Birthday Cards

I have several birthdays in August so I had to make some cards. One was a quick card using left overs and the other took a bit longer, but both were fun to make.

The first card also doubles as photo frame. I covered chipboard with this pretty pattern paper from MME. I covered both sides of the chipboard with paper so it looks good from front and back.

I used a Sizzix die to cut out the frame shape. I have two of the same Sizzix frame die, but in the second die I took out the frame "center" cutting blades so it would cut a full shape with out the "hole".

It's not hard to do, you just need a good pair of pliers!



I slipped a mat in front of the greeting, here the wood grain paper. To add a photo, just slip out the greeting and slip in the photo. I also used foam strips to raise the front of the frame for a shadow box look.
I made all the flowers using punches and flower stamens from the cake supply store. I colored the spiky white stamens with Copic markers to a  warm yellow shade.

The  card below was for my sis-in-law. She likes western themed things so these left over chipboard pieces from Cosmo Cricket made quick card embellishments. 

The sentiment is part of a set from Close to My Heart.

I hope the recipients of these cards liked them!

Thanks for visiting.

Fair Time

Hello, long time no post! Life and work have gotten in the way of my crafting and scrapping! Hopefully my next post will be sooner. 

It was just county fair time here in Sonoma County. It is always a summer must for us to visit, to see the beautiful themed flower show, the animals, carnival and fair food!

I also love to check out the Adult Fine Art and Home Art Exhibits, and also the Kids exhibits. 

There are some talented people in our county. 

Almost every year I also enter items in the Home Art Exhibits. It is fun to see my creations on display and see if I won any ribbons! 

Below are a few of my entries this year. 

I entered my smashed penny bracelet, made from my smashed pennies I gather on my travels. I added some bead accents and used my handy Crop-a-dile from my scrap tools to punch a hole in each smashed penny. 

I also entered this little sewing book I made while scrapping at my friend Narda's one weekend. I covered manila file folders with sewing themed scrapbook paper and real sewing pattern tissue. I covered chipboard for the covers and put it all together with my bind-it-all.  

 

I embroidered the little heart for the cover. The photos that will go in the album are photos of my sewing projects that I have given away or were out grown! 

I also made another paper mache figure, this time a Santa with his toy bag on a paper mache book. Santa is molded from styrofoam shapes and aluminum foil, covered in paper mache medium.  

Painted and covered with mica flakes, all set for Christmas!

I entered some cards too! 

 

And of course some scrapbook pages!



My 4th Fervor page even won a blue ribbon!

I had another 2 page scrap book lay out, but the fair crew only displayed one page! I was disappointed they only displayed one side as they were attached together? The judge wrote on my entry, "where's the journaling?"  On the half of the lay out you did not see!

My son Henry entered a Lego creation, as he does every year. He always themes his creation to the Fair theme, and wins a blue ribbon every year he has entered.

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully my next blog post comes a little bit sooner that the last! 

A Little Scrapping and a Few Scrappy Cards

I have not posted any scrap pages in awhile, and since I just finished a few pages I thought I would post them along with a few of my other recent pages. I have a few cards at the end, 

made using my layout scraps. 

This first lay out is about our chickens. They have been busy this spring laying eggs, so we have cooked up lots of dishes to use them up. Creme Brulee, Tapioca Pudding, Lemon Meringue Pie, Quiche, Devilled Eggs, scrambled eggs, and fried eggs. Some of the girls really get cackling when they lay an egg! All pattern papers are Basic Grey.

This layout is about Father's Day, and my son's taking over the grilling duties for dad! A mix of pattern papers, mostly scraps! Crate Paper, Sassafras.

The next three layouts are made from an older paper line from SEI, Dill Blossom.
I love this paper line!
Both layouts are from my trip to Southern California with my sister Lou. The first layout is about the girls day out shopping with my sister and my niece Jennifer. We checked out some great decor stores that day.
And topped it off with a nice lunch in Laguna Beach.


I have been to many of the California Missions, but this trip was the first time to Mission Santa Barbara. In fact my first trip to actually stop in Santa Barbara. I had been through SB many times on the way north and south, but never had actually stopped to see the town or mission.

I had lots of photos of the mission and decided one, two page layout was not enough, so I also made another two pages to hold all the paper and journaling.
 

After I finished these two layouts, I took some of my scraps already on the table and
made these three cards.

The first was cut from a solid piece of the Dill blossom paper. I punched one edge of the card with a Fiskars punch.and added these fussy cut flowers, cut from more of the paper.  The "Hello" sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

The second card uses more fussy cut leaves from the Dill Blossom papers, and I stamped a Close to My Heart sentiment stamp and punched it out with a Stampin' Up label punch.

The last card uses more scraps from Dill Blossom, a border punch from Martha Stewart and a stamp from Autumn Leaves. I colored in the stamp image with color pencils and cut and framed the image with a  Spellbinders die.

Thanks for checking out my lastest craftyness!

Card Crafting

Recently my sister asked if I could make some cards for her as she is always needing cards for the clubs she belongs to and she likes to give out hand crafted cards. Her card supply was running low and she likes to knit and garden more than papercraft. I like to papercraft more than knit and garden, so I said sure. Plus I was going to be going on a crafty weekend away, so I had the time. 

I ended up just creating a few cards at my weekend away, 

but made a few more last week. 

They are all in the mail heading to my sis in Oregon and if she sees my blog post before they arrive in the mail, she will get a sneak peek :)

On my craft weekend away, my friend Narda and I went out to dinner on Saturday and stopped by JoAnn's on the way home to Narda's. I bought a DCWV Springtime mat stack (4x6 papers) in a lot of pretty floral prints. These are the perfect size for cards! I used three of the papers for the card above, and lots of edge punches. 

The card above was stamped and colored in with Copic markers. I love this stamp from Stampendous! I have  three stamps in this line, all with Tuscan inspired images. 

Great to use on cards in wine country where I live. 

I made a sewing themed mini album on my weekend away, so before I put all my supplies away I made this card. A mix of Stampin' Up papers and Jillibean Soup. 

Another paper from my mat stack and a dimensional flower I cut from my
"Art Philosophy" Cricut cart from CTMH.

More paper from the mat stack and a label and stamp from Stampin' Up. Cute little brads from Making Memories are the centers for the Prima flowers. 

And yet more paper from the mat stack. The bigger cherry paper from Crate Paper is a scrap I had on my desk, so I put it to use, since there was a cherry paper in the mat stack. 

I did not have a stamp that said "Thanks a latte", so I combined two different sets and made my own sentiment. "A Latte" is from Hero Arts and "Thanks" from a Studio G $1 set. I love how I can cut clear stamps apart and use certain elements and make a "custom" stamp. And still be able to put the original stamp back together. Papers are all Stampin' Up. The mug punch is from Martha Stewart.

I made these two cards using a Hero Arts stamp and die set I bought at Archivers when I was in Colorado in October. I first stamped the bicycle and placed the die over the image and used my BigKick to cut it out. So quick and easier than "fussy cutting". The basket is an old All Night Media stamp from my early stamping days, and it is filled with "FlowerSoft". I think I still have almost every stamp I have ever bought. You never know when you will want a certain image!

This card is stamped with a CTMH stamp set and I used pens to color the flowers and stems to get a watercolor look. The edge punch was a gift from my friend Narda, a new Jenni Bowlin punch. 

Cute little crown points. 

A Prima flower explosion on this card. I have several bottles of Prima flowers and even though I have used them a lot, there are still lots of little flowers in each bottle. For this card, I dumped out a bottle of flowers on my desk and just glued them down in rows until the front was covered. I stamped out the greeting and punched it out with a Stampin' Up label punch. I use this punch a lot. 

It was fun crafting a variety of cards, and from now on, when I have the supplies out to make a card, my sis wants me to make two, one for me and one for her. 

I hope to finish up all my crafty projects from the last two weekends. Two scrapping, crafting weekends in a row for me! 

But first I need to unload my car!  

Thanks for looking, and as always, any questions about my projects, leave a comment.

Berta

Scrappy Time

Today I am heading to my friend Narda's house for our mini scrappy retreat. She has her house all to herself this weekend and she invited me to come over and scrap. I of course said yes!

I have my car packed to over flowing, but don't want to forget something. We have a little collage project we will both be working on and I have lots of stuff packed for the collage, two mini albums, cards and some scrapbook layouts. I know I will not get it all done, but I will try my best!

Below is one of my latest projects. I needed a backing board for taking photos of layouts, cards and other crafty stuff. One of my favorite bloggers, Lisa Tutman Oglesby, posted this tutorial here, about photo styling. She made a similar photo board and that is where I got my inspiration. I made mine into an easel and only used recycled boards (we have a barn full) to create it.

I used existing tongue and groove scraps already cut to this length. About 20 inches.

I laid the boards out upside down on my table, locking the tongue and grooves together then laid two lengths of 1 x 4 on top and screwed all the boards together. I then added another 1 x 4 attached with a hinge, so I can use it as an easel. 

On the front I added a single strip of tongue and groove to the bottom as a rest for my layouts. 

A good wire brushing to clean up dirt and splinters and I was done. I think I will be adding a handle to the top, at the back, for easier carrying. I can use it flat or pop out the hinge and use it as an easel. 

I practiced taking photos and photographed my little Valentine greeting I display. 

This card was my recent birthday card from my friend Narda. Isn't it beautiful? 

I love having crafty friends!

Since I finished the board I wanted to try it out. And I am going scrapping this weekend and wanted some inspiration so I went through some layouts I have made. 

My hubby after shoulder surgery in his red felt tree skirt cape. 

He could not put on a shirt so I bought this cape as a joke.

My hubby turned 60 and we found this t-shirt in Old Town Sacramento just before his birthday and decided it would be his birthday shirt. I love when I have an easy title to come up with!

I scrapped some older photos recently. This one is two of my nephews back in 1961 or '62.

This photo is my sister Sally playing in the water in our front yard. 

The journaling is a scan of the back of the photo, written by my mom. 

This is one of me and my mom when I was small. I loved to hide behind my mom's big skirts. I used a sketch from Becky Fleck's Page Maps for this LO. 

My nephews Steven and Gregg playing cowboys in our front yard. My little nephew Gregg always was a very dramatic victim. He "got shot" with style! 

Another of my nephews at Christmas. 

My sister Sally and me with our Uncle Chester. He really was our favorite!

The candy aisle at Winco! There is every kind of bulk candy you could want!

Me and my sister Lou (the mom to the boys above). We were out shopping one day and found this card, and each secretly bought it for the other. We had a great laugh that night as we exchanged our cards. We both had no idea we had both bought each other the card. 

My son Henry and my hubby, back in 2000. I don't know what was so funny to Henry,
but I am so glad I caught this grin on film!!

My laundry is done and now I am off to scrap!!! Have a great weeknd, I know I will!