Love, Cherish and Adore

Hi Friends,

Happy National Scrapbook Day!  I hope my scrappy friends are working their paper magic today.  I'm dropping by to share my latest layout of my endearing grandparents John and Vesta Jones.  Last summer I was able to visit my dad and he wanted me to have this lovely picture of them.  Although they didn't live nearby, my parents took me to see them several times when I was a little and the one thing I remember so clearly about them is how sweet they were on one another.  I think this photo captures their love for each other perfectly! 

Their sweet smiles ooze happiness to me and I can imagine grandma leaning her head back oh so slightly for a little cuddle against grandpa's shoulder.  They are so sweet together, I wanted their photo to take center stage on this vintage inspired layout.  To do that, I kept the design fairly simple but played up a few simple techniques to create loads of great dimension.   

I started by cutting a this lovely photo frame and shadow from my Cricut using the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  I placed it center stage and layered it up with cardboard so I would have plenty of room to tuck goodies here and there to give the layout a sense of  balance.  Then I sewed around the bottom layer using black to give it a subtle pop of contrast:  

I used the same layering technique to lift the double punched corners, printed flowers and balloon.  This simple step adds so much depth to your layout, I just love the added dimension.  

To increase the vintage appeal I tucked some beautiful cream colored Venice lace just along the bottom of the frame.  This also helped to soften the bold color of the coral hand rolled tattered roses.  See how nicely the added dimension lets you layer in the flowers and leaves tucked here and their around the ornate frame. 

I finished off the layout by adding my chipboard titles "Love, Cherish & Adore."  I finished them with Pearl Drops in Avocado color and added a layer of glossy accents to give them some shine.   And finely I added stickles to the leaves (using eucalyptus), flower centers and rolled rose edges (using fruit punch), and white roses (using diamond) for some pretty sparkle. 

Well friends that's it for me today.  I want to thank you for dropping by and I hope you take the time to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day by creating something from your heart!  Hugs ~ Dawna

Romantic Parisian Inspired Envelope Mini Album

Morning Friends,

Today I'm sharing this pretty vintage style envelope mini album I created for my dear friend Susie (aka Scrap Smart) in a swap being hosted by Ilovepapillons at sb.com.  Susie loves all things vintage and feminine so I decided to use a mix of two of my favorite paper collections (Prima's Romance Novel and Marion Smith's Garment District) to make her this romantic vintage style, Parisian inspired envelope mini album.  

Side view of envelopes and cards assembled

The album cover measures 8x6 with a 3 inch spine.  The envelope pages were created using 6 each standard A7 black envelopes.   And the photo wallets with photo waterfalls were created from the A7 cards.  Once assembled there is enough room for 54 matted photos, and 23 journaling tags.  That's plenty of room for Susie to document whatever her heart desires!  

Finished Envelope Pages with File Folder Photo Wallet Cards

To create the envelope pages, the envelope flaps were sealed closed first.  Then all four sides were trimmed down by 1/8." The front and back of the envelopes were covered with distressed paper leaving a 1/4" frame.  Then I closed up the top and bottom of each envelope by scoring a 3" wide strip cardstock in half, punching it with a Martha Stewart daisy edge punch.  I burnished the fold then sandwiched the open envelope ends back together by gluing the daisy strips to the outside of the envelopes to close them back up.  This allowed the photo wallets to fit snugly into their envelopes without any slop.  The punched  bottom boarders double as stops for the journaling tags and the decorated burlap belly bands hold the tags safely in place.   Finely, the remaining open envelope bottoms were secured with score tape over the spines hidden hinge binding system.    The only opening left is the outside for holding the photo card wallets in place. 

  Envelope Pages Sandwiched Back Together with Daisy Punch Strips

The photo wallets were created from the A7 cards.  I used the We Are Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board tool to create two sets of three staggered file folder tabs for words.  I left the left side of the cards straight so they fit flat and evenly inside their envelopes against the hidden hinge. 

Outside File Folders with Word Tabs

Inside File Folders with 3 Tier Photo Waterfalls

Photo Card Wallet out of its Envelope

I covered the left inside of the cards, front and back outsides with distressed paper leaving a 1/4" frame (see above).  The right inside of the photo card wallet features the 3 tier photo waterfall (also, see above). 

File Folder Tabs Facing Spine

When the cards are in their envelopes, the tabs face towards the spine (see above) to prevent the tabs from getting tattered by the elastic loop closure or by repeated use (see below).  

Elastic Loop Closure

Now that you have a good idea of how the album was created, lets look through its lovely pages:

Page 1 Folded Out

Page 2 Folded Out

Page 3 Folded Out

Page 4 Folded Out

Page 5 Folded Out

Page 6 Folded Out

Inside of the Back Cover

The inside back cover has a large deep pocket which has been popped up with foam tape to create enough depth to hide the metal tip of the elastic closure loop.  The outside of the back cover is sweet and simple:

Back Cover

Now lets have a closer look at the front cover:

Front Cover

The front cover features a sweet picture of Susie and her dear husband in the foreground of the Eiffel Tower.  The wooden frame and chipboard corners were embossed with gold to go with the gold lace covering the album spine.  A pretty crystal knob and elastic loop act as a closure to keep everything nice and neat,    The cover was embellished by layering a vintage Prima flower, with Prima's filigree leaves, a few black Prima bumper flowers, a gold tulle bow, gold ribbon, and a handmade stickpin.    

Finished Spine

The spine is decorated by layering it with burlap, black ribbon and has a back to back layer of gold Venice lace.  As a final touch, a chunky brass charm adorns the spine with Parisian and vintage inspired tassels, chains and trinkets.  

Chunky Charm Close Up

Well friends that's it for me today.  Wishing you all a wonderful Good Friday!  Until next time, create something beautiful from your heart and choose to live your  life inspired!  Big Hugs ~ Dawna 

Two Hearts Love Valentine and Parisian Inspired Amour Valentine

Morning Friends,

Today I'm sharing a special Valentine made for my dear husband Richard.   We will be married 30 years this May so I wanted something special to mark the occasion. After almost 30 years, you get to know each other pretty well. And like all couples we've shared a lot of joy and happiness and endured our fair share of ups and downs. Its not always easy, but our shared faith remains the one constant that helps us overcome wherever life throws our way.  

To make this card, I began by playing with 1/2" strips, originally thinking that I would basket weave them, but after doing so, they looked too busy.  I loved how they looked just staggered in different colors so I went with that for the background.   I finished the background off  by double matting it for a clean and simple look.  Then, I sewed two different hearts together to say that with love, two hearts beat as one. The hearts open to a sentiment that reflects this shared meaning in our lives.  I finished it off with some lovely Prima flowers and their beautiful open fret work die leaves.  I love the vintage colors of these papers by My Minds Eye.  The bold color combination, while subtly vintage, is still quite striking with the black and cream accents. 

Using the same MME paper collection, here's one more Parisian inspired 'Amour' Valentine card.  This one is available at my Etsy today.  Very similar techniques only I used a 6x6 negative heart overlay which is attached to a blank card so you can add your own sentiment. 

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you enjoyed this share. Wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy Valentines Day!   Until next time ... Big Hugs ~ Dawna

Our Story

Hi Friends,

One more layout from Teresa Collins sweet Summer Stories paper collection.  Teresa's signature style is clean and simple, which I love, but I thought I'd grunge it up a bit by distressing  this one.  I started with a background cut from the Paper Lace Cricut Cartridge, turned over the center circle and popped it up to layer my photo mats.  

I did make things easy on myself by using several ready made Prima flowers and leaves thought out my three flower clusters.  The big pink and black script flowers were handmade from Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die. I love his die and the flowers it creates! 

To finish things of I inked the edges and sewed around the layout.  I also distressed the 'Story' chipboard pieces.  As we take one last look at the whole page you can see that I added more chipboard in the lower left corner and added a little 'photo' ticket next to the photo mat.

I enjoyed working with all the different colors in the 'Story' banner, but I have to admit that I'm not too sure about distressing papers that are styled for the clean and simple look.  Like all things artsy, I'm sure it will probably grow on me though!  

Well that's it for me today.  I hope you enjoyed this share and that you'll consider joining the site to see what comes next.   Have a happy day dear friends!  Big Hugs ~ Dawna

A Day to Remember

 Morning Friends,

Just dropping by to share a layout I created using Teresa Collins very pretty Summer Stories Collection.  I used a few of my favorite techniques on this simple layout.  I say simple because so many layouts are being done with so much mixed media these days, that sometimes I think we are losing sight of the main reason we do them!  That of course would be to showcase our beautiful pictures.  While I haven't added mine yet, it is sure to be front and center on this layout. 

A Day to Remember

Here's is a close-up of the large rosette which I cut from the CTMH Artiste Cartridge then layered it with a large scalloped circle and a few chipboard sentiments to use as my title.  The bird and flower frame is from Dusty Attic.  I gessoed the chipboard frame, and used water color pencils to add a touch of color to the bird and leaves.  I didn't care for how the original flowers turned out, too coral or orange, rather than pink, so I just covered them with the organza black and white flowers.  And you can see the doilies in the this picture a little bit better too.

 

You can see that I also gessoed a doily stencil from Prima in the background which softened the look of the printed papers.   And last you can see some random zigzag sewing around the frame and edges. 

At the bottom there is another smaller rosette with a large rose chipboard to balance out the page.  I used Prima's sparkle paste on the rose chipboard to make it very sparkly!  Note to self:  A little goes a LONG way! 

As we take one last look at the whole page you can see that I've created two peek-a-boo lace and pearl openings.  

 

Overall I like the effect of the pink and white on black, to me its has a very striking effect.  I hope you enjoyed this layout. 

Until next time, thank you for dropping by.   I hope you have a wonderful  day my scrappy friends!  Hugs to All ~ Dawna

Oh My ...Its Raining Family and Cats and Dogs!

The Scharff Family 2014

Hi Friends,

The New Year is upon us and the holidays are behind us.  It was a very eventful holiday season for our family this year.  We love having family and friends visit and this year was really special for all of us! 

Our twins, Jennifer and Jessica were having a milestone birthday this New Years Eve, so we were thrilled when Jennifer (in the white sweater) and our darling granddaughter Quinn (next to her mom) decided to fly in on Christmas Day!  Time with loved ones is always precious and even more so when out of state visits are far and few between.   

We were all so busy (and I was bushed) I barely remembered to take pictures of us!  What???   Well I did get this one, so from our house to yours, wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2015!   May your dreams and wishes for the New Year come true! 

So lets get this scrappy party started...

I'm a bit late, but I thought I would close out my 2014  blog posts by sharing pictures of the mini albums I made for our girls this year.  Jennifer and Jessica love their fur babies so when Graphic 45 introduced their Raining Cat's and Dog's Collection, I knew had to make them a keepsake mini for their beloved pets. 

I used a simple folded envelope tutorial to make these easy pages and then developed a unique binding method to pull them all together.   I promise to learn how to video tape this year, because I know that pictures just don't capture certain projects, like mini's, the way they should.  Lets have a peek anyway.  I didn't post pics of both books but here's one I hope you enjoy:

Chunky, Pretty and Fun!

The books are 6 double sided envelop pages with 5 tag pockets.  With 3 tags per pocket, they got a little chunkier than I thought they would.   The photo mats are all double sided so there is plenty of room for journaling or any other little goodies you may want to tuck away.   

The Cats Meow

Cool Cat

Lucky Dog

Dog Day Afternoon

Love is a Four Legged Word

The Cats Meow

C is for Cat

Puppy Love

Lucky Dog

Carte Postale

The Cats Pajamas

Well friends that's it for me today.  Thank you so much for dropping by to visit.  Until next time, make something from the heart and enjoy a happy day!   Hugs ~ Dawna