Pumpkin Cheesecake - MDSM93

I had fun creating this page for the MDS Monday Blog Challenge (MDSM93).  You may view the challenge here:

http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/12/mdsm93-tamis-turn.html

Mike and I spent went to my brother's house for Thanksgiving.  My brother and I love to get together and bake something from scratch, so when he wanted to try baking a Pumpkin Cheesecake.... I couldn't say no.  We had a lot of fun! The cheesecake turned out so well that our other family members thought we bought it from The Cheesecake Factory!  And it tasted great too!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:

Background paper - Feast of Thanks DSP #6

Punch - Square (Feast of Thanks DSP #4 and #7)

Embellishments - Feast of Thanks (leaves); Sweet Shop (cake -recolored Early Espresso); Round Button (Chocolate Chip); Sweet Sorbet (thread)

Stamp Brush Set - Blossoms Abound (swirl - Early Espresso)

Font - Pristina & Poor Richard(Early Espresso)

2014 Christmas Cards

I decided to create my own Christmas Cards, and thought a 6x6 card would be a different size choice than the norm.

When I received them in the mail, they really turned out beautiful! However, when I went to place them in the envelope.... the card did not fit. Come to find out, the envelope size is a 6x6 instead of the 6.25x6.25 needed. So, I needed to trim 1/8" from each side (tedious!).

I will need to wait until Monday to call Stampin' Up! to discuss why this happened and to hopefully resolve the issue in the future. ****Update*** I did call Stampin' Up! on Monday and they would have mailed out to me the correct size envelopes for my cards.  But, since I had already trimmed my cards to fit the envelopes, they will make sure that this does not happen to future orders.

Supplies Used:
Background paper - Very Vanilla
Punches - Square (filled w/Textured Cardstock - Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake)
Embellishments - Basic Rhinestones
Stamp Brush Set - Endless Wishes (snowflake and words - Pool Party, Crumb Cake); Love Story (chevron - Pool Party and Crumb Cake)
Font - Broach(Very Vanilla)

Thanksgiving - MDSM92

Working on another page for our 2015 Calendar with 'Places we've been in 2014'.  Here was our trip to Cleveland to visit family. We stayed at my brother's house.  One of the many things we love about staying at his house is that he has a fabulous fireplace.  The weather cooperated and was very cold many days, so a fire was lit almost everyday of our visit!  We are so thankful for family AND for the many opportunities that we have to visit!

I created this page using only part of a double-page spread that I saw on the MDS Monday blog.  You may view their challenge here: 

http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/12/mdsm92-seeing-double.html

I may use the other sketch on a different scrapbook page, but that will be completed on a different day. =)

Supplies Used:

Background - Early Espresso

Punch - Square (filled w/Feast of Thanks #6, #7 and #8)

Stamp Brush Set - Love Story (heart strings)

Embellishments - Feast of Thanks (leaves, nut, acorn, and wheat); Sweet Sorbet (thread- Summer Starfruit and knot - Calypso Coral recolored Early Espresso); Round Button (Chocolate Chip)

Font - Adorable (Early Espresso)

Twin Boys

I needed a quick baby shower card for my cousin who is having twin boys!!!!

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets - Best of Brides and Babies, And Many More
Paper - Soft Sky, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Ink - Basic Black, Blendabilities (Skin Tone, Night of Navy and Daffodil Delight)

RoozenGaarde

 

I completed my two-page spread of our trip to the RoozenGaarde Tulip fields in Skagit Valley (back from April 2014). What a spectacular place.... I love spring flowers -- tulips are my favorite!!!!  If you take a look at my previous post..... these two pages compliment the cover page in our photobook.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies Used:

Background - Basic Black

Stamp Brush Set - Presto Patterns Overlays (Pear Pizzazz)

Embellishments - Blossoms Abound (flowers)

Font - CK Teen Scene (Pear Pizzazz)

Tulip Fields - MDSM90

I started our 2014 photobook today with this cover page of our trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in April 2014.  I will create a two-page spread to go along with it.  It's such a beautiful place with many different types and colors of tulips.

I used the sketch I found on the MDS Monday blog.  You may view the challenge here:

http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/11/mdsm90-lets-create-clusters.html

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:

Background paper - Basic Black

Stamp Brush Set - Presto Patterns Overlays (Certainly Celery); Blossoms Abound (leaf - Certainly Celery and flowers - Crisp Cantaloupe)

Embellishments - Blossoms Abound (flowers, leaves and journaling box); Poly Stitched Ribbon (Pear Pizzazz

Font - Adorable (Whisper White and Basic Black)

Sunshine and Sand - MDSM89

Playing with the challenge found on the MDS Monday Blog.  You may view the challenge and all the pages created with it here: http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/11/mdsm89-lets-use-stripes.html

In creating the strips of paper behind the photos, I used photo boxes and chose the 'option' to 'Rip Edges' to make them look like washi tape.  Also, I created my own DSP with the Baja Breeze Dots on Whisper White paper. 

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:

Background Paper - Whisper White

Punches - Square (filled w/Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze DSP)

Stamp Brush Set - Natural Composition Overlays (Sahara Sand); Splatter Tool (Whisper White and Baja Breeze); Spring Break II (word 'sunshine' - Whisper White); Free Label This (word 'sand' - Whisper White)

Font - Chalkdust (Whisper White)

Us -DGSCPR0028

I created this page for the October Progressive Digi-Scrap Challenge on the Splitcoaststampers website.  You may view the challenge here for Task#1:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/digital-scrapbooking-tuesdays-f253/oct-progressive-page-task-1-09-30-2014-a-t592538.html

What is a Progressive Challenge? Well, it's a challenge where you complete 3 to 4 tasks per week, so that at the end of 4 weeks.... you have a completed scrapbook page!  There's one each month, so come join in if you can.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:
Background paper - Lap of Luxury DSP #3

Punch - Square (Daffodil Delight DSP, Basic Black DSP, and Basic Gray DSP)

Stamp Brush Sets - Lemonade Stand (arrow - Whisper White); Love Story (hearts - Whisper White)

Embellishments - Dahlias (Basic Black); Taffeta Trimmings (Whisper White); Staples and Stitching (zigzag stitch - Whisper White); Rock-a-bye (Heart - recolored Basic Gray)

Font - Crescent (Whisper White)

Maui - MDSM87

 

Just got back from our Hawaii vacation, and wanted to use one of our photos from our trip for the MDS Monday Blog Sketch this week.  You may view the challenge and all the lovely pages from this sketch here: http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/10/mdsm87-yaphas-first-sketch.html

This one was a huge challenge for me, as I chose to make all the boxes photo boxes, and when you add DSP to photo boxes....the DSP is really tiny, so you need to zoom out in all of them.  The reason I chose to do all photo boxes instead of a mix of photo boxes and rounded punches -- was the roundedness of the photo boxes were not in uniform with the rounded punch shape.  I mean.... I guess you couldn't really tell that huge of a difference between the two, but I wasn't happy with it.  So, making them all photo boxes worked well for my purposes! =)

In placing the photo within several photo boxes, I grouped those photo boxes together before placing my photo within those boxes.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies Used:

Background Paper - Crumb Cake

Embellishments - Timeless Taffeta Trimmings (bow - Not Quite Navy); Dahlias (Crumb Cake)

Stamp Brush Set - Natural Composition Overlays (Sahara Sand)

Punch - Rounded Corner (Whisper White)

Photo Boxes - Watercolor Wonder DSP #11 recolored Midnight Muse and #12 

Font - Formal (Whisper White); CK Cutie (Not Quite Navy)

Something with a Twist

As I started creating this card..... it took A LOT of time to get to this point.  Which, I am very pleased how it turned out.

I had originally thought just to use the flowers in a straight line with a sentiment on the top.  Easy.... and not a lot of though to the design.  As I was punching out the flowers, they reminded me of the flowers in Hawaii....and the coconut drinks that they have there. (My mind is constantly thinking of Hawaii.... we love it there!)

Anyway, back to my thought process, as I was using the Big Shot (to make the top portion of the Early Espresso cardstock curved and using the Woodgrain TIEF), I decided that the sentiment should go on the bottom rather than the top.  I used the 'Something to Say' heart stamp to create the leaf.

In creating the "straw" I used the 'Bloom with Hope' stem stamp and just drew in the oval for the top of the straw.  Cool - huh!

I finished the flowers up by adding Dazzling Details to the center of each flower!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets - Something to Say, Bloom with Hope, Itty Bitty Banners
Paper - Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Ink - Early Espresso, Tangelo Twist, Pear Pizzazz, Pistachio Pudding, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake
Accessories - Blender Pen, Big Shot, Woodgrain TIEF, Ovals Framelits, Itty Bitty Accents Punch, glue dots, Dazzling Details, Bitty Banners Framelits

Autumn Love

 

I get inspiration from many things: color combinations, sketch challenges, many other talented demo's cards and also through perusing the card aisle at the store.  This is one such card from looking through cards at the store..... although, I did change a few words to suit my needs.  The design is my own....yet the colors, too, were from the card I saw.

I designed the card using my software from Stampin' Up!, My Digital Studio.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Background - Old Olive

Stamp Brush Sets - Autumn Harvest (branches - Old Olive); Anchors Away (border strip - Very Vanilla); So Happy For You (hearts - Very Vanilla)

Punch - Square (filled w/ Very Vanilla or textured Very Vanilla)

Font - AltastGreeting (Very Vanilla)

Festive Wishes

I saw a similar card using leaf framelits, so I thought I'd try it with my Festive Flurry Framelits.  I love how easy this card was to put together.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamp Set - Endless Wishes
Paper - Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Ink - Soft Sky, Night of Navy
Accessories - Festive Flurry Framelits, Snow Burst TIEF, Big Shot, dimensionals

Gram - MDSM84

 

At first, when I saw the challenge on the MDS Monday Blog this week.... I thought I didn't have any "vintage" photos, so I couldn't participate in the challenge.  Well, I got to looking around.... and I saw a photo that my Aunt posted of my Grandma (her Mother) on her facebook page from way back before Gram was married.  Whoo-hoo! I have a photo!  I'm so happy to have this photo now on a scrapbook page -- I miss my Grandma.  She was 21 in this photo.

You may view challenge and all the pages created with it on thier blog here:

http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/09/mdsm84-lets-go-vintage.html

I decided to stick with the colors Very Vanilla and Soft Suede.....even recoloring some of the embellishments from Vanilla to Suede.

Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies Used:
Background paper - Very Vanilla
Embellishments - Designer Rosettes (Very Vanilla recolored Soft Suede); Stitching (zigzag -Very Vanilla recolored Soft Suede); Soft Blooms (Very Vanilla recolored Soft Suede); Timeless Taffeta Trimmings (Soft Suede); Basic Pearls
Stamp Brush Set - Vintage Overlays (Soft Suede)
Punch - Square (Soft Suede DSP)
Font - England (Soft Suede)

Wondrous Garland

When I saw Sharon Cheng's (poster CCC) garland card on SCS (Splitcoaststampers), I thought I'd take it a bit further with placing the garland on a wooden banister.  It reminds me of my parents house and the garland that we have going down the stairs.  Thanks Sharon for your inspiration.

If you'd like to view her card, click here:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2559979?&cat=25548

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets - Wondrous Wreath, Good Greetings, Hardwood
Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Mellow Moss, Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Ink - Cherry Cobbler, Mellow Moss, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso
Accessories - Wonderful Wreath Framelits, Big Shot

Lovely Greetings

 

I saw this Christmas card (on the right) on Pinterest, and fell in love with the colors.  Thanks Cindy for your inspiration!  

On my card (on the left), I did not have Crumb Cake ribbon, so I used Soft Suede for the focal piece and the ribbon.  A bit darker, but I love the results!

Thanks for looking!

Supplies Used:

Stamp Sets - Lovely As A Tree, Good Greetings

Paper - Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Whisper White

Ink - Early Espresso, Versamark

Accessories - Heat Gun, White Embossing Powder, Embossing Buddy, Big Shot, Northern Flurry TIEF, glue dots, Taffeta Ribbon (Soft Suede)

Good Wishes

I saw this card (on the right) on Splitcoaststampers (from poster - LateBlossom - Susan Raihala), and thought I'd try to recreate a card with the stamps that I had (my card is on the left).  Thanks Susan for your inspiration!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:

Stamp Sets - Good Greetings, Endless Wishes

Paper - Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Whisper White

Ink - Marina Mist, Night of Navy

Accessories - Basic Rhinestones

Fabulous Wings

A card created for a Fabulous friend on her birthday! She loves butterflies (as they remind her of her Mom), so I incorporated that into my design.

It looked a bit plain, but after adding the rhinestones..... the card really turned out cheerfully fun and cute!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:
Stamp Sets - Million & One
Paper - Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink - Black Staz-on
Accessories - Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslits, Basic Rhinestones, Black Twine (non-SU)

Tulips - MDSM83

The MDS Monday has another sketch challenge -- along with a Technique Challenge this week (MDSM83).  This one incorporates "texting on a path" using the freeform tool.  You may view the challenge, all the pages created with the challenge AND videos on how to create a text on a path here:

http://mdsmonday.blogspot.com/2014/09/mdsm83.html

I had a bit of trouble with my text on the corners -- the text overlapped where it had the 90 degree turn -- but I was able to place some spaces in to get the words to lay as I wanted them to. =)

I used the Watercolor Winter DSP behind the photos, but felt that the original color was just a bit too dark for what I wanted.  So, placing the DSP inside a photo box, I was able to re-color it a different shade of blue -- thus making it softer than the original color. Yay!

This page was from our trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in April 2014.  Since moving here (12 years ago), we had always wanted to see the many tulip fields.  It was so amazing to see all the many different varieties and the colors. I {heart} tulips!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:

Background paper - Whisper White

Photo Box - Square (Watercolor Winter DSP #9 - recolored Brocade Blue)

Stamp Brush Set - Glimmer Kit (stripes overlay - Baja Breeze)

Fonts - CK Cutie and KG Eyes Wide Open (Baja Breeze)

Schwab Wedding

 

 

With these pages.....our 2013 scrapbook is complete!!!!! Yay! I finished it before the end of the year! It feels so wonderful to be "almost" up-to-date!!!!  To think that I could start designing our 2014 scrapbook -- IN 2014 -- is just awesome!!!! LOL!

In December 2013, my little brother got married the Saturday after Christmas.  It was great for us, since we came out for Christmas....we could just extend our trip to be there for the wedding.

In designing the first two pages, I used a sketch I found on the Sweet Shoppe website.  Here is the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used (on the first 4 pages):

Background paper - Very Vanilla

Embellishments - Taffeta Ribbon (Real Red); Glimmer Kit (word 'Love' and hearts); Basic Pearls; Designer Rosettes (Real Red)

Stamp Brush Set - Decorative Overlays (More Mustard)

Punch - Square (Very Vanilla); Flag (Glimmer DSP)

Font - Chancellor (More Mustard)

Supplies Used (on the last page):

Background paper - Whisper White

Stamp Brush Sets - Presto Patterns Overlays (Basic Black); Love Story (heart - Basic Black; Basic Gray; words 'You & Me' - Basic Black)

Punch - Square (Basic Gray, Love Impressions recolored Basic Gray); Perfect Pennants (Basic Black)

Christmas 2013

 

 

Wow! I have to say that I am so very pleased to be completing last years Christmas photos BEFORE this Christmas! Such a wonderful feeling!  When my family (my side) gets together, we always have a great time.....and there are so many photos.... it's hard to just choose a few.  Especially since we do so much -- Family photo, opening presents and games!

I wanted to highlight our family photo (and the photo with almost all our eyes closed too!). As you can tell we are a funny bunch! lol! I decided to use a template/layout I saw on the Sweet Shoppe Blog.  Here's the photo:

Hmmm... ok, well....that's a puny photo, but you can definitely see that's what I used to create the first page - right?

It did take me quite a while to figure out what colors/papers to use. But I believe the ones I chose work great for the photos.  One thing I want to share is how I created my background paper.  The background, itself, is Real Red.... I added the Natural Composition Overlay in White, but brought the opacity down to 10%.  <---See, creating your own DSP (Designer Series Paper) is a breeze! 

Thanks for taking a peek!

Supplies Used:

Background - Real Red

Embellishments(on page 2) - Hodgepodge Hardware (Jumbo Brad); Narrow Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon (Soft Suede)

Stamp Brush Sets - Natural Composition Overlays (Whisper White at 10% opacity); Watercolor Winter (snowflake and snowflake border - Whisper White)

Punch - Square (Soft Suede, Christmas Cocoa II DSP #1, Whisper White); Circle (Soft Suede)

Punch(on page 2) - Circle (Christmas Cocoa II DSP #1); Tag (Whisper White)

Font - Lovers' Quarrel (Whisper White and Soft Suede)

Christmas 2013

 

Working again on our 2013 photobook with our Christmas photos.  We celebrated early at home since we knew we would be traveling to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with my family, as well as to celebrate the wedding of my little brother.  Family is so important....and life is way too short not to get together.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies Used:

Background - Always Artichoke

Embellishments - Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon (Cherry Cobbler)

Stamp Brush Sets - Natural Composition Overlays (cloth background - Mellow Moss); Modern Medley (stripes - Whisper White); Earth Laughs (flower - Whisper White)

Punch - Square (Cherry Cobbler behind stripes); Flower (Cherry Cobbler)

Font - Matura (Whisper White)

Kauai Trip

 

 

 

 

Continuing work on our 2013 photobook with our trip we took to Kauai Hawaii in October.  I decided to complete all the pages of our trip before posting any of them, so that you would be able to see the grouping all at once.

We really enjoyed our time on the island of Kauai.... although, we LOVE every time we get to see the Hawaiian islands!!! We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott at Coconut Beach this time.  We did enjoy a luau too, at the Sheraton hotel, but do not have photos of that event. =)

Thanks for looking!

Supplies Used:

Background - My Sweet Pea DSP #29

Embellishments - Grosgrain Ribbon (Tempting Turquoise and So Saffron); Paradise Found (flowers - recolored Tempting Turquoise and Pumpkin Pie); Flower Brads (So Saffron and Tempting Turquoise)

Stamp Brush Sets - Paradise Found (leaves - Old Olive)

Punch - Scallop Border (Pumpkin Pie); Scallop Square (Pumpkin Pie); Square (My Sweet Pea #25)

Font - Lucinda Calligraphy (So Saffron)