Its the End of the Trip (as we know it)

My Branson album is almost done. Whatever will I show you now... I'm sure I'll think of something :) I hope you enjoy seeing an entire project come together instead of just bits and pieces. I'm one of those people who likes things "matchy matchy". Thus I pretty much always do two page spreads (it bothers me when they don't go together, LOL). And when I can I do theme albums so that the flow goes throughout. So, if you're like me, I sincerely hope that my full albums give you ideas for your next project too!

Alright, enough fluffy stuff. On to the good stuff. I saw this layout and loved the simplicity of it. It has nice clean lines and allows for some bigger pictures. I also LOVE alphabet punches! That is how I wrote Dinosaur with spotted DSP. Seriously, if you haven't yet invested in a digital alphabet punch it is time to do so. You will fall in love too!

If you ever go to the Titanic Museum you will find that they don't let you take pictures inside :( . Boo. However, I was able to find a handful of decent pictures on the internet (I did a google search for only large pictures). This layout worked nicely for only a handful of pictures. Then, I scanned in our tickets and "tucked" them behind the photos. Great thing about scanning- even though I only saved two tickets I was able to make it look like I had them for all four of us. Yay!

Well, that brings us to the final page of my project. Thanks for coming along on my journey :)

Flutterby again soon!

Emboss Resist

It has been so long since I have used embossing powder. But this card makes me want to break out the heat gun! It is so simple and yet so pretty. You can achieve this look yourself by using embossing powder and then sponging ink on top of the embossed design. The ink will stick to the paper but not the shiny embossed area. Sweet right!

And think of the possible color combinations... I'm thinking white embossing on white paper, and then start with yellow in the middle and blend outward into orange then red. If you know me you know I love bright colors :)

Thanks Cindy Buczkowski for this cute swap card and reminding me about this simple elegant trick!

Photo Background Paper

I love the fact that with MDS you can have a FULL PAGE picture as your background paper. Yeah, that's right- the whole thing can be a picture. Now that's something you can't do with traditional scrapbooking (at least not without paying an arm and a leg for a huge print).

Now don't get me wrong. I love using DSP for the background. But sometimes there is something so cool about "setting the scene" with a picture of just that- the scenery :).

However, if you like to do 2-page spreads as I do, I find that sometimes using a full page picture makes the pages not look "matchy matchy" so I always like to add some similar elements on top of the picture to tie the two together. Here I used a strip of DSP that matched the first page, along with repeating the double layer ribbon embellishment.

Hope you enjoyed today's layout. Flutter back soon!

Two Cool MDS Tricks Today!

As promised, more pages from my vacation album :)

For this first page I wanted some elegant eggplant DSP that would match my theme. But no such luck in the kits that I started with. So I made my own! On a blank page I set the background color to eggplant and then started adding stamps from the Day of Gratitude stamp set. I decided I liked the big one the best, so I layered that all over the page in black. Lastly, I selected all the stamps and turned down the opacity until the black started to look like a darker version of the elegant eggplant- as if stamped in a versamark. Brilliant! Tone on tone DSP to match my project :) All I had to do now was export it to a .jpeg and use it like a picture.

I love this next layout. It is so simple and clean, and when I saw it I new I wanted to replicate it in my album. I will also call your attention to the pinecones in the corner (you may want to open the picture up by clicking on it to see them bigger). I started this corner splash out with the pine branches, berries, and pinecones all just stamped on- but I immediately noticed that the pinecones seemed to get lost in the busyness of it. So, in order to make them stand out better I colored them a darker brown and then put a light brown shadow on them (centered and at full opacity with only a tiny blur). I then copied and pasted them in place until I got the "shadow" to fully fill in the open areas in the pinecone so that the branches behind would not be seen through. This is a nice way to make it look like you stamped something on another sheet of paper and cut it out before putting it on the scrapbook page.

Hope you enjoyed todays pictures. Flutter back soon!

Christmas Boxes

I know it seems too early to think about Christmas... but it is past July so I should be in the clear. Besides, I spent the day with some awesome Stampin' Ladies recently and they had these cute boxes on display that I just had to share.

This first one is super cute and easy peasy. Just wrap some DSP with a decorative border around one of the craft boxes, add some die-cuts from the new snowflake set in the holiday mini catalog, and finish it off with an antique brad. So cute!

The second box shows off some more of the holiday products. The brown scroll design paper is from the new co-ordinations cardstock. This paper is colored on the outside, and then has a neutral tone inside. In the project it was ran through and embossing folder and then sanded to bring out the design. Also you can see some of the cherry cobbler tulle fluffed up on the card. Adorable right? Puts me in the mood for Christmas!

Edit: Haha, I didn't look at the picture close enough... that second one is a card not a box. BUT, it could be made into a box and it would be a dang cute one :)
Flutterby again soon! I'll have some more pages from my Branson album for you.

31 Days of August, 31% off!

Have you heard about the awesome digital sale Stampin Up! is having to celebrate the 31 days of August? If you haven't heard about it you have to check it out here "31% off Digital for 31 Days!" They have 31 things on sale, as well as most print projects. Which is why I am so excited that I finished my Branson vacation album- considering I'm printing 3 copies that is almost 1 for free!

Speaking of my album, I'm sure that is what you are here to see. So, without further ado here are some more visual images for your MDS enjoyment!

If you ever find yourself near Branson you have to check out Silver Dollar City. It reminds me of a Renaissance Festival, but set in the old west. They have a couple of rides there, but the real attraction is the exhibits and demonstrations that they have for you to see. Also, make sure to leave time for the musical in the evening- it is a rockin' good time :) 

They also have a cave underneath the park. You can go on tours down inside, but it is not for the faint of heart (or knee) as you walk a couple of miles under the earth and it can get very dark if the lights go out. Then again if you are really adventurous you could sign up to go on the specific candle light tour (we were NOT that daring!).

Hope you are inspired to finish up your projects now to, and remember to take advantage of the 31% off sale! I hope you flutterby again soon :)

Finished!

I was on vacation recently, and was able to use the time to finish up my album from Branson! So excited to have these printed for the three families! So, in honor of a completed album I'll share extra pages with you today :)

 This was my title page. I was so disappointed to get back from vacation and find out that we had forgotten to take a group picture. So, instead of doing another collage like the cover this is what I came up with. Love, love, LOVE the Fifty Nifty kit with all the state punches. I had put this suggestion into the Sandbox (a place for demonstrators to leave suggestions for Stampin Up) and they actually took my idea! Proud moment for me :)

This was one of my "random" pages in the album. I'm big on two page layouts, but when I don't have enough photos for one I have to try to fit two separate pages together. I'm fairly happy with how this mismatch turned out. And I had a ton of fun making the little punch art lighthouse on the second page. Took me quite awhile, but it was so worth the effort :)

Last but not least was our visit to the College of the Ozarks. Did you know that students graduate from this university debt free?!? I thought that was pretty cool. They had this pretty little pond near the front of the campus with swans in it- did you know that they have feathers growing out of their nostrils? Neither did I until then, but I found it quite interesting.  Also, they had these little aquifers popping up all over campus, so it was lined with little rivers all over. Elli loved playing in the freezing cold water, such a funny little girl :)

Hope you appreciated all the extra stuff today! I've got a lot left to share yet, so be sure to flutter back soon!