Father's Day cards

The card I made for our fathers & grandfathers:

Supplies: Die Cuts with a View card & adhesive backed cardstock; miscellaneous white cardstock; Micron black pen; TaDa patterned paper; Staz-On black stamp pad; Studio G acrylic stamps; QuicKutz Metro font. Inspired by March 14 of dw2007.

And the card I made for Trent:


I based the paper piecing design off this cute little onesie I gave him:

Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper; EK Success corner rounder punch; miscellaneous cardstock; Micron black pen; foam adhesive square; Making Memories alpha stickers; Staz-On black stamp pad; Studio G acrylic stamps. Inspired by June A Year in Cards class at Two Peas.

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Row of Flowers card

For Ter's week 5 Card Challenge - Brads:


Supplies: Die Cuts with a View card; black stamp pad; Micron pen; Prima flowers; Making Memories brads. Inspired by Nov 8th of dw2007

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It'Sugar

Colleen and Tonya gave the DW Calendar Girls' group at Two Peas several challenges this month. For Colleen's give it an edge and Tonya's lift a DW girl, I created this page about the It'Sugar store in Myrtle Beach, SC. I scraplifted Gray's Papaya NY by Aubrey.


Supplies: Funky Florals paper from Rhonna Farrer's Magic Rainbows kit; my 12x12 scallop paper template; stitching from Melany Violette's Forever Memories Mini kit; Come Unto Me font. Inspired by June 8th of dw2007 and April 15th of dw2008.

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Friday Freebie - 1st Snow template

I made this 8.5 x 11 traditional page last year for Trent's childhood album. It's a scraplift of "Sand Car" by emmakate at Two Peas. I love the simplicity and clean lines of the design.


This week it inspired the digital template I used to create my Rehearsal Dinner layout.

Click here to download the 1st Snow template

Enjoy!



Have you missed one of my previous digital freebies? Click HERE to find them. And, don't forget to subscribe to my feeds so you won't miss future freebies!

Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; Paper Salon patterned paper; Die Cuts with a View adhesive backed strips; QuicKutz Moxie & star fonts; Micron black pen; Making Memories snowflake & pink brad. Inspired by May 16th and 30th of dw2007.

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ABC's of Me

I've been tagged by Tina. :)

A- Attached or single: very happily attached
B- Best Friend: Trent
C- Cake or Pie: cake

D- Day of Choice: Friday
E- Essential Item(s): cell phone, inhaler, wallet
F-Favorite type of music: pop, country, oldies - I enjoy it all :)

G- Gummy Bears or Worms: bears
H- Hometown: Culpeper, VA
I- Indulgence(s): dark chocolate peanut M&M's

J- January or July: July
K- Kids: 0
L Last movie: Meet the Robinsons

M- Marriage Date: November 8
N- Number of Siblings: 1 sister, 1 brother, 1 step-sister, 3 step-brothers
O- Oranges or Apples: apples

P- Phobias or Fears: claustrophobia
Q- Quote(s): It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. - Ursula K. LeGuin
R- Reason To Smile: my husband & family

S- Season: fall
T- Tag: Colleen, Jen, and Toni.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I'm a sock freak. I don't like it when my feet are naked.

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: oppressor
W- Worst Habit: leaving folded clothes in the baskets
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: x-rays

Y- Your Favorite Food: chocolate ;)
Z- Zodiac: Scorpio

'my feet' layout created January 2007. Inspired by Jan 13/14 of dw2007.
Supplies: Deja View patterned paper; American Crafts ribbon; Making Memories feet plaque; Jenkins font; Photoshop CS for fun feet effects.

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HI

The inspiration just has not been flowing over here the last few days. Blame it on the paint fumes perhaps? Speaking of which, thank you all for the sweet comments about the bedroom! It was quite a change, but we're happy with it. Definitely a nice warmer feel. Now if I could just decide on the colors for the rest of the rooms. Hmm.....

In the meantime, here's a quick card I whipped up tonight. Inspired by the card designs on Oct 4 of dw2007.


Supplies: Die Cuts with a View card & adhesive backed cardstock; SEI patterned paper; Scenic Route sticker; QuicKutz Metro SkinniMini font.

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Altering Jars

I had a couple of questions regarding the altered Valentine Candy Jar I posted earlier today and wanted to address them. The "i love you" on the front of the jar is a rub-on by Making Memories (Rub-on Minis Love 2). I first came to the idea of adding rub-ons to glass jars while flipping through the November calendar pages of designing with 2006. The prompt for Nov 10 was to "embellish plain containers with rub-ons." I tried it on a small spice jar that I store buttons in and was thrilled with the results.

Last summer I decided to play around with a large jar for the family beach house. One of our favorite activities is to head a few blocks south to the arcade. Quarters are forever piled up here and there around the rooms. I picked up a jar from the kitchen section at Target to give these quarters a festive home. Since the theme was "arcade" I picked some fun rub-on letters by Making Memories and created a top inspired by PacMan. :)

The rub-ons can be applied the same as you would to any other material. For some, it might take a little more pressure. The jars with flatter areas (Valentine Candy Jar and Arcade Fund Jar) are easier to apply the rub-ons to than rounder jars such as the Buttons Jar.

To create the top for the Arcade Fund Jar, I cut a circle of Scenic Route patterned paper just smaller than the lid. I loved this particular design since it has the feel of movement and the PacMan dots. I used my QuicKutz to cut a circle of yellow cardstock and sliced out a section for the mouth with my X-acto knife. A Making Memories brad created the eye. I hand drew and cut the ghost shapes from other scraps of cardstock I had in my stash. All three figures are outlined in black pen. Finally, I adhered the design to the lid using my Xyron 510.

As with the Valentine Candy Jar, I tied a scrap of ribbon around the neck of the jar. For this jar, I added a Making Memories clip to hold any extra tickets from the arcade - another item that's found loose around the house. Now, we can grab a handful of quarters and any extra tickets before we head out to play. :)


Button Jar Supplies: spice jar from World Market; Making Memories buttons & stitches; Li'l Davis rub-on letters; misc. green acrylic paint (scuffed w/ a sanding block).

Arcade Fund Jar Supplies: jar from Target; Making Memories rub-on letters, metal clip & brad; Scenic Route patterned paper; QuicKutz circle die from Icing starter kit; misc. cardstock & ribbon from stash.

Garden City Arcade layout Supplies: misc. dark brown and green cardstock; We R Memory Keepers patterned paper; Marcella K rub-on stitches; Making Memories TinyAlpha letter stickers, eyelets & date stamp; Miss Elizabeth foam letters; Uniball signo white pen

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Valentine Candy Jar

2ps blog challenge:
Are you making anything special for Valentine's Day? If so, share it with us.
Well, I can't share anything for this year as I might spoil a surprise, but I can share something I made last year. Part of Trent's gift was this altered candy jar - filled with M&M's. :)


Supplies: Provo Craft jar from Michael's ($1); Making Memories metal tag rim, sweets heart, pink/white ribbon, and "i love you" rub-on; misc red ribbon & patterned paper from my stash; Micron black pen. Inspired by Nov 10 of dw2006 and Feb 10/11 of dw2007.

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Nemo & Friends

I did manage to create one page in my cat mini album. And start a list of supplies I want for it. LOL Thankfully, it's a short list so far....

Afterwards I decided to work on my Disney album a bit more and created another digital page for The Seas with Nemo & Friends attraction at Epcot. I used one of my photos to create the background - simply lowered the opacity so it wouldn't stand out as much.


Supplies: frame, photo clips & swirls from Peppermint Creative's Twinkle Toes kit; 2peas Squish font from Two Peas in a Bucket; Finding Nemo font from TypeNow.net. Inspired by Jul 12 of dw2007 to create a storyboard.

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Etsy

I opened my Etsy shop (2pawsdesigns.etsy.com) yesterday! This has been a goal of mine for months but keeps hitting the back burner. I listed a few of the cards recently posted on my blog including this card I created tonight:


Supplies: Die Cuts with a View card; American Crafts patterned paper; Making Memories chipboard heart, brad, rub-on letters & word "love".

2ps blog challenge:
If you keep your photos on your computer. How often do you put them on a disk to back them up?
I schedule weekly backups to my external hard drive using the Windows Backup program. A few times a year, I will burn the photos to a CD. Currently, my 2007 photos will not fit on one CD so I'm planning to burn a DVD of them. For more detailed information about how I organize & store my photos, see my Photo Organization post.

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Checking off the "To-Do" list

No scrapping today so far, but perhaps in a bit. I did finally get a few things off my to-do list. For starters, I bought a new keyboard & mouse. We have been having issues for several months now with the keyboard that came with the computer. It just didn't always work. After weeks of looking and 1 purchase & return - we realized it wasn't the keyboard but rather the port. I wanted a keyboard with a cord, but that is difficult to get these days. It seems everyone prefers wireless. So, here I am in grand form on the new wireless keyboard. For the most part, it seems to be working ok. It is occasionally not getting the signal which was one of my fears. Let's hope it manages to work 99% of the time because I've had it with shopping for these things.

While out keyboard shopping, I had holes drilled in my designing with 2007 calendar so I could put the pages in my binders. I prefer to store the previous calendars this way by category so I can easily reference them and pull out a page or two to use. They are so full of wonderful ideas and inspiration to help jolt me when I'm having a scrapper's block. :)

I did have one small misfortune. It seems the guy at the store wasn't very well trained in the process of drilling holes so the last 10 pages have torn holes. I used reinforcers to fix them, but I'm a bit irritated. Last year at least the first person admitted to not knowing so I took it elsewhere. Elsewhere being the store I went to today. Needless to say, I'll be more careful next year.

Finally, for a bit of humor....
I joined YouTube today (am I the last person to do so?) and uploaded a little video I made of Chester. ;) Cali makes a small cameo. Keep in mind, I filmed this with my regular Kodak digital camera so it's not high quality. Without further ado, I present Chester versus the Bag:

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Bee Movie

After Trent came home from work tonight, we went to see Bee Movie - very cute and very funny. Some of it was corny humor, but I was laughing nonetheless.

Afterwards we just about finished up our Christmas shopping between Pier1 and Michael's. And we made a brief visit to PetSmart for more food for the cats & fish. Gotta feed the critters. ;)

I've been playing in my scrap area since we came home. Had fun creating tonight's card with my ticket stub from the movie. Do you see my "hidden" title? ;)
Supplies: KI Memories patterned paper; Martha Stewart Crafts flower sticker; Making Memories button & TinyAlpha letter; QuicKutz stem & leaf from the Sunshine gift set; Uniball Signo white pen. Inspired by Dec 13 of dw2007 to "design a creative title."

2ps blog challenge:
Are there any family heirlooms in your possession? Tell about them and how you came to acquire them. Have you done a layout about it.
Maureen's prompt tonight really got me thinking. We do have a few items I would consider heirlooms. Most are pieces of furniture - for example, the dresser in our guest bedroom belonged to his grandparents. That particular item we came to own after they decided to sell their house and move into a retirement community. They wanted to pass down items to family members and I specifically asked if we could have the dresser. It's beautiful solid wood. Worn from time & use, but to us, that makes it more special.

I realized after reading the prompt that I have not scrapped about our various heirlooms. Reason to do so is sitting in my bedroom - our bed came from my great-grandparents home in southwestern Virginia. No one has lived in the house for years, but it is still family owned and mainly stores extra furniture, dishes, etc. I asked my grandfather for it in 1999 when I moved to my first apartment. Beyond the fact that it was in that house, no one can seem to recall who it belonged to. I want to scrap the known history of our special items so future generations will realize why these items carried such personal value to us.

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Happy birthday ...

Happy birthday, Charles! :) Hope you have a wonderful day!!
Supplies: Die Cuts with a View card; Love, Elsie textured cardstock; Making Memories clears brackets; Colorbok fabric label; Studio G stamp; foam dot. Inspired by Dec 27 of dw2007 to cut out stamped images.

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Shopping & Cinderella

We went out shopping earlier today to pick out some gifts for the "under 4" crowd on our list. One is an angel gift and needs to be turned in by Friday so I thought it would be easiest to conquer all of the kids at once. Maybe we'll be labeled the "mean" aunt & uncle in future years LOL but our preference is clothing and books. Now, not having children ourselves, the clothing part can be more challenging that I realize at times. You would not believe how long the two of us spent running circles in the infant/toddlers department trying to figure out what to buy and what size. I was careful to ask for gift receipts just in case. Tag Supplies: Paper Salon patterned paper; Making Memories grommet, eyelet & epoxy sticker; misc red cardstock; Uniball Signo white pen.

Tonight I decided to take a break from holiday crafts to work on our Disney album a bit more. Here's the two-page design I came up with based on the December sketch in the designing with 2007 calendar:

Layout Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; Déjà Views patterned paper; Li'l Davis chipboard 'C'; QuicKutz Metro die cut font; EK Success 3-d stickers.

2ps blog challenge:
What are 5 things on your computer desk right now?
1. The layout I just finished scanning.
2. A pile of music CDs.
3. My "Coupons for Trade" box.
4. CVS weekly ad.
5. Post-it notes.

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Fall "Harvest" & Tree Trimming

I use the word "harvest" lightly. ;) Today the weather here was sunny and in the mid 50s. Trent & I decided to tackle some much needed work in the yard - raking a few leaves, trimming the junipers, spreading mulch and clearing the garden. Everything in the vegetable garden had long since seen its final days except for my herbs. The rosemary, oregano and chives have been growing for 2 seasons now along with our strawberry plants. Last winter was so mild it didn't seem to affect any of them. So today I "harvested" the last of my herbs to dry and jar. Needless to say, my hands and the house quickly carried the strong aroma.

Cali & Chester (the cats) were thrilled for the opportunity to play outside for a bit. Cali followed me around and meowed at me. She's in my arms in the photo. A moment before she was rubbing her head against mine and purring loudly. :)

After we cleaned up and had some dinner, I turned on the Christmas music and Trent & I decorated the tree. It is finally shining in all it's glory. I created another card as part of my "Card A Day" to mark the occasion:
Inspired by several sources: Tina's mention on her blog of "Journal your Christmas"; Dec 24th of dw2007 - tree design on a card; and, what started me on the "Card A Day" idea [although, mine is more a "Card as the Mood Strikes" ;) ] - Elise Blaha's "let's!" "get!" "crafty!"

Supplies: Autumn Leaves & Wild Asparagus patterned paper; American Crafts, Doodlebug, Li'l Davis & Making Memories rub-ons; Making Memories epoxy sticker; Micron black pen.

2ps blog challenge:
Do you make your holiday cards?
I have made our Christmas cards in the past, but have opted for store bought in recent years as making them all can be very time consuming. Perhaps one year I'll plan well enough in advance, but for now I'm saving the handmade for smaller occasions. :)

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Tomorrowland Indy Speedway

Fun, quick LO of me outside the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway ride at the Magic Kingdom. I lifted the page design on 11/29 of the Autumn Leaves designing with 2007 calendar.

Supplies: White cardstock; Basic Grey, Chatterbox, EK Success, Karen Foster, and Scenic Route patterned papers; Heidi Swapp photo corners; Disney "Mickey's Used Autos" sticker; 7gypsies tag; Micron pen; stamp ink; staples.

I was somewhat surprised I could focus on scrapbooking at all. Trent baked a loaf of Amish Friendship bread tonight. It smells and tastes delicious. I went downstairs to get the "Trent stamp of approval" on my layout (he sees all my projects before I share) and had a small piece. :)

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Changing of Holidays

I had not intended on letting several days go by without blogging. Thursday, of course, was filled with time with family and celebrating. Trent and I started our day at his parents' house for lunch. Later we drove a little further west and visited with my dad's family. Finally returning home after midnight! It was a blessing to see so many of our family members in one day especially those we don't have an opportunity to see quite as often. And we met our new niece for the first time. :)

Yesterday is still a blur due to a migraine so I'm trying to make up for it a bit today. Following the NCSU football game (which I think I'd rather be a blur as well!), we bought our Christmas tree. It's officially standing in its spot in the living room. We'll wait until at least tomorrow before beginning to decorate as the limbs need to drop a bit. But I did switch the wreaths on the front door - placing the fall wreath in storage and hanging the Christmas one. Our home is beginning to look and smell (love that fresh evergreen!) a bit like Christmas.

I couldn't get motivated, however, to do any Christmas scrapbook layouts today. I switched the slide show in the left hand column to feature some Christmas & winter layouts I've done in the past. Maybe they'll inspire me. But I was able to find motivation to complete another Disney layout. Here's my take on the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor:
Supplies: Misc purple cardstock; Uniball signo white pen; Micron black pen; EK Success striped PP and Mike Wazowski sticker; Making Memories brads; stamp ink pad; Times New Roman and Gilligans Island fonts.

2ps Blog Challenge:
What's the latest movie you have seen?

Trent and I watched Transformers last night. He had borrowed the DVD from a co-worker. While I didn't dislike it, in my opinion, it dragged on a bit (seriously could they have spent anymore time having the kid search his room for the glasses???). Parts of it seemed a bit predictable, but the end didn't quite come together as I expected which isn't a bad thing.

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Cards

Thanks for all the sweet birthday posts! :) I do appreciate them.

Spent a little free time today between church and the NCSU basketball game in my scrap room creating cards. Both were inspired by the Autumn Leaves designing with 2007 calendar.

For my new niece:
Supplies: DCWV card & adhesive backed CS; QK heart; MM metal rimmed tag, metal washer, thread, metal heart, and border rub-on; generic office supply metal rimmed tag; $ tree rub-on hearts; MS heart sticker; blue chalk; and Deja Views Sharon Ann collection PP. / Inspired by Nov 16 of dw2007.

And a birthday card for a friend:
Supplies: DCWV card; Scenic Route PP; ink pad; flower (thanks, Jan!); misc button; MM thread. / Inspired by Nov 8 of dw2007.

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Another Masking Tip

Here's another fun use of the masking technique I explained in yesterday's post (Creating "Photo Letters" in Photoshop) -- use dingbats in place of traditional fonts. Last June I created this card for my mother-in-law to thank her for use of her beach house for a weekend.


I used a photo I took while on the trip and masked it with a dingbat (GE Nautica) found at Dingbat Depot. Then I printed the image on off-white cardstock. The waves I cut freehand from blue cardstock using my x-acto and inked them using a white stamp pad.

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