Two Cards- Same Starting Point

Hello again! I have two new cards to share today. I started with a background stamp I picked up a few weeks ago at a garage sale. I stamped it on two pieces of blue cardstock with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with clear powder. 

For my first card, I used blending brushes and Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn, and Salty Ocean Distress Inks. Once those colors were blended, I wiped the excess ink off of the heat embossing to make it pop. I used my Cricut to cut the party hat from coordinating cardstock. To add dimension, I added the pom pom on the hat using foam adhesive. For the sentiment, I stamped the banner sentiment on cardstock and fussy cut it out. To finish off the card, I glued on some gold foil stars.

For my second card, I blended Salty Ocean, Dusty Concord, and Picked Raspberry Distress inks on my background. I used my Cricut to cut the die cut. I used the filled in layer and cut it from vellum to soften the background behind the balloon. Once that was attached to my layout, I glued down a piece of purple embroidery floss as the string of the balloon. To finish off this card, I glued on some blue sequins.

 Thanks for stopping by to check out my cards!

Happy Birthday- Sketch Saturday

Hello! I have a new card to share today. I made this one for my nephew who is turning 9 next week. I decided I wanted to make a card using a soccer ball image, and then I stopped over at Sketch Saturday and saw their new sketch:

Perfect! I found some circles in my random die cut bits and they were one of the colors of his soccer club! I stamped and heat embossed the herring bone background on black cardstock. I used my Cricut to cut the black part of the soccer ball. To give the ball dimension, I traced around the ball die cut on white foam and cut it out. I then glued the die cut down. I edged the circles with black ink and stamped my sentiment on one of the circles. Once all of the circles were attached, I cut a thin strip of silver cardstock to attach on the left side of my card (my design is flipped horizontally from the sketch.

 Thanks for stopping by to check out my card!

Ready, Set, Play

Hello again! I have another new layout to share, this time for my oldest's scrapbook. I started with the "London" challenge at Paper Issues which was to create a vertical design or use a large title. I ended up doing both. I started by finding patterned paper scraps that complemented my photos and each other. I ended up using a bunch of old October Afternoon papers. I layered those vertically down the right half of my background paper. Then I laid my photos over the top. I used a Cricut cut for my title and made it big. To embellish my page, I fussy cut some words from a sheet of patterned paper, used some stickers, brads and puffy stickers. I felt like the left side of my layout still needed something, so I found some washi tape the coordinated with my papers. That strip needed a bit more and so I found a scalloped border sticker. I was only going to use the bit on the left, but it wasn't sticking back down to the backing sheet, so I decided to use the rest instead of wasting in. I found a couple of other places to add the border. 

 I try not to repeat similar designs in my kids' books, but as I was working on this layout, I realized I had done another page with a very similar design in her book already. Oh well! It's a great design to use up those scraps!

Thanks for stopping by!

August Calendar Page- Stick It Down

Hello! I have my August calendar page to share today! I used this month's double page sketch from Stick It Down:

I stuck pretty close to this sketch. I did add one more circle photo and moved the journaling to the right hand page. I started by selecting patterned papers and then chose kraft cardstock for my background to make the colors of my papers and photos stand out. For my title, I pulled out my little packet of random letters that I've cut out with my Cricut and found the letters of August. I couldn't find a "g," so I ended up finding some coordinating cardstock and cutting it. Since the sketch called for a long title, I decided to add the word "awesome." I found a cut with the word and cut it out with the same cardstock I used for the "g." I used strips of white cardstock and wrote my journaling on those. To embellish my page, I stamped a fussy cut a couple of tabs, found some flowers and buttons that went with my color scheme, along with some flower die cuts, a phrase die cut, and some dot stickers.

 Thanks for stopping by to check out my page!

Happy Birthday- Masked Inking

Hi all! I have my last card for a bit! For this one, I used the other three stencils in the Concord and 9th Petal Pushers stencil pack. I used both pink and purple on the flower petals to add some depth to the flowers. I did the inking on vellum, thinking I would use a background stamp on the cardstock behind it, but I instead used this card base that already had a subtle pattern on it. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on coordinating cardstock and found another color of coordinating cardstock to punch a border from. To finish off the card, I used light pink Nuvo Drops. 

 

Splash Zone

Hi all! I made another layout! I was inspired by the current single page sketch from Stick It Down, which I used for the left hand page of my layout:

I was also inspired by the first challenge of the month at Lasting Memories- colors of the rainbow, use at least 4 different colors. I have blue, green, red and yellow on my layout.

 I started with this fun colorful paper collection that I recently found at a scrappy garage sale. I fussy cut the wave paper for the left hand page and cut the rainbow hex paper straight to layer underneath the waves and to add to the right side of the page to tie the pages together. For the title, I used a cut file from Paper Issues. I also used cut files for the sun embellishments. I matted everything on white to tie it into the patterned paper. I felt the background needed a little more and splattered some watered down blue distress oxide ink and white pigment ink. To embellish the page, I used some stickers, flair, a die cut phrase, and some sequins. It is a little hard to see in the photo, but I used a mask on the full sun and some yellow Stickles gel to add a face. 

Level Unlocked- Birthday Card

Hello! It is my son's birthday today and he turns 13! We now have THREE teenagers in the house! 😱 My son likes video games, so I decided to go with that theme for his card. I found some fun cuts on Cricut Design Space and went to work. The "official teenager piece in the center was made using a pen in the Cricut. I am trying to use that option a little more after seeing all the cool things my daughter has done with the pens for a scrapbook she is making. Anyway, the Cricut did most of the work here. I cut all the pieces and assembled them on the card front. I colored in the stars to tie them into the background a little more.

 This was a fun card to make! I hope he enjoys it!

4th of July- Sketches in Thyme and CSI

Hello! I made a layout this week that wasn't a calendar layout! I saw this sketch come up on the Sketches in Thyme Facebook page and knew I had some 8x10 photo collages to scrap, so I went to work!

CSI has a patriotic inspiration image and color palette posted this month, so I worked with this as well:

I started with the photo collage and pulled out this patriotic collection from Echo Park. I chose my patterned papers and decided to go with a white background. First I added the navy plaid and used my sewing machine to run a line of stitching down each piece. Then I added strips of the star paper on either side of my collage. To make them stand out more against the white background, I edged them with red ink. The title was made with the stickers included in the pack. I found a blue edged journaling spot and added that under tht title. To embellish the page, I used some stickers, and punched and fussy cut stars. I kept the embellishments pretty minimal to allow the photos to shine. 

 

Happy Anniversary

Hello again! I have another new card to share (we are almost through the crazy month of birthdays and anniversaries!). 

For this card I started with the Petal Pushers Stencil pack from Concord and 9th. I started by ink blending using those stencils onto my card back. I also used some glitter gel over the yellow details for a little extra interest. I smudged some of the gel when I was picking up the stencil, so I added the die cut flowers around the edge of my card to cover where it smudged the worst. I then cut the sentiment with my Cricut. I used my Wink of Stella pen to add the sparkle. It came out kind of thick at the beginning so the glitter is heavier on the left side. I also drew aroudn the edges of my blue flowers to tie them in with the sentiment. To finish off the card, I added flat white sequins to the centers of my flowers.

 

Oh Happy Day- Birthday Cards

Hello! I have two new cards to share. Here is the sketch that I used from Stick It Down:

I was also inspired by the current challenge at Color Dare:

I started by using my Marbled Turnabout stamp again for this card. I used Chipped Sapphire, Lumberjack Plaid, and Barn Door Distress Inks to match the color from the challenge. ( Looking at my card now, I coule have double stamped the Lumberjack Plaid to get a closer match.) I also used Versamark and white embossing powder for the 4th impression. I then trimmed down the panel and cut it into a card front and used the scrap for the banner piece on my second card. I found some navy cardstock that matched pretty well and used that for the opposite pieces. I then stamped and heat embossed the cake on smooth white cardstock and inked the edges of that piece with Barn Door ink and a blending tool. I stamped the banner and sentiment on smooth white cardstock with Chipped Sapphire and fussy cut it. I attached everything with regular adhesive, so these cards are pretty flat, but thy have some texture from the stamping and embossing.

 

Birthday card- Sketch Saturday

Hello again! I have a new card to share today! I started with this sketch from Sketch Saturday:

I used one of the scraps from trimming down the background for the first card in this post. I had the light green cardstock laying on my desk, so I used that for my background. The second part of the challenge from Sketch Saturday was to do ink blending, so I pulled out a mask and a couple of the colors I used for the stamping and blended a background. I like the interest it added! Then I used my Cricut to cut the frame. I used a stamp set for the circle embellishment, cut it out and attached it with foam tape.