H2H Color Challenge - Take Me Out to the Ballgame

This week over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog was a color challenge - it was also my final week as the June Guest Designer.  I had a lot of fun playing along and look forward to participating in future challenges - stay tuned this fall as I'm also going to be a sponsor!

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The colors for this week's challenge are Barn Red, Bamboo, and your choice of blue.  As I was reviewing the challenge, I came across these pictures that I took 2 weeks ago and knew they'd be perfect.  I added some Outdoor Denim as my choice of blue since it matched his jacket.  Here is the page that I created using a sketch from the PageMaps 2 book.

Gotta love the faces he pulled as he enjoyed his ballgame hot dog!

I ran out of Outdoor Denim Bigger Brads for the right page, so I created some more.  I used some Gold Bigger Brads that I had - holding them with my tweezers I heated them with my craft heater.  Then I dipped them into Outdoor Denim embossing powder and heated them again, and set them aside to cool.  This is such a great way to customize your brads!  Anyway, I didn't notice until after I took the pictures and sent them to the H2H coordinator that I forgot to actually add the brads once they cooled - oops!  We were out of town until last night so I will try to get a chance today to update my layout picture.  For now here is the right page.

One of my favorite things about the page is my stitched title.  It did kind of intimidate me at first because I was afraid it wouldn't turn out like I envisioned it, and it was the very last thing I did to complete my page (besides adding on my missing brads).  Once I finally did it, I was really pleased with the results!  I used Cranberry Waxy Flax, even though the page uses Barn Red, and I actually divided the waxy flax - I used 2 strands for my stitching.  For the title I used the Poster Board Alphabet and Giggle Caps and Giggle Lowercase alphabets.  For the circle element on the right page I printed my journaling on some Twill StickStock - I wish CTMH still carried it!  I also used the wood grain stamp from the Universal Backgrounds stamp set to create the piece between the two pictures on the right page - you can see a bit of it in the following picture.

I also used the On This Day stamp set for the tickets that mark the date, and Circle Around stamp set for the circle elements on both pages.

Thanks for looking - I hope you'll play along over at H2H this week and share what you've created!

Flashback Friday

Today I am sharing some fun, old Easter themed projects for my Flashback Friday. I sure had fun looking back at some of these old creations. I will be sharing another old favorite Easter project that I created with the girls, so I hope you'll check back! Have a great weekend!

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First I want to share this old favorite project - one I remember doing with my mom. Here I re-did it using CTMH Sassy Strands but you can use any kind of thin string...

And here is how you create them:

*Blow up some water balloons (they are small and have an egg shape vs. other balloons)

*Dip your string in starch and wrap around the balloon

*Allow the balloon to dry completely (set it on wax paper to dry)

*Once the balloon is dry, pop the balloon and pull it out of your egg shape

And here are some fun pop-up cards with a bunny and a chick - I love these animals because they were created using the Happy Easter stamp set. Their bodies were the egg shape, the chick's feet were the tulip stamp, and the bunny ears were the leaf stamp - how fun is that! So many more possibilities with this stamp set than just eggs and flowers.

And here are some Easter pages that I created before I started blogging, so I haven't had a chance to share them here yet!

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You may recognize the big picture on the following layout if you have a CTMH Spring 2010 catalog - that's my girls on page 51! You can also check it out here if you missed it before! I used no patterned paper on this layout - only textured CS and the Friendship Flowers stamp set.

I created my patterned paper on the following layout using the Playful Flourishes stamp set with Buttercup and White Daisy inks.

And these pages I have shared on my blog already, but here they are again just because of their theme!

Here I used two Just Blooms flower petals for the bunny ears, and a pink brad for the bunny nose:

Notice how this page and the next are identical - I just used different papers but the same Imagine layout. This was a layout for a gathering, and I gave them a girly option and a boy option.

Thanks for looking!

Cards for growing families!

I am so behind posting some of my card creations from this year! I have some posts scheduled for while I'm gone so hopefully I can at least start to catch up. Here are some cards I made a few months ago - there are lots of weddings and new babies this year so be watching for more in this category!

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I made this card for my cousin who had a baby girl this spring. I used a fun tip that I had heard before but never tried - I wanted to pop dot the flower Stickease, so to make the back not sticky, I just rubbed it with some baby powder - works like a charm! Plus it gave the card a fresh baby scent ;-) I used Life Delights paper and Stickease and the sentiment came from the Random Thoughts stamp set.

I used this sketch from CardPatterns

Here is a card I made for a friend who got married this spring - this one was inspired by Tiffany Cheney - you can see her inspiration cards here. I don't think you can see it very well in the picture, but I used the tiniest clear Sparkles for the bride's earings. I used the Magic Moments paper pack and Family Ties stamp set.

I used this sketch from Mojo Monday

Click on the pictures to view them a little bigger - thanks for looking!

Card Organizer

Here is a fun card organizer that I made for a friend for Christmas. Her favorite color is orange, so this Boom-Di-Ada paper was perfect!

Super Saturday

Here are the projects that I taught on Saturday...card organizers made from the Acrylix Organizer OR fun little lunch box tins...

We also made some cards...

Inspired by Pat Pobst (sp?)

The next three were inspired by Lisa Stenz

Idea from last year's (?) Autumn/Winter Idea Book or maybe 2006?

Inspired by Diane Bowman (?)

My first half map...

...well, kind of, anyway! The latest contest over on the PageMaps Blog was a Half Map Sketch. Since I usually only do 12x12 layouts, or at least square layouts, I challenged myself to participate and keep it at a half map size. I decided to do something that would still fit in my 12x12 scrapbook, so I took a 6 pocket photo storage page and cut it in half - that left me with 3 4x6 pockets on each side, so I divided the map into 3 sections - how's that for making it work! So I didn't know how to count this in this year's page count ;-P Do you think it counts as one page?

Here is the sketch...

Here is my version...you can't tell in the pic, but I used Liquid Glass and Fun Flock on the title 'Dream' and it gave it a nice fuzzy soft texture, like her blanket.

And on the other side, I just put pics of that same day - who knew I needed 4 pictures of her sleeping that day - she was just too precious! I think I am going to add some photo corners to the pics on this side.

September Challenges

Sorry, I meant to have these post while I was gone over the first, but didn't get anything new done for the Reflections or Cherish Challenges before I left. So, today I quickly found some layouts I have done but haven't used the blueprint for a challenge yet and so here are the challenges for this month! I can't wait to see what is created!

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Imagine Challenge - Timeline - pages 30 and 31

These are Brianna's ultrasound pictures - I can't wait to do Brailee and Kaylee's now!

Cherish Challenge - Photo Shapes on pages 46 and 47

Sorry, I have posted these on my blog before ;-P

Reflections Challenge...Main Frame - Portrait on page 61