Simple Holiday Layout

On today's layout I tried to just keep it pretty simple. I have always loved the combinations of blacks, reds and whites so I thought I would try to use those colors in a holiday layout. I didn't use traditional holiday paper for it though. Last week I had purchased at Hobby Lobby I purchased the Paris Nights paper pack from GCD. I love it... It has flocked papers, shimmered, foiled and lovely shabby papers. I couldn't be more happy with it. I chose to use a die cut foiled paper for my background. I double matted a 4x6 picture and offset it slightly from the center. I used my Silhouette and cut out the phrase Happy Holidays and then I glimmer misted it with my homemade watermelon color and then used a very very fine sparkly glitter over the entire thing. The flowers were made by me using the Dahlia nestabilities dies with my NEW CUTTLEBUG :) I just love that thing! Got it from Amazon for 39.99...can't beat that deal! I used some dictionary paper as well as just some plain printer paper for the flowers. The dictionary papers were glimmer misted with the watermelon and then the plain paper one was inked with a cherry red ink and then glimmer misted with my homemade Marshmellow! I used an old basic grey flourish I had in my stash and painted it and covered it with crystal accents to finish off the layout! I think it turned out really pretty for just the few things that are on it!

Another Layout and a few fun pics from the drive in...

This past Saturday evening we took Haley and one of her friends to the drive-in. It is a pretty nostalgic thing since there aren't many Drive-ins left around the country. We are lucky and we have one within 15 minutes of our house! They were showing New Moon and Eclipse from the Twilight series. Neither of which Jim or I had seen before. I haven't read the books either, so I was a twilight newbie! :) Both movies were good, but I have since heard the books are a thousand times better so I am thinking about downloading them and listening to them as I am working in my studio. Here are a couple pictures we took before the movies started!

I love the picture of Jim eating those nachos, he was REALLY enjoying them!

I created a new layout last night for the monthly challenge at Scrappin n Chattin. I am a new member over there and so far I am really liking it. You should click on the link and check it out, there are some really talented scrappers over there!

The photo I used on this layout was taken of Jim and I at a pizzaria in Springfield, IL. We were at a dinner for Haley's softball team. It was a good time. I am so glad that she is on such a great team. Great coaching and awesome parents, it makes the summer fly by! I have a goal to take and scrap more pictures of Jim and I. It is amazing how few pictures we have together. I need to put aside my camera shyness and just smile for it!

In this layout I used bazzill cardstock as the background paper. I created the patterned paper by spraying white cardstock with my homemade glimmer mist in the following colors: Watermelon, Bronze and Buttercup. Then I dried the paper with my heat gun because I am super impatient and didn't want my creative juices to dry up! I used my Martha Stewart deep edger punch in Doily Lace to create the two borders. I had some vintage black lace that I found at a thrift store a few weeks ago that fit really well on this page. I also used my Butterscotch homemade glimmer mist on the "cherish" sticker. This Sticker is from the Romantic Making Memories De-fined series. Does anyone else remember these? They have got to be at least 8 years old. I have a ton of them in my stash and I am really trying to work in some of my older stash items with some of the newer products that are coming out now! I also added 3 of the rosette flowers I created last week onto the layout and finished it off with a small skeleton key!

Flowers

So, I have been making flowers it seems non stop lately. I am loving them! I am going to show you two of the types I have been making in the last few days. The larger of the two flowers is a Peony and the smaller is a Rosette.

This first one is a Peony. I love Peonies, they are probably my favorite flower. I have been using my silhouette to cut out the flowers and then I have been shaping, misting, glittering and glueing like a FOOL! :)

And then finally we have these super cute Rosettes. I love that they are so small... just a little over an inch wide! I can't wait to have the perfect layout to share these on!

And! I also found this great giveaway on another blog! Click here to be taken to Scrapbook Patty's blog!

Mr. Fix It

I always refer to Jim as Mr. Fix it... He is always working on something, and although sometimes he complains about it, I really think he looks for things to fix! I had a few sub par pictures that I had taken of him when he was painting the trim on the upstairs windows. I really wanted to use them on this type of layout for him. I used some chipboard letters that I had in my stash for the MR these are black and are glittered. I always have to have some type of bling on my pages :) The words fix it, are Thickers and they are the black fabric ones. I used a grey 12x12 sheet of Bazzill in Grey. I wanted to add some texture to the paper so I used my ink blending tool from Tim Holtz and brought in the weathered wood distress ink color on the background. The patterned papers are both by Basic Grey. The dotted page is Lexicon in the Basics collection and the paisley/flowered paper in the lower left corner is Bordeaux from the Periphery collection. I had a tag laying around some I inked it with the weathered wood distress ink and then misted it with water and crinkled it up. I am impatient so I dried it with my heat gun and then rub the crinkles again with the WW distress ink. I did some computer journaling and cut them out in strips and inked them up. I thought it was fitting to add some sort of nut or bolt but the only thing I could find handy was a washer so that is what I used! I also used a couple of photo turns that I had in my stash to add a little more embellishment to it! It really turned out just like I wanted it too!

This weekend!

Well this past weekend was the Sweet Corn Festival in my little town! Quite a bit of fun, lots of people, a nice parade, carnival, beer garden, etc, etc, etc... It was also Jim's 20th class reunion! Lots of fun. Some of the guys got together early in the day to golf, but wow, it was so hot outside. 105 heat index! I wasn't able to get too many pictures but I did manage one of the group. It was so dark in there it didn't come out too well. But here it is:

All in all it was a good weekend. I did get a little scrapbooking time in today and was able to complete one layout so far... I might try to start another one here a little bit, if I don't get too caught up in watching tutorials on you-tube!

I will post the layout tomorrow, I took a picture tonight but the lighting is way off and it didn't look right! Hopefully I can get a good one tomorrow!

Walking again and a layout

Well, I started walking again.. Slowly at first but I will be back up to four miles a day soon I hope. Yesterday and today I did 1.5 miles each. I could have gone more but I have a pesky blister on each foot that is now killing me!

It will be a busy weekend for us. Tomorrow we are attending a sweet 16 birthday party for a teammate of Haley's. We have become pretty close with her parents and we were invited as well. Should be quite fun. It is a masquerade ball! Then Sunday, tryouts for softball start this weekend. Then the craziness will start all over again! Practices, fall tournaments and that is just for softball. We can't forget High School volleyball, it has a pretty intense practice and game schedule as well. Oh well... it should be fun and we only have a few more years to do it!

I made this layout for the monthly challenge over at The Everyday Scrapper . This months challenge is to include a flourish on a layout. Easy for me.. I happen to love the little "Zing" a flourish gives a layout.

Have a happy weekend!!!

New Project and Wow is it Humid

It is so humid here today. Right now it is 79 degrees outside (has been raining most of the day) but it is so humid. It just makes it feel so yucky! I wish there was a nice cool breeze. I am really starting to long for fall.

We live out in the country in an old farm house. There are tons of positives to this, it's quiet, you can see the stars at night, it's quiet, when you walk outside you can hear the birds chirping, it's quiet, etc. etc. etc... The one down side, NO CENTRAL AIR! We do have one window air conditioner. It is in our bedroom. There is no way I could sleep without it! So, it is no wonder that I am wishing for Fall to hurry up and get here!

Even though it is hotter than blue blazes upstairs in my studio, I spend a good deal of time up here. Over the past few days I have been completing the Wood Letters that I bought for Haley's room months and months ago. Here is the final product:

The products that I used to complete this are:

Papers by My Mind's Eye Summer Song Collection

Flowers handmade by yours truly, for the top of the Medallion I used this punch by EK SUCCESS

Butterflies from the Online Silhouette Store

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I purchase the humongo packages of gems from Michael's or Hobby Lobby so I always have a good stash of those.

Flourish came from my stash and I wish I knew who made it!

Butterfly Gem is actually a brad that I broke off the prongs and glued it on. It was from Recollections.

That's about it, I hope it cools down soon! I plan on getting as much crafting/scrapbooking done as I can this week! On my agenda is more paper flowers and some fabric ones too! Web surfing for more tutorials on other cool stuff! Is there anything that you are looking forward to making soon?

Paper Medallions

Recently I was inspired by a post on 2Peas showing some wonderful paper medallions. I thought to myself that I must try these!

They are very easy to make! All it takes is a 1.5 inch strip of paper and a border punch and a few embellishments and you are good to go!

Here is my finished product

• I used my Silhouette to cut out the doily pieces.
• Then I cut a 1.5 x 12 inch strip of patterned paper.
• I then used a border punch and punched down one side of the PP.
• Next you will want to accordian fold the strip.
• Attach both ends together and then press down to form the medallion. There will be some pressure and you will need to glue a small piece of cardstock to the back of the medallion. If you don't do this, your medallion will keep popping up.
• Now, all you have left to do is embellish to your hearts content! Super easy!!