Tray Tuesday....holiday cards with embossing + watercolor

It's Tray Tuesday and today I'm sharing the watercoloring process I used on these cards over on the Gossamer Blue blog.  In my tray, which is a vintage wooden utensil tray, I have the Get Happy holiday collection from Gossamer Blue.  

Get Happy is wonderful holiday collection of patterned papers, embellishments and stamps.  There's the traditional red and green plus a lot of fun colors and patterns mixed it.  Just what I like in a scrapbooking collection. 

So these are the holiday cards I created with the Get Happy collection.  I mixed in my own cardstock bases, ledger paper, twine and sentiments. 

All of the focal images on the cards are images from the Get Happy stamp set.  I used journaling cards for easy bases and embossed all the images with gold embossing powder.  Next I got out my watercolor set and mixed up a nice holiday green that coordinated with the patterned papers from Get Happy.  I first painted over and around my embossed images with clean water.  Then I dipped my brush into the green paint and let it bleed into the water soaked paper.  

The paint soaked into the wet areas, creating a wonderful organic look.  I especially love it looks with the embossed wreaths.  I also dipped my brush in paint and flicked more paint onto my journaling cards.

You can see the shiny look of the embossing against the watercolor really well in the photo below.  I colored in the snowflakes too which gave the appearance of stained glass.  I had my gold leaf pen handy so I ran that along the edge of all my painted pieces.

Lots of paper layer and some red stitching for a fun, homespun look. 

I finished my cards with lots of wood veneer pieces, hand cut flags, paper clips, typed sentiments and gold baker's twine. 

The gold embossing and all the little gold finishing touches really make the cards sparkle and shine. 

Add in some woodgrain paper and wood accents and you a little woodland look to holiday projects. 

Six holiday cards in my stash. That's a good thing. 

It's early in the season so you could definitely break the steps down into separate crafting sessions.  Maybe do the embossing one day and the watercoloring another day.  Maybe the rest of your items could be organized and ready to go in a fun tray.  You know I love that idea.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I haven't forgotten about Halloween this week...or Thanksgiving...but it's always good to see samples and have a plan, right?  While we're talking about the Christmas holiday....the December Memories kit is coming right along.  Final products are making their way to Lori and we'll be seeing more sneaks hopefully soon.  So stay tuned.  :)

Project Life 2012, Week 48 + Project December inserts...

Hello everyone.  Like you, my heart is heavy this morning as I think about the folks in Connecticut.  Please keep them in your prayers and use this as a reminder this holiday season that family is what matters most.....not stressing over shopping, baking, decorating and feeling overwhelmed.  Just stop what you're doing and be with your family.  

Long post today....lots to share.....be sure to check the bottom of the post for a fun guest spot I'm doing this month over at 2Peas.  

Today I'm sharing Week 48 of my Project + December....my combination of my Project Life + Daily December happenings.   It was pretty much just a regular week for us but I wanted to jump start my December pages with some festive looking inserts.  Below is my 2 page spread of what would be my regular Project Life pages for this week. I used lots of October Afternoon, Elle's Studio, Studio Calico, Gossamer Blue kit items, American Crafts chipboard letters, etc. 

The left page, with a fun December insert kicking off the holiday season.  I used the red chipboard letters to carry the festive color throughout my 2 page spread.  The Week in Review insert was one that was pre-made by me earlier.

This is the right page of the 2 page spread.

This week I have 5 inserts + my December monthly page divider.  Here's what all the inserts look like sandwiched in between the main 2 page, 12 x 12 layout.  

If you've followed my process then you know that I like to keep all of my inserts smaller than 12 x 12 if possible.  This way the 12 x 12 layout shows through and all of the inserts are like little bonus pages.  I'm so pleased that I've found an approach that works for me.  I'll be continuing this with my 2013 Project Life.  No extra albums, it all goes into my Project Life albums....which I've found is 2 per year, including all inserts.  I just have to be care to not bulk up the pages to much with lofty embellishments.

Here's another shot of my full spread with some of the insert pages, the pages are just turned.  Thumbing through my albums is somewhat an interactive process for the reader.  The different size pages are fun to turn and the short stories + the photos all make up a wonderful week of our lives.  

How do I decide what goes into the inserts vs. what goes into the weekly spread? I find that my day to day activities with a single photo go into the main 2 page spread inserts.  Any big event like a birthday, a fun road trip, a graduation, or just stellar photos that I want to highlight by enlarging them go into my inserts.  I'm loving selecting a few photos and enlarging them to 5 x7 or larger.  

On to the 4 x 6 inserts of the main, 2 page spread. This is the main weekly insert, marking that December is here.  You'll notice the dimensional badge here.  I've found that my inserts make the center of my album bulkier than the outside.  By using a badge like this every once in a while, it adds a little bulk to even out the pages when the album is closed. I like to place them on the outside of the page protector.  The tactile feel is fun for the viewer. 

Am loving adding some photos of meals into my albums.  It just rounds out our weekly events. 

Here I have a photo that is actually a flap that opens to reveal another photo + journaling.  

Josey crafted me this absolutely beautiful walnut cutting board.  It's one of those things that you will just treasure forever.  Handmade.  From the heart.  My favorite kind of gift.

Sports are always part of our weekly activities.  They sometimes don't fit into a holiday theme but I have to make them work.  It's just so much a part of our weekly lives. Here I used a 3 x 4 insert with star patterned paper + some Studio Calico wood veneer stars + a Studio Calico Mistables arrow that I stamped with stars. The stars are holiday-like but really allude to my little super star basketball players. 

The 3 x 4 inserts....here I have my Week in Review which uses a manila tag from my shop, a glittered snowflake that I made earlier + a photo of a favorite snack.  Don't get these, they're horrible, yucky, gross.

2 more inserts using a pre-made card from my stash with added sticker letters + an Elle's Studio journaling card with some gold striped Washi tape added.  

The weather always makes it into my pages.  I simply take a screen shot then print it.  Charlie is decked out in orange.  He got to go for a ride with the hunters so we dressed him in an orange t-shirt so he wouldn't be mistaken for a deer if he happened to jump out and go for a run. Hunters are required to wear this bright orange amongst their camo attire. 

Here, Josey is sporting her camo shirt and hat.  I called her Jose Ebere and she had no clue who I was talking about.  The hair dresser.  

Okay, now on to the inserts.  This is a Becky Higgins Project Life monthly plastic divider.  I covered it with gold polka dot vellum, added an embossed Ali Edwards stamp + a December sticker from October Afternoon then stitched it with my red thread I'm using this holiday season.

Before stitching I added a white paper doily from my shop + I sprinkled in some confetti glitter/snow mix that I mixed up earlier. I love how it shows through on the back side of the divider.  I think I might go back and do this to all my monthly dividers.  And I'll definitely be doing this to all of my dividers for 2013.  You could easily add a thin strip of typed journaling or perhaps save this for the end of the month and stitch on some month in review photos.  Lots of possibilities, I'll have to take some notes. :)

Here I have a 5 x7 photo that I enlarged of our fireplace mantel.  I chose to mainly decorate the mantel and put up the tree this year, keeping the other decorations in the house minimal.  I added the journaling  using the Phonto app for my iPhone.  I plan to scour my Chalkboard Board on Pinterest and actually add a holiday greeting soon.  

Turning the page, I have (2) 5 x7 inserts, the left is a photo of a holiday decorated fireplace mantel from the antique shop we road tripped to recently.  It inspired my fireplace mantel makeover which is shown on the right.  The photo on the right is actually a 4 x 6 photo adhered to one of the 5 x 7 inserts I made previously. 

A few simple embellishments makes for nice, simple pages.  

Turning the pages once again, I have close ups of my fireplace mantel + a little story about being home for the holidays.  I'll show you my vintage finds from the antique shop road trip soon.  

Journaling about my thoughts on being home for the holidays.  I used one of my pre-made 5 x7 page inserts along with a circle journaling tag from Elle's studio, chipboard letters + one of the painted, glittered snowflakes I created earlier. Just scroll down for lots of posts on how I pre-made a lot of my inserts & embellishments my December pages. 

The 4 x6 pre-made insert on the right page.  I added a doily, glittered snowflake, journaling, chibboard letters + lots of red stitching.

Turn the page and here's the backside of the previous insert.  It's a Becky Higgins 10 x 12 divided page protector.  I used lots of photos from a recent visit to Target + my thoughts all the "stuff" out there these days.  The 4 x 6 insert is filled with (2) pre-made journaling cards.  

On the left I added lots of stickers from October Afternoon + red lines of machine stitching.  On the right I added an October Afternoon "today" sticker + some fun silver sticker letters. 

Below is a simple 8.5 x 11 insert that holds a ripped sheet from a Pottery Barn catalog.  I tore out some favorite pages from catalogs to keep in case I needed some fillers.  And whaddya know, I needed something here.  I added a pre-made stamped piece using Ali Edwards stamps + a glittered wood snowflake.  And of course some red stitching.  I added some confetti glitter to kind of cover up some words on the bottom of the catalog page. 

Okay, still with me.  Whew, my fingers are getting sore from typing.  ;)  This is the back side of the above page.  It holds some hand written notes from the girls and me to Eric.  He was unable to make it to the first basketball game of the season and we all just hated it.  It's rare that Eric or I miss a game of the girls.  

My pre-made embellished vellum envelope was adhered to the outside of the page protector.  I used 2 long strips of Washi tape to hold it down.  This way the envelope is easily accessible and the note that will be tucked inside can be taken out easily. 

Okay, that's it for the first week of my Project + December.  Wowzers, that was a lot!  I'm very happy to report that aside from just a few inserts I am officially caught up with my Project Life.  2 full albums almost done for 2012.  That. is. awesome. in. my. book.  All the hard work paid off because I love my albums.  A total labor of love.  

Hey one more thing....I'm guesting this month over at 2Peas for Lisa Truesdell's Captured Project Life class.  Please join Lisa as she shares some of her Project Life pages + mine + another awesome Project Life friend.  And check this link out to shop for a lot of the fun products I've used for this week's pages.  Thanks for joining me today.  Have a blessed day everyone.  I'm off to make a big crock pot full of chili & spend time with my sick, little Jordy + the rest of the family by our tree.  

My Pieces of Me Kit...

This Summer I've decided to cut down a bit on my work schedule while the girls are home from school.  I plan to do two things in particular....spend quality time with the girls and spend more time working on some "just for fun" projects for me.  

One of the projects that I'm particularly excited about is Maggie Holmes' Pieces of Me workshop that's currently offered at 2Peas.  It's theme is centered around creating a mini album that is all about YOU.  Little bits and pieces about who you are and what you love.  I sat down this morning and wrote two full pages of things I want to include in my album. There is a kit that 2Peas is offering to go along with the workshop but I opted to design my own using items from my shop.    I offered some of my kits up in the shop (sold out now) and you can see the details and fun inspiration photos in this post.  Here's what my main kit looks like:  

My album will be 4 x 8 and I'll be using lots of Instagrams  and typed lists.  As you can see in the main kit photo above, I chose a color scheme of soft robin's egg blue, a peachy orange, olive green, cream/white and Kraft + grey.  I decided to add to my main kit with a few other products I chose after I shopped my own stash of goodies.  I'm placing all my supplies in this wicker tray and will keep it out on table #2 in my work room.  My plan is to dabble with the album and work on it here and there.

Here's some of the supplies I've added to my main kit.  Spray mists from October Afternoon and Studio Calico.  I want to experiment with my supplies and see what fun techniques I can try.  Big splatters and masking is on the list.  

While shopping my stash, I reached for some of my favorite items.  Vintage button cards are high on the list.  I'll use baker's twine to tie individual buttons that are from the main kit.

Washi tape is a new obsession.  3 whole stacks that have colors that coordinate with my kit colors.  Love this stuff..

Small tags and die cuts to use for journaling or to layer small embellishments.  Love these from Banana Fish Studio.

Sacks of all kinds from my shop + little coin envelopes, etc.  These are perfect for tucking in receipts, journaling tags, extra photos, etc.

Little buttons and baubles that I hand picked from my stash.  I selected a few favorites that I've been hoarding.  Wood buttons are becoming a new favorite embellishments.  I see a trend developing with lots of wood items.  Or maybe I'm behind and just now noticing.  ;)

Tags and more tags for journaling.  I want to experiment with more layering and stitching on tags.  My sewing machine should get a work out for sure.  I'll also be using lots of my Grid Labels that I'll run through my vintage typewriter.  My handwriting is large so the typed journaling helps save space.

Vintage trims of all kinds, including laces, ric racs, pieces of old doilies, circles cut from cutter quilts, velvet trim, seam binding and more.  Definitely pieces of me.

Embossing powders.  These always get stuck in the corner just like Baby but I'm hoping to experiment with some fun techniques.  I thought these colors were just perfect for my album.

And last minute I realized that I'll need some more page inserts.  I reached for lots of neutrals + a few new My Mind's Eye Indie papers that I just picked up at Archivers last weekend.  I just shuffled them all together and will select papers randomly.  Lots of the patterns will be covered by the Instagrams and embellishments so I'm not worried about patterns being too bold.

And that's a wrap.  I tucked everything in my basket and it's ready to go.  I took some time last night and watched all of Maggie's videos and looked all the albums from the class contributors.  Way to represent, girls!  Awesome class and I highly suggest it if you're looking to do a little something for "just you".  

Note:  I've several emails for requests to re-stock my Summer Cottage Kit.  I'm sorry but I just don't have the albums, etc to recreate full kits.  But if you look at the top photo of today's post or go to my original post about my kit, you'll see that there are tons of items from my shop that are available as individual items.  You could easily stock up on tags, etc and make up your own kit in no time.  

I'm hoping to report my progress if it's something you'll be interested in.  Just let me know by leaving a comment....let me know if you're taking on this project, how you planned your album, what you plan to include.  I'd love to hear from you.  

In shop news:

Thank you for the Washi love, I'm ordering new rolls with every batch but if there's some in particular that you'd like a repeat of just let me know.  Also, look for a brand new batch of sacks coming soon.  I am fresh out of everything and have had lots of requests.  You got it!

Have a great day everyone!