caardvark and BBTB challenges/contest

These are cards that I just finished for Challenge #30 on the caardvarks website. This first one is my version of Laura's sketch. I used the left over papers from the layout I posted this morning. The papers are Bo Bunny, the blue card base is Bazzill Bling and the other cardstock is Stampin Up. The stamp is one of my Stamping Bella stamps....this one is called Snow Bunny Bella......and I used the Magic Color Pencil Technique or Gamsol Technique to color it in. I also added a little bit of Frosted Lace stickles for the white areas on the image for a little bling. For the scallops and oval, I used my nestabilities. I used my cricut and Beyond Birthday's cartridge to cut out the sentiment "you warm my heart." I also applied the stickles to the sentiment.



This second card is based upon Kazan's sketch and I also was inspired for the colors by the contest that Regina is having over on the Bitten By the Bug website. I used K&Co for the papers, Bazzill for the brown cardstock, Stampin Up for the white and green cardstock, the white ribbon, and also the stamped image....which isn't showing up to well in this picture (it reads "If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished"). The flowers are from Prima, the brad is All My Memories, the brown ric-rac is from CTMH, and I cut the tree image with my cricut and the ZooBalloo cartridge.

Another Challenge LO

This challenge from Apron Strings Designs on their Yahoo board took me way out of my comfort zone. It was a challenge to use theme papers for something other than the theme it was intended. I used their January 2008 Bigger than a Bread Box kit. It had winter papers in it and I used them to show how we chill in the summer. Everything on the page is from the kit, with the exception of the title. The brackets and the "chill" are from Stampin Up cardstock and cut on my cricut with the Plantain Schoolbook cartridge, the "how we" and "in the summer" are from my sticker stash. The papers and "chilly" sticker are Bo-Bunny, the white cardstock is Bazzill, I used my new threading water punch from Fiskars for the decorative edge on the blue patterned paper. The brads and photo turns are by Creative Impressions. Thanks for looking.

Kazan's Sketch 5 at 2 Sketches 4 You

I discovered this wonderful card sketch blog a couple of weeks ago called 2 Sketches 4 You, but I really haven't had a chance to do one of the weekly sketches, until today. I was very inspired by this sketch and I had a few moments and wanted to go and play with my scrapbooking stash, and this is what I came up with. The cardstock, ribbon, stamps, metal accents are all from Stampin Up. The flower is Prima and I used my Prismacolor pencils and the Gamsol or Magic color pencil techinque to color in the stamp.

Projects from the swarm I attended

I attended a cricut swarm last weekend and here are couple of the things I did there.




The first one is a challenge that we had at the swarm. It was an anything goes and we were given some supplies when we got there and we had to use as many as we could on a LO, card, or tag, etc. I created this LO to put a picture of my three kids (when the baby is born). The carstock is Stampin Up, the papers and journaling circle are from Scenic Route, the cuts are from the cricut and Stamped cartridge, the flowers are Prima and I am not sure where the ribbon, safety pin, and the jewels in the flowers came from (they were from the mug with goodies that we received). I distressed the edges and the prima flowers with my cat's eye fluid chalk ink pad.





The next one is from the make and take. It is just a square piece of chipboard, a binding clip, a yellow post it pad, and misc. paper (I think the paper is from Making Memories), ribbon, and embellishments. I used my cricut and the Base Camp cartridge for the title, for the flowers, I used the George cartridge. I also distressed the edges of this one with my cat's eye fluid chalk ink pad. It was a really fun cricut swarm and I want to thank Lori (LadybugLori from the cricut message board) for getting it all together for us and all the things she did.

Paper Bag Album Tutorial

I have had several requests for instructions on how to make my paper bag album, so I made a quick tutorial to show you the basics.

The supplies that you will need are:

3 paper bags

1 2-prong binding clip (front and back pieces)...I got a bunch of these from my local Staples store.

scissors

Crop-A-Dile

and a pencil

First thing that you will need to do is to take each paper bag and cut the inside fold on the bottom of the bag, all the way across

Then you will cut along the fold that goes from inside of where you just cut to the outside corner shown here (be sure to cut back to both corners). You should be able to completely open up the flap.

Follow the above directions for each paper bag

Second, we need to arrange the paper bags so that the bottoms of the bags (flaps in) are facing you and alternate them so that the first bag down has the bottom (or flap) to the right, the second, the bottom (or flap) is to the left, and the third bag has the bottom (or flap) to the right.

Fold all three bags together and make a good crease.

You then take the 2-prong binding clip and using only the bottom piece (the one with the holes on each end), center it at the edge of the folded side of the paper bags and mark the holes with a pen or pencil.

You then take your Crop-A-Dile (or other good, heavy-duty punch) and punch holes through all three paper bags at the marks you just made.

With the two prongs on the binding clip, insert them through the holes in the album. Secure them on the other side with the rest of the binding clip.

You now have a blank paper bag album that you can decorate and embellish any way you would like.

Here are a couple of albums that I have made using this technique and links with examples of how they can be decorated.

See this Baby Girl album HERE

See this Baby Boy album HERE

The sizes of paper/cardstock that I use for the pull out pages and to secure to the book itself are 4 inches by 5 inches. The size that I put on the flaps are 3 inches by 5 inches. I also use a stronger adhesive to secure the paper/cardstock to the paper bag album than what I normally use on my layouts.

Have fun and if you complete one, please link back to me and post a link to your finished project here in the comments so that I can see what you did with your paper bag album. =)

Baby Girl Paper Bag Album and I tried a few new techinques.

Here is a paper bag album that I have been working on for the last few days. It is for a friend that is going to have her first baby....a little girl....in the next week or two. I know what she has gone through to get the little baby here. Her and her husband were trying for about the same amount of time that me and my husband tried to get our first......4 1/2 years.

I used a few new techniques on this album, well new to me including my new nestabilites dies and the doodlebug flock. All the cardstock is from Stampin Up. There are a few stamps that I used.....the journaling tag stamp is from Autumn Leaves, the circle that states "Welcome little one" and the little words on the cover and last pages are from Stampin Up, and the saying on the inside of one of the little flip pages is from CTMH. The paper is from the Debbie Mumm stack from Joann's. I used my new nestabilities classic scallop circle and standard circle on the cover. I cut out the sheep with my cricut and the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. The rest of the die cuts are from the New Arrival cartridge, with the exception of the stars (Doodlecharms) and the file folders (Fabulous Finds). I covered the white wool of the sheep with the doodlebug flock. The ribbons are from my stash of many and I couldn't tell you exactly where they all came from. The flowers in the back are from Imaginisce. The brads are from Making Memories. I doodled all of he stitching, dots and doodles by hand. I also used stickles glitter glue for accenting some pieces. Thanks for looking!!

Coloring in stamped images

I learned a few months ago how to do the Magic Color Pencil Technique (or the Gamsol Technique). It is a technique that you use when you color in stamped images with colored pencils and an odorless mineral spirits. I made these few cards.....more of a masculine feel to them. The stamp set, cardstock, metal embellishments, hemp twine, and twill ribbons are from Stampin Up. I distressed with the dark brown fluid chalk cat's eye ink pad. I use StazOn ink so that the image doesn't smear when I apply the Mona Lisa brand of odorless mineral spirits. The colored pencils that I use are the Prismacolor Premier. You can see a tutorial for the Magic Color Pencil Technique HERE.

Fun new flower techinque

I found a tutorial over on Tomi's website that I just had to try. It was quite easy and I love the results. It is scraps from the previous LO that I posted. I used Stampin Up cardstock, stamp and red ink, the papers are scraps from Cosmo Cricket, the decorative brad is by Making Memories, and the ribbon is from Creative Impressions. I distressed with the Chestnut Roan fluid chalk cat's eye ink pad. I cut out the circles on my cricut in various sizes. You should hop on over to I Love Pretty Paper and check out the tutorial on this flower technique. I know that I will use this technique more than once.

Fabulous Friends

I have been super busy this last week getting the July kits completed for Apron Strings Designs. I love the kits this month (but when do they ever have kits that I don't like??). You should visit their website and see the kits they have for this month. In a week or two, the kits that I created with will be published in their newsletter. This LO is not from the July 2008 kit, but it is from one of their previous kits.....the pictures are of my kids last year when they found a common hiding place. I just love to take pictures of the two of them bonding. Apron Strings Designs has a year long sketch and a summer challenge going on right now and I made this LO while I was completing them. The sketch comes from susieqscrapbook. The cardstock that I used is Bazzill, the papers are by Cosmo Cricket, the mini brads are by Creative Impressions, and the flourishes are by Queen and Co. I used my cricut and George cartridge to cut out the Larger circles and the "FRIENDS" in the title. I used my 1" circle punch from Stampin Up to cut out all the smaller circles.