A Doodlebug Haunted Manor Halloween Card

Happy Halloween!

Despite all the Halloween projects I've made this month I still can't believe Halloween is actually here. This month seemed to fly by in a blink for me.

Today I thought I would take a break from baby cards and share a cheerful Halloween card I made using my favorite Halloween collection from the season this year:  Doodlebug's Haunted Manor Collection!

I hope you all have a safe and happy day of dressing up and eating loads of candy--I had to go buy more to hand out because I ended up buying too early and eating everything I had bought to hand out (I'm blushing now).  ;)

A Bella Blvd Baby Girl Elephant Card

Today I have another elephant baby card to share of a more girly nature using Bella Blvd's Baby Girl collection and a sentiment using Papertrey Ink's Baby Button Bits Stamp set.

This one is pretty straight forward and simple, but I had fun making it with my left over scraps.  The little elephant was fussy cut from a border strip of paper found in the collection and I used a variation of a Papertrey Ink Sketch from their 5th Anniversary awhile back found here.

Thanks so much for stopping! 

Elephant Shaped Baby Cards

I thought I would dedicate this week to sharing some fun baby cards that I made in response to Paper Crafts call for animal themed baby cards a couple months ago.  Unfortunately these were not picked up, but I still was happy with how they turned out.  ;)

I turned to my 6x6 pad of Echo Park's Springtime collection to make these--the sweet, soft colors were perfect for babies I thought. 

 

I created the shape of the card by cutting multiples of the KI Memories Elephant (1 in patterned paper and 2 in white cardstock) using my Silhoutte and scoring the bottom one along the top before adhering together.  I wanted this card to perfectly fill and fit an A2 sized envelope so I ungrouped the shape, set the toes and ears aside and then stretched the elephant shape to be exactly 5-1/2" wide by 4.25" high.  I then sized the ears and toes to fit accordingly.  By separating them out, I didn't dissort the other shapes.

 

Before adhering the patterned elephant to the white cardstock base, I stitched around their ears, tied some baker's twine around their trunks and used Lawn Fawn's Plus One stamp set for my sentiment.  These were so much fun to make and I think shaped cards add to the cuteness factor (if I do say so myself).  :)

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg Thanksgiving Card

Hi there!

I am still up to my eyeballs working on a fun project I can't quite share yet so today I thought I would dig out a Fall card I made a couple years back using Cosmo Cricket's Nutmeg collection and some stamps by Unity...

My husband is returning from a long string of business trips which has kept him away from home for all but about a 1-1/2 weeks since the late September.  I was doing pretty good, but this last week has been hard as I realized how little adult conversation I am getting and how much I'm craving it.  And then there has been the dreary Northwest rain which hasn't helped (rain and dark skies can be seriously depressing).  But he'll be here on Saturday so I can see light at the end of the tunnel--I am so excited to have him back home!  He might actually get to stick around for two whole weeks before sneaking in another trip before Thanksgiving.  ;)

 

I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

 

A 1950's Girls Rock & Roll Birthday Party!

How have you been?  I have been forcing myself  to catch up on finally getting the last of my daughter's outgrown clothes listed on Ebay, all while madly working on some exciting design team projects that I can't wait to share over the course of next month.  ;)

Today I thought I would share a few photos from my daughter's 7th birthday that we celebrated earlier this month.  She was going back and forth on choosing a theme and in the end settled on a MUSIC theme.  That was about as specific as she got so it gave me lots of room to turn it into whatever I wanted it to be. 

I decided to run with a 1950's pink Cadillac sort of vibe so I turned to my Papertrey Ink Boys Basic Rock On stamp set, matching die and a mini 6x6 paper pad of Echo Park's Happy Days collection (and some fun retro fonts) to make her invites. 

Once again I was really pressed for time with only a day to crank these babies out so I kept the design simple and fairly flat.  :)

For the party I bought some favorite 50's songs that I loaded onto my iPod so we could play musical chairs and hot potato with an inflated guitar.  I decorated with pink, black and white balloons and bought a ton of inflatable guitars at Oriental Trading Co. to decorate with and give away as party favors.  I rounded out the theme with a record shaped pinata;)

The night before the party I was still feeling like I was missing something special to decorate with so at a late hour I quickly diecut a bunch of records using Echo Park cutting files on my Silhouette and printed some songs on the labels as a hanging centerpiece over the dining room table where we served cupcakes.  They just tied on the chandelier above and were the perfect finishing touch.  Funny thing is my daughter has no idea what records are.  She was like "What are those?!"  LOL!  :)

AND just my luck (and totally a coincidence) I was going through Hayley's new fall clothes that I had purchased the year before and I discovered a birthday girl shirt that just happened to be a Rock-n-Roll birthday theme! I buy Gymboree's birthday shirts every year and had completely forgotten that the one in this year's size had a pink guitar. How cool is that?!



Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)





Lori Whitlock's Awesome Autumn Blog Hop

Welcome!

I am so happy to be joining my first blog hop for Lori Whitlock's design team!  :)

Today I have a fun layout to share using lots of Lori Whitlock's great cutting files and For the Record 2 Tailored papers (and a wonderful 2-page sketch by Becky Fleck at page maps)!

I had so much fun pulling the fall colors from Lori's For The Record Tailored collection which at first glance wouldn't bring Autumn to mind. 

 

I am addicting to stitching so for this one I incorporated lots of machine stitching on the patchwork borders and hand-stitching on the heart, pumpkins and whimsical swirls...

I took Lori's fun doily paper from the collection and used a circle punch to isolate a couple of the circles and turned them into frames for my pumpkins.  I love how doing this grounds the pumpkin shapes and also makes them stand out.  My black scalloped borders were created by fussy cutting the repeating pattern in the "wallpaper" paper borrowed from the For the Record Documented collection (also designed by Lori).  ;)

For this layout I used the following cutting files available at Lori's Shop:

Flourished Halloween
4 Fall Leaves
4 Fall Titles
Fall 2 Set

In honor of the blog hop, Lori is offering all the shapes I used today plus many, many more on a great sale!  Woo-Hoo! 

 



She also is giving away a $20 gift certificate when you leave a comment at her blog HERE.

And if that all wasn't enough, she also created this awesome Thanksgiving banner which she is generously offering as a free download when you visit all the blogs in the hop.  You can download the Letter "S" HERE.

Visit my fellow teammates blogs for more great Autumn ideas and to find the remaining "Thanksgiving" letter downloads!  And be sure to leave them some love telling them what you love most about their projects!  :)

Lori Whitlock
Natalie Graham
Corri Garza
Joy Dickson
Lisa Bell

Mendi Yoshikawa  (You are here)
Amanda Jones
Christine Ousley
Lisa Barrie

Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)

 

Lori Whitlock Halloween Treat Boxes

Hi there!

I took a short blogging break, but I'm excited to be back today sharing some more fun project ideas using oodles of diecutting goodness by the one and only Lori Whitlock, which are also being featured over at her blog today.  :)

I created these little goodie boxes to surprise my kids with on Halloween morning. They would also make such wonderful gifts for teachers! 

Here's what they look like from the front:
























And because I was having too much fun I also decorated them on the back:

I thought I would give you a little peek into my designing and diecutting process...

This is a screen print showing how I planned out my projects before cutting them.  I colored them in with the fill color option to get a feel for what looked good together before cutting in to precious scraps of paper.  In an effort to save time I cut these projects out at the same time (using the same papers) as the ones shared on my October 1st post here.  It made everything go so much quicker!

After I had figured out most of the placement and sizing, I then started moving things around off the mats and moving like colored groups over one at a time so that I could cut all the black shapes with the black shapes, orange with orange, vinyl with vinyl, etc.  By the time I actually assembled the cards and treat boxes I just breezed through them (the planning and cutting were definitely the most time consuming parts of these projects).

 

Lori's Silhouette Files used for Halloween Trick or Treat Goodie Box

3d box with handle

Trick or Treat Halloween Phrase

3 pumpkins

3 pumpkins

Corner Spider Web

4 Halloween icons

2 Halloween owl spider set

4 button set

5 scalloped circles

3 borders (zig zag)

Lori's Silhouette Files used for Halloween Toxic Treats Goodie Box

3d coffin treat holder

4-piece witch boot

witch hat

2 Halloween owl spider set

cauldron

haunted house (moon)

3 Halloween bat set

cute scallop border

 

Other Supplies used:

Bazzill Basics Cardstock

Echo Park Happy Halloween papers

Black Vinyl
American Crafts Ribbon

Signo Uniball White Gel Pen

Stickles Glitter Glue

Colorbox Chalk inks

Thread

 

Don't forget if you don't have a Silhouette and own another brand of electronic diecutting machine, you can also purchase the SVG files directly from Lori's blog shop here.  :)

And for those of you wanting to learn more about how to use your Silhouette my fellow teammate Amanda Jones is offering a great Silhouette 101 class which she is currently running a 25% off special on here through Friday.  Lori Whitlock will be a guest for one of her Webinars as well.  ;)

Make sure to check back on Thursday for a fun Fall blog hop with all new projects by the entire team!  There will also be a great sale and some freebies that day!  Yay! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

 

October Studio AE from Technique Tuesday Blog Hop

I am so thrilled to be this joining the Studio AE blog hop this month!  This is what this month's fun set looks like...

 

 

It's called December Joys by Ali Edwards and it's available here.  Aren't the mix of fonts cool?!  Here's my layout I created using the set...

 

So there's a bit of a story with this layout... I had planned to just have the layout be titled December Joys and maybe diecut a subtitle that said "Christmas at Grandma's" or something.  With this in mind I had stamped the sentiment from this set that say "Christmas is awesome" on my background paper in the bottom, left hand corner...

The only problem was when I started to type the journaling I realized Christmas really hadn't been all that awesome this particular year.  Now the sentiment that I had already stamped sounded more snarky than sincere.  Well, with a bit of reworking and Ali's "It's OK" set to the rescue (the Studio AE set from December 2011) I was able to put a whole new spin on this layout.  I love how Ali's stamps embrace life's down sides and together these two sets really fit the moment perfectly.

On my date tab, I used the "December" from this months kit paired with the date stamp from Ali's new Sentiment Tabs set.



I created the tree for this layout using Technique Tuesday's awesome new Chevrons Two Step stamp set.  This really is the best Chevron set I have seen out there.  The possibilities are endless with all the background patterns you could create with 6 unique chevron prints that all nest together! 

Earlier this month I shared an additional layout using this fun set which can be seen here and a card which can be seen here.  Love all the different looks that can be created with this one set! 

Make sure to check out all the wonderful projects using this set today at the following blogs:

Mendi Yoshikawa (you are here)
Tobi Crawford
Daniela Dobson
Nichol Magouirk
Ali Edwards
Laura O'Donnell
Sharyn Tormanen
Teri Anderson

Technique Tuesday will draw at random for a $25 gift certificate from all comments made during the blog hop!  The winners will be announced on the Technique Tuesday's blog on October 13th.   :)

Thanks so much for stopping by. 






Other Supplies Used:
Echo Park's Season's Greetings Collection Patterned Paper
My Favorite Things Die-namics Tab Die
Black Vinyl (for title)
Versafine Crimson Red, Spanish Moss & Onyx Black Ink
Colorbox Chalk Ink
Recollections Pearl Brads
Queen & Co. Pearl sticker
DMC embroidery floss
Buttons- Craft Supply

Another Jillibean Soup Card

Today I have another Jillibean Soup card to share using a combination of their Neopolitan Bean Bisque and Sweet and Sour Soup collections.  :)

 

For this card I fussy cut one of the telephones from the patterned paper and then added rhinestonse and a little red wire for a realistic looking phone cord.  This was so easy to do--I just twisted the wire quickly around the tip of my paper piercer and sandwiched a flat section on both ends behind the phone with foam tape. 

 

The "call me" and "i miss you" were spelled out using Jillibean stickers.  The orange numbered paper is from their sweet and sour collection, but it just worked so well with the telephone theme I thought. 

 

On a side note, today is officially the big day where I have my first projects featured on Lori Whitlock's blog (the same ones I accidently shared here on Friday).  There is also another fun Halloween project by Lisa Bell being shared so make sure to check it out.  ;)

 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 





A Technique Tuesday Studio AE Christmas Card

Today I have a card to share that I made using Technique Tuesday's December Joy Stamp set by Ali Edwards.  I had so much fun playing on this one!

For the "Most Wonderful Time of The Year" sentiment, I stamped it 4 times on different doodlebug papers (from their 2011 Santa's Workshop collection), cut them apart and then pieced them back together to form a rainbow of sorts. The green frame around it was created with some ancient scalloped scissors--one of my very first scrapbook purchases 12 years ago.

I then used a fine point sharpie and traced the patterned paper sections on a piece of scratch paper to add definition to the edges. I was feeling like they somehow weren't popping enough to match the look of the stamps and this was the perfect solution to tie them in.




For this card I wanted to make my own background paper with the stamps and I designed it so that it would be a perfect color match with the Doodlebug papers by coloring random Christmas words with my Copic markers.  I then finished my background with Stickles glitter glue for a subtle detail on the hearts (so sad to say my heart stamp went down the drain right after this so it was my first and last time to use it--My sweet husband took apart the pipes but it was long gone).   :(

Thanks so much for stopping by and a big THANK YOU to Technique Tuesday for giving me this opportunity to have some fun with their awesome stamps!  Make sure to check out their blog for more amazing inspiration!

 

Lori Whitlock Halloween Cards

Hi there!

Today I have some fun and cheery holiday cards featuring lots of Lori Whitlock's fabulous Halloween shapes over at Lori's blog today.  It's possible I was a little overly excited to be on this team and went a bit nuts playing with all her great, new shapes.  ;)

 

These fun pocket cards are perfect for sending personal messages to loved ones over Halloween. They would be so great to slip in a child's lunchbox on Halloween day or to send to a grandparent as happy mail this month!

 

 



For these cards I used the following Silhouette shapes by Lori Whitlock:

Halloween Owl Pocket Card

5-pc jack-o-lantern card

2 halloween owl spider set

Corner Spider Web

3 halloween bat set

cute scallop border

boo to you phrase

Haunted Mansion Pocket Card

3-pc bat halloween card

Trick or Treat Halloween Phrase

haunted house

 

Other Supplies used:

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Echo Park Happy Halloween papers

Black Vinyl

Glossy Accents

Stickles Glitter Glue

Papertrey Ink Sentiment Stamp

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Colorbox Chalk inks

Thread

 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Make sure to hop on over to Lori's blog today to see another fun project created by Joy today.   :) 

 

 

 

 

 

A Jillibean Soup Watermelon Gazpacho Card

Today I am sharing one of two Jillibean Soup cards I submitted using their fun and happy Watermelon Gazpacho Soup collection.  Using these papers inspired me to pull out the matching stamp set by Unity Stamp Co. that I had purchased awhile back (found here) which had never seen ink.

 

I used the watermelon image from the set to form 3 scallops that continued from the 3 strips of patterned paper.  I punched slightly larger circles out of the green polka-dot to form a contrasting rind which I traced with a black sharpie over scratch paper to give the matching outlined look of the stamped image.

 

The Bracket label is a Quickutz die, the ric-rac trim was cut using a border die by Papertrey ink and the yellow ribbon is some Pebbles Inc. ribbon from my stash.

 

Thanks so much for hanging with me today!  Make sure to check back tomorrow when I share my first set of projects made using Lori Whitlock's super fun Halloween shape files!!!

 

A Jillibean Southern Chicken Dumpling Soup Layout

My layout today uses Jillibean's Southern Chicken Dumpling Soup collection.

I really love the soft sweet colors of this line.  As soon as I saw it I thought of these photos that had gone un-scrapped for the past 3 years.  I love these photos, but had lost touch with this family after they were taken so they were a bit painful to scrapbook (probably not best to submit a layout with heartfelt journaling for a design team, but I am happy that making this layout pushed me to reconnect with this family that I love this past month).

I used Papertrey Ink's Banner dies for my banner and then fussy cut the umbrella patterned paper to form my scalloped border.  I love how these tricks allow me to use more of the collections patterns without overwhelming the page. 

I cut "bittersweet" on my Silhouette and used Technique Tuesday's "memories" stamp from Ali Edward's Favorite Memories Set.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Your sweet comments that you have left always brighten my day!  :)

Supply List:
Jillibean Soup Southern Chicken Dumpling
DCWAV Aqua Cardstock
Technique Tuesday Favorite Memories Stamp Set
Papertrey Ink Banner Dies
My Favorite Things Die-namics Photo Corner & Tab dies
Bittersweet Title cut on Silhouette Cameo
Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink
Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink
Divine Twine
Prima Flower
Doodlebug Brads

A Jillibean Coconut Lime Soup Starburst Layout

Meet today's layout... I made this as one of my two layouts for the Jillibean Soup Design Team tryouts using their Coconut Lime Soup collection.  It was so much fun to make.  I love how Jillibean uses the same reds, greens and yellows for all her lines so I was able to mix and match a few "B" side patterns in from other lines.

I designed the star burst pattern using my Silhouette software.  I created the cut lines on one side using the insert line command and then I used the duplicate and flip horizontal features to make both sides match.  After I had done this I just pulled each section to the cutting surface one at a time.    After I made this Jillibean introduced a great new card pattern with a sunrays design for Silhouette America that I love seen here.  :)

I took Jillibean's standard alphabet stickers and dressed them up with a little glossy accents (and combined with sentiment stamp by Technique Tuesday's Dad Rocks stamp set designed by Ali Edwards).   The butterflies were fussy cut from one of the patterned papers.

I will be back tomorrow to share another Jillibean project.  Thanks so much for stopping by!