Time to Switch It Up a Little!

If you're looking for the Kenny K blog candy post, click here.

Happy Monday, all! Are you getting back into your normal routines now that the holidays have come and gone for another year? I decided it was time to mix it up a bit and so today, I'm going to talk about a scrapbook layout I made for my beautiful granddaughter for Christmas. It's been quite a while since I posted one and even though I love scrapbooking, I don't get the chance to do it as often as I'd like. I had one heck of a time finding a photo of her that I really, really loved and that I thought she would love too. Most of the recent ones taken of her were taken with a cell phone camera and the quality just wasn't good enough for my purposes. Well, I found this one and with only minor manipulations in my photo editing program, I was able to get it just the way I wanted it.

The next thing was to find the right colors to set off the picture.  I really thought she was a "summer" person but much to my surprise, I discovered she's a "spring"! I had some beautiful papers from their Julie Je T'aime collection left from my guest designer spot with Quick Quotes last year that looked perfect with her coloring. I added to that a scrap of some DCWV Lemon Flower paper and distressed with Quick Quotes Powderpuff chalk inks in matching hues and aside from flowers and other embellishments, I was there.

I admit to being slightly biased but this young woman is very striking with her long, silky blonde hair, blue, blue eyes and 5' 9" frame. I call her my sweet Amazon princess! I'm not sure she sees the humor in that as she ususally rolls her eyes in typical teenage fashion but she's never asked me to stop. LOL!

I used a variety of embellishments from several companies such as Wild Orchid Crafts, K & Company, Prima and Jolee's. If you click on one of the pictures, you can better see the rose I made in the bottom right corner. It's the one that is pale aqua on the outside and yellow with a little blush on the inside, just above and to the left of the lilac and yellow smaller roses. I had been saving that rose for well over a year and finally found the perfect place for it. The rest of the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The title was taken from the little bumblebees I used on the layout. You can see one perched on top of the second "e" and 2 more flying around the photo. There is a tag with a special message from me hidden behind the photo. The yellow ribbon tab with the flower attached (on the left side) is used to pull the tag out. This is a good way to add journaling to your layout that you don't necessarily want everyone to read.  I just created the secret compartment by popping the photo up on foam tape but you could also make a sort of envelope to hold your tag and attach it directly to the back of the photo before you mount it on the layout.

After I was completely happy with the way it looked, I framed the layout so that my granddaughter could hang it on the wall in her bedroom. Her parents are having all the flooring redone in their house so it hasn't been hung up yet, I'm sure, but I had been promising her that I would do a layout just for her and I finally kept that promise. I hope she likes it and can feel the love with which it was created. She is and will likely remain my only granddaughter so she is a very special person to me.

I am entering this layout in the following challenges:
Pause Dream Enjoy - #1 Use Ribbon
Artistic Impressions - #22 Add a Bit of Sparkle
The Crafty Bloggers Network - #7 Flowers

Created With Love - CWLC 23 Anything But A Card 
Creative Creations #1 Anything Goes
Make It Monday - #122 Anything Goes (Linky Party)
My Grafico - #143 Anything Goes
Sarah Hamer Designs - Link Up Tuesday (Linky Party)

I made another layout for my son and daughter-in-law that I will share with you another time. This is it for today. May your week be productive (and short!) and I hope you find some time to be creative. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Go, Team!!!

Good evening, crafty friends!  Today I have a layout I created using Wow! Embossing Powders. I have been promising my sweet grandson that I would do a layout using some of his football photos and I did exactly that for this project.  I usually prefer making more feminine pieces but I have so many men in my life that I find myself doing almost as many masculine or androgynous pieces as I do feminine ones. 

My grandson has been playing league football for a couple of years now and I have decided it would be a cute idea to make a layout for each year that he plays.  Now watch... he'll decide he doesn't want to play anymore! LOL!  These photos are actually from this past season but I have some really cute ones from his first year as well so look for another football layout in the future! You can see the detail a little better in the next two photos, especially if you click on them to enlarge them.

Most scrappers don't think of using embossing powders in the creation of their layouts but let me tell ya, you really should give them a try.  I used only the basic Opaque Bright White and Primary Ebony on this one (their team colors were black, red and white) but I could have used Cable Car Red and Metallic Silver just as easily. The parts I embossed are the black sideline stripes, the jersey number and year and the chipboard letters for the title. I embossed the numbers on both sides of the playing field in Opaque Bright White onto red cardstock, then outlined the shapes in with a black fine point Copic Multiliner.  

For all of you sports moms and grandmoms, scrapping those sports pictures is lots of fun and very rewarding as the kiddos seem to really enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy making the layouts.  I'm waiting for my son to send me some photos from this boy's martial arts classes so I can do a layout with them too.  I really need to make two of each one of these pages; one to frame for his room and the other for me to keep!  If you haven't done so yet, you should visit the Wow! Embossing Powders Blog for tons of inspiration from my talented design teammates.  


I'll be posting another card this coming weekend and a couple more projects, at least, next week.  I wish you all a very happy Easter or Passover and hope you'll visit me again soon.  Until then....


Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Beautiful Emerald Isle - a WOW Design Team Project

Hello friends!  I hope you're all doing well and that Springtime is quickly approaching wherever you are.  Again, it's been a little while since I posted something new on my blog.  I have been missing my crafting but the past 3 weeks have been very busy and very hectic at work and I have been putting in 10 hour days on a regular basis.  By the time I get home in the evening and feed the critters and myself and relax a few minutes, it's half past dark and not long before bedtime.  Hopefully things will smooth out a bit and with Daylight Savings Time starting this weekend, I'll be able to get more done in a day.

For my group feature on the WOW! Embossing Powder blog, I created a birthday gift for my co-worker, Emily, who traveled to Ireland with her sister a few years back. She had never done anything with her photos from that trip so she gave me some of them to use on my project for WOW! We were challenged by our team leader to create something to coincide with the theme of St. Patrick's Day, luck, or green.  My particular assignment was a layout using green with flowers and/or shamrocks. My co-workers enjoy seeing the things I make for my design teams and as gifts for family and friends and in passing, I divulged to Emily that I didn't have any really good photos to use for this project. That's when she told me I could use some of the ones she took in Ireland.  I jumped at the chance, not only because they were perfect for my assignment but also because her birthday is next month and I had already promised to make her something special for her special day.

Here it is!! I love how it turned out... and so did Emily! I just couldn't wait a whole month to give it to her! LOL!

The cardstock I used as the backdrop is from one of DCWV's newer stacks called Modern Bouquet. It's branded as Recollections and is available at Michael's. The background was all a creamy white with the green epoxy design over it. I used a grass green pigment ink pad to color the page from the outside edge of the circle and left the inner circle white. I intentionally swirled the ink pad in small circular movements to give the color a sort of marbled look.  

I think I may have mentioned before how much I like the look of corrugated cardboard with one of the outer paper sides stripped away.  Well, I took a 12" long strip of it and embossed it with WOW! Embossing powders in Rich Pale Gold and Tea Garden Green, which is an emerald shade of green with a translucent quality. I found the beautiful green shamrock doily you see in the upper left quadrant at Michael's as well and thought it would be perfect for this layout.

I started with a strip of Terrifically Tacky Tape 1/4" wide and about 11" long and adhered it to a strip of scrap cardstock to stabililize it while I was working. I adhered my ribbon to the strip, pleating it as I went. Then I attached the ribbon strip to the cardboard strip with Beacon 3-in-1 Glue and adhered the strip to the layout below where I wanted the photos to be. I embossed the outer edges of the photo mats that I cut from DCWV Shimmer cardstock with Tea Garden Green and mounted the photos on them using my ATG. I attached double-sided foam tape in varying thicknesses on the backs of the photos and arranged them in a waterfall pattern across the middle section of the layout.

Next, the flowers, which I embossed with Rich Pale Gold and Tea Garden Green WOW powders and highlighted by brushing on some diamond Stickles, and the felt shamrocks were arranged around the page and set in place using Beacon 3-in-1.  The title was created from dimensional alphabet stickers purchased from Michael's and the little purple butterflies were made using a Martha Stewart punch and the wings were embossed with Rich Pale Gold and a little stripe of purple Stickles was added for the thorax.  

Finally, the little layered journaling tag was attached in the lower left-hand corner and the small shamrock was added as the finishing touch.  I really like the tone-on-tone effect created by using the different shades of green and just the small pop of contrasting color created by the butterflies.  I'm quite envious that Emily got to visit the "Beautiful Emerald Isle" as my ancestors came from that region and it has been a life-long dream to travel there.  After seeing her pictures, it's definitely on my bucket list now!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this layout.  Please join me again on the 21st when I'll be posting another project for WOW!  They are the best embossing powders I have ever used and are so much fun I just want to put them on everything!  Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

Blog Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #13

My First Joy's Life Design Team Project!

Hi, everybody!  Well, the day has finally arrived for me to post my first design team project for Joy's Life!  Yay!  I have been anxiously awaiting this time and I can't wait to see what my teammates have created.  The theme for the new challenge is "Stamps".  We were asked to use a photograph of some sort and to use at least one of the Joy's Life stamps to convey what the picture is about.

I chose to make an 8 1/2" scrapbook page about my grandmother who passed away before I was born.  From the things my mother told me about her and from the photographs I have of her, I can tell that she was a character!  The photo I used in my layout shows her with some of her female friends, all dressed in turn of the century bathing suits at some sort of swimming hole, as we call them down here in Texas.  Anyway, I think the picture says it all...

My grandmother is the one on the far right in the foreground, in case you were wondering!  Isn't this an adorable bunch of "ladies"?  I really wish she had lived long enough for me to know her as I feel somehow as though I have missed out on an important part of my family's history.  Eventually, I want to make an entire scrapbook devoted to my mother's side of the family.  I have lots of old pictures like this of them and I would like to leave it as part of my legacy for my son and his family.  I just won't be able to do a lot of journaling because I don't know that much about some of them and my mother has now gone to be with them in heaven.  

This stamp is from the Joy's Life Wild Life Puns Stamp set, which you can purchase on her website.  If you have never used Joy's stamps before, they are awesome!  She has a brand new limited edition stamp set to be released soon too!  It is available for pre-order now so you should definitely check it out!  I can't wait to get my hands on them to use on my Christmas projects.  I have already started making some of my Christmas cards but I always have some last minute ones that I make for neighbors and co-workers.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing this little scrapbook page as much as I enjoyed putting it together.  The dp is from DCWV's All Dressed Up stack and K & Company's Black and Ivory collection.  Black, red and white cardstock is from DCWV and Recollections.  The black glittered fourishes and the sequined butterfly is from my stash as are the leafy vine die cut and the rhinestone jewels in the upper right corner.

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to visit Joy's Design Team blog to see what my mega-talened teammates have created to inspire you.  If you have time, I encourage you to visit their personal blogs as well.  I'm sure you won't regret it.  I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

TBD

That's it for today.  I hope your week has been blessed so far and that you'll visit my blog again very soon.
Until then...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Thursday and a new Scrapbook layout

Good evening, everyone! It's Thursday and I have for you today a new scrapbook layout that I made for Quick Quotes' Friday Challenge #7. Lately, I have really started enjoying creating pretty layouts and I have Quick Quotes to thank for that. Before I discovered their challenges, I made a page once in every great while but now I am wanting to make them all the time. I have so many ideas and not enough time to make them all.

As many of you know, I have been laid off for almost 15 months now but that has ended, at least temporarily, as of today.  I started working contract and today was my first day.  Working as a contractor, the position pays less than half what I was making prior to being laid off... that and having less time to craft are the down side!  The upside is that I have my foot in the door and the company I am working for is eventually going to hire two people to do what another contract employee and I are doing now so if I perform up to their expectations and keep my nose clean, I have a chance of getting hired into this position permanently and that would mean about another $5.00 an hour.  Still not close to what I was making but it's far better than unemployment and there are benefits!  Yay! And to make it even more attractive, it's not that far from where I live and the dress code is "comfortable"!!  How awesome is THAT??? LOL  And get this!  The other person working with me has a masters degree and she has been unable to find a decent job too!  So it's not just me as I was beginning to think.

Okay, now on to today's project.  This little scrapbook page is a rather loose interpretation of the sketch provided by Quick Quotes Blog for their challenge.  As I said, I had lots of pretty cool ideas for this sketch but I decided to make a layout featuring two of my nephews; brothers who are the sons of my younger sister who passed away in May of 2010 from breast cancer.  I have had these adorable pictures since they were little boys.  The older boy is now an electrical engineer and was married last May and the younger one is about 3 years out of high school, is engaged and is working full time.  It just astounds me that all my siblings' children are grown now.  It sure makes me feel old!  Anyway, I'll show you the sketch first and then my layout.

Here's the sketch.  Pretty cool, right?

Okay, now here's my layout.  Like I said, it's a loose interpretation but I hope it works well enough.

Actually, other than the location of the journaling, it's pretty accurate.

Weren't they adorable little guys?  They're still pretty cute and they're definitely sweet but nothing close to what they were then.  Anyway, that's it.  I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it.  I'll be posting several new cards starting tomorrow night.  One will be for my guest design team feature on Color Me Creative Classroom Challenge and 4 plus a gift bag for CDAC's Progressive Freebie Challenge.

I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #7 - sketch

Before I go, I'd like to mention that Joy's Life's new design team posted their first projects on Wednesday so stop by the brand new Joy's Life Design Team Blog to see their beautiful creations and enter to win some awesome prizes.  As I mentioned before, we are divided into 2 groups and next week will be my team's turn to post.  I got a quick look at their projects today and let me tell you that Team 1 did an awesome job!  Check 'em out and visit their personal blogs if you have a few minutes.

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck on this job thing.  I sure could use a break!  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

New Scrapbook Layout for Quick Quotes Friday Challenge

Wow! Three posts in one day again... this seems to be becoming a regular thing for me, doesn't it? LOL  Well, I didn't HAVE to post this one today but I wanted to go ahead and enter it in the Quick Quotes Friday Challenge so I needed to post it here first.  As mentioned in one of my earlier posts for today, this layout is much more whimsical than the last one I made.  It may not do as well in the challenges because of that but I really like it and I think the young mother in the photograph will love it too.  She is niece by marriage to my baby brother and that's her adorable daughter in the picture with her.  She is due in a few weeks with her second child so I'll have a whole new wealth of pictures to use in my layouts.

I need to do some pages for my grandkids if I can get some good pictures of them.  My grandson is no problem and I have a few page-worthy photos of him already but my granddaughter is at that age where she hates for people to take pictures of her, even though she takes them all the time with the camera on her cell phone!  Unfortunately those are not the best for scrapping! I'm hoping if she sees some of my pages, she'll decide it's okay to let mom and dad take a few shots for me.  We'll see...

But now, for the one I just finished.  I did this one all in pink, black and white and used some of my handmade paper roses as well as some Petaloo Mulberry flowers to embellish the page.  I think it looks really sweet and girly and both of these young ladies are the epitome of girly!!  I'm not sure it's obvious in the photo but the little girl is wearing a pale pink ballet leotard and tutu. I created another layout a while back featuring this little cutie pie which you can see here if you're interested.

The next couple of pictures are close up views of the roses I made using black and white designer paper that I colored with Copics.  The actual shade of pink is a bit more vibrant than it appears here.  The petals are dusted with very fine iridescent glitter and are very sparkly.  That detail is also lost in the photos. The black organza bow shows up best in the next shot.

 

I had a bit of trouble photographing this one for some reason.  The lovely pink of the designer paper looked washed out in the upper right quadrant and I had to adjust the lighting a couple of times to get it to look right.  These are the best shots I could get.  It's extremely windy outside so it was impossible to take the pictures out there.  Thanks for visiting my blog today and if this is your second or even third time here, I REALLY appreciate your patience and perseverance!

I have more things in store for you over the coming days so I hope to "see" you again very soon.  Until then....

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

A Quick Post for Quick Quotes Challenge

Hi, everybody!

I am a big fan of Quick Quotes and not very long ago, I won a pack of their awesome scrapbook papers called "French Quarter". The pages in this collection are basically black and cream with a vintage feel to them AND it's double sided! Yay! I have been wanting to create a couple of layouts with it but just have not had time until today! Quick Quotes does a monthly challenge and the theme for the current challenge (it ends today so I'm getting this posted just under the wire) is to use a single photo on your layout or card instead of multiples. Well, guess what?! That's right, I finally got it done!

The photo I used is a black and white print of my niece, Kirsten. She's my go-to girl when I need a photo to use on a quick layout project. She's very photogenic and is sweet too. Plus, I have dozens of pictures of her already! Even though you can't tell it here, she has auburn hair.  One of my new favorite color palettes is cream, black and yellow so that's the one I used for this layout except that I added bits of orange too.

So, what do you think? Personally, I love it! All of the embellishments are from my stash and most of them are from blog candy winnings. Have I mentioned lately that I love blog hops and giveaways? After having been laid off for over 12 months now, the little bits and pieces I receive in my winnings go long way in keeping me crafting without having to spend any money and I am ever so grateful for my loot.

In addition to the Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #5, I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

Lasting Memories Challenge #60 - Add dimension
Totally Gorjuss #102 - Bingo (flowers, swirls and bling)
If the Shoe Fits, Scrap It! #93 - Girls/Women
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday - Fancy Trims
Frosted Designs Sketch #26 - Sketch is shown below

That's all for today. Please visit me tomorrow for another new card and Friday for my final JustWordz Design Team project. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Thursday and a Scrapbook Page

Happy Thursday, all!  I can't believe it's Thursday already!  I have been busy this week working on projects for the 1,000 Member Party at The Outlawz which will begin at 12:01 A.M. this coming Sunday.  I have mentioned the party a few times already but I have to do it again because we are just so excited about it!  I think I told you already that we're hosting a special challenge each day of the week and members will have the entire week to post their entries for any or all of them.  We're also having a blog hop with prizes at each stop.  Each challenge design team will have a stop with the projects created by all its members on the one blog.  There will be links to the individual blogs from there too in case you want to see more photos or detailed information about a particular project.  There will be games like Bingo, Name That Tune and scavenger hunts too.  Basically, there will be something that we hope every member will enjoy participating in and the only catch is that you have to register to become a member.  Believe me, the prizes are awesome!!!  Our sponsors have been super generous and just as an example, Oozak and SDACD have donated $100 gift certificates!  How unbelievable is THAT???  And that's just the beginning!  We have Copic and Prismacolor classes, rubber and digi stamps, tons of other gift certificates to Ippity, Whimsey and Paper Temptress among others.  I think I have submitted 4 projects for the party so far and I've had fun making each one.  I hope that if you're a member of The Outlawz, you'll look me up and if you're not, you'll consider becoming one.  It really is the best challenge site on the web, in my opinion.

Now on to my project for today.  I have tons of photos of my lovely niece, Kirsten, and I love making scrapbook pages with them.  She is super photogenic and besides being beautiful, she is also a sweetheart.  I originally started this page as a project for the party I was just going on about but it didn't come together in time so I finished it yesterday after I completed my project for JustWordz that will post tomorrow.  So here is the newest page I made for her.  By the time I get all of my photos of her scrapped, I'll have a full scrapbook for her!  LOL!  I need to make pages for my grandkids and my other nieces and nephews if they'll ever send me their photos.

Isn't she a cutie pie?  It's difficult for me to realize that she is 19 years old!  It doesn't seem that long ago that she was an adorable little toddler.

 The next photo shows some of he detail close up.I don't know if you can tell but I added some highlights in gold ink to the letters and to the flower.  The lacy borders are from a Sizzix die and the leaves on the flower are drawn and hand cut and then colored with Copics and hightlighted in gold.

  

Another close-up.

I have to give credit to another of my nieces for the beautiful photography.  My brother's daughter, Lyncca, is a professional photographer and she took most of the pictures I am using on my pages of KC.

Layout is 12" x 12".  All of the papers are from DCWV.  Cardstock is by Core'dinations and Recollections.  The chipboard letters, heart and flower came in a big bundle of several colors from the Paper Studio that I got from Hobby Lobby.  Drop by tomorrow to see the first card I have made using my Silhouette since I discovered Copics!  And don't forget about the big celebration starting Sunday night at The Outlawz.  We sure would love for you to come join in the merrymaking as we celebrate our 1,000th member.  Until then...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Saturday Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz!

Good morning, my crafty friends! It has been a busy week and I'm glad the weekend is here at last. You'd think since I'm not going to work at a full time job every day, that I'd have plenty of time to get everything done, right? WRONG! I seem to work harder and get farther behind on my chores since I have been off. It amazes me too, believe me! I get more crafty things done than I used to though so I guess it's more a matter of priorities! LOL!

Since it's Saturday, it's time for a new Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz! Woo hoo! As we're sliding into the last 4 months of the year and all the fun and exciting holidays are before us, our challenge themes are really starting to be fun. I was getting pretty tired of summertime themes, especially with the horrible heat wave we were under for 4 months, so I'm happy that the weather is finally turning cooler, even if we still aren't getting much rain. Anyway, this week our team leader, Rona, came up with a sketch for us to follow for our inspirational projects. I don't know why I don't use sketches more often because I really enjoy them and they cut out some of the work in creating a layout, at least for me. So here's the sketch we used.

Pretty cool, huh? I wasn't sure how my own layout would look but after I got it finished, I just loved it! I followed the sketch pretty strictly really, but not 100%. See what you think.

This beautiful young woman is my niece, Kirsten, who we call K.C. She was the subject of my very first scrapbook layout almost a year ago. She is so photogenic that it's a dream working with pictures of her. I'm planning to make another layout of her for the 1,000 Member Party that starts next week at The Outlawz.  Oh, have you not yet heard about our party? Ohhhh, well.... we're having a week long celebration because we are nearing 1,000 members and we'll be hosting special challenges, a blog hop, games and there will be lots of fabulous prizes, of course! We will be giving away 2; that's right... TWO $100 gift certificates among other things! If you're not a member, you might want to consider joining the best challenge site on the web by October 2nd so you can join the party and play along with us. Also, if you're interested in sponsoring one of the challenges or games, please contact me here on my blog. Sorry, I digress, but I'm so excited for this celebration that I can hardly stand it! I'll have a minimun of 3 projects posted during that week and I hope you'll come back for a visit between 10/2 and 10/8 to see what I have made for this special occasion.  I'll also have a couple more cards posted here tomorrow for the Progressive Freebies Challenge at CDAC.

I hope you liked my layout and I hope I inspired you to try using sketches in your own crafting occasionally.  If you have never tried it, you should at least do that much. Until next time, my friends, 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