Summer Hip Pics Album

Slowly I am inching towards my goal of finishing up all the memory preserving for the year 2014. This is one of them, which I promised I'd give as a gift to my sister.

I used My Creations Hip Pics Album. I love how nice and compact this is, and how easy it is to decorate and put pictures and make a mini-album out of it, perfect for just a single event. I mainly used last year's Free To Be Me paper pack to decorate, and just a single pack of Recollections embellishments.

I used a variety of stamps for the sentiments inside, but most of all I love how versatile the Picture My Life is. I used a mix of Surf's Up and Wanderful and cut them up and decorated them to make them into embellishments. I most especially like the quotes, and how well they go together with the Free To Be Me colors. The best thing about Picture My Life is that they are now available to purchase in just the cards alone. For only $14.95 you get 122 cards if you don't wish to get the memory protector sheets. Here's the Wanderful PML cards only, and here's Surf's Up. I love using them on my scrapbook layouts, cards, and now I love how they can also be used in mini albums like this. The designs are just simply gorgeous!

I have yet to write down notes, which I intentionally left blank since they'll be too personal.

Hope you're able to grab some inspiration from this and create your own mini album! Enjoy!

It's A Boy!

I've had this Wild Wonders stamp set for awhile but never had the opportunity to use it. I so love this set, how cute the images of the animals are, and am glad I finally know someone who's pregnant that I can make a card for and use this adorable stamp set.

I used some leftover Free To Be Me and Ivy Lane paper scraps as base. This stamp set is just way too cute for something to be left out, so instead of making a pretty lay out card, I tried to squeeze as many animal images as I could. It's a jungle out there! :)

Bee Happy!

I'm totally digging watercoloring these days so I've been working on stamps that I can add a lot of color to. This is not totally watercoloring as I do not have a big space to have a cup of water and lay out colors and stuff, but I'll get there soon. For now, I'm using Tim Holtz Distress Markers and a waterbrush to do my coloring.

I used paper from Free To Be Me paper collection as my card base, you can't see clearly from the picture but it's the one with a glossy background to it, the design resembled a hive so I thought it would be appropriate for this theme. The stamp set I used is from Jeanette's Archive, it's called Happy Hive. I pretty much used the whole set. I wanted to create sort of like a theme with all these bees swirling around.

I used watercolor paper (140lb), stamped the images using Memento black ink. This is the only ink I know where the color doesn't bleed. I used Tim Holtz Walnut Stain to stamp the hive, Black Soot for the bee stripe, Mustard Seed for the rest of the bee body. The flowers are a mix of Peacock Feathers, Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord, Fired Brick, Barn Door, Picked Raspberry and the leaves are Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint. The sentiment "Bee Happy" I used Ripe Persimmon and Faded Jeans.  I used a Pentel Arts Waterbrush to do the watercoloring.

It's a shame that CTMH does not have Distress Inks. I love these distress inks and markers. And the colors are so vibrant! I am however going to purchase CTMH's watercolor pencils. They just got it back in stock and it's the first thing I will order tomorrow. I can't wait to play with those!

Here's what the stamp set looks like.

B1445 Happy Hive

Free To Be Me Blog Hop

It's National Scrapbooking Day today and in honor of that Close to My Heart has a special paper collection out this month to celebrate. A group of us ladies are doing a blog hop to feature this amazing theme so if you've come from Kristine Ponte's amazing blog, then you're on the right track! Sit back and I hope you enjoy my creations featuring this Free To Be Me paper collection. I so love this and made 3 cards so far.

For my first card I used the stamp set Feathers and cut them out. The ink colors I used are Cranberry, Bamboo and Lagoon. I wanted to highlight the colors and feather design of the paper and thought this stamp set complements it perfectly! For the sentiment I used the Cricut Art Philosophy Seasons Cricut Collection stamp set that comes with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I embellished the top with Sparkles Brown and Tan Assortment and the bottom with Teal shimmer trim.

My second card uses the red UV Coated paper for background, and I layered it with Barn Red cardstock before adding the Free to Be Me design on top of it. I made it a bit longer so I can draw white the lines for the 'road'.  I used Camper Crazy stamp set for this card and colored in the RV. The sentiment was stamped using regular Black ink and I sponged the sides of the paper with Creme Brulee ink.

Last but not the least, this paper speaks volumes so I wanted to make it as simple as possible. I cut a piece of  leftover Twilight cardstock and stamped the sentiment from Windy Day stamp set. I adhered 3 Black Epoxy Bubbles and attached a ribbon I have from scraps. I made a tiny bow so it looks cleaner.

Here's a complete look of all the fabulous papers in this collection.

• 6 – Free to Be Me B&T Duos™ Papers 
• 2 – UV-Coated, Designed Teal Cardstock Sheets 
• 2 – UV-Coated, Designed Red Cardstock Sheets
• 2 – UV-Coated, Designed Gold Cardstock Sheets 
• 1 – White Feather Print Vellum Sheet
• 1 – Gold Foil Polka-dot Print Vellum Sheet

Featured colors: Gold, Mint, Peach, Red, Teal, Tan, White Daisy 

Remember, these fabulous fabulous papers are just $5 when you qualifying purchase reach $50. Take advantage of this deal right now! You won't regret it! Visit my store at shabbychiccrafting.ctmh.com or leave me a message if you're interested! I promise you will fall in love with these papers too!

I hope you've enjoyed my creations. Now it's time to keep hopping and next stop is Haley Dyer's wonderful blog! Happy National Scrapbooking Day everyone! Thanks for hopping!

May Is National Scrapbooking Month

May is National Scrapbooking Month and Close to My Heart has a special treat to celebrate this month. During National Scrapbooking Month in May, you can get the Free to Be Me paper collection for just $5 with your qualifying purchase of $50. The paper collection features artfully designed cardstocks, vellums, and B&T Duos™ papers—exclusive products that you can’t getanywhere else! With a retail value of $11.95, this collection is a fantastic deal!

I have created some cards with it and I just have to say, you will fall in love with these papers. I love them so much I already stocked up on them!! I love the UV coated papers that come with it, the colors are so vibrant and it just screams "Create! Create! Create!"

If you're interested to get your hands on this amazing deal, please leave me a comment!