Skateboarding Frog

Hello and welcome!

It can be hard to create cards for older boys, but I think my son will really like this one!

I love SugarPea's Everyday Is Christmas stamp set. It is so versatile and I use it year round. Check out the fun "lords a leaping" frog stamp. With just a couple of lines and circles, he's on a skateboard zooming down a hill! This is so my son, tipping his hat as he zips by!

The sentiments are from SugarPea's Take Note stamp set and work well for so many occasions. This card design is based on a sketch from the SugarPea Designs blog.

This card is entered in:

• Mix It Up Challenge #54 at SugarPea Designs

              

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

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

A Taxing Day

Hello and welcome!

Every year Tyler brings his taxes over for Jeff to check over, and every year Jeff finds ways to save him lots of money. This year Aaron had to file, too, so it became a family affair.

I love how many of the different Pinkfresh collections work together. For this layout I used their Let Your Heart Decide paper to mat the photo and frame to create the shaker. You can see it goes great with Pinkfresh's Life Noted collection which includes the background paper and rubber element stickers.

This page is based on a sketch from Scrap Our Stash and was inspired by Tenderheart bear, which is golden (gold sequins) with a single heart .

This layout is entered in:

• The April "Frames & Shakers" Monthly Challenge at Pinkfresh Studio

• The April Cartoon Inspired Stash Challenge at Scrap Our Stash

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

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

Memory Box Floral Birthday Card

Hello and welcome!

Alcohol Pearl Inks are all the rage right now, so I am giving them a try.

I used Ranger's Limeade and Alchemy Alcohol Inks on glossy paper. It is hard to see on a photograph, but there is a lot of shimmer which makes it so fun to play with.

I added Memory Box's Tilth Floral die to the background. Love this flower die, especially as you can make a second flower using the leftover pieces! The "happy" die is from Memory Box's Share the Happiness set and is stacked on two white pieces.

To finish things off, Winnie & Walter's birthday stamp was white heat embossed on black paper and Simon Says Stamps' Clear Sequins were added.

This card is entered in:

• Memory Box Challenge #48 - Clean and Simple Cards 

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

• Fun Friday Challenge #112 "Clean and Simple" at Your Next Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

A Very Happy Easter

Hello and welcome!

It was a great Easter at our home this year. Even though my boys are now adults, they still love coloring eggs and going on an Easter egg hunt. And this year they each invited their girlfriends!  We all had so much fun!

Speaking of having fun, I was so excited to used Altenew's new Summer Garden pattern papers. The colors go so well with this photo. I also fussy cut the circular wreaths from the Summer Garden paper to frame the the photo.

 

The accent flower bouquets were created from Altenew's Mother's Love stamp set and were colored with Altenew's Tropical Fiesta Watercolor Brush Markers then fussy cut. Yellow dimensional paint was added to the flower centers.

 

The title is made with Altenew's Alphabet Puff Sticker set from their Reflections collection.

The colors of this layout were inspired by the Altenew Scrapbook Challenge. The Easter theme was inspired by a mood photo from Stacy's blog and the page design was inspired by a sketch from Rochelle Spears blog. (See links below.)

This page is entered in:

• Altenew Scrapbook Challenge #14 "Go Floral"

• Rochelle Spears' April Sketch Challenge 

              

• The April Photo Inspiration Challenge at Scrap with Stacy

              

• Challenge YOUrself #64 "Your Favorite Holiday"

              

• The "Going Around in Circles" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

Biker Babes

Hello and welcome!

I have been fortunate enough to have found an amazing set of girlfriends, who are not only talented crafters, but fabulous & fun people as well. We have standing dates were we get together at least twice a month (but usually it is more often). One of these ladies loves to ride here motorcycle and has a great sense of humor, so I couldn't wait to make this card for her:

 

You've got to love Art Impressions' Girlfriends collection, they offer fun designs and lots of humor plus they are fun to color. This stamp is called Pedal Pushers (4238). It was colored with Zig watercolor brush markers.

I hope to do many more cards with the Ai Girlfriends and send them out to my friends all summer.

This card is entered in:

• Art Impressions Challenge 254 "Best Friends"

• The "Going Around in Circles" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "Spring Mood Board" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• TCP Tuesday #356 "Spring" at The Cat's Pajamas

Happy Spring and thanks for stopping by,
-June

Soaring By To Say...

Hello and welcome!

Recently I saw the most clever interactive card technique on Jennifer McGuire's blog called Floating Elements. It looked so fun I had to give it a try:

It is hard to see in these still shots, but the cute Your Next Stamp bird, from the Soaring By stamp set, actually moves around the card like magic.

     

Creating this card was quit easy and only took me about 30 minutes.The nice thing about this technique is that you can use almost any stamp. I think it would be fun to create one with the YNS little monsters.

Supplies used:
 stamps: Your Next Stamp Soaring By set
 inks: Versafine Black, Distress Oxide Broken China
 pens: Altenew Watercolor Brushes
 other: circle dies, foam tape, penny

This card is entered in:

• The "Animals" April Challenge at Dare 2B Artzy

• Fun Friday Challenge #112 at Your Next Stamp

• TCP Tuesday #356 at The Cat's Pajamas

• The April Card Challenge at Kat Scrappiness

• The "Spring Mood Board" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
June

It's Official

Hello and welcome!

After months of online searches, visiting lots of colleges and long discussions, Aaron has officially chosen Carroll University! Jeff and I couldn't be more proud. This is us confirming with Carroll online that Aaron will be attending in the fall of 2019!

The pattern papers are by Little Yellow Bicycle (I miss this company). The layout is based on the left side sketch from Scrap Our Stash and includes enamel dots.

The fun little professor is a stamp from Paper Smooches Smarty Pants set. The journal card is based on a sketch from the Paper Smooches blog and the chemistry stamps are from their Great Chemistry stamp set.

This page is entered in:

• The April "Pick Your Side" Challenge at Scrap Our Stash

              

• The April Sketch Challenge at Paper Smooches

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

Happy Easter Bunnies

Hello and welcome!

I am trying to get a few last minute Easter cards out. Here is one I made today:

This card uses Papertrey Ink's Bold Borders Shine frame die and Bloom Builders #3. I blended Distress Inks on colored cardstock for a gradient look to the flowers.

The cute bunnies and grassy background are stamps by Art Impressions. The stamps were inked with Tombow Markers, then a waterbrush was used to pull out the color.

Using layered die cuts and water coloring are 2 of my favorite techniques.

This card is entered in:

• The Win It Wednesday challenge at Papertrey Ink

• The "Beautiful Blooms" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The "No Designer Paper" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• Fun Friday #111 "Florals" at Your Next Stamp

• The April Card Challenge at Kat Scrappiness

Happy Easter,
-June

A Beary Happy Birthday

Hello and welcome!

We were traveling through Eau Claire, Wisconsin and ran across the cutest stamp and scrapbook store called Picture This. It is a huge shop with oodles of new products and great ideas. While there I saw the most adorable stamp set by My Favorite Things called Bitty Bears. This is a card I made with this set:

Masking was used to create the stack of cute bears. The tiny gifts and sentiments are also from this set.

I colored everything with Altenew's Fiesta Watercolor Brush markers on Bistol paper. The card design is based on a sketch from the MFT blog.

This card is entered in:

• My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge 432

               

• The Birthday Project ROYGBIV Challenge at MFT Card Challenges

• The "Animals" April Challenge at Dare 2B Artzy 

• The "No Designer Paper" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

That's My Red Wing Story...

Hello and welcome!

Jeff and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Red Wing, MN. While exploring this charming town, we came across the Red Wing Shoe shop and saw their giant farm boot in the lobby. I just had to get photos.

These fun papers are from an older Cosmo Cricket collection. The beautiful pine trees are a die cut by Tim Holtz. Sweet Stamps made the die cut of the deer and QuicKutz created the squirrel die. This page was inspired by a sketch from Sketch N Scrap.

This page is entered in:

• The April Challenge at Dare 2B Artzy

• The "Down On The Farm" Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• Sketch N Scrap #174 

Thanks for stopping by,
-June

Snow Angel

Hello and welcome!

We are renaming our state to Minne-snow-ta as we have gotten tons of snow this winter. Aaron has had 5 snow days so far this year. The most ever! To celebrate one of his joyous days off school, Aaron flopped into our front yard and started making snow angels!

I used Carta Bella's Cabin Fever and Simple Stories' Sweater Weather pattern papers, which were perfect for these photos. The beautiful snowflakes are by Creative Embellishments and were painted with white acrylic paint. The "chilly" title is also a chippie from Creative Embellishment. The cute fox is a stamp by Picket Fences and the wooden birds are from my stash. I was inspired by the snowy mountains in Creative Embellishment's inspiration photo.

This page is entered in:

• The Creative Embellishments April Challenge

Stay warm,
-June

Enjoy The Ride

Hello and Welcome!

My friend loves to ride her motorbike and last Tuesday we had temperatures in the 60s, so she got a day of fun. But on Wednesday we got a 3 day blizzard and over a foot of snow - in the middle of April!!! Ugh, welcome to a Minnesota spring! To cheer her up I sent her this card.

 

I have had this cute biking bunny stamp from The Cat's Pajamas (Joyride) for a long time and love that I finally got to use it. The clever sentiment is also part of this set. The fun tree die cut is The Cat's Pajamas' Round Tree Cut Away.

 

Green Distress Inks were blended for the background and were used to stamp the grass. The flowers were created with a Marvy punch.

This card is entered in:

• TCP Tuesday #356 at The Cat's Pajamas

               

• Fun Friday Challenge #111 "Florals" at Your Next Stamp

• The "No Designer Paper" Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The March Work It Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp

• The April Card Challenge at Kat Scrappiness

Stay warm and thanks for stopping by,
-June

Hey, Chick!

Hello and welcome!

In early June Art Impressions is coming to our town with the Scrapbook Expo! Most of my crafty friends have already signed up for the Art Impressions watercolor classes. So I thought it would be fun to create Art Impressions cards for them. Here is one:

 I love this chicken stamp by Art Impressions (Bird-Brains P1880), it really captures the fun conversation I have with my girlfriends. The chickens were colored with watercolor brush markers. The colorful pattern papers are by Doodle Bug. This card is based on a sketch by Sketch N Scrap.

This card is entered in:

• Art Impressions Challenge 252 "Outdoor Scenes"

• Sketch N Scrap Card Challenge #143

• The "Spring Flowers" Work It Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by,
-June