Am I Done or Not?

As I've mentioned before...I am a very slow scrapbooker.  I can spend hours and hours fussing with a layout.  I don't complain though because I don't mind.  I love fussing around with things...adding things...taking them away...trying other things...moving things around.  Matting...unmatting...inking, cleaning up ink.  I also admit I spend a lot of time locating things (which are usually right in front of my face!)...
but again...I love just about every single second of creating...and if it takes me hours and hours...well, so be it.
Sometimes I leave a layout and then come back the next day and finish it off.  Sometimes things might not look quite done to me but with a fresh eye I'm often happy with the result.
I worked on this layout on Sunday and think I'm done.  I may play around with a few more embellishments but I think I'm pretty happy with the look.
I used a bunch of different things on this layout of my cute grandson being all serious about something.  I love this photo I took of him.  He's not angry here...and only had this expression on his face for a few seconds but I loved it and just knew I had to scrap this photo.  Here is my layout:

Most of the paper was from the Close to My Heart pack called Elemental. I also used Techniques Tuesday stamps for the word "Sweet" and  Unity stamp that say "You Make Me Smile" and also one that has tiny hearts on it. I used some paint on the CTMH arrow and bracket, some CTMH buttons, a CTMH star stamp, a Spellbinders sign hanging thingy and some off white cardstock.  I also used the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to cut that tag out.  I love mixing prints and colors on layouts...it is easier when you use papers from a certain line as these papers are designed to coordinate.

So there you go...I think it is DONE!

Last 3 Mini Cards

Here are the last 3 cards I made during the class at Archiver's on Saturday.  I wish I were signed up for another one this Saturday!  They really are fun and well organized and as I mentioned before many of the classes give you the opportunity to try out new supplies and products before purchasing them.

Here's the first card:

We used new bottle caps (that are already flattened). We stamped a grid image in black (I believe it was a Tim Holtz stamp) and then embossed it with the little bicycle image.  We punched it out with a 1 " punch and it fit perfectly into the bottle cap.  We punched out a circle from white cardstock and a scalloped circle from red...adhered it all to the Kraft card base, stamped it with the cute sentiment and we were done! Very simple but oh-so-how-adorable-is-that-? CUTE!
Here's the next card:

Yep...you see it here...we QUILLED!!! OK, I bought tons of quilling supplies about 6 or 7 years ago when quilling for cardmaking and scrapbooking was popular.  Well, it's come back and is trendy once again.  I always enjoyed that process...there is something relaxing to me about winding skinny strips of paper into coils and making them into shapes.  This is supposed to have a sentiment on it...but I messed mine up and had to fix it...so it is sentimentless in this photo but has since been fixed.  Cute, huh?  There is a card book out for quilling which Archiver's sold for $17, I think but here at Amazon it's just $11.13 although there would be a shipping charge....


I think I may just have to order that for myself though.  I'm certain I have quilling supplies in my craft/scrapbooking/disaster room but I can't put my fingers on the stuff right now (except for the umpteen tubes of quill strips I have!  I'm glad I saved them all these years though as I'm motivated to do it again!  Isn't this a cute card, though?

And here is the last mini card we made:

I really loved this little card.  We stamped with the gear image on acetate with StazOn and waited for it to dry.  Once dry we dabbed on the other side with gold and silver paint dabbers.  You can't see it here well but it has a nice shimmery look to it.
We cut out the gear image and stapled it to the cardstock with the Tim Holtz mini attacher which if you don't have one...well, run to your nearest Michael's or Joann's and get one!  It's a great tool to have on hand!

And that is the final card...we made all 9 cards in the space of about 2 hours.  Not bad....!

Happy Crafting!!!

More Mini Cards

Yesterday I put up a few mini cards I made during a class at Archiver's over the weekend. 
Here are a few more I did:

The card above was a simple double stamping technique...you know where you stamp on your base...then stamp on another piece of paper...fussy cut it out and adhere it to your original shape with a pop dot.  I love this look...and I love when people stamp the image multiple times.  I, however, am too lazy for that!  We did add some Stickles to the little bee for a little something extra.  CUTE!

The next card was a simple card but a new little technique.  We had a square of printed paper (double sided) and made a few snips in the paper and folded the flaps to create a pin wheel.  Very easy, very fast and VERY CUTE!

The third card I'll show today is this one:

We basically stamped the tree image and then used various paint dabbers (Jenni Bowlin) to give different colors to the trees.  We actually inked up a flat circle stamp and then just stamped over the trees.   I love the look of that sentiment but I'm not sure of the manufacturer...sorry!  We did use Hero Arts, Inky Antics, Memory Box, Savvy, Technique Tuesday, Tim Holtz, and Unity stamps (did I say I love Archiver's classes where we get to use all kinds of different product???!).


These mini cards are just great...and they are so fast and easy.  A few scraps of paper..a stamp...a border punch or two...and you can have a really cute card! 

Hope your week starts out beautifully!

Happy Crafting!

Just About the Perfect Day...

Yesterday was just about a perfect day.  It started off with a couple of cups of coffee that my husband made for me....ahhhh...how I love starting my day that way!
I met up with 2 wonderful girlfriends, Christine and Cyndi, for a mini card class at Archiver's.  It was great seeing them and sharing stories (I don't think I gave them much of a chance to talk yesterday as I had all kinds of stories about my trip to New England!).  We had fun in the class making 9 mini cards (3 inches by 3 inches) and got to use some new product and learned a few new techniques.  I generally like the classes at Archiver's...they are very well organized...they provide all tools and supplies and the prices for the classes are reasonable.  Plus you get to shop after!!!  Jennifer was our instructor yesterday and she did a great job.
Here are three of the little cards we made...
First was this Mickey Mouse punched card...very simple but cute with "Yippee" embossed with Zing yellow embossing powder.

We tied a little baker's twine around the top and that was it.  Really cute for a gift enclosure for a child or Disney fan, huh?  And I just loved the little touch of yellow with the red, black and white.
The second card was made on Kraft cardstock with a Unity Stamp:

No real new techniques here but I did like this stamp.  It's all in one...and stamped beautifully.  We distressed the edges of the Kraft cardstock, tied a little twine around it and stapled with the Tim Holtz mini attacher and added a bit of bling and that was it.
And lastly, for today, is this cute little card we made with one of the Inky Antics sets that were designed for use with Inky Antic's honeycomb paper.  You can see a card I made a few months back with those products HERE if you'd like (I used the inchworm set).

We colored and shaded with Copic markers which I have no idea what I'm doing with! LOL!

We used an EK Success border punch for the little pink paper and added some bling to it.

And here's the inside of this cute little card:

 

And what else made this day nearly perfect?  I babysat my two cute grandkids while my daughter and son in law had a night out to themselves.  They only went to dinner and were home within a couple of hours but at least they got a little time to themselves.  Since I belong to AG and AG only it is a bit difficult when NBG needs me as he does not like me picking her up.  But we had a little conversation last night about how NBG was sad and needed to be picked up but I was still his and he tolerated a few minutes.  LOL! 

Luckily NBG is already one independent little lady and is content to suck her fingers most of the time! :)

Here's David drinking my lemonade...

 And here's Taylor giving her Omie a little smile...(I changed this photo to black and white because she was wearing one of David's old sleepers and it was YIKES...blue and she looked like a little boy!)

Happy Crafting!

No Paper Crafting...but...

...I did spend the day with my new camera.  I'm about halfway through the manual but got overloaded and had to take a break.  So far so good.  I did learn from my friend, Janet, who takes awesome photos that the Canon SX230 received the Gold Award as the top camera in its category (compact cameras) from dpreview.

Here are a few photos I took...untouched...
This is Isabella...trying to act like she's not interested in what I'm doing.  This photo was taken about10 feet away and zoomed in partially.  No flash...just natural lighting in my living room.

 Another shot of Isabella...here she is wondering what I'm pointing in her face.

 This was taken outside on automatic.  It's a little overexposed but was also taken during the middle of the day with the sun really high.

 This is a closeup of my laptop...you can see dirt particles on it so I think that's pretty good! LOL!

The camera does have some features like "smile detection" where it won't trip the shutter until it detects a smile.  Not exactly sure how that works yet.  My hubby and I tried it and it did take some shots of him when he was smiling but I promised him I would not post them here! LOL! 
Another feature it has is night time shots when you don't use a tripod.  It takes a succession of 3 shots and then merges them to get the best possible photo.  Don't ask me how it knows what the best possible photo is but this one was taken in that mode and I thought was sort of nice... Again...no flash was used and I just held the camera in my hand.

Today is going to be one of those great days...I'm meeting up with 2 girly friends at Archiver's where we are taking a little card class.  We'll do a little shopping, a little cropping, and a little lunching...and then I'm going to my daughter's and will babysit AG and NBG tonight.  This will be the first time I have both of them by myself (well, that's not exactly true...I have stayed at the house while my daughter ran to the grocery store but this will be for the evening).  I thought it was time I did that...and I think it will be good for my daughter and son in law to have a few minutes to themselves. 

Maybe I'll get just a few more pictures! :)

Happy Crafting!!!

A New Toy!

My name is Susan and I am addicted to cameras...

There...I said it...although this is one addiction I am not really committed to curing or rehabbing!  I love cameras...I have since I was a little girl when my mom would occasionally let me use her little Kodak Instamatic with the flash cubes.  My dad had a nice Leica which was very cool but I was not allowed to touch it! LOL!  I do have that old camera of my dad's...he was quite the photographer and I inherited his love for photography. 

Anyway, I cannot walk past a display of cameras without stopping.  I have to pick up the cameras and feel them in my hands.  I am not into video cameras...they just don't do for me what a point and shoot or DSLR camera does!

I've been researching compact cameras as my trusty point in shoot is not being so trustworthy these days.  It's kind of finicky...some days it works just fine and then somedays it just doesn't seem to get a good connection with the battery.  So....I've been reading up on cameras and had it narrowed down to a few different ones.  I've read tons of reviews...looked online, in stores, etc...and decided on the Canon SX230.  Now I will admit that I pretty much ruled out other manufacturers. I've had Nikon in the past...as well as a few others but I'm really a Canon girl at heart.

Here's how it came:

I opened the box and this is what was in the carton:

...a smaller box, a camera case, a 4gb memory card, some manuals, and some cables.

Here's the camera front:

And here's the back of it:

This camera is slightly bigger than the Canon 880IS I have and would have preferred the same size but this camera has a 14x zoom.  That's huge for a small point and shoot!  And it also has manual controls which are also not quite as common on point and shoots. It also has a GPS system built in so you can pinpoint where photos were taken which may be helpful when I go to Scotland and Ireland in a few months!

I'm charging the battery...will try it out and let you know what I think!  If I don't like it...it's going back and next on my list is the Canon 4000IS.  :)  It is probably a little more similar to my old point and shoot and has gotten good reviews from Consumer Reports but I'm hoping I'll be satisfied with this one!



Happy Crafting!

Froufrou and Cricut Challenge 23: CTMH Art Philosophy

I'm back from my week NORTH to see family on Nantucket and Cape Cod.  It was great and I took some fabulous weather with me.  Despite forecasts for rain we only ever got a few sprinkles!
I did get to an AC Moore in Hyannis (we don't have AC Moore in metro Atlanta...boohoo) and found the Tim Holtz small and medium rosette die.  I was able to use my virtual coupon on my phone from Michael's towards the purchase so saved a whopping $8 on it!  Woohoo!!!
I already have the larger one so now I have the full set.  You know how I love those dimensional flowers!











While I was gone my order from Close to My Heart came which included the Art Philosophy cartridge.  It was $99 but it came with all sorts of other stuff...stamp sets that coordinate with the cartridge, chipboard pieces...it really was a pretty good bargain.  I think the promotion only runs for a few more days so if you have a CTMH consultant grab it while you can.  My friend, Christine, is a consultant so if you want to order from her let me know and I'll send you her information!  I think it's worth it!
I am also counting this in my personal Cricut challenge of using each cartridge I have (this is number 23 if you're keeping count! :)).  I will use it more...this cartridge is fabulous and with the coordinating stamp sets is really a great addition to my collection!
So....last night I went to my playroom/toyroom/studio/scrapbook room and created this froufrou card!

I didn't even know if froufrou was a real word.  Guess what?  IT IS!  I checked it out in the Websters online dictionary! And this card definitely counts as froufrou!  I made it with scraps leftover from a Teresa Collins mini album I made....it has wonderful damask looking papers, velvet paper, lace and bling.  Almost all supplies are Teresa Collins...she sure loves that black, white and pink...definitely a girly girl!  The little medallion in the center was cut with the new CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge and then stamped with the coordinating stamp that comes with the package.  I used Versamark and then embossed it with white Zing embossing powder.
Simple but froufrou-ish...don't you think?
Oh....and I finally finished the mini album I started for ABG just after she was born in May.  All I needed to do was punch some holes for the jump rings and add a few little touches...it took me about 5 minutes...why it took me 2 months to complete it I'll never know!!!  Here's the front of the finished album...

I'm back home! Can't wait to get in my room and play...my Close to My Heart order came so I have all kinds of new fun stuff to get me creating once again!

Spending a glorious day on Nantucket Island! Tried sending a picture but blogger won't take it . So trust me...it's beautiful here!

I'm at the airport...headed to New England for a few days. See you all when I get back!

Technique, Technique, Technique and Challenges!

I had the most fun making this card!  I decided to pull out my Distress inks and make a background paper.  This is an "old" Tim Hotlz technique.  You basically use your foam applicator to rub the distress ink colors you like onto cardstock.  Then you put Versamark on your chosen stamp...spritz it with water and then stamp it on your distress inked cardstock.  The water will act as a resist with the Distress Inks and the result is so great looking!  I loved it!

So I made this little card for the CAS-Friday challenge which is doing a joint challenge with Clean&Simple Stamping.  Frankly I'm not sure if my card fits the clean and simple requirement....but I'm hoping that it does!  It sure was a fun card to make and will definitely do this technique again!

I cleaned up my room yesterday (trash day) and apparently threw away the list of the things I used...but the stamps were all Hero Arts, I put a few layers of UTEE on the butterfly.  The floral stamp was embossed with white Zing embossing powder. I added a little Baker's Twine around the embossed image.

Here's a closeup:

I just love that bleached resist effect on the cardstock!

Note to self...buy more Distress Inks!

And I made a whole bunch of these yesterday which is a direct scraplift from the Nicole Heady of Papertrey Ink's blog:

I loved the simplicity of this!...done with the PTI Parisian Doily and a square of cardstock...a little embossing for the sentiment and a nice but simple card. I'll be making more of these!

Happy Crafting!

Our Little Princess (The Scrappiest Sketch Challenge 132)

Here is a layout I did of the baby announcement we sent out recently for my new granddaughter, Taylor.  I am most proud that I also took these photos.  They aren't perfect but they worked well enough and my daughter was most happy with a "free" photo sitting and 50 printed announcements from Costco with envelopes for under $15!  I also did the announcement with Photoshop Elements.

I used the sketch #132 at The Scrappiest Sketch and will enter this in that challenge.  I liked the grouping of the papers and embellishments.

(And of course, on the original the last name is not blacked out...just doing that because of all the weird internet stuff going on these days.  One can't be too careful!!!)

I used:
Bazzill Cardstock
Printed Papers from Heidi Grace (although the pink dotted paper came out of my stash)
Prima Flowers
Fiskars Scalloped Punch
Kaiser Craft Rub on
Pearls
Glossy Accents
Seam Binding that I dyed pink with Stampin' Up's Pink Passion Ink *edges were also inked with Pink Passion
Rock Candy Distress Stickles
Sentiment is from Stamp it Loud and Clear
Tag is from Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 2

Here's a little closeup:

It took me alllll night to do this! LOL! Even with a sketch.  Ok, so I cut my papers and that was fine...it was the embellishing that I just couldn't get right!  I tried all sorts of different...the Spellbinders Carnation, the Tim Holtz Rosette, chipboard shapes, ribbon....and I just fiddled and fiddled for a cople of hours.  I finished it with the Carnation...looked at it a moment and said "I DON'T LIKE THIS!"...so off those flowers came and I found my stash of pink Prima flowers and was much happier with the result!

Like I said before....I thoroughly enjoyed the process in my little craft room...it doesn't matter if I do one page or half a page in an evening...it's all about the process for me...and it is such wonderful therapy and sure beats watching some gazelle being eaten by a lion which was what my husband was tuned into last night...just after watching how the Roman empire was built which was after Monster Bug Wars on the Science Channel and then I think he was gearing up for ammunition used during WWII!  LOL!!!

Happy Crafting and for Donna who is at the beach...HAPPY BEACHING!!!

Boys Will Be Boys 2 Page Layout

Here is another two page layout with the Basic Grey Oliver Page kit.  I loved all the papers and the Chipboard elements.  I didn't do anything too special on these layouts except slap the stuff on the page BUT I did take these photos of AG (Adorable Grandson) before he morphed into LMM (Little Monster Man).  (I do like to use enlargements on layouts...these were all 5x7s and I love the way they filled the pages!)   AG had just learned to crawl in these photos and was becoming one busy little guy.  I just love these pictures of him.  You can just see the curiosity and sweetness in his little face...although I think the one on the top left shows the itsy bit of LMM trying to emerge!  And by the way LMM is just as cute as ever.  He'll now walk up to you and give unsolicited kisses.  How sweet is that for an Omie's heart!

Happy Crafting!

Cricut Challenge 22: Old West..."Ride 'em Cowboy!" (Cricut 360 Challenge #7)

I'm waaay behind on my scrapbooking...but that's ok.  I never make it my mission to get caught up...I make it my mission to enjoy the process and in terms of that challenge I am ALWAYS successful!  Some layouts take an hour or two...some take longer.  I actually went to a crop once and spent 8 hours on a layout....seriously!  It wasn't any award winning layout when I was done but I loved it and had the greatest time working on it.  That's how I am...I'm about the process...I'm not a crank it out sort of gal...
:)

Back to my personal challenge of using all my Cricut Cartridges on a project....(and btw if you look to the right sidebar you will see all the things I've posted on my blog and I have more than 22 projects posted BUT I didn't start my personal challenge until after I'd already posted some projects!).  Of course, I am going out of order a bit...skipped down to the "o's" (Old West) for this project.  And this is entered in the Cricut 360 Challenge #7 to use the Old West cartridge on a card or layout.

This is one of the older cartridges... it doesn't have a ton of image layers but it does have a couple of cute western looking fonts.  I picked this cartridge up fairly recently at Michael's when they were having one of their super duper Cricut cartridge sales.  I think I got it for $9.99!

So here is a two page layout I did of LMM (Little Monster Man...previously known as AG...Adorable Grandson).  He still maintains a good amount of AG in him...but the LMM is definitely there, too!  Of course these photos were taken before he morphed into LMM! Actually LMM has entered into the Terrible Twos.  Remember those days???  Actually, he is a fun, funny, loving, smart little boy but is trying to exercise some independence and do things HIS WAY! LOL!!! Just getting him in his car seat is a challenge because he wants to do it HIS WAY!

Back to the layout...we took LMM out to the barn one day and set him up on one of the horses out there for his first horse ride.  My daughter is a horsewoman so I imagine there will always be horses in this little boy's life. 

I really like bigger images on my layouts and cards...don't like seeing dinky things that get swallowed up.  This was as big as I could make the horse without swallowing up my photos! :)  Another tip is to "ground" you items...don't have them floating off in space.  Here the horse is "grounded" by the grass.  I loved the banner feature, too, and thought it worked perfectly with this 2 page spread.

I also used Accent Essentials to cut the large scalloped mat and Lyrical Letters to cut the banner.  I loved what those extra layers added to my layout.  Yes...I love layers!

And now LMM just needs a cowboy hat!

(He has boots, of course!)

Sometimes it Works! (FTL152)

Maybe you don't have this "issue"...but sometimes the ideas in the head do not compute to the result on the paper!...or maybe that's just my "issue"! :)  But the card I made for today's blog posting just came together quickly.  What was in the head made it to the paper! And I'm happy with the result:

 I made this for the Clean&Simple Challenge FTL152 which was to use this sketch:

And what did I use to make this card?  Why I'm glad you asked...I used some of my new Papertrey Ink toys...the Flower Fusion #6 die and stamp, Damask printed paper as well as the Mat Stack 3 die I already had.  I used Stampin' Up inks and some metal "blingage" for the centers of the flowers.  The flower on the right was popped up with some foam tape.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.
And that's it!  I loved the clean and simple look!

And this card is for each of you because "You ARE the Best!"

Happy Crafting!

Cricut Challenge 21: Florals Embellished

I am plodding along on my personal Cricut Challenge.  If you are new here and peeking in I have made it a personal challenge to use every single one of my X# of Cricut cartridges (I'm too embarrassed to say how many I really have!) on some sort of project!  So, today I chose Florals Embellished to work on.  I don't even remember buying the cartridge!  I could not tell you when I got it but I don't think it was long ago as it is one of the newer cartridges.  It has really pretty cuts on it...I definitely need to look more closely at this cartridge and search the great big old web to see what other projects people have done with it.  It has really pretty flowers, birds, butterflies, word art, silhouettes...it has some beautiful cuts on it...that's for sure.

And here is my card:

For today I chose a butterfly that I cut at about 2 3/4 inches.  I used Hazel My Mind's Eye Papers (Stella Rose),

a sentiment from Papertrey Ink, some bling, cardstock from Core'dinations, a Fiskars scallop punch,

and a Stampin' Up word punch (can't remember what it's called but it is the rounded word label that the sentiment is on).  I also embossed the card base with the Victoria Cuttlebug Embossing folder

and inked the edges with some distress inks:


I also entered this in one of my favorite challenges (because I love to see what others are doing with their Cricuts) the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #72  (Challenge Me Monday) challenge which was to use a bug on a project as well as the 2 Sisters Challenge to use the following color palette: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla.
  (Wow...that must be a world's record....to use the word "challenge" 5 times in one sentence!  But it's late and I'm not rephrasing...you get the idea, right???

Happy Crafting!

Don'tcha Just Despise...

....when you get a whole bunch of new toys but are just too tired to try them out?!  I did a little shopping today at Archiver's where there was a 40% off sale on all stamps and when I got home about 8pm there was my order from Paper Trey Ink! I ate a bit of dinner and now it's 8:30 and I am just toooooo tired to play!  Sad...

But the good news is that there is tomorrow...and I'll get going on something tomorrow. 

So I will just put up another layout I did recently of my daughter's annual trip to the beach.

I will tell you that I'm really proud of this 2 page spread because it was done almost entirely with Fancy Pants and Unity stamps. I did all the background stamping with it...the edges under the photos were stamped and then cut out.  I put a little bling on some of the little stamped images...a button here and there and a journaling block on foam tape.  I really loved the way it turned out.  I don't mean to toot my own horn (well, maybe I do...I am the Queen of my Blog, remember)...but it is much cuter in person! I rarely do a ton of stamping on a layout so this was particularly fun!

And More Scrapbooking!

Here are another couple of layouts I made.  Flowers are maybe not traditionally used in boy layouts but I like the way this one turned out...these photos were taken on a walk that we did at a park here frequently.  In the large photo AG is doing his helicopter/airplane move...we don't know why but he wanted to be held this way! LOL!.
And on the bottom right of the first layout you can see my other little baby, Isabella, in the bottom of the stroller.  She liked the ride!

And I did this layout of David when he was about 7 months of age...I do not recall the line of papers and embellishments I used...but I LOVED them.  I bought all of the items at Archiver's.

Well, I survived the night with AG.  He slept in my big bed with me and moved and twisted and talked in his sleep all night! LOL! He got a good night's sleep but I sure didn't!!!  His mommy just came to get him so now I can take take a nap!  It's so much fun having him here...but so much work!  I think I know why the young have babies...they have the energy!

Happy Crafting!

Scrapbooking Time!

I wanted to share a 2 page layout I did with my Cricut.  This was a lift from the Scrapbooking with Cricut book published by Annie's Attic.  I think it turned out really cute.  I love when I use my Cricut to do layouts...it sure cuts down on the cost of additional embelllishments.
(Although, I know...when you factor in the cost of the Cricut, cartridges and supplies this layout probably cost about $49.73 to make! HAHA!)

This might actually count towards my personal challenge of using each Cricut cartridge I own in a project of some sort but right now I don't recall what cartridges I used!  So, I'll take a raincheck on posting this for my own challenge later! ;)

I've had a couple of busy days.  Tonight Little Monster Man (also known as Adorable Grandson or AG) is staying with us.  My house looks like it has exploded!  And he's only been here 10 minutes! :)

Here he is on his 1st birthday...next month we will be celebrating his second.
Papers by Martha Stewart.

Happy Crafting!