Birthday & Anniversary Cards - Heart 2 Heart Challenges

Without even thinking I often tend to use a combination of browns, greens and cream when I'm doing a vintage look on a card or scrapbook page.  When the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog asked what color combos do you use I was surprised to realize I had just used these colors again!

I recently had 2 cards to make for men, and I always turn to Distress Inks for that masculine touch.  The first was a birthday card that I used CTMH stamps on, stamped in Vintage Photo. I used green Distress Ink on the cardstock and then I brushed the edges with the Distress  paint.  I tore a piece of green mulberry paper around the edges and layered it with a recycled stamp, cut around the edges with 'postal' cut scissors and stuck on a couple accessories.

For my husband, for our 6th Anniversary I used the same color combos, cream, green & brown and layered patterned paper cut with a torn paper look and stamped in the center with a CTMH stamp.  I sponged distress ink on the paper and over the Spellbinders pocket watch die cut to accent the embossing and color coordinate it to the rest of the card.  The Heart 2 Heart blog also had another September challenge to use die cuts on your projects!

We ened up going to Cirque du Soleil Ovo show for our Anniversary night out and it was wonderful! It was my first time going to one of their shows and I was in awe at the work that must go into the production of this.  We don't get out too often together, so this was well worth it!!

Yummy muffin recipes!

Had to share these really good muffin recipes!  I love using my i-pad to search for recipes in the kitchen...

These are amazing! Taste like cake :) yummy



http://silksoymilk.com/recipes/chocolate-zucchini-muffins


I love the coconut and flax seeds in these.  I actually made them without the topping and they were really good!



http://bread.betterrecipes.com/banana-bran-n-nut-muffins-with-streusel-topping.html

Final Page Mothers' Day! and more....

I finally finished the last of the Mothers' Day 2010 scrapbook pics :) See previous post for the second page and a link to the first!  Well, I think with fall settling in I'm finally feeling like settling down to do a bit more scrapbooking.  Of course, then there's Christmas coming up, crafts & cards to make, those cute crocheted baby slippers I'm working on, oh yeah, the Snow White costume... Well, I will fit it in somewhere :)

My 2 beautiful girls! Love u

 For the following 2 pages I had used a computer program to add pictures to a page and then chose to print them 8x12.  It was a quick and easy birthday layout simply layering them on some primary colored cardstock and adding a few stamps/embellishments.

I figured I just had to use this beautiful paper (I think Websters), which had been in my stash for a while.  We have a local farm attraction nearby and since we spend a lot of time there I wanted to do a 2 page layout.  I used distress inks to make a background sponged on white cardstock and then some Inkadinkadoo bug/butterfly stamps to stamp over the sponged areas.  I highlighted with gel pens and popped them up with foam dots around the pages.

This paper was so cute on the back I actually scrapped the other side (see below).

 These printed pages were perfect for an amusement park layout!

Sketchy Thursday 9.1 Sketch Challenge - Sweetest Day!

I've almost gotten my craft room back to normal.  There is one cabinet still in the garage.... of course behind other boxes from our move, so I'm anxious to get it out and back into my space!  I feel like I finally have a bit of time to sit down with my scrapbooking and want to make use of it over the next few months before baby comes.

Sketchy Thursday had a beautiful sketch this week and I decided to take advantage of it to finish a layout for Mothers' Day 2010 (yes, I'm behind..) I actually used their sketch a while ago to do the first page of this layout (click here to see that).  I used the Pink Paislee Sweetness Collection, which is so beautiful, it's hard to cut up the paper! I used 2 photos in the space and cut part of one of the papers for my title "Sweetest Day". I didn't want the title to stand out too much, as I have a more distinct title on page 1 of the layout. I used Distress Ink around the edges of the papers and a glitter pen to make a subtle outline of the title. I love the CTMH Coffee Stain stamp and placed that in the upper left corner, stamped with Distress Ink, and I inked white paper flowers and placed a pearl in the center and placed them on the left side.

Playing in Paradise Challenge 30

Well, just spent 2 beautiful weeks in BC! It was actually HOT, and we definitely aren't used to that, except for the odd day, in Calgary... We had beautiful beaches to swim in and great camping spots and amazing mountain scenery.  It was +35 there and today, back home, we are looking at a rainy, cool 8 degrees! Oh well, we had fun :)

I used Scrapbooker's Paradise sketch challenge this week to make a cute card for a friend.  I used the CC Designs stamp (that I picked up at Scrapbooker's Paradise!) and colored them in with my Prismacolor markers, and of course added some Stickles.  I used some great CTMH paper which I used on the card front and a CTMH sentiment.  After I popped up the apples on the side of the card I covered them with Glossy Accents.

Hope you are all enjoying the rest of your summer! Here's hoping for an awesome September :)

Moyie Lake, BC 

Cranbrook, BC

Driving through BC

Fairmont Hotsprings, BC

Prismacolor Markers!

I noticed yesterday that Michaels had Prismacolor Art Markers on sale this week for 50% off (and they had a coupon for 20% off your entire purchase, including sale items) so I thought I'd go online to check out these markers.  Turns out they are an alcohol based marker, with two tips, and are blendable! I even found several videos on You-tube showing coloring techniques, one even mentioning they had used Copics with these markers. I have thus far resisted the Copic trend, only because I cannot justify spending $7 on one marker, and it seems to me you need quite a few to be able to blend properly.  So, coupon in hand, I decided to go and check out these markers.

I ended up getting a set of 24 for 1/2 price, which turned out to be $65, but then I used my 20% off coupon and that brought it down to $52.  Still a lot to pay for markers, but I thought I'd give it a try. And, not a bad price for regularly being $130 a set!  This brought it down to $2/marker, which I can live with.  I also bought 3 individual markers, a light tan, a colorless blender, and a grey. 

I was very happy with the selection of colors in the set. I think the only ones I'd pick up individually would be a lighter purple and a lighter pink, and maybe a lighter skin tone color.

I colored the girl on the left with a sand color for her skin and a peach color for the one of the right.  I used the thin nib as I felt I could control it better.  The colorless blender was great for a few spots I colored outside the lines and I also highlighted in a few areas.  I also added a few highlights with the Prismacolor white colored pencil.  I used the black Memento ink pad, as you would with the Copics.

All in all I am very happy with these markers and would recommend them for sure! I felt they were very easy to blend and even though I'm sure my technique could use improvement, I was satisfied with the results.

Free Magazine Downloads

I recently found a site: http://downmagaz.com/ for free magazine downloads! I love magazines :) so I'm very excited, and it's always great to save some $$! They have a wide variety of magazines and it is very easy to use.

You click ‘read more’ under the magazine you want, then click one of the download links in the blue area under the magazine cover. I’ve used the oron.com site and downloaded 3 magazines. On the next page that comes up you scroll to the bottom and click ‘regular download’ for a free download (It just takes a few min’s longer) and follow the prompts. It comes up as as PDF.

Happy summer reading!