Congrats Grad Layout

During Week 21 of Project Life, we celebrated my sister-in-law graduating from college.  While at her party, I took a great picture of her and my mother-in-law hugging.  I knew it needed to have it's own layout in the week.  I started my scrolling through my Pinterest board of scrapbook layout ideas where I pin pages and sketches that I think will inspire me.  That's were I found a page created by Rhonda of Scrappity Dappity Doo based upon a sketch posted by Quick Quotes.  I thought it was the perfect place to start.

I again used the Basic Grey Fact line I've been using for my Project Life pages for Week 21. For this layout, I used some of the paper to cut a tag and created a hidden envelope for it.  A bit of baker's twine makes it easy to slide it out of the hidden pocket.  I took a heart from the 11 Hearts by Lori Whitlock set in Silhouette (Design ID #24813) and opened the nodes.  I moved a few of the nodes around to get a more stylized heart.  I then duplicated it and move a bit of the nodes on the second one so they would be similar, but not exactly the same.  Then it was just cutting my scraps, layering them together until I had a layout I liked.  I added my favorite brown Thickers called Marquis and then finished it off with some Darice studs in a brown color.  This was my finished page:

Another Get Well Soon Card

In my quest for get well soon cards, I was inspired by this card from the gallery by Chillsgal. I made a few changes to it, like using my new Darice clouds embossing folder and adding a cloud from the Clouds2Cut set from The Stamps of Life.  The only thing I'm really unhappy with is my ink.  I've tried Stampin' Up ink and it doesn't work well with the clear stamps.  I tried some Quick Quotes chalk ink and I'm not too happy with it either.  I'm going to try another brand on my next card and see if I can't find one that I like.    I guess it's all about trial and error.

Using My Tools

I don't know about you, but I find that I use my Cameo to make almost everything now.  It's rare for me to pull out punches or use my dies.  So when I was trolling my pins on Pinterest, I found this card from the Icreate blog and thought, "I can do that, but can I do it without the Cameo?"  Well, turns out I could.  I had the Sizzix Flower & Leaf #3 die and the Asterisks die from Provo Craft that let me cut out the leaf patterns and the little flower.  I just cut a small square and used my Fiskars' circle punch to cut the little circle.  Once it was all put together, I topped it off with an Imaginisce gem and the sentiment stamped from the Fiskars' All Year Greetings set using Quick Quotes Powder Puffs ink in Green with Envy.  It went together so easily and quickly.  

Mojo Monday #246

Even though I had the whole day off, I really didn't get much time to create today.  By the time I had polished my horribly chipped toes, installed the new modem and had the whole house back online and boxed up all the old satellite receivers and such, hubby was home.  While he mowed, I tried out a buffalo chicken dish from Cooking Light (it's fabulous with some mashed red potatoes and home canned green beans).  That didn't leave much time at the end of the day.  But I did get an opportunity to play with this adorable little cherry blossom pattern I downloaded from the Silhouette Design Studio.  I was able to use scraps from my bin along with some random tiny rhinestones I had in my stash. I matched the blossoms up with some DCWV paper and kraft card stock.  The sentiment is from Fiskars and stamped with Mocha Mama chalk ink from  Quick Quotes.  The twine, from Queen and Company, I picked up at the Creating Keepsakes Convention earlier this year. It was quick to come together once I had the idea in place 

Freshly Made Sketches #39

I just wasn't sure about this week's Freshly Made Sketches' sketch.  The samples were all very wonderful, but I just couldn't envision a finished product of my own.  But once I found this cute damask paper in the Stella and Rose 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye, the whole card just started to fall into place.  I used the cute little sentiment from Fiskar's All Year Greetings stamped in Mocha Mama, a fabulous chalk ink from Quick Quotes.  I forget how wonderful their ink works for stamping sentiments.  The flower is my favorite one from the Silhouette Design Studio, but this time I made a little change to it.  While it's my favorite flower, it's really a pain in the rear to put together in a small size.  So I took a little time this time to copy, paste and weld the smaller petals together so I could put it together in much fewer steps.  It worked perfectly, but, of course, this time I was using a larger flower, so I'll have to give it a try on a smaller flower down the road to see just how much easier it really is.  I added a little Old Paper Distress Ink to give the flower and leaves a little more depth.  An Irock gem from Imaginesce finished it off.  I truly think it's one of my favorites.  It may be very simple, but that's the way I like it.