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Oct
26

Busy crafting

Posted by DeAnna

I have not been very busy at work so instead I’ve been crafting.  One thing I like about working from home is that when things are slow, I still have to be at my computer waiting for a job to come in.  That sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not.  It is dedicated time that I am in the den, without my kids bugging me or interrupting.  If there’s nothing for me to do for work, then I am crafting.  That’s a good thing.  Here are some of the most recent things I’ve made, all of which are destined for Etsy.

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Hand made flowers from hand made paper (which I bought ages ago for our wedding invitations and just found what was left of it when I was purging ;D)  They are very delicate but I think they are gorgeous!

DSC_8213 Another set of hair clips.  I’ve been making these ribbon flowers lately too – so fun!

DSC_8185 A set of four Christmas cards.  I used papers from Basic Grey’s Wassail paper line.  I cut them with my Tim Holtz/Sizzix scallop die.  I hand colored the reindeer with my Copic markers and my white gel pen (Signo) on the kraft cardstock (Bazzill) and punched it out with my EK Success circle punch.  I inked with ColorBox inks and stamped the sentiment using Fired Brick Distress Ink.  Both stamps are Imaginisce.  I think they are adorable ;D

I have the Basic Grey 6×6 paper pad of the Pyrus line and I love the colors and bold patterns in it, and I’ve been trying to make cards with it lately, but I’ve been struggling with it because of its bold patterns.  I follow the blog of Jill Foster.  She shows a card that inspired her and then her take on the inspiration.  I love to look at her bold colors and beautiful distressing and inking.  Today when I saw her inspiration card by Shari Carroll, I instantly knew what to do with that patterned paper!  I can’t wait to play with it this afternoon.  I love when that happens ;D

I can’t believe it’s almost Halloween!!  We don’t even have decorations up yet :(   We at least have pumpkins which I’ll be carving on Thursday evening.  I love carving pumpkins ;D

Be back in a few days with more stuff…

DeAnna

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card making, Etsy, General Scrapbooking, Scrapbooking
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Sep
25

My favorites…

Posted by DeAnna

Today I thought I would share some of my favorite blogs and websites – sites I visit pretty much on a daily basis for projects, inspiration , tips and tricks. Probably at the top of my list would be Hero Arts blog. They have fabulous products and great inspiration. Their Flickr group is fantastic too – fans of Hero Arts submitting projects – I find amazing projects there constantly. Next would probably be Jennifer McGuire Ink. Great projects, and a major enabler!! She’s pretty funny too.

Jen Gallacher. She’s an amazing scrapbooker and a Garden Girl at Two Peas among other things. She’s very open and honest about the fact that she and her family lost their oldest son to cancer three years ago. In a recent post she poured out her story of his life and I was surprised to learn that he suffered from Ulcerative Colitis. (You all probably know that I have Crohn’s disease and I can totally commiserate with his experiences,)

(Speaking of Two Peas, I made my first order from them a few weeks ago and, aside from the fact it took two weeks to get to me since it had to come all the way to Canada and through the border, it was awesome getting that package!!  I think I squealed – a lot! ;D )

Nichol Magouirk is another favorite. She stamps and masks like nobody’s business – beautiful cards and layouts.  And she regularly shows you how to maximize your die cutting machines too (have I mentioned how much I love my Silhouette?? And they just released new software that’s compatible with MAC!!! Woohoo) ;D

Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske are both great at simple, effective design that tells a story, and is beautiful in it’s simplicity and small details. Love their stuff…

Lastly is the Silhouette blog. They have awesome ideas, and tutorials on how to use your silhouette’s tools – great tips on how to do print and cuts, using the sketch pens (they have new metallic ones I can’t wait for Photo Express to get!), and details on the new software too. Check it out for sure.  I finally downloaded all of my images into my library so I can’t wait to play around with it and see what it does ;D

That’s probably it for now, I have so many that I follow but these are the ones that come to mind first and foremost. I’ll do another post like this one with some of my favourite paper companies soon. In the meantime it’s time for Matthew to have a nap so I can play!!!

DeAnna

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digital scrapbooking, General Scrapbooking, Scrapbooking
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Sep
21

News…

Posted by DeAnna

Sorry for not posting yesterday, time got away from me a bit ;D  I did however finish up a project I have been working on for a little while.

As some of you know, I’ve decided not to return to work (in the traditional sense, anyway) and I am working from home, usually in the evenings doing legal transcription.  It’s working quite well, but I wanted to keep my creative streak going so I decided to open an Etsy shop as well.  I now have a link on the right-hand side of my blog.   You can also get to it HERE.  I only have a few items up there right now but I’m working on other projects as well that should be up very soon.

In my Etsy shop you will find my Year In Review full paper pack.  I will still have freebies here from time to time (including a new template next week).  I hope you will visit my shop.  If you liked the freebie kit, you’ll love the rest of the papers in the set.

That’s it from me for today.  Matthew is napping so I need to get crackin’ on some more projects!

DeAnna

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Sep
16

Year in Review FREEBIE!

Posted by DeAnna

Thank you all so much for downloading my digi designs!!  I’ve hit over 200 downloads now and I have a freebie for you all.  AND, you get a sneak peek at my new brand for my digi stuff, DeAnna’s Design Studio.  What do you think??  I likey ;D

Here is the preview for the kit.  You can download it HERE.  Just a quick note:  It is for personal use only.  Please read the terms of use that is included with the .zip file when you download it.  Thanks!

Year-In-Review-Preview

There are six highly textured and distressed papers, two are solids and four are patterns.  There are six elements, consisting of two journaling tags, one epoxy sticker, one stamped cork mat, one velvet ribbon and one sheet of month/year word art.  The word art is super cool – they are word stickers and they are a bit crinkled and creased.  I love them!  This kit started out as a boy’s first year/year in review kit but as it evolved it kind of took on a bit of a retro feel to it, but I love the way it has come together.  As I said in my previous post, there are a number of other papers, both solids and patterns, as well as a number of other embellies that are in the works for a full kit in the near future.

I’d love it if you could download it, use it in a layout or other project and link up in the comments so I can take a look!!  I would love to have some feedback on my designs too, so feel free to comment.

I’ll be back next week with some new stuff.  Thanks for looking!

DeAnna

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Jul
22

It’s a zoo around here!

Posted by DeAnna

Omaha-Zoo

I thought I would show you my zoo layout next.  This is from the same trip as our July 2007 trip to Iowa and Minnesota I spoke about in an earlier post.  We went to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and I was amazed at some of the animals there.  We didn’t get to see the whole zoo, only a few parts of it, but we got some really good shots.  I wanted to do something a bit different for this layout.  I knew I wanted to use the map I found on the zoo’s website, so I saved the picture (right click, save as).  (I also saved the picture of the zoo’s logo and had it printed with my photos.)   I opened the map in Photoshop and made it the size I wanted it to be.  Then I printed it off on my home printer.  It was almost a full letter sized map by the time I was done with it, but there was a lot of blank space around the edges of the shape of the zoo so I tore the edges and inked them with my new Distress Ink, Rusty Hinge.  The color of the map happened to match exactly the paper set I wanted to use (Three Bugs In A Rug, Animal Stackers).

I used Rusty Hinge around the edges of my background paper as well.  I wanted to highlight my photos with some hand drawn outlines and used some arrows from a Cuttlebug die that I put through with my Sizzix Big Shot and then inked them with Rusty Hinge and Faded Jeans.  I circled the areas of the zoo that the photos represented and used the arrows to point from the map to the photo that matched it.  I used my EK Success edge punch for the bracket shapes on the bottom right underneath the die cut “at the zoo” which I cut with my Silhouette.  I used Faded Jeans around the edges of the blue paper and used one of my copic markers to highlight the embossed portion of the punch shape.  I thought the title was getting a bit lost so I used some Stickles to highlight the letters and across the bottom of the title (which you can’t really see in the scan). Then I also used an SEI rub-on to put the month of our trip, and I hand wrote the year with my Slickwriter which is a nice fat marker and I tried to match the style of the month rub-on.

I also thought my map and the photos on the right side of the page were floating a little so I placed the map on the circle patterned paper and on the right side I used a strip at the bottom of each row to ground them a bit.  I used the circle pattern under the bottom blue strip on the right to tie in with the left page, and to give the bracket shapes a bit of contrast.

I don’t usually use a lot of the techniques I used in this layout; the edge distressing, the hand drawn outlines, and the slightly tilted photos.  I find that I block photos a lot in very straight groupings, so I wanted to be a bit more whimsical with this layout.  I think I achieved that look (although they are still in parallel groupings ;D)

Back soon with my Christmas 2008 layout!

DeAnna


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General Scrapbooking, Scrapbooking
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Jun
29

Matthew’s birthday party

Posted by DeAnna

Well, Matthew is a year old now and I’ve finally gotten around to getting my photos looked at and uploading some of them to my Flickr gallery. I was so happy with how the cake turned out. Matthew’s birthday party was a baseball theme and started with the invitations:

DSC_5401

DSC_5395

I used my Silhouette to cut out the circle card base on kraft cardstock. It was an image that had other designs being cut for the front of the card, so I ungrouped them, then removed the parts I didn’t need. Then I chose the baseball. I resized it to fit on the card base. I ungrouped that too and copied the stitches to another document. I left the stitches in the original baseball and regrouped it so I could copy and paste it with the stitches into a new document numerous times on the same page. If I am mass producing cards such as invitations or thank you cards I will place as many of them on a sheet as I can by using the copy and paste feature. I also created a document in Photoshop with the text of the invitation for the inside of the card. I saved it as a .bmp document and pulled it onto a document in the Silhouette software. I copied the outside of the baseball and pasted it on top of the text document and moved it until it was over the text I wanted to be cut out. I printed it on lightweight plain cardstock (from Staples I think) and then ran it through my Silhouette – voila! My own print and cut ;D Assembly was super easy once I had everything cut out, and I inked with Ancient Page Sandalwood around the outside of the card, inside text, and over the stitching and the edges of the baseball. I really wanted the baseballs to look like gamers, not pearls (in baseball talk, a gamer is a rubbed up game ball, and a pearl is a brand new unused ball).

Then I got to work on the cake using my Silhouette again! Here are the pictures:

DSC_5063
DSC_5065
DSC_5064

I was so happy with the results! My husband commented that the bases are too far back in the running path, but other than that he was very excited about the cake :D   I used the baseball field image on the Silhouette, and used the negative space in the template to mask off the running path.  I sprinkled green crystal sugar to make the grass and the infield, then piped by hand the bases and the fair/foul lines. I piped a bit more chocolate icing for the pitching mound and a small strip of white for the pitching rubber.    Not too shabby, eh?

Lastly, the thank you cards. Super easy using more craft cardstock, the same white and red cardstock from the invitations and some of my baseball paper stash (I think it was Karen Foster but I can’t find it on her website – I’ve had it a few years now). The thank you stamp is Basic Grey.  The baseball border stamp is TPC Studio.  I stamped the thank you in green Memento ink, and the baseball border in red Memento ink, and coloured in the baseballs with a white watercolour pencil.

DSC_5377

Next I’ll show you the invitations for Kyle’s birthday party – but you can get a sneak peek if you check out my Flickr gallery here.

See you soon!

DeAnna

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Apr
30

Kevin & Kylee’s wedding album…

Posted by DeAnna

Another quick post to show you the album I created for Kevin and Kylee’s anniversary (which I was actually early for!  It’s not until June ;D).  I am very happy with how this album turned out, I think I went out of my box a bit and used some embellishments I hadn’t ever used before. Then I made a card to go with the album and got a chance to use my Copic markers (which I am totally addicted to ;D!!!)  Without further ado, presenting….

(click on image to enlarge)

Some of the scans don’t do justice to the layouts.  The flower I created to look like the flower in Kylee’s hair looks much prettier in real life, it looks a bit dull in the scanned image. I used acrylic pieces on the inside cover page and inked them with ColorBox chalk inks. I love the dimension it created on the page and how it highlighted the photo of Kevin and Kylee during the ceremony. I recolored the word art from Jessica Sprague in Photoshop to match the colors I knew I would be using before I printed the photo. I did that with a bunch of photos actually, look closely and you’ll see which ones I’m talking about. I used some clear embossing over different colored inks, and some fun die cuts using my silhouette. I wish I had my Copics before I started the album – I might have done a few images with some coloring ;D

You can also look at my Flickr gallery here if you want to see the products list.  I’ll do a post about my favourite layout from this album in a few days.  I’ve wanted to do a layout like this for a while and I’m so glad I finally got the chance to do it ;D

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card making, General Scrapbooking, Layouts, Scrapbooking
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Nov
01

Spooktacular! FREE digital scrapbooking kit…

Posted by DeAnna
halloween-preview-web

Here it is, as promised.  A new free digital scrapbooking kit just in time for all your Halloween photos!  The kit contains 5 cardstock, 10 patterned papers, 6 word art, and 9 stickers (with drop shadow).  You can download it here.

Again, this is for personal use only, not for commercial use.  Please post a link in the comments section if you use the kit – I’d love to see your work!

I’ll also have another template for you in a couple of days, once I download all my halloween pics.

I’m going to work on a Christmas kit, and a baby boy kit next.  I have so many ideas running through my head now, and with my new MacBook Pro, it just makes it so much easier to get it done.

Enjoy the kit and happy scrapping!

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Oct
23

A scrapbook wedding album…

Posted by DeAnna

brandon_album2

I finished this album for my brother in April, but with the computer issues I had with my old laptop, I didn’t have a chance to scan them in with my new scanner I got for Mother’s Day.  You may have seen my previous posts about my brother Brandon’s wedding in January, 2008 here and here.

I’m very happy with this album.   I kept the layouts simple, without too much fuss.  I used my Silhouette for most of the accent pieces, like the cake and the phrase Wedding Day.  There aren’t many pictures of Eden’s family simply because I hadn’t met any of them at the time of the wedding, and I didn’t know who was who.

Today, I finally finished the photo insert in the cover of the album, which makes it really done and ready to be sent to the happy couple.  I had planned to have it ready for their first anniversary in January – terrible, I know.  I’m such a terrible procrastinator and I really have to force myself to do the things that need to be done.  I’m glad i’m finally starting to catch up to all my outstanding projects and get them done.

Anyway, here are all the layouts I did for the album (click on the image to enlarge):

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General Scrapbooking, Layouts, Scrapbooking
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Oct
21

A comparison…

Posted by DeAnna

I’ve been going through some photographs in a box which contained some of my grandfather’s photos.  He passed away in 2006, when I was 5 1/2 months pregnant with my first child.  I miss him.  The photos in the box are amazing and I’ll share them in a future post very soon.  One of the photos has fascinated me though.  I never knew my grandfather had this picture and I am transfixed.  Here’s wny:  I was probably about 8 or 9 months old, and the similarities between me and my son Matthew in this picture is amazing.  Here’s a photo of my son which I have shown before.  I love his eyes!  He’s such a cutie.

matthew_eyes_edgeburn

And now, my photo:

me

Oh dear.  Hmmm…well, ummm.  Okay, moving on.  And a closer look:

me_closeup

Go ahead, laugh.  I did!  My mother has a larger framed copy which used to hang in our living room, but I haven’t seen it in years.  Anyone else see the similarities?  He even has my hairline!

This is one of the reasons I scrapbook.  Most of the photos in the box are completely foreign to me.  I have no idea who most of the people in them are since my grandfather rarely spoke about family and his childhood.  But, in these photos, I see similarities like these.

P.S.:  remember to make a comment to win a $10.00 gift certificate to Two Peas In a Bucket!!  One lucky winner will be chosen at random from all comments posted by Monday, October 26, at 12:00 pm Pacific.

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About Me, General Scrapbooking, Scrapbooking
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