It's A Charmed Life!

It's my turn today on the Simple Stories blog and I have a super adorable mini album to share! First, let me start off by saying that I LOVE Simple Stories NEW "A Charmed Life" collection. This one is right up my alley, the colors are perfect, the elements are perfect, and I just adore all of the sweet sentiments. 

I have been hanging on to this little Maya Road Chipboard/Acrylic stand album for a while, but decided to finally put it in use. I needed a new piece to sit on my desk. 

My husband and I got anniversary photos taken this past year, so I wanted to have them on display for sure! I take every opportunity that I get to have a photo session. The end results are a fun time and amazing photos that last a lifetime. These did not let me down. We had a blast with this photos session! 

The sun was so bright that morning so we couldn't get a ton of photos down by the river, but I adore this one. That's the great Ohio River for those of you wondering.

Here's a few pages from the inside. I used some of the Sn@p cards on the top pages because I loved the sentiments and these little cards fit perfectly. 

Another element from this collection that I love are the little chipboard stickers. They give some nice dimension to projects and they are just adorable!

Here's the album from the side.... if I would have put anything else on it, I believe it would fall over! 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Products Used:

Simple Stories: A Charmed Life 
6x6 Paper Pad #3722
Bits & Pieces #3729
Chipboard #3728
Brads #3727
Insta Squares #3730
Sn@p Cards #3723

Maya Road- Acrylic Album
Petaloo- Velvet Hydrangeas
May Arts- 5/8' Grosgrain Dots: DD57, DD15; 3/8" Metallic Velvet 377-38-55

A "Thrilling" Canvas with Authentique Paper & Imagine Crafts

Welcome! This month the Imagine Crafts AIRs are featuring Authentique Paper's new "Thrilling" collection in their projects. Lucky me, I am an AIR and a member of the Authentique Paper DT, so I wanted to make this post double the fun! 

I decided to play around a little. One of my favorite things to alter with Imagine Crafts products are canvases. I have an abundant amount of little canvases in my drawer just waiting to be inked. This was the perfect project for today, a little canvas makes a great piece of seasonal home decor! 

First, you will need to gather up some supplies. The canvas that I used is a 4x4 stretched canvas from Canvas Corp. I also used Authentique's "Thrilling" collection along with some Fireworks and NEW Memento Luxe from Imagine Crafts. 

I LOVE stencils from The Crafters Workshop. They are perfect to pair with sprays and inks. First, I took some Tingelo Fireworks spray and misted the canvas lightly. 

I wied the stencil and let the fireworks dry a little, then proceeded to add some Memento Luxe in a few places with a sponge dauber. This gives a nice smoky Halloweeny look. 

I didn't like the white edges, so I also added Memento Luxe to the edges.

This is what my canvas looked like after inking.

I decided that I wanted a little bit of sparkle, so I added some Sheer Shimmer Spritz in Frost to my canvas.

Go figure, I wasn't thinking, the ink began to bleed a little after spritzing, but I kinda like the look. Kinda looks eerie, right?

Now it's time to embellish! I wanted a little rosette to add to my canvas, so I made one with my scor-pal!

I also LOVE to use stickers as embellishments. Sometimes I don't need the back to be sticky, if you are the same way, you can de-activate the sticky by adding powder to the back. The cool thing about the Authentique stickers is that they are printed on a nice heavyweight paper so if you de-activate the sticky, it's just like having a little die cut to use. 

I added some fun tulle from Maya Road and then some stickers from the 12x12 sticker sheet.

When I make canvases, I never know what I'm going to do, I add and subtract little pieces here and there, but I always end up loving the end result! I think that the Petaloo webbed flowers & May Arts jute string were both perfect finishing touches to this piece! 

Here's a few more peeks for your viewing pleasure :-)

Products Used:

Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko- Memento Luxe: Tuxedo Black, Fireworks: Tingelo, Sheer Shimmer Spritz: Frost, Sponge Dauber

Authentique Paper- "Thrilling" Collection: 6x6 Bundle, 12x12 Details Sticker Sheet

The Crafters Workshop- TCW156 Cosmic Swirl

Canvas Corp- 4x4 Stretched Canvas

Maya Road- Tulle

May Arts- SM28, SM08

Petaloo- Mixed Textured Layers Flowers

A Little Bit of Sweetness

I have fallen IN LOVE with Authentique's new "Sweetness" collection! When I first saw it, I knew I had to dig up as many pics of my daughter eating ice cream as I could find. There weren't many, but I made it work! 

Along with this beautiful paper, Imagine Crafts Creative Medium and Memento & Versamark inks go hand in hand! Let me show yo uhow!

I started out with this Maya Road Shipping Tag album. It's a really nice heavy chipboard and comes with a binding ring attached to the top. 

Glue your papers to the album pages (front and back).

Cut your pages out. I use a razor knife for precision. 

Sand the edges. You can also ink the edges if you want, I left them plain, I liked the rough look from sanding.

I decided to try something with this album that I've never tried before.... I added some Creative medium (in Sparkle) to all of m pages. This just gives an extra protective coat as well as a nice shimmer (goes really well with this paper!)

Once all of the pages are covered with Creative Medium and dried, you can attach the ring and start to embellish. 

I took some of the little cardstock die cuts and also covered them with Creative Medium. I just like the added protection that it gives, especially on the embellishments that I would be putting on the cover. 

For the rest of the embellishments, I used Memento and VersaMagic inks to add a pop of color to the edges.

And Viola! There you have it, my super sweet mini album! 

Another cool tip with this album... I completed it by only using 3 of the 12x12 double sided papers from this collection along with the 12x12 Enhancements sheet and Components die cuts. I hate to have large scraps, so I used it all up! 

I added photos of my daughter from over the years, this one is one of my favorites. I printed all of the photos in Sepia just to match the vintage look of the paper. 

Here's a peek at the entire album.

How could I not resist adding the oh so popular "Keep Calm" sign to the back? It was the perfect finishing touch!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Products Used:

Imagine Crafts- Creative Medium- Sparkle, Memento- Angel Pink, VersaMagic- Aquatic Splash

Authentique Paper- "Sweetness" Collection

Maya Road- Shipping Tag Mini Album

May Arts- Ribbon

Petaloo- Flowers & Trims

ZVA- Creative Bling

Imagine Crafts® / Tsukineko® & Avery Elle Blog Hop!

Today is a fun day because Imagine Crafts® / Tsukineko® & Avery Elle have paired up for a blog hop!  There are going to be a lot of amazing projects on the hop today showing how well Avery Elle and Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko products work together.  We also have a fun giveaway, so be sure to visit all of the blogs participating.

For my project, I wanted to do something a little different than a card. When I think of stamping, I immediately think of card making... except my cards aren't the best so I usually try to leave that to the pros and don't embarrass myself by posting them here. I decided to make a tag since I'm on a tag making kick lately. I had my Authentique "Fresh" collection laying on my desk from a project last week, and I thought it went PERFECTLY with the Avery Elle "Knotty" stamp set that I picked out. Obviously, I also grabbed some of my favorite inks that always match everything so perfectly, my Memento Dew Drops!

I used one of my wedding photos for this tag with the intent to hang it in my craft room as a decor type project.

I really loved the sentiments in this stamp set, this one was perfect!

Now hop along and check out all of the fabulous projects along the way! Here is the entire list of blog hop participants:

Avery Elle / Jamie

Chunyuan Wu

 Nina Yang

Heather Campbell

JJ Bolton

Donna Mikasa

Kasia Curry

Linda Lucas (Lovely Linda)   

Eric Ericson     

Taylor Usry   

AJ Otto  

Renee Zarate   

Tenia Renee Nelson  

Kazuko Kocho  

Emily Lanham <------- YOU ARE HERE

Debbie Gaetz     

Maureen Cronin     

Jennifer Ingle     

Naghma Husain     

John Creighton Petersen

Now it is time for our giveaway! Leave a comment below and/or on any of the posts in the hop to be entered to win.  We will be selecting two random winners.  One will win a $50 Avery Elle gift certificate and the other will win $50 worth of Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko product! You have until June 14th to comment for a chance to win! The winner will be announced on the Avery Elle blog on Monday, June 17th.

Thanks for hopping with us!!

Products Used:

Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko- Memento Dew Drops: Summer Sky, Morocco, Gray Flannel

Avery Elle- "Knotty" Stamp Set

Authentique- "Fresh" Collection

May Arts- 445-15-01, AF38, NP34, SE01, 

Maya Road- Tulle Pleat Trim: Earl Grey, Trinket Pins: Cream Hearts

Standard #8 Tag

Summer Home Decor

I am loving the new Memento Luxe™ from Imagine Crafts®/Tsukineko®. For my AIR project today, I wanted to share another little embossing technique with Memento Luxe™.

I had some of my daughter's school photos from this year laying around and haven't framed them yet. I honestly wanted to do something creative with them and hadn't figured it out yet... until now!

I have a bunch of MDF type board laying around, I got a whole sheet for about $8 and had it cut down into smaller pieces. So I decided to use a 6x6 piece to make a photo wall hanging. 

I started out by covering the 6x6 board with paper. Next, ink the edges with Memento Luxe™ in White Wedding Dress. This one is my favorite because you can leave it plain and it gives a nice soft look, or you can emboss with it and it becomes transparent.

I embossed the edges with some Imagine Crafts®/Tsukineko® Iridescent embossing powder to give a nice subtle sparkle.

Next, I used the Memento Luxe™ in Danube Blue and applied the same embossing technique to the edges of my photo mat.

And then did the same to some wood buttons. 

Once you have all of the pieces finished, add them to your board, slap a photo on and add some ribbon to achieve a beautiful wall decor piece! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Products Used: 

Imagine Crafts®/Tsukineko®- Memento Luxe™ in White Wedding Dress & Danube Blue, Iridescent Embossing Powder, Sponge Dauber

Authentique Paper- Seasons: Summer collection

May Arts- 382-34-27

Maya Road- Yellow & Turquoise Star Pins, Natural Wood Buttons

Hampton Art- Authentique Cling Stamps

Petaloo- Darjeeling Dahlias, Flower Layers