Belle Papier {pretty paper}

It’s not too often I use just one flower stamp to create a design. A few years ago when I first started stamping, this would have been much more common. I love the idea of going back and creating simple designs. Or maybe…not so simple but with a limitation of earlier days when you had a limited supply list to work from. I love how it stretches your creativity to use stamps and products in new ways. Sometimes I think we lose that. That is what the Limited Supply Challenge is all about. I’m loving today’s challenge…to use a single flower stamp and a single sentiment if desired. No patterned paper, no Cuttlebug. I went a step further and limited myself to a single color of cardstock, using just three layers. Check out the challenge at LSC157 if you’d like to play along! :0

Springtime Friend

For this design, I simply stamped my flower image multiple times in Lettuce Adirondack ink. This flower is from the Kim Hughes Silhouette Blooms 1 set from Cornish Heritage Farms. After stamping…I dotted my blooms with Liquid Applique and then gently heated with my heat gun. I then lightly sponged on rose colored chalks from my Pebbles chalk set. Very easy and very much like spring.

To define my edges, I distressed and stitched them for added interest. The Friend sentiment on this design comes from the Silhouette Blooms 2 set also by Kim. To play up the textural elements of this design, I added a strip of soft green May Arts ribbon and a moss velvet brad from Making Memories.

Thanks for stopping by…again! ….today. I certainly did not plan on blogging again but just couldn’t resist this challenge!

I love summer and buried in snow right now…I thought it would be fun to scrapbook some of those beautiful summer days. I used a photo I took on the beach last year of our friends’ daughters. It was late afternoon…my favorite time…and its always perfect for taking those silhouette photos. I just love the energy of this photo. I’m not the best photographer that is for sure, but to me…this brings back memories and the joy of being a child.

Summer Joy

This design is a 12×12 layout. It’s a bit of a learning curve for me…going back to where I started…scrapbooking. I’m totally out of practice and I can tell you…this layout looks better in person. But I’m sharing it anyway. Because it’s all about creativity and learning and most of all, having fun. I’m hoping to do more layouts in the upcoming months. It’s always good to stretch yourself and try new things. And…I kind of like the idea of having a scrapbook of memories again. The years are flying by so quickly!

For this design…I blew the photo up to about 9″ wide. I mixed up some stamping and some foam letters for the title…just had some fun. Summer (stamped in white Stazon just before the joy stickers) is from the Great Canadian Stamp Set and Live Laugh Love is from The Art of Framing. Both these sets are from the new Rummage Bin line from Cornish Heritage Farms.

One of the embellishments I was trying to incorporate into this design were some Maya Road clear flourish embellishments that my local scrapbook store owner shared with me. I was looking for different ways to use this product. I created a flourish with three of the translucent pieces and dry brushed white acrylic paint on the reverse side. I allowed it to dry and then adhered it to my design with glue dots. I really love the look in person…it reminds me of waves a little and I think it is a fun addition to this design.

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Supply List:

Stamps: The Art of Framing, The Great Canadian Stamp Set - Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink: White Stazon - Tsukineko, Burnt Umber Palette ink - Stewart Superior

Cardstock: white - Prism

Patterned Paper: aqua from Birdie Collection - Crate Paper, Floral and Plaid from Confetti line - My Mind’s Eye

Other: buttons - My Mind’s Eye, ribbon - Creative Impressions, clear shapes - Maya Road, paint and teal ribbon - Making Memories, flower - Prima Marketing, designer brad - We R Memory Keepers, foam stickers - American Crafts, Circle Template - EK Success

I’m all shook up with today’s Ways to Use it Challenge…music. Be inspired by lyrics, musical images, paper, instruments…anything music related for this fun challenge. Of course…I just had to make a fun card using some of my music projects and these fun new Elvis stamps that Cornish Heritage Farms is releasing today. I’m be honest…when I first heard Elvis I thought…cool, but not my thing. Well…I think I’ve had to rethink that a little because I’m having so much fun with this new line! Love the bold classic images and the great sentiments. Check them out here…. Store, Gallery. If you’d like to play along with today’s challenge…Michele Boyer was kind enough to step in earlier and post it for me…you can check it out at WT155. Thanks Michele!

Love Me Tender

Well, my five year old woke up this morning with a fever and the flu and I wasn’t quite feeling myself as well. I felt a little better after I’d been up a while and got Ben back to bed so I thought I’d create a fun quick scrappy card for today’s challenge. This Elvis design uses the Jumpsuit Silhouette and Love Me Tender stamps. Simple black stamping using Black Palette Ink makes it super quick. A little stitched cord around the silhouette highlights it and was super quick to do. I’m really disappointed about how this photo came out. It just does not do the card justice.

Quick Tip: Use the negative shapes from die cut chipboard sheets to trace shapes for piecing and stitching patterns. It gives you extra mileage from that chipboard package. The heart shape used here was traced from a Basic Grey chipboard package after I had used the heart on another project.

I’m keeping this post short and sweet as I need to get back to my little guys. For the product list…see below. Have a great day!

Supply List

Stamps: Jumpsuit Silhouette & Love Me Tender (Elvis Line) - Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink: Black - Stewart Superior

Cardstock: Black - Bazzill

Patterned Paper: Mellow 6×6 paper pack (red circle paper) - Basic Grey, Laurel line “Sailmaker Lane” (Star paper) - Scenic Route Paper Co.

Other: Music Transparency - Hambly Screen Prints, circle template - EK Success, copper cord, felt shape and arrow chipboard - Maya Road, rhinestone sticker - MAMBI, heart brads - Making Memories

I just wanted to pop back in today and tell you about a great new Inspirational Easter line that Cornish Heritage Farms launched yesterday. Aimee Nugent is our latest artist addition and you are going to adore her style. I’m really excited about her inspirational line. It’s fresh and new and is just what I’ve found lacking in the market! Both the great backgrounders released last Friday are also designed by Aimee. If you do wish to purchase any of these new stamps…the best way to find them is with a search using “Easter” or “Inspirational” in the store search engine. Make sure you also stop by the CHF gallery and check out the great samples some of our design team have made.

Rejoice!

I thought this design would work great with today’s sketch challenge layout...SC165. I decided to keep this design light and fresh by using a lot of white cardstock mixed up with some beautiful Two Scoops Patterned paper by Basic Grey. Stamps used are Rejoice Circle and Double Delicate Lily. The center of the lilies was lightly colored with a subtle green Copic Marker and the edges of my layers sponged with Weathered Wood Distress Ink to define the edges.

A few embellishments were then added to take the card design from simple and make it special. I love the Making Memories velvet brads and I added a soft green one to the center of my Prima flower. Five little Dew Drops were then added to balance the design and also a few rows of freestyle stitching up the right side for the same reason. My last embellishment addition was a little scrap of ribbon tied and adhered to the flower stem.

Thanks for stopping by! Check back in tomorrow for a very different look and a rockin challenge.

I just love checking out new craft books and magazines! In the best ones, there is always a wealth of inspiration to be found. I recently had the opportunity to review a book for Craft Critique and chose one I’ve been wanting to buy since I first heard of it. I love working from sketch layouts and when I heard that Tami Mayberry had designed the sketches for the CardMaker’s Sketch Book it made the top of my wishlist. Tami also designs the sketches each week for the Card Positioning Systems blog. For more information and the whole review…you can check out my article on Craft Critique today. For the instructions for one of the designs…just look below.

Friendship Wishes

For this design, I followed one of the sketch layouts in the above book. I love this layout and can honestly say I never would have come up with it on my own. I just love those little sentiment panels! To create this card, I used my Birdie Collection Crate Paper again and stamped on it. Actually…this card uses a grand total of NO cardstock. What I love about Crate Paper is their solid reverse side and I created my card base from the striped patterned paper. I know you can’t see it but the stripes are folded to the inside leaving a warm taupe base for the outside. I love how it adds to the inside of the card design.

I couldn’t resist adding a little stamping to the patterned paper. The Crate Paper stamps on so well with its beautiful matte textured finish. I used three different stamp sets from Cornish Heritage Farms. The flower is from the Kim Hughes Silhouette Blooms 1 set, the ornamental shape is from Time to Stamp (The Rummage Bin line) and the sentiments come from the new Mona Lisa Moments Classic Essential Expressions set. For my inks I used the Burnt Umber Palette Ink by Stewart Superior and the Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink from Ranger.

To finish it all off…I just had to add in a few of my favorite things…a little freestyle stitching with brown thread, some darling little buttons from My Mind’s Eye and a small white hydrangea flower from Prima Marketing.

Sending out some warm wishes today to you, my friends! Have a wonderful day!