Teacher Appreciation -- School Builder Wheel Card

Hi again!  Today, I have another project to share with you that I created for Teacher Appreciation week at my oldest son's school a couple weeks back.  This one is a card design, which was inspired by a card in the Summer Mini and uses the newest builder wheels (Elementary Alphabet, For Teacher, and School Colors), which are perfect for school appreciation projects!

Here's the card I created:

For this card I used a Tempting Turquoise base, a real red piece which I scalloped using the Scallop Edge Punch, and a Whisper White piece which I wheeled.  I used all three Builder Wheels together, and used a Triple Cell Cartridge, filled with Real Red, Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise to ink the different wheels.  It is so fun to be able to roll each wheel with a different color -- so easy, too! 

To finish off the card, I tied a piece of Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon around the front, and used a piece of the new Cherry Cobbler and White Baker's Twine to attach the mini tag.  The tag was stamped with the Tiny Tags set and punched out using the Jewelry Tag Punch.

I think this made a fun thank you card to go with the gifts D's class gave their teacher and other staff at the school.  Hope they liked it, and hope you do, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Teacher Appreciation Projects -- Fun Flower Pin

Greetings!  I've still been digital scrapbooking away . . . I've finished more than 50 pages now and only have a couple more to complete.  I'm determined to get this book finished in time to take advantage of the 30% discount Stampin' Up! has on print products this month!  I'll share more pages soon.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to share a special project that I made for Daniel's teacher for bring-a- flower-to-your-teacher day during the school's Staff Appreciation week.  We wanted to give Daniel's teacher something that would last longer than a flower from our garden, so I decided to make her a fabric flower pin using the Big Shot!  I'd seen samples and directions for these from Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Meeting in January -- I just changed some of the products used in the project to personalize it for D's teacher. 

So, without further ado, here's the flower pin I created:

This uses fabric and lace from the Holiday Mini (I believe the fabric is still available).  I cut the fabric using the Fun Flowers Die, which appeared in the Occasions Mini, but is still available.  I also used Paper Daisies, sponged with Black and spritzed with Silver Foil Smooch Spritz, and Newsprint Designer Series Paper punched with the scallop circle punch.  The brad in the center is from the Antique Brads, but I changed its color to black using Basic Black Craft Ink and Black Embossing Powder. 

Stay tuned for another of my teacher appreciation week projects tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Scrapping Away . . .

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I am moving right along with the digital scrapbook I'm creating with our spring break photos!  Now that I'm into the project, it is kind of hard to stop . . . so my current page count is 28 finished, 2 more in progress! 

I won't bore you with all the pages, but did have a few more I wanted to share, so you can see what I've been doing.  I've been keeping the pages fairly simple -- mostly focused on the photos, with a background and journaling (I've been using the new digital Flag Punch throughout the album to create my journaling boxes).  Only occasionally have I been adding any embellishments.  One of the exceptions is this set of pages.  The background is from the new Sunset Serenade digital papers (very beautiful, and available for 30% off as part of one of the bundles in the National Scrapbooking Month promotion -- you can see what the bundles contain here).  I couldn't resist adding some fish stamps (from the Cute Cats digital stamp set), and some eyelet bubbles coming up from them.

I also wanted to share this page with you -- I love the woodgrain background from the Woodland Walk designer series paper, and it was perfect for the pages about our visit to the Petrified Forest!

Hope you enjoyed these, and hope you are inspired to work on your own scrapbooking projects!  Please let me know if you have any questions about My Digital Studio! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

- Michelle

Scrapbooking Update and Some Amazing Projects By Marlene

Hi Everyone!   Sorry to be quiet for almost a couple weeks there!!!  I've been spending much of my "free" time lately working in My Digital Studio on my scrapbook pages, and have made some great progress on my spring break scrapbook.  I'm actually on page 26 -- so ahead in my page a day challenge! -- although it looks like this book is going to be longer than I'd originally expected, so it's a good thing I've gotten ahead so I'll have a chance to finish it in time to take advantage of the 30% off special on printing this month!!!   I'll share some more of my pages from that tomorrow!

But, today, I want to share with you some wonderful projects that I have received from my great friend and swapping-buddy Marlene Caravello.  I've been holding out on you with these again.  I think I've had them for a least a month, maybe longer!  Yikes!  So, without further ado, here are Marlene's beautiful creations!

First is a card for our challenge to create a card with punches.  This card uses the sneak peek set Four Frames and the Paisley Prints designer series paper from the upcoming Idea Book & Catalog (July 1st, for those who want to join me in counting days!  Be sure to let me know if you'd like a copy of the catalog!)  Anyway, I love how Marlene used the Four Frames set and the Decorative Label Punch to create the banner!

and here's the beautifully decorated inside of the card as well:

The next card Marlene created for our challenge to make a card with 3D flowers:

Isn't this a neat idea!!!  The skirt is made with the Springtime Vintage Fabric, which was in the Occasions Mini, but is still available!   I love the textures on the card, too.  Marlene used the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder on the background and the Elegant Bouquet folder on the Certainly Celery top. 

Again, Marlene decorated the inside of the card beautifully as well:

And, the final project is a 3D basket, which Marlene created using the Petal Cone Die (again, this was from the Occasions Mini, but is still available) and the new Beyond the Garden Designer Series Paper from the Summer Mini. 

Just wonderful!!!

Thanks again, Marlene, for swapping with me and for allowing me to share your creations here!!! 

Marlene and I are working on another swap right now with Summer Mini items -- I have two of the three projects done, and the third one well underway, so hopefully will have those done and on their way to Marlene soon.  Once she has them, then I'll post them here, too!  Stay tuned . . .

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

Special Cards for Extra-Special Moms!

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday!  I enjoyed the day -- we had a relaxing afternoon, and the boys prepared dinner for me (well, mostly Greg did, but the little guys helped as much as they could). 

I wanted to share with you the special cards I made for my mom and mom-in-law, who are both amazing ladies!  They are wonderfully creative as well, and I wanted to make cards for each of them that reflect their interests.

My mom loves roses, so I created this 3-D rose card for her:

I used the Springtime Vintage Designer Series paper in the background, which was from the now-no-longer-available Occasions Mini.  However, this beautiful paper is still available as a Digital Download!

My mom-in-law makes beautiful quilts, so I created this card for her:

The buttons and fabric in the background are from the Sew Suite Digital Download, and I printed them out on Very Vanilla.  I added a quilted look to them by embossing them first with the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and again with the Tulip Frame folder.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Scrapbooking Update!

It's National Scrapbooking Day today, so I thought it would be appropriate to share a few more of the pages I have been creating for my Spring Break 2011 album . . . I'm doing well so far on my page-a-day challenge!  I am still working on today's page, but once it is done, I'll have 7 pages done!  I've only been spending 5 minutes to maybe at most 20 minutes on each page, so it really isn't taking a lot of time each day.  If I can keep this up, I'll finish this album and hopefully get into another one before the month is over!  I hope that you'll consider taking up this challenge with me and create some pages to record and preserve your precious memories as well.  Please let me know if you do! 

Now, without further ado, my pages:

The top two pages will be together in a two-page spread.  For the background on those two pages, I used paper from the Strength & Hope Digital Kit (I think it's wonderful that Stampin' Up! is donating $2 from the sale of this digital kit to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  You can help make a difference when you purchase this kit or the Strength & Hope stamp set!)  I also used one of the Vintage Overlays on those pages.  The middle page also has a couple of the digital stamps from the Strength & Hope Digital Kit around the photos.

For the bottom page, I used the Nautical Expedition Designer Series Paper Download and the compass stamp from The Open Sea Stamp Brush Set.

On a couple of these pages, I used the new digital Flag Punch to create the journaling boxes.

Also, I just learned that there are new training resources available from Stampin' Up! for My Digital Studio.  You can find them here.   I'll be checking them out, and I encourage you to do so, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Happy National Scrapbooking Month!!!

It's May, and that means National Scrapbooking Month is here!  To celebrate, I have challenged myself to create a page a day in My Digital Studio, and I Digital Dare you to do the same!!!  You can join the challenge anytime this month.  If you'd like to join me, please leave me a comment either here on this blog post, or over on my Facebook page.  If enough people join in and share what they're doing, I might just have to give out some prizes, too.  :)

I'll admit I'm way behind in my scrapbooking, so I have plenty of projects I could do!  However, I decided to scrapbook our recent Spring Break camping trip -- it's fresh in my mind, and we took lots of fun photos.  Once I finish that, then I can pick another, older one.  Anyway, here are the first two pages I've created:

 

The first page will be the cover for my album.  I like the layout, not so sure about the colors yet.  And, the second page will be the title page inside. 

Usually when I do an album, the first thing I do is put all the pictures I want to use on all the pages I think I'll need.  This time, I've decided to really just take one page at a time, and I'm enjoying that much more!  I don't feel quite as overwhelmed.  I hope if you join me in this challenge you'll take the opportunity to experiment and try something new, too.

And, I must confess I already missed a day of scrapbooking yesterday . . . didn't get quite as much computer time as I would have liked due to some intervening circumstances.  So, I'll be making that up along with my page for today!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle 

Thanks for stopping by!