Red Lantern

I hope everyone had a fantastic Independence Day, we spent the day playing around the house and after a brief stint at work I made it home in time to watch fireworks with the guys. All around a good day while enjoying some of our freedoms. 

I then spent the rest of the weekend putting this fun red lantern together for the Paper Girls Challenge Blog's newest challenge - Red, White, and Blue. We want to see what you can do with that theme, while I used traditionally patriotic colors I spun off and made a little bit of home decor. 

Here's a few close-ups of this one: 

I used Graphic 45 Fashionista papers, a wooden dowel, some popsicle sticks, Christmas wired ribbon (wires removed), Viva Decor Inka Gold and glitter pens, E6000, hot glue, gel medium and washi. 

Do you like that I included washi in my list? It's been my go to for temporary placement while designing projects. I don't know what I'd do without the stuff. 

The lantern itself was a $5 buy at Tuesday Morning, the glass pieces were missing but I knew immediately the general direction this piece was going to take. 

I used my Cameo to cut out all those flowers and leaves and a petal curler to give them some shape. The brad centers were from my stash. 

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to link up your RW&B projects!

Practical Scrappers Layout Sketch

It's time for the Practical Scrappers sketch again! Aren't the banners in this sketch awesome?! I loved them and stuck pretty close to the sketch. 

For my interpretation I used quite a few pieces of paper from Graphic 45's Botanicabella. Unfortunately, to keep with the fall/thanksgiving theme we were going for I had to dig out an old blurry photo of Vance, from before I really knew how to use my point and shoot (let alone shoot manual!). Anyway, you get the idea, but this is definitely one of those layouts where seeing it in person is way better. 

Summer: memories and favorites

I don't pull out my Graphic 45 papers nearly enough, but when I saw their August challenge was a sketch I decided that I needed to work it into my crafty plan for the week. 

I used a mix of Bohemian Bazaar stickers, Communique die cuts, Fashionista papers, and Botanicabella die cuts and papers. Much fussy cutting and a lot of foam dots went into the making of this layout. ;)

Also inspiration came from Scrap Our Stash, the current challenge is to do a layout about something summer and to use 3 or more premade die cuts. 

P.S. when needing help with figuring out if your layout is done don't ask your scientist hubby. He simply complained that it was an ugly shade of green and said I needed to hide more of it. Grrrrrrr. 

Card-y weekend

I've been getting a lot of pages done lately so I decided to dedicate my crafty time this weekend to cards for my Operation Write Home box. 

The first is based on a card that OWH posted to their Facebook page and I lifted. The original used a row of teeny punched butterflies, but since I don't really own punches I thought I'd lift it into a more masculine/gender neutral design. 

The arrows were cut from a variety of scraps using my Silhouette Cameo. The sentiment stamp is from Studio G. The embossing folder is from Lifestyle Crafts. Because I was putting the machine to use, I went ahead and made 6 just like this one.

The next group of cards is based on an Operation Write Home sketch challenge.  I love the idea of using vintage means of communication on cards for troops, yep, I'm a dork like that!

This one took a bit to get the Crackle Accents in focus, making the rest of the card out of focus. Boo.

The others based on the same sketch. All the bases are cut from the same paper, with the elements fussy cut from other papers in the same Graphic 45 pack.

That's 11 cards this weekend. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now to wait and see if Snowpocalypse 2 happens and how much crafty time I can work in during it. ;)

Jade 4 - Fashionista

I waited days for photos to arrive, when they still hadn't arrived after the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM deadline I decided to pull out some photos of myself. I have always like this one of me playing dress-up. But it says so much more about me. My passion for my own fashion sense. My need to shop to fulfill the fashion. And I love the hat (I recently rediscovered hats and wear them almost every time I leave the house).

My friend, Michele Duffy, created the fab sketch that my page is based on. I got all fussy with my Graphic 45 Fashionista papers and so it took on a different feel from her very clean sketch. But I love this page like few that I've created in the past couple of months. 

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be seeing you around. 

G45 November Challenge - Thank you card

I've been following the Graphic 45 challenges and Facebook page for some time, but either forgot to complete it or didn't have the specific papers required. Thankfully, this month's challenge was to make a thank you card. Did you catch that? Thankfully. Sorry. 

Anyway, I happen to have lots of papers that work well for thank you cards. All of it! So I sat down with the first G45 kit I ever bought and started fussy cutting Botanicabella. I love the colors in this collection! They remind me of my childhood, these colors are all over my mom's house, very comforting. 

A little inking, a little distressing and a bunch of layers and I was very happy. 

I made this one too using the scraps from the other card. 

SeaTac

This week's CSI: Color Stories and Inspiration added a new twist - using their provided sketch to "solve the case." You probably know by now that I do a lot of stuff with sketches, I love using them as a starting point.

For this week's case I used all the colors required and then for my "evidence" there's a bundle of fibers and I did a little misting, my "testimony" is written as a letter to the boys.

I've already posted it to their gallery but thought I'd share here too. Thanks for looking!

Guess-o it's gesso time

Before, during, and after completing my first "case" over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration (a scrapbooking recipe challenge site) I was in awe of some of the techniques the ladies used. I randomly clicked on a tutorial that had Prima paper in the title, and learned that some of what I was liking had been created with gesso. For any who don't know, gesso is traditionally used with canvas as a primer, but these ladies were using it to create awesome textures and mixing it for soft colors. Which took me on a Google Search.

My first completed "case."

I took the plunge. I bought gesso. Here's the first project I made on the day I bought it:

And here's how I cracked the case for Case 33:

You'll notice that this time the gesso is on thick, and has more texture. Much of the texture I created by swirling spray inks into it, one layer at a time, and then squishing it outward from the center. I really like the effect!

I'm still deciding if this is going to be a regular part of my style, or just a random artistic element I use sometimes. 

It's a vintage card soiree

When I was beginning my scrapbooking journey, I was all about the bright colorful papers that were out there. Then I discovered a love for My Mind's Eye, something anyone who's read this blog for more than a week probably isn't surprised about. That love brought me out of the world of cheap paper packs and into using "good paper" for everything. Eventually turning my style into a (hopefully) shabby chic sort of look. But I have always adored a certain look that I could never bring myself to attempt. Until today.

The vintage. Gorgeous. I love it. Lace. Graphics. *swoon* One of my favorite bloggers, Charity Becker, epitomizes this look for me. I adore her work, and (long pause) she probably gets tired of me idolizing it.

A couple of months ago she was the guest blogger when Graphic 45 made their Scrapbooksteals.com debut. Oh wow. I caved and bought paper that I wasn't certain I'd ever, ever use. Then I found some on clearance on a rare trip to a craft store. And bought two more lines.

So now I have three sets of paper that I gush over but don't touch. I'm not a hoarder by nature so they begin taunting me. Taunting I tell you! And that brings us to today. I made my first two cards out of Graphic 45 paper.

Both use their Communique line for the papers. The flowers and crochet ribbon are G45 Staples. I also used Ranger Distress Inks - walnut stain and fired brick, Crackle Accents, and Studio G glitter glue on both. The top card also has two brads from stash. The large center flower brad is Paper Studios Affinity.

Hopefully I did them justice, because that first cut was torture.

Project Goal 100

To date: 32