August Kit & Jillibean Soup

Happy Friday! I am so excited to share my reveal today. This has to be one of the most versatile kits we've had yet! I have officially fallen in love with Jillibean Soup, no question about it. For this layout I used the canvas flowers and corrugated alphas, as well as two patterned papers and they all coordinate beautifully. Petaloo's "Color Me Crazy" alterable leaves were a perfect compliment to the flowers too! The texture in them really pops with a little ink. I inked them with Dew Drop "Bamboo Leaves" first, then add a little TH "Vintage Photo" Distress Ink over that. Then, to give them a little definition, edged them with Cinnamon Stickles. What I love about the "Color Me Crazy" products is that you can alter them in countless ways to coordinate with whatever. That's just cool.

I couldn't resist adding a Petaloo "Candies" flower to the center of a J.S. canvas one. It added just the right amount of contrast to otherwise green embellishments, with the exception of the white lace. That lace couldn't have been more perfect for this! Have you ever tied a bow with lace? Seriously... NOT as easy as you would think. Or maybe I am just bow-impaired LOL... but that simple little bow took me forever to make it look right. If any of you have any great bow-making tips, don't be afraid to share, please!

My second layout sort of took on a life of its own. It all started innocently enough, with three 4-inch widths of cardstock. After all the distressing and sewing and muted tones of my first layout, I really wanted to play up the vibrant colors in the kit. So, after lots of fussy-cutting and painting and improvising, this is what happened:

Do I love it?? YES!!! Talk about "out-of-the-box"..... but these adorable pics of my girls called for something cute and bright and fun, so that's what I did.

Thanks for stopping by and having a look! To see more innovative projects with this kit, visit http://www.knkclub.com/ .

I've Been MIA with a good reason...

Hi everyone!
In case you did not know, I have been on the road for the past 3 weeks. My 18 year old son Ben and I drove to California for my oldest son's wedding, making a few amazing stops along the way. We had a blast in New Orleans, fantastic fun in Tuscon and then arrived in Lancaster CA for a visit with the lovebirds before the wedding festivities began in San Diego. The actual wedding took place on July 18th. Ben and I drove back and just got home late Friday night. We are totally wiped out from the whirlwind trip. I was hoping to have an amazing card to share with you today, but laundry, groceries, and unpacking have not given me any time to play (besides, I can hardly keep my eyes open!).
Soooo, I won't bore you with the gazillion photos we have from our trip, but I will share a few of my more favorites. Glad to be home, but Ben and I had so much fun on the road...it was a trip of a lifetime for us both!

Ben's first taste of beignet's at cafe dumond in the french quarter, listening to an amazing street band



My "neice" Danielle and me at the Desrt Museum in Tuscon



My boys, my neice and my hubby tooling around San Diego in style



Proud Momma and the Groom


The happy couple after the religious ceremony...



Now that I have shared these photos....I promise you fantastic crafting project next week!

Color me Crazy fun!

The Petaloo Color me Crazy flowers are by far my favorite flowers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that they come in all sizes and flower shapes. I love everything you can do with them. You can use them as is as a white flower, you can spritz then with Smooch spray or glimmer mist, you can stamp on them you can cut the 5 petal one and make them into butterflies, you can color them with copics...which is kinda what I did here.

I used a copic marker to color just the edges of the flower to match the paper. I then made the layered flower using this technique that Kathy linked up for us on the message board. The colors in the first card are a little off. (I really think my camera photo software is a little funky it doesn't always do what i want it to do :( ) The second picture shows the true colors.

Looking at the close up I now think I could/should have added a touch of Glossy Accents or glitter to the flower edges. So, what have you done with these flowers??? Don't miss these flowers currently in the August Kit add-on section in the KnK Mall. The papers and the lace are in the August KnK Kit.

SO excited about CHA!

Here are things that **might** be at Kit 'n Kaboodles within the next few months.

The top 2 are from Pink Paislee's Parisian Anthology. I ADORE this! The next three are from Graphic 45 Staples line.

I will have more pictures next week from the show!!

Fluffles in the sun

We've had some sunny weather this week again in the Pacifc Northwest...so it was time to pull out Fluffles with the snail and make a set of notecards to share some cheers with friends...

this guy just makes me smile no matter whether the sun is out or not...

Happy crafting....Lynda

Peacock Lane & Mid-Month Challenge

I know the August kit has been revealed (have you seen it?? WOW!) but I really can't get enough of this paper in the July kit! So, I have a couple more layouts to share with you using BoBunny Peacock Lane:
I hope you have enjoyed working with this kit as much as I have!

Your mid-month challenge for July is naturally summer-related (it's HOT outside!) Let's cool things down with a water-themed layout. It can be any size, with any number of photos, with any kind of embellishments as long as it emulates a water-theme. Post a link to your creation in a comment on this post by August 1st to be eligible for the RAK drawing. I can't wait to see what you create, so go get scrappin'!

August Kit and a Storage tip

Check out the August kit from KnK...isn't it lovely?!?! I absolutely cannot wait for the lace and the corrugated alphas and the pinwheels!!!! fun fun fun!

As for the Storage tip... I have a lot of ribbon. I was storing them all on the small floss holder cards, which works great for fibers and thin ribbons. but lately I am loving wider ribbons and frankly I had bought a lot of spools that just got thrown in the drawer and the ribbons I used most frequently were just in a large ziploc. I am not know for my neatness, but knew i wanted a neater way to store them where it didn't matter the size of the ribbon, and I wanted them stored by colors. So I did a quick google search which eventually led me to this older blog post from Gale. I loved the idea and set out to start immediately. Loved that the pins hold the ribbon. Becareful not to stick ppins all the wa through the boards though cuz it hurts. It took several night says of wrappiing ribbon while watching the kids play the Wii or watching TV, 2 1/2 foam boards and over 300 pins but I got them all done. I had them neatly stored in the plastic shoe boxes but they wouldnt fit in the drawer. So I finally just used the drawer as the holder. This is what they look like.

I cut each 20x30 board into 25 4x6 pieces. First I drew out the cut lines then I used a scissor blade to cut/score along the lines. I then foded the board along the lines and turned the boards over and cut/scored again one more fold and they broke apart along the lines (although i did have to trim a few up. Let me know how you store your ribbon or even if you try this :D

Fun in the sun

The sun is making a grand appearance again this week in the Pacific Northwest, so it got me in the mood to pull out my glittered cardstock and get busy.

I first stamped the Fun in the Sun stamp from set onto kraft cardstock with brown ink. I then trimmed the entire image using deckle edge scissors. I then decided to cut one of the Orange class a peel stickers in half and use it as my sun on my sentiment of the card...coloring in the word SUN using a white Sharpie marker. Then I decided to mount my stamped image onto glittered cardstock so it really sparkled...

I hope whereever you are that the sun is shining down on you and you are having a fantastic summer...get out and have some fun in the sun!!!

Happy crafting....Lynda

My KNK July kit reveal!

And isn't it about time! I have been on vacation.... and this gem of a kit graced my doorstep the day after I left on my nearly 3-week-long trip across the midwest. I couldn't wait to get into it when I got home Saturday evening! So that's just what I did.

The purples and blues were just right for my middle child, Katelynn, they are her favorite colors so naturally I have lots of photos of her wearing them. This made it pretty easy to have my pictures printed and waiting for me when I got back!
Fussy-cutting is sort of my go-to technique and I usually look for useable embellishments in the paper first when designing a page. In the midst of all the pretty Peacocks and flourishes in these BoBunny "Peacock Lane" papers were these dainty little purple blooms with blue centers and gray leaves, and dressing them up was easy. I think they add a delicate touch, a nice counter-balance to the bold leaves on the tree in this layout.

A simple card is easy to put together from scraps....

.... and I always love to use the coordinating flowers that BoBunny makes for each line of paper. For this layout I used a couple iCandy brads for the centers of two layered flowers, and a Petaloo "Candies" flower for the center of the third. If you haven't seen these particular flowers from Petaloo they are soooo pretty!! The only thing that could make me love them more is if they came in more than one size :)

Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment and let us know you were here!

Another Scrappy Journal....

I've been having so much fun with this journal as the whole insides of it come from memorabilia I brought home from our Utah trip. It's amazing what you can use from plane reservation slips to receipts, etc...to make the background pages for your journal. Now the fun starts with stamping, putting the photos in and journaling. Here's a few pic's from my journal journey...








Hope you've enjoyed looking!

Remember!

For those regular viewers among you ... this card will look familiar. I blogged the same design a while back and thought I would take this opportunity to show you the different look you can get just by using different Distress Ink colours. This time I have used Broken China, Dusty Concord and Antique Linen. The Agapanthus stamp is from Stampendous.
And if you are a regular visitor please show the team here some love ... leave a comment ... the girlies here have blogged some real beauties this week ... and you know the saying ... a little goes a long way :0)
Have a great weekend everyone!

more layouts with the July kit!

The July kit and add-on are chock-ful of BoBunny Peacock Lane. This line has beautiful colors that work well for many types of layouts. First I am showing off my budding cook, who is making homemade chicken strips. It was something that she saw on the Food Network. I focused on the blues and purples of this line.

My next layout adds the greens of the line. I have been dying to use this ribbon that I found while shopping with my friend Jules, and as soon as I saw the color combination of this kit, I couldnt WAIT to use it!

Make sure you stop over at www.knkclub.com and show us what YOU create with this kit!

Just a note

Weather forecast is heating up all over the country and it's almost time to hit the beach... I decided to create a simple card this week...allowing this great stamp to be the star of the show...

I stamped the starfish and seashell image from the Fun in the Sun stamp set onto cardstock, colored the image in with Prismacolor pencils, and then tore the image out of the cardstock to create the distressed look... I then inked my card base...added this great pattern paper I had in my scrap pile and the sentiment that I had in my stash... Lots of distressing and ink later...here we are:



I hope you are keeping cool and having a great summer wherever you are...
Happy crafting....Lynda

Happy Independence Day!

I made this cute little card using Stampendous' Freedom Squares stamps! I added some class a peel star stickers for a little extra glittery shine! and ribbon! my newest addiction! working on a new storage system for my multiplying supply! wish me luck.. have I mentioned i am not the most organized person in the world?? really! Hope you are having a safe and happy holiday!

Gesso Etching Technique

I've been playing around with this technique this week that I learned about from Claudine Helmut. It's a fun way to make your own background page for a layout or project.
What you do is take a canvas or piece of fabric which is was I used, and first layer it with some paint, all over the surface.Let it dry. Then you take gesso, which is a primer for all types of surfaces, and layer that on over the paint. Let some of the paint come through the surface. You can add several colors if you want, I just used yellow paint for mine.
I put it on rather thick and if you are going to use it for a background for a photo or something, you might want to put it on thinner. Once the gesso is on, I took a pencil and just drew my figures onto it. You can do whatever you like to make the background you want. Her example was to do a type of faux cursive handwriting which was quite cool looking. Let it dry thoroughly. Now you can use the page as is or if you hadn't let the gesso dry, you could use a transfer method on it which I'll explain next time!
Have some fun with it!

Pack Your Bags!

I told you I got some yummy stuff in the post on my return from Ranger U now did n't I??? One of the things was a fab travel stamp collection by Stampendous. Another thing was one of the delightful little suitcases from Zutter. Now I am not much of a scrapper ... but I do like collecting tickets from my travels and making mini books ... so I took a piece of white card ... scored it ... cut the corners off to form a concertina tag album and started Distress inking and stamping without delay. I added a few Idea-ology adage tickets and some left over coins and Ta Da ... a quick and simple keepsake!

And if you have n't been on your travels recently ... well how about recording some of your wishes or giving a book of wishes away as a gift for that friend that has everything!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone ... see you next week!

sometimes...simple is best.

I am a simple scrapper. For a long, long time, I tried to be something else. I would look in the magazines and online, and see GORGEOUS layouts with tons of embellishments and patterned paper. I would stare at them in amazement and awe. I would then attempt to do the same kind of layout. Mine always looked silly and cluttered. Recently, I have looked deep inside of ME, and one thing I realized is this...it is OK to be different. It is OK to be yourself. When I received the July kit from Kit 'n Kaboodles, I knew immediately that I wanted to use these pictures of my daughter Kiley on her tenth birthday. These pictures are so HER. This layout is so HER. Simple, classic, and clean. I did try to add a few more things, but kept taking them away, as I really wanted the focus on the pictures. The BoBunny is perfect for accenting and not overpowering. I also did a quick card...everything came together so quickly and easily with this kit.

I cannot WAIT to design more things with it!