You Hold the Key to My Heart

>> Saturday, March 31, 2012

Thanks to an awesome Groupon deal that I snagged last fall, we were able to have family photos taken by a very talented professional photographer.  I was absolutely thrilled will how the photos turned out, and was even more thrilled when I realized that I could totally *justify* buying the October Afternoon Farmhouse collection to match all of the beautiful fall colors in the photos. 

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OPT Inspiration : Welcome Baby!


This is my final March post for the Scrappin Patch blog. After this I will be taking a few weeks off while I wait for my next DT kit to arrive. I'm so excited to see all the goodies from the store that will be on thier way. I have loved all the product I've been privilaged to work with. Its fun having someone else put together and kit for you because often there are products you wouldn't pick out yourself, but once they arrive, it can be very inspiring!


This fun little project is a baby card for my sister-in-laws little boy. The papers I had were very grown up, but I decided to use them here anyways. Paired with the giraffe I think its just right.

Till next time,






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CAS-ual Fridays : So Sweet!

>> Friday, March 30, 2012

CAS-ual Friday's challenge is to use a song as inspiration in creating your clean and simple card. Since I was listening to "Favourite Things" from The Sound of Music, the first thing that popped into my head was "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes" and these are the cards I created based on that.






I created the dresses using an origami tutorial that I had seen earlier with scraps of what I think is Fine and Dandy Paper from My Minds Eye. The sentiment is also a MME stamp and all fibers are from my assorted thrift store stash.

Thanks for looking!

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Bright Eyed

>> Sunday, March 25, 2012

I don't have much to say about this layout so I'll keep this post short.

Love these photos... love these papers...
 

...love this little man!


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OTP Inspiration : Happy 49th!



Birthday cards are always fun to make and one of the greatest reasons that I started making cards in the first place because it enabled me to create something that was geared specifically for that person. What better way to let someone know they are special, than with a one of a kind birthday card created just for them? The birthday in this case is my special Dad who turns 49 this year. Being recently married, this will be the first one of his birthdays that I won't be around for (for the past 25 years anyways ... ) It was a little odd writing this card and sending it in the mail already, but not being there for birthdays is certainly a new experience that I am going to have to get used too.


Most of the materials for this card came out of my DT kit from Scrappin Patch. I am thoroughly enjoying this kit that Adrienne sent from New Zealand for me. So many fun patterns and textures to be working with. Again, I used the Glitz stickers to embellish various portions of the card and admit I raided my (huge) stash of alphas for the various fonts used. I noticed when I made this card that my Chatterbox Alpha rub ons are running out! I have used them so much I'm almost all used up. I've browsed around the Scrappin Patch online store though and have some replacements picked out! There are so many fun goodies in the store, have you looked recently? The girls are always updating with new stock.

I wish I knew exactly what the supplies I was using were, but the supply list never made it into my kit, so if you know what the papers are, be sure to let me know and I'll update the supply list. The April newsletter is almost ready to be released as well, if you haven't already signed up for it, you really need to get on the list. The DT girls have been given a bit of a sneak and its not an issue you want to miss. There is all sorts of great inspiration coming to an inbox near you!

Until next time, 



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My Minds Eye Blog Challenge 33: Card

>> Tuesday, March 20, 2012

One more project to share with you. I have looked at the My Minds Eye blog so many times and told myself that this month I am going to enter thier challenge. But up until the morning, I never actually got around to it! I'm really not sure why, the prize each month is worth even the feeblest attempt. The winner of thier monthly challenge gets to choose one complete MME collection! That would be fantastic. Of all the manufacturers and products out there I love the MME lines and if I buy new product, its almost always MME. So you can imagine that I have more than enough to meet the 80% requirement, but not nearly enough that choosing an entire collection isn't appealing ...


 From all my product, I choose to work primarily with the Orange from MME Lush collection. What a gorgeous set! With the exception of the Alphas, and two of the ribbons, all product on the card is from the LUSH collection. This card is also entered in the "Favourite Colour" challenge from Do You Stack Up. Its been a while since I played along there!

SUPPLIES
My Minds Eye LUSH Collection
Paper, brads, rhinestones, journaling tag
Misc Ribbon and alphas

Have a wonderful afternoon!

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Thank You! {Case Study}

I was browsing the web this morning and found my way over at CASEStudy challenge site and decided to give their most recent challenge a go! Here is the CASEStudy by the talented Laura Bassen



and this is what I was inspired to create.



 SUPPLIES
My Little Shoebox Paper
Making Memories Brads
DMCFloss
My Minds Eye Rhinestones

 I originally started with a completely different idea, but as I was going through my paper collection, I came across this adorable paper by My Little Shoebox and knew it would work far better than my original idea!I cut out the houses and adhered them to the card using 3d tape. Very simple, and not my typical style, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Have a great day!

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Christmas {Layouts} in March...

>> Monday, March 19, 2012

It is beginning to look a lot like spring here, so naturally I have been in the mood to create some Christmas themed layouts... 

Am I the only one who doesn't get around to scrapbooking their Holiday photos until well after the holidays?

I have been enjoying working with the October Afternoon Holiday Style collection that I gave myself for Christmas.  I like the fact that the color scheme is not traditional cranberry red and forest green, but it still feels "Christmas-y".

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Scrappin Patch : OTP Tutorial

>> Friday, March 16, 2012



I wanted to share a fun embellishment with you all today. I first saw it at another blog and decided that I could make it too. After a little bit of folding and refolding and a few light bulb moments it all came together. I used the embellishement on my recent OTP project, but today am going to give you the step-by-step instructions so you can recreate this on your own. Ready? :)


The first step is to cut (5) 2 x 2 inch squares. You can use all the same paper if you like, but I really like how it turned out using 5 seperate patterns.


 Fold the papers once diagonally across the center.


Fold the two sides inwards to meet the centre 'corner' of the triangle, (when you hold it flat it will be square).


 This step took me a few tries to get the fold correct.... Where the two folds meet in the middle, fold them back on them selves once.


Using a wet glue or strong adhesive, slot the folded pieces together and glue each 'petal' in place to create the flower shape. Then embellish the center as you like! I added a small paper flower and button as well as misting the entire flower with glimmer mist.


Thanks for looking!

 

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Byron and Rebecca, 09.03.11

>> Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I have wanted to post this (and a few other) wedding layouts for a while, but ran into a bit of a wall when my computer crashed and I lost all the images I had, including recent projects that I wanted to post. I've been working on a wedding album for my Mom for the past few years of all the weddings of her kids. Once these pages were done I had shipped them off to her, so in order to post these, I had to wait until our last visit homeward to get them. I somehow missed the ugly bookcase behind the layout when I was taking the photos, oops!


There were lots of elements that I wanted to incorporate into the layouts, so many fun details from the wedding that were dieing to be included. But in the end I couldn't use everything! We had a vintage themed wedding and I tried to keep that thought in mind when designing this layout. Behind the main photo there is a vintage lace Dollie, one of many that we had scattered throughout the wedding venue and reception areas, as well as lace and ribbon from the day as well.


There were also flowers everywhere that day! My Mom had been growing them all summer for me and the day turned out to be the time when all her flowers were in bloom. It was incredible. Of course implementing real flowers into a layout doesn't really work, but Prima flowers do!

I think my favourite detail of this page however, is the fact that I was able to find room for the wedding invitation that I had also designed and printed. Saving little mementos like that from the special moments in my life has always been important, and its so much fun to be able to go back and remember all those little details.

I made a few more pages for my Mom from our wedding, but I'm trying to decided whether I should post them or not. I didn't notice until I was home that the photo quality wasn't great. I don't do a ton of scrap booking, but having the opportunity to make this for Mom was certainly a lot of fun! I'm almost ready to pull out some more pictures and make a page or two for my own scrapbook.


Have a great week!

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Scrappin Patch : OTP Inspiration

>> Wednesday, March 7, 2012

This months design kit from Scrappin Patch presented itself with a beautiful challenge in the form of products that I have never really worked with. When I first opened my envelope, my first thought was "What am I going to do with these?" but only because I never have ever tried to. What was the mystery product? The gorgeous new line of Vintage Blue from Glitz, both Cardstock and Transparent stickers. Beautiful in their design, construction, and appeal and as I found out, far more versatile than I at first thought. I have initially stayed away from using stickers in my projects because they were so .... complete already. So I challenged myself to use the stickers in a way that I could not only highlighted them, but placed them in a bit of a different scenario than simple adoring an empty corner of my project (that's what I thought stickers were for in the past, space fillers!) But as I discovered, they have a great potential to be the main attraction.


 I am having a ton of fun with the endless creative possibilities that the "Off the Page" team has offered me. For my first project of the month I created an incredibly fun approach to gift wrapping. My husband didn't notice the absence of a birthday card because he was to impressed with the way I had decorated his gift. I started with kraft paper and worked from there ... This was the perfect project to use some of the Glizters Vintage Blue Cardstock stickers. The heart and the font are both from the fun set.


This month I've been inspired to think outside of the products that are usually finding their way into my craft pile. Thanks to the girls at Scrappin Patch I'm finding all sorts of new inspiration. What kinds of things to do you never use in your projects? I encourage you to try something new!




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