Puppies, Kittens, Spellbinders, and Blog Candy Winner!

Hello to all my very dear stamping, scrapping, cardmaking, and papercrafting friends. It is so good to be back at my blog again . . . reconnecting with lost friends . . . checking out all the fabulous new projects my dear friends are posting on their blogs . . . and shopping online for some of the wonderful new products that are available out there.

I just have to say this . . . I am so overwhelmed with the beautiful comments left on my "Basket of Basic Grey Bling Blog Candy" post. These beautiful women never cease to amaze me. One of our fellow crafters is a little down on her luck right now . . . and all these women have decided that it is more important to give than to receive. Cheryl, I am so terribly sorry about the loss of your sweet little Abby. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your husband during these hard economic times. I pray that he will find work soon and you will be able to get yourselves settled in again very very soon. I think it was unanimous that you should receive the basket of goodies. Please send me an e-mail with an address where I might send your basket to you. I know it's not much . . . and it doesn't even begin to take away the pain of the loss of your sweet little puppy, but please know that it was given out of love and friendship from your stamping sisters.

I thought today would be a good day to post this scrapbook page I made especially for the Spellbinders 2009 Design Team Contest. This is one of the four projects I made that landed me in the finals. You have already seen the "stamped" project I made . . . the journal, and now I would like to show you my "page layout". Everyone that knows me knows that I am not a scrapbooker. You can only scrap your dog and your cat so many times. I do scrapbook for other people at times, and I have done a heritage book or two for the relatives, but I typically tend to make cards and "stuff" I can sell at the boutiques and craft shows. So when I saw that I needed to submit a page layout . . . I got a little nervous at first . . . and then ended up having the time of my life on this page. Everyone that knows me knows how much I love animals . . . so I found it only fitting that I use this picture of the beautiful little "Tabby" as my inspiration. Tabby loves to sit in the garden and watch the butterflies and the birds . . . so this special little page is in honor of sweet Tabby with the beautiful green eyes and the beautiful white wiskers and ear tufts.

I made my special page using Crate Paper's Mia collection. I cut the curvy pieces free hand and laid it all together to fit just right. The scalloped strips were cut with my good ol' fashioned Fiskars scalloped scissors and laid underneath the curvy pieces. The beautiful butterfly is Technique Tuesday's Boho Butterfly stamped on Mia dp and cut out and mounted with a dimensional to give it the look of flight. The Tabby letters are from Wilma by Basic Grey. I used Versa Magic ink to cover them. The brown butterfly and brown scallopy image behind Tabby's picture were made using rub ons from the Mia collection. The pewter brads are from Making Memories. I have a special tip for using brads on your projects. I hate to punch holes in my projects, and how do you mount a brad on a wooden frame since you can't punch a hole in wood? I use a small pair of needle nose pliers and bend the stem of the brad back and forth a bunch of times until it breaks off. Repeat with the second brad stem. And then I use a large clear glue dot, cut it in half, mold it into the brad, and adhere it to my project. It sits down tight on your project, doesn't move around in a punched hole, and you don't have any unsightly punch marks on your project. Give it a try sometime and let me know how you like it. I sure do use a lot more embellishments with this method. I should have invented nailheads (brads without stems) . . . I could have made a fortune. They are just now coming out, and basically I have been making my own nailheads with brads for years.

Thank you again for stopping by and for your continued support in my work as I continue to learn and grow in this wonderful world of papercrafting.

Big stamping hugs to everyone!!!

~Pegi