Simple Stories: Hello Family Fall Fun!

Hello there! First things first - the random winner of the Crafts 'n Things magazine subscription giveaway is:

Rhonda said...
I am signed up for Crafts 'N Things community now. :o)

3:40 PM

Rhonda, could you please send me an e-mail (cornellgj(at)yahoo(dot)com) with your address and information so I can forward that to Crafts 'n things? Congrats!

Today I have a couple of projects to share using the Harvest Lane collection from Simple Stories. And (gasp!) I even did some stamping and heat embossing on both of them. (I am gasping over here because I usually do not take the time to stamp. But stamping is definitely something that I am trying to include more in my work and get some use out of the sets I seem to collect).

My family loves, loves, loves visiting the pumpkin patch every fall (we actually go to two of them - one of them is just a little urban place to buy pumpkins but it is always beautifully decorated and the other is an actual, country pumpkin patch complete with a hay ride to a field to choose pumpkins). 

 
For my title, I mixed and matched alphabet stickers from several collections.

I added a few details here and there...brads and vellum for texture.



The leaf stamps are a set by Cocoa Daisy that were stamped with colored inks on vellum and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. (Yes, you can heat emboss vellum - just don't hold the heat gun too close and keep it moving!) I also used leaf stickers from the Harvest Lane collection.


And like always, I made a card after I created my layout. I stamped a few more images and then layered them here and there on the card.





Thanks for stopping by today! More fun from Simple Stories tomorrow! We're having a December Daily blog hop - I know I swore I would not be doing this album again but I talked myself into it! ;)

See you tomorrow! ;)

Crafts 'n things Magazine: Subscription Giveaway!

Happy Friday! Wow...this week has flown by! I can't believe we're getting so close to Thanksgiving! Today I have some exciting news to share with you all as well as AMAZING magazine subscription giveaway for one of my blog readers!

Twice a month, I will be contributing projects and blog posts for a fantastic magazine - Crafts 'n Things - as part of their new blog team!

 

I have been able to contribute projects to their print publication since 2008 so I'm very excited about this new adventure. Crafts 'n things is a wonderful publication full of all kinds of crafting ideas - their paper crafting section is just one part and features cards, home decor, altered projects and mini albums. I have also been contributing projects for their free digital weekly newsletter and you can sign up for that right on Crafts 'n things website.

Today I am giving away a ONE-YEAR subscription to the magazine (the print publication) ! All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment on this blog post and I'll draw a random winner and announce it next Wednesday, November 14th. Also, if you sign up for the Crafts 'n things community (includes the newsletter) you can have an extra entry into my giveaway by coming back and leaving another comment that you did so.

Here's a peek at their December 2012 issue on newsstands now (and that happens to be my snowman card on the cover!)

Thanks for stopping by today and letting me share my news and have a great weekend!  :)

Emma's Paperie: Night Eyes & Step Right Up

Good morning! Today I have a couple of layouts to share for Emma's Paperie. The first project uses October's Afternoon's Witch Hazel collection and the second, their Midway collection. Can you tell I'm an October Afternoon fan?! ;) The first layout is also for the sketch challenge this month and I turned the card sketch into a layout simply by focusing on the scallops in the sketch. This year we went to Night Eyes at the zoo for the first time and we loved it!

I recently picked up this jack 'o lantern border punch from EK Success and I love the look of those smiling little pumpkins.





For a complete supply list, please visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Also at Emma's Paperie, the design team focused on banners. I went for the less obvious route here and made banners from patterned paper and used tags and die-cuts for banners. This summer we went to Adventureland which is a pretty fun amusement park and water park. The girls absolutely loved it! They played a fish game (the kind where everybody wins!) and thought it was so neat to win a prize!

Love the Midway collection! I'll definitely be doing a lot more Adventureland photos, Iowa State Fair photos and more with this one!

For a complete supply list visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Fancy Pants Guest Designer: Home for Christmas Projects

Good morning! Today I want to share the rest of my projects for Fancy Pants Designs as their guest designer for November.

I was also able to work with the Home for Christmas collection. We always take a family photo in front of our Christmas tree and I hadn't yet scrapbooked our photo from last year. I just love a classic Christmas collection and this one was full of traditional Christmas colors with that vintage touch I also love.

I mixed and matched more of the banner die-cuts and layered some chipboard, button, and brad. A little vellum adds more texture.

I had a lot of fun layering here with the different patterns, chipboard frames and stickers. The glitter alphabet stickers are so pretty.

The little layered tag was dressed up with a chipboard button and green button. I also used stamps on this layout.

For my second layout, I captured a family Christmas tradition with our new friend, Buddy the Elf. I created a storyboard with this one as I had several photos I wanted to use. (This is one tradition I am excited to keep up this year as the girls are still talking about Buddy the Elf.) 

I punched out several snowflakes and then backed them with patterned paper and embellished with brads.

I punched vellum circles and then added the numbers with stickers in the collection.

Here I just added a few little details here and there with chipboard.

Finally, I also created a quick and easy card with Home for Christmas. I layered a few frames with a dimensional sticker.

Thanks again to Fancy Pants Designs for having me this month! It was so wonderful to work with both the Hopscotch and Home for Christmas collections.

I'll be back with more tomorrow! :)

Webster's Pages: Sprinkles Craft Box

Good morning! Today I have something exciting to share with you for Webster's Pages. The past three months, Webster's Pages has offered a Sprinkles Craft Box. And this month, I was able to create a project using the Craft Box. The best part about the boxes are they are just $10 and that includes free shipping! (International boxes have an extra shipping charge). This month's box even has an exclusive stamp! The boxes have limited quantities and are available now as a pre-sale for InspireMe members. And they go on sale for everyone else today at noon EST.   

Here is the project that I created with the box this month: I was inspired by the Western Romance journaling cards to create love letters for my husband to let him know how much I appreciate him. I had some really old file folders in my stash and thought that would be a unique setting to house the journaling cards. You could easily die-cut some or use vintage folders in a variety of sizes.

The inside came together very quickly by layering patterned paper scraps, punched hearts, journaling cards and kraft tags. 

If you purchase this month's Craft Box, you'll be able to get complete instructions on how I made this project along with another project created by Courtney.

Stop by Webster's Pages today to get your very own Sprinkles Craft Box...you deserve it!

Thanks for visiting today! A lot more to come this week!

Fancy Pants Guest Designer: Hopscotch Projects

Good morning! I am so honored to be guest designing for Fancy Pants Designs this month. Today I wanted to share my projects with you using the Hopscotch collection.

My first layout is of Nora and a sweet moment of her with her daddy at church one morning.

 

The banner stickers and die-cuts are great for mixing and matching.



I like to add a little vellum under my photos for a little texture and softness. The calendar cards are great for everyday moments.



I removed the center of the letters and added patterned paper behind.



For my second layout, I decided to create one with a fall theme and pulled out my Cricut and the Straight from the Nest cartridge to help me cut out some leaves. I also used some leaf punches. I kept the colors of this layout to mostly brown, blue, cream and orange to match the girls' outfits as they played in the leaves.



I cut a variety of leaves using the punches and Cricut and then scattered them around the page.



For this title, I misted the "happy" card with Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist and stapled some twine to the top.



The larger leaf is actually punched from wood veneer and then backed with patterned paper.



While I was at it with the Hopscotch collection, I created a card.

I pulled out the pinks and blues and used the leftover punched leaf from the layout with some layered chipboard and buttons.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll share my projects with the "Home for Christmas" collection soon!

I've been pretty sick the past few days and finally headed to the doctor this afternoon for some meds. Here's hoping I'll be feeling like myself soon! :)

Have a great weekend! :)

Simple Stories: Hello Vacation!

This week the Simple Stories design team is sharing ideas and inspiration using the brand new Sn@p collection on the Simple Stories blog. Specifically, we're highlighting the Sn@p binders and how easy it is to create projects! Dear friends that don't scrapbook - pay attention! This is one product line that anyone can use!

This summer, we went on our very first family vacation. We spent several nights around the Twin Cities in Minnesota and had such a fun time. Sn@p made it so easy to create a mini album of our vacation together and it was fun to pull in other travel products I have been wanting to use.

For the cover, I pulled out many products with "hello" on them and then added "Vacation" using the alphabet stickers and labels. I also wanted a calendar to share the date when we went on vacation so I cut that out from one of the Simple Basics patterned papers. I also tied a little wood veneer car to the cover with twine.

I used one of the chipboard inserts as a cover sheet. I had a map stamp from Cocoa Daisy that I heat embossed and then highlighted where we went with a heart sticker and "love this" sentiment. And it was fun to add the "who, what, when, where" details with the tabs that I cut out from Snappy Thoughts 4 x 6 cards.

For the inside cover, I used another Snappy Thoughts 4 x 6 card to share a few more details about our vacation. And for page one, I started using the divided page protectors. 

Here are the next two pages...I'm keeping everything super simple! Some pockets, I just slide in a card or photo with minimal embellishments. I'm really loving the options for journaling!

And a couple more pages...again, mostly the photos, a little patterned paper and a few stickers here and there. 

And here are two more pages I didn't share on the Simple Stories blog... I journaled a lot about those crazy fighting, playing bears. It was literally one of the coolest things I have ever seen. They kept at it forever.

My album is still a work in progress so I hope to share more with you soon. I was just in awe of how quickly it all came together. The hardest part was choosing and editing my photos.

Thanks for stopping by today! I have plenty more to share with you in the next couple days so please stop back! :)