Practical Scrappers February Layout Sketch

Hello world, I have an announcement! I LOVE being a part of the Practical Scrappers Design Team. The ladies are talented, encouraging, and just plain amazing. Additionally, the content of the site, the challenges, and the card and layout sketches are out of this world. I've had so much fun contributing to the Practical Scrappers blog, and it's only just begun! If you haven't checked out this great site yet, YOU MUST! But first, take a look at February's layout sketch below created by Liz Chidester:

Is it not the greatest?! Here's my take on the sketch:

When gathering supplies and memorabilia for this page, I didn't plan on having so much journaling. Knowing the end result, I probably would have moved everything up farther on the background paper or incorporated a hidden pocket. Lesson learned! 

Part of my day job includes designing invites and announcements, mostly with future brides. Hoping to expand that area of our business, I grabbed my mother and roommate, Rachael, and we headed to a local wedding show. None of us were planning a wedding. Instead, we were hoping to gather some information about the current market, wedding show set up, and decide if this was the right next step. Even though we were honest about our intentions, many vendors still asked us to sign up for giveaways, threw business cards our way, and let us indulge in free samples. We laughed it off and became experts at saying "No, thank you." However, when it came to pictures with props and delicious cake, we went for it!

 

I cut the blue circles from patterned paper with scissors, cutting around each doily design. To give some texture and depth to the pieces, I used the Tim Holtz Distressing Tool on the edges.

  

The faux stitching was created with the Sew Stamper by We R Memory Keepers. The black ink was dark and bold. It stood out as a focal point with just one line. Therefore, I added it in a few other places on the page. I added additional doodles with my ZIG Writer, along with flowers and sequins.

 

The white flower above is from KinderStampO. The flowers are gorgeous, and their soft texture allows them to keep their shape and fit nicely into my albums or an envelope without the extra bulk. 

Head over to the Practical Scrappers blog to see creations from the rest of the Design Team. There are so many creative takes on the sketch!

Use It Tuesday :: Rockin' Fasteners

Good morning! If you're a craft supply hoarder like I tend to be, you're going to love Use It Tuesday! Every second and fourth Tuesday, the Use It Tuesday blog posts a new challenge for you to dig into that stash and USE IT. 

Ready for the new challenge? We want to see your fasteners! Gather together your eyelets, brads, or buttons, and create! You have until Noon on February 22nd to link up your project. I can't wait to see what you create! 

I had some glitter brads from We R Memory Keepers that I picked up years ago! Who can resist glitter?! But when it came to adding them to projects, the glitter stopped me from ever using them! Ha! How ironic. Therefore, I laid them out on my craft table and used them as a starting point for today's project. While looking around my craft room for pictures, papers, or stamps that would coordinate well with the brads, I came across a guitar stamp from A Muse Studio that I have yet to use. The lightbulb in my brain lit up, and we were ready to rock.

I punched various holes around the guitar image, stamped on orange cardstock, before adding the paper layers to the card front. The brads give an illusion of glittery music notes. 

You must head over to the Use It Tuesday blog to check out what the rest of the Design Team created for today. There are some incredibly inspiring projects! 

CARD SUPPLIES
Cardstock: A Muse Studio (Pumpkin, Sugar, Onyx)
Patterned Paper: Glitz Design (Cashmere Dame Honeycomb)
Stamps: A Muse Studio (Rock Star)
Ink: StazOn (Jet Black)
Brads: We R Memory Keepers
*You can purchase A Muse Studio products from my webstore. Select products now 30% off!

Retiring Inspiration

Good morning! It's time for a new challenge from the A Muse Studio Challenge Blog. Rita Holmes is our host the next two weeks and has a great prize up for grabs! Rita challenged us to use one of the retiring stamp sets from A Muse Studio, and I'm so glad she did! 

Haven't heard about the retiring items?! A Muse Studio is releasing a new catalog in March; therefore, we're saying goodbye to a few of our favorite products. As bittersweet as it is, I'm really excited for all the new things coming. 

Even more exciting - this year, the items on the retiring list are on sale! That's right. You'll receive 30% off everything on the list! You'll want to take advantage of this quickly! Many of the sets are already sold out. You can see the retiring list by heading to my webstore before February 28th. 

I chose the retiring set, Brief Notes. This set is so great for creating masculine cards! I paper pieced the blue tie onto the image to match the card layers. A little faux stitching and photo corners added some pizzazz to this clean and simple card. 

Now it's your turn! Head to A Muse Studio Challenge blog to link up your own project for a chance to win a great prize! And don't forget to shop the retiring list for great deals on paper, stamps, and embellishments before they're gone!

CARD SUPPLIES

Cardstock: A Muse Studio (Kraft, Sugar, Sky, Slate, Pumpkin)

Stamps: A Muse Studio (Brief Notes) NOW 30% Off!

Inks: StazOn (Jet Black), ZIG Writer (Black)

Photo Corners: A Muse Studio (Scrapbook Adhesives)

*You can purchase A Muse Studio products from my webstore

Sketch Challenge :: Swing

Hello friends! The weekend's almost over, but the fun is just starting! I'm here today with a new sketch from Unscripted Sketches. Check it out:

There are endless possibilities with the sketch; however, I chose to keep it clean and simple. Here's my take on the sketch: 

I love these stamps from A Muse Studio... I've had them in my stash for far too long! Wanting to keep a masculine theme, I chose brown and green for the card base. 

Rather than have the image on the square in the sketch, I broke up the kraft stripe, cut out the image from white cardstock, and adhered it to the card front with foam risers. 

Head over to Unscripted Sketches to add your own creation and see what our great Design Team cooked up for you! Thanks for stopping by.

CARD SUPPLIES
Cardstock: A Muse Studio (Kraft, Evergreen, French Roast, Sugar)
Stamps: A Muse Studio (Swingin' Day)
Ink: Memento (Tuxedo Black)
*You can purchase these A Muse Studio products in my webstore.

My personal tour guide...

Hello blogland! I've spent almost every night in my craft room catching up on Design Team projects, albums, and baby shower invites; however, I haven't been documenting them much. So sorry! I spent the afternoon yesterday photographing lots of cards and pages, and I'm so excited to share them with you. Where do we start?!

One of the albums I'm working on is dedicated to my travels and experiences in NYC, particularly a girls weekend with my roommate and best friend.

I had spent time in Central Park before this trip but hadn't explored too much of the park. There were several sites within the park that we wanted to view, so my roommate, Rachael, was up to the task of leading us. When it comes to travel, I'm the laid back type. "If we get there, we get there" is my philosophy. For that reason, I'm never the one to be in control of the map or the group. I'll be the first to admit that we would have never seen the statues, castle, or memorial that we wanted to visit. 

I started this layout with a base of green cardstock from American Crafts and gathered together embellishments and papers from Crate Paper's Storyteller collection. I fell in love with this collection when it was first released and knew it would be a great fit for these photos.

For the date, I stamped numbers from the KinderStampO Say It In Type set onto a vellum tag using black StazOn. The yellow scallop, along with the pink scallops that frame the white cardstock, were cut from the bottom portion of the 12x12 papers. I love when companies choose to add decorative elements to their barcode area. 

I use a combination of traditional scrapbook layouts and specialty page protectors in all of my scrapbooks. I first started out with Project Life page protectors but have added pages from American Crafts and We R Memory Keepers to my collection. {Click on each link to be taken to their protectors and learn more about this system} Here's a look at how the pages work with each other. I'll be starting at the beginning of this album and showing you each of the pages in the coming days. 

The journaling card in this sheet is from the Storyteller collection as well and is waiting for me to add some journaling. I would need to create far more layouts to include all of the photos I have of this trip. That's why these sheets are so great to use! 

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow with a new card sketch from Unscripted Sketches!