storage for my paper projects...come take a look!

26 October 2010

Visiting Santa

Hi there -
I'm back with a holiday layout...not the right holiday for the end of October, but holiday nonetheless. Here it is:


Aww, little me. Here I am in a serious discussion with Santa at the Henry Ford Museum. My request must've been mighty important! Melissa Frances papers, Prima poinsettias and trim, and a bunch o' stitching, including the journalling lines. The tricksy part is at the bottom:


That's a Hambly transparency, and I painted the back in various shades of shimmery red, and highlighted the candies with white. There's some Distress Stickles behind a few jars...which would have come out a tad neater (you can see it smooshed a bit if you enlarge the photo), but, um...Marty kinda walked on it before it was dry. Oops! Not too noticeable, though, luckily. 

It's funny -- I'm not usually drawn to soft, shabby, traditional-looking images, but when it comes to Christmas, all bets are off! Clean? Graphic? Simple? See ya in January! Anyone else feel like that? 

This layout, along with the Halloween layouts I posted last week, can be found at Scrappy Chic.  I can be found there, too, a lot of the time. :)

Enjoy your evening!

PS: found the camera charger! Guess where? In the charging station. Sometimes I amaze myself.

19 October 2010

Bad blogger -- bad, bad blogger!

Hi y'all -
It's been awhile! I've actually been making quite a few crafty goodies to share. HowEVer, I seem to have misplaced the charger for my camera battery. Boo! I'm quite certain this is my fault, as I'm a tad on the messy side. It'll turn up eventually, right? Right?

In the meantime, I hope my iPhone photos are sufficient. At least it's a new iPhone -- the camera is almost as good as my regular point and shoot! So, without further ado:


Bonus points if you can explain that title :) This layout's all about our Halloween costumes last year. Extra bonus points if you can tell me who we are without reading the caption or journalling! Lots of Girls' Paperie here -- their Toil & Trouble line is quite cute! All those colorful strips are just random-width bits all stacked up, and some of them have their ends popped up on dimensionals...not that my crappy photo shows it!

A little more Halloween? Why, sure:

When you're a black cat, Halloween is definitely YOUR season! Dex is our Halloween queen every year. I used the exact same line on this layout, along with a crown die cut (from Sizzix) made of burlap and glimmer-misted -- the strip under the photo is the same burlap, just cut roughly and misted.

Speaking of Halloween, we're having a couple friends over this weekend for a caramel-apple-making, scary/campy-movie-watching night. Saturday's a while from now, but I better get cleaning now! This house is a mess. Plus, maybe I'll find that dang charger!

And I've come full circle. Have a pleasant evening!

11 October 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are confused by this post's title, you must not be Canadian! In honor of my Canadian pals (Hi, Em and Liz!):


Broke out some PTI sets for this one -- last year, they had really awesome autumn images. The focal point is from Autumn Abundance, and it's colored in with Twinkling H2Os, which I actually forgot I had! It's quite shimmery in person. The sentiment is from 2009 Autumn Tags. I used the Linen/Canvas Impression plate on the base (also PTI). The dp is from Basic Grey's Pyrus 6x6 pad. Lovely colors! Some sponging here and there, and I call it good!

This card should arrive in the mailbox of a certain Toronto-based stamping genius someday soonish, if Canada Post doesn't hate me too much :)

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

10 October 2010

Dad, part three!

The fun ain't over yet, folks! Here are three more:


You gotta love my dad's outfit here! I love the way his hat and socks match :)  Hooray for the early 80's -- this is probably '83 or so. That's my little shoulder in the left corner.

This layout is actually really, really simple -- three patterns from one American Crafts line (the crafty one, whatever it was called), some dotty Thickers, Maya Road chip pennants, and some twined-up buttons. The stitching is all done by pen, and I thought it was gonna take for-EV-er, but it was really only a few minutes.

Flashback a little further:


Ah, youth. This photo's from about 1974 or so. The smoking dog's name was Blue Boy, and I hear he was a really great dog, and that he really liked me when I was a baby (a few years later than this photo, thank you very much), but I was too young to remember him. Smoking must've been his only bad habit!

This layout features mostly Basic Grey Nook and Pantry papers, along with Studio Calico alphas and a Sassafras Indie Girl banner sticker. The tape bits up top are Tim Holtz, and the brown music tape down below is 7gypsies. This is the kind of layout that would be so easy to do over and over -- but it would look different every time! Nice.

FINALLY (are you so super tired of my dad yet??):


My fave by far! This is the oldest photo we have of my pops, and it's probably from the late 60s or maybe 1970, right after he finished high school. The bike is awesome, the hair is awesome, and I really, really wish I could get those shoes in my size! (You can probably see them a little better if you click on the photo. They're amazing.)

This is the grungiest design, featuring some old Basic Grey (Recess, I believe), plus some Studio Calico and October Afternoon. I spritzed the kraft cardstock with navy Glimmer Mist, and then I had a happy accident -- I stamped the title with these old Making Memories foam letter stamps and some white acrylic paint -- they went on white, but then the navy mist bled into them for a cool blue. I accented the letters, the die-cut framing the title, the stapled-twine divider and the edges of the page with some antique-y goldish paint for some added flair.

So there you have it -- hooray! Well, actually, I also made him a simple album, but the pictures aren't great (forgot until the last minute to take them). Oh, and in case you'd like to recognize him if you run into him on the street, here he is at the party:


The hat, vest, and necklace were my grandma's idea -- he looked quite stylish, no?

Time to move on, I think. I have some new layouts and some cards, too -- now, if only I could find the camera-battery charger, we'd be in business!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this (long!) post -- have a great day.

06 October 2010

Dad, part two.

Hi again!

I have a couple more layouts from my Dad's surprise party -- here you go!

First:

As the title says, this one's hard to explain! This blurry photo from the early 90s features my dad in a bikini, getting his makeup done. The rest of this day involved a bunch of cross-dressing dudes in a bikini parade, a bikini dance routine, and who knows what else, all part of a regatta of one kind or another (and that is not as fancy as the word "regatta" implies. Trust me.) When Dad saw this picture, he said, "Man, I thought I burned all of those!"

Design-wise, I kinda wish I would've reversed the pink and yellow papers -- those butterflies are a bit too busy as a background (both papers are older Basic Grey). Plus, all that pink would be even girlier :) Also here: Girls' Paperie, Sassafras, and Cosmo Cricket alphas and a bunch of shiny stuff.

Next:


This photo's from about the same era as the one above, but with more clothing this time! In 1991, my grandparents hosted a pair of youth hockey coaches from Russia. As gifts, they brought these big Russian army hats for all the men in the family. They featured prominently in family photos for a couple years, but I think everyone still has theirs. When my grandfather (on the left in the photo) passed away last year, his hat went to Andrew, so now we have one, too! Oh, my dad's the one on the right, by the way.

I used more Basic Grey here -- last year's Christmas line (which I still love), along with some Basics. Thickers and Cosmo alphas. Some ribbon, a button, and a My Mind's Eye embellished brad-dy thing round out this quick layout.

I think that's enough for today! Next time, we'll set the way-back machine for the early 80s on back into the 70s. Oh yeah.

Oh, and it's back to the layouts for me again -- put together the Scrappy Chic kits today (fun stuff!). Maybe by the time I've done all the Dad goodies, I'll have some new stuff to post! If only those essays would grade themselves...I swear, they multiply while I sleep!

Later!

04 October 2010

Dad, part one.

Hey there -
So, I've been holding back on posting recently, in part because I have lots of work-related work (instead of play-related work), but mostly because I'm not exactly sure who reads this little bloggie, and I wanted to make sure what I'm about to share didn't fall into the wrong hands!

Sound mysterious? Nah, not really. See, over the weekend, we had a little family surprise party for my Dad, whose birthday is later this month. I've been crafting up a storm, making a bunch of layouts to display at the party and such. I don't think Dad's actually aware that I have a blog, but just in case...I've waited until now!

Today, I'll share the layouts I made about a month ago at Scrappy Chic. First, a very recent set of photos:


This layout is about this past Father's Day. I took Dad to Greenfield Village for the annual Father's Day weekend car show. We've been a few times, but this time around it was just the two of us. We rode the train, fed some ducks, drank some beer, and looked at cars. Fun times.

The layout uses Jillibean Soup papers, AC Thickers, and some subtle stamping around the corners (I'm pretty sure the stamp is from My Mind's Eye's Lost and Found collection, but it's been awhile....).

Second:


Love this one. Dad's just so cute (and well-dressed!). It's a companion to the third layout in this post, which features my Mom on the same Christmas morning, and it uses the same goodies: Basic Grey Jovial paper and die-cuts, BG and CC letters, and a Making Memories buckle.

I hope you think Dad's cute, too, because I have 5 more layouts, plus an album! Let me know if you get bored.  :)

By the way, the party was a success! Once I edit those photos, I have a few gems to share, too. That's it for now! Back to the work-related work. :(

Have a great day!

PS: is Blogger being weird for anyone else? Oy, this took forever!