Encre, papier, ciseaux

Cooking for Your Birthday

Inspiration: Retro Rubber challenge #138 (Anything Goes - stamps purchased a probably four years ago)

This is the second series of images I watercolored when I pulled my Gansai Tambi palette the other night, Coloring with those watercolors is a different experience than when I use my usual inks or watercolor pencils, as I have to mix my own colours. Even though I was not initially convinced the result would be that great, I am pleasantly surprised at how it turned out once dry. I used my newly acquired dies (purchased when the company announced they would be discontinuing all of their dies). 

Since I had three images, I dry-embossed three squares using dies and an embossing mat, and I layered three scalloped squares inside. The top and bottom ones are die-cut out of pearlescent vellum from Lawn Fawn and the middle one was embossed with Crushed Curry Stampin' Emboss powder on Strawberry Slush cardstock. The sentiment reads, "You deserve a big celebration!" Funnily enough, the chicks are supposed to be a Christmas set (the name is Gingerbread Chicks and it includes a "Joy to the World" sentiment), but really, they just look like they are wearing birthday hats and preparing some birthday treats to me.

I had done my watercoloring to match the Cherry on Top Designer Series Paper stack, which I used for my background. I added Hello Honey ribbon in between the two pieces and created a bow out of the same ribbon, on which I added a Pool Party button held in place with cotton twine. The card still seemed a little bare, so I added a cute little tassle. Enamel dots and candy dots were added in the corner of each square.

I stamped the three chick images in various ink colours on my white envelope to match. The completed card size is 3-1/4" x 6".

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Gingerbread Chicks (Stamping Bella); En main propre (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (Stampin' Up!);
Pearlescent Vellum (Lawn Fawn)
Designer Series Paper Stack: Cherry on Top
Ink: Jet Black StazOn; VersaMark
Accessories: Gingerbread Chicks Dies (Stamping Bella); 
Crushed Curry Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Embossing Mats,
It's My Birthday Enamel Dots, Subtles Candy Dots, Designer Buttons, Cotton Twine,
Layereing Squares Dies, Hello Honey Satin Ribbon (Stampin' Up!);
White Coin Envelope (envelopes.com); Tassel Charms (Bead Landing);
Gansai Tambi Watercolors (Kuretake); White Gel Pen (Gelly Roll)

 

Hidden Santa Bear

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #540

So I was not planning on making a Christmas card today but I recently stumbled unto die-cut pieces I was gifted last year when I took part in an international Christmas card exchange. One of the ladies was nice enough to slip a little cello envelope in her card containing pieces die-cut out of white cardstock using the Santa Bear in Pot from The Scrapping Cottage, and she added a colour picture of the assembled piece for reference on the bag. I found the bag again during my recent scrap room cleanup and ended up at the top of the pile when I put everything away last week. Today, I wanted to craft but had trouble getting the ball rolling so I decided inking up my little bear pieces while watching the latest Tim Holtz video on Facebook would get me in the groove (and it did). I picked random Distress Oxide colours and they kept reminding me of an old paper pad from many years ago. I didn't take me long to find it - it's Handmade Holiday from Simple Stories. (I never realized it was from Simple Stories as it was before I started following their releases closely, so it must be one of the first collection I purchased from them.) The darker colour and shabby look worked with the bear really well. I was trying to decide which colour to use for the pot and I decided to glue the die-cut on the back of a piece of polka dot patterned paper and handcut it instead. I inked the edges for depth.

For the design, I was eager to use the latest Mojo Monday sketch, as I love long narrow cards. This seems to be the new rage, as slimline card dies are popping up everywhere lately. This one was sized perfectly to work with 6" x 6" patterned paper. (Julee includes the measurements for each pieces on her sketches, so you can quickly see how to keep the right proportions.) I used a piece of kraft paper with a snowflake and poinsettia border but it looked a little lost of the card, so I matted it with Bravo Burgundy cardstock. I was wondering what to add to the card background to make it less boring. Because of the size, background stamps and embossing folders would have been tricky, so I pulled out my stencils. I picked the Sparkle stencil from Tim Holtz and it worked out perfectly.

For the two pieces, I used a scrap of paper and layered one of the die-cuts over it (cut down slightly smaller than it's original size). I added Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla cotton twine tied in a bow, which filled the space nicely. I backed my bear with plaid paper die-cut with a stitched circle and inked the edges so that the plaid paper would blend better with the darker burgundy cardstock. On a whim, I decided to pull out my Dymo and emboss "Happy Holiday" on a strip of Crumb Cake cardstock, which I also inked. It doesn't stand out that well, so I was tempted to repeat the same step using Core'dinations cardstock, but it looked nice enough that I just decided to keep what I had. I pulled out the Home for Christmas enamel dots and added a few around the card.

I knew I had to handmake an envelope, but couldn't use the 6" x 6" patterned paper, so I pulled out my cardstock stacks to find a suitable colour. (Those stacks were bought at Michaels specifically so that I would have affordable cardstock in a variety of colours when I needed to make an envelope and didn't have patterned paper to match on hand.) I picked a vanilla cardstock, made my envelope and inked the edges to have a matching antique look. I added a few die-cuts from the collection, and I used the scraps from the cardstock to add a rectangle inside the card, which I like to do when I am using a dark colour for my card base.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgundy (Stampin' Up!);
Vanilla Cardstock (Recollections)
Patterned Papers: Handmade Holidays (Simple Stories)
Inks: Vintage Photo, Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint,
Antique Linen Distress Oxide (Ranger); Mellow Moss Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Festive Farm Cotton Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board,
Home for Christmas Enamel Dots (Stampin' Up!); Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studio);
Sparkle Stencil (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); Label Maker (Dymo);
Circle Double Stitched Dies (Art Impressions); White Gel Pen (Gelly Roll);
Santa Bear in Pot Dies (The Scrapping Cottage)

 

Picnic Crashers

Inspiration: Lawn Fawnatics #79 + ColourQ #217

The interactive card challenge inspired me to make a reveal wheel card showing the ants from Crazy Antics taking their stolen goods underground. I used the Grassy stencil and DIstress Oxide inks to create my scene. I masked off a little entryway to the underground tunnel and I used a lighter shade of ink (Frayed Burlap) for that part and for the spinning wheel. The Reveal Wheel die was used upside down to have the window at the bottom of the card instead of the top.

I looked for a larger sentiment in my French sets to fill in the room in the sky, and I picked "Enjoy your special day." I added Simple Puffy Clouds die-cut out of pearlescent vellum around the sentiment. The bottom of the card seemed empty as well and I wasn't sure what to add, so I used the little dotted trail stamp and added it in a few places to mimick ant trails underground.

I found a Burnt Orange envelope that I stamped with the basket, trail and ants as well to match.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Crazy Antics (Lawn Fawn); Cousu avec soin (Stitched All Around - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Tango Tangerine, Kiwi Kiss, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!);
Bristol Smooth (Canson); Pearlescent Vellum (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Tango Tangerine Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!);
Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint, Broken China Distress Oxide Ink (Ranger)
Dies: Reveal Wheel, Reveal Wheel Semicircle Add-On, Simple Puffy Clouds, Crazy Antics (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Blending Tool, Spritzing Bottle (Ranger); Mini Silver Brads, White Stampin' Emboss Powder,
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic);
Grassy Stencil (Lawn Fawn); A2 Burnt Orange Envelope (Simon Says Stamp)

 

Oddball Cupid

Inspiration: Try Stampin' on Tuesday #463 + Colour Inkspiration #80

I kept going with the Stamping Bella images I had stamped a few weeks ago. This time, I colored the Oddball Cupid with inks and an aquapainter brush. I used my Blue Gold and White Gold Gansai Tambi watercolors for the arrow, the wings and to highlight her hair as well. The soft colours were inspired by the Colour Inkspiration challenge and I thought they would work well with the Cupid image. I used a MFT stencil to add soft clouds to the Soft Seafoam cardstock and my newly acquired Nevermore Print Bold Prints background stamp from Hero Arts, which I love the look of and I anticipate using often.

I picked a sentiment from a Sale-A-Bration stamp set that was offered this Spring - the French sentiment means "With a Great Big Wish for Happiness." I wrapped the bottom strip with pink metallic thread and I added my last In Color Boutique Details embellishment. Oh, that satisfying feeling of finishing a pack of something! To finish off the card, I added two colours of Dream Drops, which are the perfect pastel colours to match the colour combo.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Oddball Cupid (Stamping Bella); Nevermore Print Bold Prints (Hero Arts);
Pensées pour toi (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Purple Posy, Soft Seafoam, Crumb Cake, Rococo Rose (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Purple Posy, Soft Seafoam, Crumb Cake, Rococo Rose, Soft Suede (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Starry Colors Gansai Tambi Watercolors (Kuretake); 
Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Crumb Cake Medium Envelope, Pink Metallic Thread (Stampin' Up!);
Fairy Wings and Dragon Scales Dream Drops (Nuvo); Oddball Cupid Die (Stamping Bella);
Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers); Cloud Stencil (My Favorite Things);
Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studio)

 

Cheeky

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #503 (Add Sparkle - I included the rhinestone border and the gold-foiled title)

This page was born out of leftover papers from the Sun Kissed collection from Bo Bunny. I've always loved this collection and I've made quite a few projects with it over the years, which is why I was surprised to find out that I still have a few full 12" x 12" pages along with paper scraps. I had put aside this photo of my niece being a little ham so that I could scrap it soon and when I pulled out those patterned papers, the colours went well with the bag in the picture and also contrasted the fact that the picture is dark. I was also going through my die-cuts last weekend and I found some clear pieces from Heidi Swapp, including gold-foil words and the "cheeky" one went perfectly with this picture. Once I placed the paper scraps, including the sun die-cut scrap, and the acrylic word around the picture, I pretty much knew what the page could look like. I put it aside to work on later, so when I sat back down today, all I had to do was handwrite my journaling and pick out ornements.

Again, I'm working on using up what I have and now that I'm more aware of how to look at pieces from embellishment pack individually, I was able to use a chipboard piece from a school-theme pack (the aqua-felt arrow) and a chipboard piece from a Halloween set (the cute little monster kid). I also snuck in my last two blue dotties from Queen & Co, my last cork stickers from Stampin' Up! (past SAB freebie), a few decorative brads, a rhinestone border and a couple of shaped clips from Doodlebug (the sun and cloud).

I miss the old Bo Bunny style. I've purchased quite a few of their older lines back in the days and I find that their style has aged well through the years. The new vintage style with muted colours does not appeal to my personal tastes. It was fun to pull out the older papers again, though.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers: Sun Kissed (Bo Bunny)
Accessories: Gem Art Stickers (Forever In Time); School Spirit Layered Chipboard (Crate Paper);
Whoo-ligans iCandy Chipboard Stickers (Bo Bunny); Blue Dotties (Queen & Co);
Sunny Skies Cute Clips, Swimming Pool Mini Paper Doilies (Doodlebug Design);
Cool Summer Brads (Carta Bella); Cork Stickers, Rhinestone Basic Jewels (Stampin' Up!);
Gold Sentiment (Heidi Swapp)

 

I Couldn't Pick a Better Friend Than You

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #539 + Just Us Girls #541

I wanted to craft the other night and I had trouble deciding where to start, so on a whim, I decided to stamp some of the Stamping Bella images I've recently acquired dies for and to test out my Gansai Tambi watercolors. I've acquired those a couple of years ago and I'm mainly used them for backgrounds, and not so much to watercolor stamped images. I was curious to see wat kind of results I could get, so I tested them out on two different images.

This was the first image I colored. It was an interesting challenge, as the watercolor kit does not have skin tones per se, so I had to blend color to the best of my abilities. I based the outfit colours on an old 4½" x 6½" paper pad from Stampin' Up! called Fresh Prints. When I saw the Just Us Girls, I realized it used the colors from the papers, minus the red, so I picked the patterned that only had kraft, white and aqua and based on the Mojo Monday sketch, I came up with this card.

I was looking for a sentiment that I could fit on a banner at the top and when I saw "I couldn't have picked a better friend than you," it seemed like a good pair to my colored image. For the strip at the bottom I used white cardstock and embossed it with the Pretty Print embossing folder, under which I added a piece of ruffled ribbon. The sentiment was embossed in white on Crumb Cake cardstock and I added a aqua button threaded with white baker's twine. Little candy dots were added as well.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Huggy Squidgies (Stamping Bella); Ravissant Bouquet (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper
Designer Series Paper Stack: Fresh Prints
Ink: Jet Black (StazOn)
Accessories: Pretty Print Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Outside IN Stitched Rectangle Stackables Dies (Lawn Fawn); Watercolors (Gansai Tambi);
Circle Double Stitched Dies (Art Impressions); Huggy Squidgies Dies (Stamping Bella);
A2 Seafoam Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

10 Reasons Why I Love You Mini-Album

Inspiration: Festive Friday #61 (flowers + pink + sweet sentiment)

Social distancing has been hard for everyeone, including kids, who are going a little stir-crazy being confined at home without their friends and usual structure. My niece's emotions have been all over the map, so I thought I would make a little something for her. She loves my projects and really takes time to look at and notice all of the little details I put in there (which is surprising from a kid). I knew I wanted to make a mini-album and use Doodlebug supplies, which she tends to always gravitate towards when she sees it (which is not surprising, considering the cuteness factor and colorful hues). I was trying to decide which collection to pick and then I remembered I had French Kiss, which is love-themed, and also includes a lot of pinks and aquas, which she loves. 

It always blows my mind how much faster you can create a full project when you are working with a full collection of products, compared to when you pick and choose from various items in your stash. I was lucky that along with the paper pack, I had also purchased the Odds & Ends and the mini icon stickers, so I had a lot of embellishments on hand and the two sizes helped to fill in large spaces and tight ones as well. 

It took me a while to find the right format of mini-album. I was looking through various YouTube tutorials and nothing was quite right, until I stumbled unto a video showing how to glue envelopes together to make a mini-album. I looked at a few tutorials and then I ended up basing my project on this one. I went through my color envelopes and picked colors that best suited the collection: Seafoam, Jupiter Metallic, Fairway Metallic, Nautical Blue Linen and Sapphire Metallic. 

In the video, the crafter is showing how she is slipping cards in the envelope to make flaps. I did that with Melon Mambo cardstock in the first envelope, punching the edge with a Lace Trim Border punch, and while I love the look, I quickly realized this was making the whole thing a whole lot bulkier. It was a good thing that I realized that straightaway, as I limited the number of inserts I did and I made sure to use patterned paper instead of cardstock for the other ones. I was able to finish most of the album in one evening. Initially, it only had the envelopes. I could have decorated the front envelope, added ribbon and be done with it, but I do want this album to be something that my niece can keep for a while and that will remain nice even if it's handled repeatedly. I was thinking a chipboard cover would work better but at that point, I wasn't sure how to add the cover on the album, so I decided to leave the project aside and take time to mull it over. 

In the end, I kept coming back to the idea of making a binder-style cover with chipboard and to use elastic cord binding to keep the envelope album inside. I learned from my last mini-album mistake and did NOT cover the chipboard with patterned paper this time around. It's simply too thick and does not have enough give to open and close the cover properly. I went to my wrapping papers and I picked a cute white-polka dot kraft paper. I cut three pieces of chipboard: two pieces that measure 4-1/4" x 6" and one piece that measures 6" x 1". I placed them on the backside of the wrapping paper with a little gap in between each, then I wrapped the paper over the edges and added more paper inside to hide the seam. Some people who do twine binding pierce through the whole binding, but I didn't want to see the cord on the spine, so instead, I did my piercing on a piece of red cardstock, placed my elastic cord where I wanted it between the envelope pages and then I threaded it through the red cardstock and I used double-sided tape to glue it in place in the cover. Inside each cover page, I added a piece of patterned paper and I remembered before gluing it in place that I could make little pockets on each so I could slip in something else. I had selected pictures of my niece and I together and I had a unused one left on my desk, so I cut if down, created a tag for it and slipped it inside the cover pocket.

I was initially trying to decide if I would handwrite my 10 reasons I love her or print it in colorful font. I ended up choosing to handwrite everything. It was faster, simpler and it gave me more control over where I wanted the text to appear. My niece is in first grade, but she can already read my handwriting, even when it is not something I wrote carefully with deliberate handwriting to help her out. I'm very impressed with that, and it made it that I didn't have to worry about using prints in order for her to know what the journaling meant.

For the cover, I wanted to make a shaker, which I know my niece will enjoy. I've also gone back to doing rosettes lately (which I hadn't done since Stampin' Up! first started selling the Simply Score tool years ago) so I made one and found a nice circle stickers in the paper collection that was the perfect size and colour for it. I wanted one more layer, so I used the bouquet, the envelope and the flower from the Odds & Ends. The flower was mainly to hide the "Happy Valentine's Day" a bit, since this is not a valentine project. On the back, I used one of the cut-aparts that happened to say "Je t'aime." This kit includes a few French words. Unfortunately, the other sentiment said "mon chéri", which is the masculine form and wouldn't have worked for my specific project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Odds & Ends and Mini Icon Stickers: French Kiss (Doodlebug Design)
Cardstock: Real Red, Melon Mambo, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Holo Waves Mirror Card (Tonic)
Dies: Wonky Square Frames (Avery Elle); Postage Stamps (Hero Arts); 
Dotted Scallop Rectangles (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Folk Hearts (Essentials by Ellen);
Tri Window Cover (Mama Elephant); Decor Decor, Banners (Stampin' Up!);
Stitched Scallop Rectangle Frames (Lawn Fawn) 
Embossing Folders: Decor Decor (Stampin' Up!); Dotted Lattice (Taylored Expressions)
Envelopes: Sapphire Metallic, Fairway Metallic, Nautical Blue Linen, Jupiter Metallic,
Seafoam (envelopes.com)
Accessories: Night of Navy Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Metallic Enamel Shapes,
Mini Banner Punch, Mini Stapler, Simply Scored Tool, Window Sheets, Corner Rounder Punch,
Distressing Tool, Confetti Heart Border Punch, Glitter Enamel Dots, Jumbo Heart Eyelets,
Lace Trim Border and Corner Punches, Clear Faceted Gems, Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels,
Petal Pink Rhinestone Gems, Twinkle Adhesive-Backed Sequins, Heart Punch (Stampin' Up!); 
Gems (Pretty Pink Posh, Studio Katia); Assorted Sequins (Simon Says Stamp, Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
White Ric Rac, Sparkly Ribbon, White and Green Trim (Unknown); Aqua Ric Rac (American Crafts); 
Blue Alphabet Stickers (PinkFresh), Washi Tape, Candy Carnival, Winter Hugs and Hello Shape Sprinkles,
Bright Glitter Assortment, Winter Assortment and Birthday Girl Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design);
White and Sparkly Gel Pen (Gelly Roll); Striped Blue and White Sparkly Alphabet Thickers (American Crafts);
Pink Alphabet Stickers (Queen & Co); Border Punch (Martha Stewart); 
Silver Alphabet Stickers, Swimming Pool Mini Doilies (Doodlebug Design)

 

Laundry Line Handmade Embellishments Collection

Inspiration: Color Throwdown #598 

I recently used up my leftover pieces of the Laundry Line collection from My Mind's Eye and today, I was inspired to use the last few pieces to make embellishments. The starting point was a YouTube video sharing how to make little circle pieces with banners at the bottom, and once I got going, it evolved into this full set of embellishments. Again, my mind is blown at how much came out of so little patterned paper.

Passing along a fun trick I heard online recently: you can use the side of an hexagon punch to cut the end of a strip banner-style. I've used my papers snips or my triple banner punch from Stampin' Up!, but I do find it's harder to line the strip up when I'm not using the official sizes of the grooves, which are 1", 1-1/2" and 2". You also see what you are doing with the hexagon punch and there's less waste. Plus, it will add mileage to a punch that I don't use as often.

The cute 3" x 3" envelope with the insert was made using the Envelope Punch Board. I made a few bows with my bow punch, some of which I used on the embellishments and two of which I kept to be used on other projects. I used the more neutral papers so that they could fit with any collection. I even pulled out the old owl punch from Stampin' Up! and made a little guy out of a few different patterns. 

I really enjoy making little ornaments like these when I want to sit down and craft but don't really want to focus on making a project from beginning to end. I'm hoping to work those into future projects or I might even gift some to my niece. The last time she came over, I pulled out the first kit I had made and we used those as inspiration for her to create her own embellishments. The ones she picked weren't necessarily the easiest to make, as they involved pulling out the glue gun, which I handled for her, but this kit here was almost entirely made of punched shapes, so it would be good inspiration for a future crafting session. She's allowed to go through my paper scrap bins and can pick whatever she finds in there to use for her own projects. She tends to pick patterns that she loves rather than patterns that go together, but as long as the results makes her happy, I tend not to interfere. I do try to teach her new tips and tricks every time we sit down to craft together, though, so she can improve her skills and knowledge.

 

 

 

Summer Treats

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Summer Fun)

The I Scream, You Scream dies from Lawn Fawn were not initially on my short list of items I wanted, but I found them in the Clearance section of my local store at a reasonable price. They were purchased quite a while ago, out of season, so they have sat unused in my stash until today. I was trying to spark inspiration this afternoon and I decided to ink white cardstock with Distress Oxide inks before die-cutting my pieces. I didn't have a specific colour scheme selected when I started but I did have the sorbet shades from an old Stampin' Up! collection in the back of my mind (and incidentally, I happened to work the washi tape from that collection into my design later). 

Once my three frozen treats were created, I went to my Lawn Fawn patterned papers to find something suitable for my background and ended up using three papers from the Hello Sunshine Remix pack. The heart banner is perfect as the pattern is very subtle, and I added some pink and blue at the top and bottom.

I then went looking for a long horizontal sentiment and found "Happy Birthday" in a very nice script font in the Happy Birthday to You (from this year's SAB offering). I added washi tape at the top and Early Espresso baker's twine at the bottom and added my die-cut images with dimensional adhesive. I also used foam between the patterned paper and card base for additional depth. The first ice cream cone had already the bite mark, but it felt a little bare compared to the other treats, so I die-cut some sprinkles out of the Watercolor Wishes patterned paper to dress it up. I then added gems and sequins to finish my creation.

I used the same washi tape inside the card and on the matching envelope. It felt too bare and I didn't really feel like inking up cardstock again, so I took a shortcut and made a new die-cut cone using the Watercolor Wishes patterned papers instead, which looks really cute but was much faster.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Bon anniversaire très chère Happy Birthday to You - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Pistachio Pudding (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Hello Sunshine Remix, Watercolor Wishes (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Early Espresso Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peeled Paint,
Dried Marigold, Cracked Pistachio, Vintage Photo, Worn Lipstick, Candied Apple,
Ground Espresso, Scattered Straw Distress Oxide Ink (Ranger) 
Dies: I Scream You Scream, Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studio); Early Espresso Baker's Twine, 
Stampin' DImensionals, Designer Washi Tape (Stampin' Up!); 
Chunky Rainbow Sparkle and Rainbow Sparkle Mix Jewels (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix (Simon Says Stamp); Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo);
A2 Aquamarine Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

F for Pharmacy

Inspiration: June 2020 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #502 (Use at least 5 patterned papers)

I've been wanting to scrapbook about this story for a long time and I decided to do so using my paper scraps from the Snorkel collection from Cosmo Cricket. (I have fond memories of Cosmo Cricket's glory days.) I don't have a picture of the specific moment I'm recalling on the page, but I did have a picture of her sitting with me in the back of the car when we were on vacation, which fits the context of the story.

When she was in kindergarten, my niece finally started to get interested in learning to spell. She liked trying to guess the first letters of words and so I was doing that to keep her busy while we were driving around together. I was running out of ideas, so I was drawing inspiration from whatever I could around us. When we stopped at a red light, I asked her what the first letter of pharmacy was. I figured she'd probably get it wrong and as I figured, she was sounding out "fff" in the background and finally answered F. Then, most probably inspired by something that caught her eye, she quickly changed her answer to P, and then she proudly proceeded to spell the whole word: P-H-A-R-M-A-P-R-I-X! (To give context, it's the name of a pharmacy chain that we have here in Quebec. I think she got inspired by the scenery and realized the answer was right under her nose - or so she thought!) Gotta give her points for cleverness, but we'll have to keep working on the actual spelling a little more! 

The sketch was perfect to showcase patterned paper and gave me the chance to revisit doodling, which I hadn't done in a while. I printed my journaling directly on the green patterned paper and because I wanted a big letter for my title, I was inspired to pull out a circle chipboard alphabet from Making Memories (which makes it even older than the Cosmo Cricket papers - going vintage on this page!). I also used some really old fluid chalk ink pad from ColorBox to ink the chipboard. I was pretty impressed by how juicy the ink pads still are years later (even though I don't have any reinker for them, so they're still going on the initial ink). I covered the chipboard in just a few swipe and got a very nice, even coverage right away.

I had a cute Dear Lizzie chipboard alphabet that was just the right shade of mint. I had almost all of the letters I needed, minus an A, so I created the missing letter with an hyphen on top of an inverted V. The letters look a little lost on the striped banner, but in real life, they're covered with clear glitter, so the sparkle helps the title stand out more. The smaller word was created using some strip I had prestamped and die-cut using a Papertrey alphabet stamp set and matching die. The only reason this page took a while was because I was watching stuff on the computer and getting distracted, because otherwise this is a pretty simple and quick page.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Type Strips I & II (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Snorkel (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink: Lime Pastel, Olive Pastel Fluid Chalk (ColorBox); Tuxedo Black (Memento) 
Accessories: Dear Lizzie Treasure Thickers (American Crafts);
Type Bit Strips Die (Papertrey Ink); Safety Pin (Upcycled); Black Journaling Pen,
Home for Christmas and It's My Birthday Enamel Dots, Flower Punches, 
In Color Boutique Details, Mini Tag Punch, Handheld Punch (Stampin' Up!)
Font: Poor Richard

 

The Heart is the Best Guide

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #525 + Stamping Bella June (Summer Vibes)

This card was inspired by my latest Stamping Bella order (which contained new stamps and some dies) and paper scraps from an old Cosmo Cricket collection. I always love revisiting old Cosmo Cricket products, which have aged well. This colorful, summery collection had been set aside to use while it's in season. I paired it with Uptown Girl Melinda has a Map. I've wanted this stamp for a long time and it finally made it on my last order, along with the matching die. I went back to an older Mojo Monday sketch I hadn't yet used, and I liked how the various circles allowed me to incorporate various patterns into my design and then have the girl image layered over the circles with dimensional adhesive. I use the right circle to incorporate my sentiment, "Follow your heart, it is the best guide" embossed in green powder.

Decorative brads were added in the upper corner and along the circles, and I added crystal clear hearts around the sentiment to go with the theme. The main image was colored using Polychromos pencils. I used the envelope punch board to make a matching envelope out of the polka dot paper. I think I have enough paper in my remaining scrap to try and make a scrapbook page as well.

(See the page I made with my scraps HERE.) 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Douces pensées (Whimsical Words - Stampin' Up!); 
Uptown Girl Melinda has a Map (Stamping Bella)
Cardstock: Lucky Limade, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Snorkel (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); VersaMark
Dies: Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn); 
Circle Double Stitched (Art Impressions)
Accessories: Polychromos Pencils (Faber-Castell); Crystal Clear Hearts (Essentials by Ellen);
Designer Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals, Gumball Green Stampin' Emboss Powder,
Envelope Punch Board, Ticket Corner Punch (Stampin' Up!)

 

Tinker Bell Turning the Page...

Inspiration: TGIF #268 + MFT Color Challenge #143 

The stylized stamp sets like New Wonders and On to Adventure have been my absolute favorites from the last catalogue. I decided to use the New Wonders set on my card today.

I was instantly inspired by the TGIF sketch. I love making cards that show the inside with a narrower edge and I hadn't done one in a while. This is where I was thinking of using the image of the fairy raising the page in the corner of the card itself, but I was working off the MFT colour challenge and I found this perfect leftover piece of cardstock that is teal on one side nad green on the other, so that became my card base and adding the fairy image to it would have made it hard to colour.

I decided to layer cardstock instead. As I was working on putting everything together, I kept going back to my old Disney books I had as a kid, that included a small vinyl in the back with the story. It started by saying that you would hear Tinker Bell whenever it was time to turn the page. I'm sure a lot of people from my generation will remember those books and that specific sentence vividly, so I used Microsoft Word to print it on a scrap of green paper, which I die-cut with a stitched oval.

Initially, both of my layered piece was placed in the top corner of the card, but it looked very crowded when I added the sentiment. I was playing with placement and I realized that by slightly shifting the layered pieces down, the card instantly looked better. Before gluing everything in place, I added the Sheet Music background to the card and the Adorning Accents embossing folder inside the card.

I sprinkled gems and sequins and tied a piece of Seaside Spray metallic ribbon. I also stamped my image on a matching teal envelope.

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies (unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: New Wonders (Hostess), Sheet Music
Cardstock: Teal/Green (We R Memory Makers); Watercolor Paper (Fabriano)
Designer Series Paper: Almost Amethyst
Ink: Marina Mist, Blush Blossom, Almost Amethyst, Pretty Peacock,
Granny Apple Green, Soft Suede
Accessories: Seaside Spray Metallic Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Stitched Shapes Dies,
Woven Thread Sequins, Adorned Accents Embossing Folder, 
From My Heart Faceted Gems; Lacy Borders Dies (Lawn Fawn);
A2 Teal Envelope (envelopes.com)
Font: Santa's Sleigh

 

Office Hours Notebook

I love to use steno notebooks to jot things down at work. I love that's it's large enough to get substantial info on just one page, but compact enough to limit the space it takes up on the desk, especially if you tuck the cover page underneath. I finally reached the last page of the one I'm currently using yesterday. With good quality ones, I would usually turn the pad around and start using the backside of the pages but this particular one was pretty cheap and you can see the ink through the pages, so I knew I had to find myself a new one. I didn't want to make a purchase and I had in the back on my mind the idea to make one of my own. I have the Zutter Bind-It-All machine, purchased years ago along with spiral bindings tucked away in my closet, ready to pull out for projects like this. I also have this paper I got from the office last year when we changed the company logo. They were going around the floors, gathering all stationary with the old logo on it and I asked what they were going to do with the paper. I know some offices are okay with employees using the old paper at home to print on or to give to the kids for them to draw on. I had a feeling they might not want the letterhead to circulate out of the office, but I got a nice surprise when I came in a few days later and found a stack of paper sitting on my desk, ready to take away with me! Actually, I got two surprises, because it turns out the paper was not 8½ x 11 anymore...! They had cut the logo off, leaving me with 8½ x 9½ sheets. I was both touched that they had taken the time to prepare the paper for me and also miffed that the new size couldn't be printed on, which is what I was planning to do in the first place (just for informal docs to use around the house). Well, once I got over the initial disappointment, I decided this could be used to make cute notebooks, possibly to give away as little gifts to my colleagues.

Then COVID happened and since we're all working apart, gifts are not a top priority right now, but getting a new notebook for myself was, so I got working on my idea tonight. I initially tried cutting one of the sheets in two to get the most out of the paper stack, but I found the resulting pages to be too narrow, so I measured the steno notebook I had and cut the page to 9½ x 6". To decide how many pages to include in the notebook, I pulled out my spiral inventory to look at what I had. I found a white "leftover" piece, meaning I had already used part of the spiral on another project and the leftover piece was just the right width for my notebook - and the right colour, so that's what I went with. It seemed fitting to use the Office Hours line from PinkFresh. I've been sitting on this one for a couple of months and I was happy to finally dive in, as I love this fun little collection. 

I used a thick piece of chipboard for the back (as I love being able to walk around with a notebook and have it sturdy enough to write on it while standing up - not that relevant when working at home, but very much so when working in an office, especially back when I was an assistant and would constantly be writing stuff down while standing in someone's doorway) and a lighter weight chipboard for the front. The front is still pretty sturdy now that I've added patterned paper on both the front and the inside (mostly for my own pleasure.) I picked the tab paper design to use on the front and added a strip of blue wording to the side to break up all of that pink. I used double-sided tape and I unfortunately started putting the paper piece slightly crooked, so when I added the blue wording, which was straight, the plaid pattern gave that away! I hid the seam with a piece of sparkly washi tape (which incidently, doesn't come from that product line, but is a dead-on match to the shade of blue used on the patterned paper).

I wanted to add an overlay, but keep it very flat, so I layered a couple of paper scraps and I picked the "Hello my name is" cut-apart, which worked perfectly to add my name to the notebook! I was tempted to use the alpha stickers that go with the collection, but I had a feeling they would come off when the notebook was handled over time, so I went for stamping instead. I have my full name up on a block already to stamp on the back of my cards, so I hid the "handstamped by" part and my last name and inked my first name with Night of Navy ink and added it to the die-cut. I stapled the papers together for texture and added a small little puffy stickers that says "Noted" because I couldn't resist. I'm really loving that the puffy stickers are having a comeback. Maybe because it's reminding me of my sticker collection from my childhood, which I was really proud of.

I was trying to decide whether to round the corners or not with the Corner Chomper and I ended up deciding to do only the bottom right corner, which looks great with the shape of the tab image. The only thing I could improve on in my next version would be to cut the pages slightly smaller than the cover pages so that the pages are more covered. I only realized that once I was done assembling it. Small detail, but those are the kind of things you improve on when you move to version 2.0.

I don't know how long this new notebook will last me, but I'm thinking because I have the Bind-It-All machine that I might be able to simply pry the spiral apart, take out the used pages inside the notebook, cut and punch some new ones and bind it again using the existing cover pages if I want to get more mileage out of my work. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to start using it at work tomorrow. I'm really happy with the result!

 

 

 

Supplies
Chipboard and White Paper: Upcycled
Stamps: Faire la différence 
Ink: Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers and Puffy Stickers: Office Hours (PinkFresh)
Accessories: Blue Sparkly Washi Tape (Unknown Source); Stapler (Office Supplies);
White Spiral, Bind-It-All Machine (Zutter); Ticket Corner Punch (Stampin' Up!);
Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

 

Ornement Collection

Inspiration: Color Throwdown #597

I have loved using this adorable line from My Mind's Eye and I was down with only a few scraps that I couldn't bear to part with, so I got inspired to make an ornement kit. I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos lately and it's inspired to try out new things with my crafting, including making my own set of embellishments. I pulled out a bunch of dies, punches and tools, my glue gun and within one evening and one afternoon, I ended up with the following:

 

Cold Weather Brings Our Family and Friends Together

Inspiration: Time Out Challenge #163 - The Proust quote made me think of my nieces, which I love to bits and whose presence bring tremendous happiness to my life 

I'm still on a scrapbooking roll these days and I'm going with it as it's helping me power through the high pile of pictures I have printed and that I want to incorporate in my scrapbook albums. This page was inspired by the Hello Winter collection. I had initially purchased the patterned papers in 6" x 6" format and later, my local store received the chipboard pieces. I thought they were adorable (and maybe there was a sale involved?) so I purchased them. That being said, I usually prefer to incorporate chipboard on my layouts rather than on my cards, mostly because they are a pricier embellishment, but then I was a little unsure how to go about it using the 6" x 6" papers.

Flash forward to all the new info I've recently acquired through my YouTube deep dive (also known as keeping yourself busy while you're in social isolation) and I decided to see how I could make the 6" x 6" paper work on a layout. A lot of the tips I've picked up lately have been about how to store and reuse scraps, of both cardstock and papers. This contributed to me making this layout in a flash. In my reorganization effort, I changed my storage solution for 12" x 12" cardstock. I've used the Cropper Hopper vertical plastic folders/boxes (which were also sold by Stampin' Up! for a while) for many years and I was mostly happy with this option, but I recently noticed that a lot of my cardstock was getting their corners bent and I was not pleased with that. Those boxes work well as long as they are not too full, and mine were starting to overflow a bit. I couldn't buy more folders as I don't have room for more in the bookcase where I store them. In the meantime, I had found those beautiful clear three-drawer containers at Michaels. They were pricey, but I got three of them during a Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale. My plan was to store patterned papers in them, as I've been struggling lately to contain my ever-growing paper pile. That being said, even though the inside of the drawer is larger than 12" x 12", the paper still won't fit... because of the branding strips! I was really annoyed to find that out. I had started cutting the branding strips a smidge to get the papers in there, but this created a lot of unnecessary work. I recently realized that if I switched my cardstock to those drawers, that would ensure the corners stay pristine and it solved my size problem, as cardstock is true 12" x 12", so I made the change and I've been happy with it. While making the switchs, I found some cardstock pieces that were incomplete and that had already been cut into. I made a separate pile - those are meant to be divided by colour in my scrap drawers, but in the meantime, I've made a pile that I keep close to my desk and whenever I'm crafting, I try to see if there's anything in this pile that will work before I dive into my new cardstock.

This is how I wound up with a 8½ x 11 page. I realized that I had a grey leftover that would work AND that by using the smaller page format, it would make using the smaller-sized patterned papers easier. I also remembered that the Page Maps sketches include two 8½ x 11 sketches each month. I ended up using one from the March 2020 selection. One of the chipboard pieces had a very nice sentiment on it: Cold Weather Brings Our Family and Friends Together, and it became my page title. I have a lot of vacation pictures that have been printed recently, so I wasn't sure what I could find that would work with the winter-themed chipboard. I ended up finding a selfie of me with my two lovely nieces, taken when Arielle was still just a baby. You can tell this was taken in winter by her fleece PJ. The picture is also really neutral, so it went really well with the collection.

The only part of the sketch that was a problem was the band at the top. I was looking at my papers, trying to see if I could select a pattern where the seam wouldn't be too apparent and then I realized that I should shop my colour scraps to see if I had anything that worked. Again, in my recent reorg, I've gone through all of my collections and decided which ones I was ready to separate by colours instead of keeping them by collection. When I opened my aqua drawer, one of the first sheets I spotted was a dead-on match to the collection and had a lovely print that went perfectly, so the problem got solved pretty quickly. I added a snowflake punched border and grey washi tape.

I decided my grey cardstock was a little bland and needed speckles. I used the Brushed Pewter Distress mica spray and the speckle brush from Tim Holtz. I bought this at my local store quite a while ago after being inspired by a Tim demo (he sure knows how to make us want his products), but I don't think I had used it yet. Seeing the brush make a comeback in a recent demo brought it to the forefront of my memory and I remembered to pull it out today. It works very nicely, gives good control and also keeps my fingers mess-free, which I appreciate! Since the medium is in spray form, I pulled out my mini media mat and vaporized a couple of spritz on the white mat, then I dipped my brush in it. (On a side note, I thought the media mat was cool, but I knew I'm not doing enough mixed media techniques to make it worth my while. I've also been working on the magnetic mat from Basic Grey (think a more luxurious version of the Wendy Vecchy Make Art Station) and I can't imagine crafting on anything else. Once the travel-size version got release, I realized this was the perfect option for me, as I easily pull it out and put it away again, it comes with the sleeve to protect it when it's not on my desk and it takes up way less space when I do pull it out.)

The rest was just assembling paper and cutting some of the scraps as tags. I also found a white-patterned acetate while digging through my scraps for my earlier project today and I left it out on the desk, thinking I needed to find something to incorporate it in. It was perfect against my dark grey background and with the winter theme. I am really renewing with my love of scrapbooking now that my supplies are better organized - seems like my thoughts and inspiration is as well! I think this page turned out really cute. You'd never guess I initially felt constrained by the supplies I was working with. Let's hope I can keep the mojo going all weekend!

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Basic Grey, Midnight Muse (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers and Chipboard: Hello Winter (Echo Park); Aqua Pattern (American Crafts)
Punches: Snowflake Edger (EK Success); Elegant Tag Topper, Tag Corner, Bonanza (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: White Baker's Twine, Snowflake Sequins, Stampin' Dimensionals, Soft Sky Ribbon,
Washi Tape (Stampin' Up!); Silver Gems (Studio Katia); White Embossing Powder (Wow);
Eyelets (We R Memory Keepers); Brushed Pewter Mica Distress Spray (Ranger)

 

Wishes for the Blushing Bride

Inspiration: Card Maps October 2019 Sketch + As You See It #227 (One of my favorite movie is My best friend's wedding, which has one of the best movie soundtrack)

As evidenced by my recent posts, I've been going through my stash and using my leftovers lately, which feels very nice. I've still a long way to go to make a dent, but at least it proves that I'm not holding on to older supplies for nothing. One of the collection leftovers I had put aside to play with was Gift of Love from Bo Bunny. I've always loved this collection. I'm not usually one for purple, but those rich hues paired with cream and olive and covered with gorgeous sparkle just have a special place in my heart. I've also always loved everything I've ever created with those papers, so I was going to keep my leftovers together and use them down to the very last scrap. (I think I still have one more project left in my smaller leftover pile.) 

I picked a past sketch from Card Maps as inspiration and I paired the paper with a retiring Stampin' Up! set. The bride image was a natural fit with the sketch and the papers, and there was also a matching sentiment that was the right size to fill the space in my main square. I added lots of stitching on my papers by using the Wonky Stitch Rectangles and the Basic Stitch Lines on each side of the purple paper and beneath the sentiment, which helped fill out the space better.

The layered flower is made from two flower images fussy cut from two patterned papers, and I added a gold faceted gem in the center (love how it looks.) The bride image was colored with Copic markers. To finish embellishing the card, I added lace trim, vintage pearls and Pearl Necklace sequins (including seed beads in the bouquet for texture). 

I was surprised to see that one of my leftover papers was large enough to make an envelope out of! I had cut the square before starting on my project and put it aside to make a matching set. I used the Painted Labels dies and some random green scrap I found in my paper bin to make the address block. I used the smaller tag from the same die set to add my signature on the back on the card.

I forgot to add that some of the patterned papers were not standing out enough from one another when layered, so I used a blender tool and two colours of inks (Antique Linen Distress Oxide and and Creamy Brown chalk ink from ColorBox, speaking of using older supplies!) to ink the edges of certain pieces, which helped give the card more depth.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Moments merveilleux (Memorable Moments - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Gift of Love (Bo Bunny)
Ink: River Rock (Lawn Fawn); Creamy Brown - Chalk Ink (ColorBox);
 Antique Linen - Distress Oxide Ink (Ranger); Elegant Eggplant - Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Wonky Stitch Rectangle, Basic Stitch Lines Die-namics (My Favorite Things);
Painted Labels (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch, Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder,  Stampin' DImensionals,
Lace Trim, Envelope Punch Board (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic);
Pearl Necklace Sequins (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
Vintage Shimmer Pearls (Studio Katia)

 

A New Day

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #527 + Simon Says Stamp (masculine) + Just Add Ink #508 (F for Folder)

I really loved the look of the Let It Ride stamp set from the moment I saw it and was happy to add a horse set to my collection since I didn't have any. I have to admit that I have found this set hard to work with, though. Not sure why, but this hasn't sparked as much inspiration as I would have hoped. I did decide to give it a try again today and I'm happy with how my card turned out. 

I stamped the horse head on Crumb Cake cardstock, and cut the image out with the embossed tag from the Painted Labels die. I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils (love how the colors pop on kraft cardstock) and I stamped a sentiment from the Power of Hope stamp set (2020 SAB offering). It reads, "This day marks a new beginning." 

For my background piece, I went looking for textures so I picked Buffalo Plaid for the background and I embossed my middle piece with the Corrugated 3D embossing folder (love that one, very sad to see it go). I distressed the edge of the plaid cardstock and layered the Soft Seafoam embossed piece, then I tied a piece of jute ribbon in the centre. I slid two copper leave trinkets behind the ribbon knot and a Early Espresso circle created with the same die set behind the main image. I finished the card off with sequins and faceted dots. I used a Crumb Cake envelope to finish the set.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Let It Ride, Buffalo Check, La force de l'espoir (Power of Hope)
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Soft Seafoam, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, Basic Black
Accessories: Jute Ribbon, Leaves Trinkets, Stampin' DImensionals, 
Crumb Cake Medium Envelope, Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins, Faceted Dots,
Corrugated 3D Embossing Folder, Star Designer Elements; Pencils (Prismacolor)

 

Tropical Library Pockets

Inspiration: Global Project #243 (Floral) + SUO #250 (Designer's Choice)

I saw someone sharing on YouTube handmade library pockets and I thought it would be a fun project to try using my Stampin' Up! supplies. I used the retiring Mosaic Mood papers for the pockets and the Timeless Tropical stamp set to decorate them. I'm behind on making cards for my downline so I decided to work on multiple. The strips needed for the pockets measure 4" x 8" so I was able to get three at once (would have been four if I'd planned better, but the last one would have had horizontal stripes on it, when my plan was to use horizontal stripes). 

I will say this about the big tropical flower from this stamp set. It's gorgeous, but I've struggled with coloring it so far. Because I wasn't sure how to go about it this time around, all three flowers are done differently. I tried inking it with markers, spritzing with water and stamping. I tried stamping it in Terracotta Tile ink and adding ink with a dauber, and then stamping with Soft Suede ink and daubing ink (Blushing Bride and Terracotta Tile). I then used my Stampin' Write markers to ink the stem on all three (and a bit of definition on the watercolored one using the markers). All three of them are good enough to use, but still leave me a little cold. I wonder if I'll finally find a way to use it that I truly like.

For the insert, I used Very Vanilla cardstock and used the palm tree image inked with markers. This part, I really love. The mix of Pear Pizzazz with Mellow Moss and Soft Suede with Early Espresso gives great depth to the image. I added the thank you sentiment from the same set in Mint Macaron right beside it.

I wanted to ink the pineapple image using the markers as well and I decided I would be handcutting the image and adding it to paper clips. It's my new handmade ornement obsession. A lot of companies are selling some (at a premium) and paper clips costs next to nothing (and they tend to multiply, so I have a bunch of them even though I'm fairly sure I've only ever bought a box). 

Then, I wanted to add ribbon and I had three possible options, so I decided to try out all three! I used Mellow Moss satin ribbon on the first, burlap ribbon on the second and braided burlap trim on the third. I added little pineapple charms on all three, and From my Heart faceted gems in the flower center.

I then measured the resulting envelope (with the paperclip) and made matching envelopes out of patterned paper for all three cards. The catalogue is coming to an end, so I'm trying to use up my remaining paper that's about to retire, and envelope is an effective way to get through patterned paper quickly. I will say I love the idea behind the Mosaic Mood patterned paper (and the fact that it has a glossy finish that really makes it look like tile), but man, those papers have busy patterns and are not easy to incorporate into projects. I received it as a gift from Stampin' Up! when I attended an OnStage event last year and I managed to get through about half of the pack on my own, so that's pretty good.

With experience, I've learned how to differentiate between paper that I like looking at and paper that I like using. Among the characteristics that I've noticed make a paper collection hard to use are small patterns that are repeated too closely on the page and make the overall pattern really busy, without any "breather" pages in the collection (like tone-on-tone design that will balance those busy designs out). Also, if a collection doesn't have a lot of colours - too many colours will be equally as challenging, but I've noticed that I have better results when I have at least three colours (and I'm not counting neutrals). For example, a lot of Christmas papers only have red and green in the whole pack, with white or vanilla as a neutral. I prefer when there's a third colour added (yellow, aqua, brown, etc.) While the Mosaic Mood paper has four different main shades (green, mint, red and yellow), it doesn't have those breather pages. Even the monochrome pages have the mosaic pattern all over them, so it is not plain enough to balance out the full-out mosaic designs. Just look at those envelopes I created to see what I mean. Those patterns are not for the faint of heart. 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Oasis tropicale (Tropical Oasis)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla
Specialty Designer Series Paper: Mosaic Mood
Ink: Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Mint Macaron, Pear Pizzazz, Terracotta Tile, Blushing Bride
Accessories: Stampin' Write Markers, Burlap Ribbon, Burlap Braided Trim,
Mellow Moss Stitched Satin Ribbon, Corner Rounder Punch, Tropical Oasis Trinkets,
Peaceful Poppies Sequins, From My Heart Faceted Gems, Envelope Punch Board,
Painted Labels Dies, Paper Clips (Office Supplies)

 

Oddball Bunny

Inspiration: October 2019 Card Maps sketch + Little Red Wagon #552 (Patterned Paper)

After making my last layout, I was left with paper scraps that I decided to work into a card. I also finally received my Stamping Bella order, placed after the company announced not only a sale, but that they would be discontinuing dies to go with their stamps. I find it easier to work the Bella images into projects when they are die-cut, so I tried to get the dies I was missing for the stamps I own. I also added a few more recent stamps I didn't have yet, including the cute Oddball Easter Bunny. The pastel colors of the Laundry Line papers seemed perfect for it.

I picked a Card Maps sketch as inspiration and I was looking for a sentiment to fill in the space in the stitched oval. All of the Easter sentiments I found were too small, so I went for "Nobody deserves a nice birthday more than you." Nothing to do with Easter, but why not. People have birthdays in April as well, right? I wanted tp work with a different size. I initially planned to make a 4" x 7" card but for some reason. I screwed up one of the sides on the envelope I was making (which thankfully I made right as I started instead of at the end when the card was finished), so I was able to change the card size to 4" x 6". Not sure what happened with the envelope punch board, though. I've never screwed up a single envelope since buying it, so I wish I knew what went wrong. Because the patterned paper I used has sparkly details, I made sure to add a die-cut made out of plain paper in the center for the address.

The bunny image was stamped in StazOn ink on watercolor paper and colored using my watercolor pencils from Faber-Castell. Because the papers are muted, it was a good opportunity to go with the watercolor pencils, that produce a less saturated result than ink or alcohol markers. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ballons à l'aventure (Stampin' Up!); Oddball Easter Bunny (Stamping Bella)
Cardstock: Pool Party, Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Laundry Line (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Lost Lagoon, Early Espresso Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Stitched Shapes Dies, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Strawberry Slush
and Coastal Cabana Ruffled Ribbons, Lace Trim Border Punch,
Envelope Punch Board (Stampin' Up!); Albrecht Dürer Watercolour Pencils (Faber-Castell);
Oddball Easter Bunny Die (Stamping Bella)

 

New Haircut

Inspiration: March 2020 Page Maps sketch + Lasting Memory Layout challenge #500 (bling + stickers + 5 or more patterned papers + punch + twine)

This is another layout that was born out of scraps. I used the gorgeous Laundry Line collection from My Mind's Eye. I wasn't sure what to make with it, so I just started playing with the Page Maps sketch, cutting papers and layered them on a full 12" x 12" background I pulled out from the Love Letters paper pack from Mintay (recently acquired). Since I had those papers out, I decided to fussy cut a few images from the collection and had them as a cluster in the lower corner. Initially, I thought I'd leave the page blank and simply add a picture to it later if I couldn't find anything today, but when I went through pictures, I did find a selfie taken two years ago after I had cut my hair short. I wanted to send my hair to the Canadian Cancer Society, which required a pretty drastic cut as the ponytail has to be at least 8 inches long. While this length looks good on me, it's hard to manage as my hair is naturally wavy and because it covers my face when I bend down to write when I'm working. I ended up with my hair up in a ponytail most of the time until it grew back out a little longer.

Lots of older supplies were incorporated into this layout: layered chipboard pieces from Bo Bunny, cork stickers from Stampin' Up!, October Afternoon rub-ons, Carpe Diem bradz from Simple Stories, old alphabet stickers (I was out of E's, which is always a problem as I've recently mentioned), so I took an 8 and fussy cut it to look like the letter I was missing. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers: Love Letters (Mintay); Laundry Line (My Mind's Eye)
Alphabet Stickers: Spring Fever (Imaginisce); Tea-Thyme (Prima)
Rub-Ons: Thrift Shop Border (October Afternoon)
Embellishments: Cork Stickers, Triple Banner Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Linen Thread (Stampin' Up!); Bundle of Joy Enamel Dots (Echo Park)
Carpe Diem Bradz (Simple Stories); Et Cetera Layered Chipboard Stickers (Bo Bunny)

 

Elmvale Jungle Zoo

Inspiration: Lasting Memory Layout Challenge #500 (Chipboard + Circle + * + 5 or more patterned paper

The inspiration for this layout was papers from the Zoo Crew collection from Bella Blvd. found in my stash. I've had those for many years and always thought they were cute, but because they're themed so specifically, it was a while before I had pictures to go with them. We visited the Elmvale Jungle Zoo on the year we went to Wasaga Beach, and I was surprised to discover how may exotic pets the zoo has, including zebras, giraffes, primates, tigers, lions, panthers and cougars. 

I recently saw a page on the Simple Stories blog where they had layered papers with a torn and rolled edge. I made a mental note of using thay on a page and because I had so many zoo pictures to try and fit into my layout, I knew a 2-page spread would be preferable and I layered my papers at the top and bottom. I made sure to use the wild animal pattern on top, to showcase it.

I very rarely scrapbook without the support of a sketch but in this instance, I had so many pictures to work with, I simply started die-cutting them with stitched circles or rectangles dies depending on the picture and then I started arranging the die-cuts on the pages to see what I could work with.

I added a green strip over the top torn papers to ground my title, and I worked with two collections of black Thickers. The Happy Day alphabet works very well with the whimsical papers and the word jungle. The strip of animals riding the little trolley is the backside of one of the papers. I used it to fill in the space a bit, and repeated it on the second page under the journaling to fill in space there as well. Initially, I wasn't sure I liked where this was going as I had my pictures floating around on the page and it seemed blah, but once I moved a few pictures around on the right page and started embellishing, and filling empty spots with additional circles, the layout started to get to where I wanted it to be.

I've touched a little bit on my recent supplies reorganizing. One of the things I've done was to group all of my embellishments together in bins that I can flip through to find things that might work for a card or project. I have two bins with embellishments and one with die-cuts and chipboard pieces. The die-cuts will need to be organized some more, but that's the next step I would like to tackle in my progress. In the meantime, just having those bins handy had made a huge difference, as I've realized while watching YouTube videos from scrapbookers that I need to look at embellishments individually rather than as a whole pack to use them more. This layout is a good example of that. See that little flag? It's from October Afternoon's Sasparilla kit, which is cowboy-themed. Nothing to do wuth a zoo, but if I use the aqua flag with the green word on it, then I can include it in my layout. Same with the chipboard piece right next to it. It's from Crate Paper's School Spirit, but the ticket on its own worked well for a day at a park. And the stitched brads from Basic Grey (speaking of older supplies!) were traffic-themed, but it was not as obvious when I only kept the one with the stripes and the one with the arrow. Looking at the individual pieces has really given me a new outlook on my existing inventory and I'm really hoping that it will help me make a dent into what I own and work the older stuff more easily into my projects.

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers: The Zoo Crew (Bella Blvd.); Various Paper Scraps
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Tropical (Stampin' Up!); Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Circle Double Stitched (Art Impressions)
Alphabet Stickers: Happy Day, Spellbound (American Crafts)
Accessories: School Spirit Layered Chipboard (Crate Paper); 
Domestic Bliss Enamel Dots (Simple Stories); Stitched Brads (Basic Grey);
Sasparilla Little Flyers (October Afternoon); Bright Glitter Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design);
Collectable Decorative Brads (My Mind's Eye); Copper Brads (American Crafts)