Inspiration Challenge and Copying Gina

I found a challenge on SCS the other day that I really wanted to try. It involved creating a button border of some kind. You got extra credit for using hand stitching and using one of Sally's sketches. I love the look of stitching on pages, but I've never been brave enough to try to do it. I also combined it with a challenge to scraplift Gina (Mousey'sMom). I didn't scraplift one of her pages, but I tried to emulate her beautiful distressing.

I was exhausted! I really liked the grid look in the sketch and I didn't have grid patterned paper, so I made my own using whisper white cardstock, the tempting turquoise stampin' marker, and the lines on my stamping grid paper. I hand stitched a dark turquoise circle in the pink circle (the free form next to the button ring) using some embroidery thread. I really enjoyed it and think it looks nice! I really admire Gina's work, however, I'm a *terrible* distresser! I've talked to her this week about "how to" and I decided to give it a whirl. I already had my pictures cropped and matted, my colors picked, and the layout of my dps. I did all of that Monday night. Wednesday night I spent almost 2 1/2 hours distressing, inking, and getting it to look right! I even embraced the tear. :) Whew! Hats off to you, Gina!

Turning Four


Stamps: best friends upper alphabet
Paper: gable green, pretty in pink, dots and dashes dsp, tempting turquoise
Ink: close to cocoa, tempting turquoise
Accessories: SU distressing tool, simon upper chipboard, assorted buttons, dimensionals, pink passion stampin' marker, tempting turquoise stampin' marker, crystal effects, sponges, embroidery thread
Techniques: distressing, sponging, sewing

It's a New Catalog!!!

So many things have been happening. First, the new SU catalog is out and I'll post the link tomorrow. I've made several things over the last few days including some using new stuff! Here are the new things in my gallery.

love you lots! page

Paper: whisper white, old olive, pink pirouette, riding hood red, raspberry tart dsp (NEW in the spring catalog)

Ink: kiwi kiss, pink pirouette, riding hood red

Stamps: Doodle That, Best Friends lower alphabet

Accessories: Big Shot, top note die, kiwi/vanilla satin ribbon, dimensionals

Notes: I cut the top not die out of the raspberry tart paper with the intention of cutting it in half and having a different layout. I couldn't bear to throw away that beautiful paper so I used the negative space to create a different block.

Pacific Love You Much

I've seen so many beautiful cards using this stamp set and pacific point/baja breeze. I wanted to create something simple that my customers could make easily and quickly that was not too girly and not too Valentine-y. This is what I came up with.

Paper: pacific point, whisper white, real red

Ink: pacific point, real red, bashful blue, mellow moss

Stamps: Love You Much

Accessories: scallop punch, triple heart punch, real red grosgrain ribbon, stampin' markers, dimensionals, tab punch

Bella Bookmark

I fell in love with these bookmarks last fall and have wanted to use one ever since in a class. I bought the hodgepodge bulk buy just to make these. I finally made it for this month's class.

Paper: whisper white

Ink: riding hood red, old olive

Stamps: Bella Blooms

Accessories: vanilla hodgepodge hardware, vanilla brad, button boquet, linen thread, baja breeze double stitched ribbon, crystal effects

Happy New Year!

We're having a mini-VSBN at SCS today. So far I've completed 3 of the challenges posted. I'll post pictures now and update with details later. Come join us!

January 1, 2009


Stamps: Bella's Bloom, Independence Day, Fall Flair, Merry
Paper: basic gray, confetti white,whisper white, so saffron, baja breeze, kiwi kiss, tangerine tango
Ink: so saffron, baja breeze, tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, basic black
Accessories: kiwi kiss ribbon, baja breeze ribbon, pumpkin pie ribbon, 2-way glue pen, SU microfine cosmo green glitter, journaling computer generated

Holiday Baking




Stamps: big deal alphabet
Paper: holiday treasures dsp, whisper white
Ink: baja breeze
Accessories: aspen ribbon, old olive grosgrain, chocolate chip taffeta, riding hood red taffeta, brad Techniques: sewing

Playing Lincoln Center


Stamps: Elegant Notes, Headline Alphabet
Paper: whisper white, basic black, elegant eggplant
Ink: basic black
Accessories: recycled buttons, scallop punch

Two More Layouts!!

I'm on such a roll right now! If only I didn't need to work, I could scrap all the time! I joined a kit club a long time ago. I finally stopped when they were piling up and I wasn't making the pages. They just didn't match my style and I didn't care for some of the stamps that were with them. I ran across these last week and decided to challenge myself to complete the pages using only the precut pieces available in the kit. I've long since lost any directions or pictures that went with the kits, so my goal is to use as much of the materials as possible to complete double page layouts. It's turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. One of the kits had seventeen pieces in it! Here are the products of two of these kits.

Bling Queens

Paper: bashful blue, whisper white, basic black, certainly celery

Ink: bashful blue, certainly celery, basic black

Stamps: You Make Me Happy, Short Order Alphabet

Accessories: bashful blue grosgrain ribbon, photo corner punch, stampin' journaler

Zoo Fun

Paper: tempting turquoise, whisper white, gable green, apricot appeal, ruby red, some unknown (don't remember) SU dsp

Ink: tempting turquoise, basic black

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, Well Worn Alphabet

Accessories: scallop punch, red bead duo, white grosgrain ribbon, crystal effects

Technique: paper piecing

Oh Christmas Tree

I've been really busy today in the scrapbook room! I made one more DPS during Friday Night Scrappin'. I'm not completely happy with it, but it's done. I have a bunch of unassembled pages from clubs and kits. I took one of these sets and created this page (I didn't use all of the items). It really taxed by brain because the paper was already precut and I had to work with whatever they had planned (any instructions were long since lost).


Paper: certainly celery, bashful blue, basic black, whisper white
Stamps: friendly flowers, headline alphabet
Ink: basic black
Accessories: simon lower chipboard alphabet, basic black grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen, brads

Journaling: Christmas 2008 --- I was up late one night working on a paper. I looked over at the tree and thought it was a most amazing sight. The pictures don't do it justice. The plant lights shone on the tree at just a perfect angle to cast a large intricate shadow.

Christmas Day 2008

We went to my aunt & uncle's house on Christmas Day this year. It was a little impromptu, but we had so much fun! I got some time today in the scrapbook room and was able to make to double page spreads (DPSs) from that day. The girls had so much fun decorating gingerbread men and houses and we really enjoyed catching up with family we don't see often.

Paper: close to cocoa, ruby red

Stamps: Sweet Memories, Hung Up on the Holidays, whimsical lower alphabet

Ink: close to cocoa, ruby red, almost amethyst, gable green, summer sun, pumpkin pie

Accessories: dazzling diamonds

Paper: gable green, purely pomegranate, whisper white

Stamps: Sketch It, whimsical upper alphabet, whimsical lower alphabet, whimsical numbers

Ink: purely pomegranate, gable green, green galore

Accessories: purely pomegranate double stitched ribbon, brads

Christmas pictures at church

Our church is always decorated so beautifully. Since the girls were in their Christmas dresses today, I wanted to take advantage of all their lights, poinsettias, and trees. I ended up only getting seven pictures, but I thought they turned out so cute! I uploaded them and had Wal-Mart print the larger one in an 8x10.

Stamps: Hung Up On the Holidays, Live Your Dream, Big Deal alphabet

Paper: ruby red, old olive, whisper white

Ink: old olive, close to cocoa, brocade blue, summer sun, ruby red, old olive craft

Accessories: glassy glaze, simon lower chipboard, riding hood red taffeta ribbon, dimensionals

Technique: heat embossing

Family Album

I've thought for years about creating a family tree album. I've just never gotten around to it. Last night there was a Micro-VSBN on SCS. I decided that there was no time like the present and got started last night. I created two pages using two of the challenges which were centered around the twelve days of Christmas. The first will be the title page of the album.

The challenge (...a partridge in a pear tree...) was to include a tree or bird. I included both by using the Season of Friendship stamp set. Because I stamped directly on the paper, it was a little stressful. I messed up one page as I stamped the title (the *very* last thing) and had to start completely over!

Stamps: Season of Friendship, Whimsical upper alphabet, Whimsical lower alphabet

Inks: basic brown, green galore, regal rose, garden green, brocade blue, riding hood red, tangerine tango (stamped off once), summer sun, baja breeze

Paper: whisper white, chocolate chip

Accessories: aged copper hodgepodge, chocolate chip taffeta ribbon, scallop edge punch

The second challenge (...two turtle doves...) was to place pictures side by side. An optional sketch was provided, which I mostly followed. I found two pictures of my paternal great-grandmother. The quality is horrible! It's probably the result of them being in acid-ridden albums for the past twenty years. I created the page and felt something was missing. I remembered that I had scanned in photos to my genealogy program several years ago. I found a younger picture of her in there and was able to print off a really good picture.

Stamps: Short Order alphabet

Inks: bayou blue, black stampin' journaler

Paper: rose red, bayou blue dsp, baja breeze

Accessories: crop-a-dile, eyelets, love & happiness rub-ons

Late night scrapping

Last night Momma and I stayed up to scrapbook. I was commissioned to "design" her two cards. How do you design something without making it? Basically, she wanted me to make those to cards for her. Durn. Nonetheless, we had a really good time. We stayed up until 2 a.m. Yikes! That's for people who don't have to go to work in the morning! I had a terrible time trying to get up.

I found one card we made a couple of months ago at the September Stamp a Stack. It has been one of my favorites since then. The set is a Hostess level 1 called Organic Grace. The sentiment comes from Much Appreciated. Paper: close to cocoa, really rust, mellow moss, very vanilla; Inks: close to cocoa, really rust, mellow moss; Acessories: dimensionals, twill tape. It is SUO.

The next card was one we made some time ago. I believe the stamp set is All Holidays. The only addition I made to it was to add the metal tag. The sentiment is from the Mini Mates set. Paper: chocolate chip, mellow moss, unknown SU DSP (retired); inks: chocolate chip, closet to cocoa, mellow moss; accessories: chocolate chip ribbon, river rock ribbon, round metal tag, brad. It is also SUO.

In the middle of all this, I made two scrapbook pages. The first is reminiscing about Box-a-saurus (see earlier post in November for more details). I thought the layout was a perfect way to showcase the progression of the project throughout the night.

The final dps was a the fall festival at the FBC South Campus. Each year my aunt and cousin ask to take the girls. It's a lot of fun (as evidenced by Beaver's huge grin) with bouncy houses, dozens of booths, a hayride, campfire, and literally tons of candy. It's always a highlight of the girls' year.

Count Your Blessings

I created this double page spread in response to a sketch challenge on SCS. It is the scrapbook LO for my technique WOW class this afternoon.

This is the full LO of the DPS. Pictures of the individual pages (closer pictures) are in my gallery. I decided to use this weeks sketch challenge for my WOW class (nothing like waiting 'til the last minute, huh?). I had a hard time getting it to look right. I think it will look a lot better with pictures on it, but I really struggled looking through my picture files. I really want to use this page for the girls at Thanksgiving. So I'm posting the picture sizes to my class members and will update my pages in a couple of weeks. I used chipboard elements to create the buttons by punching the thread holes with a crop-a-dile. I covered them with DSP, sanded and distressed the edges, and threaded them with very vanilla ribbon. I stamped the background with Sanded. I used the big shot to cut letters from the wingo zingo alphabet.

I also created a card and an ACAB (anything but a card). It's is a hanging water bottle holder. I'll post both of those later. Thanks for looking!

Finally! Some pages uploaded!

I got up extra early this morning to upload some pages to my SCS gallery. I'm not counting any of these pictures in my November scrapbook challenge totals because I actually completed them last summer. I do, however, have as one of my goals the insertion of these pictures into albums. You'd think that would be a simple thing to do, huh? Not so much for me. I just never got around to doing it.

You Are Priceless

Stamps: Priceless

Paper: basic black, taken with teal, real red, whisper white

Inks: real red, basic black, taken with teal

Accessories: brads, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, simon lower chipboard letters, scallop punch

Deviled Eggs

Stamps: A Good Egg, taffy alphabet

Paper: chocolate chip, whisper white, pretty in pink, wild wasabi, bashful blue, so saffron

Inks: chocolate chip, bashful blue

Accessories: slit punch

Pool Fun

Stamps: I don't remember this set! Someone, please help me. I know it's retired

Paper: old olive, soft sky, so saffron, whisper white

Inks: old olive, so saffron, soft sky, blue bayou

Accessories: old olive 5/8" ribbon

Summer 2008

Stamps: Tart & Tangy

Paper: whisper white, summer picnic DSP, bashful blue

Inks: only orange, real red, wild wasabi, real red stampin' marker

Accessories: 1 1/4" square punch, 1 3/8" square punch