Paper Lovelies DT Call!

As most of you know, I'm on the DT for the best kit club around - Paper Lovelies (See my blog post from Wednesday for the May kit reveal). Well, Carrie is looking for 2 more DT members, and the deadline is fast approaching - you only have a couple more days to apply! Send your design team submissions until May 1 to info@paperlovelies.com Submit 2 projects- also, the 2 design team members that are chosen will be announced on Facebook May 2, without any prior notice. Carrie is such a sweet and warm person, and this DT is very fun and stress-free to design for, so I encourage you all to apply!

Another Some Odd Girl Card!

Today I'm sharing another card I made using the newly release Nouveau stamp set from Some Odd Girl. For this one, I used 6x6 "She Art" papers from Pink Paislee and a Cottage Cuts/My Little Shoebox die to cut the little clouds out. Yesterday, on the Some Odd Girl Blog, the DT posted some more samples using this adorable stamp set, so be sure to stop by! I used Copics to color the stamp.

More Kaisercraft goodness!

On Monday, I shared a new card with you using Kaisercraft's Bonjour line and today, I have two layouts using "Nan's Favourites" collection from Kaisercraft. How did I get my hands on it? Well, luckily it's all part of the May Paper Lovelies kit :) You get all the paper, the die-cut elements, the recipe cards, and some cute Kaisercraft wood flourishes and red Kaisercraft mini alphabet stickers. I really loved working with this kit, it was so me!

First up, I have "The Sweet Life"

My second LO is "SWEET". I die-cut the leaf sprays out of the brown b-side of one of the sheets from the collection - I love how neutral the backs are! The felt roll up flowers are from Kat Scrappiness.

Thank you all for stopping by, and make sure you check out Paper Lovelies!

Scrapbook Steals Deal :)

Hi guys, just a quick announcement that Scrapbook Steals - they have daily deals on scrapbooking supplies- is having a deal on the Imaginisce I-Rock tool and gems today on their site, so if you were thinking of getting one, today's the day. Also, ScrapbookSteals.com has a Blog, so be sure to check it out for various updates, project ideas, and info. I've used the I-Rock a lot, and I wanted to share a couple pages that I made before, using the "Sole Sisters" collection from Imaginisce. I love that the gems are heat set so they don't come off and there's no glue to mess with. First is "Girly Girl". I made that black bling swirl myself, using one of the I-Rock templates :)

And "I Pick You". I love that you can get metal studs - those heat up and set within just a couple seconds and they look very modern. Perfect for a more masculine LO.

Blog Hop!

Hi everyone, welcome to my stop on the Imaginisce and My Little Bit of Whimsy (MLBOW) blog hop! As part of the Imaginisce DT< I was lucky enough to get a package of really adorable hand-sculpted buttons and stick pins from MLBOW. I created two layouts to show off some of my cute new embellies. First up, I have a layout using the Hippity Hop and Makin' Waves collections from Imaginisce. I kept it on the clean and simple side (or as clean and simple as it possibly ever gets for me :) I really wanted to keep all embellies to a minimum to show off the super cute MLBOW goodies - I used a polka-dot button, cute mushroom and ladybug, and the flower-shaped yellow button. I also used lots of die-cuts from the Hippity Hop collection - I so love that line!

For my second layout, I just had to use the "Sole Sisters" collection from Imaginisce to scrap this picture I got of meeting Sofie. Sofie is the owner of Scrapmatts (and she lives in Australia), but she was vising USA, and I finally got to meet her (after a year and a half of being on her DT!). I used lots of various buttons from MBOW, as well as a purse stick pin. It went perfectly with this collection. I also used some Scrapmatts laser-cut chipboard high heels and a purse. One of the high heels I heat embossed with Cotton Candy WOW Embossing powder from the Suzy West collection, and the other one I inked, and then hear embossed with clear glitter embossing powder, also from WOW. The purse, I heat embossed with Honey Earthtone Suzy West Collection powder.

Here is the blog hop order, in case you get lost:
Imaginisce blog
Rhonda Van Ginkel
Zoe
Ilene Tell (that's me! :)
MLBOW blog

So your next (and final) stop is the MLBOW Blog!

Nouveau Girls stamp release!

This month, two new stamps are being released for the Nouveau collection by Some Odd Girl. The first one I will show you today. Make sure you check out the Some Odd Girl Blog to see more samples of the projects made with this new stamp set by other team members. To color the stamp, I used Copics, and to make the card, I used the 6.5x6.5 paper pad from the gorgeous "Bonjour" collection by Kaisercraft. It just never gets old! The pretty crocheted doily is from Kaisercraft as well.

WOW Blog Hop

Today is the the blog hop for the amazing WOW Powders! All the girls are sharing some awesome projects, so be sure to stop by all the blogs to see all the cool stuff you can do with embossing powders and the adorable stamps Suzy designed for WOW. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win a WOW prize, so be sure to stop by all the blogs and leave some love :)

So here is my project - I made a card using some old antique vintage Daisy D's paper swatches. I used a laser-cut chipboard vase from Scrapmatts and covered it with a couple layers of Ultra High Metallic Copper WOW embossing powder - ultra means it's very thick, like Utee. For the flowers, I used some very old ... antique ... vintage Prima flowers. Yep - those ones that came in super funky colors, and definitely ones that you're ready to trash. Well, hold on to them - I used gold embossing powder to give them a metallic look. Since they already came with all the texture and ridges, they were ready to go. For the leaves, I ripped the petals off one of the larger flowers and embossed them with Metallic Green - and there you have some pretty "metal" leaves. And the brads are "vintage" Making Memories brads. So I think this card is a great example on how adding a little embossing powder and altering your supplies can breath some fresh air into them no matter how "vintage" they are.

Here's the blog hop order:
Suzy Solorzano West
Angel West Bartonico
Donna O'leary
Sesil Chavez Cratin
Ilene Tell
Lara Yamamoto Scott
Tina McDonald

So next, hop on over to the talented Lara!

Altered Love Frame

My dad's birthday was on April 13th (yep, this past Friday the 13th), so I decided to make him an altered art piece to hang at home. This is a fairly large piece - for the center, I used a 12x12 sheet of Punky Playground (corrugated cardboard from Punky Sprouts), so this gives you some idea of the overall dimensions. The frame was an unfinished wooden frame I got at Michael's fairly cheaply (especially since I used a 50% off coupon). I then misted it with brown, and then used my Prima "Brick Wall" mask to heat emboss with WOW Embossing Powder. I used a ton of gorgeous Scrapmatts laser-cut chipboard here, all heat embossed with WOW Embossing Powder. I also used the Earthtone Olive powder on some of the peachy leaves from IAmRose.com. I also love how the birdcage and frame around the photo came out looking like metal when embossed with Metallic Copper. The collection is Kasiercraft "Sweet Nothings", and I still can't get enough of it :) I used the papers and the die cuts from the collection. The flowers are from Petaloo and Recollections.

Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop on the blog hop! Imaginisce paired with The Twinery, and they do make such a great pair. I received a gorgeous range of twine in all colors of the rainbow and then some, and they were so fun to play with.

Since this is a blog hop, there are of course some fabulous giveaways up for grabs - 6 of them to be exact! Imaginisce will be giving away 3 Makin' Waves collections (valued at $37):

And The Twinery is giving away the "I Dream In Twine" package to 3 lucky winners as well (valued at $32):

To be entered to win, you must leave comments on each participating blog on the hop throughout the week. The deadline to comment is midnight EST, Sunday, April 22. Winners will be announced on each company blog on Monday, April 23rd.

For my project, I decided to scrap a picture of my kids from this Easter - we got to snap a quick photo with the Easter bunny....I'm told he was very soft :) I used the adorable Hippity Hop collection and of course lots of twine - to tie on top of the birdcage, to thred through a button, to tie through a button, to outline borders, and of course to make the cute flowers. To make the flowers, I cut circles out of cardstock and added adhesive, then wrapped twine around it in a circle, starting from the center. Then I ran them through my Big Shot with the flower die from Tim Holtz - Mini Tattered Florals (Movers and Shapers). Easy enough!

In case you get lost, here is the order for the blog hop:

The Twinery Blog

Imaginisce Blog

Karola Witczak

Mary Ann Jenkins

Tifany DeGough

Ilene Tell (that's me :)

Dorangela Bobet

Regina Mangum

So please leave a comment, subscribe if you like, and next, hop on over to Dorangela!

Morgan is making cards!

Just had to share - how cute is this card she made for her friend's birthday :)

Love Grows On Trees

I love this "Up In The Trees" line by My Little Shoebox. MLS had a product exchamge with Punky Sprouts, so I was able to get my hands on this cute line. The heart woodgrain paper is my favorite. The papers and stickers that came with it are so adorable, and I had to scrap this picture of my son with it. To make the page a little more boyish, I added some elements that were a little more rough-and-tumble using some fun Punky Sprouts supplies. First, I created this tattered flower using my Punky Sprouts Lil' Blossoms. Punch a small circle out of paper to act as your base. Then, roughly fold a few layers into triangular shapes and staple them to the circle. Then, add a flower center to hide the staples and ink the edges for an even more boyish look. I also used the new Punky Sprouts Cork Lil' Petals. To have them fit better on this LO, I trimmed them down - I was able to get 3 or 4 smaller banners out of each larger banner. Then, add some metal brads to the middle to finish off, and you're done! The title comes from the little hearts that are hanging off the trees, and the fact that some things in life are hard to get (as in, money doesn't grow on trees), but loving my son is completely effortless :) Hence, the jounraling to go along with it.

Dropping by to say "hello"....

I'm so in love with my cute Gorjuss stamps. Here I used the "Alice" stamp, colored with Copics, again paired witht he super versatile My Little Shoebox "Lovely Day" line. Love the colors in this collection! MLS papers are so perfect for making cards using stamped images, since the journaling spots act as perfect, ready-made mats for the images.

Funky birthday card :)

A quick and fun birthday card to share using a Greeting Farm stamp (thanks Ali!) colored with Copics, and again using My Little Shoebox "Lovely Day" line. I just love this paper - it goes SO well with SO many things!

10 Questions For Morgan

It's time for my annual mini album, where I ask Morgan 10 questions about her life at that particular moment in time. I've done it the past couple year, and I got the idea from Hilde Janbroers. It's so fun to look back and read the responses. I used the new "Lovely Day" collection by My Little Shoebox - the colors, cute stickers and images, and the wonderful journaling spots were perfect for this mini. For my last year's mini I also used a My Little Shoebox line. Like I siad, the sheet that has all the journaling spots that you can cut apart is just perfect for a mini like this. I used a "vintage" Bo Bunny acrylic album, and added some AC clear buttons to one page, and eyelets to another, to add some definition to the edges, so they wouldn't disappear.

Also, I have to share that I will not be staying on for another year at MLS - if you notice my side-bar, you can see it's gotten a little busy there, and I want to make sure I have enough time to give full attention to all my teams, so I needed to cut back. But it was a very difficult and sad decision, and I will miss MLS very much - the company and the team were so wonderful to work with. Of course, I have a very beloved stash of MLS products to keep me scrapping with their supplies for a long time :)

Imaginisce Easter week!!

Hey guys, all this week we're celebrating Easter on the Imaginisce blog! Make sure you stop by daily to check out cute projects, home decor, cards and layouts from the wonderful DT. Here's a cute little card I made - I used a Punky Sprouts doily, Imaginisce Fabric Flowers, Imaginisce "Hippity Hop" collection and canvas sticker, as well as die-cuts, and of course my favorite I-Rock bling :)

Some Odd Girl cards!

For my projects for Some Odd Girl this month, I decided to do something a little bit different - I thought it would be fun to compare different mediums for coloring stamped images. To make it easier to compare, I used one stamp set for all three cards - "Believe" - and the same paper line - "vintage Vogue" by Pink Paislee. Don't forget - you can click on the images for a magnified view.

Here's the first card, where I used watercolor paper and watercolor paints. I also tried acrylic paints, but they had too much thickness/too much "body" for such a small canvas. With practice, it might be possible to make it work, but I'm not sure it's worth it since there are so many other wonderful options out there. I only tried acrylics because I LOVE them for painting in general. Anyhoo, here's the card, using Bliss and Vintage Vogue:

Here's the second card, this one using Bristol smooth paper and coloring pencils - I have a 120 pencil Primacolor set. I really loved coloring with the pencils, and I will be doing more of that - you have more control over them than the other mediums, I think. Here's the card:

And a close-up of Bliss:

And finally, here is Bliss again, this time colored with my latest obsession, Copic markers. I made this card a couple months ago, actually.

Ok, so here are all three cards together, for the sake of comparison:

So what do you guys think, could you have been able to tell what I used where if I hadn't told you first? Can you tell the mediums apart, and do you like one better than the other? I'm guessing it's all a matter of personal preference :) For me, I will be holding onto my Copics and Prismacolor pencils, and maybe try various artsy effects using watercolors. Thanks for looking!