Thursday, May 31, 2012

Thank you card


Supplies: patterned paper, die cuts (My Mind's Eye), ribbon (Heidi Grace), stamp (Fiskars)
Just a quick card I made last night based on the May sketch from My Mind's Eye blog. I used some old MME papers and even older diecuts from the accessory sheet. The ribbon is also from my old stash - it is by Heidi Grace for Fiskars. I love using old products, I feel resourceful that way :)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Take Twelve - May layout

And here is the May layout. I didn't finish it before the May 18th deadline but it is done now. And it is still May! I kept is simple as my other Take 12 layouts. I used Lifestyle Crafts Diesel alphabet dies to cut the title, single strip of patterned paper and few embellishments. I really need to learn how to take better pictures of the double spreads. I really dislike how crocked it looks but you can get the idea.


Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper and flower embellishments (Amy Tangerine fr American Crafts), journaling stamp (Close To My Heart), chipboard ice skates (Little Yellow Bicycle), heart sticker (Cloud 9), silver pen (Sakura), Matte Accents (Ranger)


I knew I wanted a pair of ice skates for the journaling block. The only stamp I had was looking right and I wanted the skates to point left. I spent hours searching the web looking for digital stamps to buy, or real stamps or basically any scrapbooking products related to ice skating. After fruitless search I remembered that Winter Twig collection by Little Yellow Bicycle had some ice skates among  the embellishments. I found two ice skates in the chipboard package. They were blue and pointed right. I flipped them, painted the blades with silver pen and covered with Matte Accents, added dots for the hooks and one little red heart.
 
 

The rest of my Take 12 layouts: January , February, March (still in progress), April.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Scrap-A-Latte - May projects


Today I am going to share three layouts that I made for Scrap-A-Latte with the products they sent to me. I received papers and transparent embellishments from the Little Yellow Bicycle Saturdays collection, Studio Calico tissue ribbons, Jillibean Soup picks, an owl wood embellishment from Kaiser Crafts, a tag from Elle's Studio and some kraft envelopes with tags. I couldn't be more happy with their choice because I picked the same collection for my last DT projects for Scrapbook Express. I loved working with this collection and was happy to make few more layouts.

For my first layout I picked 3 pictures of Eli taken at the coffee shop inside Barnes & Noble store. I layered pieces of tissue ribbon under the pictures and also used the tissue packaging. The flower is made from the scallop tissue paper, a button and two stick pins. I added colorful dots with liquid pearls and stickles to the butterfly wings to bring some color and mimic the colorful M&Ms in the pictures.

Supplies: patterned paper, ClearCut shapes, tags (Little Yellow Bicycle), letter stickers (October Afternoon), tissue strips (Studio Calico), stick pins (Jillibean Soup), button (French General by Jolee's Boutique), liquid pearls, stickles (Ranger Ink)


For my second layout I decided to use 2 pictures of Ella and Eli with their bikes. I was glad to find two bikes in the package of the LYB Clear Cut shapes that matched perfectly the pictures. To make the title, I cut out the word Thankful and the journaling lines from the Elle's Studio tag, rounded the corners and layered them on top of each other. I added small Cosmo Cricket letter stickers to complete the title. 

 Supplies: patterned paper, ClearCut shapes (Little Yellow Bicycle), border punch (Martha Stewart), corner punch (Fiskars), tag (Elle's Studio), letter stickers (Cosmo Cricket), label sticker (Scenic Route), brads (unknown)

I added few brads from my stash and Scenic Route label sticker with the date.


My last layout is unusual for me. It tells a story of Ella's quest to get into the double accelerated math program for the next year. I journaled on two tags and slipped them inside the envelope. I used the notes that she wrote to me during the orientation meeting trying to convince me to sign her up.We were told that the kids will have to spend at least 30 minutes a day on math homework, so she wrote - 30 min, Yay.
I decided to use her own words for the title. The smart owl was a perfect embellishment for this page

Supplies: patterned paper, ClearCut shapes, tags (Little Yellow Bicycle), letter stickers (Doodlebug), owl (Kaiser Crafts), stickles (Ranger Ink)
 


I already received a new box from Scrap-A-Latte. I was super excited to find products that are new for me. Can't wait to get started on my next projects! 

P.S. Scrap-A-Latte has a new blog. Add it to your reader, they often post exclusive discount codes!
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Take Twelve - May

May is a busy month, jammed full with the end-of-year activities. Among them is an annual ice skating show put together by Wisconsin Figure Skating Club. It is an amazing event, organized completely by volunteers, that devote endless hours to the show. 

I did not have any problems to take 12 pictures on May 12th. I took more than 400 pictures at two ice skating shows that happened to be on May 12th. During the whole weekend Lila had 4 shows and I ended up with more than 600 pictures to sort and go through. They are not the best but they are a good reminder of this special day.

Lila skated in 4 numbers and I decided to pick 3 pictures from each number. The first column is her synchronized skating program, the second is Party Rock Anthem (can you see the skirt, the sleeve and the heart necklace - yours truly made them for 6 girls in this number), the third is Retro Disco (the knitted legwarmers were made by me) and the last one is Aerosmith.


All of the above also explains why I didn't have time to scrap, or blog, or read blogs or do anything else in the last couple of weeks. I really miss my scrap desk!

I have few things in progress so I hope to be back soon with a new layout or two.
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Friday, May 4, 2012

Twig cards


Supplies: patterned paper, chipboard, stickers (Little Yellow bicycle), letter stickers (Bazzill Basics), stickles (Tim Holtz), white pen(UniBall Signo)

One of the Little Yellow Bicycle NSD challenges was to create a project using old LYB collection . I had few scraps left from the Twig collection. I made three cards using the ScrapbookSteals Monday Card Madness sketches.I had to be creative because I had only few paper scraps, some leftover chipboard and some stickers. I used sketch #80 for the first card. I added faux stitching to the handmade flags and some stickles to the flower stickers. 


This card is based on Monday Card Madness sketch #78.  I added tiny pearls to the center of the flowers.

Supplies: patterned paper, chipboard, sticker (Little Yellow Bicycle), letter stickers (Cosmo Cricket), pearls (Bo Bunny)



The next card is my favorite. I used Monday Card Madness sketch #81. 

Supplies: patterned paper, stickers (Little Yellow Bicycle), letter stickers(Cosmo Cricket), white pen(Uni Ball Signo)



Happy National Scrapbook Day!
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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Ah, flowers!


Last Friday I went to the Scrapbook Expo in Milwaukee. It was small but I still had a great time. I love taking classes so of course I looked through the list of classes that were offered. One class that looked interesting was a flower class tought by Melissa Forsyth. Melissa is the owner of The Rubber Cafe - company that I never heard about before the expo. When I went to sign up for the class I saw that I can sign up as a Teacher's Pet. Teacher's Per gets the class kit but does not get to make the project during the class, she is there to help the instructor with kits, assist class participants if needed and so on. It costs only $5 instead of a regular class price of $25 or so. I decided that it is a great deal and it was!
Melissa is a wonderful teacher. The class was packed with new techniques and money saving ideas. After the class I spent another hour in The Rubber Cafe booth, watching Melissa playing with glue, Faber-Castell gelatos and markers and glitter.

I decided to use the technique I learned from Melissa on my layout for the May challenge at Scrap It Girl. The challenge theme is flowers - perfect opportunity to showcase those beautiful tulle flowers. I made few changes to Melissa's instructions because I wanted my flowers to be a little less dimensional since I was using them on a layout.

Supplies: cardstock (Core'dinations), patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), stickers (Sassafras Lass), tulle (Mon Ami Gabby), letters (Tim Holtz), ink (Brilliance), glimmer mist (Tattered Angles), buttons (Foof-a-la, vintage), tag (unknown), brads (unknown)

I handcut few circles from the tulle and layered them under various pink buttons. Some of the buttons are my flea market find and some are from the endless Foof-a-la bag.

The grungeboard letters were inked first with Pearlescent Sky Blue Brilliance ink and than misted with Glacier Glimmer Mist.


I still had one flower left, the first one that I made. I decided to use it on a card. I used a Monday Card Madness sketch #82 from ScrapbookSteals blog. By the way, this blog is the newest addition to my Google Reader. Why I didn't know they have a blog??

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), tag (Anna Griffin), tulle (Mon Ami Gabby), letter stickers (Cosmo Cricket), brad (unknown), border punch (Fiskars), circle punch (Fiskars), distress ink (Tim Holtz), feathers (Zucker Feather)

Love those feathers! I got them from the craft section at Michael's. They look great with my big tulle flower.


Now it's your turn! Show us your flowers and enter to win a great prize at Scrap It Girl. The challenge runs till end of May - plenty of time to enter.

Checking in

Just checking in here, saying hi to my blog and my blog readers. I do have blog readers, right?
I am thinking about the National Scapbook Day coming this Saturday. So many fun online events!
I signed up for a free online event at Big Picture Classes called Creative Crop
Fiskateers will have an online crop, their crops are always fun.
Little Yellow Bicycle promised a super fun event on their blog. They already posted few challenges.

Sadly, I will spend my Saturdy away from my scrap desk, at the ice skating rink. This is the busy time before the annual ice skating show. Lila has one practice after another and I have costumes to sew, legwarmers to knit, accessories to shop for.

Did I mention that I also need to finish a yearbook for Ella's school till next Tuesday? I still hope to spend few hours at my craft desk on Saturday night and squeeze in one or two challenges.

What are your plans for NSD? Anything exciting? Please share!

I will be back tonight with a scrappy post. Stay tuned.