Soak It Up / A Flair For Buttons

Happy Weekend, friends!  I'm back today to share my latest layout for A Flair For Buttons.  I used flair from two sets on this layout...the Bright Summer Colors 2 and Tropical Vacation sets.  You know I love creating bright and fun pool layouts, so I couldn't resist these awesome Summer flair!  I used the awesome Echo Park I Love Sunshine collection for this.

I wanted to try something different, so I started with white cardstock (not the different part...haha) and several random stamps.  I used clear embossing ink and powder to create all these different shapes.  The embossing powder made them all raised and shiny.  Next, I came in with a rainbow array of gelatos.  I just smudged some color onto the page and then used a baby wipe to blend them.  The embossed parts act as a resist.  It was SO much fun...baby wipes blend the gelatos in such a smooth way...it's totally different than using a brush or your finger.  Try it!!!

I've had this rainbow striped flair in my stash for a while just waiting on the perfect page...and this was it!  I love how it brings together all the colors in the layout.  I fussy cut "Soak" from one of the patterned papers and paired it up with some older Lily Bee alphas.  The white space in my photo was the perfect place for my title to sit.  Here you can also see the shiny embossed stamping and how cool the gelatos look.

I just had to use this cute sun flair as an actual sun...in some clouds :)  Something I love to do with my flair is create a little "nest" for it to sit in using thread.  I have no idea why I like this...other than I just do.

 More embossed areas.  If you've never embossed before...it's truly a magical thing to watch as your heat gun melts the powder.  It becomes glossy and shiny right before your eyes :)  It's the little things that mesmerize me...haha :D

My third flair...I knew this one would be an awesome subtitle, and the colors are perfect.  I layered more tangled thread here and added a few stickers to the area.

Another technique I've been enjoying lately is hand drawing and fussy cutting letters from patterned paper.  I did this here on a smaller scale and then stitched through it.  I also added this fun chipboard piece with more thread.

And here are the Flair Sets I used:

Bright Summer Colors 2

Tropical Vacation

Make sure you visit Shelley's Etsy Shoppe...she has some new flair coming soon!  Everything she creates is amazing, and you can't have enough flair!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sweet, Lovely & Fabulous / My Scraps & More

Hey there, and Happy Friday!  I hope you are all doing well.  Today I'm sharing a layout that I created for last week's Word Up Wednesday challenge over at the My Scraps & More forums.  I challenged our members to create a layout using three different adjectives as their title.  I couldn't wait to dig into the new Cocoa Vanilla Hello Lovely collection!  It is even MORE gorgeous in person!  I seriously fell in love with every piece of this.  The pictures don't even do it justice.

I started with this text background paper, which from the boy collection (Cocoa Vanilla Made of Awesome).  I added white gesso and some white acrylic paint and then used a big chevron stencil and some more paint, which I dabbed over using a foam brush.  Then I used the packaging technique with some gelatos and watercolors to add the blue.

My favorite part of putting this page together was creating those FABULOUS letters.  I hand drew them and fussy cut them out....so easy and fun!

I love this trend of hand cut letters.  It's okay if they're crooked or wonky...I love them that way!  I stitched through them all and then added a few die cuts on top of a few of them.  I also used some striped washi tape from my stash here as well as lots of stickers from the collection.

Here's a look at the bottom cluster...stickers, die cuts and enamel dots.  I used the orange tab for my date.

This collection includes some vellum hearts....swoon!  I stapled one to my photo.  I love how subtle it is.  There are also these gorgeous flair buttons.

This butterfly was the first thing I saw that inspired me.  I immediately cut it out first thing, knowing that somehow I was going to make it work on my page.

Here's a look at the top of the page and the mixed media work.  I love how these pieces look layered on top of the photo.

 Here's a look at how this layout came together if you'd like to see it.  Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!  Make sure you check out the store ASAP....Audrey just got in the two new collections from American Crafts....Dear Lizzy Documentary and Amy Tan Finders Keepers!

Have a great day!

Make a Splash & The Cut Shoppe Design Team

Hey there, and Happy Thursday!  I have a new layout for The Cut Shoppe to share today and some awesome news!!  First, let me show you my layout using the fun Make a Splash cut file.  Summer layouts (and pool layouts) are my favorite ones to create, and so I knew right away I wanted to use that cute sun.

I enlarged the sun so it would take up most of my page.  I used some Pinkfresh Studio Up in the Clouds collection for this.  I cut the sun using pale yellow cardstock and then used some yellow and orange gelatos to give it some shading and depth.  I used some white gesso and a blue gelato to create the blue background haze behind the sun.

I added some yellow and pink stitching around the circles and then added in my embellishments and the curved title.  I used Thickers, Pinkfresh Studio stickers and die cuts and flair buttons from A Flair For Buttons.

I wanted this "sunshine" Thicker to be pink, so I mixed up a few colors of acrylic paint and used my finger to dab the paint on.  I like that it's a little bumpy and messy...it gives it some texture :)

Here's one more close up of the embellishments.  I've been wanting to use those cute heart stickers and rainbows for a while.  They worked out perfectly for this page!

If you'd like to see how I put this layout together, check out my process video.  Hope you enjoy and get some inspiration!

 And now on to my awesome news....the new Design Team for The Cut Shoppe was just announced this morning, and I'm so excited to announce that I'm still on it!  Yay!  I'm more than thrilled to be continuing on with Ashley for another term.  If you didn't see the announcement, you can go HERE.  There are some seriously talented ladies I'll be working with, and I can't wait!

Thanks so much for visiting the blog today!  Be sure to check out the store...so many new and awesome cut files are available!

Have a great day!

She's Awesome / Citrus Twist Kits

Happy Tuesday, friends!  I'm playing catch up today and sharing a layout I made a few months ago for the current Sketch Class at Twisted Citrus Kits.  The class is still available for $10.  I won't be sharing the sketch here, but you can purchase the class and get TONS of sketches by lots of scrapbookers and designers, and get step-by-step instructions on how to use them.

Here is the layout I created using the July Main Kit. I decided to create a rainbow effect with all the patterned papers in the kit.  I printed my photos in black & white so they wouldn't clash with all the bright colors.  I stitched through each triangle with black thread to echo the black.  I did a bit of watercolor on my background and added in a few die cuts from the kit.  One of my favorite parts of these kits is the custom stamps!



Here's a close-up of the stitching.  I love the look of the black against these beautiful colors.

I paired these aqua Thickers with a die cut title that I cut in white and traced around with a black pen.  Another fun element in these kits are the exclusive little pieces, like this round resin HELLO circle.  So fun!

Here you can see the awesome texture of the cardstock.  I used several pieces here at the top of the layout...a Crate Paper tag, some exclusive puffy enamel stickers, a cork sticker, a resin star and lot of American Crafts washi tape.

Here's one last close up of the journaling area.  I used more of the cute puffy enamel stickers and another resin piece on the photo.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Be sure to visit Citrus Twist Kits for lots of awesome kits, classes and TONS of inspiration!

Have a great day!

Maybe Some Girls / Hip Kit Club

Hey there!  It's me again...I'm back with another layout for the Hip Kit Club using the 2015 July Hip Kits!  I decided to go with a more specific color scheme of just blues and greens on this page.  I was first inspired by the Twisted Citron Distress Ink in the July Color Kit.  I pulled out the Mermaid Lagoon from the May Color Kit and went to work on creating lots of blue and green shades on my background.  I used the packaging technique without gesso this time.

I went through all the papers and embellishments in the kits and pulled everything blue and green.  I even wound up using that cute little chipboard scooter that I initially thought I'd never find a place for. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I just love these colors.

In addition to all the background ink, I used the Shimelle camera stamp from the June Embellishment Kit to create some abstract rectangle shapes.  I pressed it lightly so it doesn't actually look like a camera.  I also added some grid machine stitching with grey thread.  I thought this scooter went with the theme of my page, which was "Maybe Some Girls Aren't Meant To Be Tamed..." which is a quote I found on Pinterest.  I can imagine my daughter riding this down the road with her hair flying in the breeze :)

Here's a look at the layers.  The green cardstock was perfect.  I added in Crate Paper chipboard, October Afternoon puffy stickers and a flair pin, and Elle's Studio die cuts.

Another shot of the yummy background...I love how these colors create such gorgeous shades!  I used the fun OA roller stamp here, some of the OA puffy stickers and enamel dots, and even some of the Simple Stories washi tape strips.

Finally, here's a look at the title...a mix of OA alpha stickers and some gorgeous silver glitter Thickers.  I love the long title, and it suits the photo just perfectly.

Here's the process video showing how I created this page from start to finish if you'd like to see it.  Hope you enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great day!

Hello Summer / CREATE Magazine

It's the weekend....woo hoo!!  I have another layout to share with you today.  This was my second layout published in the July 2015 issue of Scrapbook Generation's CREATE Magazine.  I was assigned to create a Summer-themed layout, and those are right up my alley :)

I used the gorgeous Simple Stories Summer Vibes collection for this.  I started off with some turquoise acrylic paint on the background and a messy scribbly circle die cut from the Silhouette Store.  I used gelatos to color it yellow.  I used several of the Summer Vibes Project Life cards for my layers and title.  I also added in some blue tissue paper from my stash.  It matched perfectly!

Here's a close up look at the layers.  This beautiful collection is one of my favorites, and all the colors just look amazing together.  I added in some stickers and a brad here as well.  I used a fun chipboard frame over the photo and used pop dots to raise up that cute camera beside it.

I love creating banners with my triangle punch, and I did that here.  I stitched it all down and then added those cute sunglasses.  I think I used three different color threads on this page.

Here's another look at that scribbly cut file.  I love the messy look of it!  It made it easier for me to stitch in a circle...because I can never stitch in a perfect circle...haha.  I even stitched through that chipboard frame.  They're pretty thin, so it wasn't a problem.

And one more close up of the top...I applied the blue acrylic paint with a foam brush so it wouldn't go on too thick.  I wanted the texture of the cardstock to show through here.

And that's it!  You can still visit the CREATE website HERE and download FREE copies of the magazine!  So much inspiration in there!

Thanks for stopping by!

This Happened / My Scraps & More

It's Friday...yay!  Hope you all are doing well :)  I'm back today to share a layout I created for last week's Throwback Thursday challenge over on the My Scraps & More forums.  I have been hoarding some of my Basic Grey Highline collection and those amazing black script Thickers!  It's time to use them, though, so I created this fun page using them.

I absolutely LOVE this background paper.  I added a bit of pink ink to the background behind everything, but just enough to give some interest.  I knew I wanted to use those Thickers and create a big title, so I arranged all six of my photos around it.  I used some orange and yellow patterned paper from the BG line and cut a few big messy circles for the background.  I used black thread to stitch some wonky circles over them, and the rest is embellishing.  I did cut a few large film strips in black cardstock for my background as well.

I printed my photos in black and white since our kids' bathroom is 70s green...haha.  I love how they look against these BG colors!  I added in more stitching on top of this chipboard piece...I love the zig zag stitch!

I wish I had several more packs of these Thickers...but you can't just let them sit in your stash forever, right?  I honestly wish I had another set of the entire BG Highline collection....I think I need another room just for the stuff I hoard...haha :D

I used a Simple Stories stamp from the DIY collection right above the journaling here.  I did use my T-square ruler to make sure my lines were straight.

Here's one last closeup...fun chipboard, more stitching, mores stamping and some tangled thread.

This was so fun to put together!  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and be sure to check out our forums for lots of challenges.  You can also visit and join in our Facebook group, too!

Have a great weekend!