Easter Cards and Scrappy Resolution 2013 - March

I shared my 2013 scrappy resolution in this post.  Three months into the year and I'm still keeping up with it!  I'll admit that I did only use one sheet of paper from past March kits, but I have had a slow month creatively.

I wanted to make some Easter cards and went to Danielle Flanders' blog for some inspiration.  She had created an adorable Easter card with a bunny instead of the "A" in the word happy and I borrowed that idea.  I went through my past March kits and found a cute pink plaid patterned paper from Jenni Bowlin and used that as the base.

I made a few more with a little bit different design using some Crate Paper and Echo Park papers from my stash.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the bunnies, flowers and grass.

Have you made any Easter cards this year?  Please share if you have!

Have a great week!

Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to share this Mother's Day layout today that I created about a year and a half ago.  I had submitted the layout to Scrapbook Trends and it appeared in the May 2011 issue, so I haven't shared it here before.   The call was for Mother's Day layouts and at first I thought - I haven't spent a Mother's Day with my mom in the past twenty years or so, I don't have anything for this call.  That made me think that maybe I should create a Mother's Day layout about just that - that just because I'm not with my mom on Mother's Day, that doesn't mean that I'm not thinking about her and that I still love her very much.  

The photo of my mom is probably from about 1968, so before I was even born.  I love the photo because it reminds me how much I look like her!

I used mostly Crate Paper's Restoration line on this layout (my favorite line, EVER!)  I made hand-rolled flowers that were perfect for this page.  I created a hidden journaling tag, as I wanted the note to be more private.

I'm having the layout framed for her for Mother's Day.  I hope she loves it!

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Florida Trip

I have these great photos of my Great-Grandma, Leah Gerber.  In the photo on the left, she is standing outside one of her daughters' houses, with her packed suitcase, saying good-bye before traveling to Florida on a bus to see relatives.  

The photo on the right has her handwriting on the back of it and it says "that is a banana tree I standing under."  She is holding a little boy in the photo and we haven't been able to figure out who it would be.  I asked my mother and my cousin Sharon to help with anything they knew about the photos or her travels to Florida, and that is all they came up with.  We're not even sure who she would have been visiting.

I used one of my all time favorite Studio Calico kits, Glee Club, for the layout.  I added lots of other embellishments from my stash including my new favorite - mini-clothespins - and a vintage flower from my mom's stash.  I wanted to create a little more layering and texture than I normally do, so I had this idea to take vellum, wrinkle it, and use it as a matting behind a photo.  I took out the vellum, crinkled it, and it basically just broke and teared.  Silly idea.  But then I tried wetting the paper first, crinkling it, and then letting it dry.  It worked exactly like I hoped.  It is under the photo on the right.  I used foam dots to give a little dimension.

I also created a hidden journaling card, which I have been loving lately.  The Slice has a perfect little tab design and I cut that out of the Studio Calico advertising cards that come in kits.  I used more of the advertising card on the bottom.

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO

I was starting on my fifth project with the January 2012 Studio Calico kit, County Fair, and I hadn't even touched the BG wooden buttons or the Jenni Bowlin doily flowers.  I liked them, I thought they were super cute, I just couldn't figure out how to make them work on a layout.  I was at work one day and an idea popped into my head that used both of them (shhhh, don't tell anyone I think about scrapbooking while I'm reviewing tax returns!)  I sketched out the idea on the paper pad next to me so that I wouldn't forget it.  This layout is the result.

The 20th anniversary of the day me and my husband met was this last Wednesday.  He was in California on business for the entire week, so I didn't even get to give him a kiss or hug!  I decided to make a layout about how I was feeling that day.  I wrote the journaling on our anniversary and worked on the layout the rest of the week.  The photo is from our wedding eight+ years ago.  

I came up with the title 'XOXO' when I was looking at the remaining SC wood veneer letters that I had. So many X's and Q's!  I realized that the Q's and O's were exactly the same except for the little tails on the Q's.  I broke them off, filed them down, and used them as O's.  (disclaimer - I used the Q's turned O's on a different layout - I wanted to make sure this layout was perfect!)  I traced the flowers onto the AC dandelion cardstock and used that as a backing for the flowers.  I sketched out stems for the flowers and hand-stitched them.  I used the wooden buttons with a bow to 'gather' the stems of the flowers.

Have a great week everyone!

Brenda

Happy Holidays!

I was in Target recently in the cat litter aisle - so exciting, I know.  I saw the most adorable Christmas gear for cats - I immediately thought about dressing up my kitties Sumner and Elliott and taking photos for our Christmas cards for the year.  I didn't buy the outfits that day, I wanted to get my husband's opinion first.  Of course he thought it would be hilarious, so I went back to Target last weekend and bought a Santa hat and beard.

Elliott was really good about wearing the hat and beard.  He seemed to forget that he had them on and just sat there and let me take pictures of him.  Sumner was good for about 30 seconds before he started to try to get the hat off.  I got a few pictures, but he looks pretty angry.  Normally, he is the sweetest kitty!

I used Shutterfly to create the cards and they are pretty adorable.  I'm happy to be getting them out on time this year!  I decided to make a layout with the photos.

I used the Studio Calico December 2010 kit, Metropolitan.  When I was in the beginning stages of planning this layout, I decided to take a peek at the SC Sunday Sketch which I rarely participate in.  The sketch made the creation of my layout really easy!

My favorite  item that I used was the green glittery trim from the kit.  I never would have thought that I would use this embellishment, but it worked perfectly on this page.

I'm heading to Wisconsin on Friday to visit my family for the holidays.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Brenda