Playing with Whatever is Lovely

I have been in love with all of the Illustrated Faith products that have come out this last year. When Bella Blvd. came out with their "Whatever is Lovely" line, I snapped it up when I was able. Philippians 4:8 holds a special place in my heart, as it was the verse that I shared when my two babies were baptized. I wanted to pair the sweet black and white photo with the bright, bold patterns.

Once I put everything together, I had to take the Illustrated Faith Precision Pen and trace all of the beautifully patterned paper. The lovely alpha looks like it's handcut, which is just too fun.

With a few of the sentiment pieces from the 3x4s paper, I created a cute little card. I added a few more pieces of sentiment by snagging a couple of stickers from my Genesis kit, using some dimensional adhesive to stick them on. 

Supplies: 
Bella Blvd. / Illustrated Faith [Genesis Collection - Point It, Love It, Say It (Black & White), Wordfetti (White), .35 Precision Pen, Word Art washi], [Whatever is Lovely - Praiseworthy, Noble, Admirable, Lovely, 3x4s, Art Prints, Treaures & Text], Twinery twine [Pink Sorbet], enamel dots

GOSSAMER BLUE: Delight in the Details Class and Class Kit!!!!

I am SUPER excited to share with you that I was asked earlier this summer to help contribute for a Gossamer Blue class. The fabulous Jill Keller put together this course, and chose all of the contributors: Monika Wright, Emily Spahn, Sabrina Alery and ME! It's called Delight in the Details.

From Gossamer Blue: Delight in the Details: a class focused on taking your layouts from good to gorgeous! Learn to layer and embellish while focusing on techniques for enhancing page backgrounds, clustering embellishments, creating dimension and all of the little things that will make your finished projects stand out and be noticed. Register now, as class begins September 28th!! And best part, if you register soon, you get a fantastic stamp set designed by One Little Bird.

There's also a class kit! And seriously... This class kit is AMAZING! I really loved all of the details, the embellishments, the sequins (oh, the sequins!!)...

I couldn't resist snagging you a little sneak of one of my four (4!!) projects that I created using this kit. Let me know if you join the class! I'd love to see what you come up with.

CHIBITRONICS!! Fun Ways to Light Up Your Projects

I am excited to share with you a few projects that are going live on HSN (Home Shopping Network) in a few hours! I was lucky to be asked to create a couple of things for Chibitronics, a fun newer company that is bridging the gap between crafting and electronics. I will admit, I am not an engineer, but these little circuit stickers are really fun to create with. I am going to share with you how I created the circuit for this fun wreath.

I started with my wreath form. In this case, it's just a ring that I cut from some chipboard. This provided enough stability for my project, and a nice flat surface for my circuit to stick to.

I started by drawing out my circuit onto the chipboard, then laying down the copper tape. I created a parallel circuit so that I could use multiple circuit stickers. Make sure to mark which side is your negative, and which is your positive. The stickers must be facing the correct way to work.

Since my circuit curved, I couldn't get a straight fold to work. To minimize any short circuits, I burnished the copper foil tape with a plastic pen. This way, the tape was really flat and wouldn't move.

I created a housing for the battery using some paper that matched the leaves that I was going to decorate the wreath with. The tape was also in a similar color. By taping the edge, it created a flap that I could position the battery in, and clamp on when I wanted the project to light.

See my cute little circuit! I even marked the positive and negative sections!

So when the housing was complete, and the circuits all complete, then I was ready to start stickering the project!

For this project, I chose to use the red LED circuit stickers. I thought that when finished, the red pops of light would mimic berries.

Since the battery is a wily little thing, I decided to use some double-sided tape to stick one side of the battery to the battery housing that I had created. This way, I wouldn't have any loose batteries if I moved the wreath.

Once I stuck the double-sided tape to the negative side of the battery, it fit nicely into the battery housing I had created, and allowed for the housing to open when I wanted to turn the wreath off.

It's ALIVE!! Seriously, isn't this just the coolest thing ever?!?!?

Once the project worked, then I was able to decorate. I chose a couple of colors of green cardstock from my stash, and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out evergreen boughs and holly leaves.

 Isn't this amazing? Seriously, grab some of the Chibitronics Circuits and try your own projects!

I also created a great Hanukkah menorah display using the yellow lights, and a fun monogram using the white lights!

ScrapbookSteals Mid-Week Mojo: The Lilac Series

Sometimes I actually get to play for fun. And for myself. I usually use the ScrapbookSteals' Mid-Week Mojo sketches for my personal scrapping. These are all from the Lilac Series.

Lilac #1

(Crate Paper - The Pier, Party Day) 

Lilac #2

 

(Crate Paper - The Pier; Webster's Pages - Recorded) 

Lilac #3

 

(Authentique Paper - Infused Collection)

Lilac #4

(Crate Paper: scraps, Chipboard and embellishments; American Crafts - scraps; enamel dots)

Lilac #5

 

(October Afternoon - Summertime; American Crafts - Thickers, Elle's Studio - die cuts, Authentique - stickers;  enamel dots)

Lilac #6

 (October Afternoon - Summertime; Crate Paper - Notes and Things; American Crafts - Thickers; enamel dots)

Lilac #7

 

 (Crate Paper - Confetti; Fancy Pants - Office Suite; enamel dots)

Lilac #8

 (Sassafras Lass - flowers and embellishments; BoBunny Lemonade Stand)

Lilac #9B

 

 (October Afternoon - Summertime; Crate Paper - Open Book; American Crafts - Thickers; enamel dots)

Lilac #10

 (Crate Paper - Open Book, Notes and Things; American Crafts - patterned paper; Webster's Pages - patterned paper; October Afternoon - tags; enamel dots)

Make sure to check out the ScrapbookSteals Blog page on Wednesdays for your chance to play along! 

AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: "Infused" Pocket Letters

Make sure that you go over to the Authentique Paper blog and check out my versions (three in total!!) of Pocket Letters! I'll give you a couple of sneak peeks of my Pocket Letter that uses the fantastic newer line, Infused. I love the tea and sweets concept. It's just a perfect pair for the tea that I am sending to my lovely Pocket Letter pal!

Isn't that sticker just so perfect for this!?!?!

And sequins.... Always sequins to share!! Come visit and see the rest!

Cambridge (The T)

When I grabbed a few things from the last huge Paper Issues sale in July, I snagged a few of the Kelly Purkey Basic Grey papers. I really liked their city-gritty vibe, and knew that it would pair well with a few of my Boston/Cambridge photos from my recent trip back East.

I really wanted to use the camera "card" from the Lake View paper, and even used Glossy Accents to push the glass effect. I used a few more of the cards to add some pops of color and text, and then created a title using my new Lawn Fawn Finley's ABC dies that I also snagged on sale. The background paper is the Roscoe Village paper, which almost looks like the train tracks running under Boston. It was just too perfect.

Supplies Used: Basic Grey (Kelly Purkey-Second City line), Glossy Accents, Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts (Finley's ABCs)

Turning Advertisements into Layouts

Often advertisements in print magazines have some amazing graphic design work. This layout was actually inspired by a Behr Marquee paint advertisement.

I really loved that graphic painted wall, and had just purchased a few pieces of Crate Paper (Schedule, 3x5) and a few other items during a fantastic Paper Issues sale. I chose the triangular shaped papers to mimic the painted wall, and the gray chevron striped paper to mimic the flooring. The couch became the photograph, and the enamel dots and tags were inspired by the paint cans and the chandelier.

To make this inspiration a scrapbook layout, I created this sketch.

Supplies Used: Crate Paper patterned papers, enamel dots (My Mind's Eye & Freckled Fawn), Amy Tangerine Alphas, Martha Stewart Punch

AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: All You Need is LOVE (SS Lilac #3)

When my mojo is gone, and I know that I want to create, I really turn to sketches. I often change them so much that they are only remnants of the original design, but for this fun layout, I stayed true to the original. I really wanted to play with this lovely new Authentique Collection, Infused. I couldn't resist pairing the sweet, confectionery tones with my two sweetest girls.

I loved snipping little bits of the 6x6 Bundle into the cute little banner (with Twinery Twine), and even added a fussy-cut cake cut from the Enhancements page. The journaling and sentiment cards are also from the same sheet.

A few little enamel dots, a couple of Elements stickers, and the layout is complete. Such a sweet memory captured.

If you'd like to see the sketch, I used the Lilac #3 sketch from ScrapbookSteals.com. For this challenge, there were seven options, and I chose Lilac 3A (the first one).

Products Used: Authentique Infused Collection (6x6 Bundle, Enhancements, Elements, Etiquette, Deluxe, Gourmet), Twinery Twine (Spring Blossom), assorted enamel dots

Paper Issues: Sketchy Saturday-July 2015 Edition

Here is my version of July's fun Sketchy Saturday from Paper Issues. I really wanted to create a bold statement with this layout, so used a lot of black and white on this. I also used quite a few older patterned paper scraps and some of the new Illustrated Faith alphas from Bella Blvd. that I had just gotten.

Love this picture. And I really love how the layout mirrors a lot of the same colors. Such a sweet memory.

Just a Fun Layout

Just a fun layout showcasing some Maya Road products and some Fancy Pants papers. With a little Elle's Studio thrown in.

May Sketchy Saturday Sketch (Paper Issues)

I've been seriously loving sketches. This one I created in May for the Paper Issues Sketchy Saturday using the Webster's Pages Collection Strawberry Fields. I loved using all of the soft colors for this layout.

Isn't this sketch just so fun?!? I loved the layout, but of course made it mine by changing it all into a circular shape.

March Paper Issues Crop Sketch

One of my favorite things right now is creating layouts using sketches. I go through waves of time where I love them, and then don't. This is from the Paper Issues Crop Layout sketch below. I used quite a few different papers including some from Heidi Swapp, Webster's Pages and Elle's Studio.

I can't get the pic for the sketch to load, but here is the LINK. It's the CROP sketch.

Quick Cards from Gossamer Blue Kits

EEK! Sometimes I seriously just take the last little bits of a kit and toss it with some cardstock and card bases to see how many different cards I can make. This set was made using the Gossamer Blue March Main Kit waaaaaaay back from March 2014. I've been hanging onto these beautiful leftover bits since then.

How do you use your scraps? Leave me a link and I'll come check them out!!