Stamping with Pebbles, Inc.

I was a little nervous when I saw my assignment for Pebbles, Inc. this week was to be part of the clear stamps Product Parade. I don't consider myself much of a stamper. While I love stamps, and own lots of them, I just can't get over the intimidation factor. Luckily, I had just taken a class (with Kelly Purkey) where she showed us how to paint with spray ink and some of the stamp images lent themselves perfectly to this 'new-to-me technique'. Armed with this cool Ranger ink palette I picked up at the Scrapper's Cove recently, I got busy:

For these 2 cards I used the stamps from New Addition Boy & Girl lines. They are part of the baby-themed lines but the colors I used to paint these cards are not. I stamped first with black Staz-On to make sure the images didn't run when I painted:

Same technique here, this time I ran with the new baby theme. I love the way watercolor looks and painting with spray ink gives a very similar appearance:

I can not own enough of these little scalloped envelopes. I buy them whenever I see them. Here I stamped on them to make cute gift enclosure envelopes. The sentiments are also from the stamp set:

You can see a complete list of the Pebbles, Inc. supplies I used on the blog. 

So here is what is going on in our little part of New Jersey today:

Oh well, guess I shouldn't do the laundry ;)

I'll be back tomorrow with my page for The Studio challenges.

Have a great day!

One more from the Elle's Studio gallery...

One more Elle's Studio June inspiration gallery page to share today. Keep going back to the Pebbles, Inc. Sunnyside. I love all the navy in that line. Here I used it in strips to frame out my photo. I used the 6 x 6 pad sheets to layer under the photo with several Elle's Studio Summer Lovin' tags. They went so well with the Pebbles, Inc. papers it was like they were made for the line.

Here's a close up of my title & stitching:

Speaking of Elle's Studio - 2 cool things to note. First -Elle's Studio is having a great sale starting at 8 a.m. PST today and it runs until midnight on Sunday. 

Check the blog this morning to get the coupon code and shop for retired tags & grab bags. Second - Elle's Studio will be sponsoring our challenges at The Studio for July, so stop back on Sunday to hear all the details!

TGIF!!!

the 'craftermath'

...a friend of mine used this term the other day - the formal definition being "the result of attempting a cute craft you saw on Pinterest." I thought it was funny and all I could think of as I looked at my desk this morning - after my 3 day cardmaking immersion therapy session. You be the judge - I'm a really messy crafter and this is the proof. Behold the 'craftermath':

 Close up of the left side:

 and the right side:

If you saw the condition of the floor, you'd gasp. I'm usually a really neat and organized person so I'm not sure how this happens. It's not always this bad and sometimes it's worse. Now I need to clean it all up for the next round of projects. 


I got some awesome surprise news yesterday - I've been picked up for The Simple Scrapper team. Very excited to be a part. If you are not familiar with them, The Simple Scrapper 'makes scrapbooking easier & more fun with free articles, time-saving products'. They have been helping busy scrapbookers for 3 1/2 years and you can sign up for a free membership  right here. You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter, too! 


Be back later with one more page for Elle's Studio and you can see some more cards on the Pebbles, Inc. blog tomorrow.
Hope you have a great day!

Some Cards with SRM Stickers

And now for something completely different...some cards. It feels like ages since I sat down and made a pile of cards. I used to do it so effortlessly and this past weekend I felt the 'fear' that I've heard non-cardmakers describe. So much trial and error as I tried to work on a project for the SRM design team. Today I thought I'd share a couple of random cards that didn't make the 'cut'.

For this first card I used my Silhouette to cut the waves. (I used an individual wave and welded it together.) I used patterned papers from Pebbles, Inc. behind the die cuts and to attach the SRM definition sticker. The 'swim' and 'relax' tags are also SRM stickers. The twine is from The Twinery.

For this card I was still working with the die cutting machine. I cut a sun shape and used it to guide the placement of my washi tape sun rays. The lemon in the center of the sun (American Crafts) was inspired by the SRM sentiment. The green label is from Elle's Studio.

While stressing over my cards and trashing my craft area, I realized something obvious; that my approach to cards is completely different from my approach to making a layout. For me, layouts always start with the photos then product. With cards, however, I have to let the product inspire me. (Makes sense right? Since there are usually no photos). Obvious concept, I know, but when you finally realize it & accept it, it makes cardmaking so much easier! 

I'll be back later this week with some cards I made for Pebbles, Inc. (as I mentioned above, it's been cardmaking immersion here!) and will have some more SRM cards to share, too.  Have you been to the SRM blog this week? They've been sharing their CHA Summer releases - such fun, new product and you can comment to win. I can't wait to play with those new stickers - and see them in person. After much waffling back and forth, I decided I would attend CHA this Summer. This year I plan to take the 'good' camera so I can take better pictures for my blog updates. Will I see you there?

Have a great day!

From the Elle's Studio Gallery

Hope you all had a great weekend!
I've got another Elle's Studio page to share today. This one features one of my favorite photos of my son. We were at a rummage sale last summer and he found this blow up chair that looks like C3PO from Star Wars. He was so proud of his find he insisted on carrying it back to the car himself. The photo reminds me of how little he still is. I'm hanging on to that!

I used the Studio Calico So Cal kit for this page. You can't see the texture but I used that super thick white woodgrain cardstock that came in the kit for the base.  It all worked so perfectly with the Summer Lovin' tags by Elle's Studio. 

I also used the 2 new Elle's Studio stamps - I heat embossed the 'love this moment' with Leaf Zing, I used a Stampin' Up grey for the 'notes' stamp.

And two more Elle's Studio tags up here in the corner:

Have you been to the new Elle's Studio website yet? It's so nice and there's a new design team and member gallery where you can upload your own projects and there is a friendly message board too. Elle's got a big announcement today so stay tuned.

Off now to start a busy week. Will be glad when this one is behind us - especially since we've got a little 4th of July vacation planned to PA. I'm really looking forward to our road trip. Back tomorrow with one more Elle's Studio project then I'll have some cards  fun summer cards to share with SRM stickers.BTW... SRM is sharing new summer CHA releases on their blog all week! (It's so hard to get back in the cardmaking groove when you've been making tons of layouts - how I envy those crafters who can do both really well!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Elle's Studio Inspo Gallery for June

It's my last Elle's Studio design team inspiration gallery. sigh. It's been such a great 6 months - as if I wasn't already a fan of Elle and her cool products - being on her design team has just made me a super fan. I can't wait to see what she has in store in the coming months (and who those lucky designers are!). I'm signed up for Jenni's Summer Lovin Mini Album Workshop and have my fingers crossed for more great kits and stamps - I'm sure there will be more great tag releases. She's got a big announcement on Monday - not going to even give a hint but it's exciting.

Here's a page I made with the new Summer Lovin' tags. I love the colors in these tags, the variety of phrases, journaling prompts and labels, and even the texture of the paper.

I didn't notice until I took the photos that that polka dot paper in the background (October Afternoon) makes kind of a ric rac border effect. Funny what you don't see until you take the photos. I usually take quick photos as I'm working on a project (with my phone) so I can see the composition from a different perspective. Anyone else do that or am I  the only crazy person? Anyway...I used lots of Elle's Studio tags on this page. I used some Summer Lovin' Cut Outs to anchor the orange tag:

 And those numbers, also from the Cut Outs sheet were what inspired me to use this series of photos:

 The Large Journaling Tag (Summer) was  perfect for my title - I love it when the tags double as titles:

I'll be back tomorrow with some more Elle's Studio gallery projects. I hope you are having a great weekend. The weather here in New Jersey has been amazing. For the first time in a long time it feels like a nice, relaxing weekend. Don't get very many of them anymore.
Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Fun with Pebbles, Inc.

Today I get to show off some brand new Pebbles, Inc. Sunnyside. This adorable, summery line could rival my love for the Fresh Goods line. I love the rich color, especially that navy. It was the perfect companion for my boardwalk photo.

I have a serious love for the color of amusement rides, especially at night. Particularly the traveling fair/boardwalk types. I don't ride the rides much anymore because they give me giant migraines, but I do love to photograph them. I usually use the time that my kids (and husband) ride to play around with my camera settings. I really love the blurry shots - on this one I was trying to get my daughter in the shot and have the background show motion. Almost got it. 

The 'From Me to You' paper has little sentiments and flags that can be cut apart. I layered several of them on this page. The white corrugated alphabet is also from the Sunnyside collection. I stitched it down: 

 Isn't that dimensional butterfly adorable? Also new in the Sunnyside collection. The little flower 'buttons' were cut from a border sticker in the collection then attached with dimensional adhesive. The papers layered under the photo are from the Sunnyside 6 x 6 pad. (Love that Pebbles, Inc. added a 6 x 6 pad to the collection - the smaller scale of the patterns makes them ideal for layering and cardmaking, too!)

You can see a lot more of the Sunnyside collection on the Pebbles, Inc. blog. This week was chock full of summer projects and last week was the Sunnyside reveal. 

Back tomorrow to share some Elle's Studio pages. My last month in the designer gallery - so sad but I know it's time to pass the torch to the new team. So glad Elle started the new gallery and message board so I can still be involved. The new team is going to have a great 6 months!

Winner, Winner!

Thanks to everyone that stopped by for the Summer Lovin' blog hop. Those Elle's Studio tags sure are loved. Now I get to announce the winner of these fab goodies:

The Splish Splash Snippets

The Summer Lovin' Cut Outs

and the Large Journaling Tags

And my lucky winner is commenter #40, aka Savannah O'Gwynn, who said:

LOOOOVE the notes stamp! SUPER fun! I also love the Lil' Snippets: Hello Summer and Noted! 

THANKS for the chance to win:) 

Congratulations and a big thanks again to everyone that played along. Be sure to check each blog where you left a comment to see if you took the prize elsewhere!

Sunday at The Studio

Hello there! If you are looking for the awesome Elle's Studio giveaway, please scroll down to the next post....

Today I've got a page to share that I made for The Studio Challenges. There is a $25 gift card to Jenni Bowlin Studio up for grabs this week. Why not play along? This week, the challenge was to use negatives - could be negative space or actual negatives - you decide. I hear 'negative' and immediately think of the 'waste' from my Silhouette cuts. Here's what I made:

I made my page 8 1/2 x 11 so I could cut the 'love this' as a background element to frame my photo. (Might be needing to upgrade to a Cameo soon so I can do this on a 12 x 12 sheet - shh, don't tell my Silhouette!)

I backed the negative space with a simple grid paper as to not overwhelm the design. The shape was downloaded from the Silhouette shop.

It's easy to link up you project for your chance to win - we've got the team from Jenni Bolwin Studio playing along with us too - so there is tons of inspiration in the gallery this week. You can see it all right here.

Hope you've got a nice Father's Day ahead. Thanks for stopping by!

Elle's Studio Summer Lovin' Blog Hop

Welcome to the Elle's Studio Summer Lovin' Blog Hop! Summer is here and Elle's Studio has just released the perfect tags, stamps and workshop to document your summer this year!

I've been working with my new stash of Elle's Studio Summer tags over the last few days and having a great time. All Elle's tags are printed on very nice cardstock but these are different - smoother, somewhat thicker with a less glossy finish that I seriously love. What always gets me though, are the stamps. I'm not a huge stamper but the designs and sentiments on Elle's Studio stamps are extremely user friendly. Graphic and clean and fun to heat emboss. Here's a little sneak of one of my upcoming gallery layouts that shows my love for these awesome stamps and tags:

Today I'm excited because I get to give away the following to one lucky winner:

Summer Lovin' Splish Splash Snippet

Summer Lovin' Cut Outs

and last but not least...the Summer Lovin' Large Journaling Tags

To enter to win, head on over to the Elle's Studio shop and pick out your favorite item from

their new release. Then come back here and leave a comment letting us know which one you love the most!

The winner will be drawn on Monday, June 18th, so check back here to see if you won! Also, don't forget to continue on with the rest of the blog hop - there is a giveaway at every stop!!

Elle's Studio 
Kim 
Kimberly 
Jenni 
Meghann 
Steph
Rahel 
Ursula 
Valerie (yours truly)
Waleska 
Have fun hopping & good luck!! Thanks for stopping by!!

SRM Mini Calendars

One of the cool things about designing for SRM Stickers is trying to come up with new and interesting ways to use their products. My challenge for this project was to incorporate their mini calendar stickers for a purpose besides the obvious.  Along with my trusty Studio Calico kits I set out to use the little calendars as a background. Here's how it turned out:

I used several of each style (the Standard & Decorative Mini Calendars)and backed them each with a different patterned paper. Then I arranged them as a background element. The months represent the 5 months of my first semester back at school:

The little glassine envelope holds my journaling. Here you can see a few of the other SRM Stickers I used (from the Express Yourself sheets, School & Graduation):

If you haven't experienced the versatility of SRM Stickers, you should give them a try. For a complete list of the products I used, stop by the SRM Blog.

This week has been rough. It was the last 3 days of school for my kids (and of course they were early dismissal days).The gift scrapbook for my son's retiring teacher was due on Wednesday. I was still collecting material over the weekend and planning to pull an 'all-nighter' putting it together on Monday if necessary, but was sidelined by a severe throat & double ear infection that hit suddenly and left me completely out of it for Monday and most of Tuesday. Somehow that book got done and delivered on time. I'm still fighting the illness today but have at least returned to somewhat normal life. I've been on a mission to finish up all my projects due over the next few days (busy blog week up ahead!) and a fun Elle's Studio Blog Hop tomorrow - and I get to give stuff away - so I hope you will stop back!

Hope you all had a good week - so glad it's Friday. See you tomorrow!

Saturday in the City

Yesterday was a little hectic but fun. The day started at 9 am at my friend Pam's Stampin' Up yard sale. She has it once a year an purges tons of Stampin' Up product. This year I picked up a few Big Shot dies, a new travel themed stamp set

 and this cool item:

I have no idea what it's going to be for, but I will figure it out and post the end result. I'm thinking combination washi/ribbon holder - there's definitely potential here.

Then a brief stop at my son's baseball game. I took off from there a little early to head into the city for a class with Kelly Purkey at The Ink Pad. Took this photo while walking to the class. Isn't NY unbelievable? The West Village is like a little town and you look up and there's a huge skyscraper. That is the under-construction Freedom Tower in the background. I remember walking these streets and looking up and seeing the WTC. Amazing to see this building rising above the skyline.

Here's my soon to be re-done cover, which had some ink issues:

Here are some of my journal pages. We inked, and heat embossed and even painted with Mister Huey - which was really fun. I could have colored in those flowers all day and have a new found love of Mister Huey Shine:

 This map paper shows the location of our class:

I'll post my finished journal as soon as I can. Honestly, I spent  a good portion of the class gabbing with my table mates - who were awesome - so the crafty mojo wasn't exactly focused. I love being in a room full of people who love making stuff out of paper as much as I do. Unfortunately, I'm not usually very productive. I always wind up finishing the project at home. Here's a photo of me with Kelly & Kristin (fellow Jersey girl and Studio Calico pal).

We got to sit at a table with another Jersey girl named Ana Laura - who enlightened us about some other places where we could take classes in NJ. We had a great time. Hope we can all get together again soon!

After we finished up, Kristin and Ana and I took a walk to The Ink Pad (the classes are held in a place called Westbeth, which is 10 minute walk from the store.) Couldn't resist shopping and added these items to the stash:

I had to have that Hero Arts skyline stamp that we used in class. Also love those cool NY tags. Not sure if I'll frame them or use them on a page. The Ink Pad is small but has such an amazing selection. If you are in NYC, it's a must see!

So that was my Saturday. Many thanks to Kelly for a great class with a fun project! Today I need to make stuff. I've got some looming deadlines and a gift album to finish up.
Hope you all have a great Sunday!

More Elle's Studio Projects

Hello there. Up to my ears in end-of-the-school year activities and the inevitable shuffling of the schedule. Luckily there is an easier pace just a week away and I can't wait. Currently I'm working on a scrapbook that will be a gift for my son's retiring teacher. While the book is going together quite easily, it's the collecting of the content that's a little vexing. I purchased an American Crafts binder album but thinking I might have to switch to a post bound album. Hopefully a big stack of stuff is headed my way this week so I can fill that baby up!

Up today I've got 2 pages I made for Elle's Studio. These feature the 2 May kits: Here & Now and Everyday Moments (psst - they are on sale -25% off this week!)  first up my baseball playing son:

I cut apart the Echo Park paper that happened to look like vintage baseball game tickets and used them to frame the photos. I used some of my homemade stamped tape along with the pennant stamp (heat embossed with leaf Zing). Here are some close ups:

I am in love with those Jenni Bowlin shadowed letter stickers:

Here's another - using a combo of both kits. My favorite photos from Easter this year:

Again I cut apart the Echo Park paper and used it layered under my photos. And there is that pennant stamp again - this time embossed in rouge Zing.

I've made so many projects with those 2 kits. I'm sad they are nearly depleted - particularly the Elle's tags, which were some of my all-time faves. I think I better start stocking up before my term is over!

Oh, and have you seen this?

The Elle's Studio Design Team call is up.Trust me, you want to try out for this team. I had such a great experience working with Elle & her fantastic products. I'm so sad this is the last month of my term but excited to see who gets to be on the team next.

Totally looking forward to a Saturday in the city this week. I'm taking a class at The Ink Pad taught by Kelly Purkey. I've take one of her online classes but never a classroom one. This one is an art journaling class which looks like it's loaded with cool techniques. Very much looking forward to it and meeting some Jersey gals from the Studio Calico message board.