A Taste of Winter

Remember I said that I started scrapbooking? Here's my very first page of my very first scrapbook album! I'm so excited! I can't believe how much I'm looking forward to scrapbooking some of our best photos from this year!! My plan is to create a hybrid 12x12 scrapbook, which means I'll scrapbook some of the pages and then put the rest in to standard 4x6 photo holders, as you see below. For me, that takes off a lot of the stress since I'll focus on only scrapbooking our favorite photos. I'm also focusing on one month at a time so just a few photos from each month. For my first few pages from January, I started with designer paper from Bo Bunny. I love the dark navy of this page, along with the snowflake design and all of the coordinating stickers and embellishments...ohh, fabulous!! The January title on this first page is from a sticker sheet that goes along with the paper line, as well as the various snowflakes on the page.

I really only added a journaling box (also from this line), a few brads (a theme I repeated on all the January pages), the photo of my most handsome son, and tiny pearl accents, which you can just see on the inside of the snowflakes in the above photo. Well...that's page one...what do you think?? I have four more pages to share for January, which I'll do within the next week or so... Enjoy!!

Tiffany Doodles Release Day

The Japanese Magnolia image that I used on my card here is now available for puchase/download from the Tiffany Doodles web site! I used the colored digis on my card, however, the same images are available without color so you can add your own creative spin to the image! Enjoy and remember that 100% off the proceeds from the purchase of the colored digi set will be sent to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts in Japan.

Spring Tulips

Happy Tuesday morning blogging friends! Today I'm sharing a Spring card because I've just got to see to see some flowers soon...especially since it was snowing all day yesterday here in New England. Talk about being shocked at seeing snow coming down yesterday, after we'd had days and days of beautiful, sunny weather! Oh, that's right...We live in New England, one never knows what one is going to get on any given day! :-) I had the wonderful opportunity to create one not but two Sweet 'n Sassy cards last night, which was a real treat considering March has been so busy. And on both cards, I took a more simple card making approach, having recently been inspired by one of my design team buddies, Jill Foster. If you've never visited Jill's blog, I encourage you to check it out! Jill takes cards from other designers, who inspire her, and then she creates a card based on their designs. Jill's cards sport bold and vibrant colors and clean and simple designs. And today...her card inspired mine! :-) This sweet Tulip image is currently available as a digi image from Sweet 'n Sassy. However, I have a little secret for you...In another week or so you just might be able to purchase an entire set with this beautiful design and a bunch of sentiments! April 1st is release day at Sweet 'n Sassy so...you'll just have to visit the site on the 1st to find out what's new! As for the card creation, no designer paper! I took a clue from Jill and used the a sanded background stamp to decorate my first layer vs. decorative paper, which was cut out with a Labels Nestibilities die. I then used a word background stamp to decorate the cream layer and here's a fun trick I learned from Jill. I applied ink to the entire stamp and then used a damp cloth to remove some of the ink before stamping. It kind of gives the image that vintage look and also makes a blank space if you want to layer your main image directly on top of the background image, as I did with the tulip image. I then stamped the tulip image a second time and colored the flowers with Prismacolor pencils. (Loving the pencils!) Once the flowers were cut out and attached with foam tape, I simply added the sentiment and ribbon. Fun!! Enjoy today's card and be sure to check on the SNSS site on April 1st!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Greetings all!! Today's KSS card may not seem that simple, what with all those layers, but since I used a brand new pre-colored digi image from Tiffany Doodles, this card took me just minutes to create!! Can I just tell you how much I love printing out an already colored image...how totally cool is that? And the coloring on this new digi image, Japanese Magnolia, is simply beautiful! The best part, a portion of the proceeds from that sale of this image will go to the Red Cross to help with the efforts to help those affected by the destruction of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. My heart and prayers go out to that country and all the tragedy that they are currently experiencing and I created by card with those thoughts in mind. Beside the digi image from Tiffany Doodles, which is a set that includes five images, my card also showcases new designer paper from Kaiser Craft and a tiny sneak peek of a sentiment that will soon be released from Sweet 'n Sassy. The newsprint background behind the flower image is a new stamp set from Papertreyink. Enjoy and please visit the Tiffany Doodles web site to see the new images. Tiffany also has a link to the Red Cross if you feel so inclined to donate.

Tile Coasters

Oh my goodness! I stamped and I had a chance to create this week...finally! I've actually been creating but it's been in the form of scrapbooking. That's right! I finished all of January's photos and completed four scrapbook pages for my very first album! I am super excited and can't wait to share the completed pages!! But for today's project, I'm sharing something that I demonstrated at a Wholly Scrap! class last night during our Anything but a Card class. To start, we made this sweet paper box that held four tile coasters.

This is a super easy box to make, I think a fairly standard pattern. For this box, the bottom is 8" square and is scored every 2". The top is 6 1/16" square and scored every 1". Once you cut out and score both squares, you'll see how to assemble the box. Easy peasy!

I used some fabulous October Afternoon paper (The Cherry Hill line) to decorate the box. And can I just share how much I like October Afternoon products. Oh la la! The paper weight is fantastic, the colors are rich, and I love how their neutral is an off-white vs. stark white. Looks very...creamy and delicious! I created a simple box top with a trading card that coordinates with this paper line. I simply added a few rhinestones, a button, and a piece of fabric ribbon. And now how about those coasters...

These are plain tile coasters that I purchased at Lowes for .32 cents a piece. The first coaster made is just a plain black and white piece but I love this look! It's one of the brand new Tim Holtz stamp sets called Air Travel. Isn't it the greatest designs! Make sure you use Staz-On ink when stamping on coasters!

The next coaster is again all black ink but with a twist...This time I colored the background of the coaster before stamping the tree and sentiment images. (This is a Papertreyink set, Through the Trees). I used torn paper and a sponge to create the hills and a punched out circle for the moon.

The next one is straight forward stamping on to the tile, this time using colored ink. This is the Life set from Papertrey, one of my favorites! I should also note that I used Pallette ink pads (purchased from Papertreyink) for these tiles. It's important to heat set the ink, both the Pallette and the Staz-On, in order for the ink to be waterproof. No matter what the Staz-On ink pad says, it is not waterproof on this type of material. I heat set my tiles in the oven. Set the over to 275 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven but leave the tiles in the oven until the oven is completely cool. You might want to also coat the tiles with a waterproof sealant to protect them from water. The other option, and I'd gladly show this option but Blogger doesn't seem to want to allow me to move my photos tonight, is to use glass paint, which can be purchased at any craft store. The glass paint can be applied directly over the Staz-On inked image and then follow the baking directions on the paint bottle. This is a super easy and fun project to make and are wonderful grab bag and housewarming gifts. I've even sold these in sets at craft shows and they are a big hit! Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek

I finally made a card and it felt so good!! :-) It's been too long since I've created a card and I had a great time making this one last night, featuring a soon-to-be-released digi image (tomorrow) from Sweet 'n Sassy. Isn't this a beautiful image! I loved it the moment I saw it and couldn't wait to create a card showcasing this wonderful bird image. My image is paired with designer paper from October Afternoon (Cherry Hill line) and ribbon from Papertreyink. My image is colored with Copics, sentiment is from SU!, and I also added a few rhinestones for just a little bling. Enjoy and hop on over to Sweet 'n Sassy to check out all of their new digi releases!!

Blog Candy Winners

I'm happy to annouce the winners of the blog candy drawing!!

Connie

Denise

Lillian

Ladies, please contact me at ksdm@comcast.net with your address and I'll get your goodies in the mail! Congratulations!