New Word Dies

Mom got some new dies today - word dies from Gemini.  No clue as to their names, but we played with them.  The 2 cards I made use those dies, old printed card blanks from HOTP, and some butterfly stickers from my stash.  

Card #1 (above): A gate fold - as you can see - I split the die cut sentiment putting part on the inside and part on the outside.  The outside part I used the die to make the mat - but since that was for the whole sentiment, I fussy cut it around the bottom to form the shape you see here.  I added 2 butterfly stickers from my stash - and small innies stickers from my stash to create the butterfly trails.

Inside:

Inside I added the remaining words and a couple more butterflies - drawing in the trails and antennae which they had lost when I fussy cut these stickers out.

Card #2:

For this card, I cut the die cut pieces from the background I cut from the original card base.  The background was then matted on black before adding the matted words.  A butterfly & trail - stickers from my stash - complete the outside.

Inside:

The inside sentiment was stamped from CCC (Crafter's Companion Compendium of sentiment stamps - the sheet called "Inspirational".  More of the card & mat form a border - and another butterfly & trail completes the inside.

National Parks Part 3

I'm nearing the end of the pages for parks we've visited so far.  Here's one of Mesa Verde - the 13th page in this book.  The page is a mix of my pictures (4 largest ones), my journaling, and purchased pieces (all the rest).  If you look closely, you'll see a tab at the top of the page.  That tab pulls up a set of brochures from this place - all put together in a clear plastic bag which can be pulled out and opened to look through the bounty - see picture below:

Page 14:

This page started with a gorgeous view of Delicate Arch - from a purchased scrapbook set.  The remaining pictures are mine - as is the journaling in the lower right corner.  The title is also from the scrapbook set.  The journaling in the lower center was a purchased sticker that came with a small photo of delicate arch - which I did not use here.

Page 15:

Again, this page is a mix - only the largest two pictures are mine - as is the orange/brown colored journaling piece & the small piece listing the date.  The rest was purchased stickers - some from a scrapbook set, some purchased separately.  If you look near the upper left corner, you'll see an indentation where you can pull out the extra information we got about Canyonlands NP.

Page 16:

The three large pictures and all of the journaling except the far left was also mine.  The background paper was from a scrapbook set - perfect for this area where we saw petroglyphs.  The dark green is a "Shine Design" from HOTP.  The title was stickers from my stash.  

Page #17:

I LOVE the Title on this page - one I purchased.  Most of the pictures and journaling were ones I printed, but the map and word "Hoodoos" were both purchased stickers.  The map was placed over a vellum pocket I made to hold the Bryce Canyon brochure.

Page #18:

The pictures and journaling on this page were all ones I printed - except for the one in the lower right corner.  This one was a 3D photo post card.  The title was created with stickers from my stash.

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.