Lights, Camera, Action

People who've met me find out in a very short period of time that I've always been a fan of the movie industry. When I first headed out for college it was with the dream of being a publicist and moving directly to Los Angeles after I graduated. Well, I did move to L.A. although I ended up being a teacher instead of representing the movie stars I loved so much (I did have a small foray into the entertainment world, check out the About Me section to see how). Movies have always been important to me and I normally will see at least one a week at the theaters. This week I'm looking forward to New Moon and The Blind Side. For the past two years I've been saving every ticket stub in hopes of making a couple of layouts showing all the movies I see in a year. So, it's not too hard to see why I own the Lights, Camera, Action stamp set from Close to my Heart. I was just fooling around with the set yesterday and some Back Country paper and came up with what could either be an invitation or the title page of a 6 x 6 album showcasing your favorite movies.

For this card/page you will need to cut your paper like this:

6 x 12 card base, colonial white cardstock works well, fold in half
6 x 6 card front, outdoor denim cardstock
5 3/4 x 5 3/4 olive pattern paper
1 1/4 x 6 plaid pattern paper
1 3/4 x 4 1/2 outdoor denim cardstock
1 1/2 x 1 1/2 barn red cardstock
4 x 3 barn red cardstock
3 3/4 x 2 3/4 olive cardstock or pattern paper
3 1/2 x 2 1/2 barn red pattern paper

Distress, if desired, with outdoor denim ink.

Glue olive pattern paper to card front.

Attach blue plaid strip 1/2 inch from left hand side of card, flush with top and bottom edges.

Add largest piece of barn red cardstock about 1/4 inch from top and right hand sides of card.

Glue down olive cardstock or pattern paper, whichever you decided to use.

Using Giggle Lowercase stamps (or another alphabet set), stamp the words "movie night" on the barn red pattern paper in outdoor denim ink. Glue to the center of the olive paper.

Attach outdoor denim 1/4 inch up from bottom, flush with the left hand side.

Stamp two of the movie icons (of your choice) from the set in outdoor denim ink on the barn red cardstock squares.

Glue those two pieces on blue strip starting about 1/2 inch from left hand side.

Add three outdoor denim brads starting one inch down from top left of the card, an inch apart. Stamp the words, "That's a Wrap" below the "movie night" title. Attach to card base opening either to the bottom or to the right. And, like the stamp says, That's a Wrap!!

Woohoo!

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I'm getting a little sentimental about the Summer catalog because I've seen the new Fall one and know that the new sets of paper will soon become my new favorites and Back Country will fall by the wayside a bit so in honor of my favorite paper from the Summer catalog, here's a new card!

You need to choose your favorite paper set and cut them with these measurements.

Patterned paper #1 - 2 1/4" by 2 1/4" and 1 1/2" by 5 1/2".
Patterned paper #2 - 3" by 5 1/2".
White or off white cardstock - 1 1/2" by 2 3/4".
Darker cardstock - 1/2" by 5 1/2" and 1 3/4" by 3".
White or off white cardstock for card base 8 1/2" by 5 1/2", fold in half.
Distress everything with a dark ink like Outdoor Denim if desired.

Attach the 3" x 5 1/2" piece to top of the card, keeping it flush with the two sides and top of the card. Always work from the fold down.

Next put the 1 1/2" by 5 1/2" piece flush with bottom of the card.

Add 1/2" by 5 1/2" strip along the border created by the two other papers.

Attach the 2 1/4" by 2 1/4" one half inch from the right hand side of the card centered between top and bottom of the 3" x 5 1/2" piece.

Glue off white piece to the 1 3/4" by 3" piece. Using the You're a Hoot set, stamp the branch across the bottom of the paper with Olive ink.

Stamp the smallest owl and the "whoohoo" word, using Outdoor Denim and Barn Red inks respectively. Attach to the left hand side of the card, 1/2" from the top and left side.


Add five buttons at the bottom of the card after threading them with waxy flax in color of your choice. Attach with glue dots. You're done, woohoo!!

Family Reunion layout

I know there are families out there who don't like family reunions but I'm not one of them, especially when it comes to my mother's family. I am lucky enough to have a great family who I love spending time with. My mom's side of the family used to get together every other Thanksgiving but we decided a few years back to switch the reunion to summertime and we have a big picnic in Hastings, Michigan instead. My mother has four sisters and one brother and last week all five sisters were at the reunion. The live all over the United States and it's hard to get everyone together so we took advantage and took a lot of pictures of them. I wanted to make a layout of this rare event. If you've been reading my blog this month you know that I love Back Country paper. Even though I have about 5000 pieces of paper in my collection (yes I do, I'm not making it up) I keep coming back to this paper set. I used 2 pieces of the off white, two pieces of the outdoor denim and then one of the neat patterned paper sheets.

Cut four squares, two outdoor denim and two of the plaid measuring 5 3/4" by 5 3/4.

You'll need a base page which is your off-white 12" by 12". Distress all the pieces.

Now I made my measurements for the mat by going by my photo's meaurements. You should do the same adding 1/4" for the first mat around your photo and 1/2" to 3/4" for the second mat. I used 3/4" for the second so I could have an extra large frame around my fairly small photo.

Distress everything with your outdoor denim ink and attach the three parts together.

Now, leaving a 1/2" border around the edge of your base page, attach your plaid and outdoor denim squares as shown.

I do not use only Close to my Heart products on my pages, I love all scrapbooking supplies and I find ones that fit with the layout I'm working on. In this case it's a vellum title. Because it's vellum you don't want to attach it with any old adhesive, use vellum adhesive, staples, brads (as I've done) or use adhesive but cover it up with an embellishment.

Now put your photo with mats in the middle of your page. Add your title.

I found that once I put down the main elements that the cardstock looked a little empty so I went to my trust Adorning Corners stamp set to decorate them. I can't tell you how many times this particular stamp set has saved me!

Our Close to my Heart Just Blooms flowers are perfect for a layout about sisters, especially one outside on a summery day. Add buttons tied with waxy flax to your flowers using glue dots.

Put your flowers around the upper left side of your picture.

I wanted my aunts' and mother's names on the layout and I needed a little balance in color and in "weight" for the flowers so I wrote them on the off-white cardstock and distressed the edges then added them to the right hand side. I also date every single layout I do so I put that on the left bottom of the mat. I used a pattern in the Reflections book that we sell, it's an invaluable tool. By the way, left to right that's my Aunt Dorothy, Aunt Bev, Aunt Joyce, my mom, Peggy, and Aunt Kay.

Thinking of You card

I'm in a card swap that's due on Wednesday so I have to make six cards using our June Stamp of the Month, Tender Tags. I was inspired for this particular card by Jen Rubio (stampwithjen.myctmh.com). I liked the way that she hung the two tags from the card and the cute little border made with the fleur de lis stamp on the Tender Tags set. So my hat and kudos are off to her for the inspiration. For my particular card I used Back Country paper. If you've been reading my blog this week you know it's my new favorite. I love the colors of blue and green together in basically anything. All measurements ahead are in inches, make sure you collect your supplies ahead of time to make this 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 card. You will need:

Back Country level 2 papers, a trimmer, white daisy ink, corner rounder, dry embosser, Tender Tags stamp set, stamp blocks, sparkles, outdoor denim ink, olive ink, sponge, ruffled circle punch and circle punch, about 1 inch wide and 1 1/4 inch wide, adhesive (I recommend Tombow), popdots, scissors and matching ribbon, ric rac looks great on this card.

Cut your papers to these sizes: The large olive is the card base, cut it 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. The plaid is the card front, cut it 5 1/4 by 4 inches then round the corners. The blue stripe is 5 1/4 by 2 inches. The olive strip is 5 1/2 by 1 inch and you need to punch out the small ruffled circle and a blue circle then cut a 2 x 2 plaid square to attach them to. You will need a light color to stamp the tags on, white is perfect.

Once your papers are cut, you can distress them if you like with a sponge and the outdoor denim ink pad.

Fold the 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 paper in half, I score it first at the 4 1/4 mark and then flatten it down with a bone folder tool.

Now stamp your tag in outdoor denim and one in olive and cut them out. Once they are cut out, distress them with the sponge and outdoor denim ink.

Here's how they should look cut out, I made extras cause I'm making more than one card.

Attach the blue striped paper, olive strip and the ribbon to the card face. I use tombow on the ribbon, seems to hold it well. Trim off any edges that go off the card.

Glue the tags down as shown, doesn't the white floral design up the sides look cool?

Stamp the Thinking of You on the small ruffled circle with outdoor denim.

Glue the ruffled circle to the blue circle to the 2 x 2 plaid square. Now take the whole thing and use pop dots to attach it.

Use our self-adhesive sparkles at the top of the tags for some bling. Take the small fleur de lis stamp and stamp a few times along the bottom with the white daisy ink. Remember this particular white daisy ink takes a bit longer to dry so be careful there.

Now all you have to do is attach the card front to the card base centering it. Easy! You're done!