First Christmas - Elle's Studio Layout Challenge

Happy Sunday!   Will you be enjoying the day off tomorrow?  I have to go into the doctor in the morning for my gestational diabetes test which I am hoping will come back okay.  Then I get to enjoy the day with my boys!

I found some time this weekend to create a few layouts.  This one was inspired by Elle's Studio Thursday Sketch, which you can see HERE.

Yes, I am making great progress with my son's 'first year' album!  This will actually be part of an 8x8 double page layout but the other page is simply going to be filled with pictures from Christmas (maybe I'll add a coordinating embellishment or two to tie it in a little more). 

This page uses BoBunny clover double dot paper, May Arts ribbon, a Simple Stories journal card, along with some Crate Paper, Creative Cafe, and Papertrey Ink embellishments, American Crafts Thickers, and a little Maraschino twine from The Twinery.

Thanks to Elle's Studio for the inspiration!  If you want to play along in the challenge you still have a few days and can win a $10 g.c. to use toward purchasing their great tags and crafting goodies! :)

hip hip HOORAY!

All the entries are in...the Paper Crafts team is deciding who will get a chance to be their Idol this year.   I know they are going to have a hard time deciding since there are over 1400 inspiring entries.  I submitted 3 cards.  Here is one that I had a lot of fun creating.

Big award-type ribbons seem to be real trendy this year so I decided to create my own version using some yummy May Arts and American Crafts ribbon, Doodlebug Designs chunky glitter, a Papertrey Ink stamp, and some MME LUSH rhinestones.  The colorful, glitter paper is American Crafts as well...love it!
Have a wonderful day and good luck to everyone who submitted cards for the Gallery Idol contest!

And since my sweet blogging friend Savannah introduced me to a new challenge - i {heart} ribbon challenge - I am also entering this card into the current challenge which is to use at least two or more ribbons.  Click here to see the details on the challenge and link up your own ribbon project!

For the Love of Buttons!

Raise your hand if you love buttons! I don't know what it is about these small round things but if I could have jars of them in every color available I would. :) They are the perfect accent to just about any project, which is why I was immediately drawn to the 365 Cards challenge to use 15 buttons on a card. And I also decided to use Kazan's sketch #64 over at 2 Sketches 4 You.

I love how this card turned out. Thanks Kazan for the inspiring sketch! I simply turned the sketch on it's side. The yummy buttons and lovely senitment are from Papertrey Ink. The adorable snowman is from an older MME collection that I have been hoarding for 2 years. The great patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses collection and the large rikrak is May Arts.

Thanks for visiting!

Oh and if you are a button lover too you might be interested in these creative buttons from some talented crafters on Etsy!
Tessa Ann
Such Sweet Tierney
Kimmieprout

Christmas in July

Hi there! So we did actually end up going to the beach yesterday and had a great time...the tide was way out so the kids had a lot of fun exploring and playing in the sand. We saw starfish, crabs, moon snails, and even a little eel. Today we enjoyed story time at the bookstore and playing outside. And I even got a little more crafting time in too!

So this week's challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room is to create a Christmas card. Since Christmas is soooo far away still (although I know it will sneak up on us quickly) I just wasn't ready to really dive into traditional Christmas colors, Santa, or snowmen. Instead I was inspired by Bo Bunny's Peacock Lane collection to use a very different Christmas color combination and I was also inspired by the Card Style Classy and Elegant challenge in the Moxie Fab World to create this card.

I am so pleased with how this turned out! I love the rich turquoise and purple together and all the glitter really kicks this card up a notch, don't you think?!

A few design tips from this card:
- Cover your chipboard snowflake with white paint or ink and let dry before adhering glitter. This allows the glitter to really shine and prevents the kraft chipboard from showing.

- Adhere a transparency/acetate overlay by using Terrifically Tacky Tape (or other strong adhesive tape) in hidden places. I attached my snowflake overlay by using tape along the edge where I knew I would be placing my ribbon over and another piece is under the stamped sentiment.

- Look at your stamps in a whole new way! Sometimes using just part of a stamp is exactly what you need for a project. Here I emphasized the word peace with my thickers and then masked it on my stamp.

- Finally, don't be afraid to try mixing different colors...you never know what fabulous creation you might come up with!

Details:
White Cardstock and stamp - Papertrey Ink
Turquoise and Purple paper - Bo Bunny (back side of double dot paper)
Glitter Letters - American Crafts
White glitter on snowflake - Martha Stewart
Ribbon - May Arts
Snowflake Overlay - Making Memories (Mistletoe collection)
Rhinestone - Me & My Big Ideas

If you're up for creating a Christmas or classy/elegant card, there's still time to play in both The Shabby Tea Room and Moxie Fab challenges!

I'll be back tomorrow with two more cards to share!

3 Wishes - Etsy Inspired Challenge #96

Hello friends! Sorry I have been a little absent from the blog lately. I have been busy working on a custom order for my Etsy shop and have been creating several layouts and cards that I can't share quite yet. Also I am just enjoying summer with my boys! But of course I made some time to create a project for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge!

Our featured Etsy shop this week is a great little vintage shop that I discovered while browsing. Octavia & Brown is filled with wonderful vintage items for the home. Although I'm more of a clean and simple kind of gal, there's something about the charming vintage pieces in this shop that make me want to head out to flea markets and estate sales to see what goodies I can find!

I was inspired by the graphic feel and colors of the vintage numbers and letters in the shop.


These are the pieces that inspired me to use some new American Crafts goodies that I picked up last week. Isn't that number paper fun?! I wanted to highlight the number 3 so I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities to create a circle frame and added extra detail with a white gel pen. Then I used some great May Arts ribbon and American Crafts thickers to finish off the card.

To play along in the challenge simply head on over to Octavia & Brown and find an item that inspires you, create a project of your own and link it up to the Etsy Inspired blog for your chance to win! This week you could win some beautiful vintage plates from Octavia & Brown. Or a wonderful prize pack from our sponsor this week, Charleston Scrapbook Company!

Before you get started be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily B
• Emily N
• Heather (July Guest Designer)
• Jackie
• Joy
• Savannah
• Stephanie
• Virginia

Enjoy your weekend! I'm off to play some tennis with my boys and my dad...should be fun!

Merci

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! We did a lot of spring cleaning...slowly trying to get ready for putting our house on the market. We want to make sure our house shows well so we are really going through everything and donating things we don't need or use anymore, reorganizing our closets and the boys rooms, plus just general detailed cleaning and small home improvement projects.

I wanted to share the two other thank you cards that I created for Paper Crafts Gallery Idol auditions. I didn't make the cut for the top 20 but there are a ton of talented ladies who did so make sure to go vote and support them next week!

Here is one of my favorites that I made for this call.

I just love this Hero Arts stamp and the soft, natural colors and twine (May Arts). I stamped the image in brown on both white and kraft cardstock and then cut out the sentiment from the kraft image and popped it up on foam squares on the white image. All of the paper and the Ocean Tides button is Papertrey Ink. The border punch is Martha Stewart.

Next is a card that is a little different than my normal style I think. It's a little more romantic...kind of french wedding thank you note feel maybe? You be the judge! :)

The pretty blue paper and pearl accents are from MME Lush collection. The pink accents are from KI Memories (Lace Hearts), Making Memories (rose brad), and American Crafts (letters).

I'm off to do some more cleaning and purging...gotta start on my craft space! :)

Life is Sweet

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! I enjoyed lots of great time with my boys and a nice dinner with my family last night. I also found some time and energy to get some crafting in so I decided to participate in the Get Sketchy challenge this week.


Here is the sketch I was working with. I thought this card turned out pretty cute...makes me want to have a picnic! I am loving the new gingham ribbon from May Arts. And I thought the sentiment (from My Favorite Things) worked perfectly with the sweet strawberries. I hand cut that strawberry in the center.

The patterned papers are from BoBunny (dots) and Basic Grey (Nook & Pantry).


And here's the latest treasury I created over on Etsy.
I just love this color and especially the ocean photo...so soothing. I could so use a peaceful beach vacation! :) Click HERE to get a closer look at these items and the fabulous shops that sell them.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll have more to share later this week!

Ever feel like...

you are in a bit of a rut? That is where I am at lately. I usually am a very organized, positive, ahead of the game type of person...but lately I just feel like I am lacking a little motivation and feeling more like I am always just a step behind and needing to catch up on stuff. I haven't done much exercising in awhile and haven't been eating the best either...I know this is part of the problem. I think I maybe need to be better about taking more time for myself. I love my boys and family so much but sometimes I need to do a better job taking care of their mommy...know what I mean?

If you have any great motivational type books you've read or sites you visit that really inspire you...I'd love to hear your suggestions! Several years ago I read 'The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity' by Julia Cameron. It was wonderful. It focuses a lot on journaling and taking creative time for yourself each week. I would highly recommend it to anyone feeling a little down and needing some creative direction. Maybe I should go back through it again myself! :) I am hoping that a friend and I can find one day each week to meet up at the gym...that would be a good start!

Anyway, thanks for listening...I'm feeling a little better already! :) It's nice to have such wonderful blogging friends! I so wish some of you lived nearby...I am sure we would be good friends!

And I can't leave you all without a little project of some sort so I thought I would share my favorite Easter card that I created last year...hopefully it will be new to most of you! :)


This card uses Bella Blvd papers and sticker as well as some Bazzill Basics cardstock and May Arts ribbon.