National Parks Scrapbook - Part 2

I loved this background paper that I found for the Great Smokey Mountains NP page - officially page #7 of my book.  And the weathered wood paper I had worked well for matting the picture of the old mill along with the journaling.  The picture and journaling in the upper left corner are standard stickers from the national park.  The trees are stickers from my stash.

Page #8:

I felt that the colors in the pictures required a turquoise and orange background - so I found a good orange, and glued a 5" wide strip of deep turquoise across it's center.  The title panel and jagged edged journaling were from a scrapbook set I purchased at one of the national parks - as were the 2 larger photo stickers at angles at the bottom of the page.  The smaller one in the center top was also a purchased sticker.  The picture & journaling that is framed in dark blue on either side of the jagged edged journaling are also stickers - these being the standard ones for this national park.  The other 4 large photos are indeed mine!  I hadn't realized when taking the picture how badly the shade hid DH, but at least he has proof that he was there! :)

Page #9:

This page combines a lovely background (actually from a Grand Teton NP scrapbook set - but they're right by each other with some of the same forest look.  I used alphabet tiles from my stash to spell out "Yellowstone".  The 4 outer pictures are mine.  The one top/middle is from the standard sticker set - along with the journaling that is right above the word yellowstone.  Between the two is interesting information that I cut from the back of the sticker packaging.  I have a journaling piece I wrote & rpinted out, and then several embellishment pieces from my stash (many from a HOTP set). At the top of the page you will see a pull tab.  I've cut away just a little of the page so you see it clearly.  It is attached to a brochure about hiking the canyon trails in Yellowstone. This fit nicely into an envelope which I glued to the back of the page to hold the brochure.

Here's a picture with the brochure partially pulled out:

Page #10:

I sure wish I had matted the main picture with another layer or two of mats.  I was so concerned about ensuring we could read some of the background page as title - but everything fades into the background more than I would like.  Oh well - too late now.  It's all stuck down and doesn't want to come back up.  The background page & stickers are all from a scrapbook set specifically for the Grand Teton NP.  My journaling - as I often do - was simply printed along with the picture.  I also added a page number in the bottom right corner.  This sis not something I usually do, but since I have a table of contents of sort, I thought it would be good to have page numbers on every other page so they could be found easily.

Page #11:

The background page is, again, from the Grand Teton scrapbook set that I got - the pages certainly work for other national parks too!  I have added very little except matted photos & journaling.  As you can see, I made a vellum envelope to hold the brochure of the area.  The falcon that decorates it is a sticker - as is the title.  The journaling at the bottom was again cut from sticker packaging.  As you can see, I matted most things in black.  Simple, but I like the page.

Page #12:

I forgot to add the page number to this page - better go back and do that!  Anyway, most of this page is our own pictures and my journaling.  The title is repeated several times, but the largest version is on the brochure in the vellum pocket.  The picture on the pocket & the journaling on the large picture are both the basic park stickers.  At the top of the page you'll notice a pull tab.  In the picture below you see the hidden page partly pulled out.  It was taken from a visitor's booklet and I wanted to be able to see both sides of it.  The front talks about it's being a Dark Sky Park - the back lists several "must see" spots and activieis in the park.

National Parks Scrapbook Part 1

During our travels this past week, we stopped at a scrapbooking store and found this wonderful map of the national parks on a scrapbook page.  It's perfect for the national park scrapbook that I'm working on!  It was a double sided page, so to the back of it I added an alphabetical listing of the national parks.  This listing shows which we've been to, and what page the park is on if we've been to it (since I'm adding park pages in chronological order based on when we visited).  Here's what that looks like:

I designed the page so it should be pretty easy to print an updated page when we've made another national parks trip.

Page #3:

We made the decision to not include parks we've visited separately as children, but only those we've been to as a couple.  Crater Lake is the first of those.  I had picked up this Oregon page a long time ago, and decided it made a great backdrop for my Crater Lake pictures.

Page #4:

This page is pretty simple, but I used a technique I'd never tried before and I like it (though it was hard to do without two people).  I took my crimper, and ran each corner of the page through it, creating the wavy impressions you see in each corner.  It definitely increases the interest on the page, even though it's a simple thing.

As you can see from this second picture, I decided the page was a bit too plain, so added just a few sticker words to it.  I think it's a definite improvement.

Page 6:

Here we have 4 of my own pictures, 3 purchased stickers, some cutouts, and my journaling.  Can you tell which are the stickers?  (The stickers are the three in the center "column" - two of which I matted on brown).  Not a lot to say about it..  The background paper was from HOTP.  The stickers were from Zion's gift shop.  The title & subtitle were from a scrapbook set purchased at another national park.

HD Perfect Days - Cutest Kittens

Today's cards all started with another Hunkydory set.  This one is from the kit called Perfect Days - the set called Cutest Kittens.  It's from a 1/2-set they call "deco-large" which usually means there are two complete images - one die cut meant to serve as a base for the other "deco" die cut pieces, and usually another one on the accompanying sheet of AS (adorable scoreable printed card stock) as is the case with this set.  Here's a picture of the 1/2-set:

The main background die cut is on the smaller sheet.  The other page has die cuts intended to form layers on top of it - each one getting smaller and smaller.  Especially with these deco large sets, I like to make a challenge out of it.  Instead of making one card with a massive set of layered die cuts on it (and maybe an additional one from the AS sheet), I see how many cards I can make with creative use of the die cut layers. This time I got 6 cards - you can see them all here:

Now for a closer look at each:

Card #1:

I decided to start with the smallest pieces and see if I could piece some sort of scene from them - the cats were only heads and the wheelbarrow was missing a wheel.  I think I did a pretty good job of making it look otherwise.  The background was a piece of card stock from my stash.  After building my scene on it, I added a double layer of ribbon across the top, and matted it all on tan card stock.  The sentiment is stamped (one of my Mom's stamps), die cut and matted using dies from a Stampendous Make It Pop set of dies. Then I finished it with a couple tiny die cuts on the sentiment.

Inside:

Inside, leftover pieces of the card stock with ribbon as on the front serves as a backdrop for a cat sticker from my stash.  A stamped sentiment (Crafter's Companion Compendium {CCC} set - sheet called Birthday-Female.

Card #2:

The plaid background was printed from a digital freebie I got somewhere. This die cut was also missing it's wheel and had a space between the grass/flowers and the wheel barrow that looked really weird.  I decided it was the perfect place for the die cut sentiment (from the set).  As you can see, I rounded the bottom corners & matted it on cream colored card stock from my stash before adding it to the plaid.  Next, I added the double ribbon border and rounded the bottom corners of the plaid before gluing it in place on the card front - which also has the lower corners rounded.  I found another sentiment in my stash & added it in the upper left corner to finish the card front.

Inside:

I had a couple small strips of the plaid left over, so used them for borders as you can see.  Another stamped message (this again from the CCC - sheet called Thinking of You), and a couple stickers from my stash finished the inside.

---------------------------------------------------------------

After making this card, I found I really didn't like it.  The plaid made it feel to me like a masculine card but I figured lots of guys wouldn't like all the pink.  SO, I covered up the pink ribbon on the outside and used a different sentiment, changed the stickers on the inside, and took a red Sharpie to the pink flowers.  Here's what I have now:

Card #3:

This card started with a piece of the AS - simply thin matted it on green paper and added a sentiment (from the set).  Quick & easy!

Inside:

I had a hard time knowing what to do with the inside of this one.  Finally decided to die cut a piece of the green, stamp a message on it (another from CCC Birthday-Female), and add a couple small die cut pieces.

Card #4:

This is the main die cut base that I'm using as a focal.  Much of the AS sheet was this very light colored print and I didn't like the die cut on it plain - decided to mat it on lavender with inset die cut borders that let you see through to the mat.  Cutting die is from Card Making Magic - the set called A5 Box Kit.

Inside is a simple border made from leftover of the AS & lavender - with a cat sticker from my stash to fancy it up.  The stamped sentiment is the same as that on the first card in this set.

Card #5:

Here the focal is a wheelbarrow full of kittens against a blue "sky" type paper.  This was simply placed against a pink plaid background from my stash.  I found an Easter greeting in a Hunkydory Little Book of Essential Sentiments, and called it good (after all, I need it for tomorrow!).

Inside:

As you can see, I've simply got a border strip from leftover paper, a sticker, and a couple of stamps (CCC - Thinking of You and Celebrate)

Card #6:

This card, for the twin of the recipient of card #5, is similar, but done in yellow:

Inside:

Here too, the inside is very much like the previous card - just a different color.

March Special Materials Swap

Today I have the March Materials Swaps.  This time, the requirement was that a "special" paper or card stock be included in the set of materials that were sent.  Here's a picture of the materials I sent my swap partner:

They include: card base, gold poster board, white hand-made fiber paper with gold stars and dashes, ColorMe topper and embellishments, die cut greeting, gold braid, flower sequins.  The ColorMe was from HOTP, the rest was just in my stash.

The card I made is shown at the top, but I'm posting again here as I talk about what I did:

I started by fussy cutting the ColorMe, then layering that on the handmade paper as you can see in the picture.  I added a gold frame with part of the ColorMe overlapping it, added the gold braid at the top where it is just peeking out from under the frame, added the embellishments, sequins, and die cut greeting (Moonstone Minis-Happy Anniversary), and called it done.

Materials From My Partner:

She sent white, tan, and red card stock, green mirri board that has a bit of a distressed look to it, some elements from a Hunkydory set (Pop A Topper - Gentleman's Pick), some tan buttons, and some metallic cords - lots of pretty things to play with.  Here's the card I made from her materials:

The green mirri was matted on tan, but before doing that, I separated the cords & used 2 gold & 1 red piece to form a bit of a border that wrapped around to the back.  I added the frame with foam tape, then centered the focal flush within that.  The "Happy Birthday" is flush and sticks under the frame.  The "Just for You" is also on foam tape, resting on the frame.

Inside:

Inside I used scraps of the mirri & tan card stock - along with the cords - to create a backdrop border with two more die cut pictures.  A die cut greeting near the top completed the inside.