Creative Cardmaker: Stitched Banners...

Want a quick and easy way to add a focal point to your card? Create a stitched banner! If you have a sewing machine at home, you can make a stitched banner in a FLASH!

The papers I used were from an older Studio Calico card kit, but you can use any scraps you have on hand! The butterfly punch is by Martha Stewart and the stamped saying is from the Make It Market mini kit: Lovely Laurels by Papertrey Ink.

The center butterfly is punched out to create a negative look, and the front panel of the card is popped up slightly. I always like the balance of something being centered on the card, yet the randomly placed butterflies add a little bit of unexpectedness to it as well.

You can read more info about this card and the stitched banner technique over at the Weekly Scrapper blog! See you again tomorrow with another Papertrey countdown post! 

You can never have too much pattern...

Are you looking for a way to use those stacks of patterned papers you have lying around? For my guest spot this week at Chickaniddy Crafts, we were to use a color combo they gave us, which inspired me to use lots of pattern and color. I love their Twirly Girly patterned papers, so I wanted to use a variety of patterns on my cards this week! 

On the first card, I created a chevron pattern by punching lots of the patterned papers with a 1 3/4" square punch and trimming them in half on the diagonal. Then I lined the triangles up to form a chevron pattern (just offset them slightly) and added a tiny bit of machine stitching across the rows. HERE is a tutorial I did on this technique before. A sticker label holds the sentiment and is popped up for dimension. Another sticker that says, "Thank You" was added over the top, a great way to add a sentiment to the card. 

On the second card, I went butterfly crazy and punched many butterflies from the patterned papers. To coordinate with the other card, I used a label sticker again with a sentiment sticker, "Party Girl". This one is one of those really quick cards you can make when you are on your way out the door to a birthday party and need a card in a hurry! Punches are often forgotten these days, but are a great way to use up those patterned papers you have and add so much color and pattern to your projects!

Want to try this color combo? Stop over to the Chickaniddy Crafts blog. It's a beautiful one that I think will really inspire you. :)

cut it out...

All this week on the Pink Paislee blog, we are showing you ways to use Pink Paislee's cut files. I chose to use the Word Jumble1 and used my Cameo to cut it out.

I used the She Art - Vintage Lace Mask by Pink Paislee to create some depth on the edges with dimensional paste.

Some Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist was brushed under the title work and journaling to add color and help it stand out. I mixed a little bit of the Cottage Farms, Secret Crush and She Art lines. Love the dimension created with all of the layers.

Stop over to the Pink Paislee blog to read more about how to create this page!

Scrap your holiday photo...

Good morning! If you are looking for the SC Toolbox blog hop, see below. I thought I'd pop in and share a layout made for CHA with Pink Paislee's Snow Village line. I loved working with this line, the colors are earthy and beautiful together, and the patterns could be used for any occasion, not just holiday. That makes these papers so versatile.

I scrapped our holiday photo from last year, which was kind of an impromptu photo! My parents were visiting and we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood one morning. My mom snapped some pics of us. (If I would have known, I would have dressed the girls better. Hee) But I ended up using it as my holiday photo anyway. Rarely do we get pics of the 4 of us!

When I first opened the packages of everything, I was inspired by the stamps. They are adorable! I couldn't wait to use the "christmas" stamp. I cut up the 12x12" paper with the journaling cards on it and laid them on my layout, then made a card with the "chalkboard" look with the stamps to go with these! Check out the vellum borders too, they are so cute. Here you can also see a peek of the Ephemera and chipboard.

I pulled out my Cameo and cut the big "joy" out to add some pizazz and drama to the page. Last, some punched circles and snowflakes tie it all together. Oh, see the red under the photo? That is a journaling card also from one of the 12x12" papers. I used it to add color and tucked it under the photo, which will draw your eye down to the photo and frame it out a bit. The black stripe is simply cut from one of my Heidi Swapp alpha packages. I needed a tiny bit more black in the corners of the page.

I think I will come back tomorrow and share a few cards. Thanks for reading! If you'd like to see the Pink Paislee summer catalog and all of the new products, CLICK HERE.

quilted challenge...

Today over at the Studio Calico blog, Becky Novacek and I have a fun challenge for you. Create something "quilted" looking on a project. You can piece patterned papers together for a background, piece titles together with different papers, or punch out pieces and cut them apart, putting them back together with other papers! I used the SC February Card Kit, Front Row, for my card.

All of the little butterflies were punched from the patterns in the card kit. I snipped them apart and glued them onto my card with different pieces. A couple of them are left whole. Some machine stitching was added, Studio Calico's Opaque White mist, a stamped sentiment from the card kit and twine for dimension, also from the card kit.

We would love to see your take on the challenge, so hope you can play along over at Studio Calico. You must stop over to see Becky's layout, it's ADORABLE! :)

Create a fun confetti look!

I've been a little obsessed with the "confetti" look lately and wanted to show you some very quick cards you can make with patterned paper and circle punches. I actually found the idea to try this on a card from a printing website called Tiny Prints where you can create announcements with photos. If you are stuck for a design, these are great places to look for inspiration!

I looked through the Lily Bee papers and pulled out some various prints in reds and pinks from the Handmade collection and began punching different sizes with my circle punches. I added red cardstock circles to the top first for a dark contrast at the top, and then began layering more circles by degree of color saturation down the card, getting lighter and lighter in color as I worked my way to the bottom.

You could make a set of these in all different colors, and they would work for birthdays, thank yous, congratulations, etc. I like how the chevron circles look like little streamers on the green and blue card!

To finish the card, the word "happy" was die cut out of Lily Bee's Handmade patterned paper with my Cuttlebug machine with a Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words die, then I stamped "today" over the die cut with the Double Dutch clear stamps. I used Papertrey's Rustic White cardstock.

Give the confetti look a try on your next card, it's an easy design to put together for a last minute card that you might need! Visit the Lily Bee blog for more card and layout ideas!

Happy cards:

STAMPS: Double Dutch Clear Stamps by LilyBee
INK: Sweet Blush and Spring Rain by Papertrey Ink
PAPER: Rustic White cardstock by Papertrey Ink, Handmade papers by LilyBee
DIES: Wonderful Words die by Papertrey Ink
OTHER: circle punches

"Snippets" of our summer.

I know, it's about time that I did another blog post! It's been crazy here. June is always the busiest month for us with end-of-year school functions, graduations, birthdays, and this week I'm working on the next Papertrey Ink countdown. I've been planning our vacations for the summer and doing more home renovations (painting trim and walls.) Never a dull moment here! Anyway, today was my day to make a post over at the Pink Paislee blog, and this week is called "Shape Shifters". We are focusing on how to incorporate shapes into your projects.

Today I want to talk about the most basic of shapes, circles. Yes, they are basic, but really there is so much you can do with circles! What I love about them is that they create movement on a page and create softness, as they have no hard angles to them.

I started with a basic white cardstock 12×12″ background and punched some 2″ circles of my favorite papers from the She Art line and the Prairie Hill line that I thought were summery and would go with my theme and photos. I loved the Soar paper from the She ART line with its different patterns and thought of my title for the layout from this paper – “snippets” of summer. I wanted to add little snippets of color to the page, which is why I chose so many differing patterns and colors together! To me, summer is fun and colorful!

The London Market Spool Buttons and the Indigo Bleu Boutique Flair Buttons add more fun circular elements to the page as well. I used a new frame coming out this month by Papertrey Ink with Soft Stone cardstock in the center to frame out the rest of the title. A white felt heart was added over the frame.

You can create your own circle embellishments by punching a shape out of cardstock and then punching a circle around it like I did here at the top of the page with the heart. I stitched around it with my sewing machine very randomly.
Circles can be used on any seasonal layout – think of circles to build a snowman or snowflakes on a layout, circles could be bubbles on a bath layout or blowing bubbles layout…really so many possibilities with them. Punch photos into circle shapes to add to the feel. For more ideas with shapes this week and for a supply list, visit the Pink Paislee blog.

Pebbles guest design work...

Recently I was asked to guest design for Pebbles, Inc., a division of American Crafts, and today I get to share my creations with you! I used mostly their Floral Lane line, right up my alley, and added a few items from The Mr. & Mrs. line. I REALLY enjoyed working with these products! The first layout was actually inspired by the "thank you" sticker. Of course it would be perfect for a card, but I wanted to use it on a layout! I love to write little notes to my girls on my pages. (Someday they will read them, and it will mean something to them. Right now, they are too little to care. lol)

(I'm not sure why Blogger is cutting off the right side of my page, sorry about that.)

I used a Papertrey Ink die (Spiral Notebook Page) to cut the little notebook shapes out of the patterned paper and ran them through the printer for the journaling. Also punched out a doily shape (Parisian Doily) from white cardstock and cut out the middle with a circle punch to add a little spot for the "thank you" sticker.

These are fall pictures, but they seem to work great with these papers none-the-less! I wanted to add a little detail at the bottom, so I stamped with Papertrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits stamp set.

Here is the journaling...

Next, I made another layout and wanted to include all of these fun patterns and colors from the papers! I saw a picture on Pinterest that really sparked my attention HERE. I decided to try it out on a page by painting the limbs of the tree on white cardstock, then I punched several circles from the papers. "You Make Me Smile Everyday"...

I love the dimensional stickers and gorgeous flower brads!! I stamped "happy, happy, joy, joy" with Papertrey Ink's Blooming Button Bits to add a bit of text to my page.

Here's a little thank you card made with the floral paper, a strip of the polkadot paper and some of the dimensional stickers. They are so easy, just peel and stick, and you already have dimension.

Thank you to Pebbles for having me as a guest this month! For a complete supply list and a chance to win some Pebbles products, stop over to the Pebbles blog!