"Tied" LO challenge for Scrapbook Bingo

I am a member of Yahoo! Groups Scrapbook Bingo. Amanda and the girls ROCK! We have all kinds of games, virtual crops and a weekly challenge. This week's challenge is to tie things in your LO. Okay, it is only one thing, but it is cute. This is another pagemap.com LO, just tweeked a bit.

I was going to go with pink as my base color, but these are not ultra-girly girls...they are Girl Scouts. I used bright colors to feature the girls and finally got brave enough to try out the felt ribbon I got in a group buy. I really like the effect. To keep it from looking too bulky, I cut the felt ribbon in half with my cutter. I think it makes it seem more balanced.

I have another LO to share, but it will have to wait...it is entered into a contest for pagemaps.com. Here's hoping...

Thanks for looking!

April

Stamp Something Faux Challenge

Here is my contribution to this weeks Stamp Something challenge! This week is faux something...I made a faux quilt (paper) with faux stitching (drawn in). I also used liquid glass for on the year tag for a faux glass. I have been dying to try the paper quilt, but I am less than happy with the result. I have a close-up of the "stitching" which was done with a white gel pen and a ruler. I wonder if it would work better with fewer pics so it lets the background show more. Again, no stamping...shame on me! Hhhhhmmm...maybe another try in the future?

Maggie's Halloween

This was last Halloween...I am beginning to see light at the end of the scrapping tunnel! Unfortunately, there are more starting to build up...ahhh, if only I could spend all day scrapping. This is a CASE of a pagemaps.com July 2004 LO. I made the embellishments as 2x2 squares and the same directions as the ones for the SWAP that I posted a few posts ago. The title block is all in rub-ons...murder on the hands when you have carpal tunnel! LOL Journaling was done on the computer...used Waltograph and columns setting on the word doc. I love Walt's handwriting and I thought it was so appropriate for our Mouseketeers! Enjoy...

Disney wedding card

I just finished this card for my BF's little brother. He is getting married next week and they are Disney people too and are registered at WDW and are going for their honeymoon so I made a Disney themed card. (They love "The Nightmare Before Christmas" but I couldn't find that much inspiration! LOL) I cut the circles at 1.5 inches from the George cartridge and the ears at 2 inches from the Mickey Font cart. I also cut Minnie's bow from the Mickey cart at 1.5 (Minnie would be 1.5 inches so the bow is proportional to her size.) and cut a veil from Paper Dolls on vellum. I chalked around the pink edge and the cheeks on the wedding couple. I also used Stickles (for the first time) on the bride's hat and groom's bow. I stamped "Happily Ever After" from the Greetings Galore Stapin' Up! set. Inside it reads: "1 bride/groom ears $30, 1 pin trading set $10, 2 park snacks $10, 1 lifetime of happiness...priceless. Congratulations on starting your happily ever after at the Happiest Place on Earth!" Thanks for looking!

Camp

This is another one from pagemaps.com. I am finally catching up on DD's book...this is her first trip to camp last summer. I think this page is a good way to use one of those stray papers that you can never seem to find a use for. I love the argyle, but have not been able to really put it to good use...until now! Girl Scout camp - what better use? I have really been trying to get away from using only themed paper...you know what I mean - you would think that I would be using nature themed or some kind of background paper...maybe trees, animals, etc. I was trying to let the horse be a focus becuase it was such a big deal to her to ride for the first time. I think it has a great effect and doesn't overwhelm the photos. The only new items I am trying on this page is rub-ons and photo holders. The metal photo hinges are nice but I don't know how often I will use them. I love the look of rub-ons, but have not mastered making them look good and usually end up tearing it somehow. This page uses the "amp" from Camp. I am also playing with printing journalling on the computer more and actually trying to journal more effectively. Thanks for looking!

Back to Scrapping!

I finally got off my duff and had the kids birthday pics taken...they are both Feb. kids but I always stall to see what the spring school pics look like. Of course, they NEVER come out, so it is off to the photog. These LO's are lifted from pagemaps.com. DD's page is taken from a layout that uses a ring of flowers but I switched it to stars. I did stamp yellow starts on the yellow for a little interest. (We aren't too flower crazy around here. Maybe it is because I am not obsessed with primas like so many are buzzing about. That is another embelly I will have to break down and try!) DS's page turned out cute. I had these two sheets of paper left and couldn't find a way to use them. I really like how bright it is...just like him! Anyway, there is no real formula here...I just took the colors from the pictures. Thanks for looking.

New Blog - Stamp Something!

The newest challenge blog sounds like fun, so I decided to play along. Okay, they are called "Stamp Something" and my page doesn't have anything stamped...shame on me! I love this LO. This was my first try at using a LO from CTMH's Imagine book. I thought I would throw myself in the fray and show it off. Oh well, if I am disqualified! Be sure to check out "Stamp Something" at http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com/. Thanks for looking...

Teacher's gifts...

Here are the gifts for DS's preschool teachers. I used Stampin' Up!'s "Pun Fun"...too cute. He loved how they turned out an can't wait to give them. I made matching thank you cards to go with them. I stamped the coffee cup on pre-scored cardstock and colored them in the same as the bottles. Same instructions as the last post. I chalked a shadow under the cup and chalked some pink onto the side of the cup. I watercolored the hearts and the coffee in the cup. I used a regular red marker to fill in the dots under the hearts. I embossed a heart on top of the bottle and added a heart paperclip (.96 for 20 at Walmart) to the ribbon around the neck. Thanks for looking. Comments are always welcome!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Not only did I finish the card swaps, but I finally got started on our teacher appreciation gifts. I know, that was three days ago but we like to give end-of-the-school-year gifts. I found these adorable glass bottle (pints) at our local grocery store. They are from Heartland Dairy and are just too cute! We bought several, drank the milk, and ran through the dishwasher. I kept the caps as they are pretty neat - they look a lot like the old pog style home delivered milk containers. I used "Cause for a Celebration" from Stampin Up! and stamps from Michael's $1 section. I cut the scalloped square and inner squares from my cricut. The flower is embossed with clear powder and the inks are from Stampin Up! The center of the flower is a brad and the metal-rimmed tag is mounted on a pop dot. I put some shredded paper in the bottom and filled the rest with Hershey's Kisses. I have five more to go, and still have cards to make, but thought I would give you this to look at. Enjoy!

Another card...

I made this blank card for my card swap...finally done with them!!!! It was a good chance to play with some scrapping techniques and try them on a smaller scale. On the card base, I stamped with versamark, a clear tacky ink, that slightly darkens the original color you are working with. It leaves a watermark, or you can add embossing powder and heat it. I embossed this card with small flowers. I don't know how well you can see it in the photo. Next, I tied some ribbon around the card. I cut the base square on the Cricut with Mini Monograms. I had leftover white squares from another project and used a corner rounder on them. The stamp is from Stampin Up! I used water based markers to make the dark lines and used a watercolor pen to move the color and create shades. I then took chalk and made a shadow under the flower and used pink chalk (it is very hard to see) to shade the edges of the square. There you have it! Cards are a great way to try out techniques before moving on to scrapbook pages.

So much for scrapping!

I have been busy working on several projects for an online swap. I have 8 handmade surprises - Mickey and Minnie die cuts for a Mickey and Friends character swap. I will get one of them back along with photo mats, journal boxes, deco squares, fiber or ribbon, and other goodies. I also have "quilt" deco squares. My scrapbook bingo group has decided to make a paper quilt. We send in squares and get others back to make a pretty "quilt" to display. I can't wait to see the others! Last I have been working on cards for our Mega Card Swap. I signed up for several different cards and will get a variety of each back...I have baby, birthday, kids birthday, love, anniversary, congrats, thinking of you, thank you and still have a blank set to make. Here is a couple of photos of my work...enjoy!