Lucky in Love

Happy Valentine's Day! Whether or not you celebrate this holiday, you can't help but be amazed at all the ways people express their love on this day. Flowers, chocolates, singing telegrams...the list goes on and on.

As for me, I'm hoping for something sweet and a few more hugs than normal. And maybe, just maybe, the ability to sneak away from work for a few hours to attend the classroom parties at the girls' school. Something about kids exchanging valentines makes me giddy.

In the spirit of the day, I'll share with you a whole slew of projects I created with the Crazy for You collection from We R Memory Keepers.

 

I fell in love (literally!) with this collection the minute I got it because of the rich pinks and reds. But then I saw the black chevron paper and my heart skipped a beat.

 

Tip: layer some different sizes of die-cut shapes with a strip of adhesive down the center only, then fold the sides up a bit to create this pop-up effect. Great on a card or layout!

How will you be celebrating the love(s) of your life today?

Movin' on

Is it procrastination or just a serious case of denial that's prevented me from packing up my craft room? Every other room in our house is disassembled and packed, yet my scrap space is amazingly intact (except for a few empty shelves here and there).

I can't hold off much longer. We have one week to finish packing and get out of our current house. So tonight it will happen. Big time packing going down. I'll take some photos of the before, during and after.

But I do have a few projects to share. These are from my guest design spot at Ruby Rock-It last month. They sent me the August Moon collection, which has this fun, die-cut glitter paper. I think I used that one sheet in about four different ways.

For the layout, I cut sections of it for the background...
 

...and I cut the title letters from it using my Cameo. 

For the card, I punched a scalloped circle to use behind the butterfly. I also handcut the smaller sun shape that's behind the pink button.

By that time, I was pretty much out of the glitter paper, so I did some other fussy cutting on this layered card.

I love it when I can incorporate a bird somewhere along the way.

Now it's back to the packing. Wish me luck!

Hip Hoppin' with Unity and My Little Shoebox

Hello and thanks for hopping with the My Little Shoebox team today. We are so pleased to share our new Co-Branded stamps with Unity Stamp Co. Make sure you leave a comment on each blog to win one of the fabulous prizes from Unity Stamp Co. and My Little Shoebox. Winners will be chosen at random from the participating blogs.

For all my fellow butterfly-lovers out there, I created a card using the Secret Garden collection from My Little Shoebox, along with the adorable butterfly background stamp from Unity.

I was feeling sassy, so I decided to get a little crazy and...wait for it...EMBOSS! Yes, I pulled out the heat gun just for you. And all the extra particles of metallic blue embossing powder all over my white table? Totally worth it! Take a look:

The stamp made a perfectly crisp, clean image for the emboss, and I added a coordinating cardstock sticker to make one of the butterflies stand out. I trimmed around the edge and adhered to the card, using foam tape to leave a little room for the lace trim that wraps around the edges.

The finishing touch: a printed sentiment layered onto a cardstock label sticker.

 

Now it’s time for me to send you on over to Lisa Arana’s blog. But don't forget to leave a comment here for your chance to win a great prize!

And if you're joining somewhere in the middle of the hop, here's the full list of participating blogs that you can visit for more inspiration, and more chances to win!

My Little Shoebox
Andrea Murdock
Beckie Dreyer
Angie Blom
Carisa Zglobicki
Grace Tolman
Eryn Hannig
Erika Taylor
Jen Erickson
Linda Kretz
Jennifer Roach
Megan Aaron
Jimmi Mayo
Monique Liedtke
Jolande van Oosterhout
Pattie Beltran
Karen Maldonado
Robyn Schaub  <<===YOU ARE HERE
Lisa Arana
Rô Philippsen
Lisa Henke
Jenifer Cowles
Renee Aslette
Shellye McDaniel
Keely Yowler
Shemaine Smith
Shilo Miles
Carol Theng
Stephanie Muzzulin
Thienly Azim
Zoe Nemburt
Unity Stamp Company

Thanks for hopping along with us!

July Flies!

I've been so busy creating for CHA and chasing my girls around this month that I haven't had time to blog. In fact, as this post goes live, I will be waking up in Chicago and getting ready to walk the floor at CHA Summer -- seeking out all the fabulous new products and lines that will be taking all my money (and probably some of yours, too) over the next few months.

There are so many fun projects I can't wait to share with you, including layouts using the new 12x12 Washi Sheets from We R Memory Keepers. Prediction: These are going to be one of the most talked-about products from CHA. They are so awesome, and I can't wait to show you what I did with them!

But until then, I'll leave you with a few projects I did before the CHA frenzy hit my house. I used the We R Memory Keepers Red, White & Blue collection to scrap photos from our local 4th of July parade.

My favorite thing about this layout is the grommets. They have just a little bit of sparkle and are a perfect complement to the twine. Just loop it through and tie a bow...instant awesome.

See that die-cut circle in the background? That's one of the new Mini 8 punches -- it's the Snowflake. Bet you didn't expect to see snowflakes in July, huh! I figure they look a little like stars and pinwheels, so why not?

I love all the fun embellishments in this collection, and you can't help but feel patriotic when you're working with these colors. So while I had all the papers out, I created another card for Operation Write Home:

Be sure to get your Operation Write Home cards sent off by July 24, 2012, at midnight! That's just one week. For complete details about how to submit your cards, visit:
http://www.weronthenet.com/Operation_Write_Home_Submit

I'll be back in a few days with lots to report from CHA. Stay tuned!

Feelin' Beachy

It's been a fun-filled, busy couple of weeks. Here's what I've been up to:

Celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a trip to Hawaii. Wanted to stay forever, but I'm pretty sure living in a cardboard box on the beach would be the only option in our price range.


Shuttling the girls to and from summer camp, piano lessons, gymnastics and wherever else their little hearts desire.

Teaching at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly -- lots of fun ladies in my classes!

Cleaning and decluttering our house, which is now listed for sale (we're hoping to move into something a little bigger and a lot closer to the girls' school).

Creating with the Down the Boardwalk collection from We R Memory Keepers. Here's a look at the projects I finished in June:

The edges of the paper were already perfectly distressed (much better than I could've done it on my own)! I added a little WRMK washi tape to secure some of the layers to the page.

 

I pulled out my Maya Mists to color these wooden letters. A combination of yellow, pink and graphite gave them just the right color.

These are a couple of the photos I took on the Hawaii trip. I used my Tatted Doily Lucky 8 punch from We R Memory Keepers to create the shaped paper in the background. If you trim the paper down a bit (I think I did mine at 9" by 10.5"), it gives you a completely different outer edge shape.

The who/what/when/where strips are cut from a page of the 4x6 paper pad. There are tons of fun journaling prompts and notes pages in there, but I liked this one because I could cut up the strips and use them in different ways.

 

After I trimmed off what I needed, I used the extra scraps to add this little banner effect:
 

Operation Write Home is still going on, and you have about three more weeks to get your cards in. I'm stockpiling a few to send, including this one:

I added some washi tape over the seams to give it a little more texture and color and topped it off with the Sail Away Embossed Tag.

The Tacky Tie Challenge

In honor of Fathers' Day, The Little Blue House is hosting a Tacky Tie challenge. When I received this tie in the mail from Tracy, I was a little stumped as to what to do:

Yikes! Pretty ugly, right??

So I did what I normally do when I have no idea what to make: I procrastinate. Or to be politically correct: I wait for inspiration to hit.

Fast forward to Friday night. The blog post is due Saturday. I'm in Tacky Tie Panic Mode. Fortunately, I was at The Little Blue House for Studio Night, surrounded by all kinds of inspirational supplies. I pulled some papers and a package of buttons that I loved and started ripping my tie apart.

Guess what! The back side of that tie was full-on gorgeous! And I discovered that the fabric would rip perfectly with a little bit of fraying along the edge. (Though I got some wild looks and "WHAT are you doing?!" comments from my cropping friends while I was ripping.)

The end result: 

Who'd have thought a tacky tie could turn into a pretty little card? Not me. But hey...it works!

Check out The Little Blue House blog for more ideas and links to the other designers' posts. And have a wonderful weekend!

Enjoy

Warmer days are finally here, and it shows in the projects I've been working on lately. Lots of bright colors and flowers sprouting up!

Here are a few projects I created for the My Little Shoebox blog last month. This banner was part of a swap with Punky Sprouts, and I transformed their Teeny Beanie album by covering the chipboard with patterned papers and using the canvas pieces as backgrounds for the die-cut letters.

The doilies and cork pieces are also from Punky Sprouts, and I thought they added a nice contrast to the bright papers.

All of the papers and cardstock stickers are from the Aiko collection by My Little Shoebox. To create a uniform look on each panel, I used a scalloped punch to create the layered top edges.

I added some rolled flowers and cardstock stickers for a finishing touch.

I also created a sweet friendship card using the same collection. Again, I added a doily for a touch of softness, and the dolls are cardstock stickers.

Hope you're enjoying some nice early summer weather wherever you are!

Supplies used:

InLinkz.com