I Love You.... | Scrapbook Expo Designer Spotlight

Did you see the announcement a few weeks ago from Scrapbook Expo that they are amping up their Weekly Scrapper blog with all sorts of fun daily themes?  Paige Evans is heading up the Designer Spotlight weekly feature and asked if I'd contribute.  

I answered a few questions for the Q&A, which you can read HERE and created a layout featuring my Signature style as seen below.

I'm not really sure how to group my style into a particular theme. I guess that's why it's called a signature style???  I just know I LOVE colors, patterns and making bold statements, particularly with fun and unique backgrounds, all the while attempting to draw the eye around to my photo.  

I created this layout exclusively for this Designer Spotlight.  

My youngest daughter is just the sweetest little thing.  I'm lucky to be her mommy because I get to hear things like "You're the best mommy ever" and "I love you in a million billion pieces" every single day, multiple times a day.  We always try to one up each other on our love you more meter so I thought it'd be fun to create a layout with some of our favorite sayings. 

How to: To create the layout, I added all the shapes and words on the Silhouette mat on my computer. I placed everything where I wanted it, sized them up and down and moved them around until I liked the overall design. Of course, I left space for my photo. This made it super easy to make sure everything would fit once it was cut out.  Then, I just cut everything individually and recreated it on my page. some things are cut out of the white cardstock and some things were cut out and placed on top of the white cardstock.

I sent Paige 4 more of my favorite layouts that show my signature style. You may or may not have seen them before so you might want to head over to the the Scrapbook Expo Weekly Scrapper blog to check them out.  

Many thanks to Paige and Scrapbook Expo for allowing me to be part of the great things happening over there!

Love You More Thickers / Mini Album Tutorial

Thickers are most definitely one of my must haves when I am crafting and I love that they aren't just for scrapbooking. Thickers are a great elements for mini albums and all sorts of DIY projects.

My youngest daughter and I love to have battles over who loves the other person more.  I thought it'd be fun to make a little mini album about our sweet little debate.

I gathered my favorite Thickers from the new Serendipity collection.  These are perfect because they have some really colorful ones and some light grey ones.  I also cut 2 4x10" strips of white cardstock for my mini album base.

Next, I wrote out the words for my title, "I LOVE YOU MORE" with the colorful Thickers. I filled in around it with the light grey Thickers.

I removed the colorful Thickers so I could apply gesso over the light grey ones and the cover, which you'll see in the photo below.

Once Gesso was applied and given time to dry, I added the colorful Thickers back to the cover.

I added pattern papers to the base pages, a little watercolor, photos and embellishments.

I showed this to my daughter and after getting a huge smile from her, the Who Loves Who More debate started all over again.  She even said she's going to make a mini album with more pages than I included in mine. LOL

Oh and did anyone catch my little play on the word "MORE"?

Supplies: Serendipity collection - (369181) – Little Things Paper, (369185) – Hello Beautiful Paper, (369187) – One Fine Day Paper, (369189) – Lucky Love Paper, (369203) – I Heart You Paper, (369207) – Printed Chipboard Letter Stickers Thickers – Ooh La La, (369208) – Printed Chipboard Letter Stickers Thickers - Soar, (369218) – Die Cut Cardstock Shapes, (369211) – Accent & Phrase Stickers, (369220) - Watercolor Words; Gesso, Watercolors, Paintbrush

Lucky in Love

I love to repeat patterns so when I saw the dies in the new Amy Tangerine STITCHED collection, I was soo excited.  I usually repeat shapes but the word "Lucky" resonated, especially after a recent trip to Paris with my love.

How to:  Cut 12 "lucky" words out of various pattern papers, using your metal die and manual die cut machine.  Next, add water color to the background paper where you will be placing the words to make the words pop.  I chose to use a lighter shade of the color of the cut out word.  Once dry, adhere the words over the colored areas. Stich over, around, under and over the words. Add a complimentary pattern paper to the bottom 1/4 of the page for your photo, title and journaling.  I used the metal die frame for my title's background. I also cut a heart and the word "LOVE" using the metal dies and used them as embellishments in the upper portion of the page.  Add additional embellishments to bring the page together.

Supplies: Amy Tangerine STITCHED - (368948) - Thrifted paper, Serendipity collection: (369182) – Hello Honey Paper Paper, (369183) – Lucky Stars Paper, (369184) – XOXO Paper, (369185) – Hello Beautiful Paper, (369186) – Summer Breeze Paper, (369187) – One Fine Day Paper, (369188) – Sugar Sugar Paper, (369189) – Lucky Love Paper, (369200) – Bright Blueberry Paper, (369201) – Love Letters Paper, (369207) – Printed Chipboard Letter Stickers Thickers, (369209) – Printed Foil Letter Stickers Thickers, (369215) – Enamel Dots, (369218) – Die Cut Cardstock Shapes

I Choose You (and Gossamer Blue)

Hi, everyone.  It's Heather and for this month's Pattern Play I thought it'd be fun to get a little artsy.  I snapped this photo of my hubby enjoying some wine in a little bistro on our recent trip to Paris.  It's one of those random shots that I just love and brings me back to that moment in the little cafe that we frequented a lot during our stay in the neighborhood.

 

I knew I wanted to paint and I knew I wanted to include a quote so the first thing I did was cut a super sized quote out of white cardstock.  I chose to exclude the words "choose you" from cutting it out of the cardstock.  I cut those separately from cardstock that I had painted on with water colors. I made the watercolors by diluting some mists with water.

 

I colored redish/pink on one sheet of white cardstock and bronze on another piece of white cardstock.

 

 

I ended up not using the pink cuts and cut a couple of words out of the pink flower paper.

 

I backed the white cardstock with the words cut out with a colorful floral pattern.

 

Next, I painted around the edges and around the cut-out words.

 

I added the photo with minimal embellishments in the corner to complete the layout.

 

This was a bit of an experiment for me but it was a ton of fun and I'll definitely do it again. This only thing I think I did wrong was adding the watercolor under the last sentence.  I'm not really loving how it looks.  Maybe I should extend it up or down or something.  

Supplies: January 2015 Main kit, Main add-on, Main add-on 2, Life Pages kit

Smile Card (10+ Pattern Papers) and Silhouette troubles

Y'all...do you ever have an idea for a card and things just don't go as planned?  I was creating cards for the 10+ patterned paper week on the American Crafts blog.  I had this really fun idea and it involved the silhouette and lots of teeny tiny little flowers.  I got all 10 of my pattern papers that have a hue of pink together and adhered them to my Silhouette mat.  Lined up all the flowers so I'd get flowers from each paper and started cutting.  And then disaster struck...it just quit.  Like stopped mid cut wasn't going to cut anything else.  I disconnected and reconnected the machine to my PC. Nothing. Saved the file, closed the program, reopened the program. Nothing. Rebooted PC, disconnected and reconnected the machine to my PC. Nothing.

I decided to go about creating card #2, which is featured here.  I thought maybe I'd still be able to make the other card later but several days passed and it still wouldn't communicate.  People, I have no idea what is going on.  Anyone have this happen to them?  Putting in a call to Silhouette but if you've been there, done that, help a scrappy sistah out please.

So, here's the single card I made using not 10 but 14 pattern papers. My goal was to show a more simple way to use the multiple patterns and a more ornate way. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I am all about mixing and matching various patterns on my layouts so why not do the same on cards to add a bit more personality to them? The key for me is to use as many patterns as I want while ensuring I don't go overboard on the number of colors used.

How to: Add a subtle background to your card base. Next create 3 sets of flowers (small, medium and large) by handcutting circles out of various patterns in different sizes so that they nest inside each other, the biggest in the back and the littlest in the front. Add little accents, like enamel dots and buttons to the top of the circles.  Next, add a pleather bow and a banner sentiment.

Serendipity collection: 369181 – Little Things Paper, 369183 – Lucky Stars Paper, 369184 – XOXO Paper, 369185 Hello Beautiful Paper, 369186 – Summer Breeze Paper, , 369187 One Fine Day Paper, 369188 – Sugar Sugar Paper, 369190 – Sweet Swirl Paper, 369193 – With Love Paper, 369195 – Razzleberry Paper, 369196 – Liz Lemon Paper, 369199 – Ooh La La Paper, 369200 – Bright Blueberry Paper, 369202 – Sprinkle Paper, 369211 – Accent & Phrase Stickers, 369215 – Enamel Dots, 369217 – Pleather Bows

Happy Days

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days
Tuesday, Wednesday Happy Days
Thursday, Friday Happy Days
The weekend comes...

just in time for me to tell you that I am guesting for my favorite online store, My Scraps & More. Ones of my bestest friends, Audrey, owns this little gem of a store so when she asked me to guest for her a while back I gave an enthusiastic YES!

She's having a HUGE blow-out sale right now so check the details at the end of this post.

So she asked me to design a sketch and a layout. You can view the sketch below and play along on the My Scraps & More sketch blog to win an awesome prize from them!  Here's the layout I created, using the Gossamer Blue collection, On My Desk, which is available in her store.

The sketch:


How to:
Chose a fun pattern for the background paper, like I did with the floral paper.  Next, cut a supersized triangle for the bottom corner. Trim a 1"x12" scrap of paper out of a coordinating pattern and a 1/2"x12" paper out of another coordinating paper. Tuck those two under the large triangle, slightly overlapping them. Stitch them to the background and then flip up the edges. Repeat again in the upper corner but on a much smaller scale.  Add a neutral paper over the background to help showcase the photos, title and journaling.  I layered a gold sentiment over a label for my title. You can see that best in the photo below.  Add embellishments around the page. I chose to sprinkle little stars  around the page as if it were mist droplets.

So there you have it, make take on my sketch, created for My Scraps and More.  Head over over to her store because she's having a huge BLOWOUT SALE with papers as low as .20 cents (no code needed) and get 20% off all regular priced items with the code 20JAN15!  She ships super fast and it seems like she's always having some sort of amazing sale.

One of a Kind Adventure | Gossamer Blue Inspiration Blog Hop

Hi everyone.  2015 is off to a running start and I'm just amazed that it is already mid-month and time for the monthly Inspiration blog hop from the Gossamer Blue design team.  Holy heck! Let's go.....

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know the hubby and I went on a trip to Paris. Alone. Without kids. Seriously. It was amazing!

Our trip to Paris was magical.  The people were incredibly friendly, except that one lady who slapped me as I was getting off the metro but that's a story for another day. I'll document it all in the coming weeks.

We took a day trip to Versailles and oh my WOW! The palace, the gardens, the gold and mirrors.  Wow. Just WOW!  We snapped this selfie inside the Hall of Mirrors.

I was immediately drawn to this paper because of the fade out heart.  And all the gold in the kit was PERFECT for the gold in my photo so...I married it all together.

How to:
Stitch around the heart with gold thread. Add some flecks of mist to the background. Layer lots of ephemera on the left bottom side of the heart to create layers for the photo. Stamp a little sentiment on the bottom little tab. Next, add a title using different types of media (alphas, wood, puffy letters, tags).  Lastly, finish off the visual triangle by adding another cluster of embellishments in the upper left of the page. I actually started my title by including a sentiment that when read with the other title, can read as one title or two separate sentiments.

I happen to be very infatuated with gold right now. Anyone else with me or are you "over it" already?

Okay, so go check out what Jessica created. She's next on the hop and she always blows me away with her incredible ideas!

P.S. I just want to say that I am incredibly sad for the people of Paris and those who are suffering from the recent tragedies over there. I am keeping them in my thoughts and prayers.

I'd Travel the World with You

I didn't intend to immediately start scrapping our Paris trip but I just couldn't resist when I opened up the Gossamer Blue January kit.  It's filled with gorgeous golds and all sorts of colors, patterns and sentiments that are just perfect for the city of love or any love you wish to celebrate.

I was immediately drawn to this background paper from the Crate Paper Kiss Kiss collection.  It had little splatters of pink pre-printed but I wanted to highlight some key words and phrases so I mixed a few mist colors + water together until I got the right hue and then painted it onto the page.

I mixed my title up a bit also accentuating certain words and then added a few little layers over, under and around my photo.

Created using the Main kit, Add-on, add-on 2 and Life Pages kit.

Oh, this photo was actually taken to send to text to our 17 year old son as a joke to gross him out but it has become one of my most favorite and treasured photos.  Our oldest girl also thinks kissing is gross (and we want her to think that as long as possible) but our youngest is quite the opposite.  When she sees us kissing, she will drop what she's doing and come hug us.  She will also often ask us to kiss, which we happily oblige.  I love that we are instilling the importance of love and sweetness in our house, whether they think it's gross or not.  I know it's making a point either way.

I have two more Paris layouts coming this month. One from the Gossamer Blue January kit and another from American Crafts Serendipity.  You can see the other Gossamer Blue one in the gallery today along with so much inspiration from the Design Team.

Happy New Year 2015

I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year. We had a blast ringing it in as a family at home. We bought poppers, champagne for us adults and juice for the kiddos. I made some fun little party props and we had so much fun in our makeshift photo booth. I took the photos on my iPhone and it's not playing nicely with my computer right now so I'll post the photos tomorrow.

I'm not one to make resolutions each year and I haven't had time to think about my word but I will say that I will:

• Blog 4 - 5 times per week - scrapbooking, travels and much more
• Visit and leave love on other bloggers' blogs more often
• Continue documenting our adventures on Instagram (@heatherleopard)
• Continue to eat healthy and cleanse and find my six pack this year
• Last but not least, I will de-clutter (my mind, the house, work, etc.) 

Of course the #1 will always be my family.  The hubby and I have rekindled our spark. It wasn't lost but we are just making more time for us. And we are realizing that the kids are growing up way too fast.  One is turning 18 next month, while another will go to middle school next year and the other is in kinder already.  We do a lot with them but we are putting a more concentrated effort to do more while they still want us to. LOL

So...I hope you will continue on this journey with me this year.

I wish you all a wonderful 2015!