Simple Cards: My Creative Scrapbook

I think my favorite part of kit work - besides excitedly opening each new DT box - is near the end when I gather the scraps from my projects to make a card.  By then, I know the line I'm working with really well. I know which patterns I like to mix and match and I have a lot of freedom.  The layouts I obsess over are done and there are no photos to edit. It's just me, some scraps, glue and my imagination.

I have a clean style so my imagination doesn't really have to work too hard...Below are cards I made with leftovers from two different November kits at My Creative Scrapbook 

The first is from the Creative kit, which featured the lovely Walnut Grove line from Pebbles:

I admit: I unabashedly love the pennant craze.  I made the "thank you" pennant by folding a sticker around a long toothpick. 

The soft muslin pennants under the vase are Pink Paislee trim.  The bottom row is natural (straight from the packaging) and the top row is misted to match the flowers.  

The second card is from the Album kit, which featured The Good Life, a pretty new line from Fancy Pants. I really loved the colors and the punch of black. 

I thought this card was perfect for retirement.  I used a very simple design, just stitching patterned paper on part of a card, then adding a tag. 

To make the tag, I started with a plain white shipping tag.  I used a zig zag stitch around the edges just for a hint of texture and added a ribbon to cover the reinforcement hole at the top. Then, I added a sentiment sticker and a piece of chipboard that overlapped the tag and grounded it to the card. To finish, I added a couple buttons for bicycle wheels.

My Creative Scrapbook features four different kits each month.  Here's a photo of the two November kits I used.  You can find out more about these kits, including a Christmas special, here.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Pink Paislee: Beach Bum

For my baby’s first birthday, we took him down to the beach. It was an unusually warm April weekend, yet not too many tourists were there. We had the beach to ourselves and had such a lovely, relaxing time.

My little one couldn’t have loved it more. He was so content to sit on the shore and play in the sand and watch the waves. And I was so content to sit on the shore and watch him play. And take photos, of course. I generally had him all covered up, shirt, swim trunks, hat, sunscreen. But I did manage to sneak a few less covered-up pics....

I used Pink Paislee’s Nantucket and Snowday collections on this page. I love how well they work together. That plaid Snowday print looked so summery to me with the turquoise and apricot hues. And even though the paper was in a different color scheme than my son’s plaid hat, I thought the paper worked well here.

At the beach, planes often fly overhead, carrying banners advertising cheap tee shirts and all you can eat buffets. I wanted to mimic that idea here with my title work.

This layout actually is a do-over. I first made this page when I was a beginner scrapbooker and I wanted to make it a bit more contemporary. The original page was made with Cosmo Cricket’s Snorkel line, and you can still see remnants of the original layout here: the weathered wood background paper, the plane, banner and clouds.  Alphas are Webster's Pages.

Spring Cards

We’re having the most beautiful spring here in North Carolina. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming and all over the neighborhood, I hear the hum of lawn movers. On days like this, it’s impossible not to find myself wanting to create something bright and sunshiney.

The first card, "Let The Fun Begin," is a hodge podge of stuff laying on my desk and things I eyed on my Clip-it-up. This project started life as a color challenge to use yellow and pink. That’s where I got the yellow base (Pink Paislee’s Hometown Summer) and large pink scallop (Making Memories journal book).

　

Then I started poking around my desk, adding this and that. I had just gotten a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper‘s new Storyteller and I pulled the blue ledger from there. On top, I added a scallop border sticker from Studio Calico, a bit of twine from The Twinery and a trio of Crate chipboard birds. The sentiment sticker is from Amercan Crafts's new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. Love that collection! I nearly stopped there, but then decided the sun and kite stickers from My Little Shoebox would add just the right touch of whimsy. There, now the card feels complete.

The second card, "I Really Bike You," features Echo Park’s paper and stickers. I love orange and blue together and took advantage of that combination here. To make the bicycle pop against the background, I whitewashed the paper with thin white acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top, then added my own sentiment with alphas under the bicycle.

　

I submitted this card to Scrapbook & Cards Today, the terrific quarterly Canadian magazine, and was delighted to see my card featured on its blog here.  I hope you're having a beautiful spring day wherever you are.

Winter Cards

Although it's sunny today and near 70 here in North Carolina, the calendar tells me it's winter.  I'm not sure if we'll have snow this year or even weather cold enough to lend itself to winter layouts.  So I thought I'd make some cold weather themed cards instead.

I am crazy about the Pink Paislee Snow Day line. It's the cutest collection and looks even better in person.  I recently used some of the Snow Day paper on a beach-themed layout and it worked perfectly.  I considered using this paper for a Valentine with the sentiment, "you warm my heart," but then decided to use it as intended - for winter.

The sentiment, "warmth and winter wishes" is from a Unity Stamp Itty Bitty co-branded with My Little Shoebox.  I love the Itty Bitty stamps. They're just right for card-making. The journaling block is Jillibean Soup and the chipboard mittens are Cosmo Cricket.

To shape the twine into a heart, I rubbed a bit of gel glue on a length of twine and while the twine was still wet, I shaped it into a heart.  It dried stiffly in just a few minutes.

For my next card, I used Crate Paper's Peppermint collection. I love all the cards I've seen popping up that use the negative from a punch or die cut and I wanted to try my hand at that. 

I used large and small snowflake punches on teal cardstock, then cut the cardstock to make a card front, affixing it on top of cream patterned paper, and stitching in white around the edges. It's a fun and easy way to make a card.    

Home for the Holidays

It's good to be home for the holidays.  All the lights and sights and sounds and smells and festivities really put me in the Christmas spirit.  It's fun to pull out the holiday boxes and decorate the house for Christmas.  I wanted to capture a few of my favorite things around the house for this layout.

I decided to use patterned paper and embellies that weren't Christmas themed because the photos clearly indicate the topic. I used an 8x10 photo collage as my centerpiece, tucking a little journaling card behind it on the top left. Underneath, I added a border strip, spelled out the title and added a little chipboard house from the Pink Paislee Hometown Summer line and trees from My Mind's Eye. I finished the page with a little pop of color in the upper left, using a flower sticker from October Afternoon and a few buttons, and stitching around the page.

Wishing all of you a beautiful Christmas. I hope you find yourself home for the holidays.