home sweet home...

Some friends of ours recently bought a home in Maryland and we stayed with them for a few days... I wanted to send a thank you card but somehow it  turned into a 'welcome home' card instead!

The Jenni Bowlin 'home' bingo card was the perfect base to start with... layered with a beautiful vintage image of an 'H' and a tiny cottage that I cut out... 

I tried to add some stitching where I could fit it. Best thing of all about this card? Their last name begins with an 'H'!!! How perfect was that?

I hope their new life there is filled with wonderful memories that they'll build over the years to come...

Thanking them for their warm hospitality.

xo,

pink pearl...

I made a little hanging for someone last month and it's taken me this long to finally post it!

Isn't this pretty little girl just the cutest?!! Adding wings to her just made me love her more.

  Tiny details... a single velvet flower and a crystal drop...

 Glossy Accents was perfect to accent the pink 'pearl' making it actually look dimensional...

 Lots of gold Stickles gave the whole thing a beautiful sparkle...

Have a happy day!

xo,

love you to bits...

I love collage. There's just something so fun about the layers- and layers, and more layers. You take a pile of what doesn't look like much and compose it into something that speaks to you.

I made this for a friend who needs a little 'pick me up'... I hope when she looks at this, she feels a little hug sent her way.

Small canvases (6x6) are my favorite. Tiny size, chunky base, beautiful texture. Vintage images (of course!) and layers of book paper, sheet music and color. Add some random stamping- don't worry if it comes out all wonky because IT WILL. That just adds to the look!

Love you to bits, my friend. You know who you are! 

xo,

special day...

 
Last month, I was lucky enough to make it onto the design team for Scrapbook Island. Yay!!!
We got our first project box and had this past month to complete it. The interesting thing about this design team is that at the end of the year, the store holds a huge crop and auction to benefit breast cancer. The projects from the team are the auction items! 

My box had the latest birthday collection from Crate Paper, all the embellies that went with it, a chipboard binder plus the pages that fit it.
I was nervous, nervous, nervous! The deal with the projects is this: you don't add photos (simplest rule in the world for me to follow since I rarely take any!) BUT... you also don't add anything else to the project. Now that is a heart-stopper for me. No book paper, no sheet music, no vintage images (say it ain't sooooo) and most likely, no layers on top of layers on top of more layers.

The 'what' of the project was a no-brainer... duh, it's going to be a birthday book.

The 'how' was a little trickier for me.

I machine stitched on photo mats I had cut from the decorative papers.

The interior sleeves that were included were all the same size. Too dull. I ended up cutting them into different widths so that the book would have some movement.

Cute little vellum pockets got some washi tape and die cuts.

I did my best to create layers where I could.

With the manufacturer bar code strip cut off of each sheet of paper, I realized I had the perfect little piece that could be added along the edge of the pages. It was kinda fun stitching these on, although I was definitely holding my breath until I could flip each one over to make sure I'd caught the strip on the opposite side. whew!

The orange birthday sheet music paper was my hands-down favorite of the entire stack.

Another vellum bag just begging for some photos to be slipped into it.

My stitching was far from perfect as you can clearly see!

It's ready for someone to add their birthday memories...

It was a challenge that really made me stop and think... way out of my comfort zone style-wise (and paper-wise too) and definitely a larger scale than I am used to working in. At the end, it all came together and I was eager to turn it in and see what was in my next box!

xo,

beach beauties...

A real quick sneak peek at a banner I'm putting together for a class this summer...

The beachy beauties are really fun to work with. All I need now is a little tropical rum drink for some inspiration...