MY FIRST CLASS!!!

I am so excited to be teaching my first class.  I tried to keep it simple.  I intentionally mixed products from a variety of collections - the bunny stamp is from Stampin Up, the solid color background papers are from Close to My Heart,  the chalk ink is from Cat's Eye, the ribbon is American Crafts and the easter basket is a Sizzix die.  Mosaics lend themselves to so many options for using stamps, stitching, die cuts and more - keep your mind open and mix up your supplies! 

More Butterflies!

I think I have about 1,000 butterfly pictures.  We have taken my niece and nephews to the Butterfly Show every year for a very long time.  I used a butterfly cornerstone from Snap N Crop.  I ordered a white one and used copper Tattered Angels spray to make it blend in with the greens, yellows and oranges of the layout.

My Sister's First Mosaic!

  These things are addictive, aren't they?  I've been professing my love for mosaics for two months.  I taught my sister how to do it and now she's addicted, too!

Butterflies and Scallops

I had been wondering whether I could incorporate some patterened paper in to my layouts.  I had this awesome butterfly paper that I really wanted to use for our butterfly show pictures, but since it was round and scalloped, I wasn't sure I could make it work with the mosaic paper.  It took a little finessing but I was finally able to get everything worked in.  I know the layout is kind of busy, but it kind of fit the mood of the day for me - chasing three kids around a giant room full of butterflies going in every direction!

Pumpkins!

Back in 2007, I took these close-up photographs of a couple of buckets of tiny pumpkins that were for sale at a Pumpkin Farm we went to.  I still don't know why I took those photographs, but now that I am a mosaic scrapbooker, I certainly was glad to find them there in my stacks of "needs to be scrapped" photos!  Tami Potter's book says that the first mosaic she ever made was with pictures of her kids at a pumpkin farm - and I have to agree that those kind of pics really lend themselves to this format. 

Ugh, that cord!  I promise to do a better job of taking pictures of my layouts in the future.

Eggspert!

When my nephew, Kayden, was three years old, he colored every one of his Easter eggs the same shade of robin's egg blue.  It was the first time he was big enough to blow out his own eggs and to do everything "all by himself" so we just let him have at it.  Absolutely priceless!!!

Thank you Samuel Clemens!

Mark Twain has always been one of my heroes, mostly because I share his wanderlust and many of his philosophical views.  But did you know he was a scrapbooker???  According to the PBS website:

"Mark Twain was a lifelong creator and keeper of scrapbooks. He took them with him everywhere and filled them with souvenirs, pictures, and articles about his books and performances. But in time, he grew tired of the lost glue, rock-hard paste, and the swearing that resulted from the standard scrapbook process. So, he came up with the idea of printing thin strips of glue on the pages to make updates neat and easy to do. In 1872, he patented his “self-pasting” scrapbook, and by 1901, at least 57 different types of his albums were available. It would be his only invention that ever made money."

Check it out!  http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/scrapbook/index.html