Spiral Pop-Up Birthday Card

I used CTMH's Lucy paper for this birthday card.  The large butterfly is from CTMH's Quick Cards stamp set "Butterfly," and the little butterflies are CTMH Flutter Paper Shapes.  The sentiment (front and inside) is from CTMH's "Card Chatter - Birthday" stamp set.  The front mat is Grey Wool cs.  The butterflies are popped with dimensional adhesive, and ribbons are attached under each one.  It's hard to see in the pics, but the small butterflies have glitter down the center, and there are glitter accents on the large butterfly too.

Here's the surprise inside:

There's a spiral that pops up, attached to either side of the card, and it's covered in hearts. Originally, I was going to add more butterflies to the spiral pop-up, but I decided hearts worked better with the sentiment (wrapped up in love).

To order any of the products used in this card, click HERE for my shopping page.  Remember, it's "Stampaganza" at CTMH this month.  Buy any two stamp sets, and you get the third set free!

Paint It White

This is what my front porch looked like this morning.  Fine, except it needed swept.  But, I decided I was tired of the rustic look.

I painted the chair and ladder white with some paint we already had in the garage.  The cushions are both from Target, marked down 50%, so I got them both for under $20.  I still want a little rug to  put in front of the chair, but I haven't found the right one yet.  The flowers, the antique insulator, and the candle/candle holder, were all taken from other spots.  I love how it turned out.  I nice place to sit and watch for the bus or to watch the dog playing.

Honeymoon in Vegas Wedding Card

I made this colorful wedding card for my niece and her fiance' who got married today and are honeymooning this weekend in Las Vegas.  The grey and blue papers are from CTMH's Dotty for You papers.  The car stamp is from SU.  The dice and "You're on a Roll" are from Studio G.  The date stamp and "celebrate" are both from CTMH.

Junk Album - Part 4 (finished!)

This is Part 4 and the final post of my Junk Album.  It always feels great to complete a project that has been in the works for a few months!  Part 1 can be found HERE.  Part 2 is HERE, and click HERE for Part 3.

 I used some of CTMH's Dotty for You papers for the Orange Beach pages.  These pages are of our hotel in Orange Beach and, of course, the beach.

Yep, more Parrothead stuff.  We went to Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant and bar--Lulu's.

I bought some small merchandise in the giftshop there and kept the sack, punched holes in it, and it fits perfectly in the album.  I don't think I've ever mentioned that my largest album pages and the covers are 11" x 7.5".  The odd dimensions adds too the "junky" look I think.

I stuck random stuff I couldn't/didn't want to scrapbook into the bag:  more beads, hotel notepad, a matchbook, and a lanyard.  It's a great place to stash the extras that usually end up filling a junk drawer.

I glued a postcard I bought at Lulu's on the back of the sack.  Postcards are great additions to scrapbooks, especially photos of arial views you can't get yourself.  I did a little stamping on the bag too.  The right side has more pics from Lulu's.  (How cool is it that my drink came with a silly straw?)

The last pages of the Orange Beach area are from the beach before a storm.  I loved the changing colors and shapes of the clouds.

I went back to CTMH's Cruisin' papers and stickers for the last pages, which incorporate a few miscellaneous pictures from the road trip.  Teresa celebrated her birthday on our last night out.  I'm not sure if you can read the journaling on the lower left of the picture, but this is definitely the first time I've used the word "sodomizing" on a scrapbook page!

Here's a look at just how thick and junky the finished album is:

And a last look at the cover again:

Thanks for looking at this and all my other creations!

Junk Album - Part 3

This is Part 3 of my Gulf Coast Vacation Junk Album.  For the blog entry of the first part of my junk album, click HERE.  To view Part 2, click HERE.

Scrapbooking time at the beach is always fun and easy.  The next several pages of my junk album are from our time spent in Pensacola Beach, Florida.  I used CTMH's Footloose papers and coordinating embellishments and cs for the most part.  Since we stayed at the AWESOME Margaritaville Hotel, I punched holes in a postcard I bought at the hotel gift shop and added it to the album.

I added a picture from the hotel on the back.  The right-hand side background is stationery I took from the desk in our hotel room.  I attached it to cs to make it more sturdy, and I stamped on the flip flops.  Do very many hotels provide stationery anymore?

The left side of this page is actually the front and back of our two free beer coupons that we received in our room.  What?!--didn't we use them?  I was more into margaritas and hurricanes, and Tom is more of a Bud man.  Plus, there were free margaritas in the hotel lobby the first day and free beer the second, so we didn't really even need the coupons.  Our room keys were on lanyards (very handy for the beach and a great keepsake), so I punched holes in the plastic protector, then slipped one of our keys in it.  The right side shows our room.

More pictures of the hotel and beach.  Of course I kept the "Do Not Disturb" sign and added it my album.

CTMH's Posterboard Alphabet continues to be one of my favorites.  This time I stamped the letters right on some photos of the gulf.  I kept the horizon line in about the same place and lined it up when I attached the letters to the page.

I used the envelope that coordinated with the hotel stationery I used earlier to make the small pocket page that says "Life's a Beach."

Here's the back of the envelope (actually originally the envelope front because you can see the return address) and the insert.  Part of the insert is from a hotel notepad. 

...And the other side of the tag.  The right-hand page is the "letter" from Jimmy Buffett from our hotel room.

Next are yet more beach pictures and a hotel brochure stuck between them.

Some pages from the Landshark Landing bar, along with some journaling and doodling.

And lastly, some pages from a restaurant in Pensacola Beach not owned by Jimmy Buffett.  It still had a pirate/beach theme though.

Next pages:  Orange Beach, Alabama

MoJo Monday #246

I decided to play along at Mojo Monday card challenge this week for challenge #246.  Here's what I came up with from this week's sketch:

This card doesn't stay true to any particular company.  The dotted paper is from CTMH's Dotty for You paper pack, and the cs is also CTMH (smoothie, sunny yellow, and sweet leaf).  The chair and umbrella are from CTMH's Just Chillin' stamp set, and the sun and "Enjoy Life" are from CTMH's Kick Back stamp set.  The drink stamps are all from SU, and I colored them with copics.  The black background B&T is from CM.  The umbrella is popped up with a little flower and bling embellishment, and I added a line of pearls for the "sand."

Junk Album - Part 2

Back to my southern vacation Junk Album....

These are the first pages commemorating a couple nights spent in New Orleans.  We used to live there, and coincidentally so did our friends, so all of our time was spent in the French Quarter.  Again, I used a lot of dark colors, and vintage-look papers to reflect the dark, rundown look of the Quarter.  I embellished with metals, white colored pencil, and even some metallic watercolor paints.

I think I'll add some purple, gold & green ribbon to the rings on this page as well. 

This insert was actually a free postcard from Pat O'Brien's.  The front had great pictures, and the back was a good spot to add a snapshot and do some journaling.

The next page was a small square page, made up of one of my several hurricanes.  I added a long of bling down the right-hand side.

More fun pictures from Pat O'Brien's.  We went two nights, and the first was packed, and the second was a little slow, so we made friends with the bartender, and he let Teresa & I come behind the bar for some pictures.  I used what looked like paper from an old notebook on the right.

The last two pages are our hotel and the left and some sampling of the food we ate on the right.  I edged both sides with Tim Holtz tissue tape before adding the B&T in the middle, so it almost looks like the background is newspaper.  I used more metals, stamps, bling, and a bunch of handwritten journaling.

Next Post:  Pensacola Beach

Junk Album!

In March we went on an eight-day road trip with our friends Mark & Teresa.  All in all, we drove in Iowa (of course), Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and Illinois.  We've done a similar trip to this twice before, so I already have many scrapbook pages from some of the places we went, so I decided to try a junk album.  A junk album is kind of like a Smash album, but you make it completely from scratch. 

This is so fun to work on!  No rules, no templates, and the sloppy pages somehow look even better than the neat ones do.

Here's a view at the side of my junk album.  I cut up a cereal box to make my front and back covers, then covered them with cs and b&t papers.  I used three ordinary rings to bind it.  The red reinforcements are just cs circles, and are really more for show than anything else.

Here's the cover again.  I used some pictures and ephemera from different stops along our trip, and added metal, paper, and stamped embellishments.  I tied some Mardi Gras beads and a tag from a sweatshirt I bought on the rings.

The first overnight stop on our trip was Clarksdale, Mississippi.  Legend has it that at the crossroads of highways 61 and 49, Robert Johnson sold his sole to the devil in exchange for his guitar talent, and thereafter began the musical genre The Blues.  We spent an exciting evening in Ground Zero Blues Club, and it's the first section of my junk album:

I punched holes in the menu and stuck it in the album.  I like it when the pages aren't all the same size.  I noted what we ordered, did a little stamping, and stuck a picture of me with the night's musical talent, Terry "Harmonica" Bean and a picture of the graffiti I did on the menu.  

Here's the last page dedicated to Ground Zero Blues Club.  I tried to use dark colors to match the interior of the club, which was dark, and completely covered with graffiti--the walls, the tables, chairs, and everything else.  I used white colored pencil for journaling, which works great on black cs.

Next post:  New Orleans

Easy Tag with Odd Colors

The inspiration for this odd-colored tag came from a picture on, of course, Pinterest of a blue bedroom decorated with bright orange poppies.  The tag was very simple, just a tag cut from CTMH's Sky cs, a Sorbet mat, and an image from the CTMH set "You Are Beautiful" stamped on white, with Sorbet flowers.  I just added three pearls, and some ribbon, string, and tulle.  I love the clean, crisp look.

Pemberley Mini Album

I love mini albums.  I made another envelope accordian album of the best snapshots from Jess & Neal's wedding using CTMH's Pemberley workshop on the go.

Here's the first cover flap opened.

And with both flaps open, exposing the envelope/accordion center.

A better shot of the accordion feature.  I used hearts as tabs on all the inserts.

And lastly, a shot of the inserts removed from the accordion, all ready for some journaling.