Be Mine

I recently received some beautiful paper from Echo Park Paper Company along with their coordinating Unity co-brand stamps.


The paper collection is called "Be Mine" and is Paris-inspired. It inspired me to make this scaled down version of the Eiffel Tower.


I found a free image of the Eiffel Tower online and worked in GIMP to create an image that I could use as a template.


After I created the templates I made a quick sample from basic copy paper to make sure it would hold together well as a 3-D object.


Once I had created the base structure from the Echo Park paper I got to stamping and embellishing.


I actually had plans for a few more accents on the actual base structure, but I got so excited about the whole thing that I forgot and started gluing down my stamped images...oops!



Supplies:
Patterned paper: Echo Park Paper Company {Be Mine};
Stamps: Unity Stamp Company {I Adore You}; Unity Stamp Company {With Love};
Ink: Memento {Tuxedo Black};
Embellishments: Maya Road {Trinket Pins};
Tools: Fiskars {Craft Knife}; Fiskars {Paper Trimmer}; Fiskars {Scissors}; Martha Stewart {Scoring Board}; Loew-Cornell {Embossing Stylus};

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

Are you wrapping your packages in brown paper and tying them with twine this year?
I am!

But what happens if you don't have tags {and don't have the time...or maybe desire...to make them}?
The Twinery to the rescue!

I found this beautiful paper at the World Market {I can't resist paisley} and I will be wrapping our presents in it.
I am using twine to distinguish the presents from each other - especially the ones with a similar shape, like these:


I have wrapped each gift in a separate color of twine from The Twinery - each family member has their own color. So when we are opening presents I can see easily that it will be going to my husband because it is wrapped in Peapod twine.
If it is in Pink Sorbet twine it will be for my daughter.
If it is in Cappuccino twine it will be for my oldest son.
Mine will have Lilac twine...and for my youngest son I still haven't decided...maybe I'll go with some bright & cheery Lemondrop!

Give it a try!



Card Supplies:
Cardstock: (White) Georgia Pacific
Patterned paper: (In Love, So Sophie collection) My Minds Eye
Other paper: (Chipboard) Kraft Outlet; (Paper Bag Paper) Kraft Outlet;
Fibers: (Caribbean, Peapod, & Mandarin twine) The Twinery;
Font: (Coffee Tin); (Edwardian Script ITC Semi-Expanded); (CK Urban); (Colonna Mt); (Century Gothic); (CK Becky);
Tool: (trimmer, scissors) Fiskars
Software: GIMP
Other: printer

READ All About It

It's not too late to get some great Pink Paislee goodies 15% off at A Walk Down Memory Lane, but November is quickly coming to an end...so you'd better hurry up!


I created this layout about my daughter learning to read using the Pink Paislee Pop Fashion Parachute Pants 12 x 12 paper as the base and matted my focal picture on DCVW cardstock. I added some Maya Road pins, a sprinkling of brads, a few {digital} library cards created by Shimelle {I changed the color of the original cards and added the text with GIMP}, and voila!

Pink Paislee at A Walk Down Memory Lane

This month I am a Guest Designer for A Walk Down Memory Lane {AWDML} and the featured manufacturer for November is Pink Paislee! And featured manufacturer means 15% off...all month long!

Today I am going to share with you a layout about each of my three children using Pink Paislee papers.

True Beauty:


This layout features a few papers from Pink Paislee {and I got them at AWDML, of course}.

True Beauty Supplies:
- Pink Paislee Sweet Cakes - Lovey Dovey
- Pink Paislee Enchanting - Wonderful
- Pink Paislee Enchanting - Pleasant
- American Crafts Thickers
- Tim Holtz Distress Ink
- Chandalier stamp by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous
- Making Memories Glitter Clears #30164
- Title piece created using GIMP


Big Shoes:


I love this background grid paper from Pink Paislee...the detail in the distressing of this paper is fantastic. It even has some light textile type designs on it faintly along the edges. It makes it easy to create a nice looking layout when the papers are so beautiful to start!

Big Shoes Supplies:
- Pink Paislee Office Lingo - Cubicle
- Basic Grey Mellow 6x6 Pad
- American Crafts Thickers
- Tim Holtz Distress Ink
- Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
- Sharpie Fine Tip Marker {Black}


Oh, Baby:


This background paper from Pink Paislee is fabulous! I added the stamping behind the photo just because I felt like I was cheating with such an easy layout...the paper had so much character by itself that it really didn't need anything!

Oh, Baby Supplies:
- Pink Paislee Captivating - Tender
- DCWV Cardstock
- American Crafts Thickers
- Tim Holtz Distress Ink
- Accent stamp by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous
- Sharpie Pen. {Blue}


Stay tuned this month for more fun from AWDML and Pink Paislee!

Crazy Pair

This is my debut project as the October Guest Designer for Creative Cuts & More! I am so excited to work with their products this month. Be sure to get ready for a great blog hop on Friday, October 16th. Come back here to see what I've created and also be sure to visit the Creative Cuts & More designer's blogs {I'll have links for you then} to see what they've come up with!


Get it? Pear...pair...very punny, right?

For now, let's talk about today's project, shall we?

I really wanted to create a layout with shaped paper, but it is harder than it looks! I just added the kraft cardstock behind the great scalloped circle cut from Creative Cuts & More and felt comfortable again. I paired {ah, get it..."pair"ed?} the cute pear cuts with a chipboard frame. I generally cover my chipboard with paper, but this time I thought it looked nice plain. I added in the pictures of two of my crazy kids, a 6x6 sheet of Basic Grey Archaic paper, and then created the title spot using a basic shape from a free digital scrapbooking journal stamp and created the grid and title with GIMP {the font is CK Newsclips}.


The great cuts from Creative Cuts & More really helped the project come together quickly! The supplies I used are listed below if you'd like to scraplift my layout {and if you'd like to use my title spot just click on the image below for the full version}.


Creative Cuts & More Supply List:
1 x Circle - Scallop Mini 11 1/2": Textured Bazzill - Chiffon
1 x Antique Elegance Frame: Chipboard - Medium Weight
2 x Pear - Mini - Family Preserves: Textured Bazzill - Pear
2 x Pear - Mini - Family Preserves: Textured Bazzill - Parakeet

Other Supplies:
Basic Grey paper, kraft cardstock, Fiskars scissors, GIMP

Tough Stuff

(Digital Layout)

I used:
-GIMP
-Raspberry Road Antebellum Papers & Elements
-Microsoft Office Clip Art
-Free Digital Scrapbooking Black Epoxy Alpha

My first digital layout!

I have worked with digital stuff before, but this is my first actual "layout" done completely digitally.



The pictures are me and each of our three kids after they were born. Everything was done in GIMP with papers and embellishments from Shabby Princess and Free Digital Scrapbooking. The font for "Worth it all" was a CK freebie.

What do you think?

Peggy Loves Vintage - Elephant

(Click on the images to view them larger)

This card was done for the BBTB contest sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage.
This is the original elephant image from Peggy Loves Vintage:



I'm not very much of a red person, so I changed it to make it a bit orange-y. I printed the image multiple times and pop dotted some sections of the image to give it a bit more depth. I added a few extra touches with some Distress Stickles and Distress Ink.

The card itself is made from a cut on the Storybook Cricut cartridge. I cut it once in white cardstock and once in black. Then I made the white cardstock look more vintage using the Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The polka dot ribbon is from Miss Elizabeth's (Dollar Tree!) and was originally white and I used the Distress Inks on there as well. I finished it off with a few extra touches with my ZIG pen.



(There are two posts today for this contest...so scroll down...)

BBTB: Peggy Loves Vintage - Baby

(Click on the images to view them larger)

This is the second card I did for the BBTB contest sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage.
This is the original image from Peggy Loves Vintage:



I wasn't exactly inspired by the blues and pinks...so I added a little GIMP magic and created this purple/peach-ish combination. I also wanted to alter the shape of the card a bit to give me room for the "twinkle, twinkle, little star...", so I did that in GIMP as well.



I used the Cricut to cut out the little pieces that I wrote on (Storybook cartridge). I printed the image multiple times and popped up some specific areas to give it some more dimension. I added some Distress Stickles and some Glitz Stickles...and of course some Distress Ink.

Thanks for looking!

Just "Patchy"

(You can click on each image to view it larger)

It's a good thing this Caardvarks challenge ends tonight, because I have been obsessed with making tree cards lately. Okay, I am pretty much obsessed with trees...or leaves...or nature - anything of the sort. But this challenge has made me go card making crazy!



I created my own set of stamps for this...the sign, the bird, the tree, the clouds...I wanted to do something quilt-y/patchwork-y - so I drew some up and made them into digital stamps and then printed them out onto my patterned paper. Then I paper pieced them together.



The papers are from Autumn Leaves - I think the pack is called Thrift Store...something like that. And of course I used some Tim Holtz Distress Inks to distress it a bit. The cardstock (background and popped frame) is from DCWV. I attached some ribbon I got in the Target Dollar Spot awhile back and a cute little clothespin I bought at Michaels - I actually used the clothespins to attach "reserved" cards for a group of seats at our wedding...almost 7 years ago now.



I've got a couple more cards finished and I hope to post them in a couple of days...so check back!

Javan's Picture

Here's a picture of Javan that I jazzed up using digital scrapbooking paper and extra elements.



All done with GIMP using freebies from Shabby Princess, Free Digital Scrapbooking, Pixie Perfect Designs, and more.

About digital freebies...

I have already shared some of my favorite (free) digital scrapbooking sites, such as:

Shabby Princess
House of 3
Free Digital Scrapbooking

Here's another great one to add to the list:
Raspberry Road Designs

They offer a lot of "Quick Pages" (QP), which I personally am not too interested in, but they also have some great free alphabet sets, paper packs, and element kits available to download.

And of course, I still recommend the awesome (and free!) GIMP to put it all together.

Funky Lacie

Here's a picture I did of Lacie (in GIMP, of course!) using all sorts of free things from various Shabby Princess kits (and a photo I took of her recently):


(Click on the picture to see it bigger)

Digital Magic...

(As always, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

The original (this is my cousin's adorable daughter):


Dressed up with digital:


And another version done to match her room decor:


Everything here is either done with free downloads from various sites (like Free Digital Scrapbooking and Shabby Princess) or created by me (using digital photographs and GIMP).

LOVING Digital!!!

I have been having fun using some cool digital tools. I am in the process of designing some generic postcards that can be used for multiple occasions. Here's what I have so far...let me know which is/are your favorite! (Note: You can click on each image to see it larger.)

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


Edited to add some more...

#6


#7


#8


Everything on these was done with free goodies from House of 3, Free Digital Scrapbooking, and Shabby Princess (and maybe a few free font sites). Oh, and let's not forget the amazing GIMP!

Gettin' GIMP-y with it...

It seems like everything these days is moving toward digital. I wanted to play around a bit with my "faux-toshop" program (aka...GIMP). GIMP is a Photoshop-type program. It does everything I would ever want to do with a photo program (and more), but at a very affordable price - FREE.

I am in the process of designing some digital stamps to use in digital (or hybrid) scrapbooking/cardmaking. I decided to play around a bit with a picture I took of the kids to get the hang of it.

Here's the result:


The background is a digital patterned paper from ShabbyPrincess.com...from the "Happy Go Lucky" kit.
Think it is adorable??? So do I! (I love anything paisley!) And guess what...again - it's FREE.
Go here to download it for yourself. Click on the large image to download the entire kit at once (if you have a high speed internet connection) or click on the four tag images to download the kit in smaller parts (if you are using a dial-up internet connection).