Valentine's Cards

Hi everyone!  I wanted to show you some super quick Valentine's Day cards that Piper and I made using some Pretty Little Studio products.  When I became a Mom, I knew I wanted to start some fun holiday traditions.  One of the traditions I really wanted to do was handmade Valentines for close family and friends.  And even though Piper is too young to notice or even participate, I decided to start this year.

I chose a super simple design for our Valentines, so I could quickly and easily replicate it.  We made cards for grandparents, aunts & uncles and her teachers at day care.

We started by tracing Piper's hand.  I knew I wanted to incorporate something cute and signature Piper in the cards, and I realized her hand would be perfect.  In full disclosure, I tried to do her hand prints with paint, but that was a TOTAL DISASTER, so I settled for tracing it :)

I had pre-cut and typed out the sentiments on the card, so I just glued down the hands, topped them with a cut-out sentiment and added a quick border.  I thought the beautiful With all my Heart collection was absolutely perfect for these cards.  Finally, I popped in a cute photo of her and we are also giving her teachers some chocolates and Starbucks gift cards.

I'm in love with how these came out...and I know I'm going to love seeing how small her hand was when I look back in a few years :)

#52favorites Update

Hi everyone!  I wanted to pop in and share my last 3 pages for my #52favorites album.

For week 3, I used the sampler kit from Scrapbook & Cards Today: 

For week 4, I used the December kit from Hip Kit Club:

And for week 5, I used the Tales & Dreams collection from Pretty Little Studio:

I am having so much fun with this project and am so glad that I decided to play along!!

Two More Color Cast Designs Projects

Hi everyone!!  I have 2 more layouts that I created for Color Cast Designs this month!

The first one uses the 'baby It's Cold Outside" set...and I kinda smushed a lot onto this layout.  It's not my normal style, but I do kinda like it:

The second layout used the "Year in Review set"...this was such a fun layout to make.  I knew big things happened last year, but it's cool seeing it all on paper:

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to head over to Color Cast Designs to see all the new goodies in the shop :) 

Layout 1: Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd; Chipboard Stickers, Arrow Clip, Enamel Shapes: Freckled Fawn; Wood Veneer, Acrylic Title: Color Cast Designs; Cut File: Silhouette; Mist: Heidi Swapp

Layout 2: Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper: Crate Paper; Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Pinkfresh Studio, Alphas: American Crafts; Stickers: Crate Paper; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Wood Veneer, Acrylic Title: Color Cast Designs; Enamel Dots: Vicki Boutin for American Crafts

January Jillibean Soup Shares

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to pop in and share my January Jillibean Soup projects:

A layout about Piper and my Dad:

A quick & easy birthday card:

A layout about Piper and one of her toys:

 An easy gift-wrapping project:

Thanks for stopping in! Tomorrow's Fri-yay!!

#52favorites Project

Hi everyone!  Paper Issues has a fun weekly challenge this year called #52favorites.  It's such a neat idea - pick your favorite memory from the week and get it down in some creative way.  I decided to play along and my focus will be on Miss Piper.  It's really hard for me to choose a favorite photo/memory of her from each week, but I'm going to try!  :o)

I think this is the perfect project since I'm not even going to attempt Project Life this year.  I just can't.  I know I wouldn't be able to keep up with at this time.  But this project is something that I can do!  And it's perfect for if I don't have time to make a whole layout, but still want to get a bit of creative play in.

I just knocked out the first 2 weeks and I used the Tales & Dreams line from Pretty Little Studio.  I kept my designs fairly simple and similar.  I imagine that I will continue to carry this template throughout the entire project, but I'm not totally sure yet.  Here's what I've got:

I'm going to keeping all my little layouts in a fun planner binder that I found in the Dollar Spot at Target.  I'm not a planner girl, but the size and format works perfectly for this project!

Thanks for stopping in!!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Desert Beauty

Woohoo!  I scrapped for fun!  I scrapped for fun!  

For Christmas my Dad gave me a bunch of pretty, new paper products, including the Basics paper pad from Illustrated Faith/Bella Blvd.  When I saw the cacti paper, I knew I had to use it to scrap some of the photos from Piper's newborn photo shoot.

I combined this paper with a bunch of other Bella products from my stash.  I think I have 4 or 5 different collections represented on this layout :o)

I'm really loving this color combo...remind me to scrap for fun more often :o)

Everything: Bella Blvd

Fun Together || Pretty Little Studio

Good morning everyone!  Just popping in to share my newest layout made with the GORGEOUS Tales & Dreams collection that is up on the Pretty Little Studio blog today.  The colors in this collection are just fabulous.

For today's layout I decided to scrap a photo of my daughter and my niece in matching outfits.  This collection complements their dresses well so it was perfect to use.

I kept my design simple and tried to make my photo the main focus of the spread.  Here is the final product:

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Details || Color Cast Designs

Hi everyone!!  I recently created a new layout for Color Cast Designs using the "About Me" acrylic set from their December release.  I decided to focus on my girl and some of her month 4 highlights.  I used the beautiful Zoey kit from Felicity Jane to create this:

I've seen a lot of torn paper on layouts recently, so I decided to give it a go and use some torn paper on my layout.  I really like how it looks.  I may be doing this again soon!

Thanks for popping in!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Acrylic Title: Color Cast Designs; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Everything Else: Felicity Jane Studio

December Jillibean Soup Shares

Good morning all!  I just realized that I never shared by December Jillibean Soup projects here.  Whoops!  The holidays have got me all discombobulated :)

First up a layout featuring a 12x12 photo as the highlight:

Then a simple Christmas card:

Then another layout using one of my all-time favorite Jillibean Collections, Healthy Hello Soup:

And finally, a fun little gift tag:

Thanks for stopping by!

Four Months || Pretty Little Studio

Good evening everyone!  Every month I make a double page layout that highlights some of my favorite moments from my daughter's month.  For this layout I picked out the blues and reds from the Tales & Dreams collection from Pretty Little Studio to focus on the four-month spread.

All the elements from this collection are a lot of fun.  I pulled out the tags and diecut words to embellish this spread.

Here is the final result:

Thanks for popping in!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Plus Sign Paper: Bella Blvd; Staples: Tim Holtz; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Top Ten Blog Hop (and a giveaway!)

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten blog hop!  This is my second year in a row participating in this hop.  Every year since I've had my blog, I've done a wrap-up of my year's favorite layouts.  I love the excuse to go back and look at everything I created...and I love seeing everyone else's favorite projects.

Before I share my projects, I want to let you know that I do have a giveaway.  One lucky person will win an embellishment assortment from me.  Just leave a comment on this post to be entered!

And without further ado, here are my favorite ten projects from 2017 (in no particular order):

If you happen to like my work and want to see more, make sure you follow me on Instagram.  I'm WAAAAY better about posting there! :)

And here is the whole hop list (lots of inspiration to check out!!):

Christine Meyer

Kathy Skou

Kathleen Graumüller

Teri Anderson

Susie Bentz

Janice Daquila-Pardo

Giorgia Rossini

Laurel Seabrook  

Aimee Kidd

Mary Ann Jenkins

Keren Tamir

Lee-Anne Thornton

Heather Leopard

Tifany DeGough  

Sue Eldred

Melissa Elsner

Laura Whitaker

Anita Mulcahey

Ashley Smith

Simone Schermann

Shelly Kurth

Monique Liedtke

Suzanna Lee

Marcia Dehn-Nix  

Laura Cox

Irit Shalom

Nicole Martel

Carolyn Johnson

Tenia Nelson

Samantha Taylor  

Rebecca Keppel

Judy Hayes

Isha Gupta

Traci Penrod

Tracy McLennon

Karen Hunter

Lyne Blodgett

Anna Sigga

Lisa Moen

Kat Benjamin (that's me!!)

Wendy Antenucci

Have a wonderful day and happy hopping! :)

Ho Ho Ho || Pretty Little Studio

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you have a wonderful, fabulous day!

I wanted to pop in and share a layout that I made recently for a Pretty Little Studio Instahop.  I combined the pretty Wonderland collection with a cute file from Just Nick Studio and really love how it turned out.  The colors of the collection are so pretty and are such a fresh take on a traditional holiday palette.

Love this photo of my girl holding a candy cane.  She wen through a stage where she looked totally surprised every time I tried to take her photo...made for some very cute pictures....even though we didn't capture a lot of smiles :)

Have a beautiful Christmas Day!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Cute File: Just Nick Studio; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Background Paper: Studio Calico; Date Stamp: Shimelle for American Crafts; Everything Else: Pretty Little Studio

Hello Twins || Pretty Little Studio

Good morning everyone!  I am popping in to share a layout that I recently made for Pretty Little Studio using the Dream Big collection.  I love the color combo included in this collection.  It's so pretty and unique.

I also decided to break out my embroidery floss for this layout.  I started by laying down squares of patterned paper in a random design and then filled in the empty spots with Xs made of embroidery floss.  I thought the final effect was kind of fun:

Once I had all the paper and embroidery floss completed, I finished off the layout by scattering around minimal embellishments.

I apologize for the lighting - my nice technology was broken at the time :)

Cocoa Daisy Guest Designer

Good morning, everyone!  I was so lucky to be the asked to be the guest designer for Cocoa Daisy this month!  I got to play with their 12x12 Memory Keeping Kit and the Pocket Pages Memory Keeping Kit.  The kits this month were travel-themed and oh-so-much fun!  Here are the projects I made:

This one is not my normal style, but when I saw the map paper, I knew I needed to do it:

I made Piper's monthly spread with this kit:

I scrapped the world's most adorable doggy:

And I finally scrapped a photo from our 2011 Paris trip!

Thanks so much for popping in!  Happy Wednesday!

I ♥ Us | Color Cast Designs

Good morning all!  We are getting closer and closer to Christmas and the new year, which just totally blows my mind!  This year sped by!

I wanted to pop in and share a recent layout that I made with one of the November releases from Color Cast Designs.  I combined this acrylic title with the lovely Gratitude Documented collection from Bella Blvd to create this layout:

And please notice that I used a bright, colorful background for this one!  Lol.

Thanks so much for stopping in...happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Cardstock: DCWV; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Acrylic Embellishment: Color Cast Designs; Date Stamp: American Crafts; Everything Else: Bella Blvd

November Jillibean Soup Projects

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to pop in and share my Jillibean Soup projects from last month:

This layout using one of their awesome cut files:

This headband for Piper made with their new felt flowers:

This card made using another one of their cut files:

And this layout made with the new collections, Shades of Color and Farmhouse Stew:

Have a great week!!

Hello Beautiful || Color Cast Designs

Hi everyone!  Happy December (WHAT?!?!)!  I totally forgot to share a layout that I made last month for Color Cast Designs.  

I had a lot of fun combining the awesome Bohemian Dream collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio with a few different acrylic pieces from Color Cast Designs.  I used one of my old faithful designs to create this:

I love how it turned out!

Thanks so much for stopping in.  Have a lovely weekend!

Cardstock: Bazzill; Mist: Heidi Swapp; Acrylic Embellishments: Color Cast Designs, Date STamp: American Crafts; Everything Else: Cocoa Vanilla Studio