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.

Baby Album Layouts continued......

This layout was made almost exclusively from just the background paper itself.  I found the paper last summer at the LSS, so I am pretty sure it is no longer available.  I think I got the last couple of sheets the store had, which means it was likely an older line.  The letters for the title were cut with the Cricut, and I used some Baker's Twine.  Other than cardstock, the embellishments were cut from leftovers of the paper and popped.

The LSS still carries this paper line, so it's relatively recent.  Again, the embellishment is pretty much just done with the papers, and the letters were cut with the Cricut.  I can't remember which cartridge I used for the font.  I will try to look that up and update later if anyone really wants to know.

The funny thing about these pictures is that this baby girl loves shoes.  She really, really loves shoes.  If she finds a pair, she wants them on, whether they are hers, her brother's, her mommy's, whatever.  I noticed, though, she seems to be barefoot more often than not.

Bee Card

A dear friend moved away.  We sometimes scrapbooked together and other times went shopping together for scrapbooking and stamping supplies.  One of those shopping trips was relatively recent, and I bought some bee themed stamp sets.  I also bought a honeycomb embossing folder.  We had gone to Hobby Lobby first where I bought a bunch of paper packs and some canvas ribbon for stamping on.  I already had some canvas bought from JoAnn Fabrics, so instead of the canvas ribbon, I cut and frayed a piece from my fabric piece.  Then I stamped on it with a stamp by Hero Arts (Art of the Card set).  The bee stamps I used are from two of Darcie's clear stamp sets (Day Is Sweet and BEEutiful).  The filigree brad in the center of the flower on the canvas is from Close to My Heart.  I used Copics to color the canvas.

For the inside, I stamped a few bees and wrote a corny little verse on the computer to go with the theme.

The card meant more to her because she recognized the stamps used as ones I had bought on our recent shopping trip.