Break's Over

Hello Everyone.  Happy Easter for those who celebrate.

Break's Over - what do I mean by my title?  Well, truthfully, lately I have been really on the down low with card making and crafting.  Only posting a couple of projects a week, we were on break with Fun 'n Flair and I've just really not played along with beloved challenges.  It's been a nice break but now it's time to get back to work.

So here's my first card playing with new digi Birthday Shayla, from Fun 'n Flair that Selina released a few weeks ago.  You can check out some really great projects that were made on Fun 'n Flair's Facebook page.

I created my card with a couple of challenges in mind, too.  I used the sketch from My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club and "Chicks Rule" from The Kraft Journal.  I think this little chickie rules the cuteness roost.

Supplies
Image:  Birthday Shayla (Fun 'n Flair)
Stamps/Ink:  Wishing You (TAC), Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Card stock:  Neenah Classic Crest, Tiki Hut (Raisin Boat)
Paper:  Linen Closet (DCWV)
Copics:  BG10, BG15, E000, E00, E30, E33, E51, E53, R11
Tools:  Cuttlebug, Die-Namics Sentiment Strips, Doilies, Double Dot border, Circles dies,
  butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), paper crimper (Fiskars)
Embellishments:  pearl (Recollections)

TPE Scrapbook Challenge Saturday

Good Morning everyone - Happy Saturday.  I hope you had a great week.

So, I went a mission yesterday or maybe it was the day before.  I decided I need to jump on the digital scrapbook band-wagon.  I want to learn how to do it.  A few of my teammates on The Pink Elephant scrapbook team do all digital designs and they look so cool, so I solicited their advice and asked questions.  They were very helpful and very encouraging.

My little discovery took me to reading up on different photo programs such as PhotoShop.  I decided that was a bigger investment than I make right now.  So another teammate suggested My Memories Suite.  And one of their reps has been emailing for over a year to do their giveaways, try the software for free.  So I did it.  Then I couldn't wait for her to send my free software, so I used my own coupon code (I'm an affiliate, see sidebar) and bought the software.

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is an Ella's Pink Print.  Be sure to visit the blog so you see the sketch.  And here's what I did....

So here's my very first digital scrapbook page.  It's basic, it's super simple - but hey!  I did it!!  I like this software, so far.  I'm not ready to do a giveaway and I'm not ready to give me complete review - but so far, it's pretty fun.

Supplies:
My Memories Suite software
My kids
Time

Birthday Party in Scor-Pal Fashion

Good Morning!  I am really sad to see today come.  Not only did my baby become a 14 year old today, but it's my last post as a guest designer for Scor-Pal.  I have enjoyed my time with Scor-Pal immensely and I thank Diana, Gini and Tami for allowing me to be a part of their amazing team!

For my last project, I have a birthday celebration to share with you.

So everyone knows how to create rosettes using their Scor-Pal board.  But I took these rosettes to cupcakes.  I also recycled some pop tabs to create flowers from the paper rosettes.  Using Scor-Tape, I adhered the pop tabs to a circle of card stock that has been covered with a Scor-Tape (6x6 size).  I suggest using light weight card stock with the Scor-Tape, it goes through your punches much easier.  Adhere the pop tabs, add another layer of card stock circle to sandwich in the tabs and then add the rosette.  The rosette will adhere well with Scor-Tape, no need to fire up the glue gun.

Glue some sticks to back, add some ribbon and decorate your cupcakes.  Easy!  You can decorate all of them for individual table settings or just a few like I did for a grouping presentation.

Thank you all for allowing me to share my creations with you.  I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #191

Good Morning!  How is everyone?  I'm doing well, another birthday this week.  Levi turns 14 on Wednesday.

I have been so anxious for today to get there - I made this card a week ago and am so pleased with the results, that I just have had the hardest time waiting to share it.

Soooo?  What do you think?  I think it is so pretty.  I hope you do, too.  Now, let me take you through details.  First of all, I made my own washi tape.  Nothing I had worked with the colors I chose to use.  Next is Jessi's beautiful, hand-crocheted mat.  She's sponsoring us this week and the winner gets 18 of her mats.  The stamps are from My Favorite Things (sentiment) and Papertrey Ink (circle of dots) and then I made the flowers following an idea that I found You Tube.

This shot shows you the pretty blooms and washi tape.  I made the washi tape using plain, ol' white tissue paper that I cut into strips and then ran through my Xyron 150 that was loaded with removable adhesive.  Then I stained the tissue using ink and an aquapainter.  I should have let it dry before stamping, but I didn't, so the images smeared a little - but in the end, I liked the look.  I hit with a hairdryer and placed it on my card.

I hope you play along with us this week.  Come on!  It's a great prize!!


Supplies
Stamps/Ink:  Flower Silhouette (MFT), Borders & Corners Circle (PTI), Going Grey, Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red (SU!), Angel Pink, New Sprout (Memento)
Card stock:  Neenah Classic Crest, Elephant Safari (Raisin Boat), Old Olive (SU!)
Paper:  Sugared (Basic Grey)
Tools:  circle cutters (CM), corner rounder, white tissue paper, Xyron Create-a-Sticker w/repostionable adhesive, aquapainter, heart punch
Embellishments:  Crocheted Mat by Jessi Fogan, pearls

Tuesday Morning Sketches #190

Good Morning!  How are you all doing?  I'm fine - happy it's Tuesday.  Not that my Monday was bad or anything - I just enjoy when Tuesday's roll around because it's time for a new sketch and to share my card with you.  This week we're sponsored by StampingScrapping.com - one of my favorite little internet stores.

Be sure to head to the TMS blog to see the sketch and to be inspired by my favorite Design Team.  Here's my card...

I kept my card very true to the sketch and pretty simple.  I decided to combine my sketch with the challenge at All That Scraps - Anything Goes.

Well, as I said, run on over to the TMS blog to play along with us.


Supplies
Stamps/Ink:  Swiss Pixie Watering Can (CC Designs), Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Card stock:  Neenah Classic Crest, Urban Blues (Raisin Boat)
Copics:  B95, B97, C3, C5, C7, E13, E17, R27, R29, V91, V95, YG17
Tools:  Scor-Pal, Scor-Tape, Cuttlebug, Scalloped Square Nesties, Dimensionals
Embellishments:  white satin ribbon, Brocade Blue brads (SU!)

Easter Gift with Scor-Pal

Hi everyone!  Happy Friday.  I have a fun project to share with you that I am so super excited about.  I mentioned {on my blog} that I have been rediscovering my punches.  And with this rediscovery, I needed to incorporate that with Scor-Pal.  First let me show you what I created and then I'll tell you all about it.

Isn't this cute?  I swear to you, I was doing the happy dance when I finished this.  So excited that it came together!  Let me talk about the bunnies first.  This was the punch art that I discovered on a You Tube video by Dawn Griffith.  It starts out by creating a wrapper for the candy bar.  I scored according to her directions, but they are for KitKat bars, not little Hershey bars, so I ended up forgoing the score lines and just wrapping the candy bar with Springtime papers (by Echo Park).  Then proceeded to make the bunny out of large and small oval punches, tag punch, 1/2" and 1/4" circle punches, a gel pen and a Copic liner.

So how did I incorporate the Scor-Pal?  Here's the very exciting part for me.  I created the picket fence box!

Firstly, I created the base from a 4 x 4 square of white cardstock.  I scored at a 1/2" on all four sides.  Stamped the grass on the edges and then created the box bottom.  I then cut 20 3/8" x 2" pickets.  Lined up 5 of them side by side and stamped more grass on them.  Then I cut the crossbar piece which is about 12 1/4" inches.  So, of course, it was cut in two pieces and then spliced together with Scor-Tape.  I scored the crossbar at 3, 6, 9 and 12 inches.  Then on the Scor-Mat I carefully laid out 5 pickets just inside the 0 and the 3 inch marks, spacing the middle pieces out evenly.  With liquid glue I put a thin line of glue on the pickets where I wanted my crossbar piece to go.  Then laid the crossbar down to adhere.  Then repeated this process until all four sides had their pickets.  Then I applied more liquid glue to the end of the pickets, lined it up to the base bottom and if you did it with precise measurements, the sides will just "roll" along each side.  When this is done, there is a 1/4" hang over from the crossbar, which is scored at 12" - this is your tab to close up the box.  Then I just stamped some flowers and a dragonfly, fussy cut them out and glued them onto the box.  Filled it with Easter grass and the bunnies.

I wish I had thought to do a picture tutorial but I was so excited to get my idea into paper that I didn't bother with the camera until the end.  I hope you enjoyed this share without it.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #189

Good Morning!  Happy Tuesday - it's time for another sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches and this one is drawn by our very own Grandma Bonnie.  But it's also time for the Judged Challenge and this time the added twist is Monochromatic Green.

I have been having fun with my punches (be sure to come back Friday so I can show what else I did) lately and I found this great tutorial on You Tube of the cutest puppies created from punches.  You can see the tutorial here.  So I created my version of "Barkley."

Is that not the cutest paper puppy you've ever seen?  I love him!  He is created with only a few punches.  1 3/8", 1 1/4", 3/4" circle punches, word window punch and I added in a small oval punch.  He was so easy to put together and he makes me happy!

Now, head on over to TMS to play along with us.... you're playing for a seat in My Creative Classroom, class of your choice.  Wow!

Supplies
Card stock:  Garden Green, Very Vanilla
Paper:  Country Drive (Echo Park)
Ink:  Desert Sand (Memento), Garden Green (SU!)
Tools:  Scor-Pal, Cuttlebug, Spots & Dots embossing folder, 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 3/4" circle punches, word window punch, small oval punch, Copic fine liner, white gel pen
Embellishments:  green rhinestone, Honeydew Baker's Twine

Pink Elephant Scrapbook Saturday

Good Morning!  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I had the best date with my birthday boy last night.  Brendan is now a man, 18 is such a turning point in our lives.  He now gets to vote and buy lottery tickets.  I hope he does both with great care and caution.

Anyway, this week's Scrapbook Challenge at The Pink Elephant is a recipe challenge....

Ribbons, Buttons and Stitching

The sewing part for me is always a little hard because I don't have a sewing machine that works.  So I have to resort to hand-stitching or faux.  Here is my page....

This page features some paper and elements from a very old kit from Stampin' Up! but it worked really well with this picture of my Dad.  He's not my real Dad, he's my step-Dad that adopted me and Theresa.  Although he had his faults, he had his good points, too.  If I remember right (it was nearly 18 years ago that passed away) this is the picture that was up for his Memorial.

The page layout come from this great card sketch by Incy Wincy Designs.  As I said, the card stock, designer paper and the elements above the photo are from At Home Simply Scrappin' Kit by SU!, the DAD is brown chipboard Thickers and then khaki twill ribbon and buttons finished it off.  Oh, the stitching is from these cool border stitching patterns I won as blog candy and natural Twine. This is a 12x12 page so I had a little trouble photographing it.

Have a great Saturday!  I'm off to get a good cup of coffee, the one I just made turned out to sweet.  Bleecchhh!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #188

Good Morning!  Happy Tuesday.  Quick post here, I'm working on this now, it's Monday night and I have a bad stomachache.  I had sausage and peppers for lunch from my friend and it didn't agree with me at all.

So we have a new sketch up at Tuesday Morning Sketches and we're sponsored by the wonderful friends from DRS Designs.

Now, my card does feature more than just DRS Designs.  I'll tell you what happened.  I started out using one of my favorite daisy flower stamps from DRS and I botched it up so bad that I got discouraged and when it a whole different route.  I went with CC Designs, DRS Designs (the ribbon slide) and MFT (the sentiment).

I am also submitting this to All That Scraps Wednesday challenge - paper piecing.

Now if you'll forgive me, I'm going to sign off quickly and get into jammies.  So I wish you a very happy Tuesday and please head on over to TMS to see what great inspiration the DT  have to share with you.


Supplies
Stamps/Ink:  Single Flower Ribbon Slide C672 (DRS Designs), Coffee Birgitta (CC Designs),
    Clearly Sentimental about Coffee (MFT)
Card stock:  Neenah Milled Ivory
Paper:  Latte Mat stack (DCWV)
Copics:  E000, E00, E13, E17, E18, R11, W0, W2, YR17, YR67
Tools:  Scor-Pal, craft knife, corner rounder
Embellishments:  dk green ribbon (Offray)

Just playing around.... CAS Style!

Hello!  Happy Sunday afternoon.  Now that I've joined the land of living again, I felt a little crafty today.  I do still have to get laundry done and some other cleaning, but I wanted to make a card first.  So I looked around on some challenges and decided to go completely CAS.

So, the challenges I am playing with today are:  CAS on Sunday (birthday), Clean & Simple (sketch) and CAS-ual Fridays (wallpaper).  Here's what I came up with.

I used one of my favorite TSG stamp sets.  Love those little bees.

OK, off to do chores.

Supplies

Stamps:  Bee Happy (TSG)

Ink:  Dandelion, Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Card stock:  Neenah Classic Crest

Paper:  Springtime (Echo Park)

Copics:  B000, Y11

Tools:  Scor-Pal

TPE Scrapbook Challenge Saturday

Hi everyone!  Happy Saturday.  I am a bit late getting this post up.  I haven't had a lot of energy today.  First of all, I woke up this morning at 9:00 (I never sleep in that late) with the most horrendous headache.  I drank 2 cups of coffee and that helped clear a few of the cobwebs in my head.  I putzed around a tiny bit more and then went back to bed til about 1:00.  Again something I never do.  I wasn't sleeping, but I was very cold.  Still wasn't able to warm up.  I proceeded to have 2 cups of hot tea, dressed in 2 pairs of sock, a pair of sweats, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt.  Then I got into my favorite chair with 2 blankets and my son's Under Armour jacket and was still cold!  I finally felt normal body heat about 9:00 this evening.  Crazy!!

Anyway, I do have a page to share with you for this week's TPE Scrapbook Challenge.  This week we're playing with Chevrons or Hexagons.  This was a perfect opportunity for me to make more Chevrons.  If you've not seen my tutorial on these fun borders, click here.

You'll have to imagine a photo in there.  I'm imagining of shot of my kids at the beach.  I just didn't have a picture large enough handy when I made this.  I did use this week's Wednesday Stamp Club sketch from MFT for this layout.

This picture gives you an up-close of my title featuring Framed Greetings from MFT and a snippet of the Chevron border I created.  I made two and layered them.

And while I'm here playing catch up.... Let me also share my card that I created for this week's challenge at Fun 'n Flair.  We're making textured cards.

My card features Chickadee, a new digi available at Fun 'n Flair.  The Easter egg is from a coloring page I found on the internet.  The washi tape I scored from a great sale at The Beary Scrap.  50% off!!  I created this card with The Kraft Journal and i {heart} sketches.