Thank You's

A short while ago I was over visiting one of my friends, helping her with her computer.  She is a Stampin Up demonstrator (and you know I'm a Close To My Heart demonstrator) so we both have a lot in common and always a lot to talk about--latest trends in stamping scrapbooking, etc.  Her husband is quite a potter and actually does classes etc. at the Archie Bray Foundation (for ceramic arts--famous world-wide).  Oh my gosh you should see some of his amazing pottery!  (but I digress)  Anyway, he is playing with woodworking and last Christmas I received a wonderful amazing mouse pad (from him and his wife) that was a wood piece with designs in the wood made by pieced together wood.  He told me that I needed the barrett to match and gave me this BEAUTIFUL barrett (below)!  Imagine the mouse pad which has some of the intricate wood patterns created by the different tones of wood.  Really awesome!

Isn't this AMAZING???  Here is another photo to show you about how big it is.  I have really thick and long hair and you would not believe how hard it is to find something that can actually hold my hair, but this does.

Anyway, something so beautiful cannot go un-thanked.  I wanted to create a beautiful and manly card to thank him for the wonderful present.  With his wife being the super talented card maker it was a challenge!  I selected Lucky papers (because I love those papers).  So, I'm hoping he will be pleased too!  He and his wife are some of my favorite people!

Supplies:
Papers: Lucky WOTG papers; Pacifica & Sunset Cardstock; Husk (retired) card base cardstock
Stamps: Thanks
Ink: Chocolate (pads shown to identify colors or the Lucky papers)
Embellishments: z1617 Dark chocolate striped grosgrain ribbon; z1387 Wooden Buttons; orange waxy flax (retired); z1706 Round Durables Studs
Other: Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge- 2-3/8" scallop circle and 1-3/4" circle; z1392 2" scallop circle punch

I'm hoping that you all walk with friends that love you and are as richly blessed as I have been!

 

First Layout of the New Year

I have not been much of a scrapbooker but I love paper crafting.  My layouts are far and few in between.  But I've been wanting to do a layout of my grandson, Xander.  So here is the captured memories of my grand son's first haircut, in March last year.  I chose Lucky papers to match what he and his dad were wearing.  I just love the colors!!  I actually did this layout in Studio J last year.  [Studio J is the FREE to use online program from Close to My Heart that you can access here.]  I designed the layout in Studio J and used that to create this traditional scrapbooking page.  Feel free to click picture to see details.

Closer look at the left page layout:

 Closer look at the right page layout:

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Lucky Workshop on the Go Kit; Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, Autumn Terracotta, and Colonial White CS; Lucky My Stickease Assortment

Stamps:  D1471 Vintage Type

Ink: Olive, Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Bamboo

Embellishments:  Wooden buttons, Autumn Terracotta waxy flax (ret.), Autumn Terracotta brads, Autumn Terracotta photo clips (ret.), Outdoor Denim grosgrain ribbon from the Blue Collection, Autumn Terracotta grosgrain ribbon (ret.) Pewter photo hanger

Other:  Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge; SU tearing ruler

And, for the curious, here is what I actually created in Studio J.  When doing the actual layout, it helped me to size my pictures and choose which way someone was looking (because you can also flip pictures around).  What a super tool to help in designing your layouts (a necessity for me who professes to be more of a card maker than a scrapbooker).

Studio J was fun but when I look at the two layouts, I think I love the classical scrapbooking one best because of all the textures and dimension!  But you can't beat Studio J for a design tool (and it's FREE - go to my shop on line site and create yourself an account and have FUN, FUN, FUN!!)

More Adventures in Studio J

I had so much fun creating the girls layout the other day that I had to create one just for their little brother Xan-Man (Xander)!  I discovered some other neat things in Studio J that you can do with pictures.  When you learn design principles, one of the things you learn is to keep your viewer's eyes focused in on your page.  So, instead of having an airplane flying off the page (which makes the viewers' eyes veer off the layout), you turn the plane around so that it is flying into the page.  You get the idea.

Well, in the picture below, my son and grandson's eyes were looking off the page and I wanted to turn flip that around so the picture would keep your eyes on the page.  So, I found out that not only can you blow up and shrink pictures right there on the page, but you can flip them horizontally (or any other way you want).  I am having SO much fun!  Here's Xan-Man's layout (you can click on the pictures to make larger to see it better):

Larger detail of left side of layout:

More detailed view of the Right side of layout:

When I first created the layout (I knew which one I wanted) but the papers I first chose were the Wings.  While it was a spectacular layout, it was just not for a boy--too many butterflies.  You wouldn't believe how easy it was to switch the papers!  Then a few switches of the MyStickease and voila!  Not only is Studio J easy to use but it is really FUN!  And, if nothing else, it gives you some terrific ideas for classic scrapbooking.  It is FREE to create a .jpg from now until the end of June.  Believe me, if you have a few minutes, you should go for it!!

Happy scrapbooking either way (classic or Studio J)!!