January Birthdays... another year begins ;)

What better way to begin the year than with a family full of Birthdays! I have some close family/friends that mostly have birthdays in January (with the exception of one household member who just had his in December.)
I decided I should go ahead and start making cards, that way MAYBE I can get them in the mail on time for their actual birthdays.

I have some acrylic card basis just hanging about in my stash so I pulled out a scalloped card base and what was left of my October kit from Scrapbook Circle. That 3x4 sheet from Cut and Paste has that lovely polka dot background, then I pulled a mini muffin wrapper out of the kitchen cabinet, used my FAVORITE Thickers from Maggie Holmes and that cute hb2u sentiment I've been seeing around. I finished up with a sticker from Pink Paislee and some sequins.

I was afraid you wouldn't be able to see the scallopped base, but you can :).

I think it turned out adorable... now I need two more card ideas!

Do You Realize?

I seriously love the Glitter Girl Video Series over at the TwoPeas youtube channel!
This week's episode #96, had a challenge that included using a sketch for a layout. I thought this sketch would be perfect for a layout about my going to see Flaming Lips this year with a friend of mine at the Merriweather Pavillion. All things I had never done before:
Gone to MD for a concert.
Gone to Merriweather Pavillion.
Seen the Flaming Lips live.

So much fun...

Here is the LO:

I combined Cut and Paste by Amy Tan with some Wild and Free by Glitz Design and Recorded by Allison Kreft, my fav new thing which is Glitter Tape by American Crafts and some REALLY OLD THICKERS that I am so excited to use. Some various sequins and Art Anthology Mists and boom, I'm done :). I did use a photo collage rather than two 4x6 photos as shown in the sketch and I did turn the sketch on it's side but I love all the movement and color, it really brings to mind everything that was happening on stage in the concert!

Thanks so much and I can't wait for you to see the projects I have in mind for this week. 

Simple Card with a Standout Sentiment

I was so inspired by Lawnscaping Challenge #69 that I made yet another card that could have fit this category. It was too late to enter, but I still wanted to share:

I guess you can tell I was in a hurry to take this pic as well....

I don't know what it is about working the closing shift that makes me so much more tired than opening, anyway it's Saturday and it is a working Saturday for me, I have a layout in a partially put together from a sketch stage staring at me on the table and I know I'll finish it over this weekend and this card here has inspired some more that are just bubbling away inside my head so I'm going to be very crafty on my days off I feel. 

Hope you have a wonderful day!

I didn't know then (another page of "hard stuff")

I had some hard (and when I say hard I mean I had some emotional stuff that was trying to claw it's way out of my insides and I had to let it out so the words on the page may be hard to understand, unpleasant to read, etc...) stuff to scrap and I had been wanting some new papers and stuff to get my creative juices flowing. I found this kit club through google by just plugging in scrapbook kit clubs... it's Scrapbook Circle. The October Kit is called So Happy Together and it is just yummy! I was so excited to make something with this kit that I printed and scrapped a photo that I took in 2011 about a month before my late husband (God rest his soul) took his life. It's not as chunky and embellished as I normally do, but the soft color of the paper just lent itself to getting my emotional baggage out. It's weird. I can think and decide how I feel but unless I actually do something that counts as releasing (apparently that's actually scrapping or blogging in my therapy blog) it just sits and festers. I love that I got the emotions out. That I was able to release them. I do love that picture and I'm glad it now has a home in my scrapbook.