Floral Tapestry Class

Finally ready to get back in the swing of things, after the great Happy Hobby Craft Fair, many ladies here in Yuzhno have signed up for my email list promoting classes in one craft or another, first class is from my favorite, scrapbooking,

What a great way to display pictures of your vacation, wedding, baby or life in general. This layout is about one of the most monumental days a kid can have, first day of school. Seeing as how the Yuzhno scrap booking stores are less than impressive and more expensive than my first born, I am providing all basic materials for this class, yes I still have a bunch of paper from when I was a Close to my Heart Consultant so as long as a dedicated few ladies want to learn, I have the materials. I have chosen a discontinued paper pack called Floral Tapestry, mostly because I want spring to be here, it is mid-April and there is still lots of snow on the ground but the temperatures are rising, we had to dig out the bikes this last weekend. The Layout was chosen with great care to incorporate different size pictures and/or use pictures printed with all the same size, I steered to my Magic book by Jeanette Lynton, which has awesome scrapbook recipes in it. I decided to pre-cut all the paper for this layout with minimal variations between the kits. Each person will get a 'kit' with the paper, cardstock, and any other extra pieces that are needed for this project.

We will also use Close to my Heart's Bohemian Alphabet for our titles, and all ink, blocks and stamps are shared. The other fun thing with this particular paper pack is that it originally came with multiple sheets of 'My Stickease' that coordinate with the paper pack, you can see some sticker photo turns at the top, near the title and in the next close up are some fun circles.

Lately, after I complete a layout I have been making a card or two with the leftover scraps, none is made as of yet BUT soon I will have a great little card for a birthday or something. Also the current embellishments on this page aren't quite what I like to put on my page, but they are the perfect simple accents for begginners which is what most of the class will be, so I plan on pumping up the embellishments to my satifaction, I am thinking of posting a before and after shot to see the difference. What do you think?

Just around the corner!

Here is Christmas right around the corner and I thought, cause I haven't blogged in a while, some of my favorite Christmas cards I have made. All of these cards contain Close to my Heart paper and each one so individual!

This one has some great circles on it and I used a very old paper pack, Just Chillin, I still love the colors in this palette and the retro snowflakes.

This card is made entirely from cardstock alone. I love Pink for winter, it seems soft just like snow. But the multiple shades of pink make the card for me! With real stitching around everything you just want to touch this card over and over!

This is a fun paper pack called 'Jingle' and I love the different shapes on this card. With a heat embossed 'Jingle' and stitching I constantly run my fingers across it!

I constantly get compliments on this card, maybe it's monocromatic scheme or just a bit of sparkle but everyone loves this card!
This awesome card has some of my favorite colors, Blue and Brown, not overly traditional but with white snowflakes, rhinestones, heat embossing, ribbon and stitching this card has lots of elements to play with!
I hope you liked my cards and find inspiration in them!

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Heat/Dry Embossing

I went a little crazy with the Heat Embossing on this one, I choose just simple Clover Meadow Cardstock and Random Stamped/Heat Embossed the back ground. I then Stamped out the title and heat embossed that baby.

To add a soft touch to my page, I stitched this fun pattern up the side of the pictures to hopefully push the idea of 'Spring' with a little jump! Just a fun page using only pictures, 1 piece of paper and some embossing for that brilliant white!

Heart 2 Heart Color Challenge

This weeks challenge on Heart 2 Heart was a color challenge. I love color challenges and enjoy trying to use my colors in interesting ways. The color challenge this week was Black, Tulip and Buttercup.

As I was looking through everyone's entries on Heart 2 Heart, at last check no one had done a layout yet, it was all cards. With cards not being my forte, I choose to use a picture which has the perfect colors in it. I bought a top for my daughter from the Gap ages ago and when it finally fit we had to take pictures of it because she was and still is growing like a weed!

This is the layout I came up with and I think it turned out better than I expected. Using mostly Close to my Heart products, I think this layout ended up in one of my favorites.

There is a ton of faux stitching on this layout, including on this CTMH Chipboard border. I originally used this piece of chipboard as a mask for Candy Apple Red Glimmer Mist, so it was already the correct color, what you can't see in the photo is that Candy Apple Glimmer Mist has some gold flecks in it which looks really great with the Buttercup Cardstock. Also the brads are a mini-brad from Close to my Heart and I used that to add some fun flair to the chipboard.

The top Buttercup cardstock die cut was actually had cut and I added the 2 colors of faux stitching around the border. Just for fun I added the mini-brads as an accent in the corner.

This is the element that brought it all together, the title, colored with Tulip Ink, these are an Close to my Heart exclusive, Color Ready Alphabets: Hodgepodge. I can choose any number of fonts and mix and match to my hearts content, I like the mixed font especially for kids as it shows whimsy and fun!!!

Journaling Reads: It gets a whole lot more complicated when you have kids...The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born...Your life, as you know it...is gone. Never to Return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn to talk...and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life. -
This Quote is from the movie, Lost in Translation, and it is better said by writers than by me!
Would love to hear what you think, and please play the Heart 2 Heart challenge with us next time.

My Sketch World

See what I mean about a great September. My Sketch World has also asked me to be a guest designer for the month of September. Such a talented group of ladies over there, I am awestuck by the creations. My Sketch World also has great galleries and forums, lots of great ideas and tips on there. Look for my Daily 'Creative Dose' to give you inspiration and I will also be shelling out '{Blog Love}'in the forum and great place to focus on someones blog for that week. Now my September did NOT get off right...it's only the 2nd too. My big open house that I scheduled turned out to be a bust. NO ONE showed. Bummer. I guess it was the wrong night? Oh Well, maybe next time.

Scrapping Out LOUD!

What a great month September is going to be! Scrapping Out LOUD! has asked me to be thier Guest Designer for the week of September 1, with a great challenge: Scrap out of Season! We all buy products for the time of year, and then have to store them away for a whole 50 weeks until they are allowed out again! So why not experiment and use seasonal products unconventionally? Snowflakes could be spring flower centres, halloween spiders on a summer page....Those products will never get used up otherwise! Think outside of the seasonal box! I love to do layouts that require me to think about materials in a different way. As you see above my chipboard snowflakes have been turned into summer flowers. With an abundance of stitching and a cute picture of my daughter I love the way this layout turned out. Why don't you head over to Scrapping Out LOUD! and play along with us.

Stay in the Line!

So the next challenge for Whimsical Scraps and Bugs was a color challenge. You can see the colors in this post. I am a firm believer that companies put thier products into 'lines' so it makes you, the scrapbooker's, life easier. When you combine all the elements that you can find in a line from a manufacturer, you will always get a beautiful layout! I know that the trend is to mix and match, and in the beginning, that is all you really could do. But don't make your layouts harder then they have to be by doing unessessary extra work. This layout was made from Making Memories 'Chloe's Closet' and I think it worked out fabulously.

Take a challenge!

What a hard challenge I had this last time from Whimsical Scraps and Bugs Challenge Blog. I found it hard to create with 'Vintage'. Everybody, including myself is living in the now and loves to create using the 'now'. But we are here preserving not only our families memories but also my Grandma's, Grandpa's, nieces, nephew, cousins twice removed and so on. I, every now and then, love to do an older picture to try to update it and make me love it even more. Still lovin' my Cricut though, it is finally paid for (last payment has gone through) and now I can use and abuse it!!! Thank goodness I have WSB Challenge Blog to help me along. Are YOU up for the next challenge, submit your best Cricut made layout/card, see what you can make. The next challenge is a color challenge,

So break out your Cricut and make something wonderful!

Calgary Regionals

This week I was busy trying to get all the swaps done that I had signed myself up for. You see, I am going to Calgary, Canada (my hometown) for the Close to my Heart Regional Convention. I had signed myself up for 2 swaps a Card Swap and a 2 page Layout Swap. Above are the sneak peek of what I made. So I am about to leave for the 2000 mile journey, by car, up to lovely Calgary. Lots of packing left to do! Just thought I would share my labor of Love!