Ladystamper

We had a great time scrapbooking tonight. It has been toooo long! Nothing makes me feel quite as good as scrapbooking my family memories. I love it! This is the page I had for everyone to make. I copied a layout I found in Creating Keepsakes from a few months ago. Again, same basic layout but totally different paper, color, theme, etc. Gotta love a good copy! All the papers I used are from the same DSP packet from Stampin' Up! I love how the papers all coordinate with each other. They have really take the guess work out of things! The flowers in the faux photo strip were made with the new three layer flower punch. It is amazing! I punched out the flowers and then crumpled them up and separated the layers in the paper to give them depth and texture. Its a fun technic but my tiny neice didn't like the 'ripped up' flowers for HER project...lol she is so cute. Enjoy!

and I am loving it!! There is just so much you can do with this thing! It is truly amazing. I don't know half of it yet, but I'm having loads of fun figuring it out. I am not one to really read directions, so I am just playing and learning and trying different things. Here is the February page for my calendar-in-progress. My son Jared has his birthday in February, so he is the main star here. Check out the cool words on the arrows....yeah, I'm feeling pretty proud that I figured that out all on my own.....hey, if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it! This program is totally user friendly!! If you are interested in playing with My Digital Studio, be sure to come to my scrappin night on January 23rd at 6:30. I will have a regular (tradition) 12 x 12 layout available for you to make for $10 as well as several cards for $1 each. I will also have my laptop out with My Digital Studio on it for you to see. I might even have my calendar done by then so you can see a finished one. We sha...

Here is my last page using Karen's sketch from Sunday. I don't know if this one is as close to the sketch as the others, but I like it. These pages are 8-1/2 x 11, to fit in a little album I got on clearance at Micheals. I had been wanting to try this page size, with the landscape layout for a while. The base of this page is actually designer paper. A full sheet of polka dot paper in ..... old olive I believe. You can just see the dots around the border. They lined up perfectly! yay me! I layered the original album paper over that after I trimmed it down a bit. It is a light creamy/white color. The brownish colored block is the new Soft Suede In color from Stampin' Up! this year. It just looks soft! I love it! I added a scallop square that I made with my Big Shot to the right and a green heart made with the same paper as the base. I sponged the edges of the heart with more Soft Suede to 'soften' it up and then added some fun ssuede letters also made with the Big Sho...

Here is the scrap page I promised. I used the same sketch from Karen Gs Sunday sketch as I did on my card yesterday.  I am making an album of pictures I love. No time line, or theme, just pictures that make me happy. I love this one of Mae. She is so happy and full of innocent joy, I just love it!  The background paper is from a retired stack...blue bayou I believe. I loved the soft look and the fact that all the paper coordinated so well! Gotta love that!  I added some fun white rub ons and silver brads for more interest.  The white scallop border is made with white cardstock and the scallop border punch from Stampin' Up! I just tucked it up under the patterned paper. The JOY is actually a brown rub on from a Christmas set from SU. I brought in some brown taffeta ribbon to ground the joy and then used aquapainters and classic ink to color it in. The cool thing is that the rub on kind of repells the water and ink so the color stays inside the letters. (Unless you get too much water...

I love to bake with my kids. In fact, if we are sitting around bored, that is usually the first thing I suggest. "wanna make cookies?" I don't know why...maybe good memories of baking with my mom? maybe.... Ben gets into baking. The hat, the apron, the whole package. I love it! For this page, I used a piece of Textures DSP from Stampin' Up! I love the border and pattern on it. You really don't need much more! I added "chocolate" on another piece of cardstock (don't tell, but I stamped it directly on the background and botched it, so I layered! Creative opportunity!) The scalloped piece is a chipboard cutout from Stampin' Up! with chocolate (of course) craft ink sponged on it. I added a few build a brads for fun and ... done!.....I'm hungry....where's Ben? LOL

For Sarah's birthday last year, she decided she didn't want a birthday cake. We really aren't too big on cake in our family. Unless there is ice cream in it, and then....we may leave the cake part anyway! We did a strawberry shortcake instead. I used my funky flower tart baking pan from Pampered chef to make the angel food cakes and then we stacked them up and put berries and cream all over them. It was...interesting! But, it totally went with this cute stamp! (I totally didn't plan that....) I went with the strawberry theme for this layout. Red and white polka dots and green polka dots. I added a bit of black for contrast and some metal edge tags for embellishments. Fun and easy! Just like the birthday party!

By now, we should have gotten all the way to Arizona, gotten the truck unloaded, and maybe, just maybe caught our breath. No guarantees on that one. I will be heading out to Utah to pick up Maegan. I can't wait to see her and to hear all about her adventures. I have always admired my daughter. She is so strong and intelligent. She is also oober creative (tho she won't admit it) and has the ability to see the good in everyone. I made this page simple and beautiful, just like her. The base is a sheet of patterned paper from Stampin' Up! It is one of the new textured sheets. I love it! I added some simple punched flowers from a punch....I think Kim has? Anyway, I had punched them out of white cardstock and then when I added the memory paint for the journaling, I realized it was cream paint. Shoot! Since I didn't actually have the flower punch, I just painted the flowers to match! The centers are build a brads from SU! with DSP behind them. I made the M from a coaster and D...

Here is another blast from the past page. Pictures that I found while packing and purging......will you look at that hair? Gotta love the 80's and the 'helmet head' syndrome! These pictures are of me and my roommate in 'college.' I say college very loosely as....I did go a bit, but mostly I was just working and playing. I do regret that now, but it was fun at the time! These pages are the last in the Lisa Bearnson kit. Fun colors and no stress layout. I tweeked it a bit by adding a nice large journaling box on the left instead of what she had. The flower brads are Stampin' Up! Ahh....memories....These pictures are from Mesa Az,.....and Here I am, moving back. Many years later. I feel like I've been gone a lifetime!

Christmas in June? Why not?! This page was a lot of fun to put together. I pulled out a Simply Scrappin kit from Stampin' up! to use. I love their rich colors and heavy duty cardstock! Even the patterned paper is nice and thick. The green 'wish' block and the fun tag are all self-adhesive-die-cuts from the kit. How much easier can it get? Seriously! I added some chocolate brads and white ribbon and popped everything up with dimensionals. For the word border along the bottom, I used the Peace&Joy&Love&Cheer border die with the Big Shot and some patterened paper. I love how it turned out! I admit I did run it through my Xyron machine to get adhesive all over the back. I didn't want it moving around. Here is a close up of the tag. I love what it says. What more could we ask for?!

We did a great page at my stamp a stack and scrap several months ago and I promised to share it. But...I just couldn't find the right pictures to put on it! I finally decided on these shots of Sarah and Ethan in a tree. I could make a whole album of my kids in trees. They are part monkey I believe. (on my side I have to admit!) This page was totally fun to put together! The birds and branch are chipboard from Stampin' Up! that I colored with craft ink. I love the little legs! Aren't they adorable?! The flowers are stamped with saffron craft ink, embossed with clear embossing powder and cut out and layered. I know, a lot of work, but they are shiney in person and look great! The patterned papers are from the Urban Garden collection and I love them! I added a bit of Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon and a wavy strip of cardstock for the date. Fun page!

Nothing ages you like your kids getting older and passing major milestones. When mae got her lisence last year...I started feeling old. sheesh....can I really have a kid that age? Then I remember...when my mother was my age, she was a grandma! Holy cow! I've always been glad my mom was so young. She is more of a sister to me at times. It is fun to have people say we look like sisters. Believe it or not, people say that about Mae and I sometimes. THAT makes me feel young! Keep those comments coming! This is another layout from the Lisa Bearnson kit. Very simple and...I didn't change it TOO much. Just the photo layout and the journaling blocks. I loved the funky colors and thought they went well with Mae and her day of increased freedom. I did add the ribbon to the button and stamped "sweet 16" at the bottom with memory paing and a Becky Higgins stamp. SUPER easy page! We're still on the road....having so much fun...

This is a super easy layout that can work for any occasion really. I tend to do a lot of 'film strip' like layouts because I have a lot of pictures. With six kids...how could I not? I love this series of pictures with Mae and Fantine. They are cute together. Fantine always looks so matronly in pictures...she is really a crazy pup, but puts on a good act for the camera. The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up!, of course...their paper is so yummy! I love this paisley print! I added some wide chocolate grosgrain, stamped "smooches" with the new alphabet set and swirl from a stamp by Becky Higgins. I should be picking up Mae in a week. I can't wait to see her! I have missed her sooo much! Today we start our long journey to Arizona....this should be fun. ;o)

I teach a lot of classes on scrapbooking and stamping and I almost always mention how therapeutic these creative ventures can be. I joke that it is cheaper to buy stamps than to pay for therapy. I always thought it was true, but never more than when I did these pages. My daughter Sarah wanted to scrap book so we were up in my craft room at 'the table' getting set up. I looked at pictures, moved stuff around,....but I just couldn't do a thing. I felt like a big wall was in front of me and I didn't have the energy to climb over it. I can't remember feeling quite that way before. A few days later, I received a package in the mail from Lisa Bearnson. No, we aren't friends or anything, it was her new scrapbooking kit that I had ordered. I opened it up and felt a surge of excitement! I finished what I was doing and then Sarah and I tried the scrappin again. It was so awesome to be able to sit down and have everything planned for me. The whole page was laid out, all ...

These pictures are from Ethan's last birthday and frankly, I'm feeling pretty good that I got them scrapped before his next birthday! Again...it seems like just last month that he turned 9. Where did this year go? This birthday was fun because Brad and I surprised Ethan with a new bike. We were doing presents and Brad asked Ethan to go out front and get something for him. He went out and saw the bike and asked who's bike it was. He was totally surprised when we said it was his! I love this picture of him so excited and smiling! He is just the sweetest boy! For the page, I kept it real simple and used patterned paper from Stampin' Up! from the hostess set this year. The paper is light, but if you look close you can see that it is lined like notebook paper. There is a little kite and string printed in the bottom right hand corner of both sheets. I covered the one on the left with a large patterned circle and the one on the right with a glittered cupcake I cut with the Big...

You may recognize this layout from yesterday. I used the same basic one on the pages with Sarah. These pictures are actually from the same day. Instead of combining the pictures of both kids on one layout, I decided to do two. I wanted to show the movement of thier 'trick' in the layout. If I had taken the pictures from the other side, they would have been perfect, as it is...they are moving backwards, kind of. Anyway, instead of the circles and butterflies, I went for a more 'manly' theme with Ethan's pages. Some bold stripes and a soft leaf print on either side of my film strip and some metal edge tags with leaves stamped on them were my base. I cut out ETHAN with my Big Shot letter dies and then added loads of colored brads to add to the movement feel of the page. I don't know why these pictures seem so fuzzy...it may have something to do with my new photo software. I am having a hard time figuring out how it works. Wish me luck!

May was national scrap booking month and I did make it a point to scrapbook. I just didn't get pictures of the pages posted in May. This page was inspired by a layout I saw in one of my many many scrapping magazines. I changed it quite a bit, but kept the circle on the left. LOL Funny how an inspiration morphs! These pictures are of my daughter Sarah on her birthday almost a year ago! It seems like only last week....this year has gone by amazingly fast. I can't even wrap my brain around it! I cut the big circle with the new Circle Scissor from Stampin' Up!. This isn't the old scissor...this one is new and improved and SO easy to use! The blade goes either way, a real improvement from the one we carried years ago. It is super easy to make circles of all sizes with it. I use the butterfly die to make the butterflies and also to make the soft background butterflies. You can barely see them here, but I used the negative left from when I cut out the butterfly and then spon...

I started this mini scrapbook a long time ago and just found it when I moved some things around in my office. I had all the pictures tucked into this little album and the cover stamped. That was it! It was a good start and I was in the mood so I decided to tackle it! I added a bit of rolling to the cover with the boho wheel and close to cocoa ink and sponged a bit to pull it together. I may have to add more dates besides the 2007...we didn't end up going to the beach as much as I thought we would. I added the tab on the top with the tab punch and a generic date stamp. The inside front cover is blank. This is my 'entry page.' I put a strip of DSP along the bottom, this one is from the Holiday treasure collection. I sponged the edges and rolled the boho wheel along it using the close to cocoa ink pad. The quote is on velum and from a book of quotes I picked up somewhere... probably at Joanns or somewhere. I stuck it on using mini glue dots. I planned to cover them with somet...

Ha! You didn't really think I would call my sister a witch did you? she is the most wonderful person I know! She does make a great witch for Halloween tho, check this out! Fake nose, chin.....amazing! She is really beautiful without this make up. She dresses up every year and takes candy to her kids at school. For the first couple of years, they didn't even realize it was her! I'm not sure if know even now. How fun is that?! This is the layout we did at our monthly stamp a stack and scrap night. The pumpkins, vines, and letters are all from Big Shot dies. The dotted border on the orange is made with the black marker. Other than that...pretty straight forward!