Lollipop Tree Card Tutorial

Join me today on the myStamp BOX blog for a quick and easy tutorial on how to make this lollipop tree card.

An Early Arrival

We had a BIG surprise Saturday night.  Daphne deciced she was ready to meet her family a little earlier than planned.  Everyone is healthy and happy.  She weighed a healthy 8lbs 12 oz.  Thanks so much to all of you for the well wishes.

CardMaker: November, 2010

Do you remember this sheet of paper?

The Chianti Collection is my all time favourite GCD Studios paper line.  I'm not one who generally gravitates towards bold, dark patterns and colours, but there is something about the richness of the red, black and white that I adore.  This line is simply perfect for making Christmas and Love themed cards and projects. 

Anyway, getting back to the reason for this post.  I made a set of Christmas cards and tags with the above sheet of paper and just the other day, the whole project was requested for publication by CardMaker magazine.  This is my first time with CardMaker so I am thrilled to say the least.

Just because I don't like to post without adding a project of some sort, here is another of my favourite Chianti cards.  Valentine's day might be over, but February is the month of love isnt' it??

And the interior:

Thanks so much for stopping by and listening to me ramble on. 

Hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend.

Whee

Every month, the Creative Imaginations blog posts a new sketch.  I decided to play along this month and here is the page I created.  Brown and blue has always been a favourite colour combination of mine.  I've really been into mixing paper lines these past few weeks.  In this page, Anthology meets Creative Café.  Who would have thought?

Supplies:  Paper (Creative Imaginations), Brads & Bling (Creative Imaginations), Chipboard (Heidi Swapp, Inque Boutique), Stamps (myStamp BOX), Letters (Rose Moka), Crystals (Heidi Swapp), Crepe Paper & Trim (Craft Supply Store), Mica Flakes (Melissa Frances), Beads (?)

Believe it or not, I created the bulk of this pages in the middle of the night. Insomnia has struck or at least it did and I decided to just get up and do something after two hours of tossing and turning. I'm glad I did. I had a super productive hour and actually slept for a couple of hours afterwards.

What you see behind this fantastic chipboard border is ruffled crepe paper in the back, topped with a layer of lace and then a layer of mica flakes.  I think I almost like the mica better than glitter!!  (Don't tell Amanda.)  I added the circle stamps to mirror the background paper and topped them with gems.  You just have to have some sparkle on a snow themed page.

Because I just couldn't stop there, I added the chandelier crystals to the photo and the sprays of beads.  Do you see them tucked behind the snowflake?  Maybe I should take another photo.  These beauties deserve a little spotlight, too.

There you have it.  My latest page.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Have a wonderful day!

Counting Down the Days!

Exactly one week from today, I will be saying, "Good Bye" to this baby belly and "Hello" to a new baby girl.  This is the first time we've decided to find out the sex of the baby in advance.  How fun it was when I had these photos taken to be able to tailor them for a girl. I just LOVE this one.  I think I need one of these flowers!

The photos were taken by Karyn Fillmore.  Didn't she do a FANTASTIC job??

This girls are SO excited!

I hope to get a chance to create some layouts over the next week with some of these beautiful photos.  Trust me when I tell you there are MANY, MANY more so stay tuned. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine's Day

Supplies:  Paper (Jillibean Soup), Stamps (myStamp BOX), Deco Scissors (Fiskars), Wings (Tim Holtz), Embossing Powder (American Crafts),  Tulle (Bazzill), Metal (Dollarama)

From our house to yours, I hope you enjoy a wonderful day with your friends and family.

Create Your Own Photo Books @ Blurb

Blurb.com ROCKS!! 

It really does.

I discovered Blurb in 2008 when I took one of Jessica Sprague's online classes.  She did a little promo on them and they offered all the students a discount code to try out their service.  I created a book at the time for my in-laws using photos from a recent trip we had taken with them.

Fast forward to last month. 

I decided to take on the task of creating yearly photo books for my girls.  I always seem to get motivated to get organized when I'm having a baby!  My goal was to get 2009 books complete - one for each girl. It was so easy to make them (and kind of addicting), I also did 2008.  The results truly are incredible.  I'm not one to sit down and look at photo albums.  I'm not sure why. I think it's because there are just SO many photos.  Having my photos chronolgically organized in little year books with the odd caption makes them really appealing.

The back sides of the books are also just as nice as the front side:

Inside, I used a few different photo sizes but the majority are sized like this because I like them this large.  There are all kinds of different text and photo templates available and it really is as simple as dragging and dropping photos.  I might also add that my computer is 5 years old and I didn't have any problems with the software at all.

I also included photos that weren't the best quality but held some sort of meaning.  There is one section in Callie's book that has her first photos. She got a Little Tykes camera for Christmas last year so I included some of her photos in her book as well.

I now have some new and different coffee table material.  The girls LOVE them.  We LOVE them.  I'm certain my Mom is going to LOVE them as well.

You really can create any style and size of book you want.  Take a moment and check them out.  You won't be disappointed.

Just Add Sweets Blog Hop

Welcome to the Just Add Sweets Blog Hop with myStamp BOX!

If you have just happened upon my blog today, you may want to head to the start of the blog hop, the myStamp BOX blog.
 
I chose to feature two different stamp sets, Border Lines and Birthday Balloons.
 

Though I have never been particularly fond of the colour pink, I have always enjoyed it paired with orange so when I heard that was our colour theme for this blog hop, I was thrilled.

"Be Mine"

Supplies:  Paper (Creative Imaginations, Making Memories), Transparency (KI Memories), Letters (American Crafts), Stamps (myStamp BOX), Ribbon (Making Memories), Felt (Dollar Store), Border Punch (Fiskars), Heart Punch (Martha Stewart)

I got the idea for the photo from Becky Oehlers.  I had the girls hold out their hands for the photo so I could add a Valentine.  I'm not sure if you can really notice the effect right away though.  The hearts on their hands are a mix of layers of felt, punched and stamped hearts.

If you look closely, you will see the two stamp sets in use here:  the "love" balloon and the orange stamped border on the ribbon. 

Next up on your blog hopping journey is the talented TINA! 

Have FUN!!

Blog Hop Reminder

Hope to see you there!!

Scrapbooking with Children: Teacher Valentines

Let me first go on the record and say that I LOVE the Dollarama for projects like this.  I got big packages of XL foam hearts, felt hearts, lace doilies, gems, etc. etc. for the girls to make Valentines with.  There is more than enough of everything to keep them busy scrapping long after we are done making Valentine's Day projects.

This is what we came up with for my daughter's teachers.  The photo is size 3x4.

The "Just for You" stamp is part of the Mention Stamp Set from myStamp BOX.  This is such a versatile set with all kinds of fun and interesting fonts.

As you can see, we've had Valentine's Day projects on the go for awhile now and we're still not done yet.  I asked my husband the other day what in the world is going to take the place of all the Valentine's Day things we've been doing these past few weeks.  As always, he has the best answers.  BABY!  That is what is going to occupy all of our attentions.  So we're good until Easter!!

Valentines for School

A few weeks ago, I invested in some heart punches.  Since my girls (ages 4 and 2) love to scrapbook so much, we decided to try them out one day and what evolved from there was a set of 37 Valentines for my daughter's pre-school classmates.  It ended up being such an enjoyable experience, I thought I'd share the project with all of you.

Supplies:

-3 different size heart punches (We used the Marvy Uchida purple scallop heart and pink heart) and a fancy heart punch by Martha Stewart)
-1 bag of glittered foam hearts from the Dollar Store
-box of scrap paper and cardstock

1.  The first thing we did was spend some time going through the scrap paper box and finding papers that matched.

2.  I punched the hearts out while the girls glued the pieces together.  By the end, they were getting really good at lining the hearts up properly.

3.  My daughter printed her name on the back of ALL the cards.  What great practice for a 4 year old.

4.  We embellished the top with a glittered heart.

5.  Repeat. 

We made about 6 or 8 cards each time until we had enough for the entire class. Each day we laid the Valentines out and counted them all and picked which ones were our favourites.

The Dollar Store also has packages of 10 Valentine's Day themed pencils, so I got those to go with the Valentines instead of candy this year. 

Next up, cards for her teachers.