Congrats Grad Robot card

Hello and Welcome!

I have a bunch of graduation cards to make for my son's robotics team. I also wanted to enter Kaisercraft's card challenge, but their mood board is all flowers and so girly. Now that is a real challenge.  I used the wood background and the colorful flowers as inspiration as there are a few girls on the team. This is what I came up with:

All of the pattern papers, including the die-cut shapes, are from Kaisercraft's Bubblegum Hills and Base Coat lines.

I also used Simon Says Stamp's "Bundle Of Stitched Shapes" to cut the circle, along with Cheery Lynn's "Fanciful Florish," Memory Box's tiny gears, and Marvy punches for the flowers.  The robot stamp is by Tim Holtz.

This card is entered in:

• Kaisercraft's May Mood Board Challenge
• 

• The May Inspiration Challenge at Verve Stamps

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Coloring Eggs Layout

Hello and Welcome!

This was a very challenging page for me and I learned a lot.

My first challenge was that I love the Stuck?! sketch this page is based on, but I do not have an electronic cutting machine (not required by Stuck?!) to do the fun circle layer. I faked it by cutting individual circles, as they are behind the photo you can't tell. Hooray. There are so many wonderful pages using cut-files, but there is a real knack to using them without overwhelming your photos. I struggled with that for hours, but I really do like how it turned out. Now, I can't wait to try this again!

Another self-imposed challenge was to use up some of my Easter stash. Most of the papers and embellishments on the layout are over 5 years old! It felt so good to get these things off the shelves and onto a page. I also decided it was time to donate a bunch of stuff that no longer fits my style. Out with the old, time to go shopping!!!

The other challenges were more fun. Incorporating Scrap-Challenge-Yourself's mood board, which I did with the colors, flowers and theme - plus adding myself coloring eggs. And the Scrap-It-With-A-Song challenge (this is such a fun idea) of using "The Best Day Of My Life," which I did using the song title on the tag in the upper left corner.

Thanks to all the following challenges that helped me grow creatively this week:

• The May 15th Sketch Challenge at Stuck?! Sketches
• 

•  The Challenge YOUrself and Scrap It With a Song collaboration challenge
• CY #29 at Challenge YOUrself 
• 
• The Scrap It With a Song May Challenge
• 

• The "Anything Goes" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Awesome Birthday Card

Hello and Welcome!

Thought a shaker card would be a lot of fun for my son's birthday.

I used his school's colors of red, black and white. The sentiment is from CAS-ual Friday's RAD stamp set and the cloud is one of their Fri-dies. I used Versamark and Stampendous white embossing powder to stamp the sentiment. The outside stars are Simon Says Stamp's Large Holiday Shapes die cut from shimmery gold paper. The pattern papers are DCWV's Cranberry Christmas . I used large black, gold star and tiny clear sequins.

This card is entered in the following challenges:

• The "Make a Wish" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• CFC148 "Birthday Boy" at CAS-ual Fridays
• 

-june

May Flowers Layout

Hello and Welcome!

I love gardening, and these amazing flowers are why. After months of snow it is such a miracle to see these beautiful colors:

This page is based on a sketch at Imaginisce. All of the pattern papers are by Imaginisce (from the Heartland Farm and Let's Pretend lines), as well as the wood embellishment. The tags and flower embellishments were fussy cut from the pattern papers. I also used yellow baker's twine, die-cuts by Simon Says Stamp (Bundle of Stitched Shapes & Quadrangle) and The Cat's Pajamas (wreath), Fiskar's border punch, and letters by Basic Grey. To finish things off, I also added machine stitching around the green triangles.

This page is entered in:

• The May Sketch Challenge at Imaginisce
• 

• The Clique Kits May Challenge

-june

$20 shirt card

Hello and Welcome!

Papertrey Ink has a really fun Make It Monday this week - turning money into card elements. For my adult son, who is a financial analyst, I thought this would be a perfect birthday card!

I folded a $20 bill into the shirt and hand cut the tie. The sentiment is Papertrey Ink's die-cut from "Wet Paint" and stamp from "Delightful Dahlias." The papers are from Fancy Pants. The notebook edge is a die from Taylored Expressions.  I was inspired to add the felt glasses from my stash by the challenges over at Simon Says Stamp. I also added a stitched border around the dark blue dotted paper using Simon Says Stamp die "Bundle of Stitched Shapes."

This card is entered in:

• The "Felt That" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The  Simon Says Stamp "Fun with Felt" Wednesday challenge

• Make It Monday 249 at Papertrey Ink

• Taylored Expressions Share Joy Challenge 36

• The CFC148 "Birthday Boy" challenge at CAS-ual Fridays
• 

-june

BoBunny Best Day Layout

Hello and Welcome!

My son and I go to the Flower Show over Spring Break ever year. After the long Minnesota winters, it such a breath of fresh air. Here is a page of the beautiful displays from Macy's Americana show:

This layout uses mostly BoBunny's "Secret Garden" line and is based on a sketch from BoBunny's blog. I loved working with their printed vellum, it adds such a translucent look. I was also inspired by the colors and flowers of the May Book-Inspired Stash Challenge at Scrap Our Stash. The little birds from this line are so cute, I fussy cut them and added them as embellishments. I also added Cheery Lynn's mini fanciful flourish vine die-cuts and flower punches by Marvy (all cut from BoBunny solid papers). I finished things off with tiny flower brads, machine stitching and Hero Arts pearls.

This layout is entered in:

• The May Book-Inspired Stash Challenge at Scrap Our Stash

• The May Blog Sketch Challenge at BoBunny

• The Simon Says: Flowers Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The April Work It Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

-june

Hello 2-page Layout

Hello and Welcome!

Technology is changing all the time. There seems to be something new and so much to learn every day. This seems especially true with telephones. That was the motivation behind this page:

I used The ScrapRoom's March Taste of the Month kit, that included Simple Stories' "Life In Color" papers & embellishments. Between the kit and the sketch, which is featured on The ScrapRoom's May blog, this layout came together really fast and fabulous. I especially liked the "hello" paper, which worked so well with this theme.

I also added a few thing from my stash. The "Hello" title is a die-cut by Winnie & Walter. I added papers from Studio Calico and October Afternoon, silver shimmer paper, flair buttons, printed acetate, and metallic thread. The cork telephone is by Shimelle.  I finished everything off with the cute little "hello" stamp from Simon Says Stamp's "Music 2 My Ears" set stamped on the phone and journaling cards.

This page is entered in:

• The May "Be Our Guest" Sketch Challenge at The ScrapRoom
• 

• April's Anything But A Card Challenge at Sweet Stamps

-june

Little Moments Layout

Hello and Welcome!

My friend, Sue, and I celebrate the New Year by seeing our favorite stand-up comedian, Lorna Landvik (also author of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons), every year. We always have so much fun and laugh our heads off. This year Lorna posed for a photo with us. Here it is:

When creating this page I was inspired by the John Maitland Seven Girls Running picture at ARTastic. The women all lined up, like us in the photo, and the long rectangle, which I flipped to be more vertical. The chalky background and white dresses from the painting are mimic in my page by the floral stenciling. And the black line across the top of the painting is reflected in the silver thread across the bottom and the black zig zag tape on top of my page. I also added the ticket stub from the event (lower left) which has a young woman on it that looks like the ones in the painting.


The papers and acrylic title are by Elle's Studio. I used a Color Box floral stencil with Mr. Huey white mist for the background and soften the edges by blending white ink along them. I also edged my papers with Quick Quotes charcol ink. The flowers are layered Marvy punches. The pink sequins are by Pretty Pink Posh. To finish things off I added stitching along the sides of the photo, silver metalic thread, washi tape, our ticket stub and  homemade enamel dots.


This page is entered in the May "Girls Only" challenge at ARTastic

-june

Helping Hand Layout

Hello and Welcome!

We've been away in St. Louis this last week for the World Robotics Tournament. Our little band of kids beat out teams from around the world and were division finalists! You will be seeing lot of layouts from that trip soon.

But today is catch-up with a layout from Easter, that is more about the connection between my sons. Here it is:

I started with a sketch by BoBunny.  Inspiration came from the graceful peacock inspiration photo (colors & birds) at Creative Embellishments, as well as the Kelly's springy Mood Board (colors, buttons & flowers) at Creating With Paper & More. I used BoBunny's Secret Garden, Garden Journal & Enchanted Garden lines.  For the background, I used Glitter Glass Bead Gel mixed with Evergreen Distress Ink with a Heidi Swapp diamond shaped stencil. I layered the BoBunny papers on top and added the fussy cut birds & journal cards. I cut the title using BoBunny paper and Little B's alpha die-cuts. I loved the look of this page, but it need more of an Easter feel. The beautiful swirly chipboard egg and bird by Creative Embellishment really pulled it all together.

This page is entered in:

• The April Sketch Challenge at BoBunny

• The Creative Embellishments May Challenge

• The "Stencil It" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• Rochelle's May This or That Challenge - I used buttons 

• Kelly's May Mood Board Challenge at Creating with Paper & More

-june