Birds of a Feather.....

I cannot begin to tell you how much my girls make me laugh.  And it's a good thing, because it certainly helps them out big time when they're supposed to be in trouble.  Anyway, this day below, was their 2nd visit to the dentist's office.  Thankfully, their first visit was incredibly fun and they don't have irrational fears of dentists like my husband someone I won't mention.  Now, a quick background point for all my readers:  My husband is a musician and as we all know, musicians usually beat to a different drum.  Often times their sense of fashion goes hand in hand with their creative musical flair.  So, I must submit, that my two daughters incredible sense of fashion comes from their Daddy. ; )

Isn't this how EVERYONE dresses up to go to the dentist?  Do notice that my youngest carries a penguin in her purse instead of the requisite yippy dog.  THAT, she got from me and it makes me proud.  So looking at how my two birds of a feather flock together...I now know that I have years of interesting outfits and fun times to look forward too.

Now on to the deets. I picked up the Cosmo Cricket Togetherness Deluxe Kit, from Lil' Lambs Boutique for this one.  It is a very whimsical line with birds, butterflies, clouds and kites.  I used all paper for this layout and will use the embellies, Glimmer Mist and Flocking Powder for my next project....coming up soon. 

The edges all have faux stitching inspired by one of my favorite scrappers, Mireille.  The look is quick and easy. First, punch holes around the edge of your piecing with a hole piercer.  Second, with a black marker, run around the edges of your piecing over top of the punched holes. Third, use a white marker (Sharpie Fine Point used here) to draw tiny white lines in between the punched holes.  And there you go, easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Happy Fall everyone....my favorite season of the year!!!

Sketchin' it out with Halloween

More Halloween goodness up tonight....or this morning.  I picked out the sketch from today on the I heart 2 Stamp blog for this card.  Whenever you run low on mojo, go for the sketches.  There are so many wonderful sketch artists out there.  I picked up the Honey Bear from my Inkadinkado stamps.  Isn't he a cutie?  I worked on more shading techniques for the Copic Challenge #35 going through September 30th .

For the background squares, I used Fiskar embossing folders to dry emboss spider webs.  The spider web at the bottom is a Tim Holtz mask rubbed over with Tea Dye Distress Ink.

I wanted to create a white border around my stamped image and am usually unsuccessful at keeping the embossed edge of my nestabilites clean when I try to free hand it with my Copic markers.  So tonight, I decided to keep the image nested inside my die and color my shaded background.   After completing all the shading work, I popped out the image and had my white border.

Copic Sketch Markers 
Bear: E11, E21,E33, E53, E25, E29, R20
Bear Clothes/Hat: C1, C3, C7, C9, V04, V06, V09, YR21, YR24 white highlights, colorless blender 
Honey/Pot: YR21, YR23,YR24, R22, R24, E09, white highlights, colorless blender
Label Edge: E00, E21, YR21, Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Card Paper: Basic Grey Fusion Line
Spellbinders Nestabilities: Large Scalloped/Large Standard Circles, Large Labels
Distress Ink by Ranger: Walnut Stain, Black Soot, Tea Dye Stamps: Inkadinkadoo
Mask: Advantus Tim Holtz
Embossing Plates: Fiskars


One more fun Halloween image coming up soon.  Stay tuned!

Boo! Popping in for a card challenge or two.

It's been a few weeks since I've done a card challenge.  So I thought I'd pop in today with a Halloween card for you since I've been posting so many Christmas projects.  I was walking through my local craft store on a construction paper mission for my girls.  Get in...get paper...get out.  Curses...the store employees had to stick these adorable Inkadinkadoo Halloween stamps in the aisle on my way to the cash register.  Honestly as I was walking past the end cap, my basket bumped the edge and into my basket the stamps fell.  Clearly I was meant to have them.


Copic Creation's Challenge #35 - Shading in or around images: There was no doubt I would enter this one since it's the Copic skill technique I'm trying to improve...and have plenty of room for improvement too.  ; )


Flutter by Wednesday's Challenge #123 - All winged things: It's a perfect time of year for the butterfly/fairy/angel rule to be relaxed.  For you can't have Halloween without little winged bats, right? I did an emboss resist of little bats in the upper right corner (a wonderful trick I picked up from Mr. Holtz himself).

 To create an emboss resist image on your project, you need the following: Image Stamp, Clear Embossing Ink, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Distress Ink Pads, wet paper towel.
1. Stamp your image using clear embossing ink. (Distress Embossing Ink used here but you can also use Versamark ink).
2. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat emboss using your heat tool.
3. Use a make up sponge and rub your colored Distress ink over and around your image in a circular motion.  You will see your image pop up through the ink.
4. After you have completed your colored distressing, take a damp paper towel and gently rub across your embossed image to take off any Distress Ink left on top.  You have now have an embossed resist image on your project.

Here's a close up of my Inkadinkadoo Kitty cutie.

Copic Sketch Markers 
Pumpkins/Leaves: YR12, YR21, YR23, E25, YG03, G21, G82
Cat: C1, C3, C5, C7, C9, R85, white highlights, colorless blender 
Cat Hat: V04, V06, V09, YR24, E5, white highlights, colorless blender
Label Edge: YR00, YR12, YR21, YR23, V00, V04, V06, C1, C3, C9, colorless blender
Card Paper: Cosmo Cricket, black cardstock
Spellbinders Nestabilities: Labels 1
Punches: Martha Stewart Iron Gate Around the Page Combo
Distress Ink by Ranger: Concord Grape, Spiced Marmalade, Walnut Stain, Black Soot
Stamps: Inkadinkadoo

JustRite Sketch Challenge #024

Ah, it feels good to get back in the groove again.  If you ever hit a slump, I highly recommend sketch challenges.  They provide just enough boost to get your creative burners flowing again.  This week, at JustRite, we were given the following sketch challenge with the requirement to use an Americana color scheme.

Fitting that I just received 2 batches of JustRite stamps from Lil' Lambs Boutique.  I decided to rotate the sketch for my card.  The stamp is from the Seeds of Kindness collection.  I created the white borders using the Doily Lace Trim Martha Stewart punch.

I decided to create my own patterned paper for the red strip.  Here's a quick tutorial on creating your own patterned paper. First, cut out a small flower using a die machine or stencil (Tattered Florals Alterations Die used here).  Take a blank ink pen and trace around the flower onto the red paper strip.  Set white flower randomly about when tracing.

Next, take a white opaque pen (Inkssentials used here) and draw white dots around the inner edge of your traced flowers.  It's as simple as that.  You now have your own patterned paper.

If you get a chance, stop by JustRite and join the challenge.  You have until Friday.


Paper: AC Cardstock
Stamp: JustRite - Seeds of Kindness collection
Dies: Tattered Floral Alterations Die by Sizzix, Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders
Punch: Doily Lace Trim by Martha Stewart
Inkssentials Opaque Pen
Stickles by Ranger Ink: Christmas Red

Is anyone else broke this month?

You know, I always think, next year, surely there won't be THAT many people graduating, but sure enough, we always happen to know 3 or 4.  However, I must say, it's money well spent.  Where else in the year of bills, birthdays and Christmas, can you say, I've invested in someone's future. 


So, off to the fun!  I just received the already sold out Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper Stack from Lil' Lambs Boutique and oh, what fun it's been to play with.  He is a creative genius.  I have quite the pot pourri of "Tim stuff" in this post.


 For Card #1, to create the background, stamp your card with a big Harlequin stamp, using Embossing Ink.  Emboss with Clear Embossing powder and then ink around the edges with your favorite Distress Inks.  Don't worry about covering up your embossed design, because a damp paper towel will wipe it clean, leaving the Distress Ink in the crannies.  You can see the process clearly in the lower right corner of the card.  Cut out the calendar 6x6 sheet (Lost & Found paper stack) into 3 strips, rough up the edges and ink with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Adhere in a descending fan onto the your card background.

Cut out an oval and print on your sentiment. Adhere with pop dots for dimension.  Use punches or dies to create a 2 layer flower with a light and dark layer (Tattered Floral Alterations die used here) and a flourish (Sizzlet die used here).  Before popping out your flourish from the paper, ink it with Distress Ink. It's easier to ink flourishes and swirls before popping them out.  Layer the light flower behind the dark to separate the background from the top flower layer.  Curl the top edges of your flower and add the center.  Here I used a glass ornament fragment with the Graduating Year glued on underneath and a charm attached to the top.  Adhere everything and your done.

Card: Die Cuts With a View
Stamp: Harlequin Stamp by Fiskars
Paper: Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper Stack
Dies: Alterations and Sizzlets by Sizzix, Nestabilities by Spellbinders

Flower Center: Glass Ornament Fragments by Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Ranger Ink Distress Ink - various colors
Pop Dots, Glossy Accents, Charms


The bottom edge of card #2 is created by using an Alterations On The Edge die by Sizzix.  Run your card through your die cut machine and two pieces of paper, one solid color and one patterned (Lost & Found Stack used here).  Adhere the solid color on your card along the bottom edge.  Then add the patterned paper on top about 1/2" higher.  Write the Graduating Year in the lower right side.  Cut out a scalloped rectangle, ink the edges (Walnut Stain used here) and add your sentiment. Do not adhere the sentiment yet.

 

Cut out the Extra Large and Medium flower from the Tattered Florals Alterations die in two colors and a small punched flower.  If using solid colored paper, set a stenciling template or mask on top of the large flower (Spellbinders Flower Impressabilities used here), and ink lightly with Walnut Stain ink.  Add the mask/stencil to the second flower and ink with a coordinating color (Broken China used here).  Cut out a flourish or swirl and ink the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Layer and adhere your items as follows: Large flower, flourish, scalloped rectangle, medium flower, small flower.  Add a center for your flower (Gold Liquid Pearls used here). 

Card: Die Cuts With a View
Paper: Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper Stack
Dies: Alterations On the Edge by Sizzix, Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Flourish by Quickutz

Stencil: Spellbinders Floral Impressabilities
Ranger Ink Distress Ink - various colors
Ranger Ink Liquid Pearls: Gold
Pop Dots, Glossy Accents,


For card #3, cut your background paper to the size of your card.  Rip a small edge away around the entire piece, and then rip off one corner.  Ink the edges with Distress Ink (Walnut Stain used here).  Adhere to your card. The flourish is from the Prima Say It in Pearls collection.  If you don't have the right color, then you can change the flourish using Alcohol Inks by Ranger.  The flourish below was light pink.  I sponged on Red Pepper Alcohol Ink to create the red color instead.  You can add as many layers of Alcohol Ink you would like, just remember to let each layer dry first. Simply blowing on the alcohol ink will dry it.  Adhere your flourish to the card.


Cut out an oval die cut and print sentiment.  Ink the edges (Antique Linen used here) and pop dot the sentiment to your card.  Add coordinating punched flowers using solid color paper. Layer and adhere your flowers and add flower details (Liquid Pearls used for the center).  Finally, add the year in the upper corner using rub-ons.

Card: Die Cuts With a View
Paper: Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper Stack
Flowers: Stacked Punches by Family Treasures, Prima
Flouish: Say It in Pearls by Prima
Rub Ons: Autumn Leaves


Ranger Ink Distress Ink - various colors
Ranger Ink Alcohol Inks - Red Pepper
Ranger Ink Liquid Pearls: Ruby Red

Glossy Accents,

Some people are just made for each other

I received the Basic Grey Cappella Mini Album Kit from Lil' Lambs Boutique and I went in search of photos to go with it.  Unfortunately, I had just finished a wedding album as a gift and my wedding photos were long done...so what to do...what to do.   I just happened to remember seeing a friend's wedding photos that she posted to Facebook and thought how fun it would be to use her photos for the album and then give them the finished product as a wedding gift...albeit a touch late.  Their photos struck me because you can literally tell how in love they are with each other...not to mention they're so cute when they post on Facebook too.  Anyway, let's head off to the races because this turned out not to be so mini an album afterall.


The Cappella line is a rather subdued line with cream, light yellows, pale pinks and greys.  This makes it perfect to accent with any color cardstock that picks up the colors used in the wedding. 

I created my only real big 3D embellishment, making the cardstock rose, using Tim Holtz's tutorial here.

 The flourish at the bottom is created using liquid pearls.  You can see my tutorial here.

All edges of the mini album were punched using Martha Stewart border punches. I used the same border punch for the front and back of each individual page and then glued the punched edges together. I opted for only 2 sides because of the unusal size of the tag album, which didn't fit the standard around the page measurements for the border punches.

The kit comes with a tremendous amount of tags that can be cut up to use as embellishments.

It also came with complete instructions for finishing each page.  You can opt to follow them or throw caution to the wind along with the directions and do your own thing.  Their version put mini tags in between the bigger pages and I didn't care for the look of the mini tag covering part of the photo, so I opted to pop up some of the photographs and create a tag insert instead.

Don't be afraid to run over the edges a bit when you add embellishments.  That's half the fun with mini albums is chocking them full of embellishments.  If you do have one hang over the edge, such as a tag, ink the back of it with a neutral/dark color and it will be less obvious than stark white (see photo above for back of tag sticking out).

These flowers are from the new Tim Holtz Alteration dies...oh my, I love his stuff! I stamped the background, of the big flower, with a stamp from his Stamper's Anonymous collection.

What's a project without butterlies?  Here, I transfered a rub-on buttefly onto transparency paper.  After cutting out around the edges of the butterfly, I heated it with a heat gun.  This curls up the wings and lifts it off the paper, when glued down.

For the tag at the bottom, I cut out an additional heart shape and the internal wings, inked the edges and then popped them up with pop dots for a dimensional tag.

This is absolutely my favorite photo of all of them.  All the wedding photos used in the album are courtesy of the very talented Julie Dreelin, from Beach Productions.

Here are the tags I inserted throughout the album for the Bride to complete of her treasured day.

And finally....the end.  Understated...but hey, something should be.

And there you have it!  Congratulations Beth & George.  May you have many incredible years of happiness, blessed by the Lord!

Mojo Monday with a little 365 Degrees

356 Degrees?  What am I talking about?  Why it's the new Pink Paislee line and Lil' Lambs Boutique has set up an awesome kit with these papers.  The Deluxe kit can be found here.  Of course, there was no way I was going to pass up the long card sketch from Mojo Monday this week. 

My favorite part of the sketch was the 3 panel series on the card.  I knew right off that I wanted to stamp a scene and split it across the 3 panels.  What perfect timing too...I received my box from Lil' Lambs Boutique with my set of Copic markers.  I might have done a little happy dance when no one was looking.  I kept hearing about these wonderments and I can honestly say, I may never go back to pencil coloring again.  They are that easy and fun to work with.  I definitely need some more technique work with them, but I'll keep practicing for sure!

I embossed the blue background field with my Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The edges are inked with Faded Blue Distress Ink and the White Bazzill Bling cardstock is inked around the edges with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.

I grabbed my Scalloped Oval Spellbinders to create the birthday tag.  After cutting and embossing the edge, I grabbed my Copic markers in 2 shades of Orange and colored the outer rim and outer edge.  Instant double matting!

After seeing the sketch this week at Mojo Monday, I knew I had to make this envelope for the card.  I saw this tutorial for long envelopes using only one entire 12x12 sheet of double sided paper.  Isn't this cool?  You can see the tutorial here. I used one of the sheets from the 365 Degree Collection that went quite nicely with the card above.  I edged the envelope flap with the gorgeous lace found in the Deluxe kit.

I cut out the flourish using the Quickutz Cookie Cutter 12" Border Die and the White Bazzill Bling Cardstock. The flourish is edged with a blue Copic marker and then spritzed with Frost Sheer Shimmer Spritz by Tsukineko (included in the Deluxe kit).

Finally I picked the gorgeous cream and orange Prima blossom from the kit, inked the edges with Faded Jeans Distress Ink and attached it to the point of the envelope flap.  I also spritzed it with the Frost Sheer Shimmer Spritz for a shinier look in the light.

Here you can see how nicely the card fits inside the envelope.

A perfect gift for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday. 

A Time to Raise...A Time to Spoil

Me...I'm in the raising time.  And believe me, there are days when I can't wait until the spoiling time.  My In-Laws, are thoroughly entrenched in the "time to spoil."  With 4 grandkids and 1 great grandson, they have had plenty of practice.  The Life Portrait Collection from Websters Pages fit the bill for this family layout.  The 12 piece paper collection can be found at Lil' Lambs Boutique here.

I cut out the frames from the patterned paper and sized all the grandkid photos to fit.  I enhanced the yellow frame with a tan colored pencil to give it a bit more visible dimension.  For the background, I used some masks from the Tim Holtz Idea-Ology collection and stamps from See Dee's.  The stamps I embossed with clear embossing powder.  After the stamps were embossed, the background was inked with Distress Ink (Tattered Rose, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo used here.)  You can see the embossed areas popping through as they resist the Distress Ink.

I love these chandelier stamps from Inkadinkado.  It made a perfect filler for the this space beneath the Life Portrait die cut.  You can also see a great close up of the new Martha Stewart Iron Gate border punch here.  There is a corner punch with the set too.  You can find them both here.  Notice that even though I covered the background with Distress Inks, the underlying pattern still shows through.

The sentiment is printed on transparency paper (again, once the layout is in a page protector in your album, the transparency seams disappear).  The stamp on the right is from Mirkwood Stamps.  I stamped it on cream colored paper and then used Distress Embossing Powder on the top.  Distress Powder is different from regular embossing powder in that it does not melt to a sheen.  It will leave a rough, textured surface, which makes for a nice change.  (Weathered Wood, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo used here).

After adding all the photos to my layout and inking, I thought it needed just a touch more.  Normally I would have stamped the little hour glass before I glued my photos down but I didn't realize I wanted it until after everything was adhered.  So what do you do?  You don't want to stamp over the frame because you want the illusion of it being behind.  Easy as this:

1. Get a scrap piece of transparency paper and lay it over the area where you want the stamp. 

2. Take a Sharpie or some type of permanent marker and outline the edges of the area where you do NOT want your stamp to show.  In the picture below, I outlined the edges of the two frames. 

3. Cut out the center of your transparency paper (where the stamp will go) following your guidelines.

4. Lay your transparency cut out back on your layout.  Now the transparency should be covering any part that you do not want stamped.

5. Ink your stamp and press down on top of the opening in your transparency.  You now have a stamped image that is in back of your photos.

Try something new with your background, whether it's stamping images, or doing the emboss resist technique or just inking your background with several colors. 

Finishing up with some Basic Grey

I wanted to post my other Basic Grey project before the weekend was over because next week...Websters Pages....woo hoo! I finished up working with the Origins line I got from Lil Lambs Boutique. Here I used one of their Laser Cut doilies. They are very nice and heavy weight Laser Cuts. And beautiful too.

Because I had used the similar cut paper on my last project, I opted to cut my Doily into 4 pieces. The curved edges suited my purposes for turning this into a giant flower.

I used of the leftovers of the big flower patterned paper to make my flower grouping below. I left the darker flowers on bottom and popped up the lighter ones on top.

The itty bitty flowers came in handy to use around my stem flourish.

For the center ring on the flower below, I used the checked green paper in the collection. I grabbed a journal stamp from Stampers Anonymous and used Ranger Embossing ink to stamp over the entire ring. I covered with embossing powder and finished it with my heat gun. After embossing I inked the ring with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then Tea Dye Distress ink. See how the embossed area resisted the Distress ink and created a different pattern atop of the checked pattern. I love doing this Emboss Resist technique.

I finished up the layout with journaling my title and the stitched edges with my White Inksessentials pen.

Fast, easy and fun.