Practical Scrappers: Weddings

Today the ladies of Practical Scrappers are getting into the spirit of the summer season with a wedding feature!  Please stop by and see all the beautiful postings of layouts and cards.

Here is my little card for the week.  It's the bluebird of happiness surrounded by a bit of white lace.

Please stop by the Practical Scrappers blog to see what the other ladies have created!

Practical Scrappers: Bags

Over at Practical Scrappers, the ladies are showing us Ten Things to do with Bags!

My take on this week's challenge was to create a mini bag on a birthday card :-)

Please stop by to see what the other ladies have for you today!

ps- sorry these posts are so short...I have a very lovey newborn who seems to always be occupying one of my arms :-)  Love!!

Practical Scrappers: Ten Things Tuesday - Scallops

Scallops are very trendy right now, and I'm seeing them pop up in all sorts of design, including cards and layouts.  Since they seem to be all over the place, I had a hard time coming up with a new and creative way to tackle them for this week's Ten Things challenge at Practical Scrappers.

I decided to go way out on a limb and break out my art supplies.  In my stash, I rediscovered my oil pastels!! They're basically big, oily crayons that can be drawn with and then smeared, blended and manipulated on paper like oil paints.

Here's how my oil pastel scallops turned out!

They kind of remind me of peacock feathers and I love that they create a different effect from any of my other craft supplies.  I can see myself incorporating them into many other projects :-)

Please stop by the Practical Scrappers blog to see what other creative ways the ladies are using scallops in their designs!

UnstampaBelles: Case a Previous Design Team Creation

Hello everyone!  Are you ready for another fantastic challenge from the ladies at the UnstampaBelles challenge??

This is a fun one, because we all get to CASE (use as an inspiration) a paper project based on a previous example from the Design Team.   This was so fun to do and was also very difficult!  I love so many of the things my fellow designers have made, it was hard to choose just one to use as inspiration.

In the end, I picked one of my all time favorite cards by the fabulous Jan.  It's from our Christmas challenge, and I just loved the shape, texture and layers that she used.  I usually have trouble with circles, so I thought this would be a fun one to just go for it :-)

Here is Jan's gorgeous Christmas card:

And here is my CASE of it!

My sentiment is a rub-on :-)  Please swing by the UnstampaBelles and get in on the fun, and remember NO STAMPS :-)  Have fun and can't wait to see what you create!!

Our New Love

I've been a bit out of the action lately, and for a very good reason!  We had our little baby boy on May 25, 2013 at 6:31 pm. He came in at 7 pounds 7 oz and 21 1/2 inches long.  He's long and lean and has so much hair!!!

I will be checking in periodically now that we're home and settled :-)

Here are some pics of our new little guy, Elijah!

  

Snoozing with his Dad :-)

Practical Scrappers: Card Sketch

I love card sketches and find they give me a bit of a jumping off point if I'm feeling less than creative :-)  They're also fun because you can use them as a definitive map, or as a rough sketch.  The ladies at Practical Scrappers have been showing us fun card sketches every month and the May sketch is just as fun!

Here's my little take on it.

Hope this gets your creative juices flowing, and please stop by the Practical Scrappers Blog for more card sketch inspiration!!

Practical Scrappers: Ten Things Tuesday - Watercolors

This week over at the Practical Scrappers, the ladies are working Watercolors into their crafty projects.  Having a minor in Studio Art in college, I seem to have lots of paints and charcoals and other bits and bobs floating around in my stash.  I seem to forget about them while I'm in the midst of paper crafting, so this was a fun challenge to bring them back into the game :-)

For my card, I created the abstract, blue background by dropping concentrated, liquid watercolor paints onto a plastic sheet.  I then coated the paint with water and used a pin to stir the colors together. When I found a pattern I liked, I pressed the corners of my white card stock into the mixture. After it had dried, I used regular black ink and stamps over the top.  Turns out the paint wasn't totally dry when I stamped over it, but I actually like how it turned out.  Much more soft and "shabby" than what I normally create.  

So, if you have some watercolors hidden away in your stash, stop on by Practical Scrappers and get some inspirations and show us what you're creating too!!