Life's Trivialities

Band Concert / Teresa Collins

Yup, yup, yup... Christmas has come and gone. But I really wanted to scrap this particular picture of this particular event. So often, I capture the moment but the journaling and emotions that accompany it are lost in time as I don't scrap most events until a year later. I'm really trying to get the important "content" moments down and done shortly after they occur. So, a Christmas layout it is today!

I don't think the layout is that Christmasy however. It's pretty tame as Christmas goes really. I wanted the emphasis to be more on the music than the theme of the concert. And, yes, it was a "holiday" concert but let's get real, 5 of the 6 pieces were Christmas music...

Some Studio Gold mixed in there! Love the Studio Gold collection. Loving the metallics in all collections. Still learning how to really capture them in photos however...

That chipboard arrow is pointing to Nikolas, hidden in the back of the brass section. By choice... He is an introvert really and being out in plain sight in public, not his thing. He was quite happy to be the tuft of hair sticking above the instruments!

You might see the odd scattering of "old" a tad more often in upcoming layouts. I've been overhauling my scrappy space thanks to Michael and the kids and I'm finding all kinds of things that I had forgotten about. Like those Cosmo Cricket chipboard letters. They work perfectly with the grey in the background paper!

There is journaling, lest you think otherwise! Akin to a previous Teresa Collins layout you saw recently, it's hidden. Tucked in in the file folder that the picture is nestled upon. Tuba has not been Nikolas' favorite activity. In fact, he wanted to quit. We encouraged him to continue and think he has done a marvelous job. The whole story is there to remind him about perserverance and sticking with things even though it's not easy.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Happy 2014 / American Crafts Shimelle

I know there are a few more days left in the year yet but I have a layout to share of our new years eve celebration as we welcomed 2014.

I went a little crazy with the fussy cutting and cut out each and every one of the numbers counting down the minutes to the new year!

Once again, as I love to to, mixed fonts for my title work. I love the mix of gold, bling and opaque here. Festive, me thinks.

I stamped onto the pocket scrapping card, giving it my own touch. Sequins trios as symbolism for the confetti of a celebration.

A clock, of course. Not the right time but again, the symbolism is there!

Last year was the first year since we moved to Virginia that we hadn't gone to the bowling alley to ring in the new year (at 7pm)! We stayed at home and had a rather quiet new years with the photo booth and bubbly drinks and that was about the extent of our celebration. Think we might go back to the bowling alley this year. You? Do you have plans?

Make Your Own Glass Ornament / 17 Turtles and Core'dinations

Welcome to my blog if you're new here! My friend Juliana from 17 Turtles invited me to guest design for her with some of her amazing cut files today and you can see the layout I created with some Christmas files on her blog over HERE. I also shared a Christmas ornament that I made with those files and have instructions below on how you can create your own.

Amazing, right? And super simple to make! My daughter's best stroke in swimming is breaststroke so this will be for and later, my son who is a talented backstroke swimmer, will get a matching boy backstroke ornament.

Here's how you make them.

Materials;

Glass or Clear Plastic Christmas Bulbs

1 sheet of Transparency Film

1 cut file per Bulb you are making (Swimming Strokes Girl Digital Cut File by 17 Turtles)

Silhouette or other digital cutting machine

Core'dinations Sticky Backed Glitter Sheets

Snow (Stampendous Mica Fragments)

Sequins (American Crafts)

Ribbon (May Arts)

 

Directions;

1.            Using your Silhoutte cut your transparency film to be slightly smaller than the size of your ornament. My ornament is 3.5 inches wide so I cut my circle to be 3.25 inches wide.

I resized this file from Lori Whitlock available HERE.

 

2.            Again using your Silhouette (or other electronic cutting machine) cut the image that you want from Core'dinations Sticky Backed Glitter Sheets. I used Juliana Michaels' backstroke swimmer and sized it the width of my transparency.

 

3.            Peel back the backing of the Stickey Backed Glitter Sheet to reveal the sticky surface and adhere this to the center of your transparency sheet. Use a bone folder to burnish the back and ensure tight stick. Trim the overlapping edges with scissors.

 

4.            Roll up your transparency as such:

5.            Insert the tight roll into the opening of the ornament. It's kind of like putting a message in a bottle! Once inside, it will pop open and if necessary, use tweezers to center and position the insert where you want it.

 

6.            Looks great, right? But you want a little more pizzazz so here comes the messy part. Using a funnel, add some snow. I used Stampendous mica fragments but you can buy cheaper snow this time of year at the craft store. I wanted a little extra "umpf" so I added some snowflake and star sequins both in front of and behind the transparency.

7.            Snip off the top of the transparency so that you can insert the little silver (or gold) topper back on the ornament. Tie a pretty bow and if you have one of those nifty Imaginisce ribbon cutters, use it to seal off a nice "v" to the ends of your ribbon!

 

Voila! You are finished and now you have a wonderful swimmer to hang on your tree. Or gift to your swimming friend! Or swimming child!

 

 

Feel free to grab a PDF of my instructions Download Glass Ornament_SuzannaLee.

 

Be sure to check out Juliana's Etsy Store for fantastic cut files such as the ones used here and on her blog where I'm guesting today! These particular swimming files come in both boy and girl and with rectangle frames around them as well as "plain" though there's nothing plain about them!

Harvest Fest Layout / Core'dinations

I'm up on the Core blog today with a Seasonal Impressions fall layout.

Using this lighter color pre-embossed cardstock is a bit different than the darker colors. When you sand the cardstock, it's difficult to tell the difference in the shades of the cardstock and the core. However, when you rub distress ink over the pre-emboss! You get a great result!

Core Tags were a perfect compliment to this layout. They gave some visual interest to the picture and a great place to add journaling and a subtitle. Add some May Arts burlap center stitch ribbon for the perfect "wrap"!

Thanks for stopping in today!

Summer Vacation Layout / Pink Paislee Solstice

Another Solstice layout to share with you today. I love this collection by Pink Paislee. Just in case you haven't gathered that. And because I like it so much, I ordered more. The tough thing about shopping online is you can't really gauge the colors, texture or feel of the collection with much accuracy. You think that two of a certain paper will do it but it's not until you really play with a collection that you know what you truly will use more of. I had to remedy that situation!

It's rare that I buy cut files which aren't available in the Silhouette store but I had to have these. Those collections that capture you, you need every single bit of it. That includes the cut files! I splurged and bought the Pink Paislee files that coordinate! They may not be puffy but I'll have summer vacation in all shapes and sizes thanks to my Cameo and some great coordinating cut files!

It's not often that I bring out the masks and mists but when I do, I'm always glad I took the chance. I'm always so terrified of ruining all the hard work and planning I put into the layout that misting kind of freaks me out a bit... Usually, I'm glad I took the plunge and I really ought to do so more often! It really does add that personal touch to the same piece of paper hundreds of others have.

Those puffy gold stickers!! They are just THE best! Gold is good, you've heard that from me. I'm down with the gold trend. Of all the gold goodness out there, I will say that these Pink Paislee puffy stickers are my favorite! I should have a second set of them. And Pink Paislee will need to make more with their future collections. Anybody else in agreement?

Another big picture layout! I am really enjoying letter sized layouts, double pagers and big pictures. Having begun to work my way through the thousands of pictures we took while in Michigan, I realized that often times, it's the first picture I capture that is THE best. Some of the others that follow are good, they capture the heart of the event/activity/reaction but my favorite is usually the first one. That is the one that I enlarge and use.

Do you have a collection that has just swept you off your feet lately? Something that you think, I might order more of that? I'd love to hear what is "hot" for you right now!

 

Creative Scrappers Sketch 277 / My Minds Eye

Creative Scrappers sketches always grab me. Always! This one was no exception. What I love about sketches, one of the many things, is that I can put a layout together lickety split with a sketch. Through in a paper collection that I love and it's that much faster! Such as the Jubilee, Mint Julep collection from My Mind's Eye. Swoon!!

So sketch number 277 from Creative Scrappers folks, that's the inspiration. You can find it HERE. It looks like this;

And this is my interpretation;

I decided to forgo the triangles for other elements on the side and some "garnish" to the header and footer of the layout. I really do make an effort to journal too, so that had to fit in there somewhere too! Isn't this collection just sublime with those black and white silhouette pictures? That splash of black and white just wraps the whole thing together!

I love the hints of gold poking out from behind pictures, the edge of the page and hanging from the top banner. Gold! It's a trend that I'm all aboard with. I can't say that about a lot of them but this one, it's golden!

Not part of the sketch but my own personal touch. I didn't have black mist so I had to compromise. I used the black Caran D'Ache crayon that came with my collection and flicked it around the page some for the little added depth to the page.

Jenny's sketch is quite the inspiration! Thanks Creative Scrapper's and Jenny! This layout came together in less than an hour thanks to the sketch and My Mind's Eye's awesome collection!

Oh! And Kristine is putting together another sketch book! You can find the details about creating a layout based on one of her sketches HERE!

Happy 4th! / Imaginisce

Happy 4th of July!! And for those of you not in the USA celebrating with us, it can still be happy 4th! LOL!!

Today I have a layout up on the Imaginisce blog to share with you! This is the four of us last year at a Squirrel's game here in Richmond. What would Independence day be without baseball and fireworks? You've seen the fireworks already, now here's the baseball!

Christmas in July!! I mixed in some REALLY old (2009) and Christmas to find the bright reds and navy's that are so patriotic. That metal sticker is from an old Imaginisce Christmas collection but it reminded me of a firework burst and I couldn't resist!

Pennants and banners are also part of the festivities on the fourth! Couldn't not have stars and stripes either!

Hope you have a safe and happy Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th Card / Core'dinations

This card was up on the Core'dinations blog the other day, just a little something to help you celebrate the 4th of July, Independence Day, with a bang!

What you can't see here is that the background piece had a window of embossing that I created using Darice's embossing folder "masks". Using this special cut out instead of one of your sandwich plates, you can select areas that you don't emboss.

To the left is the sandwich (minus the paper) and to your right is the resulting effect. I chose to "fill" the hole with another piece of embossed BlackMagic that I cut using the embossing mask to trace the oval. The result is less "raised" area as you put embossed cardstock on flat cardstock (as opposed to two layers of embossed paper).

There is a lot of depth to this card with the fireworks really coming at you! I only adhered the center of the die cut firework sprays thus enabling me to use my finger nail to curl out the "arms". A little Stickles adds to festivities!

It's only a day away the fourth! Can't believe it, cliche as that is. Do you have big plans? We will definitely be viewing fireworks, it's just a matter of where! Be sure to stop in tomorrow for an Imaginisce Independence Day layout!

 

 

Having a Blast / Core'dinations

I can't believe that Indpendence Day is just around the corner!! Crazy... Every year we go to see fireworks for some sort or another, what would the 4th be without fireworks?! Last year we stayed local and went to both the GenWorth fireworks and saw some more after the Squirrel's game at The Diamond. And, I always take a million firework pictures. Here's just a sampling on some amazing Kraft Core!!

Per the other layouts you've seen using the Core'dinations Seasonal Impressions here on the blog, I selectively sanded the words/phrases that corresponded with my theme. I also happen to have the Tim Holtz embossing folder that matches this pre-embossed cardstock and was able to fussy cut the 4 in a slightly bigger size.

This whole layout was created using all Kraft Core products! I love the vintage feel it gives to the layout.

Another fun technique that is unique to Core'dinations cardstock is the ability to run it through your label maker for some fun banners. By sanding the raised print, revealing the colored core underneath, you can really see the letters!

Do you have plans for the holiday yet? We are winging it - the running trend of the summer apparently... I just can't get ahead of things and schedule... There's too much. I'm not complaining, we are very fortunate! But the day to days of our schedule, like when the kids will swim and go to Mathnasium are determined on the fly.

Core'dinations and CSI

Yesterday was reveal day over at the challenge site CSI and Core'dinations is one of the sponsors this month! Some of the Core ladies and I are priveleged to be guest designers for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. Case File 126 is up and it's bright, fresh and fun! If you haven't ever checked it out or played along, join the detectives and solve a case file, you will have fun, I promise.

So here is the latest case file;

And here is what I did with it;

Core! That's all Core'dinations cardstock and not a lick of patterned paper on there. I did have to use some embellishements for support but more of the texture there is cardstock! A few clicks of pastels in the background too.

Evidence: Chevrons (embossed in a heart), Polka dots (also embossed in a heart), flowers, numbers/ampersand, hearts, transparent items (banner and the flowers), textured paper

Testimony: Journaling spot with decorative edges.

The testimony is easy with Core'dinations tags with embossed edges! No brainer there!

It's a challenge alright! One of the many great things about CSI challenges is that it really makes you look at your stash and use some things you might have "forgotten" about! Join us! Play along!  I challenge you!