Reasons To Celebrate

I have a great reason to make a card this week - my niece Audrey is due into the world any day now. Yay! Here's a card I made to include with a package of cute clothes I'm sending to her.

My SIL sent me a picture of her room and the colors of her crib bedding inspired me to make this colorful card using the Happy Hexagons set. Her bedding matches exactly to the inks I used - PTI Hawaiian Shores, Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Hibiscus Burst, and Soft Stone. I used the stitched diagonals banner across to feature her name (love personalizing cards!) in the new PTI polka dot alphabet set. Kinda reminds me of a baby's patchwork quilt, no?

I'm linking this card to this week's Colour Me challenge which is Colour Me....Creative meaning anything goes, 5 colors, my choice. What could be more perfect than that?

Making that card inspired me to make another Celebration card. This time for my stash. Hopefully someone will have some to celebrate soon!

I wanted to make an elegant celebration card. I stamped the Celebrate sentiment and I used the champagne bubbles from PTI Propose A Toast as if the bubbles were coming out of the words. I scattered some rhinestones along the bubbles to add to the celebratory feel. Everything is done in various shades of purple for the CASology challenge because purple is a very elegant color to me.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

CASology Purple

So what's PURPLE mean to me? Well, its not a color I use often in my crafting, my clothing, or in my house. So I thought about purple in terms of the emotion or feeling it brings. For me, purple is regal and elegant so that's what I thought of when picking out my images for my card for this week's CASology challenge.

For this card, I used the pretty image from PTI Round Repeats and stamped it off the card in PTI Royal Velvet and Winter Wisteria ink. And I topped the center off with a purple toned pearl.

Thanks so much for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday Cards

Birthday cards are on my agenda this week. I'm checking in with three birthday cards today that I want to share.

First card is for my nephew who is turning 2 next week. The card doesn't scream little boy in design but I think the colors are boyish enough and the card is cute (just like he is!). Card design inspired by the CAS(E) this Sketch #61 challenge.

Next card is a bit more sophisticated using the colors of dark pink, black, and grey for the Dynamic Duos challenge.

I cut the chevron plate in hot pink dotted cardstock and placed it over the black for high contrast. Cluster of Ruby Rose flowers anchors the grey sentiment banner.

Last card is a bit more delicate in color. Color inspiration is from ColourQ this week which highlights kraft and several shades of pinks. The card design is inspired by the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches this week. I created a vase out of a frame image and stamped two of my favorite mums in two pinks. This Mums The Word set is one of my all-time favorite sets! And what's a card without some enamel dots to finish it off!

Hope you are warm wherever you are. Temperatures are freezing here in NJ and I'm counting the days until spring! Thanks for stopping by!

PTI Blog Hop Part 2 - Feathers in Pink

Hi! If you are looking for my Pre-LOAD Blog Hop post, scroll down below. Thanks!

So when my PTI package arrived this week I couldn't wait to play with the new Feather Finery set. I wanted to try that technique of embossing the feather in white and then watercolor over it. I see this done all over Pinterest and blogs so I had to try it and the feather is perfect.

So in honor of PTI's Blog Hop Pretty in Pink, I used various shades of pink and mounted the watercolor paper on Raspberry Fizz cardstock after I added a birthday sentiment.

But I had so much fun playing with the watercolors I couldn't stop there! I had to try it in different colors to make a set.

So here it is in blue....

purple....

and browns & greens....

This will make a nice little gift set or maybe I'll just keep them for myself.

Now I have to try this watercolor technique with other pretty images! Thanks for taking a peek.

Pretty In Pink Papertrey January Blog Hop

It's Papertrey's Blog Hop time again! Isn't this inspiration collage just beautiful! You'd think with three little girls in my house, I'd be sick of pink. But unfortunately, pink is no longer the 'it' color for my 10 and 8 year olds (turquoise is their fave) so we only see pink in small doses around here. I'll have to stick to creating pretty pink things myself.

I got a little carried away and made two very pink cards....

The first card uses one of my favorite PTI sets Mums The Word with the Happy one liner die. I die cut the word in the dotted Raspberry Fizz patterned paper and added the additional sentiment from Everyday Happiness. Mums are stamped in Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, and Sweet Blush.

My second card uses a graphic circle from PTI's To You From Me set. I overlapped the circles in Raspberry Fizz and Sweet Blush and added some random enamel dots.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of pink today. Thanks again for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the Hop!

Let's Get Ready for LOAD!

Welcome to the February Pre-LOAD blog hop! If you are visiting from Connie's blog (or any of the Pre-LOAD blogs), a warm welcome to you.

February brings Lain Ehmann's semi-annual LOAD (Layout A Day challenge). During this month long challenge, a big group of fun scrapbookers strive to make one scrapbook layout a day. Lain sends out inspiring video & photo prompts each day and you can create a layout using that prompt or just make a page on your own. Everyone posts their layouts in a special group on Flickr and we interact on our Flickr message board. If you are interested in joining us, check out Lain's blog at www.layoutaday.com.

This Feb 2014 LOAD challenge will be my 8th time participating. In anticipation of this Blog Hop, I thought it would be interesting to see how many layouts I made each time.

LOAD 2-09: 28 layouts
LOAD 10-09: 36 layouts
LOAD 2-10: 41 layouts
LOAD 10-10: 19 layouts
LOAD 2-11: 29 layouts
LOAD 5-11: 4 layouts
LOAD 5-12: 8 layouts
LOAD 2-12: 27 layouts

As you can see my output varies greatly through the years. Truthfully, success should not be measured in the number of layouts completed. In the early LOAD challenges, I tried hard to make a layout a day so I could win the overall grand prize. Its very easy to get caught up in the camaraderie of the message board and seeing everyone's great layouts on Flickr. But as the years went on, it became harder for me to participate fully because everyday life kept getting in the way. Those months that I made only a few layouts were disappointing at first but in hindsight they were the only layouts I made that year and for that I am thankful.

In preparation for this upcoming challenge, I thought I'd share my tips for successful LOAD -

1. GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
aka catch up on your household chores, to-do lists, etc
Truth be told, when scrapbooking each and every day, the house gets ignored and things get put off. So its best to start off with a relatively clean house, well stocked fridge, and all the laundry done. Once you start scrapbooking, all these will fall off your radar screen for a while!

2. PREPARE MEALS IN ADVANCE
This is part of the getting things in order but its important enough to warrant its own number! The week before LOAD I double up on the dinners I made, freezing the extra for the following month. I fully stock my fridge with everything my family needs so there's no need to run to the grocery store more often than necessary. I also have ingredients on hand for easy to put together casseroles and crock pot meals which I rely on heavily during LOAD month. Here are some of my favorite make-ahead or crock pot recipes that my family loves:

Super Short Ribs
Pork Stew in Green Salsa
Slow Cooker Taco Soup

3. STOCK UP ON NECESSARY SCRAPBOOK SUPPLIES
Yes, its quite possible to run out of adhesive and your basic cardstock colors so make sure you have plenty onhand to keep you going for the whole month. Nothing ruins your groove more than to run out of your tape runner refill mid-layout. Also organize your supplies as best you can so you know what you have and where you can find it.

4. LOOK THROUGH YOUR PHOTOS
I store my photos in the Library of Memories way (a la Stacy Julian) which means photos to be possibly scrapbooked are in storage binders and other photos filed in Category Drawers. Before LOAD, I like to spend some time looking through these photos which will remind you of why you scrapbook and what stories you would still like to tell. Make a list of page ideas as they come up. This will be helpful when you may be running out of steam toward the end of the month. And just looking through your photos gets your mojo up and running. Warning though, this could also be a time-sucker as you get carried away with the photos and memories.

5. MAKE MINI PAGE KITS
When I am going through my photos and I see specific ones I definitely know I want to make a page with, I pull them out of their storage binder. I will immediately pull out matching cardstock, patterned paper, and any embellishments I know I want to use for them. And I make a pile so I have sets of paper,cardstock,photos right on top of each other. This is VERY helpful to me so when Lain's prompt comes in the morning, I can pull out the page kit I put together that may apply and get started right away. I might not end up using the exact papers I pulled out for the photos but at least its a starting point. For me, picking supplies out takes the most time.

6. REMEMBER THE PAGE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE DONE ALL AT ONCE
For me, it is hard to find a long chunk of time during any given day to do an entire layout during one sitting. So I break the process up into pieces. So ideally in the morning, I read/watch the day's prompt and mull it over while drinking my coffee. Next few minutes I have will be to quickly pull out pictures and papers to match (or pull out one of the mini-page kits I assembled above). During the course of the day whenever I have time I will think or quickly jot down journaling and photo placement for my page. And then at the end of the day I will put together the layout (i.e. glue down) I have already assembled in my head or physically during that day. Then its a quick photograph and posting in the gallery.

7. HAVE FUN
What I love most about Lain's LOAD challenge is the great people who participate, the endless supply of inspiration Lain provides, and the interaction on the message boards and comments on each other's layouts. So if you are committed to participating, try to engage fully with what's going on in the Flickr group. The whole process is a LOT more fun that way!

And lastly.....

8. KEEP THE END IN MIND

I'm quoting a phrase frequently used by Becky Higgins. Remember why you are doing this. When things get rough during the month and you want to quit or skip a day, remember your goal. There is an amazing feeling of accomplishment when there's a stack of completed layouts (no matter how many) ready to be put into albums.

And believe it or not, making a layout a day gets easier as the month goes on. You just get in a groove, you stop worrying about the perfect paper or embellishments, and you just create. And then you wonder how you managed to squeeze all that scrapbooking in and where all your time goes!

I'm so happy to be a part of this Blog Hop. I hope that I've been helpful to those who are new to LOAD. Just writing this post has gotten me excited for next month and I realize that I need to start getting ready. February 1st is only a few days away!!

Cara's blog is up next but here's the entire hop list in case you missed any!

Kelli www.useitscrapbooking.com/
Dani scrapperonthestreet.com
Valerie myrainbowcoalition.blogspot.com/
Karen photoskeptalive.wordpress.com/
Danielle ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/
Connie clickychickcreates.com/
Sherrie littlebitofeverythingme.blogspot.com <----- You are here
Cara www.vincens.typepad.com/ <----- Your next stop
Heather noexcusescrapbooking.com/
Kim gma654.blogspot.com
Christy myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/
Lisa E lisae-design.blogspot.com/
Lisa H lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by. And thanks to Lisa H. for organizing this all.
See you around the Hop and look forward to all the fun with you in Feb!

ColourQ Challenge #225

Got another card to share with you tonight. This one is the first dent in the load of teacher appreciation cards I need to make this year.

I made a stack of books from PTI's Back To School set in PTI Scarlet Jewel, Ripe Avocado, and Melon Berry inks. Color inspiration is this week's ColourQ challenge. I added in a speech bubble from Lawn Fawn and added a small strip of green on the bottom for contrast against the brown cardstock base.

Sorry the lighting in the photo is not ideal. I took a photo of this card a couple of times, different times in the day. I seriously thing all this snow is reflecting badly into my window and affecting the light....or maybe this frigid cold weather is just getting to me so I can't take a decent photo?!

Been busy this week getting ready for a few fun things coming up this weekend so hopefully you'll get to pop on back on Saturday.
Thanks for stopping by.

Colour Me #4

Hi! I wanted to share a quick card I made using the colors at this week's Colour Me....Playful challenge.

I used PTI Sketched Shapes to stamp random triangles (ha! hardly random but supposed to LOOK random!) in PTI Orange Zest, Aqua Mist, New Leaf, and Sweet Blush.

Hope you are having a great week. Thanks for popping by!

ColourQ #225

Happy Snow Day everyone! Well, at least that's what's happening here in NJ today.

I'm sharing my card for the ColourQ challenge this week.

I wanted to create a little landscape but on a smaller basis, just about the length of the sentiment I wanted to use (from PTI Mum's The Word). I used Trendy Tree Tops to piece together a scene and mounted it on a Scarlet Jewel cardbase to match the heart in the tree. The tree is stamped tone-on-tone using Melon Berry. Sorry the colors in my photo not so great - the snowfall is messing with my natural light.

Hope you are warm wherever you are. Thanks for stopping by!

CASology #70

My card for this week's CASology challenge comes with a bit of an explanation. I saw the cue card "CONTRAST" in my blog reader Newsify this morning and my mind started racing with ideas. Looking out my window I saw this -

and I immediately thought how bursts of color would contrast so nicely against white. And I had a Reverse Confetti set that would work perfectly! But I did not have time to read the full post or any of the DT posts before I sat down to making some cards.

So I came up with this card -

I loved my card because it was so bright,happy,and simple. Made be happy in this weather! I really loved it, at first anyway. Then I read the full CASology post and the CAS vs. non-CAS explanations on the DT blogs (especially Ardyth's) afterward and realized that my card was not so CAS after all! Ugh. The DT did a brilliant job with their examples so I went back to the drawing board and came up with this -

Definitely more white space (or in this case black space) with this one.

So what do you think? Do you like the second one better too?

Looking forward to checking out everyone's take on CONTRAST. Thanks for taking a peek at mine!

Little Bit of Layering

I'm sharing a few more cards with you tonight which feature a little bit more layering than I am used to doing.

First card is inspired by the soft and subtle colors from the Colour Me challenge and the fun sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. These colors screamed baby to me so I made a card for my new niece coming in February. This card took WAY LONGER than I thought it would because of the skewed patterned paper on the sketch. A bit of paper went to waste trying to make this card. But I've been seeing this card design alot around blogland and have been dying to make a card like this. Boy did I wish I had bought those Papertrey Tipped Top dies when they first came out! They would have sped things up for sure! I love the little bit of yellow peeking out and was glad to use this pretty Minds Eye paper from my stash.

Next card is using this week's challenge sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch. I found this rain themed paper when I found the pink paper I used in the first card and thought it would be a nice compliment to my little used Scattered Showers dies. They are hard to use because I don't have the matching stamps (thanks to a flake on the PTI forum who I paid for them but who never sent them to me!). I searched my stash high and low looking for a good sentiment and found one with sunshine. In hindsight, not sure if they really matches well but think it would still work, no? Paper is from My Mind's Eye, sentiment is Hero Arts.

Last creation is a wine bottle tag I made inspired by the Fusion Challenge this week. The sketch involved quite a bit more layering than I am used to. My plan is to use this tag on a bottle of wine I'm giving my friend who will be finishing her first 5k in a few months.

Thanks again for taking a peek and for all your wonderful and generous comments. Makes me smile every time!

Colour Inspiration

Hello!

First, I wanted to extend a BIG welcome to my new friends reading my blog that came over from Simple Scrapper and Start Fresh. I don't have a lot of scrapbooking related posts around here yet but I've got plans to scrapbook more this year and document my jump back into that here on my blog. In the meantime, I hope you can find inspiration here and enjoy looking at some of my other creative creations.

What inspires my cards the most is COLOR so I'm sharing three cards and a tag that started with color as my jumping off point.

First card is a simple card using a typewriter stamp set from Jillibean Soup. I've never used it before but thought it worked perfectly with the Curtain Call Inspiration challenge and this week's ColourQ challenge.

I stamped the typewriter in PTI's Smokey Shadow ink and have pretty colored hearts floating out of the top to symbolize the love letter being written. I embossed a stitched frame to add some interest to this white and simple card.

Next card is one I made for one of my daughters and uses a very soft color palette from the Colour Me challenge. Shining star is my pet name for her and thought this would be great to give her before her year end ballet show in a few months. I used my new Notched Star banners and had the little bit of yellow peeking through the stars and on the border.

This next card also uses a softer color combination found at Dynamic Duos this week. I've wanted to try that inlaid diecut technique I see on cards I love so I die cut butterflies on white cardstock to simulate some movement and used pretty patterned papers for the butterflies.

And my final creation is a little Christmas tag that is inspired by the first Festive Friday Challenge of 2014. This year's challenge is to make something Christmas themed inspired by the inspiration photo below. This is my first time participating in this challenge but thought it would be great for me to play along since I want to build up my stash of holiday tags throughout this year. I'm hoping I won't be making tags at the last minute like I did last month!

My tag is a little simple. Eek, maybe a little too simple? I was inspired by the red barn to use some patterned paper from a Studio Calico Christmas collection and the sentiment from PTI's City Scene.

Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by!