Pink & Gold || PLS

Good morning, all!  I wanted to stop in and share a layout that I have up on the Pretty Little Studio blog today.  It was a picture inspired challenge:

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I was inspired by the colors in this picture and decided to create a layout full of white, pink and gold:

I grabbed a bunch of papers from the Merry & Bright collection (not just for Christmas!) and the You & Me collection  (not just for Valentine's Day!).  I layers them all on top of each other with some pop dots to give the layout some dimension.  Finally, I topped the papers with embellishments from the Baby Claire collection and the Let's Go collection.  So really, this layout was just a bunch of different collections all mixed together.  I love that they all work so well with another and can be mixed so easily!  I also layered ona lot of cork shapes from SpiegelMom Scraps!

Thanks for stopping in!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Cork Shapes: SpiegelMom Scraps; Alphas: Girls Paperie; Everything else: Pretty Little Studio

Scraplift Saturdays || 6.18.16

Happy Saturday, all!  It's been a while since I've been able to post a Scraplift Saturday post, but I'm finally able to!

My inspiration layout was one that I made last year for some Bella Blvd design team work.  I had so much fun with it.  It took a while to make, but was almost cathartic in a way.  Layout out all those little circles had a sort of calming effect on me:

Obviously I jumped on the circle wagon again for this one.  And I decided to use Bella products for this layout too.  I really like the way it turned out:

That's all for today - enjoy your weekend!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Everything Else: Bella Blvd

Scrapbook and Cards Today

Hello!!  I wanted to stop in and quickly share a layout that I was fortunate enough to have published in the Spring Issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today.  I broke out some of my Bella Blvd stash and created this Spring-y layout:

I was happy that it turned out so well and even happier that it got selected for publication.  This was my first ever print publication and I was over the moon about it.  It was only my one millionth time submitting something.  Ha! :o)

Thanks for stopping in today!  Enjoy the rest of your week!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Wood Veneer: Freckled Fawn; Patterned Paper, Chipboard, Stickers, Enamel Dots: Bella Blvd; Staple: Tim Holtz

A Clique Kits' Share

Hello, all!  I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.  I always get a little sad when it's coming to an end!

I was able to get come scrapping done this weekend.  I have a ton of assignments due, but I really just wanted to scrap for fun....so I did - and made this layout with the current Clique Kits' kit.  The Elle's Studio Little Moments collection is so pretty and soft...and I feel like it's just so easy to scrap with.

For this layout, I was actually inspired by one of the images on the kit's mood board this month.  There was a block that had a ton of butterflies in a grid and I decided to do something like that using one of the Just Nick cut files that came with the kit.

Aren't these pictures of my niece adorable?  She's such a bright and happy little girl.

Thanks for popping in!  Enjoy your Sunday evening!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Cut Outs: Elle's Studio; Word Sticker: Pinkfresh Studio; Acrylic Word, Paint: Jillibean Soup; Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps; Mist: Heidi Swapp

Creative Scrappers June Sketch

Good morning, everyone!  I'm excited to pop in and share the June Creative Scrappers sketch with you!  The sponsor this month is Jillibean Soup - how awesome is that?!?!

Here is the lovely sketch that Kristine created:

Here is my take on it:

Since Jillibean Soup is this month's sponsor I tried to use their products on my page.  It was a lot of fun digging into my stash to bust out some of my favorite Jillibean products.  Those journaling spots are still one of my favorite products!

I hope you can play along with us!!

Birthday Card || Pretty Little Studio

Good morning, all!  I am popping in to share a card that I have up on the Pretty Little Studio blog today!

I have a busy Summer planned, so while I still have a little bit of free time on my hands, I decided to get a jump start on some of my Summer cards, including making a birthday card for my Dad.  He is always looking for a new adventure, so I decided that mixing the Treasure Island and Let's Go collections for this card would be best.  I also added in some of the die cut sentiments from the Wonderland collection.  Just goes to show how well the PLS collections mix and match with one another!  Here is my card:

I love the fun color combo that I used here.  The bright yellow, turquoise and grey with pops of coral look so good together - masculine and fun!

Happy Sunday!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Paris || Pretty Little Studio

Hello, everyone!  I had a post on the Pretty Little Studio blog yesterday.  It was a Pinterest inspired challenge and it was a ton of fun!  Here is the inspiration photo:

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As soon as I saw this photo, I knew that I had to use the Hello Heather Here + There collection, I had to scrap a Paris trip photo (even though the trip was almost 5 years ago now ) and I had to use the beautiful Les Fleurs patterned paper.  Once I decided all those things, the layout came together pretty quickly!

I decided to make my big title the focus of the page and used a cut file from The Cut Shoppe to create it.  I also used my photo to fill in the 'A' in 'Paris'.  I really like how that effect ended up turning out.  Once I had my title work done, I just layered on my embellishments and the layout came together really fast - gotta love when that happens!

Now that this layout is done, I think it is safe to say that I need to restock my Here + There stash - I only have tiny little scraps left - and lots of 3 x 4 cards, which I will definitely be putting to use soon.

Thanks for stopping in!

Corrugated Cardboard: Fancy Pants Designs; Paint: Jillibean Soup; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Playing Catch-Up

So...I am so far behind on blogging it's kind of tragic.  I have been crazy busy recently.  I don't even get to read my blog list anymore and I know I'm doing the bare minimum here.  I am taking advantage  of my holiday and working on scheduling some posts.  This Summer is shaping up to be a rather crazy one so I make no promises that my blog situation will get much better.  :)

Tonight I'm sharing a layout that I had up last week highlighting Pretty Little Studio's Tiny ABCs.  I love the Tiny ABCs, especially the vellum ones :)

For my layout I decided to use the ABCs to make a border on my layout about my nieces walking to the school bus.  Here's what I came up with:

I used some of my paper scraps to anchor my photos.

I am also totally in love with those puffy yellow alphas from Studio Calico.  I purchased one of their mystery boxes and I have to say these alphas are my favorite thing from the box (I was a little underwhelmed unfortunately.)  I wish I had gotten a ton more - they are pretty much the perfect size and font!

Anywho, here's to hoping I do better on the blogging front in this next month!  Have a good work week!

June Clique Kit

So, Clique Kits just revealed their June kit...and it is pretty spectacular!  I am such a big fan of the pretty mix of Elle's Studio and Jillibean Soup products.  When the kit arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago, I instantly had to play and made a layout within hours of receiving it.

I broke out a cut file from The Cut Shoppe and had fun filling in the negatives while zoning out in front of the TV :)

Here's my layout:

Seriously, is this kit not adorable?!?!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Wood Veneers: Elle's Studio; Alphas: Bella Blvd; Word Sticker: Jillibean Soup; Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps; Mist: Heidi Swapp

Party Time! || Clique Kits

Good morning, everyone!  I wanted to pop in and quickly share my last layout made with the Northern Lights kit from Clique Kits.

For this layout, I decided to keep the design pretty simple.  I went with a big, simple title cut from my silhouette and backed the letters with the pretty papers from the kit.  Then I used a bunch of small photos from my husband's family birthday celebration to border the title.  Here was the end result:

I think I like it...although, I'm not totally sure.  I do know that I like how simple it was to make - probably only took  me about 15 minutes.  And that, my friends, is always chalked up to a win!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants Designs, Basic Grey; Puffy Stickers: Fancy Pants Designs

Creative Scrappers + Clique Kits Team-Up

Hello, all!  I hope your weekend was fabulous!  I'm excited because two of my design teams teamed-up today for a fun challenge.  The Clique Kits design team was challenged to take on one of the sketches from Creative Scrappers.  So fun!!

Here is the sketch:

Here is my take on it, using the Spring Card kit from Clique Kits:

I hope you can play along - the winner gets a $20 gift card to the Clique Kits store!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist, Pink Label Sticker: Heidi Swapp; Doilies: SpiegelMom Scraps; Alphas: American Crafts; Patterned Paper, Acrylic Word, Die Cuts, Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye

This Year's Annual Rainbow Layout

Every year I make at least one rainbow layout...and every year I really like how it turns out.  This year is no exception!  My rainbow layout this year was inspired by the Northern Lights kit from Clique Kits.  It is full of so many fun colors and patterns and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to get all those pretty colors on to one page.  And hence this year's rainbow layout:

Have you made anything rainbow-y recently?

Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper; Fancy Pants Designs, Basic Grey; Alphas, Puffy Sticker, Washi Tape, Tag: Fancy Pants Designs; Die Cuts: Clique Kits

Clique Kits' NSD Celebration!

Good morning, all!  Happy (inter)National Scrapbook Day!  It's definitely one of my favorite days of the year - a whole day (usually weekend) dedicated to my favorite hobby?  Yes please!

Clique Kits has a really fun event going on for the NSD festivities.  You can find all the Scrap Your Heart Out challenges at their Facebook event here.  There are going to be a lot of great prompts to try your hand at and a lot of fabulous prizes up for grabs!

I just posted my challenge - a recipe challenge.  My recipe is pretty simple: Sparkle, Shine and Flowers:

For my 'sparkle' I used shimmer mist and sequins.  For my 'shine' I used metallic gold accents.  And for my 'flowers' I used a floral die cut.  I'm still digging the Clique Kits Spring Card Kit, which you can still pick up in the store.  There is a big sale today - 30% off everything with code NSD30.  Check it out!!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps; Die cuts, Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye; Wood Veneer: Studio Calico; Date Stamp: Shimelle

Pretty Little Studio || May Sketch Challenge

Hi, everyone!!  Pretty Little Studio published the May sketch earlier this week.  Have a look:

I had so much fun with this sketch.  I loved using the strip of patterned paper on the side of the layout and instead of putting photos across the whole top of the page, I decided to photos surrounded by a row of hearts.  I really kind of like the end result!

I'm still loving the fun Hello Heather Here + There collection.  I pretty much swoon over the awesome colors and patterns!

Thanks for stopping in!  We hope you'll play along with this month's sketch!

Patterned paper: Studio Calico, Pretty Little Studio; Enamel Hearts: Doodlebug Design; Alphas: American Crafts, Pretty Little Studio, Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Beautiful Girl || Clique Kits

Good morning, everyone!  I was on the Clique Kits Blog yesterday sharing another project I made with the Northern Light kit - this time it was a layout.  I also shared a few of my favorite scrap tips - definitely nothing revolutionary, but just little things that I like to do when creating.

1.  Bold patterns scare me.  I adore them, but I never know how to use them without my page getting too busy.  I'm really a white background, white space kinda girl.  However, when I find a pattern that I adore and just *HAVE* to use, I usually cut it into a strip and use it as the anchor for my design.  In this case, I used half of the paper I loved...this helps me feel like the paper isn't overwhelming my project.

2.  Keep the rest of your design simple when using a bold pattern.  Without the bold background, my page would be pretty blah.  But paired with a simple design, the bold pattern becomes a great accent - and I actually really like how the page turned out.

3.  Use embellishments in threes to make invisible triangles all over your page. 3 tags, 3 sets of enamel dots, 3 groups of mists, 3 strips of washi...you get the idea :)

Like I said, nothing earth-shattering here, but hopefully something you may find at least a little bit helpful!  Thanks for stopping in!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants Designs, Basic Grey; Tags, Flair, Washi Tape, Alphas: Fancy Pants Designs; Die Cuts: Clique Kits; Mist: Heidi Swapp

March Project Life || Clique Kits

Good evening, all!  I've been having a lot of fun playing with my May Northern Lights kit from Clique Kits.  It is full of fun, bright patterns from Fancy Pants Designs and Basic Grey.  The exclusives are really great this month, too.

For my first project I decided to tackle my March Project Life spread.  I'm still keeping things simple...

Here's my left side: 

Here's my right side:

I had so much fun making the title card:

And a little peek at my Project Read status this year:

The kit's colorful elements and graphic designs made it easy for me to keep everything simple and whip this baby up in no time!

Page Protectors: Becky Higgins (Design F); Journaling Cards: Clique Kits, Studio Calico; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey, Fancy Pants Designs; Alphas, Puffy Stickers, Flair, Tags: Fancy Pants Designs; Wood Veneer: Studio Calico; Die Cuts: Clique Kits; Staples: Tim Holtz

Bonjour Love || Pretty Little Studio

Hi, everyone!  I wanted to share a layout I made for Pretty Little Studio by combining a few different collections!  I had it up on their blog yesterday.  It's the most fun I've had making a layout in quite a while!  I really love the turquoise and red color combo, so I decided to combine some of the fun papers from the Hello Heather Here + There collection and from the Treasure Island collection.  I used them all to back a fun cut file from The Cut Shoppe:

After I backed portions of the cut file, I layered some of the misted negatives and enamel dots on top of the design.  This layout was so simple to create, but I really like the way it turned out.

Thanks for stopping in!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Enamel Dots: Bella Blvd; Alphas: 7Paper; Cut File: The Cut Shoppe; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Pretty Little Studio card

Hello, all!  I wanted to share my Pretty Little Studio project with you featuring vellum!  I love vellum but sometimes it can be intimidating to use.  However the translucent quality of vellum makes it a very fun product to work with.

For my project today I decided to create a card.  I used some Shimmerz paints to create a few blotches of color on the card base and then I sewed down a piece of vellum and filled it with some sequins:

After that I just layered my design on top, creating a card that I hope will make someone's day!

Thanks for stopping in!

Card: K & Co; "Friend" sticker: Jillibean Soup; Enamel Hearts: Doodlebug Design; Sequins: SpiegelMom Scraps; Paint: Shimmerz;  Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Clique Kits' April Pep Rally

Good morning, everyone!  Happy pep rally day!  These are always so much fun to me - I love seeing all the creations made from the same kits - so inspirational!  This month's kit features the super fun Life in Color collection from Simple Stories.  I had a fun time making this layout:

Here is the full line-up of the pep rally:

Clique Kits https://cliquekits.wordpress.com/

Gia Lau https://giaaloha.wordpress.com/

Erica Thompson https://ericarosecreates.wordpress.com/

Lacey Gasper http://laceybugcreations.blogspot.com/

Donna Espiritu http://www.scrappydonna.blogspot.com/

Justyna Skowron http://www.made-by-justt.blogspot.com/

Aliza Deutsch http://peopleofthescrapbook.blogspot.com/

Kat Benjamin http://kraftykat9.blogspot.com (that's me!)

Marcia Dehn-Nix http://www.onescrapatatime-bymumsie.blogspot.com/

Kim Oedekoven http://krodesigns.blogspot.com/

Sandy Gonzalez http://craftythought.com

Kim Allen http://kimsscrappyblog.blogspot.com/

Leigh Ann Odynksi http://www.artfulleighcreative.com

Mariah Hechler www.fun2scrap.blogspot.com/

Sarah King http://scrappinmylittleroyals.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by - happy hopping!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned Paper, Chipboard, Stickers, Die Cuts: Simple Stories; Alphas, Enamel Hearts: Bella Blvd; Mist: Heidi Swapp

Pretty Little Flowers

Good morning, everyone!  I wanted to pop in this morning and quickly share a layout that I created using the Hello Heather Here + There Collection.  This collection is one of my favorites to work with right now.  It has such a great color combination, fun, graphic prints and I really love the florals sprinkled in!

In fact, I love the florals so much that I decided to create a layout in which the pretty flower stickers were prominently featured:

Seriously, don't those flowers make you happy?!?!

Thanks for stopping in- have a happy day!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Clique Kits' Spring 2016 Card Kit

Hello!  Happy, happy Saturday!  I wanted to pop in and share a recent layout that I made with Spring 2016 Card Kit from Clique Kits.  I adore this kit.  It's chock full of the On Trend 2 collection from My Mind's Eye.  I think the colors and patterns in the collection are so pretty.

I also used a cut file from JustNick.  I've been eyeing the XO file for a while and finally decided to but it.  I thought it was perfect to use with these pictures and pretty, pretty paper!

Thanks for stopping in - hope you have a nice, happy weekend!

Cardstock: Recollections, American Crafts; Patterned Paper, Acrylic Shape, Die Cuts: My Mind's Eye; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Alphas: Studio Calico

Pinterest Inspired with Pretty Little Studio

Good morning, all! I have a layout on the Pretty Little Studio blog this morning that was inspired by the Pinterest image below.  I loved all the crisp white in the image, so I knew that my layout would be predominately white. 

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However, I knew I needed to add in a pop of color, as well.  While this image had a pop of green, I decided to add in a pop of pink to my layout.  Here is the final result:

The Hello Heather Here + There collection was the perfect collection to use for this layout.  With the simple, crisp patterns, I knew it would be the perfect collection for providing a lot of white elements.

Thanks for stopping in!

Cardstock: American Crafts; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio