Embellishment Storage

Scrapbooker's Anonymous is wrapping up their monthly challenges this month!  I know, I should have talked about this sooner.  It is only hours until the challenges end!  I'm going to miss their inspiring design team and challenges!  I hope there will be something new over there.

Anyway, one last little challenge is to share scrapbook storage.  I cleaned out my embellishment drawers this weekend so I thought I'd share.  Now this isn't all of the embellishments of course.  I have my ribbons in jars and my small embellishments in a little tool storage drawer.  This is all the other stuff that I have bits and pieces of.

I keep these divided sort of by 'soft' embellishments and 'hard' ones.

My top drawer is all the soft stuff - twines, flowers, trims that don't really fit in a jar, and now my Washi tape.

And this drawer is filled with decorative brads still in packaging, my 'pretties' kit and hardware kit from Stampin' Up!  I also have some stick pins and lots of rhinestones here.  Some of those cute molded flowers are peeking through.  Now that I can actually see them, maybe I'll remember to use them again.

This bottom drawer had really gotten to be a mess so I sorted through even - gasp - threw a few things away!  I didn't get rid of anything too big - just some stickers that had sort of stuck to each other and things I knew I'd never use.

Thanks for visiting!

Pit Stop

On a road trip, he has his way of refueling... and I have mine.

What better place to stretch your legs and your budget than a scrapbooking store?!!! The only Archiver's in the state is one mile off our route to my best friends house.  If only the whole drive wasn't over 4 hours, I could see her more often - and probably be a bit broke, too.  :-) 

When I looked for lunch spots, I found my husband's favorite - Boston Market - only two miles down the road from Archiver's.  We don't have a Boston Market closer than 1 1/2 hours from our home so Lenny was delighted.

For the layout, I used the Cricut to help me cut ovals for the arrows to go through and did my own embellishments with stamp sets.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Tomorrow I have a video on making long narrow envelopes with the Martha Stewart Scoreboard - or any scoring tool.

Happy Monday!

Ingredients:  Letter Stickers from On Holiday by the Girl's Paperie; other sticker is from MME Funday

DSP:  Oliver by Basic Grey and some Stampin' Up!

Cardstock:  Sahara Sand and Riding Hood Red from Stampin' Up!

A familiar card

This one might look familiar. I used the same stamp last week with the same technique - black magic. I liked it so much, I'm using it again for a stamp class card.  This time, I've truly used black paper for the background to pick up the colors from the Basic Grey Sweet Threads collection - one of my favorites.

I can't remember where this green eyelet ribbon came from - Webster's Pages? - anyway, I threaded the pink ribbon through the little eyelet holes.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Last weekend page and Smoothie

Yeah!  I made it and just in time to get in one more challenge for Shimelle's scrapbooking weekend last Sunday night.  (I posted this originally at Two Peas as I didn't have time to get a blog entry completed.)  This challenge was to use a 'rubbish' photo.  I also did Glitter Girl's challenge for working with a pretty, but busy, pattern paper.  My photo is out of focus.  Only I could use a self-timer on a point and shoot camera and still get a blurry photo.

Check out last week's Glitter Girl.  She shares great ideas for using bold patterns and even gives us a pdf with several sketch ideas.  I'd used this one before and liked it so much I repeated with this pretty paper from K and Company.

The flowers at the top are stamped from the Petal Pizzazz stamp set. It definitely has been well used but mostly for card.  I stamped and then coated with Crystal Effects to add some weight and shine.  The cool trim is from Webster's Pages.  I thought the colors for this layout went with the winter time frame of the photo. We were on our way out for dinner at my husband's favorite restaurant.  Unfortunately, it was our last trip there as they have closed.  Lenny told absolutely everyone about this place.  I guess word of mouth just wasn't enough. Tough times for many of our small businesses.

And speaking of food...yesterday when I posted I was off to try making a smoothie without bananas.  I'm amazed to say it turned out pretty good.  It was tasty enough to make another this morning.

My recipe is:

3/4 cut fresh strawberries, halved
1/2 cup plain yogurt
Approx 1/3 cup chopped mango (I didn't measure this, either time :-(  The mango is mainly to add body, not so much taste.
2 Tablespoons oats
1 Tablespoon honey or to taste

Place strawberries in freezer for about an hour.  Then combine first three ingredients in blender and blend til fairly smooth.  Add oats and honey and finish blending to desire consistency.

If the mango I'd managed to find was riper, I might not have needed the honey.  My husband has always loved mangos and I find them a bit too sweet.  This year, I'm looking forward to getting some from Florida in season and making up other combos.

Thanks for stopping by!

Triple task card

This simple little card fits two challenges and is one of my stamp class cards for May.  The other three projects I have for class have a lot going on so I needed something quick to wrap up the night.

I love this week's color challenge at Splitcoast stampers to use More Mustard, Pool Party and Espresso.  I subbed Papertrey Ink's Hawaiian Shores for Pool Party. It is close and matched my ribbon better.  Also, I used the sketch challenge for the week for the layout.

I'm having more TMJ troubles again after so many great months (arrgh!) so I'm off to try my hand at making a smoothie without bananas.  I love bananas but they don't love me.  Mangos have been suggested as a substitute for bananas.  I've looked at a lot of recipes and it seems people just throw whatever they have on hand into the blender.  We'll see...

Anyway, thanks for stopping by.

Ingredients:  DSP:  Memoir collection by Studio Calico; October Afternoon
Stamps: All Holidays and Polka Dot Punches from Stampin' Up!

Versamarker shading

To create the shading for this rose, I went over the entire image with the large tip of the Versamarker.  After drying, I went over some areas with the fine point and brushed other areas with just a touch of clear ink from the large tip of the Versamarker.  This double coating gave me a nice subtle tone-on-tone from one marker.  (It is more obvious in person.)

This is the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set.  Yesterday I saw the discontinued list from Stampin' Up! and this one is on it :-(   It has been around 3 or 4 years now but I still love it.  If you love it and don't have it, time is running out.  You can see the list of retiring sets at Stampin' Pretty's blog.  I believe the new catalog is coming out June 1 this year - a month year.  So I would assume that we only have until May 31 to get anything we want out of the old one.  Accessories are usually available while supplies last.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm working on some new videos and hope to have some up next week.

Ingredients:  Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral by SU!
Cardstock:  Rose Red, Sahara Sand

Hangin' Out - Challenge

With only a few hours to go, this will probably be the last challenge I get to complete before the submission cut-off from Shimelle's scrapbooking weekend (actually, last weekend but she held the prize options open until today.)

The challenge was to use a stamp you rarely exercised.  For me that is an alpha stamp.  I knew better when I bought alphas, but sometimes I just couldn't resist the cute font.  I'll stamp my titles, I'd say to myself and rarely do.  So I selected Fun Alphabet from Inkadinkado.  It is a cute set, the letters are a bit large.  They are perfect for coloring.

As usual, I used the photos for my color scheme and chose 4 papers to do a blocked border.  Along the way I stumbled across this new paper from Basic Grey Plumera collection with the little hexagons. I'd originally bought it for the lavender 'b' side. It had just the right colors I'd already selected.  What are the chances?  I used many different Stampin' Up! markers to color in the stamped letters.

My page celebrates the relaxation of just hanging around the house with friends.  Their dog was caught napping on my yoga mat which I'd brought along to do my physical therapy exercises.  She looks so Zen.

Even though the time is almost up, I do plan to do one more challenge from Shimelle - the one where you scrap a lousy photo.  I have one of Lenny and I that I did with the self-timer that is really out of focus.  Only I could take a self-timed photo and get it out of focus on a point and shoot camera.  :-)

Anyway, hope you have a nice Sunday.  Thanks for stopping by!

Service of Marriage - Challenge 10

I bought this flocked paper ages ago especially for Amanda's wedding photos and it is perfect for Shimelle's Use Two Photos on a Bold Background challenge. Since this page is part of a larger series, there is no journaling here.  A few embellishments touch it up, not too many to compete with the flocked transparency from Fancy Pants About A Girl collection.

In person, this page just sparkles.  I must have taken a dozen photos of it in at least 4 different places in my home but could never quite get the effect.

The top photo on the page was made by her photographer and I did the lower photo.  I really don't like to take photos in church but I'm very glad I did.  This way I got a good group shot that included my stepdaughter, Jaime, as matron of honor.  With tons of natural light, I knew I'd get some good shots without it being disruptive.  

I chose 'service' rather than 'ceremony' as the title partly because it fit better on the page :-) and also to honor the groom and his attendants being in service.  Their Air Force dress uniforms looked really dashing.  It was a wonderful choice for the wedding.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'm hoping to get very crafty this weekend.  What are your plans?

Ingredients:  Transparency:  About a Girl from Fancy Pants

Stickers:  Mini Market by October Afternoon

Metal:  Hodgepodge Hardware by Stampin' Up!

Thickers:  Rainboots by American Crafts

home + made - Challenge 4

Here's another of Shimelle's 16 challenges from her scrapbooking weekend.  I won't get them all done by the end of this weekend.  I'm picking and choosing those most appealing and this one is definitely high on the list.  The challenge - use gray, yellow and one other color.  I love, love, love how much gray and yellow go with just about anything.  I'd never discovered this before because these have not really been in the home decorating palette until recently and still mostly in modern things.  This will definitely get repeated in my scrapbooks as soon as I order some more gray designer paper.

My first pick for a third color to go with the yellow and gray was rust.  There was a hint of it in one of the photos and I had some great papers.  Then I started thinking of embellishments. I kept coming back to hearts.  The page is about staying with friends over Easter who fed us wonderful meals.  It was like being in the best bed and breakfast!  All the food was made with such care and love.  I just couldn't see myself punching out rust colored hearts so changing to red was easy enough.

The photos are mounted on designer paper with little tabs like recipe cards in keeping with the cooking theme.  I love this gingham background paper from October Afternoon.  As I said, I'll have to get more of this or some other gray papers.  My friend's husband is the chef for most things. She made us the delicious pound cake from a family recipe.  I noticed the wonderful smell as soon as we walked in the door.

Turns out I did have some gray stickers from October Afternoon.  The heart is stamped and the 'love' embossed over it.

Thanks for stopping by.  I've already got another challenge layout in the works from my stepdaughter's wedding.

Ingredients:  Stickers:  October Afternoon Farmhouse and 5 and Dime
DSP:  Studio Calico Memoir collection, Front Porch from 5 and Dime by OA; Crate Paper Farmhouse collection
Inks:  Sahara Sand and Basic Gray by Stampin' Up!
Stamps:  Perspectives by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday; Polka Dot Punches by SU!
Thickers:  Amy Tangerine Hello

Give yourself a lift

Have you ever sent yourself a card?  I haven't mailed one to myself but I have made things to inspire myself.  Here is a card I made a few days ago that now resides in my bathroom window so I can see it every morning as I get in the shower.

The stamp set is one of Stampin' Up!'s hostess sets this year - Faith in Nature.  I also used some of their paper with the embossing built in.  I added pastels to bring out the design. SU! doesn't have this anymore but I saw some at Archivers recently.  I don't know the manufacturer (sorry!) but I know this kind of thing still exists.  I think they were called Mistables.  

The quote is:  "Keep your faith in beautiful things in the sun when it is hidden; in the spring when it is gone."  - Roy R. Gilson

It is always rewarding to make a special card for others but it is kind of nice to make something pretty for yourself, too.

the Mint - Challenge 2

Challenge 2 at Shimelle's this weekend is to use 3 or more paper collections on one layout.  Using 3 or more paper collections as a challenge feels almost like cheating.  When do I not use 3 collections, even manufacturers? Once in a while I stick to one or two lines but mostly I'm pulling paper from all over the place especially as I just can't seem to throw anything away!  Picking and matching papers is one of my favorite parts of the process.

So to make this a tad more challenging, I chose this background paper I think is from Little Yellow Bicycle's Laundry Line collection.  I must have planned to use it at some point because I'd cut off the branding strip.  This paper has great colors but as a ledger it is downright busy and with the fashion theme, limiting.  However, the theme was perfect for our outing to the Mint Museum in Charlotte to see the Chanel collection in February.  My aunt had a doctor's appointment, I had a sore shoulder and it would have been challenge to push her around.  My husband offered to go and we went to the museum after her appointment.  I take her to this doctor's office 3 or 4 times a year but this is the first time my husband has accompanied us.  It was a lovely day out.  I've hidden quite a bit more journaling on the day.

With such a busy background, I kept the embellishment to a few flowers stamped and punched with the Boho Blossoms punch from Stampin' Up! A few flowers were also cut on the Cricut along with the very shiny gold letters.  I'd had that gold paper at least 10 years.  I keep weird papers in one of those clear storage envelopes.  You never know when you'll want something like that.  The Mint was originally a US Mint thus the name.  Now it is an art museum with an extensive permanent collection of paintings, NC pottery, clothing and all kinds of things.

I'm glad this paper finally found a home and the day with my aunt was captured.  Lenny may accompany us again. As much as she hates it, it is getting harder and harder for her to help herself in and out of the chair so more lifting is needed. She is a joy in my life and while I hate she has to go to the doctor, I look forward to our outings.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients:  DSP:  Clothesline collection LYB; Peppermint Collection Crate Paper; For the Record by Echo Park; 6x6 paper pad from MME; Daily Grind by Fancy Pants
Glittery Ribbon:  Making Memories
Stickers:  October Afternoon
Stamps:  One of a Kind by Stampin' Up; Basic gray ink by SU!
Ticket:  Saturdays by LYB
Rhinestones:  Funday by MME

Favorite Treat for Challenge 01

It's Shimelle's on-line scrapbooking weekend!  For the first challenge, we were given this layout by Jaime Warren to use as inspiration.  I lifted the arrangement of elements.  What I loved most about Jaime's page was having anchors at the top bottom, left and right sides of the page.  I love pushing to the edge of the paper but usually I take all the elements right along.  This time, I had to leave some white space as almost a border within the layout.  Certainly, a new challenge.  Play along if you'd like or choose another challenge.  They are open until the end of next weekend.

For my layout, I captured an every day moment and by 'every day' I do mean almost every day.  I take an afternoon break and have a frozen treat.  This used to be ice cream until I did a week without dairy to see if it would break up some congestion in my ears I'd had for months.  It didn't help a bit and fortunately the problem has diminished.  However, what I got out of that week was a love of sorbet.  I don't think I'd ever tried it before.  It is very different from sherbert and oh, so good.  It's a bit of a pricey habit but I do eat less and save some calories :-)

Oh and on that afternoon break, I usually watch General Hospital which as been renewed for the next TV season!  Yippee!!! ABC finally saw the light and is canceling the Revolution and keeping GH.  I'm so happy.  Anyway, back to the layout...

The top and bottom is a die cut from Little Yellow Bicyle's Saturdays collection. I also trimmed up some pattern paper from the collection for embellishment.  For the right and left sides,  I wanted a lighter finish so I used a die cut as a mask on one side and a stamped image in the same ink as the background paper for the other.  I sprinkled some rhinestones over - also inspiration from the original layout.

Shimelle talks about washi tape in one of her posts this weekend and I put a little to use here.  I'm new to washi tape but I really like it so far.  I have learned one thing.  Don't buy directional tape unless you really love it or having it run the wrong way doesn't bother you.  One of my tapes has numbers that really should go vertically. I keep finding places to use it horizontally and that just doesn't work for me.

Thanks for visiting!  Now I'm off to try another challenge or should I have some sorbet first?


Ingredients:  Cardstock and Ink:  Sahara Sand by Stampin' Up!
DSP and canvas tag:  Saturdays by Little Yellow Bicycle
Tape:  Hambly and Bazzill
Rhinestones:  Funday by MME
Stamp:  Medallion by Stampin' Up!
Mist:  Clay Mister Huey by Studio Calico

One Up, One Down

We've never been to Blowing Rock (a beautiful little town in the NC Mountains) so early in the year before.  Well, actually, I used to work in that area so I was up there in the winter and very early spring but typically the weather didn't allow for any leisurely strolls around the lake. This year, spring came early to all of us so on April 1 we enjoyed a day in the mountains.

The April fools joke was on us when we tried to find somewhere downtown to eat.  Most of the restaurants hadn't opened for the season.  Anyway we did some shopping and walked around Bass Lake.

Typically we see ducks and geese at the lake.  For the first time, we spotted this pair of swans.  So beautiful, we just had to get a picture.  It was their lunch time, too and they weren't very interested in posing.  Just when one swan would bring his head out of the water, the other would dive in!  I took photo after photo of one up, one down.  My husband thought it was too funny.  He took the camera finally and got them bathing which doesn't exactly show their best sides.  I did get the one good one of the two swans upright.

Originally, I was going to do this layout for a Two Peas challenge to use a series of shots - scrapbooking the outtakes as well as the 'good' one.  I just didn't get it done in time for the challenge.

Speaking of challenges, stop by Shimelle.com for her scrapbooking weekend.  It has just gotten underway and will be all weekend with most things open for more than a week. If you are slow scrapper like me you need that. :-)

I've got lots of photos printed and many more queued up so I'm ready to go!  Let's have a fun, crafty weekend.

Ingredients:  Cardstock:  Crumb Cake from Stampin' Up!
DSP:  Campfire 8x8 pad from October Afternoon
Sticker:  Jillibean Soup
Thickers:  American Crafts
Font:  Blackjack
Stamp:  Dear Lizzy by American Crafts; ledger stamp from Office Accouterments by Stampin' Up!

Circles, circles!

Splitcoaststampers has a cool sketch this week with tons of circles! I haven't been doing many card challenges lately and it has been ages since I did both the sketch and color challenge at Splitcoast.  Mary selected Old Olive, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight for our cheery color palette.  You can see her card here.

For my card, I used some new chevron designer paper combined with some Jillibean soup papers.  The stamps are from Stampin' Up!  Petal Pizzazz was one I took on my crafting weekend and had just put away. I knew it would be perfect for all these circles.  Some of the white circles looked a little plain so I added a cardstock circle edge.  All are cut with my Creative Memories circle cutters.

Speaking of challenges, this weekend Shimelle.com is hosting an on-line scrapbooking weekend with challenges that extend into the following week. I've got quite a few photos all ready for whatever Shimelle throws our way.

For now, I've got to go out and cover a bunch of plants.  After weeks without the temps dropping below 40, we are under a freeze warning tonight!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients: Stamps:  Petal Pizzazz, Sanded, A little birdie told me (greeting) from Stampin' Up!
Cardstock and Inks:  Old Olive, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight
Twine:  Doodlebug
Button: Old Olive from SU!  Brads:  Paper Studio
DSP:  Chevron from MME, Jillibean Soup

Travel Journal

Whenever we travel, I try to jot down some notes on what we have done and impressions.  For larger trips, I've taken a notebook sometimes with a pretty cover created before we leave.  For shorter excursions, I've just taken a few sheets of cardstock and stapled them together in a mini book.

With inspiration from the various notebooks on the market these days, I put a bit more effort into my last travel journal - though it was still a quick project.  It is still fairly small - 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" and contains a variety of pages using some older ledger papers from my stash.








Here's a look at the finished product:

Watch at YouTube


I have now made lots of notes from our weekend away that can accompany our photos when I get ready to scrap these fun days.  Having  a few prompts helps you to remember to capture more than just the what, where, when, and how.  I have one called "Laughter is the best medicine" which prompted me to record a few of the fun things we laughed about.  The little gas pump stamp prompted a note on the price of gas - definitely, not something to laugh about!  (I hope I don't look back on that price someday and wish we could return to it.)

This took a little over an hour to put together.  Having a colorful notebook was a lot nicer than those plain sheets of cardstock stapled together.

Thanks for watching!

Ingredients:  Designer Paper:  Cover - DCWV
Inside:  Stampin' Up! and October Afternoon
Stamps:  Away We Go by Fiskars and Petal Pizazz by SU!
Ink:  Chesnut Roan from Colorbox
Stickers:  Making Memories
Tag:  Saturdays by Little Yellow Bicycle

Crafting Weekend

Hi!  Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  We did!  We went to visit our friends Karen and Jimmy 'down east' which in NC means in the eastern part of the state as opposed to those of us in the western part of the state.  We had a lovely visit filled with great food, wonderful company and of course, some crafting as she is a long time scrapbooker and is getting into card making, too.

Above is one of the cards we made. We each did an easel card using the Black Magic technique.  I so hate I didn't make a photo of her card.  It was gorgeous!  We just got so busy crafting that I didn't take any card photos until I got home.  She used different papers and stamps.

I did this one with one of her stamp sets from Stampin' Up!  I stamped the image with Versamark on Papertrey's Dark Chocolate cardstock and embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I went over the image with Prisma colored pencils.   I learned this from Splitcoaststampers and it is a wonderful way to use colored pencils if you have some.  Her husband has the same set that I have at home.  Karen suggested cutting around this image with a broad outlines and I really love it.  It lets a lot of the Basic Grey background paper show through.

This was my first easel card. We tried a lot of things that were new to each of us this weekend.

On my way to her house, we stopped at Archiver's in Raleigh.  I didn't overdo it too much, mostly getting some embellishments to go with things I had.  I really needed brads so these were my favorite purchase.

I'd never heard of Teresa Collins.  These really look a lot like My Mind's Eye products but I can't find any connection.  Anyway they are very pretty and super quality.

With all this travel and catching up at home, tomorrow's Tipsy Tuesday post may be a bit late.  I have a project and recorded a video before we left.  It just isn't edited and uploaded yet.

Thanks for visiting!

Photo Frame

The lovely subject of this photo is my stepdaughter, Jaime.  My husband asked me to get a frame for this.  It is an odd size photo and I thought I'd make one instead.  Almost everything is from the Artfuldelight January kit.

All the frames are cut with the Cricut.  For the yellow Bassill background, I misted over a Studio Calico mask with some yellow mist.  After cutting out the hexagons from a Studio Calico designer paper, I arranged misted butterflies and random gemstones from My Mind's Eye.

The large flower is a combo of one from the kit with an additional layer from fabric just to make it a bit larger.

This was a fun project and a nice change from cards and pages.

Thanks for stopping by!

Repeating stamp border

When I cleaned up my stamp baskets last week, I found this single stamp from Stampendous called True Elegance.  I've used it a few times but not very much.  It turned out to be a great border stamp.

To create the border for this page, I stamped this single stamp on Bravo Burgandy cardstock with Versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder.  Then I just cut out each one and glued to the back of the designer paper.

One stamp can have a powerful effect when used in repetition.

The layout was inspired by Nichol Magourik's weekly class last year at Two Peas in a Bucket.  She did a layout a week for several months and often used die cut titles where the words were welded together to form one piece.

I did my title using SCAL software and my Cricut.  It went a lot faster than I expected.  I just typed each word as an individual element and then changed sizes and fonts fitting things together.  A few letters aren't connected but they were easy to glue in place.  I cut 'always' a second time in gold paper to add emphasis.  Some sponged on distress ink gives some words a slightly different color than others.

Of course the page topic is my Mother's passion for the Cheesecake Factory in Charlotte.  It has a gorgeous interior and leads us right into one of her favorite malls - Southpark.  Southpark is getting so high end that we do a lot more looking and a lot less buying these days but it is still fun.

Thanks for visiting today!

Ingredients:  Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye So Sophie
Stamps:  True Elegance by Stampendous; Baroque Motifs by Stampin' Up!
Metal Tag:  Very Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware by Stampin' Up!