Counting Down to Christmas

As part of my ongoing efforts to create fun classes for the Christmas in July event at my local store I've made this little countdown wall hanging using BasicGrey's 25th and Pine. 

The base of the panels was made using upcycled chipboard. 

In addition to the papers I used some of the die cut and vellum pieces from the line. 

Everything was inked with gold Colorbox pigment ink.

And I used a variety of Studio G Christmas colored glitter glues - because Christmas decorations can always use more glitter. ;)

And then with a little help from some chalkboard paper the piece was complete. The countdown is on... 

Moments Together mini album

Time to share something not Christmassy again! I actually made this months ago and never got around to posting it, it was made for a class that I taught this past weekend. 

Some of the pages/close ups are out of order because I simply don't remember which way I put them in the book!

 The base of the book is MME Lost and Found Record It! and I have to say that I love how much glitter the kit had on it, the glitter lends some fun texture and shine. 

In addition to the paper and matching brads I added some Pink Paislee mistable shapes and ribbon. 

The blue washi on the edges is an older one from MME but I don't remember which line, it got picked because I punched the holes to close to the edges and had to patch them up so I could rethread the coil into the binding. 

I love how the simple, classic colors in the papers look with the pops of color from the customized embellishments. 

Christmas Card Party

I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately and it's making David shake his head, he clearly doesn't get needing that extra inspirational boost that it provides when making this sort of stuff out of season. 

Soul Sentiments is going to have a Christmas Card making party in July as part of a "Christmas in July" promotion. As part of that one of the other designers and I are contributing 5 designs each that people can choose to make. 

Dala sent me home with two 6x6 pads of Kaisercraft papers. And I set to work trying to make them each unique by comparison. 

Because some of them will simply be layering paper together they are easier to explain than others. 

For example, the quilt card is very easy to do (especially since I will precut and score the circles) but writing the directions for it is far more involved than the poinsettia one above it. 

These two cards are super easy looking but the instructions actually have them paired up with a sketch that only vaguely looks like either card. 

And this card is probably my favorite because of the textures and shine. Yummy!

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Ah, I know it's only June but I've been busy getting ready for the Christmas in July events at Soul Sentiments. This fun Kaisercraft wall hanging will be one of the classes we'll offer - it uses a mix of BasicGrey 25th and Pine papers/stickers and Viva paints. 

Last week we hosted Jen Starr at the store and she taught several classes using the Viva line of products. I fell in love and bought so much stuff so I could incorporate them into a class ASAP.  

The stars were done with Viva Glitter Paste (uh, what's not to love about something as solid as modeling paste with all the fun of glitter?!). 

The accents on the tree and gifts were done with the Viva Glitter and Pearl Pens - the way they shimmer in real life is so pretty compared to regular glitter glues (probably because Viva uses glass glitter). I think they're a bit easier to control than some of the other brands too, just my two cents. 

I used two colors of Viva 3D Stamping Paint (don't ask, it goes on more like an acrylic but can dry with a bit of dimension) over the frame (which I'd prepped with a layer of green mist). The shimmer and shine in that stuff is so much fun, and then to top it off with two shades of Inka Gold! Fun!

I may have gotten a little excited about the Inka Gold and used it on the edges of everything. 

Such a Silly

Mixed media is a major focus at my local scrapbook store and some of the ladies who've gotten into the techniques are wanting ways to incorporate them into their layouts. We've done a few other themes, but this one is using masks to create the title. 

For the background I paintedFaber-Castell gelatoes through a Prima stencil and let it dry. Then I adhered my Hazel & Ruby alphabet masks and placed a The Crafter's Workshop stencil over the letters. I smeared modeling paste over the stencil/masks and let it dry, then dripped a whole bunch of green Studio Calico mist over the title block. I used modeling paste and the same green on the corrugated cardstock on the left side of the page. 

In the bottom right, I built up layers of embellishments to highlight the silly photo of Vance when he was two. 

Beautiful Place Canvas

Remember how I've talked about how into mixed media techniques my local scrapbook store is? Well, I tried my hand at another canvas for them. The only things Dala asked me to use were some Bo Bunny embellishments and the new(ish) Mod Podge molds, the rest was up to me. 

There's lots of tissue and modeling paste. I don't know what those gem things are but I got them for super cheap when Archivers was going out of business.

Here you can read the sentiment a little better, it's from a Donna Downey Unity Stamp. And check out that little pink frame! That's one of those Mod Podge molded shapes, I just painted over it. 

The creamy colored border here is another of the Mod Podge shapes in the original color. I love that the texture is so rich with these things! If you have no idea what I'm talking about - Mod Podge released a series of silicon molds that you use with their special glue sticks. You use a high temp glue gun and squeeze the glue into the mold. I've read about people using regular glue sticks with so so success (I'd definitely want to paint them if I did that!). This was my first time using them though so I didn't play around at that level, plus the molds were ones I'd borrowed from the store. Now that I have my own...

Young Love

As part of the BasicGrey Fresh Cut class I'm teaching we decided to include a couple of layout samples/instruction sheets for class participants. It gives me a way to highlight a different style using the same paper and makes sure that I put it all to good use. 

I do love me some crumpled and sewn paper, throw in some fussy cutting and I am a happy lady! Probably what I love most about this style of layout is that it looks soooo intense but crumpling and tearing are such fast techniques that I did this layout in under an hour - including that fussy cutting!

Supplies:

BasicGrey FreshCut paper and waterfall packs

Stash buttons and feathers

Sewing machine, thread

Worn Lipstick Distress Ink

WRMK pink/white twine

Take In the Sunshine

Have you been catching a theme since my month hiatus from blogging? I've pretty much been just creating for classes for my LSS, which is super great because I get to play with all the new pretty papers. 

This one features BasicGrey Fresh Cut. The store's had a rash of people asking for layout classes and since most prefer double pages I have been trying really.really.hard to give them what they want! The problem I faced with this BG pack, and another I'm working with right now is that they don't have two of the same anything in the packs so I'm adding some neutrals so that I can pull all the same colors across the page. 

Now, here's the start of some close ups. I'll start with the layouts not side by side. Is it just me or are white background pages really hard to photograph?!

Then the real details: 

I'm in love with the way I managed to splatter on this spread. Mists still scare me a bit but this time I think I got the flick down nicely!

I may be obsessed with my Amy Tangerine stitching templates lately. No surprise there given how much I like stitching on my layouts anyway! Hopefully some of my students will catch the bug and Dala will order even more templates than she has already. Bwahahaha. 

What do you do when a paper pack needs some bling but you don't want rhinestones? You heat emboss wood veneers, naturally. Seriously, that's the most time consuming element in the whole class because the heat gun kept blowing the shapes away so I had to hold them down with a paper piercer and do one at a time.

Supplies:

BasicGrey Fresh Cut

Studio Calico wood veneers

Pigment Ink

Gold Zing! embossing powder

Amy Tangerine stitching templates

Studio Calico mists

Stash embroidery floss

Egg Hunt

Dala and I had a crazy plan a few weeks before National Scrapbook Day, I would create a few easy layouts that we would pre-cut and kit up and have stations in the store for participants to put together in a snap. So I took home a pile of random loose papers that had haunted the store for a while and set to work. Because of the nature of the papers chosen (ones that had multiples that she wanted to clear through) I know brands but not paper names or lines, sorry guys.

And check out my way fun usage of my pony beads/enamel dots. I sort of thought they were perfect with the plasticity of the eggs. 

A little twine looping and curling never hurt either. Though I'd love to figure out an easy way to give directions for that one!

I don't know if this is normal or not, but my students on NSD thought it was unusual to incorporate the transparency into the bottom layers and have photos on top like I've done. What can I say? I like to make them think outside the box. ;)

Supplies:

Jenni Bowlin green, yellow, and birds papers

Fancy Pants transparency

White cardstock, stash

Heidi Swap mistable tags

Faber Castell gelatoes

Blue pigment ink

WRMK twine

Glossy Accents

Pony Beads

Page Maps sketch