Thursday, June 2, 2011

tying the knot?

Crate Paper has a very special week ahead that we're formally inviting our blog readers to take part in and admire starting next Monday! We've lined up five whole days of "I thee wed" handmade creations suitable for the soon-to-be bride and groom that'll help to make the year'(s) long journey a one-of-a-kind display of memorable moments and experiences. Our designers are going to share with you both traditional & non-traditional designs using Crate's Collections that'll apply across the entire spectrum of the wedding affair - from start to finish, the team will have for you ideas in creating invitations to thank-you notes, as well as thoughtful favor gifts and ceremonial decor. In supplement of the display of inspiring projects, Crate Paper is giving away four prize packs that'll well-suite and bid all of you to join in on the "tie-the-knot" festivities - details will be fully disclosed on Monday!

Wedding Week begins Monday, June 6th and will conclude Monday, June 13th. Add it to your calendar and inform those planning for the big day as well! We look forward to you accompanying us at Crate's first ever, "Wedding Week"!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Jenni Bowlin's June kits...

They are up for grabs! Get ready for a very photo HEAVY post!

This month's main kit is full of the new Jenni Bowlin line that JUST came out called Haven! You must see it in person. Gorgeous, I tell ya! The first thing to show you today is a little "Grade 5 autograph book" I made for my daughter to take to school and have all of her friends sign. She could also add their photos in as well...
I was inspired by the "autographs" piece of paper. What is SO fun this time around is that Jenni put the journaling cards and mini cards on one big sheet of 12 x 12" cardstock, so you can cut them out however you'd like! I mixed and matched all of the papers and cut different sized pieces for my book.



Page 1. LOVE these large tags that come in the kit. And the pleats. Which come like that! No work necessary to make them. I added a creme paint around the edges with Jenni's Malted Milk paint dabber.

Page 2. This is the back of some of the journaling cards I needed for page 3. (Ooh yes, the papers are double sided! You'll want 2 of each, trust me.) I wanted to add more white space for the kids to write their messages, thus the punched circles added to the black paper.
Page 3. Hello, my name is.... I couldn't make it too serious, had to add something fun!
Page 4. When choosing your papers and embellishments, pick coordinating items for pages that go together like I did here by extending the butterflies over to the polkadot page as well. It's also great to have repeating items in your mini, like the circles with the paint around the edges.
Page 5. These are some of the 4x4" mini papers, but they are all printed on one sheet now, so I cut it larger than 4x4". The reason being that I wanted to highlight more of the patterns, so I added just a bit of the diamonds at the top when cutting!

Page 6. Added some vellum butterflies and a Papertrey Ink stamped sentiment. This is the same label paper that I used on page 3, but I mixed it up by turning it vertical instead of horizontal. Makes the book a little more exciting and unique. Lots of room for autographs here.

Page 7. Here I used the other half of the June bingo card from the front cover. This frame stamp is new by JB and is in the kit. I stamped it twice and cut it out, putting one upside down and one right side up. It looked too white, so I added more creme paint.
Back cover. Used the notebook paper stamp again on one of the text papers in the kit.
Next, I made a quick birthday card with one of Jenni's new stamps, the little silhouette. She's so cute, love her. A LOT. I wish I could put her on my daughter's wall in her bedroom!
The stamping didn't come out exactly perfect, but I chose to leave it that way, because I liked how it looked. I thought about filling it in with black marker, but decided not to. Embracing the imperfect!

I made an extra star balloon for her to hold and left the tail dangling to add dimension and bring the card to life. If you want to make your floss curly, just wet it a bit and wrap it around a pencil. Let dry. I added some creme paint to hightlight the sentiment before stitching.

Last is a teacher thank you card. Will be needing lots of those in a couple of weeks!
I made a little tag out of one of the images on the paper. The ruler is a new stamp also by JBS. I added the wooden frame by Studio Calico from one of the older kits. Sentiment is Mat Stack 4  by Papertrey Ink and the notebook die is Spiral Notebook Page by Papertrey Ink also.
Wow ~ I think that's it for now! Thanks for reading today! Let me know if you have any questions about these projects.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

card sketch #4...

Hope you all had a safe and fun Memorial Day! I'm back with the last card sketch for May. Please link me up if you try the sketches - I'd really LOVE to see everyone's different interpretations of these!

I strayed from the sketch a bit, but that's ok, right? Sketches can be however you interpret them. I used Skipping Stones Design's Stitched Stamps on this card. The flowers in this set inspired me to add stitched flowers instead of hearts. I stamped the flower onto Vintage Cream Papertrey Ink felt and then stitched over the design with pink floss. It's hard to see in the photo, but the pink floss is cute against the white felt!

I topped it with a Melissa Frances resin frame and Melissa Frances pearls.  The white ink is Papertrey Ink's Fresh Snow. The die cuts used here are Turning a New Leaf (pink leaves) and Tiny Tags (heart) by Papertrey Ink. Other: date chipboard - Crate Paper, pink paper - Pink Paislee, pin - Maya Road, text paper- October Afternoon.

Thanks SEW much to Skipping Stones for letting me be a part of their blog this month!

And I have one more giveaway this week, due to mix-up on my part, I have another UPLIFTING stamp set to give away! Please leave a note if you are interested and I'll choose a winner in a few days!

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One more thing....if you wouldn't mind checking out my friend Shimelle's blog today, she will be donating ALL proceeds for 24 hours to the Because I am a Girl campaign. What a great cause. 
Let's take care of our girls!