Dad Collage Card

It's time again for our Stamp of the Month blog hop.  This month we have over 60 Close To My Heart consultants participating, to show you so many possibilities with this stamp set!  If you've come here from Lori Leng's Pink Cloud Scrappers blog, you're on the right track.  If you're starting here, just follow the hop until you return here, and you'll have tons of great ideas!

I love to show people that you don't need to buy a lot of extra "stuff" just to make one card!  I don't have a lot of "manly" supplies around my scrap room, so I chose to use Veranda papers for my card.  And I left off embellishments completely, because this one stamp set has so much to choose from.

I love the collage feel of this stamp set!  I tend not to make collage cards because it seems like they take a lot of time - not so with this set!  Since everything is in one place and designed to go together, it's really easy to do.

First, I chose two of the simper patterns from the Veranda paper pack.  This makes it easier to use a more feminine paper pack for a masculine feeling card.  In this case, my two patterns had some small diamond shapes, which coordinate perfectly with the argyle stamp in the set.  And I chose to use the Circle Collection pattern from the Wishes book to repeat the shapes of the watch and medallion stamps in the set.

I used a lot of Emboss Resist Technique on this card, along with ink sponging.  This is a great technique for combining multiple colors in a collage style, as well as having a light image on a dark background as on my medallion piece.  I sponged the edges of my papers for definition, adhered my main pieces, and popped up the medallion piece on foam tape.

Despite the variety of designs & colors, this was a quick card to put together.  The goal was to use what I already had on hand, so don't feel like you need to replicate a card exactly when you see one you like; use what you have!

Following are the supplies I used for my card.  You can see them all in better detail on my website if you wish; just click on each link in the list below.

• Wishes Card Confidence Program book
• Veranda Level 2 Paper Packet
• D1422 Wonderful Friend, June stamp of the month
• Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads in Creme Brulee, Juniper, Garden Green, and Cocoa
• Versamark Stamp Pad
• Clear Detail Embossing Powder
• Craft Heater embossing gun
• Craft Tray
• Round Sponge
• Tombow Adhesive
• Foam Tape

When you're ready to move along, just hop on over to Adeline Brill's blog to see what she has created this month.

Hot Rod Dad card

Here's my entry for today over at the Cutter's Creek design team blog. Make sure you visit to see all the other recent projects that have been posted!

Do you have a dad in your life who enjoys motorcycles or hot rod cars? Here's a super simple Father's Day card to get his engine revving!



First, I used the Moroccan Screen embossing folder from Cuttlebug to emboss a 4" x 5.25" piece of black cardstock. Next, I used a clear ink pad and completely coated the dry embossed cardstock. I sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat embossed the entire piece. In person, this gives a great powder-coated metal look.

For my DAD cut, I used Make The Cut software for my Cricut and a free font called Hot Rod Gang BV cut at three inches from orange CS. I moved the letters close together, and created a shadow layer at 0.05" from red CS.

I inserted matte silver brads in the corners of the black piece, then layered everything on a red A2 card base. Another quick & easy project!

The following products to create this card are available at Cutters Creek:

• cardstock
• clear ink pad (Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Clear)
• Super Fine Embossing Powder 1 oz. - Clear
• Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Moroccan Screen
• Make The Cut software
• Cricut Expression
  

A sketch for Coach Dad

One of my favorite "new" features from Scrapbook Chicks (aka Two Chicks Designs) is their Chicken Scratch feature, shared both through their blog and their FaceBook page. Here's the current sketch:


I'm diggin' this sketch mostly because there are no enlargements involved! If I can scrap with my 4 x 6 pics, I am a happy scrapper. As busy as I've been, I had trouble finding time to finish this one, but I finally got it done about 3am last night (or this morning, if you will).

I had the perfect pictures for this sketch, of my hubby coaching our daughter's soccer team a couple of years ago. At 5, she was very clingy with "Coach Dad" to say the least, and it really made for a funny photo shoot during this particular game.


I used papers from Close To My Heart's Game On line, plus the dark red star paper & arrow die cut from Scenic Route's Roxbury line, and buttons from my stash. I punched photo corners from the red paper using a Stampin' Up! punch, and layered the corners from the Game On MyStickease sheet on top. I also cut two of the stars from the paper and popped them up on foam adhesive on top of the round MyStickease elements in the center of each group of photos.


The title was cut using my Cricut. "Dad" uses Opposites Attract, welded in Design Studio, and traced with a black Bic Mark-it. "COACH" was cut using Make The Cut software and the CollegiateFLF true type font.

Hubby's been gone, so he hasn't seen this yet. (And I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know where this blog is, lol.) I'm kind of looking forward to showing it to him, as I know he'll get a kick out the pictures. I may even offer to pop it in a frame for his office wall... I'm sure he'd LOVE that!

Huge Giveaway Alert!

You could win an entire store's worth of product! Sassy Designs, Ltd / @sassydesignsltd / sassy-designs.net is having a birthday—win the ENTIRE STORE at paperieboutique.com by @shutterblog

To find out how you can enter, just visit here.

And you thought YOU were behind!

Ever feel like you'll never get "caught up" scrapbooking? I know it will never happen for me. I've decided that the process is more important for me - it's my creative release, after all. So I tend to scrap whatever I feel like at the moment.

My oldest child just turned 9 last week, so I'm feeling a little sentimental. And to be truthful, longing a little for the good old days when she acted sweet and didn't sass back! So I've been scrapping photos of her from 2003. The terrible twos don't seem so terrible from this distance, and I feel like I still remember everything so well from 7 years ago.

So here are the results of my recent efforts!

As a bonus to delaying, I can wait until I have the perfect papers. I admit to having the entire Cogsmo line (Cosmo Cricket), but I never thought the colors were quite right for these pictures. I finally broke down and bought the Tinkerin' line from Close To My Heart, and the colors are awesome! I did add some Holiday Red CS because I wanted more of that color and it's not a main color in the kit.

I added nothing else except an alphabet stamp set (Field Trip, CTMH), white pigment ink & embossing powder, and some foam adhesive tape. I used the foam tape to pop up some smaller gear Stickease on top of some larger ones. It's really a fabulous effect in person.

The next layout is an Easter egg hunt, but I don't care for most Easter themed paper. I used CS from CTMH in Ocean (back side of textured), Topiary, Tulip, and Bamboo. All of the flowers and pretty embellishments are from a Making Memories embellishment kit I picked up at Tuesday Morning last year. I love using those cheap stickers to make a patterned paper; it's perfect for when you just need a little bit of pattern, and it matches your other embellishments perfectly!

The final layout uses papers from Close To My Heart's new Splendor line. Right now I only have these two papers from a "sampler" type pack I bought to use for giveaways and make & takes. I love the bright fun colors in this kit so much, I can't wait to buy the full paper pack, the MyStickease, the matching Designer Brads, and the coordinating Over the Rainbow stamp set! Like everyone else, I need to budget my money and these are probably on the list for June.

My favorite thing about Close To My Heart's papers is that every pattern is a B&T Duo - full color design on one side and monochromatic version on the back. That's why it looks like I have three patterns here instead of two. The Goldrush pattern on the top strip is actually the back side of the floral pattern on the right page. Double duty supplies make things so much more versatile!

My embellishments on this page are just some flowers cut from the patterned paper, with some Orange Marmalade Stickles added to the centers. I used the Field Trip alphabet again, as well as a "friends" cut from the Walk In My Garden cartridge for the Cricut applied directly on top of my photo.

Now go find some of your favorite old photos and scrap!

Triple Play

I visited some of my favorite challenge blogs this morning, including one I just discovered. After poking around, I finally decided to combine three of the challenges into one card. It was fun, but time consuming!

1. Mojo Monday - Love today's sketch, so it was a must to include.
2. Heart 2 Heart Challenges - This week is a color challenge, and I happened to already be using 2 of the 3 colors for a layout, so this was in! Colors are Ocean, Topiary, and Desert Sand.
3. A new soon-to-be favorite, Haunted Design House (all Halloween, all the time) Macabre Monday. This week's theme is Devious Doctors & Fiendish Florence Nightingales! To be honest, this is the one that took me so much time, as I hunted the 'net for just the right image.

Here's what I wound up with:
First, that image! My initial thought was a witch doctor image, but I was having trouble finding just the right one when I stumbled upon this Brain Doctor and just started giggling. There is actually a sentiment on the original image, but I decided to remove it since it didn't work for what I was doing. Chris Boyd, the designer, has a great blog and website full of characters. Images are all copyrighted, folks, so these are personal use only unless you want to talk to him about buying a license... and no, I have no affiliation; never even heard of him before today. But he draws lots of cool zombies and other characters.

Supplies used are all Close To My Heart, unless otherwise noted.

• Textured cardstock in Ocean and Topiary
• Cardstock in Desert Sand and white
• Stamp pads in Ocean, Topiary, Desert Sand, Tulip, and Grey Wool (used those last 2 together on the brain)
  
• Ocean Organdy Ribbon (discontinued)
• natural hemp
• Sans Alphabet stamp set
• Noted backgrounds stamp set
• water brush
• buttons from my stash
• Cricut with Design Studio to make the shaped element (Provo Craft)

Hope you enjoyed my little bit of insanity for today! you can shop for any of the CTMH items right on my website at https://loribrown.myctmh.com/

Blog Candy Winners!

Thanks to random.org, our blog candy winners are #7 and #6!

mom2fivekiddos said:

I have to say, I LOVE the Ms. Scrapbook! It is so cute! But I love so much stuff on your site, it was really hard to choose!

May 11, 2010 10:01 PM

and Patti said:My favorite paper pack is "passages". Love those travel papers.

Patti

Packages will go in the mail as soon as I get mailing addresses. Thanks to everyone for playing along!

CTMH Spotlight Blog Hop - Wishes Cityscape Pattern

If you're looking for my blog candy post, just scroll down to the last post!

This month on the spotlight blog hop, we have 13 consultants showcasing the City Scape pattern from our Wishes book. If you've come here from Carol's blog, you're on the right track. If you're starting here, just hop your way around until you arrive back here.

This pattern is for a great small card (3"x4.75"), perfect for a gift enclosure or a quick note to a teacher or colleague. And what a great way to use up little scraps! I chose to rotate the sketch 90 degrees in order to use the stamp set that came in my Cherry-O Workshop on the Go kit.


I stamped the bowl and 3 cherries (one with stem & leaf) on a scrap and cut them out. For added dimension, I put a small piece of foam adhesive tape under the center of the bowl and used Liquid Glass to adhere the sides of the image. I also used foam adhesive under the center cherry (the one w/ the stem & leaf). My only embellishments are 3 Tulip brads, also from the Workshop on the Go kit.

City Scape is a pattern we are allowed to share, so if you'd like to try and see what Wishes is like, just click here to open the PDF file.

Once you're ready to move on, Amy Edwards is the next stop on the hop. Thanks for stopping by!

B&T and Blog Candy

Wow, it's been too long since I've posted anything! I've been busy since NSD on all kinds of projects, and trying to finish up some magazine submissions, so I can't post most of what I've been working on. I did complete a couple of layouts on NSD that I'd like to share, and have some blog candy to give away!

Close To My Heart has released their new products for Summer, including this awesome Cherry-O paper packet. All patterned papers from CTMH are called B&T Duos - double sided background & texture paper. The "front" side is full color, and the reverse is a monochromatic version of the same design. By simply flipping over the paper you can achieve a new look. Take it even further by adding different cardstock colors and different embellishments.

Here are the two layouts I completed with Cherry-O papers. First, using the traditional "front" side of the papers.

This layout uses the cardstock colors that come in the Cherry-O paper packet, as well as coordinating MyStickease and white brads. I did flip one piece of the red pattern paper to the blue side to coordinate with my title Stickease.

Next, using the monochromatic "back" side of the papers.
I added white and Hollyhock cardstocks, Hollyhock ribbon, pink & blue buttons, a Pretty Pin, and Chocolate Waxy Flax. I also stamped some coordinating sentiments from the stamp set that comes in the Workshop on the Go kit.

To celebrate National Scrapbook Month, I'm giving away 2 samplers from Close To My Heart.
Each sampler will include 8 sheets of B&T Duos, two from each new Summer paper pack, a Petite Perks clear stamp set, and a catalog & idea book. In order to enter, just visit my website and look around, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite paper pack and/or stamp set is. Be sure to leave me your email address in your comment if it isn't in your Blogger profile so I can contact you if you're the winner.

I'll choose the winner using random.org from all entries received by 11:59p.m. Central time this Friday, May 14th. Only one entry per person.