Another afternoon of last minute cards

 

I love, love, love how these cards turned out.  And they really are quick and easy.

 

I started with white cardstock and a variety of ink mists.  I sprayed blue first.  Then some purple. Then red. A little more blue and purple.  Lots of gold on top.  Remember to let each colour dry before spraying another colour on top.  Just a few minutes, but it prevents the colours from blending and becoming muddy.  The gold Maya Mist on top adds a really pretty shimmer.

 

 

 

I stamped a Christmas message randomly across the surface of my cards with gold ink.

I edged each card in the Inca gold I had used on my last cards.  And then used a fine black pen to scribble a border.

I found some gold thread and cut long lengths.  About an arms length or more.  Then bunched it up and glued down on my card.

I punched snowflakes out of gold paper.  I have three different sized snowflake punches.  Some I layered, some I pop-dotted for dimension and some I just glued straight down. The biggest snowflake was adhered over the gold thread.

Each of the snowflakes got a blingy jewel to dress it up. 

I collaged the matting with bits and pieces of tissue paper, vellum and Christmas patterned papers I had left over from other projects.

These cards are really quick and easy to make, and so pretty IRL with all the shimmery ink, Inca gold, gold thread, gold paper and jewels.  Unforgettable Memories has all the supplies you'll need to create these cards for yourself.

Last minute Christmas card

It's too late to  mail out Christmas cards, but I needed a few for friends in town so I pulled out my Christmas stamps, some spray inks and some gorgeous poinsettia's I picked up Unforgettable Memories a couple weeks ago.

 

I started with white cardstock, red and green spray inks, a background stamp(though I'm thinking I want to try this same technique with a big poinsettia stamp) and a paintbrush. 
I also needed cardstock for the card base.
And 7 Gypsies tissue paper, vellum and Christmas patterned paper for matting.

 
I painted my stamp with the green Maya Mist and covered my white paper with the images.  Then I splattered red ink randomly across my 12 x 12 sheet.

 I cut my patterned sheet into 4" x 5 1/4" rectangles.  I rubbed Viva Gold around the edges.

The Viva Gold had dried up since the last time I used it so I had to add a drop or two of water to it. 

I used my Smash pen (fine tip) to sketch lines around the border.  Then I added a poinsettia in a corner.  Bottom left, top right... either works.

I stamped a Christmas greeting. And then matted with the tissue, vellum and patterned paper before adhering it all to my card base. 

I love how they turned out. Who else made their Christmas cards this year? I hope you'll share.

I'm working on some inky backgrounds for more cards.  I need another half dozen for my work mates.  If they turn out how I hope I'll share tomorrow.

3 kids ROAR

Aug 20 edited to add...
Double page layouts can be tricky sometimes. With this layout I loved the left page and I loved the right page, but once I put them together I felt like the layout was missing something. I was in Unforgettable Memories yesterday and I spotted some new stencils. Tim Holtz stencils. I had to pick up a few.  Three of them, to be exact.  I decided to use the 'clockworks' stencil to add some more design to the background.  Then I used the rest of my inked cheesecloth across the top of my page. 

I think it works much better as a double page layout now.

Love the clockwork stencil.  I used my felt pad and handle to pick up black ink off the stamp pad and patted over the stencil to show the design. 

Scrapfriends has an interesting colour combo challenge this month.  Yellow with different shades of black/grey.  Check it out on their blog...

The colours were perfect for the Halloween photos  had of my three scary monsters.

I had fun with the drips.  I was debating about doing the drips all the way across the top of the page, but the hubby put in his two cents with the opinion three drippy splotches were enough.

Here are some close-ups.

I sprayed the Maya Roads fabric flowers with 'soot' Glimmer Mist. The same colour was sprayed on the cheesecloth.  The stickers are Echo Park.

 

 

'ROAR' is made with alphabet masks and ink. Random stamping adds texture to the background. Strips of washi tape underline my title.  Maya Rds felt birds, Webster's porcelain flowers and cheesecloth embellish the page.

I sanded all sides of the photos and tore a couple edges. I matted with vellum, patterned paper, and some netted product.

 

Cheesecloth and drippy paints and inks are perfect accents on  Halloween layouts.

Blue Halloween

The November challenge at White with 1 is Blueberry. 
Here's my layout...

My background was a lot of fun to make.  I started with white cardstock and sprayed blue chalk mist over a 12 x 12 leaf mask.  Then I used texture paste with a 6 x 6 stencil I picked up at Unforgettable Memories last week.  I know I'll be using this zigzag stencil lots.  It creates great texture on a page.

 

I've also sprayed a darker blue Maya Mist and dribbled some blue ink around the edges.

 

I used a small lid and Making Memories blue paint to create some circles on the background.

 

The blue jewels are Bazzill buttons.

 Here are some close-ups...

 The Halloween stickers are Echo Park.

Washi tape, Kaiser jewels and Prima flowers are some of the embellishments I've used.

The title is made up of a My Little Yellow Bicycle rub-on (Devil) and small square alpha stickers.

I tucked some black feathers in amongst the flowers.

My journaling is on a little note page from My Little Yellow Bicycle.

Blue is not a traditional Halloween colour but it works with my photo. 

Haloween sketch challenge

There are loads of great scrapbook challenge blogs out there. Many of them are sketch challenges.  I love scrapbooking from a sketch.  Half the work is done for me so I can concentrate on the creative part.  I used the sketch at Sketchabilities this month. I hope you will give it a whirl.

My kids are teenagers now and so didn't go trick or treatin' this year.  In fact, I didn't even decorate apart from a couple of new purchases.  The Halloween boxes under the stairs stayed stored away. 

So I found some old photos I hadn't scrapped previously.  My soon to be 19 year old when he was in kindergarten. Love that look of concentration on his face as he works on class projects.

Here's my layout.

Unforgettable Memories has all their Halloween papers and embellishments in one spot.  I chose a couple of Carta Bella pattern papers. My background is the text patterned paper with a skeleton in one corner. Love it!

 

I used some yellow and green acrylic paint as well as some 'soot' Glimmer Mist to further colour the background.

 

The stickers are from an Echo Park Halloween pack.

Cheesecloth has a great texture and is perfect for Halloween pages.  I sprayed mine with the 'soot'  Glimmer Mist and used under and around my photos.  I also used some black Prima flowers as embellishments.  

There are lots of layers under my photo.

My title is Doodlebug alpha letters and a big red Bazzill brad heart.

 

Check out sketchabilities for some great sketches and play along.

One final October challenge

I completed a fifth and final October challenge.  I entered it just under the wire. Didn't have time to post it here during the week, so I'm taking time out of my house cleaning chores to do it now. Any excuse... LOL

 The Kraft It Up challenge.

October's challenge was to use blue, orange, white/cream and, of course, kraft.

I used my ray mask again.
The big flower is BoBunny.  I pulled up the center bling, popped in the small blue flower and glued the center bling back in.  I used my Kaiser stamp and 'pinecone' ink for the journaling columns. And I stamped some little stars in orange from a mini stamp that came with one of my mini alpha sets.

I used stickers and orange patterned paper from the Echo Park Halloween pack I got at last winters Unforgettable scrapbook retreat.  The stickers are the triangle pieces I used on my mini banner below. 

One of the Smash pockets is tucked under the photos on the right hand page to hold extra photos. I embellished my layout with printed kraft flowers by Graphic 45, some mini orange blooms and the wood veneer camera by Kaiser.

I used another of the clear frames by Harmonie to frame my little guys while they watched Papa chop wood for their bonfire.  Nice to know Papa didn't hand the ax to one of my little hooligans! I pop dotted the photo to bring it forward a little.

I also pop dotted the photo of Pysanka's big egg and wrapped twine around the bottom, embellished with a mini orange bloom.

Kraft It Up is a fun challenge blog. Novembers challenge is to use flairs, wood veneers or enamel dots on kraft.  I have wood veneers, though I think a shopping trip to Unforgettable Memories is in order to beef up my stash.

White with 1 challenge

Have you ever played White with 1?  The challenge this month is to create a layout with white and watermelon (peachy pink).  Players are permitted to use up to 15% black along with the white and watermelon. Here's my layout.

I picked up the 'rays' stencil/mask at the last evening crop Unforgettable Memories hosted and have been eager to use it ever since.  I sprayed my pink Glimmer Mist over it. 

I used my snowflake embossing punch along the right edge and then just a punch or two on the top and left edges. I really love how this tool punches out the snowflake and also embosses a design on the rest of the border strip.  It is so pretty!

Some closeups...

 Prima flowers, some twine, a Smash stamp and a Kaiser wood bird clustered together make a pretty corner embellishment for my photo.

Love the corduroy brads I used in the center of the flowers.  They are Pink Paisley. The clear frame is from a pack by Harmonie. The black feathers are from a Halloween boa that is falling apart and dropping feathers throughout my home.

 On the rays I glued strips of black polka dot patterned paper from a BoBunny Halloween paper pack given to me at the winter crop Unforgettable Memories puts on, out at the Blueberry.  I also added strips of netting and text washi tape to the rays. And I used my Smash date stamp. My journaling also followed the angle of the rays.

Check out the White with 1 challenge blog and play along. ~ Heather

Blue and green

Blue and green is the challenge over at Scrap the Boys this month.  I don't often use these two colours together as the main theme.  I can remember my Dad when he was helping me pick my outfit for the day when I was in elementary school rhyming ~
"Blue and Green,
should never be seen!"

Here's my background.  I love all the texture!

I used one of my Tim Holtz masks. I used white texture paste ~ the green came off my mask as I was swiping the past across my page.  Guess who doesn't clean off her masks very well after use?
I tried to hold this up in the light so you could see the shimmer from the mists but it still looks better IRL.

And here's the completed layout.  Washi tape on the top and bottom edges, We R Memory Keepers patterned paper as mattes and lots of Prima flowers.  The wood leaves are Kaiser and I have a cute little Jolee's Bird in a Cage sticker.

Here are some closeups of my embellishments...

I punched the little bird and the green leaves out of some Prima packaging. Layered lots of Prima blooms.

Had to get a little camera in there.  The "oh, snap!" is the Smash date stamp.

Check out the little bird in a cage.  Isn't he cute.  It looks like he's looking right at Daniel getting a Papa haircut.

I'm sure all of us have 'boy' photos to scrap so I hope some of you will participate in this challenge.
~Heather

A sketch challenge

I love the sketch at Once Upon A Sketch this month. And stretching it into a two pager works too.

Here's the sketch...

And here's my layout...

 

Lots of Prima on this layout, and various scraps of patterned paper I had lying around my desk.  I love the strips of jewels.  Unforgettable Memories has 6" lengths and 12" lengths. The ones I used on this page are 6" purple bling.

 

 

If you are scrapbooking this weekend and are looking for some inspiration there are lots of sketch blogs to check out.  Try Once Upon A Sketch for a great sketch and lots of creative ideas.