Crush book (pages 11 and 12)

This two-page spread was a lot of fun because I got to look at a bunch of quotes and decide which ones I felt belonged in a book about me.  Also, I wrote a lot of the quotes myself with this beautiful fountain pen my brother bought me a few years ago and I so love how it writes, it's so smooth and pretty.

Anyway, it's a bunch of my favorite quotes about life, love and other humorous things jazzed up with some washi tape.

Closeup of the first page.

Closeup of the second page.

Crush book (pages 9 and 10)

I desecrated a book doing this two-page spread!  I tore a page out of one of my old English anthology textbooks.  This was actually the very first page I did in the Crush book that's part of why it's a little sparse, I hadn't really figured out any techniques yet and did not have any confidence in what I was doing.  I really liked how it came out though and it is now one of my favorite pages.

It is centered around my favorite poem, a Langston Hughes poem about dreams.

I was trying for a steampunk sort-of look with the dirigible and the gear stamps.  I also had my mom help me distress the poem (after I cut it out of a book!  I cut up a book!  The horror!  Seriously, I'm still not over it, and I'm the one who did it!). 

I used a real bottle cap from a bottle of root beer and some wood embellishments and stickers and fabric flowers to jazz it up with the little cardboard sticker saying.

Crush book (pages 6, 7 and 8)

This page was a lot of fun to put together, I photocopied the recipe from the recipe book and distressed it and wrote on it, then glued some ephemera behind it and a few other embellishments.  The little envelope holds the story behind the recipe and why it's my favorite.

Same as before with the notes sitting outside the envelope.

This page is one of the ones I did using a different smash book challenge thing from Pinterest.  Basically, it is all of my astrology signs from different cultures.  I have the traditional zodiac (Aquarius) and then Celtic signs and the Chinese zodiac.  It was interesting to research these and look at all the different zodiacs and signs.

This is a collection of facts about the year I was born, along with some famous people who share my birth year.  The most interesting thing about this was learning about the stuff that happened the year I was born and kind of putting it into context with my personal history.

Crush book (pages 3 and 4)

This is a two-page spread with several flaps that open and close.  This was fun because I got to learn a bit about my home state (Colorado) but I had such limited space that I had to be choosy with the facts to put on the page.  So I put facts about Mile High Stadium, the Capitol building, Elitches, beer, the state nickname (The Centennial State) and Denver's Demon Horse.  I picked these ones for various reasons, either they meant something to me personally or I thought they were really interesting facts or I thought they were amusing, so they are kind of random.


This is the entire layout seen as you open the book.

This is the same thing but with all the little flaps open.

Closeup.

Closeup with flap open.  This page talks about Mile High Stadium, the Capitol Building and Elitches.

Second page closeup.

Same with flaps open.  This page talks about beer (yaa beer!), Colorado's nickname and Denver's Demon Horse (you know the big scary sculpture outside DIA [red eyes, dear God, WHY?!])

Crush book (pages 1, 2 and 5)

Technically page one is on the second page of the Crush book but for the sake of simplicity we'll call it page one.  The layout of my Crush book is inspired by this thing I found on Pinterest, I've altered it to fit my lifestyle and personality.  I've also used a few other similar challenge thingies for smash books and created sort of an amalgamation for myself.

So, page one, this 'picture' is actually a scenery stamp that I did for a card but I liked it so much I decided to put it in my book.  All I did for this page was that picture with some embellishments around it, nice and simple.

Page two is my "about me" page.  I liked this one because it was fun and challenging coming up with descriptors for myself that began with whatever letter I was on without repeating anything.  Also, this was the first scrapbook thing that I did without any input/help from my mom so I was really proud that it turned out so well.

This is page five, I'm including it here because it is a nice, simple, one-page layout without any interactive bits.  I really like how this one came out, I used a stencil and an ink spray for the design on the bottom of the tag and two different ink sprays for the colors on the lyric printouts.

Crush book (index page)

This is CTMH's version of the Smash book.  This is what really got me into scrapbooking and then mini albums and  now mixed media; it was my gateway drug, Lol!

This is my index page, it is on the inside cover and as I've added pages I've written down the page numbers and titles on the index card.  This was pretty easy to do, all I did was take a piece of paper from a 6-by-6 inch paper pad and affix it to the inside cover.  Then I jazzed it up with a punched-out border, a little envelope, washi tape, stamps and the index card.

This is just the same thing but with the piece of paper that is tucked inside the envelope pulled out to show the little shoes I stamped on there.

Cross stitch bookmarks

I made these for my grandmother and sis-in-law for Christmas a few years ago.  They were super fun and super fast to do.  The dove one was also the first time I did a lazy-daisy stitch (it's the leaves on the branch the dove is holding) and I was so happy that it turned out so pretty.  The 'April' one had so much backstitching that I thought I might die!  Lol!  But it turned out well, and I went back later and stitched over the April again to make it stand out more and forgot to re-take the pictures (*sigh* oh well).  The butterfly one is my all-time favorite piece that I've done to date; it just looks so amazing and complete and pretty!

Birth announcement (2013)

I made this after my niece was born, it was from a kit but I changed a few of the colors to personalize it.  This was also the first cross stitch I made that I added my 'signature' to (it's in the bottom right-hand corner).  I created the signature myself and I intended to keep a record of it so that I could use it on other projects except that I keep forgetting it until it's too late, hahaha!  Oh well, eventually I'll remember it and use it on future projects.

Christmas presents (2012)

These are from a few years ago made for my bro and sis-in-law.  The potholder was the most difficult, mostly because of the way the Aida cloth was attached to the potholder I basically had to flip the pattern upside down and work it backwards so that it would turn out properly.  The coffee one was a kit and it wasn't actually a cross stitch it was an embroidery which is different from what I have been doing for a while so it took a little effort but it was worth it.

Christmas stockings

These are from a few years ago.  My mom made these really cool patchwork Christmas stockings for my brother, sis-in-law and niece.  I used some waste canvas to cross stitch their names on the velvet to go on the top of the stockings.  It was a lot of fun but difficult; it was the first time I had used waste canvas and on top of that I used satin floss with Kreinik metallic floss, yeah it wasn't the smartest decision I made but it all turned out, so I am glad that I toughed it out and didn't give up.