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March 31, 2015

Club Scrap Nice to See You


Can you believe it's the end of March already?  I certainly can't!  But the end of the month calls for another Artist Team Challenge at Club Scrap.  This month we got to work with the versatile Nice to See You kit and I love what I came up with!  (And make sure you read this post to the end - there is a giveaway for you!)


I took my favorite kind of vacation a couple of weeks ago and went on a scrapbooking retreat with friends.  I got a lot done (including organizing my stamps - THAT was an undertaking) and I was able to work on some pages for my New Zealand album.  The great thing about Club Scrap kits is that you don't need to match the theme of the kit to your pictures.  The vintage look of this kit went great with some outdoor shots and our pictures of exploring lava caves on the island of Rangitoto.


I used a lot of different papers from this kit and the Big Ten Assembly Line Scrapbooking formula (7 of Diamonds) from the first Idea Deck.  I also used stamps and the stencil from this kit to add in some fun details to the layout.


I used the stencil on my journaling spot to make a subtle background pattern and wrote directly over it.  I also used it on the 8.5x11 orange layer on the left side of the layout, and it turned out verrrrrrry subtle - just what I wanted, but a little difficult to translate in pictures!


I had fun with this magnifying glass stamp from the unmounted rubber set.  I first stamped the sentiment on the square piece of my layout, then stamped the glass portion on another piece of paper.  I fussy cut out the image, then used a piece of acetate and foam tape to create a dimensional embellishment.


I also used embellishments from my stash to create three embellishment clusters around the layout to help bring the two pages together.  I made sure to include some washi tape, a rectangular label sticker, a star, an arrow, a round element, and something orange in each cluster so they were each different but similar.  I also used some of the warm orange paper to finish of my title - I didn't have tiny orange stickers, so some scraps of orange and QuicKutz to the rescue!

I hope you liked this layout, and if so, I have a treat for you!  I'm giving away the Unmounted Rubber AND the Greetings UMs AND the stencil from this kit to one lucky reader! There are three ways for you enter this giveaway:

  • Comment on this blog post (how about letting me know what you would use these stamps and stencil for?)
  • Follow me on Instagram and comment on this post.
  • Tag a friend on Instagram on this post.
I will be taking entries for this giveaway for 1 week.  Comments will be accepted until 11:59 pm EST on Tuesday April 7th, 2015.  If you comment here and on Instagram and tag a friend, you will have three chances to win!

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to check out the other amazing projects with this kit here.  Be sure to share you artwork at the Club Scrap blog to be eligible to win this kit as well!  Happy crafting!

March 25, 2015

Club Scrap Blog Hop - 50s Kitchen

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Hi again and welcome to the March edition of the Club Scrap blog hop!  This month, we are having fun with the 50s Kitchen collection - I can't believe how awesome this kit is this month!



If you traveled here from Tricia's blog, then you are following the hop!  If you've lost your way or just want to see all the links in one place, head over to the Club Scrap blog to see a list of all the talented bloggers participating today.

This month I had been slooooowly cleaning and reorganizing my craft room so I could more easily find my supplies as I can across a few empty tins I had stocked up on when Club Scrap had stocked them in the store.  You could easily recreate this project using an old Altoids tin or similar, and the end result is so fun, that I hope you do!


I first stamped on the plain black tin top with white pigment ink and the amazing stamps from this collection.  I heat set the ink with a heat gun to prevent too much smearing.


I also made a cute belly band to make sure the top wouldn't come apart from the rest of the tin, and just to add that adorable cherry stamp.  I used one of the strips from the Deluxe kit cutaparts for the base and stamped on red and black circles that I cut from the photos mats for some added interest.  I then stamped the cherry image in green, then the cherries in red and cut these out to adhere to the green image for a two-toned embellishment.


The bottom half of the tin houses a two-sided mini album, complete with spots for photos, journaling, and mini envelopes.


I lined the bottom of the tin with another piece of paper from this kit - the color combinations and patterns are so cute and versatile!


The mini envelopes I made house slightly smaller slider cards that you can slide out using the ribbons included in the Embellishment kit for this collection.  There are so many spots to decorate to your heart's content with this mini album!  I wish I can say that I was clever enough to think of this design on my own, but it's adapted from this post here.  Someday I will be that crafty!

Thank you as always for stopping in here to see what craftiness I've been getting into!  Head on over to Hetty's blog to see what creative inspiration she has in store for you.  Stop back in next month when we're hoping Spring is here to stay with the Botanicals collection!

March 3, 2015

This Past Week (and then some...)


Happy Tuesday!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend and a great start to your week!  Things have been busy around here, but nothing super exciting.  Just trying to stay warm and enjoy the nice days that are given to us this winter!  

One of the beautiful (albeit cold) aspects about living right on a river is that on very cold days, the river will freeze (partially) and all of the ducks, geese, and swans will hang out on the edge.  I loved seeing the bright white of the swans and the dark bodies of the ducks on the ice contrast each other - makes the cold walk over the bridge a little more palatable!


Jason and I have been trying to be active by exploring parks around the area and joining with some Meetup groups  One cold but sunny, Saturday, we met up for a five-mile hike along the Delaware & Raritan Canal.  We started out at Washington Crossing State Park (oh yeah, where George Washington crossed the Delaware) and this is definitely somewhere we would like to explore once the weather gets better!  Just a bike ride down the canal path...



We had some "major" snow here in NJ recently...not the same as Upstate New York, but I'm not complaining.  I grabbed the above shot in my pajamas early one Saturday morning...one of the benefits of having the canal right in your backyard!


Jason and I also did some exploring on our own and hiked up to Goat Hill Overlook one snowy day.  It's a short hike, but the view once you get to the summit was definitely worth it - a great bird's eye view of New Hope and Lambertville.  Hopefully we'll make it up here several times this year, but it would make for a great series of photos during all four seasons.


Before the Oscars aired, we went to our local theater to watch the nominated animated and live-action shorts.  (Maybe next year we'll make it to see the documentaries as well...)  My picks for the winners were The Feast for the animated shorts (which won) and Parvenah (which did not win), but my favorite live-action was La Lampe Au Buerre De Yak (Butter Lamp) and the funniest animated short was A Single Life.  If you have a chance to see any of these, I highly recommend it!


For Valentine's Day, Jason and I spent the day relaxing and I made a fancy dinner (thanks Martha Stewart).  The good thing about eating at home is that we paired each course with a drink - much cheaper to split a bottle in the comfort of your own dining room!  In the mood to make something special?  You can make the same menu here.


Even with all of the snow we've had, there are still some nice, sunny days interspersed here and there...here's looking forward to spring!  Daylight Saving is this upcoming weekend, so we're getting there...

Hope your week is fantastic!


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