Friends with Flair - Thinking of You

Yesterday I pulled out my new Inktense pencils and tried them out.

I thought this Unity image would be the perfect one for my first project.

I first added a soft wash to the background by applying water to the base piece and then adding some very watered down color.

The image was stamped in Versafine and then colored by just pulling color off of the pencil tips with a brush.  Once that was done I added the horizon line and stamped the sentiment.

I do love how bright the colors are, can't wait to use these again!

Have a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Watercolor paper from Target; Avery Elle - Silver Fox Cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Country Side Blooms Itty Bitty; WPlus9 - Fresh Cut Florals
Ink:  Versafine
Other:  Derwent - Inktense Pencils; Tombow - Stamp Runner

Together there is Joy

It really is so nice to get back to some scrapbooking.  I came across these photos the other day and really wanted to get them on a page, and here you have it.

I used the Magical collection, those strips around the main piece are cut from one of the papers.  You could easily use washi as a frame too, but I think it's easier to line up/get things square with paper.  When I try doing stuff like that with washi I always end up having to pull it up and put it down a bunch of times.



I cut a couple doilies down to create the banner portion at the bottom, stitching along the top and then looping the excess threads around and adhering them with some gems.



I used a bunch brads that I have had for ages to accent the doilies as well.



Really a very simple and clean layout, but I love it.  This is actually from two Christmases ago.  It's hard to get photos with Andrew and often even harder to get myself in photos as I usually have the camera.  These came from my older sister, and I'm so glad that we have them.

Now, I gotta start thinking about THIS year's Christmas photos....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  AC - Magical Collection; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock
Other:  AC - Eclair Glitter Foam Thickers; Lily Bee - ABC Stickers; OA - Make it Merry Designer Brads; EP - This & That Decorative Brads; BoBunny - Elf Magic Jewels; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Sewing Machine; White Gel Pen

Three with Lily Bee

This year I'm trying to get into my stash and use some of it up.  I have a bad hoarding habit and I need to get stuff out and not be afraid to cut into papers, so yesterday I pulled out the Lily Bee Sweet Shoppe collection to make some cards even though I was saving it for scrapping.  It's a really sweet and pretty collection, and I challenged myself to do at least two cards with the same papers.  This first one features the Jenni Bowlin's Quilt Star Punch.



I punched a bunch of stars and stacked using the front side of the paper on top and the backside on the bottom, and turned the star on the bottom so that it looks more like a sunburst that a quilt star.  A little bit of stitching was added to accent them.

I scored the cardstock to create a grid and placed one star in each grid.  The sentiment piece is one of the stickers that comes with the collection.  I popped it up with foam tape and added some Lawn Trimmings.

Some SC wood veneer stars finished off the top and bottom stars.



For my next card, I used the exact same papers, cutting them into 2" by 1/2" strips and arranging them above and below the center of the card.



I knew I was going to stitch them on, so I just tacked them in place and then stitched around.  The alphas come in the kit also.  So simple and easy and now I've got another birthday card for Andrew's students.



I figured I would make one more birthday card while I was at it and challenged myself to make one with a different look and feel.  I went brighter, funkier, and bolder for this card.



I love that there are some black patterned papers in this collection as I think they are a great contrast with the other papers.  The little pennants were cut from the pennant patterned paper and then stitched together on the sewing machine.  I added a bit of vellum under the polaroid piece to soften the background paper so that the banners stand out a bit more.



It's been COOOOOLD here, and it was fun to pull out some bright, summery papers to play with.

Thanks for stopping by, hope that you are doing well and staying warm and safe where you are!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Lily Bee - Sweet Shoppe Collection; Avery Elle - Silver Fox and White Cardstock; Bazzill Card Shoppe - Peanut Cluster Cardstock; Recollections - Vellum
Other:  Lily Bee - Sweet Shoppe Collection Alphas and stickers; Studio Calico - Wood Veneer Stars; Lawn Fawn - Natural Cord Lawn Trimmings; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape, Liquid Glass

Hold the Phone - I scrapbooked!

It was good to get back to scrapbooking, I've been wanting to for a few weeks now, but with the craziness of the holidays, it's been hard to focus on layout since they tend to take me a while longer.

I'm hoping to do a better job this year with my scrapbooking, and thought I would start with another vacation layout from our trip to Hungary/Romania two years ago.



I used Basic Grey's Carte Postale collection, and kept things very CAS.  I like to take 'panoramic' shots of travel locations, although the one in the right I did a poor job of because for whatever reason the the zoom on all the photos is different.  I thought about trimming it down so that the sides were square, but I kind of like the organic look when it doesn't all fit together perfectly.



As to where this is, it's an amphitheater just outside Budapest proper.  We were on our way to the Aquincum ruins which are quite well known, but our guide stopped here as well and it's a good contrast to the heavily restored and curated ruins that we would see in just a bit.

Growing up in the US we have a very different view of what is old and what needs to be conserved.  Conservation is important in Europe too, but if they had to abide by our rules they would not be able to build anywhere.  So I was kind of amused that there is this amphitheater surrounded on three sides by apartment buildings and open to any old person who wants to hang out there.  Further along as we were driving to Aquincum, probably only about 5-10 minutes away, there were old columns/parts of walls fenced off in the highway median.

Anyway, it was good to get back to scrapbooking, and hopefully it will be a more regular part of my crafty routine this year!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  BG - Carte Postale Collection; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Other:  BG - Carte Postale Flair and Tape Strips, Capture Waterfall Theme Pack and Library Pockets, American Crafts - Black Journaling Pen; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Dreamweavers CAS Challenge

I was excited to see that this month's Dreamweaver's challenge was a CAS one, I can definitely do CAS!

For whatever reason when it comes to Dreamweaver's stencils I tend to gravitate towards the backgrounds.  I really love how intricate they are, but sometimes you don't want to cover your entire piece with a stencil.

For this card I cut a 3x3 piece of mixed media paper and painted it with a Distress Paint.  Once dry, I placed the Waves background over the panel and applied paste.  So easy!  I painted a second slightly larger square to serve as a mat, and used a Verve Plain Jane for the sentiment.  I kind of love the combination of the waves and the verse as it reminds me of when Jesus commanded the storm to be still.



A little bit of jute cord finished this off.

This is one of those cards that was just a joy to put together.  Hope that you love it too!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Strathmore - Mixed Media Pad; PTI - Kraft Cardstock
Stamps:  Verve - Psalm 46:10 Plain Jane
Ink:  CTMH - Outdoor Denim
Other:  Dreamweavers - Wave Stencil; Liquitex - Modeling Paste; Ranger - Chipped Sapphire Distress Paint; Canvas Corp - Natural Jute; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Thank You

Just a quick card share today.  This is another card that I made for a call recently that wasn't picked up.

The sentiment is hand drawn and then colored with Distress Inks and a water brush.

This one was definitely a stretch for me.  As a perfectionist, I hate making mistakes and I feel like that makes my hand kind of shaky when I am doing hand lettering.....curious as to whether or not you guys have tried hand lettering.  It's definitely not my comfort zone, but I do love the look (especially when it's not mine, ha!).

Excited that today is already Friday, two day work weeks are definitely for me!

Have a great weekend all!

Supplies Use
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy, Twilight and Pacifica Cardstock
Ink:  Distress Inks - Evergreen Bough and Salty Ocean
Other:  Ranger - Waterbrush; American Crafts - Black Journaling Pen;
Lawn Fawn - Vivid Triple Pack Cord; MME - Enamel Dots; Punky Sprouts - Button

What's the buzz - SPARKS Anything Goes

Thought I would play along with the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge this week since it's Anything Goes.  I used my Cyber Cafe stamp set for this card and managed to use a fair number of the stamps in the set to decorate an Elle's Studio journaling tag.

Also got to use up some of my stash on this one as most of the papers came from my scrap pile.  A little piecing, a little generational stamping (coffee stain image is second generation), and a little stitching.

We are back to work/school today.  Hopefully all goes well.  I think the girls are still a little short on sleep from New Year's Eve.  We always spend that evening with my friend Shannon and her family.  This year we went to the Japanese Steakhouse - Carina's first time, and her reactions were fantastic - and then watched Despicable Me 2.  We had the girls to bed by 11, but that is way late for them.  Wish us luck!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  MME - Six by Six My Favorite Things; PTI - Kraft Cardstock; CTMH - White Daisy and Cocoa Cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Cyber Cafe
Ink:  CTMH - Cocoa
Other:  Elle's Studio - Serendipity Large/Medium Journaling Tags; Sewing Machine; Tombow - Mono Adhesive