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!

i'll have to remember to change the settings back to "normal" sized photos, not these HUGE ones! i changed it to make sure you could see the super cute clipboards and forgot....

well, other than being sick, trying to enjoy the holidays, and trying to sleep, this is all i've done since last you've read & i've typed. =)





first card recipe:
paper- DCWV DP, SU Wwhite CS
ink- stazon black
stamps- SU "vases in vougue"
accessories- cuttlebug swirly flower embossing folder, wire, heart punch, craft knife

second card recipe:
paper- TAC DP, SU Wwhite CS
ink- SU TWteal, jim holtz distress ink
stamps- SU "small sayings"
accessories- sizzix flower die, button, wired ribbon, sand paper, cuttlebug circle embossing folder, decorative scissors.

have a great rest of the week! i know i will, our annual company christmas party is tomorrow! i even FINALLY got myself a 'little black dress' to wear. i've always wanted one of those for my closet!

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 !

a book just for me!

so i keep making stuff, and loving it, and giving it away. the other day was really tough, i felt like crap, internally. you know those days you think you're not worth much? well, i had one of those. they seem to come more often the older i get. then something happened. i got a compliment. from a stranger! that meant it was unbiased and most likely, actually the truth! i decided to make myself a book to document these great little moments that seem to fade so quickly from the mind so that the next time i "have a bad day", i can pick up my book and remind myself that it's not that bad.

i got this little journal book from the $1 bin at michaels. i covered the front and back with this awesome pink and brown (LOVE IT!) paper from DCWV. leaves are from some flower arrangement that i took apart. i found other pinkish papers and ran them through my CB w/ my flower sizzix die for the flowers and topped it all off with that great big pink button. i threaded it with hemp twine to try to tie in the brown. the "j" is SU chipboard that i covered in some other pink paper and got some great ribbons to go around the top of it.

know what i love even more? the fact that my little book has a lower case "j". just the way i like my j's!

have a super night!

"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!

quincenera card

(i'm guessing on how to spell that)

went to my first quincenera this week (when a girl turns 15 years old, there is a big ceremony and reception to celebrate), the food was great and it was neat to see another side of another culture.

i made this for her birthday card. CB is SU Bblue, then layered black onto white. stamped argyle background stamp (SU) in soft sky ink, used SU script stamp in soft sky (stamped off once) on top of that. used TAC swirl set in black (stamped off once) on bottom. flowers are from sizzix (large is white paper, stamped script in black ink; middle is from DCWV pad, black is stamped with swirl & heat embossed in white; center flower is a silk pink flower embellished w/ a pewter brad.), ink distressed the flowers & CS w/ both soft sky & black (on ink pad & w/ sponge). used "carte postal" SU set for bird in black ink, cut out and used dimensional to make it POP! tied around a piece of pink organza and called it good!

hope you all have a great week!

my take on a "chunky" card

this card has been sitting on my craft table for at least 4 days. i have moved stuff around, held different ribbon up, got out several sheets of papers, then today it just clicked.
card base is black (SU), paper is from whimsy collection (TAC). ribbon & lace are both cheap-o finds from misc. thrift stores. leaves are from fake flower bouquets that i also got at the thrift store (great find! take apart all of the flowers in the bouquet and use on your cards!). i made the flowers (also using TAC papers) with my brand new sizzix die, "flower layers #3". ---that's definately the best thing about the cuttlebug, you can use different machines dies with it! both dies & brass dry embossing templates! for more info on using the cuttlebug with non-cuttlebug stuff, click here.
ANYWHO... i used my SU corner rounder punch (take off the base) for the scalloped edges, then ink distressed the edges with black ink & a sponge.
hope you like, have a great day!