Summery Butterflies

In honor of these last few days of August, I created this card that feels like summer...

From the color combo of Strawberry Slush, Daffodil Delight & Coastal Cabana mixed with Basic Black & Whisper White to the butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set it reminds me of carefree summer day watching the pretty butterflies fluttering around the garden.

Summer sure went by too quickly...enjoy the long holiday weekend!

Hello There Daydreamer

Can you believe it...the end of August is almost here?!! Which means the end of the Big Shot & Bundles Promotion is coming up as well. (you have until Aug 31st to place your order)

One of my favorite bundles offered is the Flowery Daydream Bundle. I used it to make this cheerful card...

Each layer of the pretty flower was stamped using the Daydream Medallions stamp set and embossed in White EP. I used the color combo of: Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana & Crisp Cantaloupe.

Speaking of good things coming to an end...today is the last day to purchase Holiday items that are on the carryover list. My top 3 selections from the list include: the Festive Flurries stamp set & coordinating framelits...

the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set with it's coordinating framelits...

and the beautiful Joyful Christmas stamp set. You will want to add these great items to your collection while they are still available!

Here's the complete Holiday Carryover List.

Toxic Treat Pages

A couple more Halloween pages...I'm sure you are probably getting tired of seeing my Halloween scrapbook pages, but that's what I've been working on. Hopefully you will be inspired to use these ideas with any theme to fit the photos that you have.

This two page layout uses only scraps of DSP...on the title & the journaling strips. I used embossing folders and stamped images from the retired Toxic Treats set which I embossed in black.

I used Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive. Here's a look at the full two page layout...

Thanks for visiting.

Fun Ghouls

I told you earlier this week that I've been busy working on my Halloween scrapbook...here's a couple more fun pages using my all time favorite Halloween DSP from SU!

The Cast a Spell DSP retired a while back, but luckily it is still available in My Digital Studio. 

I used my Big Shot along with several different punches to embellish this page. If you don't already own a Big Shot, then you won't want to miss out on the current Big Shot Bundle Special going on right now! 

Here's a look at the two page layout...

Have a great weekend!

Pleasant Poppy Easel Card

I colored this beautiful Pleasant Poppy image with my Blendabilities markers.

For the flowers I used both the Pumpkin Pie set and the lightest shade of Cherry Cobbler. The background was done with the lightest of the Coastal Cabana set and then I used the Color Lifter over the top of it. When it dries it leaves a cloudy looking, mottled color which is perfect for a sky. I then added some splatters with the Gorgeous Grunge set and the retired En Francais over the top. Here's a closer look...

When I was already half way through coloring I realized I had made a boo boo...the poppy buds should have been colored green...ooops! I should have remembered that since I have these in my garden. Oh well...I still love the way it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Halloween Rocks! Pages

Many of you who have been regular visitors of  my blog may know that each year we host a Halloween Party. We spend a lot of time during the month of October transforming our barn and yard into the perfect spooky party zone. As you can imagine, I take a lot of photos during the evening to capture all the great costumes and fun we have. I have a couple scrapbooks dedicated just to these Halloween photos...but over the past few years I've really slacked off in the Halloween scrappin' department. This past month I've been busy working on my Halloween album and have completed quite a few layouts. I'll be sharing some of these pages here over the next few weeks.

The From the Crypt stamp set and the coordinating Cast A Spell DSP are probably my all time favorite Halloween items from SU!. They retired a while back, but luckily both the stamp brush set and DSP are still available in My Digital Studio. I happened to have stocked up on this favorite paper so these are traditional 12x12 pages.

The Pumpkin Pie background was stamped with one of the images in the From the Crypt set. I cut the curvey background pieces using a set of templates by Kiwi Lane. The large bat & spider designs were cut using my Silhouette Cameo and My Digital Studio. The web border and title were also cut using the Silhouette. Here's a look at the full layout...

Out of the 20+ years we've been having our parties, this was one of my favorites. A friend of ours is in a band and we hired them to play that year...so it really did ROCK! Even my pumpkin matched the theme...Alice Cooper.

Thanks for stopping by today...hope your day rocks!

Wildflower Meadow with Watercolor Background

I've been enjoying the beautiful summer days so much that I haven't taken time to share anything recently here on my blog. To go along with all the gorgeous wildflowers in bloom around my house, how about a card made using the Wildflower Meadow stamp...

I used the E Clear Mount Block inked in Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay & Pear Pizzazz to create the watercolor look background. I explain that more here in this post. After my background was thoroughly dry, I stamped the Wildflower Meadow image in Island Indigo.

I hope you are enjoying a beautiful summer weekend!

Cheers...Life is Good Pages

My last post was a couple Fall themed scrapbook pages taken over a weekend of wine tasting in Northern Michigan. I took so many photos that I decided to do a Project Life page as well. Since I am adding PL pages in with my traditional scrapbook pages, I also needed to create a page to go with the previous two that I shared. So first, here is page three...

and then this Project Life page next...

One of the papers in the retired DSP I used had a grid patterned paper which was perfect for my journaling square. I used a #5 PL Page Protector which was perfect to hold a few small photos showing some details of our weekend. The "life is good" stamp from the Project Life Remember This stamp set was the perfect little title for my journaling square.

Scroll down if you would like to see my previous pages that go with these. Thanks for visiting today.

Autumn Splendor

I've been busy working on scrapbook pages recently. Thanks to my good friend Rachel who has been coming over each Wednesday to scrap...she has been helping to inspire me and also helps keep me to stay on track and finish some pages. The addition of Project Life into the SU! product line has helped to inspire and simplify as well. Here's a traditional  two page layout showing some gorgeous Northern Michigan Fall photos from last year.

I used the Autumn Accents Bigz die to cut out the leaves and then used the Faux Fossil Technique to add color and texture to them. It's hard to believe those leaves started out as Very Vanilla card stock, isn't it? I explain more on the Faux Fossil Technique in this post.

The Cajun Craze layer was stamped using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. The DSP I used here is retired, but you can probably find it, or at least similar, on My Digital Studio. Here's a look at both pages together...

I took so many photos over this weekend so I also made a couple Project Life pages with more of the photos and did lots of journaling. I'll share those with you next time.

It actually feels more like Fall here the past few days...cool temps. Not very good pool weather, but perfect for scrapping with a friend...which is what I plan to do today. You have a GREAT day too!

Embossed Wedding Photo Card

My beautiful niece got married this past weekend. I wanted to create the wonderful couple a keepsake card for the special occasion, and here is what I came up with.

I used a cute photo of them from when they were first dating and printed it in sepia tone. It fit perfectly inside the embossed frame from the retired Papaya Collage stamp set. After embossing with White EP on Whisper White card stock, I sponged it with Crumb Cake ink so that the detail popped. I did the same with the double heart image from the Wedding Elegance set. It's finished off with a pretty bow made from White Organdy Ribbon and a couple tags using the Tiny Tags set. With the exception of the ribbon, everything else used for this is retired.

Flower Shop Blendie Pair

Here are a couple cards I created using the Flower Shop stamp set along with the Blendabilities Markers. This first card is fairly quick & easy to make.

I love being able to color the Basic Pearls with my Blendie pens to match my project! The next card I created used basically the same layout and supplies, but I stepped it up a bit by adding more detail...

For this one I inked up my Honeycomb Embossing Folder with Early Espresso ink before running it through the Big Shot. I also used some Typeset DSP cut into a hexagon shape. To finish the card I used some of the new Early Espresso Seam Binding Ribbon...love having so many new colors of my favorite ribbon!

Have a great weekend!

Christmas Cuties

I cannot think of many things more adorable at Christmastime than either a baby or a kitten opening gifts. Both seem to be more interested in the packaging than what is inside. This page shows my 1 1/2 year old great-nephew opening one of his presents and my Mom's kitten playing inside an opened box.

I used some of last years beautiful Winter Frost Specialty Paper...it is hard to capture, but there is silver metallic in a couple of the sheets that really add to the shimmer & sparkle. I stamped and embossed various Festive Flurry snowflakes and easily cut them out using the coordinating framelits. While the DSP used here is now retired, the Festive Flurry stamp set & the Festive Flurry Framelits are still available on the Holiday Carryover List...until August 27th. (when the 2014 Holiday Catalog goes live on 8-28, they will be retired) so make sure to check out the list to see what is still available!

Isn't this little snowman adorable? He is a Sizzix Bigz Die that has a coordinating Embossing Folder. I bought him a while back at a scrapbook convention and never used him. I used some Silver Dazzling Details to highlight one of his embossed snowflakes. With the addition of Project Life into SU!'s product line I've been supplementing my album with some PL pages along with traditional 12x12. So the above page is the left page and this PL page will come next...

This really frees me up to make some really quick pages using lots of photos and journaling yet still be more creative with some coordinating pages. You may notice that I used the stamp set Endless Wishes on my titles for these pages. This was a super popular photopolymer set that was available last year over the holidays. It was so popular that it sold out very quickly! Well, I'm happy to say that this set will be available in the upcoming Holiday Catalog...so if you missed out last time you'll be able to get it soon.

Back in early December, I shared these two pages. They were all ready to add my Christmas photos & a little journaling. Here's what they look like now that I completed them...

and the right...

and the full two pages...

When I originally created these pages, I used temporary adhesive for the photo mats and a few of the embellishments in case I wanted to move them. Good thing, as I ended up adding an extra photo.