Tombow Blog Hop and a GIVEAWAY!

If you've arrived here via the Tombow Blog Hop, then you're in the right place!  If you came here via a different route and you want to join the Blog Hop, head on over to the Tombow USA blog to start at the beginning.

I'm thrilled to be the Guest Designer for Tombow this week!  Tombow MONO Adhesive tape runners (regular, dots and clear) are my go-to adhesives.  I can only guess how many of them I've gone through over the 8+ years I've been scrapbooking. 100s of them, I'm sure!

Here is a layout I created using a variety of fabulous Tombow products.

I used the Stamp Runner, Dot Pattern Adhesive and my faithful MONO Adhesive Permanent to adhere the photo, the paper strips, and the lace.  I used the Foam Tabs along the bottom edge of the paper strips to give each layer dimension.  I fussy-cut the flowers and leaves from patterned paper, then I adhered the outer edges of the petals and leaves with the Foam Tabs to give them dimension.

I adhered the chipboard frame and the roses with Mono Aqua Liquid Glue.  For the title word "LOVE", I colored white chipboard alphas with a pink Dual Brush Pen, then I coated the letters with white glitter.

Of course it wouldn't be a blog hop without a giveaway, right?!?  Simply leave a comment here for a chance to win this Tombow prize package:

This giveaway will include: MONO AdhesivePermanent, MONO AdhesiveRemovable, NEW FastenerTabs, and NEW Foam Tabs.

The more blogs you comment on along the Hop, the more chances you have to win! Be sure to check out all the blogs below to see what kind of craftiness they have in store! The winner will be announced Friday, July 12^th  at 3:30pm ET on the Tombow USA blog.

Debbie Fisher: http://debbiedee.blogspot.com/

Melissa Cash: http://www.inkclinations.blogspot.com/

Jennie Garcia: http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Marie Browning: http://mariebrowning.wordpress.com/

Stacy Cohen (you are here!!): http://stacycohen.blogspot.com/

Tombow Blog: http://blog.tombowusa.com/

Thanks for playing along and good luck!!  

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!  I have a 4th of July post up on the Creating Keepsakes blog today. I found a bunch of  red, white and blue Pinterest images to inspire your craft endeavors.  There are also some downloadable and printable 4th of July badges on the CK blog.  Go check it out!

In honor of the holiday, I created a red, white, and blue card featuring some adorable Queen & Co products.

 

Supplies: Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned paper: Stampin Up!; Pinwheels, straws and twine: Queen & Co.; Stickers: Carolee’s Creations; Other: Lace and ric rac.

I hope you have a fun-filled 4^th of July!

Another My Creative Scrapbook kit layout and a tutorial

Ahhhhhh . . . sweet summer!!  I really love this time of year.  The kids are out of school, we get to sleep in, and life feels a little less stressful than normal.  I'm on a laid back summer schedule and I'm definitely taking some time to relax and smell the roses (and sunscreen!).  I guess that's why I haven't blogged in a couple weeks.

I realized that I forgot to post one of the layouts that I made with the fabulous My Creative Scrapbook June LE kit. It features paper and die-cuts from Crate Paper's DIY Shop collection.

I created a tutorial showing how I made the layered patterned paper waves on this layout.  
 

1.  Cut a piece of cardstock that is the approximate size you want your wavy paper block to be.  I cut mine to 7” wide because I wanted it to align with the edges of my 5” x 7” photo.  

Grab a pencil and a flexible ruler (if you have one). 

2.  Draw horizontal curvy lines from top to bottom.  Note:  You don’t need a flexible ruler to draw the curvy lines; you can easily freehand draw them.

3.  Cut along the curvy lines.  These pieces will be your cutting templates.  It helps to number them so that you can choose the order of the patterned paper pieces to cut.

4.  Use the wavy sections as templates to trace and cut the curvy sections from patterned paper.  This is a great way to use up your scraps!!

5.  Once you’ve traced and cut all the curvy sections, you can ink or stitch the edges, if desired.

6.  Cut another piece of cardstock the same width as the first piece you cut and use it as the base for the wavy paper pieces.  Adhere the wavy paper pieces to the cardstock starting from top to bottom, slightly overlapping each piece.  Cut off any excess cardstock on the bottom.   You can always go back and add some more wavy layers if you want to make your paper block taller.

And VOILA!

I handstitched along the edges of my curves. And of course I had to add some pretty flowers.

I hope you enjoyed this scrapbooking tutorial!

My Creative Scrapbook

My kids are out for the summer and they are doing "Camp Mom" this week and next.  So I'm doing a quick "drive by" post today.  Here's another layout I created with the My Creative Scrapbook June Limited Edition kit.

Check out the my Creative Scrapbook Blog to see all the layouts created by the talented Design Team members!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

My Creative Scrapbook -- Guest Designer

I'm honored to be a Guest Designer this month for My Creative Scrapbook kit club!  They have the most gorgeous kits around!  I got to play with the June Limited Edition kit, which is filled with Crate Paper, Pink Paislee and Prima products.  Here are a couple of the projects I made with the kit:

And of course I had to make a pair of paper shoes to add to my collection . . .

I'll be back later this week to post the other projects I made with this gorgeous kit!

What a busy time of year!

Woo-eee . . . it's a busy time of year!!  My oldest daughter is in 5th grade and she's graduating from elementary school next week, so it's been one celebration after another.  She's had a fantastic year full of achievements and wonderful things, and I couldn't be more proud of her!!!  Both of my girls have been very busy with activities these past few weeks.  There have been school performances, ballroom dance competitions (Rebecca totally rocked it and won a gold metal!), speeches to write, field trips, room parent duties . . . you name it!  I'm not quite ready to see my not-so-little girl graduate from elementary school, but I certainly am looking forward to the lazy days of summer!

Here's a summer layout I created with Fancy Pants' Down by the Shore line.

These photos are from 2007.  Sigh . . . My girls were so little back then.  Rebecca was only in kindergarten back then, and now she's heading off to middle school!!  Where does the time go??!?  At least Danielle still has another couple years of elementary school. 

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day! I've had a wonderful Mother's Day so far.  It started with my husband and my girls making me breakfast in bed, followed by a lovely lunch at my mom's home.  Then I got to wander around the local flea market for while (blissful!).  Dinner is going to be either take out or a casual restaurant, so I don't have to cook or clean up . . . woo hoo!!

This is a card I made for my mom using Fancy Pants' Trend Setter collection. 

Hope your day has been great!

Countdown to National Scrapbook Day

Check out what's been happening on the Creating Keepsakes blog this week!  In anticipation of National Scrapbook Day ("NSD") tomorrow (Saturday, May 4th), The Dream Team, Contributing Writers, and Contributing Editors at CK have been sharing some scrap-lifted inspiration.  Everybody looked through the new May/June 2013 issue of Creating Keepsakes issue and created a new layout using a design from one of the layouts that inspired us. I chose an awesome layout by Shelly Jaquet.  Here is my scraplift:

Here is Shelly Jaquet's layout that inspired mine:

Lucky by Shelly Jaquet, as seen in the May/June 2013 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Shelly’s well-designed and colorful layout immediately caught my eye.  I love her fun spin on the current sun burst/rays trend.  She used rainbow colors for the rays and spread them across her two page spread. I decided to use the same basic design, but I flipped it upside down and shrunk it down to fit on a single page layout. I emphasized the rainbow color palette on my layout by adding color-coordinated buttons and rhinestones to my rays.

Happy NSD!!

Bye-bye diet soda + some Fancy Pants projects

I doing it.  I'm finally doing it.  I'm going to try to kick my diet soda habit.  I've had a major diet soda addiction for more than two decades.  I drink it every day, morning to night. Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi or Diet Rite used to be my sodas of choice, but several years ago I read that the dark colas were more harmful to your health than clear ones, so I made the "healthy" (ha!) switch to Diet 7-Up at home.  I would still have Diet Coke at restaurants.  My husband is a total health nut and for years he's been trying to convince me to stop drinking diet soda, but I wasn't willing to give it up because I craved the stuff and I figured it was my only vice.  Then something just clicked in me last week and I decided it was time to stop because I want to be healthier.

I'm on Day Four of being soda free. It's been a little tough, but I'm sticking with it so far!  7-Up is caffeine-free, so it's clearly the sweetness (aspartame) that I've been addicted to.  I'm just trying to drink a lot of water to get my body used to drinking unsweetened beverages.  Have any of you given up the soda habit?  How did it go?  Did you notice any difference after giving it up?  I'd love to hear from you!

I have a couple Fancy Pants projects to share today.  First up is a layout I made using a mix of Fancy Pants papers from several different collections.  I chose black and cream papers and embellishments, then I added a splash of hot pink and green.
 

I used the new Fancy Pants stencils to add the pink dots.  I made the roses out of white cardstock that I first sprayed with Dylusions spray ink. 

Here's a "thank you" card I made with the lovely Park Bench collection.

Last but not least, you can check out a tutorial I did for altering the cover of a Brag Book on the Fancy Pants blog.  Here's a little sneak of the project:

Thanks for stopping by!

Creating Keepsakes Editorial Meetings

I had an AMAZING week last week!  I traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah for Creating Keepsakes magazine's annual editorial board meetings.  I joined the CK editorial and creative staff and some of my fellow CK Dream Members for the meetings.  We evaluated reader survey results, discussed the issues from the past year, talked about current trends in the industry, and brainstormed about ideas for future issues. It was such a privilege to be part of this process!  I am very excited about what lies ahead for Creating Keepsakes!

Between meetings we had a TON of fun.  I have a few pictures to share.  Here we are at the Creating Keepakes and Paper Crafts office:

That's me, Jana Morton, Gretchen McElveen, Joannie McBride, Jing-Jing Nickel, Autumn Baldwin and Laina Lamb.  These ladies are awesome -- they are just as sweet as could be!   We chatted and bonded and laughed a LOT.  The rest of the CK editorial and creative staff was just as wonderful!

We were treated to tours of Stampin' Up!, American Crafts, and Persnickety Prints. I am so impressed with all three of these companies.  Here we are in front of American Crafts:

A funny thing happened on the way to American Crafts . . . somebody (whose name I won't mention) ran out of gas.  Oopsie!  We will certainly be laughing about this for years to come.

Notice that the faces and the license plate are covered to protect the innocent (and the guilty). Heeeheehee.

We also ate some DELCIOUS meals while we were there.  The food highlight for me were these incredibly delicious maple bar donuts from Harmons Grocery store:

I've been dreaming about these maple bars ever since I got home.  They are topped with maple buttercream frosting!!  How decadent is that?!?

Back to the CK business stuff . . . we also talked about a big change that's coming up.  CK is doing what's necessary to keep up with technology.  Starting with the May/June issue of Creating Keepsakes, a great deal of the content will be in digital form.  If you have a subscription to the print copy of Creating Keepsakes, you also have free access to the digital issue.  If you haven't signed up for the digital issue, you can follow these instructions to sign up. While we can still enjoy the print edition of Creating Keepsakes, the digital issue includes everything in the print edition plus a whole lot more.  And I can share a fun little secret: the Jul/Aug issue is going to contain a Digital Scrapbooking Insert - an entire section dedicated to digital scrapbooking!  Of course there will still be lots of inspiring paper layouts in this issue.

Whew!!  I feel like I need a nap just reliving these fun-filled days with the Creating Keepsakes peeps.  Thank you, CK, for allowing me to be part of it!

Upcoming class at Treasured Memories scrapbooking store

I know it's a little late notice, but I'm teaching a class again at Treasured Memories in Oak Park, CA on Sunday, April 21st from 1-4pm.  If you're in Los Angeles or the Southern California area, I'd love for you to come join me!  I will be teaching a 2-page layout class featuring Prima's new Divine collection plus lots of other fun goodies. We will also make a bonus card using this Prima's Divine line.  Here are few sneak peaks of the layout:

 

 

 

 

You can find out more of the details and sign up for my class through this link: Treasured Memories April Classes. Even if you can't make my class on April 21st, you should definitely check out this awesome scrapbook store sometime!

April Fools

Happy April Fools everyone!  It's only the morning time here, and the April Fools jokes have already been plentiful in our house.  Everyone in the family is partaking in the pranks:  plastic wrap on the bedroom door, happy faces drawn on the toilet paper rolls, purple milk, surprises in the cabinets, Barbies in Daddy's briefcase (he'll discover them later when he gets to work), and a fake "present" from the cat on the bathroom rug.  The fake cat ... er, um ..."dropping" hasn't been been discovered yet. Maybe if we're lucky, someone will find it before I finish writing this blog post.  Did I mention I have the sense of humor of an 8-year-old boy? Please refer to my last blog post. ;-)

Since Spring has sprung, here's a very "Springy" layout I did for the Creating Keepsakes blog a few weeks ago.  I was inspired by a plethora of ruffles that I saw on Pinterest.  I grabbed some colorful Close to my Heart fabric and stitched up a few ruffles of my own.  I used them on this layout:

Products used: Cardstock: American Crafts and Close to my Heart; Fabric and patterned paper: Close to my Heart; Chipboard letters: American Crafts; Flowers: Prima; Stickers: Crate Paper and Jillibean Soup; Paint: Jacquard; Die-cutting machine and die: Sizzix; Pen: American Crafts.

There are many different ways to make ruffles using either a sewing machine or by hand-stitching.  To start, cut a strip of fabric that’s approximately twice as long as you want your ruffle to be.  The fastest way to make a ruffle is to stitch along the fabric strip using a simple running stitch, then pull the thread at one end so that the fabric gathers into pleats.  I made my ruffles using a slightly different technique.   I wanted the top edge of the ruffles to lay flat on my page, so I pleated the fabric strip with my fingers as I went along and added 2-3 stitches to the top of each pleat to keep them flat.
Here’s a photo showing how I stitched my pleats:

I used dark thread and big stitches for demonstration purposes, but normally I use a thread color that blends in and I make smaller stitches that are less visible (though if you’re covering up the top of the pleats, it doesn’t really matter). It didn’t take me long to make the set of pleats for my layout (less than 10 minutes total).

Oooohhhhhhhhh . . . my hubby is about to go into the bathroom and find the fake cat "surprise" on the rug . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . and there it is!!!  Got him!!!  Bwahahaaaaaaa! 

First Fancy Pants DT project

I finished my first Fancy Pants Designs DT project.  Each DT member was asked to create a layout about herself.  My layout is one of the new team layouts that's posted on the Fancy Pants blog today. I used the gorgeous new Trend Setter collection.  Here are a few sneak peeks:

You can check out my whole layout on the Fancy Pants blog!

I'm feeling kinda "fancy" today . . .

I have some fun news to share today!  I was invited to join the Fancy Pants Designs DT!!  I'm excited to be working with the awesome Fancy Pants products and these talented ladies:

Woot, woot!  Congrats to all the continuing and new Fancy Pants DT members!

The little things

With the usual life stressors going on, I'm sitting here right now feeling gratitude for the little things in my life that keep me centered . . . a day at home with some quiet "me" time, the piping hot and delicious vanilla latte I just made for myself (and my beloved espresso maker that makes a perfect cup every time), my sweet cats curled up on the couch next to me, and my comfy Dearfoam slippers that are keeping my tootsies warm on this cold day.

Speaking of little things, here is a layout I made for an article in Creating Keepsakes magazine about scrapbooking with itty bitty items.  This layout took me a while, but I really enjoyed the process.

As seen in Creating Keepsakes magazine.  Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

These are some of my favorite photos of my younger daughter.  She was only 18 months old at the time.  Awwwww . . . those cheeks, those eyes, those little curls . . . they warm my heart!!  She is 9 years old now (and of course she still warms my heart!).