Easy Summer Cards: What's the Scoop?

I love the way that so many manufacturers make it easy to add a bit of whimsy to layouts and cards.  I am particularly fond of the die cuts that come with each line at My Mind's Eye.


This die cut sheet from On the Sunny Side is a case in point.  Look at all those fun summer icons.

You can use the die cuts as is or you can doctor them up.  I used the ice cream truck (upper L) for my card and altered it by adding brad wheels and a layered sticker with ice cream icons. I used foam tape underneath to give it dimension on the card.

For the card base, I used a folded card from Memory Box. Love those.  There you have it.  A quick and easy summer card.

I hope you have a great day.  Me?  I'm off in search of ice cream.....

Everyday greetings: LYB hello

Do you ever look at your stash of cards and realize that you don’t have enough everyday greetings? I have lots of cards specific to holidays, but not enough cards with simple sentiments like hello, thinking of you and get well soon.

Today I have a simple card with a simple sentiment. I love to make panel cards because they are so quick and easy and a good way to use scraps, yet they look pulled together.

　　

Here I used patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle’s Hello Fall! line. The colors work so well together and are good for any time of year. Cheery without being cutesy. I made the three panels an even size and stitched them onto a card front. I usually stitch on card fronts rather than directly on the card itself so that the stitching doesn’t show through on the other side.

　

The label and alphas are from October Afternoon, the tree is My Little Shoebox and the birds are Jillibean Soup.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a great weekend.

Pink Paislee: Beach Bum

For my baby’s first birthday, we took him down to the beach. It was an unusually warm April weekend, yet not too many tourists were there. We had the beach to ourselves and had such a lovely, relaxing time.

My little one couldn’t have loved it more. He was so content to sit on the shore and play in the sand and watch the waves. And I was so content to sit on the shore and watch him play. And take photos, of course. I generally had him all covered up, shirt, swim trunks, hat, sunscreen. But I did manage to sneak a few less covered-up pics....

I used Pink Paislee’s Nantucket and Snowday collections on this page. I love how well they work together. That plaid Snowday print looked so summery to me with the turquoise and apricot hues. And even though the paper was in a different color scheme than my son’s plaid hat, I thought the paper worked well here.

At the beach, planes often fly overhead, carrying banners advertising cheap tee shirts and all you can eat buffets. I wanted to mimic that idea here with my title work.

This layout actually is a do-over. I first made this page when I was a beginner scrapbooker and I wanted to make it a bit more contemporary. The original page was made with Cosmo Cricket’s Snorkel line, and you can still see remnants of the original layout here: the weathered wood background paper, the plane, banner and clouds.  Alphas are Webster's Pages.

Simple Stories: My Creative Sketches

Last year, Simple Stories' 100 Days of Summer was one of my favorite collections. I have been eyeing the new summer collection ever since it was announced in April.  Summer Fresh is such a fun mix of denim, burlap, florals and bright colors with a down-home feel.  I love it.  

I used Summer Fresh on this page of my little one at 13 months.  We were at the US National Whitewater Center, watching the kayakers, and I caught this profile of Cory in his stroller, looking so intently.  The tag under the photo tells a little more about our outing there.

The blue paper is one of the new Simple Basics papers that coordinate with each collection. I love that Simple Stories starting making these basics. They are perfectly, well, simple. I used Sky Blue Daisy. 

Here's a close-up of the top of the layout.   

The layout is based on the new June sketch at My Creative Sketches.  We kick off a new challenge every month, mid-month, with a great prize.  Here's the new sketch:

The new challenge runs until July 14.  We'd love to have you join us.  You can find all the details here on the My Creative Sketches blog. 

Handprint Father’s Day Idea & Card

I can’t believe we’re already into the middle of June and Father’s Day is just around the corner. My little guy is so close to my Dad, his Pop Pop, and each year I give Dad a Father’s Day present from Cory.

This year, Cory's giving Dad a painted set of handprints:

This project was really quick and easy to make.  You just need black acrylic paint, heavy cardstock, alphas and a willing toddler.  I painted my son's hands then he stamped them on cardstock.  It's best to do this right before bathtime.  Just sayin'. I got the idea for this project from pinterest.

Last year, Cory gave Dad a green tie:

　

And I’m giving Dad this card:

Which was published last month in PaperCrafts magazine's Card Creations:

How about your kids? What are you working on for Father’s Day?

Linking handprint project to Tip Me Tuesday here.

Altered Frame: Hexagon Punch

Hi!  Today I have an altered summer frame using hexagons as my backdrop. 

For my project, I altered an old picture frame. I used patterned paper from Canvas Corp and Bella Blvd, cutting them with a hexagon punch, and adhering them them to black cardstock. 

I used seven patterns from Canvas Corps White Basics line and two patterns from Bella Blvd’s Sunshine and Happiness collection for the base of my project.

Then I used a hexagon punch from Creative Memories to punch a bunch of shapes for the base of my project.

I arranged the the hexagons on black cardstock and stitched around the edges to form the base of my project. I love the way the black makes the color pop. Using black also gives the project more depth when inserted in a frame.

Here's a closeup of the top of the altered frame.  I used a large burlap flower from Canvas Corp as the sun and added a tag as a title spot.  Alphas are Webster's Pages.  Banner pieces are October Afternoon.

Here’s a closeup of the bottom of the frame. I added a photo of my son in the pool and a piece of chipboard from My Mind’s Eye to the hexagon background. On the frame itself, I added waves punched from Canvas Corp paper and a large felt flower. I wrapped some burlap string around the flower stem to echo the burlap sun at the top.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Tutorial : How To Make A Pinwheel and Other Tricks

Today I’d like to show you the fourth layout I made with the June Creative Kit at My Creative Scrapbook and a couple techniques I used. This kit feautured On The Sunny Side from My Mind’s Eye.

 

This is my preschooler taking a test drive on his new bike in our backyard. I wanted to show a sense of movement on the layout. I used a circle punch on the kraft cardstock to make a negative circle, then backed it with colorful geometric paper that was sort of arrow shaped. 

To emphasize the arrows and to suggest the forward roll of the bicycle, I punched small corners from white cardstock and stacked them together for thickness. Then I placed the corners like arrows across the negative punched circles and stitched them on the page. I repeated this in the opposite corner to help take the eyes around the page.

Another technique I used on this page was to make my own pinwheel. The kit included two small pinwheels with brads and I wanted to make a third and cluster the three together.

Pinwheels are super easy to make. Just start with a square, any size, from double-sided patterned paper (both sides with show).

Here, I used a 2-inch square punch but you could also cut your own square or use a die cut machine.  Fold your square til the corners touch and crease the fold marks, then fold the square again from the other corners and crease. 

Use the crease marks as guidelines for cutting the pinwheel. Cut halfway down every other crease, then fold the corner over to the middle.  Place a brad or button in the center.

Thanks for stopping by. You can find more information about the June kits at My Creative Scrapbook here. For information on the June Prima contest, click here.  It's super easy to enter; just submit your answers to three questions about My Creative Scrapbook.