Scavenger Hunt Sunday: 6-3-12

I meant to do the challenge last week, but with the holiday and a sick kid, it just didn't get posted. But I got it done this week! Most of the photos are from our visit at my in-laws' last weekend.

Shine
My in-laws have beautiful landscaping and gardens around their house. It is always fun to wander around and take some photos of the plants. Here are some pretty pink peonies that I shot from below to try to catch the sun shining through the petals.

Fast
Will loves cars and trucks and things that "go!" Here he is zooming some tractors around Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen.

Left

Yesterday the kids were playing in the driveway with chalk and Will took off his shoes (although he can't seem to figure out how to take them off when he gets in the house...). He walked through some of the chalk drawings and left these colorful little footprints on the drive way.

Peace
Another shot from my in-laws' house. A Mary statue among the hostas.

Plain
A swing could be considered "plain", but put a kid on it, and it is fun for hours (and lots of great photo ops!).

Nuts About Sketches #215- Learning is Fun!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope you are having a fun and safe weekend!

Today is the reveal of the newest sketch at Nuts About Sketches.  It is another fabulous two pager!  For this one, I tried to make photos I already had printed out work, so I made quite a few adjustments.

Instead of the two photos on the left side, I used one and made a paper block to take up the larger space.  I also used several 3x4s across the bottom instead of the square photos.  I kept the paper strips, the title and journaling placement.

For the detail above the 4x6 photo and title area, I cut circles in various sizes from patterned paper and layered them.  I took a few epoxy stickers and layered those on top for some dimension.

For the detail across the bottom, I used a border punch, punched some scratch paper and traced that as the trail behind my snail.  Speaking of the snail, that, along with the pink felt were the last of the package!  Woo hoo!  I love when I use up supplies!!

That's all from me for today, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Teacher Gifts: Monogrammed Cards

I've spent the last couple of days working on gifts for my daughter's preschool teachers. I decided to make monogrammed cards for each of them in their favorite colors. I also had some fun playing with ink on these. :)

For the first set, I used my brayer and some purple spray ink to color the card base. I got the idea from this May Flaum video. I then stamped over it with a background stamp. The frame and letter were cut using the "Storybook" Cricut cartridge. I used this week's Unscripted Sketch. They are having a "piggyback challenge" this week which was to get inky, and I certainly did on this one!

For the next set, I used the current Mojo Monday sketch. I pulled out my alcohol inks and glossy cardstock on this one. I started by stamping red ink and gold mixative all over the piece of paper. Then I went back over it with blending solution making a twisting motion with the tool, creating a swirl pattern. Again, the letter and frame were cut using "Storybook".

Nuts About Sketches #214- I Pray For You

This week we had another fun sketch to work with for Nuts About Sketches. Since the sketch called for one large photo, I decided to take the opportunity to make an "I Pray For You" layout for my son. (You may remember this was an assignment from the "Scrapbooking Your Faith" class I took.)

For the large circle, I cut the center out of a die cut piece of paper (the outside was purple). I distressed the edges of everything because that weathered wood paper begs to be distressed. I sprayed the background using a couple colors of blue mist and the cardboard leftover after punching out game pieces.  The "On The Bright Side" paper pack comes with banner pieces, I used three of those to match my layout and used them as a pattern the cut the rest from patterned paper.

I liked the lined paper that I used for the journaling spot, but it was white.  So I took some red and yellow Distress ink and inked the paper until I was happy with the color.  Then I splattered some water on it to make the spots.  I LOVE how it turned out, there is so much you can do with Distress Inks!

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- Bo Bunny Press and My Mind's Eye
Die Cuts- My Mind's Eye and  Creative Memories
Buttons- Bo Bunny Press, Jesse James Co., Fancy Pants Designs
Brads- Basic Grey and Oriental Trading Company
Die Cutter- Cricut
Cartridge- Cricut Classic Font
Rub ons- Making Memories and Scrap Works
Spray Ink- Tattered Angels
Ink- Tsukeniko, Ranger
Pen- Creative Memories

It's a Girl!

My sister-in-law is pregnant and getting to the not-so-patient stage (today is her due date).  And I guess I am there too, because here is my card for my new little niece, ready to go when she decides to make her appearance.

I used this week's sketch from Mojo Monday. I started by going into my pack of pre-cut felt shapes and pulled out the heart.Then I found paper and ribbon that went together.  The cute little monkey and the sentiment are from the "New Arrival" Cricut cartridge.

Minnesota's Largest Candy Store

I did this layout for several challenges. The first was challenge #6 at My Scraps and More as part of their "Mother May I Crop" which was to use black, white and yellow. The second is this week's Fabulous Friday Challenge at Frosted Designs which was to do lacing on a project. The last was this month's challenge at Scrap Your Crap: use chipboard.

I don't usually do color challenges because I don't like to be limited in my color choices, but this one worked out well. I think I needed to be limited because the photos are pretty busy and colorful. Having a set color scheme definitely limited my embellishment options, which is where the chipboard came in handy. I sprayed and painted a circle and then put it in a bag to make it look like a giant candy. I also took a chipboard arrow and painted, inked and stamped it to work with my layout.

For the lacing challenge, I had punched all the holes across the black paper and was about to do the lacing when I had a light bulb moment and decided to set an eyelet in each hole! I used up 46 eyelets on this layout- woo hoo!

For my title I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot and played with some different fonts.  I did the shadow blackout feature on everything and cut it out together for the background and then cut the words or in the "normal" mode in different colors for the top layer.  The word "Largest" I attached with foam adhesive to give it a little dimension.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper- 7gypsies and Cosmo Cricket

Chipboard- Oriental Trading Company

Eyelets- Making Memories

Gromlet- We R Memory Keepers

Twine- Pink Paislee

Fonts- Fairfax Station, Massive Headache, AC

Die Cuts- K and Company

 Die Cutter- Cricut

Software- Sure Cuts A Lot

Epoxy accents- EK Success, Pink Paislee

Spray Ink- EK Success

Paint- Liquitex

Ink- Clearsnap, Ranger

Pen- Zig

Chalk- Oriental Trading Company

Nuts About Sketches #213

A new sketch was revealed this morning at Nuts About Sketches- a two-pager!! It was another fun sketch to work with. I used photos of my middle child at the park two summers ago.

This layout also works for a couple of challenges. The first is part of the "Mother May I" Crop at My Scraps and More. Challenge #1 (there are 18 of them!) was to used something on your layout that started with each of the letters of mother. I used:
M-masking tape (the decorative kind, I bought it in the office supply section of Target)
O- "Out and About" title T- Thickers (the ampersand) H- Heartbreaker font E- eleven photos R- Ranger ink The bonus challenge was to use something on your layout that you would find on a birthday present, I used tape.

The other challenge comes from the "thinking*through*design" blog, which was to use an analogous color scheme. I didn't set out with that purpose in mind on this layout, but I worked from the large polka dot paper and so I used blues and purples throughout the page. I also tried adding some trendy confetti to my layout, which happens to be the holes punched when I did the border strips for this page. I just put a few dots of glue down, sprinkled the dots over it and shook off the excess.