Day 2 of Luck- Card

I wanted to make my friend a good luck card for some news she has been waiting patiently to hear. I put together this card for the occasion.

However, with me being me, I forgot to send it, and probably won't get it to her before she hears. They say that it is the thought that counts, but I am kind of wondering if that is really true in this case.

Masculine Birthday card

For some reason masculine cards are a challenge for me. I liked how the green in this paper mixed with the floral. I also liked how the doily shape mirrored the pattern on the green paper.  Now, I  can imagine, "Doilies, Flowers?? That's masculine??"

Somehow this worked, despite the elements sounding frilly.  I think the simplicity of the card, dark elements, and use of geometric shapes made this a gender neutral card that worked well for the male recipient.

Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop!- Basic Grey Buttons and Brads

BG: Buttons, Little Black Dress tuxedo,classy chic, & charisma

I am so excited to be a part of the very first  Scrapbooksteals.com blog hop featuring Basic Grey Buttons and Brads.  It is an incredible honor to be featured among so many amazing blogs, and by a company I adore. Thank you Scrapbook Steals, Basic Grey Buttons are one of my favorite scrapbooking basics, and the buttons in the    pack were perfect to embellish this winter photo of my hubby and I at the Pt. Defiance Zoo on Christmas Eve.  We were able to sneak this picture while the girls played away on the otter slides.  The buttons match the muted grey of a Pacific Northwest winter sky.  This layout makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, I need to grab a hot tea and a blanket to snuggle in front of the fire.

I think buttons offer just the right accent to a layout.  My youngest daughter, Bridget is the perfect mix of sweet and sassy.  She adores running around the house in her vampire teeth, and loves all things pink and flowers.  At daycare, the little kids are all into names, and when she said hers, the teacher misheard her middle name as "Evil".  I thought this picture really fit that story.  She is such a girly girl, so I wanted to include some frilly elements to contrast the chevron paper and her vampire grin.  The buttons added a strong graphic element to the layout that reflected the colors in the chevron and mimics the dots in the black and white paper.

I have to be honest and say that I have been scrapbooking since 2004, have a stash of buttons in my scrapbook supplies and have used all of maybe two brads in eight years.  After having to overcome my brad aversion for this blog hop, I wonder what I was thinking.  If you are a brad novice, it is super simple to use brads, and there is so much you can do.  On this layout, I wanted to highlight the frilly side of my girl, so I threaded the hot pink ribbon through the buttons. I also wanted to tie in the softer pinks, and the brads were a great way to emphasize the pink in this pretty layout.  I have adored pink and brown since my daughter was born,because her onsies were pink and brown.  The color combination always makes me think of her.

Brads are so versatile, I used them to emphasize the faux quilting on this card, and to hold together the layers of the handmade flower embellishment on this card.  Below, I used brads as a mixed media element on a card for those of you that may like to include doodling or hand-drawn elements onto cards.  After playing with Basic Grey Buttons and Brads for this blog hop with ScrapbookSteals.Com, I adore brads as much as I have adored Basic Grey's buttons.  I hope you enjoyed the projects I have shared with you.  Remember, if you leave a comment on the participating blogs, Scrapbook Steals is picking a random winner for a great prize!  To add to the celebration, I am sending out a prize slected randomly from my blog followers. My prize pack will include one pack of American Crafts This to That Square Foam Adhesives, Basic Grey Rub-Ons, and a pack of Sassafrass Paper Whimsies!  To enter, follow winningatfailing.blogspot.com.

I love making embellishments and buttons are the perfect accent to add to paper flowers.  What fun colors in these sets!  I can't wait to find a project for these beauties.

So keep hopping!

So far, you should have visited my friends at:

ScrapbookSteals: www.scrapbooksteals.com

Kristy Mackeen: http://www.mamasanity.blogspot.com/

Staci Jones: http://cheaperthantherapy.posterous.com/
Amber Sheaves: http://allamberallthetime.blogspot.com/
Cristine Redmond: http://onescrappynovice.blogspot.com/
You are here!-----------> Venetia Holbrook: http://winningatfailing.blogspot.com/

I cannot wait for you to go visit the extremely talented and amazing Charity and Van!

Charity Becker: http://www.menemenetekeluniversity.blogspot.com/

Van Nguyen: http://likethecar.blogspot.com/

I love my Valentine

I made this sweet valentine for my husband.  I wanted something that was not too girly, but still looked like a valentine.  I hand stitched the heart that I freehand cut out.  The pattered paper needed a rougher edge, so I went and backstiched around my stitching.  This left a rugged feel to the card that I felt fits my hubby just perfect.

Paper:
Authentique
Free Bird
Journey

Be Mine?

Valentine for a co worker. I wanted to try to crochet on paper. I punched the heart and then pierced it. Next I went around the edge and blanket stitched. I used that stitching to single crochet around the heart. It was fun to try a new technique.

Papers: Authentique Uncommon, Splendid and Free Bird.

Birthday Card

My dear friend celebrated a birthday yesterday, so I adapted a Kristy Lee sketch to make this card.

Her daughter stole it, so I suppose the card was a hit.

Paper: Crate Paper Farmhouse
Ribbon: May Arts