Unscripted Sketches- Anniversary Card

I have another card to share this week.  (On a side note, there will be a lot of cards coming up in the next month, we have LOTS of birthdays and anniversaries in our family during June and early July.)  My in-laws celebrated their anniversary on Wednesday.  I used this fun sketch from Unscripted Sketches. 

I decided to work with my Basic Grey Porcelain collection to create this card.  They are so beautiful and romantic, they fit the occasion perfectly.   I cut the heart and vines with my Cricut and the Cindy Loo cartridge.  To accent the vines, I used pearls instead of the dots that were cut with the design.  The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed.  

I Feel the Love- May

It is nearing the end of the month, which means it is time for me to share my card for the I Feel the Love Project.  This month Madison is collecting cards for a man named Reggie Nelinger who is watching his daughter battle cancer for the second time in her life.  You can read more about it here.

I used the May Card Sketch at Practical Scrappers as my starting point.  I used My Mind's Eye papers.

The lamp was cut using my Cricut and the Sentimentals cartridge.  To make the light beams, I smudged some gold ink on the card, but it didn't show up very well. I went over it with a paint brush and some white mist.  I then blotted it to soften the appearance.  The hinges are grungeboard that I painted with gold acrylic paint and then pressed on a dark brown ink pad.  I smudged the brown ink with a tissue as well to soften its appearance.  Finally, I went over the sentiment with Glossy Accents and the lamp with Vintage Photo Distress Stickles.   In the inside I wrote: "Continue to let your light shine."

Finding My Photo Style

I am currently taking a class at Big Picture Classes called "Finding Your Photo Style."  Over the course of  6 weeks we will have 6 different instructors with 6 different photography styles.  For week 1 our instructor is Maggie Holmes.  Maggie has a very bright and colorful style.  She gave us 3 assignments.  All of my photos ended up coming from one evening playing in the backyard, making smores.

The first assignment was to use color in our photography.  The color could come from the surroundings, clothing or props. I love bright colors, so this assignment was fun!  I ended up selecting this photo because I loved the bit of lush green grass (I love the color of the grass this time of year) and the pinks in Ellie's dress.

Our second assignment was to take photos in open shade.  Finding areas of open shade is important when it is sunny out because direct sun can cause dark shadows, whereas open shade diffuses the light making a much softer, natural appearance.  It has been cloudy out since this class started, which means everywhere is open shade.  That made this assignment a piece of cake!  I ended up selecting this cute photo of the kids.  It is a good thing I was just playing around, this was as good as it got!

Our last assignment was to work on adding vibrancy in post processing.  Maggie gave us a free Photoshop action to play with and that is what I used on the photo below.  The version on the right is what I had after I had tweaked the shot in the Raw Photo Editor.   The one on the right is with the action applied.  I adjusted the opacity of the layers because it was a little too much at full strength.  I really like how it made the pink and blue pop!

Tomorrow we will be introduced to our next instructor, I am really looking forward to it!

Cupcake Birthday Card

My niece turns one tomorrow, but we celebrated on Sunday.  I made this card for her using some scraps from a recently completed layout (I will be sharing it next week).

I was inspired by this week's challenge at Frosted Designs- use punches.  The smallest stars were punched from Glossy Cardstock that I had used to experiment on.  I also used my scalloped circle punch to make the top of the cupcake.  I simply punched it off the edge of the paper so I would have a flat edge.  I cut the bottom of the cupcake freehand and then used my Score Pal to make the lines.  This week's sketch from Sketch Saturday was my design inspiration: 

Nuts About Sketches #267

It's Monday, which means there is a new sketch up at Nuts About Sketches.  This one was a bit of a challenge for me, with the triangle shaped photos.  I totally screwed up when I estimated what size the triangles should be, so I ended up having three rows of triangles instead of two.  

I received "A Quilted Christmas" Cricut cartridge for Mother's Day and this was the first chance I have had to play with it.  I used it to make this cute little snow lady.  I layered her over a doily and my journaling spot, along with a little strip of yellow tape for a pop of color.

For my title, I used some DIY Thickers and sprinkled them with white tinsel glitter- doesn't it look like snow?!  I cut the word "play" with my Cricut and the "Live Simply" cartridge.

Materials-

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Recollections

Buttons- Rusty Pickle, Jesse James Co.

Tape- My Mind's Eye

Stickers- American Crafts

Glitter- American Crafts

Puff Paint- Duncan

Glitter Glue- Ranger

Punch- Marvy

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridges- A Quilted Christmas, Live Simply

Other- doily

Scrapping Everyday Miracles- May Sketch Challenge

Yesterday the May sketches were revealed at Scrapping Everyday Miracles.  I ended up using the card sketch again.  I used to make a Mother's Day card.  

The scrap twist this month is to use circular elements, so I used some flower punches and a scalloped circle punch to highlight one of the flowers.  The sentiment is heat embossed to make it stand out against the patterned background.

Head over the Scrapping Everyday Miracles and check out what the rest of the design team did.  Make sure you play along too!

Nuts About Sketch #266- Little Artist

It's Monday which means there is a new sketch at Nuts About Sketches.  This week's sketch had two photo areas.  

I ended up rotating the sketch to work with my portrait oriented photos.  This layout is inspired by some of Missy Whidden's recent work.  She did a layout recently where she made some drippy circles on the background, which I did here because I thought they fit with the theme well.  She has also done several layouts recently using mostly or all washi tape for the background.  For my photo mats, I used some patterned paper strips as well as washi tape.  

For the title I used a plain piece of chipboard that I covered with washi tape.  I cut the word "Little" using my New Arrival cartridge.  The turquoise and yellow hearts are Heidi Swapp resist chipboard that I colored using inkpads.  For the word "Artist" I used some cardstock letters and then outlined them with a light turquoise pen to make them stand out a bit from the background.

Materials-

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Robin's Nest, Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Bo Bunny Press

Tape- My Mind's Eye, Target

Ink- Tattered Angels, EK Success

Chipboard- Oriental Trading Company, Heidi Swapp

Ribbon- American Crafts

Letters- Creative Memories

Pen- Sakura, Sharpie

Sticker- American Crafts

Brads- Making Memories

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- New Arrival

Cards!

I was busy last week making cards, so today I am going to share them with you!

My first card is four a new baby boy. I made this card quickly the afternoon I was going to give it, so I worked with some premade stuff and media that doesn't take long to dry. I stamped the background paper with b's because the baby's name starts with a b. I then took a coordinating piece of paper and border pinched both long ends. I topped that with some ribbon. To stamp on the ribbon, I used Staz On. I selected the cute elephant chipboard, attached it and a button, and it was done!

Next is a birthday card for my nephew who turned 3 last Thursday. He is really into sports so I decided to cut the little boy holding a football from my ” Playtime” cartridge. The design is based on last week's Sketch Saturday sketch.

Finally, I made a couple of Mother's Day cards with scraps from the Cosmo Cricket DeLovely collection.  For the first card I cut the sentiment with my Cricut.  I rubbed some Picked Raspberry Distress ink and Picket Fence Distress Stain over the background paper.  I cute the three roses using my Cricut as well.  After I attached them to the card, I covered them with Glossy Accents.

For this card I used my Stamping Gear for the design on the left.  I then found a circular sticker to fit in the middle.  I got rid of the stickies by rubbing the back with my "embossing buddy" (baby sock filled with cornstarch), and then popped it up using foam adhesive.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 5-12-13

Yup, I'm late again.  Getting on the computer just keep getting harder with 4 busy kids and weather that has FINALLY turned nice!  We had some fun enjoying the weather this week.  Here are my interpretations for the week:

Bloom

I painted flower pots for my mom and my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  We then bought a flower to put in the pot.  Here is a shot of one of them.

Dark

Dark sunglasses, dark sweatshirt, dark pants.

Golden

We went to the zoo again this week.  Here is one of the Amur leopards (my favorite animal at the zoo).  Beautiful golden fur, and those eyes!

Local
We stopped at a local park for a bit Friday morning before kindergarten pick up.  This park has a basic piano type instrument along with music to a few popular kid songs.

Perspective
My little guy getting some tummy time, checking out a toy.

Nuts About Sketches #265- June Calendar Page

Today is Monday, so there is a new sketch at Nuts About Sketches.  This week is a two pager, so I made my calendar page for June.  

I played a bit with the photo sizes for the ones across the top, but the stayed true to the sizes suggested on the bottom.  This layout had a hodge podge of My Mind's Eye goodies I have collected over the last couple of months.  I thought the washi tape with the brackets worked well to label the photos and the colors worked perfectly.  I think I have three different lines here and the colors matched so well, gotta love that!

I generally don't do a lot of hand stitching on my layouts because I find it tedious and time consuming, but I did a running stitch on this page.  The border punch that I used for my strips across the top had holes in it, so it was super easy to stitch.

Want to know a secret?? I made A LOT of mistakes on this layout!  I only had one sheet of the yellow patterned paper and I needed the whole sheet.  I screwed up when I cut it and had to cut it a second time and attach the strip on top of the first larger piece of paper.  I then cut the top, border punched, piece a little too narrow.  Instead of having the white background cardstock show, I ran a strip of washi tape behind it.  Finally, I had printed out my journaling and went to trim it into strips and accidentally cut too close, cutting off some of the first letters, so I had to reprint it.  The overall lesson?  Measure twice, cut once!!

Materials-

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper, brads, tape, enamel dots- My Mind's Eye

Floss- DMC

Punch- EK Success

Pen- Sharpie

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Software- Sure Cuts A Lot

Fonts- Mail Ray Stuff, Times New Roman

Vellum- Stampin Up

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Glitter Glue- Ranger

Scrapping Everyday Miracles May Challenge

It is the first Monday of the month which means a new challenge at Scrapping Everyday Miracles.  This month's challenge is about new experiences in our lives:

For this month’s main challenge we would like you to share a project that represents something new in your life. You can reflect on a new relationship, a new phase of life, an event that brought change into your life, a new job, hobby, volunteer opportunity, or even a book or Scripture verse that has given you new insight. God blesses us with everyday miracles - sometimes big and sometimes small - that bring change and new opportunities to our lives. Your project doesn’t need to be about a recent event, but needs to represent something new in your life.

SCRAP TWIST: USE SOMETHING ON YOUR PROJECT THAT IS MORE THAN A YEAR OLD - THE OLDER THE BETTER, "AND" SOMETHING NEW TO YOU IN 2013. These supplies may be purchased, given to you, or even found objects. Be sure to tell us in your project blog post what these supplies are. 

I decided to scrap my older son's birth announcement because he made me a mother to a boy!  I didn't realize at the time how different he would be from the two girls, but now, 2 1/2 years later, I  know!  He is just so much more energetic than the girls, and that energy can be almost too much sometimes, but he can melt me with his adorable smile.  

For the scrap twist, I used some new washi tape I bought about a month ago and some Heidi Swapp chipboard pieces.  For the old, I used some older yellow chipboard pieces that I've had for several years and the birth announcement which is from 2 1/2 years ago.  :)  I used sketch #260 from Nuts About Sketches, because I didn't get a chance to work with it when it was revealed at the beginning of April and it worked with my birth announcement.

Make sure to head over to the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog and check out what the rest of the team did, there are some great layouts!  Make sure you play along too! ;)

Materials

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Echo Park

Chipboard- Heidi Swapp, Fiskars

Spray Ink- Tattered Angels, October Afternoon

Journal Spots- Recollections

Transparency- Fancy Pants

Tape- My Mind's Eye

Buttons- Jesse James

Ink- Tsukineko

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- New Arrival

Pen- Sharpie

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 5-5-13

I'm getting my photos posted on Sunday yet, woo hoo!  I didn't take a ton of photos this week, but I was able to fill most of the prompts, except one.  I went back about a month for one.  Here are my interpretations:

Background

We went to the zoo on Monday because it was nice out and I knew the rest of the week would not be.  Here's Addy with the leopard exhibit in the background.

Motion

This is not a great photo, it was taken on my phone, but it shows Addy jumping into the pool at swimming lessons.

Spotted or Dots

This shot is from about a month ago when we went to the zoo with some friends.  Here is Will and our friends checking out the zebra shark.

Sweet

Will likes to watch/help/play in the water when I give Nick a bath.  Here they are smiling at each other.

Weather

*sigh*