3rd Degree Black Belt

Hello and Welcome!

We are so proud of Jeff for getting his 3rd Degree Black Belt. It takes many years and 100's of hours of hard training to EARN this honor - and Jeff did it!!!

The great dragons and frame chipboard pieces are by Creative Embellishment. The vintage ninja warrior sticker is by Stamping Station.

The yellow stars were die cut from Simon Says Stamp's Large Holiday Shapes set. The title letters are Thickers. The pattern papers are by Graphic 45. This page is based on a sketch from Sketch N Scrap.

This page is entered in:

• The May Challenge at Creative Embellishments

• The "Masculine" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

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

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Coffee Inspiration with Quick Quotes

Hello and Welcome!

Continuing the fun with the Coffee Loving Card Makers blog hop, today I have a coffee-inspired card using Quick Quotes' new Spring Showers and Navigator collections. I love how well these different Quick Quotes' collections mix and match.

The quote on the card is from the Farmhouse collection. It is great how many of the Quick Quotes sayings work well for a wide variety of situations. The papers were edged with Island Orange and Bermuda PowderPuff Chalking Inks.

Quick Quotes Products:
Spring Showers Paper Pack
Navigator Paper Pack
Farmhouse 500
PowderPuff Chalking Inks: Island Orange and Bermuda

Other Products:
wooden coffee cups by Recollections
scalloped square die cut by Sizzix
twine

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Celebrate Aaron's 17th Birthday

Hello and Welcome!

For this post, I've combined both a layout and a card made using the same set of Kaiser's Party Time papers.  Please see below for the Coffee Lovers card.

My "little" guy turned 17 years old! I can't believe next year he will be consider an adult. Yikes! Well, right now he is still a kid and here we are celebrating his birthday in style at the Melting Pot.

For this festive party I pulled out Kaisercraft's Party Time collection. Love these colors as they are bright, fun and work well for a guy page. To create the balloons, I fussy cut the circles with a little triangle on the bottom and added silver thread. One of the balloon is also popped up.

I used Kaiser's Stars & Moons stencil with silver embossing paste to create the star details. Love the look and dimension.  Cheesecloth was added behind the photos.

I love using the tear strips from the Kaiser paper to add some fun color and ground the design.

The overall design of this page is based on a sketch from the Kaisercraft blog.

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As a bonus, I made this fun coffee-themed card with the leftover Kaiser Party Time papers!

These projects are entered in:

• The May Blog Challenge at Kaisercraft

              

• The Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop at Coffee Loving Cardmakers

• The "Masculine" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Girl Talk Coffee Card

Hello and Welcome!

Here is  a fun card I am planning to send to my friend, Sue, as we love to meet for coffee and gab. I always send her the cards I make during the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. So we both look forward to this event!

This card was created with Papertrey Ink's Flower Fusion and Heart-2-Heart stamp sets. I was inspired by the fun Make It Monday video, Above & Below!  I used Hero Arts and Quick Quotes PowderPuff colored inks. This card is based on sketch #122 at Sketch N Scrap.

This card is entered in:

• The Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop at Coffee Loving Cardmakers

• Make It Monday #322 "Above & Below" at Papertrey Ink

• Card Sketch #122 at Sketch N Scrap

              

• The May Work It Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "More Than One Stamp" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Coffee Lover's Blog Hop with Quick Quotes

Hello and Welcome!

Today I am up on the Quick Quotes Blog along with several other QQ Design Team members celebrating the start of the Coffee Lovers Spring/Summer Blog Hop!!! Check it out!!!



Quick Quotes is one of the super sponsors of the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.


Quick Quotes Products:
Secret Garden Paper Pack *coming soon*
Farm House 500 
PowderPuff Chalking Inks: Latte and Mocha Mama

Other Products:
coffee cup stamps by Verve Stamps
Foam Squares by 3L
gold thread

Thanks for stopping by and we hope you enjoy the hop!
-june

Varsity Band Page

Hello and Welcome!

My son tried out and made Varsity Band this year. Woohoo! He does enjoy playing his trumpet! Here is a page with the entire group:

I love using Altenew stamps. They are so creative and versatile. For this page, I used several of Altenew's Half Tone circles in Aaron's school colors. The background paper (also in school colors) and puffy title letter stickers are from Altenew's Reflections Scrapbooking kit.

This page is entered in:

• Altenew Sketch Challenge #9

              

• The "Inspired By a Song" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "Use More Than One Stamp" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The Altenew Year In Review Blog Hop challenge  

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

A Very Happy Mother's Day Page with Quick Quotes

Hello and Welcome!

Today I have a beautiful Mother's Day layout using Quick Quotes' new Spring Showers collection.

This page was super easy to create. Here is the step-by-step:

• Start with a 12" x 12" Spring Showers 102. Ink edges with Feather Gray and Capri Blue PowderPuff Chalking Ink. (Note: all papers were chalked with these inks.)

 

• Cut a 7.25" x 10" rectangle from Spring Showers 103. Ink edges and adhere.
• Cut a 3.5" x 11.5" banner from Spring Showers 102. Ink edges and adhere.
• Print 2 photos with Canon Photo Printer.
• Mat photos with Spring Showers 105. Ink edges and adhere.
• Add title from Farm House 600. Ink edges and adhere.  

 

• Fussy cut large flower bouquet from Spring Showers 100. Ink edges and adhere with Foam Squares for dimension.

 

• Finish with journaling at the bottom.

 Quick Quotes Products:
Spring Showers Paper Pack
PowderPuff Chalking Inks: Feather Gray and Capri Blue

 Canon Products:
Selphy CP1200 Wireless Compact Photo Printer
Selphy High-Capacity Color Ink/Paper Set


Don't forget about Quick Quotes' Challenge 87, which is all about adding dimension to your projects, like I did with the floral bouquet. Your can check it out here. There is a $25 gift certificate to Quick Quotes up for grabs!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!
-june

Quiz Bowl Layout

Hello and Welcome!

My son, Aaron, decided to join his high school's Quiz Bowl team. They met once a week after school and he loved it. The kids were great and Aaron had FUN showing off his knowledge. Although the competitions are not spectator sports, Jeff and I managed to squeeze into the room to watch and take photos. It was so FUN! Here is the page:

It was FUN creating this page with Quick Quotes' Spring Showers papers and Paper Smooches' Smarty Pants stamp set. The base of the layout came together quick as it is based on Sketch #152 over at Sketch N' Scrap.

The Paper Smooches' professor added so much FUN this page and he is colored with Copic Makers and Glossy Accents on his glasses. The PS books and globe were stamped and fussy cut.

The banner flags are die cuts by My Favorite Things and machine stitched onto the page.

This FUN page is entered in:

• Sketch Challenge 152 at Sketch N Scrap 

              

• The May Fun Challenge at Paper Smooches

• The National Scrapbooking Day Challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "For the Boys" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Climbing the Bluffs in Red Wing

Hello and Welcome!

Jeff and I had the best time climbing the bluffs in Red Wing, MN. If you are ever in Minnesota, I highly recommend it! The views are breath taking and the hike adventurous.

I used mostly Elle's Studio Family Fun papers and embellishments, although a few other ES collections my have snuck onto the page. I found Color Blocking particularly challenging, but a fun way to use up a lot of product. I also used die cut leaves from cardstock.

This page is based on a sketch on Rochelle Spears blog, with the floral paper for the twist on the tag in the upper left corner.  I also added a third banner for an ombre effect.

This page was also inspired by the beautiful prairie photo (see below) over at Scrap-Challenge-YOUrself.

This page is entered in:

• National Scrapbooking Day Challenge #4 at Elle's Studio

• The National Scrapbooking Day challenge at Simon Says Stamp 

• Challenge YOUrself #53 "Inspiration Photo"

              

• Rochelle Spears' May Paper/Sketch Challenge 

              

• The "Ombre" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Arboretum Sculpture Garden Layout

Hello and Welcome!

It seems like forever since I pulled out my Elle's Studio products. But with National Scrapbook Day, there was so much inspiration I couldn't resist. Here is a fun page of my guys from a family trip to the nearby Landscape Arboretum:

I used several Elle's Studio paper lines including Family Fun (how appropriate!), Little Moments and Live Laugh Love. The wooden words, puffy sticker title, enamel dots and colorful acrylic flowers are also by Elle's Studio.

The paper flowers were cut with Poppy Stamp's Stitched Bloom Trio die from ES's pattern paper. This is one of my favorite die sets and I use it all the time.

The page is based on Sketch N' Scrap's NSD 2018 sketch by Lisa Hidy. I rotated the sketch and move the title to accommodate horizontal photos.

This page is entered in:

• National Scrapbooking Day Challenge #1 at Elle's Studio

• The National Scrapbooking Day challenge at Simon Says Stamp 

• The "For the Boys" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The National Scrapbooking Day sketch challenge at Sketch N Scrap 

• PSC #44 "Patterned Paper Please!" at Poppy Stamps

Thanks for stopping by,
-june

Mom's Day Card with Quick Quotes

Hello and Welcome.

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I created a beautiful and easy card using Quick Quotes' new Secret Garden collection.

This card is super easy to create. Here is the step-by-step:

• Create the double-matted card base with Secret Garden 100, 103 and 104. Edge with PowderPuff Chalking Inks in Lipstick or Bermuda.

• Fussy cut flower clusters from Secret Garden 100. Edge with Warm Gray PowderPuff Chalking Ink. Adhere.

• Fussy cut extra red flowers, edge with Lipstick PowderPuff Chalking Ink, and pop dot.

 

• Stamp and emboss "Happy" and "Day".

• Die cut two "M"s from Secret Garden 100. Edge with Warm Gray PowderPuff Chalking Ink. Adhere.

• Finish off the card with jewel drops on flower centers and leaves.

Quick Quotes Products:
Secret Garden Paper Pack *coming soon*
PowderPuff Chalking Inks: Bermuda, Warm Gray and Lipstick

Other Products:
sentiment stamps by Hero Arts
alpha die by Little B
jewel drops by Nuvo
clear embossing powder
pop dots by 3L

Thanks for stopping by and happy Mother's Day,
-june

Welcome Spring Card

Hello and Welcome!

Here is a fun springtime card I made today!

I created the fun multi-colored flower with Memory Box's "Tilth Floral" die by cutting it out of several colors of cardstock. The soft gray leafed background is Winnie & Walter's "Anna's Flora" stamped with Quick Quotes' Feather Grey PowderPuff Ink. The sentiment is W & W's "The Big, The Bold & The Seasons" die that was cut three times, layered and coated with Glossy Accents. The card is based on a design by Crystal on the W & W blog (see link below). The cute butterfly is a die cut by Poppy Stamps. The finishing touch is the pretty Kat Scrappiness sequin dotting the "i" in Spring.

This card is entered in:

• Memory Box Challenge #37 "Insects / Butterflies / Dragonflies"

• The National Scrapbooking Day Card Challenge at Kat Scrappiness

• Cupcake Inspirations Challenge 445

• The Rerun No. 30 "Framed" Challenge at Winnie & Walter

• The 'Time Out" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "Animal Magic" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-june