Friday Night Card Sketch with Michelle

In honor of World Cardmaking day tomorrow here is a new card sketch from Michelle :) Enjoy! Show us if you complete cards using her sketch :)
Deb♥

Scrapbooking Great Grandma

I have been spending time working on my family tree again lately so I thought I would share with you today a lo I made of ym great-grandma :) I never had the chance to know her other than to sadly attend her funeral when I was about 4 years old. As I have been told she lived in one of the nursing homes close to my home, but children were never allowed there. My mom said she would always ask about us (the kids), but never wuld get the chance to see us again. Isn't that sad? Ridiculous too! We should be encouraging the young to be closer to the older generations, if for nothing else to learn how to associate with generations outside of their own. Do you agree?


Well, lucky me to have this picture of my great grandma, Cornelia with her daughter and grandchild. Make sure you are marking pnames and places on your photos so that one day someone who comes across it as I id this one will know who is in that precious photo :)
Deb♥

Postage Stamp Challenge: Jen

I have to admit, when I started to work on this challenge, my dh thought I was crazy cause I was rushing around the house tearing stamps off of our card and bill envelopes. lol! But I laid out all my stamps- Christmas , patriotic, and brown liberty bell ones and the brown liberty bells just spoke to me....see I maybe I am crazy. lol! I just thought how cool they would be if I grouped them together with some lace and made a flower(p.s. I used a gluber to hold it all together) with them for this page of my daughter! And so I found this postage patterned paper added some bling swirls, and layered some cool brown and tan ribbon for texture then added the tags and words around the pic and put my postage stamp flower I made. Tfl!

Postage Stamp Challenge: Sheena

I discovered by doing this project how few real stamps come on our mail these days. I think that is kinda of sad. I love my mail during the holidays with all those cheerful stamps. Since I didn't have enough postage stamps for my project, I made some of my own using a couple of "stamp" clear stamps. This is a great option especially if you would like your project to be archival.

Friday Night Card Sketch with Michelle

Enjoy!

Postage Stamp Challenge: Tammy

For the postage stamp challenge this month, I decided to do a vintage-y, layered tag (that I will most likely add to one of my Etsy kits). I used a piece of a vintage map, inked along the edges, as the background. I took a stamp that came on a piece of mail that day and peeled it off :) Can you see it behind the "EXPLORE" sticker? Then I layered stickers, stamped over them, and glued the three vintage buttons on it. I love layering! Thanks for looking!! Tammy

Postage Stamp Challenge: Groovy Deb

For the challenge this month I found some of my acrylic stamps with a postage theme! I inked up with ink and acrylic paint. Now I have a place for my love letters from long ago~FINALLY! TFL!
Deb

Postage Stamp Challenge:Viji

I loved this challenge. When I first heard about it..I was thinking how am I going to do this now!! But it really forced me to think out of the box. I looked through all the envelopes I had saved from the cards and letters I have received. I found this very cute heart stamp. I decided to use this stamp and looked for an old photo of me and Sid back in college. We were much in love that time..We still are ;) LOL!

I used Pastel Pink DCWV cardstock as my base and inked it up. I love inking!! I used both the stamp and the negatives of the stamp to make the title of my layout. I chalked around the stamp to get the white blocks with postage border to write my title in.

I had tons of fun working on this layout! I hope you will give it a try. Looking forward to see what you all come up with!

The sketch I used is from 52sketches52weeks. They have awesome sketches.

Supplies: Fiskars Sure Cut Deluxe Trimmer, DCWV Pastel Cardstock, Frances Meyer Pattern Paper, Crafter Workshop "Dots all Around" Doodling Template, Nestabilities Classic Circle, Sassfras Flowers, Buttons, Red Chalk and Ribbon from my stash, CTMH Red ink, Fiskars Pink Ink.

Postage Stamp Challenge: Michelle

Here is Michelle's take on this month's challenge...lookie how sweet :)
Deb


When I was given this postage challenge I thought about a few ways to go about it. One was using old correspondence I had. Another idea was to just add cancelled postage stamps my Grandmother gave me to old photos of her. But then I took this pics of my son and the title not only hit me. But the benefit in the end was two-fold, his collection of pages/layouts is so small compared to his sister's pages/layouts.

The day I took this pictures was apart of a daily ritual that happens whenever my husband works the night shift. We go out on the front lawn watch him get in the car and wave goodbye as he drives away. For some reason this works! My son, Luke has a hard time not being attached to dad when he is around. I guess by watching him pull away Luke knows Dad is off to work and will be back. Anyway, on the way back into the house Luke stopped to say, "Hi" to the wooden craved bear and tell me while pointing, "Eyes, Nose & Mouth". Finally sealing it with a kiss!

I fell in love with a paper pack from Creative Memories, called Rugged which fit this page perfect. I used one of the 12x12 papers and used the matching Storybox Journaling/Matting papers that are 6 1/2 x 4 1/2. Added my own collection of cancelled stamps Used the Cricut cartridge Simply Sweet to cut out my title. Pop up the single letters with foam and used the negative piece cut from the word Kiss..

September Groovy Challenge

For this month I challenge the Groovy Chicks to create layouts using postage stamps. Unusual? Maybe but some of the stamps have self stick and can make cute embellies! Then, thee are other ways to use them as well and we are about to spend the week showing you what I mean :)

Heather is up first and I know you are going to love what she has created!
Deb

When I found out our challenge this month was using postage stamps, I wanted to go along with something related to "Leaving my Mark", but instead using "Leaving my Stamp". But on what? What is something that I do or that I am involved in that people will remember in years to come . . . something that says "She left her mark here."? I struggled and struggled with this.

One thing that I really enjoy doing is coaching t-ball. This is my 2nd year and I just love those kiddos! We may not be that great, but hey, our kids are 4-7 years old and they are learning the basics. And the parents LOVE me because I like to run the kids (& they all love to run) so it ensures they are tired when they go home after a practice or game! But most importantly, I like to have fun with the kids! It's all about the sportsmanship!! We do exercises and I let different kids lead and we yell when we count! I chase them around the bases, normally as many times as they like! That seems to be their favorite thing to do. I want to make sure they are having a good time and that everyone gets a chance to participate.

I used postage stamps that have actually been used around my layout for a border. I then stamped the stars that run along the top of the patterened paper and highlighted with a white pen. The "Children At Play" is a stamp from Raisin Boat stamps (check them out at www.raisinboat.com). I then added some punched stars and buttons. I doodled around the stars and the picture to pull the focus into the pic and make the stars stand out. The journaling says "Leaving my STAMP on the life of a child. I loved coaching my t-ball team!"

Who knows, I may have the next Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez or Andy Pettite on my team (yes, I am a Yankees fan). . . but for now, it's all about having a good time while learning the basics!! Maybe they will remember me when they are making their millions on the field! hehe

Make Your Own!

Silvana did! Wanna see? Also, just a little note of thanks to Silvana for her awesome term here at IIG! It has now come to an end. We saw amazing projects from her this past year and it has been great working with her!
Deb

Went I need a quick handmade embellishment to finish or to cordinate a project I'll just get a huge paper clip some scraps, ribbon or whatever I have on hand and make one like these ones in the picture.......is so easyyyyyyy probably only takes five minutes or less , I hope this idea is helpful and next time you need a emebellishment think of this.

Friday Night Sketch with Heather

Let us know if you use the sketch from tonight or any other :) We would love to see each of your takes on them :)
Deb

Off the Page with Heather

How thoughtful of a gift and it is so much fun to just come off of the page sometimes! WTG Heather!!!
Deb


I found these cute little Letter Hooks at Michaels. Said they were $2. Great! I will buy one for 2 of my best friends, alter them and mail them off!!! Went up to pay for them and they rang up for $1.20 each! BONUS!!!!

These were really simple! The "C" is what they looked like when I bought them. I added 3 different purple alcohol inks to my blending tool felt and dabbed away on it till I got the effect that I wanted. Too reach the smaller areas, use a q-tip or take felt off blending tool and fold to reach into the crevices. I added a little bling to mine upon finishing it just to dress it up a little!

I did the "C" in browns (their fave colors, purple and brown). Sometimes I really enjoy just playing and experimenting with new ways to use things that I already have!!!

Bug Hunting

Let's visit with Michelle tonight!
Deb


I had taken pictures of my daughter all decked out with her bug finding gear. I had a paper pack in mind called, "Wings" only problem was her "BUG" hunt wasn't too successful as far as "BUGS" go! She did however find a bunch of snails and spiders! BUT I loved how the colors of her outfit and gear went with the papers.

I did a technique new to me using a spray pen. Not sure if there is a specific title to the technique. But it is a form of masking. By placing my acrylic sentiment stamp down on the paper to mask the area to be sprayed. I used my spray pen and sprayed the area. You can adjust the level of coverage you want just by spraying more or less. I allowed everything to dry: I left my stamp in place until the paper dried so I didn't create any smudging! After everything dried I cleaned off the stamp and attached it to a block, then stamped down my sentiment in the masked area left. Look for it on the center strip between my pictures....I had fun with this new technique and I am going to try is out again! I have already saved some of my pieces from the cut outs on my Cricut. By the way you can use just about anything. I have used the remains of my glue runners for misted gears...The possibilities are endless!

Baby Jen T!

Aww! Look at Baby Jen! She has a great idea to dig through parent's pictures and work on BOM!!! When is the last time you worked on a layout for your own BOM? Today is the day :)
Deb♥


As I go thru my mom's old picture box and dig up pics of me I have been trying to scrapbook them right away so that I can keep my book of me going so they don’t get lost again. This is a pic of me at about 1 yrs old. Wasn’t I cute!? I just decided to keep this page pretty and simple and I used a patterned paper with colors that remind me of clothes I wore as a kid. And a little bling in the letters and corner brads. Tfl!

Let's Talk Water Color Pencils

A friend over on the Fiskateer board ( Hi Beth!) had some questions about the use of water color pencils. Since I just made a water color card this past week I thought I would share with you here what I did and explain how I got the water color look :)

First I stamped the images with a black ink on my scrapbook paper, but in addition to stamping on that paper I used water color paper and stamped the butterfly two more times.

I used a yellow water color pencil and simply colored in some spots on the stamped butterfly images. I inked up my stamp once more and added a few tiny drops of water to the stamp to smear the ink a little, then stamped again over the same image. Next I used the paint brush to swirl the colors together a little bit and PRESTO I had a water color butterfly to pop up on top of my already placed images on the card :) On the inside of the card a ribbon was placed with another butterfly hot glues to the ribbon to become a ribbon book mark :)

Hope this helps you! Working with water color pencils is very easy!!!
Deb♥

Friday Night 2 Page Sketch with Heather

It is Friday so here is a great 2 pager that we hope you can work on :) Created by Heather with an example!
Deb♥

Cards by Viji

Viji is sharing a neat little trick with us today...get the ink out!
Deb♥


I wanted to show you how to make some very easy cards. I love stamping and it is a fun way to create your own pattern paper. I looked through my stamps, selected a few and just started stamping. Then, I added some ribbon and stamped the sentiment. I had a plain orange ribbon, so I stamped the little flowers on it to match my pattern paper. This was my first experiment with stamping on ribbon and I really liked the way it came out. I am definitely going to do more ribbon stamping in the future. Let's see what stamps you have hiding in your treasure and get stamping!

A Wedding Announcement

From Silvana we have a beauty today!
Deb♥
I didn't even think of doing something like this with a wedding invitation until a friend ask me if I could make scrapbook page or something like a keepsake with the invite to give it at her friends rehearsal dinner as a present. I said "sure I can make something special" and I started to search for ideas on the Internet. I found a few places where they sell shadow boxes with babies keepsake and other ideas, among them wedding invitation so that's what I ended up doing for her. This is the result and I'm so happy to tell you that she and the bride LOVE IT. So if you didn't know that you can make this with some of our scrapbook supplies, now you know =)

Message On My Hand: Sheena

Jake, one of my best friends son, was a special little boy who left this earth too soon. She had always said “make everyday count” to remind her to not take any time with him for granted. After he passed away, that phrase continued to remind us, life is precious, try to enjoy every minute of it.

Message On My Hand: Tammy

So what to write on my hand? That came pretty easy for me...I am always telling everyone to "think positive". I truly believe that if you put "positive" thoughts out, you get them back. It's all a matter of attitude :) I like the idea of vision boards. You put thing on the board that you wish for, or desire. Seeing them and thinking about them can help you reach your goal. I went to Target and got a four pack of cork tiles. I used my Fiskar's cloud punches to punch some clouds and glues them down, and added a little Stickles. Then I glued a chipboard "dream" on top of that. Along the side I glued down a chipboard "wish", and with my I-Rock, I designed the rainbow swirls with some hot fix jewels. I poked holes in the top and threaded some ribbon through so I could hang it. Then I thumbtacked my picture of my hand with the words "think positive" on top. Now it was just a matter of tacking on some stuff I "desire" ;) I want to be a size 8 (got there in 2009, just need to focus!!!), I am going to a taping of "Ellen" soon, and I'm hoping we win tickets to the 12 Days of Christmas. I want a grandbaby :) And my dream for retirement is to buy a bike rental place in Maui...my hubby is a bike guy, I think it would be perfect! What are your dreams?? Tammy

Announcing a Winner, Is it You?

So after collecting and collecting comments from all of you who commented on Raisin Boat projects, and consulting with random.org I now can happily announce a winner! I wish all of you who faithfully came by and left luv could receive a prize! Our winner is Kelly Massman :) Congrats and I will wait to her from you with a mailing address. You may contact me at groovydeb@yahoo.com within 30 days ") Thanks!
Deb♥

Friday Night Card Sketch with Heather

Heather has a card sketch for us tonight :) Enjoy!
Deb♥