Well Hello Again....

So the summer is quickly coming to an end and I have many adventures to share with you soon! Sorry I have been away for so long. (I cannot believe my last post was in April!) I will be back soon and share more fun stuff. I hope your summer has been a great one! :)

Join Me For a Blog Hop!

Happy Sunday, everyone! Today is an exciting day! Paper Issues has posted their newest issue: Serendipity. To celebrate, they are having a wonderful blog hop. I hope you will hop with me, starting here, to see all of the wonderful things the gals at Paper Issues have been up to!

http://paperissues.blogspot.com/2013/04/its-serendipity.html

See you there!

P.S. I will be back soon to post photos of my latest layout, and will link up to the challenge, too! :)

Good Morning! Time for a Challenge Entry! :)

Good morning, everyone! I hope your Wednesday is going well! I know mine is! Had a super day at work yesterday with a coworker of which I am quite fond and the sun is shining bright! Plus, I finished up my scrapbooking page for the Paper Issues Challenge! Would you like to see it? Here it is:

Here is a picture of the whole page...I really like how it turned out, since this is my 2nd scrapbooking page with pictures EVER! (I made a book for my sister and niece, but without photos, and usually spend my time making cards.) I do not use Instagram, so I cropped a photo to 4"x4" and then mounted it on one of my favorite 6x6 papers so I could frame it with that little sentiment. :)

Here is a close up of the corner. I made that little paper clip ribbon embellishment by wrapping ribbon around the clip. Then, I added a dragonfly which was stamped on acetate with black Staz On ink and a little hand cut heart. The bracket is hand cut to highlight the phrase "I love you." The border punch is one that I picked up quite awhile ago and cannot recall who makes it. Sorry! :)

I am in love with the poppy stamp from Hero Arts, which I included in the bottom corner. To emphasize it, I stamped it with brown distress ink and water colored glimmer mist over the top to make it more subtle. I also glimmer mist painted the word "love" in the title, which is hard to see here. (Love that stuff! So shimmery and pretty!)

This final image is of the poppies I embossed, paper pieced, and water colored with distress ink. (I also added a little bit of pink glimmer mist to finish them off). I love how they turned out with the colors in the photo! The grass is hand drawn, then embossed with the same embossing powder color I used on the stems of the poppy flowers.

Beyond the details listed above, I just had fun playing with layers, colors, and patterns. And, of course, washi tape and gems! I hope you enjoy this page as much as I enjoyed making it! And, check out the challenge over at the Paper Issues Blog at http://www.paperissues.blogspot.com/2013/04/instalove.html. Happy Crafting! :)

April Birthday Cards!

Hello! Just dropping in to show you a few of the cards I completed this weekend. I have three birthdays coming up, including my Honey's brother's birthday this week and my Dad and brother's birthdays the following week. I am excited to share these with you and to send them out! I decided to make three cards using the same supplies, but different layouts. This is what I came up with:

Here is the first card I made. I started by dry embossing the star with one of my stencils and a pen. As I worked, I added stitching lines along the inside of the star and a solid blue line around the outside. I opted to use a little bit of sandpaper on the embossed edge, then retrace the embossing from the other side. The star edges started to tear, so I added distress ink and rolled the edges. I love the way this card turned out! :)

Another view of the card, but with the tulip, too. (I am loving playing with our new camera and all the possibilities with the lighting and focus!)

Here is the second card. (I love the reflection of the tulip in the back of this photo!)

I used drops of shimmer mist at the top left corner, diagonally across the sentiment, and down on the bottom right corner to draw the eye across the card.

Here is a close up of the twine, which I sprayed with shimmer mist and the gems I added at the bottom. There are also small drips of shimmer mist that I flung onto the card from the sprayer tube.

Here is the third card. I decided it needed some shimmer mist after I had added all the other embellishment, so I dripped some on the corners, then blew on the mist to make it run. :)

Here is a sideview. The little stars were cut from the patterned paper and put on pop dots. I highlighted two of them by tying twine around them.

I am also working on a layout for the Paper Issues current issue (which you can check out at www.paperissues.blogspot.com) and will post that as soon as I have it finished up. I have applied for their design team call, too, so wish me luck! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week!!

Hello!

Good morning, everyone! Sorry it has been so long!! I haven't had my computer since it broke down (it is really old), but the Mr. is off on a field trip today, so I have his! :) Anywho, I apologize for the delay and wanted to follow up since I know I said I would tell you more about our new camera. Here it is!!

We picked up the Canon PowerShot ELPH 110HS. It is awesome for point and shoot! It is a 16 megapixel camera and is most independent, setting the features and everything so the focus and lighting are all done for you. You can take pictures with manual settings as well, which we are still learning. The manual is fantastic for this! And, if you buy it from Costco you get the data card as well...a great deal! If you have time to check it out today it is still on sale! Otherwise, I did see that it is a great deal at Walmart, as well. :)

Here are some photos I have taken with the new camera of some craft projects most recently:

This first one is a birthday card for my mother in law. Her birthday is today. I hope she loves it! It was fun to make...I used a new stamp by Penny Black that I picked up at Paper Pals (just couldn't resist it), heat embossed it, and water colored with distress inks. It was fun to make. :)

This one is an easter card for my parents. The background is distress ink, which I sponge on, then flicked water on. I dried it, stamped the image (Hero Arts, I believe), then added the eggs. They are just the letter "o" stamped onto shimmery vellum, then decorated with permanent marker doodles and cut out.

This final card is an easter card for my niece and sister. I made it more 3d and textured since I know that will be more fun for my niece. This one was easy, but fun to make. The basket is made of two pieces of ribbon which are sewn together by hand. The eggs are vellum, just like above, and the basket handle is braided ribbon. The grass is the fun part, as I can imagine my niece will think as well! :)

Here is a close up of the texture of the card. Isn't that an awesome picture? It was all automatic with our awesome new camera! (Not only can you see the textures, you can also see the glue I managed to get all over! Ha!) :)

Hope your Saturday is a great one and that you enjoyed seeing the new pictures. If you have any questions about the camera, let me know! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Hello! (Update)

Good morning, everyone! Just wanted to drop in and say hello since I have been away for awhile. We had two losses in the family in the past month so I have spent some time with family and outside, trying to get my head screwed on straight again. :) I will be posting soon, though no pictures today...sorry! :) When I do post, though, you will get to see the pics from our new camera! It was on sale at Costco and we couldn't say no! I will let you know what it is so you can check it out, too. It is on special until the 30th of this month.

Thanks for stopping by! See you soon!! :)

Happy Friday! And a Question For You...

Good morning! Just wanted to write and say Happy Friday! I love Fridays! They mean freedom and craft time! :)

{Thought this was a great Friday (and every day sentiment)...found it on the Two Peas In A Bucket Blog...Paige found it on a pinterest page. You can find the link to the Two Peas Blog on the right side of my blog on my blog list for more info! :) }

Anywho...I am also writing to get your input. I love to post pictures of the projects I make, but especially during the winter, have a hard time finding good light, so the colors in my pictures are always "off" or the details unclear. So, my question to you: Do you have an OTTLITE? What do you think of it? Does it help you take better pictures when you use it as a backlight? What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them! :)

Thanks in advance for any input you may have. It is much appreciated! :)