My Love

I was playing around in my stamp room the other night and was in a mellow mood. I finished my Bathtime layout and then wanted to start another. I was flipping through a magazine and saw one I liked. The problem was that it was very finicky and so out of my comfort zone.

But I was in a weird zen type mood and not stressed about how far behind I am or how much I have to do and so I just went with it.

I used my "Olivia" pack from Basic Grey so that all the circles would match and coordinate and then I cut some strips from the same paper. I hate to admit it, but it was kind of fun playing with all the circles to place them. I don't know that I'd do it again, but it was fun because I was in the right mood.

Then I stamped the Magenta flourish in black and added a journaling block (from the kit) and a flower. The "my" from the title is out of grungeboard and then I cut "Love" with my Cricut. I really like how the black kind of grounds stuff and makes it pop.

Overall, this layout took me awhile but I like doing those kind once in awhile.

Bathtime

It's funny to go back and scrapbook these old photos. They're only 2 years old, but I have already forgotten what Nathalie was like as a baby.

This layout is so outside my colour zone. It's done in lime green which is not a colour you would find in my favorite palette. Not by a long shot, but I'm trying to branch out. The paper is from a paper pack (Dots & Stripes) by Echo Park Paper. There are 3 or 4 packs, each with different colours. Again, it was easy to grab two pieces of coordinating colours, but different patterns and know that they would go together.

Creating in Chaos

I've been scrapbooking a bit lately. I actually finished a layout and have started on another. The problem, however, is the clean up in between projects. I still haven't cleaned up from the anniversary card prototype project and now it's just daunting. I know that if I just started, I could probably have it all cleaned up in 15 minutes, but I just don't feel like doing it. I'd rather create.

But creating is hard when you can't find anything and there are piles everywhere. I am in the middle of a layout, but I swear that when I finish, I'm going to clean and organize. I really am.

In the meantime, here is a glimpse into the chaos which is my craft room at the moment.

Bottle Capped Paris

As promised, here is a card I made using my bottle cap supplies. It's done with July Kayric Club techinque: Distressed Felt. I used the Paris Passport bottle cap insert images and the chrome bottle cap.

The background is the new Tim Holtz embossing folder which matches the background from his "I See Paris" set (I love this background and am so excited that there is now a matching embossing folder). I embossed a piece of the Faded Jeans Distress Core'dinations and then sanded off part of it. I really like how it all turned out!

Bottle Caps

A couple of years ago, my friend, Sonja, did a demo with bottle caps. Everyone was intrigued and it was so cool. I tried using them a few times, but I could never flatten them so that they looked nice. I'm sure there is a trick, but I didn't figure it out. And they were kind of sharp and poky, so they got put to the side.

This summer, one of my distributors started carrying Bottle Cap supplies. They have lightweight, already flattened bottle caps and lots of sheets with images that fit in the bottlecaps. They even have gems which fit in them. I ordered a few and I really like them, so I'll be ordering more.

Here is a sample of the bottle cap.

Here are a couple of the insert image sheets you can get: Nostalgic and Paris Passport

Here are the gems.


The bottle caps come in chrome, black, antique silver and antique gold. They don't have a liner to take out either, so they're ready to grab and use.

Tomorrow, I'll post a card I made with these.

When I am not creative ... then I organize

It's organization time here. I haven't felt very creative and so when that happens I feel the need to organize stuff. I just redid the kids rooms and my house is in a bit of chaos and that is not helping my compulsive need to organize.

In my last order, I got in two organizational products that I thought I'd share. I have 2 of each for sale (unless I steal them for myself first which I'm trying hard not to do).

First is the Cropper Hopper 5 drawer organizer ($19). It is black and white and it could go anywhere in your house you need a decorative organizer. I might swap out a couple ugly small iris style organizers in my craft room for these or I was thinking that I might put one up in my bathroom to hold my make up in a nice neat organized fashion.

Second is the Kaisercraft Trinket Chest ($15). I have a couple of the Kaisercraft shelves and they're quite cool. You decorate them however you'd like and then they're a useful storage. I love my little shelves.

Let me know if you are interested in either of these.

Sweet Girl

I finally scrapbooked yesterday. My room is a disaster because I haven't cleaned up from all the anniversary prototypes, but I just pushed it aside and sat down. I want to try to do 15 minutes a day of something related to stamping or scrapbooking; whether that be actually stamping or scrapbooking, or cleaning my room or sorting photos. I haven't been very successful lately though. We were camping and it's taken me awhile to get caught up from being gone.

Last night, however, I decided that I would just sit down and do it. I had a hundred other things to do, but I figured that if I don't make it a priority, I'll never do it. It's always hard to get back into the groove after I haven't created in awhile, and last night was no exception. I struggled a lot. I think part of it was the paper pack I was using. I wanted to use one of my new ones, so I chose Sweet Threads by Basic Grey. There are lots of pretty papers, but it was just a bit outside my comfort zone, so I struggled a bit. When it was all done, I think it turned out OK and sometimes OK is good enough. It was certainly better in the end than I thought it would be when I was in the middle!

Another Retro Card

Ok, I was really hoping to be back in the swing of things by now, but it's taken me longer. Story of my life! I really want to try to do something stamping or scrapbooking related every day, but I'm still trying to catch up from doing the kids bedrooms over and going camping and work, that I haven't started yet. At this point, I figure it's going to have to wait until the older two go back to school, but a girl can hope, right??

In the meantime, here is another old, but simple card.

An Anniversary

My parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary in October and we are having a party. I volunteered to do the invitations and so I did two completely different prototypes. One photo type card and then one stamped card. In the end, the photo card won out, but I quite like the stamped one I made. I really struggled trying to get it to be something I liked, but I mostly got there.


I used my Cricut to cut out the hearts and then I stamped a flourish by Magenta. I used my Tim Holtz scallop border die to cut the middle strip. I'm sort of glad that they didn't choose this one though as it definitely would have taken me longer to make and we were pressed for time.

Retro Week: Sunday

This is a serious retro card. I made it many years ago, but I always liked it.


I stamped the little Hero Arts shadow in Versamark and then coloured it with chalks. Then I just overstamped the flower (Penny Black).

Retro Week: Saturday

I loved the Brilliance Inks when they first came out. Then they kind of got put aside as other new and cool stuff came out.

Then a few years later, Tseukineko released some new colours that made me fall in love all over again.


The background on this card is just direct to paper with a couple of the new (at the time) colours (I think Pearlescent Olive and Cosmic Copper). Then I overstamped the image in black. The metallic sheen on the paper I created was stunning.

Retro Week: Friday

I liked this card so much that I made tons of them to give away.


I used a set from Hero Arts (Buds & Stems) and just created the five flowers and added a couple of gems to the centers of two of the flowers.

So simple, but I still loved it. The card itself is a purple, but for some reason it isn't showing that very well in the image.

Retro Week: Thursday

It's been fun looking back at cards I made and liked. I didn't pick the ones that I didn't like and it's nice to be reminded of different techniques that I used and which turned out.

Here is a pretty easy card.


I just made a background using Distress Inks. I smeared them on my craft sheet, spritzed with water and then pushed my white cardstock into the wet mixture. Then I just added some stamped images in various brown Distress inks and my favorite Eiffel Tower (Art Impressions) stamp in black. I stitched the outside of this card, but for the class, I just poked holes and drew the stitches.

Retro Week: Wednesday

I love the look of interference colours on black. Years ago, they brought out Opalite Inks (Tseukineko) for stamping on dark colours. I saw a demo where you created a background out of the reinkers at a Stampers Celebration several years ago in Calgary. I was sitting down working on this card and had a brain wave that I bet you could get that metallic interference look by painting with them.

So, I stamped the pear (A Stamp in the Hand) with black ink and then painted with the Opalite reinkers (I just put a few drops on a non stick craft sheet and literally painted). I quite like how it turned out.

Retro Week: Tuesday

This card is using an old technique from Technique Junkies (definitely check them out!).


It's fairly simple. Stamp your image and then stamp a flourish and just punch random holes along the flourish. Put a contrasting colour behind and you have a very cool look!

Retro Week: Monday

Here is another old card I made.


I love this Eiffel Tower stamp and script background (both by Art Impressions). I seem to use them a log. This card is just the two stamps stamped in blue ink. Then I used a little glue and added some glitter so areas of the Eiffel Tower.

All done in navy, of course; one of my favorite colours!