Happy Father's Day- One more time

Brandy made this belated Father's Day card and I've been remiss in posting it to the blog.  The man card... one of the toughest cards to make.  It can't be frilly, it can't be cute (or maybe better said, it often can't be cute).  Still, you want to make something nice. 

In this case, Brandy added some interest by creating a stair-step card front.  I'm not sure if she followed someone's instructions but you can find instructions here.  Finishing the card was simply covering the "stair steps" with a piece of grass photo patterned paper.  The 3D golf embellishments came from a store package but add a sense of finished professionalism, don't you think?  The sentiment was printed from the computer on a piece of cardstock and cut to make the flag. 

We'll add this to the man card inspiration file.  Though it's a few month late, you never know when you are going to need some manly card inspiration.

A Little Hi

Just stopping in to say a little "Hi".  I thought I would put one of the paper pads I purchased at the scrapbook convention to good use.  I mean, the convention was back in April which is fully three months or a quarter of a year ago!  It's time to use it, not file it away in the Scrapbox.

The paper pad is MME's Ooh La La For Her.  Such soft lovely colors and tiny, intricate designs.  I once again reached for my Heartfelt Creations Posy stamps and dies and the Spellbinders Floral Flourish.  The larger leaves were cut from  Cricut's Picturesque cartridge [Leaves].  

The patterned grid was cut using Cricut's Craft Room.  I haven't spent a lot of time in this online software.  As such, I've not found it to be particularly intuitive.  However, it works well enough that I can totally make my way around and create simple cuts.  This particular cut is a Teresa Collin's Basic- Imperial.  I went looking and couldn't find this cut on the Cricut.com website.  It might have been an exclusive that is no longer available.  Guess I'm glad I scooped this cut up.

All stamping and edging is done with my trusty Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  A few little pearls in the corner bring your eye to the tiny Hi.  I stamped the sentiment on one of the shapes pulled out of the patterned grid after cutting and adhered it with a teeny, tiny piece of foam tape to create some depth and bring it forward a bit. 

The inside was just too plain so I pulled a trick from my bloggy friend, Karon, and stamped a posy in the corner, layered up on patterned paper.  I added a little glitter glue to the center which just bled the ink... a little messy finish, but I'm going to claim a design to add sparkle to the inside...

This card was sent off to encourage a young lady battling a serious health complication.  I hope it brightened her day!

I've entered this card in Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: Celebrate! and Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #90: Anything Goes!  Come on over and join the fun.

Tiny Baby Girl Mini-Book

I've been on a bit of a kick lately going through old electronic files and pictures.  I stumbled upon these and thought that I'd share them with you today.  You are hereby warned- this post contains a significant amount of pictures that aren't of the highest quality.  Hopefully the inspiration is worth your time!

I grew up in a small, rural Minnesota town- 625 people in the whole town!  I'm pretty sure any given Saturday there are more than 625 people at the local mall where I live in Arizona.  It was a wonderful youth where you knew everyone, literally.  Just a few doors down lived my bestie, Terri Small. 

Terri had a little sister the same age as my little brother.  Our mother's were such good friends they shared a home sales business, working evenings on home parties together.  We were close... the kind of close that you only really have when young with few responsibilities to distract us.  Needless to say, we moved away when I was almost 16.  Although Terri and I are not super close we do catch up on the rare occasion and when her daughter Olivia was born, I received a slew of pictures of the beauty.  I just had to make a gift and send it off. This mini-book is that gift.

I made this mini-book back in 2008 (how can it possibly be 5 years ago?!).  Back then I didn't even think about taking pictures, instead I scanned each page into the computer.  I didn't bother to take the pages out of the binding and lay the pages flat- just kinda squished the page onto the glass.  As such, the coloring is off and the focus is a mess.  Still, I love the book so much I thought I would share with you.

I can't honestly say where the supplies came from.  Apparently I owned a couple pieces of sandpaper and decided to use it liberally in the design.  This was the beginning of the period of craft supply hoarding.  Pre-Scrapbox.  Scattered all over the house (I don't have much storage).

I'm pretty sure the papers came from Recollections- back when they had a separate storefront and not just a "brand" at Michaels.  Quite a few of the embellishments were also from the same Recollections collection.  In fact, I still have a few pieces of patterned paper from this collection.  Why?  Someone tell me why I still have them!

I'm a strong believer that the pictures make the book.  This series of pictures inspired the color palette and they alone make the book fabulous.  Isn't Terri beautiful?  My goodness...  and this from someone who swore she'd never, ever have kids!

The mini-book was 4 in. x 4 in.- kinda tiny.  However, it's size definitely added to the design and kept the pictures the focus.  This back page was created by cutting the patterned paper at 6 x 6, wetting the paper to make it pliable and then gluing the paper down on the 4 x 4 cardstock page.  After the paper dried in place, I used some sandpaper to pull color off the high ridges and create an aged look.  The layers added some structure and strength to the cover while finishing the book in style.





The blog has become as much a record of our works as it is a method for sharing our creativity.  Thank you for letting me share these pictures with you. Hopefully it inspires a work of your own.

Tuesday Throwdown- We have a winner!

Just popping in today to share some exciting news.  Brandy's card that we shared this weekend was a winner over at the Tuesday Throwdown challenge #156.

Brandy's win is a first for either of us over here at Contagiously Crafty.  I'm filling in for a very busy but excited Brandy to share this news with you.  Please join me in congratulating her on the win!

 

A Heartfelt Birthday Wish

Just popping in to bring you one more of Brandy's lovely creations.  This card was made as a birthday card for a family member- the right time to whip out the tools and create a layered series of goodness.

The anchor for this card is the Heartfelt Creations Vintage Floret.  She stamped the flowers onto colored paper using brown ink and cut the flowers out by hand!  The flowers were shaped much as shown in this video.  The ever so delicate light green swirl is from the Gift Ensemble die with a few die cut leaves thrown in for effect.

The sentiment was printed on the computer and cut using Spellbinders circle die- can you pick out the embossed edge?- so delicate.  The light blue framed circle was cut using Spellbinders Butterfly Circles.  The light blue ties in the background paper which has soft blue polka dots.  It's a little tough to see, but the background paper also has random rust colored brushes of color which ties the card colors together.  The pearl and gold gem swirls were picked out of the stash.  All background paper edges, there is one layer of patterned paper and a small edge of light blue paper layered over the white cardstock card, were roughed up with an edging tool.  Distress Ink was added to age the papers and create a finished edge.

Brandy and I have had a few opportunities to craft together lately.  It feels so good to create with a bff, its inspiring to see Brandy's creative work.  It challenges me.  We also get a fair bit of chit-chat time in too!  If you haven't spent some of your own bff time lately- let us encourage you to do so.  It makes our lives full of the things we celebrate!

I've linked this card up to the following challenges.  Come join the fun!

Inspiration Journal's Monthly Challenge: Birthday Celebrations

Creative Corner Challenges: Let it sparkle

Tuesday Throwdown: Challenge #156

Heartfelt Creations- Tattered Blossoms

This is the third of three cards from the Heartfelt Creations card class that Brandy and I missed at the CK convention last April.  I think it is late enough in the year to require the "last" modifier.  Where has the time gone?  It seems as though I've had plenty to distract me with work, kids stuff and a prolific card making "season".  I am happy to say that the stash is smaller than when I started the year.  Keep it up and I might actually make a dent.




When I first looked at the card kit, this card was the least appealing to me. The picture in the kit did not do it justice. Also, the shaped flower pot without a structured rectangle to make it uniform- I was just suspicious. Truthfully, this card opens weirdly to me- down and out rather than up and out. However, the finished beauty of the flowers and other accents totally make up for it.








The flowers are the usual- Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms which were pre-stamped/cut for the class. I applied some Peacock Feathers Distress Ink with a Fantastik. After shaping the flowers and layering them, I used the provided Glass Shards Glitter with my Crystal Accents to create the beautiful dimensional embellishment. The centers are made using my Good Earth- Earth Elements. This really pops in person. Everything was edged in Vintage Photo Distress ink and placed as instructed. I'm telling you, if you attend a CK convention near you don't hesitate to sign up for a Heartfelt Creations class. Even if you don't attend, you'll enjoy the cards!

Mini-book Layouts

Water and I aren't "friends" per se.  I've always (since a young age) had an irrational fear of the water.  As a young girl, I was sent to swim lessons in the Hayfield (midwest town names are so fun, aren't they?), so I could always perform well around water.  I simply hated it though- the kind of hate that is a *mostly* silent, seething hate that others may not be entirely aware of.  Still have an inner voice that feels this way.

These photos in the water are fabulous, but slightly fear inspiring.  "Knuckle under, buddy!", I shout to my inner voice, "This is my kiddo we're looking at."  Since I wasn't actually present for these pictures, my inner voice listens and dies down. 

I much prefer the photos of the girls hanging out.

The blessing of my one irrational fear is that I don't have any inherent reaction to climbing up a vertical wall with a teeny, tiny rope holding you up which is likely manned by the teen counselors at camp.  Wait, maybe that was my inner mama voice....

Katie, like her dad, is game for anything once.  Usually she loves it and then goes back for more and more. 

The archery picture was about a year prior to The Hunger Games frenzy which she is now heavily involved.  I think she's quite proud of this perfectly framed photo.  Our little Katniss.

Still, there's a little bit of the crafter in her.  Needless to say, the mama eventually creeps in there.

The very simple back cover...  I hope you've enjoyed my mini-book trip.  Sorry for the abundance of photos.  Hopefully you might use them to inspire you to get out some old photos, supplies, or projects and finish them up.  That's what I'm most pleased with.  These memories are wrapped up.  Bonus that the pictures have made their way to the blog.  Hooray!

Since green is my favorite color and green played a major role in this book, I've linked one of pages up with the Simon Says Stamp Monday Blog Challenge:Green.  Come join the fun!

Mini-book

These pictures of my surf girl are the most enjoyable for me.  I really tried to keep the embellishments simple to make her the star of this show.  I am pleased with how this worked out, because I do think she is the star.  Katie was one of the girls to get up on the board more than once during the short weekend camp.  Those softball skills come in handy in more ways than one- a sense of balance doesn't hurt either. 

The book still needs journaling, but I've left that for Katie.  There's room for some side comments and a little storytelling.  She's not much for the long winded discussions (unless it's on her teenager terms), so I'll be very curious what happens here.  I just photographed these before because the teenage eye rolls are too frequent as it is.  I can hear it now, "Mooommm, I don't want "my stuff" all out there on your blog!".  I did not seek or desire input on the pics though...

Just simply lovin' the whole thing.  I've only a few more pictures to edit and I can get the final set posted.  Hopefully tonight, but more likely tomorrow night!

More of the Surfish Mini-book

Sun-kissed beach photos are the best, aren't they?  I got these photos taken and edited and now I'm hot on the task of posting them up to the blog.  These next few layouts represent more of the layout of the original mini-book kit.

The papers are fun, retro (a bit?!) and are a beach friendly color scheme.  I picked this mini-book because so many of the surf pictures where heavily blue, but I still wanted a little girly feel. 

The opposing pages are not always a part of the original mini-book design.  I sprinkled the "add-ons" because the original layouts were exactly matchy-matchy and it felt right.

What's better than a shot of you running on the beach looking all tough in your wetsuit?  I've not one picture like this of me!!  At this late date, I'm unlikely to ever have one either.

Katie's troop leaders very graciously joined them in the surfing fun.  I am so grateful to women who volunteer their time and energy to my girl.  Jane and Jennifer are wonderful role models who have taught my daughter and I am grateful.