Scrapbooking

Father’s Day is just around the corner and I know you’re wanting to get that special man something wonderful. This is where the Heartfelt Creations Sweet Serenity Collection comes into play. Yes, at first glance, this paper does NOT look masculine in any way, shape, or form, but I promise that you can make it manly with a twist of fancy…ahem…dare I say fancy and manly in the same sentence? You betcha! I don’t know about you, but my Father is IMPOSSIBLE to shop for. I think I may have mentioned this on more than one occasion. Impossible. Since I will be in the middle of moving and unloading boxes in my new Texas home, I wanted something easy to send to him that I know he can get what he wants. What does that mean? Yes, you’re right. A giftcard. Gift cards are a little impersonal, so let’s get this decorative holder going to show that you really do think of him and spend time on his gifts (although you don’t have to spend hours). Start with your QuicKuts Pocket Envelope, make it snazzy, and walah! Father’s Day complete. Products used: HCDP1 231 - Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch 12×12 paper Collection DC0404 – QuicKutz Pocket Envelope 7501 – Want2Scrap – Swirls Rhinestones Black 202 – 1/4″ Scor-tape Black Ink CR-03745 – JustRite Summer Words Stamps Also in this beautiful collection comes the Vintage floret stamp, which I couldn’t pass up in making a card. This is just incredibly gorgeous and so fun to make. It looks like you’ve spent a ton of time, but really haven’t because the product does all the work for you. I like to color in the details on stamps like these to give it more color and dimension. I used a fine tip marker to make the flowers pop and draw more attention to the center. Also a great Father’s Day card idea! Products used: HCDP1 231 - Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch 12×12 paper Collection HCPC3522 – Vintage Floret Frae Precut Set HCD 731 – Heartfelt Creations Decorative Leafy Frame HCPC 3523 – Feathered Friends Precut Set HCPC-3524 – Butterfly and Bunny Precut Set DC0284 – QuicKuts Nesting Butterflies 6046 – Baby Bling Rhinestones 202 – 1/4″ Scor-Tape Black Ink Sharpie Thanks and Happy Scrappin’! Stacy

We took advantage of the golden hour at sunset and took some pictures with our babe. He wasn’t very happy about my photo op plans. The thing is, his golden hour is about 3:18 am. Too bad it’s completely dark outside and I can hardly see straight at that hour. Thank goodness we can adapt… even to the hardest situations. Even when yesterday I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed momentarily and shedding some tears alone in the bathroom… there’s still nothing I would rather be doing. Well, sitting on a beach in Mexico sounds heavenly… but taking care of a baby boy that’s entrusted to me is pretty spectacular. I’m glad to know that my one-handed skills are still very intact since my last baby. The other day Collin had something at night and I made dinner with one hand (grilled cheese sandwiches with a side of blueberries and baby carrots) while bouncing our sweet, yet fussy, Myles in my other arm. Have you ever buttered bread with one hand? Serious talent right there. ; ) I’ve taken a lot of pictures of Myles on his own but I wanted to capture how tiny he is. Whenever Collin is holding him I am startled at how bitty he looks in his arms. Such a little peanut. I like this journey so far. It’s stretching and thrilling and each day we are learning from each other… figuring this out together. Love you Myles Do you die at that sleepy babe?!! xoxox0, Lizzy

Some of my all-time favorite things to make are mini albums. I especially like to make them from "junk." (Or, is that "junque"?) A few months ago, I used a "drawer" from a Graphic 45 8x8 Altered Art Matchbook Box for a shadowbox, but I had kept the "box" portion. I did not want to toss it out. (Let's face it; I hoard!) I was wondering what to do with it and decided it would make a super cool cover for a mini album. Well, I got stuck on how to make the spine. (I had done this once before, but never wrote it down!). And then Sharon and Susan from the 2012 G45 team both helped me out! Sharon made a very nice altered book HERE and Susan shared how to create a spine HERE. And I was "unstuck" and ready to roll again!I am so happy I kept the box. I turned the box portion into a mini album. I used 12x12 French Country papers and embellishments to make a cute 8x8 mini. (Please note that you may need 3-4 sheets of some of the prints to create this mini album. Feel free to substitute other papers.)To create this album, follow the directions below.1. Cut the box apart so that you have a front cover and a back cover, each measuring slightly larger than 8x8 inches.2. Place strong adhesive on the two interior edges as shown.3. Create a cardstock spine. Cut black cardstock to 8 1/4 x 12 inches. Score the long edge at: 1", 1 1/2" 2 1/4", 3", 3 1/2", 4 1/4", 5", 5 1/2", 6 1/4", 7", 7 1/2", 8 1/4", 9",9 1/2", 10 1/4", 11". Fold the cardstock in a fan-fold method. Glue the 3/4" sections together to form "tabs." Glue the spine to the covers as indicated.4. Flip the book over and place strong adhesive on the spine.5. Trim cardstock to 8 1/2 x 2 5/8 inches and attach to the cardstock spine. Make sure there is a gap between the covers and the spine to allow the album to close.6. Trim Graphic 45 French Country Sunflower paper to 8 1/2 x 4 inches and cover the spine.7. Cover the font of the album with Promenade paper, cut to 8 1/2 x 8 inches. Trim out the center. Decorate the cover as desired, using French Country Cardstock Banners, Chipboard Tags, Cardstock Flowers, and various image cut from the papers. 8. Cover the back with Promenade paper cut to 8 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches. Decorate the back and spine as desired. 9. To see a tutorial for creating the paper flower click HERE.10. Using the spine "tabs," you may attach up to 5 pages to your album (10 sides).11. Decorate the inside front cover with Promenade paper. Cut out the center. Add a ticket sticker to the top center. 12. To make the pages studier, attach each right-hand page to a piece of kraft cardstock. For page one, cut Montage paper to 8x8 inches and attach to the spine tab. Add stamped images and other French Country embellishments. Place a black, 5x5 inch photo mat in the center of the page.13. Attach 8x8 inch reverse Sunflower paper to the back of page one to form page two. Add a strip of Sunflower 8x1 inch Sunflower paper to the left edge. Glue the page to the spine tab. Attach the sunflower list image from the A La Carte paper and other embellishments to the page.14. For pages 3 and 4 use one Regular and one Large Tag Album Staples. Spray both tags with a selection of glimmer mist. Used paper scraps to create a pocket on the large tag. Assembled one of the French Country Cardstock Tags and Pockets and attached it to the small tag. Tie ribbon through the holes in the tags. Adhere the tags to the spine tabs. Glue the large tag to the front of the tab and the smaller tag to the back, creating page 4.15. Spray and decorated the back of the tags. Add a 3 1/2 x 5 inch photo mat to the larger tag.16. Each tag has a place for journaling or a spot for a photograph.17. For page 5, cut Sunflower paper to 8x8 inches and attach to the tab. Add a landscape 7 x 5 inch photo mat. To create dimension for the Cardstock Stickers, attach them to a scrap of chipboard, then glue them in place.18. Use the reverse of the French Country paper, cut to 8x8 inches, for page 6. Add a 6x6 inch photo mat to the center. Dec

Wow!  We had some popping colors this past week in the gallery didnt we?!!  Love seeing all of your gorgeous creations and how some of you made that one color POP!  Ok, this week's winner isssssssss.................drumrolllllllllllll........................     Cassey Nguyen!!     with this awesome creation:         Congrats to you Cassey!! Be sure and send your snail mail info to info@ginakdesigns.com and put STV13MON19 Winner! in the subject line so we can get that awesome grab bag of Gina K goodies mailed right out to you!! Thanks again to all of YOU for playing along!!

CT Ellen has made a lovely new set of QP's using the Rose Garden collection that you can pick up in the store and she also has another one of her free clusters for you to download here.

This is the place to ask us anything you want. (Well, almost anything!) Need to know where to find storage for your stamps? Having trouble with a video? Need to find out what size dies nest together? Here is the place to ask!   Members of our moderation team, design team and I will check this thread often and help you with your important stamping questions. And your question may help others too!   Every Monday, we will lock the previous week's thread and start a new thread with the current week's date. You will still be able to read the questions and answers posted in past week's threads, however, by starting a new thread each week, you won't have to scroll back 50 pages to find answers to your questions.   Please ask your questions here in this thread and not by starting new threads as we can't keep track of all of those and have to delete those.

Hot Air Trio by Kristine Reynolds We want to welcome you to a colorful week of blog collaboration with the folks at Staedtler, the place where fine German craftsmanship meets gorgeous artistry. You’re familiar already with tons of Staedtler products, their Mars Eraser is legendary, and Fimo Clay is classic. We have been huge fans of their products for years, and their Karat Aquarelle pencils are Fran’s absolute favorite colored pencil. This week we’re teaming up with their Design Team to create some gorgeously colored projects featuring Stampendous products as well. And we’re continuing our April Release features, focusing this week on our new Hot Air Balloon stamps! A product combination made in heaven! PLUS there are prizes, of course! Each day we’ll post the list of all participating Design Team Members. You’ll want to leave a comment EVERY DAY on EVERY BLOG because at the end of the week the Staedtler Designers will each give away one package to someone who commented on their blog this week. Their prize package consists of: Staedtler Prize Package Oh yeah!! But wait there’s more! Each day the Stampendous Design Team Members will pool their daily comments and choose one random winner for our prize package – our new Hot Air Scapes and Soaring Sentiments Perfectly Clear Stamps plus a Jumbo Handle to use with them: Stampendous Prize Package So get ready for some gorgeously colorful projects! Be sure to leave insightful comments that show you really looked at the projects (which means more than just “that’s cute” or “cool”) and PLEASE share on your Facebook Timeline, Twitter Feed, etc… Tag us in your share with a @Stampendous or #Stampendous and there will be an extra big prize package at the end of the week for one lucky hopper!  Come back every day for a new list of linked artists. Kristine Reynolds Tobi Crawford Lisa Somerville April Derrick

Lia Griffith designed a matching set of summer themed gift tags and wrapping paper, that would work well for those occasions coming up: Graduations, Bridal Showers, Father’s Day and of course birthdays! Click here to download the tags and coordinating papers.

It's Guest Designer Week and you all are going to LOVE Leanne's work - take a look below: Hello everyone, this is Leanne from, Created by Leanne, here taking over Joy’s blog this week! I am SUPER excited that Joy has asked me to guest design for her all week! Thank You Joy! Just to tell you a little about me! I live in Northern Alabama with my husband of 21 years. We have one wonderful son and 2 BEAUTIFUL grandbabies. My family is my world! I have been crafting since 2007. It all started when I bought my first Cricut (the baby bug)! I was immediately HOOKED!! Since then I've owned every machine Cricut has released and as many cartridges as I could possibly get my hands on hee hee! I love anything and everything that has to do with paper crafts! I started out with every intention just to scrapbook but now I find myself making more cards and 3D items! As for my style, I create things that I hope will make people happy and smile! Crafting is my outlet and wished I could do it all day everyday but we all know how that is ~ family first! I hope you all enjoy this week as much as I know I will! My first project I'd like to share with you today is a card I've made for my husband! Father's Day is just around the corner and this year I didn't want to wait till the last minute (like I normally do) to make his card! I've used the solutions cartridge, Camp Out for the frame. The cowboy on the horse, the desert background, and the badge were all cut from the Yee Haw cartridge. Just a FYI, my husband has always secretly wanted to be a cowboy hee hee so I think he will love this! On top of the badge, I've used hemp to make a bow and one of the buttons from My Creative Time's, Stitched Button Dies set. The sentiments are also by My Creative Time! For the front, I've used the set, Turn That Frown Upside Down For the inside, I've used the sets Lots of Love and Here's Lookin at You. Sorry about the photo! I have such a hard time taking pictures of the inside of my cards! Here's another view.... I will be here all week with more cards and I even have a 3D item to share! It's going to be a FUN week and I hope that you will come back and visit each day! Have a GREAT week and thanks for looking! In honor of Joy letting me guest design this week I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway! Leave me a comment here AND on my blog CreatedbyLeanne (I would LOVE for you to follow my blog also) and I'll pick one lucky winner Sunday! The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to My Creative Time! I'll announce the winner next Monday on my blog, you will have till 11:59 central time Sunday night to comment! Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you!! Hugs, Leanne Next up: Winner of the Teddy Bear Parade Cartridge is Chris-Creations in Bloom! Chris, please contact me at joyster110@gmail.com to claim your cartridge! You have two weeks to claim the prize! This week's giveaway is the: Cricut Sophisticated Cartridge How can you win? 1) Leave a comment below about Leanne's project and your plans for Father's Day (if any). This will enter you in to the cartridge giveaway AND the My Creative Time $25 gift certificate giveaway. Don't forget to leave a comment on Leanne's blog also for the My Creative Time $25 gift certificate. 2) Subscribe to my Obsessed with Scrapbooking newsletter HERE. That's it! Leave a comment under all posts this week to maximize your chances of winning! Winner will be announced on Monday, May 27, 2013 and has two weeks to claim prize. Want to see more of my projects? Click HERE to see my gallery! Subscribe to Obsessed with Scrapbooking to learn more about ways to use the Cricut in your scrapbooking!

Here I am again, this time sharing week 12 through to week 17 of my Project Life album.  I nearly fell of the band wagon with week 12, only taking four photos during the week - so I went with a super duper simple page. During week 13 I had the opposite problem, taking way too many photos (is there such a thing?) and struggled to know which ones to include.  For week 14 I did one section of jot style journaling that included points from the week and popped a few photos in the remaining sleeves.  I love that Project Life can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it! Above (week 15) is a prime example of a lot of my pages in the album - no photos taken or memories recorded throughout the week & using a one day event to fill the page.  Again, I'm just doing what works at the time. And that brings me to my final two shares for the day.  I think week 17 might be my most favourite page so far, just because I kicked the journaling and recorded heaps of our every day happenings from the week. I've managed to complete weeks 18, 19 and 20 too, so that officially brings me up to date. Good stuff!!