ECD Designers’ Challenge

This month’s Designers’ Challenge from Elizabeth Craft Designs is to mix up the tags.

ECD makes dies for three medium, three small and two large tags — each with lots of corners and extras to make amazing tags. When you start mixing them up, there are thousands of options. And, I must admit, it is fun mixing them up and trying new things!

Here’s my project …

I created it for my cousin Liz who was just sworn in as a correctional officer in Kentucky. I thought this would be a cute way to show her how proud I am of her.

The base tags are from Tags & More 8 — Lattice. The chevron border is also from that set.

The small tags in the pocket combine Tags & More 5 — Sunburst with Tags & More 6 — Daisy.

The scallop border and large photo corners are from Tags & More 7 — Vine.

The flowers are from Tags & More 3 — Leaves and Tags & More 6 — Daisy.

The little photo corners are from Tags & More 5 — Sunburst.

I also used Alphabet 1 — Caps and Hardware 1 — Hinges.

I hope she likes it. And I hope she forgives me for stealing her photos from Facebook and posting them here!

 

Best Friends Forever

My daughter, Korie (on the right), has an amazing friend named Kandace. Kandace is a few years older than Korie and they are at different points in their lives — Korie is in college and Kandace has a young family — but they are the best of friends.

I am so thankful Korie has Kandace for a friend. Kandace is always there for her and has opened her mind to new experiences (like country music).

When I saw this photo on Facebook, I knew I wanted to scrapbook it to help them remember their friendship.

A few weeks ago, I was honored to be asked by Tombow to be part of their Sticky U, the stickiest school around. My assignment was to use their brand new adhesive — Xtreme, which is five times stickier than their regular adhesive.

For me, that meant I had to find some difficult things to adhere. I knew this lace would be a perfect test … after all, what could be harder to adhere than a delicate, but wide, lace?!

I used Xtreme to adhere the lace to paper and the paper to lace, as well as the photo and the other elements on the page. And, to my astonishment, and pleasant surprise, it stuck — even when I picked up a corner of the lace and tried to shake it off the paper. I can honestly say I have never met such a strong tape runner.

I used papers and stickers from We R Memory Keepers’ Indian Summer collection. I titled the page simply k & k. The letters are chipboard colored with Distress Ink and then coated with Glastique. The & is a plastic letter from Tim Holtz.

I added a couple of pins from Maya Road and dangled a little purse charm from them. (My daughter loves purses) I finished it off with a bit of fiber.

To see the works of other students at Sticky U, click here.

 

Challenge Issued

August’s challenge at Scrap It Girl is to create a project with arrows or numbers.

I opted for numbers and created this birthday card …

The papers are from We R Memory Keepers.

The numbers stamp is from Tim Holtz.

I tried a new technique … cutting out canvas flowers.

I used Tattered Florals and Tattered Leaves from Tim Holtz to cut out the canvas pieces. (The canvas is from DCWV).

I then layered the cut pieces together and used a decorative brad to attach it to paper. Once attached, I glued the leaves on and fluffed the petals.

Now it’s your turn … create a project (a card, layout, home decor piece, party decor, or anything else) using numbers or arrows and post it here before the end of the month …

You could win an amazing package of prizes!

Good luck!

 

A Cute Thank-You Card

A few of my friends take part in a card swap. Each month, they make 12 identical cards based on a certain theme. Then they meet at a local restaurant to swap cards and chit chat. Each member of the group goes home with one of each of the cards — envelopes included.

They have asked me to join for several years, but I always put them off — mostly because I do not like to create more than one of anything!

But, I decided it would be good to fight my hermit tendencies and get out of the house for a girls’ night each month, so I finally joined.

This month’s challenge was to create a thank-you or sympathy card. Here is what I came up with …

I did not have enough cardstock to make all of one color, so half of the girls will get orange and the other half will get purple.

The sentiment, cardstock and ribbon is from Stampin’ Up.

The patterned papers are from We R Memory Keepers’ Indian Summer collection (I have it in stock in my store).

The ostrich stamp and die are from Local King Rubber Stamp. I love him — especially with googly eyes!

The cards are simple — they have to be when I’m making 12 of them — but hopefully the girls will like them …

 

Blast Off Birthday

I’m on the new JnW Crafts blog today with this birthday card …

JnW Crafts is a new company producing wood and acrylic templates and embellishments. On this card, I used the rocket template, which I painted with Distress Paints. I also edged the inside with a Sharpie to add a bit of dimension and definition.

Learn more, here.

 

The Colors of My Kitchen

This month’s challenge at Scrap It Girl is to use the colors of your kitchen to create a card, layout or altered project.

I decided to create a card using the colors in my kitchen — red, blue and yellow.

First, I thought I would share a couple of photos of my kitchen. It is the smallest kitchen I have ever had, but it is also my favorite.

It is a little bit vintage

A little bit ecclectic

a little bit chicken

and full of color

So, I used the main colors in my kitchen, red, yellow and blue, to create this card:

The stamp is from Melissa Frances and colored with Copics. The papers are from Bo Bunny and Fancy Pants Designs. The washi tape is from Tim Holtz and We R Memory Keepers and the little embellishment is from Webster’s Pages.

Now it is time to create a project with the colors from your kitchen. Once you are finished, post it at Scrap It Girl and you could win this amazing gift donated by Kelly, one of the designers for Scrap It Girl:

Good luck!

Gobble, gobble

This is the second year my husband and I have raised turkeys.

Turkeys, I think, are the cutest poultry babies there are and I love watching them grow.

Of course, I also love to eat them.

People wonder how I can possibly eat my babies, but it is not as hard as you might think.

First of all, I just take the turkeys for a ride and drop them off at the processor. I go back later that day and pick up turkeys sealed and labeled just like you buy at the store. So, I have no idea which cooking turkey was once part of my farm and I do not see any of the butchering process.

Secondly, turkeys get rather unattractive as they mature. They are not loving like a dog or hen. They have horrendous table manners and if you do not keep their coop clean, the smell is awful. So, by the time they are ready to butcher, the novelty of raising them has totally warn off.

Finally, these turkeys are bread to become food. They grow quickly, cannot reproduce and will die of a heart attack if not butchered in the fall.

So, you see, it isn’t really hard at all. I get to enjoy the experience and then taste the fruits of my labor!

To see how I put this page together and for close up views, visit http://www.journella.com/storyboard/fullview/id/10925

Be sure to cheer me on … if I get more cheers than any other members of the design team, I’ll send one lucky supporter a wonderful gift basket of goodies!

 

I’m unlaced

This challenge for Mosaic Moments was particularly challenging for me.

Although the sentiments I placed on the final page were not revealing, it brought about all sorts of thoughts that left me feeling very vulnerable and exposed, or unlaced as I called it here …

Click on the image for a closer look and click here to read the story behind this challenge and why it was so hard for me to do …

 

Technique Thursday: Fall Leaves

Today’s technique is an oldie-but-goodie from Tim Holtz — used to create these fabulous fall leaves.

 

Tim calls this Wrinkle-Free Distress.

To start, you need your non-stick craft sheet, a mister of water, a piece of cardstock and a few Distress Inks.

The type of cardstock you choose will make a difference in the final outcome. I used plain, white cardstock and the inks soak right in. If you use a treated surface, like Manila tags, your colors will be more vivid.

Next, swipe your ink pads across your non-stick craft sheet so they are close together, but not touching.

Now, spritz them with water — a lot of water — until the color beads up, like this …

At this point you are ready to swipe your paper through the ink. Tim says to just lay the paper flat on the craft sheet and press it down to absorb the color. I dragged mine through the different colors to mix it up a bit.

Then, I dried the paper with my heat gun and did it again. On the second time through, I used a bit of Dusty Concord and Mustard Seed to help brighten it up a bit. Had I used a manila tag, the inks would have been brighter on their own. After drying, this is what mine looked like …

Next, I used the Tattered Leaves die by Tim Holtz/Sizzix to cut out my leaves.

Before attaching them to my tag, I took a bit of Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain inks to the edges. And, I thought they needed some sparkle so I spritzed them with Perfect Pearls Mists in Heirloom Gold. I bent them a bit to add dimension and adhered them to my tag.

For the rest of the tag, I applied a saying from We R Memory Keepers, wrapped around a bit of twine, and added some ink. You could easily apply the same technique to a card or scrapbook page.

If you’d like to try the technique out for yourself, I’ll be at Capture-A-Memory in Flint Township from 2-6 p.m. today. Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrappin’ Without Photos

Scrapbooking is about much more than detailing each birthday, first day of school or vacation.

It can also be a place to record your feelings, thoughts and beliefs, as well as tidbits of everyday life.

This year, my husband and I have put forth much effort in reducing waste, growing it ourselves and making the best out of any situation. I wanted to record, not only what we are doing, but how we feel doing it. It will give us something to look back on and allow our children and grandchildren a peek into our lives during the summer of 2012.

I did that, here, with paper from We R Memory Keepers, Distress Inks, mistable letters and Perfect Pearls Mists:

Here’s a closer look at some of the journaling …

Click on the images for a larger view …