Blooms & Cartwheels in My Mind!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Cartwheels in My Mind challenged readers to use a torn book page in two projects so here's my second project.

This past Valentine's day, I received the grandest flower arrangement ever... and really, they were blooms that made my heart flutter. Unfortunately, I couldn't just whip out my digital SLR at work to take photos of them, so you'll have to excuse the fuzzy iPhone photo. I already find it a bit of a challenge to scrapbook inanimate objects and it's even more challenging when I have a sub par photo. But with the help of super cute Jillibean Soup Dutch mustard soup patterns and a simple layout, thanks to Pencil Lines sketch #232, I think I made it work. I tried to keep the layout relatively light and airy so it wouldn't overpower the already difficult picture. So what do you think?

Used: Jillibean Soup pattern papers, alpha stickers; My Little Shoebox pattern papers; Studio Calico Mr. Huey mist; Martha Stewart studded heart punch and EK Success punch; DMC embroidery floss; Bic Mark-it markers

Here's a closer look: I used the Jillibean Soup alphabet stickers as a mask and created part of the title using Studio Calico's Mr. Huey mist in cream. By creating a faint mask for part of the title with cream mist on cream cardstock, I was able to keep the airiness in the title. I also cut and punched hearts out of the Jillibean Soup pattern paper and used as decorative/dimensional accents.

As you can tell, I love hearts, pennants, and stitching in layouts. I especially love incorporating a mix of hearts in all different shapes and sizes. I used the Martha Stewart studded heart all over the pages punch as a window and slipped the torn book page behind it. I then used a mix of Jillibean Soup and My Little Shoebox pattern papers to create the rest of the heart pennants. I hand cut a few of the hearts from the Jillibean Soup pattern paper and punched the other hearts using a favorite, the Martha Stewart lace heart edge punch and my trusty EK Success heart Paper Shaper punch.

Lastly, one of my favorite parts of this layout is the pleating here. Again, a simple touch to accent the photo without overwhelming it:

On a another note, I'm doing cartwheels in my mind! The very awesome Cheryl of Cartwheels in My Mind featured my latest 'On My Window Sill' layout on the Cartwheels blog! Woweeee! In that same post, she shares a layout about her daughter and grandmother with very touching journaling, a very special photo, and very cute torn book page idea, you have to check it out! Thanks, Cheryl, for the challenge, inspiration, and feature!

Thanks for looking!
- KRAFTY pearl

On My Window Sill

It all started one March morning with the mourning dove coo, the sound of fluttering wings and twigs banging on my window and I knew spring was near. And a few days later, on my window sill was a nest with two eggs! I spied on them like a National Geographic bird watcher, peeking at them every morning and night. One morning, mama mourning dove actually flew away from the nest momentarily and that's when I had the rare chance to sneak this photo of the eggs.

Inspired by a few challenges this weekend, I finally got around to scrapping about it:

Used: My Little Shoebox pattern papers, stamp, alpha stickers; Bazzill Basics cardstock; 2000 Plus custom stamp kit

When I saw the My Little Shoebox March sketch challenge, I knew it was perfect to feature one of my rarest spring sightings as the story. The sketch works out perfectly with how the quadrants lend to the look of a window with curtains. The embellishment cluster in the sketch is also a perfect place for me to show a whimsical re-creation of the birds building their happy, loving nest. It reminds me of this one scene in Cinderella where two birdies help tie a bow in her hair.

I created the nest embellishment out of an old French-English dictionary page inspired by Cartwheels in My Mind weekend challenge where Cheryl challenged her readers to use a page torn from a book on at least 2 different projects in 2 ways. (My second project using a torn book page to come later this week, so stay tuned!) I then stitched the nest to the page with embroidery floss. I loved the way the nest turned out. Below's a little tutorial to make your own if you like it too! The eggs were hand cut to shape and dipped in glitter.

I also clipped out definitions for 'naissance' and 'nature' and hand-stitched it to the layout:

Between handwriting my journaling or stamping it, I definitely appreciated Nichol Magouirk's Two Peas in a Bucket April scrapbook stamping challenge to stamp it. Stamped journaling: "My neighbors, two mourning doves, laid two eggs!" I absolutely love this custom stamp kit from Staples that's perfect for stamping two sizes of journaling. The shape of the journaling area was hand-cut using Fiskars fingertip knife, using a remnant diecut sheet as the shape template. The curtain trimming was created by cutting this EK Success Parisian border punch. Also used the same punch for the roof.

And to wrap up this post, I have a very simple tutorial to making your own nest embellishment!

Step 1, all you need is a sharp pair of craft scissors and a strip of paper you want to use to make your nest. (The longer your strip, the fuller the nest.)

Step 2, take the strip and snip off the opposing corners and make diagonal cuts along the top side of the strip leaving the paper intact to the bottom:

Step 3, fold the strip into a zig zag pattern like so:

And voila! You've got your self a nice nest embellishment:

So whaddaya think? I hope you like!

Until the next post!
- KRAFTY pearl