a stamping project you may not have considered...

Since this isn't the usual papercrafting project and the challenge this week at Paper Playtime is "Anything Goes," I thought this would be a good project to share.

So my daughter and I are signed up to do our first Relay for Life and I purchased some luminaries to decorate.  I was inspired to use my Close To My Heart stamping products on them and I was so impressed with how they turned out and how quickly and easily they came together.  As it turns out, the very day I had set aside to make the luminaries, someone very dear to my family was receiving a diagnosis so I left my stamps set up on the blocks, made a phone call to our team's organizer, and got some more  luminaries delivered right to my door and we're still making them so our loved one will have a big show of support right from day one! 


Here's a tip, though, use the liner that's used as backing in your stamp packages and slip it inside the bag so the folds and extra layers of the bag won't throw your stamped images off.  For this project I used the discontinued "Always Remember" and "Tiny Typewrite" stamps in Pear along with the Bohemian alphabet in Cotton Candy.

Happy (and heartfelt) crafting Annette

catching up with digital scrapbooking!

I know I'm not the only scrapbook enthusiast who feels "behind" but with my daughter having just finished high school I really want to spend this summer getting caught up and capturing all those memories while they're still fresh.  I also want to finish up all those projects I have started but not completed.  So with this goal in mind I sat down on Monday evening and went through the digital scrapbook projects I have started.  I saw I had a couple of projects that were nearly finished and they were from 2 years ago, and both featured my brother and his girlfriend.  Since she has a birthday in about a week, I challenged myself to finish these layouts and compete enough new ones to use a 5-pack code and get them in the mail in time for her birthday...  and thanks to Studio J I was able to get all 5 finished and purchased that evening and they are already in the mail and on their way!  I can't say enough good things about Studio J or how much I love it.  So enough of my chatter, here's a sneak peek at what the birthday girl will be getting this year (and if ads, etc. block any of the pics just click on the pics and you'll get to see them in a pop up screen).

One note, although there are plenty of journaling and caption options on Studio J, I didn't include any include any on the reunion pages for fear I would either spell someone's name wrong or get some of the names mixed up, but it's an easy fix to make and add labels and tags, even some "hidden" pull-out journaling tabs, once we have the printed layouts in hand. 

And you know something?  Just making a little dent in my list of to-do projects has let me ditch some of that guilt and really enjoy my favorite hobby again!  It's going to be a very productive and colorful summer at my house!

Happy crafting, Annette