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!

H2H Color Challenge - Take Me Out to the Ballgame

This week over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog was a color challenge - it was also my final week as the June Guest Designer.  I had a lot of fun playing along and look forward to participating in future challenges - stay tuned this fall as I'm also going to be a sponsor!

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The colors for this week's challenge are Barn Red, Bamboo, and your choice of blue.  As I was reviewing the challenge, I came across these pictures that I took 2 weeks ago and knew they'd be perfect.  I added some Outdoor Denim as my choice of blue since it matched his jacket.  Here is the page that I created using a sketch from the PageMaps 2 book.

Gotta love the faces he pulled as he enjoyed his ballgame hot dog!

I ran out of Outdoor Denim Bigger Brads for the right page, so I created some more.  I used some Gold Bigger Brads that I had - holding them with my tweezers I heated them with my craft heater.  Then I dipped them into Outdoor Denim embossing powder and heated them again, and set them aside to cool.  This is such a great way to customize your brads!  Anyway, I didn't notice until after I took the pictures and sent them to the H2H coordinator that I forgot to actually add the brads once they cooled - oops!  We were out of town until last night so I will try to get a chance today to update my layout picture.  For now here is the right page.

One of my favorite things about the page is my stitched title.  It did kind of intimidate me at first because I was afraid it wouldn't turn out like I envisioned it, and it was the very last thing I did to complete my page (besides adding on my missing brads).  Once I finally did it, I was really pleased with the results!  I used Cranberry Waxy Flax, even though the page uses Barn Red, and I actually divided the waxy flax - I used 2 strands for my stitching.  For the title I used the Poster Board Alphabet and Giggle Caps and Giggle Lowercase alphabets.  For the circle element on the right page I printed my journaling on some Twill StickStock - I wish CTMH still carried it!  I also used the wood grain stamp from the Universal Backgrounds stamp set to create the piece between the two pictures on the right page - you can see a bit of it in the following picture.

I also used the On This Day stamp set for the tickets that mark the date, and Circle Around stamp set for the circle elements on both pages.

Thanks for looking - I hope you'll play along over at H2H this week and share what you've created!

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!

5 Things...

...I simply can't live without! This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a journaling challenge from Joan, one of the Design Team Members. The challenge is to make a layout about the 5 Material Things you cannot live without. This was a bit of a challenge for me since I did this layout with NO pictures - I guess I *could* have taken pictures of myself eating these goodies, but that would NOT have been pretty ;-P With all of these journaling challenges, I have also challenged myself to use my own handwriting! I don't like my handwriting, and I like to have things centered or lined up just perfect, so using my own handwriting is difficult for me sometimes, but I know it is important to have in my scrapbooks! Anyway, here is the layout that I created - I chose treats for my topic...

This was the last month for this current Design Team - I sure had a lot of fun and I was really challenged, especially to find the time to get my projects done! I hope to be on more Design

Teams in the future, but for now I have a lot of other things to take care of first. Hopefully I still find the time to get creative once in a while!

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Thanks for visiting!

Challenge #116 - Congrats Card

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is the following card sketch:

And this is the card I created for this week's challenge. I made a Congrats card for David's nephew who took second place at State Wrestling this year. I created the card using his school colors.

All products came from CTMH, but most are retired or no longer available. I used Black, White Daisy, Pansy Purple, and Sunflower Textured CS, Spunky Greetings stamp set, White Daisy Accents, and Sunflower Sassy Strands, and Black Floss.

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Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created using this stamp set - just click here! Thanks for looking!

10 Months Old - Challenge #115

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a recipe challenge from Janine. Use the following items on your project:

*Brads

*Buttons

*Color Blue

And here is the layout that I created - it's yet another page for Trysten's calendar - this has been such a fun project, now I wish I had done my girls' calendars the same way!

Remember, you can click on the picture to view it larger.

Products Used (all CTMH): Stardust paper pack, Rustic Numbers embossed with White Daisy Embossing Powder, Hodge Podge Alphabet, Summer Craft Buttons, Summer Brads

Other Products Used: Pinking decorative scissors

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created using this Recipe Challenge - just click here!

Thanks for visiting!

Bruiser

Oops - I almost forgot to post this this week! This is my layout for this week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara}. We were to use the following sketch:

And here is my layout - I turned it into a two-page layout by flipping the sketch for the right page and just playing around with some different sizes and shapes for the photos. I also added my journaling on the right page. These pages were really simple - the most time consuming part was probably threading the buttons, the rest of it went together really fast. I used the Stamp Rolling technique on the Rustic Alphabet stamp set for the title - I wanted it to look like a bruise. I thought the colors in these You Rock papers went really well with the Bruiser theme!

Remember, you can click on the picture to view it larger.





Products Used (all from CTMH): You Rock papers, Autumn Craft Buttons, Indian Corn Blue Waxy Flax, Rustic Alphabet, Indian Corn Blue ink, Outdoor Denim ink, Sunflower ink.
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Thanks for looking!

So Lucky

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a Journaling Challenge from Anita - journal about "Ten Reasons I Feel Lucky"

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While my pictures on this layout just show 4 of the reasons I feel lucky, my hidden journaling mentions all 10.

My heart element is actually an 'Exploding Heart' that opens up to reveal my journaling. My original idea was to create a 4-leaf clover on my page using hears and each kid's picture, but once I saw this fun folding heart, I couldn't wait to try it. I like that once the heart opens, it looks like a clover anyway. Once I put this page in a page protector, the heart will actually go on top of the plastic so it's easy to open and read.

CTMH Products Used: Scallop Scissors, Veranda paper pack, Love Is In The Air stamp set, Hodge Podge Color Ready Alphabets, Garden Green ink, Juniper ink, Pewter Accents (Hinge, Designer Brads, Bitty Brads, Photo Clips), Creme Brulee ribbon from Veranda Creative Basics pack, Juniper ribbon from the Jingle Creative Basics pack.

Other Products Used: Heart template, Nestabilities Label, Zig Marker

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Thanks for looking - don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created using this Journaling Challenge!

Thank You

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a Card Sketch:

I used this sketch to create a card for a dear friend who has really been there for me lately.

CTMH Products Used: Life Delights paper (retired), Thanks stamp set, Rhinestone Frame (CC Reward), Circle Window Charm (retired), Just Blooms Big Pinks flower, Chocolate ink, Blush Dot ribbon

Other Products Used: Fiskars Scallop punch

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Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created using this sketch! Thanks for looking!

Head over Feet

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a Recipe Challenge from Rachel - use the following items on your project:

*Vellum or Transparency

*Felt

*Embossing

I used the following sketch from Imaginisce...

...and created this layout. My journaling is hidden behind the pic on the left - just pull the tag to read. This page is about one of "Our Songs" - Head over Feet by Alanis Morissette.

Since the transparency and embossing is hard to see in the picture - here is an attempt to give you a close-up ;-P I heat embossed a line of circles around the edge of the transparency circle using clear embossing powder.

CTMH Products Used: Caprice paper (retired), Heartfelt Wonder Die-Cuts (brown felt scallop circle), Large Coluzzle Circle, Clear Embossing Powder, Circle Around stamp set, Chocolate Marker, Chocolate ink pad, Save the Date stamp set, 3-D foam squares

Other Products Used: SU! tag punch, Brown Thickers, Office Transparency

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Thanks for looking - don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created this week!

Flyin' High

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a layout sketch.

And here is the page I created using this sketch - I rotated the sketch to fit my pictures and took a sketch from the September 2009 PageMaps to create a companion page. I used some of the fun papers from Studio Calico that I won last year - I thought the butterflies were perfect.

For the butterflies I used my circle punch to punch the butterflies from the patterned paper - then I cut out another butterfly and pieced it on top using 3-D foam dots to add some fun dimension.

CTMH Products Used: Hodge Podge Color Ready Alphabet stickers, Summer Celebration Mini Medleys, Hodge Podge Alphabet stamp set, Friendship alphabet stamp set (small), White Daisy textured cardstock, Sweet Leaf cardstock and ink, Outdoor Denim Conchos

Other Products Used: Nestabilities Labels, Studio Calico papers, mini pop dots, circle punch, SU! photo corner punch

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Thanks for stopping by - don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created using this sketch, and I hope you'll get a chance to play as well!

You are...

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a Journaling Challenge from Karen - to "journal about an interesting characteristic or trait of someone you love"

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Here is the layout that I created - can you tell that I just LOVE this new Topstitch paper and Togetherness stamp! I liked the layout on page 8 of the new Spring Idea Book from CTMH, so I used that for my inspiration for this page.

This tag pulls out to reveal my hidden journaling...

And here is a close-up of the journaling...on the front I made a list of some of her traits...

...and on the back I added a little more detail about some of them - especially the more unique traits...

Here is a close-up of the Suede Pinwheels and Stickease that I clustered together.

Products Used (all CTMH): Topstitch paper and Stickease, Soft Suede Pinwheels, Togetherness stamp set, Cocktail Alphabet stamp set, 3-D Foam Squares, Vineyard Berry stamp pad, Chocolate stamp pad

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Thanks for looking! Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created for this week's challenge!

9 Months Old

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a Recipe Challenge from Marcia - use the following on your cards or layouts.
*Staples

*Stitching (faux or real)

*Stamping

I decided to use these items on another one of Trysten's calendar pages - I'm hoping to get caught up on that soon! I used a sketch from the December 2009 PageMaps, I just rotated the sketch once to fit my vertical picture.

I had so much fun with this layout, but don't I always! I did lots of faux stitching using stamps, so I killed two birds with one stone! Plus there are stitches on the patterned paper as well so it all worked nicely together.

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Products Used (all CTMH): Stardust paper pack and Stickease, Solo 9 stamp set, Circle Around stamp set, Togetherness stamp set, Friendship Alphabet stamp set, blue and green staples (retired), Topiary, Moonstruck, and Heavenly Blue stamp pads.

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Here is a close-up of some of the stamping, stitches, and staples.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team created for this week's challenge! Thanks for looking!

Love begins with a smile...

It's a good thing I checked my e-mail this morning before the post I had scheduled went live. This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} was supposed to be the Recipe Challenge, but Tamara decided to switch things up this week, so I would have had the wrong project posted this morning! Instead, this week's challenge is a card sketch, I just had to rearrange a few of my scheduled posts so here you go!

And here is the card I created using this sketch - I LOVE how it turned out! I usually don't like to take so much time or use so many accessories on cards, but I really had fun with this one! This card also goes along with this week's challenge over at Practical Scrappers - to use brads!

Products Used (all CTMH): Topstitch paper, Love Is In The Air stamp set, Chocolate brads (bigger, regular, and bitty), Vineyard Berry stamp pad, Heavenly Blue stamp pad, Chocolate stamp pad, Edge Distressor, Cottage Edge Anchors, 3D foam squares

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And here is a different angle so you can see the dimension and distressing.

Thanks for looking! And don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team has created!

Winter Joy

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a layout sketch:

And here is the layout I created...I had so much fun with this one, and you can see I stayed pretty true to the sketch. This page went together pretty fast, and I'm really pleased with it. This is Kaylee 6 years ago!

CTMH Products Used: Life Delights paper pack, Pearl Paint, Flurry Dimensional Elements, Blush re-inker, Snow Flurries stamp set, Clear Sparkles, Pretty Pins, Winter Cozy Mini Medleys
Other: SU! scallop border punch
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The pin in the sketch inspired me to finally use at least one Pretty Pin that I've had for almost a year now! Now I'm inspired to use them more.

I painted the chipboard snowflakes and edges of all the papers with the Pearl Paint for some fun distressing. For the flake in the bottom right corner I added some Blush re-inker to the paint for a pretty pink snowflake. In the following picture the coloring is off but you can see the paint distressing better...

To see what the rest of the Design Team has created, visit the Sketches! {by tamara} blog. Thanks for looking!

Challenge #104

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a journaling challenge from Bethany. Here is the challenge:

"journal about something in your life that you have overcome -- it can be something very personal & of great importance, something that was a big moment or change in your life *or* it can be something that is more light-hearted, maybe not a huge ordeal in your life but still a situtation or something that you had to overcome & make it thru to get to where you wanted to be or to accomplish what you wanted to accomplish."

I obviously went with the more light-hearted approach. This topic was a huge challenge for me to journal about but I really like my take on it - totally not what you'd expect but I'm glad to have this memory scrapped, as silly as it is!

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For this layout I used a sketch from PageMaps, from their December 2009 sketches - I've used a lot from that month's sketches!

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CTMH Products Used: Colonial White, Tulip, and Blush cardstocks, Whimsy Heartfelt DieCuts (Tulip scallop and buttons), Winter Cozy Sassy Strands (Blush), Friendship Alphabet (small), Bold Color Ready Alphabet stickers (stamped with one of the Spot On Background stamps using Tulip ink, Comments stamp set, and Tulip and Blush inks

Other Products Used: Embossing Stylus, EK Success Large Corner Rounder

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To see what the rest of the Design Team has created, just click here!

Challenge #103

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a card sketch challenge.

Here is the card I created using this sketch. I used a fun new penguin stamp that Brailee got from my Grandma for Christmas - that's a tradition that she's done since I was little, all the girls in the family get a new rubber stamp. I guess that's where my love for stamping (and my collection) started! I pieced the penguin together with 3-D foam dots for added dimension. I also got to use some of my brand new Nestabilities - I love those things! I heat embossed the 'thank you' in white powder on the blue tag so this card also fits in this week at Practical Scrappers!

CTMH Products Used: Aspen paper pack, White Daisy Embossing Powder, Thanks stamp set, Liquid Applique, Outdoor Denim Textured CS, Outdoor Denim stamp pad

Other Products Used: Fiskars scallop punch, unknown white fibers, Hero Arts penguin stamp, Nestabilities Labels 8

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To see what the rest of the Design Team has created using this sketch just click here!