Crafty Julia: October 2012

Welcome back to my craft blog, I am glad you are here! I've got some scrapbook layouts to share with you. I have been busy working on the completion of our China trip. I think the scrapbook is going to end up being two very large albums! I've been focusing on it a lot lately because I am almost done!! I saved these pictures for the last of my scraping this trip because they are so important to me. I feel like they could not be perfect enough, no matter how hard I try. I put so much importance on the pictures that I may never be pleased with them.But I realized there has got to be a day that I scrap them and move on to more recent pictures that are quickly piling up, creating a different kind of stress :)) . Gotcha Day was one of the most important days in my life, I will never forget it. I hope to express my love in these pages for my son. SO, enough already, on with the layouts! Gotcha Day. The very first moments with our son. Wow, they bring back all the emotion!

Nap, Zachary quickly fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride from Gotcha Day to the hotel!

Page 2, this is the complimentary page to the nap above. It shows us getting off the bus headed to our room & then our first official family picture for the VISA.

Our Boy, this picture so reminds me of all our day excursions. Zachary would stay awake as long as he could. He would keep his eye lids open until he could no longer. No matter where we were he was happiest when we were out and about. And, he is like that even to this day!

Forever Family, these pictures were taken in the lobby of the orphanage. I was so wrapped up in my son I didn't even notice the wall. Luckily my Father directed us to stand under the Murial. These are some of my favorite pictures of Gotcha Day.

There is a certain joy from a warm homecoming! So Happy together. These pictures are absolutely precious to me. They capture the first moments that our entire family sees Zachary for the first time!!

Home of the free, land of the brave. This land was made for me and you!

USA, Let's go HOME!! Perfectly captured, us relieved to be in familiar surroundings and anxious to get home!

Hello my crafty friends! Thank you for being loyal to my blog. Though I obviously have not been blogging I have totally been crafty! I've been taking pictures along the way with thoughts of eventually sitting down to share some creations with you. Today, I have a VERY long blog that should catch you up on everything I've made sitting in my craft room! My Stampin' UP! Hostess Club is still going strong. With out them I may not take as much opportunity to create cards and craft projects. These following Halloween pictures are of projects from my last two SU club. Pumpkin Treat. I always enjoy paper piecing and using my punches to make cutesy figures. So, when I saw this idea on pinterest I knew it was perfect. I changed it up a little to make the pumpkin more 3 dimensional by using both sizes of the SU scallop punches for the pumpkin.

Halloween Card, this card uses the SU Googlie Eye Kit. And, the little mummy moves from side to side. I adore the colors of this card! SU Grey card stock matches with so many colors!

Another project using the SU Halloween Googlies Eye Kit, this one is a Treat Bag. What makes it unique is the goody bag was dry embossed with an embossing folder & the big shot. The SU Kit comes with everything to make this. Total cuteness!

Onto Christmas Cards. I made this card to be a project in my most recent SU Hostess Club. The Christmas ornament is heat embossed & then cut out with the matching framelits die. In fact, there is currently a special at SU for the stamp set & framelit dies. check it out here:http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/juliacmiller/promotions

For the first time ever, we held a card swap with the hostess club. The theme was Christmas cards. And, this is what I came up with (inspired by split coast of course)

Another card I created for the club was this beautiful vintage collage card. Club members decided if the card would be a birthday or anniversary card. I made mine for a friend who will be turning 40 soon.

This card is out of my comfort zone. But, the technique I was playing with was distressing. Which is something I do a lot of in my scrapbooking. But, I tend to make cards with a cleaner look. Also, the flowers are pretty cool. They can be colored, stamped, embossed, distressed, you name it! On this card we stamped in the center.

Also, somehow I found the time to make Easter Cards. I absolutely adore this card. It is so cool that the back ground embossing folder on this card is actually a Christmas poinsettia folder. But, just add a few yellow dots to the center of the flowers and they look like summer daisy's!

Father's Day Card. I did not have a chance to use this card this year, but I certainly will this coming year. It was fun to make and so easy! It's supposed to look like a dress shirt. I love the ties. Which are very versatile. I totally plan on using them as a banner sometime on a scrapbook layout!

And, finally, a birthday card. I enjoy making shape cards. It takes me out of the box from the usual square/ rectangle card. to make the shape card in the below picture, I used the framelits SU die. It was easy to do & I plan on doing it again soon.