Creative Inklings

Craft Show Time

It's been a few years since I've done any kind of craft show, so I bit the bullet and signed up for one this year in December. I've this particular show before, so I think it will be worth my while. SO this week I've been busy taking stock of old stuff, and getting to work on some new items. I have so many ideas, sometimes it's hard to stay focused. Monday I was working on tags. I have about 10 different designs, and although I didn't do a great job of photographing them, I think they turned out pretty well. I'm including a little picture tutorial today of how to mask a design. For supplies, I used standard packing tags from Staples in a few different sizes, stamps from Stampin' Up!, Pink Paislie and Studio Calico, scrap paper, QuicKutz dies, ribbon, buttons, glitter and other little bits. Here's what I have so far:

And a few close-ups:

 

 

To create the above tag, I needed to do some masking. Here's how I did it:

First stamp the image to be masked on a post-it note:

Cut out the image, and set aside. Next stamp the same image on the tag:

Cover your image with the mask (I had already done this several times!):

Now stamp your backround image over top of the mask:

Remove the mask, and complete the tag:

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by.

Recollections

Sometimes it takes just the right story to scrap older photos. Recently I printed an older family photo from the day we brought Molly home from the hospital. I don't love the photo, but I realized it was our first "family" photo with the four of us, and I wanted to document that. I had fun doing some misting, masking and stitching to put this layout together. It's pretty simple, but I like it:

The numbers were cut with my Silhouette, and I used the shape as a mask for my white Mr. Huey. I then stiched around the big number four as part of my title:

My second layout is of a photo from my childhood. When I pulled this photo out, I laughed because I look so pleased to be holding a brand new doll on Christmas morning. The truth is, I never really liked dolls. The photo reminded me of that, so that's the story I told:

I come from a family of doll lovers. My mom and two older sisters LOVED dolls and everything to do with them  Imagine their disappointment when year after year, the dolls they would give me for Christmas sat untouched and unloved in my toy box., including the gorgeous hand-made clothes. Those dolls are in still in mint condition. I just never really liked dolls.

 

 

Lot's of hand-stitching, and die-cutting. Thanks for looking!

5 Years

My baby turned five this past weekend! I guess this also marks my 5 year scrapaversary - since I started scrapping shortly after she was born. I got some great photos of her on the day. She is very into fashion these days, very cute, until it takes her half an hour to pick her outfit in the morning! She's only in Senior Kindergarten, so I can only imagine what the teen years will be like. This is a simple layout, using Studio Calico Documentary papers. I cut the butterfly from vellum using my Silhouette - love how it came out! The rose ribbon is American Crafts, and it has been calling out for me to use it for weeks!

New Layout - New Product!

When I was doign a little shoppin' at Stamping Bella before Christmas (my prezzie to myself), I found a very cool new product by Tim Holtz, (who's stuff I always LOVE)  Film Strip Ribbon. I wasn't sure how I would use it when it first entered my stash, but I knew it fit with my style. I have other ideas of how I will use this, but LOVE how I was able to use it on my layout for today. This is a layout of a few photos I took of my daughter in December, after a triumphant battle of getting her hair in a classic ballet bun (my daughter was cooperative, her hair not so much). Molly loves to perform, and loves looking the part. I have a string of photos of Molly doing multiple poses showing off her "do" and her little ballet outfit - too funny. As soon as she's old enough for acting classes, that's where she'll be!

I'm really pleased with how this layout turned out. I started out with a smooth sheet of white cardstock, and stitched two circle patterns in two shades of pink with my sewing machine. I added the 5 by 7 photo, then used my Marvy Uchida Giga square punch to add two more smaller photos of Molly. I used the Tim Holtz film strip for the focal point of my title, which was cut with the CK Typist QuicKutz font (retired). I had to stitch the film strip in place as it was a little too stiff and curly for glue. To highlight the main photo, I cut the edges of the film strip and placed it under the photo, then stitched in white around the rest of it. The quote was printed on Claudine Hellmuth adhesive backed canvas, and stitched to the layout. I then used some cute crocheted flowers that my friend made me last Christmas, and tucked a couple heart pins in the bottom one - the perfect embellishment for the page.

Colour Challenge Card

I struggled with Kristina Werner's color challenge this week. Nothing was coming to me, then, at the last minute this design came to me. All the basic elements are done with QuicKutz. The circles are cut with the cookie cutter circles from Crate Paper patterned paper. The butterfly is a revolution shape (I don't love butterflies, but I really do like this die). The circle boarder is an awesome new silhouette design that I cut from Baja Breeze cardstock - very cool! The are a bunch of new Silhouette design that I can't wait to use for scrapbooking - hope to show you something soon! The Flair is by American Crafts. Thanks for looking!

A New QuicKutz Card

I think the new QuicKutz shapes this much are either a love 'em or hte 'em deal....I LOVE them! I adore all things anime, and have often manipulated the shapes to turn typical animal shapes into anime animal shapes, so was delighted with style (except for th monkey - bleh!).  I really love the Japenese dolls, and have been itching to play with them, so when I saw Dawn McVey's colour challenge this week, I immediately thought to use them. The colours this week were red, berry, soft pink, kraft and vanilla, and I ended up picking riding hood red, blush blossom and a sheet of Studio Calico paper from a few kits back. Did some simple machine staitching on the card, and used the Papertrey Ink sentiment. Here it is!

Spring Note Card

I'm getting ready for a stamp camp this weekend, so have been madly designer over the past few days. These days, I'm learning towards clean and simple design, but that could change any day! Today's card is one of the cards we will be making on Sunday. It uses the gorgeous QuicKutz butterfly 3-D shape, the bella rose designer series paper, and two of the SU boarder punches. The colour combo is pink pirouette, riding hood red, whisper white, chocolate chip and garden green.

QuicKutz Excitement!

Yesterday I had a great afternoon of QuicKutz fun at Scrapbooks by Design. I hosted a make and take featuring one of the amazing new alphabets released at CHA. It was also the afternoon of the HUGE $1000 QuicKutz giveaway - so lot's of excitement.

I used the new Supermaket Alphabet Die for my make and take. It's a 4 by 8 unicase alphabet in a great size, and such a fun font! It was a very simple but cute tag, that would be great to add to any valentine treat later this week.

Because I love this font so much, I decided to make a couple of additional card samples using the same die. It's the same layout for both cards, just  a play on words using different dies.

After the make and takes were finished, it was time for the big draw. I had the honour of drawing for the winner, and was delighted when it was one of the biggest QuicKutz fans I know that won! Congratulations Darlene!! Enjoy your $1000 shopping spree!!

QuicKutz Valentines - Part 1

As Valentines Day is approaching, I'm getting ready to teach a class of QuicKutz Valentines cards - one of my favourite type of cards to design. I have tons of ideas floating in my head. I love to pair the simple QuicKutz images with stamped sentiments. For my card today, I actually didn't have the sentiment I wanted,nor the space to use QuicKutz letters. However, while I was surfing my favourite blogs this morning, I found something on Ali's blog that I thought I could use. She has a new set of digital images for Valentines Day, I think they're called Love Circles. I bought them tonight from designer digitals, and customized one for this card. I used the QuicKutz deer image, my Stampin' Up top note die, three hearts from various QuicKutz die (email me if you want exact details), and my retired Stampin' Up! houndstooth backround stamp. I'm happy with how it came out - pretty close to how I visualized it. Stay tuned for more QuicKutz Valentines designs!

New QuicKutz Party Shapes

Check out the latest QuicKutz releases - they are so much fun! This month I was assigned a bunch of digital shapes to design with, so that was fun for a change. Here's what I came up with: