Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Deer Reflection Scrapbook Page





This is it, my final photo to be scrapped for my 
Photo Of The Week scrapbook album !!!!

After much indecision as to how I wanted to scrap this photo,
I decided to go super simple. 
I wanted to let one of my favorite photos (what a lucky shot!) show 
with no distractions. I've learned over these last few months of scrapping
my Photo of The Week submissions that I really do like the
"less is more" scrapping mentality, I put too much on some pages that 
distract from the photos. Also, as much as I liked putting my supplies to use
combining textures and being creative,  I'll admit that 
I prefer digital scrapbooking for numerous reasons ! 

I submitted this photo to our local newspaper to be considered as 
Photo Of The Week last summer.
It was taken last year during the historic flooding in our area.
I just happened to hear a "swish swish swish" sound of something
moving water, but couldn't see anything at first. 
I then caught a glimpse through the trees of a deer walking down the middle of our flooded road.
I rushed to grab my camera, but without thinking as I went out to the porch,
I let the door close a bit too loudly behind me, frightening it. 
I pressed the shutter button over and over, hoping to catch a photo of it.
 I was thrilled to see what I caught - and that it was in focus!

My photo was printed in black and white as a sort of 
honorable mention for Photo of the Week.
I have the newspaper clipping and will scrap it on
a separate page along with some journaling.





How did I make this "shadowbox" scrapbook page? 
I used corrugated card board (no idea how photo safe that is though!?)
to give the dimension to the page. I cut the center out of it
then used that piece, but trimmed down a bit, to mount the photo on
so it would pop back up to the height of the surrounding mat.
A little trick I learned decades ago when I was working in a frame shop.

The card stock is Early Espresso Textured Corednations by Stampin' Up!
I lightly sanded the edges to reveal the Kraft core.
The photo is mounted on Kraft card stock.
I decided to not add any words to this page.
They will all be on the opposite page that  
I feature the print from the newspaper on. 

Thanks for looking =)


Saturday, October 11, 2014

Basketball Net Full Of Snow Scrapbook Page



One more page from my 
Photo Of The Week scrapbook album.

This is a photo I took of record breaking snow
 last winter - nearly 14" of snow ! 
The photo printed out too dark.
The barn should be more red. 

The background paper was from an old 
Die Cuts With A View stack.

The snowflakes were created with a 
coordinating stamp set and dies from Stampin' Up!
I stamped them with Whisper White Kraft ink
onto Smokey Slate card stock.

Thanks for looking =) 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Welcome Autumn Card






Sentiment was created with My Digital Studio
then I cut it out by hand after printing.
I used a coordinating die from Stampin' Up!
to cut the kraft background piece. 
Lovely Leaves, retired from Stampin' Up!,
stamp set with various colors of ink
then hand cut and bent. Low temp glue gun
used to adhere all the pieces together.
Lattice embossing folder, Kraft card stock, Soft Suede ink
for the background on the card. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Hunter's Moon / Blood Moon Eclipse

I did it, 
I finally got a couple okay shots of the full moon!
I was determined to try again this month
during the Hunter's Moon / Blood Moon eclipse.
There were many, many bad shots, too.
I tired various settings I read about 
as well as the preprogrammed settings
on my Nikon D5000 with Tamron 18-270mm lens
set up on a tripod (no remote shutter release). 
Just luck to get these few:


Full moon before going to bed.






Near total eclipse, low in the sky around 5:30 AM.
Tweaked in Photoshop Elements.







Leaving my house around 6:45 AM.
Lots of clutter in this shot, but it was the only safe spot along the road I could
pull over to see the moon above the bluffline.









Tuesday, October 7, 2014

OWH ODBD - Snowflakes




First time I've participated in a challenge at 
Operation Write Home in a while !
This card was made for the
Our Daily Bread Design Challenge -
My card is blank so it could be used for anything. 



All supplies from Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise:
Snow Angels stamp set, retired
Snowflake border punch, unknown
Snow Flurries die
Whisper White, Soft Sky card stock
Various classic inks
Whisper White Craft ink
Aquapainter
glitter glue (coated with sealer to make sure no glitter comes off)
Puffy Paint
White 5/8" organdy ribbon
Dimensionals



splitcoaststampers.com sketch



Thanks for looking =)


Sunday, October 5, 2014

AnythingButACard Autumn Magic/Spring Wonder



Time for a new challenge at AnythingButACard
I'm tickled to say that I am one of the newest members
of the design team and this is one of my first submissions.
The theme this month, Autumn Magic / Spring Wonder.
My piece right now is celebrating Autumn,
but it could easily be changed throughout the seasons.

Be sure to take a moment to visit AnythingButACard to see
the first set of amazing and varied team creations this week.
There will be more posted each of the next two Sundays.
Lots of inspiration for you to make a project (it can be anything
crafty, but not a card !) and share
with us in the InLinkz at the bottom of the challenge post







This is exactly how it looked 
as a table decoration at a wedding reception in mid September.



My daughter brought it home thinking I could do something with it.
I wasted no time in ripping it apart,
knowing I'll find uses for the pieces at some point.
The wood was freshly cut, still wet and oozing sap so it had to be 
disassembled then set outside to dry.


I found out a week after receiving this that I would be a member of the 
design team at Anything But A Card ! Woohoo!!!!
It became the perfect canvas for my first design team project,
although I was kicking around several other ideas.









How to's:


You want to tear apart the
"silk" flower then reassemble it so that
the smaller petals will be on the top of 
the fairy's skirt when you put it on her.
Also, you may want to flip the petals upside down.
I did this since they looked better that way. 
Save the plastic center pieces for another project if 
you wish, you will not need to reuse them for the fairy skirt.













Flower fairy supplies:
~"silk" flower
(I used the one that was on the decoration to begin with)
~two pipe cleaners
(I painted mine flesh colored, they were white to begin with)
~wood bead with hole drilled in bottom
~acrylic craft paints
~something for hair
(I used a type of floral supply)
~something for the top of the dress and something to tie it
(dyed corn shuck from my stash and raffia were used on my fairy)

Paint the wood bead and add facial features.
Fold one chenille stem/pipe cleaner in half.
Thread the folded end through the fairy's flower skirt.
Wrap the other chenille stem/pipe cleaner around the first in the area
you would like the arms to be.
Attach the item you are using for the dress bodice.
Shorten each stem as needed to make the length of arms and legs
you wish. Bend the ends over to help hide the sharp pointy ends.
Add a dab of glue then shove the fold of the legs chenille stem/pipe cleaner
 into the hole of the wood bead.


I had planned on using skeleton leaves as wings for the fairy,
but they were too fragile.  I have some tulle, somewhere.....
or perhaps this little fairy has no wings and is looking up
 wishing she had wings like the beautiful butterfly has ?























Supplies used to make the card stock leaves


The saying was designed using My Digital Studio
then printed out on my home printer.
I hand trimmed the white part ,
used a coordinating die from Stampin' Up!
to cut the Kraft background piece. 

The leaves were assembled using a low temp glue gun.



























Supplies used to create the butterfly.
I really should have used black embossing powder
on the butterfly to make it pop more.
The black Stazon ink looks dull.
It was stamped and colored on a piece of 
drafting weight vellum paper. 
It is attached with a thin strip of clear acetate
and heavy duty double stick tape. 























Before assembling with a low temp glue gun.








Done ! 
This could easily be swapped out
to make a spring/summer display if the 
embellishment on the band is attached with velcro dots
or you make the band easily removable.
The fairy is just sitting on the stump , not glued in place,
so she could be changed out, too.
The butterfly is attached with a thin piece of acetate and
double stick tape that could be removed. 



Thanks for looking =)
Be sure to see the rest of the AnythingButACard






Saturday, October 4, 2014

World Card Making Day - PaperCrafts









I just whipped up a couple of these cards this morning to send in a box of cards I'm working on to donate to Operation Write Home. Pretty easy to make card of thanks for the troops for their service.












I used a centering ruler to help align the stars.



Sponge blue ink over the stars punched out of removable sticky note paper.
Be sure to lay scrap paper along the bottom half of the card.



Sponge red ink over a plastic stripes template.



It would have been far less messy (and quicker!)
had I used die cuts glued to the card front rather than sponging the ink.
The sponged ink created a different look, though.

Adhere small punched out card stock stars with star shaped eyelets.

Attach the die cut "thankful" on top of the finished card front.
Die is retired from Stampin' Up!

Glue to a card base and write a note of thanks to the troops. 


Thanks for looking and keep on hopping 
(click on the MrLinky at the bottom of the page)

LOVE cards (see my previous post)

World Card Making Day - OWH Blog Hop



It's World Card Making Day ! 








I made Love cards that could be suitable for parents to send home to their kids for the Operation Write Home World Cardmaking  Day Blog Hop ! Although they have several layers, they are still quite flat and mail friendly.


Supplies Used:
Stamp sets: Darling Dragons - retired Stampin' Up!
                  Circle Of Friendship - retired Stampin' Up!
                  Just Sayin' - Stampin' Up!
Card stocks: Watercolor paper
                     Basic Black
                     Whisper White
                     Lovely Lilac
                     Pink and Green white core card stock, Die Cuts With A View (old , from my stash)
Black Stazon ink
Assorted classic ink pads and markers, Stampin' Up!
Aquapainter to watercolor the images using water based inks
Punches and die from Stampin' Up! :
                      Circle
                      Label(?) - retired
                      Slot(?) - retired
                      Word Bubbles die
Cuttlebug Hearts embossing folder
Fiskars Leather Texture Plate
Big Shot die cut/embossing machine
Black 5/8" grosgrain ribbon
Yellow ribbon, Michael's Dots Dashes and Checks
Fine sandpaper to remove pink from the embossed hearts background paper
Adhesive
Dimensionals, Stampin' Up! (pop dots to raise the stamped images slightly)
Fray check for the cut ends of the ribbons
Double Stick tape, heavy duty, to adhere ribbon




Be sure to bookmark the post at Operation Write Home and keep checking back throughout the day as other cards are shared at the bottom in the InLinkz for the hop ! Submissions are accepted from 6 AM PST until Midnight PST October 4th - plenty of time for you to make a "Love" card and share, too !

Want to find out more about Operation Write Home and how you can help make cards to send to the troops ? Read this post for all the current needs.









Smaller sentiment stamps were colored directly with water based markers to get the multi colored stamped image. Be sure to "huff" your warm breath onto the inked rubber stamp before stamping onto the card stock to moisten the water based inks if they dry as you are coloring.










Once your card stock is embossed with an embossing folder,
texture plate, brass template with stylus, etc,
you can add color by rubbing an ink pad directly to
the raised areas or by lightly sanding white core card stock
with a fine grit sandpaper to reveal the white core. 





Thanks for looking =)



Friday, October 3, 2014

Route 66 Festival Scrapbook Pages



I'm nearly done with scrapping the photos I took,
some of which were printed, for the Photo Of The Week
feature our local newspaper ran a couple of years ago.

This is one of mine that was printed !
It was taken at a huge car show and festival
celebrating the storied historic Route 66 in America.
We've been going to this event for several years now,
this past weekend was no exception. 
Perfect weather and over 1000 vehicles to see,
lots of quaint shops to peruse, good food.
Always an enjoyable event ! 



Supplies used for my project:

scrapbook papers were part of a kit that I bought 
at Big Lots years ago, Road Trip by American Traditional Crafts

basic black card stock

Cricut Library Fonts cartridge for "2012"


Thanks for looking =) 


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Cruisin' Into Town Scrapbook Page



Papers and map strip are from an old kit bought at Big Lots years ago,
Road Trip by American Traditional Designs.
NOT the colors I would have chosen,
but the streets background paper was fitting for the project
 as the car show I took the photo at is held on numerous
streets in the city. Neat , fun event. 

Brown grosgrain ribbon

Metallic silver card stock

Cricut Library fonts cartridge to cut out the title.
I am not happy with this, I should have known that
 the letters couldn't be welded together to make one long word
in my old Cricut Create machine. This was a new cartridge I
recently bought and it was the first time I used it. 
Also, although I used the heaviest pressure on this heavy weight card stock,
it still did not make a clean cut; I had to trim out every single letter by hand. 

I've barely used my Cricut in all the years I've had it.
I had more problems with it than success it seems.
Most notably, it doesn't cut cleanly through my card stock
and the right side of every single cut is not cut through at all.
Some sort of glitch in the machine as it cuts on that side ?
It was bought at Big Lots, maybe that is why they had those Create
machines years ago, there were problems with them ? 

Anyway, this is yet another page for my 
Photo of the Week scrapbook.
The photo was taken as classic cars were cruising into the 
downtown area for a car show that weekend. 
The photo, once again , printed out much darker than it looked
to me on my computer screen. I guess there must be
some sort of calibration I need done ?


Thanks for looking =)