Jeff's Birthday Layout

Hello andd Welcome!

Check out that blazing cake! We had so much fun celebrating Jeff. And as we all love Jeff, the theater and medieval times, it was fitting to go see Camelot at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater together.

This layout is based on the fabulous sketch at My Creative Sketches. It was terrific to use up a lot of older products on this page.

This page is entered in:

• The March Sketch Challenge at My Creative Sketches

              

• Color Challenge 66 at MFT Card Challenges

               

•  The "Happy Birthday!" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for spending some time with us,
-june

Inching Up Page with Scrap Our Stash

Hello and Welcome!

Height is a big deal, especially for guys. Big brother Tyler has been teasing Aaron about being shorter most of his life. But, if growth charts are an indicator, Aaron is likely to turn the tables real soon.

I like the new trend of using large letters from different pattern papers for the title. So I gave it a try and am very happy with the results. To make things easier, I used Lifestyle's Diesel diecut letters.

Designer tip: To add cohesiveness and make your letters pop, outline the letters with a black pen and  mat the letters in a consist solid color. (Here I added a yellow drop shadow.)

This page was inspired by Scrap Our Stash's April tic-tac-toe challenge. I used the first column: Border Punch-Stitching-Yellow. I love these tic-tac-toe challenges as they always help me kick my pages up to a higher level. Check it out. You can find all the detail of how to play along here. 

The pattern papers are from an old MAMBI kit and Fancy Pants Good Fellow collection. Wanting to keep the focus on the photo and title, I kept the embellishments to a minimum. The stars are Simon Say Stamps' Large Holiday Shapes diecut and the rulers were stamped. I also machine stitched around the outside border. The scallop border punch is by Fiskars.

This layout is entered in:

• The "Hip Hop" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp - because Aaron used to have to hop up onto his tip-toes, but now stands hip-to-hip with big brother Tyler :-)

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Epic Birthday Card

Hello and Welcome!

I was super inspired by all the fun rainbow ideas by the Design Team over at CAS-ual Fridays and just had to join in. Here is my project:

First I watercolored a rainbow of colors. Then, using CAS-ual Fri-dies, I cut a star from white cardstock and backed it with the watercolored panel. The sentiments are from Cas-ual Friday's Rad stamp set and are heat embossed. For finishing touches I added clear sequins, outlined the star with a thin black pen and used Simon Says Stamp's Stitched Rectangle frame.

This card is entered in:

• CFC171 "Rainbows" at CAS-ual Fridays

              

• The "Make A Rainbow" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "Happy Birthday!" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by-
-june

Yay! Card

Hello and Welcome!

I had seen Amy Tan do this technique of adding a drop of watercolor and blowing it out with a straw. So I finally got around to giving it a try. Isn't fabulous?! Give it a try. It is easy and fun.

I used a rainbow of colors to mimic the colorful background on the beautiful inspirational photo at Altenew. The center oval was cut and backed with yellow cardstock like the flowers.  I used the Celebrate stamp set by Altenew and heat embossed the sentiments. To add sparkle clear sequins were added.

This card is entered in:

• The April Inspiration Challenge at Altenew

              

• The "Make A Rainbow" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "Happy Birthday!" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Family Together Layout

Hello and welcome!

Recently my Aunt June and Uncle Tom came for a visit. On this damp night they braved the elements to watch Aaron do a marching band practice. The shadows are a bit funny in the photo, but I love the memory.

This page was based on a sketch at Elle's Studio and most of the products (pattern paper, acrylic leaves & tags) are from Elle's Studio's Sycamore Lane collection.

This page is entered in:

• The March Sketch Thursday Challenge at Elle's Studio

              

• The "This Is Me" Challenge at Colorful Creations - Oops,  I entered this page in this challenge, but it should just be a photo of me. So I am playing here just for fun.

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Backyard Visitors Layout

Hello and Welcome!

Even though we live in the suburbs, we get a lot of wildlife hanging out around our home. We get a lot of deer, especially a doe with twin fawns. I have several bird feeders up, so there is a large number and variety of birds, but this was the first time I've seen a hawk.  A few years ago I had never seen a wild turkey, but today the yard was full of them - over a dozen! It just amazes me how all of these critters small and large are able to co-exsist with us. Here are a few snap shots:

I haven't done a mixed media page in a while, so it was fun to break out "the stuff." I prepped the page with gesso, added texture paste with a Memory Box stencil and misted it with blue & green Color Shine. The beautiful chipboard pieces (leaves, birds & swirls) are all by Creative Embellishments. I always feel like my pages look so professional when I use Creative Embellishments products. I sprayed the CE chipboard with the same Color Shine mists I used on the background, but, as you can see, the colors intensify on the chipboard - so pretty. The title was made with Thickers & October Afternoon letter stickers. The flowers and tiny leaves are Jolee's. The hawk photo is popped up with 3L Foam Squares.

This page is entered in:

• The April Monthly Challenge at Creative Embellishments - I took inspiration from the textured title, green color, and flowers in the challenge image

              

• Color Challenge #66 at MFT Card Challenges

              

• The "Things With Wings" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The National Craft Month Challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by and hope you get some fun visitors too,
-june

Celebrate with Altenew!

Hello and Welcome!

I have wanted the BEAUTIFUL scrapbooking kit by Altenew for months and I finally treated myself by ordering it. It is amazing and I LOVE it. This kit even comes with a pretty storage box to keep everything together. To break it in, I created this fun card for the Altenew card challenge.

The flowers were fussy cut from Altenew's scrapbook paper (although you can get the same look using Altenew's Bamboo Rose stamp set) and colored with Zig Clean Color markers. The high quality of the Altenew paper worked well with the watercolor markers; you can see the smooth, even blended color. The blue, zig zag background paper also comes in the Altenew scrapbooking kit. The sentiment is from Altenew's Celebrate stamp set placed on a tiny punched tag.

Depth was added by embossing the background with a Darcie folder, layering up the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle diecut and adhering 3L Foam Squares to the back of the frame & some of the flowers.

To bring in some sparkle gold thread, Enamel Accents and Stickles were added. I also brought in cheesecloth for a little more texture.

This card is entered in:

• The Altenew 4th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

• Altenew's Share Your Best Projects gallery

• The April Inspiration Challenge at Altenew

              

Thanks for stopping by, and if you want to check out this great Altenew kit it is available on their site or at Simon Says Stamp.

-june