Christmas cards/ornaments

Broke out another Quikutz 4x4 die

(I'm so rockin' them this week)

Actually it's been over a couple weeks.

I had this flamingo.

Why?

Seriously, I can't answer that except it was

probably an impulse buy many

many many many many

years ago.

And I forgot it was Santa themed.

 So each one of the grandkidlets are getting one.

Their names are on them, and yes,

even the boys are getting pink - because

flamingos are pink.

 I put straws on them wanting to make an ornament type

so they can hang them on their trees if they wish
or just mess around with them. I ordered straws from Studio Calico

(they were on sale) but because

of all the black Friday happenings they shipped late.

So instead of green straws they are pink.

And these pink one's from M's came in 100 piece pack.

Anyone neeeed any pink straws??

Please?

It was actually a lot of fun to do.

Alot of die cutting.

I was also going to use cotton balls for 

Santa's hat but, where's the fun in that so I decided to roll

with stickles. 

Why do I not use stickles more often???

We are have decorated for Christmas - the big tree

needs to get set up.

All in All we are rolling really early this year

mostly because Shane was here and

he was the one to bring it all down from the attic.
How're your decorations coming?

 Bazzill Cardstock.

Last Little Bitty Mini Album

Got a bit carried away with the bows, but, I love it.

This little mini is another Quikutz  4x4 die

and it's 2.5x3.5 more or less.

 I used cardstock for the pages because it's

heavy and I think it'll take the wear and tear a bit longer.

 It's perfect for tiny pix, quotes and journaling.

 I kept the embellishments to a minimum for

"bigger" photos but I'm sure more could be added.

Also, the embellies are glued in such a way that things can

be slid underneath them.

 I'm pretty sure these mini's will be gifts.

 Used up a lot of bits and bobs decorating it.

 I may even add photos at a later date for the gift.

Love how it turned out and I'll probably do more.

I didn't even make a dent in the scrappy box with these

four mini's. 😐😐😐

These little mini's are perfect in getting the mojo

flowing and using up those scraps lolling

about in your scrappy box.

Baby Boy Album and Blanket

So no pressure here. 

Of course being notified months in advance I waited

until a week before the shower before I 

decided that maybe I should get rolling.

 And roll I did - Using some Islandic Red Heart thread 

for the blanket and Echo Park Bundle of Joy line

for baby boy and assorted die cuts and stamps for the album.

 The only green cardstock that I had that matched

the green on the paper was bazzil cardstock that was

a die cut shape and I thought the 

edging was really cute to put a photo on.

I use a transparency or vellum on the front of the album

because I really love using pop dots and

because they can get bumped, the vellum helps protect it 

somewhat I hope.

Had a lovely time at the shower!!

And she loved everything!

Using diecuts for this page

I have an array of sissix and quickutz dies and

decided - why not. (also punches)

There are times - alot of times, actually, I can't find or don't

have in my possession the

premade embellishments that I want

or that go with the photo/page I'm creating so

I've been digging into my stash.

 The generic ones can be precut ahead of time and I do

have a box full of them.

Sometimes they work- sometimes they don't either. LOL.

So I do cut out white - they seem to work best and

then "jazzed" these up with some watercolors because

they appeared too "stark" for this page.

 And these buttons - are sooooo cool.

Love all the goodies you get in the jar.

These are from Buttons galore and this jar

comes with all these colors, the sequins and those

itty bitty glassy thing up on the flower.

Tossed some mist about.

 Here's Annie and Lucy taking a great photo.

They never take a bad pix.

(which is totally annoying to those of us that do LOL)

Studio Calico, Bazzil cardstock.

Celebrating a birthday

Love this confetti paper from my Studio Calico kit its perfect

for a celebration.

Added a doily to ground everything and I'm lovin'

using them more.

 The embellishments from My Mind's Eye 

work well too and that dog is adorable.

 And I finally got to use that card.

I find those hard to work in a page a times

and used some die cuts from my box.

It's nice having some premade.

Love how it turned out and I included

one of Jill's hashtags.

She totally rocks the hashtags.

A stamped title - I have a ton of stamps I

really need to use more.

Amelia turning 6.

Where did the time go.

Seriously.

I am battling sinus issues that I'm finding really

really annoying.

Totally messes with the mojo.

Another Doodlebug Easter page

Since I've used most of the line for the shakers

that didn't work out and I'm eking out what's left 

for the rest of the grands pix coming in.

Therefore I employed the use of strips that of course,

I laid out previously and it looks nothing like that once

I had to glue them down.

 Love the fun patterns - so bright and pretty and

I used nuvo dots on those punched flowers.

 Sam and Lou collecting eggs.

Looks like fun!

Used another old K&Co title for the page

and a little quickutz swirl for an accent.

Not quite the autumn look I was going for

Another page that was giving me fits this week.

I really wanted to use some pretty autumn looking papers

BUT

somehow a different direction was dictated.

This is one of the background pages I made for the previous page 

this week that was giving me fits.

 So I am on a design roll too as I seem

to be going with the design down the middle -

and that's okay.

The same yet different 😏

 The watercolors just seemed to work.

So I added the moose for that autumn woodsy look. 

LOL.

I'd really like to know what's cracking them up.

So this is Bazzil, Bella Blvd, Studio Calico and Pink Fresh.

Rolling with another 4x4 photo on 6x6

I also rolled with the splattering of white paint

while I had it out and ready to go.

I actually splattered it before I added anything on the page.

I also rolled with basically the same design.

I'm okay with that.

I picked a card stock base mostly because of indecision

and the fact I didn't wanted want to whack down a 12x12

I wanted it to be a leftover scrap.

This card stock worked perfectly because it had

been whacked into previously.

 So I layered the photo and this top left corner made

me crazy because the layers were out of control so I made

this cluster to make myself happy about those goofy layers.

 I also sort of got the background idea from Inky Quill

but mine didn't work out as cool as hers #1.

and #2 I used a photo with lots of layers that I

put together before I came up with the layering strips.

Her's was not perfectly straight -but because the offset of the

strips with the gaps made me crazy -

 I whacked the strips sort of straight on each side.

Also because of the white space in the photo

to the left that's where all the embellishments were going.

I hadn't planned on that goofy corner so

everything lined up right down the left side

so in the spirit of the triangle

I added some enamel dots to the right.

The title came from a die cut from HL I got on sale
that's actually for a planner and didn't
it fit in the space quite nicely.

Sweet Lou - love that hat.

St. Patrick's day is a-comin'

And I wanted to make a little something for the grands.

So in the spirit of treating the older grands a bit different than

the littles I made them cards with a knock-knock

joke I stole off the internet somewhere.

(The INSIDE- says I RISH you a Happy St. Patrick's day.

I thought it was a hoot....

The smaller bows have a "coin" with a shamrock

glued onto a punched die cut that also says 

Happy St. Patrick's day - and that bow behind them

was a ribbon I saved from Lou's baby shower.

Lou is now 5 years old. 

There's also a glue dot on the back if they want to

hang them off themselves or somewhere else.

Their initials are in the center to personalize it a bit.

I rolled into Easter after this - trying to make shakers

that turned into an absolute disaster - so back to the drawing

board on those. 

Documenting artwork

Love documenting kidlets artwork because

it does, at times, have a short shelf life or the over abundance

of it gets out of control so its good to keep a record.

I actually knew Angry Bird. 

Shocking I know. 

But what a great likeness that is and it does

look so cool and makes me wish I had some talent like that.

It's a simple, yet colorful 8x8 page with

a faux tag, a neat embossed feather courtesy of Miss Holli

who very patiently cut a bunch for me

and a brad. I haven't used brads for ages-remember

when they where hot.

And of course that Tim Holtz bird and words.

That green dot looked more blue.

Sigh.

Background paper with preprinted title

You really can't go wrong when everything

is done for you.

I've been trying to do this page for awhile but

I was in one of those moods where I

couldn't make a decision.

I finally just went for it.

I kept everything to a minimum and

I did cut one of the photos down.

Journaling on the hidden tag and the photo/mat

has been popped up.

Found some old gears and arrows from Tim Holtz which was perfect.

And that little "check it out" brad I've had forever.

I have more.

And if I remember you'll see more.

No clue who the mfg is.

Anyway this is documenting my favorite youngest son's journey

to become a truck driver. After some things happened in

his life, he found a link hiring and training over

the road truckers and he signed up.

He's in Utah right now starting on Phase I

of his training. 

Very proud of him and his decision and bonus round-

He Loves It.

It's a blessing in life when you love what you do.

Lines and clusters

I had a vision when I started this page and

at the end I really didn't realize the vision but I still love the page.

I stamped the line across and used ribbon

and washi tape for this sequence of photos wanting to use

the lines as a "movement" and grounding.

 I kept the clusters really similar and near the photos
again to help in the grounding
especially since the lines aren't too straight.
I also wanted to use a lot of textures - thread, ribbon, washi
to work with the stamping.

 Using smaller photos they were able to be nestled in between
the lines with the clusters.

Since I had my QK emily out, I again, used this font

for the title using this green vellum

as well as for the photo mats.

I sewed around the edges and my machine

was totally wonky - so once I started I had to finish.

Sigh.

I added the journaling along the lines

and I think that pulls it altogether. It may not have

turned out to be my 'vision' but I like the end result.

Using a Rescued Page

You may remember this page from this post.

I did rescue it from the garbage because it was to pretty

to waste it even though it annoyed me.

I decided that layers and doodads was the way to go.

And I got to use my new stamp from my pal Holli as the title.

Not to mention an adorable photo to zero in on

so the boo-boos recede into the background.

 It really was too pretty to toss.

Since the pages are going into 2 different albums

for 2 different families it doesn't bother me

that they look similar.

It wouldn't bother me if they were in the same album.

Just need to keep them far far apart LOL.

It's okay to lift yourself even if its inadvertently.

Studio Calico, Bazzil cardstock.

Using sequence photos on a page

I got carried away the other day and purged my supplies.

Again.

They were getting extremely overwhelming 

especially after learning to use limited supplies while

on the road.

So my "box" of precut diecuts - gone.

The ginourmous basket of scraps - sortof gone.

Annoying basket of "stuff" - sorted through.

 I started this page with a piece of cardstock that was

an odd shape that worked when I cut it down to 8.5x11

as I love working with that size.

I did some misting and splatting and paints to start it off.

 I also had some basic grey papers that I used to cutout circles

in order to make my own embellishments and then

used a creative cafe circle stamp.

This was a fun silly page to make.

The photograph came all attached and I built this page

out of scraps AND did it prior to having a photo.

For some reason I had whacked the mat up (instead of leaving it 4x6)

or thereabouts and then came upon this picture.

So I whacked up the photo after printing it and adhered

it to the mats - total win.

And since I'm annoyed at thickers I broke out my QK again

using the CK typewriter and newsclip fonts.