Monday, March 31, 2014

My final card for Helmar

Today is my final post at Helmar!  It's hard to believe that my 6 months with them is already coming to an end.  I love their products and had a blast but for now at least am stepping away to focus on other things!  Here's the card I created for my final project:

Helmar Fabric Glue
My post focuses in on using fabric blue to adhere things to burlap.  You can check out more of the post here.

Burlap card
On to the next adventure - Thanks for a great 6 months Helmar!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce
Stickers: Pebbles Inc
Die Cuts: Pebbles Inc
Chipboard: Studio Calico
Twine: The Twinery


Sunday, March 30, 2014

Baby Boy Card - Imaginisce

It's baby season, it seems each week a new friend is having a baby!  And a lot of them are boys this year!  So I thought I'd dig into my Welcome Baby line from Imaginisce and create a baby card to share!
This line is all blue and white with a few small splashes of brown thrown in.  Today I focused on the blues and whites and pulled out some die cuts to play with!  The giraffe paper on the bottom gets a bigger sidekick from the giraffe die cut.  The Baby Boy die cut was perfect to use as my sentiment.  A doily, button, and ribbon add a little extra texture and dimension to the whole thing and help to finish it off!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce
Die Cuts: Imaginisce
Ribbon: CutCardStock
Doily: SRM Stickers



Saturday, March 29, 2014

Sketchy Saturday - Week Four

Time for another Sketchy Saturday - can't believe I've already done four weeks of this!  Here's the new sketch for this week:

I managed to get my hands on some pieces from the new Springtime Collection from Doodlebug Design. They have parts that are Easter related and parts that are just spring...I used a little of each.  They matched this yellow dress so beautifully!
The sketch has a whimsical feel to it and I opted to go that route with my layout too!  I decided to play with the tree sticker and build up from there. I created the pieces of the tree from their stickers and added some yellow stickles as a final touch.  I also created a whimsical cluster above the pictures featuring that adorable sun sticker!  As you can see the sketch actually has very little on the right side - but I decided to add a rolled banner that included my title.  I decorated the title with some cute stickers and the year.  

My talented friend Cathy also played along this week and you can find her sketch interpretation here. Thanks to those of you who have shared your creations with me over the past couple weeks....I love seeing your interpretations!  If you create one this week I would love for you to share it on my facebook wall!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Doodlebug Design
Stickers: Doodlebug Design
Enamel Dots: Recollections, Studio Calico


Thursday, March 27, 2014

Basketball Layout - Paper House Productions

Have you noticed lately that there are two different realms of scrapbooking going on?  One is very artistic based and one is very theme based.  I am going to be honest with you - I love to do both.  Sometimes I just want to scrap a pretty picture and play with techniques and whatever moves me.  But other times I really want to stick with the topic and theme.  Today is a theme day!  My oldest son lives and breathes basketball, so getting him to pose before his last game was an absolute must!
Timmy had such a fun season and improved soooo much from last year.  He was on a team with a couple other guys his age and talent set really complemented one another.  To create this layout I used all pieces from Paper House Productions (except for the wood stars).

-Add a 4 inch strip of white paper to the blue patterned paper
-Cut out an 8 inch circle from the basketball paper and adhere that to the left side of the paper - overlapping the outside edge a little.  
-Add a white cardstock banner to the top right corner 
-Add your pictures so that they overlap  both the basketball and the blue paper.
-Choose three foil player die cuts and put them on in a diagonal route...from bottom left up to the banner
-Attach the Cardstock border sticker to the top of your banner and the 3D Basketball sticker just below it.
-Pick out an appropriate phrase from the foil die cuts...I went with slam dunk.  Attach that to the bottom corner between the picture and the star.
- Finish it off by adding journaling, numbers for the year (or perhaps a team name), and some stars

I created a sketch to go along with the layout. I made it more generalized from the basketball theme.

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Paper House Productions
Stickers: Paper House Productions
Cardstock: American Crafts
Wood: Studio Calico




Wednesday, March 26, 2014

XOXO - A Painted Card

Do you ever get in the mood to just experiment with your supplies?  This card was the result of some experimenting!  I wanted to try painting with my mists and that was the jumping off point!
I knew I wanted to hand stitch the sun and clouds and then fill them in with painting.  I didn't try to be exact just stroked it on there.  I then also did some yellow painting around the outside of the frame.  I then just started pulling out coordinating supplies that would add to the sunshiney and artistic feel of the card.  Brush script stickers from Amy Tan along with her patterned paper and stitching template add to the edginess of the whole thing.  I brought in some dimension by using chipboard hearts, brads, and buttons.  Rubon stars were my final touch.  I had so much fun putting this card together and love how every element pops on it!

I am entering this into the current issue at Paper Issues: Count Your Lucky Stars.

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce, American Crafts
Chipboard: Studio Calico
Stickers: American Crafts, Bella Blvd, Paper House Productions
Die Cut: Imaginisce
Buttons: Imaginisce

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Kiwi Lane Designs: Pocket Page Birthday Spread

I am up at Kiwi Lane Designs today!  This month we teamed up with We R Memory Keepers for our creations!  They sent some birthday pocket page pieces so I decided that was the route to go!  Especially since I still needed to scrap pictures from Timmy's 7th birthday (he's almost 10).  Here's the spread I made:

I love to do pocket style pages for birthdays because I take tons and tons of pictures!  And as you can see from this...not every picture is worthy of a full blown layout but still is a part of the story!

I used a variety of Kiwi Lane Templates throughout - including accessories and border templates.  Each one adding a little something special to the page.

I also did my outlining throughout to make certain elements pop.  I think my favorite of all the pockets is either the "Celebrate Good Times" one or the "Life of the Party" one - I like how unique the Kiwi Lane templates made those!

I am also linking this up to the Paper Issues Current Challenge: Count Your Lucky Stars!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: WRMK
Templates: Kiwi Lane
Stickers: GCD Studios
Wood: Studio Calico



Monday, March 24, 2014

Adorbs but Goofy

I'm up on the Chicagoland Scrapbooker Magazine blog today!  This month we focused on "March Madness" things that we are mad about in our papercrafting.  I decided to focus in on outlining/doodling.  No big surprise there right?

We took this silly picture when I was very, very pregnant with my youngest son!  I finally decided to document it :)  I played with a variety of lines and products to achieve the color scheme and look I was going for and then topped everything off with lots of outlining.  

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: American Crafts, Bella Blvd
Stickers: Bella Blvd, American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, Pebbles Inc
Washi Tape: Bella Blvd
Wood: Studio Calico

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Sketchy Saturday: Week 3

***If you are looking for the Paper House Productions Blog Hop or the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop you can find them in the next two posts ***

Sorry for the late posting - I have had not one but two of my little boys get knocked out with croup this week! Thankfully it looks like we are on the mend!  Here's a new sketch for you to play with this week! 

I have had the "From Me to You" collection from Pebbles screaming at me to be played with...so for this week I pulled that out!  I stuck with the squares idea and used those to create my colorful background...but I changed it a little and added some pictures into my squares! This sketch allows you to incorporate a lot of patterns and colors...perfect when you have several papers you want to play with!
I didn't start outgoing that direction but it just was screaming for more pictures, so I went with it!  I love how it turned out and how much the pictures pop off the page!  My friend Cathy created a sample layout too and she went with circles - you will definitely want to check it out here!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Pebbles Inc
Stickers: Pebbles Inc, BellaBlvd
Wood: studio Calico
Heart Pearls: Doodlebug Design

As always if you create something with this sketch, I would love to see it!  Share it with me in a comment here or on my facebook wall!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Paper House Productions: Wedding Blog Hop

Paper House Wedding Blog Hop
This weekend I am participating in the Paper House Productions Blog Hop!  They challenged us to create projects with their new "To Have & To Hold" line and today we are sharing them with you!

To Have & To Hold Collection
To celebrate the hop, Paper House is  giving away an extra special "Wedding Mega Collection" that includes a gorgeous Paper Pad, our best Bridal 3D Stickers,Chalkboard Stickers, and even new Canvas Stickers (plus much more! Valued at over $60, you'll definitley want to enter to win this great prize!

There's a few ways to enter - the first two are freebies by liking us on Facebook and signing up to receive Facebook notifications from us (we don't want you to miss any of our great project posts!). But the big entry comes from commenting on each of our designers' posts! If you do (and there's only 8 to hop through), you'll get +10 entries into our drawing! That sounds like a deal!
Here's the list for the Hop:
Christine Meyer ***You Are Here***
Make sure to hop through each designer down the list to be eligible for the most entries! When you're done, just hop back here and let us know! The hop will be running all weekend, so you have until Sunday at 11:59pm EST to get  your entries in!
Now, on to my projects and my own additional giveaway!!!!
First up is a card that I made using patterned paper and cardstock stickers from the set.  I created the cute hearts with the tux and dress by simply putting those stickers on  paper and then punching them out with my heart punch.  Adding some pearls helped up the bling factor!

This layout also incorporates several pieces of the patterned paper and cardstock stickers.  The cake is part of the paper!  I topped that paper with some ivory cardstock to help set it apart.  I added the cardstock border sticker with some bling and banners.  

I have a couple of springy sets of stickers to give away today! 

To enter you can do any or all of the following:
1) Be a follower here (see the sidebar)
2) Become an email follower (see the sidebar)
3) Follow me on Bloglovin
4) Become a fan on my facebook page

I will announce a winner early next week!  Thanks for stopping in today - head on over to Erin's next!  And make sure to stop back and Paper House to get in ion the prize!


Thursday, March 20, 2014

Practical Scrappers Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 
where we are Scrapping our Stash.

 We have a smaller list this month so it shouldn't be hard to check out all the fun!  In case you get lost along the way - here is the list!

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List
Nicole Laha

For my project this month I knew I wanted to make use of some old GCD Studio papers that I had, but they were in a 6 X 6 inch pad.  So I needed to get creative.  I love to do grids and they seem to be really trending right now - so I went that route!  Here's the sketch I created to go with the layout:

And here's the actual layout!
Once I had created my grid I just pulled out my stash of die cuts and started pulling out ones that matched.  Somehow, miraculously, they came together to make this.  I was so excited watching as it all sort of just fell together! My final touch to help some elements pop a little more was to do some simple outlining.  I have been doing a lot of that lately, a lot!  I love the punch it gives to elements and since this fabulous hobby is all about doing what you love, why not?  

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: GCD Studios, American Crafts
Die Cuts: Pink Paislee, Elle's Studio, Jillibean Soup
Stickers: Pebbles Inc, Carta Bella, Bella Blvd
Wood: Studio Calico

As a Thank You for stopping by I am doing a giveaway! 
 Here's what I am going to be giving away:
One sheet from each pattern in this line and a pack of coordinating bakers twine from The Twinery.


You can do any of the following to enter:
1) Be a follower here (see the sidebar)
2) Become an email follower (see the sidebar)
3) Follow me on Bloglovin
4) Become a fan on my facebook page

Leave me a comment letting me know which you did so I can make sure and enter you the correct number of times!

Now hop on over to Claude's Blog


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Winner Winner

Congrats to Carla from Utah - you are the winner of my bakers twine from The Twinery!  Shoot me an email at practicalscrappers@gmail.com to claim your prize!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You (card)

I said it before and I'll say it again - I am really loving the new Plus One line from Amy Tan!  Definitely one of my favorites of the new releases!  In honor of St. Patrick's Day I thought I'd share a green card (it has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day...but it is green :))  I am also entering this into the current challenge on the Northridge Publishing blog asking for a card using stitching.  I went for hand stitching using, of course, an Amy Tan embroidery template!

The black diagonal stripes were created using her stitching template.  The awesome green, patterned paper base is also from her.  I added some simple chipboard hearts from Studio Calico and a chipboard speech bubble from Pebbles.  The sentiment had to be a black and so I reached into my stash of SRM Stickers and pulled out this perfect one!  Bakers twine from the Twinery topped with a clothespin from my American Crafts stash are the final touches.  

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Spring Birthday Card

***If you are looking for the Samantha Walker Blog Hop, You can find it here***

I have some new Doodlebug goodies that were just screaming to be played with, so the other night I made some time to just play!  Today I have a happy little birthday card to share with you from that!
I am also linking this up at the current issue of Paper Issues!

I love this style of card from Doodlebug because it is ready made and not just a traditional A2 card.  The square in the center is a cut out and the card is folded over three ways...I made it to stand like an easel by adding of their doilies at the bottom.  I love the little Doodlepop Bug too because he is just plain cute!  I used stickers from several different lines from them.  Everything on the card is actually from Doodlebug except for the enamel dots.


Saturday, March 15, 2014

Sketchy Saturday - Week Two

***If you are looking for the Samantha Walker Blog Hop, you can find it here***

I had so much fun with this sketch that I created TWO layouts this week with it!  I shared the first on my post on Thursday, which you can find here.  Here's the sketch for this week:


For my sample I decided to dive into my new stash of Plus One from Amy Tan.  I always love what she creates for American Crafts.  But this is definitely my favorite in the last couple years....I love the combination of the black and white with lots of bright colors and it is fully of fun and sassy words.
It was the perfect choice to create a a layout of a night out with some of my sassy friends.

I went with fussy cut flowers in lieu of a doily/circular shape but other than that I stayed pretty true to the sketch.  I was especially excited to use the paper that you see in my base.  It actually comes like that....split right down the middle.  Super inspiring and fun!

I am also entering this into the Paper Issues "Tip-toe thru Tu-lips" current issue!

My friend Cathy joined in playing along again this week - make sure to hop over and check out her interpretation!  I love how different they turn out!

Remember if you play with this sketch, I would love to see what you create!  Leave me a comment here or on my facebook page so that I can check it out!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: American Crafts
Stickers: American Crafts, SRM Stickers
Die Cuts: American Crafts
Flair: Studio Calico
Doily: SRM Stickers
Enamel Dots: Studio Calico
Rub-Ons: American Crafts

Friday, March 14, 2014

Rainbow Home Decor

***If you are looking for the Samantha Walker Blog Hop, you can find it here***

I was up on the Imaginisce Blog on Wednesday with one of my favorite projects EVER!  Because of all the other fun things going on...I decided to hold off on sharing this for a couple days!


To create this, I cut out the quote on 12 X 12 white cardstock and then just backed each word with different patterned paper from Imaginisce.  I then added some Irocks in coordinating colors.  Black washi tape lined the top and botom and I added a frame.  It was fun and I love that it can be a beautiful inspiration piece hanging up in our house!  If you want to see more close-ups you can check them out at Imaginisce!

I am also linking this up at the current Paper Issues Challenge: Count Your Lucky Stars

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce
Irocks: Imaginisce
Washi Tape: Queen & Co

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Happy News & A Giveaway!

***If you are looking for the Samantha Walker Blog Hop, you can find it in the post directly below this***

I have been sitting on some fun news and am excited to share that with you today!  I am joining the design team for The Twinery!  I have long been a huge fan of the bakers twine from them!


I have tons and tons of projects that showcase their twine but I was able to create a quick layout featuring a bow with my favorite of all their colors: the Marigold Stripe Bakers Twine.  I have never been able to keep enough of that color around!

I created this fun little layout using some brand new pieces from Simple Stories "Homespun" line.  I love the rich, bold colors in that line!   I had fun adding some personal touches - a heart with a 6 on the ruler (we have six in our family) and creating a twist on the word FAMILY.

And there's that pretty bakers twine!  I am looking forward to that adventure and sharing even more twine creations with you!

Supplies Used:
Bakers Twine: The Twinery
Patterned Paper: Simple Stories, American Crafts
Chipboard: Simple Stories
Stickers: Simple Stories

Here's the rest of the 2014 Twinery Team
New Designers
Denise Hahn

Jen Cuthbertson

Christine Meyer

Rebecca Grecco

DoBea Alberts

Rebecca VanDeMark

Andrew Roberts

Melyssa Connolly

Suzanna Lee

Tobi Crawford

Jeanne Jachna

Stacey Schafer

Anita Mulcahey

Melania Deasy

Katarina Damm-Blomberg

Returning Designers for 2014

Monika Wright - Sr Designer

Jamie Cripps - Sr Designer

Ashley Bores - Sr Designer

Amy Crockett

Tifany DeGough

Jaclyn Miller

And how about a quick little Giveaway to celebrate????
I have a package of the Green Shimmer Metallic Bakers Twine to give away to one of my readers!  15 yards of beautiful twine!  
Image of Green Shimmer Mini Bundle - 15 yards

To enter all you have to do is either:
Become a follower here (if you aren't already)
and/or
Become a fan on my facebook page

Leave me a comment letting me know which you did and I will pick a winner at the end of the weekend!




Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Samantha Walker Creative Team Blog Hop: Lucky

Welcome to the Samantha Walker Creative Crafters Team Blog Hop!
You should have arrived here from Samantha's Blog!

We have a fabulous giveaway this month sponsored by Spellbinders!
All you need to do is enter below. You can earn multiple entries by following us on Facebook, commenting below, tweeting about the giveaway, and signing up for the email updates. This giveaway is open to US customers only and closes on this Sunday at 11:59 PM MDT.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


This month our theme for the hop is Lucky!  I have been enjoying playing with rainbows and such while creating St. Patrick's Day themed projects.  Today I created a layout making use of Samantha's free file from this hop along with some hearts from her Heart Pennant Banner.  As I was discussing my plans with my creative mother, she suggested a bunch of hearts coming out from the clover...so I have to give her a shout-out :)


Now onto how I created this layout!
First off I created my own file making use of the free Nesting Shamrock file and Heart Pennant Banner:
 I am a big fan of using the negative space - it's trendy and it saves time having to glue down each and every little piece that you want to use!  I lined the back with rainbow colors and simply attached it to a black base making sure it would all hold together!

I also made use of Samantha's For All You Do Vintage Label Stamps from Just Rite throughout the layout.   I used words in various locations that describe my little sweetie.  I also used a couple of the labels and filled the center with pictures of her.  I originally started off wanting to do all four kids...but it was overwhelming the layout.  So I went with just my daughter.  I actually fussy cut out the labels and cut out the center, again making use of the negative space!

This was one of them that I didn't use but it will be appearing sometime soon in a layout.  I really love how these look for framing pictures!

Supplies Used:
Shamrock Nesting File

Don't forget to sign up for Samantha's Newsletter 
through the Rafflecopter widget to receive your
FREE SVG and Silhouette Studio file! 

Click on the image below to head to Jamie's Blog





Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Practical Scrappers March Card Sketch

Today is the premiere of the March card sketches at Practical Scrappers.  I created this sketch and my card to go along with it!  Want to see more of my sketches??? Click on the tab above titled: "My Sketches" and you can see all that I have shared at this point!  

Looks complicated doesn't it??? You have to check out the interpretations....there are some amazing ones and some that are not overly complicated!


My butterflies are all fussy cut or punched from Imaginisce paper. Actually they are all from just one paper in the new Welcome Spring line.  The big one and the medium ones are fussy cut...they I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to line them up on bigger pink, light blue, and navy blue ones so that I got some pattern to them.   I added a doily beneath my collection just to add some different texture to the whole thing!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce
Cardstock: American Crafts
Enamel Dots: Studio Calico
Sticker: Jillibean Soup

Monday, March 10, 2014

Kiwi Lane Designs Basic Sketch

I played along and created the sample today for the Kiwi Lane Designs Basic Sketch!  Here's the sketch:
scrapbook sketch

And here's my version!
The only big change I made was changing the brackets to circles.  I did that to pair up with the circle elements I used throughout the layout.  I always find two pagers challenging...so this was another good opportunity to stretch myself a bit!  I have had these pictures for awhile (obviously as Bo is almost 18 months now).  Just haven't found the right paper match for them but I think the Imaginisce got the job done!

Try to find some time to play along with this sketch this week and get in on the chance for a prize!  You can find all the details at Kiwi Lane!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce
Buttons: Imaginisce
Die Cuts: Imaginisce
Stickers: Imaginisce, Bella Blvd
Cardstock: American Crafts

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Sketchy Saturday: Week One

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here on my blog!  Sketchy Saturday!  Each week I will be sharing a new sketch with you and hopefully a new sample too!  I have really been enjoying creating sketches and hope you are enjoying using them just as much!  If you make something using one of these sketches I would LOVE to see it!  Share a link with me in the comments here or on my site facebook page which you can find here.



My talented friend Cathy is actually the one who encouraged me to start creating sketches and so I am giving her sneak previews of the sketches.  This week she has created a sample on this sketch as well!!!  You can find her sample here.

Supplies Used:
Cardstock: American Crafts
Stickers: Echo Park, American Crafts
Patterned Paper: Simple Stories

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Wood Veneer Challenge

The current challenge for the CARDS Magazine blog is wood veneer.  Seeing as that is one of my absolute favorite embellishments, I of course had to join in!

I was playing around on the Silhouette store and came across the cut and had to give it a whirl.  The white part is all from the cut file.  I added the background colors and then created rows using the stars.  I followed the natural curve when I added "lucky" to stick with the sunburst feel.  Bright colors just make me smile and making this card was a blast because of that!  I created this card entirely using my Helmar Adhesive Runner, which made it go by really fast....I'll be featuring how I did that next Wednesday on the Helmar blog!

I am also linking this up for the current issue at Paper Issues: Count Your Lucky Stars

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce, Bella Blvd, Pebbles 
Stickers: Simple Stories
Wood: Studio Calico

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

What Works For Me: Thicker Storage

I finally have a Wednesday off and I wanted to share another installment of "What Works for Me Wednesday."  This week I am going to focus on something that was a huge headache for storing...until I started this method.  Today I am talking about Thickers and how I store my thickers (with a few other dimensional and non-dimensional letter sets thrown in...but mostly Thickers :)

I am not a person who saves my packaging from my embellishments.  It would be great if I was and I have started to try to be more deliberate about that...but I definitely haven't before the last 6 months.
I just simply use a plain white plastic drawer like one that comes in a storage compartment.  Now, with letters in it, it does not fit in as a drawer.  But that's okay because my drawer part got broken by one of my kiddos!  And honestly...I kinda like it being open and just sitting on a shelf!  My container measures about 10 inches wide by 14 inches long.  I only have one drawer because I am a purger and don't have any more Thickers than that!  I know that if you got a little bigger drawer (taller) you could make it work in a shelf system and have several drawers full of Thickers if you have lots!

Here you can see a side view of how they fit in.  If I have kept the packaging, I trim off the top label part but keep the celophane around it (slicing open one long side and one short side for easy access but avoiding the stickyness at the bottom)

If I don't have the packaging anymore then I put them together facing it's partner...preventing it from rubbing on other and getting lost.

It's a very simple system and has worked great...I just wish I had thought of it sooner ;)


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