One Sweet Ride

This week at Scrapbook Steals, my scrappy friend Van Nguyen was featured as a guest designer!  She created not one, but two fabulous sketches.  I loved them both, but being pressed for time, I opted for the one that I thought I could finish quickly.  This is the sketch I started with:

I immediately thought of a photo I snapped of my new bike and I dug out some old My Mind's Eye papers that matched the "feel" was going for.  This is the layout I created:

I love my bike, but I love it even more because it was a total surprise.  My husband isn't exactly great at picking out gifts, and we had all but abandoned buying for one another at this stage in our life.  We pretty much get what we want or save up for something special, so we don't buy each other Anniversary gifts anymore.  This was our 10th Anniversary, so I decided to be prepared "just in case" he got me something.  I didn't want to be empty handed if he happened to buy me something.  I bought him a new ipod since he sent his last one through the washing machine.  I decided that if we didn't end up buying anniversary presents, I would simply save the ipod for Christmas, so I wouldn't make him feel bad if he didn't shop for me.  I was surprised to find this beautiful bike sitting in my kitchen on the morning of our anniversary.  He snuck it in before leaving for work.  It was everything I had been dreaming of!  And I happily set out his new ipod so that he would be surprised when he came home from work.  All in all, we had a wonderful anniversary and are looking forward to spending many more together!

World Card Making Day

In honor of world card making day, I busted out my new Cricut cartridge- Walk in My Garden and created this flower pot pocket card

I started by cutting out two identical flower pots.  I inked the edges, added a punched border and some twine, and stitched the pocket together.  I cut an insert slightly smaller than the flower pot and cut out several flowers using papers from Fancy Pants.  I layered the flowers, adding pop dots behind some, and wrote my greeting inside the card. 

I added a little leaf at the top of the flowers that says "pull" so that the recipient knows the flowers can be removed to see the sentiment. 

Happy card making!

Totally Topaz

In my never ending quest to win free crafty supplies, I am pleased to announce that I'm "Totally Topaz" and am in the running for a wonderful prize package from Scrapbook Steals!  I have been faithfully completing their weekly sketch challenges (I haven't missed a week since I started their challenges 56 weeks ago!)  At the end of every group of ten sketches (grouped with gemstone names), they are giving away some scrappy swag.  Even though these layouts have all been featured elsewhere on my blog,  I have to group them all together to enter for the prize, so please indulge me (and enjoy looking at my creations one more time!)

You're Nuts

This week's challenge was so much fun and my layout came together pretty quickly, thanks to the great papers from the Campy Trails collection!  I had this wooden squirrel in my stash for over a year and finally found a good use for him!  The original sketch from Scrapbook Steals looked like this:

This layout represents the 62nd layout I've done for Scrapbook Steals.  I am constantly amazed at how much inspiration and encouragement I get from this amazing group of people.  I do occasionally purchase steals (like the Campy Trails collection featured above), but the friendships I've formed are far more valuable than the deals I get!

Card Challenge

I've never really considered myself a card maker, but when I saw the contest on Practical Scrappers and the amazing prize package, I had to participate!  The requirement for this round of cards is "pink".  Ugh.  Anyone who knows me well knows this is a realy challenge for me.  I have never been a fan of pink and I'm so lucky that I only have boys, but I busted out of my comfort zone for this one and found a few pink pieces of paper to work with.  The challenge allows for up to 3 cards to be submitted, so I made these:

I used my loopy punch around the page Martha Stewart punch to make the layers of loops and added some glitter to the Congratulations sentiment, although it's hard to see in the picture.

For this card, I pulled out some of my favorite patters from Echo Park's Life is Good collection.  I broke out my Sew Easy to add the stitching and then made the flower using little scalloped circles.

This card shows off more paper and elements from the Life is Good collection.  I added a little bling with my i-rock.

If any of my "pink" cards are chosen, then I will go on to the next round and will get another topic to work on, with people then being able to vote on their favorite.  This will continue until the final round in early November.  They are giving away an amazing prize package, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I at least make the first cut. 

Practical Scrappers

One of my favorite blogs is looking for designers.  Practical Scrappers is a great site that encourages me to try different techniques or topics and submit layouts for their blog features.  My layouts have been featured several times and each time I still get a thrill out of seeing my work on someone else's site.  I've decided to throw in my hat for their designer search.  It's a small commitment, three months, so it would be a perfect fit for me and my busy life.  Go visit their blog and check them out!  Please tell them I sent you, so they can see how many wonderfully scrappy friends I am introducing to their amazing site.  On the side of their blog, you can see a list of current calls featuring lots of different topics.  I'm submitting this layout in their request for pages about fall:

And this is a layout I did for their 2 page layout request:

Please excuse the poor photo quality.  We've had some rainy dreary days here in Northern Indiana, making it difficult to get enough natural light for my photos. 

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out Practical Scrappers and play along with them!



You are the...

While browsing Pinterest, I came across this typography that made my smile:

I decided to use elements of this on a layout about my wonderful husband.  We seldom take pics together and it is a rare occasion that we actually get one I like.  This photo of us was taken on a sad day, at his grandmother's funeral, but I love that it captures us looking decent and so much in love.  Grandma would love it too.  I tried to ignore the housework that was calling my name and I snuck to the basement for some crafty time.  This is the end result:

I had seen journaling like this in magazines and I decided to give it a try.  Not long ago, I was admiring scrapbooking templates that were not in my budget and I decided to make my own by cutting up frosted/clear poly binders that I found on sale for 25 cents!  I used a curvy cutter on some, traced some shapes, and hand cut some others to come up with these:

I punched holes in the end so that I can store them all on a ring.  I used these handy dandy little templates to make some guidelines on my layout.  I traced several curvy lines around the space where my picture would go and then I set out writing the journaling between the curvy lines while trying to fill up most of the space.  It was a bit intimidating because I don't always love my handwriting.  Once I was satisfied with my penciled journaling, I traced over the words using Sharpies and then I erased all of my guide lines.  Thanks for looking!