Silhouette Weekly Shape Challenge

This week I was inspired by a new challenge feature going on over at Silhouette blog where they are challenging readers to create a project with a new popular shape each Friday!  Fun, right?

It just so happens I was one of the many, many ladies that purchased this banner shape designed by Miss Kate's Cuttables last week (the SVG version is also available for sale at her shop HERE):

Such a fun versatile shape, don't ya think?!  So I was feeling inspired by several of the options, but in the end I narrowed my focus to two of the banners in the set.

For my first card I had some super cute papers sitting at my desk from Doodlebug's new Flower Box collection.  I love how this banner looks like it was made to go with these papers!  I paired the banner with Silhouette's previously free polaroid frame shape, a bit of Doodlebug's baker's twine and a couple stickers.   

After finishing the first one, I decided while I had everything set up it would be super easy to use the same general layout with different papers to create a Mother's Day card.  For this one I turned to some older Basic Grey papers (Sweet Threads Collection) and my Technique Tuesday "Mama=Love" stamp set by Ali Edwards.

All in all a fun little challenge!  Thanks so much for stopping by and for everyone who took the time to vote for my Paper Craft Magazine Reader's Poll card.  You guys are the best and it means so much to me.   Hugs!  :)

A Winter Mitten Birthday Card

Just popping in to share another card I made for Paper Crafts that didn't get picked up for publication.  I actually made this card this summer, but it sort of inspired the garland I made later which I shared here. 

I used Basic Grey's Sweet Threads collection which is more of a spring/summer collection, but I thought it fit the look of a fuzzy mitten nicely.

Before stitching the two sides together, I diecut a heart from Papertrey Ink felt and hand-stitched it on for a homespun feel.  I have a number of family members with winter birthdays so I thought it was a fun way to try for the publication and get a card I needed made at the same time.  Now if I can just remember to mail it out on time.  ;)

Supplies Used:
Basic Grey Sweet Threads 6x6 Patterned Paper pad
Baker's twine by The Twinery
Papertrey Ink Sentiment stamps
Papertrey Ink Felt
Doodlebug Button
Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Colorbox Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink
Spellbinder's Oval die
Sizzix Mini Tags (original red die)

Hope you have a great weekend!  :)

A Basket Weave "Thankful" Fall Card

Sorry for my lack of posts...  I took a mini break as my daughter was recovering from the flu over the weekend and I thought I might be trying to come down with something myself, but it appears to be a false alarm.  ;)

Yesterday I worked on finishing a set of cards that I started two years ago!  I used Basic Grey's Indian Summer collection to cover a 12x12 sheet of paper with 1" wide patterned paper strips into a basket weave.  I have done a few times since, but this had been my first time experimenting with it and I learned that glue is your friend when you plan to diecut the finished paper, otherwise you will have a lot of confetti on your hands and the basket weave will fall apart before your eyes. 

After finishing the 12x12 piece, I wanted to get as many cards out of it as possible so I diecut 6 bracket shapes using a Sizzix's "Top Note" Bigz die exclusive to Stampin' Up. 

Anyway, that's about as far as I got two years ago, but yesterday I decided I was tired of seeing them go unfinished and I set to work to making a set of cards.  I don't know about you, but sometimes coming up with an idea is the hardest and most time consuming part of making a card so every once in awhile it's nice to make multiples while you're already at it.  I figure I will send out a few to my different grandparents for Thanksgiving and keep a few extras on hand as thank you cards.

The leaves were diecut using Sizzix's Tim Holtz Mover & Shapers Mini Tattered Leaves set.  I finished it off with some low profile Papertrey Ink button dies cut from their blank coasters (to make them easier for mailing) and one of their recent Think Big Favorites #19 stamp set for the sentiment.  Now I'm wondering what took me so long to get these done!  LOL!  :)

Thanks for stopping by and for all your sweet comments you've been leaving!  They always bring a smile to my face!  :)





 

 

 

 

A Basic Grey & Hero Arts Butterfly Card

Happy Monday!  :)

Did you have a great weekend?  We enjoyed some time with family visiting and last night I happily discovered a patch of wild blackberries in the field next to us.  I had so much fun picking and eating.  I'm hoping to go again this evening so I can get enough to make some blackberry milkshakes.  Mmm...

So this week I thought I would share some cards that I've made in recent months that I never got around to sharing. 

This is a card I made using a Hero Arts Butterfly Stamp, my copic markers and a mini 6x6 paper pad from Basic Grey's Green at Heart collection.  I started by selecting my papers and coloring my butterfly to match.  I stamped and colored two images--Diecutting one with the spellbinders label and fussy cutting the second one out and gluing just the center portion down which all allows the wings to flap a bit to reveal the other butterfly below.  

For the butterfly that was stamped on the diecut label, after coloring the image with the pens, I stamped and cut a mask to cover the butterfly and then used distress inks with a foam applicator to give the label a soft background which blended better with the papers than the stark white cardstock it was originially stamped on.

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper-Basic Grey Green At Heart 6x6 pad
White Cardstock- Neenah Solar White
Butterfly Stamp- Hero Arts
Sentiment Stamp- Papertrey Ink "Butterfly Dreams"
Border Punch- Martha Stewart
label die- Spellbinders
Ink- Distress Ink, Versafine Onyx Black (sentiment)
Rhinestones- Kaiser Craft
Ribbon-Craft Supply
Other: Copic Markers

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Three More Summer Layouts

Hi there!

Hope you are all enjoying your day!  Today I'm digging out a few more summery layouts to share from my past... 

For this first one I used Little Yellow Bicycle's Delightful collection.  This was my first brush with Little Yellow Bicycle and I remember when this line came out I couldn't wait to get my hands on it!  I wish this picture was in better focus.  I used lots of their rub-ons and a cool computer journaling technique I learned about in Becky Flecks first Page Maps book. 



I made this layout to be a nice compliment in the album to my layout about my other daughter that I shared here.  I think it was at about this time that I was in the process of just switching over to doing mostly single page layouts and back then I still tried really hard to make each page blend well with the facing page (since then I switched from post bound albums to binders and it really doesn't bother me one bit).

This one features some of my favorites photos that I took of my little sister Meranda (16 years younger) for her senior portraits.  I used an early line for Pink Paislee and lots of rub-ons.  The swirly rub-ons are by Making Memories and the words were spelled out using American Crafts alphabet rub-ons which I then went back and chalked over for a glowing effect.  Oh, and I think I used some making memories rub-ons on the buttons too.  Whatever happened to rub-ons?  I actually still really love some of my rub-ons.  Bling circles and lines are by Heidi Swapp.

Thanks for joining me as I reminisce.  :)

Two Summer Layouts

Hey there!

Continuing with my OLD (old) layouts, here are a couple summer themed ones I came across. As I was sorting through everything I realized I have so many ancient favorites saved on my computer that I probably need to start sharing multiples a day. Someday soon here I will take the time to photograph more of my layouts from the past year (I promise). :)

This one used products from Making Memories Noteworthy collection along with a KI Memories Lace overlay. Remember how hot those both were when they came out?  Oh, and the huge bracket fad... Seems like distant memories now.  ;)

This one used Basic Grey's Sultry Collection (yet another blast from the past, but there are still so many products on the market with these same colors and patterns so I guess you could call it timeless).  :)  I also just realized that most likely both of these layout utilized the same sketch as they are so similar in design--I love a good versatile sketch!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

A Basic Grey Euphoria Summer Layout

I have been busy at work on projects that I can't share quite yet, but I thought this week I would dig back into the "archives" so to speak and pull out some old favorite layouts that I created several years back before I started blogging.  Even though they utilize product that is hard to come by and popular trends have come and gone since then, I somehow still love them as much as the day I created them.  ;)

I created this particular layout for Craft Warehouse's Queen Contest back in August 2008.  All customers and employees were invited to post their favorite layout on their website for online voting and then it went on to a final judging round which included guest judges Heidi Grace and Ali Edwards.  They crowned a different queen for each store and I won a $200 gift certificate for their employee category!  I only wish I could have stretched the money to last longer--It was gone in a flash.  LOL!  :)

I'll be back tomorrow to share another oldie...  Thanks for stopping by.  :)



Supply List:

Cardstock- Bazzill Basics

Patterned Paper- Basic Grey's Euphoria Collection

Chipboard & Epoxy Elements- KI Memories

Rub-ons- Kaiser Craft

Rhinestones- My Mind's Eye (green), Kaiser Craft (pink)

Chipboard Alphas- American Crafts Thickers

Felt Flower- American Crafts

Paper Flowers- Prima

Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink

Buttons- craft supply

Two Peas September's Stretch Your Sketch

I'm just now getting around to sharing my take on this month's Stretch Your Sketch Challenge by Jennifer Gallacher over at 2Peas.

Here's the sketch she challenged us with...


And here's my take on it...




I searched through my photos looking for anything that might work and I came across these photos of my nephew from years ago. Then I found the doodlebug paper in the perfect shade of blue and the rest just fell into place. So happy to finally have these sweet photos finally in an album (and I actually kind of enjoyed doing a boyish page for a change). :)

Supplies:
Doodlebug Patterned Paper
Bazzill Basics Cardstock
Papertrey Ink Stamps (car)
Technique Tuesday Stamps ("sweet")
Versafine Ink
Basic Grey Label Stickers
American Crafts Thickers
Making Memories Alpha Type Stickers
Making Memories Buttons
Die-Namics Bracket Label Die
Other: Thread, Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Page Maps July 2011 Blog Challenge

I just had the pleasure of scrapbooking with my friend Pamela this weekend and once again I turned to my favorite Page Maps blog for inspiration and they came through with a fun challenge.  Nothing like submitting at the last minute, but this was just what I needed to jump start my creativity. 

I ended up using a couple of my favorite photos of Yoshi and I from several years ago that we took at his sister's wedding rehersal in Wyoming.  I was happy to finally add them to my scrapbook after so many years of passing them by in my photo box.  As I was making this page, my hubby had come home from working a 60 hour week at work and was sitting outside my window laboring on yet more yard work so it wasn't hard to come up with some very heartfelt journaling.

I did some major fussy cutting on the flower lace paper.  It had more of a border than I wanted so while we sat and talked I cut and cut for over an hour.  It took longer than I planned, but at that point I felt commited.  LOL!

Thanks for peeking and thanks to Page Maps for letting me play along!  :)

Supplies:
Basic Grey "Lemonade" Papers
Basic Grey Paper Lace
American Crafts Glitter Thickers
American Crafts Alpha Rub-ons
American Crafts Glitter Buttons
Prima Flowers
EK Success Border Punch
Queen & Co. Rhinestones
Quickutz Label Die
Ranger Glossy Accents
DMC Embroidery Floss

Papertrey Ink's July 2011 Blog Hop

I've been wanting to play along with papertrey ink's monthly blog challenge for over a year now and I finally did.  Yeah!  This month's challege was to create a card taking inspiration from this photo:

I was drawn to the clean lines and texture of the white bench, the green cushion and the aqua pillow with the butterflies so with that in mind here is the card I created...

Supplies:
Papertrey Ink Butterfly Die
Papertrey Ink Edgers #1 Die
Papertrey Ink "Butterfly Dreams" stamp set (butterflies)
Papertrey Ink "Everyday Button Bits" stamps (sentiment)
Papertrey Ink Felt (ocean tides & simply chartreuse)
Basic Grey "Kioshi" 6x6 pad
Bazzill Basics White Cardstock
Cuttlebug 5x7 Embossing Folder
Spellbinders Circle Dies
Versafine Ink (sentiment)
Ranger Adirondack Dye Ink (butterflies)
Misc. Pearls/ ric-rac


Thanks for taking a peek! Make sure to check out the rest of the blog hop by visiting Nichole Heady's blog here

A Sympathy Card...

I'm finally getting around to sharing a card I made for my dear friend who lost her mother to a brain tumor a few months ago.  I can't imagine the pain she is going through...

I started by stamping the flowers with Memento ink and then colored the stripes using a Copic marker just a shade darker than the cardstock.  I then topped off the stripes with the Stardust Stickles glitter and for the center layered glossy accents over the stickles for a shiny center.  I don't know if these two flowers were really supposed to go together (they were released at separate times), but they were just screaming out to me to be layered so I popped them up with a little foam tape between them for some added dimension. 

Complete Supply list:
Basic Grey Cappella 6x6 Paper Pad (CAP-2411)
Bazzil Cardstock
Hero Arts Large Flower Cling Stamp (CG134)
Hero Arts Small Striped Flower Cling Stamp (CG256)
Hero Arts With Sympathy Clear Stamps (CL476)
Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Doily Accents (S5-042)
Copic Marker (to shade flower stripes)
Ranger Stickles Stardust Clear Glitter Glue
Ranger Glossy Accents
Colorbox Chalk Ink
Memento Rich Cocoa Ink
Scotch Foam Tape

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

An Altered Recipe Box (and a funny video)

I thought I would share a recipe box I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I had originally planned on submitting it for my Craft Warehouse design team entry, but when that time rolled around I completely forgot all about it.

When I made it, Craft Warehouse was all out of their traditional, smaller recipe boxes so I substituted a larger box that will only fit the smaller recipe cards. If I had to do it again, I think I might hold out for the correct box, but as it is, she will be able to fit a lifetime worth of recipes in there. LOL! :)

Papers, Rub-ons and buttons by Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry, Large Label by Spellbinders, Fruit Stamps by Hero Arts "Simply the Best", Glossy accents, etc.

Now for a silly video. Please excuse the poor lighting (my daughter forgot to change the setting), but I came across this video that my girls had filmed without my knowledge of my youngest lip syncing to Taylor Swift's song "Mine". Totally cracked me up! Looks like I have a drama queen on my hands...



This post goes out to my husband who I celebrated 15 years of marriage with yesterday--Too bad neither of us realized the special day until about 7pm at night and we already had separate plans for the night. LOL! Thanks for stopping by!

Handmade Flower Challenge

Craft Warehouse is throwing a very fun and festive blog party this weekend with lots of great challenges and prizes. Make sure to hop over and try to make some time to play along. I thought I would join in the fun and share a couple of handmade flowers I've made... To see more inspiring Handmade flowers click on the link HERE

I made the handmade flowers on this project last year just by layering and crumpling several scalloped circles which were secured in the center with a brad and then hidden with a more decorative button on top.  Most of the papers on this project were made from various My Mind's Eye collections.

This is probably a stretch, but for this project I diecut my "handmade" flowers on my Silhoutte machine and then crinkled and distressed the leaves which were cut from a patterned paper. This layout was created for a past Craft Warehouse Scrapbook Club in which we were challenged to use the leaf button and a leaf print paper (which turned out to not really be my taste, but after some alterations I was pleased with how well they blended in with my other Basic Grey papers used).

Thanks for peeking! I'll be back tomorrow to share a layout I created for Elizabeth's scraplift challenge. :)

I'm so excited!

I'm so excited! I have been invited to join this year's design team at Craft Warehouse! Last Thursday they posted on facebook that they started making calls at 4pm. Of course my phone never rings, but it rang about a half dozen times that day and of course it was never Craft Warehouse.... :( By the time 7pm rolled around I was feeling pretty down that I hadn't made the cut. I was so sure they had already called everyone for their 11-person search. Anyway, when the phone rang at 7:30 I thought it was one of my sister's calling me back and I was completely speechless when it was Jeanean on the other end. I stammered over my words and made a complete idiot of myself, but I've been secretly floating on a cloud ever since. I'm not sure why, but I've been sort of savoring the invite and have only shared the news with like 3 people so far (two of which include my husband and oldest daughter). :)

Anyway, I thought I would share my winning enteries...

We were asked to submit 1 altered project...

Used mostly different My Mind's Eye paper lines on this one. Tried to mix it up a bit because I knew I wanted to use the bird from the Quite Contrary line, but I also wanted to tie in the blue color from another home decor pieces I had made for my room. The yellow floral paper is by Echo Park. I couldn't find the right blue flower for the top that I had in mind so I ended up buying a white one and adding chalk ink to achieve the color I wanted (Stamped Home phrase by Papertrey Ink Boards & Beams). :)

Two Cards...

A cupcake Card using Echo Park's Little Girl line. Embossed the folds in the wrapper using Martha Stewart's Scoreboard tool and inked with chalk inks for added definition. Applied glossy accents to pink polka-dot paper to give the "sprinkles" extra shine.

Made this card using My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Collection, Martha Stewart border punch, Basic Grey Buttons.

And Two Layouts...

For this one I used Echo Park's Be Mine collection and wove the paper and glued between each weave. I then used my spellbinders to diecut the woven paper into heart shapes. :)

For this one I started by trying to sew a running stitch on the outside of the paper circle to gather it into a flower (like you would with fabric), but I quickly realized this technique was for the birds so I had the bright idea to wrap my paper around a quarter for a perfect circular flower everytime. Just remove the quarter template, glue down with my favorite Beacon's 3-in-1 glue and top with a brad. Would also work with a spellbinders template for different sizes. It was a major Woo-hoo moment! :)

(Papers by Basic Grey's Hello Lucious)



(All paper and most supplies can be found at your local Craft Warehouse store). Thanks so much for stopping by and peeking. :)

A Long Overdue Update

I'm seriously sheepish that it has taken me 4 months to update this blog with a new post. I'll try my best to touch on a few of the highlights of each month...

EARLY JULY
After we got back from Japan I took this awesome online 9-week FREE class called "Thinking Inking" by Jennifer McGuire over at twopeasinabucket.com. She completely opened my eyes to a whole new world of stamping, inking and painting on my projects. Here are a few of my favorites that I made practicing the techniques covered:

Faux Watercoloring with Distress Inks
Playing with Ranger's Crackle Paints

More Crackle Paints and Diamond Glaze

Alcohol Inks (butterfly cut with Silhouette Machine)

Dripping Alcohol Inks

Alcohol inks on clear tag/ Stamped Flourish with Stazon

Applied Rub-ons on clear plastic Heart and then applying alcohol Inks

Heat Emboss and Crayon Resist with Distress Inks

Heat Embossed Resist with Distress Inks

For anyone who loves to dabble in anything crafty I highly recommend popping on over at 2peas to check out her class or doing a search for "Jennifer McGuire" on you-tube. She's so talented and fun to watch!

Camping at Honeyman State Park- July 23~26

Moriah's Brother-in-law brought his ATV and Moriah and I rode together. This picture of us was taken just as our tires lifted on off the ground and we were screaming our heads off. So fun!



Daria being goofy in Moriah's tiny RV tub...

Enjoying some Smores


Hittin' the Beach...






LATE JULY & ALL OF AUGUST
I was busy preparing an insane number of auctions for the Back-to-school shopping rush. In fact it was my largest undertaking in my history with Ebay with over 1200 items. Needless to say my August was spent being overwhelmed with trying to keep up and very little sleep inbetween. Here's a photo of some of the chaos in early August (this is actually before I added in about 10 more bags from the garage). LOL.



SEPTEMBER
Around labor day Hayley, Yoshi and I came down with symptoms similar to the swine flu without perhaps the severity (like my fever only lasted for 2 days vs. 1 week), but it was followed with a month of feeling generally cruddy. It took all of us awhile to get over it, but with the abuse I had been putting my body through for 6 straight weeks, I think it hit me harder.

Sydney's First day of Third Grade:




Hayley's first day of Preschool:




A few pictures from Sydney's 9th Birthday (a slumber party):






OCTOBER
After 3 years of gaining weight and honestly being a bit embarrassed to face my doctor I finally made an appointment with her and I'm so glad I did! To my delight she diagonosed me with Hypothyroidism and prescribed me some much needed medication. I have been so relieved to know the cause of for my fatique, dry skin, hair loss and extra weight! Woo-Hoo!!! Sadly I'm still waiting on some results but she said it could be 6 months before I feel the effects so I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers. LOL! :)

A Visit to Lee Farms on October 11th


Some pictures from Hayley's 4th Birthday Party on October 17th


The girls dressed up as matching "Poodle Girls" from the 1950's for Halloween and Sydney's friend, Emily was Hannah Montanna.




NOVEMBER
My month has been spent making Christmas cards, selling Holiday Dresses and pajamas on Ebay and just kicking back enjoying our new Netflix subscription. I have fallen in love with Ally McBeal all over again. Man, I forgot what a good show that was! And being able to watch movies and TV series instantly on my TV (with that magic ROKU box) all for the bargain price of $8.99 a month has made me a huge fan of theirs! I've been trying to talk Yoshi into turning off our dish for a month to see if we miss it, but funny enough he's doesn't want to live without it now (funny because I had to beg him to get it in the first place when we moved here).

Well that just about brings us up to date. I love hearing from you so make sure to leave a comment to say Hi. :)