Birthday Layout

Hi all!

We are on Spring Break over here this week.  And so begins the tug of war with Pezza over how much time she will be able to spend on the computer and how much time she will spend being forced into activities that will develop her brain appropriately :P  I DID get her to spend some time in the studio painting with me yesterday and she made a great background.  She always makes great backgrounds but then she doesn't want to develop them into anything because she doesn't want to cover up the background.  But at least she's painting!

Today I have a 2 page layout to show you:

This is Pezza's 5th birthday party.  I really had fun with this layout.  I was chatting about papercrafting with my buddy Amy (the amazing talent of Pickled Paper Designs) and we were talking about how I had quit making cards and gone back to scrapping because I just did not feel like cards were a useful endeavor for me.

She was saying she has thought about going back to scrapping but after the small size and instant gratification of card making the large pages would be intimidating and I agreed.

But then I told her I had been getting really interested in the grid style of project life type layouts but instead of buying all the little card sets I could make my own and she had thought the same thing so I finally got around to doing that for this layout and I LOVED it!  SO fun!

It started with this little piece and Splitcoast Stampers.  This month has a fifth week and I am the Hostess for the 5th Week Scrapbook Challenge and my challenge is to use one of the card challenges from the month and incorporate it into a layout.  This is last week's SCS card sketch.  Everything was designed and cut with my Cricut Explore - Oh how I love doing it that way!  I know others have been doing it since the Gypsy but I guess I am slow to adapt new ways :P

I even got to color!  Pezza chose this little stamp - I pulled out a variety of cupcake stamps and of course the kitty stamp won!  I have had it forever and have no clue where it came from.  I colored it with colored pencil (I love colored pencils and gave up my Copics ages ago but boy those new Chameleon Markers sure do tempt me....)  The "icing" is Liquid Pearls and the "sprinkles" are micro beads - love me some micro beads!  I Stickled the "5th" cut and put it all together.

I even remembered to get out my embossing folders!

Another great thing about doing it this way - 6 x 6 paper pads can be used instead of needing the full 12 x 12 sheets of paper when trying to design the entire page....

These papers came from Doodlebug Designs Sugar Shoppe collection.  The stamped border is a little Studio G $1 stamp, also colored with colored pencils.

Her party request that year was rainbows and gold & silver stars so I wanted to be sure to get some gold & silver stars on the layout.  Rather than trying to dig up some gold & silver paper (which I am sure I have SOMEwhere) I just cut them from white paper and then sponged on Emperor's Gold & Silver Bells Silks Acrylic Glaze.  Perfect!

I also included lots of my glittered skittles I created back when I had my store - I still love them as the perfect little finishing touches!

Finally, the little tiny squares I alternated with bits of leftover patterned papers and tiny stamped images.  I have ALOT of different ink pads but my go to ones are the little Tsukineko Dew Drops - hands down my favorite ink pads for so many reasons.  In this particular case the tiny pointed shape makes it super easy to ink up your stamps with multiple colors.

SO what do y'all think?  Have you tried this?  I do hope you will all come join the challenge on Splitcoast Stampers - it's a great site if you don't already frequent it!  I am behind (WAY behind) on some sewing projects so I may not get anymore scrapping done in April but I plan to do more layouts like this, especially when there are a lot of pictures.

The dying die cutter :(

Hi all!

Well after much frustration and many setbacks I finished a 2 page layout.  As you know I am getting back to scrapping after a bit of a break.  I am trying to be more active on Splitcoast Stampers as a way to keep motivated.  One of the challenges in the scrapbooking area is a monthly goals challenge.  Now I am no crazy scrapper - I figure I have maybe 65 pages to do to be caught up plus whatever pages happen to come along the way throughout the year,  This puts me at an easy goal of 6-7 pages per month.  I was on a roll I tell ya.  I organized my books, finished going through my photo files and knew what I needed to start with and had a game plan.  I have already come up with a good way to organize and scrap to get caught up which you can read about in this post:

Getting Organized to Catch Up

I was on a ROLL people!  I had another 2 pager all finished except for the die cuts - hunted down an SVG set that would be perfect, spent an evening getting it all sized for cutting, got another layout sketch done and THOSE SVGs also sized for cutting, put that page together too - 3 pages ready to go.  Hooked up to my Black Cat and suddenly, it won't cut right!!!!!  EGADS!  I LOVE that thing, I use it constantly, I NEED it!  I think, maybe I just need a new blade, I order more but to no avail.  Hubby watched me spend 3 days trying everything under the sun, emailing back and forth trying to get it to work.  Nothing.  I must have gone through a dozen sheets of cardstock.  Finally, in the interest of getting AT LEAST another 2 pager done for the month I had to forge ahead and get another layout done so I moved onto these Christmas pictures from 2009:

I like that I was able to fit so many pictures in and they are nice sized too.  It is pretty simple and uncomplicated.  I used this sketch but can't for the life of me remember where I got it form - most likely Page Maps since that's where I get most of them but I have also been trolling Pinterest for sketches too - it's so easy!

I thought the title area would be perfect for a stamped image.  This image is from a very old Inkadinkado set and is colored with colored pencils.

I gave the snowy part a good coating of Stickles.  So what do y'all think!  Tomorrow I will post my LAST layout for 2009 and tell you what I have decided to do about my SVG problem - you may want to stay tuned!  It's exciting!  Now I need to go through 2010 and see which layouts I have done and which I have left to do!

Eat Cake

Hi all!

Ahhh more snow days!  The Washington DC Metro area just can't handle the slightest bit of snowfall.  So we have had a couple days off.  Pezza has enjoyed some extra lazing around the house with her extended Winter break.

While she was off at a playdate I enjoyed some studio time.  I made myself a King Cake Latte, turned on some Downton Abbey and set to work!

I am always getting caught unprepared when Pezza gets invited to birthdya parties so I got several gift cards to keep on hand and wanted to make some gift card holders.  You may remember the ones I made for Christmas.  It is one of my all time favorite Cricut cuts - you can find it on the Fabulous Finds cartridge.  I chose to leave the gift card attached to its little sleeve and made the holder larger than usual which gave me more space to work with so I cut it at 6".

The sketch AND the color scheme are both challenges on SCS (Splitcoast Stampers) this week.  Eyelets were also on SCS (see my layout yesterday) and since they were still on my desk and turned out so nicely I decided to use them again!

My stamped image is from an old set exclusive to the store I used to have - Chocolate Treats 1 by Polkadot Pie.  I am pretty sure I still have a set or two left if you would like to get one!  Just let me know.  I colored it with Lyra Polycolor colored pencils.  Sentiment is Studio G as always!

I also couldn't wait to try out my newest toy - I have bought very little in the last few years but I really wanted one of the cool Spellbinders borders I came across so of course I contacted my buddy Terri at Stampsalive and she hooked me up!  She has really good prices!

This is what it looks like when you pull out the gift card insert - cool right?

I am including this project in the following challenges:

• Bitten By the Bug 2 - Favorite Cricut Cut
• Stampin' Royalty - Birthdays
• ABC Challenge - Anything Goes

Getting spooky for the latest Cut It Up Challenge!

Hi all!

Ahhh Friday.  I am hoping to get some fall decorating done around here - you know before fall is OVER.  I can't get to the bins by myself so Kevin was finally able to help me last weekend but our week just flew by without us ever touching it!  So we just tripped over the bins all week instead.  I LOVE pumpkins - all sorts of pumpkins and pumpkin type decor.  I already have too many and still had ideas for more!

We have a few Halloween items to put out too but I like to keep it mostly Fall so it can all stay out longer.  Thankfully we got Pezza's Halloween costume back in September because a neighbor was telling me they have been very difficult to find already.  Equally difficult to find already - current release Halloween scrapbook papers.  Today is the new Cut It Up Challenge reveal and our theme is Halloween.  I went to get the new Doodlebug papers I saw at CHA - sold out.  ACK!!!!!  SO disapointed!  Hopefully I can still find some online for this years Halloween pics but for last year's that I scrapped for this challenge I had to scrounge around in my stash.  I was very unhappy BUT I ended up liking the layout after all so I am going to let it go!  Hahhahah!  But as soon as I am done typing this I am getting my order in over at A Cherry On Top!

So yes our challenge was to do something with a Halloween or Dia De Los Muertos theme AND use a die cut of course! Last year Pezza was a cat - I know big surprise!

So how ridiculous is my daughter?  Look at those poses!  Sheesh.  Anyway  I used some SVG cut files from My Scrap Chick and cut them on my Black Cat Cutter.  We just got Boo'ed today so I may need to go back over to the site and grab some of her Halloween treat bag toppers!

Each of the little characters is so cute!  I inked all of my edges with my Tsukineko inks - love them!  My ghostie's bubbling brew got some stickled bubbles too!

I used my Peachy Keen face stamps for the faces.  Unless I cut my characters out really large messing with the teeny facial feature cuts drives me batty!

Just had to add the cute little haunted mansion!

 

I just had to throw in this cute little kitty digi from Louby Lou!  1. it's a cute kitty, 2. I don't color nearly enough anymore and 3. Louby Lou is our sponsor for the challenge this go 'round!  As usual she is colored with colored pencils - Faber Castell Polychromos this time I believe it was.  now do you see that cute little sparkly green embellie in the corner?  Anyone here remember those?  I carried them in my online store.  I am on a mission to get rid of my inventory and finally take the store website down as it is costly to continue to maintain.  So GO OVER THERE and pick out a few colors for yourself!

I discovered a fun and easy little trick in Photoshop I have been playing with and wanted to share it with all of you.  An easy way to add a title or single word piece to your layout is to put it on your photo.  I made my date into a little frame.  Here's how:

1. Open a new blank photoshop file.  Size it as big as your picture - in this case 4 x 6.
2. Choose your shape tool - pick your rectangle and then specify the size by clicking on the little arrow so the drop down menu appears.  You can see it below just under the word Window. 

3.  Choose fixed size and then put your measurements in - in this case I put 3.75 x 5.75 and made it white since I wanted my frame white.  Click on your blank page and the shape will appear.

4.  Now we are going to do the same thing but this time make it slightly smaller - I did the next one 3.5 x 5.5 and made it black,  Click on your page and it will appear.

5.  Now move them so that the second one is perfectly spaced inside the first one - the white edges are your frame.  Merge the two layers

6.  Choose your magic wand tool and click on the inner shape - it will be highlighted by the "marching ants."  Now choose your eraser and erase the whole thing - only the inner shape will get erased.  Click again to get rid of the marching ants.

7.  Choose your type tool, pick a font and make it the same color as your frame, type what you want.  Position it on your frame the way you want it.

8.  Choose your eraser, make sure to select the layer with the frame, erase the portion of the frame that appears behind your font.  Merge layers.

9. Now you can drag your frame onto your picture!

Now come join us on the Cut It Up Challenge blog and check out the rest of the Design Team's projects and then submit yours for the challenge!  You could win a $5 gift certificate to Louby Lou's Digital Delights!

So what do you think of the layout?  How about the frame tutorial?  Let me know!

Beach Girl LO for the CMC Challenge

Hi y'all!

I knew it had been awhile since I blogged but a month?  Wow!  Apparently it's been BUSY around my house! I mentioned our little foster kitty family, The Breads, were really struggling as all the foster babies do.  Well that was grueling to say the least.  However, I am happy to report with loads of love and attention and lots of careful eye med administration they have not only ALL pulled through but NONE of them are blind!

Pezza the Cat Whisperer

We have been talking about needing to adopt a buddy for Bubba so we are seeing how him and the little boy, Bun do together...

Little Bun-ny was the sickest by far but he has bounced back and while he may not be able to see perfectly he CAN see.  Plus he's a boy and I really like the boy cats.  They are very different than the girl cats - girls are prissy and stand off-ish and boys are more lovey and dopey and silly.

Of course they all love Kevin as usual!  Doesn't he look THRILLED???

We took a trip to Myrtle Beach over Memorial Day weekend - HEAVEN!

Hollyn LOVES it at the beach as much as I do

We stayed at Ocean Lakes and I was in LOVE.  This place is awesome!  HUGE with loads of amenities right on the beach.  A combination of RV sites, RV rentals and individually owned little beach houses.  I spent my high school years living right on the beach in San Diego and I did not really miss it much until we spent the week in Myrtle.

Of COURSE I wanted to move there.  Kevin reminded me I want to move every place we go.......Since Pez and I get up long before hubby is interested in getting up I made my coffee and we went and walked on the beach.  We played in the ocean, swam in the pool, biked around the resort, saw a Pirate Show (similar to medieval times dinner shows), went to Ripley's Aquarium and got to pet rays and sharks, a fantastic trip!

The downside of Myrtle Beach is the drive.  Made even worse by towing a 28' travel trailer IN THE RAIN.  We will skip the part about how ugly it was backing in to the site and hooking up in the DARK and RAIN...  BUT I did make good use of the drive by finally going in and organizing all of my pictures so I can get them printed and scrapped.  I got them weeded out, grouped and even did the journaling.  Those are my big 3 road blocks to getting any scrapping done and with that out of the way I can move forward!

We went to Myrtle for the first time last year for Kevin's brother's wedding but only stayed briefly.  I told Kevin I wanted to come back for a longer stay.  Today's project is a layout of pics from LAST year's MB trip for the new coloring challenge my buddy Suzanne just posted on the CMC Classroom site:

color ANY IMAGE with

Any Colors that Inspire Thoughts of Summer

We want to see you use YOUR COPICS, ProMarkers, other alcohol markers or Colored Pencils!!

Our fabulous Sponsor for this Challenge is:

Milk Coffee Digi Designs

1 lucky winner (chosen at random) will win a $15 Gift Certificate to

spend at Milk Coffee Designs

I was really inspired by the colors of the beach cottages at Myrtle and used them to do this layout of LAST year's pics:

As always I used a Page Maps sketch - from May 2012 I think - it was a 2 page 8 1/2 x 11 but I just extended it to 12 x 12.

I chose this cute little mermaid from Milk Coffee Digis and colored her up with my colored pencils.  If you would like to learn to color with pencils OR improve your coloring with pencils check out my classes over on the CMC Classroom website!

My die cuts are from several different Designs on Cloud 9 SVG file set and cut using Make the Cut software and my Black Cat cutter.  I designed the title piece using Make the Cut software, a font on my computer, a dingbat font from Lettering Delight for the shell, and a sun from one of the Designs on Cloud 9 files.

 I hope you'll join us for the coloring challenge!

CMC is turning Three!

Hey y'all!

Well this week has flown by!  I have been very busy!  Tops on my list - Trevor got a job!  Altogether now - *HUGE sigh of relief*  In addition I am having a little girls night at my place and introducing friends to my Origami Owl business.  Then tomorrow- we're off for our first camping trip of the season!

BUT I did take some time in my insane schedule to do something special for my buddy Suzanne {Scrapbitz) to celebrate another birthday for her Color Me Creative classroom site.  We are all doing a blog hop to kick off the Birthday Bash festivities over on the site!  You should have arrived here from Julie's blog but if NOT then hop on over to Suzanne's blog and start from the beginning!

I used this cutie from Saturated Canary on an art journal page in my fve color combo of the moment - Teal and Terra Cotta:

I started by laying out some scrapbook papers and then layering on the paints!  I used both acrylic and Luminarte Silks shimmering acrylics - that's the part that GLOWS!

I finished off the background using some Gel Medium and Lumiarte Primary Elements with a stencil - positively dazzles!

My image is colored with colored pencils!

When you are done with the hop be sure to head to the classroom site and join in the fun birthday festivities Suzanne has planned for everyone!  Games, prizes, you don't want to miss it!

CMC is Three!

Now head over to see what Kim has made for today!

If you leave a comment on each DT member's blog you will be entered to win (1) of TWO crafty online store gift certificates!!!

cats - man's best friend!

hello!

Have you been to the coloring challenge over on Color Me Creative this week?  Suzanne has challenged us to color texture - like fur, wood, dirt.  I will admit it is not one of my strong suits but I gave it a shot with an adorable kitty (of course) in my art journal:

 I am working again in my new Stillman & Birn journal - it did NOT disappoint!  This thing is AMAZING!

The loads of shimmer are from Luminarte paints of course - Silks actually.  To get them to move and blend I misted my page with water first and then loaded on the Silks - NO problem for this journal!

Next I added some texture using Viva Decor crystal gel and a Crafter's Workshop stencil - more wet media and still no buckling and warping.  AND it was easier to do this than it is on other journal papers because despite the wet Silks the paper was still laying flat!

Once dry I sponged over everything with more Silks in Gold.  It has been overcast here and I have had a terrible time capturing the Luminarte sparkle for you!  In addition the Crystal Gel also has sparkle - love that stuff!  I added some finishing touches with a black pen and a gold Viva Decor Paper Pen.

My little image is from Stamp Fairy.  Stamp Fairy is also the sponsor for the CMC challenge so join in and you might win a $10 gift certificate for some of their cute images!

I have been working in the Stillman & Birn BETA series wirebound journal which is the best one for working with wet media.  They have 5 different Series or types of books in both wire bound and hardbound as well as various sizes.  In addition, a Zeta series will be released this month which will be even better for the wet media techniques I love.  If you want to learn more about them and decide which one(s) are right for you check out all the info on their website - Stillman & Birn.  I also have a Gamma Series hardbound book which is wonderful for sketching and drawing.  I don't actually work for them!  My brother caught a demo of them in his local art store and encouraged me to try them out and he was right about them - I have been hooked ever since!  You can find them in your local art stores OR if you are like me and have no art store for hundreds of miles you can order them online at Dick Blick!