Digital Scrapbook - Wedding Album Pt 2

Continuing to share pages from the wedding album I created 

using My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up!

See the first half of the album in the previous post.

I added a light blue floral overlay to the above two pages,

they really made a difference !

Color change feature on the banner and pleated ribbon above.

Neither is a perfect match, but it will work well enough.

The pleated ribbon was in the Twitterpated kit. 

I changed the number order (and several other details)

on this page so it was like a countdown to the ceremony.

The page above I created all by myself :)

This is the final page, it would be a single at the end of the album.

The design came from another premade template 

that I changed all of the colors and papers on.

I just noticed that I forgot to add a couple of drop shadows

(or the program didn't save them when it created the jpg

of the page, that happens to me quite often when things are saved.

Sometimes papers are changed or elements are even missing !)

My Digital Studio is now $19.95 US everyday, what a fantastic value ! 

Thanks for looking =) 

Digital Scrapbook - Wedding Album Pt 1

Below are the pages I made for a digital scrapbook

wedding album, minus the photographs being shared

here for privacy purposes.

I burned the completed pages to a DVD,

along with the original photos,

to present to the newlyweds.

The DVD Holder can be seen on the previous post. 

I used My Digital Studio by Stampin' Up!

Yaaaaaaaaay! I finally got it to work on

the new laptop I bought. 

I have had issues from day one

with the MDS2+ working on my desktop.

Tech support was great, but despite

doing everything they could think of, 

even when we thought we had it fixed,

it still would not work..... sniffle...

I guess I have too many things on the desktop,

something installed was causing it to glitch.

Then again, I have too many

(naw, never enough!) 

MDS downloads, maybe the amount of 

them trying to run through the program was 

giving the computer problems ? 

Anyway,

I used a premade album, Fan Fair photobook ,

 as a starting point.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE 

being able to use a designer project

then changing the colors, embellishments, 

papers, etc to make it work for my project. 

A few of the pages are almost identical,

except for the colors, to those in the predesigned book.

A couple are my own creations. 

I used Blushing Bride and

Bordering Blue papers

and embellishments or 

the color change / match options.

I made twenty pages.

The photo would be under the embellishments;

this is a single page layout at the 

front of the book.

The rest are two page spreads

The original designer page above only had two 

photo circles. I added the extras so there were 

enough places for a photo of each of the 

attendant couples. 

 The dimensional soft blooms were not used in the 

designer album anywhere, but they are so pretty and 

the perfect touch to a couple of pages - I had to add them.

The rest of the album will be shared tomorrow.

Thanks for looking =) 

DVD Case Cover

I burned a DVD for the newlyweds that contained

 the photos I took and digital photo album I created .

I used card stock that matched what I used for 

the wedding explosion box I made.

The base, two pocket media folder

was given to me a few years ago by a friend.

I'm not sure where she found them, 

but I'm guessing it is something that could be 

found at an office supply store ? 

I slid the DVD into one pocket 

and the wedding announcement, 

since it was square, fit perfectly in the other.

All supplies were from Stampin' Up! though

several are now retired.

Blushing Bride card stock stamped with Soft Swirls

background stamp using Versamark ink then

heat embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. 

It was mounted to Buckaroo Blue card stock. 

Shimmery white paper was die cut with the 

Typeset die set. 

Shimmery edged organdy ribbon - I don't think

that came from Stampin' Up!.............

I gave them a photo album and scrapbook in a box /

explosion box for wedding and shower gifts

(and the dollar bill bouquet!) knowing I would

be giving the disc later on. 

The next couple of posts will show the pages I made -

minus the photographs for privacy purposes. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Pop Open Umbrella Card - Bridal Shower

I did a quick search online for a pop open umbrella card and couldn't find what I hand in mind, so I came up with this and am tickled that it worked !

I originally created this so that the umbrella would pop open as a fun surprise on the front of the card with a little note inside of it. There was to be a coordinating fancy gift card envelope I would make attached to the back of it.

As I was working on it (I had already signed the note inside the umbrella as you can see!), I decided it might be better to glue the umbrella closed and turn it into an entire card. I didn't really want to holler across the hall where the shower was going to be held to explain that it popped open to see who it was from ;) So either way, this little creation of mine is a cute card accent for showers - or even scrapbook pages.

I first die cut a large scalloped edge circle from scrap paper to fiddle with, see if I could make what I had envisioned work.

Although I did get it folded up to pop open, I wasn't really happy with the way it looked. It certainly could have worked, but it didn't lay quite right when closed, it was too "poofy" for my liking. It reminded me of bellows ! So I cut another and tried a slightly different way to fold it. Success !

First practice piece

My finished project uses a doily cut with a Fiskars circular paper punch. I used the 6" circle to start. This punch sure is pretty and leaves really nice, detailed punched out areas along the edge of lightweight paper, but I am having a tough time getting it to line up perfectly. Then again, I've only used it a half dozen times so far, I obviously still need practice.

The paper is a cream colored shimmery paper from an office supply store. It is not as heavy / thick as card stock so it punches and folds nicely.

The handle to the umbrella was hand cut with scissors from metallic gold card stock.

The cream piece of card stock was run through a Texturz plate that Stampin' Up! used to sell. I may go back in and add a touch of shimmery Pearl Ex to the dots on the raised design areas to highlight them a bit as if it were rain drops..... then again, I may not since the card is now done and I don't want to take a chance on ruining it ! There aren't that many dots in the design visible, anyway.

I lightly sponged gold metallic paint along the edge of the cream card stock layer before adhering it to the metallic gold card stock.

Cream organdy ribbon tied into a bow, a tiny tag and a clay rose that I painted with acrylic paints dress up the handle. The clay rose embellishment was made with the new molds from Stampin' Up!

The inside of the card has a small scallop edge envelope (die from Stampin' Up!) stamped with a really old retired stamp. I used gold craft paint as my ink for my stamp so it would show up well on the shimmery paper.

Unfortunately the envelope is not quite big enough for a gift card as I thought it would be. I'll origami fold money into a heart shape and insert it instead of a gift card, maybe die cut some leaves to put in with it as added decoration.

I did take some photos to try to show how I folded the paper, but I don't know they will be very helpful.
It isn't difficult to do. I would recommend if you want to try it , use scrap paper first.

Although I like to try to make cards with the colors of the wedding (or baby's room if it is for a baby shower) , I decided against it this time since they were deep fall colors. I wasn't quite into using them with my shimmery cream , elegant pop open paper umbrella. Maybe I'll pull those colors into the card I create for the wedding later this fall.

Here are the photos and directions the best I could come up with to show how I made the pop open umbrella for the greeting card. The practice sample piece in the photos below uses a large scallop edge circle die cut. The die came from Stampin' Up!

As I was fiddling around with folding the paper to try to make this, I was reminded of the tea bag folded projects I made.




After creating this project and posting it to my blog, I came across a challenge it is perfect for. I'm entering into the challenge here
http://www.catherineandcathycreate.com/2013/07/ccc-004-monthly-challenge-here-comes.html

The next few posts I share will be wedding related, too.

Thanks for looking =) 

CT Projects - School's In Kit

My first "official" projects created from a new digital scrapping kit as part of my responsibilities for being on a Creative Team (my first time as a CT member !). This is a learning experience for me.

This is the newest kit from Graceblossoms4U - School's In !

As soon as I saw the sneak peak I had a few ideas. I even asked if there may be a photo frame made from rulers otherwise I was going to make one myself out of digital punches. The designer added one at my suggestion!

Once I was able to get the kit downloaded (it is a huge 242MB file) I went right to work putting my ideas into digital form. We are only required to make two projects, but I made four - quickly followed up by three of them being redone slightly differently (more about that later) !


I knew the arrows paper would be great for a graduation page with a quote, something along the lines of going in the direction of your dreams. So here is the first page:

Papers, star, tag (except for the text that I inserted over it) are all in the kit. I used a hexagon punch from the software to paper fill with the arrow paper . A rectangle punch enlarged and filled with other decorative papers from the kit are layered behind the photo. The star comes as is in the kit. The black quote from Dr. Seuss was a text box I filled  (you can find several Seuss fonts online).

Due to concerns of the designer, I redid this page and only used elements in the kit, other than the text box "Class of 2013" over the tag. Here is that sample:

The second page put the ruler frames to use. I already scrapped these photos with My Digital Studio last fall.

Star shape from the software paper filled, the red paper is torn with the paper tear feature in the software, the "ribbon" is made from the small single words in the digital kit all lined up. I added nothing extra to this page other than the text boxes over the tags.













Bookmarks ! These were fun to put together, I tried to use different elements from the kit on each one (yes, there are flowers in the kit!). However ALL TEXT  (other than the chalkboard letters) is my own, there is no word art /quotations in the kit.

Once again, due to concerns from the designer I redid this project. This time I made one bookmark then copied and pasted over and over. The bookworm and line of books come as is in the kit. I used one of the digital papers in the kit for the background. This is a good idea for teachers: insert students names into the bookmarks, print and hand out as a little Welcome Back To School gift ! These are sized to fit a standard piece of card stock (8 1/2" x 11"). You could design, print, cut and then laminate to make them a bit more sturdy.

Lastly I made a card. The original card here uses black that I added (there is no black in the kit) to make it pop, a "word art" I added (not in the kit) and the buttons that come in the kit were ever so slightly elongated to make the balloons. Oh, I also added hand drawn lines for the strings (a feature in the software).

I redid this one too for the same concerns that the designer expressed, removing the word art and all of the black layers. The Buttons were left round and strings were made with squished and reduced in size black rectangles to make thin straight lines.





As I said in the beginning, being part of a Creative Team is a learning experience for me, especially since it involves digital scrap booking. I look forward to playing with more digital kits. Perhaps I will get the hang of "clustering" embellishments the way other team members do, creating wow elements to their pages ! Then again, maybe keeping my projects more clean and simple is a good thing, they are a different take on what others do with the kits ?

Thanks for looking =)

Finally Ripening Tomatoes.....

that the critters haven't gotten to before me !

I think I'll start picking them as soon as they start

showing signs of ripening, then let them ripen

inside away from the critters !

I picked dozens of horn worms off my plants earlier this spring,

now I am finding what I think may be cutworms ?

and some other bug that look like 

something we called stink bugs when we were kids

since they stunk when they were squished.

Then there are the squirrels (I assume) stealing the big 'maters.......

Last year the extreme heat and drought took a toll 

on my tomato plants.

This year they are doing great,

but the critters are enjoying feasting on them.

I went ahead and picked the "orange"

cherry tomatoes before they disappeared while

 I left them on the plant to ripen more. 

I finally managed to salvage one large one.

The one pictured above was well hidden deep in the plant

so maybe it was also hidden from the critters 

(though I do see what looks like little nibbles from

some sort of bug on it).

Mmmmmm, looking forward to slicing it

up for dinner tonight ! 

Flowers and Butterflies Zig Zag Card

Another trifold (or as I've also seen it referred to, 

a zig zag) card. Made much the same as my

Hearts trifold card only this time I used

dies and patterned papers.

The colors and combination of designer paper patterns

is out of my comfort zone I guess because this 

card seems "off " to me. 

Maybe it is just "too busy", 

has too much going on ?

Also, after looking at it completed,

I think I should have inked the edges of the 

larger die cut pieces before assembling it. 

Supplies used, all from Stampin' Up!

though many are retired.

Very Vanilla card stock

Baja Breeze card stock and ink

Soft Suede ink

So Saffron ink

Birthday Bliss stamp set

Caring Thoughts (?) stamp set

Papillion Potpourri stamp set

Elegant Butterfly punch

Bitty Butterfly punch

Attic Boutique designer paper

Secret Garden dies - current

Scallop Edge border punch

Baja Breeze striped grosgrain ribbon

Lay out your punched pieces before adhering and 

trimming your card stock. I suggest before trimming

because depending upon the size of the die cuts

or punched shapes you use, you may need to trim

more or less off of the top of your card.

I started with a 5 1/2" tall by 12" long piece

of Very Vanilla card stock. 

I scored at 4" and 8" so when folded,

it will make a 4" wide by 5 1/2" tall card.

I lay my pieces on the card first, making sure that the

upper most piece does not extend past the top of the card

so it can fit in a regular A2 envelope.

I made little marks at each side where my shapes

stopped so I knew how far down to trim the top of the card,

cutting a straight diagonal line between the two points.

You can reuse this piece that you cut off to make another

trifold / zig zag card depending on how much you trim off. 

When you are ready to adhere the shapes to your trimmed card, 

you may want to lay the cut off portion back in place or

 create an outline of how big your folded card should be

(i.e., 5 1/2" tall) so when you glue on the first couple pieces

to the tallest portion of the card, they won't 

extend past that size allowing it to fit

in the envelope you plan to use. 

If you'd like to run your card through an embossing folder,

make sure it is one that can fit through your machine 

with the pattern facing the way you'd like.

I had a couple of other folders I would like to have used,

but they were too long to fit through so I ended up

using the stripes folder since it fit

facing the correct way to make the 

embossed pattern I was looking for. 

This shows the back center section of the card.

You'll want to cut coordinating die pieces.

Be sure to flip the paper over if your die is not symmetrical!

You will want to cut two sets of shapes if you are using 

double sided paper that has different designs.

Make sure one set is cut with the paper flipped to the

other side/design so when you adhere them back to back

you will have the same pattern showing outwards.

In my sample, I did not want the reds showing so I had to cut

a second set with the paper flipped so the shapes would be opposite 

to the first set in order to line up back to back.

If your die is perfectly symmetrical, you don't need to worry

about that. 

It also makes the card look more finished with the edge 

of the top of the card covered

of this center portion when the card is closed.

This is the side of the center section that is seen from the front of the

card when the recipient pulls it from an envelope. 

Here is what I did with my leftover piece, it is not complete yet.

I made a snowflake card a couple of years ago 

using Whisper White card stock that I sprayed with 

a home made shimmer spray for the snowflakes.

The base was Bliss Blue card stock stamped

with a Swirly stamp and white Craft ink

that was embossed with a litttle bit of sparkly embossing powder.

I guess I ought to make another one this year to share

since I am unable to find a post for it on the blog.......

This particular card uses a lightweight shimmery cream colored 

paper I bought at an office supply store for the snowflakes.

The snowflakes die strip came from Stampin' Up!,

but is no longer available. Their new Holiday Mini Catalog

has a wonderful new die set with matching stamp set.

I am anxious to get that set, lots of ideas planned for it ! 

Edited To Add:

When submitting a more recent project to a new challenge blog,

 I saw a previously posted challenge on that blog 

that this card would fit perfectly in:

In The Garden

http://www.catherineandcathycreate.com/2013/08/CCC005.html

Thanks for looking =)

Countryside Hybrid Birthday Card, Masculine

I used the Countryside digital stamp,
this time I did not use the altered version of it
I made (no apples or sign) as I have in the past.
It was printed in black ink with a basic ink jet printer
on Whisper White card stock.
I printed eight of them on one sheet
so I will have extras on hand.

I've been waiting all year to make a card with the image as is !
Although a 1956 Ford F100 truck has a special place in my heart,
I couldn't bring myself to buy the actual stamp set.
Once it was released as a digital image, I had to get it even though the apples sign
and  bushels of apples in the bed limit its use for me personally
(why I never bought the stamp set).
I then set out to alter the digi image slightly and am pretty pleased with the outcome.

I chose this particular image for the recipient since
he grew up in a family that owned an apple orchard.
I remember picking apples there a few times when I was
younger and some of my relatives worked there
at one time or another. Sadly the orchard is no more....

He is a Chevy man, but I think using the old '56 Ford image
(my husband owns one, see a card I made with the image I altered here)
with apples in the bed will bring a smile to his face.
Especially since I tried to make it look like it had rust on it ;)



All supplies used are from Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise.

I used colored pencils (Prismacolor) to color the image.

The apple was hand drawn on a scrap of

white card stock, cut out and water colored

with the ink from my Classic Stampin' ink pads.

I used Real Red and So Saffron with a touch

of Early Espresso for splatters.

Snip of a real twig for the stem.

Itty Bitty Banners stamp set with

Night of Navy ink and a bit of Early Espresso
around the edges.
Whisper White and Night of Navy card stock.

Unknown decorative paper from my scrap pile.

I received a nice little note that sent me to another blog
with a card that had a cool old car image on it.
That blog had a link to a new challenge site
that I just had to check out  -
male cards only !
I'm entering this card in their first challenge,
Anything Goes.
The Male Room Challenge Blog



Thanks for looking =)