Marble Magic ~ Daniel's Album

Hi everyone,

Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments. I'm honored to have you here and I truly appreciate each of you more than you know!

Update on my great-nephew Landon: He is doing a little better, but has a long road ahead of him. On behalf of all of us, HUGE THANKS to all for your prayers and positive thoughts. PLEASE keep them coming for him and our family. Thank you!

This is the third and last, for now, Marble Magic post. If you've missed the others from this week, you can see them here and here.

Today I'm sharing the album I created for my nephew Daniel. It's been designed as both a photo album and as a guest book for his friends to write in at his party...

Album cover...

Inside the cover and the first hint at where the die cuts from this post came from...

More pages...

Last but not least, the box...

Card: Whisper White and Crumb Cake
Ink: Pool Party, Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise (pads and reinkers)
Marker: Black Sharpie
Stamp set: Gorgeous Grunge (envelopes)
Tools: Simply Scored, Hole Punch, Paper Plates, Shaving Creme and Paper Towels
Adhesive: Tombow

While I've not shared instructions or pictorials for either the album or the Marble Magic technique in my posts this week, I will do both soon. If you'd like them before then, please get in touch with me via my Facebook page and I'll give you the written instructions.

Challenges...
#142 AG at 613 Avenue Create
#202 AAG at Word Art Wednesday
No Designer Paper at Simon Says Wednesday
AAG at TTCRD

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a GREAT one! I'll be back on Monday with another creation, so I hope you'll join me then.

Happy 18th Birthday Daniel!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments. I'm honored to have you here and I truly appreciate each of you more than you know!

Before I get to today's project, can I please ask for prayers and or positive thoughts for my great-nephew Landon, his parents Tosha and Josh and our family. Three week old Landon was admitted to hospital last night with a suspected infection and is receiving IV antibiotics. As of right now tests are still ongoing to determine what's wrong and it is a very worrying time for all of us.

Now onto today's project, for Landon's uncle, my nephew Daniel. In Monday's post I shared the invites I've created for his 18th birthday, which is today. Here's the card I created for him, from me using the marble technique...

I also created a matching banner...

 Me being me, I had to create a box for the banner to be kept in...

Card: Whisper White and Crumb Cake
Ink: Pool Party, Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise (pads and reinkers)
Marker: Black Sharpie
Stamp set: Gorgeous Grunge (envelopes)
Tools: Little Letters Thinlits, Simply Scored, Hole Punch, Paper Plates, Shaving Creme and Paper Towels
Adhesive: Tombow

Challenges...
#202 AAG at Word Art Wednesday
#142 AG at 613 Avenue Create
#217 Freestyle at HIMCR
AG at Through The Craft Room Door

I'll be back on Friday with another Marble Magic creation, so I hope you'll join me then.

Marble Magic ~ Daniel's Invites

Hi everyone,

Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments. I'm honored to have you here and I truly appreciate each of you more than you know!

In this post last month I gave you a sneaky hint of some marbling I'd done for another project, but I didn't tell you any more about it. Well, the wait is over and I can now reveal that the pieces used in those cards were left overs from those I created to mark my nephew Daniel's 18th birthday this Wednesday.

Dan absolutely LOVES tie dying shirts and when my sister, Beth, commissioned invites for his party, I knew I wanted to try and get as close to a tie-dye effect as I could. Years ago I remember seeing a marble effect created using shaving creme as the ink carrier, so decided to go with that.

While Beth and I talked about it, she asked if I'd personalize the invites and because of the technique used, I suggested the only way would be if I were to handwrite them once they were dry. I actually asked her if she trusted my writing! Luckily she said she does, so I set about creating the 100 pieces of marbling. because by that point the commission had grown from invites to an album and banner too. After a couple of failed attempts using multiple Stampin' Up! reinkers, to try and recreate a tie-dye effect, I settled on 3 individual colors, Pool Party, Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise...

Card: Whisper White and Crumb Cake
Ink: Pool Party, Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise (pads and reinkers)
Marker: Black Sharpie
Stamp set: Gorgeous Grunge (envelopes)
Tools: Paper Plates, Shaving Creme and Paper Towels
Adhesive: Tombow

Just as with tie-dying, the look of each individual marbled piece is totally unique. It's a LOAD of fun and doesn't take long at all to do, but you need to allow for drying time (I left them all overnight).

Challenges...
#201 AAG at Word Art Wednesday
#142 AG at 613 Avenue Create
#140 AG at Aud Sentiments

I'll be back on Wednesday with another Marble Magic creation, so I hope you'll join me then.

Project Landon Part 3 ~ Keepsake Blocks

Hi everyone,

Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments. I'm honored to have you here and I truly appreciate each of you more than you know!

The project I'm sharing with you today is the final part of "Project Landon" that was created to celebrate the much anticipated arrival of my great-nephew, Landon Ryan. If you missed the first two posts, they can be found here and here.

While I was creating all the other elements for the project, I wondered what I'd create as my gift for the little man. I originally thought about creating a mobile for his crib, but that wouldn't be much and I wanted something more substantial. Within seconds I realized that keepsake boxes styled as toy blocks were the way to go.

I used the same elements I'd used for everything else to create the blocks...

And added in die cut letters with the Little Letters Thinlits and a star from the Stars Framelits set...

I designed them to fold flat and so also created a box for the blocks...

Box lid, similar to the brag book box lid detail

Card: Whisper White and So Saffron
Ink: Lost Lagoon, Pool Party and Soft Sky
Markers: Coastal Cabana Stampin' Write (retired) and White Gel pen
Stamp sets: Celebrate Baby, Baby We've Grown (both retired) and Gorgeous Grunge
Tools: Simply Scored, Corner Rounder Punch, Little Letters Thinlits and Stars Framelits

The entire project was a total LABOR of LOVE. Yep, pun intended! Here are some of the stats from it...
13… Brag books, I LOVE YOU’s and mobiles
33… Sweet BABY stamped and colored images
39… Photo pockets
47… “Created with love” labels
119… “Landon”
133… Bunnies
179… Pairs of shoes, including 85 cut out
1328… Rounded corners

Challenges...
#201 AAG at Word Art Wednesday
#141 AG w/ optional twist Love Me Do at 613 Avenue Create
#37 AG at Crafty Gals Corner
#164 Anything but a card at Brown Sugar Challenges
#194 AAG at Pixie's Snippets Playground (LOTS used)

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a GREAT one! I'll be back on Monday with another creation, so I hope you'll join me then.

Project Landon Part 2 ~ Brag Books

Hi everyone,

Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments. I'm honored to have you here and I truly appreciate each of you more than you know!

Following on from Monday's post, when I shared the birth announcement cards I created for the arrival of my great-nephew Landon Ryan, today I'm sharing the first part of the project to have been created; brag books.

Although only one is shown here, in a VERY image heavy post, there are indeed 13 that were created... One for each of Landon's 4 sisters, Brianna, Makayla, Chloe and Charissa; parents Tosha and Josh; his cousin Tristan; Uncles John and Daniel; Aunt Alicia; grandparents Beth and Wayne and also one for ME too...

Cover to cover...

Last but not least, the box lid detail...

The books were created over several months, just like the little man who's arrival they celebrate :)

Card: Whisper White, So Saffron and Coastal Cabana (retired)
DSP: Lullaby (retired)
Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Sky, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon
Marker: Coastal Cabana Stampin' Write (retired) and White Gel pen
Stamp sets: Celebrate Baby, Baby We've Grown (both retired), Gorgeous Grunge and Back to Basics Alphabet
Tools: Simply Scored, Labels Collection Framelits, Envelope Punch Board (for file pockets)
Adhesives: Tombow and Sticky Strip (retired)

Challenges...
#201 AAG at Word Art Wednesday
#216 Super Scraps Saturday at HIMCR (lots of snippets/ scraps used for all the shoes)
#194 AAG at Pixie's Snippets Playground

I'll be back on Friday with another creation from "Project Landon", so I hope you'll join me then.

Baby We've Grown!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments. I'm honored to have you here and I truly appreciate each of you more than you know!

On August 31st our family grew, with the much anticipated arrival of my great-nephew, Landon Ryan. Almost as soon as we heard that my niece Tosha was expecting, I started working on a project that I'll share with you tomorrow, to celebrate the little one's arrival. As that secret project neared completion, I asked my sister Beth, who was in on it, if she wanted me to create announcement cards for the little man's arrival. She did and so I set about working on them.

I'd used the now retired Baby We've Grown and Celebrate Baby stamp sets, together with my all-time favorite Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up!, for the first part of the project, so used them for the announcement cards too...

Card: Whisper White and So Saffron
Ink: Lost Lagoon, Soft Sky and Pool Party
Marker: Coastal Cabana Stampin' Write (retired, used to color in BABY)
Stamp sets: Baby We've Grown, Celebrate Baby and Gorgeous Grunge
Tools: Corner Rounder Punch
Adhesive: Tombow

The arrival of Landon Ryan redresses the hormonal balance in the house a tiny bit, because there are 5 women in the house! The little man's older sisters are 5 year old twins Brianna and Makayla and 3 year old twins Chloe and Charissa, born to proud parents Tosha and Josh in earlier relationships, so Josh isn't alone any more! Grin.

Challenges...
#200 Let's Celebrate at Word Art Wednesday
STAMPtember at Simon Says Wednesday
#241 One Layer at Less Is More

I'll be back on Wednesday with more of "Project Landon", so I hope you'll join me then.

9/11 Remembered

Hi everyone,

It barely seems possible that the day, indeed the hour and 17 minutes, that changed the world forever, 9/11/2001, was 14 years ago now. I, like everyone else, will always, always remember where I was as the news came through that American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles, had crashed into North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York at 8:46am

I was visiting friends and we clung to each other in stunned silence as we saw United Airlines Flight 175, also bound for LAX, flown into the Trade Center's South Tower at 9:03am.

All of us, each and every one, were soon quietly sobbing, with many around the world, as we watched the horror unfold in New York. Then in Washington, where American Airlines Flight 77, again bound for LAX, was flown into the Pentagon at 9:37am. Then in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the passengers on board United Airlines Flight 93, bound for San Francisco, overpowered the hijackers and the aircraft crashed at 10:03am.

The world as we knew it changed forever.

The world was and IS united in grief for the 2,977 innocents lost that day and the THOUSANDS of servicemen and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice since in the fight against terror.

We will NEVER forget.

God bless America. God bless ALL of us.

Hold your loved ones tight and please, PLEASE, every chance you get, tell them how much you love them.

Readers and friends, I treasure each of you, and yes, I love you! Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a great one. I'll be back on Monday with another creation, so I hope you'll join me then.