Autumn Wishes Card

Happy National Stamping Month again! Each month I design a simple card for my Home Gatherings. When I also have online gatherings, I create a video tutorial to share with the guests. For September, I created a simple card using the Autumn Wishes stamp set and Whimsy Fundamentals.

If you are interested in viewing the tutorial and playing along, you can view it here, or below.

If you would like to host your own gathering, please contact me through my website, or by commenting below. 

Measurements: 

• Standard size card base
• Chocolate Cardstock 4x5.25in
• Canary Whimsy Fundamentals 3.75x5in
• Pumpkin cut using Artbooking at 2in Real Dial Size
• Circle cut using Artbooking at 1in Real Dial Size

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Twinkle Twinkle Joy

There is something truly magical about kids at Christmas. My oldest son absolutely loves our Christmas tree. (A little too much as he kept pulling ornaments off). I made a single page layout using the retired White Pines WOTG to highlight a single photo of him admiring our tree. 

I really liked the idea of using the Cricut Artbooking half page background on one side mixed with a busier left side. I added a stamped title on a Picture My Life card that I cut down.

I also added some ornament complements to the bottom.

All of these products are retired. To view current products, please visit my website.

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Urban Birthday Layout

Welcome back, readers! I've been working my way through scrapping my family's 2015 experiences. My oldest son turned 2 last year, so for his professional pictures I wanted something all boy to showcase them. I chose the Urban Workshop on the Go and the Artbooking cartridge to make this.

For the left page, I used a full sized 8x10 for the dominate photo and added layers and an embellishment cluster.

In the cluster, I hand colored a stamp from the Greeting Farm called Oh Boy! Ian to look like my son. 

For the right side, I used a full background layer from Artbooking and three photos. (I promise this page is not as crooked as it looks. It is all the angle of the photo.)

To embellish, I used the Boys Will Be Boys Cricut cartridge to cut the dump truck and the page title.

I also used the Paper Fundamentals Adventure Stickers to add the "Sweet Smile" caption.

All of these products are retiring tomorrow, so if you see something you like, visit my website to place your order.

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

A Kiddie Halloween

One of my absolute favorite yearly events to scrapbook is Halloween. I think part of it is that I love the colors associated with it, but it's also because we have so much fun as a family celebrating Halloween. Last year, my oldest son and I attended a Halloween party for our Early Childhood PTA. Let me tell you how adorable it is to have a costume party with toddlers. For Halloween, my son was a rocket ship and I was the Moon. I made both of our costume, and you can view them better here. For this two page layout, I mixed two retired CTMH Halloween paper packs, Scaredy Cat and Nevermore.

For the left page, I used a spiderweb cut from the Artbooking and some fussy cut stamps from the retired Little Monsters stamp set to embellish. 

I actually had this spiderweb left over from another project, so this worked as a stash buster for me, as well. I never throw out extra cuts, because I can usually find another project for them!

The thing I loved about this stamp set was that the monsters look like kids, which was perfect for this design. I hand colored the images using blending markers. 

For the right page, I cut the title from the Mini Monsters Cricut Cartridge. I think this cartridge maybe retired, which is a shame, because it's really awesome!

Here again, I mixed embellishments from the two retired paper packs.

I am entering this in this week's Between the Folds Creative Cuts Challenge, and Heart 2 Heart's Throwback Challenge.

Ingredients: Unfortunately, all of these products are retired, but you can view all current products here.

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Happy Halloween Witching Card

Welcome back, readers! Today, I am going to show you a Halloween card I made based on this sketch from Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

I decided to create a Halloween card, because I've actually never made one. I used my Cricut Artbooking cartridge, and here is what I came up with.

For the inside, of the card, I layered white cardstock, because the base was black. Then I added a witch's cauldron from the Cricut Mini Monsters cartridge and some more shimmer trim. I left the rest blank, but a sentiment could be added.

I also entered this card for Color My Heart's Color Dare #164.

 Ingredients:

• Nevermore Paper Pack
• Nevermore Complements
• Little Monsters
• Green Shimmer Trim
• Silver Shimmer Trim
• Black Shimmer Trim

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Teacher Life: School Spirit

Hello there, Scrappers! Today I am going to show you how truly dorky I can be. I was a high school journalism teacher for six (VERY LONG) years. During that time, I worked at three different schools (#militarywifelife). My absolute favorite school was East Bay High School in Gibsonton, Florida. The kids had amazing school spirit, and I loved being part of it. So, for Spirit Week 2009, I decided to play along.

For this layout, I used the Chalk It Up Paper Pack (retiring tomorrow!) to give the pages a real old school, academic feel. On the left page, I used some stamping accents from the Geek Is Chic stamp set to accent my true adorkability.

I also used the Chalk It Up chipboard complements, because I had some left.

For the right page, I wanted to highlight one picture, which was of me dressed for the Homecoming Dance, so I made it a full 4x6, instead of the 3.5x5.

To accent this page, I added this fun star border cut from Artbooking using the Free to Be Me (retired) paper pack. You'll also notice that all of the photos have been stamped with the coordinating day of the week. I used White Daisy pigment ink to create this look.

I am entering this layout in this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge: Working 9 to 5.

Ingredients:

• Chalk It Up
• Chalk It Up Complements
• Geek Is Chic
• Artbooking
• Black Ink
• Lagoon Ink
• White Daisy Ink
• Coral Sequins

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Bumble Bee Birthday Card

Hello again! My best friend has a birthday this week. To celebrate, I sent her this bumble bee birthday card.

I created the card with a monochromatic feel using Smoothie cardstock and ink. The embossing folder is Cuttlebug's Honeycomb. The stamped honecombs were cut using the Artbooking cartridge. And, the sentiment and bee are from the Happy Everything Operation Smile stamp set, which retires this month. I used a little bling to show the bee's path. 

I forgot to take a picture of the inside before I wrote on it, so I apologize for the poor picture quality here. I stamped some more honeycombs in the bottom right corner with the sentiment, also from the Happy Everything stamp set.

I am entering this card in this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge: Birthday Bash, and Between the Folds: Anything Goes challenge.

Ingredients: 

• Smoothie Cardstock
• Happy Everything
• Honeycomb
• Smoothie Ink
• Black Ink

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Back to Basics: Pizza Party Layout

Although I really enjoy making really intricate pages, sometimes I like to go back to basics. I really love Close to My Heart's Make It From the Heart guides. The layouts are a great springboard for beginning scrappers, but they are also great for when you want to bust out a quick, adorable layout.

My son had the chance to make pizzas with our early childhood PTA group. I used the retired Taste of Summer paper pack to create this spread.

Since, I used a very simple layout, I embellished with a maker colored little boy stamp by Cling Stamps. I believe it's called Toby. The balloon stamp and die is from Stampin' Up.

I am entering this layout in Heart 2 Heart Challenges this week. The theme is Life is Good. And, what is better than pizza?

Ingredients:

• White Daisy Cardstock
• Cashmere Cardstock
• Bodacious Banners
• Sunset Ink Pad
• Honey Ink Pad
• Black Ink Pad
• Red Shimmer Trim
• Sparkle and Shine Washi Tape
• Canival Washi Tape 

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Life Is *NOT* a Picinc

Hello there, readers! This week's Heart to Heart Challenge is Life Is a Picnic. I thought a lot about this challenge, and decided to turn this theme on it's head and document something that proves life isn't always a picnic.

In March, shortly before my son turned two he had his first scary accident. He was jumping on our sectional where the two pieces meet when he fell and hit the corner with his eye. It resulted in a black eye that swelled and darkened quickly. It was pretty scary, but he was back to playing in no time. He's a tough cookie!

The perfect paper pack for this was the retired Later Sk8er, which is a personal favorite of mine. I accented the page with Later Sk8er Picture My Life cards (RETIRING SOON!).

I also used the July Stamp of the Month Life is Wonderful to create the title for the page. The sticker letters are from the My Crush Holiday Happenings Assortment. 

And, as typical for my pages, I used All the Details to create a fun banner.

Ingredients:

• Later Sk8er Picture My Life cards
• My Crush Holiday Happenings Assortment
• Life is Wonderful, July Stamp of the Month
• All the Details
• True to Life
• Durables Triangle Studs
• Later Sk8er Assortment (on clearance)
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Outdoor Denim Cardstock
• Outdoor Denim Ink Pad
• Slate Ink Pad
• Pear Ink Pad
• Lagoon Ink Pad

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Two Layouts, One Sketch

Hello again! Today I am going to show you two more no stamping pages! I had a good response from my Thanksgiving limited stamping pages, so I am going to show you two different spreads using NO STAMPING!

For both of these layouts, I used a sketch from the challenge blog Let's Scrap. Although, the sketch inspired me on these pages, I did deviate from it.

I'm kind of in love with this first spread. I used the Yuletide Carol paper pack and complements to create these pages.

For the left side, I used an overlay from Cricut Artbooking to create this adorable, vintage ornament design. I embellished with a cluster that has a PML card that I cut down and a Santa from the Holiday Happenings Assortment. It's hard to tell in photos, but I actually added a little bling to the ornaments with Stickles.

For the right page, I used some 4x6 flip flaps, so that I could have more photos on the page. I can never have enough Christmas pictures!

For the second spread, I flipped the sketch and kept everything pretty basic.

The left side features an adorable reindeer that I cut from Cricut Artbooking and some more Complements.

For the right page, I used the beautiful flowers on one of the Yuletide Carol pages to create a cluster and cut a border also from Cricut Artbooking to frame the photo.

Ingredients:

• Yuletide Carol Paper Pack
• Yuletide Carol Complements
• Pear & Partridge PML cards
• Holiday Happenings Assortment
• Gold Shimmer Trim
• Gold Gems
• 4x6 Flip Flaps
• Cricut Artbooking

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!

Thanksgiving Spread with Limited Stamping

Close to My Heart has so many awesome stamps that it is really easy to forget our other great coordinating products. I created this Thanksgiving spread with very limited stamping. Instead of stamping accents, I used the Pathfinding Complements, which are coordinating chipboard shapes. If you are new to papercrafting, these shapes are perfect for you, because they are relatively inexpensive, and they really add texture and dimension to the pages. If you have reached expert status, these shapes will still complement your pages beautifully!

I actually found a similar design to this on Pinterest, but it was created using digital scrapbooking, which I do not do, so I had to figure out the dimensions of the design by myself.

For the left page, I used the chipboard to title, accent, and journal the page.

I added some stamping in the top right corner to accent the background of the page. The stamping here is absolutely unnecessary. If you're a regular follower of my blog, you know that I really love layers and texture, so for me this sort of background is typical.

For the right page, I kept things really simple by adding large photos and a 2in strip of the B&T paper. If you want to recreate this layout, the strips on the left are 10in wide, and they are 2in wide on the right.

Again on the right page, I added the background stamping, and created a small cluster with the only other stamping on this page. This stamping could totally be swapped out for more chipboard. (Side note: how handsome is my husband!!!)

I also created a chipboard cluster under the 4x4 photo. In order to put them behind the photo, I used foam tape to pop the photo up. You'll notice I have some glue leakage here. I discovered after I created this cluster that the regular ATG tape will stick these pieces down just fine. 

Ingredients:

• Pathfinding Paper Pack
• Pathfinding Complements
• Pathfinding Assortment
• Thankful Heart
• Season of Thanks
• Chocolate Ink Pad
• Olive Cardstock

Happy Scrapping, My Artsy Friends!