2012 The Year in Review

Just hours away from a new year, I'm posting the final layout for Mosaic Moments Design 2012 Team. This time a look back at all the events of 2012 put together on a two page layout.

can you see the 2012 in photos? Look carefully!



 

By far the standout event of this year was the addition of Isabella to our family. What a joy she has been!

 

 

 

For all the details head over to Journella and see the close-ups and the sticky face tiles in action!

 

 

Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Lang may yer lum reek!

 

 

andrea

 

Notes for the Holiday

Making note cards for gifts were among the creative tasks keeping me busy this week. I thought I'd share two sets with you today. One carries a wintery theme with it and the other a bright spring. One was wholly my own idea, while the Thistle Garden was one I saw at our Spring Stamp show in 2011...yes, I've intended to do this that long! They were to be a gift for my Mum last year, and never found time to do them, so this year I was determined! One thing holding me back was the fact that I do not own the Copic Markers. I had planned to buy the colors one by one to do the card as I had viewed the sample of it at the Impression Obsession booth. However, as most of you know, they are a bit pricey. Then I found at our local Pat Catan's Craft stores their brand of alcohol based markers, very similar, but very economical. They come in a mixed set of six markers in color families of greens, turquoises, and purples but a set of six can be obtained for about the price of two Copic Markers (maybe even less). They are known as Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers and you can see their full color range here.  and if you don't have a  Pat Catan's in your area, you can still visit at Consumer Crafts and order on line. In fact sign up for their newsletter and you can keep track of their sales, I added a few more sets to my simple collection at Thanksgiving when their already low online price was cut even further by 40%.  However, back to the notes...

The second note was a spur of the moment thing. I saw the stamp on a recent shopping trip and thought of how much it would please my Mum, who loves cardinals. I'd been toying with buying a punch to make her a card with a cardinal, but I'm happy this came along, but now the pressure was on to complete another set of cards in time for gift giving.  This stamp by Susan Winget for Inkadinkado let me bring out the Twinkling H2O's to play around and have fun.

 

The camera angle is catching the golden glimmer of the watercolors a little more than I care for, so may need to re-shoot it.

 

Well, that's my offering for today...have to hurry back to a painting I'm working on for my granddaughter's bedroom for Christmas...it just might make it up here in a day or two!

 

take care, have a wonderful Christmas,

thanks for stopping by...

 

andrea

A Little Joy for December

December is nearly over and another year is coming to an end. With all that's been going on in the busy-ness of day to day... a quick card fix! So taking some bold bright colors, a set of inexpensive ornaments from Wal-Mart, an embossing folder and ribbon. Put it all together...

 

 

Thanks for stopping by...

 

andrea

Nine Cards for Christmas

Recently, I participated in Bazzil Basics Paper Card Swap with their Believe papers. I recieved nine cards in return. I thought I'd showcase those cards here for some fun, and try to get the holiday card inspiration going.



Karen W. from Arizona feature Nov 6 on Bazzill's FB page

Pamela H. from Minnesota

 

Margarita Y. from Colorado--November 5

Gina Z. From Arizona--Nov 2

Lee Ann V. From Arizona---Nov 5

Betty K.

Sabrina W.

Teri B from California--Nov 5

 

Barbara D. from Texas--October 30

As I searched Bazill's FB page to try to get dates to track back to if you'd like to see more, I realize not all the cards are still up there. So sorry, however, you can see what a nice collection I recevied in return. Below is my card:

 

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing some new designers cards and maybe you too will find inspiration to get those cards going!

We are nearing the end of the first week of Advent...the week of Hope...when the world awaited the coming of the Christ child.

What are your hopes for the new year??

Enjoy this season with your families and the memories you'll make! 

thanks for stopping by...

andrea

Mosaic Moments meets Doodlebug papers

 

Our second challenge for November was to use Mosaic Moments RTC papers these Ready To Cut grids are sized to perfectly fit in the new hybrid style scrapbooking 

 

 

I chose to make a mini album with photos of my granddaughter that was born earlier this year. Taking her name and using a 4"x6" size paper I was able to do one for each month of her first year...two photos still to be added. Using several different Doodlebug Papers, and many colors of Mosaic Moments Paper Tiles this book came together fairly quickly.

 

All folded up and ready to carry

 

 

For more details and close-ups visit me over at Journella

 

thanks for stopping by...

 

andrea

 

DeNami Design Blog Hop "Thoughtful Thank Yous"

Greetings! So nice to have you stop by on today's

DeNami Design Blog Hop

Thoughful Thank Yous! 

 

If you began at the beginning on  the DeNami Blog then you've just visted with Tammy Hobbs or you can head back to the beginning and begin there. But seeing as you are here now, please take a quick look at my card for the hop and leave a note if you will. Here's the details!!

 

When:You have until November 12th, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize)

Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!    

 

Now to the card!!

 

 

Three DeNami Stamps were used: Mini Starlet, Sending God's Blessings and Grapevine.

Inks/chalks that were used: SU Close to Cocoa; Versa Color: Paprika; and DewDrop VersaMagic Chalk Ink: Tea Leaves; Encore! Ultimate Metalic Ink:Copper.

Embossing Powder:  from American Crafts Brand: Zing! copper.

Color Pencils: Prismacolor: Yellow Ochre, Pumpkin Orange, Terra Cotta, and Moss Green.

Ribbon: olive green from Offray.

Cardstock: Hollos rust

card design inspired by DeNami Design August Sketch Challenge

 

 

 I appreciate your comments...won't you leave a note before heading over to  see the wonderful creative work of...

 Emily Keaton

...she is sure to have somethng WONDERFUL for you to enjoy!

 

Thanks for stopping in...

 

andrea

 

 

Doodlebug Baby Page

Good Intensions...all the things we intend to do if we have the time. Time has flown by quickly since this precious little one joined our family nine months ago. I should be working on a scrapbook for her, intending to keep up with it better than the ones I started for my own children...but at least I do have a start with this page. If I had time this would have been completed to be considered for a spot on the Doodlebug Design Team...but time only got to the plannning stages!

 

 

For this layout I used Bazzil cardstocks and Doodlebug Design Paper from the Sugar & Spice Collection and Dot/Grid Petite Prints cardstock.  Doodlebug Design Twines were also incorporated. EK Sucess scallop punch was used to edge the main photo frame. My Cricut got a workout with several fonts used in the name/title. (Jumbo, Jack Sprat, Doodletype, Tear Drop)

 

alphababies girl- double-sided cardstock

 

For the embellishments I went with a few items in the paper. I used a paper yoyo to dot the "i" in Isabella and...

the ladybug on the "L" has a folded layer to represnt wings.

 

A xylophone frame seemed a good way to incorporate an element from the paper and display three additional photos. Because I forgot to pick up white brads when I went out for them I decided to try out a tip I saw on Pinterest. I took plain brass brads one at a time and secured them in a pair of locking tweezers. I then took my heat gun for embossing and held the brad close to the heat source for about 50-60 seconds. Then immediately dip into white embossing powder. If it is hot enough it will immediately melt, it it remains in powder form hit it briefly with the heat again and it will glaze over. This is something I will do again to be able to color match any design for my cards or layouts. Foam mounting tape is used to raise the piece to give it more definition.

 

I had a lot of fun working on this layout and look forward to putting a few more pics into this album.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...drop by on Sunday for the Blog Hop



 

see you then....

 

andrea

Acorn Hollow

 Another Little Yellow Bicycle collection is featured today...Acorn Hollow. This is a perfect collection for a fall look or masculine touch. I just loved this paper! I so wanted to do a page featuring my youngest son, as he loves all things plaid...he is my flannel guy.

 

 

 

Now for a couple of close ups. The top edge of the portrait section done inWalnut Woodgrain has a strip, cut from Bountiful Bands. Then the triangle sections is from  Fleur de Lovely, the reverse side of the Walnut Woodgrain are used to imitate a quilt design with the buttons and floss for a little color and texture.

 

 

 

Stamp from Our Daily Bread, and antiqued brass brads.

 

I used Spellbinders Venetian Motifs to cut these "leaf-like" motifs in Textured Teal, the reverse side of the Bountiful Bands, and ran them along the bottom edge of this section. The letters for his name are from a set of rub-on letters by American Craft's Trademarks: Jack in brown.

 

Well, that's all for today,

thanks for stopping by...

 

andrea

"The Escape" to Scotland

 

Do you need a day away...far away from all the stress of the past few weeks? Well, I do! So today I'm sharing a layout I put together for an application to Little Yellow Bicycle for one of their Collection Design Teams. Needless to say, I did not get a spot on the Winterings Team, but as I have applied before, I will continue to try out from time to time. This layout features their travel themed Collection "The Escape" I took several of my favorite photos, from  my favorite spots on the trip back home to Scotland in 2010. I'm going to take a "five minute trip" and dream away. Hope you enjoy the views!

 

 

 

 

 

close up on some of the embellishments from The Escape collection.

 

thanks for stopping by...

 

andrea

 

Fab Three Runner Up!

Made the Fab three with this card posted the other day...

 

 

guess I'll go celebrate by buying a few new stamps??

 

Go to DeNami Design to see the winner and the other runner up...oh and a talented young lady....a budding artist who received Honorable Mention!

 

for now...

thanks for stopping by...

 

andrea

Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas

It has been a wet and cold few days as "The Storm" spread a wide swath across the country.  I have stayed busy and warm inside  playing around with several different collections of papers from Little Yellow Bicycle. I am especially in love with their Christmas collection, Once Upon a Christmas. I love the shades of red and green that make up this collection. The damask pattern is so elegant, the tiny starlight print is so sweet and the red houndstooth is so very versatile.

I'm looking forward to making scrapbook pages for Christmas with this. I think it will be perfect to feature my granddaughter and her first Christmas!

This close-up detail is to show the pleating of the bottom section. Scored at 5/8" and 3/8" and then folded gives you the 1/4" pleats. The greeting is one of the tags from LYB Tags & String set and is attached to a green label (Spellbinders Labels Eighteen) with a pewter brad. An ivory satin ribbon divides the sections. The top damask section is actually mounted on the black cardstock base with foam mounting tape. The folded section is fairly thick and so mounting the top layer keeps things even.

 

If you like the papers used for this card, be sure to check out this collection on the Little Yellow Bicycle web site.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

andrea

Bazzill Card Swap

 

I have stepped out and tried another venue that is new to me...a card swap. This is my very first! I had been following posts on BazzillBasicsPaper's Facebook page and noticed the announcement for their card swaps. Interested in their Christmas swap, I marked the calendar for the start date, signed up and then scrambled to find someone who carried the papers! Selecting a few online is a bit harder than in person, but for the most part once they arrived and I began to "fiddle around" with ideas I was happy with choices I had made.

 

This is the card I created: 

 

Products used on this card:

 

Bazzill patterned papers: from the  Believe Collection: Christmas Dress, Silent Night and Weathered Wood

Bazzill cardstocks: Ivy, Leapfrog and Butter Cream

Dew Drop Brilliance Pigment Ink: Galaxy Gold, Pearlescent Poppy

Dew Drop Versa Magic Chalk Ink: Spanish Olive

Rubber Stamp from Stampabilities: CR1104 Reason for the Season

Rhinestone Setter by Darice hot-fix embellishments 3mm Light Siam Glass Stone

Spellbinders Die: Venetian Motifs-flourish; Labels #28 and #18 

Ribbon: Offray 1/4" inch olive

Foam mounting tape

 

• Beginning with an Ivy Cardstock base
• then placing equal sections of Silent Night and Christmas Dress, slightly smaller than the base for a nice color border, then 1/4" olive ribbon covers the seam between the two.  
• I used Label Twenty-Eight to cut and emboss the Weathered Wood and edged this in Pearlescent Poppy then placed it in the center of the card.
• Label Eighteen cut from Butter Cream became the base for the stamped image from Stampabilities stamped in Pearlescent Poppy.
• It was edged first with the Spanish Olive chalk, then lightly at the very edge with Galaxy Gold for a gilded look.
• I would also repeat the gilding on the Leapfrog Venetian Flourishs. The Christmas Dress paper had an old time feel to me and  just wanted to play up that aspect, I think the gilding did just that.
• I used foam mounting tape in the center only of the greeting section. This gave it some lift, but it also allowed me to gently wrap the flourished up on to the label adding dimension to the flourishes too.
• Three Light Siam gems were added to the label and two to the flouishes.

a close up of the "gilding" of the swirls...

 

 

 

Can you see that the flourish swirls pull the sides of the label slightly down on the edges while it also lifts the flourishes up?

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you found the info you needed on the elements in this card from the Bazzill Card Swap and maybe we'll see you again, I'd love to have you drop by!

 

andrea 

 

Now being displayed with others in the swap online at BazzillBasicsPapers Facebook page.

DeNami Color Challenge #11

Today we switch to a fall theme for the DeNami Color Challenge #11.

 

 

The great Fall colors for this challenge are  Chocolate Brown, Desert Orange, Leaf Green and White/ Cream.  (I used cream on this one)

 

 

 

The DeNami Stamp featured on this card is the G 135 Sending God's Blessings and it was stamped in Dew Drop Versa Magic chalk ink: Jumbo Java. The label with the stamped image was brushed with ink from Darice: Harvest Yellow which really doesn't look like yellow at all!  Added to that piece and also on the sides are Copper Swarovski crystals. Because the color of the crystals in the first photo doesn't show up too well this close up will let you see them sparkle. (It also shows up various other imperfections, but...we won't say too much about that!) Foam mounting tape gives a little lift to this layer.

 

 

Several dies were used for this very layered look, beginning with Elegant Swirls by Memory Box (they come out of the dies so very nicely when a layer of wax paper is used.) Then from Spellbinders there's the Venetian Motifs, Decorative Labels Eight, Labels Eighteen and Labels Twenty-Eight.

 

Between the colors, the vine-like swirls and leaf-like motifs I though about pumpkins a great deal as I worked on this! Inspiration for the November Hop is beginning to build! Be sure to stop back for that on November 11th...lots of cards and prizes too!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by....

 

andrea 

 

Made the Fab Three with Runner Up Status...go here to see the winner and runner ups!



Marking 100 Posts!

Today marks the one hundreth post I've made on this blog!

 

Who would have thought I'd reach this mark?

 

Who would have thought I'd stick with it this long?

 

Who would have imagined I'd have so many ideas to share???

 

Amazing!

 

So...today should feature something special, right?

 

Well, here we go! 

 

As you may know I've been on the Design Team for Mosaic Moments this year. It has been a great time working on scrapbook pages and being able to share them with the online community at Journella. It is a place to share your creativity whether it is scrapbooking, photos or writing. The nice thing is that sharing is an option, not a requirement. Long before I was on the Design Team I was "blogging" my thoughts for no one other than myself using the great diary tools of Journella.
 

 

For anyone who would like to join in on Today's Celebration here's what I'd like you to do.

 

Go to Journella and check in. If you've never been before, register, this is to keep this site protected. You can register with your Facebook account if you have one. This is what the Story Board page will look like. (above) 

 

 

 

In the top right-hand corner you will see a spot where you can enter my name and select "Author" in the drop down menu. 

 

Then the page that it will take you to will look like this:

 

 

 

Once here you will see all the things that I've shared. What I'd like you to do is to look at the two September Challenges and the two October Challenges. (you can look at as many as you like, but for the purpose of this event you only need to look at these four in particular!!) They will begin with the title "2012 MMDT..." in fact you can see the October challenges in the photo above. Just click on the Read More button and the full page will display.  Leave a cheer and a comment on all four posts, then come back here and leave a comment saying you've been there done that!

 

You have between now and Midnight Monday October 29th EST to leave all your comments. Winner will be chosen randomly (names picked blindly) and be notified Tuesday morning. The winner will receive a set of 4 Baby Cards (one in each color) and a set of 5 Thank You Cards (also from a previous post). In addition they will have a choice of either black or white 8.5"x11" Mosaic Moments Grid paper that is the current special at Scrap-n-crop and their choice of one color of Paper Tiles, a package of 55 laser cut pieces for using with the grid system scrapbooking, to get you started trying this method out! The winner will have to reply to notification by midnight Tuesday October 30th with their color choices or they will be made for them.

thank you cards


 



baby cards





Paper Tiles-your color choice  Grid Papers-choice of Black or White

 

 

 

 



 

It's nice to have you stop by and hope you will join in the celebration today!!

 

andrea

p.s. Mosaic Moments Design Team Members are excluded from this give away...as everybody has already commented on the posts!!! Family can comment all you like, but you too will have to sit out on the extras!