Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Perfect Day

Hi everyone!

Over on the Glitz blog, the digital team is sharing projects with the Uncharted Waters collection. I decided to try something I've been wanting to do for a long time--use digis on fabric. Hmmm...did it work? I think so, but it took a few test runs.

I made a treat bag with a tag. I was thinking of a birthday party favor bag:

The Perfect Day


I used the full Uncharted Waters digital collection on these two projects, although I did want to mention that the Paper Pack 2 and the Element Pack 2 are part of the One Buck Wednesday deals at Jessica Sprague. Score!

First up is the treat bag:

The Perfect Day

Here's how I made it:

  1. In Photoshop, clip patterned paper to the anchor element (Control+G). Resize the paper to get the gradient.
  2. Resize banners from the Element Pack 1
  3. Print entire image on ink jet transfer (heat-set) paper. Trim into a rectangle and press the image with an iron onto a bag.
  4. Burn finger touching back side of heat-set paper because I'm anxious to see what it looks like.
  5. Remove paper. Decide the waxy look on the bag from the excess heat-set paper is like the cheesy iron-ons in the early 1980s.
  6. Import the image into my Silhouette program. Trace anchor and banners. 
  7. For the first time ever, use the Off-Set tool to expand the cutting area. Fiddle with it. Fiddle more. 
  8. Print images onto heat-set paper. 
  9. Die-cut on Silhouette. Realize that the machine is cutting into the image.
  10. Curse.
  11. Print image one more time.
  12. Fussy cut images with 1/4" borders. 
  13. Heat-set. 
  14. Realize I only had to follow steps 1-2 and 11-13. :)

I love how the transfer worked, and I'm going to have to make a larger bag for the pool this summer.

I figured the bag needed a tag, so I whipped up one:

The Perfect Day

There are actually two tags here--one is woodrain that I didn't roll all the way through my Cuttlebug (to keep it longer), and the blue tag on top. I used the new Paper Smooches Tag Stitched Die--love it!

For the image, I added the banners to the journaling card and typed the "Thank you for" so it would make sense for a birthday party. ;) I layered the card over muslin and an anchor paper from the Paper Pack 1.

If you want to see the other projects with the same digital collection, check out the Glitz blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day.


Supplies
Paper: (Premium Matte Photo Paper) OfficeMax
Digital elements (blue paper from Uncharted Waters paper pack 2; yellow anchor from Uncharted Waters paper pack 1; "the perfect day," anchor from Uncharted Waters element pack 2; banners from Uncharted Waters element pack 1) Glitz Design at Jessica Sprague
Die: (Tag Stitched Die) Paper Smooches
Twine: (Red solid) Divine Twine
Other: (muslin bag) Paper Source; (wood ATC) Impress; (inket heat transfer paper) Hobby Lobby


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Spring Love

Hi everyone! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! I'm getting over some type of flu and a bad case of pink eye--ugh. Fortunately, my eye is starting to clear up, and hopefully it won't move to my other eye. :)

A couple of weeks ago, I had some tags posted on the Glitz Design blog, but I never shared them here. The tags were for Valentine's Day for my kids' teacher treats. They're so springy, I think they could work after Valentine's Day, too.

Here's one:

Spring Love Tags


I used digital papers from the Finnley (green), Wild and Free (yellow), and Hello Friend (pink) digital collections from Glitz on the tags. I increased the saturation of the papers to make them brighter. I die-cut the postage stamps on my Cameo, the hearts with Paper Smooches dies, and the mini Polaroid with a My Favorite Things die.

I made six tags--one for each teacher:


Spring Love Tags


For each tag, I layered some Glitz Design washi tape, tissue paper (there it is again--I'm addicted!), part of a doily, and my papers. I topped off each one with the "xoxo" from the brand new Glitz Black & White collection. I added a little white splatter on top....I was holding my breath that I wouldn't have a huge glob of ink in the center. ha ha

Each tag is a little different:

Spring Love Tags


They were so much fun to create!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day.


Supplies
Cardstock: (White Linen) Ellen Hutson
Digital elements: (green papers from the Finnley element pack 2; yellow papers fro Wild and Free paper pack; pink papers from the Hello Friend paper pack; sentiment from the Black and White element pack 2) Glitz Design at Jessica Sprague
Washi: (Hello Friend) Glitz Design
Dies: (tag, postage stamps) Silhouette America; (Hearts Dies) Paper Smooches; (Precious Polaroids) My Favorite Things

Monday, February 17, 2014

You Are Here Mini Album

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! We are still on Spring Break until tomorrow, and today, we're finally having a thaw. Woo hoo! I cannot WAIT for spring!



This week on the Glitz blog, we're sharing daily life projects. I have been wanting to make a mini album with some photos I took one day last September, and I decided this week's theme worked well for a mini. As a warning, this is a photo-heavy post!

Here's the cover:


You Are Here Mini Album


I'm not sure what I was thinking...a hybrid mini was a ridiculous amount of work. ha ha I love how it turned out, though! I mostly used the Finnley digital collection, although I also used elements from the Color Me Happy, the new Black and White, and the Wild and Free collections. Most of the papers and elements were altered, such as the geotag on the cover (I removed the background on the Color Me Happy journaling card and layered it over a Finnley patterned paper before printing). 

Here's a close-up:

You Are Here Mini Album


I die-cut the tags on my Cameo, embossed them, and arranged them so the album would read vertically. I'm showing you the side-by-sides, although they are really top and bottom.

Here are the first pages:

You Are Here Mini Album

I went a little more masculine on the pages with my little guy. The calendar and alphabet journaling cards are from the Finnley collection.

Here's a close-up:

You Are Here Mini Album


Here are the next pages:


You Are Here Mini Album


For these pages, I obviously went more girly. The "you will always be my sunshine" is a journaling card from Color Me Happy. I traced it in the Silhouette program and die-cut it on Finnley paper. The gorgeous flowers are from Finnley, and the cool scribble paper is from the new Black and White papers.

Here's a close-up:


You Are Here Mini Album


Here are the next pages:


You Are Here Mini Album


I struggled with these pages and ended up redoing them completely. I removed the background of the Wild and Free "gotcha" journaling card and layering it over Finnley papers. I also die-cut the circles and used the negative to make a banner.

Here's a close-up:

You Are Here Mini Album


Here are my last pages:

You Are Here Mini Album


I took a pocket protector and made a shaker card out of it with punched stars. For the "you are loved" strip, I again removed the background and layered it over Finnley paper. 

Here's the pocket:


You Are Here Mini Album


I used a journaling card and fussy cut some flowers to pop up over the photo. The flowers don't line up exactly (they are two different elements), but I kind of liked that look. I layered the photo over tissue paper to lessen the journaling lines...I'm addicted to tissue paper lately. ;) 

Here's a close-up:

You Are Here Mini Album


Phew! Still with me?

I wanted to pass along that Glitz is having a month-long challenge where you play along with our weekly themes. The prizes are awesome! It's a great way to win the new collections. You can find the details HERE. You can also enter to win a full Black and White digital collection HERE

Thanks for looking! Have a great week!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI
Digital elements: (Finnley collection, Black and White paper pack 2, Black and White element pack 2, Color Me Happy element pack 1, Color Me Happy element pack 2, Wild and Free element pack 1, Wild and Free element pack 2) Glitz Design
Fibers: (twine) May Arts
Embellishments: (wood veneer) Studio Calico; (resin flower, arrow wood veneer) Freckled Fawn; (flower sequin) Lawn Fawn; (red sequin) Neat & Tangled; (stick pin) BasicGrey; (doily) Wilton; (flair) Two Peas in a Bucket; (pocket protector) Simple Stories
Stamp: (date stamp) American Crafts
Dies: (tags) Silhouette America; (heart) Simon Says Stamp); (Circles Die Cover Plate) Papertrey Ink
Punch: (star Punch Around the Page) Martha Stewart


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Miss You Forever

Hi everyone! Happy Valentine's Day! I've been pretty absent on the 'ole blog....working, making a zillion valentines, hanging with my kids (it's Spring Break??). It's all good!




It's time for another CAS-ual Fridays challenge. This week's challenge is to make a goodbye/farewell card that is LONG (2" x 4", 4" x 6", etc.).

Before I get to my card, I wanted to say that it's the last week of the CAS-ual Fridays term. It's hard to say goodbye--CAS-al Fridays has been a *fantastic* team. Almost a year ago, the Two Peas digital Creative Team was suddenly cut, and it had been my only DT. I was really disappointed and felt a little lost. About a month later, I got a very sweet e-mail from Michele telling me that the team was a week into the term, but there was an unexpected opening. Would I want to join CAS-ual Fridays? Um, yes! I was pretty darn excited! :)

The team has been awesome--Michele is an amazing leader. I love her! I'm going to miss my *very* talented DT-mates. Every week, I have looked forward to seeing the team's creations. They rock!  I've learned so much from them and the CFC players. It's hard to not continue...I'm going to miss it!

Speaking of missing, here's my long/tall farewell card:

Miss You Forever


I was inspired by how Paige Evans made the hand-cut title on THIS layout. Her lettering was unbelievable. I tried to cut my letters free-hand like hers, but let's be real, my hand-cut letters looked like they were done by my 3-year-old. ha ha

I used Studio Calico's new LemonLush papers for the alphas and the layering papers (except the tissue paper of course). The "forever" was cut from one of the papers. I stitched the sentiment onto PTI's Linen Vellum. (As an aside, I never thought I would get so excited over a vellum, but this stuff is wicked cool!) ;) For the background, I used a journaling card from the SC Copper Mountain PL kit....I'm really digging using PL cards on my cards lately.

Here's a close-up:

Miss You Forever Close-Up


I counted a whopping 9 layers on my card....it's not exactly CAS. Oops! I think it shows my evolution in CAS. Yep, that's my story.

If you would like to play along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, the winner will receive CAS-ual Friday Stamps!


You can link up your tall/long farewell cards HERE.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I really appreciate your support!


Supplies
Cardstock: (Linen Essentials) Ellen Hutson; (Linen Vellum) PTI
Patterned papers: (orange and white Project Life card from Copper Mountain PL January 2014 kit; all other papers from LemonLush) Studio Calico
Silhouette Cameo
Embellishments: (asterisk from Copper Mountain PL kit) Studio Calico

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Kinda Like You A Lot

Hi everyone!

This week on the Glitz blog, we're using a color theme--pink, silver, and/or gold. I wanted to use pink and silver, and since silver is kind of hard with digis, I used some light greys. I went through ALL of my Glitz files and pulled out anything pink or grey. There were quite a few, and it's nice how many of the Glitz pinks match. :)

I don't know about you, but I don't typically make Valentine's for my friends--well, not since I was a kid. I make them for my husband and my kids' classmates, and I'm usually done by that point. This year, I decided to make some for friends.

Here they are:

Kinda Like You Set J. Olson


I started by using a Simon Says Stamp stencil and embossing paste for two of the cards, and adding mists to the other two cards. I printed off, fussy cut, and die-cut the different papers and elements. Digital is handy for making card sets...I didn't have to buy multiple packs of die-cuts. 

This one was my favorite:

Kinda Like You Set J. Olson


I took a digital sentiment from Glitz Design's Sunshine in My Soul and opened it in Silhouette Designer Studio. I traced around the letters and added a heart from Lori Whitlock. 

Here are the rest of the cards:

Kinda Like You Set J. Olson


For the Life is Beauty Full card, I used sentiments from Love You Madly (recolored) and Beautiful Dreamer. The "you are my sunshine" is cropped from the full verse, and I adjusted the hue a bit.


Kinda Like You Set J. Olson

I layered the doily, heart, and sentiment from the Love You Madly collection. I love this collection! That grey woodgrain is from the Raven collection. Yep, a Halloween collection, since that's how I roll. :)


Kinda Like You Set J. Olson


This last card is similar to the first, but I backed it with the grey and white polka dot. I love that little arrow from the Wild and Free elements!

What about you--are you making any Valentine's this year? 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week.


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI; (glitter cardstock) Best Creations
Digital elements: (Love You Madly full collection, Yours Truly paper pack, Pretty in Pink paper pack, Yours Truly element pack 2, Finnley element pack 2, Wild and Free element pack 2, Sunshine in My Soul element pack, Raven element pack 2, Beautiful Dreamer element pack 1) Glitz Design at Jessica Sprague
Dies: (small hearts from Large Holiday Shapes) Simon Says Stamp, (large heart from Limitless Layers Hearts, Tag Sale #4) PTI
Stencil: (Falling Hearts stencil) Simon Says Stamp
Cutting Files: (wonky heart from Sugar Rush Love You) Studio Calico
Twine: Lawn Fawn
Embossing paste: Wendy Vecchi


Sunday, February 2, 2014

Sunday Sketch

Hi everyone!

Last weekend, as we were driving across the state for a weekend trip, I got a message from Kelly Noel at Studio Calico. She asked me if I would do the Sunday Sketch on their blog? Um, yes!! I was pretty much thrilled to pieces. :)

You can read more about my projects on the Studio Calico blog, but I wanted to share the photos and close-ups.

Here's the first one:

Sweetie Pie

I followed the sketch, but instead of strips of papers, I stitched the lines. I used the Studio Calico Copper Mountain Card and Project Life kits as well as Printshop papers. The cute frames are from My Favorite Things.

Here's a close-up:

Sweetie Pie

There are a lot of details! LOL!


Here's the second card:


You Mean the World

The card is almost all digi/hybrid. Almost every element is stamped (using the SC Sugar Rush Project Life stamps), including stamping patterned papers for the yellow/white and "be awesome" hearts.

Here's a close-up:

You Mean the World


Thanks for stopping by. If you get a chance, please stop by the Studio Calico blog and check it out. You can play along, too. :)

Have a great rest-of-the-weekend.


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