A Little Circa 1934

I think I fell in love with this Cosmo Cricket 1934 paper the minute I saw it last October. What a beautiful line! I was really quite intimidated by it and hope I have done it justice.

Practically Perfect
A little layout featuring Bert, Mary and the penguins around Disneyland Resort.
It's always a jolly holiday when Mary is around!

Of course, I turned to my friend Susan Stringfellow's sketch blog, Sketch Savvy, for inspiration, and found two sketches that I thought would be perfect. For this first layout I used Sketch #52 and turned it into a two-pager. Please click on the sketch to go to her blog and see all of the amazing sketchwork she has there.



The adorable scalloped, oval swirly frame was a FREE download from SVG Cuts. Can you believe it was FREE? And I think it was perfect for this layout. Well, practically anyway.


The small label is a FREE SVG Cut from my friend Susan. You can download it by clicking on the link. The black crystal swirls and roses are two Prima Say It In Swirls flourishes.

Mickey's 'Not So' Fun Wheel
This layout is about a "girls day" at Disneyland Resort with my friend.
She left her kids with her DH and we went down to DLR and did a bunch of
the attractions we had never done. Of course, most of them we vowed never
to do again, but we did try them at least once!

This second layout is also from Susan's sketch blog. I turned sketch #44 into a two-pager as well.


The bracket border along the bottom is a FREE SVG cut also from Susan. Please click the link and it will take you to her blog so you an download it if you would like.


While I was working on these pages, I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something really cool to put on them as an embellishment. It was that day that I noticed that Tammy Tutterow had posted a picture on her Facebook page that said she had made Tim Holtz rosettes out of crinoline, and dyed them with Distress Stains. I wondered if this could be the very thing this layout needed.

First I had to find out from Tammy what crinoline was and where to get it, then we were off to the races. Once I tried it, I LOVED it! What a fabulous idea! Tammy is full of great ideas, so if you haven't had a chance, click on the link to her website and check her out!


I didn't have Distress Stains, so I used some of my Distress Inks and a Mini Mister and it worked just as well. So well in fact, that I dyed the extra crinoline green and cut leaves from Tim's Tattered Flowers die. What fun! And what a perfect addition to the layouts!

Autumn at the Lake

Using one of Susan's sketches from Sketch Savvy, and the Nutmeg line of paper from Cosmo Cricket, I made this fun, colorful layout about our family Thanksgiving celebration at the cabin.


As you can see, this sketch was originally for Christmas, but I decided it would go perfectly with die cut leaves using Tim Holtz's Tattered Leaves die instead of the ornaments.


The circle was stitched with DMC floss in a warm orange. I just love the brown back ground with the light green and teal. It is such an unexpected fall color set, but it's perfect!


It was so fun to get to use a 2 page sketch for this! It made my job so easy. Thanks for the great sketch Susan, and for the wonderful fall color scheme Cosmo Cricket!

Dave Smith and Walt Disney Archives

On Saturday, Feb. 5th, I went to the Disney Studios in Burbank for a tour with my friend Kim. Part of the tour was a chance to peek into the Frank G. Wells Disney Archive Building. And guess who happened to be there, but Mr. Disney Archive himself, Dave Smith. What a fun day! We got to see some great stuff, but more on that later!

First, the sketch for this layout was from Sketch Savvy by my friend Susan Stringfellow. Please go to her blog to download a copy of this sketch and to see other examples.


The papers and trim used were Industrial Park from Scrap Within Reach. I cut the title with various fonts using my Cricut and SCAL software.

The pictures above are of me and Kim with a Disney Oscar, and Dave Smith, the original Disney archiver.


The journaling tag is just the chipboard that the ribbon came on. I added paper and tied ribbon through the top and voila!

Dave Smith kindly pulled a few things from the archives for us to see. Among them were an actual ticket from opening day of Disneyland, and the guide book from opening day.

Here is a portion of the Opening Day festivities at Disneyland!

Pluto's Corner - Disney Studios in Burbank

This layout was made using an SVG file for my Cricut and this sketch from Sketch Savvy by my friend Susan Stringfellow. Please visit her sketch blog to download the file and a copy of the sketch.


This was such a fun, unique sketch and I loved the shape of the patterned paper pieces, but I wanted it to be a two pager, so of course, I added page 2.

The papers are all Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety. What a bright, energetic paper line! I added the blue checkerboard paper from CC Material Girl Line and the stripe is from CC Cogsmo. I really felt that the layouts needed some blue and I had seen Susan add the Cosmo stripe on one of her layouts with this line, so I pulled a piece from my stash and she was so right, it was perfect!


The title is Minnie font and I used my Cricut with SCAL. The paw prints can be found on the Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge.


These pictures are of Pluto's Corner. It is a little intersection on the Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. My DH and I had gone to a movie screening at the theater on the lot, and we took a minute to take a picture at this famous corner. The sign post is an old prop from the studio tour portion at the beginning of The Reluctant Dragon movie made in 1941. The places on the sign do not really point to those departments. Later on, a Disney employee added the three dog prints in front of the fire hydrant and it was name Pluto Corner.


Here is a little clip of that studio tour portion of the movie, but it only shows a little bit of the outside of the buildings. This segment doesn't show the sign, but it's cute!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas 2010

That's right! It's that time again! Tim Holtz and his 12 Tags of Christmas start on December 1st and run though December 12th. Such a fun time of year. I love waiting up until 12:01 am to see the new tag for the day and then gathering up all of my supplies (I am shocked every year at how much TH stuff I have in my stash!) and I make a list of a few of the new things I want to add, and then I try and get to work.

Last year I waited and had a 12 Tags party, but we only got 4 tags mostly done and I only completed 5 more on my own, leaving me with three to still finish.

This year I just couldn't wait that long, and since I ended up with a last minute reprieve from baby sitting our nieces this weekend, I decided to jump in and get started!!

Tag #1
(if you click on this title, it will take it to Tim's blog so you can see his tag)

This one took about 3 1/2 hours to make...there are so many little details, but it was so worth it!

Tag #2
(click on the title to see Tim's tag)

I really liked this tag because it gave me a chance to try the custom stamp pad technique that allows you to stamp in several different colors (like the ticket on tag #1) Really a terrific technique! It looks so great! Check out Tim's blog for a photo tutorial on how to make your own custom stamp pad.

Tag #3
(click on the title to see Tim's tag)

Okay -- I forgot to put the moss on the bottom of the bird's feet, but I don't have any, and so I just took the pic without it. This tag had a couple of techniques. One was the Tissue Tape collage bird, colored with alcohol ink, and the other was the Tissue Tape flower. Tim made videos on his blog showing how to do each technique, so be sure to check it out!

Tag # 4
(click on the title to see Tim's Tag)

Tag #4 wasn't too terribly difficult, but I had a hard time getting the blue I wanted. I didn't like the bright blue on the facet on Tim's tag, so I ended up reinking it several times. I finally ended up using Slate (grey) and Stonewashed (blue) to get this somewhat darker greyish blue color. I'm 90% happy with it. The bling on the tag was a tiny bit tedious because I didn't have the bling on a roll, but I love the end result.

Tag #5
(click the title to see Tim's Tag)

I haven't done this tag yet. I skipped it, but will get it done.

Tag #6
(click the title to see Tim's Tag)

This tag Tim introduced a really cool technique that includes stamping on an embossing folder before you run the tag through it. I loved it! We also embossed the grunge board deer. This wasn't too terribly complicated, BUT we couldn't find the tiny green garland anywhere that he put around the deer's neck. Only one site that was selling it in 60 yard increments for $9.97. I thought that was a little excessive being that I only needed like 2 inches. So I messaged Mario and so must a lot of other people, because two days later he opened and etsy shop and sold kits with cool Christmas minis it, so my friend and I bought three! Woo hoo!

And this is a fun little tag I made using the techniques from Tag #5 and Tag #6. I used the stamping on an embossing folder technique, and the bling embellishing technique. I love it! I made several of this tag as it is the only one I will probably give away to people.

Tag #7
(click on the title to see Tim's Tag)

This one was really time consuming, but it is so beautiful in real life. You can see the sparkle of the rock candy stickles and the texture of the canvas poinsettia, So many steps that it took about 4 hours to make, but I made two because I figured that if I was going to go to all the work for one, I might as well do two since I didn't figure I would get it all out and do it again any time soon.

Tag #8
(click title to see Tim's Tag)

I haven't done this tag yet. I skipped it, but will get it done. To be honest, I don't like it. I like the technique, but don't like the tag, so I'm going to change it up and needed some time to figure out how I'm going to do that.

Tag #9
(click the title to see Tim's Tag)

This one was really fun and so full of vintage golden goodness that I skipped several days and went straight to this one! The baubles at the top are some old earrings I had. The rest of the stuff is from Tim's Ideaology line. Not too difficult and such a pretty result. Definitely one of my favorites.

Tag #10
(click the title to see Tim's Tag)

Again, I skipped ahead to try this technique before I go back and do #5 and #8. This is a thick tag. The snowman has two layers of grungeboard and then there is an embossed acetate tag covering the whole thing. Although time consuming, it really wasn't difficult and I love the dimension of the embossed plastic covering. I used snaps in the corners instead of washers and brads. I thought they were fun.

Tag #11
(click title to see Tim's Tag)

This is today's tag, so I haven't even started it yet. I do want to try making my own stamps though. Should be fun. I want to go through my dictionary now and see if I can find any cool Christmasy pictures to use as the background on my tag. Can't believe he found one with a sleigh!

Tag #12
(click on title to see Tim's Tag)

Tonight is the finale! Wonder what the last tag will bring? I am hoping it will be a tutorial on how to make the "Mold n Pour" molds and shapes. I've seen Mario making those for the classes and I want to make some too!!

Gift Tags - Inspired by Tim Holtz

My friend Kim is hosting a booth at a local fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs in our area. She is selling hand made gift tags and paper crafts in her booth. A few weeks ago, some of us who tried to do all 12 of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas LAST year, decided to get together and try to make as many gift tags as we could for Kim's booth.

I decided to make mine in sets of 5 and to try and do simpler versions of some tags I have seen Tim do, or just using his stamps and other Ranger supplies.



These Merry Christmas tags used a very old Walnut Ink from Tsunieko as the base. The edges are dry embossed with a Quickutz Goosebump die, then the edges and embossing, and tree were stamped with Forest Moss Distress Ink. The tree was clear embossed, then I went over the branches with an embossing pen and added white embossing powder. The Merry Christmas was stamped in Barn Door Distress Ink and clear embossed.

This was inspired by a tag I saw on Tim's blog that he created at the Carson Stamp show this weekend. I wanted to leave room for someone to write their To and From message. The background writing stamp was stamped in Pumice Distress Ink, Postcard and the holly were stamped in Forest Moss. The holly was then covered with Peeled Paint Distress Stickles and holly berries are Fired Brick Distress Stickles. The edges are colored with Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo.


This Tag is also one that was inspired by a tag Tim made at the Carson Show this weekend.
The base of the tag is colored with Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans. The Flourish is stamped with Weathered Wood. The Seasons Greetings was stamped with Faded Jeans and then clear embossed. The snowflakes were stamped with clear embossing gel and then I used white embossing powder. To finish it off, I spritzed it liberally with Pearl perfect pearls mist.


This tag is one of my favorites and was a lot of work! I didn't really follow any of Tim's tags for this one, just kind of used inspiration for several of his past tags.


First I stamped the back music notes with Pumice Stone Distress Ink, then colored the entire tag with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges. I stamped the Christmas Carols in Vintage Photo and then embossed with Copper Embossing Powder. Cut it out and then inked it with Bundled Sage Distress Ink and a little Forest Moss Distress Ink. The Prima leaves and flowers were colored using Color Wash. The leaves were colored with Pesto and the flowers with Cranberry. After they were adhered, I went over each flower and leaf with Rock Candy Distress Stickles.


I stamped this tag with a large background stamp (not Tims :-0 ) in Vintage Photo, then edged it lightly with the same color. Stamped the tree with Forest Moss and clear embossed it. I stamped the Merry Christmas in Fired Brick and clear embossed, then colored the background with Forest Moss.


This background is made using Faded Jeans and Broken China. Then I stamped the snowflakes using Faded Jeans, but spritzed the stamp with water first so the ink would bleed. The snowman was stamped with clear embossing gel and then white embossing powder. The title is stamped with Faded Jeans and clear embossing powder.


This was made by putting Scatter Straw, Fired Brick and Pine Needles ink on the Nonstick Craft Mat, then spritzing the mat with water and laying the tag in it to get the watercolor background. The whimsical Dr. Seuss type stamps are from Inque Boutique and were designed by my friend Susan Stringfellow. (Sorry Susan!! I totally screwed up and stamped the tear drop ones upside down so I tried to make the best of it.) I added a little bling with one of the crystal pens.


What fun it was to create some pretty tags and actually put some of my stash to good use!

ADDITION:
After I made these tags, I decided to make a set of small gift tags for each of my colleagues in the department where I work. So here are the pictures of those gift tags.

The funny thing about this is that I made each one with a particular person in mind, so I bundled them into little pockets I had made out of green velvet ribbon, but when I got to work, they each selected a packet and then all decided to swap so that they had at least one of each tag. I just hope that they used them on packages to special friends and family.

Daily Window Designer Challenge

My friend and constant source of paper crafting inspiration, Susan Stringfellow, posted this contest Daily Window Designer Challenge on her blog. I thought it would be a really fun thing to try and come up with something and try to enter.

This is my first entry. I say first because I want to try a couple of different backgrounds if I get the chance. As you can see, there is room for someone to put a picture, their name or even a quote on this and then slip it into the window pocket of one of the bags.


I used some older MME scraps and some velvet ribbon from Cosmo Cricket.


This is the second background I made using some cream burlap and some Scrap Within Reach paper.

I really love the big bag with the window. She says it is the perfect size for taking to a crop. I'd love to win, or at least have one of my friends win, so you have until the end of the month to turn something in. Give it a try!