2023 Title Page

This year, I'm working really hard on getting organized and on trying to get caught up on my scrapbooking.  I am excited to create my title page for our 2023 album! 

I ordered three 4x4 photos from New Year's Day that I thought would be fun to include as a title page to kick off this year.  I ended up using sketch pattern 4 from Make It From Your Heart, Vol. 5, and the Storybook collection.

I made a shaker window for the title year and filled it with loose Melon and tiny gold star sequins.  If you were wondering about the 3 photos, I used a 4"x4" flip flap to add the third photo and hidden journaling.  I don't want family and friends in the future to have to guess who everyone is or what was happening.

If you're a scrapbooker, are you organized?  All caught up?

I Love U, Valentine!

 This card was inspired on one in CTMH's Core Catalog on page 57.  (Can you guess which one?)

I cut the heart out of the Storytime patterned paper/Sage cardstock panel with my new Stitched Heart Thin Cut.  I added a strip of Melon shimmer trim to the front.  I also cut the I and U from my (retired) Alphabet Thin Cuts.  I filled in the shaker window with Flower Confetti and Loose Melon Sequins.  

I hope my girl loves her Valentine!  Wishing all my Inky friends a very happy Valentine's Day!

I'm also linking this card to the In{k}spire Me Challenge #499- Valentine Special. 

Blue Valentine Cards

Though I don’t have the blues, I have a daughter whose favorite color is blue, plus I wanted to make a Valentine card for my husband that wasn't too "froufrou."  I was channeling the Life’s a Hoot collection for these cards.  

First up, our daughter’s card: I started with a Periwinkle cardstock panel that I cut with this pretty heart Thin Cut card front.  I also cut it with Sapphire and Lagoon cardstock and a pretty piece of Grape watercolor paper from the Life's a Hoot collection.  After I glued the Periwinkle panel to the card front, I added the different heart pieces until I was happy with the arrangement.  (NOTE: Take a picture so you can recreate this because you will have to add some glue!).  I stamped the (retired) sentiment in Sapphire.

Now for my husband’s: it was really easy to recreate the card but with a more masculine Sapphire cardstock heart panel as the main frame.  For his, I stamped the same sentiment with Grape ink.

Both cards are embellished with Teal (heart) dots.  (Also, thank you to CTMH Maker Cat Nowak for the inspiration for these cards!)

Wishing you and yours a very happy Valentine's Day!

National Send a Card to a Friend Day

 Happy National Send a Card to a Friend Day! Who would you send this to? 

I used the Storybook collection, the Storybook Scrapbooking stamp set and Thin Cuts, and a favorite sketch from Make It From Your Heart (I think Vol. 2 but could be 1).  After stamping the rainbow in black on the Thin Cut White Daisy cardstock, I colored it with five different Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers: 

Burnt Orange 4, Light Yellow 3, Jade Green 1, Vintage Blue 1, and Pink Violet  2

For the finishing touches, I colored over the rainbow and clouds with clear shimmer brush and added some white acrylic stars from my stash.  My tip is that if you only buy one shimmer brush, get clear!  It adds pretty sparkle to just about anything!  I love all the other colors, but sometimes they are too intense or too messy for small images.

If you can't do it today, make time to send a card to a friend this week!  S/he will appreciate it!

Fun Fold Card with Are We There Yet?

This card was a lot of fun to make!

Here is how it unfolds:

I used the adorable Are We There Yet? paper collection, with the AWTY? Scrapbooking stamp set and coordinating Thin Cuts.

This card wasn't made with anyone in mind yet.  Who would you send it to and for what occasion? 

Thinking of You Card with Are We There Yet?

 Just a fun little "thinking of you card!"  I love how you could easily use scraps to make this sketch!

Happy February!  I am thinking of YOU and hope you're well!

January Stamp of the Month Class Cards: Bear-y Cute

Tomorrow is the last day of January, so be sure to order your January stamp of the month, Frosty Friends, before they are gone for good!

After fussy cutting the bear, I used dry watercolor pencils to shade him.  Torn Pine cardstock and sponged Glacier ink provides the background.  The clouds were cut with the Cloud Background Thin Cuts, using the cut outs rather than the background.

Be sure to get your Frosty Friends before they're gone!  Shop HERE if you don't already have a CTMH Maker.  Thank you!

January Stamp of the Month Class Cards: Tree-mendous

 This slimline card was inspired by another CTMH Maker, but my apologies for not remembering who!

After flicking Green Apple shimmer brush on the card panel, I stamped the trees in Green Apple and Evergreen.  Notice how I fussy cut and popped up one of the trees.  I also added a fussy cut bird house and added some red stickles to its heart.

The sentiment is from the Floral Greetings stamp set, and I doodled a little border with a black journaling pen.

I like how calm and clean this quick card is.  Thanks for letting me share!

Dragon Card #1 (and Two Challenges)

When I saw the adorable dragon stamp set in the current CTMH January-March Idea Book (the Storytime-Scrapbooking stamp set with Thin Cuts), I knew that I had to get it to create some things for our daughter!  

My first dragon card uses inspiration from two challenge blogs, Color My Heart Color Dare #532, Shades of Blue and Purple plus One.  Here’s a quick explanation of how I created the background.

I decided I needed to add some black distress oxide inks to make the "sky" a bit darker.

It is so fun to see how this ink oxides with spritzes of water!

I also flicked on Sapphire shimmer brush ink.

Here are the markers I used to color my dragon.  (I added clear shimmer brush on the wings and Flamingo shimmer brush to make her scales sparkle.)

The dragon image easily meets the Double Trouble Paper Crafting Challenge #130, Keep Us in Stitches, using option 1, stitching, and option 2, magical or mythical creatures.

At this angle, you can see the spark a little bit better!  I forgot to mention that the sentiment is from the Spring Greetings stamp set.  Thanks for letting me share this adorable dragon with you!  (I can report that my daughter LOVES her card!)

CSI Case Inspiration 403 Meets January's Stamp of the Month, Frosty Days

My layout is pretty much a total and complete copy of the CTMH Corporate January stamp of the month artwork, and I am 100% okay with that!

I didn't have silver glitter paper, so I used silver foil paper.  I made my own polka dot paper by spritzing white gloss spray on Sapphire cardstock.  I had fun showcasing my fur babies along with the adorable critters from the January stamp of the month, Frosty Days.

Left page close up:

Right page close up:

Challenge details HERE

I think my layout fits the challenge by using some of the colors from the inspiration photo, the snow theme, and the critters.  In addition, I used stripes, house (see the bird house?),  hand lettering (AKA my poor handwriting LOL), other animals, hats, and a heart.  

Thanks for letting my share my version of this layout, my (adorable IMHO) kitties, and the January stamp of the month!  Please leave a comment sharing what you like too.

Title Page Challenge

As I am working on getting myself organized this year, I've been inspired to create more (which is a great thing) and am working on better systems to manage my creations (still a work in progress).  I have several albums started that lack title pages, so the current Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #633, to create a title page, was just the inspiration I needed.

I pulled two favorite family photos from 2021 off my bulletin board by my craft desk.  These (retired) Close To My Heart "Lovely" Picture My Life cards matched really well, so I played around with the design and mounted everything on (retired) Blue Bell cardstock.  I added Blue Bell shimmer trim and glitter gems, plus stamped the year with my (retired) Daisy alphabet.

It feels really good to get (somewhat) organized and to create a layout that immediately went into an album!  If you're also a scrapbooker, then I know you can appreciate my sense of accomplishment right now.  

As always, thanks for letting me share with you!

Storybook Christmas Layout

The new Storybook collection is probably not what you first think of for Christmas, but I thought the color palette worked well the pictures from us celebrating Christmas Day with my sweet mother-in-law.

Because I wanted to include five 4"x6" photos, I searched the 4x6 Photo Sketch Blog and found the 5 Photo Scrapbook Sketch (12x12- 201), which I think worked perfectly for my photos.

The pretty white acrylic shapes are from the (recently retired) Christmas Story embellishments.  I also added some Mist shimmer trim for some sparkle.

I stamped the trees from the January stamp of the month, Frosty Days on Sage cardstock (front and back to get the two shades).  I also added the cute little bird.  All four of the stamped images are embellished with Icicles Stickles to add more sparkle and shimmer.

Hopefully these pages have helped you see the many possibilities with paper collections.  They can be used for so much more than you might think!