Board? with clear Snowflakes

I was SO excited to punch out some CLEAR snowflakes with my Big Shot snowflake die! I super love the snowflake die and have cut several from cardstock and pattern paper. But this morning I was rinsing out a milk jug, getting it ready for the recycling bin and I looked at the side of the milk jug and smiled. :) hehe So I cut out a side panel of my empty milk jug, rinsed and dried it, then ran it through my Big Shot. Yay! I was so happy with the gorgeous opaque snowflake that appeared!

So, I had this adorable snowflake and now to find some SNOW pictures to scrapbook with it, right?! I really really need to get caught up on my photos, so I wasn't sure what I would find. I was very happy to see these pictures of Matt in my photo box. :) I did stop to check the scrapbooking safety of a milk jug plastic snowflake with a PH pen (thank you Johnlyn for leading me to this pen!) Hurray and double Hurray it tested SAFE for scrapbooking!

I used Sally's Sketch Challenge from this week SBSC165 to get me started with the layout. The pattern paper here is from the Wintergreen DSP from last year. It has that Wild Wasabi and Cool Caribbean In Colors from 2007 in there with those beautiful snowflakes and stripes. I die cut a few more snowflakes for a background strip and anchored them with silver brads through the centers, along with some dots of Tombow Mono Multi underneath the flake pattern. The title is a play on words 'Snow Boarding' right? (I have the hardest time with titles!) I stamped Board? with Outline Alphabet in Wild Wasabi Classic ink and then used my Blender Pen to add additional Wild Wasabi ink to the insides of the letters. I added a tiny bit of journaling, who/where/when, onto punched out circles of DSP. The journaling pen I used here is a long retired one in Sage Shadow. It's very light, but I liked it for this page to be more of a background element.

And the milk carton snowflake that brought me to the scrap table today? Well, it's hard to see, but you can find it anchored on the right side of the page with a silver brad through the center.

Stamps: Outline alphabet
Paper: Wintergreen (retired) DSP, Whisper White, Cool Caribbean (retired)
Ink: Wild Wasabi (retired)
Accessories: Sage Shadow Journaler (retired), Silver Brads, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Snowflake Big Shot die, Blender Pen

Lots of Layers Swap

Here is another of my cards for the Lots of Layers swap - this one is for the category 'Winter 5 1/2" square' cards. Again, there are several rules for elements and layers in this swap, and I THINK I followed all of them! lol - I do get a little sidetracked sometimes!

I love this stamp set Lovely as a Tree and I didn't buy it for a long time. But I kept seeing cards that I loved and I'm so glad I finally added it to my collection. It's a great 'go to' stamp set and it works so well with many different technqiues as well as different themes through out the year.

The main panel of this card is the large fir tree from Lovely as a Tree set stamped onto Whisper White cardstock in Night of Navy Craft ink and heat embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder. I used a Brayer to add Bashful Blue and Night of Navy Classic inks, but left some white space around the tree. I also added some white to several branch tips with the White Gel Pen. A bit of Dazzling Diamonds glitter was added with the Two Way Glue Pen on random branches and along the ground line. I stamped the 'thank you' sentiment from Fresh Cuts stamp set onto the Bashful Blue pattern paper out of the Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper pack and punched it out with the Designer Label Punch. There is a 1 3/8" Circle Punch of Night of Navy cardstock layered behind that.

I stamped the background row of trees onto Kraft cardstock in Basic Black Craft ink and clear embossed them as well. Then I stamped the snow fall looking stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds in Whisper White Craft ink above the trees. I also used the Whisper White Craft ink to sponge around the edges of this layer.

What kind of sentiment do you put on a 'Winter' themed card??

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Fresh Cuts, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Kraft, Night of Navy Textured, Whisper White, Summer Picnic DSP
Ink: Black Craft, Night of Navy Craft, White Craft, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Basic Black
Accessories: Metallic brads (black), Brocade wide grosgrain, Designer Label Punch, Clear ep, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Mat Pack, Dazzling Diamonds, White gel pen

Swappin' Pink

I really miss stamping with my friends in Colorado and Montana and the exchange of ideas. Although I stamp better alone (I talk too much with a group - go figure!) I love the camaraderie of stamping and sharing cards and techniques and pages with friends. So I signed up for a swap. lol - great reason, right?

This is a Lots of Layers swap and there were several categories, so I signed up for all of them - haha - might as well maximize the postage, right? I think the rules were to have a minimum of 8 layers and to include ribbon, three or more brads/eyelets/pearls/etc, use two or more punches, and use pattern paper and textured cardstock.

This card is the first one I created for this swap - in the Christmas 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" category. I tried to get it started one day stamping with Lynn, but like I said, I don't get much actual stampin' done with friends! That night, this finally came together and I'm really happy with it. The tag is adhered with Dotto temporary adhesive, so it is removable to use. I used the Winter Post stamp set from the Holiday Mini catalog, the wide ribbon and rope is from that catalog, too.

I stamped the snowflake from Winter Post in Red Riding Hood ink all over the Red Riding Hood cardstock. Then I ran that through the Crimper for some additional texture. The Pink Pirouette cardstock is corner punched with the Ticket Corner Punch and layered onto Kraft cardstock base. I wrapped the Red Riding Hood/Very Vanilla ribbon around and then a piece of Pretty In Pink narrow grosgrain over that. The half back pearls from the Pretties Kit are glue dotted onto Pink Pirouette 1/4" circles. The tag is Red Riding Hood cardstock with the edges distressed using the Cutter Kit and then layered with a piece of the Kraft Designer Paper from the Hostess Patterns Pack, and a layer of Very Vanilla textured cardstock. I stamped the label from Winter Post twice and punched one out with the Designer Label Punch. I cut the center out of the other one, popped it up on dimensionals and adhered to the tag. I paper pierced the outside of the tag, added a jumbo eyelet and tied it off with the Rope from the Holiday mini.

Stamps: Winter Post
Paper: Kraft, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla textured, Kraft dsp from Prints Pack
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Pretty In Pink
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Jumbo eyelet, Twine Rope, Red Riding Hood 1 1/4" ribbon, Cutter Kit, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain, Designer Label Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, Crimper, Ticket Corner Punch, Tag Corner Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Dazzling Pink Reindeer

I stamped along with a couple of the Virtual Stamping Night Preview challenges at Splitcoast this weekend. The VSN is a whole lot of stamping at a very fast pace with lots of different themes and challenges. I love it to try new ways of stamping and also, it seems to bring out a tad bit of creativity in me!

Moulin Rouge was one of the challenges I did - the challenge was to create a card inspired by a costume of Nicole Kidman's character from that movie. I chose her Pink Diamonds costume and went with lots of bling!

I stamped two reindeer in Regal Rose ink (once and then again without re-inking the stamp) onto Whisper White cardstock. Then stamped another reindeer in Whisper White ink onto Regal Rose cardstock. I punched all three out with my 1 3/8" square punch. Then I shmoosed the front of each reinder square onto my VersaMark pad to completely cover the cardstock and image with VersaMark ink. Covered them with Heat N Stick Powder and heated it with my Heat Gun just until each one was all shiny - now they are all gluey and ready for the glitter! Then I covered them in Dazzling Diamonds ultra fine glitter, shook off the excess and hit them with another shot of heat just to set the glue. The rest is some layers of pinks - Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose - some textured Whisper White and more bling with the clear rhinestone brads from the Pretties Kit in the Pink Taffeta Ribbon.

As I was putting this card together, I thought of my friend Dee and her girls, Kay and Bird - Kay loves her Pink, Bird loves her Sparkle and Dee, well I love Stamping with Dee (miss her tons!) So I dropped it in the mail to her, even though it's WAY early for a Christmas card, right?!

Stamps: Winter Post, Many Merry Messages
Paper: Pirouette Pink, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, White Textured
Ink: Regal Rose, Whisper White Craft, VersaMark
Accessories: Heat and Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, White embossing powder, Pretties Kit, Pink Tafetta ribbon, Scallop edge punch, 1 1/4 square punch, 1 3/8 square punch, cutter kit, mat pack
Techniques: Dazzling Diamonds

Sweet Baby Lins

I haven't scrapped for what seems like FOREVER! I didn't scrap very much in the few months before we moved to Minnesota because I was busy running kids around and keeping the house ready to show and we were traveling a lot for baseball and softball. Then we spent a couple months over the summer traveling, vacationing and temporary (hotel) living until the end of August. Then moving in to our house and running kids to school and sports and I just didn't get my stamping and scrapping boxes unpacked. Finally Trace and I unpacked them and set up a stamp area and then I felt overwhelmed! I didn't know where to start, I didn't know HOW to start... lol ! Ugg, what a wimp, eh?! I also need to edit (my least favorite part of photos) and order almost an entire year's worth of photos - 2008. double ugh! In spite of all those excuses, I do have many many years worth of photos waiting for me to scrap, too! hehe

Thank goodness for Splitcoast Virtual Scrapbooking Night! These challenges are just what I needed to break out of my self-induced scrapbooking rut and get some pages done! Splitcoast hosts Virtual Scrapbooking Night weekends about once a quarter and I remember participating in the very first weekend of challenges. That weekend I managed to scrap a page (or two!) for every one of the 16 or so challenges. It was so much fun to create a page based on the given challenge and finish it within the two hour time limit. Then I would clean up my space and start on the next posted challenge. I managed to feed my people in there somehow, too! I have been able to scrap in almost every VSBN weekend, but missed at least two this summer.

This page was for the Canadian Football Challenge

to create a page with lots of 'white' space, everything done in multiples of three and a bonus challenge to use red and blue. As you can see, I used three photos, three words in my title and three big flower embellishments stamped from Baroque Motif and six little flowers and did everything in red, white, blue. The big flowers are popped up on dimensionals. I stamped the title using Spunky Alphabet, one of my favorites from a mini catalog long ago. I used a Brilliant Blue marker and a ruler to draw the border line after I had stamped everything else on the page, and also to add just a tiny bit of journaling - who/when - above the center photo. These photos are Lindsey right after she turned two years.

Stamps: Baroque Motif, Spunky alphabet
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Ink: Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Fire Circle Brads, Brilliant Blue marker, dimensionals