Angels Landing: Baby Girl Frame and Card

The theme for this week at Angels Landing, is Scrapbook. One of my stamping friends just recently announced that she is a proud grandma of a little baby girl. So, of course, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to make a baby gift - just because they are so much fun to make! I chose to create a frame so that my friend can show off pictures of her new granddaughter.

I used a 7x14 frame that I bought from Wal-mart. These frames come with a 2 picture matting panel that I just took out. I custom made my own matting by doing the following:

1) Cut a piece of cereal box to size 4 7/8 x 12 inches. I use cereal boxes all of the time for faux chipboard because they are sturdy but thin enough to cut through.

2) Cut a piece of patterned paper the same size as the cereal box/back piece. Adhere to cereal box with double stick tape or red sticky tape. Double stick tape does the trick if you don't want to mess with sticky tape.

3) As a guide, I placed my patterned paper panel flat on the table and laid the frame over it (minus the glass) and traced the opening on the patterned paper. This will help as a guide for image and frame placement.

3) Begin to measure how far apart you want the image and 2 cutout frames to be. At this point, you should choose the the size Nestie you want to use - I chose to use the classic square and scallop square nesties. Place the scallop piece where you want it to go and lightly mark with a pencil. I just marked the top scalloped edges as guidelines.

4) Cut out your scallop square and adhere with tape on matted piece. The pencil guidelines will look slightly larger than your piece, but you can get a general idea where to adhere the scallop squares onto the patterned paper panel.

5) Take your patterned paper panel and place in your die cutting machine (I use a Cuttlebug). Carefully place the regular square die on top of the scalloped square (making sure that the square does not move), place the C plate over the panel and cut out square (I used the following sandwich recipe: Plate A + Plate B + Patterned Paper Panel + Paper folded in Fourths + Plate C). It was a little bit of a tight fit, but it wasn't too tight to break the C Plate. When I was done, the square already left an embossed look on the scalloped square. NOTE: The die won't cut through all of the layers so you will have to use a craft knife to cut out the square completely.

6) Repeat step 5 for scallop square #2.

There you have it...custom matted panel with 2 frames. I think this is so much prettier than what came with the frame originally.

The elephant image is from Toys on Wheels and printed to size 3.53 x 3.94 inches. I printed the elephant image twice: once on cardstock and a second time on patterned paper for paper piecing (sponged a little Antique Linen distress ink on the patterned paper). I customized the frames with the "Baby Girl" sentiment from Toys on Wheels so not to leave the frames looking empty. The cardstock was cut down to 3x3 square, distressed with Antique Linen ink, and taped behind the back panel. This way, my friend, can choose to keep the frame as is or put pictures of her new granddaughter in it.

The wheels were a little tricky. It took me a couple of tries to get the right size so that it matched the size of the wheels that the elephant was standing on. The printed size of the wheels is 1.08 x 3.33 inches and it fit the frames and layout perfectly. The wheels were printed out on textured vanilla cardstock which made it look like authentic wooden wheels when colored with a prismacolor pencil blended in baby oil.

I wasn't satisfied yet so to make it look a little more girlie, I added a little pink bow on the elephant as well as finished it off with a green satin ribbon, prima flowers, button and string (which seem to be one of my favorite embellishment combos lately).

And the gift wouldn't be a gift without a matching card. A simple card made with nesties labels one. The elephant is popped up on dimensionals and topped off with a pink satin ribbon.

Thanks for coming by! Go on and check out the other DT gals creations!!! Have a great day!

Digital Stamps: Angels Landing (Toys on Wheels)
Patterned Paper: K& Company (Brenda Walton)
Cardstock: Unkown (Textured Vanilla)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen)
Die Cut: Spellbinders (Square Classic Nestabilities, Labels One)
Accessories: Offray (Satin Green, Pink), Prima Flowers, Button, Crochet Thread, String, Scotch Mounting Tape, Frame from Wal-mart size 7 x 14

TimNShells New Release: Ballooning Away Friend Card

Michelle Seward just released some fab new digi images in her store you can find here. She is so talented and she is so good with creating the perfect layout for a card and her coloring is phenomenal...check out her card gallery here.

For only $3, you can purchase this image called Ballooning Away. This is such a sweet image you can use any kind of sentiment to suit this. I chose to pair it with a vellum quote from DCWV Quote Stacks: Love and Friendship. I've only used one vellum quote out of the pack so I intend to use more cause' they are so much fun to use. I didn't want to cover up the image up entirely but I like how it shows up nicely against the vellum quote. The image is colored with prismacolor pencils blended with baby oil (the only coloring medium I've been using since I got my pencils - love them!). I've got to take coloring lessons from Michelle...I am not so good at creating shadows yet. I used my scallop scissors to create the scallops for the background layers and used my rectangle nesties to frame out the image. I topped it off with a ribbon I had been hoarding for 2 years now and clear mini decorative accents from M's. Again, more patterned paper scraps from My Mind's Eye.

I'll be posting another card from TimNShells in the next few days since I have not had a chance to color it in yet.

Elegant WordArt Cards

Since becoming so addicted to digital images and sentiments, I have been on the hunt for some cool images online. Before being introduced to Digiments, digital sentiments were just making their way on the popularity scale along with digital stamps. Michelle, the owner of Digiments, has created some fabulous sentiments.

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow DT member, Laurie Ingram (aka Paperville), introduced me to Elegant WordArt by Bethany Harty. I just love how she has such great vision putting together wordart. You can find freebies listed on the left side of her blog - there is many of them and she adds a new one every week - how cool is that? Bethany ROCKS! Aren't they so breath taking and just so inspirational. If you are looking for more of Bethany's work, you can purchase digital wordart sets including digi scrapping kits in her store called ScrapOrchard - very affordable! Hope to do some digi scrapping one of these days.

The first two identical cards, I used 2 Sketches 4 You: Laura's sketch 30 from July 13. Of course, I missed entering these again. Oh well, most of the time, I'm not in it for the prizes, just the inspiration.

The third card is based from a new sketch challenge blog started by fellow DT member, Leigh Ann Baird (Stamping with Annie B) called Sketch Girl. This is the first sketch challenge that Leigh Ann posted: SG1. Thanks Leigh Ann for the inspiration!

The two cards that have butterfly sentiments (I made 2 of the cards that have the busy flowers on them) were thank you cards sent to my MIL, Mom and Aunt for sending me some goodies for my birthday (I was able to buy some things I've been wanting for awhile - some of the newest Nesties! Yay!!!). And the third card with the Answer to my Prayers sentiment is going to someone really special. She is a follower so hope she misses this post - teehee! I made a special project to match the card that I will post later.

You may have noticed that I have been posting cards with paper you have seen before. I've been trying to be good and use up some scraps before tearing into a new piece of paper. You gotta love those paper pads from M's and Jo's - everything coordinates so perfectly so there is no guessing!

Thank You CD Case and Card

This is a card I made as a thank you for the family who offered to host the high school's varsity baseball banquet last June. It was potluck so they provided part of the main course (we brought the other main dishes) and everyone else brought the rest. Since I took many pictures of the event, I created a CD to give to them. Their son just graduated and I was able to take a lot pics of him with my husband handing him an award and team pictures. I wanted to kill two birds with one stone, so I created a CD case/5.5-inch size card.

To make the CD case/card:

1) Using a 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock - turn cardstock so it's landscape (11 inch edge is facing up), score at 5.5 inches (this will be your fold)

2) For the pockets, turn the cardstock around and score 3 inches.

OPTIONAL: I cut down the pockets diagonally for added interest, but you can leave it as is.


I finally got to use an image from Nina (Crafting from Croatia). She was gracious enough to offer some free downloadable images on her blog. You can find the links on her sidebar. I did not even realize that she is an illustrator for Gina K Designs - how cool is that??? No wonder I was so drawn to her images when she first posted them in the Digital Downloads forum on SCS.

I paired the image with the "Thank You" sentiment from Digiments - Simple Sentiments series. I just love using Michelle's digiments! Unfortunately, sales have been slow so you 'll have to wait until September for a new release. I think it's been slow everywhere with summer vacation. Part of the digital sentiment (although hard to see) was highlighted with Aleene's Paper Glaze. I did not really take a great picture of the front because we were on our way out and I was in a hurry - oh well.

The sketch was based from the Dare U2 Digi Stamp Challenge #17. I missed entering it because it took me long enough to take a picture of it. Oh well!

Digital Stamps: Crafting in Croatia (Blossom for Mom), Digiments (Simple Sentiments)

Patterned Paper: Me and My Big Ideas

Cardstock: Jo-Ann's Value Paper Pack (Brown), Georgia Pacific (White), Unknown (Kraft, Vanilla)

Accessories: Wide Grossgrain Ribbon, String, Martha Stewart Lace Punch, Aleene's Paper Glaze

Coloring: Prismacolor Pencils blended with Baby Oil (Process Red, Pink, Blush Pink, Lime Peel, Apple Green)

WOW - Have you seen this little stamper?

I became a follower of Nikki Fairbairn's blog (aka Bunny-Zoe) a couple of months ago. She has a 9 year old daughter, named Zoe, who is already a fabulous stamper. Check out her website here! Like her Mum, she has so much talent you wouldn't believe that she was only a wee little 9 year old. Zoe is celebrating 10,000 hits on her blog and she is offering up some yummy-licious blog candy. So make sure to stop by and leave her some lovin'. She is absolutely amazing and a cutie to boot!!!

August '09 Sheetload of Cards - Ready for Download Today!

It is time for the August issue of SheetLoad of Cards!!!

(click on thumbnail above to go download the FREE issue)

The August '09 issue features a sketch by Liz Weber, stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and Guest Artists from the Sweet 'n Sassy Design Team!

Sheetload of Cards August '09 Sneak Peeks

As July comes to an end - coming soon to a computer near you ... a new issue of Sheetload of Cards. Hop on over to the blog to see some sneak peeks of what's to come in the new August '09 issue. Be sure to come back tomorrow and I will have the new download ready for you to feast your eyes on. Lots of fabulous creations!

August '09 Sheetload of Cards Sneak Peeks

Can you guess who our next sponsor is?

If you haven't had a chance to play, TODAY is your last day to enter in the monthly contests: Show Us Your Sheetload and Shoutout to Sheetload. The chosen ones will win digital images from our July sponsor, Squiggefly.