"Grab Button" made by Gill McCall

I would like to give a big shout out and "Thank You" to my friend and talented designer Gill of Creations by Gill M. I would love for you to grab it, place it on your blog, become a follower and of course visit Gill blog and let her know how fabulous her work is. I truly think it is a work of art. Let me know if you did and I will send out a special little something to one lucky blogger.

Hello Friend with Authentique "Journey" Collection and A Giveaway!!!!!!

Hello Friend - it has been a few days since I have placed anything on my blog but my life has been going crazy. My husband and I saw a house last week, fell in love with it and decided to buy it a few days later, with that being said it also means that my honey will be retiring so like I said things here has been a bit crazy. In the days to come I will be sharing some photos of our new/old fixer upper home we fell in love with.

My card that I designed came about because not only did we buy this house but I decided to participate in a "Friend" card exchange. I used the Tim Holtz Rosette for my flower and all of the paper is the Authentique "Journey" Collection that was sent to me for the layout that I posted last week, how sweet is that.

I used a couple of different sentiment stamps to make my tag. The "Hello" comes from the Inkadinkado Chelsea Sentiments Stamp Set and the "Friends" comes from Hero Arts Friends Stamp Set. My twine is from Whisker Graphic (I won this spool from Whisker Graphics and definitely will be getting more). I added the Tim Holtz Hinge Clips to give my card some added detail, along with inking all of the edges with Chestnut Roan ink and adding a blue gemstones to the center of my rosette.

See all of my beautiful cards that I made for the exchange, 15 to be exact. I hope you enjoy my sweet creation for today my dear friends. Please leave a comment, your email and become a follower I will send you a pair of them as a thank you. Have a fabulous day.

Birds and Birdcages Blog Hop August 10 through 12

Today I am participating in the Birds and Birdcage Blog Hop, I hope if you just popped in to see what I am doing you that you will go over to Sandra's 365 Days of Cricut and join us in the Birds and Birdcage Blog Hop. I am sure that you will have a wonderful seeing all of the inspiring projects, tutorials and along the way I am sure there will be some giveaways. I used the Blossom Soup paper pack from Jillibean Soup and Handmade Clear Stamps to do my card in.

Here is a closer look at the tag I made for the front of my card. I colored my stamp birdcage in with Copic Markers G14, V12, V15 AND E35, along with Glossy Accent for the stand and dots on the birdcage.I placed a sticker from SRM Thinking of You on a white piece of card stock and then ran my Chestnut Roan ink over the top of it so it would have a distress look like the rest of my card. My sheer lavender bow was place on with Glue Dots and I added a brad from GCD Studios to finish my card off. I hope I have inspired you to make a fun card to send to a friend and encourage to go to the very talented Laura's at Makin Pretty Things to continue the blog hop.

Princess Themed Blog Hop - My Princess Book with Imaginisce

Welcome to my blog and the Princess Blog Hop. If you happen to stumble upon my Blog and would like to play along please do so by starting at Sylvia's blog over at www.bellascrapbookdesigns.blogspot.com. If you came from the very talented Haidee's Created 2 Bunique then you are heading in the right direction. I hope that you will enjoy the Princess Castle Book that I made for the hop and be patient with all of the photos that I placed on my blog today. I took a KaiserCraft 4 page book and made more pages and inserts for it. My plans are to do a dress up album on my 5 year old grand daughter after Christmas with all of her princess clothes on.

Here are some clear charms that are on one the top rings of my book, they are a bit hidden in all of the ribbon and lace that I tied on the rings.

This is the front on the KaiserCraft Book, I added some Hambly overlays and made sure when I covered the back of the book that you were able to see through the windows.

The Back of the front of the book, I used the Imaginisce Enchanted Collection of paper, rub on, etc.

I love to doddle so I did the border with a Signo White Pen, this is the first of the pages that I cut from Chipboard and added to the KaiserCraft Book.

The back side of the page, I used more of the Hambly Overlay and some felt green ribbon and gemstones

I added a large metal Blessed title to this page that I made from chipboard.

This is the back side of the page, my flower is made from two different size scallop circles, I cut toward the center of each of each of the circles to form the circle and added a brad to the center.

Here is the second of the original book, I added a ribbon and a ribbon slide to the bottom of my page

I used a Snag'Em Stamp from the Enchanted collection and colored it in with my water colored pencils.

Here is another page that I cut from chipboard and added to the book.

I added some more of the Hambly Overlay with a rub on from the collection.

On this page that I added I made an insert pocket to give a little more interest to my book and also give a secret hiding place.

See it just slides in behind the photo mat that I made.

This is the back side of the page. On chipboard "Play All Day" I added a little Glossy Accent to give the word "ALL" a little pop off the page.

The third page of the original book I added two photo mats, rub ons and some gemstones to the bottom. On the turrets I made windows out of a paper doilies, I also did the roof using the scraps from the doilies.

The back side of the page, I added a rub on to the left side of the page and place a border down the middle so I would know where to place my photo when I was ready.

I added some more doodle lines to this page that I made from Chipboard and added a rub on carriage to the left side.

On the back side I added a My Minds Eye rub on.

and then on the corresponding page continued with the rub on from the package.

Of course this is an extra page that I added to the book.

And here is the backside of the page along with another rub on from the Imaginisce Enchanted collection.

This is the last page of the original KaiserCraft Book. I did some fussy cut flowers on the bottom of my photo mat. You can actually see through the window that I placed the Hambly Overlay in.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my Castle book as much as I had making it for my little "Princess". Your next stop on the Princess Themed Blog Hop is with the fabulous Laura at Sunflower Creations.

A Happy Family Journal

I love this time of year.... it is time to buy school supplies and with it you get great buys on Composition Books - of course I had to buy just a few. I took one of these fabulous books, covered and decorated it with the Blissful Collection from Authentique Papers but every book should have some kind of purpose, mine will be a book of my families favorite things. I started with our oldest son and his family while we were on vacation and ask did interviews with him, his darling wife, and our 3 grandchildren's. I ask them all question like...what is your favorite song, movie, book, game, who is your best friend, what is your favorite color and the list was just random asking but as they answered I just kept writing. In my journal I am going to place some reprints of my favorite photos of each of them and of course I will add the list of each of their favorite things.

Did you notice the large round flower, it has been awhile since I shared this technique with you so I thought I would go through it again today. First, you start by tearing a circle the size you will will need. Remember you can make them as big or as small as you like, I have two different sizes on the front of my book.

Second, you will tear the circle to form a spiral and last take a pair of tweezers and roll it around a pair of tweezers. Carefully take the circle off the tweezers and glue it to the center of the circle bottom and just like that you have a beautiful flower made.

Once I had "A happy family is but an earlier Heaven" glued into place I added my spiral flowers to the front of the book. Did you notice the white lace ribbon, make sure to place it down first and your black gathered twill before you glue these flowers down. I then added my Prima Say It with Crystal gemstones, Nostalgic Clear Buttons, fussy cut flowers and Birdcage to the form the collage to the left of the journal block.

I added some more fussy cut flowers to the lower right corner along with a small bird that came with the birdcage.

Here is a side view of the book, it has tabs that I took from the Excerpts sheet to create them. I plan to use my book over the next 5 years, doing the interviews over the summer months when we are with each of them.
I hope you enjoyed my journal and have fun with the idea that I have shared, what a fun what to look back and see what what their likes were when they are 20 or so years old.

Follow Your Dreams-Authentique Collection

Today I did a layout of my husband and I using Authentique Journey Collection. I called my layout "Follow Your Dreams" because when I met my husband we were 16 years old, we met in high school and decided to get married even after our parent tried as much as they could to suggest we wait a bit. My husband has always been a "Dreamer" ever since our youth and we set a path at that time of where we were and where we were going to try to go. We celebrated 37 years in this photo last year and still we are still dreaming and looking forward to the future.
I fell in love with the Authentique paper because it reminded me of the importance of being "authentic", so I used the print out on the bar code and used it in my layout, stapled it to the top on a Tim Holtz Adage Ticket and added it to the top of our photo.

Do you see the "The Journey is the Reward" it also came from the bar code. I felt it was perfect for my layout because I feel so rewarded an so blessed to have a husband and best friend with Calvin. I added a Tim Holtz Clock Face and Hand to give the idea of the importance of time. The calender is a Maya Road Kraft Calender that I circled on our wedding anniversary. I added some fussy cut strips from the Authentique paper, elements and blue gemstones to complete my layout.

Supplies:

Authentique Tabloids, Foundations, Journey:Explore, Headlines Elements

My Minds Eye Coastal Comfort Rub Ons

Tim Holtz; Clock Face, Hands and Adage Ticket

Maya Road Kraft Calendar

Vintage Heartfelt Designs Beach Challenge

Today is the Vintage Heartfelt Designs Beach Challenge and we were asked to make a tag using vintage swimsuits. I selected the Graphic 45 Boardwalk "By The Beautiful Sea" to use as my focus swimsuits. I thought they fit perfectly with the vintage theme.
I have a group of friends that I did a beach theme charm swap with and this purple sea glass charm is one I received. So I decided to incorporate it on my tag. I think it makes a marvelous embellishment to my tag, thanks to my talented friend Pam Henry.
Here is a closer look at the bottom of my tag, can you see where I took my Tim Holtz distressing tool, Distress inks and Tiny Attacher to give it some extra character. I also made sure that my images and ribbon floated off the tag so it would look so rectangular.
Here is my second tag, using the ladies from the "By The Beautiful Sea" paper. My tags are 5"x8". I plan to use them on some future layouts.
Here is a little closer look at the accordion ribbon and the distress pieces. I added a brad from GCD Studios and placed some of my fussy cut pieces up on pop dots to give added dimension. Anyone that knows me know I am not a fan of flat pages, tags or projects. :)
Make sure to visit all of the DT Blogs for Vintage Heartfelt Designs. You will have lots of inspired projects, tutorials and even some blog candy to be gathered along the way.