i've moved

just wanted to stop by quickly today to let you all know i've moved!! i can now be found at deblengyel.blogspot.com !! i love this place, but i decided it was time for a change!! this year has been all about change for me, so why not this too!! hope to see you over there...though it is currently under construction right now!!

deb

sleepy boy...

Happy Tuesday!! It's a lovely Tuesday here and I hope it is for you as well!! I wanted to share another layout that I put together. I am on to Sketch #2 from Shimelle, which you can find here if you're interested in playing along as well!!

I kept pretty close to the sketch this time, using two 4x6 photos on a block, mounted onto two different pattern papers dividing up the background with a strip of pattern paper (you could easily use washi tape) over where the two patterns meet. These are photos of my nephew after his baptism back in 2009. I am slowly working on getting his first year album put together. I did one for his older sister Julia, but I am a bit slow in getting this one together!! She was 2 when I finished hers and he's now going on 4...so yeah, I am a bit slow with this one!! Better late than never is what I say!! Anyway, he was pretty sleepy after the baptism, too much activity for the little one, and he fell alseep just like this...so cute and I had to capture it. We still laugh at how he was able to fall asleep like this, but I guess when you're tired, you're tired!!

Have a great Tuesday!! Thanks for stopping by!!
deb

March Currents - A Scrapbook Layout

Well, so it's been just shy of 5 months since I last blogged. I needed a break from it because I was just not loving it and the work that seemed to be involved with it. I have still be creating...creating a lot actually. I just took away the stress of having to take a pic, which also meant good light outside, editing the pic, posting the pic, and creating the words for the blog post. But I have missed sharing!! So I thought I might start back up again on March 1st, but that came and went, so I just put it off until April 1st and I am happy to be back to blogging. Not going to let it stress me out and let myself think that I have to blog every day!! I've got some things planned to try to make this easier for me and just let it be for fun...because that's why I started blogging in the first place!!

I decided to start working through Shimelle's Sketches from this year...and I'm a little behind...and that's OK with me!! I think she's got 10 up so far for this year...and I am about to show you what I put together for sketch #1. You can check out the sketch and her fabulous video of her page being put together here. In the sketch, there is supposed to be a large photo with two smaller square photos. I ended up adjusting this and just used one 4x6 photo with some pattern papers from Amy Tangerine's sketchbook line. Loving how this one turned out!!

I have been doing currents layouts each month this year so far and I did my March currents on St. Patrick's Day. It is my favorite holiday afterall, so why not!!

Date: 3/17/2013

Location: our Living Room

Watching: Duck Dynasty for the first time (Rednecks at their finest!)...for the record, I LOVE this show!!

Eating: Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger with ketchup and Fries

Drinking: Baileys Irish Cream in my coffee and later a Shamrock Shake!!!

Loving: Being on Vacation!!!

Wanting: a nap!

Wondering: Where my crafty mojo went

Thinking: What's next on the to-do list that I want to get done!!!

Since I had two sheets of the patterned paper I used for the top portion of the layout and because I wanted to use my typewriter for the journaline, I cut the frames out all of the frames that I wanted to use. I then adhered some of them directly on top of the original pattern while others got raised off the layout with foam adhesive.

List of currents inspired by Tina.

Have a great Monday!! Thanks for stopping by!
deb

a circle card

I've been playing with my Silhouette SD a lot lately, and decided to take the easy route to making today's card. For her Day 8 circle card, Kristina used her Martha Stewart circle cutter (you can check it out here), and while I have the same circle cutter, I figured that since I had a shape in my silhouette library (this one from Kristina for 2 peas) why not just use that and make it easy on my perfectionist self!!

I didn't have the embossing folder, but I was able to make due using supplies I do have to put something similar (inspired by if you will) together. Here's what I came up with...

I used some diamond stickles on the points of the snowflake layers (used the Damask Snowflakes from Papertrey Ink if you were wondering). The main sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's 2010 Holiday Tags set. Figured the "Let It Snow" sentiment was fitting wtih the snowflakes!! I embossed the tag with white embossing powder onto red cardstock. Here's a better look at the stickles...

I think I am going to have a layout share tomorrow (haven't done that in a while I know) but I may postpone that until Sunday and share my Day 9 card tomorrow instead. I honestly haven't decided! Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

inky fingers

I think this card is my favorite so far, and could quite possibly be my favorite when this all comes to an end!! To say I had inky fingers is an understatment! For some reason, no matter how hard I try to stay clean (or as clean as possible when playing with distress inks) I always seems to get ink all over my hands!! Oh well...battle wounds I guess. Not complaining at all and will do it again for sure!!

Kristina shared her Day 7 card here, and I do hope you check out her video. For my card, I used the limited edition distress inks from last Christmas, though I do believe they are now available individually (I think and I am sorry if I am wrong). I love how these colors worked together. To be honest, I am not sure if you can put together a bad combination of distress inks!! Here's what I came up with using a sentiment from quite possibly my favorite holiday sentiment stamp sets from Papertrey Ink!!

 

I love how the card has a bit of a tie died effect!! I think I may try this one again with a different color combination!! But, I think you can totally see why I got inky fingers with this one!! Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

three holiday cards

Last week really got away from me. Work was quite busy and I didn't seem to have a lot of free time. I wanted to hop on quick today to catch up with the last three holiday cards, which are based on Kristina Werner's holiday cards series cards from this past week!

You can check out the original Day 4 card here, and I highly recommend doing so for all of the original cards. Her videos are awesome and all three cards from last week would be super easy to mass produce if you needed to! This is what I came up with using supplies I had here!!

For the Day 5 card (be sure to check out the original here from Kristina), I broke out one of my snowflake stamp sets and paired with with versamark. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I think this is one of my favorites so far...I just love the simplicity of it!!

Next up is the Day 6 card, which to be honest, I am not all that thrilled with!! The sentiment is small and some of the embossing melted together, so reading it is a bit tough. This may be one I remake with a better sentiment. I love the design (check out the original here), but this just isn't quite sitting right with me. Ever have one of those projects??

Hope your Monday is treating you well. To everyone who may be reading this from the northeastern US, please stay safe with the upcoming storm approaching! I have been through hurricanes and I have family in that area, so I know the worry you feel!! I should be back tomorrow with another projecct to share. Until then, thanks for stopping by!
Deb

happy sunday

So, where I live the temperatures are finally like Summertime most other places!! Living in FL, our seasons are a bit wacky...it's really just one long summer. Last year I think we had two or three weeks of at freezing or below temperatures. It doesn't ever last very long. This was our first week since March where we did not have 90 or higher!! This native upstate New Yorker will never get used to it as long as she lives here!!

I wanted to pop in today and share the card I made for Day three of Kristina's Holiday Card Series, which I have taken on as a personal challenge to play along...and it should leave me with just about as many cards as I need to send (I think I will be short a few but I'll pick from my faves and make a few more). You can check out the original version of the card here. This one was all about coloring with copics. I am not good at this at all and require a bit more practice!!

You can't see it very well, but I did add some glitter in the form of Frosted Lace stickles to the pom pom on the top of the hat, the brim of the hat, and the lapel of the coat.  Like the orignial, I also added some glossy accents to the ribbon on the gifts.

Thanks for stopping by!
Deb

twice in one week

Hey everyone out there in blog land...I am back...twice in one week!! Can you believe it?? I had hoped to have gotten this card posted yesterday, but I didn't have the energy to drag out my big homemade light box. I did get it out this morning and not only photographed this card, but also a whole slew of layouts I had made that were stacking up. I will be getting those posted here soon!!

So, for my Day 2 card (you can find Kristina's here), I did not have many supplies that she used here. So I just made do with what I did have and put this together...

First...sorry for the not so great picture. I need to work on taking pictures of white cards!! Instead of making a square card, I went with a traditional sized card with the fold at the top. I used Papertrey Ink's Mega Mat Stack 4 die with the rectangle die from their Button Card die set to cut out the center, giving me a nice frame. I then used the dot embossing folder that Kristina used to emboss the frame (which you can't see at all but trust me, the dots are there). Instead of sewing a strip of vellum over the frame, I adhered a piece behind the frame opening. For my tree, I used a scrap piece of glitter POW paper in silver and die cut the image using Papertrey's Christmas Tree die. Love the glittery tree!! I topped it with a red button from Doodlebug tied with some white DMC floss. I added a simple sentiment on a scrap strip along the bottom.

Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

Holy Bananas

Holy Bananas it's been almost three whole months since I have last blogged. 2012 does not seem to be my year for blogging that's for sure! I have been doing a lot of creating, but for some reason I have just seemed to love the love for blogging and sharing what I have been creating! Hopefully, that ends now, but as seen from my pattern so far this year, I can't promise anything.

Back in 2009, Kristina Werner, one of my favorite crafters and bloggers, started a Holiday Card Series. This year marks her fourth year. Back in 2010, I played along with her card series and made a card based on her card then posted it here with a link back to her original post. I did not play along last year because of my hectic schedule, but I am thinking that another go at it is in order for 2012. Maybe it will help me get back into blogging!! Anyway, before I post the card I made based on her Day 1 card, I wanted to link you back to the three previous years of this series first. Be advised that your landing page for each link will be the last card in the series and you'll be following backwards. Anyway, here they are: 2009, 2010, and 2011. And another thing to love is that she has pdf files of all the cards for sale on her blog as well! Great for future reference or to use as sketches for non-holiday themed cards.

So on to Day 1 of Kristina's holiday card series for 2012!! I highly recommend checking out the original post and video here! And here is my take...

I love using Aqua for holiday cards!! Lots of Papertrey Ink products as use here...items I haven't used in quite some time because I haven't made many cards lately!! But it is that time of year to start thinking about and/or making some holiday cards!! Hoping to be back with another crafty share tomorrow!!

Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

church arrival

Happy Monday!! I have never been a big fan of Monday's but they are inevitable!! A few weeks ago, Lisa T was the host of the Memory Keeping Monday class over at 2 peas (you can check out her post here). I was in love with the design of this layout....and I mean I loved it to bits!! So I pretty much copied it for my wedding album. I had three photos that I had already cropped down...then I just went for it!! And I even pulled out the old typewriter for my journaling. Yes, I made a few typos, but I just typed over it and my mind reads it correctly every time, even with the mistakes (love how the brain does that)!! So here it is...

Just a quick post today. Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

and baby makes four

So I decided that I would try my hand at another Sunday Sketch from Studio Calico and maybe even get it done and posted in time to enter into the weekly challenge contest!! I think I may have actually succeeded...and it may even be the first layout I post over at Studio Calico. This is the sketch from July 15th that I used...but changed up a little bit.

You'll notice that in the sketch, all the elements across the center touch. I decided to leave a little white space and overlap a few elements (the new KP stamp and the buttons) to make it all one line across the page. I enlarged the title and dropped the journaling under the strip across the page. Then I added some pattern paper across the top and bottom. With the exception of the new KP stamped image, all of the items on the page are from the County Fair kit. Yep, I am still working my way through a back log of kits and that's the oldest one in my stash. I've got two carts of 12x12 boxes (7 in each cart) that I picked up from Target a while ago that store my kits wonderfully!! That way I don't need to rush through them...I can keep them intact and use them as the photos warrent!!

Anyway, happy Sunday to you and thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

graduation rehearsal

Hello Saturday!! I am back again today to share a layout I put together for Shimelle's scrappy weekend back in April...this time is was for the challenge on contrasting patterns (challenge #11 if you're wondering). It's another one I had put up over at 2peas, but neglected to share here. I haave a habit of doing that...posting here and not there, or posting there and not here. It's something I am trying to get better at so I am trying to catch things up so to speak!!  And I am not going to lie...the kraft chevron paper I used on this one (from Studio Calico) has to be one of my all time favorite pattern papers. I think I am going to pick up a few more sheets of this before they are gone forever (and by a few I really mean lots)!!!

I also used one of the sketches from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 4 (a class that Studio Calico offered a few months ago...so that it's no longer available). This one is getting filed into my high school senior year album as it's from my graduation rehearsal back in June 1996 (goodness I feel old when I say that)!

Hope your Saturday is treating you well!! Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb

leu gardens

Happy Friday!! First off...can I just make a general comment at how excited I am that the London Olympics start in a week!! I'm down right giddy about it!! I don't know what it is about the summer Olympics that I get into so much, but I do!! And I'm even more excited that I am on vacation for the first week...so that means I get to watch lots of the swimming...which is my fav!! Anyway...enough of that for now!! I reserve the right to keep getting excited as next Friday approaches!!

I wanted to pop on to post a layout I put together quite a while ago, but never got arount to posting here. I put it up over at 2peas, but somehow it avoided making an appearance over here...that is until now. I had put this layout together for one of Shimelle's challenges during her scrappy weekend back in April. It was challenge #10 which was all about bold patterns. Be sure to check out the specific challenge here if you'd like, though the collection is closed to new entries. I decided to pull some much loved papers that I have been hoarding from my stash to use for this one...The Girls' Paperie papers. I made some pinwheels too!!

Here's to a fabulous weekend and thanks for stopping by!
Deb

happy

This layout is 100% entirely from my Daydream Believer Studio Calico kit. I ordered pretty much everything with this kit came out and I am really trying to work through it and get it all used!! I have a pretty big project planned for early August using this kit and hoping to get it killed or get to a point where I can call it done (and break it up into my regular stash). Anyway, back to the layout. It's based on this Studio Calico Sunday Sketch (from 7/1) and I was hoping to have it done in time to get posted and entered for the challenge, but that just didn't happen.

This photo is a selfie from St. Patty's Day this year. I stitched the circles down and lifted them up around the stitch for some added dimension (totally Amy Tan inspired too). I kept the stitch going to form a box around the photo, and it also served to stitch the letters of the title down (again...totally Amy Tan inspired). The banners to the left of the photo are all cut from scraps. I added some white paint splatters to keep the eye moving. Love this sketch and I am really loving the way this layout turned out. It's making me quite happy!!

Happy Thursday! Thanks for stopping by!
Deb

cutting the cake

There is a lot going on on this layout, but I really wanted to fit all five of those photos on one page!! All of the items are from my Daydream Believer Studio Calico kit. Then I also added in the wood veneer people, the circle graph mask with some misting, and the die cut heart strip at the top (which I cut with the Silhouette). I did misting with yellow over the circle graph mask in both the upper left and bottom right, but I also added some pink splatters too.

My hubby and I were very good with our first piece of wedding cake. There was NO cake in the face smooshing!! And, if I remember correctly, it was actually pretty good cake. I am really loving how this all came together and calling it another layout done for our wedding album (from our wedding 11 years ago now). Thanks for stopping by and I will catch you back here tomorrow with another layout to share!!
Deb

uncle mike

I have another layout to share. I actually put this layout together a while ago, but am just now getting around to posting it. I used this starting point from Shimelle as the base of the layout and just built it from there. I used items from my County Fair Studio Calico kit and some other items from my stash. This layout is for my nephew's first year album and all about how his Uncle Mike made a 24 hour trip from Florida to NY for his baptism as a surprise!

Just a quick post today! I am off to get crafty and I will be back tomorrow with another layout to share. Thanks for stopping by!
Deb

this was a wonderful day

I decided to play along with Shimelle's latest starting point, which you can check out here if you'd like! For my layout, I decided to use up some older items in my stash, and it all really started with the frame stamped strip across the bottom. The frame stamp came from my Daydream Believer Studio Calico kit. Then I pulled papers from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 line and Echo Park's For The Record...both of which are older collections that I still love quite a bit!! I also added some washi and lots of layers (and maybe even a tip from the latest Glitter Girl challenge over at 2peas on combining washi and ribbon). The photos are from Mother's day, which was a pretty fun day spent with my inlaws barbequing.

Oh, and if we're being specific about using up the older parts of my stash...that ribbon is an oldie from and SEI ribbon card from I don't know how may years ago...but the ivory and black stripe was a perfect fit for the rest of the layout!!

Have a fabulous Monday and thanks for stopping by!
Deb

birthday dinner

My parent's were in town visiting a few weeks ago, the week before Father's Day. The week started off the day after my mom's birthday and ended with my dad's birthday followed by Father's Day. Usually when they visit we go to one of two steak house's on Disney property...either the Yachtsman in the Yacht Club or Shula's in the Dolphin. On their previous two visits we went to the Yachtsman, so this trip my dad chose Shula's as the place to celebrate his birthday. I personally preferr Shula's...so I was happy with this choice!! Took an instagram of the enterance and of my dinner (the filet...cause I am NOT a fan of fat on a steak...at all...flavor schmlavor...it's gross in my book and I am like a surgeon cutting it off if I get a different cut). Anyway...the entire meal was delish!! On our way in I snagged a business card...Amy Tan would be sooo proud!! Don't usually do that, but am happy I did...may do it more frequently now!!

I had gotten my box of Heyday goodies from Studio Calico last week and decided to break it out for this layout. I did add some other items from my stash, but I am really loving the Heyday collection!! One of my favorites for sure...the colors are super fabulous!! And those blue Ali thickers are my new favorites!! I picked up two packs (usually do so I can get lots of use and not run out of letters) but I am thinking about picking up a few more...such a fun set and I LOVE the color!! I also finally used a new Hello Forever flair that I picked up a while ago from 2peas...so in love with flair right now!! And those arrow paperclips are such a fun addition to the layout too (up there on the top)...I can see myself getting addicted to these as well...thankfully you get 50 in the box)!! Needless to say I am super in love with this layout and the memory I managed to record!!

Have a fabulous Wednesday and thanks for stopping by!

Deb

welcome matthew

This is a layout that I put together a while ago and I am just now getting around to posting it. I used lots of Studio Calico's Brooklyn Flea for this layout and I used this sketch as my starting off point. It's pretty simple and a perfect fit to open my newphew's first year album that I am finally getting aroung to putting together...now that he's three (why rush into things...ha)!

There's quite a bit of machine stitching on this and I added some stamping after I thought it was done. Love the way it turned out. Thanks for stopping by!
Deb

you are blessed

So, Tropical Storm Debby made her presence yesterday and she has been reeking havoc ever since. It started raining yesterday around 6am and rained all day. And when I mean all day, I mean it rained until around 11:30pm...yep...rained ALL day!! By the time I woke up this morning to head to work, it was raining again...don't know when it started back up again overnight. But all that raining mean two things...movies and crafting. I pulled out some older movies that I hadn't seen in a while and got my craft on for most of the day yesterday!! Now, I am ready for the rain to be over...but I think that will take a few more days...at least that's what the weather people are saying anyway.

One of the layouts I put together yesterday was for this starting point over at Shimelle's blog. Instead of using two 4x6 photos like Shimelle did, I opted for using just one...and this is what I came up with.

The photo is of my sister's family at my nephew's baptism about three years ago. I used lots of Studio Calico's Abroad collection on this, but I also used items from their Heyday collection, all of which were mixed in with a few items that I already had in my stash. I also pulled out my sewing maching and stitched the pennents at the top...love the bit of extra detail from the machine stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!
Deb