February SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the February Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! You might be arriving here from ALYSON'S BLOG. We have almost 70 consultants sharing fabulous A Happy Hello artwork this month!

For this quick card I started with this week's Freshly Made Sketch. I knew I wanted to emboss the card front with the Heart Embossing Folder, so I grabbed the bright and cheery ColourQ colors to accent the simple design. I chose Ruby, Hollyhock, Smoothie, and Whisper to match the ColourQ palette. Each banner I stamped with a different color and a different tiny flower from A Happy Hello. First I stamped the banners cleanly, then went over them again second generation to mellow out the B&T pattern I was making. I swiped the edges of each banner, too. 

Our clear stamps made it easy to line up the different layers of the flower when I was stamping it. I added Bitty Sparkles all around the edges of the flower and colored them with an alcohol marker. you can see the reversed embossing here a little - I flipped the embossing so it was recessed and I had a hard time getting it to show in the photos. I stitched down each banner and all around the card as a final touch. The whole thing took about 15 minutes including stitching! 

Next up on the hop is MELISSA'S BLOG. Enjoy all the Happy Hello artwork, and don't forget you can only get A Happy Hello in the month of February!

Here's a couple more February SOTM projects I've done:

Love This Boy Layout
Atlantic Hearts Happy Hello Card

Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop

I'm so excited to be back sharing another Scrapping Our Stash project this month. You could be arriving here smiling from BOBBI'S BLOG, Vintage Muse Designs - welcome! I've been doing a series of Wall Art Hoops inspired by this fabulous "stash only" blog hop you hopping. My wall of hoops is getting to look more like an actual inspiration wall instead of just a few random non-matching projects! I added two hoops this week, and this is one of the new additions.

This time I covered the inner hoop of my embroidery hoop with strips of Washi Tape, just looking to make a solid surface to glue on since I knew you wouldn't even see the fabric. Plus, I couldn't find my bag of fabric scraps. Ahem. Then I grabbed my huge bin of paper flowers and started gluing. I covered the base with lots of the scraggly can't really use them white flowers that I also couldn't bring myself to purge. Then I added anything I could find in pinks, purples, a few yellows, and teals. Some are slightly altered from previous projects with marker or glitter. Even the butterfly was a leftover from another project, already inked and glittered. Then I dug into my sparkles stash and glued on a variety of odds and ends doo-dads I had leftover from well, everything.

I used some really old rub-ons on scraps of Lagoon paper to make up the words of my quote. Each word was trimmed out and detailed with a sketchy little hand-drawn border. Then WINGS is white mostly because I didn't have enough black letters, but then I decided I liked it and gave it a bit of a glitter border too.  I glued the words onto the flower bed with Liquid Glass and was happy to find they didn't fall off come morning even without foam tape.

I'll share my other new hoop early next week - it's black and white and polka dot and very, very sparkly! The next blog on the hop is Monica over at Scrap Inspired. I hope you'll be inspired to hit up your stash for hidden treasures, too!

Love This Boy Layout

So while I was at retreat I started a scrapbook page using the February SOTM and the Sketchabilities Sketch #131 with the White with 1 cross challenge. I didn't quite have time to finish all the details I wanted, so I tucked it safely into my album until, well, today! I like working with the Sketchabilities sketches. They have an arty, inky slant to them that I really love. 

I knew the cool blue and white of the layout would be perfect for the Paper Issues Say It Ain't Snow Cold Challenge. 

I built some flowers out of A Happy Hello images stamped in Black onto Glacier Cardstock. I trimmed some banners from the cards printed in the Year: Noted kit, I added a few tiny black cricut flowers and used some rub-ons from my retired stash to add in a subtle title for one of my favorite Max pics ever. The big swirl is hand doodled, and I added a doodled border to the banners and some pen accents to the stamping. I distressed the background with Glacier Ink direct from the pad. 

I had embossed some of the banners. Stitched around the layout. I added sparkles...and bitty sparkles...but I wasn't done yet. I needed something...something more. Then I saw the new CTMH Inspiration Bingo Game and I almost had a bingo!

So I worked down the 4th bingo column: 

1: Tearing/sanding, since I distressed the edges of all the CS and B&T

2: Doodle work with my big spiral and black stamped accents

3: Stamping unconventionally by using the sentiment stamp to fill in the sketch area indicated for spritz or ink. I also used it as a border in the bottom banner area.

4. 4 patterned papers: Seaside Dots, Seaside Woodgrain, Chalk It Up (I fussy cut that star swirl in the flower spray), and Arrows from Year: Noted.

5. Punched Border: the chevron rows I stitched over.  

And now I love it! I'm gonna order the Colonial White Scrapbook Frame for my craft area, so Max can shine his love down at me while I craft!

A Happy Hello

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend an Inspired Creations Weekend by Sheryl Hammons, who is just about the sweetest gal you'll ever meet. For my birthday weekend I scrapped, giggled, got an amazing massage, and basically whooped it up CTMH style, all arranged by the lovely Sheryl. She even brought in super delicious gluten free birthday cupcakes! If you ever have a chance to go on one of her retreats, do it! 

While I was at the retreat I got out my February SOTM (called A Happy Hello) to play around a bit. I created this card using the Atlantic Hearts Sketch 92. It's a sweet but simple sketch with lots of possibilities! It was fun to layer the pieces of the flowers with lots of bright colors. I used Pixie, Sunset, Lagoon, Flaxen, and Slate. I'm linking up to the Runway Inspired Challenge.

Then I went back in with my Stardust Gelly roll pen and drew on the frame and added shimmer accents to the flowers. I added a few sequins and sparkles to finish off my card design. I'll have a couple more February SOTM projects this week. Thanks for popping by!

Holiday pics scrapped!

Since I got a bunch of photos printed in Studio J recently using the Express Collection quick photos, I have pics on my holiday pages already! I used Yuletide carol for this set of pages.

Supply List:

X7187B Yuletide Carol Papers

Z2062 My Crush Holiday Happenings 

Z3007 Yuletide Carol Asst.

Z1988 Black Stripe Twill

Additional Supplies:

Black Distressing Ink

Fine point Black journaling Pen

Clear Sparkle Jelly Roll Pen

Ruler

Corner Rounder

2 sheets Colonial White CS

SOTM Love Hip Pics Pages

A few weeks ago I shared this little Album cover for the January SOTM Blog Hop.

Today I'm finally sharing all the inside goodies. 

This is a mini album of the Instagram pics I took of my kiddo during his first month of obsessive tuxedo wearing. He wore it everywhere. He did everything in it. If I'd let he he would've slept in it. He still wears it a couple times a week. Best $20 I ever spent on eBay!

Super fun, right? I just love these little pics, but now I'm gonna have to make an extra one of these for my little fashion plate. He constantly wants to see his Tuxedo book!

I'm linking up to the Paper Issues Prints Charming party with this book of fab photos of my little Prince Fancy Pants.

Hello Sweet Baby Koala Card

So here's the other Koala card I promised. After finishing the first two cards I dug around in my bag to see what else I had for this little dude.

I used this week's cute Retro Sketches sketch as a jumping off point. I stamped that cute koala on a scrap of woodgrain B&T paper. I added chevron washi tape ears and a sweet heart on his tummy. The sentiment is a combo of the sentiments that come in the Cute Koalas set and the January SOTM. The background is embossed with the new Heart embossing plate. 

I just think this koala is the cutest thing! Tomorrow I'll be back with more pages from my January SOTM Mini Album. See ya soon!

CTMH Weekly Creative Challenge

OK, I know I was supposed to be sharing another koala card today, and I swear I will, tomorrow. But today I got distracted by another project and a sick 5 year old today. Between water bottle refills and cuddles I couldn't stop messing around with this project for CTMH's new weekly artistic challenge.

So I have this running embroidery hoop project going, for a wall display I'm building in my stamp room. When I saw this week's challenge to make a scrapbook page with our new year's resolutions I knew I needed to make a new hoop. I don't do resolutions, but I've already said to a few friends that my motto for 2015 is gonna be Choose Happy. As a mom of three little boys I find myself saying "yes" to a lot of things I don't really want to do...but this year I want to focus on choosing activities that will be happy for my family, friends, and myself. I know I'll need a reminder, since I find it hard to say no, so I used the sketch over at Sketchabilities (a bit loosely, since I'm scrapping into a circle), pulled a few photos that make me smile, and fancied up my motto with lots of scrappy things that make me happy.  Now it's hanging on the wall in my stamp room, making me smile every time I glance over there.

I wove the background from pretty much every bit of Slate Polka Dot Ribbon I had left in my stash and a lot of Beacon's 3 in 1 adhesive. Then I sprayed a large splash of silver glitter and traced some circles with a white paint pen. I added banners from the new Heartstrings papers, some leftover Heartstrings Complement stickers, silver sequins, and metal flowers from the Yuletide Carol assortment.  The 3-D flowers came from Art Philosophy, and the HAPPY sentiment from Artbooking. I added lots of red glitter gel to my title, and filled my 3-D roses with more glitter. It sparkles, and catches the light - I love it! 

Tomorrow I'll be back with the other Koala Card. Today, this made me happy!

Atlantic Hearts Sweet Baby

I got to go cropping on Sunday. A full day, hanging out scrapping all day long crop. I haven't done that in forever. It was so much fun! At the crop I scored a couple of 6x6 paper pads by Simple Stories and Authentique. I had tucked the January SOTM and Cute Koalas in my bag at the last second, so then this happened.

I used Sketch 90 from the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. This was the Simple Stories Pad plus a bit of woodgrain scrap I had tucked into my bag. 

I only had the red acrylic hearts, so I colored them with a black sharpie and then gilded them with my fav stardust glitter pen for a new look. Luckily I had some of the Pathfinding cork circles in my bag, which when perfectly with the sketch and this pretty paper!

So I still had the Authentique pad in front of me, and I knew this koala would be adorable in polka dots...so I made a second card. I used a leftover My Crush Holiday Happenings Card for that gold trimmed banner. I'm linking these up to the Heart 2 Heart Old is New Challenge!

Two cards in and still I hadn't touched the January SOTM. So I started piecing woodgrain koalas and pondering. Come back tomorrow to see where my woody little koalas ended up!

And don't forget to pop over to Atlantic Hearts to play along with this versatile sketch!