One of My Recent Favorites

I'm trying to get back into creating more two-page layouts again. When I look back through my albums of layouts, it seems to be the two-page spreads that mean the most for some reason. Perhaps it's simply because I am able to get more photos on the page and therefore share more of the story, or maybe it's that I tend to journal more on my two-page spreads as well (not sure why that is either). Either way, I'm going to try to create more of them. This one is a recent favorite that was actually published in one of the latest issues of Creating Keepsakes. There are so many reasons of why it is that I love it. I love the photos, I love that we are all three in it, I love thinking back to that day and I love that it truly captures the fact that yes, we are a family that loves nature.

Supplies for Layout: Bazzill cardstock (kraft), October Afternoon pp, Making Memories pp + ribbon, Pink Paislee alphabet stickers, American Crafts alphabet stickers + felt shapes (hearts), Bookwerks word stickers, Heidi Grace Designs alphabet stickers, Jenni Bowlin Designs die-cut journaling spot, misc: sewing maching stitching

And It Was (a Happy Fourth!)

We started out our little family celebration by getting the bikes ready to go and we biked the Bearskin Trail downtown to watch the parade.



I didn't bring my camera this year (gasp!) just because I wanted to enjoy and be present with my family. Were there times that I had wished that I had brought it along? Yes. Like when a beautiful Bald Eagle flew down at the start of the parade and flew circles above the crowd, right after two World War II fighter planes flew overhead...it sure would have been nice to get some pictures of that yes, but I was there getting goosebumps and tears in my eyes along with everyone else in the crowd instead.

After the parade, we went home for a picnic dinner and had fun with some fireworks that Ethan had picked out. Zoey of course (as I) loved the Pop-Its.





After the supply of Pop-Its were exhausted (there were 150 of them), Ethan got to lighting the "big ones" which Zoey just loved! They were of course, pretty puny...but Zoey was cheering her Papa on shouting "again, Papa...again, Papa!" after each one went off.









Zoey didn't stay awake late enough for the big fireworks...but Ethan and I were able to see some of them from our porch above the trees. It was a perfect evening. A very nice Fourth of July.

Happy Fourth of July!

Wishing you and yours a very happy and safe Fourth of July! We're off to the community parade this afternoon and will have some fun with sparklers with Zoey and if she stays up late enough...we'll watch the fireworks!

The above card I created for this week's make-n-take for Paper Studio, Inc. using Hero Arts stamps and two of the Fiskars star punches.

Scrapped a Favorite Photo!

I finally scrapped this goofy photo of Zoey! I rarely use black cardstock on my pages...in fact, this may be the very first time that I've done so! I thought the contrast between the black and the vibrant colors here really made the photo pop and take center stage.



Rather than using my journaling spot for journaling, I chose to use it for the focal point for my title-work and opted to journal around all my elements and photo.

Supplies for Layout: Bazzill cardstock, Sassafrass Lass pp, 7gypsies tags (date sticker) + phrase stickers, American Crafts alpha stickers, Creative Imaginations twine, Sakura white pen, Adorn-It mini alpha stickers, misc: ribbon, buttons

Art Canvas

A friend recently gave me a blank canvas to play around with and last night I had the chance and felt compelled to give it a go. I first painted the entire canvas with acrylic paint and once dry I used a mask (the floral design) and painted over the canvas again with the monarch colored acrylic paint. After my second coat of paint was dry I went to town using stamps, rub-ons, papers, memorabilia, stickers, etc. and then covered everything with several coats of gel medium. Right after applying the gel medium I stamped into it with a rubber stamp (you can kind of see this in the above photo) I was able to get a slight impression of the stamped image this way. I washed off my stamp immediately after doing this.



It was fun to do something a little different for a change...I want to do one now using a technique where you use gel medium, masking tape, and pages from a book to get transfers of the pages on to your canvas.

I'm not really sure why I have such a difference in color with the two photos...the true color is the second of the two photos shown.

A New Favorite on a Sunday

Marks Paper Company : English Garden Collection

Finally I got to dig into my stash of new papers and embellishments from Marks Paper Company's English Garden Collection! June has been one crazy month for us here, it's nice to see that I'm finally getting into the routine of summer and finding some time to get crafty again! For the card above I used several of the die-cuts from the sheet of Paper Punch Out Patches that are a part of the English Garden Collection. I stitched around my scalloped circle and then popped up the circle with the boy and girl on it using some 3-dimensional adhesive and tucked the die-cut leaves behind the circle so that they were peeking out. I just adore the image of the girl and boy in the tree.

Supplies for card: English Garden Punch Out Paper Patches, Bazzill kraft cardstock + green cardstock, twine, sewing maching stitching, Hero Arts stamps

For the month of June, Cocoa Daisy is having a scraplift contest which entails that participants create a layout base around this sketch:

I decided that because I loved the sketch so much I'd play along and use it for one of my layouts using Mark's Paper Company's papers. This is what I came up with using the above sketch.



I pretty much stuck to the sketch with the exception of the placement of my title.

Supplies for above layout: English Garden Paper Punch Outs, English Garden Lavender pp, English Garden Lawn pp, English Garden Geranium pp, Bazzill cardstock, Creative Cafe pearls, American Crafts alpha stickers

Be sure to keep checking out the Marks Paper Company blog, there is always something going on over there...it might be a contest, some free digi-downloads, or at the very least you will get some creative inspiration for your next project by viewing the beautiful creations that the other design team members are sharing!