Sunday, February 24, 2013

Gold Lame'

I don't do monthly kit clubs and I don't have any plans on joining any in the near future, but I do love the current Jenni Bowlin kit.  I was able to purchase it this month, so the layout below is almost all from that kit, with the exception of the washi tape, doilies and chipboard hearts that I covered in glitter. 
I am a messy scrapper.  Ink gets smudged, lines don't always go straight and glitter gets everywhere.   OMG...I love glitter!  I had a lot of inspiration this week.  At City Crafter Challenge, the theme is All that Glitter's. I started out with the sketch from this weeks Let Get Sketchy sketch, but after awhile, it morphed into this and the only hexagon remaining became an accent piece.  A Twisted Tuesday Challenge!
At Use Your Stuff, Challenge #72 All in the Family, there is a challenge to document something about your family.  I was too late to link up, but I had to give a shout-out because they really did inspire me.  :) The layout is about a skirt my daughter wore her senior year of high school.  She's graduating from college in three months, so as you can tell, I don't scrap chronologically. :)
 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

color challenge

This week Paper Smooches is holding a Cool Shades challenge, where inspiration is drawn from colors. I used a couple of their new sets for this card.  I used Leafy Greens and Tri-balation. 
 
 
The color story is inspired by "Carnival".  The colors are Chocolate, Cream, Aqua, Cherry Red. And of course I had to put my own spin on it, so it's a loose interpretation. :) 
 
In case you were wondering, I cut out pieces of the stamped leaf image with my trusty old exacto knife.  I also added some details with a black pen.  The background was made from a Tim Holtz embossing folder and the lacey cut-out was cut with my cricut. 
Yeah...I had fun! :)
 
 
 

  
 

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Exciting News!

I have exciting news to share!  I was chosen to be a Design Team Member for The Rubber Cafe! YAY! I am thrilled to be working with such a talented group of ladies!  Follow their blog to see the wonderful projects and tutorials made with the wide variety of stamps and embellishments.  You'll love them! 


Monday, February 18, 2013

Šablóna Challenge

As I mentioned earlier, last week was Winterfest at Two Peas in a Bucket.  One of the challenges was a stencil challenge.  (Šablóna is the slovak word for stencil.) The challenge was hosted by Anne Gaal.  Anne created a lovely video on using distress stains and stencils to create a  patterned background.  You can view that video here.


For this card, I used the inks, rather than the stains. First I inked up some paper with "squeezed lemonade" (yellow) distress ink. Then I used a dylusions 5x8 "Number Jumble" stencil from ranger and inked it with "wild honey" ink. Then I shifted the stencil slightly up and to the left and inked it again with "vintage photo" (brown). This gave the off-set look. Then the background looked blah so I lightly inked the triangular design on the edge of the stencil over the top. But in hindsight, I wish that I had done that step first. The quote came from a Tim Hotz Stampers Anonymous "Life's Possibilites" clear set. And I used a Martha Stewart corner punch to get that "arch" on the sentiment mat. I like mixing Tim Holtz and Martha Stewart products because they seem such complete opposites. I would love to see them actually work together. I imagine Martha saying, "Tim, don't you think that you've used enough of that grunge stuff? Eww"!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Sweet Silhouettes

The Shabby Tea Room is hosting a "Sweet Silhouette" challenge to use a silhouette as the focal point.  I love silhouettes!  I always have.  In fact, when my children were babies, I was lucky enough to have Tim Arnold, who is considered America's premier silhouette artist, craft silhouettes of my sons.  He is amazing!  He will sit and look at his subject, and then start cutting free-hand.  It is incredible! 

This card was created with a stamped image from Hero Arts. I fussy cut around it, adhered it to a antique book page and added a vintage flower. I used gold, dreden foil accents on the card. I love the pretty foil pieces, but they photograph horribly. I also used some Martha Stewart glitter paint to dress up the chipboard frame.  I do love glitter!

 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Red Velvet Cake

I was given the opportunity to be a Guest Designer at The Paper Mixing Bowl.  I submitted this layout for their February challenge, which is inspired by "Red Velvet Cake".   Unfortunately, there is not a link back to my blog, so I wanted to post it here as well.
This layout features photos of my talented daughter who is a brilliant artist.  I love watching her paint.  It is magical.  These photos show her working on artwork that she did while in high school.  Now she has a cute little apartment of her own and will be graduating from college in just a few short months.  My advice to her is to "create and be you".
I love the look that silhouette and cameo die cutting machines give, but I don't own one.  So, I created a similar look on my layout with my trusty, old X-acto knife.  It worked!
 

FREE Valentine Printable

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Isn't it lovely?  Happy Valentines Day!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Sew Much

Just recently, I purchased this Needle Little Love stamp set from Paper Smooches.  I had a lot of fun with this and I am sure that it is going to be one of my favorite stamp sets.
Winterfest is still going on at Two Peas in a Bucket.  There are stamping challenges and games going on everyday this week in the stamping forum.  This card was inspired by The Hearts Galore Challenge posted there.   
  

Friday, February 8, 2013

I challenge you!

I am hosting a stamping challenge during Winterfest 13 at Two Peas in a bucket.  Winterfest is a week-long online festival of games and challenges. Curious? You can find out more about my Little-Known Consequences Challenge here.



 For my challenge sample, I used the Artistic Outpost Ephemera Background plate as well as the Outpost plate.  Artistic Outpost has a monthly referal program where you can link up your Artistic Outpost projects in hopes of winning awesome stampy prizes!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

I miss you

This week there is a challenge at City Crafter Challenge to use a map.  I knew that I HAD to participate in this one.  I live in Arkansas.  My oldest son lives in Dallas (that's a Texas map that I used in the background), my daughter attends the University of Kentucky.  And my mother lives in Indiana.  With so many loved ones living so far away, we use a lot of maps!  (And the GPS, of course!)
As usual, there's a lot of different paper lines here.  The card base is an older Basic Grey paper,  There's also some of the On Trend papers as well as the new Fourteen Valentine papers. And the stamps are original vintage.