Inkspiration for Stamping and Scrapbooking

Family Tree

At the beginning of each month, Two Scrapbook Friends releases a minature kit called the Monthly Product Challenge. There's enough in the kit to make a single page and it usually only costs about $3.50 - so it's a very inexpensive way to get a page done, if the theme works for your photos.

I purchased November's kit way back at the start of the month, and just got to work on it on Friday.

Here's what I came up with. You must use a little bit of everything in the kit, and you may add to it, if you like. All I added was the chipboard letters covered in patterned paper to spell tree. There's lots of ink and distressing to play on the tree theme.

I turned the diecut tree on it's side to be a branch, and scrapbooked these very old photos (10 years!) of dd and her great grandparents. The stickers that spell the word family were also in the kit, but seemed a bit bright for this layout, so I muted them by sponging on blue and brown ink.

What do you think? 

Like a cookie exchange but better...

The other night, my friend Christa had 4 of us for a Christmas card making exchange. Now I've done lots of swaps before but this was different. Rather than mass produce a bunch of cards and then trade them, we each designed 2 cards and cut the materials for everyone else to make them. It was a lot of fun. I showed you last time, the cards I designed. Here, today, are the cards I made there, designed by the other 4 cardmakers.

Red and silver make this one a classy one to give!

 Purple is such a hot colour this year in fashion and it's lovely on this card, using a retired Stampin' Up! set called Frosty.

Thanks Joyce!

  

Red and silver again - aren't they gorgeous together?

Frosty again, this time with moss, burgundy and gold. 

Thanks Shannon.

A scrappy Christmas card, mosaic style. I love the little touches - glitter on the poinsettias, small bling on the snowflake - a stamped title.

Silver and blue always look great. The centre panel actually came embossed like that, making this a very quick card to put together.

Thanks Pam!

Punches, Thickers stickers, some stamping, ribbons and glittery embossing, make this a fun and glittery card.

The background is patterned paper. Isn't this a fun group of carolers? I always liked the Merry Minstrels set.

Thanks Christa!

We had so much fun, we're talking about doing this again in the new year, with birthday and other occasion cards. I can't wait!  

  

Lots to Show You Today

This is DD's grade four photo.

White gel pen on the scalloped half circle, Crystal Effects (like Glassy Glaze) accents the paper cut-out flowers, felt flowers, Prima flowers, brads, border punches and ink.

We went camping up north in August and celebrated our anniversary shortly after our return. The views up there inspired this card for DH. The sky is sponged with about 3 or 4 colours of ink. Actually lots of sponging on this card if I recall. Images are stamped on glossy cardstock.

DD had her birthday not too long ago and she & her friends went horseback riding for her party. I borrowed some stamps from a friend to play with the horse theme. Lots of background stamping. The colouring is a combination of Copics and Stampin' Up! markers.

The title for this double pager is Oopsie Daisy and tells the story of the reaction when Sarah's autograph book falls during her character greeting with Daisy Duck. The right page was done first, following a sketch challenge posted by Dee during a recent online crop at Two Scrapbook Friends. The left page followed a little later in the day.

The paper flowers were created by punching out scalloped circles and then cutting in toward the centre. Glimmer mist tints the felt branch. Lots of glitter on the chipboard title. Inked edges.

DD also used the sketch challenge for her 8x8 page - didn't she do a great job!

Come on back tomorrow -I'll have Christmas cards to show you and I'll try to get a few more layouts from Disney posted over the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by! 
 

Upcoming Classes

Wall hanging class:

This class features both chipboard and simply scrappin' kits - in honour of National Scrapbooking Month.

Each of these wall hangings measures 7 1/2" wide and 20 1/2" tall (measuring from the knot in the ribbon to the bottom of the last piece of chipboard). And, you can string it to sit vertically rather than hang horizontally.

With Father's Day next month, this would be a great gift for Dad or Grandpa! You will have your choice of making a "boy" wall hanging (uses the Crew Kids Boy Simply Scrappin' Kit) or a "girl" wall hanging (uses the Crew Kids Girl Simply Scrappin' Kit).

When:  Wednesday, May 21st at 7pm
Where: My Home Studio
Who: You and your friends.  If you live too far away to attend you can take this class through the mail. 

What: You pick if you'd like to make the boy wall hanging OR the girl wall hanging.
Cost: $25 each (plus postage if needed).  You can choose to make both wall hangings for $45.

Registration Deadline: Friday, May 16th

Here's a photo of the horizontal version:

  Wouldn't that be nice on an end table or mantle?

Masculine Cards:

It's so much easier making pretty cards for our friends and mothers than the not-too-pretty cards for the guys in our lives, isn't it? Join me as we make 5 masculine cards to have on hand. I'll have birthday and father's day greetings out so you can personalize the cards if you wish.

When:  Monday, June 9th at 7pm
Where: My Home Studio
Who: You and your friends.  If you live too far away to attend you can take this class through the mail.

What: You'll make 5 different masculine cards.
Cost: $20 each (plus postage if needed). Ask about discount for club members and downline. 

Registration Deadline: Friday, May 16th

Photos of this class coming soon!

Mini clipboard

I wanted to show you what was inside one of the weekend advent packages.

How cute is this idea!

This is chipboard covered with Dashing designer paper (retiring this month ...)

There's a magnet on the back to make it something that can go in the kitchen or office...

Woo Hoo I Got Some Time to Scrapbook

My friend Christa and I put it on the calendar and made time to scrapbook this past weekend. I got two layouts of the travel album done - I am so happy! Now there's just one page left, I think...

Here are the layouts I completed on the weekend:

  Wow - sorry about the glare on some of those photos... I'll try again on a sunnier day when I don't need the lights on - good luck to me on that, this is November in Ontario ba ha ha ha!

Anyway, I chose Real Red to draw the red out of the uniforms of the Horse Guards and the Beefeater.

The Cerise designer paper looks fab with it, and I tied in some Basic Black and Brushed Gold cardstock to enhance the regal setting of the photos.

The title: The "B" is a chipboard silhouette from the On Board Letters. I dragged it through the Real Red Craft ink and once it dried, stamped it with the Baroque Motifs medallion stamp in black. I adhered a small scrap of Cerise under the silhouette, and tied some black grosgrain and gold cord on one side. The "P" is black cardstock onto which I traced a chipboard p from the same packet of On Board Letters. There are 3 different fonts of chipboard letters in that package, offering tons of options. The rest of the lettering I did by hand. I stamped the Baroque Motifs filigree in gold ink.

Here's the second layout:

These photos feature our visit to the London Eye, so I really wanted to play on the circle shape. I used the Uptown designer paper and that dictated the colours I used. The layout starts with So Saffron paper and the Uptown paper. The other colours are Almost Amethyst, Wild Wasabi and Basic Gray. The circles are cut out using the coluzzle. The hollow circles are stamped with the doodled circle stamp in the So Much set. For the title, I traced the letters from the chipboard set onto designer paper and cut them out.

There are also a few jumbo eyelets to continue the circular theme, as well as some smaller circles created with 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 circle punches. 

It felt so great to get a few more pages of this album done!

Let me know what you think of them by leaving me a comment. Thanks!

Happy stampin' - Ann