Heart 2 Heart Challenge, ABC

So this week at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge, we are doing the ABC's!  Be sure to check out the projects from the design team.  They are really great.  So here's what we have to do this week:
A= Alphabet. Use alphabet stamps, stickers, etc.... in some way on your project

B= Boy. Your project must be for a boy.
C= Chocolate. You must include the color Chocolate (or other dark brown) somewhere on your artwork

I have a feeling that I will be doing more than one of these this week.  This challenge is right up my alley!  Not only do I have three boys, but I have a nephew being born any minute now.  My brother and his wife are at the hospital and hopefully, we'll add another grandson to my mother's flock soon. 
Here is my project:

Here's the left page

And the right page

These pictures are from our very first day here in Australia.  This will go in the boys' album to celebrate and remind them of our first day here. 

I used the Tiny Typewriter alphabet to spell out the little tag box.  I used some non CTMH chipboard letters for the Sydeny.  I painted them with our white paint and then sponged chocolate ink on the edges. 

I tied little bits of ribbon to the letters to add a little more texture to the page.  I used three papers from the set Sweet Home on these pages.  The yellow is the front side, but the other two are back sides.  Since I was using the back side on the brown, I had to cover up the trademark.  The bottom of the "E" worked nicely for that. 

I thought the plain blue didn't work well with the brown so I added some brown to it.  I used the swirl from our Felicity stamp set and some small flowers from the Connections stamp set.  I random stamped on the blue with Chocolate ink.  It turned out really well and tied the two papers together.  I decided to use the front side of the yellow because a few of the pictures have yellow in them and it made for a really nice accent. 

I added a line of buttons for some fun and over all I am very pleased with how the layout turned out. 
Hope you like it too!

Heart 2 Heart Challenge, week 5, Mother's Day gift

This week for the Heart 2 Heart Challenge, we were to make a Mother's Day card or other project. Check out The Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog to see all the other great projects.
For my Mother's Day gift, I made a card and gift card holder. All products used are from Close To My Heart. I got this idea from the June 2010 Scrapbooks Etc. Magazine. They made one for a graduate on page 94.

The outside of the card is a picture of my mom and myself. I was only a few months old in this picture. I used some paper leftover from our Felcity kit. Felcity was a Constant Campaign last fall. I really like this paper and wish I had more of it. The word "love" is from one of our rub-ons. For the flowers, I used our Create-a-Shade paint mixed with sorbet ink and painted the flowers. I also used one of our new fliagree charms in the center of it.

The inside of the card holds a gift card holder.


I used the stamp set from the Felcity set to stamp some birds and a flourish. My mom has three kids, so I made three little birds.


Here is the first side of the gift card holder. The empty spot will get a gift card, but I just haven't been to the store to get it quite yet.

The other side of the gift card holder:

I made little pull out cards with pictures of my kids for her.
The card all closed up:

When making this card, be sure to leave room for the gift cards. I made a corner fold of about 1/4".