MFT

Off On A Wander

~ dddesignz ~ 2 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all! This scrapbook page is my 2024 Valentine’s tribute to my loving husband and partner of 43 years! Thank you for making me stretch my skills and push through barriers I never thought possible. I will treasure this travel memory for the rest of my life, and I couldn’t have done it without you….

We’ve had the good fortune to travel quite a bit in 2023. Of all our adventures, this five-and-a-half-hour hike in Zermatt, Switzerland, is now considered epic in our memories. We planned a day to complete the Five Lake Trail, offering unforgettable views of the Matterhorn. Our original plans, as laid out by our hotel concierge, were to take the underground funicular to Sunnegga and then switch to a gondola to Blauherd. From Blauherd, we were to follow the hiking trails down the mountain, visiting the five beautiful lakes.

But all good travel plans can quickly go awry, and this day was no exception! The underground funicular was a quick and easy ride to Sunnegga. The gondola, however, had been shut down for the season just two days before our arrival. Not being travellers to be easily discouraged, we quickly rearranged our plans and decided that if we couldn’t hike down, we would hike UP! It seemed like a sensible decision at the time! With the original hiking time estimated at two-and-a-half hours going down the mountain, we estimated it would likely take us three hours to go up and around the trail. Amateurs! Ha! If we only knew, would we have started at all?

We did not plan nor pack a lunch for our hike. Armed with water bottles and a small bag of peanuts, we hit the trail confident that we would complete the journey as planned. My husband, who moves like a gazelle on the slopes, thoroughly enjoyed his day. I, on the other hand, have a severe fear of heights. The literature describing this hike identified the hike as “easy – with a few moderately difficult sections”. Hmmm, while there were some manageable sections, there were times we had to follow the “Alpine Trail”, with very narrow dirt paths, more switchbacks than Italy, and protruding boulders that made the path extremely narrow. Thank goodness for my husband and his patience and humour that kept me going step after step! I won’t lie; we did have moments when we wondered if we would ever find our way back.

Thank goodness for Google Maps and faith that the Sunnegga station would come into view eventually. As we got closer to the station, in quite a challenging section of the trail, we came across an elderly (80+ years old) gentleman and his daughter sitting on a lookout bench. The only way these two arrived at the lookout was to climb. How he managed it, I will never know. But I was so thankful to see him there. I knew then that I, too, would make it back! Our reward on arriving at Sunnegga (aside from the fantastic pictures we took along the way) was a fabulous bowl of pasta for lunch. Add in two Gaterades and two coffees, and it only cost us the equivalent of over $100 Canadian. Nothing in Switzerland is cheap! Quite frankly, I was starved and so relieved to be back that I didn’t care what it cost then!

For those interested in my design process, I turned to Paper Rose Studio’s Artsy Print collection for the layout’s background. This paper collection is stunning! I chose the title Off on a Wander from Peartree Cutfiles. It was a phrase that assisted me in poking a little fun at our lengthy hike!

After cutting the title in white cardstock, I created another in black cardstock, offsetting it slightly to help it stand out on the page. The letters in the title were ink blended with two shades of ink from Papertrey Ink (Tropical Teal and Hawaiian Shores). I was looking for a very bold title effect on this layout and chose to outline each letter with white and black twine to achieve this effect.

I triple-matted my photo to coordinate the colours in the image and the background paper. I utilized another cut file from Peartree Cutfiles, entitled Leaves Buildable 2. Two of the leaves in this cut file became the black anchor for the cluster of colourful leaves on the bottom left-hand side of the design.

I die-cut additional leaves using Die-Namics from My Favorite Things (Grand Greenery and Grande Greenery). I cut three leaves from felt to add visual texture and interest and die-cut the remaining leaves from coloured cardstock. Once the leaves were all cut and ready to assemble, I backed one of the larger black leaves with black foam from Scrapbook Adhesives. The leaves were then layered and adhered to the background paper.

I added some paint splatters using a Tim Holtz stencil entitled Splatters using Mermaid Lagoon and Peacock Feather Distress Inks. For the final touches, I included the Day Trip ephemera from 49 and Market’s Everywhere Laser Cut Elements and the enamel dots from a mixture of Carta Bella, Your Next Stamp Gumdrops and Doodlebug Designs Winter Assortment Sprinkles.

And that’s a wrap on how I’ve memorialized this epic vacation adventure! I have no regrets about taking on this challenging and fulfilling hike. I will be forever grateful for my husband’s patience, perseverance and love that helped me overcome my fears that day. Would I do it again? Not likely! My mountain climbing days are over until the next great adventure presents itself!

I wish you all the very best this Valentine’s and thank you for stopping by to read about our travel shenanigans. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Happy Happy Day

~ dddesignz ~ 1 Comment

Oh, the excitement of turning 4! Ben waited in anticipation of his 4th birthday for many weeks. When the day finally arrived, it did not disappoint! You can see his excitement in all these pictures. In fact, it was quite contagious! It’s funny how we don’t get quite this excited about our birthdays as we get older. We truly should take a lesson from these younger folk, and get the most out of every special occasion. Carpe Diem, friends!

As I began to design this double-page layout, I knew I wanted something bold, bright and reflective of Ben’s excitement. Ben was wearing a T-shirt I made for his big day. Green is his favourite colour, hence the bright lime green T-shirt! I turned to an older Doodlebug Designs paper and embellishment collection called Dragon Tails to coordinate with his T-shirt. In addition to the patterned paper, I chose to add stencilling as one technique to help offset some of the white space and also to help create the mood of the layout. I chose 3 ink colours that coordinated perfectly with the paper to achieve this look. Using one of Vicki Boutin’s Radiate Stencils, from the Color Study collection, I randomly placed these colourful images across both pages.

I created my own cut file in Silhouette Studio for the number 4 and enlarged the cut file to fit within the borders of a 12′ x 12′ piece of white cardstock. Before cutting out the number, I used the offset function to highlight the outline of the number. This outline was then turned into a stitching file. You will find an excellent tutorial on turning your cut files into stitching files here. Once the cut file was completed, I stitched the bright blue border around the number 4 using DMC thread. I then selected 8 coordinating patterned papers from the Dragon Tails collection and cut them into 1/2″ strips. Using fringe scissors, I cut across the strips leaving a 1/4″ border free at the top. Double-sided tape was added to the back of each fringed piece along the 1/4″ top border. I cut a spare piece of plain paper slightly larger than the number 4 and began adding the strips to the spare paper, overlapping them to hide the plain 1/4″ border. The completed piece was then positioned and secured to the back of the cut file. I love the dimension this resulted in!

In addition to scrapbooking, I also make approximately 150 cards a year for family and friends. Nothing makes me happier than maximizing the use of my supplies across both these paper crafting passions. This layout is an excellent example, as I utilized several stamps and die sets to complete this design. These fun balloons belong to a Simon Says Stamp! collection created by Cathy Zielske called Balloon Greetings. All of the sentiments on the balloons belong to this set with the exception of the CELEBRATE sentiment. This sentiment belongs to a Concord & 9th stamp set called POP-UP PAR-TAY. Each balloon was then inked around its edges with coordinating ink.

The word WISH was created using a die cut from My Favourite Things. This die was also part of my card-making supplies. I chose 4 coordinating patterned papers from the Dragon Tails line to create this. Craft foam was glued to the back of each of the letters in WISH and all of the balloons to create more dimension in the layout. The final touches included adhering the small colourful Sprinkletz Embellishments (called Beach Balls) from Buttons Galore & More over both pages, and adding the present to the bottom of the page. The small Beach Balls were a perfect fit to coordinate with the stencilled images. The present came from the Dragon Tails coordinating odds & ends ephemera package.

Well, that’s a wrap on my design process for this layout. I hope I’ve inspired you to try a few new techniques on your next layout. May all your celebrations be as much fun as this one was! Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Corn Maze

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Last fall Lindsay, Bill and I had the opportunity to take Ben to the Apple Land Station Corn Maze. This outing was a big deal – Covid restrictions meant this sweet boy had missed out on many fun activities in his early years. It was a perfect autumn day to experience this with him, and Ben loved it! It didn’t take Ben long to figure out the maze, but he had fun pretending that he was confused and didn’t know the way back out. I love how this layout captures the sheer joy of being a child and the precious memories we shared that we will cherish for a lifetime.

To create this double-page layout I combined two cut files from the Silhouette Design Store. I started with the Fun Maze Game, Design ID #8489 and used my Silhouette design space to blow it up as large as possible to fit on this layout. The end result was a cut file approximately 11″ x 13 “. I then laid the maze on the white cardstock to determine the best positioning to cut it vertically. Once the maze was secured to the background of both pages, I used sticky notes to map out the path of the machine stitching to mimic physically walking through the maze. 

Next, I cut two corn stalks from three coordinating pieces of beige cardstock to create a frame for the layout. This cut file is called Corn Stalk and is Design ID #12866. Each completed corn stalk was firmly secured at the bottom, but the tops were left free to provide texture and the illusion of depth and movement. 

To put the finishing touches on this layout I used Cork Chipboard Thickers to add the Corn Maze title. I utilized my 12″ x 12″ Memory Misti to add some stamping to the design. Using an older My Favorite Things (MFT) stamp collection entitled You’re Amazing, I stamped the START, FINISH and the You’re A-maze-ing sub-title directly on the white cardstock. I had several pictures to add to this layout and still wanted to add some journalling for Ben to reflect on in the coming years. Because I didn’t want to distract from the overall design at this stage, I included hidden journaling by sliding a tag behind one of the pictures (pictured on the left-hand side of the double page). I used another MFT product entitled Scallop X-Stitch Tag to make this tag. A gold ribbon was secured to the top of the tag for easy access to the journaling card. 

These moments will be cherished for years to come. Fast forward to a year later, and this sweet boy and his family are now living in Austria. Rather than be sad about it, we’ll look for new ways to make memories when we are together!

Thanks for stopping by today, and until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

Hugs

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There are times we feel helpless when friends are hurting. Life can be so hard sometimes. Add a pandemic into the mix, and those who suffer can feel isolated and alone. Reaching out to them is helpful in any form. Today I felt the need to let someone I know how much I love and care for them. Making and sending a card is such an easy thing to do when you can’t physically be with them.

The pretty papers in this card came from Cocoa Vanilla Studio‘s These Days collection. I often purchase the A5 Paper Stack in these collections, as they are excellent for card making. I chose butterfly paper to cover the whole card front. Next, I used two Stitched Scallop Basic Edged 2 dies (currently not available) from My Favorite Things to shape the soft green leafy paper.

The HUGS sentiment comes from Papertrey Ink, and I have had it in my collection for at least a decade. It is a timeless set that I will continue to use for many years to come. I purchased the coordinating stamp set for these dies and used the word SENDING for the front of the card. Each letter of the word HUGS has intricate cutouts. I wanted these cutouts filled with coordinating colours of this collection. The easiest and quickest way to achieve this was to cut the coordinating papers and back these sections. I layered the completed die cut on fun foam to provide a bit of texture and dimension to the card.

The final touch was adding a few hearts from the These Days Puffy Stickers sheet. I’m very happy with the end result and hope my friend feels the love I’m sending with it.

Thanks for stopping by, and until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!

You’re How Old?

~ dddesignz ~ 2 Comments

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! Because he’s older than I, I always like to tease him over his age. I’m always willing to let him go first in the age game, so generous of me!

This year, I’ve challenged myself to use more of my cut files to make cards. It is a great way to stretch the investment in your electronic cut files. I used the Balloons cut file from Confessions of a Paper Addict (COAPA) to make this card.

I resized the cut file in Silhouette software to fit the front of the card, and then cut it from black cardstock. I chose coordinating papers from the Harvest Festival collection by Honey Bee Stamps for the card base and the balloons. I love the vibrant colours in the balloons.

The next step was to emboss the greeting “You’re How Old?” on the card front. This stamp belongs to the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set by My Favorite Things (MFT). I then used adhesive foam to layer the balloons to the front of the card. I wanted the tails of the balloons to flow freely from the card, providing more texture and movement.

The final touch was adding some sequins in different hues of orange to coordinate with the balloons. I adhered them to the card front using Glossy Accents, as it provides an extremely firm hold. Overall, I found this card quite quick and easy to pull together.

Thanks for stopping in today, I hope I’ve encouraged you to look at using your cut files in new and different ways. Until next time, stay safe, stay well, and Happy Scrapping!