Say cheese!

Amie has always loved mascots and anyone in a costume. We went to a Grand Opening celebration for a business when she was 3 and Sponge Bob was there getting pics done with the kids. She was actually happy to get her picture taken, but the sun was in her eyes so one might think she looked like she was being forced to stand there!

I really wanted to do a layout this month for the Canadian Scrapbooker website April sketch. This is such an amazing magazine full of brilliant Canadian submissions, and being Canadian myself I'm more than happy to follow their great talent!

I used a Jillibean Soup 6x6 paper pad for the two 4x6 background pieces behind the photo, the June calendar, and the buttons. I cut out the two banners, Say Cheese and the camera from a Little Yellow Bicycle 6x6 paper pad using my Cricut and the Mini Monster cartridge.

I added some brown letter stickers, some Ranger Enamel Accents on the buttons and some chipboard stickers along with some foam dots to pop up some elements.

 

http://canadianscrapbooker.ca/sketchy/showgallery.php?cat=520

 

 

Springtime

Well, I'm not sure if spring is ever coming to Calgary- we had snow all weekend! Bleh :-p

So, ironically I used a Penny Black Christmas stamp, which I changed up to look springlike by using spring colours. I first used blue and green Distress Stains on the background with a mist of blue Dylusions Ink spray over top. Then I heat embossed my stamped image and coloured in with Gellyroll Glaze and Soufflé pens. They flow so nicely in an embossed image! Then I added some raindrops with a Zig two-way pen and iridescent foil and some more Soufflé pen highlights. I cut out the flowers and butterflies from an envelope that came in the mail! And added some gel pens and Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I popped up some of the flowers and the butterflies with foam dots and then I mounted it on some patterned paper and a Kraft card.

Here's hoping for spring!

Challenge - Simon Says Stamp - spring showers/flowers
http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.ca/2013/04/simon-says-april-showers-andor-spring.html

Dylusions Ink and Stencils

Just got a bunch of new Dylusions spray inks and a couple stencils this week and couldn't wait to try them out!! I really only had a few other spray inks so this was my mist splurge.

For my card I layered stencils and started spritzing right onto my kraft card and my envelope. I really like how the white linen spray is opaque and shows through. I love the teal colour of the main mist and used both the inside and out of the girl stencil to highlight each area. I was going for a spring feeling with the greens and flowers since we seem to be having a really hard time getting any springtime weather to stay here in Calgary - as I'm writing this large snowflakes are falling!

I also heat embossed circular flowers on the front of the card with Crystal embossing powder and versamark so they look more like a sparkly watermark image. Inside I stamped the chandelier with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and then embossed with the Crystal powder. I also wanted to try out a technique tat Kate showed at the Scrapbookers Paradise store on Sunday - using foil with Zig Two-Way Glue. The trick is to let the glue air dry before applying the foil. I added to paper flowers and a brad to the top flower and stamped some images, including a crown on the girl on the envelope.

Challenges -
Scrapbookers Paradise - Add embossing
http://scrapbookersparadise.blogspot.ca/2013/04/playing-in-paradise-111-embossing.html

Simon Says Stamps - April showers/spring flowers
http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.ca/2013/04/simon-says-april-showers-andor-spring.html

Last Minute Easter projects

Well, even though Easter is past, I thought I'd share a couple last minute things I made.

I had some new Soufflé pens I wanted to try out and I am sooo happy with them! I actually had bought some Soufflé and Gelly Roll Glaze pens many years ago that had just never worked right. When I was recently doing some organizing I came across them and decided to email the company. They gave me some tips to try and said if that didn't work to package the defective pens up and return them, which I did. I then received two brand new sets in the mail! There had apparently been some issues with the pens at that time, but I can tell you the pens now are amazing!! They blend beautifully and I really like using them with a heat embossed image. It creates a beautiful raised filled in area that is so cool. I am extremely pleased with their customer service :)

For my tags I used the Soufflé pens, which create an opaque look, perfect for directly layering over a background. I smooched some Distress Inks on my craft mat, pink, yellow, green, and lavender, and then spritzed with water before dragging my tag through. I added some sponged Distress Ink around the edges till I was happy with the look and then heat set everything. You have to heat set or the embossing powder sticks to everything! I heat embossed a cute Easter image from a CTMH stamp set I love and then coloured in the image with my pens. On some parts I coloured in with two pens and while the ink is wet it blends very nicely. You just have to set them aside to dry for 5-10 minutes and they turn opaque!

I added some washi tape and a layer of two flowers and a bunny button tied with floss to my large tag.

For my card I did the tag background as above and then layered it on a card I embossed with my Cuttlebug. I found a cute Easter picture from one of Tim Holtz's paper packs and popped it up with foam tape. Easy-peasy!

Amie decorated some eggs for Easter and was very excited to set them out at dinner for family. I cut a strip of cardstock and glued it in a circle to set the egg upright in, and Amie flattened a mini cupcake liner to place them on - her idea! I also found a stash of random things in treat bags she gathered together for us; cute!

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Challenges: Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Teacher Easter Cards

We couldn't forget about Amie's teachers on Easter! I used my Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (again!) to cut out 3 different coloured egg cards and eggs with flower cut outs, which I mixed and matched. I embossed the egg die cut with the Cuttlebug and used Distress Ink to highlight the embossed areas. I chose some ribbons and rickrack to embellish the front of each egg and added a paper flower, flower brad and gem to the centre of each.

Inside and envelope

 

 

Challenges:

Die Cuttin' Divas - Embossing and ribbon

Simon Says - Anything goes

Fantabulous Cricut - Easter cuts

Scrapbooker's Paradise - Embellishments

 

Be sure to check out all the fun cards on these websites!!  Happy Easter!

Happy Easter To My Peeps and Easter Tag!

It's just a few days before Easter now, the cards have been made and mailed, chocolate has been stashed and treat bags have been filled with goodies for Amie's classmates.

I had a cute stamp set I got last year from Close To My Heart and never got to use, so I pulled it out and used a technique from the Pattern Play Class, Day 2 - stamping on patterned paper. I stamped a chevron stamp with versamark on some polkadot paper from a baby paper pad I had and used clear embossing powder to create a resist. Then I sponged Distress Inks over top to color the background. I used another page from the same paper pack across the top of the card and stamped Easter eggs on the back of that paper, colouring part of it in with Tombow markers. I stamped 3 Peeps bunnies on yellow paper by creating a mask for the centre bunny and then stamping another one on each side. I brushed Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles over top to create a sugary look. I cut out the bunnies and eggs and popped them up with foam tape and then put on the banner I cut from the Heritage Cricut cartridge after stamping with the sentiment "Happy Easter To All My Peeps".

 I used a yellow marker to highlight the edge of the bunnies.

 

The background of the eggs was pink flowers so all I had to do was color in some of the details.

 

The treat bags for Amie's class - I made a tag to include with each bag by cutting an egg shape from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge out of patterned paper and stamping on top of it before gluing it to a tag shape. I colored in the word Happy with a blue marker and used Stickles on the chevron pattern, which is a Technique Tuesday stamp.

I recently bought sticker labels from Vistaprint with "From Your Friend, Amie" printed on them, which I stuck to the back of each tag.

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful, happy Easter!

 





 Challenges -
Scrapbooker's Paradise- Add a banner
Simon Says Challenge Blog - Anything goes
Fantabulous Cricut - Easter cuts (the tag)

Pattern Play Day 1, Card 3 & 4

I'm really liking this pattern class at Online Card Classes! I've been watching the videos and reading the lessons all week and sneaking some time in to create the cards whenever I can. I really like the lifetime access to the class and for $16 there is no way I could get this much instruction from a regular class!

The first card I made today was again from Kristina Werner and showed a basic use of pattern paper by combining a large pattern, a smaller pattern and a solid or tone on tone. I cut the scalloped circles out with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge and used a stamp from CTMH and popped them up with foam tape. I cut 1/2" off the right side of the card and added the scalloped border and then tied some bakers twine around the length of the card. I find it helpful to cut a tiny slit in the top and bottom of the card for the twine to catch in so it's not slipping off the card.

 

 

For the second card I made I again used the new 6x6 Hopscotch paper pad I bought. I added an orange polkadot piece across my card with a scalloped edge which wasn't in the class, but after somehow being unable to cut a circle in my bottom layer of paper twice, probably due to having a squirmy toddler on my lap while making this card, I decided to improvise! I used Distress Ink on both circle layers and cut out 'For You' from my Gypsy Wanderings cartridge. I used a Prismacolor marker to go over the words, which were cut from patterned paper, to make them stand out better.

 

These were both pretty quick cards to put together and could really be used for any occasion just by changing the paper and sentiment. Have a great weekend!