Gifts From Florida

Boys Rule is a really cool blog and scrapbook kit site dedicated to boy themed pages and scrapbook kits.  My friend Abby is on the design team and I wanted to enter their first ever sketch challenge this month.  I used this sketch:

I love how excited my grandsons' faces are in this photo and I am so glad that my son snapped this photo of Jacob and Cole opening their gifts from me on Christmas morning this year.  I used Echo Park's Season's Greetings

Fall Down 7 Times....Get up 8

My grandson Cole is a rough and tough kid.  He also is amazingly resilient, tenacious and also very coordinated.  These pictures are from 3 years ago when he was 3 years old and a surprisingly good skateboarder for his age.  Falling down never bothers him or deters him from learning new tricks on his board and you should see him on a skateboard and a snowboard now!!  I hope he always remains that determined to succeed and I know he will go far in life.

For this layout I used Echo Park's new collection A Boy's Life and this sketch from Frosted Designs:

Frosted Designs has awesome card and layout sketch challenges, Fabulous Friday challenges and great prizes.  Their design team ROCKS every challenge and I am always inspired when I check out their blog.  They are having a DT call right now and you can get all the details HERE.  I am also linking up this layout to My Craft Spot's Anything Goes Challenge.

Authentique January card Sketch

Authentique is a relatively new company to come on the paper crafting scene and this card and a recent layout were the first time I had a chance to check out their products.  I was very impressled that the quality of the paper is extremely thick and very nice and everything is a product of America which is important to me.  For this card I used Pleasant Paper for the background of my card from the Blissful Collection.  The Petite Type Alpha Squares are also part of the Blissful collection.  The Oval and the thin pink border and patterned paper under the ribbon are all off the Blissful Icon Die-cut Tag sheet.  The yellow ribbon and kraft card base is from my stash.  I used the Authentique January sketch:

You still have time to enter their challenge to win some of their products. The challenge ends Wednesday February 1st at midnight PST.  They also have a cool layout sketch on their blog as well.  You can check it all out at the Authentique blog ....just click HERE.

CPS 252 challenge entry

I just LOVE the sketches at Card Positioning Systems....they allow for so much creativity and REALLY inspired.  Here is the sketch I used for the above card:

I used My Mind's Eye Lime Twist papers and the beautiful handmade shabby flower in the center was gifted to me by my fabulous friend Theresa.  The prize this week is from Taylored Expressions.  I have long admired their stamps and dies and would love to win.  I am soooo glad I slid this entry in just under the wire.  Deadlines really motivate me!!

Love is You -- shaped card

I love Valentine's Day....it is one of my favorite holidays.  What is not to love?  It is a time to celebrate the love we have for our sweethearts, children, grandchildren and all the others in our life that are dear to our hearts.  So, it is time to start on my Valentine's Day cards and projects.  I made this sweet 4.25 inch shaped card using this sketch from Card Patterns:

I am entering it in their sketch challenge as well as Lily Pad's Patterned Paper challenge and Paper Issues  All We Need Is Love challenge 

Stubborn Abby

Basic Grey has a really cool challenge this week....it's the Double Up Challenge.  The challenge is to use two different Basic Grey collections, 2 pictures and a two word title.

The checkerboard paper for the background is from the Olivia collection as is the alphas for the title.  The blue paper and the torn beige paper are from Picadilly along with the journaling card and the flowers embellishing the heart and the journal card.  The hearts in the upper right I fussy cut from a piece of paper from the Olivia collection.  I was amazed at how well the 2 collections coordinated together and how perfect they were to scrap these 2 pictures of my granddaughter being stubborn and strong-willed during our visit last September to Chicago's Navy Pier.  I used the January sketch (I flipped it on it's side) that my friend Theresa created for the Yahoo group I am active in Scrappin'-n-Chattin' which you can see here:

I got a lot accomplished this weekend and will be sharing another card and another layout in the next couple of days.

Noah's Card

Our nephew Noah is turning four this week and I made him this card and matching envelope.  I really like the way it turned out.  Those banner pieces were a thrift store find....they are sewing notions meant to be iron-on appliques to the collar of  western styled shirt.  They look to be from the 70's-80's judging by the vintage looking packaging.  I got them for a quarter and knew they would look awesome on a card for Noah.  I was really lucky to find the cowboy themed papers in my stash, the kraft cardstock for the base is Recollections, the "happy birthday" stamp is from Stampin' Up and I printed "Pardner" on my computer.  I also made a matching envelope from kraft cardstock and just followed the instructions that came with my Martha Stewart scoring board.

Challenges entered:

ScrapFit Weekend Warm-up #23 -- use Kraft paper

Birthday Sundaes: Challenge #40

My Craft Spot Challenge #42-- Let's Hear it For the Boys

Fan-fold flower (rosette) Tutorial

Hi everyone....I thought I would post a tutorial on fan fold flowers (also called rosettes). You will need a scoring board (this is not absolutely necessary but sure makes it easier), strips of pattern paper, a good strong glue (I like Tombow's Mono adhesive), a scrap of paper (I am using about a 3/4" circle here) and whatever embellishment you want to top your fan fold flower with.

I started with a one inch wide by 8.5 inches long strip of paper and I scored it every 1/4". You can also use a 12" long strip of paper but you would want to score it every 1/2".

Then I accordian folded it. If you do not have a scoring board you can just fold it yourself...just try to keep the folded sections a uniform width.

Then I glue the ends together with my Tombow Mono adhesive and let it sit for a couple of minutes.

After the ends are fully adhered to each other you push the circle down until it is laying flat. I glue a scrap of paper (in this case a circle I cut from scrap) on the back side. This helps hold the flower in shape and also helps provide a good surface when you will glue your fan fold to your project.

Then I flip it over and embellish it.

The beauty of fan folds is that they can be embellished any way and with most anything you want. Here are some fan folds I did for the current TPV challenge--I used chipboard elements from the Bella Blvd Christmas Wishes collection:

On this flower I used my Fiskars Threading Water border punch on my strip of paper before scoring it:

I hope I have challenged you to try to experiment and make your own fan fold flowers .....what kind of variations will you come up with?

Scrap With Suzy Giveaway

My friend Suzy just reached 500 followers on her blog and is celebrating with a giveaway.  You can win a $15 gift card to your favorite scrappy online store.  Check out the details HERE.

My first CAS (clean and simple) card

The current challenge at Flashback Fridays is to post your first CAS card.  This card pre-dates my blog as I think I made is sometime the summer of 2010.  The photography is awful as it pre-dated my good camera too.  But isn't that the fun and purpose of this challenge: to look back, cringe a little, laugh a little and see just far we have come?

You still have time to enter your forst CAS card as the challenge runs through next Friday January 27th.  Check out the deets (and a cool prize too) HERE:

Triple punched birthday card

I used 3 different punches on this card and I am really liking it.  I also used some papers from the Fresh Print Clothesline collection from Little Yellow Bicycle.  They are from a couple of years ago but I LOVE them and thought they would make a really pretty card. The sentiment is a sticker from SRM which makes card making a breeze.  I was able to make this whole card in under an hour. I am entering it in the Moxie Fab Punches Challenge.  I used card sketch #148 from Card Patterns:

Cousins

Last week it was announced that Sketchy Thursdays (my favorite sketch/challenge blog) was shutting down.  They posted their last sketch and I just HAD to use it and enter.  The above page was made following this sketch:

I used Authentique papers and embellishments that my friend Abby gifted me.  The picture is of my cousin Joanne and I a couple of weeks ago.  Joanne lives in New Jersey and we had not seen each other in 40 years!  She and her hubby own a vacation place about 2 hours south of us and were in town over the holidays so my dad and I met up with them for lunch.  It was so nice catching up with her and having our picture taken was a must!

Reconnecting with Joanne meant so much to me....she was one of my favorite cousins growing up and cousins are usually your first best friends.  I am entering this layout in Scrapfit's Workout #60... It's The Simple Things.  It really is the simple things like reconnecting with a long lost family member that really make life sweet.

Fan Fold Challenge at The Paper Variety

We have an awesome sponsor for our challenge this time -- Bo Bunny!!  And just what is our second challenge of the year, you ask?

FAN FOLD FLOWERS!!!!!

In my opinion, fanfold flowers are one of the most versatile embellishments to add to a project.  I do boy pages...alot of boys pages and I'm telling you they look good even on boys pages.  Here is my project for the challenge:

See?  I added four fan folds to this page....3 of which are topped with chipboard elements from my Bella Blvd. Christmas Wishes collections.  I think they look fun and festive...perfect for birthday pages as well. I used Sketch Inspiration's Sketch #302 and pictures of my son and grandsons decorating their tree last month.  I just *LOVE* the picture of Cole putting the star on top.

So what can you win?  Bo Bunny has generously provided their complete "Enchanted" collection to the winner! 

How awesome is that?? The collection is sooo perfect for wedding and heritage pages....and look at all those embellishments {swoon}!  I love it!  You now have 2 weeks to post your project for your chance to win.  I will post in a day or so a quick little tutorial on how to make these quick and easy fanfolds so check back with me soon. 

Challenges entered:

ScrapFit Weekend Warm Up #22 -- use stars

A Good Friend...

The sentiment on this card couldn't be more correct....one of the best things in life IS a good friend and I am blessed to have a bunch of online friends who share my love for scrapping and cardmarking.  This card is going to one of them.  I used this sketch from Card Positioning System:

The papers are Cosmo Cricket Material Girl and the sentiment was received in a swap from my good friend Ann in Las Cruces, NM

Happy Brrrrr-thday

I have a dear friend who shares her birthday with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so I can NEVER forget her birthday, can I?  I wish I could say the same for her....she always forgets mine but has an absolute heart of gold and I made this card for her.  I used Echo Park's Winter Park collection, my new Martha Stewart large snowflake punch (a recent find for $3 at Michael's) and some beautiful Basic Gray brads.  I heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom and used this card sketch from Card Patterns:

I am also entering it in the Winter challenge over at Little Scrap Pieces and for the challenge to link up a project that typifies my style over at Pumpkin Spice.  They are having a challenge and a blog hop through January 24th as they introduce their first kit and it's AWESOME!

By the way, how do you like the new look to my blog?  My mega-talented girlfriend Theresa did an Extreme Blog Makeover!!  LOL  I gave her a little idea of what I wanted and she is familiar with my whimiscal and funky style and her imagination just took off .  I squealed when she showed me the header she designed....it is truly one of a kind and I am so very grateful.  Check out her blog HERE.

Amy

I have been wanting to do this layout of my beautiful daughter-in-law Amy when Isabelle was born last August for sometime and just didn't have the right papers or sketch to inspire me.  But everything came together recently and the result is this page.  One of my friends commented on the before picture that Amy hardly looked pregnant.  Well I am sure she would have disagreed because I know the last few weeks of Amy's pregnancy were very uncomfortable.  But isn't she beautiful?  There is just something about the radiant glow of an expectant mother and of course the happiness in the second picture after getting to meet and hold Isabelle for the first time.

I used this sketch from Artful Delight:

I used horizontal pictures instead of vertical but tried to stay pretty true to the sketch other than that.  The prize is the awesome February kit.  Leeanne has the BEST kits and I would sooo love to win one.

I am also entering it in the Wee Memories and Frosted Designs challenges which is to use something new....a new technique or new paper.  Well in addition to scrapping my "new" granddaughter I used my new papers from my recently recived Santa Sack from October Afternoon.  In December they ran an awesome deal on the October Afternoon blog to buy $100+ worth of product for $40.  I grabbed one and just squealed with delight when it arrived.  Mmmmm....I love the smell of new scrapbook paper!  It contained an amazing and generous assortment of papers and embellishments.  I used paper from 5 & Dime and Modern Homemaker collections and stickers from Fly a Kite along with Chipboard from the Sidewalks collection on this page.  And it all coordinated beautifully, don't you think?

Then My Scraps and More was having a blog hop with a challenge to create a layout with chipboard (the flower chipboard), buttons, twine (I tied a bow in the large button with Pink Sorbet twine from the Twinery) and 2 different fonts in the title.  I was able to incorporate all of those elements in this layout as well.