My first CDAC Challenge entry and A Winner!

First things first.  I'd like to thank everyone who turned out to hop along with us in the first JustWordz All About Babies Blog Hop this past weekend.  We showed you all kinds of cute baby baby related projects and I received so many lovely comments and even gained a few new followers in the process!  To all of my new friends, I want to welcome you and promise that I will do my very best not to disappoint you.  Now, for the moment you have all been waiting for.... <long dramatic drum roll> the winner of the JustWordz Stamps!

Random.org was used to select the winner, out of 35 comments (two comments were left by one person so I eliminated one of them to make it fair for everybody), the magic number was...

#12 - Dixie, who said, "Your card is adorable! That is a very sweet image and I love the papers that you have used with it. The layout of your nephew is just wonderful, obviously a labour of love. The details are fabulous!"


Congratulations, Dixie!!!  I'll be emailing you soon to request your mailing address so if you don't receive my message, please check your spam folder.  


I also have a new card to show you today.  I created this card from a digi stamp created by Sandi Huggett, who is one of my wonderfully talented DT sisters at The Outlawz, and also a member of CDAC (Crafters Digital Art Center).  I just joined CDAC and I'm participating in their Progressive Freebie Challenges that just started this month.  If you sign up to participate, they send you a set of digi stamps to use in your entries and you must submit at least one entry in each successive challenge to continue receiving the free images.  If you fail to enter a challenge, you will not receive the next set of freebies unless you buy back in for $1.  Several of the Outlawz members are also members of CDAC and it sounded like a fun challenge so I decided to play along.  Besides, they are giving away a set of 12 Copic Sketch markers as the grand prize to one person who enters all of the progressive challenges!!  Here is my first entry.  I have actually used Sandi's teapot and teacup images before and I just love how they look colored with my Copics.  I only had 2 days in which to complete my entry before the deadline and since I had some experience coloring these images, I knew I could beat the cutoff.  And I did, with a day to spare!  

I haven't put a sentiment on the inside yet as I'm uncertain of the occasion I'll use the card for.  A special day could be a birthday, an anniversary, a new job, or any other special occasion so I have left it open for the time being.  

Materials and Supplies:

Image - Sandi Huggett, colored with Copics

Card base - Core-dinations cards stock

Gold foil mat - AC Cardstock

White inside mats - Recollections

DT - K & Company (Jubilee and Best of Brenda Walton)

Paper doily - Michaels

Heart stick pin - won in blog hop and added Swarovski crystals and irridescent bead

Front greeting label - Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Tags

Inside mats - Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set 

Bright pink chalk ink - Studio G

Leaf-shaped bling - won in blog hop candy

Front sentiment stamp - Stampendous Special Messages set

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

CDAC Progressive Freebies Challenge- use one of the free digi stamps in your project.

Daisy Doodles Challenge #41 - Anything Goes

Happileigh Scrappin Challenge #37 - Birthdays

That's about all I have for now.  Again, my sincere thanks to all of you who hopped with us last weekend.  We'll have more fun things in store for you in the coming months.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz

Note: Hi!  If you're looking for the JustWordz "All About Babies" Blog Hop, please scroll down or click here.

Paper a la Mode Challenge

Another week has come and gone and it's time for a new Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz!  This week, our sweet, talented Jane has given us our challenge to create a project using the following photo for inspiration.

We could have used the color palette, the layout or any number of other elements on which to base our own designs.  I used the basic layout, minus the text as my inspiration.  I really wanted to use the color scheme,  as I thought it both interesting and vibrant, but I didn't have the right shades that would work together in my stash and I didn't feel like going shopping for a couple of pieces of scrapbook paper.  As you'll see in just a moment, my interpretation is not very strict.  I chose to play up the cross shape created by the intersections of the different papers and the ribbon I used, and a beautiful angel by an illustrator who goes by the name ina jane, that I colored with a combination of Copics and Primsacolor pencils.    

This is the inside of the card. Oopsie! I didn't notice it until I downloaded the photos from my camera to my hard drive but the larger butterfly had come loose and fallen down just before I shot the picture.  It is permanently glued in place now so if I have time to do a retake, I'll post a newer pic this weekend.  

Materials and Supplies:

card base and cream cardstock from Core'dinations

Gold foil cardstock from American Crafts

dp from DCWV's Tradewinds stack

image from Sweet Coloring pages

ribbon - royal blie grosgrain from Michael's

Sentiment label - Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Tags

blue dew drops - sent to me by Kim at JustWordz Clear Stamps

corner punch - Martha Stewart Punc Around the Page set

front stamp - Fiskars clear stamp set called Squarely Sentimental

Inside sentiment stamp - Stampabilities

Dark blue chalk ink pad - Studio G

butterfly dimensional chipboard stickers - K & Company

Metallic gold gel pen

That's all for me for today!I hope you'll come join us at The Outlawz Challenges.  We have a different challenge each day of the week with fabulous prizes from our awesome sponsors.  We are going to be hosting a membership drive/party as we're nearing our 1000th member and we're going to start the celebration early!  Aside from the challenges, there will be games and a blog hop with lots of prizes including not one but TWO $100 gift certificates; one from Oozak and the other from SCACD!  Where else can you find fantastic prizes like that?  If you're not already a member, you need to get over there and register so you can participate in the 1000 Member Party.  Watch for more details coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by to visit me today.  As always, your comments are both welcome and very much appreciated.  Until next timem have a lovely weekend and...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

"All About Babies" Blog Hop!

Hello and Happy Friday, my crafty friends! Today is the first day of the first ever JustWordz Blog Hop for which the theme is "All About Babies". The JustWordz Design Team has been busy this week crafting beautiful baby-themed projects to inspire you and we are anxious to show you what we have made. This hop will be open until 11:59 EDT on August 29th so everybody will have 4 full days to visit all the Design Team blogs and leave a comment at each stop to qualify for the prizes Kim is giving away on the JustWords blog. There may also be candy available on some of our personal blogs as well and you'll need to follow the instructions on each blog to be eligible for the giveaway.

If you have arrived here from Tara's blog, you are in the right place. If you just stopped by for a visit or if you landed here by some other means and want to hop with us, you'll want to start at the beginning by visiting the JustWordz blog first so you don't miss anything. I'll post the entire lineup below so in case you get lost along the way, you can come back here to figure out where you should be. There are only 5 stops and you should be able to make it all the way through in very little time. Even though it's a short lineup, don't let that fool you.  We have made some really cool things to give you ideas for your next baby project. I have two projects to show you today and I'll give you advance warning that there are a lot of pictures in case you want to use the restroom or grab something to drink before you go any farther! LOL

My first project is a card. I purchased this sweet digi stamp from Phindy's Place 2 or 3 months ago to use on a card to accompany the mini album I made for a friend of mine in Austin following the birth of her first child.  I featured the mini album on August 13th and you can see it here in case you missed it. The image is aptly called "Sweet One". I colored it with Copics in the same color scheme I used on the mini.

Here's my sneak peek from yesterday.

The card base is medium yellow textured card stock from Core'dinations. I love their cardstock because the core of the paper is colored so white  doesn't show through if the paper cracks at the score line after you fold it. The DP is from DCWV's Nana's Nursery stack for boys. I love the pattern on this paper because it reminds me of the ticking you used to see on mattresses and pillows not that long ago except that ticking was usually cream with black stripes. The photo mats are matching light teal and yellow glitter cardstock from DCWV.  

The ribbons I used are from Michael's. The wider ribbon is a solid light teal satin and the narrower ribbon is yellow with an organza strip between two solid strips of satin. I just layered the yellow on top of the teal.  

This pretty label is from the Spellbinders Fancy Tags Shapeability die set. I inked the edges with a light teal chalk ink.  And of course, the piece de resistance is the greeting, "Welcome Sweet Baby Boy" created using the fabulous JustWordz Everyday Sentiments stamp set, available in the JustWordz online store on Kim's blog.  

Here's a shot of the inside. I layered the light teal glitter cardstock with the DP from Nana's Nursery and some smooth white cardstock from Recollections which I punched on the corners with a Martha Stewart corner punch from one of her cool Punch Around the Page sets. I think I have 4 of those punch sets and I adore all of them! The inside sentiment was created using a stamp from a Cloud9 clear stamp set called "Simple Thoughts - Baby". This set has some really cute sentiments in it.

Now for my second project! Remember a few days ago, I showed you a layout I made for my youngest brother's niece?  Her young daughter, Aliyah, was the subject of the layout. In case you missed it, you can see it here. Well, I made a similar layout for a baby boy. I told you that I might surprise you with another layout very soon! Haha! The subject of this one is my sister's younger son when he was a little over a year old. The pictures were taken in an area park at Easter. This cute little boy is now 21 years old! His mother was the one who died from stage 4 breast cancer in May of 2010. I had promised her that I was going to make a layout for each of her boys and this is the first of the two. I am also planning to make one of the two boys together this same Easter. They were both so dapper in their Easter finery and it's so much fun to look at these pictures again after they have both grown up. The older son was married in May and is an electrical engineer living in Austin, TX. Ready to have a look?

Again, here is the sneak peek you saw yesterday.  

This closeup view shows how I used the JustWordz stamps on my layout. These stamps are so versatile they can be used on any type of project I can think of. I can even see utilizing them to stamp on glass with Stazon ink.  The possibilities are endless, in my opinion.  

Here's a view of the entire layout.  The base of the page is medium blue textured cardstock and the DP is from DCWV's All About Boys stack (the older version). The white cardstock as well as the red I used for the outline, photo mats and border at the bottom are also from Best Occasions.  

The glittered chipboard letters are Me and My Big Ideas AlphaChips. The blue border came in some blog candy I won during a hop a while back. and the puffy stickers I used for my title were from a Momenta set I got from Micheal's called Born To Be Wild Boy. I used some of these in the baby boy mini album too and they are really cute!

I made a hidden journaling tag that looks like a mini file folder and slides behind the largest photo out of the same red and white cardstock. There is room for an additional photo or some other token  as well as the journaling. I also colored some white half pearls from from Recollections with a light red Copic marker to go on the blue border and added 3 buttons in various colors and sizes from my stash and a mini banner ribbon from Imaginisce that also came in some blog candy as additional embellishments.

That's about it for me. But there's one last order of business before I send you on your way. I am giving away a new complete set of JustWordz Everyday Sentiment stamps to one lucky visitor who leaves a comment on my blog during this hop. In a crazy coincidence, Kim drew my name to win her giveaway during our Official Launch and because I already own a set of her wonderful stamps, she said I could pay it forward and give them away during the blog hop. How awesome is THAT??? I will use random.org to select the winner on the 30th and will post the winner here on the 31st. Don't forget to include in your comment a way for me to reach you so I can notify you if you're my lucky winner! I hope you'll decide to follow me but it's not required to win the stamps. Now it's time for you to hop on over to Tammy's blog to see her incredible project. The full hop lineup follows.

Kim (JustWordz) - http://www.justwordz.ca/
Doreen (Especially For You Cards) - http://www.myfirstblog-dora.blogspot.com/
Tara (Homemade Happiness) - http://www.myfirstblog-dora.blogspot.com/
Me - (Anniebee's Craft Room) - http://anniebeescraftroom.blogspot.com/
Tammy (The Purple Muse) - http://www.thepurplemuse.blogspot.com/
Corry (Free 4 Ever) - http://fancyfree4ever.blogspot.com/
Kim (JustWordz) - http://www.justwordz.ca/

I have entered my layout into the following challenge:

Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #2- Banners

I hope you enjoyed my projects and if this is your first time here, I invite you to follow me. I will do my best to ensure that you never regret that decision. Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to return to Kim's blog after you finish hopping to become eligible for her blog candy.

Tomorrow is a brand new Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz so I hope you'll come back and see my project for that too. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Tomorrow is the First Day of the First EVER JustWordz Blog Hop, Just for Babies!

Tomorrow, the Design Team for JustWordz Clear Stamps, of which I am a member, is having it's first ever blog hop, entitled All About Babies!!!  We're very excited to share with you the cool projects we have created to demonstrate the versatility of JustWordz stamps and to inspire you to create beautiful handmade items for yourself, your family and friends.  Here are a couple of sneak peeks of the items I'll have posted on my blog beginning tomorrow.  I hope you'll come back and visit me during the hop and enter to win a set of awesome JustWordz stamps that I'll be giving away to one lucky visitor.  The hop will remain open for 4 days to give everybody a chance to participate.  I'll use Random.org to select the winner and will post it here on Tuesday, August 30th.

  I just love sneak peeks, don't you?  Have a fantastic day and a wonderful weekend!  See you on the hop!

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Fabulous Giveaway at A Thousand Pieces of Paper!

Amy, over at A Thousand Pieces of Paper is giving away just that, 1,000 pieces of paper... and some stamps to go along with them!  Check it out!

This is what 1,000 sheets of 6" x 6" paper looks like!  Holy moley!  Could I have some fun and make some gorgeous cards with that much paper!  Of course I have to enter this giveaway and you can too!  Just click on the picture to be transported to Amy's blog and find out how.  This giveaway will be open until 9/23, so get over there and put your name in the hat before you forget!

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Time for a new Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz!

As happens every Saturday, it's time for a brand new Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz. The theme of this week's challenge is "Banners" so you must use some type of banner somewhere on your project to be eligible to compete for the prizes.

I am not really a scrapbooker as most of my older followers will attest to but I can put a layout together if I have to.  I really wanted to make a wall banner but I would have had to design it from scratch as well as cut all the pieces on the Cricut or Silhouette and then assemble it. So rather than deliberate any longer than necessary, I chose to create a  layout and put a banner of some sort on it. As I started going through my photos and scrapbook papers, I came across a patterned paper by Brenda Walton with cute little dresses on it and I knew immediately what I would do.

Here's my layout. This darling child is the daughter of my youngest brother's niece by marriage and looks very much like her mother did at that age. She is very shy at first but is really quite precocious after she gets to know you well enough to feel comfortable around you.

You might be able to tell that scrapbooking isn't really my "thang" (spoken in my best Southern drawl). as I have probably ignored most of the current design rules.  When I do create a layout, I do what appeals to my own taste and to heck with rules and trends! LOL

Here's a close up of the banner. I cut out all those cute little dresses and used them as the "flags" on my banner. I don't know if you can read it but the banner says "All Girl" and the rest of the title is "All the Time". This little girl doesn't have an ounce of tomboy in her though she knows very well how to torment the boys!
I am pleased with the results even though I didn't even start working on it until a few hours before it was due. It has been a crazy busy week and I am way behind on my sleep and job hunting because I had 3 projects due for 3 separate DT posts within 4 days and 2 of the 3 were stretches for me creatively speaking. I had wanted to make my first real wall banner but I just ran out of time.  It will have to wait for another day.

Here are the tools and supplies I used to make this layout:

Green checked paper and white designer paper with glittered circles and stripes pattern from DCWV's Nana's Nursery Girl stack.
Dresses used for banner - K & Company Best of Brenda Walton stack
Borders - cut from Nana's Nursery Girl paper
Pink photo mats - Recollections smooth cardstock
Martha Stewart's Punch Around the Page set
Medium pink chalk ink pad - Studio G
Pink rhinestone flourishes - Recollections
1" Acrylic circle "my little masterpiece" from Recollections and backed with pink paper.to make it look like one of the colored balls at the girl's feet
Pink felt letters - Thickers
Pink glitter letters - Me and My Big Idea Alpha Chips
Small pink paper roses - Recollections
Clothesline - Black Glaze Gel Pen
Pop Dots

So there you have it!  It may be a while before you'll see another layout from me... and then again, I might surprise you!  You just never know. The Outlawz is getting very close to having 1000 members and when we reach that milestone we will have an online party to celebrate. You won't want to miss it as we'll be having some special activities along with some extra special prizes so stay tuned to get more details as they become available. You must be a member to participate so if you haven't already joined you'll need to do that soon.

I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

Scrappin' Chics August Challenge - Banners

I'm looking forward to the weekend and I hope yours is enjoyable. I have lots of catching up to do on housekeeping chores, job hunting and crafting so I'll still be busy. Hopefully I'll be back with a few new projects to show you next week. Until then...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

It's Friday and That Means a New Project for JustWordz Stamps!

Happy Friday, everybody!  The weeks are just flying by but this stubborn heat wave refuses to budge and it feels like summer will never end!  We finally got about 3/4 of an inch of rain last week but the temperature only dropped for one day and then rebounded back to it's recent "normal" of over 100 degrees!  Tomorrow is supposed to reach 107!!!  My lawn is already dead and my bushes and trees are starting to turn brown too.  I don't know how much more of this I can stand.

Well, at least it's Friday and with that comes a brand new project created with JustWordz' Everyday Sentiments stamps!  My regular followers can attest to the fact that my usual crafting style is not what I call "cutesy" but I'm making an exception this week.  I found this adorable digi stamp a while back and thought it worked very well with the theme Kim gave her design team to work with, which is apologies. I believe this digi stamp was, at one time, a freebie that I downloaded from Pollycraft though I can't find it on their site now.  My thanks to Trina, my teamie at The Outlawz for her keen eye!  It was she that suggested this might be a Pollycraft image.

I was given the words "I Forgive You" to use on my project and these cute love birds say to me, "I forgive you because I love you so much!"  Of course many situations arise throughout our lifetimes that involve forgiving someone who has made an error in judgement and those situations often occur between parent and child, friends, siblings or significant others.  In this case, I was thinking of the last option.  Often the person who did the wrong doesn't do it intentionally but that doesn't change how we, as the ones who have been wronged feel about it, does it?  Yet after we think about it logically, we find it in our hearts to forgive that other person and hope they learned a valuable lesson from the incident.  If they commit the same offense again, THEN we must consider that perhaps their act of wrong-doing wasn't unintentional after all! LOL
In the meantime, though, we forgive them and want to clear the tension hanging in the air so we can move forward.  My card was created with just such an incident in mind.  All too often, I'm the one giving the "I'm sorry" card but occasionally I get to be the one to forgive.

As you can see, when I took the photos, I had not put a sentiment of any kind on the inside.  I haven't decided if I want to do that now or hold off in case I want to change the greeting and use this card for a different purpose.  I don't have a significant other at present and my siblings will never admit to doing anything wrong (hee hee!) so the chances of my needing a forgiveness card are fairly slim.  I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Supplies:

Sentiment stamps - JustWordz Everyday Sentiments
Base card - Red Core'dinations card stock
Mats - White Best Occasions textured cardstock ( cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Lacy Squares large die and colored on the edges with Copic marker R29)
Red polka dotted paper - Stampin' Up! 6" x 6" "In Color" Designer Series stack
DP- K & Company's Best of Brenda Walton stack
Image - "Lovebirds" from Pollycraft colored with Copics
Scalloped fabric trim - purchased from Jo-Ann's by the yard
Red stitched ribbon - Michael's
Martha Stewart corner punch
Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Tags

This is the final week of JustWordz Official Release Celebration so don't forget to leave a comment on this post and also to visit the other design team members (you can find links to their personal blogs in my left sidebar) as well as JustWordz to find out how to get multiple chances to win a set of Everyday Sentiment stamps for your very own!  I hope you have enjoyed our examples as much as we have enjoyed making them.  Next week we're not only going to show you more ways to use these awesome stamps but we're also having our first blog hop!  Yay!  Mark your calendars so you don't forget!  It's going to be lots of fun and there may be a giveaway or two on some of our blogs!  See you then!

Until next time...
Happy crafting!

Anniebee

Challenge #23 at Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Dollar Store Finds and a Digi Stamp

Good morning, Bloggers!

I'm thinking this is going to be a quick post as it's 4:30 AM and I haven't been to bed yet. I'm a night owl by nature but this is even past MY bedtime! Today is Wednesday again and therefore, it's time for another challenge at Amber's Crafts and Stuff. This will be my last project for Amber as she has decided that running a challenge blog is taking too much time away from her family. I'm a little sad about this news because hers was my very first design team and I have enjoyed working with Amber as well as my teamies over the past several months. My initial term would have ended in September anyway so it's really only a couple of challenges early, I guess. I'm still an active member of 2 other design teams, for The Outlawz and JustWords Stamps and I'll have a new project for JustWordz on Friday and one for The Outlawz on Saturday! Whew! Busy week!

Anyway, this week the challenge theme at Amber's is Dollar or Pound Store Finds plus our sponsor, Nikki of  Limited Runs Digis was kind enough to give us a digi to work with that we were supposed to incorporate into our projects. Well, after visiting 2 different dollar stores, I didn't find anything that really excited me and since I was using the digi, whatever I created had to be at least part paper or something that would work with a paper butterfly at least because the design I chose is a wonderful whimsical butterfly. What I ended up doing was buying a real cheap plain white jewelry-type gift box and altering the top of it. I created a pretty water scene by using a paper with a watercolor water pattern on it. This paper had been in my stash for ages so I don't know who made it or if it's even still available but I know I bought it at Jo-Ann's. I covered the lid in this patterned paper and used one of my Martha Stewart border punches to create a border to go around the lid of the box because I had not quite enough to cover the entire lid completely. I also added a strip of lace and ribbon (it came as one piece on a spool, also from Jo-Ann's) and some pearls that I tinted with my Copic marker #BG13 to add just a touch of bling.  I printed the butterfly provided by Limited Runs Digis and colored it with Copics, then put a thin coat of Golden's Pearl Glaze over it and a coat of Diamond Glaze over that.  The result was that it now has the appearance of a piece of Cloisonne jewelry! I love how it turned out. Well, the box was still waaay too bare for my liking so I printed a couple of water lili digis that I aquired from Sweet Coloring Pages in different sizes, colored them up with Copics and coated them with the Diamond Glaze as well. I was almost satisfied but not quite. You see, I'm a "more is more" kinda girl so I just can't leave well enough alone most of the time unless I really try hard. I added 4 corner pieces that came in a package of K & Company 3D chipboard embellishments and a dragonfly, also from K & Company, that I thought went pretty well with the butterfly. I popped all the elements except for the smaller water lily and the corner pieces up on Pop Dots to give it some dimension.  It was really starting to look like something now! I had some mini Scrabble tiles and used them to create a title, or greeting if you prefer, for my project and I was done! Here it is...

I can't say this is my all time favorite project but I think it turned out rather cute!  I hope you like it.  Please feel free to leave a comment if you wish.  I love reading your thoughts, opinions and suggestions.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll see you back here on Friday with another project for JustWordz (unless I can muster the energy and creativity to make something tomorrow).  I hope you all enjoy your Wednesday and the rest of your week.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Another Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz

Good morning, crafty people! It's Saturday again and that means it's time for another new challenge on The Outlawz Paper a la Mode group! This week, the theme is "Anything But a Card".

I find myself apologizing yet again for having been absent this past week but once again it was not something I could control. My sister, Melinda, was hospitalized early Monday morning for a severe kidney infection and we later found out that stones had been the underlying cause of it. I took her to the ER at approximately 5:00 AM and by 3:30 that afternoon, after having received fluids, anitbiotics, morphine and anti-inflamatory drugs, she was taken to surgery to install a stint in the kidney that was blocked by the stone. Well, not long after that, she was moved to ICU because the stint had released all the infection and bacteria into her bloodstream and she developed sepsis! She came very close to crashing and had they not started her on some very strong intravenous antibiotics, she very possible could have gone into septic shock and possibly died. But she started to improve very quickly and by the next afternoon, she was moved back to a regular room and they were able to remov the foley catheter. She was released Wednesday afternoon and will remain on antibiotics and pain meds for the next couple of weeks.  When the infection has cleared up completely, she'll go back in the hospital so they can pulverize the stones in her kidneys using either sonic waves or laser so she can pass them.  She gave us a pretty good scare there for a while and was completely unaware of the severity of her condition until the crisis had passed.

Needless to say, I haven't had any time to craft until now but that's okay because I have been promising to feature a baby mini album and as it just happened to coincide with this week's Paper a la Mode theme, I had already decided to save it until today. I made it out of empty toilet paper rollers because they made the perfect size album to carry in a purse. I created this for a friend of mine in Austin whose baby boy was born in February so the pictures represent his first 6 months. Without further delay, here it is.

The following pictures were taken before I added the ribbons so that the album would lie flat and I could photograph it more easily.

On the back of the first tag, I stamped a journaling spot for the baby's birth statistics.

The letters on the tags spell out the baby's name, Victor.  They call him Vic.

Of course, I had to include a couple of pictures of the proud parents! 

I used a piece of blue ric rac to create waves for the little sailboat to float upon.  

He's a very photogenic little guy!  I asked my friend to send me a lot of digital photos so I could choose the ones I wanted to use and also so she wouldn't know what it would look like before she receives it.

I used a few stamps to add sentiments and extra design elements and I used a C3 Copic marker to create permanent shadows on the letters.

I left one side of some of the tags blank so she can write on them or add more pictures.

I lined each flattened tube with paper as well as covering the outside to help the tags slide in and out easily.  All of the papers are from called Pressed Petals that I got from Big Lots a about a year ago but I think they were actually manufactured by DCWV.  The colors and patterns are very pretty and coordinate very well together.  The tags are made from pre-cut bookmarks cut down to fit into the flattened tube pages.  I covered front and back with the same papers.  The photo mats are cut from various solid color cardstock and the die cuts and word art are from various baby themed adhesive-backed embellishment packets purchased from Michael's and Jo-Ann's. I used larger eyelets in the holes I punched in the binding edges of the pages to prevent tearing and two yellow binder rings to bind them together.  The last step was to tie the short pieces of color coordinated ribbon onto the rings.

I am entering this mini in the following challenges:

Pretty Little Ribbons - Use pretty ribbon on your project

Thanks so much for stopping by today and thanks for your patience as I work through all these recent delays.  Like they say, life sometimes gets in the way of our crafting fun!  I hope you enjoyed this little presentation and that you'll consider trying one of these cute paper roller minis for yourself.  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

It's Time for a New Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz!

Happy Saturday, everybody!  You know what Saturday means.... a new Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz.  It was my turn to post this week's theme and the Design Team samples and I'm pleased to say that I actually did it all by myself and it actually WORKED!  I didn't have a single problem, even though it was my first time to do it.  Our theme this week is "Shimmer and Shine".  I found it humorous that we had the very same theme this past Wednesday at Amber's Crafts and Stuff so I got to create 2 projects and bling the heck out of them! LOL

For my sample, I created a birthday card with a pretty Pierrot Clown on it.  I love black and white so that's what I used for my color scheme but I added gold to it to add to the bling.  I'm going to cut straight to the chase this time (gasp!) and show you my project.  This card is 6" x 6".

You may have to click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see the bling on this one.  On the right side of the card face are 2 flourishes in smokey gray crystals.  It's rather subtle but very sparkly!

Here's a shot of the inside of the card.  I have decided that I really love finishing the insides of my cards and that's what I did with this one.  I hope you like it.

Here's the recipe:

• Image - Phee McFaddell; colored with Copics and gold gel pen
• Flat black cardstock - Recollections
• Gold and black metallic cardstock - American Crafts foil specialty papers
• DP - K & Company's Black and Ivory 8"x8" stack
• Ribbon - Michaels
• Crystal flourishes - Say It With Crystals
• Greeting stamp - Fiskars Cameo Ovations clear stamp set
• Inside Sentiment Stamp - Inkadinkadoo
• White puffy flourishes - Me and My Big Ideas
• Jotting spots - note pad purchased at Jo-Ann's
• Metallic gold gel pen

That about sums it up for this week.  The Outlaws is nearing 1000 followers and we're planning a celebration for that occasion.  If you're not a member, you might want to consider joining soon.  It's an awesome challenge blog and the prizes are better than most of the other challenge blogs offer.  Also, I have never met a nicer bunch of people than the ones I have met there.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my project I hope to see you at The Outlawz soon.  Until then...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee