Creating Cards Layout

We're over half way through the month, so I thought it was a good time to revisit this month's sketch challenge and bring you a little more inspiration. Here's the sketch:

I turned the sketch on its side and added a tag with a picture on it. The tag would have also been a great place to put journaling, but I didn't really have much, so the picture worked for me. I realized both my samples this month have been from crafty events! I think I'll try to use the sketch a third time but for a totally different theme. Don't forget you have until the end of the month to play along with the sketch challenge and share your results.

Recipe:
Balloon Talk & You Are My Happy Alphabet stamp sets
Dotty For You Level 2 paper
Lagoon, Buttercup & Colonial White cardstock
Lagoon, Sweet Leaf, Creme Brulee & Cotton Candy ink
Steel Grey marker (Zig Pens)
Sweet Leaf & Lagoon ribbon
Paradise Just Blooms (flowers)
Sweet Leaf brad
Sunset button brad
Yellow brad (from my stash)
Pattern: EMS Sketch 56
Challenges: 1 2 3 Get Scrappy Challenge board 10 (I used the bottom row, and decided to use word balloons instead of traditional balloons).

Celebrate {x2} Layout

With two boys, I seldom get to scrapbook girly pages with pink and flowers, so I love doing Mother's Day pages. In 2012, my husband's birthday also fell on Mother's Day, so I had to incorporate the celebration of his special day with Mother's Day. Hopefully this pink, red, green, and blue layout strikes a balance between girly and manly elements!

Recipe:
Tea Time stamp set
Cherry-O Level 2 papers
Chocolate, Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf & Colonial White cardstock
Chocolate & Blush ink
Chocolate marker
My Crush Best Day Ever Assortment (journaling card)
Felt flower
Mocha Opaques pearl
Sweet Leaf ribbon
Blush ribbon slide
Scalloped border punch (Fiskars)
Heart punch (EK Success)
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: title, book clip, camera, 2
Cricut Artiste cartridge: x, brackets
Pattern: Sketch 'n Scrap 56
Challenges: Scrapbook.com May 5 Ingredients challenge (color: green apple, cluster, bracket, edge punching + ribbon/ribbon slide inspired by sample layout); Frosted Designs Mom theme + photo inspiration (I added a pink tea cup and a flower to my layout); Clear It Out Challenges Mother's Day + use flowers (it's not a card but it helped me bust out some stash!); Stampin' Royalty create a scrapbook page (how easy is that for me? LOL!)

Anatomy of a Bubble Layout

This month, Lasting Memories challenged us to make our own background for our layout. I wanted something with circles to mimic the bubbles my son was blowing, so I pulled out a piece of textured White Daisy cardstock, placed cut circles in four sizes on the paper, and brayered over the circles. I inked up the brayer with a pretty blue ink (Sky) but must have forgotten to clean the ink off my brayer last time I used it, because I ended up with another color (brown? green?) in the mix. Not what I intended, but I decided to work with it. The circles seemed too stark once I removed the masking circles, so I went over the whole page again with Sky ink to create a more muted feel. I let it dry overnight before adhering the circle overlay, title, and journaling envelope. I kept it pretty simple to let the focus remain on the photos and my background. Hope you like it!

Recipe:
Vintage Type stamp set
Textured White Daisy cardstock
Cocoa & White Daisy cardstock
Sky, Lagoon & Cocoa ink
My Crush Best Day Ever Assortment (journaling envelope)
Aqua Dots
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: circle overlay
Pattern: Page Maps
Challenges: Lasting Memories make your own background; Little Red Wagon Seeing Spots

Snowy Hike Layout

This layout came together really quickly with the aid of a CM kit I received about four years ago at a scrapbooking retreat I attended. Since we don't get a lot of snow in Southern California, it's been sitting in my stash, but it seemed perfect for this winter-themed page. The embossed snowflake was hard to see since it was the same color as the background, so I placed it face down on my Indian Corn Blue ink pad and gently tapped on the back of it to apply some color to the embossed sections.

Recipe:
Wishful Border Kit (CM)
Holiday Cheer Decorative cardstock (CM)
Indian Corn Blue & White Daisy cardstock
Indian Corn Blue & Moonstruck ink
Moonstruck marker
Blue sparkles
Heavenly Blue polka dot ribbon
Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge: title
Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge: snowflakes
Pattern: Let's Scrap 5-7-14

Easter 2012 Layout

This week, Clear It Out Challenges is asking us to create a project that reflects our personal crafting style and uses a favorite product. My style is usually pretty linear and clean (although I've been experimenting a bit more lately) and I almost always use a sketch, so this layout is pretty typical for me. I have two favorite products that I tend to use a lot, brads and ribbon, so I added a little of both to my layout.

Recipe:
Card Word Puzzle stamp set
Pemberly Level 2 papers
Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, Bamboo & Vanilla Cream cardstock
Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue & Honey ink
Outdoor Denim & Pacifica markers
Outdoor Denim grosgrain ribbon
Bamboo Bitty Brads
Trinkets Wooden Shapes (butterfly, bird, heart)
Fiskars scalloped edge punch
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title & journaling spots
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: title
Pattern: Nuts About Sketches Week 314

Stash Busters May Week 2

I'm running a little behind on my Stash Buster's challenge for the week, but here it is at last. Click on the link below to play along!

Stash14May2
This month, I am challenging you to use up certain items from your stash and then link your completed layout at Splitcoast Stampers so we can all get excited over it! I'll post a new list the first four Thursday of the month, and you have until May 31st to scrap your layout using the products. If you complete all four layouts, you will get an honorable mention for the month!

Please use:

• 1 full sheet of patterned paper (If you do a two page layout, you can either use a full sheet for each page or divide up one sheet between 2 pages)

• 2 pieces of baker's twine

• 3 brads
• 4 staples

Recipe:
My Life Cricut, All the Details & Enjoy the Little Things stamp sets
Dream Pop Level 2 papers
Clover Meadow, Honey, Raspberry & Colonial White cardstock
Clover Meadow, Sunset, Honey & Grey Wool ink
Cotton Candy, Sunset, Honey, Buttercup & Black markers
My Crush Besties Assortment (stickers, journaling spot)
Green Epoxy Bubbles
Sunset baker's twine
Staples
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: banners, arrows
Cricut Artbooking cartridge: word bubble
Pattern: Nuts About Sketches Week 316
Challenges: 4 Crafty Chicks flowers challenge; Stampin' Royalty flowers challenge; Scrapbook.com Boys Only challenge & Scrap With Your Scraps challenges

Skylark Cards

I finished the cards for my Skylark workshop just in the nick on time (my workshop is tonight), so I thought I'd share. I usually use sketches as a guide for my cards, but this time, I went with some Pinterest inspiration plus a couple of ideas that just happened as I was pushing pieces around on the card bases.

Uses Wild About Love & Balloon Talk stamp sets

Uses Thank You stamp set

Uses Art Philosophy Tags stamp set

Uses Chantilly WOTG stamp set

Recipe:
Skylark Level 2 papers
Lagoon, Desert Sand, Juniper, Sweet Leaf, Bamboo & Colonial White cardstock
Lagoon, Desert Sand, Juniper & Sweet Leaf ink
Chocolate & Cotton CAndy markers
Lagoon Houndstooth washi tape
Colonial White grosgrain ribbon
Topiary mini chevron ribbon
Seam-binding ribbon
Teal Shimmer Trim
Aqua Dot
Liquid Glass
All die-cut shapes are cut using Art Philosophy & Artiste cartridges

Partying with Some Angry Birds Layout

For my son's 7th birthday, I made Angry Bird invitations, and I've been saving the leftover invites in a baggie for the last two years until I finally got around to scrapping this event. Even though the large Angry Bird doesn't seem to be the same shade of red as the patterned paper I chose, hopefully it still works on the layout. If you're interested in directions for making the Angry Bird invitation, check out my original post.

Recipe:
Swirl Stroke Caps & A Typeface stamp sets
Elemental & Superhero Level 2 papers
Kraft, White Daisy, Cranberry & Moonstruck cardstock
Black, Moonstruck & Bamboo ink
Black marker
Black ribbon
3-D foam tape
Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge: title block, arrow, eggs
Cricut Artiste cartridge: stop sign
Pattern: Let's Scrap 3-31-10
Challenges: Heart 2 Heart Take 5 challenge (I used 5 die-cut eggs on my layout for my 5 of the same thing)

Crazy Hair Day Layout

Happy day after National Scrapbook Day! In case you missed it, I posted a bonus sketch yesterday in honor of NSD, so feel free to pop over and see it, and hopefully you can use it soon. Today's layout was kick-started by a sketch from Paper Secrets. The sketch showed diagonal corners, but I tried to create the same effect with paper strips. Even though the papers I chose don't match the colors of my photos, I keep hearing that matching is not so important anymore, so I thought I'd try it. Hopefully you all will like the results of my experiment!

Recipe:
Dream Pop Level 2 papers
Slate & Honey ink
DE Heart & Stars chipboard
Lagoon ribbon
Silver washi tape
Cricut Artiste cartridge: title, heart
Challenges: Scrapbook.com 2 photo challenge;  Paper Secrets 5/1/14 sketch with a twist - use items starting with the letters in the word shower: S = star, H = heart, O = orange, W = washi tape, E = elephant (bet you didn't see that one coming!), R = ribbon

EMS Sketch Challenge 57 - National Scrapbooking Day Bonus Sketch!

Today is National Scrapbooking Day, and although I will be celebrating all month, here's a little extra tidbit in recognition of the day: a new sketch! This is a just-get-it-done sketch, so it has room for seven photos that require minimal cropping. Just take your photos out of the developer's envelope and get down to business. I didn't include a link-up on this one, but feel free to leave a link in the comments section and I will add your layout to this post. Happy scrapping, everyone!

My Layout:

It was so fun to do a girly layout for a change!

Recipe:

You Are My Happy Alphabet & Spot On Backgrounds stamp sets

Boom-di-Ada Level 2 papers & My Stickease

Buttercup, Hollyhock & Sweet Leaf cardstock

Hollyhock, Sweet Leaf, Barn Red & Creme Brulee ink

Barn Red marker

Hollyhock zipper lace

3-D foam tape

Cricut Artiste cartridge: title block, flowers

Challenges: Stampin' Royalty Mom theme (celebrating the mommies-to-be!); Little Red Wagon DIY flower