SC219 - A Bear for You

I purchased this stamp at a garage sale almost a year ago and it had never seen any ink from me up until tonight! I love this image and when I picked it up I immediately thought that it would make an adorable baby card :) Since I had a little bit of free time, I decided to participate in today's sketch challenge (SC219) over at SCS. It has been so long since I have done one and it feels great!



Since I know that there are a few babies coming along this year with friends and family, I decided to start my baby cards now! I am always making cards, but forever running behind on mailing them out...sigh...maybe one day I will get organized!


After looking at this whole card, I know what your thinking. "She made two A2 cards in a row! It's a miracle!" lol...Well, maybe you're not thinking that, but I sure am! It felt good to make one for the Mojo Challenge so I thought I would try my luck at another :) Speaking of Mojo Monday Challenges...I won!! Julee was giving away 8 sets this past week to celebrate the release of 8 new Verve sets and I was chosen as one of the winners!! I am soooo excited, and a little bit ashamed to admit...but this will be the first Verve set that I will have owned! Shhh, don't tell Julee! I have so many things that I *need* and I am ever so slowly working my way down the list of *must have* stamps :)

Just a reminder for those of you who haven't yet entered my blog candy in this post, I will be closing the entries on Thursday evening at 5:00 pm Pacific Time, so get your entries in now :)

Card Recipe:

Stamps: PSX Bear
Paper: PTI White, Close to Cocoa, Watercolour, Basic Grey, Scenic Route
Ink: Basic Black, Versa Mark, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Embossing Folders, Clear Embossing Powder, Aqua Painter, Re-Inkers, Twine, Button, Grosgrain Ribbon, Brads, Sponges, Dimensionals

I did it! I made my very first scrapbook pager ever!

Now I have to admit, this was no small feat getting this page accomplished! Let me explain. First and foremost, I am a card maker...not a scrapbooker and now I know why!!! I was invited to a baby shower for my friend/SU upline Cristina and was asked to make an 8x8 scrapbook page to be added to a book to get her started. Cristina also has young boys and this was her first girl, so I had to make it special :)

When I think of little girls, I think pink and then vintage. I love all things girly and frilly so naturally I think of vintage lace and Christening gowns. I adore this PSX image and searched all over the place for one and this was the first time that it has seen ink! I started by watercolouring the image, adding some highlighting with my gelly roll glitter pen and distressed it with ink to make it look old. I then added the cracked glass technique because I really wanted it to resemble some of my family's heirloom vignette photos in the wonderfully ornate wooden frames that were so popular in that era.

I know that blues are not typically baby girl colours, but I found this K&Co. Designer paper that already looked very shabby chic so I had to go with it! When I think vintage, I think of linens, lace, buttons and pearls. I could have gone totally haywire and filled this page up with all the goodies that I had for it, but it would have looked very cluttered and I was running out of time to make a full album for my "vision" of vintage baby girl :)

I have been rather addicted to these chipboard flourishes lately so I immediately added one of those too...little did I know that it would take me forever to try to incorporate it into my design!..Days, I tell you!!! But, not being one to give up very easily, I pursued my vision :)

I am immensely proud of my very first and last scrapbook page! Cristina loved it and that is why I made it! While in my rush to write up this post, I completely forgot to edit one of the closeups of my journaling oval. It was put there to journal in or add another photo too. It also featured hand dyed taffeta ribbon with a stamped sentiment on it.

Because I am so proud of my creation, I think that it would look lovely with a sepia toned photo of sweet baby Anya and framed for her wall...hint, hint, wink, wink!! LOL

Recipe:

Everything and the kitchen sink!!

Stamps: PSX. Linen, Sanded, Weathered, CDS Miracle from Above

Paper: Blush Blossom, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, K&Co DP

Ink: Basic Black, Versa Mark, Creamy Caramel, SU Markers, Blush Blossom, Stazon

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Sewing Machine, Coluzzul, Half Pearls, Mat Pack, Paper Peircing Tool, Sponges, Embossing Powder, Trio Flower Punch, Taffeta Ribbon, Chipboard Flourish, Vanilla Acrylic Paint, Sponges, Dimensionals

PS...Pardon the crummy photo's! I was on my way out of the door with my gift and scrapbook page in hand when I realized that I had forgotten to take some pictures! I rushed to snap a few and to find my way to the baby shower before I was late :)

Bountiful Blooms

Well, summer has finally hit here and I am m-e-l-t-i-n-g! Bill has yet to install the air conditioners for the year and we live in a 2 level south facing house. Full sun in the morning on the front of the house and full sun in the evening on the back of the house! Yikes! I'm tempted to run through the sprinkler with my kiddo's! I'm feeling too hot to do anything other than to sit down and write this post ;P I will probably get back to my card making after the kids are in bed for the night.

I recently picked this stamp up at my local stamp store (Crafty Capers) at their annual garage sale! I was pretty darn excited as I love hydrangeas :) The stamp is quite large and I thought that it fit the card base well slightly skewed. Them images were watercoloured and then sponged around to make the blooms stand out. With the papers that I had chosen, I thought that a little vellum doily was in order to girly this up a bit! The vellum was run through my cuttlebug and and then punched with my corner rounder (take the guard off first). The finishing touch was the little swirly clip with a piece of taffeta ribbon (love taffeta for a touch of class).



Before I end this post, I just want to give a HUGE shout out to Veronica over at VK Design Co. for helping with my frustrating blog problem! She changed it to a 3 column blog in sheer minutes in what took me over three hours of wasted time TRYING to achieve the same thing. If you or anyone else you know is having blog problems, please contact Veronica!!! What a help she was :)

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Unknown, Natural Beauty

Paper: Papertrey White, Perfect Plum, Unknown DP, Always Artichoke, Vellum, Watercolour

Ink: Versa Mark, Basic Black, More Mustard, Re-Inkers

Accessories: Sewing Machine, Cuttlebug, Swirl Clip, Taffeta Ribbon, Stickles, Signo Gel Pen, Sponges, Aqua Painter, Dimensionals

A Seagull's Sanctuary...

I bought this beautiful stamp because it reminds me so much of my parent's vacation property and where we go to relax :) The property is waterfront and located about 3 hours from where I live. After a long drive it is lovely to pull up a lawn chair and look out at the view. Ahh, just looking at the picture below makes me wish that I was there right now....wait...maybe not (there aren't any stamps on my holidays...aack!) lol - Doesn't this just bring out the calm in you? :)


I saw this stamp come up one eBay and bought it because it reminds me of the garden path guides that my dad created. My dad likes to beach comb, and these were some of his finds that line the path headed towards the water.


Because of the beautiful details on this stamp, it was very easy to determine where to add the extra layers to create the paper tole. The life preserver has 3 layers and the starfish has 2. These both have been heat embossed to create the "wet" look via clear embossing power.



This image went particularly well with some left over Christmas Basic Grey (Figgy Pudding) designer paper - the rich colours really lent itself towards a masculine card. I added eyelets to the corners and some of my well loved twine. It's all in the details for me :)


Just before I finish off this post, I thought that I would leave you with another of my favourite vacation photos. Meet Bill (my husband )and Taiton my 3 year old little boy at the time. This photo was taken after an evening of throwing rocks in the water for the neighbours dog to catch. Dirty, wet and smelly....meet the men in my life! lol


Card Recipe:

Stamps: PSX
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Basic Grey DP, K&Co DP, Papertrey White, Watercolour
Ink: Basic Black, Versa Mark, Bravo Burgundy, SU Markers
Accessories: Aqua Painter, Eyelets, Cropadile, Twine, Sewing Machine, Brads, Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Embossing Powder, Craft Knife, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities and Dimensionals