Randall Hall... (How I Miss Thee)

September and October always remind me of going back to school. I know this sounds funny since I actually am a teacher, but I don't mean September 1st "going back to school"... I mean college. Leaving when the leaves are just starting to turn as you cross Snoqualmie Pass on your way to Central Washington University (GO WILDCATS!).

This last summer, we took the kiddos on a trip to Ellensburg and as I always do... I walked through Randall Hall just to reminisce. Room 117 was the room that I took most of my Art History courses in, and the top story includes the painting studios that I spent much of my time in college. It still smelled the same: a mix of oil paint, Gamsol and linseed oil. Seriously, some of my happiest memories are wrapped up in those smells. Hint, hint Scentsy!

Anyway... For this lovely layout, I had some inspiration, but I cannot figure out where from. Maybe the PageMaps 2 book? I'd totally give credit, but cannot for the life of me remember. I guess that's what I get for blogging something I made in August... Sigh. At least the My Mind's Eye Market Street papers are sure pretty... And I had to use some Heidi Swapp Gold Lame spray and random sequins. Pin It

October's Shop Your Stash Kit...

So, as you may have noticed, I've renamed the kits that I make as Shop Your Stash Kits. There's a few reasons, and if you're a reader of my blog, you've noticed that I've been wrestling with what to call these creations. The short version is, I didn't want to use a name that I was not 100% comfortable with. There are ton of challenge blogs that all create themed kits, based on other companies' kits. I've done them, it's totally fun. But I don't want to imitate the amazing kits that others make, I just want to use up what I have. No challenges, no prizes, (unless you count all of the projects you make!) and no pressure. If you want more information on my process and what exactly I'm doing, I've made a PAGE to better explain how I go about Shopping My Stash!

Now for the pictures, and October's Shop Your Stash Kit!! Reality moment: this kit has been made for almost a month. Seriously... I'm in love with this kit, and the mood board that inspired it. I have SO many plans... But they have to start somewhere, and this is the lovely inspiration picture that started it all:

OMGoodness!! Isn't it just divine! So gorgeous, so Halloweeny without being all cheesy... I was just in love. Vanessa over at lbg studio created this amazing "Mood Board" and I swear, it spoke to me. I loved all of it from the apples (you'll see them!), to the pumpkins, feathers, woodgrain, stars, hot cocoa (which I'm totally translating into coffee...) and the patchwork. And those pocket scrapbook cards... that I may have just purchased because of this board. Look forward to a month of Halloween, Autumn and fun family pics!

Paper Top Row L-R:
Dancette (Spirited) - Authentique
You & Me (Stella & Rose) - My Mind's Eye
Remember (Lime Twist) - My Mind's Eye
Summer Dress (Indian Summer) - WeRMK
Polka Polka (Count Me In) - Sassafras Lass
Teal Large Dot (Dots & Stripes) - Echo Park
Juniper (Into the Woods) - Lawn Fawn
Clove (Nutmeg) - Cosmo Cricket
Tube Socks (Boyfriend) - Cosmo Cricket

Paper Bottom Row L-R:
Hoot of Owl (Witch Hazel) - October Afternoon
Picnic (Kraft Funday) - My Mind's Eye
Stripe (Uncharted Waters) - Glitz
Victorian (Random Collection) - Crate Paper
Big Sky (Open Road) - Crate Paper
Fun & Games (Kraft Funday) - My Mind's Eye
Grove (Countryside) - Studio Calico
Acorn (Nutmeg) - Cosmo Cricket
Fitting In (Boyfriend) - Cosmo Cricket

Shaped Paper
Smile (Lime Twist) - My Mind's Eye

Cardstock
black - American Crafts
Eggshell (Simply Spring) - WeRMK
reddish - American Crafts
light orange - American Crafts  

Embellishments:
Sculpture Flowers - Prima
Layered Stickers (Lost & Found 2) - My Mind's Eye
Circle Garland (Kraft Funday) - My Mind's Eye
Fla!r (Spooky) - American Crafts
Orange Chevron Washi (Amy Tangerine) - American Crafts
Chipboard Alpha - Sassafras Lass
Delights (Spice) - American Crafts
Dimensional Stickers - American Crafts
Word Stickers (Witch Hazel) - October Afternoon
Bingo Card - Pretty Little Studio
Various Die Cut Cards - Elle's Studio & October Afternoon
Mini Market Alpha (Pumpkin) - October Afternoon
Stickers (Hattie) - My Mind's Eye
Tickets (Kraft Funday) - My Mind's Eye
Twine (Kraft Funday) - My Mind's Eye
Kraft Borders - Anna Griffin
Happy Harvest Printable - Life Love Paper
FREE!! Back to School Printable - OneHappyMama.com Pin It

Scrapping Along with My Scrappy Sisters (From Afar)...

Last weekend was a little rough for me as I had a ton of scrappy friends all congregate at the fabulous ScrapbookSteals Mad Scrapper Retreat. This year, I had a perfect storm of personal and work obligations that just made it really difficult to sneak away and play with all of them. There's always next year, and I know that it will be even bigger and better than before! If you haven't checked them out, make sure that you do.

Anyway, since I couldn't join my crafty pals... I figured I would at least pretend. I grabbed my little girls, let them play upstairs with me, and crafted the day away. I found myself drawn to a really vertical aesthetic, and just played with my September Homemade "Counterfeit" Kit which I'm now going to rename "Shop Your Stash Kits". The reality is, I don't want to step on anyone's toes and call them something that has already been taken. Totally proactive, I swear.

This layout used a lot of inspiration from Audrey Yeager's version of this PageMaps sketch.

For my second layout, I started with using some Golden Light Molding Paste with a Silhouette Online Studio cut. Once that was dry, I took a couple of inks that I had, and blended them together to add some color onto the dried paste. I didn't want all of the white to go away, so made sure that a little still showed. Then layered on a photo and a few embellishments. The veneer butterfly was inked to match the enamel dots.

The last of the three was really fun. The Sassafras Lass paper that I used is one of my favorites, and I'm glad that I finally used it. To be honest, I think I've had it in my stash now for over five years. That's a long time to not use something pretty.

I used one of the September PageMaps sketch for this one, and really liked it. I moved up the bottom border to better frame the photograph.

These last two were created sometime in September, but I wanted to finish sharing my wonderful September projects that were created using my September Homemade "Counterfeit" Kit. I really loved the yellow and all of the bright colors in this layout. I didn't want to make a matchy-matchy pink layout just because both of the girls were wearing pink. I did love the small pops of blue in Miss I's shirt, and the yellow in Ro's, so wanted to highlight those colors. I love using my Silhouette to make die cut shapes from small remnants of my favorite papers, so used the last of some Crate Paper to make this ampersand.

This last piece really didn't have a story... Just a sweet, lazy dog. I wanted to keep the colors fairly muted, so grabbed a couple of light patterns and created a large background cut. The original layout of the cut is pretty vertical, so I squared it out to mimic my photograph and paper. I couldn't resist adding a couple of Lawn Fawn stamps to the mix however.

Hope you enjoy the works of September! I already have my October Homemade "Counterfeit" Kit created... Hopefully I will share this with you tomorrow! Pin It

Happy World Card Making Day with Xyron and Spellbinders!

Today I'm celebrating World Cardmaking Day with Xyron, Spellbinders and a little bit of Authentique thrown in! To start, I took some papers from Authentique's Grateful Collection and die cut various pieces using the Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents Fall themed Shapeabilities® set from Spellbinders. This set is really great, as you can die cut, emoboss and stencil using the same set. As you can see, I did a combination of all three for the various pieces of each die cut.

I really loved the stenciling capabilities of this set, as I'm not a huge embosser. I don't yet have an embossing mat, so used a slice of craft foam (normally reserved for making dimensional adhesive with my Xyron products) to create the embossed effects with the dies. It wasn't perfect, and I kind of ruined the craft foam, but now I really want to grab an embossing mat and see what these dies and the other Spellbinders Shapeabilities® sets do!

For the second card, I used more of the stencil effects, and was really happy with how this turned out. To better showcase the embossing techniques, I used some of my ImagineCrafts Versamagic Ink in Red Brick on the embossed sections. For both cards, I used my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker for each of the scalloped frame pieces. This is one of my favorite Xyron tools as it is big enough to use on most card-sized pieces, but small enough to stow in your travel craft case and take to crops. I also really like using the Xyron 3" Sticker Maker to make wider pieces of craft foam tape in order to use it on larger areas. My other go-to products on this pair of cards are the Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker on the vertically striped paper and Xyron's Double-Sided High Tack Tape throughout both cards. This way, I can adhere my pieces securely, but still allow space to bend up the pieces for more dimension.

Supplies Used:
Xyron: 3" Sticker Maker, 1.5" Sticker Maker, Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape
Spellbinders: Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents Fall themed Shapeabilities® set
Other Supplies: Authentique Paper (Grateful Collection: Plentiful, Observance, Copious, Kindred, Foundations One Distressed Solid, Bountiful, Components 6x12 paper die cuts), ImagineCrafts VersaMagic Ink (Red Brick), Staedler TriPlus Fineliner (Nature) Pin It

AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: "Cozy" Cocoa Holders

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Xyron and Anna Griffin: A Perfect Pairing for Gifts

Sometimes you just need a small gift (thank you, just because, hostess gift). This wonderful pairing of Xyron and Anna Griffin products definitely fits the bill for just that. This little gift set is a box, with four cards in it.

I started by making the box from some of the flocked paper and the amazingly thick, pearlized cardstock. I loved using the luxe flocked paper on the outside of this, as it is really soft. To create the sentiment for this boxed set, I used clear acetate in the "window". This way, I can let the cards shine. Using the Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape made this super easy to put together, as well as let me easily add the acetate into the completed box. 
I created two vertical and two horizontal cards using the Grace Collection and pieces from Anna Griffin's other collections. For the two vertical cards, I started with a base of the thick pearlized papers, then added various patterned and flocked papers, borders, sticker borders and die cuts. Some of the die cuts came dimensional, and some I was able to add layers myself. By running the die cuts through my 3" Sticker Maker, I was able to make sure that they were not going to shift when they were mailed. Rather than pull out my Mega Runner and squish the dimensional die cuts, I just used my Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape to attach them to the cards.

For the two horizontal cards, one had a base from the All About Her Cardmaking Kit, and one I used another piece of the Perfect Palette Cardstock Kit. Then I added more pieces of various die cuts. Lastly, I heat embossed a sentiment from one of Anna's stamp sets in black embossing powder. On these two cards, I really used my Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape. It made the extra embellishments so easy to place. For the embossed section, I ran those two pieces through my 1.5" Sticker Maker before attaching them to the card.

 I really love how easily this small gift came together.

Supplies Used:
Xyron: 1.5" Sticker Maker, 3" Sticker Maker,  Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape
Anna Griffin papers and die cuts    Anna Griffin® Grace Papercrafting Kit,
Anna Griffin® Perfect Palette Cardstock Kit, Anna Griffin® All About Her Cardmaking Kit, Anna Griffin® 60-piece Flocked Paper Collection
Additional Materials: acetate, ribbon, craft foam, Silhouette Cameo Pin It

AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: Authentique Paper, May Arts, Imagine Crafts Blog Hop- Create a Fall Wreath with "Harmony

Good Morning!! Check out the Authentique Blog, as we are excited to share our projects also using products made by ImagineCrafts and May Arts. Today, I am sharing a fun Fall wreath using Harmony Collection by Authentique, three May Arts ribbons and my favorite ImagineCrafts Memento Ink. I even have a fun mini-tutorial on the great ribbon flowers!

Be sure to check the Authentique Blog every day this week for more project inspiration! We have an Authentique Prize Pack as well as prizes from May Arts Ribbon & Imagine Crafts to give away to a couple of our lucky commenters on the original blog post.

For another chance to win, make sure you follow us on Instagram @authentiquepaper 

Also, make sure you stop and visit us as well as our friends over at May Arts Ribbon & Imagine Crafts on facebook for prizes and lots of wonderful inspiration coming your way!

Supplies:

 Authentique Harmony Collection: Abundance & Awakening 12x12 Papers, 6x6 Bundle

May Arts Ribbons: 1.5 Inch Faux Burlap / Wired Ribbon (Natural), 1/4 inch Twill Ribbon w/ Chevron Stripes (Black), & 2.5 Inch Solid / Wired Ribbon (Ivory)

ImagineCrafts Ink: Espresso Truffle Memento Dye Ink

Additional Supplies: wreath, brad, Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker, liquid glue, wire, Epiphany Craft's Shape Studio Round 25 tool and epoxy stickers, Kiwi Lane Designer Templates (Scallops)

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