Nanny's Birthday

Here's a birthday card I made for my daughter to send to my Mom today. My daughter was practicing being a pirate. Apparently finger action goes along with the "Arrrrgghhh". Every picture shows her little fingers pointed out.

This was done with a quick page and some letters from Shabby Princess. The font for the greeting was 'Adolescence'.

Digital Christmas

After all that handmade goodness, I craved some digital creativity. Here's the Christmas card insert I did.

Here's the ones that didn't make the cut this year.

Handmade Christmas Cards IV

Here's my latest installment of Christmas cards. My friend, Angie, who inspired me toward tactile creations, just had her baby girl. Somehow, she's still managing to keep things running over at Scrapscene. I am amazed.
The paper for this first card all came from a giant pack I picked up at Winners. I went with a whole circle thing here. Background paper with small circles. Brown paper for tree had circles of colour on it. I added circular brads for additional tree decor. Then fianlly, a gold star. The star and the brads came from Dollarama. Oh, almost forgot, I inked the edges of the tree and the card with my gold Color Box stamp.

For this second card, I didn't put any background paper on my cardstock. I left the shiny embossing showing (these were my leftover wedding invitations). I cut a tree from shiny pink textured paper and glued it to the card. I cut varying lengths of ribbon from 5 different black ribbons and glued them over the tree as branches. I angled the ribbon to avoid the wedding cake look (see previous post). Finally, I added a bright red brad to the top of the tree. All supplies came from Dollarama. I think it looks girly with a modern appeal. I know exactly who I will send this one to.
For the third card, the background paper came from my giant pack from Michaels craft store. I thought it looked a bit like windy swirly snow. The tree shape I cut from shiny psychadelic blue paper that I got from Dollarama. The pretty ribbon also came from Dollarama. You have to be very careful with the ribbon. It's tricky to glue it on quickly, before the shiny bits of beadwork come loose or fall off the ribbon. Then, of course, the gold star, also from Dollarama. This is one of my personal favorites.

Free Digital Paper - Boardwalk

Took some pictures of the boardwalk in Shediac, New Brunswick while we were on vacation last year. Here's a couple pages I made from one photo. Feel free to use them. I'd love to hear from you if you do.
Download Here.

Handmade Christmas Cards III

Thanks to Angie over at Scrapscene, I've got the create bug and can't shake it. Check out her Christmas cards and wealth of Christmas craft links. Here are a couple more cards I have made in my endless amount of free time (who am I kidding!!!). Both of these cards have background paper that I picked up at Loomis and Toles last year when making Valentine's Day cards.

For the first card, the background paper is a nice shiny red. The green ribbon is from Dollarama. The tree trunk is a wooden barbeque skewer that I cut to length. The star is from some Christmas fabric. I Mod Podged it to card stock then cut it out. I double knotted the ribbon over the stick then cut each layer to length. I glued the flattest side of the stick with Mod Podge and laid it on the card. I had to put it under a book until it dried a bit because it kept slipping around. Once the stick was set, I used a foam brush and just pressed some Mod Podge through the fabric of the ribbon to stick it where I wanted it to go. I was able to slide the wet ribbon around a bit until I was happy with its position. I didn't glue the ends down tight because I wanted it to look more 3D.

For the second card, the background paper has white words written in French. The Christmas greeting came from Papercrafts Magazine free downloads section. I printed in on vellum and stuck it in place with vellum tape (glue does NOT work with vellum). The ribbon/lace I got ages ago at Fabricland. The silver and gold brads were from Dollarama. I didn't apply any glue to the lace but held it in place strictly with the brads. If I had to do it over again, I would cut the lace angled so it would look less like a wedding cake and more like a tree (laugh). I might even use a stick as in the previous card to make it more obvious that it's a tree. Since taking this photo, I have added a small gold star to the top in order to lessen the cakiness. This one was quick and easy. And not using glue, a lot tidier!!

Handmade Christmas Cards II

Here's a few more cards I made. First, I sewed (by hand... I recommend using a machine for this) white lace that is trimmed with gold to white cardstock. Then I cut out some triangles. I got enough to do two cards with the gold trim hanging down and a third card with three smaller triangles, all with the gold trim pointing up. For the first card, I glued some funky white dollar store paper (kinda looks like snow to me) to the front of the card. Then I stuck on the lace tree. I finished the top of the tree with a small metallic gold round bradfrom the dollar store. Above the tree, the angel is a clipart that I got from WPClipart. I used some gold digital paper from Raspberry Road Designs to make the angel more funky. Finally, I used my silver Color Box stamp to edge the card in silver.

For the Second card, I chose some red paper with gold accents that I got in a scrap paper pack from Micheals craft store. I got the Christmas greeting from Papercrafts Magazine free downloads. Again, once I stuck my lace tree to the paper, I finished it with a metallic bronze brad from the dollar store. I edged the card and the greeting with my gold Color Box stamp.

For the third card, I used blue paper with a swirly pattern that I got years ago in a giant block of paper from Micheals craft store. I think it looks like snow blowing in the background. I layered some of the snowy white dollar store paper at the bottom to look like snow hills. Then I glued on the three small lace trees. They didn't need brads because the tops had gold lace up. I drew a small star in the 'sky' and filled it in with my silver Color Box stamp. I also edged the snow hills and the card with the same stamp.

free digital paper

Here's some digital paper I created from a photograph I took of a bush. There's nine different papers in all. Please feel free to use it. If you do, I'd like to see what you create.

Download Here

Handmade Christmas Cards

Every once in a while I get the urge to do scrapbooking in a more traditional, hands-on way. My friend, Angie, over at ScrapScene helped fuel the fire with her Christmas Card a Day posts. Here's a couple I have done. I will post more as they are completed.

For the blue tree, I used dollar store paper, ribbon, and brads. I cut the fancy ribbon to various lengths and attached them to the card using square blue brads. The star is a bit of silver pipe cleaner. Inside the card, I pasted on a bit more paper to cover the rough side of the brads.

For the green tree, I used a bit of green fabric with pretty red flowers and a Christmas fabric with various little pictures on it. I ModPodged the fabrics to cardstock. Once dry, I cut the bird out of the one fabric and used a fancy template edge to draw out the tree and cut that one as well. For the background, I used some pale green paper that I got years ago at Micheals craft store. I glued the tree and bird to the top of the pale paper then I used a red pen and the same fancy template edge to outline the card.

FYI... The cardstock that I mounted this all on was leftover invitations from our wedding. They have a nice embossed outline. This embossed edge shows through the paper or if I reverse the paper, it makes a nice outline for the inside of the card. for future cards I may cut the background paper smaller than the embossed edge to take advantage of the already present beauty of the paper. Stay tuned.

New profile pics

I've had some fun, putting my face (and others) on famous bodies. Photoshop has taken on a new level of fun for me. Enjoy!

New Stuff

Just thought I should post these new layouts I completed. I will post the info on paper, elements, etc. a little later on.

YingYang

My cousin liked my self portrait so I offered to do up a profile picture for her. The deep background floral paper came from atomic cupcake. The forward red wash on white paper came from designer digitals. The ying yang shape was from phtoshops custom shapes tool. The photograph was a self portrait my cousin Deb took of herself. I hope she likes it.

Riding a tiger

My 2 and 1/4 year old has now started to create her own stories. There is a recurring one. It revolves around a story she has but has a really wonderful twist. In her book, there is a pony named Little Black and a horse named Big Red. In her own story, Daddy is riding Big Red, she is riding Little Black, and mommy (that's me!) is riding a tiger. I love it!

Self Portrait

I created this self-portrait for my facebook account so I thought I would share it here.

Technique described in Jessica Sprague's tutorials. Background paper from Shabby Princess' sunporch collection. I positioned the paper so the flowers were right over my eyes. Did you notice?

Jag Water

We have had a run on a pretty good funny for a few days now. Christina is in love with Diego (Dora's cousin). She thinks the baby jaguar is "so sweet" (with eyes closed, head turned and shoulders raised). This week she decided to work on her ennunciation of 'jaguar'. We always knew what she was saying but I guess it wasn't perfetly clear. Well, it turns out that Christina has decided that the little animals name is 'baby Jag Water'. Clear as day. What can I say besides, "so sweet" (head turned, shoulders raised, eyes closed).

Curls

I am so in love with this picture of Christina. I keep posting it everywhere. I took just about every curly looking element I could find and started adding them all to this page. Then I gradually simplified until I was left with this slightly less complicated layout.The curly brush came from Andrea Victoria over at Designer Digitals. The curly picture frame came from Kirsty Wiseman. The frame around "curls" came from the Shabby Princess Vintage Floral collection. The background paper is AquaPaisley paper from the Sweet Serenity collection at Shabby Princess. The picture is from our abundant collection of our little princess.

Atlantic Grace

I finally got around to doing a page on our boat, Atlantic Grace. I'm glad I waited. I think it turned out pretty good. Lets see... The photo was taken by a friend, Jimmy Patterson, on our maiden voyage. The Image of the Spray in the bottom right hand corner comes from the Joshua Slocum Society International website. I applied it with a blending method I learned from Jessica Spragues tutorials. The quote is from Slocum himself. The filmstrip came from escrappers.com. The waves at the bottom of the page came from atomic cupcake templates. All the smaller images are from our own archives except the small photo of us under sail, which came from our neighbour, Stu. Everyone took a picture of us that day. I think they were surprised to finally see us out sailing after so many years of construction. I applied standard photoshop effects to the main picture and to the title. The background was just a blue page to which I applied a satin overlay in order to give a wavy effect.

No batteries required

Today my 2 year old daughter, Christina, said something that I need to share with the world. I was changing her diaper and she was entertaining herself with a toy whose batteries had died. While I was carefully wiping her bottom I said, "I'll have to see if I can find something to fix that". She frowned and asked, "what you gonna find, mummy?" I answered, "I'm gonna see if I can find some batteries that will fit". She paused with a look of concern on her face then said, "Mummy, batteries don't go in my bum". I quickly reassured her that I was not intending to put batteries in her bum. I'm not sure if she believed me, especially since I couldn't contain my laughter! Ah, my precious girl. I'm so amazed.

Princess

Who could resist this tender moment? The layout and photo blending techniques came from Jessica Sprague. The papers came from Jessica's echoes of asia kit. The flourishes beside the crown are Jessicas as well. The floral brushes are from design fruit. The scalloped edge brush is from an atomic cupcake template. The crown came from wpclipart.

No Smoking

The layout concept was inspired from a tutorial by Jessica Sprague. The clipart all came from wpclipart. I created the background key paper and the license plate paper with wpclipart images made into patterns.

Christina

I wanted to create a page that captured some of the essence of my little girl. And while this page surely did, it had all since changed so much. Thank goodness for scrapbooking so I can create a new montage to capture her once again. I used a brush from design fruits worn high resolution kit to create the picture frames. I created the wood chip letters and butterfly with an action from atomic cupcake. The floral border brush came from design fruits fresh foliage kit.