American Girl Lady Bug Outfit

I am beginning to think I need to change the name of my blog from "Scrapbooking By Bethany" to " "Crafting By Bethany". Ever Since I could remember I have been doing crafts with my Mom. I learned to sew when I was 8 and the first "outfit" I made was for my baby Sister. I was so proud and my Mom tells me it fell apart right after this picture was taken.

 For the next 10 years I got hands on lessons, which at the time I HATED, if it was not right I had to take it out. But from  those lessons I learned, and they made me a better sewer.  I became more careful with my stitches and seams.  It was easier to do it right the first time than take it out and redo it. I then learned to crochet, knit, crossstitch, macramé, scrapbook, cardmaking, you name it I learned to do it. My recent endeavor has been bowmaking. It started when a friend said let's use up some of this ribbon we have from scrapbooking and learn to make bows. I got on YouTube and taught myself to make hairbows (funny craft for a Mom of 3 boys and a Grandson). So I now have 5 times more ribbon than when I started out. Go check out my Bow Page Tie A Bow On. Okay I have gotten way off topic here. While all I have is boys I do have two sweet Great-Nieces that are the love of my life. Cadence is almost 6 and in the full swing of loving her American Girl Doll. My Mom and I needing to stay on budget this Christmas decided we would start making some AG outfits. I got on Pintrest and found all these great sites with FREE PATTERNS! I hit PAYDIRT when I found this one. Okay now again off track.....Back to the Lady Bug outfit.  Now days making tutus go hand in hand with the bows  I decided to Make a Lady Bug Costume for Cay's Doll. This is what a ended up with:





I will post more of our outfits which includes upcycling my Mom and I's clothes.

You Are My Sunshine and So are You and You and You and You....

My previous post was about a layout I made for my youngest son, Benjamin. It was inspired by a layout in Creating Keepsakes and for a challenge in the Cheeky Chics Online Crop benefiting the Oklahoma tornado victims. The Creating Keepsakes layout was made from a kit by Simple Stories. The "sun" and "rays" in their layout  was one piece of paper and not pieced. Not having that kit I had to piece mine.  NOT as easy as I thought it would be,  BUT I LOVED LOVED how it came out. I knew I wanted to remake it for a page for my Great-Niece Mckenley. As I made Ben's page I was thinking this would have been easier if I had stacked all 6 of the color paper ( by Adornit) and cut them with my rotary cutter. After finishing Ben's I started MK's. By cutting them that way I had enough "rays" for 6 layouts. Like an assembly line I lined up the rays, glued them down then came the  sewing.  That gave me 6 layouts ready for pictures. This is the first time I duplicated a page more than once. While each one started out with the basic design each one ended up with a different look and hopefully a unique feel for the person the page is for.

Mckenley's Page (My Great-Niece)

Cadence's Page (My Great-Niece)

 

Jonathan's Page (My Middle Son) 

 

 Matthew's Page (My Oldest Son)

 

 Benjamin's Page (My Youngest Son)

 

You are my Sunshine!

There are some of my sons' pages that I did for them when I first started scrapping that "scream" at me to be reworked. Most of them are in Jon's album, his were the first pages I scrapped. Since I started scrapping in 2004, I have acquired A LOT of tools and toys that have made my scrapping "better". This Page of Ben's was one that I have wanted to rework. These pictures are some of my favorite of Ben and I knew they deserved a better page. I participated in an online crop this last weekend, It was hosted by Cheeky Chics to benefit The Tornado Victims of Oklahoma. One of the challenges was to have a sun in it and have yellow. I knew that was "my call" to rework Ben's page. I LOVE LOVE how it came out. The paper and embellishments are all Adornit . I used a layout from the July/August issue of Creating Keepsakes as a guide. The sun "rays" were not as easy to cut out as I thought they would be. I think I'm going to recreate this for some pictures of my Great-Niece. When I do that one I'm going to stack all 6 colors of papers and cut them at the same time with a rotary cutter. LOL so I will have enough rays for 6 layouts. 

The Original Page

 

The New Page





Little Red Car

This layout is my oldest son when he was 14 months old. The big red car belonged to my Sister-in-law Janie. It is a 1982 Trans Am that was a High School graduation present from her father. At the time she was just dating my brother and we had no idea how important she would become in our lives. The little red car was Matthew's favorite toy.

The paper is Echo Park from their Little Boy collection. The inspiration of the layout was from pinterest. The font is Cricut  Mickey Font welded on the Cricut Craftroom and cut out on the Cricut Expression. I printed 3 of the pictures. The first one I used as the base photo, the second one I cut around the big red car and my son on his car. The third one I just cut out my son on his car, I pop dotted the top two layers. It doesn't show much in the photo but it really makes it pop.

Ribbon Storage

New Boxes for storing my ribbon....after I started making bows (which I started doing to use up some of the ribbon I bought for scrapbooking) I started buying MORE ribbon...isn't that how it works out....who knew there was so much CUTE ribbon out there. So the boxes I was using in my post below was not working out...there was too much space at the top so if they got turned over...well it just would have been a BIG mess... My Mom found these at Costco for me and they are perfect...there was a space between the two rows of ribbon  I just took a 12X12 piece of cardstock and folded it into the long tube. I used my ATG gun to stick it down (double sided taped would work). I have them separated by color and then I have one that is all the ones printed with designs or characters.

 



This picture was taken about a month ago....LOL...I have one whole containers filled with just pink ribbon...and another with the printed...

Ribbon Organization Project

I saw where a fellow scrapper organized her ribbon by doing this....Okie's Ribbon Storage. I really like how it came out and thought I REALLY NEED to do for my ribbon. But I didn't have the plastic that she used for the bobbins and it freaked me out a bit on how long it seemed to take her. THEN I was reading a Hair Bow blog this week where the title of her post was "Get Organized Using What You Have"...This lady used 3x5 cards...I thought I have LOTS of 3x5 cards leftover from when my boys were in school and used them to make flashcards to help them study. SOOOOO my project for this last Sunday was to organize my ribbon...

First take 2 3X5 index cards and fold them in half...

Next Staple to hold it closed...one worked for me...

Then I taped one end of my ribbon and started wrapping.....

Keep wrapping until it is full and i used another piece of tape to keep it put...you could pin it or use a rubber band....

 I then used the storage container that I had stored my ribbon rolls in...I'm going to buy ones that are not so tall down the road....I went from 3 of these full, plus a ribbon bag...plus rolls stored here and there to two of these....organized by color....

DONE!!!

Pixie Hallow "BEAUTIFUL"

Layout for the "Strut Your Cuts" Challenge over at Scrappy-Go Lucky week 6. This layout is using Tinkerbell and Friends. This picture of my Great-Niece Cadence was taken last year at Epcot's Flower Festival. I've been meaning to get it scrapped BUT I "hate" piecing those little fairies!!! So again this challenge was a good kick in the butt to get a much needed layout done. I LOVE how it came out.

Supplies Used:
Plain Cardstock: Core-dinations
Pattern Paper: The paper with the fairy on it and the pink flower paper is from DCWV "Once Upon A Time" stack the purple swirl is Cloud9 "Pixie Hallow"
Cricut: Disney's Tinkerbell and Friends Cartridge ...Iridessa2 page 60 cut at 3.5"....Silvermist1 page 64 cut at 4"...Beautiful page 56 filigree feature cut at 10" (lenght setting)
Prima Flowers
Buttons
Signo Gel Pen

Ruffled Baby Dress

A few weeks ago my Mom prints off this crochet pattern and hands it to me. She said why don't you make one like this. I quickly read the pattern and thought that looks a bit hard, I put it aside. Last week we made a Hobby Lobby run, I thought let me get some yarn and try that dress. I think this is now my new favorite crochet pattern! It worked up really easy. This one is for my Best Friends Daughter (my fake Niece Sam's baby girl Sophia.) For those that don't know my "real" Niece Becky is expecting a girl in April and my "fake" Niece Sam  is expecting a girl in March ( actually I've already called it she is going to be born on my birthday). I've already made them each a blanket, a dress, and a few diaper covers. This is where I got the pattern ... Ruffled Baby Dress.

P.S. This is my "fake" baby....

XOXO

HUGS and KISSES for Cadence

Another layout for the challenge over at "Scrappy-Go-Lucky" Strut Your Cuts where they give you a list of 5 cartridges every week and you have to use only those cartridges for your layout. I've done one every week and it has really been fun. Sometimes VERY challenging because the cartridge I had from the list had no font on them to use for a title but it really made me look at the layout in a different light. It has gotten me to do layouts that have been needing to get done and MOST of all it is getting me to use my cartridges!!!

This week the only one I had from the 5 was Paisley. I've had this cartridge for about a year now and have not made a single cut from it. Whenever I think about that cartridge the image of the nesting dolls come to mind. BUT when I took a look at it this week I was surprised at how many CUTE images there were on it. Two layouts came to mind to do BUT as life happens for me this has not been a good week. My vertigo has been off the charts and no crafting happened. All day yesterday I kept thinking I NEED to get at least one done but I had a migraine that I could not shake. I went to bed early hoping that this morning I could get it done...since the time difference between Florida and Australia I had a little less than 3 hours to get it done then blogged....tick tick tick....

Here it the layout....I still need to journal on it but I wanted to make sure I got it before the deadline...tick tick....

SUPPLIES USED:
Plain Cardstock : Core-dinations and some shiny cardstock that I've had
Pattern Paper: K & Company "Jubilee Pink and Teal Collage" and "Jubilee Pink and Blue Collage"
"LaceBorder" is some that a good friend sent me...it is from DIY Craft it is self adhesive tape
Cricut Paisley Cartridge....Lipstick cut at 3.5" and OXOX cut at 2" both are shadowed....

Layout Sketch is from Sketch Inspirations Sketch # 305
tick...tick I need to stop now and post.... I have 13 minutes to post it...tick.... tick....

Valentines for Cadence

For all who don't know, Cadence is my 4 year old Great-Niece. Her Grandmother is my younger sister and her father is my Nephew. My sister is 8 years younger than I am, I have 1 older brother and 2 younger brothers  by the time she came along I wanted a sister so bad.  I even told my Mom that if it was another boy I was going to run away from home. *smile don't know where I would have gone but I guess in my 8 year old brain anyplace was better than home with 4 brothers*  My Nephew is 6 months younger than my middle son Jon and they were joined at the hip growing up, so much so that one year I teased my sister that I was going to claim my Nephew on my taxes that year. I said all that to explain that she belongs to two very important people in my life and I see both of them in her. In fact the first time I changed her I looked at her and said "I used to change your Grandma's diapers and it sure didn't seem like 40 years ago".  Her father is in the Army deployed to Afghanistan at the time. To help her mom out Cadence spend a lot of time with my Mom and I, even more reason that I'm extremely close to her.  *as you can probably tell scrolling through my blog of all the scrapbook pages I do of her*

So back to the Valentine's....I saw this idea in magazine in my doctor's office then again on Pinterest.

SUPPLIES USED:
Plain Cardstock is Paper Company Linen Textured Cardstock.
Pattern Paper is a mix of Paper from a DCWV Spring Stack and Valentine Paper from Hobby Lobby.
Sentiment is Computer Generated using Friday Freebie Font From Creating Keepsakes Limerick Font.

I used my We R Memory Keepers Big Bite to make the holes by her hands

The picture is a bit distorted because of the lolly pop :)

Ironman Layouts

Last year in  May my middle son Jon did the Rohto Ironman 70.3 out at Ft.Wilderness Disney World. This was his first Ironman 70.3. I am just now getting around to scrapping this event for him. I got the kick in the butt that I needed from the "Strut Your Cuts Challenge" over at Scrappy-Go-Lucky. This is week four in the challenge. It has really helped me get some layouts done. So far I have done 25 for the year.

SUPPLIES USED:
Plain Cardstock: Core-dinations
Pattern Paper: Bike Paper is by Paper Loft "Red Bicycle". Runner Paper is by Karen Foster "Runner Blocks". Born to Run Paper is by Karen Foster "Persistence Pays Off". The Ironman 70.3 and the First 70.3 paper is the Custom Triathlon Paper from Scrap Your Trip. I got both of the Karen Foster paper from SYT also. Small piece of notebook paper is from Creative Memories.
Cricut: Sports Mania Cartridge... Swimmer pg. 68 cut at 3.5"x2 ( I sized on my gypsy to fit area)...runner page 46 frame feature cut at 2.5"...Clipboard page 72 shift cut at 2.75" I cut it twice out of two different paper then cut out the "clip" part. I then cut the "notebook paper" to fit the space to write his stats on it.
MISC: Stopwatch Charm Karen Foster

Swim Page

Bike Page

Run Page

Finish Page

Congrats/Cheer Team Page

Bib Numbers Layout

I was excited to see the cartridge "Sports Mania" listed as one of the 5 cartridges on the challenge over at Scrappy-Go-Lucky Strut Your Cuts...where you are challenged to use your cartridges. I have been needing a BIG KICK IN THE BUTT to work on some layouts for my son Jon. He runs in marathons and did an Ironman last year that I have not scrapped yet. First Layout is a page for his BIB NUMBERS and then a POCKET PAGE for his bib numbers. I did the Bib Numbers page so he could write his stats on the journal spaces.

Supplies Used:
Plain Cardstock:  Coredinations
Pattern Paper: Bib Numbers Paper, Karen Foster "Marathon Numbers"...Blue Stripe Paper is paper from a DCWV Winter Stack from several years ago....Strip of Blocks is left over from a layout I did the other day from Kay and Company "Hopscotch Boy".
Cricut: Sports Mania Cartridge....Boy Runners Border Feature (page 46) I manipulated on my Gypsy to fit my space it was cut at 9"wide by 4.75"high. .

Bib Number Page:

Bib Number Pocket Page:



OWIE!!!

I made this layout for a challenge over at Scrappy-Go-Lucky Blog,  Called strut your cuts where you are challenged to use your cartridges. The only one I had on the list was "B is for Boy".  It was not until this afternoon that a layout came to mind so I missed the deadline in playing along but I went ahead and made my layout anyway as that is what this challenge is about to me....GETTING LAYOUTS MADE :).

This is for my middle son Jon's album. Jon's album was the first one I did when I started scrapping. He was graduating from high school that spring and I made it for his graduation party. Because it was my first and BEFORE my Cricut his pages are not my best, something he reminds me when he looks at it. I have decided that over time I will redo the pages but also keep the original ones to remind me how far I have come in my scrapping.

The story behind the pictures is: On Christmas Eve 2001 as we were getting ready to sit down for family Christmas eve dinner Jon and his Cousin Josh were out in the street jumping ramps with their bikes. Jon wiped-out and this was the result. The pictures were taken the next day, Christmas morning. The next day he left to go march in the Peach Bowl Parade in Atlanta, GA with his High School band.  The day of the parade his face was so swollen that his eyes were about shut BUT he still marched! Things memories are made of!

Supplies used:

Plain Cardstock: Coredinations

Pattern Paper: K & Company "Hopscotch Boy"

Cricut: B is for Boy Band-aids cut at 2.5" and 3" because it didn't have a shadow feature I hand cut one myself. Owie is cut at 2.75" and then at 3" for a shadow.

Signo Uni-ball White gel pen for accents on letters and band-aids.



First Bath

I'm back to working on Cadence's album.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Plain Cardstock Coredinations, pink cardstock on bathtub is from a stack that I've had forever, it was already embossed with tiny dots.

Pattern Paper: The bubble paper is some I have had and it does not have any brand on it and I'm not even sure where I got it. One of those papers that when I saw it I "knew would be good for a baby's bath layout".

Cricut: Elegant Edges, Dots 1, Page 34 cut "fit to page" for the bubble paper then the white frame was the frame feature.

Baby Steps for the bathtub cut at 4". The" first" was cut from "first tooth" page 33 phrase and phrase layer. I then cut off the tooth part but left a little bit to layer the bath on. The "bath" was cut from "bubble bath" page 38 phrase and phrase feature with the bubble cut off. I then layers both together.

I then cut another "foamy bubble" to cover her nakedness.

Misc: Liquid Glass to glaze the letters and bubbles

"Skittles" for bubble accents

Signo Uni-Ball white gel pen for accents



Birthday Cards From Birthday Cards

I had a box of greeting cards that I bought a few years back from a school fund raiser. You know the ones that you buy because you love your Nieces and Nephews not because you want the cards. I think I bought them even before I started making cards, being the type pf person that doesn't like to throw out something that "might be" used  "someday". Well that "someday" came yesterday when I was cleaning out and I really had to make a decision about them. I know that my friends and family expect a homemade card from me and if I gave them a store bought one they would be offended. I decided that I would "play" with them and see what I could come up with. Here are my cards from cards....

 Used some of "scraps" for the background.  Fussy cut the Bear & Sentiment. Added ribbon.

Scraps for background papers, cut around the cake and sentiment.

                     Scraps for Background papers, fussy cut the vase and sentiment, added ribbon.

Had 2 of these cards so I cut out the first background, then cut just the flower of the second one and pop-dotted that one. Cut out sentiment and put it on a strip of the background paper. I computer generated the sentiment on the inside, which reads "Grow Wild".

"ICE" 2011

Another Layout for the "Strut Your Cuts" Challenge over at this blog. The challenge is to use your cartridges. This is my second layout of the week using the "Graphically Speaking" cartridge.

MY youngest son, Benjamin, LOVES Shrek so when he found out that Ice this year was going to be Shrek themed he wanted to go so he bought tickets to take me for a day out for my Christmas present. After seeing the Ice show we hung out at the hotel for a while seeing all the other Christmas decorations then he took me out to lunch,  we even hit Ikea on the way home.

SUPPLIES:
Cardstock:
Plain cardstock is from a stack that I bought a while back that is textured. I don't have the cover so I don't know who makes it.
The shiny plain white and blue that is used in the title and for the photo mats are from a stack called "Effects Papercrafts" by Canson. I got it at Michaels about 2 years ago.
The pattern paper is from "Me & My Big Ideas" Modern Milan stack.
Cricut:
Graphically Speaking Cartridge cut at 4"
Punch:
Martha Stewart Drippy Goo Punch
Misc: 
The "ICE" with the Shrek and "at Gaylord Palms 2011" was cut from a post card that I bought at the show.
Sketch:
Sketch #302 from Sketch Inspirations.

I also used Picasa to make a collage of the photos in the bottom two photos so I could fit all them in one layout.

Petie "Priceless"

I had to take a few days off of making layouts. This is what happens in my life, I get on a roll then my vertigo kicks in. I had to take it easy for a few days or else I would end up spinning so bad that I would wind up in bed for days :(.

I took a break from Cadence's baby album to make this Layout. I'm going to try and play along with the challenge over on this blog to use your carts. One of the choices this week was Graphically Speaking. When this cart came out I wanted it so bad but I've only used it a few times. I looked through the book tonight and two Layouts came to mind.

Supplies used:

Plain Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Cardstock
Pattern Paper: Adornit Pet Christmas Line ( I don't know where I got this but I wish I had more)

Cricut Cartridge: Graphically Speaking "Priceless" cut at 2.5"( it didn't have the shadow feature for that cut so I just cut a "shadow" myself.)

Misc sticker is from Creative Memories

Journaling Font is Lucida Handwriting.

"Mommy & Me" AND "Daddy & Me"

Moving right along on Cadence's book the next two pages are of her with her Mom and Dad while they were still in the hospital.

Supplies used:
For these I used Doodlebug "Let's Kit Together" Baby Girl Kit. It made the Layouts very easy.

Normally I don't use stickers on my pages but like the looks of these.

"Waiting For Cadence" & "She's Here"

Here are the next two pages in Cadence's Book.

Supplies Used:
Cardstock DCWV Pastel Stack
Pattern Paper DCWV Spring Stack from and few years ago
Buttons and Baker's twine ( I won the Baker's twine from a Blog post and it's my first time using it)

Cricut Cartridges:
A Child's Year for Title Welded on Gypsy
New Arrival for Journal tags ( card 3 feature)

Journaling Font:
Limerick from Free Font Friday's over at Creating Keepsakes .

Layouts design based on Sketch from Sketch Inspirations
Sketch # 243 for "Waiting For Cadence" and Sketch #301 for "She's Here"

"Getting Ready For Baby"

This is my Nephew Josh just before his daughter Cadence was born. They decided one day he needed to practice getting a baby dressed. Poor Kitty Jinx got to be the lucky one to be his choice to practice his dressing skills.

Supplies Used:
Paper Doodlebug "Let's Kit Together" Baby Girl Kit

Cricut Cartridges:
Plantin Schoolbook for the Letters they were cut out at 1", 1.25" and 1.5".
Baby Steps for the buggy I cut off the baby so I could place Kitty in there cut at 4.5"
Meow for the Kitty It is the kitty with the bird with the bird cut off cut at 3"

Journaling is Limerick from Creative Keepsakes Free Font Friday