... just Laura

Kerri Bradford Studio: Do Not Open Until Christmas

I have another little project up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today. Now that my girls are older, along with my nieces, I tend to give a lot of gift cards at Christmastime. So I'm always looking for fun ways to give them. When I saw the cute little pinked petal envelope in Kerri's Santa's Workshop: Toys Only kit, I pictured it paired up with the Confetti kit to create a fun shaker envelope.

I cut the envelope from some tone-on-tone patterned paper (all patterned papers are from Simply Stories), picking a lighter color so that the other elements would stand out against it. I cut a piece of a transparency just slightly smaller then the size of the envelope and machine stitched it to the front of the envelope, leaving one side open. 

This shows the backside of the envelope, which is really the inside of the envelope once you open it up. When I went to photograph this, I didn't have anything to hold the flaps down, so I don't have a picture of it closed. Once I jot down my message on the inside and add the gift card, I will fold down the flaps and secure them with a sticker or some washi tape.

I used Kerri's Confetti kit to cut pieces of confetti from two different patterned papers and then dropped them into the "pocket" I had created with the transparency. I added in some red, green, and silver sequins before sewing the last side of the transparency closed.

I cut the "do not open" from Kerri's December Twenty-Five kit and adhered it directly to the top of the transparency, using some tiny alpha stickers to finish off my sentiment. Or maybe I should call it my "instructions" to the recipient of the gift :)

Scrapbook & Cards Today: 12 Days Of Holiday Giving

I hope you've been visiting the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog for the last week and a half, to check out their 12 Day of Holiday Giving celebration! Each and every day, for 12 full days, they are sharing holiday project ideas from the design team and hosting some amazing giveaways from their generous sponsors! And TODAY is my turn to share! 

When I sit down to create Christmas cards, I love to come up with designs that are simple, quick, and easy to mass produce. I use this same concept when I create birthday cards, since I use so many of them. I also love to keep my cards fairly flat, so that they don't require any extra postage or special handling when mailing off to family and friends. If I happen to create more elaborate or bulky designs, I save those for the ones that I personally hand out.

These cards took no time at all to put together. I chose a sentiment and a scalloped border to die cut using my Silhouette Cameo, and arranged them on my cutting mat so that I could cut multiple sets at once. I used three different strips of patterned paper on my mat, lining them up so that I cut 2 sets (a sentiment and a border) from each paper. If you were doing a large amount of cards, you could even cut all 6 sets from the same patterned paper, and then repeat for your other paper choices.

I also cut the "merry" part of my sentiment from a black chalkboard patterned paper (arranging as many as needed on my cutting mat), which was layered over the original sentiment cut. Once my pieces were cut, it was just a matter of adhering them to my cards.

I adhered two thin coordinating strips of patterned paper along the bottom of each card base, which I also lightly spritzed with misting spray in coordinating colors. 

I adhered my scalloped border die cuts to each card, matching the color of my border to the color of misting spray on each card base. 

Then I decided which color sentiment I wanted on each card, and adhered those in place. A little machine stitching and I was finished.

I mentioned there is a new giveaway every single day, right? And I said they were amazing giveaways, right? Today, for the day 10 giveaway, there is a generous prize package from both Stampin' Up and Gossamer Blue! Head over HERE to get all the details and leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway.

You have until 6:00pm EST on Sunday, December 21st to enter in all of the giveaways. So if you're just now hearing about Scrapbook & Cards Today's 12 Days of Holiday Giving celebration, you can still go back and check out the first 9 days and get in on those giveaways as well!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas Joy Cards

It’s that time of year again. The Twelve Days of Christmas celebration started over at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. There’s a ton of good stuff happening over those twelve days. Fun ideas, giveaways, guests and the ever popular one-day only freebie! You never know what each day will bring, so you don’t want to miss a day!

I created two different projects for our celebration, and the first one is up today. I came across a cute wooden Christmas tree on Pinterest (original project can be seen HERE), and asked Kerri if she could create something similar as a cut file. I knew it would make a great design to use on Christmas cards, although I'm also picturing it being used to create a fun wall décor piece. 

I knew I wanted to keep my cards fairly flat, so they would be easier to mail. I also love creating cards that can be mass produced, and this was one of those. I created eight of these cards in one sitting, two of each color.

I had some patterned papers in mind before I even started these card. I immediately thought of my stash of Basic Grey papers, as they have some great tone-on-tone patterns that I can never seem to part with. I think you all know my fondness for tone-on-tone papers :)

I chose a few papers in the colors you'll see in my home when it comes to decorating for the holidays. Green, red, pink, and aqua. I cut several sets from each color at once, cutting the dotted part of the tree from the patterned papers and the solid backsides from white cardstock.

For the base of my cards, I cut pieces of white cardstock just slightly smaller than my card and embossed them using a snowflake embossing folder. I spritzed each one with coordinating colors of misting spray, and did some machine stitching around the edges.

Then I started piecing together my trees. I started by adhering all of the dotted patterned paper pieces to the solid white cardstock pieces. I had cut the tree trunks from a black dotted patterned paper and once I adhered those to the card, I adhered the rest of the pieces and added a yellow star at the top.

For my sentiment, I die cut the word "joy", taken from Kerri's Just Because kit, from the same black patterned paper that I cut my tree trunks from. I used tiny alpha stickers, from Jillibean Soup and Lily Bee, to add the "christmas".

Scrapbook & Cards Today: World Card Making Day 2014

Hey everyone! If you haven't heard yet, today is World Card Making Day. I had a card go up over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog early this morning, and wanted to share it here too. I picked out a sketch from the new Card Maps 4 issue, and created my card based off that. You can check out the sketch over on their blog.

Maybe it's because I've been working with Bella Blvd's Snapshots fabic collection all week, but my mind immediately went to our Snapshots paper collection for this card.

You should definately take some time to visit the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today. There has been posts going up every hour, on the hour all day long. There are 17 posts in all, with amazing giveaways every single hour. You have until Friday, October 17th to leave comments and get in on a chance to win some fun goodies.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: You Are The Best

Hey everyone! I know I sort of, kind of, disappeared on you all. It's been a busy few weeks around these parts. In the last two weeks, I've send my fifteen year old back to high school, had two seven year olds go back to school, had a two and a half year old kiddo leave my daycare, started watching a new eight month old baby girl, and moved my almost eighteen year old into the college dorms. That last item deserves a post of it's own, but I'm not quite ready to type that up just yet.

I do have some things that I want to share, and I'm pretty sure I had mentioned sharing a certain project a month ago that I just let slip through the cracks. I'll be getting back to some more normal blogging later this week, but in the meantime I thought I would do a simple card share just to get something new up on this blog!

I created this card for the Summer issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today. I was asked to pick a card from the Spring issue, and then "lift" the design to create a new card. I found a card that fit my style perfectly, as this is a straightforward design (paper placement wise) that I use often.

I used some patterned paper from Bella Blvd, along with some Bo Bunny tone-on-tone dotted patterned paper. I actually started the card with the flower, as it was left over from THIS layout. It was on the desk, and fit the card design I was lifting, so I just went with it. I love when projects just fall together on their own.

Bella Blvd: Pinterest Inspired Cards

Today is our Pinterest Inspired feature over on the Bella Blvd blog, and I played along by creating a few cards.

  

When I picked out this image for the designers to work with, I was immediately drawn to all the fabric filled hoops arranged on the wall. I love incorporating circles into my designs, which is why I most likely choose a similar circle design image for a Pinterest Inspired challenge back in June (this layout). 

Image credit: Sweet Pickins. I also think I was drawn to this image because I love the look of the hoops on the wall and have always thought it would be fun to do somewhere in my house. Check out her blog post for all the details on how she did this. As I'm typing this, I'm actually looking around my downstairs for a wall where I could work this into :)

For my first card, I used a circle die cut card base (found in the Silhouette store) that I cut on my Cameo from white cardstock. I was going to incorporate some of the same colors in the Pinterest image with my patterned paper choices, and the very first paper I thought of was the tan dotted paper from a much older Bella collection. I then started randomly digging through my Bella patterned paper collection, and ended up not using any of the other colors I had in mind. I went with a tan, aqua, and pink color combo for this first card.

I like that it cuts as one piece, and is scored to fold in half. But to make backing some of the circles with patterned paper easier on myself, I simply cut off the front part of the card and discarded the backside. I then ran the entire die cut piece thru my Xyron machine, so that it was covered in adhesive. This made it easy to place the patterned paper circles where I wanted them, before sticking the entire piece onto a white card base.

The die cut card had a heart shape right where I have the button. I thought about adding a chipboard heart, but couldn't find one that felt right, so I went with a button instead. The colors of the patterned papers made me think of these "Bride & Groom" flags from the Love and Marriage collection, so I ended up with a wedding card when I was finished. You know, because I know SO many couples that get married. NOT.

For my second card, I went with a similar circle design, but used punches instead of die cuts. I picked out three of my smaller circle punches to use, and punched numerous circles from a few patterned papers. I knew I wanted to do a birthday card, since I have a daycare boy that's turning two today. I used the same tan dotted paper, along with some aqua, yellow, and green patterned papers.

I randomly adhered the circles to a white card base, overlapping them as needed. I then spritzed the entire card with a bit of navy blue misting spray.

I had picked out this green chipboard accent piece to use, since I knew I would be using a few flags again. To help it stand out against all those circles, I added a small strip of white cardstock matted onto a scalloped edged strip of navy blue cardstock. I tucked the two flags in and adhered the chipboard piece below them.

To check out a few layouts inspired by this same Pinterest image, head over to the Bella Blvd blog.

Laina Lamb Design: Graduation Cards

I'm back. I totally disappeared there, didn't I? There's always SO much happening in the last few weeks of the school year, and having a senior this year makes it even crazier. Blogging has just been the last thing on my mind. Not that I had much of anything to blog about, even if I did want to post. I have been working on two seperate, yet related, album projects that I will share later on. I did take a few minutes to whip up a few simple cards though.

Graduation has been on my mind. Big time. Alyssa graduates from high school tomorrow evening, and I still can't believe it's happening. I got a message from my talented friend, Laina Lamb, a while back, asking if I would want to work with a few of the dies and stamps that she designs thru My Favorite Things (her dies can be seen HERE, her stamps can be seen HERE). She knew that I had a senior in high school, which meant that I would definitely be needing some graduation themed products to put to good use.

Because I've had so much going on, and the album projects were taking up most of my creativity, I ended up keeping these two cards pretty simple. It wasn't my intention starting out, but just sort of how they worked out. Not that creating these two little cards didn't involve me making a huge mess of my scraproom. Lol.

I loved the Graduation Accents die, and knew right away that I would use the "congratulations" die for a few cards. It fits perfectly across the front of a standard card. I got the wild idea to die cut these out of white textured cardstock, and then heat emboss them. I can't remember the last time I heat embossed anything. And once I started, I quickly remembered how messy it can get. I shouldn't say "messy". It just required me taking out a lot more "stuff" than I normally use when making cards. But I love the look of it, once it's done.

I rarely ever buy cards anymore, since I have everything I need to create my own, which saves a ton of money. But the one thing I miss about store-bought cards is having the words written for you. When I create my own cards, I have the short and sweet sentiment on the front, but then I'm left with that empty white space inside the card. And while I consider myself a pretty good writer, I am always at a loss for what to say inside cards. I decided I would use the Happy Graduation stamps to add a little extra sentiment inside the cards.

I stuck to a black, green, grey, and white color scheme for these cards, since those are our school colors. I have a hard time finding the right shade of green patterned papers, when it comes to matching our school colors. I found this paper which was a perfect match, and it was actually a soccer field patterned paper. I ran it thru my Cuttlebug in a dotted embossing folder.

I used silver embossing powder on the first card, and black embossing powder on the second card. I had another card in the works, using green, but quickly realized that none of my green embossing powders were anywhere close to the right shade. I also spritzed on a little white and black misting spray to my patterned papers, so they weren't so flat looking.

Please ignore my messy embossing on the stamped sentiments inside the cards. I did them at the kitchen island, while the daycare kids ate lunch. I knew I had little flecks of black embossing powder when I didn't want it. But I also knew that things were happening in front of me (dropped forks, sippy cup thrown on the floor resulting in a huge puddle of spilled milk, and kids begging for more of this and that food), and I just had to get it done. Sometimes multi-tasking doesn't work out as well as it should.

I had already die cut some numbers using Laina's Bright Lights Numbers & Symbols dies, so I thought I would use them on the backside of a few envelopes. And of course, a #SENIOR stamp, as hashtags are all the rage with the teens.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Die Cut Background & Handwritten Script Cards

I was so close to putting together a blog post last night, and then just got caught up in watching a few of my favorite shows on the DVR. The kind of shows that I have to actually pay attention too, as there is so much going on. If I were to work on a blog post while watching, I would have to watch the show all over again tonight, as I would have no idea what had happened.

For my April project for Kerri Bradford Studio, I thought I would make a few cards. I've been creating lots of layouts lately, and wanted to work on a smaller canvas. Of course, when I say I'm going to make a few cards, it usually means that I'm going to mass produce a bunch of cards. If I'm die cutting pieces for a card or two, my thinking is that I might as well cut extras while I'm at it, so that I can have extra cards on hand. So making a few cards often takes WAY more time than if I would have just made a layout.

I picked out a few sentiments from Kerri’s new Happy Stuff kit that would be perfect for making some cards. I’m always needing birthday cards, love to send out “hello” cards, and I thought the “that’s kind of cool” would be great for a congratulations-type card.

I did use all Stampin' Up cardstock for these cards. I haven't really used their cardstock in my Cameo before, as I try and stick to using mostly American Crafts cardstock for all of my die cutting. The backgrounds cut just fine, but the sentiments didn't cut quite as well. I should have thickened them up a bit. Mental note for next time :)

I also cut a variety of backgrounds to create the card bases from cardstock. I think the chevron was my favorite, found in the Life Additions #2 kit. I also both a circle and a wave background for a few of the cards, found in the More Background Basics kit. 

I had picked out some sheets of patterned paper from a variety of 6x6" paper pads that I thought I would incorporate into the design somehow. I ended up cutting just the negative shapes from these papers, thinking I would piece them into the cardstock backgrounds. So I had cut some circles to fit into the circle background, some zig zags to fit into the chevron backgrounds, and some waves to fit into the wave backgrounds.

I did end up using some of the pieces, but not quite as many as I had planned. I was working with just blue, pink, and green cardstock, and soon realized that some of the sentiments wouldn't show up that well if the backgroud was too busy. So I added a few pieces in here and there and even left them entirely off some of the cards.

I wanted to keep the cards fairly flat so they would be easy to mail. By sticking to a background piece, a sentiment, and a few enamel dots, I was able to create simple cards that still have plenty of interest to them.

If I'm being totally honest, these four cards are the only ones that are finished. I have backgrounds, sentiments, and extras all put aside for 8 more cards. We'll see if I ever finish them. Lol.

Citrus Twist Kits: April Guest Designer - Technique Tutorial

I've had such a great time guest designing for Citrus Twist Kits this month, and working with their fabulous April kits. I have my last project up on their blog today, and it's a short tutorial.

I already mentioned in my posts here about how I altered the chipboard frames that came in the kit. But if you like visuals, or would like to see just how easy it is to get this look, head over to the Citrus Twist Kits blog, where you can see my step-by-step tutorial.

Much Needed Set Of Birthday Cards

I was really trying to get these cards posted last night, but it was so dark and dreary yesterday that I wasn't able to get any photos taken. The sun is out in full force today, thankfully, so I was able to snap these photos while the daycare kids were napping. And if all goes well, I'll get this post finished before they wake up.

I always need birthday cards, and yet they are the one kind of card I never seem to make that often. I have a crazy amount of thank you card, just saying hi cards, miss you cards, cheer up cards, and good luck cards. You know, the kinds of cards that I never seem to actually use.

There's always birthdays popping up randomly throughout the year. Some that I know about, and some that are total surprises to me (meaning the girl's friends!). Although, if I'm being totally honest, even when I know a birthday card is needed, you will most likely find me tossing one together two minutes before we're leaving for the party! True story.

I recently worked with the new DIY Boutique collection from Simple Stories for an upcoming layout in Scrapbook & Cards Today. Somehow or another, I accumulated a TON of scraps while working on my layout. I was cutting into papers left and right, not really having a solid idea in mind going into the design process. Instead of filing all of those scraps away, I figured I might as well put them to good use now, instead of hoping that one day down the road I'd want to do something with them.

These birthday cards were so easy to throw together. I choose a "happy birthday" sentiment from the Silhouette store, along with a fun scalloped border (both by Lori Whitlock). I sized them to fit the front of a standard card, and arranged them so that I could cut them from four different colors of paper. That would give me two "birthday" and two borders in each color that I could mix and match.

On the backsides of some of the patterned papers were bright solids that matched the patterned papers in the collection. I simply used a three inch strip of the pink, orange, blue, and green papers, and lined all four of them up on my cutting mat at once. Afterwards, I cut eight of the "happy" part of my sentiment, all from black cardstock.

I ended up using the same exact patterned papers for all eight cards. I cut a one inch piece of the "Lovely" sequin patterned paper to adhere across the bottom of the card, and a half inch strip of the "Newspaper" patterned paper to adhere directly above it.

I then added one of the border pieces that I cut underneath the newspaper print strip. I waited until I had adhered my sentiment before I added my machine stitching. I knew I was going to do a zig zag stitch, which would partially stitch on the "birthday" piece.

To finish off the cards, I added a few enamel dots to the newspaper strip, and a few stickers to the top right corner. Easy peasy, right? I did these all assembly line style, so I would adhere one element to all eight cards. Then the next element to all eight cards. So on and so on. Not sure how long these eight birthday cards will last me, but it's nice to know I have some on hand.

Hello There

So, here's the thing. Over the past year or two, the amount of scrapbooking "work" on my plate has gone down significantly. For a few reasons. I have so much less that I "have" to do these days, compared to what I was doing a few years back.

I know what you might be thinking. If I have less that I "have" to do, doesn't that leave me more time to do what I "want" to do. Not really. It turns out, that after years of doing so much design team work, I have become very assignment-driven. You get used to being told what to scrap about, what sort of techniques to do, and what kind of product to use. You're given deadlines and due dates.

So, without those assignments, it turns out I have a hard time deciding what to do. I'm left with making all of those decisions on my own. What photos and stories do I want to scrap? What products do I want to use? It's all up to me. Which sounds quite freeing, right? It is, and yet it leaves me feeling lost all at the same time. It's weird.

There's also the time factor. I guess that has a little something to do with how much or how little I scrap. Life is busy. Really, really busy. My free time is more limited these days. And most of the time, when I do have some free time, I'm honestly just too tired from work to do much.  

But if I don't start scrapping just for the heck of it, I will go weeks at a time with nothing to share and nothing to blog about. And I hate doing that. So I am really going to make an effort to start creating more than I have been, so that there's something to see when you pop in here for a visit :)

A Few Quick Cards

It's been a little quieter on the assignment side of my scrapping, so for once, I'm working ahead on some upcoming projects. Something I never do. I'm pretty sure I have at least eight different projects in the works, all in different stages, and spread out all over the place. I have just been doing little bits here and there, jumping from project to project. Which means I have lots of scraps laying around. I gathered up some of those scraps and whipped up a few extra cards tonight.

I was working on a card assignment and had this idea using the open circle background piece, cut with my Silhouette. I only had a few small pieces of paper to work with for this card, so I pulled out a few random pieces of patterned paper and cut three of the circle die cuts. My idea for the actual assignment didn't work, but I still had these three pieces perfect for a few cards.

I also had a piece of my favorite white grid patterned paper, which I had sprayed with pink misting spray. I was able to get three pieces that were large enough to use on the three cards. I adhered them on the left side of the card bases, and stapled my circle die cut pieces right on top.

I then dug through some of my 6x6" paper pads and found a few woodgrain patterned papers to use for the right side of each card. I took a few scraps of the same papers I cut the circle die cut pieces from and punched some scalloped borders to add to each card.

I wanted something quick and easy for the sentiments. I had a few packs of the new Heidi Swapp stickers that I had picked up at Michaels, and they matched the papers perfectly. I had a little issue with one of my packs, since the stickers weren't actually sticky. In fact, they had a shiny backing to them, which meant that I couldn't get any adhesive to stick to them at all.

I ended up punching out a circle from white cardstock, placing the two stickers in the center (the outer ring sticker is seperate from the larger circle in the center), and then using my Tiny Attatcher to staple them in place. A little more work than just sticking a "sticker" down, but it was a simple fix.

I dug out some older flowers, one of them chipboard, and added my sentiments to the centers before adhering them all to the cards. I think it took me longer to photograph the cards (I detest using my external flash, but wanted to get the pics done to post tonight), edit them, and type up this post ... than to make those 3 cards.

Studio Calico: Copper Mountain

Have you seen the Copper Mountain January kit, from Studio Calico? Stephanie was asked to create a custom Bella Blvd paper, specifically for this Studio Calico kit. It is the fabulous yellow heart patterned paper, and on the opposite side is a fun hand drawn doodle pattern (this same pattern was originally aqua in the Snapshots collection). There is the 12x12 version in the main kit, and then the yellow hearts pattern appears again in the 6x6 paper pad in the card kit.

I had fun working with the main kit and the paper pad from the card kit to make these four cards.

I used a strip of the yellow heart patterned paper for this card. The card kit paper pad has smaller scaled versions of all of the papers in the main kit. I love scaled down papers for card making. While the yellow heart paper in the main kit has the doodles on the opposite side, they are a bit on the large size for card making. So I pulled out a scrap from my Bella Blvd stash, as there is a 4x6 card on one of the papers with the doodle pattern on it. Perfect for adding a strip to this card.

I love the wood veneer circle piece in the main kit. I cut it into two pieces, so that I could use it on two different cards. I sprayed the smaller piece with some red Mister Huey misting spray from Studio Calico.

I used a larger piece of the yellow heart patterned paper for this card, paired up with a piece of this fabulous woodgrain paper from October Afternoon. I got to use this woodgrain paper when I guest designed for October Afternoon a few months back, and I absolutely love it. So I was really excited to get another sheet of it in the main kit, and a few 6x6 sheets of it as well in the paper pad.

Aren't these little puffy hearts the cutest thing? I think I might need to find more of these for my collection.

I used the larger piece of the wood veneer for this card. I backed it wit a piece of grid patterned paper from the paper pad. If I had thought about it sooner, I probably would have done the same on the first card, behind the red wood veneer piece. I machine stitched along the striped paper strip, and then adhered it to the card with pop dots.

I added some of the little chipboard circle accents to the circles in the wood veneer piece, which I sprayed with a navy blue Mister Huey misting spray.

I also loved this darker blue patterned paper. I definitely stuck with the red, blue, yellow, and brown (woodgrain) colors for these cards. The woodgrain circles here are actually left over from a layout I made months ago. I have a ton of them and have been holding onto them, because I love that paper so much, and knew I'd work them into lots of projects.

I machined stitched down the centers of the circles, and then added the puffy heart stickers to the center, along with a small heart flair button.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Fall Cards

I figured I woud sneak in one more post this week before the Thanksgiving holiday and long weekend. I have two more cards that I created for the Cardmaps Today Vol 3 issue, by Scrapbook & Cards Today, which was released earlier this year. 

Both of these cards were based off of the same sketch, so they have sort of the same look to them design-wise. For this first card, I choose patterned papers from Simply Stories and BoBunny, along with the cute little woodgrain house sticker. The sticker had a cut out heart in the center, which I ended up covering with a fun crochet heart from Bella Blvd.

I was asked to incorporate a masking technique using stamps for this card. I don't have a huge stamp collection, so I lucked out when I came across a set of small leaf stamps. I picked out some ink colors that coordinated with the rest of my card, and praticed my stamp placement several times before getting it right.

I stamped the leaf a few times on a post it note, and then fussy cut those out. After stamping the two red leaves on either end of the grid patterned paper, I stuck my fussy cut leaves (on the post it note) directly over the red leaves before stamping the next leaf. I just repeated this process until my little row of leaves was complete.

For my second card, I choose patterned papers from Bella Blvd's Thankful collection. Fall colors, and all of the colors seen on this card, are my favorite colors of all. Brown, red, green, yellow, and aqua. Love those colors together and you'll find them all throughout my house.

For the layered flower, I choose a corrugated chipboard flower, a paper flower, a fabric flower, a few buttons, an a paper leaf to tuck in as well. Love how a good, layered flower looks on a card!

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I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving, spent with family and friends! We're sticking close to home this year, which is different than most years. While we will miss seeing Joe's family, which is where we normally head for the holiday, it will be nice to spend Thanksgiving with my family for a change. Alyssa won't be there, as she's headed out with her dad to spend the day with her grandparents. But since she's super allergic to my parent's dog, that might be better for her anyways. Joe's been working like crazy, since this time of year in the grocery business is so hectic, and he has to work Thanksgiving night as well. But his Steeler's are playing the late football game on Thanksgiving, so if they win (fingers crossed for his sake), maybe he won't be too grumpy going into work.

Oh. It's also our 15th wedding anniversary ON Thanksgiving day. Which means we'll do our traditional dinner out on Friday night. This will mean that we have to skip Friday night football, as our high school varsity team is playing in their last playoff game at home. I feel bad that I have to skip helping out in the snack bar, as NO ONE ever signs up to help. But Friday is our one free night, as Sarah is in a Quinceanera for one of her friends on Saturday, which means we're tied up all day and evening with that.  

My mind wandered all over the place there. That was a very random mix of info, all to say "Have a happy Thanksgiving"!!

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Thinking of You Card

I totally meant to get this post up last night and then I just plain forgot. Typical of me, in all honesty. I can't remember anything these days. I think my problem is that I just have TOO much to remember, so things slip here and there. Anyways. 

I created a few cards for the Cardmaps Today Vol 3 issue, by Scrapbook & Cards Today, which was released earlier this year. I thought today was a good day to share it. We had our first rain in months and months yesterday and this morning, and it's been pretty dark and dreary outside (of course, as I'm typing this up, it's back to being sunny and bright out). This card is so colorful and bright, and it just makes me happy.

There was a sketch to go along with this card, and I was asked to create a card for the "Spring" section of the issue, using the Basics collection from Pebbles. I did mix in a floral paper from another collection, just for some extra color and pattern. I wanted to add a little something to the edges of the "thinking of you" cardstock sticker, and ended up using some slightly dried up paint. I actually like using my paints when they're slightly thick, since it adds such an interesting texture to whatever you're putting the paint on.

In fact, my paints have been slightly dried up for quite a while now. Going on over two years.

I just so happen to have written a little tutorial of sorts about this paint "technique" (I doubt this really qualifies as a "technique", but that's what I'm calling it!) way back in the day. You can check out that post RIGHT HERE, if you're interested.

Bella Blvd & Kerri Bradford Studio Team Up: Harvest Party

I hope you've all been checking out the projects for our Kerri Bradford & Bella Blvd team up! Tons of great stuff being shared. Wednesday, I shared a layout I created for Kerri's side of the team up, and today I have a few projects I created for Bella's side of the team up. 

I wasn't really sure what I was going to create for layout. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with me pulling up those super old photos of Sarah from 1st grade (for the layout I shared Wednesday), but for whatever reason, I thought about these photos of her from kindergarten. It's not often I have great "fall" looking photos, so I knew these would be perfect for pairing up with Bella's Thankful collection and our older Finally Fall collection.

These photos were all on a layout already. One that I made years and years ago. The photo placement was really close to what you see here, with just one additional photo mixed in. Because these were taken in my non-digital days, and I had no desire to dig out my negatives and have reprints made, I simply pulled them off the old layout to use. I didn't do any trimming or anything. Just used them in the same sizes they already were.

After arranging the photos across the two pages, I went about picking out shapes to work with. I came across the fence, from Kerri's This & That: Autumn kit, and knew that I wanted to work that in across the bottom of the pages. Since I had that extra space next to the photos on the first page, I decided to use the fun tree shape, from Kerri's This & That: Graditute kit, to help fill up that side of the page.

I actually got so busy filling up my pages with die cuts, that I almost forgot about adding in some fun Bella embellishments. I knew I needed to add something in the top part of the tree brances, and this cute little owl seemed perfect to perch up there. I adhered the owl, along with the chipboard cloud, using pop dots.

Since the kids all had on these adorable feather headbands (not sure they're "headbands", but I'm not sure what to call them), I thought it would be fun to add some feathers to the page. Kerri has a feather kit, so I cut small feathers from several patterned papers and mixed them in with some of Bella's real feathers.

I cut the top half off a few feathers, and then used the bottom half of a few to create more feathers. If I'm being honest, I'm not a fan of trimming up the feathers too much. I like when they retain their natural shape, and I know that when I trim them (and maybe others do a better job at this), they lose their fluffyness and end up too shaped. If that even makes sense. But at the same time, I didn't want to cut up too many of my feathers, so making small feathers out of the bottoms just made good sense

For my title, I used one of Kerri's handwritten words from the Giving Thanks kit, along with the Weathered Door alphabet kit for the word "party". I cut all the die cuts for this layout from patterned papers. I've always been a huge fan of Bella's tone-on-one patterns, and the make die cutting really easy, as the patterns aren't too bold or busy.

After cutting out the handwritten "harvest", I realized it was too thin and just wasn't standing out enough. Not a problem. Did you know that you can make her handwritten words thicker? Kerri did a little tutorial a while back on how to thicken up her words, which you can see HERE. I thickened up the word and then cut it again from the same paper. Since I had the thinner word cut already, I decided to adhere it right on top of the thicker word. I think it gave it a fun look.

I also used Kerri's Family Banner kit to cut the fun banner pieces at the top of the page. I added the little cut out heart (that comes in the kit) to each piece, and cut a bunch of pieces from several different patterned papers.

I mixed in some of Bella's chipboard banner pieces as well, taken from the Finally Fall collection. The die cut banner pieces have a preforated fold at the top, so I folded them over some twine, and then added a tiny staple to hold the fold down.

I adhered all of the banner pieces down with pop dots for extra dimension.

When I cut basic shapes, I like to cut several extras at the same time. They're nice to have on hand for quick cards. I whipped up these two cards in no time at all. I already had the fall collections out, and I had lots of scraps of patterned paper. The only extra product I dug out were the flags.

I adhered the "happy fall ya'll" sticker to cardstock, and then adhered it to the card with pop dots. I used a few of the banner pieces below the sticker, adhering them with pop dots as well. I tucked a few flags in and just like that, my card was done.

I used the same basic design to start this card. A piece of my favorite grid patterned paper, misted with tan spray mist. I used a few of the extra die cut feathers for this card.

You can check out my layout over on the Bella Blvd blog today, along with even more fall themed projects, and then make sure to visit tomorrow as well, as we share the last batch of projects. Also, head over to Kerri's blog, where Nichol Magouirk is sharing her work. There are giveaways happening on both blogs as well, so make sure and watch for those!

Speaking of giveaways, I have a few giveaways of my own today. As some of you know, I taught a Bella Blvd sponsored class, all about designer tapes, at the CKU events this year. I ended up with some leftover tapes, and have been given the go-ahead to do a few giveaways. I have four sets of the 7 designer tapes you see pictured here. They are all full rolls, just taken out of the packaging for class prep.

Leave me a comment here, on this post, for a chance at winning a set of these fun tapes. I will randomly choose four winners, who will each receive a set, and will be announcing the winners by Sunday evening. 

Bella Blvd: Daily Chevies Cards

I disappeared again, didn't I? I hate when I do that, but life got busy and my blog wasn't one of those "I have to get it done" things on my list. I spent last weekend teaching at CKU Dallas. Which was super fun, as always! But it also involved two really long days of travel. It took a full 11 hours, both ways, to get me from here to there. I'm still trying to recuperate.

I do have a few post planned, but need to finish typing them all up. In the meantime, I thought I would start small and share a few Bella Blvd cards from CHA that I never got around to sharing. Both of these feature the Daily Chevies collection.

I thought this "You Ampersand Me" 4x6 card was really cute and decided to use it for a card. Love having a quick and easy sentiment that's all done for me.

Love the colors on this card. While the large chevron patterned papers are great, I love the versatile patterns on the "B" sides of the papers.

Keeping this post short and sweet. Will be back tomorrow with a layout share.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: World Card Making Day

Happy World Card Making Day everyone! I'm pretty sure it's almost half over for a lot of you. But I'm an east coast girl and Saturday is my one day to sleep in, which means I'm getting a late start over here. Including this blog post! Over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, they have an all day card celebration going on. Every hour there is a new post featuring one of the design team members, including a new card, a sketch, and some tips and tricks. And there are a TON of amazing giveaways from their sponsors. You don't want to miss the fun! My card goes up later today, but you can get a sneek peek here.

I always try and save my scraps or extra pieces when finishing up my layouts and cards. I do a lot of die cutting with my Silhouette and I almost always end up with extra pieces that I don't end up using. I also use a lot of die cut circle backgrounds on my projects, so I have a pretty big collection of circles from the negative pieces that are left over, since I have a very hard time thowing all of those circles away. I figure I can eventually find a way to use them. I have a drawer in one of my cabinets that I toss all the extras into. I created this card using all scraps from that drawer. 

 

The colorful pieces on this card were originally from two award medal accents that I created close to 3 years ago for a project featured in a magazine, and they have been sitting around in that drawer ever since. I took the "ribbon" tail pieces off of one accent, cut them down in size, and adhered them on either side of the layered circle part of the second accent.

I have about 80 of those woodgrain circles leftover from a die cut circle background piece, and managed to use up 20 of them to create a border around the card. I ran a strip of adhesive around the card, quickly stuck down the circles, and machine stitched around them. Super simple. What I really want to do is take the remaining 124 circles and whip up more of this basic design, then embellish the center of the card to make quick birthday cards. The one kind of card I need the most.

I also made this super simple card with a few more left over circles. I have a ton of those yellow ones too, from another die cut circle background. The "hello" was left over from a batch of cards I made a while back for Kerri Bradford, and just never got used.

Even my card base was a scrap. I guess a card base can't really be called a "scrap", since it's more like an extra that will definitely get used. But I did already have it misted, as I had something in mind for it. Then ran out of time and put the card base aside for another day.

And this card uses scraps from a layout I did for Kerri Bradford a while back. When I shared that layout, I had mentioned that I had a LOT of leftover pieces, as my plans kept changing as I went along. This sunburst background was a 6x6" piece, and was already misted with the aqua (the colors look bad here, but show up better in the detail shot below).

I simply cut the background piece down to fit the front of the card, and added the "home" die cut piece which was already misted in yellow. A little machine stiching around the center of the sunburst, and a few tiny alpha stickers complete the card.

Make sure and visit the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog today. They have 13 posts planned for the day, so you'll want to have a yummy beverage and a snack handy, as you read thru everything! And make sure you leave a comment on each and every post, as there are some amazing giveaways going on! Happy World Card Making Day!

Bella Blvd: Hello Halloween

I kind of feel like I've been sharing my Bella Blvd projects with you forever. Lol. As much as I LOVE Bella (and I really, really do!), I do want to switch over to some other things here as well. Turns out, this is my last CHA layout to share. I must have lost track, since I thought for sure I had more than one left.

And out of the 9 layouts I created for CHA, this was the one and only layout that I used my own photo on. I cannot thank my friend Krista enough for letting me scrap her gorgeous photos of her adorable family! There are just times that I find myself at the bottom of my photo piles for certain things, and some fresh and fun photos are more inspiring than turning to my same ole' photos I've used before. And even though I have used this photo of my girls from Halloween a few years ago, I knew I had to use it on at least one of my layouts with the new Trick or Treat collection.

I love a good Halloween collection that works in colors other than just black and orange, and I love that Bella has aqua in the mix. It worked perfectly with this photo, since my girls had aqua in their costumes.

There were so many different patterned papers that I wanted to use on this layout, so I choose four main papers and randomly cut blocks of varying sizes. No ryhme or reason to the sizes. Just very random cuts into squares or rectangles.

Then I matted my photo onto the white grid patterned paper, and started layering all of the other patterned paper pieces around the photo. I also had the "Hello Halloween" card that I cut from the Daily Details paper to use for my title, and layered that in next to the photo.

I added the large yellow star die cut from the new Paper Pieces die cut pack, and a few stickers from the different sticker sheets that go with the collection. The orange border stickers are from the Alpha+Bits sticker sheets. I did pull those from two different sheets of stickers, since each sheet only has one of each border. Then I finished off the page with lots of threaded buttons.

And a quick Halloween card as well. This one was super simple. The "frightful" piece is a die cut from the Paper Pieces die cut pack, and has the cut out heart in the bottom corner. I backed that with a punched circle of black dotted paper, and then pop dotted the entire thing on the right side of the card.

The half circles you see were punched from the large polka dot patterned paper. I love using that sheet to punch out the circles, since they all coordinate with the papers, and are an easy way to add bits of additional color here and there. A one inch circle punch works perfectly. I cut those circles in half, and adhered them as a "border" of sorts in the center of the card.

If you're looking to get your hands on Bella's new Trick or Treat collection, you can find it HERE.

Bella Blvd: Snapshots Cards

I've been sharing a bunch of my CHA layouts that I created for Bella Blvd lately, so I thought I would switch gears and share a few cards today. Of course, I went to edit the photos of my cards, and realized they all seemed a bit blurry. Guess that should teach me to check my photos before packing everything up and shipping them off :)

I created these two cards using the new Snapshots collection. I liked the fun little houses that fill up one of the sheets of patterned paper, but I honestly have a hard time using patterns like that. So I thought I would fussy cut one of the houses out and use it on a card. s

I used a mix of alphas for my sentiment. The "new home" alpha stickers came from the Snapshots Alpha+Bits sticker sheet, and the "congrats" and "on your" came from a few sheets of High Five alpha stickers.

I knew I wanted to use the polaroid frame from the Paper Pieces die cuts on a card. I backed the open part of the frame with the cloud patterned paper, and also added a little piece of the yellow heart paper behind the open heart on the bottom of the frame. I machine stitched around the frame, and then added a few phrase stickers to the frame as well.

A few chipboard alphas in the center of my frame, along with the "friend" stickers from the Alpha+Bits sticker sheet finished made up my sentiment.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Quick Cards

I have some quick cards up today on the Kerri Bradford Studio blog.

I was feeling a big burnt out on layouts after finising up all of my CHA projects, so quick and easy cards were exactly what I needed for a quick project.

I recently picked up these 6x6 paper pads from Basic Grey, so I decided to work with those for my cards. I love the smaller scaled patterns for card making, although they also work great for layouts.

I though the polaroid frames from the Sliders kit would be a great starting point for all of the cards. I sized them to fit the front of a standard sized card. I did have to stretch the frame up a tiny bit (making it taller) to make it fit the card front perfectly.

Then I went through Kerri's kits and picked out some words that would work good for card sentiments, and also a few basic shapes like the butterfly, flower, and house. I arranged four polaroid frames on my cutting mat at one time, adding in the sentiments on the side of the frames or even in the center of the frames, keeping in mind that I was cutting from 6x6 pieces of paper.

I then laid four different 6x6 patterned paperson my mat and let the Cameo do it's thing.

On this first batch, I didn't cut anything from the center of the frames, thinking I might switch the papers around and add a different patterned paper square to the center of each frame. I ended up leaving the centers empty, with the white card base showing.

I cut my card bases from white textured cardstock, and spritzed the front of each with some brownish misting spray.

I adhered a polaroid frame to each card, and then coordinated a sentiment and a shape from all of the ones that I had cut. I did add some tiny alpha stickers to a few cards to complete my sentiments.

And then I finished off each card (with the exception of the house) with a threaded button. Easy peasy, and now I have a nice assortment of cards to add to my stash for quick giving.

Happy Birthday Cards

I think we all have those certain months where there seems to be an abundance of birthdays, all at once. For us, it's May thru July, with June being the busiest month. Last week was my birthday, along with two of the grandmas and a few cousins. This week is Sarah's birthday and a few family friends. Add in May birthdays and July birthdays, and I need a lot of birthday cards to hand out.

I sat down this weekend and whipped up a few simple cards, and then duplicated them to make life easy. A while back, I had put in a small order from Stampin' Up from a local friend. I choose 4 colors of cardstock, 4 rolls of coordinating ribbon, a few embossing folders, and a few packs of buttons. Figured I might as well break into them, since they've been sitting around for a while.

This first card was inspired by a card in the Stampin' Up catalog. The basic design is the same, with the embossed background paper the large banner with the punched out circle and the star. I only used one large star, since my stamp collection is rather small and I was also keeping things simple.

I backed my punched out circle with a piece of silver glittered paper, and then pop dotted the entire piece over the embossed background paper. I stapled a small piece of the green ribbon for some extra color, and stamped my star with some green ink. The sentiment is an older rub-on from Pebbles. I have tons of those, and they're great for quick cards.

I pulled out the green and pink cardstock for this second card, and used the chevron embossing folder this time. I used a punch for the little pink banner piece, and added them below the blue ribbon.

I went to pull out some older paper flowers, and came across this fun fabric flower that had a lot of pink and blue. I'm sure I've been holding onto that flower for 6-7 years, at least. It felt perfect for this card, and I love the metal button (from Stampin' Up). Once again, I used the rub-on sentiment, and then sprinkled on the tiny little metal accent pieces.

I haven't made cards in quite a while, and it was fun to create these little pieces in no time at all. I might need to do this more often.

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Happy 7th Birthday Celebration

I'm a little late sharing this, but last week over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, we were having a birthday celebration for their 7th birthday! A handful of the designers created projects to share throughout the week, and here's the cards that I contributed to the celebration.

I am constantly in need of birthday cards and yet they are the one type of card that I never seem to have on hand. I have used this same "award ribbon" style design for many other cards, such as baby cards, thinking of you cards, and even some coach's cards. I thought it would be the perfect design for birthday cards as well. I die cut the award ribbon pieces and "Happy Birthday" sentiment circle using my Silhouette Cameo.

Using a die cutting machine makes it really easy to cut duplicate pieces at once, which then makes it easy to mass produce a whole bunch of birthday cards at once. I added just a touch of machine stitching, and a simple star embellishment to the center of my sentiment. If you were wanting to mail your cards, I would suggest leaving off the star embellishment for easy mailing. 

There have also been some fabulous giveaways going on over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, and you won't want to miss out on getting yourself entered for a chance to win. You have until April 4th to leave a comment on any of the birthday celebration giveaway posts, so you still have time to get entered.

Jenni Bowlin: Guest Blogger Card Shares

Last week I shared a few layouts that I had created for Jenni Bowlin Studio, and today I am sharing a handful of cards that I created that were up on their blog yesterday. They were all made with their December 2012 Papercrafting Kit and Artisan Add-on, both of which are currently 25% off. They are having a 25-50% off sale on all of their 2012 kits, and you check them all out HERE!

I loved all of the great embellishments in the Artisan Add-on kit. Such a great mix to play with, and I have TONS left over. This kit comes with two sheets of patterned paper, so I did pull in some scraps from the papercrafting kit as well. I knew I wanted to get a few birthday cards in, since I always need them. In fact, we've already given this card away.

I love those glittered chipboard alphas. I'm not a fan of messy glitter that I find stuck to me for 3 weeks after coming within 7 feet of it. So I always love when a pre-glittered product doesn't make a huge mess and stays where it's supposed too.

I wanted to use the little fabric tab on this card, so I chose the "You & Me" sentiment to coordinate with the "Let's stick together" saying on the tab. I was addicted to using the aqua patterned paper on most of my projects, so I scraped up any little scraps I could find.

I took this little strip of the aqua paper and freehand cut it into small little squares, overlapping them across the card. Added a nice little bit of interest, as opposed to just adhering down a strip of paper.

I used another one of the stencil cards on this card. I painted it white this time, and used the exclusive stamp in the Papercrafting kit to lightly stamp over the stencil with some aqua ink. Just a very suble touch. I then backed the stencil with some reddish patterned paper.

I had this fun kraft typography number set, and choose the 24 and 7 to make it a "24/7 Love" card. I used most of the suede leaf trim on my layout, but had a few leafs left over. I tucked them under the numbers, which I adhered with pop dots.

I knew I wanted to creatively use a bunch of the kraft typography numbers on a birthday card, and this is what I came up with. I created a frame around the card with a piece of the yellow gingham pattered paper. I added the little scraps of the reddish patterned paper as an afterthought. Which is why I went with small pieces that I could tuck in, since everything else was already adhered.

I want to thank Jenni Bowlin Studio for having me along to play with some of their kits. It's not often I create with kits, but I like the challenge of working out of a bag of coordinating product that's all been assembled for me!

Bella Blvd: Epiphany Team Up

All this week, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we have been teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. A handful of our Bella designers were each sent one of Epiphany's punch tools and accessories to use along with our favorite Bella products. I was sent the Shape Studio Pennant Tool, along with the coordinating epoxy shapes.

I've had this photo collage of Sarah printed forever now. I never did use it for what I had originally printed it for, and was determined to finally get it scrapped. I went through my Bella stash to find some patterned papers that would match. The little hoodie she's wearing in the photo is green, with red cherries on it. So it seemed natural to pull some browns, blues, reds, and greens in.

I had a totally different idea in my head for the banner pieces. I was going to drape them, in a more curved way, above the title. The title which was originally "Sweet", an then got changed to "Sweetness" when I changed my mind on the banner pieces and ended up with an empty spot.

So in the end, I used the epoxy banner pieces as simple embellishments on the top and the bottom of the page. I kept wanting to add more to this page, but finally decided that I was happy with it the way it was.

I think I've mentioned before that birthday cards are the one type of card that I need the most, yet I never seem to have any on hand. I figured the banner shape seemed like a natural fit for birthdays, so I might as well make a few birthday cards.

I pulled out scraps of paper from the Birthday Boy collection to create this cute little row of epoxy covered banner pieces under the sentiment sticker.

And for my birthday girl card, I had to use the "You are the frosting to my cupcake" card from the Cute Cuts patterned paper. I adhered it to a brown patterned paper from the Birthday Boy collection and adhered it to the center of the card using pop dots.

Then I pulled out all the tiny scrap pieces of Birthday Girl patterned paper that I had, and went to town punching banner pieces. I decided to skip the epoxy shapes on this one, and just used the tool as a punch. I then started layering the pieces along the outside edge of the sentiment card for a playful look.

Stop by both the Bella Blvd blog and the Epiphany Crafts blog to see what the rest of the designers have created for you this week. You will also want to check out today's post on the Bella blog, as we are doing a BIG giveaway and you will want to leave a comment for a chance to win!

Kerri Bradford Studio: Love Cards

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I created a few cards that went up over at Kerri Bradford Studio earlier this week.

I started out with a few sheet of patterned paper from Authentique that I had picked up at a not-quite-so-local scrapbook store a few weeks ago. We were away at soccer games, and it turned out I was just a few blocks from a LSS. Figured I might as well stop, since I NEVER go to stores. My mom happened to be with me, and she commented about the roughly 11 sheets of patterned paper in my hand "don't you have enough paper???". The first clue that she's not a scrapbooker. Lol. Paper is one of the cheapest things you can buy, and it's always nice to have a variety on hand to choose from. While at first glance, one would assume I was drowning in paper, I'm honestly not. I have quite a bit of paper, but I also have quite a bit of duplicates, triplicates, quadruplicates (are these words?) of most of those papers. I came home and put this new paper right to work.

Long paper story that probably wasn't necessary ;)

I used two of Kerri's circle background cuts from the More Basics Background kits to create the base of my cards (the square for this card, and the rectangle for the next card). I cut them from a text patterned paper, adhering it to a white cardstock card base that I very lightly misted with some tan misting spray.

The heart is from Kerri's XOXO kit, and it's one that I use quite often. My go-to heart, I guess you can say. I cut the hearts from the red polkadot patterned paper. One thing I didn't know, or maybe I knew and just didn't remember, is that the Authentique papers have a great texture to them. I love a good textured patterned paper.

Kerri's new Feathers kit is such a fun one, and at just 99 cents for 4 different feathers, you can't beat it! I originally cut these larger feathers for my square card, but then decided they just weren't fitting with the heart like I wanted. So I cut some extra pieces to make a regular, standard card (4.25 x 5.5). That way, I was able to use the larger feathers here, and I simply cut a few smaller ones for the square card above.

And lastly, the "Love" cut is from the This & That: Love kit. These cards are quite simple in design. My plan was to embellish them in some way after getting my pieces adhered. Or adding some machine stitching. But I actually liked them just as they were, and decided that "simple" was good for me this time.

And speaking of Kerri, she is celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary this week! And in honor of that, along with it being the week of love, she has put a selection of her love themed kits on sale for 25% off through the end of the week. Check HERE for the details and to see which kits are on sale.

Enjoy: A Birthday Card

I'm still alive. Still trying to make progress on Christmas. After spending 6 hours on the soccer field on Saturday, I decided to keep going and spend another 5 hours power shopping with the rest of the world. That's not really my kind of shopping, but I did pretty good crossing some gifts off my shopping list. I also had great intentions of putting the decorations on the tree, but I got side tracked when the power cord on my laptop broke. I had to borrow my great friend, Deneen's, power cord from her laptop, and I'm working on borrowed time trying to prioritize what needs to be done on my computer before giving it back to her. Then I'll patiently stalk the delivery trucks until my new cord arrives.

But I did manage to find a few projects to share this week. The first one is this birthday card that I found under a stack of papers, forgotten. I'm really bad about having birthday cards on hand. I made a point to create quite a few of them not too long ago, and they're already all gone. What usually happens is that we're on our way out to a birthday party, and there's this frantic "I need a card NOW". Then I scramble to whip up a card in 5 minutes.

And that's exactly how long this one took me to make. Alyssa was headed to a friend's house, for a little impromptu birthday get together. So in a mad rush, I went to make a card. The main reason this card came together so quickly is that most of these pieces were laying around from other projects. I had embossed the front of this white cardstock card base with a woodgrain embossing folder a while back, and never ended up using it. So that was easy to pull out.

The "enjoy" was already cut out using my Silhouette, from when I made some confetti cupcake cards. I had a handful of punched circles from the Birthday Boy collection, from Bella Blvd, that were left over from some projects. I just kind of threw it all on the card and went with it. I thought it was a decent card for a teenage boy. Then it turned out that she didn't want a card. That no one else was giving cards or gifts, so she thought it would be weird to give him one. Soooo. I now have a card for the next time a birthday comes up.

Bella Blvd: Love Her

Did you catch the Kiss Me collection reveal yesterday on the Bella Blvd blog? I hope you love it as much as we do! For the rest of the week, we're sharing lots and lots of layouts and cards using the Kiss Me collection, so that you can see it in action.

One of the things that I love about Bella Blvd's collections, is that while they may be themed at first glace, but they are also very versitle and can work with so many everyday photos. While Kiss Me is a Valentine's collection, it's got so many great patterns and pieces that can be used for anything. I've had these photos of Alyssa and Haley for years, and never got around to scrapping them. Until now.

I have been wanting to use this Background Lace Circle cut from my Silhouette library for ages. I love circles, and the idea of filling the circles up with patterned paper, cardstock, or embellishments seemed like fun.

I used the navy blue patterned paper to cut the background piece from, and I intented to then cut circles from all of the other patterned papers to fill in the empty spaces.

However, when I was pulling off my die cut background piece, and all of the circles from the negative space, I realized that those circles would work just fine if I flipped them over. The backside of the blue patterned paper is a fabulous grid pattern with lots and lots of large patterned circles all over. I liked the way my pieces looked when flipped over, and they were already cut to size, which was a big time-saver, instead of cutting all new circles. So I just went with it.

I didn't originally plan on using this sticker on my page. But when I was trimming my photos after printing, they ended up being just shy of 6" tall for some reason, so they didn't quite reach the length of my page. I just covered the tiny gap between the photos with this sticker, adhered with pop dots.

I love that all three of the Sienna chipboard alphabet sets that were a part of Bella's summer release match perfectly with the Kiss Me collection.

I also added some buttons into my circle design, just so my layout wasn't all paper and stickers. A few simple threaded buttons, along with a few stickers adhered with pop dots, add the perfect finishing touch to embellish the page.

I loved the little ice cream cone on the Cute Cuts sheet of patterned paper, and knew it was perfect for the front of a card. I cut the card on my Silhouette as well, using the 3x3 Circle Pattern Card design, but I cut mine as a 4x4" card.

I cut the actual card base from this fabulous chevron paper. It cut out all of the circles as well, and then you cut out the top piece seperately. I cut this piece from the navy blue patterned paper, and adhered it to the front of the card using pop dots.

The backside of the chevron paper is a great pink text paper with tone-on-tone hearts on it. I was going to leave it like that, so that you would see that pink text paper through the holes in the front of the card. But in the end, I felt like it needed a touch of white, so I adhered a scrap of white cardstock inside the card.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog, and check out what some of the other designers have created with the Kiss Me collection! There are a ton of layouts and cards featured today, and it really shows the collection in action, and the different ways it can be used!

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Guest Blogger, Part 2

Yesterday the second part of my guest blog feature went up on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. I did a simple little tutorial about using a paper crimper to create lots of texture on your projects.

See how I started with this.

And then took these.

And turned it into this super layered, and full of dimension, flower that was perfect for adding to a card for a special someone! You can check it all out HERE.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Enjoy Card

Over the weekend, I had a card go up over at Kerri Bradford Studio.

I am constantly in need of birthday cards, and never seem to have enough on hand when I need them. So I thought I would whip up some quick and easy cards to have on hand. I know I've said this exactly same thing before, and made more birthday cards. But I seem to have gone through all of those already. So I'm on a mission again, to restock my card drawer.

I've been wanting to try out the confetti trend that is so popular these days, and thought it would be fun to add to the top of a cupcake. I used the cupcake from Kerri's This & That: Love [just shapes] kit. I cut the bottom part of the cupcake from patterned paper, and the top part from vellum. My intention was to put the punched confetti under the vellum and sew around the edges, but it didn't work out so well for me.

So I ran the vellum part of the cupcake through my Xyron, so that the entire piece was covered in adhesive. Then I sprinkled punched confetti over it, and pushed it all down to cover the piece. The word "enjoy", from Kerri's Pack Your Bags kit, was perfect for my sentiment.

 

Speaking of Kerri, she's having a Halloween Extravaganza this week on her blog. All Halloween kits, with the exception of the new All Hallow's Eve kit, are on sale for 30% off. She's also sharing Halloween projects all week long, starting with a gorgeous, detailed canvas by Nichol Magouirk. I put together a little something as well, that will be up later this week.