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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Papertrey Ink | Make It Monday #166

This week's Make It Monday technique is debossing stamped images. I love this technique and have used it often. I needed to create a card to give to Evan's teacher (tomorrow is the last day of school for both boys). I pulled out my Apple Prints stamps and dies for a quick and easy card.

To create the debossing, I first ran the apple die through my big shot with embossing pads instead of only cutting plates. After the apple was outlined, I stamped it with Memento Luxe Love Letter and Pear Tart inks. 

 
The center flower and sentiment are also from Apple Prints. I added a few buttons (from an old Autumn Leaves button pack), an enamel dot, twine, and gingham patterned paper from Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy Patterns Pack.

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by. 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

RetroSketches | Challenge #116

Good morning! Today I have a card for this week's RetroSketches challenge. Here is the sketch:


I love, love, love the new Market Street collection from My Mind's Eye, and I received a Two Peas order with Market Street papers, enamel dots, chipboard buttons, and stickers yesterday. The patterned paper is from a 6x6 pad (Nob Hill), that I cut with my Silhouette Cameo. I created the circle in my Silhouette designer software, placed the patterned paper on the cutting mat, and cut it out. I am trying to use my Silhouette more, and this card came together quickly because of that little machine!

The chipboard buttons, pink patterned paper, and enamel dots are also from the Market Street collection. 


That's it for me today! Thanks for stopping by! 

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Papertrey Ink | Make It Monday #165

Water color cards are everywhere right now, and this week's Make It Monday challenge is a fun technique using Papertrey Ink's die ink to create an artsy watercolored background. 

I used Scribbled Circles and stamped the two large circles with Hibiscus Burst and Hawaiian Shores ink. I stamped a smaller circle with Limeade Ice. I used my water brush to pull the color, then flicked on Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal, New Leaf, Limeade Ice, Raspberry Fizz, and Hibiscus Burst inks, letting some of the ink/water to drip down the paper. The result is a messy, watercolor background that is pretty cool.

I used a strip of washi tape at the top, and some neon sequins from Studio Calico scattered on the card. 


I used watercolor paper from Michaels, and it worked well for my card. I'm not an expert in watercoloring, and I'm not sure if the paper pad I picked up at Michaels is "the best" or not, but for what I'm doing I don't have any complaints.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Paper Smooches Sparks | Anything Goes

Good morning! Today I have a card for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes challenge. 



I have been using aqua/teal a lot lately, and I used that monochromatic color scheme on my card today. I used several Paper Smooches sets: Mini Monograms, Daisies & Paisleys, and Party Posse (which has one of my favorite Happy Birthday sentiments). I also used the Toppers, Speech Bubbles, and Birthday Words dies. I stamped the flower from Daisies and Paisleys three times, and added large aqua sequins and star gems to the center of each.

For the "cheers" and "celebrate" dies, I wanted them to have dimension and stand out from the the speech bubbles. Foam tape was too hard to adhere behind the delicate letters, so I die cut each word four times from teal cardstock, then used a small glue pen to glue the layers together. 



That's it for me today! Make sure to check out the rest of the design team for more inspiration!

Saturday, May 17, 2014

RetroSketches | Challenge #115

I am very excited about today's card because... I pulled out my Copic markers for the first time in ages! This sketch calls for a long skinny stamp, and I have the perfect Hero Arts wooden stamp that looks beautiful when colored with Copic markers. 

Here is this week's sketch:


I stamped the flower with Memento black ink, then used two pink Copic markers to color the flowers. After I finished coloring, I added glitter with my Spica Glitter pen in clear. I colored the leaves with Spectrum Noir markers


The gray background paper is from a Heidi Swapp 6x8 inch paper pad that I picked up at Joanns yesterday. I love the soft gray color, and it has a little bit of a pattern to it without being overwhelming. The sentiment is from Inside and Out: Thank You by Papertrey Ink, and the enamel dots are from My Mind's Eye.

Head over to the RetroSketches blog to see more inspiration and to play along! 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Paper Smooches Sparks | Picture Perfect Challenge


Good morning! This week's Paper Smooches Sparks challenge is Picture Perfect... an awesome photo inspiration challenge. Here is the picture:


I love the color scheme! I used the green, purple, and yellow color combo as my inspiration. I used just one stamp set for my card: Flap Happy, and the Bookmarks Die.  I finished off the card with some gold sequins, yellow enamel dots, and a super cute purple button with yellow twine.


You can check out the rest of the design team and their cards here:

Savannah

Have a wonderful Mother's Day and thanks for stopping by!

RetroSketches | Challenge #114

Today I have a card for this week's RetroSketches challenge. I have been sorting my Studio Calico stamps (and getting ready to sell a few sets, too), and I found two sets that haven't seen ink yet: the Cuppa card kit, and the Athens card kit add-on. I like the "sketchy" look of the stamps in both sets, so I combined them on my card. Here is the sketch for this week:


And here is my take:

 (Supplies - Stamps: Studio Calico. Ink: (Memento Luxe) Rich Cocoa and Toffee Crunch. Cardstock: (Neenah) Solar White. Patterned Paper: Studio Calico. Buttons: Studio calico. Corner punch: EK Success. Pearls: Hero Arts.)

Monochromatic cards are some of my favorites to make. I used a variety of brown & inks and embellishments for this card. The corner punch is one that I've had for years, but the small size makes it perfect for cards.

I hope you can play along with us this week! 

Friday, May 9, 2014

Studio Calico | Traditional Layouts

For National Scrapbooking Day, I packed up a bunch of Studio Calico kits, my tools + adhesive, and drove to a friend's house for the afternoon. I haven't gone to an all day crop in forever, and I had so much fun! We had a mid-afternoon lunch (Chick-fil-a... yum!), I got to hold the sweetest 16 month old baby, and I finished two layouts. I am such a s-l-o-w scrapbooker! But it was a wonderful afternoon. 

I pulled out some older photos to work with. The first layout uses Studio Calico's Pip and Gertrude add-on kits. I covered the heart die cut with Colorbox pigment ink to match the lime green cardstock.


I used the Office Hours scrapbook kit, Stitched class kit, and some washi from Freckled Fawn for this layout. The stitched tag took forever! And I actually ran out of blue DMC floss, so I switched to gray halfway through. I like the two-toned look, so my mistake worked out for the best. The large stamped square is from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook class. I am currently working my way through the first lesson and have finished two layouts already. I will post them this weekend.



I'm hoping to knock out several more layouts using sketches from Kelly Purkey's class. I haven't taken a class from her before, and so far I am really impressed. The PDFs are informative, and I love the private message board and gallery. So much inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

CAS-ual Fridays | Challenge #131

Is there anything better than getting new crafty stuff in the mail? My Studio Calico box arrived yesterday, full of Camelot kits, add-ons, embossing powder (yay for Last Call!), gray cardstock, white cardstock, and vellum! So many fun things to play with. 

This month's card kit add-on, Morgan, has a super cute floral stamp set, matching dies, purple buttons, and gorgeous patterned paper. I used this kit almost exclusively for my card. The only embellishment that isn't part of this kit are the purple pearls from Hero Arts. They match the buttons perfectly in real life, but the flash of my camera made them a weird color in the photo. :)

I created my card for this week's Cas-ual Fridays challenge. The challenge is to use three elements on one-third of the card. I used four sets of three elements on one-third of the card: flowers, buttons, leaves, and pearls. That qualifies for brownie points, right? :)




I used my stacking ColorBox pigment ink for the flowers. These little cat eye ink queues are great for small stamps. 

I will be back later tonight with the two layouts I created for National Scrapbooking Day. Thanks for stopping by! 

Family | Digital Layout

When I look through my scrapbook pages (both digital and traditional), I see a lot of white. And kraft. And black. Plus grungy fonts, primary colors, and hardly any pink. A majority of my layouts feature pictures of Mark, Evan, and Jack... and they definitely do not like pink. 

But pink happens to be one of my favorite colors. I adore pink flowers (especially tulips), pink pajamas bottoms, my Flamingo Pink Fiestaware, and the pink purse I bought at Target a few months ago. After today, I can add this layout to my "favorite pink things" list. 

I used Celeste Knight's Honeysuckle kit along with a photo of my mom, great-aunt, and cousin. This photo was taken in my parent's backyard last summer. I really wanted my layout to convey femininity, love, and family, so I converted the photo to black & white, and used some beautiful elements and papers from the Honeysuckle kit to embellish my layout. My favorite element from this layout is the gorgeous floral patterned paper directly behind the photo. I don't always mat my photos (and especially not on patterned paper), but it works here. To keep with the feminine theme, I added flower stickers, gold washi, pink paint splatters, and two white doilies, delicately tucked under the photo. 

Was this layout completely outside of my comfort zone? Yes. Absolutely yes. But do I love it? Another yes! Sometimes pushing myself to try new things, new color combos, or new techniques can push me creatively, and I usually like the results. 


I have a huge stack of photos sitting on my desk right now, and most of them feature a little boy or two, so no more pink. It's back to "little boy" layouts, neutral colors, and my favorite typewriter font. 

Monday, May 5, 2014

RetroSketches | Challenge #113

Hi there!  This post is a couple of days late... I've been fighting with Blogger all weekend. 

Today I have a have a card for this week's RetroSketches challenge, which goes with this sketch:



Mark was out of town last week and I spent my evenings cleaning up my office. I found a box of new(ish) Heidi Swapp products that I pulled out for this card. I picked up the paper pad, acrylic butterfly, and button at Michaels. I added a few Lawn Fawn sequins, twine from Papertrey Ink, and a sentiment from Hero Arts.
 


 That's it for me today! Have a great week. :)

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Pixels & Co. | Creative Team Blog Hop

Good morning and welcome to National Scrapbooking Day with Pixels and Company

Pixels and Company has a ton of fun challenges going on today that I can't wait to participate in! My favorite challenge is the Template Challenge using this free template. If you get a chance, download the template and play along! 

The amazing P & Co. designers have put together a beautiful kit to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day. Below is a preview, and you can purchase it here.  



I have a fun little freebie for you using the Bermuda Triangle collection. I designed two journaling cards for you: one vertical 3x4 inch card, and one horizontal 4x6 card. These cards are perfect for your pocket scrapbooking or digital layouts. A preview of my cards is below, and you can download them here


Here is a complete list of the blog hop participants. If you get lost along the way, head back to the Pixels and Company blog!

To kick off  iNSD, I have some digital inspiration for you. I am obviously on a one-photo-and-neutral-backgrounds kick. It might be time to branch out a little bit! The Bermuda Triangle kit has a fun color scheme (and no black or kraft!), and I hope to have time to play with it today. You can view my gallery here to see a list of supplies for each layout.





Jen E. is next on the hop! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful National Scrapbooking Day!