Still in the Christmas Spirit!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! We had plenty to eat, Santa arrived with loads of goodies for the little ones and we enjoyed lots of family time together. It was also my mom's birthday so were celebrating many wonderful things! If only we could have taken her out to eat somewhere (besides the always open on Christmas day Chinese stereo-type).

Here's the last Sketchabilities sketch of 2010. Take a look below at my take on Karan's fabulous sketch and the wonderful DT reveals on the Sketchabilities blog. I created this before the holidays so it's still all about Christmas.

Supplies: From the Scrapbook Circle kit - Crate Paper North Pole Collection - Sleigh Bells, Snow, Pine and Frosty papers; CTMH cream cardstock; Pink Paislee Expressions chipboard aphas in Limeade; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphabets.

Thanks for looking! Happy New Year to you and yours!

Sketchy Thursdays LO, a Featured LO and BIG NEWS!

WOW, WoW, wow, what an exciting week this has been.  Not only am I in the hustle and bustle of getting everything done in time for Christmas but I have had a super busy, EXCITING scrapbooking week.  So, without further ado, I have 3 things I have to share with you today. This is going to be a long post so stick with me.


First, Sketchy Thursdays is taking a break from the blog this week but they are not taking a break from their INCREDIBLY awesome sketches and giveaways.  I've included my layout reveal below but if you want to see the sketch I used for it and want to play along for the prize, you need to "Like" the Sketchy Thursdays Facebook page to see it.  They’re only posting the sketch on the Facebook page and you'll need to post your entry there as well. 

Supplies: Scrapbook Circle December 2010 Kit; Crate Paper Snow Day Collection - Sparkle, Flakes, Frosty, Mittens, Rub-ons, Sew Brads; Martha Stewart Baker's Twine; American Crafts Delight Foam Letters; Girls' Paperie tinsel & twig sticker market; K&Company Brenda Walton and Marcella Adhesive Rhinestones; Glossy Accents; Other ribbon

For the layout I fussy cut the mittens paper and used it to make the scallops at the top and bottom.  It's a bit hard to see but I used glossy accents and irridescent glitter on a few random ones. I also fussy cut the snowflakes and snowmen and gave them that same glitter look.  I used the "let it snow" part of the rub-ons on the picture.  It shows up just enough on the layout but not so much in the photo. 

I fussy cut the paper to make them look like snow caps on the word "snow". I then doodled the foam Thickers with little lines and snowflakes deliberately placed at all the curves on each letter. Then I placed two smaller flakes above their heads to look like they were catching them. The letters are crooked on purpose but I am sure you figure out that I was going for a falling effect.

Here's the little snowmen. I love the how the ribbon looks like his scarf if I do say so myself.    

Now head on over to the Sketchy Thursdays Facebook page and play along for your chance to win this!

Second, the layout I created for last week's Sketchy Thursday reveal using my Crate Paper stash from the December Scrapbook Circle kit was featured on the Crate Paper blog yesterday!!!  You have to scroll about 3/4 way down the page and that's where you'll find my "I Believe in the Magic" LO. That's exciting and such an honor! Thanks Crate Paper.


Last but certainly not least is that I was selected to be on the 2011 Design Team for Imaginisce! 

I am absolutely THRILLED to have been chosen! I can't wait to get my box of goodies (Merry Christmas to me) and start creating with them. And I'm talking about more than just scrapbook creations! If you came over from the Imaginisce blog, welcome to a little piece of my world. I hope you'll stick around my blog to see what I create. If you are one of my fabulous followers already, head over to the Imaginisce blog and/or Facebook page and tell them Heather Leopard sent ya!

Thanks for sticking through this lost post. It all just happened to fall on the same day.


Merry merry,
Heather

Photo (or Notes) Block

I'm so excited to share this chunk of wood with you all today...LOL! I wanted to make something crafty yet universal for my daughter's Christmas gift for her 1st grade teacher.  Here's what I did.  read below for a supply list and to see how I did it.

I don't know why you can see the mod podge streaks in the photo because it wasn't visible in person.  Must have been something with the lighting and flash because the streaks are only showing where the flash hit. I'd take another photo but she gave it to her teacher yesterday. 

Supplies:

• Wooden block - you can get one at a craft store or have a lumber yard cut them for you.
• Spray paint
• 8x8 piece of paper
• mod podge
• foam paint brush
• bullnose clip
• fibers, ribbon, tulle (optional)
• embellishments
• Photo - I sed a 4x6

How I did it:
Rheagan's teacher is a "fancy" lady so I went through my stash and found this beautiful paper (Crate Paper - Restoration Collection "Slipcover") and the project came together so lovely I think. 

• I had my hubby cut a 2x10 piece of wood (white pine) down to 8.5" square.  I got a ton of blocks out of it so you just might see some more being featured in the future.
• I spray painted them different colors based on the look I was going for.  This one happens to be black.  You could also sand the edges to give it a more weathered look but I wanted this one to look more polished. 
• I then cut my paper to a 8x8 and stitched around the sides to give it a bit of flair.  I inked the edges blue and then modge podged it on along with the border at the bottom. 
• While that was drying I fussy cut some flowers out of the remaining paper and modge podged those and set them aside. 
• Once the block was dry I added a bullnose clip to the front. I decorated it with a strip of the backside of the paper, a smallblue-green flower and fibers.
• I picked some matching ribbon, found some bling, tulle and fibers and went to work decorating the rest. 
• One last thing I did was I added a little tag on the back with my daughter's name, grade, school and date so that her teacher would always know who it came from. I'm sure she'll swap the picture out at some point and she's taught hundreds of kids in her 30 years of teaching so a little hidden reminder doesn't hurt in this case.

And there you have it.  I added a picture of my daughter with a note of appreciation written on the back of the photo.  The alternative to using it as a photo block would be to use it to hold some pretty stationary.  What a great idea; I think I might make some custom stationary for the next person I make a block for.

I Believe in the Magic

12/21/10 UPDATE: I am so excited and honored that this LO was featured on the Crate Paper blog. It's posted about 3/4 of the way down here ---> Crate Paper Happy Holidays Blog Event

The gig is up. :( Here I am with the last official layout reveal for my December Guest Design Team stint at Sketchy Thursdays. I have had a ton of fun and I am happy to say that they asked me to serve a 2nd spot as the January guest designer!!!  I said abso-freakin-lutely and I am so excited!!! I told them I could just stay on indefinitely, just kidding of course (or am I?). So here's the last reveal for Sketchy Thursdays for 2010.  With that said though, make sure to "Like" them on Facebook because they might just have something in store for you later this month. ;)

I LOVE the Scrapbook Circle December kit soooo much!  LOVE it!  These lightbulbs were quite a fussy cutting feat and then I decorated them with Glossy Accents (lines, dots, stars, etc). I also had fun playing with different stitch types on my decorative squares.  I didn't include a title or journaling (gasp) but I did use the word-stickers to tell the story. Some of the letters in the word-sticker are colored in so I hand wrote the date at the bottom to look similar to them.

Supplies using my Scrapbook Circle December kit: My Mind's Eye - I Believe "Dots"; Lilybee Designs - Christmas Town "City Sidewalks"; Crate Paper - Snow Day "Candy", "Sparkle" and "Melt"; Crate Paper Snow Day Rubons; Girls' Paperie tinsel & twig sticker market (for the words); American Crafts Holiday House Glitter Merrymint; Handmade flower; misc. lace

Make sure to stop by Sketchy Thursdays to play along to win their FABULOUS prize this week - a $25 voucher to Scrap N Craft with T! I can't wait to see what you create.

Trimming the Tree

I hope you all are getting in the Christmas spirit like I am.  I haven't finished my Christmas shopping, I've barely started actually, but we are loving the spirit of the season - the songs, the decorations, the parties!

Here's today's Sketchabilities sketch and my LO reveal. I had some fun with this layout, creating some mini Christmas trees using that ribbon I had to hunt down, that I mentioned in my previous post. I can't remember if these trees were a brain child of mine or my gf Audrey or a collaboration of both. Either way, they are TDF cute. So here goes...

Supplies: Echo Park Merry Christmas papers - Holly Berry, Home for the Holidays, Christmas Countdown; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Alphas; Creative Imaginations Foam Stickers (alphas); Bazzill Cardstock; Glossy Accents; Clear Embossing Powder; misc. ribbon

Thanks for looking and make sure to play along over at Sketchabilities for a chance to win some yummy goodies from this week's sponsor!

Merry & Bright Card

I'm starting to do more cards these days and I wanted to share one that I did recently with some scraps that were leftover from a Christmas layout I did recently.  So, here's the card and how I did it.

Supplies: Imaginisce Christmas Cottage Paper; Fiskars Everywhere Punch - Scalloped; CTMH stamp set; misc. ribbon

I used the Fiskars Everywhere Punch - Scalloped - to make the window on the card. BTW, I was so excited to get the punch but after I got home and went to use it I realized I needed to invest in the starter set. :( Thankfully I got them all on sale at Joanns. So I went out and bought that and was ready to punch away. The punch was fairly easy to use and I like the result; however, I was hoping to be able to use the punched out scalloped part BUT it leaves 3 holes in the middle of it so it CAN be used (like as a mat for a circle, like what I did on the card) BUT otherwise it can't be used for the reason I bought it - to punch out something in the middle of a page that I want to use on a LO or card. Okay, enough of my product review...

I punched the scallop circle, then used fishing line to hang the fussy cut ornaments from. After I made the card I realized the ornaments look like two eyes and a nose. LOL

I hand made the holly using the remaining scraps of some ruffle ribbon my gal pal, Audrey, gave me. I went on a successful hunt to find more of that divine ribbon, which you'll see soon on a Sketchabilities reveal. :) I also found it in red and cream!!! To make the holly leaves I free hand drew some pointy holly leaves and tacked the ribbon with hot glue. I used the leftover red glitter beads from the Christmas tree trio I made.

Now, I just need to figure out who to give this card to and I think I have an idea. ;)

Reese's Pieces

Nope, I'm not talking about Reese's Pieces candy. I'm talking about our little baby Reese.  Well, at 2 she's more of a toddler than a baby but I'm playing a bit of catch-up with her photos using this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch (as part of my December Guest Design Team gig).  I have been holding on to these frames and paper for this layout and this sketch was the perfect fit.  Check out my take on it below and then head over to Sketchy Thursdays and play along for a chance to win a cool prize from their sponsor.  You have until Wednesday night to submit your LO.

Supplies: g.c.d. studios Melody Ross Homespun Chic Collection - Homespun Mod paper and coordinating frames; Bazzill Lakeshore cardstock; Precocious Paper flower

They Say You Can't Choose Your Family but...

...my daughter said otherwise.  I'll get to that story in just a sec.  The Crop Suey December challenge is to use the word "family" on your project.  I've been wanting to scrap this story about something my daughter said to me about 2 months before she turned 3.  It's the most wonderful thing I think I've ever heard.  She saw another mommy walking in the neighborhood pushing her little girl in a stroller. She said "I didn't get that mommy.  I picked THIS mommy." OMG, talk about melting my heart.  Something about this challenge was perfect for this LO that's been waiting 4+ years to be scrapped.

Supplies: October Afternoon Fly a Kit Line - Ice Cream, Sprinklers pattern paper; October Afternoon Mini Market Alpha Stickers; Kraft paper; Tattered Angels Mists - Spring Rain and Brick, Thickers; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Alphas.

I choose a pic of her and I together around the time she said what she said. I could have not used a pic at all but I really wanted to include one that shows how much we adore each other. I used Kraft paper as the background and frame to represent the sand color and then I misted selectively around the distressed cream paper.  I cut a handmade wave pattern out of the October Afternoon paper. Oh and I love how the OA paper looks like shells. The green, yellow and blue flower was made from the portions of the OA paper that I cut for the waves (using the reverse side of the paper).  After I cut the edges out I realized they made little petals. The other flower is made from grossgrain ric rac ribbon. I hope you like it.

Now, head on over to the Crop Suey blog to see the rest of the design team creations and check out the yummy giveaway from December's sponsor, Pretty Little Studio.

Make a Wish - Sketchy Thursdays December Guest Designer

OMG, I am soooo excited to be the Guest Designer for Sketchy Thursdays this month!  You are going to love, LoVe, LOVE the  sketches they have coming up! So, let's kick the month off with this amazing sketch and my take on it.  Make sure to check out the rest of the design team creations AND play along this week.  You could win a $20 gift certificate to the Paper Maniac store!!!

Supplies: Imaginisce Birthday Bash - Wish Big Paper, It's a Party Paper, Surprise Paper; Flags Paper Ribbons, It's My Birthday Chipboard Stickers; misc ribbon

I just love this Imaginisce paper I found.  It screamed "fussy cuts" and doodling!  The banner is part of the paper and then I colored it in to match the pattern in the "Happy Birthday" above it.  I cut the ballons out individually and then put them in a bundle of 7.  I think my favorite part are the 2 flowers I made out of the flags paper ribbon.

 

Now head on over to Sketchy Thursdays and give them some LOVE.  Tell them Heather sent ya!

Christmas Tree Trio and Tutorial

I've been so inspired by all the beautiful Christmas papers and embellishments. I saw this paper by Imaginisce and immediately knew that I needed to make a trio of Christmas trees.  If only I had an i-rock, I could have adhered some serious bling. Hint, hint to anyone looking for gift ideas. ;)

Pint this Image & Tutorial to Pinterest: 

Ready to make your own set of trees?

Here's the supplies you'll need:
3 styrofoam cones (various sizes)
3 pieces of green felt (8.5x11)
1 piece brown felt (8.5x11) - I found some with texture that looks very cute in person
4 sheets green cardstock
2 sheets of Imaginisce Christmas Cottage Peppermint Stick (stripes/holly) paper or another paper of your chosing.
1 sheet Imaginisce Christmas Cottage All That Glitters (ornaments) paper or another paper of your chosing.1 sheet Imaginisce Christmas Cottage Winter Woods (trees) paper or another paper of your chosing.


1 sheet yellow paper for the stars
2" circle punch
Clear or colored embossing powder (& versamark) - optional. I used Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder (mustard)Christmasy stamp set (if you decide to emboss the stars). I used a Close to My Heart star stamp set
Glue Gun
Lots of glue sticks
Ribbon - amounts depends on your styrofoam size.  I used about a yard
Beads or small ornaments - I used a string of beads from Hobby Lobby

How to put it together in 10 easy steps:

Step 1: Turn glue stick on. HA - a nice simple first step to get things going. No picture for this. :)

Step 2: Take a piece of styrofoam and roll the green felt around it.  Cut green felt to cover the styrofoam. This is so that you won't see the styrofoam in case you have any spots that don't get completely covered by the paper you will be adhering to it. Make sure to cut a circle for the top. You will also cut the brown strip to cover the bottom to make a tree trunk. Hot glue all this to the styrofoam.

Step 3: Mist and/or emboss the yellow cardstock and cut out stars.  I free hand cut mine but if you have a star punch, then you are smarter than me.  I made 6 large stars and numerous small stars.  I used a tutorial from Scrapbook & Cards Today for the folding of these stars. Set the little stars aside and then glue the largers stars together (back to back) in sets of 2 so that you have 3 sets of stars now. Glue the stars to the top of the tree. No pic for this because I placed mine AFTER I adhered all the leaves and trust me, you want to put it before you add the leaves.

Step 4: Punch all 4 sheets of green cardstock and the 2 sheets of striped paper. Get as many as you can out of it. I believe I got 16 from each sheet. Ink the edges to give it some dimension.

Step 5: Fold the circle in half WITHOUT creasing the fold. Now fold it again and hot glue the inside corner. It's okay if that corner creases. I actually pinched it together after the glue was applied.  That will not show on the tree. It should end up looking like a fortune cookie.

Step 6: Start gluing the leaves you just made to the tree. I just adhered them randomly but you could place them in one direction if you like things more uniform.  Make sure to sprinkle the striped paper appropriately. Picture coming later tonight.

This is where it gets fun and easy so I did not snap photos of the rest of the process...

Step 7: Once you have all the leaves placed on the trees it's time to start decorating it. Adhere your ribbon to the bottom.  I looped mine to give it more dimension.

Step 8: Glue some of the real ornaments or beads (whatever you chose) sporadically around the tree.  I placed some of mine on ledges, in the crevases and even hung some from leaves.  This is also when I added the small stars to the tree.

Step 9: Cut out some paper ornaments from the All That Glitters paper and start hanging them from the leaves. Cute out some trees from the Winter Woods paper and place them on the base of the tree.

Step 10: Place it somewhere where everyone can see them and listen for all the oohs and aahs!

And there you have it - your own set of Christmas trees!!! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Pin this Photo and Tutorial to Pinterest:  

 Thanks for stopping by today!

1st Birthday!

Well I guess you could say I am a bit behind on scrapping the "main events".  These can be quite a daunting undertaking.  You see, I scrap more "moments" than events, I think because the events usually mean an excessive amount of photos.  This particular event was my baby's 1st birthday (she's 2 now).  I was overwhelmed with the amount of photos I took on her birthday so I separated them into themes - presents, cake, family.  I decided to tackle "cake" first. I still had lots of pics and I didn't want the layout to look cluttered so when I saw this week's Sketchabilities sketch I had an idea.  First, here's the sketch and the layout.

Supplies: Sassafras Serendipity "Hog Heaven" - Chirp Chirp, Pinstriped, Lots O'Luck papers; Hog Heaven Journal/Tag Stickers; Hog Heaven Sweet Treats cardstock Stickers; Tattered Angels Pink Bubblegum and Spring Rain Glimmer Mist; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphas; American Crafts crocheted flower; Queen & Co Felt Fusion; My Mind's Eye Twine


There's actually 12 photos on this layout.  I made a sort of mini album by cutting 2 strips of cardstock and then folded them evenly like an accordian.  I put the photos in the appropriate sequence on the folds.  I have 3 on the front and 3 on the back of each set. 

I used the very last sets of folds to journal on... 

I glued these cute little buttons on the top flaps and tied some twine around it.  I'm thinking I'll cut slits in the page protector so that people can untie it to see the photos instead of having to pull out the entire page. 

I also free-hand drew the balloon and then misted the background paper and the "1". The mist was a homemade mix of purple "gypsy" re-inker and Ranger Perfect Pearls "Blush" that I misted in a mini mister tube.  Then I used self-adhesive felt fusion for the balloon string. The felt typically runs in a continuous loop in the same direction, like in the upper right corner, so I cut it up and turned it around to give it the effect of floating in the air, hence the cloud. I LOVE clouds on my layouts, btw. The banner is actually made from the decorative cutaway trim that came with some of the coordinating paper. I just cut it up, free-style hand cut the purple starbursts and then applied alphas and then more twine.

Please vote for ME as Sketchy Thursdays Guest Designer...

I got sooooooo many comments on my Who Wore Them Best layout both on the blog and in person so thank you all.  I was honored to be selected as a finalist for the Sketchy Thursdays December Guest Designer.  I promised you all I would beg for your votes if I was selected as a finalist soooo.......
PLEASE vote for my layout! Are you picturing me down on two knees?  C'mon, I'm not THAT desperate for votes, or am I?  Okay, I'm in a mood tonight I guess.  I think the problem is that people can't SEE that the wheel spins so they are missing the ORIGINALITY, cool spinner effect.  Here's the layout showing the spinner series and just how hard this was to get everything in JUST the right spots.  Now if you don't mind, I need YOU ALL who like my layout to vote for it BY WEDNESDAY at NOON ET/11 am CT.
Thanks! ~Heather

 

Who Wore Them Best?

The grandparents came to celebrate Rheagan's 7th birthday so we all went out to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.  The wait staff came out and placed a huge sombrero and these groovy glasses on her and sang a very off-tune version of Happy Birthday.  After the song, we took turns sporting the green glasses from the 80's and I of course captured the silliness. 

I saw this sketch challenge over on Sketchy Thursdays for the December Guest Designer and I thought I'd give it a try with the intention of NOT submitting it but after working SOO dang hard on this layout, I decided to go ahead and enter the contest.  It's harder than it looks to get those pictures JUST the right size in JUST the right place for the wheel I made with cut-outs in JUST the right places.  I kept the rest of the layout somewhat clean and simple as I thought the wheel was quite a bit in itself. Oh and there was a twist to this sketch...in addition to making a layout using this sketch, you needed to use at least 5 pictures AND give them a little bit of sparkle (glitter, foil, etc). I used 8 photos (4 on top and 4 on bottom) and the sparkle was on the alphas and the swirlydoos on the spinning wheel.  I hope you like this and if chosen as a finalist I will indeed be asking you for votes. ;)  The sketch and my layout:



Supplies: Jillibean Soup Atomic Soup: Cup of Equations patterned paper and die cuts; My Mind's Eye Shabby Dots paper; Thickers Alphas - Niki Riki Glitter letter stickers & Delight foam letter stickers; Tattered Angels Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist; Glossy Accents misc. buttons and ribbon.

Yes, the wheel actually spins, see the pics below.

The handmade flower with clear button

Thanks for looking!

Heather

My FAVES/Your FAVE - Share Your Favorite Layout for a Chance to WIN!

Hello, hello!  I wanted to let you know about the easy peasy contest going on over at Crop Suey right now.  Mia has teamed up with Heather from 3 Scrappy Boys to celebrate their 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Want a chance to win a 3 Scrappy Boys kit? Become a follower of Crop Suey and leave a comment linking to your FAVE creation that YOU have made! Mia asked us to post our fave layout, project or card so don't forget to check out the Crop Suey DT faves that are posted on the Crop Suey blog.  I have to say that it was hard to chose just one...I chose my most recent layout  to post over there but since I have new faves and old faves so I am posting a few more here. Look at how far I've come in the last year. 

 I was playing with Photoshop Opacity & Poster Edges on this one. There's a tutorial for this HERE. I also included step by step photos to make the accordian flowers HERE.

Won the NVS Challenge with this one. I received 44% of 136 votes! Post is HERE.

Lots of hand stitching and playing with masking. Sketch & LO is HERE.

There's a tutorial for this handmade sea shell HERE:

Love the white space (something I never seem to do enough of). Sketch & LO HERE.

I doodled the border and water painted the blue. Also includes hidden journal tag behind the pictures. See more pics of this (including the journaling) by scrolling down to the bottom of the post HERE.

Banners...LOVE them. I was trying to make the page look like a rock wall - from the kraft paper to the fussy cut circles, buttons, etc. Sketch & LO HERE.

My 1st and hopefully not last Sketchy Thursdays Fave win! Check it out HERE.

I like the layering on this one & the circle looks like the ropes on the pony ride. I had fun with the alphas here too. LO posted HERE.

Oh, lots of painting, embossing, misting and a hidden photo/journaling pocket!!! Blog post HERE.

This one was so fun! I got crazy with my stitching (border and on the squares), love the lace cloud, and the journaling was so much fun! See up close details HERE (along with another FAVE not included here called "Fasten Your Seat Belt).

I just posted this one this week but I really love it. The challenge was to use unusual shapes and burlap on a LO and I happened to have photos AND paper with hexagons in it but I couldn't just use the paper, I HAD to fussy cut them to really play up the odd shapes.  Check it out HERE.