Gingham Congrats

This is a quick post before I head off to work.  My card today uses the sketch from Just Add Ink and the colors from ColourQ.  I have to say it's not very original - I stuck to the sketch - even down to the hexagons which I printed out of MDS as I don't have the hexagon set.

I did use Border Banter for the banners stamping the arrow banner twice - once in Strawberry Slush and once in Night of Navy.

Not much else to say about this card.  Thanks for looking. 

Products used:

Stamps:  Border Banter

Cardstock:  Whisper White

Ink:  Strawberry Slush; Night of Navy

Accessories:  White Baker's Twine; MDS

Cheers

Karren

Life & Moments

As I said in a previous post, I love the Amped Up Ampersands MDS kit and bought it especially for this piece for this month's Creative Crew Challenges.

The challenge is:

CCREW0813SF - Scrapbook & More Focus:  Make a scrapbook page, a T&T journal entry or a piece of framed art inspired by the project on p120 of the catalog.

I went with a piece of framed art, which if I ever get it printed, might even end up framed LOL.  Instead of the quatrefoil shape in the catalog piece, I went with hexagons and most of the patterns in the DSP that comes in the Ampersand kit.

Thanks for looking.

Products used:

Background
     Color = 230,WATERMARK 255,255,255

Stamps
    _Designer Kits\Number One\Number One - life & moments, Color = 0,0,0
    _Designer Kits\Number One\Number One - life & moments, Color = 230,WATERMARK 255,255,255

Punches
    Basics\1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 6
    1.25 Square Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 11
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 4
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 5
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 8
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 6
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 4
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 3
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 7
    Basics\Hexagon Punch,  Filled with: Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Amped Up Ampersands - designer series paper\Amped Up Ampersands - 8
    Basics\Hexagon Punch, Fill Color = BASIC BLACK 19,27,29

Creative Crew Jun 2013 Scrapbook Focus

This month's scrapbook focus challenge at Creative Crew over at Splitcoaststampers is on the dads in our lives.

CCREW0613SF - Scrapbook & More Focus:  June is best know for Father's Day (3rd Sunday).  Celebrate Dad with a scrapbook page featuring Dad or dad-like qualities.

And here's my MDS page:

I had to dig deep to find some photos of my DH.  He's not too keen on getting his photo taken, but I did find some photos from Christmas 2005, where Pete is teaching William how to pedal.  William was only 3 back then and Matthew was 8 - how time flies - William is nearly 11 and Matthew is 15 1/2.

Anyway, for this page, I took the blues and greens from the photos and used them for my background.  I kept this page simple as I'm still learning MDS, but thanks to a tip from TrishG on SCS, I managed to color my bicycles to match the background.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (MDS):

Background
     Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Number One - designer series paper\Number One - 7

Embellishments
   Designer Kits\Number One - embellishments\Number One - tape 1 (re-colored)
   Designer Kits\Number One - embellishments\Number One - border 1 (re-colored)
   Staple & Stitching\Chocolate - Simple Stitches line 5 (re-colored)
  Staple & Stitching\Staple

Stamps
    Postage Due\Postage Due - bike & flower     

Cheers
Karren

Creative Crew May 2013

Hi all.  Well the time has come to reveal my May 2013 Creative Crew projects.  First, here's the lowdown on this month's challenges:

Spring it up - May 2013

---

Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, tired bears are coming out of hibernation it’s time to party!!! Errrrr, I mean…time for spring!


So much begins to happen right now graduations, showers, weddings, birthdays, reunions, and probably a lot more than I've mentioned! With that in mind I'd like you to check out this site:
25 Parties to Ring in Spring | The New Home Ec


Pick a party, any party, be inspired by the colors, the decorations, the foodie stuff, the patterns, the prints, oh my there are so many ideas here!


This is the party I chose as my inspiration:

From this photo, I took the chalkboard and soft colors and applied those across all my projects.  Here is each challenge and how I interpreted it:

CCREW0513DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- DSP/Color Focus: All of our DSP is likely to be leaving us after this month, so use whatever DSP or color combo that includes brights & pastels to go with the party you've picked.

For this card, I chose my favorite DSP which is Fan Fair.  I also just bought the Postage Due set and wanted to take it for a test drive.  I white-embossed the main image plus two of the postage stamp images onto Basic Black cardstock and gently sponged Whisper White ink over the images.  The main image is mounted on dimensionals onto a slightly bigger Basic Black layer and the postage stamp images are punched with the Postage Stamp punch.  The ribbon is gathered onto Sticky Strip with a Soda Pop Top embellishment.

CCREW0513CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Catalog focus: Die Cuts! When you look through the parties you're likely to see banners, boxes, rosettes, and more - create a project using your Big Shot and favorite die.

I don't do 3D very often and I'm ashamed to admit that this is the first time I've used the Fancy Favor Box Die - and I've had it for a good couple years!  Keeping with the chalkboard theme, I white embossed the feet image from Go Graduate and sponged Whisper White ink.  A pretty pink bow finishes off this easy-to-mass-produce treat box.

CCREW0513HF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Holiday focus: Hmmm, isn't a party good enough? It's creative choice this month, you pick from graduation, wedding, or birthday. 

This card again uses Fan Fair DSP plus the Owl Punch.  This saying from Word Play is so appropriate for a new graduate and the wee tag hanging off the bow again uses Go Graduate stamp set.


CCREW0513SF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Scrapbook focus: Let's get into the SCS time machine and go back to a sketch from 2011 - SBSC283 5.20.11

I need to start by saying that I'm not a scrapbooker!  Having said that, I used MDS and it was much better than the painful attempts I've had scrapbooking with cardstock LOL.  Here is the sketch I worked from:

Again I used Fan Fair DSP and embellishments.  I tried to create a chalkboard effect for the title and journalling, and used some free Chalkboard fonts to aid in that attempt.

So there are my first month's projects.  It was fun tying all four projects together with a similar theme.  

Thanks for looking.  It'd be great if you had a go at these challenges yourself.  There are plenty of party themes to choose from at the link at the top of this post.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Postage Due Card:

Stamps:  Postage Due; Collage Curios

Cardstock:  Basic Black; Fan Fair DSP

Ink:  Versamark

Accessories:  White EP, sponge; Pink Pirouette Two Tone Ribbon; Soda Pop Tops; Crystal Effects; Postage Stamp Punch

Treat Box:

Stamps:  Go Graduate (r)

Cardstock:  Basic Black

Ink:  Versamark

Accessories:  Fancy Favor Big Shot Die; White EP; sponge; Pink Pirouette Two Tone Ribbon

Graduation Card:

Stamps:  Word Play; Go Graduate (r)

Cardstock:  Basic Black; Basic Gray; Whisper White; Fan Fair DSP

Ink:  Versamark

Accessories:  White EP; sponge; owl punch; Basic Gray Two Tone Ribbon; Linen Thread; Large Tag Punch (r)

Scrapbook Page

Background
     Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Fan Fair - designer series paper\Fan Fair - 5

Embellishments
   Designer Kits\Fan Fair - embellishments\Fan Fair - banner
   Designer Kits\Fan Fair - embellishments\Fan Fair - frame 4

Stamps
   Designer Kits\Fan Fair\Fan Fair - lace doily, Color = PINK PIROUETTE 255,216,209
   Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = WHISPER WHITE 255,255,255
   Designer Kits\Fan Fair\Fan Fair - ruler, Color = WHISPER WHITE 255,255,255
 
Punches
    1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = BASIC BLACK 19,27,29
    Extras\Flag Punch, Fill Color = BASIC BLACK 19,27,29

Dexter's Surgery

Our 6-month old puppy, Dexter, was fixed on Friday.  While he was out of it, they also fixed a hernia he was born with.  The poor wee baby was not happy when we got him home and he's not back to his usual self yet.  I feel terrible because he looks at me as if I've betrayed him, but it's the responsible thing to do.  Even though he's a purebred, we have no plans to breed from him, so it made sense to have him neutered.

When we got him home on Friday night, he shot off across the room and hid behind the curtain.  He still spends a bit of time there even now.  We have tried the horrible "cone on the head" to try and stop him licking his wound, but he just stands there like a statue until we remove it.

Here's a page I did in MDS:

I used this week's Stampin' Royalty sketch as the basis for this page.

MDS - School Camp

Here is my take on Jan & Wendy's March Sketch #1.  My 9-year old, William, went on his first school camp last week and took his camera with him.  As well as the typical 9-year old boy shots of things like cow poo and an up-close-and-personal shot up a pig's snout, he also took some amazing scenery shots.  I'm going to put those in another layout, but I did use one sunrise shot as one of the backgrounds in this layout.

It certainly sounded like they had a lot of fun - a bit different to my school camps, where we slept in tents and cooked over an open fire.  This was in a lodge with full catering, an indoor pool and its own farm.

Products used:

MDS

Cheers
Karren

Enhanced Sketch 4

Here is my version of Jan & Wendy's MDS Club 4th enhanced sketch.  I have to admit the subject matter of this layout is pretty boring - I went to Queenstown last week for work and we stayed at the Hotel Kawarau, which is managed by Hilton Hotels, so you can imagine the quality.

Being a work trip, there wasn't any time for sightseeing - the meeting was held across the road at the Hilton Hotel and as soon as that was over, we took a water taxi into Queenstown proper.  After a couple of hours in a local bar then a restaurant, it was time to go back to the hotel to bed.  The next day was the second half of the meeting then straight to the airport.  So, getting a few quick shots of the hotel room was the extent of my photo op.

Cheers
Karren

 

Enhanced Sketch 3

Here is my third sketch for Jan & Wendy's MDS Club.  I moved a few things around so that the background showed through where I wanted it to but I kept the main elements in the right places.  Edited to add:  I just realized I forgot to angle two of my photos.  Read instructions fully?  Me?

I have to admit I struggled with this a bit - not the sketch, but the papers, due to the limited number of patterns I have currently.

Products Used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated):

MDS; my own handwriting font.

Cheers

Karren

Enhanced Sketch 2

This is the second enhanced sketch for Jan & Wendy's MDS club.  For this sketch, I chose my youngest, William, as my subject.  William is a character - always performing.  Just tonight he has written a song and asked me if I'll record him singing it so he can be "discovered on You Tube - just like Adele" LOL.  This from a 9 year old - what on earth will the future bring...

This page is really bright for my usual tastes - I'm a Regals kind of gal.  But William deserves bright colors to suit his bubbly personality.

Products used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

MDS Sunny Day Kit; CK Becky font (really need some more fonts LOL); staples; brads

MDS - Blurring

I was blog-surfing and came across a cool scrapbook page by Julie Leblanc and I tried to get the same effect.  I used the blurring feature under Drop Shadow and like how it almost appears to have been sponged in white.

This doesn't look anywhere near as good as Julie's page, but I'm pretty pleased overall.

Products used:

MDS; Torn Edges stamp; Summer Home Dotted Line stamp; Old Saint Nick Snowflake stamp; Christmas Jingle Happy Holidays stamp

Enhanced Sketch 1

Hi, first blog post!  Been thinking about it for a while and joining Tink & Bell's Digital Scrapbooking Club was the catalyst to make me do something about it.

My first post is a layout created in MDS, using the Enhanced Sketch from the Club.  For this layout, I stuck pretty faithfully to the sketch and just changed the 5-petal punch embellishments for the cog punch.  I chose our new puppy, Dexter, as the subject of this layout and as he doesn't yet appreciate flowers, I used the more "manly" cogs LOL.

Products Used:

MDS:  Small Polka Dot DSP in Soft Suede and Not Quite Navy; Vintage Overlays; Grosgrain Ribbon and Knot; Cog Punches.  Font used was CK Alis Hand.