LOVE Our Family - Echo Park NSD challenge

Well, I managed to get one layout completed for National Scrapbook Day.  I don't know about you, but I am not a fast scrapbooker so trying to complete one (let alone multiple) layout in a day is a challenge itself.  :)  My scrapbooking usually looks like this...Day 1: pick some photos I want to scrapbook and find papers that compliment them  Day2: Play with the layout of photos/papers and think about the story I want to tell  Day 3: Put the layout together and add embellishments/details 

I can be a bit of a perfectionist so I like to revisit my layout over several days.  So, needless to say this is probably not my most impressive layout ever but I am proud that I completed it in an hour and sometimes I just need to remember that it is the telling of the story/capturing the memories that is most important!

I created this layout for Echo Park's NSD Challenge #2 - Layout of Love and also for Big Picture Classes' Creative Crop Challenge #5 - a sketch by Lisa Day.

 

The journaling leaves a little to be desired but I wrote...love this man, these boys, this life...

And at the heart of it all, that is what I feel when I look at this photo...blessed.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy National Scrapbook Day!

 

 

Bring on the Sunshine! - Echo Park NSD Challenge

Hello all!  I hope you are having a fabulous weekend!  Are you doing any scrapbooking?  There are so many great challenges to participate in since yesterday was National Scrapbook Day.  I am hoping to get one or two layouts done but usually I take a few days to complete a page (especially when the weather is so gorgeous!).  However, yesterday I did get have time to create a card for Echo Park's Summer Card Challenge.

Back in 2010, when Echo Park released their Sweet Summertime collection I immediately fell in love with this company.  I bought TWO of the Sweet Summertime collection packs (so I still have some in my stash).  I just love the happy, colorful, and playful designs that Echo Park comes up with and Sweet Summertime is still one of my favorites (although I am loving all their new Photo Freedom collections too!).

Sunny, yellow paper just makes me happy...how about you?!  You know those little strips at the bottom of scrapbook paper that show the pattern on the other side?  I often cut them out to use as a little accent strip or little flag but for this card I just cut my patterned paper so that the strip is still connected.  I love how it immediately creates a little border for my card and you could switch it to the top if you wanted and tie the twine around the little strip of white that separates the two patterns.

Hopefully I will be back later today with a layout!  Click HERE to see all of Echo Park's NSD challenges.

Sweet Baby Decor

So, we all have jars of buttons sitting around (right?!...please tell me I am not the only one!), probably getting a bit neglected since there are so many embellishments to choose from these days.  For me, my jars of buttons are almost more décor at this point!  However, for my project today I dug into my jar of Papertrey Ink Spring Mix Vintage Button Collection to create this...

I love the look of button frames so I got to thinking about how I could use the idea of framing with buttons to create a home décor item and came up with this pretty little wall hanging...perfect for a baby shower decoration or baby room décor.

First I die cut 4 circle frames out of chipboard which I then painted white.  I backed them with patterned paper (Echo Park's Love Story Collection) and added the AC thickers in the middle of each circle.  Then I adhered the circles together, punched a hole in the top of the first and last circle frame, and began laying out the buttons until I was happy with how they looked and adhered them.

Next I punched holes in each corner of the slide frame (from Crate Paper's new collection, The Pier), backed the frame with patterned paper and added the sentiment and buttons.  Finally I threaded some ribbon through the slide frame and connected it to the circle frames for a cute wall hanging.  And after I made a sweet card to go with it yesterday (see HERE), I decided it needed a little something more and added those pretty pink flowers (Maya Road) to the ribbon.

Other ideas/tips:
* Fill the circle frames with pictures of the new baby.
* Add the birth date to the slide frame.
* Use buttons to create a frame around a sentiment on a card.
* Instead of putting buttons all around the frames, consider clustering buttons in random spots around the frame to create a more dramatic accent to the frame.

Are you wanting to dig into your button stash?!  If so, Chic Tags' Sunday Challenge is to Use Buttons on a project!  I am entering my project into the challenge and you can too, just click HERE.

I hope you all have a lovely day!  The sun is shining again here in the Pacific Northwest so I am going to go out and enjoy it while it lasts! :)

Shabby Chic Card - Look Who Just Arrived

Oh what a lovely day...the sun is shining, I got some weeding done, played with my boys, and had time to make a card!  Hooray for a good day!   :)

I was inspired this week by the new Fusion Card Challenge (sketch only) and Cath's beautiful Tuesday Trigger (shown above) over in the Moxie Fab World.  When I saw the trigger a few thoughts came to mind...Spring, pretty, soft and sweet, floral, pink, and white.  So, I started digging through my stash and when I came across this gorgeous floral paper from Echo Park's Love Story collection I knew it was the perfect starting point for my card.

The paper inspired me to stray a bit from my normal style and go more shabby chic...

I based the layout of my card off of the Fusion #4 sketch (shown below).  I began by distressing my Core'dinations cardstock just to soften the look a bit.  After adhering my patterned paper I layered some pink ribbon and crocheted lace (Hero Arts) across the card.  Then I added some tulle behind my pink flower (Maya Road) and pleated some pink ribbon across the bottom of the slide frame (from Crate Paper's new collection 'The Pier' {insert puffy heart here!}) and adhered both to the card.  Finally, I distressed a small piece of the cardstock so that a lot of white was showing and stamped my sentiment in Antique Pewter (just a touch of metallic like the Tuesday trigger), trimmed it, bent it a bit to give it more dimension/interest, and adhered it with the button to the corner of the frame. 

Here is a close up so you can get a better look at the distressed sentiment flag, slide frame, and lovely ribbon layers. 

I hope you've enjoyed my project today because I will be back tomorrow with a coordinating gift/décor project!  :)

To play along in the Fusion challenge click HERE or the Tuesday Trigger challenge click HERE.

Hope you are enjoying some sunshine where you are today too!

Watercolor - Old School Style

The sun has been shining here for the past three days so I haven't been crafting much...just enjoying time outside with my boys and doing some spring cleaning!  However, I did take a little time the other night to play around with some watercolors.  I am not much of a mixed media crafter (although I did love all kinds of art growing up) but I have been seeing so many AMAZING mixed media projects around the web lately.  So, when I saw Cath's challenge - The Wonder of Watercolor Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I decided to see what I could come up with.  I went back to my preschool roots and started playing around with the crayon resist technique.

For those of you who (like me) may not have all the fancy art supplies, I simply used a white crayon and some Crayola watercolors to create this...

First I drew a heart in the middle of my card front and wrote the word love inside with white crayon.  Then I used washi tape to make a border around my card.  In order to get some richer areas of color and to see a little texture from the brush strokes, I first used just enough water to get some color on my brush.  Then I lightly swept the brush in a diagonal stroke back and forth across my card from top to bottom leaving some space between strokes to add my second color.  I repeated this technique with my second color and then added more water to my brush and lightly brushed it over my card to blend the colors and soften the color in places.  Finally, I removed the washi tape and voila! a beautifully framed watercolor/sentiment!

 

I am really happy with how this turned out and I think it was the least expensive card I have ever made! :)  I hope I have inspired you to try your hand at something new.  It is fun to experiment and you never know when it might result in something fabulous! 

 

If you want to participate in this challenge or see how others are creating with watercolor, click HERE.

 

Birthday Party Decor & I'm a Cover Girl!

Well, I have been busy crafting for some submission calls but I wanted to stop in to share one project that I decided to make just for fun!  I am getting ready to celebrate my little guy's first birthday so I have been looking around the blogosphere for all kinds of inspiration and trying to decide on a theme and decorations.  So, last night I was playing around with my supplies and came up with this project...perfect to add a little fun to your food/dessert table or even to place at the birthday boy's place setting.

 

Fun, right?!  For this project I wrapped a little juice can with washi tape (4 layers to hide the images on the can).  Then I had fun decorating the can with Echo Park's Scoot stickers.  To create the flags I used a wooden dowel (although wooden skewers work well too).  I made a larger pennant style flag and decorated it with more stickers then accented it with the two smaller flags.  I love the candle and confetti paper...if you are in a hurry, simply creating a few of these would add a little whimsy to your party table decor!

 

Still not sure what I'm going to do for my little guy's party but I'm sure I'll have more party decor items to share soon!  And in July, Paper Crafts' new Birthday Creations magazine will be coming out and guess who has a project on the cover?!  Me! :)  Sooooo excited!  

Finally, in my search for great birthday party ideas I discovered a fabulous blog that I'm sure many of you would love as well...The Hostess With the Mostess.  There are truly some AMAZING birthday themes/parties that people have come up with and photographed beautifully. 

Have a lovely day!  I am hoping to get a few more projects started...

Today is a Gift - Spring Home Decor

This week I was inspired by the beautiful Spring weather we are having, Crate Paper's Creative Weekly challenge (butterflies), and the Spring Home Décor challenge in the Moxie Fab World to create this...

ETA 4/2/13 - Just had to share that Crate Paper picked this as one of their runner ups for the challenge.  I'm featured on their blog along with several other talented crafters HERE!

Would you believe that I created this bright, spring décor mainly using Crate Paper's Snow Day collection?!  I had a lot of fun creating this and think it will now have a permanent place in my craft room.  If you are considering creating a framed décor item, I highly recommend embellishing at least part of the frame and removing the glass so you can include 3D items inside.  This adds much more interest to your project. 

Also, be sure to take a second look at some of your holiday/season specific papers...you might be able to use them in a whole new way!  In fact, Crate Paper's snowflake paper made some gorgeous butterflies when I was very intentional about where I punched the butterflies.  Although I didn't end up using them on this project, I thought I would still share a picture of them with you. 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter!  Remember...today is a gift, so enjoy every minute of it!