Sweet Stamp Shop April Release

There's tons of inspiration on the Sweet Stamp Shop blog today, so head over there to see the 2 new stamp sets being released today, and all of the April Guest Designer projects!

Nicole sent me the fabulous new 'Drops Background' set. I thought I would put the heart drops to work on a layout with some Amy Tangerine 'Sketchbook':

 I stamped the heart drops over and over again to create a layer under my photo. Then, see those blue hearts in the top right corner? And the hearts and the scripted "love" in the bottom left corner? Those are Sweet Stamp Shop stamps, too!

 

The single hearts and the "love" stamp come from these two sets, 

Chalkboard Sign and Baby Love:

 

And to find out how to get your hands on those Drops Background stamps, check out Sweet Stamp Shop today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Small weekend projects

 I worked on a couple of small projects over the weekend. 
I've got a layout to share with you all tomorrow, but for today it's a card and tag from two different challenges. Come play along too!

 Artful Delight has scrapbook kits, card kits and sketches, too! One of my scrappy friends, Kerys, will be joining their Design Team. Can't wait to see what she creates! I saw their card sketch this month and knew it was perfect for this Echo Park sticker that I wanted to use on a birthday card. 
 

Here is my first attempt:
 
The card looks pretty good in the photo, but in person I felt like it was missing something, so I trimmed down the front and added a mat with the blue star paper and ended up with this:  

I'd like to start doing more in the way of gift packaging with all my paper crafting supplies. The MCM #21 challenge over at ScrapbookSteals.com inspired me to make this tag from my Imaginisce Sole Sisters collection. 

  
 Now I just need to acquire some boxes and bags that I can decorate to match my tags and cards!

S.W.A.T. Drill #6 - 2 Page sketch

S.W.A.T. Drill #6 is to use this 2 page sketch for your next layout (sketch by Jenessa Franco).

OK, I don't do 2 pagers. But that's the point, right? To stretch yourself.
Given my discomfort with 2 pagers, I thought I'd better stick pretty close to the sketch.
 

My strategy worked! And I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It was a nice way to summarize the whole Christmas season with a single layout.

Patterned papers: Lawn Fawn
Stickers: Lawn Fawn, My Mind's Eye
Enamel dots: My Mind's Eye
Washi tape: Glitz, Bella Blvd.
Letter stickers: Lawn Fawn, Jillibean Soup

Link up your project here by April 25th for your chance to win this prize!

Just me & the moose

I saw this cute sketch at The Paper Bakery and thought I would give it a try.

Here's my layout:

 
I started with the multi-colored chevron paper by Crate Paper and matched up various stickers, papers and washi tape. I'm loving this color combo!

Cardstock background: WRMK
 Patterned papers: Crate Paper, Authentique, Cosmo Cricket
Stickers: Crate Paper, Echo Park
Letter stickers: American Crafts, Jillibean Soup
Washi tape: My Mind's Eye and some from my stash 

Middle Age

My Mind's Eye has an April Fool's Challenge this month to create something funny or silly. I searched through my stash and I don't have much that I would call whimsical or funny. But I do have this fun sentiment stamp by Sweet Stamp Shop about Middle Age. I paired it up with MME Stella & Rose papers and telephone chipboard sticker, Lost & Found 2 brads, Miss Caroline twine, and some non-MME washi tape.

Here's my card:

 

There's still some time if you'd like to join in the challenge too!
 

CAS(E) This Sketch

I needed some card sketch inspiration so I headed over to CAS(E) this Sketch! for this week's challenge sketch.  

All the materials for this card come from Paper Made Bakery kits and I'm entering it in PMB's Fresh Baked Kit Challenge to recycle old kits.

Paper Made Bakery kits:

Portobello Road, May 2012 - kraft cardstock base

Cherry Blossom, June 2012 - orange paper, flower, button, twine

Tea for Two, July 2012 - green and blue papers

Garden Art, August 2012 - yellow paper

Sweet Life, October 2012 - red paper, stamped sentiment  

Thanks for taking a look! 
(And pop on over to PMB and vote for my card if you like it!)

Paper Made Bakery Challenge

There's a fun card kit company out there called Paper Made Bakery (PMB). I was a subscriber for several months because I just love the mix of papers, embellies and stamp sets that come in each kit! I only stopped subscribing because I couldn't keep up and built up quite a stash...

Well, this is my lucky week! PMB is having its first ever Fresh Baked Kit challenge to use up those unused kit supplies. I've already completed one project. (ok, ok, I actually made this last week when Shannon first hinted at the upcoming challenge!)  I really hope to have a few more projects done this week.

So, where to start with all my lovely kits and stamp sets? Another challenge blog helped me decide: The Paper Girls Challenge Blog is hosting a challenge "April Showers Bring May Flowers" right now. I immediately thought of using my Avocado Arts stamp set from the PMB February 2012 kit. But to switch things up, I paired the stamp set with papers and a green hexagon rub-on from the PMB August 2012 kit.  (washi tape is from my stash)

Perfect springtime combination, I think!

Thanks for looking at my card, and if you like it, please come VOTE for me at the Paper Made Bakery blog! (Definitely check out the other entries and vote for all your faves!)

  

Using stamps on my layout

I'm taking a workshop at Two Peas in a Bucket called 'Mix it Up' with Amy Tan. One of the layouts presented in the class uses random stamps on a sheet of cardstock as the main design element of the page. So that's where I started with my layout, I stamped a bunch of images on an area of my layout and then added patterned papers and a few stickers and buttons. I love how it turned out and plan to do similar things with my stamps on future layouts! 

I need to add the journaling, but this is my daughter pretending to take my picture - "Click" 

Some close ups:

Patterned papers: Crate Paper

Buttons: Crate Paper

Stickers: Crate Paper

Diecut tags: American Crafts

Twine: May Arts

Title: American Crafts

Ink: Memento

Stamps: Unity, Fancy Pants, Sweet Stamp Shop, Avocado Arts, Studio Calico, Making Memories

I am entering this layout in three challenges.

1.) Kristi B's blog challenge to use "Something that Flies" on a layout

2.) Trendy Twine's April challenge to use flowers, the color yellow, stamped images/sentiments and trendy twine. (ok, I don't own any Trendy Twine, so used some jute twine instead)
 3.) Scrap Your Story's Springtime challenge - I used lots of springtime stamps, and flower and butterfly buttons.

Thanks for stopping by!

S.W.A.T. Drill #5 - Scrap Your Stash

The S.W.A.T. challenge this week is to Scrap Your Stash. Go through your stash and pull out those old papers and make them look new!

This was a fun challenge. I dabbled in scrapbooking about 12 years ago, then completely stopped. I hung on to my supplies, always thinking I'd come back to it, and what a surprise to start scrapping again in 2011 and find out how much everything had changed!

I pulled out a couple sheets of patterned paper as my starting point. These are the old single-sided, thin pieces of paper that were readily available in 2001. When did they start making patterned cardstock? I seriously missed a lot in 12 years. Anyways, I still like the patterns of these papers, but if it weren't for this challenge I probably would not have used them, just because the paper is so thin.

The first thing I did to keep the layout looking new, was to use a Kraft carstock base since Kraft is so trendy right now. I then mixed in newer patterned papers, diecuts, brads, and washi tape to complete this layout:

Some close ups:

Supplies:
Kraft cardstock: American Crafts
Patterned paper: EK Success, Carta Bella, MME
Diecuts: American Crafts
Brads: MME
Washi tape: WRMK
Letter stickers: Cosmo Cricket, American Crafts

    So, how did I do? Did I make these old papers look new? 
Remember to link up your layout by April 25th!

 

 

Baby Banner Card

A friend of mine just had a baby girl last month and I wanted to make a card, but guess what? I apparently don't have much in my stash that is truly 'Baby' related. Well I remedied that right quick and bought this cute stamp set from Sweet Stamp Shop. I just stamped the super cute baby banner in 3 different ink colors and added some bling.

 

 I used the color combo over at The Play Date Cafe this week. This was a lot of fun, I haven't tried out one of their color challenges in a long time!