Monthly Moments: June...

Papertrey Ink's Monthly Moments team is up today to share with you the FAB new products coming out this month! The June journaling cards are to die for, the colors are so fun. I hope you'll agree! I couldn't help but make another mini album, it just came together so effortlessly with these great things to work with.

The base of the album is made from the new Monthly Moments: June Journal Cards. On the front cover, I used the new Monthly Moments: June stamps and dies ("snapshots", the arrow, "lazy days" are all stamped).

On the first page, I couldn't help sharing this picture I took yesterday on my birthday at sunset. This photo captured so many things I love...being outdoors, sunshine, the sunset, the color red, flowers on my deck, summer. And behind the photo - one of my favorite papers EVER! That stripe!

Next, in my album I wanted to add some of our SUMMER bucket list items. We have a lot of them, so I made 2 pages with the new Journal Card 2 and Journal Card 3 dies!  I might actually add a couple more pages to this for more bucket list items.

Isn't it cute how you can check them off when completing them? (Page 2 of our summer bucket list.)

To dress up the ends of these die cut journal cards, I used the new Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamps and dies ("love this" and "makes me happy" tabs).

Next is a larger page with one of the 4x6" Journal Cards. Another use of the Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamp set to draw your eye to the cute photo of my Kati and her new friend Cassidy. Of course I had to document pool days. We'll be spending lots of days at the pool this summer.

(Tab up close.) Kati met a new friend at the end of the school year. She rode her bus, and we just found out she lives right around the corner and is also going into 4th grade!

Next, I added some photos of our recent trip to Grand Lake, CO last week. See the little striped end on my photo? This was cut with a new die called Journal Card Borders. (There are 4 different borders in this set.)

Under these 3 photos is the journaling that goes with it. I attached two small cards together to make it longer.

My in-laws were here visiting for the last 3 weeks from NY. We have been doing mini outings and took the 4-day trip to Grand Lake together. They just left yesterday. When we came back from the mountains, we took the girls to the Wildlife Museum to see the 3D movie The Arctic at the IMAX and out to lunch for the last day.

Last is just a fun page made with the Monthly Moments: Tabbed stamps. You could journal on the back if you wish.

I've taken over 900 pics this month. I wish I could put them ALL in my album! I'm sure I'll add more as the month goes on, or choose some more from our Grand Lake trip to add. We saw a gorgeous waterfall and went to the Rocky Mountains to see the tops of the mountains. Did you know it's considered tundra up there? Anyway...hope you enjoyed these ideas with the Monthly Moments: June products. You can grab them at www.papertreyink.com on June 15th at 10pm EST. 

Want to see more projects with the Monthly Moments: May items? Visit: Ashley Cannon Newell, Heather Nichols, Melissa Phillips, and Nichole Heady.

June mini album:

(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)
STAMPS: Monthly Moments: June, Monthly Moments: Tabbed
INK: Enchanted Evening, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Spring Rain by PTI, Soft Granite by Hero Arts
PAPER:  Monthly Moments: June Journal Cards, white and Aqua Mist cardstock
DIES: Monthly Moments: June die, Monthly Moments: Tabbed dies, Journal Card 2 die, Journal Card 3 die
OTHER: Graphite mist by Tattered Angels, brads and buttons - On Trend by Crate Paper, clothespins - Pebbles, pearl - Melissa Frances.

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autumn bursts of color...

Wanted to pop in and say hello to everyone out there. I know I don't post much as far as personal things go, and I want to change that. Tell me, do you prefer to see just scrapbooking work? Or other things as well? I've often wondered. I want to blog more as well...I know the 'ole blog has not been very busy around here. Feels like I haven't gotten to craft just for fun in a long time. Hoping to change that too!

Our fall has been extremely busy! Seems like this time of year goes so fast with school functions, activities after school, homework, my daughter's birthday is coming up (her 14th!), Halloween and Thanksgiving. Before you know it, Christmas will be here! Eeek! We are getting adjusted to life in Colorado and just love it SO MUCH! The people here are wonderful. I'm feeling at home and getting settled. We went home to visit my family over fall break recently, and it was refreshing to get a little dose of my mom again. The girls are meeting friends and having sleepovers. Seemed like it just took some time to feel like we were "home" in our new home and area. Now I'm working on getting my scrap room going and getting organized. THEN I will really feel at home and can start crafting just for fun again. I'm getting there! Promise to start blogging more with projects just because. Most of all, I wanted to say thank you for sticking with me during the past six months of this transition in our life. It was a big one, but we are so happy! xo

Holiday photo finishers...

Papertrey Ink has a gorgeous new stamp set and coordinating dies coming out on the 15th for all of your holiday photo needs - it's called Holiday Photo Finishers. There are so many ways you can use this set to dress up your holiday cards!

I chose to keep it super simple, as I usually send out 60 photos or more during the holidays. I know we are all busy with shopping and planning, wrapping and entertaining, so I wanted this to be an easily replicated project.

For my holiday photo, I decided to wrap a little sentiment around the photo with twine. This is actually our photo from last year, we have yet to get a photo of us for this year!

Here is another example. This is a very inexpensive project, because you can have 4x6 photos printed for about $.10 each, and the stamps of course you can use over and over again.

Here is the tag up close:
And on the back of the tag, I stamped some swirls from the set and signed it, "Love, The Flanders".

I think it just adds a quick touch of holiday cheer!

I'll show you how I made these! First punch circles from white cardstock with a 2" paper punch. Grab an ink blending tool (this is the one I use), dip it in your brown ink pad and swirl the brown ink around the edges of the tag. Using the blending tool will give you a nice soft effect.

Next, stamp the brown swirl.

Last, stamp the circular saying in Pure Poppy ink over the top.

Punch a hole and wrap tag around photo with twine. Don't forget to dress up the back and sign your name.

The envelopes are stamped too with a saying in Smokey Shadow ink, holly in Ripe Avocado ink and berries in Pure Poppy ink. The top candy cane lines are from the Candy Cane Christmas set that you saw a few days ago on my blog.

Sending Christmas Cheer holiday photos:

Stamps: Holiday Photo Finishers

Ink: Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Smokey Shadow, light brown by Ranger

Paper: white cardstock

Dies: none

Other: 2" punch by Fiskars, twine, envelopes, Tim Holtz blending tool, twine by The Twinery.

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I have another quick card to show you. I used a Pink Paislee's 6x6 paper from the Vintage Vogue line and added a small strip of Melissa Frances crepe paper in the center, the fringed kind of crepe paper. Then I hot glued a few tiny ribbon roses inside the crepe paper and stamped a sentiment and swirls on top.

Roses are made with Papertrey Ink's Raspberry Fizz twill tape 3/8".

Peace and Joy card:

Stamps: Holiday Photo Finishers

Ink: True Black, Smokey Shadow

Paper: Vintage Vogue 6x6 paper pad by Pink Paislee

Dies: none

Other: crepe paper by Melissa Frances, ribbon by Papertrey Ink, twine by Twinery.

By the way, the snowflakes you see in my photos are new dies as well! LOVE! I cut a few out of felt and can't wait to add them to a project. Thank you so much for visiting today. Now hop on over to see what the rest of the design team has done with this stamp set...

Betsy Veldman  

Dawn McVey  

Erin Lincoln  

Heather Nichols  

Jessica Witty  

Lisa Johnson  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips
Michelle Wooderson
Nichole Heady

our trip to the Black Hills...

Hey there! I'm back from vacation and I have so much to tell you! Sorry for my blog absence. It was nice to get away, take a break from everything and just spent time with family. We visited my family in South Dakota for about 10 days and then had a couple days home and left again for Maine with my husband's family to the beach. So many great memories made once again! I LOVE summer!!

I wanted to share a few pics from our trips and I'll post more on Facebook soon! Many of you know I'm originally from the Black Hills in South Dakota and lived there for almost 30 years. There is just nothing like it there...if you ever get a chance to visit the area and love to be outdoors, you need to hike Harney Peak. It's amazing. A brochure I read there said it's the highest peak between the Colorado Rockies and the Swiss Alps. It's 6 miles round trip and SO BEAUTIFUL! This is me and my daughter Taylor on our way to the top. It takes about 3-4 hours to get to the top and is quite a grueling hike (well for me. ha), but so worth the views. Coming back down only took about an hour. I was surprised she wanted to go, but she actually did better than I did! :) I wish I had as much energy as her again.

Here we are getting ready for the hike. My aunt and uncle from Minnesota came with their kids, my brother and his family and us.

The path was simple at first (and a little misleading), but it turned very rocky. We saw gorgeous wildflowers everywhere we looked in differing colors, shapes and sizes...

My guy and my brother in the background checking out the views...

My brother and his cute family. He has two boys, so they love to do this hike every year.

Here's a view from the top. You can see for miles!

I loved how the trees looked from above...

At the top...

See the little people in the middle (below)? That was our clan. We sat on the rock, rested and had our snacks to re-fuel.

There is an old tower at the top that they used to use for a fire look-out. Last year when we hiked it, a storm hit right when we got to the top, and we had to hang out in the tower until it passed. The clouds were literally right over our heads!

My mom's side of the family had a reunion while we were there in the Black Hills, so we all stayed in two cabins in the hills together for 4 nights.

We ate lots of good food, played cards, went horse back riding, swimming, mini golfing, visited the Flintstones Village, Storybook Island, Wind Cave, Reptile Gardens, saw buffalo and the cutest little prairie dogs.

We traveled around and did lots of sight-seeing, Mt. Rushmore, etc.

I am really going to miss everyone... and just being there in South Dakota. It's tough coming back to New York, but I look forward to next time I get to see everyone. It's so different there, so peaceful and beautiful. I've seen it a million times, but I will never tire of the beauty of it.

I think I'll have to come back with a separate post with some beach pics! :) Thanks for swinging by today,