Crazy for Chipboard

Bridal Shower Cake Pops

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:52:00 +0000

Last month my SIL hired me to make some cake pops for a bridal shower she was hosting.

I was more than happy at her request. She wanted pops with sticks up, my first time doing them this way. I went to her house to make them there...she has a gas stove, I do not.

My candy melts were not cooperating, they were thick and siezing, not fluid and easy to dip as I'm used to. I was frustrated but made due with what I had to work with and I am not all that uphappy with how they turned out, but I do know they could have been SO much better! After some reading a research, I realized I had the gas too hot which heated my candy melts too much.

Live and learn.

Travel Journal 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:50:00 +0000

I am fortunate to be able to make a solo trip for my birthday this year.

In place of my annual fall girls trip that has been switched to spring of next year, I opted for a fall getaway...solo!

I will be staying with some dear friends, the wife is so kind to take a weekend away from her family to pal around Orange County with me as well as take Monday off work to hit Disneyland with me on my birthday! =) I'm SO excited!

Should be loads of fun and I can not tell you much needed this long weekend away is!

As with all my trips, I have created a travel journal which I will take along with me.

I jot down my thoughts/feelings/notes for that day, then when I return from my trip I will fill it up with pictures that highlight my trip.

Should be lots of fun little pictures as I will likely use mostly my iPhone and have tons of Instagram pictures....perfect little photos!

I have made this album, cover 4 1/2 x 6 1/2" in the landscape orientation.

The inside pages are mostely 4 1/4" x 6 1/4"

I have included a sampling of some of the inside pages.

Cheers!

Week 36

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:56:00 +0000

Week 36:

Page 1:

I am loving this title page!

I mounted a Smash Book journal tag adding alpha stickers and thickers for the date.

I love how perfectly it goes with the silliness of grandbabie's faces!

Page 2:

Minus one photo.

I completed this page with the photos I ordered and picked up on Friday, so the week wasn't quite done...I figure easy fix...just add that friday or saturday picture in later.

Week 35

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:39:00 +0000

Week 35:

Page 1:

Title Page, lovin it!

Turquoise Edition PL cardstock with a strip of cardstock from the Clementine Edition

Added a cute little ticket tag I found in my stash for the date.

Page 2:

Week 34

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Week 34:

Page 1:

Title page was fun and simple.

PL Cardstock, used my Slice to cut out a heart that I added to the edge, a Marth Stewart label with alpha stickers from my stash for the date.

The pocket next to the title page is the same PL cardstock with the room key from our anniversary trip mounted to it.

Mini Pages 1 & 2:

this is a cut down coin pocket page.

2x2 photos fit perfectly in these.

page 1 is my silly husband

page 2 is the views from our vacation and some detail shots of our time away

Card Page:

I cut down one of the PL pages of the 6x6 pockets to one pocket, the anniversary cards we gave each other fit well in there.

Page 2:

Week 33

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Week 33:

Page 1:

Page 2:

Week 32

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:48:00 +0000

Week 32:

Page 1:

Title page is cardstock with a 1" strip of differing pattern attached to bottom, topped with some bling. Chipboard thickers for the numbers, a ticket tag from my stash with a clear dot to highlight the month...see detailed picture at the bottom of this post.

Page 2:

Title page detail:

Week 31

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:38:00 +0000

Week 31:

This week is a very real representation of our life.

The good and the bad.

I try really hard to include a bit of every aspect of our life, including the not so great parts...this week there was a very 'good' example of the not so great part.

Page 1:

Title page is a PL paper I cut to 4x6 and added a cut down journal card for the days of the week

I used Martha Stewart label tags I cut down and added alpha stickers from my stash for the month, with my Marth Stewart scallop circle punch I punched out some of my PL cardstock and added thickers for the days.

Page 2:

Instagram, photoshop and frametastic photos rule this page.

Week 30

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:28:00 +0000

Week 30:

pretty basic and simplistic layout this week.

Page 1:

Page 2:

Week 29

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 04:07:00 +0000

I'm a wee bit behind on posting!

Honestly, I was way behind on the project as a whole, packing up and moving will do that.

I will post my weeks behind one by one over the next few days.

We start with week 29

Page 1:

I decided to use the second pocket in for my title card, which I created by layering washai tape and popping an old find in my stash to stamp my dates on.

This page is all about my nephew Max's 5th birthday party.

Love him, his amazing blue eyes and sweet smile.

Page 2:

This page focuses on my husband's guy trip to Edmonton, Alberta Canada for an Indy car race.

Of course, while he was away I did a little shopping, you can see a few of my finds below.

Project Life Weeks 26, 27, 28

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 03:29:00 +0000

Week 26:

Page 1:

Title page is a filler spot with thicker numbers.

I used a journal spot from my smash pad on the large green paper.

Page 2:

All phone photos....loving my phone!

I have to giggle at the self portait. I was trying to take a picture but for some reason

my camera wasn't seeming to open up, unbeknownst to me it was taking my picture!

Nice to know I look so 'friendly' when I'm trying to figure something out! LOL

Week 27:

covering Meeka's birthday party and the rest of the week.

Page 1:

I do love the title spot....too bad the colors of a Hello Kitty party don't mesh well with it.

Oh well.

I had a series of photos I took of Meeka digging into her cake for the eye and eating it.

I created a 'mini' album by trimming off 2- of the 3x4 pockets times 2 from a Design B page,

I trimmed one just a touch smaller, folded it in half and inserted it into the bottom pocket of the page that went into the book, this created my mini album. Perfect!

Back of the 'mini' album.

Page 2:

I started taking some pictures from prompts for an Instagram photo a day july.

You will see some of them here and in week 28.

The hashtag is the word prompt for the photo of that day.

Bottom Left photo was created in photoshop: instagram pictures scaled to 2x2 and placed on a 4x6 template, with a 2x2 space in the bottom center for journaling.

Bottom Right photo was created in Frametastic, an app on my phone. I scaled it to the size I needed in photoshop and placed it on a 4x6 template adding the journaling.

Week 28:

Page 1:

My title page didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

It looked better in photoshop than on the print.

I find in the print that the words don't stand out as much as I thought they would.

This page is a series of instagrams from our Sunday in Seattle and some photo a day july shots.

Page 2:

Hello Kitty!

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 02:55:00 +0000

Monday was my granddaughter's 3rd birthday.

Tomorrow we are celebrating her birthday with a Hello Kitty themed party.

I made the party favors, Hello Kitty cake pops!

Thanks to Bakerella for the fabulous instructions on how to make these fabulous little treats for my precious grandbaby.

The only differing thing I did vs Bakerella was I used royal icing for the eyes and whiskers, whereas she used an edible pen.

To display the finished product I put them in some pots I picked up on clearance at Michael's.

I tied a ribbon around each pot and through it I attached an open heart with an M monogram or a 3, of which I used my Making Memories Slice to cut these out.

I also made little monogram heart tags that I created using my slice, that are attached to each cake pop. The pots are filled with crumpled tissue paper on the bottom, filler beads in the middle and pink crinkle bag filler at the top. This provides a nice base for the pop sticks to be inserted into and held up. Since I made two pots of Chocolate pops and two pots of Vanilla pops I made tags that I attached to wooden kabob skewers and put in the appropriate pots.

This way people will know what flavor they are reaching for. ;)

I'm really looking forward to seeing my granddaughter's face tomorrow when she sees the pots of Hello Kitty cake pops!

Project Life Week 25

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:07:00 +0000

Week 25:

Page 1:

I used some of the papers my friend gave me from her Clementine Edition kit for the title card. I added a label sticker in the middle and used some letter stickers from my stash for the date.

Sorry the page is a bit blurry....too lazy to retake it!

Mini page 1:

The BIG deal of this week was my husband running the Rock n roll 1/2 marathon.

I wanted to use his race bib in the book, so I simply attached it to some cardstock and as you will see on back side, I attached a 5x7 collage of race pictures and added his official chip time below it using some vinyl thickers in a yellow that matches his shirt.

mini page 2:

Week 25 Page 2:

Project Life Weeks 23 & 24

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:54:00 +0000

Week 23:

Week 23 Page 1:

I did a double pocket title card with project life cardstock, using felt thickers for the month and date.

Week 23 Page 2:

Only item of note on this page is the sticker on top of the page protector with a note regarding the initial tags made for my granddaugter's upcoming birthday cake pops.

Week 24:

Week 24 Page 1:

I did a small pocket title block for this week and jazzed it up with some bakers twine.

mini page 1:

You might find it gross or odd that I documented this, but it is a part of our life and worthy of documentation! This page is 2/3 of a half design A page.

Mini Page 2:

This documents my last volunteer day of this school year.

I added some doodling to my journal spot.

Week 24 Page 2:

This page is all about our overnight getaway.

I mounted a grid journal spot onto a cardstock piece that I adhered with some Washi tape in pink.

Project Life Weeks 21 & 22

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:36:00 +0000

Week 21:

I decided to do something a bit different with the title page on this week and incorporated it into one of the actual photos. I must say, I think it was genius! ;)

Week 21 page 1:

Besides the title page being on a photo, the only thing of note on this page is the grocery bags photo is a 4x6 cut in half and place into two pockets.

W21 mini page 1:

cut down a design F page to use just the four small pockets.

a 3x4 photo for one pocket and a 4x6 photo cut down to size to span the two lower pockets. The right side of this page is not a full pocket, so the items on that side are scaled down to fit.

w21 mini page 2:

I used some felt thickers for a little title block, I love the tone on tone look.

w21 page 2:

This was pretty much one full day of photos.

I did some title work in photoshop for the 4x6 photos.

Week 22:

Not a lot of photos this week, so some filler cards are in play here.

w22 page 1:

We started the week off with a visit with some long lost friends. We were so busy catching up that I forgot to snap a picture. Since I wanted to journal about our reuinon with them I used an old photo from 12 years ago and scaled it down to a 1.5" square to add it to the journal card for reference.

w22 page 2:

most of the photos are from one night, did some remarks directly on the photo in photoshop.

The bottom right photo is an instagram I printed on a 4x6 offset with some white space to add the ticket stubs from our movie. Easy peasy!

Project Life Week 20

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:37:00 +0000

Week 20:

I think all but one picture was taken with my phone.

The 'title' page is a coin pocket page, this contains photos and details from Mother's Day,

6 instagrams, a screen shot, 1 scaled down photo and a full size from the 'big' camera grace page 2.

Page 1:

Page 1 Detail:

For the week's title card, I used black cardstock in the coin pockets then took a 4x6 piece of cardstock which I adhered to the top of the page, added some letter stickers, number thickers and a blinged out adornment to dress it up.

I like the dimension and texture this add to the page.

Page 2:

easy peasy, instragrams and journaling.

Page 2 Detail:

For the kids' instagrams I wanted to add a little something, so I found a transparency in my stash with lots of different words printed on it. I chose the word I wanted and punched it out with my Martha Stewart scalloped cirlce punch, then I stapled it directly to the photo.

Project Life Week 19

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:48:00 +0000

Week 19:

I am loving this layout!

w19 page 1:

I'm beginning to realize that more and more of my pictures are from my phone,

since it's always with me!

This page is all phone picture with the exception of the 4x6 of me and my friend Sarah.

I have the Turquoise edition of project life, but my very dear friend E went with the Clementine edition and recently sent along some goodies from her kit. I think they coordinate well with the turquoise edition so I mixed some from her kit and mine for this layout.

I am seriously considering purchasing the clementine edition when it's back in stock come July!

The DO IT journal spot is from my Smash Pad - Blank that I love. Since it's a bit slimmer than the journal cards that come with the kit I mounted it on some cardstock from my turquoise edition to make it more uniform.

The title block is cardstock that E sent me from her clementine edition, I added the May 6 12 with some letter stickers I have in my stash, the arrow is from my core kit.

w19 P 2:

This week I jumped out of the box and used a non project life page protector for page 2.

I recently purchased some coin pocket pages that are perfect for 2x2 instagrams...This week I cut my 4x4 instagrams up into 4- 2x2 squares to insert them into the pockets.

I LOVE how this page turned out!

I did do one 2x2 instagram and I cut down some journal cards for my notes.

I used American Crafts Nutmeg Thickers for the @ in black and American Crafts Shoe Box Thickers for the numbers in a blue, which I can no longer find available in the color I used so I linked to them in black. I think this is a fun page and the back side is page 1 for week 20....it's already done and I'm excited to share and I LOVE what I did with it! But that will have to wait until next week.

Don't you love being teased!? ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

PL Weeks 17 & 18

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:37:00 +0000

Week 17:

Week 17 page 1:

For the title page I took a double wide journal card, used my Slice and cut out a Vintage A along with a vintage 22-28, the pril were the basic card.

Week 17 Page 2:

Week 18:

Week 18 Page 1:

For the title I cut a turquoise edition cardstock sheet to size and rounded the corners.

I used my Slice again (hey, it's new and I'm having fun with it!) for my a29tom5, which I adhered directly on the page protector for a bit of dimension.

Week 18 Instagram pages:

I bought some coin pocket pages that will fit 2x2 photos, which I think is perfect for my instagrams if I want them smaller. I think it will be fun in the future to maybe have a ton of instragrams in a full page which is 5 high by 4 wide.

I used the front of this cut down page for the photos and the back for the notes on each photo.

I used a Martha Stewart sticky label I cut in half and adhered to the page for a tab and help to it from getting lost onto page 2.

Week 18 Page 2:

Project Life Week 16

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:51:00 +0000

Week 16:

Lots of photos this week so I have have my two pages plus 2 addons.

Week 16 next page:

Page 1:

I did a few pictures with journaling on a 4x6 template in photoshop.

Half pages 1 &2:

The first one houses misc pictures while the second is the intro pages to our day at the Tulip festival.

These are 4x6 photos I cut in half to fit in the smaller pockets.

1/3 pages:

These pages are design C cut in half and the top pocket cut off.

This enabled me to add the 3 4x6 pictures I wanted in the book but ran out of room for as well as providing me a place to journal on one of the large journal cards.

Page 2 with 1/3 page:

Page 2:

Details:

The last picture on page two was created in Frametastic, an app I have on my iPhone

I added that in photoshop to a 4x6 template that I colored in black, then I added a translucent font for something a bit different. The font is darker in person....I only wish it were how it appears in this photo. In any event, I like the effect.

Journal spot for page 2:

I used American Crafts Remarks transparent letter stickers for Tulip, Adornit Carolee's Creations for Festival and Colorbok Sweet Blooms rhinestone accents for some bling. This is all old stuff I have in my stash, so I have no idea if it's still available.

I added a { sticker, brand unknown...oldie from my stash, with a chipboard accent that I got in a kit long ago. Something fun I added to the top of the page protector.

Same letter stickers I used for the { above....I felt this screen shot needed this sentiment added to it!

Freebie Friday @ Chloe's Closet

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:21:00 +0000

My friend makes amazing handmade goods.

She is doing a Friday Freebie that you can enter to WIN this....

To ENTER, like Chloe's Closet on Facebook, then repost the Friday Freebie post to be entered.

You can also check out her other offers at her Etsy Shop

Good luck!

Penguin Hats

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:46:00 +0000

My friend Tina makes super cute crocheted hats!

I requested penguin hats for our grandbabies...one with eyelashes for our granddaughter.

These super cuties arrived in the mail today.

Looking forward to giving them to the munchins, who LOVE penguins!

If you are in the market for a fun gift, you can find Tinachicky on Facebook to get in touch with her for your own order.

Project Life Week 15

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Week 15:

This week's layout was dedicated mainly to Easter and our overnight with the Grandkids =)

Page 1:

For the date card I used a card my friend E sent me from her Clementine edition.

I love it and think it, along with the others she sent me will flow nicely with my Turqoise edition.

I used a graphed card cut down, hand wrote April and added green felt thickers for the days.

Half pages:

I forgot to put the battery in my big camera before we left for the park, so I had to take the kite pictures with my iPhone. Instragram is so my friend! =)

I cut down a 4x6 3 high page to 4x4 for my instagram pictures

page 1 is our time at the park flying the kite

page 2 is the before and after from our day at the zoo

Page 2:

This was all about the zoo.

Such a fun day that needed a page just for it!

Project Life Weeks 13-14

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Week 13:

Week 13 Page 1:

I used a filler card to make a small date marker, added a tag from a new purchase and slapped a post it note from my husband on a filler card.

Half page 1:

6x6 square cute out to house this sweet little paper given to me by one of the kids in the class I volunteer in. =)

Half page 2:

Instragram at a 4x4 size, cut to 6x6. Ordered through costco as an 8x8.

In photoshop I made the background black and added text in white.

Week 13 Page 2:

Week 14:

This was Spring Break which I documented on page 1 and page 2 is dedicated to our day spent with the grandbabies.

Week 14 Page 1:

The week tag was made for the previous week when I realized I put the wrong dates for that week! So, I simply attached it to some cardstock for this layout.

Week 14 Page 2:

I took a photo of Meeka blowing bubbles, cropped it in half for each being 4x6, cut those in half to place in the smaller pockets for a big photo effect. The empty space in the upper left screamed for something, so I added some glittery letter stickers and found the heart } for a pop of color.

I placed these all on the outside of the page protector rather than the photo itself. Adds a bit of dimension.

Project Life Weeks 10-12

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:41:00 +0000

Week 10:

Week 10 page 1:

We lost someone dear to us recently. I took the leaflet from the funeral and took the pieces I wanted from it and put them in an 8x11 page protector that I cut down to size and stitched closed.

Week 10 Page 2:

Week 11:

Week 11 Page1:

Week 11 Page 2:

Week 12:

Week 12 Page 1:

Week 12 Page 2:

Before & After

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:10:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted about an idea I had to make my bookcase in our dining room look neater.

This is the before:

After: take at the opposite angel due to glare, plus I still need to order 3 more pictures!

Straight on view before:

Straight on view After: