Authentique Seasons Calendar

My friends, I am so beyond excited about today's post! Scrapbooksteals sent me some of the most delicious Authentique papers for my design team post today - it was mostly from the Seasons Petite Collections, and oh was it fun to come up with a use for all that goodness. There's so much paper in today's steal that even after my project (which used a lot) I have plenty of leftover paper and stickers to hoard for some cards and layouts.

The biggest quandary I faced was how to use the paper to feature all four seasons at the same time. Teaching my five year old about months and seasons must have gotten to me because I decided on a calendar. You'll see that I used this as an excuse to play with a friend's WRMK Cinch (still on my wishlist because Santa apparently didn't like me that much this year) and used the calendar pages from Graphic 45 Place in Time to complement my layouts.

It's photo heavy today, go grab a coffee and plan to sit a spell because I really want you to see how much fun there is to be had with this kit!

January - in addition to the Winter Petite Collection I used some buttons from KI Memories, flowers from Prima, and twine from MME.

As a Midwesterner, I don't perceive seasons as a fixed point. There's an ebb and flow with hints of the previous and future season and I wanted to bring that into my calendar, very few months have only one season represented.

February - uses both Winter and bits of Sweetness (for that touch of Valentine's pink). I also added some MME twine, Prima flowers, and used a WRMK Lucky 8 punch.

March - features Sweetness with a touch of Winter. There's also ribbon from Paper Studio and American Crafts, KI Memories buttons, Stazon Ink, and a MME transparency.

April - more of Sweetness with a touch of Winter. There's a custom rosette from fussy cutting the ice cream parlor banner from one of the pages with a random button on top, an American Crafts rosette and some stashed ribbon paired with modeling paste, a TCW stencil, and Mister Huey's pulled in some of the blues from other pages but kept it springy.

May - Sweetness paired with Summer papers and embellishments. I also used some stickers from Authentique's Original. In addition, I pulled in a Pink Paislee Artisan Element, Lawn Fawn flower bobby pin, and stash ribbon. The shiny word bracket was cut out of packaging from those Prima flowers I used on winter pages, I used a Tim Holtz die and then covered it with Glossy Accents. The background was customized with a TCW stencil, modeling paste and then Peacock Feathers and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks.

June - my first Summer layout, you'll notice I pulled in a bit of Sweetness. There's also another Lawn Fawn bobby pin, and more MME twine. The wooden sun is a MME veneer that was misted with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.

July - Summer and Autumn with a few pieces of Glory and Original because I couldn't stay away from the 4th of July idea. 

August - Summer and Autumn again, but to evoke the haziness of a Missouri August I used my hand to apply modeling paste in one corner and as it dried misted October Afternoon Sprinklers across the page. 

September - Autumn, Summer, and Winter. There's also more of those KI Memories button and a Graphic 45 Staples flower.

October - Autumn with some fussy cutting out of a sheet of Enchanting to make the page "spookier." I also worked some MME twine into a spider's web and accented the page with Girl's Paperie Toil and Trouble charms. 

November - Autumn papers. I added in some torn papers, leaf die cuts, KI Memories buttons, and MME twine. 

December - Winter with a few touches of Autumn reds and Festive stickers. To make the banners I used a Glitz Design stamp and fussy cut and sewed them together. The other embellishments on the page are Pink Paislee Luxe stars, Prima flower, and stash buttons. 

As you can see I used a lot of paper on each page, this kit is loaded! I'm so glad that Steals sent this particular kit to me, now I get to hang this little beauty in my kitchen. *happy dance* Now to decide which photos to put into the layouts. 

Authentique mini book

I'm finally getting around to sharing this mini book, I made it while at the Scrapbooksteals Retreat and thought I'd share it as my Use It Tuesday "Anything Goes" project. As you know by now, at UIT we want you to use your hoarded items and tell us about it! So my hoarded item in this book is that yellow twine, I've had that MME twine since they released Miss Caroline and somehow ended up with multiples of the yellow. I use twine a lot and that stuff seems to be never ending. 

The book itself was made with wooden book ends that I picked up at my LSS stash sale, the interior pages are just thick, yummylicious Authentique papers glued together. If you don't recognize this line, I have to say that Authentique's Curiousity is probably one of my favorites for back to school. No primaries! Woot woot!

I'm gonna rapid fire "turn" through a couple of pages now, you can see in the above photo how there's lot of layers and depth on the right side a lot of that was created by making smaller pages.

And a shot of the last portion of this spread, and then it's close-up.

So here's pages 3-4. Technically, they are the last pages. I didn't take a photo of the back cover because I didn't decorate it, there's just a ribbon across the back so the book can be tied closed.

Now go use up your stuff!

Products used:
Authentique Curiousity
Pink Paislee Luxe stars, inked
Recollections black doilies
Studio G lamps
Ribbon, stash
MME twine
Studio Calico wood veneer hexagons

DIY Poppies/Wreath for Scrapbooksteals today

Ever have a tool that you use all.the.time for a few months and then it gets set aside? Right now I’m “on again” with my Silhouette Cameo so I thought I’d share a fun project that I made for today's "How To'sday" at Scrapbooksteals.com. You'll have to head over there for instructions to make the flowers, but I'll give you some close-ups to whet your appetite.

Here's my way cute wreath that I made with flowers I created for "How To'sday". That wreath had some hideous fall themed florals on it, but I just couldn't pass it up for the price.

Here's one of the poppies all but assembled. The brown ribbon is just wired ribbon that I picked up at Michael's, there's a basic metal brad in the center, and then the fab Prima Designs flower centers that have been hanging around my stash for way to long! (And I have a second similar pack, you better believe that I'll be trying this again.)

The welcome banner uses a Authentique Thankful 6x6 paper pad and some of their sticker sheet. You noticed that I'm using that line a lot?! Yep, it's my only "fall" line and I've been feeling lazy and keep going back to it. Given that the holiday is next week I may get another year out of it too! Anyway, then I just used some random ribbons to make the whole thing less circular. Not sure how I feel about that part. 

Practical Scrappers Sketch - Latte Love

It's been that kind of week! I'm so glad that it's Friday, finally. I worked on this layout using the Practical Scrappers sketch while at the Scrapbooksteals Retreat, I just forgot to schedule the post and so this is going up a tad late. Ugh and sorry!

The majority of this page is done with Echo Park Reflections.

The other stuff:
Paper: Authentique Curiosity
Alphas: Authentique
Buttons: Crate Paper Random
Washi: MME Chalk Studio
Twine: MME Miss Caroline
Zipper: MME
Cork arrow: Fancy Pants

Practical Scrappers - Red, White, and Blue

It's time to bust out the ol' red, white and blue at Practical Scrappers today! I very nearly went with a more traditional use of the color scheme (aka something patriotic) but when I saw those cute cupcakes on the back of this Authentique paper I knew I needed to scrap about our adventure helping out at the Food Bank.

For inspiration, I used Scrapbooksteals MWM Peridot 2 sketch. 

Papers are from Authentique Celebrate and Glory and Fancy Pants Rough & Tough

Alphas are American Crafts Thickers and Girl's Paperie chipboard letters

American Crafts Chap ribbon

Studio G white glitter glue

Ranger Distress Fired Brick

Practical Scrappers - 10 Things Tuesday - Scallops

It's Ten Things Tuesday so that means Practical Scrappers is bringing you 10 fun things to do with Scallops today! When you're done checking this out, head on over and see what else the design team has in store for you.

There's a lot out there in the way of scallops. I sort of went a little technique crazy with mine and you'll see there's a lot of scallop action on this page.

Let's start with the fact that I used this Studio Calico Mask to create the background. Scalloped pendants on a banner (which could also be considered a curved scallop).

I misted it in three colors (OA Sprinklers Screen Door and Sidewalk and Mister Huey's Clover), moving the mask and attempting to line it up in rows across the page. I got my idea from something Emily Pitts had posted on Scrapbook and Cards Today's blog.

Once the background was mostly dry I used that mask again and wiped some modeling paste over the top, applying with my finger. After that dried, a little Ranger Distress Faded Denim inking helped bring some depth to the banner.

There's another scallop though - scroll back up and check out that border at the bottom of the page. It's just a die-cut from Authentique's Journey but the die cuts from the kit were a perfect complement to the photo of David pulling Vance on a family bicycle outing.

The idea of using all those little Authentique pieces came from my friend Michele, who posted a similarly styled page on the Scrapbooksteals Facebook page recently.

And if anyone can tell me how to use mists and such without major page warping I'd love them forever!

You Are My Sunshine Card

This week Kiwi Lane posted a giveaway to their Facebook - all you had to do to enter was make a card. What? So simple? I know! So I found a couple of other challenges that I wanted to tie in with my card.

I started with pulling out my new Authentique Renew papers. LOVE these colors! No seriously, the pack just makes me happy. And I bought it in 8x8 and can I just say that while these cards are a teeny bit smaller than A2, I love that the 8x8 is so convenient for card making.

The first challenge I looked at was Cameo Creations - Spring and bling. Okay, these colors are clearly springy, as are butterflies and I met the requirement to use my Silhouette Cameo by cutting out the doily. The bling was done with a touch of Glimmer Mist on the doily, which is clearly not visible in the photo. Boo.

The other challenge I'm linking up to is Cute Card Thursday and their challenge was to use butterflies. That beauty is a stamp from Unity Stamp Co. 

For those interested I inked the doily and sentiment with Ranger Distress Rusty Hinge. The stamp ink was Color Box Charcoal. The blue inking was Color Box Ocean. The Kiwi Lane Templates that I used were from Paisley Place and Aspen Court, both mini.

I was so pleased with myself but not ready to put the paper away yet, so I made a second card with the scraps. Okay, you know me. This card is sooooo not normal for me and I LOVE it.

The sentiment on this one is from Amy Tangerine Sketchbook.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great weekend!

Thankful for Food

I absolutely loved this week's DT Doodles at Kiwi Lane. I only had time to knock out one of the sketches though. This one's about Thanksgiving Day foods, things they've liked in the past, this year, and then that they discovered putting olives on their fingers. True family traditions right there!

This one is also getting submitted to the new blog, About a Boy. Their first challenge was to include your boy/boys' name on the layout in some way. I built mine into the title.