The Alley Way Stamps: chance to win

I don't know very much about this stamp company, but they're celebrating their one-year anniversary with a chance to win stamps. So I figured, why not throw my hat in the ring and see what they have to offer!

See for yourself here.

Happy New Year!

Back To School Photos

As an avid Scrapbooker, one of the essential milestones to document, of course, is back to school. This is a big year in our household because our youngest starts Junior Kindergarten! Wahoo! I am definitely not one of those clingy moms who spends the first day of school vacillating between chocking back the tears and twiddling my thumbs!

I digress... In honour of the kids going back to school, I decided to make some photo props to help me record the momentous occasion.  I was, as usual, inspired by a Pinterest discovery you can check out for yourself here (for the polaroid frame) and here (for the chalkboard callout).

I took a few pictures of my process, because I took a couple short cuts and adapted the concept to what I had on hand. For the polaroid frame, instead of using wood like the inspiration blogger had, I used a large piece of cardboard. Using some mad exacto-knife skills and a tape measure, this is what I did.

The inner square is approximately 20 x 20 inches. The outer edge measures 28 x 31 inches, meaning that the border is 4 inches along the top and sides and 7 inches on the bottom.

I then spray painted the whole thing white. I used high gloss paint, but found that the coverage wasn't great, so I switched to matte finish for the first coat and then went over that in a second layer with the high gloss.

I saved the square that I cut out of the centre to make my call out. Once I'd drawn and cut out the shape, I simply spray painted it in matte black (because the matte finish is more chalkboard like).

And there you have it... two simple photo props that I'm sure we'll be pulling out on multiple occasions to spruce up the milestone photo shoots, especially those for which I want to record an important detail like name(s), age(s), silly quotes, etc.  

By the way, the words were all added digitally (i.e. no actual chalkboard paint was required, nor was exceptional penmanship thanks to dafont.com)!!

Have a happy 2012-13 school year!

Verve Goodbye Card

My family and I have the difficult task of saying Goodbye and sending my sister and her husband off to Kuwait for a year. Yes, they are moving to Kuwait to teach English and music, but mostly to follow a calling that God has placed on their lives for quite sometime to minister to the people of the Middle East.

So as part of their send off I decided to make a card, and this is what I came up with...

I was inspired by this card that I had the privilege of discovering during the Day Six Verve Anniversary blog hop as well as this card, from the Day Seven blog Hop.

Here is the inside of my card:

The Specs

Verve Stamps: Notes of Prayer (front), Blessings (inside)
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots"
Slice Cartridge: Spring (for the parenthetical flourish!)

I love Verve Stamps. They are definitely my go-to source for sentiment and Scripture stamps!

Verve Anniversary Card

Verve Stamps is having an anniversary and I needed to make an anniversary card, so what better way to celebrate than to enter my card into the Verve Customer Card Carnival!

The inspiration for this card came from this blog, which I discovered on my newest addiction, Pinterest!

Specs
Verve Stamps: Love Notes (front), Blessings (inside)
Other Stamps: Close to My Heart "Fringed Phrases"
Embossing Folders: Sizzix "Woodgrain", Sizzix "Plaid" (for the towels, which I flattened out to make it more subtle)