A Pebbles Inc. Love You More Car Themed Layout

I'm back today to share a second Pebbles Inc. Layout I created, this time using their adorable "Love You More" collection.  I don't have boys, but I must confess that it is extremely hard for me to pass up lines that use cute little cars.  I don't know what it is about them, but I find them seriously irresistible!  :)

Photos however can be hard to come by since my girls don't share my small obsession, but when I came across these photos of my daughters enjoy Autopia at Disney World I knew they would be the perfect compliment to these cute images!

I love how the Pebbles papers make use of the barcode strip that you cut off by printing a cute border on the reverse side.  It's a super nice touch and I was able to layer it with a strip from the "You Are Awesome" paper.  I layered the car sticker with one of their chalkboard banner stickers.  I thought it really went well with this line and looked a lot like a little street for my car and I loved how it worked as an underline for my title.

Well, that about wraps it up.   Make sure to stop back on Monday for a fun blog hop with Lori Whitlock's team!  :)

A Pebbles Inc Walnut Grove Daisy Layout

Sorry for the blogging slump... I have been up to my eyeballs in piles of clothes that I have been busy washing, ironing and photographing to list on Ebay and I can't wait to be done so I can get back to being more crafty.  In the meanwhile I thought I would share a Pebbles layout that I created for their design team call back at the end up June.  While I didn't make the team, they did give me hope that they may have a guest spot available in the future for me so that's pretty awesome.  :)

I made this layout of my oldest daughter using their beautiful Walnut Grove collection.

I was really drawn to the daisy stickers in this collection so I paired them with yellow buttons, popped them up with foam tape and hand stitched some dainty stems and leaves to ground them.

I also really wanted to showcase all of the beautiful prints from this collection so I created a patchwork border along the bottom of my layout and topped it with a fun ribbon and bow.  There was a fun triangle patterned paper in the collection that I fussy cut, curled up a bit and layered under the ribbon for an added detail.

I'll be back later in the week to share a second layout I created.  Thanks for hanging with me today.  :)

An Echo Park Here & Now Family Portrait Layout

I have another project up over at Lori Whitlock's blog today using one of my favorite collections of hers "Here & Now" and a number of her fun SVG cutting files (also available at the Silhouette store).

I layered 5 different cutting files of Lori's in this little grouping.  I had some old (OLD) Autumn Leaves ticket stamps that I paired with Lori's ticket shape.  I also mixed things up a bit by removing the shadow from the "Spring Is Here" title and enlarging the word Spring, using them on two separate lines to fit on my label.

I created a second grouping to form the second point in my visual triangle using Lori's layered flower, pennant and a matching sticker from the collection kit.  I added a pearl brad and some foam tape for my flower to add a little interest.

We have been taking this same outing to see the Japanese cherry blossoms along the Portland (Oregon) Waterfront for almost a decade so I feel like I have run out of things to say about it (along with the fact that I have several more layouts from this same day) so I chose to omit the journaling on this one.  I felt one of Lori's tabs with the date was just what I needed to finish my visual triangle (and remind me where to file this one away in the albums when I finally get around to it).  ;)

To complete my layout I used the following cutting files designed by Lori:

• Bracket Shapes
• Spring Is Here Title
• Layered Flowers
• 4 Borders 2
• 5 Borders
• 9 Tabs
• 6 Labels (ticket)
• 7 Labels (pennant)

You can see more of Lori's new shapes at her full store HERE.

Thanks so much for hanging with me today.  ;)

A Couple of Strawberry Themed Summer Cards

The weeks feel like they are fly by!  Today I took my kids to the airport who are going to Japan with my husband to spend two weeks with their grandmother before school starts.  I'm a little nervous about too much quiet, but I'm also looking forward to enjoying the solitude while it lasts.  I've been to Japan many times over the years (last summer in fact) so I was more than happy to sit this (hot & sweaty) visit out and get caught up on some things around the house before the busy back-to-school season hits.   Sadly my to do list is more along the lines of ironing and selling off outgrown clothing on Ebay and not as exciting as endless hours of uninterrupted crafting...  :(

I thought before summer completely passes us by I would share a couple of summer themed berry cards that I made for past magazine calls.  I must admit fruit images make me happy.  I made this first one using Technique Tuesday new set called A Little Fruity which I paired with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink and Dots & Stripes papers by Echo Park.  For this call they challenged us to submit cards that repeated a stamped image 7 times so this was my take on the idea.

This second one I made over a year ago in response to a Paper Crafts call for cards that used a particular sketch (by Teri Anderson).  Of course it was a November/December issue and this was way off season so it didn't get picked up, but I had fun finally playing with my Fruit Fusion stamps by Papertrey Ink.  I used a little dots of white enamel by Ranger for my strawberry seeds and various buttons my Basic Grey.

Thanks for hanging with me.  I hope you have an awesome weekend!  :)

An Echo Park Beautiful Life Spring Tulips Layout

Today I have another layout using Echo Park's Beautiful Life Collection about our beloved Siberian cat who so desperately wants to be an outdoor cat.  He was a bit too expensive and too well loved to let loose on his own so we have attempted to train him to go on walks with a dog harness and leash.  It doesn't always go so well for us at his slow pace, but he loves it.  Unfortunately after we bring him back in we must listen to him meow (loudly) at the door for hours.

I diecut my title from vinyl using my Silhouette and layered it over a Die-namics tab die by My Favorite Things, along with some flowers I fussy cut and layered from the collection.

The collection has a sheet with 3x4 cards and one of them had a light woodgrain background which matched the tape measure boarder sticker so I sparingly punched 4 circles out of it to cover generic metal-rimmed office tags.

The butterfly, flowers and banner shapes are all stickers from the 12x12 sticker sheet that comes with the collection kit.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  :)

Lori's Summer Blog Hop Winner!

Hello there!

I almost nearly forgot to come back and post the winner from Lori's Blog Hop!

The random winner of the $10 gift card to Lori's online shop is...Beth Hillier!
Please email your address and I will have Lori send you your special online gift certificate!

I want to sincerely thank everyone who stopped by.  I appreciate all the sweet comments that were left and all the new followers to my blog!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  :)

A Vinyl 101 Step-by-Step Tutorial & Birdie Love Card

At Lori Whitlock's request I have an easy step-by-step tutorial on her blog today sharing how to cut and use vinyl on a simple little card (which also features her super fun Here & Now collection which she designed for Echo Park).  While vinyl is perfect for so many home decor projects, I  personally adore using it for my cards and scrapbook layouts!  It's the perfect medium when it comes to cutting delicate files that would ordinarily shred cardstock.

Make sure to hop over HERE and check it out.  For all those new Silhouette owners my hope is to teach you something new and for everyone else, I would love to inspire you to play with vinyl more and give it a try for your next intricate cutting project!  :)

To create my card today I used the following cutting files designed by Lori Whitlock:

• Love Birds
• 4 Borders 3
• Handwritten Title Set 1
• A2 Card Base Set 1
• Valentines Set (heart)

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Lori Whitlock's Summer Blog Hop! :)

Welcome to Lori Whitlock's Summer blog hop!!!  If you're hopping along you should be arriving from Corri's blog (or you can start from the beginning HERE).

Today I have a fun layout featuring the Here & Now collection that Lori designed for Echo Park along with NINE of her cutting files!

I paired a fun arrow with her rosette shape which I then topped with a sticker from the collection.  For my rosette, I chose the "release compound path" function and deleted the perforated fold lines.  Lori designed these to fold perfectly on the 1/4" mark so as an alternative I used my Martha Stewart score board, scoring in half inch increments on one side and then turning over and scoring one 1/4" over every half inch.

I layered a couple different tabs from her 7 Tabs set, adding a butterfly sticker from the collection to add a little interest to my date and form my visual triangle for my layout.

For my label I used chalk board patterned paper and cut a second smaller label from scratch paper which I used as a tracing template with a white gel pen.  I then topped it with one of Lori's awesome titles cut from white cardstock for the word "laugh" and using white vinyl for the smaller words (which may have been hard to cut and glue from cardstock due to their size).

I wanted my borders to really stand out and pop against the patterned papers below so I chose to cut them from stark black and white cardstocks.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  I think it turned out to be a fairly clean and simple little layout, despite the 9 different cutting files I incorporated.  ;)

To create my layout today I used the following cutting files designed by Lori:
Border Set 8
Border Set 10
Simple Borders
7 Tabs
Arrows
Bracket Shapes
Build A Rosette: 2 inch
You Make Me Laugh
5 Layered Labels (Silhouette store only)

Are you ready for a prize?!  Lori has generously given each of us a gift card to give away!!!  To win just leave me a comment by August 8 and "like" Lori's Facebook Page HERE and/or start following her blog HERE.  I will announce the winner here on my blog on August 9th so make sure to check back to see if you are a lucky winner (or consider following my blog by email so that you can be reminded when I announce).  ;)

Lori Whitlock
Brigit Mann 
Christine Ousley 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa (you are here)
Traci Penrod 
Chrissy Guido
Haley Ney

Your next stop is Traci's blog HERE.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)

An Echo Park Beautiful Life Wedding Layout

Happy Monday! 

Did you have a nice weekend?  I am a bit of an "I Love Lucy" fanatic so I got swept up in finishing two different biographies about Lucille Ball's life which I recently ordered on Amazon found HERE and HERE.  I don't sit and read often so somehow I had completely missed that her family had discovered an unpublished autobiography she had "written" shortly after her divorce from Desi Arnaz.  Both books were very good (I especially loved the one by Michael Stern), but needless to say I feel like I got very little accomplished.  ;)

Today I have a layout I made using Echo Park's Beautiful Life collection and a couple photos from my Mother's wedding this past June.  For the most part I took a vaction from my Silhouette Cameo and decided to utilize the stickers and papers that came with the collection kit. 

I fussy cut the tickets and three of the doilies from a piece of patterned paper from the collection and paired the love sticker with some Technique Tuesday stamps for my title.

To dress up the flower stickers I added brads to their centers and popped them up with foam tape.  I typed up my journaling and printed it onto one of the 4x3 journaling cards from the kit.  I was careful to arrange my wording to go around my flower grouping and to cover another image printed in that same corner of the card.

I hope you have a day!  Make sure to check back Wednesday for Lori Whitlock's blog hop!  :)

A Technique Tuesday Thank You Card

Popping in to share a fun card I made featuring several Technique Tuesday stamps and papers from Echo Park's Here & Now collection.

For my focal point flower, I layered eight woodgrain puffy heart stamped images which were stamped using white embossing powder on white cardstock and then inked them up with pink chalk ink.  I added foam tape between the layers and topped it off with an older corduroy brad by Stampin' Up.

I used the following Technique Tuesday stamp sets to create my card:

• Incredible by Ali Edwards
• Seal Companion-Star
• Puffy Hearts

Thanks so much for swinging by and for all the sweet comments that have been left.  You totally make my day!  :)