WRMK Guest Designer & Giveaway

Hello everyone.  I'm so excited today to be a guest designer for We R Memory Keepers.  WRMK sent me some items from the hip new Feelin' Groovy collection and I had a blast playing with the bold colors and patterns. 

The Feelin' Groovy collection has a fun vibe to it, which makes it perfect for all kinds of celebrations: birthdays, graduations, new baby. 

I love that happy yellow patterned paper and made my own pinwheel to echo those in the pattern. 

For my layout, I used the paper named Groovy as my backdrop. The blue-green palette and icons reminded me of the beach and made a perfect backdrop for my page. 

The banners show some of the playful patterns in the Feelin' Groovy collection. I have additional close-ups and details of this layout on the WRMK blog.

Giveaway:  I have some Feelin' Groovy items from WRMK up for grabs as well as samples of twine and washi.  To enter, please follow my blog and leave a comment. The giveaway is open until midnight on Sunday. I'll draw a random winner and post it here next Monday, June 3. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Boys Will Be Boys: Authentique

I’m back today with another layout using Authentique’s Genuine line from my GDT stint with the Birds of a Feather Kit Co. This collection is so versatile. I love the cozy denim theme. For my first layout, I paired the line with kraft and white for a winter feel. Today, I've paired the collection with yellow and brown for a Fall look.

The stars on the the background paper made me think of the American flag, which I thought perfectly suited our all American boys. In these photos, my son and his cousin, both age 2, are at the lake shore, picking up rocks and throwing them into the water. I can't tell you how enthralled they were by this simple activity!

The element sheet in this collection had a sticker that said: Genuine through and through.  I added the word "boys" to make a title block: Genuine Boys Through and Through. There was just enough room to squeeze the letters in. The letter stickers above the block are from October Afternoon, Sasparilla, and I inked them darker to give a more distressed look.  The tag under the photo is from Little Yellow Bicycle's Hello, Fall! 

I love the big, bold chevron paper that was part of the Genuine line and I used the chevron as a mat under the photo block. I like the way the chevron pattern forms arrows to draw attention to the pictures. I added a bit of yellow cardstock under the chevron for a pop of color then stitched the two together with a denim thread. To finish the page, I stitched a brown frame around the page using heavy duty thread.

If you'd like to know more about the Birds of a Feather Kit Co, click here.  Amy, the owner, puts together a terrific kit each month.  You'll also find great inspiration in the gallery and friendly folks on the forum.  It's my favorite place to hang out!

We Called You Cheeks: GDT work

I’m so excited this month to be a guest designer for Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I had designed for BOAF last year and was thrilled when Amy, the owner, invited me back to work with the March kit. I tell you: I was given a great month for my stint because this kit is jam packed with beauties from Authentique and My Mind’s Eye.

I hadn’t worked with Authentique before. I was so impressed with the beautiful papers. Not only did they look good, but they felt great too. The kit included the Genuine collection and the denim themed papers were easy to mix and match. The nice heavy weight of this paper made me think of winter and I had this photo of my son as a baby in a knit hat, all cozy in his stroller, for an afternoon at the park. So I played on the winter theme. Just pretend those little flowers on the white paper are snowflakes, will ya?

　

The background is one sheet of paper, Dependable. I used the A side (navy side) of Dependable for the outer frame, then carefully cut out the inner frame and flipped it to the B side (white side). I used a square of cardstock in between to hide where I had cut the paper, then stitched it all back together. I loved that the stiped paper in the kit (used as a banner here) mimicked the stripe in my son's stroller. Perfect! The Webster's trim is from a previous kit. It looked so cozy and was perfect here.

When my son was a baby, we nicknamed him, "Cheeks." I think you can see why, lol.

The March Birds of a Feather kit proved to be the most popular kit in the history of the club, selling out in less than 48 hours. This is a photo collage of the kit that BOAF sent me.

　

I can hardly wait to see what Amy has in store for the April kit. If you are interested in a kit club, check out Birds of a Feather here. The site also has a terrific forum with super friendly paper crafters and lots of great inspiration. You can find the Hen House here.

Home Décor Project with Little Yellow Bicycle

I've had the best time these last four weeks as a guest designer for Little Yellow Bicycle.  The Paradise collection has been right up my alley. I love the neutrals of this line. They just go with everything and really pop against a contrast color.

As I was looking at the patterns in the collection this week, it occurred to me that this line would look great framed in my house.  So that's exactly what I did: made a Paradise project and framed it.

To make this project, I gathered my favorite Paradise papers (um, all of them) and used a 2-inch square punch to punch out 30 squares. I laid them on an 8x10 piece of cream cardstock to form a grid: 5 down and 6 across.

I lightly tacked them down, then sewed across each row and down each column with a hot pink thread to pick up the magenta in the patterns and to add a pop of color.

The Paradise embellishments have so many fun quips and meaningful quotes. I decided to use this quote from the Tear-Out Tickets as the focal point of my home décor project: “Each day holds the possibilities for great opportunities and hidden joy.”

I love the meaning behind this expression: that each day is a fresh start, brimming with the possibility of good things.  It makes me happy just to think of that!   I also like the end of the quote about the “hidden joy.”  I don’t normally think of joy as hidden and I like this reminder that sometimes you have to look to find the joy.  That is true about life.  Sometimes we have to look and it’s good to be reminded.

So armed with this terrific quote, I set out to spotlight it. I stitched around the edges with teal thread, then embellished it with chipboard and cardstock stickers, and placed it on my grid. 

I had a nice brown frame with a thick 8x10 mat on our bookshelf, so I hijacked it for this project. By removing the thick mat, I had plenty of room under the glass for the chipboard embellies. I popped the quilted mat into the frame and added a sweet little birdie to the lower right corner.

I want to close this post by sending out a big, heartfelt thank you to Liz Qualman and the Little Yellow Bicycle crew. You were so generous to me and supportive of me and I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as the Guest Designer. I also want to send a big thank you to my blog readers, followers and commenters. You warm my heart.

Valentines with the LYB Paradise Collection

I love finding versatile paper lines and I'm having the best time guest designing with Little Yellow Bicycle's Paradise collection.  This line is perfect for almost anything.  Paradise is mainly blues and greens and browns, but it also has a fun pop of hot pink.  Since Valentine's Day is right upon us, I thought it would be fun to make love-themed cards with this collection.

Plaid About You:

I’m just mad for plaid, especially for the warm colors in this line. It’s the perfect backdrop for a card for any occasion. Since I was making a Valentine, I paired the plaid with the line's pretty Magenta Morning patterned paper. I stitched the two together and attached the front panel to a dark chocolate cardstock base.

I used a tear-out ticket as the spot for my sentiment, adding a decorative chipboard element above and below. To finish the card, I added alphas then a little fabric bird and heart from the collection.  Isn't that birdie sweet?

You Are The One:

For my second card, I used a teal and olive patterned paper that's aptly named, Splendid Stripe. Splendid, indeed. It's is one of my favorites of this collection. I just love the way it pops against the hot pink.

For the sentiment, I again used alphas on a  tear-out ticket. Those tickets are so fun and easy to use!  I hand-cut a heart from the Magenta Morning patterned paper then used one of the 5 Things Envelopes to complete the sentiment. These envelopes are so cute. They each have a tiny ledger inside to write a little love note, if desired. The perfect touch for a Valentine, don’t you think?

Now for the winner from last Friday:  Thanks so much for your comments on Paradise medley album last Friday.  Little Yellow Bicycle sent me an extra album for me to give away on my blog.  I had 67 comments and used random.org to select the winner.

Congratulations, Sharon.  You were lucky #13!  Please email me your name and address. My contact information is on the sidebar and I'll get the medley album right out to you.

The Little Yellow Bicycle blog has lots of terrific projects using the Paradise line and the other new collections they debuted this week at CHA.  Be sure to check them out here.

Little Yellow Bicycle Mini Album and Giveaway

I'm back today with another project as a guest designer for Little Yellow Bicyle's new Paradise line. And, wow, what a fun week I had playing with the Paradise Medley Album.

The medley album is an assortment of tags, envelopes and inserts and comes with instructions and color photos to show examples of ways to put the album together.   It's easy to follow along with the suggestions or you can do your own thing. I used the album to document a trip we took to the beach just after my son turned 1 and added several embellishments from the Paradise collection. 

Before starting the album, I did a little prep work.  I added brads and twine closures to the two envelopes and machine stitched a little border around each tag, page and envelop.

I used a chipboard title block to make a wee little cover to the album.  I covered the back with a little strip of patterned paper, used a cropadile to punch a hole then added the chipboard title to the album. Then I set about embellishing each page.

Front of Pages 1 - 3:

Back of Pages 1 - 3: 

Front of Page 4:

Back of Page 4 and Page 5::

Isn't this a beautiful line?  Paradise is one of 6 collections that LYB is showcasing at CHA in the coming week. You can find details about all the new lines on the Little Yellow Bicycle blog.  I love seeing all the new collections!

Now for the giveaway: Little Yellow Bicyle donated one of these Paradise medley albums for a giveaway on my blog.  All you have to do is leave a comment. If you're not a follower of my blog, I'd love to have you join me and I'll be happy to follow you in return. Comments will be open until midnight on Wednesday, Feb. 1 and the winner chosen by random draw. I'll announce the winner here on my blog next Friday, Feb. 3.  

Guest Designing for Little Yellow Bicycle

Today is such a fun and exciting day for me: I’m kicking off the new year as Little Yellow Bicycle’s first guest designer for 2012. For the next four weeks, I’ll be showing projects with LYB’s new Paradise collection.

I don’t know if you’ve seen any peeks of this new CHA collection over on the Little Yellow Bicycle blog, but this is a beautiful new line. Paradise is a wonderful mix of teal, cream, brown and olive with a pop of magenta. You can see the color mix here in this photo of the collection’s flower kit.

Although the collection name recalls a tropical locale, the colors and patterns are versatile enough to work with just about anything. When I got my box of goodies, the first thing that caught my eye was the colorful plaid patterned paper. I’m mad for plaid! The colors reminded me of madras pants that golfers wear and I knew immediately that I would make a page about my own little golfer.

I used the plaid as the base for my page. On top, I used the pretty cream "B" side of one paper and stitched a border strip to the teal paper to make a large block.  Then I added another patterned paper as my photo mat.

Once I had the patterned paper and photo in place, I began to embellish the page. LYB makes it easy because each line has so many terrific embellishments. I started above the photo with the golf banner, chipboard clouds and some word stickers.

To finish the page, I made a trio of flags to mimic pennants on the putting greens. The flags are from the collection’s Fabric Favorites and were already on pop-dots. I just added decorative toothpicks to make the flagpoles.

The accordian flower underneath is from the flower kit at the top of the page. You can find out more about this collection on the LYB blog. And be sure to stop back by here next Friday for a new project and a Paradise giveaway!

An Early Valentine with Trendy Twine

I'm a firm believer that it's never really too early - or too late - to send a Valentine. I made this card using Little Yellow Bicycle's Cupcake Love and Trendy Twine's new Valentine twine.  The sentiment says: I love you cherry much.

The cherry was super easy to make. To wind twine into a circle:  punch a circle from cardstock and cover with adhesive of choice.  Cut about a foot of twine.  Tie a knot in one end.  Put the knot in the center of the circle and tightly wind the twine around the knot until you reach desired size. Trim any excess cardstock.  

Here's a closer look at the cherry on the card:

And here's a closer look at Trendy Twine's new Valentine Twine: It's pink and red swirled together.  Love that!

You can find our more about Trendy Twine here.   This card and other projects using the Valentine twine are featured on the Trendy Twine blog today.

Card supplies:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Little Yellow Bicycle and Crate Paper
Die Cut: My Mind's Eye
Felt cupcake: Little Yellow Bicycle
Border Punch: Fiskars
Paper Clip: K & Co.
Alpha Stickers: Lily Bee and Cosmo Cricket
Twine: Trendy Twine
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Wave Another Year Goodbye

How fast 2011 is closing to an end! It’s been a really wonderful year for me personally and creatively. I’m so thankful to my blog readers and paper crafting friends for supporting me and inspiring me. I’m looking forward to another great year together in 2012.

Below is a card I made earlier this year while guest designing for Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I used the July kit which was packed with goodies from October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket. The script letter stickers are Webster's Pages. You can find Birds of a Feather kits here.

　

I was really excited when Cards Magazine picked this up for publication as a New Year’s card in their December 2011 issue.

　

Happy New Year, everyone. Wishing you the very best in 2012.

My Growing Boy

My baby is growing up too fast.  I caught him here last year, at age 1, before he was weaned from the bottle, dragging along his favorite blanket and toting along a puzzle. I'm so glad I thought to grab my camera and get these shots. They really take me back.  Cory went through a stage where he took that blanket and a puzzle everywhere he went: from room to room in the house, in the car, to the grocery store, at school, etc.  It was such the cutest stage.  I miss my baby!

I used the December "Naughty or Nice?" kit from Scraptastic Club.  It's full of a great mix of holiday papers from Lily Bee, Echo Park, Fancy Pants and Crate Paper.

Scraptastic Club sponsors challenges each month with great prizes. Come play along. There are four challenges and you have until Dec. 31 to upload your entries. The prize this month is the Random Collection from Crate Paper. Oh, I love that line!   You can find the challenges on the Scraptastic Club Blog here.

Favorite Gift Under The Tree

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I often find that I don’t scrap Christmas until well after the fact. Does this happen to you? One of the things I meant to document last year, but didn’t, was my son’s favorite Christmas present. Like so many boys his age - and older - he has an obsession with cars. In fact, this may well be a stage that boys never outgrow.

Under the tree last year, every present was wrapped except one: the Little People racetrack. My toddler is an early riser and we wanted him to have something special to find while everyone else was still nestled in bed. I got up with him at 6 am to see what Santa had brought. Cory couldn’t have been more excited. Even later that morning, as he opened present after present, he kept going back to his cars and the racetrack. It was his favorite present.

I created this layout with the Scraptastic Club’s December kit: Naughty or Nice. I’ve had such fun this month as guest designer. The kit club is running four challenges this month with a great prize: a collection kit from Crate Paper. You don’t have to use the kit to participate in challenges. You can find the details here.

Supplies:

CS: Bazzill Basics

PP: Lily Bee, Echo Park, Bo Bunny

Journaling card: Lily Bee

Wood Shapes: Studio Calico

Stickers: Crate, Echo Park

Letter Stickers: Lily Bee, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey

Border Punch: Fiskars

Circle Punch: Marvy Uchida

Pen: Zip

Ink: Ranger

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Kit: Scraptastic Club

Scraptastic Club Guest Designer

It’s December and I am so happy to welcome in the holiday season. Today, I officially start my December Daily and my little one opens the first door of his Lego Advent calendar.

But first I want to share that I am a guest designer this month for Scraptastic Club. It’s a great kit club that gives you a choice of two kits each month. Both kits have great add-on options too. You can find the kits here. 

I chose the Naughty or Nice? kit.

Here’s my first project. I scrapped a photo of my Dad with my brothers on Christmas morning. I love this Crate ornament paper. I pop-dotted some of the ornaments for dimension then set off the paper by adding borders punched from cream cardstock down either side.

The large green die cut is Bo Bunny and it had a blue scallop design around the perimeter, which made the die cut too big for my design.  So, I cut off the blue and stitched a red frame to ground the die cut. On top, I added a tag using a cute reindeer stamp from Imaginesce and alphas from Lily Bee.

Scraptastic Club sponsors challenges each month with great prizes. Come play along. The first challenge is to use border punches and you have until Dec. 31 to upload your entry. The prize this month is the Random Collection from Crate Paper. Oh, I love that line!   You can find the challenges on the Scraptastic Club Blog here.

Inspiration from Geoge Clooney

I don't know about you, but I am inspired by George Clooney. I love his passion for the people of the Sudan; his activism for things that many Americans take little notice of. I like that he uses his celebrity for good. Yes, there is a lot to like about George Clooney.  He seems like he'd be someone that you'd smile to be around. And, well, he's pretty easy on the eyes. There's that too.

But this is a papercrafting blog, so where exactly does George Clooney fit in?  I was over on Pinterest  the other day and I saw this movie poster for George Clooney's movie, Up In the Air.  It's hard to believe that a movie promoting Mr. Clooney wouldn't have his twinkling eyes prominently featured.  But this was a sparse little poster and I loved the design.  I especially loved those cute little clouds made from hearts. Aren't they adorable?

I immediately knew I would use the heart clouds somewhere on a paper crafting project and I thought they worked perfectly for this little valentine of a card.  I've had this sentiment in my head for awhile and when I saw this orange bicycle sticker from Echo Park, I knew that was just the thing I needed. I love blue and orange paired together.

For the backdrop, I use a fun pattern from Echo Park's Happy Days line. I wanted the bicyle and the heart clouds to pop a bit against the background, so I white washed the patterned paper a bit with some thin acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top and inking the edges orange.

To finish the card, I wrote a sentiment with letter stickers. So, now I'm thinking I should send this card off to George....afterall, I really do bike him.

Teacher Gift: Candy Jar Pun Poem

Do you ever get news that has you grinning from ear to ear?  That's how I felt when I got word that Echo Park Paper had chosen me as its Fresh Face for September. I was giddy.  Yes, I was!  So, as I begin my role as EP's guest designer. I'd like to share the first project I made for the Echo Park blog: a teacher gift and card.

With the start of a new school year, I thought it would be a nice gesture to offer a little something to my son’s dayschool teacher. She is wonderful with the kids and provides such a warm and loving place for my little one to learn and grow. I wanted to remind her just how much she’s needed and appreciated.

This idea can be adapted to different teacher situations and can be used at the start of school, end of school or for teacher appreciation week. This is not my original poem. I adapted it from a version I saw online. It says:

You are such a SWEET TART for everything you do. You deserve 100 GRAND every PAYDAY. We know sometimes the kids act like AIRHEADS and NERDS. It must be hard to contain your SNICKERS when those little SUGAR BABIES tell you MOUNDS of NUTRAGEOUS stories. They can really come up with some WHOPPERS. I want you to know that I am grateful your work. You bring such (ALMOND) JOY to the classroom. You are the REISEN our kids are SMARTIES instead of DUM DUMS. Thank you for RAISIN (ETTES) our children to a higher level. You are a LIFESAVER and are worth a MINT. HUGS and KISSES.

To make this project, I started with a 32 oz plastic jar ($2.99 at Hobby Lobby). This size jar worked well because 12 inch strips circle around it perfectly. I used Echo Park's "Happy Days" collection. I cut a strip of striped paper and wrapped it around the middle of the jar. Then, I topped that with a piece of red cardstock which I border punched at the top and bottom and added the bottle cap icon strip.

To finish the jar, I added a black and white border sticker from Happy Days around the lid and punched a large red dot circle for the lid top. To make the hanging card, I printed the poem, backed it with black polka dot paper, punched a hole in the corner and used twine to hang the poem. Then I went to the store to look for all the candy in the poem and put that in the jar. To complete the gift, I made a card to coordinate with the jar using the Happy Days line.

Echo Park supply list:

Happy Days: Stripes, Bottle Caps, Border, Journaling Card, Element stickers, Alphas

Metro Stripes and Dots 6x6 pad: red polka dot and black polka dot

Playground: green alphas

Other supplies:

Border Punch: Fiskars

Ink: Ranger

Twine: The Twinery

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thread: craft supply

You can find Echo Park's original blog post announcing me as its September Fresh Face here:
http://echoparkpaper.blogspot.com/2011/08/announcing-our-newest-fresh-face.html

I'm linking this here:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/homemade-projects-417/

August Freehand Scraps Kit

I just love the August kit from Freehand Scraps and had a wonderful time this month as guest designer. The kit is chock full of papers and embellishments from Bo Bunny, Webster’s Pages, Basic Grey and Crate and they all worked perfectly together. Here is a photo of the August Kit:

Here is one of the layouts I made from the kit::

 

This is my friend’s little girl last Halloween. Isn’t she the sweetest? I used Bo Bunny's Gabrielle papers here with embellishments from Basic Grey's Out of Print collection.  I misted the lace sticker above the photo to match her outfit and used ink and stamps to re-color the large die-cut butterfly, which is shell colored in the kit.  The letter stickers are from Webster's Pages. Here’s a closeup of the titlework.

I don't normally put the title at the bottom of the page, but it fit the design here and allowed room at the top for the butterflies to roam free.

While I had this Bo Bunny line out, I though I’d make a card. I fussy cut the big butterfly from one of the patterned papers, inked the edges, then “painted” it with Claudine Hellmuth’s multi-medium matte. I love that stuff. It is similar to modge podge but isn’t as wet or shiny. The multi-medium helped to stiffen the butterfly a little to give it more body and also allowed me to mold the wings up a bit. I added some pearls from the kit to the butterfly’s body. 

To make the card base, I used a premade 5x7 notecard from American Crafts and cut a piece of pp for the front.  I sewed it on, tucking in a border of lace from the Crate trim card in the kit. To finish the card, I added a Webster's button tied with twine (also in the kit) and stamped a short sentiment.

I'll be back later this month with more projects from the August kit. For more information about Freehand Scraps, follow this link: http://www.freehandscraps.com/