Brotherly Love

Do you ever feel intimidated to even try a new crafty endeavour?  That's how I feel about scrapbooking.  The funny thing is I started out a scrapbooker.  But I set out to do just as my husband suggested and pick out one off our favorite pictures to scrapbook.  That's all the inspiration I needed.
I used an image from A Child's Year but it wasn't right because I had two boys.

Before

So I did what I learned how to do from you lovely ladies in the Cricut board - I altered it. :)

After

 I noticed that the girl image had rounded edges and I just used regular crafting scissors to remove the rounded edges and the flair on the bottom of her shirt.  I lopped off her hair and Voila! Two boys!  I also removed the duck because it just didn't go with the the page.  

One of the most difficult things for me is lining up the letters - even in cardmaking.  So now I use a level with a laser.  I forget which blog I got the idea from but it is great!  I tried to take pictures of it but they are not so great.  I would love to hear how others make sure their letters are straight.  How you keep your letters from being crooked?

Do you see the red line?  That's the laser!

I turned off my Ott light so you can see it better... Oh well, I tried :)

 Lastly, I added some old fashion looking alphabet cards from October Afternoon to complete the page. 

Happy Birthday, Cowboy!

I was inspired to use Vintage Papers Patterns and Colors Cardtridge for the Cricut Imagine by a post by Michele Kovak. She did a great, masculine layout using this cartridge. I never thought of that cartridge as "masculine" but when I saw her post... Well, let's just say all of a sudden I had to have Vinatge Papers. :D

The perfect opportunity to use the cart came around for my husband's birthday.

I Used:
- Old West Cricut Cartridge - icon feature + 9
- Elegant Edges - book feature + branch
- Letter Envy - crest feature + V
- Mystical Garden - used to flood the Elegant Edges image
- Vintage Papers - used to flood the bull skull and the rectangle with rounded edges
- Tim Holtz Textured Fades - Bricked & Woodgrain Set
- Tattered Angels - Glimmer Glaze - used on the bull skull
- Gold and tan paper from my stash - the gold paper is actually a deeper color than what shows in the picture
- Pop Dots

The Glimmer Glaze gives the paper a slight sheen.

I gotta kick out of this quote:

There's two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither one works.

~ Will Rogers

I wonder if it's a lesson my husband will ever learn...  Nah!  Then arguing wouldn't be any fun! :D lol



Thinking of You

I got this beautiful set of stamps by Crafty Secrets called Sweet Kids about a month and a half ago after seeing this card by Heather.  I actually used that image for a birthday card for my mom.  But, I love the image of this little boy, too.  He kind of reminds me of my son with his mop of dark hair and full face.  I decided to make a "Thinking of You" card for one of my sisters.  I also decided to experiments with color by using the striped paper in the background.

I Used:
- Sweet Kids stamp set by Crafty Secrets - boy image and sentiment - the company has great vintage images!!!!
- Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge - rectangular scalloped frame and shadow
- Road Trip Paper (the colorful striped paper) - Papertrey Ink (PTI)
- Old World Paperstack (light blue paper) - Die Cuts with a View
- Antique Linen Distress Ink Pad - Tim Holz
- Copics and Color Pencils

Here are some close-ups:

Isn't he sweet?  :)

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.  ~Isadora James