A trip and a win

We took a trip to Ohio to see family this past week. Levi's brother, Brandon, is deploying again and a lot of the Hadley family was there - it was a great time! We got to see the Akron zoo and hang out with a boatload of kids. :) I got to see my new niece, Tarynn, as well!

Just after we arrived (it was about an 18 hour journey with stops) I checked my e-mail only to see that I had been chosen as the Grand Prize winner for the Spellbinders giveaway!!!! I was so thrilled! I keep going back to their blog to look at all the new stuff, I can't wait to get it. Did you see all the new items? Heavenly :) Here are just a few!

Some Kitchen Decor

My kitchen is kind of retro. Not really because I designed it that way or because I just love retro kitchens. It's that way because it hasn't been updated since retro was...born. I've got a black and white checkerboard tile floor like you'd see at a 50's diner, 3 diamond shapes on the wall above the stove - which is itself QUITE old. I've got one of those old metal sink cabinets that the sink is enclosed in. Well, you get the picture. I think my kitchen is kind of interesting, although not exactly how I would choose to do it if I had a choice. Since I don't have a choice, I thought it was about time I started embracing it!

I made this funky little kitchen decor a while back. I picked up the birdhouse frame at Hobby Lobby for about $1 when it was clearanced by 85%. It used to be soft pink, purple and green, so I painted it and used a lot of Crackle Medium.

I used canvas by Canvas Corp (the burlap stretched frame is from them as well) to stamp on. It was surprising how well the canvas took to stamping. I also got those cute little clothespins from Canvas Corp, they're a pretty awesome company!

The stamped images are by Crafty Secrets "Tea & Coffee." I get so much use out of that set. There are a ton of amazing images along with a lot of cute sentiments. I highly recommend it. I made the coffee cups and the coffee pot images epoxy (shiny, raised and protected) by using a lot of Diamond Glaze. So if they happen to get wet (it is a kitchen, after all) they will be just fine.

Thanks for taking a peek, maybe sometime soon I'll find some more decor I can re-purpose for my kitchen. :)

Banners again

When I made my banner layout for a previous post, I stamped a whole bunch of kites that I didn't use. So here are some more banners :) Alexis decided that the butterfly needed to go right there, so it did. Micah decided we needed a blackbird somewhere, so we did that too. Needless to say, the kids love this card! All I know is that I need to find a local place where I can get discounted adhesive pearls and gems, because I use those babies like they're going out of style. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel now. So sad. Thanks for taking a peek, have a great Wednesday!

More hand stamped vintage

Well I couldn't just stop with what I made this morning, I had to keep on stamping this afternoon! I came up with several more papers, and here is a card that shows a few of the fruits of my labors today. I may never buy patterned paper again! Ok, well that's just not true... ;)

Hand Stamped Vintage

I just love the pretty vintage prints from companies like October Afternoon. Sadly, my LSS doesn't carry ANY October Afternoon. :( I wanted to get my stamps and inks out this morning and do something fun, so I decided to stamp my own vintage prints with the stamps I already own. I did some big and bold prints and some small and delicate ones - I ended up with a lot!


I don't usually measure to make my own background papers, I just do it by eye. However, if you find that you're having trouble lining things up, just get out your ruler and make some erasable pencil marks. I like the same color on color patterns as well as colors on neutral papers. Depending on what sort of style you're going for, mix it up and just have fun!

When you're doing patterns, it's easier (to me anyway) to start off the page a bit. That way, you have a continuous pattern that doesn't just stop abruptly at the paper's edge. See how I continued and did half or quarter images off the edge of the cardstocks? You can do this easily by having another sheet of scrap paper or a craft mat under the paper you're stamping on.

I used a small portion of the papers I made up to do this layout. Every pattern on here is stamped onto cardstock. The great fun of that is that you can customize your colors to match any palette you wish!


Thanks for taking a peek :)

PS: if you're interested, the vintage lady stamp is from Crafty Secrets "Tea & Coffee," The Bingo card stamp is by Prima Marketing, the damask is from Papertrey Ink "Damask Designs," the butterflies are by Verve Stamps, and the doily stamps are by Dove of the East.

Moxie Fab Classy & Elegant Challenge

Day four of the style challenge at Moxie Fab and so far I've managed to get all of them done, whew! If you're just seeing this, head on over to the blog there and join in. You still have plenty of time to get your cards finished and uploaded.

Today is "Classy & Elegant" and here is my take. Not the best photo, but we're having some wind problems outdoors and I can't get a better photo to save my life! The black paper is very shiny and satin like, so it has created a bit of a glare coupled with the satin finish ribbon.

I decided against adding a sentiment just because I felt it would be too over the top. The ribbon demands a lot of attention!

**To make the ribbon, I just folded it back upon itself and sewed a stright line behind where the flower is.
**To make the flower, I sewed a straight line on one side of the ivory ribbon and then pulled the bottom thread causing it to bunch. I added some flat backed pearls with Fabri-Tac and that's about it!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Moxie Fab Shabby Chic or Vintage

I created this card for the Moxie Fab Shabby Chic or Vintage challenge today on the blog. I love this style and have delved into it now and then. I haven't done it lately though, so it was nice to be challenged :)

I used the Papertrey Ink "Lily of the Valley" stamp along with a Melissa Frances rubon.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Moxie Fab Fun and Cute!

I created this card for the Moxie Fab "Fun and Cute" Challenge! Make sure you check it out and join in :)

The patterned tree/owl paper and the pink polkadot paper is from Jillibean Soup. The woodgrain paper is from Pink Paislee. I used a Martha Steward Deep Edge punch and the Corner Deco Fan punch to create all the punched edges.

TIP! When you use a corner punch and make a border straight across a paper, the unused edge is usually pretty fun too. That's how I got the zigzag/banner looking strip - it's the other side of the punched edge from the bottom border! The pink embellies are Dew Drops by The Robin's Nest.

Moxie Fab Clean and Graphic

I created this for the Moxie Fab "Clean and Graphic" challenge! Check out the Moxie Fab Blog for all the deets.

I stamped the TV image with Unity Stamps "Retro" collection and hand drew the rug. The lamp is cut from Nikki Sivils paper and the sentiment is by Papertrey Ink (Mega Mixed Messages). Thanks for taking a peek!

Lilly of the Valley

I knew when I saw this May Papertrey Ink set that it would soon be mine! This is one of my favorite flowers and I just love how peaceful and elegant it looks. On this card, I stamped the image on the blue cardstock and also on white cardstock. I cut out the flowers from the white cardstock and then adhered them over the blue cardstock after I had colored in the green. I used some clear Stickles on the flowers to help them show off :)

The flowers really don't take long at all to cut out, and as you can see, several of them are touching - so they get cut out together.

I trimmed the blue cardstock to fit on the kraft base and then punched along the white cardstock I had left over. I added the punched border and then stamped the sentiment. It didn't seem quite finished, so I added the blue pearls.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Summery Birthday Wishes!

I just had a niece (Tarynn) born this week, and it seems like there are a ton of birthdays! Birthday cards are also the only cards that I seem to be selling at the store, so it was time for some new ones.

I was inspired by Betsy Veldman while doing this card. There were a couple of different cards of hers that popped this card into being :) I just love the soft clouds on that pretty blue background and pink and yellow is one of my very favorite color combos.

Everything here was stamped with the "Up, Up and Away!" stamp set by Papertrey. I still cannot believe how much I love this set. Seriously.

Irises on Kraft

There's something very cool about stamping on Kraft paper and using Copics to color in the image. The colors look just a bit different, and I love it! This is my go-to iris stamp by Stamp Zia, I get so much use out of this beauty. I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger Sea Foam powder.

I colored the flowers in with Copic Sketch and Ciao markers, even tinting the white embossing powder in some places. I cut out the purple iris to layer it over the yellow, and I propped it up on some foam dots. Thanks for taking a peek!

Cardstock: Paper Accents "Pearlized Cardstock: 22kt Gold 12x12 (885C)" and "Silk Cardstock: Plush Purple 12x12 (840"
Adhesives: Beacon Adhesives "Zi p Dry" and miscellaneous foam dots
Stamp: Stamp Zia "Iris"
Markers: Copic Ciao, Sketch
Tools: Spellbinders Ovals, Scalloped Ovals Nestabilities Dies, Ranger "Sea Foam" embossing powder

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Papertrey Ink Forum Challenge

I noticed that there is a scrapbooking challenge held each month on the PTI forums, so I thought I'd join in. The challenge for July is to use Kraft paper and to make at least one embellishment.

Here is my layout, thanks for taking a peek!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Up, Up and Away!"

Ink: Papertrey Ink, Memento

Tools: Martha Stewart Deep Edge border punch

Cardstock: Paper Accents

Happy 4th of July!

Here are my Easter Lillies. Apparently they decided to become 4th of July Lillies instead, they were really late bloomers! Not sure what was going on here...

There we go.

Happy 4th of July to my USA viewers :)

No Patterned Paper Kick Continues

As usual, once I start doing something, I just can't seem to stop. My latest kick is creating all my own patterned paper and embellishments with stamps. Now this isn't the first time I've done this. Actually, I dabble in this technique quite often as it's one of my very favorite things to do. On this layout, I used my new Martha Stewart stamps that I snapped up on clearance at Walmart for about $3 or $4. I used three different shades of ink - light and medium pink and also a "true" red.

I first stamped the background of the layout, alternating between the large and small blooms and the various ink shades. I stamped the outline of the stamps in red to make them stand out.

I also made some extras so I could have some custom embellishments.

I decided I needed some green to pull from the photo, so I stamped the stem and leaves (Stamp Zia) on light green cardstock and shaded in a bit with a light green Copic marker. Since it was already on green paper, I didn't worry about shading too much.

I waited until I was happy with the layout assembly before I embellished with the leaves and extra flowers. Then I attached the blooms with dimensional adhesive for extra texture. I finished them off with some glitter or pearl centers.

Thanks for taking a peek!