Reveal Day!

Today's the big day...the full reveal of the new Front Porch Kit from The Little Blue House!

As usual, there are tons of creative papers, embellishments and other materials to inspire you. Check out the Little Blue House blog to see all the fabulous goodies that are packed into this kit and leave a comment to win a FREE kit!

Ready to see what I made?

First off, a double layout with lots of photos. I don't do that many double layouts, so they're kind of a challenge for me. But the colors in the kit papers all just really worked together...

I loved the Scrabble tiles and wanted to find a way to incorporate them, so I added our initials inside the slide frames.

There are also some chalkboard embellishments in this kit, including chalk tape, which I used to handwrite part of my title.

The surface in this kit is a fun little clipboard from Pebbles (we're calling him Chip!), and I turned it into a wall hanging to show off one of my favorite photos.

I added a poker chip and some ribbon to the metal part, and I tore a strip of the fabric in the kit to tie around the bottom.

Next up is another layout. Just a silly photo Avery and I took one day in the car when we were waiting for Cecily to arrive.

One of the things I loved about working with this kit is that it really works with any photos you want to use. You don't have to make them all about games! And here you'll see another bit of chalk paper that I doodled some arrows onto. (I'm not much of a doodler, but I can handle arrows!)

There's some really cool foil tape that I punched the flower shapes out of. Fun to play with! And shiny, too!

Finally, here's my bonus project. I wanted to do something fun with the deck of cards in the kit. As I was looking at the box, I thought "Hey, I could make this box into a book cover and use the cards as the pages!" So it became a little bit of a personal challenge to see if I could really do it, but it actually worked pretty well.

Since it was a package of "Bicycle" cards (and also because of the red, white and blue color scheme), I decided to use photos of my kids riding their bikes in the 4th of July Parade. See, I'm tricky like that!

I used scraps of papers from the kit, along with chalk tape to finish it off. It's one of those projects that looks super-complicated, but it's actually pretty easy to whip out.

For more ideas and project photos, be sure to check out the Inspiration Gallery at The Little Blue House website, where you can also order your own Game On kit!

A great escape

A piece of advice: when your kitchen is a dirty, empty shell of a room awaiting renovations, the best possible thing you can do is get out of town! Bonus points if you can work out a way to do your favorite thing while you're away.

Several months ago, I was invited to a craft retreat for this weekend and, not having any idea what stage our renovation would be in, I accepted. Fast forward to August 9. As I was packing my bags to leave my construction-in-progress house, I thought: could we have timed this any better?

I'm kind of amazed at all the pages/projects I've gotten done, all while enjoying home-cooked meals and a snack table that's overflowing with all the treats I never allow myself to eat. Yeah. It's heaven.

My count for the weekend:

• 9 scrapbook pages (probably more like 11 by the time I leave today)
• 1 mini book
• 1 altered clipboard

I won't share my calorie count. Besides, I lost count of that somewhere around 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Oops.

So I'll be sharing photos of the project I created over the next week, but for today, here's another peek of one of my projects with the new Front Porch Kit that will be released on Tuesday.

Be sure to visit the Little Blue House blog where you can see more sneak peeks of the kit as we count down to the full reveal on Tuesday, Aug. 13. You can also enter to win a FREE kit by commenting on the sneak posts there!

Sneak Peek!

It's time for a new Front Porch Kit from The Little Blue House!

Today starts all the fun, with sneak peeks of some projects we've created. Here's my sneak for the day:

So many fun things to play with in this kit. You are going to LOVE IT!
 
Ready to see some more peeks and maybe even win your own kit? 

Visit the LBH blog and post a comment on any of the three Sneak Peek dates, and you'll be entered into a drawing for a FREE Game On Kit!

And please come back tomorrow for a few more peeks before the BIG reveal on Tuesday, Aug. 13!

Upcoming Classes...in Texas AND Charlotte, NC!

It's been a busy summer, to say the least. Yes, I've been crafting away in my little upstairs nook. Meanwhile, our downstairs is undergoing a pretty major renovation to create a new master bath and updated kitchen. But that's a whole other post...

Today, I'm super excited to share some upcoming class news!

First, I've been working with Tracy at The Little Blue House to create my own series of classes. It's called Fab Five and each class will feature five brand-new techniques that you can incorporate into your future projects. Of course, we'll be playing with some tools, including the best and latest from We R Memory Keepers. But we'll also be creating a great piece to take home with you...from mini books and layouts to cards and home decor.

Here's a peek at the class that's coming up on August 20:

 The class features a 6x8 mini book with a fold-over magnetic closure and spiral binding.

Inside, there are tons of layers and textures to keep things interesting. You might even spot a few of the techniques I'm sharing...

We'll be using the Beautiful Life line from Echo Park Paper (so pretty!), along with some goodies from Maya Road, May Arts, Queen and Company and Canvas Corp. This kit is FULL of fun stuff!

The class is on August 20 at The Little Blue House, and registration is open now. Stop by the shop or call 817-431-7930 to reserve your spot!

Also, registration for Stitch Craft Create Live in Charlotte, North Carolina, opened this week! I'm teaching three classes on Oct. 25-26. You can see photos of all of them on the SCCL website, but here's a peek at my current favorite that I developed just for this event:

The covers are made from cork, which is so easy and fun to work with and adds such great texture. This class features the Photo Freedom Volume 2 collection from Echo Park Paper.

If you're in the Charlotte area (or are up for a little road trip!), check out all the details here.

Hope to see you in class!

The Great Purge of 2013

Remember back in September when we moved into the new house? It took me nearly a month to pack up my carefully organized (well, kind of organized) craft room.

It went from this...

to this...

to this...

to this. Sniff, sniff.

After about a month in the new house, the projects were piling up. CHA was only a few months away. New product rolling in. I was forced to get the room unpacked. So I got it to this point...

It's now June. Another CHA is looming and I've just finished the first round of convention classes. The room is a nightmare.

It's time for an intervention. I can't work like this. I need order. I need organization. I need a calmer rug on the floor. (Sheesh, that thing is ugly!)

And so it's time. Conveniently, my kids are out of town for the next week. Most moms would be ready to let loose and party like there's no tomorrow. Me? I just want my craft room clean and organized.

Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

It's all about the details

Well, I did it again. I created a whole slew of classes that are way more complicated than I originally intended for them to be. Conveniently, I had this "epiphany" last night, less than 12 hours before I was set to teach the first class.

I got to the classroom an hour early, determined to somehow make up for my overly ambitious class-creating by making sure everything was perfectly in line. And it was. For the first class...

In the end, everything turned out okay. In fact, it was better than okay. Verging on awesome.

Partly because I had 60 amazing (AMAZING!) students who appreciated all the stupidly complex details I put into the projects and executed them to a tee! And also because I had two freaking amazing (volunteer) assistants who rocked my world, working their butts off to help every single student get every single one of those crazy details into their project. Thank you Barb and Judy!

Today's experience reinforced one central point: I love teaching. I really, really love it. It fills me up with all kinds of happy.

So there will be more teaching, and more projects that are probably more ambitious than they should be. But that's just who I am. I don't do simple.

And hopefully -- fingers crossed -- I will see some familiar faces in future classes. In addition to Stitch Craft Create in Charlotte, I'm working on a few opportunities to teach in the DFW area.

Stay tuned...I will be posting future classes here and on my Facebook page.

In the meantime, now that I'm done making kits for my classes (did I mention they were crazy complicated?), maybe I'll have some time to post some actual work on this blog. We can only hope.

Oopsie

My brain doesn't work the way it used to. I blame it on having kids. Pregnancy and childbirth have been scientifically linked to the loss of brain cells. Really!

Aaaaanyway...

These are the three layouts I created with the Say Cheese kit from The Little Blue House.

I used the plastic rings in the kits as masks and sprayed over them with Maya Mist to create the background.

See the wooden camera piece? I created that patina effect by first misting it green and then pressing it onto a black stamp pad.

Fun and quick layout using the Sn@p collection from Simple Stories and layering my Instagram photos onto the printed frames. 

These Maya Road banner pieces were fun to layer with papers and fabric.

I struggled with this one a bit because the "Say Cheese" title was originally a deep golden yellow and it just wasn't working for me. So I misted over it with blue to get more of a turquoise color. It was a "Make It Work Moment" in my craft room.

 

I've been playing with paint droplets lately. The trick is to dilute the black acrylic with a tiny bit of water to get a nice fat drop. I haven't mastered it yet, but I'm getting better.

I had some ribbon scraps left over, so I stapled them around the paper clip.

I seriously thought I'd posted these, but no. Never happened. Sorry about that. Better late than never, I guess.

Have a great weekend!

Life documented

Sometimes I look at the growing collection of scrapbooks on my shelf (and the growing stack of pages waiting to be put into said scrapbooks), and I think: why do I keep making these things?

Well, (a) it's fun! It's my little creative blast of energy after a long week of delivering the mass emails and corporate-sounding videos that make my work customers happy.

But the more visionary answer is (b) I'm capturing little moments in our lives that are fun to look back on. Because they go WAY too fast!

Case in point: I made this layout for the CHA show back in January, using the For The Record collection from We R Memory Keepers.

I listed out the likes/dislikes of each member of our family.

So my list hasn't changed, but Avery now thinks Webkins are "so yesterday."

And Cecily is done with Gap. Apparently Old Navy is where the cool kids are shopping now. Guess I missed the memo.

Thank goodness I captured these important, yet fleeting, moments of "likes." Three months later and this page is completely out-of-date.


Oh, and in case you're wondering how I made that cool notched punch at the top of each tag, We R Memory Keepers has a punch for that now. It's called the Euro Hook Power Punch and it's shipping now.

Thanks for stopping by!

Good Friday

Happy Good Friday to those who are celebrating Easter this weekend! I have a few spring-themed projects to share from the We R Memory Keepers Simply Spring collection.

This is a Cinch book I made to hold Easter photos. I love using the binding spirals with the Cinch -- so easy to get this really professional looking binding!

Next, a couple of layouts I created using WRMK's awesome punches. This one uses the Classic Wreath Lucky 8 punch. I also punched the journaling spot center out of the frame so I could use it for the photo.

This layout features the Doily 2-Edge Punch, which they debuted on HSN in February. The cool thing about this punch is you can do a circle, oval, border, or even just punch one corner, as I did here. I backed it with a patterned background paper for extra pop.

I altered this round gift box by making a 3-D flower to go on top. I just punched some circles, pleated them at one end to form the leaves and layered in a circle to get this effect. I finished it off with some ribbon and chipboard tags.

And finally, a cute Easter card that shows how all these beautiful patterns can be mixed together. I used a Kraft base to keep the background neutral, then went crazy playing with all the colors. It's a bit hard to see, but I used the Sew Easy tool to create the looped stitches along the left side.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Front Porch Friday

Happy Friday! It's Front Porch Friday at The Little Blue House, which means I get to share one of the projects I created with the Say Cheese kit for this month.

In this kit were two pocket folders, and I quickly got out my scissors and started cutting into them. I cut them long ways in half and unglued the pockets to create this mini book.

I covered the outer folder with the yellow chevron fabric, just like a fancy journal.

Then I used the wide ribbon to cover the seam and wound black cord around the various folders, inside and out, to secure the pages to the inside of the book.

I embellished the cover by painting the chipboard camera black and creating a pleated fabric flower to put behind it. I finished it off with a button and the "Oh Snap" speech bubble that I cut from the patterned paper.
 

The inside is fairly plain, just waiting for me to add some of my favorite Instagram photos. I used the Simple Stories papers to stay with the photo theme and still stay true to the pocket folder style.
 

Have you purchased your Say Cheese kit yet? Better hurry...last I heard they were flying out the door at The Little Blue House. You can order online, too!

Have a great weekend!

A few more sneaks...

I hate Mondays. Seriously. Hate them.

But there is one glimmer of happiness on this particular Monday.

ONLY ONE MORE DAY TO THE BIG REVEAL OF:

 
It's such a fun kit, and every time I look at the projects I made with it, I just feel happy. Even on a Monday.

How about a little sneak?

And for those who hate Mondays as much as me, how about I throw in an extra bit of sunshine in the form of an extra sneak!

Tomorrow's the BIG day! Full kit reveals will be on the Little Blue House blog where you can enter for your chance to win a kit for free. You can purchase your Say Cheese kit here and visit the Gallery for photos of all the design team projects.

I'll be posting more projects -- full details -- throughout the week, so be sure to visit me again soon!