Iolite Series!!!! Impressively Iolite!!

I really wanted to get back into scrapbooking life, and I was able to with this last gem from ScrapbookSteals. If you haven't heard or seen the Mid Week Mojo series, please check out this link. Unfortunately, I didn't really get back into blogging regularly and so while many of these were created quite awhile ago, I never blogged them. There are a few that I created while working hard this weekend as well.

Iolite 1: Butterfield Horse
This statue is by Deborah Butterfield, and is on permanent display on the Central Washington University campus. 

Iolite 2: Best Day Ever (Snow Day)
Okay, so this one didn't get blogged because I temporarily lost the memory card with the cutest snow pic on it. I found it over the weekend... And then it snowed :)

Iolite 3: The First Meeting
Throwback pics from when Miss Ro was born!!

Iolite 4: La Fondita
Just a little special remembrance of one of our outings to a favorite restaurant of ours.

Iolite 5: Date Night!!
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Iolite 6: Today
Another layout that I had finished on time, but just never got around to blogging... Seriously, I'm going to really try to get these all done in a timely fashion this next series!!

Iolite 7: Holiday Card 2013
This one has also been floating around my craft studio for awhile. I just loved the banners on this. 

Iolite 8: Family
A quickie family portrait during a family member's wedding reception. I really loved the banner, and swapped the second photo for a pile of die cuts. Mainly because I didn't have a second photo. :)

Iolite 9: Your View
I snapped this photo over the summer, during a quiet moment at the park. I know I've scrapped a different version of this day, but this moment was just special.

Iolite 10: Love

Since this one is on time!! Here's the sketch for it:

This isn't quite complete yet. Mainly because I am going to add quite a bit of journaling, but I haven't figured out exactly what I want to say quite yet. I'm still mulling it over. We don't get a lot of photos of just the two of us, and I'm working on that. I did however use that fantastic Teresa Collins/Xyron stapler. My favorite tool next to my Silhouette.

Well, there you go. I'm now Impressively Iolite. Pin It

Love (Creative Scrappers Sketch #256)

I first saw this layout on one of my blog readers' lists for Paper Issues. It's from Creative Scrappers, sketch #256. I loved the rays on the sketch, and made a pretty literal translation of the sketch. Instead of using a ray however, I used a grouping of triangles in various patterned papers from my Novemeber Gossamer Blue Scrapbook Kit.

I love how the simplicity of the sketch, with all of the patterned papers, makes such an impact. Pin It

XYRON! A Fond Farewell, and Game Day Decorations!

Good Morning! Today is a bittersweet day for me, as it is officially my last post for Xyron Adhesives. I have had a complete blast sharing everything that I have made with all of you. I will forever cherish the time that I spent working for a fabulous company, and alongside some super-talented ladies. 

Even amongst the bitter part, it will be a fantastic weekend this weekend. For starters, today is my birthday! While I'm not going to tell you how old I am, I will say that I'm younger than the Seattle Seahawks who are going to the Super Bowl this weekend!!

Since I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, it's a pretty big deal that our Seahawks are playing on Sunday. We watch every Hawks game, and usually my husband attends at least one a year. While our family usually watches the big game, no matter who plays, we don't usually decorate. This year... All bets are off (at least on the decoration side of things!)

I really love this banner. It's fun, and because I didn't use the team name, only a PNG of the Hawks logo, I could break it out again later if I chose to.

My husband was gifted these quite a few years ago, and we get to decorate with them finally! Just a little bit of vintage Seahawks!
For the food picks and the larger logo, I just found a PNG file of the logo online. THIS is the version that I used for this project. My crafty friend Brenda shared with me a fantastic tutorial on how to use your Silhouette's Print and Cut feature. There really are quit a few out there, and this one just worked for me. Once those were all cut, I used my Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker to adhere the logos to a scalloped rectangle that I sized just for this.

Once the logos were adhered to the rectangles, I simply attached some popsicle sticks that I cut in half (and made pointy!) with a couple of Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/8" Dots.  Now I'm ready to spear some amazing game snacks!

The banner was really easy too! I took a football shape from the Silhouette store, and cut it in both kraft paper for the football, and white for the laces. I cut the title with cardstock, then offset the letters so that I could use a contrasting color with each letter. I then ran both the laces and the blue letters through my Xyron 3" Sticker Maker. I think that the 3" is my favorite Xyron tool.

Once the laces were attached to the footballs, and the blue letters were attached to the offset green ones, I needed to attach the title to each of the football pieces. Using the Xyron Adhesive Solutions 3/8" Dots, each of the letters was easily attached.

Once all of the letters were attached, I used a hole punch to create a place to use my grey twine and string up the banner.  

I'm kind of in love with the whole effect. Now all I need is some football snacks and one amazing game! GO HAWKS!

Supplies Used:
Xyron Adhesive Dots in 3/8", Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker, Xyron 3" Sticker Maker, American Crafts Cardstock, Neenah Solar White Cover, Silhouette Cameo, Twinery Twine, printer, popsicle sticks. Pin It

AUTHENTIQUE: Leaky Shed Chipboard!!

Hello! Today's post over at Authentique Paper uses some amazing chipboard by Leaky Shed Studios! This is a cute mini book that I created using Leaky Shed's Camera Scrapbook Album. The great part of this mini, is that all of the sections are separate, so that it is really easy to cover with various papers and then glue down to create some amazing dimension.

For the cover of this mini, I started with Expedition, then covered the middle sections with Touring. Lastly, I used the amazingly inky black paper from the back of the Voyage. I love how black that paper is. The large sticker is from the Details sheet and Elements stickers for the letters. I just love that this mini reminds me of the boat pictures inside by using the May Arts Cord to make it look like a life ring. 

My second project is a sweet Valentine heart decor. I found a paper heart, painted it with acrylic paints, then added pieces from the Smitten Collection (Promise and Components papers) along with Leaky Shed's fantastic Watch Parts.

I really liked how the gears look like they are making the heart run.

Supplies Used:

Authentique Paper: Abroad Collection: Expedition, Touring, Voyage, Details, Elements; Smitten Collection: Promise, Components

Leaky Shed Studio: Camera Scrapbook Album, Watch Parts

Other Supplies: paper heart, acrylic paint, Xyron High Tack Adhesive Dots, Xyron Maya Road Trinket Pins, May Arts Ribbons and Cording Pin It

Back to Scrapping, and My One Little Word

The past few weeks have been extremely busy, although I'm not sure I did much at all. Christmas was a blur, we hosted for the very first time. I made an amazing dinner of turkey, all of the traditional sides, and multiple deserts including Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls and a Yule log. Seriously, an amazing feast.

Regardless, I've had a thought throughout this season that I was overdoing it. So my word* for this year is Simplify. I really want to focus on what is really important, for myself, my family, my work, and my life. I feel that although I like to take on the world, I don't need to in order to prove that I am good enough.

Part of Simplying my life was upholding the promise that I made to myself concerning my wonderful Gossamer Blue  kits. I had to cancel my Monthly Main Kit. I had made a deal with myself that I was going to participate each month in their Album Challenge and create at least for layouts by the 14th. Come December 14th, I hadn't finished my four layouts and honored my word. I didn't want to give up completely (mainly because Gossamer Blue puts out some amazing kits, and one day I would like to re-sub again!!!), and instead joined Gossamer Blue's Life Pages kit. I wanted a Simple way to document life, and wanted unique products to create with still. I will still create layouts, just by using my large stash of awesome products.

This was my first layout in awhile not using a pre-fabbed kit. I used my Crate Paper DIY Shop kit that I snagged from ScrapbookSteals right before September's Crop in Utah. I loved pairing the soft hues with these beautiful pics of my girls. I even used the Iolite #6 sketch from ScrapbookSteals.

 

*The One Little Word is part of the Ali Edwards brand and philosophy. While I am not currently doing her class, I am taking a personal look at life using a bit of this philosophy. I'm not sure yet if adding another project within this would truly Simplify my life right now... Maybe in Summer! If you want more information on both Ali's classes and information, please see her 2014 post on her blog. Thanks!

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AUTHENTIQUE PAPER: Sweet Little Girls and the Smitten Collection

Today this wonderfully sweet layout is being featured on the Authentique Blog. I love the pinks, reds and browns especially in the Smitten Collection by Authentique Paper. I even used a  Kiwi Lane DT Doodles. I love sketches. They take out all of the second guessing, and sometimes, that is exactly what I need. For this layout, I only used one page from the Week 43 Doodle.

Check it out today! And tomorrow I will update you on some CHA news, my One Little Word for this year, and a very brief update on my hiatus from the blog. Not completely intentional :)

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Lawnscaping Winter Blog Hop!!!!!

Welcome to the Lawnscaping Winter Blog Hop!! I was SO excited to be ready and willing to share my love for Lawnscaping Challenges with you this morning. Some of you may know, that Lawn Fawn has become a new addiction to me. So have the Lawnscaping Challenges! Too often I don't get mine photographed in time, or life gets in the way to finish a thought, but this one I have been planning for a few weeks now and am SO excited to finally share it with you!

 

You should be coming here from Lenny. Her coloring is crazy-amazing!! I am super excited to see what she created this morning!! If you are just starting here, make sure that you head to the Lawnscaping Challenges Blog as there are a TON of prizes and sponsor information over there.  

Here is my project for the hop! I'm super excited about it. I chose to use two of my favorite stamp sets: Gnome Sweet Gnome and Into the Woods. I still cannot get over how cute that fox is, and had to "winterize" him for this card. I also had a blast playing with some of the Into the Woods papers and the Peace Joy Love Mixed Sequins.  

To start this card, I used a Silhouette cut that I altered to better suit what I was going to do with it. I cut off the side with the snowman. Then, I cut the front from Neenah Solar White paper, and the snowglobe itself from a sheet of Into the Woods paper. LOVE the woodgrain! The globe is actually packaging from a set of diecuts! Each of the sequins are stuck to the acetate using Xyron's 3/8" Adhesive Dots. They are perfect for sequins!! I also used my Xyron 9" Creative Station on both the snowglobe and the white and colored sections of the card. It made it SO much easier to piece all of the sections together. 

The background is a mix of Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Broken China, with a bit of Colorbox in Midnight. The snowbanks were cut using Kiwi Lane Templates in Paisley Place and a little bit of the Distress Ink makes them pop. The gnome, now Santa! and fox are both colored using Spectrum Noir markers. Although I did add a little bit of colored pencil on his face. The key was also colored using the markers.

I am SO glad that you were able to visit and hop along today!! Head on over to see the work by the amazing Christine Drogt now!!!

  
Supplies Used:
Lawn Fawn (Into the Woods stamps and paper, Gnome Sweet Gnome stamps, Peace Joy Love Mixed Sequins), Distress Inks (Broken China, Tumbled Glass), Spectrum Noir markers, Xyron Adhesive Dots, Xyron 9" Creative Station, Neenah coverstock (Solar White), Memento Ink (Tuxedo Black), American Crafts (dark kraft paper), Silhouette Cameo and Online Store, acetate Pin It