Books - Layout using stamped journaling

Lenny and I are regulars at the local library.  We have cards for the library in the next county over as well.  While I can see the value of a Kindle or Nook, I still like holding a regular book and flipping the pages.  Mostly, I still like reading for free.  (more money for travel and scrapbooking supplies :-)  It is one of life's simple pleasures and something those of us in developed countries should never take for granted.

For this page, I used some techniques from Nichol Magourik's 2 Peas class on stamping on your scrapbook pages.  This month we were to stamp some of our journaling.  This was a particular challenge as I have very few word stamps that aren't card greetings.  It was suprising though to find how many of those card greetings could be adapted to a layout particularly if you were doing one about holidays, families or a loved one.  I found a stamp that said "Imagine" and one that for "explore" which I think are very applicable to books.  I also used a little phrase from a Define Your Life stamp about the joy of simple things.

The two journaling blocks are stamped as well and then the journaling printed on.  Both are new stamps to me and I know they will get a lot of use.  So I went ahead and set up a Word document with the right spacing to print properly.

The words "we read" are from a new Ali Edward's set. They are colored in with markers. I love these messages as they really mix and match although I was sort of expecting the stamps to be larger.  I stamped the numbers for the date.  Finally, I got to break out my alphabet stamps which get very little use when I inked "BOOKS."

Also on the page is a found object - literally.  I found the library checkout card laying around.  My husband found it in an old library book and had been using it as a bookmark.  I've been saving it for a page like this since it was for a book called:  A likely story.  It is positioned so the signatures remain covered.

Whew!  That is a lot of stamping.  Oh and I forgot the flower, it was stamped on vellum.  I do love to stretch my supplies and it was a fun layout to put together.  I've worked on it off and on all week as I had time and cooperative joints and muscles.

Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Ledger from Hero Arts; Worn Journals and Perspectives by Ali Edwards by Technique Tuesday; Fabulous Flowers by Hampton Arts; Flourishes by Autumn Leaves; Define your Life by SU!; Spring by Inkadinkado
Ink: various including Prussian Blue by Colorbox; Antique Linen by Ranger; Riding Hood Red and Bermuda Bay by SU!; Timber Brown by Staz-on
Ribbon:  Stampin' Up! and Basic Grey; Prima
Sticker:  October Afternoon
DSP:  Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl; October Afternoon 8x8 pad

Sun and Clouds

My back and shoulder muscles have been challenging me for several months.  Thanks to physical therapy and some ergonomic changes, things have been getting better the last few weeks. I've even started an outdoor painting project! Some things create more fuss than others and papercrafting can be one of those things, or not, just depending on the day.  The last couple of days, I've needed to find a little easier way of doing things and have stayed away from intricate cuts and coloring.

I decided to make my Cricut do some of the work. I cased this card from Laina Lamb at Two Peas.  Here is her original card set:  die cut cards

For mine, I used SCAL software and the Cricut to cut my clouds and sun. One thing I have no trouble doing is spending ages going through papers and playing with patterns and colors to find good combos. This card is a mix of October Afternoon collections with just a touch of Cosmo Cricket.

This card is really appropriate here today for it has been raining all morning and just now the sun has peaked through for the first time, though I'm confident it won't dry up enough to paint :-)  Hope you are having a great day!

Oh and I got a terrific start this morning when I opened my e-mail and saw that I was the blog candy winner from Rainy's (Susan) lovely blog  Rainy Day Creations.  Thanks, Susan!

Ingredients:  Stamp for greeting:  Inkadinkado  Ink: Prussian Blue by Colorbox
DSP:  various October Afternoon 8x8 pads; Material Girl from Cosmo Cricket
DMC embroidery Floss
Cardstock:  Sahara Sand by Stampin' Up!

New Scrapping Goodies

scrumptious Sculpture Flowers from Prima

Campy Trail from American Crafts and Campfire from October Afternoon

'New to me' stamps.  Already used the ledger stamp!

Just a few things mostly from my last Two Peas order.  I got the zebra stripe stamp from Hobby Lobby and haven't used it yet.  I'm working on my second layout with the American Crafts Campy Trails papers.  Normally I'm not a huge AC fan, but I'm really loving these!  And I'm certainly not a camper - I think Motel 6 is roughing it - but we do hike and enjoy parks.  So both of these paper collections will fit in with vacation photos.

What have you bought lately?

TIPsy Tuesday - Scored Texture

The layout for my card today is from this week's Clean and Simple challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  I loved Maureen's card which was the inspiration for the challenge this week  Clean and Simple Card Apr 18.  On the lower half of her tone-on-tone background, she had used a texture plate. I don't have any embossing dies or tools so I did my own with scoring and folding.  This is hardly a new technique but I figured it could stand revisiting.

First off, choose a heavy cardstock and then score every half inch or whatever grid size you want in one direction.  Turn and score the other direction:  (I used my Fisker's cutter with the scoring blade.)

Then fold along all score lines:

You can stop at that point or for added emphasis, brush a little of the same or similar color along the scored edges.  Stampin' Spots, ink cubes or those little cat's eye colors are great for this.

This is certainly more time consuming than a texture plate but it nice using tools I had and stretching my supplies a bit further.

Thanks for visiting today!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  God's Beauty by Stampin' Up!; greeting from Cloud Nine
Cardstock and ribbon:  Ocean Tides by PTI
Ink:  Timber brown by Stazon; Soft Sage by SU!
Ranger's Glossy Accents

Alphanumeric Blog Hop

Hi! Welcome to the next stop on the alphanumeric blog hop!  Can you guess my Letter?  Mel thoughtfully gave me the letter "L" to go with my name.  She didn't even know that my husband's name also starts with an "L."  So I thought I'd do a page to celebrate our likeness in names as well as other similarities and differences with all phrases starting with an "L" verb.

I started with this photo where we made a forward and backward "L" by sitting with our legs stretched out in front of us.  I was really tickled with how it came out.  Only three takes with the self timer - which was good because getting up and down off the ground is not as easy as it used to be :-)

For Lenny's title "L" I used a piece of designer chipboard that had a green leaf print on the front.  I tore off that print, stamped, embossed and chalk inked my own design on the backing to go with all this Fancy Pants paper.  My "L" is cut with the Cricut.

The flower is misted and stamped muslin.  I used some Rose Red ink from Stampin' Up in a mister with a little water and it worked fine.  I've had it laying on my work table forever so was glad to find it a home.

Almost everything on this page is from Fancy Pants Road Show collection.


Thanks for visiting!  My blog is mostly scrapbook pages and cards with the occasional quilt project thrown in.  I'd be honored if you wanted to follow or subscribe.  Happy hopping!


Next on the hop is Sandi at Living Life One Blessing At A Time: http://livinglifeoneblessingatatime.blogspot.com/


Here is a list of all the participating blogs:

I Speak Melsh: http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/
BE Glorious: http://beglorious.blogspot.com/
Captured On Film: http://mrsbeee.blogspot.com/
Chatty Crafty Arty Pig: http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com/
Creating Room: http://creatingroom.blogspot.com/
Curiouser and Curiouser: http://journalofcuriousthings.blogspot.com/
Daily Life - Bits and Pieces: http://www.melissagross.blogspot.com/
Deb's World: http://debs14.blogspot.com/

Den's Crafty Diary: http://deecie.blogspot.com/
From High In The Sky: http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.com/
Gallo Organico: http://gallorganico.blogspot.com/
Ginger's Life Of Spice: http://gingerslifeofspice.blogspot.com/
Handmade By Kirsty: http://handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com/
Havoc and Mayhem: http://www.havocandmayhem.com/
Heather's Scraps: http://heathers-scraps.blogspot.com/
Helena's Creative Maven: http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.com/
Holaday's Happy Hearts: http://holadayshappyhearts.blogspot.com/
Jeant-Jinnag: http://jeant-jinnag.blogspot.com/
Just Jimjams: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/
K's Crafty Corner: http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Life...As I See It: http://jillconyers.typepad.com/
{Life Behind The Purple Door}: http://www.lifebehindthepurpledoor.com/
Lisa E Design Blog: http://lisae-design.blogspot.com/
Living Life One Blessing At A Time: http://livinglifeoneblessingatatime.blogspot.com/
Mary's Musings: http://craftycreation.blogspot.com/
Michelle Loves...: http://michellelovesallsorts.blogspot.com/
Obstinate Pursuit: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com/
Over At Our Place: http://overatourplace.blogspot.com/
Paper Turtle: http://paperturtle.blogspot.com/
Peonies and Pennies: http://peoniesandpennies.blogspot.com/
Random Reflections: http://www.kbwalker.blogs.com/
Rosalind Revival: http://rosalindrevival.blogspot.com/
Scrap Dreams: http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Scrappyjacky: http://scrappyjackylive.blogspot.com/
Scrapworthy Lives: http://www.scrapworthylives.com/
Staring At The Sea: http://fiona-staringatthesea.blogspot.com/
Surefiredaisy Says: http://surefiredaisysays.blogspot.com/
This Kalil Life: http://www.kimberlykalil.com/
This Little Life Of Mine: http://tracyscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Xnomads' Blog: http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/

Don't forget to hop on down!

Photo by Dr Joseph Valks from Freedigitalphotos.net

Tomorrow is our alphaneumeric blog hop!  Today I'm finishing up the project I'll post.   Be sure to stop by or go to Mel's blog on Sunday to start at the beginning:   I Speak Melsh: http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/

See you tomorrow!

Daytime Drama

Do you love a good story?   I bet you do.  After all, we wouldn't write and read blogs or scrapbook our lives if we didn't love to read and tell stories.  I have a sad one but it can have a happy ending- you see, with this story we are in charge of the ending.

We had a great time in card class last night - full of laughter and crafting.  Just as everyone was going out the door, my husband came in from his office and announced that ABC was cancelling All My Children and One Life to Live.  I don't think anyone in our group watches these particular shows but for me it put more than a damper on the evening.  I'm angry and appalled that ABC would axe two long running dramas for cheap talk TV.  (Notice, I did not say surprised.)

I held my breath as I asked the fate of General Hospital (GH); for now it is staying.  I started watching GH 3 years ago.  I was a life long viewer of only one soap at the time - As the World Turns but it's days were numbered (It went off the air this past September.)  Also, it was this time of the year when I was facing a summer of reruns  and reality TV.  I don't watch a lot of TV.  I don't like background noise, so the TV is only on when being watched.  The only thing I watch in daytime is the one soap or daytime drama.  Most but not all evenings I watch one show - a half hour comedy or a drama.   We watch the national news and Jeopardy. Otherwise the TV is off.

My post today isn't just a complaint about what ABC and all the other networks have done.  It is to encourage readers to consider tuning in to one of the remaining daytime dramas.  If you already watch AMC or OLTL, I'm very sorry and I understand your disappointment.  Keep watching.

I doubt those shows can be saved; however the remaining daytime dramas can be.  Most people like a good story.  This is evident in the increasing number of books being sold, particularly via the Nook and Kindle.  It is also evident in almost all television programming.  When NBC  tried their "Leno experiement" they lost a huge audience and are now scrambling to add dramas to bring viewers back.  Almost all primetime programming is serial based - even the reality TV.  Viewers want to see what is going to happen from week to week - they apparently want the background story.  The crime dramas that have succeeded in recent years are ones where the regular characters have an on-going story.  Almost every woman I know and quite a few men watch "The Good Wife."  It may have a changing legal story but it is the on-going stories we watch the show for.  We all love a good story.

No genre tells a story better than daytime dramas or "soaps."  If you don't have time to watch during the day, all are available via their network's website on-line.  My Mother has missed her beloved Young and the Restless for a few days but I know she will be down here over the weekend to "catch up" via the Internet.

The acting in daytime dramas is superb.  The writing is far better than most of primetime.  The delivery is consistent.  Soaps don't do re-runs (except on holidays and other rare occasions).  If "The Good Wife" were a daytime drama we wouldn't have to wait 6 months to find out what Alicia was going to say to her husband and her friend about their affair.

For now, I've gone on long enough.  Just think about the summer.  I know you are busy but I also know you, like all of us, need some downtime and a distraction.  If you love a good story, try General Hospital on ABC, Days of our Lives on NBC, or Young and the Restless or Bold and the Beautiful on CBS (the latter is only a half hour).  If you have never watched or haven't in a long time, I think you will be surprised at the quality of the programming.   Enjoy a good story.

Hope you are having a wonderful spring day! My husband has yard worked planned for today; the grass is really growing.

The flower base for today's card is a chipboard flower covered in pattern paper.  I used an emory board to sand the edges.

Coming up Sunday here on the blog, I participating in my very first blog hop!  The idea came from Mel at http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/ The other bloggers and I are each taking one letter of the alphabet and doing a post about our letter.  You'll have to visit Sunday to see which letter I have and what I'm doing with it.  I'm excited to see what all the other participants do as well.

Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  On Your Birthday by SU!
Cardstock:  So Saffron
DSP:  October Afternoon 8x8 papers mostly Farm Fresh
Brad:  Build a Brad by SU!