photo distressing

found some old pictures of my youngest after bath time, she used to just love to be naked!

i have seen lots of cool arrows lately and have been wanting to try one out, so i did! took a piece of chipboard (the kind that comes in the back of packs of papers to keep them from bending, they're like a bonus in the pack of paper!) and freehanded drew an arrow. over and over i drew the arrow until i got it to look half decent, then used craft knife to cut it out! covered it with DP, sanded the paper, attatched some ribbons, whala! is that how you spell it?!

saw the photo scratching in a magazine lately and wanted to try that for a photo-distressed look. i took a thumb tack and scratched the edges of the photos downward to the edges. i rubbed walnut ink on the scratches, then dabbed the ink off with a cotton ball. i gave you a close-up of the edge of a photo so you can see it a bit better. i really like the look it gave my photos!

ingredients:
paper- SU scrap pack, lined notebook paper, cardboard (tore it open and used the insides outward for the photo corners), brown packing paper (for title mat)
ink- jim holtz walnut distress ink, SU Cchip
stamps- SU 'baroque motifs' & 'headline alphabet'
accessories- chipboard, misc. ribbons, SU spriral (for the notebook paper) & tab (for the journaling block under the middle photo) punches, sizzix flower dies w/ my cuttlebug (sanded the edges, used dimensionals to pop up the diffrent layers), big green brad, sanding blocks (used on all DP). used misc. chalks on edges of photo mats for soft distressing.

well, today was the first day of the rest of my life. and it went well! thanks for all the well wishes! have a great day!

pumpkins scrap page

since i am currently unemployed, i have had lots of time on my hands. when i haven't been sleeping or enjoying my newly installed hot tub, i have been paper crafting! i know i haven't posted in quite awhile, thanks for your patience with me!
my girls love to scoop the 'guts' out of the pumpkins, and making a mess is part, er, most, of the fun. there is journaling on the back of the pictures mounted on the orange circle. used SU scrap pack & alpha sets, if you have any questions on anything else used, just comment or email me!

have a super day!

county fair scrap pages

last years fair pages, finally complete! once again, if you have any questions on anything that i used or did with these pages, feel free to comment or email me!
have a great rest of the weekend!

road trip with grandma

some other older photos came out and got used this last weekend.
my mother took the girls to see my aunt and uncle a year or so ago, they had so much fun that weekend!
saw this super cute idea using the SU "abc" wheel to make a road, and got to try it! used SU Bblack CS & Wwhite craft ink w/ the wheel to make my 'road' and used the truck from the SU set "loads of love". i used the girl from the SU "loads of love accessories" to make my little ladies. i colored their shirts the same color as my mom and the girls were wearing in the photos to make them more recognizable. coloring was done with colored pencils and OMS. since my girls are still young, i printed out a map and directions using map quest and used it in the page also.
have a great day!

oh!!!!!! trivia! last question was, "there were a bunch of stars in 'reality bites', can you name 4 of them?" here are the popular ones: wynona ryder, ethan hawke, ben stiller, janeane garafalo, and steve zahn.

current trivia question: from the movie 'the rocky horror picture show', what were the names of the characters played by tim curry & susan sarandon?
have fun!

picnic at the park

finally got a couple of minutes to spend with some old photos and here's the outcome.

we went to a local park to have a picnic a year or so ago. we got some sandwiches from arby's for our lunch, took some bread to feed the ducks, played on the toys, went fishing, and d'Ete even found a "boy" friend!

all paper is DCWV, used CB for diecut circles. ribbon pulls on top right photo for journaling panel.

sorry i've been pretty much non-exsistant lately. well, for over a month now. i can't believe i'm busier now than during this last holiday season! hawaii in less than a month!

scrap pages for christmas

so my mom came over today and we spent about 3.5 hours
working on some pages for a book for my little sister. she got
married this last summer and at her wedding, she had me make
a collage of photos of them together, my mom make a collage of
her growing up, and his mom make a collage of him growing up.

we decided that for christmas, we'd put all the photos into books
for them so they can actually store them, share them, and don't have three huge collages just hanging around.

we got all the pic's of them together put onto 5 two-page layouts. all papers are from DCWV stacks. each layout has a pull-out tab
(SU punch) so she can journal for the photos.

for embellishments, we used ribbons, buttons, my sizzix flower
die in my cuttlebug, silk flowers, and for the last page, snowflake
stamps w/ SU ink.

well, that's pretty much what i did today. i was suppossed to work
today, but due to floods, almost all local businesses are closed,
including mine. i'll try to take some photos of all the flood damage
(i heard our local wal*mart has 4 feet of water inside!) when i
have to go back to work tomorrow, that is, if i can get there!

hope you all have a great rest of the week !

"then came U" scrapbook page

so everyone in my house has been sick for days, and we haven't been up to much. i had two days off in a row and felt like crap for both of them. i layed around the house watching the new drew carey "price is right", rented "marie antoinette" (i don't know how to spell it), ate crackers, and worked on this page.
all papers are DCWV , except the notebook paper.
--found a new technique for age distresing paper! tear the piece that you will be working on and put (i poured a small omount into a small cup and used a paint brush to "paint" it on) a small amount of lemon juice on the edges. use heat gun on edges of paper to dry the juice, instant distressing!
the flowers are from my sizzix die used w/ my cuttlebug, added dimension to them by curling the edges with bone folder, layered w/ dimensionals, used
buttons in the centers. wanted the pregnancy pic. to take center
stage, so that's the only pic you can see without taking them out of
their little holder. on the back of all the pic's in the holder is journaling about that certain picture.

my daughter is 5 1/2 now and i am just doing her first pages. about 3 years ago now, our computer got messed up and we lost all the pictures that we had. our daughters birth, our wedding, every holiday in between for the last 3 years, we lost. my mother had some pictures that had been laying in hiding, when she found them, i got such a great gift! i can now scrap these little hidden moments!
if you store your pictures on your computer, please, please, please copy them to disk every now and then! take it from me, you'll be SOOO sorry if you don't!

take care and have a great weekend!

foundation cards

i actually didn't make these cards, well, not these specific cards.
my mother works for the local college foundation and they have
decided to "invest" in stamps & supplies to be able to send hand-
made cards to those who donate money to the foundation yearly.

they liked the cards right out of the SU catty, so we cased those.
everything but the wide ribbon on top card is SU (that ribbon is
from joann's, i had my ever-so-handy husband so it down the
middle so we could cut & pull the threads to "bunch" it up as needed.

stamp set is "heartfelt thanks", and colors used (both ink & papers)
were perfect & pale plum; always artichoke; mellow moss; so saffron;
very vanilla; and ivory.

i was able to teach the ladies several different techniques for their cards. they learned how to use the SU color spritzer; the crop-o-dile; wheels; 2 step stampin'; paper piercing; ink & paper distressing (imagine that, i taught them distressing!); and some other little cheats to save time, product & money.

home-made ribbon box

-Started the box with a "back-to-school" shoe box (they do come in handy for more than just shoe storage!). i picked the longest box (more spools fit inside), and one that has a lid that is attatched at the back (it flips up).



-since the box is so long, regular 12x12 paper wouldn't cover it. my big 'ol book of retired wallpaper from the local home improvement store really came to the rescue!







-i did squares for the sides (both top/lid & bottom) first. i used rubber cement both on the box & on the paper. to ensure that the thick paper was sticking to the box, i used my small clamps to hold paper in place while cement dried (got them4 for $1 at the local home improvement store).







-for the front & back, i used my tacky tape around the edges, rubber cement all over inside the tape and on the box. pictured here, you can see the tacky tape before and after i took off the backing (red is the backing, clear is just the tape).





-here, the wall paper is clamped to the front of the box, just to make sure that it sticks.





-i picked a similar design for the top & front top lid. i used my stazon black pad to stamp "ribbons" in paper using SU headline and big deal alphabet sets.




-for the front lid, i used both tacky tape & rubber cement on both the box & paper. clamps were used to keep paper to box while cement hardened.




-i used a ruler to map out holes in two lines, across the front of the box. i used my paper piercer to make the holes.
-to make the holes large enough for the ribbon to go through, i used a generic plastic bone folder that i found somewhere. this bone folder is like a regular bone folder on one side, on the other it's curved and got a point. it gets as wide as a ball point pen about 1 inch in.





-beginning to put spools into the box, threading the ribbons through the holes.









-final look of the ribbon box.





-in use, in it's "place".

this was a fun project, although i still have ribbon without a home (i also have 2 of the SU ribbon keepers that are full!), but there's no where left to put another box!

cased card

i found this card in the gallery on SCS. tggrfriend did a better job on hers (i just love the colors!), but i loved the card design and had to try it on for size. you can view her card here.

i am happy with how this turned out, i just wish i wouldn't have touched it so soon, i got ink on my fingers and didn't realize it until i had touched the card in different spots. oh well.

all paper (BBlue, CChip), ink (craft white), and stamps ("delight in life" -sell'a'bration 2007) are SU. ribbon is michaels or wal*mart. used white gel pen for touch-ups around the scallops. paper pierced the top & bottom.

this is definitely one that looks better IRL.

simple flower tag card

(
went through my drawer of cards that were ready to be made (due to me being over prepared for workshops), and decided to do something with the paper i had ready. since i just got (FINALLY!) the script background stamp and wanted to use that, i saw a perfect opportunity.

i'm not quite sure if i like it or not, it seems to be missing something.

stamps used are SU "in full bloom" and "french script". paper is SU old olive, so saffron, and very vanilla. water colored the flower using watercolor brush and old olive & cranberry crisp ink pads. ink distressed (imagine that!) the tag and under-layer. used small circle punch on blue, adhered to card, then used my crop-o-dile to punch a hole in it for the tag.

missin' my sisters....

i got the cutest card the other day from my sister in california. she had hand-drawn a chicken (it kinda looked like it was a chicken) on the front. inside the card, she told me to appreciate all of her hard work on coloring in the chicken (my sister just turned 27). so i thought i'd send her a cute little monkey (or is it a cat?) card. then i decided that both my sisters are silly and deserved little monkey (or cat) cards.
stamp is from SU, "you're neat"; card base is white cs; used cheapo cs for the pink & purple; used SU choc. chip for the torn layer underneath. background on white cs is spritzed with my SU markers & the color spritzing tool. used SU flower fest punch, crop-o-dile, and silver brads for decoration. ribbon (both) is $1 michaels specials. you can't really see it, but i mixed clear embossing powder with glitter (pink on one, lavender on the other) for the windmills.

if you don't have any sisters, i recommend you get some. they're the best friends you could ever ask for!

new stamps!

cased this card, well kinda. the card that i was casing had eyelets, ribbon, was sideways, under paper wasn't patterned and torn... it just kinda changed as i was going.
stamps used are from one of the new SU hostess sets, "vases in vogue". used pastels & blender pens to color the flowers and vases. background paper is from that stack of 'i dunno' stuff.
just wanted to play around with my new stamps!
hope you have a great day!

for girls, the hair is where it's at

i started this page about a week ago. then i put it down. every time i walked into the den i would glance at it, move some stuff around, put new paper under the pictures, then walk away again. it just wasn't "right". you know?! i know it must happen like that with others, it can't just be me!
any ways, i am pleased with the finished product (it looks even better without the date in bright yellow in the bottom right corner!). almost all items used are SU. background papers are from the winter mini (valentine paper); stamps are from the SU sets "office accoutrement", "big deal alpha.", "headline alpha.", and "genuine article". used choc. chip ink pad & marker for all stamps, journaling, and distressing. under paper is SU choc. chip, tempting turquoise, and pretty in pink, ribbon is also SU in same colors.
the more i look at this page, the more i think that it should have been about her forced smile, that is older but the same in every photograph. but, you know us girls. it's always all about the hair!

stayed up late last night....

so i got my new TAC catalog from laurie
and am impressed with the card examples in it.
since i haven't done much (of ANYTHING, it feels like), i went to town on casing some cards out of the catty (don't worry, i'll have a "SU" night in the future).

this top card is my favorite. i got the kiss stamp at the stamp show we went to in the spring (unmounted cheap rubber... could it get any better?); inked with versamark and silver embossed the kiss, ivory embossed the "paper" on top of kiss; card base is white CS; paper is from my "who knows" pile; ribbon is $1 michaels. this is one of the easier cards, it turned out sooo cute!


this one turned out ok... not TOO thrilled with it. argyle background stamp is SU, all papers are SU; flower stamps are from those little $1 clear michaels sets; inked stamps with SU inks then colored some in with sakura gel pens; i have no idea where i got the rhinestone, but i figured i bought them over a year ago and haven't used one. it was high time to get them out. ribbon is actually from my husbands sewing stash, he calls it 'bias tape'. is that right? no matter, it suited my needs at the time. used my sakura glitter pen to add some sparkle to some of the flowers (can't really tell).

this is another really cute and simple card. when i saw this in the catty, i figured i had this paper (thanks to laurie), i might as well make this card! super simple, super quick, super cute. card base is white, black & turquiose are SU, patterned paper is TAC; ribbon is $1 michaels; flower is from the stash that i found in a bread bag at the local thrift store; generic black button. i paper pierced the bottom left corner (it just needed something more), then added two silver brads and called it DONE!

well, like i said, i will have a SU night soon. i'm working on a scrap page right now, so we'll see. i prob. won't even get my page done for a few days! off to work, have a great one!

how do you comfort a friend?

i don't have a lot of experience with loss, and frankly, i don't want to. however, since i have no experience, how do i help a friend who is experiencing it? i feel like there are egg shells all around me, if i make the wrong move... CRACK!
bottom line, i just want my friend to know that i care about her and will do whatever i can to make the hurt go away. i hope this card helps.
i got the inspiration for this card from shannon E on SCS. i used a full sized 5x7 white card base. top of card background is stamped with multiple stamps. small flower is from the SU set "delight in life" (sell-a-bration 2007) and i colored them with water color pencils; vines are from different $1 michaels sets; main flowers are from the SU set "happy harmony" (sell-a-bration 2007) and are clear embossed. bottom paper is from that huge 'unknow' pile and is embossed with my swirly cuttlebug folder, then sanded. i don't have the inverted corner rounder, so i used my little circle punch and punched only part of the circle on the edges of the white (w/ ink distressed so saffron). sanded some brads to put on the LLace cardstock (also ink distressed). ribbon is $1 michaels ribbon, can't remember where i got the swirly paperclip. it all came together so nicely!
if she smiles and understands that i don't have the right words but wish i did, it's a step. she will always have my ear, friendship, and shoulder.

big 'ol happy flower

this is what came out of me when i was attempting challenge #77 at ASB. i will have to do another as this is not what the sketch called for, oh darn it! more time for me! i am so hurt!
the flower stamp is "big blossom" from SU sell-a-bration 2007, and "happy" is from the SU set "happy everything". used black SU CS for CB (did ya get that?), PIPink is under that, and the colored block paper is from the infamous "i don't know" pile. huge pink button is from a jar of buttons that i found at a thrift store (what a great buy that was!). stamped sentiment in versamark then used both 'snowdrift' embossing powder and 'royal blue ultra fine glitter' mixed together and heat set.

asb sketch challenge 78

here is my take on this weeks (last weeks) sketch challenge on ASB, #78. stamps are SU ("delight in life", sell-a-bration 2007). used my swirly cuttlebug embossing die on the flowered paper (no idea, it's from that "no idea" pile that we love & hate all at once), then sanded it so the embossing would show up better. used those scalloped decorative scissors from 1997 (just kidding, it's a challenge on another site to use those things that you used to, but don't anymore, so i immediately thought of those). CS is all SU, used OOlive, CChip, and WWhite. inks are SU, used TWTeal and PIPink. took the plastic bottom off my SU corner rounder to create the edging on the card. ribbons are michaels (i think).
this was a fun challenge, i like the sketch challenges the most!

i'm so sorry

i don't think i've ever done a sympathy card. when i was looking around for some inspiration today, i spent quite awhile at ashleys gallery and her "pretty pink wishes" is the card that i cased. hers looks better than mine, but it got my juices flowing. thanks ashley!
i used my TAC for the big swirls on the BG (did in old olive), the flower on BG (pretty in pink), and the little swirl on BG (so saffron). ink distressed edge of WWhite CS w/ OOlive & CChip. flower is from SU "delight in life" (sell-a-bration 2007), leaves are from retired SU "mixed bouquet", and sentiment is from retired hostess SU set "warmest regards".
used michaels cheap pink ribbon and a silver brad. flower & leaves are on CS w/ dimensionals so they 'pop' out.
well, i hope that i never have to give this card out, but if i do,
hopefully it will brighten someones day.
have a great one!

bonjour!

since my "french flair" and "carte postale" sets are regulars now, i figure i had better get to using them! what i love about this card is its simplicity. i love these colors together, i love ink distressing, and the highlighted flairs (SU white gel pen) are just gorgeous! all inks and CS are SU. think i'll demo this at my next workshop...