It's Snowing!!!!

Finally, a snowy day in Ohio!! Now we may have a chance for a White Christmas, which I am listening to right now, sung by Straight No Chaser, a group of acapella singers from Indiana Univ. Love their voices!! I'm posting a layout I made for Gecko Galz. Uses GG paper called Snow on Cedars, girl w/snowman image from Wintertime and "Enjoy Life" quote from Quotes to Live By. Rest of the items on the page are from my stash. The photo is of my daughter, taken several years ago.

Gecko Galz Christmas card

Wow, I can't believe that it's December! I'm not in the mood to decorate and shop for Christmas when the temperature is in the 50's. I remember Ohio winters when I was a child and we had lots of snow and almost always a white Christmas. Keeping my fingers crossed for a snowy December, January & February!

I am sharing a Santa card I made with Gecko Galz product. I sized the Santa & child image in Photoshop. The holly paper and papers used to make the doilies are all GG.

Perhaps good ol' St. Nick will get me in a holiday mood!

Cyber Monday @ Gecko Galz

On Monday November 26th Gecko Galz will be having a huge Cyber Monday sale! We invite you to check back for the following HUGE sales

Buy One Get One; On all of our regular Priced items when you buy one you get another of equal or lesser value all day Monday!

$1 Collage Sets; Selected collage sheets will be $1 per set all day so come collect all of them!

FREE Gift Pack; When you spend $50 or more you will get an exclusive gift pack which features a paper pack, stamp set and collage set

Get a $5 gift card; When you purchase a gift certificate worth $25 or more you will get a gift card for yourself worth $5!

So come join us for all the fun and savings!

Christmas Ornaments

I used some snowflake ornaments that I had and added a Gecko Galz image to each. I sized the images in Photoshop, cut them out and inked the edges with brown ink. I like the way they turned out - turns my plain snowflakes into prettier ones!

Gecko Galz Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Gecko Galz Tricks and Treats Blog Hop!

My samples use the lovely ladies from Pretty Little Portraits, along with Gecko Galz papers and items from my stash.

The woman on the witch card was cropped & sized in Photoshop. Her purple witch hat is from Witching Hour ephemera (cropped and sized) and the background paper is "Beetlejuice" from the Hocus Pocus paper set. I added silver stickles to the buckle on her hat and also used orange mulberry paper & a Gimme Candy sticker from my stash.

The lady on this card is so lovely, I didn't need to add much to it. I cut the oval dies in "Harvest Moon" from Hocus Pocus & "Pirates Lagoon" from Neverland (both are Gecko Galz papers). The woman was printed and cut from the sheet - no resizing.

The gift bag's papers are: Good China, Du Jour and Papillon. The image was resized and cut out.

I also made a scrapbook page, featuring my daughter. I punched flower shapes from a scallop punch I had and then punched the ladies faces with a circle punch for the centers. Papers used are: p2 & Papillon (from Paris papers), Fairyland (from Neverland) and assorted papers for the flowers.

The last card I made uses Du Jour paper for the background and p2 paper for the strip.

Wedding planning

I haven't posted for over a month, but I do have a reason. My daughter is getting married next year and the wedding planning, shopping, etc. has already started!! I cannot believe how many details there are to planning a wedding! (I had a very small wedding - only about 25 people - and so this is all new to me.) It is fun but time consuming! No more excuses - here are a few things I've made over the last month but never posted. The scrapbook page is made entirely with Momenta products. The bathing beauty card has a Gecko Galz image and background papers.

4th of July!!

I love the 4th of July and the colors red, white and blue! I made this patriotic card using a Gecko Galz image which I fussy cut and then layered with sheet music and a piece of Gecko paper called Patriot. I added a banner, inked flower and metal #4 (Tim Holtz) from my stash.

Uncle Sam

I wanted to make a layout of Rocco wearing his Uncle Sam hat and so I used Momenta papers and stickers. I just love all the stars and stripes in the papers and Momenta's patriotic stickers are just wonderful!! Momenta products used are: American Pride clear layered sticker (the eagle), Puffy Message Seasons sticker (the 4th), Papers from the Family Outings 12 x 12 paper pad, red cardstock, cardboard, letter stickers & July calendar from my stash.

New tag

This tag is made by paper piecing a cupcake digi image. The image is part of a set called Ice Cream & Cupcakes (by Sherri Baldy) and is available at Scrapbook Stamp Society. The set also has a larger cupcake, an ice cream cone and a swirly lollipop. I cropped and enlarged the smaller cupcake in Photoshop. Then I paper pieced the image and added it to a tag, a die cut and a doily. I used rhinestones for sprinkles and added the Happy Birthday saying. I love paper piecing - it's such fun!! Visit the SSS blog to see all the great digis!

Retirement gift

This is a frame that I decorated for a friend who retired this year. She likes the illustrations of Tasha Tudor, so I tucked a few little "Tasha" girls in amongst the flowers. The images are available at Gecko Galz.

Skulls!!!

Today is Skull Appreciation Day at the Smeared and Smudged blog. Some of the design team girls for Scrapbook Stamp Society are in the hop. We'd love for you to join us! My card is the Voodoo Priestess digi from Heather Valentin. I used markers to color her. Isn't she "to die for" - lol!!!

Mother's Day card

I'd like to share a card I made, featuring Momenta papers (Family cardstock pad) and Momenta flower stickers. I also used a doily, LOVE rub on and a vintage image. The inside of the card is stamped "Happy Mother's Day". I hope all mothers, everywhere, have a wonderful day!

Love those digi stamps!

I love the digi stamps at Scrapbook Stamp Society!!! I used a digi called Baby Gabby Giraffee, by Heather Valentin, for this tag. I paper pieced the giraffe and then colored her spots with a Stampin' Up marker, added rhinestones, ribbon, a doily and felt flowers to the tag. The tag base is actually a piece of Prima packaging.

On the SOS blog today...

are these ATC's I made! Check out Scrap Our Stash The monthly challenge there is called May I - the idea is to lift another person's look. I went with lots of Tim Holtz products and a vintage look, which I'm hoping is somewhat similar to Tim's!

Gecko Galz

It's spring and that means lots of birds have returned! I made this little bird watching journal using new product from Gecko Galz. The journal was one I bought from European Papers and is held together by a stick and a band. I used All Things Lost paper (from the Gecko Galz Secret Garden set) to cover it, then made the birds (from the Aviary 2 ephemera set) bigger in Photoshop and cut them out. The ticket behind the birds is from Tickets please ephemera. I then got into my stash and added lace, rhinestones and a chipboard frame. Now I have a journal to record my daily bird sightings!!!

She's so sweet!!!

I love this picture of my little great-niece, Aria, and I wanted to use papers with a fun, playful feel to them for my layout! I used the Free to Be Me super paper pad from Momenta for the papers. The super paper pads are great because they also include several types of letter stickers and cardstock!
I also used Momenta's clear layered flower stickers on the page, some Tim Holtz adage tickets, stamped the date with my Smash stamp and my page was finished!!

Butterfly Kisses Blog Hop

My card is made using an image by Sherri Baldy. It's called Element 41 - Just Pink. I sized the image in Photoshop, printed it on purple Basic Grey paper, cut it to size, rounded the corner and added my other papers. The edges were inked, a bow tied, then I added my butterfly - a Jenni Bowlin vellum embellishment. I love this image - it's so pretty and it's already colored, all I had to do was print and use!!!

Mail Art Envelope #2

Another mail art piece - it's such fun to stamp and stencil on these !!!! (But did you notice that I stenciled the big eye upside down??!!!)
The quote on the back of this envelope is from a rubber stamp and reads:
"In the middle of the journey of our life
I came to myself within a dark wood
Where the straight way was lost."

Mail Art

Something new that I am getting into..... mail art!! I know that you are supposed to decorate the envelopes and then send them to someone, but I have a hard time getting rid of my artwork! I want to try and make mail art weekly.
I made this envelope at a new store about an hour from my house called Small Studios. It is owned by Ginny, who is a fantastic artist. She opened the workroom up one Saturday morning and provided lots of great papers, stamps, inks and stencils for us to use.
Ginny is also having classes with many great artists: Michael DeMeng, Pam Sussman, Teesha Moore.. and the list goes on!
Check out the Small Studios blog to get the full list of classes and prices. Also, you can see photos of the store - it's fantastic!!

Easter Parade Blog Hop

My Easter card features the Little Ragamuffin Bunny digi stamp by Heather Valentin. I paper pieced her face, body, tail and tummy. I used marker for the hair and chalk for the face.

New card and Easter jars

I've been cleaning and creating lately! The cleaning never seems to end! Here are some things I've managed to get done by shoving the piles on my craft table off to the side!!!
The card uses a digi stamp from Sherri Baldy. I paper pieced the cupcake and added a Jillibean Soup wooden flag.
The Easter jars have images from Gecko Galz on them.
Both were a lot of fun to do and I love the finished projects!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Today I feel lucky for lots of reasons: lucky to have such cute and loving great-nephews and a great-niece, lucky to be on the Momenta D-Lite team and get to use such great products, lucky to be on my other DT's - those are just a few of the reasons I feel lucky today! There are many more!

Momenta page!!!

I really love using my Momenta papers and embellishments - they have such great colors and patterns!! I made this page about my great-nephew, Liam Ray. He is our "Ray of sunshine"!!
The puffy banner piece and sunshine message sticker are from the One Fine Day collection. The kite is a clear layered sticker from the same collection.
The green and blue papers are from the Family Outings paper pad and the other pieces are from a premium cardstock pad.

Momenta D-Lite page

Up on the Momenta blog today - projects from some of the Momenta D-Lite team. I did a layout about my daughter's new dog. She is a lovable dog, but huge!! My husband and I have a chihuahua, so there is quite a size difference!

Scrapbook Stamp Society card

A new digi image for me to use! These fish are by Kim L. Pipkin Gwin. I printed them out on scraps of Basic Grey and then cut the fish out. Good card for a man - I left it blank inside until I know what occasion I'll use it for.

Scrapbook Stamp Society / Momenta D-lite girls Hop

Welcome to our hop. Some of the Momenta D-lite girls have decided to try our hand with digi-stamps from the Scrapbook Stamp Society. We mixed some of our favorite Momenta products with a few of our favorite digi stamps. You can view all of our projects at the ScrapbookStampSociety facebook page. If you would like to hear our recipes for our projects and see them up close please click on our blog links.

My card uses the digi stamp called Little Piggy by Morgan Fitzsimons. I used all Momenta product on this card - the patterned papers, gems in the flower centers and the red letter stickers.
I paper pieced the digi stamp - I love this technique - it's so much fun!! The design was printed on the green background paper, then I printed each individual piece on other papers, cut them out and mounted them to the green paper. The pig's snout and the flowers were pop dotted for dimension.
The inside of the card reads "Sending Hogs & Kisses Your Way".
Check out the Momenta store - Momenta
and the Addicted-to-Stamps facebook page

Momenta Valentine Frame

My first project for the Momenta D-Lite team!!
I found a wooden frame with a heart center at Michael's for $1.00.
I used a gorgeous piece of red and pink paper (from Momenta's Super Paper Pad) to cover the frame. First I cut the heart shape out of the paper with my craft knife, glued the paper onto the frame and then added Momenta's clear layered flower stickers.
I used the word "sweetie" from the Valentine puffy title sticker set.
The final touch? A photo of my darling great-nephew, Milo!!

D-Liteful!!!!

I am now on the Momenta D-Lite team!!! Momenta is a wonderful scrapbooking company and I am thrilled to join the team.
We will be providing feedback on products and sharing our creations.
Check out the announcement here: http://mymomentablog.blogspot.com

Gallery show

I am super excited because two of my art pieces are on display in a gallery in Chagrin Falls!!!! The theme of the show is Ruby, Ruby, All Things Red. Photos of my pieces are below.
Last night was the opening reception and my whole family went. It was so much fun!!

Love!!

The new theme is up at Paper Issues - Love - which will run until Feb. 14. This is my last post for Paper Issues and I will miss being on the design team there! It's a really great site - link up your Valentine project and join in the fun!
This is my take on the theme - brother and sister, Rocco & Aria, my great-nephew and great-niece. He adores his little sister!