So Happy...

Today I committed to making a project that was just for myself—this might sound crazy but with all of my Artisan commitments and the various classes and groups I offer, most of my creative time is designated to that. So it was refreshing to make a scrapbook page, my favorite thing, for just me and to display in my crafty space!

This is a picture from a family photo shoot 2 years ago already! Sometimes, moms can relate, I just can’t wrap my head around the passage of time. The days can be long but the years go fast, is such a perfect way to describe ‘time’ and this motherhood journey!

I started with a base of Basic White because I really wanted to use the So Happy bundle. I have had it sitting on my craft table for the last month and was itching to create a stencil of sorts to create some clouds. I also wanted to use this set in a non-traditional way as at first glance it looks like a birthday set. With a little creative design I think I did create a page that has nothing to do with birthdays!

I used Pool Party and the new Blending Brush to create the clouds. You could use any of our amazing blues, but I find Pool Party and Pretty Peacock look amazing together. I will be sad to say goodbye to Pretty Peacock next month but I am also excited to see the new In Colors that will be released.

I cut a ‘stencil’ using the cloud die from the Happy Die Set and then used its edge repeatedly create a cloud like look on my page.

I blended the clouds about half way up my page and added two feature areas to the page. The top left little area is where I was able to introduce Calypso Coral and Petal Pink—two other colors that I find look amazing together. The half 2 inch circles are from the new and exclusive Butterfly BIjou DSP and had a similar shape to the clouds which I liked.

Using the dies I was able to cut out the little banner in the Natural Touch Specialty Paper. I sniped it apart so it looks longer than it is in reality. “Happy” is stamped in Pretty Peacock and then cut with a Stitched Rectangular die.

I love to add texture and interest to my sentiments by combining different ribbons. Here i used the Polkadot Tulle ribbon and the gold thread from the Forever Greenery Trim Combo Pack. The Gilded Gem and itty bitty gold star (from the dies) just add a fun element!

What I also love about this bundle is how the different phrases build off of the word HAPPY. I was able to cut the die down a bit from its initial form to change its appearance a bit too. I cut the ‘Happy’ out of the Natural Touch Specialty Paper as well. This helps tie the two feature areas together.

I also modified how the ‘Happy’ looked by trimming the top edge off of the die and shortening the edges.

I stamped ‘to have you in my life’ on Petal Pink Card stock and stamped the stars in the same color. I used Calypso Coral for the actual sentiment. The stars are stamped using the four colors that make up this page and also serve to create continuity across the page.

Making this page just filled my cup today! I am so blessed that my hobby is something I love so passionately and has become a business that has allowed me to stay close to home to raise my kids.

If you are inspired by this page and want any of the project supplies I used, please feel free to shop my store or use my Hostess Code!

Around the World on Wednesday--3D projects!

Hello friends! I love when I can participate in a 3D Design Challenge because I loosely interpret 3D as anything but a card—-so the sky is the limit with what you can create! I can’t wait to see what everyone has designed this month!

The days are getting sunnier and the snow is melting here in Edmonton, where I live! So I have definitely been feeling those spring vibes and I wanted to create a wreath for my front door to welcome in the change in season!

I picked up a twig style wreath from my local craft store. Typically these are pretty inexpensive wreaths that have a lot of creative options.

I used hot glue to pretty much assemble the entire project from the flower construction to adhering everything to the wreath itself.

The Butterfly Brilliance Bundle is really exciting and new right now so I knew that I wanted my spring wreath tot have some butterflies on it. I stamped them with Momento Ink and colored them with a light hand using the Water Painters and the following ink colors—Calypso Coral, Mango Melody, Just Jade and Mint Macaron. I also added Wink of Stella over top of the butterflies to give them a little glimmer.

I love that you can stamp all these butterflies ONE TIME and then die cut them all in one go! It makes creative projects like this so much faster to put together.

I cut the word SPRING out using the Playful Alphabet Dies and the Foam Adhesive Sheets. The letters are cut from the Butterfly Bijou Designer Series Paper and are placed on a Stitched Oval that is stamped with some of the butterflies from the Butterfly Brilliance stamp set in Soft Seafoam. Behind the sentiment I created an oversized bow with the Fine Art Ribbon from the Art Gallery Suite.

The large Calypso Coral flower is created using the Heart Builder Punch. The inside is just a strip of Bumblebee card stock that I cut little slits into and rolled up to add to the center. When its rolled you just fan it out!

I used both of the daisy punches (original and medium) along with the Perennial Petals Dies to fill in my wreath. I stamped some medium daisy’s in Pool Party from the Daisy Lane stamp set.

The Blushing Bride and Calypso Coral flowers shown beside are created by cutting the flower 5 times and then stapling them together. You can then fold and squish them together and add a smaller flower into the center to hide the staple.

I love how the Perennial Petals Dies layer up so well to create so much dimension! The Pool Party flower shown here has 4 layers with an Elegant Faceted Gem in the center.

I am really happy with how this spring wreath project turned out and I can’t wait until I can display it on my door full time. Living here you never know when 3rd, 4th or 5th winter might kick in again! Hahaha! Probaby after May long weekend we should be safe.

Next up on the hop you will be visiting the awesome Tricia Butts in the United States! I love how our hop takes you all around the world!

A Card a Day in December--Day #11

Happy Holidays! Is everyone getting into the holiday spirit? Our house is decorated and I have done a bit of baking, but I have not wrapped any gifts yet! I better make that a priority next week!

I have still been making Christmas cards! How about you? I have put around 80 in the mail this season!

I created this card using the Poinsettia Petals bundle and decided to try a softer color combo of Crumb Cake and Petal Pink. I am so happy with how it came out! It has a real soft elegant feel to it in my opinion.

The card stock base is Crumb Cake and I added a base layer of the same color. I loved the wood grain pattern in the Poinsettia Place Designer Series paper and it looked perfect as a border on this card. I stamped a few leaves to poke out on the base layer.

I cut a large circle in Petal Pink from the Stitched Shapes dies. I still remember how excited I was for these when they first came out as a special release. I hardly ever actually put them away as they are getting use so frequently.

The sentiment is actually stamped in Calypso Coral ink as i wanted to be sure that it would stand out and I love how the two colors look together.

The poinsettia is stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder and colored in using our Stampin’ Blends in Petal Pink. I added one of the gorgeous Beaded Pearls to the center and a bit of gold metallic thread to the backside. A few gold pearls and this card was complete!

I hope you have been inspired by my 11th card share this month!

Around the World with the NEW Catalogue!

This might be the most exciting Around the World on Wednesday blog hop in 2020 as we are all featuring things from the brand new catalogue! Its like an early Christmas! The suite that I was the most excited about was the Playing with Patterns suite on page 100. I absolutely loved the color pallet and after playing around with the Playing with Patterns Designer Series Paper I might go on record and saying is my favourite DSP of all time. That is quite the commitment but to me it is perfection!

I knew right away I wanted to create a scrapbook page layout with this suite adding in a few other stamp sets I was excited about. I love a good floral set and I was drawn to the images and sentiments of this new bundle, All Things Fabulous on page 121.

And look at my subject matter! Could he be even cuter? Hawkins has been my faithful companion and my best buddy during the past few months. As soon as I saw the Pallet Thoughts stamp set with “Hello, Handsome” I knew it would be the perfect set to use when scrapbooking my dog, sons or husband! And I love the distressed wood stamp in this set as well. It is the perfect layering piece!

The whole page is designed around the colors of the Playing with Patterns suite—Purple Posy, Night of Navy (however, I substituted our new In Color Misty Moonlight), Coastal Cabana (my favourite color of all time), Crushed Curry (once again I substituted Bumblebee), and Calypso Coral.

I really love the flowers on this page combined with the soft colors. The enamel dots are an awesome finishing touch that helps add dimension to the page. I like my pages to have lots of layers and textures. I used the largest Water Painter brush to swipe over top of the Bumblebee flowers right after I stamped them. I did the same thing on the barn wood piece to soften things a bit and spread out the color slightly. I also stamped the flowers multiple times to give a gradient look to them as well. That is one of the easiest ways to create different colours. Ink once and stamp repeatedly!

I was so excited and inspired by this page layout that I took all of the same elements to create this adorable mini album. I used photos of our ‘quarantine times at home’ as my subject matter. Ridiculously Awesome is a new mlllion dollar achiever set co-designed by Ronda Wade with artwork contributed by Sean Douglass. I LOVE the oversized fonts which makes this a dream set for memory keeping!

For the album shown below, I used all of the same products (minus the flowers) to create this project. I also added in the stamp set A Grand Kid. I love the phrases in it and can see myself using it a lot even though I don’t have ‘grand kids’. Its definitely not a set to be overlooked because of the title.

Click through these photos to see some different views of this fun mini album :)

The next stop on our awesome blog hop of 24 participants is Cindy Schuster from Nutmeg creations! Cindy works at Stampin’ Up! and is one of the amazing co-founders of Stampin’ Through the Catalogue. You can follow them on the Gram @stampinthroughthecatalog