Envelope Mini Albums

These were so much fun to make. With just 5, #10 envelopes, I was able to make a mini album that has 25 spots for pictures or journaling.

 Many months ago, Close to My Heart had a close out sale on their Level 1 Paper Packets so I bought a bunch with mini albums in mind! These two minis were made with the Adore and Notebook Level 1 Paper Packs.

 There are all sorts of pockets for tags that hold pictures and/or journaling.

 

On the last page, I added a flap that opens up, so it adds two more spaces for pictures!

These are now in the Cherry Lime Boutique

where I have a few shelves to sell some of my paper crafts.

I'm a vendor at an all day crop on Saturday, 

I now need to get  make and takes ready and create some displays.

I also need to make Thank You cards for my sons basketball coaches. He is in a Rec League, and had the best coaches this year. We feel so blessed to have been placed on their team! 

Also on my to-do list is to make my layout for Scrap-It Girls March Challenge. 

You still have time to get something entered for the February challenge.

Visit Scrap-It-Girl to find out more about the February's

Show Some Love Challenge and what the winner will receive.

Have a Wonderfully Fantastic Day!!

XO

Experimenting with Mixed Media

I put my new found love of "art with handwriting" to the test!

I love mixed media pieces and decided to dive right in and create! 

This first one is a birthday present for a good friend who just recently

painted an old dresser hot pink for the guest room! 

The next one is an experiment of something I have had in my mind for quite some time.

I thought if it turned out-I'd give it to a friend who is turning 40 on February 29th.

(actually that would be her 10th birthday!)

It's not quite perfect so not sure if it is going to be given away. 

I got the bird idea from the fabulous Tresa Black. You can find a tutorial on her Fabulously Artsy blog here. I love that the crown is made from a snowflake stamp! (click on picture to see more detail) 

Once again, I have to apologize for the photo quality. There is a horrible glare from the flash on both pictures. Yesterday, I shot pictures in natural light, and they were too bright and even more faded out than these. Ughhhh

Hope ya'll stay healthy, I've had a doozy of a cold. It came on last Wednesday, just a day or so after I had been thinking on how healthy my family has been! 

 C'est la vie!

A Little Help

Oh--I get by with a little help from my friends--Mmmm--gonna try with a little help from my friends.
I was so happy when I saw this card by a fellow CTMH consultant, Mary Gunn, on her blog. I needed to make a birthday card, and nothing was coming to me--ohhhh thank you blogland--and thank you friends for sharing! With a little help from my blog friends, I was able to pull a card together!
Close to My Heart stamp sets used:
Love Life (D1482), the "Celebrate You!" sentiment is from a retired stamp called Birthday Pennants.
Thanks for looking in today!
Cheers.

Happy Valentines Day

I found this little heart shaped snowball on our Valentine hike last Sunday. We celebrated Valentines Day on the 12th this year, we were in the mood for a hike in the mountains so we headed for Rocky Mountain National Park. I told my husband that if we could go to my favorite restaurant in Estes Park, we could call it our Valentine's dinner.

So pretty!

We picked a short hike, Bierstadt Lake, 2.5 round trip and a trail we hadn't done before.
It was the perfect hike. Once we got to the lake, it started lightly snowing.  I like hiking in colder weather, it is so invigorating. Then we topped it off with an Italian dinner at the Dunraven Restaurant.

My sweet boy!

Yikes! He is taller than Dad! When did that happen?

 I hope you have had a wonderful Valentines Day or Week!

Cheers!

Letter Love Lessons

OK--time to get brave and show you some of the pages in my Letter Love journal. I'm still loving this class. As the days go by, I'm feeling more confident in my lettering skills. I feel that I'm even finding my own style.
Play. Practice.Write. Repeat. Is our "montra". This was one of the first assignments. I have another sign done on bristol board standing on my desk. I forgot to take a picture of that one. I'll show you later.










                                                                                                                                                                                                       
In one of the lessons, Joanne gave us a list of 19 fonts to mimic. Number 20 we were to come up with our own font. ("art, I hope it finds me" is taken and changed up a bit from one of my favorite songs. "Nature" by The Samples. One of the lines is, "nature, I hope it finds me.")




















I didn't get too creative on this one.
I'm afraid I was
influenced strongly by Joanne's sample.











The colored lines, or grid, on this page was done with a Tombow Marker, then gone over with a water brush to make it look like watercolor. Very fun. It was done on water color paper, then taped into my Letter Love Journal.

 OH--how I NEED a new camera. All these pictures are washed out, they look so different than the originals. This lesson was to "Write in the Round" I had lots
of fun with it and did a few samples.





      These next three are done in a Mixed Media Journal.   I'm having trouble with blogger at the moment--it won't let me go below the last picture and type.
So I'll sign off here--thanks for stopping by today-have an artfully fantastic day!                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Love

 

I'm lovin' these one picture layouts!

This picture is from the same 2009 KC trip that the last few layouts I've posted here are from. This one just needed to have a page of it's own!

The designer paper is something I have had in my stash for quite some time. The doily, leaves and flower were all cut with the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. (Z1686) Also from Close to My Heart are the Pewter embellishments from the Pewter Mini-Medly Accents Collections. (Z1487) The butterfly is something I downloaded. Find the link and a whole bunch of butterflies on this beautiful blog; What a Beautiful Mess.

The flowers are actually four layers of the from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. I gave each petal a bit of a curl using a piercing tool. The brown center of the flowers looks like the product Petal Soft, but it is actually crumbled Styrofoam that I dyed with Chocolate Reinker. (Z2211) I also used some lace seam binding that I colored with the Creme Brulee ink pad. (Z2167)
All Close to My Heart Supplies can be found here.

Letter Love 101

I am taking an on-line lettering class from the very talented Joanne Sharpe. I originally found her through Etsy, then started following her blog. I just love her whimsical flare! Our first assignment was to decorate a composition book to make it our "lettering journal". Being that I am a scrapbooker (and not really an artist!), I just used the paper scraps I had on my table to decorate my journal.

I am having so much fun with this class. Best of all--I'm meeting people from all around the world! It is full of high energy and very creative people!
It's not too late to sign up for this class. It's not streamed live, it is just a private blog. Best of all--once you purchase it, it is yours forever--like a book! So you can go at your own pace and not stress if you miss a day. Just click on the badge to the right if you want more information.
This all started with my word of the year, "find". I want to find that artist in me!!
Have a great day!
It's snowing in my little part of the world!

Scrap It Girl's February Challenge

February’s Challenge:  Feb. 2-Feb 29;  Show some love, use hearts, xo xo, or do a layout about someone or something you love! For my layout I chose the theme "Puppy Love" for the first day we brought our puppy, Ace, home. We fell in love with him--not so much love from the cats though! lol

(click on picture to see it larger!)

Upload your layout to Scrap It Girl for a chance to win this awesome prize!

 

Here is a picture of Ace now!