Basketball Mini Scrapbook.

Here’s a project I worked on recently as a gift to my husband.  He plays in a nostalgia basketball tournament every year for his old high school and has been doing it for many years (he’s the oldest on the team!).  You have to have graduated at least 15 years ago to be allowed to play.  Anyway, he says every year he’s gonna “retire” and he hasn’t yet in the 10 years I’ve been watching, but back in 2003 he had the game of his life and I documented it in this little handmade scrapbook for him.   I used Uline chipboard covered with patterned paper for the covers, plain old cardstock pages covered with basketball patterned papers and bound it all together with my trusty Bind-It-All thingie.  I used things in this book that I’ve been saving for YEARS to make him a basketball book.  This game was in 2003, if that tells you anything! 

(that basketball hoop is actually a button!  I cut the shank off the back of it & glued it on.)

I covered the inside covers with the tournament program (above).

I started off the first page (above) with a little commentary announcer style about how the game went for my husband.  It was definitely the most exciting game of his that I’ve watched in the 10 years we’ve been together.

Page 2 (above) and page 3 (below)

page 2-3 as you’d see them with the book open (below)

page 4 (above) and page 5 (below)

and as you’d see page 4-5 with the book open looking at it (below)

(my favorite part where the score keeper guy stood up and did the “we’re not worthy” bow to my hubby out on the court.  So funny!)

Page 6 (above) and page 7 (below)

and page 6-7 together when you’re looking at the open book (below)

Page 8 (above) when the game ended and people were coming out to shake hubby’s hand and page 9 (below) when he let our 3-year-old daughter come out on the court and “play.”

and page 8-9 together when you have the book open (below)

last page of my girl dribbling.  I look back at this and can’t believe she’s NINE now!  ha ha

(Yeah, I’ve probably had the little girl diecut from My Minds Eye for at least 5 years!!)

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You’re HOW old ?!?!

Here’s a cute card I made to put in my etsy shop.  I used Die Cuts With a View cardstock to make the card, with a white cardstock base from American Crafts.  Those numbers are from a sheet of monograms from Basic Grey.  I have had that ribbon for so long I have no idea where it came from!

So what do you think?

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Teacher Card.

Looking for a cute teacher card?  I showed the teacher lunch box I made yesterday and here’s a card to match it that I’ll be putting in my etsy shop for sale.  I used the same cute sparkly apple paper that I used on the lunch box and matted that onto yellow cardstock and then onto the card I made from a rust-colored red cardstock.  The A+ is a chipboard piece from a Fancy Pants (I think) “kit” that is school themed (bunch of chipboard pieces and an accordian album).  I inked it with orange and then used Stickles on it.  I like how this turned out!

Here’s a closer look…

* if you missed the teacher lunch box I showed on the blog yesterday, you can see it here.

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New Handmade Teacher Gift (Lunch Box)

I made a new teacher’s gift altered lunch box for my etsy shop the other day.  This one I will personalize with your particular teacher’s name.  The name is cut out on my Pazzles machine from textured white cardstock.  I used this cool chalkboard paper so that it looks like the teacher just wrote her name on the chalkboard!  Fill it up with school supplies or cookies and send it as a first day of school present to the teacher.

Here’s the other side of the lunchbox, using sparkly apple patterned paper and a square cardstock apple diecut in the middle that I raised up 3-D with pop dots.

See how some of the apples are sparkly? 

Here’s the handle with bunches of ribbon tied to it.

This is what the edges look like all around the lid and the bottom portion, lined with apple printed ribbon.  It’s so cute!

I will mention here because it’s going into the shop for sale that there are a few tiny flaws in the lunchbox that were there when I bought it.  These probably get bumped around in the craft store a lot and one side has a tiny dent with a tiny scratch and then the other side has a longer scratch.  Of course, I didn’t notice them when I bought the box.  And I figure it’s okay because the box is so cutely decorated no one will notice the flaws anyway!  And let’s face it, if a kid takes this to school for a teacher gift it’s gonna get bumped around (or dropped!) before they ever arrive in the classroom so I don’t think we need to worry about it!  haha

dent

scratch

Anyone out there looking for a cute teacher gift?  You can find this for sale in my etsy shop here.

*edited to add*  I also made a card that matches the lunch box and you can find that on my blog here.

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More engagement photos.

And now for sepia tones.  I found that with these photos I didn’t so much like the black and white action, but a few of them if I changed it to sepia I kind of liked them. 

You may not be able to see it very well, but I used what’s called “fancy focus” on the next photo.  It kind of soft blurred everything except the 2 people.  Can you tell?

Then I did focal black and white on it and made the photo black and white except for a circular area containing the 2 people.  I’m still trying to decide if I actually like this or not.  haha

and then I turned on the sepia tones.

And then check it out in sepia tones below.

and the same one softened up a bit below…

And now let’s see this one in sepia (below)

Let’s see that same photo in sepia (below).

I messed around with the focusing on this one and did the “fancy focus” again where the people should be the only really clear things in the photo below.

and then adjusted again so that the people are the only “colored” things in the photo below.

That’s it for this “first” shoot.  We actually ended up going out “on location” to a county park and doing a second shoot.  I will show those another day. 

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Engagement Photo Shoot.

Hubby’s granddaughter asked me to do her engagement photos, so hubby and I tag-teamed and had a great photo shoot at 2 different locations.  (We’ll also be doing the wedding–so exciting for me!).  Here are their top favorites…….and there are so many that I will make another blog post with more later.

Are they too cute or what?

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She is a gift.

I tried out for the Bo Bunny design team and had to make several projects using mostly their products.  This was one of them.  A photo shoot I did in the front yard with Summer in her tap dance costume.  These were two of my favorite photos from that day. 

(click to see photo larger)

This is an example of how you don’t really have to use something for it’s original intended purpose.  That paper up there from Bo Bunny is actually from the Christmas line (called Believe), but I knew my photos had a red costume in them and I liked the floral and swirlie design going on so I decided to use it even though my photos are NOT Christmas. 

(and this is so very true)

(also true)

This is a Fancy Pants clear glitter frame overlay that is supposed to go over your photo (and it’s a Christmas theme also), but I actually cut it in half and put it under my photos, and used half on each page.

Pretty Prima flowers from CHA Anaheim in January (my buddy sent them to me)

These little chipboard birdies are one of my favorite things lately.  Wish I had a bunch of them to use on different stuff.  They’re from a Creating Keepsakes kit of the month from 2008 (got it for a steal at CKC in St. Louis back in April). 

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I Love Ewe. And Ewe. And you. And ewe.

I’m not sure what happened in the scanner, but the little sentiment on the right doesn’t show up very well in the photo.  It says “Love Ewe.”  Isn’t that the cutest thing ever?  This was made with a stamp set from Unity Stamp Company.

Here’s a closeup of mama and baby.

Here’s a better look at the upper left top corner where I applied Stickles for a bit of sparkle.

You can also find this for sale in my etsy shop.

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My Summer Rose.

These are two of my most favorite photo ever from a ballet photo shoot we did in the front yard after recital in 2008.  (I showed more photos here)  I got around to putting these on a scrapbook page one evening after working my butt off at the St. Louis Creating Keepsakes Convention back in April.   My new friend Steph goes back to the hotel and just scrapbooks right on the bed so I did too and then she was nice enough to give me some papers and other stuff since I hadn’t brought anything.  I also hadn’t brought any photos, but I knew I had these at home that I loved so I worked on the page pretending in my mind that these photos were there in front of me too.  haha

This was when my love of Stickles began I think. I went crazy using them to outline all the flowers on these pages and I really like how it turned out.

(click above photo to see it larger)

The journaling (cause there has to be journaling!) is tucked away under the photo on the left side.  See the tab sticking out with the date? (cause there has to be a date!)

I love how this little cardstock title block already said SUMMER (my daughter’s name) so I just added my words around it.  Love it!  It’s from My Minds Eye “dazzling” line.

The little chipboard bird above and the pretty chipboard flower below are from a past Creating Keepsakes kit of the month that I got at the Creating Keepsakes Convention for free because I worked in the bookstore and earned a voucher (which I then spent in the bookstore!)  This kit is from August 2008 I think and it is fabulous.  I love it.  As you can see, I immediately took it back to the hotel and used pieces from it to make these pages.

(Fancy Pants straight pins and American Crafts ribbons) Pardon the glare.

The above word PLAY was also in the Creating Keepsakes kit I got and I inked it up with red Staz-On ink and then put Stickles on it too.

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Me And My Sister

Here’s a new double scrapbook page I worked on recently. 

I love this cute little owl tag from the etsy shop deejan. 

Normally for outlining a certain part of a photo (like that sweet face) I would use Heidi Swapp bling circles (LOVE these) but I’m totally out of those (and so bummed about it) so I used mini sparkly brads instead.  Gotta work with whatcha got…

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