Family

I have another layout for you this week using the Five Foot Two kit. Don't you just love that canvas birdie? This page is a page I did for my SIL; thus the missing journaling. The buttons, jewels, and Pink Paislee letter stickers are from my stash.





Thanks for looking!
Jana

Kinder Grads

Happy Monday everyone! I have a quick LO to share with all of you. it is of my twins kindergarten graduation. All of the papers are from the Five Foot Two kit. I decided to try out some embroidery skills on this one! I used a simple back stitch on the butterflies, to help give them some definition, and then I did a stem stitch around the edge of the large circle. This is a very difficult stitch to do on paper, so if you try this make sure you choose to not sew 2 pieces together (like I mistakenly did), or you will end up having VERY sore fingers, and wrinkles in your paper.
I added a few things into this that were in my stash, including the CP letters, AC Thickers, the HS butterflies, and pink hearts.
TFL and have a great week! PS...added up a little fun "classic summer songs" playlist down at the bottom of the page.

31+1=32

yep yep..that is how old i turned this year. I cannot believe it...

For this layout I used the new kit and add on 5 foot 2 and Eyes of Blue. There are only a few left of each so hurry if you are wanting one.

I am so addicted to making the cute pinwheels until i cannot stand myself. hee hee!
and after i put the cake mini bingo card on it i realized i should have used the big card because it had Blow on it {deep sigh}

I visited the store a bit ago and see where Noel got the full paper packs in for all you October Afternoon Junkies out there. Be sure and check those out as well if you are interested.

Happy Sunday Ya'll.. I am off to sew a pillowcase dress and make some hair bows.

Joy

I took this cute picture of my nephew, Nicholas this past Father's Day. I just love the joy on his face! (His daddy was throwing him up in the air!) I used pieces of Noel's Five Foot Two and Eyes of Blue kits. (Seriously, a ROCKIN' kit! ) I did throw in a piece of vintage book paper and some Tattered Angel's Glimmer mist for the background.

TFL! Have a fantastic weekend!

Re-purposed Memo Board & Funny Face

So- after Easter, I was browsing Hobby Lobby one day, and I walked by this 80% off table several times. Most of it was Easter decor, and at first, it didn't even pick up on my crafting radar.

But then I saw this item... and I don't know about y'all, but I'm not huge on the "giant carrot decorative welcome signs." I am, however, big on stuff that I can get for a steal and re-purpose for my own needs!


It's sat behind my desk for a couple of months, and yesterday, I knew what I wanted to do with it. Instead of my original plan of repainting it, I pulled out my Five Foot Two and Eyes of Blue kits, a little Mod Podge, and went to town. (I did add a couple of strips of "Girl Friday" paper from Cosmo Cricket to this... they coordinated perfectly with the new "Early Bird" line that's in these kits, or available here: Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Paper.)
I love that crackle paint in the Five Foot Two kit! Perhaps a wee bit too much... ;)I plan to use this as a memo board for our kitchen. The colors match my house colors perfectly!

I'm tempted to add a row of three tin cans along the bottom of this, to hold pens & such. I'm still toying with the idea; I held one up to it this morning and it seemed kind of bulky, though. What do y'all think? Any suggestions? Or should I leave it as is?

*****

This is my submission for our Shabby Chic challenge! I chose the row on the challenge bingo card with handwriting, quilting, texture, architectural elements, and distress/sanding.

I made this with products from the Five Foot Two & Eyes of Blue kits, with the addition of some American Crafts Thickers from my stash. It's hard to tell in the photos, but I added some crackle paint (told you I loved that stuff too much!) to the Thickers to add some texture. It's so cool!

It's been so fun!

I have had fun playing along as a guest designer this month!
And I have thoroughly enjoyed this Rise and Shine kit.
{apparently I am not the only one who loves it since it appears to be sold out!}
But before I go, I have a few more things to share...
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Do you ever do like "status update" layouts or "where they are now" layouts?
I like to do them periodically to kind of give an update of life at the moment.
This is one I did of my husband with his brother and sister.
The pictures were taken at a birthday party for their grandmother.
However, I have already done a layout about that party so I decided to use these leftover goofy pictures to tell {briefly} what was going on with each of them at the time the pictures were taken.
I think layouts like this will be fun to look back at later and remember what was going on at the time!{everything is from the Rise and Shine kit except the buttons-I pulled those from my stash because I had already used all the buttons in the kit!}
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Do you ever scraplift yourself??
That is how this next layout came to be.
I was stumped and needed something to get my creative juices going!
So basically I scraplifted the above layout and came up with this one.
I like how the finished product ended up looking alot different than the one I scraplifted!
{and you know it is perfectly legal to scraplift yourself!}
:)

{everything is from the fabulous Rise and Shine kit}
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And here are a couple of quick cards I made using scraps of the Pink Paislee, My Minds Eye, Crate Paper, and Cosmo Cricket paper from the kit.

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Thanks again for letting me play along this month!
It has been fun!
:)

gretchen

A little Shabby Chic for you

Well I am a huge fan of shabby chic and love when I get a chance to use that style of scrapping. Well Virginia's challenge was perfect and so inspiring.



I also altered the pictures a bit to look like they were hand colored with chalk (I used to do that in photo class in high school). I think it added a fun touch to it.

Be sure to enter yours - there are some beautiful layouts there!

After School Buffet and She's Our Girl

The first page I have for you, is one using the brand new Five Foot Two kit (only 5 left!). I love the feel and colors of this kit! Perfect for all kinds of summer activities! You have red and blue for patriotic pages and juicy pinks and greens for those picnic photos! Very fun!

This page is about my kids coming home after school and raiding the kitchen. They are so hungry that they start to pull out as much food as they can and pretty soon the kitchen looks like it has a buffet set up in it! LOL!




Everything but the buttons are from the Five Foot Two kit. :)

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Do you like to edit your photos before you print them? I am NOT a great photographer, but I feel like I can fake it a bit with the help of a photo-editing program.

I really couldn't live without my PhotoShop and LightRoom programs. They help me make my photos brighter, sharper, and more fun to scrap! :D Let me show you what I mean.

The photo in the layout below was actually a casual snapshot that I took of my daughter while we were playing outside. With the help of LightRoom I tilted it, cropped it, and added a fun preset action to give the photo more of a staged feeling. I included the before and after of this photo, so you can see the difference.




Isn't that AMAZING!!!! Now I'm no photoshop expert, so don't feel like you have to be. BELIEVE ME, if I could figure out how to do it, so can you! ;)





Everything on this page is from the delicious Rise and Shine kit.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jana

Several projects

Happy Monday all! I'm checking in with several projects today. This first one i did with a combo of the new Five Foot Two and Eyes of Blue kits. I Love that large photo of my twins walking to school on the last day, and I thought this sketch (Inspired Blueprints #21) highlighted that perfectly.



This was also done with the Five Foot Two Kit. It's a 52 weeks, 52 sketches sketch. It makes me smile!



This is my entry from Virginia's Shabby Challenge. I used a bunch of left over kit bits and pieces. But I have been getting asked about the flowers left and right. Those are the new Prima flowers, which are available in the store.

How bout a few tips to tickle your fancy

There have been quite a few techniques shown lately so I decided to go with some tips I have learned over the last few years. Some you may already know about and some you may not…

Jammed Punches:
Try popping them in the freezer for a bit. Heat expands metal thus causing them to get jammed on occasion. By cooling the metal part of the punches they should then become “unstuck”.

Sharpening punches:
Tear you off a piece of aluminum foil( I use the heavy duty) and punch through the foil a few times (I usually punch through at least 10 times). That will sharpen your punches.

Stiff Punches:
Use wax paper that you have folder a few times to punch through. By doing this you will lubricate your punches if they are stiff.

Mixing Paint colors
Use a freebie CD (like the free aol cd’s you can get almost anywhere) and place on top of a glass of water to act as a paint pallet. You can use the hole in the top to drop your paint brush into for easy clean up. Wash the CD and reuse it again next time.

Ink Pads:
If you have dry ink pads you can turn them upside down and store them like that for a bit. This will allow the ink to seep through to the pad and you will be able to use every last bit of ink. I store all my ink pads upside down in a drawer at all times. The only ones you don’t have to do this with (that I know of) is Stampin Up’s pads because of how they close.

Metal Embossing:
Dry emboss on Foil Pie tins. You will get some fabulous results and the thickness is perfect. You can also run the tins through your cuttlebug with some of your embossing plates. Doing this the possibilities are endless with what you can create. Backgrounds to charms or embellishments anything you can think of can be done.

Tearing:

Tear paper or vellum towards you to open up the layers

Un-Mounted Stamps:

As you may know, un-mounted stamps come without a cushioned layer on the back of them. There are products called Kling-on or Ez-mount available to attach to the back of these stamps. As a low-cost alternative, lay a cheap spongey mouse mat under your card or paper before stamping, which will do the same job & allow a much crisper image when stamping

Sticking Pressed Flowers:
When sticking pressed flowers onto your card with a wet glue, it pays to put a little glue onto a flat surface and use tweezers to pick up the flower and dip it into the glue, then add it to your work, as it saves messy fingers and short tempers.

That is about all i can think of for now..but as i remember more i will come back with a part 2 at a later date..

Pre*k

Tomorrow's challenge that fellow DT member Virginia is throwing your way was FAR out my comfort zone but I am *so* glad she did. I had so much fun making this layout using the new 5 foot 2 and Eyes of Blue Kits. It really pushed me outside my element. After all that is what a challenge is about right? Hope that you will partake in it here tomorrow to see the full details with a fun twist ;).

here is my layout.


There are still a few of these fabulous kits for sale but hurry because they won't last long.
You can get them here.

hey hey ya'll

I have a few things to share with you this week using the 5 foot 2 and the add on Eyes of Blue





this was made using the hard chipboard piece that came with the Maya road borders in the package. the "picket fence" down at the bottom came in the border package as well and i know it is hard to see but i used the distress crackle paint that came in the main kit on it. I made this for my dear friend (and LSS owner) Jen for her birthday. We share the same birthday by the way..can you believe that? 90% of this layout was made using the kits and some from my stash i had laying around by me so i threw it on for good measure ;)

Now let me state that by no means am i a great card maker...i am like a beginner card maker..i have tried but my cards are just Blah looking...so anyway...here is my attempt at a card using the kit as well. the middle part my BFF Elizabeth made for me and sent to me..i knew i had to use it right away so here was my sad sad attempt...but i digress (deep sigh)

Happy Sunday Ya'll

Jump 4 Joy!

As soon as I opened Noel's Five Foot Two and Eyes of Blue kits, I knew they would be perfect to scrap these crazy pics of my son. Every year he decides he is going to "invent" some crazy jumps. He asks me to score him, like he's in the Olympics or something. So not only did I give him scores, I grabbed my camera!

Isn't he just the goofiest kid ever?

Have a great weekend!

Father's Day Cards & A Little Surprise

Of course, I have waited until the last minute to make cards for our dads for Father's Day, so I pulled out the new Five Foot Two and Eyes of Blue kits to make a couple this morning... I knew that Noel's kits would make it easy to put some cards together fast!


I also needed to make a little something to throw into a gift basket for my secret sis, so I used the cute packaging from the Sassafrass brads in the Eyes of Blue kit to make a container for some Smarties candies. I made sure when I opened the package, that I peeled up the plastic "bubble" carefully, so when it was time to reassemble, I just added some adhesive and stuck it back on. Easy peasy and super quick!

He was a scrapbooker

I spent the afternoon after my grandfather's funeral at my grandmother's house.
In one of the bedrooms I found shelves & shelves full of photo albums compiled by my grandfather.
He was always taking pictures, but I never really knew what he was doing with all those pictures.

Well, apparently he was scrapbooking them!

And this is a layout about that.

I used the fabulous Rise and Shine kit for this one.
I love adding cardstock or patterned paper behind open spaces in my title letters.
It helps add color and contrast (especially if the letters kind of blend into the background).
I cut up part of the packaging from the Jenni Bowlin pearl flowers in the kit to add a border and a bit more red to the layout.
{Pay attention to the packaging of your products! You never know when you might find something fun to use. And Jenni Bowlin always has cute packaging!}
And here is a card I made using a mix of the Creative Imaginations, Jenni Bowlin, My Minds Eye, and Crate Paper goodies also in the Rise and Shine kit (but sorry, I am pretty sure it is sold out!).

Hope you are having a great week!
:)
gretchen