New Header...Nature Walk

Well, we've had some pretty good warm weather...it barely seems like autumn around here. But I'm not complaining! The trees that I see when I'm driving or those on our street have changed colors and they are full of leaves...so pretty.
So I had this great idea of taking the kids this morning for a nature walk to our local forest preserve down the street and capture them in the glory of all the leaves changing...well it didn't work. Except for the entrance (where you see Ozan entering with the kids) the leaves are still green...probably due to the warm weather. It was 86 degrees today, so unusual for mid-October in Chicago. In my great idea I was going to get some awesome pics of the kids running down the trail with the leaves all pretty around to scrapbook later. My plans rarely work out.
Notice my two very tactile kids...alway have to have something in their hands. Aydan with his 4 Cars...did a LO a few months back about his 3 Cars that he totes everywhere. Now we've added a 4th one. LOL!
And took a little break to make a card...I go through these card moods sometimes over scrapbooking and right now I'm crazy about making them. I can't stop using my Top Notz Die Cut...its just so darn cute. Used the leftover negative space from the LO I did the other day. I only purchased one sheet of that paper and I've gotten so much out of it so far. For this card I folded some vellum into a fan, taped it down and heat embossed it. i got this fun embossing powder the other day...made by Gel A Tins. It is actually candy cane scented which is so weird for this card's theme but I loved the color! I just put the embossed vellum behind the die cut negative. And that Heidi Swapp butterfly...love it! There were 3 of them in this 12x12 sheet and I've used them all already! Used my new SU Kindred Spirits set and Kiwi Kiss designer PP. And I love the Pacific Point cardstock and ribbon. I'm a sucker for SU blues...gotta have them all!

This card was inspired by Asian style shades.

Oh, did you notice the new header? I made this tonight with scrapbook supplies hoping for a change. i gotta rescan that and fix it in photoshop sometime soon. I used Elizabeth Kartchner's article in the Creating Keepsake magazine for a guideline on what size to make it and how to size it in photoshop.

Supplies Used:
Kindred Spirits Card
Cardstock, Ink, Ribbon, Stamp, Die Cut, Kiwi Kiss Patterned Paper: Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: Gel A Tins
PP: Doodlebug

Blog Header
PP: Doodlebug
Chipboard: DCWV
Stamp and Ink: Stampin UP
Fabric Tape and Stickers: Making Memories
Butterfly: Heidi Swapp
Prisma Glitter: Hero Arts

Wow-lots to blog about

Wow, didn't realize how much I had to put on my blog until I started this entry. I made this card last night for a magazine submission. I had so much fun making this...took about 2 hours though. This large die cut is new, something I just got recently and didn't have time to play with it now. Its a Sizzix Die cut from Stampin Up...I used a Making Memories metal sheet. This die is fun...its big, which is nice. This card is 5.5" square. Had to make that size to accomodate the die cut. The purple cardstock was put through a Cuttlebug embossing folder that was first brayered with some White Stampin Up craft ink. Loved how it came out. The blue papers are brand new and so is Stampin Up scalloped border punch.
For the diecut, I inked it with the same white craft ink and then added white embossing powder. The ribbon is silky and I had a really hard time tying it nicely. That was driving me crazy.



I was cleaning out my scraproom last weekend and found this picture of Aydan that was waiting to be scrapped. Its from Dec 06, so its been in my to-do pile for a while. I did the same type of picture for Kendall in this entry. Actually I was planning on doing the same type of LO on Aydan's but then I saw Laura's LO here and it was a great LO to lift. So it started as a lift, but I measured the paper wrong on the bottom so I couldn't make the circles. I had these Lil Davis stars for a couple of weeks sitting on my desk just begging to be used. So I guess I'll call this "inspired by Laura". I had purchased this blue and white Doodlebug paper just 1 hour before I made this. The blue had a raised chenille finish and the red has a glittery raised finish. Used the die cute for project too...just cut it in half to fit the page. The glittery letters are American Crafts...they were a pain! When I went to peel them off the sheet the back of the chipbooard was shredding and they weren't sticking well at all. I had to put some of them through a xyron. When I was attaching the stars, I got stuck on how to adhere them. The edges are too narrow to use glue dots and I'm not a fan of liquid glue cause it warps the LO...so I decided to use some brads stuck in the middle.


Ozan painted my room last weekend...well half of it. Here is a sneak peek. I purchased some Ikea drawers, organizers, and finally my Expedit. We are in the middle of putting everything up. Can't wait for it all to be finished. The blue walls seem to be lighter in the picture than in real life...its actually pretty bold...its a turquoise color. This picture doesn't do it justice.

See this ladybug? This thing is attached to my front door. These suckers come out in the fall and they stick to your house, windows, and they bite. Aydan and I have these welts on our faces, legs, and hands. At first I couldn't figure it out but then I remembered these guys from last year. When they bite, you don't even notice it or even see them on you. But after a week these welts start to itch and swell. AND if that wasn't bad enough, they get in your house and stay all winter. You could be sitting down watching TV and then you see these guys flying around. Just weird seeing bugs flying in the house during the winter months. Go away!

Last weekend I was looking for something and came across these...my first stamps ever. My sister purchased these for me in the early 90's. I kept them at work to use for my students tests...I work in the radiology field so I really love these...love bones! LOL! Sounds weird I know. They were covered in black ink and i was able to clean them off.

And Kendall...Daddy went on her first Kindergarten field trip with her to a local apple farm. Of course I made him take the camera. He got a beautiful picture here. Funny because her teacher emailed the parents pics from the trip and there is this picture of Ozan sitting with all the little kids eating cheese sandwiches at a picnic table. So cute.

Had to share these. I put up this chalkboard in the kitchen for the kids this summer to count down the days to our vacations. I started writing down what the day of the week was. The kids keep me on my toes by reminding me when i haven't changed it. On this day Kendall wanted to write it. She now can spell and recite the spelling of all the days of the week. She wrote the first "Monday" and then Aydan wanted to write it too. He is so good with his letters.

Supplies Used:

"Spring Card"
Cardstock, Border Punch, Stamp, White Craft Ink, Die Cut: Stampin Up
Ribbon, Letter Stickers, and Metal Sheet: Making Memories
Embossing Powder: Ranger
Solvent Ink (White): Staz On Tsukineko
Sheer Butterfly: Heidi Swapp
Metal Gems: Mark Richards
Gems: Hero Arts

Embossing Plate: Cuttlebug

Foam Tape: Scotch"Blue Eyes"

Patterned Paper, Die Cut: Stampin UpEmbossed Paper, Scalloped Edges, Trim: DoodlebugGlitter Letters: American CraftsTransperancy Stars: Lil Davis

The Things She Does/Great News

Oh my goodness, I've got a cute story to share. The other evening I came down to my scraproom and walked into this...exactly as seen here in the pic....

The leftovers of Kendall being creative and crafty. Tracing her feet and coloring them in. I love it. Markers and socks left there...rements of her little project. Makes my heart go pitter patter. Earlier that day I saw some pen marks on the bottom of her feet...was wondering how she got them.

She carries my markers and blank paper everywhere and just draws all the time. Her kindergarten class even made a special craft area/table because of Kendall's passion.

Both of Ozan's parents are really good at drawing and painting...my sister is a graphic artist...lots of artists in the family. Maybe we have an artist in training here.

And this LO is really special to me. I was organizing my photos from last year putting them into folders by month. I came across this picture of my lab Chloe and noticed the date: July 1st, 2007. She died 6 days later. This was the last picture taken of her...she's even wearing her harness here. We only put that on her when we had visitors cause she would jump all over them. Then she died of metastatic cancer soon after. She must of been in pain but she never showed it.

Even though the LO has a sad subject, I wanted to make it somewhat happy...not too dark nor too bright. I went through some papers and just pulled out some 'in-between" colors. The chipboard trees were stained with Stampin Up Old Olive ink. I tried to use some shading too by inking the edges and using less ink in the centers. The branches were painted and then when they dried I used a Signo White Gel Pen to make the dots. The quote on the bottom right is from Hero Arts and states, "One of the Best Things in Life is a Good Friend". I miss her so much.

And one more great thing happened to me yesterday. I found out that one of my cards was accepted for publication for a magazine. I literally screamed...this is my first pub and I can't tell you how excited I am. The magazine should be out in January-ish. Woo hoo!!!!

Supplies Used for "Chloe"

PP: Creative Imaginations/My Minds Eye/Stampin Up

CS and Stampin Ink: Stampin Up

Black Solvent Ink: Staz On

Stamps: Hero Arts

Chipboard Trees: Maya Road

Chipboard Photo Corner: Rusty Pickle

Letter Stickers: American Crafts

Journaling Sticker: 7 gypsies

Stickles: Ranger

White Pen: Uniball Signo

Pumpkin Farm

So this was the first weekend that our favorite Pumpkin Farm opened up. It has been so warm and today was in the mid 70's so I decided that I would like to go one time in my life without being cold...plus we can avoid the crowds. This place is so nice...we went on a hay ride, saw pig races, went on some kiddie rides, walked through a pumkin patch. The kids just love it!

Here are just a few pics...I didn't photoshop these yet, just not in the mood. Beside the fact that my kids rarely look at the camera, they came out pretty good.

Ozan doesn't understand the white pumpkins...he honestly couldn't understand why I'd take a picture of them.

Aydan cracks me up. He was taking all the pumpkins that were on their side and sitting them back up. He did this last year too!

More stuff

I'm feeling a little slugish lately in life and feeling a little uninspired to scrap lately. Guess I go through that one in a while...then I'll usually make a bunch of cards and I feel better. Anyway, I started this LO last week, finished 3/4 way through, and then it just sat there. But I kept it on my desk, right in the middle, so it would force me to finish it. I like it, but there are a few things I would go back and change if I could. My handwriting is going up to the right, I'd put the center paper off the the side, and the thin blue trim would be closer to the center. But its OK. I love this pic of Kendall cause its totally her...with her markers, drawing ALL the time. Everywhere. Love the age of 5, so much easier and fun...less time outs, although we had a few tonight...LOL.
Used a ton of Making Memories stuff here!

Had this picture of Aydan printed out the same time as the one of Kendall...just wanted to get it finished. It was hard to find some patterned paper that would work due to all the different shades of red in the pic. I really was going for a clean look here.
Got to use some stamping and punching here...2 of my favorite techniques. The red scalloped circle is an Archivers note card...just cut off one side and tucked it under the picture...made a circle with my circle cutter for the cover and used my embossing tool to score the left side so it folds. Then used some super strong tape to hold it in place. I wanted to do some hidden journaling to Aydan...just didn't want anyone flipping through his book and see it unless I wanted them to.

The stars were stamped with Stampin Up Kiwi Kiss Ink on the matching cardstock (new 2008 in-colors). Used a bunch of pop dots too for dimension. I'm amazed how well my stamped stars fit in the 2" circle punches...which were stamped too with a Stampin Up background stamp.
The star stamps are Fontwerks. I cut them out and then took my Basic Grey file in the corners so the cuts look sharp.

And a quick card here. Saw this technique on You Tube and had to use it. Took a brayer loaded with Baja Breeze and rolled into my Cuttlebug embossing plate and put a sheet of old book paper in it. Used some new Stampin Up colors here (Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red) and some Basic Gray Cardstock. I also got to play with the scalloped edge punch, embossed the circles with a Stampin Up brass embossing plate, and used the matte pack for the pierced edges (love that tool).


Supplies Used:
U at Five:
Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Letter Stickers, Felt Stickers, Pink Trim, Grommets, Chipboard Flowers: Making Memories
Cardstock: Bazzill and Stampin Up
Blue Trim: (either May Arts or Prima...can't remember)
Chipboard Photo Corner: Bazzill
Pearls: Hero Arts
White Pen: Uniball Signo

I Want to Tell U:
Cardstock: Bazzill (blue/brown) and Stampin Up (red/green)
Stamps: Fontwerks
Punches: Fiskars, EK Success
Circle Cutter: Fiskars
Card Note: Archivers
Patterned Paper & Foam Letters: American Crafts
Trim Stickers: Making Memories
Brads: Hobby Lobby

Happy B-Day Card:
Cardstock, Dotted Brass Embossing Plate, Matte Pack (Piercing Plate Guide), Ink: Stampin Up
Embossing Folder (large flower): Cuttlebug
Buttons: Autumn Leaves
Ribbon: American Crafts
Stickers: Making Memories

Some layouts to share

So I completed 4, yes 4, layouts this weekend. It poured and poured and poured for 3 days straight. So I literally didn't leave the house the entire weekend. I had a bunch of pics printed so I was trying to catch up on my scrapbook to do list. My printer hasn't been printing right for the past 6 months, so I can't wait to get a new one!

This first one came out the best I think...actually I was stuck on how I was going to arrange all those pics so I turned to pagemaps. They had a sketch for this month's issue that was just perfect for this LO. The American Crafts foam letters really aren't a favorite of mine, but really worked out perfectly for this LO. The roundness of the letters, love it for the title.

Then I got stuck on which papers to use. Their uniforms are black, gray, and a bit of red. I didn't want to use those colors nor could I use a busy patterned paper with those busy pics. So I looked through my Scenic Route stash...they always have fun and bright paper, so SR it was! I took the Bazzill scalloped trim and used a star punch on everyother scallop and put a piece of the red paper under it. Then on the other scallops, I put a single dry embossed circle. Before I did the embossing I used a disappearing ink pen by American Crafts to mark the center. I've been using this tool a lot! Its a pen but its a tool to me!

Added some Making Memories star trim next to it for some added definition.

This next one is a lift of the amazing Jennifer McGuire. It is almost an exact lift-lifted it cause when I saw her LO, it reminded me of these pics that I wanted to scrap ages ago but forgot about. This is Aydan at 11 months old and he was pushing his face against the patio door and I was outside taking his pics of course. I posted some of these pics on my blog here but the quality of the pics were pretty bad, actually underexposed. I used Jessica Sprague's technique of fixing underexposed images and I think that they came out OK. Not perfect pics, but they came out much better. In Jennifer's LO, she cut paper strips, glued them and cut circles out of them. I decided to skip that step and use multipatterned paper. Just got the new Making Memories Hullabaloo line and it had some fun prints in it. She also used some metallic brads. I was looking through my stash and found these cute shaped ones from Making Memories. They are star shaped and arrow shaped...thought they would work cute on this LO. The only thing that is really bother me about this is that its lacking some powerful color...its kinda dull.

Now I've saved the worst for last. I do not like what I did with this LO hardly at all. This is from Aydan's first birthday party and this 2 pages LO was sitting in my to do folder for almost 2 years...shame, shame. But its done. I had the first page half done and it had the lime green paper, his monogram, and the word fetti stickers but I had these chipboard letters that I put puffy paint on and they looked so bad, I tore the paper off and replaced it with the Hullabaloo paper. I'm just happy to have it done! Oh, and if you look closely on his large pic, you'll see the date. Those are super tiny Doodlebug rub ons...had to use my tweezers for those!

Supplies Used:

Soccer Page

Cardstock & Embossing Plate: Stampin Up

Patterned Cardstock: Creative Imaginations for Bazzill

Scalloped Trim: Bazzill Edges

Patterned Paper & Die Cuts: Scenic Route

Foam Letters: American Crafts

Star Trim: Making Memories

Mini Letter Stickers: EK Success

Goof

Cardstock and White Pen: Stampin Up

Patterned Paper and Brads: Making Memories

Die Cut Plates: Quickutz and Sizzix

Distressing Ink: Ranger

One

Cardstock: Bazzill Bling

Black Patterned Paper: 7 Gypsies (my favorite PP of all times!)

Scalloped Paper: Creative Imaginations

Circle Patterned Paper, word fetti stickers, chipboard letters, diecuts: Making Memories

Journaling Sticker: American Crafts

Scalloped Circle Chipboard: Technique Tuesday

Circle Chipboard: Junkitz

Rub Ons: Doodlebug

random stuff

Last weekend I was looking through old photos...you know, the ones that were taken with something called "film". You remember, right? Anyway I came across this picture of me and my dog and the date on the back of the picture is January 2, 1999. That day was the biggest one-day snowfall in Chicago history. We got 18.5" in one calendar day! I believe it fell on a weekend, thank God cause our cars were literally trapped in our parking lot of our apartment complex.

You can see Ozan and the neighborhood guys back there shoveling parking spots out. Even though there are plows, they can't even get to you until later. The guys would shovel out one spot, move a car there then shovel another one out, etc. So during this a guy drives in the complex and sees them shoveling out the spot and took it...bad idea. If you were in downtown Chicago, people might hurt your car if you take their shoveled spot. Our "men" were mad so they just shoveled a bunch of snow on this guys car...he won't do that again...LOL.

But what I really love about this picture is seeing how happy Chloe was running through the snow. She LOVED the snow and she is only 2 years old here, so she is full of energy. She always came back inside the house with her face full of snow from digging her face in it. You can really see how deep the snow is, up to my knees-and it was still snowing all day after that. And my bulky LL Bean coat, yeah made me look fat but it kept me warm. Got rid of it this year so now I'm thinking how I need to get another one before winter comes our way :(

And something creepy about this pic...our neighbor that lived on the third floor, the older man who lived by himself took this picture of me from inside the building and I didn't see him take it. But he did give me copies and he always would call my pup up to his apartment for some treats so it wasn't too creepy...although we would hear electric saws up there and make jokes that he was cutting up bodies. I guess you get a little weird living in an apartment. Your imagination goes a bit crazy and we have fun joking around about things like that...

And to change the subject...my Kendall, such an artist lately. She literally has a piece of paper and her markers (no, actually she steals mine) with her all the time. She'll draw a crown or a butterfly and cut it out very carefully then she colors every square inch until its filled up. I love how the sun is coming from behind her in this picture. It was taken around 6:00 PM, so its perfect for some sunset pics. And those are my brand new Bic permanent markers, a huge package...I couldn't just say no. I really like to share with her.

And today I went to the grocery store after work and saw some yummy green taffy apples. My favorite autumn product! Kendall has been asking me for months now to make these with her. I don't know why I gave it to her AFTER bath...doesn't make sense since they're so sticky!

And this is a card I made this weekend. I think it took at least 2 hours to make...literally lifted it right off one of Kendall's shirts. The shirt is just so cute. I hand cut the tree and put it in my Cuttlebug (argyle plate), added clear embossing powder, shaded in some of the lines with my white signo pen and then added some Tim Holtz distressing ink to darken up the white a bit. The book paper is Jenni Bowlin, which I aged with the distressing ink as well (Old Paper color). I stitched the leaves and around the tree by hand. The curved diecut was cut out from a template and also ran through the "bug". The owl stamp is by Hero Arts and I used some Prismacolored Pencils and took some odorless mineral spirits to it. I had so much fun...lots of fun scrapbooking techniques here! Oh and the letter stamps were from the $1 section at Jo-Anns. What a steal!

New Organization

I've been reorganizing some of my areas of my scrap room over the last month or so. I still have a lot to do, hopefully this winter I can paint and add some cabinets or an Ikea Expedit. So for now, I'm just trying to make it easier to find my SB embellishments, etc. Nothing really matches...I'm so eclectic in my style that I tend to mix a little of my favorite things.

This is my most recent change...I had most of my ribbon and trim on doll pins stuffed in a jar. Then I decided that I wanted them open in a basket so I could move them around. I found this fabric one at Michael's and its cute. OK, it was a good idea but still, I had to dig...

Then I was walking through Hobby Lobby and saw some Cropper Hopper ribbon cards but they only had one package left. I purchased those and started wrapping my ribbon around them. Took me a week to do here and there...this is the result:

If you trim the ends of the cards just a bit, they'll fit in perfectly. Since I ran out of the ribbon cards, I made my own from white cardboard that I got from work. They come in our xray film packaging and they are much sturdier than the CH ones. This took a lot of time but now I can see all my pretty ribbon together. I tried to keep the colors together...and since I like to know the name brands of the ribbons, I wrote on the card under each one what brand it was. There are 33 ribbon cards in there and each one has about 8-10 ribbons or trims. I love the look and ease of this.

This is how I used to story my "premium" trims (candy jar on left). The really nice ones that you can get by the yard at the scrap store. I put those on the cards as well.

My card supplies such as premade cards, envelopes and card embellishments were in this skinny sterilite drawer. I took those out and hi-jacked a basket from Kendall's room. It takes up space on this table but I don't use this table to work on, it usually has a bunch of stuff on it anyway.

Recently I went to Menards to get some more of these pantry storage racks. I have them in my basement pantry and one day I was wondering if my Making Memory jars would fit. They fit perfectly front and back and side to side. The two racks together can hold 24 MM jars, I decided to use one row to hold my American Crafts embellies. I don't have a lot of wall space in my small room so I decided to put it under my embellishment center. My American Crafts ribbon were taken off their spools last year and put on office rings. I just punched a hole at one end and fed it through. They have a home hanging on the side of embellishment center.

And here is a full view...

How I store my chipboard products that come in a flat package. They used to all be in the larger box, but I was losing the smaller items. I decided to put those in the smaller box. Both of those boxes are from Michaels.

OK, hope you enjoyed the tour. Have a great weekend.

Happy Anniversary Ozan

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary to my husband Ozan!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Stampin Up and Archivers (scalloped card)

Journaling page, metal tag, and Ribbon: Making Memories

Transperancy paper: Hero Arts

Rub On and Vinyl Stickers: American Crafts

Scallop Trim: KI Memories

Stamp: Stampin Up

Ink: Versamark

Flock: Stampendous

Stickles: Ranger

have a great weekend!

Color Inspiration 20

Another inspiration challenge from Kristina Werner's website. I don't have the in colors yet so I substituted those with some other. Everything here is Stampin Up except the ribbon, scalloped trim, staples, and metal gems. Used staples to make the stem of the flower and used pop dots on every other one. Also used some heat embossing on the dotted background stamp. This card was inspired by my 5 year old daughter. She drew a cute picture with little circle flowers across the page and I loved it! And I couldn't find any light pink cardstock (what is wrong with me?) so the pink "paper" is taken from a package of scrapbook tag sheets from KI Memories. Isn't that crazy?

Due to our terrible rainy weather I had to take this picture in my scraproom so the pic isn't perfect but it'll do. TFL!

Happy Birthday Ozan

Tomorrow, September 4th is Ozan's birthday. Happy birthday honey! And then Friday is even a bigger day-our ten year anniversary! Our plans? Going out for pizza after work...but we are going to the place where we had our dinner rehearsal and right down the road is where we had our outdoor wedding. May take some pics with the kids as well. Made this card using lots of stamps and embossing. I was going to make a small card...then changed my mind. Then I cut the paper wrong, so I went back to small. Make sense???

I also made this card for one of my co-workers who is going down to Florida in a few weeks to get married. We are throwing a surprise shower for her at work. I used my Stampin Up spritzer and a chocolate chip marker to make the spattering on the background.

Supplies used:

Birthday Card

Cardstock, Wheel Stamp, and Ink: Stampin Up

Stamps: Sassafras Lass and Fontwerks

Ribbon: American Crafts

Metal Tag: Lasting Impressions (these are old school!)

Love Card

Cardstock, Ink, Ribbon, Slit Punch, Spritzer, Chocolate Chip Marker: Stampin Up

Scalloped Card: Archivers

Stamps: Stampin Up (sentiment) and Hero Arts (heart)

Pearl Gems: Hero Arts

Blue Marker: Copic

Glitter glue (Stickles): Ranger

Stick Pin: Michaels