Yuko's circle journal

I got my first circle journal in the mail yesterday. This one belongs to Yuko Yamamura, and she would like her book to showcase everyone's favorite techniques.

I was so excited to get it in the mail that I went right to work on it and finished up my layout last night. My favorite current technique is Faux Stitching. For my layout I used the Unfroggetable set to create a focal image that I faux stitched around.

Then on the right hand side, I gave the rundown on faux stitching, titled the page, and the faux stitched around the whole page. Even added a little stitched corner. I like it...hope Yuko does!

Circle Journal

I joined a circle journal swap on SCS a month or so ago. If you don't know what a circle journal is, you're in for a treat. A circle journal is a group of stampers (10 in this group) who all create a little book with a theme. You create your book, and do the fist layout yourself. Then you send the book on to the next person in the group. They complete a layout according to your book's theme and send it on to the next person.

Our group is 10 people and we are keeping each book for a month. We decided if we get them done earlier we may change the timeline in a month or so. As it stands now, we will each complete a layout in each of the 10 books, and then in 10 months we will get our finished book back. Sounds fun huh?

My book is going in the mail tomorrow. Before it heads out on it's long journey, I thought I would give you a peek. We each used the 5x5 book art book from Stampin' Up. I am not finished with the cover, I decided to finish it after I get it back in 10 months. I figure it has more chance of being messed up by the mail if the cover was all done up. But, on the other hand, I couldn't send it off to 9 other people's houses "naked" so I covered it with some designer paper and sanded the edges.

For the inside, I added a divider page for each of the 10 people's section. To create the dividers, I cute 5x5 pieces of cardstock, stamped them, and punched them with the spiral punch from the Spring mini. Then I cut a piece of designer paper to 5"x2", scored it down the middle, punched it with the spiral punch, and adhered it to the edge of the cardstock. I had to do it this way because the punch couldn't quite punch through the cardstock and 2 layers of designer paper. It lined up really easily though, and turned out pretty nice.


To finish them off, I punched the coordinating paper with the round tab punch, mounted it on matching cardstock and punched it out again. This gave me a cute and sturdy tab. I mounted these on the edges of the cardstock pages, lining them up along the sides so that they overlapped a bit and made their way down the side of the book. Five tabs fit down the side, so I ended up with 2 strips of 5 tabs down the side of my book.

I really like how it is turning out. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of my layout before I put it in the mail. It's journey starts tomorrow, with a trip to the beautiful state of Washington. I am extremely jealous!

I promised...

To post some Stampin' Up stuff, and here it is! Tomorrow my lovely group of stamp ladies meet, and these are the two projects that we will be stamping. I try to use the same colors and stamp sets for all of the projects that we do on one day. I think that it helps to show the versatility of your "stuff". For these projects, we will be using Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, and Chocolate Chip cardstock, ink, and ribbon. The stamp set is Natural Beauty, one of my absolute favorites (and it's retiring *insert sad face*), Crosshatch BG (also retiring), and the Rough Texture jumbo wheel.

This 8 1/2x11 scrapbook page is the first project we will be doing. The background is wheeled with the Rough Texture wheel. Then both pieces of cardstock were stamped with the leaf from the Natural Beauty stamp set. I punched the edges of the picture mounting piece with the Ticket corner punch. I tied a couple of pieces of ribbon around the strip along the left side, and then stamped the title in Whisper White craft ink with the Whimsical Lower alpha (also retiring, and I am truly traumatized by this!)

This card is the second project we will be making. The card features the Pearl Ex Floored technique. The card bg is stamped with the Crosshatch BG, and then a piece of white grosgrain is tied around the card. The flower was stamped on Whisper White cardstock with black Stazon and then colored in with a Certainly Celery marker and the blue/green duo pearl ex and my aqua painter. I then direct to papered the white edges, punched all the corners with the ticket corner punch, and mounted this over the ribbon onto the card base. To finish up the card, I used the round tab punch and punched out a tab from some Cool Caribbean cardstock, and used a Taken with Teal marker and my stampamajig to stamp the sentiment onto the tab. (the sentiment is one of the tiny words on the word block in the Natural Beauty stamp set). I mounted this on the edge of the image square, and that was it!

My SU! stamps are still complaining of A*Muse favoritism, but at least they got a little workout tonight, lol.

Stamp Club Projects

My stamp club met this past Saturday, so I thought I'd share the projects we made with you. We made both projects using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons. These are really a product that you have to play with to love. Not everyone fell in love this Saturday, but hopefully they all enjoyed their "first date".

The first project was a 6x6 scrapbook page that featured the Doodle This stamp set and the slit punch. I love love love both of these, and even though my 3 year old slit punch passed away during the class (totally embarrassing), everyone loved it too.

The second project we made was a card that could be used for Mother's Day. This card featured the Petal Prints stamp set and the horizontal slot punch (which I also very much enjoy, hehe). I really think that the Petal Prints set is one of the best sets to showcase the Watercolor Wonder Crayons. It has a beautiful watercolor look to it, and paired with the crayons, it is just stunning.

Second progressive scrapbook page

For the swap I joined on SCS. These are going out in the mail tomorrow, hehe!

Anyhow, I really like this page, I think that it is a little hard to create a two page layout, both using the progressive page, but individually I really like them both

The colors used on this page are Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue, Barely Banana, and So Saffron. I also used some Sarah designer papers and hodgepodge hardware. The title was stamped with my new BIG DEAL alphabet on Whisper White.

That's it...nice and easy. Don't forget to scroll down and check out the new prima share!

Pretty petals for my pretty boy...

I had a job to do...create a 12x12 layout for my stamp club that showcased the great SU! special this month, and do it using up some of the millions of photos I have left over from the "pre-digital era."


This is the results. This layout was created by using everything from the Spring mini special from SU! and the new "Doodle Alphabet." I actually really like how it turned out and am pretty impressed with my mish mosh pages. I titled it
My dilemma...what to do with all of these pictures

Pretty funny huh? Well hopefully I will have some new goodies for you tomorrow!

(URGH! These photos loaded all wonky huh? Oh well, I'll try and fix them in the morning.)

The 12x12 page...

Is finally finished. This step was actually really easy. All I did was adhere the 8 1/2 x 11 page to a 12x12 piece of Certainly Celery cardstock.

Next I cut two 3x3 squares of Barely Banana cardstock and stamped them with the Canvas BG. I punched the corners with the Ticket Corner punch and then mounted them on the page. To finish it off I took a small piece of French Blue grosgrain, tied it in a bow and adhered it between the two squares. So, what do you think? I like it...

Progressive scrapbook page grows...

to 8 1/2 x 11 today....I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The main sheet is Brocade Blue. I took the Brocade Blue ink pad and sponged the edges a bit. Then I added a piece of the Sarah designer series paper, which is the same paper that I used on the photo corners. Then I mounted yesterday's 6x6 page on top.


It still felt like it needed something, so I punched out a couple of circles from a sheet of Certainly Celery cardstock, folded them in half and adhered them on the bottom edge of the page. I took my 1/8th inch punch and punched a hole in the center of each. To finish them up, I tied a small piece of white wide organdy and french blue grosgrain through each circle.

Hopefully I will get this finished up into the 12x12 tomorrow and have the 6 of them finished by Monday.

Progressive scrapbook page swap...

Now, I'm not one normally who signs up for swaps. I just don't ever seem to have the time for them so I stick to just the mini catalog swaps that my upline Jan hosts. Anyhow because of this, I have basically zero Stampin' Up scrapbook samples. I have a couple of hostess clubs going whose members are real scrappers, so I decided I better get some samples... I found a swap that is being hosted on the demo only side of splitcoaststampers, so I decided to join. The swap is pretty easy...all you need is six 12x12 progressive scrapbook pages.

A progressive scrapbook page is one that starts out as a 6x6 page, is then turned into a 8 1/2x11 page and finally into a 12x12 page. This is a really nice way to teach scrapbooking to newbies who are easily overwhelmed.

So...here is the first part of my swap, the 6x6 portion. Hopefully tomorrow I will get it turned into at least the 8 1/2x11 page and possibly complete it, so don't forget to check back.

The 6x6 piece is Barely Banana cardstock that I stamped with the Canvas background stamp. Then I took a strip of Certainly Celery cardstock and stamped it with the Crosshatch background stamp. Around this I tied some pieces of French Blue grosgrain and white wide organdy ribbon, tying them through a piece of antique brass Hodgepodge Hardware.

Next I adhered this onto the page base, and then went to work on the finishing touches. The two right corners are embellished with some photo corners that I made out of a scrap of Sarah designer series paper. Then I added an antique brass brad to each. To finish off the page I decided it needed a photo mat, so I took a 4 1/2 inch square piece of Brocade Blue cardstock and stamped it with the Paisley Print background stamp. (Can you tell I love bg stamps??? lol) I then punched the corners of it with my Ticket Corner punch and adhered it onto the center of the page. Below is a picture of the page without the photo of my adorable Jaden-baby so that you can see what it looks like empty. (You can also tell I forgot my OTT light with this photo, lol)


I really like this method to scrapbooking, and am really looking forward to finishing up these swaps. Check back tomorrow for the finished piece!