WRMK Guest Designer & Giveaway

Hello everyone.  I'm so excited today to be a guest designer for We R Memory Keepers.  WRMK sent me some items from the hip new Feelin' Groovy collection and I had a blast playing with the bold colors and patterns. 

The Feelin' Groovy collection has a fun vibe to it, which makes it perfect for all kinds of celebrations: birthdays, graduations, new baby. 

I love that happy yellow patterned paper and made my own pinwheel to echo those in the pattern. 

For my layout, I used the paper named Groovy as my backdrop. The blue-green palette and icons reminded me of the beach and made a perfect backdrop for my page. 

The banners show some of the playful patterns in the Feelin' Groovy collection. I have additional close-ups and details of this layout on the WRMK blog.

Giveaway:  I have some Feelin' Groovy items from WRMK up for grabs as well as samples of twine and washi.  To enter, please follow my blog and leave a comment. The giveaway is open until midnight on Sunday. I'll draw a random winner and post it here next Monday, June 3. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Tuesdays with Cory: Fancy Pants mini album

I love the pretty patterned envelopes that are part of each collection from Fancy Pants Designs. They are strong and sturdy and make a great base for a mini album. 

For this project, I used the envelopes to make a min album about everyday life with Cory.  I chose photos from an ordinary Tuesday and described his typical day when he was almost 2. The title, Tuesdays with Cory, is a play on the popular book, Tuesdays with Morrie. 

The day starts with his favorite breakfast, Cheerios. Cory and his puzzles are rarely parted and here, he's bringing his puzzle to the breakfast table. 

Time for school.  Cory goes to an onsite child development center at the hospital where I work. 

On this particular Tuesday, we had a playdate with Zack.  On pretty days, we stop by the park, sometimes bringing the wagon along. 

Cory keeps a big stack of books by the glider in his room.  Before bed, he chooses a few and we read together, then rock gently and say our prayers. 

Goodnight, sweet boy. The last photo shows the album open.  

I used a mix of big and small envelopes and bound them together with two binder clips.  The big envelopes are approximately 3.5 x 6 inches and the smaller ones are 2.25 x 3.75.  I tucked journaling for each page and a few extra photos inside the envelopes. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. 

Bless This Nest: Echo Park Paper

My parents moved into a new house last year and I made this simple frame for their bookshelf.  The sentiment says: Bless This Nest. 

I used a small frame from a department store that was double matted. I removed the thick mats to give me room under the glass to create a scene. 

After removing the mats, I made a base of cardstock covered in burlap, stitching the two together.   

I used stickers to decorate the frame from Echo Park Paper. The wood veneers are Studio Calico and the alphas are Webster's Pages. Twine is from The Twinery. 

This project was published earlier this Spring in a special issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. 

Animal Cards: Bella Blvd

I'm sharing a couple cards today made with Bella Blvd that were published in recent issues of CARDS magazine. 

First up is a sweet baby card:

This is a shaped card connected at the top of the trunk and the top of the elephant's back.  I don't often make shaped cards, but this one was fun to do. 

I made the elephant's tail using a piece of twill ribbon from May Arts and used some floral paper and pom pom trim to make a blanket. 

Second is a birthday or celebration card:

The frog and gift are chipboard icons from separate collections.  To have the frog holding the gift, I added little frog hands cut from patterned paper. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

For the Graduate: Dream Big

My brother-in-law got his master's degree in Information Technology on Saturday.  Yay!  He was working full-time while going to school, so he was on the 7-year plan.  Slow and steady wins the race. We are all so proud of him!

 

A lovely cell phone shot from the bleachers of the master's candidates. 

Seven years of night school deserves a card, don't you think?  I made this one using the Down By The Shore collection from Fancy Pants Designs.  I love this green and navy combination. The collection is beach-themed but these particular elements and patterns worked well for a masculine card. 

The pennants that are included with each Fancy Pants collection add a touch of fun to any project. This pennant was from the Park Bench line and had the perfect sentiment for my card:  Yay!  

Also, today is my Design Team day on the Fancy Pants blog.  Want to see a peek of my project?

You can see the whole project and a tutorial on how I made the summer frame here on the Fancy Pants Designs blog.   

Thank you for stopping by. I'll be back on Friday with a new project. 

Ribbon Flower Tutorial: The Good Life

Hello, everyone.  Today I have a summer page and ribbon flower tutorial. 

I love this happy paper from Doodlebug that was included in the May kit at My Creative Scrapbook. I had a lot of fun with this page.  The background is made from one sheet of patterned paper.

The pink polka dot paper is the reverse side of the chevron stripe.  To use both sides, I carefully cut out the middle of the chevron paper using my trimmer. That gave me two pieces: the chevron and the polka dot.  In between, I layered a piece of white cardstock then stitched the 3 layers together. 

Next, I added a photo mat, layering paper and stickers.  I also added hidden journaling under the photo with a pink pull-out tab. 

To finish the page, I added a ribbon flower to the banner trio at the top. It was really easy to make. 

I used the ribbon in the kit and cut three pieces, 5 inches in length. I folded each end of the ribbon to the middle and secured it.  I layered the ribbon loops on top of each other in a star shape.  To embellish it, I added a circle cut from burlap and a threaded ribbon. 

The completed layout. Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend!

Preschool Friends: Doodlebug Designs

I'm back today with another colorful page from the May kit at My Creative Scrapbook. The kit featured the Take Note collection from Doodlebug Designs.  

This collection has an office supply theme and I thought the number paper and the bright colors worked well for this photo of my son with his preschool friends.  Though the kids' clothes don't match the orange and aqua featured in the patterned papers, I thought the overall colorful vibe worked. I don't worry much about matchy matchy and I very rarely convert my photos to black and white. 

To play on the office supply theme, I made a paperclip flag as an embellishment on the journaling block.  I used an ordinary paper clip (included in the kit) as they base. I cut down a Doodlebug sticker then wrapped it around the paperclip to secure it. 

To print the journaling on graph paper, I cut a piece of graph paper larger than I needed and adhered it to printer paper using washi tape.  I ran the paper through the printer, removed the washi tape then cut the journaling block accordingly. I left room at the top for embellishments. 

I repeated the flag at the top of the layout, using a "hello" sticker and a bit of polka dot ribbon, also included in the kit.

The kits at My Creative Scrapbook are packed FULL of goodies. I look forward to mine each month. Pam, the owner, is running a special this month on the kits and you could win this awesome Prima package. Four prizes are up for grabs!

You can find the details on the My Creative Scrapbook blog.   Have a great week!

Dig Big: My Creative Scrapbook Reveal

It's time to reveal the May kits at My Creative Scrapbook!  I am excited to show you the projects I made this week with the Creative Kit, which features Doodlebug Designs.   

Doodlebug is known for its colorful palette and I couldn't help but smile when playing with these happy papers. 

The Doodlebug collection is called Take Note and is office-supply oriented, but I found the colors perfect for beach photos. 

Here's a photo of the May kit:

My Creative Scrapbook revealed all the May kits this weekend. You can find them here.   I'll be back this week with more projects from this kit.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Hello Beautiful: Little Yellow Bicycle

Hello and happy Friday!  I started the week with a fun girl card and wanted to wrap up the week with another. It's always a treat for me to play with colors, patterns and icons outside my norm of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Such is the life of a mom and scrapbooker of a little boy. 

I made this card, Hello Beautiful, from the pretty Fern and Forest Girl collection from Little Yellow Bicycle.  It's the counterpoint to Fern and Forest Boy and shares some of the same patterns but in a different color palette.  I love that Little Yellow Bicycle is purposeful in catering to both genders. 

I chose a bright purple-y herringbone paper as the base of this card and added transparencies as photo corners.  The transparency was a small frame from the LYB Clear Cuts and I snipped off 2 corners rather than using the frame as intended.  It's always tricky to adhere transparencies so that the adhesive doesn't show. Here, I just stitched right over it. Perfect solution. 

I loved the colorful chipboard pieces in this collection and featured them on the card by building a frame, pop dotting some elements.  The swirl is another  Clear Cut and here I hid the adhesive by gluing it to the back of the fairy princess and under the "beautiful" banner.  

To finish the card, I added a stick pin as the fairy's wand and tied it with a bit of twine. 

If you have followed my work, you know I am a HUGE fan of Little Yellow Bicycle.  I'm so pleased to announce that I now have a new badge to add to my sidebar: Little Yellow Bicycle is officially sponsoring me.  I'm tickled pink!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sneak Peeks: My Creative Scrapbook May Kit

Well, hello, May!  I'm so happy to be in the full swing of Spring with the promise of Summer around the corner. I love this time of year. 

The first of the month brings sneak peeks from the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook. It is so much fun to design for this kit club. 

I worked with the Creative Kit this month.  Here are my colorful peeks! 

I'll be back on May 5th with the full reveal.