Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Angelic with Creative Inspiration Paints

Isn't exciting when you get a new toy to play with?  I ordered a few Creative Inspiration paints and got to play with them this weekend.  I don't always get excited about new toys, nor do I tend to be a glitter and pearls kind of person.  But I have to say these are very cool - the amount of glimmer in the paint is amazing.  SOOOOO much more than you can get from glimmer mists and the colors are so much richer.

So what am I doing with them?  A little bit of this and a little bit of that!  In this layout, I used them in two places - first, I painted some white flowers with some Beige and Caramel paints (lower right) and then I added a little touch of Gold to the top and bottom of the strips of blue paper on the corrugated title tag in upper left.  Do check them out!

So what inspired me for this layout?  First, the sketch is from Sketches4All January sketch challenge.  We're looking for new members to join our happy family as well as for guest design team members so come check us out - nearly all of our challenges have prizes, RAK, and giveaways.  The color pallete was inspired by Use it Tuesday's Red/Orange/Yellow challenge and Scrapbook.com's Design Seeds color challenge, which led to the paper selection for A Cherry on Top's 4x4 challenge.  In this challenge, I had to use only 2 double sided sheets of paper plus 4 embellishments.  I choose two papers from Pink Paislee Prairie Hill collection.  The thin solid colored strips including the faux photo mat are cut from the striped pattern on the back of the flower paper and the corrugated title tag was paper from the back of the background paper (the cutout being covered by the flower "mat").

Enjoy and have an awesome day!

And don't forget to check out Sketches4All - in addition to the sketch challenge I mentioned above, we also have a challenge where the prize includes THREE Creative Inspiration paints and other mixed media items!  Check it out here and take a look at my sidebar for a photo of the prize.




Sunday, January 20, 2013

Win Creative Inspiration Paints and More!

The January Sketch Challenge is still going on over at Sketches4All - join in the fun!  It's easy to join the forum and I can't say enough how much I love everyone over there! 


We're also looking for guest design team members - just post some of your recent work here.

Keeping it Simple with a Charm

I made this today for one of my daughter's friends.  I don't often do "clean and simple" but it was a bit last minute! Used a Hero Arts background stamp, Cuttlebug embossing folder, and Verve sentiment stamp.  Charm is from a really old set - my very first scrapbook "embellishment" purchase nearly 10 years ago!

Challenges:

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Something Old Something New

Lot's of challenges this month to use "something old and something new" - including my own challenge over at Sketches 4 All.  But this one is for Lasting Memories' Something Old-Something New Challenge - one of my favorite blogs for layouts.

The paper is REALLY old - it's a Colorbok kit I picked up at Big Lots way back when.  The new item is the stamped border just below the photos - this I picked up last weekend at a rubber stamp show from Lost Coast Designs.  They specialize in art stamps - love their stamps, especially their vintage ones. The sketch is based on a Becky Fleck sketch over at A Cherry on Top.

The story I scrapped is when my daughter was four and visited her grandparents in northern Wales.  There is a magnificent aqueduct there built in 1805 and still in full operation for narrow boats, kayakers, and walkers.  It's the longest and highest in Britain and is now a World Heritage site.  It is truly amazing but scares the &^%$ out of me as one who has a bit of a fear of heights.  Thankfully I wasn't there that trip when my hubby and his parents took her across - 126 ft above the River Dee below!!!


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Scrapping Recipes - Part 3

This is the third layout I have posted that I created for my favorite recipes.  It's a project I am working on to put together my all time favorites from my mother and grandmother.

The background cardstock is from Close to My Heart sprayed with Studio Calico Mister Huey Opaque White.  The remaining paper is scraps left over from other projects including October Afternoon - Woodland Park (Huckleberry Hill) and 9 to 5 (Italics) and Simple Stories - Summer Fresh (four different floral, ledger, and printed papers used for the hexagons and "shopping list").  The alphas are from October Afternoon (Sticky Keys and Mini Market) and Jenni Bowlin (Vintage Brown).  I also added stickers from Cosmo Cricket (Social Club), some ric rac, and used an extremely old rub-on tape from daisyd.

Sketch is from ScrapFriends.  I'm also using this for the Lasting Memories challenges to show pieces from a larger project - which in this case is the full recipe book. Also using it for Hiding in My Craft Room #80 Scraps challenge,  Scrapbook.com's No Photo challenge, the piece of ledger paper I used for the "shopping list" was inspired by The Paper Girls challenge, and a supply challenge at A Cherry on Top.


Winter Blues

I am behind on my thank you notes for Xmas prezzies so this is one of several I am sending out.  I intentionally left off the sentiment as the image was just too pretty to cover up with anything beyond the bow.

I went to a small stamp show here in the Dallas area yesterday.  Even though it's small, I still always find something new at the show and this year was no exception.  For this card, I used two new additions from the show - the background was done using three different Spectrum Noir markers and the stamp is from Lost Coast Designs (it make just become my new favorite!)  I then added some clear embossing powder on some of the branches and sprayed the whole thing with Perfect Pearls Mist to give it a beautiful snowy, wintery, shimmer..

Challenges:




Thursday, January 10, 2013

Farewell to a Friend

The card is for a fabulous colleague who has decided to pursue other opportunities - it is always sad when such talent goes to other pastures but I know our paths will cross again (the world of marketing analytics is actually quite small).  Best wishes, Ashleigh!


Love using black and white with a pop of another color.  I'm trying to clear out some old embellishments and I had a very large collection of these aqua and white flowers - perfect pairing with black!  The button in the middle is also REALLY old - a have a whole set of neon animal print buttons that I think I have used twice - so one more down, 20+ more to go HA HA.  I added two ribbons that had also been in my stash for ages - both animal print, one in black/white and one aqua/white.  These sit atop white cardstock embossed with a QuicKutz (Lifestyle Crafts) folder.  Sketch is based on Viva la Verve Jan wk 2 sketch.  The sentiment is embossed with aqua embossing powder and that sits atop a piece I applied glitter to (I NEVER use glitter but in an attempt to use what I have and to fit in with Use It Tuesday's Make it Sparkle challenge....)

Challenges include Hiding in My Craft Room #79 (Black & White + 1), Pile It On (also Black & White + 1), Simon Says Stamps (Black & White + splash),  Little Scrap Pieces (Anything Goes), Party Time Tuesday (Sparkle Glitter and Shine), Card Makin' Mamas (Anything Goes), MyGrafico (Anything Goes), Use It Tuesday (Make it Sparkle), Shopping Our Stash (Use Old Buttons), and Viva la Verve.





Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Mojo Monday # 275

Time for Mojo Monday!  I absolutely adore Julee's sketches but I confess - I didn't stamp anything this time.  It was a case of too many choices that got me so flummoxed that I just pushed them all aside and went with a die cut.  Sorry, stampers!

This is also being submitted the the New Year/New Project recycle/repurpose challenge at Sketches4All (check yesterday's post to see a whole list of challegnes running at the Sketches4All forum).  The ribbon I used was "saved" from the waistband of a pair of old sweats being discarded (yes - it was washed first - ha ha).  Papers are from Jenni Bowlin and Prima and the ribbon clips are from Karen Foster.

I am also entering this in this week's challenge at The Paper Players #127 - Love is In the Air.  They always have great challenges, even if I haven't had a chance to play along in the past few weeks (and when I do, I seem to forget to actually post my entry - ha ha).  And I can;t forget to mention ScrapbookSteals.com Monday Madness #8 Valentines challenge.





Sketch Challenges - Grand Divas and Sketch N Scrap #24

It took a while to get this posted - Blogspot seems to be preventing me from uploading directly from my PC so I gave up trying and used another method.

This was my daughter's first horseback ride - taken at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa quite a few years back.  We loved that zoo and went there at least once a month when we lived in Florida.

Papers are a mixture including Pink Paislee, Paper Studio, and Cloud 9.  Die cuts are also a mixture of sources:
  • Boots - SVG Cuts
  • Hat - traced an image using Make the Cut
  • Title - cutting file from the Silhouette store
  • Chevrons - self made using Make the Cut
I also used some tickets and stickers from My Minds Eye "Miss Caroline" collection, some star brads as spurs and some new corner brads I picked up from A Cherry on Top.  Sketch is based on Sketch N Scrap #24 and I'll submit this to the Grand Diva's Participant Choice sketch challenge this month, too.


Monday, January 7, 2013

New Sketches4All Challenges

Happy New Year y'all!

Sketches 4 All has some great new challenges going on this month including a sketch challenge with some awesome Creative Inspiration paints as the prize.  We have challenges for card makers, layouts, tags, even smash book/journal challenges!  Great prizes and RAKs.  The line up includes:
So many great challenges and AWESOME people.  If you haven't joined yet - come on over to have fun and hang out with a super friendly group of people.  If you're already part of the family - get scrapping!