A Day At The Beach

Today, I leave for the beach for a week-long trip! I'm so excited. I'll be scrapbooking with friends for the first half of the week, then enjoying time with my family for the second part. There is nothing as relaxing and restful to me as spending time listening to the waves, walking on the sand and smelling the salty air. I can't wait!

For this card, I used the August Word Puzzle stamp set. I used Indian Corn Blue, Heavenly Blue, Hollyhock, White Daisy and Buttercup cardstocks and inks. I used White Daisy Bigger Brads and White Daisy mini ric rac with some Heavenly Blue eyelets. I colored in the flip flops with our Exclusive Inks markers.

Going Camping!

I just finished this layout earlier this week, and I'm not using it until my August scrap club, but I had to post it this week because we're camping at Ft. Stevens! I plan to use this layout for our photos from the camping trip. I had so much fun making it!

I used papers from the Back Country kit, Barn Red, Outdoor Denim, Olive and Crystal Blue inks and cardstock, Barn Red bigger brads, Desert Sand Waxy Flax, the Big Circle Coluzzle, and the Field Trip Alphabet and Under the Stars (retired) stamp sets. To color in the details on the tent and sleeping bag kids accents, I used the blending pen with ink from my ink pads - it creates a beautiful and realistic variation of color.

Card Keeper Box

I made this beautiful box to hold my cards using the My Creations Memory Keeper - only $6.95 for the box! This is a fabulous place to hold cards, 3-D items, memorabilia, photos, anything really! I used papers from the Emporium kit, Vineyard Berry and Cocoa cardstock, My Stickease from the Emporium kit, and added some various chipboard letters to spell out "cards" which I colored with Cocoa ink. It came together so fast and easy! I love that the flap has a magnetic closure to hold everything in and how it is so strong and sturdy. I've stuffed a lot of cards in there! I plan on making one for my husband Tony to hold all of the momentos from his recent baseball state championship game - look for that post in the next month or two!

College Layout

Although documenting the lives of my two children, Alex and Ava, dominates most of my scrapbooking projects right now, I have started to go back and create layouts about events in my life before I was married to Tony and we started our family. These photos are from the Spring Dance Concert at Western Oregon University, my senior year. My friends Greta and Sam choregraphed an African piece that was SO much fun. Tony was actually in it with me - it was a great experience to share together.

To create this layout, I began with a color combo that I thought complimented our costumes - Ocean, Outdoor Denim, Topiary and White Daisy. I cut some scallop edged trim using my Cricut machine, random stamped using the color combo with the Western Flourishes stamp set on some Ocean cardstock, embellished the flourishes with White Daisy Bitty Brads, stamped some accent flourishes with the Legendary Moments stamp set and finished it off with my title using the Building Block E-size Alphabet stamp set and some handwritten journaling accents.

I love the clean, simple lines of this layout. I wanted to showcase the photos and get something completed in a couple of hours to remember this special event from my senior year of college.

July Club Layouts - Part 2

Here's the second set of Scrap Club layouts for July. I used the papers from the Animal Cookies Level 2 Paper Packet, along with Tulip, Desert Sand and Clover Meadow cardstocks. The little train was stamped using the childhood stamp set, and I used Waxy Flax to tie the train cars together. I also used some retired Dutch Blue grosgrain ribbon that I had on hand.

July Club Layouts - Part 1

This is the first of two double-page layouts for my July Scrap Club members. I used the Animal Cookies papers from the Creative Basics Collection, along with Clover Meadow, White Daisy, Sunflower and Tulip cardstocks. The thick White Daisy Grosgrain ribbon is also from the Creative Basics pack, and I added some of the Foam Number Die-Cuts as well. I used the Childhood and Field Trip Alphabet stamps. I love this layout's simple, clean lines.

Party Time!

For this card, I used the Tinkerin' paper packet, Gear Up and Placement Guide stamps, Clover Meadow, Sunny Yellow, Twilight and Goldrush cardstock, Twilight and Clover Meadow inks, White Daisy Grosgrain ribbon from the Animal Cookies Creative Basics pack, White Daisy Embroidery Floss and a small chipboard circle from a retired Dimensional Elements set.

I think this would make a really cute invite for a birthday party - the "Gear Up To Party" saying is so cute. The Placement Guide stamps make it so easy to incorporate hand stitching on a project. Just stamp the design you want, use the Paper Piercer to poke the holes, and stitch your design right on the project. This is one of those color combinations I would never come up with myself, but I really love how CTMH put them together for this paper packet.

Paradise

This card was so fun to make, and it made me want to go on a tropical vacation! Well, I'll have to keep dreaming about that vacation, but I just LOVE these papers and coordinating stamps. I used the Moon Doggie paper packet, Extreme Happiness and Simple Stitches stamp sets, Cranberry, Garden Green, Indian Corn Blue, and Cocoa inks, and Antiqued Copper brads. On the top of the Indian Corn Blue cardstock, I used the sponge daubers to add Versamark ink and then used White Embossing Powder with the craft heater to emboss a "surf" like border on the top. It's hard to see in the photo, but I also scored 1/4 lines all the way across the Garden Green cardstock to look like a "beadboard" trim.

Oregon weather is finally permitting me to use the photo-taking example set by fellow CTMH consultant Aaron's blog which I love - she always takes photos of her artwork outside in the plants/foliage. I am SO happy with the results for my artwork photos - even with my super old camera, the colors pop and the foliage and natural lighting is so flattering! I'll definitely be doing that all summer and into the fall as long as the weather cooperates!

Busy Family!

I know, it's been WAY too long since I've posted anything on my blog. I have had lots of reasons why we've been SO busy these last few weeks - here are photos from two of those. The first is Alex's tap recital, which was last Sunday. His class did such a fabulous job with their cute routine to "Shari". This is Alex's second year taking tap classes, and he just loves performing on stage and moving to the beat of the music!

Another event that took up lots of our family's time was the McNary baseball team's run to the state championship! My husband Tony coaches JV baseball at McNary High School, where he also teaches Social Studies. The varsity team's run through the state playoffs ended last Saturday night when they won the Oregon 6A baseball state championship! It was such an amazing experience for Tony to be a part of that coaching staff, and at the championship game, Alex got to be bat boy for the Celts - what an experience. As you can imagine, I got TONS of photos of this fabulous game, but I had to choose just a few to post here.

So, we've been much busier than usual in our family, but now, things are settling down a bit and I promise, I'll be posting much more often. In fact, keep checking back - I'm hoping to post at least 4-5 times per week for the majority of the summer.

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