Scrapbooking with Memories & More cards!

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If you are looking for an easy way to start scrapbooking, I would suggest Memories & More cards! I have several sets that I collect from every catalogue so my project share today is actually using a retired set of cards Flowers for Every Season. I do offer lots of classes featuring the Memories & More cards as they are just so user friendly!

Stampin’ Fancy Friday this month is featuring projects made with Memories & More cards so I knew right away I wanted to create a fun scrapbook page of a recent ‘pass through’ trip to Jasper, AB Canada with my friends Jessica. This was a nightly pit stop for us on our way to Vancouver for On Stage back in November!

What I love about Memories & More cards is that they have so many great images, sentiments or phrases that you can easily cut out. Often there are stickers and other fun elements that you can add onto your projects. You can stop there or you can add in other things from your craft supply.

For this page I started with a base of Crumb Cake 12x12 and I added a layer of Misty Moonlight behind my picture as a photo mat.

One of my favorite things to do with the Memories & More cards is cut them apart either with paper snips or with dies. The ‘Winter Wishes’ sentiment came from one of that cards that I used the Layering Circle Dies to cut out. ‘It’s Cold Outside’ and ‘Yay for Today’ are cut from another card that was full of different sentiments. I also trimmed out the flower tucked under the main sentiment from a card as well. See! So many options!

I jazzed up this page with some background stamping from Joyful Flurry.

TOP TIP: For background stamping with images, I like to add a bunch of stamps to a large block to stamp at once! This is an efficient way to stamp a large area!

I added some die cut snowflakes from the Celebrate Tags Dies and some of our new Pastel Adhesive Backed Sequins. I am also a hoarder of our gold and silver Metallic Thread that retired a few years ago so I added some on this page too. It is definitely a true mash up of stuff on this scrapbook page!

I like to use the cards to highlight my photo so you can see how I used them as some fun layers behind my photo. You can cut them apart and trick the eye into thinking you are using a much larger piece of paper than you really are. This really helps stretch the Memories & More cards even further!

I hope this project encourages you to look at some past or retired supplies you might have and give them some new life by pairing them up with some more current items. Or at the vary least you are inspired to create a scrapbook page.

Make sure you follow us @stampinfancyfriday on Instagram and Facebook. Each month Artisan Alumni members create with a different theme and share across social media!

 

Thanks for popping by my blog today! If you are interested in scrapbooking make sure to check out my gallery! I recently added 46 page layouts so there is alot of scrapbooking inspiration for you!

And if you create something that I have inspired you with, please tag me! I would love to see your take!

Sale a bration Kick Off 2023!

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Hello friends! I hope you had an amazing holiday season and I am so excited to be back again after a little crafting hiatus. I mean, I did craft, I just didn’t share as much on social! The theme of my post today is Sale a Bration—or the happiest time of year! Who doesn’t LOVE to get FREE stuff. I mean if you are spending money anyway…might as well get some free goodies!

Isn’t this little owl the cutest? He is actual one of three owls found in the new 2023 Sale a Bration stamp set Adorable Owls. And he truly is! I wanted to create a card that depicted an owl flying high in the sky and I think this turned out pretty close to my vision!

I started with a base of Basic White card stock and I used Balmy Blue ink and a Blending Brush to add the first layer of blue. I then added some Tranquil Tide in the corners. I feel like these two colors did a great job created dimension for the sky. I then took my Water Painted and flicked some water over top. Water acts like an eraser giving the illusion of moisture in the air.

 

The cute stitched clouds are die cut from the Give it a Whirl Die set in the annual catalogue. I love that you get 3 sizes of clouds to help design a scene!

I added a strip of DSP from the In Color DSP stack along the bottom to help ground the sentiment. And a little Linen Thread behind the sentiment (stamped in Tahitian Tide) with a little scallop border just makes it pop.

My flying owl is colored with a mix of Stampin’ Blends from the Neutral Tones collection plus some Crumb Cake and Tahitian Tide. I really feel that this owl has a lot of dimension and I really enjoy coloring with our Blends. I couldn’t resist adding some of the new Pastel Adhesive-Backed Sequins too. They might be my favorite new embellishment!

 

You can shop the Sale a bration catalogue, choosing a free item with your $60 CAN purchase by clicking on any image. This should direct you straight to my online store.

Look at all these fun choices you get during Sale a bration 2023! I love the Adorable Owls set, I think it has alot of potential to color with Stampin’ Blends, Watercolor Pencils, or lazy watercoloring!

Color Fusers--January 2023

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Hello friends and welcome back to another year of the Color Fusers Blog Hop! We are so happy to have you here and we have some new friends joining us from around the world. So make sure to go all the way through the hop!

I was very excited about this color combo of Fresh Freesia, Rich Razzleberry and Granny Apple Green, however…I did cheat, I added in a fourth color because I really needed it to bring my card vision alive! I hope my fellow teammates can give me a pass for creative inspiration!

My card features a fourth color—Coastal Cabana! I had a summer sunset over the mountains in my mind and I really needed it to bring my card background to life.

This card reminds me of my recent trip I took w one of my besties—we drove through the rocky mountains, down through washington, idaho and montana. it was beautiful!

I started with a card base and first layer of Fresh Freesia. I then used our Watercolor Paper to create my background. I started by spritzing the paper with water and then I added in Coastal Cabana with a Water Painter to the top half of the watercolor paper. I then blasted it with my heat tool.

Next I added another spritz of water to the mid section of the card and added some Rich Razzleberry ink with a Water Painter. I made sure that these two colors ran together to create a ridge line. I wanted my mountain range to look like it was fading into the background. I stamped a few little stars from the Greatest Journey set on the sky part of the card.

I then spritzed the bottom half of the watercolor paper again and added my Granny Apple Green color to the bottom.

look at my well loved ink pads! I think i need to a magic eraser to them!

I used two stamp sets to complete this card—the ever fabulous and will never leave my stash stamp set, Mountain Air! I stamped the tree line in Rich Razzleberry ink. The mountains are stamped in Fresh Freesia and then I took a finger dauber in Rich Razzleberry to the tops and filled in a bit of the white space. The mountains were then die cut using the Majestic Mountain Dies.

The trees in forefront are stamped in Granny Apple Green—two full strength and one set stamped off. They were stamped using the new Greatest Journey stamp set and die cut with the coordinating dies.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set and I inked it up in Fresh Freesia and then took my Rich Razzleberry marker over top of the ‘Mountains of’ portion of the stamp to get that two-tone look. The sentiment is cut using the new Something Fancy Dies. I flicked my Rich Razzleberry marker over the sentiment and added a bit of white bakers twine behind.

I wanted some embellishments on my card so I used my Parakeet Party and Rich Razzleberry Stampin’ Blends to color some of the vanilla Classic Matte Dots so they would coordinate.

I LOVE how this card turned out and its really one of a kind, because as you all know with watercoloring, you can rarely repeat the same thing twice! Or I cannot at least! I had a lot of fun making it and my hands were a complete mess. But really, if your hands are inky, did you even really craft? Hahaha!

 

Don’t you love how many uses we have for our Stampin’ Blends? I love that we can create so many custom things such as the Classic Matte Dots, or color over our many ribbons, or on Window Sheets (a tip I shared for one of my Artisan assignments last year), we can use them for flicking/spritzing, highlighting words, doodling and so much more!

I can’t wait to see what Bonnie O’Neill creates so make sure to hop over to her NEXT or you can be a rebel and go PREVIOUS to see what Sue Vine has designed. Either way, I know you will be impressed so make sure to visit everyone on the hop to see what they have made this month! And thank you again for checking in to see what crafty projects I have been up to!

 

Happy New Year 2023

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Hello to all of my friends and family! Wishing you the very best as we kick off a NEW YEAR! I am always excited for a new year and all the NEW that it can represent—new opportunities to try new things (maybe a Facebook live….), go new places (can’t wait for the Norway Incentive Trip with Shepard in May), read new books (did you see my post yesterday with all the new book recommendations), stamping with NEW STUFF (can’t wait for the Occasions Catty to go live in a few days) and meeting new friends! The world is full of so many interesting people, I can’t wait to meet some of them in 2023 (I have a whole new bunch of Artisan Design Team friends to get to know!)

Here is a little fun card for some creative inspiration. I was inspired by a card that Cindy Schuster shared recently on Stampin’ Fancy Friday and since I didn’t give out too many Christmas cards, I thought it would be fun to make some for a few crafty friends!

Petal Pink is my favorite color as of late, and if you check through the new DSP coming out in the Occasions Catalogue, you will see its a popular color with the concept artists over at Stampin’ Up! too.

The stars in the background are from an ancient stamp set called Perpetual Birthday Calendar and the main sentiment ‘Hooray’ is from a current set called Big Hooray in the Annual Catalogue. The sentiment ‘to the new year’ is trimmed from a stamp in another retired set called Cheers to That. So this card is really a mix of everything!

The main sentiment is ombre with Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaron and Pool Party ink—literally all my favorite colors on this card!

I am really excited about the new Alphabet A la Mode dies in the Occasions Catalogue and I used them with the Foam Adhesive Sheets and all my scrap pieces of gold or goldish toned paper…this projects was such a good way to use up scraps and bits that I seem to hang on to. I also went over the ‘Hooray’ with my Wink of Stella pen so it had a bit of sparkle too.

I used a mash up of embellishments—new Pastel Adhesive Backed Gems, Polished Dots and some Elegant Gems.

 

I hope you have a creative 2023 and I invite you along on my journey! I can’t wait to see what this year has in store and I am starting a new hashtag #goodstuff2023 to manifest all the good stuff to come my way and yours!

12 Books from 12 Friends

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So I recently saw a Facebook Post where you start off 2023 or any new year (really ANY TIME is a good time to start reading books) committing to reading 12 books recommended by 12 friends! I thought it would be fun to share the list I curated as a permanent record here! This way I can refer to my list and add my reviews about what I liked or disliked about these books and you may also find something to read when you find yourself in need of a new book.

Here are the recommended books in no particular order!

  1. When We Were Yours (recommended by Lynne Scratch)

  2. The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (recommended by Reagan Janke)

  3. Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner (recommended by Lise Schoenberger)

  4. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce (recommended by Colleen Vassos)

  5. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (recommended by Johanna Barron)

  6. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (recommended by Vicki Trip)

  7. Lessons in Chemistry (recommended by Brett Letestu)

  8. Beartown by Fredrik Backman (recommended by Katherine Keyes)

  9. The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (recommended by Heather Weiss)

  10. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (recommended by Laurie Peter)

  11. Confessions on the 7:45 (recommended by Shawna Dohms)

  12. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (recommended by Kathy House)

And because I do plan on reading more that 12 books this year….here are a few more recommended by my Facebook friends:

13. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (recommended by Lorna Raczynski)

14. The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (recommended by Jody Nickerson)

15. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (recommended by Jody Nickerson)

16. The Thursday Murder Club (recommended by Susan Edwards and Melody Hyde)

17. Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig (recommended by Heather Beztilney)

18. The Witches of Mooonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais (recommended by Natalia Sioux)

19. Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (recommended by Katharine Reiter)

20. The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (recommended by Christy Haggarty)

21. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaellides (recommended by Dallas Burkart)

22. Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens (recommended by Dallas Burkart)

23. The House in the Cerulean Sea (recommneded by Martin Stone)

I think this list will be a great resource for when I find myself at a book store! Thank you everyone for your recommendations! I read every night before bed so I have 365 days of reading in front of me! The only reason I will give up sleep is for a good book :)