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!

Possibilities

I took some time on National Scrapbook Day to make some "for fun" layouts to meet a couple of challenges that were being hosted online. Not often I get to dig into my own stash to create these days and it was kind of nice. 

I used the Studio Calico Challenges NSD 1 (color scheme) and 2 (unused stamp) and Scrapbooksteals MWM Daisy 2 sketch as inspiration for this layout. 

Gold embossed wood veneers, sequins, and stitching, OH MY!

Supplies:

MME All is Bright, Find Your Wings and Fly papers

Crate Paper buttons

MME brad

Echo Park Reflections

Studio Calico Ampersand wood veneers

Teresa Collins sequins

Webster's Pages lace

Amy Tangerine Stitching template

gold embroidery floss, stash

Tim Holtz stamp

Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Practical Scrappers New Years

I can't believe it is already time to talk about the New Year! Today Practical Scrappers is featuring cards and layouts for or about New Year's. I'm "sending" you this one:

Paper and dimensional sticker: MME Chalk Studio

Alphas: Glitz

Numbers: Simple Stories

Flowers: Prima

Embossing Powders AC Zing!

Bloom where you are planted - 10 Things Flowers

I have a secret, nay forbidden love of flowers. Probably, it's been exaggerated because as a boy mom there aren't many excuses to bust them out! 

Well, one day recently I wasn't feeling like entering any challenges and thought I should work on some sort of ephemera that I could give as a housewarming present for some friends this summer.  The only mission I had was to use premade flowers (the Ten Things feature today at Practical Scrappers) and to get really messy. 

Bloom where you are planted

I used modeling paste over a stencil from The Crafters Workshop. As it was drying I stamped and heat embossed with gold Zing using a Mini Market background stamp. 

While the paste continued drying I watered down some old grey acrylic paint (read clumpy craft paint) and started washing it onto the page. Then I dripped one of my misters across the top - later it evolved into flower stems. Have to say that I l.o.v.e. the way the ink filled into the cracks in a very moss/ivy/organic way.

Most of the flowers are from Prima's Sprites collection, the netted and sheer ones are from Imaginesce, the big cream ones were saved when my mom did a little destashing. All of them got a little rub down in some Ranger Distress Gathered Twig ink. And some of them were garnished with some Distress Stickles Pine Needle. 

Now I just need to buy a frame the next time they're on sale. 

Other products used:

Large Alphas: American Crafts Thickers

Small Block Alphas: Authentique

Twine: won it in a scrappy challenge, the tag said honeydew on it but I think that refers to the color

Brads: Paper Studio (small) and American Crafts (large) 

Scrap Your Story - Polaroids

I just have to come out and say it, I love the look of polaroids but always forget to use them in my scrappy arsenal. When Christy said we'd be using them for this week's challenge at Scrap Your Story, well I got pretty excited!

For your polaroid, it can come from anywhere you like, be it an actual nostalgic polaroid, one you hand cut, an embellishment, or like mine that I used my die cutting machine to cut and frame my photo.

My page today has some fun stuff going on, including the oldest paper in my stash. Check out that faux crocodile, wowzers! I don't know why I bought it because it's spent the last four years hanging around in my stash, I've nearly thrown it away half a dozen times. I think it was waiting for this moment.

There's also a few reclaimed items - the washer type thing around one of the brads, two bottle caps, and a penny that the boys wanted to run through one of those souvenir penny machines. 

As for other products:

Papers are from BasicGrey PB&J, MME Lost and Found, and Authentique Loyal

Brads are Paper Studios and Teresa Collins On the Edge

Washi is Love My Tapes

Stickers are 3Bugs Blast off!

Ink is Colorbox Black Pigment

Playing Games Embossing folder from Tim Holtz 

Flocking, tags, tab are stash

I'm entering this one in a couple of challenges as well:

Scrapbooksteals MWM Peridot 5 sketch

Scrapbooksteals MCM Life: celebrate an everyday event (playing with siblings)

SWAT Drill #9 Cool Colors

Scrap Our Stash #4 All About Our Guys + use 5 or more brads

Birth Stats Mini Book Page

I don't know if it's because it's a break from my normal 12x12 routine or what but I am loving working on this baby book for my friend! So stinkin' fun! If you want to see other pages I've made for the book, then head here and/or stay tuned because there's a lot of pages still in the works. I love that I've still been playing along with my favorite challenges while putting it together, and there's so many pages left! Hopefully, I get it done in time. Eeek!

Anyway, this page brought me much excitement. I used the sketch at Scrap our Stash to finish it up, they also had the challenge to dig a little deeper and use 6 buttons.

 I said in my previous post that the base of this project is Teresa Collins On the Edge (which I was about to destash before I adopted this project) with splashes of Authentique Loyal, you'll see both here. There's also some American Crafts Thickers, buttons, EK Success Sticko (hands and feet!), and my newest toy the Tim Holtz Texture Trades embossing folder (admit one ticket), WRMK eyelet, and Studio G glitter glue.

Here's a little close up for you. You'll notice that I inked up both the Thickers and buttons, deliberately not coating evenly. Yummy. And check out the baby hands!

The Scrap Our Stash sketch:

Spring altered projects

With the snow outside, days after the official first day of spring, I felt a need to make a very spring colored craft. 

I started with this little birdhouse that I'd picked up at Joann's for $1. I covered it with a bunch of washi, I can't tell you individual lines but I know that most of my stash is My Mind's Eye and that the black dot and blue houndstooth are We R Memory Keepers.

Then, feeling in a more festive mood I took up the Use It Tuesday challenge to make something springy with hoarded products.

I had these canvas covered chipboard pieces dying to be used, but there were only four so that presented a word play challenge. I chose "grow" because in spring that obviously happens, but it's sort of been an unofficial "one word" for me this year. Grow my craft, as a parent/spouse/employee, as a runner, just grow. 

Realizing that it held a little more meaning than just "spring" I decided to use bright papers that would match the color scheme around my craft area. That meant pulling out some oldie but goodies - American Crafts Classics Collection. 

The doilies and letters were cut from Silhouette store files on my Cameo. Each letter has some form of accordion folded paper to give it extra depth. 

The brown behind the letters got a quick swipe with watered down gesso. The letters were stamped with a swirly background stamp from Stampabilities using clear ink and heat embossed with Zing! Aqua embossing powder.

Some of the edges were inked with Ranger Distress Walnut Stain.

Two letters have flower clusters.

All letters have some pink grosgrain ribbon (American Crafts, I think) and ribbon edging with various interesting ribbons that have all been in my stash for at least a year. There's ribbon from MME Lush, Crate Paper Random, Girl's Paperie Toil and Trouble, and MME Laundry Line (misted with two colors to get it to almost match the Crate Paper).

Now to hang the first banner I've ever made. YAY!

Scrap Your Story - embossing

Heat embossing, dry embossing either way you see them a lot on cards and at Scrap Your Story we wanted to see how well we could implement those techniques in our layouts.

I ended up using both processes. The dry embossing was done using two different Lifestyle Crafts embossing folders. A doily folder that I inked blue before running through my Big Shot, which gave just a bit of depth and texture and sort of cooled off the white white of the paper. Then the other was a small flower pattern that I ran the paper through in two positions to fill up the banner, I was going for a snowfall look there and a different folder may have done better but I still like the texture it gave.

My heat embossing comes in on the top of the page and then on the photos. I used white Martha Stewart pigment ink and white Zing! embossing powder for both the Martha Stewart snowflakes and the Unity Stamp Co. lace border.


I'm also linking this up with a couple of challenges:
S.W.A.T. - use 4+ pictures on a single page layout
About a Boy - use hoarded (1 year or more) product. My hoarded items are the brads, white ink and embossing powder, and the Echo Park for the Record paper

Keep Calm and Take Photos

I'm such a meanie sometimes! I love to take photos of the boys while they're crying. I don't do it when they are actually in danger and I rarely do anything with them, but I can tell you the context of every single one that I have ever printed. 

For the Scrappy Friends Challenge, Brenda wanted us to use the phrase "Keep calm and ___" with us filling in the blanks. And I just thought it was funny to use photos that weren't so calming. Especially given that Rylan is normally my over the top smiles and giggles child, this represents the other part of his life. 

I apologize for the over sharpening, the dreary weather outside wasn't cooperating. Over sharp looked better, promise. 

For the rest of the Scrappy Friends Challenge I used Kerys' sketch, Kristi B's technique (misting/stenciling), and Rochelle's color combo. 

I'm also entering this page into two other challenges:

S.W.A.T. - Basic Training - use mists

Scrapbooksteals.com MCM - two shades of green

My products list:

MME Dilly Dally ledger paper and Lime Twist scrap

BG 12x12 doily

Echo Park This and That cardstock

AC Amy Tan blue cardstock

Glitz Designs stickers

MME Miss Caroline rub-on

Girls Paperie alphas

Jenni Bowlin alphas

AC Christmas Knock-outs punch

WRMK eyelets

Washi/Fabric Tape from Love My Tapes, MME

Jute from MME All is Bright

Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder

October Afternoon Sprinklers Treehouse and Frequent Flyer

Colorbox Charcoal

Kiwi Lane Designs Sweatheart 4T

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. ;)

When Going Stops Going

The sun is finally shining here, after a dreary week and then getting a foot of snow in less than a day. Now, some of you truly northerners will say that's nothing for you, but we've been busting out spring wear since December so it was dramatic to say the least!

In those dark and dreary days I got a lot of scrapbooking done and all this sunshine means I can take some pictures and share them with you. 

This one is based on the Let's Get Sketchy Feb week 3 sketch.  

As soon as I saw the hexagons I wanted to play with MME Follow Your Heart. Then I had this feeling of being a little to copy cat because some of the design team used that line. So I busted out my Silhouette Cameo and made my own hexagon mask. I adhered it with my Repositionable Xyron. Misted, splattered, and removed the mask.  Then while all the bits were still on the carrier I misted those in another shade, and glued some back into the pattern. I hadn't used many of them so I stuck down some MME washi, and then piled up the tiny hexies and made "buttons" out of reverse side. The chevrons are the reverse side of that MME Follow Your Heart hexagon paper I was talking about. The heat embossed banner was stamped using Glitz Designs Love Games stamp set. More MME washi and a little heat embossing on the photo and I was pretty much done. 

Smile Often.

I've done the Scrappy Friends challenge for a few months now. I love that it combines so many elements to mix and match. Each friend offers up one challenge and you get bonus entries for combining into one layout. Let's just say that I really, really enjoy the challenge of squeezing all the elements into one look!

My interpretation:

Brenda - Sketch Challenge - yep

Rochelle Spears ~ Color Combo - as soon as I saw the colors I knew I wanted to use MME Lime Twist

Kerys Sharrock ~ Quote Challenge -use sentences from some Subway/Word Art.

Kristi B ~ Stash Challenge - mustaches, pennants, and dry embossing - check, check, check

I didn't really know how I wanted to go about using Kerys' word art, so I started by just using one as the title. I had that decided before I laid out the page. Then I was trying to figure out how in the world I'd get mustaches into it, naturally adding one to the title seemed fun. Then as I adhered it in place I had this idea to sketch on a bunch of 'staches and add some of the other sentences from the word art that describe Rylan or that I'd like for him. I like that doing so supplied a "boyish" and playful aspect to a "girl" colored page (what can I say, the colors matched my Christmas tree so well that I just had to use these pics!). 

Love card, blue?!

I don't know what sparked the idea to use blue for this card, but I love the way it turned out. Because who said that all lovey-dovey cards need to be red anyway?

The Scrapbooksteals.com MCM this week was to use white and one other color. There was lots of blue in the scrap pile on my desk that needed to be put away, it just seemed natural to use it I guess. 

The stamps are from Unity Stamp Company. The doilies are an embossing folder for Lifestyle Crafts. Three of the blue papers are My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart and Lime Twist. The blue cardstock is American Crafts Amy Tangerine. The doilies and paper edges were inked with Ranger Distress Broken China. The stamping was done with Colorbox. The pearls were from Michael's dollar bin.

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. 

Rockin' with my Dad

Ever start a project only to realize that now that you've picked papers that you have to abandon it to help the kiddos, make dinner, etc.? That's what happened with this layout. I'd set out to do it and realized that it was time to start dinner for company. When hubby's alarm woke me the next day I woke with a start! I had a crazy idea about what I wanted to do for this page. 

I have LOTS of pictures of my guys throwing these pebbles at our local park's lake and I wanted to take this two photo Paper Secrets sketch and give it a few more while maintaining the sketch. 

In addition to the sketch, Paper Secrets challenge included using a chevron. I accomplished this with some paper piecing that I then sewed together.

So I laid out what would go behind the multi-colored doily page and stitched the doily paper down on just one side to make a flap. I even decorated the back of the doily paper with another photo. 

The inside of my three page single page layout!

All the papers are My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart, as are the dimensional stickers and clips. There's WRMK and MME washi. The alphas are a variety of American Crafts Thickers and October Afternoon alphas. In addition to machine stitching I used two WRMK Sew Stamper heads. And lastly, Kiwi Lane templates provided some of the shapes, and I used a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder.

Brothers throw stones

Okay, in this case they were throwing pebbles. And into water. But the throw stones part was a witty thing I came up with as I was putting this post together, and will probably be added into the page in some manner at a later date. 

This layout was inspired by Let's Get Sketchy's January week 4 challenge. I also used the color blue for the Scrapbooksteals.com MCM Baby Blues challenge. 

And while this used mostly My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart, there's also touches of Indie Chic Nutmeg, and a Miss Caroline wooden embellishment that I colored on with American Crafts Metallic Markers. The splatters and mists are from October Afternoon and Mister Huey's. The doily embossing folder is Lifestyle Crafts. 

Snow - Kiwi Lane DT Doodles and Scrapbooksteals MCM

For this week's Kiwi Lane DT Doodles (week 3), I busted out more snow photos and Authentique Peaceful with some touches of Original. I love how these collections really worked with the photos - and the Kiwi Lane Templates remind me of snow drifts which was perfect for these snowy papers!

Templates used: Paisley Place mini 1A/B and 3A/B, Tags 1 and 7, Sweetheart 4T, Floral 3T

I'm also linking this one to Scrapbooksteals.com MCM - Sparkle and Shine. I used some Zing embossing powders (Copper Metallic) to add a touch of texture and shimmer to the page.

After lots of fussy cutting, some distressing and a bunch of sewing this page really just sort of came together.

Love your face - Paper Secrets Challenge

Here's another for the ol'December album. Day 7 - a trip downtown to Living Windows (shops have mini scenes in their windows that you walk past and watch)  and hot chocolate after.

This page was inspired by Paper Secrets SketchSavvy #79 with a twist (use twine). 

For the twine, I used one of my Sew Easy heads to add a banner across the page. I then distressed inside each banner's center and roughed up the twine. After inking the layers, I adhered them, and inked and heat embossed the base layer. A strip of washi, a washi flower, some epoxy words, and rhinestones and we're good to go. 

Scrapbooksteals.com Jade 2

Kerys did a fabulous job with the sketch this week! I was very excited to play along with the Scrapbooksteals.com MWM - Jade 2.  Once again, I used a weekly sketch to knock out one more page of my December Daily album. 

December Daily 9

I'm also entering this page into the If It's Groovy challenge - create your own paper/background. I made the background by laying tree die cuts (from a mis-cut, yay for still finding a purpose!) onto a piece of American Crafts Kraft Cardstock. Then I used three shades of mist, from October Afternoon and Mister Huey, and sprayed and splattered away.

The other layers are an assortment of scraps from LilyBee Designs, Echo Park and My Mind's Eye. The twine is WRMK. Embossing powder is American Crafts Zing!. Green glitter glue is Studio G.

Teacher Gifting

Gifts for teachers. Such a broad concept. At this stage, since we aren't doing a preschool, our only teachers are the ones at church. I started planning a project and realized I couldn't figure out where to draw the line regarding which teachers/helpers to leave off the list so I ended up making a little ornament for every preschool teacher and helper who is volunteering this month - 15 ornaments and wrappings made by yours truly! Rylan's nursery workers got a card with a silly kid-craft ornament that Vance helped make, but his teachers got something just a little nicer looking - also known as made by mommy!

All of my teacher gifts. 

The boxes were a file I bought from the Silhouette store during their Cyber Monday sale. It's supposed to be an ornament, I think. I cut them from American Crafts Kraft Cardstock. I also used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the tags, My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria. Then I stamped a MME All Is Bright stamp in gold and "inked" with Copper embossing powders. 

Close-up of the boxes and tag.

For all the Users at Use it Tuesday - this is my challenge post to make something Christmas/Hannukah with hoarded supplies. The ornaments (and paint on them) were from a project I helped with at church this fall and probably the newest items used. The ribbons have been part of my stash for probably 3 years. Some of the ornaments have buttons inside, some of which have been around for a *very, very* long time.

Stop by tomorrow for a little more about that cute pink tree in the first picture - it's all made from upcycled, scraps and hoarded products. ;)

And don't forget about my Christmas present giveaway that ends Dec. 15 at midnight.