Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy 4th of July!!

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 Hello everyone!!!  HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!  I'm super excited to be here with you all to share my first post :)  I'll be honest, I created a layout a few weeks back to share for this post but as we got closer I found out that I would be posting on the holiday.  I knew I MUST get a little more crafting done & create something extra to share to put you all in that 4th of July spirit!!!

Before I became a design team member, I was a shopper and subscriber of Noel's store & monthly kits :)  I went through my last 3 kits and mixed & matched all sorts of fun papers and goodies to dress up this antique style wood star.

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That is what I LOVE about Noel's kits - they are so easy to mix & match between them :)  I cut patterned papers to cover the sides of the star as well as the center of the star.  To jazz up the middle, I layered a bunch of embellishments & papers from the Boardwalk, Summer Wind, and Jack & Jill kits.  I also used that great Crate Paper black star ribbon & the adorable Jillibean Soup corrugated cardboard star to help add a festive touch to this piece :)

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You may have noticed that kraft script patterned paper peeking out behind the Crate grid circle sticker - I have to confess, it's a DIY :)  I've just recently gotten back into to stamping and it is a great way to create your own patterned paper.  I started with a sheet of kraft card stock & stamped a text image onto the paper.  Then I punched out a scalloped circle shape & inked the edges with some Colorbox chalk ink.  Do you have any stamps collecting dust in your crafty space???  If so, break them out :)

Now I mentioned earlier in this post I had a layout to share as well.  On the 4th of July my family is at the beach, it is a tradition we began a few years back.  A wonderful week full of family & fun!!!  It is perfectly fitting then that being the 4th, the layout I created captures a recent moment of my youngest son at the beach :)  I just adored the soft color palette of the Summer Wind kit & found it contained just the right "ingredients" to showcase this sweet pic of Nicholas meeting his first sand crab :)

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I loved the font of the American Crafts thickers in this kit!!  While the natural kraft color was great, I decided to cover them with some real sand to add something special to these letters :)  You can see amidst the title work is all kinds of goodies layered up from Hambly Screen Prints, Elle's Studio, Pink Paislee, My Minds Eye, and American Crafts.

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In the top left hand corner of the pic I added some more layering of embellishments to balance the page out.  That adorable cloud is from the Hambly rub-ons in the kit.  I wanted to give the illusion of it just floating there so instead of adhering it directly to the patterned paper on the page, I put it on a transparency.  Then I simply cut it out & tucked it behind the tag.  This is also a great way to avoid rub-on disasters :) You know when you put it directly on a page & then realize you don't like it there or maybe you are mid-rub and the paper shifts and suddenly your image looks like it's broken :)  By the way, in the past I've had great luck saving myself from a bad rub-on job by simply erasing the rub-on from my paper with a good quality art eraser.  You lose the rub-on, but save the page :)

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I hope you enjoyed my first post!!!  Thanks so much for stopping by :)

5 comments:

gssfam said...

Wow Julie this is awesome! I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the layering!!!! :D

Michelle said...

Oh Julie, both projects are wonderful!!! Have a fun time at the beach!!

Diane Payne said...

These are both wonderful!

Virginia said...

These are so wonderful Julie! So excited to have you on the team! :)

Jennifer Shaw said...

Congrats Julie!! Love your creations and looking forward to lots of inspiration from you!! :)