Can't Help Falling in Love

As a federal employee on furlough, I am finding myself with A LOT of extra time.  I wandered onto the Silhouette blog and today stumbled onto their weekly challenge.  I made this card a couple of days ago, and it fits perfectly with their theme for fall seasonal projects.  I love the color combinations AND the polka dot raised paper I used for the leaves.  It may just be my new obsession!

Jumping back in

Goodness!  It's been a whole year since my last post!  Since then I have sold a couple of custom items on etsy, moved again (still in MD), my husband is now working for the Maryland Science Center designing and building exhibits once again, our cats are officially diagnosed as crazy and on generic prozac, and an opportunity to sell our items in a brick and mortar store fell through due to lack of vendor interest.

It's this last experience that has given a jump start to our creativity and an opportunity to collaborate on some really awesome pieces.  My husband is truly talented as an exhibit designer.  But he also has some awesome ideas for frames that highlight the beauty of the frameable scrapbook pages and cards I've been making.

This great frame has raised corners.  It holds a 12" x 12" page.

  

The pieces of this simple-looking frame are attached with dowels rather than nails.

Both of these are posted on etsy with more designs coming over the next few days.

Natotela

A friend of mine just graduated from nursing school.  Born and raised in Zambia, she became a U.S. citizen this last December.  At her graduation party, I knew there would be others from Zambia presenting her with gifts.  I wanted to give her something special to honor her accomplishment and heritage.

A set of "thank you" cards seemed natural enough.  But, why not incorporate the language of her home, too?  Natotela is Zambian for "thank you". 

You may also recognize another theme to this set...  Pink!  Her favorite colors are pink and red.  So, I picked out some of the best paper and color combinations and paired the pinks and reds with brown and light olive green. 

I picked out different fonts for the lettering of "natotela" and "thank you".  I used the Silhouette to merge the letters and created the offset shadows.  When it seemed appropriate, I used the same paper for the letters on different cards where the base and top sheet were also different. 

The top piece is chosen to coordinate with the base, then torn at an angle and the exposed edge inked in matching ink.

I will be using this design again.  Would be great to include other languages, too. 

Natotela sa na.  Thank you so much for looking at my site!

Music and Scrapbook Pages - Part 2 - "At The Zoo"

Okay - I admit - this entry has nothing whatsoever to do with the zoo. But it has everything to do with Simon and Garfunkel! This was the 3rd ever scrapbook page I created. I started with the paper - I gave my guy a few options, and he selected this great diagonal stripe.

When The Fleet Center in Boston was still the Fleet Center (it's now called TD Banknorth Gardens - or The Gardens), I heard about the Simon and Garfunkel tour. I spent my 15-minute morning break at work trying to get the best seats I could from Ticket Master the day tickets became available.

The price was high - can you see it in the picture? - but worth it!

And what a treat, too - The Everly Brothers joined them on stage and did a 4- or 5-song set - by themselves and with S&G!

Nothing pops up on this page. I didn't even know pop dots existed. I didn't know a lot of things existed out there, yet. But, to embellish, I found the great "Feelin' Groovy" sticker. I also wanted a way to list the songs they performed without just printing and gluing standard list. I created text boxes in MS Word to include about 3 songs each. (I found a song list from the concert online - I don't have that good of a memory.) I printed out my page of boxes onto a letter-size sheet of label paper. (I think Avery actually has rebranded some of their label paper as sticker paper - same stuff but more expensive!)

The pictures of S&G and the Everly Brothers I found online.

To wrap up our scrapbook moment, we began a tradition we continue (although we aren't very consistent) to this day... We document the location AND where we sat. Here, we have a picture of the Fleet Center in the upper right corner of the page. And above, next to the tickets, you can see a seating chart with an arrow and a dot showing "We Were Here".

And - well - they did perform "At the Zoo" afterall.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for 525,600 great ideas!!