May 16, 2012 | Cards, family, Masculine, Retired List |
The Mocha Morning Specialty Designer Series paper is a perfect match for masculine cards. This card is super quick and easy to make. I used the 1″ square punch to punch out pieces of the designer paper including some of the flocked paper in this pack. It is on the retirement list so make sure to order it soon before they run out. Each square is backed with a piece of Early Espresso punched with the postage stamp punch. Then arrange them on the card base which is Crumb Cake.
I tied a piece of Hemp twine around the card front and tied in a knot. The Hemp Twine is also on the retirement list. The the greeting is in the lower right hand corner. I used “happy father’s day” from the Delightful Dozen stamp set (it is in the new catalog). But this card could be used for any number of things – very versatile. Switch out the designer paper and change the whole look of the card.
Just a quick little shout out to my boys – I’m so proud of all three of them. We were all so impressed by Ryan’s performance at the Spring Band Concert last night – he played in the percussion ensemble and did so good with several key solo and duet parts. Then Tyler went today for training at his new job – he has been gone most of the day – I can’t wait to hear all about it when he gets home. I talked to Kyle – he started his internship job yesterday. They are spoiling him out there – he said they gave him a laundry bag and they’ll do it for him, and they feed them 3 meals a day including any snacks they want – they just have to request it and they’ll stock. A furnished apartment and a bike to ride the mile to work.
Have a wonderful day!
Mar 8, 2012 | family, My Digital Studio, Scrapbook Pages, Wildlife |
This is another layout from Heather’s MDS class. This is “The many faces of Tyler” – my boys don’t want me to take their picture. I tend to get turned heads, something in front of the face, eyes closed, goofy looks and everything in between. Tyler is the worst of the three and I always tell him one day I’m going to create a scrapbook page with those crazy pictures.
Well that day has come and I added some of those silly pictures of Tyler – this was Easter last year and I wanted some pictures of the boys. Putting something in front of his face, puffy chest with a funky face, wide open mouth!
I thought the silly frogs suited the layout and all the bright papers. The little pennant punch is lots of fun to use to make banners!
On another subject – I thought I’d give you a quick update on my birds – for those that enjoy the bird posts during the spring time. I am starting to see activity in the yard. Today I noticed the chick-a-dees active around one of the houses and when I peeked in – they are starting to build a nest. When I find my camera I’ll get a picture. And exciting news – the red-bellied woodpecker was inside the woodpecker house today! The other times I’ve seen him (I think it is the male) was just looking in but today he was inside – I think that’s a good sign – now to keep an eye out for his mate and hope that she lays some eggs inside. I also saw a Tufted Titmouse looking in one of the houses yesterday (the same one they used last year) – so hopefully they will be back. And I think the bluebirds came by the feeders not sure if they checked out any of the houses this time though. I’m excited for the birds to begin nesting again – we’ll see how many babies we have this year!
Mar 1, 2012 | family, My Digital Studio, Scrapbook Pages |
More My Digital Studio for you today. This was the Day 3 layout for Heather’s MDS class.
I titled it “son of a son of a sailor” – and in the picture is my brother, my nephew and my dad. My nephew started learning how to sail this past summer so they officially fit the title now. We grew up sailing and listening to Jimmy Buffet and his songs. My brother and I started sailing when we were about 9 years old – I mean on a boat by ourselves – we were on a boat much earlier than that. In fact my mom was on the boat with my dad when she was pregnant with me. So I’ve been sailing since a very young age! But around 9 was when we got our own little boats and went to junior sailing camp to learn how to sail by ourselves.
My brother stuck with it – me not so much – it was mostly boys that sailed and I was around them all the time. Maybe that’s why God gave me 3 boys he figured I was already used to being with boys all the time. So now my dad still sails, my brother sails and my nephew is just learning – but he started at 6 a little bit younger than we did.
What did you do when you were growing up and did you stick with it into adulthood? Just curious……
Feb 23, 2012 | family, My Digital Studio, Occasions Mini 2012, Scrapbook Pages |
I wanted to make a photo project for my niece for her birthday. Since she was turning 5 today (Happy Birthday Ally!). I wanted it to be something that was durable enough for her to handle and play with. So I decided to create a My Digital Studio swatchbook because it comes with the plastic covers on the front and back and the pages are a sturdy weight.
In the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini catalog there is a Designer Template called Twitterpated (#125615) and I decided that would make the project quick and easy. The hard part was getting all the pictures together.
The template is 26 pages or 13 front and back. It included photo boxes on the fronts and some journaling lines on all the backs. I decided to fill the photo boxes on the front using them just like they were in the template. I opted to delete the journaling lines and leave the backs with just the designer paper and embellishments.
On the very last page I did include a note that said it was made with love by Aunt Monika.
On the cover I added punched letters to spell her name and then played around with filling them with different designer papers but I ultimately decided to use part of a photo instead. Can you see what I filled the letters with? I used the same photo of Ally on the cover and then for each letter positioned it over her dress – so its like patterned paper that matches my picture exactly!
The swatch book is an assortment 
of pictures from her whole life – from the day she was born up to our trip in December. Then for each page I added some little quote or saying to go along with the pictures – so were already part of the template and others I either pulled from stamp sets that I have in My Digital Studio or I added as text boxes.
Throughout the book she can find her cousins, her grandparents, her parents and brother, the new puppy, and of course Aunt Monika had to be included too.
I also added the month and year of the pictures on each page so that we knew when they were from. She changed a lot in 5 years.
One important thing when you create a swatchbook – turn the bleed guides on! Then you can see where the hole will be for the rivet and also where the book will be trimmed around the edges. I made sure the quotes and dates and important parts of the pictures were inside my bleed areas.
I hope you like this little My Digital Studio Project. If you would like to try the software out for Free you can go to my website and download a free 30 day trial from my online store. Have fun creating!
Feb 15, 2012 | family, Uncategorized |
Ryan likes to get creative with his school projects and he has made two different projects these last two weeks. I took pictures of the one from last week but didn’t get any pictures of the one he turned in today. I wanted to share the first project with you today – I don’t think he has his grade yet – but if it were me I would give him an A.
His project was for a book (Dante’s Inferno) and his project was about the 9 circles of h*ll. Ryan likes to go big with his projects and this one ended up as tall as my kitchen counters when it was done. We talked about ways to show the 9 circles and ultimately he decided to use the idea of the tree in my Advent Shadow Box project but turned upside down with the smallest circle at the bottom and the largest circle at the top. He built a wood base, spray painted it, created an icicle stencil and spray painted that on the base, added a dowel rod to the center which he drilled holes through so he could add supports for each circle. Each circle was cut from foam core board and then covered with card stock. On the various levels he added the information for the project and on some of them he added 3-d elements.
Ryan's completed project
side view of Ryan's project
view of the top project with the castle and mountains
this level has a tornado made out of pipe cleaners - the terrible winds of a violent storm
this level has boulders made out of foam balls
Ryan used various Stampin’ Up! products to complete this project – lots of card stock and multipurpose glue, paper cutter, a craft knife, dimensionals and markers and the white gel pen.
The other project he turned in today looked like a giant Pokemon card – it was supposed to be a scientist trading card. he again used foam core board and covered it with card stock that had various information on it. If it comes back home I’ll try to get a picture. We pulled out the color coach to help find the colors of card stock to match a real Pokemon card. He went through two snail refills last night and more multipurpose glue. I better order more of both. I planned to order another craft knife but it turns out we retired that item from the catalog.
Today’s project is probably not something you’ll ever make but do know that we have lots of products that are useful in school projects – usually it’s the Big Shot and the alphabet dies for titles – but he didn’t use those this time.
Have a great day!
Jan 31, 2012 | Big Shot, family, Occasions Mini 2012, Thank You |
Today is the last one. The last radiation treatment for Greg’s Mom. I’ll be going with her in just a few minutes.
We are so very grateful that the doctors caught this so early, that her surgery went so well, her recovery was quick and her radiation treatments have been quick. And now it is the last one and we can celebrate with her that all is well and she will live a long and healthy life.
Greg’s mom asked me to make some chocolate covered strawberries to take to the treatment center today. So I made them last night –
But being that I am a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator I needed to create something pretty for the packaging. I placed them in a white bakery box and then added some ribbon and a pretty label to the top.
I used my new Framelits Labels collection and the Apothecary Art stamp set both in the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog. The label image is stamped on Very Vanilla card stock with Soft Suede ink. The flowers were colored with Pink Pirouette Stampin’ Write marker. Then I have a Pink Pirouette layer and finally Soft Suede – all the layers were sponged with Soft Suede ink.
I added the vintage button brads to hold the label onto the ribbon. And finished with pearls in the flower centers and some butterflies.
I hope everyone at the radiation center enjoys this little thank you treat. They were all so very nice and took such good care of Greg’s mom.
The Mocha Morning Specialty Designer Series paper is a perfect match for masculine cards. This card is super quick and easy to make. I used the 1″ square punch to punch out pieces of the designer paper including some of the flocked paper in this pack. It is on the retirement list so make sure to order it soon before they run out. Each square is backed with a piece of Early Espresso punched with the postage stamp punch. Then arrange them on the card base which is Crumb Cake.
