Technique Tuesday: Besties

TGIF! I'm super excited about this weekend. I'm off to Philly see some old friends. It's so good to catch up with people who know your history.

And speaking of friends, I love this little sequence of photos I took of my Littlest and his buddy. I like capturing them in a silly mood. I have a feeling this is a friendship that will last a lifetime (his mom and I are besties too!)

I took the photos with my iPhone and put them into a strip using Photoshop. The stamps are from Technique Tuesday's Besties set. The inks are Colorbox's Pigment. The stamped circle can be easily punched out using a 1.75" punch, or one of these Circle dies. Because hand-cutting circles? Not for the faint-hearted. Meaning, ME!

Thanks for dropping by. Hope you have a great weekend!

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Back To School

Happy Tuesday! It's almost October, so the whole of the North Hemisphere is probably back in school now. My kids went back since August 11. Totally insane.

Since my three boys started going to three different schools, back to school photos were a bit different this year. Last year, I forgot to take them altogether. It was my first time not taking those first day photos since my oldest started preschool 14 years ago. It still bums me out, but what can do... This year, I remembered right as they got home. Phew. So there are no backpack photos, and Middlest is not even wearing shoes. But I'm okay with that. These photos are a measure of the passage of time for me. Maybe when they are all in college, I'll make a book from all the photos (except 2014, sigh.) It will be so awesome to see them going from little to giant (the oldest two are way taller than me), from babies to men.

For this layout, I used school paper and Learning Curve font, which is an awesome cursive font. If I could only write like that... I also used Technique Tuesday's Random Thoughts stamps (you can cut these out using Little Labels dies, but I used my little hands and little scissors because I was too lazy to bring out my diecut machine. That's lazy!)

Those stamps are also perfect for planners. I used to use planners (like back in the dinosaur age) and I really want to get back into using them, but I can't quit the phone reminders. Sniff. Planners are so pretty!

Hope you are having a good week and way better weather than me! It's still in the mid-90s here. Blergh.

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Cath Edvalson Blog Hop

Edited: Yikes! My comments section was not working. Sorry about that. Fixed! Thank you Elizabeth Dillow!

Hey, y'all! After much summer hibernation, I'm back! And for a great reason. Today is the blog hop for Cath Edvalson's amazing stamp and die designs for Technique Tuesday. You are probably arriving from Lisa Adametz's blog. Welcome welcome!

If you don't know who Cath is, you'll arrive at her blog at the end of this hop. Or really, you should go there immediately. And then come back to the hop. She's that awesome. And to top it off, she's a super nice person. Win-win.

Here are a couple of projects I made using the new goodies:

I love this Instagram I took of my parents. They are so cute together.

I used Garden Leaves Die set to cut those vellum leaves. Then I cut one out of green cardstock and trimmed off the lower two leaves for that little detail. I love that the focus is on the photo and story. But that bit of leaves and green pick up the background of photo (Huntington Gardens).

For this card, I used two sets of stamps, Heartfelt Thanks and Garden of Life. I cut out a heart slightly larger than the Heartfelt heart stamp on the top flap of the card base. Then I stamped the sentiment from Garden onto a piece of vellum and embossed it with black powder.

I stamped the heart on another piece of cardstock, embossed that and colored it in with markers. Not the fastest card, but super easy! Just what I like. By the way, black embossing powder? Messy!

So now what? Well, you are almost at the end of the hop. Next up is my dear friend Teri Anderson's blog.

And then, PRIZES! Technique Tuesday is giving away 3 prizes. One person will win all of Cath's new products. Two people will win $25 gift certificates to get whatever they want from the Technique Tuesday store.

For chances to win, leave comments along the blog hop. The winners will be chosen randomly from all the comments from all the blogs. So leave a comment at each stop for more chances of winning. Easy peasy! You have until September 16, 2105, Midnight PST to leave comments. The winners will be announced September 18 on the Technique Tuesday blog.

Here is the hop list, in case you are lost:

Technique Tuesday
Julie Ebersole
Laura O'Donnell
Heather Campbell
Julia Stainton
Daniela Dobson
Kimberly Crawford
Jocelyn Olson
Tobi Crawford
Laurel Beard
Melissa Phillips
Laura Williams
Jaclyn Miller
Donna Mikasa
Birgit Edblom
Kalyn Kepner
Laura Bassen
Julie Campbell
Lisa Adametz
Linda Barber --> you are here
Teri Anderson
Cath Edvalson

Thanks so much for coming by! I'll be resuming my blogging again soon.

Tweet

Catch Up Post

Since I'm such a slacker blogger, I end up with projects that I forget to share. Oops.

This is a layout using Your Everyday Stamps Planner set. Alas, my dear friend Ashley has had to close her stamp shop. Here's to hoping it will reopen again soon!

This one was created for Lawn Fawn. I used the Best Pun Ever stamps and dies, Quinn's ABCs stamps and dies, Hearts wood veneer, and Pint-Sized: Beachside petite paper pack.

And lastly, a card created for PageMaps using Technique Tuesday's Here and Now Flair stamps, Happy Day Flair stamps, Lots of Dots stamps,  Hello Pocket die, and Chevron Strip die. You can see what the TT design team created here.

I think I'm caught up. I think.

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Man Week!

This is my kids' last week of school. Woohoo! I can't wait for lots of fun times together. This is also Technique Tuesday's Man Week, in celebration of the men in our lives (Father's Day is June 21, by the way).

I have four guys in my house: three sons and a husband. Meaning, my house is stinky most of the time. It also means that my kids go to a lot of birthday parties for boys. And guess what? I hardly ever have any boy-appropriate cards at hand. The craft world is just geared more towards girls.

That said, boy cards are pretty easy to make. And they don't have to be sports-related, plaid-filled, navy blue projects.

I created this card using two Technique Tuesday stamp sets: Say It - Smile and Smirthday.

I stamped the balloon on cardstock in a variety of colors. I wanted the card to be happy and bright. Then I stamped the "smile" and the sentiment inside a couple of the balloons. The shapes were easy to cut, and some of them are adhered using pop up dots. Then I added the strings with a black marker. I used a neutral grey card base to hold all the balloons. It's a great color that is neither somber, nor too over the top bright.

Super duper easy, right? This card is perfect for many occasions. And by changing the sentiments, or adding a name to a balloon, you can customize it even more.

Don't forget to go by the Technique Tuesday blog for more man-ly card ideas. Also, if you spend $20 on TechniqueTuesday.com by this Friday, you'll get a free Dude stamp. Enter "FreeDudeStamp" in the comments field at checkout.

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Look Out World

Hello there! Almost June! Can't believe it. My kids will be done with school in less than two weeks. I can't wait for the freedom to roam without a schedule. Alas, two of them want to take summer school, so that freedom will end soon. But I'm planning a full schedule of fun for when summer classes are over.

Next year, I'll have one in 11th grade, one in 9th, and one in 4th. Yikes!

My middlest is such a character. He's my one kid with curly hair. If you've seen photos of me (check out my Instagram) or know me, you know that I have straight hair. So I have no idea what's going on with his hair or what to do with his hair. He hates to have his hair cut. But instead of getting longer, it gets puffier, and puffier. And then it gets all lop sided because he hates to brush it. He pushes the brush around just so he can tell me he did his hair. I'm not buying it, but then again, I know to choose my fights. And hair combing, apparently, is not one of them. That's how he ended up leaving the house in a suit and tie to have his 8th grade graduation photos taken with that hair!

We joke that he's harboring little hamsters or baby birds in there, but truth is: girls love that hair. As in, girls looooooove that hair. Not sure that's a good thing for me. But apparently it is for him.

Hair aside, I used a piece of patterned paper that I've been hoarding for a few years now. I loved that Story Teller line from Crate Paper so much. It's time to put it to good use.

All the sentiments are from the Look Out World stamp set. That torn paper die is called Memo Pad Card. The little I *heart* U half-circle is from the The Best Things set and the matching die is from the Hexagon set. I've stamped them using Versafine (black), Colorbox Pigment Ink (red), and Zing embossing powder (gold).

Thanks for coming by! Hope you have a great Monday. xo

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Awesome Overload

Happy Monday! Nothing like a shiny, new week. Oh the possibilities... (Alas, all of my plans involve some sort of decluttering/reducing/scrubbing/laundering. Good times!)

I've been planning a layout using these photos for a while. That's my youngest when he was three years old. He chose that yellow bicycle (Spider Man pattern on it), the pink helmet (his favorite color), and teeny water bottle (tiny version of dad's). Since we had struggled teaching our older kids how to ride bikes, my husband decided that we shouldn't even attach the training wheels. Apparently, that was not a problem for the Littlest. Two weekends of riding down the side slope of our house, and boom, he was riding that two-wheeler on his own. I was seven when I learned. Whose kid is this?!?!

The stamp sets I used for this are: Hello Flair, Matter of Time, and Kinda Wonderful. I used a combo of dye and pigment inks. On the photo (matte paper), I used pigment ink. I find that pigment ink works better with matte photo papers.

And that is it! Thanks for coming by today. Hope you have a great week!

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Puppy Love

Hey, y'all! My brother and his wife have this new puppy: a fluffy white 2.5 lbs Maltese named Luigi (first dog is Yoshi, I really thought this one should be Mario. My brother thought it should be Bowser, but it technically belongs to the SIL and she was not taking suggestions. Harumpf!) When I was visiting them around the holidays, I could not get enough of Lui. Like all babies, he wanted lots of attention, to play, and to nap. Oh, and to poop and pee. Did I mention that he wasn't house trained yet, and that we had him at my mom and dad's house? And that my mom is a clean freak? And that there were many accidents? He's not my mom's favorite right now.

But back to cuteness overload.

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen this photo.

That's him. That's my Luigi. (Well, technically not mine. Bummer.) The 'gram ended up on this layout using Technique Tuesday's stamps and dies (All You Need Is Love, Williamsburg Alpha, Pockets of Love dies)

The "loves" on top and the arrow were from the die set, watercolored with these awesome crayons. The heart was stamped and cut out by hand. I all kinds of love the combo of light turquoise-y blue with pink. And I love that little fur face.

How about one last cute photo? Here he is being "forced" into a snowman suit. Poor creature. My husband wanted to get him a warm jacket, but they didn't have anything small enough for Lui. The one thing that would fit him was a snowman suit, which Lui hated. I mean, HATED! Can you tell?

Every time, he wore it, he'd try to shake it off so hard, he'd do a flip. Poor pup. By the way, Luigi is almost 3lbs now! Monster-size dog! Ha!

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Happy Spring!

Hey, Crafty Friends! You know when your craft supply order comes in and you are itching to create? Last week, I got my new Technique Tuesday stamps on the same day as my order with Distress Inks. Best day of the week!

I had been waiting for the License Plate Alpha set to come back in stock. It was so popular, the set sold out when it was first released. These stamps do not disappoint. Such an awesome font and size. I wanted to create something quick with the alpha and the new-to-me Distress Inks. I'm so not a Distress Ink expert. But those adorable little minis, coupled with some serious enabling from my stamping friends proved too hard to resist (I'm looking at you Chari Moss!)

When you first stamp with Distress Inks, the look is blotchy and unlike dye inks, it stays blotchy. I love that splotchy look, but I ended up going over the stamped images with a water brush. The water makes the ink spread out a bit, and gives it a more watercolor-y look, which I love.

The other stamps I used are part of the  Smile Borders (triangles) and Love Bug Jar (butterfly) sets.

This card is fast and easy to make. I love the end result, it's so colorful and cheery!

Happy Almost Spring!

Tweet

Catching up...

Hello hello! Since I've been a slacker-blogger, I have some projects that I haven't shared. These are some of the ones I created for Technique Tuesday's CHA 2015 release.

This layout uses Real Story and Here & There stamp sets, as well as the Hexagon die cut set.

I used a little vellum for the "this is everyday life" stamp. I got the best results using pigment ink, but I did heat set it afterwards.

That's gold ink, y'all! Love Tsukineko's Delicata gold ink. So good!

I twice tried getting into the whole pocket scrapbooking thing, but it never stuck. After doing this page, I think I might try again. I think my problem was that I was setting too many rules, and using too many products. Technique Tuesday has so many awesome pocket scrapbooking dies and stamps! For this project, I used Time Of Our Life and Hi There stamps sets, and the Just Sayin die.

If you are thinking, "Did I just see that boy in that hat?" Yup, you did. A few days ago, I created a different layout using a different photo of him in that hat from a different year. I love that birthday hat (and the boy too!)

Thanks for stopping by! See you again really soon.

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Flairs and Scraplifting

Every so often, I find a magazine page design so compelling, I get totally inspired and create something from it. This is the magazine:

I copied scraplifted it.

And I love how this page turned out. For more info, go here (Technique Tuesday's blog).

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Layout

Hey there! Happy Thursday! I'm sharing a project for Technique Tuesday, which is also up on their blog. If you haven't been there lately, do go by! It's filled with so many projects and ideas and giveaways!

This layout is my ode to dim sum. Although I'm quite certain I've made at least another page about dim sum before. How can I not? If you have never experienced it, it's like Chinese tapas. Lots of little dishes shared between friends. The twist is that instead of ordering off the menu, there are ladies walking carts filled with hot, steaming food. You flag them down, they show you what they have, and you choose to take a dish or not. Very interactive. We eat dim sum at least once a month, and my kids love it.

Anyway. Layout. Clean and simple. The journaling is printed directly on the cardstock, and the sentiment (I Like You set) stamped directly below it. I adhered and hand stitched the photo right above that. The little flag is made using Weekly Review stamps. I stamped it, colored it a bit, cut off the edges, nipped it on one side, and finished the new edge off with black marker. It was then attached with a tiny stapler. Super easy!

Thanks so much for coming by! I hope you have a great weekend. I'm going to spend mine cleaning my work space and going to my kid's baseball games/practices/clinic. It's that season again!

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Green Week!

Oh how time flies. Lots to catch up!

For today, I'm sharing a card for Technique Tuesday. As you may know, next Monday is St Patrick's Day. So this week, TT is featuring green projects!

Here's my card, which was inspired by Paige Evans and her awesome layered layouts. Love how she's fearless with pattern paper combos.

I used the Nested Hearts die set and a bunch of different green patterned papers to cut out the three different size hearts. I didn't think I had that much green stuff, but as it turns out, there was at least one sheet in each mini paper pad I own (I have a lot of those).

The heart with the U and the arrow are from Heart Card die set.

The bottom two hearts are glued together, and the arrow is adhered with a pop-up dot and then the smaller hearts. So easy! Perfect to show someone love on St Patrick's Day.

Do visit Technique Tuesday's blog all week for lots more green ideas! Thanks for dropping by today.

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: February Studio AE Blog Hop

Hey there! It's Technique Tuesday's Studio AE Blog Hop time. This month, the featured set is this beauty, Best Banners:

Super cute, right? I love that it has a solid stamp, so you can add background color to the flags. Or, as I did in this layout, I used the solid flag stamp alone to create those little colorful ones below the photo.

materials: stamp: Technique Tuesday / inks: Colorbox Pigment Ink and Tsukineko VersaFine / patterned paper: Lawn Fawn / enamel dots: My Mind's Eye / adhesive: 3L / thread: DMC

And of course, there's a prize involved! Technique Tuesday is giving away one $25 Gift Card to Technique Tuesday shop to someone who comments during the hop. To be eligible to win, all you need to do is comment on any of our blog posts! The lucky winner will be announced on the 15^th on the Technique Tuesday blog.  

So leave me a comment here and then off you go blog hopping and commenting some more! Thanks for coming by!

Ali

Lisa

Daniela

 you are here > Linda < you are here

Nichol

Laura

Jaclyn 

Sharyn

Teri

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: Holiday Layout

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Today I'm sharing one of my favorite layouts. I made this for Technique Tuesday using the  Peace & Joy stamps by Ali Edwards, and its matching die. I really love this set of stamps. It's like the Favorite Stories one that sold out and just got re-released. Love those too! (I made this layout using the Favorite Stories stamps.)

This is a clean and simple layout and it features one of my most favorite photo shoots with my kids.

My youngest was about 3 months old, and I was obsessed with having a Christmas card photo featuring the three of them in Santa hats. So I bought three hats, popped the kids against a dark background, and called my husband for help. You can see his hand on the lower left. Then I started shooting. I must have taken over 100 photos. Only one was "perfect" for a card. But my favorites were really the outtakes. So many adorable moments. When I was looking for holiday photos to scrap, I saw this one and it brought back so many memories! This was 8 years ago! It's been such a long time, and yet, it feels like it was just last month. Oh, how I wish I could bottle up these moments.

The awesome hearts patterned paper is from a company called Ruby Rock-It. I've been hoarding this sheet for years. I even looked online for more, but alas, I didn't find any. The gold paper is from DCWV. The red outlined sticker is from October Afternoon. And the Totally Love stamp is from Technique Tuesday's Just Awesome Tabs by Ali Edwards. Black ink is Versafine (my fave!), and the thread is DMC.

I'm not a huge fan of glitter. But glitter is so good with holiday pages and cards. And lately, I've been painting my nails glittery because I found out that it doesn't require a very steady hand. Glitter is super forgiving. You really can't see any dings or chips.

So it just happened that while I was working on this page, I noticed that my nails matched my layout! This is a first for me! Yup, I'm taking my scrapbooking to the next level. (I grammed it, of course!)

Tweet

Technique Tuesday: October Studio AE Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to the Technique Tuesday's October Studio AE Blog Hop!

This month's stamp set is all about December. It's perfect for December Daily, cards and layouts about the Christmas. But not just that! I created this layout about my family's trip to Maui last December. Totally not holiday related, but the stamps were perfect for it.

I love using a grid for layouts. It keeps the layouts looking clean, and it takes the guesswork out of photo placement. This is specially good for photos that are sized the same. The photos for the layout were taken and edited with my phone. I posted them initially on Instagram, so it was very easy to pull them out of the phone, and create a quick grid in Photoshop. I then printed the grid on matte photo paper (#1). Because why cut and paste a bunch of little square photos one by one if you don't have to?

I stamped the banner stamps with colored ink (Colorbox Pigment Ink) on smooth white card stock, and the sentiments with Versafine Onyx Black (#2). I cut those out as strips, but later on I changed my mind, and ended up notching the ends. I used pop-up adhesive to attach them to the layout.

To create the title, I printed it on regular printer paper, and used it to pierce the holes onto the photo paper (#3).

I used a single strand of yellow embroidery thread to stitch the title (#4). When I was done, I thought it needed a bit more color. So I trimmed off a little off each side of the photo paper, and added the yellow cardstock to the background.

Do leave me a comment for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Technique Tuesday store. The winner will be announced October 15th on the Technique Tuesday blog. And don't forget to visit the other blogs on the hop for more chances to win. Thanks for coming by!

Ali

Daniela

Nichol

Jaclyn

Laura

you are here -- Linda -- you are here

Sharyn

Ashley

Teri

Tweet