Fun tip for die cutting felt

One of my challenges I'm hosting at the Scrap Galaxy cyber crop is Felt Frenzy. The challenge is to create your own felt embellishments. While experimenting, I made the following discoveries:

1. Plain old felt doesn't die cut very well. It needs one side to be somewhat stiff. You can:
* buy self adhesive felt
* use Strano Designs Ribbon Stiff (but it will take a lot because the felt will soak it up).
* use another stiffening agent such as {Stiffen Stuff by Beacon}. Spray it on one side of the felt and let dry. Then die cut as you would with paper. This stuff works GREAT on ribbon and fabric too. I bought a bottle at AC Moore about 3 years ago and still have plenty left. I believe it's available at Jo-Anns as well.
* 2 words....packaging tape. Yes! It is wonderful for this technique. Just cover the die cut area with packaging tape (I happened to use clear) then die cut. The packaging tape lends to a much cleaner cut...and it makes it easier to apply the felt because the glue dots or adhesive doesn't get felt remnants all over it. :)

The layout here is simple. Very little embellishments. I simply want to show my felt leaves. I took a black pen to the felt to highlight the center vein of the leaves. Gotta say, I am really enjoying playing with the felt. I would love to see if anyone else is experimenting with felt. It has many possibilites. My challenge was to create a felt embellishment - however you'd like. Stamp on it and cut it out. Cut portions of the design out of several colors and layer parts of the design. Hand stitch the edges of the felt. Highlight parts of the design on the felt with stickles. The sparkle adds a nice touch to the softness of the felt.

Dare ya to try it. And if you do - please come post here and let me know where I can take a peek!

Older product - newer look!

This is a layout I did as a demonstration for this month's technique challenge at ScrapGalaxy. I love scalloped paper and wanted to challenge everyone to make their own with their circle punches (or pinked edges with square punches or photo corner punches). I had to take a photo of the layout because I had some serious layering going on on the left side. I layered 3 flowers with 2 chipboard stars over a chipboard flourish that has rhinestones on it. Needless to say - that doesn't scan well. :) I used some old Chatterbox product (trying to be good and use up some stash!), Prima, Fancy Pants, American Crafts, Heidi Swapp and a Krylon Silver Leafing Pen. I hope everyone had a great weekend!
(**Click on the images for a better view**)

Blending the old with new

* This was a personal challenge for myself. I wanted to use a combination of old (some of it is very old!) and new product. This layout features primarily Rusty Pickle products as it was one of the layouts I designed for the RP Amazing Race. I decided to submit a different layout simply because, although it is a simpler layout, the picture on the other layout really sells the product better. This layout features 7 different Rusty Pickle papers. Can you find them all? It also features 3 styles of their their chipboard, a file folder, punch out parenthesis and even one of the Easter stickers. The alpha stamps are Fontwerks, the chipboard alphas are Scenic Route (painted with Adirondack dabber paints) and I added ribbon, lace trim, tag altered with walnut ink and rhinestones.

The title is "Your 5 minutes are up!" and the journaling on the tag says:

So much for picture taking. I asked for just 5 minutes. By the time I got this shot, I gathered that you were trying to tell me that my 5 minutes was up!

Some recent projects

Here are a few recent layouts/projects I've done. The card was for a friend of mine that I play Bunco with. Her baby shower was this past Saturday so I whipped this together real quick with some American Crafts pp and flower, Doodlebug paper frills, Technique Tuesday stamps, and a cheapie stamp from Michaels.

Then I decided to work on the Pubcalls Manufacturer's Challenge for Queen & Co. The first being a magnetic memo board. I attached the scalloped paper to a metal board from Target's $1 spot. It came with the little magnet discs...so I just attached those to the flowers.

And here are 2 layouts using some of the yummy products from Queen & Co. The first one "sing" was using one of my favorite pictures of Lindsay. I've actually scrapped it before, but I felt the need to use it again. :) Papers are from Chatterbox and MME/Kaleidoscope. Borders are watercolor pencils blended with a water pen and highlighted with a black pen. All the flowers, brads, photo anchors and chipboard letters are Queen & Co.

The 2nd layout is a photo of Lindsay when she was just a wee 5 months old. My how time flies. Papers are Karen Foster, Creative Imaginations (LOVE the new Anthology line!) and pink flowers (QuicKutz Revolution die cut) were die cut from Junkitz paper. The top left flower I spent forever on because I adhered those tiny beads as an accent on the flower petals. Queen & Co. products used include: Beadifuls, Bon-Bons, Fontastics (I punched lots of little circles with my mini hole punch and glued them to painted chipboard alphabets), Mini Sprinkles and Fab Flowers.

Thanks for looking :) Nighty-night everyone.

Supergirls can fly!

**ETA**This layout has been removed for publication

I just finished this layout - and while it's not usually my style, I actually kinda - well, love it. You can't tell very well, but Jess is wearing a black shirt with a big superman style S on the front. I scanned her t-shirt and printed it to put on the layout (top right photo). The title is Supergirls can fly! and the journaling reads:

All you need is your supergirl t-shirt and a swing for the transformation into an instant superhero. You are a supergirl, and yes, you can fly! You lean over the swing seat and start pushing off the ground to make the swing move. You love to hold your arms out and close your eyes so you can pretend like you are flying.

Happy Valentines Day!!

I love Valentines day. For no other reason but that it reminds us of the ones we love and more importantly - it reminds us to show and tell others how much we love them. I don't think that happens enough in this world. So all my friends and family that are reading this - please know how much you mean to me - I love you!

I wanted to wish my hubby a happy Valentines Day and tell him how much I love him. Tom...thank you for being such a wonderful husband and friend. Thank you for being the most amazing father to our girls who love you to the moon and back. Thank you for being the hard-working man that you are. You are amazing - and truly the man of my dreams! I love you with all my heart!

So - what are your plans for Valentines? A special dinner? Exchanging gifts? I know Tom and I are planning to go to the hibachi tonight with the kids. I got the girls a little Valentines gift that we'll give them when Tom comes home from work. Then we'll head out to Wasabi for a fun evening. The girls love watching the hibachi chefs do their thing - and seriously, I think the chef's enjoy making the girls giggle. They act like kids themselves...making their onion volcanoes and flipping shrimp into their hats while making bad jokes. If you've never been to a hibachi, I highly recommend it. It makes for a great evening out. Tom and I always split the surf & turf and I'm certain tonight will be no exception. Yummy!

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I also wanted to share a couple hybrid projects I have just done. You'll have to let me know what you think. I'm still new to the hybrid thing - but gotta tell you how much I'm loving it!

The first project is the altered heart at the top of this post. The scalloped heart is by Making Memories. I printed out digital papers (free Rhonna Farrer digital kits at 2peas - Feb2007 and April 2006) to cover it with and added the BasicGrey ribbon, Prima crystal flourishes, Heidi Swapp stamp and ghost flowers, and an Autumn Leaves rhinestone brad.

Last night I made this: **ETA** Project removed for publication

I bought this Asian inspired double canvas funky looking picture at Marshalls. I ripped both of the canvases off and coated them twice with Gesso to cover up the rich reds, golds and black colors. I painted the frame background a dark brown then went back to the canvases. I painted the sides with acrylic paint and then applied some Tea Dye Varnish to match the distressed look of the digital papers. I then created both of the layouts in Adobe Photoshop Elements, printed them off on cardstock and embellished with gathered ribbon, chipboard monogram, rhinestones and a stamp or two. Digital supplies are as follows: LiquoriceRevamped papers 1, 3, 4 and 6 from Scrapbook Bytes (designed by Vera Lim), the flourish was also purchased at Scrapbook Bytes and is by Trish Jones. The photo edges3 are by Rhonna Farrer from the Designing With Digital CD. The blue digital paper was a freebie found at Scrap Chic Studio called Bliss Mini Kit - designed by Mindy Wade.

Thanks for stopping by today - I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines Day! MWAH!

I *heart* Technique Tuesday

Seriously - Technique Tuesday has some really awesome stamps that I love using. And of course, now I am totally addicted to their Technique Tiles FUNdamentals line. Their chipboard products are so cool. I entered a few things for the Pub Calls Mfg. Challenge and here they are:

Funny - the card looks the most simple yet it was actually the most time consuming because I stamped the 3 parts of each paisley on different papers and cut them out by hand. I had a little hand cramping going on after cutting around all those little scallops. Since the paisleys were so detailed I wanted to keep the rest of the card very simple. I am wishing I had some of their smaller alpha stamps for the "bon voyage" but I didn't. :( I think it's kinda funny though how such beautiful paisley designs can look so much like a starfish! I knew it wasn't just me when my 6 year old walked in my scraproom and said, "cool starfish mom" (*smile*).

Not doing so great on the Autumn Leaves calendar just yet. I've been busy with - well, shopping. LOL Tom and I finally got our Christmas present to each other. A new mattress and bedroom furniture. Our old mattress was so bad - we desperately needed another one. And since we never did get a whole collection of matching bedroom furniture, we decided to bite the bullet and spring for new stuff. Honestly, I wasn't totally beside myself thrilled with the new stuff when we were at the store. Now that it's in my house though, it is growing on me and I'm loving it more every day. I think part of it was that I was in love with another set. The nightstands, dresser and armoire were gorgeous. But the bed was just not right for us. So I had to suck it up and agree on something else. Which, of course, I have a knack at falling in love with the stuff that is the most expensive. In the end, we found a beautiful sleigh bed and it looks gorgeous in our bedroom. So now I'm looking for new bedding. Tom has always teased me that our comforter would be too hot for an Eskimo. He isn't kidding either. That thing is so hot that we're both miserable. Time for a new one. I value my sleep too much these days.

Well, enough out of me already...hope you all have a great day. Do something nice for a stranger today. Hold a door open, help them if they drop something, go through the cash lane so you can pay the toll for the person behind you. Those are just a few ideas I have myself. I will be looking for my opportunity today to give a complete stranger a reason to smile. :)

Autumn Leaves DW2007 calendar challenges

I've decided that since I actually have the Autumn Leaves Designing With 2007 calendar, I may as well do something with it. So as of today, January 11th - I am going to attempt to do these challenges. So - to get things started, the challenge today was to create a dimensional, tone-on-tone title. Now, I cheated a wee bit by putting the green circle in there...but I left the actual title tone-on-tone. The title reads like a vanity license plate in case you're wondering. ;)

At any rate, I love the moment I captured with this picture of Jessica and love all the Chatterbox product here (Chatterbox papers and chipboard just make me happy!) so naturally, I am pretty pleased with my layout. :)

hat*ti*tude

Just sharing a layout this time. I've been loving the pics of Jess in her hats so much - and I loved this paper with the colors in the photo.

Also - a question was posted at Cropper's Cottage about scrapbook supply organization. Lots of great threads there! I need serious help in this department. I try so hard to be organized...but soon after I clean up my room, I get the creative juices flowing, start creating...then it ends up being a total disaster again. Anyhoo - I thought I'd share one of the organizational methods I use. I have tons and tons of flowers and many of them came in little glass jars (Primas). They are so pretty in their little jars, but something had to be done. So I have some glass jars that I have dumped them all into. Now, some of these came off of a Prima 'spice rack'. I hated to get rid of those babies, so they are now holding a few of my generic spools of ribbon. The bar in the front just works perfectly for holding all the ribbon in place after cutting a length. Check it out:

aaargh! this cough!

2 posts in 2 days...can you believe it?
So - I have had this cough now for awhile but it's getting to the point where I'm coughing so hard that I feel like I'm going to throw up. Sorry for the mental picture...but I'm sure many of you have been there...done that. My poor stomach muscles are so sore from coughing so much - although that's probably good for the muscles to get a little workout! haha I've tried a bunch of different cough remedies but nothing really works very well. I'm sticking with Delsym since it's a 12 hour medicine. At least then I only have to swallow that nastiness twice a day. AND it definitely isn't as harsh tasting as the other medicines. I would really really like for this cough to go away!!

I went to my Bunco Christmas party last night and came home stuffed. Great food from all the ladies that were there and we also did the white elephant thing. I got a little bag of Yankee Candle stuff and it was really cute. I so enjoy the white elephant game when the gifts are actually good gifts and not gag gifts.

Sharing another layout. I did this one using Fancy Pants although it wasn't one of my entries. I did use a touch of Heidi Swapp in there...I heat embossed the ghost letters with silver embossing powder and in person - they are very shiny. Love how they turned out. I also used the new Ranger paint daubers on the corrugated paper and around the photo mat - and also around the chipboard. That is really where those things come in handy. Covering chipboard with paint has never been so easy and mess free.

Here's wishing all of you a wonderful weekend. I plan on finishing up some Christmas shopping and we STILL need to take the girls to see Santa! Maybe we'll do that today. Enjoy today!

all I want for Christmas

...is my 2 front teeth.

no, not me. Lindsay. She has now lost 6 teeth - and she just turned 6 about 8 weeks ago. She is feeling rather rich - losing a few teeth in a row like that. The tooth fairy leaves her $1 per tooth - which seems like enough for a 6 year old. I know people that leave up to $5 per tooth. That seems excessive to me...but that's just me.


Since we've been out of town, and now that I'm suffering from a terrible cough...I haven't posted any layouts lately. So I'm going to do just that right now. The first being a layout of Lindsay looking all shy...which, as I stated on the layout, doesn't fool me! The last thing she is - is shy! I used a lot of Queen & Co. on this one:

This next layout is one I did a couple months ago. I love it because of the raw emotion. I typically love pictures of my girls smiling because seeing them smile makes me smile. But in this photo, Jessica is looking rather solemn. I printed the photo in black and white just to focus on the emotion. I love how it turned out. Lots of Scenic Route products on this one:

I have a few layouts I've done this last week - but I'm not quite ready to post them yet. Will post them soon though. I will be submitting my entry for the Fancy Pants Design Team call tomorrow. I actually already have everything done, but I'm wanting to do a couple more layouts so I can submit the 4 best. I love Fancy Pants. They have really evolved and have a great line up of products. I love chipboard...and their 12" chipboard packs (Biggest Board) are awesome! It would be wonderful to be on their Design Team and get to work with all their fabulous products. Thinking happy thoughts ;)

2 new layouts

I had a crop at my house last night and despite the nonstop laughter and goofiness - I managed to get 2 layouts done. Cheryl (one of the croppers) swore there was something in the coffee creamer that was making us all giddy. But no - I think it's just that we are so excited to sit and crop together. It's such a happy event. I love crops. But I didn't go to bed until 3:30 am and I am definitely feeling it today.

The first one 'april showers' is actually mounted on a piece of white cardstock for a nice little border - but you can't tell on this white background. The 2nd one - thank you Cari for making me see the light on this one (wink) - must've been that coffee.

Quote for the day: Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. ~George Bernard Shaw

more layouts, more pictures!

My last post had a layout from the pumpkin patch in 2005 - so this time I'll post the layout I did for this years' trip to the patch using the photos I posted in the last post. This was for a sketch challenge at The Scrapyard. I've done an occassional 8 1/2" x 11" sized layout - but I've never done an 8 1/2" x 11" 2 pager (*gasp*)- so this was a new thing for me.

Now for more wonderful photos. Obviously I'm a bit partial since these are pics of my daughter - but she's just so darn cute! I can't stop looking at these pictures!

Ok - so aside from the ketchup on her kisser - could she be any cuter? Now these pictures I just took today - and again, I couldn't be happier with how they turned out: