Watermelon Birthday Party

For my daughter's baptism and first birthday I decided to throw a watermelon themed party. Watermelon is her favorite food so I thought it would be cute and the hot pink and bright green color combo is so much fun. Here are some details from the day!

                                                         Birthday banner detail pic

 

Banner hung on mantle - so bummed this is the only picture I got and the lighting is horrible.

                          Mason jar "place cards"/ adult favors filled with watermelon taffy and hard candy

                          Bucket favors for the kids including watermelon glasses and twirly straws

The most amazing birthday cake

 

Watermelon and "one" shaped sugar cookies that my mom made!

Pumpkin Birthday Banner

Every year I offer to help my friend out with decorations for her girls' birthday parties. This year her daughter who is turning two is getting a fall/pumpkin themed event. She asked if it was possible to make a banner shaped liked pumpkins. I had never done it before, so I was excited to go outside my comfort zone. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Thank You Card

A friend of mine who was once an avid Stampin Up girl decided it was time to downsize her inventory as she is looking to quit crafting. :(  I purchased some ink pads from her and since she knows how much I love paper, she threw in several packages of unopened SU cardstock and spools of ribbon. I still can't believe she just gave it away, but she wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it. I took her out to dinner and made her a card from some of the supplies she gave me.

The "Magician" Card

This Amuse Magician stamp is one of my all time favorites. He has a very uncanny resemblance to a certain Hogwarts wizard. So without saying this is Harry Potter, this is Harry Potter! Made this card for a big HP fan. Coloring was done with Copic Markers.

8x8: Fishing

There is something mystical about the early morning fog on the Lake. Unfortunately, it does not mean you are going to catch anything. I snapped this picture of a hopeful fisherman pulling up a whole lot of seaweed.

The highlight of this page is the paint sample card - the first paint name reads "Quietude" which sums up this scene perfectly. 

8x8: The River Cone

You know those pieces of patterned paper that have strips of almost every pattern in the pack? I never know what to do with those. When I saw this photo, I decided to cut the paper up and use the strips that matched the cone. Then I topped it off with some pearl bling and a fun embellishment.

8X8 Page: the Border

Crossing the border from the USA into Canada is one of the coolest parts about heading to the lake. This photo was taken through the front window of the car so please forgive the black shadows. I love how it captures the remoteness of the area. Used up lots of scraps on this page.

8x8 Pages

I find one of the easiest ways to get back into scrapping is to start with smaller pages. There's less pressure and they are usually clean and simple so you build up some confidence getting a few done quickly. I'm perpetually working on an album documenting our summer traditions at the Lake. I interviewed family members to see what things they loved and wanted to see captured in the book. I am going to spend the next week highlighting some of these pages.

The first one is one of my favorites.

I had this skull and cross bone paper that I honestly thought I would never use. I didn't want it to overwhelm the page so I layered over it and did some inking.

Dusting off the scraps

After a long summer off, there is only one way to jump back into a huge pile of scrap paper - go on a retreat! My first ever! A friend of mine has gone to several Scrap-a-way-Retreats and I decided spur of the moment to try it out. In one word...it was AWESOME! The women attending were all really friendly and funny. The owner, Rosanne, puts so much thought into the themes, the games, the prizes and treats. I went Saturday am to Sunday pm and next time I am going to start the trip on a Friday because I didn't want to leave.  Here is a pic of my favorite layout from the weekend.

 

The circle stamp is actually the top of my marker!

I highly recommend you check out a scrap retreat if you need to find some new creative energy. Meals were included so all you had to do was scrap! Amazing!

Birdie Birthday

Another one of my favorite Cricut cuts. I just love this birdie! And she loves to celebrate birthdays!

Princess Card

This card has a few different Cricut pieces, but still very simple to make. I love this sparkling circle paper and what princess doesn't want some bling!

First Birthday Owl Card

I've used this beautiful owl many times before. She is one of my favorites. A quick craft punch and a balloon and this little bird is ready to party!

Card Week: Gator Baby

It seems to be that time of year again where I need a lot of cards and don't have a lot of time. I tend to lean on my Cricut to create some simple, yet style cards. I also grab bright, fun papers to help spice things up. Here's the first card this week!

Bright chevron paper, a gator cut, a fun punch and some puffy foam letters = simple!

Summer Camp - Scrap!

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be participating in Camp Scrap over at Big Picture Classes. I always get these huge bursts of motivation and inspiration. 4 weeks is not enough time - I wish class could last all summer. I've already completed several layouts and cards.

Sticking with the Boston theme, here is a 38th Birthday Card I whipped up today for a friend who is a huge Bruins fan. The challenge was to use something new or that you haven't used in a while. I pulled out my dusty container of watercolor pencils. The yellow highlights and black top are all watercolor.

I also threw together a Celtics card using up some Jolee Celtics stickers I had in my stash.

Textuality: Mitered Frame Assignment

The new class I am taking at Big Pictures Classes just started. Textuality. It is a very different style class for me and already I find myself challenged in ways I could not imagine. The first assignment was to write 450 words about a photo. I know I have never written that much on a layout before. Journaling is the last step for me and I don't write a lot. This forced me to write first and focus on the story I wanted to tell. Usually I let the pictures do the talking.

Creating the mitered frame was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. It does take practice to get your printer paper positioning correctly. And then the cutting and trimming. Mine doesn't line up perfectly, but it was close enough for me to keep moving on.

Keeping with my Boston theme of late, here is my layout:

This is a picture of the Prudential Tower lit up to support the Red Sox in 2004 as they competed in the World Series. I used to work in the building and sit inside the "O" so I got to be part of something pretty cool. I added a pocked under the photo mat to include the full 2004 Red Sox schedule card. I wanted to a add a ticket from the season, but there just was not enough room.

Top Chef Boston

Top Chef and Boston! Two things I love brought together. A few years ago, the Top Chef Tour came to Boston and I had the chance to attend. It was amazing. (I have to find those pictures..) But then last year, they came back! It was an even better experience because rather than a cooking demo, they had the chefs do a head-to-head competition using a local ingredient that was selected via a Facebook poll. I stood in line after the event to have pictures taken and get autographed photos. I never scrap 8x10 pictures - mostly because I don't really have any. So this was a fun experiment.

Boston Public Gardens

As part of cleaning and purging my scraproom, I am taking my favorite photos out of frames and creating layouts so I can get rid of the bulky frames that are cluttering up my room. In addition, with everything that has happened in Boston (my home city), I am inspired to scrap some of my Beantown pics as a way of celebrating a place that is very near and dear to my heart. #Bostonstrong

This picture was taken on a warm spring evening in the Boston Public Gardens. These were some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. They city does an amazing job with these grounds. I am continuing to practice my layering techniques while trying to use up scraps.

Daddy's Girl

Now that I have discovered Glitter Girl I am completely addicted. I have never been able to layer in my layouts. But the way that she breaks things down it makes it super easy to figure out to add little bits and pieces and cluster etc. This is another scraplift from her video "To theme or not to theme".
I learned some really awesome tips. 1. When using three 4x6 photos you can add patterned paper under the middle one to break it up a bit. 2. Using similar embellies on each side of the page to bring more cohesion. I found a sticker in my stash that says "Birds of a Feather" and I built around that finding several sheets of paper with birds on them. These are 3 of my favorite pictures of daddy & baby girl.

Scraps - Our little lady

I was listening to Paperclipping Roundtable a couple weeks ago - "Torn by Patterned Paper" - and it was absolutely one on my most favorite episodes. I am in the process of reorganizing and purging my scraproom and there was just something about this episode that helped me use my paper more freely and not be afraid to cut into those papers that I have been hoarding.

As a result of this show, I discovered the Glitter Girl series at Two Peas in a Bucket. How have I not heard about her before? I was completely inspired to start using up my scraps. I loved one of the layout examples so this is my scraplift version.

Getting back to class!

After a long creative drought, I am trying to get motivated and reconnect with my creative self. There are two classes over at Big Picture that were calling my name.

Camp Scrap will start up in June. I've done this experience before, but this summer it is all new. It is a little bit of everything, but it is a whole lot of inspiration.

Texuatlity: I am so excited to try this class. I am constantly wondering how to use up my random assorted alphas. I struggle with finding the write words and I never use Word or my printer so this should be a fun learning experience.

Now, I've got to go find my scrap room which is buried under a big pile of messiness!

Keep the Cards Coming!

Been in a bit of a creative funk lately, so I started with a few cards to get me back into the groove.

 Happy 30th Birthday! Love this martini glass Cricut cut "From my Kitchen"

Happy 1st Birthday! How cute is this monkey from "Create a Critter"

Baby Boy Cards

It's another baby boom! Time to pull out the giraffe stamp and get busy. I found this cool Noah's Ark paper hidden in my stash that I really like - though I've never seen a purple giraffe before.

Day 2: 12 Days of Christmas

I'm still catching up from the holidays and trying to complete my 12 Days of Christmas class. I'm not going to give up even if it means I finish in July.

Here is Day 2! The challenge was to highlight your Christmas tree. I tend to always use the same font for titles, but one way to jazz up a layout is to mix and match. I need to remember this more often!

Day 1: 12 Days of Christmas

I am in the process of finishing up 12 Christmas layouts using the fabulous handouts from the latest Big Picture Class I am taking - the 12 Days of Christmas. So I am a few days behind.... I am inspired to finish it up soon because my scraproom is a Christmas explosion and you can't even walk into it. You will find me sitting on the floor in the hallways scrapping!

Day 1 was to take a family photo.

Here is my finished layout.