Belle Papier {pretty paper}

Today’s post combines a double challenge. Today’s Ways to Use it Challenge and also, a year long challenge I’m working on each month. This challenge is called the Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge and Lori Craig put out the challenge to anyone who wanted to jump in. I’ve been creating a Maya Road chipboard book. Each chipboard page is covered with patterned paper, has a passage that I’ve memorized and means something to me and I get to have fun embellishing it. I know this project will be one I’ll treasure always. So many times we make cards or projects that we send away. This one I’m making just for me and adding in as many shabby goodies as I like.

Today’s Ways to Use it Challenge is a rerun….finding ways to use chipboard. I had a request for some ideas and as I always love my chipboard… Pull yours out too and have some fun! Play along with the challenge at WT165.

Two Sparrows Page

I’ve been using patterned paper from the Basic Grey Stella Ruby 6×6 paper pad on each page of this album. I love the shabby look and beautiful colors and it all ties together so nicely when you use one line for a project. My verses are from Matthew 10:29-31 and I printed them out onto some Natural Smooth cardstock on my computer. To add subtle interest without taking away from the words, I added in some flowers from the Silhouette Blooms 1 stamp set by Cornish Heritage Farms.

As for chipboard…well, I love my chipboard! This album is a 6×6 Maya Road Chipboard album with a binder clip binding. I love how easy it is to take the pages in and out to alter. To add more chipboard to my design, I added a little chipboard arrow to highlight the verse that really means something to me. Another chipboard element is one you’ve probably seen lots of in my designs….the Maya road chipboard flourish. I LOVE these! This one is painted with Tim Hotlz Distress Crackle Paint in Antique Linen.

Now did you see the sparrow that ties into my verse? This sparrow is from Asela’s Bird Sampler set and I’ve stamped it right on the top left corner on my patterned paper. To tie my design together with the previous page, I used some the same elements and colors to make it flow. All those blue Autumn Leaves buttons carry through perfectly as well as the Prima flowers. While I didn’t use brown circles on this page like the last, I did anchor this side of the design with a layer of K I Memories dark brown die cut paper.

Lastly, a few thoughts on the verse I chose…these verses are precious to me. To know that God knows everything about me, even the number of hairs on my head… incredible! Some times in your life are difficult but how wonderful to know that God knows everything about me and will be with me for everything to come.

Blessings to you today!

Julia

I just love Stazon Ink! I used my favorite two must-haves from the Stazon line for this design…Black and Cotton White. They are sooo flexible and I just love stamping on clear transparencies. The design below is stamped on CHF’s new Clear Card Sheets. I’m so thrilled with them. They make for a quick “wow” card and as they are at least twice as thick as regular transparencies, stand up well.

Today’s design is part of our weekly Monday challenge. You never know quite what you are going to get as we switch it up each week. If you have some Stazon Ink and want to play along…we’d love to have you join us. Here’s the Challenge… Stazon Ink is the Cornish Heritage Farms’ Product Spotlight for the next two weeks. I’ve written up a short spotlight on product highlights and tips if you want to check it out HERE.

Quick Update: My dad is doing much better. We hope to have him out of Trauma today and into a regular ward. Thanks so much for all the wishes and prayers! We really appreciate them!

Rare and Wonderful

As I mentioned above, this card is made from the new Clear Card Sheets by Cornish Heritage Farms. Each sheet comes as an 8.5 x 11 sheet so you can get two cards per sheet. I stamped the Friend Centers sentiment in black Stazon on the front of the card design. This sentiment is from one of three quote/sentiment sets designed by Lisa Strahl that will be released tomorrow. I’m just loving all the quotes! This sentiment in particular is one of my favorites. When I read it, I immediately thought of a good friend of mine and designed this card for her.

To create the image behind the sentiment, I simply stamped some foliage from the Nature Silhouettes set in Cotton White Stazon on the reverse side. A small light purple Prima flower actually inspired this soft design. I adhered it beside the sentiment and added a rhinestone sticker for a simple but pretty embellishment.

Inside the design, I wanted a way to hide my writing so I attached a folded over piece of Sultry patterned paper. To add some inside interest, I stitched the bottom of the flap and perched a little white felt bird. I love how you can see all the different layers from the front.

Want some more Stazon inspiration? Be sure to check out some other designs from this challenge…

-Lisa Silver
-Kim Hughes
-Dawn Lusk
-Kristine
-Julie Campbell
-Valerie Stangle
-Lisa Stahl

-Sherrie Siemens

Have a wonderful day!

Julia

Supply List:

Tools:
-sewing machine 

I’m seriously LOVIN’ this eagle! Does Kim rock or what?!I just love the fun attitude and couldn’t wait to play with this stamp. These stamps, Proud Eagle and Script Freedom are the Cornish Heritage Farms Stamp of the Month for May. I paired them up with this fun Ways to Use it Challenge suggested to me last week. We’ve done the crimping before…a LONG time ago and this time we’re pairing it up with ruffles and pleats. I can’t wait to see all the texture in the galleries today! Come join us for today’s WT challenge HERE.

Freedom

I decided to “ruffle a few feathers” on this eagle (sorry, couldn’t resist )and stamped him three times on my vanilla patterned paper. I cut him out three times, the first time the entire eagle, the second time leaving everything except for his bottom layer of feathers and finally, just the top beak and eyelid to get a three dimensional effect. After coloring with my Copic Markers, I layered him and adhered it all together with foam tape.

To create my pleats…I simply cut out two 3/4″ x 11 pieces of cardstock and started folding. I adhered them together in the middle as you need at least one and a half lengths to span across a 5″ card panel. Once pleated, I carefully fed it through my sewing machine and zig zag stitched. I adhered it to the design last.

To finish off my design, I stapled on some great jumbo ric rak and added a star brad…both from Creative Impressions.

Quick Tip: Transparency Die-cuts are showing up everywhere in the market. Why not make your own with stamps? Simply stamp Clear Card Sheets (much heavier) or transparencies with Stazon Ink and cut out.

Have a fabulous day!

Julia

Supply List:

Stamps:
-Proud Eagle and Script Freedom (May Stamp of the Month) by Cornish Heritage Farms
- star from Supah Star (Kim Hughes line) By Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink:
-Black Stazon - Tsukineko
-Black Palette ink - Stewart Superior
-Brushed Corduroy Distress ink - Ranger

Cardstock:
-Natural Smooth, Blush REd Dark - Prism

Patterned Paper:
-Boxer 6×6 paper pad by Basic Grey

Accessories:
-markers by Copic
-Clear Card Sheets - Cornish Heritage Farms
-ric rak by Creative Impressions
-brad by Creative Impressions

Tools:
-stapler
-sewing machine

I’m so excited about this new challenge! I’ve been wanting to do more scrapbooking and this is just the push I need. Layouts are half the battle for me so this new challenge is the perfect solution. Every other Wednesday at CHF, we’re having a new layout challenge. Our first layout is designed by Lesley Langdon and I’m just loving it. I never would have thought of it myself! So I’m challenging you to play along! Just create your own layout inspired by Lesley’s and post it. Now when I say inspired…that means you have all kinds of freedom. Change it to suit your photos. I made mine a little larger and flipped the layout so that my photos would be on the right side. I thought for my photos, it just worked better that way. Make sure you link your layouts HERE so that we don’t miss any! We can’t wait to see!

In case you don’t already know…I wanted to tell you that this Saturday May 3rd is National Scrapbooking Day. We couldn’t let the day go by without having a little fun so we’ve planned some activities at Cornish Heritage Farms from noon till 3 EST. Chat with Becky Olsen and Kim Hughes, ask your scrapbooking questions, participate in some scrapping challenges, learn with a scrap tutorial and of course, we’d like to share some goodies with you…stop in for a chance to win some cool goodies. Not a scrapper? Stop by for the fun anyway and give it a whirl. We have some great ideas for getting started using supplies you already own as well as ideas for making it easy! It’s all happening in our Scrap Chat forum. Hope to see you there!
Beautiful Moments to Remember

I’ve been dying to use some of the new Basic Grey Sultry paper that I picked up at my local Scrapbook store the other day. This layout challenge worked perfectly for it and it was so simple to pull my color scheme right from that paisley paper. To create this design, I just kept working on it little by little to build up the elements. I think my favorite detail is the title. I stamped my Beautiful Moments to Remember sentiments with black Stazon onto a CHF Clear Card Sheet panel. I brushed on some white acrylic paint around the edges and under the words on the reverse side to make them stand out against the dark backdrop. Another fun idea I just had to try out was scrap-lifted from Becky Olsen. I just loved how she stitched here journaling lines on one of her layouts. As you know…I LOVE to stitch! My journaling was written with a white Signo gel pen. Not perfect, but I’m getting over that fear of writing on my layouts.

Jump in and play along with us. Here’s some of the other takes on this challenge…

-Lesley Langdon
-Kim Hughes
-Kristine Reynolds
-Becky Olsen
-Dawn Lusk
-Alli Miles
-Lisa Silver

Thanks for stopping in! Have a beautiful day!

Julia

Supply List:
Stamps:
-Beautiful sentiment and flourish from the Beautiful stamp set (THe Rummage Bin line) by Cornish Heritage Farms
-Film Strip stamp and scallops from the Photo Op stamp set (THe Rummage Bin line) by Cornish Heritage Farms
-Live Life Wisely sentiment from the Time to Stamp stamp set (THe Rummage Bin line) by Cornish Heritage Farms
-foliage from Nature Silhouettes (Kim Hughes line) by Cornish Heritage Farms
-Spanish Script Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink:
Burnt Umber & Canvas Palette Ink by Stewart Superior
-Black Stazon by Tsukineko
-Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink by Ranger

Cardstock:
Pink and Suede Brown Dark by Prism Papers

Patterned Paper:
Sultry Line by Basic Grey

Accessories:
-CHF Clear Card Sheets by Cornish Heritage Farms
-dotted Gaffer Tape by 7 Gypsies
-flourish chipboard by Maya Road
-flowers by Prima Marketing
-buttons by My Mind’s Eye
-Shabby Shutters Distress Crackle Paint by Ranger
-clip by Making Memories
-ribbon by Creative Impressions
-white acrylic paint

Tools:
-corner rounder
-sewing machine

Well…I’m coming to this challenge VERY late! The other challenge designs were posted this morning at 10. Due to some family issues that cropped up, I had thought I’d just have to pass this one by. Well…I found myself with some design time this afternoon and also a new package of goodies. Don’t you love it when that happens?! Some fresh inspiration. I’m not sure if I’d have thought of this design without the challenge and my new goodies arriving but here it is. Actually…I’m pretty excited about this design. Thomas Kinkade plus Inchies plus Chalks….what do you think?!

The Heavens Declare…

This design was actually really fairly simple to do. Chalking is a great way to color the Thomas Kinkade images by Cornish Heritage Farms. This image is The Open Gate stamp. I inked it well with Stewart Superior Burnt Umber Palette ink. Before stamping my inchies…I added a tiny dab of adhesive on the back of my inchies and adhered them to a scrap piece of paper without any spaces between them. After inking, I simply stamped my image and made sure to get a good even pressure…actually…I used the floor and pressed down hard with both hands. Using my Pebbles Chalks, I lightly dabbed on color to create a soft faded misty look. I didn’t have the exact colors in chalks that Thomas Kinkade used on his painting but that is OK. Every garden is different!

After I finished, I carefully pried up each tile and adhered them to my Prism Kraft cardstock with a slight space between. My sentiment is actually from a different Thomas Kinkade release. I love how they can be mixed and matched in many instances. Finally…I simply adhered my image layer to a clean white card base.

Want to play along? Feel free! I’ve written a thread in the CHF forums HERE. For more great chalking designs…check out these links….

-Lisa Silver
-Kim Hughes
-Dawn Lusk
-Kristine
-Julie Campbell
-Lori Craig
-Lesley Langdon
-Valerie Stangle

Take care and have a great day!

Julia

Well, as Saturday just did not go as planned…I’m sharing this card design for Simply Sunday instead. After a crazy busy week of Backgrounder Blitzin’ I really needed to take a break. Add that to a touch of the flu that popped up late in the day,well…that’s life. Also, trying to find that balance between blogging, designing, working and family is always a challenge. I’ve said before that I may be posting slightly less in order to manage it all and I’m really going to have to follow through on that. So…if I don’t post every day like usual, everything is still good. Don’t worry.

Inspire Daisy

This simple design was inspired by a Di Hickman sketch challenge a couple weeks ago. Yes…I did make it then and am just getting around to posting it now. It’s a great simple design that is very flexible. Here’s the link.

Once again, I used my new Shady Daisy Backgrounder stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms to create this quick card. I hope you’re not tired of seeing it as I love it! The daisy backgrounder is simply stamped in black directly onto some Basic Grey “plain” patterned paper from Scarlet’s Letter 6×6 paper pack. The coordinating stripes run down the side. A Heidi Swapp flower and designer snap by We R Memory Keepers finish off this quick design.

Hoping your day is simply beautiful,

Today’s post is a quick one but with three designs to share with you. Before I do that I just wanted to tell you how excited I am about today’s Backgrounder Blitz Challenge. It’s the final one and the release of two beautiful new Backgrounder stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. Now why am I so excited about this challenge? The stunning designs created for it of course! This challenge is Anything but a Card and if you’ve ever wanted some more ideas on how you can use Backgrounder stamps, this is the place!!!! I tell you…my eyes are still bulging! There’s still time to play along with the challenge.

As for the card designs…I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to create anything new that I’m able to share. These designs were all published in the March edition of Cards magazine and as it is now April, I can share them. Most of them are pretty quick cards to create. Don’t be afraid to create quick cards!

Flourished Thanks

(stamp set from Kitchen Sink Stamps)

Unite

Spring is in the Air

Happy Friday! Hope you have a great weekend!

I just had to get this darling Baked with Love stamp set inky! It’s so sweet and so much fun! Perfect for altered kitchen projects, layouts and fun gifts. I decided to pair up a couple challenges this morning with this set. I went for a simple homespun look. After all…I’d use this card with a homemade goody. You don’t want to be spending all day on the card as well.

For You

The challenges I used for this design are today’s sketch challenge at SCS and the Backgrounder Blitz challenge of the day at Cornish Heritage Farms. The challenge was Doubletime…a challenge to use two backgrounders or one backgrounder two ways. I stamped my Houndstooth backgrounder on the Baby Blue Light cardstock and then stamped over top with my Canvas Backgrounder for a textured fabric look.

Quick Tip: When stitching your designs, use card fronts. Simply create your design on one layer and stitch and add your embellishments. Adhere over a neutral card base and all your stitching will be hidden.

Want to see what else is “cooking” at my house?! While uploading this entry, my little guy was hard at work making a picnic on the floor. He’s the sweetest! Although I’m not quite sure how we’re going to eat that huge box of unpopped popcorn and the cans of soup!

Now I’m off for that picnic! Have a fabulous day!

Julia

Do you like sketch challenges? I love them! I think they are right up there with my favorite challenges and no one likes a challenge more than I. It’s Monday again and to start the week off, we have a CHF Challenge every Monday. Today’s is a sketch challenge by Lesley Langdon and we’re inviting you to play along. You can check out the sketch and details here.

Live Laugh Love

I combined today’s sketch challenge with a Backgrounder Blitz Challenge . Today’s challenge is stamping on anything but paper. I had this gorgeous thick felt flower that I picked up at Scrapfest the other weekend with Lesley. Isn’t shopping with a friend fun?! You can split packages of product and try out twice the amount of goodies! I stamped on this flower using Canvas Hybrid ink by Stewart Superior using my Grid Paper Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms. I actually used four backgrounders on this design. The Large Polka Dots to make my background, the Lined Paper to break up my design and the Scalloped Lace to balance the right edge.

Some funky stitching, some fun ribbon and a safety pin from Creative Impressions and a few Rummage Bin stamps finish off the design.

Have fun checking out the other designs created for this challenge…

-Lisa Silver
-Kim Hughes
-Dawn Lusk
-Kristine
-Sherrie Siemens
-Julie Campbell
-Lori Craig
-Lisa Strahl
-Lesley Langdon
-Valerie Stangle

Hope you have a fabulous day!

-Supply List:
Stamps:
-Lined backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms
-Grid Paper Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms
-Scalloped Lace backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms
- Large Polka Dots backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms
-The Ticket Booth (The Rummage Bin line) by Cornish Heritage Farms
-sentiment from Primitive Beginnings (The Rummage Bin Line) By CHF

Ink:
- Sea Breeze Versamagic chalk ink by Tsukineko
-Burnt Umber & New Canvas Palette Ink by Stewart Superior
-Color box white pigment ink by Clearsnap

Cardstock:
-Frosted Teal cardstock by Prism

Accessories:
-felt flower
-ribbon by Creative Impressions
-safety pin by Creative Impressions

Tools: sewing machine
-stapler

Well, it’s Simply Saturday again and today has not been so simple! So much to do! I’m finally getting time to upload this SUPER simple card I pulled together. I’ve been working hard on the house all day and I think my creativity is rather zapped! LOL This design uses a Backgrounder stamp for today’s sketch challenge at Cornish Heritage Farms. CHF is having a  Backgrounder Blitz. I’d never inked any of these stamps yet and thought I’d try them out together. It’s so simple I’m not going to say much about it except the image was first stamped then masked before stamping my Backgrounder.

You’re the King

Hope your weekend is simply wonderful!

Julia

Supply List:
Stamps:
Elvis Portrait by Cornish Heritage Farms
You’re the King (Elvis line)by Cornish Heritage Farms
Card Suits Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage FArms

Paper: Frosted Teal, black - Prism Papers

Ink:
Black - Stewart Superior
Silver Versamagic - Tsukineko

Accessories
-black velvet ribbon - Creative Impressions
-Pin by Fancy Pants Designs
-chipboard crown - Maya Road

Technique:
-masking