Project Life 2013.....Week 13 using My Mind's Eye

Hey all, TGIF!  Here's hoping that the Kansas weather calms down a bit.  Our blaring weather radio and my phobia of tornados is playing havoc on my sleeping.  We also had to cancel a big bonfire the girls were going to have because of the weather.

On to Project Life Week 13 though.  This was a fun week because I used mostly My Mind's Eye products for my spread.  I love those 12 x 12 pieces of patterned paper that you can cut into journaling cards.  Here's my 2 page spread.

This was Easter week so the pastel colors fit right in with the theme.  

I got this week's photo scrapbooked in record time due to the everything coordinating. 

Still loving the weekly dated insert.  I added a small Instagram + some ombre letters + date stamps.  You can see in the top left corner that I added some scribbled circles using the fun water soluble pencil in my Art Journaling Kit. I love the softness that the watered down graphite lends.

Here's a photo of Josey with her p-corn.  Always a slang name for everything, this time popcorn.  On the right I had an extra slot so I embellished a 3 x 4 card with a stitched on butterfly sticker then added some enamel dots.  Love that.

It worked out perfectly that the 5 & 7 on this insert was prominent.  I circled those letters then added some more of the graphite pencil + water to highlight the 57 degree temperature.  

My right page was mostly about Easter decor and the dinner we had with my folks.  I'm always looking for fun spots to add journaling and here I typed right onto the photo in the blank spot of a dinner plate.  Just run your photo through your typewriter. 

Here I used the Phonto app to add text to my photo of Swig Sugar Cookies.  This recipe was popular on Pinterest this particular week so I tried them out for Easter dessert. 

Another fun week in the books.  Well, it looks like I'm being talked into heading into town.  The girls want to show me the pool they want + they think they're starving with no groceries in the house.  

Be sure to check out yesterday's post as I've added some new items to the shop.  Have a great weekend everyone!!

Art techniques on cards....Gesso and modeling paste

I'm back today to share a few more art techniques I tried out on the Mixed Florals Card Kit.  For the first technique today I'm using a sheet of the dictionary paper paired with Gesso from the Mixed Media Kit + acrylic paint mixed with water to create a spray mist.  

I spread some Gesso onto the book paper with the palette knife included in the Mixed Media Kit.  I then misted the page with the spray ink.  The result was a soft, altered page that made a perfect background for some other layers and embellishments. 

When you spread on the Gesso to create heavy layers in some spots that leaves a great place for little card sentiments whether you stamp them or type them out and cut them apart like I did below.  

The next technique I tried spreading modeling past onto tags from the card kit using the palette knife and a Pink Paislee stencil.  I then sprayed more paint mist on top, leaving some of the modeling paste white.  

As you can see my colors from my work room are off from the real tags once they dried but you still get the idea.  I love that these look somewhat like old wallpaper with the raised finish.  I'll definitely be trying this out again on cards and such.  If you want more of a worn look you can sand off some of the ink with a fine grit sand paper or sanding block. On a few of the tags, I just spread Gesso with no stencil.

Sometimes when creating a card you'll notice you have some big spaces with not much going on.  Or perhaps you made a mistake and smudged some ink, etc.  

Adding modeling paste with a stencil and a palette knife onto cards is a great way to add some textured interest.  It can cover up those little mistakes or just add another point of interest for the eye to land on.  Here I used a Pink Paislee stencil to add a design to an open area on my card.  I like to create an organic shaped area instead of using the entire stencil or rigid boundaries.  

Here's the finished card once the modeling paste dried and I added the other embellishments.  I really love the look of the modeling paste here.  

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  :)  I'll be sharing some Project Life pages soon + a page from my Dylusions art journal.  

Art techniques on cards....blending with graphite pencil

Hi everyone, hope your week is off to a good start.  This week I'll be sharing two posts showing you how to use some art techniques on your cards.  I'll be working with the Mixed Florals Card Kit shown below. 

I'll also be using the fun products from the Mixed Media Kit.  As a special offer, I'm discounting $5 off your order for those who order the Mixed Media Florals Card Kit and the Mixed Media Kit together, while supplies last. 

First off, I'd like to say that I've definitely been doing a lot of experimenting lately.  Trying new things.  I'm sharing the journey with you and hope that you're inspired to maybe try something new too.  I'm not a professional artist by any means, I'm just having fun and sharing my findings along the way.  

First up is a basic card with no artsy techniques in case you just want to make cards using the card kit only.  I just used items from the card kit + some twine, staples, a stamp(old SU!), washi (Freckled Fawn) and enamel dots (My Mind's Eye). I've been using this card layout on lots of my cards lately.  I can layer all the pieces together, stitch at the top and then just adhere to my card front.  The patterned papers in the card kit are from My Mind's Eye.  

Now onto the art techniques.  Today I'll using the Derwent Graphitone water soluble pencil (from the Mixed Media Kit) on two separate projects.  First up I wanted to show how you can draw simple, straight lines to add some interest to projects.  I used a ruler and just two lines across my strip of patterned paper, see top sample.  The bottom strip of paper shows the results when I wet a paint brush with water and gently colored over the lines.  The graphite in the pencil softens out when mixed with water.  You can see the same effect on the tag below.  I've always been a fan of pencil lines so I just love that I found these blendable pencils.  There is no color per say in the pencil, just the graphite look.  

Here's the finished card I made. You can see that I used the pencil on the horizontal strip, the dictionary paper, under the sentiment and on the tag.  A very soft look on this card using just simple, drawn lines.  

Next up I'm going to show you how to use some masking, spray mist and scribbled circles using the Derwent pencil.  Please excuse these work in progress photos.  They were taken in my work room at different times of the day and the lighting gets wonky due to the lack of good, natural lighting.  

First up, I took a piece of the floral patterned paper from the card kit.  I punched some card stock circles to use as masks over the paper.  I started out misting with white spray ink but the effect didn't show up much. 

I mixed up some craft acrylic paint and water in a mini mister.  You get 3 of these in the Mixed Media Kit.  I love using the acrylic in the misters because you get more of an opaque look.  You can see the misting in the photo below.  I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process.  

For the next step I scribbled some circles using the Derwent pencil.  This is a pretty cool look in itself so you could stop right here if you wanted and use this piece on a project. 

I wanted to show you what the scribbled circles looked like when blended with water so I did this additional step, shown below.  It reminds me of vintage wallpaper which is a look I love to see on projects.  To brighten up the insides of the circles I even took some Gesso from the Mixed Media Kit and applied it to the circles using my fingertip. 

Here's a comparison of the original piece of patterned paper on the left and the altered piece of patterned paper on the right.  

Here's my finished project using the altered piece of patterned paper.  The effect is very subtle and soft. I created a pocket card just using a half sheet of 8.5 x 11 cardstock then stitching up the sides.  

For an insert to write a message or possibly add more stamping, I adhered an index card to a piece of plain cardstock then stitched.  The pocket style card would be great to add a gift card for Mother's Day or graduations, etc. 

Okay, those are my two techniques for today.  I hope you try them out. My next post will show the Mixed Floral Card Kit combined with Gesso and modeling paste from the Mixed Media Kit.  Thanks for joining me today!

Confetti Easter cards...

Hey there, I'm back today to share some Easter cards with you using some new shop products.  My product picks from my shop today are these fun bags of Pastel Confetti Fluff.....

.....and the Small Yellow Glitter Clothespins.

I got a jump start on some Easter cards and packaging and here's what I created.  Some fun cards using confetti bags as a focal points and some simple packaging.  I used about a teaspoon of the confetti fluff in each clear bag...the bag you get comes with about 3 heaping tablespoons so there is lots to work with for cards. 

For my cards I used some new My Mind's Eye papers and stamps.  I stamped the whimsical flower onto Small White Parcel Tags.  For packaging up a fun springy gift, I used Large White Glassine Sacks and Dainty Doilies.

 For cute little clips, I used a Small Yellow Glitter Clothespin and a Glittery Gold Clothespin. I just added some paper flowers to top them off. If  you want to create your own colored, glittery clips I also have plain clothespins in the shop.

Cute and springy cards for my stash.  I'm thinking some fun sugar cookies with lots of pastel sprinkles might be a fun treat for the sacks.

For another treat idea, have you seen my Peep Show Cookie Jars?  This post has been pinned a bunch on Pinterest lately so I thought maybe it was worth sharing again.  The actual blog post is here with the recipe.  I think I'll make up some of these for the little kiddos this year.

Here's hoping Spring will be here soon.  Enjoy!

Friendship Jar cards...using Gossamer Blue kit items

Hello everyone, it' going to be a glorious day.  I slept so well last night, the sun is shining & the snow is melting....it's a chilly 19 degrees this morning but I can feel that Spring will be amongst us soon. And to me that means flowers.  So it's flowers for today's project.  

I compiled this collection of products from the Gossamer Blue March kits.  The colors and patterns here are some of my favorite from the March lineup.  What I really love about Gossamer Blue's kit club is that it offers something for everyone.  It's all about crafting and whatever that encompasses for you.  

Today I'm sharing how I used the kit items with some stamps from my stash.  If you are a stamper I know you have dozens, maybe hundreds of stamps in your crafty arsenal.  The Gossamer Blue kits are perfect to use with your stamps.  It's fun to set up a monthly supply station like I did here and see what you can create.  I selected the supplies you see above and a favorite stamp set of mine, Friendship Jar.  If you are new to my blog, I designed Friendship Jar and and a series of coordinating stamps for Papertrey Ink.  Nichole Heady brought them to life with her wonderful illustrating.  They are stamps that are near and dear to me and it's like reacquainting with an old friend each time I pull them out again.  You can see the entire lineup of Friendship Jar stamps and coordinating dies over at Papertrey Ink here.  

Today I wanted to get a little bit artsy but since I wanted to mass produce the cards I didn't want anything too time consuming.  I stamped my jar and daisy images and then stamped the jars with the polka dot filler pattern.  Then I scribbled some Copic colors in buttery yellows to find just the right colors and then colored my flowers.  I used a grey marker to outline the flowers to make them pop off the page.  

Next I used some of the journaling tags from Elle's Studio that were included in the March Bits & Pieces Kit.  I stamped a sentiment on each tag, trimmed them down and stitched them with my sewing machine. I also created scalloped border strips using the pretty floral paper from the March Add-on Kit #2 + one of the buttery yellow papers.  

Then I decided on a simple card design and went into mass production mode when it came time to assemble my cards. 

I absolutely love the white space and the soft & pretty colors.  Each card is a little different but the basic design is the same.  And except for the base papers, some grid paper, small paperclips and twine, the rest of my embellishments are from Gossamer Blue.  It's such a creative boost to take your kits and challenge yourself to use those items.  No hoarding, the idea is to use up as much of the kits as possible in one month.....knowing there will be new items coming in the next month's kit.  

I also challenged myself to use the Black Color Shine from Heidi Swapp in the March Color Kit.  I love how the tiny sprinkling of ink fills in the white spaces just a bit on my cards.  To get a very controlled area of color, I rip scraps of paper into small pieces and mask off very small areas on my cards.  That way the main image doesn't have blobs of color.  If you want teeny tiny specks, unscrew the spray nozzle from the Color Shine and flick off most of the color onto a scrap piece of paper ( I keep mine in a box to color the overspray)...when there is very little color left then I flick the ink onto my cards.  

For each card, I popped up the sentiment piece with pop dots.  I used a small Elle's Studio tag from the kits underneath + added a small Tim Holtz paper clip for interest.

On each of my cards I also added a tied embellishment to the jars.  I created these using the Mixed Buttons from Fancy Pants and the Chipboard pieces from My Mind's Eye in the March Add-on Kit #2. I absolutely love the stick pins from My Mind's Eye in the March Main Add-on kit.  These are something I probably never would have purchased while shopping online but they were such a fun addition to my cards.  Tiny buttons and enamel dots from other kits were added here and there too.

Oodles of little embellishments and papers that coordinated so well for this batch of cards.  I do hope you give the Gossamer Blue kits a try.

Note:  Most of the the March kits from Gossamer Blue have sold out but quantities will be increasing as Gossamer Blue grows it's number of subscribers.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you make today a GREAT day!  To all my old Papertrey friends, I do hope you stop in to say hello.  :)

Project Life 2013.....Week 4

Today I'm sharing Week 4 of my Project Life 2013.  I'm keeping in mind that I'd like to keep my Project Life to 2 albums this year. This week Josey got her wisdom teeth out so it was quite the big deal at our house.  Instead of creating a separate insert for this week I committed the full right spread of my weekly spread to Josey's wisdom teeth and the left page is for weekly happenings.  

Once again I treated the entire 2 page spread like a traditional scrapbook layout.  I coordinated my papers and embellishments so that the two pages blended together nicely.  This is the left page with the weekly happenings.

 This is the right page, all about Josey getting out her wisdom teeth. I was able to include 8 photos on this side....so much more than I would if I did a traditional layout.  That's what I LOVE about Project Life.  I'm capturing the photos, telling the stories, getting scrappy with it....but it's so much easier using the divided page protectors.  Still a huge fan!

My Calendar Card which replaces the weekly dated card & separate week in review card.  This is a favorite part of my Project Life right now.  I take a little extra time to fancy up this 4 x 6 insert a big.  I always make sure to get the week, the dates that week incurs and a recap of any special events.  My Calendar Card kind of sets the tone for the rest of my inserts. 

On to the 4 x 6 inserts.  I used a large circle tag from Elle's Studio for my title of Twinners and the typewriter journaling.  Monday stamp is from Studio Calico's Project Life kit.

 A special day for the high school kids.  The comedian/song writer Earl Dibbles came to perform at our school for the kids selling the most tickets to a second show that evening. I used another Elle's Studio circle journaling tag + a Medium White Tag.

 Oh poor Josey.  I used 2 Small White Tags with Studio Calico stamps to capture Josey's swelling.

Charlie to the rescue.  He stayed by Josey's side the entire week.  He could sense she was sick and needed some extra protection.  I created a flipper photo to reveal more photos and journaling, see below.

 I needed just a big more space so rather than add an extra insert, I've been creating these flipper photos with Washi tape.  I used a Becky Higgins Project Life grid journaling card with typewriter journaling.

Here I used two 3 x 4 slots to create a mini layout of a typical shopping day.  It's kind of pathetic to admit that grocery shopping and lunch afterwards was like a date for me and my husband.  We need to get out more without the girls. I used a Grid Paper Label for the typewriter journaling and stamped image.

 A typical shot of the living room and a screen shot of the temperature with some stickers added.

Here I used one of my new Grid Paper Arrow Labels for journaling + a vellum pocket tag that I recently had in the shop.  The XL Manila Parcel Tags trim down perfectly to fit into a 3 x 4 slot.

 I used simply index cards to type some more journaling + I slipped a business card into the pocket.  $800 bucks out of pocket expense for 4 wisdom teeth....Josey wasn't the only one hurtin', my checkbook was crying too.

 Here's another little mini layout I created by stretching my typed journaling card over two 3 x 4 cards.  I used the same patterned paper to tie the 2 inserts together.  Stamps are from Evalicious and Kelly Purkey.

So let's hear it Project Lifers.....how are you doing so far in 2013?  I'm caught up all on the weeks but I have some sports inserts to add + a few others.  I still have about 10 inserts to catch up on for 2012.  I need to just do it and get it done with.  I'm thinking simple, divided page protectors will be the way to go.