Snow Days Blog Hop * Day One!

Welcome to the Snow Days Blog Hop!!

We're so happy you could join us for this super-fun hop showcasing cards, layouts and projects that feature everything about Snow Days!! You'll find an array of ideas throughout the hop -- We hope you'll enjoy each and every project along the way!!

If you'd like to join our Snow Days Fun, then you are in the right place. Keep alert for blog candy along the way as some hop stops will be offering some goodies...

For the hop today, I've created a 12x12 scrapbooking page. I've had a few pictures of my little man in my 'to scrap' stack for years, and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to get them out and finished!

Thank you again for checking out my project... Now hop on over to Amy!

Here's a list of the entire hop, in case you get lost along the way or want to revisit anyone:

1. Lisa P
2. Bonnie
3. Sherry
4. Doris
5. Theresa D
6. Beckie
7. Erin {you are here!} 
8. Amy {go here next!}
9. Eva
10. Cathie
11. Ashley
12. Lisa G
13. Melissa
14. Kristen
15. Theresa 
16. Anita
17. Lynne
18. Barbara B
19. Amy Jo
20. Mickie
21. Janet

Thanks for stopping by, please come back tomorrow for another great project!!

 

Materials Used in this Project:

DCWV Christmas Stack  *  Stampin' Up! Ornaments & Diecut Paper   *   Making Memories Staples   *   Making Memories Scrapbook Paint   *   Oriental Trading Rub-On's   *   Baker's Twine   *   Hobby Lobby Red Lace Trim   *   Tag - Hollo's Papercrafts   *   All adhesives from Glue Dots   *

Thanksgiving Recipe

Welcome to another challenge from Friendship's Garden!!

Before I get to my project for this week, I wanted to let you know that we're planting a few more flowers at Friendship's Garden!! Our design team will be growing beginning in January. If you're interested in joining our Garden Girl team, please check out this post for more information!



This week we have another 'recipe' challenge: Thanksgiving Theme project using:

1 Die Cut, 

2 Patterned Papers, and 

3 Trims (ribbon, lace, etc.)

I did a Halloween project last month using this awesome Owl Punch from Stampin' Up!:

The dressed up little guys looked like this:

http://deeplyrootedlife.blogspot.com/2011/10/ghoultide-blog-hop.html

I thought I'd take a new season's twist on this punch and see what I could come up with for Thanksgiving! I thought about doing the expected 'turkey', but decided to get a bit more creative and make my little guy a Pilgrim!

I used the punch to cut most of the pieces, but I hand cut his hat and his collar.

My recipe was: 

1 Die Cut = Pilgrim Owl

2 Patterned papers: Stampin' Up! Patterned Paper Pack

and 3 Trims: brown felt trim, yellow cording and orange baker's twine

Hope you enjoyed this recipe challenge. Can't wait to see what YOU come up with!! Make sure you post your projects back to Friendship's Garden here. 

Thanks for such a blessing!

I've been in card haven recently with blog hops and such, and during my last visit to the craft lair I saw some 12x12 calling my name!!
I started by picking out a photo mat from Me & My Big Ideas - Cornucopia. It has wonderful pinks, greens, browns, blues and oranges wonderfully juxtaposed together and makes it really easy finding colors that work together. From these colors, I picked my green background page, blue burlap accent (yard sale find!!), earthy brown paper, brown and pink ribbons, and Fall leaves.

I used a lot of walnut ink for distressing and crumpled my two photo mat pages before adhering them to add a bit more variation and interest. All of my elements were adhered using (none other than) Glue Dots®!!

Take advantage of free photo editing: I typed this journaling onto my picture before it was printed! (I use Picasa)

I think I need to take the idea of this page and mull it over a bit more...there is so much I have to be thankful for right now, and that is what I want future generations to see in my scrapbooks.

InLinkz.com

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team

It's My Birthday Blog Hop, Day 2!!

Thanks for stopping back by!! Again, you should have gotten here from Gloria's blog. If this is your first stop, click here to start over back with the Birthday Girl!

I already had out all of the supplies for the first card, so I thought I'd make a coordinating, yet different card for my second project.

The materials are all pretty much the same for this card, keeping the ric rac trim as a common element. This card stock is the reverse of the piece used for yesterday's card. I used the same chipboard stickers, sentiment and leather trim as the first card, as well.

On this card I felt like there was a bit too much 'white space', so I spritzed a bit of walnut ink to take away some of the emptiness.



Hope you enjoyed these birthday cards!

Your next stop is over to Jennifer's blog.

(but here's the whole line up, just in case!)

Alina 

Anita

Haidee

Jen

Daphne 

Jess

 

Gloria

Erin {you are here} 

Jennifer {your next stop!}

Paula

used in this project:

InLinkz.com

It's My Birthday Blog Hop

Well, it's not my birthday, but it is Alina's (she was your first stop along the hop!), so Happy Birthday, Alina! You should have gotten here from Gloria's blog. If this is your first stop, click here to start over back with the Birthday Girl!

I always find myself in a rush to get the kids in the car without food all over their clothes or faces to make it to birthday parties relatively on time, let alone remembering a card for the present! I tend to make super easy, quick cards that can be whipped up in a jiffy (and sometimes on the way to the party!!)

This card was easy to throw together. I started with a card base of  4 x 4 in. and layered a piece of patterned card stock just smaller than the card. I inked the edges of my chipboard sticker and used the same color to ink my Birthday Wishes sentiment.

For a final touch, I added some skinny off-white ric rac around the edges of the card. I used my go-to adhesive, Glue Dots® to tack everything down.

Be sure to hop on through tomorrow to see this card's counterpart!! (why not? I already had all the supplies out!)

Hope you enjoyed this card! Your next stop is over to Jennifer's blog.

(but here's the whole line up, just in case!)


Alina 

Anita

Haidee

Jen

Daphne 

Jess
 
Gloria

Erin {you are here} 

Jennifer {your next stop!} 

Paula

used in this project:

InLinkz.com

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas?? Already???


I'm not a chronological scrapper. I pick and choose my projects as I feel inspired to do them, rather than forcing myself to creating something I'm not really feeling. So therefore, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in my scrap room!
It's kind of fun to get everything Christmas out when it's just starting to get cooler, leaves are feeling the urge to become a bit more gorgeous, and my mind starts to dream about everything Fall.

I tried to challenge myself a bit on this page: to not use the traditional 'Happy Christmas' color scheme. I rummaged through my paper stacks and found the Love Letter Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up!:

This set uses 'Vanilla' instead of white, 'Red Riding Hood' (which is more of a brick red) instead of bright red, and throws a twist of black in there to switch things up a bit, as well as make it a little more 'grown up'.

I played around with a layout for a few minutes (which is a few minutes too long for me!) and then dug out my Creating Keepsakes magazine from Nov/Dec 2010 for some inspiration. I turned to the article called Recipes for Quick and Easy Layouts (p. 68), thinking, HEY!. This is what I need!! Mandy Douglass' Christmas Morning layout popped out to me, and so I used the sketch of her page:

I knew my pictures didn't lend themselves to the grid design that Mandy used, so I altered that concept of the sketch on my page. I really loved the large brackets that she used, however, so those were the first thing that I began to make.

I love dimension on a page, so I knew I didn't want to use paper for the brackets. I considered chipboard, but I didn't have brackets large enough (and didn't want to cut my own). Looking around my materials, I had a stack of 8.5" x 11" pieces of felt that I'd picked up from my local hobby store when they were on sale (they were 12.5 cents each!) and knew that they would give me the 'pop' I wanted.
Being a reformed perfectionist, I went to my Cricut first and cut out a bracket at 10 1/4 inches (random, but this was the largest size it would cut on my 12" x 12" mat). I traced this twice onto my felt, and cut them out.  I sewed (very roughly) around the edges with my sewing machine to add some texture, too:

 

The next element that I made was the tag Mandy used for her journaling. I already had some journaling in mind for the overall page, so I decided to make this a journaling pocket. Again, not having anything purchased that would fit this color scheme, I dug into my scrap paper bin and pulled out a remnant piece that started as a 12" x 12" and cut it to 3" in width. I folded it unevenly so it would make a perfect pocket, used a bit of (my favorite!) walnut ink to make the colors blend a bit more, and sewed the edges together to form my pocket:

Next came my lettering, and of course, chipboard!! I knew I had some pre-glittered chipboard letters that might work with this page, but once I pulled them out, the color was just horrible with my papers.
But I wanted to use that chipboard.
So I pulled out my handy-dandy Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker from Stampin' Up! and used the feathered end to re-color the letters. I also used a darker marker to ink the chipboard's edges:

Following the basic guidelines from the sketch, I started putting my page together. I used dimensional foam adhesive to adhere the chipboard lettering, and double sided tape for the rest of the elements (I was out of Glue Dots!! Ahhh!!).
I added (and added...and added...) ribbons, rub-on's, clear stickers, brads (and added...and added...) until I came out with my finished product:

Journaling: Westin's gifts all marked with 'clues'

Journaling: I will never get over how wonderful it is to see your faces light up on Christmas morning!

2011 Tag: Inked Chipboard, Grungeboard numbers, pearl brad

(ps- although this page was listed under Quick and Easy Layouts, it was more easy than quick! It took me my normal a few hours one night and a revisit the next day for minor fixes...some old habits never die!)