Week 3

I know its only the end of January, but I am really happy about the progress I am making with this 52 week challenge I'm doing. I have four current weeks completed and am keeping notes on this week to do something this weekend. I'm also way exceeding my month goal of scrapbooking which is always very exciting to me. I should have done this idea years ago, haha!
So here's my Week 3 page for you to enjoy! and not surprisingly, more Pool Party! haha!

Supplies: My Digital Studio Software

Sending Mail

Michelle had this button on her blog that intrigued me...but as I read thru her recent posts she explained it all and sent readers HERE for even more information! I highly recommend you check it out too!
Anyway, I thought it was a fabulous idea! I too have a huge stash of cards ready to be sent

and I'm totally in this clean-out-and-organize mode right now, so moving some cards out would be lovely, haha! Also, I love writing!! When I was a kid I once wrote letters to every one of my aunts, uncles and cousins in hopes that somebody would write me back! (oh my dad was thrilled to pay for the postage...and that's when it was 27 cents a stamp...sniff...ahhh the good old days....) A few cousins and even a couple of aunts wrote back, and a few cousins wrote regularly, but no one could seem to keep up with me writing until my bff moved to another state. Then we wrote each other at least a letter a week, even after she moved back! I had pen-pals too, from all over.

and then I surrendered to my friends telling me I needed email.
bye-bye letters in the mail!
bye-bye legible handwriting!
hello no more postage! haha....

But you know what? I am joining this month of daily mail challenge! I started the year off with a tally of how many cards I was sending out anyway (along with my scrapbook goals on the bottom of my sidebar) in hopes of motivating me to send more! And this is perfect!!

What about you? Do you ever mail out the cards you make? Do you want to join in this fun of thinking of people individually and letting them know? Its gonna be fuuunnnn!!!! *grin

Week 2

Another snowy day at my house! Perfect for staying inside and making pretty things...but I think I'll be too busy for that. Another day for sure!
Today's digitally scrapped page is my Week 2 layout for my 2013 project. I've had it done since the night of the 13th, but I was waiting to show off a page I have not yet made that will go with it, lol. But today I'm posting this and I'll share part B when I get a chance.

This one I think is the most time-consuming for my week pages (I've got 4 done so far). I wanted more of a blurred look to the edges of the DP, but that didn't work out at all. Its okay because I do like how it turned out. *smile. 

It was a very busy week with lots of pictures, which always makes a layout more interesting! The DP, ribbon and button all come from the 2013 Sale-A-Bration disk, and you can get it either as the content disk or as a package of paper or a package of ribbons and buttons! Which will you get?

A paper layout!

With all the digital scrapbooking I've been doing lately, it was nice to go thru photos and scrapbook a double layout! This was for my workshop to feature coloring the stamped image, as well as simple scrapbooking, and this layout is suuuuper simple!

I just have two strips of very fun paper from the Spring Mini catalog, a single stamped image that I colored in, and a button! Quick, cute and done! haha!

Supplies:
Stamps: Life Shared
Ink: Basic Gray
Paper: Whisper White, Cajun Craze, Daffodil Delight textured card stock, Parker's Prints DP
Accessories: Brights Buttons, Mini Glue Dots, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens

Make & Take Plus!

Hello! So I had my workshop Saturday and we had lots of fun! The make & take featured Sale-A-Bration items as well as my new Big Shot and the stamp set I got with my birthday discount!

{Want a birthday discount?? Now is an excellent time to join my team and become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!! If you join before March 22, you can choose 25% more product as part of your starter kit!!}

We made this card:

Supplies:

Stamps: Creative Elements, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Tangerine Tango

Paper: Pool Party & Whisper White card stocks, Sycamore Street DP (Sale-A-Bration Only!)

Accessories: Sycamore STreet Ribbon & Button (Sale-A-Bration Only!), White Baker's Twine, Chevron Embossing Folder, Big Shot

 

and here's the version I made as my show-sample while I was prepping and doing too many other things at once... lol! I forgot about embossing it and I stamped it before adding the ribbon, lol. I decided it worked well as showing things you can do to step it up if you want, haha, and it did.

 Then, before the sun came out so I could take pictures, I was browsing sketches and realized that the left over card supplies would fit the newest Freshly Made Sketches perfectly! ha! How lucky is that? And it gave me a chance to play with different stamp images!

(supplies the same except I used Island Indigo marker for the frame)

 

So there's 3 cards in one post using all the same supplies, except the big shot!
Happy Monday!!

The final two

June is a page I love- I love that it features so many photos and doesn't look cluttered. I love the rounded corner photo boxes Stampin' Up! has added to their digital photo layouts. And I like the simple touch of green as the background for June.

May...I'll be honest, I don't like this page, haha. The pictures are great- that one of my nephew on his blessing day is absolutely adorable! I played and played over and over trying to make this page work out. I used different colors, different stamps...and called it quits. When I showed my mom this, she liked it. Its her project, it's staying! hahaha! And no more fiddling required!

Also, May uses stamps from the 2013 Sale-A-Bration content disk! What are you waiting for?? This stuff is so cute, and you get it for FREE!

ReColor It!

My July page is quite simple, but I used some color matching to create it. I chose more subtle shades of red, white and blue to allow emphasis on the months' birthdays, over the holiday. I picked a shade of blue found in my daughter's shirt, and then the red came from my nieces shirt. Now the photos and the page color-coordinate and none of it is too overpowering!

And this is the March page for my mom's project. I don't *love* the page but I like it well enough. I recolored the ribbon and I recolored the flowers...quite a bit of work actually, but I am happy with it. The colors anyway, lol. I'm not sure what it is I don't love, but ya know, you win some, you lose some, you move on, haha!

Orange Pages

This weekend was a busy one! I managed to get the month pages done for my mom's calendar project! Now I need to come up with a cover and do the grids for each month, and then we're set! And I've done 14 scrapbook pages this month and that makes me quite happy!

I happened to notice in my Splitcoaststampers.com Gallery that in recent weeks my scrapbooking is all based around the colors Pool Party and Baja Breeze. HMM. I must be in a cool blue mood with these frigid temperatures, haha! So for today's calendar post I went with some oranges- the opposite of cool blue!

This is the August page. Initially, I saw how cute it was that I got these pics of the four oldest grandkids enjoying a creamsicle outside...and then at the pool! Except...we have three birthdays in August, and none of them are these kiddos. Soo I fit in four more shots that worked out pretty well, and matted it on the bright blue and I seriously love it! The little tags ended up the perfect touch!

Supplies:

My Digital Studio: Background paper is from Hoppy Memories, Pacific Point is the shade of blue, buttons and leafy patterns come from the 2013 Sale-A-Bration disk- which YOU can earn FREE beginning today!!!

 

And here is the October page. Not a lot of stamps or accessories on this one because there were too many photos to choose from, haha! But, I did recolor the word/thread part of the lower spider so that I could "erase" it! handy, huh??

A February Page!

Here is the February calendar page.
February is my mom's birthday and since this project is for her to give to a few family members, she is in every photo, and purple is her favorite color! The ribbon was originally Island Indigo and it and the two small stamps come from the 2013 Sale-A-Bration disk. (That means you could get them FREE on a disk of your own or! Free as a ribbon or a stamp set!)
I must say, doing this project tells me who we need to take pictures of together...! Wonder what you will discover when you start scrapbooking... *grin!

Supplies: My Digital Studio, 2013 Sale-A-Bration Content Disk

Christmas Thank You's!

It was high time these were made and mailed!! My son made his thank you cards two weeks ago and my daughter wrote most of her thank you letters then too- what's with mom?! My parents gave me this stamp set for Christmas so what better set to use for Chrsitmas thank yous? And since the stamp set is now retired (rude!) I used card "kits" from past years that include retired items, haha. Oh well. Back to current things another time!

First up, THIS sketch from Retro Sketches.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Memories
Ink: Early Espresso, Gumball Green marker, Real Red marker
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Gumball Green, First Edition DP
Accessories: Gumball Green stitched ribbon, Brights Buttons, White Bakers Twine, Mini Glue Dots

This card uses a sketch I was directed to that is HERE, on Craft Project Central.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Memories, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Pool Party marker, Lucky Limeade marker, Wisteria Wonder marker, Island Indigo marker, Soft Suede marker, Early Espresso marker
Paper: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, Whisper White, First Edition DP
Accessories: White Bakers Twine, Mat Pack, retired corduroy Baja Breeze button

And the third card uses a sketch I've seen a few bloggers use in the past week or so, so I added the site to my list over ---> and yeay- more card challenges for me! LOL!

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Memories
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Pear Pizazz (retired), Soft Suede, Very Vanilla card stocks
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens, retired soft suede ribbon

And a September page!

One more page for mom's project!
I really love how this page turned out. I wanted to use all these leafy-kid pictures and I needed more people and thought these photos fit well. I love how the stamped leaves worked out too. Its a simple page for sure, but I'm happy with it.

Supplies: My Digital Studio, 2013 Sale-A-Bration disk (cajun craze, summer starfruit & old olive inks)

A November Page

Nope, I am not doing these pages in order! Backwards maybe, but not really. haha... One of these days I promise to use paper, really! I have other projects to do...I just need time and not to be sick! But here is a really quick November page for my mom's calendar project!

Supplies:

My Digital Studio, recoloring tool on the ribbon! 

A December Page

I sure like My Digital Studio. I can sit in front of the tv with my nice warm laptop and create something even when I'm too tired to move, ha! This page is another for the calendar project for my mom. Handy that we just took some fun Christmas pictures!

I really like the Christmas page with the blue, and the snowman. I think it works well with the chalkboard-y tag too. *grin!

Supplies:

My Digital Studio, freebie & recoloring tool on circle image

Just what you're looking for!

Stampin' Up! has introduced a new and fabulous idea: Paper Pumpkin!

I'm Paper Pumpkin . . .
I come to your door each month (a fully decked-out creativity carriage). I'll help you to escape your life with some paper fun. All the stamps, ink, paper, and accessories to create pinable projects. Create stuff like cards, journals, décor, and more! Paper Pumpkin by Stampin' Up! is a new monthly kit program that anyone (even you) can enjoy!
 
It's so easy to get started. Simply sign up for the program starting Monday, January 14 (today!!) by visiting www.mypaperpumpkin.com and click Get it. Every month a new, surprise project kit arrives at your doorstep. Just think of the anticipation of creating a fun project to pin, showoff, and share with your friends and family-every month! Each month we send you a unique, surprise kit with a project-cards, journals, décor, and more! (We've even color-coordinated, measured, and cut everything for you!) Each kit gives you a 30-minute creativity escape!
Check out the website, select me (Tanya Harvey) as your demonstrator and contact me if you have any questions!

Scrapbooking for the Overwhelmed!

In my blog travels this year, I came across Kim's blog, which as far as I can tell is 100% scrapbooking. One of her scrapbook projects is a page for each week of a year. I've also seen a few other people discuss this plan and I think its the best idea ever! Maybe you'd like to give it a shot too?

If you're anything like me, you're snapping photos of all kinds of events and every day life, and then when you want to scrapbook you have so many choices it can be very difficult to find a starting point. Not to mention it's hard to ever be caught up on scrapbooking because there were too many events at one time to stay on top of, or there are too many photos from years past that you want to showcase as well. If you try this idea, and stick with it for a year, you will at least have highlighted the most important events of 2013 and that is what I plan to do! I will be using My Digital Studio for the whole thing so that I can work on each week each weekend, or whenever I have a chance, without having to wait for photos to be printed, or any other excuses, haha.

(I have scrapbooks for my son and scrapbooks for my daughter, but the last time I made the slightest dent in my scrapbooks was around the time my daughter was born! sniff! So the weekly pages will go towards my books!)

And here is my page for Week 1 of 2013! 

Mojo Bird!

Look! I'm playing with a sketch, on time! haha! This card is one I put together yesterday, using the Mojo Monday sketch for the week. I didn't stamp anything, but I did use the new DP from the Spring Mini - which is now on my sidebar incase you don't have a copy of your own!

Supplies:
Paper: Parker DP, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Bird Punch, White stitched grosgrain ribbon, Daffodil thin taffeta ribbon

I finished this card up just as my kids were coming in the door from school. While they did homework I was cleaning everything up, but my daughter begged me to teach her how to make this card. Umm.... So I threw together an impromptu "card class", haha! She tried to make her's the same as mine and then asked me to please make it a blog post, hee hee. So here she is creating, and with the finished product!

 

Another Calendar Page

Tonight I got a second page done for the newest 2013 calendar. I chose to do April because I liked the photos I selected for it...I'm still waiting to see if there are other photos I want to use. And after MUCH fiddling with punches to make the grass look like grass against the sky, I ended up using an edge stamp! ha! The eggs turned out so fun, and I loved that I could recolor the "little" on the word stamp! So much fun!

Supplies: My Digital Studio

My New Toy!

I've had to fight Blogger for several days to get it to allow me to load pictures, but its finally working now...I think, haha!
~~~~~
What did you get for Christmas? Anything crafty? I sure did!! My parents gave me a great stamp set and a very nice Bigz Die
becaaaaause
my husband gave me the Big Shot! :) (and I got myself the Chevron embossing folder!)

I really haven't had a lot of time for crafting since I finished Christmas cards and calendars last month. However, I wanted to give the Big Shot a try! My mom had purchased the Spider Web embossing folder quite some time ago (which we used HERE) so while I was at her house for Christmas break, I tried it too. The thing is, my mom houses all of my retired supplies, and that includes card stocks. Sooo for this project, I used Crushed Curry and Really Rust, which are both retired colors, but are still perfectly useful -giggle.

I decided to emboss two of the leaves, with each of the folders. Can you even tell the little leaf has a spider web pattern on it? Even if you can, it works out nicely.

 

The Big Shot is really fun! I wonder what else I'll get to play with, hahaha!  

Supplies:

Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry (retired), Really Rust (retired)

Accessories: Linen Thread, Chevron Embossing folder, Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Big Shot