Orange You Ready for One More?

So who besides me remembers all the "orange" knock knock jokes? For the past several days those jokes have been in my head - totally crazy! I have totally fallen in love with BoBunny's Mango Luau this past week - more than ever! I was thrilled to see that my "You Are Missed" card made "LOTD" at Create My Keepsake. And although "Cherish You" is made with the Abbey Road collection, I was even more thrilled to see it made the Catwalk this past week at SisTV.

I have scraps of Mango Luau left, and am hoping I can squeak out one more layout with photos I found. However, I may have to make a trip for more - as tonight we went to the local coffeehouse for music and favorite drinks, and as I was taking photos I realized Luau would go great; although if I wait for the new release of Flutterby it may be an even better match!

If you love orange you will love BoBunny's Popsicle line as well - it's a more light-hearted and fun-spirited orange, if you will; AND the perfect choice for these photos of Abby around 18 mo. of age. We were at the annual family reunion in July - her much older cousins were shooting hoops - and I certainly noticed how she kept eyeing their ball. She was standing left side at the front of the "court" -someone shot a basket and it ended up bouncing towards her - and she did not hesitate to snatch it up. We were all rather surprised she could even carry it - she was pretty small and basketballs are not the lightest things in the world. I loved these two photos and am happy to have finally scrapped them.

Ranger Stickles were used to highlight the letters from the Grease Monkey line. I love the boyish grid pattern on the letters, but as this is a cute girl layout - I had to bring on the bling. As far as Abby is concerned, the more sparkle in her layouts the better. (LOL)


I used a BoBunny heart sticker as a part of my sub-title, adding letter stickers from the stash. To make the heart stand out more I carefully covered it with Diamond Glaze for dimension. I should also point out that Cloud 9 Rain Dots make wonderful accents on the BoBunny chipboard scrolls.


Flower clusters are the ultimate embellishment grouping on a girly girl layout. Here a mix of Prima flowers, Kaiser gems, Doodlebug heart brad, and BoBunny buttons create a nice grouping. I love that clear BoBunny buttons just happen to "fit" a circle made with one of my punches for a custom button creation.


A couple of other fun notes about this layout. Notice how I cut out a portion of the photo on the smaller photo? I used my trimmer to crop a straight line, stopping short on either side of the ball. I then used a micro-tip scissors to finish cutting to and around the ball. I matted this on black cardstock, and used a Signo Uniball white pen and mini brads to mimic the design of the Popsicle papers. I love that creative moment when you realize you can use the patterned paper design as inspiration for an embellishment on a layout.

Lastly, I used the computer for journaling, but added an extra space between each word. This allowed me to cut out the words and piece my thoughts back together on the layout. A journaling card or solid strip of orange would have overpowered my journaling area and thrown the entire layout off balance. Allowing the blue to show through helps create a visual "orange" triangle and helps keep the focus on the photos.

BTW - I just have to recommend Mango Luau to my Fisk-A-Teer friends - with the brown, lime, and orange colors it really goes well with the colors seen at a typical Fisk-A-Teer event- not to mention matches one of my favorite Fiskars scissors! I am glad you stopped by, and hope you are able to glean at least one idea for a future layout. I'd love to hear what you may want to try. Orange you just lovin' all the orange that BoBunny uses in their product collections?

BoBunny Orange Challenge

It's the last day of July - the countdown to summer's end offically begins tomorrow. Wow - the summer has flown by! We've hardly done anything cool with the kids yet - in large part to my having a new job. Today is a gorgeous day, and my boss actually told me to wrap it up and "get out of here". He didn't need to tell me twice!

I created today's layout for BoBunny's orange challenge. Although the bright green in Luau stands out, the orange accents is what really makes this layout pop. I am also working off a recipe challenge at A Cherry On Top. I had to use cardstock (not black, white, or kraft) - now that is not a challenge as brown cardstock has to be my very favorite to build a layout on! I also had to use the word "love" visibly in the journaling or title, lowercase letters, and stars. Once I started poking through my BoBunny stash I found all the ingredients quite readily!

The photo in this layout is from the 5th grade graduation party in June. Kyle and his best bud, along with the entire class, had a day of water gun fights, volleyball, and other games. Can you see how tough Kyle is trying to look? It makes me smile - yes, he is growing up, and is looking the part of an almost teen. (LOL) The photo had the right colors for the Luau papers - which came first, the paper or the super soaker? However, there was a big flaw in the photo ... at the upper left corner there was a huge sunspot, but a BoBunny SUN sticker came to the rescue! I covered the sunspot with a sun - I love that bit of irony, that only I would know if I didn't tell the world here. (LOL)


I found the BoBunny bling stars in green (Kyle's favorite color - how perfect!), and also snagged some Magistical Memories shapes - a gear, layered with a star shape on top.


I knew I wanted something to put my stars on - but am running low on the Luau paper. Stores are closed at my scrapping hour. I scouted around and my eyes landed on a box that could be torn - perfect! I gruned up the tore cardboard with some orange and green paint, a little brown ink - just what these tough guys needed!

For the recipe challenge I worked the word love into my journaling - twice! That's covered.


How many times do you buy a set of alphabets with numbers, use the letters, but the numbers go untouched? That happens to me often - but not this time around! I used up ALL the numbers and created a countdown with BoBunny stickers from the Grease Monkey line. I actually love that line so much I bought two sets, so I happened to have two number 1s - you'd think I had planned ahead at the store, but this layout was a late night surging of mojo.

I played around with a office tag to create a base for the number three. This chipboard number is actually an ancient from Chatterbox. I dry-brushed orange paint in a deeper color than the original which grunges it up a bit.

I want to share a tip for my title work... Ever have a vision but not the supplies on hand to pull it off? I had to use lowercase letters - but the only smaller letters I had were all caps. What to do? The only thing I could think of was use the computer as an assistant. I typed the title in CK Cursive, printed it out, cut it out, and held it in place on my layout. Now, I wanted it white...to achieve that I used a fine tip stylus and traced over my printed word with a good measure of elbow grease. This made an impression in the brown cardstock. I traced over with a white pencil (so I could erase any mistakes easily enough), and then went over that with a white pen. I think it turned out great - and I seriously have to use that technique again! I love the crisp white title on the dark brown cardstock.

I have another orange layout to share with details - but that will be later on. Right now I am working on getting a large group together for a round of miniature golf with larger than real life jungle animals. No, I am taking the kids and meeting friends, we actually hit the balls through the hippo's mouth and between the legs of the giraffe. Should be a great photo opp!

Tomorrow, if the rain holds off we are heading to Boscobel, Wi for Muskets and Memories - it's supposed to be an awesome Civil War reenactment.
Enjoy your last day of July!

The Boy Version - BoB Birthday Card

Both of our kids have October birthdays - and seriously, as we enter into August I am reminded that fall is not far away! I decided to use the July BoBunny card sketch challenge to create cards for both our kids.

The card above is for Kyle, as you may guess...our bug-loving love bug who is almost 12! Grasshoppers are one of his favorite insect critters (next to crickets) - the BoBunny U Bug Me line was a natural choice for his card.

The card above came together in minutes using BoBunny products, border sticker, and a couple of accents from the birthday line. It's very much a "Kyle" card.

If you are interested in seeing the sketch I am following here it is.

Sketches do not have to be followed to a T - they are provided to help give you an idea. Usually I gravitate pretty far from a sketch, utilizing perhaps one idea, or accent shape, but I thought I should at least retain a decent resemblance to BoBunny's sketch for the challenge.

Of course the girly girl birthday card - for our almost 7 year old (she reminds us often she is 6.5) is the cake card shared below using mostly fun pink papers from BoBunny's Love Shack collection. Thanks for hopping by!

BoB Birthday Card Challenge is a Piece of Cake!

The BoBunny birthday card sketch was a piece of cake! I knew right away I wanted to make a cake. I pieced the cake together myself - it's not perfect, but I think it makes it all the more fun! I used the bright colors of Love Shack, with a piece of black paper from Alissa as a backdrop to "pop" the cake. Core'dinations cardstock, embossed with the Cuttlebug "happy birthday" folder, and lightly sanded, serves as a base.


I stamped the candles (Hampton Art) with orange Staz-On ink on white cardstock, and used a pink glitter pen to fill in the dots. Orange Stickles color the flames. I cut each candle out after being colored, so you don't have to worry about coloring inside the lines. To add a little perspective to the candle line up, I "stamped off" before making impressions of three of the candles (found in the back row) - so they are a "faded" orange, and appear to be "in the distance".

I really put my black Sakura glaze pen to work; I also stamped "Make A Wish!" in orange, and traced over the letters with an orange glaze pen. Love my glaze pens!


To create a pretty cake plate, I used Diamond Glaze on top of the patterned paper to transform it into "rose glass" - anyone remember that ? My mother-in-law has some very pretty pieces. A Fiskars punched border, Kaiser Crafts pink gems and little ribbon and ric rack finish off this card. A piece of cake!

Doodling Bunnies with BoBunny Alissa

Not your everyday picture frame... I'd like to share the altered project I submitted for the BoBunny design team application. It came about from a project call (until I reread it again this evening, and see the magazine is asking only for cards, not home decor), but nonetheless - and Easter project was my first prompt. Then it was a matter of rummaging through my bin of "things to alter someday". Do you have one of those? I found the naked 9x9 picture frame by DecoArt and a Lenten calendar in place of a photo immediately came to mind. If you are not sure what a Lenten calendar is, it is a liturgical season used by mainline churches that consists of 40 days plus 6 Sundays - beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Sunday. This project is a spin-off of the more commonly known Advent Calendar.

The idea is to let the children take turns tearing off each day during the season, accompanied by perhaps a reading of scripture. I used to work in a Lutheran church and we ordered devotionals geared for the 40 days of Lent - something like that would be a great accompaniment for this calendar.

I created the desktop calendar as a gift, and thought it too pretty to be useful for only 6 weeks out of the year. I downloaded 2010 PDF files of a 2010 calendar, sized them to fit the frame opening, and stitched together the 12 months of the year for a year long gift.


Because the calendar was created for Easter, and because my friend likes bunnies, AND because a few bunnies just might catch the eye of those reviewing applicants for the design team call (hey, I know the competition will be stiff and I have to try to make my projects stand out!) - I figured a few pink bunnies on my project would be really cute. I looked for a stamp, looked for an image on line - nothing offered filled the vision I had in my head. As is usual, when I have a vision and cannot find what I am looking for, I set about to making it on my own. This project actually motivated me to sketch out an actual animal - took my back to high school art class. (LOL)

All summer long a cottontail rabbit has been grazing by our deck each morning, and we see him as we have breakfast. I used the image of this bunny as my model to get a basic bunny shape, sketching it out on chipboard. I then cut the chipboard and used it as a pattern to create four bunnies - cutting ears separate and attaching them with glue dots. A little bit of pink Ranger Stickles in the center ear on the foreside, and a few bends in the ear add to its cuteness. I had some Maya road "puff ball" ribbon in my stash, and snippets of it made a perfect fluffy bunny tail. A Sakura glaze pen and Kaiser black gem add facial features.


One last thing to share - I love the look of BoBunny dot ribbon threaded through a button. However, it is quality, thicker ribbon and can pose a bit of a challenge. Tools to help in this process include: 1. a sharp scissors -start with an angled end on the ribbon, cut to a fine point; 2. Have a tweezers handy so that once a smidgen of ribbon comes through to the front of the button, you can latch on to it and PULL with the tweezers; 3. have a fine tipped tool available to help "stuff" the ribbon through the hole. One might automatically think "paper piercer", but its sharp point merely goes through the fabric of the ribbon. I have an old embossing tool, of which one end has a quite small rounded tip -which works great for "ribbon stuffing". (LOL) I have since acquired an EK Embosser which I love for rub-ons and embossing, but hang on to my original tool, which is simply re-purposed.



Here is a rundown of supplies used in this project:
Cardstock, flowers, acrylic bracket frame, black polka-dot ribbon, brads, buttons: BoBunny Press
Frame: DecoArt
Glitter Medium: Sparkle Mod Podge, Green and Pink Stickles by Ranger
Paint: DecoArt
Monthly calendar: PDFs downloaded from the internet
Lenten Calendar: author’s design
Cut-out bunnies: author’s design
Puff ball ribbon: Maya Road
Black gem stickers: Kaiser Crafts
Pen: Black glaze by Sakura
White Pearls: Mark Richards
Inks: ColorBox fluid chalk ink
Other: thread, tulle

Note, if you try to make this on your own, that the 46 pages of the Lenten calendar are too thick for a standard sewing machine. I used my Coluzzle to punch holes in the corners (in three groupings - use binder clips to keep your stacked pages tight together), and then used pretty BoBunny brads to secure the calendar pages to a piece of chipboard, covered with black cardstock.
Did you know that we have now passed the half way mark of 2009 - and Christmas is that much closer? I hope this project has inspired you - perhaps you have a frame sitting around, waiting to be altered, that would make for a great desktop calendar. Go on, create!

Scrap "The Color of Your Family" Challenge

I love the color ORANGE. Julia issued an "ORANGE" challenge this week at BoBunny.
When Kyle found this toad the other day I thought it one of the prettiest toads I have seen. As you can see, he has orange/rust colored spots -more color than I have seen on a typical American brown toad. Maybe he is not the usual species we catch?

I had to take his photo - I thought he was quite photogenic. He seemed to pose and strut his stuff on our deck the morning Kyle took him out to release him. In this toad's short stay with us I learned something about toads. Kyle put the toad into the aquarium which housed the tree frog over winter - the guys are a little behind getting that thing cleared out. Everytime we fed the frog a red wiggler worm they seemed to high tail it out of the dish and bury themselves in the gravel. Well, of course they ended up drying up and dying. Mr. Frog here, perhaps quite hungry, started digging in the gravel and dug up the worms. We actually watched him pull a worm up out of the gravel, and use his front foot to push the stiff, thin morsel of dehydrated protein into his mouth. It was really quite amazing to see - although many of you reading this may find my description gross. For that I apologize, but you see, I live with a boy who is into bugs and critters - and I have spent much time on "whatsthatbug.net" in the past 8 years.

So what does all this have to do with a color challenge? Well, I admit I digressed a bit... it began as a short "do you see the orange in this toad" photo posting, but...

Visit BoBunny's blog often to see what challenge Julia is giving readers. I love challenges - they motivate me to "create" with a bit of channeled focus. Julia has claimed "orange" to be the color that best represents her family. Create a layout with orange and share it with her. Of course I am taking the challenge, how about you?

But her post made me think...what color represents my family? I would have to say "green". Perhaps many shades of green, although Kyle and I both love bright, kiwi green. Would you like another challenge for fun? Pick a color that represents your family, then find an object that color (fruit, pillow, your family wearing said color), photograph it, and create a layout journaling about why you feel the color represents your family. If you came looking for inspiration... I hope this post has given you a few ideas. If you scrap your family color - I would love for you to share a link here, AND I have various rub-ons and cardstock stickers from the Fiskars consumables lines to RAK out to a winner drawn randomly from those who participate. Since July is wrapping up, and you may need time to think about your photograph object, I am actually going to give until August 20th for a deadline. I will also gather up my RAK prizes and share a photo so you know what you are playing for. Happy scrapping!

Abbey Road by BoBunny - Layouts to Cherish

The Abbey Road collection by BoBunny is a gorgeous line of blues, greens, creams and brown. It was the perfect choice to showcase this photo of Abby - taken at a recent photo shoot. I didn't really get a good picture of her new toothless grin, but this photograph really moved me and I wanted to scrap it.

I added a digital border by Jessica Sprague and created word art in Photoshop to place the title directly onto the photo.I used a die-cut paper shape as template to shape the blue floral paper.

The flowers were created with a challenge at Create My Keepsake in mind - to create your own. I cut flowers from patterned paper and crimped each in a few places, and then secured with a brad. To add dimension I pulled each flower up around the brad.

I love my acrylic stamps - especially shapes and critters. For this layout a clock stamp by Kelli Panacci for Sandylion is used to emphasize the theme of the layout.

To add a little more bling to the journaling card I created a cluster using these products:
Circle gem stickers: Kaiser Craft
Opaline Pearls: Basic Grey
White Pearls: Mark Richards

Layered ribbons, with folds stitched in place, finish this layout off - making it one of those layouts I will always cherish. Enjoy your creative journey - and thanks for coming by!

BoBunny Luau - Miss You Card

Bright green, orange and brown are some of my very favorite colors, so of course I was drawn to BoBunny's Luau collection...even though we don't live on the ocean. The line lends itself way beyond flip flops and drinks with umbrellas. (LOL)

For this card I used die-cut paper as a template to create a bracket shape along the bottom of my card. I am so thrilled that BoB is coming out with their own die-cut paper - it will eliminate this kind of step. Of course you may notice that the striped paper is from the "U Bug Me" collection - being able to combine papers from various collections is one of the perks of scrapping with BoBunny.

The sentiment inside reads, "There's an empty space in my garden since you've moved away."

Some of the ideas to note in this card design include:
• Empty space on the front of the card emphasizes how the recipient is missed.
• Thin scraps of paper are used to create the leaves – which are folded and tucked behind the paper stem and caught into the design with the stitches.
• Polygon shapes in orange create a bright backdrop for the flowers and message.

I created this card for the BoBunny design team tryout, as you may guess. It was all going well until I got to the rub-ons. I saw them at Archivers on Thursday and knew they were perfect for my card plans - a nice small font called Perky by American Crafts in my favorite neutral - brown. I was pretty excited to find them, but today I found myself rubbing and rubbing - my arms even feel it hours later. The image would not transfer - talk about almost ruining my card! Fortunately the fine point on my chocolate Zig Memory Writer saved the day. I love my brown ZIG!!

If you are enjoying my projects I invite you to become a blog follower. I just added that option to my site - you can find it in the right sidebar. This site will be where my BoBunny projects end up. I haven't decided yet if I want to create a BoBunny libary as I did with my Cosmo projects, or if I should let readers find the project they want in the index.

Speaking of Cosmo, I need to pop over to Cosmo Cricket Creations and repost new winners, as I haven't heard from the others today. Check it out if you commented for the Early Bird giveaway!

Sylgise is winner of Mini Album!

Thought I better post this here at the top - I need Sylgise who commented in the album give away to touch base with me as she is the winner. If you know her please give her a shout. She posted the giveaway here, so she hangs out at:

http://scrapbookingcraftingfriends.ning.com

Please contact me by Sunday!

Summer Sandcastles with BoB Love Shack

A day at the beach + kids = SANDCASTLES. It's a given. I admit, with a bit of regret, that this summer our family has not visited the beach once. The cool summer has not exactly spawned a huge desire to go dipping in cold water. Heated pools are very nice, thank you. However, I think August will provide a warming trend, and we just have to get away with the kids for a weekend. Having a new job kind of countered any thoughts for a real vacation this summer.

I love these photos of Kyle from summer 2007 - this boy knows how to make a sandcastle, or rather, a sand fortress! He spent hours. Actually, he worked on it late afternoon on day, and then returned to it to expand the project the following - those photos are the makings of a second layout. The colors in BoBunny's Love Shack collection really offer up choice for any summer theme, photos, gender. I fell so in love with the teal, turquoise, blues and greens in this particular paper, but our son's swim trunks allowed me to bring in some bright oranges as well.


I created this layout for a sketch at Create My Keepsake, but of course had to include the finished sandcastle as well! To solve, and prevent having to to go to two pages with three photos, I hid the castle itself. Without a kid, it wasn't all that interesting anyhow. Have you noticed the 4 shapes on the back of BoBunny's journaling card sheet? I know they make great mini albums, but they are awesome for page accents as well. Here I cut one out, stitched a circle chipboard shape to the back side and stitched around it - also creating a hinged opening. The chipboard adds weight and makes the flap stay closed on the page - I didn't mean for that to happen, but I like it, and will have to remember that in the future.


Stickers, stickers, stickers!! Seriously, BoBunny stickers have drop shadows that in itself, gives the art the illusion of dimension. However, I am a huge fan of BiG dimension - as you may have noticed. I enjoy mounting stickers on paper, chipboard, use foam adhesive, etc. The pail made a great accent for this layout - a Cloud 9 Rain Dot added dimension to the handle rivet. I mounted it on some sort of packaging paper I found on my table (kind of like a brown paper bag but with a lighter feel - which made it very easy to crumple and ink for texture). It looks like sand without the grit - and is better, IMO, than kraft cardstock for this look. I only wish I know where it came from so I could get more!


I added letter stickers to the photo along the bottom to read as part of the title - which uses a wonderful BoBunny "sandcastles" sticker. If you have white space on your photos I encourage you to consider using them as creative space.
To add a bit of art to the journaling block I used a Fiskars Micro Tip scissors to cut out a little starfish from a BoBunny sticker - I love how it looks so real. A few Cloud 9 rain dots and little gem stickers...and I "sprinkled water" around the little sea creature. (LOL)


I needed some balance in the lower right corner, and added BoBunny buttons and gems and such to finish this layout off. I love little clusters!

Do you have summer sandcastle photos waiting to be scrapped? BoBunny's Love Shack has so many fun elements to pull a great page together. Go out and get some Love Shack - you will have so much fun creating with it!

ACOT Reveal and LYB Traveler

Hey everyone - did you get some rain? We did. It could have waited until Tuesday's open house was over, but we had a good turn out and we really needed it. It is warming up in a humid sort of way now...which is good for the birthday party Abby is attending tomorrow as water games are on the agenda.

I am deep into projects for looming deadlines, but wanted to take a moment to share the Little Yellow Bicycle projects I made for A Cherry On Top this month. If you would like to learn a little bit more about me, you can find the guest designer article on the ACOT home page, here.

The first project at the top of this blog is called Ful-Filled. Some things happened with my initial order at ACOT, and I missed out on the papers I originally wanted. There wasn't much left for me to choose from when my order was pulled, and I ended up with this old pick-up truck and gasoline signs. My mojo was briefly running empty - there had to be something better than doing a layout on gas prices, and we haven't really taken any long road trips. I suggested a layout about our bible study group, and my husband said, "why not do a layout on what fills you up?" Brilliant idea - good man, and that is what I did!!

I loved the bicycle paper and motifs in the Traveler collection - and they were perfect for yet unscrapped photos of Kyle on his first bike. It was a big moment for him. He had just gotten a little sister, who was getting all the attention from visitors and many gifts. Kyle needed a new bike, and was certainly a great big brother. He needed some extra lovin' too, and we bought him a brand new, shiny bike.


The third layout is of Abby in her travelling clothes and car seat. Not directly from Korea in this photo, but the layout does document her flight from Seoul - I am sure that girl has more frequent flyer miles from her one trip than I will ever have in my lifetime. Although someday I dream of all of us taking a homeland tour with her, but that rather depends on South Korea's neighboring country. I am concerned for the future for that area of the world. An idea to note on this layout, I scanned her original passport, printed and cut it out to create my own embellishment.

Little Yellow Bicycle offered great colors in the Traveller kit. I really love the transparent embellishments they offer. This was new to me, and I love how they can overlap a photo, and are sheer enough for the photo to peek through; OR it is easy to mount them and cut around if you want a solid background. Fun stuff! If you have vacation photos be sure to check out the Traveler line at ACOT!

Thanks for coming by!

Dancing with BoBunny Alissa

I fell in love with BoBunny’s Alissa collection from the first moment I saw it. As much as I love bright colors, I love a soft and beautiful collection to showcase the photos of more tender and girly moments.

Alissa is the perfect collection to highlight photos I captured of Abby on Easter day. She was still in her pretty pink dress from worship service, and we were visiting her grandparents. Grandma knows how much our girl loves bubbles, and she received some in her basket, and could not wait to get out and blow. Out to the yard she went, blowing, dancing and catching those bubbles. I was so glad for the fast shutter release on my new Nikon – I have a series of photos I am so looking forward to scrapping, but for today, I want to showcase a favorite.

I found a wonderful quote…one of those lifted from a plaque in the Kohl’s home décor department. It reads, “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future, and Faith is the courage to dance to it.” I loved the quote from the moment I read it, and thought of the Easter photos. I do have to share, however, that our 6 yr. old “theologian” was quick to point out, as she read the quote, “that’s not what faith is! Faith is knowing you’re going to heaven with Jesus.” Ah, truth from the mouth of babes. (LOL) Let’s just say I hope she dances through her earthly journey until that day the promise of our faith is fulfilled.

I altered the photograph in Photoshop –duplicating the layer and converting the top layer to a black and white photo. I then used the eraser tool to allow Abby’s pink dress to reveal itself from the bottom layer. I created word art to incorporate the quote, and had a 5x7 printed at ScrapbookPictures.com – whom I had add the music border.

I wanted Abby to be dancing “out” of a frame, and chose to cut an opening in the pink patterned paper to create one. Strips of chipboard were adhered underneath to give the frame some lift, and I used pink Stickles on the darker shade of pink pattern that was in the paper. I distressed and tore the edges, and stitched around the frame.

On the circle shaped pattern paper, which is originally a black and white paper, I used pink chalk to softly color in the open flower. This adds a simple touch of soft color.


The BoBunny acrylic letters were treated with a coating of Cotton Candy Stickles on top. Once dry, I turned the letters over and outlined with a Sakura black glaze pen, which happens to catch nicely on the edge ridge. The black edging helps the letters to pop off the page. For a good measure of bling, I used Mod Podge Sparkle on top of the dried Stickles.

Stickles were also used to highlight the edges of the black BoBunny flower, and also on the punched butterfly shape. This layout truly called for lots of pretty bling! BoBunny iCandy brads and pink gem stickers by Kaiser finished off the butterfly sparkle. Prima pearl flourishes added the perfect dancing movement to the butterfly’s path.

I wrapped the layout with some white tulle – I just love to have the basics of black and white tulle around. You can get a good sized spool rather inexpensively at Michael’s. I wrote on one of the pretty Alissa journaling cards, added more bling and a flower, and used it to ground the title for the layout. The entire layout utilizes Bazzill dotted cardstock in black – I look forward to the day BoBunny releases double dot cardstock in ebony, or some other fun color name for black.

Would you like a run down of some of the techniques offered in this layout to get your mojo going? Here you go!
1. Add word art to a favorite photo, creating your own or using a digital .png file offered by many digital designers.
2. Add a digital border to frame in your photo – you can have it done by the print developer if you wish.
3. Instead of a photo mat, create a frame, distressing the inside edges.
4. Use sparkle on acrylic shapes and letters – it really is one of my favorite things to do with acrylic.
5. Add color to black and white patterned papers with chalks.
6. Mat a journaling card on cardstock, using Stickles around the edge. (For this layout white cardstock was edged with Lace.)
7. Punch a butterfly shape, enhance it with Stickles, bling, brads and a flourish.
8. Enhance flowers with bling, such as Stickles, glitter or liquid bling.
9. Use a sewing machine for a quick finished edge along patterned paper shapes.
10. Wrap up the layout with a wrap of tulle.

Love Shack Cards - Sticker Inspiration!

Lemonade anyone?? Which do you prefer - yellow or pink? Or do you enjoy the more exotic flavors of lemonade now available, such as raspberry? I have a friend who gets those little packets of Crystal Light, which she dumps into her water bottle. I was thinking of her when I was inspired by the BoBunny Love Shack sticker depicting a lemonade stand. I thought it would be cute to make up a little basket of lemonades, chocolates and other simple pleasures for a birthday gift.


The stand on the sticker inspired the shape and design of my card, as well as the BoBunny blog sketch. I attempted to mimic the lemonade stand, deviating for artistic purposes. The lemonade stand shape was actually sketched onto chipboard and cut out. At the top of the card the patterned paper overlaps the back of the card, which is a 5x7 piece of paper from the Love Shack collection. I lightly tacked the overlap, and then opened the card and sewed on the inside of the card to create a hinge.

Once the two pieces were sewn together I simply cut around the backing cardstock with a knife to shape it as a match for the front of the card. Inside the sentiment simply reads "enjoy life's simple pleasures".


The stamp shaped sticker is credited with complete inspiration for this card. I knew I had a Magistical Memories postage stamp shape in my stash, and used it as a base. In addition to the stamp shaped sticker I utilized circle stickers as well. The stickers have a wonderful 3D effect and are a great way to add dimension without bulk for mailing a card.

I hope you find these cards an inspiration when trying to use up your cardstock stickers. I do have winners for my Cosmo Creations blog, but am verifying the grand prize winner of Early Bird to double check the mailing location.

Keep on creating in color!

Lovin' Love Shack and Babcock Ice Cream!

A short while ago we were on the U.W. campus to see a butterfly exhibit. We walked right past Babcock Hall to get to the greenhouse, so it was a given that we would stop on the way back to enjoy famous Babcock ice cream. I sure was glad to have my camera along! Abby chose strawberry, no surprise. It's pink, it tastes great, what's not to love?

Speaking of love...I am wow'd that I have had nearly 300 visitors to this blog since I announced the giveaways on my blog July 4th. However, there are only FOUR comments posted for a chance to win a Summer Fun Mini Album - your odds are very good and there is a day left to comment here. I haven't checked the visitor count on my Cosmo Cricket blog yet, but I suspect you are all leaving comments there to win some Cosmo in the non-project form. You can comment anywhere on my Cosmo blog for a chance to win. Good luck to all of you.

BoBunny's Love Shack papers were a perfect compliment to the photos. I love scrapping bright colors on black cardstock, and used my white Signo Uniball pen to add some dotted details. I enhanced the border sticker with pearls (I think the little pearl stickers are one of my most favorite embellishment right now!).


When I found American Crafts Thickers in a twill fabric a while ago I loved them immediately, but certainly was not thrilled about the aqua colors. As there were no other choices, I bought them - anything can be altered with paint. ;-) I had no idea at the time that the color perfectly matches the same shade of aqua in the Love Shack line.

I used a Magistical Memories chipboard circle, covered it with pink patterned paper from the Alissa line, and framed in the word "pink" with a BoBunny sticker, which was lifted by chipboard underneath. This gives the title embellishment several layers of dimension, and of course I used pop dots to lift it off the page.

One thing I have been doing recently is digging in to my large ribbon bins, and using the wide ribbons left from when I first decorated Abby's nursery. This particular ribbon blended from white into a berry pink shade, and it shimmers as well. On a whim I decided to wrap the bottom of my page with it and make a bow.

The funniest thing about this layout is that I was totally inspired by a BoBunny sticker tag with the word "sweet" and ice cream cone. I could not find anyway to make the tag work on the page, and in the end I decided to hack up my double matted tag and create, instead, a center embellishment to cover the knot in the ribbon. Glue dots are my friend! (LOL)

I love the bright colors of Love Shack. It is probably one of my favorite lines ever. But have you seen the Bo Bunny sneak peeks? A link to the catalog was posted on ACOT this week, and I thought I would share it. For those of us too anxious to get a look at the new releases on the blog, a few collections at a time, sit back with a beverage and take your time browsing this catalog. Hands down Gypsy is my favorite - I absolutely heart the colors and I already have layout ideas for the collection. I am thrilled to see BoB coming out with gorgeous die-cut shaped papers as well, and acrylic stamps. It is no wonder I want to be on their team - they make everything one could ever want to complete a project. I love companies that can offer it all in coordating products.

I hope you enjoy this layout - does it make you crave ice cream?? I bet you are also wanting to go scrap with your BoBunny, right? Have fun creating, and if you are auditioning for the DT I wish you the best!

A Beautiful Day!

Another day of abnormally cool temps in Southern Wisconsin. I am sure it reached the low '80s today, which is cool for this time of year. I never would have thought this past May, that I could be catching up on landscaping in the backyard in July, and enjoy a non-humid day. We accomplished quite a bit - I lopped as much of the young new tree growth as I could, pulled weeds, and yes, still had dead perennial leaves and such to clear from flower beds. Our backyard is a beautiful, outdoor living room when it is kept up, but honestly, working full-time has me thinking we should pour concrete everywhere.(LOL) The woods have really worked its way in, and many of my flowers are straining and leaning heavily to get some sunlight.

On this beautiful day I thought I would share a not so new layout of two beautiful young ladies, Abby and her cousin, Elora. It's a very white layout for me. I enjoy "white space", but almost always it is in the form of kraft, black, and most often - brown. Perhaps you have a photo of cousins from July 4th to scrap as well?

Once finished with the yardwork, I hopped on the net to learn BoBunny is having its first ever design team audition. Of course I have to try! I love BoBunny and was actually planning to start a BoB dedicated blog as I did for Cosmo, but I can't come up with a name for it, so will just continue to share all my BoB projects here at Colorfully Creating.

I wasn't feeling too motivated to scrap after my laborous morning - I was too tired. But the BoBunny announcement motivated me to get started on my layouts for A Cherry On Top, due the 20th. I am working with the Little Yellow Bicycle Travel line - and the layouts are coming along so well I will actually have three very nice layouts completed today - in a few hours!! That is the beauty of using coordinated collections, ones that also include lettering for titles, and embellishments.

I wish I could share my layouts with you now, but am not able to until the reveal date on July 22nd. I do want to share, however, that my husband came up with the idea for my last layout. When I was told to order LYB papers from the ACOT store, I chose rather generic, non-theme patterns. However, circumstances beyond anyone's control left my order unfilled, and the first choice of papers sold out. I had to pinch hit and select other papers - of which I had no immediate inspiration - especially the Traveler paper titled "Fill'er up" - an old pick up and gasoline signs. (LOL) Jesse, however, came up with a brilliant idea, which resonated with me. I cannot wait to share these layouts with you. AND I cannot wait to get creating with some more BoBunny!

Summer and Dirt!

For most people, summer time probably conjures up images of the beach, dips in the pool, running through the sprinkler. This year I purchased a family pool pass, thinking and hoping the kids would get plenty of use from it. Abby's daycare provider has very few kids this summer, and despite the generally cool summer - she has been hanging at the pool 3 days out of 5. She started swim lessons last week and has really embraced it. She even told me her "high" yesterday was jumping off the diving board...this from a girl, whom two weeks ago, did not want to go to lessons because she was afraid of the diving board. Woo hoo! Maybe next year she will have an interest in swim team.

But as you may gather from the layout, our son is not much of a pool person. He went to the pool only once. He prefers to take his sticks (aka guns), and rocks (aka hand grenades) and entertain maneuvers on the lawn. He pretends to be a soldier; rolls on the ground in faux woundedness, and gets his knees and elbows downright dirty. I love these papers from BoBunny (note the new blinkie in the sidebar which will take you directly to the BoB homepage!) - heavily influenced by the boy who likes dirt. (LOL) To add texture to the kraft cardstock I simply drybrushed burnt umber paint onto bubble wrap and lightly pressed onto the cardstock. By putting it on sparingly it was dry in literally less than a minute, and there was no hold up in my scrapping process.

I purposely left a lot of white (or green) space in the photo of Kyle rolling on the ground. I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do with it, but as I was at a loss of where else I might place the journaling, I wrote each word on a little piece of kraft, and made my own "itty bitty words" to journal within and along the side of the photo.


I used Magistical Memories "Went That Way" chipboard shape to ground my title. Applying mod podge, I placed the paper over the top and tore around the edges vs. cutting in crisp lines with a craft knife. I wanted a worn versus crisp look for this layout.


Five more days until my giveaway! Visit this thread and comment on where you are going to share news of my giveaway by midnight on July 15. A winner will be chosen randomly. Thanks for coming by!

Put A Twinkle Back in Your Eye with Calypso!

When I worked at the scrapbook store people would often ask me how to use a sheet of paper with a large design - here you go! Sometimes patterned paper that is just too cool to cut up into smaller pieces -as was the case for this particular paper from BoBunny's Calypso line. When paper already has a pretty design I would rather work around it. I used my craft knife to slice into the paper in a spot that works to tuck in my photo. I limit other paper pieces and embellish with coordinating cardstock stickers, title letters and try to showcase the paper itself.

Magistical Memories Nesting Stars and Star Tab Trio are favorite shapes that I use over and over. For this layout I painted the chipboard with a base coat of acrylic yellow, topped with iridescent yellow (Duncan Scribbles found in the fabric section at Michaels), and added a third coat of sparkle medium - some shapes were coated with Sparkle Mod Podge, and others Ranger Stickles in Stardust.

I want to say HELLO to anyone who might be stopping in from my class at the library! I had a great time working with all of you to create your Snorkel Summer Fun mini albums. I hope you will take some of the ideas and techniques and keep on using them. For those of you who have never scrapbooked before - please don't let your mini album be your last!

Yes, taking on a large album can be overwhelming. It seemed like many could relate to the "takes years to fill a 12x12 scrapbook album". Don't forget to check around your home for chipboard. Cut it down to size, cover it with patterned paper, using rings to hold it together and walah!!!! you have a little album in a day or a weekend and have almost instant results!

Chipboard shapes...I encourage you to not let the Magistical Memories Seahorse be your last. I could tell you had fun painting - so many creative and personal touches! (Wish I had photos to share here!) I was proud of everyone - and for those who put their fingers right in the paint - WOO HOO!! Just wait, if you get dry skin like I do in the wintertime, you can really achieve cool textures when you fingerpaint! (LOL) Keep the baby wipes handy, and keep on finger painting. I personally think it takes years off ones age.

Tonight's class was clear evidence of the fellowship that takes place when a group gets together to scrapbook. In no time a room of strangers became a room full of friends as everyone endeavored to make their album (I can now see how having participants share a plate of paint encourages chit chat!). Creating memories and creating friendships - it really goes hand in hand.

The point I really wanted to drive home is that scrapbooking should be fun - there are no mistakes, only creative opportunities, and getting paint on your fingers once in a while is good for the soul. I think everyone had as good a time as I had teaching it.

If you are new to my blog - WELCOME, and I hope you visit again. I did forget to mention I have a couple of giveaways going. Two posts down in a giveaway for a Summer Fun mini album - if you made one tonight you have a chance to win the class prototype.

Also, if you click on the Cosmo Cricket Creations link in the sidebar, it will take you to another blog of mine. There are several great prizes, and all you have to do is pick your favorite project on the blog and leave a comment. Both giveaways end July 15th at midnight.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone! I hope many of you are enjoying the weekend.family time and celebrations.

I created an Independence Day themed layout today for the July Magistical Memories contest, and it fits in with a few MB challenges as well. You can check it out here - look how young Kyle is!

I have to share some fireworks photos with my new camera. Next time I do need to remember to get out the manual and look up fireworks recommendations. I am pretty sure there was a white balance setting I could have changed, but these are not too bad.



Next, I want to show you a picture Abby drew of a rabbit. Dont you just love its Cosmo Cricket Early Bird ears? That girl has so much fun with my scraps. (LOL)

Jesse and I hiked the Table Bluff segment of the Ice Age Trail in what became a drizzling Saturday morning. I had never seen a flower as bright blue as this before - similar to Queen Anne's lace. Anyone recognize it?

Lastly, our fondue pot arrived Friday. We were all psyched to have our first family fondue party Saturday night. Who knew dinner could last for 2.5 hours! (LOL) We cooked pork and vegetables in a boullion/peanut oil broth I put together by combining a couple of recipes that came in the manual. Kyle surprised me by saying, "We may as well talk since we have nothing else to do while the meat cooks." Well, there we go! Is a fondue pot the answer to the button lipped pre-teen not very chatty syndrome?

Abby stayed with us as long as she could, but we excused her while the rest of us finished cooking/eating. After the main course we had chocolate fondue and dipped in bananas (everyone's determined favorite), marshmallows, Bing cherries and strawberries. YUM! The chocolate was heavy, however, so no one could eat much. I probably need to find a different recipe, or maybe I shouldn't alter the one given. (LOL) It called for all semi-sweet baking chocolate, but I substituted half of it with dark chocolate (always going for the anti-oxidants!). (LOL)

We had a great family weekend. We enjoyed our freedoms. FREEDOM. Remember that it always comes with a price. We are grateful for all those who have sacrificed their lives for their country, and the freedoms we too often take for granted. Thank you to all military personal and their families - may God bless you and keep you safe.

Don't forget I am hosting a giveaway through July 15th. All you need to do is read the post below, leave a comment with the URL for this blog somewhere, and share your link in the thread for a chance to win my Summer Fun mini album made with Cosmo Cricket Snorkel.