Beautiful Dreamer - Scrapbook Page #1 for Artisan Award entry

Happy Sunday everyone!!!  Today I have to share with you the first of my scrapbook pages I entered for the Artisan Award Design Team contest by Stampin' Up!

The page is 12 x 12 and uses Basic Black as the main page color.  I pulled the colors for the page from the picture of my granddaughter, Alysha, and what she was wearing.

I just love this picture of her and how I seemed to capture her dreaming off into the future!  That's why I went with the butterflies and cloudy day embossing folder (now retired) to try to capture that.

The butterflies were cut with the Beautiful Wings embosslit and Beautiful Butterflies die.  The large butterfly was actually "double cut" with the two large half butterflies on the die to give you a double effect.  I hope that make sense!  I then topped it with the larger butterfly from the embosslit.

The scallops on the title are actually circles cut with the 1 1/4" circle punch and topped with rhinestones.  I finished off the page by shadowing the edges with the Whisper White craft pad.

I really like how this turned out!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

Stamped Blessings!!

Ann :)

Three Silly Reindeer - DIC127

Hello all!!!  I'm still plucking away at Christmas gifts and such this week, how about you???  This week's UDI Inspiration piece is a traditional Christmas picture of Santa with a darling little girl.

No Santa on my creation, but I do have 3 of his silly reindeer, chomping at the bit to get going!!!  At my December stamp club this is the scrapbook page the girls made.  The colors and feeling of the piece are what I used.  This is 12 x 12.

Do you have the owl punch yet?  If not, what are you waiting for???  You can do so much more than just owls with it!  The reindeer were made with the owl punch, minus the little feet!  I'm not sure who came up with idea, but it is one darling, and clever, use of the punch!!  I used a card I found on SCS for the basic idea of the reindeer "looking" over a stall.  We had a lot of fun making this page.

Be sure to check out the UDI Blog and play along if you get a minute!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

GCA #112 - Thankful Thoughts!

Hello all!!!  Late posting today since I spent the afternoon stamping with my club girls.  They are so much fun.

As I was thinking about this week's challenge, I kept coming back to Thanksgiving being only 1 1/2 weeks away!  And last Thursday was Veterans Day.  Of course both of these holidays are US ones, but I know other countries have days similar to these. 

I am very thankful for my family, my job, my friends, my ability to stamp and so much more.  Most of all I am thankful that I have a loving God to watch over me.

So, the challenge for this week is create something with a theme of Thanks, Thankfulness or Gratitude.  Those are just a few I can think of.  However you want to express your thankfulness works!

This is the scrapbook page we created at club today.   It is 12 x 12 and the base is More Mustard textured.  We also used the Autumn Spice dsp from the Holiday mini.  To make the leaves I used the cork sheets and wood sheets and Leaves #2 die.  The stamp set used is Define Your Life.

I will add pictures, once I find the ones I want!  Most likely of my grandbabies as I am very thankful for them.

Upload your creation to either your blog or to an online gallery and post a link to your creation to this blog entry by November 20, 2010 at 12 midnight. I will choose the winner the next day. If you upload your card to SCS, PaperCraft Planet, Stampin' Addicts, Stampin' Connection (for SU! demos) or Stamp TV, please put GCA112 in your keywords. That way everyone can see all of the wonderful creations at once!

Even if you can't make the drawing deadline, PLEASE feel free to participate in the challenges and upload your creations at any time. I would love to see it! And yes, my challenge is open to everyone who visits, even if you live outside the US!

Happy Stamping!!!!


~~~Ann~~~~

OMG - A Convention Shocker for Me!!!!

Hello all!!!!  I'm here in Salt Lake City for the annual Stampin' Up! convention and having a blast!  There is always so much to do, see and learn.  The display boards are jammed packed with delicious eye candy.  And the things they are showing us during the Main Stage presentations is phenomenal!!!!!

Every year they have an Awards night, which is exactly what it sounds like!  This is the night where those who are highest in sales, recruiting and promoting are recognized.  There are many other categories, but you get the idea. 

Well, you know that I entered the Artisan Award contest SU! has, and while I didn't win as an Artisan Award winner, I was selected as one of the finalists!!!!!  How cool is that????  And, of course, I did not go to Awards Night last so I had no idea they put my name, along with the other finalists, up on the screen!!!!!!!  I am still in shock.  Not sure what it all really means, or what will transpire in the future, but I am geeked about being named a finalist.  I have found 10 of my projects on the display boards.

My favorite project is the 12 x 12 page I did of Greg and Malaki, the day Malaki was born.  Even looking it at on the display boards brought tears to my eyes!  I love the memories this page evokes for me.  I'll give you all the details later, right now I'm ready for bed!!!  But, I had to share my good news with all my computer friends!!!!

As if you can't tell, this is me with my project on the display boards!

Happy Stamping!!!!!

And don't forget about the blog candy I have running right now until tomorrow night!!!

~~~Ann~~~

GCA #81 - A Scrapbook Sketch!

Hello all!! I just spent the afternoon stamping with my club girls! That is why I am so late in getting the GCA posted! We had a fabulous time together and made some great projects. One of the projects we made today is the idea for this week's GCA.

My club girls are a mix of card makers and scrapbookers, so we make at least one scrapbook page each month. This is something I just started this past year, as I am not the greatest scrapbooker! But, since I have been doing more pages I am feeling more and more comfortable with my scrapbooking.

The layout (SBSC59) came from the scrapbook challenges on SCS and was gathered from the Sept/Oct 2006 Simply Scrapbooks magazine. To see the actual sketch, click on the link.

For this week, use the sketch in my scrapbook page above to create a scrapbook page or a card. This is a versatile sketch and putting it onto a card would be easy. I'll work on that this week.

On my sample I used a 12 x 12 textured beige card stock. (This piece is not SU!) Once I figured out the pictures I wanted to use, I built my page from there.

These are pictures of my niece and nephew when I took them to the zoo in 2000. They were so little and cute! And since I was using zoo pictures, I knew that I wanted to use my Tall Tales dsp for the accent. Both strips are torn along the bottom edge. And to make sure my pictures and such were straight, I put this strip on first, after I lined it up with my grid paper lines and a ruler!!! LOL!! No crooked lines here! My strip is cut a 10" long for both and the dsp is 1 1/2" wide and the Old Olive piece is 2" wide.

The pictures were matted on Very Vanilla. I didn't want to use anything that would overpower the pictures and Very Vanilla seemed to not do that. One of my girls placed her mats with a small (about 1/8") space between the pictures. I liked the effect of that too. So play around with your placement a bit to wee what you like best.

My letters for the title were cut from Chocolate Chip with my Timeless Type alpha and Big Shot.

I kept my embellishments simple since I like to go overboard! The buttons have cream colored embroidery floss through them and the Chocolate Chip ribbon is from the now retired Valet Ribbon Originals.

Simple journaling finishes off the page.

Upload your creation to either your blog or to an online gallery and post a link to your creation to this blog entry by March 20, 2010 at 12 midnight. I will choose the winner the next day. If you upload your card to SCS, PaperCraft Planet, Stampin' Addicts or Stamp TV, please put GCA81 in your keywords. That way everyone can see all of the wonderful creations at once!

Even if you can't make the drawing deadline, PLEASE feel free to participate in the challenges and upload your creations at any time. I would love to see it! And yes, my challenge is open to everyone who visits, even if you live outside the US!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Grrrr - It's Halloween!!

Hello all!!! So I know it's really NOT Halloween, but I completed this scrapbook page for the first Featured Stamper challenge on Stampin' Connection. This is a new site set up by Stampin' Up! for demos only!! It is soo cool to be able to connect with other demos you meet and see only at convention or just get to know new ones too!

Anyway, Mary Jo Price-Williams took the bull by the horns and started daily challenges on SC. She hosts the Featured Stamper challenge and the first stamper to be featured was Wendy Weixler!! She has an amazing gallery and is so full of talent.

I chose to case her Halloween scrapbook page she created with MDS.

My changes are:

* Changed to "regular" scrapbook page
* While I used her basic layout, I did change it up a bit
* Colors
* Not sure what size Wendy's is, but my page is 12 x 12

My base on here is the groom's dsp with the swirly design. I then used pieces of the Cast-A-Spell dsp and Night & Day dsp for my accents.

This is a picture of my son from 1992, when he went as Frankenstein. What a hoot!! I so remember getting him ready for this and he had a blast that night.

The letters were cute from the Timeless Type alpha and my Big Shot. Hence the title of the post!! That is all Frankenstein says, if I recall right!!

Happy Stamping!!

~~~Ann~~~

Christmas Memories

Hello all!! Are you getting everything ready for Christmas? My grandson Cameron is coming over tonight through next Tuesday!!! We will probably do our Christmas with him on Sunday. I am so excited to see him open his presents this year. It will also be interesting to see how Malaki reacts to all of this!

In keeping with the Christmas theme and opening presents, I have a 2 page scrapbook layout for you today. These are pictures of my son during his first and second Christmases. This was my first 2 page spread and I came up with the layout on my own!! As I am no seasoned scrapbooker, anytime I can do that I just love it!! LOL!!

The base is Sahara Sand textured with Holiday Lounge dsp, Whisper White and Taken with Teal card stock. I used the sheet with the trees and cut them out for some dimension.

The letters were cut with my Big Shot Billboard alpha strip in Whisper White and backed with Sahara Sand circles. The snowflake punch was used to help fill in some spaces!!

Can't wait to have grandson Christmas pictures to scrapbook this year!!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

GCA #65 - A Scrappin' We Will Go!!

Hello all!!! Sorry for the late post. Today was club day and I am also packing to be out of town all week.

As I've said in previous posts, my club girls want to do more scrapbooking pages and so I really need to practice!! I am not a traditional scrapbooker and therefore I look at my pages more as a card front than a scrapbook. But, like my cards I tend to over do!!!

The page I have for you today is the actual page we did at today at club. The colors we used were different, but the layout was the same as well as the overall theme.

I started this page with a 12 x 12 piece of Creamy Caramel, since my theme was fall. The center mat piece is 8 x 8 from Confetti Cream.

The strips of dsp on the right are from the Autumn Meadows pack out of the Holiday mini. Those are both cut at 10" long and the top piece of dsp is ripped along the edge. A strip of 1/4" Chocolate Chip grosgrain, More Mustard brads and Not Quite Navy buttons finishes the strip off. Not sure if you can see in the picture, but I tied linen thread (LOVE IT) around the ribbon and through the button holes.

The leaves were cut with the Leaves #2 die and my Big Shot. I just received this die and I love it!! So many possibilities and not just for fall. And since I do not have any of the alphabet dies (I know what am I waiting for?) I used one of the sayings from the Bright Blessings jumbo wheel: "Blessings brighten when we count them". This is so true for me and the two little guys and one big guy on this page!!!

On here I have my son Gregory, grandson Cameron and second grandson Malaki. I wanted to put another photo of Malaki on here, but my printer wasn't cooperating with me!

So, the challenge this week is to create a scrapbook page, or a scrapbook theme project, upload it to either your blog or to an online gallery and post a link to your creation to this blog entry by November 14, 2009 at 12 midnight. I will choose the winner the next day. You DO NOT have to follow my layout!! If you upload your card to SCS, PaperCraft Planet, Stampin' Addicts or Stamp TV, please put GCA65 in your keywords. That way everyone can see all of the wonderful creations at once!

Even if you can't make the drawing deadline, PLEASE feel free to participate in the challenges and upload your creations at any time. I would love to see it! And yes, my challenge is open to everyone who visits, even if you live outside the US!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Happy Halloween with love!!!!

Hello all!!! I hope you are having a Happy Halloween and celebrating it in your own fashion. My grandson Cameron is eagerly awaiting trick or treat time! He has been wearing his costume since Thursday night when I picked him up!! He is so cute!

Today I have two creations for you! I know, I know - I don't post all week and then I post two samples at the same time!! LOL!!

My first card is a Halloween card (how fitting, right?) that I made for one of my good customers and friend, Kathleen. I am putting together a little treat bag for her and will take it over to her today.

Since the only Halloween set I have is Halloween Frights, that is what I used! The sketch is SC252 on SCS.

I started out by stamping my trees, from Lovely As A Tree, in black staz on on Whisper White. I then sponged the grass in Certainly Celery and over stamped that with some Old Olive. The night sky was completed the same way with Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue.

The moon was masked with a 1 1/4" circle punched piece and then reversed it to actually sponged the colors for the moon. The base was Summer Sun and I over stamped that with some Going Gray and Basic Gray. Not quite sure how I managed the ring of white around the moon, but I like the effect.

The bats were stamped in basic black craft and clear embossed. I really like how this makes them pop against the sky.

The pumpkins were stamped in Pumpkin Pie, what else right? I then cut them out and popped them up with dimensionals. The middle one is up with two. I then pierced the bottom of the Pumpkin Pie layer.

My dsp is the new Cast-A-Spell (which I love!) even though you don't see much once I put the black panels on. Those panels were embossed with my diamond texture plate, but I didn't mist them first so the impression isn't that great. I used my Modern Label punch and M&S die for the sentiment. The orange ric rak is from last year, but I still have some left! I roughed the edges for added detail.

My second sample is a 12x12 scrapbook page I put together last night! I was so tired when doing this, but I had to be up with my grandson so I needed something to occupy me! And, my club girls this round want to do more scrapbooking, so I need to practice! And, this also qualifies for Shelli's challenge this month to create a scrapbook page!

The adorable little boy on here is my son at different ages in his first year, 1987! It warms my heart to look at these now and see the likeness my two grandsons have to their father.

My layout is based on a scrap map from SU! in 2008. Once I started moving my pictures around, it morphed! I took the colors of red and turquoise from his clothes and added the So Saffron and put it all on a Whisper White textured 12 x 12.

The dsp is the Write Stuff speciality as is the journal block and Flock Together. Since it already resembled notebook paper, I punched holes along the side and tore in between them.

The letters are chipboard, inked in Turquoise and clear embossed. Oh, that was fun!! Here's what the journal block reads:

"Gregory: You bring such joy & love to my life. I was amazed to watch you grow & develop into you during your first year. From learning to walk & discovering you, it just made me even more aware of how much... I Love U."

The hearts are punched with the Full Heart and Heart to Heart punch. I crimped the turquoise ones, but that doesn't show up too well. The circles were cut with my Circle Scissors Plus, which I think we have a love/hate relationship going! LOL!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Royal Blog Tour

Hello all!!! Here we are, finally, on the LateNightStampers Royal Blog Tour!! I hope you are enjoying all the stops, finding much inspiration and making new friends along the way!!

As you know, this tour is all about showcasing new product from the 2009/2010 Idea Book & Catalog. And what awesome stamp sets, accessories and ideas are in this book!!! If you don't have a new catalog yet, RUN to your demonstrator and get one!!

For my stop I am highlighting the adorable new set, Animal Stories. This set has four stamps: Giraffe, Whale, Elephant and Owl. I used each of the stamps, on four separate samples, so you can see just how cute they are!!

My first sample is using the whale stamp and I knew right away that I wanted to do a scrapbook page of my grandson Cameron playing in the tub!! My colors came from the toys in the tub, but the picture printed them out darker than they really are. The base is 12 x 12 Brilliant Blue with Only Orange, Crushed Curry and Whisper White as my accents. The WW piece was stamped with the multi cirlcle stamp from Circle Circus in the same colors, spritzed with Real Red marker and then run through the crimper.

I tore the edge of the Only Orange piece behind the WW and along the bottom. The torn strips along the bottom are to mimic "waves". The whales were stamped on WW in the same colors, punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch and then I used my Circle Scissor Plus to cut the 2" circles. I ran a piece of Crushed Curry & WW through the Big Shot with the Top Note die for my journaling tag. The pictures, whales and journaling tag are all popped up with dimensionals.

My second sample features the elephant, and in Melon Mambo too!!! I do believe this is my favorite new In-Color this year!!! A very quick and easy card to make too. The card base Whisper White layered with Melon Mambo and MM squares in the Razzleberry Lemonade dsp. My elephant was stamped in Melon Mambo, cut out, layered on top of the medium daisy die with a dimensional and glued to the card. The new In-Color polka dotted gg is my accent, along with a white 5/16" brad. My sentiment comes from the On Your Birthday set. There was a glob of ink in between the ( ), so I punched a 1/2" circle in WW to cover it up!

My third sample uses the giraffe, and I have to say he was my least favorite of this set, at first! But I have come to adore him and all the possibilities with him. This card is a tent topper card and also uses the Tall Tales dsp, which coordinates with the Animal Stories set. To make the mane and tail stand out, I stamped the giraffe in Choc Chip onto Kraft, cut them out and glued them down. I thought this would make a cute baby card, so I pulled out Teeny Tiny Wishes for my sentiment. I used the scallop circles #2 die for the "tent" part and the double layered sentiment.

My fourth, and last, sample uses the owl. I've seen many cards done using two owls together, like lovebirds and so I had to give it a try. My card base is Whisper White with Garden Green, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery and Flock Together dsp. Since the only "branch" I have is in the Eastern Blooms set, I went with it. I colored the branch with my Choc Chip marker and the flowers with with So Saffron. I then added dots with my 2 way glue pen and added Dazzling Diamonds to the centers. And since these two owls are so lovey dovey, I made this a wedding card, using the Teeny Tiny Wishes set once again!!

I hope you have enjoyed this stop on the tour and if you liked what you saw, bookmark this page for even more great ideas. And if you like challenges, check out my Getting Creative with Ann challenge that is posted every Sunday. You just might be the next lucky recipient of a stampin' goodie package!!

Happy Stamping!!

~~~Ann~~~

Cameron U R .....

....too cute for words!!!

Hello all!! This is third scrapbook page I entered in the 2008 Artisan Awards. This one is 8 1/2 x 11.

The colors, stripes and layout really came from the colors in the picture and the shirt he was wearing that day! And, for some reason, he was being shy!!

The circles are chipboard covered with Certainly Celery dsp and the stars are "naked" chipboard!!

I hope you've enjoyed looking at these pages this week, and next week I'll post pics of the other items I entered.

I didn't enter this year, only because I ran out of time!! I had every intention, but just too many other things! I am sending some projects in for the monthly art contests SU! holds every month and once I know how that goes, I'll post those pics!!

Happy Stamping!!!!

~~~Ann~~~

All About the Boy!!!

Hello all!!! Here is the second scrapbook page I did for the 2008 Artisan Award. This is a 12 x 12 page. Again, I do like the end result but I think I had one too many pics on here!!

This page is all about my son, Gregory and my grandmother, hence the title! He was the light of her life and he loved her right back! I am so fortunate that my grandmother, whom I loved dearly, was able to have 3 wonderful years with her great-grandson!!

These pictures were taken on our train trip to Charleston, South Carolina and back. What fun we had! Greg and I had lived there for awhile and we went down to move our belongings back home.

I used rub-ons on the arrows, and was glad I could finally use that punch!! (Still don't use it very much!!) And the pictures I used on here are all "pictures" of pictures. I wasn't going to send in originals when I had nothing else to print!!

If you have any tips/ideas/suggestions for scrapbooking and such, please let me know!! Now with 2 grandchildren of my own I need to do more of it!

Happy Stamping!!!!

~~~Ann~~~

San Francisco Memories!!!

Hello all!! As many of know I went to San Francisco in January 2008 for a vacation/conference!! I went with my BFF, Deb and we had a blast!!

I completed this scrapbook page last March as one of the Artisan Award entries for 2008, but alas I didn't win. : ( However, I did see many of my items I entered on display at convention and that is what I have for you this week. (I'm out of town for work this week!)

Now, I don't scrapbook very much and find it difficult, even though I'm not sure why! It's really nothing more than creating a LARGE card!! This is a 12 x 12 layout.

And while I really like the end result of this, I think it is a bit busy. I loved the circle idea I got from the many scrapbook magazines I poured through!! And I thought the use of the hostess set from last Spring was quite in keeping with my theme of friends and vacation!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

GCA #45 - All About the Baby!!!

Hello all!!! Well, I'm sure you can tell where this challenge came from, but it's not just about MY new grandson, Malaki!! This is about all those wonderful babies out there! Whether it's a new baby just arrived or one that is due to arrive soon!!!

This week I actually made a 6 x 6 scrapbook page. I have a hard time doing scrapbook pages, not sure why, but this one came out very good, IMHO!!! This page actually started based on Sharon Johnson's weekly Friday Stamp Simply challenge 91: Half Circles! Please note: This is not a requirement for this week's GCA. I simply used her challenge to springboard my challenge, which you are more than welcome to do if you like!!!

Now, on to the page! When I first started working on this I thought it would be just a scrapbook page for Malaki's book, but the more i worked on it, the end result is what evolved!

Since I just received my sneak peek order of new stuff coming up in the new catalog, I decided to use them! The new dsp is Tall Tales and coordinates with the new stamp set Animal Stories. When I first saw this set I wasn't too sure of it, but the more I looked at it and thought about what I could do it grew on me! And since I am losing Wild About You and Zoofari, I needed a set that would be suitable for children.

The scalloped circles are made using the scalloped circle die and Big Shot. To achieve the double layer, all I did was use the bottom, or cut off, portion of the circles. The elephant was cut out and placed directly over the elephant in the dsp. I really wanted it show, but the ribbon cut him in half!

The nameplate was made with my Matchbox die and I hand wrote the stats on it. The label at the top is made with the new Modern Label punch, Word Window punch and the new set Teeny Tiny Wishes!! This is one of the sets I received for my SAB sales this year! It is a very versatile set and I can see using it alot!

The end result is a hanging scrapbook page which I am taking into work for my cubicle!! And to show off Malaki! I am in the process of making one for Cameron as well, so I'll post that when I get it done. As you can see, I finished the page for Cameron!! I used retired Western Sky dsp and last years In-Colors of River Rock and Blue Bayou. The corner piece is cut from one of the sheets in the dsp and then I cut out part of the star.

So, for this week's challenge you need to create a card, project, scrapbook page or whatever, with a "BABY" theme, upload it either to your blog, or to an online gallery and post a link to your card to this blog entry as a comment by June 20, 2009 at 12 midnight. I will choose the winner through a random number generator and post the next Sunday.

Even if you can't make the drawing deadline, PLEASE feel free to participate in the challenge and upload your creations at any time. I would love to see it! If you upload your card on SCS, Stampin' Addicts or Paper Craft Planet, please put GCA45(NO SPACE IN BETWEEN GCA AND 45) in the keyword section. That way everyone can look at all of the creations at once! If you've been waiting to join in the fun, jump on in and have some fun!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~