For my first trick....

Please let me first thank Scrapping Cottage for giving me the opportunity to join your fabulous Design Team! I'm so thrilled to be a part of such a creative and talented group of crafters and I only hope to be as good as you think I am. ;)

For my first project I've done a fishing layout. (I do a LOT of fishing layouts!) Who likes to fish??? My grandkids do! And penguins do too, of course. I couldn't resist using the adorable snowskiing penguin on this page, giving him a fishing pole instead of snowskis. It's plenty warm so he doesn't need his hat and scarf on this trip. I also used the scallop/dot edger. Scallops and dots are two of my favorite things....could you tell by my choice of papers?

Here the little penguin holds the fishing pole and net from the fishing set and, without his ski cap, you can see the cute little tuft of hair on top of his head (which is actually one of the lily pads from the boat and dock die).

I love this fishing pole. It's fun to embellish. I've used cork paper for the rod handle, silver paper for the reel, and invisible thread/monofiliment for the line. It seemed to work because Mr. Penguin has caught two fish and seems pretty happy with his catch!

For the net, I used mesh I've had in my stash for ages. It's perfect for this use! I love how it turned out. Cute, huh?

Then, to balance out the large embellishment on the bottom of the page, I've added a clump of cattails in the opposite corner. These are the cutest!

After finishing the layout, I used leftover scraps to make this quick card. Simple bracket shape embellished with flowers, bling, ribbon and Cottage Cutz scallop/dot edger.

Add a rubon sentiment and you're good to go!

For this second layout, I used the cute little love birds and tall tree. I also used Ruth Ellen's idea and made the scallop/dot edger a 12 inch length. Great tip, Ruth Ellen.


Added a little stickles to the birdies to make them sparkly, like their adorable personalities.

And for fun, used my eyelet hole punches to make Swissy-looking letters for my cheesy title.

and another card using scraps from the layout. My daughter and son-in-law will celebrate their 10 year anniversary this weekend. The love birds are perfect! Add a heart or two, some ribbon and bling, and celebrate!

I'm really looking forward to my term on the Cottage Blog team and working with some of the cutest dies on the market, not to mention some of the craftiest people out there! Thank you for viewing my first projects and for the warm welcome. :)

Shar