Lawnscaping Challenge #111: Back to School

Good morning!! It's almost that time of year that some parents look forward to, and some parents, like myself, who are NOT looking forward to it. I'm talking about Back to School. That means no more lazy days during the summer to play video games, hang out outside, watch movies on a rainy afternoon or read books until you pass out! So much fun is had during the summer even we were aren't doing anything - it's time together. Sniffle...

But join myself and the other amazing design team with our projects for the current challenge:

The wonderful, fabulous Ellen Hutson! is sponsoring this challenge!!! Certainly you are familiar with her and her store, but if not, a little bit about the store in her own words:

Ellen Hutson, LLC began their adventure in November 2006 as an online web store committed to bringing you the finest paper crafting products and related product education. They are always looking to provide their customers with quality products, excellent customer service, and education and inspiration for the products they carry. You can shop with Ellen by clicking HERE. As well please join them to be inspired and learn some fun techniques in the CLASSroom, or stay up-to-date on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and/orPinterest.

Ellen Hutson will be sponsoring our first challenge of each month in 2015! The prize? A $25 gift certificate to the online store! Thank you Ellen!

Now on to my projects. Yes, I made two. While I was creating my first card, I had to make a second one; one for each child. I usually start the first day of school out by leaving them a handmade card and way too much wording on the inside pouring out my thoughts, but it helps me :) And I hope that they look back on these when they're older and smile.

I created this adorable little card for my youngest who is starting Kindergarten this year. 

I wanted something cute, but boyish. I decided on a simple color palette and layout for this card. I took my Darice ABCs embossing folder with some black linen cardstock and ran that through my machine. I then punched the left hand side with a Stampin' Up notebook punch and rounded the other two corners. I rubbed on some Memento Luxe in Wedding Dress to mimic a chalkboard. I glued that down to my white card base. 

I wanted a pop of color, so I took a red strip and trimmed to the same size as my black embossed piece and glued that down over it. 

For the sentiment, I diecut out the fancy frame from the Lawn Fawn Stitched Labels. Then, I used the "sweet wishes" from the Lawn Fawn Milk and Cookies set. I just covered up the wording to be able to stack the type. You can certainly cut your stamps apart as well between wording if you'd like, but I wanted to keep it together.  I stamped it with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I glued that to the red strip with some foam adhesive. The little heart is from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals set and I stamped that with Tuxedo Black as well onto a piece of lined paper from the 6x6 Snowy Day Paper Pack. I also adhered that with foam adhesive.

The bear. He's from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals set. Oh, is he ever cute. I stamped, colored him with my Spectrum Noir Markers, and cut him out leaving a little white border (to pop him off against the black background). I added in a dapper little bowtie from the Beep Boop Birthday set, glued down with some foam adhesive and gave this bear a bitten cookie from the Milk and Cookies set. Went along perfectly with my sentiment. 

I'm going to miss my little guy during the day with me, so I hope this card makes him smile on his first full day without me! 

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Now for my second card for this challenge. A card for my oldest, who is starting 5th grade. When did that happen??? So not ready for that! I kept his card simple since he is getting older, the cutesy stuff doesn't work with him! 

For this card, I used a simple white card base and pulled out two green cardstock pieces from my stash. I cut and adhered them to the base slightly askew. 

I diecut out the large tag from the Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die set and the reinforcement circle out of a simple black and white dotted paper I had on hand. I used the three leaves from the Flutter By set with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I stamped those on the tag and colored them in with my Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Markers. Just a beautiful subtle look in variation in the colors used. I then stamped the sentiment HELLO from the Hello Baby set and the 5th Grade is from Milo's ABCs. Those were both stamped in Tuxedo Black. For a little fun, I also inked those sentiments up with Memento Luxe in Pistachio and stamped it off on a scrap piece of paper removing most of the ink. Then I stamped it a little off the original stamped sentiment image to give it a slight shadow. 

I tied a simple black and white twine piece through the hole on the tag and adhered the entire tag down to the card with some foam adhesive. For interest, I used some white enamel dots on the card. 

It's simple, a little more grown up and perfect for him. Welcoming him to 5th grade. Sigh. Why do they grow up so fast??

I hope you're inspired to create something fun for your little one(s), not so little one(s) or a teacher or anyone going back to school soon! Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to visit all the design team blogs for amazing inspiration!

Christmas in July

Ho ho ho...wait...Christmas in July everyone! Don't worry, we have 169 more days until then. Sounds far away, right?? Well I like to sneak in holiday cards here and there so it's not so overwhelming when the actual holiday time rolls around. This way, you can do fun things like bake cookies and make gifts, or watch holiday movies! And when you need a card, just grab and go. :)

Here is my Christmas card I have created for today:

 

It's no secret Bebunni is one of my favorite images to color, so naturally, I grabbed him when I thought of making a holiday card. I used the Bebunni, Rudolph set. I inked him up with my Memento, Tuxedo Black and stamped onto a piece of the Ultra Smooth White Premium Cardstock. I grabbed my Spectrum Noir Blendable Colored Pencils this time to color. I haven't colored with them in a while, so it was nice to get back to using them. I missed them! I used 092, 094, 035, 034, 009, 114, 116, 084, 089, 119, 065, 067, 044, 043, 061 and 063. I blended the colors with the Blending Solution and Paper Stumps. For the shadow under his feet, I did use my Spectrum Noir Markers in BGR1 and the Blender. I also went over that with my Wink of Stella brush pen to give it a bit of shimmer (hard to pick up in the photograph) to mimic snow. 

For the snowflakes around him, I used the snowflake stamps in the Rudolph set and used Memento in Summer Sky to add them in. They're nice a soft and subtle. 

The sentiment is also from the same set and I used Memento in Nautical Blue on a piece of blue cardstock. I cut that out with the Die'Sire Essentials, Circles dies. I added a fun pearl to the dot of the "i" in Jingle. 

It's hard to see in the photo because the cardstock is really dark blue, but I did use the Christmas Patchwork embossing folder on the darkest piece behind the colored image. I love how embossing adds a nice textural element to your projects.

I hope you are inspired to at least sneak in a project here and there this summer to have on hand for the holiday season. It will be here before we know it! Check out all the amazing holiday products you can use at Crafter's Companion. 

Nature Tag Mini Scrapbook Album

I'm so excited to share the link for the blog post over at the Blitsy blog where you can see this adorable little mini album...

Come check out the supplies I used, tips to creating this album, and the entire process with finished pages at the end. https://blitsy.com/blog/diy/nature-tag-mini-scrapbook-album

Golden Dreams

I am inspired by different quotes I see and this quote I chose for the card I created today really is inspiring!

I started with a kraft cardstock base, cut and scored to 4.25x5.5. Next, I chose a pretty patterned paper and cut that to the same size as my front panel for the card and adhered it.

Next, I took a piece of the Shimmering Cardstock in Green Envy and cut that to 4x5.25. I rounded two corners and then stamped the Sheena Optimism Leaf in Delicata, Golden Glitz. I also heat embossed the leaves. Too bad you can't tell in the photos, but it's so pretty in person!

For the sentiment, I took a piece of vellum and inked up the quote from the Sentimentals, Vintage set with Staz-On Midi Ink in Ganache. I glued that the the green embossed leaf panel and added a simple white with gold fleck twine around the top of that piece and tied a simple ribbon. I added several white enamel dots as well for some interest on the right side of the card. Then, I glued that entire panel to the flower paper with some thick foam adhesive.

Thanks for visiting today and check out all the awesome products Crafter's Companion has to offer!

Lawnscaping Challenge #110: COLOR Sponsored by Lawn Fawn

Good morning! I'm back with another fun challenge for Lawnscaping today. Here it is:

Our sponsor is none other than the amazing Lawn Fawn. Play along with the challenge, COLOR, inspired by the rainbow to win a fab prize from them. And to just get creative with color and have fun!!

I had a ton of fun creating this card today with the current challenge. Color is such a fun thing, isn't it?? I really wanted to incorporate all the bright colors we see in the rainbow and just give a feeling of summer. So I grabbed the Let's BBQ set and started getting creative. I stamped my images from the set onto some watercolor cardstock and began to color in with my Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers. I stamped the grill, kabob, and little flames and colored each separately. I then fussy cut them out (you can certainly use the coordinating dies for a quicker process) and assembled my little grill. 

The clouds were fun. I actually used my Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers and my water brush pen with a scrap piece of watercolor cardstock and colored in no particular fashion. I then took some cloud dies I have in my supplies and cut them out and set them aside. I love how you can see the variation in color in them! Like true clouds. 

 Now, on to how I assembled my card in steps.

1. Cut your card base, score and fold to 4.25x5.5. I used white cardstock for this card. 
2. I took a piece of red polka dotted paper and cut to the same size as my card front, 4.25x5.5. Adhere. 
3. I pulled in a fun gingham paper in a soft green and white and cut a little smaller than my card size and glued on a slight angle. 
4. For the yellow piece, I took the yellow striped paper from the Let's Polka 6x6 Paper Pack and cut a smaller piece (roughly 3x4) and rounded the two right corners. For some fun, I used Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw with two different stencils I have. I used a honeycomb and dotted stencil. This gives a little more color to the card and a fun element!
5. I glued that down on an angle and stuck on my clouds with some foam adhesive. 
6. For the smoke from the grill, I inked that up with Memento Luxe in Grey Flannel. I decided where I'd want the grill to be place and I stamped the smoke. I then adhered the grill over that with some foam adhesive. 
7. I love the sentiment in this set that I chose, relish the day, because really, we all truly relish these beautiful summer days spent grilling and being outdoors, right? So I found some fun tickets I had in my stash and decided to stamp right onto the ticket. I stamped it Memento, Tuxedo Black and the word day, I stamped onto my watercolor cardstock scrap with Memento Luxe in Love Letter and cut that out and adhered with some foam adhesive. Gave a little pop of color and dimension.
8. I glued my ticket strip to the card and trimmed off the overhang from the top. 

And there you have my fun, summery card! I hope you join us and play along with the challenge. Take a look at all the design team's projects as well! I truly am on a team of very talented ladies!! 

How to Make an Instagram Album

Good afternoon, everyone! My project is up on the Blitsy blog, so I'm very excited to be able to share this with you. It's my first post as a Creative Team Member for Blitsy!!

Come over to the Blitsy blog and check out all the products, step-by-step instructions and see photos of the process.

Little sneak peek for you! See all the details here: https://blitsy.com/blog/diy/how-to-make-an-instagram-album

Classic Celebration Card

I'm back again with another simple and pretty card! Let's get down to it...

Today, I just had an urge to ink up this awesome Sheena, Mystery Author stamp with some nice juicy ink, Versafine in Onyx Black, and I heat embossed it to make it pop. The sheen reminds me of the old school shiny, black typewriters. I'd love to get one eventually!! I used watercolor cardstock to give it an old school feel. I then stamped the "let's celebrate!" sentiment from the Bebunni Floral Collection, Bunches of Love, in Delicata, Silvery Shimmer. I then fussy cut the entire image out and set aside.

For my card base, I chose a nice salmon linen stock this time. I cut and scored to 4.25x5.5. I pulled some fun papers in to go behind my typewriter. I used a black and white stripe and an orange and cream graph paper. Onto that, I inked up the Shenna, Simply Scripty with the Memento Ink in Cantaloupe. It's VERY subtle, but it looks so pretty in person.

I glued those papers down to the base alternating the position to make it fun! I took the typewriter image and glued down with some thicker foam adhesive. To give some sparkle, I added several black sequins to the card. Totally simple, but classic. Makes a beautiful birthday card for someone older that can appreciate the nostalgia of the typewriter!

Check out all the great Sheena stamp sets over at Crafter's Companion!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Good morning everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see what I have created for you today. Since it's summer (or supposed to be - Chicagoland area is having cooler than normal temps right now!), I decided to use the Sheena, Kite stamp for my card today. I love it! It really does remind you of a nice summer day!

 This card was simple to create. I started off taking a piece of blue patterned paper and used my Die'Sire Circle Doilies dies with it. To me the soft curves of the die and the blue paper reminded me of clouds. Perfect for placing my kite onto! I stamped a few of the kites onto the paper with some grey ink. Very subtle.

I took my Sheena, Kite stamp and inked it up with Memento, Tuxedo Black onto my Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock and colored it in with my Spectrum Noir Markers (PL1, PL3, TB1, TB3, BT3, BT5, LG1, LG3, LG5, GB6) and fussy cut it out.

For the card, I simply cut my cardbase and scored it to 4.25x5.5 and rounded the bottom left corner. I then glued on my doilie die cut. I let it hang off the card and just trimmed off the excess. For some fun, I took the Textures, Basket and Burlap set and inked up the dotted swirl stamp with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and the other element in the upper left of the card with grey ink. After I stamped those, I used some spray mists and flicked on color in a soft greenish blue and black.

I used foam adhesive on the back of the kite and glued that to the diecut shape. I snuck in the sentiment (it's actually an acetate piece from my stash and I simply backed it with a piece of white cardstock so you could see the wording better) and pulled the one kite string to the front of it.

For some shine, I added several light blue sequins to the card.

I hope you enjoyed this card. Check out Crafter's Companion for so many fun stamp sets, quality markers and more!

Lawnscaping Challenge #109

Good morning everyone! We have a fun new challenge up today for Lawnscaping Challenges - Sparkle and Shine! So, add bling, Glossy Accents, glitter, or whatever else sparkles and shines. Have fun with this one ;)

The wonderful, fabulous Ellen Hutson! is sponsoring this challenge!!! If you aren't familiar with her and her store, a little bit about the store in her own words:

Ellen Hutson, LLC began their adventure in November 2006 as an online web store committed to bringing you the finest paper crafting products and related product education. They are always looking to provide their customers with quality products, excellent customer service, and education and inspiration for the products they carry. You can shop with Ellen by clicking HERE. As well please join them to be inspired and learn some fun techniques in the CLASSroom, or stay up-to-date on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and/orPinterest.

Ellen Hutson has generously offered up a $25 gift certificate to the online store! 

Shopping spree time!  Thank you Ellen and gang!!!

Here is my take on this challenge: 

It's summertime!!! That means there are fireflies out at night, so I was inspired by them for my take on this challenge. I stepped out everything below with supplies included in the steps as well. I hope you enjoyed it and you join us for this Lawnscaping Challenge!

STEPS:

1. Cut white cardstock base and score in the center. Fold to 4.25x5.5.

2. Cut patterned paper (My Mind's Eye 6x6 Pad, Oxford Lane) to 3x5.5. Adhere to the white card base.

3. Cut strip of patterned paper (this is the pattern on the back of the blue cross x's in step 2) and freehand a pennant shape on one end. This is roughly 0.5x4.125. 

4. I took kraft cardstock and used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Labels Lawn Cuts and cut out the oval shape. I stamped "thanks" from the Lawn Fawn Love You A Latte set in Memento, Tuxedo Black. I did curve the stamp just a little bit to fit the oval shape. Best part of clear stamps!

5. I cut a piece of watercolor paper to about 4x4. I dabbed some Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and Spiced Marmalade onto a clear acrylic block and spritzed with water. Taking my watercolor paper, I pressed that onto the block itself and gently lifted it up. I dabbed the excess ink off with a paper towel. 

6. With the Lawn Fawn Heart Lawn Cuts, I kept them all together as they came packaged, and diecut them out of a scrap piece of heavy cardstock to use as a stencil. I then used a finger dauber and stenciled on hearts in various sizes that I had cut out with Brilliance, Platinum Planet.  

7. I stamped the jar and firefly from the Lawn Fawn Bugs & Kisses set onto some ultra smooth premium white cardstock and cut them out. For the jar, I used a Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Pen in Silver to color the lid. Inside the jar, I used Twinkling H20's to create the yellow "glow" from the firefly's light. I also applied some green glitter glue to give it a little more sparkle! For the firefly, I also used Twinkling H20's to color him in and then applied Glossy Accents just to his wings. After everything dried, I glued the firefly to the jar with some foam adhesive and then adhered the jar to the watercolor background with more foam adhesive. 

8. I then glued the watercolor backdrop with the jar and firefly to the card, centered at the top of the card. I took my patterned strip that I cut and my sentiment in the oval diecut and glued that to the bottom of the watercolor panel. 

PLEASE READ the rules in the sidebar on the Lawnscaping blog in order to be eligible for the prize!!!!!

• You have until Wednesday, July 15th, 2015 to submit your entries!

Don't forget to keep checking the Lawnscaping Challenges Facebook page, where our Facebook Inspiration Team will be sharing projects throughout the challenge!

Crafter's Companion HSN Show Blog Hop

Good morning! Thanks for joining me today in the super fun blog hop to get ready for Sara Davies’ shows on HSN! Sara will be part of the HSN 24-hour Day of Crafts on July 1st. Please check the Crafter's Companion US Facebook page for times! 

And what's a hop without amazing prizes up for the giving? All of my teammates are giving away stamps or dies...make sure you hop along to everyone’s blog, and leave comments to win their fabulous prizes! And be sure not to miss the huge prize packs on the Crafter’s Companion US blog and over on Sara Davies’ blog! We will be selecting the winners by July 2nd. ALL winners will be responsible for contacting prizes@crafterscompanion.com with their address and prize they won. Have fun along the hop! The list for the hop participants is below. 

Now, on to my project! I've created a beautiful, bright card today with the Sheena, A Little Bit Sketchy EZMount Stamp Set, Tropical Nectar. I have stamped this image onto my Ultra Smooth White Premium Cardstock with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I colored it in with my Spectrum Noir Markers (GT1, GT2, JG1, TB1, TB2, TB3, TB4, BT3, BT4, BT5, GB3, HB1, HB3, LG4, LG5, IB1, CT1, CT4, CR3, CR6, FS5, FS9, Blender).

For the pop of pink on the bottom, I used the Shimmering Cardstock in Rose Pearl with the Embossalicious Lattice folder. I rounded all the corners on the colored piece and embossed cardstock and glued the two together. The sentiment is also from the Tropical Nectar set as well. I simply stamped and diecut that with the Die'Sire Essentials, Rectangles die. I rounded 3 of the corners. For some fun pops of colors, I colored three enamel dots with my Spectrum Noir Markers to match the hummingbird's feathers. 

I tied some twine around the card and snuck in the sentiment behind that and adhered everything with the Extra Strong Permanent Tape Runner to the black cardstock base (folded to 4.25x5.5). I hope you enjoyed my project today and have a ton of fun hopping along to see what my the other design team members have created today for this special hop. 













Hop Participants: 
Crafter’s Companion US - http://crafterscompanion.blogspot.com/
Sara Davies - http://www.crafterscompanion.co.uk/blog/saradaviesblog/
Lori Barnett - http://www.loribarnett.blogspot.com/
Laine Webb - http://dreamlaine.blogspot.co.uk/
Chrissie Tobas - http://harvestmoonpapiere.blogspot.com/Liz Walker - http://veritycards.blogspot.co.uk/
Gini Cagle - http://www.ginicagle.blogspot.com/
Kendra Wietstock - http://kendrawietstock.blogspot.com/
Roxanne O’Brien - http://projectorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/ <<<<YOU ARE HERE!>>>>
Giovana Smith - http://giovana-believe.blogspot.com/
Jodi Clark - https://clarkscraftycorner.wordpress.com/
Rosemary Shaner-Bridges - http://rosemaryscreations.blogspot.com/
Tenia Nelson - http://jazzypaper.blogspot.com/
Vera Yates - http://lingshappyplace.blogspot.com/
Taylor Usry - http://taylorusry.blogspot.com/

Floral Thanks

Today I have a card that's very simple and no coloring! I know, crazy. You know I love to color for my cards, but today, I challenged myself and didn't use a stamp as a focal point. And you know what? I kind of like that! (Don't worry, I am a girl who loves to color always, so fret not.)

I used Shimmering Cardstock in Green Envy for the background. I stamped the flourish from the Textures EZMount Journal Jottings set with Memento Luxe in Wedding Dress. I used a clear embossing powder and I heat set that. It helps to pop the design off the card, especially when using a subtle color like white over a shimmery, darker colored cardstock. 

I picked some fun and pretty elements out of my stash like the little file folder and other elements on the right hand side. I wanted a thank you card, so I diecut the THANKS letters using the Die'Sire Alphabet Uppercase, 1-inch dies out of dark brown cardstock in my stash. I used the small Xyron I have to apply the adhesive to the smaller letters and stuck those to my card. 

I assembled the cluster of elements on the right and used some enamel dots in a cream color for the center of the butterfly and around the card as well. Definitely a clean and simple design today. 

Check out all the amazing dies Crafter's Companion has to offer. Makes card making a cinch!