Chief Petty Officer Pinning Album

Chief Petty Officer Julian Yarde - Pinning Ceremony September 14, 2012

United States Naval Station Mayport Florida

This album was made for my friend, Jen Brown, she was my boss several years ago.  From day 1 she has believed in my abilities and that really means a great deal to me.

Her fiance' was promoted to CPO and she wanted to preserve those memories. I just hope that I have done her faith in me justice. Some of the photos aren't the best and "we" are blaming the Commanding Chief's cell phone camera.  Yet thankful that he was willing to take the photos and send them to her. 

Some of the photos are of their personal life and the beautiful couple they are and the love they share on this journey.  Going through the photos while loading them here I realized I missed at least one.  Jen brought the program from the Pinning ceremony to me, I stitched it onto the card stock base and then cut a slit through the page protector so it could be viewed in its entirety, but forgot to get the photo.  I left Jen & Julian lots of little journaling places to write about the details and thoughts and feelings about the photos.

Michael's made it easy to put this project together since they sell the album shown here.  It is genuine leather & expandable.  It comes with 10 sheet protectors.  I also found some great sticker sheets to go with the project. Some of the embellishments I made by hand, hopefully not too noticeable.

Please do not think I am in any way making fun of the military when I put "Chocolate Chief Cookie" as the title of one of the pages.  That is a pet name Jen has for Julian, as I believe he is a chocolate chip cookie monster, and she asked me to fit that into the album.  My husband served in the Navy over 35 years ago at the same naval station.  I have a deep love and gratitude for our military.  

The photo of the layout "You only live once" is actually a CTMH File Folder. It is made to fit the page protectors and you can use it to store certificates or report cards or plenty of other things.  For this one I put their hand written notes back and forth to each other while they were like "two ships passing in the night".

 As always, thanks for tuning in.  Your comments are appreciated much more than you can imagine.

My daughter needed a card for her friend's baby's birthday so I put this together quickly .

I hope this isn't too feminine

This one I saw on Kathleen Androlowicz website today.  She gave credit to the person's blog where she saw it first and also to the person who had made it before.  Later this afternoon while checking out Mark's Finest Papers Speedy TV, I think, I saw a tutorial for this same design.

My sister asked me to make some cards for my nephew, he's going to be away for awhile and thought he might like some cards that he can send home from time to time.  I tried to do more masculine cards, but I think I missed the mark.  What do you think?  I also tried to make them mail-able without a lot of hassle, you know single layer or without bling or brads.

What paper trimmer do you use?

Thanks for tuning in.

I need your advice on paper trimmers

Everyone I have ever met here in blogland has been very generous giving their advice or help.

I am so fed up with my Cutterpede paper trimmer.  It doesn't cut straight.

Please tell me what paper trimmer you use and why.   

On the Cutterpede it seems like if I use the bottom guides to cut it is even worse than the top guides.  I have a motto, measure twice and cut once.  Anyone who has ever worked around wood, or a carpenter has heard that before, I'm sure.  If I don't get the paper lined up and measure top and bottom  get an uneven cut.  Sometimes up to a 16th of an inch.

I like everything else about the Cutterpede paper trimmer though.  It measures and cuts 6 inches by the way you use the extension ruler, It has a roller blade rather than the small pointed blade that seems to go dull after each cut.  The roller blade lasts for years, you just replace the cutting mat.  It has lots of different cutting edges that are so very easily interchanged.  The board is divided into 1/4 inch squares so you get a closer measurement than the ones that only measure in half in increments. As a CSI - Certified Scrapbook Instructor for Michaels it is the paper trimmer recommended in the class workbook.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for any light you can shed on this problem I have.

Thanks for tuning in.

family photos

The second page.  I had posted on facebook, but thought I ought to update my blog.  My dad was born in 1920 and the adult photo is from around 1950 so he was around 30.  

as you can see I added the dates at the bottom of the page with another butterfly.

I need to see if I can find or get one of my sister's to send me some photos of my grandfather.  

As always, thanks for tuning in.  

needs something - what?????

Hi all,

I just finished (well, maybe not finished) this layout.

These are photos of my Aunt, Elizabeth, and her mother-my grandmother, Adriance. Two very beautiful ladies.

My grandmother died when I was about 13.  My aunt passed away just last month.  The 5th member of my family to die of lung cancer.

I generally like the layout, but think it could be better.  Usually less is more in my book, but... does it need something more?

I used the Performance layout on page 48 from Close to my Heart's Magic, a how to book.

If you see what I am missing, please leave a comment.

Thanks for tuning in.

more cards taken with new camera

This was used for a class on card making and paper piecing technique.   The pedestal was pieced as were the blue, pink and yellow cake layers.

Another paper piecing project

This one is strip of paper laid on a white card stock

I think this card is neat.  It is supposed to be the Faux Patina from a SCS tutorial.  I have two others that are better, I just forgot to photograph them.  Will do that now. The button in the center of the flower really sparkles and brings out the patina even more.

This was just an example of sponging over clear embossed image.

Another faux patina

and another one.

My daughter bought a camera for Mother's Day.  I am not quite used to it yet so pictures may not be as clear as they usually are.  Here goes...  I haven't gotten used to the new Blogger.  I say new, but it has probably been a couple years since they changed the way photos upload.
I really need to get more cards done.  Nine birthdays in June at work.  Several of them will be after school has closed so I may not get them done.

Also I am now the corresponding secretary for my DAEOP group.  It is the Duval Association of Educational Office Professionals.  Apparently I will be sending out a lot of cards in the next year so I need to make some "thinking of you", "get well" and "sympathy" cards.  There are about 70 members so I don't want to start the process of sending out birthday cards to them as well.
Thanks for tuning in.

March and April cards plus a darling layout

Hi all, it has been so long I don't know what I have posted and what I haven't.  I will have to do an inventory of my last few months blog posts and upload what else I am missing.

Hope you enjoy seeing what I have posted so far and will come back again to see the rest of them.
Thanks for tuning in.
Leslie