More layouts from the CM crop...

This layout would probably embarass my poor brother (Nicky of Scars and Stripes) to death. I'm proud of his keyboard work in their punky rock-n-roll band ("they" including my other brother Mikey, the bassist/frontman last I heard though it seems like they switch around all the time so I could be wrong.) Anyway, a bit of Nicky's musical foundation is exhibited in this die cut sprinkled page. Yeah, it's a bit on the dorky side, but I wanted to reflect the rather dorky feeling one always has posing for their mom before a high school choral concert circa 1990. I used the blue flowers to pick up that colonial blue in the decor in the background--a color oh so very popular at the time, and of course, I had to match it with duty rose to complete the 90's ish "decorator" style. Notice the other artifact of the period style? Yep. There's a painting of geese in the background. You'll be glad to know that yes, mom has updated the look of the house. To prove that I'm decendent of a craftygirl, check out the little blue stuffed cat by Nick's rented shoes...she made that!


Hooray for a snowy layout! I hate summer. I hate the heat. So why not escape into some paper flurries. I used the brand spankin new snow-blossom punch from Stampin Up to make the flakes, then punched some brads (from the Fiskateers again...Heidi Grace, I think--the soft blues went very nicely with the Stampin Up cardstock cutouts), then added some nifty Creative Memories stickers and a journal box I got at the crop. I really like the icy look and the way the stickers ended up looking like they were falling. If you can see the pics at all, that's my little dog Usagi enjoying the snow.


Okay, I made an effort to turn this rightside up and yet...it was probably better off sideways. Sigh. Well, it was a very cute rat layout using some lovely products I received via a Fiskateers contest (Whoo hoo!) I loved the paper, loved the stickers, the tissue paper that said it was good for backing photos...looks good, but was a total pain to work with. I'll keep the rest for fluffing up gifts or possibly for decopaging stuff. Cool designs though. I think we need more gift wrapping stuff to go with altered gift bags, the tags we work so hard on, etc. So, it's a good product, just don't try to mat photos with it.

Craft Blog, Episode One

Just posting a few layouts I did this weekend. The first one is a baby page--something I rarely get to do, not being the kid-type. It's for the mice, Victoria and Albert who were found, orphaned, in the street (sound Dickensian enough for you?) I hand-raised them by feeding them off of a paint brush. Take note of the painfully adorable baby mouse stickers. I couldn't believe how perfect they were! They were the very last set at Archivers so I splurged even though those EK Success 3D stickers are often prohibitively expensive. The jellybeans are there to remind me of how small they were--they were even shaped like jellybeans (okay, the big Easter kind, not the Jelly Belly size, but still. Since I was at the Creative Memories Crop, I took advantage of the circle cutters they have. I totally want a set of my own, but rumor has it that they're coming out with a new and improved blade system for them so, perhaps patience is called for.

Hmm...I'm having a bit of trouble posting the other pics. I'll have to put them into another post shortly. I have had a plain blog at MySpace, but craft blogs are new to me. I really like reading them so I thought perhaps I'd try writing one. If it looks funny or I sound like an idiot, please forgive me. I'm new at this kind of thing.

Saturday I attended the Creative Memories Luncheon Crop at Teresa B's. She's always a gracious crop hostess with lots of ideas and toys to share. It was not far from maximum capacity Sat. afternoon. The previous one was more sparsely attended so we each had an entire table to ourselves. This time I shared mine with Kay, which was cool, since we still had enough space and we like looking over each other's shoulder anyway. I don't know if all CM reps have this, but Teresa's scrap room is like a craft store unto itself, which is dangerous for my bank account. If I'm flipping through my bag and can't find the exact color of paper I want, I unwittingly find myself flipping through the displays. And of course I can't just go to the single sheet file, I have to pick out a whole paper set. Oh, and then I need the sticker set with the sugar gliders in it. And Kay and I both decide we can't live without the spring set with the lop rabbit sticker...it doesn't take long for me to end up horrified at my tally total.

If you haven't seen the new products that just came out, don't miss the cool new "Vintage" line. It looks like CM is daring to be a little more interesting than in the past, with more vibrant colors and distinctive patterns in the place of plain cardstock and single-colored mats. I'm really into their journaling boxes that match the papers. They have large-sized ones for people like me who arrived at scrapbooking via keeping diaries and journals vs. from the photo angle. I rarely find journaling boxes that give me enough space.

One more thing while I'm on the topic. Teresa's crops include really excellent not at all scary (I'm looking at you, Archivers) food. She even made sure there were plenty of vegan options for picky ol' me. Is that thoughtful or what? Keep an eye on my blog. I'll post the dates of the next ones I hear about that she's hosting, so those of who want to see for yourselves can come along.