Layouts

Hi, just a quick stop to share some layouts. The first one below was for a Bella Blvd Mother's Day contest...totally forgot to post this. All the PPs and Chipboard letters are bella. Used some AC and Jenni Bowlin Letter stickers, lawn fawn stamps, and my typewriter. Loved how this one came out!

Been dying forever to make a "You are my Sunshine" layout This one took FOREVER to make. Used my silhouette for the title (American Crafts PP) and the sun. The sun was cut on Bo-bunny paper. I cropped it because I was going to put it in a corner. Then I changed my mind and put it in the center. I layered it with another piece in orange cardstock.

Echo Park Paper was used for the strip of houses paper and the letter stickers. PTI die cuts and felt for the clouds. And a badge to finish (AC?).

The next two were inspired by Nichol Magourik. I loved how she used the silhouette die cuts as the base of her layout to make into quadrants! You can see that layout here.

Used a lot of October Afternoon papers...worked so well with the back to school theme!

For the title, I cut out my letter shapes that I created in the silhouette and then used my studio calico stamps. Also used some studio wooden shapes on both layouts that were misted with blue.

Had some leftover KI memories red circle lace paper and I used that to layer a pattered paper in a quad. The calendar was made with a unity stamp for Bella Blvd right over the patterned paper.

The last one was made for a My Minds Eye sketch contest...I never turned this in on time. Pretty simple page...I created the leaves with some grunge paper, my old fashioned sizzix dies, and some embossing powder. Hard to see but the leaves curled a bit with the embossing gun...love the way they turned out! I usually don't like dark colored PP like this, so I added some yellows to brighten it up. thanks for looking!

Layouts and some digi stuff :)

Wow, I pretty much gave up on blogging...just so busy with life in general. I was noticing that my stack of layouts were getting pretty big. Usually I take a pic of my finished product and put it away in the album so I'm slacking! Aydan's birthday was about 6 weeks ago. I wanted to give the kids a favor but not a bag of plastic junk. I purchased giant candy bars and created my own label for it in photoshop using some digital element.
And I made this thank you card in photoshop and had it printed on notecards through Walgreens. I had Aydan write a thank you note for 3 different shots. Unfortunately he doesn't like to pose very well for the camera, but this was the best I could get.

Last month as you know was the 10th anniversary of 9-11. I wasn't involved in it directly but I'm a health care worker at a trauma hospital in Chicago. We were on stand-by in case there was an attack here. Used my silhouette to make the skyline twice, in silver and black. Its very dark and simple and I almost typed it, but thought that the handwriting would make it more personal.

And just a few more random layouts that I did months ago...I told you I was way behind.

This is a 2 page layout and I based it on a layout from Kelly Purkey in a special issue of CK. She did a Chicago layout of the skyline. I just loved that idea so I used my Silhouette to make these trees of our visit to the nearby Morton Arboreteum. Its museum created by the founder of Morton Salt. Its 1500 acres of trees from around the world and it has a lot of bike trails and things for kids. We had a great time!

had a ton of fun making this and I apologize for the terrible pics. I got some great pics from this trip though.

Layouts

Still behind again in life...made these layouts this summer and I'm a bit behind on posting.

Just a quick post here with a few layouts. This is for Jen Gallacher's August's stretch your sketch class. I saw the challenge on Laura's blog and was definately inspired by her take on the sketch. The empty circles are a great way to play with some fun embellies.

This layout and the next two were made with 3-4 pieces of Bella Blvd patterned paper and I still have some left over. The placement of the pics on this layout is another inspiration by Laura on her Oreo Cookie layout. I loved the way she staggered the pics on the bottom and is one that I have used a few times. You can't tell in the pic but I put some Ranger Glossy accents on the baseballs after I punched them out from the paper strip.

I made the baseball from my Silhouette. For the word "Chicago", I opened my Chicago skyline file in my silhouette. It had the word Chicago across the buildings, so I just removed the word and cut it out. Perfect.

Used Bella Blvds "Making the Team" papers and was able to get 3 sport themed layouts. Both kids are in baseball and we went to the Sox game this summer. This line is perfect!

Thanks for stopping by!

Silhouette Tutorial

Ever since I got my Silhouette last Christmas, I haven't been able to stop tinkering with it :) And anytime I get a chance to read tutorials, I'll try to absorb everything I can. Here is a tutorial for you so you can cut out shapes for your stamps. Ever stamp on paper and then spend forever trying to cut it out of the paper? Well, with this tutorial, you can skip that step. Here is how you can create your own shapes. Sorry if the pictures are small, you can click on each to see larger:
1. Either stamp your images in a dark (black) ink on white paper and scan it. Or if they are clear stamps, you can scan the transparency. Open your Silhouette program and go to File>Open>(open your scan). You should see something like this below:
2. Select the trace button (blue and yellow near the upper right side). Select the first box in the palette "Select trace area". Draw a box around the shapes you want to create. Sometimes you can select a group and sometimes you may have to do one at a time. Just play around to see what works for you. After you trace the box, it will highlight in yellow like this below:

3. With the box still highlighted, select the "trace outer edge" button. The yellow will turn red. See below:

4. Now drag your scanned image off the tray. I would also suggest you select the scan and delete it. If you have any stray red lines, you can highlight and delete or use the eraser tool on the left side of the board.

5. What you will have left is the outline of the actual stamp. But we want to make the cut just slightly larger so we have a small edge. right?

6. So to do that we select the cuts:

7. Now select the "offset" button (to the left of the trace button). Follow the steps in the arrows below from top to bottom. when you get to the third arrow, you are going to adjust the size of the "white edge". I like to use .1 but use whatever you choose. Select "apply" when done. 8. Now we have to delete the inner cuts. Just select each and delete. 9. Save your cuts to your library and you are ready to go. I title mine by the manufactuer and then the name of the stamp. I have done this to a large number of my stamps already and I'm just loving it. If you look at the previous post, there is a card where I used this method to create shapes for my letter stamps.

Remember, the more you tinker with it, the better you get. Hope this tutorial helps :)

Hey, just wanted to share some projects I made this summer. I keep thinking that I haven't done much but then I find pics of my projects that I totally forgot about. I made this care using my silhouette, scraps, and stamps...that's it.
The sun shape was made using my Silhouette. It was a single piece (white cardstock) but I wanted to layer it. I need to do a tutorial (someday!) on some tricks I use but basically I duplicated the sun, then erased the inner lines on the second so I had just a solid background. I scanned my Studio Calico letter stamps and made a shadow cut so I could stamp my letters right on the cut pieces. Such a great way to use your letter stamps for titles and cards.
This album is to hold Aydan's birthday cards...not only for one year, but for as many that will fit. Used chipboard from Ranger to make the covers. It was too narrow so i added a 2" strip to each side, painted it, then covered up the seams with the cheveron paper strips. Those and the title were made using my Silhouette as well. I took of those brown buttons, just seemed too small.
Added some holes on the sides for the rings and there you go, a quick album that only takes a short time to make and all your cards are filed away. This would be a great idea for showers and weddings as well.

This layout above and below were make from CKC St Louis. My friend Laura was teaching some CK courses and these are just two examples of the layouts. When I came home I added pics and some other embellies. Super quick way to get some pages done!

Love to watch him sleep

So I saw THIS LAYOUT by Jamie Warren on pinterest this morning. I knew right then and there that I had to lift it for this picture of Aydan. Took this picture of him right in the middle of the night and was crossing my fingers that the flash wouldn't wake him. I knew I was going to go with a monochromatic theme and was planing on using white. Was rummaging through some old basic grey (which I have a TON of and hardly use) and decided to put a bit of a shabby look to it.

I used a Heidi Swapp mask with some distress inks on the patterned paper (BG Marjolaine line). Love the way it turned out. I kept the bottom border of the paper like Jamie did and was nervous at first because it can look very sloppy if not done correctly. But I gotta say that I'm pretty happy how it turned out.

Well thanks for looking. Anyone else a pinterest fan???

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper, Chipboard Letters, Letter Stickers, and Journaling Stickers: Basic Grey

Butterflies: Making Memories

Gafer Tape: 7 gypsies

Folder: Rusty Pickle

Border Strip, Jute, and Index Tab: Creative Imaginations

Stamps: Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday

Mask: Heidi Swapp

Distress Ink and Staples: Ranger

Rub Ons: 7 gypsies and KI Memories

Wood Circles: Maya Road

Metal Button (Making Memories?)

Out of it!!

Whew, I've been busy and tired. No particular reason. I guess with summer here, we are busier and when I get free time, I just want to lounge and watch some TV, I've been scrapbooking here and there, just haven't posted in a super long time. I started an Maya Road mini album, got particially through that and just wanted to put that to the side and get some pages done. When it comes to creativity, you have to do what you feel like and not what's an order (unless you are a designer and have a deadline, lol). So first up is my most recent creation, photobooth pics from my (sssh, 25th) HS reunion:

Had so much fun with these pics! My reunion committee got this photobooth, props and all, and it was the hit of the party. I couldn't wait to scrap them! But placing strips of photos like that was something I've never done before. I wanted to make it school-like so thats why I used the cork, typewriter, and binder clips. I had no problem choosing the papers, since we have a lot of color in the pics that go perfect with this JBS paper.

Used my lawn fawn poloroid camera stamp on that blue AC paper (its Christmas paper but it worked perfetly!) and colored in spots with pencils. My friend Wes, who's in the pics on the right strip, LOVES polaroids so it worked out perfectly. Originally I had it stamped on a yellow circle and I just couldn't find a good place for it since its a large stamp. Tossed that idea. After I stamped it on the blue paper, I thought of the idea to make it look like a poloroid pic. So I placed it on the white CS and used my thin sharpie pen and ruler. FYI, yes there is a polaroid picture stamp in the stamp kit but it was much too big.

I had so much fun using my stamps on my page, and they are so popular right now with scrappers...I really want to use stamps more on my pages.

Oh, and get this...I was going to use black embossing powder on my page and I didn't have any! Ran out a while ago and never purchased it. I literally have a dozen colors of embossing but no black...hanging my head in shame. LOL!

Creative Scrappers Sketch 161

So today is my last day of my term with Creative Scrappers. I'm so happy that I got such a great chance to work with a group of talented gals and I got a ton of scrapping done ;) So here is the sketch:

Awesome sketch! And here's my take on it!

Love this because you could use those squares for pics, papers and embellies, or both! Had a blast with this one.

For the small squares, I used a photomat file from my Silhouette Library. When I opened the file I "ungrouped" the shapes and selected one square to measure the opening. Then I adjusted the size to make each square roughly 2.25". My pics came out a wee bit smaller than that so I mounted each pic on a piece of white cardstock after I rounded the corners to match the frame. Easy Peasy. Then I searched my scraproom for the perfect embellies. I love using stars but in all honesty, I've used a lot of my stash. Found these old AC chipboard ones in a small container hidden in my room. I added a few corduroy buttons from Stampin Up and some twine to give them more life. The background paper(sassafrass lass) is quite busy and it can be hard to use paper like that. Decided to give it a try since its so cute, using the solid cardstock really tones it down....well, a little bit at least.

So thank you to Kristine at Creative Scrappers for letting me join your team! Please check out their blog for the other designers take on the sketch!

Random Stuff

hey everyone! hope you are all enjoying your holiday weekend! I'm getting ready for a night our with my husband...something that is rare for us ,lol!! Just stopping by to say hi and to show some random stuff going on around here.

We had some baby bunnies in our yard. Caught this pic of them...they look like a row of peeps! So cute!

here are the bunnies while they were still in the nest...

I've been slowly working on redoing my living dining area. Been looking for a long time for a centerpiece. Went to Michaels and got these flowers and vases. My walls are gray and the room has white and turqoise accents.

Printed out this 16x25 print from the eighteen 25 blog at costco into a frame I already had.

I made these buckets for Aydan's kindergarten class for their graduation. The buckets are from Target. The name plate was made with my cuttlebug, Stampin Up Top Notz die, and quickutz magnetic paper. Used random stickers, which I ended up gluing on so they wouldn't fall....then put in some summer theme gifts.

About a month ago, we got the kids a trampoline! Such a great way to get their energies out!

Kids started baseball....

I love dugout pics ;)

Aydan is more interested in playing with the chalk than running from third to home...

This girl scored her first run...

And a few quick Mother's Day cards ...

Spring came in went in late April to early May...