Touched...Link with Love..

This week at Practical Scrappers, we have decided to focus on linking with love.  Lately it seems like I have see so many issues with people "lifting" other people's work or uses sketches and not giving credit where credit is due.  I decided that although I can't change other peoples actions, I can change my own, and I will be SURE to always give proper credit when I can.  I hope you will, too!

So my page today is actually based on a lot of different sources of inspiration.  I used my kit from Memorable Seasons this month featuring Create Paper's "Paper Heart" collection.

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My first source of inspiration was a color combo from Design Seeds.  Since we are having a "Leap" year crop at MS, this photo was perfect for a color combo challenge!  :)

I also used a sketch from Creative Scrappers, #192.

As far as technique goes, lately I have been really inspired by Jen Jockish.  I just love love LOVE her style!  One of my favorite things that she does is use a cut shape or punch and then uses the negative, too.  I have been using that concept on my pages a lot lately....


And then for my own spins:

I cut some tag shapes out with my Cricut and punched holes and added twine.

Something I haven't done in a while but wanted to try again was embossing patterned paper.  So I cut the scalloped circle shapes with a die, first, then embossed with a Tim Holtz pattern.  Love how these circles came out!  And true to MY style, I did some machine stitching and paint splattering, too.

Lastly, I layered some chipboard pieces and some more punched shapes to add some dimension.

I encourage you to get the "Link With Love" badge from their website and go read a little bit about the ideas there.  Also, be sure to "like" them on FB!

Stay tuned this weekend for a Practical Scrappers BLOG HOP with a small prize from me!

Quilt Inspired, A WINNER, and a coupon code for you!!!!!

Hello everyone! This week at Practical Scrappers, we are doing a "quilt inspired" feature for layouts and cards.

I actually created this first page for the 3rd round of the layout contest where we had to use a quilt for inspiration. (I created two layouts for that particular challenge and the other one was featured, which you can see HERE.)

It's funny because when I saw this first quilt, I knew the fabric and pattern immediately. You see, the designer of this fabric is Amanda Herring, and she has had her fabric patterns turned into patterned paper by Bazzill!! AND I happened to guest design for her a couple months of go (see the posts HERE). AND not only did she send me paper to work with, but some fabric samples, TOO! So I decided to use fabric on my layout as well.

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I created the diamond pattern in SCAL2 and cut it on my Cricut. On the background white cardstock, I layered some of the patterned papers behind the cut outs, and some of them I actually popped even further back with pop dots to give it some depth.

Then I took the little diamond pieces that were cut out and covered them with fabric and stitched around the edges. I popped them off the page with pop dots, so that there are three levels of layers! I really love how this page turned out!

Next up, I had been searching the web for some fun quilt patterns, when a friend of mine had sent me some information about her new long-arm quilting business. She sent a little video of all the projects she has done and I was in love with one called a "fan quilt" (that he mother actually made, but she quilted). You can "like" her here at Yellow House Quilting.

Here is a photo of the quilt:

So I looked online for some fan quilt patterns that I could trace in SCAL2 and came across this one (can not find the original source...got this from google search).

I cut out all these little pieces with my Cricut at different sizes to created these fan bursts on my page!

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 I had originally planned to do this page in my next scrap class at my LSS, but after the time it took to created the fans, I think I am going to come up with something else!  But we ARE using the American Crafts "chap" line which I am excited about!

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OK, next I owe you a WINNER from the Birds of a Feather Blog Hop from a few weeks ago!  The Random number generator gave me #16 which was JANET!!!!!

Janet please contact me and I will send a RAK your way!!!

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And finally something EXCITING for my blog readers!  How about a 20% discount at the shop of Paper Issues!!!  There is a LOT arriving soon including some Dear Lizzy Neopolitain, other American Crafts, MME, and Studio Calico just to name a few!!   All you have to do is enter the coupon code AUDREY at checkout to get 20% off your purchase!!!  How awesome is that????  AND this code doesn't even expire!!!  Let me know what you get!

I will be back this weekend for some crop info and projects from the Memorable Seasons "Take a Leap" crop going on this weekend!!!

Glitz Color Combo Challenge

Hello everyone! I took at different approach to my pages this month based on the current challenge. The challenge was to use this color combo in your design:

So I went through all the lovely collections, and choose some papers that had these colors. Since there aren't too many in the recent releases that have red in them, I used some photos that have a lot of red and I also stamped with some red ink.

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Some of the Glitz epoxy stickers and the Peek-a-Boos had some red, so I used those as some accents.

So I decided to continue on with the color combo idea and find some other intersting combos with papers from Vintage Blue, Beautiful Dreamer, and Dance in the Sunshine.  I laid out some different papers with each other until I found a combo I liked.  I really love the midnight blue with yellow and I thought that teal added a great accent color.

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This is a rather simple page for me, but I really wanted to focus on the moment in the photos.
I cut out the star shapes with my Cricut, and one just happened to land right over the letter "G" which was a perfect fit for my page!

Thanks for stopping by today!

-Audrey

Supplies:

I'll Race you Down
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Floral Paper
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Stripe Paper
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Paper Layers
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Title Stickers
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Pee-A-Boos
Glitz Designs Dance in the Sunshine Glitzers
Other: Ink-Maya Road, Embossing Plate-Lifestyle Crafts, Stamp-Stampabilities, Glitter-Ranger

G'Ma Lovin'
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue Motif paper
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue Polka paper
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue Stripe paper
Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer Polka paper
Glitz Designs Dance in the Sunshine Raindrops paper
Glitz Designs Vintage Blue Epoxy Stickers
Other: Die Cutting Machine-Cricut, chipboard alphas-Cosmo Cricket

The Final Round!!

WOW! I have made it to the final round of the Layout Contest at Practical Scrappers.  I can't tell you how honored and thrilled I am to be in the top THREE!!!!  The three of us will now be voted down to ONE and I need your votes!  Please VOTE HERE.

Let me tell you about my page!  :)  This page was supposed to have our favorite manufacturer, favorite color, favorite tool, and favorite technique.  This one also happens to have my favorite little guy....:)

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My favorite color is green, and while I was deciding which pictures to use, I was feeding the baby.  His foods are mostly orange, or green, or blech/white color. :)  Anyways, I decided to use orange and green on my page with a white background to represent the colors of the foods the baby eats.

My favorite tool that I use on almost EVERY page is my edge distressing tool.  (I use one by CTMH).  I love distressing the edges to give a bit of texture and dimension.

My two favorite companies are Crate Paper and American Crafts.  But since I have use Crate Paper on my pages the last few weeks, I decided to continue with that.  I used papers and embellies from at least 3 different collections of Crate Paper. I used green papers that reminded me of peas, and orange papers that reminded me of carrots.  :) (If you look closely the green one has doodled circles on it and the orange has "baby carrots"  :)  )

Lastly, one of my favorite techniques is machine stitching.  I love to use contrasting threads and shapes to add a bit more chracter to my pages and help your eye travel around the page.  I also love how machine stitching just makes a page feel "homemade".

My journaling is on a "recipe" card that pulls out from the top. 

Kyler is a pretty good eater, but he has his favorites and his dislikes for sure.  He loves almost all fruits, is kind of undecided on peas, bananas and carrots, and detests green beans and acorn squash!  We make just about all of his food.  Being a SAHM, it is so easy and pretty quick for me to do.  We make large batches and then freeze them in ice cube trays.  He eats about 4 ounces of milk with cereal and two cubes of veggie and two of fruit at lunch and dinner.  He is still nursing in the morning (with a bit of fruit or yogurt, too, sometimes) and at night time takes an 8 oz. bottle of milk that I've pumped.  Our feeding schedule is pretty good right now!!!

THANKS AGAIN FOR VOTING FOR ME!

4 to share about love....

Well I am behind on posting, so this post has 4 pages that I have created for things the past week!

This first page I want to share I created for Round 5 of the layout contest at Practical Scrappers!  I made it into the top 5 out of 120 submission, so THANK YOU so much for those that have voted for me!

On this page we had to include the color red, 5 hearts, and something that we "love".  Easy enough!

I actually raided my scrap stash for some red papers and found these ones by Basic Grey, Crate, and Daisy D's (remember them?).  I wanted a contrasting color so I added in a bit of teal.  I also used some old Lily Bee and Pink Paislee Rubons.

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I did a lot of heart punching, and chipboard layering and machine stitching.

This next page is a scraplift of the Member of the Month at Memorable Seasons.  This month we lifted Dria!!!    Head over to her gallery, lift one of her pages, and enter it for the monthly prize drawing!

I misted a Fancy Pants filter paper flower with some "peacock" chalkboard mist from Tattered Angels to match some of the other blue accents.

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These two kiddos are really starting to interact with each other so much!  Kyler is just enamored by all that Charlotte does, and she is so attentive to him.

My page is based on this layout by Dria. I stuck to her colors scheme, somewhat, and the layout (but turned 90 degrees).

Next up are two more pages with the February kit from Birds of a Feather.  It is mostly pink, and reds, and browns, but there are a few accent colors, and yellow happens to be one of them.  I love the yellow and red mix.  I balanced the red in my photos with some other red elements.  The journaling is actually tucked into one of the self adhesive clear pockets by Karen Foster Designs. I LOVE these pockets.  I have plans for some of the other ones that I didn't use yet...

Kyler is so so ticklish!  He has a few spots that just make him squeal!  On this particular day, daddy was tickling him so much his eyes were watering and he just had the funniest expressions!

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This kit also comes with some border pieces that have ribbon and other elements already on them!  Very cool product from BG.

And lastly, I took this photo of Charlotte at the playground with these stretchy jeans that she has and this plastic bling-y necklace that she was wearing.  It was funny to watch her play in the dirt and mulch in this outfit!  I hope she always loves to play hard!

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I made the flower by cutting out some hearts from the BG patterned paper.  I layered lots of papers and machine stitched around their edges.

I have been working on my project life and so far so good.  I really need to get used to the whole thing, but I am going to just stick with my basic plan for now and make small changes as I go along.

Birds of a Feather BLOG HOP AND CROP!!

Welcome to the Birds of a Feather Kit Club Blog Hop and Crop! The Hop will run until midnight on Sunday, Feb. 12., and your Crop challenge entries will be due by Wednesday the 15th at midnight.

The designers have created some special posts full of inspiration, prizes and LOVE. Once you have completed the blog hop, leave a post back on the BOAF blog for a chance to win this gorgeous album kit from Maya Road, a $35 value:

This kit includes:
 ~Maya Road "Home" Mini-Album
~ 2 Full Blister-packs of Maya Road Mini Chipboards
~ Full Pack of Maya Road Kraft Tags
~ Pot of Maya Road Glitter
~ Maya Road Ink Pad
~ Full Tin of Ribbon Slides
~ Exclusive Maya Road "Home Is" Stamp
~ All papers needed to create this project
~ Step-by-step Instructions

I, too, am giving away a little RAK for one random commentor on my blog! How about a little prize pack of some Amy Tan goodies?

Today I am sharing with you my Birds of a Feather Challenge for our LoveBirds Crop. Visit the message board to post your creation for the challenges AND find some fun games, too! There will be a winner for each challenge AND a Queen of the Crop Prize, too!

My challenge for you is to use this inspiration piece below to create a project. You may choose to use the color combo, or draw inspiration from the photo itself. This palette is from Design Seeds (which you should definitely check out!)

I chose this photo because of how perfect it fit into our "Love Birds Crop" theme! It also matched the colors in the February kit just perfectly!

I decided to create three cards based on this piece.

On this first card, I stuck with the color combo and I cut out a heart from patterned paper and tucked the doily underneath. A bit of stitching around the edge and a simple sentiment is all it needed for finishing touches.

On this 2nd card, I misted the "Color Me" papers with a grey chalk mist from October Afternoon. I added some ribbon and the prima flowers. The "valentine" banner is a transparency, but I painted the back of it to make it stand out better.

Lastly, I made this simple card based on the photo.

Make sure you hop to all the blogs for a chance to win! Your next stop is HERE on Lisa's blog. Thank you for joining us!

Happy Valentine's Day!


And here is the blog hop order

BOAF blog
Elizabeth
Marielle
Audrey <-- YOU ARE HERE
Lisa
Linda
Amy

Blog Makeover and a LOVE Mini!

So what do you think of the new blog header? It was time for an update, for sure! The old one was a year and a half old at least! I used a lot of Amy Tan goodies and some of my fav colors together including lime green, sky blue and orange with bright pink accents! I also added a new profile pic since the other one was prob at least 4 years old!

I am following along with Alissa (who I found at Cocoa Daisy) as she does her "29 Things I Love" this month. Since I just got the WONDERFUL Scrapbook Circle January Kit featuring a whole bunch of Valentines and love goodies, I thought I would put it to use on a mini! Each day Alissa provides a prompt and you just write about how/why you love it. I am even using some old photos for the pictures which takes a lot of the pressure off of taking a picture every day! I love it!

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I used a old chipboard tabbed album front and back (old Fancy Pants, maybe?) that I found in my stash. I measures about 3 1/2x6". I cut inside pages from the patterned paper just a bit smaller and on each page and the covers I splattered some blue and black and white paint and then used a stencil to do some painting, too, on some of the pages. I bound them all in the top left corner with a ring.

The layout on each page is pretty simple: a 2.5" square photo, a little fussy cut thought balloon for journaling (cut from patterned paper in the SBC kit), and a few embellishments here and there.

I am really loving how this is coming along and I can't wait to have it all complete. I will update with more pages in a week or two!