Will & Kate

You can tell how far behind I am seeing as the royal couple will be celebrating their 2 year anniversary in a couple of months! Ooops!

First off I want to say that I did not go to the royal wedding and that these are not my pictures. My hubby and I got up at 4 am to watch the happy couple get married on television. For us, it was one of those moments in time you would look back on and say I remember that! My hubby and I were just in the early stages of dating when Princess Diana tragically passed away and to this day we still remember that day well. So when we were watching the wedding we thought this will be another one of those moments in time that we will look back on and remember (hence why we got up so early to watch it!). And because of that I wanted to do a layout about it. Of course, at 4 am my mind was still half asleep and I never thought to take any pictures of us watching the wedding on TV in our PJs! So instead, I went the wonderful world wide web and Googled the wedding and found some pictures I really liked. I sent them off to the printer and viola ... I had something to scrapbook!

Have any of you ever done something like that? Or scrapbooked important events that maybe you weren't there for but thought the were impactful in some way?

As I was scrapbooking these photos I found myself wondering if Kate would be scrapbooking them too.  If so I would love to see what she had done!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket - Everafter Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: October Afternoon Mini Market and American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Cosmo Cricket - Everafter Die Cuts, Flowers, Brads, and 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Stickers; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking.

A&W Caravan 4 MS

Hello out there! I know it has been awhile since you have heard a peep out of me. Life seemed to get a little hectic for me the last couple of months and like most other people, I had to let some things go temporarily so that I could focus on other things. Unfortunately, that meant my blog went quiet and so did my scrapbooking! And even though life is still pretty busy right now, I thought I might be able to manage coming back to the blog world! So without further ado, I have a layout to share with you today!

After taking a break from scrapbooking, I always find sketches a great way to get back into it!  So as I eased myself back behind my craft table, grabbed my Sketches for Scrapbooking books (a real awesome resource you can find here) and started flipping through the sketches to find one I could use.  I stuck very close to the sketch only altering small details.  You have to start out slow right!?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park - Enjoy the Ride Mini Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Amercian Crafts Thickers, Chipboard Alphas, and Cricut George Cartridge; Embellishments: Echo Park - Enjoy the Ride Stickers; Inks: ColorBox Chalk Ink; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking; Tools: Cricut.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 12

Welcome back to Day 12 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. I can't believe that 12 days have passed already!  And that we are only 12 days from Christmas Eve!  It seems to be coming too fast this year!  I save my favorite card this year for last.  I saw the idea for it on Pintrest and it was just too cute not to create!

First off I will apologize for the picture quality.  It is so hard to photograph an acetate card!  The base of this card is made with Close to My Heart's Acetate Cards.  They come with a protective film on them so you just remove the film and then decorate.  I love it!  Now I will warn you that you have to be careful with your adhesive as it does show through on the other side unless you cover it up with a piece of paper like I did!  To make this snowman you will need one small circle for the head, one medium circle for the center of the body and four large circles for the bottom of the body ( I will explain why you need three extra in a few minutes). Using a light blue ink edge each of your circles, this makes the white seem whiter for some reason.  Now assemble and decorate your snowman.  I placed foam dots between each of the layers to make him pop a bit more.  I used actually twigs as the arms, liquid pearls for the buttons, eyes, and smile, felt for the hat and orange cardstock for the nose.  Once he was assembled, I adhered him to the front of the card.  Now I will explain the other three large circle you cut out.  One goes on the inside of the card for you to write on.  I lined mine up so that when the card is closed the snowman covers up the circle on the inside.  I used the other two circles to cover up the flip sides of the card (I mean the back of the front and back of the back) to hide my adhesive.  Next I added bakers twine and my sentiment and then on the backside of the front of the card I place a small piece of patterned paper which I cut out using a Nestabilites Spikey Circle die and my CuttleBug to be slightly bigger than the sentiment so you see it through the acetate.  I hope my instructions are clear (hahaha pun intended).  It can be a little difficult to explain but once you play with acetate (if you haven't already) it will make sense! I hope you enjoyed this card, I know I had fun making it!

That wraps up my 12 Days of Christmas Cards!  I really hope you enjoyed it, I know I did!

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 11

Welcome back to Day 11 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Today's card is a 5x7 card.  I decided I wanted to use this chipboard snowflake from Basic Grey but it was too big to fit my usual sized cards.  Sometimes I do make cards work for the elements I want to use instead of the other way around.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 7 x 10.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 7 x 5 and used that as my card base.  I took a piece of patterned paper and trimmed it to 6.75 x 4.75 and adhered it to my card base.  Next I decided the placement of my large snowflake so that I could determine where my twine and sentiment would go.  I did not stick it down at this point, I just marked it with a pencil.  Using Versa Mark ink, I stamped my sentiment and then covered it with White Embossing Powder.  I heated it until the powder melted and then set it aside to cool.  After it had cooled, I added my baker's twine and did my faux stitching.  Now that everything was in place, I stuck down my chipboard snowflake to finish off the card.  Yes this card is very simple but I find it dramatic with that large snowflake.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for the final card in this series.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 10

Welcome back to Day 10 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Continuing with yesterday's idea of a simple and easy to mass produce card I bring you today's card.

I was at my local scrapbook store awhile back and found these cards done by Tim Holtz called District Market Notecards in the sale section.  I thought they were really pretty in that vintage Christmas kind of way so I decided to pick them up.  I will admit that I struggled for a bit thinking about what I could do.  I didn't want to cover them up.  So I kept it real simple by added two strips of washi tape in two different colours/patterns.  I then tied a piece of twine around the card so that it sat in the middle between the two pieces of washi tape and then added the sentiment sticker.  I finished of the card by rounding the bottom two corners and there you have it, another quick and simple card!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 9

Welcome back to Day 9 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. This was a really simple and quick card to make and if you are anything like me where I send out a lot of Christmas Cards then you will love this one!  It is so easy to mass produce!

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and cut it in have (8.5 x 5.5).  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 4.25 x 5.5 and used that as my card base.  I started with my background patterned paper and cut it to fit the front of the card (4.25 x 5.5) and adhered it to the front of the card.  Next I took a piece of white cardstock and trimmed it to 3.75 x 5.  Using a snowflake embossing folder, I ran this piece of white cardstock through my CuttleBug and then rounded all four corners and adhered it to the card.  I tied a very pretty ribbon around the front of the card and then added the sentiment sticker.  I finished of the card by rounding the two outside corners.  See I told you it was easy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 8

Welcome back to Day 8 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Today's card is a circle card.  I had these circle card bases in my stash from a Close To My Heart purse I made a couple of years ago.  I had stashed them away and then forgot about them until cleaning out some drawers a few weeks back.

I started with the card base and adhered the background patterned paper to the front of the card and then trimmed of the excess with my scissors.  I had a package of raw chipboard ornaments and chose one to go on the center of this card.  I misted it with a Mr. Huey mister to give it some colour and when it dried I mounted it a piece of patterned paper and trimmed off the excess with my scissors.  I then found the dimensional sentiment from one of Basic Grey's Christmas lines and stuck it in the middle.  I then adhered the whole thing onto the card and then glued a string of mini pearls around the outside.  To finish of the card I tied a small piece of ribbon around the top of the card.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 7

Welcome back to Day 7 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. I am back to the standard sized card today.  This is how I have always made my cards as it made the best use of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of card stock giving me two cards from every sheet.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and cut in half (8.5 x 5.5).  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 4.25 x 5.5 and used that as my card base.  I then took an embossing folder and ran the front of the card through the CuttleBug to give it the raised dot look.  I took a strips mitten patterned paper and edge punched the bottom and then adhered it to my card.  Using bakers twine I wrapped around the front of the card.  Cosmo Cricket makes a sheet of journalling and title cards with most of their collections so I cut one of them out of their Christmas collection and adhered it to a piece of slightly bigger coloured cardstock.  I then added some faux stitching and then adhered it to the front of the card.  I rounded the top two corners of the card to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 6

Welcome back to Day 6 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Hard to believe we are already half way!  Where does the time go!

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75, rounded the two outside corners and used that as my card base.  This card has a window in it that allows you to see the inside of the card.  It's great cause you can put a design element on the inside of the card that shows through.  To do this it is simple.  I cut the patterned background piece (6 x 3.5) and adhered it to my card.  Then using my CuttleBug and the scallop Nestabilities set I cut out the burgundy scallop circle a larger size and adhered it to the card.  I then took a smaller scallop circle and place it on my card and sandwiched the front of my card on my cut plates (be sure the back is folded under the bottom plate or you will end up cutting the back too).  Ran it through the CuttleBug  and tada! a window has now bin cut in your card.  I took a cute little ornament patterned paper and stuck it on the inside of the card so that when the card is closed you see the ornament through the window.  Using an edge punch I cut a small border for the top and bottom of the striped patterned paper in the same colour cardstock that I used for the window frame.  I added some faux white stitching and a ribbon and then stamped the sentiment on the card. To finish it off I traced the stamped sentiment with Glossy Accents to give it some dimension on the card and to help it stand out.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 5

Welcome back to Day 5 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Like yesterday's card, this is another long and skinny format card, except I flipped it to be vertical.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75 and used that as my card base.  I took three strips of different patterned paper and different sizes and covered the front of the card.  Next, using a scalloped edge punch I created a small white border to add to the bottom of the red section.  I tied on some bakers twine and added a chipboard tree.  I finished of the card by rounding the two outside corners.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 4

Welcome back to Day 4 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Like yesterday's card, this is another long and skinny format card.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75, rounded all four corners and used that as my card base.  I started with my background paper and trimmed it to 8 x 3.25, rounded all four corners and adhered it to my card base.  I then took a strip of striped paper and border punched each side and then adhered it to the left side of the card.  Next I took my sentiment and stuck it onto the polka dot paper and trimmed around it, rounded the corners and stuck it on top.  To finish off the card I added some washi tape, ribbon and faux stitching.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 3

Welcome back to Day 3 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. This card is one of my favorites! I saw Kristina Werner do this card on her ambitious 25 Days of Christmas Cards and I knew I needed to do it. If you are looking for some great inspiration and how to videos check out her blog!  I loved the long and skinny format so much in fact that you will see it repeat in several cards to come. Such a great idea and they fit perfectly into business size envelopes!

Isn't it cute! So I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75 and used that as my card base.  I cut the snow flake patterned paper to 8 x 3.25 and adhered it to the card base.  Then using my scissors I cut a wavy edge out of my second patterned paper and adhered it to the bottom of the snow flake pattern.  I then added faux stitching along all the sides of the snowflake patterned paper.  I had this cute felt snowman from the Basic Grey's Jovial collection that I stuck down (he's so cute!) and then set to work on the sentiment.  I had an issue with my fonts being different colours which I did not like so I broke out my copic markers and coloured them all the same colour.  Now you can't even tell the letters used for Holiday used to silver!  I added some glossy accents to the word Cheer and I was done!  Just so cute!  Can you tell I loved this card?

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 2

Welcome back the 12 Days of Christmas Cards!  I am so happy to show today's card.

Like yesterday's card, I used a Creative Memories Circle card for my base and covered it with the pink patterned paper.  I took a strip of patterned paper and stamped the Happy and Days in Versa Mark Ink, added white embossing powder and then heated it up until it was melted.  I then positioned it on the card background and trimmed it to match the card base.  I used a scalloped edge punch on a strip of red cardstock and stuck it above the patterned paper and then added a small strip of red to the bottom of the patterned paper.  I added a little of faux stitching, some bakers twine, a chipboard snowflake and the 25 to finish off this card.

I hope you enjoyed this card and be sure to come back tomorrow for another card!

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 1

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Cards! I have been making my own Christmas cards for many years now and I thought that I would do something a little fun this year on my blog with some of my favorites. Each day for the next 12 days I will be showing you a new card from this years creations. I was actually on the ball this year and already have the cards created and ready to be mailed which I think is a record for me!

So without further a do, here is my Day 1 card.

For this card I used a Creative Memories Circle card for my base and then using my Cuttlebug and some Nestabilities Dies I cut out the Scalloped Circle and Patterned Circle.  After adhering the two together I wrapped them in bakers twine a couple of times and then adhered it to the card.  I added a sentiment die cut and then added some faux stitching and this card complete.

I hope you enjoyed this card and be sure to come back tomorrow for another card!

Home for the Holidays

The hubs and I always do our own little Christmas on Christmas day before heading to see family for the day.  I always enjoy this quiet time just the two of us, sharing the gifts we bought for each other and of course spoil the dog too!

This was a quick and easy sketch to work with.  I love that it allowed me to fit so many pictures on the layout as well as use several different styles of patterned paper!  Instead of following the sketch exactly which called for three vertical pictures side by side, I replaced the far left one with a journalling spot from the collection that was the same size as a 4x6 photo.  Looks great if you ask me!  Plus it saved me from having to do a title ... bonus!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket ; Cardstock: Bazzills; Embellishments: Chipboard Trees covered in Patterned Paper, Cosmo Cricket Stickers, and Basic Grey Stickers; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking; Tools: EK Success Edge Border Punch.

Spoiled Rotten Again

Chevrons have been a huge trend this year! I remember when they first came out about 2 years ago I thought to myself I wonder if they will catch. Well they did! Not only in scrapbooking but in Fabric, Fashion and Home Decor. I am addicted to them and am even thinking about painting my bedroom wall in a chevron pattern.   When I saw this paper I instantly had to buy it ... come on ... isn't it the cutest!  It is almost as cute as my Sister-In-Laws pup Bella asleep on top of the presents!

I love this little elf!  In fact there aren't many elves that I don't love!  They are just so cute and cheery!  This little guy came in a whole sticker set of Christmas themed items and I will be honest to in saying I bought the while thing for just this guy!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Sorry I can't remember and google is no help; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: ;Bling and Holiday Trends Chipboard Stickers and Embellishments.

Up Front

I love large circles!  I'm not really sure why?  I find them a great way to add a little background interest to my layouts.  Usually I take a kitchen plate and trace it onto a sheet of 12x12 patterned paper and then cut it out with my scissors.  Simple and easy!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: SEI - Mayberry Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: SEI - Mayberry Die Cuts and Sassafras Flowers; Ink: ColorBox Chalk Ink.

Good Day 2 Be Rescued

Under water patterned paper is always so colourful and playful.  It's probably why I gravitate to them so much in the scrapbook store!  And being able to mix several of the patterns together on one layout makes me super happy and cheerful!

Because the background paper was so busy my title had a hard time standing out.  By simply running a few strips of washi tape in behind the title, the title was finally able to pop off the background paper.  I also added a little bit of Glossy Accents to the blue vinyl letters to give them a little more dimension.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Echo Park - Sunshine Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Echo Park - Sunshine Die Cuts and Stickers and Washi tape; Sketch: Sketches for Scrapbooking.

Ring Pops

And the cuties are back! This time the layout is all about the Ring Pops we got them at the campground store. They were a huge hit, blue tongues and all, if you couldn't tell from the photos!

My local Scrapbook store usually has some really neat finds.  The owner always brings in things that are not usually used for scrapbooking and I love to rifle through them to see what I can use.  The last time I went in she had these really cute chevron treat bags in a bunch of different colours!  I swooned and bought two of every colour!  Overboard maybe but I couldn't help it.  So the next layout I did, this one, had to use one.  I thought it would be perfect seeing as the layout was about Ring Pop candies and it would be a great place to slide in my journalling card!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: American Crafts - Amy Tangerine Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and Cosmo Cricket Tiny Types; Embellishments: Bakers Twine, Treat Bags, My Minds Eye Tickets, Washi Tape, and Resin Flowers; Inks: ;  Tools: EK Success Border Punch.

The Joys of Camping in the Rain

We love camping in our tent trailer. It's out home away from home. The biggest drawback to a tent trailer though is always having to air it out after a weekend of camping in the rain. As if camping in the rain wasn't a pain enough. Steve snapped this photo of the trailer drying out in the garage after one of our rainy weekend camping trips. It's great that he captures these little things that I always seem to forget!  I'm very much the trips over and the camera goes away with the gear kind of girl!

The die cut paper was so cute with that little deer!  The way my layout was working out my photo and mats were covering the head of this little cutie and that was a problem.  So I broke out my exacto knife and carefully cut around his head so that I could slide my photo and mats underneath it.  Problem solved!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Kaiser Kraft - Tiny Woods Collection and Paper Scraps from my Stash; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Types, and Jolee Woodgrain Letters.