More Basketball Layouts

I love having days off from work to craft! I wish I had more time to work on my growing list of projects to do, but it seems like there is always something more pressing to do. (Of course...I guess we all feel like this most of the time.) I'm trying to make a better effort to work on projects more often, so we will see if that works out for me or not ;o)

I was able to get quite a bit done today. Below are some framed layouts I made for my some of my niece's teammates. This coming Saturday will be their senior recognition night and this will be my niece's gift to the seniors on her team. Each frame is 11 x 14 in size. This is probably the first project I have made in quite some time that has not used much CTMH product. I used textured burgundy and orange cardstock on each of the sides. I used CTMH white cardstock for the center section and as the matting around each picture. I also used basketball textured paper from The Paper Company in the middle section. The tags were cut with my Cricut and I used basketball brads on each tag. (FYI - There are three Samanthas on the team, so each girl has a nickname to tell them apart...hence, Samma!) The basketball net and ball on the left hand side is a Jolee's dimensional sticker.

Wedding and Sympathy Cards

Yesterday I was able to find some time to make a few cards thanks to the snowstorm. I officially measured 20 inches in our backyard last night. That was a far cry from the 8 to 10 that was forecast for our area. According to the news our county was the hardest hit from this storm. So...after spending half the night trying to find my car I worked on these two cards that I needed to make for this weekend.

I also tried my hand at a new technique. My upline, Nancy Brown, has been doing stitching on her cards for a while now and it always makes her cards look so elegant. You can see some of her gorgeous work on her two blogs, Creatively Artsy Card Gallery and Inspired by Stamps. I decided to give her a call last night to get some tips on how it is done. Although I was scared at first, I have quickly fallen in love with this technique! I'm going to find it hard to make cards without stitching on them now. (Thanks, Nancy!) I absolutely love what stitching can add to a card.

This wedding card is for some very close friends of ours. They have been together for over ten years and are getting married on Saturday. The card measures 6 in x 6 in. I used the CTMH paper pack Silhouette, along with the Childhood Portrait stamp set. The image was stamped with black ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The sentiment is from the For Every Occasion stamp set. The flowers on the sentiment are from a corner punch. The stitching is done with two strands of black embroidery floss.

The sympathy card idea was basically copied from my upline. The only exception is that my card is a 6 x 6 and I changed a few minor details. I used the Bella paper pack from CTMH. The stamps are retiring sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. The cross is from the set called Elegant Blessings and the sentiment is from Forget-Me-Not. These stamps will only be around while supplies last and they are currently 50% off! The stitching is done with brown embroidery floss. The ribbon is CTMH Hollyhock stitched ribbon.  

Basketball Page

One of my favorite things to do is watch girls' basketball games. When I was in high school, I kept statistics for my high school girls' team for three years. Lately, my husband and I have been following the Tamaqua Lady Raiders and the Susquehanna University Lady Crusaders. I started watching basketball seven years ago when my niece was the starting point guard at Tamaqua. Since then, we have watched her play almost every game in her high school and collegiate career. After she graduated from high school, we kept watching the Tamaqua home games. As an alumni of the school and a teacher in the district, I enjoy supporting our local school athletics. 

On January 28th, one of our starters scored her 1,000th career point. She is only the third junior in school history to reach this plateau. On that night, I took a ton of pictures with the intention of giving them to her parents. Once I got home I decided to make her a framed scrapbook page. Below is the final result before it was framed. I was so happy with how it turned out and her family loved it!

CTMH Products Used:

Game On Level 2 Paper Pack/Stickease

Colonial White Cardstock

Other Products Used:

The Paper Company Textured Basketball Paper

Basketball Ribbon (Michael's)

Basketball Brads (Scrappin' Stuff Sports - Online)