Find Joy in the Journey Layout

One final piece of Inside Out art...this is my layout for this years convention art contest. I wanted to build the memory ball system from cardstock!

I Cricut cut a bazillion tiny 1/2 inch balls, which I individually  inked, pearlized with Wink of Stella and glittered. I cannot tell you how much I love these memory balls! I lined them up on glitter paper rows, and hand stitched between with silver thread. Then I added a swirl of bigger memory balls over top the rows of neatly stored memory balls. You can imagine the fun my kiddos and I had trying to take these silly emotion selfies!

Here you can see a bit more of the sparkle. My niece is the genius who pointed out to me that JOY is literally in the word Journey. I painted my title letters with layers of watercolor paints before adding the sparkle to make them match the tiny memory balls. I love working on an intricate layout like this. It gives you a lot of time to ruminate on a topic deeply, and I feel working on this layout really helped me to feel better about the moving and change I've experienced my whole life. Scrapbooking = cheap therapy!

I hope you find JOY on your Journey today, Stamping Friends!

Day 339: Yoda Painted Tote Bag

So couple weeks ago Max and I saw the CUTEST tote bag on one of those Facebook ads, and they were offering to give it away for free. Score, right? Except when you looked at reviews for the company making the offer, lots of people were complaining about a variety of issues, and I didn't feel comfortable at all with handing over my credit card details to a company with such a shady reputation. Good thing we are crafty round here, eh? 

So I started with one bag for the youngest child, and then, as these things do, it snowballed into three bags, because every boy needs his own bag. Today I'm sharing Ben's bag. Ok, don't judge me too harshly, because I have never claimed to be an actual artist. I like cutting up pretty paper and gluing it back together - like quilting, but less work! I don't draw much, or even paint much unless you count splattering watercolor paint everywhere, but when your child looks at you with the big blue eyes, and you just finished packing all his toys into big boxes and are prepping him for a big unexpected move, then you get creative for him real fast. So I found a simple Yoda cartoon that thrilled him to pieces. Then I sketched with a pencil until my Yoda sort of looked like the cartoon Yoda. Did you know you can use an eraser on a canvas tote bag?

Once Ben had approved the Yoda, I painted him with standard acrylic paints mixed 2 to 1 with fabric medium. He was supposed to be on a white background, but them someone dropped yellow paint onto Yoda and he ended up hovering over a lake of (tie-dyed) fire. Luckily, Ben thought that was awesomesauce.   After you've finished your painting, you let the project dry for 24 hours and then iron it to heat set the painted areas...now you can imagine these canvas totes draped over moving boxes all over my living room... Although the project was a bit of a departure from the packing I was supposed to be doing, they will be useful during the move, as each boy will be carrying his own car toys and books for the long drive to Portland in their sweet new totes!

Day 307: Free Disney Mini Album Instructions

Merry Christmas, Stampin' Friends! It's been a busy but happy day here today. After we put the boys to bed, I was pondering what to share with you today...and I realized I have one project left from my Convention Presentation this summer that I never shared with y'all. I meant to, but I was finishing the instructions and then it just got away from me.

I made this adorable Disney Mini Album using lots of Cricut cuts, the PML Gold Overlays, and the Reel Life stamp set. It was so much fun to build, and quick to fill. I'm sharing the instructions (with lots more pics) for this cutie for free - just email me and I'll shoot you a PDF. You can grab the Cricut Design Space cut file here. I'm linking this project up to the Heart 2 Heart Gifts from the Heart challenge. 

Merry Everything, Stampin' Friends!

Day 302: Disney Mini Album Three Ways

This week I finished off a Disney Mini album project using the My Creations Black Mini Album.

I made a few of these, all with the same basic idea for the front cover, but with varied embellishments to finish off the design. 

My papers were Simple Stories Say Cheese II and La Vie En Rose black stripe. 

The embellishments came from a coordinating die cut pack for the Simple Stories line, and a cricut mickey head that I made myself in Design Space. The black acrylic stars came from the Scaredy Cat Assortment.

I'm linking these albums up to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas party, since tomorrow they head off in the mail to their new homes!

Day 247: Scrap Much Disney Selfie Layout

I'm super-duper excited to share my happy news with all y'all today! I'm joining the Scrap Much? Design Team! They have gorgeous scrap sketches, and I'm a longtime follower, so I just can't even tell you how thrilled I am to join this amazing team. You can read the announcement all about the new designers (including me!) over on the Scrap Much? Blog today. 

And since I'm joining the team, I figured I should pair my happy news with a page done using the current Scrap Much? sketch even though I don't start until November. I'm still working on Disney pics right now, and I had this one lone pic, my favorite selfie that I took this July at DisneyLand. So I grabbed my Simple Stories Say Cheese II stash and got to work! I bought the entire line...more than once. I've got a lot of Disney to scrap, and this line is totally my fav!

I am loving the gold touches in the coordinating sticker packs. I also added a bit of subtitling with some grey Websters Pages block letter stickers. How cute is that Mickey pants journaling card?

I wanted a black or dark print grounding piece, but none of my Say Cheese prints were quite right, so I used some La Vie En Rose scrap to build on. I stamped the kraft cardstock with a camera and MEMORIES sentiment stamp to add in my own print to the mix, too. I filled my little plastic arrow clip with more Say Cheese stickers.

Instead of a doily like the sketch called for, I chose one of my Mickey Head cricut cuts I'm using throughout my pages. Sorry my circle is a bit wonky - I was stitching at Starbucks and I forgot my stitch guide, so I was using the paper cup cozy to guide my piercing. That's a single strand of my favorite gold thread, which I used all up, forcing me to the craft store to get some more today (I found gold AND silver!). That star washi tape came from Queen and Co - it's one of my favorites, too. 

I'm going to link this page up to the Paper Issues FAN-atics party, because this page brings together everything I love most - a gorgeous Scrap Much sketch, Simple Stories papers, CTMH stamps, and DISNEY!  

Day 238: Life is Looking UP Disney Layout

I finally finished my UP layout from July's convention, picture and all! 

CTMH gave us this project to complete, and it's just gorgeous. The balloons are all cut from the new fundamentals paper Enchantment palette.

The sentiments running down the side here are a combo of stamps and fundamentals stickers. The gold stars and bow are from the gold assortment.

Here you can see the blue watercolor background they had us add. Finishing this page makes me even more excited to be attending the CTMH Consultant Album Retreat in November. I can't wait to see what they've cooked up for us to make!

Day 228: Happy Adventure Disney Layout

When I saw this adorable 2 page Sketchy Friday sketch over at Scrap Much? I knew I wanted to use my Simple Stories Say Cheese 2 papers.

I painted swatches of gold onto the background cardstock with my watercolor paints. Then I splattered black, gold, and red paints onto the layout bases before layering on the adorable papers.

I stamped on the big circle from Doodled Designs before layering on the coordinating Simple Stories stickers. How cute is that gold foil?

I used some pieces with banners already printed into the design, some banners I cut from other patterns, and some washi tape trimmed into a banner. I love how my Disney pages are coming out with this adorable paper line!

Day 216: Ellie's Adventure Book

So you may remember that the CTMH convention this year had a Up! theme, and that's like one of my all time favorite movies. I know I was supposed to keep it simple, but COME ON, y'all know simple isn't really my bag. Jill did say I could do a little something if I had time after I finished the pocket pages. So I knew that I HAD to make Ellie's Adventure book. This project was my destiny!

So I got me a Kraft Mini Album that hold either 4x6 or (2) 3x4 Picture My Life cards. I wet some Chocolate Cardstock, then carefully crumpled it up, smoothed it back out and hit it with my iron (which basically only irons craft projects...you know, perler beads, cricut iron on vinyl, paper, etc...). Then I trimmed my panel to the correct size for the front cover of my book and sanded my already distressed cardstock gently but heavily to get the right look. I hand stitched the gold detailing on the "cover" using 2 strands and then 8 strands of gold sewing thread. The letters are cut on my cricut (Art Philosophy font at 1/2 inch...can I just take a moment to say thank goodness I got an explore last spring?) and colored with alcohol markers and coated with layers of Liquid Glass. I got the little globe from one of the Going Places Picture My Life cards and added some gold shimmer trim to "tape" it on. I added a sanded and embossed strip of Sorbet Cardstock on the left edge to simulate the cover of Ellie's Adventure Book. 

Just keeping it simple, right? Ok, the cover was a lotbit of funwork...but it wasn't too insane, and I was totally a good kid on the inside, sliding in the cards and pics without any fuss at all. I got to work with my friend's photos from her trip to Europe (Thanks, Bonnie!), so with amazing pics like that, who needs more embellishments? Me, ok, me, but I was still creatively fulfilled from making the cover so it was all good. 

I have GOT to go somewhere cool so I can make my own adventure book, because these Going Places cards need to be going someplace... This was one of my favorite projects I've made all year, and I hope y'all love it as much as I loved making it!

Day 190: Disney Memories Card

Tonight I'm sharing a quick card I made to include with the Disney pics I'm shipping off to my family this week. We had such a good time in July - those are going to be fun to scrap!

I used the Simple Stories Say Cheese II line and the new sketch from CASE this Sketch. I kept this very clean and simple, with just the stamped sentiment using Finding the Words and one of the Mickey Head cricut cuts I made for convention. A few black epoxy stars finished off the card.

Those stars came from the Scaredy Cat collection, which is one of the many fabulous products retiring in just one more day. Make sure you take a peek so you don't miss out!

Day 146: Disney Movie Quote shirts

In preparation for our Disneyland trip we watched a ton of Disney movies, everything from Cinderella to Wall-E, Planes to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. They were already in love with the Pixar movies such a Toy Story and Card. Some new favorites are Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, and  Beauty and the Beast. The cheering when Gaston fell from the castle....oh my. In any case, when we were discussing our favorites the boys were quoting their favorite movies and one more Cricut iron-on vinyl shirt project was born.

Ben's shirt was the first one done. He's been obsessed with Peter Pan for months now, and he even had a Peter Pan themed birthday party. 

Max hemmed and hawed, but in the end he chose Buzz Lightyear, which was the first idea he'd had anyhow. I had to hide the finished shirt from my little tuxedo clad munchkin. He was not happy about all the new glitter duds I wouldn't let him wear!

Gabe wanted a Tow Mater Quote that we all say all the time while walking backwards and being goofy. Of course, he's a backwards driver, so on the back of his shirt is:

Now, the boys and I hatched this plan, so I wasn't sure my engineer of a husband would be on board with the Teal Glitter Disney quote t-shirts. Of course, I should have remembered this is the same dude who wore a t-shirt I made featuring the hand-drawn head of Ernie throughout college. Of course he wanted a Disney Quote shirt! And this is the quote he chose:

  

Peter Pan Quote Shirt CDS File

Buzz Lightyear Quote Shirt CDS File

Tow Mater Quote Shirt CDS File

Mary Poppins Quote Shirt CDS Cut File

Day 143: Customized Mickey Head Shirts

So with my boys join me at Disneyland after convention this year we (I) wanted to have a family shirt for group photos. It needed to be simple, as I'd be handling production myself, but a bit customizable.

Cricut Iron-on vinyl to the rescue. It's like the summer of all things vinyl around here. So I got some plain red and red glitter iron-on vinyl and set to work. Each person got their name cut out of the Mickey head using the Waltograph font. Most of the boys got the red vinyl and the girls chose red glitter, though there was some switching based on personal preference. It's all good.

Max, my little tuxedo wearing fashionista decided that not only did he want a glitter head, but that his needed to have a bow-tie. Naturally. And since I was cutting him a bowtie...I cut a few more so some of the girls now had silver bows for a Minnie head, too. Max was the only one who wanted a bow-tie though. 

I chose black t-shirts for my little family group, others chose grey or white. The most important thing is that we were together making memories.  

Customized Mickey Head CDS Cut File

Day 139: Disney Mini Folio Album Workshop

One of the things I really wanted to finish before I left for Disneyland is a sweet little Mickey memory album.  I'm posting this a bit later, because I made one as my gift exchange for the team dinner I'm attending right now...assuming you are reading this right when it posts. 

This album uses the adorable kraft Mini Folio album.  It's in a classic Disney color combo with Black, Red (Ruby), and touches of Gold. I've created both Cricut Craft Room and Design Space files for this project so you can replicate it to your heart's content once you've completed your workshop kit (though you will need to own the Mickey and Friends Cartridge or at least the mickey head image to use the files). 

The inner fold out pages are all matted and ready for your photos or autographs. There are nine photo mats in all plus one decorative inner cover.  It's only $18 for one folio album kit or $25 for 2 folio albums! Order yours soon - I'll be cutting and shipping kits when I get back from Disneyland!

  *Consultant Kits available here*

Prices are for local kit pick-up. If you want me to ship to you, please choose the shipped kit!

Pick up or To Go Kits shipped right to your home!

(1) Disney Mini Folio Album Kit (pick up) $18.00 USD (2) Disney Mini Folio Album Kits (pick up) $25.00 USD (1) Disney Mini Folio Album Kit (SHIPPED) $23.00 USD (2) Disney Mini Folio Album Kits (SHIPPED) $30.00 USD

Note: If you want a different date than 2015, please note in the comments of the Paypal form! Comments

Day138: Liquid Glass Holder

As this posts, people are already lining up outside the ballroom for what I affectionately call "the happiest day of the year". Thursday Opening Session is where CTMH slowly reveals to us bit by bit, through entertaining skit after skit what kind of fabulous the new idea book holds. The anticipation is just about killing us! But if you are at home, you are (sadly) not here with us. Perhaps you need a handy project to keep you occupied while you wait for the tweets and Instagrams to start pouring in?

 I learned about these from an sweet and talented fellow consultant, Becky McClain. I've been using mine every day since the day she gave it to me. It keeps your Liquid Glass suspended upside down so you don't need to unplug it with the pin so much when you are crafting! I made some for my Stamping Rules team, and added a little pin holder on the side with a bit of shimmer tape.  

You just need a 3/4" PVC coupling. I found mine at Lowe's for 29 cents. I wrapped it in red polka dot paper (adhered with Liquid Glass, natch!), mickey washi tapes, and gold shimmer trim. The possibilities are endless. I think it would make a great crop gifty, too. Thanks, Becky!

Now back to... Open! Open! Open! 

Day 137: Disney Pixar's UP Team Pins

On the day this is posting most of my team is setting out to arrive at Convention throughout the day, while I am attending Leadership Day with Cathy and all the other Leadership gals. Tonight at our informal team dinner I'll hand out our annual Team Pins. 

Each year I craft a special pin for my team to wear on our convention name badges. Since CTMH announced that there would be an UP! theme running through the presentations, and UP! is one of my all time favorite movies. I knew exactly what our badges would be as soon as I read that announcement. The cuts are all from the CTMH cricut cartridges. This is the project I was stitching in my Splash Pad Office.

I used the write and cut Cricut Explore functions to make the Stamping Rules banners. It was so simple - I'm really digging my Explore lately! The font is from the Artiste cartridge, and I used the retired CTMH My Legacy writer pens in my Explore. The dotted paper is from Dotty for You. The house is cut from the Enchantment Paper Fundamentals. I also used Teal Glitter paper and Purple Shimmer trim. 

If you want my updates on any Convention news and the new goodies, check me out on Instagram - I post a lot of convention pics during this week. Or join me on Facebook or Twitter, as my Instagram will feed into those too. I will not be blogging the new goodies until September, so social media is the only place to get your sneak peeks!

Adventure is out there!

Day 136: Custom Mickey Gold Notebook

So every year before Convention CTMH offers a variety of special Logo items that are only available to convention attendees. This year that selection included a special gold foil handy-dandy notebook. It is adorable on it's own...but we ARE going to Disneyland, so...

I HAD to alter my notebook just a bit. I took the Mickey head shape and added the circle cut out. Even with my trusty ruler at hand it took me a few tries to find the right positioning and sizing to perfectly accent my notebook. Then I added the name info off my business card in the lower corner, just in case I leave it behind somewhere. Ahem. Mickey went right on with a bit of Liquid Glass, easy peasy!

You may notice a few extra Mickeys there in the photo...If you want to alter your notebook too, come find me at convention. I'll have some to swap or to share if you tell me you saw this blog post and commented. Hope to meet you there, Stampin' Friends!