Go Bananas!

I just finished this card and couldn't wait to write the post.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!  I only made one card this week because it's a special birthday card for my brother.  When I began, I had a color scheme of red, baby blue, ivory and kraft or brown in mind.  As you can see, that's not what I ended up with!  No blue to be found and yellow instead of ivory.  I love this little monkey just hanging out and Brian does live in a tropical climate, he is a little bananas at times and one of his favorite colors is yellow.  Overall, the card came together pretty quickly.  The mat stacks and frame stamps from Papertrey are so easy to use and really add to the card.  Another plus with this card is I was finally able to use one of the new patterned paper pads I received for Christmas to add the leafy background.    

There are times when the inside of a card is more of a struggle than the outside and this card was one of those.  I also think it has something to do with the kraft cardstock base.  You open the card and all you see is a dull brown space.  Blah.  I think my interior solution is genius if I do say so myself!  (Just a little pat on the back!)  I cut another mat stack frame and stamped Happy Birthday.  All my sentiment stamps are pretty small and this one was swallowed by the frame.  I started looking through my basket of stamp sets and found Faux Ribbon.  It's the first set I ever purchased from Papertrey because it has sentiments that cover just about every occasion you can think of.  But....it also has long strips of stamps that look like ribbon strips when using colored ink.  I wasn't sure how this would look, but decided to give it a try.  I used the bubble ribbon and colored in the bubbles using coordinating colors from the front of the card.  Beautiful, festive and not girly!  Success!  Now, just have to get it mailed this week so it'll arrive by his birthday.  I tend to forget how long it takes mail to reach Hawaii!

Now for a progress update.  Last weekend, I did end up creating 3 cards after I posted on the blog and with today's card that brings the February card total to 12!  4 Christmas, 4 Valentine, 3 Daffodil and 1 Birthday.  Woot Woot!  AND including the two-page layout I finished yesterday using postcards from a trip to Hawaii in 1996, I finished 4 two-page layouts for the month covering The Last Day, Eckert's Orchard, Thanksgiving and Hawaii 1996.  I'm going to sort through my photos while catching up on The Closer tonight in an attempt to make layouts even easier.  Maybe then I'll be able to do more than one a week.  No promises, but it's worth a shot!

Thanksgiving 2010 Layout

For this weeks mystery layout, I choose a package of papers from Cosmo Cricket.  I used photos I took on Thanksgiving Day of the family members that were there.  This is actually a two-page layout, but I need to re-print one of the photos that goes on the other page, so that one isn't quite ready just yet. 

I'm really liking the whole 'mystery layout' thing I've got going.  My previous system started with photos and then I would take forever choosing papers and embellishments.  I could spend 2 or more hours working on a two page layout that I was never fully satisfied with in the end.  Now, I blindly choose a pre-packaged set of papers and embellishments, pick out the photos and can be finished with two pages in about an hour!  Another thing my previous layouts lacked was titles.  I don't know exactly what I had against the use of words on my pages, but I've also been adding short (usually one or two word) titles to the pages and can see a huge difference!  

I haven't had a chance to work on any cards this week because I started watching season 1 of Dexter on DVD and became addicted.  I would consider myself a multi-tasker, but for some reason, I'm not physically capable of being creative and watching a movie or TV at the same time.  With tomorrow being President's Day and I don't have to work (Yeah!!), I have the entire day to stamp my heart out.   

Valentines

Aren't these fun little valentines?  I'm loving the Tiny Treats stamp series at PaperTrey Ink.  The base card is Kraft cardstock and it's layered with distressed dots patterned paper and a piece of poppy twill ribbon.  The focal point was diecut from Mat Stack 1 and I punched out the center to add an additional layer of poppy felt cut with a scallop die.  The images are colored with copics.  Super easy to mass produce even using various stamps. 

Scorecard update:  This week's card project was February Christmas cards.  I used Cosmo Cricket papers in purples and blues and a little mitten stamp.  Sooooo cute!  Love how they turned out.  Layout wise, I did all 8 pages of the December Project 365.  So, Yeah! Project 365 is finito.  Like I said in a previous post, even though it was a ton of work, I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I'll ever do it again!  As for a layout using up my paper and photos, I may work on that this afternoon.  I have a bedroom closet that I really need to go through cause I'm still missing a few things from moving and am hoping they're in the boxes in the closet.  But it's a huge closet and scrapbooking sounds like a much better way to spend an afternoon.

The Last Day Layout

One of several drastic changes in my life during 2010 was finding out the company where I'd worked since college was being sold.  The job I'd called home for 17 years was ending, the company was being sold and we were being tossed aside.  This layout represents that last day of employment.  It's safe to say there wasn't much being accomplished those last few weeks so on this final day, Monday, May 24, 2010, we closed early and headed to the neighborhood bar.  We had some drinks, we had some laughs, we traded phone numbers and email addresses, we waited out a severe thunderstorm to run to our cars and we parted ways.  I've spoken to a few former co-workers since that day and we're all friends on Facebook now.  I caught up with one at a mutual friends baby shower and heard some sad health related news about another.  We've passed along job openings to each other, cheered each other on before interviews and offered congratulations when the job offer is announced. We're surviving, some better than others.  So this little layout represents quite a few things, but May 24 will always be.....The Last Day. 

Just so you know....although I've only posted the layout this week, I did work on a few cards.  We had a raging blizzard hit central Illinois in the middle of the week so the office was closed on Wednesday.  Yeah!  I took full advantage of a snow day and worked on Valentine cards.  I took pictures, but don't want to spoil the surprise for the recipients so I'll post them in a few weeks.  I {love} the design.  They're too cute.  This upcoming week is a four-day work week due to the holiday on Friday, so I should have plenty of time to get started on the monthly Christmas cards.