Things on Thursday…

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It’s been a while since I’ve done a Things on Thursday post but a couple of items caught my eye recently and I wanted to share!

1. Julie Fei-Fan Blazer showed a tutorial today on her blog about how to do this boxed letter technique:

joyful - Balzer Designs

The finished LO looks awesome so you should all check that out!

2. Summer CHA products are being launched and although I wasn’t in love with much, there are a couple of things I must have. Like these Archival ink pads by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger:

Archival_FernGreen - Wndy Vecchi

And this small Dylusions Art Journal:

SmallDyJournal

And I’m looking forward to the Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste line from American crafts:

cut&paste - Amy Tangerine

3. October Afternoon does Monday Challenges on their blog and this particular one is really fun:

Monday Challenge - OA

Click over and play, if you want a bit of scrapping inspiration!

4. We just had an awesome weekend at the Paperie with Dina Wakley (much more on that later!) and I’m already thinking ahead to new people we can get in! 🙂 So Wendy and Janna, how about Ronda Palazzari? Love this project!

altered art canvas - Rhonda Palazzari

5. Finally, Ali Edwards has announced her Week in the Life dates for this year – and it’s coming up soon! I loved this project last year and I’m even more excited this year – there’s something fun coming!

WITL 2013 - Ali Edwards

S.

Paperie Card Kit | July: Part 3

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I know, I know, I’m being super slow about posting these LO’s but I’m almost done! Here’s the last one, with a mini tutorial about how it all came together.

First of all, I smeared Silver Croco through the Chunky Chevron stencil by Balzer Designs for The Crafter’s Workshop to make a place for my photo. You can see from the picture what’s it like wet (on the left) and dry (on the right):

wading - wet and dry croco

I love the shine and crackle! Plus, this paint can be heat set immediately and still crack – that’s an awesome quality in my impatient books! And when you overheat it you get bubbles along with the cracks, making fabulous texture:

wading - crackle

Once that was all dry, I decided to make a fun interactive piece. I like to have one picture on my LO’s but there were a couple more I wanted to include. Also, I like to hide my journaling so I needed to figure out a way to get all those elements on the page and still only show one photo. The solution? One of the kraft envelopes in the kit! I added tape to the flap:

wading - envelope flap

Then I added little patterned paper and sticker flags to the edge:

wading - labels

Once it was adhered to the background page, I had a spot to put my extra pics and a pocket for my journaling – you just use the flags to flip it open:

wading - envelope

I simply made a journaling card, wrote on it, and tucked it inside the envelope:

wading - journaling

I added my title with the Simple Stories alpha stickersin the kit, doodled around them, and finished the whole thing off with some washi tape that was in the last Card Kit:

wading

I have one more item to show you from this kit – I pretty much used it all up! – and I’m hoping to post that for you early next week. This weekend is going to be all tied up with Dina Wakley coming to the Paperie and I. Can’t. Wait!

S.

12 on Twelve | August 2013

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12on12august1. Sleepy Molly

2. selfie in the porch

3. we found a ladybug on our walk!

4. flowers for Mama

5. hanging out at the playground

6. big smiles

7. buddies

8. sliding down as a train

9. walking home – you always need a stick to get you there!

10. new painted nails

11. new Legos from Nana

12. hopscotch in the driveway

S.

 

Simple Scrapper | August 2013

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DT badge - simple scrapper

The sketch templates from the Simple Scrapper Premium Membership this month are awesome! All 5 are large photo templates, either 12×12 or 8.5×11 – I love them! To see all the Team’s work, click their names over there on the right, or go to the new Team Gallery to see our favourites!

My template LO this month is pretty simple, though it took Lori and I forever to get it figured out on her Silhouette! 🙂

if love was water

We cut the title and then I added the washi tape and wood veneer hearts. I left it at that because I didn’t feel it needed any journaling and I didn’t want to take away from the pic of Gabe at Salmon Cove Sands.

if love was water - letters

I really like the depth the cutting from the Silhouette adds – isn’t it fun?

The second LO is from the Story Starter prompts from this month and uses the scraps I had left from my Paperie July Card Kit – all I added was the 12×12 background sheet:

this is why

I’ve actually used this template before, on this LO, but love it so much I had to pull it out again!

Stitching on the circles gave me some great dimension:

this is why - circles

And instead of having the journaling out in the open, I went with my norm and hid it on a tag:

this is why - journal tag

Simple Scrapper has an awesome promo on right now – if you sign up for email updates, you get a Premium Membership Sampler with templates, Story Starters, and more! It’s definitely worth the sign up!

Aimee is planning on posting her LO’s for August today as well, so make sure you check out her blog, Aimee’s Armoire, to see what great things she made this month.

I know I’ve left you all hanging with the rest of my Card Kit samples for July, but I have that scheduled in for next week, when I’m hoping to get back to at least a couple of posts a week – we’ll have to see what the weather is like!

S.

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Currently… | July 2013

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listening: to kiddies in the pool, the ocean, and the sandbox – just generally making a big racket

eating: kale salad with avocado, tomatoes, and poppy seed dressing

drinking: water, wine and Pina Colada Slush – yay for summer drinks!

wearing: shorts or jersey skirts, tank tops, and sandals

feeling: blessed to have two amazing beaches close by where I can spend my summer

summer

weather: warm but sometimes odd – record breaking heat one day then a 20 degree drop the next

watching: So You Think You Can Dance, Master Chef, and The Facts of Life (season 4)

reading: Dina Wakley’s Art Journal Freedom – she’ll be here soon! (click that pic – it will take you to a bonus .pdf and video!)

art journal freedom

wanting: a longer vacation – I’m not ready to leave the beach!

needing: to do more of nothing at all

thinking: about nothing, just enjoying vacation time

enjoying: weekends in Salmon Cove and vacation in Eastport – loving the beach (did you guess?)

sunshine

wondering: how Gabe & Molly can get so much sand in their bathing suits

wishing: that the fabulous vacation weather we’re having will continue

S.

 

Paperie Card Kit | July: Part 2

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Sorry for the delay in posting the remainder of my card kit LO’s but we’ve been having warm and sunny weather – as I mentioned before, I’m taking full advantage of the few short weeks we get!

Today I’m showing you one of the two portrait orientation LO’s I made with the kit. I’ll be back later with the other (and a quick step by step on how it came together), and the mini album. On Tuesday I’m going to be posting my Simple Scrapper DT LO’s for August – one of those uses the scraps I had left in the kit. Between my work and Wendy’s, you’re getting a ton of inspiration for this month’s kit; I hope you were lucky enough to snag one!

I did a gel transfer technique to get a circle of arrows on the background (thanks Cathie!) and then messy stitched around it with red metallic thread:

smile - stitching

I used one of my very favourite punches to make tags across the top of the page:

smile - punches

For the title, I stamped a speech balloon, cut a strip from patterned paper, and used a Jillibean Soup label, all layered up on the photo:

smile - labels

I love the colours (the Simple Stories paper pad in the kit is fabulous!) and how this one turned out – it was so much fun to make!

smile

A little birdie told me there were one or two kits left at The Paperie so if you don’t have one yet, go get it – the stamp set alone makes this one a must-have!

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer as much as I am and getting some great pics – I have lots of beach and sand photos to scrap soon!

S.

Paperie Card Kit | July: Part 1

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Last month’s Card Kit at the Paperie was so popular that Wendy has decided to do them monthly! But they are going  super fast so make sure you call and get your reserved or better yet, pop by the new store and pick one up.

Wendy did some awesome cards this month and today I’m going to show you the two landscape LO’s I made with the supplies.

Dance Machine is super simple – I really wanted the focus to be on the photos of Gabe posing and dancing in the driveway. In order to really bring the pictures to the forefront, I painted gesso over the area they would be, making a focal point:

dance machine

I doodled around the edges with my Pitt Pens, of course, and brought more attention to the title of letter stickers by drawing sketchy lines around them as well:

dance machine - title

There is a fabulous pack of wooden and chipboard buttons in the kit and I think I used them all! The bright colours of these worked with the pics and the yellowy-orange one is one point of an embellishment triangle around the photos:

dance machine - buttons

The second LO features Gabe’s lions on washing day. He specifically requested they be hung by their hands so they could see what was happening in the yard while they dried!

say cheese

I used several of the stamps from the included set (it’s awesome!) on the Simple Stories patterned paper from the kit and cut them out to use as embellishments around the picture, along with some of the chipboard buttons:

say cheese - layersThe journaling is hidden under another stamped tag:

say cheese - journaling

and I cut pieces out of some patterned paper to make a cluster at the top corner:

say cheese - arrowsThe edges seemed boring to me so I dampened them and then rolled to get some extra dimension and interest on the page.

Hope you liked these, I’ll be back soon with the portrait LO’s I did with the kit! Also, check out The Paperie and/or their blog to see all my projects this month, plus Wendy’s cards (here’s a peek!), and to get your own kit – I’d love to see what you make with it!

S.

Gabe and his funny sayings…

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The kiddies and I are spending the weekend at the cabin with friends. While eating supper, Gabe leaned in on the table and got all of our attention:

“Hey guys,  I got a secret to tell you.”

We all stopped talking, looked at him and he said, “Fart gun!”

image

Oh, the joys of a four year old boy!

S.

12 on Twelve | July 2013

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The twelfth happened to be the day we had our first of two “Girls Weekend + Gabe” at Salmon Cove – great timing!

12on12july

1. playing with the trains

2. a visit from Jameson – Gabe was fascinated by his tiny hands

3. Molly was just totally enthralled by him altogether and wanted to hold him forever

4. my usual selfie

5. watergun fights thanks to a present from Isla

6. packing food for the cabin

7. filling the pool while having sprinkler fun

8. popsicles

9. coming home from Charlie’s – with a bag of wet clothes!

10. our traditional McDonald’s stop for supper on the way to the cabin

11. dancing to the car music

12. blowing bubbles and running around before a beach walk and bed

S.

Dina Wakley is coming to The Paperie!

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We’re all very excited to be doing a entire weekend of classes with Dina and, in anticipation, The Paperie has been doing a weekly countdown of sorts.

Each Friday a new blog post is going up focusing on inspiration via Dina’s work, or featuring some of her favourite products. Cathie has been doing some fabulous posts and I had one go live today.

Go check it out here!

S.