Waiting for the Mail

In today's age of technology we can get in touch with our friends and family in an instant. Imagine waiting on the mail to communicate with your loved ones! That has been my experience for the past 12 weeks. My son departed for Marine Boot Camp the week before Christmas. He left his cell phone at home and we knew to expect only one phone call from here to notify us that he arrived at base safely. From then on we could only communicate through "snail mail". Can you remember the last time that you had to wait on a letter to arrive in your mailbox? It has been difficult, but I never have been so excited to get the mail!

To capture this moment I made a pocket scrapbook layout similar to the ones I make every year for the Christmas cards I received. This layout will hold the letters that he sent us throughout the several weeks that he has been gone. We are officially only a week away to seeing his face again and giving him a great big hug!

You will recognize some of the embellishments from some leftovers I had from the Craft with Heart layout from January. I also used some border stamps and the Erin's Hand alphabet stamp.

Be sure to preserve those treasured memories whether its your favorite photos or the long-awaited letter in the mail! Thanks for stopping by!

Quilting Beyond Cards

We had fun creating some cards this past Friday using the Stitching Thin Cuts. The possibilities of shapes, papers and colors can be creative and experimental. Why not go beyond just a greeting card? Think bigger like a scrapbook layout!

Here is a single page layout I created using one of the chevron shapes in a variety of new and retired papers. It was fun to experiment with the different patterns, colors and overall design of the page. This is a page for my son who will be graduating soon from the U.S. Marine Corps Boot Camp. This is the last picture we took together and just the beginning of a very big, life altering experience for both of us!!

I would also like to mention that the title for my page actually came from the Craft With Heart subscription layout for the month of January. I had a hard time seeing any recent photo's of mine fitting with the theme as it is, so I altered it for my own personal purpose.

I hope you can see how the faux quilting can be used for not only cards, but can expand to your bigger scrapbooking layouts. When these Thin Cuts become available again, I recommend you add them to your cart a.s.a.p.!