Paper Poppy June Kit Reveal

The Paper Poppy June kit Little Miss Sunshine was revealed today. Oh gosh, isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? *swoon* I love her. For more pics and details, please hop over to the Paper Poppy blog HERE or over to the store HERE.

Thanks Core'dinations!

This week Imaginisce and Core'dinations are hosting a blog swap. The super generous folks at Core'dinations Cardstock sent our entire Imaginisce design team three huge packs of their cardstock to play with. Here's a look at some ways that I used it.

For this layout, I used a sheet of green Whitewash Core'dinations cardstock. The clouds were cut from the white side of the cardstock and inked blue around the edges. You can just barely see the amazing texture on the front side of this collection. To create the dunes, I tore the cardstock revealing the green core. And then for the grass stalks, I tore some small strips and twisted them so that you can see both colors.

For this card, I used a sheet of magenta Core Essentials. I embossed it with Cuttlebug's fleur de lis embossing folder and then lightly sanded the surface to reveal the white core.

For this layout, I used a turquoise sheet of Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock. I thought the pearlescent finish was just perfect for my waves. They are embossed with Cuttlebug's circles folder. Very splashlike, don't ya think?

Core'dinations has a huge collection of cardstocks in multiple colors and finishes. It is heavy duty and has so many possibilities. You can see many more amazing ways to use this product at Imaginisce's blog HERE and the Core'dinations blog HERE. And....both manufacturers are having GIVEAWAYS! Don't miss out on the goodies.

Treasured Memories May Layout

Unfortunately, my scrappy stars did not align this month, so I am not able to attend the Treasured Memories May meeting. *sniff* *sniff* My layout has been ready to go for a week, and I soooooooo wanted to share it. Well, since I can't take the layout to Lafayette, how about I post it here?

As you can see, Janet gave me some wonderful paper this month! Green at Heart by Basic Grey. LOVE it! In addition to the paper, I got the coordinating sticker sheet, a strip of Prima Bloomers, a Pink Paislee Artisan Element frame, and some Bo Bunny brads. Loved it all!

For my Pink Paislee artisan frame, I doused it with Ranger Ink's Alcohol Ink. It just soaked it up and turned into a deep copper color. So rich. I made those flowers: one from punched scallops layered on top of each other and the other from punched circles attached to the back of a button.

Two more of my handmade flowers clustered together with some of the coordinating stickers. How cute are those little critters? I also added in some Pink Paislee Bella brads that I had left over from another project. Janet has those in the store, too.

I used my Making Memories Slice Animal Crackers cartridge to cut this butterfly. I used one of the coordinating Basic Grey sticker stackers for its center. And then I used about half a tin of Bo Bunny brads for its trail

Some journaling strips and another sticker stacker finish it off. Oh, and all the large circles are backed with green cardstock that I scalloped with my good ole Fiskars scissors. Not easy, I tell ya. But all my messups are covered by pictures and clusters. LOL!

Hope all those Treasured Memories girls had a great meeting! And I can't wait to see all their fabulous layouts (hint! hint!). Mine is going to be all boxed up and sent off to the store this week, so Janet can put it on the wall.

And if you haven't signed up for the Treasured Memories Rayne Forest crop, Janet still has a few spots left. You can find all the details as well as online sign-up HERE. See you there!

Soooo Excited to See This!

Trish Harwick - USA
Renata Moni - Brazil
Suzanne Torr - England
Myia Manghum - USA
Yuka Hino - Japan

Jenn DiPaolo - Canada
Annelie Maddock - New Zealand
Julia Stainton - Canada
Avina Lim - Australia
Edith Ezanno - Canada

Susan Goetter - USA
Aphra Bolyer - USA
Annette Lose - Australia
Jennifer Shaw - Canada
Kerryn Lawson - Australia

Helena Johansson - Sweden
Tanya Tahir - Australia
Stephanie Hart - Canada
Kaori Watanabe - Japan
Marielle LeBlanc - Canada

Wati Basri - Singapore
Patti McCarthy - Canada
Nicole Nowosad - Canada
July Gaceta - Philippines
Jill Sarginson - Canada

I'll be designing alongside these talented ladies from June until September. What an honor, hun? My first reveal is on June 9th and it couldn't come soon enough! Thanks, Kristine!

Introducing Little Miss Sunshine

I can't wait another minute to show you some sneaks of the June kit, Little Miss Sunshine! It is happy and fun and vintage. A tad shabby and a whole lot chic. Bold, bright, and beautiful! Here, see for yourself.

This kit makes me so happy that I'm thinking we need to celebrate with a little giveaway! Leave me a comment HERE at the Paper Poppy blog HERE by Friday, May 21st at midnight CST telling me what part of this kit makes you the most happy and you will win an American Crafts Memory Marker in your choice of Chestnut or Charcoal. You can see them in the store HERE.

Have a great day!

Making Room . . .

for more My Little Shoebox. I'm dying to get my hands on ALL of MLS's Winter 2010 releases. Have you seen all the amazing layouts popping up all over the web? Imaginary Friends and Away We Go are just calling my name. Sooooo . . . like any good (more like obsessed) scrapper, I'm using up the papers I do have to make room for more. LOL!

Spring Fest Egg Hunt: Here's my little cutie posing for the camera after a rowdy egg hunt down at the neighbor's house. This "Enjoy Life" collection is an oldie (Spring 2009) but a goodie. And I was thrilled to finally get to use it. The colors and whimsical spring flowers were just perfect for my Easter layout.

Well, as you can see, I did a lot of fussy cutting. I loved the flowers and really wanted to layer them. I added in some neutrals, book paper and corrugated cardboard (Yes, from the Starbuck's coffee collar!). My little butterfly trails are just loops of embroidery floss held down with tiny glue dots. Lots of fun!

Thanks for stopping in today! Still working on the Paper Poppy sneaks, so I hope you'll stop back by soon to see them. Let me just say zebra print and bright vintage papers. Eeeek!

MLS Birthday Wishes

After my mom's joy at receiving a handmade Mother's Day card, I decided that I would make her a birthday card, too. She loves to garden and work in her yard, and her favorite colors are purple and blue. The "In Bloom" collection by My Little Shoebox were perfect!

I love all the soft, feminie colors and botanical patterns. In fact, one of the papers is called "Botanical." It is from that sheet that I cut all the flowers you see. Then I stacked and layered and pop-dotted them to give the card some dimension. I added a little hand-stitching and paper curling to really make it come to life.

My favorite part, though, is the finished inside. I like to add a journaling spot to the inside, so my family can write a little note to the recipient. To finish it off, I added a few more of the flowers . . . you just can't have enough of those.

Now, if I can just find the perfect gift, I'll be all set! ;)

See you soon!

Mixing Up Some My Little Shoebox

I love My Little Shoebox. Fun colors, whimsical patterns, large die cuts, scalloped circles, tons of embellishments, big and small alphas. Gosh, what is NOT to love? Here's a layout that I made with a mix of their lines. Fun!

Just Singing in the Swing: My little guy loves his backyard swing. He is content to just sit there and talk and sing to himself and enjoy our little slice of nature.

The background is Sky's the Limit "Follow the Cloud." I cut out some of the clouds, adorned them with a tied button, and popped them up as embellishments. LOVE them! The paper strips were cut straight from two sheets of paper, "Love Birds" and "Get the Camera."

The sun was cut from Enjoy Life "Slow Motion." I chalked the edges and outlined it to make it really pop. The tree, bird, and birdhouse are die cuts from the Whooooo Loves You? line. Don't you love those oversized die cuts? To give them a little dimension, I added some buttons and brads.

Since I didn't have any fabulous My Little Shoebox chipboard alphas (*sniff*sniff*), I added the next best thing--some American Crafts Thickers chipboard alphas in mustard.

Thanks for stopping by today! I have all kinds of scrappy stuff up my sleeve to share in the next couple of weeks . . . Treasured Memories May Layout, more My Little Shoebox, and Paper Poppy sneaks. Hope to see you soon!

Creative Scrappers and Some June Bug

Sketch #103 was posted at Creative Scrappers on Sunday. And I just LOVED it! And why not? It was my sketch. Tee hee!

I am sooooooo beyond thrilled to have my sketches over at Kristine's amazing site and to see all the talented designers have a go with my sketch. In fact, I was so inspired by their interpretations that I decided that I wanted to create a layout myself.

Dipping Eggs: My two sons had such a great time dying Easter eggs. They actually sat still, were patient, shared (*gasp* I know...gotta record that!), and even smiled for the camera. Gold star day, ladies!

I got to dig into my stash to complete this layout, and gosh that was fun! I pulled out my Basic Grey June Bug. Love that vibrant palette and all the amazing chipboard pieces. The title, though, is all American Crafts Thickers. The tiny navy letters were white and I used my chalk (LOTS of chalk) to color them navy. Caution....let them dry a LONG time. LOL!

I learned a great little trick from my friend Frances. She outlines and backs just about everything that goes on her layout. That's why all her embellishments just pop off the page. Beautiful! I backed all the chipboard pieces with navy cardstock. Without it, they just didn't really show up. But now, I think they make such a grand statement.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back soon with some Paper Poppy sneaks.

Treasured Memories April Layout

We had our April Design Team Meeting at Treasured Memories a couple of weeks ago, and it is finally my turn to share my layout. This month I had Prima's Umbrella line, a wood sheet by Creative Imaginations, Prima's felt ferns and tiny blossoms, Melody Ross chipboard, a Treasured Memories Trinket pin, Core'dinations Cardstock, and biscuits. Here's what I came up with.

No Matter What the Weather

The paper had so many bright, busy patterns. I wanted to use them all but also wanted to still have some white space and allow the patterns to show. Sooooo . . . I cut circles into my cardstock and then placed the patterned paper behind them. I used pop dots to attach the patterned paper to the back, so there would be a little dimension.

I covered the chipboard parenthesis with one of the patterns and grounded my title with the lined pattern. I also sanded the Core'dinations cardstock to reveal the alphas.

Here you can see more chipboard (house and tree). I used the wood paper as shingles and a planter box on the little house. I cut up the Prima fern and flower bouquet to create bushes and flowers for the planter box. The house and tree trunk are covered with more Core'dinations, lightly sanded to show the red core. The fruit on the tree was created with biscuits and Kaisercraft blue bling. And I used the amazing Treasured Memories trinket as the smoke coming out of the chimney. That's the most beautiful smoke ever!

This fabulous line by Prima is available at the store. In fact, Wendy created an amazing layout fo her class this month. Be sure to stop in and tell them Aphra sent ya!

My Little Shoebox Wreath

As soon as the first hint of Spring arrives, I am ready to deck the halls with grapevine wreaths and pastel colors. This year I decided to combine my love for Spring home decor with my love for scrapbooking. The result? This Home Tweet Home wreath made with a variety of My Little Shoebox goodies.

Aren't those colors delicious? I had such a good time mixing and matching all the different My Little Shoebox lines that I've been able to get my hands on. Pure bliss, I tell ya!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day.

Imaginisce's Splash Dance

Imaginisce's newest line Splash Dance is one of my favorite releases yet. The soft beach colors and cute ocean critters are such fun. I still haven't finished scrapping all my vacation pictures from last year, so I was happy to get to pull out some more of those lovelies.

Catchin Waves: My oldest son bought a $2.00 inflatable ring with handles and rode waves on it for hours each day. He loved every minute of it. Pure joy on his face. I took about fifty photos of just that one event and these are the best of the bunch. I love the water splashing against the floatie and the cool sun shades.

I decided that I wanted to make a large paper piecing (or two) for this layout, so I used the coral colored paper to create a starfish. To imitate its little suckers, I added some coral bling. (Can you tell that I can't WAIT to get my hands on the i-Rock tool?) To give the page a little movement, I added some sea weed and cute puffy sticker fish. And I was super excited to get to finally use the Me and My Big Ideas glittered alphas that I got at Michael's about two years ago. Don't they match perfectly? Love it when my stash comes in handy.

Splash Pad: My husband took my kids to the splash pad in our local city park. He knew that I wouldn't want to miss the chance to scrapbook such a fun time, so he took about 75 photos for me. I was most fascinated by these three pictures of the water tower.

My water splashes were cut from a sheet of Gemstone Core'dinations blue cardstock that I embossed with my Cuttlebug bubbles folder.

Best Fishes Birthday Card: My sweet little red-headed baby boy turns three today, so I made him a silly little card that he will love.

As soon as I saw the paper with the multi-colored scallops on it, I thought of fish scales and knew I'd be making myself a big ole paper-pieced fish. If you look closely, you can see each of the scales popped up a little. The little rocks at the bottom of the tank were punched from some of the Core-dinations cardstock that we got this month. Isn't that whitewash texture fabulous?

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I'll be back soon with my Treasured Memories layout and later this month with more Splash Dance. Hope to see you then!