Music

I have been reading on several boards that some people don't like blogs with music and, rather than search for the music gadget to shut it off, will simply leave. I like music, pretty much all of it, and really don't want to eliminate it. So I have moved it to the top of my blog so that, if you don't want to listen, you can easily turn it off, and then browse through my blog. I really want to share my creations with you.

More Flutterbys

I completed another double LO of the pics from the Westminster Butterfly Pavillion. These pages include some of the best pictures I took there, including an incredible close-up of a butterfly which shows its probiscus very clearly and another wonderful close up of a butterfly that landed on DD Christi's hand. The one holding her camera (!) - which is a better one than mine, but she couldn't get her own picture! I think that I have just one more double layout to complete on this visit to a very popular and well-worth-it tourist stop. Next time we visit, I am going to take these pages with and get some help in identifying the specific butterflies. The 3-D butterflies are made with the Cuddlebugs die "Butterflies" with a bottom layer of black cardstock and a top layer from the CTMH paper pack "Expedition."

A Cheap Investment

I decided I had better get one of my CTMH layout template books out and see about getting some scrapping done. Last summer, DD Christi, Kyle, Courtney and I visited my sister in Denver. While we were there, we visited the Butterfly Pavillion in Westminster and I had LOTS of great shots of these gorgeous creatures. I wanted to find a LO that used a lot of photos and found "Sampler - Flower" in the Reflections book (page 122). Flowers go well with butterflies so I decided to use this template. I then used my Cricut to cut out a big flower to mount the matted photos. Unfortunately there is not a companion page to this layout, and with all the photos I placed on this page, no place for any title, so I had to figure out a right hand page. I think I did a decent job. I was able to cut out the butterflies from several photos and used them for accents. For all but one, I was able to see the antenna and cut them out with the butterfly. The antennae for the big black, white, and blue butterfly just disappeared into the background of the photo, so I needed something to add for antennae. In the middle of the night, there is just not a lot of opportunity to scrounge for something black and skinny but I did see the skinny little antenna for a cheap radio I keep on my scrap desk. (I don't know why I keep it there, the reception is crummy, the CD player doesn't work very well, and the clock is an hour and a half off and I can't be bothered long enough to reset it!) Well it now has 2 1/2 inches less of antenna - it went for a good cause!! I pop-dotted the butterfly cut-outs and center photo of the flower. Incidentally, I was the only one of us that day that saw that giant black and green butterfly and I had to follow it halfway across the room to get a picture!

The other day, DD Christi and I were walking around in Target. I needed some envelopes to mail my swaps out. But Target is a rather dangerous place for my credit card. As we walked through the electronic department, a small tabletop tripod caught my eye. I have been disappointed in my photography skills, especially in posting pics here. So I let this tripod jump into my shopping cart. This evening I used it, a large piece of foam core, and the wooden easel my DH made many, many years ago for our children to display their Science Fair project boards on to mount these pages in preparation for photographing them. I am very pleased with how much that inexpensive little tripod helped.

Just in case...

you thought that all I was going to use this blog for was CTMH advertising, here are a few of the other things I've been working on lately. These items are for swaps on the Cricut board. The first is for a Veterans' Day tag swap. I had been looking for a reason to use my Soldier stamp. I am so proud of my son who was serving in the Army in Iraq when he was critically wounded. I bought this Paper Inspirations stamp quite a while ago with him in mind. The picture on the info side of my blog is of his new baby girl who is now just a month and a half old. (I need to post a newer picture, she is a beautiful baby - of course, I am not biased at all!) The ATC (Artist Trading Card) in the middle is for a color challenge swap. We had to use at least 3 shades of our chosen color and no other colors. I chose black, two shades of gray, and a black and gray patterned paper. And when I think of gray, I think elephant! That is one of the Life's a Jungle stamps from (guess who?) - CTMH. The third one is for the tag swap again, this time the theme is Fall. Designing this was more difficult for me, but once I got started, it went together pretty quickly. The toughest part was cutting out the leaves. But I used the magnifier of my Dazor lamp (I mostly use it for my counted cross-stitching) and an episode of CSI and it was done. The leaf stamp and the word FALL are stamps from Clear Stamps that I think I got from Archiver's.

Workshops to Go

These layouts are from the Tinkerin' Workshop on the Go. I was curious as to how these workshops worked and since DGS was in a robotics club this spring sememster, I KNEW that this was a set of papers and stamps that I would be buying anyway. I was so surpised to see how nicely these layouts went together. I think that if I could only get customers to do a WOTG once, they will come back time after time. I know that I can't wait to do it again.
I didn't have the green ink to start with so I had to stop and wait for the MIB (man in brown = the UPS driver.) I was so impatient that I did start to put things together so random stamping the background paper was a bit tricky, but I got it done.
The second challenge with this LO was that DD took the pictures - of photos in the display window at the school - and they were pretty badly distorted. I had to finally break down and load PhotoShop Elements onto my computer. And then had to figure out how to undistort them. PhotoShop Elements is a bit more complex than Solitaire (!) so it took me a while. The photos are still not the best quality, but I still like these pages. Speedy was the name of the robot Kyle worked on. Kyle actually won one of the battles at the Robotics Competetion which included teams from as far away as Canada.














The second set of double LO's is from DGD's Kindergarten graduation. This little scamp is such a character when you point a camera at her.
She kept us informed of just when she would become a First Grader for weeks before the event. You wouldn't think that Tinkerin' would work well for a girl layout but the 'gears' seem to morph into sun shapes and make this paper work. The Stickease arrow 'You shine' seems to help with this illusion. Mom (DD Christi) gets the actual certificate of graduation and the cap and tassel (with the 2009 charm) but I got the best
picture and got the LO done first! I am thinking I will get the small Chocolate alphabet set for stamping the title.

This is the third double LO in the workshop. I don't have pictures for this one yet, so some of the Stickease aren't permanently adhered yet. I haven't decided what pictures fit the 'together' theme, I am not sure I have anything yet - will have to sift through my piles. The photos go in a line across the first page with the final photo under the arrow point on the second page. Two more photos go on the blue/green block. Seven photos in all plus lots of space for journaling.




In addition to the 6 pages in the workshop, I have been able to, with the addition of a couple of sheets of Daisy White cardstock, make 8 (yes, 8) cards, that I will post later. There are still six full sheets of B&T left, four of which will work as bases for two more double LO's, and several big leftover pieces of B&T and lots of scraps. I really cannot believe how great a bargain a Level 2 paper pack, a package of My Stickease, a few other embel- lishments (in this case, the badge buttons, some brads, and some buttons - I used the red raffia instead), and a workshop guide can be!

Memorial Day - Remembering our Past

Here I am, back from the land of the non-functioning after 2 nights of work. I only got a few hours of sleep on Sunday because DGD's Courtney's dance recital was in the afternoon. So last night I was not fit for much of anything except for a bit of TV. But it was so worth it, Miss Courtney was so cute and did well at remembering her dance routines. But I wanted to show you some of the LO's I have done. CTMH makes it so SIMPLE. That is their motto - Faster, Simpler, Easier.

This is the first LO I made using the CTMH Emporium Level 1 collection. A Level 1 set includes 4 pre-printed cardstock base pages, 2 sheets of double sided patterned paper (called B&T), 2 sheets of cardstock, and 2 sheets of coordinated cardstock stickers (one alphabet and one decorative). In this double LO, the swirly things, the photo corners, the smaller letters, and the little dots are stickers. The big letters (W & Z) are stamped and cut out. The little dog on the first page was a hand-me-down from DD several years ago and all the others on the second page came with her when she and the DGK's came home while she goes to Vet Tech school. It is quite the menagerie around here.

This is the other 2 pre-printed base pages from the Emporium Level 1. The green border on the top of the second page is from the sticker sheet. The B's are stamped and cut out and the Journaling tags are cut from the Cricut. These pages document the journey that Courtney's Bitty Baby doll had to take after one of DD's dogs (that we sent to live with her ex) chewed off her leg. [Oh, just a quick thought, I will get to buy another Bitty Baby in a few years for my new DGD Salem. I hope that DS's dogs are better trained!]

These pages are the last of the Level 1's that are completed. This is from the Simple Pleasures set. I didn't use any of the stickers on these pages. The lettering and other figures were cut on my Cricut. These are photos from DGS Kyle's first year at YMCA Horse Camp. I took all but the little one on the second page myself with my Olympus Stylus 600. The little one was the professional photo. I like mine better. We sent both DD and DS to Horse camp and it was apparently meaningful enough to DD that she wanted to send her son, too. The little photos in the bottom corner of the first page are of DD Christi when she was at camp. They have been copied from the original Poloroid pics. What a difference a camera (and about 20 years of technology) can make.

I will post more layouts soon. Soon as I finish them, LOL. No, that is not true, I DO have more LO's done but I do have some to finish, too.

Last day of school

Today was DGD Courtney's kindergarten graduation complete with caps and tassels. I took several pictures and came home and put them into a Tinkerin' WOTG double LO. It was also the last day of school for both the older grandkids. DD is interning at a vet clinic plus will start summer classes next week, so DH and I will have full time Grandparenting duties for the next several months. I haven't taken photos yet but will. It looks like I will get to work tonight. Thanks to a new policy at the hospital where I work, I haven't been able to work my scheduled night shifts. But maybe tonight they will need me. So I am off to take my nap. I will post photos of my scrapbooking LO's soon.