Friday 25 January 2013

Cheery, sun shiny cards for the winter blues...

I hate winter! Especially when it gets to January and we have had snow on the ground since October and it's freezing outside and there doesn't seem to be an end coming anytime soon! :(

So to get myself out of these winter blues, I decided to play with my new Spellbinders hexagon die set and make a bright cheery card!

I bought this die set a few months ago and I have been excited to give it a try! 


I got the idea for this card from page 49 of the Fall 2012 issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine. I love hexagons and this card was so cute! In the magazine they mentioned using a punch (which I would love to get my hands on ! :D) but I just used my new dies! The great thing about the dies is that they range in sizes and you can place them anywhere, where as the punch can only reach so far and your stuck with one size.






So first I cut a card base of 5.5" x 8.5" from white cardstock and folded it in half. I then cut another white cardstock piece that is 4" x 5.25" and cut hexagons out of it. 


I then cut a piece of pattern paper that is slightly smaller then the white cardstock piece. I adhered the pattern piece to my card base and using pop-dots (3-D dimensional foam adhesive) I adhered the white cardstock piece on top of the pattern paper.


I then cut some flowers out of some left over pattern paper and used them on the card an embellishment. My sentiment is stamped onto vellum.



 Now with the leftover hexagon shapes that I had after cutting out the pattern for the previous card, I was able to use them to make another card!




The pattern papers I used in both of these cards are from the Everyday Moments collection by Teresa Collins (one of my most favorites!!) This was one of those lines that you use over and over for so many different projects and you can bare to through away any of the leftover bits because the papers were just to gorgeous!


The butterflies are a stamp by Kaiser Crafts and are stamped onto vellum using Jet Black Stazon Ink. This is a great permanent ink for stamping onto non-porous surfaces like vellum, transparencies, glossy paper, metal, glass and basically any other slippery surfaces. I also like it for stamping onto paper because I always seem to get a nice clear, crisp image.  I also added a bit of metal to this card by stapling in a few places using my super cute Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and I then drew a border around the front using my fine-tipped Sharpie marker.


So there you have some nice sun shiny cards!
Thanks for stopping in!
~Cayla~

Thursday 10 January 2013

Calendar Challenge...

Good day all! 
I know... It has been to long again! I really do have good intentions of blogging as often as possible! I just get distracted to easily. :( Well hopefully this long post will make up for it! :D

So recently I purchased the new 2013 PageMaps Sketch Calendar that is put out by Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine.


It is a calendar that is full of great sketches and fantastic layouts! There are also a few techniques throughout the calendar as well.

So I purchased the calendar and decided that every month I would do up a layout and/or cards based on the sketch for that particular month. I then am going to post them on my blog!

For this month I have several projects. The is a 13-month calendar and it started December 2012. So I am going to show you two months for this post!





This is my take on the December's layout and sketch...


The papers I used for this layout were from a Pink Paislee line called "Secret Crush".




I am normally not a valentinesy, lovey dovey kind of person, but since I was working on my little sister's wedding it just sorta worked!
 

To get the white outline on the pictures, I just took a filing tool that I had accidently broke the tip off of and scratched the lines into the photo.
 
 

I added the stitching to the heart using a black fine-tip sharpie pen.

And here is January's layout & sketch...


And now it's my turn!


This layout was created using "Ruby" from the Lost & Found 3 collection that is made by My Minds Eye.


To create my focal point, I matted the middle picture and used 3-D foam adhesive to add dimension.


I also added some of the leftover die-cuts from the previous layout which was great! Gotta love when you can use up leftovers!

Now this calendar is great! Not only are you given a great sketch and layout every month, you also get a page full of bonus sketches at the back! This is one of the sketches...


I love, love, love hexagons and it is so exciting to see them trending in scrapbooking & paper crafting projects! So when I saw this sketch I new that I would create something fantastic from it! I also had an excuse to use my new Spellbinders Hexagon die that I had recently purchased!


So instead of doing a layout (like the sketch), I decided to create a card!


To add dimension to the card, I pop-dotted some of the hexagon shapes and traced them with my good old fine-tip sharpie!


Ok, so I have one more project to show you! (This should make up for not blogging in a while! :D)
This is another layout & sketch you get when you first open the calendar (another bonus!)


This layout of me and my husband was made using "Love Letters" from BoBunny.


I loved the banner on the original sketch but I just couldn't get it to look right by drooping it across my page. So I just went with a clean line along the top.
 

I also have to mention this new photo editing site (well new to me anyway!) that my lovely friend Ivana told me about called Pic Monkey! It is a fabulous site for those of you like me that really are computer challenged! It is VERY user friendly and has a ton of editing options! You can check it out for free or you can pay $4.99 a month (which is what I do cause I use it all the time!) and get to use all of their editing tools!

Now your probably wondering why I brought that up! Well when this pic was take, my husband had a nasty cold sore on his lip! But viola!! Using the "Blemish" editing tool it is now gone! LOVE IT!!!


Wow! Lots going on in this post! Lol! But it's time to pick the kidlets up from school and get ready for work! Enjoy the rest of your day!
~ Cayla ~

The Great Outdoors...

Hi Friends! Just trying out this blogging thing again! :D I wanted to share some layouts I did this past weekend while attending a fu...