3 Peas in a Pod - Cocoa Daisy August Sketch and Elle's Studio Use Your Stash

I'm trying to do better about keeping up with my scrapbooking....I have piles and piles of photos to scrap....so I'm trying to complete at least one layout a week.  This week I decided to play along with Cocoa Daisy's August Sketch challenge, by happy coincidence Elle's Studio is sponsoring a Use Your Stash challenge this week and their papers and tags were perfect for this layout.

These photos are from a couple years ago when we were visiting Andrew's parents.  It's kind of crazy that Carina is now almost as big as Ellie was at the time.

Anyway, I was able to incorporate all sorts of fun goodies.  Elle's Studio papers and tags, BossyJoscie flair, SC veneers, Pretty Little Studio tag, Sketchbook Thickers, lots of things I have been hoarding.  (I'm also going through a craft area move/overhaul and have realized I have a ton of stuff and should stop saving things for 'the perfect time'.)

This one came together quickly and easily and has assuaged my scrapbooking guilt for the week.

Hope your weekend is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Elle's Studio - Day to Day collection and Limited Edition Vellum; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock
Ink:  Hero Arts - Soft Pool Shadow Ink
Other:  Elle's Studio - Day to Day Tabs and Tidbits; American Crafts - Sketchbook Thickers and Dear Lizzy Brads; BossyJoscie flair; Studio Calico - Wood Veneer Asterisks and Badges,  Pretty Little Studio - Sandcastle Number tags; My Mind's Eye - Miss Caroline label sticker; Pigma - Black Micron Pen; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Liquid Glass

Artful Delight Friday - Just for You

Happy Friday! 

Here is my Artful Delight card this week.  Very CAS, but I love how this turned out.  At first I wasn't sure that these two papers would work together, but I think the black quatrefoil pattern on the butterfly takes the focus off the houndstooth pattern so that the focus is on the gorgeous color of the paper. 

The butterfly stamp doesn't actually have the butterfly body on it - I colored that in with a marker.

This is one of those cards that I stared at for a while, trying to decide if it was too simple, if I should add something else, but ultimately I decided I like the simplicity and bold contrast of the colors/patterns.

Hope that you have a great end to your week.  Picking up Ellie this weekend and Andrew gets home Sunday.  So excited to have the whole family back together again!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies Used:  Artful Delight August Card Kit; Memento - Tuxedo Black Ink; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; American Crafts - Black 05 Precision Point Pen

I totally lied - 10 Minute Craft Dash #23

I once swore up and down that I would never ever do the 10 minute craft dash.  I was compelled to make myself a liar this week as there's a huge prize up for grabs and I couldn't resist trying.

I went for a super simple card, pulled out my supplies in advance and had a general idea of what I was going to do.

This is what I came up with:

And this is how much time was left when I was done:

In general I'm kind of meh about the card.  It's not a show stopper, and I can see lots of flaws/issues with it, but it was an interesting experiment for me.

I'm a very deliberate/trial and error crafter.  I will take hours to make one card or layout because I like to spread out, put something on, take it back off, move things around, try different color/pattern combinations to find what I like, oh and I make a TON of mistakes.  There's a whole forest out there that I had a hand in slaying because I mess up my stamping, smudge something, whatever.

Anyway, the point is, that it was good to step out of my comfort zone and to force myself to not over think.  In fact, I think this was a really good 'jump start'.  Each year Nathalie Kallbach has a series of Creative Jump Starts on her blog - to get your creative juices flowing.  I remember one year (and unfortunately I can't remember who it was, maybe Julie Balzer) one of the presenters shared that before she started really working, she would make a few tags to just get her creative juices flowing....and I think this type of challenge is perfect for that.  When I was done, I was ready to sit down and craft....unfortunately it was not to be as I actually do have to dash.  We're heading down to pick up Ellie today.  Can't wait to see her!  Mama/Carina time has been great, but I think we're both ready for some fresh blood. 

Thanks for stopping by, come back tomorrow to see my Artful Delight card for this week.

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Twilight cardstock
Stamps:  The Craft's Meow - Birthday Pun
Ink:  Hero Arts - Soft Pool and Soft Granite
Other:  MME - The Sweetest Thing enamel dots; American Crafts - Amy Tangerine chevron ribbon; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Craft Knife

100 Days of Tombow

A while back I was contacted by Tombow and invited to participate in their 100 Days of Tombow event.  They have invited 100 different bloggers to showcase some of their great products and for each submission Tombow is making a $100 donation to the Council for Arts Education. 

I jumped at the chance to participate since Tombow happens to be my go to adhesive of choice.  Tombow sent me a set of Irojiten Color Pencils, Dual Brush Pens (grunge set), and a Stamp Runner. 

I used the Dual Brush Pens to create this card using Avery Elle's Ikat Additions.  I used the two pink pens to brush the ink onto the stamp alternating between the light and dark pen.  Once that was complete, I used the darker pink pen, coloring directly onto an acrylic block and then picking up that ink with a water brush to color in the spaces between the stamped strips.  Once the first coat was done, I went back and emphasized the edges of those sections with the pen and blended again with the water brush.  I also added some water/color to the dark pink stamped images to brighten the color.

The sentiment is from Mama Elephant's On Target set. 

I wanted to showcase the pencils as well, so I created this next card.

The image is Stampendous and colored with the pencils.  They were quite forgiving and it was easy to go back and deepen the colors by adding another layer.  I used a white gel pen to emphasize the snow on the image.  I used the gray brush pen to create the wash in the background using the same technique as on the first card (water pen and ink brushed onto an acrylic block).

The sentiment is from Uniko Studio, and those thin lines were just drawn in with two different thicknesses of pen.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks so much to Tombow for the opportunity to work with these great products!

Supplies Used
You're the One Card
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy, Bazzill Card Shoppe - Candy Hearts Cardstock
Stamps:  Avery Elle - Ikat Additions; Mama Elephant - On Target
Ink:  CTMH - Ruby
Other:  Tombow - Grunge Dual Brush Pens, Stamp Runner; Ranger - Water Brush 
Seasons Greetings Card
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy cardstock; Echo Park - Season's Greetings collection
Stamps:  Stampendous - Cling Snow Bird; Uniko Studio - Label Love:  Christmas
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Tombow - Irojiten Color Pencils, Grunge Dual Brush Pens, and Stamp Runner; White Gel Pen; American Crafts - Black 01 Precision Pen; Pigma - Black Micron 05 Pen

RCC84 - Good Day Sunshine

Hey Everyone!  I'm here to share my card for this month's Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Summertime Fun

I went pretty clean and simple for this one.

I used my Studio Calico Circle Graph mask, misting it with a couple Dylusion ink sprays. 

The sentiment is from Unity's Good Day Sunshine Itty Bitty, and I added a bit of American Crafts sheer ribbon that I threaded through a couple slits made with my craft knife.

I'm going to be linking this up to Unity's Itty Bitty a Day challenge on facebook too.

Thanks so much for coming by!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Black cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Good Day Sunshine Itty Bitty
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Studio Calico - Circle Graph mask; Ranger - Lemon Zest and Pure Sunshine Dylusions Ink Spray; American Crafts Sheer Ribbon, CTMH - Craft Knife; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Hello Friend - Reverse Confetti SFYTT

I thought I would play along with Reverse Confetti's sketch for you to try this month.

I pulled out some papers from CTMH's new Babycakes collection, yup it's a baby/kid collection, but the B sides are so soft and pretty and versatile, perfect for the look I was going for.

All the stamps on this card are from Reverse Confetti's Peacock Pretties set.  The border isn't actually that long, I did a little masking to extend it the full length of the strip.  The feather was embossed on vellum and fussy cut.

Thanks for coming by!  Hope your week is off to a great start!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Babycakes papers, Slate and Colonial White cardstock; Recollections - vellum
Stamps:  Reverse Confetti - Peacock Pretties
Ink:  Versamark
Other:  CTMH - Gold embossing powder, Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

You & Me

 

Sharing a card today that I made a while back.  There's a little bit of all sorts of stuff here.

The stamps are from Reverse Confetti's Dream in Color set.  Flair from BossyJoscie, and papers from CTMH.  The pins are quilting T-pins.  I added some ribbon and then secured them with May Arts burlap string.  A little bit of washi tape and staples finished it off.

I'm going to link this one up over at Reverse Confetti.

Hope you are having a good weekend, busy here.  Bunch of cleaning today, gym, bike riding, and I took Carina to see her first movie:  Monsters U.  She wasn't as into being in the theater as Ellie was at her age.  Sat in my lap most of the time, and didn't necessarily pay attention the whole time.  She was very sad that they had to go home at the end, and this disturbed her the whole way home....go figure as I thought the ending was pretty happy....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Bazzill Card Shoppe - Waxed Lips; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock and For Always patterned paper
Stamps:  Reverse Confetti - Dream in Color
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  BossyJoscie flair; Misc Washi Tape; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; Quilting T Pins; Recollections - Red Grosgrain Trim; May Arts - White Burlap String; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Thermoweb - Zots Dimensional Adhesive; CM - Corner Rounder