House Fire

If my house were ever to burn down and all my sentimental keepsakes, scrapbooks and such were to be destroyed, I would be devastated.  So needless to say, my house catching on fire is one of my worst fears.  Back in December, the house next door to me caught on fire and while it was contained to the basement, it was still a scary experience with smoke pouring out of the windows and several fire trucks, an ambulance and police cars there for hours.

I chose to scrapbook it because it is one of my worst fears and it happened so very close.  I used paper and supplies from my January design team assignment with The Scrapbooking Studio. The yellow and grey paper is from Authentique, as are the black letter stickers.  The little wooden houses are from Studio Calico.  They are so cute and were a perfect choice to add a little interest to the page without being "cutsey" for a serious topic. 

What are your worst fears and have you every documented them on a scrapbook page?

New Releases galore!

The Winter trade show where all the new releases are debuted is in full swing out in California.  See all the sneak peaks and show news at Paper Crafter's Corner.

One of my favorites so far is this line from October Afternoon, called 9 to 5.  (I've always wanted to see more work related scrapbook stuff since so much of our lives is spent at work.)

Heidi Swapp is also back on the scene with a couple of great new lines including this:

Love these wooden birds from Maya Road (I'm a sucker for anything bird related):

What do you like?



Inspiration Station

I am a quote junkie and I love love love this book with 600+ pages of quotes and page titles on tons of topics that can be used for card making and scrapbooking.  My friend bought it when we were in Iowa and I read through it on the way home and wished I had gotten one too. I was pysched to see it here in town at The Scrapbooking Studio.

Here's a couple funny ones that would be great for birthday cards:

• Don't worry about avoiding temptation.  As you grow older, it starts avoiding you.
• You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.

And an inspirational one:

• A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

Mom & Dad

Part of my assignment this month for The Scrapbooking Studio was to use the darling Valentine's line from My Mind's Eye.  (It has the cutest sheet of die cuts-- all the borders and all but a couple of the die cuts in this layout are from that sheet.)  I decided to scrap a "retro" picture of my parents back from 1980.  I found it when I was flipping through some of my mom's old photo albums.  Aren't they cute? 

Other supplies include portrait chipboard from Maya Road, die cuts and stickers from Authentique, and the love scribbles word from KI Memories.  Oh and a manilla tag which I ran through my printer for the journaling.

Valentine's Day labels for food and candy gifts

Valentine's Day is less than a month away!  Get ready with these SUPER CUTE printable Valentine's Day tags that pair with food and candy.  For example "I'm nuts about you", "We're mint to be", "We make the perfect pear". Go to the Better Homes and Gardens website for the labels and instructions.

7 Gypsies ticket holder

I saw these cute wooden ticket holders at The Scrapbooking Studio and wanted one right away! I thought about doing New Year's Resolutions on a bunch of little tags. But instead I decided to create a "layout" inside and on the ticket holder. This picture is from the Tetons in Wyoming. I used Amy Tangerine paper and embies, cut a few travel shapes on my Cricut, and the memories sticker is from my stash. Oh and the cute little ticket stubs that you see on the right come with the ticket holder.

There weren't very many of the ticket holders left at the store when I snagged mine. So if you want one, don't wait too long!

Celebrating Winter

There's no snow in the forecast yet. But I do have a couple of snow themed layouts from my January design team assignment to share with the Winter/Christmas line from Crate Paper called "Peppermint".  The retro feel of the paper inspired me to use an old picture of myself as a kid. 

The layout was featured on the Crate Paper blog in December!  They said they had never seen their border stickers used as a banner and that it was "very clever".  :  )  Gotta love that comment coming from the talented folks at Crate Paper.  Buzz on over to The Scrapbooking Studio to pick up this versatile line.  Other supplies are kraft and wooden snowflakes from Maya Road.

The snowman below is made with bottle caps from Maya Road. I love the names of the bottle cap sizes.  I used the Jumbo, Mega and Super Mega sizes that are in the bulk section at the store.  If you wanted to make the snowman a bit smaller, you could use just the mini, jumbo and mega sizes.

It's super easy to make (except for step 2) 

1. Measure the tops of the bottle caps and cut circles to match (do not adhere until step three). 
2. Make holes on one side of the smallest and largest of the bottle caps and then both sides of the middle bottle cap.  Then use thin string or embroidery floss to tie the pieces together.  (The Maya Road blog says you can make the holes with a crop-a-dile. I personally could not make it work and so I ended up using a long paper piercer.)
3. After they're tied together, adhere paper to the tops of the caps. Adhering it after they're tied together insures that any patterns will align correctly.
4. Add buttons to the middle and bottom circles.
5. Create eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  I used chipboard letter stickers to create the eyes and mouth.  The eyes are the dots to the letter "i" and the mouth is a capital Q cut apart. The nose is just orange cardstock cut in a long triangle. 
6. The arms are Maya Road tree branches colored brown with brown ink.
7. The hat is cardstock: a square adhered to a squatty rectangle, with a border sticker added for color.
8. And finally some ribbon for a scarf. 
9. Optional step: add a little hanger to the back so he can be hung on the wall.  If you make the hanger fairly short, it will be hidden by the hat. 

Scrapbook Plaque . . .

I bought this cute little plaque a couple of weeks ago and hung it in my kitchen.