Great Impresions Stamps | Sparkling Holiday

Good morning! It is release week at Great Impressions Stamps, and I have a beautiful star tree stamp to showcase today. I pulled out my silver embossing powder + some pearls to create an elegant, shimmery Christmas card:

(Supplies - Stamps: (Great Impressions) Star Tree, I Believe. Cardstock: (PTI) Enchanted Evening. Ink: Versamark. Patterned Paper: (PTI) Enchanted Evening Patterns Pack. Other; Ribbon, embossing powder, pearls.)

I stamped the sentiment on the inside of the card: 

And make sure to check out the Great Impressions Stamps Blog for more release week inspiration and to see all the new stamps that are available in the store. Thanks for stopping by!

Erin.

ColourQ | Challenge #162

Happy Monday, friends! Evan was home from school today and we had a delightfully relaxing day. The kids pulled out their latest Kiwi Crate box and we made kaleidoscopes and shadow puppets, then they helped me make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (yum!). 

I have a card to share for last week's ColourQ challenge (and the deadline is just a few hours from now... yikes!). But I love the colors and wanted to use Stampin' Up's Perfectly Preserved set that has not seen enough love.

(Supplies - Stamps: (Stampin' Up!) Perfectly Preserved, (PTI) Mixed Messages. Ink: (Stampin' Up!) Riding Hood Read, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede. Dies: (PTI) Doily, Tiny Tags. (Stampin' Up!) Perfectly Preserved. Cardstock: (PTI) Kraft, white. (Stampin' Up!) Soft Suede, Daffodil Delight. Embossing Folder: (Stampin' Up!) Square Lattice. Baker's Twine: Stampin' Up!. Other: White thread, buttons.)

I also wanted to mention that I've added three new tabs to the top of my blog (directly under my blog header): Recognition, Publication, and Design Teams. I plan on added an "About Me" and "Contact" tab soon, too. 

Have a wonderful week!

Hello Hybrid

Last week I discovered several folders of photos I had printed earlier this year. Most of the photos are from the first 6 months of 2012: birthdays, Valentine's Day, my parent's visit, Uncle Tom's visit, school parties, everyday photos. About 200 random, but important photos, of our lives. I want to get these photos scrapped in our albums, so I pulled out a few from Uncle Tom's visit in February to work with. I've also been interested in doing more hybrid layouts. I have so many beautiful kits from Karla (and other designers), that it seems natural to combine digital and traditional scrapbooking.

For this layout I used several digital elements from Karla Dudley Designs that I re-sized/edited in CS5, then printed using my Canon color printer. 

Here is a look at the whole spread:

The circles were cut using my Silhouette Cameo. I layered the circles over some digital paper that I printed, then stapled all the layers together. The journaling spot in the lower left corner is a 3x4 journaling card, also from Karla's Damselle collection, that I printed and embellished using traditional supplies. 

A look at the digital patterned paper:

A monogram "j" from Karla's Rusty Alphabet set:

More digital patterned paper (the kraft polka dots):

You can view all of Karla's digital kits and supplies here and her blog here.

Erin.

Cloud9 Blog Hop

Good morning! Welcome to the Cloud9 blog hop! I am thrilled to be this month's guest designer. Our challenge was to create a card based on this inspiration photo:

I was immediately drawn to the crisp white walls and comforter, accented with bright red, blue, green, and yellow. I wanted to achieve the same look on my card so I pulled out Wplus9's Folk Art Flurries and Pretty Patches: Tree:

(Supplies - Stamps: (Wplus9) Folk Art Flurries and Pretty Patches: Tree. Ink: (Stampin' Up!) Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit. (PTI) Pure Poppy. (VersaMark). Cardstock: (PTI) Rustic White, Pure Poppy). Other: White embossing powder, red gems.)

I love the results! Wplus9's stamps inked up beautifully with Stampin' Up's new foam ink pads, and the non traditional color combination is very striking in person. I hope my card has inspired you to pull out your stamps this weekend and create a card for the Cloud9 blog hop!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Erin.

Karla Dudley Designs | Damselle

Happy Thursday, Friends! I hope everyone is having a good week. Ours has been a little disjointed... Evan was home sick Monday, fine yesterday, then spiked a fever last night and stayed home again today. I'm not sure what is going on with him! But he seemed fine tonight & doesn't have a fever, so he will probably go to school in the morning. Having him home two days this week has thrown me off... my schedule is all out of sorts! Hopefully the next two days we will be back to normal as we get ready for a party for Mark on Friday, soccer Saturday morning, and Evan's end of the season soccer party Saturday night. 

When Evan was home on Monday I tackled the playroom... cleaning out the toy box, organizing the loose and random cars, trucks, airplanes, balls, Angry Birds, etc. that had piled up over the past 12+ months. Jack was super helpful putting toys away and finding the right bin or box for them, and Evan helped me sort Angry Birds into their proper box (and he claims 5 boxes of Angry Birds is not enough). I took some before, during, and after photos to place in our Project Life album, but Karla e-mailed me her newest kit, Damselle, and I knew these photos are a perfect match to her kit.

(Supplies - "mess" and "clean": Damselle . Staples: Digi Essentials. Stickers: Damselle. Stitching: Digi Essentials. Journaling card: Damselle. Washi tape: Damselle. Label: Edge Labels. Cardstock: Cardstock Essentials No.1. Patterned Paper: Damselle)

Rather than reprinting these photos for my Project Life album, I think I am going to print the layout on photo paper and slip it directly into the corresponding week.

I will be back Friday morning with a fun card for this month's Cloud9 blog hop. I am the guest designer over there this month! You can check out this month's inspiration picture here, and the hop officially starts Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Erin.

Great Impressions Stamps | Christmas Carol Card

Hello! Great Impressions Stamps is having a fun contest on their blog this week, and I am participating! I am going to post my card here and on the Great Impressions Stamps Blog. Hop on over to the Great Impressions Blog and leave a comment guessing which Christmas Carol my card was inspired by and you can win some fun prizes! 

 (Supplies - Stamps: (Great Impressions) Wintery Snowman and Merry Christmas. Ink: (Memento) Tuxedo Black. Cardstock: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel, Kraft, White. (Bazzill) Green. Dies: (PTI) Limitless Layers 2.5" Circles, Double Ended Banner, Mega Mat Stack #4. Other: Gems, stickles, Copic Markers.)

And I want to give a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my wonderful husband, who is celebrating his 30th birthday today. I love you, babe!

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by! 

Erin.

CAS-ual Fridays | Challenge #77

Hey guys! I am playing along with CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week to make a masculine card. 

I can always use birthday cards for my sons' friends, so I pulled out Papertrey Ink's Truckin' It mini stamp set for a fast (and cute!) birthday card. 

(Supplies - Stamps: (PTI) Truckin' It, Banner Builder. Ink: (Memento) Black, (Stampin' Up!) Midnight Muse. Dies: (PTI) Truckin' It, Banner Builder, Double Ended Banner, Fabulous Frames. Cardstock: (PTI) Blueberry Sky, Lemon Tart, Pure Poppy. (Stampin' Up!) Basic Gray. Impression plate: (PTI) Linen and Canvas. Other: Gems, buttons, Copic markers.)

I just can't get enough of these cute little trucks... aren't they adorable?!? 

Have a great week! 

Erin.

Great Impressions Stamps | November Challenge

Good morning!

I have an CAS Christmas card to share for Great Impressions Stamps November challenge. The "Merry Christmas" image is very elegant and I wanted to try it with a few different embossing powders to see how legible the font is.... and I think it turned out beautifully with the gold powder.

(Supplies - Stamps: Simple Elegance & Elegant Merry Christmas. Cardstock: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel, Vintage Cream; Bazzill. Patterned Paper: PTI. Ink: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel, VersaMark. Die: PTI. Other: Embossing powder, white string, gems, buttons.)

Make sure you check out the Great Impressions Stamps blog for more holiday inspiration. The girls have really outdone themselves this month!

Thanks for stopping by!

Make It Monday | Challenge #89

Happy Friday! I have a fun card to share for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge: creating windows for floating images. 

I used Papertrey Ink's Super Stars and Hello Sunshine to create a fun card for one of my little super stars.

 (Supplies - Stamps: (PTI) Hello Sunshine and Super Stars. Ink: (PTI) New Leaf, Blueberry Sky, Enchanted Evening, Limeade Ice, Lemon Tart. Dies: (PTI) Seeing Stars, Modern Alphabet Die, Limitless Layers 2.5" Circle Dies. Impression Plate: (PTI) Linen and Canvas)

I need to run and get Jack from pre-school (it's his favorite day of the week... Pizza Friday!), but I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Erin.

{love you} | Digital Layout

Hi there! I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. The kids finally fell asleep at 9:45pm after eating their weight in candy, cookies, cupcakes, pizza, and more candy. Evan picked out his Mario costume months ago and he couldn't wait to to wear it. Jack was undecided until almost 5:00pm and  finally decided on Iron Man (minus the mask) right before we left for Publix. I have a ton a photos to process and I'll post them here soon.

I am super excited to share a layout I made using Karla's new kits: Give Thanks. They will be available tomorrow on the Design House Digital website! She has four kits: papers, flair badges, word stickers, and word brushes. I used a little from each kit on my layout:

REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

(Supplies - Staples: Digi Essentials. Stitches: Digi Essentials. Tan and white edge label: Edge Labels. Alpha brush: Stamp Alpha. "family" brush: Give Thanks. Leaf button: Give Thanks. Home & family sticker: Give Thanks. Green cardstock: Give Thanks)

I just adore this photo of Mark and the boys. I took it almost a year ago, but it's still one of my favorites. 

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Erin.