Living the Good Life

Items used:
Jubilee paper pack
Jubilee stamp (title)
Jubilee Assortment
Colonial White cardstock
Bohemian embellishments (retired)
Wooden assortment (retiring after July)
Brads

Here's how I did the twine:

Fold the twine in half, using brad to secure it.  The length needs to be about 2-3" longer than twice the distance you want to cover.

I used the stitching guide to line up the holes where I needed them.  For the left side, the holes are at 6", 8" and 10".  For the right side, it's centered over the square.

 

After attaching the twine with the brads, I flipped the page over and taped the tails down (regular old tape), pulling the ends one inch either way of the brad - so the brad at 10" has a taped tail at 11" and at 9" and so on.

 

I also added a couple of brads to the title.

 

Sisters

These are my girls when we were at the beach in June.  I used the Let's Get Sketchy! sketch for the week and have a couple of sneak peeks in the project.  I wasn't too sure about the Lollydoodle papers before I saw them in person - and as usual, CTMH has done it again.  The papers match  my pictures perfectly.  Did  you know that the team at CTMH reviews the colors the fashion world is looking at being popular during the year and generates colors to match?  That's how we got the new colors of Flaxen, Pixie, Thistle, Canary and Glacier.

Got some shine on the bottom photo, but I ran out of patience trying to take a picture indoors.

Here I stamped a sentiment from the Your Own Kind of Wonderful stamp set directly on the picture.  I first tried it on the paper, but it disappeared into the background.

Lollydoodle paper pack
In the Background, Flair (D1540)
Circus Alphabet, July 2014 SOTM
Diagonal Striped Ribbon, slate (NEW!)
Foundry book plate (retired)
Your Own Kind of Wonderful (D1627, NEW!)
Glitz

Sidebar

Cool factor alert!  I like to decorate these inexpensive notebooks.  I've started using a sponge dauber to color the edges and now I'm adding a single line phrase from one of our stamp sets.

Color Dare #101

The colors over at Color Dare are Gypsy, Pear, Lagoon and Sunset.  I used the retired paper pack Hooligans for my entry.  This is a trifold card.  The paper is a 4"X12" strip, folded at the 3" mark and the 8.5" mark, with a 3"X3" center piece that overlaps the two sides.  The background stamp is from the L8tr Sk8tr kit.  The word bubble is from Balloon talk, April 2014 SOTM, stamped in sunset pigment ink, then clear embossing powder and heated (thus the shine).

This one gives you an idea of how the card folds.

Saturday's Crop

Here's a shout out to all the ladies who came for the crop on Saturday.  We had a great time.  Our hostess, Susan, made cute little patio candle lanterns, centerpiece decorations and cupcakes with the cutest sparkler decorations on top. 

 

She also brought her daughter, Katie - a first time scrapper.  Great job on your first page!

July Crop Oh Baby Layout

This is my version of the design we did on Saturday.  Leave me a comment if  you would like the written cutting directions.

Stamp a border around the edges of both sheets of your cardstock base.

Position your squares as diamonds around the edges before sticking them down.

Add two vertical mats.

 

Add three horizontal mats.  I cut the middle one in half for a smaller picture and some journaling.

Right page

Left page.

 

So what do you think of my face editing? LOL - so much less creepy than when I tried it on the computer - and so much easier!

 

Some days

You know, no matter how organized you are, some days, you just can't find it!

The Contenders

People go to Vegas to gamble and get married.  For our 10th anniversary we did both.  On our wedding day in 2003, I had a very lightweight, short dress for the beach wedding.  This time I wanted the Cinderella dress.  We found a rental place and I tried on lots of heavy, beaded, fancy and fluffy dresses.  It was fun!  I used the sketch from Let's Get Sketchy!, turned on it's side and am also showing it on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge site.

 All the white, both in the dress detail and the butterflies wants to blend together in these photos.  I cut multiple sized butterflies from all the different CTMH Cartridges, then ran them through the Cuttle bug in the embosser folders.  A few of the butterflies are cut from silver glitter paper.There are also bitty pearls scattered among the butterflies.  Glitter paper backs the tear out.

Sneak peak below:

New paper punch coming your way in August!

Color Dare #100

This week's colors at CTMH Color Dare are Pacifica, Crystal Blue and Barn Red.    This is a very simple card, using the stamp sets Feathers (C1584) and Princess Wings (C1502).

July Workshop

One of the things to do at Convention is swap cards.  I made 85 of the same cards, and swapped them with other consultants.

TIP:  For shading or stamping on a small cut - do the stamping while the paper is still attached to the Cricut mat.

 

I picked three cards I received at the swap to use as ideas for the July Workshop. The workshop will be on Thursday, July 24 , from 5:30pm until 7:30pm. Cost is $5.  Please RSVP, as I have 6 spaces available.  RSVP by leaving a comment to this post, contacting me via email or in person.

Thanks to fellow consultants Barbra Otten, Meredith Diatchun and Laura Ryan for their great ideas!

A little something extra for this workshop.  I have a few convention cards of mine leftover.  If you'd like one, bring me one of yours to swap!

July SOTM

July's stamp of the month is a complete alphabet, both upper case and lower case.  While it's called Circus Day, it also makes me think of the beach - maybe because of the samples CTMH did up.





This is what I did with it:

 

Items used:
July SOTM
Love Life stamp set
Tropical Paradise stamp set (not in catalog, but still available)
Cardstock - champagne, sky, crystal blue, twilight
Silver glitter paper
Artiste cartridge-page 70 and 77
Awards chipboard

I added a few glitter gems after I took these pictures.

Convention 2014

Close to My Heart Convention is a great time, with great business tips, insight into new products, friends, fun and motivation galore but there were some goofy people there!   

 

And look what I found!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!  I hope your day is full of BBQ and fireworks, and pleasant people if you don't have the day off.

 

The Heart 2 Heart scrapbooking challenge for July is to use red and white, with the option of blue.  You must also add some sparkle and real or faux stitching.  I had just finished a layout using just those colors - ruby, daisy white and Indian corn blue - but minus the stitching.  So I faux stitched the word summer in my title.

I splattered Ruby ink on the White Daisy cardstock by putting some drops on an old tooth brush and then flicking the bristles with my thumb (outside btw).  The overlay is from the Artbooking cartridge, page 64, as well as the photo overlays. The title is a double one - Freedom from page 64 and Endless Summer from page 67.   I stamped the overlays using Home of the Brave (retired). The June SOTM, Kaboom, would work well too.  My sparkle is from Silver glitter paper, with a few star stickers from my stash thrown in.  The stars on the right page are the cutouts from the mats and the overlay.

An Original

Lots of good stuff in this layout. 
Ivy Lane paper pack (green and pink cardstock)*
Ariana Assortment (striped bow)*
Always paper pack (black half) - retired
Fundamental basics (black frame around picture and Cricut cut under name badge)
Green Glitter paper (mat around picture)
Wooden Mini-Medley Accents (buttons)*
Embroidery thread (inside the buttons) - retired
Hollyhock zipper lace*
Hemp - retired.
Love Life stamp set (D1482)
All the Details (D1555)
Liquid glass

*Retiring after July 2014

A tip - this particular shade of green is limited - only available in the Ivy Lane paper pack.  To get the matching color for the name tag, I cut it out from a space I knew would be covered, chopped at it with a Exacto knife, then trimmed afterwards to make it neat.

Check out the other entries at Let's Get Sketchy!

Travel papers

It's finally here!  I'm on my way to CTMH Convention in Disneyland today.  I'm always misplacing my important papers.  I once left the ticket for a connecting flight on the last flight.  I was in New York, trying to get back to Georgia, tired from a week in Ireland and could not find my ticket.  The airline staff got irritated with me, because I couldn't quit bawling.  But - for this trip, I have my airline passes, shuttle passes and 5K run registration all in one place - this cute little travel holder I made using Balloon Ride paper and washi tape.  Travelling in scrapbooker style!  PS - after travelling all day with this, the washi tape had a tendency to roll.  I suggest reinforcing the edges over the washing tape with good old scotch tape.

July Crop

The July Crop is on July 12, from 9am until 9pm.  There is no featured kit, so just bring some of your current stash to create from.  I do have this layout design I'll be sharing, which can be used with any paper pack. On Saturday, I'll help you create the pages (it's a double spread). 

Beach Jubilee

Farm and Fair paper with a beach picture?  Why, of course!  The colors were perfect for this photo of my friend and I.  I used the sketch from Let's Get Sketchy!

Supplies:
Jubilee paper pack
Black cardstock
Artiste Cartridge, file folder card cut in half
Artbooking Cartridge (BFF, 3" real dial size)
Love Life D1482 stamp set
Paisley stamp, retired
Topiary ribbon
Outdoor denim chevron ribbon
Sewing machine

Double Challenge

I used both the challenges at Heart 2 Heart and Let's Get Sketchy! for this one.  The hammock on my patio is one of my favorite places to be when the weather is nice.

Left page

 

Right Page 

Right page with flip flap open

 

Supplies:
Free to be Me paper pack
4X6 Flip Flap
Aqua Dots
Urban Alphabet (word Patio)
Titles are from the Artbooking Cartridge (just BE and Paradise)
Keys and medallion are from stash (retired)

Bake Sale

I had fun on Thursday baking cookies and making tags for the treats with my Cricut and scraps.  Nothing new here, just a way to bring down that ever growing scrap basket.

Poker Run Prize Envelopes

My day job company is sponsoring a Poker Run (a motorcycle ride) to benefit the American Cancer Society.  The top two prizes for the best poker hand fit into envelopes that I decorated to dress them up a little.  I used the stamp set that comes with the Artiste Cartridge and some shimmer trim.  The tire tread is from a retired set.