ISBIC #48

It's that time of the week again...where I share with you the latest challenge prompt over at IBSIC and reveal my take on the challenge...

Best Wishes card

I wanted to add some texture to the light pink cardstock background so I ran it through my Cuttlebug die cut machine with the swirl embossing folder. I think adding some dry embossing technique can make any cardstock from ho-hum to amazing in just a few seconds. 

I used this and this stamps for the sentiment of the card. I also used this die cut to match with my stamped image. 

Thank you for looking. Don't forget that this month's challenge...

Inspired by Stamping is having a blog hop featuring more prizes!

We will select 2 random winners on the 26th of February. These lovely ladies will win a$25 gift card to the Inspired by Stamping Store.

So if you created a card this week using a bow don’t forget to add it to the IBS Bows Challenge!

CLICK HERE For Details!

1 randomly selected winner this week will receive 2 Packages of IBSIC Flowers. 

To learn more about this week's challenge and how to win the awesome prizes, please click here. 

Till next time,

Grace

A little note card *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello blog friends. Today Inspired By Stamping is the sponsor for the challenge blog Addicted to Stamps and More. The theme for this week is addicted to stamp. The design team members were asked to share a card featuring IBS stamps and the theme and here's my take on the challenge....

A little note card

I used this and this stamp from IBS. I wanted to feature the circles in my card since it's stamped and the shape stands out against the linear background of the card. 

I also added some IBS flowers. Aren't they just adorable?!

To play along with Addicted to stamps and more challenge blog, please click here. To view the rest of the beautiful stamps that IBS offers, please click here. 

thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Grace

1st snow day of 2013

Hi there friends and happy Monday. It's been a winter wonderland around here since Wednesday of last week. We had a record breaking snow Wednesday night which led to our first snow day of the year on Thursday. That meant that the kids didn't have school, we were able to sleep in and enjoy a day indoors and a little time outdoors playing in the snow. Here are some of the photos I captured on Snow day.....

 

the photo above is of our backyard deck. As you can see from the railings of the deck, there's quite some snow on the ground. Snow looks really pretty when it hasn't been touched. So serene!

 

I wanted to see just how much came down in our area so I stuck a ruler on my deck and it came to about 6 1/2". There are parts of town that got over 7".

 

About noon, we went out and I let the kids play in the snow while I tried to shovel and sweep our driveway....

So that's our snow day. We had another storm yesterday and two more forcasted for this week. I love looking at snow and sometimes even playing in it but I HATE driving in it. Luckily I've done my grocery shopping and the kids' school is just on the other side of my street so there's really no need to be driving anywhere.

 

How about you? What's the weather looking like in your side of the world today?I hope you all have a great week.

 

Till next time,

Grace

My Valentine's Day Surprise

Oh thankgoodness for Fridays! Don't you feel the same way? There's something about the idea of another week coming to a close and getting the weekend as a break from it all seems so inviting to me.

 

So last week we had Valentine's day. The day full of love, hearts and sweet treats. I was so busy that day attending classroom parties of the kids, going to class that night and being invited to the best ladies brunch ever. It was fun but I felt like I was constantly looking at my watch to make sure I'm not super late to my next appointment or agenda on the list.

 

Because my day was packed, I didn't even make an effort to make anything for my hubby. After 10 years of marriage, I felt like Valentine's day was just another day and we can show our love for each other any other day. After all there was that other 364 days in a year that we can do that.

 

I felt so bad when he came home from his externship bringing me these....

Yes my not so spontaneous and not quite romantic of a husband brought home a dozen roses, some See's candies and a card. All for me! It was definitely a surprise. I was ashamed that he even got me a card and I didn't even rummaged through my piles of handmade cards in my scrapbook room to reciprocate the sweet gesture. What a lame wife I have become. :(

 

the card was super cute. It started off as a regular sized card and the sentiment goes on and on while you unfold the paper ending up with this huge sentiment. Very cute. I definitely give him 10 extra points for it.

 

So there you have it. Through this year's Valentine's day surprise, I have learned two things...never underestimate the ability of a non-romantic husband to surprise you with lovely and sweet things on this special heart's day and even after some years of marriage....Valentine's day is never over-rated.

 

Now off to plan my comeback for our anniversary in May. *wink*

 

Have a great weekend.

 

till next time,

Grace

 

IBSIC #47

Happy Wednesday everyone. Today I'm sharing with you the latest challenge inspiration over at the Inspired by Stamping challenge blog. My favorite color is purple, I even used the lighter hue lavender as my wedding colors so when I saw the color combination in the inspiration board, I was ecstatic. See it for yourself...

and here's my take on the inspiration...

A gift for you card

The drapes/curtains in the image also inspired me so I cut the bottoms of my pattern papers into ribbon notches and made them all go vertical kinda like how the curtains where displayed.

I used this stamp set for the circles and this one for the sentiment both from Inspired by Stamping on this card.

and as an added bonus, IBSIC is now adding a new monthly challenge to go with the inspiration board challenges. This month we want you to use bows in your projects.

Inspired by Stamping is having a blog hop featuring more prizes!

We will select 2 random winners on the 26th of February. These lovely ladies will win a $25 gift card to the Inspired by Stamping Store.

So if you created a card this week using a bow don’t forget to add it to the IBS Bows Challenge!

CLICK HERE

The blog candy/prize for this week is...2 Satin or Seam Binding Ribbon of their Choice

Till next time,

Grace

latest projects

Happy Monday everyone and happy President's day for my friends in the US. That means that the kids are off from school today and I'm using their extra hands to clean the house. The kids frowned when I said "our" plans for today but I'm treating them with something yummy at the end. *wink*

Today I'd like to share with you some of my latest projects. I have to say that not being on many design teams have given me the freedom and time to go through my stash of products and create with items that I've been drawn to but haven't had the chance to feature them on my projects because of other commitments. I really feel that my days on being on more than two design teams are a thing in the past. And not that I wanted that to happen but I strongly believe that with any doors closing, comes a new one that will be opened to me. So we shall see.

Anyways onto the projects...

My Family

This page was made with one of the challenges at Two Peas in mind. We were to use the paper strips or those tear away little sheets of paper that comes with the paper barcode on the back. I have to say that I've been a big fan of these strips but I have never used so many in one layout. I love how I was able to incorporate a in this page that represented the theme of the layout. 

I found that one of the strips had a very muted and simple design that I can place my handwritten journaling on it. I'm also loving the banner/notch cut so I made all of my strips have a side with a notch tip on them. 

I was afraid that by using a very light green sticker for part of my title, it would get lost against all the bold and dark colors of the papers that are already in my page. So to make it stand out, I placed a journaling block sticker on the page before adhering my letter stickers.  

The Sun Shines When You Smile Card

With this card, I wanted to play around with some of my washi tapes. I've been collecting a few of them (they're such a fun trend) and I challenged myself to use up a lot of them in a project. I decided to create small blocks with the tape as the main design element. I cut out four identical blocks from white cardstock and then placed the tape over it. I taped the ends on the back of the cardstock pieces and then adhered them onto the center of my card. I love how we can turn any tape into pattern paper just by adhering them to pieces of white cardstock. 

I've had this sun brad for what seems like forever know and I wanted to finally put it to good use so I used it as an inspiration for my sentiment/card title. I found some die cut shapes that worked well with the brad and I placed them in the center so the eye lead directly to the sentiment. I finished it off with some pen stitching around the edges and two more smaller brads on the bottom to create a visual triangle within my project. 

So there you have it. My latest projects, unveiled/shared on the blog. I hope this will inspire you to create something beautiful this week. 

Till next time,

Grace

ISBIC #46

Happy Valentine's day friends! I hope you have a great "hearts" day. I have a day full of activities but before I go out and "spread the love" let me share with you the latest challenge at IBSIC...

I love the soft colors on the inspiration board. Oh and those cupcakes are making me feel hungry too. *wink*

and here's my take on the inspiration..

You are so thoughtful card

I used the brown as the background for my card. I love how the dark color made all my lighter colors stand out. I used white as a secondary primary color. It was a great neutral to connect all the colors together.

I decided to layer a lace over silk ribbon in this card. The pink lace added some texture to the otherwise plain white ribbon.

I used some Inspired by Stamping stamps to create my sentiment. I also used IBS die for matting my sentiment block. I added the doile in the back because it reminded me of the sweet cupcake in the inspiration board.

So there you have it. I hope you play along with us this week.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock- (white) Walmart; (pink) WorldWin cardstock

Pattern papers- (brown) Simple Stories; (green dot) Lily Bee Design

Stamps- Small Fancy Labels 1, Inspired by Stamping

Die cut- Fancy Labels 1, Inspired by Stamping

Doile- Target

Ribbon and lace-  Source Unknown

Flower- Accent Creative Design

Rhinestone- Doodlebug Design Inc.

Inks- (green) Colorbok (brown) American Crafts

Adhesives- Scrapbook adhesive by 3L, Glue Dots, Creative Memories

Till next time,

Grace

My Little Shoebox Pouch

Hi there.

My Little Shoebox creator and designer Helen Chu has ventured into designing handbags, tote bags and home accessories. This month is my last month as a design team member for her scrapbooking line (she's taking a break from the scrapbook industry to focus on the accessory line) and I was fortunate to be given one of the new products to test out. 

I received the Two Zipper pouch- Cloud cosmetic bag.  

The first thing I noticed was the design on the bag. I love how the clouds instantly offered a cheery feel for this bag. I also love the two zipper detail. It's going to give me lots of pockets/room for my beauty products.

I love the sweet brand name tag in the front. I especially felt proud that this product was made in the USA. We rarely find that quality in bags and totes nowadays.

Although this cosmetic bag seemed small from the outside, the two zipper/pocket structure will give me plenty of room for my makeup stuff.

And of course, the final test was to see if it can fix my unorganized pile of make up..

and it did! beautifully!

I love how the zipper's orange bold color had a great contrast agaisnt the light blue/white color of the bag. It made it trendy.

So there you have it. A great cosmetic bag to organize your beauty products with a pretty cute graphic exterior.

To learn more about this product and the rest of the My Little Shoebox accesory line, please click here.

Till next time,

Grace

Another dream come true

Hi and Happy Monday friends. I hope your week is off to a great start. Mine is the same with a long to-do list but I'm in a good mood this week as Valentine's day is just around the corner and that's one of my favorite holidays. I love the idea of letting the people you love know how much you care about them and show it through gifts, flowers, hugs, kisses and of course....chocolates! Can you tell I have a slight affection for sweet things? *wink*

Anyways, today I want to share something exciting that happened to me recently. I have considered myself an active player in the crafting industry for over 5 years now. Active in the sense that I am consistent in getting my projects published and I actively work and seek work as a design team member for crafting manufacturers. When I started there were three things that I wanted to accomplish...one is to get published (done); next was get into a design team (done as well); and the third one was to get my projects be a part of product packaging.

Well I'm happy to share that I've done all three things that I've set myself to accomplish with my "crafting" career. Recently I got a special package from WorldWin Cardstock of the Fotomatr products with it's new packaging...

I made a couple of books for them last year and they had asked me if they could use the images of my projects for their packaging. It was an honor and seeing it in person made it seem so surreal.

There's something so powerfully exciting and humbling to see something I made be a part of the packaging of a product. This means that more people will see what I've created.

It was also neat to see pictures of my family members in a different medium other than magazine pages.

I'm still pinching myself everytime I walk by my scrapbook table and see images of my projects on the packaging of the Fotomatr products.

Thank you for letting me share my latest dream coming true. You have all supported me and had inspired me to continue creating and crafting.

I wish you all a great week.

Till next time,

Grace

BTW, to learn more about the Fotomatr system and products, please click here.



IBSIC #45

Happy Thursday friends. Today's the reveal of this week's inspiration board at the IBSIC challenge. I hope you play along with us this week and view all of the beautiful cards from the design team. To learn more, click here. 

and here's my take on the inspiration board. 

Just For You card

I love how very timely the inspiration board is to the holiday that we will be celebrating soon. 

Supplies Used:

Cardstock- (white) Walmart; (karft) Scenic Route

Pattern papers- True love, Basic Grey

Stamps- Cute Circles set 11, Inspired by Stamping

Die cut- Fancy Labels 1, Inspired by Stamping

Red silk ribbon- Inspired by Stamping

Doile- Target

Button- Dear Lizzy, American Crafts

Twine- Cappucino, The Twinery

Heart sticker- True love, Basic Grey

Inks- Cherry and Chestnut, American Crafts

Pen- Millenium, Zig

Adhesives- Scrapbook adhesive by 3L, Glue Dots, Creative Memories

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,

Grace

December Daily Album 2012 finally finished!

happy Monday friends. I know it's already February but I just recently finished my first ever December daily album and I wanted to share my experience with you.

 

December Daily 2012

so as you remember from this post, I worked on my album, adding pattern papers in the album pages before I started putting pictures in it. I love how getting the book semi finished/created made it easy for me to just stick my pictures as I printed them. The only issue I had at the end was that my book became chunkier than I had expected so I was not able to use the binder rings that went with the mini album. I had to buy bigger ones and I scrapped the ribbon part as well.

One of my favorite stickers are word/phrase stickers. They're the easiest way to add bits of journaling all over your project. Here I added some stickers from Cosmo Cricket on the tab parts of the mini.

see how chunky it turned out to be?

 

and here's a peek at some of the pages of the book...

I tried to use red for my number stickers but ended up using a couple of green ones because the red clashed with the papers. I love how this project got me to use up most of my Christmas themed products.

 

So that's what my very first December Daily looks like.

 

There are a few things I've learned from committing to this kind of project:

1. Pick a good size book for a foundation. This book that I used is about 4 x 8" and although at first it looked way too big for my project, I was suprise at how easy it filled up once there was pictures, words and some accents in it.

2. Pre assemble the book as much as I can early on the holiday so I don't have to stress about dressing it up while I'm working on it. Getting at least the pages covered up with pattern paper makes the procedure a lot easier later on.

3. Don't stress about getting caught up with the pages during the Holidays. I was a bit worried that I was behind in creating my pages during December. I would get anxious that it's already the 16th of December and I was still working on pages 1 and 2. I had found that even if I don't touch the album till after the season but that I'm consistent in taking pictures everyday and making notes about what we did that day, half of the work would be done.

4. This is a great way to use up products even if they're not Christmas theme. I was able to use up my red and green colored sticker stash because of this project and that makes me feel really good.

 

So that's it for me today. One project in my list finally checked off.

 

So what have you been working on lately?

 

Till next time,

Grace