No Place Like Home Scrapbook Page

I really like this page, and have to tell you up front that it looks way better in person.  (Anyone have any great tutorials for taking photos of pages for blogs?)

This page was meant to capture a little about how excited my sister/nephew were to visit our hometown over Christmas.  They have moved pretty far away, so their visit was a really fun/large occasion for us.

I can't name all the papers, but the grey/striped is definitely from the Yellow Flowers DCWV paper pack I was celebrating a while back.  Love it!  The title is cut from the Creative Memories Reminisce Cricut cartridge (did you know that thing has a font too???? I didn't!)  Lots of stitchign involved... I used some scrap bias tape I picked up at a second-hand store to mak eth eruffles.  The diamond-shaped things are actually dark gray rhinestones in metal settings/clasps.  The ribbon strip is a plush velvet.  Overall these three things combine to make this page feel really rich in real life :)

The photo is again over-saturated (intentionally) using Picasa - I love the effect.  The lavender paper just helps tie the photo to the page.  The punches on the right are EK Success border punches.

Cousins Scrapbook Page

The third page from my retreat:

This was fun to assemble because of the colors I chose to use - blue/green is probably my all-time-favorite color combo, and the orange grid paper just helped make it even more fun!

You'll notice three flags again - this time with stitching too :)  Definitely a good time.  The title is cut using Alphalicious (Cricut).  The journaling spot (I know, I'll get to it eventually) is from the Creative Memories Reminisce Cricut Cartridge.  The bottom green border is EK Success Circles Large Edger punch.  The stamp in the back is from Rubbernecker Stamps, and was randomly inked with Distress Inks.  You'll also notice the zig zag stitch (I had fun with that puppy!)

The other important thing about this page is the intentionally over-saturated photos.  If I haven't said it before, I. Love. Picasa.  Picasa is Google's free photo editing/storage/organization tool.  Similar to its search engine, it comes with an "I'm Feeling Lucky" button that does some amazing things to photos.  I'd have to spend a few hours going through all the different creative features, but for these photos I used a combination of the following effects: Saturation; Lomo-ish; and Cross Process.

Titus Scrapbook Page

Another page from my retreat, and another page that I created a while back.  This one was a demo page created at the Archivers Scrapfest (at the Mall of America) by Bazzill paper advertising their Swiss Dots paper (can you tell???)  I added a lot of white paper, rounded some edges, more flowers, and the doiley die cut, and now I don't mind it so much at all!

 

A few important notes: The title is the Jubilee Cricut cartridge using the "Runt" effect.  The doiley is a wafer-thin die from the Prickley Pear rubber stamps.  They sell a number of matching dies/clear stamp sets that I just adore.  Check them out!  The border punches are both EK Success.

Holiday Card

This is pretty late, but I wanted to share the design I used for my Holiday Card this year:

My goals were: 1) use Kraft paper, and 2) make something quick/repeatable.  Nothing could have been easier than this car - I heat embossed the stamped Merry Christmas image in shiny silver, then used some Kraft punched borders (Martha Stewart and EK Success).  I used A|Muse Studio silver Washi tape to continue the silver theme, and finished it off with some very natural twine.

I hope your holidays were bright, and I wish everyone a safe and happy 2012!