Picture My Life (PML)

Along with the My Crush book, I also ordered these Picture My Life (PML) kits. I figured with so much pictures that needed scrapbooking, I just do not have the time. I have my daughter's school activities pictures, our last family trip to Hawaii from 2 years ago, my daughter's baby book that has a last picture when she was 6 months old - she's 2 now by the way. So catching up to all those just seem like an impossible task. So I thought to do a fast forward, I might as well jump in and do it PML style. My pictures just don't do enough justice to how nice these journal cards look.

Chantilly Picture My Life Kit

Surf's Up Picture My Life Kit

Babycakes Picture My Life Kit

Each kit contains:

10 sheets of 12"x12" memory protectors in various designs
44 - journal cards in 4"x6" size (2 each of 22 designs)
78 - journal cards in 3"x4" size (3 each of 26 designs)
1 - 12"x12" Designed Cover Sheet

The Designed cover sheet looks like the 2nd picture above where the front has a big blank square for you to put a cover photo.

There's a lot of other designs available, I just bought these to get started since they are related to my projects. My next one will probably be Laughing Lola before it retires, and perhaps Balloon Ride. I just love these papers and themes and can't seem to get enough of it!

I can't wait to get started. Though with so many projects in limbo right now, I'm not sure which one to start with! So much to do, so little time!

My Crush Books

Before I joined CTMH I was a big fan of K&Company's Smash Book. So when I found out CTMH has its own line of these books, of course I have to grab one for myself! My book arrived yesterday and let me just say I love every page of it! I ordered My Crush Modville and 2 of the assortment, Memories and Favorites to go with it. I currently have a small K&Company's travel smash book and it's always in my purse. Whenever an idea hits me, or if I just need to keep a piece of paper or receipt or need to jot down some notes or highlights of my day, I quickly turn to it and write it down. It's nice to be able to look back at it. It's like your memory on the go. With everything on my plate these days, some memories are just too precious to forget. I like how I can go back anytime and mark a to-do I've done, or add to a list of ideas I'm collecting for my daughter's birthday party and stuff like that.

I've snapped a few pictures of the inside, just to give you an idea what some of the designs are. I took pictures of my favorites so far. Don't you just love them??

And here are the 2 assortments I purchased along with the book.

You Are Truly Amazing - Ivy Lane

There are some paper designs that are truly so beautiful you get this certain pull to keep using it or stare at it. Ivy Lane is one of those so here's another card where I'm featuring its awesomeness.

I cut a 3" circle in the middle of this 4.5"x5.5" B&T paper, then used the Cocoa paper and cut another circle, this time I think it was 2-7/8", slightly smaller, and I used the other side of the B&T circle I cut as the 3rd layer. I lined them up so the circle looks staggered. I then used this flower from A Flowering Bunch stamp set and colored it in multiple shades of pink, lavender, orange and yellow. The die cut is from Cricut Artiste I believe, and I stamped on a Colonial White cardstock. I colored the flowers using a variety of my Spectrum Noir markers. Since this is not about coloring I won't go into details of which colors I used, but if you're interested leave me a message and I'll be more than happy to share. I sponged or brushed Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress ink on the edges of the cardstock so it blends with the other colors of the flower. I love A Flowering Bunch stamp set. It was last year's stamp of the month and I was able to get my hands on it from a fellow consultant. It has so many designs that you can use repeatedly. I especially love the garden of flowers piece that's part of this set.

The sentiment came from the You Are stamp set, also from last year's Stamp of the Month series. Both sets are now retired. If you want them send me a message and I can find those for you. I used Colonial White cardstock and Saddle ink to stamp, and hand cut the "You Are Truly" sentiment. The "Amazing" sentiment was die cut using a Sizzix banner die from one of Stamps of Life's Sizzix die and stamp sets.  I embellished the 2 corners with sequin dot assortment that came with the Ivy Lane Cardmaking WOTG kit.

Enjoy!

The retired stamp sets I used are A Flowering Bunch and You Are.

S1306 A Flowering Bunch 

S1204 You Are

Ivy Lane WOTG Cardmaking Kit

Heidi Swapp Stencils

Stencils seem to be the craze now, or maybe I'm just catching up. Since Michael's is having a Heidi Swapp 40% off collection this week, I decided to have a go at it. I own a couple of stencils before but never got to using them, and I do buy some sprays when it's on clearance, but today I decided to splurge and stock up for my weekend of stencil fun. Can't wait to try my hand at stencil! TGIF tomorrow!!

Thanks Bunches!

This card is made using Stamps of Life's March stamp set crazy4daisies. I wish I had the dies for these daisies since I spent quite some time cutting these out. I made quite a few, not just these, as reserve. I guess I was illusional when I thought this was going to be a 5-minute card.

So, for papers I used a variety of papers from Lily Bee Persnickity Collection. The yellow layer is Bazzill Butter Cardstock and the dark purple base is plain cardstock from Heritage. The embellies I think are from Recollection.

Weekend in Cloud Nine

Seriously, this obsession with the Cloud 9 card making kit has got to stop. This is like an addiction that keeps pulling me in. I think until I finish the last scrap of paper I probably won't be able to give it a rest. Anyways, to continue I've done 4 more different cards using the papers and stamps from the Cloud 9 kit. Too bad I wasn't a consultant then when it came out, I probably would've bought more of these.

These are fairly easy to do, which is probably why it was quick to make 5 of these cards (the other one was the Cupcake Happy Birthday card). All the materials used are still available except for the the orange Background and Texture paper. I have embossed a couple of the designs to give it more texture and punched out more hearts using a regular puncher and embellished with ribbon to add a splash of color.

Papers used are a mix of Lagoon, Sunset and Honey cardstock,  Cloud Nine paper. Embellishments are Gold Polka Dot washi tape, Teal Shimmer Trim, and Durables Triangle Studs. Sentiments were stamped using Sunset and Lagoon Ink.

Cloud 9 Birthday Cupcake

For some reason the Cloud 9 cardmaking kit has been calling my attention lately. Maybe it's because the paper's bright orange color with teal accent is so appealing I can't seem to get it out of my head. So I went back and tried to do something about it. I know it's retired and it's not available for purchase anymore but rather than stash it maybe I'll just use it all up. As you're probably familiar with it by now, the papers are from Close to My Heart (CTMH), the gold polka dot Washi Tape also came as part of the kit. That is still available for purchase. The brads I can't remember where I got them from, and the stamp is a Penny Black Sweet Thing which I got from Amazon ages ago.

I used Spectrum Noir pens to color, forgive me I'm not an expert but I wish to one day be able to master the art of alcohol markers. For hair and cupcake I used GB8, GB10 and EB5, for the cupcake wrapper and frosting I used CT1 CT3 CT4 and OR1. For the girl's head piece, clothes and socks I used PP3 PP5 BP2 BP6 and DR3. The accent on her clothing I used BT1 and BT2. And for the skin tone I used colors from the Pale Hues family, a mix of FS6 FS2 FS3.

The happy birthday sentiment was stamped using CTMH's Sorbet ink if i'm not mistaken.