Guest Blogging at PaperHaus Magazine

Hi Friends! I’m guest blogging over at The PaperHaus Magazine today! For my project, I decided to do an overhaul of one of my pages. I realize that when a casual viewer looks at the first page it doesn’t look like it needed redoing at all, but to me, the selections I made with the papers, embellishments, etc. just weren’t representative of the memory I was trying to scrap … our favorite ride at Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean. On this particular trip, it also rained the entire time. It wasn’t a miserable situation, but it was definitely mellow. So I decided to remake this page with those thoughts in mind.

To read more about my thoughts creating this page, be sure to check out my post on The PaperHaus Magazine blog.

Have a great weekend!

Inspired by May Flowers

Hi Friends! Today I am up on the My Mind’s Eye Blog with a page inspired by the beautiful flowers popping up everywhere in the world around us right now. I chose to work with the Find Your Wings and Fly ”Up and Away” collection, and I’ve gotta say … I am IN LOVE with the fresh combinations of colors, patterns, and shapes in this collection. Have you checked it out yet?! You’ve GOT to! It’s such a delicious collection. When I first get a peek at Rhonna Farrer’s collections, I must admit that I’m a bit intimidated. I’m always worried that they are too hip-romantic for my style. But then I start working with them … and it’s infatuation. What can I say … I’m infatuated with EVERYTHING My Mind’s Eye makes.

SUPPLIES:

Find Your Wings and Fly “Up and Away” Collection: Be Awesome paper, Rainbow Harlequin paper, Krafty Floral paper, Mixed Media paper, Big Top paper, 12 x 12 Sticker Accessories, 12 x 12 Chipboard Accessories, Decorative Brads, Decorative Tape, Enamel Dots, Stamps

Other: Brown distressing ink, Black stamp ink, Acrylic block, Vellum, Computer and printer, Olive spray ink, Tab punch, Scissors, Trimmer, Adhesive

My jumping off point for this page was the Krafty Floral paper. *da-thump, da-thump* … because it makes my heart go pitter-patter. I mean, LOOK at those florals … go ahead … take a peek at them close up. See the patterns over the top? Yes, that keeps those flowers from feeling too gramma-ee. I placed a band of that paper across the bottom of my page, and then selected the aqua and lime green patterns to go with it.

Next, I arranged my photos in a band across the center of my page. As you can see, one of the photos is more of a headshot of my daughter and the other two are full body shots. I decided that I wanted to call more attention to the headshot photo by categorizing them and separating them from each other. In the space in between, I placed the large floral chipboard piece.

Next, I placed the banner chipboard “title” across the top of the photos and embellished it with all kinds of goodies in different shapes.

My journaling was printed on white cardstock. It felt a little too bright, so I toned it down with a spritz of olive green shimmer spray. I added a stamped phrase underneath the headshot photo and then accented the journal block with a hot air balloon stamped on vellum, small heart sticker, and enamel dots.

Thanks for taking a peek at my page today! I hope you have a great week!

 

Teacher Appreciation Gift!

I’m up again on the My Mind’s Eye Blog today for National Teacher Day and I wanted to create something to give to my children’s teachers to show them how much we appreciate all their hard work throughout this past year. I’ve researched online and have asked several teacher friends what kinds of gifts they like to receive from their students and they always mention the same thing … GIFT CARDS! But giving a gift card can seem “last-minute” and impersonal. To avoid that stigma, I decided to dress up the gift card by packaging it in a fun way. I pulled out the My Mind’s Eye Boy Crazy collection and got to work!

I used my Silhouette Cameo and the Ice Cream Truck from this cut file set by SVGCuts to create a school bus gift box. I used the letter stickers from the My Mind’s Eye Find Your Wings and Fly collection to add the teacher’s name to the front of the bus and some words along the side. The characters from the Boy Crazy make cute passengers on the bus … and yes, I’m hoping that the teacher gets a chuckle out of me using an alien to represent the “kids.” Hehe!

The headlights were created with some glitter dome stickers I found at JoAnn’s awhile ago (Cloud 9). I used the Boy Crazy decorative buttons to accent the bus and create a flip out “stop sign” to keep the bus riders safe as they board and disembark for their stops.

The back of the bus box opens to reveal a library pocket containing the gift card and several handfuls of the delicious candy. The front of the pocket is decorated with an apple cut (Lettering Delights), a button and a bit of twine. I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder to add some fun texture to the apple. Each candy gets some color with a strip of paper from the Boy Crazy 6 x 6 paper pad.

The other side of the bus is adorned with a mini banner (Boy Crazy decorative buttons). Enamel Dots from the same collection make perfect warning lights and wheel accents!

Thanks for taking a peek at my project! See you again soon!

My Mind’s Eye Color Inspiration

Hi Friends! I have a new My Mind’s Eye project to share with you today! This time using a Color Inspiration board. I love color and I love using inspiration boards to guide my scrappy choices, so I was very excited when I was given this assignment for the My Mind’s Eye Blog. Here is the color board that I was sent.

(Source)

And here is my resulting page! For my layout I was inspired to use the Stripes Paper. The diagonal pattern made the perfect base of my page because it reminded me of the diagonal lines in the pattern of the dress. The yellow beaded necklace inspired the paper choice behind my favorite photo (the polka dots on the top left). I used the 6 x 6 papers behind all of my photos and tilted them slightly for a casual feeling.

Supplies:Kate & Co-Cambridge Court:  Stripes Paper, Mini Flowers Paper, Lovely Day Paper, 6 x 6 Paper Pad,  Chipboard Elements, Sticker Accessory Sheet, Decorative Stamps,  Decorative Tape, Decorative Brads, Enamel Dots

I decided to incorporate floral prints and a  couple of floral accents on my page, because of the flowers on the hat  and cake. The chipboard shape even reminds me of the shape of the  flowers on top of the pink hat. The floral strip at the top of the page was chopped at a slight angle … another nod to the assymetrical hemline of the dress.

Finally, I loved the texture the netting added to the hat in the photo and decided to use that as inspiration to add machine stitched details to my page.

I hope you have a great week!

My Mind’s Eye Pinterest Lift

Hi Friends! Last week on the My Mind’s Eye Blog my assignment was to scraplift one of the beautiful pages from the My Mind’s Eye Pinterest page. I immediately fell in love with Brook Stewart’s page (click to see the page I used as inspiration). Infact, I fell in love with Brook’s entire Two Peas Gallery. Her work and photography is amazing!

I created my page using the My Mind’s Eye Collectable Notable collection. I followed Brook’s placement of most of the elements. Like Brook, I used a tone-on-tone floral for the page base and I  chose a neutral graphic paper for the background of the design. I really liked how Brook used a 6 x 6 sheet of paper to anchor her photos. The  bright pattern peeking out from the left and right sides of the photos was the perfect splash of fun. Instead of  graphic chevrons, I chose to go with flowers to stay with the “nature”  theme of my page topic.

I love the way Brook sprinkled wood hearts and enamel dots around  her page. I created my own version with stickers, layered stickers,  chipboard and enamel dots.

I added a journal block to the right side of my page design like  Brook did. However, my journal block is vertical instead of horizontal,  so I decided to add a bit more embellishing around my journal block. I  used the Collectable Notable Decorative Brads and Buttons along with more enamel dots. FUN!

Thanks for inspiring me, Brook! I had a lot of fun lifting your page!

Two-Page Layout with Felt Stickers

Happy Thursday, Friends! Today I have a layout up on the My Mind’s Eye Blog using the darling felt stickers that come with the My Girl and Boy Crazy collections. I adore these felt stickers. Felt has always held a special place in my heart. I don’t know what it is, but that fuzzy, homespun texture gets me every time! I especially love how these felt stickers have STITCHING on them! Gotta love an embellishment that looks like you spent an hour creating them on your own! *wink*

I have really been drawn to the bright colors of the My Girl and Boy Crazy collections this release. They are just so fun and whimsical. I knew the My Girl papers would be perfect for scrapping these photos of Camryn’s birthday party last summer. Here is a closer look at each page.

I used the felt stickers as accents on both pages and added Enamel Dots to them as accents. I love how the shiny enamel dot contrasts with the fuzzy felt.

The Be Happy title was cut from one of the “Genuine” patterned paper. The bubblegum sticker in the lower left corner of the main photo is from the 12 x 12 sticker sheet.

Thanks for taking a peek at my layout today. I hope you have a glorious weekend!

My Mind’s Eye Mid-Release Spring 2013

Last week the NEW My Mind’s Eye Mid-Releases were debuted on the My Mind’s Eye Blog (Kate & Co. and . As always, they are INCREDIBLE and make me giddy to get my hands on them. Here are a few snapshots by Stephanie Howell that were featured on the blog … to see detail graphics of each product be sure to check out the My Mind’s Eye Website. Ahhhh! Gotta LOVE scrappy eye-candy! Enjoy!

MY MIND’S EYE KATE & CO.

Kate & Co. – Cambridge Court

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Kate & Co. – Oxford Lane

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FIND YOUR WINGS & FLY

Find Your Wings & Fly – Sky’s the Limit

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Find Your Wings & Fly – Up & Away

My Mind’s Eye Design Team Guest Designs at Page Maps

I love me a good sketch! So you KNOW I was excited when the My Mind’s Eye was invited to contribute samples to Becky Fleck’s PageMaps sketch site for the month of April. Happy, Happy, Happy! (As Phil would say)

Here is the sketch I worked with:

And here is the page I created using the My Mind’s Eye Collectable Collection.

The moths were cut with my Cricut Expression machine using the Live Simply cartridge. I embossed their wings with my Cuttlebug Machine and the Peacock Feather folder from the Animal Prints folder set. I love the bit of shine the enamel dots add!

It’s hard to tell from the snapshots on my layout … but that moth was HUGE!!! We just don’t have moths like that here in Utah. I’ve lived here my entire life and this is the first time I’ve ever seen something like that. Each of the bricks on our home are 3″ tall and his wings spread across two of them. I felt a bit like that Spongebob Squarepants episode where the town is afraid of the butterfly … none of us were brave enough to get close to it, except for my son, for fear that it would come at us. LOL!

Be sure to check out what the rest of the team created for the April PageMaps HERE. These girls are amazing!

See you again soon!

Spring Getaway and Easter Treat Bags

Last week my family and I spent time in beautiful California for a Spring getaway. The weather was perfect for standing in lines and we had a fabulous time!

The girls had fun wearing their green in the park on St. Patrick’s Day. Our favorite rides are Pirates of the Caribbean (we have to start and end our day with it every time), Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain and a new favorite in California Adventure, Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land. Oh. My. Gosh!!!! This ride is too fun!!! It really feels like you are cruising down the freeway … I couldn’t believe how much the park felt like southern Utah. It was CRAZY COOL!

We also visited Sea World. What an AWESOME day looking at all of the different animals. I’m always amazed by the beauty of God’s creatures! My kids loved seeing Baby Shamu (just one month old) and watching the dolphins squirt water at the birds trying to steal their fish … but their favorite part was petting the sting rays.

Can you believe that Easter is just a few days away. I know! It has really snuck up on me this year and I am soooo not ready. We don’t have any huge plans, that I know of. So we will have a cozy Easter dinner here at home with the kids. I love the crisp white linens and china, but it always looks so plain … I crave color!!! I will pick up some tulips for the centerpiece, but I thought it would be fun to add an Easter Treat Bag to each of the place settings as well. My Cameo to the rescue! I LOVE this machine. Seriously! I found the most darling FREE bunny treat bag cut file at SVG Cuts. Download it HERE. Check out how cute they turn out!

I used the BEAUTIFUL My Mind’s Eye Collectable Memorable collection (the same collection I worked with in the layout in the last post). The colors in this collection are so soft, pretty and perfect for Spring projects.

I used Winter Wonderland twine to make each bunny a boy or a girl. The girl bunnies got a bow on their ear and the boys have a twine “bowtie” tied around their necks.

For their faces, I used a 1/4″ hole punch to punch out grey cardstock circles. Next, I added enamel dots for the pupils (from the Collectable collection). Their whiskers are stitched on with white embroidery floss. I just drew the mouth on with a black journling pen. Aren’t they sweet?!

Wishing you a blessed Easter!

I’m the Lucky One

I really do feel like the lucky one. I love my family so much and this St. Patrick’s Day I am doing a lot of reflecting about how lucky I feel to have these 5 people in my life. I won’t get too sappy on ya, but I just want the world to know that I LOVE my family!

Today I have a St. Patrick’s Day layout going up on the My Mind’s Eye Blog. My kids totally get into St. Patrick’s Day … they get into every holiday, actually. Don’t you love that about kids? Every day is a reason to celebrate, and holidays are even that much more special! Here are my kidlets all decked out for St. Patty’s Day last year. It was a Saturday, so they wouldn’t be at school with friends and the threat of getting pinched … yet they STILL wanted to dress up in their green and asked me to spray their hair green with Halloween hair paint. They looked so funny with their sickly green hair, kind of like they had been swimming all summer without baths. LOL!

I’M THE LUCKY ONE

I used the My Mind’s Eye Collectable Memorable collection. Aren’t the colors perfectly sweet? Playing with it has definitely given me a case of Spring Fever! I love how MME does softer color palettes. Soft and Spring-y, yet not washed out and pale. This girl needs COLOR! Hehehe!

I began this page by figuring out how I wanted to place my pics. Sometimes I will print my pics out in random sizes (by changing the reduction percentage) and just force myself to try a new size. For these I set my pics to print out as 3.5″ x 5″ at 80%. They came out as 2.75″ x 4″. I grouped the girls together on the bottom, and then paired my son up with a journaling card on the top row.

I wanted green on this page (of course!) for St. Patrick’s Day, so that’s why I chose the tweed looking green pattern in the background. But my kids green hair next to that green paper was looking a little seasick … so I chose to mat the photos on complimentary papers. Pink for the girls, and tan for the boy. The striped paper ties all of the colors together (Thank you MME wonderful designers for doing the hard work for me! you make picking paper so easy!   ).

The title and shamrocks were created with my Silhouette Cameo machine. The title is a welded phrase from the Silhouette store (by Samantha Walker Designs). I cut it out in three colors: hot pink for a shadow, green for the base, and then a lighter green. I used scissors to snip out the word “Lucky” from the lighter green, embossed it with my Swiss Dots embossing folder and my Cuttlebug machine, and then adhered it to the other green layer. A few butterflies (with enamel dot bodies) and a brad make it a little more fun!

My grid design filled up most of the page, but I HAD to have some Shamrocks on there! I cut them out with my machine, embossed them, and then accented them with My Mind’s Eye goodies (label stickers, chipboard, decorative brads, chip buttons, and a bit of twine). I used to spend HOURS looking for a four-leaf clover during recess when I was a little girl. My friend found one once … but I never did. Awww, well. Maybe some day! Hehe! In the meantime, I will just make my own with lots of cute, scrappy details!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! And that you get to spend it with the people that make you feel blessed and “lucky” for having them in your life!

Thanks for coming by! See you again soon!