Happy Father's Day!

I got the ideas for both of these cards online.  There are dies out there that will allow you to make ribbons, banners and t-shirts.  Honestly, I don't have any of those dies, so I just winged it!  These cards were made for the two grandpas....my dad and my husband's dad for Father's Day. 

The papers are all Stampin' Up!  I like this colour palette because it is inherently masculine, without having to work hard at it.  I also liked the t-shirt idea, but I didn't think I would get enough use out of a stamp and die cut set to make it worth the outlay of cash.  I drew this shirt by hand and then cut it out and coloured it with Copic markers.  I used an old tag I had kicking around as a stencil for this tag.  The corduroy button and brad I had sitting from a LONG time ago, and are both from SU! as well.

For this second card, I used the same SU! papers.  The fish tail ribbons were cut by hand and the circles were cut out using my Nestabilities dies and my Cuttlebug.  The rest is pretty self explanatory!

Enjoy your Father's Day!

Prince Charming

My husband and I are gearing up to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary this summer.  I cannot believe that it has been 15 years!  We met young, we married young, we had our kids young, and we are still crazy about each other.  I know, it's kind of sappy, isn't it? 

For Father's Day this year, I wanted to make my hubby a special card that was just from me.  The kids each made him one too, and they really did a terrific job, each taking a turn in my craft room using my supplies.  I will have to post pics of their cards too.

Anyways, this is the card that I made.  It isn't a typical 'Happy Father's Day' kind of card, but instead it was to let him know that I still think he is wonderful, even after all these years.  :)

This card was created from a sketch (MFTWSC75), although I didn't actually post the card to the MFT blog.  I will often cruise around online to find sketches, even if they are old ones, and use them to create my projects. 



These papers are all from Stampin' Up.  I have been using a lot of SU! papers lately.  I have such a stockpile of them at hand, and they are all so easily coordinated when you hoard the cardstock too, as I do!  The image is from MFT and I colored it with my Copic markers.  My little knight was colored and then cut out and popped up with some dimensionals.

I finished off the inside of the card (very simply), as is becoming the trend.  I spend so much time on the fronts of my cards, I am not always keen to finish off the inside of them too.  You crafters out there are always raising the bar though, and I figured that this card (and it's recipient) was worth the extra effort! *wink*

A Big Thank You!

This card is going to my in-laws, who came and helped my husband with the kiddies so that I could take a girls' trip to Aruba.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I went on a girls' trip to Aruba, while my husband and kids stayed at home and went to work and school.  I am a lucky girl!

I have a friend who was celebrating her 40th birthday this year, and in celebration of the big day, she was going to Aruba.  The only way we could make it work, in terms of me being able to go with her, was if Kevin were to have some help here at home.  That is where my in-laws stepped in to help out.  They came and stayed at our house for the week so that they were here to get the kids off the bus and supervise homework, snack and afterschool activities, until Kevin got home from work.

I picked up a little gifty-gift (of course!) but I needed a card to go with it.  This is what I came up with!

I used Stampin' Up! patterned papers and cardstock.  The sentiment and stamp are both from over at MFT.  The sentiment was cut out with a Spellbinders Label Nestabilitie Die and my Cuttlebug.  The image was coloured with Copic markers.  A couple of flowers, brads and a button, and I was done!

I had a terrific time in Aruba, and I am already planning my next getaway.  My husband and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary with a trip to Santorini, Greece in October!  I am guessing I will be making a lot of thank you notes after that kid-free-nine-day-getaway!

Happy Birthday, Dude!

Well, my son has hit the double digits! I cannot believe that he is getting so grown up. We just celebrated his 10th birthday on Sunday, and this is the card that I created for him.

It may seem like a bit of an odd sentiment for your own son, but it is a bit of an inside joke. Several months ago, I noticed that whenever my son is with his friends, he refers to them all as 'dude'. I don't know why or where that tendency came from...we don't even use the word 'dude' in our house. I must admit, I found it kind of funny. So, when I saw this sentiment amongst my stamps, somehow, it just worked.




The patterned papers are from Sandy Lion. They are called Camping Trip and Solitude. The cardstock is old olive and peach parfait from SU! The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Skater Boy stamp set and the dirt bike is from SU! Loads of Fun. I used Copics to colour the dirt bike and to make the dirt on which it sits. I did a bit of machine stitching and then layered it all up with pop dots.

My son really liked his card because he is really into a mini dirt bike that he got a few months ago for Christmas. Although his dirt bike isn't yellow, I chose the colour because that is a reference to joke within our family. That is the beauty of making your own cards. You can customize them just perfectly for the recipient. It just seems to make them that much more meaningful!

Saddle Up!

Howdy!

I have another 12 x 12 two page scrapbook layout for you today. This layout is about my daughter, who was four years old at the time. She has always been very into animals of all sorts, but around the age of three or four, she became obsessed with horses.

At the time, we were living in Ohio, and I set out on a mission to find someone willing to introduce a four year old to the world of horses. It turned out to be a difficult task! Many of the people who I spoke with don't begin lessons until children are about age eight. We were a few years from there! Then I met "Mr. John". He was an older man, immensely patient, very unflappable and soft spoken. He agreed to take us on!

This layout depicts one of Rebekah's first times riding. We were just giving it a try, to see how she liked it, hence the bicycle helmet instead of a proper riding helmet. The proper riding helmet came later. :)

This horse became Bekah's first love. Dream was her name, and we had to leave her behind for other children to ride when we moved out of state. We have since learned that Mr. John found her another home with a family who have two little girls just about Rebekah's age. It is good to know that she is going to be loved and that there are other little girls to take over giving her peppermints on Rebekah's behalf!




On this layout I used a paper bag that I received when I purchased something in a gift shop. I kid you not....I think I had that bag in my possession for two years before getting to this layout! I knew as soon as I saw it, that it would be perfect for a horseback riding or western themed layout and I tucked it away in my 'idea pile' where things collect until I can get to them.

I have talked before about using the world around you as inspiration for your creations, and this is a perfect example of how I put that into practice. This is also the reason why I don't scrapbook my photos in order....gasp!! I have so many friends (I am talking to you Carol and Joy!) who scrapbook chronologically. I find that if I force myself into that box, then I don't enjoy the process or the outcome nearly as much. I work on whatever inspires me at the time. Sometimes the inspiration comes from a certain patterned paper or colour combination, other times it is a photo, and other times it is a paper bag!



You can see in this photo that I did my journaling on a tag that I tucked behind one of the photos. The photo was adhered using pop dots (otherwise known as dimensionals), allowing space between the photo and the page for my tag to slide in and out.



I used horse themed stickers from Paper House Productions and Flair Designs.



Here you can see a close up of the zigzag stitch that I used to sew the paper bag to the layout. I really like sewing on both cards and scrapbook pages. I find it gives my creations a little lift!

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to leave me a comment so that I know you were here!

I Love My Hemp Twine!

*I have retaken the photos with a different camera setting*

It looks like I am going to have to mess with my camera settings and retake these photos. I am not happy with how these photos have turned out at all. So, please excuse the picture quality!

This is another travel themed layout (for anyone who knows me, that is no surprise!). The photos were taken on a trip to western Canada....Alberta specifically.

I used my Cricut to cut out the 'Nature' title as well as the other two matching green elements.

I was excited to use some of the ledger paper that I picked up while at CKC Cincinnati in the fall, to create my journaling block. I added an 'O Canada' sticker to help anchor that element. I then wrapped hemp twine around one of my photos to give the layout a rustic nature-ish kind-of-feel. I really love hemp twine for this purpose. It is also great on masculine layouts and cards.

This side of the layout features my main photo. You can see that I matted the left photo twice, so

that the eye is drawn towards it as a focal point of the layout. I then added a couple of vellum quotes from a quote stack that I had kicking around, and some more hemp twine, and I was ready to go!

Stay tuned for some better photos to come.....

I Can Smell the Grapes....

*I've reposted the pics using a different setting on my camera*

I am just realizing as I type this post that these pictures turned out kind of stinky. Hmmm. I think a re-take may be in order!

For now, I will tell you about the layout anyways. This layout features photos of the area surrounding our home where we lived in Switzerland. Our landlord was a wine maker, who also grew and harvested his own grapes. As a result, the property was surrounded by vineyards. Since my daughter was a newborn when we moved to Switzerland, walking through those vineyards pushing a double stroller was the solution to losing my baby weight!

I used my Cricut to cut out the title and the large circle that mats the photo on the above page. A little trip to my button jar gave me the idea for the bunch of grapes on the top right of the page. I hand journaled in white gel pen around the circle to get some of the necessary details in there without a ton of journaling. I just didn't feel that much journaling was necessary on this layout.

The right hand page of my double page layout features a stamp set from My Favorite Things called Meet Me at the Cafe. I used a combination of paper piecing and coloring to fill in the image. I will try and get a better detail photo posted here soon.

I think it is safe to say that stamping on cards is far more common than stamping on scrapbook pages. Because I participate in both the craft of card making and the craft of scrapbooking, I really like to incorporate the two where I can. It can be a challenge at times, because small stamped images can get lost on a 12 x 12 layout. Personally, I like the challenge of trying to make it work, so you are sure to see some more stamping on my layouts in the future!

Stay tuned!