Sending Wishes Vintage Card

My new camera cord is here and working, the puppies haven't gotten into any further trouble, and I am thrilled to be able to share this card with you today.  I love the rich texture and layers of a vintage card.  I think I'm an old soul at heart, when it comes to how much I love most all things vintage.

My card uses my favorite new stamp set, Butterfly Basics, along with some gold speckles using our Gorgeous Grunge stamp.

I grunged up the edges of the DSP by distressing and then sponging.  I added a few gold sparkles over the finished top layer of the card, the envelope and the inside of the card.

I love this fern stamp.  I've used it full strength, as well as stamping off a few images.  This gorgeous butterfly is the middle of 3 sizes of thinlits dies.  I can't wait to play with the other sizes as well.

TIP --- FOR SUPER EASY CUTTING OF THINLIT DIES:
Create your Big Shot 'sandwich' like this ---
Clear Plate
Butterfly Thinlit
Waxed Paper
Card Stock (CS)
Dryer Sheet (I folded mine over to create 2 layers.)
Clear Plate
Magnetic Platform
Run through and back again 3 or 4 times before removing from the Big Shot.
This tip also works well with the Darling Doily Thinlit Die.

The butterfly is cut from our Brushed Gold CS.  I discovered that it really looks nice on projects with a vintage look and the weight of the CS is excellent for creating a beautiful butterfly.  By gluing just the center of the butterfly to the card, you can fold the wings out a bit once the glue dries.  Because of the weight of the CS, it holds its shape and position beautifully.  Love it!

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Vintage Christmas... Love the Look

I love the vintage look --- textures, layers, warm neutrals --- yummy!  This card is hands down one of my favorites I've made so far this year for Christmas.

It features Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.  The snowflakes on the top layer are embossed, then sponged over lightly with Soft Suede.  Several snowflakes are highlighted with little pearls.  I sponged around the top layer, too, for added texture.  I used our new Illuminate Ink to stamp the snowflakes on the corner of the Crumb Cake layer.  It's even prettier in real life.  The crochet trim and taffeta ribbon add the finishing touches.

If you're looking for an elegant card to make, for a special someone, try a vintage Christmas card.  Your recipient will love it!  Have a great day and don't forget to vote.

Say I love you!

Here's another vintage layout (MDS) in my album.  This is me, when I was about 2 years old, with my daddy.  I was a real daddy's girl and he was a wonderful father.  I miss him every day.

Love you, daddy!

MDS Layout of Christmas Past

Here's a layout I'm working on --- not sure I'm finished tweaking it yet --- a past Christmas with my sister.  We're visiting Santa.

I love that I can play with my designs using MDS (My Digital Studio) to my heart's content and know that I can always go back and change it whenever I wish.  I also love the fact that I can scan old photos into my computer, edit them as needed, and they're ready to use in the MDS program.  When I'm ready to have them printed, the printing service will do everything for me!  When the printed pages arrive at my home, I can pop them right into my photo album or add more embellishments --- whatever I wish.

December 23 and counting...

Happy stamping!

Time for More Vintage Scrapbooking

Here are some of the layouts we've been making in my Hostess Scrapbook Club.  We're using the Beau Chateau Designer Series Papers.

The quilted squares are made to look more like the texture of real quilting by running them through the Big Shot with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder before attaching them to the scalloped edge squares which were cut on the Big Shot.  The crochet lace trim adds to the vintage look.  We gently sponged the outer edges very lightly with Marina Mist ink.

 

I think you can see how our pages are all going to be nicely coordinated because of using the coordinated colors in the Beau Chateau DSP.

I hope these pages inspire you to try some new ideas in your scrapbooking or use some of these ideas for making your cards and/or projects.

My Digital Studio Project

I have become almost obsessed with working on a special project of mine.  I am making an album for my husband -- of his dad's life.
This didn't just involve making some digital pages.  Oh no, it meant getting out all those odds and ends of boxes that people give you (to clear their own house and their own conscience for not doing anything with them:) and actually sorting them all.

Once sorted, I had to scan them all into my computer, something which I confess that I just learned how to do.  With my new Mac, that part was super simple, but took a lot of time.  I enlisted the help of my husband and we got a rhythm going.  Then, I had to photo edit them all.

I soon realized that I needed a plan to organize the nearly 200 photos.  I started exporting them into organized folders onto my desktop.  It feels so GOOD to have that part finished.  Finally, I got to start working on the album.  I chose Downtown Grunge and it lends itself quite well to a vintage/heritage album look.  Because the photos span 91 years, some were in color -- much of which was old, faded color.  I edited these by changing them into antique or sepia or black and white, depending on which looked best for each one, and then faded the color a bit.  I did all this in my iPhoto on my Mac.  By adjusting the colors, all the photos work well together.

Wow, I'm tired just typing about what I did.

Anyway, here is a sneak peek at my project.  It involves layers and layers of images, to give texture and dimension.  I'm absolutely loving the look and am so excited about being this far along.
If the program will let me do it, I think my book could be about 70 pages long!  I am then going to try to edit it more and scale back on some of the photos so it won't be so long --- maybe.

This was a learning process as the album grew.  I would encourage you to try this because, the more you work with MDS, the better you get at it and the more you discover all that you can do with it.  I've always chosen to scrapbook IRL, with tons of layers and embellishments but, with over 200 photos, I would NEVER get finished that way.  The beauty of using MDS is that, once you have them printed for you, you can add embellishments anyway and create hybrid pages.

By the way, the photo sorting and scanning was so successful, that it has renewed my ambition to get caught up with the old photos from my own children.  I did not scrapbook when they were little and I was feeling like I was drowning in photos because I am now scrapbooking for my 3 grandchildren.  I truly did not know if I would ever finish the albums for my own children and really wanted to do so.

Now, I have renewed hope that this is a possibility, if I do a good chunk of it with My Digital Studio.  This gives you the opportunity to enhance the old photos and actually get the pages finished.  Yay!  I have actually been working on sorting photos for my own children.  Hey, Jenn and Matt, you may have albums yet!!!

Vintage Layout with Soft Suede

Here's one of our scrapbook club layouts.  We used the Beau Chateau DSP,  the Designer Frames embossing folders, soft suede taffeta ribbon, 1 of the tags from the 2 Tags die, and stamped with the Creative Elements stamp set.  To make it look like a little picture frame hanging up, I used part of the stamped image on end and added the ribbon behind each of the embossed frames.  I highlighted the frames by sponging over them lightly with soft suede ink.  I plan to use these in my Heritage Album and possibly try some sepia toned photos for the layout.  I'll post again when I add the photos.  So many stamps, so little time!!!

Close-ups of left and right sides of layout:

Close-ups of stamping:

Close-up of tag:

Close-up of frames:

A Layout with Beau Chateau DSP

This is a little lesson in getting the most out of your DSP.  For this layout, I used just 2 sheets of DSP from Beau Chateau and 1 sheet of Marina Mist CS.  I used Marina Mist and Crumb Cake seam binding, along with some crochet lace trim -- tied together.  I added a tiny touch of bling to the oval frames with our pearls.  My thinking on the DSP was that you could actually do your journaling on the lines of the DSP on the left hand page.  The little label on the right hand page can have a date or other pertinent info for the photos.  The stamping was done with the 'Daring Adventure' stamp set.
Other ideas:
I created this layout for my Hostess Scrapbook Club and plan to use it for my Heritage Album.  Others are using it for family photos and one scrapper plans to use it for her wedding photos.
Now picture this same layout with pink pirouette or marina mist CS on the scallop oval frames and you could have a gorgeous layout for a new baby. 
When you get to thinking, a DSP design can be more versatile than you'd first imagine it could be.

Here's a close-up of the stamping.

Tips:  When attaching the scallop ovals, just add a tiny touch of adhesive to the top of each one and leave the rest unattached until you get your photos inside the frames.
Save the ovals from the centers of the scallop ovals you cut on the Big Shot.  Use them to draw around your photos.

Another Vintage Layout

Here's a layout we did at our Hostess Scrapbook Club.  I went back and added some extra touches with the Beau Chateau Side Notes.  They're found on page 190 in the Idea Book and Catalog.  They're just $5.95 and can be used on cards, projects or scrapbook pages for a quick touch of elegance.  The papers are Beau Chateau, found on page 184 in the Idea Book and Catalog.  Our Hostess Scrapbook Club is going to make a series of layouts using these papers.  I love the colors and the way they all coordinate.  You can look forward to seeing more layout ideas with these beautiful papers.