Friday, May 31, 2013

Artful Delight Friday - two new cards and recap

****Be sure to scroll down and enter my birthday/blogaversary giveaway!



The last week of May, and I must to say that I have really enjoyed working with this month's kit.  I thought I would create a couple cards this week using the Amy Tangerine stickers.

I love how easy it is to pull cards together with stickers.  The first card uses that gorgeous tree sticker as the focal point.  I matted the white cardstock piece twice using some of the different patterned papers, stamped the sentiment, and then added that sweet little Doodlebug Twine bow.  It's adhered with glossy accents.


Next I used the Love You More sticker, adhering it to a piece of white cardstock which I then trimmed down to size.  A couple strips of patterned paper and buttons provided just the right contrast against the green patterned paper. 

I'm really excited about next month's kit and I think you guys will be too.  We'll be revealing the new kits this weekend, but until then, here's a review of the rest of my cards from this month:





Have a great end to your week!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Blogaversary/Birthday Giveaway

Hey everyone!  I'm doing a little celebrating.  My blog turns two next month, June 18th to be exact, and I'm getting a little older tomorrow.

So I thought I would thank you all with a bit of a giveaway.  I've been stashing away some goodies over the last month, and I am also doing a little purging.  Here's a couple photos of all the goodies that you're going to get. 




Everything is brand new, although there are definitely older products in there.  Some washi tape, stamps from Kaisercraft and Authentique, a Dylusions mist, rub-ons, stickers, chipboard, an October Afternoon mini, and a whole assortment of papers including from CTMH, Cosmo Cricket, Nikki Sivlis, My Little Shoebox, Jenni Bowlin, Simple Stories, Echo Park, Bella Blvd, and a full Graphic 45 Little Darlings collection pack with chipboard elements, and lots of others. 

In addition to all this, I wanted to give a shout out to a few of my very talented crafty friends who have been taking their talent, applying a whole lot of elbow grease, and are now selling their own products.

First Joscelyne Cutchens - you may know her as BossyJoscie.  Joscie makes the best flair out there, and she's going to give the winner a $15 credit to her store.

Then you get your choice of either a $15 credit to the Paper Sweeties store which is owned and operated by the VERY sweet Debbie Marcinewicz. 
OR
You get your choice of card hanger dies designed by Laurie Willson....she is actually currently sold out of all the dies (they are popular don't you know?), but will be getting more very soon.

This giveaway is open internationally, although if you are international and win, I will ask you to cover the additional cost of shipping.  In addition, the BossyJoscie and Card Hanger choice credits only cover US shipping, for an international winner you'll be asked to help with the overage.

To enter, just leave a comment.  If you are a follower, leave an extra comment for an extra chance.  Comments close Sunday evening, and I'll announce the winner on Monday.

Thanks for coming by, for leaving sweet comments, and for being a part of my bloggy world! 

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Love You


I created this card a while back, but haven't had a chance to share it yet.

The papers are from the Basic Grey Clippings Collection, and the stamp is a Unity Itty Bitty.  I just love this image!  I stamped it once in Cocoa and then again slightly offset with Colorbox Candied Yam Chalk Ink. 



The sentiment was stamped on vellum which was attached to a small piece of the same paper the main image is stamped on.  This allowed me to pop it out. 

A bit of doily and burlap twine finished it off. 

Hope your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Basic Grey - Clippings 6x6 Pad; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Happy to be Me Itty Bitty; Scrappy Moms - Mini Messages
Ink:  CTMH - Cocoa; Colorbox - Candied Yam Chalk Ink
Other:  Punky Sprouts - Large Lil' Lacy Blossom; May Arts - Natural Burlap String; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono and Vellum Adhesive

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Try New Things - Punky Sprouts and Faber Castell


I was pretty excited when I heard that Punky Sprouts would be swapping with Faber Castell this month.  I had some Faber Castell products already and was looking forward to trying out some new stuff.

My goal for this mini was just to stretch myself, try out some different techniques and combinations, and experiment.  I think you have to do that every so often....that's how you learn what works, and what doesn't.  I chose to use a Tutu Punk album.  This is the perfect album for experimenting with mixed media.  It consists of alternating pieces of scalloped cardboard and a really absorbant mixed media paper. 

For the cover I used some FC Gel Medium on a Ronda Palazzari Crafter's Workshop Stencil. After I let it dry, I generously misted it with a variety of mists.  Then I colored some DIY Thickers with Gelatos and adhered them.  They were a little bright, so I toned them down with some stamping, using Pitt Markers as the stamping medium.


On the next page I applied some gelatos.  Then misted a background stamp with water and pressed it into the gelatos.  I thought it would remove some of the color to give it some extra texture and pattern, but I think my layer of gelatos was too heavy.  Still, the stamp itself did pick up the gelatos color, so you can see that on the right and left where I stamped the background stamp without cleaning it off.  The sentiment was colored with a Sharpie marker and deliberately smudged to add some shadow.

On this page I used the Gel Medium to decoupage newspaper onto the cardboard piece.  I added some stamping (hard to see) in the background using a woodgrain background stamp and gelatos.  Then I colored some circles, turning them into lanterns, and added some detail with a marker.

This page involved rubbing gelatos at the top (and then the side) of the page , spritzing it with water, and then allow the drips to travel down the page and dry.  The letters were made using a stencil and black dye ink, and then I added a little doodling around the letters as well as a bit of mist.


Remember when I said that it was good to play around and see what works and what doesn't?  Well this next page definitely didn't, but I kept it in the mini as a reminder that mistakes are part of the creative process.  Bunch of mist, a stencil, some Gel Medium, some coloring with Pitt Markers....this one just didn't come together the way I envisioned.


On this page I colored with my Gelatos, and then used a wet brush to blend it in.  The sentiment and the houses were cut using my new Silhouette Portrait and I attached them using Gel Medium.  It actually gives it kind of a vinyl look.  I added a bit of mist as a finishing touch.


This next page was super simple, but one of my favorites.  I just painted the cardboard page with gesso, and then misted over a Studio Calico stencil, spraying it on heavily.  Then I added some white thickers that were colored with a Stamper's Big Brush Pen.


For this page I wanted to play with stamping using the Pitt Markers.  I used the Mama Elephant Trifecta set and created kind of an ombre effect with my four markers.  You'll notice that it's easy to blend the colors with the markers, and you can also color them on blended too.  I added a little bit of gesso on the sides to soften the colors a little and drew the sentiment freehand.


Finally, for the back cover I pulled out that Ronda P pie chart stencil again.  First I lightly misted the cardboard with white mist.  Then I used the Gel Medium over the stencil again and let it dry.  Once dry, I painted mist onto each of the pie sections.  The stickers are Bazzill.  They stick really well, but I still added a layer of Gel Medium over top.  It picks up some of the mist color so the stickers blend in a bit.

I really had a great time creating this album, and I left all the backs of my pages unfinished, so I'm thinking I'll go back and do some more experimenting as time permits.  Based on my experiences thus far, there are several other techniques/variations I still want to try.

Thanks so much for coming by!

Supplies Used:  

Punky Sprouts - Tutu Punky (http://getpunkysprouts.com/store/?page/63371/shop-punky)
Lindy's - Cathedral Pines, Rudolph's Nose and Starburst Sprays (http://getpunkysprouts.com/store/?page/63371/load/product_category/category/8580/imageID/0/more-mixed-media) 

Faber Castell - Gel Medium, Yellow Gelatos, Green PITT Artist Pens, Red Mixed Media Sampler

Other:  Crafter's Workshop - Ronda Palazzari Pie Chart Stencil; Studio Calico - Bubbles and Arrows (exclusive to Neverland Scrapbooking Kit) Masks; Dylusions - Cherry Pie, Squeezed Orange, Lemon Zest, Cut Grass, London Blue, and Crushed Grape Ink Sprays; Claudine Hellmuth - Gesso; Mama Elephant - Trifecta; American Crafts - DIY, Nutmeg, and Prancer Thickers; CTMH - Giggle lowercase Alpha and Black Ink; Hero Arts - Snow Dots Cling Background and Woodgrain Background; Memento - Tuxedo Black ink; Bazzill Basics - Big Word Stickers Celebrate

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Fall in Penfield


I decided to play along with this sketch over at PageMaps, and pulled out some old photos of Ellie and my older sister.


These are from when I took Ellie back up to Rochester for a friend's wedding in 2008.  It was October, and I have to say that I love Fall in the north so much more than I do down here.  It's just crisper, cooler, and everything seems to peak at the right time and all together.  Down here (in Virginia) it never quite seems like real fall.  On the other hand, springs in Virginia trump spring/more snow in New York every year.  Somewhere in Pennsylvania is probably the dividing line where you get the best of both worlds....but then you would live in Pennsylvania!  KIDDING!!!  (kind of)

ANYWAY, greens, and especially this shad of green are not my usual colors, but when I pulled out the photos I remembered this beautiful lime green print from Basic Grey's Konnichiwa line.  Perfect don't you think?

I modified the sketch a bit, made it a little more CAS.  I'm not a huge flower fan, but remembered that I had some of these leaves from Petaloo, and they add just the right sparkle/texture to the layout.  Very little journaling on this one.  Sometimes you just don't need to use that many words.


Hope that your weekend is going well.  We've got a birthday party today (and every Saturday for the next month it seems), and then my folks are going to have the kids tomorrow night so we can have a date and some down time.  Hope you are enjoying the long weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Basic Grey - Konnichiwa colletion; CTMH - White Daisy and Black cardstock
Other: Petaloo - Flora Doodles Fancy Foil Leaves/Butteflies; Elle's Studio - Bright Pennants and Spooky Tales Thankful Pennants; American Crafts - Black Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Journal Foam Thickers, and Exclusive Charcoal Alphas from Studio Calico Central High Scrapbooking Kit; Therm-o-web - Zots Dimensional Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Artful Delight Friday - Thanks a Bunch!


Hey everyone!  I've got another Artful Delight card to share with you today.  I was inspired by my friend Brenda's card in creating this one.

This is a great way to use up scraps, you really don't need much of any of the patterned papers.  Each of the pennant pieces is 1/2" wide, with varying lengths.  I used the corner of a square punch to create the pennant shape....they are by no means perfectly centered, but they really don't need to be for this kind of card.  I thought about stamping the sentiment on one of the patterned papers, but I like the contrast of the white strip.


The strips were tacked into place with some Tombow adhesive and then stitched onto the card on the left side.  A bit of twine and button from the kit finish it off.

That's all for today.  I'm really enjoying this kit.  I'll have one more card to share next week as well as a recap of all my May Artful Delight posts.  TGIF!

Supplies Used:  Artful Delight May Card Kit; CTMH - Juniper Ink; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Sewing Machine

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Verve May Diva Dare


It's been quiet over here.  I'm working away on some projects that I can't share yet, and I'm recovering from scrapbooking overload associated with NSD, but I thought I would play along with this month's Verve Diva Dare.

This month the dare pays tribute to Amber Hight and Laurie Willson.  The challenge is to combine stars and stripes, and if you are up to it (although not required), create a CAS card.


I pulled out my Little Star Plain Jane, as well as some Fancy Pants Country Boutique papers (these came in the Simon Says Stamp October 2012 Card Kit).  A really quick and easy card to put together.  Those Studio Calico wood veneer stars were the perfect size to incorporate into the sentiment.

What do you think?  You still have over a week to get in on the action, so head over to Verve and check it out!  Hope your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Fancy Pants Designs - Country Boutique 6x6 pad exclusive to Simon Says Stamp October 2012 Card Kit; CTMH - White Daisy and Champagne cardstock
Stamps:  Verve - Little Star Plain Jane
Ink:  CTMH - Desert Sand
Other:  Jenni Bowlin Studios - Star Chipboard; Freckled Fawn - Doily; Studio Calico - Wood Veneer Stars; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Bonding Memories Adhesive and Liquid Glass; Sewing Machine

Friday, May 17, 2013

Artful Delight Friday - Merci


Hey everyone!  It's Artful Delight Friday here on the blog.

My last two cards with this kit have involved lots of fussy cutting, which I love, but I realize that fussy cutting isn't for everyone, so this week I wanted to do something different.

The kit comes with a full set of Amy Tangerine Yes Please stickers.  I selected this large cluster of flowers sticker, mounted it on the subtle blue patterned paper, and stamped the sentiment.  So easy to do, and it's a great flat, mailable card too!

I hope that you'll consider playing along with our sketches this month.  You still have a couple weeks to play, one random participant will win their choice of May kit.

Thanks for coming by, have a great end to your week!

Supplies Used:  Artful Delight May Card Kit; CTMH - Slate Ink; Tombow - Mono Adhesive
 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Teacher Appreciation Gifts


Thought I would pop in and share the Teacher Appreciation Week gifts we sent in with the girls last week.

I've seen these around the web, and thought they would be a cute gift to put together.  Super easy.  You don't need a lot of paper, this is a great scrap project.  I applied a layer of Modge Podge (I used the matte version) added the paper, and then applied another layer of Modge Podge.  You don't have to, but I added a third coat of Modge Podge to really seal them.


For gift giving purposes I cut a piece of cardstock 5" x 6", and stamped the sentiment.  I punched two holes in the cardstock, threaded the ribbon through, tied a bow, and clipped the clothespins on. 

Easy to make and easy to mass produce.

Hope your week is going well!  I'll be back tomorrow with a new card for Artful Delight.

 

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Best Day Ever - RCC81 Celebrations

 
Hey everyone!  Sharing a fun card for the Ribbon Carousel's May challenge today.  All month we are celebrating the Ribbon Carousel's second birthday, and all month Carousels are 30% off, so if you've been wanting one, this is a great time to get one.

OK, now to my card.  I thought it would be fun to make a more 'mature' take at a Sweet Sixteen card.  I created a frame using the woodgrain strip from Neat & Tangled's On the Strip 2 set. 


The mitres are kind of a cheat. I only cut them on the vertical strips, just left the horizontal ones squared up, makes it much easier to match up the corners.


I tied some pink seam binding around the key and adhered the it with a Zot.

The banner is from Mama Elephant's Good Times set.

I think any 16 year old would be thrilled to receive this card (or at least the key), don't you?

And just in case you're wondering, that's one of the extra keys for my car....I figure that it's safer on the card then elsewhere since I just found my actual keyfob (which had been missing for at least 6 months) in the back bottom of Carina's closet.

Hope that you will play along with the challenge this month.  One random winner will receive a free Ribbon Carousel!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Chocolate cardstock; Glitz - Cashmere Dame 6x6 pad
Stamps:  Neat & Tangled - On the Strip 2; Mama Elephant - Good Times
Ink:  CTMH - Chocolate and Slate
Other:  CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Polka Dot Whimsy - Pink Seam Binding; Thermoweb - Zots Dimensional Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Monday, May 13, 2013

Last NSD Post


Here are my last NSD projects:  a double pager and a card.

The double page layout is for the Scrapbook.com challenge sponsored by Technique Tuesday.  The challenge was to use stamping on your layout.  I'm kind of notorious for having multiple projects going at a time, and it's especially bad when it comes to scrapbooking.  I had laid out these pages months ago, but never got around to fully completing them til now.  It's a pretty simple layout, I added some stamping with white pigment ink using Uniko Studio's Background Builders: Round in Circles set. 



Finally a card for Studio Calico's Masking challenge.  For this one I used the large 12x12 sunburst mask.  I added color with a sponge dauber and then rotated the mask slightly around the center point and added more color. The stamps are from There She Goes' Cutie Pi set.


I'm so happy with all that I was able to get done during NSD.  10 pages in a week is a record for me!
 

 

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Three more NSD Layouts


Popping in to share three more NSD layouts today.

These are for the Two Peas challenges that close today.

This first one is for Be Inspired by a Garden Girl Challenge as well as Studio Calico's By the Numbers challenge.  I was inspired by Shannon Tidwell.  I had participated in her Sassy Scrapping class last year, and so I'm drawing a little from those lessons too.  One of those lessons was to take one embellishment and just saturate your layout with it.


Here I took out all my white/black/neutral thickers and used the '2's from those sets.  The large 2 is from Pretty Little Studio's Sandcastle collection and I added a bit of doodling to that and around the edges.  This layout came together amazingly quickly.

The journaling basically says that one should never leave my daughters alone with stickers....I think you can see why....

This second layout is for both the Focus on Photos and Be Inspired by a Garden Girl Challenge, and I'm also entering it into Studio Calico's go transparent challenge (since I used some vellum).  For this one I was inspired by Paige Evans, specifically this layout.  I loved the idea of turning photos into pennants.  I pulled out some older photos of Ellie who was just over a year old at the, time.  She was just starting to walk and on this particular day headed all the way up the front steps to the front door (we have a lot of steps, about three stories worth).


I used a MME 6x6 pad, some Elle's Studio Tags, and vellum pennants.  Then I cut some of the edges of the doilies and added those at the top of the banners and stitched them all in place.  I left the strings long, looped them around and added some LYB sparkles.

This last layout is for the Refer to Your Bookmarks (Pins) challenge.  Here's the layout by Corrie Jones that I was inspired by.  I loved the technique and sized it up to take up most of the page.  Instead of the paper stars/brads, I used sequins that I just stitched over.  The mists are Dylusions.


The photos are matted on some Ruby Rock-It papers and vellum to soften them.

That's all for today.  I'll have at least one more NSD project to share before all is said and done, but it's time for bed now. 

Tuesday Trigger - For You


I'm sliding in my Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger card under the wire.  When I saw the inspiration photo I knew I wanted to play along because I have a thing for petits fours....I eat them, in large quantities, and I greatly enjoy doing so.

I actually started this card a couple weeks ago, but then realized that it was a three weeker....so here I am linking up on the last day.....I'm a bit of a procrastinator, no?

A pretty simple card.  I used Clear and Simple Stamps' Rounded Squares Quad to cut the windows in the woodgrain cardstock.  Then I laid that piece on top of the card base and traced around the openings with a pencil.  This gave me kind of a template to use in adding the pink ink to the card base.  I used hero Arts Bubble Gum ink with a blending tool.


The woodgrain paper was adhered with dimensional foam tape, and then sequins were added to emulate the flowers on the petits fours.

The sentiment is from Scrappy Moms, stamped in Slate ink on vellum and then adhered to the card.

Hope you guys are enjoying your Mother's Days.  We went to church this morning, to dim sum for lunch, and later, we're going to go get some free Mother's Day froyo.

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy; LCI Paper - Limba Cardstock; Recollections - White Vellum
Stamps:  Scrappy Moms - Mini Messages
Ink:  Hero Arts - Bubble Gum; CTMH - Slate
Other:  CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape, Liquid Glass; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Neat & Tangled - Clear and Silver Sequins

Saturday, May 11, 2013

More National Scrapbooking Day/Week


I really think we need to have National Scrapbooking Day once a month, or at least once a quarter.  What a great way to get me motivated to get some serious scrapping done!

The projects I'm sharing today I've been working on/conceptualizing all week.  They are primarily for the Basic Grey challenges that closed yesterday (no worries, I was trying to get to bed so I just linked my flickr photos to the challenges), but there are so many great challenges going on out there, that I have bundled some others in too.

The other thing that I love about NSD is that it's a great way to do some stash busting, I broke out some really old Basic Grey for the layouts.  I'm going to give you some of the basic supplies I used in the descriptions, but in the interest of time won't provide the detailed list.  If you have specific questions, just shoot me an email.

This first layout is for Kelly Noel's grid challenge.  I'm also going to link it up at Shimelle's for the Scrap with Squares challenge.  I lightly drew the grid with a pencil and then stitched over the lines.  The papers are from the Basics, Oxford, and Max and Whisker lines.


The photos are from this past Christmas.  My nephew Collin thinks Ellie is the best thing ever, and she was just cracking him up at lunch.

The next layout is also from Christmas, a cute shot of Carina and my sisters.  I'm using this week's Elle's Studio sketch, and this is for Shannon Tidwell's Patterned Paper Circles Challenge, Els Brige's Leave White Space at the Bottom of the Page Challenge, and Waleska Neris' Fussy Cutting Patterned Paper Challenge.  This one is also going to be linked up at Studio Calico for the Five Different Patterned Papers challenge as well as Shimelle's Fussy Cutting Challenge.


The papers are BG Basics, Jovial, Oxford, and the green which is kind of a watercolor painted type pattern didn't even have a collection name to it.  I used my Creative Memories Custom Cutting System to create all the circles.



Finally, a card for Joy Taylor's card challenge.  I'm also going to link it up at Studio Calico for the Stamped Patterned Paper challenge.  This was the perfect final challenge since I needed a Mother's Day card for my MIL. 


The flowers are from CTMH's Card Word Puzzle set, and they are stamped on one of the Paper Cottage 6x6 prints. The sentiment is also CTMH, Say it in Style, the twine is Trendy Twine, and the sequins are from Neat & Tangled. I also accented the flowers with some Liquid Pearls.

 

I've got more projects underway....still a couple more days until all the challenges close.  Hope you are having a great weekend!  We went and got my early Mother's Day present today....new hockey skates (the wheeled kind) and shin pads.  Probably not what you were picturing, but I am pretty excited about it!  

Friday, May 10, 2013

Artful Delight May kit - I appreciate you


Hey everyone, I've got another Artful Delight card to share with you today.  Lots of fussy cutting on this one (working on it while I was catching up on my DVR'd shows).  I used that great Amy Tangerine Yes Please floral print and cut out the flowers in different sizes, then stacked them up to create dimension.

One of the buttons from the kit and some of the Doodlebug Twine accent the large flower.  I also used a bit of the Mister Huey's and a sentiment from the Hero Arts set that comes in the kit.

Here's a side view of the card so that you can see how the flowers are built up.


In other news, I'll have all sorts of layouts to share in the next few days.....gotta finish up all my National Scrapbooking Day projects before they time out on me!

TGIF!

Supplies Used
Artful Delight May Card Kit
Other:  CTMH - Slate ink, dimensional foam tape, and Liquid Glass; Tombow - Mono Adhesive