Back to Scrapbooking...a Bit....

It's been so long since I've done any scrapbooking...I've been on a card making frenzy and have enjoyed every minute of that but I am seriously getting behind!  I was behind before NBG was born...now it's even worse! LOL!!!  AG will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in September and I still haven't done all the photos from his first birthday!  Don't you wish you could slow down this fast moving GAME OF LIFE!!!  I wish I could stop time for...say...a week or so so I could get caught up!  LOL!

So here's a two page layout I did earlier this week...

I did the left side of this layout at Archiver's as one of their make and takes but needed a companion page so did the right side to half way match.  I used one of my Cricut cartridges to make the squirrel...maybe it was Birthday Bash.  Wow!  I really have NO memory and I'm at my daughter's for a few days and don't have my notes!  I only did this about 3 days ago but that could have been a month ago when it comes to my memory! Haha! Sheesh!  I know I cut 3 1/2 inch circles with George and Basic Shapes! :) 

I also used the Hero Arts Friendly Flags stamp set which I LOVE!  I have used that set in other cards I've shown on my blog before.

The paper, I think, was Echo Park but again I'll have to look back when I get home!  Anyway, it was fun and at least I have 2 pages done for AG's Birthday Album! :)

Oh...and a little extra something...here is a picture of NBG...she is 6 weeks today!  This is her best impersonation of Carmen Miranda!  She had you fooled...admit it!...although really, she does look a lot like her brother the wonderful AG in this photo!

Happy Crafting!

Thanks for the Blog Awards!

Thanks to my friends, Judy at At Home Crafting with Judy, Kim at Basement Stamper, and Melissa at Created by Sunshine Honey Bee for the recent blog awards!  It's so nice to be recognized! :)

Toiling with a Doily!

Who has been using any of the doily dies out there for card making (or scrapbooking)?  I had bought a doily die from Paper Trey Ink a while back...this one is called Parisian Doily but I had yet to use it.  I decided that it was time to break it out and try it! 

I had also bought the punch out tool to help remove the teensy punched out pieces but still am not sure exactly how that is supposed to be used.  I did find (after a few attempts) that running the die through my Cuttlebug several times and even rotating the die on each pass through helped me get the best cut.

I made two cards both the same with just different background papers.  The papers I used were from Crate Paper's Portrait Collection.  The sentiment and the butterfly which were both embossed with gold Zing embossing powder were from Bevy of Butterflies by Unity Stamps.

I inked with Pumice Stone Distress Ink (Ranger) and used a little American Craft dotted ribbon. 

I love that doily die...look at the detail here:

It really is lovely, isn't it?

and here is a picture that shows the embossing...I know that you know what embossing looks like but I thought it turned out so cute!  And sometimes it's just fun to put up more than one picture! :)

Is it hot where you are????  I played tennis today for just an hour and thought I was GONNA DIE!  We have had one hot summer so far...and I think it is going to be worse tomorrow!  But I'll take the heat over cold any day....

Happy Crafting!

Fun Shaped Cards and Cricut Challenge 11: Creative Memories Stork's Delivery

Like my friend, Kim, who hangs out in her BASEMENT and was talking about this the other day, I too am a linear scrapper.  I like straight edges...it's something for me to round the edges of a card.  I do it from time to time but it really takes effort.  I like those 90 degree angles much better for the most part!

So what showed up in my inbox last Friday?  A challenge at CAS-ual Fridays for a shaped card.  Yikes...that meant probably no straight edges.  Today, one of my favorite bloggers Christina of Creations with Christina made a shaped card using her Gypsy and I thought to myself, "Self...you can do that!"

I ended up making these two little cards:

Both were made for enclosures for baby gifts.

The first one was made with cards stock scraps I had in my scrap box.  Some Core'dinations cardstock and some Bazzill were used for the little zebra.  I used a little tag I had and stamped "Sweet Baby" which is a Paper Trey Ink sentiment from the Mega Messages set. He has a little Bazzill bling for eyes.

You can see the cute little zebra a little closer here:

The image came from the Creative Memories Stork's Delivery Cricut cartridge.  I think he's just so cute!

The second one shown below was done with the Baby Steps Cartridge (another newer cartridge):

was done with Martha Stewart papers and a little white ribbon.  I think he's kind of cute, too, if I say so myself!

I had not used the Stork's Delivery Cartridge before so this is another one knocked off my Personal Cricut Challenge! Yay!!!  I will come back to this, though...it's a great cartridge and I need to look at it a bit more closely.

And my dear friends...that is it for today I think!  Hope you all are staying cool...we are having a huge heat wave in the south here....I think today is going to be worse than yesterday with temps in the mid 90s.  And of course here in Atlanta we have HUMIDITY!  It is oppressive but I try not to complain too much as I'd rather have it hot any day as opposed to that cold that some parts of this country get!

Happy Crafting!



Embossing Paste: A Finished Project

I ended up using my embossed image as a birthday card and will mail it to my sister in law whose birthday is just around the corner.  I love her so much because she is older than I....by several years if you are interested in knowing that tidbit.   I love her for other reasons, too...but that is as good a reason as any if you ask me! I'm actually the youngest in my family and I act like it, I think!  Can you tell? 

If you are interested in the how to's with the embossing paste look back to yesterday's post or click HERE

To finish the card I used DCWV Mango Frost papers, a Spellbinders file tab, Paper Trey Ink ribbon and sentiment, Splendor Pigment Inks, and a little bling I had in my stash. 
I think my much older (ok, she's probably wiser, too) sister in law will like it.
I'm also entering this in the Blogger's Challenge: Floral Frenzy which was to use some sort of floral or flower product on a card.

I actually had quite the busy crafting day...beside this card, I made two others and finished a scrapbook layout.  That's quite some output for me...the world's slowest crafter! Maybe I'll show my other things later...

Happy Crafting!

New Toys: Embossing Paste

I used to love to do dry embossing...stick a stylus in my hand, give me a brass template and a light box and I was a happy crafter!  But once the machines came out where you could emboss and die cut...well, those little brass templates just got filed away and haven't been used in a long time.

When I was at Scrapbook Expo yesterday Cyndi and I stopped at a booth where embossing with a paste was demonstrated.  It was really a pretty interesting demo and Cyndi and I were both hooked...bait, line, and sinker!  You know how it is...you see something demonstrated that looks great and then you get home and it's a disaster and NEVER turns out the way it was demonstrated!  Know what I mean?  Well, thankfully this was pretty easy to duplicate but took a little bit of trial and error for me.

The product is called Tessler Dimensional Elements and there is a website listed on the container which is http://www.tesslerstamps.com/ but I was unable to find the paste on the site.  The paste comes in two types: a clear, glossy gel and a white matte paste.

To use it you select your stencil (I used brass stencils) and postition them on your cardstock.  You want to use a removable tape to anchor it....the woman at the booth said blue painter's tape worked fine and I had some of that on hand so brought it out:

Don't try to be skimpy with the tape because it also helps protect your paper (tip from the experienced there, by the way!).

Once your template is secured you can open the tub of glop (I love that technical term!)...the kit I bought came with a little plastic applicator that looked similar to a knife.

Begin to spread the glop over the template...the more the merrier! But you really don't need a ton at your personal party here...a little goes a pretty long way!

Once you have good coverage you can use your applicator to smooth off the excess:

Remove all the pieces of tape except for the top one and then lift up your "hinged" template to make sure you have the coverage you want.  If your coverage is how you want it you can remove the brass template which should then be scrubbed with an old toothbrush and some water and mild detergent.  (The residue did come off easily but I would imagine it would be more difficult if it were dried on.)

And as you can see it left a raised embossed image.  Then you have to leave it to dry.  I am not good at letting things dry.  I always have an irresistable urge to TOUCH!  I think it took about 30 minutes to dry .  The glossy dries shiny...the white dried more matte like.

Once your item is dry you can secure the template back over your embossed image and use inks to dab in your color with small paint dabbers.  I used pigment inks so I was able to add a little glitter at the end while the inks were still wet for a little extra shine.

Here are some samples of finished images:

I would imagine you could put a small amount of the paste in another container and then add some drops of ink to color it.  I didn't try that, though...I really liked the white matte paste against the dark backround.  The trees above on the black were not inked at all. 

It was fun...and easy...and the result was really nice.  I'd definitely recommend this stuff if you can find it and feel like pulling out your old recently unused brass templates!

Happy Crafting!



Good News and Bad News!

The good news is that I got some really cool new things I hadn't seen before today at Scrapbook Expo...the BAD NEWS IS I SPENT TOO MUCH $MONEY$!!  My husband is so great because I came in...he said "Did you have fun?"  I said, "Yes it was so wonderful...crafting heaven...but I spent too much!"  He said (bless his heart), "Well, it's great you have such a passion for this!"  Isn't he the greatest?

So here is all what I hauled away....

But you want to know specifics, right? :)

So the first item is this:

A cute little plastic case for paint daubers.  We paper crafters love cute storage containers!
The next items are something I can't wait to try:

Two jars of embossing paste (one is clear and one is white), an applicator, some pigment inks, and some glitter.   You basically tape a stencil to a piece of paper, slap the paste on...let it dry and ink it up the way you want it.  I am sure it will be a huge mess when I get started but the demonstrator made it look oh so easy and oh so pretty!
Next up:

A set of stamps from Making Memories for $1.50!  I am always drawn to butterflies, dragonflies, and ladiebugs so I thought this was so cute!
Next up on my buying spree were these Spellbinders dies:

They had a promotional where you bought 3 you got one free.  I tried to pick up some I haven't seen at my local stores including those cute little file labels on the bottom left!

Next:

I got this punch/button maker...I got the flower shape. They are carrying these at Archiver's but this is my first one. It punches paper and adheres it to the epoxy shape and you have a custom button.  Too cute!

This case is a little ArtBin box that is deep enough to hold Stickles!  They sit right up in it...and like I said...we like cute containers.  Dan the Cricut Man said he is also coming out with a larger box that holds about double the Stickles that this one does.

Next:

Some pretty pink trim...can use it on layouts of N.B.G.
And then I got these...more Sew Easy heads:

Then I got a pretty shade of purple Distress Ink.

And then....

A container of Sparkly Fluff.  I was tempted to get more colors but decided to see if I use this first before investing in more!

And then....

A good sized bag of opaque black bling!  This whole bag was just $1.00!

And lastly I picked up some hair bow making doodads for N.B.G.

So it was fun but I'm exhausted from all the decision making!  I'm hoping to get to play with my new things tomorrow...we are going to my daughter and son-in-laws house to celebrate my husband's birthday tonight!

Happy Crafting!