Valentine's....it's the Love holiday right?  So naturally it's my holiday, right? Annette Love---the Love holiday, you get it.  I try to be creative each year and come up with something new.  So here is the 2017 creative offering - a fabulous coffee themed gift card holder:

These are really a cute gift card holder for anyone, but especially great if you need to make many of them for say teachers or co-workers because they are easy to assemble.  I gathered together all my supplies and got to work.

I found the coffee mug gift card holder die cut blanks at one of the scrapbook shows. I didn't have enough in the right colors so I just traced them onto some pink and red card stock and cut them out. I added some embellishments that I punched out of different sized hearts in a foiled Valentine's print.

You want to be careful when you fold the die cut in half and glue it shut to create the pocket for the gift card.  I slid the card inside where I wanted it to be so I could measure where I wanted to glue the coffee mug die cut on the three sides to make it the perfect sized pocket..

I added a cut little tag with a stamped image and sentiment that followed my Valentine coffee theme.

And then tied on the tag with a heart printed ribbon.  Thanks a latte for checking out my blog!

Special 95th Birthday Card

 

My grandmother is celebrating her 95th birthday soon so I thought that such an occasion requires a special card.  I picked up some supplies at one of my favorite scrapbook stores on the planet at The Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie.  I mixed together Kaiser Craft papers, Maya Road floral embellishments, Heartfelt Creations die cut, Swarovski crystals, Heidi Swapp numbers, and jillibean stamps. I had to make a coordinating envelope as well. I think it turned out as fabulous as she is.

Baby Boy Elephant Page

A friend's shower was coming up and what would I do for a gift?   I always like to give something personal and special whenever possible. Something for the nursery would be perfect for this second baby boy.  Matching the nursery theme, colors, and of course the new baby's name I created this sweet page to put into a frame and hang on the wall.

I started with supplies already in my stash from several different places.

I laid out the basic form of the page and places for photos as soon as the bundle of joy arrives.

Then I went to work on the details.  I love to add dimension on pages in a shadow box frame so I made a multi-layer of the sweet elephant stamp.  I just stamped several copies and fussy cut them all out.   Then I added form pop-ups in between to give the elephant some great dimension.

Made a custom handmade banner with his name by cutting out strips and using a square punch to make the banner points on the bottom.

 

The final product turned out cute as a bug and perfect for the nursery.

 

I hope this inspires you to craft something special!

I have some very exciting news to share with all of you.   I jumped off the deep end, with both feet, and opened an Etsy shop. 

You can find the shop at LoveThatStore


In the shop I will have beautiful hand-made one of a kind scrapbooks and paper art items along with fabulous scrapbook supplies that I discover along the way in my travels in search of everything scrapbook!  Because, if I kept all of the treasures I find my family would have to move out of the house because it would take over every possible inch of space space.

I hope that you will take a look around in the store and of course purchase the things that inspire you!

Happy Shopping and scrapping!

Sweet Baby Boy Card

Sweet Baby Boy Card

Today I am bringing you a great "Baby Boy" card project using some of my favorite things.  One of my favorite product lines for card blanks is The Paper Cut.  Below you will see a die cut swing card that comes in a package of assorted colors and the coordinating die cuts that fit the "swing" also in assorted colors

Their products make creating beautiful cards a snap because so much of the work is already done for you.  Here is a look at the assortment they come in:

I chose a beautiful blue card base - for a baby boy of course.

 And then the die cut swing items in an apple green which is one of my favorite combos. You can barely tell from the pic but each sheet is die cut with three graduated sizes of the swing shape - just perfect for layering.

I dug into my stash and found a Baby Boy page kit from Colorbok that worked perfect with my color choices for this project.  There are no rules that say you have to use a page kit to make pages so dig into that stash and look at what you already have that could be used in other ways.

So now it's time to get to the good parts of putting the card together.   I layered the die cuts in the two colors and used a dimensional sticker from the page kit for the front of the card.

I decided that I wanted to cover the blank parts of the card with some of the designer paper from the page kit so I traced the swing shape onto the paper and cut out pieces to fit the blank parts of the card.

Now it's time for the best part of adding all the bling.   These stickers and die cuts also came from that page kit.

I took one more of the diecuts form The Paper Cut pack and turned it horizontal for layering under the greeting inside the card.

And of course when I work so hard on a card, I want to make sure that the envelope completely coordinates so I whipped out the envelope board and made an envelope that matched perfectly.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog and have fun creating something beautiful from paper!

Happy Friday everyone!   I wanted to share with you a project I took to work on at the SISS retreat weekend.  It is a fun little 8 X 8 "brag" book that I am putting together of a 4th of July vacation trip we took to New Orleans last year.  This two page spread was done with a product line from Kiwi Lane that I rely on all the time when I am designing pages.

The Kiwi Lane layout templates help you visualize a page before you cut any very special paper and they help me so much with putting a page together.  I always of course start with the pictures because they "talk" to me and tell me what color scheme, etc they will go best with.

Then I get out the Kiwi Lane templates and start layering and laying out the design for the page.  Kiwi does carry their templates in different sizes but I have only invested in 12" since that is what I do most.  I think the 12" works just fine on an 8" page - you just have to adjust a little bit off the page.  I used a double set of borders and layered them.  Then on the left page a couple of tags and a "badge" form under the cathedral cut out.  On the right side there is a layered star and cute arrow.

When you get everything in place, it's just a matter of tracing out the shape on paper, cutting it out, and gluing it down.  Here are the basic pieces replaced with paper and the photos matted.

I also inked around the edges of all the pieces in a coordinating blue ink to make them pop.

Now it's time for the details.  Some pop dots to make a couple of the pieces really stand out, some Wink of Stella for bling, stickers, and naturally a title.

Kiwi lane templates can help you really put together a page fast!

I wanted to share with you some of the fabulous haul that I got last weekend at the Keller's creations SISS retreat in Grapevine and the Heirloom Pro show also in Grapevine.  I will share many of the new products and techniques with you soon.  Well ok as soon as I get all of this stuff unpacked and organized!  LOL  The picture above is some of my very favorite Keller's Creations products and some new ones I can't wait to try out.  Circles, Circles, Circles - the thing that attracted me to Keller's in the get go.  I bought lots of colors and prints to coordinate and can't wait to put them to work.  Got some great page kits and their new scrap it fast kits which are AMAZING! You will see them in action soon on one of those cute chipboard albums you see as well.

Keller's page kits and ring quotes.  See where some of those rings will be going soon????

The cutest line of Christmas paper and embellishments - I couldn't resist...

And I think that Kim designed this line just for me since my football playing son's school colors are red, black, and white - GO Panthers!

Fabulous quickly made card class from Catherine Smith with Close to my Heart.  Had great fun getting introduced to lots of their products over the weekend!

An awesome door prize from Carta Bella - a very favorite paper line of mine.

And last but certainly not least.  I discovered a scrapbook manufacturer that I have never seen before at the Heirloom show in a booth from Just Crop called Kaisercraft.  They are from Australia and their products are just yummy.  Can't wait to play with some of these Valentine stamps and papers.  So happy that they will be at the Plano Stamp Scrap Art Show this weekend.  I know, I know more shows?  When will I ever have time to crop?  Check them out at www.ssatshows.com . It just seems there is a whirlwind of shows here in the DFW Metroplex early in the year all getting their latest and greatest out there in the market for the new year.  Being the professional shopper I am - I am happy to go check it all out for you and report back here  :)   Happy Scrapping!