WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

Welcome one and all to my little world! What will you find here, you ask? Well, you will definitely see a lot having to do with my favorite hobby - scrapbooking (both traditional & digital) and paper crafts. I also like to post tidbits about my life every once in a while to keep it "personal." The biggest stars in my world are my son, William, and my hubby (and biggest fan), David! I hope you enjoy it here, and please feel free to become a follower (Click "Follow this Blog" below to the right!). I'm constantly adding new ideas, great deals I may find on craft goodies and you may even run into a tutorial every now and then! Happy Blogging! :o) ~Vicky Jo

Friday, February 20, 2009

William is 18 months today!

And what a little clown he is! :o)

Friday, February 13, 2009

"LOVE" word album

I did this one for DH’s birthday last year, but I’m posting in case anyone needs inspiration on a word album! :o)

I remember I was short on time for this one, and really just utilized a pack of Cosmo Cricket rubons and a couple of 7 gypsies sticker sheets. I’m pretty sure that’s Basic Gray’s Ambrosia paper that I used to cover it.

Heart Shaped Chipboard Album

I’m posting this album for my friend who’s working on one for her DH, but if it can help anyone else needing some ideas, then great! :o)

The theme of this album was "How do I Love thee? Let me count the ways..." Each page of the album had to do with each of the numbers 1-5. The 2 key creative elements in it are:

1) I printed all the pictures on transparencies.

2) I created "pockets" on the back of each page to hide a journaling tag that pulls out & explains the number for that page. This was really easy. After I covered the back of the page, I used the same PP to create the pocket - using adhesive along the edges and leaving the one side open (no adhesive) where the journaling tag went in.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

V-Day Acrylic Mini-Album

Here is my first ever arcylic album that I did for David's V-Day present. Overall, I am happy with it and I learned a few lessons for next time around and even made one VERY happy mistake! :o)


Most of the paper used was from K&Company "Sweet Talk" and "Smitten" lines. A little bit of Basic Gray (Porcelain, Bittersweet and 2 scoops) was also used.



The "theme" of the album is love songs... Basically it includes partial and full lyrics to 6 different love songs.



This is just a decorated heart chipboard from an album I grabbed from the $1 bin @ M's. I distressed it with a sanding block and put some glitter on the edges then added some bling.



This "overlay" to the page below was done with mm acrylic paint and some glitter.




The first song... from the title of the album - is "Love Song" by Anne Murray.



The second overlay is just some cut out words and punched hearts from the K&Co "Sweet Talk" line. Then I added a rhinestone heart to frame the punched heart pic below it.



The second song is "Perfect Love" by Trisha Yearwood. I used photoshop to put the words on a swirl path to match the paper, and then strategically placed some pink gems in between.




On this next overlay page I adhered a pic from our wedding and used the threading water punch on the right side. Then I used diamond stickles all over to make it sparkle. I wrote the title of the song on the tab with my AC white pen.




The third song is "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King. The "Together" sticker is from 7 gypsies and I added some gems to it. Before adhering the wedding pic, I covered the back with PP and added a sentiment sticker - also from 7 gypsies.



I tried embossing on this next page... I think it worked out "Okay." I had to be very careful placing the stamp because it wanted to slide around on the slick surface. When using the heat gun, I had to be careful not to do too much at one, because it was bending the page. However, it ended up flattening back out after it cooled off. I also used more punched heart of PP and various pics. The pics were backed with more PP.




The next page is just a 1/2 page of a photo of us that I used my scallop punch on and applied ribbon. (I'm just noticing that the ribbon is coming off in this pic... I better go fix that!) lol



The 4th song is from "Blessed" by Martina McBride. I pieced together a flower, used an old canvas embellishment I've had forever and added some vines with stickles. The bottom flower (brown) was treated with copper glimmer mist from tattered Angels.





Here is my HAPPY mistake page... I started out trying to cover the entire back and front of the acrylic page with PP and a transparency that had the words on it. Did not work at all... So I removed them and the acrylic sheet was pretty much ruined. So I took my red glimmer mist and sprayed the whole front with it and let it dry. The result was amazing. The liquid ran to the sides and corner creating a shaded area and the whole page was a beautiful shimmery transparent red! I ended up using my dymo to apply the words and wrote the song title and artist with a silver marker along with some happy little hearts.




For the page underneath, the last sentence of the song verse ("and give her wings when she wants to fly") is shown along with a photoshopped pic of me. In PS, I converted the pic to b&w and added a grungy overlay and edges to it. I used a wing brush to add some wings to me and then created a path along the top to add the words. Then I used sticker letters to add my own quote at the bottom of the page.




I added a dedication and personal note using 2 pages from a MM spiral journal adhered together.



And the last page has a Bon Jovi song called "Thank you for loving me".


*Phew*! So glad I got through that! I'm looking forward to doing another one! I think I'll use that glimmer mist technique through the whole thing!

SNOW?!?

I’ll believe it when I see it!

{ETA} Okay, as soon as I posted this the flakes started to fall! YAY! Now... let's see if it sticks!

{ETA#2} Check it out!!!

Monday, February 9, 2009

My most favorite LO in a while...

You know how every once in a while you complete one of those LOs that you just wanna frame and never put away? Well I finally got one of those... it's been a while! lol

(It's funny cuz this one had been in the LO planner for a looooooooooooong time.)

Sorry for the picture over load... I have lots of details I wanna point out! :o)

First off, the paper is from the Me & My Big Ideas "Fashion District" stack. I just love the vintage/shabby/thrown together look so tons of supplies were used on this... I'll try to list them all!

My favoite thing in the whole world right now is the spiral journal notepads from making memories and anything with old ledger like print on it! You'll find a few rub-ons and stamps on this piece tucked behind the pic. I also used the threading water punch and weaver ribbon through the top of the matted pic and then left it "unraveled" after coming around the top right corner. I added a flourish rub-on the the pic from Autumn Leaves.

For the left side, I simply used my craft knife to fussy cut along the flowers in the PP to create a "pocket" to slip the pic in. I added various flowers (all prima) and brads on top of the flowers in the PP.

ALong the bottom of the matted pic I used a flower ribbon I found at Michaels and put a sequin and brad in the center of each individual flower. I finally got to use an awesome felt decorative border I've had for quite a while from Autumn Leaves. The big flowers are also from Prima, but they have been treated with Tattered Angels' "Glimmer Mist" in Silver. If you have not yet tried this awesome product, I HIGHLY recommend it!

At the bottom right, I used Ranger distressed ink to stamp an awesome mega background stamp I got from Stampin' Up, then added letters: Rubons from Heidi Grace, glitter stickers from Memory Makers, and Felt Thickers.

A few more LOs...

Here's a few LOs I got completed before the big work rush...

This one was using the new Animal Crackers stack from DCWV, and the cute little monkey from the ZooBaloo Cart!

Super easy 2 pager lifted from a mag about our move to the new house. I honestly can't remember the paper right now... but I used velvet thickers and some cool foil chipboard letters from making memories. Niether stuck very well to the paper, so I had to break out the zip dry!

I did this next one right after getting the DCWV Green Stack. The paper worked perfectly! A fun little tidbit of info... I wanted to use this particular paper, but my bathing suit and the towel just didn't match... they were the completely wrong shade of blue. So off to photoshop I went to play, did a "Replace Selective Color" and a few minutes later I had the perfect matching picture!