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Floral Fab Friday

While checking out some of my favorite blogs, I found this awesome tutorial:

http://lordhavemercy-mercykerin.blogspot.com/2010/01/paper-flower-tutorial.html

I don't own this SU! punch, but I think the scalloped circle Nestabilities would be even better because you could make different sized flowers. I hope to have time this weekend to try out!

DP2 Challenge #15

Here's another Mo Manning Digital Pencil image. This card is for the current color challenge on Mo's DP2 Challenge blog, as well as the ethnic skin tones challenge on the Copic Creations challenge blog.. I used the adorable Keisha image on my card.

Isn't she sweet?

Warm Wednesday Wishes

Welcome to another Sweet Sketch Wednesday! This week's sponsor is the uber talented Mo Manning of Digital Pencil Too. Stop by the SSW blog to check out the other design team members' great cards and then come join us in the challenge! You can win a $10 gift code to Mo's store - a great prize for sure!

First, our sketch:


When I emailed Mo for an image, we were in the midst of a brutal cold snap. I knew just which image I wanted to use for my card:

This image is entitled "End of Summer" but it sure felt warm and summery to me when we were longing for days of double digit temps! The patterned papers I used are from the "Penny Lane" collection of My Minds' Eye. I like finding a line of papers that all coordinate together. Makes putting together a well coordinated card so much easier!

Have a wonderful Wednesday with lots of warm thoughts! :)

Relay Race!

I've been participating in the daily CHA relay race over on The Greeting Farm's Splendid Stamping blog. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up, but it's been fun so far. Here are my first two cards.


I admit, I struggled a bit with an image of a male mermaid, even if it he is as handsome as Ian. (I guess he'd be a merMAN, huh?) Charlotte was a bit easier.


Off to post today's entry so that I can get the next image!

Fab Friday - Scrappers' Edition

My Fab Friday posts are normally geared more towards stamping, so I thought I'd share a scrapbook tip instead.

At the annual weekend retreat my CM rep, Jill Overton, throws every Fall we always have optional "breakout sessions". This year's sessions were a little different from the past and were technique based, rather than project specific. This great checkerboard design was one of the techniques demonstated:


Here are the left and right pages up close:


As you can see, I had to fudge a bit on my right hand page in order to fit in the family photo. That's the great thing about this layout - it is so versatile. You can fill all the blocks with pictures, or use one or more for a page title, journaling, etc. You could certainly use a piece of background paper for your pages, but I adhered mine directly to the white page. I thought there was enough color in all the photos and didn't want my page to be too busy.

This is a great layout for fitting in a lot of pictures into a 2 page spread. (I still take too many Christmas photos - I have two other double layouts from this year! Bad Lisa!) It is a little disconcerting at first cutting all of your photos into 3.75 X 3.75 squares. Soon, though, you realize that it is OK to you crop off things you wouldn't ordinarily crop - it's not the end of the world to cut off things like someone's elbow. You learn to include the true focal point of each photo.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Fab Friday!

Kraftin' Kimmie

While bloghopping recently, I discovered Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. I like adding stamps to my collection that have a different "look" than the ones I already owned. I decided to buy one of the Kraftin' Kimmie stamps because I thought her spunky Moonlight Whispers girls would be a nice addition to my collection. :)

Like many stamp companies, Kimmie has her own challenge blog. Since my stamps arrived in time, I got to play along with this week's Valentine inspired color challenge. We needed to use pink, red and chocolate in our card, as well as hearts. I used the adorable "Posey" stamp on my card:

I Love Coco

The sponsor of this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday is the talented Sally-Ann of Digistamp Boutique.

I really liked this sketch and had fun using lots of my favorite things - lots of pink, my very favorite heart paper from Basic Grey's Bittersweet collection, Kraft cardstock from The Angel Company, and my favorite recent release from Digistamp Boutique, Coco.


Isn't Coco just the sweetest?! I made a Valentines Day card with this image, but you could use it for a birthday, thinking of you or "missing you" card.

I have to thank my friend Lisa who gave me this red satin ribbon. It's the perfect shade of red, the perfect width and was so easy to work with!

You know what to do next! :) Check out the terrific cards from the rest of the Sweet Sketch Wednesday design team & play along with us! You might just win some of Sally-Ann's adorable digital stamps. :) She's giving away $10 in digital stamps of your choice!

One Freshly Brewed Card!

The sponsor of this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge is Heather of Fresh Brewed Designs.


I chose this toasty image from Heather's shop to make my card:


I thought the warm pink and brown color scheme was perfect for this image.

Head on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to see the other great cards made by our design team. Then play along for a chance to win a great prize from Fresh Brewed Designs!

Fab Friday - part 2

OK, squeaking this one in. It is 11:47 PM, but it is still Friday! ;-)

As promised, here's a short tutorial (with photos) on how to make the mini book that I showed you last week.

Cover: cardstock cut to 3 1/4 by 6 3/4 inches

Pages: cardstock cut to 3 by 12 inches - then score at 3, 6 and 9 inches. Make mountain & valley folds like this:

(To do this the "correct" way, you should score your paper and 3 and 9 inches, then flip it over and score it at 6.)

Depending on the thickness of your cardstock, you will need 4 - 6 strips to create your pages. (The thicker the cardstock, the fewer pages you'll need.) Next, adhere the strips, overlapping the last page like so:


When you're all done, you'll have a strip like this. You'll have one extra "page" (square) leftover - just cut that off. (Trust me, when you finish your strips you'll see what I mean.)


Next, glue the pages together along the spines to form pockets. Be sure to leave the first and last pages as single pages - do not make them into pockets. (Don't ask me how I know this...)


I had bought these "Zips" at a scrapbook store a while ago, and they were quite handy for this. They're very narrow and hold immediately.


If you are going to use ribbon to tie your book shut, be sure to glue the ribbon to the inside of your cover BEFORE gluing in your pages. (Again, just trust me on this one! lol!) You can choose not to use ribbon and not have an enclosure for your book. (See last week's sample book to see what the ribbon ties look like.)

The width of your spine will depend on exactly how many pages you use, so I don't have exact measurements. Just wrap the cover around your complete pages and press until you get decent creases. (I used my Scor-Pal to go over these creases to make them crisper.)

This is what your book will look like from the outside:


And on the inside:


The fun of these little books is, of course decorating them and making tags to insert into the pockets. My tags are 2 1/4 by 3 1/2 inches. (My apologies for this photo - I wasn't taking my pictures in my usual location.)

And here's a picture of the front cover:


For my images, I chose the adorable Coco from Digistamp Boutique. He's just the sweetest! Sally-Ann will be coming out with some other Valentines inspired images, as well, so be sure to check out the store regularly.

Some Bunny Loves You

The Angel Company will be retiring these stamps from the 2009 spring Serendipity idea book. You can purchase them through January 28th at a whopping 40% off - wow! Contact me if you're interested in ordering any of these stamps while they're still available.

One of my favorite soon-to-be-retired sets is Some Bunny. I decided to use this set when I made my make-n-take card for this month's crop (Sunday, January 10th, 1 - 7 PM here in Columbia). I've started thinking of Valentines ideas and thought this bunny would make a sweet Valentine.


Supplies: Bazzill Monochromatic cardstock in Red-Violet, Uptown Girl paper stack, Some Bunny, Pink Scrapper's Floss, Prismacolor pencils with odorless mineral spirits, button (The Paper Studio) - all other supplies from The Angel Company.

A Wednesday Two-fer

This week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge is perfect for using up paper scraps!


I liked this sketch so much, I made two cards for this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge. I had started making a card with this cute image because I knew just how poor little sick Suzie felt!


But then I realized that this was the week that Joni of Inktegrity was sponsoring us. Of course, I wanted to use one of Joni's designs in my card, so I chose this image to feature one of her designs:

You don't often see a "snow lady" and this little shopper was just so cute! She's "Classy Shopper" and you can find her in Joni's shop.

Hop on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge blog and check out the other DT members' cards. Play along with this week's sketch and you just might win a great prize from Joni!

Poorly Suzie... Poorly Family!

Over the holidays, almost everyone in my family was sick! (My youngest was the only one who managed to dodge the germs.) After almost a week of antibiotics, I'm finally on the mend and am so glad to be able to get back to stamping regularly!

I just had to make a card using this adorable image from Digistamp Boutique, Poorly Suzie. Isn't she just the cutest even with a cold? I can't show you the whole card because I used the sketch for this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge. You'll just have to check back on Wednesday to see the whole card! :)


See you on Wednesday!

Fab Friday - part 1

Last week, I attended a stamping get together. Our hostess, Bonnie, worked out measurements & directions for a cute little mini-book she'd seen at a local scrapbook store. Below are some photos of my mini-book. Here's the outer cover:


And here are some samples of the inside pages. The images are all from Penny Black.



This aerial view will hopefully show how the book is constructed:


Next Friday, I'll post the second part of this Fab Friday - a step by step tutorial with photos so that you can design your own mini book. See you next Friday!