Something New

 Well, since I've received my card in the mail, I'm pretty sure it's safe to post one of the projects I've been working on.  My nephew is getting married this December and he and his future bride asked if I could make a Save the Date design for them.

Of course, I was more than happy to help!  Any reason to play!!!  I made several prototypes and then we got together one evening so they could view them and do any tweaking that needed to be done.  Their colors are silver and purple so they had a lot of options, but we finally managed to make something that they both liked.  The faces are purposely blocked to protect their privacy, but you get the idea.  I love that their 'babies' are in the photo with them!

I created this as a 4x6 project in MDS and then saved it as a jpeg so they could take it to their favorite printing service.   I really like how the printed versions turned out!

This was the first time I had ever done a commissioned project and I have to admit, it was a little daunting!  Usually I just follow my muse and make whatever appeals to me at the time.  Even when I've made cards for others, I usually have a lot of leeway on the artistic design.  It was hard for me to come up with a variety of designs that might appeal to different tastes, but in the end it worked out pretty well.  

I had to laugh when we first started and I was showing them different ideas.  Neither one of them would give me a 'like it' or 'hate it' until I finally assured them that I would not consider it a personal attack if they hated any of the options.  It was quite productive after that!

I was also amazed at the amount of money brides and grooms spend on invitations, decorations, etc!  It's quite fortunate that Alex has a very crafty mother and aunt to help create all of those special things!  As the date gets closer, I will share the shower invitations and other pretties we are making for their special day!

I hope you have a wonderful day and find some time to be crafty!! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Flashback Friday- A Collaborative Effort

Hi!  I can't believe that October is almost at an end!  It seemed like a month ago, we were getting our camper ready for the season, and now we're squeezing in our last few outings before it is stored for the winter!  Plus, Halloween will be here before I know it, and then Thanksgiving, and then GASP! Christmas!!  I'm feeling a bit panicked already!

But I didn't intend to stress you out today, I'm here to share another scrapbook page for my Flashback Friday!  My oldest took one look at the photos and exclaimed, "That is SO Shadow!"  My page title was born!  She continued to offer ideas and opinions as I worked on the page and since it's for her album, I used pretty much everything she offered.

The vibrant red base is one that I have had for a very, very long time.  It always seemed a little too red for everything.  But today, the red seemed to add another element of energy to the very energetic photo.  I am quite happy that it now has a home because I was about ready to just pitch it!  I kept the page incredibly simple and let the fun pictures of Shadow be the main attraction.  A quick dig through my stickers file turned up the vellum piece.  He really was still quite a puppy at the time the pictures were taken, only a year old!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Happy crafting!

Page Recipe:  Paper-red base from stash, basic black, whisper white, Stamp Set-Designer Typeset, Ink-black stazon, Accessories-vellum quote & black alphabet letters from stash

Orange and Black Challenge at ABAC- It's My Turn!

Hello! I am so glad you're here!  We are winding down our orange and black challenge at Anything But a Card Challenges.  I hadn't shared a scrapbook layout for our challenges in quite some time, and the orange and black colors seemed so perfect for a Halloween layout.  Unfortunately, I don't currently have any Halloween pics to scrap, so I made a page that will hold a standard 4x6 photo and now I will have a page all ready to go when my photos are printed!  I don't usually do this, but I'm glad I have a bit of a jump start!

This layout is a nice mixture of some new goodies and older supplies.  The black and very vanilla colors in the Modern Medley DSP were perfect and I had so much fun playing with the splatters in the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set!  The orange base, buttons, and letter stickers were some oldies from my stash.  The letters were white and I inked them up with a little tangerine tango ink to coordinate with the buttons and paper.

I hope you have enjoyed my page and don't forget that there is still time to join us with your very own orange and black creation!  Have a wonderful week!

Page Recipe: Paper-orange from stash, very vanilla, basic black, Modern Medley DSP, Ink-

tangerine tango, stazon black, Stamp Set-Gorgeous Grunge, Punches-large scallop circle, 1 1/4 scallop circle, eyelet border, Accessories- Sweet Stitches buttons (ret)

Flashback Friday- They grow up so fast...

Hello! I'm so glad you've stopped by for another Flashback Friday, where I attempt to use up some of my older crafting supplies, and dust off those retired Stampin' Up items.  I have another scrapbook page this week.

A while back, my youngest was commenting about all of the pictures I still needed to scrapbook.  In her ever optimistic mind, she thought if I had a whole weekend for scrapbooking, I could get caught up.  Isn't that cute?!  Not that I mind the idea of locking myself away for a weekend of crafting, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't even make a dent in the pages that need to be made.  I might be able to get all of my  printed photos scrapped, but then there are the hundreds of photos that are still on CDs that need to be printed.  Such is the life of a shutterbug...

I have managed to squeeze in quite a bit of time this month to working on pages and I'm slowly getting them finished.  Today's page has photos from 2008 and I had to smile at the sweet little faces!  They don't look quite the same 5 years later!!

I used an old sketch that I've had for ages.  I'm not even sure where it's from, but I loved the little scallop blocks for the title.  It was also nice to use some older cardstock for my base.  That pile is slowly getting smaller too!  The original sketch had die cut style flowers, but since I've loaned out my Big Shot to my sister for a project, I made ribbon flowers instead. *I never realized just how much I use the Big Shot until it wasn't here!*  Oh, and those red letters in the title?  I can not even fathom a guess as to how long I've had them.  I was a little surprised they were still sticky!

close up of the ribbon flower...

I hope you enjoyed today's post and that maybe you are inspired to catch up on your scrapbooking or use some of your older supplies.  Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!

Page Recipe:  Paper- yellow base from stash, whisper white, pacific point, Accessories-scallop square punch, jumbo sticky rounds, ice cream parlor ribbon (ret), really old red alphabet stickers  

Flashback Friday- Getting Inky!

Hello! I'm apologizing in advance... Today's post is a little picture heavy, but I did include some cute, furry kitten photos so I hope I'm forgiven!  As I was making some phone calls and paying bills last week, I was grumbling to myself  that I really needed to get a little more organized with all of the papers that seem to accumulate when the girls go back to school.  Sign this, send in $ for that, be sure the choir gowns are altered by the first concert, return fundraiser information now...  It is enough to drive me batty some days!  Just as I was wondering what in the world I could find that would organize and I would actually use, Shadow's big ol' Lab tail knocked a clipboard off of a shelf.  I picked it up and was going to return it to the shelf when inspiration struck.  I should have taken a before picture, but didn't think of it until it was already painted.  The clipboard was one that I had bought to use for preschool and the kids helped 'decorate' it with stray marks from markers and pencils.  I gave the whole clipboard a good coat of off white acrylic paint.  As the paint was drying, I went to Pinterest to see what ideas I could borrow to make my new organization board.

I really wasn't in the mood for a neat and clean papered clipboard, of which there were TONS of photos.  I liked them, but didn't really want to do the whole paper thing.  I did however find some inspiration in a mini clipboard that was all inky and stamped-not my usual style, but it looked like a lot of fun!  

So I pulled out some of my favorite stamps, lots of ink pads, and got busy.  I'm not sure if it was the acrylic paint or the clipboard, but my bold browns were sucked right in, leaving behind a very muted design.  I really liked it, and quickly decided to exchange my subtle blues and greens for the stronger, brighter colors.  The funny thing was I would never have combined the different shades that I used, but they really worked well together once they were dry.  Then I went back and sponged some browns and blues, and a little vanilla for good measure.

When I finished, the chrome clip looked completely out of place! Can't have that!!  So I pulled out the vanilla flower trim and made it all inky as well.  The newsprint bird was a suggestion from my oldest DD, and I added some 'vintage' crochet ribbon to finish it off.

Now I just have to convince myself to clip important notes and paper on here.  Not an easy task since it will cover up all of the inky goodness, but maybe it will motivate me to take care of those papers so I can see the clipboard again.

I hadn't intended to share photos of the kittens, but they were weaving in and out of the table legs as I was trying to take my pictures.  I figured if they were feeling so photogenic, I should oblige.

Katniss decided to climb up my leg as I took her photo. Ouch!

Beauty was too busy swiping to sit still, but finally

I was able to capture this shot.

Where was Shadow during all of this?  Why, resting comfortably on the deck like a good dog.  I'm pretty sure he's convinced that we make way too much fuss over the silly cats who don't even have the courtesy to stay out of my pictures.  He does however make quite a big deal of strutting back into the house with me.  I'm certain he makes faces at them through the window as he enjoys his place inside.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and find some time to play with your craft supplies too!

Project Recipe: Paper-very vanilla, First Edition DSP (ret), Stamp Sets-Faith in Nature (ret), Inspired by Nature (ret), Warm Words (ret), World Map, Ink-soft suede, early espresso, baked brown sugar, marina mist, not quite navy, night of navy, garden green, old olive, Accessories-bird builder punch, scallop oval punch, vanilla flower trim, Chantilly crochet trim

Paper Pumpkin- Lovin' those hexagons!!

Hello! Just a quick post and a simple card today.  You may look at this and question how simple it was, but this was another of the wonderful Paper Pumpkin kits.  I didn't even have to punch the holes!!  I really like the hexagons and it was fun filling in the spaces with the cardstock stickers and pop dotting the stamped hexagons.  I even used the heart stamp to decorate the inside of the card!!

I was almost giddy that there were left overs that I can use on another card!!

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit and I hope you find some time to get all inky and stampy too!

Anything But a Card Challenge 28 Orange and Black

Hi!  Just popping in quickly to let you know there is a new challenge starting this week.  Our theme is Orange and Black, and while this does naturally lend itself to Halloween, it is not limited to that!  I think you will be amazed at what our design team has created in their versions of orange and black!! Be sure to check out their inspiration and I hope you make time to play along with us!

Here are the details...

Create a NEW project (no back linking) inspired by our theme of Orange and Black
You can make anything BUT a card-3D, altered, scrapbook pages, journals, ATCs, etc...
Please mention our challenge in your post, and a link would be even nicer!
You can play along more than once too!!

I hope you will join us at Anything But a Card Challenges!!

Have a terrific week!

Flashback Friday-Family Ties!

Hello! I am finally back with a new Flashback Friday!  We had two family reunions in September and I took several pictures at both.  I figured before I let another year pile on, I better get some of the older reunion pics scrapped.  

I come from a large family.  I am the youngest of six, Mom is in the middle of eight, and Dad is one of the older of eight.  Needless to say, even a 'small' gathering is a big deal.  On the flip side of the coin, my husband is the youngest of three, and his Mom and Dad are both the oldest of two.  Our wedding reception was a bit overwhelming for his family.  They were amazed that not only was I related to so many people, but also knew all of them by name!  Over the years, cousins had kids, and their kids had kids, and I can no longer claim to know everyone by name, but we still have a great time together!  It's so fun to share stories with the younger kids about their parents and grandparents when they were little.

Today's page holds photos from 2008 (you do the math and see how far behind I am!), and I was so happy to see that everyone in these photos were also at our most recent reunion.  Sometimes it's a little sad to scrap older pictures and realize that some of the loved ones are no longer with us.  But fortunately, that wasn't the case this time.  I kept the layout fairly clean and simple since I really didn't want anything to take away from the documentation purpose of the photos.  I added a large journal block to the back of the page, documenting everyone's name and relationship.  I know my kids think it's a little funny when I list that Grandma is their Grandma and I'm her daughter, but 50 years from now someone else may be viewing these asking "Grandma to who?".  On the front, I journaled about the location and some of the fun activities we enjoyed.

This was truly a dip into my older stash!  The only current thing I used was the very vanilla cardstock and the Stazon ink and marker!  I even dug out an old epoxy quote sticker, mounted it on a scrap of vanilla and used it to embellish my page.  I thought it described my family perfectly.  It seems like no matter what has happened or how many years it has been, when we all gather together, it's like no time has passed at all.  What a blessing to have this, and an even bigger treasure to pass on to my girls.

Well, that's it for me today!  I hope you are ready to enjoy another wonderful weekend!  We don't have too much planned, so I'm hoping for a little more crafty time to play.  Have a fabulous day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Page Recipe:  Paper-very vanilla, Sending Love DSP (ret), Stamp Set-Jayne's Type Alpha (ret), Ink-Stazon black, black journaling marker, Accessories-scallop border punch, old epoxy sticker from stash

In the Spotlight-Think Pink!

It's time for another Spotlight at ABAC.  This month it's the very talented Sheri, and her mini challenge is to Think Pink!  This combines her love of the color and Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I hope you are inspired to create and play along with her challenge.

Here is a sample of the lovely, Sheri's work...

We would love it if you would stop by and leave some love for Sheri and it would be even more fabulous if you would join her in the mini challenge!!