to the World

Hello friends! Today I am popping in to share a little gift bag that I created using my Silhouette Cameo and a few stamps and dies. To make this a quick project, I made an almost duplicate of a previous project found here. 

 

This little gift bag holds an ornament for a gift exchange at work. I used the cut file Design ID #45733 from the Silhouette store. Then I inked up Casual Fridays Christmas Carols stamp set. I used the Funky Round tag die to die cut the tag. The green cardstock was embossed with diagonal lines from DeNami design to add a bit of texture. And it was all tied together using some New Leaf stitched ribbon from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Joshua's School album

Hello friends! I am back as promised. Today I am sharing the first two page layout for Joshua's school album. Just as with Leah's album, I am limited by the pictures that his teachers were able to take. So unfortunately, for his infant class, we only had 3 photos!

The products I used are from the Becky Higgins School expansion kit.

His teachers took the photo of him in the bouncy seat and hung it on the door of his classroom at Christmas time along with the personalized stockings. I know that they were made with construction paper and are not archival safe, but I wanted to keep it real. The small photo to the right we took of him just before we headed out the door on his first day of daycare. I created the subtitles using Angled Labels from Papertrey Ink. I bought this stamp set with scrapbooking in mind and I have used it quite a bit for that reason.

The second page of the layout includes some journaling cards from the kit. Andy was able to join him for Doughnuts with Dad. I cut out the information and header from the monthly newsletter for the journaling and title. And you have to love the notes that would come home with him. He was known for explosive diapers and vomiting. Sigh. I did some machine stitching along the border of the cardstock for a bit of interest. It's amazing that these infant years seem so distant. I can't believe he is in VPK!

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

2014 Year in Review

 Hello friends! Today I am sharing some of my favorite cards from the past year. Some months I had some difficulty choosing between two cards and towards the end of the year *gulp* I didn't have many to choose from!

This year, I did accomplish a major crafting goal before my son turned 3. I finished his baby album! I am a very slow crafter, especially when it comes to scrapbooking. It was really monumental. I had planned to start his school album next. But, if you follow my blog then you will know that I developed my heart issues in the middle of the summer. That forced me to take a good hard look at my health and start making better decisions for me and ultimately for my family. It has been a great change for all of us.

I hope you enjoy your trip down memory lane!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Thanks for stopping by!



Happy Halloween!

Hello friends and Happy Halloween! Do you have any fun trick-or-treating plans? My kiddos will be dawning some super hero costumes this year. It seems like the super hero theme from their birthday party this summer has not let up. I have high hopes that I will be able to put a post together to share our festivities from this evening at some point this weekend. Fingers crossed.

 

I have also been rather busy this past week as I start a new job. I will continue to work at my old job as well since both jobs are per diem. There will be lots of adjustments in our family routine but it is all good. I am still learning more about fitness and finding new recipes to feed my family. Thank you pinterest for helping me! I have had a lot more energy (not that I was feeling run down before) and my heart is doing really well. I am so thankful for that. I have a follow up with my cardiologist in December. I think she will be pleased to know what I have been doing to improve my health.

 

This year I made Leah her costume again. It was nothing fancy, but I can't wait to share this weekend. I also made little mummy treats for the kids to give to their classmates and teachers. I wrapped mini chocolate bars with crepe paper, glued on some googley eyes and tied on a tag onto 38 bars! I would've normally enlisted Leah's help in the assembly, but this week was super busy so I worked on them late at night. Since I had today off, I squeaked in some time to finally create a card. Love this sketch from CAS(E) this sketch!

 



 

The CAS girl in me kept the panels white. I think I had that stamped orange striped paper for two years! So glad to use it on this card. I made those stripes using Three Line Border from DeNami Design. I love that stamp!!! The sentiment is also from DeNami. The sequins are from a bulk bag that I picked up from Michaels a while back. If you look closely, the raised panels were impressed with my PTI Linen/canvas impression plate.

 

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!



U Rock! Happy Birthday

Hello friends! I know that it has been a while since I have posted. But no fear. I have a card to share for the current CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge.

 

 

A friend of mine celebrated her 30th birthday this past weekend. Although I wanted to make her a card that actually had 30th on it, I opted to leave it out. Niki is a member of the rock band my husband plays in, ELEVATORS. She plays lead guitar and performs vocals. I really wanted to ink up PTI's Boy Basics: Rock On for her. And I inked up the back of one of my stamps from Altenew, Label Love to create the rainbow background. The sentiments are also from Label Love.

 

 

 

I have to say that she had a pretty rockin' birthday this past Saturday. She and the band had their EP release show and it was awesome. There was a great turnout and we all had a great time. Their EP Live to Find Out will be available tomorrow on iTunes if you would like to show your support.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Happy Birthday

Happy Monday! Lucky for me, I had today off from work. That meant doing something I haven't done in nearly 2 decades...I went running! Actually, there was more walking than running, but that is the plan when you start a workout routine. I certainly did not want to overdo it, since I don't want be too sore tomorrow. So excited about this new adventure in my life.

 

 Onto today's card. It plays along with the current CAS(E) this Sketch! and CAS on Sunday challenge: to make a celebration card using sequins.

 

 

 

 For my card I inked up Tiny Tags II by PTI. I used some Buttercup twine from The Twinery to hang them using glue dots. The die cut tag behind them is Tag Sale #5, also from PTI. My sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays, Casual Elegance. And lastly, I sprinkled some Pretty Pink Posh sequins to finish off the card.

 

 

That is all for me today. Work beckons me the rest of the week and now my new workout routine does too. I still hope to find some time to get crafty. Halloween is around the corner and I've got some costumes and treats to make.

 

Thanks for stopping by!



Happy Birthday, Andy!

Hello friends! I hope you are all doing well. Today I have a card to share with you that I created for my hubby. Today is his birthday. That's right, 9/11. Today is a day of remembrance of what took place 13 years ago, but it is also a day to celebrate. I have been planning on making him his card for quite some time. However, my crafty mojo went on vacation somewhere and hasn't returned. Since I have been on my new medication, it has made me tired. So by the time my day is done, I head to bed instead of my craftroom.



For my card, I used the colors from the current colourQ challenge as inspiration. I did my best to match them. I used PTI's Boy Basics: Rock On for the guitar and the sentiment and stars are from Altenew Faux Veneers. The patterned papers are from gina k designs, CAS-ual Fridays paper pack and aMuse Studio. Since I incorporated these patterned papers, I am also linking up to Virginia's View Challenge.

 

My husband, Andy, has played bass guitar in our church band for over 10 years and he also plays in a rock band, ELEVATORS. They are gearing up for the first EP release which will be available on iTunes 9/30/14. Their album is called Live To Find Out. The record is available for presale on Amazon if you want to hear a preview. Unfortunately my link does not work so you will have to do a search to find them.

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Catching up

Hello friends! I hope you are all doing well. We enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day weekend: cooking on the grill and enjoying the pool.

With back to school, I know lots of people are creating for the Fall. I, however, am playing catch up on some projects that I never got around to working on from last February. You may recall that I shared Joshua's Valentine's album this past summer on this post. After the kiddos big super hero party, which was 3 weeks ago, I spent some time helping a friend create some projects for her wedding. So this past weekend I spent some time playing catch up.

 

I repeated some of the designs from the first album. I hate to lack in the creativity department, but the truth is, I really want to finish up these little projects so I can begin working on some other bigger projects. I used products from DeNami Design, PaperTrey Ink, and Altenew. I also used my Silhouette Cameo for the title. Yes, I stamped the hearts upside down or glued the "S" on upside down. Either way, I am okay with it. The ring clips are temporary just to hold the project together. I have a bunch of sliver ones that won't open, grrrr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year I make these albums, I have the kids help make some of the embellishments for the album. Then, of course, I snap some photos of them being crafty. He scribbled lightly with the colored pencils. Leah punched out the hearts and painted them. He did glue everything on including placing the washi tape. Here is some of his artwork and hand prints which I always do for these albums as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pause in crafting because he was mesmerized by what ever was playing on my phone at the time. I love that face!

 

Well, that is all for me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week! Thanks for stopping by!

 

Happy 4th! (part 2)

Hello friends. I am back as promised, but a little sooner that I expected. My daughter Leah was with me in my craftroom and saw me creating my card and wanted to play along.

 

My card plays along with two challenges: One Layer Simplicity and PTI's MIM: Masking with Dies (insert gasp). It's been quite a while since I have played along with MIM, so I was excited to try out this technique.

To create my diagonal stripes, I used a stencil that I created with my Silhouette Cameo. I created this stencil waaay back using PTIs Stampers Select white. It is quite sturdy and has been used several times and is in great shape even though it is cardstock. I die cut the medium star from Star Prints and adhered it to my cardstock first, then layered my striped stencil on top using my zig 2 way pen. I sponged on some Enchanted Evening pigment ink. My pad is quite dry so I think it's great to create a subtle effect. I used Pure Poppy for my star image and added my sentiment in Memento Tuxedo black in.

 

Next up is Leah's card.

 

 

 She desparately wanted to make white stars. I had to tell her that it would be hard to add red to her card if she used a dark cardbase and kept it one layer. Since she saw me playing with my sponging and masking, we came up with an idea. We used post it tape to mask off an area so she could create an area to stamp her white stars on. She is such a quick learner and I think she did fabulous sponging on the ink. She used Teeny Star from DeNami in Snow White. Then she inked up Long Solid Rectangle in Pure Poppy to create her flag pole.

 

Thanks for stopping by!



DeNami Product Spotlight, Balloon Trio

 Today is product spotlight over at DeNami Design. The design team is showcasing Balloon Trio by having a DeNami blog hop. You should've arrived at my blog from Lisa Petrella's blog. If you visit each design team members blog and leave a comment along the way, you will be eligible to win this stamp! You can also add this fabulous stamp to your shopping cart and save 10%, one week only.

 

 

This stamp is so much fun and can really be used to create a variety of cards. This time I chose to  create a mini birthday card. Perfect to tuck in with any present.

 



 

I used some PTI cardstock and chose my balloon colors based on what copics I had to blend. I just realized that they are almost the same as the product spotlight image. lol. I inked up Balloon Trio and Happy Monster w/Balloons and colored them in. I inked up Happy Birthday from Thoughtful Greetings petite four. To finish off my card, I added some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh using crystal lacquer.

 

 

Well that is all from me today. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy is your next stop!

DeNami blog

Lisa Petrella

Deb <------that's me

Wendy Elliot

Emily Keaton

Lisa Elton

Patti Goldman

Tammy Hobbs

Valentine Mini album (better late than never)

Hello friends! I hope you all had an awesome weekend. Yesterday my sister and her family were in town because my nephew was playing in a tennis tournament just down the road from where we live. He has played in a few at that park. So happy that it is close by. We've been able to visit a lot with them and I am so happy for the time that we get to spend together.

 

Today I have a mini album to share with you. Tradition has it that I take photos of my kiddos for Valentine's Day. The reason being... how can I resist them dressed up in red and hearts. And it also happens to fall around their half birthday which is a guarantee that I will have photos of them at least half way through each year since there are always birthday photos.

 

So with these photos, I started making mini albums. Why you ask? Let's just say that the Target dollar spot made it super easy to grab some paper and albums and the rest is history. So the last time I made an album ***insert hanging head in shame*** was in 2012 for my daughter, Leah. So I finally chose some photos for Joshua and also some photos from 2103 and  2104 and printed them!!! Um, that's right, to make mini albums, your pictures must leave your hard drive and end up in your actual hands lol! I am just going to blame it on the fact that I was working super hard these last few months to finish up Joshua's baby album. It is a good excuse, honest.

 

So enough babbling, here is Joshua's super simple, only 5 page album. For this album, I used some of my DeNami Design stamps and products. I emphasize some, because they have so many wonderful stamps, that I couldn't fit them all into 5 pages. I only repeated two stamps...just because.

 

 

To make the album, I used my Papertrey Ink Tabbed Mini Book Page die. For the cover, I used my silhouette cameo to cut out the year. The font used was Impact and I also offset it. I inked up Teeny Heart Background in pink ink over the white cardstock. Then I stamped a heart from Hearts stamp set and fussy cut it out. I layered it over a piece of red cardstock that I had die cut using my banner die.

 

 

For the first page I printed it out my picture at 4x6 and then trimmed it some. I added some Red/white hearts washi tape to the botton and then adhered the picture over a small portion of it. Then I  inked up XOXO and stamped it onto a piece of a die cut ticket I had laying around. I also stamped some more pink hearts from Teeny Heart background. Lastly, I added a few stitches with my machine.

 

 

For the second page, I used Teeny Heart background again, this time inked up in red. I tore a few pieces of scrap paper and layered it around the edges. I wanted it to have an irregular shape and I think I achieved that. I used another piece of red banner and heat embossed my sentiment from Love Sentiment stamp set. I stamped Small heart circle and punched it out with my 3/4in circle punch.

 

For the third page, I used this card for the design. Um, I love this heart placed inside of Love Circle, which was featured as a product spotlight this year. I used my Circle Interlock embossing folder and added some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

 

For the fourth page, I inked up Small Splatter in pink several times, changing the angle. Then I stamped Love Script which has also been a product spotlight feature. I stamped Small heart outline in black onto red cardstock and trimmed it out.

 

 

For the last page, I also used this card as inspiration. I stamped the stitched heart from Hearts stamp set in red and pink in a "random" pattern. And I used Love You Forever for my sentiment.

 

 

And here is my little guy,  proudly holding up his album. All I could get was a cheesy grin. Oh well. I can't believe he will be turning 3 in less than a month. He was only 7 months old in those album photos. Where has the time gone?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

DeNami Inspired By Jen

 Happy Wednesday! Today I have a card to share with you for this month's DeNami Inspired by

post. Today the DT and I are sharing our creations inspired by Jen. You can find her original card here.

  

 

I chose 4 elements from her card to create mine: balloons, animals, patterned paper and twine. I actually wanted to incorporate more, but my poor CAS brain was overwhelmed. Despite my attempt to create little clusters of elements on my card, I went back to CAS.

For my card, I inked up Little Duck and colored it in with copics. Then I inked up Balloon Trio several times, once next to Little Duck and then onto some patterned paper and did some paper piecing with my Quickie glue pen. Then I used my circle nestability to trim out my image. I inked up my sentiment from Thoughtful Greetings and used my scissors to trim it out. Then I tied a bow using twine from my Summer Pack and attached it using Cyrstal Lacquer.

That is all for me today. Please be sure to stop by the DeNami blog to see what Jen and the rest of the team has created.

Happy Birthday Phil!

Hello! Today I am popping in with a card for this month's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge. I was pretty excited when I saw the theme early this month. It's unfortunate that I am just getting around to playing along. When I saw this theme, I knew that I wanted to CASE myself. I created this card a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it would be a perfect for this challenge.

 

 

The theme to this challenge is to create a  guy card and you are not allowed to use kraft at all. And the catch is that you have to use some sort of ribbon.

 

I created this birthday card for my father-in-law, Phil. His actual birthday was yesterday, so he has already received this card. I love aqua and orange together and I thought it would perfectly with gray cardstock. I inked up Lotsa Links in Aqua Mist ink for my background. Then I inked up Rad for my sentiment and colored a portion of it with an orange copic. The ribbon tab is Orange Zest from PTI.

 

 

That is all for me today. Have a great rest of the week!