Another Dance Layout

Hi all! I got another dance layout done for my oldest daughter's album. For this one I started with the current single page sketch from Stick It Down:

I stuck to the main idea of the banners coming out of the center, but didn't cut my photos into a circle. For the banners, I went through my stash and found blue and cream paper scraps and cut them into the banner shape. I drew a large circle on my background with a pencil to help line up the banners. To adhere them to the page, I started with the vertical and horizontal banners and then did the ones that fell between so I could get even spacing. I then adhered my photos. I cut the title with my Cricut. When I went to stick it on my layout, I realized the color of cardstock matched the dark blue on the floral banner behind it. To make the letters stand out more, I went in with a white gel pen to outline the letters and color in some of the blue on the patterned paper. I embellished the page with some punched flowers and clear gems.

 

More Dance Pages

I have a couple more layouts to share today that I made over the weekend. For my first layout, I used one of the sketches from Paper Issues:

I decided to use some ink pads to create stripes on my paper for this layout. I drug them each across a sheet of smooth mixed media paper. I set that aside to dry and went to work cutting the title. I cut it three times using my Cricut, twice from plain black cardstock and once from black shimmer cardstock. I layered up the cut and put the shimmer cardstock on top. I then went to work embellishing. I pulled out some rub ons that had colors that went with my inks. I cut a frame rub on in half to create the corners. I then layers buttons, brads and gems over them. To finish off the layout, I splattered some black ink for some interest next to my photos.

I saw this sketch yesterday shortly after it was posted by Sketches In Thyme and immediately went to work.

I knew this sketch would work perfectly for this headshot of my daughter. I pulled out the collection that I used for my Feburary calendar page and cut the strips and triangles. I used my Cricut to outline and cut the title. I got all of that adhered down and embellished the page with some paper flowers and sequins.

 

February Calendar Page

Hello! I have my February calendar page to share today! I started with this two page sketch from Stick It Down:

This is a great sketch for scraps. I found a collection that is getting low to create my layout and went to work cutting strips 1-2' wide and then cut the banner ends. I then worked on layering the strips over the background. I had lots of strips that weren't wide enough, so I hid that by cutting them somewhere in the middle and hiding the gap under my photos. This is a little more work, but it stretches my supplies. I matted my photos on yellow and cream cardstock and added them as I went so I could make sure I was covering the gaps in my papers. Once the strips and photos were all adhered, I cut my title with the Cricut and created journaling strips. I embellished the page with stickers from teh collection. I finished things off with some pink ink splatters.

 

Card Recap

Hello! I'm here today to share the last few cards I've created. I've been sneaking in some creative time, but not taking the time to share things here, so I'm going to catch up over the next few days.

First up is a birthday card. During January, Paper Issues released a new sketch each day on Facebook in their group. They were layout sketches, but I ended up using this one for a card:

I've had a sheet of patterned paper with these cute robots for a long time and I finally decided to use it for this card. I fussy cut the robots. I dug through my stash to find patterned papers with colors that went with my robots. I cut those up for my background and inked the edges with dark red ink since that was the color around the edges of my robots. I stamped the sentiment on the blocks below the robots and then I added the robots to my card front with foam adhesive. I added some homemade enamel dots (made from Perler beads) and some leftover diamond art gems to embellish my card.

Next up is a card I made for a couple of people receiving first sacraments at our church (I made two like this). I started by using sheer Yupo paper and squirted red, yellow, and orange alcohol inks on my paper, along with some gold and white mixatives. I used a felt piece on a blending tool and twisted the tool on the ink, making swirls. Once I was happy with how it looked, I set it aside to let it completely dry. I then used my Cricut to cut the dove. I didn't have two colors of the shimmery cream cardstock, so I blended a light tan ink over the back wing to add some dimension. I colored in the eye and the beak with a couple of pens. For the card base, I used a script background stamp and used the same light tan color to stamp in on my card. I layered the inked Yupo over the top and stamped the sentiment with Archival ink. I then added the dove.

Last, I have a Baptism card that I made for my nephew. His Baptism was on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, so I decded to use this Cricut cut of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. For the background, I used an embossing folder and pressed an ombre inkpad over the raised part and ran it through the machine, I had to do it twice, with a spritz of water. The water made the ink bleed a bit, but it added some interest. For the sentiment, I stamped with VersaMark on some vellum and heat embossed it with gold powder. I wrapped the strip around the card front and adhered it to the back. I used a colored pencil and some chalk to add some details to the robes on the cut out, and a blue glitter pen for the water ripples.

 

Cards- Using Some New Masks

Hello! I have a few new cards to share! I got some Altenew masks and inks for Christmas, so I had some fun playing with them.

First up is the "Daisy Craze" mask set. I chose bright, fun colors for this. I then used this sketch from Stick It Down to finish the card: 

I cut the flower using my Cricut and stamped the sentiment on the flower center. I used a border punch for the strips behind the flower. I attached the flower suing foam tape for some dimension.

My next card also uses the "Daisy Craze" masks. I used three colors that are close to each other on the color wheel for a more muted color scheme. I also didn't ink the smaller flowers for this one, instead filling that area in with dark grey Nuvo Drops for some texture.I stamped the butterfly on light pink cardstock and heat embossed the wings with glitter embossing powder. I stamped and fussy cut the sentiment strip and added it behind the wing.

I used the "Sunburst" stencil on my next card. I again used colors near each other on the color wheel. This time, I just randomly blended them over the mask. This mask leaves a nice blank circle in the center, so I used that to add my sentiment. I then used my Cricut to cut the balloons. I blended some ink on the bottoms of the balloons to add a bit of dimension. The yellow balloons were attached directly to the card front and the green ones with foam tape. I added twine strings to finish off the card.

Finally, I used the "Cherry Blossom Bunch" stencils on my last card. I've had this set for a while, but I used some of my new inks on this card. I blended two colors of green for the leaves and used three different blues on the flowers. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on a scrap of coordinating cardstock and added it to the bottom of the card. I added some white irridescent sequins to finish off the card front. I didn't have cardstock in a coordinating color for my card base, so I made a white one and blended one of the blue ink colors from the flowers on the edges.

 

January Calendar Page

 Hello! I have my January calendar page to share today! I started with this sketch from Page Maps:

I used a few different winter collections with blues and reds for this layout. I printed all of my photos as 3x3's and laid them out over the patterned papers. Once everything was adhered, I used journaling strips and a journaling sheet to add information to my page. I ended up using some old letter stickers and a journaling sticker for my title. I embellished the page with ribbon, stickers and brads.

I am entering this in the Deliberate Designs: Sketches challenge at Lasting Memories this month.