Scrapbook Friday: St. Patrick's Party

Well, I didn't want it to get too far away from St. Patrick's Day before I shared photos of our "St. Patrick's party". We made green sugar cookies and four-leaf clover decorations, put on some Irish, well really Celtic, music and danced... the perfect activities to thrill an almost 4-year-old. So rather than just share, I scrapped them.

There are some beautiful colors over at ColourQ this week, so I started there.

Then I used a 3-photo layout template that comes with My Digital Studio. Once I created one page, I inserted a mirror page for the second of the layout and edited it. The heart punch to four-leaf clover idea came from Theresa Collett-Such over at the My Digital Studio website.

My Digital Studio Elements: Stamps: Presto Patterns; Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Daffodil Delight, Olive Olive Villa pattern; Accessories: Full Heart punch, Rounded Corner punch, Brights Buttons pack.

Project 52 progress: This is week 11 (of the year), and I have made and shared 8 pages so far.

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3-D Thursday: Go Green!

Everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day! We had some good Irish projects at the CT shoebox swap, which is great since I made almost nothing this year. My daughter has been asking for some "Patrick's Day" decorations, but I haven't had the energy with the other swaps and shoebox projects going on.

These were some Make & Takes designed by Sue Wilgan. How cute is that owl with plaid paper? The clover leaf is die-cut out of chipboard and painted. So cute and easy!

And this was a the shoebox project designed by Sue Webb, filled with curled paper, metallic clover leaves and coins, and St. Patty's ribbon. Thank you, Ladies! You have pleased the little one here!

Looking for more inspiration? Click on my St. Patrick's label for all past projects (there's some cute ones!).

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A Whole Lot of Nothin'

I have been working on a big project and haven't had a lot of time for stamping quicker projects. Stampin' Up Regionals in Hartford, CT is Friday, so I'd thought I'd share my name tag. Melissa came over and stamped with me - fun!

The front -

The back -

Why, you ask? Well, if it isn't tied down, it gets stamped! We used our Regionals set, Nature Walk, along with some brayering and My Digital Studio for the branch. If you see our name tags on Friday, don't forget to say "Hey!" :)

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Mint Chocolate Fun

I just couldn't resist this week's Stampin' Celebration challenge. I love mint chocolate, and that's what it reminded me of.

Add a sketch challenge...

and some quirky green (think minty) marshmallows, and you have a card.

Mmmmm, minty hot chocolate! With some minty bonbons (think Fanny May Mint Meltaways)! This is what DH thinks I do all day anyway... *eyeroll*.

Stamps: Like It A Latte, Eat Chocolate; Paper: Early Espresso, Sage Shadow, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Nouveau Chic DSP; Ink: Early Espresso, Garden Green, Sage Shadow, Certainly Celery marker; Accessories: Sponge, Certainly Celery button, Sage Shadow grosgrain ribbon, Waxed white twine, Scallop Edge punch, Small Oval punch, Craft knife & mat, Circle Scissors Plus, Dimensionals.

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Big Shot Club - Session #2

In the second Big Shot Club session, we focused on texture. There are three main ways to add texture to your project.

Texturz Plate - We did a "club-simplified" version of this card, i.e., no stitching and sponging rather than brayering, to practice using an texturz plate.

Here we applied Dusty Durango ink directly on the Kit #4 texture plate and then ran it through the Big Shot. That created the color on the Dusty Durango piece to simulate woodgrain.

Stamps: Nature Silhouettes, Thank You Kindly; Paper: Dusty Durango, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Delicate Dots DSP, Deck the Halls DSP; Ink: So Saffron, Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Early Espresso; Accessories: Sponges, Always Artichoke Seam Binding, Circle Scissors Plus, Texure Plates Kit #4, Big Shot, Sewing machine.

Embosslit - The second project illustrated the use of embosslits.

Here we used the Backgrounds I texture plate and highlighted the resulting patterned with Whisper White craft ink and a sponge dauber. The Simple Flower embosslit plus Perfect Plum ink was used to create the pansies. A tutorial for the flower pot card can be found here, and this particular version is a CASE of 'Renee1' on SCS.

Paper: So Saffron, Whisper White, Lovely Lilac, Orchid Opulence, Lavendar Lace, Really Rust, Certainly Celery; Ink: Perfect Plum, Whisper White Craft; Accessories: Sponge dauber, Brads, Twill ribbon, Scallop edge punch, Little Leaves die, Backgrounds I Texturz Plates, Simple Flower embosslit, Big Shot.

Embossing Folder - This card uses the Manhattan Flower embossing folder. We actually inked up the embossing folder with a brayer and then ran the cardstock through the Big Shot. This both inked and dry embossed the cardstock, and then we trimmed and mounted.

Stamps: Sincere Salutations; Paper: Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Pirouette Pink, Whisper White; Ink: Rose Red; Accessories: Organza ribbon, Birds & Blooms die pack, Manhattan Flower embossing folder, Big Shot.

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrappy Friday: Project 52 Restart

I missed about three weeks of Scrapbook Friday while on vacation. I had great plans to work diligently on my daughter's 2010 scrapbook, but hey, relaxation takes a lot of hours in the day. Anyway, back on the horse again, I would like to try to complete some type of scrapbook page (technique, upcoming catty blog hop, or personal) each week. I plan to use weekly challenges (color, layout, Creative Crew demo challenges) to help out with this. This plays into Project 52 over on the My Digital Studio website. Recall the Project 52 challenge is to create one page a week through 2011.

My progress so far - This is week 10 of the year, and I have made and shared six pages so far. Ok, not so bad. I think I can catch up.

So, here was the first page I had planned back in February, playing along with February's Creative Crew scrapbook focus challenge over on SplitCoastStampers. Better late than never, right? This challenge was to use a card layout from the January issue of the demo mag Stampin' Success to create a scrappy page.

I used the same color scheme as the example card. Not too much going on here, as the pictures tell most of the story. In My Digital Studio, you can add circular photos in your page, not just square and rectangular. A little Modern Label tag for minimal journaling. This is our stop in Georgia along the way to Florida last year. Hubby and daughter share a huge love for animals, so we observed some wildlife in the Okefenokee Swap and Cumberland Island.

MDS elements: Paper: Chocolate Chip textured, So Saffron, Accessories: Chocolate Chip grosgrain, Modern Label punch, Ice Cream Parlor elements (SAB).

Thanks for stopping by!

3-D Thursday: Paper Crafters Sampler March Sneak Peek

Hi Everyone, I have a tease for you today for 3-D Thursday, rather than an entire project. My contribution to March's Paper Crafters Sampler, Spring Reverie, is a 3-D card, and here is the sneak peek. The new March issue is being released TODAY.

I tell you, I can't wait for Spring! It can't come soon enough here in New York. If you would like to celebrate Spring, you may want to subscribe Paper Crafters Sampler for eight wonderfully budding and fresh projects. More sneak peeks can be found here. Please use code PCSHB so Melanie knows I sent you. Thanks and thanks for stopping by!