A few quick cards

I finally found a little time to spend in my craftroom creating this weekend. My copy of Handmade Cards from Paper Crafts Magazine arrived and the cards in there really blew me away. There are some seriously inspiring cards in there! One was a washi tape card from Vera Wirianta Yates on page 52.  She covered a panel of paper with washi tape at various angles and then cut it into three panels. Her card is bright with fun colored washi tape on a white background. I had to try it and went with my neutral washi tapes in blacks & grays against a vibrant card base.

This second card is ultra simple on a richly textured card base. The houses are paper pieced with scraps from my PB&J Basic Grey mat pack. The thin blue outline inside the box helps this pop from the rest of the card a bit.

Veneer Obsession

I'll admit it, I have an obsession with veneer. One set I bought because I couldn't resist is these houses. I wasn't sure what to do with them besides a house warming card but I only know so many people moving. That doesn't account for the 36 veneers I have! The Handmade Cards challenge for wood, metal, and cork over at Fab Moxie World is another great excuse to go crazy with veneer. This is my second card for the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge #46.

I wanted to feature two applications for veneer in one card. The sentiment banner is left naked and embellished with a gold rub on. The houses are coated in Papaya pigment ink from A Muse Studio. The pigment ink application is so fun because you just squish it into the ink pad. The only downside is you have to wait  at least 30 minutes for it to dry before you add it to your project.

 Supplies: Paper is from the Studio Calico September 2013 Card Kit, rub on is from Pebbles, Papaya ink from A Muse Studio, Studio Calico veneer banner, houses from Pima.

Reverse Sketch

I was really taken with this week's CAS(E) this Sketch and created two cards for it. The first one I made leaves the center element empty but fills the card base. I masked the the center section with a post it
and covered the card base with blooms for a bold look. The sentiment is a golden rub on from Pebbles which is embellished with a button and bakers twine.

Images from Studio Calico, Cameo Coral and Ruby Red inks from Stampin' Up!

Gold at the end of the rainbow

It's been awhile since I've played in the Fab Moxie challenge and this weeks image is an intriguing one. I like the challenge of taking something that is clearly a digital creation and then transforming it into something with another medium. This was the perfect job for one of the first Stampin' Up! sets I bought way back in 2003. It hasn't been used much since but basic shapes don't go out of style.

I first inked with the lighter color ink and then stamped on the darker from the other side. I wasn't concerned about getting a true ombre effect but if you are, a quick fine mist of water over the inked surface before stamping will do the trick. I finished it off with this fun and bold golden rub on from Pebbles. After all, there's supposed to be gold at the end of the rainbow! The card size is cut to 3 1/2 x 5 1/2.

Thanks so much for the visit and I hope you play along too!

Project Life Continued

As I mentioned in my previous post about Project Life, I started experimenting with using the concept to scrap events instead of weekly summaries. The small pockets make a lot of sense when you might have just 2-3 photos for a given week but I needed to figure out how to make some of the page layouts from my variety pack work for my needs. I can't just let them sit there! Here is the same layout done two different ways.

This is a bunch of photos from a family reunion. I packed in a lot of shots in just one page while still using 3 filler cards. The card on the bottom row was stamped with the camera and sentiment to customize.

The above layout from an Oktoberfest getaway had photos that couldn't be cropped down much. I just cut the photo and placed them in adjoining pockets.It works really well for almost all of them. The cardboard cutout of the St. Pauli girl did have her face sliced in half...oooops! There's still a poster of her in my husbands bar if we ever need to reference her face.

Project Life Review

I've been interested in the Project Life concept for a few years and love what Ali Edwards does with it so I took the plunge and started with ordering a set of the page protectors in a variety pack. Since I've really only seen samples of people scrapping the weekly events like it's intended I thought that is how I'd use it. To commit to that you need to be really good about documenting and actually printing your photos. I don't fall into that category of people. I had the supplies and I wanted to start so I used an event from last fall as my virgin page.

For this layout I rounded all the corners, created my own filler sections with scrap paper, and embellished with washi tape & thickers. It was fun and took a fraction of the time it usually took me to create a traditional layout. I liked it but was still thinking I needed to follow the weekly collection of photos mantra to make it work.

All that changed when I received a free sample Project Life kit with my Studio Calico card kit. It was a small sampling of the cards to insert and since I had them...why not use them? I started with some photos I've been meaning to scrap for 3+ years. Our trip to Holland and Belgium. I had stacks of photos to deal with and it was daunting. No problem! I just started sliding those puppies into the layout and journaling on the cards with a little embellishing along the way. I finished a good representation of our trip in about 8 page protectors in less than 2 hours. Woah!

I had firmly been against buying the filler cards for Project Life because I need more paper like I need to gain 10 pounds. But I was torn because now I've seen how much faster I can go with them and how much more likely I am to do it if I have the cards. 40% off the kits was all I needed to buy my first two filler sets and I've now scraped over 30 pages. It feels great have my memories out of a box and in a book. The new format allows me to enjoy the memories and not focus on the embellishments and layout. I'm a fan and over having to conform to it's original intent. I am still creative as I'm able to create as much or as little as I want with each layout.

Muse #33

The Muse challenge card by Laurie Willison layout reminds me of an envelope. I used the same basic layout and struggled for a while on how and how much to fill the white space. I settled on an oldie but goodie sentiment stamp from A Muse Studio that my stamping friend Amy reminded me I owned this morning. I paired that with patterned paper and the bee stamp from my Studio Calico Card Kit.

The bees were colored with a glittery yellow Spica pen and I highlighted the sentiment with a touch of yellow copic. Thanks so much for the visit!