Stamping on layouts!

Am I one of the few who still does this?  I've been a scrapbooker since 1998-- about 15 years!-- but before that I was a stamper.  OH BOY was I a stamper.  I made cards mostly.  And they were UGLY.  LOL  That's before there were so many embellishments or paper choices... and I only had a few inks.

 

But now, now is a much different story!  Thanks to companies like Close To My Heart, Stampin' Up!, Technique Tuesday, Studio Calico, to  name a few, we can really do so much more on our layouts with just the right stamp. 

 

 

This first layout, I believe the patterned paper is Fancy Pants Designs.  The stickers are from various companies, and I used CTMH's Reel Life stamp set (available HERE).

 

 

 

Here's the stamp set.  I know I'll get LOTS of use out of it!  And of course the

circles can be cut with the Cricut and/or punches. 

 

 

 

Next, I used the Tech Speak stamp set, available (HERE).

 

I've used the stamp set on the layout below, and I know it will come in handy when scrapping pictures of Nick playing on his Xbox and the two of us playing on the Wii.  If only I had pictures of the 8-year-old me playing the original Nintendo way back when!

 

 

 

Anyhow, here's where I used the stamps along these green cardstock edges.  I used yellow post-it notes to block off where I did NOT want the stamped image.

 

 

 See?  :)

 

 

 

The right side of my two-page layout:

 

 

The left side of my two-page layout:

 

(This is Cosmo Cricket paper that turned out to be perfect for my theme!)

 

Thanks for stopping by and leaving love!

 

Blessings,

Martha



some layouts to share

Hi all,

I'll be posting a few layouts per day for the next few days so stop by often to check them out!  I'm trying to keep myself busy and crafting is a GREAT way to do that!  ;)

Here are some pix of Nick working on a science project last school year.  I'm sure there's some really cool patterned paper out there that would fit these pix perfectly BUT... on a budget and trying to use up stash is the name of the game around here.  :D

So I set everything out exactly how I'd like to see it, and because the paper is somewhat busy and then the photos are fairly large I decided a white background would look great. 

But is it a little bit *too* plain?

I removed everything and drew some light pencil marks around the area of the circle. 

I stamped the edges of my paper, but stamped once on scrap paper and then on my white paper - so that the stamped image wouldn't be too dark.  It looks like a watermark actually.

And then I stamped a few circles.  Just random and fun...

Then I added everything back.  It looks better, I think. 

Add a title, add journaling, add a brad here and there, and done. 

Here's a quickie page.  Basic Grey paper, CTMH stamps (the "life's good" ticket and scrolls) and buttons, and K&Co smash book embellies for the journaling.  The title is from the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge.  This is a fairly simple page - not a whole lot of creativity going on here, but it's done.  I have a ton of pictures from the last year of our lives but I honestly don't think I'm going to scrap any of them.  This picture may be the last one that gets done and the others will be gathered up, put in a box, and forgotten for a time.  Maybe forever.  But that's a whole 'nother blog post!  :)

I don't know what company this PP is from.  The brown circles are cut from the newest CTMH cartridge, Artbooking, as is the title.  This page is pretty busy and I'm not sure I like it, but I'm putting it away and calling it done. 

The "goes the bubble" is from an older CTMH alpha set.

***
I went to a crop last night thanks to my pal Susie and my friend Belinda, a newbie scrapper, went too.  Can you believe that I FORGOT to take any pictures?!!  I remembered to take my camera but we were all too busy chatting and creating.  GOOD TIMES!  I'm so glad I went.  Those Friday night blues are TOUGH to deal with... and I got a few pages almost done.  I just need to add a few Cricut titles and journaling.  I'll post them tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!

Beach LO

Hello there crafty friends! 

 

Here's what I've been working on the last few nights.  A while back I saw this somewhere online.  I wish I could give credit but I wander about the interwebs for a good while every morning with my coffee, getting ready for the day.  :D

 

 

Aren't those little polaroid accents insanely adorable?  I think they might be American Crafts; it looks like their color schemes and patterns.  For me, being on a very tight budget, I just made my own. 

 



 

I have a package of chipboard in my stash, purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I cut one sheet into a few 4x3 pieces, and then cut cardstock to mount on top, as well as what would be the white/neutral color where the photo would go on a Polaroid.  I pretty much followed the color scheme from the photo above because I knew it would match my beach photos that I wanted to work on. 

 

 

 I cut the colored cardstock just a smidge too large so that I could sand it down and it would look much more cohesive. 

 

 

And after sanding all the edges I inked them, too. This is CTMH Juniper, which happens to perfectly match my cardstock (which isn't CTMH but Bazzill, I believe).
 

 

Here are my three "Polaroid" chipboard pieces once they were finished up and ready to put on my LO.  I added some bling once they were placed on the LO, pictured later.  Add some PP here and there, add a picture and some stickers, add a banner.  I wish I had added some twine, now that I look at them here...I just might go back and do that. 

 

 

 

Be sure to mount some embellies on pop-dots for added dimension.

 

 

Here's the finished two-pager.  The left-sided PP, stickers, and accents are from an Echo Park set of paper (last year's summer paper), the title was a Cricut cut, from the H2O cartridge.  Bling from stash.

 

 

Left-sided page. Title is on an SU!/Sizzix die cut (Big Shot).

 

 

Right-sided page.  Sorry for the glare and shadows.  I can't get my good camera (the "real" camera) to cooperate anymore.  My poor Canon Rebel has officially gone to camera heaven :( and these photos are with my son's point-and-shoot, a Canon Powershot or something like that.  It's not the best camera but I digress...

 

 

So that was that for those two-pages... Oh, the left side PP is CTMH. 

 

From there, I decided to try to finish the set of PP and photos from that trip to Port Aransas last summer.  This picture, though not the best, is the only one I got of my parents, my sister, my son and his best friend.  They are all totally calm and enjoying life- how I love this photo.  PP is still Echo Park. I cut "life" from Graphically Speaking and "enjoy" from.... I can't remember!  Twine and buttons are CTMH.  Pinwheel is Little Yellow Bicycle. Washi tape (under the title, by the buttons) from unknown source. 

 

 

 

Ok so for the next two-pager I wanted clouds.  I have a thing for clouds; I'd love to add them to every.single.page that I put out.  LOL.  I stamped some and did fussy cutting; a few others I cut with Cricut's Create a Critter and Graphically Speaking. 

 

 

After stamping and cutting I ran a few through embossing folders:  Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots and Darice's Wave folder.

 

 

Here's another set of CTMH stamped ones that I ran through the embossing folders.  The stamp and the embossing kind of contradict each other.  I'm not sure I like that too much but I kept it anyway. 

 

 

A couple of the clouds still looked too plain so I misted them with Glimmer Mist, one of the chalkboard mists.

 

 

(As a side note, when I did this misting I managed to paint my entire hand, after which I needed to take Nick to get his new eyeglasses.  I hadn't washed my hands.  As we sat waiting I looked down and realized I was turning into a Smurf, a fact which amused Nick to no end).  O.o

 

Aaannnyyywaaaaaay..... :D The sun I cut out with the Cricut also, from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, and ran that through the same Swiss Dots folder. 

 

 

Here is the completed LO.  I believe if you click on it, it will enlarge.  Blogger is not agreeing with me right now...

 

 

Left-sided page.  The "heart summer" and other stamped banners come from a Technique Tuesday/Ali Edwards set.  The title is cut from the Create a Critter cartridge's font.  I wrote "hello" on the title block myself. 

 

 

 

 

After looking at the above photo I decided I didn't like how uniform the clouds looked so I changed the placement: 

 

 

I think I might have over-done it on the clouds altogether, but ah well.  It's done. 

 

Finally, to finish up the set of patterned paper, I found these photos of my son and his best friend hanging out in a regular backyard pool.  I knew I wanted the main photo on a white mat but it was just so stark.  So I inked the edges with some CTMH sky blue.  I *love* that shade of blue.  It's so soft and pretty without looking like a boring pastel. 

 

 

It still looked plain though:

 

 

So I got out a CTMH background stamp:

 

 

Guess I wound up making my own patterned paper.  I like it MUCH better this way.  I still get the white I wanted but it's not so stark and boring. 

 

 

Anybody remember this?  Eyelets and the "must-have" Crop-A-Dile. 

 

 

I was searching for something in storage earlier this week and stumbled upon these eyelets.  Back in the day I *had* to have every shape, size, and color and now there they sit, in a box.  I thought it might feel like a cruel injustice to the eyelets so I brought 'em home and have started to put them to use.  What's funny is that my friend Missus Wookie mentioned eyelets in a blog post earlier this week too.  I tell you, they were all the rage quite a while back and after I had them all (just about, LOL) I stopped using them.  So dumb.  But anyway, I particularly liked these little hearts for the current LO. 

 

 

I cut out the little kid and his floatie from the Cricut H2O cartridge.  All paper, stickers, and accents are Echo Park.  "Pool" is on pop dots, and after snapping this picture that red area is where I journaled.  I did also stamp behind that red journaling spot; it's just extra light with that pretty CTMH Sky Blue ink. 

 

 

Hello, Diving Kid.  :)  Do you see the heart eyelet? 

 

 

And a couple more eyelets.... :D

 

 

 

That's what I have for now.  I made a few cards some nights ago when I couldn't sleep, but I'll post those another time.  Thanks for stopping by and leaving love!