Livin' the Good Life- Paper Issues

Hi all! I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was pretty laid back, so I got two layouts done! I shared the first one yesterday and I am back today with another!

I was inspired by a scraplift challenge on the Paper Issues (Friends and Family) Facebook page. The challenge was to be inspired by this layout by  Janet Grzanka-Dlugokenski. 

I really liked the simplicity of the layout.  While I didn't have a big photo to scrap, I had a large photo collage waiting to be put on a page. I liked how the inspiration piece has a patterned paper frame, but didn't want to use an entire piece of paper for just a tiny bit to show, so I cut strips of 4 different papers and attached them to the back of an 11"x11" piece of cardstock. 

 I cut the green tag with my Cricut and dry embossed it before sanding it. I used the same paper as the base of my title die cut. I used pieces of the other papers to cut the letters. I pulled some assorted die cuts from an old case of K and Company die cuts and scattered them near my title and journaling. I felt that the top right corner needed something, so I punched the flowers and added a photo corner.

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill, Core'dinations
Patterned Paper- American Crafts, October Afternoon, other
Transparencies- Hambly Screen Prints, Die Cuts With a View
Brads- October Afternoon, Echo Park
Enamel Dots- October Afternoon
Pen- Sharpie, Stampin Up
Stickers- October Afternoon
Die Cuts- K and Co., Basic Grey
Die Cutter- Provo Craft
Cartridges- Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 and Live Simply
Glossy Accents- Ranger
Punch- Tonic

Zoo Camp

Hi all! I have a layout I completed today to share. I was inspired by the current sketch challenge at Scrap Our Stash: 

I thought this was a great sketch for this set of photos from a zoo class my younger daughter and I attended several years ago.  I used Bella Blvd. Tiny Tots because of all the cute little animals in the designs. As you can see, I stuck pretty close to the sketch, but moved a couple of the elements over because of where the large photo was located. The other part of the challenge was to use an item from each of the 3 lists. I used Avocado green from the first list, butterflies from the second list, and chipboard from the third.

The polka dot background was created using a mask and spray ink so I am entering it in the Scrapbook Challenges Get Messy Challenge. I am also entering this in the Paper Issues "Anything Goes" challenge.

Materials:
Cardstock: Die Cuts With a View
Patterned Paper, Tape, Feather- Bella Blvd.
Stickers- Bella Blvd, Fiskars
Ink- Ranger, Stampin Up, Tattered Angels
Pen- Sharpie
Chipboard- Basic Grey, Making Memories
Gesso- Liquitex
Twine, Pink Paislee
Pearl- Hero Arts
Glossy Accents- Ranger
Mask- The Crafter's Workshop

February Calendar Page- Stick It Down

Happy Monday! I have my calendar page ready to share with you today! I was once again inspired by the sketch at Stick It Down, which is borrowed from PageMaps:

I used some older Basic Grey paper I picked up a couple of months ago when my local scrapbook store was closing. I just love the colors and patterns! For the border across the middle of the page, I used some of the wood veneer pieces that came in the kit and dug into my stash for some flowers and chipboard hearts. 

This heart piece came from the pad of Cosmo Cricket Just Add Watercolor paper I bought a while back. I used some Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and a teal Gelato. I hand wrote my journaling on strips of vellum.

I've had some Hambly rub ons for a long time with a creative theme, so I pulled those out and used a couple on this layout.

I was also inspired by the Paper Issues Pick 5 challenge. The challenge was to choose at least 5 items from this list:

1.   the color blue
2.   the color green         

3.   the color orange
4.   a snowman or snowflake

5.   die cut

6.   mist or paint

7.   alpha stickers

8.   flair badge or button

9.   a tree

10. a circle

11. sequins

12. title

13. cardstock

14. hand written journaling

15. twine or string

I used blue, orange, alpha stickers, title, cardstock, and hand written journaling.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Basic Grey

Stickers- Basic Grey, Simple Stories

Rub ons- Hambly Screen Prints

Wood veneer and enamel flowers- Basic Grey

Chipboard- Heidi Swapp

Specialty paper- Cosmo Cricket

Flowers- Prima, KaiserCraft

Buttons- Oriental Trading Company, Hero Arts

Pen- Marvy

Ink- Ranger

Gelato- Faber Castell

Vellum- Strathmore

Tape- Pink Fresh Studios

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 1-24-16

Hi all! It's been a couple of weeks, but I am back with some photos for the Scavenger Hunt.  My husband and I went on vacation to Mexico last week, so these are some photos from that.

Artificial Light

We spent our evenings at the resort hanging out in the bar. This was our last night there. One of our friends was performing a trick with cards. Here he is trying to figure out which card was chosen while he was out of the room. (He got it right. Every time.)

Light
This was our last morning there. My husband and I went to the beach to watch the sun rise. As you can see, it had started to rise as we were heading to the beach.

Sky
One of the days, 6 of us went to Tulum to see the ruins. As you can see it was a clear day with beautiful blue skies. Here is a shot of the largest building, the palace.

Space
We were able to visit a couple of other resorts with our wristbands, so my husband and I walked down the beach one day to one of the other resorts and had a drink at their bar. The bar had this infinity pool that the seagulls seemed to like. I thought the concept of the infinity pool fit this prompt. ;)

Under
One of the things we enjoyed doing was playing beach volleyball.  That's me on the other side of the net getting "under" the ball to serve it (it was not a successful serve :().

There's a little peek into our vacation! We had a great time!

Stick It Down- January Card Sketch

Hi all! My first card as part of the design team at Stick It Down just went up! This month we are working with this sketch:

I made a couple of cards for relatives who had had baby girls recently.  I started by stamping my pink cardstock base with a coordinating pink pigment ink. I then heat embossed it with clear iridescent embossing powder. The bottom part of my card is printed vellum. I divided the two sections of my background with some white sparkly ribbon. I stamped the cute little baby and sentiment on white cardstock and colored it with watercolor pencils.

 I hope you join us and link up a card of your own!

A couple of quick cards...

Hi all! I have a couple of quick cards I put together this past week to share today.

First up is a thank you card. I pulled some coordinating scraps from my "card kit" and fit them together. I used a border punch on the bottom piece and my Cricut to cut out the sentiment. The sentiment blended in a bit too well with the background, so I ran my Mermaid Lagoon Distress Stain across the background paper a couple of times. I used tiny letter stamps for the rest of the sentiment on the banner.

Next up is a birthday card.  I still had the papers on my desk from this layout, so I pulled them together to create this card. Again, I layered up scraps and fit them together. I cut the "Happy" with my Cricut and stamped and heat embossed "birthday."  After I had cut "Happy, I decided it needed a little something to make it stand out more from the background, so I covered it in Versamark ink and iridescent glitter embossing powder and heated it. I attached it to the card with foam adhesive. A transparent die cut butterfly and Stickles trail finished off the card.

Wild About You- CAS(E) this Sketch 154

 Hello! I'm back today with another card to share. This time I used the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch:

I made this card for my youngest who turned 3 on Thursday. His gift was tickets to see Wild Kratts Live, so I went with an animal theme. The background in woodgrain paper, but I thought it also looked at bit like zebra stripes, so I went with it. I stamped the branches up the paper to add some color and interest. The sentiment and zebra were from a cut apart sheet from the Bella Blvd. Tiny Tots collection. I finished off the card with a bit of ribbon.

As I said, the gift was a ticket to go to Wild Kratts Live, but the tickets you get nowadays online are not that cute, so I had to come up with something. I used the same woodgrain paper and a ticket stamp. I fussy cut the ticket and then found the Wild Kratts logo online and printed it out and fussy cut that to attach it to my ticket. I stamped "Admit One" with some tiny letter stamps and wrote "Live!" by hand. I created a little pocket on the inside of the card to tuck the ticket.

Happy Birthday to You- Fusion

Hi all! I will be sharing several cards over the next several days, starting with this one, inspired by the challenge going on now at Fusion:

I created a birthday card for my mother-in-law whose birthday is today. I loved the bright yellows and pinks in the inspiration photo so I started by digging into my scraps and finding those colors. I also loved the yellow chevron, so I was excited to find the yellow chevron paper in my scraps! I started with that and the pink argyle. I used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink to edge the entire piece. I cut the sentiment to fit in my big circle using my Cricut. I used small letter stamps for the rest of the sentiment on the smaller circle.

On a side note, one of the ladies at Fusion was kind enough to select my card last month as her favorite! You can see it here!

Bored Artist- Stuck?! Sketches

Hello all! I have a layout to share today. All of the photos on this layout are phone photos (not my favorite) but I love the story they tell!

I started with the current sketch at Stuck?! Sketches:

I started with a sheet of Simple Stories patterned paper for my background and "smushed" some Twisted Citron Distress Stain on it. Then I splattered Raven Glimmer Mist on the background as well. I loved the My Mind's Eye paper with the painted stripes on it and I thought it fit this layout well. While the papers I used were on the newer side, the embellishments are OLD! It was so fun to mix and match different collections and companies for this fun page.

I used my Cricut to cut the word "Bored" and used chipboard letters that I colored black for "Artist". 

I've had this journaling box rub on in my stash for several years and finally pulled it out and used it, along with some Basic Grey Lime Rickey Rubons.

There you have it, this was a fun layout to put together to remember a funny memory.

Materials:
Patterned Paper- Simple Stories, My Mind's Eye
Ink- Ranger, Tattered Angels, We R Memory Keepers
Pen- Zig, Sharpie
Rub Ons- Basic Grey, BoBunny
Bow- American Crafts
Stickers- American Crafts, Hambly Screen Prints, BoBunny
Chipboard- Basic Grey
Die Cutter- Provo Craft
Software- Craft Edge
Font- BN Sunday Kid
Punch- EK Success

January Calendar Page

Happy New Year! I have my January layout completed. Now for Amazon to come through and deliver my calendar...

I was once again inspired by the sketch at Stick it Down:

I pulled out the leftovers of the May 2014 Scrapbook Circle kit. I had picked up a couple sheets of Amy Tangerine Plus One, so I used those to fill in the gaps.  I

To make my title stand out, I spread some gesso over the patterned papers and then used the packaging technique to add some Distress Stain in Twisted Citron. I cut the title using my Cricut and then heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. The banner on the right end of my title is a cut apart piece from the Cosmo Cricket Just Add Watercolor pad I bought a while back. I painted it using gelatos and a water brush. I piece of pleated ribbon trim draws the eye to the title.

I made couple of embellishment clusters around the page using some of the Heidi Swapp transparencies and die cuts from the kit.

I'm never really sure how to use paper clips, but this gold one seemed to work to draw attention to my cluster and picture and to bring some gold to that part of my layout.

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- American Crafts, Echo Park
Specialty Paper- Cosmo Cricket
Gelatos- Faber Castell
Ink- Ranger, We R Memory Keepers, Tsukeniko
Gesso, Liquitex
Die Cuts and transparencies- Heidi Swapp
Pen- marvy
Stickers- American Crafts
Tape- My Mind's Eye
Font- LillyBelle
Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts
Ribbon- Pink Paislee
Die Cutter- Provo Craft
Software- Craft Edge