Rescued Layout with Special Care - SOTM Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to another fabulous (I'm sure) stamp of the month blog hop! If you've arrived here from Sheila Bennett's blog, or if you are just starting out, you are in the right place. When you're done here, we'll head over to Wendy Coffman's Stamping Rules blog. And if you get lost anywhere along the way, just check this list for the next stop! Our stamp set this month is Special Care, a set of  6 large stamps with all sorts of applications - even one for mailing special packages, lol.

I have a bit of a sad story to go along with my post today.  At some point, one of my kids took a drink into the family room and set it on the sofa table. The same table where most of our scrapbooks live on the lower shelf.  I think we all know what happened next, but unfortunately, I did not know about it for quite some time.  By the time I discovered what had happened, I had about half a dozen layouts with mold growing on them. I know, big frowny face, right?  This is one of the examples right here:

This was a 2-page layout and the other page was not affected. But, since I no longer have anything remotely resembling the paper, stickers, etc., I recreated the whole thing.  Since the pictures were all fine, I just removed them from this layout to use them in the new one. The only thing I was really sad about was all the time it took me to create the background pattern on 2 pages - those "bubbles" are Mrs. Grossman's vellum stickers, you guys! (I know, I am totally dating myself...) BUT, enough crying over spilled whatever.

Here is the long-awaited NEW take on these pictures:

Just click to make it bigger!

Well, my style hasn't changed much has it? I totally "cheat" with sketches All. The. Time. now! This one is from Make It from Your Heart volume 2, and I just switched it up a bit for my pictures. There is no current paper line that matched all of the colors I wanted, so I really mixed things up.

• The tone-on-tone background is from the former Dream Pop promotion (I do have a couple of these packs left if you're interested, or Lagoon CS would be close.)
• The yellow pattern is from Babycakes
• The pinkish-purple pattern is from Laughing Lola
• And the darker blue is Pacifica CS

Now, some details for you:

 This grouping uses the stamp of the month, Small Sparkles Flourishes, the Babycakes Assortment, a Blue Epoxy Bubble, button from my stash, Baker's Twine Paradise Assortment, and Party Washi Tape. I cut out the stamped image and popped it up using foam tape.

This grouping uses all of the same items listed above, with a different image from the stamp of the month. (I can totally see stamping this on some of my mail!) This image, and 2 others, coordinate with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge for a little time savings.

More of the same embellishments for the title area.  I cut the title using a phrase from the Create A Critter Cricut cartridge.

So, that's all for today. I'd love for you to leave me a comment, then let's hop on over to Wendy's Stamping Rules blog and see what she created to inspire us this month!

Punny Father's Day Card

As usual, I am working last-minute on things, and this is quick enough for you to copy like right now, lol.  My kids all learned to fish with my dad, so I made this 5x7 card for him for Father's Day.

My "water" was made using white core cardstock in Lagoon from Close To My Heart.  I used coordinating ink on the edges and swiped across the CS.  Then I embossed it using the Retro Circles embossing folder from Sizzix/Tim Holtz, and sanded the raised areas to show the white core.  I love the effect this has!  I cut the fish from scraps using the Create A Critter cartridge for the Cricut, and adhered it to the front using an Action Wobble.  (I know, you can't see it, but it looks really cute in person.)

I added a punny little sentiment on the inside:

 

This sentiment could be altered for a cute birthday card as well, especially for those fun Summer birthday parties involving pools or water.  I wrote the sentiment with a free font called Angelina and my Make The Cut software, using a black marker and my *die cutting machine.  I love how I can tell MTC exactly where to place the sentiment and just stick my card blank to the cutting mat, no worries.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I love my visitors and your comments; and you can always let me know if you need more info on a product or technique I used.

*MTC is no longer able to be sold to work with a Cricut machine, but there are several other die cutting machines on the market that DO work with the software.  I suggest visiting the MTC forums if you want to find out more about these machines.

Party Time!

Just a quick post today - I wanted to share my 10yo daughter's birthday invitations. She's just inviting a few friends, so we opted to make them. She wanted monkeys, and chose the Create-a-Critter version.  I set everything up in the Gypsy so that I could cut many of the pieces at once using  strips of cardstock.  I did the monkeys and vines on one mat, then the phrase and inside items on  the second.

Simple this time (no inking - shock!) since Sarah did much of the assembly.

The bananas inside were Sarah's idea.

The inside of the  invites were stamped with Chocolate brown ink and the Party Pennants stamp set from Close To My Heart.  I'm really glad there were only a few of these to fill out - there was WAY too much writing!