Few things on Friday

Few things I wanted to share on this last day of August:
- Tomorrow is September 1st and although our schools don't start till September 4th, tomorrow is the first day of Shimelle's class "Learn Something New Everyday".  I signed up for this class last year (or maybe it was two years ago) but didn't do much except gathering the supplies. This year the focus is on simplicity and Shimelle promised that no preparation is required. I am hopeful that I will be able to follow along this year. I am looking forward to the first prompt tomorrow morning. Are you in?

- The next thing to look forward to is the "Big Idea Festival" from Big Picture Classes. It starts on September 4th and it is free. 14 days with 14 instructors sharing they ideas and tips. Free. Sounds like fun!

- If you are looking for an eye candy, check this post by Rita Barakat. She explains her creative process and what products she is using to create her amazing drawings. I am absolutely in love with them!

- Finally, I want to share this layout that I made based on the sketch from My Scraps & More I used a picture of Ella with her 4th grade teacher Mrs. Mattson. I used a lot of Bella Blvd from my stash.

Supplies: patterned paper, letter stickers, circle sticker (Bella Blvd), small circle journaling tag (Jenni Bowlin), ribbon (unknown), button (American Crafts), 3D embellishments (K&Company), star punches (Fiskars)

 The big star is handcut, all other stars are punched with Fiskars squeeze punches.

I love how it turned out and that Ella helped me with the journaling. 

Three more days till the new school year! I am doing something special tomorrow with the girls and I plan to spend the rest of the weekend catching on the paper works, organizing, cleaning and maybe even scrapping!

Three wedding cards

It doesn't happen that often that I have a chance to make a wedding card. This month I had not one but two occasions. Ella's gymnastics teacher Ms. Melissa got married and my mom asked me to make a card for the wedding of her friend's daughter.

The first card is made using three layers of white cardstock punched with Fiskars corner border punch. The stamps are from an old Fiskars stamp set. I embossed the image with heat embossing, it can be seen better on the second picture.

Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), punch (Fiskars), stamps (Fiskars), ink, embossing powder

For my second card I wanted to do something similar to this design but decided to make hearts instead of flowers. I punched two hearts, folded them in half and adhered side by side. I like the simple and elegant look. I made two cards with slight variations.

 

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts, Bazzill Basics), heart punch (Fiskars), border punch (Martha Stewart), stamp (Fiskars)

 

The last two cards traveled from Wisconsin to Israel to my mom's house. From there one of them will travel to Italy (it's a destination wedding!) and from Itanly it will come with the newlyweds back to their home somewhere in US, I think New York. I find it pretty cool!

Inspiration Elevator

These photos were sitting at my desk for months, since March actually. Two printed photos, ticket stubs and and the Lorax activity booklet that I planned to use for my layout. The pictures were from Eli's first visit to the movie theater, but they were not that great. I wanted to tell this story but wasn't really inspired by the pictures. Until few days ago I came across this post on Lisa's blog. Any post by Lisa is inspiring but that one pushed me to take my "not so great pictures" and see what I can so with them. At first I had Truffula trees all over the page but eventually I just left one small Lorax that I cut out of the activity booklet.

Supplies: patterned paper, stickers (Basic Grey), letter stickers (Bella Blvd.), film ribbon (Tim Holtz), white pen (Uniball Signo), buttons (American Crafts), twine, staples
 

I am still not sure if I actually like this layout but I am glad that this memory is in Eli's scrapbook now.

Go check Lisa's blog and all other blogs that participated in the Inspiration Elevator challenge. And after that go find a blurry photo to scrapbook. We all have one, right?

Authentique card

Simple card based on the sketch posted on the Authentique blog. I love punching butterflies from butterflies paper. So easy! I used my favorite papers from the Carefree collection here.

 

Supplies: patterned paper and letter stickers (Authentique), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), pearls (Kaiser Crafts)

Wonder - Authentique layout sketch

Simple layout with a cute picture of Eli checking one of his nature finds. The layout is based on the Authentique sketch from their blog. The papers and the diecuts from the Carefree collection kit. I love the muted colors with bursts of dark peach.

The chipboard letters are from an old Heidi Grace collection. I sanded them and inked with distress ink. After I put them in place I went with silver pen around the edges. The brown ribbon is from Bath & Body Works gift set. I used the back side, without the printed logo. I knew there is a reason why I was saving this ribbon! :)

Supplies: patterned paper, diecuts (Authentique), chipboard letters (Heidi Grace), ink (Ranger), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), ribbon (Bath & Body Works), buttons(Webster's Pages), staples

Take Twelve - August

Summer .... Lake ... Sand ... Campfire ... S'mores

It just happened that August 12th was the first day of our 4 fabulous days at the Camp Indian Sands. I went with a group of moms from my local MOMS club - just moms and the kids. The kids had the best time playing by the lake, canoeing, making crafts, singing songs by the campfire and making s'mores. I had the best time just relaxing and doing absolutely nothing.

Note: the pictures are actually from August 13th since we spent August 12th packing fro the trip, shopping and driving. I feel ok with that because I did not forget to take my 12 pictures but deliberately chose to take them the next day in the camp.

Last three layouts for Scrap-A-Latte

After 8 years in business Scrap-A-Latte is closing it's doors.I am sad to see another scrapbooking business closing, I had great time designing for the store in the last few months. Right now you can snatch great deals there since everything is 40% off.

Here are my last DT layouts that I did for Scrap-A-Latte. I worked with the Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise collection. I had just the perfect pictures to go with the papers - the ones we took during the Treasures of Oz event in June. Every year our Ozaukee county puts up an event that showcases the natural treasures of the county. (Ozaukee - Oz, get it?) It is always a treat to discover new green jewels and revisit the ones that we know and like.

For the first layout I cut out the word paradise from the patterned paper sheet and used it as a title together with a journaling card from the tickets book. I used two types of Fiskars border punches - one to make a punched frame and one for the leafy corner.

Supplies: patterned paper, tags (Little Yellow Bicycle), corner border punch, border punch, heart punch (Fiskars), letter stickers (Anna Griffin), jewels (Queen & Co.), staples

More fussy cutting in the next layout. I used XL Fiskars banner punch to make a triangle template and than used this template to color the sun rays with Faber-Castell gelatos. The circle is stitched with WRMK floss.

 Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle), gelatos (Faber-Castell), floss (WRMK)

 

I had too many frog pictures so they got a double pager :) I used one of the pagemap sketches for this layout.

Supplies: cardstock(unknown), patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle, Authentique), tag (Little Yellow Bicycle), circle tag (Making Memories), letter stickers (Martha Stewart), pleated border (Bazzill Basics), border punch (Fiskars), circle punch (Fisakrs), twine, buttons

 

That's all for today. I spent few hours yesterday watching the Olympics and cleaning my scrap desk. Hope to squeeze in few more scrapping hours before we go camping this Sunday.

 

What' your number? Scrap It Girl August Challenge

Really? August already?? The last weeks of July disappeared while we were busy enjoying the company of Ofir's parents that came from Israel. Two weeks of sight seeing, museums, festivals, travelling and just pure family time. We were sad to say good buy. 

Not much free time for scrapbooking but I did manage to make a layout for the August challenge at Scrap It Girl. The challenge is to use numbers. It reminded me about the conversation I had with Ella just few weeks ago on July 13th, which is her birthday. She was concerned that her birthday is unlucky. I assured her that 13, epecially Friday the 13th, the day she was born, is the luckiest day of all.

Supplies: patterned paper (October Afternoon, American Crafts), border sticker (Doodlebug), fabric tab (K&Co), stickers (American Crafts), thickers (American Crafts), office sheer (Maya Road), number dies and diecut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), acrylic stickers (Cloud 9), acrylic paint, staple

 

I have few more layouts in progress and I hope to share them soon. How is your summer going? You you can find time to relax and recharge. I am still working on it :)