My Scraps & More Sketch #104

Time for a new sketch at the My Scraps & More sketch blog!  Here's the new sketch, by Nicole Nowasad:

 

And here's my take on the sketch.  I used some Bella Blvd papers from the Camp Out and Tiny Tots collection.

 

Link up your page inspired by this sketch to the My Scraps & More sketch blog for a chance to win the wonderful April prize package!

 

PS - if you'd love to see even more sketches, check out the My Scraps & More forum, where we are in the middle of our April sketchathon!

 

It's a sketch challenge @ Scrap & Play!

 

It's our first Scrap & Play challenge for October, and it's one of my favorite kinds - a sketch challenge!  Here's the great sketch:

And here's my page based on the sketch.  The background paper is from the Lucky Stars collection  from our sponsor, Bella Blvd. and the other papers are from their older Halloween line called Too Cute to Spook.  The photos are of my grandkids and daughter last Halloween.  (Trying to get last year's trick or treat photos scrapped before it's time for this year's trick or treat!)

 

The little enamel dots are actually made by melting perler beads.  I love how the striped beads turn out! 

 

Be sure to link up your project based on the sketch to the Scrap & Play blog for a chance to win a prize from Bella Blvd!

 

Time for some Valentine's Day cards!

If you saw my craft room, you would think I had enough patterned paper to cover every possible occasion, but I have to admit that there is one area that is sadly lacking - Valentine's Day.  I don't have any Valentine themed papers in my stash, so I challenged myself to create some Valentine's Day cards from other themed papers.  Here's what I created, using Fall and Winter papers from the Frosted Designs store.

These papers are from various collections from BoBunny, Crate Paper, Bella Blvd., and Echo Park.  Here are the details on the cards.

 

I started with the large heart from the Polka Dot Party wood veneer shapes package and some striped paper from BoBunny's "Elf Magic" collection.  I traced the heart onto the paper, and then again about 1/4" outside the lines and cut on the larger outline to get the opening.  I stitched around the opening and around the card edges, then adhered the paper to a white card base.  I painted the heart red, then covered it with glue and red glitter and adhered it to the card, centering it in the opening.  I used a fine tip black pen to write "love" in various spots on the lines of the patterned paper and added a red ribbon bow to finish it off.

 

 

The main portion of this card is a journaling card from the Crate Paper "Bundled Up" collection; the zigzag stitching was already on the card - yay!  I diecut three hearts from two of the papers in the same collection and adhered them to the journaling card, with the middle heart popped up with foam adhesive.  I added letter stickers to the large heart, and a wooden arrow underneath.  I used scissors to snip the wooden arrow in half and tucked the cut edges under the heart.  A few ink splatters finished off the card.

Sometimes you need a Valentine's Day card that's not quite so red/pink/lovey dovey.  For this card, I used the Echo Park Fall Reflections collection.  I backed the sentiment sticker with brown cardstock and trimmed around it to leave a narrow mat, then adhered it with foam adhesive to a piece of patterned paper.  I added a couple of chipboard hearts, coated with Rock Candy Distress Stickles (my favorite Stickles ever!) and a brown bow.

The last card uses papers from Bella Blvd's "Daily Chevies" line and BoBunny's "Elf Magic" line.  I cut two different size squares of patterned paper and adhered them to white cardstock, using a Maya Road heart bubble clip at the top.  The alphabet stickers are also from the "Elf Magic" collection, and three wooden hearts finish off the card.  I added pink Stickles to the hearts and the inside of the heart on the metal clip.

 

I hope you're inspired to use your stash and create some Valentine's Day cards!

 

Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Stickles Clear Rock Candy Bundled Up 12x12 Paper Pads Elf Magic 12x12 Collection Pack Bundled Up Journaling Cards Heart Confetti Laser-Cut Wood Veneer Die-Cuts - Arrows & Hearts Reflections Fall 12x12 Collection Kit Vintage Metal Trinkets - Love Speech Bubble Daily Chevies Collection Kit 12x12

InLinkz.com

Fusion card challenge #10

I just discovered the Fusion card challenge blog a couple of weeks ago, and finally had a chance to play along with one of their challenges.

The Fusion challenges are twofold - they offer a sketch and an inspiration piece.  You can choose to use just one of the options or you can "fuse" them and use both inspiration pieces, which is what I did on my card.

 

PP: Bella Blvd; stamp: Technique Tuesday; twine: Martha Stewart

 

I used the sketch for my card design, and the inspiration for the color scheme and the blue and white stripes from the photo.  I love getting two card inspirations from one challenge!

Muse Challenge #20

Finally got a chance to play along with another Muse challenge.  If you haven't seen their card challenge blog, be sure to check it out here.   Here's the inspiration card for the challenge, from Laurie Willison:

I loved the teal and yellow combination, but I didn't have any teal or blue ribbon in my stash, so I reversed the colors and used yellow as the primary color, with teal accents.

 

The yellow papers are from Doodlebug Designs, and the popsicles were fussy cut from some Bella Blvd paper and then covered with Glossy Accents for some shine.  I used a Sizzix embossing folder on the white cardstock and a computer generated sentiment (font is CK Windsong).

Operation Write Home - Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop

 

 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  Yes, it's a three day weekend for most of us, and the "unofficial" start of summer, but it's also a time to pay tribute to our servicemen and women, past and present.

 

Operation Write Home is hosting their annual Memorial Day Weekend blog hop, showcasing "thank you" cards from cardmakers and papercrafters everywhere.  These cards can be thank you cards for our servicemen and women to send home to friends and family, or thank you cards to them for their service to our country.  Card for the blog hop are based off any of the one hundred seventy plus card sketches on the Operation Write Home blog.  (You can find all the sketches here.)  And of course there are prizes for participants in the blog hop, and also for blog hoppers who leave comments along the way, so be sure to check out all the participating blogs this weekend!  Just click on the OWH badge above and it will take you to the start of the hop where you can access all the participating blogs.

 

I made two cards for the hop.  This "thank you" card is based on OWH sketch #67, using papers from Lily Bee Designs, Stampin' Up ribbon, and stamps from A. Jillian Vance Designs.

 

This "any hero" card is based on OWH sketch #154, using papers from Bella Blvd, a star embossing folder from Cuttlebug, and a computer generated sentiment.

 

Thanks for joining in the OWH Memorial Day blog hop!  If you'd like to know more about Operation Write Home, here's a link to their "welcome" site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design template tutorial for Frosted Designs.

This week it's my turn to host the "Show Me Sunday" tutorial at Frosted Designs, so I decided to share an idea that helps me with photo sizes and page design.

I love to do multi-photo layouts, and even two-page layouts, but I found myself spending way too much time trying to decide on photo placement, and decide what sizes to print or crop my photos.  To help with the design process, I made some photo templates out of cardstock.  I used a neutral mid-toned cardstock because I didn't want to get distracted by color or patterns, and cut the cardstock into several standard photo sizes:  4"x6", 3.5"x5", 3"x4", and 2"x3". 

I used kraft cardstock and cut some basic shapes - circles, squares, rectangles - in various sizes to use as placement guides for layers of patterned paper or cardstock.  I used kraft cardstock because I wanted a neutral color, but just a little bit darker value than the cardstock used for the photo templates.

Based on the photos I want to scrap, and their orientation (landscape or horizontal photos) I just start playing around with the cardstock photo templates to get a photo layout that works.  Here are a few examples:





Once I have an idea of what size photos to use and their placement on the page, I start playing around with the kraft templates of background elements to get my basic design. 

When I have a design that I like, it's time to start cutting the papers and cardstock and actually start assembling the page.  Since all the templates are labeled with their size, it's easy to start cutting the papers and cardstock for the page.  The final step is to add all those extras that make pages so special - journaling, titles, and embellishments!  Here's my page based on the layout template above (all papers are from Bella Blvd):

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and are inspired to make your own design templates!

More Halloween projects @ Practical Scrappers!

Today, we are featuring altered projects for Halloween @ Practical Scrappers.  There are some wonderful mini albums, treat bags and holiday decorations - you're sure to find some spooky inspiration!   You can check out the projects here. 

For my project, I used one of the 7Gypsies printers trays I've been hoarding, along with some Bella Blvd. "Too Cute to Spook" papers and die cuts.   I cut some of the die cut images apart so they would flow over more than one opening on the tray, and then added some crochet thread, glitter, twine and ribbon embellishments.   The "happy halloween" sentiment was die cut with my Cricut and then glittered over the top.