New CK Summer Fun + Travel Issue

Eeep. Third time blogging this week. Apparently, I have a lot to say this week. (If you know me in real life, you'd know that I have a lot to say ALL THE TIME!)

Creating Keepsakes has this new special issue out:

In it, there's a great article by my friend Suzy Plantamura, in which she challenged some scrapbookers to use common summer colors in different ways. She also suggested different summer color schemes. Love those new combos. Such a great starting point for summer projects.

And the best part? She was kind enough to ask me to contribute to her article. My color combo was navy blue and yellow, which has a very nautical feeling. I was asked to use it in a non-nautical way. So I created this layout about Luke's self-haircut.  I still can't believe he did that. We have so many scissors around the house, and no one ever did that before. And he waited til he was 5 years old to do it? Sigh.

As seen in the Summer Fun + Travel issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher. (Click on layout for a bigger view.)

And here's the good part: there are giveaways on the blogs of some of the Dream Team girls. You might want to wander over to their blogs and see if you can snag your very own copy! (Hint: Kim, Maggie, Susan, Laura, Cindy, Piradee) Good luck!

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One Last Technique Tuesday Project

I had the best time using July's Technique Tuesday Studio AE stamps. You can see my previous projects here and here. Since the new August set is out (and it is pretty fantastic), I thought I'd share my last project as their guest designer.

I made a card! Yes! I make those sometimes. I really wanted to use the tree stamp! I tried a bunch of ideas, but in the end, I kept it simple to showcase the tree.

Stamp: Technique Tuesday; Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd., Jillibean Soup; Diecut die: Spellbinders, PaperTreyInk; Twine: Divine Twine; Ink: Clearsnap; Pen: Sakura

I stamped it and cut it out, then pop dotted it on top of another shape I die cut out. I inked the edges of the shape, and added a little red heart on the tree. Inside, I printed a message, cut it out, inked it, and added a little die cut heart.

Simple. But I really like it. I'm especially liking that yellow wood grain paper from Bella Blvd.

And there it is. Have I already mentioned how much I love Technique Tuesday stamps? They stamp so crisp and clean! I already have a nice size collection, but I have a feeling I'll be buying more. And using them!

Thanks for making time to stop by!

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WIP: Weeks! In Photos.

I've been busy. Really busy. But I've been trying to take more photos. Not that I actually documented my past few weeks well. I tend to take photos in spurts. Dozens one day, and none for a week. But I'm trying! So here's a quick rundown of what's been going on:

Teaching at CKC - Houston. I lucked out and no one had rotten tomatoes to throw at me.

Siblings + significant others + nieces + Tex-Mex food + ginormous Texas-sized iced tea = heaven!

Going from point A to point B, I kept thinking those clouds looked like cotton candy. Just like I used to when I was five. Some things never change.

My cousin was visiting from Taiwan, so we played tourists for a whole week. Roy Rogers had teeny feet.

Everytime I see this hotel, I think of Royal Tenenbaum manning the elevator.

Lily Bee booth being set up. The new collections were even better in real life!

First night of CHA with old and new friends. We stayed until we were thrown out. So you know we had fun! (From left: Jenni Hufford, Cindy Liebel, Suz Mannecke, Keshet Starr, Lexi Bridges, Valerie Mangan, Jenny Larson, me, and Lisa Day)

Finally met Jen Jockish. I knew I'd like her, and I did. So much!

Cindy, making out with the Jillibean Gnomie. Lucky Gnomie! At one point, he found himself inside her shirt...

Had great chats with Marnie Flores and Emily Pitts (and Emily knew all the good lunch spots!)

How much do I love the Jillibean girls? Thiiiiiiiiis much! (From left: Kimber McGray, me, Laina Lamb, and Summer Fullerton)

Flying home, thinking about how much fun I had, how awesome it is to see a sunset while in the air, and how much I missed my family. And surprisingly, how much I missed LA. I think I finally love living here. All in all, a good two weeks.

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New Lily Bee!

If you are here for the Technique Tuesday Studio AE Blog Hop, please click here.

I'm so super excited to share this. Kristen has been working hard to create new Lily Bee goodies, and she's sharing the first line today on the Lily Bee blog: Memorandum! I was bugging her for an office-y line because I cannot get enough office inspired stuff. Can't wait to get my hands on these.

The patterned papers:

My fave!

The matching Stationery papers:

The yellow! Can't wait.

The brand new diecut cardstock Index Journaling Cards:

How fab are these?

The diecut Mixed Stickers:

Those circle stickers are so fun!

The Tiny Alphas:

The Stamps:

I practically begged Kristen to create some numbers in circles stamps. And she kindly obliged me! Yeah!

Don't you love it all? You want it all? Go by the Lily Bee blog, and leave a comment to win the entire new Memorandum line!

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July Studio AE from Technique Tuesday Blog Hop

Happy Sunday! Welcome to Technique Tuesday's Studio AE's July blog hop. So excited to be a part of this!

This month's stamp is the very versatile Get Outside by Ali Edwards. You can get your very own set here. For a peek of the stamp and my other layout using the fun stamps, go here.

Today's layout is the companion story to my last project. It tells about our love of the outdoors. Specifically, it's about a nature trail we visited regularly in Pennsylvania. It was tucked away in the middle of a residential neighborhood, next to an elementary school, and totally magical. Beautiful light filtering through the leaves, interesting looking weeds with strange flowers, a swishing creek running through it, flat rocks waiting to be skipped, and a monumental climb to the top of what my kids called "Monkey Rock." At the top is where I, breathlessly, promised myself (many times) that I'd start exercising. Ha.

Supplies: patterned paper: Lily Bee Design; stamps: Technique Tuesday; punches: (butterfly and dragonfly) Martha Stewart + (flower) Fiskars; ink: Tsukineko; thread: DMC; font: Helvetica Neue Thin

For this project, I used the stamps as they were. (I cut some apart for the other layout.) I printed the photos in strips, then added some journaling, some punched elements, some stamping, some grey and yellow, and some sewing. I really enjoy hand sewing on my projects! For the flower, I used a Fiskars flower punch, creased it a bit between the petals and added french knots in the middle. I also sewed some freehand swirls for the bugs. And that is it!

Be sure to check out the other blogs taking part in the Blog Hop today:

Ali

Nichol

Laura

Jaime

Sharyn

Teri

And don't forget to leave me a comment today for a chance to win Smooch by Ali stamp set.

From all the comments received during the hop on all 7 blogs, Technique Tuesday will pick two people to win the set.

You’ll also want to stop by the Technique Tuesday blog  to see a special project from Bev, Technique Tuesday’s founder and CEO. Leave a comment about the blog hop there. Bev will pick someone who comments on the Technique Tuesday blog to win the A Date with Ali stamp set. So fab. I want it!

All comments must be made by midnight PST on July 12^th.

Tune into the Technique Tuesday blog on July 13^th to see if you are one of the lucky winners.

Thanks so much for coming by! I'll be sharing another Studio AE project later this month.

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Studio AE July Guest Designer

That would be me! So happy! So excited! So honored to be asked. Thanks Teri!

The kind folks at Technique Tuesday sent me this set to work with.

It's called Get Outside, and it's designed by Ali Edwards (of course! This being Studio AE, Ali being the AE... ) You can find out more about Studio AE and how to join here.

I'll be sharing my projects with y'all throughout the month of July. We also have a blog hop coming up soon. I'll keep you posted.

Today's project. When I first got the stamps, I totally fell in love with them because we are a big outdoors kind of family. Well, let me qualify that. We love the outdoors in a hiking, biking, beach sort of way. Not in a camping, roughing it sort of way. Phew. Glad I got that out of the way.

Anyway. We love being outdoors together. But at the same time, my kids despise being thrown out to play outside. They used to love it when they were younger, but now, it's like pulling teeth. Possibly worse. So summers for us have a soundtrack. It's me saying "Go out and play." And them coming in after 15 minutes and whining about a myriad of problems. When I saw these stamps, I knew they would be perfect for both our "happy" outdoors layouts, but they were also perfect for our everyday summer "soundtrack." I did perform some minor surgery on the stamps so I could use them in more than one way.

First, the layout and some close ups.

supplies: patterned paper: Jillibean Soup (small polka dots and multi-stripes), Technique Tuesday (blue circles); stamps: Technique Tuesday; ink: Clearsnap (yellow), Tsukineko (black); markers: Letraset ProMarkers; twill tape: Technique Tuesday; eyelets: We R Memory Keepers; jute: Jillibean Soup; diecut machine: Making Memories; font: p22 Typewriter

To create the speech bubbles, I used my Slice machine with the Fall-Back to School card. Alas, the card is not a new MS+ one, and I had to create the shadows by hand. But it wasn't too bad.

I wanted the bubbles to be bright and summer-y, but alas, I had given away most of colored cardstock. Since I hardly ever use anything other than white, kraft and grey. So I pulled out some Letraset ProMarkers (I'll post about those later), and made my own colorful bubbles. I love the way they turned out with slight shade variations.

To make the sentences, I used a sharp pair of scissors, and carefully cut off the parts of phrases I wasn't going to use. Or parts that I wanted to re-use, like the word "go." There is a stamp of the words "hanging out," I trimmed off the "ing" (saving it for later use), and I stamped it as "go hang out."

I also received some of Technique Tuesday's twill ribbon. I used Technique Tuesday's Passion for Polka to make my own yellow polka dot ribbon. So awesome.

I really love how this turned out. And I got the seal of approval from my kids. Although they scowled at me when I told them to go outside. So typical.

Thanks for stopping by!

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