Enjoy ~SOUS Die Cut Challenge August 26~

                              

         Enjoy. Enjoy the Simple. Enjoy Each Day.

Today is another new challenge...another die cut challenge for Stuck on U Sketches! Our second one! And what's our 2nd challenge...

"Sky"

Show us something you'd see up in the great blue...I say UP not down so don't be doing ocean stuff. LOL! Show us those birdies, airplanes, clouds, kites, balloon's and spaceships! 

Titles are always tough for me but this one came pretty easily..something in my little boys face just reminded me how simple life can be and how precious it is. And also, importantly reminding me to teach my children these lessons.




My "sky" die cut, the kite comes from Create a Critter.
I knew as soon as this challenge came to mind that I wanted to use this Hero Arts cloud stamp. The background size is awesome and worked perfectly for this. I also wanted to try the "kissing technique" and so in a darker blue kissing with the Hero Arts woodgrain stamp.



The orange background paper is DCWV and the pattern paper is Echo Park Walk in the Park. This large banner sticker from the Playground collection.

And a little close up of this baby face....let's all say it together now....Ahhhhh!

So glad you came by and please do check out the rest of our new Die Cut DT and see their great examples...I look forward to seeing what you do too!

~Leah

Hey all! This is a quick little post for Scrapbook Kits. I was thinking tutorial ideas and happened to see some of these things laying around. They come with kits, in packages and in every color, shape imaginable. I am talking about die cuts, journaling prompts, all those shaped pieces. And I was thinking of how to make them more interesting and of course thought..stamps! Here's a quick tutorial showing some stamping to transform and customize all those pieces you've got around your craft room!

On the first one here, I stamped a background stamp in a very light pink (which I don't think will
show up on camera), the blue ruler and the word Enjoy. The second one with a flourish stamp and then a text over that. Think layer and layer. The more you later, the more interesting it will be.

            

The yellow piece had the white flower so I simply stamped a couple flowers over that one. Simple but much more interesting! The next has a text stamp and a cloud stamped in Versamark. Want something subtle? Try stamping in Versamark.

  

The fun journaling prompt was great alone. But I added another fun sentiment and then a grid background stamp. Both in neutral shades. The bright scallop circle was brought to even more life with the large red heart, small hearts and flourish (though that may be hard to see). I accented it even further by adding a white gel pen and matching the white distressing of the paper.

And here is a finished card. I happened to have needed something for my Father in law and when I saw those pieces together I immediatly thought they could look good together on a card. I stamped the card base with a woodgrain stamp, layered the stamped die cuts and added a die cut sentiment which I covered with Stickles. Very cool! It wasn't the fastest project because of all the stamping but putting it together went together very quickly.

Don't forget the sale going on!!!!! 40% the entire store for a short time only!!!!! Thanks for coming by...see you friday!!!!

Design Team News!

Hello all! Hope you all are enjoying a fabulous weekend and a nice quiet Sunday! This is our very last weekend before school starts on tuesday and I can't believe the time has come! This Summer has been a good one for us. Some camping and lots of time spent at my parents house, so the kids got to enjoy their Grandparents and Aunties, I got some adult company. I have also been crafting up a storm! I can't believe how much I have done and it makes me excited for post days to come up so I can start sharing them!

But the point of coming by today was to share some big news...

Starting in September I will be on The Cutting Cafe Design Team! I am very excited about this! First off, doing digi images and such is so much fun! If you have any software then you can play with those images a bit and make them work for your project, which is awesome. So not only will I get to play with some great digital stamps but I also get to work with an incredible Design Team! I feel so blessed! So expect some layouts but also some cards or other projects. Thanks Regina for having me!

I will see you all soon! 

Wheely Cool Cody ~SOUS August 19~

Wheely Cool Cody

Happy Friday! I'm not sure what's on your schedule but this is the LAST weekend before school starts! Wow! Did this Summer fly by or what?!? I'm going to have a 1st grader and a kindergartener! What!!! Scotti and Jordyn are just a year and a half apart which means that I've only had ONE child for about that long. So most of my parenthood time has been spent caring for multiple kids and starting in a few days I'll have only ONE at home for awhile! What is Cody going to do for those few hours without his playmates (oh gosh..be afraid, be very afraid!) LOL! And a year later...I'll have a 3 year old ALL day to myself...will I survive?

But before I worry too much about my life coming down around me...let me share another sketch I made for SOUS!  =)  I have another original sketch, by moi! I was thinking Summer theme so this travel idea came into mind...

This great background shape is from Going Places and cut on my Imagine using Hopscotch.



The train tracks are from My Community. I cut those a few times. Layered once and then cut and dry embossed, inked the top slats of the train track. The stickers are from Echo Park For the Record.



This picture is full of details. Starting at the top with more stickers and brads, a left over die cut that I stamped with the number stamp and then highlighted the #2 since I took these photos when Cody turned 2. On the bottom another sticker that was layered with punch paper, popped with twine behind and another brad.



And the highlight of the page for me. The bike (image from Just Because Cards) was cut from a cereal box, layered in 'Paper Layers' from Glitz and then inked. Lastly I covered it in Crackle Accents which when dried curled the edges a bit. Love, love that look! Which wasn't on purpose. LOL!



And last little spot...more layering, stickers, stamping, punched pieces and another great brad!



Ah, enough of me...see you guys soon!!!!

Life Can Be Tough ~Scrapbook Kits August 15~

 Life Can Be Tough

Hello everyone! Today is the 15th of the month and that means sketch day at Scrapbook Kits! We had a sweet little sketch to work with and

I just exaggerated some of it for this page.

I recently got just under 300 photos printed and thought this

one was so funny. In deciding to use this I went with this neutral color

scheme so that it kept with the colors.

We were driving home from Las Vegas last March and our only

stop was at the Insect Lore factory, in Bakersfield, Ca.

We got to look around and my baby Cody had some moment and dropped

to the floor to cry. The photo turned out to look like he was a bug

on the wall (at least to me! LOL!)

I got good use of my TH Texture Fades. Using 3 different

styles and layering them. I also stamped on the neutral brick

patterned paper. Ladybugs and butterflies are the major thing

this company does by sending out live kits, hence them on the page.

Doodlecharm ladybugs. =)

Walk in my Garden butterfly. I stamped a couple different background

stamps on the butterfly and inked all edges on this layout.

You can also see the stamping on the PP's in Pumice Stone

distress ink. I love how that turned out.

As for papers, I really pulled from my stash. Green and cream prints are

Basic Grey. Black, browns and tans are all from my stash. Cream

brick is DCWV.

Thanks so much for dropping in and please do check out

Scrapbook Kits...remember we have some returning and new

DT members. Check them out!

Play With Me ~SOUS April 12 Die Cut Challenge~

Play With Me

Today is a big deal for Stuck on U Sketches! Like we told you last week we've added what will hopefully be exciting and inspirational new challenges to our site and doing something different from sketches. Of course we will continue every other week to provide you with sketches but now...we are excited to announce the new Die Cut Challenges! Any die cut, electronic or otherwise that follows our theme or challenge and you are good to go with any paper crafting project. Very exciting!

 So today is our first challenge and as its my month to host...I chose as our first challenge the theme "Play".

Here is what I did...

This double layout features some darling recent photos of the kids and the layout is all about some make-believe games they play. This is much more striking in person then this photographed. But I guess that happens. Right?

Font (all game titles) Cuttin Up, pillows from Everyday Paper Dolls.

Binoculars Everyday Paper Dolls

sorry but I don't recall where those birds are from (Wild Card maybe?)

Another one that I don't recall the cart, sorry! I did cut a few layers and embossed the blue.

                                                 

The large red letters were inked and stamped with Faded Jeans distress ink. A detail apparently not showing up on film. Another detail here is the double border punch using 2 styles. Bike printed paper inked with Bundled Sage distress ink.

Printed paper is Lemonade by Basic Grey, the ledger paper also by BG Basics. The red is Bo Bunny. The blue I only had the one sheet so I cut it in half and taped the back to put these pieces together. It wasn't hard to do but a great way to save paper or work with having only a small or single piece for a double layout.

Thank you all so much for coming by and I really, really look forward to the new challenges and what you all are going to create! See you soon!

Another Birthday Card Set

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Monday to you all! Its a nice evening here and the kids and I are hanging out at my Mom's house. Good times being together, dinner and family fun! =)

I wanted to pop on here and share something I've made recently. Actually I have done so much this summer that I don't even know how much I've done! LOL! But seriously! I even have scrap pages saved up but think I'll keep those to share another time (plus I've made some sketches with them as well so I'll save those puppies).

But gosh, onto this card set. So let me tell you about the cards. The card base is Papertrey Ink, amazing for the bases of cards. So sturdy. 

I've stamped in white the journal stamp. Layered with scallop Nesties, blue (K&Company), black from my stash, white Basic Grey and the Kraft. Stamping in the circle is Papertrey Ink, Birthday Tags. And then lastly the small banner is stamped with Hero Arts Definition stamps (I think is the name, hehe). I did a bit of inking as well, Pumice Stone on the Kraft and Tumbled Glass on the blue banner.

I always, always need birthday cards and really ought to do more to be stock piled. I've got lots of birthday's coming up so these will go quickly!

Ok, have a good one and I can't wait for Friday's post and share our first Die Cut Challenges over at SOUS! Yay! 

You're My Little Princess ~SOUS August 5~

                                             You're My Little Princess

Okay friends! Today is a big day and there is so much to share! First and foremost Nanne, Sandi and I have decided to add new challenges to SOUS. And what would be more fitting then Die Cut Challenges? Since we all met on the MB, its a perfect fit for us! We are so excited about these changes and the amazing DT line up! Please...run over to SOUS and check out our new friends! And look forward to the new challenges starting on August  12.

I also have a little somethin' somethin' to share...an original sketch for our site. Hope you like! I was actually inspired by a chat with Nanne. She and I talked about liking but not trying much of this style, where the photos and details are all located in one area..so I made a sketch to try that out!



I've got to admit..I'm kinda excited to be sharing this with everyone. Last time I did share an Imagine layout with everyone. And cute it may be, it was pretty basic. Well I guess for me, second time was the charm... =)



I used mostly Best Friends for this layout. The little princess girl and the title piece. Flowers come from and Love You tag is from



I used a mix of printed flowers and mini Prima's and brads from my stash. A mix of plain brads, pearls or fabric. Pearls were added to the punched butterflies and to the crown. Had I known how long it would take to add all those brads and pearls, I may not have done it! LOL!

Here you can see the stamped ledger card where I wrote a second title. The paper covered chipboard butterfly and layered punched butterfly (with heart gems). I also sewed! Again! And again, not so perfect but its something

I am working on because I love the look!

I really hope you enjoyed this project and I am for sure going to try hard to do more with the Imagine! Its pretty cool for layouts!

So pop to SOUS and see who will be joining us for our new Die Cut Challenges and see the great layouts by our sketch team! You won't be sorry!

Hi, See You Soon!

Hi, See You Soon!

I created this little card for fun!

I had been in such a crafty mood this Summer that in between

working ahead on layouts, I've also

had time to put together some cards.

I wanted to play with these stamps and came

up with this nice little card.

Imaginisce Snag Em Stamps and paper is Little Boy

by Echo Park. Cuttlebug embossing.

I should have blended my coloring better on the puppy

but it will have to do.

I loved how cutting out the shape here fit and worked

 well and blended in well with the matching

pattern paper.

Also wanted to say a big thanks for everyone who

participated in this weekend's blog hop between Stuck on U Sketches

and Creative Cuts and More.

I appreciate the comments and new followers and also

all the inspiration along the way!

Leah