Sweet Cheeks

I'm loving black matting lately...especially with bright colors!  Next up I want to try an emphasis on white matting (:  Today I have a fun little layout I created about my little Cooper!  He's got these puffy little cheeks and gorgeous dimples, so I titled it sweet cheeks!

I recently saw several people wrap thread around their letters to add some pizazz to plan  letters!  I wish I could remember where I saw it, but alas I can't...if it's you that inspired me, do leave me a comment and I will add your name as my inspiration (:  

Momenta and Purple Cows Cross Promo

Today I am going to share two different cards with you featuring two different tools from the Craft Geek line.

 For this card I used the Summer Punch It tool.  To give you an idea of how great this tool is take a look at what it looks like:

As you can see I was able to flip and turn my squares to make a really pretty design!  It was easy to work with and I love how it took a boring square and made it into something spectacular!  I was able to create all four of my squares in just a few minutes time!

For my second card I used the Pin It tool with the bracket set.  I've never tried anything quite like this and it was fun to experiment.  I looked at the different pins available and decided I wanted to shape a cross with the brackets.  It was super easy to do and adds a one of a kind touch to this card.   I love that the pins are available in a copper, gold, and silver hue making them work in almost any color scheme!

Be sure to check out Momenta and Purple Cows all week for great projects and a chance to win prizes!

Momenta Supplies Used:

Boxed Card Set NC1363

Chipboard Words ST13O6

Boxed Card Set NC1358

Butterfly Garden Pyramid Pad PA2382

Brights Textured Cardstock Pad PAO657

Mini Puffy Message Stickers ST3O48

Splash!!!

I'm a pretty big fan of winter...but the last week I have been ready for it to be spring!  You'll see that reflected in some of my projects that I share with you this week!  First up is a fun and funky layout!

I got a little crazy playing with supplies on this one!  I splattered orange mist like crazy and strung bakers twine in various colors to simulate a splash.  I like it mostly cause it's just different and makes me smile!

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper from Momenta and Little Yellow Bicycle, Stickers from Momenta, Bella Blvd, and Crate Paper, Bakers Twine from The Twinery

So Lucky!

I made this card quite a while ago, I think like September!  It was going to be in the Hobby Lobby in house magazine, but they ended up cutting the whole St. Patrick's Day section.  Major bummer!  But at least now I get to share it with you here!  I punched circles and then placed the green square stickers in the center of those circles and then just folded up the edges.  I like how it highlights the design of the stickers.  I love this folding technique, I just wish I could figure out even more ways to incorporate it!  It definitely adds interest without adding too much thickness to the card!

All supplies used are The Paper Studio

Sweet Baby Layout

Hi Quick Quotes Fans!  Christine, back with you today to share a layout about four special babies!

 I love the One Fine Day collection ad thought the colors in it would really pop against black so I set out to achieve that!  I cut some little banner pieces and then punched a whole bunch of stars and hearts to jazz up my background.  I also added a fussy cut cloud for some extra pop up top.  

I used pieces from the Frames Bag O' Chips and the Birthday Bag O' Chips to frame each of the babies.  I also used a butterfly from the Butterfly Bag O' Chips.  I actually only used one 4 X 6 picture and cut it apart for each frame.  As soon as I saw those frames I knew I wanted to use them this way!  I glued the frames down with Beacons 3 in 1 glue for a fast dry!  I've tried a lot of adhesives but this is hands down the best for a fast and strong hold. I also added a vellum overlay, that I trimmed down,  for my title.

See you next time!

Other Supplies Used:

Bakers twine from The Twinery

Felt border from My Minds Eye

Black cardstock from Colorbok

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop

Hi Scrapping friends!  Today I'm playing along with the Practical Scrappers Blog  Hop!

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers "Linking with Love" Blog Hop!  We believe it is important to always give credit when it is due to another crafter.  For this unique hop all of our design team members used the same inspiration piece to create their project.  Each of them will make an example of themselves as to how to properly "Link with Love" and credit the inspiration.  We'll be running the hop thru Noon EST on Sunday - so you have plenty of time to get thru it!

Liz Qualman created this beautiful layout and we have all used it for inspiration.  Each of us will tell what part we took our inspiration from.  The whole hop will culminate at Liz's blog where she'll provide us with a new sketch for inspiration.

And here's what I created!

I used a few different things for my inspiration.  First off the colors, I loved the color combination!  I also used the half circles in varying patterns.  I used mine to create the banner strips (also inspired by her banners).  And lastly I did some hand stitching on it.  As you can see I got a lot of inspiration from her fun layout and it was cool to see how that translated to a card!  And let's give a special shout-out to Momenta for all the beautiful patterned papers I used!

Many of the designers are providing prizes at their stop and Practical Scrappers is providing a prize for one person who becomes a follower at each stop (for all the details head over to Practical Scrappers). 

Blog Hop List 
Practical Scrappers
YOU ARE HERE Christine Meyer

!!!GO HERE NEXT!!! Kerri Yarus

Erin Morehouse

Christa Uttley

Audrey Yeager

Ann Jobes

Jenny Evans
Cathy Harper

Caz Hancock

Michelle Roycroft

Brettaney Quinton

Corinna Lyon-Revello

Jayma Malme

Amber Goble

Sarah Nancarrow

Donna Bryant

Krissy Clark
Liz Chidester

Liz Qualman

As a thank you to all of you for stopping by, I have a prize to give away to one person who is a follower here and at Practical Scrappers!  I've got a selection of great Momenta stickers that you will love!  All you have to do is become a follower and leave me a comment telling me your current favorite supply or tool for papercrafting.  Thanks for stopping by!  Head on over to Kerri's blog now!

Joy

So a lot of the stuff you've been seeing from me lately is older....created for CHA or magazine submissions.  I haven't had much mojo lately, especially on layouts.  But last night I threw this together in about 40 minutes and I am completely in love with it.  I am finding that I really like to outline in black and often when I don't know what to add to my layout, this is just the ticket.  I even did outline letters....never done that before!  I did not have a good match in letter stickers and so I decided to play that way.  The layout celebrates healthy, beautiful babies born to me and three of my closest friends.  The babies are toddlers now :).  The paper was just screaming to me to do cross stitching on it so I did and I love how it brings out the colors even more!

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper from American Crafts and Pebbles, Stickers from American Crafts, Gems from Creative Charms

Altered Embroidery Hoop

  I am up at Momenta today and I am going to share with you how to make your own altered embroidery hoop.  It sounds complicated, but I promise it isn't too hard to do!

Here's what it looks like as a finished project and to find out all about how to make it head on over to this link.  

Supplies Used:

Cuddle & Coo Pyramid Pad PA 2385

Sassy Stickers Baby

Clear Layered Stickers Baby Boy 

Inspired by....

Today at Practical Scrappers we are trying to set an example on how to "Link with Love."  It is easy in this industry to pick up ideas here and there, but when you are directly using someone's idea and you know you are doing it...show them the love they've earned!  On this layout I attempted to make a background like this one created by Nicole Wise.  I failed miserably (at the technique...the layout I love :)) and ended up not even using close to the same technique...but the idea was hers and I wanted to give her a shout out for that.

Authentique Genuine

I've been desperately needing some fresh inspiration, let's just say the mojo has not been flowing.  Over the weekend I was able to head up to an Archiver's and there was enough new CHA releases there to get me excited!  I picked up some goodies from Authentique, American Crafts, and Little Yellow Bicycle.  I've been using most of them to work on magazine submissions....but made myself sit down and do a layout just for fun today!

 

 I based the whole thing on this sketch from Liz Qulaman.

I knew no mojo time was not a time to be reinventing the wheel...so a great sketch was ideal.

 

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper by Authentique, Crate Paper

Stickers by Bella Blvd, Authentique, KI Memories

Twine: The Twinery

Flower: Little Yellow Bicycle

Simple Stories Quilt Inspired Card

This is a very simple card...especially for me!  But sometimes that works!  I cut up my 4 X 6 piece from Simple Stories so I could kind of mosaic it...I kept my vertical lines lined up but staggered the horizontal ones to add interest.  I topped the kite with a Pebbles felt heart and pulled a sentiment from Simple Stories paper too!  Simple but interesting...makes for a fun card!

Layout #3 Boys Rule Kit Club

I love these silly picture of my big boy missing his first two teeth!  He lost them late...way late so it was a huge deal!  I thought they were a perfect fit for a fun, silly layout full of lots of dimension and embellishing.  This is my third layout for my guest spot at the Boys Rule Kit Club!  I'll be back next week with one more project to share!

Tin Type Cards for Quick Quotes

Today is my premiere at Quick Quotes! The Tin Type collection has a lot of really unique elements to it.  The hot air balloons kept jumping out at me and screaming to be fussy cut.  I fussy cut them and started playing with them and ended up turning them into flowers.  To create them I cut out the balloons and inked the edges. I then curled the balloons to make them look like petals and put them all together to form a flower.

 I had fun playing with the Die Cut Chipboard (Gears Bag O' Chips & Butterflies Bag O' Chips) and Powderpuff Chalking Inks (Blue Hawaiian, Amaretto, and Baja Blue).  This chipboard takes those inks fabulously!  I used several papers from the Tin Type line.  I love to do clusters of embellishments and had fun pulling these together. 

Other Supplies Used: Bakers Twine from The Twinery, Staples, Toothpick

For my second card I fussy cut both flourishes and hot air balloons from the Tin Type line.  I used the Frames Bag o Chips for my frame and left it raw...it just worked that way!  I kept this card pretty clean and simple adding in just a little doodling to break up some of the white space.  

Other Supplies used:  Bakers Twine from The Twinery, White cardstock and button from my stash

I hope you've enjoyed the projects today, I'll be looking forward to next time!

2nd Layout for Boys Rule Kit Club

I'm having a blast focusing on my boys!  Here's my second layout...this time about my youngest boy!

 

One day he got very quiet for several minutes, I ended up finding him in the pantry with a container of cornmeal...thus the title "busy having the best day ever."   He was as happy as could be and throwing cornmeal everywhere.  It was a mess, but good safe fun so I just grabbed my camera and started shooting :)

I tried some black matting again and love it - especially with kraft paper - it makes it so much easier to have some clear lines!  Have you checked out the Boys Rule Kit Club yet?

The Twinery & Momenta Blog Hop

Welcome to the Momenta and The Twinery Blog Hop.  I'm so excited to be playing along today with two of my favorite companies out there!  If you're an old friend you are familiar with the fact that The Twinery bakers twine is a regular part of my projects!  Make sure to join in the entire hop and leave comments at each blog for your chance to win prizes that are offered by both companies!

I made this card using a triangle punch on my Let's Party Pyramid Pad and putting them together to form diamonds.  Then added some Cappucino bakers twine to give it an Argyle pattern.  I love the clean lines this combination produced!

For this layout I used some of Momenta's gorgeous Animal Print (pa-2357) papers to mimic my sweet little Lucy's dress.  I fussy cut some flowers from the Kaleidoscope Pyramid Pad for my big pink flowers and then topped them with the little green ones (also fussy cut).  I used a Die Cut pad for the U R and then finished off my title with some puffy message stickers.  I used bakers twine in Cappucino and Pink Sorbet to make the hearts that frame the whole layout.  Hope you've enjoyed my projects - it was a blast creating them for you!

Here's the entire blog hop order - if you have just started here, you'll want to go back and check them all out!

Blog Hop Order

The Twinery
Momenta

Julie Ranae

Jamie Cripps

Cristal Hobbs
Monika Wright Mara Campbell
Jen Carter
Christa Uttley
Tifany DeGough Erin Morehouse
Angelica Suarez

****YOU ARE HERE**** Christine Meyer

****GO HERE NEXT**** Sarabeth Burke

Now quick, go see Sarabeth and hop around and leave some comments and get yourself in the running for one of these prizes!  Have fun and enjoy the awesome inspiration!

My first CHA Reveals!

I made about a dozen projects for Momenta for CHA-Winter and samples of their new products and it was a blast!  Definitely a highlight in my short scrapbooking career!  Today on the Momenta blog these two cards are being shown:  

Momenta has come out with some new "Sassy" stickers and I worked with the "Sassy Baby" ones.  They are hilarious message stickers and you are going to love them!  I got to see the whole line in an Archivers store and I have to say prepare to giggle!  These will be a great, smile inducing, addition to your papercrafting projects!

Supplies Used:

Cuddle & Coo Pyramid Pad PA 2385

ST-1739 Vibrant Bubbles & Bling Stickers

Cuddle & Coo Puffy Border Stickers

Pastels Embossed Cardstock

Boys Rule Kit Club Guest Designer

I have the honor of doing some guest designing for the Boys Rule Kit Club this month!  Laura Lee does an awesome job of putting together kits that are made for those of us with boys.  I love that I can zone in on Timmy and Cooper and there's not a flower in site!  Here's my first creation that I have to share with you.  It features a lot of gorgeous My Minds Eye Kraft paper!  It also features some of the Tim Holtz kraft core cardstock.  Included in the kit are several die cut stars and a little sander.  I haven't used any of this cardstock before, so this was a real treat!  

This layout is all about my oldest son's baseball season last year.  He played for the "Muckdogs" weird name, I know...it's named after a minor league baseball team.  I love that I was able to squeeze five photos on.  I was inspired by the ledger lines on the paper and that's where my thought process began on this.  I wanted to squeeze photos into those and give it an interesting vertical feel.  I matted my photos in black because I felt like it was needed on this layout.  I also did a lot of black doodling to outline various embellishments on here.  I added little pennants underneath each photo in coordinating patterned papers - I like that it adds to the sport feel.  Finally I added my journalling at the tippy top - ledger lines made that super easy!

If you've got boys, I encourage you to check out Boys Rule!  I'll be back again soon with more projects to share from them!

XOXOXO - Momenta card and tutorial

It is my day up at Momenta and I shared a fun Valentine's card with featuring some fabulous Momenta rub-ons and chipboard.

I get really annoyed when my rub-ons don't work or I mess up a little piece of them.  Today I am going to share with you my fool proof way to get them where you want and walk you thru my whole process for creating the flags on here but I'm being a tease and I'm gonna make you head over to Momenta to find out!

Using stamps from a brand new company!

I was given the opportunity to create some projects with stamps from a brand new company, Precious Remembrance Stamps!  I did a feature over at Practical Scrappers for them and here's what I came up with!  If you like what you see head over to Practical Scrappers to find out how you can win these stamp sets!

 On this layout I used the stamps to make my "Memories" and "Together" flags from the Love Stamp Set coupled with Momenta stickers and Pebbles paper. 

Again I used the Together stamp from the Love Stamp Set coupled with Momenta chipboard and paper.

This time I created my entire background using the XOXOXOXO stamp from the Friend Stamp Set.  I added some great Momenta paper, chipboard, and stickers and voila!

Sparklers Fun

Totally off with my seasons, but I'm trying to catch up on some old pictures...so here's a 4th of July layout :)

I used a sketch from Liz Qualman for my inspiration (I never use sketches so this is huge!).  I used something from several my favorite companies on this - Paper from Jillibean Soup, Bella Blvd, Pebbles, Momenta, and Simple Stories. Pins and stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle, Bella Blvd,  and Momenta.  I know that's a big list of favorites...but I have probably 10 companies that I Love!

I enjoy her layouts a lot so when I discovered she does a sketch each week I was excited.  Although I'm not a big sketch user, every once in awhile it gets your mojo going!