I cannot begin to tell you how much my girls make me laugh.  And it's a good thing, because it certainly helps them out big time when they're supposed to be in trouble.  Anyway, this day below, was their 2nd visit to the dentist's office.  Thankfully, their first visit was incredibly fun and they don't have irrational fears of dentists like my husband someone I won't mention.  Now, a quick background point for all my readers:  My husband is a musician and as we all know, musicians usually beat to a different drum.  Often times their sense of fashion goes hand in hand with their creative musical flair.  So, I must submit, that my two daughters incredible sense of fashion comes from their Daddy. ; )

Isn't this how EVERYONE dresses up to go to the dentist?  Do notice that my youngest carries a penguin in her purse instead of the requisite yippy dog.  THAT, she got from me and it makes me proud.  So looking at how my two birds of a feather flock together...I now know that I have years of interesting outfits and fun times to look forward too.

Now on to the deets. I picked up the Cosmo Cricket Togetherness Deluxe Kit, for this one.  It is a very whimsical line with birds, butterflies, clouds and kites.  I used all paper for this layout and will use the embellies, Glimmer Mist and Flocking Powder for my next project....coming up soon.
 

I used a template to create the bracket die cut, which I cut in half put part on each side.  The paper line comes with a page of borders, which worked well with my Birds of a Feather theme.  I cut out some of the birds from the paper, faux stitched around the edge and popped them up for dimension.




Now go put on an outfit and accessorize it like no one is watching!!  And don't forget your penguin in a purse!

If you're not shopping for Halloween costumes, then you're either starting on your Christmas card making or buying presents.  The Holiday Season is officially upon us crafters anyway.  So let me inspire you with this new Christmas line from KaiserCraft.  Yes indeed, it's the very company that makes all the wonderful wooden MDF projects you love so much.  As soon as I saw this in the Sneak Peeks from CHA, I was hoping and hoping that this would make it into the Shoppe.  My delight was complete when I saw the Deluxe Kit that Tammy put together with this beautiful Vintage paper line. 

Here is a layout of my two "dress up" Queens.  This day, they were Santa's Helpers of course.  We did this photo shoot during the great blizzard of 2010 trying to shoo away the cabin fever.  It's a bit hard letting your 3 1/2 foot children play in 5 feet of snow!

My first step, since I wanted to pick up the red of the dress in the photograph was to cut the tan background off the sheet with the scrolling die cut.  I cut around the edges and used a dark red background to replace the old one.  The edges of the red cardstock are inked with the Mudslide Colorbok pad included in the kit.

TIP: Since the Colorbok pad is ink instead of Chalk ink, you can dab a makeup sponge onto the ink pad and use the sponge to ink your edges for more of a brushed and softer look.  Using the ink pad directly on the edges of your paper can give harsh, dark lines that do not give an aged look to your project.

Next, I created a Christmas tree of sorts by cutting out wavy triangles out of the green damask paper and distressing the edges with the Mudslide ink using the tip above.  I wanted the scrolling die cut to work as a frame, so I used my Swivel Exacto knife to cut out an edge on the inner part of the die cut...this is known as fussy cutting.  I set my Christmas tree inside the cut and removed any green edges sticking out the other side.




The mat for the bigger photo was created using the Martha Stewart Deco Fan around the page punches.  I only did two sides since I was tucking the photo behind the tree and another cut edge of the die cut at the bottom.  The snowflakes are made with the St Nick/Newspaper sheet and Joys of the Season Cricut cartridge. 

To give the snowflakes a more vintage and finished look, I inked the edges with the Mudslide ink.   I used both sides of the St Nick paper to create the snowflakes.  The fatter ones above were made with the Newsprint side and the skinnier ones were made with the St Nick side. I used Mudslide over the skinny snowflakes to darken them up a bit to contrast with the fatter snowflakes and yet still keep the design visible underneath.  My next step for all the snowflakes was to coat them with Rock Candy Crackle Paint.  While the paint was still wet, I grabbed some translucent sparkly embossing powder between my thumb and index finger, and gently rubbed my fingers together over the snowflakes as it lightly dusted them with the powder.  Using your fingers to rub the powder over top of your snowflakes will keep it light and even.  I used my heat gun lightly over the snowflakes to just melt the embossing powder so it wouldn't leave a milky sheen on the snowflakes and Crackle Paint, then I let the rest air dry to create the crackling effect.





So, now go panic...because you only have 95 days until Christmas.  Hah!!  Happy Scrapping!

Who here has had 100+ degree temperatures consistently this past month?  Anyone else digging all the Holiday action we have going on here? If you can't stand the heat, I say get inside and scrap something cool and delightful.  If Halloween's your thing, Patti has been creating some way cute items with Graphic 45's Alice in Wonderland Kit.  If you're a Christmas crafter instead, I have the new Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather for you.  We have two options for you in the store.  We have the Mitten Weather paper line or if you like matching embellies without the headache of picking them out, try the Mitten Weather Deluxe Kit. 


Here is project numero uno with the kit.  Aren't you digging the splash of purple?  It's such a nice addition to the standard red and green of Christmas.  It makes for a nice fluctuation between Christmas layouts or Wintry layouts.  Here is picked a little of both and grabbed these pictures of my youngest in her Christmas outfit from last year.  These turned out to be my favorite pictures of the whole season because I think she looks like a porcelain Winter Angel.

I used the Martha Stewart Layered Arches for the red edging to give the color splash.  I picked up one of my border stamps and stamped around the border to give my layout a frame and then added some Ruby Red Liquid Pearls in between the arches for color.  Now how often do you get to use Tinsel Garland on your layouts?



We can't wait to see what Holiday creations you are making.  Post a link in our comments section so we can be sure to check it out.

Whew!  I have been Delovely-ing my entire scrap room.  I was able to make so many things with this bright, colorful Deluxe kit.  Here are the promised projects from last week.


First up...some attempt to control the Silly Bandz craze in our house.  If you have a kid, then you know what I'm talking about.  I found these two wood boxes at a local craft store in the clearance section.  The girls picked out their favorite pictures from the Delovely Die Cut card sheet and I got to work. 

Then I went to work on a stack of cards.  I went a bit Copic crazy I think.  For this card I stamped the Hummingbird (Inkadinkado) and used the other half of the flower from the box above to complete.  The dots are Liquid Pearls (Lemon Yellow) to create some flair.




This little cutie is a Tina Wenke stamp.  He paired quite well with the bright colors of the Delovely kit.  I created a window in the card by using the Large Label Nestabilities die. The border is the Double Loop punch by Martha Stewart. 




And finally, I grabbed several of the Die Cut cards from the Delovely card sheet and made this cute anniversary card.  The oval backgrounds are Nestabilities dies and I finished with faux stitching around the edges.




Can you believe it? Not a layout in sight.  This was very unusual for me.  But I have some layouts planned for my next project involving a little bit of Paradise.  Stay tuned...

Summer...Summer...Summer is certainly here.  We've had our third 100+ degree day in a row.  So what do I do in this heat?  Scrap of course.  Who can go outside in that kind of heat?  My girls have been begging me to decorate a bird house for them.  Bird house?!?  I don't do big projects like that...I'm a layout/card girl.  Well, I'm here to tell you, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  And, I had two very happy girls this morning when they saw the finished project.


I used the Cosmo Cricket Delovely Deluxe kit for this avian abode.  The colors are perfect Summery colors and simply push winter thoughts into the furtherest recesses of your brain.  So here it is.  The girls were gracious enough to lend me their little "peepers" for the photo shoot.

To create the roof shingles, for the top I used the Threading Water punch by Fiskars. For the bottom roof shingles, I had to get a bit creative.  I grabbed some scalloped packaging that came with a set of templates and traced the scalloped border, cut and inked the edges with Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick used here).  There are several wonderful floral patterened papers in this collection.  I cut out the big flower patterns, backed them with the bright yellow floral paper and used pop dots to adhere. The die cut card sheet had the most adorable birdies that I snipped out, inked the edges and pop dotted to the bird house.




 I loved the bright color of  the Doodlebug Sugar Coating that came with the kit and decided it would look perfect at the bottom (sort of a bird bath look).  Doesn't it shimmer!  The cute fence border is a Martha Stewart border punch.




To finish it off, I grabbed my JustRite stamps and picked this perfect little saying from the Seeds of Kindness collection.   These stamps are so hot right now and Lil' Lambs Boutique has a big selection for your stamping needs.  To create the dual colored stamp, I put the saying on the JustRite Wood Stamper and inked with Black Archival ink.  Then I carefully pushed the border onto the Wood Stamper and brushed Prussian Blue Chalk ink around the edges, being careful not to touch the center.  Stamp as usual and now you have a double color impression.  I attached the saying and a dragonfly charm with jump rings to the roof.




I have a couple more projects to come this week using the rest of my Delovely deluxe kit.  Stay tuned...

I was working with the Green at Heart Class Kit from Basic Grey.  They always come up with wonderful layouts that you can create, however, I also like the challenge of using the kit to come up with a new look.  Here, I took half the elements in the kit to create this page about Sisters.




I used a stencil to create the die cut background and inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  The edge of the circle photo mat is the patterned paper, cut into strips and folded into pleats.  The Take Notes circle tag was perfect for my title. Each Take Note tag has an optional overlay (such as the flower pattern below).




I used the Pink Paislee 365 Degree Deluxe Kit to create this fun Fair page below.  The colors in this kit are so fun and bright.  I created a 12" swirl as a background for my photos.  After printing off the photos, I cropped them and added them to the swirl background, letting the edges of the photos overlap the ends.  After fixing all the photos to my template, I trimmed the edges into the swirl pattern.  I added a title, journaling a few embellishments and my quick and easy page was complete.   

Pink Paislee really went for the vibrance this release.  Today, I'm working with the Bayberry Cottage Deluxe Kit from the Shoppe.  The purply-pink, blues and lime greens just scream Spring to me.  


I decided to scrap the wonderful joy of having a digital camera and using some of those well...oops photos...that we can see right on the spot and immediately keep clicking that camera til we get just the right picture.  Anatomy of an Easter photo came about due to the fact, that it is almost virtually impossible to get a 4 and 5 year old to smile AND look at the camera at the same time.  "Look up please...both of you look up...now smile...um, eyes open?  Both of you, look right here at this little circle and on the count of three, open your eyes and SMILE!!!  Are we done yet???  I give up!"  Here is the result:

What's a layout without a Martha Stewart border punch.  Here I used the Layered Arches combo set to create the photo mat.




And then to complete the layout, I added lots of beautiful embellies from the kit, including those gorgeous Say it in Pearls and Roses mini swirls.  The shoppe is carrying lots of the beautiful Prima flourishes and swirls in several colors.


So, before you just gloss over those "mistake" photos...why not create a fun layout using them instead.

So I'm a touch late with my normal Thursday post but hopefully this will have been worth the wait.  After receiving the stunning Graphic 45 Le' Romantique Deluxe kit, my wedding shower gift problem was instantly solved.  Little did I know how long finishing it would take me.  Ha ha.  Below is an 8 page album using the Deluxe kit.


Take a look through the album below to see all the gorgeous papers from this line. On the front cover, I used the Tarnished Brass Crackle Paint to rough up the edge and finished off the corners with Idea-Ology Photo Corners.  All flourishes throughout were created with Liquid Pearls on transparency paper.

The album is filled with verses from the Bible that come in handy in a new marriage.  They come in handy in an older marriage too!






Chandelier stamp is by Inkadinkadoo.  All border punches used are Martha Stewart border punches.










And my final page, although I didn't do much to it, because I loved the paper so much.




I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter this weekend!