Deconstructed Sketch Guest Designer

I was selected as a guest designer this week for Deconstructed Sketches. I always love the sketches that are provided weekly. They are fun and versatile and easy to customize to your style and theme. Here is the sketch for this week and the card I created based on the sketch. I used a retired CTMH paper pack - the name escapes my mind at the moment but if anyone remembers please help! The stamp is from the school themed set, Good Work, also retired. I have many years of accumulated supplies, I'm trying to use some up!

Notice how I changed the circles in the sketch to squares with rounded corners. The sentiment was stamped using my Colonial White pigment ink pad.

I created some fun custom brads for this card. First I punched some small circles out of coordinating cardstock. Then I attached some mini sparkles. Last I covered the circles and sparkles with Liquid Glass - one of my all-time favorite products, I always keep a bottle handy! Super easy, customizable accent!

Click the following link to visit Deconstructed Sketch - http://deconstructingjen.com/

I hope you'll play along and create something fun with this week's sketch. I'd love to see what you create!

Genuinely Appreciated

I got to participate in some more challenges this week.  This time I piggy-backed a few different challenges for the following card that will be a thank you card for a new crafty friend.

I started with this week's Color Challenge PLUS over at H2H to use Amethyst and Crystal Blue and glitter.  It's hard to tell in the pics, but I mixed Prisma Glitter with Clear Embossing Powder and heat embossed the Dimensional Element Snowflake.  Then I took my Embossing Pen and traced the words Thank You and embossed them with the powder/glitter mixture as well.  The stamped image was inked in Amethyst and rolled in Crystal Blue.  

I liked last week's challenge (to use a never been used stamp set) so much that I decided to use it again, and I would like to continue using it throughout the year!  I have used some of the other stamps in this set but not this particular one until now.  It's one of the stamp sets that comes in the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Collection so I cut the coordinating tag from my Cricut. 

Then I was looking for inspiration for my card pattern so I turned to Unscripted Sketches and chose their most recent Sketch Challenge #141.

I didn't use any patterned papers on this card, just some of CTMH's retired Textured Cardstock that I sanded, along with an Amethyst spiral clip.  This card features a sneak peek at a new product featured in the upcoming Spring/Summer 2012 Close To My Heart Idea Book.  It's the new Color-Ready Ribbon featured on page 30 - I love that I can make it any color I need!  I used a Sponge Dauber and my Crystal Blue ink pad to color it.  It was still pretty fresh when I took the picture of my card so I'm not sure if it will lighten or not, but I'm excited to play with this ribbon some more!

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I hope you like it - thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!

Nature's Gift

One of my goals this year is to participate in more online challenges.  I have set aside Tuesdays as our crafty day so the kids and I can create together at home and I can get some creative time to myself as well.  This week I participated in the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog - the challenge was to use a stamp that hasn't seen ink yet - click here to see the challenge and what the design team created.  I sadly have a few stamp sets that haven't been used yet, but I picked Nature's Gift to play with. 

I used an old favorite, Collage pattern from the Wishes Book. I also used the Wonderland papers, my super cool Ruler, Piercing Tool, and Chocolate Waxy Flax to add the stitches. I used the stamp rolling technique on the focal image and the sentiment as well.  I finished off the image by adding Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel to the flourishes.

Thanks for looking and if you get a chance, go check out Heart 2 Heart, they have fun weekly challenges and are full of inspiration!

B-I-N-G-O!

I was chosen as the June Guest Designer over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog - this week was one of my two chosen weeks to play along.  I had so much fun with this challenge - don't forget to check out the complete challenge details and what the entire Design Team created HERE!

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This week's challenge is a BINGO theme - we were given the following BINGO card and told to chose 3 items in a row to use on our project.

I used the entire bottom row and came up with this card using the Classic Closure Pattern from Wishes.

GEMS = Mocha Opaques Gems that I used for the owl's eyes.

BUTTONS = two Chocolate buttons threaded with strips of paper.

RUB-ONS = the branch is a rub-on.

Other products used:  retired More to Adore paper (still an all-time favorite!), You're a Hoot stamp set, the bitty flowers under the gems on the eyes came from the Chocolate Mini Medley set - these are currently on sale for over 60% off, don't forget to check out the other awesome deals for the Clearance Sale! 

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Thanks for looking - I hope you'll play along over at H2H!

Reuse. Recycle. Reinvent.

Today's post covers two challenges - I had a lot of fun with this project and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  First of all, I used this week's challenge over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog - to use something recycled on our project.  As I started my project, I was looking for the perfect sketch to inspire me and found this week's Sketchy Thursday ESS126 over at Eat Sleep Stamp, and knew it would be perfect!  So, now on to my project!

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At the end of last month Brianna received the new comforter that she picked out for her new room - this is the packaging that it came rolled up in...

It's going to be so cute with her teal rug and teal sheets that I got for her! 

Anyway, I'm glad I opened it up carefully because as soon as I saw it, I KNEW I wanted to turn it into a mini album.  So, I folded it like this...and then stuck in my crafty 'TO-DO' pile ;-) and didn't touch it again until today.

I was thrilled when I saw this week's H2H Challenge - it was just the motivation I needed to get it done!  So this morning I got it out and got to work.  My biggest challenge was coming up with an album theme.  I was going to do a Sisters album, but none of the girly color combos and papers that I picked out were just right with the corrugated cardboard.  Then I remembered that I haven't had a chance to play with the new Lucky papers and they had the perfect colors in it since I also wanted to reuse the ribbon that came with the packaging as well.  This is what I came up with...

I used Liquid Glass to secure the fold on the cover and also to glue on all of my pieces - it's a pretty nice size, and very sturdy!  I wanted the orange color to match my ribbon so instead of using the Sunset color that is in the papers, I used the retired Orange - I tore the edge and sanded the paper to tone it down a bit.  I also used the following stamp sets - Rustic Alphabet, and the retired sets Legendary Moments and Doodle Alphabet.  I dressed it up with some Outdoor Denim Buttons tied with Olive Waxy Flax, and Orange Brads.  I also used a notebook edge punch and corner rounder on this project.

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do for pages for the inside yet but I will be sure to post them when I get them done!  I am hoping to give this to my brother and his wife when their little boy turns one in just a couple months.  For now this is what the inside looks like - I tied the ribbon loosely so I can untie it and use it if I need to in order to add my pages.

This is the spine of the book - I also added Liquid Glass to the end of the ribbons to stop them from fraying.  I love Liquid Glass, it has so many purposes!

As I was glueing my cover together this morning, I noticed this - I like the word reinvent, which is exactly what I did here!

Thanks for looking!