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!

On the road again...

Back in June 2008, I made a special order graduation card for an 8th grade girl with a VW bus theme.  Someone saw that listing on my etsy site, and wanted me to make one for her daughter's high school graduation this year. 

She loves the peace and flower symbols.  And while her favorite color is red, I also wanted to incorporate her HS colors of green and blue. 

I used some pop ups to add depth and dimension to the layers of the card.  I also had the perfect prima flowers and stickles to complete the image. 

I just love a stroll down memory lane!



Celebrating a Christmas Union

A friend at work was just recently able to exchange wedding bands with his wife after several years of marriage. They decided to keep them wrapped until Christmas.

To honor this occassion, I knew I wanted to make a scrapbook page, but one they could hang up.

I asked him for their favorite colors. His is forest green. Hers was pink or red. How much more perfect could that be for the holiday?!

I started with the paper. The base was whimisical and the heart-patterned paper was the perfect complement. I wanted their names on the piece, and the ribbon made the perfect background for the banner. The heart-shaped brushed metal brads are the perfect accents.

The banner pieces have alternating inset round corners with outside rounded corners.

The hanging holly is a rub on using the same paper from the banner piece with the edges inked in red and popped up from the simple white textured white cardstock. The "love" metal piece is affixed directly to the embellishment.

Clear photo corners are holding in place the two picture placeholders for a 3.5" x 5" and a 3" x 3" picture. Finishing the piece are four infinity clips to reflect the unity of marriage and echo the rings they were exchanging.

I had so much fun making this and have been wanting to do something like this for a long time. I think placing a scrapbook page into a shadow box frame would make a great gift for any occassion and can be custom made. So excited about this next step.

Music and Scrapbook Pages - Part 3 - Seasons of Love

The last post pretty much closed 2003 for us - our 1st year living in Boston. So, when my mom comes to visit, I take her to NYC to see RENT!! She surprised me with the letters - the page just wouldn't be the same without them.

Since we were keeping the playbill and event brochures for everything - HINT: USUALLY CONTAIN EXCELLENT EMBELLISHMENTS!! - I had to have a way to keep the material on the page without ruining it. I found these large-size photo corners. I recently ran out and can only find jumbo photo corners. But, aren't they great?!

There is quite a bit to show you on this page. I think I first used ink embossing here - and all three colors I had - I used a great big staff music stamp and overlapped silver, pewter, and gold embossing, then proceeded to create the page. I also used theatre-themed stickers and Quickutz music notes - oh - and pop dots on the music note!

You may also notice the red square in the bottom left corner - that's the narrative for this page. Just some details about the event and other tidbits. It's another thing we try to do for each page. A fun way to remember little details.

The next page will be "better than chocolate".