Happy Father's Day!

Hey everyone!  I am stopping by tonight to share a layout I did for the Pink Paislee blog in honor of Father's Day.  My assignment was to create a layout using four photos with a Father's Day theme.  I don't do layouts about my husband as often as I should, so this was a good challenge for me. 

I chose to use some photos of my husband and my girls playing Badminton.  It is an activity that the kids love, and David and I both enjoy it too.

I kept the color scheme more masculine, and the punch of yellow in the background really sets off the navy, black, and red accents.

 
I used one of the Ephemera cards and the Chalkboard Stickers from the Daily Junque collection for the title, mixing my photos in between.

 I also added a few stars and buttons to finish.

I hope you all have a great weekend with the fathers/husbands/sons in your life.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

June card sketch at Ally Scraps...

Hey everyone!  I'm stopping by tonight to share a project I did for the Ally Scraps blog.  Every month, Ally Scraps has a sketch contest.  This month their sketch artist, Debbie Gaydos, shared a card sketch.  I love working with sketches, so when Dana from Ally Scraps asked me to play along with it, of course I said yes!

Here is Debbie's sketch:

I, however, did not make a card.  I had a fun, Maya Road Postage Stamp coaster mini still left to work with, so I decided to make a little monogram tag set.   

For all three tags, I turned the sketch on its side to the left.

I used Echo Park's Playground collection and kept the tags pretty girly.  I cut the flower and butterfly using my Cricut Expression 2 and Just a Note cartridge.  The letters I chose are actually my older daughter's initials, so I thought it might be cute to hang them somewhere in her room or on her bedroom door.

You can see the list of supplies I used and detailed instructions here.

Also, if you like to use sketches, you can play along with the sketch for a chance to win a fun prize from Ally Scraps.  You have until June 19th to get your cards made.  Click here for details.   

Well, that is it for me tonight.  Time for me to hit the hay.  I hope you all have a great evening.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop!!!

Hey everyone!  The Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop has officially started!!!  

There are some inspiring projects and amazing prizes along the way, so lets get started...

First off, the prizes: 

GRAND PRIZES (x2)

  

Two lucky hoppers will receive this incredible prize bundle exclusively from Elmer's + X-ACTO! Take a look!

Products included in EACH of the (2) GRAND PRIZE bundles include:
3  X-ACTO Retract-a-Blade knives
3  CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Sticks
3  CraftBond Tape Runners
3 Mini Bi-fold 9x12 Foam Board packs
1 Painters Markers pack
1 X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors pack  
1 Circle Cutter
1 X-ACTO Self-Healing Mat
1 Glue Dots pack
2 Photo Corners packs (various colors)
1 Gel Pens pack
1 Tacky Glue bottle
.................................
$140/retail

 

AND
Here's a look at what Amy will be giving away in addition to the Elmer's packages!

Prize Pack #1

1- XACTO Cutting Mat
1- XACTO Gripster
1- XACTO Circle Cutter
1- Elmer's Foam Board Pack
2- Elmer's Photo Corners
1- Elmer's Glue Spots
4 Gel Pens
.................................
Approx. $50/retail (US)

Prize Pack# 2

1- XACTO RotaryTrimmer-
1- XACTO Scissors
2- XACTO Decorative Scissors
1- Elmer's Glue Spots
1- Elmer's Craft Bond
5 Gel Pens
.................................
Approx. $50/retail (US)

(See the blog hop rules at the end of this post for your chance to win.)

Now, onto my projects...

I got some really fun and amazing products to work with for this blog hop.  And here is what I created with these products.

First, a layout: 

I decided to do a layout about my dog, Phoenix.  We were sitting outside one day, and my husband decided to share his lollipop with her.  At first she wasn't sure about it, but as soon as she figured out it was food, she dove right in.  It reminded me of the old Tootsie Pop commercial with the owl.  You know the one... "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?  1..2..3"  She grabbed that lollipop up so quick, David didn't realize she had grabbed it until it was in her mouth.  Stick and all!  Luckily, she is very sweet and gentle, and she didn't put up a fight when he had to get it out. 

So, for the title, I didn't have enough of the white chipboard letter Ls for my title, so I used my X-ACTO knife to trim a letter K into an L.  The X-ACTO blade is so sharp and it made such a smooth cut, you probably can't tell which is the altered letter. 

For the photos, I used the Elmer's Tape Runner to put them down on the page.  The tape runner dispensed the adhesive very evenly and was very strong.  I love using tape runners, and I will definitely use this one again in the future.

I used the Elmer Glue Spotsots to hold my embellishments in place.  It is so much easier to stitch the buttons down when they are attached to the page.

For the circles, I glued those down with Elmer's Craft Bond Fabric & Paper Glue.  I used a minimal amount, and it held my paper well without any warping.  I also popped up the date label with a few Glue Spots, layered, and I wrote the the date with the pink Gel Pen.  It wrote so smoothly. 

Next is a Father's Day card I made.  That is coming up soon.  Can't forget about Dad, now can we?!

When I craft, I don't always have a clear vision of what I am going to do.  Most times, really.  So I pull out supplies, move things around, and move them around some more.  When I do that with stickers/self adhesive products, sometimes they start to lose their stickiness.  That is what happened with those chipboard letters.  So, I used the Elmer's Craft Bond Fabric & Paper Glue, and it worked like a charm!

I used the X-ACTO knife to cut out the little black stars from my patterned paper.  Very quick and easy!

I also use the X-ACTO scalloped decorative scissors to trim the edge of the striped paper strip.  I used the negative side and got a reversed scallop along the edge.

For my last project, I made a little banner for my daughter's bedroom door.  She wanted a doggie theme, so that is what she got.  ;) 

I wanted the banner to have some dimension, so I used the Elmer's Foam Board for the backing.  I ran the foam board through my paper cutter at the dimensions I wanted cut, which made a nice, defined line.  Of course that blade wasn't deep enough, so I then finished cutting the board all the way through with the X-ACTO knife.  I used the Elmer's Tape Runner to adhere the larger patterned paper panels to the foam board and the Elmer's Craft Bond Fabric & Paper Clue for the hand cut paper pieces.  I did all the small, detail cutting with the X-ACTO knife. 

The wonderful thing about the foam board, is that it is SO lightweight, that I was able to adhere the banner to my daughter's door with just a couple of Elmer's Glue Spots on each panel.  And my daughter loves it!

Now that we have the projects out of the way, onto the rules:

1.  You MUST leave a comment on everyone’s blog to be eligible for prizes from Elmer’s + X-ACTO.  There are 10 of us participating in the blog hop, so you will have to leave a comment on each our blogs.  You can see the full list of participants at our host Amy Heller's blog, so you don't miss anyone. 

2.  You will have an additional chance to win (basically your name will be put in the “hat” twice) if you also:

• Write on Elmer’s and/or X-Acto’s Facebook pages that you were sent by the blog hop and share your thoughts about the blog hop.
• If you are Twitter users, you can do the same thing by using the hash tags #CraftandTell as well as #CraftandTellBlogHop and naming @Elmers in your tweet.

Here are the links: 

Facebook

Elmer's : http://www.facebook.com/Elmers

X-Acto : http://www.facebook.com/XACTO

Twitter

Elmer's : http://twitter.com/#!/elmers

3.  The blog hop will officially end on Sunday, June 12 at 11:30pm, PDT.  Winners will be chosen randomly on Monday and posted soon after.    

That wasn't too bad now, was it?  

So I hope you have enjoyed your stop here on the Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop.  Now onto the next stop:  the wonderfully, talented Jenni Hufford!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop

Hey everyone!  I wanted to stop by and let you know that there will be a blog hop this weekend, June 11-12, and sponsored by Elmer's!  I was asked to participate in this event by the super talented Amy Heller (Thanks, Amy!), and there should be tons of amazing projects and inspiration along the way.   

Elmer's is providing some fun give-aways for this BLOG HOP event. Check out the give-away goodies below - trimmers, scissors, circle cutters, X-acto knives, ETC!

  
(Each prize pack has an approximate retail value of $50.)

Here is a list of the ladies, introduced so far, that will be joining in on the fun this weekend:

Amy Heller

Amy Parker

Deana Boston

Davinie Fiero

Danielle Flanders

Gina Hanson

Jenni Hufford

and myself.

Each day leading up to the event another face will be added to the list.  Some talented ladies here! So, make sure you "Like" Elmer's and Xacto on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to see Amy's Elmer updates:

Facebook

Elmer's : http://www.facebook.com/Elmers

X-Acto : http://www.facebook.com/XACTO

Twitter

Elmer's : http://twitter.com/#!/elmers

It has been so fun working with the Elmer's and X-ACTO products.  I can't wait to share my projects with you this weekend!  Have a great day!

oh happy day...

Hey everyone!  I have been working on some projects today, so I thought I would take a break and stop by this evening to share a couple of cards I made for Ally Scraps.  :)

I went with a balloon theme for both cards.  For the first, I punched out circle from patterned paper, added stitching, and some cute clouds made from Maya Road cupcake chipboard.

For the second, I used a balloon sticker from Echo Park's Playground collection.  I machine-sewed the split journaling spot with a decorative stitch, and then I added knots at the centers with embroidery thread.

  
You can find a detailed list of the supplies I used and instructions for recreating these cards here. 

Hope you all have a great evening!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Add a little texture...

Hey everyone!  Just stopping by tonight to share a couple of projects that I did for the October Afternoon blog.  You can see my original post here.  My theme was a texture challenge, and I think I got some texture on these projects.  ;)

I decided to work with the new Rocket Age collection.  Since the collection lends itself very well to boy themed projects, I decided to try some out.  I don't get to do boy things very often, and I have to say it was kind of fun.

I found a sweet photo of my nephew, and thought it would be perfect. 

I added a lot of texture through the use of paper strips, layering embellishments, and adding machine and hand stitching.

 The look of the Sprinkler drips even adds a bit of texture without adding bulk to the page.

 A small detail like popping a sticker off of the page with foam adhesive adds a lot.

I was testing out the Sprinklers mists for my layout on a tester paper, and I got the urge to use it for a card.  

I added lots of machine stitching as a background for the totally cute robot chipboard.  Kind of funky, but fun!

I hope you enjoyed my projects tonight.  If you get a chance to play with your October Afternoon supplies for this challenge, please post them to the OA Flickr Gallery.  We would love to see what you have created!

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

American Crafts...

Hey everyone!  How's it going this fine Wednesday morning?  I wanted to stop by and share some projects with you all.  I was recently asked to guest design on the American Crafts blog, and today is my day.  YAY!!!  I got to work with the Margarita collection.  It is such a fun and colorful line, and I absolutely loved working with it!!!

Here is a layout I did about my family: 

I am just loving the navy blue, and it pairs so well with bright colors.  

Aren't those diamond brads just beautiful?!

I think I will try and do something similar each year to see how we change from year to year.

Next is a set of post cards I made using the Just Write journaling cards and Postcards stamp set. 

 

I added lots of machine stitching created one of the flowers by paper cutting and layering.  

 

The colors in this collection are just so vibrant.  Lots of color love here!

You can see a list of supplies used for each project here, and learn a little more about me too.  ;)

I will be back tomorrow to share the next three projects (and close-up), so I don't totally overload the post.  Thanks so much for stopping by!