Our Trip To Bernkastel

Hey there fans, friends and family!

My hubby and I recently took a trip to Bernkastel, Germany (along the Mosel River).  I thought I would share some photos with you so you can see just how gorgeous this village is!  Keep scrolling.  I felt like I was in Epcot, only it was even cleaner, the food was good and it was a LOT cheaper.  Hehe...

First, the sign.  It says, "Fell" which I thought was strange because my granny's parent's name was Von Fell.  This place was in walking distance to where we were staying.  My mind was wondering...

This was our hotel room.  It was large and immaculate.  That is part of the reason I like going to Germany.  It's almost always clean.

The view from our very large balcony.

Me on the balcony with a glass of local wine.

This is Bernkastel.

If you know what this thing is, do tell.  To me it looked just like a tiny humming bird.  It had the beak of one and it flew just like a humming bird.

Drooling at the baker.  I only got a pretzel!

I would suppose that this is why it is called Bern (Kastel) or castle.  It is just ruins.

I loved this one!

Tom's grand dad used to make wooden shoes.

I just really liked this door.

Riding along the Mosel.

That's it!  Thanks for taking a peep!  Share the name of some of the prettiest places you have visited so we can check them out.

Summery Kit Cart & Me

Welcome to The Cherry On Top!

Today, I'm showing off some of my layouts I made with lovely, summery kits from The Kit Cart Designs.

Scroll down for some inspiration, a look at my family and links to get hooked up to the fun, summer time kits.

My first layout features my youngest son, JJ (Jeffrey) and the kit Camping Out.  I love taking different twists on kits.  This layout has nothing to do with camping, but still shows off the lovely papers, textures and splendid elements you can find in the kit.  There is even an alpha for a title, sentiment or journaling.

And here we are camping out in the backyard with my two, darling nieces.  The boys go crazy when they come over and they provide a nice balance to my rough and tumble boys.  I used a glow effect on the photo frames, moon, stars and light beam.  Cool, eh?  I also ditched the "s" in Outdoors and added the other word art, adventure, provided in the kit.  The dragonfly helps cover a boo boo I couldn't fix with my crop function.  Hehehe...

Here is the preview for the kit and of course, it is hooked up with a link for the Gotta Pixel store where you can purchase it for a song.

Sticking with warm, outdoorsy themes, is Hooked On Fishing.  Another kit from The Kit Cart Club.  I made a typical layout with no real theme and a themed layout as well, but not perhaps what the doctor called for.

I thought it would be fun to scrap one of the many photos of my husband's fish tanks.  Apparently, I didn't do so that well because he has informed me that this is, indeed, a South American tank and not an Asian one which I had thought.  Hehehe...

The next image of the kit is also hooked up to a link where you can get a closer look.

Wow!  That is exactly what I said when I saw this kit.  How alive, fun and vibrant!  This kit is screaming summer fun.  See how I used the noodle for a border?  Clever, eh?  Jamie thinks of everything!

I just had to make another with this kit because I loved it so much.  I liked  star bursts, but I thought I would go a little asymmetrical.  Not usually my thing, but different and I liked the result.  This layout also shows you that you don't have to have a water theme.  I used a summer time drink theme, Margaritas!!!  Whoo hoo!

Another fabulous kit from The Kit Cart is Mexico Vacation.  I've never been to Mexico, but managed to do three layouts with no problem at all.  It is also oozing summer time, vacation fun and is great for tons of pictures you probably have in your stash.

My first layout is definitely a recent favourite.  The papers in this kit are just so awesome, I had to use as many as I could!  Hehehe...I layered them up, tucked some pictures underneath of our vacation time fun and added a few elements to round it off.

My last layout is of my kitty cat.  He died last week after a very adventurous13 years of living with me and my worldly travels!  He was such a great cat.  I miss him dearly.  When I get back from my vacation, I plan on getting a few more furry, purring pussy cats to bring this place back to life.

Thanks for hanging out at The Cherry On Top!  Stay tuned because next week, I'll have a few freebie notices for you.  A couple I made myself and some other from other designers!  Have a great weekend and I hope you've been having a productive, artsy summer!

G45 Purse Gift Card Holder & FREE template

Hey there, Fans!

I have a special in-law aunty who also likes to scrapbook.  I always make her scrappy gifts.  It's a great excuse to get my scrap on.  I saw an interesting template on Pinterest, of which I'll supply the link, but in my usual manner, I changed it up.  I think I actually made it more difficult and I also learned a few helpful tips for future crafting and for you to learn, too.

Here is the template I got from Pinterest.  You might wanna stick to the steps.  I had a heck of a lot of not so great moments in my re-engineering.  Hehehe....The image is linked up and it is FREE.

I used some rigid, plain card stock that I wouldn't mind peeking through my design.  I traced the template and followed directions.  Eh hem...Hehehe...

I used double sided tape all around the jewel case and adhered the shell.

In the next image you can see that I cut across the bottom of the handle to cut out the half circle, then taped it up.  I knew it would be covered anyway and it saved me some time.

 Be careful around the fold.  If your card stock it too thick, it won't open and close easily.

As you can see with the next image, I used washi to cover all around the edges.  It is really easy to use because you manipulate it just perfectly.  Even in those difficult spots.  The only thing is and this is big, the double sided tape doesn't stick so well to it!

The gift card was this bright blue that really didn't go all that great with the G45 I have, but I found some blue here and there and chose to put a little of the same blue under some layered papers for a bit more cohesion and balance.

I like a vintage, weathered look so I cut strips of paper, wrinkled them up, filed down the edges with my trusty, rusty nail file and used dark brown ink around the edges.  I love that look! I did it around just about everything.

Use double sided tape only at the top of your strip and you get a cool, dimensional effect.  I was just about to snip off that annoying, green, metal stem from my paper flower when I decided to wrap it around a paintbrush tip and raise it.  Now I have cute foliage!

Then decorate it however you choose.  I went with tags, ribbons and tiny paper flowers on different levels for some depth effect.  Warning!  Do NOT go high with your embellishments or the purse will not close.  Since the gift cards are for the casino, I used some circular embellishments to represent chips.

I had to cut out the image of the gift receivers because they were with a few other people.  At least their doggy made the cut!  Ha!

I tried all different things for the handle, but ended up winding black, satin ribbon all around both of them, using mini glue dots every couple of layers to make sure it stayed.  The result, though tedious, looked pretty darn good.  I needed to have a bit of classy glam because that is my aunty!  I layered plaid ribbon, added another tag, wooden camera bellie and some more metal goodies that match the ones on the cover.

I was sipping on some Port as I was snapping away and thought it just kind of went.  Cheers!

 Thank you for hanging out with The Cherries!

Throwing Some Scraps Around

Welcome to yet another edition of The Cherry On Top.

I never would call myself lucky, but I won another fantastic digital scrapbooking collection!  This time it is from, Throwing Some Scraps Around.  So, a huge shout out to them.  Wow!  An entire collection?!  The timing could not have been better.  One of the creative teams I was working on was dispersed and I was totally bummed, but it all turned out just fine.  It's always nice to have that reminder, that sometimes bad things happen, but good things happen, too and it is these good things that we have to focus on.

Now that I'm starting to learn and work with Photoshop Elements, I wanted to try my hand again at what I hoped would be a fantastic cluster frame.  They are not that difficult to make when you have a ton of goodies in all kinds of shapes, sizes and forms like the ones in, "It's Gonna Be Alright" by Throwing Some Scraps Around.

Look at all of those goodies and I didn't even use them all.  That is what I call an awesome collection!  Scroll down further and see all of the other things in the collection.

There is the gorgeous glitter set.  I didn't even use glitter?!  

Here's the preview of the kit.  Look a butterfly and I didn't use that either?!  Hehe...

Always a must have, solids.

A great selection of papers.   This collection is definitely gonna stay on my hard drive.  It's classic and super versatile.  You could use it on any kind of layout for any occasion.

How about some inspirational word art?  Yes, please!  I love that a different theme is being used and that it is ultra positive.  I got some serious good vibes.  How about you?

Thanks again, to Throwing Some Scraps Around, FB for the absolutely awesome prize and thank you for dropping by The Cherry On Top!  There will be more freebies coming up shortly.  

Tah!!!