One of the April guests at ScrapMatters, Armina Designs, has this adorable pack in the store:

As soon as I saw it, it screamed “hybrid” to me! 😉
So I managed to squeeze in a couple of projects yesterday – I’m so glad I did, because they turned out super cute.
First, a set of bookmarks – I plan to give these to my parents. Lion for Mom and the zebra for Dad (his favorite team’s symbol is the zebra).

They’re double sided. Yep, I laminated them – my experience so far with bookmarks tells me that this is the best way to go. Mod Podge also works, but it stays sticky for a few weeks – not good for books that have shiny pages.
Then I also made a card (which was the first idea I had when I saw the product in the store):

Most of my projects look better in real life than in picture, but this one especially! 🙁 I used crackle accents for the animals and mounted them on foam dots – they look really so cool, but you miss the dimension in the picture. Ah well…
I also completed the hybrid project for the May newsletter and I can’t wait to show that off – won’t be for a couple of weeks at least though. I haven’t taken pictures yet and I’m dreading it because I know it’ll be a pain to photograph. When DH saw it finished, he said he didn’t expect it to be so cute: and this is the highest compliment, for me! 😉 Sign up for the ScrapMatters newsletter if you haven’t already. 🙂

I know (and I hate it): I haven’t blogged in quite some time! I do have a few things to show, though. Most are pretty old, too! This project was featured in the March newsletter at ScrapMatters and I’d better post it before spring is over! 😉

Putting this together was quite a pain, but isn’t it adorable? 😉
Then I have some random LOs to share. First off, these two (I’m slowly building my DC album) that I really love:

And then there’s this one (finished scrapping Easter pics from last year):

I hope to blog again soon with a few other things to share. 😉

There’s a fantastic collab in the store at ScrapMatters

and if you buy it now you will get this amazing set of printable cards and envelopes for free (only until April 22)!

I made one of the cards+envelope that make up the set, here it is:

This kit is absolutely gorgeous!

Today is my mom’s birthday and I sent her this card:

It’s not my usual card and I had so much fun putting it together! 😉
I started off printing out the embellishments on presentation paper (I had some room left over as I was working on another project): at this point, I had’t thought about what card I wanted to do so they just sat on my desk for a while. A few days later, when it was time to mail the card, I decided to design a card to print on a 5×7 glossy paper and add the embellishments on top of that, so I designed a funky card with my mom’s picture and drawings made with my tablet. Since I’m pretty sure my mom doesn’t want me to remind her she’s turning 62, I also added a suitcase+ticket for her upcoming trip to visit me, because I knew she’d appreciate the detail.
Of course, since things never go as planned, for some reason my printer didn’t do borderless so the card turned out smaller than it should have – thus the too big party hat and the white border of the card showing. 😉 But I think it’s still OK, if you don’t know it (I hope).
I inked the edges of the elements with Tim Holtz’s orange marmelade distress ink (I also wanted to buy the broken china, but can you believe my AC Moore only carried the orange marmelade?!? I hope it’s a temporary thing and they’re just reorganizing things..). I attached them with foam dots. I was afraid they would get squished in the mail, but even though I haven’t asked my mom explicitly, she was enthusiastic about the card, so I suppose it arrived there in good shape.

I had a left over candle that didn’t fit on the front, so I put it on the inside of the card.

I am really happy about trying out something different with this card! I asked DH if he liked the card, and he said he did. I then asked him (yeah.. usual mistake) if it looked different from the cards I usually make and he said he didn’t see any difference.. :-/
I have been admiring all the art journal layouts in the galleries and I hope to have time to expore this technique more. While this card isn’t an art journal, it certainly was inspired by it!