Check This Out!

Melissa at Create From the Heart is having a great 3rd blogaversary giveaway! You have until July 24 to enter.

Fruity!

I have a table full of fruit, thanks to Bountiful Baskets. I had not tried sugar (or donut) peaches before. I now regret that I haven't tried them sooner. I was hoping to freeze some, but I'm not sure they will last that long. All this fruit makes me smile!

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My First Friends With Flair!

Pebbles patterned paper, American Crafts cardstock, Unity stamp from Adventures in Happiness, everything else is unlabeled stuff from my stash.

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I finally decided to join Unity's Friends With Flair. So, I threw together a graduation card. I can't believe that I have 4 graduation cards to make this year! I guess that number is only going to increase each year now that we have a child in high school. After I made the card, I realized that I have no clue where my camera is. I've been cleaning in our office, and I think I put it in a safe place. It's so safe, that I don't remember, LOL! So, the photo was made with my phone. (I know...it's embarassing!) Since I've cleaned off my desk, I've been enjoying my sewing machine again. So much so, that it seems nothing looks "finished" without sewing. I really like how the card turned out, and I think my friend's daughter will enjoy it since her favorite color is pink. Now, I need to go make 3 more! Check out Unity's blog for more Friends With Flair and a chance to win some Unity stamps!



Homemade Embellishments

So, the Counterfeit Kit Challenge has inspired me to make some of my own embellishments. The CKC blog has posted several tutorials. First up, I tried making the watermelons. They were really easy since I used my Cricut to cut out all the circles. The seeds on the watermelon "flower" were made using the bird punch from Stampin' Up (they are the leaves from the branch). I used the Cricut once again to cut letters from printed cardstock. The Cricut is a great tool for making embellishments! I didn't even come close to utilizing it to its potential!

Next, I tried making my own Baker's Twine from crochet thread and markers. I had a really difficult time getting the color even. While this would work, my perfectionism will have me ordering the real stuff once I use up what I've made.

I also had mixed results making my own washi tape. I think it was more of a trial and error to find out what works on different types of tape. The paper tape was my favorite. It took color better and dried faster. The masking tape was more difficult to color and took longer to dry. It was a good project to work on while I was watching TV. Since neither of these are acid free, I'll only be using this on cards and altered items.

So, I think that fabric buttons may be my new addiction. I used a gift card to buy a few supplies. I decided to buy some white patterned fabric. I tested dying the fabric and was happy to discover that the pattern became more pronounced! I used spray mists (from Maya Road and Tattered Angels). I also used ink pads to color the fabric after I had dampened it. I'm excited that the few scraps of fabric that I purchased will be able to work on a variety of projects since I can use supplies I already have to dye it the desired color!

It definitely saves money to make my own embellishments, which leave me money for more paper! So, that definitely makes me happy!

May Counterfeit Kit

So, I spent most of National Scrapbook Day getting my May Counterfeit Kit together. Well, really I didn't spend most of the day, I just spent most of my crafty time. I didn't put in very many embellishments. I figure that I can grab what I need as I'm doing projects. I did try to pull out of couple of things that have been in my stash for quite a while: Li'l David Journaling Pockets and Bazzill coin envelopes and fabric brads. Other embellishments include Echo Park Alphabet Stickers and Journaling Cards, Autumn Leave and Oriental Trading Company stamps, Crafter's Square flowers and trims (from the Dollar Tree), and some shipping tags.

I was happy that this month's inspiration kit was smaller. I think it's just the right size for me since it seems that my monthly page totals can be counted with my fingers. I chose quite a mix of patterned papers from GCD, My Mind's Eye, Basic Grey, Echo Park, Doodlebug, and Club Scrap. I made one sheet of patterned paper (the wavy one inspired by the Basic Grey paper in the inspiration kit). The cardstock is American Crafts and Prism (still working on using up what I have left of that).

I'm hoping to have time this weekend to start using the kit. I'd like to try some of the challenges that I saw posted last weekend. I saw a few that will stretch my creativity. In the meantime, I have been trying out making some of my own embellishments, so I will be posting about that sometime soon!

Game Night

I have another layout that I did as part of the Counterfeit Kit Mini Challenge. My inspiration came from Jessica. It was a quick and easy layout to put together. These days, I need quick and easy! I made the photo corners from a square frame that I cut in half.

Supplies used: American Crafts cardstock, Paper Studio patterned paper, Doodlebug and Bo Bunny alphabet stickers, misc. buttons, ribbon, and bling.

Armpit Acres

Armpit Acres is the name of my Dad's "little patch of heaven"--about 25 acres that he calls home. It's a very different from the city life that my children are accustomed to. When we visited last summer, I decided to take some photos of the area.

This layout is for a challenge on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. The challenge was to get inspiration from one of the design team members. So much inspiration available, but I chose Melissa. I really liked how she included 5 photos without the layout seeming crowded. I also liked that I could make a whole layout and not use a whole lot of patterned paper (even though I'm nowhere close to using all the paper in my kit). I used minimal embellishments because I really wanted to photos to stand out. The butterfly was made by stamping on a transparency and then using Stickles for the glitter (thanks to the tutorial posted on CKC earlier this month).

Most products were from my own Counterfeit Kit: American Crafts cardstock, Basic Grey patterned paper, We R Memory Keepers and Bo Bunny stickers, Prima flower, Close To My Heart, Bo Bunny, and Unity stamps, Stickles, Colorbox ink, and  misc. button and ricrac.