Very Mary

Love (a card)

Thanks for the nice comments on my interview. You all are so sweet. I've seriously met the nicest people through this hobby, and that just makes me happy. And now you know a little bit more about me and my "creative process," but if you happen to have any burning questions that went unanswered yesterday, please don't hesitate to ask. I check my email. A lot.

And in other news - for once - I am prepared for Mother's day! Finished my card a few days ago. Now just to get it into the mail...

 I used my Cricut Expression with the New Arrival cartridge to cut the stitched card, which I backed with yellow cardstock. The "love" and the cupcake are both from the Home Decor cartridge. Did I mention how much I like that cartridge?

I printed the quote directly onto patterned paper and then I stamped over it with the scalloped heart from Banana Frog's It's All About...Hearts set. Love that big heart. It's just the right size to embellish a card or to make a title for a scrapbook page. It would be a great journaling block too if you aren't afraid to throw a little handwriting on your page!

Ok, now get off the computer and go make your momma a card! :)

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Making Memories; Stamp: Banana Frog; Ink, Die-cut cartridges: Provo Craft New Arrival and Home Decor; Button: American Crafts

Wednesday Wonder

The lovely Deborah Nolan, Hero Arts hostess and stamper extraordinaire, invited me to be a Wednesday Wonder! Every Wednesday, she spotlights a different designer in the scrap and stamp community with a fun little interview and photos of some of their work! So, if you just happen to be crazy for scrapbooking and stamping (like me), you'll have to check it out! You can read my interview here (and yes, she made me blush. "Really Big Deal?" Me? Get outta here! LOL)!

And just for the record, I'll be claiming Hugh Jackman as my cabana boy, thankyouverymuch.

Courage...

“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Italy (Installment #3)

Vatican City is inside Rome. And while I knew that, I never actually visualized the separateness of it.  I thought of it more as an area within Rome, kind of like a distinct neighborhood or suburb. But it's very much separate. Separated actually by high city walls monitored by the Vatican Guards. Can you see them - those guys in the striped bloomers - in the upper right photo?  They don't look so menacing in their colorful outfits, but up close, they seem pretty dang serious. No smiles. I was actually scared to take a photo of them.

The Vatican Museums are really amazing, and we just didn't have enough time there.
The Sistine Chapel is everything you've heard and more. Postcard photos simply don't do it justice. I used a postcard on this page because I absolutely had to have a visual of the Sistine Chapel, and we weren't allowed to take photos. That didn't bother me so much because the chapel wasn't particularly well-lit, and I didn't (still don't) have the equipment necessary to work with the low light anyway. When you're dealing with memories, sometimes, you have to work with what you can get! :)

You're probably wishing you could see it for yourself. Most things are better that way. Well, in the arts and entertainment spectrum anyway. You're in luck. In the virtual way anyhow: did you know you can take a tour on-line? Yes, you can! Right here. Not the same as standing there in the flesh, but nevertheless, something I wish I'd known about before my trip! It never hurts to be a little more prepared, right?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Die Cuts With a View; Rub-ons: Creative Imaginations; Stamps: gel-a-tins; Metal: Stampin' Up.

Overheard

Sadie: What a commotion!

Which just happens to be a line from her new favorite book, The Adventures of Curious George. If it doesn't have a monkey in it, she'll be hard-pressed to read it.

And here's the little reader herself (never mind the bed head - reading is of utmost importance first thing in the morning, and therefore, takes precedence over more mundane things like combing one's hair):

Color Focus

In my rush to get my challenge layout done for Friday, I totally forgot to share my Color Focus project for April! The second installment for the month went up on the Banana Frog blog on Friday.  Our challenge this time around was to take inspiration from this painting by Picasso:

I pulled the colors red, yellow, brown, and cream from the painting and used them to make this card:

I stamped the background with the woodgrain stamp from the Backgrounds set. The woodgrain stamp measures approximately 2" x 3 1/4" and it was surprisingly easy to line up and stamp repeatedly to cover a larger background. A little trick: stamp the image once, re-ink and rotate 180 degrees to stamp again, and you won't get repetetive patterns that catch the eye.

When I was working on my color focus project back in March (we work a month in advance on these), I had actually started a layout, but it didn't go the direction I wanted. But in the process, I tried stamping Funky Paisley in glue and covering with yellow velvet flock from Doodlebug Design, Inc. I didn't want to waste all that flocking, so I cut circles from it, and attached them to my card. It's about as Picasso-ish as I get. :)

The little bird is from the Greenwich Park set. I stamped him on the background paper with red ink, and then I stamped him again with glue, covered him with red velvet flock, cut him out and attached him with a pop dot. Hard to tell in the photo, but he really is all fuzzy!

Make sure you check out the other color focus projects here and here!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny, Making Memories; Stamps: Banana Frog; Punch: Fiskars; Metal: Making Memories; Buttons: The Paper Studio

Twenty-three Months

Dear Sadie,

You started sleeping with a little teddy bear. He's a Classic Pooh, about 8 inches tall, and the perfect size for you to wrap your little arms around. We call him, simply, "Teddy." When I come to get you in the morning or after a nap, I say "Hi Sadie! Did you have a good sleep." You always respond, "Teddy had good sleep toooooooo!" as you hold him up for a kiss.

This month, you rediscovered your little plastic trike, which reappeared amidst a rapidly melting drift of snow.  The best thing about this trike is not how easy it is to ride (feet down, shuffling along with no pedaling required) or its faded but appealing color scheme (red, yellow, and blue) or the name "CHLOE" scrawled onto the bumper in black permanent marker. The best thing about this trike is the comfortable seat. It makes the best seat for watching the neighborhood activities, and you love nothing better than watching the big kids play. When I bring you outside after a nap, often you will stand on the porch waving and yelling, "HI GIRLS!" to your little friends.

We went to McDonald's once. Once. And now, you ask for milkshakes everyday. We can't even drive by McDonald's without you pointing out the golden arches and quietly requesting, "Milkshake?" I can tell that there will be moments when you are not so quiet about this small request.

While grocery shopping, you directed me to the ducky bathroom decor, where you lovingly patted a duck-embroidered bath towel. Call it an impulse purchase, but you, little Martha Stewart, inspired me to gleefully pile ducky-themed everything into the cart and breeze past the checkout with a smile on my face. It was time to remove all traces of the dreaded undersea-seahorse-coral decor from our upstairs bathroom. You were my right hand man, so to speak, and while I painted, you "painted" too. For days and days after you kept saying, "Mommy painting all night. Mommy painting all night." It certainly felt like it.

You adore Curious George and that is all we read these days. When I suggest another book to you, you refuse and request, "Curious George?" Your favorite story and the one you ask to read over and over is Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon. We were absolutely tickled when we saw a real hot air balloon flying over the city. We pulled over to watch it land, and I think you were disappointed to see that there wasn't a curious little monkey peeking out over the edge of the basket.

We celebrated your second Easter, and the Easter Bunny was very diligent this year in making it a memorable holiday. You found 15 plastic and Cadbury eggs (with a little help from Daddy) which translated into an entire tooth-numbing breakfast of chocolate (also with a little help from Daddy). Good luck getting you to eat any real food after that spectacular sugar high. Your Easter basket was stocked with non-candy treats: Baby Einstein books,a Little Critter book, bubbles, Little People, scented chapstick, and sidewalk chalk. Honestly? With the exception of the "lipstick" (chapstick), which you seized immediately, you weren't overly interested in the basket goodies. Distracted, you were just sure that Easter Bunny had hidden a few more eggs somewhere....

And not to be forgotten, when I ask you to give me "the eyes," this is the expression I get:

This month and always, we love and adore you.

Challenge #9 (with Laura and Lynn)

Welcome to Challenge #9 with my good friend Laura and my new friend Lynn!

And lest you read it elsewhere, I will be the first to admit that I am indeed the one who delayed this challenge, and yes, I do feel guilty about it. Guilty enough that I finished this page today even though I didn't even feel like even looking at my scrapbook studio, much less standing around in here trying to be creative! Guilt is a powerful motivator. But then again...maybe it wasn't guilt, maybe it is in fact, "dedication!" Yes, I like the sound of that...

So, dedicated scrapbookers unite! And do our challenge, won't you? All you need are:

1. Glitter - love the look, but not the mess...

2. Die-cuts or die-cutting machine - I am loving my Cricut!

3. Scallops - scallops are still the rage, right?

4. Pink - my biggest collection of patterned paper is pink, and I'm blaming that on Sadie!

Here's my layout:

I used the this super cute patterned paper from the We R Memory Keepers Heart Attack line. The pattern is all ready arranged in four different patterned blocks, so if you wanted, you could slap your photos down and call it done! I wanted to change it up a but, so I cut apart the blocks and mounted three of them on white cardstock. I exchanged the fourth pattern for a square of red and white polka dots (in the lower left corner) from Doodlebug Design Inc.

The large blue heart is a die-cut from Provo Craft's George and Basic Shapes. I used my Cricut Expression to cut it from both chipboard and cardstock, then I layered the two and added Stickles glitter. I cut a second heart from red cardstock and attached it with stitching. The flourish, cut from yellow cardstock, is a design from the Home Decor Solutions cartridge.

Here's a closer look at my little photo collage. At the center, I layered a chipboard heart over two vellum circles cut with my Cuttlebug using 2 x 2 Circle Dies. I highly recommend these if you have a Cuttlebug and use a lot of punched circles for your scrapbooking and cardmaking. I was having a lot of problems getting my hand punches to cut a clean circle. Especially with thin material like vellum, but these little dies work perfectly!

My journaling is printed on vellum, which I attached with stitching. And I thought this adorable chipboard bunny deserved a close-up:

And these two adorable people obviously deserve a close-up:

Thanks so much for looking! Be sure to take a peek at Laura's adorable layout HERE and Lynn's classy layout HERE! Hopefully, between the three of us, we've inspired you to get out your supplies and scrap something glittery and pink this weekend! :)

Supplies: Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers, Doodlebug Designs; Chipboard: Doodlebug Designs; Die-cutting machine and cartridges: Provo Craft

Banana Frog and a little Scraplifting for February (a layout)

Yesterday, I had the Project of the Day over at the Banana Frog blog, and always eager to mult-task, I used it as an opportunity to catch up on the Year of You class with Robyn Werlich at TwoPeas. Her February layout was so much fun, so I lifted the design and color combo to create my layout, which is unmistakably "Robyn-inspired."

As with all of these classes, I have to change up a few things to make it work for my photos and my own style. On this layout, I opted not to include the photo book. Instead, I added a photo collage, and incidentally, looking at it now, I remember that I meant to add some photo corners to the big photo - oops! Anyway, I replaced Robyn's adorable heart and polka dot accents with my journaling. That was a hard change because I just loved what she did with all the stamped hearts, but I really wanted to include the highlights of the month somewhere easily visible.

The layout colors aren't typical Valentine's Day colors, but they made me think of those candy hearts that you always see around that time of year, so I played up the heart theme. I used the one of my favorite new Banana Frog sets, It's All About...Hearts, to add more love to this page.

I wanted to use the large scalloped heart as a frame fro my title, so I stamped it with Versamark ink and sprinkled it with white embossing powder. Because I wanted the image to be very solid and clean, I repeated the stamping and embossing step. The stamps are clear, which makes positioning them a snap.

The flourish die-cut under the title is from Provo Craft's new Home Decor Solutions cartridge. Very cool cartridge - you'll be seeing lots more from me using the designs on this one!

For the border along the bottom of my page, I used a pencil to draw a soft line on the cardstock, and then I repeatedly stamped the small scalloped hearts, lining them up along the pencil line. I embossed them with white powder all at once. I did all my stamping and embossing before attaching the cardstock strip to my page. Just in case I made a mistake. After all, it's much easier to re-stamp a cardstock strip than it is to remove it safely from your carefully crafted layout!

Get out your stamps and make something pretty! :)

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, American Crafts; stamps: Banana Frog; Buttons: The Paper Studio; Brads: Around the Block; Stickers: American Crafts; Gem: Hero Art; Die-Cut: Provo Craft

Happy Earth Day!

"When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money."

Did you remember that it's Earth Day today? And fittingly so, we received our blue-bin for the new city-wide recycling program! It's late to begin, but you know my mantra: better late than never! What are you doing to celebrate the earth today?