Photo Card

I bought a Nikon D5100 a year ago. I was great about taking pictures the first few months, then slacked and am getting back into the groove of taking pictures again.  It rained the morning of Mother's Day and I've always loved pictures of flowers with the rain drops on them.  My Knockout Roses (yes that's what they're called) had just opened up that morning too.  So the picture on this card is one I took myself.  I then found papers I liked and framed it out.  The gold edging are these stickers my friend in England sent to me. I haven't found them here, but they add so much when you're framing something out like this. I also have silver, but I tend to use the gold a lot.  Probably because I often frame in black.  The white of the inside of the card is just a cut from the cartridge Elegant Edges. I keep thinking I should make a set of 5 of these for a gift for someone. 

Wedding Album Pages

I needed a new project to work on and know two colleagues that are getting married.  One just got married this last weekend. I mentor her as she's a brand new teacher.  The other is this summer. I did the pages in their wedding colors.  The pink ended up great as she has daisies for her flowers and those are small pink daisies in the paper.  The first page of each of their albums is a Split Letter that has their last name, their names, and the date of the wedding.  I'm not posting those since it has names and dates on them. 

I started with the ideas from Faith Abigail Designs here:  http://www.faithabigaildesigns.com/2013/03/complete-wedding-album-series-cover-page.html
She always makes GORGEOUS layouts and so credit goes to her for these designs.

Of course, you then start to tweak and make adjustments as you go.  I used the cartridges 'Art Philosophy, Tie the Knot, Sweethearts, Wedding Solutions, and the stock images from the Imagine machine'.   The papers from the blue and pink are from SEI.  The papers from the others are a mix of Teresa Collins and various other lines.  Finally I made a card for the one album. I haven't made one yet for the other. I used my new Anna Griffin embossing folders. Gorgeous folders!

 

Happy National Scrapbooking Weekend!!!

There are lots of events planned for National Scrapbooking this weekend I know online and at local stores.  I hope you all get to participate in some of them. I know I will be BUSY with a few projects and so hanging about in my craft room. 

If you belong to the circle, this will make sense to you:
8pm Eastern Time (New York/Montreal)
7pm Central Time (Dallas/Winnipeg)
6pm Mountain Time (Salt Lake/Edmonton)
5pm Pacific Time (Seattle/BC)
1am (London, England)
10am Monday (Sydney, AUS)

Copic Marker Colors iPhone Application - This is AWESOME!!

Copic Marker Colors iPhone Application

Graphic 45 - Birdsong Mini Album

I realized when I posted my garden mini album that I had never posted the finished pictures of the other one.  I have a friend that follows my blog and that is who this gift was for.  I had to cover the pictures in it. I used chipboard cut at 8"x8".  Some of them I then cut in half for a different look, like a half door.  The other thing you can't see well is that I used the Cricut Mini Books cartridge to make some pages to flip up for extra photo areas. This works great on scrapbook pages too. Thanks!

Mini Album - Graphic 45 Secret Garden

I saw the new Graphic 45 line and just LOVED it.  It is so gorgeous. It was *really* hard for me to even cut it.  I rarely say that about paper, but this is one of those times.  I was inspired to do this album by one of their projects on the Graphic 45 blog->  http://g45papers.typepad.com/graphic45/2013/03/blooming-ideas-with-secret-garden-cards-mini.html

As with any mini album, we always make it our own. I found this clipboard cover made by Zutter that is really like a clipboard, heavy duty. I modge podged just the front and back covers on both sides for extra protection.  I layered the design on the front which I also used modge podge on.  I may go back and add more embellishments after I put pictures in. I haven't decided. I left the back page blank intentionally as I may use that as a journaling spot about whatever I put into the album.  Funny enough, this is the first album I've actually made for myself.  I'm always making stuff for other people as I enjoy doing so. I didn't have anyone in mind when I started this and love the papers so much that I'm going to keep it.  I'm thinking some pictures of family at the Rose Gardens in Portland would be perfect to go into it. We'll see. Outdoor pictures though for sure I think.  Thanks for looking! :)

Front cover where the fence is actually another layer for a 3-D effect.

The tab with the flower pulls up for a hidden journal/picture spot. New trick I just learned.

Tag to pull out

More tags. Also where I may embellish some more. Hard to see the 'bling' in the pictures.

Envelope I made with a tag to pull out for a picture and journaling.

Back side of the envelope. Another page for a picture, etc.

Two picture spots. Hard to see that the two butterflies are popping out.

Purely decorative I think.  What you definitely can't see is that some of those 'seed' rectangles are popped out. I used Tim Holtz's Glossy Accents to put a sheen on them too.

Picture spots on the backside and front side of the one behind.

I *finally* found a place to use a stick pin (the blue butterfly). I've always loved them, but could never figure out where on earth to use them.  It worked perfectly here I think.

I forgot to take a picture of this closed.  There's two picture spots on the top, which opens up to these 3 picture spots and a journaling tag.  The page to the right is the last page in the book.

Cards for my Stash

I haven't had a lot of time for crafting of late.  I decided to just do what was my initial paper love, cards.  My stash of just blank ones for various purposes is almost gone.  I always find it just as easy to make multiple of the same thing.  The best way to do so is to use a coordinating paper set, then make your cuts a few times, and then just mix and match for the most part.  One thing I look forward to each month is the Cricut Magazine by Northridge Publishing.  In it, Shantaie Fowler (inkingpink.com) had done a card that I loved.  This is my similar version in the yellow and black with Teresa Collins paper. I used the cartridge 'Frame of Mind' for the intricate cut and 'Cricut Craft Room Basics' for the rest.

The peach and pink is using DCWV new stack 'Peachy  Keen'.  I used the Creative Cards cartridge that just came out for all of the cuts.

Play-Doh Recipe

I have two teachers I've been mentoring this year.  Years ago I got this excellent play-doh recipe from a friend-colleague of mine.  I don't think there is a better one out there than this. It doesn't feel gritty and isn't really smelly.  It also stays soft for a long time.  I only throw it out eventually just to make fresh in case it's full of germs. :)  Anyways, I was just going to make a simple recipe card and then spun off onto this idea. I used 'From My Kitchen' and the 'Craft Room Font'.  They both loved it. It's meant to pull out, but I laminated it all first before I sealed the sides etc.