Love You

I'm still finishing off the odd layouts for Nathalie's first year. I am generally the ones taking photos and so often I'm not in them. That always suited me just fine until someone said something about my kids wanting to see pictures of me when they get older. I thought about that and I had to agree. So, I've been making more of an effort to be in photos and then to actually include those photos in their books.

I did this quick layout of a few photos of the two of us.


I like the simplicity with just the small splash of colour. The heart is done with Black Magic Core'dinations paper. I cut out the heart with my Cricut and then embossed with my Seeing Dots folder and sanded it so a little pink paper would show through. I love black on a layout and I really like how the pink tied it in a bit too.

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!

Happy Valentine's Day

I've been on a roll lately and feeling creative. I had an idea for a card and thought I'd just go for it.

I have a Cricut which I quite like and use for scrapbooking all the time, but I don't think to use it when I make a card, but I thought I'd give it a try. I cut a heart out of Core'dinations paper and then embossed it with the Seeing Spots Cuttlebug Folder. I quite like that folder! Then I sanded the embossed areas and some of the edges to give it that cool distressed look that is so easy with the Core'dinations paper. I stamped a background image. It's from the "I See Paris" set by Tim Holtz (that is one of my favorite sets). Originally, I kind of wanted a background over the whole card, but it wasn't big enough, so I just did it on an angle so it wouldn't look awkward and I think it worked well. Then I tied a little ribbon on the heart and layered it all on the card. I stamped "Je t'aime" (Heidi Swapp) with black ink and called it a day. Then I made two more so I could give them to the kids.

I really love it when a plan comes together!

A new baby

My brother and his wife had a new baby boy this morning. I used it as an excuse to go to my craft room and stamp instead of cleaning the kitchen and working. I thought it was a valid excuse.

While I've been scrapbooking a bit lately, I haven't felt overly creative. I've been copying layouts and pulling ideas from magazines. It always takes me a little while to be able to just create something on my own. I jumped that hurdle today though. It wasn't the most brilliant card, but I worked through the issues I had as I was making it and not quite liking "something."

I started with the white paper and stamped "Samuel" across the bottom with a Fancy Pants alphabet set I have using Blue Iris chalk ink. Then I stamped the baby stamp (Inkadinkado) on white cardstock with Blue Iris ink. I embossed some blue Core'dinations paper with big dots and then sanded it. But when I put it together, it was still missing something. I used my little Tim Holtz distressing tool and it helped, but it wasn't enough. So, I pulled out my Distress-It-All tool and went hard distressing the edges and then I loved it. Well, maybe not loved it, but liked it well enough to give it away.

If you haven't played with the Distress-It-All, it's quite cool. I love that distressed look, but it takes forever with the little mini tool. My friend, Jacqueline, told me to get the DIA and so I added it to one of my orders. It's so quick and easy and does a fantastic job. I don't know that I would have splurged on it, but I'm so glad that I have it now. I used it on my calendar pages (I'll post my page after I get the calendars all bound and distributed). It was so quick and easy and I found that I'm really liking that look right now.

I was lucky today because my sister came over and we scrapbooked for a bit too. I even created a layout without looking for inspiration in a magazine. I'll possibly post pictures of that tomorrow.

So, Happy Birthday to my new nephew, Samuel Louis (Louis was my grandfather's name). And here is the card I made for him.

Core'dinations

I didn't get a chance to stamp or scrapbook today. Sadly, work took over and I had to actually get some things done. I'm really hoping my sister comes over tomorrow and scrapbooks so that I can keep my motivation going.

I did want to post though. I found a scrapbook page I did a couple of months ago. It's another one of Eric (I have been working on his album and trying to get it caught up since I'm not as far behind in his as I am in Kayla's). We were at my parent's acreage when one of the mares foaled. The kids got to see a baby horse less than an hour old. Although Eric was a bit young, I still thought it was an incredible experience.

I did a simple page with some patterned paper and then layered some core'dinations brown paper on top. I sanded the edges and distressed it a bit to make it fit in with the theme. Then I just needed to mat the photos and stick it all down.

I do want to thank everyone who has visited and posted. I really enjoy reading the comments. I'm going to run my contest for another day or two and then do a draw. I'll post the winner this weekend. Good luck!