Krafty Kat: October 2015

10.28.2015

Playing Catch Up...

Y'all! Life is moving so fast and I can't keep up recently. I'm waaaaaay behind on posting projects here. Anyone else feeling slightly overwhelmed and overworked? Please tell me I'm not the only one! ;-)

I have two projects to share with you today. The first is a layout I made for Clique Kits using their November kit, Tapestry. The kit has a lot of fun products from We R Memory Keepers and then some great add-ons from Pink Paislee. It's definitely a yummy Autumn-inspired kit!

I was inspired by a fun image that I found on Pinterest and used it to create my layout. Here is the image:

Here is the layout:

My second layout was made for The Studio Challenges. This week's challenge is a tic-tac-toe challenge. I chose the line that contained gold, sequins and mint. Here is my layout:

Of course, I used my gold rush sequins from SpiegelMom Scraps!! (I acutally used them on the first layout, too!)

Make sure you head over to The Studio to see the full board.

Thanks for popping in! Hopefully, life will slow down soon and I can do a better job of staying updated!

Layout 1: Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper, Chipboard Frames: Pink Paislee; Alphas: American Crafts; Die Cuts: We R Memory Keepers; Flair: Clique Kits; Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps

Layout 2: Cardstock: Bazzill; Alphas: American Crafts; Patterned Paper: Pretty Little Studio, Bella Blvd, Studio Calico; Vellum Hearts: Cocoa Vanilla Studio; Wood Veneer: Evalicious; Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye

10.22.2015

Love Knox || Bella Blvd

Hey, everyone!! I am popping in real quickly to share a layout that I had up on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday. I had a lot of fun making this one. I really like circles, but I don't always know how to incorporate them into my layouts. I like this way because it also allows me to incorporate a bunch of fun patterns, too:

I haven't really had the opportunity to play around with the Whatever Is Lovely collection, so I decided that this was the perfect time. I pulled out all the masculine colors and had a great time!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Everything else: Bella Blvd

10.21.2015

October Pep Rally || Clique Kits

Hey, everyone! Happy pep rally!! This month we are showing off the October kit from Clique Kits. This kit was so much fun - it was full of a lot of Pinkfresh Studio goodies and CK exclusives.

Here is my project for today:

I had a great time figuring out how to use that fun paper. And I had a really cute photo to work with :) The CK exclusive cut-aparts were one of my favorite things in the kit this month. I think they are so cute! Lacey always does a wonderful job designing!

Here is the full line up for today:

Clique Kits https://cliquekits.wordpress.com/
Gia http://www.giaaloha.wordpress.com/
Erica http://ericarosecreates.blogspot.com/
Leeann Pearce http://thepaintbrushgoesspottie.blogspot.com/
Maryam http://maryamperez.blogspot.com/
Aliza http://peopleofthescrapbook.blogspot.com/
Megan Blethen http://www.craftymeggy.com/
Emma Pescott http://emslifedocumented.blogspot.co.nz/
Melissa http://yesterday2day4ever.blogspot.co.nz/
Kim http://krodesigns.blogspot.com/
Leigh http://www.artfulleighcreative.com/
Renee Aslette http://www.reneeaslette.blogspot.com/
Kat http://kraftykat9.blogspot.com/ (me!)
Sandy Gonzalez craftythought.com/
Tyra Babington http://justtyra.com/
Marcia* http://www.onescrapatatime-bymumsie.blogspot.com/
Kim Allen http://kimsscrappyblog.blogspot.com/
Candace http://findingeverydayperfection.com/
Rhonda Van Ginkel http://snapwhiz.blogspot.com
Hannah http://scrapbookpagesandcupcakes.com
Evi http://lifewithevi.blogspot.com
Janet Zeppa http://janetsjoy.blogspot.com/

Melissa Goble http://mgphoto89.tumblr.com

Thanks for popping in!! Happy hopping!!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned Paper, Wood Veneers, Puffy Stickers, Alphas: Pinkfresh Studio; Sequins, Cut-aparts: Clique Kits

10.18.2015

A Quick SpiegelMom Scraps Layout

Good morning, everyone! I am still alive, just SUPER, SUPER busy. Sorry if I haven't been stopping by to leave love on your blog. I really am swamped, but hoping that things calm down within the next few weeks. Until then, here is a SpiegelMom Scraps project to share with you...

I have totally fallen in love with the Dazzlerz medium from Shimmerz. The texture of this paste is awesome and the metallic finish is really beautiful! I had to make this a focus of my layout, so I took one of my favorite stencils (by Heidi Swapp) and created a band across my cardstock. The effect looked a lot like a piece of patterned paper or a transparency.

Once the paste was dry, I added a piece of blue chevron ribbon and then I did some simple layering of my photo, patterned paper, a glassine bag, a shipping tag and a lace doily. I wanted to pull in a lot of different textures to give the layout some more interest. You may recognize the cutie in the layout as one of Jody’s daughters. I left the tag blank so Jody can go in and add her own journaling later.

I finished the layout off with a sprinkling of embellishments, including the Studio Calico Wood Veneer stars and the Sunny Day sequins.

This layout came together really quickly and was so much fun to make. Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to use code KAT15 at check out to save 15% on your entire purchase!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Textured Past: Dazzlerz; Patterned Paper: American Crafts, Chickaniddy Crafts; Ribbon: May Arts; Die Cut, Mists: Heidi Swapp; Wood Veneer Stars, Vellum Hearts: Studio Calico; Sequins, Doily, Tag: SpiegelMom Scraps; Staples: Tim Holtz

10.11.2015

Sketch Challenge || The Studio

Good morning, everyone! There is a new sketch challenge up at The Studio today! I had a fairly easy time working with the sketch because it was based off of one of my previous layouts for The Studio. The design is one of my go-to designs when I'm feeling stuck, so this layout came together really quickly. Here is the sketch:

Here is my take on it:

I managed to squeeze in a lot of goodies from the SpiegelMom Scraps Shop on this layout:

-3/4" green chevron ribbon

-Bermuda Triangle Sequin Mix (I used the pretty little blue ones from this mix)

If you see anything in the shop that you like, use code KAT15 to get 15% off your entire purchase- and I hope you can play along with The Studio this month!!

Happy Sunday!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper, Border, Label Sticker, Chipboard Sticker, Alphas: Pink Paislee; "Sun, Fun & Laughter" Die Cut: Chic Tags; Paper Bag: Webster's Pages; Tags, Doily, Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps Shop; Ribbon: May Arts

10.08.2015

October Challenge || Clique Kits

Hey, everyone!! The October challenge at Clique Kits went up last weekend! Same rules as always: make anything! You don't have to use a Clique Kit and you can enter up to three times in a month. How awesome is that?!?!

For my challenge layout this month I used October's kit, Funfetti (isn't that the best name?!?!). It is chock full of Pinkfresh Studio goodness. I decided to make this layout of my nephew:

It was actually baby's first scrapbook page, as I made this layout just a few days after he was born. I love my nieces and nephew!!

As always, thanks for stopping by today. I hope you can play along with us this month!!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper, Alphas, Puffy Stickers, Wood Veneers: Pinkfresh Studio; Mist: Studio Calico; Doily: SpiegelMom Scraps; Sequins: Clique Kits

10.06.2015

Project Read || August + September

Hey, everyone! It's been awhile since I've done a Project Read post! I'm a tad bit behind, but I think I'll catch up by the end of the year. Here's what I read in August and September:

You by Caroline Kepnes – Okay…this book was creepy. And graphic. And creepy some more. But I could not put it down! And I feel guilty admitting that I liked it. This is the story of Joe, who meets Beck when she comes in to his bookstore. He is immediately attracted to her…and then he begins stalking her. Joe is a full-on stalker. He watches Beck through windows, he reads all her emails and he figures out how to deal with people who get in the way of their “relationship.” It’s fascinating to read the story from his point-of-view and the book is written in second person, which is definitely an interesting literary device. None of the characters are likeable, but somehow Kepnes makes it work. This story reminds me a lot of Dexter in the sense that the main character is a BAD guy and even though you are repulsed by what he’s doing, you can’t stop reading and in a weird, weird way you almost (almost!) want him to succeed. There is a sequel to this book scheduled to come out in February of 2016 and you can pretty much guarantee that I’ll be reading it!

Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway – I love, love, LOVED this book. It is a chit lit book for sure, but it manages to be different. This book tells the story of Dawn, a young woman still desperately struggling to find a real writing job after she’s been a college graduate for over a year and a half. In a lucky turn of events she gets a temporary job working for Charm magazine where she is responsible for re-connecting with all the past winners of the magazine’s annual “Ten Girls to Watch” column. The women are inspirational and Dawn learns a lot from each conversation she has. There is a love story in here, too, and lots of other miscellaneous personal drama. However, it’s not a typical love story and not a typical chick lit story, and without giving anything away, I LOVE how the love story part of the book ended. It was refreshing! I’ve tried to find other books by Shumway, but I believe this is her only book so far. I’ve followed her on GoodReads, though, to ensure that I don’t miss her next book whenever it comes out.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter – I saw this book highly recommended on one of the blogs I follow. The reviewer talked about how amazing the book was and how it was one of her favorites of the year. I don’t feel the same. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t blow me away. I thought it was an average book and there were times when I felt like the story was dragging on and I just wanted it to be over. This story follows the lives of a whole cast of characters, including a famous movie star whose name we’ll all recognize. The story takes place across multiple generations (from WWII to present day) and in all different places (from Italy to Hollywood) on the globe and it is fun to see how all the characters’ lives overlap. This is not a fun-loving chick lit book; it is certainly emotional in places. If you can get into the story better than I did (and by looking at the reviews, plenty of people did), this should be a fairly quick read. I know I didn’t give a great synopsis of the book, but it’s a bit hard to explain…the link should tell you more (I didn’t want to plagiarize Amazon!)

Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson – If you are looking for just a fun book, this is it! This is the first book in a whole series and introduces us to Katie Chandler, a completely non-magical person. In the world, most everyone has a little bit of magic in them, which in turn makes most people susceptible to magic. They often don’t notice the fairies and ogres walking around amongst them or recognize when someone is using magic to their advantage. But since Katie is completely non-magical, she sees everything and can’t be touched by magic. This makes her very valuable to Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc., a magic company who produces and sales spells to magical beings. When an evil wizard threatens MSI and the values it stands for, Katie’s skills become even more valuable. The book also includes the typical romance, but it’s all just so cute and fun, that I have to highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a light read and a little magic.

As always, if you have any recommendations for me, please let me know!!

10.03.2015

World Cardmaking Day Blog Hop || SpiegelMom Scraps

Good morning, everyone!! Happy World Cardmaking Day! I am not a big cardmaker, but I do have fun making cards from time to time. This morning the SpiegelMom Scraps team is doing a fun little blog hop to get you inspired for the day.

Here is my card:

I finally got to play with the Dazzlerz by Shimmerz that Jody has in the shop - and I'm in love. The paste has such a pretty metallic finish once it's dry. For my background I used two colors: Sour Apple Green and Lemon Drop Yellow. I also typed my sentiment multiple times on a shipping tag and backed it with a gold doily. For my finishing touch, I sprinkled some gold rush sequins about.

It's a very simple card, but I kind of like it! If you see anything in the SpiegelMom Scraps Shop that you want to buy, use code KAT15 to get 15% off your entire purchase!

Here is the order of the rest of the hop:

Jody

Louise

Charity

Kat (me!)

Happy hopping!!!

Cardstock: Journaling Card, Patterned Paper: American Crafts; Modeling Paste: Shimmerz; Tag, Doily, Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps

10.01.2015

Meet the New Team || Clique Kits

Good morning, everyone! Welcome to the Clique Kits "Meet the New Team" blog hop! You should have arrived here from Melissa's blog. But if you're starting here, I have the whole hop list posted below.

I was so, so, SO excited when I was asked to return to the CK team this year. I love this team and the whole CK community. Plus - the kits are so fun. I love that they pull from the current most popular collections and add in unique embellishments. Plus the CK exclusives designed by Lacey are always AWESOME!

For this hop we were asked to create a layout about ourselves and then give you a bit of info. Here's my layout:

That black & white Pinkfresh paper is one of my faves from this month's kit and it was just screaming to be colored. I grabbed some of my favorite gelatos and went to town!

A bit about me: My husband, Eric, and I just relocated to FL for his job. We love it so far! Before we moved here we lived on the beaches of NC, which was also quite awesome. We don;t have any kids, but we have two nieces and a brand new nephew that we love to spoil. We also just adopted a new dog, who we named Moose: