A Good Friend is Like a Good Book

Happy Monday! I've got a tutorial for you today for this card I have created with fall inspired colors (I know, it's going to be 80 tomorrow...October 1...but still!). So let's get to it.

My son picked up some leaves the other day at the bus stop waiting for my oldest, so I used those in a fun way. As you can see, I chose my patterned paper and just taped down the leaf to the paper towel underneath. 

Next, I took my craft sponge and sponged my Distress Ink in Pumice Stone over the leaf. It's going to create a reverse silhouette of the leaf. Just a subtle look, but I think it's fun!

I then took some spray mists I have on hand. To achieve these spatter dots, what you want to do is unscrew the sprayer from the bottle. Dip the wand end of the sprayer into the solution in the bottle and just flick it on. Make sure you do this on a craft mat/paper towel so you don't make a huge mess. Not like I speak from experience or anything... ;) I chose to use two different colors on this one.

Then take your leaf off the paper (and you can see the subtle leaves!) and cut down to adhere to your card base. I just chose to round the upper left corner of the patterned paper and card base. 

Next, I cut out of a scrap piece of dark brown cardstock a simple scalloped border and adhered it to the bottom of the card. I also fussy cut around my book image which is from Sheena A Little Bit Magical set, The Quest. The "for my friend" sentiment is from the Makey Bakey Everyday, Stitched with Love. I just made a simple pennant shape for that and gently sponged the Pumice Stone on that so it wasn't stark white. I did that with the book as well, although it's very subtle. 

The book image is colored in with my Spectrum Noir markers. I used DR6, GB3, GB6, GB8, and TN1.

And here is the complete card! I just pulled off one of the leaves I used and you can see where it looks like it's aged because of the spray mist and distress ink! Such a fun way to incorporate something a little different. This would be a great card to give a book lover for their birthday!

Witchy Cat

Hey there. I've got another Halloween card that is more on the cutesy side. I used the cat, broom and sentiment from the Lawn Fawn set Critters in Costume. They also have coordinating dies for this set as well! I muts get them. Lawn Fawn stamps like a dream. I colored them in with my Spectrum Noir markers, cut them out carefully, and made the cat look like he/she was standing on the broom handle.

For the background that the cat and broom are on, I cut a white cardstock panel that measures 4"x5.25". I then took various cardstock from my stash and went to town. I just glued it to the white base I had cut putting them on a diagonal. This is a great and easy (not to mention fast) way to get a bunch of color on your card and use up your scraps! I keep a LOT of scraps, so this helps me. :)

I then chose the space for the sentiment and stuck it all over the card until I found a spot where it fit perfectly. Then I put my cat and broom down further on the card. I used pop dots for them, then glued the whole thing to my white card and there you go! One cutesy Halloween card. I'll likely use this for one of my son's teachers this Halloween.

I added subtle "stripes" to my cat's back with the Spectrum Noir markers.
I also added a simple striping to the hat's band with the blender pen.
Easy little touches that add detail!

Thanks for stopping by. I read all your comments and truly appreciate each and every one of them, so I'd love to hear from you!

Uuuhhhhh....brains!

Halloween is approaching quickly and I was DYING to get out these amazing new stamps I bought over the summer from Sweet Stamp Shop. You should check them out NOW because they're 50% off!!! GREAT deal. I want the rest of them...

I have a love of zombies. Anyone who knows me knows I LOOOOOVE The Walking Dead (yup, Daryl Dixon is my man) so I of course had to have this set. It's the Zombies set. Must. Have. Check it...

The inside of the card...I know my hubby isn't the ONLY one that
always looks inside cards I create hoping there's something in
this one this time! So there. Hubby, this one's for you!

Hope you enjoyed my apocalypse card! HA! :)

Products:
The Paper Studio patterned paper
Sweet Stamp Shop-Zombies
Memento black ink
Stampin' Up red ink
Spectrum Noir markers
ATG Gun
Foam adhesive dots

Sheena A Little Bit Oriental Blog Hop!

Crafter's Companion is excited to launch another gorgeous collection from Sheena Douglass called “A Little Bit Oriental”. This collection has four beautiful stamp sets, four 5x7 embossing folders, a paper pad with 48 sheets of coordinating pattern papers in16 designs. All of these wonderful new products are available right now on the Crafter’s Companion website.

To celebrate this wonderful new release, the designers have been busy making some wonderful projects and we can’t wait to show them off to you. Hop along and don’t forget to leave comments along the way because we will be selecting a random winner who will receive one of the lovely new Sheena Stamp Sets (winner’s choice).

I chose the set Koi & Waterlilies to use the large koi fish. I love the orange and black of these fish. I used my Spectrum Noir markers (Blender, OR1, OR2, OR3, BG10, BT2, and True Black) for the fish and fussy cut him (or her?) out. I used my Embossalicious 6"x6" folder, Regal Damask, to give the black background some dimension. I chose the Tranquility sentiment from the same set as well. I diecut it out in a simple circle shape, punched a hole at the top, added some simple ribbon and used some small rhinestones to add sparkle to this. Simple and elegant :) 

To get the spots on the koi, I took my blender pen and colored in the area that is white so the paper is saturated with the blender. It will make the surface wet to apply the spots. Then, take your BG10 and dot it on in non-uniform patterns, as it would appear on the actual fish. Then go over that with your blender again. The BG10 will bleed into the white area making it appear soft around the edges, more natural. Happy coloring!

Here is a list of the designers blogs who will be sharing projects today:

Chrissie Tobas

Christiana Reuling

Denise Coulter

Kendra Wietstock

Leah l'Orange

Mary Dawn Quirindongo

Roxanne O’Brien

Stacy Harper-Watson

Stephanie Severin

Trena Brannon

Tenia Nelson

Deb Felts (Guest Designer)

Good luck and have fun hopping around!

Lawnscaping Challenge #66!

Hey everyone! I love, love, love Lawn Fawn so I wanted to get in on this one, even if it's at crunch time!

So the Lawnscaping Challenge #66 was monochromatic. That's a toughie. But I wanted to push myself, so I took the ultimate monochromatic color-white. (And yes, to me, white IS a color! I realize that could be argued. LOL)

I have the dies from the Trim the Tree Lawn Cuts set. Love them. I wanted to make a snowy tree scene, so I cut out a bunch of them and freehand cut some "hills" of snow to add dimension. I just rubbed some stickles on with my finger along the top and patted down the hill to fade it. You can't really tell in the photo, but I also used my Versamark Sparkle ink pad to add sparkle to the white hills.

The top of the card is a simple white piece of cardstock embossed with snowflakes and glitter spray used on it to add to the dimension.

For the trees, I used a couple embossing folders as well. The garland for the few trees is out of a piece of flocked white cardstock using the die included in the Trim the Tree Lawn Cuts set.

There is MY take on monochromatic. I hope it leaves you with a white Christmas feeling ;) Thanks for stopping by!

Hi there! I've got a fun little project you can whip up for a family member for the holidays. 

This was a mini scrapbook I made out of some old stock I had on hand and some fun holly and berries I had as well along with a little holiday ribbon. I love using up what I have on hand to make it into something fun and unexpected! I just took several sheets of 12x12 cardstock and cut them in half and folded in the center, so you have a 6x12 little mini book. The ribbon becomes the "binding" so to speak. That's it! Very simple to mass produce too. 

I chose the sentiment "holiday memories" from the Sentimentals set Jingle Bells and punched it out with a circle punch (1-1/2" I believe I used) and used pop dots to adhere. 

I colored this adorable little guy for the cover. He's from the Makey Bakey Mice set-Christmas Seasons. I love them all! I used my Spectrum Noir markers to color him in (CG3, GT2, LG5, IG1, TN7, TN8, EB8, TN2, PP5, DR5, DR7, BG1, FS6, blender pen) and then fussy cut him out. I used some red rhinestones from my stash for the holly on his hat.

On the inside, I used various sentiments from the Sentimentals sets Jingle Bells and Mistletoe Kisses. These sets are seriously worth buying the bundle!!! I used Delicata-Golden Glitz (coming soon) and Memento Luxe ink-Pistachio (coming soon) for sentiments. You can use these for SO many things-cards, scrapbooks, custom wrapping paper, gift tags, boxes, I could go on and on...

I have a few shots of the inside of the book as well as a few more of the outside so you can see the detail! Thanks for stopping by and please be sure to visit Crafter's Companion today!

Makey Bakey Mice Release!

Good morning! Wait until you see these new sets for Makey Bakey Mice. ADORABLE beyond words. I used the Everday-Wedding Day set and one of the sentiments from this set. I colored them in with my Spectrum Noir markers (Spectrum Noirs: PL1, PL5, PP1, PP3, PP5, LV3, BG1, BG2, BG6, BG8, BG10, BT1, GB6, GB7, BT1, IG1, EB1, EB2, EB5, Blender Pen) and fussy cut around them.

I again pulled out some scraps for the backdrop of the mice and glued them down with pop dots to give dimension.

The sentiment was stamped with black ink and embossed with the Embossalicious folder, Patchwork Border. I then cut it down to size and dabbed on the Delicata ink pad in Golden Glitz (coming soon!). Also used pop dots to adhere this to the base. I added a couple clusters of rhinestones for shine.

Pop on over to Crafter's Companion today and see what other sets are available from Makey Bakey Mice!

September Embossing Challenge

This month over at Crafter's Companion Challenge, the theme is EMBOSSING! Who doesn't love embossing? It's a totally easy way to add instant texture to your project. I love my embossing folders.

For my card, I actually used a couple embossing folders. For the pennants, I used the Darice 5x7 Chevron background (kraft pennant), 4.25x5.75 Flames (center pennant), and a harlequin embossing folder (black pennant).  This is a great way to use up your scraps, which is exactly what I did. I went digging and found some Halloween-ish looking papers and cut to various sizes, embossed, inked and snipped the ends freehand. I know a lot of people will use a square punch to get perfect pennants. I don't have one, so I just eyeball it! And it's quirky when they're perfect. :)

I glued them down to the card base, which I always use 4.25x5.5 cards, and then used some Halloween stickers at the top from Authentique (Enchanted Elements).

The jar image is from the Sheena A Little Bit Magical Honesty set. Amazing stuff here. I chose to make them into kind of creepy jars to fit the theme, using my Spectrum Noirs to color them (colors listed below) and I dabbed some Memento Luxe ink in Grey Flannel (coming soon!) on the jar labels and jars to make them appear antiqued even more. I also went over everything with Distress Ink in Old Paper, Tea Dye, and Scattered Straw dabbed on with craft sponges.

For the embossed pennants (flame and chevron), I dabbed on some Memento Ink in Tangelo and Lady Bug with the sponges as well.

I added a simple twine bow just because. As well as some spray mist flicked on for added "creep." Oh, and 3 tiny skulls with a punch I found for $1 at WalMart! Don't overlook the holiday sections of your local stores for little finds like that. I dabbed the Grey Flannel again on those to spook it up. BOO!

I hope you're inspired to grab those embossing folders and join our challenge this month on the blog!

Spectrum Noirs used: EB1, EB5, EB7, BG2, BG4, BGR1, BGR3, TN2, IG2, IG4, IG6, IG10, OR2, OR3, GB5, GB7, GB8, DG2, DG3, DG4, CT1, FS6, TN7, TN8, True Black and blender pen.

Christmas Delivery!

Hey there. I realize it's 90+ degrees outside here in Chicago and I'm posting a Christmas card, but hey, you have to stay ahead! This would be a cute card as a thank you to my mailman! With a little gift card slipped in there, what do you think?

I pulled out my trusty ol' scraps and went to town. I craft without a plan really. Sometimes I loosely use a sketch, but most of the time, I cut, glue and go. This was one of those.

I colored in my adorbs image from the Barkley Christmas Set-1st Class Christmas. The sentiment is also from that set as well. The whole Barkley line are so fun to color. I pulled out my Spectrum Noir markers and went to town. I used CG2, DG2, DR3, True Black, EB5, BT2, BG6, TB1, BG1, BG6, BGR1, BGR3, PP1, EB1, EB2, EB7, EB8, IG1, IG4, DR5, DR7, and the blender pen. I then diecut it out and used the Spray & Sparkle Glitter Varnish-Silver to coat the image in a fine mist of "snow." LOVE that stuff!!! I'm going to order the other colors as well. Just be sure to spray that outdoors on a non-windy day. :)

On the kraft piece, I used the bottom half of the embossing folder, Christmas Elegance, for just the snowflakes.

I took a photo on an angle to show you the glitter spray. LOVE this stuff.

I then just assembled it to how I liked it, added a little country-esque bow and there you have it! A simple and elegant holiday card perfect for the mailman, delivery driver if he frequents your place/business, or just anyone that needs a little smile during the holidays! These are great to have on hand just in case. Hope you enjoyed my card today.

Be sure to visit Crafter's Companion today for the above linked products as well as so much more. Shop away!

Back to School!

It's that time of year again...back to school! So for back to school, I took a frame I have and made a custom little piece of art featuring a photo I took of my oldest son on his first day of school. 

For the base, I chose a yellow piece of cardstock in my stash. I then ran a sheet of the red cardstock through my Cuttblebug using the 4.25x5.75 embossing folder-ABC's from Crafter's Companion. The piece of red cardstock actually already had the notebook looking edge. I worked at a printing company where we would get swatch books for paper stock that was available, and when the books were replaced by new versions, or colors became obsolete, they either went to me or the trash. Guess who has a TON of scraps because of that?? This girl!

I then took another little scrap and made a simple pennant at the top right for some added interest. 

To complete the school look, I chose the stack of books from the latest set from Sheena called A Little Bit Magical-Knowledge. How perfect is that set name? These are seriously fun to color. I colored them in with my Spectrum Noir markers, using the blender pen, JG1, JG2, JG6, EB1, EB2, EB5, OR2, OR3, CT4, TB2, TB3, TB5, CR8, CG1, CG3, BG2, BG4, LV1, LV2, LV3, IG4, IG6, IG8, DG4,  PP3, BT5, BT7, BT9, GB6, and GB7. Phew!

I then used some letter stickers I had on hand to put 3rd, first day and the year on the book's spine. This way, I can take it out of the frame and scrapbook it and it's ready to glue down :) 

I hope you enjoyed my project and that it inspires you to whip up a cute framed photo of your child's first day. Happy school year.