Boys Will Be Boys: Authentique

I’m back today with another layout using Authentique’s Genuine line from my GDT stint with the Birds of a Feather Kit Co. This collection is so versatile. I love the cozy denim theme. For my first layout, I paired the line with kraft and white for a winter feel. Today, I've paired the collection with yellow and brown for a Fall look.

The stars on the the background paper made me think of the American flag, which I thought perfectly suited our all American boys. In these photos, my son and his cousin, both age 2, are at the lake shore, picking up rocks and throwing them into the water. I can't tell you how enthralled they were by this simple activity!

The element sheet in this collection had a sticker that said: Genuine through and through.  I added the word "boys" to make a title block: Genuine Boys Through and Through. There was just enough room to squeeze the letters in. The letter stickers above the block are from October Afternoon, Sasparilla, and I inked them darker to give a more distressed look.  The tag under the photo is from Little Yellow Bicycle's Hello, Fall! 

I love the big, bold chevron paper that was part of the Genuine line and I used the chevron as a mat under the photo block. I like the way the chevron pattern forms arrows to draw attention to the pictures. I added a bit of yellow cardstock under the chevron for a pop of color then stitched the two together with a denim thread. To finish the page, I stitched a brown frame around the page using heavy duty thread.

If you'd like to know more about the Birds of a Feather Kit Co, click here.  Amy, the owner, puts together a terrific kit each month.  You'll also find great inspiration in the gallery and friendly folks on the forum.  It's my favorite place to hang out!

We Called You Cheeks: GDT work

I’m so excited this month to be a guest designer for Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I had designed for BOAF last year and was thrilled when Amy, the owner, invited me back to work with the March kit. I tell you: I was given a great month for my stint because this kit is jam packed with beauties from Authentique and My Mind’s Eye.

I hadn’t worked with Authentique before. I was so impressed with the beautiful papers. Not only did they look good, but they felt great too. The kit included the Genuine collection and the denim themed papers were easy to mix and match. The nice heavy weight of this paper made me think of winter and I had this photo of my son as a baby in a knit hat, all cozy in his stroller, for an afternoon at the park. So I played on the winter theme. Just pretend those little flowers on the white paper are snowflakes, will ya?

　

The background is one sheet of paper, Dependable. I used the A side (navy side) of Dependable for the outer frame, then carefully cut out the inner frame and flipped it to the B side (white side). I used a square of cardstock in between to hide where I had cut the paper, then stitched it all back together. I loved that the stiped paper in the kit (used as a banner here) mimicked the stripe in my son's stroller. Perfect! The Webster's trim is from a previous kit. It looked so cozy and was perfect here.

When my son was a baby, we nicknamed him, "Cheeks." I think you can see why, lol.

The March Birds of a Feather kit proved to be the most popular kit in the history of the club, selling out in less than 48 hours. This is a photo collage of the kit that BOAF sent me.

　

I can hardly wait to see what Amy has in store for the April kit. If you are interested in a kit club, check out Birds of a Feather here. The site also has a terrific forum with super friendly paper crafters and lots of great inspiration. You can find the Hen House here.

The Cure for the Winter Blues

I love trend-watching at CHA, oohing and ahhhing over all the new releases, and waiting for a few of the products to show up on my doorstep.  There's nothing better at the end of the day than driving home to find happy mail on my front porch!

Cath Edvalson of Paper Crafts Magazine is always on top of the new trends and she loves the new color trend of navy.  I do too. It's the new black, I tell you. It goes with everything. 

Cath issued a challenge on the Moxie Fab World blog to make a project featuring navy and to link it back the blog.

I decided to play along and I used the new Genuine line from Authentique that was part of this month's kit at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. 

My friend made the terrific zipper flower and sent it to me in a swap. I got the better end of that deal!  I thought the flower worked perfectly here with the denim feel of this paper line.

I used Authentique's March sketch to guide my card design, flipping the sketch on its side (as shown below) and eliminating the banner. 

If you'd like to play along in the the Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge at Moxie Fab World, you can find the link here.   The deadline to enter is Sunday, March 11.  Click here to play along in the Authentique sketch challenge. That challenge ends April 4. 

Card Supplies:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Authentique Genuine (Natural)
Stickers: Authentique Genuine (12x12 Details)
Punch: Martha Stewart
Gems: Close To My Heart
Thread: Coats & Clark
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Cards from Color Combinations

Two sites that I love and often visit for challenges and inspiration are Two Peas in a Bucket and Birds of a Feather Kit Co.  Both had color challenges this past weekend and I played along.

Birds of a Feather posted this photo for its color challenge:

I love yellow, orange and pink together, but this isn't a combination I often use on layouts.  One of the perils of being a mom to a boy.....But I thought I could easily work this combination into a card.

I added a bit of blue to ground the card a bit.  Papers are Echo Park. Chipboard is October Afternoon.  Twine is from The Twinery.

The challege at Two Peas this weekend was to pull together these colors into a project:

I thought this was a really fun color combination:  sherbert-y brights and a deep black. For a challenge with this many colors, I decided simple would be best. I modeled my design from several projects I've seen with butterflies sewn down a column. Love that look. Laura Bassen, in particular, made a sweet card similar to this that I saw on Pinterest.

I posted my take on this color combo on Sunday, using a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, papers from various Cosmo Cricket collections and a bit of stitching:

A happy surprise awaited me yesterday at Two Peas.  Of the 658 projects uploaded to Two Peas in the last 24 hours, the butterfly card was the voted as the most liked.

The card also made the top three most bookmarked projects:

 Sometimes, it really pays to go simple!

I Resolve: Things To Do In 2012

With the New Year rolling in, I decided to document a few of my goals for 2012. Well, 26 goals to be exact. I made a list of action verbs that started with each letter of the alphabet. A couple of letters were tricky. My action for Z was zoom. And my action for X was to give kisses and hugs (represented as xoxo).

When I put my list into a Wordle, I got a word cloud like this:

I used the Year.o.graphy line from Simple Stories for my layout. Love that collection. It lended itself so well to this type of page. The white banner stickers and the scallop border sticker are Echo Park Paper.

This was my list of things to do in 2012:
Adapt, Balance, Create, Donate, Experiment, Fix, Garden, Hug, Invest, Join, Kneel, Listen, Make, Nurture, Organize, Pause, Question, Read, Snuggle, Try, Understand, Visit, Wander, XOXO, Yield and Zoom.

This was a really fun way to document my goals and was based on a challenge for Birds of a Feather Kit Co.

Supplies:
CS:  Bazzill Basics
PP: Simple Stories
Stickers (non letter): Simple Stories and Echo Park
Alphas: Crate Paper
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Wave Another Year Goodbye

How fast 2011 is closing to an end! It’s been a really wonderful year for me personally and creatively. I’m so thankful to my blog readers and paper crafting friends for supporting me and inspiring me. I’m looking forward to another great year together in 2012.

Below is a card I made earlier this year while guest designing for Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I used the July kit which was packed with goodies from October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket. The script letter stickers are Webster's Pages. You can find Birds of a Feather kits here.

　

I was really excited when Cards Magazine picked this up for publication as a New Year’s card in their December 2011 issue.

　

Happy New Year, everyone. Wishing you the very best in 2012.