A page of me!

This is the one and only page that I have ever scrapped of me as a child. I really need to get out the 10 photos of myself when I was little and scrap them! LOL Seriously......I am a middle child. My mom and dad have countless photos of my older sister and they have tons of photos of my younger brother. BUT for some reason, they did not have a camera when I was born. So, the only photos that we have of me were either taken by my grandma or one of my older cousins. This happens to be a photo that my cousin Doug took. The other photos that he took of me in this chair are black and white and are pretty sweet, if I do say so myself!


I am not really thrilled with the way this photo turned out of the page. The colors are so much richer in person! I used the Caprice paper pack for this page along with the matching stickease for the letters and the flowers on the border and in the corner. The ribbon is Twilight, but is retired.

I love the way this page turned out!! Do you ever have pages like that? Those are the ones that you keep going back to and everytime you see them you love them all over again? LOL I get a big kick out of going back through my scrapbooks from when I first started scrapbooking. Some pages are still just as cute to me now as they were when I was putting them together. Some pages on the other hand are lucky to still be in the album!

Thanks for hanging out with me today!

Make sure to stop back by!!

Jen

How about another couple of scrapbook pages??

I am on a roll lately! Not only am I getting pages made, but I am journaling on them with my own handwriting. I know that does not sound like much of an accomplishment, but for me it is! I am still NOT thrilled with the way my handwriting looks. But all of the scrapbook experts say that it is better to journal in your own writing than it is to have it printed because it preserves that part of you.

I actually prefer to print it out for a couple of reasons. ONE is that it LOOKS so much neater!! TWO is because I can say so much more when I type it out, versus when I hand write it. I guess that is where hidden journaling would come into play. HHHMMM Maybe I will have to play around with more of that and try to focus on hand writing my journaling.


These pictures were taken of my son 4 1/2 years ago. I have a hard time looking back at these photos because both of my kids have grown so much in just a short period of time. My son is now almost 12 and is almost as tall as me. My daughter will be 15 in April and will be passing me up here shortly. It kills me to look at these photos to see how she went from still looking like a little girl, to looking like a young woman in such a short period of time. BOO HOOOOO


These photos were takes around the same time as my son's. The baby that Rachael is holding is my nephew Merek. He will be turning 5 this May.


Anyhoo.....on to the papers and embellishments used in these pages. The page with my son was made using CTMH Sarsaparilla papers, Winter Cozy Mini-Medley ribbon slides, black Love Letters Rub-Ons and SU! black ribbon.

The page with my daughter and nephew was made using CTMH Blue Ribbon papers and Stickease, Cranberry Bitty Brads and Photo Clip from the Holiday Mini-Medley collection, Outdoor Denim button from the Autumn button collection, Cranberry and Colonial White buttons from the Holiday button collection, Cranberry and Outdoor Denim Ribobn and last but not least Cranberry Waxy Flax.

Thanks for stopping by!!

I hope that you have found some sort of inspiration today!!

Jen

A couple of pages.....

Every 3rd Friday I have a group of 10 AMAZING women that come to my house to make 4 scrapbook pages and crop till they drop! It is a blast and every month I can't wait for 3rd Friday to come around. This month we used the CTMH papers from the Emporium Level 2 paper pack. I LOVE this paper pack!! I found it to be sooo versitile!!! I love the colors and the patterns too!

If you would like to take a peak at the Emporium papers and Stickease, click here! If you would like to purchase the paper pack or any of the matching accessories, all you need to do is place an order online through my website and it will be shipped directly to you!

I wanted to share the pages that we made this last Friday. I try to keep the pages generic enough so my club girls can use the photos that they want to go on the pages.

Each month I try to show a different embellishment or technique that they can use to enhance their pages, cards or paper projects. This month I let them create with buttons. The buttons that we used on these pages are from the Winter Craft Buttons collection. The buttons are a perfect match for the Emporium papers!!

I chose to leave the center's of my buttons plain because I used soooo many of them on these 2 pages. Sometimes I use waxy flax, hemp or embroidery floss to create a threaded look to the buttons. The Colonial White Ricrac that is wrapped around the photo can be purchased through my website too!!



I do not have a title on these pages yet as I created 2 other pages that have more photos that go with these. The other pages will have a title and journaling to explain why the kids and my mom are in a wheelchair! Who knew a wheelchair could be so entertaining when you don't have to use one.

Supplies for these pages:
Paper: Emporium Level 2 Paper Pack
Colors: Sweet Leaf, Crystal Blue, Buttercup, Colonial White and Cocoa
Embellishments: Colonial White Ricrac, Winter Craft Buttons

I used the CMTH Cherish scrapbook program to create the LO's on these pages. If you ever have a creative block with either your scrapbooking or card making, CTMH offers amazing books to help you oput with that!! Check them out here!! I would be lost without these programs and can't say enough good about them!!!

As soon as I have completed the other pages that we created at club, I will post them too!

I hope that I have inspired you to get out your buttons and go CRAZY!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen

InStyle Stamps Thankful Thursday Sketch Challenge with Blog Candy!

It is Thursday!!! Why am I so excited about today?? InStyle Stamps is having their Thankful Thursday Sketch Challenge and they are giving away this super cute InStyle Stamps Inspiration Kit to one lucky participant!!


How do you play along? All you need to do is create a card based on this sketch with the words Thanks, Thank You, Thankful, or some form of one of those words. Once you have finished your card, leave a comment to this post with a link to your creation no later than Wednesday, February 25th 11:59pm. If you are uploading your card to SCS or PCP, please use ISSTT2-19. You don't have to use a stamp from InStyle Stamps, but if you have one, go ahead and use it! The winner will be announced on the InStyle Stamps blog on Thursday February 26th and you will have 48 hours to claim your prize.

OK on to the sketch...... Since I am not creative enough to come up with my own sketch, Maria Bell who is on the InStyle Stamps DT, graciously allowed me to choose one from the hundreds that she has created! Thanks Maria!!!


For my card I used this sweet little cup that is a Digi Download from InStyle Stamps. I printed the cup in the size that I needed to fit in the square, colored it with my Copic Markers, then cut out the cup.


Before I pop dotted the cup to the square I used the steam from the printed image as a template to paper pierce onto the different layers of the card. I then took my glue pen to the pierced holes and added glitter both to the steam and to the lid of the cup.



Supplies used:
Paper: Bo Bunny Sweetie Pie from InStyle Stamps
Digital Image: Small Cup, InStyle Stamps and Say it in Style, CMTH
Embellishments: Ribbon from InStyle Stamps, Olive Organdy CTMH, Sparkles from Archiver's, Prisma Glitter CTMH
Inks used: CTMH Garden Green and Bubblegum, Copic Markers
Nestabilities Scalloped Circle

What are you waiting for?? Get busy creating and let's see what you got!!

I hope that this has inspired you to play along this week!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jen

I've hit a creative block!!

Paper, ink and stamps are NOT my friend right now! LOL I sat down on Saturday to come up with a card using the darling stamp set that Close to my Heart is giving away with any $25 stamp purchase this month and could not come up with a single thing! Well.....that may have been because I was sitting in the middle of the local ice skating rink waiting area with all of my stuff spread out on the table and could not REALLY concentrate on being creative with all of the distractions! LOL I am going to go with that excuse.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I don't have anything NEW to share with you today. I will tomorrow, but for today I am posting a card that I made a while back using a sketch challenge from SCS. I don't even remember which sketch challenge it was, it was so long ago! LOL

This card was a bit of a challenge for me because I used papers from the paper pack Game On from CTMH. This is a great paper pack for scrapbook pages, especially sports related pages. Although it could also be used for vintage photos too. But for using it on cards, I struggled a bit. So, I added Cranberry for a little pop of color and softened the newspaper look of the paper by adding hearts! It ended up with a vintage feel to me....

Stay tuned for tomorrow as I am hosting the InStyle Stamps Thankful Thursday Sketch Challenge!

Hope you have found some inspiration today!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope you return tomorrow for the challenge and a little blog candy from InStyle Stamps!

Jen

Unit Swap Post-It Note Booklet

I am so sorry that it has been a few days since my last post! It has been a little while since I have been able to sit down and "play"! I wanted to show you all what I made for Shari's unit swap this month. If you read on down to the bottom of this post, I will give you the dimensions I used to create this booklet.




When I signed up last month to participate in the swap, I asked Shari to surprise me with my swap item. She chose a dimensional item for me to make. I like dimensional items because they always challenge me to come up with something fun! Up until the day of the swap, last Tuesday, I had NO clue as to what I was going to make. LOL Nothing like procrastinating until the last possible minute.



SOOOO, Last summer I went to my first CTMH convention and had a BLAST!! While I was there, a fellow CTMH sistah Pamela gave me a darling little bag decorated and filled with lots of goodies!! One of those little goodies was a little Post-It note booklet, which I decided to make for my swap! Because I had not prepared ahead of time, I did not have enough paper to create each little booklet exactly the same. But, I think that just added to the fun of creating them!!



As I was struggling with what to put on the front of the booklets, I decided to get out my Dimensional Elements Alpha Solos and personalize each booklet by putting the first letter of the first name of each in my swap. After I had adhered the letter on the front it still felt like something was missing.......soooooo........what else would I add to the front but a little BLING!!



For the covers of this booklet, I used coasters trimmed down to 3 1/2 x 3 1/2. I covered them with paper cut to 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 so I had plenty of room to bring around to the inside of the coaster. I then cut a piece of CS to 3 1/4 x 6 3/4 and scored at 3 1/4 and again at 3 1/2. I took both covers and set them side by side and adhered the scored piece on top. This gave me a finished look on the inside of each coaster and created a "spine" for my booklet.

For the Post-It notes on the inside, I set them in the center of the right side, marked where I was going to put a hole in by using my paper piercer and piercing all the way through the paper and the coaster. After I had it marked on both sides, I used my Exchangeable head punch and punched holes in the notes and both sides of the coasters.

After the holes were punched, I put the ring through and tied ribbon to it. And there you have it! Easy peasy!! Thanks Pamela for such a fun little project idea!!! If it were not for your gifts, I would have been up a creek without a paddle for my unit swap this month! LOL

OH and by the way......they were a HIT!! Yay!!

All supplies are CTMH (except the coasters)
Paper: My Reflections Stardust
Ink: Moonstruck, Topiary
Embellishments: 3/8 White Daisy Organdy Ribbon, Square Sparkles, Dimensional Elements Alpha Solos

I hope that this has inspired you today!

Thanks for stopping by.......even when I have not posted for a while.......at least you have not given up completely on me! LOL

Jen

My March Stardust Cube Workshop

Back in late December I received a phone call from my upline Shari. She asked me if I would be interested in coming up with a workshop project using the My Creations Cube and My Reflections Stardust paper pack AND teach it at her unit meeting in February. While I was thrilled at the chance to teach, BUT I was not initially thrilled about using the My Creations Cube as my project to teach!


Once I received the cube and opened it up, I realized that it was a lot cooler than I had thought. After all, I had not seen it in person, only a picture of it in the Spring Idea Book. The cube measures 5 inches all around. That makes it the perfect size to keep on an office desk, coffee table, or a shelf for display. Also, it is perfect for adding photos to it without making the photos so small that you can't see them!


To come up with the LO's for the whole cube, I turned to my CTMH Originals Card Program book. I looked through the sketches for 6x6 and 3x3 cards and adjusted the size according to the 5x5 inch surface that I had to work with. I ended up making all of my cuts to equal 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 so I could leave space for my holes to put the hemp through.


After I came up with each of the LO's, I added my accents. Since I was making this project to use as a workshop, I wanted to keep the cost low (you know, with the economy and all) and could not go crazy with bling! That was super hard, let me tell you!! So, I went with White Daisy Ric-Rac, Natural Hemp and the White Daisy Mini-Medley accents. Each customer will get 1/2 Mini-Medley pack to embellish as they wish and enough Ric-Rac and Hemp to embellish as shown.


Before adhering the paper to the cube, I sponged all of the edges of the cube with CTMH Bamboo ink and all of the paper edges with CTMH Moonstruck ink.


I really had fun playing with the new White Daisy Mini-Medley accents!! The crocheted flowers are just darling and the ribbon slides actually have 2 different textures on the edges. A fellow ctmh sistah, Megan, suggested adding a square sparkle to the middle for a little bling! I think I am going to have to try that!! OH and last but not least are the little metal frames that I added the dotted paper in the center were super fun to play with also!!


All supplies are CTMH:
My Creations Cube
Paper: My Reflections Stardust lvl 2 paper pack
Embellishments: White Daisy Mini-Medley accents, White Daisy Ric-Rac and Natural Hemp
I hope that you found inspiration in my workshop project! I know I was inspired to create more with this versatile cube! I will be posting my Daydream version tomorrow!
Thanks for stopping by!! Please come back to see the "girly" version tomorrow! As always, if you like the CTMH products that I use to create my projects with, you can order from my website and have it shipped straight to you!!
Jen

How about another new release from InStyle Stamps??

This time it is one of the new Digi Downloads that InStyle Stamps is releasing this week! The awesome thing about the Digi Downloads is that you can print them in the size that you need for your projects! They are low in cost and you don't have to wait for them to be shipped to you either! You know how excruciating it can be waiting for your stamps to be shipped! LOL Here is an invitation that I made using the Bowling Digi Download......

For this card I used ONLY cardstock! I can't tell you the last time I did not add DP to a project! Now, don't get me wrong, I did TRY to use DP with it, it just did not look right! So instead, I pulled out this Cuttlebug embossing folder that I love but have never used and used that instead of DP. As soon as I saw this image, I knew that I wanted to go with black, red and grey to color in the bowling bag. The rest just fell in place.



To color the image, I used my brand spankin' new Copic Sketch markers!! WOO HOO!!!! I had NO clue how awesome these markers were until I used them to color this image!! I mean I should have had SOME clue when I kept hearing rave reviews on these markers, but I am the type that needs to figure it out on my own before I am a believer! LOL

I printed out the image 2 times and colored 1 full image and just the 2 bowling pins of the other. I cut out the 2 bowling pins and pop dotted them to the first image for dimension as you can see in the picture. The whole image was then pop dotted onto the cs for extra dimension!

I have always been a big fan of Stampin' with Markie's Mom's work and love how she adds dots to her mats to tie everything together. So, after I was finished assembling the invitation, I thought that it needed a little something more and added dots around the matting just for a little something to complete it.

Supplies used:
Digi Download: Rock n Roll Bowling
Paper: CTMH Black, Cranberry, Grey Wool and White Daisy CS
Embellishments: Black ribbon (SU), Black brads (ctmh) and Black with White polka dot ribbon (not sure where from)
Nestabilities: Labels two
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Traffic Jam


I hope that you have found a little inspiration today!

Please stop back again!

Jen

InStyle Stamps new Anime release.......

I am so excited to announce that InStyle Stamps released their darling line of Anime stamps last night!!! I am pleased to introduce to you Mellie. Could she be any cuter?? I think NOT! LOL


When you go to InStyle Stamps to check out the rest of the Anime release, you will notice that Mellie is NOT holding a cupcake! She is actually holding a birthday cake. To turn the birthday cake into a cupcake, I cut around the candles to look like the top of the cupcake. I added lines to the bottom of the image to resemble the cupcake paper and used Liquid Applique for my frosting. After I puffed the liquid applique and let it cool for a minute, I took a glue pen to the top and added glitter. There is also glitter on the tray that the cupcake is on.

For the rest of the image, I used my ctmh markers and blending pen on watercolor paper to color it in. I have my first shipment of Copics coming to me next week and can't wait to be able to use those to color the new Anime images with!! It is the little things in life that excite me! LOL

What are you waiting for?? Go to the InStyle Stamps blog to see the darling cards that the rest of the DT came up with and then go to the InStyle Stamps site and order yourself some!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Mellie, InStyle Stamps and Say it in Style, ctmh
Paper: My Reflections Perfect Day ctmh
Embellishments: Spring Blossom Mini-Medley and Colonial White ribbon
Oval and circle Nestabilities, Liquid Applique and Prisma Glitter

Thanks so much for stopping by, even though it has been 5 days since I posted art last but I did share our new little joy, Sadie.....

I hope that I have inspired you to take a 2nd look at your stamps and think outside of the box.....

Jen

Meet Sadie, our new family member!!

I thought I would introduce you all our new family member, Sadie. She is a Havaton and is 11 weeks old. If you have not heard of a Havaton before, it is ok....no one has! LOL A Havaton is 1/2 Havanese and 1/2 Coton de Tulear. If you have not heard of either of those breeds, it is ok, not many have! LOL In fact, I had never heard of ANY of the breeds mentioned above until my daughter fell in love with our neighbor's puppy.


My almost 15 year old dd has been begging us for a puppy for years and after a couple of bad experiences with puppies, my hubby and I said that we did not want any dogs! So, without discussing it with my hubby and I, my daughter found out the name of the breeder that the neighbor's adopted their dog from, found that the breeder had a website and started contacting her through e-mail.

It was only after I found a note written to her dad (because she knew how I felt!) that she said she felt empty without a dog in her life, I gave in. We drove a little over an hour to go visit the breeder to see a puppy that Rachael had set her heart on getting. We decided to have the breeder keep her until she was 10 weeks and have her vet spay her there and then pick the puppy up a week later.

My daughter counted down each day, hour and minute until "Molly" was to come home to live with us. There was only 7 days left when I got a phone call from the vet telling me that our puppy did not make it through the surgery. I was devastated!! I knew that when I told my kids the news that they would be heartbroken. And they were......

While she was waiting for "Molly", Rachael would go online to the website to see the new Havaton puppies that were born. So, when we got the news that Molly had died, Rachael had already picked out a different puppy. We drove back to the breeder's 2 days later and found our Sadie. At 4 weeks she was a doll! I don't think that her tail could have wagged any faster! Not only did Rachael fall in love with her, but I did too....

So, here we are with this darling baby girl that in just 8 days has won our hearts!! I never thought I would find a dog that I would love......but I am smitten!!

Thanks for letting me share my story! (for those who stuck around to read it this far! LOL)

I hope to have a card or scrapbook page for you all tomorrow! thanks for stopping by! Please stop back soon. If you have one of these little babies too, leave a comment!

Jen

Method Monday-Side Flap Card

It is Monday once again and InStyle Stamps is having their Method Monday Challenge and it it is my turn to come up with a tutorial! YEA!!! My hubby and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 21st of January and he gave me a really cool card that I thought I would try to re-create and use it for my tutorial. I hope you like!!



I am calling this a Side Flap card. Original, isn't it? LOL After looking at it, I realized it is kind of like Maria's tutorial last Monday except that it opens from the side and the inside opens top to bottom. This is the card opened.....

This is the card inside and opened, or however you want to say it.....



To play along with this challenge, all you need to do is go over to InStyle Stamps and leave a comment to the Method Monday post with a link to your card from your blog or gallery! If you are uploading your card to SCS or PCP, label it with "InStyle Stamps" or ISSMM2-2 so we can find it.

We would love to see what you come up with. You do not need to use an InStyle Stamp to paly along, but if you have one, why not use it???

Here is what you will need to create this card............

5 1/2 x 12 cardstock scored at 4 1/2 x 8 9/16 (so it will lay nicely)

4 x 10 cardstock scored at 5 1/4

Round Template (I used my CM circle with blue blade, but anything round will work)

Ribbon

Scoring tool

Trimmer

Corner rounder or scalloped edge punch (optional)

Score the 5 1/2 x 12 piece at 4 1/4, 8 9/16





You will have a piece that looks like this.....


On the end that is shorter than the other 2, use a circle template to make rounded edge.







When adhering paper to the rounded edge, leave some to extend over the edge, then cut the excess off.


This is what it will look like after the excess is trimmed off the edge of the rounded edge. The white area is actually the back of the card. And as I look at this photo, it is upside down! LOL



Score the 4 x 10 piece of cardstock at 5 1/4 and adhere to the inside of your card.



This completes the card. The dimensions for my card are 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. If you would like to decorate it similar to my card, the dimensions for the paper used are:


Left side:


1x 4 1/4


1 1/2 x 4 1/4


3 x 4 1/4



Flap:


1 x 3


1 1/2 x 3


3 x 3



Inside of card:


1 1/4 x 4


1 x 4


If you like the papers and ribbon used on this card, you can purchase an Inspiration Kit through InStyle Stamps!! Kit #1 includes paper and ribbon and kit #2 includes paper, ribbon, stickles and much more! Head on over to InStyle Stamps to get one of your own Inspiration Kits and get started creating!!

I hope that I have inspired you to create one of these darling cards!! I would love it if you played along and posted your work for all to see!!

Thanks for stopping by! Please stop by again!

Jen