Feeling very small

Hi!  Home from California where we had a wonderful time visiting friends in Santa Rosa. We also drove up to the Redwoods National Park.  I'm the tiny figure in the photo above below these enormous redwood trees.  We saw beautiful coastline, gorgeous flowers at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden and spent precious time with friends.  It is warm and sunny and blessedly humidity-free in Santa Rosa.  The scenery and the food are fabulous.  More about our adventures in scrapbook pages to come. 

For now, I'm knee deep in laundry, the frig is empty, the mail awaits at the post office and I just turned up the A/C.  Why did I come home again?  Oh, yeah, so I can scrapbook all these great times and see my wonderful family.  That is next up. 

BTW  As The World Turns airs its last episode today.  I'm trying to catch up with daily recaps at CBS.com so I can watch my faithful entertainment one last time. 

More later...

DSP Day - Tucan Paper

Here's a fun and very fast card using Stampin' Up!'s Sweet Pea paper pack from last spring.  You could substitute any fun pattern paper for the Tucan and then use two narrow strips on the bottom to compliment the main paper. 

Project Notes:

• I didn't want a mat for the Tucan paper but it was not quite heavy enough to be adhered with dimensionals on its own. I backed it with white cardstock cut slightly smaller so it doesn't show but adds weight.
• The ribbon is just folded over and the buton glued on for a slightly different look.
• Corner rounding on several pieces adds a lot of interest with very little time and no additional materials.

I'm sorry I didn't get a sketch made of this one but it is pretty straight forward.  Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Mailbox greetings by PTI
Cardstock and ink:  Chocolate Chip by SU!
DSP:  Sweet Pea by SU!
Ribbon:  So Saffron by SU!
Button:  Oriental Trading

Another stage

A few weeks ago, we installed a new bed frame for the upstairs bed which is in my guest bedroom/craft room.  This eliminated the footboard that I have tripped over more times than I can count.  Also it allowed us to install bed risers and create much needed underbed storage for quilts and linens.  (The actual linen closet long ago became a stamp/craft magazine storage area.)

A few days ago I finished making the box pleated bedskirt so the storage is succesfully hidden and another stage of the perfect "bedroom shared with craft space" is complete.  Slowly I plow along... Oh well, if I did it all at once, I wouldn't get to enjoy each step so much :-)

TIPsy Tuesday - Corral School Papers

There are lots of strategies for preserving children's artwork, stories they have written, and other momentos from their school days.  I've seen scrapbook pages where the artwork was scanned and then shown in a small size on a scrapbook page.

For Dillon's book, I make pocket pages.  This year, I did one page for his school work - mostly stories he wrote.  To hold my pockets in place, I use Creative Memories Photo tape. It really sticks so my pockets don't come loose.

The other two page spread shown above includes pockets to hold reward certificates, grade sheets and other items Jaime has accumulated. 

To see what is inside the pocket, make it with Vellum or transparancy film.  First secure your transparancy or vellum in place with removable adhesive in the center.  You can then also sew around your pockets.   Remove the removable adhesive and embellish as desired.

Just a few ideas on corraling all the cute things you receive from a child or grandchild.  Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients:  DSP  Paper Studio
Cardstock:  Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie by Stampin' Up!
Rub-on's by Stampin' Up!

School Page

Each summer Jaime brings me photos, school work and keepsakes from Dillon's last school year.  Since we were at the beach together this year, I didn't get to do the pages while we were together.  Finally, this weekend I've pulled them out and put together several pages of 3rd grade.

Here is the first page.  Taking a queue from the backdrop on the top photo, I used Stampin' Up!'s Season of Friendship set to do a 4 seasons mural for the top of the page.  The "3" backdrop and the journaling block are from a downloaded class I took when Scrapbooks Etc. magazine used to do a on-line conference.  In some of the other pages, I'll give her more journaling blocks to caputre the memories from the last year.

Ingredients:  Stamps   Season of Friendship by Stampin' Up!
Inks:  Taken with Teal for "3" , Close to Cocoa for trees and other various colors for leavs
DSP:  DCWV
Twill Tape:  Wrghts Ribbon

sort of NOT according to Plan

When Lenny visits his family, I always have this list of stuff I'm going to get done.  Some of it chores, some fun things just for me.  I even did a "Me Time" scrapbook page about the things I did the last time he went to see his children and his sister earlier this year.

This summer though things didn't quite go as planned.  I developed some intense stress related pain in my neck and shoulders.  Basically, it hurt to tilt my head down for several weeks among other things.  Of course, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong and how to deal with it.  Thankfully, it is getting better.  And I've learned a lot about posture, about the right way to sit, work, craft, read, even stand while I'm doing dishes.  I'm trying meditation again.  Did you know there are all these 'guided meditation' videos on YouTube?  It's sort of like being in Yoga class without having to travel or bend yourself in funny positions.  You get to skip to the relaxing part and it really does help. 

During the two weeks he was away, I did do a few things on my list though more slowly than I planned and mananged to have some fun with friends.  I made myself special treats in the kitchen though different ones than I planned.  With my car in the shop part of the time - yeah, it was sick too - I couldn't go anywhere much and I noticed more pretty images out my own windows.  

Project Notes:

• All of the photos were printed with a brown background so I could trim them and they were self matted except for the large image of our stamp club.

• PLAN is chipboard painted yellow which came out too lemony so I went over with with sponged Crushed Curry ink - note:  be very careful to make sure the paint is fully dry or don't double dip your sponge.  You'll get paint on your ink pad - yuck!  Last step was to brush the edges with some Vintage Photo from Ranger.

• The heart is inked in Stucco pigment ink from Colorbox. 
• While the ingredient list below is long, the heavy lifter was Basic Grey's Indian Summer collection.  I bought this just because it was pretty but I've lost track now of the number of layouts and cards I've used it one.  Apparently I like orange, yellow and magenta more than I thought.  Those little stickers that come with the kits often come in great for 'touch-up' embellishments to cover slight flaws in your design.

• The design in the lower right corner is a journaling card from Fancy pants that seemed to capture some of the experience. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Office Accoutrement by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Dark Brown, Stucco by Colorbox; Vintage Photo by Ranger, Crushed Curry by SU!
DSP, brad and Stickers:  Indian Summery by Basic Grey;  So Sophie ledger by My Minds Eye
Journaling Card:  Delight by Fancy Pants
Stickers:  Basic Grey Euphoria, Marrakesh and Two Scoops; Mini Market Ledger by October Afternoon
Ribbon:   Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie
Font:  Bookman Old Style

DSP Day - Simple Style for Bold Print

A general design rule for large, high contrast prints - keep it simple!  So here is this week's Designer Series Paper card using a very bold print from Basic Grey. 

Here's the sketch:

Project Notes:

• The solid strip is stamped with a backgound stamp to give dimension.  The edge is torn but you could also do a scallop or other decorative order.
• Cut the vellum longer than the card and wrap the ends around the back and attach on the backside.  Then you don't have to fuss with keeping adhesive from showing on the front.
• The flower is cut from the same DSP.  The leaf is a sticker from the paper collection.

Very simple, very fast card. 

Have a great weekend.  We are planning to go to a family wedding and I hope to get in some more scrapbooking.  I owe my stepdaughter some pages for Dillon's school album.  And maybe I'll get in a walk because it is supposed to be blessedly cooler at last!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Spring Blossums from Inkadinkado for greeting; Sanded by SU! for background
Ink:  Pacific Point
Cardstock:  Pacific Point, Naturals White
DSP:  Marrakech by Basic Grey

Trick to too bright

"... The trick is to grow up without getting old", Frank Lloyd Wright says.  The trick to using bright More Mustard, Melon Mambo and my precious Baja in a color challenge is watering down.  Not literally, but I did dilute these colors to make them more palatable to me. 

Project notes: 

• Baja breeae is stamped off one time for one of the flowers on the background here and then a second time for the flower on the right.  The edge is colored with More Mustard pastel.
• I stamped a plain ivory flower with Melon Mambo using the Medallion stamp which gives is a muted look. 
• Finally, I found a use for the mostly white side of one of those color pads - this time the one with More Mustard.
• Finally, the ribbon really does match Melon Mambo but being partially sheer fits in with the muted theme.

Using a fair amount of the Espresso helped this out too.  I really like that shade of brown.  The ink is Dark Brown from Colorbox and it matches Early Espresso really well.

I also used this week's sketch challenge for the arrangement.  Check out the other cards at www.splitcoastampers.com/gallery

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Kind and Caring Thoughts and Medallion by Stampin' Up!; Birthday sentiments by Cloud 9
Ink:  Dark Brown by Colorbox; Baja Breeze, Melon Mambo by SU!
DSP: Stampin' Up!
Cardstock:  Whisper White, Early Espresso
Ribbon:  Enchanted Cottage in Winston-Salem, NC