My Mind’s Eye Valentine Two-Pager

The BEST present I received this past Christmas was an external harddrive that my mom and dad gave to me. They have begun the process of scanning in all of our family photos from when we were all at home and all of those photos were on there, as well as any photos my dad has taken at family functions over the years since we have moved out/married. It is PRICELESS! I have loved reminiscing and finding photos of events that I don’t have any pictures of. These Valentine photos were on that harddrive and I couldn’t wait to scrap them. Look how tiny my kids are!

I used the My Mind’s Eye Lucky in Love collection along with the Turquoise tape from the NEW decorative tape sets. I LOVE using decorative tapes! They are the easiest way to add a border or strip of pattern quickly.

I used a strip of striped washi tape across the center of the photos then added a border strip (cut from pattern paper) on top of that.

I also used the turquoise washi tape (polka dots) along the bottom of all the photos. The chevron and lace strips were cut from pattern paper, but could just as easily have been more washi tape.

All of the page elements come from the 12 x 12 Sticker Sheet of the Lucky in Love collection. (Sidenote: In my head I wanna keep calling this collection the “Lost in Love” collection … I have been singing the Air Supply song to myself a lot while making this page. Hehehe! LOVE me some Air Supply!)

Thanks for coming by today!

Love is in the Air!

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and we have had our Valentine “factory” going in full swing this week. We just finished up the cards and box tonight. Guess what?! I only had ONE kid that needed to make a Valentine box this year. I was actually a little sad. Valentine boxes were always my favorite thing to make as a child and now as a crafty adult, they are an excuse for me to get creative and have fun with it. Do you get into the Valentine box making? I told my kids that when they grow up, I will be happy to make all their kids Valentine boxes for them … it’s just too much fun!

Here is what we made Maryn. I used a Circus tent box cut file from SVG Cuts (Summer Street Carnival). I used my Cuttlebug machine to emboss some of the layers with two folders, Seeing Spots and a folder from the Decorative Tile set. The flat at the top is premade, I just added a couple of punched hearts and rhinestones for fun. Next, I adhered the circus tent to a flat box created from a cut file available in the Silhouette store. The gate and animals were then adhered to the base around the tent.

The gate was created with two paper straws. I made the banner with my Cricut Expression machine. The pennants are from the Birthday Bash cartridge, and the letters are from the Carousel cartridge. I used Cricut Craft Room to hide the inner contour of the letters to make them easier to cut. They letters were adhered to the pennants with foam dots and then strung together on red wire.

All of the cute animals are from the Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge. I used the Cuttlebug machine and the Swiss Dots embossing folder to add texture to some of the layers on the animals.

For the juggler, I cut out two circles for each ball. I then glued them together with a piece of wire in between to make it appear as though the balls were really flying through the air.

I usually create a seasonal home decor piece or two to freshen up our decorations each year. This time I found an abandoned white frame in our closet and decided to make a dimensional art piece using the My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found 3 Ruby collection. Here is how it came together.

I cut the pieces out using my Silhouette Cameo machine. I folded each heart in half and then used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch down the center.  I added a pop dot in between each layer as spacers so that the heart wouldn’t fall flat.

As a finishing touch I adhered a few Enamel Dots to look like paint spatters.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a Happy Love Day!

My Mind’s Eye & Gossamer Blue Guest Designer Contest

Have you been wondering where I disappeared to? … Last week my husband was off of work, my kids had a long 5-day weekend and it was our 16th wedding anniversary … so I decided to take some time off of blogging and just be with my family. It was wonderful! But now I’m back with more projects to share and news of an exciting contest opportunity! Check it out!

My Mind’s Eye and Gossamer Blue are teaming up for a Guest Designer Contest. CLICK HERE to read all the details on how to enter. I gotta say … DO NOT miss out on this opportunity! I LOVE both of these companies and they are so wonderful and inspiring to work with. The contest ends February 16th, so hurry and get your entries in!

Speaking of Gossamer Blue … here is one last page I created using the gorgeous January Gossmaer Blue kit.

And I couldn’t leave today’s post without sharing my latest My Mind’s Eye page using the NEW My Girl collection. I had a lot of fun creating a confetti border across the top with the Enamel Dots (LOVE those things!).

I cut each dot out with the clear acetate backing still in place so that I could figure out my placement. I mixed in a few stars from the 12 x 12 Chipboard Element sheet. Once I had it figured out, I just took them off of the backing and stuck them in place.

Along the bottom I created a grouping of circle elements from the chipboard elements, Decorative Brads, and Felt Stickers. Either side is flanked with decorative tape.

Thanks for coming by today! See you again soon!

My Mind’s Eye My Girl & Boy Crazy

Have you been watching the reveals for the new collections on the My Mind’s Eye Blog this past week? SWOON!!!!! I LOVE it all!!!! As usual, right?! *giggle* I NEED all of the new decorative tapes, the new Collectable collection reminds me a little of one of my past favorite My Mind’s Eye collections (Stella & Rose), …. so I KNOW I’ll be reaching for that one a bunch. And the new My Girl and Boy Crazy lines satisfy my cravings for something bright, happy, and whimsical. LOVE them!

I created a couple of CHA pages using the My Girl and Boy Crazy lines. Here is what I made!

PLAY

Check out all of the cute stickers and chipboard pieces in this set! I used three lines of washi tape to anchor my design and then added dimensional details to the images with the Enamel Dots.

BOY WONDER

I LOVE me a good boy collection … and this one has it all! Super fun robots, aliens, cars, skateboard, arrows, stars … I’m planning on making a few 4th of July pages from this collection. This page is about my preteen’s ability to consume inhumane amounts of cereal. Hehe! He is a boy wonder all right! Gotta love how the circles on the pattern paper look like the Froot Loops he is eating in the picture. Ha!

Check back in with me tomorrow … I’ll be sharing a couple of CHA projects I created for BasicGrey.

Have a great day!

Fall Memories

***SCROLL DOWN to the next post to enter the Creative Spaces Volume 2 GIVEAWAY***

Last week I shared a page with you that I created for Gossamer Blue using the new embossed paper from the My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found 3 collection. I told you how I was addicted to this honeycomb paper … well, I’m back to share another page with you using that same paper! I LOVE it! I gotta hunt me down a few more sheets of it before it’s not available anymore. It is just such a great, warm color and I adore the texture! It’s beautiful no matter which side of the paper you decide to scrap on.

One thing that I LOVE about the Lost & Found 3 collection is all of the textures in the range. This collection not only has embossed papers, but check out the glittered papers, glittered chipboard pieces, metal accents, and soft trims. I tried to incorporate all of these different textures on this page.

I wanted to use the square artisan chipboard shape in two places on this page … I used my scissors to cut it into two pieces and tucked the raw edge of each piece behind my photos.

I handcut a few flowers from the Mixed Floral Glitter paper, and then added the white lace trim underneath the bottom edge of the striped pattern paper strip.

SUPPLIES:

My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found 3 Oliver Collection: Yellow Honey Embossed Paper, Collage Glitter Paper, Yellow Floral Paper, White Floral Paper, Mixed Floral Glitter Paper, Ledger Stripe Paper, Adornments, 12 x 12 Chipboard, 12 x 12 Sticker Sheet

Thanks for coming by today!

January Gossamer Blue with My Mind’s Eye!

The January kit at Gossamer Blue is packed full with lots of eye candy including the B-eautiful (with a capitol B!) My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found 3 collection! A few of us gals on the My Mind’s Eye design team got to play along with the talented design team at Gossamer Blue and create a few pages with the January kit. I created three pages. Two of them are featured in the January Gossamer Blue Gallery right now and the third will be going up on their blog later this month.

SLEDDING HILL

This page uses the Main Kit along with the digital cut files by Lori Whitlock. I the snowflakes from the Lost & Found 3 “Ruby” Collage Stripe Paper and tucked one behind each of my photos. The pink scalloped paper in the background is also from the Lost & Found 3 Ruby collection. For the journal spot, I used the backing from one of the embellishment packages. I layered together a couple of label stickers to house my title. LOVE those tiny wood letters!

MANTI PAGEANT

I used the “B” side of the Lost & Found 3 “Oliver” Honey Embossed Paper for the background of this page. I LOOOOOOOVE this paper!!! I have already created two layouts with this paper (I will post the other one here on my blog later this month) and can see myself reaching for it ATLEAST 3 more times. Hehehe! Almost all of the chipboard accents on this page come from the Oliver Chipboard Elements. LOVE the glittery gold!

A BIG THANK YOU to Lori Gentile and everyone at Gossamer Blue for letting us play alongside all of you this month. It was a complete honor! Be sure to stop by their January Gallery to see everything their CRAZY-TALENTED team made with the January kits!

A Fresh New Year!

Happy New Year! I love the feeling of a fresh new year! My husband had to work New Year’s Eve, but the kids and I spent the night playing board games together and enjoying a bit of chocolate fondue. My husband got home just in time to ring in the New Year with us. The kids are usually anxiously awaiting the stroke of midnight, but this time around we barely noticed what time it was on the clock because we were so involved in our Monopoly game. The kids are heading back to school today and I am going to miss them. We had a great Christmas break together!

A year ago, we were ringing in 2012 as a family as well. We spent the night going out to dinner, bowling, watching New Year festivities on TV, and playing games, of course!

For this page, I decided to use a color scheme to guide my choices for the products on this page. I used a palette of yellow, gray, and pink with a bit of blue and a pinch of red as accent colors. I sifted through my My Mind’s Eye goodies and pulled out several patterned papers in these colors to get started. Most of the papers are from the Lost and Found 3 collections, but I also grabbed the large pink polka dot paper from the Lucky in Love collection.

Once I had my page design figured out, I grabbed most of my page accents from the My Mind’s Eye The Sweetest Thing Honey collection. The number paper was the first thing that caught my eye. I cut out the numbers “12″ and “20″ and combined them together to title my page. I found a few star embellishments in my stash (I think these might be by Teresa Collins Designs), and hung them from the top edge of my page using My Mind’s Eye Follow Your Heart twine.

A few silver rhinestones scattered here-and-there feel like confetti tossed on the page.

Here’s wishing you and your family a very HAPPY New Year! See you again soon!

A Few Last Christmas Projects

I’ve been wrapped up in the bliss that is called the holiday season. Our Christmas was wonderful and cozy and I have loved every minute of it … well, except for the touch of flu I have been experiencing. But even that has been bearable knowing the kids and family have been enjoying Christmas.

Among the swirl of parties and celebrating, I have neglected to post a few last Christmas projects. And even though Christmas is old news now, I thought you still might like to see them.

Last year I decided to start doing the 12 Days of Christmas for my kids on the twelve days leading up to Christmas day. I created doorhangers last year, and decided that I wanted to do the same thing this year, but I wanted to make them slightly larger. I found this December Doorhanger file on SVG Cuts. It was perfect! I simply cut it out and added a few doodads. All supplies are leftover goodies I have from Christmas collections/kits from the past couple of years.

The great thing about this file is that you could cut it in wintry blues/purples/whites, place a goodie in side and then leave it on someone’s doorstep in January. I love when designs are versatile like that.

The Nutcracker comes from the Clara’s Christmas Eve set by SVG Cuts. I couldn’t wait to make him! He took about 2.5 hours to cut out and assemble, but I had so much fun making him, I didn’t even care! He kept us company in the kitchen throughout the holiday season.

Finally, I have a two-page layout to share with you. These are pics from last Christmas. My kids sleep out under the Christmas tree every year on the 23rd. I look at these pictures and wonder if they will keep it up as teens and adults … Who knows? … maybe one day they’ll still be there on the 23rd with their spouses and children. Hee!

All products are from the My Mind’s Eye Winter Wonderland Collection.

The buttons look so cute on the folded Christmas tree (created from THIS cut file by SVG Cuts). The chipboard presents fit perfectly under the tree and the snowflake pieces balanced out the other page perfectly.

Just a heads up …  you might not see me around here over the next week or so until the kiddos go back to school. We are having my family over this Saturday for our Christmas party and then it will be New Year’s. Can you believe that it is almost 2013?! Where does the time go?

Have a Happy New Year and I will see you again soon!

My Mind’s Eye Pinterest Lift

I love when I get the assignment to do a Pinterest Lift for the My Mind’s Eye blog. It always helps me to step out of the box and be inspired to try something new. For my page this time, I chose to lift a page by talented scrapper, Tonya Dirk. The first thing that caught my eye about her page was the pennant banner strung across the top flanked by two flowers. I also really loved that she used a 6 x 6 paper to anchor two smaller photos. Here is Tonya’s page and below that, is the page I created.

TONYA’S PAGE

I used the Winter Wonderland collection for my page. First, I was inspired by the barnwood pattern paper that Tonya used for her background. To get a similar feeling on my page I layered together pattern paper strips in blue tones.

For the banner, I used trees from the Winter Wonderland clear stamp set. I stamped them in blue, red and green, and then cut them out, omitting the trunk of the tree and the star on top. I flipped them over and then “strung” them together using the super-cute tri-color Winter Wonderland twine, and then added a handmade poinsettia to either side. The poinsettia flowers were created using the Cuttlebug Poinsettia Quilling Kit. The word going across the top of the banner was cut using the Silhouette Cameo from word art created by Kerri Bradford.

Next, I added elements cut from the Tags Paper and chipboard elements sheet. I added a stamped snowman to one of the labels and stamped snowflakes/star to the journal spot. A few brads, buttons and stickers round everything out.

Thank you to Tonya for such a beautiful inspiration page to work from. Be sure to check out Tonya’s other beautiful work HERE.

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Over the weekend, I also create a bunch of Chewing Gum Countdown Calendars. I was looking for something that I could make the teen girls I teach at church and something that my teen daughter could give her friends for Christmas. I came across the Little Ho-ho-hooligans Candy Wrappers at Lettering Delights and thought they would be the perfect solution! I mean … when you are a teen, aren’t you carrying around gum all the time anyway so that your breath is fresh for flirting? Haha! Here is how they came out.

Love them! And pretty easy to do. I did have to create my own little number squares, but it didn’t take me too long. For my gum packs, I used Spearmint Dentyne Ice. Each pack comes with 16 squares, so you will need three packs of gum to create two countdown calendars. The third pack is split to make 24 total pieces for each calendar. The file is a wrapper that fits perfectly around all three sections of gum. It creates a little booklet and then each “page” of gum slids out the top. They are really fun!

Thanks for coming by today. Have a great week!

Leaves are Falling All Around

Last week I posted a couple of Fall and Halloween pages on the My Mind’s Eye blog. Usually, when I create an autumn page, I reach for the traditional colors of red, orange, and gold … but this time around I went for a different color scheme, using the The Sweetest Thing Bluebell collection. Here is how my page came together.

I thumbed through the gorgeous papers in this collection and decided to build my page background from the neutral/soft yellow papers. I thought these would work the best with my photos because the yellow in the paper would highlight the yellow leaves in the photos (and detract from the pink, furry vest my daughter is wearing … not exactly fall attire … well, actually it is for a five year old girl, right?!  LOL!).

Next, I chose to pull out a few page accents with the colors blue. I also added a sprinkling of chipboard buttons in a few places. You KNOW buttons are my favorite things by now, right?! And they are perfect for conveying that homespun, cozy, fall feeling on a scrapbook page.

Finally, I added hand-stitching to my title block by using my paper piercer to poke holes around the edge.

Next, is a page of all four of my kiddos together on Halloween last year.

Aren’t the Halloween Lost and Found paper by My Mind’s Eye gorgeous?!! You should see all that glitter in person. Glitter and Halloween definitely go hand in hand. I added a strip of lime green polka dot paper (from the My Mind’s Eye Winter Wonderland collection) for an unexpected pop of color.

I used the cute spider web stamp from the Halloween Lost and Found clear stamp set to add a spooky corner to my page.

Polka dots make a scary skull a “little” more friendly, don’t you think?

So do you have any fun Halloween parties or activities planned for the weekend? I think we will be carving some pumpkins and adorning our porch with some fun decorations to get ready for the BIG night!

Have a great weekend!