Happy Birthday Carla!!! Surprise, we’re early!!

So, another one of our fabulous DT’s is having a birthday soon! It’s actually not Carla's birthday until July 1st, but we thought we’d trip her up and do her birthday blog hop today, because she wouldn’t be expecting it ;) We’re sneaky like that…hehehe ;) So, Happy Birthday Carla!! You’re an amazing lady so filled with talent!! I hope your day is filled with Awesome-ness :) Here’s my card for you: (you’ll have to forgive me, but I have been so busy lately I finally had time to make your card tonight (it’s 1am as I blog this) and it was a super quick one, but it’s made with love!) Oh, and I’ve been staring at this card all night trying to figure out the last little thing to finish it off and I didn’t once notice that I embossed the stinkin thing upside down!! So now, if you notice in the corner, there is a lovely little upside down 13…I’m just going to say it’s a 31, because that’s how old you are Carla…right?!?!?! I totally meant to do that!

I thought I’d try my hand at a shaped card this time too, Counterfeit Kits is challenging us to use a shape on our card or layout…I used the Quickutz gift set (gingerbread) to cut the card out (it’s a mini album cover page, cut out twice and glued together!) I’m also entering this into the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays. They want you to “get edgy” and use a border punch on your card. I used one of my new ek success punches :)

Well, Carla, I hope you have an awesome day on your birthday, and enjoy the hop!! Next stop is the fabulous Janet. Have a great day Girl!!

Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop!!

Good Morning Bloggers!! (I say morning, but only because it’s almost 1 am!! aaah!! it’s almost past my bedtime!! lol Well, this is my first time taking part in the blog hop over at Counterfeit Kits Challenge Blog and I’m pretty stoked to be joining in this month! You should’ve come here from Bethany's Blog, but if you didn’t and you want to hop along, start over at Counterfeit Kits and get hoppin!

Their challenge for us for this hop was to create a layout or mini album with the word “I” in it. So, in other words, we had to scrap about ourselves! That for me is definitely a challenge!! Anyway, this LO came together quite quickly (except for the journaling!) and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out :) I decided to journal 25 things about me (you can click on the picture to enlarge it and read the journaling if you’d like)

Some Close ups:

Here’s what I learned: Do not mist your layout when you have other pictures close to your paper! I had a different photo chosen for this layout, but I wasn’t thinking and I sprayed my paper, then realized that I sprayed my whole face on the other picture! (This pic of me was from when I was about 17 years old! it’s pretty sad that was the only other photo I had of just me in it!)

Also, paint mixed with water can spray very far when flicked onto your page, so make sure you have nothing near that you don’t want to be painted!

Decorative tape makes a great frame for your pictures and can draw your eye to your picture if you’ve got a lot of stuff going on in your LO. (Plus you don’t have to use adhesive then! I’m always looking for ways to save adhesive…I just hate spending money on it when there are so many other cool scrappy supplies I could be buying instead! lol)

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my layout! I certainly had fun making it (I just love getting my hands all inky!)

Have a great day, and happy scrapping!!

(Don’t forget to head over to Counterfeit Kits and leave a comment on their blog to win a great prize!!

 

Ooops! A little late! (Sketches in Thyme)

Hello Blog Land!! I thought I had some time for this post, but it turns out it went up a few days ago on the Sketches In Thyme blog! Ooops! Anyway, It's time for their open challenge which means you can do a layout based on any sketch and link it up to win a $20 gift certificate to
The Paper Trail. You have till the end of the month, so hurry up and get those sketches and create something!!

I used this sketch from Page Maps.

and here's what I did with it...This page was made for a friend of mine's baby shower. 2 of my really good friends just recently had babies, and for their presents I made them each a layout that I framed.

Here is Sue's baby Alexander James:

And here are some close ups:

I used the resist paper from (I think) House of Three...and cut out the flourishes and added it as a frame to the photo.

I also made a layout for my best friend Erin.

I love this layout. I think it's my favourite so far...notice the background paper? recognize the stamp of the month from Creative Accents? I stamped the whole background paper with the Hero Arts background stamp, and embossed it with clear embossing powder to make my own resist paper. Then I inked the paper with Tim Holtz Wethered Wood, and Broken China Distress Inks. I love the way it turned out!

This layout was really special to me because Erin's family is like a second family to us, so I was really glad to make this for her. I must say I had a little tear in my eye as I finished it last night...

Well, I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!!

Ps: these layouts were made using my Counterfeit Kit

Don't forget you still have time to play with us at Creative Accents Challenges!

Hope you're having a great weekend!!

Happy Father's Day!

Well it’s seems I’ve been turning into a regular old card maker these days! lol I haven’t even minded doing it either! I find that as long as I have a sketch for it, then I’m okay. I seem to wander aimlessly if I don’t have a sketch! So for this card I found a sketch over at Sketch Saturday that I used for this card:



My hubby is quite the motorbike enthusiast, so when I saw the card that Tara used for her dad’s father’s day card, I couldn’t help but use the same image, because it was perfect for him!



When I found this card in a seven gypsies atc pack, I had to buy it, because (I know this is really mushy) my hubby and I always say to each other “I love you” then he’ll say “I love you more” aaaaaaww!! lol I know *barf* hehe what can I say? sometime’s we’re just downright cheesy! The other sentiment and stamp are from CTMH.



Here’s what I learned: If you think that something is too thick to cut with the steel rule cutting dies…they probably are! I tried to cut our some super thick chipboard that I had kickin around and it cut it out, but I ended up spending the next half hour picking out little pieces out of the die, and it was so stuck in there that the clock was ruined when I tried to get it out.

When you have too many supplies, it’s hard to remember what you have! I thought for the longest time that I didn’t have any grey Copics, so I asked my aunt if I could borrow hers, and when she came over with them, I got mine out and realized I had all the same ones she did! lol it pays to check out your stash sometimes!

The Copic Spica red pen makes quite a lovely Candy Apple Red look on the motorcycle. I was quite impressed with how it turned out!

This card is also being entered into the challenge at The Paper Variety. They want you to use two or more text types in your project. I’ve got a few ;)

Well, that’s all for now :) I’m off to make some cards for my kids for “Son’s Day” (our oldest asked me why there is a father’s day, and a mother’s day, but no Son’s Day, so I think we may have started a new tradition in our family! The day after father’s day is now officially “Son’s Day”! So, happy father’s day everyone, and happy Son’s day tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday Chris!!

Hello Blog Land! So, today, 29 years ago, a very special lady was born named Christine! hehe Happy Birthday Girl!!! I made you a card, you should feel freakin special! haha! (but you won’t actually get it until after the postal strike is over…stupid mail anyway!)

So Chris likes tea and the color blue, and that is how this card came about.

I used this sketch from Graphicat Sketches to make my card…Cheri has the best card sketches ;) they ROCK! So anyway, I’m going to enter my card into her sketch challenge this month :)

Here’s my Take:

And some close ups:

Here’s what I learned:

• Kraft Glassine made by the fabulous Tim Holtz is verrrry cool stuff, you can crumple it and add perfect pearls to it, then heat it and it imbeds into the material. However, the thing about the Glassine that isn’t so cool, is that it’s very hard to get it to stick to things and to get things to stick to it. You definitely need to use a liquid glue…I used the Claudine Hellmuth matte medium and it worked, but I tried glue dots and score tape before that, and nothin!

• If you need just one sentiment out of a background stamp, why not just stamp it and cut it out?! I know it sounds kinda like a no brainer, but trust me, sometimes those no brainers get me stumped!! lol

• Goosebumps Clear Texture spray is my new fav thing! It’s this really cool spray that gives shiny texture to whatever you spray it on…very cool!

Well Chris, I really hope you like your card….I actually like it so much that I don’t want to give it to you! LMAO!! But you totally deserve it, because you’re awesome! I hope you have a fabulous day!! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOO YOUUUUU!!!

You can hop over to Carla's Blog to see what she’s got for you (although I think she’s the start of the hop, so you’ve probably already seen it! But if you’re not Chris and you want to see the amazing card that Carla made, please stop by and give her some love!

And please everyone, don’t forget to hop over to Chris's Blog and wish her a Happy Birthday!!

Ps: Everything I used here (except for the wood grain and happy birthday papers, were part of my Counterfeit Kit!

Enjoy the Journey

 

Good Evening Blog Land! Just a quick post tonight to share another journal that I made a while ago. I have to admit that I’m kinda liking the journal making. It’s a nice change and there will be more to come!

Here’s what I learned:

I love using my Tim Holtz texture hammer to smash brads and make them look all old and antique. It gives a nice shabby effect to a normal brad.

a brown paper bag die cuts nicely and adds to the grungy feel of the journal.

Well, that’s it for now, I thought I’d leave you with a cute pic of Caleb and I that I took the other morning. I just love it :)

I just love this picture!

Well, have a good night and happy scrapping!

Dreaming of summer holidays…

Good Morning bloggers!! After I made my summer add on counterfeit kit, I was totally dreaming of summer holidays and it had me inspired to create this summery layout of Caleb’s first time at the ocean.

Now, I’ve seen a ton of layouts with these awesome flower clusters, and I’ve always wanted to try one, but just never had the perfect layout for it (having 3 boys doesn’t give me the opportunity to use a ton of flowers on too many layouts!) It was rough going when I started it. I have to admit that I hated it (it was too girly! lol) but after I sprayed it with some brown glimmer mist and added some seashell buttons to grunge it up a bit, I am growing quite fond of it!

I also did a hidden journaling “book” by hinging my main pic. I’ve seen this a lot too, but just never tried it. This layout seems to be the layout for new things for me :)

Here’s some close ups:

Here’s what I learned:

My Tim Holtz scissors do a much better job of distressing the edges of cardstock than an edge distresser does.

Hinging paper together is really fussy work…but worth it. Make sure when hinging with brads not to try to make it pretty by putting the brads from the journaling cardstock on the front, because it won’t lie flat at all.

If you run out of the letter “r” on your sticker sheet, most of the time you can cut a piece off of an “n” to make your own.

Glimmer mist has a totally different look to it if you spray water on it after you’ve misted it on your paper.

I entered this layout into the challenge at Scrapbook Challenges.

Well, that’s it for today! Hoping to have some father’s day cards to show you tomorrow! We’ll see how the day goes ;)