Cut It Up

Hey all, boy do I have some exciting news to share today!  You all know that I'm a sucker for a good challenge blog.  It helps keep me on my toes and learn new techniques and find inspiration in just about every project I set out to create.  One of my new favorites is Cut It Up Challenge blog because I am a Cricut newbie and it's helping me remember to bust it out (and my Cricut for that matter that was lost in the land of embossing folders for too long) when working on my cards and layouts.  Well boy was I excited when I was selected to be on their design team this term.  Like super-duper, embarrassing dance around my living room excited.  LOL  Click on over here to see the rest of the big announcement...



Thanks for visiting!

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Simply Bananas

If there is one thing you MUST know about me it's that I'm a sucker for puns.  Like knee-slapping, spitting my drink out of my nose, gut-busting laughter kinda sucker.  So when Fantabulous Cricut posted their 'fun with puns' challenge I sat right down to get started.  The papers are all from the Dream Street Papers line Carma.  The letters are Thickers and the 'simply' is diecut from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge.  The monkey, banana, and vine are all from Create-a-Critter.  That is by far my fav go-to cartridge and I've been stalking the local scrappy shops trying to find it's sequel to no avail.

Thanks for visiting!

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Go Ahead Challenge Yourself!

Hey all!  I have amassed quite the collection of fun challenge blogs I like playing along with.  Even when I don't have the time to create, I love popping in and seeing all the fabulous design team inspiration.  I recently realized that I hadn't updated my list (other than adding new ones I'd found) in FOUR YEARS and a good portion of my former faves had closed their doors.

So rather than just adding more blinkies to my side bar, I've decided to add a page in my top bar that categorizes, details and links them all.  I wanted them saved some place I could easily access and that allows me to share them all with you too!  Click below to check out my list and let me know if you know of one I should check out!  The scrapbook challenges are up first since I am mostly a layout kind of girl, but I did include a big ol' list of card challenges for the days I'm feeling Hallmark-y.  ;)

Thanks for visiting!

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Scrap Your Story Challenges!!!

Hi all!  Hope everyone is doing great.  I've been spending the past few days making new sketches, so no scrappy stuff to share today, but I do have some exciting news....A NEW SCRAPPY CHALLENGE BLOG!!!

There are tons out there that cater to card makers, but the layout challenges are beginning to dwindle sadly.  So it's awesome to have a new one joining the ranks to play along with.  I hope you'll all agree and pop over and take a look around, click follow even, and while you are there we are doing a give-a-away to help spread the word and a DT call!!!

Each week we will alternate between challenge types and once a month you will find one of my sketches as the starting point for inspiration!!  There will be a weekly top 3, a monthly prize to win, and lots of designers to inspire.  Tons of fun...don't miss out!!!



Thanks for visiting!

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beautiful day at the park

Hey all, I'm still on my 8.5x11 kick.  Not by choice necessarily because I really struggle with it, but I'm having to redo two of my old albums that were damaged and if I want to be able to salvage the layouts that survived then I need to keep with that size for the rest.

This 2pager is brought to you by Stuck?! Sketches.  They posted two sketches this month and I used one for each page.  Sure hope that's not against the rules to post them together.  The left side is the February 1st sketch flipped horizontally and the right side is the February 15th sketch.

All the paper is Fancy Pants 'At Summers End' and the letters are all Thickers.  The golden ones are plain white glittery thickers that I inked up.  That's my favorite thing to do...probably EVER!  You can make them any color at all that you can find ink in.  Though I have found that it really only works with the glittery ones because the glitter seems to prevent the ink from wiping off, though you probably wouldn't have that problem if you used quality pigment ink.  The diecuts are all from my Create-a-Critter cartridge.  Except the arrows and doilies...those aren't die-cuts.  I fussy cut those from the paper scraps.

Thanks for visiting!

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It's a Teen Thing

This week's challenge over at Anything But a Card is Lucky 13.  My DT project was a 12x12 layout from my son's 13th birthday.  I followed Creative Scrappers sketch #246.  I had tons of fun with this one.  

• The paper Line is Basic Grey - Life of the Party.  
• For the circle elements I used a glass and painted the rim white then stamped it down.  Don't worry it was non-toxic paint and washed right off...just don't tell hubby or he'll spent the next decade trying to figure out which glass to avoid LOL!  
• The blue letter stickers and yellow tab are both leftovers from my Echo Park - For the Record sticker sheet.  Don't you love when you can incorporate leftovers from another line or even brand??  
• The ring border at the top was just cut from a scallop border.  I cut a 1" wide strip of paper and punched the border and then flipped it over and punched the other side.  Then I used a hole punch to make holes in the middle.  I love the way it turned out.  
• The numbers '1' and '3' are cardstock stickers by The Paper Studio.
• The little green clippie is super cute, but I can't help you on the brand because it came in a swap I participated in a few years ago.  
• The arrow is cut from the Graphically Speaking cartridge on my Cricut.  
• I used Tim Holtz Burlap distress ink on all the edges.
• The yellow letters are Thickers and are labeled Niki Riki, not sure if that means the font?  They were a little to sunshiney for this paper line so I just sponged over them with a little of the Tim Holtz distress ink and voila...PERFECTO!
• I used a brown thin Sharpie for faux stitching and a white gell pen for the dotted doodling.  

Thanks for visiting!

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Vrooom

The challenge over at Frosted Designs this week is to BE BOLD!!!  To me this 'On the Go' collection from Bo Bunny is pretty darn bold.  Bright orange, cobalt blue... Oh yes, bold indeed!  Every aspect of this layout is from this line, I just utilized my fussy cutting skills for the embellishments (Some of the pieces were popped up with dimensionals though).  :)  Sometimes when you are working with a super graphic, super busy line, the best embellishing is kept within the line ;)

Thanks for visiting!

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Mommy's Favorite Shopping Buddy

Okay guys...this one's a bit on the girly side.  Which is saying something for me, because everything I make somehow ends up girly and so if I think it's extra girly...it's super duper extra girly.  LOL!  I'll detail it more after you take a gander, so without further ado...here is my DT project for week 12 at Anything But a Card: Share the Love.

The paper line I used is by KaiserCraft and it's called English Rose.  I gave it a tad bit of distressing around all the edges before assembling.  The roses and rosebuds are all fussy cut from the patterned paper.  The hearts are George and Basic Shapes with some dry embossing on the solid ones.  The gemstones and pearls and trim are all Recollections.  The leaves are cut from Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge.  The 'love' charm came in a swap a few months ago so not sure of the brand, but it's a nice engraved metal and I loooved it!  Here is a close up of the details:

A few challenges that inspired me with this layout were:

Creative Scrappers - Sketch #247

(First up is the sketch I used for my 8.5x11)

Fantabulous Cricut - Queen of Hearts 

(I used George and Basic Shapes)

Frosted Designs - Love and Hearts
(My charm says 'Love' and there are hearts tucked in all over)

The Studio Challenges - 5+ Hearts

(There are exactly 5 diecut hearts on this LO)

Thanks for visiting!

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Papa's Loves

Last week I hopped along with the Stuck On U Sketches blog hop.  I even managed to score one of the DT member's prizes.  WHOO HOO!!!!  What's better than seeing 20+ brilliant takes on an awesome sketch?  Getting goodies in the mail when you're done that's what!  Thank you again so much Becky!!!  :)  Below is my 8x8 take on the sketch posted.  Watch out...lots of fussy cutting ahead.....

Thanks for visiting!

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Pens, pencils, and markers... Oh my!!!

Howdy all!  I have a fun project to share today.  I had been using an empty shoebox as storage for all my writing utensils and got tired of digging to the bottom every time I needed a particular piece.  I can't even tell you how many times I've bought a new journaling pen because I was sure that it was gone only to find two of that exact one at the bottom of the pile.  So I set out to figure out a way to have them all upright so that I could see the tips of every one of them at a glance and in a way that they all stayed up if I pulled one out.

I started by finding a smaller shoe box.  I had been using a Nike box from hubby's gigantic size 13 1/2s just so I had room to dig, but truthfully my youngest's toddler size 6 shoe box was perfect once it was organized. I settled on toilet paper rolls as a way to divide the box into sections then set out to decorate it with my fav new papers!

Here are the supplies I used:

 A small shoe box

lots of toilet paper rolls (my shoebox took 12)

Modge Podge

Permanent adhesive of choice

Paper/Embellies

 As you can see, step one was to put one of the toilet paper rolls into the box and mark with a pencil just how tall you needed to snip it to.  You don't want it the same height as the box because they shouldn't be visible once full.  I snipped mine to about 1.5" shorter than the top.  Then line the box with them.  It doesn't have to be packed edge to edge, but should be a tight fit so that they don't tip over when full.

To decorate I measured the shoe box length, height and width.  I cut one piece of paper to the correct length (long side) and then added 2" to the height.  Then I cut another piece (making sure the patterns match up) to the correct width (short side) and then added 2" to the height cut again.  My box was 5" tall, 4" wide, and 8" long.  So I cut two pieces of patterned paper.  One is 7"x4" and one is 7"x8".  The extra 2" allows you to wrap 1" inside the box and 1" on the underside of the box to have clean edges.  I applied the Modge Podge one side at a time and was sure to smooth out air bubbles as I went.  I also chose to ink edges of my papers.  I used two complimentary patterns cut into strips to wrap around the center of the box for added interest.  I didn't bother cutting enough to wrap around the entire thing.  Just centered it at the part that would be showing on my desk, but that's entirely up to you.  Add the word 'pens' with foam Thickers and voila!  

I have a different tube for each type of pen.  One for gel pens, one for thin Sharpies, thick Sharpies, colored pens, black/blue pens, colored pencils, pencils, most used tools, misc markers, etc.  So now I can grab a brown thin Sharpie to do a little journaling lickity split without digging because it's upright in eyesight.  :)  

How have you guys personalized your storage with scrappy supplies???

Thanks for visiting!

♥