~ SCRAPPIN PASTIME ~

How I store my punches

2011-04-24T23:24:00.000-04:00

Hello,

Storing punches is a challenge for me as I have so many of them....;) I have a few drawers that are devoted solely to punches so I store them by theme per drawer. For example one drawer is for shapes such as circles, ovals and squares, another for cut out shapes such as owls and birds, another for borders and another for flowers..... oh my, I didn't realize how many I had until just now and Im not even showing them all.... oh-la-la.

I also have a basket just for tag punches, flowers and leaves.

Since I ran out of drawer space I decided why not start show casing them on the wall...;) I found these narrow shelves that hold my Martha Stewart punches just perfectly. I like to partner up the corner edge punch with the straight punch. This way i don't forget it also has a corner punch.... if you know what i mean.

Stay tuned, more storage ideas on the way.

Cheers,

Lynn

How I store my stamps

2011-04-24T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hello Ladies,

I've taken a few pictures of how I store some of my craft products. Hope these ideas help you along the way to organization.

STAMPS:

I like to use plastic storage options to store my stamps. I use plastic folder style storage containers for my cling and mounted stamps. I really like them as they come in various depths (thin for cling & thick for rubber mounted) and I can store them by theme or type.

I also store my cling and acrylic stamps in DVD style containers. I purchased the one's below from Stampin UP. I like to store them by category, size and by theme. For example, I have five DVD cases for all my butterflies, I've labelled each as 'tiny', 'small', 'medium', 'large' and 'x-large. So when I get a new butterfly I simply place it in the appropriate DVD container.

Here I've stored them in a DVD cabinet..... wish it was bigger ;)

Here is the inside of my corner cabinet which stores a mix of the above two storage containers.

Well ladies, that's how I store my stamps. Hope this brings forth some ideas for you to organize your stamps as well.

Stay tuned, more storage ideas being posted shortly.

Later,
Lynn

Scraproom Pics

2011-04-24T15:07:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter,

Ok, well I promised you some pictures of my scraproom so here they are, finally. I took them in sections to give you a viewpoint from all directions. Here you go:

View from the entrance into my creative space:

View to the left of my work station:

View behind my scrap desk:

View looking out towards the entrance from my scrap desk:

View looking towards my right:

Now would you believe me when I say this is a pretty small room.... I can't believe how much I have been able to store in this small space. I guess a lot has to do with being organized and putting my goodies away in such a way that saves on space. I'll show you some of my space saving preferences that works best for me in my next post.

Happy Easter everyone!!

Lynn

hugs xxx

UPDATE

2011-03-10T11:20:00.001-05:00

Hi everybody,

Stay tuned for new projects being posted real soon ;)
I have finally finished arranging my new scraproom and now I can't wait to start crafting again.
New projects are in the making ( mini-albums, bird houses, tags, and some gifts ) and I can't wait to share them all with you.

Scraproom pics will be posted by this weekend so come take a peek.

Smiles,
Lynn

Wedding Gift

2010-07-25T20:22:00.002-04:00

Hi ladies,

As promised, here is a picture of my completed wedding project that I will be sending off as a gift.

Im very pleased with the outcome and looking forward to more crafting next week....... so come back to see what else I've gotten myself into....

Have a great week all!!

HUGS,
Lynn

Wedding Easel Card

2010-07-25T20:09:00.002-04:00

Hi Ladies,

As promised, I managed to complete the wedding card tody, at the expense of laundry and cleaning.......hehehehe oh well gotta have fun once in a while.

So here is the wedding card that goes with the picture frame. I went with an easel card to be able to incorporate two things related to weddings, a cake and a garter belt.

I had recently watched a tutorial by Laura Denison from 'The Paper Trail' on how to make her Wedding Mini Album and thought about making a wedding card using some of her pages. You have to check Laura out if your into envelope and mini albums as she is the best out there in my opinion. You can find her at:

http://followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com/ or click here to go straight to her wedding mini album.

The cake layers are actual pockets to insert a tag containing a message. If you look closely you see that I have added pearls to the top and bottom tag and flowers to the middle tag. This makes it easier to pull the tags out.

Here is what it looks like with the tags pulled out from the pockets.

And here are tags out of the pockets.

I liked the idea of a garter belt as when making an easel card you need to put something down to hold the front of the card up. So it only made sense to add a garter belt... but how? Well I improvised, I put a strip of sticky glue down and added ruffle ribbon across and then added another strip just above it and turned the ribbon around and added another row. Then I added a very shinny pretty ribbon in the middle and Voila - a garter belt.

Oops almost forgot, I used craft cardstock and inked the edges and surface of the paper with 'vintage photo' distress ink. I also punched the top of the card for a more dainty look.

And once again, just because I love it so much, my wedding easel card.

Hope you enjoyed this card as much as I did making it.

I'll get a picture of both the wedding picture frame and the card together and post it shortly.

See ya,

Lynn XX

Wedding Picture Frame

2010-07-25T18:29:00.002-04:00

Hello ladies,

I have a beautiful and easy project to share with you today, it's an altered picture frame.
A co-worker of mine is getting married and I wanted to make something special for her. I can't believe how pretty this turned out. I will have to make one for myself now, it's a good thing I bought 2 picture frames.... Lol!

I really had no idea what I was going to do with the frame but knew that I had to start by covering the frame in gesso. I then decided that I wanted a vintage look so I turned to my crackle paints and chose 'tattered rose' color. I applied a thin coat and let it dry for a few minutes and then quickened the drying process with my heat tool, too impatient. I repeated the process once again and got the texture I was going for, Love it!

I liked the effect but wanted it to have a shine effect so I applied an irredescent medium water color with a paint brush over the whole frame....WOW!! just gorgeous. I dabbed some gold ink around the edges of the frame to give it a more vintage look as well.

Ok now the frame was painted, onto the next step. I fiddled around with some ribbon and decided to go with a turquoise rose ribbon as it fit well on the frame and had a vintage look I was going for. I felt it needed something else so I added a fushia color prima flower in the center.... perfect!

I wanted the picutre to stand out so I also added a very delicate dainty ribbon with little roses around the center frame.

I decided I wanted to have something that represented a bouquet of flowers and I just happen to have a little bundle of blue flowers tied together. I added two white feathers and some wedding bling behind the flowers for more volume. I made a bow of blue and gold ribbon and glued it all down. Voila, a beautiful bouquet for a beautiful bride.

I added rings across the bouquet to signify marriage and then inserted a vintage bride picture to complete the picture frame.

I really enjoyed making this stunning frame and can't wait to give it to a very beautiful young bride.

Stay tuned, as the wedding card is next.

Bye for now ;)

Lynn

Baptism Card

2010-07-24T13:50:00.001-04:00

Hi girls,

Here's a beautiful angel baptism card I made last week for my cousin.

I can't take credit for the idea as I got it from a utube video. You can check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/user/vadeler. She demonstrated how to make the angel for a christmas card but I thought it would be perfect for a baptism card as well.

The angel was made from 3 Stampin UP (SU) punches - large scallop oval, 1-3/4circle and the large tag punch. I used SU 'shimmering white' cardstock for the gown and sleeves and some white glitter paper for the wings and clowds. I used SU 'vanilla' cardstock for the face and hands and inked around the edges with 'more mustard' craft ink. I used SU 'more mustard' cardstock for the hair and the skirt of the gown.

I took a gold inked pen and outlined the edges of the wings, gown and sleeves to make it more church like. I also added a tiny gold cross in the center of the gown. I colored the cheeks with SU pink chalk color.

I didn't have the SU 'boho blossoms flower punch' at the time (definately on my next SU order) so I used a small flower punch and cut it in half to make the hands...came out nice regardless.

I then embossed a baby blue cardstock in a pokadot embossing folder for my background. I inked and distressed the edges and then adhered it to another blue tone cardstock. I then glued it all to a white card and inked all the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

I cut a strip of white and yellow ribbon that matched the colors of the angel and made a double bow.

Now for the inside of the card, I cut a baby blue color cardstock and inked the edges in vintage photo distress ink and distressed them as well. I then cut another cardstock about 1/2" smaller, punched out the corners with a decorative corner punch and inked all the edges in blue distress ink. I then used a finger dabber and ever so gently rubbed the white cardstock with the blue distress ink just to give it a little shade, like clouds.

I cut out a large oval scallop in the same baby blue cardstock for the background of my oval cut baptism poem. I used a simple technique to get this aged look. I printed the poem onto a piece of photocopy paper, crumpled it up and then carefully flattened it out without removing all the crumples. I then used a finger dabber with a mix of vintage photo and old paper distress ink. Once I liked the look I then turned it over and ironed out the wrinkles. I then inked the edges with vintage photo once again to give a more detailed outline.

I added a shear blue and gold ribbon to the top of the frame. A beautiful vintage look!

Now for the back of the card. I did the usual, stamped an image in versamark and poured clear embossing powder.

I wanted to add a cross to the card so I added it to the back. I cut out a cross from a cardstock that had cross images on it and then I inked it up with versamark. I then poured clear Utee embossing powder and heat embossed. I kept adding the Utee until the cross was evenly covered.

And now for the envelope. I wanted to keep a vintage look so I inked up my medallion stamp in SU 'more mustard' and/ taken with teal' ink color and stamped the left corner of the envelope.

I made a tissue paper flower by cutting approximately 12 circles out of blue tissue wrapping paper. I crumpled them all up individually and the carefully opened them and layed them one on top of each other. I then inked the edges randomly and then sprayed white glimmer mist over it. So beautiful!!

I then stamped the back of the envelop opening in the same color using another vintage looking stamp.

And finally, I inked the edges of the envelope in 'teal blue' ink.

Back with more cards real soon!!

Enjoy your weekend.

Lynn xx

MEDALLION CARD

2010-07-24T11:04:00.003-04:00

Hi ladies,

I made my first medallion card using the medallion stamp by STAMPIN UP.
This mediallon stamp is so beautiful I can't wait to make more cards now.

I used three different ink colors and applied them to the stamp with an ink finger dabber. Once my color was applied to the stamp I huffed on it to moisten the ink a little and then stamped my image. Cool effect!
I then inked the edges of the cardstock and distressed it with my finger. I matted the image onto a contrasting color and then adhered it to the card base.

I added a pretty flower in the center of the card and a butterfly on the right corner. Now the card has dimension and pops out......love it!

I used a sizzix's label die and stamped my greeting. I punched out a few tiny butterflies out of glitter paper to give more color and dimension.

I inked all around the edges of the card and decided that I wanted to do something with the backside.

I inked up a flourish stamp, which works well with the medallion image, in versamark and stamped .
I poured sparkling white embossing powder over the versamark ink and heat set it.... and Voila!

Hope this card inspires you, come back for more fun using the medallion stamp from Stampin UP.

Bye for now ;)

Lynn

UPDATE

2010-06-10T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

Just an update to let you know that I have been really busy working on other projects these past few weeks and haven't had time to devote to crafting. Actually not entirely true as this past week I have had a huge change regarding my pastime hobby and that involved relocating my 'craft space' from the basement corner up into a spare room which seemed to only be collecting unused gym equipement.....?

Now I have a room all to myself and just for crafting. I'm so pleased with this decision and can't wait to be all settled in and start crafting again. And as for the gym moving into the basement, well we may actually use the machines down there.....or so we think....lol!

Anyways, just wanted to drop a note and say that I will be back by next week with more crafting projects to share with you.

Have a nice weekend!

HUGS
Lynn

BABY JUMPER CARD

2010-05-15T19:17:00.000-04:00

Well it's Saturday and raining again...what to do?.... make some cards - Yippee!

A coworker just had a baby girl so I decided to make a baby jumper card that I had once seen on a utube video. I remembered the idea so I just went for it I have to say it turned out really cute.

I started with a regular 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card and used my 1 3/8" circle punch to make the collar and leg openings. I then punched out scallop circles with a 2" punch and then used a 1 /3/8" punch to end up with a round hollow scallop circle. I glued them to the openings and then just cut off the excess. I added some glitter here and there- of course, and then tied a bow around the waiste. I finished by adding a few pink pearls.

Hope it inspires you to create one too!!

Have a great weekend all!

Hugs xx

Butterfly Tag

2010-05-01T19:02:00.002-04:00

Well I've been having some fun lately and all because I've had some time to scrap. I figured the best way to test out new techniques was to do them on tags. That way if I mess it up it's not so bad and I can start over.
So here is my first technique - ink resist. I stamped a beautiful butterfly in white ink and embossed it with clear sparkling embossing powder. I then applied a few different colors of distress ink all over the tag and simply wiped off the ink on my butterfly to reveal the white. It was easy and quick.

I added some ribbon and a flower that I retouched with glitter and glimmer mist. Since this side of the tag was so pretty I just couldn't stop there.... so I also did the other side...lol!!

I added a flower on this side too! Just love butterflies..... so pretty.

The tag now belongs to lovely Leigh-Ann who also has a passion for butterflies.... will have to make more!!

Have a nice day all,

Lynn

Hugs xx

Tilda with a Rose

2010-04-30T22:11:00.002-04:00

Oh my, I am totally in love with the MAGNOLIA STAMP collection. It features angel characters and my favorite right now is Tilda. I found out that since she is an angel she doesn't have a mouth because angels speak from the heart.... I didn't know that.

My challenge was not only to create a card with my first Tilda stamp image but to use my copic markers for the first time too. I have to be honest, they really intimidated me at first, still do but not a much now that I tried them out. I attempted to do some shading and it worked here and there but I need to practice it more.

My first Magnolia stamp is Tilda with a Rose. I used glitter to add sparkle to some areas like her stockings, hairbow and wings. I cut out the rose part and replaced it with a paper flower for added dimension...... I love the way it turned out...... hope you do too!!

Onto the next card now.... come back soon to check out my progress.

Have a nice weekend,
Lynn xxx

Skateboarder Tag

2010-04-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

Hi ladies,

Here's a distress tag I created for my son birthday using the 'Extreme Skateboard' stamp from Stampin Up.
This stamp is so cool and perfect for the distress look I was going for. I played around with black embossing powder to acheive a streak effect that intensified the skateboard illusion.... love it!

I also created a pouch out of an envelop to go with the tag. I distressed it with the same colors of the tag and embossed silver stars as the embellishment.

My son loved it as I had also added sparkling green chipboard numbers on the backside of the tag revealing a phone number. He was confused but when he understood that it was a 'his' new phone number he was estatic...... this gift was a huge success!!

More to come, stay tuned.

Lynn :)

Easel Card

2010-03-08T11:12:00.002-05:00

Hi,

I almost forgot, I have another card to share with you. My neighbor's daughter is turning 11 years old so I took the opportunity to try out my card making skills again. This is my second hand made card. My first card was a true challenge (Wedding Card) so this one should be a little easier..... lol!

I decided to go with an easel card, simple enough and I had a cupcake in mind as my focal point.

I used kraft card stock as my base and then layered a fushia rose color cardstock on the top and on the inside of the easel card.

I punched out the corners of a smaller piece of designer paper and applied stickles to each corner. I cut out a scallop circle on purple cardstock and then a smaller one in white and inked the edges in pink. I stamped the cupcake image on the white scalloped circle and then again on a scrap piece of paper. I colored in the cupcake and did the same on the extra one but only on the topping as I then cut it out, applied foam stickers to the back and aligned it on top of the my colored picture. This adds dimension to the picture and with a little more glitter glue (stickles) to accent the cream topping and hearts makes it all the more yummy looking.

To make the easal card stand up straight I alligned a Happy Birthday (Bonne Fete) banner 3/4's down the inside with foam glue dots to raise the banner a little. This way the easal card front is blocked and sits against the banner. I stamped the saying in light violet and then applied the same color tone embossing powder over it and heat embossed it. I then inked the whole banner with light violet distress ink.

I finished the bottom with a beautiful punch border and sprayed shinny glimmer mist to make it sparkle.

Hope you like it.

Lynn :)

Page 4

2010-03-08T10:44:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

I have one more scrapbook page to post today and share with you and then I'm back in my scrappin room ready to challenge a new layout..... not sure what it will be so come back soon and be surprised.

This scrapbook page is titled 'Silly' for obvious reasons.... Kassidy had this thing about taking off a sock and for some bizarre reason putting it in his mouth...... to make me laugh no doubt. Check out the huge smiles on his face in these pics.... just adorable!!

I started off with a dark green cardstock base then glued a felt material frame around the page. Actually this piece was the negative part of a frame that I kept and didn't throw out.... I figured I could use it somehow and voila.... it's perfect for this layout. I chose a piece of patterened designer paper in lighter green shade and cut it into 3 strips and spaced them out across the background paper for an added dimension. I used baby blue cardstock to frame the photos.

I used cardboard chip letters in various sizes and mounted them on using pop up foam stickers.

This was another really fun and easy page to work on. Now I'm off onto creating my next scrapbook page so make sure to check out my blog again soon for new postings.

Have a nice week eveyone!
Lynn

Page 3

2010-03-08T09:18:00.003-05:00

Hi all,

Here's a scrapbook page that was really fun to do. I had cut out a picture about a year ago of an elephant taking a bath and thought it was so cute that I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a scrapbook page one day. Well that day has finlly come and Im really happy how it turned out.

The elephant was sitting in a cute red tub but I couldn't get a picture of Kass in a tub beside it so I traced the tub out onto a piece of green cardstock, doubled the length of the tub so that there was enough room for both of them in tub.... too cute.

I rubbed green distress ink over the tub to give it an aged look.I then applied liquid applique to the rim of the tub to look like bath foam spilling over the rim. I had a wave made out of glittered chipboard so I just had to use it somewhere on this page and it fit perfectly in the center of the tub. I also had a piece of material that I cut into a little square and added it to the picture as a little towel hanging off the bathtub rail. I also cut into the picture, you'll notice Kass is holding onto the tub. I simply cut around his hand and then glued it to the tub. Cool effect!!

When thinking of the layout which only started with an elephant in a tub I thought back to when Kass was taking baths in my first home. We had shower curtains back then so I decided to hand draw curtains on a 12x12 yellow piece of cardstock and then cut it out using scallop scissors. I then did the same process with designer paper and layered it with foam backing and placed it on top of the yellow cardstock for added dimension. I inked the edges in brown distress ink and made it pop out even more. My main background was a light blue piece of cardstock. I wanted to duplicate the bubbles around the elephant so I took a circle shape stamp and inked it in blue and white to get the bubble effect onto the page. I also had a few bubbles made out of plastic so I randomly placed them on the page.

This page was a lot of fun bringing it all together. Hope it inspires you to get creative and come up with new ideas.

See ya,

Lynn :)

Wedding Card

2010-03-07T20:48:00.005-05:00

Hi,

A coworker viewing my scrapbook album convinced me to take a challenge and make a wedding card for her. As a new scrapper I had not yet touched cardmaking but was interested so I took the challenge. I had previously downloaded a paper piecing SVG file of a wedding couple and thought I would give it a try.

To be honest, it was not an easy challenge as I was now tackling two never done before projects: cardmaking and paper piecing. It was time consuming but actually not so bad once I overcame my panic of OMG what did i get myself into....LoL!

I had a white wedding embossed cardstock already on hand so I started there and then rubbed yellow distress ink over the back and front of the card to give it some color as the bride was already mostly in white. I used my cricut machine to cut out the images from the svg paper piecing files and then glued all the pieces together. I also cut out a wedding arch and placed the bride and groom in the center.

You can't really see it here but I added white liquid pearls to the grooms tux making it look like suede, very beautiful. I added white crystal glitter to the ruffle at the bottom of the bride's dress and finally I added flower soft over the brides bouquet giving it a more textured and raised effect.

Now that the card was completed i figured out that there still was a challenge left for me to tackle..... the envelope.What I did is look for an envelope on hand that the card would fit into. I then carefully pulled the envelope apart and used it as a template. I drew the envelope on a yellow color cardstock to complement the card. I used a wedding tag purchased at the dollar store scrapping section and glued it to the front of the envelope.

I tied a silk pink ribbon around the card and since the front was so pretty I couldn't leave the back bare so I decided to do something there too. I added a glitter foam flower to the point of the envelope closure and cut off the remaining petails. I added little silver flowers to add more interest.

And voila!, after having faced all these challenges, the time and dedication put into it, and how pretty the card turned out I had a really hard time parting with it. I'll take the time again soon and make another like it. Thanks Amy, I couldn't have taken this on without you having confidence in me.

Lynn ;)

Page 2

2010-03-07T18:49:00.058-05:00

Hi again,

This scrapbook page actually belongs to Baby Album #1 and I will be inserting it there but I wanted to share the page with you regardless so I'm listing it here for you to view it.

This page is quite simple but very sweet. I added glimmer spray to the blue cardstock to give it a shinny effect and then cut it back a quarter inch on all sides and adhered it to a 12x12 yellow cardstock to match to photo mats I made. I inked all the edges of the cardstock in brown distress ink. I used this technique as well on my photo mats.... see below.

Sorry, I can't rotate this pic for some reason but you see the distressed inked edges quite well from this angle. I also used a scallop border punch to edge the bottom of my photo mats to

give them a more dainty look.

I adhered the pics onto a silk baby blue pokadot cardstock, scalloped two sides and then added a soft flower ribbon to the top and bottom of the center page. A few glitter embelishments here and there in the same color sequence only complimented the overall page.

More scrapbook pages on the way,

Lynn

Page 1

2010-03-07T17:37:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone,

I know, it's been way too long since my last posting, sorry about that - I can't believe how times flies....

Well now I'm back and with a few new scrap album pages to share with you. Hope you enjoy them!!

This is a beautiful photograph of Kassidy on his baptism day.

I went with a white glitter cardstock base and then added a silk textured patterned paper on top and cropped it down by cutting all sides with scallop scissors.

I wanted the picture in a blue sparkly frame to match the white glitter base cardstock so I inked the cardboard frame in a blue tint and then poured blue glitter embossing powder and heat embossed it.

I cut a felt flower in half, added stickles to the white leaves and adhered it to the frame with glue dots. I added two more small flowers which are glittered foam sticker flowers (love them) and added a metal flower on top and a butterfly brad in the middle.... very cute. The letters are from a few different patterned alphabet chipboard packages I purchased at the local dollar store.

Simple page but captivating.........

Stay tuned as I have a few more pics to post. Please leave me a comment and email me if you have any questions.

Lynn :)

Baby Album - Page 13

2009-09-07T14:26:00.095-04:00

Page 13 will be the final page of my Baby Album #1. I couldn't find a better way to end this album than with an angelic picture of my baby boy.

I was able to find a 12x12 cloud background made out of vellum but it was so thin I had to adhere it to a piece of cardstock. Making it stick to the cardstock was a challenge but after applying a few glue dots on top of vellum tape it took hold. It did raise in some areas but that was ok as it just gave more dimension to the clouds.

I added the title "My Angel" with glitter letter stickers and added a gold and red swirl embellishment to the top center of the cardstock. I had some white glitter flowers (of course) so I used them as clouds for added dimension.
I then started working on my little angel. I took a 4x6 christening picture and added 2 angel wings to each side. For the halo I used a crystal gem frame.
I wanted to include a poem so I wrote one up on my computer and printed it off on cardstock. I changed the colors to match my layout with distress ink.I cut out a scrolled frame and stuck the poem on top. I outlined the edges with a silver marker and added a few gold gems and an angel charm as embellishments. I adhered the picture and poem onto a delicate piece of lace paper. I tied it all together by adding a silver cyrstal gem frame to the bottom corner. I finished the page off by adding a large white glitter flower and a smaller dark blue flower to the center.

Well this now completes Baby Ablum #1.
I hope you enjoyed the album and picked up a few ideas along the way to help you start or complete your own.

I will be posting other projects as well which are focused on stamping and cardmaking, so stay tuned!

Baby Album - Page 12

2009-09-07T14:02:00.003-04:00

Page 12 of the baby album, is a collection of pictures of my son's first few weeks. I had them digitally formated, grouped together and printed out as 8x10 picture.

I framed the picture on a lime green colored cardstock, applied green distress ink around the edges and then carefully tore each side of the cardstock to give it a distress look. I cut a flower in half and added it to the top right corner of the frame.

I then adhered the framed picture onto a 12x12 light blue pokadot cardstock with scalloped edging. I found some ribbon that matched my pokadot cardstock and I added 2 glitter flowers in the center of the ribbon. I positioned the ribbon on the left side of my picture frame.

Now for the grand finale, I framed each individual picture with guess what... GLITTER!!, yes my addiction is now in the open... there's no stopping me now.

Baby Album - Page 11

2009-09-07T11:56:00.047-04:00

Page 11 of the baby album is a full 8x10 picture of my son Kassidy framed onto 2 pieces of cardstock.

I first framed the picture about a 1/2 inch larger than the picture itself on a light green cardstock. I wanted the frame to pop out and not just be a solid color so I used a couple of distress ink colors and inked all around the edges of the frame. Then I took a stamp and inked it in versamark (clear and sticky like glue) and then stamped the edges of my frame. I added white shimmery embossing powder all over and heat embossed the edges.

I followed the same embossing process for the 12x12 baby blue cardstock and now both cardstocks flow well together. I cut out my son's name with my electric alphabet cutter, then applied glue with a very thin glue stick and poured glitter all over the letters. I added a few gem stones under the corner page to give it that final touch. Love it!!

I just happened to have a bow that had the same embossed looked as my cardstocks so I added it to the left bottom corner of my picture frame and added a glittered flower to the center, so cute.

I really wanted to add some flowers to the layout but wanted to keep it 'boyish' so I bunched a couple of white, blue, yellow and brown flowers together, added glitter onto the darker ones, and much to my surprise it didn't look girlish at all. Just adorable!!

Baby Album - page 10

2009-09-07T10:34:00.012-04:00

Well, it's evident now, I like to have both pages that face open in my album to coordinate with one another. So since I titled page 9 ' A Star is Born' and '3rd Week of Stardom', it was only clear that page 10 would be filled with stars.

I chose a cardstock background filled with stars and added three 4x6 pictures. I rounded off the edges of each photo and fit perfectly on the 12x12 cardstock. I then added some foam and plastic stars and added glitter all over them, the more the better... ;)

Since I hadn't framed the pictures due to the space limitations, I added glitter to the bottom of each picture to outline them a bit. I then also added silver crystal swirly corner frame (not sure what you call it) to the center picture and this was the final touch to my page. Since I had also added one of these on page 9 facing the other way, both pages are now in sinq with one another.

Here's a view of pages 9 and 10 together.

Baby Album - Page 9

2009-09-06T23:34:00.009-04:00

In 1999, a professional photographer came over to my home and took a few pictures of my 3rd week old son. So for $100 I got about six 3x5 pictures. I couldn't afford more back then but at least I got a few nice pictures. With today's technology, I was able to scan those small pictures onto my computer and turn them into beautiful 4x6 photographs. I even made an 8x10 which you'll see on another upcoming page.

Page 9 was done very differently than my earlier pages. I used a digital processing method to compute the pictures and that became my page layout.

I adhered the digital picture frame to a patterned cardstock, rounded the edges and used a design punch in each corner to give it a little bit of elegance. I then glued it to another cardstock that was light blue but I added some texture to it by applying blue distress ink and softly blending the darker color in circular motions over the cardstock. This gave a cloud effect which softened the background. I then added a few stars randomly around the picture frame and of course I added glitter all over them.

I felt the picture frame needed something else to pop off the page, so I added a silver crystal corner frame to the left side of the pictures and that just completed it to my liking.

Now the bottom part was just right to place a title so I used my electronic cutter to cut out 'A STAR IS BORN'. I inked each letter with a different pigment ink color and then poured clear embossing powder over each letter and heat embossed them. Now their all shinny like glitter, love it!

I truly love this page, just adorable!!

Baby Album - Page 8

2009-09-06T19:45:00.006-04:00

Page 8 of the baby album is where my true love for glitter becomes apparent. Everything on this page is accented with glitter. To begin, I chose a dark blue glitter cardstock background to reflect night-time as this is a picture of my little boy asleep.

I had a cute little paper bag with the picture of a teddy bear asleep on a pillow resting on the moon. I decided to cut it out and add a picture of my son asleep on the pillow. It was perfect, so I continued the page layout by adding clouds, stars and a little poem.

I found a few clouds made out of thin wood as embellishments but they needed something to stand out as I found them dull looking. Glitter to the rescue... I added glitter all around the edges and gently rubbed more glitter on the inside of the clouds to give them that shimmering look.

I added a few more stars, some made out of foam and others felt and rubbed glitter all over them. I wanted to add a little poem to my page since my baby was sleeping amongst the stars. So I wrote a poem on my computer and printed it out on colored cardstock. I added it to different cardstock color paper and rubbed glitter all around the edges so that it blended in with all the other glitter elements on the page. Love it!!

I also outlined the moon in yellow glitter as the final touch to this page. My affection for glitter was now full blown and I just had to go out and buy it in every color possible...... I'm now officially addicted to glitter!!

Baby Album - Page 7

2009-09-06T13:48:00.009-04:00

Wow, I finally now appear in page 7 of the son's baby Album. The cardstock I chose was baby blue in background and had an assortment of colored flowers. I colored in a few more flowers myself just to give it a little more brightness.

I added a transparency frame over the picture and adhered it together with vellum tape. Then I inked a light pink felt swirl with a darker pink color and then rubbed glitter all over it. I added a few plastic flower embellishments onto the swirl and a glitter flower in the center. I then added a few flowers on top of each other attached with a brad and adhered to the top left corner of the picture frame. So sweet!

I added a rub-on title 'You & Me' as the final touch to my picture frame.

Page 8 is soon to follow, stay tuned!

Baby Album - Page 6

2009-09-06T12:13:00.003-04:00

The Easter theme is continued on page 6 of the baby Album. The background paper is busy with big colorful Easter eggs. I had a few Easter embellishments I wanted to add so in order to make them stand out I added a few foam dimensionals to the back to raise them off the background paper, makes them pop off the page.....so cute!

I framed two 4x6 pictures by simply adhering them to glittered cardstock and rounded off the edges with a corner rounder tool. I then added a strip of ribbon with writting on it that says 'It's a boy' to the top picture and a baby blue ribbon to the bottom picture frame which easily completes these 2 beautiful pictures.

Since the creation of my first album page I purchased a few more tools including a personal electronic cutting machine which allows me to cut beautiful designs and alphabets by simply using my computer and a software program I purchased seperately. I entered the letters 'My Baby' and welded them together which is an option the program provides. I then outlined the letters using a white gell pen and rubbed glitter over the letters to make them stand out a little more. Just adorable!!

I also added blue glitter to the little bunny embelleshments to make them look more boyish. The little duckling in the egg below was a girl but I simply changed that to a boy by adding a little blue bow to the side of the head. Now it's a boy duckling, perfect.

Well this now completes page 6 of the baby album. Here's a view of both pages 5 and 6 together.

Baby Album - page 5

2009-09-06T01:08:00.006-04:00

My baby boy was born on Easter Sunday so page 5 and 6 of the baby album are dedicated to an Easter theme.

The cardstock was a little too busy for what I was going for so I decided to keep the outside squares and adhere a plain baby blue cardstock to the middle of the page. The Easter squares now act as a frame and outline my page just beautifully.

This page calls for an applause as I managed to pull off an embossing technique on my first try. The picture frame below was a regular unfinished chipboard piece. I inked it first with blue 'pigment' ink and then sprinkled embossing powder over the frame and heat embossed it, twice. The result was magical. I would have paid good money for a gorgeous frame like this..... but didn't :)

Next I took a 'shipping tag' and adhered it to a piece of pale cardstock. I then applied light green distress ink over the cardstock to give it another look. I tied a ribbon at the top and then attached a baby greeting sticker in the middle of the tag. Just lovely!

A few more little embellishments (rub on words, flowers, crown and tag) were added and this page to make it a simple yet beautiful page.

Onto page 6 now....

Baby Album - Page 4

2009-09-06T00:33:00.013-04:00

Welcome to page 4 of my baby scrapbook album.
This page will also be placed alongside page 3 so I used another coordinating background page but cut it down, inked the edges with silver ink and then pasted it onto a blue cardstock to keep the theme with page 3.

I used my computer to write my sons name, date, time, place and weight of birth. I cut out the edges with wavy scissors and then inked the edges with a silver marker. I added a gold and silver ribbon and placed a few shinny stars around it. I placed a 4x6 picture of my son in his hospital incubator and afixed his medical wrist band inside the picture frame.

I added a few white flowers but they didn't stand out enough so I took a baby blue ink pad and rubbed the flowers in the ink to make them blue and added white glitter around the center to make them pop out more.... so easy.

I then cut out a cute giraffe made out of thin plastic material and added glitter to the feet, ears and chest. This altered the image to the effect I was looking for.

Hope this page inspires you, and now onto to page 5.

Baby Album - Page 3

2009-09-05T23:43:00.004-04:00

Page 3 of my baby album is showing off my beautiful baby boy!
I added two 4x6 pictures on a 'Boy Meets World' cardstock background... just perfect.

Just about everything is blue on this page but all the different color contrasts make it work. I cut out the image of a stork from a card I received and added it to the page, love it! I also cut out the word 'BOY!' from a wall hanging banner. 'IT'S A BOY!'

I added a few baby bows and glitterd flowers, and there it is, page 3 of my baby album.

Baby Album - page 2

2009-09-05T22:25:00.009-04:00

Here is page 2 of the Baby album. I wanted to have two pregnancy scrapbook pages side by side in the album so I left the first page blank to be used later on. My thoughts are to write a 'Dear Baby' letter and insert it on the first page of the album.

I used an owl paper background and added 3 pictures, all of my pregnant belly :).
I added a few flowers, some glitter to accent and a few rub-ons for text. Since this page is going beside the first in my album I wanted to ensure they displayed well together.

I rubbed on glitter with my fingers on the flower stems to make them shiny. I think this is when I started getting addicted to glitter.... you'll see what I mean in the scrapbooking pages to come.

Here I added glitter on this plain silver frame, yes the glitter addiction is definately becoming evident, and a little owl embellishment with more glitter of course.

Voilà, my first two pages on pregnacy are now done. Here's what pages 1 & 2 both together look like. I love it!!

Baby Album - page 1

2009-09-05T21:43:00.011-04:00

So here it is, my first scrapbooking page. Please know that I have never attended a course or received any training other than watching tutorial videos online. Since this page, I have acquired more knowledge on various techniques and have of course purchased the tools and supplies needed to enhance my scrapbooking pages. As the Baby Album progresses you will notice more detail and I will be able to share these techniques with you.

After some thought on how to present the first page in the baby album I decided to go with the obvious, a few pics of me pregnant. Since I didn't know whether I was having a boy or a girl I decided to go with that as my theme. Therefore, I split my 12 x 12 page in half and devoted one side for 'Girl' and the other 'Boy'.

I used pink and blue baby cardstock for my background, added chipboard letters to spell out 'Girl' and 'Boy' in various colors and sizes. I also added some glitter to bring out the design on the chipboard.

I positioned two 4x6 picitures and added 3 paper flowers on top of each other for added dimension and attached all together with a brad. I added a silk ribbon on top of two glittered flowers for interest and added a few little colored plastic flower shapes on the top of the page above the title and around the bottom picture frame just to make it stand out a little more.

I completed the page with a few word rub-ons and a glittered swirl at the bottom for more dimension.

All products used were acid free and purchased at my local discount store. Stay tuned, more pages to be posted very soon.

Scrapbooking - My Story

2009-09-05T20:01:00.001-04:00

Alright, so here's my story as to how I came upon scrapbooking and why it has become a passion for me and my all time favorite pastime. About 8 months ago, I finally decided to start working on my child's baby album, who is now 10 years old. I know, my bad!, but time has just gone by so quickly... but never too late, right. So I started shopping for baby albums and came across some strange ones, they were 12 x 12 pages and I had no clue what they were for so I asked and that's when I found out about 'scrapbooking'.

Oh boy, the next thing you know I was searching the internet for everything I could find on scrapbooking and I was just fascinated by it all. I spent every moment I could spare watching Yahoo videos on scrapbooking tutorials teaching the basic techniques used to enhance pages and so much more. So now all I needed was to print out some pictures and go shopping for supplies.......so much fun!!

From the very moment I sat down and started to create my first page with all the beautiful cardstocks, glitters and embellishments at hand I fell into a 'trance' and would craft for hours on end. I found a new passion and just love it!!

My love for scrapbooking is not only for the beautiful end result created but very much for being able to retreat from the everyday stresses of life and just relax. I easily lose sense of time and hours pass quickly because I'm having so much fun.

So what am I up to these days? Well, I have completed a few scrapbooking pages for Kassidy's baby album (pictures will be added below shortly), and have found that I am very drawn towards cardmaking and stamping. That's how I found out about the company Stampin' UP who offer an exclusive line of decorative rubber stamp sets and accessories for home décor, greeting cards, craft projects, and scrapbooking.

Stampin UP products are not sold in a retail stores and after consideration I decided to join their team and become a demonstrator. Right now, it's a mere hobby but I am slowly moving towards growing this into a little business.

Please follow me along this exciting journey and you will see how easy it is to not only create beautiful projects but how much fun your having along the way!!

A few pics

2009-08-31T20:53:00.008-04:00

Hi all,
I will be downloading a few scrapbooking images next weekend so stay tuned :)

This is my first blog setup and I am learning via a trial & error process. I am pleased to have finally figured out how to post and add images/pictures below so here are a few pics of my scrapbooking models.....

Jazzy - my little princess

Romeo - also known as 'trouble'

Kass - mommy's boy

Introduction

2009-08-23T00:02:00.001-04:00

Hello,

I am so excited to start sharing my passion of creative scrapping with all of you.

My blog is new and currently under construction so please come back for a visit soon as I will be updating it as much as possible in the coming weeks.

Looking forward to scrapping with you!!