Sunday, August 31, 2008

Blog Candy!

No blog candy here...yet. But Kristin has some GREAT candy available! She has a great blog too!! Be sure to check it out.

Monday, August 25, 2008

3 X 3 Swap

I feel like it's been forever since I posted anything...oh wait...it has been forever! Thank God it's Monday, and the kids are in school, hubby is at work, I have the day off, and the cleaning I need to do is minimal! I need to get some swaps done and ready to go.

These cards are for a 3x3 embossed card swap. I used Papertreys Birds of a Feather and Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug Folder. I folded my card in half and ran the whole thing through the folder. It embossed both the front and the back of the card. I really like the look if it.



Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A Thank You

Just a quick update, finally!
I thought I'd have all this time to stamp when the kiddos went back to school. But when school started, so did sports and all the weigh ins, scrimmages and practices that come along with it. Plus, I still have to go to work. Anyway, here's a thank you card I needed. I haven't used this set in a while. The watercoloring is awful, and the picture is blurry, but I liked the way the card turned out. I need more Papertrey ribbon!! I keep grabbing this one every time!!


Thursday, August 14, 2008

More Blog Bling!!



Monique has given me some Blog Bling!! Thanks Monique! I will be on here later to pass it on!

Great Finds

I have to show you the things I got yesterday....for nothin'!
We were in the dollar store, wandering down the aisle with all the paper, folders, notebooks and such, and I found this whole stack of envelopes in one of the bins. There was no box, or any type of package lying around that they might of come from....but I wanted those envelopes. I figured they would charge me a dollar for them, right. So I took them up to the counter and told them they were just sitting in a bin mixed in with other stuff. The lady said they probably go with these books that you can send in the mail. She also said that if there weren't many books left they would just throw the envelopes away, and she run back and check when she was done ringing people up. The line suddenly got long, but I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally the lady said to the other clerk, "just throw them in a bag, she can have them." Pretty awesome huh! I guess patience does pay off.
They are kind of an odd size, but that's okay. They're 7"x 6"1/4. I can make them work! Oh...and there's 82 of them!!!


Later that night, hubby and I were on our walk.
Now, I don't make a habit of digging through people's trash, but as we topped a hill, these old soda crates were just sitting on top of someones garbage. Aren't they kind of cool. I can just picture the Pepsi one on a checkered tablecloth, at a summer party, with some kind of treats or tall glasses of lemonade in it! The one on the bottom does have the Coke Cola logo on it, but it's very faint.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Altered Notebook....the Tutorial

I had some time on my hands today before work. It's the first day of school here, Christopher is now in 4th grade, Bradley is a FRESHMAN!! and my Joshie Poo is a SENIOR!!! Really, where does the time go :(

Anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself, onto the fun stuff....
I had so much fun doing the last tutorial that I'm going to show you how I altered the Michaels notebooks.
There's no set in stone way to do it, this is just how I did it, and I'll try my best to explain it.

First step is to take the cover off the notebook and find some coordinating scrapbook paper. These notebooks have some color on the paper itself so it looks nice to have the cover colors match. The binding is also very easy to pull apart. My notebook has a light orange color inside so I chose this pretty paper from The Paper Studio.


I cut my paper to be about 1/2 inch longer than the cover, if it's much longer you will cover up the holes when you go to fold the paper over the side, and about 1 inch wider.
I used Stampin' Up!s spiral punch. I don't know if there's another version out there or not. This particular punch has a little metal "nub" inside on the end to use for lining up the corner of your paper. The white arrows are pointing to it. I didn't want to start punching the tabs at the end of my paper or there would be extra holes that would show up on the edge of my cover. What I did was lay down my cover on the paper and mark with a pencil the last hole. Then with my scissors I cut a little slit for the "nub" to fit into to start my hole puching further away from the edge. As I got near the end I placed the "nub" in the second to last hole in order to punch only one hole at the end. Again, I didn't want extra holes.


To go back and puch the hole where I cut my slit, I simply flipped my paper over and put the "nub" in the second to last hole again to get only one hole punched.


Now that I have my paper for the covers cut I cut a small strip of paper the same length as the longest side. This is to cover the exposed edge where the binding goes and give it a more finished look, Because there is no way to wrap the paper aroung where the tabs are. I use Modge Podge to glue the paper on.


Cover the entire surface of the cover with glue, line up your holes and attach your paper. This is another reason to have matching paper, sometimes the holes don't line up exactly and some of the cover color may show. What do you expect with a $1 notebook, right.


I completely for got to take pictures of wrapping the paper around the notebook, but just flip your cover over and like a present, fold and glue the paper around the edges of your cover. I like to start with the shorter ends.


Next you need to cover up the inside of the cover where the paper was glued down. I chose a matching green. I started with an 8 1/2 inch long piece and punched holes all along the edge. It doesn't matter this time if you have extra holes because you will trim it short anyway.
Finished cover. Repeat all the above steps for the other cover.


This is a picture of the edge where I glued the small strip of paper. If I hadn't done it, this would show the original orange color.


Put your cover back onto the spirals. Make sure they are facing the right way and not inside out. Then just pinch the binding back together.
I know this shows brown on the inside, I was originally going to use brown, but changed my mind to the green. Then, when I was doing the back cover I grabbed the wrong color. So just ignore it and pretend it's green :).


Embellish your finished product anyway you want!

I hope this is easy to understand. If something confuses you, please feel free to ask me any questions. And for those in suspense...the Comcast guy was right on time this morning!!
Thanks for looking!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Ink Embossed Cuttlebug background

My First Tutorial:
I've been busy with the whole back to school ritual today. Not to mention waiting for the Comcast guy, who never showed up, because they changed my appointment, and apparently didn't think I needed to know!! So, I had a little spare moment and thought I'd try something I found on You Tube! What would the world be like without You Tube? I know my house would be cleaner that's for sure!
You may have already seen this technique, but it's my first time trying it. I love the look of it and can't wait to use it more.

Start by brayering ink onto the smoother side of the Cuttlebug folder, the side where the design is etched out.

Place your cardstock inside and run it through your Cuttlebug like you normally would to emboss the paper.

The outside of the design will be the color of your ink, while the embossed part will remain the color of your cardstock.


Here's my finished product. This is the first time I tried it so I can see where it needs some tweeking, but I like the way it turned out.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

BRAVO CHINA!!!!



The Olympic opening ceremony was the most amazing thing I've ever watched! Tim was on his walk so I was recording it for him, when he got home we watched it from the beginning and it still gave me goose bumps the second time! Anybody else watch it?
How do you follow a show like that?!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Lovely as a Tree

This is one of those sets that I just had to have after seeing sooo many great cards made with it. Then I got it, and never use it!
This is another card for a swap. It's a mans card so I wanted to keep it simple. Not that men are simple creatures, but, well, you know what I mean. This is also the first time I really used my watercolor paper. I've seen some gorgeous, detailed coloring of this tree but I wanted a messy, watercolored look. I then layered it on another piece of watercolor paper to make it look like I embossed it with the square nestebilities. The background paper is Stampin' Ups Wintergreen. It's hard to tell but the brown strip across the middle is rough on the edges for some more texture.



Friday, August 1, 2008

Birds of a Feather

I need your votes!!! These are two examples of my sisters baby shower invitations, using Papertreys Birds of a Feather. The stamps themselves are small so I thought I'd make the cards 3X3. I used River Rock cardstock and Papertreys Spring Moss ribbon. Please leave a comment and let me know which one you like best. As far as we know, she's not finding out what she's having, otherwise I would use blue or pink. I don't think she reads this blog either so I'm not worried about her seeing them
Choice A: A little birdie told me...

Choice B: New Beginnings

I've Been Tagged!!



I'm sooo excited to have been tagged with the Blogging Friends Forever award by Jackie!! My first award! I visit Jackies blog a lot, she has some great scrapbook pages and cards. Not to mention getting it all done with 5 girls! Thanks Jackie. Now, I have to pass it on....

The rules are:
1. Only five people allowed
2. 4 of them have to be dedicated followers of your blog and 1 has to be new and live in another part of the world.
3. You have to link back to who gave you the award.
It was kind of hard to chose who to give the awards to because I'm very new to the whole blogging world and don't have too many followers, so if any of you think it's corny or cheesy I apologize :)

The award goes to...
Jennifer, we actually met because of our avatars on SCS,(cutest dogs in the world) and have become blogging friends. She's a Stampin' Up! demo and has some awesome cards on her site. She's currently at convention so I'm very jealous of her right now!!
Judy, her cards are gorgeous! I love all the layering and detail.
Tessa, also has some great eye candy on her blog and was recently choosen for the Serendipity Scrapbooks design team!
Scrappinmominky, she just amazes me with her beautiful work. She's also an adoptive mom (of many) which is close to my heart.
And last but not least ...
Judy, she is new to the stamping blogging world and has some great ideas going on her blog. Some yummy blog candy too. She's from Idaho, which is another part of the world to me :)