Encre, papier, ciseaux

Holiday Haul

Inspiration: Just Add Ink #566 (Just Add a Frame)

I snagged the Holiday Haul stamp on Clearance and has kept it on my desk, hoping to colour the image soon. I decided I was in the mood to watercolor tonight, so I stamped the image in Archival black ink on watercolor paper and used my Stampin' Up! inks with an Aqua Painter brush to color it. Before I committed to a colour scheme, I looked through past Designer Series Paper packs and found one in shades of turquoise, green and grey shades that I used as my inspiration. I snuck a touch of Polished Pink in there to make the image stand out a bit more.

Once I was done with my coloring, I started looking for ideas on how to design my card. I was inspired by the Just Add a Frame challenge and used my favorite Wonky Scalloped Frames dies from Avery Elle around the image. I picked up the Hail Storm Specialty paper from Tonic to add texture and shine. I was finding the frame a little big around my image, so I decided to try out a mat made out of patterned paper. It's a subtle difference, but it looks much better and it incorporates a bit more pattern as well.

For the sentiment, I hesitate between a script sentiment stamped directly at the top of the watercolor paper or a layered banner. I decided to stamp and die-cut the banner to see how I liked it, and I found the juxtaposition pleasing, so I kept it. The bottom was too empty, so I used the little bow from the same frame die set in Polished Pink to fill in the gap.

The stamp set I was using for the sentiment contained a bow image with a matching die, and I had tested it out to see which of the two bows worked better on the banner. I ended up picking the smaller one, but I decided I liked how the bigger one looked on the front of the car, popped up with Dimensionals. I remembered I had matching square gems, so I added those to the center of my bows.

I was wondering if a ribbon bow would also look nice at the bottom of the card. I tried out quite a few ribbons and was not liking the widths or colors, but I liked the Soft Sky classic weave ribbon, so this one stayed. I knew this would be a tight fit in a regular A2 envelope, so I used patterned paper from the pack (I have quite a bit left) to make an oversize envelope to accommodate the extra bulk.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Pleins feux sur Noël (Stampin' Up!); Holiday Haul (Stampendous)
Cardstock: Lost Lagoon, Polished Pink, Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (Stampin' Up)
Designer Series Paper: ? (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Smoky Slate, Black Archive Ink, Mint Macaron, So Saffron, Lost Lagoon, 
Polished Pink, Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Wonky Scalloped Frames (Avery Elle); Christmas Lampost, Lots of Labels (Stampin' Up!);
Dotted Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Envelope Punch Board, 2020-2022 In Color Square Gems, Soft Sky Classic
Weave Ribbon, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Aqua Painter Brush (Stampin' Up!);
Deep Sea Baked Texture Embossing Powder (Emerald Creek)

 

Winter Shopping Spree

Inspiration: CAS Colours & Sketches #429

I got the adorable Shopping Spree Spellbinders dies at my local store recently and I paired them with the CAS Colours challenge to create a card. There was a lot of die-cutting involved to get all the colours and pieces I needed for my gifts and detailing. I didn't want to introduce other colours so I combined glitter paper in the same colour for the gifts to allow for a little bit of variety.

For the background, I reached for my Nuvo shimmer powders, which I hadn't used in a while. I combined Violet Brocade and Blue Blitz on watercolor paper. I found a new way to mix the colours on my paper: using my spritzer tool (that was sold many years ago by Stampin' Up! to get speckles from their markers). I got the idea from seeing people work with Tim Holtz's air tool when they work with alcohol inks. It's a great way to move the pigments around without keeping adding a bunch of water. Just make really sure all of your pigments are already wet, though, as the air tool will make them fly away on your desktop if they are still dry! Once I was done, I dried the paper with my heat tool and I dry embossed the background using the Winter Snowflakes 3D embossing folder. 

The leg section of the dies is made so that they can be turned into a kinetic card. The top has a little hole, so you can use dimensional adhesive in the center and the legs will swing from side to side on the card. I was curious to see it in action for myself, so I gave it a try. While it's fun, I will say the legs swinging from side to side don't make a lot of sense to me. It would make more sense if the top part wiggled, as if the person is struggling with the pile of gifts. Next time, I might see if I can pop the top part of the person on an action wobble.

I wanted to keep the card fairly simple, but add a sentiment, so I decided to pull out a retired tag stamp and die bundle from Stampin' Up! and stamp a Ho Ho Ho tag. I used my Stampin' Write markers to get the three colours on the stamp and my Tim Holtz stamping platform to stamp twice, as unfortunately the markers don't work as well on photopolymer stamps as it does on rubber. I layered the stamped tag over a handmade ribbon tassel. I finally was able to find a kit with the crimps in various widths and metal finishes so I can better adapt to the ribbons I'm using and my project. I also made a bead dangle in matching colours. I often need to insert a sead bead or sequin at the bottom of my straight pin so that the beads stay in place, so I used a clear snowflake sequin, and I added a few more sequins to the card itself while I had my sequins out. 

For the envelope, I didn't have any colour matching my blue or razzleberry, but metallic Sapphire looked really cool matched with the card. I added a blue tag for the address and used my remaining die-cut gifts to embellish the envelope and inside the card. Looks like the Holiday cards are starting to creep their way into my rotation. It will be more and more tempting as the Christmas releases start showing up. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Étiquettes des Fêtes (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Balmy Blue, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Balmy Blue, Smoky Slate and Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Write Markers (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Étiquettes de Noël (Stampin' Up!); Wonky Stitched Rectangle Stax (My Favorite Things);
Happy Day Tags (Carta Bella)
Accessories: A2 Sapphire Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Violet Brocade and Blue Blitz Shimmer Powder (Nuvo);
Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon, 1/8" Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain Ribbon, Spritzer Tool,
Seaside Spray Shimmer Ribbon, White Crinkled Ribbon, Silver Cord (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic);
Crimps, Clips (Amazon); Beads (Bead Landing); Winter Snowflakes 3D Embossing Folder (Sizzix);
Sequins (Cartwright's); Bluebell, Stormcloud and Amethyst Pearls (Studio Katia)

 

Welcome to Hogswart

Inspiration: Retro Rubber Challenge #164 (Anything Goes - stamps purchased over two years ago)

I have been wanting to make a box card pop-up with Harry Potter and his friends ever since I got the Trinity Stamps sets, so this has been a long time coming. Now that I also have the Build-a-Castle dies from Lawn Fawn, it was easier to add Hogswart to the background as well. 

What finally gave me the kick I needed to get this card done was the Witches and Wizards collection from Echo Park. I created my card base out of Basic Black cardstock and I used gold ink, a stencil brush and the Starry Sky stencil to add a pattern all over it. Then I used the stitched dies from the set to add patterned papers around the sides. 

I created the castle out of Tip Top Taupe cardstock, and inked in the same colour using the Brick stencil. I backed the main window with Gold Rush cardstock and added the window frame with Very Vanilla cardstock. I created a door in dark brown woodgrain cardstock and used regular cardstock in a matching colour for the details. I created four pennants in the house colours to add to the front of the castle.

Next, I used the Shadow Box Card Rainbow Add-on dies so that I would have the cloud inserts for my box card. I die-cut the clouds out of Very Vanilla cardstock and inked the edge with the same gold ink again.

Next, I stamped and colored a bunch of images from the three Trinity Stamps sets: Magical Wizards, Wizard Friends and Happee Birthdae. I die-cut the colored images and started arranging them in the box. I used acetate strips to have Fawkes and the feather floating up in the air. The remaining images were added to the side panels with dimensional adhesive to decorate.

On the back, I created a panel where a message could be written. The rectangle dies I have were not the right length, so I cut out the Zig Zag rectangle and the Dotted rectangle twice to shorten my pieces up. I used the banner and pennants from the Box Card Pop-up set to decorate the top of the panel.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Magical Wizards, Wizard Friends, Happee Birthdae (Trinity Stamps)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Tip Top Taupe,
Gold Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!); Gold Rush, Neutrals Woodgrain (Lawn Fawn)
Patterned Papers: Witches & Wizards (Echo Park)
Ink: Tea Dye Distress Oxide (Ranger); Tuxedo Black (Memento);
Antique Gold (Altenew)
Dies: Magical Wizards, Wizard Friends (Trinity Stamps);
Build-a-Castle, Shadow Box Card Rainbow Add-On, Zig Zag Rectangle Stackables,
Dotted Rectangle Stackables, Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Stencil Brush (Tim Holtz for Ranger); Markers (Copic);
Starry Sky and Brick Stencils (Lawn Fawn); Gold Posca Pen (Mitsubishi);
Mini Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Blender Brushes (Taylored Expressions)

 

Going on a Ride with Dad

Inspiration: July 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (something old = arrow die, Thickers, something new = Witches and Wizards collection)

My brother-in-law is not big on rides, but he decided to join us on Flight of the Hippogriff. My sister waited for us with her youngest daughter, who was not tall enough to ride herself, and when we came back, she decided she wanted to ride it, too, since the line was fairly short. We were watching for her to come near the fence at the end of the ride and when we pointed to Arielle, saying "Look, mom's on the ride right there", she burst into tears when she realized mom wasn't around with us anymore. I was waiting for my sis to roll by to snap a picture of her on the ride and I happened to snap right as she saw her daughter in tears, hence her concerned expression!

I kept going with the Witches and Wizards collection for this page since it was already out. I played with patterns until I found a pleasing combination for the background and then I cut my pictures to size. They were not standing out enough against the busy patterns, so I matted them all in Very Vanilla cardstock, using my Perfect Layers tool to create a 1/16" border (this was purchased years ago, but I still love to use it to help with precise matting).

For the sentiment, the postcard cut-apart caught my eye. I really loved the font and colour I had used on my previous layout, so I stuck with that (Garamouche font). I eyeballed the size I needed for the journaling, printed it on 8½ x 11 paper first, and layered the cut-apart over my paper to test the size and it looked pretty good, so I used temporary tape to place the cut-apart over the printed area on the paper and I ran it through the printer again. The centering turned out perfect!! I knew I wouldn't be able to fit the whole postacard, so I cut the sides with the deckle trimmer to add texture and then I cut the right side off following the edge of the page.

For the title, I followed the sketch and die-cut a circle out of patterned paper, and then I played with Thickers and dies (same ones as on my previous page) and fiddled with placement until I was happy. My initial idea was to do a big "1" at the beginning of the title. I tested out five different dies and didn't like the look of any of them. So I decided to go back to the letters instead and then I realized I had the letters I needed in my Thickers set - and it looked infinitely better. I like the mirroring it creates as well. I had to move every single row down to make room for it, though, and I lucked out as nothing ripped and the letters remained intact. I used Basic Black cardstock for the die-cut letter and I added a bit of sparkle to the cardstock using the Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer brush.

To embellish, I added a few stickers and ephemera pieces from the collection. The ephemera includes a lot of tags, so I had all of the leftover hole pieces, which I lined up in a row on the side, along with a little star sticker. I also had a cute little green bow wrapped in gold thread that I had made during a previous embellishment session, so I added it to one of the tags. I knew I wanted to include an arrow pointing to my sister's expression to emphasize it, so I found a really old die from Stampin' Up! and die-cut an arrow out of champagne glitter paper. I added a little letter and an owl medallion, and I covered the wax seal with Glossy Accents to make it shiny. At the top, I wrapped sparkly thread and I layered a few elements to mirror the sketch.

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Stickers, Ephemera: Witches and Wizards (Echo Park)
Dies: Layering Circles (Tonic); Curves Ahead (Sizzix for Stampin' Up!);
Lowercase and Uppercase Mini Alphabet (Recollections); Put a Bow on It (Lawn Fawn)
 Accessories: Good Vibes Thickers (American Crafts); Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer Brush (Tonic);
Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic); D168 Diamant Floss (DMC);
Deco Scissors (Fiskars); Gold Thread (Altenew)

 

Matching Souvenir

Inspiration: September 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Festive Friday #89 (Stars + Red + Embossing Paste)

Amongst the collections I had put aside to work with was the Witches and Wizards collection from Echo Park. I decided to pull out my pictures from our trip to Universal Studios and make a page for our vacation album. I settled on the pictures of my niece and me in our matching Gryffindor scarves. The shops were chock-full of merchandise and yet, we both happened to gravitate towards this specific scarf, so I bought one for myself and one for her as a gift. We went on the first week of January, so posing with the scarves was not as unbearable as it would have been in the middle of summer. 

One of the cut-aparts had the words "You are my favorite wizard" on it, so I had put it aside to work into my page design. I wanted to find a way to cut it out somehow so I wouldn't have a full rectangle and I actually found the perfect solution because I had this polka dot scalloped circle frame lying on my desk, leftover from my S'more card. The vanilla colour was perfect with the collection and the circle was the perfect size to house the sentiment (and much easier to work into my design).

I also got the idea for my journaling from the S'more card. I had used my computer to print out my own sentiment for the card, and printed it twice to get the wording right. My leftover printout was lying on the desk and I realized the font, colour and Distress Oxide inking I had done on the vanilla cardstock would work really well on page, so I created my own printout using the same font. The little banner at the top is actually a leftover piece from the Favorite Wizard cut-apart. I loved the banner, so I fussy cut it and added it to the tag with dimensional adhesive. On the sticker sheet, I found a striped scarf, the perfect addition to my page. I added a narrow strip of patterned paper to ground it, and I stamped my date in gold ink using a date stamp.

I also used my gold ink on the green pinking borders. I have gotten into the habit of purchasing the monochromatic papers sold with collections. While buying plain paper felt like a waste of money when I could simply dig through my cardstock, I've come to realize that matching perfectly is challenging, so I've given in and I am much happier having the matching monochromatic pieces. I used the green paper to create the edges and the navy paper to mat one of the pictures.

One of the patterned papers has banners on it, so I fussy cut a row and added it to the top of my page. I topped each rounded part with a gold sparkle crystal. I added crystals to the circle sentiment and gold foil pearls to the hat banner.

I switched two items around on my page: I decided to place the title at the bottom to have more room and move the circle element to the side of the picture, since the scale worked better. I was afraid the bottom would feel a little empty, so I pulled out the Hocus Pocus stencil from Tim Holtz to do a nice swirl of stars underneath the title. I looked at my available pastes and chose Fire Ruby icing paste from Finnabair. I have three jars of icing paste and I truly love how they look. They are creamy, easy to use, the perfect consistency for stencils and the colours are outstanding. Knock on wood, they have also held up well over time and not dried out or turned like some of the other products I own.

For the last word of my title, I went for an old Thickers collection, in a nice champagne glitter that complement the golden tones of the paper well. For the first two words, I decided to grab dies instead of stickers, because I had too many repeating letters. E's are especially prevalent in French and I need to be smart about how fast I use them, otherwise my alphabet stickers quickly become useless. Since I needed three E's there, I reached for my Uppercase and Lowercase Mini Alphabet from Recollections, a nice classic font. I used the navy monochromatic paper again, since I already had a lot of shimmer and shine going on with the Thickers and icing paste.

To finish embellishing, I added a little circle from the ephemera pack, a nice owl in flight sticker, a few star sequins and I stamped "It's too cool!" from an old rotary stamp I found in my stash and have kept on my desk in the hope to put it to good use.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: 12-in-1 Rotary Stamp (Kesi'art); Date Stamp (Office Supplies Store)
Ink: Rustic Wilderness, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Antique Gold (Altenew)
Patterned Papers, Frames & Tags Ephemera Pack: Witches and Wizards (Echo Park)
Dies: Stitched Scalloped Circle Frames (Lawn Fawn); 
Uppercase and Lowercase Mini Alphabet (Recollections) 
Font: Garamouche
Accessories: Good Vibes Thickers (American Crafts); Emerald Green Sequins,
Star Sequins (Cartwright's); Blue Lagoon and Glossy Black Gems (Pretty Pink Posh); 
Gold Sparkle Crystals, Gold Foil Pearls (Studio Katia); Pinking Edge Scissors (Fiskars);
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Fire Ruby Icing Paste (Finnabair); 
Hocus Pocus Stencil (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous) 

 

Summer Squares

Inspiration: Little Red Wagon #611 (Stay Cool - going to the pool!)

I had a lot of fun putting this card together. On a recent trip to my local scrapbook store, I found a die set from Sizzix called Mixed Media Motifs. It includes various shapes done in a sketch kind of look. I knew those could be useful and as you can see, they add a really fun, whimsical look. I die-cut the square out of Burnished Rose mirror cardstock from Tonic, as I thought the rose gold would match the pink tones of the patterned papers nicely.

I kept going with the Summer collection from Carta Bella and this time, I paired it with the Sunkissed stamps from Simple Stories. I don't often buy stamps from the scrapbooking companies as I find the small images with the thin lines hard to use, but this one was done with thicker lines and with more of a whimsical style so it appealed to me. The set doesn't come with dies, but the images were easy to fussy cut.

The squares that had the two small images felt a little too empty, so I layered additional bits from the cut-apart sheets. I stamped a sentiment from the long-retired Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set that reads, "Thinking of You" and added it with Dimensionals to the lower right square. The layout was mounted on a 5¼" x 5¼" square card that came from a very affordable card base and envelope set from DoCrafts. The envelope and card inside were embellished with papers and stickers, and I added rhinestones, gems and puffy stickers to the card front to finish it off.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Sunkissed (Simple Stories); Voeux mignons (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Burnished Rose Mirror (Tonic)
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book, Puffy Stickers: Summer (Carta Bella)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Watermelon Wonder (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Square Card Blanks (DoCrafts); Mixed Media Motifs Dies (Sizzix);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Pink Rhinestones, Genial Gems, Eyelet,
White Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic); Glossy Accents (Ranger)

 

Driving to the Beach

This card was born out of my leftover scraps from the Beach Bum collection from Fancy Pants Designs (2010). I've had the Truckin' Through the Seasons dies sitting in my stash for a while and thought I could fill the back of the truck with the beach ball and surf board.

This was my first time using this die set and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I loved the look of it when it was a kit of the month and it started popping up online a couple of years ago and I was really pleased for the company to bring it back outside of their kit subscription. I'm not keen on the fact that it has "holes" around the truck bed to create the shape. This makes for an extra step if you want to fill it in with another colour, and it's tricky to fill in if you want to pop up the truck (which I did on this card). I ended up using tape on the back of my image to keep the piece in place. I thought I was using cardstock in a slightly darker colour, but it turned out to be a perfect match, so I might as well have used the original piece... The little side mirrors also don't have much of an overlap to glue them on the truck. This is particularly tricky of you use metallic cardstock (which makes sense for the mirror), since it is more slippery and doesn't hold as well when you try to glue it down. Again, here, I ended up simple adding the mirrors with mini Stampin' Dimensionals, but it means that you need to assemble the truck on the card instead of putting this together as a stand-along embellishment that you can move around on the card to find a placement you like. 

The third thing I was annoyed with, and that was a rookie mistake on my part, is that I added foam adhesive on the back of the truck to pop it up and I totally spaced out on the fact that I would need to be able to slip in the stuff in the slit that's made for the truck bed. I tried to pop the paper up with my paper piercer tip but I couldn't do it, so I cut the bottom of the embellishments and glued them in place, but it doesn't work as well. That's the kind of details you figure out when you use dies for a first time. I'll know better next time.

Speaking of the embellishments, you need to create a frame and fill in the middle parts with the colours of your choice. More repetitive die-cutting... but what I don't like, is that you don't have a base piece to glue everything on. Lawn Fawn is so good with that - they always think to provide a base piece that's exactly the right shape and size that you can glue your stuff over. Here, the ball was pretty easy - I just used a circle punch, but the surfboard was trickier. I traced my main frame, fussy cut it a little narrower and glued my pieces in place, but I had to go back and trim some of the excess paper again. This is the type of things that will make me dislike a die set. It doesn't feel finished. If you want to be able to slip those two elements in the truck bed, you can't have 10 individual pieces, they need to be held together by something, and the fact that there's no base piece makes the set feel incomplete to me. We'll see if I feel better about it when I make trucks for other seasons. The gift was easier to handle, but I see that the pumpkin has the holes as well, and the Christmas tree is all one die, but the branches seem to all be separated, though. sigh My local store has gotten Spellbinders' Open House die collection this week and I was eyeing them, but this is making me rethink it. At least, I will have to go back and inspect the dies closer to see how the pieces go together. 

I had a bit of room on the card, so I wanted to use a larger stamps, and possibly a birthday sentiment that had a masculine vibe to it. I found "Happy birthday to a classy guy" in a Stampin' Up! set. I embossed it in Early Espresso embossing powder. The card still felt a little empty, so I decided to add two gift boxes in the bottom left corner. By the way, I used acetate in the truck window, but it is hard to tell now that the items have been added to the truck bed.

I had so many die-cut pieces, I was able to make an extra surfboard to add inside the card and a beach ball for the envelope. I used one of the leftover cut-aparts on the envelope, along with a border. I have officially used all of this collection up. Whatever is left will be put in my scrap drawers.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Bien cravaté (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up!); Blue Obsidian Mirror, Holo Wave Mirror (Tonic)
Dies: Just Stitching Double Rectangles (Lawn Fawn); Truckin' Through the Seasons (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Ticket Corner Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Window Sheet, 
Early Espresso Stampin' Emboss Powder (Stampin' Up!); A2 Fairway Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Summer Heat Wave

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Old: papers; New: Embellishments) 

Some nights, you just go where inspiration can take you and it is not where you thought at all. It was already late and I thought I would pull out some paper scraps and test out a set of dies, so I reached for one of the summer paper pack I had put aside. The one I grabbed is the Beach Bum collection from Fancy Pants Designs (dating all of the way back to 2010). It was a weird set of leftover papers, as I had three fully untouched 12" x 12" papers and very small scraps from all of the other papers. As I was trying to decide what to die-cut, I found that the leftovers I did have were quite interesting and I was reluctant to cut into them as I realized they could all pair together quite nicely on a page. I had the wave borders, the title block with the sun, a couple of cloud, trees and fish die-cuts, a boat image... I got curious, picked one of the blue pages, tested out the pieces on it and the wheels were set in motion. I went back to the calendar I've been picking pictures from and the first one I found was my brother-in-law and two nieces on a boat. Perfect theme for that page.

This probably got put together in record time because it feels like all the leftovers pieces worked together so well. I can say I wasn't planning to go back to older supplies necessarily this weekend because I have more recent summer-themed collections that I want to revisit during the sunny season, but when inspiration comes, it should never be ignored. The orange block could have been my title, and initially, I planned to do my journaling inside the clouds, but I realized there was not much to say about the picture and that I had room to do a nice, longer title, so I went with lyrics of a French song about boats. Again, the alphabets I ended up picking to match my papers are all super old. You have a Making Memories navy rub-on set that was purchased in 2004 (!), burgundy stickers from Cosmo Cricket from 2010 and navy stickers from Bella Blvd. that were from their Winter Wonder collection. I pulled out my white gel pen and added details to the wave border (it looked too plain, it needed something along the edge), the top die-cut and handwrote my date on the picture directly. I added silver pearls on the dotted border, Doo Dadz on the boat and Gold Sparkle Crystals on the trees (I love that detail, I've had trouble using those crystals sucessfully, but they look fantastic on the trees, pairing well with the yellow flower detailing).

Oh, and I should mention that I was not liking the straight edges on the sun piece so I pulled out my deckle trimmer to fix that. I love that trimmer. I don't necessarily use it often, but I use it regularly and it is one of those purchases that will pay for itself in the long run. I seem to understand that there's been mixed reviews about this tool (as per comments from Tim addressing it during his Facebook Lives), but I like the soft deckle, I don't necessarily need it to be more than that. My only issue with it is that there is one spot at the top (near the hinge) that doesn't cut as sharply and tears the paper more than it neatly cut it, but I've gotten into the habit of cutting my pieces at the bottom of the cutter instead of the top (which is my usual habit, as this is how my larger guillotine cutter is set up and it makes more sense as you don't need to fully lower the arm if you are cutting a shorter piece). Small readjustment in the grand scheme of things and I still consider it a good purchase for me personally. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Die-Cuts: Beach Bum (Fancy Pants Designs)
Stickers: Winter Wonder Alphabet (Bella Blvd.); Tiny Type (Cosmo Cricket)
Acessories: White Gel Pen (Gellyroll); Navy Misunderstood Alphabet Rub-Ons (Making Memories);
Halloween Party and Seasonal Pine Doo Dadz (Buttons Galore & More);
Gold Sparkle Crystals, Silver Foil Pearls (Studio Katia); Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic);
Midas Touch and Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brushes (Nuvo); 
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

 

Winter Wonderland Quartet

I still had four card bases leftover from creating with Lawn Fawn's Simple Stripes: Diagonal die, so I kept using my Winter Wonderland cut-aparts and putting cards together. 

So on my previous cards, I used some of the cut-aparts images and didn't need the frame so rather than cutting through it, I used my paper cutter to take the center out and keep the frames. This allowed me to make shakers really quickly. The border was the perfect size to hide adhesive foam strips underneath and I had some Snowflake Sequins mix from a previous Stampin' Up! holidays catalogue that I filled my shakers with. 

I used Tim Holtz's deckle trimmer to mat the images that weren't turned into shakers. I was loving those two images too much to hide them, so I decorated around them instead. The snowman had a little text bubble with an English sentiment, so I got creative and hid it underneath a stitched oval die-cut, on which I created my own French sentiment.

I also stamped a French sentiment, embossed in white, at the top of the cut-apart with the animal pyramid. I remembered as I was looking for my French stamps that I have this cute fluffy chenille fiber, perfect to add a bit of texture to the card. I tied it with a bit of sparkly crochet thread. I used an oldie but goodie snowflake punch with holographic bling (which is outrageously expensive but so beautiful...) in the center on two of the cards.

I still need to make envelopes for those cards, are most are very bulky with the shakers and I don't think they will fit comfortably in A2 envelopes, and I have to write a little note for the kids who will receive the cards inside. Last year, I crafted for the seniors. This year, for the kids. It's extremely satisfying to use my time and supplies to make somebody's holidays a little brighter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Douceurs glacées, Coffre d'étiquettes, Cousu avec joie, Tempête de souhaits (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Highland Heather (Stampin' Up!);
Blue Cashmere Pearlescent, Cobalt Blue Glitter, Blue Obsidian Mirror (Tonic)
Ink: VersaMark; Polished Pink, Blueberry Bushel (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Icons Stickers, Winter Hugs Shape Sprinkles: Winter Wonderland (Doodlebug Design)
Dies: Simple Stripes Diagonal Backdrop, Stitched Oval Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Joyeuses Fêtes (Lime Citron); Joyeux Noël (Les ateliers de Karine)
Accessories: Foam Adhesive Strips, Stampin' Dimensionals, Snowflake Sequins,
White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Window Sheets, Blueberry Bushel 1/8" Ribbon,
Highland Heather Mini Striped Ribbon (Stampin' Up!);
White Sparkly Crochet Thread, Turquoise Chenille Fiber (?);
Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic); Snowflake Punch (EK Success);
Holographic Gems (Recollections)

 

Winter Wonderland Trio

Inspiration: Global Design Project #301 

So I mentioned in my Expedition Everest page post that I wanted to keep using Doodlebug's Winter Wonderland collection to make cards. Specifically, I was eager to test out the newly-released Simple Stripes: Diagonal background die from Lawn Fawn. I was really intrigued by it and very curious to see it done with patterned papers (so far, I've only seen colorful cardstock background in the samples posted). 

Here is the thing: be prepared to work on a card set as you will end up with a ton of pieces. If you simply alternate two patterns, you will get a minimum of two cards. Here, I did the same pattern twice on each card, and that gave me a total of five backgrounds. It is quite pleasant to assemble the pieces, it feels like putting a puzzle together and you get a very even result that would be quite challenging to get by assembling paper scraps on your own (especially with the diagonal pattern).

Once I was done with the backgrounds, I fiddled around for a little while before I found an idea that I liked to get going on a card, but once I did, I worked on all three cards in a row and it all went smoothly. I reused some leftovers pieces from my scrapbook page (the remaining bunting pieces) and the negative space from the sentiment on one card and the leftover letters on the other. As I previously mentioned, my local scrapbook store is organizing a drive for cards for a children's hospital and this was the inspiration behind those cards. I tried to keep them youthful and fun for that reason.

I turned one of the cards to the side so that I could use the ski lodge image and turn it into a shaker. It's a little unusual to have the fold on the side like that, but it still works. Some of the patterns from the stripes are sideways, but since it's just a backdrop, it is really not a big deal. I would remind you to think about the direction of your patterns when you are die-cutting your paper, though, if that sort of details matter to you.

The big yeti card was a really quick design since I used a 3" x 4" cut-apart piece. There was an English sentiment at the top, which I hid with a strip of cardstock and I die cut a new French sentiment out of the beautiful Blue Cashmere pearlescent cardstock from Tonic. Since I had gotten my Snowflake sequins out for the shaker, I used some of the sequins to embellish the two other cards, including by gluing the clear holographic cupped sequins over the tree "foliage."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Blueberry Bushel, Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!);
Blue Cashmere Pearlescent, Cobalt Blue Glitter (Tonic) 
Patterned Papers, Icons Stickers, Winter Hugs Shape Sprinkles: Winter Wonderland (Doodlebug Design)
Dies: Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Frames, Bunting Borders, Simple Stripes Diagonal Backdrop (Lawn Fawn);
Sentiment Labels (Simon Says Stamp); Joyeuses Fêtes (Lime Citron);
Joyeux Noël (Les ateliers de Karine)
Accessories: Swimming Pool Mini Paper Doilies (Doodlebug Design);
Ticket Corner Punch, Foam Adhesive Strips, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Snowflake Sequins, Window Sheets (Stampin' Up!)

 

Seeing You S'More Soon

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Monday (Food or Drink)

This card was done in three different sittings. First, I put together the adorable Smiley S'more die while I was watching a Facebook Live. I used my old Stampin' Pastels from Stampin' Up! to do the shading on the pieces, which gave a nice smokey look.

Then, the next time I sat down to craft, I looked for background to make a card with it. I selected the pink Watercolor Wishes paper, die-cut it with the Zig Zag Rectangle dies and decided to use my Duo Gel with the Loops stencil to do foiling on it. I let it dry overnight and when I came back for a third sitting, I added Amber Watercolor foil from Deco Foil to the loops with my laminating machine. This is perfect as this foil goes from silver to gold to copper, which works well with the roasted look of the s'more. 

For the sentiment, I was juggling with a few ideas and I finally landed on "I'm really looking forward to seeing you s'more soon." I was planning to use the Oliver's Sttched ABCs dies to make the S'more word, but I didn't really have stamps for the rest, so I used my computer and printed it in brown, then I used my trusty Sentiment Labels dies to cut them into even strips. I inked the bottom of my die-cut letters with Tea Dye Distress Oxide ink and a blender brush.

To back the little die-cut image, I used the Cream paper from Let It Shine for the center and the dark brown Woodgrain cardstock for the frame, using the Stitched Scalloped Circle Frames dies. The s'more image was popped up on dimensional adhesive and so were the sentiment strips and letters.

To embellish the inside of the card and the envelope, I pulled the Sweet Friends stamp set to use the matching s'more image.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Sweet Friends (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); Cotton Candy (Bazzill);
Woodgrain Cardstock in Neutrals (Lawn Fawn)
Patterned Papers: Watercolor Wishes, Let It Shine (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tea Dye Distress Oxide (Ranger); Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Smiley S'more, Stitched Scalloped Circle Frames, Zig Zag Rectangle Stackables,
Oliver's Stitched ABCs (Lawn Fawn); Sentiment Labels (Simon Says Stamp)
Accessories: Amber Watercolor Foil, Transfer Gel Duo (Deco Foil);
A2 Oak Woodgrain Envelope (envelopes.com); Stampin' Dimensionals, Stampin' Pastels (Stampin' Up!)
Font: Garamouche

 

First Day of School

I was happy to find this picture of my niece taking the school bus for the first time when she began kindergarten. I had purchased some of the elements from the School Life collection from Simple Stories when it came out a couple of months ago, so it was a good opportunity to pull it out. For the background, I looked through my Simple Basics kits and I found an aqua polka dot paper in the Simple Vintage My Valentine kit. I don't have that paper collection, but I thought those papers were great, so they made a good base for this page.

I didn't purchase much from the line, but I did get the chipboard frames, so I was eager to use them. I wasn't working with a standard size picture (since it was cut out from an older family picture calendar), so I just used the frame as an overlay. I did washi tape (from another Simple Stories collection) and patterned paper at the top, and added a "first day!" tab, on which I added a white messy stitches rub-on. I repeated the messy stitch rub-ons, this time in black, on the striped paper.

The backpack and school banner was die-cut from the cut-apart sheet. The pen, clip, thumbtack and yellow circle came from the element sticker sheet, and the little bus, apple and star came from the puffy stickers. I added a few sequins found on my desk here and there on the page.

For the title, I used navy stickers from an older Bella Blvd. sticker sheet and I stamped the first word in Old Olive ink using the Megan Alphabet stamps from Echo Park, and handcut the word to fit it over the clipboard. I drew a few lines and handwrote my journaling. I used a paper scrap at the bottom and stamped my date using an old Stampin' Up! date stamp. (I have two date stamps from the office supplies store and there's a gap in years between the two, so I was really happy to stumble onto this Stampin' Up! rotary stamp from quite a few years ago and to discover that it runs from 2012 to 2023, so between my three date stamps, I now cover from 2004 to 2030.)

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This and That Rotary Stamp (Stampin' Up!); Megan Alphabet (Echo Park)
Patterned Papers: Simple Vintage My Valentine Basics Kit, School Life (Simple Stories)
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Washi Tape, School Life Puffy Stickers, School LIfe Chipboard Frames (Simple Stories);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Distressing Tool, Black Journaling Pen (Stampin' Up!);
Black and White Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 & Market);
Sequins (Cartwright's); Navy Alphabet Stickers (Bella Blvd.)

 

You Are the Sweetest

Because I purchased the Summer papers from Carta Bella in 6" x 6" format, I wanted to try doing a pocket page layout to use this collection for a page. I realized this is the first pocket page layout I've done all year. Pocket page had initially brought me back to scrapbooking when I fell more into cardmaking many years ago, but I finally found my way to traditional scrapbooking again and don't seem to find it as daunting as I once did. I also realized that pocket scrapbooking is only faster if you slip journaling cards in the pocket and don't embellish much. In my case, I ended up making personalized inserts for every pocket, so as you can imagine, it didn't end up being any quicker than traditional scrapbooking.

I found a 4" x 6" picture of my youngest niece wearing her cute pink sunglasses and I decided to use a protector with six 2" x 2" squares around the main picture. The Mega paper pad included cut-aparts in that size, but they were all word-heavy, so I used a few and I used patterned papers, other cut-apart images, stickers and twine to create other inserts.

Because the main picture comes from past year calendars that my sister has gifted us, there was a little hole on the side of the picture. I solved that problem with a puffy sticker, and I also added a die-cut border and washi tape to fill in the full length of the pocket. At the bottom, I added another sticker and I fussy cut a little watermelon slice to add to it.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book, Puffy Stickers: Summer (Carta Bella)
Dies: Layering Squares (Stampin' Up!); Borders (Photoplay)
Accessories: Washi Tape (MAMBI); White Baker's Twine, Genial Gems (Stampin' Up!);
Pen (Fäber-Castell)

 

Tropical Hello

Inspiration: Just Add Ink #563

Last week, my local scrapbook store owner shared a technique during her Facebook Live where you dry-emboss a cardstock and then use wax or polish to add to the raised surface. She did this on both white and black cardstock, and I was inspired to pull out all of the wax and polishes I have on hand, emboss four pieces of white cardstock and four pieces of black and test my products out with this technique. The results were very varied and it was nice to get a better idea of which I liked better for what. (In summary, for this technique, I definitely preferred the Finnabair waxes over the other polishes I tried, which stayed in place on the cardstock and were hard to move around.)

On the leaf-embossed cardstock, I used Mint Sparkle wax and it was catching the light nicely when you moved the cardstock around, but was otherwise pretty drab, so I decided to pull out a few colors of Distress Oxide inks and my blender brushes to add color to the background. I liked the new look so much better!! On the Coastal Weave cardstock, I had used White Gold wax (my favorite!) and again, decided to ink blend a couple of colours of brown Distress Oxide inks.

Those test papers stayed on my desk for a little while and during today's crafting session, I was inspired to pair the foliage and basket weave papers together along with the Tropical Squidgies stamps to create a card. I also grabbed a gold-foil frame from my desk, as I still have a bunch leftover from using the Fine Frames Plate Die from Altenew. I needed something where the two cardstock met, so I added jute ribbon and the cute cocktail washi tape from Doodlebug (which I made sure to place down on white cardstock first so that the design showed up properly). 

I colored my image with Polychromos pencils and die-cut it with the matching die. (Too bad Stamping Bella decided to discontinue their die offering - I found I was using their images more when I started buying the matching dies.) I also found a sentiment die from the Label Love French set, stamped it on a leftover scrap that had previously been cut using Tim Holtz's deckle trimmer. I moved my image and sentiment around on the card and found that it looked quite lost in the large frame. So I decided to pull out the Botanical Builder die set I had recently used to make a few 3D flowers to fill in the space. I have to say, the flowers came out better than I had anticipated. I've seen a few videos here and there on shaping flowers and while I don't have the specific tools to do it, I do have a few old styluses, including the EK Success Empressor, that I bought back when we were using metal stencils to do dry-embossing and that has been gathering dust since. I gave it a try to mold flowers and it works really well!! I dipped the tips of the petals directly in matching ink pads and I used Generous Grapefruit holographic foil paper to create my center, along with holographic bling. It filled out the space nicely and stayed with the tropical theme.

This card is sort of a nice surprise, as it is a mix of different experimentations. In the past year and a half, I have really discovered the value of "play time" when it comes to crafting. Before then, I always sat down at my desk with the goal to create a project from beginning to end. Testing out things, creating stand-along elements or embellishments and putting those aside for later is definitely a new process for me, but it's working out quite well, yielding surprising and unique results. I don't think I would have created two different backgrounds, plus colored an intricate image and prepared 3D flowers all in one evening. By dividing the work in more than one sitting, I ended up with an intricate card and a mix of varied elements without the process feeling daunting. I hope I can encourage you to try those "testing sessions" out for yourself!

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Label Love French (Altenew); Tropical Squidgies (Stamping Bella)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Mango Melody, Green Galore, Evening Evergreen, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie,
Gold and Holographic Generous Grapefruit Foil Sheets (Stampin' Up!); Cotton Candy (Bazzill)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Lucky Clover, Twisted Citron, Frayed Burlap,
Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Strawberry Slush, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Blushing Bride (Stampin' Up!)
3D Embossing Folders: Layered Leaves, Coastal Weave (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Tropical Squidgies (Stamping Bella); Botanical Builder, Label Collection (Stampin' Up!);
Fine Frame Rectangles (Altenew)
Accessories: Polychromos Pencils (Fäber-Castell); A2 Bronze Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Jute Ribbon (Stampin' Up!); Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Spray, Glossy Accents (Ranger);
White Gold and Mint Sparkle Wax (Finnabair); Tropical Punch Washi Tape (Doodlebug Design);
Bling Stickers (Recollections); Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic)

 

Tropical Nap

The starting point of this card was the Tropical Leaves Background stencils from Lawn Fawn. I decided to ink blend the patterns on Crumb Cake cardstock using blender brushes and Distress Oxide inks. I picked Abandoned Coral, Salvaged Patina, Bundled Sage and Shabby Shutters. 

I then layered the Tropical Leaves Backdrop frame die-cut out of a sheet of the Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad from Memory Box. I also cut the Tropical Vine Borders out of Soft Succulent cardstock and added those on the Crumb Cake cardstock before layering the glitter frame with adhesive foam strips. I colored a few images from the Toucan Do It stamp set and the image from the I Like Naps stamp set and added those to the card. The sentiment from the I Like Naps stamp set was stamped on Flirty Flamingo cardstock and added to the bottom of the frame, and I added the little flowers from the die set in glittery pink cardstock, topped with gems.

Because the resulting card was thick, I made an oversized envelope to go with it, out of pink cardstock, and I stenciled a leaf from the Tropical Leaves stencil in glitter paste.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: I Like Naps, Toucan Do It (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Flirty Flamingo, Crumb Cake, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); 
Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad (Memory Box)
Ink: Abandoned Coral, Salvaged Patina, Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Dies: Tropical Vine Borders, Tropical Leaves Backdrop, I Like Naps, Toucan Do It (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Genial Gems, Adhesive Foam Strips, Envelope Punch Board,
Banners Pick a Punch (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic); Blender Brushes (Taylored Expressions);
Glitter Paste (Gina K Designs)

 

Adorable Duo

I am thoroughly enjoying using the Summer collection from Carta Bella and made one more album page using it. (And to think this was a collection where I went back and forth many times on whether to buy or not...) This is the fourth project in a row I am making with this collection! I usually get bored and switch collection before that!

I started using some pictures from past year's calendar my sister has gifted the family for Christmas and when I cut out the page for my previous page, I was left with this summer picture. I couldn't help but notice that the clothes my nieces are wearing match the Summer papers perfectly, so this time, I decided to make a new page for my Elizabeth Craft Designs planner album. The pages are only 3¾" wide so you can't do full-size pictures on them, but you do have a bit of leeway on having the pictures hang off the edge if you want since they are not put in a page protector.  This picture was already cropped pretty tight, so this is what I did, adding patterned paper to the back to hide the calendar grid.

I played with papers scraps and a few dies from the Planner Essentials sets. It was my first time using the flower hole reinforcers. It fit the theme well here. The row of three little flowers at the top is actually the leftover part of the border I had done on my memorydex card. I hadn't thrown it away as I figured I might be able to sneak it somewhere else and it worked out great here.

Because I was doing a short title with no repeating letters, I knew that opened up a lot of options. I used the Lucy Uppercase die from Echo Park with Burnished Rose mirror cardstock from Tonic for the second word, and I did the first in coral alphabet stickers from Elle's Studio. (I placed an order a couple of months ago because I really wanted a tag set and I added stickers to my order and so far, I've really loved using them. The size and colours are easy to work into other collections.)

The little bow on the flower cart comes from the Garden Party sticker roll. This is my first time purchasing a sticker roll from American Crafts and the jury is out right now. The stickers are really cute, but when I unrolled the bow roll, I discovered that quite a few bows had bent ends and a couple were even already torn even before I had unrolled it (and I was very careful, as I could tell the bows were fragile). It doesn't seem to be the right packaging for this specific type of stickers, I'm afraid.) I added pearls and stamped the date in the bottom, and I stapled a tab on the picture edge.

I didn't really have any journaling and the back of the page felt quite plain, so I added three strips of patterned paper and decorated each one with bling and some kind of embellishment. I punched the sentiment with an oval out of patterned paper and fussy cut two tags from a patterned paper as well. I added a Bella Blvd epoxy star at the bottom. On the second strip, I used a sparkly enamel dot and two word strips cut from patterned paper. The teeny tiny enamel dots are from Violet Studio and they were purchased online, so how small they are was a surprise. On the third strip, I used a rhinestone sticker from Recollections and a stamp from the sticker book.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: This and That Rotary Date Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper, Sticker Book: Summer (Carta Bella)
Ink: Misty Moonlight (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Straight Flower Border (Lawn Fawn); Planner Essentials 4 and 11.
Reinforcement Variety Pack (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Lucy Uppercase Alphabet (Echo Park)
Accessories: Bluebell, Rose Pink and Moss Green Pearls (Studio Katia);
Mini Stapler, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Coral Puffy Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio);
Midas Gold and Blush Rosette Glitter Gloss Brushes (Nuvo);
Garden Party Sticker Rolls (Maggie Holmes for American Crafts);
Button (Foof-a-La); Epoxy Stars Christmas Mix (Bella Blvd.); Enamel Dots (Violet Studio)

 

June Memorydex Card

I wanted to use the Summer collection from Carta Bella (2021) and decided to make my June Memorydex tab with it. I fussy cut some of the cut-apart images and added a sentiment from the Sticker Book. The cute flowers were created with the Straight Flower Border dies from Lawn Fawn and I dotted the centers with the Genial Gems from Stampin' Up! I used the sky baker's twine from Lawn Fawn to decorate as well. This is a cute collection. I got the 6" x 6" Mega Pad, which is great because it includes the matching monochromatic colours.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Mois de l'année Courrier (Lime Citron)
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book: Summer (Carta Bella)
Ink: Misty Moonlight (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Memorydex - Tabs (Heidi Swapp); Straight Flower Border (Lawn Fawn);
Planner Essentials 21 (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Accessories: Sky Baker's Twine (Lawn Fawn); Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Eyelets, Genial Gems (Stampin' Up!);
Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo)

 

10 Things I Love About Summer Mini-Album

Inspiration: Flip Book Tutoriel from Pinkstrawberryz

After finishing a scrapbook layout with the Beach Bum line, I left my scraps out, fully intending on making another project with the scraps. I ended up going through Michelle's YouTube list and randomly picking one I hadn't tried. The base of this album measures 10" x 12", which worked out well since I had a few full pages left in the package and matching cut-aparts. I had a lot of fun putting this one together and decorating it, using border and tag dies and ribbon scraps. As with most of Michelle's tutorials, it's easy and the result is just lovely. I also ended up using all of the remaining bits from the matching die set, so that felt very satisfying. I think I can probably squeeze one last card out of the remaining scraps, and then whatever is left will get divided into my scrap drawers by colour. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Die-Cuts: Beach Bum (Fancy Pants Designs)
Dies: Happy Day Tags (Carta Bella); Slimline Edgers (PinkFresh);
Wave CutUp (The Cat's Pajamas); Pocket, Frame and Flip-Up (Elle's Studio)
Accessories: Big Designer Buttons, White and Soft Sky Cotton Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Circle Punch, Eyelets, Ticket Corner Punch, 1/8" Lucky Limeade Organza Ribbon,
1/8" Daffodil Delight Grosgrain Ribbon (Stampin' Up!); White Ric Rac, Sparkly Button (Unknown);
Halloween Party Doo Dadz (Buttons Galore & More); Sparkly Enamel Dots (Pink & Main);
Deckle Trimmer (Tim Holtz for Tonic); Corner Chomper, Green Jumbo Eyelet (We R Memory Keepers);
Gold Sparkle Crystals (Studio Katia)

 

Say Cheese Main Street: A Disney Notebook

I am coming on the end of a two-week staycation and I got so much crafting done during my downtime! I am feeling very relaxed and also very happy that I got to work on many crafty projects that had been on my mental to-do list. I am nowhere near done, but I at least hit some of the big-ticket items. One of those was to make a disc-bound notebook using the Say Cheese Main Street collection. I had figured out the measurements, done a sample page using the Crop-a-dile Power Punch tool and picked the patterned paper for the divider pages, but I was wondering whether to laminate the dividers pages or not and at that time, laminating seemed like a wiser option but I just was not in the mood to get the laminating machine out that evening, so the project got pushed to the back burner.

I am so happy that I finally revisited the idea and got it finished! My laminating machine was already out tonight to test out foiling, so I decided to get my notebook pages done at the same time, and then I kept going on it. The notebook could have been kept very simple - two laminated papers for covers, cut inside pages, punch holes in everything and assemble with discs, but I decided to organize it a little bit further.

I used pages from the 6" x 8" paper pad to create the cover pages and the dividers. I quickly realized when cutting around the laminated cover pages that if I left a 1/8" border around all four edges and punched, the inner pages would show under the clear left edge of the cover (I hope I'm making sense) so to avoid that problem, I cut the left edge straight to the paper and so everything lined up better that way. I rounded the corners of the plastic using my Corner Chomper (also from We R Memory Makers). For the dividers, I decided to forgo laminating. I wanted to add tabs and it seemed pointless to laminate the pages and not the tabs, and then if I did, I thought cutting the plastic would be tricky (and I didn't want the edges to be sharp either), so I decided I could live with just using paper.

I wanted to have a pocket to possibly house documentation, but I didn't want to hide the foursquare images on my paper, so I decided to add the pocket to the back of the first divider. I used the grey polka dot paper from the Basics Kit (it was a good additional purchase - the dots are adorable and having neutral papers helps complement the papers). I reused an idea from my recent summer mini-album - I really loved the look of the pocket created with the Puffy Cloud Borders dies from Lawn Fawn, so I did the same thing here as well. This looks way better than the straight pocket did, and the stitching adds a nice finishing touch. The pocket seemed a little bare, so I went through my embellishments and picked a border from the sticker book and a couple of images from the foam stickers.

Then came time to prepare the tabs. I looked at my punch and dies options. I was liking the look and size of the tabs from Planner Essentials 4 from Elizabeth Craft Designs (told you I love those dies!). I was trying to figure out how to add the names I wanted to the tabs, though. Using Word and the free Waltograph font, I printed the names on Very Vanilla Cardstock and tested them on the tabs, but they were too wide to fit on the tab part. I could have used the tab die directly on my vanilla cardstock, but I thought colorful tabs would be prettier and I'll admit, I was way too lazy to print my doc six times on a scrap of each colour. So instead, I die cut my words using the smaller of the Sentiments dies from Waffle Flower. Those are full dies (they are not open in the center), so I had to create a negative template, center it around the word, fit the die in the hole like a jigsaw puzzle, tape everything in place and run it through the Sidekick. I then cut two tabs out of each Basics Kit colors, then I added them to my divider pages using sticky strip and I added the words to the bottom of the tab. We can't see the words when the notebook is closed, but I know the order I put them in, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The paper I used for the inside of the notebook is actually nice paper with a linen pattern to it. It was actually what my office used for letterhead paper and when our logo changed, they collected it to recycle it. I asked if we could upcycle it as printing paper instead and the next day, I was gifted with a nice pile of paper... cut to 9" x 8½" to take the logo off. So... not exactly printing paper, but as a crafter, it has still come in handy. There is just a lot of leftovers because of the wonky size, but hey, it was free and it is nice paper, so I'll take it. I cut the pages to 6" x 8" like the patterned paper, so I have a nice stack of 3½" x 8" paper that will probably become a notebook for my grocery lists. I made sure to round the two right corners of the pages as well. At the last minute, I also remembered that I had the stamp set from this collection and that adding a little stamped image in the corner of the first page of each section would be super cute, so I picked matching ink colors and did just that.

The red discs I used are from Waffle Flower and I like that you get 8 discs for $6 US. Discs are not easy to find and I had a little bit of sticker shock when the disc-bound trend started and I started to get interested in it. I have a binding machine that I purchased over 15 years ago and that I still love and use once in every blue moon, but the appeal of disc-bound is that you can take pages in and out and move things around without damaging anything. This is perfect here, as I doubt I will have the same amount of notes for every park and since it's hard to anticipate, I can add to sections that need it down the line (as far as the discs can allow). 

Keeping with that same logic, the next project on the list would be a sample book. Where I can sample my products, pens, etc. and keep a bit of an inventory on items that I could benefit from. I don't plan on doing a comprehensive inventory, just for the elements that I keep searching for or where I want to have color samples on hand. This is a great example of something that grows over time and where you benefit from having a system you can add to. I would like to find larger discs for those sample books, though. Right now, I have two sets of larger discs that I got by purchasing planners from the Clearance section. I didn't really have any use for the planners themselves but they were clearanced at a lower price than a set of discs would have been. My niece actually expressed interest in keeping the pages for herself, so we punched holes in a corner and binded everything with ribbon and that made her day (and it cleared space in my workspace). 

On a side note, the cover pages are not flimsy, but they are not sturdy either since I only used patterned paper. I could have added cardstock, but then I would have either ended up with plain cardstock on the backside of the cover or would have needed to add a second piece of patterned paper and sandwich the cardstock in between. That seemed wasteful to me, so I decided the single-page cover was good enough for me. I will say that when I create notebooks for the office, that I plan to carry around with me and maybe write in while standing up, using chipboard for the back cover becomes highly important, so it depends what you plan to use your notebooks for. Just something to keep in mind when planning your design and supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Say Cheese Main Street (Simple Stories)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Basics Kit, Patterned Papers, Sticker Book, Foam Stickers: Say Cheese Main Street (Simple Stories)
Ink: Real Red, Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride, Seaside Spray, Crushed Curry, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Sentiments Dies (Waffle Flower); Planner Essentials 4 (Elizabeth Craft Designs);
Puffy Cloud Borders (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Red Binding Discs (Waffle Flower);
Corner Chomper, Crop-a-Dile Disc Power Punch Tool (We R Memory Keepers)

Picnic in the Sky

Inspiration: Little Red Wagon #607 (Walking on Sunshine)

I wish all of my crafting sessions went as smoothly as this one did... I tend to overthink but for some reason, this afternoon, I just went from one idea to the next and they all seemed to work out right away. 

The starting point was the Shadow Box Card Rainbow Add-On. I have used individual embellishments from this die set, but never as an add-on to an actual shadow box. Shadow box cards seem to be my favorite type of 3D cards to make, probably because they are really easy to put together and I really enjoy the final depth you get from the multiple layers. 

I pulled out my organizer pocket where I keep all of my Lawn Fawn 12" x 12" papers together (I thought I needed full size patterned paper for the shadow box, but I think each panel is under 6" wide, so I could have used a regular paper pad). I picked the first scrap of Really Rainbow paper I saw, as I was in the mood to create something colorful. I then pulled out the Watercolor Wishes paper pad and used scraps to create the adorable rainbow. I pulled out the Stitched Cloud Backdrop die and die-cut a piece of blue Watercolor Wishes paper to create my background piece. As I was looking through backdrop dies for this specific one, I also spotted the Foursquare Backdrop: Portrait, which happens to include a cute stitched sun that is the perfect size so I used this die with yellow paper from the same pack. I added shine to the sun and rainbow using the Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer brush from Nuvo. I also cut out four cloud pieces (for the layers) from Watercolor Wishes paper in blue, purple and aqua shades. And I used the zigzag opening on the front of the shadow card.

I was really liking the look already. I dug through my Lawn Fawn stamps to find images to create my scene. I hesitated between fairies or the little dragon, but because I had not used this little stamp set often, I opted for the latter option. I borrowed the blanket image from Crazy Antics and I used a piece of acetate to have the fire hang in the air over the cake.

I was not liking how the front of the shadow box looked and I wasn't sure how to fix it. I ended up using the stitched rectangle from the Shadow Box Card die set and adding it over the zigzag circle frame using foam strips, and now I do like the look better. I added a few pearls and a gem to embellish.

I reused the purple rectangle from the front opening on the backside of the card, initially planning for this to be the place where I would write a message. When I looked through my sentiment stamps, though, I found something that was just perfect in the now-retired Birthday Banners stamp set. It reads, "Blow out the candle and make a wish" (it's better in French - it has a fun rime!). I stamped the sentiment on the matching banner, used the coordinated dies and added Stampin' Dimensionals on the back. It felt a little bare added like that to the card, but I had leftover pieces from die-cutting the cloud borders and the various colours for the rainbow, so I assembled a new rainbow and added the cloud before adding the banner. Then added a few pearls there as well and now, this colorful card just makes me smile.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Banderoles de fête (Birthday Banners - Stampin' Up!); Little Dragon, Crazy Antics (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Window Sheets (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Watercolor Wishes (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder,
Granny Apple Green (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Shadow Box Card, Shadow Box Card Rainbow Add-On, Little Dragon, Crazy Antics,
Foursquare Backdrop: Portrait, Stitched Cloud Backdrop: Portrait
Accessories: Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo); Stampin' Dimensionals, Foam Strips (Stampin' Up!);
Bluebell Pearls, Seafoam Pearls, Pineapple Delight Crystal (Studio Katia)
Bunch of Banners (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic)

 

I See in the Near-Future...

Inspiration: Global Design Project #297

I've had this idea in my head since the Happy Hugs stamp set was shown in a sneak peek and I finally gave it a try today. There was a lot of fiddle-faddling involved before I managed to get this card to a point where I liked it. So the idea was to have the Fortune Teller Tabby image on the front of the card, where she is looking into her crystal ball, and inside the card, you see the little critters hugging. This is a little nod to the fact that hugging should be making a comeback in the near future. So I had my concept, but I really struggled with how to actualize it. Initially, I had the Puffy Cloud Backdrop die cut out of white cardstock and inked in Pear Pizzazz and Fresh Freesia ink with a blender brush, and my tabby colored with markers. I made a card base using Thick Whisper White cardstock and I sponged four clouds in matching ink colours, using the blender brushes and the Thought Bubbles stencil (without the little bubbles part). I stamped my four hugging pairs separately, colored them and die-cut them. The card felt very boring at that point, and because I was using blended ink, it also felt very washed out.  

I prepared my sentiment using green glitter paper and the Oliver's Stitched ABC's dies. (It reads, "I see...") I decided to create a shadow using Blackberry Bliss cardstock, and use the same cardstock to create a stitched scalloped rectangle frame around the card as well. I looked through my stamps to find a little star pattern and found what I was looking for in Fairy Friends. I added speckles to the background using Liquid Stardust and I added Diamond Stickles to the edges of the clouds.

Inside, I added texture stamping to the clouds, a border using a matching Stampin' Write marker and the stencil, and then I added die-cut clouds and cloud borders that were both embossed with the Painted Texture embossing folder. I added stars that were die-cut out of the same green glitter paper, from the Shadow Box Card Theater Add-On dies. Still not my favorite card I ever made, but it's cute and I like that it's a little out of the box.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Hugs, Fortune Teller Tabby, Fairy Friends (Lawn Fawn); Encre d'artiste (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Blackberry Bliss, Fresh Freesia, Thick Whisper White (Stampin' Up!);
Green Glitter Paper (Unknown)
Ink: Blackberry Bliss, Fresh Freesia, Pear Pizzazz (Stampin' Up!);
Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Dies: Happy Hugs, Fortune Teller Tabby, Shadow Box Card Theater Add-On,
Oliver's Stitched ABC's, Puffy Cloud Backdrop: Portrait, Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Frames,
Puffy Cloud Borders, Simple Puffy Clouds (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Thought Bubbles Stencil (Lawn Fawn);
Painted Texture 3D Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Stampin' Write Markers,
Circle Punch, Twinkle Adhesive-Backed Sequins (Stampin' Up!);
A2 Avocado Envelope (envelopes.com); Iridescent Mini Star Confetti (Pretty Pink Posh);
Blender Brushes (Taylored Expressions); Diamond Stickles (Ranger); Markers (Copic);
Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Paintbrush (Nuvo)

 

Notes of Cheer Card Kit

Stampin' Up! recently launched a new selection of kits. They will be sold online, while supplies last, and new designs will be added to the line on a regular basis. I decided to order three kits to check them out for myself, thinking they could also be used to prepare the monthly cards I send to my team members.

Notes of Cheer is the second kit I put together. Let's start with the positive: the elements included in the kit are beautiful. Nice sherbet colors, beautiful die-cuts, fun fonts. But then you look at the instructions... Card 1 is is folding your card base in two, gluing the lace die-cut, adding the banner with Dimensionals and adding the second sentiment strip with glue dots, then adding the gems. Card 2 is gluing the butterfly overlay with Dimensionals, adding the sentiment die-cut and the gems. And card 3 is folding the butterfly card base in two, adding the sentiment strip with Dimensionals and adding the gems. I know some of those kits are aimed at beginners, but this kit is so simple, it couldn't even keep my 3 and 8-year-old nieces busy for a full hour. This was disappointing to say the least. I had a look at the kit's content to try and see how I could pimp it up a little bit. I ended up transforming the butterfly into a full A2 card and using the Painted Texture 3D folder to add texture to all of my cards. I also swapped the gems from the kit for the Opals embellishments (just because they are bigger and fill the space a little bit more. I also spritzed the butterfly die-cuts with a sparkly mist to add shimmer to the wings.

If you do decide to try out some of those kits for yourself, I would advise that you pay close attention to the content's description, especially the project size. The last kit I have left to assemble is a note card kit and the cards are tiny! Will have to invest brainpower to redesign with this one as well in order to end up with something that's useful to me.

 

 

School's Out!

I recently found the Look How Big stamps and dies at my local store. I thought the mages were adorable - you see a big owl marking up how big a little kiddie owl has gotten on the trunk of a tree. I thought that if I used the big owl on his own, with his glasses and pencil, he could actually look like a teacher and be used of a school-themed card. Since I had my School Days collection out today, I decided to give this idea a try and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Isn't this little owl just precious?

One detail to point out: I cut the Fine Frames Cover Die from Altenew out of a gold foil sheet and I've been slowly incorporating all of the different sized frames I obtained into my projects. Here, I added a gold frame to the scalloped rectangle die-cut. The frame was not the right size initially, though. It was too long, so I cut it down near the bottom, overlapped the sides and I hid the seams with the owl image and the little star sticker. Easy way to get more use out of those frames.

The "thank you" sentiment was die-cut out of Blue Cashmere Pearlescent cardstock from Tonic. I took a chance on the color as I was ordering online and you never know with colour, but I'm really pleased, it's a lovely soft shade of blue that is somewhere between cornflower and steel blue. It's going to pair nicely with a lot of patterned papers, I believe. I've been loving the glitter, pearlescent and mirror cardstock from Tonic. The quality and color palette is top notch.

I used the ruler washi from the same Carta Bella collection and a little clock sticker from the sticker book to fill in the space at the top. I added a piece of torn vellum underneath the sentiment die-cut so that it would be easier to read against the word background. I used a Fairway metallic envelope, decorated with a zig zag panel and a sticker to match. I think this will make another great teacher card.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Look How Big (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: More Mustard, Basic White, Vellum, Gold Foil (Stampin' Up!);
Blue Cashmere Pearlescent (Tonic)
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book, Washi Tape: School Days (Carta Bella)
Dies: Look How Big (Avery Elle); Zig Zag Rectangle Stackables, Dotted Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Bonne fête/Merci (Dee's Distinctively); Fine Frames Cover Die (Altenew)
Accessories: Ladybug Twine (Doodlebug Design); Stampin' Dimensionals, Black Basic Jewels (Stampin' Up!);
Markers (Copic); A2 Fairway Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Happy Summer Mini-Album

Inspiration: YouTube Tutorial from Pinkstrawberryz

I started my day with a mini-album based on a tutorial from Michelle. I ended up adapting mine and changing how I did the last few pages. I recently purchased Elle's Studio dies that are might to create insert for pocket page scrapbooking. Since the mini-album has 3" x 4" pages, it was the same format as the dies, so I was inspired to make an insert. In order to be able to pull it in and out, I couldn't glue the sides of the panel together, as I would have made the space inside the pocket narrower, so I used large gold washi tape on the backside and it worked perfectly. I also love the binding look it creates, it looks really pretty.

On the front page, I also did a layered pocket instead of die-cutting the actual front of the album. I made a first pocket with the lemon pattern and a second pocket with vellum. I added the puffy sticker with the words "Happy Summer" to that front page. I made a little tag using the Say What? Gift Tags dies from Lawn Fawn and added green seam binding. I also added a little curved puffy sticker underneath the pocket slit. I slid the largest Dotted Tags from Waffle Flower. It looks so pretty with the top showing outside of the album.

The second, third and fourth pages are similar to what is shown in the tutorial. I like the idea of the hidden clip - I'll want to reuse that idea and make more for other projects. On the fifth page, you see the insert I made. I used the die that lets you create a rounded tab at the bottom, so you get two colours and it makes it more obvious that there is something hiding underneath. I used more puffy stickers on this page as well, and a leftover piece from a tag I had cut off.

On the last page, I liked the idea of the hanging element, so I used my Folk Hearts dies on woodgrain paper. The white of the woodgrain paper was not matching the white from the patterned papers, though, and was clashing so I used a blender brush to ink the heart in soft pink ink and it looked much nicer. I added an eyelet and a few stickers to dress if up and added it to the page using yellow baker's twine.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Vellum (Stampin' Up!); White Woodgrain Paper (Memory Box)
Patterned Papers, Puffy Stickers, Element Stickers: Summer Market (Carta Bella)
Dies: Dotted Tags (Waffle Flower); Say What? Gift Tags, Puffy Cloud Borders, Lacy Heart Stackables,
Outside In Stitched Heart Stackables (Lawn Fawn); Folk Hearts (Essentials by Ellen)
Accessories: Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding, 2½" and ½" Circle Punches, Baker's Twine, Eyelets (Stampin' Up!);
Washi Tape (Various)

 

And We're Off!

I went back to scrapbooking my Disney trip pictures and paired the picture of us on the plane with the Going Places collection from Simple Stories, released in 2020. This is another collection that I had yet to dive into. The colors and images are so cute! The feel of it reminds me of the You are Here collection, which I had a lot of fun using. I purchased quite a few items from this collection so the hardest part was deciding what to use first. I picked stuff that was related to airports and airplanes mainly. I was planning to use a sketch, but after putting three papers together, I started focusing on what I wanted to use instead.

I used the patterned paper that has large strips with tone on tone patterns and because I wanted to showcase it, that's when I decided to put the sketch aside. Ironically, I didn't notice as I was embellishing that I ended up covering almost the whole thing anyway! I picked the patterned paper with luggage tags and fussy cut a bunch, then created a border with them. I was liking how I had arranged them, so I in order to be able to glue everything down the way it was, I used the Press 'n Seal trick, where you add a layer of Press 'n Seal on top of the elements on your page, which allows you to turn them over while in place, add glue to the back and put them back down on the page. 

I went through the journaling cards and I selected a picture one as an embellishment and a boarding pass to include a bit of info. I had also a couple of others journaling cards that I liked aside and a few embellishments from the Bits & Pieces to possibly use on the page. At this point, I realized the page was getting uncomfortably crowded, so I started editing and taking stuff off. This is still a busy page, but this is more to my liking.

When placing die-cuts and cards on the layout, I made sure that the stewardess' feet were on the boarding pass so she was grounded and that her hand was pointing directly to the "Adventure Awaits" sentiment, which I thought was a nice touch. I matted my picture with a piece of green foliage Designer Series Paper fished out of my green scraps and a piece of white tissue paper, and from another green paper scrap, I fussy cut a leaf that I placed peeking out from underneath the boarding pass.

To add the info to the boarding pass, I pulled out my rotary alphabet stamp that Stampin' Up! used to carry a few years ago and used four colours of ink matching the papers. I handwrote the journaling at the bottom of the page with a navy gel pen. We were set for a 4-hour direct flight to Orlando and due to rainstorms, we ended up sitting on the tarmac in Miami for three hours before we were able to head back to Orlando, for a total of 8 hours on the plane. Not ideal with two young kids. They did fairly well the whole time, but we did get a meltdown from the toddler on the way out of the plane. (Which is definitely better than during the flight.)

Speaking of the You Are Here, I found some cute wood embellishments from that collection while pulling the journaling cards out so I added a flamingo at the bottom, with a palm tree die-cut from Going Places, and a plane at the top. I dug through my container of random bits and bobs and found a green button that fit so I added that, as well as an assortment of resin shapes, rhinestones, gems and dots to finish embellishing. The title was created with Dear Lizzy Thickers (2012) and pink Jane Tile Alphabet stickers from Elle's Studio.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Rotary Alphabet Stamp (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Bits & Pieces, Journaling Cards: Going Places (Simple Stories)
Designer Series Paper: Unknown (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!)
Stickers: Pink Jane Tile Alphabet Stickers (Elle's Studio); Treasure Thickers (Dear Lizzy for American Crafts)
Accessories: You Are Here! Wood Veneer Pieces (Simple Stories);
2020-2022 In Color Square Gems, Twinkle Adhesive-Backed Sequins, Playing with Patterns Resin Dots,
Designer Elements, Resin Heart Embellishments, Blue Adhesive-Backed Gems, Petal Pink Rhinestone Gems,
Designer Buttons, White Baker's Twine, Shimmery Crystal Effects, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

 

Spring Scene

Inspiration: Hand Stamped Sentiments #366

I have wanted to try out the Build-a-House Spring Add-On dies, so they were the starting point of today's card. I looked at weekly challenges for color inspiration and liked the Hand Stamped Sentiments combo for something spring-y. I used Bumblebee for the house and used the Brick stencil to add texture with a blender brush.

I used white woodgrain cardstock for the door and window frames, the bird bath and the fence. I backed the windows and door with Gold Rush cardstock from Lawn Fawn (I love it, it has a nice soft golden hue with little gold speckles on it, it's just lovely). For the flowers and the sentiment, I used pink glitter paper for a little bit of variation.

The grass was created with Mint Macaron cardstock and I inked the top with Lucky Clover Distress Oxide ink. It ties in with the color combo, while adding depth. I looked at my Lawn Fawn 6" x 6" paper pads to see what I could use for the sky and I really loved the look of the Dandy Day blue paper. I added Simple Puffy Cloud Frames in white. I wanted to have a sidewalk along the fence, so I cut a piece of Gray Granite cardstock using the Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables dies, scored the piece at one-inch intervals, folded the paper back on itself and added grey ink in the sidewalk cracks using a sponge dauber. I wasn't sure I liked the look at first, but it definitely works well now that the full scene is assembled.

So I had my little scene set up and I went to my stamps to see what I could add to it to make it more lively. I first found the little bear from the Snow Much Fun stamp set, which looks just like he's opening the door, so that was perfect. I added him and then I realized that it would look really cute if I had the little bunny on scooter zooming by on the sidewalk. I love the finished card. This shows how well thought-out Lawn Fawn's products are. Have you seen the little mailbox? It actually opens up, and you have the shape to back the mailbox, the little flag to show mail's in, the front piece to get another colour with a heart shape and a mini envelope just the right size to slide in. Same with the bird bath - you get the piece of create the water (in my case, I just did shading in grey) and a slit so you can slide it in so that the perspective remains right (instead of having the water sit on top of the bath). You have all of the pieces you need for the flower beds and the hanging pot, including the piece to create the flower centers in another color and the thread to hang the pot from! This also explains why I ended up sitting at my craft desk for many hours, die-cutting away, but the result is very pleasing.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Scootin' By, Snow Much Fun (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Grey Granite, Just Jade, Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!);
White Woodgrain, Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad (Memory Box); Gold Rush (Lawn Fawn)
Patterned Papers: Dandy Day (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Grassy Border, Scootin' By, Simple Puffy Cloud Borders, Snow Much Fun, Build-A-House, 
Build-A-House Spring Add-On, Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Voeux (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: A2 Rose Quartz Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Markers (Copic);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Share What You Love Artisan Pearls, Sponge Daubers (Stampin' Up!)

 

King of the Barbecue

Inspiration: Fab Friday #215 + As You See It #252

I was really happy to find the "papa" die in a recent Simon Says Stamp release. I don't think it's meant to be a French die, but this happens to be the French word for dad. French dies are few and far in between and the ones that are available don't always have the best font, so I was happy to find this one. It's a nice size, it has a clean font and I like that it has the shadow as well.

I'm trying to replenish my masculine card pile a bit, so I pulled out the Bar-b-cute paper pad from Doodlebug and add the die in the center of the oval, then use icon stickers to add elements around the oval. My initial idea was to tuck images behind the oval, but the icons were too big for that to work. Maybe if I had the mini icon stickers, the scale would have worked better. This is arguably one of the quickest card I've ever put together.

I repeated the oval on a Sapphire metallic envelope and added another icon sticker as well. I used the little cut-aparts from the paper pad to decorate the inside of the card.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Basic White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Icon Stickers: Bar-b-cute (Doodlebug Design)
Accessories: Papa Dies (Simon Says Stamp); Stitched Oval Stackables Dies,
Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables Dies (Lawn Fawn);
A2 Sapphire Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Thank You, Teacher!

Inspiration: Just Us Girls #588 (NO stamping)

This card was put together in record time. I basically just assembled a design using the patterned papers and sticker book from the School Days collection from Carta Bella. This is a reminder that stamping is usually one of the time-consuming steps of the creative process. I had purchased this fun collection when it came out, but hadn't had time to use it before today. It's a line from Steven Duncan, which is a designer who's style I can instantly recognize and that I really love due to its retro influences, but I think I've mentioned in the past that I don't always find it easy to use his collections due to the fact that the papers are pretty busy. So far, I'm liking how the elements from School Days come together nicely. I hope to work with this line some more to scrapbook school pictures, but this is also perfect for teacher's thank you notes. I know my sister is constantly in need of thank you cards for teachers and day care center personnel now that her kids are at that age, so I gave her a big pile of thank you cards that she could keep to have on hand when needed. This means that I have to restock on my end as this section of my card stash is now empty. What is fun with this line is that the sticker book contains two sheets of alphabet stickers, so I was able to write "thank you" (one of the rare French words that is short and has no letter repeating) on the little blackboard speech bubble. 

In the past year, I've started buying sticker books from various companies and I've noticed that the type of stickers included in each varies greatly. Carta Bella's (and Echo Park's) sticker books include cardstock stickers that are the same thickness as their Element stickers sheet. I love that and it makes the sticker book more valuable to me. They also include two sheets of each pattern, so it is nice to have repeat. Considering the low price point, I find that you get a lot out of your money with those sticker books. The first ones I had purchased were from Simple Stories and they include paper stickers. I find those trickier to use, as they wrinkle or tear very easily when you manipulate them and they can't be popped on dimensional adhesive like with cardstock stickers, so their use is more limited. I have also noticed that because they are printed on paper instead of on slightly glossy cardstock, the colours are not always coming out exactly the same as on the other elements of the collection. It's subtle, but the difference is noticeable enough to annoy me. I thought I'd point out the difference so that you know that not all sticker books are created equal and so you are cognizant of this when shopping, especially online.

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Sticker Book: School Days (Carta Bella)
Dies: LIbrary Card (Hero Arts); Outside In Stitched Rectangles Dies (Lawn Fawn);
Pocket, Frame and Flip-Up - Extra Frames (Elle's Studio)
Accessories: A2 Fairway Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com);
Crystal Stars, Halloween Party Doo Dadz (Buttons Galore & More); 
Stampin' Dimensionals, Night of Navy Baker's Twine (Stampin' Up!)

 

Paradise Flip-Fold Mini Album

I was inspired by a tutorial put together by my local scrapbook store owner for an online event last weekend and I used the Paradise collection from Mintay (from last year) to put together this adorable clip-fold album. I used thin chipboard for the base and patterned paper for the flip-fold inserts. I was a little hesitant when I first started and unsure how to embellish my album, but as soon as I started putting together a few elements to add inside, inspiration kicked into high gears and I stayed at my desk for hours working on putting everything together. I was wondering how well the album would close once I started embellishing, but I was surprised to find out that everything falls into place very nicely. I did avoid using any foam adhesive and layered everything flat, to make it easier.

I have a pastel glitter paper pad that I pulled out to add a few shimmery accents here and there. I used the "Paradise" Thicker from the Heat Wave pack and my net die from Les ateliers de Karine, which works so nicely with the papers. On the bottom left panel, I created a little side pocket using one of the cut-aparts and I slipped two tags die-cut with the Dotted Tags dies from Waffle Flower.

I used my Scalloped Pocket die in the top center panel. The die itself is more like a library card pocket, with a rounded back, but I only used the bottom part to make it smaller, and I added pearls along the scallops to decorate. Another cut-apart card was matted with white tissue paper. I handcut a lot of designs from the pattern papers and from the cover page of the kit. I even use the name of the collection from the branding strip as a little sentiment on my bottom center panel.

When the flaps are completely folded, you see a side pocket in the center, created with a design from pattern paper and lined with vellum to make it easier to slide the insert in. On the left panel, I glued a slip at the top and bottom so inserts can be slid underneath. 

When you close one more side of the mini-album, you see a panel decorated with sailboat pattern paper. Over it, I added a tropical panel created with Stampin' Up!'s now retired Tropical dies. I added white foliage over it as well and a mini-pocket created with the Sidekick Essentials 6 dies from Elizabeth Craft Design. Isn't that little pocket adorable? It measures 2½" x 2" so it's small! Love how it looks in the tropical flower print.

On the front of the album, I made sure to showcase one of the prettIy patterned papers from Mintay. I will say that I'm impressed the the designs of the Mintay papers, but I also find it challenging to use them in projects because they often do full-page images, which are hard to layer on without hiding the beautiful design. Here, you see most of the scene (even though the umbrella sadly got mostly cut off). The beach sign is partially hidden when the album is closed, but you can fully see it as soon as you open the side panel. I have to tell you about this "Paradise Street" metal sign that I added to the front. It was made by Making Memories. in 2010. And it was been sitting in my stash for that long. The travel theme of the embellishment pack made it harder to use due to its specificity. I was thrilled when I realized that the paradise sign fit perfectly in the design's open space, had the right colours and words on it and was a great way to finish off the album cover without hiding the paper. I know there's a school of thought where if you have not used something in years, you should get rid of it, but I think you only should if you don't love it anymore. 

Finally, I kept thinking I should add a little dangle to the edge of the album, so I wired wrapped three beads together and hung them using a jump ring. As I was pulling my jump rings out, I saw the crimps I recently purchased, so I decided to do a ribbon ornament as well. I can see why those have been extremely popular online recently. They are really addictive! It's so much fun going through my box of ribbon scraps and putting together the right colour combo to match my project. I have cumulated so much ribbon over the years that getting the right colours is not a problem... Adding the two dangling embellishments to the edge of the album made a huge difference, adding dimension and texture. Just be careful if you add something to the edges of the album and remember that when you open the album, the spine then goes flat on the table. My first idea was to do a long line of beads, wrapping twine around the cover of the album, but then I realized that the beads would really be in the way when opening up the album. By doing the dangle, I can rotate them up, out of the way when I'm opening the album, so this works much better. Always test how the flip-up parts are going to go before you glue anything down to avoid surprises.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Till We Meet Again (P13)
Ink: Petal Pink (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Paradise (Mintay)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Delicate Pastel Glitter Pad (Memory Box)
Dies: Borders (Photoplay); Sidekick Essentials 6 (Elizabeth Crafts Design);
Tropical, Botanical Builder (Stampin' Up!); Scalloped Pocket (Fun Stampers Journey);
Stitched Square Frames,Simple Wavy Banners (Lawn Fawn); Dotted Tags (Waffle Flower);
Grillage (Les ateliers de Karine)
Accessories: Ribbons (Stampin' Up!, May Arts); Panorama Metal Plaques (Making Memories);
Heat Wave Thickers (American Crafts); Thick Baker's Twine, Brads, Clear Drops,
Expressions in Ink Ephemera Pack, Banners Pick a Punch, Distressing Tool (Stampin' Up!);
Crimps (DeSerres); Beads, Jump Rings (Bead Landing); Pearl Rectangles (Nuvo);
Watercolor Florals Say It in Crystals (Prima Marketing); Velcro (Amazon);
White Tissue Paper (Dollar Store); Mini Hearts Cotton Candy Glossies (Pure & Simple);
Corner Chomper (We R Memory Makers)

 

Bullseye!

I made a Father's Day card using the Sasparilla collection after using it on my last layout. I can never have too many masculine cards on hand so I figured these papers would fit the bill perfectly. I used the patterned paper with the little cowboys and cowgirls and paired one of the images with a kraft woodgrain frame from Jillibean Soup I've had in my stash for a while (2013). I don't have a ton of Father's Day sentiment options, so I went back to All-Aroung Argyle, which has been pulled out many times over the years. The sentiment ("Happy Father's Day, Dad") is all in one long line, so I cut it apart in smaller bits.

I had a leftover piece of polka paper cut at an angle, so I layered that piece over the quilt one, and I was liking the look of the map paper with those patterns, so I tore a strip, crumpled it, inked it with Distress ink, dried it and added it to the card. I used a mix of regular Antique Linen Distress ink and Distress Oxide ink in Frayed Burlap.

I included a few stickers from the collection around the card, a copper star and a copper-foiled embellishment from the Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements from Stampin' Up! (That embellishment pack was sold in a Christmas collection, but the stars can easily be used year-round.)

I felt the main frame would be a tight fit on a regular A2 card, so I went up in size and created a 4½" x 6" card. I had plenty of patterned paper from the collection, so I used a sheet to make a matching envelope using the Envelope Punch Board. I don't know if you have seen the Howdy! collection from Simple Stories that will be coming out this month, but it reminds me a lot of the Sasparilla collection. The colours are slightly more saturated and there are a few additional cutesy critters in it, but the patterns and vintage cowboy images are very similar. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Tout en losange (All-Around Argyle - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Stickers: Sasparilla (October Afternoon)
Ink: Antique Linen Distress, Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Chestnut Roan ColorBox Chalk (Clearsnap)
Dies: Lots of Labels (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board, Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements,
Star Designer Elements (Stampin' Up!); Kraft Woodgrain Frames (Jillibean Soup - Hampton Art);
Distress Tool (Ranger); Jute Trim (Celebrate It)