December Daily in July

December Daily in July, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

 ETA:  I originally posted this in July, but I'm linking up to Ali Edwards' blog to play along!  =D




I've been playing along with Ali Edwards and her December Daily project for a few years now and one of the biggest lessons I learned that first year was to...

get stuff together EARLY.

So I vowed to make my DD journal in July. That way it would be fresh and new...because by the time December rolls around, I will have forgotten all about making the actual album! LOL!

I've kept that vow pretty well. I think one year I made the album in August, but it's been complete by the time November hit. This way, all I have to do is paste pictures and jot journaling! ;-)

I used Carta Bella's line called Christmas Day. I love the colors! They are very muted--lots of fir tree greens and deep burgundy reds along with distressed whites.

I also used a different album structure. Because the Carta Bella papers are SOOOO thick (love!), I punched holes and used ring binders, instead of an actual album with pockets, like I've done the past few years.

And just a little tiny heads-up here......I used the chipboard stickers that go with the Christmas Day line and as I brought the album inside after the photo shoot, several of the chipboard pieces launched themselves off the pages. And the glue I used to make pockets (Glue Glider Pro) isn't sticking all that well. And that's my fave and go-to glue gun! I realize it's probably because the Carta Bella paper is very textured and therefore things won't stick well, but it's a bit frustrating. I'll have to haul out the red line tape.

**insert terrified facial expression here**


Peace, love, and red line tape happiness!


~Cynthia

CASEing a Glitz Girl

CASEing a Glitz Girl, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

A few weeks ago over on the Glitz Design blog, Magda posted a super simple, yet really beautiful, scrap page.

Naturally, I scraplifted the heck out of it. ;-)

This shot is of a dragonfly, perched on a branch over my head. I got as close to him as possible and manged to get a few photos before he flew off.

I used a bit of my beloved Fern & Forest by Little Yellow Bicycle, a few wood veneer pieces, lots of mists, and a card from Simple Stories--which, in my humble opinion, was totally perfect for this page! =D

And the teeny strip at the top of the page was that teeny bit of paper you get on the bottom of a 12x12 sheet with the bar code on the back.

I hoard those things like a mad dog with a bone. ;-)


Happy Monday, y'all!! =D


~Cynthia

Hawk Alert!

Hawk Alert!, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

The other day I was sitting out on the deck and heard a scratching noise above me. I turned to look up at the roof--and there was a Red-shouldered Hawk!! He was just hanging out, disturbing all the little birds in the yard.

I ran inside to grab my camera and only manged one good shot before he looked down at me and flew away!

He--or his brethren--have taken to sitting up there on a regular basis. They do NOT appreciate me staring up at them! LOL!!

When I scrapped this photo, I used another Shimelle Laine sketch. My page turned out NOTHING like hers, of course, but I still like it. :-)

I used lots of snippets and more of my favorite line at the moment--Little Yellow Bicycle's Fern & Forest.

And lots of dots and mists. =D


Happy Friday! Thanks for the visit!!!!


~Cynthia

Triple Happiness!

Triple Happiness!, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I've so missed making cards! There are NO June birthdays around here and only TWO in July!

Oh sure, I guess I could be making Christmas cards, but it's been in the 90s this week and that does NOT put me in the mood for Christmas anything!! =D

The July birthdays belong to my sister and her husband--so I just sent them one card for the both! (Heh, heh. Is that cheating??)

I used a Memory Box die cut for this card. I die cut HAPPY from white cardstock, saving the piece to adhere to the front of the card. Then I die cut the word once more and glued both die cuts onto the original piece of cardstock.

I matted it on dark green Graphic 45 patterned paper, then adhered that to a white card blank.

Simple and easy and fun!

Also...photographer's error here...the paper really is white and the words/die cut are really, really straight. ;-)


Carry on paper crafting!!


~Cynthia

Flutter By

Flutter By, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Here's my Lesson Number Two in Mixed Media Scrapbook Pages.

Heh.

I think I did much better the second time around. I followed this tutorial on The Crafter's Workshop blog by Sanna Lippert. (She totally makes it look easy!!)

Pretty simple, fun and not at all time-consuming.

I used one sheet of white cardstock for the background and one piece of vellum layered under the photo.

I used Tim Holtz's Distress Inks in Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage. Throw in a few stencils and a leaf stamp, along with some Distress Markers, and I got a pretty cool page! ;-)


Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow with an actual CARD! =D


~Cynthia

Skippering

Skippering, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

A few days ago, over on Shimelle Laine's blog, a guest artist posted a short tutorial on how to include mixed media on a scrap page.

I have always wanted to try this, so I followed Christin Gronnslett's step-by-step instructions.

SO EASY.

And SO much fun!!

I totally got a bit carried away, but man, did I have a good time slinging ink around!!

I used multiple stencils from The Crafters' Workshop, inks from Tim Holtz's Distress Ink line and Ranger's Archival line, and stamps from various places.

Although you can't see it in the photo, I also used Dreamweaver's embossing paste with the stencils for some super cool texture.

Then I added snippets of paper and slapped a photo of a Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly down and called it a day!

Christin calls this "mixed media light" and it's perfect for those of us who have never tried this kind of creating before.

There are definitely some things I would do differently....so come back tomorrow for my second go at a page of fun mixed media!! =D


Scrap happy!!


~Cynthia

Clearwing Moth

Clearwing Moth, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

A lovely Hummingbird Clearwing Moth has been visiting our Butterfly Bushes for some time now. He's a quick little thing! I haven't been able to catch a photo of him until just recently.

I guess he got used to me acting all paparazzi-ish around him! ;-)

This page is an homage to layers. And snippets. And anything else that might stick to a page.

And sewing.

SEWING!!

I got sew (haha!) excited about sewing on paper, I did a mini craft room re-do just so I could put my sewing machine where I could reach it quickly and easily.

YAY!!


Snippets are from American Crafts, WeR Memory Keepers and Cosmo Cricket.

I've got Simple Stories letter stickers and some naked chipboard Thickers too.

Oh, and Pop Dots.

LOTS of Pop Dots.


Happy Friday, you wonderful paper crafters! Have a lovely weekend!! =D


~Cynthia

A Garden Moment

A Garden Moment, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Here's another layout by Mitchel Kraft that I scraplifted from the Lily Bee Design blog.

Also.

For the record.

I love to the bottom of my toes this line by Little Yellow Bicycle called Fern & Forest.

I know, I know...it's the boys' line. But it's got lovely pale mint greens and deep earthy browns and burnt sun oranges.

LOVE IT.

And I absolutely love the little forest gnome too!

AND I know I've done like 400 layouts with these papers.

Ahem. I may be just the teeny-tiniest bit obsessed. ;-)

At least it's paper and not crack cocaine, RIGHT???????

Anywho. This is one of the last shots from the local garden/hiking spot I took back on the fourth of July.

I just love the colors of the flowers so much--and the shadows too! =D

I layered a bunch of snippets from Fern & Forest, along with an old Crate Paper bit. Then I threw in a few embellishments, including a Chit Chat word sticker from Tim Holtz. I'm really starting to love using them randomly here and there!


Thank you so much for visiting today and for leaving such lovely comments!! YOU are wonderful!!! =D


~Cynthia

Stained Glass Beauty

Stained Glass Beauty, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Boy do I love to junk up a page!! =D

This one was more of an experiment in playing. I saw the layout idea here on the Scraptastic Club blog and had fun twisting the layout to fit my photo.

Sorry about the weird glare on the photo, but it's a stained glass window in a garden shed. This is the same educational garden that has all the beautiful coneflowers that I scrapped earlier.

I've had the background paper for a while and I wanted to use it--I actually won it in a blog giveaway. Yay! ;-)

The flower centers are this deep red so I pulled out some Jenni Bowlin snippets that matched that red and added a bit of Graphic 45 as a little "shelf" for the photo to sit on so it doesn't float around. ;-)

The bottom stripe is another piece of a Doodlebug Design paper that I cut up.

I added bits of Simple Stories journal blocks--for both the piece I journaled on and the cork circle on the right side.

A few embellishments and some letters and I was done!


Happy Wednesday to ya!! Come back again soon! =D


~Cynthia

Oh look! Wildlife!

Oh look! Wildlife!, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

So way back on July 4, Lily Bee Design had a guest designer whose page was so cool I totally scraplifted it, then promptly scraplifted his second designer stint a few days later.

His name is Mitchell Kraft. And he loves layers.

I love layers.

I put lots of layers on my page.

Layers are good.

I've got a page from an old accounting book, a few snippets from Little Yellow Bicycle's Fern and Forest line, some Doodlebug Design strips and a bingo card from Simple Stories all nice and layered.

There's even some cork and wood veneer.

I made my own tiny banner clip thing. Because you can, you know. Make your own banner clip thing. With a paper clip and a snippet of paper. And thus avoid the $2 charge for such things.

But I digress...

I scruffed up the edges of all my glorious layers and used lots of Pop Dots.

Oh yes I did.

And you know what?

I SEWED.

It was scary at first.

You know...this is my beloved paper and I didn't want to ruin it with some crazy, drunken sewing.

The sewing *is* a bit crazy and a bit drunken. But nobody got hurt. I think that's the main thing, no?

I also got crazy with the misting.

Because, in addition to layers, I do love some good misting.

And nobody got hurt in the process of misting this page.

That's important.


Mist on!


~Cynthia

Damselfly

Damselfly, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

This photo is another in a series of pictures I took on July 4 at one of my favorite places to hike.

As I was carefully picking my way down some wet stairs to the river, this gorgeous Damselfly posed long enough for me to get a really lovely closeup shot.

I wanted to keep the page simple, so I used very few colors, layers and embellishments. The background paper is from my very-loved and getting very-overused Little Yellow Bicycle line called Fern and Forest. This is the B side.

The yellows and greens are mostly from LYB's Poppy line. I love how even though the two lines are verrrry different, they still coordinate nicely!

I cut up a page of Doodlebug Designs' chevron strips and used them for the top and bottom border.

A bit of cork, some punched shapes, a Chit Chat sticker from Tim Holtz, and a snippet of left over paper that I punched stars from....and I was done!

Well...except for the title. Did you notice that my "s" is backwards? Actually, it's not an "s." It's an upside-down question mark. I had every letter in this so perfect dark sparkly teal set EXCEPT the "s" so I just made do.

And I'm totally OK with it.


Thanks so much for dropping in today and have a happy Monday!!


~Cynthia

The Overflow

The Overflow, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

This page is based loosely on a layout from Shimelle Laine. I just added a few bits and pieces of my own and called it a day.

I also used up snippets of paper from several sources too. Yay!!

The photos are from a series I took on July 4 at a local hiking trail. The water was flowing over a rock wall, down the path and into the river. I have NEVER seen that much water flow over the wall like that!

Good thing I'm a scrapbooker so I can document these things, eh? ;-)

The background paper is from WeR Memory Keepers, the green snippet is from...ah, er, um...BoBunny? Oh dear, I can't remember where the other dark red snippet is from. A Christmas line, I know that. Anyway, more snippets from Cosmo Cricket and some fun pea pod washi!


Have a wonderful weekend!


~Cynthia

Lilies

Lilies, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I was over at my neighbor's house the other day and he has some gorgeous Day and Tiger Lilies in bloom.

I took a few shots with my cell using Instagram.

I made a super simple page for them--using a layout I'm sure I scraplifted from somebody or other.

It's a simple "shelf" of paper that holds the photos from floating around.

I did get a bit carried away with the Mister Huey 'Shine' spray ink. There's a little snowman in the upper left corner.

I couldn't have done that if I had been TRYING to do that! ;-) Oh well. The snowman stays. =D

The paper is a B side of a WeR Memory Keepers' line called Country Living. All the other bits are leftover snippets from the same line.


Thanks for dropping by today!

~Cynthia

Wild Wildflowers

Wild Wildflowers, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

We've been having SO much rain here in South Carolina that the plants have been loving it and showing off for us!

As proof of the too much rain thing, one of the editorial cartoons in today's newspaper showed the South Carolina flag with the crescent moon in the top left and, instead of the usual Palmetto tree in the center, a man with a large umbrella over his head, rain pouring down. It was funny but not. You know what I mean?? Ha ha ha! ;-)

But the sun is shining and the birds are chirping and here's my page for today. More beautiful coneflowers!

I went color and layer crazy on this one. The background paper is supposed to go the other way--it's wood grain. But I liked it flowing left to right. Then I used lots of washi and lots of hot pink.

I used more of KaiserCraft's 75 Cents line, a bit of BasicGrey and WeR Memory Keepers for the background. Those fun letters are from Doodlebug Design.


And that's it for me! I think I'm going to find some kind of excuse to be outside today!


Stay crafty, my friends!!


~Cynthia

Row of Yellow

Row of Yellow, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I've got another super minimalist page going on here today. This is actually the B side of the page I posted on Friday.

Or maybe this is the A side.

Not sure.

Either way, the papers in this line by KasierCraft are really cool and once again I didn't want to cover up the design. It's a line from 2012, I believe, called Base Coat.

So I went super simple with my layout.

One photo
One photo mat
One butterfly

The mat and the butterfly are from another KaiserCraft line called 75 Cents.

I didn't even bother to add a title. This page is in with the others from the same hike so it's pretty obvious where I was and what I was taking a photo of so I am OK with no title.

That's like breaking one of huge Rules of Scrapbooking, isn't it??

**Drops "Rebel Without a Cause" into the DVD player.**

**Cops New York City accent.**

Fuggedaboutit.


Peace out...

Cynthia ;-)

Swinging

Swinging, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I can't say that I have a personal scrapbook style.

I just scrap like I wanna. ;-)

Hence this ultra minimalist scrap page.

One 12x12 paper, one paper snippet cut to mat size, one shadow scalloped paper, a few letters, three tiny metallic dots and one black and white photo.

The end.

I loved the background paper so much that I didn't want to detract from it nor the photo....which, if you can't see it very well, is an old rope swing that hangs out over the river near my house.


Happy Friday! I hope you find time to be super scrappy this weekend!


~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for July

Tim's Tag for July, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

The first of the month means that Tim Holtz has a new tag up for us to enjoy and be inspired by.

Tim also took a moment to remember the 19 forest fire fighters that died in Arizona.

I made my tag with the word "Memories" on it so I too would remember their sacrifices. And the sacrifices of all those who have fought for our freedom and lost their lives doing so.


May we never forget.


~Cynthia

Woody sings the Blues

Woody sings the Blues, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

The trailhead of one of my favorite hiking trails is right next to a teeny tiny Post Office branch. The PO is located in a teeny tiny former textile mill village.

Normally the PO building is covered in gang graffiti--because, apparently, they have nothing better to do in teeny tiny former mill villages than to spray paint Post Office buildings. Heh.

Anyway.

New art showed up the other day on the side of the PO building.

I am (ahem) slightly ashamed to say I had to look this dude up on the Internet.

Turns out it's Woody Guthrie. The famous folk singer. The guy who wrote "This Land is Your Land."

Yeah. THAT guy.

So I'm not sure if Woody is a rub-on-poster or what. It was pretty darn cool and I kinda felt like I was in a New York City subway for a second.

But only for a second.

The 91 degree heat and the 400% humidity kinda gave it away that I wasn't really there.

*sigh*

So of COURSE I had to scrap the man!! =D

The papers are all from KaiserCraft, the 75 Cents collection. I love how it really does look like an old section of a New York City subway station! =D


OK, that's it for me today! Thanks so much for visiting!


~Cynthia