Photo Cards

Everyone loves to receive a handmade greeting card! Anything handmade adds that personal touch to gift giving. A great way to make your greeting cards even more special is to add photos to them. Many people do this at Christmas time, but why not do it all year long!

Here is a card I made today for my cousin to give my his mom (aka-my aunt) for her birthday. I was privileged that he asked me to make this for him...he's not exactly the scrapbooking kind of guy...if you know what I mean. But that just goes to show that everyone appreciates handmade cards. He wanted this one a little goofy, but that just makes it even more special because it matches his personality. I can't wait for his mom to receive it!



To make this card, I first cut my cardstock to size. I folded it in half and ran it through my printer to get the "From Your Favorite Son" title on the card. I then cut my patterned paper and red cardstock to the size I wanted. I used a rubber stamp for the "Happy Birthday" sentiment and matted it on another piece of cardstock. I stapled a couple of cute ribbon on the side for some extra flair. To print the photos, I opened a new document in Photoshop Elements and opened all my photos. I sized them to fit the blank document and dragged them onto the blank canvas. I moved them around until I liked how they were positioned and printed them out all on one paper. No cropping required and easy as pie :)

So next time you need to send a card, think about what would add that personal touch everyone loves so much. Then go find your favorite photo and add it to your next card!

Graduation Cards

Can you believe it is already time for school to be out for summer!!! And you know what that means...graduations. This year, I have several graduations to attend. My nephew and cousin both graduate as well as several family friends. As always, I am making cards to give everyone. I love to make custom cards for each individual, but when I have so many to make, I like to mass produce them to save time. I set up an assembly line and get crafting!

Here are the cards I've made for the graduates this year:

I did do some customizing by making the cards match the graduate's school colors. My home town colors are red and black...as you can see on the card. I stuck with a very basic format and wrote each one a special message on the inside.

Do you have lots of graduations coming up this year? How about weddings, shower invitations, birthdays, or anniversaries? You can make an assembly line for all of these cards. Start out by cutting all your card bases. Next, cut all patterned paper and cardstock mats. Keeping everything the same size makes it much easier to mass produce. Set out all embellishments and put together ones that require assembly (brads in center of flowers, stamping sentiments, etc.). You last step is to start adhering everything to the card base. It really is easy to make handmade cards for the special people in your life...and they will appreciate it SO much :)

Mother's Day-Just Around the Corner!!

I just made the cutest word album and wanted to show everyone :) Just in time for Mother's Day!!!! I also made a matching card to go with it. I took all of the guess work out of Mother's Day this year :) Just write Mom and simple little note telling her how much you love her and you're set!







I just love these word and name albums!! They work for EVERY occasion! I have made so many of these lately...and all for different occasions. They are so versatile! Off to do more scrapping now :)

Journaling-Using Poems and Quotes

Journaling can be one of the hardest things about scrapbooking. Sometimes you just don't know what to say. Sometimes you can't remember exactly what happened. Sometimes the photo is not from a specific event that you have details for. What ever it is that is making it hard to journal about your photos, you can easily solve this problem :)

Poems and quotes are a great way to get your feelings down on the page. Sometimes someone else can say it better than you...so let them. Anytime I am stumped for words, I look to these for help.

Here is an example of a page using a poem:

This is a page I made for a friend. I left a blank space for her to add her own words, but if she chose to add an embellishment to the white box instead, she would still have words to go with her page that match her feelings.

And here is a page I made using a quote as my journaling:

The quote reads "Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." This is a picture of my mom, grandma, and myself out to lunch. Not a big deal, but this is a picture I will cherish forever. I could not have put better words to this photo than the quote does :)

So next time you are in need of some journaling help...look to poems and quotes. There are so many choices out there that you will never be at a loss for journaling again. Here is a great place to get you started on your search: http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/peasoup.asp You can look up poems and quotes by theme and even add your own.

Here's to Happy Scrapping :) Edi

Hybrid Scrapping

By most definitions I am a traditional scrapper with paper, scissors, and adhesive. But there are times when I like to try a little digi scrapping. I am venturing more and more into the hybrid style of scrapping. I could never go totally digi, but there are so many advantages to using your computer to scrapbook.

I was lucky enough to win Jessica Sprague's new book, Computer Tips for Scrapbooking 2 from her blog. Check it out here: http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/ She has a great newsletter you can sign up for called Photoshop Friday which gives great tips for digi stuff and sometimes even freebies :) I just loved her first bookand I can't wait to dive into this one! She gives such detailed instructions with photos for almost every step.

I have learned to do so many cool things with my computer that adds to my traditional scrapping. I edit photos all the time to fit the design of my page. I print odd sizes that I wouldn't be able to have printed at a lab. I do almost all of my journaling on the computer. I print tons of paper from digi kits. The thing I love about digi papers is that you never run out. If you need another sheet, you just print one :)

Here is an example of a layout I did using a few digi techniques. The black paper I made myself using Adobe Photoshop Elements. I colored the background black and added white text to it. The words are song titles by Big and Rich and Gretchen Wilson...what better way to get custom paper! I printed the title using my computer and added brads around it. I also printed the silver paper from a digi kit. And of course my journaling is computer generated :) Lots of digi techniques here, but still a traditional page in the end. That's what hybrid is all about...the best of both worlds!

If you ever get a chance you should try hybrid scrapping. There are so many free kits on the Internet that you can play around with to get you started. But be warned...freebie kits can be addicting...you may need an extra hard drive just to store you digi kits!!! I might know someone this happened to :)

Vegas Baby!!!

I just got back from Vegas and loved every minute of it! My boyfriend and I went for my birthday, which was on Monday. Happy Birthday to ME!!! The big 2-5. Okay, not that big of a deal, but I'm the kind of person who makes a big deal out of every birthday. It's my special day, right :)

We walked up and down the strip going in and out of every hotel and casino we found. It was so fun to see everything. I think my favorite was the Mirage. The tigers and dolphins were so neat and the pool area was to die for...wish we would have stayed there!

It was sunny and in the 80s the entire time we were there!!! And the palm trees were just gorgeous!

We found this awesome bar that had 2 for 1 drinks and free beer pong. We didn't partake in the pong, but enjoyed watching everyone else play. We went back there twice and had a blast both times. The bartenders were such fun and everyone just had such a good time in there. If you are ever in Vegas...check out the Rockhouse Bar...and have a beer for me :) Check out the cool mohawk on this guy!

And of course, I had to have my picture taken with Elvis!!! It wouldn't be Vegas without him :)

I hope I get to go back again soon. We were only there for three days and they just flew by. I wanted so badly to see downtown, but that will have to wait until next time.

I have over 200 photos to go through now and get in my scrapbook. I even found this awesome Vegas scrapbook out there...just had to have it :) Can't wait to get working on it!!

FEATURE: StormyDesigns

As a member of the EtsyBloggers Street Team, I am going to start featuring one of our members each month as part of our team event. This is our first feature, and I would like to introduce a great member who has done a lot for the team. Stormy is a very active member of the team and is co-organizer of the Blog Carnival. I have chosen four of my favorite items from her Etsy shop:




You can see these items for sale in her shop: http://stormydesigns.etsy.com/
Also check out her blog: http://stormydesigns.blogspot.com/
and her website: http://stormydesigns.biz/

There are so many wonderful items to choose from, but my favorites are the jewelry...and at such great prices :) I hope you will give Stormy a look and let me know what you think!