Baby Album

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the shower of a dear friend of mine. It is a testimony to her sweetness that all of her friends were just the nicest people you could get to meet. Thanks E for a very fun evening.

I thought a little baby book would be a nice gift so I made one using the new Little Yellow Bicycle Baby Safari (Boy) Kit. You can get one here

It was a good project. Sorry the pics aren't the best but I was losing light fast when I had it complete:












And I used my scraps to make a gift bag, those kraft bags are SO handy!



scrapbooking+mini-album

Little Pieces

Janine, the April diva of the month at TSR, asked me to design a sample for her using paper posies. Since I am a big fan of these easy-peasy little beauties I was happy to comply. What struck me as interesting though was that this LO is wholly made up of scraps, some buttons and a piece of kraft cardstock. I dug into my scrap bag and ripped circles, went through my ribbon and found some pieces that would work and voila - a LO done for very little expense. Sure, no one is going to be knocking on my inbox asking to publish it but that isn't why I scrap. I scrap to remember the people, places and times that make my life beautiful.


Fun things you can do with little pieces of patterned paper:

1. Make a teeny posie for "o" or the dot for an "i" in your title or journalling.
2. Grass. Since grass is sort of clumpy it works well with an assortment of inch long piece. Ditto for stems and leaves.
3. Flowers. Posies like this are fun and lend a charming feel to your LO. All you do is rip paper in cicles, scrumple them and then ink the creases and edges. Stack them up, add a button or brad and your done.
4. Punches and Die cuts. I sometimes punch the last bit of paper into a flower, heart or other useful shape and then have them on hand when I scrap. It never takes long before they find their way on to a page.
4. For slightly larger scraps, you can stamp journalling spots onto them and then set them aside for a nice decorative element and space to write.

scrapbooking

Life is Delicious

Since my blotter was littered with pointy hats I decided to make another card. One of the things I like most about rubber stamps is the versatility. When I see hats, I don't just see hats but also ice cream cones and megaphones. I bet if I looked a little harder I'd see more things too. When stamping, as in life, don't limit yourself to the most obvious use, path or solution.


Both circus star and pointy hats are part of the sale going on right now at Odd Bird Planet. The sentiment can be found here.

stamps+cards

Card Sets

One of my favorite and most often requested gifts is card sets. Cards are a great gift because they are personal, hand made and consumable. Now days so many of us are simplifying so gifts that can be used up are especially welcome.

When making card sets it's best to spend some time thinking about the recipient. Beyond design concerns, you should ask yourself if the person you are making the cards for sends photos or writes long letters. If either is the case it is best to make your sets greeting card size as opposed to note card as 4x6 prints fit nicely inside and there is a lot of room to write. The cards below are greeting card sized.

Sets work best when they all share the same color scheme, design or a common element. In my example, all the cards follow the same design pattern but the different papers and colors make each one unique. This also is a great example of how versatile one stamp can be and how color evokes a different mood. Choosing a theme for your card set is also a nice touch. I chose hats for my theme, this hat stamp and some quotes about hats - the rest came together easily.

When packaging card sets you can make or repurpose a box or you can simply stack them with envelopes and tie them with a bow. I've done all three and tied with a ribbon always seems to elicit the most excitement.





These cards use Odd Bird Planet's Pointy Hats which is part of the sale going on right now.

stamps+cards

How Charming

Odd Bird Planet is having a big 30% off sale on selected stamps. Lucky for me, this little charmer is one of the reduced images. He was one of my first loves over at OBP. You can see the complete list of stamps that are 30% off on Johanna's blog.

On this card I used Charmed Charmer and How Charming.

stamps+Odd Bird Planet

Fun Hair

Sorry I've been a bad blogger. I have all the right excuses - poor health, broken printer/scanner etc. But the reality is, sometimes blogging gets lost in the shuffle.

I took the time to make a page this AM about my cool new hair color. The bottom pic is the shade it's faded too - still very super-hero whose alter ego is a rock star, no?

Chris bought me a Kindle! Anyone want to point me to cool message boards and such so I can learn all the Kindle tricks?

Kindle+scrapbooking+redhead

Easter Card Tutorial

There is a new tutorial of mine up at Clear Artistic Stamps you can see it here.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but we went to Race to Witch Mountain and it was awesome. Great movie, action packed, exciting, funny. What was especially nice was that I didn't find a single bit of objectionable material. The teens were fully clothed, there was no bad language, the closest thing to potty humor was the dog asking the girl if they could stop the car so he could go to the bathroom. As for as violence, there are a lot of car chases and fist fights but anyone who is hurt is always shown with a bandaid or some other minor scuff later. Even the largest crash is followed with dialogue stating that the driver was fine. All five of us gave it an 8 or 9 out of ten. I especially loved the nods to the original two movies- there's even cameos!

stamping+cards+race to witch mountain