Creative Cardmaker: Drawing Inspiration from Scrapbooking Layouts...

Good morning! This week has FLOWN by, hasn't it? I can't believe it's almost the weekend again. Last weekend I had the chance to attend an amazing summit for Craftsy Instructors in Denver, CO! I really want the chance to tell you more about it, so I'll have to plan to write a little blog post about a few things I took away from it. It was so inspiring to be in the same room with hundreds of creative, like-minded people!! You can see a few pics from the 2016 Crafty Instructor Summit HERE on my Facebook page or HERE on my Instagram page.

Until then, I have a new card to share with you that I made for the Weekly Scrapper blog over at Scrapbook Expo. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out where to get inspiration...especially when life takes over and seems to get in the way of creative time. Ever feel that way?

One of the biggest things that inspire me are scrapbooking layouts! I used to scrapbook before I was a card maker, so I always seem to find inspiration and creativity in scrapbooking...whether it's a color palette, or a cool technique, or an overall design, or even just a little section of layering that looks amazing! There are so many ways scrapbooking layouts can give you ideas for your cards!

Pop over to the Scrapbook Expo blog to read more about what inspired this card - which layout I loved and how I drew inspiration from it - and to get more info on the supplies I used. Thank you for swinging by and saying hello! I hope you're having a great week!!! Happy creating!

More party pics.

Who knew some pvc pipes, pool noodles and sponges could be so much fun?! Kati had her 7th birthday this weekend, and I saw a neat idea on the Family Fun website (after hearing from a fellow Papertrey Ink friend about hers that she made!) to make a "kiddie car wash". The girls loved it, kept them quite busy!

Here is the link if you'd like to make your own kiddie car wash! Took a couple of hours to put together (and a couple of trips to the store to return the wrong pieces that I grabbed), but it turned out really cute. The pool noodles and sponges were from the dollar store and we added some colorful duct tape across the tops. I think we'll be playing with this for the entire summer!

We did an ice cream bar complete with a variety of toppings -- strawberry/chocolate/butterscotch syrup, cookie dough bites, M&M's, marshmallows, sprinkles, etc. (I promise we had healthy snacks too.:))

(Her friend Brooke gives her birthday spankings as we sing happy birthday. ha)

Between the car wash, swing set, parachute and trampoline, they were quite content. I am always worried on how to entertain them when I have a house party, but I really didn't have to!

We had a strawberry theme, after Kati saw my strawberry patch basket from one of my previous projects, she really wanted to do that for her party! I used the Strawberry Patch stamps and dies to make goodie bags with little notebooks that I made for the girls, pencil toppers, headbands and rings made out of felt with the strawberry dies, and strawberry candy and Pixie Stix. I tried my hand at making strawberry cookies with a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

Here is the birthday girl opening her gifts!

This month has been nuts for us with graduations, birthdays, end of school things, field trips, etc. So now that most of that is done, I will hopefully be creating more again soon. I do have some layouts to share with you next! Thanks for visiting!

Strawberry Patch.

I am in love with the new Strawberry Patch stamps and dies and the Berry Basket die by Papertrey Ink (coming out on the 15th)! There are so many ways you can use this cute basket, but I have decided to make a party favor - a little gift box to give out when the kids leave the party. My daughter Kati saw this and now wants a strawberry party this June for her 7th birthday! I have to admit, I was glad she said that! These were easy and fun to create, can't wait to make more!

The basket is cut out of Simply Chartreuse pattern paper. You need to cut 4 sides. Two will fit on an 8.5 x 11" piece of cardstock, so you can make a full sized basket with two pieces of 8.5 x 11" cardstock.

After the basket was made, I played around with the Strawberry Patch stamps and Strawberry Patch Sentiments to create this little notebook made from scratch. I made the cover, then cut the inside pages from printer paper slightly smaller than the front. The back is thick cardstock I had saved from a packaging of some sort. I found some rings to hold it all together. The notebook's finished size measures 7" x 4". The cute little tag is from the new Tagged Sentiments set.

You can stamp on the inside pages too - would be a cute gift for a teacher at the end of the year!

The pencil topper is made with a Strawberry Patch die and Pure Poppy felt. I did a tiny bit of hand stitching on the berry and then hot glued another berry on the back to cover up the stitching, leaving the bottom open for a pencil to slide into. Oh the cuteness!!

For another little thank-you gift to tuck inside the basket, I bought some headbands and added a felt strawberry with a hot glue gun. After hot gluing the strawberry to the headband, I cut another strawberry to glue on the back to cover up the little stitches on the back. I folded up the headband and tied it with floss to tuck in the basket.

You can weave ribbon around the basket, or tie a bow, maybe even cover the inside with fabric? I just used shredded kraft paper from the party supply section of Walmart to fill the basket.

One more thing I made to tuck into the basket is this little vellum pocket. I cut 2 frames and stitched them together, leaving the top open for lollipop, candies or anything small. How about a felt strawberry ring? Oooh!

I have one more card to share with you made with the Strawberry Patch and Strawberry Patch Sentiments. The "just smile" is from the new Framed Out #3 set. (And the little frame is the Framed Out #3 die.)

Kati and I are so excited to create more of these baskets and goodies for her party this June. She was a great helper with these projects and is looking forward to her party already! I thought I'd share some other cute "strawberry ideas" we also might try for Kati's birthday party:

1. Strawberry Aprons for the party goers.
2. Love the red tulle on these chairs! 
3. Must have pink lemonade or Strawberry Crush to drink!
4. A pretty tutu for the birthday girl? Of course!
5. Strawberry fruit cups!
6. Heart shaped strawberry cookies are a must.
7. Strawberry bean bag toss!

Hop over to the other Papertrey Ink team members' blogs to see what they've made with these BERRY same products. :)

Ashley Cannon Newell

Betsy Veldman  

Dawn McVey  

Erin Lincoln  

Heather Nichols  

Jessica Witty  

Lisa Johnson  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips

Nichole Heady

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Strawberry Basket Party Favor:

STAMPS: Strawberry Patch, Strawberry Patch Sentiments, Framed Out #3, Tagged Sentiments

INK: Pure Poppy, True Black, Simply Chartreuse, Raspberry Fizz, Spring Moss

PAPER: white/Pure Poppy/Simply Chartreuse cardstock, Simply Chartreuse Pattern Pack, It's Official Patterned Paper

DIES: Strawberry Patch, Berry Basket, Limitless Layers 3.5 Oval

OTHER: PTI ribbon and felt, vellum, printing paper, pencil, white floss, stick pin, headband, candy, rings, Pink Paislee houndstooth tape, circle punch, white floss, shredded paper basket filler.