Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Doodlebug Sugar Shoppe Birthday Gift Tags



I'm thrilled to be sharing some Birthday Gift Tags over at Doodlebug's blog today using their new Sugar Shoppe collection!

I must confess that I've had this project on my "to do" list for a long time now... I'm super excited to have these on hand for upcoming kid's Birthday parties and for grabbing on the go!


To form my tag base I used Spellbinders Tags & Flags die by Page Maps which was the perfect fit for Doodlebug's new treat bags!  For my ice cream sprinkles I snipped small bits off from the pixies and topped my cone with an epoxy Sprinkle for the cherry.


I was able to re-purpose several of the the circular tags from the Sugar Shoppe Pixies set to add a bit of embellishment to several of my gift tags.  I cut the tab off of one, used the backside of another and punched a third one into a simple circle.


To stamp the "to" and "from" on each of my tags, I used Lawn Fawn's Winter Gifts Tag stamp set (they also have a darling birthday specific one called Birthday Tags that I don't yet own).  ;)


To keep my design process quick, I stayed with a simple, repetitive theme for each of my tags.  I ran a 1-1/2" strip of paper through my die cutting machine a second time using a coordinating piece of paper to form the top of my tags.  I then die cut the top piece with a decorative edge using Spellbinders On The Edge dies (would also work well with border punches or decorative edge scissors).


For the majority of my tags I was able to work almost exclusively with the 6x6 paper pad (using the bigger pieces only for the occasional border).  As someone who has a small addiction to buying 6x6 paper pads I LOVE finding more great ways to use them.  ;)




I hope I've inspired you to play with Doodlebug's darling birthday collections and make some gift tags of your own.  They are super fun to create and come together quickly!   :)




Thursday, April 24, 2014

Highlights from Our Spring Break Trip To Japan

Last week my family and I returned from a 10-day trip to Japan over spring break which means I am now majorly behind on my crafty projects and gearing up for a 3-day (14 hours-a-day) crop I attend every year over National Scrapbook weekend.  With that in mind I thought I would share some highlights from our trip and share a few photos that I'm sure will be making their way onto future layouts.  ;)

We started our trip flying directly from Portland to Tokyo (seriously nice not having to layover somewhere).  Our first few nights there we redeemed my husband's hotel points he accumulated during his business trips and got a nice suite with views of the Tokyo Bay.


Our first full day was spent at Tokyo Disneyland!  :)  Since my husband is Japanese and we visit often to see his Mom, this was my fourth visit to the park, but my first time during the Spring!  I was surprised to see how much they had embraced the Easter holiday in their decorations (since Japanese don't actually celebrate the holiday in their homes).  They had an Easter egg hunt throughout the park where they had painted eggs to look like different popular characters.  It was super fun and I took a ton of photos (which hopefully won't take me years to finally get around to scrapbook and share).


I couldn't resist taking pictures of the girls trying on silly hats.  If you think Americans love to shop at the parks, Japanese take it to a whole other level.  We were some of the only people not wearing hats and toting different expensive popcorn buckets.  They have different flavored popcorn stations (each sporting their own particular style of bucket) scattered throughout the parks selling everything from curry to milk tea flavored popcorn (huh?).  What you can't see in this picture is the horse hat has a very tiny body attached in back. So funny!


The following day we went to their second theme park called "Disney Sea".  If you haven't heard of it, it is very cool (and very gigantic so my feet died this day). It is divided into 7 lands all with a water theme.  The photo below was taken during a water parade of sorts that they do every afternoon on their Mediterranean Harbor.  In the evening we rode a gondola in this same harbor ducking under the bridges and canals that closely match the feel of Venice.


When at Tokyo Disneyland we are always excited to see the characters!  They seem to be better about pulling out unusual characters for photos that we don't usually get to see at the US parks.  This day we got our picture with Thumper and Miss Bunny from Bambi (among a handful of other fun ones).


And right before we left for the evening, we were thrilled to catch a ride on the newly opened Toy Story Mania!  We consider ourselves seriously lucky because it wasn't slated to officially open until we were long gone.  My husband just happened to notice they were distributing fast passes when we walked by at lunch time and they were almost out of them!   In the end we only had to wait 5 minutes on get on which is almost unheard of.


Our next day was spent riding a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto and then another train to Nara to see his Mom.

After a day of "rest" we decided we better hurry and finish with our last theme park visit before the busier weekend hours hit so we got up early and headed for Osaka to visit Universal Studios. My husband had taken the girls to Japan last summer and knew we would be returning so he purchased them season passes last summer that they wanted to take advantage of one last time on this trip.

Unfortunately our favorite part of this visit didn't get captured in a photo of my own, but we bribed (literally with money) our 8 year old to try their giant roller coaster that darts through a good part of their park called "Hollywood Dream-The Ride".  It boasts a giant drop and an almost upside down loop and it looks terrifying!  The poor thing was shaking with fear as we waited in line (luckily it was the first thing we ran to when the park opened so she could be put out of her misery quickly).  Before you report me to child services, I have say I knew she would love this ride if she'd only try it and I was right.  We ended up riding it four times!  It was the most priceless family moment.  I wish I could capture the big smile on our faces on it each time--There's something so special about reaching that age where we can enjoy every attraction TOGETHER!  :)  If you love roller coasters I found some fun you-tube videos of it here and here.  And for the particularly daring they had a separate line to ride it backwards, but the wait was WAY longer and I wasn't sure if I was that brave.


One of the perks of a season pass is getting to go in and out several times a day which they don't allow for 1-day pass holders so my daughter and I sat at the entrance and hung with the characters while my hubby ran to get a cheaper McDonald's meal for us down the street.  They had so many characters coming in and out at quick intervals that we got to see almost the entire cast of Sesame Street...


And Peanuts!


I'm guessing they were totally copying Disney, but Universal had an Easter egg hunt of their own with eggs painted like Snoopy, Woodstock, Hello Kitty and the Sesame Street characters.


On Friday we decided we better head back to Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms before they were completely gone.  The sad reality is they had nearly all dropped to the ground.  I'm guessing if we had had time to see them at the beginning of our trip they would have been perfect.  I still managed to get some pretty shots.  I think I'd like to make a jigsaw puzzle out of this one for my hubby.


A picture of my oldest daughter posing for me...  My youngest was not having a good day so I ended up taking a ton of photos of my oldest instead which suited me just fine.  My youngest is usually begging me to take her photo so I always end up with more scrapbook layouts about her anyway.


As we made our way out of the area, we found a single tree that was a different variety that was still in bloom.  :)


As you can imagine, it was a very popular tree and you had to almost wait in line to get pictures with it.  While I was waiting I couldn't resist snapping a photo of this Japanese girl in her kimono taking a picture with her iPhone.


I took some nice photos of Grandma...


And a semi candid photo of us taking a snack break on the curb...


...And then we were off in search of a bus stop for the long ride (all while standing body to body) back to the train station.  Did I mention my feet hurt?


Our last big outing was a day spent shopping in downtown Osaka.  We all had resisted buying a single thing up to this point so I had some allotted spending money burning a hole in my pocket.  This was my hubby's "hood" growing up so while every street looks the same to me, he had us winding in and out of narrow alleys and streets like this one, always knowing exactly where he was.  My favorite find of the day was a Japanese do-it-yourself store he took me to (called Tokyu Hands) where I was able to stock up on Copic Marker refills for only $2.60!  In fact they were a bit cheaper than the actual markers.  I only wish my kids and hubby weren't as eager as they were to get out of there because I probably could have spent another hour figuring out which new colors I wanted to buy.  I was able to spend almost a $100 though so I guess I had done enough damage.  ;)


Well, there you have it.  If you managed to read through all that, I thank you for sticking with me.  Our joke on this trip was "It's only about a 15 minute walk".  Every time I asked my husband how long it would take to walk from one store on our list to the next or from the train station to our destination, his answer was always "about 15 minutes".  All in all we ended up getting about 4+ hours of walking in each day and as fun as it was, I can't tell you how happy I am to be home with my sweet car!  :)

Monday, April 21, 2014

A Teresa Collins & Papetrey Ink Bridal Shower Card

How is the weather in your neck of the woods?  As someone from the Pacific Northwest we get a ton of rain so Papertrey Ink's Scattered Showers stamp set was sort of a must have for me.  I love that it can serve so many purposes pulling double duty for bridal and baby showers!


Today's card is somewhat similar to the ones I shared last week with the paper strips going the opposite direction.  I admit that when I find something that works, I milk it for all it's worth.  ;)  I paper-pieced my umbrella using Teresa Collin's Everyday Moments 6x6 pad.  Blue and yellow is another one of those color schemes that I also fall for.  How about you?  What are some of your favorite color combinations?

Thursday, April 17, 2014

My Mind's Eye Kate & Co. Missing You & Thank You Cards

I'm popping in today with a couple of cards I made awhile back using My Mind's Eye's Kate & Co. Cambridge Court Collection.

If I recall correctly I made these a submission call asking for takes on a sketch. I was having a hard time deciding if I preferred the button or the wood veneer heart and since I had already cut 12-inch long paper strips it was easier to just go ahead and make two cards at the same time.  Half the battle can be deciding what to make, am I right?  ;)


For my Sentiments I used a mix of several Simon Says Stamp exclusives including their Lots of Thanks Handwritten Sentiments Stamp set, You Clear Stamp set and the You Craft die.


Thanks so much for visiting with me today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Easter!  :)

Monday, April 14, 2014

Lori Whitlock's March Blog Hop with "About Me" Layout


Hello and welcome to Lori Whitlock's April blog hop!  You should be arriving here from Corri's blog or if you are just joining in you can start from the beginning at Lori's blog.  



Today I have a colorful layout sharing my addiction to Converse sneakers using Lori's newest Summer Bliss collection which she designed for Echo Park.  As soon as I saw this fun title by Kolette Hall I knew I had to pull out my camera and document my shoe collection for the record books.  ;)  Lori was super sweet and even designed an adorable pair of sneakers to help put the finishing touch on my page. 

For my title I created a thin shadow which I cut from both yellow paper and two thin sheets of Silhouette Chipboard.  I then set to work gluing all the layers together with my favorite Zig glue pen.  I love the extra dimension and emphasis it gives my title.  











I used the following cutting files available for purchase in Lori's shop:
I also have a digital layout that I made awhile back using Lori's Digital papers and embellishments that I never got around to sharing.

For this one I used a fun sketch by Allison Davis at Scrapbook Generations.



To create my heart shape I temporarily used a random heart and then set to work covering it with a variety of Lori's flowers, buttons and brads.  When I was done I just deleted the original heart.  This was definitely a labor of love given the amount of shadows and layering involved, but I love how it turned out!  :)



To create this layout I used the following digital kits:
In honor of the hop, Lori and Kolette Hall are offering 30% off all their SVG cutting files and fonts today through April 20th. 



Lori also has an awesome giveaway for a $25 gift certificate to one lucky winner. The contest will run April 14th through 21st and the winner will be announced April 21st.   

a Rafflecopter giveaway


You're next stop on the hop is Brigit Mann's Blog.  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by.  ;)

Friday, April 11, 2014

A Red, White & Blue Chevron Striped Nautical Card

Spring makes me think of Nautical themes so with that I thought I would share a card I created last year that I never got around to sharing.  :)


For my focal point image I used Silhouette Rhinestone Anchor cutting file which I then set to work filling with some value rhinestones.  I love how sparkly it looks in person.  For my background I layered chevron stripes cut from cardstock using Papertrey Ink's Chevron Stripes Border Die.  When I think of Nautical clothing, I think of white stitching on bold colors so I added a bit of that with some large eyelets to complete the look.  My sentiment was heat embossed using Papertrey Ink's Think Big Favorites Mini Stamp Set.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope your weekend is peachy!  :)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

A Series of Doodlebug Hip Hip Hooray Birthday Layouts

I am so happy to be sharing some Birthday layouts on Doodlebug's Blog today using their newest Hip Hip Hooray Collection!  I adore the bright and cheerful colors in this fun line!  I actually don't have boys, but I thought the colors were a perfect match for my daughter's recent "Minion" themed party.  :)


First up I have a layout featuring a border of pennants to show off all the yummy prints in the 6x6 paper pad.  For my embellishment focal point, I popped up the balloon icon stickers with foam tap and "tied" them to the monster sticker with twine.


I combined Doodlebug's "birthday" phrase from their icon sticker sheet with a die cut title using some matching petite prints paper.  To add a playful feel to my title I added the birthday hat sticker to my Letter "B" and dotted my "i" with a star rhinestone.


I was on a roll and thought it might be nice to keep the birthday looking somewhat consistent in my album so I went ahead and created a couple more layouts to share with you.  For my next one I wanted to recreate the look of party confetti by mixing dripped spray mist, doodle sprinkles, star brads, star stickers and circles punched from the Hip Hip Hooray Pixies set.


I printed my journaling on a Hip Hip Hooray Simply Put Album Insert and made my title using Tangerine Shin-Dig Sugar Coated CS Stickers paired with a Silhouette cut subtitle (font: KG Strawberry Limeade).


For my last layout I wanted to do something with a twist on the popular pocket page trend and create my own pockets from patterned paper.  After adhering my 12-inch wide pockets across the page, I stitched around the three sides of my layout and set to work filling the pockets.


I love finding fun ways to use the Simply Put Album Inserts on traditional layouts and cards and this style of page is perfect for that.  I dressed up the inserts with strips of patterned paper, stickers and brads after running one of them through my printer for my journaling.


I cut apart the 6x4 wish list card from the set to be a smaller 3x3 card.  To emphasize the treat bag theme in my photos, I took one of Doodlebug's Treat Bags and tucked it in my pocket, wrapping it with twine and another one of the tags found in the pixie set.


I finished off my layout using a ticket sticker layered with some more pennants.  I love carrying little bits of each page over into the next to create a cohesive look.


To speed up my design process for the layouts I've shared today I turned to some of my favorite sketches by Allison Davis & Debbie Sanders at Scrapbook Generation.

I hope I've inspired you to dig into this collection with some of your own favorite birthday photos!  ;)
Hip Hip Hooray Icon Stickers

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