There's A New Flower in our Pot

After being away for a few days to attend a funeral for my aunt, I'm back to say hello to my blogger friends.  It was nice to get to see family we aren't with often but a shame we always seem to wait for the sad occasions to get together.

I thought I'd share a card I made to send to a couple friends to announce the birth of our newest little granddaughter.  I made this card for a challenge so I wanted to wait till the contest was over to post it here.  The challenge was to make something out of a mystery die cut I received in the mail.  The die cuts were a flower pot and a stem with leaves.  You could do anything with them but cut them.  After looking at them and studying them for a few days, the idea of a birth announcement came to me.

I chose to wrap a narrow ribbon around the stem and make my own leaves out of the ribbon.  I also snipped and lightly inked the edge of some more ribbon and taped to the back of pot to resemble grass.

On the inside I added all the "particulars" embellished with a crocheted flower to add some dimension along with baby's pic.

This was my "thinking outside the box" moment that day.  Hope you enjoyed my creation.

P.S.  I won that challenge, by the way!

Scrapping that Mimics Photo

Once in a while I have a picture that I think just lends itself to copying in my layout decor.  Confused?  I know I probably didn't explain that very well but I think the following pictures of my layouts will show you what I mean.

 The layering of the tulips and teacup diecuts adds a lot of dimension to this photo.

 This layout I tried to copy the flowers on the hat with the paper flowers and felt leaves.

This picture I tried my hand at a trellis.  The base of the trellis is actually a # sign diecut using the Don Juan Cricut Cart.

I  think capturing an element in your photo and then recreating it on your layout adds a lot interest to the whole page and ties everything together.  Give it a try if you haven't yet.  Happy Scrapping!!

All Things Vintage

I discovered a couple years ago that I really enjoy scrapbooking with a vintage theme to my pages.  I bought a book about vintage scrapping and I was hooked.  So I began the hunt for old pictures.  At first, I just looked at my picture and the paper I'd chosen.  I was lost.  I looked again at examples in the book.  I began to notice a very common theme...layering.  Layering of all kinds, papers, textures, just anything.  So I opened my embellies drawers and began to pull out first this and then that.  I would lay them on my paper, arranging and rearranging.  When I finally got something I was happy with, I began to attach it to my paper.  Pleased with the final outcome, searched for more pictures that fit the vintage feel.  Here are some of my vintage pages that I truly love.

 

My first attempt was of my grandmother.  I used a stamp with the word "Cherish", because I do cherish her, a 3-D sticker with the word "Inspire" on it because she is truly an inspiration.  A shoe sticker and some very blingy (is that a word?) trim because my grandma was always a very fashion conscious person, she loved her shoes and clothes.  A "m" tag, because her first name begins with M.  I framed her picture in some vintage looking cardstock and then I used sandpaper and ink to age the frame.

This is a picture I did of my grandparents along with the account of their marriage that appeared in the newspaper.  I used an embellie which looked like an old postcard which I ran through the cuttlebug and embossed to make it look like script.  A little ink rubbed on it and "tada" aged!!  A little postage stamp with a "5" on it near the bottom of their picture signifies they had 5 children.

This page includes a picture of my great-grandmother, my sister and me celebrating out January birthdays together.  I was able to copy her handwriting from a letter my mother had.  Made a lollipop flower attached to a coffee sticker (because she always fixed us coffee with lots of milk when we visited her house)  A tag stamped with the word "memories" was perfect for some journaling of my childhood memories.  My great-grandma lived to be 103.

And this is me, 2 months old!  Also among one of my earlier attempts at vintage.  Yikes!  Not sure I like referring to myself as "vintage".  LOL  The bib was made with a round scallop punch.  I then took a 1" circle punch and cut out the neck hole, added some ties and I came up with a bib for my layout.  I tore out a piece of paper with the city name where I was born and added the "56" on the tag to indicate my birth year.

If you have not yet tried any vintage scrapping, I hope you will try it.  I think layering and more layering is the key to making your page look antique like.

Baby Albums for Gifts

As a new mom, time just flies by.  24 hours passes and you wonder "What did I accomplish on this day?"...Diapers, feedings...feedings, diapers...wipe up spills, wipe a snotty nose or two and on and on and on.  Who has time to take pictures?  Or better yet, who has time to get that picture out of the camera, much less time to put in an album.  Those thoughts were my inspiration for an album I made recently for a new mother.  A page for each month of the year so she could quickly document the baby's growth month by month without a lot of hassle.  So, today, I wanted to share some pics of the album with you.

 Miss January (baby was born in Jan.), Feb.  Using Cricut cuts for letters and diecuts.

 March, April....for the March page I ran some fiber the length of the page and then tied snippets of ribbon and fiber around it to mimic a kite tail.

 May, June..loved that baby buggy from Cricut cart.  I used little tiny buttons for the middle of wheel spokes.

 July, August...gotta' love those sunglasses from Cricut

 September, October..I was trying to use things I already had in my stash and the puffy letters for Sept. is a mixture of upper and lower case.  I wasn't sure at first but I liked the way it looked when I finished it.

 November, December..pumpkin and rocking horse also from Cricut.

 After I did a page for each month, there were pages leftover in my album so i decided to just include a few fun things, such as "My Mommy" and "Daddy Duty" page.  The page corners were cut from a paper pack by Paper Studio called "Sweet Pea".  It's everything baby in that paper pack...love it!!

 A family page and a page to document new things baby is learning in the first year.

 A page for likes and dislikes and a page for that first tooth picture.

The last page is for listing story books baby enjoys.  I loved the diecuts from "Graphically Speaking" Cricut cart. 

I also stamped the back of the album with a new stamp I found from Stampablities at Hobby Lobby.  It says "Inspired by Life..Crafted by Hand".  In the middle of circle it says "One-of-a-kind-Art Created By" and then a line for your name.

Hope I've inspired you to do some more scrapping real soon.
(Sorry for the glare on some of the pictures.  I was in a hurry and didn't take them out of the page protectors.)

Good Bye Winter, Hello Spring

Winter it is time for you to go to bed,

You sleepy, sleepy head.

Spring's about to wake up

Promising daffodils and creamy buttercups.

Winter  take with you your cold winds and snow,

Let Spring breezes take their turn to blow.

A Poem for My Loved Ones

For You, I Pray

I've stood where you are standing today,

I've prayed the same kind of prayers you're praying today.

To say good-bye to the ones we love so

Can be so hard, Believe me I know.

 As her spirit soars

And you are left behind,

May the same arms that carry her away from this pain,
Circle you in love, Carrying you through your pain.

I've stood where you are standing today,

And I'm praying with you today.

For my loved ones in Louisville, KY, who are preparing to say good-bye to their loved one.

And the Winner Is.........

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 5

CHRISTY!!!!!!!!!!  Congrats!  Send me your addy and I will get the album in the mail to you ASAP.

Thank you to all who have chosen to follow my blog and participated in my first ever give away.  Stay tuned, I hope to have more.