Cricut Circle Monthly Contest

I created this scrapbook page using the criteria from the Cricut Circle Blogs Monthly contest to honor my daughter, Katelyn as she bridged from a Junior Girl Scout to a Cadette. I use scrapbooking as my avenue of creativity to preserve the memories of our family. This is just one example. I couldn't be more proud of who she is becoming. I used a combination of George and Basic Shapes Cartridge and All Mixed Up to create the layered flowers. They were cut at 1", 1.5" and 2" intervals with the shadow effect and shadow blackout functions. I cut them using a black glitter paper, white card stock and red polka dot printed paper. I layered the flowers with various felt flowers and lots of fun brads. The elegant effect with a vine from Sizzix, rhinestones and the layered flowers is just beautiful. I still need to complete my journaling but need to get this posted for the contest my midnight. Sleep well and enjoy this inspiration!

MOPS History Album

Today at MOPS, I spoke on the importance of leaving a legacy for your children and we created this album. If you are a MOPS mom, thank you for inviting me to speak and share some of my heart and passion with you all. I truly hope that I was not overwhelming and that you feel confident to complete this small scrapbook.



















May God richly bless you as you fill in these envelopes!

Also, I ran out of time and did not share a product that I am in love with - the Becky Higgins Project Life. This is a scrapbook kit for those that don't scrapbook or for those that want something a little easier. The kit is all inclusive: album, page protectors, journaling cards, date stickers, a date stamp and additional paper. I will be using this to document a photo a day for the next year but you could use is for a group of photos for each month or special occasions. The cost is $39.95 plus shipping (about $48). Although, they are currently unavailable because they are converting over to an Amazon account but keep checking as they will be available again soon. You can view all the products and sample pages at her site: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/projectlife/#.

Secondly, some of you were asking where I shop in Houston. Locally, you can find products at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Target, JoAnn's, Walmart and some dollar stores. My personal favorite is Hobby Lobby as they are the cheapest, have the largest selection and are a Christian based company. There are also specialty stores in the area. You will need to google their information but this is the list with opinions on what they specialize in:

Archiver's - Katy - chain store with a wide variety with stamps as well - inexpensive classes
Lone Star Scrapbook Co. – The Woodlands - lots of paper
The Scrapbook Village – Missouri City - variety but not very current
By Design Scrapbook Boutique - Friendswood - more expensive but have all the new stuff. The store is very girly (pink and black).
Novel Approach – Friendswood - some scrapbooking but the only stamping store
The Scrapbook Junkie – NASA Rd area - current merchandise

Locally, my favorites are By Design Scrapbook Boutique and Junkie because I know they will have something new. Then Archiver's (closest to me) and The Scrapbook Village (because I used to teach there).

I hope this has helped answer some of your other questions. Have a blessed evening!

Challenge 5 completed!

Tomorrow is your final opportunity to vote for your favorite submission at Urban Anthology's DT contest. This weeks challenge was all about color. We needed to select one of the color pallets and use it to create our layout. Please take a second to vote:
http://urban-anthology.com/blog/?p=1329.
You can view all the layouts in complete detail here:
http://urban-anthology.com/forum/index.php?action=gallery;cat=98. My layout is under Hobby Gone Crazy. I appreciate you voting!

The last challenge, which will not be available for vote, was to create a small kit and then use those products to create two projects. My Rough 'N Tumble kit includes masculine papers with a little bling. I created two layouts using my kit. The first is of Zachariah at Tawkwando demonstration. He had only attended three classes and was breaking black belt quality boards. The title was created using American Crafts Vinyl letter stickers which are cut apart and arranged to look like broken boards. I just love the effect!

The second layout is Ashley as a pirate princess. I added the bling to create a hint of girly. The title is created the sticker letters, a hand-cut portion of the patterned paper and small alphabet stamps. The background is from a piece of cardboard which I removed some of the top layer to create a distressed piece. I then used a shaped paper to trace and cut out the parenthesis style paper. I really love the overall effect of the layout.

They will announce the four winners sometime after October 22nd.

Have a blessed day!

Kristen

Challenge 4 - Color Combination Challenge

Color is my thing - I love it. Urban Anthologies 4th Challenge really worked with my strengths. The challenge was to pick one of three color combinations and make a mulit-photo layout using primarily those colors. When I scrapbook, I always decide on my photos first and then deal with the color combos and paper. So, getting to have three choices was great. I chose to use some photos of Ashley posing with a puppy hat. They are adorable photos and color combo one worked perfectly. The colors were teal, tan, pumpkin and a darker brown. I love this color combination as the neutrals of the browns allow the teal and pumpkin to pop off the page. I used a variety of products from My Mind's Eye, Pink Paislee, Bazzill Bling and We R Memory Keepers. I added a lot of shimmer with stickles, buttons and fibers. My title was distressed with sandpaper and then I added some stickles to each letter. The tag was created using Alcohol inks and a Staz-on Pad. The flowers were hand-cut, layered and embellished with stickles. I love the final look and was able to use the color combination to my advantage to highlight my adorable Ashley!!

Here are the detailed photos:

Happy Scrappin'!

Kristen

Accordian File Folder with Matching Gift Bag

Christmas is right around the corner and I'm preparing for my Christmas Spectacular - a day of classes designed to create unique gifts, cards and provide plenty of inspiration. I'll be posting more details soon. Until then, one of the classes I taught last year featured this coordinated accordion file box and gift sack. Each participant was able to choose their own color pallet. The following pictures show the red and cream version of this gift:






I hope to see you at one or more of my Christmas Spectacular classes this year!

Happy creating!

Kristen

Finally bloggin about Challenge 3

The word for last week: BUSY!! With life, three kids, MOPS and a Just Between Friends sale...BUSY is really an understatement. Just Between Friends is a tag and price your own items for a three day consignment shop. Once everything is tagged, you drop it off and do not need to be present during the sale. You do have to pick it up when the sale is completed. You can earn between 65 and 80% of the items sold. Not too shabby! I tagged over 400 items, sold 72 and made about $140. Each week for the next three weeks, there is a sale somewhere close to my home. I plan on taking everything that is left and consigning at those sales as well. My goal is to sell it all, make some money and clean out my garage by Thanksgiving! It's so freeing to clean out and throw away. I just love this time of year. We are using the money to update some items in our home. I can't wait!!

So, after an exhausting week of cleaning I am finally able to do some blogging!! Yeah. This is the layout that I completed for Urban Anthologies Got Talent Design Team competition. The challenge was to create a sketch and then create a layout using that sketch. Our layout also had to include one or more of these words in the title: strength, direction, nurture or time. I went with direction as I had a wonderful picture of Katelyn dressing up as Santa. We live in Houston where we usually are in shorts for Christmas so this was very funny to see her wrapped up in a blanket in 80+ degree weather. The entire challenge allowed me to really create, use lots of sparkle and complete a page I love!! I used glitter sticker letters for the title and mounted them on a transparency, cut around the title and floated it over the layout. I really like the dimension this created. The chipboard accents are embellished with rhinestones and stickles. I just love how all of it turned out!

Detailed photos of the layout:

Please take a second to go to Urban Anthology and vote for me: http://urban-anthology.com/blog/?p=1261. You have until this Wednesday evening. Thanks!!

Urban Anthology Challenge 2

Here is challenge 2: Stretch your dollars. Show us how to make your product go far. Make a layout and be creative with the product you use. Show us how you can make your paper stretch, how to make custom embellishments, create your own patterned paper. Pull out all the stops, to make the simple, the old, and all those left-over’s go far and still be stylish. Really, we want you to pull out the OLD stuff and use it. Yeah, that stuff from 2001 that’s collecting dust! The BOX of scraps that we are saving for the “perfect project” That funky card stock we HAD to have or that big paper pad of patterned paper with 10 of each pattern! That stuff… I know you have it! Also, with this challenge include a tutorial with photos in the gallery, showing one of your tips/techniques used on the layout.

HERE IS MINE:

Layouts on the cheap and thrifty have always been fun to create. I love techniques and so I’m able to use them to create new embellishments from my old supplies. It can also be very therapeutic. It justifies the most recent purchase with “but I just used some of that paper from 2002 and very old Making Memories eyeleted letters.” So, thank you for this challenge and helping me clean out my old supplies. I loved it and the results of my thriftiness!

BACKGROUND PAPER TUTORIAL:

To create my background, I used an old sheet of patterned cardstock and my Big Bite by Crop-a-dile. I punched both the 1/8” and 3/16” holes all over the page. The six-inch reach of the Big Bite allowed me to punch holes over the entire sheet of patterned cardstock creating a polka dot effect.

Once they were punched, I went over the entire sheet with sandpaper. This distressed the edges as well as the edges of each circle revealing the white core of the patterned paper and creating a unique background paper. I then mounted it on a lighter color of cardstock which shows through the holes.

HEART EMBELLISHMENT TUTORIAL:

The circular covered hearts were created using the remnants from my background page.

Cover a scrap piece of paper with double sided tape (Terrifically Tacky Tape) and die up or hand cut out a heart. Peel off the backing paper and cover completely with the little circles from the background paper.

OTHER HEART EMBELLISHMENTS:

The fiber covered heart was created by attaching small ½” to 1-inch pieces of fibers, ribbons and twines to a heart shape covered in double sided tape. Once you have pressed the pieces into place, use scissors to trim around the edge of your shape. This is giving it a hair-cut and cleaning up your edges to create a smooth shape. Be careful as this is where I cut my finger!

You can also cover shapes in dimensional glaze to give them a shiny appearance, use leftover seed bead/glassine bead mix into double sided tape, or crinkle your shapes and then ink them. The possibilities are endless. Have fun creating your own embellishments on the cheap!!

I used the eyeleted Making Memories letter tags for my title. I have a zip-lock baggie full of these that I had forgotten about. Although I didn’t have enough letters from one style, I mixed the bold and scrip fonts together to create my title. I used VersaMark ink, a tweezer and embossing powder to color the metal letters red. Each letter needed two dunkings of powder to cover completely and give the saturated color I was after. I like how the color pools in areas to create lighter and darker areas of color. I tied these onto the ribbons surrounding my heart filled envelope. That is one smitten daddy!!

OTHER DETAILS ON THE LAYOUT:

I hope you are able to use one of these techniques on a layout or card soon!

Enjoy your day!

Kristen