PaperHaus Magazine: Summer Issue Blog Hop

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for Day Four of the PaperHaus Magazine summer release event! The contributors are so excited about this new issue, which has a mixed media focus and spotlights guest artists Anna Dabrowska, Kasia Krzyminska, Nathalie Kalbach and Dina Wakley and has a special interview with Tim Holtz. 

Click on the link under the cover photo to see the full magazine. The techniques and tutorials in this issue will blow you away! 

http://issuu.com/thepaperhaus/docs/paperhaus_summer_issue_4r

In addition to mixed media, the issue is chock full of traditional summer themed work: cards, layouts and altered projects. 

We're so excited about this issue that we have a whole month of fun planned, including a new blog hop each day, June 1 - 7, with lots of prizes. Each hop will last one week, with winners announced at the end of the week. 

Here we are on the Day Four blog hop. If you are following today's hop, you should have arrived here from the talented Ivana Camdzic Stoicescu. Here's my summer card: 

Nothing says summer like vacation. I love this big sticker of the car all loaded up. It reminds me of those long road trip vacations we took as a kid.  I used a mix of manufacturers here: Echo Park Paper, Studio Calico, October Afternoon and Lily Bee Designs. 

Next up is Viva Las VegaStamps, our sponsor for the Day 4 hop. If you get lost or if you want to start at the beginning, please go to the PaperHaus blog.  Comments on this hop are open through June 11. Winners of the beautiful rubber stamps by Viva Las VegaStamps will be announced on June 12 or soon thereafter. 

If you missed the hop for days 1, 2, and 3, there is still time to catch up and to enter the drawing for prizes.  You can find the details on the PaperHaus blog. While there, you'll find beautiful inspiration and tutorials every day this month. Be sure to stop by!

Bless This Nest: Echo Park Paper

My parents moved into a new house last year and I made this simple frame for their bookshelf.  The sentiment says: Bless This Nest. 

I used a small frame from a department store that was double matted. I removed the thick mats to give me room under the glass to create a scene. 

After removing the mats, I made a base of cardstock covered in burlap, stitching the two together.   

I used stickers to decorate the frame from Echo Park Paper. The wood veneers are Studio Calico and the alphas are Webster's Pages. Twine is from The Twinery. 

This project was published earlier this Spring in a special issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. 

PaperHaus Spring Hop and Giveaway!

Hello everyone and welcome.  I'm so excited today to be part of the unveiling of the Spring issue of PaperHaus Magazine.  

The contributors got together and are hosting a week-long blog hop.  Yes, it's a big hop, but there are prizes at every stop!  The hop runs through March 7. 

Here's the pretty magazine cover and the link to read the Spring Issue. 

I made a card to celebrate! I used the Family Ties collection from Pebbles Inc.  Stickers and buttons are October Afternoon, the stars are Studio Calico and the ribbon is May Arts.

I also like it as a tag.  I made the sailboat from circle and square punches. 

On this stop of the hop, the prize is a Spring flower giveaway plus 5 yards of green and white bakers twine.  The flowers are Prima and Bo Bunny. 

To enter the giveaway, please follow my blog and leave a comment.  You have until midnight March 7 to enter.  I'll pick a winner by random draw and post it on my blog Friday, March 8. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  If you are following the hop, you should have arrived here from Bente's blog.  The next stop on the hop is Jennifer Grace.  If you get lost along the way, you can find the full hop line-up here on the Paperhaus blog.  You can also find magazine updates on the Paperhaus Facebook page.

Happy New Year! / MCS Sneak Peeks

Hello and Happpy New Year!  I always love the first day of January. There's something magical about the hope and promise of new beginnings.  I'm excited to see what 2013 will bring. 

And, with the first of the month, comes sneak peeks from the new kits at My Creative Scrapbook.  Here's what I had been working on during the last few days of 2012.

Do you recognize this collection?  It's a great one. I have enjoyed working with it so much.  The full reveals are Jan. 5.

Just for fun (not with the kit), I made a New Year Countdown card:

Supplies:
CS: Memory Box
PP: Echo Park
Stickers: Cosmo Cricket, Crate
Wood Veneers: Studio Calico
Twine: The Twinery
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a wonderful new year! 

You're At The Top Of My List

Merry Christmas, everyone.  You, my friends and blog readers, are definitely at the top of my list.  My best wishes to you and yours this holiday season.

Supplies:
Stickers/Chipboard: Echo Park
Wood veneer: Studio Calico
Brad: Echo Park
Ribbon: May Arts
Twine: Trendy Twine
Burlap: Canvas Corp
Sewing Machine: Bernina

36 Hours in NYC: How To Make The Most Of A Quick Trip

A few years ago, I had to go to Manhattan for a Monday morning meeting. Since I would only be tied up for a few hours, I decided to make the most of the quick trip and take an early flight up Sunday morning and a late flight home Monday night.  I took my best friend with me and we made the most of our 36 hours in New York City.

The meeting was at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, which was also where we stayed. It’s the kind of job perk that I miss. Travel is limited now, but on this day, we tried to do it all.  We shopped on Fifth Avenue (where we ran into Katie Couric), checked out the view at the top of the Empire State Building, saw a Broadway show, took a stroll through Central Park, ate lots of great food and took several death-defying taxi rides (the only kind there are in NYC).

I also bought a scarf from a street vendor and posed quickly for this photo in Times Square.

The layout is primarily Little Yellow Bicycle from the Escape and Splash collections with a little bit of Crate, Echo Park, Studio Calico and October Afternoon mixed in.

Here’s a close-up of the layering in the middle. The cute chipboard from LYB worked perfectly with the page.

The "new arrival" tag under the photo is from Crate's baby line, but I thought it fit here too.

I love New York!

PaperHaus Magazine Blog Hop & Giveaway

Hello and welcome!  I’m so excited today to be part of a blog hop of contributors for PaperHaus, which is launching Sept. 1.  PaperHaus is a quarterly publication for the scrapbooker, card-maker, mixed media artist and crafters of altered projects and mini albums.  The magazine will feature articles, trends, tutorials and, of course, a multitude of beautiful projects.  And it's all completely free.

You can find the full line-up of participating bloggers on the PaperHaus Magazine blog. Nearly all the bloggers on the hop are offering RAKS along the way, plus the magazine is offering BIG prizes by several manufacturers.  All the details are posted on the PaperHaus blog and Facebook page. The blog hop will be open all week, concluding Sept. 1 with the reveal of PaperHaus' first issue. 

If you are visiting my blog today as part of the hop, you should have arrived here from Aimee Maddern’s blog.

  

For my project, I wanted to express how appreciative I am that you stopped by and are supporting the magazine launch.

I used a mix of products here. Patterned paper, border sticker and covered brad are Crate Paper; doily is Webster’s Pages; sentiment is Jillibean Soup.

The RAK on this stop is a package of camera wood veneers from Studio Calico and a brad set from Echo Park Paper. To be entered in the drawing, follow this blog and leave a comment.  Comments will close on Sept. 1. A winner will be chosen by random draw and announced here on Sept. 2. 

The next stop on the PaperHaus blog hop is Jess Mutty. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Trendy Twine: Project, Challenge & Giveaway

I grew up in a small town and I've always loved the down-home Fourth of July celebrations:  the parades, the cookout, the fireworks, the gatherings.  I tried to evoke that feeling of festivity in this card:

And here's a close-up. 

I'm so excited to be part of the Trendy Twine Design Team reveal for July.  We are featuring Berry Red twine, which is perfect for the Fourth, of course, but the classic red/white combination is a great go-to color for any project.  The Trendy Twine blog, Twine it Up!, is full of patriotic projects today featuring twine. There are so many fun and creative ideas on the blog. Check them out!

Trendy Twine has paired up with My Thoughts Exactly for a fun July 4th giveaway of twine and stamps.  It's super easy to enter.  Just head on over to the Facebook pages for Trendy Twine and My Thoughts Exactly and leave a comment by midnight EST on July 4.  Here's the prize:

Trendy Twine also has a new challenge posted for July with a great giveaway:  an extreme mini pack, which is 10 colors of Trendy Twine + 20 yards of the Berry twine we're featuring this month. You can find all the challenge details here under the Design Team projects. You can also purchase Trendy Twine here at Annie's Paper Boutique.  So many beautiful colors.  It will be hard to choose. Just warning you.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful  July 4th holiday.

Card Supplies:
CS: American Crafts
PP: Authentique Paper, Simple Stories
Stickers: October Afternoon, Simple Stories, Lily Bee
Wood veneer: Studio Calico
Punch: Fiskars
Twine: Trendy Twine
Paint: Plaid
Sewing machine: Bernina

Documenting Baby's First Year: 11 Months

I started scrapbooking in 2009 just prior to my son’s birth with the goal of making a baby book of his first year. Someone had given me an album, cardstock and stickers at a baby shower and that was my start.

As my son grew, I was dogged about one thing: taking a photo each month of my baby on his birthdate and writing down that month’s milestones. Recently, I was looking through his baby album and saw I had milestone layouts for months 1 – 9 and a birthday page for age 1. Hey, that’s pretty good. I was just missing milestones for months 10 and 11.

So, here we have it: the 11-month milestone page. I was grateful I had written these down. At the time, you think you’ll never forget. But trust me, new mommas, you will.  Here, I added the list of milestones to a cardstock pennant.

I used Echo Park Paper for this layout, primarily the Note To Self collection. The star paper is from EP’s Pride and Joy mini theme. The wood veneer heart is Studio Calico; stickers are October Afternoon. The Polaroid frame is a die cut from Paper Issues’ etsy shop.

And coming soon to a blog near you: the 10-month milestone page.

And speaking of Echo Park , I was so pleased to see this little beach ball card I made from EP scraps muscle its way into the week’s top 3 lists at Two Peas in a Bucket.  Two Peas just recently switched from daily top 3 lists to weekly ones. This shaped beach ball card topped the list for the week as the most liked project and came in 2nd as most bookmarked.

I originally blogged about this card here.  I had made the card for a publication call for shaped cards. It wasn't picked up, which is always a bit deflating, so it was extra sweet to find the card in the Two Peas rankings. :)  

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.

December Daily: Final Pages

This was my first year doing a December Daily and I had such fun with it. I ordered the Studio Calico kit. I so loved the American Crafts album that came in the kit. It is a great size. The pages are 6 x 8.5 inches. I almost always scrap 12 x 12 and it was such a treat to work on the small canvas of the December Daily.

I used the calendar pages that Ali Edwards offers and followed her general framework. I used her calendar pages on the right and a foundation page on the left. I stitched around the foundation pages to mimic the frame of the calendar pages. I used mostly Echo Park throughout the album to give the Daily a cohesive look.

Day 21:

Over the years, we collected crystal Orrefors ornaments for our tree and I highlighted them in this entry, a filler day.

Day 22:

One of our city's favorite family-friendly traditions is going to see the Leonard Bearstein Symphony Orchestra, mechanical bears that sing and play holiday songs in the lobby of a building uptown. 

Day 23:

Mom has been using the same recipe to make these sugar cookies since 1966.  It's not Christmas without these cookies. LOVE them!

Day 24:

Scenes from the candleight Christmas Eve service and journaling about the tradition.

Day 25:

Christmas morning. I especially wanted to include photos of my parents here because they are so special to Cory and I love to observe his relationship with them.

I very nearly wrote “The End” at the bottom of the last page. I'm going to tuck my album away with my Christmas decorations.  It will be fun to pull it out next year and have a look. 　

Favorite Gift Under The Tree

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I often find that I don’t scrap Christmas until well after the fact. Does this happen to you? One of the things I meant to document last year, but didn’t, was my son’s favorite Christmas present. Like so many boys his age - and older - he has an obsession with cars. In fact, this may well be a stage that boys never outgrow.

Under the tree last year, every present was wrapped except one: the Little People racetrack. My toddler is an early riser and we wanted him to have something special to find while everyone else was still nestled in bed. I got up with him at 6 am to see what Santa had brought. Cory couldn’t have been more excited. Even later that morning, as he opened present after present, he kept going back to his cars and the racetrack. It was his favorite present.

I created this layout with the Scraptastic Club’s December kit: Naughty or Nice. I’ve had such fun this month as guest designer. The kit club is running four challenges this month with a great prize: a collection kit from Crate Paper. You don’t have to use the kit to participate in challenges. You can find the details here.

Supplies:

CS: Bazzill Basics

PP: Lily Bee, Echo Park, Bo Bunny

Journaling card: Lily Bee

Wood Shapes: Studio Calico

Stickers: Crate, Echo Park

Letter Stickers: Lily Bee, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey

Border Punch: Fiskars

Circle Punch: Marvy Uchida

Pen: Zip

Ink: Ranger

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Kit: Scraptastic Club

The Thankful Jar

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving and in that spirit, we decided to start a new tradition in our family this year. We asked everyone who came to Thanksgiving to bring a small item that could fit in a jar to represent something they did or something that happened this year that they are thankful for. The item didn’t have to represent something big and meaningful, just anything that came to mind. Some items were light-hearted or funny and some represented more life-changing moments. In addition to the objects, we each wrote a sentence or two on a slip of paper, dated and signed it, and added it to the jar.

Some of the items we included were: a canceled forever stamp from a letter, an airline ticket from trip, an old family photograph, ticket stubs from a Broadway show, a favorite Bible verse, a flashcard for school progress, my son’s handprint, a toy car to represent a real one, music from a Church program, a silk flower, a sweet note from Aunt Patty, a silver spoon from Nana, a shell from the beach, a plastic sheriff’s badge for my brother's graduation from the police academy, an Apple sticker to represent our love of the iphone, and a receipt for the Thanksgiving turkey.

We are going to keep the jar on a shelf in the den and add to it throughout the coming year. Then next Thanksgiving, we’ll open the jar, examine the contents, count our blessings again and add new items.

To decorate the jar, I used a border strip from Bella Blvd's Finally Fall, stickers from Crate Paper's Farmhouse line and some twine from The Twinery.  For the top of the lid, I added a circle punched from Studio Calico's Countryside.

I also made a Thanksgiving card for my folks using some of the same supplies:

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you.

December Daily Foundation Pages: Part 1

This is my first year doing a December Daily and I am having so much fun with it. December Daily is a concept started by Ali Edwards. Essentially, it is a mini-album that chronicles bits of daily life for the first 25 days of December. This year, Ali teamed up with Studio Calico to offer a December Daily kit and I purchased the kit.

I love the album in the kit. It’s a small, plain chipboard album made by American Crafts with 3-inch rings and 25 page protectors, measuring 6“ wide by 8.5“ tall. It’s a fun size. The kit came with assorted paper and embellishments but I decided to forego most of the kit and instead use primarily Echo Park.

My entry for December 1 looks like this.

　

I followed Ali’s lead and used a calendar page on the right and a decorative element on the left. Here I used 4-inch square pockets to hold introductory elements. The top square says: Welcome December; the bottom square says: The 25 Days of Christmas. To make the pockets, I used a 12x12 WRMK photo page protector that had 9 squares. I cut the page protector to just two squares and punched new holes to fit the album’s rings. I will use altered page protectors like this sporadically through the album.

My entry for December 2 is more typical of what the rest of the album will be: a decorative page on the left, a calendar page on the right and transparent divider in between.

The calendar pages are digital overlays that Ali sells on her website. I'll use these pages primarily for journaling and photos of the day's events or to record a holiday memory. The left side of the spread is a decorative page. On these pages, I stitched a red frame around each page to give continuity day to day.

Here's the foundation spread for December 3:

Throughout the album, I used Echo Park paper and embellishments for the decorative page on the left side of the album.  I primarily used a 6x6 pad of Holly Jolly and Metro Dots and Stripes.

This is the foundation for December 4:

The snowman strip at the top of this page is from Echo Park's 2010 Christmas collection and the snowman at the bottom is a Holly Jolly journaling card.

December 5:

On Day 5, I used a small photo pocket (as I did on Day 1) between the left and right pages of the spread in lieu of a transparency divider. I tucked a journaling card in the pocket and will write my list in December when I get to this day.

A lot of people put numbers on their foundation pages but I haven't added those yet, as I may move the decorative pages once December starts and I wanted to have that flexibility.

You can see my December Daily Foundation Pages: Part 2 here.

Supply list:

Echo Park: Holly Jolly - 6x6 pad, 12x12 collection kit, chipboard, stamps; Metro Dots and Stripes - 6x6 pad, 12x12 collection kit; Season’s Greetings 12x12 collection kit, chipboard, brads; Everybody Loves Christmas 12x12 collection kit.

American Crafts: Album

Ali Edwards: calendar overlays

Hambly: Transparencies

Bo Bunny: ribbon

Fancy Pants: ribbon

Cosmo Cricket: tiny type

Jenni Bowlin: letter stickers

Martha Stewart: kraft tags

The Twinery: twine

Making Memories: Buttons

My Mind’s Eye: Stamps

Ranger Industries: Ink

Sewing Machine: Bernina