Having a Blast

Hello! I am back today with a layout! It has been a while since I have been able to work on one of these, and this one came together very quickly! I started by spreading some gesso over my background cardstock. I used a mask and yellow gelato to add some wood grain to it (this ended up being covered up by other elements, but you can still see a bit of the yellow. I also used the packaging technique and some Distress Stain to add the reddish color. The title was cut from a sheet of My Mind's Eye patterned paper. I roughed up the edges of all of my patterned paper before attaching it. 

I used a variety of embellishments on my page to finish it off. To color the wood veneer pieces, I used some Distress Stains and a Gelato and water to coordinate them with my papers.

There you have it, no challenges for this one. My favorite place for challenges, My Scraps and More is shutting down, so if you know of other places that have fun challenges, let me know, I'm looking for some new inspiration!

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- My Mind's Eye, Simple Stories
Button- Bo Bunny Press
Flair- October Afternoon
Stickers- Fiskars
Journal Spot- Maya Road
Enamel Dots and Rub ons- Basic Grey
Tape- Pink Fresh Studios
Gesso- Liquitex
Ink and Mask- Ranger
Gelato- Faber Castell
Twine- Pink Paislee
Wood Veneer and Punch- American Crafts
Pen- Sharpie

A2 Card Set and Box Cut with Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2

Hello all! I have a card set to share today that I made as a Christmas gift. I also wanted to share that I found a way to make a box for the cards (A2 size) using my Cricut and "Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2".  I used the candy box cut and cut it at 7.5 inches.  The cut was just under 15 inches wide at this height, so I ended up using a 11"x15" piece of watercolor paper. The box had plenty of room after I put my 6 cards and envelopes in it, you could easily get a dozen or more in there or make it smaller for fewer cards. Since the box was cut from watercolor paper, I used my water brush and gelatos to decorate it.

Now for the cards! The fun detail about these cards is that they all feature artwork by my youngest son. A couple of weeks ago, I gave him a sheet of watercolor paper and some watercolors and had him paint for me. I took his finished piece and cut it into panels to go on my cards.

This was a small extra strip. I used some purple patterned paper for the background and then took a couple of strips that I pleated to make a ruffle across the bottom of the card. I stamped and embossed the sentiment and decorations on the top. I used some Liquid Pearls to finish off the card.

For the next card, I used my Stamping Gear and a coordinating pigment ink and stamped the circle and then heat embossed it with iridescent glitter powder. A punched border and stamped sentiment finish off the card.

I again used the same stamping and heat embossing technique for the hearts on this card. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on coordinating cardstock and hand cut the banner. I decided the circles needed a little something more and so I stamped and heat embossed the roses with silver embossing powder.

For the next card, I used my Stamping Gear, but didn't heat emboss it. The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed with silver powder. I decided the card needed a bit more, so I used Platinum Stickles to add some drops around the card.

This was also a smaller piece of the painting. I used a larger piece of patterned paper and fussy cut a flower from another part of the paper and used foam adhesive to give it some dimension. Some iridescent ribbon and stamped and heat embossed sentiment finished off the card.

I used Versamark and heat embossed my stamped design on this card, I finished it off with a punched circle, stamped sentiment and some string.

Anniversary Card

Hello! I have an anniversary card to share today. I was inspired by the current challenge at Fusion.

The wedding was last year on December 27 and the colors were black and red, so I went from there and the inspiration piece. I started by stamping the evergreen boughs and then drew the branches with a pen. I then stamped the sentiment and inked the edges with Versamark and heat embossed it with gold powder. The patterned paper I used for my background was a little narrow, so I cut it in half and covered the gap with ribbon. I cut the birds with my Cricut and the Storybook cartridge. I popped up the center circle for some dimension. I finished off the card with Liquid Pearl "berries."

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 12-27-15

Hi all! I missed last week, but I am back this week with Scavenger Hunt Sunday. This week's prompts were all "Photographer's Choice," so I picked some of my favorite shots from the past week of festivities.

Photographer's Choice #1

This is my husband and my older son reading a book at my parents' house last weekend, with all of the presents for the day in the background.

Photographer's Choice #2
A family picture from after Christmas mass Friday morning. I have one where everyone is standing nice and smiling, but I love the personality of this one...

Photographer's Choice #3
My youngest opening his gifts at my grandma's house yesterday. They handed out all of the presents before anyone opened any and then it was a free for all for opening. We told him to wait while they were handing out the gifts. I looked at him once most of the gifts were opened and realized he was still sitting there patiently with his pile of gifts untouched! He was happy to rip into them when we gave him the go ahead.

Photographer's Choice #4

My husband and kids went sledding today as we finally got a decent amount of snow yesterday. My youngest was always on the lookout for someone to give him a ride down the hill. Here he is hitching a ride with his brother.

Photographer's Choice #5
My girls getting ready to head back down the hill (backwards).

Christmas Cards for Teachers

Hello all! I am back today with a bunch of cards I made for my kids' teachers! I just pulled out a bunch of my winter/Christmas supplies and let them inspire me. The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge blog has a Winter Wonderland challenge going on now, which pretty much all of these cards fit!

For my first card, I stamped some snowflakes on my white card and then dry embossed it. The snowman was fussy cut from some patterned paper and attached with foam adhesive. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and attached that and the strips across the bottom.  I felt it still needed a bit more, so I used some Liquid Pearls to add the blue dots to the background.

I was inspired by the tree stamp for this card.  I stated by ripping some hills using gray cardstock. I then stamped and colored my trees. I used an ink blending tool for the sky. I then stamped and colored the stars. I finished the card of with a stamped and embossed sentiment on vellum.

This was a super quick card to put together. I cut out the background paper, used my Cricut for the sentiment panel, stamped the sentiment and attached the ribbon and sentiment.

I wanted to play with some new inks I had bought recently, so I started by choosing three colors and stamping the snowflakes on the background. I stamped the snowmen and sentiment on some vellum. I colored the snowmen and heat embossed the sentiment before attaching them.  I decided the card needed more, so I found some coordinating patterned papers and used an edge punch to create the scallops.

I started this card my stamping and heat embossing the snowflakes. Then I took a few colors of Distress Ink and made the blue background. It is hard to see here, but I then sprayed the background with pearl Glimmer Mist. The boy and sled were cut using my Cricut. I finished of the card with a banner with a stamped and heat embossed sentiment.

This was another quick card. I stamped the red and green ornaments with colored inks and the gold and silver ornaments were heat embossed. I used platinum Stickles for the "strings" and finished off the card with some white sequins.

I used three colors of ink for this one and created an ombre effect with the snowflakes. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on vellum. The snowflake was cut using my Cricut and finished off with some sequins.

I stamped and heat embossed the diamond background on water color paper. I sprayed the paper with water and then splat some Abandoned Coral Distress Stain on the background. The elf and sentiment panel were cut with my Cricut. Some tape and ribbon finished off the card.

Sketch Satruday #392- Enjoy Your Day

Hello, I hope you are all doing well! I have a card to share today that I made for my brother-in-law's birthday yesterday. I started with this sketch from Sketch Saturday:

I stamped the diamond background with green pigment ink on water color paper and then heat embossed it with clear powder. I sprayed the paper with water and then spread some green and blue Distress Stain over the background. I used a tissue to dab off some of the color to make it softer. I stamped the leaves on the main panel and heat embossed the second set. I inked the edges of everything and then attached it to my card. I finished it off with the rivet stamped image which I raised up with some foam adhesive to give the card some dimension.

A New Card and Exciting News!

Good morning! I have a new card to share and an exciting announcement. First up, the card!

I made this for a friend who is going through some tough times and is going to school. She is in the middle of finals, so I wanted to send her a little pick me up along with a little treat (I included a coffee gift card). This was a pretty quick card to make. I used the Tim Holtz wood grain mask and some pink ink for the coral panel. Then I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment (note to self: use the "embossing buddy" so you don't end up with embossing powder everywhere...). I also stamped and heat embossed the owl and then fussy cut that out. I attached it to the punched circle and used some foam tape to attach it to my card. 

Next up, my exciting news! I have been chosen to be a part of the card team at Stick It Down starting in January! You can see the official announcement here. I hope you will check out the challenges and play along!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 12-13-15

I did it! Two weeks in a row with a Scavenger Hunt post! This week I bought a flash for my camera, so I've had some fun the last few days playing with that.

Starts With K

Kids; here are two of mine, helping me test out a set up for a photo shoot I did yesterday. They are more fun to photograph than the doll I used for most of my test shots...

White

This little cutie is 3 months old and her mom requested a white background. Up to this point, most of my portrait work has been outdoors, with the exception of a few newborns. I bought a few new things and borrowed a few others to make this happen.

 Holiday Treat
We finally got around to doing a little holiday baking today. We made snickerdoodles and cut out sugar cookies. The whole family was gathered around the table tonight decorating the cookies.

Gift

We celebrated both girls' birthdays last weekend with a party with family. Here my younger daughter has one of her gifts and is playing with it with her cousin.

 Brings Me Joy
My oldest and youngest playing together. I love when my kids get along and work together!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 12/6/15

What is this you say? Scavenger Hunt Sunday?! I haven't participated in FOREVER! Well, I'm back! I've spent so much time taking photos of other people, it is time to refocus and get inspired to take photos of my everyday life, so here I am!

Cup of Cheer
Last night my husband and I went to our friends' annual Christmas Carol party (you are supposed to dress up like a Christmas song). Besides dressing up, the other constant at these parties is the "Rum-pa-pum punch." It is deliciously sweet and fruity.

Lights

Predictable, but fun; a photo of our Christmas tree. This is the first time we've had it on the main floor in this house because our youngest was in "smash and burn" phase the past two years.

Mail
Total stretch here, but I had nothing. Writing letters to mail? I know they are slates... like I said, stretch.

Tradition

Yesterday, I took my oldest and youngest to the local historic town to take their annual pictures. It turned out they were having a special holiday event with dressed up interpreters and many of the buildings were open and decorated for Christmas. In this house, they had their traditional straw nativity set up.

Winter

Winter has been somewhat elusive this year, which is totally fine with me! We've had a bit of snow, but temperatures above freezing the last few days have pretty much taken care of that. The trees are bare and the grass is (mostly) brown though.

I hope to get back into the groove of doing these posts, so I hope to be back next week with more photos.

Enjoy Your Day- CAS(E) This Sketch #150

Good morning! I am back today with a card I made using the current sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I bought a bunch of Stampin Up inkpads last week, so I wanted to use a couple for this card. I started with the diamond background stamp and inked it up int he blue and stamped my card front. Then I inked up the background stamp with green. I did my best to offset it evenly, but it is a rubber stamp, so it was a bit challenging. I ended up laying the stamp on my table, stamp side up, and lining up the fold of my card where I wanted the stamped image to start and then tipped it onto the stamp. I rubbed my hand over the time to cover the background.

The banners were cut using a punch. The sentiment and background color was originally stamped directly on the banner, but it didn't quite line up right, so I restamped in on white cardstock and fussy cut it, adhering it with foam adhesive for some dimension. Some buttons and embroidery floss finished it off!

December Calendar page

Hello and happy last day of November! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am here today with my December calendar page. It is based on this two page sketch from Stick It Down:

As you can see, I added another row of photos in the middle of the layout and made my title a bit smaller. I started this layout by misting my dark green cardstock with some white spray mist to give the feeling of snow. For the middle section of paper, I used a sheet of Cosmo Cricket "Just Add Watercolor" and sprayed it with water and some pink and red inks. The patterned paper peaks were fussy cut and the text paper was tucked behind it. 

I loved adding touches of gold to this layout, playing off of the gold in the center paper. I used some gold washi tape and gold sequins. I stamped my title with foam stamps and fussy cut it, attaching it to my layout with foam adhesive.

I added a few sequins to this cluster as well.  I was also inspired by the 11/5 Throwback Thursday challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use rub ons. I pulled out these October Afternoon snowflake rub ons and nearly used up the entire sheet!

I also used some canvas pieces to decorate my page and inked them with dark green ink. I inked a silver star with gold alcohol ink mixative for the top of my tree and decorated my tree with sequins.

 This page ended up pretty busy, but that's December for you, right? I am looking forward to the month ahead!

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill, Michaels
Specialty Paper- Cosmo Cricket
Patterned Paper- October Afternoon, Elle's Studio
Tape- My Mind's Eye
Canvas- Prima
Ink- Studio Calico, Stampin' Up, Clearsnap, October Afternoon, Tattered Angels, Ranger
Rub ons- October Afternoon
Star- Basic Grey
Stickers and Flair- October Afternoon
Pen- Sharpie
Font- Calibri

Stick it Down Guest Designer

Hi all! I have exciting news to share! I was selected as the card guest designer at Stick It Down two months in a row! This is the second month, but I am sharing both cards because I never got around to sharing my October card.

First up is my card for the November sketch:

I used a piece of cardstock covered in aluminum foil that I dry embossed. I then used alcohol inks to color the piece. I used my Cricut to cut the clock and gear pieces. The gears I sprayed with Glimmer Mist and the clock was stamped and heat embossed. A few brads and eyelets finished it off.

Next up is my October card that I never posted. It started with this sketch:

I made this card for my nephew who turned 16 at the end of September. I used the same embossing folder as I used on the above card, but this time on black cardstock. I cut the car using my Cricut. I used the yellow striped washi tape because it reminded me of the stripes on the road.

I'd like to give a huge thank you to the ladies at Stick It Down for having me as their guest designer the last two months!