GCD Studios Theme: My Natural Town (8-31)

 Hi all!

I’m happy to be back the GCD Studios blog today so I’m sharing here, too.

Heidi asked us this month to create layout based on our hometown.

She got our minds brewing with this beautful set of pictures.

 She asked us:

WHAT makes your town special?
Why do you love living where you live?
What is your favorite thing to do in town?

 This was an easy one to do because it worked so well with photos I’ve been compiling all summer long while exploring the outdoor attractions in and near my hometown.

 To be 100 percent honest here, I like the outdoors, but I am a couch potato deep down. I will never be the girl signing up for marathon or climbing a mountain. I like simple, easy activities that you don’t feel like you had to train to do.

There are a lot of fun outdoor activites in my hometown that are easy  to enjoy and take part in. That makes my hometown a good place to live.

This summer, I’ve spent evenings walking through a small forest next to a local lake.  I’ve spent many afternoons wandering through local gardens and taking in the scent of the flowers. And I’ve even been one of our waterfalls a couple times, walking up to the top and taking a litany of pictures of the nature seen on the way each time.

Here’s a layout I made with a few pictures from my explorations.

I used a few of the border strips form the Artsy Urban collection. I actually layered pieces together for my layout. I finished it off by adding a number of brads.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back again soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Zva Creative August DT Blog Hop! (8-30)

Hi everyone!

It’s a Blog Hop kind of day!
The Zva Designers are joining together today to share a project that we have created using some of our favorite Zva Creative  products. I hope you will take some time to join us for a little bit of fun again this month!

The Blog Hop begins at Kim Hughes’ blog.  She will have the complete list of all blogs that are participating in case there is a glitch along the way. If you would like to play along, I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way. Hidden on 5 of the blogs is a Zva Creative prize package …YAY! Those blogs will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it’s important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts now and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, August 31st and the 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 1st on each of the five winning blogs. The full list will be found on Kim Hughes‘s blog as well (linked above). We will do our best to notify each winner, but it’s best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday…plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Zva Blog Hop post…you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer’s blog post to qualify. The more times you leave a comment along the blog hop path though, the more chances you will have to be one of the lucky winners.

Enough deets about the hop already. 😉

Let me share with you my card.

Meet today’s card.

The single green pearls and crystals on the circle are from Zva. And the flowers are new ones released at CHA-Summer.

The word is a stamp from Papertrey Ink.

Your next stop is here: the talented Carole M.!

Take it away, Carole. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by today! I’ll be back soon.

Today’s card (8-27)

Hi everyone!
How goes it?
Well, meet today’s card.

I have this story about this card to share with you.
It happened because I decided the other day to take part in the Virtual Stamping Night festivities on a certain stamping board. I made my plan: I was going to all for it. I was going to do every stinking challenge I could on said certain stamping board.
I loaded up my desk with a stack of stamps, a pile of paper of paper and ink and accessories. I was ready, Freddy. 😉 Hit me, peeps.
So the evening hits and the said stamping board kicked off their festivities.
And then like I am like yeah…. man. Bring it.
I can do this.
I open the forum.
And like… holy stinkin’ moley. It’s like party central.  There is like a ton threads. And like … oh my gosh… flipping out starts in my head.
“These challenge girls are dang good, man. The challenges are like 10 minutes old and they are already on page 2!!!”
So I am like…
OH MY GOSH.
What do I do? What do I do?
I had this big plan.

Ha. Yeah. Totally tossed it out and just started opening threads and going for it.
Yeah, serious stamping like a mad woman.
I was tossing papers, throwing  stuff to the side of my desk to make room and just going genuinely nuts.

No time to fuss about color combos or pretty designs. It was all about getting in done in my world.

I am telling  ya now that it wasn’t pretty here in Teri-ville for a few hours. Not even one bit. 😉
My desk… I am not kidding, y’all…. was a hot mess as I worked on it.
If stamping could ever make you pant, I probably did it when I made this card and a couple other ones I made tonight.

Needless to say, my plans of being a super challenge overachiever weren’t exactly fulfilled tonight, but I sure had a fun few hours of stamping!

The waves, sun and words on this card are from Awesome Days of Summer by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday. The cardstock is from American  Crafts. The gem is from my stash.

That is all for now. Be back later.

Thanks for stopping by.

Go-to Challenge: Doodlebug

Hi all!

It’s that time again. Time for another Go-to Challenge. 😉

This time, we challenged each other to create with some of the cutest and most colorful products from Doodlebug, who pretty much sends all our hearts into full-on cuteness  overdrive. Love Doodlebug.

I came up with two cards to share with you.

Meet No. 1.

This one totally makes me think of Maren for some reason. 🙂

And meet No. 2.

This one is a little more on the graphic side but still on the cute side.

All the patterned papers, stickers and gems on both of these are from Doodlebug. The rest is from my stash.

Be sure to check out the blogs of Maren, Jess, Kim H., Kim K. and Betsy today to see what they worked up with Doodlebug’s cute stuff.

Thanks for stopping by. Be back later.

Today’s “not a card” project (8-23)

Hi everyone!

Meet today’s card.

No wait. Meet today’s “not-a-card” project. 😉

I made this itty bitty gift bag a bit back and never got around to sharing it.

I’d been wanting to try to use cream on white when I made it. I am still surprised how much I like the colors together. I think they are so pretty together.

The buttons are from Jenni Bowlin. I stacked a few different ones together here. The sentiment is a stamp from Papertrey Ink. The rest is from my stash.

I wanted to mention one more thing before I leave. The editors at Paper Crafts  have extended the deadline for the Stamp It! Techniques call. You now have until the 30th to submit. For details about the call, check out this page here.

That’s all for now. Be back later.

Thanks for stopping by!

Today’s card (8-22)

Hi all!

Take this sketch.

Add a wee bit of product.

And then sprinkle on a few  creative liberties.

And end up with today’s card.

I based this one on the sketch shared for Go-to Sketch challenge #6, which just happens to be one of my sketches from Go-to Sketches.

It is a wee bit different from the sketch, right? Hee. I’ve been wanting to mix things up for a bit with that sketch. So I used just one circle rather than two and made that one circle really big. Rather than put an sentiment under the circle, I added it on the circle.

I think it is fun to take on a sketch and just use elements of it sometimes. It gives your project just kind of a different look.

All the papers and stickers on this card are all from Studio Calico and their Documentary line. The pearls and gems are from Zva Creative.

If you want to play along with the sketch, you have until the 30th to upload a project here in the challenge gallery.

That’s all for now. Be back later.

Thanks for stopping by!

Today’s card (8-21)

Hi all!

How is your weekend going? Lots of crafting in store here.

I’ve got one card to share with you so meet today’s card.

Dummm. Dummmmm. Dummmmmmmm. 😉

I made this one for the Blog Hop on the Paper Crafts Facebook page. If you have never checked out the page, please do. You do’nt have to use FB to check out the page.  Lots of fun stuff happens over there – giveaways, updates about Paper Crafts, daily questions and much more.

Even though this card has a lot of white space, I used quite a bit of stuff from my stash on it. Believe it or not, there are four pattered papers (some are turned over so you just see the solid side), pearls from from two different packs of pearl sentiment and one sentiment from one stamp set. It was kind of fun to just use a lot stuff but try to use it in a minimalistic-looking way.

The papers are from GCD Studios.  The pearls are from Zva Creative. And the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back later. Thanks for stopping by.

Today’s cards (8-19)

Hello, hello!

Two cards to share with you today so let’s get right to business.

Meet #1.

This is one I made with one of Zva Creative’s CHA-Summer releases – the leafy shaped bling. I applied it to felt and was totally pleased to see it stuck to the felt so well! The words are a stamp from Papertrey Ink.

And meet #2.

This is a just-for-fun card I made the other day with a couple stamps from Lawn Fawn – Critters in the Sea and Swimsuit Season. I added the polkies to the tube with white paint pen. I just sort of held the pen in place, letting the paint puddle enough to make each circle.

And speaking of stamping, don’t forget about the current call for submissions at Paper Crafts. 😉 It’s all about stamping. The deadline is Monday. Click here for all the deets.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Be back tomorrow.

The Tie Dye Effect pt. 2 (8-18)

Hi all!

 I’m over on Paper Crafts Connection today, talking about how to achieve a tie-dye effect with spray mists.

I thought it’d be fun today to share a bonus project and technique of sorts here.

After I wrote the post for the PCC blog with the mists, I got to thinking, “You know, I betcha you might be able to do something like that with reinkers straight out of the bottle.”

So I played and I’m going to show you here today how to achieve a somewhat similar tie dye effect with reinkers.

You are going to need:

• A couple reinkers. I am using Distress Ink ones from Ranger, but it really doesn’t matter what kind you use as long as they are dye inks.
• A can of compressed air. This is the kind of stuff you’d find in the office supply store.
• Watercolor paper. I like to use this because it absords the ink so much more, and the end result is much more vibrant.

 Randomly place a couple drops of reinker ink on a panel of watercolor paper. Unlike  when you use mists, you need only a teeny amount of ink. The smaller the drops, the better.

 Take the canned air and shoot air into the ink puddles to spread the ink.

 

You’ll notice the look isn’t quite as splotchy as it with mists, but you can still get a somewhat similar look.

 One thing I want to add about using reinkers over mists is it takes a whole lot longer to dry. I let this panel sit several hours before I even attempted to stamp the sentiment (from My Favorite Things) on it for this card.

Meet today’s card. 😉

I hope if you are looking for something fun to do over the next couple days you’ll give the Tie Dye technique a shot. Whether you have mists or reinkers, it is definitely a fun technique to try out and see what you come up with.

That’s all for now. Be back tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS… Don’t forget to leave a comment on my post today on the Paper Crafts  Connection blog. You could win a goodie pack of Shimmerz products!

Today’s card (8-17)

Hi all!

Meet today’s card.

Yes, I stamped again. Sigh. 😉

 Sometimes, it’s just nice to get crazy inky fingers because you can and just plain want to.

I used a couple new stamps from Technique Tuesday on this one. The circle is from their new A Little Round set. The star and words are from the Sentimentally Ali by Ali Edwards set. It’s the September set for TT’s new Studio AE club. People can only get the stamp sets by joining the Studio AE club.

Besides the stamps, I also slapped a few gems on onto this one. One of the things I really love about adding a couple gems here and there is they just seem to add that little bit of “ummph” that you sometimes need to finish a card.

Well, that is all for now. Be back tomorrow.

By the way, be sure to check out Paper Crafts Connection on Wednesday. Consider yourself warned: I will be there. 😉

Thanks for stopping by.