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Friday, March 30, 2012

GRS...The Weekly Recipe

Happy Friday ~ today it's my turn to host the Weekly Recipe sketch challenge on the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Blog.  It's a pretty simple sketch, but you can fancy it up pretty easily!




I used the new Appetizer set called Spring Botanical for this sketch & I love how it turned out.  I stamped a tone-on-tone background using a script text image from the Sealed with a Kiss stamp set & then stamped the flower over the top.  There is already so much shading on the image, that it makes coloring a breeze!   The gorgeous pattern paper is from My Minds Eye (Miss Caroline Collection).

ETA: These stamps are now available online at i{heart}papers!



Play along and then leave your photo and/or link on the GRS Facebook page so we can ohhhhhh and awwwww over your lovely creation!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

THE ALASKA PROJECT ...pages and pockets

Oh happy day ~ it's time to share more pages from my Alaska Project.   I'm totally re-energized about scrapbooking again ~ so I hope you're enjoying my pages.  As you can tell, I've scaled back from doing design team work {on purpose} & doing more project "just because".   I wanted to get back to the things that really bring me joy in crafting & scrapbooking is one of those things.

So on with my pages today... first up is a 12x12 layout I made using a photo my son collected while we were in the open market in Anchorage.  Matt and Tim watch this show every now and then, so Matt was super excited when he had the chance to meet one of the cast members and have a photo taken with them.  Then they gave him this 8x10 promo photo ~ so we added it to our memorabilia file to include in the album.  As I've done with all my pages, I used the Unity Stamps map background image and stamped it tone-on-tone in the background.  Then I used alphabet & border stickers from Simple Stories Destination kit for the embellishments.




Next up are some pages where I've included several different mini pockets within my layouts.  They contain maps & brochures that we collected along our trip.   These page protectors from We-R-Memory Keepers come in different size layouts & make fast-scraping a snap! 

While we were in the little town of Talkeetna, we visited the Sun Dog Kennels & went for a ride on the summer dog sleds.  Iditarod musher, Gerald Sousa owns the kennel and was our guide for the day.  After our ride, he have a great talk about the race and showed us the route on a giant map he had painted on the floor of the cabin.  It was awesome!  FYI ~ the 2012 Iditarod just finished and we tracked Gerald's progress & he came in 20th out of the 53 mushers who finished. 

The page protector layout that I used for this page has a 12x6 pocket along the right side.  I made the photo on the bottom a pocket so I could include the brochure we collected.



Here's the pocket for the brochure.  I wanted to make it a pocket because there was information on both sides of the brochure.



Also in Talkeetna, we stayed at this GORGEOUS lodge that had wonderful walking trails and beautiful views of Mt. McKinley {on a clear day}. For this page, I made a pocket that included a map of the grounds.  I also used a few pre-made journaling/title card that came in the Simple Stories kit.



The pocket for this page was just made from a scrap of pattern paper that I attached to one of the pre-made photo mats. I used tone-on-tone stamping and some additional coordinating stamps to finish off the pocket.



My final page for today is from out visit to the Mt. Alyeska Ski Resort.  This resort also had wonderful hiking trails and a tram to the top of the mountain.  I wanted to include the map in our album, so I used one of the pre-made journaling cards and photo mats to make the pocket.    On this page, I also included some of the photo transparencies and some stickers on some of the other photos on this page to tie it all together.



I journaled on the pocket with alphabet letters from Hero Arts ~ one of my MUST HAVE tools for scrapbooking {I think I use them on just about every page I make}.



Hope you enjoyed this installment of my Alaska Project.  You can see all of my other posts HERE.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

{Fabulous}

Time for Tuesday... how's it going peeps?  I should have been working harder yesterday to get things off my To Do list; however, I took some new pictures of my sweet girl on Sunday sooooooooooooooo....I HAD to scrapbook!  Megan bought a new outfit & it's ADORABLE ~ so it was photo time! 

For the supplies I used, I have a new scrapbook kit from Simple Stories called Fabulous & it is just that FAB*U*LOUS!  I love it! All of the pattern paper and stickers are from that kit.  Then I also used some fun stamps I've had for a while from Unity Stamp Company called Moments in Bloom & Naturally You.   I really enjoyed making this page of my gorgeous girl.



Here are a few close ups of the page.  In this photo, you can really see the tone-on-tone stamping and all the great stickers that come with this kit.



Check out Meg's new cowboy boots ~ cool huh?


Finished off the page with some perfect touches ~ tidbits of stamped journaling and word stickers.



Fun huh?  Have a great Tuesday!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Gourmet Rubber Stamps ... April Diners Club Preview!

Hello Hello...Happy Monday!  Today Gourmet Rubber Stamps is previewing the newest Diners Club set for April called Garden Tea Time.  Here is the project I made using the pretty text frame and flower from the set.



I love this round frame in the set and knew I wanted to stamp the flower inside but knew the flower was bigger than the frame.  Soooooo...here's how I did it in just a few Easy-Peasy steps.

First, I stamped the frame in brown ink on kraft cardstock and then I used a circle Nestability die to cut it out.  Then I found the correct size of Nestibility for the inside circle and cut that out on a sheet of plain old printer paper (a Post-it note would work too).  You want to make sure the paper is thin ~ cardstock won't work for this.



Next, I placed the piece of plan paper over the pre-stamped image.


Using Champagne Dazzle Versamark ink (watermark ink with shimmer), I stamped the flower image twice inside the circle.  I went off the edge on both sides.


Finally, I used clear embossing powder & a heat gun to make the image pop just a bit.


It's as easy as that!  Now it's time to see what all the other lovely ladies on the Design Team came up with using this great new set!  So go take a peek at the full set on the GRS Blog and then hop around to see the samples ~ don't forget to leave a little love along the way!

Have a great Monday!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

just because...revisited

just too good so i had to share...


{found on facebook - photo by Karen Toby}

Friday, March 23, 2012

OCL Challenge #110...Spring Things!

As of Wednesday, Spring has officially SPRUNG & one look outside here in northern Indiana and you would agree!  Well that is the theme today for the weekly OCL Challenge! 



I have a few spring related projects to share with you today that I did as a class last month at my local scrapbook/stamping store ...

The first project uses the set Sunshine Cheer & we used Sugar Sparkly Fluff on the clouds.



My second card uses the Shamrock Blessings stamp set along with Appletini Green Sparkly Fluff.



My last card today uses the Spring Sketches stamp set along with Rockstar Red Sparkly Fluff.


Let's see what wonderful spring things you come up with ~ don't forget to add your link to the OCL Blog for a chance to win a gift certificate to the OCL Website.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

THE ALASKA PROJECT ... Scrapbooking Memorabilia

Welcome to Wednesday...  It's been several weeks since I've shared any pages from my Alaska Project, so I thought I'd sneak in a few pages today.  As I stated early on, I love collecting maps, brochures, postcards and other memorabilia on our trips.  It's a great way to learn facts about the places we've gone and it stirs up memories after we've arrived home and are looking through our travel albums.  I've shared some of the pocket pages I've done, but this time I have some full sized layouts to share.

The first layout I have features some pretty cool facts about the great State of Alaska.  When we were reading over this sheet, I immediately thought it would be fun to include in our album so I tucked it away in my travel folder that I take on trips.  When I pulled it out to scrapbook, it was printed 2-sided on blue paper and wouldn't match the theme of my album at all.  So.... I scanned both sides of the paper, resized the images, pulled the scans into a Photoshop document and then printed it on a piece of cream cardstock that would match my album.  I also stamped the map background (from Unity Stamps) around the edges to tie it into the rest of the page & then added stickers from the Simple Stories Destination kit.  I love how it turned out.




My next page included our visit to the The Alaska Zoo.  I forgot to keep a map while we were at the zoo, so when I was doing this page, I decided to go to the zoo website and find one.  They had this nice colored map online.  It wasn't really a great color with the orange background, so I tamed that down a bit in Photoshop ~ I would have liked to change the color altogether, but that would have been pretty time consuming, so I decided against it.  Once the image was sized to proper measurements I wanted, I printed it off on cream cardstock. 

For the rest of the page, I stamped the background with the map stamp from Unity Stamps with the same kraft tone ink on the kraft paper and then I stamped some travel words tone on tone as well.  I added some great animal photos we took that day, typed up a journaling box to personalize the trip & stamped the word border around the map in black using some travel stamps from the Technique Tuesday travel set by Ali Edwards.



My last page for today shows the documents from our tour itinerary along with photos of our tour guide and driver for the tour.  This document was given to us the first day of our tour in a booklet, so I just trimmed it up and matted the pages on cardstock to add to the page.  If you collect pages that are too larger, it's rather easy to scan them in and then print them smaller like I did on my first page today. 

As for the rest of this layout, I once again used my Unity Stamps map background over the entire page tone on tone ~ it's just a great way to add texture without bulk and if you carry that throughout your album, it will tie everything together perfectly.  All of the stickers, pattern paper and journaling cards are from the Simple Stories Destination kit ~ which as you might be able to tell, I LOVE!!!   The other small alphabet stamps I used on all of my pages are from Hero Arts ~ these are a MUST HAVE for me on my scrapbook pages.




I haven't had much time to do many pages over the last few weeks, so I'm looking forward to getting back into my books this week.   I think what I love about this project is not only is it scrapbooking (which I adore), but it's also just for me because I want to do it.   Well I hope you enjoyed my pages today & learned a few ideas for documenting memorabilia in your albums ~ I'd love to hear what you think so far...

See you soon!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Spring Fever...

Is it Spring yet?  I don't know about where you are, but here in Northern Indiana, it sure feels like it.  We've had 7 days in a row of record breaking temps & still another few days coming up.  It's CRAZY, but oh so nice!

So I have a fun spring card for you today using the Gourmet Rubber Stamps set called Prescription for Spring.  I just love the kite image in that set!  And the great sentiment is from the Vintage Birthday set.



Well it's gonna hit 80ยบ today, so I know I'll be outside enjoying the warm weather ~ I hope you can too!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Gourmet Rubber Stamps ...New Product!

Good Morning Peeps!  Whew...it's Monday again.  What a wonderfully unseaonably warm weekend it was!  We even had a BBQ/Picnic with some friends over the weekend.  In March in Northern Indiana, that isn't a normal thing.

Today I have a fun project to show you from a brand new product line from Gourmet Rubber Stamps called ... Appetizers!   These new Appetizer sets are red rubber with 4 images and they run $8.99.  There are four great sets out today that you'll just love ~ the themes are Spring, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Birthday!  My card today uses the Spring set called Spring Botanicals.  I just love the frame in this set with the script inside ~ I know I'll find lots of uses for that!  I paired it up with this pretty new paper from My Mind's Eye & the Follow Your Heart collection.



I know you'll want to check out what the other girls have made today ~ take a peek and don't forget to leave a little love along the way!

Friday, March 16, 2012

OCL Challenge #109 & final May Arts Project...

Whew...what a week of blogging!  I've been pulling double & triple duty all week and I have to say TGIF!!!  Since today is Friday, that means it's time for the weekly OCL Challenge ~ this week it's all about FLOWERS!



So my post today uses the gorgeous OCL set called Pretty Petals & I paired it up with two very pretty ribbons from May Arts {Faux Ruffle NV46 & the thin green 387-18-46}



Now for some blog candy! May Arts sent us extra ribbon to share with some of you! WOOHOOO! So we’ll have 5 Prize Packages to give away this week.  You have lots of ways to enter EVERY SINGLE DAY this week + one BONUS entry!

Daily leave 1 comment on each…
1. the OCL Blog (please leave contact info),
2. each designer’s blog playing along that day, and
3. our Facebook page.

BONUS ENTRY: If you “LIKE” us on Facebook, you’ll get a bonus entry (as long as you tell us you did it) ~ if you’ve already “liked” us, let us know that too!

We will pick 5 random comments this weekend and our winners will be announced next Tuesday, March 20th here on the OCL Blog.

SALE ENDS TODAY AT OCL!!!!! That's right!!! You can save 20% off on anything in the store this week at OCL for orders over $20 (before shipping/tax). You must use the coupon code SPRING20 to get the discount.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Gourmet Rubber Stamps DT Challenge...All About Birds!

I'm back again today for post #2!  If you are looking for my other post today, keep scrolling down. 

Well this time I'm here to share a fun Design Team challenge from the Gourmet Rubber Stamps team.    Each month we have a new challenge and today it's all about BIRDS!  As I began looking through my GRS stamps for ideas, I ran across TONS of options ~ it was very hard to pick just one!  But, I decided on this sweet little tweety bird in the cage called Birdie on a Swing.   I also added some Fanciful Flourishes and a sentiment from the Perfect Phrases set.




I know you'll want to check out what the other girls have made today ~ take a peek and don't forget to leave a little love along the way!

OCL/May Arts - Day #4

Welcome to Thursday & our 4th day with OCL & May Arts!   I'm excited to share another May Arts project with you today.  You'll want to check the OCL Blog each day for the rest of this week for everyone who is playing along.   Now don’t forget to leave some love everywhere each and every day this week because there will be FIVE prize packages of blog candy this week!

For my project today, I used the sewing machine & sentiment from the Years Gone By stamp set along with the May Arts HX09 loop trim.




Thanks so much to May Arts for sending our designers such FANTASTIC ribbons and trims to play with this week!

Now for some blog candy! May Arts sent us lots of YUMMY ribbon to share with all of you! WOOHOOO! So we’ll have 5 Prize Packages to give away this week.  You have lots of ways to enter EVERY SINGLE DAY this week + one BONUS entry!

Daily leave 1 comment on each…
1. the OCL Blog (please leave contact info),
2. each designer’s blog playing along that day, and
3. our Facebook page.

BONUS ENTRY: If you “LIKE” us on Facebook, you’ll get a bonus entry (as long as you tell us you did it) ~ if you’ve already “liked” us, let us know that too!

We will pick 5 random comments this weekend and our winners will be announced next Tuesday, March 20th here on the OCL Blog.


SALE TIME AT OCL!!!!! That's right!!! You can save 20% off on anything in the store this week at OCL for orders over $20 (before shipping/tax). You must use the coupon code SPRING20 to get the discount.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

It's Day #3 with OCL & May Arts!

Welcome to our third day with OCL & May Arts!   I'm excited to share another May Arts project with you today.  You'll want to check the OCL Blog each day for the rest of this week for everyone who is playing along.   Now don’t forget to leave some love everywhere each and every day this week because there will be FIVE prize packages of blog candy this week!

For my project today, I used several of OCL's Vintage sets for my tags.  The first two tags on the left use the Vintage Traveler stamp set & a sentiment from You Make Me Happy. In addition, I used several beautiful trims from May Arts {loop trim HX09, lace trim 361-58-10, and Velvet 389-18-10}


For the third tag, I used the Years Gone By stamp set along with the May Arts Velvet & 389-18-10 & Silk ribbon SK35The last tag uses the stamp set Under Lock and Key along with May Arts pretty ribbon, trim and twine (EA16, HX09, 360-38-32, SM10).





Thanks so much to Bethney and May Arts for sending our designers such FANTASTIC ribbons and trims to play with this week!

Now for some blog candy! May Arts sent us lots of YUMMY ribbon to share with all of you! WOOHOOO! So we’ll have 5 Prize Packages to give away this week.  You have lots of ways to enter EVERY SINGLE DAY this week + one BONUS entry!

Daily leave 1 comment on each…
1. the OCL Blog (please leave contact info),
2. each designer’s blog playing along that day, and
3. our Facebook page.

BONUS ENTRY: If you “LIKE” us on Facebook, you’ll get a bonus entry (as long as you tell us you did it) ~ if you’ve already “liked” us, let us know that too!

We will pick 5 random comments this weekend and our winners will be announced next Tuesday, March 20th here on the OCL Blog.


SALE TIME AT OCL!!!!! That's right!!! You can save 20% off on anything in the store this week at OCL for orders over $20 (before shipping/tax). You must use the coupon code SPRING20 to get the discount.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

OCL/May Arts - Day #2


Welcome to another great day with OCL & May Arts!   I'm excited to share another May Arts project with you today.  You'll want to check the OCL Blog each day for the rest of this week for everyone who is playing along.   Now don’t forget to leave some love everywhere each and every day this week because there will be FIVE prize packages of blog candy this week!

For my project today, I used the Vintage Swirls stamp set & a sentiment from Nature's Notes along with two gorgeous ribbons from May Arts {372-1-17 Velvet & 393-3-17 Rose}. FYI ~ the flower is the actually sewn on the ribbon and I just had to cut it off the sheer ribbon it was attached to ~ easy peasy!




Thanks so much to Bethney and May Arts for sending our designers such FANTASTIC ribbons and trims to play with this week!

Now for some blog candy! May Arts sent us lots of YUMMY ribbon to share with all of you! WOOHOOO! So we’ll have 5 Prize Packages to give away this week.  You have lots of ways to enter EVERY SINGLE DAY this week + one BONUS entry!

Daily leave 1 comment on each…
1. the OCL Blog (please leave contact info),
2. each designer’s blog playing along that day, and
3. our Facebook page.

BONUS ENTRY: If you “LIKE” us on Facebook, you’ll get a bonus entry (as long as you tell us you did it) ~ if you’ve already “liked” us, let us know that too!

We will pick 5 random comments this weekend and our winners will be announced next Tuesday, March 20th here on the OCL Blog.

ETA:

SALE TIME AT OCL!!!!! That's right!!! You can save 20% off on anything in the store this week at OCL for orders over $20 (before shipping/tax). This sale does not include wholesale orders or out of stock items. You must use the coupon code SPRING20 to get the discount. Sorry, no refunds if the discount code is not used.

Monday, March 12, 2012

OCL shows off May Arts goodies...

Welcome to another wonderful Monday!  This week is going to be especially fun because....  I'm so excited that May Arts shared some wonderful ribbon with the OCL designers and we have some great projects.  You'll want to check the OCL Blog each day for the rest of this week for everyone who is playing along.   Now don’t forget to leave some love everywhere each and every day this week because there will be FIVE prize packages of blog candy this week!

For my project today, I used Hippity Hoppity & some Cotton Candy Pink Sparkly Fluff from Our Craft Lounge along with this great ribbon from May Arts (Grosgrain/Ivory Stripes RG17).


Thanks so much to May Arts for sending our designers such FANTASTIC ribbons and trims to play with this week!

Now for some blog candy! May Arts sent us lots of YUMMY ribbon to share with all of you! WOOHOOO! So we’ll have 5 Prize Packages to give away this week.  You have lots of ways to enter EVERY SINGLE DAY this week + one BONUS entry!

Daily leave 1 comment on each…
1. the OCL Blog (please leave contact info),
2. each designer’s blog playing along that day, and
3. our Facebook page.

BONUS ENTRY: If you “LIKE” OCL on Facebook, you’ll get a bonus entry (as long as you tell us you did it) ~ if you've already "liked" us, let us know that too!

We will pick 5 random comments this weekend and our winners will be announced next Tuesday, March 20th here on the OCL Blog.

Friday, March 9, 2012

OCL Challenge #108...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEBBIE!

Happy TGIF, Happy Challenge Day and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DEBBIE CORBARI!!!!  Debbie is one of the illustrators for Our Craft Lounge and today is her 40th birthday.  So the OCL DT is wishing Debbie with a special Birthday challenge & we are all using sets that she illustrated this week ~ so fun!



So my card uses two of Debbie's sets ~ first I used Big Birthday Wishes (I just love all the sentiments you can build in this set).  Then I added one of the flower images from the Friendly Flowers set.



I hope you'll join us on our challenge this week as we celebrate Debbie's special day on the OCL Blog.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

GRS is going Moxie Fab today!

Super excited today because Cath Edvalson from Paper Crafts Magazine & Moxie Fab World is featuring Gourmet Rubber Stamps on her blog today! She is giving her "stamp of approval" to some great GRS stamp sets!

Au Naturale
In The Parlor
Party Animals
Sealed With a Kiss
Vintage Birthday

Sooooooooooo.... the design team decided to have a fun little blog hop to share some samples for these fun sets!  The first card I wanted to share with you today is from the Vintage Birthday set.  I paired it with some pretty pattern paper by My Mind's Eye.



Next up I have a few samples from the past to share using some of the other featured sets.  First, are a few samples using In the Parlor:




Next is a sample for Sealed with a Kiss



And finally, an oldie but goodie from Party Animal ~


Ready to hop around and fine more samples?    Take a peek on the GRS Blog and then see what the lovely ladies on the team have to share today.
See you tomorrow!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

GRS ...Product Spotlight

Hello Hello crafty friends!  Today it's my turn to host the DT spotlight on the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Blog.  When I was thinking of possible topics for my post, I decided to show off some of the fun new background stamps called Coveralls.  They are GINORMOUS (5 3/4" square) and super easy to use.  The packaging suggests using a 2 lt bottle of pop and rolling it.  However, we don't buy those, so I used the cutting plate from my Sizzix machine (or a Cricut plate ~ whatever you have). 

My first sample today uses the Circles Coverall.  I simply stamped the image on a few sheets of colored cardstock using VersaMark ink, added some clear embossing powder and then I heat embossed the panels.  Its a super easy way to add a POP of color.  The sentiment I used is from the Sketched Sentiments set.




My next card uses the Chicken Wire Coveralls along with the cute little chick from the new Diners Club set called Prescription for Spring.  The sentiment is from the set called Everyday Sayings


You'll find more samples using the new Coveralls backgrounds in the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Gallery ~ take a peek!

Monday, March 5, 2012

THE ALASKA PROJECT ...pocket pages

GOOD MORNING!  Monday is back and so am I with a few more pages from my Alaska Project.  This time I wanted to show you some fun pocket pages I came up with for the brochures and memorabilia I collected on my trip.

My first pocket page is a side pocket that I made to keep the railroad newspaper from the Wilderness Express on the Alaskan Railroad.  Once again, I used the Simple Stories pattern paper and stickers along with stamps from Unity & Technique Tuesday.  This was such a fun rail trip with an amazing restaurant on board.  I decided to do a side pocket just to switch things up a bit.  Also below, are some close up photos of my page which shows more detail.









My next pocket page holds a map and some other fun sheets with facts and tidbits of info about the great State of Alaska.   By doing pockets for these types of keepsakes, we can easily pull them out and review them again and again.





I'll have some smaller memorabilia pockets that I've made & will share them soon in another post.  I hope you're enjoying this project as much as I am.

See ya soon!