these are the days

Happy Labor Day! It's Monday, so that means it's Sketch of the Week time. This is my latest version of Shimelle's latest sketch! If you hop over to Shimelle's blog and watch her video on how she put her layout based on the sketch together, you'll see that she played with some spray paint on her layout. While I find this to be a great idea...I am not quite sure it's for me. And that might just be because I don't have any spray paint here...otherwise, there may be a small possibility that I would have tried that. However, I decided to skip the paint all together...well, that is until I started laying everything out!! I broke out my Boardwalk kit (August's Studio Calico kit) for this layout and decided to use a photo of my niece all dressed up as Belle from Beauty & The Beast (she's in the dress-up phase!!). After I had everything all laid out, there was something missing. The patterned paper blended in to the cardstock a little too much, so I decided to paint a pink boarder around the edge using a paint dauber and a paint brush. Just gave it the extra pop it needed.

I used three different glimmer mists (Cosmos, Tutti Fruitti, and Bubblegum I believe) for the scallop strips. They are Mistables from Pink Paislee (also from the kit) and I am so in love with these!! I love the way these look all layered up. This is what I used in place of the spray paint!

I did a little stamping and a little layering, then added the sticker from the Amy Tangerine sticker book by American Crafts. That sticker also became my title. I am loving that sticker book and can't wait to play with some of the other Amy Tangerine crafty items that just showed up at my house!

I will be back later with some of my learnings over the past few days for Learn Something New Every Day. Until then, thanks for stopping by!
Deb

Papertrey Playhouse Same Tag Challenge

Krista is hosting the latest challenge over at the Papertrey Playhouse, and I was finally able to play along! For this challenge, she mailed each of us a bunch of goodies including a tag that we were to use on our project. We could use any of the extras that we wanted, or none at all, just so long as our project included the tag. What a fabulous idea!!! I decided to sit on this for a while mainly because I might be the only person in our group that doesn't have any of the Jar series stamps. I wondered for quite sometime how I would get the jar that is stamped off the tag that Krista made for us to fit into the overall scheme of a card when I didn't have anything to fill it with. But then it came to me and I created this...

The heart image is from Warm Happiness, Too. I decided not to fill my jar with anything, just left it empty. I added the doily and border that I received from Krista to the left of the tag. I then used the Mat Stack 2 die cut that came in my package, stamped it with an image and sentiment from the Mat Stack 2 stamp set, added a few buttons tied with twine, then added it to the card with some dimensional adhesive. I finally broke out some Pinefeather for this card too...used it for the card base and the ribbon in the tag. I was playing off the green fabric tape on the tag.

Overall I am pretty pleased with how this turned out. It is different from any other card I've created...so it was lots of fun to put together!

I will be back tomorrow with my latest layout created based on Shimelle's latest Sketch of the Week. I will also have a few days worth of Learn Something New Every Day to share as well. Until then, thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

happy birthday

Happy Saturday! And if you get to enjoy a long weekend this weekend, too, because of the Labor Day holiday, well then Happy 3 Day Weekend to you as well. I wanted to pop on quick to share a birthday card today. This one is a bit different than the two I shared a few days back, but lots of fun nonetheless. And it will also be great for a male or female recipient...which always makes me happy since it gives me more options!!

This card is made almost entirely of American Crafts Confetti collection. The ribbon that is used is from etsy. I like how bright and fun this card is! I love that cupcake...it's making me want to bake some up!! May just have to get on that!!

Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

learn something new every day

Today was a long day at work. For some reason, Friday's usually are. And since I work in retail, it's not like it's because the weekend is just around the corner. I usually work one of the two days over the weekend. It's just for some reason, Friday seems to last forever, no matter how much stuff I put on the to-do list to stay busy. And since this is typically the case, today I learned that the couch is perfect for an after work nap!!

What did you learn today?? I'll be back tomorrow with a project share. My learning may come early Sunday. Until then, thanks for stopping by!
Deb

making the card

I know it's only September, and for me to show a Christmas layout may be a little crazy, but that's what I am about to do! I don't scrapbook my photos in chronological order, so when it strikes my fancy to scrap some holiday photos, I do...whether it's in December or August! So my apologies if this holiday layout is a little early for your taste.

In 2009, I visited my sister and her family in Connecticut the week before Thanksgiving. While there, my sister asked me to help her try to get a good photo of her two kids that she could use for their Christmas card. Let me just tell you, getting an almost 3 year old and an almost 1 year old to cooperate is quite challenging. But as she tried to get them both smiling and looking the same direction, I just snapped away, hoping to get that one perfect shot...or at least as close to perfect as we could get. And with a little cropping, we get a pretty darn good photo if I do say so myself.

I used lots of American Crafts Dear Lizzy Christmas collection on this layout. Lots of paper layering as well. And I did stamp the border on the very bottom of the pattern papers as well.

Thanks for stopping by!
Deb

learn something new every day

So I am taking another class with Shimelle. Love her classes. Explore was an epic fail for me in terms of keeping up with the daily prompts every day. I know exactly why and how I fell behind, it was something that I could not prevent nor stop, it happened and I have moved on. Eventually I will begin that again, start over completely, and do all the tasks within the explore prompts. For now, I am moving on and working on this new class...in a different way with a different attitude. My plan is to go throughout each day waiting for the new learning to happen...when it does, I am sure I will recognize it. I'll record that on a post-it and put it on my calendar. Then I will 'try' to capture some representation of that learning in photo form on my iPhone using the instagram app. Then I plan to blog about it here, every day, sharing the photos as we go along as well. Then when all is said and done, I will have the contents of my book. All I will have to do is print up the photos and the blog posts...and there you have it, a completed project. And since it's all on the blog, I can put the book together whenever I want. So there will be days when I post twice, or maybe even three times, and there will be days when my learning from that day is the only thing I share. I think this will be the easiest for me since my life can be so unpredictable most of the time!!

Today, I learned that I can accomplish a lot when I am focused on one thing at a time (and I get up REALLY early). Here's proof...

Six crafty projects all completed today...all from start to finish! My office was a disaster, but I am not sure I have ever gotten this much accomplished in one day before!

If you're taking the class, too, I'd love to hear about what you learned today!! Thanks for stopping by!

Deb

you're so silly

These are some of my favorite pictures! I remember this moment very vividly! It was over 4 years ago, back in July 2007. My niece was in that stage where she was sticking out her tongue all the time and blowing raspberries. In almost every photo I have from this trip, Julia is sticking her tongue out!! So when my sister and I got together to take a few photos, on that very last one, she and I stuck our tongue out. Then in a split second, Julie looked over at me. She had that "what the heck are you doing Aunt Debbie" written all over her face. And I couldn't help but look over at here out of the corner of my eye when she turned to look at me. It was a classic moment that I am sure I will remember for a long time! And of course, I had to scrap those photos and this memory!

I did some misting on this layout, too which was quite fun! I used the kraft doily as a mask. Then I misted the doilies (both the large one on the bottom and the smaller one on the top left). The large doily started out as kraft, which I didn't like on the layout as there was no kraft, so I misted that with some Studio Calico White mist. But then the white doily on the top was off, being that it was too white. So I misted that with Studio Calico's Classic Calico to give it a bit of the kraft color so it would match the larger doily. Love how it turned out! Those flowers in the center were also white to start, but I made them pink using some Spun Sugar Distress Stain (love that stuff...and the inky fingers it leaves me with).

That's what I've got for today! I can't believe it's already September! Halloween is coming soon, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas...pretty soon it will be 2012! I can't believe how quickly time flies by as I get older. I could go onto a very long winded tangent here, I feel it coming, so I will just stop here and wish you all a fantastic start to your September! Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb