New Kit for Sale!

This festive mini winter shadow box kit comes ready to assemble. 

It is full of glittery, sparkly goodness from Tim Holtz Ideaology, Sizzix Alterations, and Ranger Distress. Perfect for a desk, bookcase or mantle decoration, this little wintery vignette can be displayed through January.

Three words are included: Christmas, Wishes and Believe. You can use any one of them that will best fit your holiday decor.

Honoring All Who Serve - Disneyland Flag Retreat

This was a sample layout for a Disney Scrapper's July Red White and Blue Challenge.
For this challenge, we were to use the following Pinterest inspiration board to get some ideas for scrapping a Disney photo.

 
Using the inspiration, scrap a photo for Canada, France, UK, USA, the Fab 5 in their Disneyland 60th or just something with red and white and blue. Or we could leave out the blue since is usually sky in the photos even of Canada, a light sky blue could be included.
One additional part of the challenge was to include stripes. Striped paper, ribbon, embellishments, whatever, just something striped.

For my layout I cut strips of paper (some of it striped) to form paper stripes to make a border my layout. Then I sewed across them to add texture. I got this idea from the quilt in the inspiration collage above. The rest of the layout is based on Sketch Savvy #152

I scrapped pictures from Disneyland's Flag Retreat Ceremony held every day just before sundown. Disneyland's Flag Retreat is a very stirring ceremony that respectfully lowers and folds the flag at the end of the day, but it is also a time that the DLR sets aside to salute and honor our nation and those who faithfully serve it. Flag Retreat is one of my favorite Disneyland Traditions. If you haven't been a part of one yet, put it on your list for the next time you visit.

On this particular day, I had gone to Disneyland to meet up with some college friends I hadn't seen in 20+ years.  My friend Paul is a commander in the US Navy and serves on submarines, so I included the submarine and military word stickers. His amazing wife, Courtney, holds down the fort at home while he is is at sea sometimes for six months at a time. They have five terrific kids and in these pictures he is in the white shirt standing at attention around the Disneyland flag pole and the rest of the family is behind him, supporting him, as they always do. I carefully picked the elements from the Authentique Freedom line that helped me tell the story of their family and this special Flag Retreat Ceremony.  

 

Thank you for your service CDR Paul, and thank you Courtney and kids for the sacrifices you make that allow him to serve.  We salute all of you.

DCA Food and Wine Festival

Another Sample layout for the Disney Scrappers NSD challenge week back in May.  I just realized I never posted them here.  I have a backlog of things to post.

Here is the challenge:
Much like the Disneyland Challenge, this challenge is simply to scrap anything within the 15 year old Disney California Adventure Park.
Seeing as this is a park about California, your layout must include at least two of the following:

• sun
• sunglasses
• seashells
• palm tree
• stars
• film/camera/spotlights
• redwood trees
• bear

**Extra Points if you scrap something from the original DCA park**

We just went to the DCA Food and Wine Festival!

Due to construction it has been absent from the park for the last 5 years.  I'm so very happy they brought it back.  Unlike the Epcot F&W Festival, the booths are themed to the different areas or influences on California Cuisine, all with a modern twist.  The food was incredibly good and I have a lot to scrap from just the one day. 

This is just kind of an intro page to my F&W pages. I included the sun and sunglasses from the challenge. The paper is Authentique Radiant.

Unforgettable Disney - Two Layouts

For National Scrapbook day in May, Disney Scrappers hosted our annual week of Disney scrapping with challenges.  These were two of my challenge layouts.

“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” 

                                                                                   --Peter Pan

This challenge may cause you to shed a tear or two.  The challenge includes two elements:

1. Scrap a retired Disney something: attraction, parade, character, show, item, etc 
2. Scrap it with a retired line of paper or scrapbook items from a company that is no longer in business.

With all the changes happening in so many parks, I'm sure we all have pictures of things that are no longer part of the Disney parks.

********************
This layout features paper and embellishments by Basic Grey, and photos from Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree (RIP) which was one of my favorite parts of Disneyland park.  It was such a great get-away! These pictures were from one of the many special character events they hosted back there.
Layout based on Sketch Savvy Sketch #156

And this is my second layout and challenge:
Almost 61 years ago, Walt Disney opened his beloved Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California.
This challenge is simple, scrap anything in Disneyland Park, however, since we are still celebrating Disneyland's diamond anniversary, you must include at least one of the following on your layout:

• a rhombus (diamond) shape
• rhinestones or bling
• something Mickey Mouse

**Extra points** if you scrap a Disneyland original attraction or something with historical Disney significance.

My layout was inspired by one Susan at Creatively Savvy did for Christmas.  I loved her use of the rhombus shape and kind of fiddled around with it a few months ago but didn't get anywhere with it. I pulled it back out for this challenge, and all the Basic Grey embellishment bits that I thought I was going to throw away ended up being perfect for the pictures!

This is a sight you see either from the Mark Twain River Boat, the Sailing Ship Columbia, or the Davey Crockett Explorer Canoes.  We were in the DCE Canoes on the day I took these pictures.  Chief Waves-a-lot has been there in various forms since 1956 I believe.  Since he waves, a LOT, I thought all the hi and hello  embellishments were funny.  The chief was an important part of the original Rivers of America story in that directly across from him is the settler's cabin which has gone through several storylines itself. Now it is home to the River King, Mike Fink. All that to say that the canoes and the chief are both historically part of Disneyland's ROA since 1955-56.

Freedom Mini Shadow Box

I was inspired by a Valentine shadow box project I saw on Pinterest by Emma Williams and wanted to make some spring shadow box kits but got sidetracked and never got it done. You can see her box here.
Then I decided I wanted to make a patriotic one and have it say "A New Birth of Freedom" using the bird and egg theme.  No matter what I did I could not get the little banner saying "A New Birth of" to look right, so I ended up just nixing that and I like it just as much without it. 

The knobs came in three styles, two were clear and one was cream. So I made two variations of the kits. Pearl and Crystal.

For this project I used lots of Sizzix Alterations dies by Tim Holtz. 

• Bird Silhouette
• Crescent Moon and Stars
• Mini Feather and Inkwell
• Postage Stamp Frame
• Sized Rectangles
• Stacked Stars
• Typeset Alphabet Strip

This is a quick video explaining the kit 

with some tips about how to put it together.

Patriotic Spool

 

This was a fun decor piece I made for a class.  It uses the Authentique Freedom line of paper and three Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations dies, Tattered Pinecone (small rose) Jumbo Tattered Pinecone (lg rose) and Star Bright (3-D "poofy" stars).  

For the people who purchased the kit and couldn't attend class here is a video to explain how to put the spool together and how to make the stars.  

I put the roses together for those who were unable to attend the class, but if you are interested in seeing how to do it or how to make a pinecone from the pinecone die, this video by the designer, Tim Holtz will be the most beneficial. 

Thanks for taking the class or purchasing the kit and I hope you enjoy your little patriotic spool decoration.

Easter Class

Chenille Greens and Tattered Pinecone Roses

I wanted to make a really springy birdcage decor project recently, so I turned to my Sizzix Alterations dies, some chenille fabric and some Distress Stain.

Once the chenille was colored,  I cut some pink chenille on the Tattered Pinecone Die, and the Spring Greens from the green chenille.

 The Tattered Ponecone die made such soft, beautiful roses and the chenille spring greens were the perfect addition for this project. Stay tuned for the full project reveal next!

I'm excited about the Sizzix give-away and hope I win because I love my Sizzix products and use them on almost every project I design. 

St. Patrick's Day - Getting Caught Up Part 5

I have really come to appreciate St. Patricks Day in the last couple of years.  It wasn't something I ever really celebrated until I did a little research on St. Patrick and decided that I really respected him as a missionary to a place where he had been kidnapped and enslaved, and a man who was a fellow sinner saved by grace.  Knowing that, I personally celebrate St. Patrick's Day much differently than the rest of the world. No leprechauns, luck, or beer for me, but lots of green, shamrocks and focus on the blessings in life.

That being said,  I do know that everyone else doesn't necessarily go along with me. ;-D So I keep that in mind when I am designing.

I have a source for a TON of book innards. So I wanted to think of something I could do with them. Well this crazy, silly idea is what came out of that designing session.

I dyed some trim with Lucky Clover Distress Stain, The bow is a scarf from the Dollar Tree, all of the clovers and shamrocks are cut from American Crafts green burlap and cut using the Tim Holtz Heartfelt Die.

I also made rosettes using the Tim Holtz Rosette dies, and the photo mat on top is the Time Holtz Prostage Stamp die and lg. rectangle mover and shaper die. The little clovers are the Tim Holtz clover punch

I made several kits that were on sale at my local LSS. and I actually made the rosettes for the kits.  This was a big hit with those who bought the kits.

I was also pegged to design the Make n Take for my LSS's March crop.  At first I thought I was going to use the Charmed collection by Authentique, but didn't have any when designing to I just used scraps to see how the design would work.  This was the scrap paper planning version.

 I liked it! I used the Tim Holts ticket die, shield die, pinked medallion die, clover punch, and lucky word die. I felt like this was going to work well, but once I got the Authentique paper with the little bingo cards I knew I needed to change it.

 There were two bingo card types. some with just words and some with words and people. I gave croppers a choice between the two. If it had a person on the card they only got one medallion and word, otherwise they got two.  Everyone took a make n take and exras were put on sale for a steal in the LSS.

 To maje this ticket I used the Sizzix banner die by Lori Whitlock and the lace die by Tim Holtz, and well as his lover punch and pinked medallion punch. The hastag stamps are Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous.

 I framed mine for people to be able to take a photo to refer to when assembling their make n take.

This little hanging cutie was just a sample I used when I did the February make n take with the hearts spilling out of the envelope. It is hanging as a sample in the St. Patrick's section of my LSS. I used the Tim Holtz postage Stamp die, heart punch and clover punch along with the Sizzix Eileen Hull envelope and gift tag. The paper is some old green corrugated paper, Graphic 45 March paper and a piece of Echo park paper as well as some other scraps from my stash.

I had grand plans to make other things with my Authentique paper collection pack, but alas, time got the better of me and this was all I got done.  I'm not worried though. Now I have a package of stunnin paper for next year.