Pebbles Inc. Thirty-One Halloween Layout with Circle Border

Happy Halloween!!!  I thought in honor of the holiday I would pop in to share a layout which was featured on a the Pebbles blog a couple weeks back using their fun Thirty-One Collection.

Starting at the top and working my way down, I created a little starry night scene in the top, right corner of my layout to help balance my page and draw the viewer's eye around (or in less technical terms it just sort of felt empty up there without it).  ;)

Moving down the page, I added a catchy title I found on a wonderful website called The Perfect Title (I find myself constantly turning to this helpful resource).    To create some more interest I mixed up my fonts and substituted a spider sticker for my letter "O".  I love how it worked out to have it hanging from the word above it!  :)

Finally I created a circle border as the main embellishment for my page using a mixture of different sized circles punched from patterned paper.  I love how this allowed me showcase more than six different patterned papers from the collection without feeling too overwhelming.  These little circles also provided the perfect spot to house so many of the cute stickers from the collection so they don't appear to be floating.

Once again I was looking for yet another way to use so many of my favorite patterned papers and this fun sketch by Becky Fleck at Page Maps fit the bill.  I hope I've inspired you to try a punched border of your own!  :)

Supplies:Thirty-One Cardstock StickersThirty-One Countdown Double-Sided Cardstock P31P-32290Thirty-One Mystical Double-Sided Cardstock P31P-32293Thirty-One Witches’ Brew Double-Sided Cardstock P31P-32296Thirty-One Dreadful Double-Sided Cardstock P31P-32297Thirty-One Batty Double-Sided Cardstock P31P-32298Thirty-One Witching Hour Double-Sided Cardstock P31P-32301Birthday Wishes Chalkboard Thickers Alpha Stickers 732564Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Dies-Pinking Circle 03240-1

Day 26- A Jillibean Soup Ornament Christmas Card

Welcome to Day 26 of my holiday inspiration series.  We're in the home stretch now!  ;)  

For today's card I went a little bit rustic with a natural kraft background and basic everyday papers by Jillibean Soup from their soup staples collections found HERE and HERE.  This is another one I created with the challenge of not using any holiday themed products (aside from my sentiment stamp).  

To create my ornaments I used circle punches and cut apart a scalloped circle for the ornament toppers.  These were fun to decorate with small scraps I had laying around.  A little red jute from American crafts with a sentiment banner to hide my strings and I was done.  

Supply List

• Kraft Paper- Recollections
• Cardstock- Neenah (solar white)
• Patterned Paper- Jillibean Soup Apple Cheddar Soup (Sharp Cheddar Cheese), Soup Staples (Red Sugar, Red Salt & Green Salt)
• Circle Punches- EK Success
• Scalloped Circle Die- Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Circles
• Other Dies- Papertrey Ink RickRack Border & Heart Prints
• Sentiment Stamp- Lawn Fawn Ornate Ornaments
• Ink- Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox (Olive Pastel, Warm Red, Chestnut Roan)
• Twine- American Crafts
• Rhinestones- Kaisercraft

I will be back tomorrow with a winter themed layout I created for Technique Tuesday!  :)

Day 25- From Our Family To Yours Heart Themed Card

I'm back with yet another holiday card that I created with everyday supplies.  This time I turned to my Doodlebug Petite Prints and my Spellbinder Heart Dies.

I knew I wanted to line the hearts up along the edge and then cut a shadow along the edge and I got lucky with the hearts squeezing onto an A2 sized card perfectly.  To adhere them I used a line of glue with a Zig glue pen and then stitched them down the center so that I could fold up the edges for a little dimension.

I should back up though and say that I had a particular sentiment in mind with no stamps in my stash to match my vision.  Before I did started adhering things I ran my card base through my printer and created my own custom sentiment with some cute fonts (listed below).  It worked perfectly and even better it was FREE!  :)

My Supply List

• Cardstock- Neenah (solar white)
• Patterned Paper- Doodlebug Petite Prints (in Limeade, Grasshopper & Ladybug)
• Heart Dies- Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Hearts
• Bakers Twine- Darice
• Thread- Gutermann
• Sentiment fonts: CK Letter Home & LD Text Me)

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season with some relaxing breaks between all the hustle and bustle.  I've been trying to get through my annual tradition of watching all my favorite Christmas movies with all the obvious ones plus other favorites that take place during the holidays like While You Were Sleeping, Love Actually, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle (I could go on and on).  :)

Day 22- An Echo Park Happy Holidays Ornament Card

Welcome to day 22 of my holiday inspiration series!  I have a quick and easy card to share using Echo Park's Happy Holidays Mini Kit designed by Lori Whitlock.

I started by diecutting (or punching) 3 circles from a 4" x 5.25" piece of white cardstock.  I then hand cut tops for my ornaments from coordinating cardstock and used a ruler and paper piercer to punch holes for hand-stitching.  I slipped some larger circles of patterned paper below on an A2 card base (with corners rounded) and adhered the two layers together with foam tape for a little dimension.  I topped the ornaments with matching bakers twine bows and a sentiment cut from one of the border strips from THIS paper.  Easy peasy and yet I dare say it's one of my favorites.  ;)

My Supply List

• Cardstock- Bazzill Basics (white), Craft Supply (green)
• Patterned Paper- Echo Park’s Happy Holidays Mini Kit
• Baker’s Twine- The Twinery (Honeydew, Strawberry, Caribbean)
• Embroidery Floss- DMC
• Corner Chomper- We R Memory Keepers
• Circle Dies- Spellbinders
• Foam Tape- Scotch

Hope you have a super productive and happy day!  Thanks for stopping by.  :)

Day 19- An Argyle Christmas Card

I'm back with another card today using everyday supplies for a trendy holiday card.

I mixed some basic stripes and polka-dots from Canvas Corp. and Echo Park, cutting them into diamonds using a Spellbinders die.  To create my stitched argyle pattern I cut an extra diamond to use as a template with a paper piercer, making sure to center it between the diamonds.  After my holes were poked I hand-stitched the lines with a needle and embroidery floss (a great activity to do while watching TV).

My Supply List

• Cardstock- Neenah (solar white)
• Patterned Paper- Canvas Corp (red &  white dot), Echo Park (pink & green dots & stripes)
• Diamond Die-Spellbinders
• Sentiment Stamp- Hero Arts Joy To All
• Rhinestones- Teresa Collins
• Bakers Twine- Darice
• Embroidery Floss- DMC
• Ink-Ranger Perfect Medium
• Embossing Powder- Stampendou

I hope your day is awesome!  Thanks for stopping by.  :)

Day 4- Doodlebug Christmas Tree Trio Card

For today's card I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to create a holiday card using non-Christmas themed papers.  I took my inspiration for the colors form Doodlebug's Santa's Workshop collection from a couple years back.  Rather than use the actual collection I used the B sides from Doodlebug's Sweet Cakes and Colorwheel collections.

I also tried to create a simple card that I thought would be easy to mass produce.  I used Spellbinders dies for my oval mats and their pennant dies to from my Christmas trees.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Bows and Holly stamp set.

Hope you're recovering nicely from your Thanksgiving weekend.  :)

A Spellbinders Rose Creations Tissue Paper Card

Hi there!

Just thought I would pop in real quick to share a little card I made for this month's card challenge at my local Craft Warehouse store.  For this months challenge we were given a 12x12 piece of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Terminology Tissue Wrap and a small piece of the black ribbon.

As soon as I saw our challenge materials I knew immediately that I wanted to use Spellbinders Rose Creations die set that I special ordered over a year ago and had yet to actually use.  Debbie Olson shared some beautiful cards using tissue paper or coffee filters that had inspired my purchase of the dies in the first place. 

The newsprint paper is printed on a white background so I inked up my many layers with my Colorbox chalk inks before scrunching them up.  I also saved out a straight piece which I pleated and tried cutting with a scalloped edge with my scissors.  I wanted a scallop, but I didn't have faith that I could run it through my border punches (especially after folding it).  The gorgeous, sparkly button is by Bazzill Basics available at Michaels. 

I finished off my card with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's All About You stamp set.  I had already attached everything to the polka-dot background before picking a sentiment so I was so happy to find the word "you" in this set matched perfectly. 

Thanks for taking a peek and for all the sweet comments that have been left.  :)

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

July's Craft Warehouse Design Team Projects

This month for the Craft Warehouse Design Team assignment we had the pleasure of working with the brand new company's Authentique debut paper lines.  Only 4 of us received the yellow Blissful line and I was escatic to be one of them as it is definitely my favorite!  So fun to play with.  :)

Our assignment was to create one layout with an altered paper technique so I made my focal point flower using only various scalloped circle dies by Spellbinders and the wonderful paper.

...One layout featuring Bazzill's awesome new resist chipboard (so in love) and glimmer mist,

From Craftwarehouse Scrapbook Design Team

...And one card featuring a Unity stamp we were given to work with.

Make sure to check out more detailed photos and all of the other team member's beautiful work using these papers at Craft Warehouse's website here and 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!  :)

Some Teacher's Gifts and Cards

I have some teacher's cards and gifts to share tonight that I made over National Scrapbook weekend. For these I challenged myself to use SUPER DUPER old school themed products that I came across when I was cleaning out my stash. I don't know why, but for some reason I had trouble parting with this particular stuff even though it's older than dirt so I decided it was time to finally put it to good use.

Each of my daughter's have two teachers so I decided to save time and energy by recreating the same card 4 times. For the paper, pencil and ruler border, I used Hero Arts "Just A Note" clear stamp set.

One on of the crop days at the Vancouver Craft Warehouse they gave us these $1 chipboard cover notepads in our goodie bags as a challenge to decorate. Many of use took a screw driver to them to remove the post they came with and put them on a binder ring instead. They turned out to be so quick and easy to personalize and a great way use up some of those ancient supplies.

On our other crop day, Craft Warehouse presented us with the challenge to decorate these $1 wood plaques. These turned out to be my favorite surface to alter. I had fun personalizing them so they could be used as a decoration in their classrooms or even as a hall pass.

And that Red bow motif you see on all 4 projects... They were all re-purposed red ribbons from Gymboree's Holiday gift boxes! Love that! Another clever ribbon re-use idea is cutting the ribbon handles off of store bags before recycling (I do this often with Ann Taylor loft bags) or the ribbons at the shoulders of your sweaters (ya know the ones that are supposed to hold your sweaters on the hangers, but instead pop out when you're wearing them). I love taking these and turning this trash into treasures on my cards and projects! :)

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!

Two More Completed Challenges

Welcome to another day of fun and inspiration with Craft Warehouse's Weekend Blog Party! You can read more and join in the fun by hopping over HERE

I have had so much fun spending my weekend papercrafting as my hubby has is sleeping off his jet lag from a recent business trip.

For this first project I was challenged by Rebecca Grinder HERE to use this sketch for either a layout or a card:

And here is my take on it...

Papers by My Mind's Eye "Lime Twist" Life of the party 6x6 paper pad and stamps by Papertrey Ink.

For my second challenge found HERE we were inspired by Laura Cook to create a layout all about ourselves, more specifically about our favorites. I love this concept, but unfortunately I have done several layouts on this already and am out of new favorite things to scrapbook about so I decided to do an anti-favorites layout and scrapbook about some of my biggest pet peeves in life. It's something I've wanted to do for years so I was excited to have a reason to finally do it.

I felt really silly about taking these photos, but thought the happy, smiling pictures I had on hand didn't fit the bill so I staged a photo shoot in my bedroom with the help of a piece of black fleece, a tripod and my camera's self timer. I felt so silly about it that I locked my husband in the bathroom who kept trying to walk by while I did it. Anyway, luckily we have a new Costco just 2 miles from our house so I was able to run there real quick to finish this one. Yeah for Costco! :) Anyway, here it is...

Papers by Girls Paperie, Pebbles and Jillibean Soup. I custom made the number border on my Silhouette which had been inspired by some Girls Paperie paper, but sadly was just too busy to tie into my layout in the end...

Just in case this layout doesn't fully qualify me for the favorite's challenge, here are a couple of older layouts I created on the subject too...

Thanks for stopping by and make sure to hop over to Craft Warehouse's Blog HERE to join in on the fun and prizes. :)

A Late Valentine's Day Share

I have become completely hooked on the idea of these little treat bags. I made a handful of them for the girl's teachers (and one for Yoshi) in just over an hour using up old Paper scraps...


Then I made a couple more to surprise Sydney and Hayley with on Valentine's Morning...

I can totally see myself wanting to make these for all kinds of occasions (Easter, Halloween surprises for the neighbors, etc). I kinda wish I would have thought to make these years ago for co-worker's birthdays. It's like a card and small present all wrapped into one. Would even be cute to put a couple home-made cookies into. Anyway, needless to say I think they are my new favorite, quick and easy project! :)