"David" & his harp

Javan loves to hear about King David. He also likes to really get into character when he is playing. This was a time when he was in character as David and he had made a harp from Zoobs so that he could play music.

I used the conversation between Javan (my son) and Lacie (my daughter) as the "journaling" for this layout. The base cardstock is Colorbok and the patterned paper is Basic Grey. I also used the Tiny Attacher, Magic Mesh, and some {} Pebbles stickers. I hand cut and drew the title piece and put it on Pop Dots.

Tough Stuff

(Digital Layout)

I used:
-GIMP
-Raspberry Road Antebellum Papers & Elements
-Microsoft Office Clip Art
-Free Digital Scrapbooking Black Epoxy Alpha

Where it's good to be a number...

What??? You aren't a Fiskateer?

You should be!

I am totally loving being a Fiskateer...I've "met" (virtually and in person) some awesome people, been inspired to create some wonderful things, and I've had fun on an awesome message board with lots of wonderful folks.
Oh...and I've even won a lovely new Fiskars stamp set...and many other Fiska-fabulous things. :o)
[And the word on the street is that every Fiskateer will also get a surprise in the mailbox one day - something very Fiska-rrific!]

If you aren't a Fiskateer, you should be...just e-mail Angela at angela@fiskateers.com (or you can just click the link) and tell her that Tifany (#5942) sent you and that you'd like to be a Fiskateer! She'll tell you everything you need to join!

Fiskars is an awesome company and there is also another great craft-related company in the Fiskars family: Gingher.

Be a Fiskateer! Do it!
(And please leave a comment telling me if you do - I'd love to know...and let me know your Fiskateer number so i can connect to you.)

Birthday Card

I created this for a challenge on Debby's Dare (& for my uncle's birthday). I printed the outlines of the letters and brackets out on the blue cardstock (using Microsoft Word) and cut them by hand with a craft knife. I cut the party hats with scissors (freehand). I used some Glossy Accents and a Snow Writer to embellish the hats. And it was a good opportunity to use the Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch (I love the design!).

In the picture it is just a card front, but I did attach it to a card before I gave it to my uncle :o)



Papers: Sunburn (green & blue papers), American Traditional Designs (orange paper)
Embellishments: Snow Writer, Glossy Accents
Tools: Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch, Craft Knife, Craft Mat, Scissors

Go Green

I used some iridescent Scribbles (fabric/puff paint) to stamp the flourishes on the "go green" piece. The owl is stamped with Versa Magic chalk ink in Tea Leaves. The "chipboard" is reused from the back of a small notepad and finished off with the Fiskars Threading Water border punch. Embroidery floss is DMC (I believe color #704). The sheer green fabric is re-used (it was wrapping for a present I received). The stamps (flourishes and owl) are from Hero Arts. The jewels are Hero Arts as well. I did a bit of fingerpainting using various acrylic paints (Americana, DecoArt, Plaid) on the background. Ribbon is from Offray.

Well ORANGE you somethin'?

For my orange challenge...



Everything on this layout was from scraps (or saved from the trash/recycle bin). The base cardstock was created by sewing a bunch of white cardstock scraps together. The orange patterned paper strips were scraps. The "chipboard" is actually an old macaroni and cheese box (thanks Trader Joe's!) cut up.

The writing is done with a Sakura Micron and the highlighting/white is done with the Ranger Inkssentials white pen.

ORANGE you looking for a good challenge???

I have been so inspired by some wonderful challenges lately. It seems like sometimes you just need a good jumpstart to get going. I thought I would throw a challenge out there for you (& me, too!)

The challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to make a layout, card, or some craft focused on ORANGE. You can use the color, the fruit (which is also the color orange)...just go orange crazy! Please post a link to your creation in the comments to this post :o)

I just ordered a photo from Shutterfly that I plan to use for a very ORANGE layout, so when it arrives I hope I'll have some time get crafty! Of course I'll post my completed layout as soon as I can.

I can't take all the credit for this challenge. A very inspiring group that I am proud to be a part of is the Fiskateers! And of course, if you know Fiskars, you know their color of choice is ORANGE.

What?
You're not a Fiskateer?
YOU SHOULD BE!
There's an awesome message board and lots of awesome people. Oh, and some awesome giveaways sure don't hurt any, do they???
Contact Kelly Jo at kellyjo@fiskateers.com to find out how to join and please tell her Tifany (#5942) sent you!



And what do you get for completing this fun challenge? An awesome new piece of crafty goodness...your very own layout (or other craft).
What a fantastic (or should I say Fisk-tastic?) deal, eh?

Need a little more inspiration? Here's some images (thanks, Google!) to help start the orange "juices" flowing...

My first digital layout!

I have worked with digital stuff before, but this is my first actual "layout" done completely digitally.



The pictures are me and each of our three kids after they were born. Everything was done in GIMP with papers and embellishments from Shabby Princess and Free Digital Scrapbooking. The font for "Worth it all" was a CK freebie.

What do you think?

Baby bellies...

I am in the process of creating a layout about my baby bellies.

Each picture on the left page was taken the day of (or night before) I gave birth - the pictures go in birth order from left to right. On the right page are the pictures of the kids telling the baby "Come out!" (so obviously I didn't have one of those for my pregnancy with Lacie).

This is what I currently have going:

(Click on the image to view it larger)

I used DCWV cardstock for the background. The toile paper was in a little kit/pack of paper I got from the local scrapbooking store. The black is just basic black cardstock (I think I got it at WalMart). There's some vellum in there, too.

I printed the pictures on plain white cardstock to make them look a little old fashioned. I digitally distressed them with some overlays from Second Mile Designs and then distressed them after printing by roughing up the edges with a nail sanding block. All the pictures are mounted on pop dots.

I used the Fiskars Threading Water punch and the Coluzzle templates for the circles. The flowers are from Prima and the black centers were done with Scribbles. I added some ribbon I got from Michaels and some circle/swirl clips from Heidi Swapp.

Here are some layout ideas I have thought about using (same basic idea...just different embellishments and titles):




The pictures were taken at a different time of day...the real colors are more like the second & third pictures show. (And in the third picture I show some Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears.)

Do you have some ideas for me on how to finish this up? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Wahoo!

Recently I participated in a bunch of challenges (from various design team members at Odd Bird Planet) in celebration of Earth Day. For each challenge a winner was randomly selected from the entries and Odd Bird Planet was giving away some earth-themed stamps to the winners.

Well, they had two stamps to give away...and I was selected in five of the ten challenges that I participated in! They were so sweet to send some extra stamps instead of sending me duplicates of the stamps that they were giving to the challenge winners.

Here's a peek at the loot I received:

Whimsical Ink Sorority

Want to be a sorority sister? I've joined...you can, too!


(Click on my badge for the details)

Tea Party Placecards

Does it seem like everything is happening in the next couple of weeks? That's how I feel. This Saturday Lacie & I have a tea party to attend, then we are going to pick up the boys and head to a "super hero training camp" (a birthday party for two little boys).

I made some quick placecards for the tea party (hosted by my mother-in-law). For the background paper I took a picture of the plates they will be using...I just lightened them up a bit in GIMP so that it is easier to see the names. I added some Glitz Stickles on each placecard and finished it off with a Prima flower with a Liquid Pearls dot for the center. They are very simple, but I think they will work.

Happy Monday!

I'm a cover girl!!!

Check it out...my layout is on the cover of CK magazine!



Okay, so...that is a picture of my layout on the cover, but maybe it's not the real cover of that issue. :o)

Want to be a cover girl? Get a cover of the CK magazine and add your own layout - you can choose from one of two covers here.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Peggy Loves Vintage - Elephant

(Click on the images to view them larger)

This card was done for the BBTB contest sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage.
This is the original elephant image from Peggy Loves Vintage:



I'm not very much of a red person, so I changed it to make it a bit orange-y. I printed the image multiple times and pop dotted some sections of the image to give it a bit more depth. I added a few extra touches with some Distress Stickles and Distress Ink.

The card itself is made from a cut on the Storybook Cricut cartridge. I cut it once in white cardstock and once in black. Then I made the white cardstock look more vintage using the Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The polka dot ribbon is from Miss Elizabeth's (Dollar Tree!) and was originally white and I used the Distress Inks on there as well. I finished it off with a few extra touches with my ZIG pen.



(There are two posts today for this contest...so scroll down...)

BBTB: Peggy Loves Vintage - Baby

(Click on the images to view them larger)

This is the second card I did for the BBTB contest sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage.
This is the original image from Peggy Loves Vintage:



I wasn't exactly inspired by the blues and pinks...so I added a little GIMP magic and created this purple/peach-ish combination. I also wanted to alter the shape of the card a bit to give me room for the "twinkle, twinkle, little star...", so I did that in GIMP as well.



I used the Cricut to cut out the little pieces that I wrote on (Storybook cartridge). I printed the image multiple times and popped up some specific areas to give it some more dimension. I added some Distress Stickles and some Glitz Stickles...and of course some Distress Ink.

Thanks for looking!

Just "Patchy"

(You can click on each image to view it larger)

It's a good thing this Caardvarks challenge ends tonight, because I have been obsessed with making tree cards lately. Okay, I am pretty much obsessed with trees...or leaves...or nature - anything of the sort. But this challenge has made me go card making crazy!



I created my own set of stamps for this...the sign, the bird, the tree, the clouds...I wanted to do something quilt-y/patchwork-y - so I drew some up and made them into digital stamps and then printed them out onto my patterned paper. Then I paper pieced them together.



The papers are from Autumn Leaves - I think the pack is called Thrift Store...something like that. And of course I used some Tim Holtz Distress Inks to distress it a bit. The cardstock (background and popped frame) is from DCWV. I attached some ribbon I got in the Target Dollar Spot awhile back and a cute little clothespin I bought at Michaels - I actually used the clothespins to attach "reserved" cards for a group of seats at our wedding...almost 7 years ago now.



I've got a couple more cards finished and I hope to post them in a couple of days...so check back!