Using Older Supplies / Whatever

Hey, friends!  It's Friday again...yessss!  I have a new layout to share today just for fun :)  When I have a break in design team assignments, I try and squeeze in some layouts using up older supplies.  I went to my shelves and just randomly picked a bag of goodies.  I discovered that I had never even opened this cute Hashtag Whatever collection from Simple Stories.  It's a small line with only six double-sided patterned papers and a 6x12 sticker sheet.  I had the perfect photo to go with these sentiments...haha!

Paige had just thrown herself a huge temper tantrum.  The kind where she buries her head under blankets and couch cushions and screams her head off.  When she emerged (haha) her hair looked like this.  This could pass for a drunken mugshot if you ask me, but it's the funniest thing ever!  Needless to say, she wasn't in the mood for a photoshoot, but I took some anyway.  Because that's what scrappy moms do, right?!

The first thing I did was slice up some striped patterned paper and create a little rainbow at the top.  I tore a big chunk of this black and white wonky grid paper and attached it.  I covered a lot of the paper with clear and white gesso.  I wanted to mimic the stripes, so I took some matching Distress Oxide pads and scraped them horizontally across in stripes.  I spritzed the area with a bit of water and let the colors sort of mesh together.  I love how it turned out!

Once it was dry, I went a little crazy with my sewing machine.  I used black thread and went back and forth all over the place.  I love the crazy feel it gives...it matches my crazy photo...haha!  I knew I wanted to use a bunch of the sentiments on the cut-apart paper, so I fussy cut out several sayings.  I used the "Whatever" stickers as my title.

I fussy cut a few of these watercolor circles from another paper and created a little cluster with a few more stickers.  I did reach for my Crate Paper Good Vibes stamps to add a little something extra, like this "literally."

The sticker sheet had a few florals on it, so I tucked those in over on the right as well as a random black floral die cut I had lying around in my stash bin.  I also added some black tangled thread.  I did add a few pieces of patterned paper behind my photo as well as some tissue paper and adhesive foam.

Here's the left side of the photo...more stickers, a few leafy die cuts, more thread and stitching...the works!

I love the effect of tearing paper.  It allows you to be crooked and messy and not have to worry about being perfectly straight.  And since my photo is far from perfect, this was the "perfect" solution!

Plus you get some awesome dimension from not laying everything flat against the background.

One more shot of all that fun stitching here...again, this creates awesome texture and dimension.  Plus it's fun to just go back and forth on the sewing maching!

I hope you enjoyed this page...I loved making it!  I love scrapping those photos that aren't so great.  The memory is still great, and that's what counts!  My tip is if you have a photo that isn't great quality because of the lighting or colors or maybe a busy background, convert it to black and white.  It makes a huge difference!

Here's my process video if you'd like to see this layout in action:

Thanks so much for stopping by!  See you soon :)

Coffee Filter Hearts Layout / Shimmerz Education Team

Happy Monday, y'all!  It's the first day of Thanksgiving Break, so yay for not-so-busy Mondays!  I thought I'd hop on to share my newest layout for the Shimmerz Education Team using lots of yummy Shimmerz products, the new Pink Paislee Moonstruck collection and coffee filters.  Yes!  Coffee filters!  If you watch our weekly Shimmerz Shortz videos, then you saw how I used various Shimmerz sprays on coffee filters to create pretty leaves and feathers.  I did the same thing here for these hearts, but I used more than just sprays this time.  I used some of the original Shimmerz Paints, some Creameez and Inklingz and lots of sprays.  One of my favorite things about Shimmerz is that it's easy to customize your color scheme.  That's what I did for these hearts...I chose lots of colors that matched these beautiful Moonstruck papers and went to work. 

All I did was flatten out the coffee filters on top of some paper towels and then started applying all the paint.  I sprayed, I brushed, I added water...basically just making a mess :)  The coffee filters are pretty tough and had no problems holding all the liquids.  I even blasted them with my heat gun and they turned out great.  Once they were dry, I pulled out my Cuttlebug and an old Sizzix heart die cut and ran them through it.  They cut beautifully!!  I was rather excited to see how well they did.  Then I stitched through them with my sewing machine and as you can see, they held up wonderfully.  I used some Glorious Day Vibez on my background here.  I used the packaging technique.  I also added in a mix of Creameez Cheeky Pink and Inklingz Mochachino.  These colors alone are just gorgeous, but when you mix them together something magical happens!

I went small and subtle with my title.  I used one of the Moonstruck die cuts here with a small coffee filter heart under it.  I added several rub-ons, a pink clear sticker, and then I added a few Tim Holtz phrase stickers and my date.

I mostly used die cuts from Moonstruck for my layers here.  I used a few 6x6 papers behind my photos, and I used lots of the pretty rub-ons.  I also added in some tangled thread in a dark teal color.

Aren't these hearts so pretty?  I used so many colors on all of them.  I'll list all the colors at the end, and you can also see which color is where in my process video down below.  I talk about the colors as I'm using them.  For these two hearts, I added some foam under them to raise them up.

I used my craft knife on these flowers to separate them from the bigger piece so I could tuck my photo under them.  I didn't want to cover them up!  Look at the shimmer on that heart....so pretty!

Here's one last close-up of the top area.  I love the shimmy gold from the Glorious Day Vibez.  That teal color is Coloringz Well Blue Me Down.

I hope you love this as much as I do...making shapes out of coffee filters is my new favorite thing!  They almost act like a fabric vellum if that makes sense.  I love how they hold the color and how easy they are to cut.  They make excellent embellishments, and you can use whatever colors you want and make whatever shape you want!  It doesn't get any better than that....woo hoo!

Here's my process video so you can see exactly how to do this with the coffee filters.  I hope you enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great weekend!  ** Stay tuned to social media this week for a few BIG SALES coming for Black Thursday!!  Lots of opportunities to buy some gorgeous Shimmerz goodies!!**

List of Supplies:

Vibez--Sweetheart, Blushing Bride, Pop Art Pink, Don't Rain on My Parade, Glorious Day

Shimmerz Paints--Bubble Gum Blast, Anchors Away, Berry-licious, Teal the End of Time

Spritz--Walkin' a Tight Heliotrope, Cotton Candy

Coloringz--Well Blue Me Down

Creameez--Cheeky Pink

Inklingz--Mochachino

A few Christmas pages...

I've been working on my Christmas 2009 photos lately, and I've realized that although I love the holiday itself, it is my least favorite holiday to scrap. Why is that? I love scrapping Halloween for some reason, but Christmas is just hard for me. I don't know if it's the colors or the embellishments...it's just not something I look forward to. I have all my Christmas papers and embellies out...and I always feel like I HAVE to use red & green on every page for some reason.

Anyway, I think these turned out okay...considering I rushed through them! These are pictures of Paige's first Christmas with several of her family members...

This is my grandmother, aka Granny Clifford. Yes, her name is Clifford! She just turned 85 and is the sportiest, classiest granny you'll ever meet :) She is the Queen Mum of her Red Hat Ladies group, and she is always busy, jetting around town. I used an old Bo Bunny line for this page.


Goodness...look at all these grandmas, great grandmas, grandpas, aunts...so many relatives!! My girls have 3 grandmas, 3 great grandmas, 3 grandpas, and one GREAT great grandma! They have two aunts and one uncle. They are so blessed to be loved by so many. I used more of the same Bo Bunny line on this one. The background is Kraft paper, and I cut the bracket shape myself. The title is made up of a few different alphas.


This is Papa David...the girls LOVE him! He pretty much lets the girls do whatever they want...even climb all over his back :) The background paper is an old piece from my stash...I don't even remember the brand!


Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back soon with more Christmas pages.

A Valentine's Day page?

Yep!  I'm that scrapper who doesn't care what month it is...I scrap whatever photos inspire me at the time!  These are photos from Valentine's Day 2011.  I was in the mood for pinks, reds and blues, and these photos had them all.  I used the Fourteen collection from Crate Paper with a few goodies from my stash thrown in.  This layout was created for Sketch #45 at My Scraps and More last week.  The blue background paper is Bo Bunny, and I love it!  I'm sad that I used it and don't have it anymore.

I had this "love" die-cut leftover from another project, so I worked it into this page...amongst all my layers.

I love this chipboard banner...I'm glad I found the perfect spot for it!

Isn't that LOVE button so cute?  I found it with a few others on clearance at Michael's a few months ago.

Here's the sketch...and you can most certainly come play along with us!  Check it out HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I'm so excited about the first Creative Scrappers reveal coming up this Sunday the 15th!  You won't want to miss it!

Have a GREAT day!

Delightful with Artful Delight

That's a whole lotta delight, huh?  :)  This is my first layout using Artful Delight's July kit...it's full of Authentique's Delightful collection...such pretty & girly colors.  Perfect for me!  I used them on this page, featuring some downright adorable photos of my little Paige from nearly two years ago.  I can't believe how wild and crazy her hair is now...you wouldn't believe the difference!  She looks so sweet & innocent in these pics...what you don't see is how she can literally turn into the Hulk in half a second after smiling like this...haha!

These Prima flowers are included in the kit. I don't know why Prima scares me so much...I rarely use their products because they are just so beautiful that I don't even know where to begin. I see so many other scrappers making Prima look so gorgeous, and I just never seem to be able to use the products to their full advantage. I guess my pages never really have that Prima look to them...so I was nervous about these flowers. I only used a few here, to give the title block a little lift.

There is also a canvas sheet of butterflies & flowers from Prima that are perfect for misting and/or painting. For this page, I used a butterfly as a mask. The gorgeous aqua color mist is Mister Huey's, and that's included in the kit, too!

 

Another close up of some of the layers & the cute little banner that comes on the Authentique sticker sheet.

This page was based on July's Artful Delight sketch...it's a great one! You can play along, too, for a chance to win this awesome July kit. You don't even have to use Artful Delight products...use whatever you'd like and just play along!  I reversed the photos and used circles instead of stars. I wound up placing my title on the opposite side, and my journaling went to the other side.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Tuesday!

Stretch Your Sketch #2 with Ashley Horton / Summer

Happy Monday!  Today I'm sharing the second layout and process video in the Stretch Your Sketch series I'm doing with my scrapping friend Ashley Horton on YouTube.  Last week, we used the sketch "as is."  This week, we are flipping it.

 Here's the sketch on it's side.  You can get a completely different look just by doing this, and you would never guess it was the same sketch!  I actually flipped it to the other side so the title is on the left.

Here's my layout.  I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!  For the circles, I drew some wonky spirals, sized them in different widths and welded them together in Silhouette Studio.  I cut the design on white cardstock and then used paint and Shimmerz to color it yellow, orange and pink.  I used some blue acrylic paint on the background and then brought in lots more yellow, orange and pink to balance out all that blue.  I used papers and embellishments from Bella Blvd, Simple Stories, Hip Kit Club and A Flair For Buttons.

My photos have a TON of blue in them, so most of my embellishments were a different color.  These fun stickers are from Simple Stories Sunshine & Happiness, and that pretty light pink layer is from a Hip Kit Club exclusive paper.  It's actually a cloud that I used as a fun layering piece.

There's another cloud...that's a yellow Bella Blvd patterned paper.  I cut "Summer" from that same Hip Kit paper and placed it vertically to mimic the title in the sketch.  All those blue sequins are from my stash.  The balloons and orange sunburst are from Simple Stories.  Even though the sketch has a lot of stars, you can use whatever shape or embellishment you want.  It's just giving you an idea of what you can place in that spot.

I am having so much fun lately with these emoji flair buttons!  This one is perfect for a Summer page, and he really pops with the pink thread.  I am so happy with how the cut file turned out.  It had its tricky moments when I peeled it off the cutting mat, but it straightened out once I started gluing it down.

Here's one last look at the upper area.  I added a chipboard sun, more tangled thread and a cute flamingo flair button.

Okay, here's the process video for you.  Be sure to check out Ashley's video HERE, and we'd love for you to play along with us!  You can download this sketch and some FREE cut files HERE.

Thank you sooooo much for stopping by!  Have a GREAT week!

Love This / Bella Blvd

Hey, friends!  Happy Monday :)  Today I'm sharing my newest layout for Bella Blvd.  I also have some tips and tricks.  This is the Illustrated Faith Faith > Fear collection.  It's completely black and white, which means it has lots of possibilities.  I love color, so I'm going to share how I added it to my layout.  I used the Illustrated Faith Watercolors on my white cardstock background.  The colors really make the black and white pop!

I coated my cardstock with white gesso first.  This is a really simple technique even if you're not into mixed media.  I just dabbed some of each color on the cardstock and used a palette knife to scrape it down in a vertical fashion.  It was easy to blend one color into the next.




Once I add the black and white letters over the color, you can see what a fun difference it makes.  I used an alpha cut file from The Cut Shoppe to create these letters, and I used various patterned papers from the collection.

Adding color to the Chipboard is easy, also.  Such a quick way to make these fit whatever color scheme you're using.




After I glued down the letters, I traced around the open spots with a black pen to make them stand out a little more.  I embellished with more of the Chipboard hearts and an open heart stamp from the collection.

I love creating rainbows!  The IF Watercolor set has the perfect shades to do that.

Here's the bottom of the layout.  I added the colored Chipboard hearts as well as some stamped ones.  I even used one of the Designer Clips here.  I just cut the clip part off.

I added more Chipboard and stamped hearts on this side as well.  I tucked in some tangled thread for some added pops of color and texture.

Finally, I added in a fun banner die cut from the Paper Pieces pack and wrote my journaling down below.  I added some splatters in each color here as well.

I hope this inspires you to add some color to basic black and white elements.  This collection has so many possibilities because you can pretty much customize it.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Heart Them / Simple Stories

Hello again, friends!  I hope you are having a nice & relaxing weekend so far.  Today I'm sharing one of my layouts for the Simple Stories blog.  I wanted to spice things up a bit, so I decided to combine two collections here.  I haven't done that yet since becoming a CT member, and I'm so glad I did.  I used papers & embellishments from the Carpe Diem and Heart collections.  The Heart collection is a really small line with several papers and a few sticker sheets whereas Carpe Diem is huge and has every product under the sun.  It was neat to come up with a new look using both of them.

I started with this beautiful aqua/teal ombre paper as my background (from Heart).  I wanted to combine some papers from both lines, and I know a great way to do that is to use small shapes cut from different papers.  I used a fun cut file (Retro Rounded Corners) from The Cut Shoppe and cut out this fun shape in colors & patterns I thought worked well together.  I love the mix of bright and lighter pink, grey, golden yellow, salmon/coral & black.  I just scattered them onto the background and placed my photo right where I wanted it.  I used my sewing machine to stitch through them all.  I did use some Shimmerz Paints on my background.  You can see how I did this in my video below.

This "heart" piece is from one of the patterned cut apart papers.  I fussy cut it, added pop dots under it and used it as part of my title. I love the font, and the black really pops against the other colors.  I pulled some light pink alphas from the Snap Lights Alpha Stickers and placed them on that gold heart, which I also fussy cut.  And like I usually do, I added some tangled thread under the photo and the title.

Aren't these shapes the coolest?  I've been calling them flower stars...haha.  Whatever they are, I love them!  I added a cute balloon sticker by my photo, and this cute grey circle heart sticker is from Carpe Diem.  To jazz it up, I raised it up with a pop dot and added some aqua thread to it.  I also used several Carpe Diem Clear Stickers.

Here I combined stickers from both collections.  I also stitched with gold through "them" for some added interest and texture.  Here you can also see all the ink colors I used...aqua/teal, pink, gold and black.

Here's a process video for this page...you can see how I made it from start to finish.  I hope it gives you some fun ideas to try!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend!