A belated valentine...

Before the month of February ends, I ought to at least show you what I did for Valentines this year!

I made some heart chocolates (some peanut butter filled, some toffee crunch filled) and some chocolate covered pretzels (pink and white, of course) sprinkled with coarse sugar and tied them up with cute pink and brown polka dotted bows. I love this ribbon! It was clearance ribbon from Martha Stewart Christmas stuff at Kmart, but I thought it was PERFECT for Valentine's Day. Isn't it?? I love it!

Here's a closer look at the Valentine goodies....

Together

Love this picture. More from the Sweet Pea Scraps February kit...

My Little Beauty

And some detail shots...

This is another layout from the February Sweet Pea Scraps kit. I've said it before, but I'll say it again... I love these kits! I've gotten quite a few layouts from this kit already and I've still got plenty of paper left to do more. I love it! On this layout I used one of the clear stickers and painted on it with alcohol ink. That's what the flower overlapping the photo is. I also used alcohol ink around the edges of the paper, then over painted with some gold acrylic paint. There's actually quite a bit of gold acrylic paint on this layout... The pictures are from Halloween, but I just love them so much I couldn't resist scrapping them again... =D

Motherhood

This is my favorite layout as of late. I love the combination of textures and colors and the subject matter! And I love that I had no idea what to do with these papers the first time I saw them, but that they worked perfectly together for this layout.

The fabric I sewed across the bottom looks blue in the first picture and green in the second because it is a beautiful blue/green taffeta. I got a scrap of it somewhere and I'm loving scrapbooking with it. It's the perfect color and texture for so many things, and I really think it's what ties this two page layout together. The key is from a set of old keys my mom cleaned up and gave me. I'm really enjoying playing with these on layouts, too! Except that I'm afraid I'm going to use them all up and then I won't have any....

I painted a little gold acrylic paint around the edges of the photo and mat, just to make them stand out a little more. I really like the effect. I'm not sure the picture does it justice, but I like it in person a lot.

The journaling on this layout just talks about how much I have always wanted to be a mother. More than anything else in the world. Motherhood is such a special thing to me and I really think it needs to be documented, even if I don't know which album this layout goes in. I want my kid(s) to know someday how much it means to me to be a mother. (T)he(i)r mother.

And when it all comes down to it, this, THIS, is why I scrapbook. I have been given a legacy by those before me, and I want to do my part in handing it down to the ones entrusted to me.

(Sweet Pea Scraps February 2009 kit)

A little scrapbookery...

A new favorite website...

I found a new favorite baking website... adorable, wonderful things for candy making! It's great! The website is Bake It Pretty... I can't wait to get some hard candy molds! It will be GREAT!

I seem to be in candy making mode right now. I don't know what that means, but Eliana sure has been enjoying it!

Scrapbooking!!!

I got to scrapbook Friday, yesterday, and today. WOOHOOO! That means I should have new things to show-and-tell soon. Yippee!

Life is a bowl of cherries...

... and this is a complete scraplift!

But I love how it turned out! Layouts like this are why I'm so glad Sweet Pea Scraps has a DT gallery! I would never have known how to use this paper if it hadn't been for the layout I lifted, but it was perfect for this picture and I found a quote I liked. So... this is my take on it.

Shrek Baby!

The first time we put pigtails in Ellie's hair, she looked like Shrek! =D

Homegrown Beauty

This is another from the Sweet Pea Scraps kit I was using, though I can't remember which one it is. *blush* I suppose if I stayed on top of my scrapbooking I might remember which kit I'm using, but I don't, so... oh well! I'm just glad to have a few new layouts done and getting them posted!

I played some more with the book pages on this one... I made the letters for "beauty" out of the pages and then layered them, popping every other letter up with pop dots for a little depth. I also did a little hand stitching up to the flower blooms, which were also made with the book pages. I'm getting a lot of use out of this book so far!

Vintage Valentines

Remember these vintage beauties??


Well, they're now for sale at a local scrapbook shop near you!

Well, okay, a local scrapbook shop near you IF you happen to live in Bozeman, MT. ;D

Yes, I now have items (finished items, not kits) available for sale at Keepsakes By Design in Bozeman. There are a few things, from a premade vintage 8x8 album to cards (including these!) to mini albums...

So if you're interested, you know where to get them. =D

You hold the key....

This is a wall hanging I made the other day, expanding on my new found decoupage technique. =D I covered a 12x13 piece of lightweight chipboard and finished the edges with wide Prima tape. Turns out I really like how that works! I used a full page from the book to mat the photo, just curling, tearing, and inking the edges as needed. Then I added the flourish around the corner of the photo, which is a combination of several things: Stamping, painting with alcohol inks (another dabble into a "new" technique), Prima crystal swirls, and Prima flowers with vintage button centers. What I like best about this corner is that it has such dimension and texture. In the picture it looks pretty one dimensional, but in reality you can see the text through the painted flowers, the Prima flowers pop up, and the painted swirls stem off the crystal swirls. I just like how they all build off one another and meld together to create a single multi-dimensional element. It's fun!

Because the bottom of the page seemed sort of blank, I sewed a strip of bunched tulle across the bottom of the page, creating a sort of ruffle. It's gold, shimmery tulle, and I like it! I also raided my chipboard stash for this project, and used chipboard letters (painted with Radiant Rain mica daubers) and a chipboard heart (painted with black crackle paint). I cut the words "to my heart" right out of the book I'd used for for the rest of the project and just pressed them into the crackle paint while it was still wet. Add a few button ellipses, and voila! the corner embellishment is finished! Very simple, really....

The other element I added to this project is an antique skeleton key. My mom gave me a whole bunch of these to use on projects (she gave me the book I used, too) and I had yet to use one, the fact of which she reminded me often. ;D So, Mom, this one is for you! (And actually, I did make the wall hanging for her. =D Whether she'll want it or not, we'll have to see, but she was the one I had in mind when I made it, and the picture is of her and Eliana this summer.)

So this is it... the first "real" project I've done in MONTHS! I'm so happy to be back crafting and scrapping! I've even made a couple layouts since doing this, so the crafty has continued! Hooray!

Tags...

The first thing I worked on when I started crafting again was tags. They're quick, easy, and fun to try new techniques on. My "new" technique? Decoupage!!! I've been having a blast with an old book and a jar of mod podge. It's great! I know it's something pretty much every crafter has done, but I had never done it (at least not like this) before. But KBD is heading the way of the shabby chic, so I am heading, too, and practicing to get my skills up to speed as I go! So here are a couple of the tags I created before I was ready to move up to something bigger. (Don't worry, that 'something bigger' will be in the next post for your viewing pleasure. =D)

(Goodness! Now that Eliana is 2 it's so hard to believe that she was ever that little!)

A moment of silence, please...

... for the passing of yet another craft drought. But the rains have come and guess what I did yesterday??

Yes, I CRAFTED!!! First time in a long time, too!

I didn't actually finish any projects, but the fact that I started working on two is HUGE!! And I'm excited to do more!

We had our DT meeting at KBD yesterday, and I went in with absolutely no ideas, no plans for teaching classes (because, well, it's hard to plan for classes when you have no ideas!), and not much of anything, really, since it has been so long since I've crafted! But there are some changes going on at the store, and I'm really excited about them, which means I've got a new direction to take my projects. And apparently that was all the motivation and inspiration I needed to try something new. So... I did!

When I finish, I'll have pictures, but for now I've just got a new technique (well, new to ME) that I'm playing with.

But for now let's just take a moment of silence. And then, let the crafting begin!