Something Old, Something New

It's party week over at Hand Stamped Sentiments....party favor that is. 



This is what I came up with:

I can't tell you how many of these candy tubes I have, I picked them up at a craft store just north of my home.  I love to go to it because they have tons of project ideas, and I always leave there with a ton of photos on my phone.

I love this little Mummy! He's from the set Googly Ghouls and can be yours tomorrow!  This holiday catalog is so wonderful, if you haven't seen it let me know.  I took some medical gauze and cut a few long and thin strips and rubbed them over my Crumb Cake ink pad.  On the top, I took a piece of black waffle paper from long ago and used some retired Tangerine ribbon to tie it on.  I found a pieced of Razzleberry dyed string and tied on the mummy.  I think this would be so cute filled with some green jellybeans! 

Head on over and party with the rest of the team!

Wish Big!

I'm on a bit of a roll when it comes to creating, (Insert happy face!) and it's largely due to all the great eye candy out there in blog land!  The Paper Players is a challenge blog that I follow but hadn't played with in quite some time.  I loved their concept for this week's challenge:



How fun is this?!?!?  Well I have Tic Tac Toe, but I may also have a random square...that happens sometimes right?  Take a look at my card:

Can you guess which squares I used?....
I ended up using the top row, along with the ribbon square.  I'm really not a floral person, nor blue, and I really struggle with masculine cards.  I saw this card on Pinterest and loved it immediately and based my card off hers.

Stampin' Up asked sometime last year on their Facebook page what color you'd like to see added.  My response was "the color of grandma's raspberry jam."  I love this color, though I have to admit....it's the first time I've played with any of the new in colors! 

The paper is from the Harvest Orchard DSP and don't let the name fool you...it's perfect for so many occasions!  I'm in love with the new piercing templates, and I pierced the DSP...though I wish I hadn't :(  A large pearl and some Dazzling Details and the card is complete!

Thanks for stopping by!

Googly Ghouls

I happened upon another challenge site this morning and had to get in the craft room.  I love a clean and simple design and iSpy Sketches had one I just couldn't resist.  Take a look at the sketch first:



I had the set Googly Ghouls on my desk so I went for it.  Here is what I came up with:

Sorry, I couldn't get the gray to look gray without the Rich Razzleberry going dark.  I photo outside and it's raining today so I got what I got :)

The Halloween DSP coming August 1 is so fun...but the name is forever long--Howlstooth and Scaringbone.  That may be the only time you see it typed out again.  The strip of Lucky Limeade looked to plain so I simply scored a few vertical lines.

Here is a look at the fun googly eyes that can be added to the set's images. 

Thanks for stopping by!

I FOUND IT!

...my creativity that is!  My husband has been working out of town, both of the girls have been sick, and I have this vacation book staring at me....sometimes it's no wonder the mojo disappears.  ...Until a few challenge sites spur some magic.  Here's what I came up with:

Insert squeal of delight!  I bought this set No Peeking and it had yet to see some ink.  I love it's cute factor!

My money tree has yet to bloom so I haven't replaced my inks with the new ones.  My reindeer image had a few ivory spots showing through, so I took my blender pen and ink and carefully colored where my image didn't ink well...just a little tip!  The DSP will be available Aug. 1and is called Candlelight Christmas. 

Here is a look at the inside:

I made the card a gift card holder.  It seems like I always need more of these at Christmas time.

I can't take credit for anything else, the layout, theme and colors were all inspired by a the following challenge sites:

The Friday Mashup


Dynamic Duos


retro sketches


Thank you all for giving me the kick I needed!

Stamp Club (Hopefully) Coming Soon!

I've decided I really want to get a Stamp Club going!  Not sure what one is?, here are the details:

A Stamp Club is a group of people who meet at my home, in this case every other month, and make a minimum of three make and take projects.  These will typically be cards but every now and then I may change one project to a 3D project such a treat bag, card box, etc.  In return, each member commits to making a $25 Stampin' Up order (pre-tax/shipping) by the end of the evening.  (If you have to miss a night, your order is due before we meet.)  Each person will get a turn at being the hostess and earn hostess dollars that can be used for exclusive hostess sets or anything in the catalog.  In addition, I'll give you our Annual Catalog and the new Holiday Catalog. 

It's a great way to learn more techniques, play with new product, add to your card collection (no need to quick run to the box store for a card), and best of all...a night out!

I'm wanting to start this in August, so contact me soon to join!  I need a minimum of FIVE people to start this.  Not for you but know someone who may be interstested?, refer them to me.  If they join, I'll send you a special gift for your referral.  Call or message me if you need more information.

Let's Go to the Beach, Beach

No, I'm not a Nicki Minaj fan but this was our theme song for our Virginia Beach trip this past June ...and it's Beach week at Hand Stamped Sentiments.




When it comes to scrapbooking, I consider myself a traditionalist.  I like the touch of the paper and the embellishments and a full 12 X 12 page....but then I'm also a realist and want a book done...now.  I decided to order Stampin' Up's divided page protects with the hope that I'd finish a vacation book before the next one.  It comes with one page that is not divided so this will be my opening page, and here is what I came up with:

I love this picture of our family buried in the sand! ..and how better to highlight it than this new fun polka dot DSP, I have a feeling this paper will be used a lot in this book!  I used one of the new spritzing bottles to color in the bottom of the page, it looks like it has been sponged though...have to work on that! :)  I made the sand castle using the retired spiral punch and a couple of flags that say Virginia Beach. 

Here is the page that will be on the back:

I took a sand picture and thought I'd highlight it will some sand embossing powder...but I really didn't like the small area I covered so I decided to do the majority of the page.  The bottom is the back story of why we went.  My cousin lives in Virginia Beach and our family, my mom, two brothers, my aunt & cousin (his mom and sister) all headed out to visit before his SECOND deployment to Afghanistan.  I babysat him when he was little, and am extremely proud of the man he's become...I can only imagine his parent's pride.  The last line reads "These are a few of our favorite" with memories in retired letters.

I have to admit I've started the next page and these divided pockets may win!  You have to be really organized in the way you want the book to go....and I'm not a chronological scrapper!  I can't wait to share more pages, but in the mean time go check out the other designer's projects.

Dazzling Leaves

It's technique week again at Hand Stamped Sentiments....and don't be shocked, I had to look this one up too! (I told you, I'm not much of a technique stamper.)  In the end, I really loved it-no glitter going everywhere!  Take a look:



You heat set the sparkles so they are not all over your desk...GENIUS.  After weeks of using what I had, I finally have a page with some new stuff coming out in the Holiday Catalog.  If you haven't seen it, let me know....but beware, you'll want it all!  So here is my page:

In my attempt to make the Mustard look Mustard, my spritzing looks messy.  In person the page is much prettier.  :)

I started with a piece of Very Vanilla and then I took Stampin' Up's new spritzer bottles and made my own shimmer spray using rubbing alcohol, Crumb Cake reinker, and a few drops of Champagne shimmer paint.  Then in a few areas I used my Soft Suede marker and the Spritzer tool and made a few more splotches.

From there I made the focal point under the photo.  The checkered paper is from the Orchard Harvest DSP.  Again, LOVE.  I layered on a piece of  Cotton Ribbon, again this stuff is fabulous.  Then I broke in my new letter dies using Early Espresso Core'dinations card stock.  I ran these through the Woodgrain Embossing folder and then sanded them a bit.  A small strip of punched Old Olive adds some more green.

The leaves.  We all have a first.  A Stampin' Up first that is! :)  My first party I attended I made the sin of punching first and then stamping.  I KNOW!  Well, I quickly was reprimanded....and then these leaves came.  I love this set.  I love fall.  I love taking fall pictures so regardless of what I read on our demo site, I wanted these leaves.  So here is my warning...You have to die cut the leaves...then stamp.  I thought I'd be smart, cut a piece of copy paper and use the negative to carefully put my image in and then roll through the Big Shot....until I noticed to do that you have to put your stamped image upside down because of the way the stems are....which also means if you stamp once and don't like, you really can't turn it over and restamp.  Some people have said they wish the die was a framelit, which would be nice, but I still love that I can use this die with thicker material such as cork and chipboard.

I thought the page was a bit plain so I stitched some linen thread and a few wood buttons.  I'll leave this book with another picture and a reminder to head over and look at the other projects.  If you have an aversion to glitter messes, make sure you check out this technique!

Apple Picking

This week at Hand Stamped Sentiments we have a Fruity theme



...and if you are clicking over from that site wondering why my page looks so funny here's the reason:

 ..it's a two page layout!  It was hard to fit my project in my assigned square without making it a small thumbnail, so you just got a teaser.

This really is nothing I had in mind.  I love love love the DSP and a stamp set with coordinating framlits coming out in the Holiday mini that would have been PERFECT!.. but life happens and I spent all day July 1st traveling to attend a visitation so my order didn't get in right away and I really didn't want to pay for the fast shipping.  So needless to say, I used what I had and came up with some layouts of our trip to the apple orchard last fall.  Here's a few more views...

Left side.  I used my Scoreboard to add some dimension to the Old Olive...which the sun really loved this morning.  ugh.  The little apples and DSP are SUPER old, I think from when I first was introduced to Stampin' Up. I messed up the spacing on my APPLES... it just wasn't my day.

Right side.  Another strip of Old Olive to tie the pages.  (Our beloved Honeycrisp apples were really high in the trees...so happy Dad was along...though he didn't notice the horrible shadowing on my face and this is the only picture we took of the girls and I. I'll sacrifice a bad picture, sadly I rarely get in the pictures.)

I also got Kendall's page done!  -I scrap individual books for each girl.  That way they never have to argue over them...though my luck they won't want them :(

Moral of the post is use what you have!  ....but get over to HSS if you haven't.  I peeked and a couple of designers have used what I'll have in my fingers come Thursday.  ...Man I love that brown truck!

Cheater Cheater

This week over at Hand Stamped Sentiments we have a color challenge....and I cheated!



....I switched the Baja Breeze for Pool Party.  I'm really trying...though I have WAY too much, to use up some DSP, especially since I've seen the paper coming out in the Holiday Catalog.  Here's the page I created:

See the top corner DSP, it's from a retired pack and worked perfect, except that it was Pool Party. 

Another block layout, but they are my favorite and I have to be me!  This is my oldest daughter in piggy heaven after she finally got to have a kitten...much to her dad's dislike. 

Here's a few more pictures, again lots of retired stuff, but I like what I like!

I used words to describe the occasion from the Fabulous Phrases set.  I tried to spread them out so it didn't read like a sentence.  A few hearts by kitty hide a spot on the towel that looked gross.

Spritzer came out to play since I didn't like the all white background.  I bit the bullet and ordered new letter dies, so they will make their debut soon.

Now make sure you head over and see what the rest of the team created.  We'd love for you to play along, I think color challenges are the easiest....even though I cheated! :)