Quick Gifts

I am such a last minute person--it's one of my greatest flaws. It's not so much that I procrastinate, it's more that things have a way of sneaking up on me: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, end of the school year. Two of my boys only have three weeks left of school and my youngest's last day of "school" (a once a week program that ran in 3-8 week sessions since September) was yesterday. I wanted to get his two teachers just a little something to tell them how much Maddox loved being with them each week, and how grateful I was to have an hour and a half to myself (maybe I should have given them something much nicer!!). After a trip to Target and landing in the candy aisle (how does that always happen!?), I picked up these two jars of trail mix. With a quick little wrap of patterned paper, a few stamps, flowers, and a pass through the Big Shot, I easily transformed them a bit.


A gift and thank you note all in one:





The lid of the jar:

Play Ball

It's baseball season, and that means photos of uniform clad little guys with hats and bats. This is a quick and clean layout. Just change up the papers for the team colors and you can whip one of these up for your little athlete for any sport. I love when I don't have to reinvent the wheel for layouts that use the same type of pictures (this works great for those school portraits as well.)

Sweet Dreams

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch challenge over at Paper Craft Planet. The circle and plaid strip are the actual fabric leftover from the blanket I had made for my eldest before he was born (yes, I save everything). The other blue strip doubles as the page's title. I woud like to make it stand out a bit more, and may try writing over it with an embossing pen and embossing powder.

This layout was fun to work on, and I love using fabric on my layouts. It adds texture and depth, and opens up a whole new world of possibility for patterns and colors. Look through your fabric stash and use a favorite scrap on your next layout.

Brotherly Love

Thank goodness for inspiring websites like Splitcoast Stampers and the weekly challenges they pose, like this scrapbook sketch (a new one is posted every Friday, just in time for some weekend creativity). I wasn't planning to scrapbook last night, but this sketch was just the jump I needed to put together layout, to tell another story, and to make that stack of photos-to-scrapbook a little smaller.

For this layout I tilted the sketch on its side to accomodate my landscape oriented photos (remember, there are no rules in scrapbooking, even when you use a sketch). I chose my three favorite photos from this shoot taken just days after my youngest was born. Picking the patterned papers was the most difficult part: they came from three different manufacturers. To make that part easier on yourself, use a line of papers from the same manufacturer--that way everything is coordinated for you. I traced a large bowl for the circle and distressed the edge with a bit of pigment-based blue ink to make it stand out a bit from the pale yellow background. The placement of everything else just follows the sketch which makes assembly a breeze. A bit of paint on the chipboard "love" letters and the layout was complete.

Most of the colors on this page are muted and help the photos to really stand out. There is just a spattering of red to add a bit of bold color.

KWerner Color Challenge #53

I missed the official entry for this week's color challenge. It has been an absolutely cAraZY week around here; two weeks really, but who's counting? Anyway, here is my card using these fun playful colors.

I used some Cuttlebug embossing folders to create the texture, then punched with various circle punches and layered them. A dollop of crystal Stickles finishes off each flower's center. The stems are DCWV rub on stitches (you could also use your sewing machine to add even more texture, but hey I was in a pinch for time!). The black leaves are hand cut. A rub-on sentiment and a punched butterfly with a Stickles body completes the card. Total time: 15 minutes (not counting the drying of the Stickles!)

It's about all I managed to get crafty with last week. Here's hoping this week is better and more crafty-goodness filled!!