The story of us...

...that's the title of this layout. It's another addition to my son's baby album. I opted to use the same photos and elements as well as journaling as my daughter's page since "our story" remains the same. The main photo has a transparency overlay with the eyelet border which gave the photo a weird sheen for photographing the layout.

All elements are from Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. The buttons are Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist. The smaller photo titles I used my favorite Small Typewriter Alphabet from Stampendous stamped in Dark Chocolate. The journaling pen is from American Crafts precision.

You make my heart sing!

Happy Monday to everyone! Today's card that I have to share is another one for this week's CAS-ual Fridays.

The challenge is to use chipboard on our project. I made another chipboard heart from my PTI heart die. I stamped the background with Background Basics: Music Sheet. I finished off the heart with a little bling.

Pages with Papertrey #5

I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. As I had mentioned in my previous posts, our weekend was jam packed with 2 birthday parties. I think my hubs and I had as much fun as Leah did skating and playing at the gym. Thanks to the mommies for inviting us!

Despite our weekend of partying, I did manage to find some time in my craftroom Friday night and Sunday morning to create a 2 page layout for my son's baby album. The first page plays along with Pages with Papertrey #5, a color challenge.

Leigh wanted us to create a layout using these colors. I wasn't quite sure how I could make one of Joshua's pages entirely out of these 3 colors since I am using the Sweet Baby kit by Becky Higgins. I asked her if other colors could be incorporated and she graciously replied, "Yes." So the light bulb went on when I was deciding which pages I might work on for the challenge. My son's ultrasound pictures are black in white! Done!

All of the elements are from the kit except a few things. The buttons, twine and felt are from PTI. I also used Just the Ticket stamped in Dark Chocolate to show the date of the ultrasound. Yes, it was on Valentine's Day last year! I did blur out his biological mother's info for her privacy. I really did try to use my Harvest Gold paper and felt, but as the page came together, I ended up using the papers from the kit and Vintage Cream felt. Please try to look past the crooked felt in the bottom corner. Despite adhering it down with double sided tape before stitching it in place, it still moved!

The opposing page includes some pictures of our family of three. I will journal about our last outings and such. The reason why I included a photo of Leah with princess Belle, is because she loved to talk and tell everybody that she was going to have a baby brother. It was super sweet to see her excitement. And she is still excited to this day. Thanks for looking!

love you

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend. Today's card takes part in several challenges.

The first is for Make-it-Monday. I chose to do glitter strips with score tape.  I never did participate since this was pre-blog days. I added it to some color blocks that are in this week's ColourQ Challenge.

I finished off my card with some chipboard hearts that I made using old cereal boxes that I learned from another Make-it-Monday that I had a blast participating in. This week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge is to create a project using chipboard.

My hearts were die cut using Heart Prints. I glued together 4 layers using Glossy Accents. I covered the smaller one in glue and added Martha Stewart coarse glitter. Thanks for looking!

Misty, misty

Hello blog friends!

I tried my hand at Make-it-Monday #15: Make your own spray mist. I have really wanted to try this for some time. Well, actually I would rather buy some mists, but making my own was rather simple. I decided that I would mist up the wrapping paper that I used for the birthday presents for the parties we will attend this weekend. I put a few good drops of Hawaiin Shores reinker into my Ranger mister and added a little bit of water. I am satisfied with how it turned out, however, I do prefer a more saturated look. I will definitely try this again with my acrylic paints to see the difference.

Here is a close up.

A wormy birthday

My daughter has been invited to two birthday parties this weekend. I whipped up two identical cards and tags for these little boys. I tell ya, if you don't have this Create a Critter cartridge in your arsenal, you should seriously consider buying it. I have loved making cards for all of her friends. I've made some others here, here, here, and here. Love 'em!!! They all have the basic design as if the critter was sitting on the ground, but slightly different. I used a Make-it-Monday technique of ribbon pleating that I had participated in previously and had so much fun with it.

So, if you happen to be a mommy of one of these boys and a follower of my blog, I am sorry that the surprise may be ruined before the big day. Hope you like them as much as I do.

Another one...

Today's card is another one for this week's  Make-it-Monday. I created another sympathy card at the request of my sister for the same family that I made yesterday's card. I don't usually share too much personal stuff here on the blog since it is mainly for crafts. But I am asking you to join me in prayer for this family. Frank Sanders is an amazing man who was diagnosed almost a year ago with pancreatic cancer. He just published an autobiography From Silver to Gold to share how God has worked in his life.  My family has been truly blessed by him.

A difficult thing

 This week's Make-it-Monday is 2011 a la carte. If there were any challenges that we might've missed out on during 2011 and didn't get to try, this is our chance.

I decided that I would make a card that is tough for most card makers, a sympathy card. Nobody really wants to have a bunch of these in their stash. It puts a lump in your throat. These kinds of cards don't get tossed by most. You see, I still have all of the cards given to me when my mother and grandmother passed away.

I used PTI's Botanical Silhouettes. You have seen this card design here, classic and simple. I have really fallen in love with this set. So versatile, really. I used Ocean Tides ink. I haven't used this in a while. Over the last few months, I have learned that my style tends towards bright colors. So glad that I brought it out. Ocean Tides is really a great color to have in your stash.

My prayers go out to the recepient of this card. My heart is heavy because I know that it will be removed from my stash of cards sooner than later. Sigh.

Heart strings

I have another card to share with you for the current CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

 I decided to make a card mainly in kraft. I punched out some hearts with my small heart punch and created a tone on tone border strip. I got this idea from my friend, Joyce over at Cards by the Sea. I love her card and had to try this out myself. I stamped PTI's Heart Prints onto pure poppy cardstock and heat embossed it with white embossing color. I really love how the white looks against color cardstock that I am pretty sure you will see this again and again, just like yesterday's card. I added the pure poppy cardstock strip wrapped in bakers twine and attached with foam adhesive. The hearts were attached with foam adhesive as well to give lots of dimension. The border strip looks a little off in the photos due to the foam tape and the angle of the camera, but I wanted you to be able to appreciate the dimension of all the layers.

ColourQ Challenge #117

Welcome 2012! My first post for the year plays along with the current ColourQ Challenge.

 Now that the Christmas holiday is over, my brain immediately goes into Valentine mode. So when the challenge is black, white and a color of your choice,  my frst color choice was red. I decided to create a Valentines Day card for my hubby. These happen to be the same colors that I used for his card last year.  I used PTIs linen/canvas impression plate and Heart Prints stamp set. I popped up the white cardstock with foam tape and heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder. I also dry embossed the black cardstock using my Martha Stewart score board. I attached all three hearts using foam adhesive. Lastly, I added Martha Stewart coarse glitter to the main heart image. Good thing my hubby doesn't mind glitter.