Mixing Lawn Fawn with the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

I still have a few pieces of paper left from my Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit and I'm determined to use up the kit before the peek of the August kit tomorrow.  So over the next few days you'll see the cards I've been working on to finish this kit.  Those who follow my social media saw a tweet earlier today of this picture from my craft room desk as I was working on this card:

When I was young, Mom took a painting class everything Thursday night and Dad watched us kids.  I have a lot of fun memories of those times with my sister staying up to watch shows past our bed time and such.  Of course, Mom knows all about the mischief we got into under Dad's watch, but isn't that part of being a kid?  When it was just me, sometimes Dad would go back to work and take me with him.  I got to run around the office and do silly things like eat sugar cubes from the stash for coffee and ride on the big industrial vacuum cleaner with Woody, the custodian who was a heck of a nice guy.  I loved those nights.  I was thinking of those days when I colored the typewriter today because I remembered these tan typewriters with black keys.  So after the photo, I colored in the keys and the roll bar with a dark grey because I thought black might be a bit too dark and I wanted the colors to go nicely with this piece of paper from the kit with the circles that remind me of keys on the old manual typewriters. 

The card was pretty simple.  I used the Neenah Desert Storm card stock from the kit to make my card base and cut the circle paper down to fit on the front with a bit of a frame of the card stock. After coloring and fussy cutting the cute typewriter from Lawn Fawn's Just My Type set, I used pop dot to adhere it to my card.  I found this Studio Calico (I think) hearts in my embellishment egg carton on my desk (love that little porcelain egg carton that I picked up in the store of the Willamette Valley Fruit Company a couple of weeks ago).  For one last touch, I used some Glossy Accents to highlight a couple of words in the pattern of the paper.  Here's a close up of that last detail:

Take Two

Remember this card that I wasn't quite sure about?

Well, I pulled it apart and played with it some more.  I used the dashed line stamp from Lawn Fawn's Winter Gifts to add a little something to the banners.  I used the tag stamp to stamp the tag background to give it more definition.  I pulled apart the baker's twine and substituted one length of Silver Sparkle hemp cord from Lawn Fawn in with the Hemptique baker's twine.  Then I added a few Studio Calico wood veneer stars that I brushed with Wink of Stella and topped with Glossy Accents to give them a bit more flash.  I like it a lot better.  It's certainly not my favorite card I've ever made, but I like it lot better now.

Withholding Judgment

So I'm not so sure about today's card.  I had this idea but it didn't quite translate the way I had it in my mind.  So I'm not in love with this card.  I keep looking at it thinking that it needs something, but I'm not sure just quite what.  So I'm going to sleep on it and take another look at it tomorrow.  In the meantime, what got me started tonight was the newest sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, another challenge block that I stalk read every week, but haven't participated in for a while.  I really liked Rita's sketch this week and I've had this Happy Trails set from Lawn Fawn that I picked up at CKC about two months ago, but haven't broken out yet.  But now that I've played with the set, I really, really want to go camping, but the RV is in the shop.  Boo.

I had stamped the stars from the Lawn Fawn Lucky Stars set, heat embossed the stars with some Versamark and clear embossing powder, stamped the car and trailer from Lawn Fawn's Happy Trails set, inked the starry night background and grass with some colors of Distress Ink, and had the car and trailer pretty much colored with Copics when my husband came in my craft room.  He immediately commented on how cute it was (which he rarely does when something is in progress).  So I felt like I was on the right track, especially when I added Wink of Stella to the starry night, but it just fell apart after that. I love the starry background embossed with the Darice Stars folder using paper from the Lemon Lush 6x6 pad from Studio Calico.  I wasn't sure on the banners because I couldn't find a paper I liked, so I just colored them with a marker to match.  Basically I like each of the elements by itself, but they just don't really come together right...  So you just may see this card again soon when I figure out what's not quite right.  Do you ever have that happen to you? 

Soy Happy for You Card

I needed a card to congratulate a friend on his new job.  I was flipped through my stamps and decided I had to use the Let's Roll set from Lawn Fawn.  I have loved this set since I first saw it in the preview pictures from CHA.  It's so cute and punny.  I broke out my Momento ink and new Copics (thanks again Mom) and colored up a storm.  Then it was just a matter of using the dies and finding some cute paper.  I had some paper left in the 6x6 Print Shop paper pad from Studio Calico that I received as part of a Citrus Twist project life kit.  I thought it would work well for the background and yet leave the card suitably masculine.  I decided that the puffy star stackables from Lawn Fawn would add a nice highlight, especially after I edged them in Wink of Stella, too bad it doesn't really show in the cards.

Another Birthday Card Inspired by the Technique Tuesday Blog

Since I my last try at the card inspired by Teri Anderson's card from the Technique Tuesday blog didn't turn out quite like what I originally had in mind, I thought I would give it another try.  This time, I really focused on the banner and the card came together very quickly.  I used some washi tape from my ever growing pile to create little pennants for the banner.  I strung them on some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  I hung the banner over some kraft card stock, backed it with white paper and used another DCWV card base from the Brights set.  Then, I stamped a sentiment from a set from Fiskars using Momento Espresso Truffle ink.  I still thought the card needed a little something so I added some Studio Calico veneer stars.  The Glossy Accents I used to glue them down were a little messy so I'm definitely going to have to work on my skills of attaching small embellishments.  But I do have to say that overall I really liked this card and I can't believe how one card can inspire so many looks. 

The Rest of Week 21

I still had a lot of pictures and things I wanted to use for Week 21 in my Project Life album, so, in addition, to the two full page layouts I added in, I decided to include an additional insert with three horizontal stacked photos and an edging for a little more fun.  To do that, I simply cut off the two vertical photo pockets off a We R Memory Keepers pocket page.  I then added my pictures and sealed it with some Washi tape from Recollections.  It was super simple to do and gave me just the extra space I needed for party pictures.

I still had the invitation for the party so I used a normal 8.5 x 11 page protector that I cut down to hold the invitation (Didn't my brother-in-law do a nice job designing the invitation?  I'm impressed).

For the back of it, I had an extra shot that I decided to throw back in since I had the space and I loved the little chocolate dipped strawberries that they served at the party. 

So this is how it all looks in the book:

 

 

 

Inspired by Studio Calico and Kelly Marie Alvarez

I received a little sad news at work today.  One of the people that I work with on regular basis and really like is leaving her company.  So I knew immediately I needed to make a little card to thank you her for all the good times working together these last few years.

I'm also trying to break out of my usual style and do something a little different too.  That's hard for me because I'm pretty set in my plain style and stepping out of my comfort zone is really hard.  But when I saw this card made by Kelly Marie Alvarez on Studio Calico's blog today, I knew it was just the card for me to make tonight.

I picked about three different papers but finally settled with the chevron print (so hot right now) from the Vanity Fair 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye.  That's it.  One sheet of double-sided paper.  Everything else is plain old white cardstock, which is where I really pushed myself.  The tag, butterflies and bird are all cut on the Cameo, with the butterfly and bird from a lovely Echo Park design.  Rather than all the layers on the butterfly, I just used the base layer.  Then I started playing with my distress inks.  Once I had color the way I liked it, I ran the butterflies through my Big Kick with the Cuttlebug Script Texture embossing folder and the background using the Sizzix Dots and Flowers set.  I didn't emboss the bird, but I did add some Glossy Accents to give it some shine. 

The sentiment is stamped from the Inkadinkado set "All Occasions" and I finished it all with some grosgrain ribbon and some Recollections adhesive faux pearls.  So there's still bits of my usual style, but I pushed it a little more and it was kind of fun.

When We Were 5

I've kind of lost my scrapbooking mojo.  I seem to only do a layout every now and then, and I'm not sure why.  I have lots of ideas and certainly plenty of pictures, but I just haven't made it all come together.  But I loved the Sketch Savvy sketch this week and last night after reading the lesson for Learn Something New Every Day, I decided to do a layout of pictures from when the hubster and I were little.  I found this picture of him when he was about five and just loved his little smirk.  Then I had to laugh when I found my kindergarten picture and, lo and behold, I had almost an identical little smirk.  I guess we were always meant to be together.  I just had to use this cute book paper from Jenni Bowlin Studio out of the Studio Calico kit called County Fair.  The adorable stamp and black cardstock came from that kit as well.  The orange cardstock came from DCWV's Brights stack and I used the EK Success punch "Binding" to finish it off.

Play Hard

It's not usual that I make a layout without a sketch, but tonight, it all just sort of fell into place on its own when I saw this picture that dear hubby had uploaded to Facebook as he returned from a hard day of fishing.  Well, actually, he does say it was hard work because the tuna put up a fight, but I really don't think he minded at all.

So I immediately downloaded the picture and pulled out my Studio Calico kits.  But I couldn't seem to settle on one.  I knew I wanted to use the wood grain paper in one and the cute little winner, winner, chicken tuna dinner cardboard piece, but the rest of the greens and blues in the set really didn't strike me as right.  So I mixed and matched and, well, really isn't that what it's all about in Studio Calico kits anyway?  So I pulled a little from Brooklyn Flea and County Fair, with just a bit from Echo Park's Country Drive.  Well, honestly, now that I think about it, I think I just made my own Country Drive embellishments in the Silhouette Design Studio - man do I ever love that you can get the Echo Park items there - love, love, love it!  So I used a little Washi tape, my first time ever (can you even believe it given how popular that stuff is in the scrapbooking world?) and, another first, my Mister Hueys I bought as a treat in Boston and had to pack back home in a little Ziploc bag with my other liquids.  I'm sure the guys at the security check thought that was a little weird mixed in with my shampoo and such. 

But just as I was getting ready to put it all together, hubby walked in with his fishy smell and handed over his phone and camera so I could download my pictures (I have him trained really well to take photos). Then he talked my ear off for an hour about his trip (I really get the impression he had a good time).  While listening to his fish stories, I flipped through the pictures and, low and behold, there was a picture of him actually smiling with a big old grin - well big by standards of I can hardly ever get hubby to smile in a photo unless I actually ask him to.  Here he voluntarily smiled! So I quickly ditched the first photo and printed out the smiling one.  Then my layout was perfect.

Boston Layout

This week's Sketch Inspiration sketch inspired me to scrapbook the pictures from my trip to Boston a couple of weeks ago and I knew I wanted to use the Brooklyn Flea kit from Studio Calico.  I had so many photos that I wanted to include that I decided the best thing to do was to create a collage of the photos in Photoshop.  After that, the rest of the layout went together very quickly even though I had to cut the bracket about four times in the Silhouette Design Studio before I was happy size.  I even hand wrote my notes for some of the pictures, which is rare for me since I hate my own handwriting.  But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, except that it looks a little busy to me.  But, oh well, at least it's done.

Mojo Monday #251

I have several cards to make, but I couldn't really get into it tonight.  So I only finished one.  This one I'm sending to the Maddy and Melanie card drive that I read about on Creations with Christina and is hosted by Simon Says Stamp.   The card map comes from this week's Mojo Monday challenge.  I loved the color blocking and decided to swap out the circle for some cute butterflies cut in white with vellum overlays.  I just love this little butterfly from the Silhouette Design Studio store.  The whole card was made from scraps in my bin.  I know that the flowered paper was from Echo Park and the blue and yellow papers are scraps from DCWV.  I cannot remember the stack for the blue paper, but the yellow paper is from the Lemon Flower stack.  The stamp was from an Inkadinakado set, but I've long ago lost the name. 

I also wanted to show a box I received today from Studio Calico.  Even Zoey had to check out the box.

They ran a special on Plumdistrict.com a bit ago that I picked up for song.  I finally order the kits the other day and was so excited to see them arrive today.

Can you believe this is the first time I've owed washi tape????  I'm really excited to break out the kits and put them to good use, but I must finish my cards first.