Around the World with the NEW Catalogue!

This might be the most exciting Around the World on Wednesday blog hop in 2020 as we are all featuring things from the brand new catalogue! Its like an early Christmas! The suite that I was the most excited about was the Playing with Patterns suite on page 100. I absolutely loved the color pallet and after playing around with the Playing with Patterns Designer Series Paper I might go on record and saying is my favourite DSP of all time. That is quite the commitment but to me it is perfection!

I knew right away I wanted to create a scrapbook page layout with this suite adding in a few other stamp sets I was excited about. I love a good floral set and I was drawn to the images and sentiments of this new bundle, All Things Fabulous on page 121.

And look at my subject matter! Could he be even cuter? Hawkins has been my faithful companion and my best buddy during the past few months. As soon as I saw the Pallet Thoughts stamp set with “Hello, Handsome” I knew it would be the perfect set to use when scrapbooking my dog, sons or husband! And I love the distressed wood stamp in this set as well. It is the perfect layering piece!

The whole page is designed around the colors of the Playing with Patterns suite—Purple Posy, Night of Navy (however, I substituted our new In Color Misty Moonlight), Coastal Cabana (my favourite color of all time), Crushed Curry (once again I substituted Bumblebee), and Calypso Coral.

I really love the flowers on this page combined with the soft colors. The enamel dots are an awesome finishing touch that helps add dimension to the page. I like my pages to have lots of layers and textures. I used the largest Water Painter brush to swipe over top of the Bumblebee flowers right after I stamped them. I did the same thing on the barn wood piece to soften things a bit and spread out the color slightly. I also stamped the flowers multiple times to give a gradient look to them as well. That is one of the easiest ways to create different colours. Ink once and stamp repeatedly!

I was so excited and inspired by this page layout that I took all of the same elements to create this adorable mini album. I used photos of our ‘quarantine times at home’ as my subject matter. Ridiculously Awesome is a new mlllion dollar achiever set co-designed by Ronda Wade with artwork contributed by Sean Douglass. I LOVE the oversized fonts which makes this a dream set for memory keeping!

For the album shown below, I used all of the same products (minus the flowers) to create this project. I also added in the stamp set A Grand Kid. I love the phrases in it and can see myself using it a lot even though I don’t have ‘grand kids’. Its definitely not a set to be overlooked because of the title.

Click through these photos to see some different views of this fun mini album :)

The next stop on our awesome blog hop of 24 participants is Cindy Schuster from Nutmeg creations! Cindy works at Stampin’ Up! and is one of the amazing co-founders of Stampin’ Through the Catalogue. You can follow them on the Gram @stampinthroughthecatalog

Create with Connie and Mary--Its a Masculine...

The theme for the first Saturday is June is Masculine! I really wanted to create a scrapbook page as I was really focused on cards for May. I shared a different card each month for the month of May. So if you are new here today, feel free to spend some time going through my posts and hopefully feel inspired!

This masculine page features my youngest son and husband and is a mix of NEW and current products. I pulled out my Geared Up Garage bundle and paired it with our new blue—Misty Moonlight! The oil splats are stamped in Versamark and embossed in clear embossing powder. Its a great solve for not having my new Misty Moonlight ink pad yet. I added in a Night of Navy photo mat to compliment the blue background and used the Denim Ribbon to add another blue tone and texture. My favourite part of the layout is probably the amazing DSP background. This is from the In Good Taste DSP stack and it looks like thick white paint on a canvas with a blue tint. I added in a 1 1/4 strip of In Color DSP in the woodgrain pattern on the left side. I LOVE this pattern option in the 6x6 stacks.

To add a bit of extra texture or grunge to the gears I swiped my Basic Grey ink pad over top of Smoky Slate card stock. I then cut the large gear die out of this piece.

It you want to order any of these amazing projects, please use my monthly hostess code and shop my store!

The large gears are cut out with the ink pad swipe method and the small gears have the Basic Grey marker flicked over top.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

ONE year ago today I started my blog process. I knew next to nothing and could not have gotten here 365 days later without the help of Pam Kriangum who took my amazing branding photos and helped me create my vision. Angie Mackenzie, bless your patience as you guided me along with all the behind the scenes aspects of creating blog hop posts!

Many of you have supported me along the way helping with proofreading (auto correct can really sneak things past you sometimes!) and giving me awesome content ideas, leaving comments and sending me personal messages. I feel a lot more confident now than I did in the beginning and I am so proud of myself for making the decision to step out of my comfort zone and expand my technological horizons! I am swearing and sweating a lot less than I was last June! Hahahaha!

I hope you have enjoyed the projects that I have shared over this past year! Not only do I share scrapbooking and card projects but the Lifestyle component of my blog has recipes, musings and family photos. This is a collective form of memory keeping for me and my kids. One day they will be able to go back through all of my posts and hopefully have a few laughs and gain a better understanding of their mom as a person. ‘Moms’ are often just that, MOM, until our kids mature and realize, my mom is also a woman, a friend, a spouse, a superpower, an influencer and the list goes on and on!

So thank you for being on this journey with me! Some of you have been following along since the beginning and some of you are new! I hope you keep checking back every so often and always feel welcome to leave a comment!

Happy Anniversary to ME!

Out of all the photos Pam took of me in my happy place, this one is my absolute favourite. I felt like I was in a crafting magazine! I love everything about this photo!

This page is mix of old, current and new supplies! The new would be the Just Jade DSP in the woodgrain option from the new DSP stack. Goal Crush is stamped with the Lined Alphabet stamp set and the # is from the Hand Lettered Prose dies. I added in the Detailed Hearts dies as my heart is so full and happy!

Wildly Grateful is the perfect sentiment to how I feel and I realize how blessed I am to LOVE what I do and SHARE what I love! You can find it in the new Lovely You Stamp set.

Yellow Balloon Project

My last card in my “A Card a Day in May” challenge is dedicated to my friend Michelle who lost her battle with cancer earlier this month. We met while working at lululemon and her impact on me as in individual will last the rest of my days. I had never met anyone like Michelle before. She did not let her illness define her in any way. She lived a big full life and was so positive and resolute in her efforts to stay alive. She loved her dogs and her husband Aaron was the center of her universe. They were the ultimate team. When a health challenge came her way she would say ‘Aaron and I will discuss a plan’. She always believed there was something she could be doing or trying to keep her cancer at bay. Michelle was generous, and kind, funny and a believer. The legacy Michelle leaves behind is how blessed we all are for knowing her. She made my life better and brought such a wonderful light to this world.

One of her wishes was to have yellow balloons released on her birthday which was shortly after she passed away. So we did that, all across Canada, friends and family of Michelle’s got together and released balloons in the spirit of connection to Michelle and tagged it #yellowballoonproject.

One way I felt I could stay connected to Michelle was to send her cards so that is why I am sharing this #yellowballonproject inspired card with you today. This stamp set is called Above the Clouds and that is where you are Michelle. I know you will continue to shine your light and your love down on us. Thank you for being you.

I will be your friend forever Michelle, I will continue to think of you and strive to approach my challenges in the same way as you, with light and grace. Until we meet again. XOXO

In case you missed any of the projects I shared this month I have collaged them all here! Take a look back through my blog to get more up close photos and the crafty details! It was a challenge for me to create a new card every day and to stretch my design muscles. Looking back I am really proud of all of my stampin’ in May. I am looking forward to a new month with a new catalogue!

Create with Connie and Mary--Favorite NEW product!

This week we are sharing our favourite new PRODUCT from the demonstrator pre-order. I have to say that it is hands down the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper. This paper is unique as its photographic paper, meaning the 12 x 12 pages are actual photographs of different woods, tiles, textiles and fabrics that have such a real deep feel to them. I have been wanting 12x12 wood grain paper for YEARS! I had to resist making a scrapbook page for the hop as I am committed to making 31 different cards this month for my person “A Card a Day in May” challenge. This is my 30th card of the MONTH!

The sentiment is from the Beautiful World stamp set that will be available on June 3rd

The card base is Early Espresso and then I chose a piece of DSP from the collection that looked like concrete to add in a grey tone. I knew I wanted to share an easy water color background technique and a couple more strips of the DSP to show you how easy it is to mix and match these great patterns. The sentiment is stamped on one of the light tone wood grain options in Early Espresso and then I added clear embossing powder on top so it would have a bit of shine. The new Faux Suede Trim is also at the top of my favourites list (I actually have a list on my blog, Brenda’s Top 10 that you can see all the things I am loving in this new catalogue). Follow the link here to see my list:

And of course I think its obvious from some of my other posts this month that I love the Sunflowers Dies so I found a way to add that onto this card too by pairing it with some vellum.

Here is a really easy way to color your water color paper. Cut a piece of watercolor (or shimmery white) paper to fit your card. Choose an acrylic block that is slightly bigger in size. I used Block E. You will need an ink pad and a water spritzer. Spritz the water color paper. Press the ink pad onto the block to ink it up. Lightly sprite the block and press it onto the watercolor paper. The trick is to let it SIT and absorb the ink. I usually let it sit there for a couple of minutes. When you remove it you get an awesome easy water color background!

Look how great this light pink watercolor background looks!

I can’t wait to see what the other girls are loving this week! Hop back to see Melissa’s favourite new product and forward to see Connie’s!