Father's Day -- ScrapbookPal.com

(Click to enlarge)

Can you believe I didn't take a single picture of my hubby and kids on Father's Day last year?  So this year, thanks to the Cricut Father's Day cartridge from ScrapbookPal.com, I am getting a jump on things early!  This layout has a space for a nice big 5x7 picture.

I love how the "Best Dad Ever" shape from the Father's Day cartridge looks when mounted onto an accordion medallion (I made mine with the awesome new accordion die from Tim Holtz) -- it turns it into something really special!  I used Scor-Tape to adhere the paper for the accordion -- man, that stuff is awesome!  I'll be using it for more projects next month.  The other product I'm featuring this month is the Cat's Eye chalk ink from Colorbox, which is one of my all-time favorite tools.  I use it for adding a nice soft distressing touch to the edges of so many projects.  On this layout I used Dark Brown for all the distressing (definitely one of my go-to colors), and Warm Red to stamp the "Completely LOVED" seal on the tag.  I love the nice soft finish these inks create, and the shape makes them perfect for getting into nooks and crannies.

I painted the tag with Liquitex acrylic ink in raw umber to give it a really old finish, but you could achieve a similar effect with the Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I used the Country Life cartridge for the title -- love this font!

Other materials:  Patterned papers and stickers -- Cosmo Cricket; Stamp -- Autumn Leaves

The Future is as Bright as Your Faith -- Mixed Media Canvas

Hello again! Today I wanted to share my newest mixed media project, a 12x12 canvas of my own family!  I had this vision in my brain as soon as I heard this quote from the leader of my church, Thomas S. Monson: "The future is as bright as your faith."  In fact, one of the main reasons I decided to take Christy Tomlinson's SheArt Workshop was so that I could learn the techniques to bring my vision to life.  And here it is!

I added a lot of layers and stamps and craziness to this canvas, and by the time I was finished (at 2:30 a.m. the night before our church art show) I was not sure if I loved it or if I had ruined it.  You know how that feels when you've just been looking at something too long?  Yeah. I actually wasn't going to put black elements on at all, but when I meant to stamp with WHITE staz-on in the sky in the upper right, it turned out the stamp still had all sorts of BLACK ink on it, so suddenly I had a chunk of black words right in the middle of my nice bright sky.  Oops.  After that I just figured I had to roll with it.


As I said above, I created this to show in our church art show, which I was on the committee to help organize.  Here's what I wrote on my little info card for the show:


"I love this quote from our prophet.  The future’s uncertainty can seem scary sometimes, but our faith in Jesus Christ and His love makes it possible for us to move forward with our families  in joy and gratitude and hope!"


One amazing thing that happened -- a man who works as a consultant for an art publishing company came to the art show with his daughter (who lives in our stake) and loved it so much that he wants to show it to a buyer at a huge church bookstore chain to possibly sell prints of it! Holy cow. I can't imagine it would actually happen (because it is pretty rough and also because I used products from about 14 companies, so I think there are probably some copyright issues) but it was awfully flattering!


Speaking of which, here are the companies whose products I used.  I really raided my scraps drawers for the paper, and there are pieces here from Cosmo Cricket, DCWV, Sassafrass Lass, Scenic Route, Crate Paper, Making Memories, Chatterbox, Bo Bunny, Imaginisce, Daisy D's and Scrapworks.  The stamps are from Stampin Up, 7Gypsies, Hero Arts, My Mind's Eye, Sassafrass Lass, and Fancy Pants. Oh, and I also painted on one of my embossing folders from my Cuttlebug to get one texture!  


Who's in the mood to play I Spy? :)  I've never been great at mixing things from different companies and styles, so I really had fun just gathering everything I had and throwing it all together.  Other than that, this is just made with acrylic paints and a whole lotta Mod Podge.

More scrapbooking fun!

Hello again!  I'm excited to show you a few more scrapbook pages from my weekend getaway.  These first two feature my sweetheart oldest kid Sam.

Seriously, don't you just love that smile?!  Oh, these pictures just warm my heart.  The yellow paper is from Cosmo Cricket and the floral is from Basic Grey.  The letters are from the Cricut Jubilee cartridge and the floral accent is from the Gyspy Wanderings cartridge, and of course there are more Tiny Type letters for "this smile."  The ivory string is actually candlewick yarn that I found at the thrift store quite a while ago.

This one makes me happy, too.  I took these photos on his first day of school because I've decided to be a rebel and skip those cheesy school pictures altogether.  These capture his personality so much better!  The stripey paper here is from We R Memory Keepers, but I'm not sure who makes all those cute little accents.  I got them in my goodie bag at the expo and I can't find the package now.  If I find them, I'll update this.  The title letters are cut from the Cricut Stamped cartridge.

One last layout for today!  This one is our family hiking to Timpanogos Cave on Labor Day last year.  I used a Becky Higgins sketch and the title is from the Cricut Jubilee cartridge.  I hand cut the mountain range and the green "vegetation" lines and created the sun with a circle punch and some paper strips.  I haven't been doing a lot of "event" scrapping lately, so it was fun get into that mode again.  This is the kind of layout that I print out copies and put in the family scrapbook for my parents as well.

(Click to enlarge)

That's all for today!  Thanks for stopping by, and check in again tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of my scrapbooking marathon! :)

My happy kitchen :)

A few months ago I posted here about some makeovers I had been doing around the house in an effort to get it spiffied up to sell.  I showed you how I transformed our kitchen from this:

Snoozeville, right?  To this:

SO much better!  I love how bright and happy it turned out.  I promised then that I would do another post about the decorations above my cabinets, so I when I saw the kitchen linky party over at Love Stitched I thought now would be a good time to actually do it!

I tried a bunch of different things before I did all this.  I had live plants up there for a long time -- what a mess!  I tried some pretty grapevine stuff... well, it was pretty in my head.  Then nothing (as in the first pic) for a long time because I just couldn't figure out what to do.  Then at last, I was inspired!

First, some closer-up pics...

Starting from the left, here is what you'll see.  The plates are definitely the big-impact pieces in my kitchen.  I wanted to add plates as bright pops of color, but I did NOT want to pay the $8 and up for the plates in great colors with fun details that I had been finding.  I found these plates at DI (our local thrift store) for 50 cents - $1 each and spray painted them!  I added paper from the Cosmo Cricket "Early Bird" line -- the colors (red, yellow, and turquoise) were perfect for the vision I had in mind.  (Keep scrolling down for a tutorial.)  I've also been working on my old glass jar collection every time I go to DI, and I filled a few with fake fruit and another with styrofoam balls that I covered in strips of the same patterned paper as the plates.  And see that funky pitcher way over on the right?  My brother brought me that guy as a present from Hungary!  Even though he really doesn't match the style of everything else, he's a permanent fixture in my kitchen!

Oh, and I really love this sign above my pantry.  It's from Adorn-It.



This lineup is a mixture of thrifting (canisters), deal shopping ("Blessed" sign for $2.50 at the Scrapbook Expo), As-Is (white enamel pitcher from IKEA for $2), hand-me-downs (that little red baking powder container came from my grandma's house), and one "splurge" -- the awesome turquoise strainer came from a little consignment shop and was a whopping $20.  Don't laugh -- that's the limit of my budget for one piece and I felt totally luxuriant buying it.  :)

Oh, see those glass tiles above?  Those are cheap little frames from IKEA.  They used to be on our living room walls, but I just cut paper to fit and hung them above the stove for a very cheap backspash-ish idea.  I cut the birds out of red vinyl and adhered them to the glass.  I left room for a vinyl phrase in between the rows, but I still haven't hit on quite the right words.

Mostly more plates here, but I also wanted to show you the cool cauldron.  That was a wedding gift from Dan's aunt.  It is really heavy iron.  At Halloween, of course, it takes center stage in the decor, but right now it's the home of the red rooster I bought at TJ Maxx because I have a weakness for polka dots...

**Just a note -- after I took these pictures, I was freaking out a little bit about how white the cabinets were.  But I didn't want to go all crazy with glazing or anything because I wanted to keep it clean.  I took some 60 grit sandpaper and did just a little distressing on all the edges, which helped a little, then I went over everything with a coat of rub-on poly.  Magic!  Just adding that extra layer really toned down the brightness and it looks just like I envisioned now.  Here's a picture -- I couldn't replicate the lighting conditions, so hopefully you can at least get an idea:

Thanks for hanging in there!  Now, a brief tutorial about spray-painting plates so you can create your own custom awesomeness!

1.  Go to the thrift store and dig through stacks of plates.  Don't worry what color they currently are, or what hideous patterns they might be sporting.  You are looking for shape and texture.  I found some with really cute scalloped detailing or pretty flowers or fruit shapes around the borders.
2.  Clean the plates really, really well.
3.  When they're dry, give them a coat of spray primer.  Repeat as necessary to cover aforementioned hideous patterns:

In this picture, all but those awesome sunflower plates are already primered up.  Those babies took several coats to cover. 

4.  When the primer is completely dry, spray paint away!  As always, quick, light coats are the way to go.  But you might be impatient like me and prefer to blast them in heavy coats, in which case you will get some dripping and such, but you won't care because they're going up on top of your cabinets and no one is going to look that close... oops...

5.  Add paper to centers if desired. At this point you could mod-podge over the whole thing to give it a more finished/cohesive look, but I wanted to be able to easily re-paint and change out the paper if I decide to do something different in the kitchen.

So there you have it!  All these little touches make my kitchen happy, and that makes me happy every time I see it. :oD  Thanks for looking!


And no, it's not really that clean 99.9999% of the time...

Let Your Light Shine -- ScrapbookPal.com

My second project for ScrapbookPal.com this month is this cute little mini-notebook.  The Country Life cartridge has so much fun artwork that you might totally overlook!  (And guess what -- it's on sale for $29.99 at ScrapbookPal right now!)  I fell in love with this vintage-y lantern and the phrase to go with it, and I thought it would also be the perfect way to showcase these neat Distress Stickles in Picket Fence. I used them to give the "glass" part of the lantern that perfect vintage glass look, and it's gorgeous in real life. 

Little notebooks like this make great gifts and are quick and easy to make!  Here are some instructions for how I put it together.

1.  Cut chipboard for covers.  I like to make my mini-notebooks 4.25"x5.5", so that I can cut regular letter-size papers into quarters for the filler pages.
2.  Cut filler pages to match covers.
3.  Decorate cover as desired.
4.  Bind notebook.  I used a Bind-it-all, but you could also use a Cinch, jump rings, or even take it to a copy shop and have them bind it for you.  (Seriously, though -- if you like the idea of making your own books, a Bind-it-all is a GREAT investment.)
5.  Add a few ribbons to the top.  I wouldn't go too crazy with these, though, because too many will make your book less functional.
6.  Brighten someone's day with a cute little gift!  Or tuck it in your purse for yourself  -- I'm not judging...  (I still haven't decided the destiny of this little cutie.  I originally intended it for a gift, but I just love it so darn much!)

Materials:  PP -- Cosmo Cricket "Happy Together" collection; Ribbon -- Stampin' Up, Offray; Die Cuts -- Cricut Country Life cartridge; Distressing -- Colorbox Chalk Ink in "Chestnut Roan"; Binding -- Bind-it-all; Distress Stickles -- Ranger Inks

Hip hip hooray!

I've been dying to use this new "Togetherness" collection from Cosmo Cricket since I bought it last month, and now I finally had a chance!  I wanted to make a fun, happy card to celebrate my sister's big achievement, and this paper + this week's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You was just perfect.

Materials:  Paper -- Cosmo Cricket; Die Cuts -- Cricut ("Hooray" from Storybook, birdy from Happily Ever After, label shape from Once Upon a Princess); Border Punch -- Stampin Up; Distressing -- Cat's Eye chalk ink

Thanks for looking!

All sorts of goodies...

I have been busy-busy getting ready for the boutique on Saturday. It's my first try at actually doing something as a Memory Works rep, so I wanted to make it a good one. I chose a few of the collections and tools from the new catalog and decided to show just how many projects you could make with each the thing. Here we go!

From the Cosmo Cricket "Honey Pie" set:

This one also uses a "blackboard" album from Cosmo Cricket, Prima flowers, and "baby" is cut with the Alphalicious cartridge. I did the scallop edge with Threading Water. The inside pages are covered with paper, but no pictures because it's waiting for baby Eliza! (You'll notice this is a common theme with all these girly things.)



This altered frame is something I made for a challenge at the Cricut SWARM this past weekend. The flowers are from the George cartridge and the swirly thing in the background is from Joys of the Season.



I did this layout at the SWARM as well -- I love it when things come together quickly! I usually don't do layouts before I have pictures to put in them, but I'm sure I'll have lots of material once this baby makes her appearance!



This cute post-it note holder was our make-and-take at the SWARM.



I've posted this card before, but it goes with this set:




The next few projects are from the Cosmo Cricket "Cogsmo" line -- I just love the cute little robots on this paper! I'm still going to make a card or something with this collection.

This mini-album is another "blackboard" album from Cosmo Cricket. I gathered a bunch of fun pictures of the boys together that probably wouldn't have made it into other layouts -- just everyday stuff, but so fun! I cut the letters here from Zooballoo.



Here's a layout with the same papers, about Sammy's first "book."


And these are from the Autumn Leaves "Cuteworld Girl" set -- I can't even tell you how much I love this paper! So exciting to be able to do all these girly things! I've only used a few sheets from this set so far. I think tonight I'll make a card or two to go along with these.

A baby book for Eliza! I also used WIMG for the flowers, and I drew the little birdie with my pen tablet and cut it out with SCAL. "Eliza" is also done with SCAL.



This layout was super quick, very possibly my fastest ever! The big flower came that way in the paper set. I came together so fast, in fact, that I took a few extra minutes to add the new Doodlebug crushed velvet flock to the flower and leaves. It's hard to see here, but it's really cute IRL.



I also altered the front of this American Crafts album:


And, last but not least, this is the make-and-take I'll be doing. They'll be able to try two different stamps (both from Autumn Leaves), Primas, and the Cropadile, all things in the catalog. I think I'll ink the edges of the tag. I've never done a make-and-take before, but I wanted to make sure it was something quick and easy. What do you think?