A Little Bit of Spring

Happy spring everyone in the northern hemisphere! The first day of a new season means time to start using my spring siggie.  Welcome little nesters!:)

It might be the first day but it sure doesn't feel like it... or look like it for that matter.  Awfully cold with lots of white stuff and more to come.  At least the sun made an appearance today to lighten one's soul and make me yearn for above zero temperatures.

Can you believe that Easter is just around the corner?  It is an early one this year.  Today I am sharing my Easter egg layout that went up on the Magenta blog today.  Some of the Magenta DT gals and I did takes on Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine's It's a Sketchy Challenge for March.

Supplies: patterned papers, chipboard butterflies, chipboard letters (Magenta), cardstock (CTMH), acrylic letters (Heidi Swapp), glitter (Doodlebug Designs), embroidery floss (Loops and Threads), font: HelloChunky

For my take on the sketch, I turned it sideways to accommodate my photo and I went with a clean and simple style to highlight the photo. Some fun stitching pattern and shaped chipboard butterflies with glittered bodies provide touches of texture. I also matched the journaling text colour to the egg and the title.

Here is the March sketch created by Sue Sykes for Canadian Scrapbooker.

You have until the end of the month to post in their Sketchy gallery here.  Check out the wonderful inspirational layout on this month's sketch and others there too. 

TTFN,

MME March Die Cut Challenge

Oh the lengths we will sometimes go to get a photo. LOL! Not what I originally was going to start this post with but it is so true and I am sure there are many of you who know what I am taking about.  After over 4 days of overcast snowy/freezing rain skies and in the quest to get some decent natural lighting, I ventured outside between flurry clouds to prop my card against the fence because it was too windy to prop up otherwise (even with the fence it fell into the snow several times.. the upside... it is -8 degrees Celsius so the snow did not melt on the card, it was brush/blow off-able. LOL!)  I would so not try this with a layout because I would fear for the photographs. Some might wonder.. why not just use editing software? I do use a very simple one for the most part just to crop and sharpen but for me it all begins with a good shot.

Well I think it was worth it and I got a decent shot.  An added bonus... the fence colour works with the Indie Chic Ginger papers.  Who knew?

Supplies: patterned papers, die cut, garland, buttons, twine and packaging (MME), cardstock (Bazzill), doily (Today's Kitchen), letter stamps, hole reinforcement stamp and ink (CTMH), France Postage image stamp (Melissa Frances), butterfly punch (EK Success), tag die (Sizzix), jewels (Dollarama)

Sometimes things evolve in such a way as you go and it is a good thing.  That was the case in the creation of this card.  I started with the MME March Challenge task which was to use some MME die cuts.  When I first read the challenge, I had to laugh for just a few days before I had made a layout for the PageMaps sketch challenge that purposely used 3 die cuts from the Collectable line as both the title and journaling. You can see it in this post here.

After choosing which die cut and theme I wanted to use, I knew I wanted to add the garland and the strip of paper, a Bon Voyage stamped sentiment to go with the die cut theme, an arrow and butterflies.  From there it grew,  a doily to back the die cut, pop up dots to add dimension, oh a tag I had made but had abandon for a larger one on a previous MME layout... mmm...stamp a travel image... oh found a reinforcement stamp on an alphabet sheet... works...add some twine to the arrow... okay add some buttons... hey, I like the packaging image line...think it would make a cute thin arrow...works... ummm, I want some more grey... twine around the arrow, in the buttons... oh that single strip of pattern paper looks lonely... a little twine with that and oh don't forget just a bit on the tag. Call it done.  I really do love how a challenge and great products inspire me to play and create something good.


You can see all the bits in this closer look.

If you get a chance, check out some of the other wonderful creations entered into the challenge here.  Talk about eye candy!:)


TTFN,

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's a bit of the luck of the Irish on this day of green in a quilted, distressed, sun-ray card made with some pretty green papers from Magenta.





Supplies: patterned papers and chipboard letters (Magenta), ink and stickles (Ranger), letter stamps (CTMH), heart die (Sizzix), doily die (Die-namics), jewels (Dollarama), thread (Aurifil Mako'ne)



I used a heart die cut and pieced the hearts together to create the four leaf shamrock and popped it up on a die cut mini doily.

Magenta products used:

                        

TTFN,

Clean and Simple Stamped Cards

I am up on the Magenta blog today with two clean and simple cards with touches of glitter that I made using some adorable Magenta image and sentiment stamps.



Supplies: image and sentiment stamps (Magenta), cardstock (Bazzill), blk ink and stickles (Ranger), blue watercolour gelato (Faber-Castell), watercolour pencil crayons (Reeves), blue ink (Studio G), pen (Creative Memories)

I had fun on this first one using a new medium to me... gelatos.  Wow, these have some vibrant colour but are a little tricky due to the chunky size of the crayon but love the effect. 



Supplies: patterned paper, image stamp and sentiment stamp (Magenta), cardstock (Bazzill), ink and stickles(Ranger), watercolour pencil crayons (Reeves)

You can read more about the techniques used here on the Magenta blog.

TTFN,

Something Old but New

Over the next several months, I am determined to complete the many partially started projects that I have in storage folders just waiting to be completed.  For me it is those ones that get pushed aside in favour of the more pressing time oriented ones.  LOL!  Do you happen to do this too? Do you have any unfinished projects just sitting around waiting to be completed?




Supplies: patterned papers, stickers (Crate Paper), fabric chipboard letters (American Crafts), stamp (Kelly Panacci by SandyLion), ink and pen (CTMH)

This layout is about about the start of a friendship and it is based on a sketch from the PageMaps blog.  I used both the sketch, the theme and the book cover as inspiration.  I used Crate Paper's Story Teller Collection.


TTFN,

MME Collectable Heaven!

Many of you know how I love MME.  Well I have to say, that I am really particularly enjoying making projects with the new Collectable collections.  The colours work so well together and for a miriad of colour photos.  This MME sketch was a great one for a series of photos that I have of our cousin.




Supplies: patterned papers, stickers, chipboard, buttons, pearls, and baker's twine (MME), corner punch (Making Memories), ticket punch (Stampin' Up), ink and pen (CTMH)

Talk about a cutie! I used a larger cluster at the top and used it as the journaling.

Then I pushed the photo cluster over sans the journal section.

I like how it all worked and balanced off.


This was the original sketch.

Be sure to check out the other wonderful takes on this sketch here. 

TTFN,

When it All Comes Together

When I saw this sketch on the Creative Scrappers blog the other day, I knew it would be perfect for a photo that I had of my nephew. Looking at the photo colours, I thought to use Echo Park's For the Record 2 Documented which I had in my last kit from the Nook before their closing... that sadly until this point had sat untouch.  Add in a red piece from their For the Record collection and it provided just the right colour contrast and photo coordination.



Supplies: patterned papers, letter stickers, stickers, chipboard (Echo Park), red chipboard letters (Pink Paislee), circle punches (Creative Memories and Stampin'Up), ink and pen (CTMH)

I sanded a large circular area to mute the boldness of the awesome number background paper a bit just to keep the focus on the photo and elements.  I used cast iron metal home decor stars to trace just the right size stars that were needed and I used stickers from both collections. I inked up the edges on all the pieces and lastly added a titch of faux stitching.

Gotta love it when it all comes together!

TTFN,

Getting Interactive

Creative challenges can inspire some exciting ideas.  While at Crop & Create there was a challenge... to create a project with some interactive element. I did not enter it as I had initial thought not to bother as it did not readily spark an idea that would not be cliche.  I went on my merrily scrappy way of working on other DT projects for Magenta when I was contemplating one of their stamps.  As I went into one of my past kits from the Nook for something, I came across some MME zipper trim and an idea started to form... rainbow colour, zipper open to second part of sentiment. I contemplated, I sketched and then I searched through the products that I had on hand. No paper that I had with me would work so I shopped. LOL! Got to hate that... he, he, he!  I found some stripped coloured Imaginisce paper but what would work for the front? ... think... think...think. I wanted a zippered sweater type opening. Huuummm... I could stamp with the new Vicki Boutin script stamp I bought the night before! A bit of cutting, some stamping, a little colouring and voila!

Supplies: patterned paper (Imaginisce), cardstock (Bazzill), sentiment stamp (Magenta), script stamp (Stamping Bella/Vicki Boutin), ink (Ranger), watercolour pencilcrayons (Reeves), zipper (MME)

L.O.V.E IT!  I loved the results so much I went and purchased a few more sheets of the stripped paper to make a few others.  Fun, interactive and I would have never come up with the idea without the challenge idea put into my brain to percolate.  Thanks Catherine for providing the great inspiration

TTFN,