Costa Rica!

This is not a new layout - we went to Costa Rica three years ago now...but it is one of my favorites...for several reasons. I loved Costa Rica - I love how the photo turned out (I got the idea from a travel magazine - we brought our tripod and took the photo ourselves) and the layout just came together beautifully. It's simple - which I love...I"m not really one of those frilly scrapbookers. I mean, I like bling and I love embellishments but some layouts I see online just go way over the top! Though everyone is entitled to their style and opinion....that's just mine :-)

This layout was done with bazzil cardstock (love it!), some flowers (sorry, I don't recall the make) and the lettering was done by tracing some letters I already had but that didn't match onto chip board, cut them out and then glued and cut out again with designer paper. Then, I put some crystal laquer on the letters - for some pop. The rub on swirls are from Stampin' Up. I love rub ons!!!

I'm struggling right now to complete a layout of a friend's daughter - she is so cute sitting in a puddle in her brown snowsuit with pink and blue polka dots and flowers. I asked her to email me the picture because I thought I could easily come up with a layout in no time....but I was wrong! I don't have any mojo right now....I've started that layout 3 times already! I've just ordered a new book by Becky Fleck that is chock full of layouts. I'm hoping once I get it, this layout will come together in a snap! Hopefully, I can post it soon!

I hope you are enjoying the weather - we were supposed to get rain here today but it's held off so far and was a beautiful day! I hope the rest of the weekend is as nice!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's the most wonderful time.....

Well, parents may not be singing that song but I think the kids are....my kids are anyhow! They don't have many more days until summer vacation! I am actually ahead of the game this year and have already purchased my teacher thank you gifts. Though I am a pretty organized person, this is the one thing I always forget about. Typically, you'll find me shopping for a gift and dropping it off at the school office on the last day! Not this year!

This year, I purchased a BBQ grilling spice set for both kids' teachers....and am also including a jar of my very good friend Rebecca's homemade rhubarb salsa. This is some of the best salsa I've ever tasted and she won't share the recipe.....:-)

I've come up with a cute card to include with the teacher gift as well (holy cow, I am ahead of the game.....). I bought a cute little set from Stampin' Up a little while back with the intention of using it for teacher cards. I heat embossed the apples on the trim of the card. I stamped the "sheet" and cut it out 3 times. I used my cropadile to punch out the holes so it looks like real lined paper. The top sheet is popped up with dimensionals.

It's been a busy few months in our house with little end in sight....but I hope to post a little more often than I have been! I've purchased a new camera (my new baby...lol!) and it takes the best pictures. I will have to take a course to learn how to use the camera to it's capacity but right now I'm having fun playing with it. I hope that once I learn how to take great photos...I'll do more scrapbooking! That's my goal!

Hope your June is going well - happy summer!

Diaper Cake

I finished the diaper cake and I'm really happy with the outcome. I have to say, it cost WAY more than I expected but it's so cute! I bought a bunch of stuff that I really didn't need for the cake that I thought I would so I think there will be some returns - but I hate returning stuff so maybe I'll just give mom-to-be the extras and be done with it.

I read quite a few blogs about how to make these cakes - some people make them by rolling the diapers and using elastics to hold each individual one but I don't really like that look. I did the one I made in what is referred to as "boutique" look. I rented a cake pan from the Bulk Barn and used it as a template. Then, I fanned as many diapers as I could fit into it and positioned them until they looked good. Then, I took a big elastic and put it over the whole lot and then inverted the cake pan onto the cake round that I bought. The second layer was done with a smaller pan and the top layer, I just did by hand to make it small enough - though you could rent a pan that small if you want. I was just too cheap to put a $20 deposit on each pan. LOL! I bought the beautiful wired ribbon at Costco - as I mentioned in my last post. inside each of the rounds of diapers, I rolled up onesies, etc....the biggest layer has a whole sleeper rolled and shoved in the middle. I used baby spoons instead of dowels...though I think I might need one dowel through the whole thing to make it sturdier. The top top is baby sock rose buds....that's what took the longest - with a pair of pink booties on the top. I haven't figured out how to anchor the booties on yet. I'll pull the whole thing together with cellophane and ribbon on Saturday before I leave for the shower. I hope she likes it.

If you are looking for instructions on how to make these cakes - just google "diaper cakes" - there are tonnes of ideas! Hope you liked mine and thanks again for stopping for a visit!

There's Going to be a Wedding!

I think this is officially more posts this year than I did in total last year - it's a record!

This card was a challenge for me - I wanted to include red in the card but didn't want it to look too Valentine's Day....it's for a wedding shower that I'm attending. I originally did the tree trunk in black embossed but thought it looked a little too "Morticia Adams" so I did it again in silver and am now thrilled with the card. I embossed the tree twice - once in black and once in silver. On the black copy, I coloured all the hearts red and then crystal laquered them. Once they dried, I cut them out and either glued or dimensionalled them onto the card for layers. I also added some bling to the tree.....and a little ribbon. The congratulations sentiment was hand cut to match the matting on the main image. The white layer, though you can't see it in the photo is embossed card stock.

I have a baby shower to attend this weekend and will be trying my hand at making a diaper cake...complete with baby sock roses...I'll post photos of the outcome. I'm pretty excited about it - I got a huge roll of fat ribbon (3 colours) at Costco for $4.99 in the clearance bin - I didn't even know Costco had clearance!! This could take my Costco addiction to a whole new level.

Have a great second half to your week - and don't forget to stop by and check out the diaper cake after the weekend!!

Goodbye!

Check out the card I made last night...isn't it the cutest?? LOL! We have a coworker leaving for another role and she is an absolute fiend over shoes...she even goes as far as buying shoes too big and stuffing the toes if she loves them and can't find them in her size! I found the template for the shoe some time back looking for something totally unrelated on the internet. I saved it for "someday" and so glad I did! The card isn't quite finished....can you believe that I don't have a stamp that says "good luck" or "congratulations"? Guess I need to do some shopping!

It's a 5x5 card so that lots of people can sign the inside. Since the card base is glittery chocolate brown bazzil, it makes it a little tough to sign so I'm going to put 4.5x4.5 pink squares inside. Once I have a "congratulations" stamp or I've printed the saying off the computer, I'll be matting it and putting it on the right beside the pink dew drops popped up on dimensionals.

It's starting to look like spring finally....hoping that the bright sun will help get me motivated to do some bright scrapbooking! Thanks for stopping by!

Be yourself

It's been a long time since I've sat down and done a scrapbook page. Seems like all I have time for these days is to throw a few quick cards together and I'm lucky to have time to do that! I've been wanting to use this picture of my daughter for a long time and finally, I took some time tonight to paste everything down onto a page. I'm thrilled with the result. I can't for the life of me remember where I found the sketch for the page....I know that I need a sketch to start with and then can usually come up with a great page on my own after that. I need the initial inspiration. I chose the title "be only yourself" because she is just approaching the teen years and I want her to remember that being yourself is the best person to be! I hope you like it!

Another birthday card - I had to take this one and the one from yesterday's post to work and have my coworkers help me pick which one to use for the upcoming birthday! They are both so cute - very feminine!!

This was another card made with Bazzil Bling card stock - so cute! I blinged up the little pile of packages with some self adhering gems....and when I was thinking about it, I should have crystal lacquered the 2 polka dots that I couldn't adhere gems to. OH well - next time! More ribbon and some Heidi Swap miniature flower gems to finish it off. The pile of gifts is pop dotted onto the card stock as well to give the card some additional dimension.

I need to start finding creative ways to use my stamps for male birthday cards too - these last 2 cards are so pink and cute...but I do work with some men too... and would like to make their cards as well. Guess I'll have to keep surfing blogs!