Independence Day Blog Hop–Projects Inspired by Red, White & Blue

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  It’s right up there with Thanksgiving and Christmas for me.  I’m not sure if it’s because I grew up in a town that had a wonderfully patriotic festival, Loggerodeo (say that 10 times fast), or if it’s because of my deep love for my country.  Whatever reason, I always look forward to the festivities of the 4th of July, the celebration of freedom, the red, white & blue, fireworks and more!  It’s certainly a special day! 

Although, I do have a silly little confession.  The town festival I grew up enjoying is called Loggerodeo.  It’s a combination of the heritage the town was founded on of logging and rodeo.  Combine the two for Loggerodeo, the longest running 4th of July festival in the state.  There’s some history for you!  But the silly part is that I had never been to a rodeo until after I moved from that town.  We now go to rodeos here when we can.  I look forward to this summer now that the munchkins are big enough to sit through a good part of a rodeo.  There is definitely something so American about it.

So whether you celebrate this year with fireworks, a parade, a rodeo, some chain saw carving (don’t try this at home), freedom, BBQs or just some family time, I have a project inspired by the colors of the day.  Red, white & blue.  A nostalgic color combination that I love.


Yes, another banner.  But there are a couple things special about this banner.  First of all, I combined a few super trendy things in it.  Doilies and washi tape.  Yup, it was pretty fun!!!
BUT, the really special part, is the patterns I used.  Many of you know there is the world of paper (or traditional) scrapbooking and the digital world.  Sometimes they collide and we have hybrid.  I don’t mix them very well, but I do enjoy each in their own genre.  But did you know that you don’t have to be a digital scrapbooker to use the digital supplies?  You don’t even have to use Photoshop or other fancy-shmancy program.  Nope, you can use plain old Windows Photo or whatever you have on a Mac (can you tell I’m a PC girl? If I had a Mac, I’m pretty sure my husband would use his 2nd amendment right to bear arms and unload a few rounds on it because he doesn’t particularly like changes when it comes to computers, LOL).  For this project, I selected the elements I wanted, told the computer I wanted to Print, and then selected wallet size.  You MUST uncheck the “fit to frame” box for the elements to print scaled appropriately.  I printed on cardstock and then fussy cut (yes, trust me, I know)!  But the results were so very worth the time to fussy cut.  Then I set to work with washi tape, some different bakers twine, buttons and doilies.  And VIOLA! 


This is the digital kit I used.  It is by Lori Whitlock, available at www.jessicasprague.com 

Oh, but guess what!!  I’m going to give a kit away!!  Just leave a comment telling me your favorite event or tradition for 4th of July, or why you’re grateful to be an American (if you’re not a US citizen, then tell me what your favorite summer activity is)! 
And now I shall bid you ado!  Thanks for stopping by, and have a happy and safe 4th of July!  Celebrate our freedom!! 

Amanda – you are here
Adele– NEXT
Megan
Robyn
Devra
Mandi
Jordan
Sindi
Lorri

Re-do Number 472

Okay, so maybe that is a *slight* exaggeration, but it sure feels like that!  We have a room in our house that was coined the “playroom” when we built the house.  But as the kids have grown, so the purpose of this room has as well.  It was once only play and craft, but has now become our school room.  My scrapbooking is no longer in there (aside from some inactive storage), but my sewing is still at home in this room.  In 5 short  years, this room has seen many changes, reorganizations, purges, happiness and frustration.  It’s really not a large room, just the size of a standard bedroom.  So we’re expecting a lot from it.  Because of it’s small size, organization and function is key to happiness.  I’ve tried several different things and, while each was an improvement, I still was frustrated by the hodgepodge of random furniture and stuff in it. 

I decided it was time to do another *big* purge and some new furniture.  I marched (well, okay drove, it’s 15 miles, I wasn’t walking) to Home Depot and bought one of these 9-cubbie cases from Home Depot (Sold under the Martha Stewart label for $44.99). 

Now, we normally have a zero tolerance policy for purchased furniture.  However, the price on these is decent for the quality.  Will they last a lifetime, absolutely not!  However, for the time being when the best cabinet maker I know is booked out 6 months, they work. 

Well, I already had one 9 cubbie and I also had a 6 cubbie.  I put all three together and gave puppy dog eyes to the said busy cabinetmaker who graciously cut me a top for it (even rounding the corners so the clumsy wife doesn’t poke out a kidney).  We purchased some new taller stools and I am one HAPPY teacher Mom!!!

I love to stand while I teach (craft as well) and this is plenty large enough for me to stand, to have all my teaching resources right at my hands AND give the kids enough work space to do big projects.  The kids even liked it so much they stayed for a couple hours after finishing school yesterday to play there.   Yup, I’d say it’s a success!

Now, note for you scrapbookers who are hoping to have an affordable awesome desk, these cubbies are too small for scrapbooking paper.  They are only 11”, so papers won’t fit in them.  Yes, I cried along with you.  They could have made them just a little bit bigger and I think sold many more! 

(I tried to do more photos, but my 18-55mm lens broke.  I simply must call Canon because I’ve had it less than a year and it’s has just seized up (and I rarely use it).  But this room is too small to get photos with my 50mm, so this is all you get).

Wait, is it Wednesday?

Confession time:  My brain is still on vacation mode.  Yup, I said it.  I still can’t remember what I’m supposed to do when, where, how or why.  And blog?  Really, that’s one of it?  (Although, I’m blaming this on my husband who stole the computer yesterday.  What?  I can blog from my phone you say?  Yeah, haven’t figured that one out yet.  Hey, did you know the smart phones have a phone in them?  Really, I was just as shocked.  I thought it was just the internet, texting and a camera!)

Well, yesterday in the sans-computer time I decided to redo our school room.  Yup, I’m crazy, in my post-vacation blur.  But it had to be done.  I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of finished albums and the room just really needed reorganized.  So I made a trip to Home Depot to pick up some new shelving to build a desk out of and set to work!  I purged a lot of scrappy “extra” stuff that filled the shelves and a lot of kids craft stuff.  We’re not finished yet, but I think I’ll have pictures tomorrow because the desk turned out really awesome!! (Thanks to the help of my awesomely helpful husband – it was my idea, but he executed it).

But really, this is a scrapbooking blog right?  So you want me to get to a page?  Yeah, I thought so. 

I’ve always been afraid of pastel colors.  Or colors light in saturation.  I’m not sure why, but lately I’ve been very attracted to them in other peoples work, especially photography.  So I decided to give it a whirl for myself.  And what is better to use than Dear Lizzy’s Neapolitan.    I decided to use the light colors because the top picture on the left here I took with my phone (well, I took them all with my iPhone), but it was the facetime camera and it came out very white.  I thought I’d run with that since the bottom one was a little overexposed in the light area as well. 

And want to know something super cool…..the “RIDE” is wood veneer I cut with my Papertrey Ink dies (I seriously love those, great dies, even better price!).  I used veneer sold to woodworkers because it was a lot less expensive (and we have scrap laying around from the cabinet shop).

Supplies:  American Crafts Dear Lizzy (paper, 6x6)& Studio Calico (veneer chips), Kaiser Craft (small alpha), Papertrey Ink (all dies), The Twinery (twine), Prima (bling), Tim Holtz (ink), Misc (paper & veneer)

Design Tip:  Use overexposed photos with a light-feeling page  I’m the first to admit I’m a photo snob!  Yup, I am.  But sometimes phone pictures are all we have.  These ones that are overexposed would make me bonkers on a darker page, but using them on a page that is very light, airy and open makes it appear thought out and appropriate, it fits rather than competes.

Price Per Page:  $ (under $2 MSRP)

Freeway Finds

Last summer I read a book called “Memories of a Dirt Road Town”.  Some days, I feel like that is my life.  A dirt road town.  Now, if I’m being honest, my town has lots of pavement (although no stop lights in the town of which my address resides).  But, my neighborhood, well, that’s only a dirt road!  We live one mile in on a dirt road so I think I can with reason relate to the title of the book. 

Why is that relevant to my story today?  Well, because living in a small town, on a dirt road, we live a bit of a sheltered life.  Top speed on the highway is 60 MPH.  Not much adventure around here.  But when we went on vacation, we travelled on the freeway.  After a few minutes of adjusting to multiple lanes going the same speed and direction (or rather, after adjusting to being passed on both sides of us – hey, we are only on the freeway a few times a year) we decided to see what kind of visual intrigue we passed on the freeway.  There is usually a lot of guessing going on as we pass many trucks.  It’s become a favorite pastime of ours when travelling.  This trip was even complete with a few bombs!  You can bet my “coconut bombing” kids loved that (they love Swiss Family Robinson).

Supplies:  My Minds Eye (6x6 pad), Cosmo Cricket (alphas), American Crafts (alphas), Core’dinations (cardstock), The Twinery (twine), Papertrey Ink (dies), misc (cardstock)

Design Tip: Visual Triangle  The use of the red twine tied in three different points on the page create a triangle.  The objective of the visual triangle is to lead your eye through the page, directing (or highlighting) the key items.  In this case, the visual triangle leads the eye from the top left through the photos to the title, then the pictures.  The red twine also creates repetition, which results in happy, non-confusing pages. 

Price Per Page:  $$ ($2-$3 MSRP)

*Winners!*

Thanks to everyone for the help getting to 100,000 hits!  I’m flattered and humbled that this many of you visit my blog!

Alright, enough of the mushy stuff…..lets get to winners!!  Here they are in random order:

• photochic
• RebeccaC
• csewy
• AuntieEm
• Ashley H

Please e-mail me your mailing info to lovejoypaper (at) hughes (dot) net

Room Keys

Nothing ever feels as good as home.  We took about two weeks and hit the road, venturing to Montana and briefly, Yellowstone.  It was a fun family getaway!  I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of pictures and details later.  But because I don’t have any prints back yet, I decided to set to work on this page.  

After accidentally stealing one of the hotel keys the first night, I realized that this might be a fun page to use up all those number stickers that plague me.  I’m sure I’m not the only who who has an abundance of used alphabet sets with the numbers remaining behind taunting.  The grammar rule to spell out any words under then number ten in letters that Mrs. Malcolm firmly beat into our little 7th grade brains will forever haunt me.  I simply cannot bring myself to using a number rather than the word if the number is less than ten.  I can’t believe that even to this day, Mrs. Malcolm haunts me.  Sigh.  Why couldn’t it have been one of the nice teachers from Middle School to still linger in my thoughts as I scrap.  Oh well.  That little complication though often adds to excessive use of letters and an even greater abundance of numbers for me. 

Then it hit me, my hotel keys with the room numbers would be great on a page!!  So that’s what I did.  Because I had so many different patterns going on in the keys, I wanted to keep the page ultra simple. 

Supplies:  American Crafts (Thickers), Core’dinations paper, October Afternoon (paper), Misc (button, floss, cardstock)

Design Tip:  Grid  Using a grid creates consistency, definition and an easy to understand visual.

Price Per Page:  $$$ ($3-$4 per page)  Despite the use of the “left over” numbers, there is still a large quantity of Thickers used on this page and if purchasing the supplies to make this page, it would be costly.

Kitten Smitten

We had a baby kitten this spring.  She was the most adorable little thing, and she sure stole the hearts of everyone in our family.  I knew I wanted to do a layout about it, and use a play on words.  Kitten Smitten.  Because that’s what we all were.  Who knew that 8 ounces of black and white fur with two big beady puppy, er, kitty eyes, could steal the hearts of four persons.  Well, it’s true.  It happened. 

Supplies:  Coredinations, Advantus Cosmo Cricket (patterned paper, stickers), Jenni Bowlin Studio (pennants), The Twinery Twine, My Minds Eye (chipboard alphas), My Little Shoebox (small alphas), misc bling

Design Tip:  Using thirds  This page was inspired from a sketch.  However, the sketch had a complete circle centered in the page.  It didn’t feel right to me, so I moved the circle off center using the right & bottom two thirds of the page.  This created more motion and interest by not having it perfect centered.

Product Tip:  The letters I had were not the right shade of pink.  To make it work with the page, I used my ProMarkers and recolored them a darker shade of pink. 

Price Per Page:  $$ ($2 –$3 MSRP)

Fabric Friday–Simple Tank Embellishment

Over the last 6 weeks or so my Walmart has expanded their fabric and notion department again.  I have to say, that has made me quite happy!  While I’d still prefer to buy my fabrics at a more designer shop, I love the availability of ribbons and trim by the yard again.  I really missed that.  This week, the kids and I were in looking for some fabric for a couple nightgowns and I spotted some ribbon rose trim.  So very pretty!  I promptly snatched up 1/3 a yard of it and went to the clothing department to find a solid black tank that I could stitch it onto.  Love the end result.  I will be going back for another color tank and doing another one like this since often I don’t wear black when the temperature goes over 88 degrees.

What  you need:  Tank top or t-shirt & trim (I bought 5 full rosettes which was just a hair over 1/3 yard), pins, black thread (or appropriate color for your selection) and sewing machine

Carefully pin trim to the neckline of the garment.  Stitch in place.  I found it VERY helpful that my machine always ended a stitch with the needle down.  That made it very easy to just lift up the presser foot, turn the garment at eat joint and continue.  I also used the speed control setting on my machine and turned it to medium (so my machine controlled the speed regardless of how far I pressed down the foot pedal).  Stitch around entire edge, remaining close to the edge without stitching the flowers flat.  It’s very important to use matching thread so the thread “disappears” into the trim and you can’t see it.

In about 20 minutes I was able to change a tank top that cost $3.97 and $1.47 of trim (about $5.50 total) into a very cute tank top that I know I will enjoy wearing much more!!  And I’ll be able to layer it during the winter with sweaters so I can wear it year round!

Remember

Today’s project is my current assignment for thinking*through*design.  My post is going to be a little different than usual today, because I need to share two things about this page.  The first is that the assignment was to “fussy cut” paper to complete your page.  This is my*thought* that I submitted. 

“I’m pretty sure that fussy cutting is called that because that’s how my attitude turns when I attempt it….fussy…yup, just like a tired baby. But for this assignment, I put my big girl panties on and dealt with it. I realized as I was pulling paper that fussy cutting doesn’t have to be intricate, elaborate or curved things. It can be straight lines too! That’s great because my fine motor skills aren’t very good (which is why I get fussy) and it’s difficult for me to cut a beautiful curved line. But with the help of a ruler I was able to easily fussy cut the straight lines of the pattern in this hexagon paper. The great thing about fussy cutting is that it’s a very budget friendly way to add a lot of pizzazz and elements to a page. I used two sheets of 6x6 paper and one sheet of cardstock to make a page that had a lot of Wow without a lot of Pow to the wallet.”

With that in mind, I want to talk about the page a little bit.  Yes, this page was created out of first and foremost the assignment to fussy cut.  However, as you can probably see, the content is pretty deep.  I struggled with this page more than I usually do.  I honestly was torn.  This was a page I’d been thinking I should do for a while, but I just couldn’t pull it together.  There is a lot of emotion involved.  If you don’t recognize the pictures, this is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (or A-bomb dome).  When I was in high school, our Japanese Club took six students to Japan for spring break.  It was a once in a lifetime experience for me, and my only travel overseas.  I remember being a teenager and the intense emotion, confusion and sadness there, at a place where so many people lost their lives. 

As I created this page, I put more attention to the attitude of the design and the colors than I normally do. I wanted it to be calm and mellow, respectful if you will, with a somber tone.  I had originally pulled some pink and grey paper, but that just didn’t work.  Between the grey skies in the pictures, the somber grey of the concrete, and the overall somber attitude of the location, pink just didn’t work, it was too happy.  After deciding that, I matted my photos on the grey paper, with the intent to pull out the grey of the concrete.  From there, I grabbed the Follow Your Heart 6x6 paper and decided that despite yellow being a usually happy color, I liked the combination in the more muted tone (it is also found in the top photo, so it seemed natural fit).  The blue also felt like it carried the mellow theme of the page.  I wanted substance to the elements, without being flashy.  It just didn’t feel appropriate to be flashy.   Lastly, I carried through the somber grey of the concrete in the grey of the word “remember”.

The journaling….yes, this had me hung up the most.  Honestly, I didn’t know what I wanted to say about it.  Because of that, I did something I don’t normally do.  I journaled in pencil.  But my reasons were two fold.  First, I could erase it later if I found more appropriate words.  Secondly, the grey again was a repetition of the grey of the concrete and the somber sky.  But also, I wanted it to be subtle.  I didn’t want the journaling to be screaming for attention on a page where everything else was modest.  I only could find a black journaling pen (my journaling pens are favorites among others in this house….).  With that all in mind, the pencil seemed like the best option. 

 

Supplies:  Coredinations (cardstock), DCWV (cardstock), My Minds Eye (patterned paper – 6x6, chipboard elements), The Twinery, Papertrey Ink (alpha dies)

Design Tip:  Use color to convey emotion  (see above)

Price Per Page:  $ (under $2 MSRP)

I’d love to have you join us in the challenge at thinking*through*design!  Go check out what the other team members have done and share your page.

Try Hard

Things in life that are worth doing are worth the effort.  My kids had a lesson in this recently on a mini-vacation when we found a penny press,those penny presses are hard work for a 5 year old!  I remember as a kid it was a huge treat to be able to spend two quarters on something as frivolous as pressing a penny.  But while I remember the treat that they were, I sadly don’t know where any of them are.  Fortunately, my kids won’t have that concern, as I used their flattened penny as a page embellishment. 

Supplies:  Cosmo Cricket (paper, older line & mini letters), My Mind’s Eye (paper, 6x6), hand made clay embellishments, K&Co (bling), Papertrey Ink dies
Design Tip:  Create depth by using multiple inks  I created additional depth on my die cuts and punches by using a brown and blue ink.  I tried to replicate the depth of the “faux paint” wood paper. 
Price Per Page:  $ (less than $2 MSPR)  The use of a souvenir and handmade embellishments really kept the price down on the supplies used for this page.

Eye of the Beholder

I’m always reminding myself that perspective is so important in my response to situations.  Depending on the perspective, things might be worse than they are, or better than they are.  I was pondering something the other day and kept having to remind myself that I needed to keep the details in perspective. 

Ironically, a few minutes later, A comes into the house with her hands behind her back and a bit of a blushing smile.  At first I wasn’t sure what she was up to, then she pulled out from behind her back a “bouquet” of flowers.  More likely weeds, but regardless, to this little 5 year old, they were a beautiful bouquet of flowers picked specially just for her Momma.  It made my heart smile, especially to see the sheepish grin turn into a full face eye twinkling grin. 

Over the next ten minutes, I received several more “bouquets” of these wildflowers (or weeds) picked from our “yard.”  It was just as if the Good Lord had blessed me through my children at that moment to remind me that I need to keep life in perspective in my responses to things.  What I might have overlooked as a nuisance, they found a beautiful gift for their Momma.  And it really did warm my heart.  Because I am loved by my children, my husband, my Savior, my family and friends.  Yes, life is beautiful.  Just like these flowers.

We Did It!!

Thank you to all you who have read, followed, commented and visited!  We hit 100,000 hits this morning!!! 

I will shortly pull the five winners of the camera charm necklaces and post it!!

Thanks everyone for your faithful readership :)

Food Friday–Cranberry Mix

Earlier this summer I did some experimenting with my diet and found that a lot of my difficulties with fatigue, headaches and pain seemed to be linked to corn.  When I don’t eat any corn or corn products I feel immensely better.  It was an easy diet change for the benefit.  But being as how I didn’t purchase a lot of processed foods to begin with, it wasn’t a terribly hard transition.   I do admit I miss popcorn and the occasional corn chip, but really, a small sacrifice for feeling better than I have in a long long time.

Part of the diet change is that I’ve also eliminated most grains from my snacks.  I’ve replaced them with nuts, which I already really liked.  I’ve been making several different nut mixes, and this is my favorite! 

Cranberry Almond Mix

1 1/2 cup sliced almonds

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup flake unsweetened coconut

1/4 cup mini Ghirardelli chocolate chips (Ghirardelli is one of the brands of chocolate chips that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it)

Mix altogether and portion out into 1/4 cup servings in snack sized resealable bags

Fabric & Scrappy Banner

We had a birthday party last week for a little friend of the kids.  The sweetest little girl, she was turning 4.  I had a recurrence of my DDD (Date Deficiency Disorder) and thought I had an extra week so the gift I ordered online didn’t arrive.  We made a trip to Walmart and a few other stores in town to find something and just didn’t find anything we liked (ah, the joys of small town and limited shopping – I love it, really I do).  So we decided to go home and be creative.  The kids and I brainstormed and we decided that a banner with her name on it was what we needed to do. 

I set to work and pulled out some scraps that had the same colors in them.  I cut a triangle template from a piece of plexi-glass and cut out all the pennants, a batting and backing for each pennant.  Then I stitched them together on the machine.  I left the edges exposed and unfinished because I wanted a shabby look. 

I used my cricut and cut the letters (although I had to finish them by hand because I didn’t have my settings correct).  You can cut fabric with the cricut if you have a new(er) blade and a good sticky mat.  Simply use iron-on heat ‘n bond adhesive and iron it to the backside of the fabric.  Put it on the mat, cut it at blade depth 6, pressure medium to medium high and slow speed.  You might want to do multi cut and medium speed, depending on your fabric.  Then iron on the applique to your item.  (I believe I used the Princess cartridge).

I also used some of my scrapbook trims and my Beacon 3 in 1 adhesive and glued the pom pons on three of the pennants.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Beacon 3 in 1 liquid adhesive?  It’s awesome stuff!!  Think of it as a room temperature hot glue, yeah, it rocks.

Finally, to finish it off, I thought the pearls would be the perfect mix of girly princess and shabby.  So I stitched by hand each pennant to a rope of pearls.

Now, I think I just need to change my name to Kathleen so I can keep it!

Our Family

Life is what happens while the clock is ticking.  Time passes, the kids grow, another grey hair appears (wait, did I say that?, because really, I have no grey hair, really), and another number is added to your age.  As time passes, we often have pictures to document the passage of time. 

I really enjoy using those pictures to show how dramatically things change in that time.  It’s absolutely incredible to look at the differences in our family in 5 years.  These pictures were just about 5 years apart, actually closer to 5 1/2.  I remember trying to take a picture with a wiggly two year old and a fussy 1 month old.  Oh, how times have changed.  How much closer we are as a family.  How many memories passed in between.  Certainly worthy of a page.

Supplies:  Crate Paper (paper, stickers, embellishments, 6x6), misc cardstock, The Twinery Twine

Design Tip:  Mixing scales of print  Mix the scale of prints (12x12 & 6x6) creates interest and contrast while maintaining a sense of unity

Price Per Page:  $$ ($2-$3 MSRP)

I Think You’re Amazing

Less is More.  That’s a phrase we hear a lot in life.  While I don’t always live by it, I do usually agree with that statement.  Less is More.  I do often use this proverb in my scrapbooking.  While I often implement the use of white space, I mean in more ways than just less stuff.  I find it very fulfilling to pull out a limited number of products and limit myself to that per page.  Yes, I have an ample stash, but I don’t feel like I need to use it all on one page, or have the options to.  I’ve really been enjoying pulling one line of paper, finding solids that go with it, and using the matching stickers along with only few buttons or flowers.  Simplicity.  Simplicity in choices, simplicity in design.  (Despite the fact that I tend to overreact sometimes and not be simple, that’s my desire in my actions as well.  Simplicity).

But if you notice on this page, simplicity goes beyond white space and coordinating products.  I’ve also kept my journaling very simple.  And that’s okay.  Yes, there are many stories to be told.  But sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  I didn’t find it necessary to go into long details about the ears my son is wearing in this picture.  (I just wrote in a discreet place the location and date, and called it good. )  I thought the smile he shows and the simple title of “I think you’re Amazing” says enough.  It says what is in my heart at the moment, and that’s what I’m going with.  It reminds me of the country song from the 90’s “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!” 

 

This page was for the gallery highlight challenge at Club CK.  I used this page by Gena as my inspiration, changing the side and mirroring it. 

Supplies:  Echo Park (paper, stickers), misc (buttons & cardstock), The Twinery

Design Tip:  Gallon, Quart, Pint  The rule about using color in the scale of “gallon, quart, pint” was implemented here.  I used the kraft as my “gallon” and my other two colors in ratios accordingly.  The teal would have been my “quart” having 1/4 of the amount as the kraft, and the yellow would be my “pint” having 1/4 the amount compared to the teal.  Scaling  your color in that relationship assigns the value to each, creates harmony and avoids chaos and confusion of each color appearing to be equal.  It allows them to accent each other, not compete.

Price Per Page:  $ (less than $2 MSRP)  This page is about as cost friendly as you can get.  No premade embellishments, just a few buttons (super cheap), twine (also super cheap), solid paper and pieces of larger sheets.   Very budget friendly!

 

And check it out, we’ll probably hit 100,000 hits in the next two days!  Be sure to leave your comments so you can be entered for one of five camera charm necklaces!!

Kitty Super Hero

I was doing some business work a couple days ago and little A was running around the house yelling.  Now, this is nothing new.  My munchkins seem to believe that the noise in the house is not to be under 50 decibels and if it is, they promptly find a way to make excessive noise.  The difference was that not only was she in her royal dress up clothes, but she also had her doll bag around her neck backwards so it was flying out like a cape.  Don’t worry, she was in no danger (although, they know they aren’t supposed to put things around their neck, so I was slightly surprised she made this not the best choice).  I laughed and asked her what she was doing.  She promptly responded she was a “Kitty Super Hero”.  She had rescuing kitty super powers!  Silly girl.

I managed to get her to stand still (and quiet) long enough to snap a few pictures.  For the page, I really wanted too bring out the colors of her dress, the teal and gold.  This My Minds Eye Follow Your Heart by Rhonna Farrer was perfect!  The design was inspired by a sketch by Ashley for the Club CK June Sketch Challenge.


Supplies:  My Mind’s Eye (paper & chipboard embellishments), Spellbinders (butterfly die), Offray (crocheted trim), Swarovski crystals, Cosmo Cricket (small alphas), Thickers

Design Tip:  Grounding the Journaling  For this page, I didn’t want to add a journal spot.  The pattern of the paper inspired me to make a cluster around it, but I didn’t feel like a journal card worked anywhere.  However, to just write on the page would have left the journaling feeling like it was there without reason.  To ground the journaling, I first used a ruler to draw lines on the background paper.  Then I wrote my journaling.  This provides a feeling of completion and purpose.

Price Per Page:  $ (less than $2)