Happy? Sad? Who Cares, I'm With Dad! ~SOUS April 30~

Happy? Sad? Who Cares I'm With Dad!

Well today's reveal is our first 2 page sketch (I think! LOL!) and it is by Beggahuna! I really enjoy her sketches and find them extremely versatile! You can find her work here. I feel really lucky we have so many awesome choices for sketches these days!

I had a few struggles with these pages. I knew the photos I wanted to use and was lucky enough to get them to fit well with the sketch. The large photo printed badly so that was disappointing but in it went!

The blue base paper is Bazzill. And all the prints are by KI Memories. Well all but the cream pp which is by Autumn Leaves. And here you can really see the off coloring in the photos ;o(

The font is Cuttin' Up and the large arrow is from Graphically Speaking. I went with that shape to mimic the arrows in the PP.

Well I have got to say that I want sooooo badly to start sewing on projects and since that isn't happening any time soon I went another route and drew my own uneven lines...and actually really dig how it turned out! It as fun and freeing to do and added a great detail to the pages!

After putting together the lettering I thought it needed a little something else so I added some random doodles in the same fashion as the outside lines. I also added my very favorite distressed splatter stamp as well as some stars.

And man, I was on such a roll that I decided to take some of my scraps from the project and put them together on a card! I added some twine, another thing I use often, and then added a cut from A Childs Year. This was actually my first time cutting a silouette from this cart!

Thank you for coming by...I want to again thank all my new followers! I know not everyone has the time to leave comments but I appreciate the visit none-the-less! Hope you all have a kick butt weekend!!!

Calla Lilies ~The Cuttlebug Spot~

Calla Lilies

I thought this was a neat challenge this week for The Cuttlebug Spot. Your favorite flower. Well I just adore flowers really and find most of them just stunning but I am the worse at knowing any names (that and dogs, I swear I only know like 3 breeds) wow am I off topic...

my favorite flower...calla lilies! I find them elegant and exotic and just plain different!

My challenge was were to find this flower to put onto a project. I recalled some good old stickers I had and came across some neat vellum stickers and low and behold, calla lilies!

The card base is Papertrey Ink kraft cardstock. For any of you looking for the worlds best cardstock, lets say for card bases...I swear this stuff is so thick! I was completely impressed!

Cuttlebug Highlight~ I started with Birds and Swirls and then embossed over that with the Journaling Card folder.

To highlight the design I used Tattered Straw, Peeled Paint and Dried Marigold Distress Inks. I used a small paint brush dipped in water to subtly add color to various parts of the embossed image.

I layered the vellum sticker over Bo Bunny Double Dot paper. But because of doing that the color in the vellum sticker was washed out. I also used the Distress Inks to add some more color to the sticker as well.

And the most important part of this post is....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DONNA!

ok I know not everyone likes to have their birthday spilled to the masses but I know how much we all adore her and would want a chance to wish her a happy birthday (which is tomorrow by the way!)

Love ya lots and lots Donna!

Sisters Night Out ~SOUS DT Blog Hop~and bonus project!

Sisters Night Out

Well today is pretty special because not only is it the sketch reveal for Stuck on U but we are doing our first ever Designer Blog Hop!

I know that many of you visit our pages and we all appreciate it so!

If you are coming here from Sandi's blog, Soft Side of Sandi, you are in the right place! We would love for you to join our hop so if this is your first stop, join us at Stuck on U for the directions and to see the oh-so amazing candy we are offering thanks for one of our tremendous sponsors, Glitz Design!

Now for the DT we all used the same paper line by Glitz called Maya. Of course everyone's take is totally different but here is mine...

I have seen a lot of large design die cuts for 12x12 and knew I could do my own with the Cricut so I finally tried it out! This large scroll piece was blown up to the largest size in DS and was cut from Storybook.

I spent quite some time looking through all of my handbooks to find the perfect flower shape and I finally did find it in Winter Woodland. I cut and layered this, distressed the edges, and curled each petal before putting it together with an assortment of brads.

Here is a close up of the other flowers. I added a few other brads, some I had to paint to match and I added some silver pearls too!

To follow the sketch I added a thin circle around it and tucked it into some of the swirls. I punched some green butterflies, added black tulle and places silver pearls around the entire circle.

Ok and just so you all know where to go for the hop...

Start is at SOUS, then to Sandy Windsor, Nanne Harry, Sandi Clarkson, myself and end back at SOUS where you'll leave your final comment to be intered in for the blog candy!!!

(don't forget to follow if you'd like and please leave comments along the way, we all love some feedback!!!)

Now back to Stuck on U to enter yourselves for our give away!

And I do not want to forget to say thank you to my new followers, I hope you find some entertainment while you come by! I had no idea what the blogging world meant until I joined in and it has been an amazing source for inspiration and for friendship. So thank you for those that find me worth checking out. What a joy you are to me!

Now that I have your attention! Just kidding! But I do have a BIG bonus project to share with you guys!

The Station House

Are you ready for some more pictures? Well this is a DT project for my spot at Generations Crafting and it features an amazing line by Bo Bunny called Paradise.

September 2008 (and I thought this was just last year when thinking back) my family took a weekend vacation to one of our favorite spots, Half Moon Bay, California. My parents rented a house called The Station House (want to see where I stayed? click the link!). This building was originally a train station for a rail line that ran parallel with the coast, how sad for it to be gone now...

The first page is Paradise Lingo, a fun and vibrant seaside text. On each layout I distressed the edges and tore a few pieces that I then filled with Paradise Batik.

All the brown lettering in these pages is Bo Bunny Double Dot Chocolate.

The fish I had cut using just a piece of Paradise Sunset. Here is also a good photo to show the background edge paper I added to some of the sides.

Paradise Cut Outs offers some tags or journaling pieces. I cut this out and then cut in half to use as an area for my page title. Font is Opposites Attract.

Paradise Boardwalk is the beautiful, rich paper used for this page. Again I cut a piece from Paradise Cut Outs to use for my date and title, HMB stands for Half Moon Bay.

I used the same Cricut cart, Opposites Attract for all my lettering.

Seagulls are from Cricut cart, Lifes A Beach. I also added twine to each page in some way. I love how that adds texture and adds to the beachy feel!

Great photo of my Dad relaxing and enjoying a book on the back patio that overlooked a protected coastal shoreline. I had so many great photos from this vacation that I had to come up with a way to add in some, so I decided to would hide photos under photos. I got out my Fabulous Finds cart for the hinges...

And here is what the inside is like...another photo and a big spot for journaling.

Silly Seashore is on a magical page called Paradise Flight! I also 'sewed' the twine by using a small sized whole punch and weaving twine.

A close up of a cut from Lifes A Beach.

Close up of the twine, flowers and lettering (as well as the sweet little beach boy!)

And another picture holding the secret photo and journaling....

and the inside....

The last and final page is Paradise Pier. Gosh I loved this one! I wanted something simple as not to take away from the actual paper so I chose a border cut from Lifes A Beach and welded 2 together to make it long enough for the 12x12 paper. I cut a few extra sand dollars to layer.

Now of course you have noticed a ton of flowers! I cut these from Walk in my Garden and layered them. I used Bo Bunny Double Dot in Burnt Orange, Orange Citrus and Paradise Sunset. And the centers are glass pieces my husband bought when he went on a small shopping spree at Mrs. Grossman's factory in Petaluma, Ca.

I used the border design on Lifes A Beach and welded a second set to make it long enough for the 12x12.

Please do not forget that Generations Crafting is offering FREE bling to any of my friends that mention my blog or SOUS when they make a purchase ($1o minimum) until the end of April, so you've got some time!

Thanks again for visiting today!!! See you all soon!!!

Wicked ~The Cuttlebug Spot~

Wicked

This weeks challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot was a project featuring your favorite movie or TV show! At first I will admit that I kind of panicked about it but then it hit me...duh! I have this gorgeous stamp that I have had since childhood and never used it until I started crafting the past few years. I actually used this in my first ever ATC swap awhile back (meaning when I had time for things like ATC swaps, LOL!)

I also made this for a fellow Snow White fan and great friend that I had met on the Cricut mb but I am thinking with her busy schedule lately that she won't be coming by so I think I am safe posting this before she gets it!

The apple was welded on the shadow feature from A Childs Year. I wanted this cart so badly and I am ashamed to say this is my first time using it! Card base is black cardstock and the houndstooth (gosh I hope thats what its called) pp is from DCWV.

Here is a close up of my stamped image. Isn't she a beauty! Botox really never looked so good! LOL! I colored her in with my Prisma colored pencils and added a bit of Picket Fence Distress Stickles. It was my first time using them and I think that they are GORGEOUS! I will be using those again (and again and again!)

I had bought a big tub of chipboard on clearance at WM some time ago and have really not used it much. I recently did my first altering of chipboard and found it surprisingly easy so I think I will be using it more often now! Also new is the Crackle Paint by Ranger. I only bought 2 colors, Antique Linen and Picket Fence. I think as I come across them (on sale) that I will pick up more! For this piece I used Antique Linen and rubbed both Black Soot and Fired Brick Distress ink over it to enhance the crackles.

Now after about 5 tries at cutting this word with my Cricut using Grungepaper. I decided to give up! So I went to some trusty alpha stickers (from my ever favorite Mrs Grossman). They were adhesive backed fiber paper in a lovely burgundy color but I decided it still wasn't right. Well since my apple isn't red I thought the red Stickles would be perfect and I think it turned out great, and even better of course in person!

(I think I need to get more creative with also using alpha stickers as I have gobs of them!)

I finished the card off with the very very last piece of this netty like tulle that I stole off of a class project my son came home with (LOL!) and I think its pretty sweet!

The card measures just a tad smaller then a standard sized card! I hope that you like and see what my DT sisters did for their favorite show!!!

oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!! I was just looking at the brilliant projects posted at TCS for today and I realize the BIG mistake I made....I forgot to emboss my card! I have a CB project posted with NO embossing! For anyone that noticed or would not have without me bringing it up...I totally apologize for my stupid blunder!

My Dawling Little Rattle ~SOUS April 16~

My Dawling Little Rattle

Our sketch this week is by Aymee Gandy, aka Souternbelle Scrapper. You can find her wonderful work, sketches and more HERE!

Now with that said...my layout looks nothing like the sketch! LOL! I usually try and stick to them a bit better then this but I just HAD to use all the photos..what could I do, they are too cute!

I have had this title idea for awhile. Jordyn pronounces darling, dawling and calls him a rattle. Okay now that took me some time to figure out...oh, oh, she's calling him a raskle! LOL! Cute part is that she calls him this all the time! Her nickname for him!

I have got to say that I do think this page is a wee well, a wee over done! LOL! After I added the flowers in I realized I went to far but there was no turning back! hehe!

Paper is from DCWV Nana's Kids.

At some point you would think I would recongnize what fonts I am using, but nope! Can't remember! LOL! I did however glitter the heck out of these with Stickles! ;o)

Had to show you guys a close up of my 2 finger/thumb suckers! Most nights when I put Jordyn to bed she likes to hold her little brother. This nightly ritual is becoming less and less because Cody won't stay still that long anymore.

Not sure if you guys know her, her name is Nanne Harry? Anyways wonderfully smart crafter she is...so anyways she has made these guys and has given them "hands". Well I just knew I needed to try this and I have got to say that they make them sooo much sweeter!

I added both black and white doodling. Prima flowers and Stickled brads. Googley eyes and some dollar ribbon from J's. And then, finally after alllll that's going on...I called it done! LOL! I don't think this would have been so bad if I didn't have the circle background paper AND the letter squares down the side oh, AND all the characters and flowers...whatever! it was fun to do! I hope you like it (or just lie and say you do! LMBO!)

I almost forgot to add....Happy 10 months to my little Cody! Or Cokie or Code Man Dude!

Celebrate ~The Cuttlebug Spot~

Celebrate

This weeks challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot was BLING!

And it is also the Spring Blog Hop Challenge! You will find the info at The Cuttlebug Spot but also at Practical Scrappers...check them out! There are a TON of prizes to be won!

I have got to say that I don't consider myself a "bling" girl...though I do own most of the colors by Stickles! ;o)

With that said I got an order in from Joann.com and bought myself some new product and got to use them on this project! Lots of fun to work with new stuff!

Cuttlebug Highlight~ Journaling Card, Herringbone and Argyle

This photo shows how I put together the card...the Journaling Card folder is approx a standard size card so I thought it would be fun to use it as is. Then by looking at it some more I realized if I adhered the top to another embossed piece then that could serve as the inside of the card and that worked great!

The image was a RAK from someone on the Cricut MB so I don't know where it came from. But it is awful cute!

I colored with my Prisma pencils and instead of blending with mineral spirits, I blended using the white pencil color. Worked really well!

I embossed on white cardstock with the Argyle folder for the inner circle.

A little bummed that I couldn't seem to get a good photo to show my "bling". But you can see a bit...

I used my new Distressed Stickles Rock Candy to cover the entire stamped image. I bought this product after watching this Tim Holtz video on youtube.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd8UAaVPrVw&feature=PlayList&p=9EED0F53DBC32C1F&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=33

Ok so the video is really for Crackle paint which I did get but haven't used yet...okay anywho...more about the Rock Candy Stickles...if you do use it you will see the first time that when you use the product it looks completely clear and I wondered why on earth I had wasted my money! Well it turns out that it has to dry to see. And what do you see? A very clear and almost vintage type of sparkle. Its not glittery or shimmery exactly, it really does have its own look and I think it is perfect to use on top of stamped images. I will have to get creative and see what else I can use it with.

And he is my male version. Embossed with the Herringbone folder.

Both cards (or the embossed circles) were dusted with my new Perfect Pearls. I own Pearl Ex but not Perfect Pearls. Both products are very similar but I did like that Perfect Pearls could be set with water! Unfortunelty the shimmer from that did not photograph though you can see some color from it.

Terribly fuzzy photo but you can see the texture better with the embossing, bad pic but I added it in...

Last little details is the shimmery fiber I had in my stash and this is my first project using a stapler! My husband bought me some crappy NO staple stapler which doesn't really work and I finally remembered to buy an actual stapler! LOL!

I kind of forgot about this clear stamp set from the dollar area at Target for birthdays, I just love this word stamp and will have to use this set again! I also covered the entire area of this with the Rock Candy Distressed Stickles.

Rough Rider ~SOUS April 9~

Rough Rider

This week at Stuck on U Sketches we have something a little new to try! Instead of a sketch we will be trying challenges every second week of the month! Should be fun and something new to do, mixing it up! Personally I am excited about it, to get a break from sketches and to try and play with new ideas! Sounds good to me!

So this weeks challenge~ the most unusual item!

Man oh man was this sooooooo much fun to put together! I can honestly say that I will be doing something like this again!

The photo is of Scotti on a cold and foggy morning last December riding to school! Looks pretty cool in all his gear!

Ok and for fun, here is my list of unusual items!

-the inspiration for this enitre LO, the blue plastic fruit netting from the grocery store

-screws for stamping

-6 pack of soda plastic rings for stamping

-aluminum foil

-shoe laces

-and a shoe!?!

I found a great font on the computer for my wording which was good because I wasn't really sure what to do for that part. Thought it ended up being just right for the page!

Here you can also see my layered circles, all the 'stamping' I did inspired these shapes to be repeated. Star and Eyes paper are from DCWV printed paper stack Fall (I think from 2008?). The other embossed circle is Grungeboard. These were inked with silver and black.

I had this random shoe lace and finally put it to use! Glad I had saved it because it fit perfectly into this page! I had already adhered it onto the page before I did my title, when I put it together I saw that the L fit right into the end of the shoe lace, funny huh! Title was inked with sliver and black with random holes punched.

This photo shows the inspiration for the whole page! I had saved this plastic netting off the fruit I bought at a local Trader Joes, I had blue and red. Well when looking for photos I came across this one of Scotti and saw the blue's went great together!

In the bottom right corner of this photo you can see where I also used the netting to add a print. I laid the netting down on random parts of the black paper and used a white ink pad and stamped onto the paper.

My embossed alien robot guy was a left over from a different project but he fit right in here too! (I had a lot of fun kind of going through my stash and seeing what could go in here!)

Here is a lot of the fun in this page! I used the back of screws to stamp with acrylic paint. As well as the plastic piece that holds together a 6 pack of soda, thats the large thin white circles.

It may be hard to tell but you can just make out on the right of the photo where I rolled a screw around and got a cool design.

Last thing to see here is where I splattered some blue acrylic paint, now that was fun!

I am claiming myself queen of the wonderful mistake! LOL! I punched a hole and put a brad in the spot but decided it wasn't right there...but I ended up with a hole. So I decided to start punching a few more holes here and there and totally thought it turned out awesome! Especially after laying it over the foil which showed through...cool mistake huh!

I used some glitter acrylic pieces as photo corners. Here is a close up of my layered circles as well as a shot of the embossed aluminum foil that I ran through my Cuttlebug. Oh and a few white stars I doodled around the page.

Last but not least is that shoe that I mentioned...okay so I didn't exactly put a shoe on here, I mean, come on now! LOL! But I did grab my son's shoe! Inked the bottom and then "stepped" on the photo! Word of advice if you want to try this..make sure you're using a stay proof ink like Staz On, sadly, I don't have any and even if I did, I didn't think about it...so this will eventually smear...nice try though!

Wow, really could I say anything else about this LO? LOL! I think that's it! If you haven't already played along with us at Stuck on U because maybe sketches are not your thing, well maybe these challenges will fit you better! I'd love to see what your unusual thing may be!