A few cards I've made.....

 I made the above card for my son, who is having a rough time.

The arrow stamp is part of a set by MME, and the toddler stamp is by Stamping Bella.

Inside the card, the sentiment (also Stamping Bella) says, "Things can only get better."

 The silhouette image is a sticker that was on sale at the LSS.  I couldn't resist.

The tickets are Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous.

It made for an easy card.  No sentiment on the inside at this point.  I may keep it a note card.

I did stamp spider webs in two of the corners on the inside.

The above image shows both the front and the inside of the card.

The witch and broom are from a Close to My Heart stamp of the month set of the past. 

The door is a Stampers Anonymous stamp.  Happy Halloween is from an old set, 

but I can't remember who it is by.  The stamp "Yes, I can drive a stick." is a new

stamp by Northwoods that I found at the local stamp store and couldn't resist.

The bling that I used was from Recollections that was discontinued.

Stamped Layout: Heaven is a Little Closer in a Cabin by a Stream

This layout is definitely "old school."  My very first layout 17 years ago was stamped.  I stamped the background of this layout because I couldn't find any paper that I felt fit my photos.  To create my background paper I used two Stampendous stamp sets:  Jumbo Pinecone Boughs and Jumbo Cardinals.  I also used two Close to My Heart (CTMH) stamp sets:  Autumn Splendor for part of the background, and Pure Adventure for the "Limited Edition" stamp.  The title stamp was by Impression Obsession.  The wood frame around the title stamp is a Cuttlebug die and matching embossing folder.  I used Copics to add a little additional color to specific stamped images and to add detail to the embossed title frame. I matted the journaling and the photos.  Yup, definitely "old school" scrapbooking by today's standards.

Cards made with Secret Garden papers by Graphic 45

I am not a huge fan of Graphic 45, but it depends on the papers and the theme.  I loved their Secret Garden collection!  These were easy cards that I put together and just embellished slightly with other supplies that I had on hand.  The top cards look like they have metallic dots, but that is a flaw of the scan.  They are actually pearls.

Life Is Good Layout

This layout was created for a challenge on Two Peas in a Bucket, for their 2013 CHA Summer Event, Six Layer challenge.  The collection that I used was Kate & Co. by My Mind's Eye. The tabs were punched out of papers from the collection.  I also added some embellishments using a Close to My Heart stamp set called "It's Your Day" Constant Campaign.  The "Happy Day" arrow, "Life is Good," and "OK Smile" were all stamped, along with the green Washi style tapes at the top of the page, and all were from that stamp set.

This was definitely a bit out of my comfort zone, and I was trying for a more trendy, up-to-date look.  Normally I don't care if my layouts are trendy, but since it was for a challenge, I figured I should make some effort.  It is a single page, single photo layout, which I almost never do, and which also seems to be the norm at Two Peas. It is the first layout that I have hand journaled in literally years.  I hate my handwriting.  But if I was going to use the journal spot that was part of the collection, I had to hand write my journaling.  I have plenty of samples of my handwriting preserved for posterity in my older albums, and I prefer to computer journal now.

Last of the Baby Album

These are the pages for her first birthday, the last pages of the baby album.  The papers are older, from my stash, and were bought at least two or three years ago, probably longer ago than that.  The manufacturer was Sassafras.  The pinwheels were handcut by me, then inked & stamped.  Most of the stamps are by Close to My Heart, although I also used a Cosmo Cricket stamp set for the banner.  The little sun stamp is a Studio G.  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the inside circle of the larger sun (CTMH stamp). The stamped phrase "You are my sunshine" was a MME stamp.

The scalloped circle (around the circle photo) was handcut with decorative scissors.  If you look closely, you can see small imperfections in the scalloped circle, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  It's the way I used to scrap in the early years, before I had any electronic cutters or fancy dies.  I did the layout while at the LSS with a friend, and I really wanted to finish it before coming home.  I just didn't have anything available there that was the right size to make the scalloped circle mat for the photo, so I used a pair of decorative scissors they had.  I used to be called the "Duchess of Decorative Scissors" because I could use the fancy scissors well and had a very steady hand.  It's nice to know that I haven't lost my touch completely.

11 Month Baby Layout

I think these were papers from my stash.  I used a Cuttlebug die for the butterfly and embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder.  The flower is a punch.  I used a really wide/thick stylus to shape it.  The tickets were a generic ticket stamp that I stamped my short words into, and those were from an alphabet stamp set.  The corners were punched.  The title was probably done with the Cricut, but it also might have been cut with alphabet dies.

Next posting will be the 1st Birthday pages, a 4 page layout.  The baby album is done.  But I will post them another day.

This is the first of two layouts for when she was 10 months old.  The bracket shape was done with one of the mini Lucky 8 punches that the LSS had.  I cut butterflies from the paper and popped them, and added a couple of die-cut flourishes.  They were a different brand of thin dies that I found at GASC awhile back.  I think the name is Marianne or something similar.  Sorry, I don't have time to look it up right now.

This is the second of the ten month layouts.  These two are among my favorites from the baby album I did.  I should list the paper manufacturers, but all of the scraps and papers are buried right now, and since new releases are about to show up on the shelves, I doubt anyone can find these anymore, anyway.  I really can't remember off the top of my head, so I hope it's not too important.