The last of Christmas

Thought I should post these before it's January and we can't even pretend it's Christmas anymore...

I scrapbooked just for FUN!

Weird, I know!

I used Close To My Heart Sparkle and Shine paper, matching chipboard embellishments, red shimmer tape, red bakers twine, silver embossing on the title, and my silver liquid pearls.

Sorry for the slightly funky coloring. I could NOT get the lighting right for anything! It's pretty paper, you'll just have to trust me :)

Same supplies! I like doing pages in groups using the same stuff. I don't have to use my brain as much and I get more finished!

Happy last day of 2013!

A little late...

I may have hopefully solved my blogging problems of late. 

Hopefully. 

Since it is now after Christmas, I'd thought I'd share my favorite decoration I made this year:

An ornament wreath! Yay! I know I'm a little behind just now jumping on the "ball wreath" bandwagon... But I don't care! I really LOVE how this turned out! 

It didn't take long, it didn't cost much, and it didn't need an instructional video. Perfect the-kids-are-home-all-at-once craft! 

And it's pretty! 

Success!

MERRY (late) CHRISTMAS!!!

Layouts for December

Oops!

Forgot to post these...

We doubled up again in December because all the paper packets are too cute to cut one out!

Here is layout #1:

We used the Frosted Paper Packet, Silver Shimmer Tape, Silver Glitz Gel, and Clear Sparkles.

I'm really mad they are discontinuing the glitter gel. I LOVE it. :(

I also used the amazingly awesome new Cricut Artbooking Cartridge to cut out all my snowflakes and the snowflake border. If you don't have this one, you NEED it!!!

And here is layout #2:

We used the limited edition Sparkle And Shine Paper Packet, the Sparkle And Shine Dimensional Elements, Red Shimmer Tape, and Red Glitz Gel.

The whole thing is pretty shiny... it's hard to photograph... you'll just have to trust me!

I loved ALL these papers!

DT Doodles #46

Crappy Blogger mixed with my off-and-on crappy computer made me have to just throw this one up on Facebook last week! Grrr...

But now it's working (knockonwood) so here goes!

Here is the Kiwi Lane sketch for last week:

And here is my 2-page version:

I couldn't wait any longer to try out my Kiwi Lane Winter set. LOVE the snowflake!!!

I outlined the snowflakes with Glitter Gel and popped them up a bit.

I'm pretty proud of my snowbear! The photos going on the layout are of my husband and kids making a snowbear out of real snow. I got pretty close with my paper version! :) 

Even though the official contest is over, you can still go HERE to see what other people made. 

Happy Blogger-is-actually-working Day!

Why I've Been Gone...

I promise I have a good excuse for the last 2 weeks...

I have a friend named Allison who just survived her 5th open heart surgery. As happy as everyone is that she is okay, her little family has medical bills coming out their adorable ears! A bunch of us put together a craft boutique where 100% of the funds would go to the DenBoer family :)

So I've been making these:

I made 12 of each card for a grand total of 120 cards!!! I figure I have the supplies and I can make the time... but I have no cash... so this is the next best thing I can do!

You can make some pretty cool things out of some pretty inexpensive pieces of wood:

9 stacking trees out of one 2x2!

6 snowmen out of one 2x4! (Thank you Tif for doing the faces)

And 5 groups of presents from one 4x4!

ps- all those wood measurements are totally off bytheway. Men!

Allison and her youngest daughter have Marfan's Snydrome. She is an inspiration! It's almost annoying how positive she always is despite the past 10 years of her life! You can read all about her story and participate in an online auction HERE. Or email me and I can help you help her :)

See?!

That's why I've been gone!

And it was soooo worth it!

Get better Allison!!!

DT Doodles #44

I have been creating like a mad woman lately... just not posting...

I'll explain later :)

Here is the Kiwi Lane sketch for this week:

I am so proud of myself! I found the EXACT number of photos to copy the sketch! Normally I can't find any pictures I want to cut down that small! Yay me!

Here is my very minimally altered version:

The pictures going on it (really they are already on it and put away in an album!) are my twin brother- and sister-in-law, so I needed a color palate that would work for both boys and girls together.

I think the rings template is my favorite right now! I figured they are a bit more masculine, so I could add the bit more feminine flower and heart to balance. 

I really love how this one turned out! The photos look great on it, too! To see other layouts, go visit Kiwi Lane HERE.

Happy Friday!

DT Doodles #43

Soooooo, I had this layout done back on Wednesday...

For some reason it just sat there un-photographed for awhile!

Here is the Kiwi Lane sketch for the week:

I LOVE that it is usually a multi-photo 2-pager! Makes my life so much easier! Go HERE to see all the cute interpretations. 

And here is my layout:

The pictures are my little one picking dandelions. I love how every child considers them flowers for a few years! I want to find some cute poem or quote that says something to that effect for the eventual journaling on this layout. Any ideas?

Hopefully you can see that some of the paper is shiny embossed and that the letters are felt. I like the texture!

I'm pretty proud of my homemade dandelions! I finally found a permanent, accessible home for my Cricut! Yay! So now it is officially out of it's box and MUCH more usable... so I used it! I just cut a bunch of the same flower in decreasing sizes from the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy cartridge. A little sponged ink and some ribbon stems and ta-da! Dandelions! 

Thanks for looking! 

November Layout

Here is the layout my Close To My Heart scrapbooking group will be making in November:

We are using the perfect-for-Thanksgiving Huntington paper packet with Mocha Pearls and Jute Ribbon. 

I used a Stamp Of The Month from a few months ago... shhhh... because it fit perfectly! The Jute Ribbon is just cut into banners (sharp scissors are a must) and form a border along the bottom edge with the pearls. 

Now I am ready for at least 3 Thanksgiving photos!

I'm going to need a lot more layouts...

As always, feel free to join us if you are in the Utah County area! 

DT Doodles #42

Kiwi Lane forced me to take a break last week when they didn't post a sketch...

But I'm baaaaaack!

-side note: "old" horror movies are the best!-

Here is the sketch:

And here is my layout:

The color ended up a little funky... You'll just have to trust me that it's bright and cute and the background is Kraft colored and not brownish weirdness. 

I stayed pretty true to the sketch this time! I only messed with the photo area and added another template in the middle and a sunshine and no flowers... Pretty close for me! 

I love all the layers in this one! The whole thing is surprisingly flat and un-embellished, but I liked it that way. This time. Watch my next layout be swimming in glitter!

Over-embellished layout coming soon!

WINNER!!!

So sorry for the delay!

As my little one said, "Mama pooked"...

But I am now done puking, knockonwood, and have randomly selected a winner from the Kiwi Lane Blog Hop!

First, THANK YOU to everyone who commented!!! I loved ALL of them and was blown away at how nice everyone was! Huge ego boost!

Also, THANK YOU to all my new followers for joining!!! I hope I can live up to your expectations!

This card is for all of you awesome people:

It's appropriate! Trust me! My husband got a little tired of listening to me squeal and read out loud every time I got a comment :)

And the winner is.... Lucky #13 traupman!

Contact me at steeltulip@hotmail.com with your address and I'll get your cards sent right away!

Don't forget to check the Kiwi Lane blog HERE tomorrow to see who won the $25 gift certificate!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Kiwi Lane Blog Hop!!!

 

Welcome to the last stop in the Kiwi Lane November Blog Hop!!! 

I am sooooo excited to be part of this! If you have ever been to my blog before, you know how I LOVE my Kiwi Lane!! You should have come from Christine's blog HERE, but if you didn't, you'll want to go back to Kiwi Lane's blog HERE and start from the beginning. Just make sure you comment on EVERY blog (including Kiwi Lane's) to be entered to win a $25 gift certificate! Trust me, you want one!

I was given the TINY SHAPES templates to work with:

Sometimes it's hard to scrapbook Thanksgiving. The traditional colors and decor are so drab for kids as little and crazy as mine. So I attempted a cute and fun version. 

I started with the size of photos I usually work with and just played around with my Kiwi Lane 12" borders. To learn more about the "framing" process Kiwi Lane uses go HERE; they explain it so much better than I can! The goal was something like this:

 Aaaaand ended up like this:

After some tracing, cutting, inking, and stamping of course! I made the turkey out of the larger circle template surrounded by 5 of the larger oval templates: 

 I think he's cute!

I really like to enhance the edges of my borders. This time it was with brads and doodling. It's so easy to get tons of different looks from just one template by changing up the edges!

After my layout, I just started playing with my Tiny Shapes and card borders:

1/2 a circle + 1/2 a hexagon = a cupcake:

 

3/4 an oval + 1/4 a hexagon = a pie:

1 triangle + 3 strips of paper = a candy corn:

I could keep going... :) 

I had so much fun being creative with my Tiny Shapes!

Whew! That was a LOT of photos!! To reward you for making it through all those, I am giving away a set of the 3 cards I featured! Just leave me a nice comment and maybe follow my blog if you'd like... Comment no matter what so you can at least be entered in the $25 Kiwi Lane gift certificate giveaway! (sorry, my giveaway is open to continental US only)

You have until midnight on Sunday November 3rd to enter both giveaways. Kiwi Lane will announce their winner on Thursday November 7th, and I will announce my winner on Monday November 4th. 

Good luck everyone!

Thanks for hopping with me!