layouts and some V-day stuff

Have a couple of layouts to share. This layout was from a sketch by my friend Laura Vegas in CK's Tip and Tricks Magazine plus she had a challenge on the Making Memories Blog to attach elements to your page using ribbon.
I took these pics of Kendall when she was about 5 or 6 months using old fashion black and white film.
A close up of the ribbon and journaling. Used Glimmer Mist on the journaling tag, then I added the journaling with my typewriter :) and added some more rub-ons and added some pink chalk ink to the edges.

Here's a small tutorial on creating the bowed ribbon. I didn't measure the ribbon but I'm sure I used about 24". I would suggest to not cut off the ribbon until you reach the end.

Attach the ribbon with a dry adhesive until you reach the area where the middle of your bow should land.

Place a glue dot on top of the ribbon where the left portion of the bow will fall.
Fold the left side and push on glue dot...repeat on other side. Add a glue dot under the ribbon on top of the paper, in between the ribbon folds.
Add a piece of string over the glue dot.
Tie the string and add another glue dot on top of the knot. Add your button and tie the string through! Hope that was clear!
And another one of Maui and her first bath. Used the new Making Memories Flutter paper heere. Got the 8x8 muti-pack, which I love! I mixed it with some MM Vintage Findings.
I added some Key Lime Glimmer mist to the white fabric tag.

I'm a little late here posting for Valentine's Day but thought I'd still share. Made this frame for Ozan to put on his desk at work. He is totally supportive of my craft and I know that he'll display this proudly.
And the card that I made to go with it...thanks for looking.

Happy Birthday Kendall and finally, a layout :)

Last week we celebrated Kendall's 7th birthday! We went out for dinner and then home for red velvet cake and some gifts, including a little stereo for her room. She's really been into music lately. I got that adorable gift wrap from Ikea and its double sided...oh, and I made that card there, even brought out some Utee to make it. Then this week, I got sick and was home a couple of days. I did manage to finally work on a page and I have another in progress here.
A close up of the journaling from my typewriter...yes, I said typewriter. I've been dying for one since like forever. Finally got a last second bid on one from Ebay for $11. Score! Its by Royal.
I purposely wanted that brand since they are compact and its easy to get the ribbon. I didn't even have to change the ribbon when I got it, still works. Tonight I have plans on making some V-day things...we'll see how far I get. Just so tired from being sick. And I have bad laryngitis...you know how hard it is being a mom to two little ones when you can hardly talk? Not fun at all.

This pic below was my original page but I thought the flowers were too heavy and the bottom was too empty. I was purposely trying to go for some white space but I think I overdid it.

Tried, I said "tried" to get some pics of my kids so I could print it and put it in a frame for Valentines Day. This was the best one. So hard in the winter to get good pics. Aydan looks so grown up here, I can't believe he'll be 5 this summer.

And would you like a tip to get your kids to look at the camera? Don't say cheese..tell them to say "smelly poopy butt" or some crazy phrase that kids like. LOL. I also hold my hand on top of my head and ask them me how many fingers I'm holding up. Works for me.

And yes, Maui, my pain-in-the rear-but-I-love-her-still dog. This girl started digging under my bushes in the backyard and came out all muddy. Not a good pic. Took this through our back door. Ozan and I were just looking at each other like "what are we going to do with her".

...ended up in the bathtub. LOL.

Supplies:
Cardstock & Border Trim: Bazzill
Patterned Paper & Thickers: American Crafts
Cork: Karen Foster
Flowers, Staples, Buttons, Leaves, Chipboard: Making Memories
Ribbon: Paper Source
Wood Bird: K&Co
Chalk: Pebbles
Transperancy: Daisy D's

365 is done!!

So I finally, finally finished up my 365 album. I had a few filler pics to print and I had to fill the spots on the front and last page. I was so stuck and I searched and searched for ideas but couldn't find any. I had kept most of the index prints from Costco so I cut them up in slices and just pasted them to the cards from the kit...kinda like a summary. I also journaled the front and explained what this album is and added the date, my name, and then added the 2009 stickers. The pics might be kind of cheesy but its done. If I see something better, I can always change it.
So glad I did it but will be taking a break this year.
Next year I'd like to do the digital version of it.

The pic above and below are from the first page.

The one above is from the back page...the one below are my last two pics of the year.

A chipboard coaster I made for Valentines Day...Used Bo Bunny pink dotted cardstock, Hero Arts Stamps, SU Ink, Ranger Embossing Powder, and the Slice Calendar Card for the title. That Calendar card is one that I thought I wouldn't use but seem to go to a lot.

And Maui, who is nearly 4 months old now. She is a beast in everyway. I love this monster!

The kids were having fun with their tunnels and they put one up on the love seat. Maui ran up it to the top of the couch. It was so adorable.

Thanks for looking...

A framed collage

Long time, no post...oh my!! I had to quickly share this. I've been dying to make a collage in a frame to hang in my house. I've been learning bit by bit from my good friend Laura, who is a professional collager! She emailed me some tidbits and advice about making these in photoshop and I was so excited to get started but then my computer broke.

So Laura posted some awesome info HERE on her blog and then she was featured in the CK blog for an educational step by step into collaging (you can see that entry HERE). When it comes to PSing, I have a grade of about a C-. I can do basic stuff but I always had a problem with resizing, so Laura gave me some hints and it just opened my eyes! Then after seeing the CK blog, I learned from her how to copy and paste the pics by using the rectangular marque tool. I always had a problem moving my pics on my canvas and that hint really helped. Make sure your pics all have a 300 dpi. Super important or your pics will not be the correct ratio to the canvas.

I made my collage on an 8.5x11 canvas and resized my pics to 2" wide by 2.5" tall. For the background I used Contact cork paper (from Michael's) and stuck it right to the back part of the frame. I found this frame is a closet that I was cleaning...good find!

The year and the photocorners were made using the Slice. Perfect tool since everything needs to be flat here. I used repositionable adhesive on everything here so that I can take everything off and replace the photo and embellishments next year with. Then I'll take this photo sheet and scrap it...probably using everything here. Thanks for looking.

Supplies Used:

11x14 frame (Hobby Lobby?)

Cork Paper: Contact

Patterned Paper and Flash Card: October Afternoon

Letter Stickers, Slice Machine (Studio Findings card): Making Memories

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year my friends!! I'm back to work now but I had a wonderful time off with my family...pretty much we did nothing! That's the BEST!! Even left the house a mess, which I'm regreting now...so much to do around here so I spent today getting caught up. LOL.
Had a ton of fun scrapping and crafting. I have a growing list of layouts that I want to complete but I think my list was growing faster than I could keep up with. I don't scrap in order, just scrap what I feel like doing. I think that's the most effective way to work on your layouts. I also believe in lifting and using sketches. Honestly I get so frustrated trying to figure out how to make a page that I lose the fun and joy of putting it together. One other thing I just realized lately is to find a manufactuer line that you really like, or even a paper pack and just leave it on your scraptable for an extended time. I purchased the Cosmo Cricket "Girl Friday" crafting pack a few weeks back and I wanted to use it so I kept it on my scrap table for two weeks and just kept using it. It felt so nice to use some pretty paper and not to hoard it. Also saved me time from thumbing through all my papers. I think for 2010 I am going to try and restrain myself from buying too much paper, especially open stock sheets. I'd rather save that for paper packs that are really gorgeous. Anyway, enough of me typing out all of my random thoughts.

My third layout of Maui...I decided to used all 8.5"x11" pages on her. She's 12 weeks old now and I swear she looks bigger every morning. She already grew out her puppy collar. LOL. It took me a couple of days to get this picture of her because she likes to chase my camera strap...plus she never sits still when she's awake.

We just love it when she sits on one hip like that with her legs stretched out forward. Why I got the title "tripod". Used my Girl Friday line here and some Glimmer Mist in Pearl sprayed on some of the embellies.
I made the little green flowers by punching flower shapes, cutting a slit in them, and gluing the ends together. That's what makes them more 3D-like. Add some Hobby Lobby Pearl brads for the centers. And the sketch was from the "Got Sketch Blog" but I modified it for this sized LO.
And finally had to make a layout about myself. The kids are getting older now and I need to add some more layouts about me and my husband. I used the Cosmo Cricket paper again and added an old Heidi Swapp frame and added random journaling stickers on it.

I used another 3D flower that I made and put it on top of a handmade bow...I got the instructions on how to make the bow from Scrap A Little. Its a really cute site. You can find the instructions here. And there's a ton of other great paper crafting tutorials there and there are also some great sketches...and they're in color! The cut-out leaves and the fancy photo corner were made with the Slice Vintage Findings card.

And a LO about Aydan growing. The picture on the left was taken on 10/08 and the other one on 11/09. He's literally a head taller! I used Cosmo Cricket "Boyfriend" line of PP here. I did make a mistake though, and I was so ticked. The yellow cassette paper is the backside of the blue/green paper in the middle. I cut the blue paper without looking at the back and then realized that the cassettes were now going up and instead of across. So now whenever I have double sided paper, I will be more aware of looking at the other side before I cut. LOL! I used the slice to make the star and then I embossed it in my Cuttlebug and rubbed it with Champagne Versamark ink. And the vinyl AC letters for the title? Those are my very favorite letters to use ever!! I was at Hobby Lobby and they were half off so I figured that I'd stock up. Well, when I got home I forgot that I had stocked up last time so now I have 6 packages of those letters so if you see them on my pages over and over again, you'll know why.

And speaking of Hobby Lobby, they now sell online! And on their site, they stated that shipping is free over $25! How cool is that? They have the best kraft cardstock ever (used on every LO here)! Better than Bazzill or Stampin Up. They sell it in 12x12 and 8.5x11 and they sell cards in envelope sets in the same kraft paper. You must try it if you haven't.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!! Just wanted to share some pics...I'm on vacation for couple of weeks so I've been doing a lot of crafting and puppy playing. This past week I made a couple of layouts, some cards, and also some paper ornaments. Lots of fun in my scraproom this week!

One thing I added to my house this year were mini Christmas trees for the kids rooms. I wanted to get Kendall a pink tree but couldn't find one. So I got this cute one in white and Aydan got a traditional with some giant white lights on them. Got everything from Target. Its hard to see but i used pink ribbon to hang up Kendalls ornaments.

Last year I purchased these blue and red ornaments on clearance after the holidays and used some Gin X rub ons to add some sentiments. Hung these up in my living room...

Woke up yesterday to quite an ice storm that we had...we've had a lot of snow and a lot of rain so its made traveling quite difficult.

I've been working on these paper Christmas trees since early November. Used the Jolly by Golly line from Cosmo Cricket added some Mica Powder and made a 3D star with my Slice and Fa La La card for the top.

This Christmas countdown calendar is from house of 3. Just printed up the digital papers and followed the directions. Took about an hour to make.

Used the Jolly by Golly papers again here to make some ornaments. This birdhouse is wooden and was brought home by my son last year from school. It had one crayon mark on it. I really didn't know what to do with it, so I covered it in paper. Also added a Doodlebug frill to the edge of the roof and some more Mica Powder. I gotta say that I've found a new passion in paper crafting!!

And some more ornaments that were inspired by the Maya Road Blog. They had a cute garland there and I just had to try some paper folding techniques. Used Cosmo Cricket paper again but this time I used the Girl Friday line with the Jolly by Golly Chipboard. Used the Fa La La card again to make the snowflakes and the Noteworthy card to make the square bracket shapes. Sorry there's some sun glare on the last two pics...

This card is for someone close to me who is grieving over the death of a friend. The journaling stamp is Hero Arts...just used some AC embossing powder and colored pencils to it. The sentiment stamp is from Stampin Up.

And how about a puppy update? Maui is 10 weeks old now...she is 14 lbs. Amazing how she's doubled in size in 4 weeks. She is certainly full of energy. Her favorite thing to do is to steal our stuff and hide it under the Christmas tree. It almost reaches the ground so I have to army crawl under there to get my socks, shoes, kids toys, etc.

And a LO about her....she certainly gives me cute pics to scrap :) Used the CC Girl Friday line again here and some other old elements...see the bottom right there? Thats a "scrapbook window" from Chatterbox. Old school, right? LOL! Thanks for looking.

Supplies

Baby Sleeping

PP: Cosmo Cricket

CS: Hobby Lobby

Scalloped Edge: Bazzill

Puffy Letters: American Crafts

Paper Clip, Felt Flowers, Paper Flowers, Chipboard "M", Clear Frame, and brads: Making Memories

Definition Rub On: Jenni Bowlin

Felt: Fancy Pants Design

Journaling Tag: Jellibean Soup

Scrapbook Window: Chatterbox

Dymo label maker and Ranger Glossy Accents Glue

Our New Baby

Meet Maui, our new lab puppy. We got her 2.5 weeks ago and my life hasn't been the same since. I mean that in a good and bad way. LOL. She is sweet as anything and gives lots of love. BUT its like having a toddler around. She gets into everything, poops and pees a ton, and constantly has to be watched.

These pics are the first day we brought her home...she weighs 7 lbs at 6 weeks old. So cute.


Kendall has been asking for a puppy forever. I can't even explain how excited she was...the look on her face was priceless! It just melted my heart!
5 days after we got her, which was the day after Thankgiving, she got real sick with a virus. We had to rush her to her vet because she had terrible diarrhea. It really scared us silly. She was there for 6 hours and they pumped her up with IVs and some antibiotics. Poor girl lost 1.5 lbs. She's OK now but for a while we were on pins and needles worried about her.
This is her at the vets office when we went to see her in the afternoon. She looked a whole lot better than she did 3 hours before that. Its amazing how much better IVs can turn someone around. I'm so glad she's OK.

Here she is resting at home with her little IV access in so she could go back in for more fluids . They bandaged it up (complete with a butterfly) to keep it protected and even added some bad tasting stuff so we wouldn't take it out. Well, later that night she was feeling better and took out her IV. LOL.
And just a quick layout I wanted to share. Almost everything here is from Making Memories Vintage Findings Collection. The music paper is from a vintage children's music book, which incidently I found at a resale shop while we waiting for Maui to be released from the vet.