Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Covered Bridges"

Here is another layout from our 2013 anniversary weekend at a log cabin in Nashville, Indiana.

These covered bridges were so beautiful covered with sparkly snow. I know we're all looking forward to warmer weather and it's just around the corner, but snow is undeniably beautiful.

 And look at the architecture inside of this bridge. I found it fascinating.

 The Coredinations cardstock was watermarked with a circular stamp using VersaMark. The deer stamp is Glitz Design "Finley" popped on a punched scallop circle and embossed, then layered on glitter paper, and silver chevron washi.

 The ball fringe adds a little bit of texture. The title is Cricut's Plantin' Schoolbook font.

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Fun Fall Cards

Happy Wednesday! I recently had some fun at my craft table making some special cards for dear friends of mine. Since I'm not quite in the Christmas mood yet (that doesn't happen for me until after Thanksgiving), it seemed like a great time to share these ideas with you.

The first card is a simple sentiment and three really fun-to-make flowers. Here are step-by-step pictures and instructions to make these flowers. I've seen these types of flowers before, and I kind of figured out on my own how to make them.

I used a scalloped punch for my flower base and pieces. A circle punch would be just as cute. You will need 5 punched circle for each flowers. One of them is the base, and the other 4 form the petals. Set the 1 circle aside for the base. Cut each of the other 4 circles in half once. Now you have 8 halves. Then fold each piece in half, then fold it in half again. If you paper is two sided, make sure you keep the right side out.

Poke a hole in the center of your base piece to make it easier to add the brad after the flower is assembled. Run adhesive over the entire base of the flower. Then attach one petal at a time, with the point at the center hole, and the widest part of your petal lined up with the outside edge of the circle. Then place the folded side of the 2nd petal right up next to the folded side of the 1st petal and keep working your way around, so that the folded sides of the petals are always next to each other and the open sides are next to each other.

Once all 8 petals are attached it should look like this.

Then use a good sized decorative brad through the center hole that you made. This keeps all of the points down nicely. Make two more and you're done! See finished card above (1st picture).

The second card I made is for a dear friend's birthday. She lives in northern Michigan and I haven't seen her in a long time. I had to try out my new Tattered Angels stamp set. I loved this owl with the curly feathers. I used bronze embossing powder over VersaMark ink for the image. I like the way it turned out. The pictures aren't quite doing it justice. =)


I dry embossed the top portion of this 5x7 card with one of my Tim Holtz embossing folders. Then I ran a little bit of ink over the raised part to make it pop a little more. The sentiment is SU.

 I added some matching paper in a couple of strips on the inside to finish it off. Then I wrote her a nice long letter to go with it. =) We need to do a better job of keeping in touch!

Have a great week!

Rosette Pumpkin and Fall card

Hello! I am loving the crisp fall air! It's my absolute favorite time of year. The colors are just starting to show and there are no leaves to rake yet. =)

I went to Archivers the other day with my best scrappin buddy and picked up their free project sheet for this cutie patootie pumpkin! I bought the paper that day because I just had to try it. I haven't had much opportunity to scrap or craft and I've been loooonnnnging, to get my goodies out and make something fun.

So here is my finished pumpkin! I love the way it turned out so much that I'm making a couple of more. I'm not sure yet whether I'll vary the size and shape or stick with the instruction sheet. This cutie pumpkin is for my sweet Mom. She had her 78th birthday last weekend. I hope she enjoys looking at it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Each layer is a rosette created using strips of paper and my Martha Stewart scoreboard. Wow! I had never used it before and it was so incredibly helpful for this project. I think I will use it a lot more now! Each strip is scored, edges are inked and the strips are all attached into a circle with little staples. I just happened to have orange ones. Perfect! I used a cirlce punch to cut centers to secure the rosette on the top and bottom. Once all the sizes of rosettes are made, you just hot glue them all together.

The darling stem is also made of strips of paper. I used a wider strip than their instructions called for. I like long stemmed pumpkins! My strips were about 2 1/2 " wide and I used Martha Stewart fringe scissors along the side of each strip. You just roll them up on each other until the strips form a stem in the width that you like. I tied a small piece of twine around the base of the stem. The leaves were stamped with StampinUp French Foliage stamp. I then stamped over the green with Versa Mark ink, sprinkled with clear embossing powder and then used the heat gun. I cut out the three leaves and attached with hot glue. The green strips are 1/8" and curled with a pencil.

Thought I'd make a card for my Mom while I had all of my supplies out. I had already sent her flowers and a card for her birthday, so I decided to make this more of a "happy fall" card. I stamped the leaves in different colors, then went back over the green leaf with clear embossing powder, and the two oak leaves with broze embossing powder.

Thanks so much for looking! Have a great week!

Father's day cards to share

While I was making my graduation cards, I  decided to go ahead and make Father's Day cards while I had my mess scattered around. Here's what I made.


The stamps are all brand new from Stampin Up! I had the paper in my stash. I cut the letters and the penants with my Cricut cartridge "Birthday Bash" and bakers twine to string it all up. If you look closely you will see the embossing on the sides created with VersaMark ink and clear embossing powder...an easy subtle effect.


I made a black style and a brown since we are blessed enough to still have both of our Dads!

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend. I'm personally not ready for Monday yet, but am very thankful for a good job that I love that helps to pay the bills and support my obsession...=)

Birthday cards to share today

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. A few weeks ago I was able to get inspired to make a few birthday cards for friends and family. I thought I would share those with you today on this rainy Monday in Fort Wayne.

The dry embossing folder is Tim Holtz. I inked over the pale aqua paper with a couple different shades of ink to really bring out the texture of the dry embossing. The heart stamp is SU. I spritzed it to give it a frosty shine which is a little hard to see here. Then, added a couple of tiny pearls here and there.

This card is the same Tim Holtz embossing distress folder with the same inking method. However, I added a little bit of VersaMark here and there and sprinkled on some bronze embossing powder so it would cling and used the heat gun. The bird (SU) is also heat embossed with the bronze powder. I trimmed around it and popped it up. Using the same ribbon and papers, helped me speed up the process a little. I can sometimes get slowed down in the process of choosing the paper. When I find something that works together well, I try to at least use the remainder of the paper and make up another card while I've got it out.

This last one is my favorite. My nephew had a birthday, and I thought it would be nice to come up with a "guy" card for him. The emobssing folder is from Tim Holtz. I've been dying to use this folder for a few monthsand hadn't come up with anything until now. I was pretty excited with the way it turned out. The sunburst look is pretty trendy right now. I've noticed it in a lot of advertisements and brochures. I tend to see a scrapbook page or card in almost everything I see...Guess that's where I draw my inspiration. The patterned paper is theTeen Angst collection. Just  a little corner of it to grunge it up a little. The silver metallic dots helped finish it off nicely. Hope he liked it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely evening!!

"Senior Smiles" layout #1

I'll take a little break from the birthday layouts and share some special layouts of my son, Jacob. Erin Hoffman of Erin's Photography in Decatur, Indiana, shot the pictures and I want to give her all the credit for the totally awesome photographs you see here! Jacob was pretty excited to get his senior pictures done and he had a lot of great locations picked out here in Fort Wayne.

This first layout is for his photo album. I used a Creative Keepsakes sketch. I love that it allowed for so many pictures, because I had such a hard time deciding which ones to use!

Here's a close up of the corrugated alpha. I wrapped some knit fiber around it because it reminded me of the knit hat that he was wearing. I inked around the edges of the letter for definition. The BoBunny background paper was already distressed and perfect for Jacob's personality. Not that he is distressed or anything, LOL but he loves the grungy look. =)

Right side: 

Check out the distressing I did on the title consisting of dry embossing, inking, and heat embossing on Kraft paper, cut with my Cricut. The idea for this technique belongs to Angie Leach. You can check out the examples and directions here on her Too Cool Stamping blog.

Here's another angle. It's a little hard to capture with my camera.

Here's the whole layout. You can double click any of these pictures if you want to enlarge them.

I finished another layout of his senior pics for the family album which I will post at a later date.

Have a wonderfully scrappy week. Hope that you are able to enjoy the sunshine that Fort Wayne is enjoying today. Spring may be here...at least for today.