Scrapbook Saturday-New Supplies

Hi!  If you read today's title, you may be like "WHAT?! She just told us she was trying to use all of her older stuff!" yeah...  Actually, this little kit was purchased for two good reasons. 1. My friend is doing everything she can to keep functioning during all of this Covid mess and I decided to do my part and order a few things from her.  All stuff I know I will use and some things I really needed.  2. I REALLY love the hexagon stencils that came with this kit!! I literally 'oooohed' when I saw them!

I took a Kiwi Lane class a few months ago, and it was a lot of fun.  I can't say it's my 'go to' style, but I really liked some of the stencils.  So when my friend shared that she had some kits available for pick up, I decided to check them out.  The papers were pretty enough (not that I NEED paper), but as soon as I saw the set of hexagons included in the kit I was sold!!  

I used a tag from the kit for the center of this page.

The tag is loose and pulls out the journaling tab hidden 

behind the photo on the right.

I used 3 of the hexagons on this page.  This also shows

the pretty papers from the kit and another tag.

I hope you don't think too poorly of me and my shopping!  My purchase did get used quickly, so I'm feeling a bit less guilty about that!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Page Recipes: Kiwi Lane 'Wild at Heart' kit

Glittery Greetings!

Hi! Today I'm here with something a bit new!  I've been putting a lot of effort into using my older supplies for Christmas cards, but I just had to play a little with a new stencil and new color of glitter gel I bought at our LSS.  I used a border stencil, with a tilt to create that glittery green tree. It was a bit tricky to get the placement right and not get glitter where it didn't go, but I thought it made a great tree.  What I wasn't counting on was all the white space left on the layer.  A quick change in plans led to the gifts made of DSP.  A Christmas tree should have gifts, right?!

I heat embossed the sentiment to make it stand out a bit and then ran some cherry cobbler dazzling details around the edge to frame the card in glittery goodness!  A lot more time then I usually spend on Christmas cards, but it was a lot of fun!

I will  have a few more posts with Christmas cards and then I'll be back in scrapbooking mode after the holidays.  Thanks so much for visiting today!

Card Recipe: Paper-whisper white, real red, Dashing Along DSP, Stamp Set-Star Studded Season, Ink-real red, versamark, Accessories-Gina K Autumn Wishes stencil, holiday pine glitz glitter gel, silver twine, clear embossing powder, cherry cobbler dazzling details

Merry Monday-Frosty Christmas Greetings

Hello! I am back with some super glittery goodness for a Merry Monday! I know I have already mentioned my recent obsession interest in stencils and today I'm showing off the efforts of working with my most recent purchase.  When I saw the Winter Farmhouse stencil from Simple Stories, I had visions of glittery snowflakes against a dark blue sky and looked forward to the day I would get to create this vision!

Our recent snow day gave me the chance to play and I was so happy with the results!  While it took a bit of time to use the stencil and glitter gel, and then more time to let it dry; the finished card has a very simple elegance to it and I love that the shimmery snowflakes are still the 'star' of the show!

I even did a little stamping on the inside so it wouldn't feel too plain!  I had so much fun stenciling that I made ten of these lovelies to add to my box, and I'm a little closer to being finished before Thanksgiving!

I hope you are inspired to do a little stencil magic of your own!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous week!

Card Recipe: Paper-night of navy, whisper white, Stamp Set-Special Season (SU), Ink-night of navy, old olive, Accessories-Winter Farmhouse stencil (Simple Stories), white glitz glitter gel (Gina K)

Scrapbook Saturday-stencil fun!

Hello! So glad you are here! I have a little confession to make...I've bought more stencils... Yes, I know I promised to use all my old supplies... Does it count if I bought the stencils to use up my old cardstock??  Please say yes!!

In the last few months, I have rediscovered the joy of visiting my LSS and talking with the owner whom I have known for a very long time!  Even if I don't buy much, it is so inspiring to wander through the store and get new ideas. The downfall to this is I discover new things that I love and really want to play with-like stencils!

I have had stencils in my stash for a very long time and when I first got them I did use them, but they were sometimes difficult to work with and I didn't like some of the ink marks that didn't blend correctly.  So I stopped using them and they sat there. And sat there...and sat there. Until one day I saw that my friend Hannah was teaching a class on stenciling using a variety of mediums.  I signed up, attended, had a blast, and was hooked.  I now have pixie spray that holds those stencils in place so it's easier to ink and glitter them up, and I am the proud owner of a growing collection of glitter paste.  The blending brushing to eliminate those pesky ink lines are on my wish list and I'm hoping Santa thinks I've been good enough to deserve them!  Did I mention I bought new stencils? LOL!

I am giving myself permission to indulge because it has reconnected me with some creative ideas and some good friends as well.  My last visit led to the purchase of two different snowflake stencils that I couldn't wait to use.  The one I'm sharing today is from Taylored Expressions and it made a fabulous 

background for  some snowy pics that have been in my stash.

my new stencil, white craft ink, and a dauber

(it actually worked well for this technique, but I'm

still asking for those brushes!!)

my blue paper got an upgrade!

pulled out some old 3D stickers to finish out the page

Had so much fun, I made another one!!

While I know I need to use my old supplies, it was a lot of fun to add something new to my table.  And...since this new stencil helped me scrap two pages of older photos with old embellishments, I'm still calling this a win for using up my stash!

My other stencil has smaller snowflakes and I'm thinking a little white glitter paste will make some wonderfully sparkly Christmas cards.  Guess I've found my inspiration for Monday's Christmas cards!!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Find some time to play!! You won't regret it!

Harvest of Friends

Hello! Well, my fall break is almost over and I can't believe I have not finished the first scrapbook page... DH has been in the process of remodeling our bathroom (last room in the house to be finished!!), and I've been trying to keep the house somewhat clean and organized during this process.  Add in two college visits, filling out financial aid forms, putting up fall decorations, and cleaning up some of the landscaping and my week is about shot!  I'm not going to complain though because it has been  a beautiful week and it looks like Saturday is going to be rainy and nasty, so maybe I can lock myself away then!

We also went to a co-worker's home Tuesday evening for a carry in dinner, drinks, and a campfire.  It was a beautiful evening and everyone from our teaching team was able to make it.  We don't get the chance to spend time together outside of school very often, and it was so nice to relax, eat wonderful food, enjoy a cozy fire, and talk about things other than work.  Of course, we did a little of that too, but tried to keep it to a minimum!

It was such a wonderful night and I wanted to let my co-worker (who is also a dear friend) know how much we appreciated her sharing her home with us for the evening.  I had also been seeing a lot of cards using the beautiful flower from Painted Harvest (SU), and I really wanted to play with that set to see where inspiration led.  I pulled different details from several different cards, so I don't have any one person to credit for this creation.

I've also been watching some videos showing how to use stencils to mask off  most of the card.  I knew those stencils that came with Just Journaling would come in handy eventually! I've never used them with the stamp because I didn't like the way the edges looked after I stamped, but it worked perfectly for the oval sponging area!  I used Barely Banana and Pumpkin Pie for the two shades in the oval.  I think they would have looked better if I had used a blending brush, but I didn't want to dig out the one I have.  The new set of brushes from Taylored Expressions would have worked fabulously...but Santa didn't bring me any early gifts, so I'll just have to wait.  After sponging the oval, I got busy stamping and fussy cutting the flower, die cutting the twig, leaves, and friend. I added a bit of sponging to the edges of the fussy cut flower to cover the white, and also added a little ink to the leaves to add dimension.  A strip of ribbon, a button, and a little background DSP and it was finished.

This was probably the most supplies I have used on a card in a reeeeeeaaaaaaaaly loooooong time! Because of this, I'm adding a 'card recipe' to the bottom in case you're interested.  Lots of inks used to create the depth and shading!!  The flower alone is a combo of daffodil delight, crushed curry, cajun craze and early espresso.

I'm hoping to play a little more with the dies and stamp set I used today.  There are so many possibilities and it was a lot of fun just playing around with different ideas.  I've also ordered a new Tim Holtz leaves die that I'm picking up tomorrow from our LSS.  I think I may have a problem...LOL!  At least I haven't gone out and bought a bunch of papers!  I'm still sticking to my goal of using up what I have to finish some scrapbooks before adding anything new.  Waaaay too much paper taking up space in my studio at the moment!!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you find some time to play with your craft supplies and make something amazing!  Have a wonderful day!

Card Recipe: Paper-Orchard Harvest DSP (SU ret), whisper white, always artichoke, early espresso, Ink-early espresso, crumb cake, cajun craze, always artichoke, daffodil delight, crushed curry, pumpkin pie, barely banana, Stamp Set- Painted Harvest (SU), Accessories- early espresso ribbon, Well Written dies (SU), Funky Floral dies (TH), oval stencil from Just Journaling stamp set (SU)

Taylored Expressions Class aka Losing my mind

About a month ago, my 2 DDs and I went to a class at our LSS.  Taylor from Taylored Expressions taught a watercolor session.  We had a wonderful time and learned some fun ways to use watercoloring on cards.  I would have sworn I had posted pictures of this, but they were nowhere to be found, so I'm sharing them today.  I think pretty much everything I used is TE, but since it was a class, I don't have names in front of me...

this card featured a stamped background, a preprinted card front, and

some tricky painting skills to fill in those tiny hearts and letters

this one has a stenciled background and a watercolor wash

behind the die cut cactus

this is a mix of stamping and watercoloring, the two

large butterflies were outline stamped in light gray

and then watercolored 

the last card features an embossed heart with

a watercolor wash around the edges

I did buy the Sending stamp set, the shimmer watercolor, and a Christmas theme card front panel set. I think that showed great restraint since I really wanted to add all of the watercolors, her paintbrush set, and several stencils... There is definitely a drawback to going to a LSS for a class-too much temptation!!  I have to say it is a lot of fun and a great way to meet other creative people!

I don't have a scrapbook page to share today (even though it should be Scrapbook Saturday), but I'm almost finished organizing my scrapbooking supplies and should be back at it in a few days!  Trying to get as much done as I can in the few weeks of summer vacation I have left!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

All that glitters

Hello! Today I have some glitterific cards to share!  Gotta have some sparkle on Independence Day!!  These cards were a multi day project because my time for the studio has to be squeezed in whenever I can, so day one was cutting the paper and using the wonderful Gina K Glitz glitter gel.  A few days later, I did the stamping and assembling of the cards, and today I'm finally posting!

My camera has been giving me fits when it comes to taking pictures of cards and scrapbook pages... I really need to set up an area in my room for photography so there isn't the glare and wash out that happens on my craft table.  I really need to tweak some areas anyway, so why not squeeze in a photo box while I'm at it!  Because of the photo quality, the mix of colors and the actually glittery goodness doesn't show up as well as I would like. You'll just have to take me at my word that they are very sparkly!

I played with three colors of gel: Wild Lilac, Turquoise Sea, and Grass Green, and also used both white and black as background colors.  It's so interesting to see the way a color changes based on the background! My stencils came from a SU set called Pattern Party Masks.  I pulled out a DCWV paper pad called Royal Garden which I haven't used in ages.  There are peacock themed pages in this and my colors reminded me of  the beautiful shading of their feathers.  I pulled out a variety of birthday, anniversary, and thank you stamps for the sentiments which were stamped in either Bermuda Bay or Elegant Eggplant.  I really like the shimmer on these and know that a few members of my family will love these 'fancy' cards!

Well, the washing machine is calling my name and reminding that as much as I would like, I can't spend all day in my studio... Do we really NEED clean clothes?? I'm pretty sure my family would feel it's a necessity. They're soooo needy... LOL!  

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful rest of the week! Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans! Have fun and be safe!

Scrapbook Saturday

Hi! I'm back again with another scrapbook page.  This one is quite patriotic feeling, but also super simple.  The fanciest thing is the double matting on the photo (oooooohhhhhh!).  I managed to work some letter stickers on here and was shocked that I had all of the letters I needed for the title.  Since the photo was from the 4th of July I thought the stars and patriotic theme worked well.  My brother's blue Harley didn't hurt the plan either!  I added some silver star embellishments to dress it up a bit.  

Little by little, I'm getting those photos onto pages and into albums!  One would think that I was also getting rid of that mountain of embellishments and tower of paper, but that's not quite so accurate!  Still plenty there to use!

Yesterday, DD2 and I went to our LSS for a stenciling class.  We had so much fun playing! We experimented with inks, brushes, sponges, glitter gel, mousse, and palette knives.  Hannah, the owner, is a genius because she had so many different supplies for us to use and oh so conveniently had them available for purchase too!  DD2 informed me she was quite impressed with my restraint in not buying everything I liked, so I guess my whole 'use what you got' is working for me!  I did buy some of the incredibly gorgeous Gina K glitter gels that we both loved.  I'm looking forward to playing with those sometime soon.  I also bought Pixie Spray which deceivingly is not at all glittery or sparkly... It is this amazing adhesive spray that keeps your stencils in place as you work, yet allows you to remove the stencil without leaving a trace of stickiness on your paper.  Since this was a technique class, we didn't 'make' anything but I do have some fabulous sample pieces that will eventually become something wonderful!  Here they are in all their glory!

both of these feature the glitter gel, the black is also

sparkly, just a little hard to see in this pic...

 used the mousse on these, they were very pretty with 

the pearl finish, but I was controlling spending so

I didn't buy any of these!

 both of these are inks applied with these amazing

sponge brushes-not gonna lie, I really want these and

might just have to get myself a birthday present in a 

few months!

One of the best things about this class was being able to use all of the stencils I already have.  It really motivated me to keep these on my table so I can use them more often.  I still have a container of SU embossing paste that has never been  used...might be my next play day activity!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend! I hope you find a little time to do something fun and creative!