My New Sketchbook

Looking for the Lily Bee Design Birthday Blog Hop? Check out my new sketchbook below and then click HERE to continue to the hop.

I'm excited to show you my new sketchbook that I LOVE soo much, I'm too afraid to use it. Seriously.

I got this chipboard notebook at a business conference I went to almost a year ago. I knew I'd never use it as-is but I saved it because I knew I'd eventually be able to re-purpose it. Liz asked me to create a project using the Little Yellow Bicycle vellum tape. I had lots of fun ideas on how I could use the vellum tape (kind of like washi tape but slightly thicker and just a bit stickier) on a layout but I really wanted to push myself to create something a bit extra-ordinary. Here's what I created.

Supplies: Just Because Collection Vellum Tape JB-160, Just Because Collection Vellum Tape JB-161, Escape Collection Vellum Tape ESC-160, Once Upon a Christmas Collection Vellum Tape OC-160, Splash Collection Vellum Tape SPL-160, Naturals Burlap Stickers Tags NA-BS10

How about I show you how I made it?  It started out looking like a plain ole chipboard journal.I then drew different sized circles on the chipboard and enlisted my hubby to drill the holes with his drill press. Isn't he great? I had to file down a few of the insides of the circles and I was ready to go.

Then, I just layered the vellum tape over the cover, carefully matching the colors together.

Next, I cut a white sheet of paper the same size of the inside front cover of the journal. I placed it in the inside, closed the cover and traced the circles. Then I added the vellum tape in varying directions from the pattern on the cover. I especially like the vellum tape with the sentiments. I used "Wonderful Life".

Once I had the cover done, I decorated the first page as well as the pen. Oh and I made little paper clip markers with the vellum tape too.

So whattaya think? I'm in love with it but like I said, I'm too afraid to use it.

Thanks for stopping by today! Head over to the Little Yellow Bicycle blog to see what Jen and Lisa did with the vellum tape. You can also get the vellum tape from the Little Yellow Bicycle website!

9 Wishes Layout & Scrapbooking Sketch by Heather Leopard & Lily Bee Design's Birthday Blog Hop

Happy Tuesday everyone and Happy 4th Birthday to Lily Bee Design! I am soo excited to be celebrating this great accomplishment with Kristen and team. We'll be celebrating all week long with a new hop each day this week through Thursday and lots chances to win new Lily Bee Design prizes!

For today's hop, we tasked with creating a "celebration" layout, drawing inspiration Nicole's sketch posted to the Lily Bee blog.  I chose to scrap this Instagram photo of my daughter at her most recent birthday party!

Supplies from Lily Bee Design Sweet Shoppe Collection



I layered lots of distressed papers, vellum, stitching and label tags over each other to create the mat for the frame as well as the paper strips at the bottom.  The Chit Chat stickers were the perfect embellishment accents and tied the page together. I included a journaling tag that says "memories" from a previous Lily Bee collection, behind the photo for my journaling.

GIVEAWAY!!!

Today I'm giving away some of this & that from my Lily Bee Design stash. All I ask is that you follow my blog (but only if you like what you see here) and leave me a comment telling me what you've recently celebrated or are about to celebrate!

Okay, so I was your last stop on the hop!  It's time to head back to the Lily Bee Design blog so you can enter for a chance to win a Lily Bee prize package! If you're just starting from my blog, here's the full list of designer's participating in today's hop:

Cindy Liebel

Leslie Ashe

Lisa Dickinson

Summer Fullerton

Heather Leopard

Lily Bee Design blog

Make sure to visit the Lily Bee blog again tomorrow and Thursday for new hops with the rest of the design team and more chances to win!

Thanks for stopping by today!

American Crafts Valentine's Day Blog Hop Winner

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog and commented on the mailbox I made for the family. I enjoyed reading every.single.comment.  I picked a random winner to win some American Crafts XOXO bits & pieces and the lucky person is...

Christine!!!





Please send me an email (heather at spottedleoparddesigns dot com) no later than 3/11/13, with "Valentine's Day Winner" in the subject line, to claim your prize. Make sure to include your address so I know where to send it.  If I don't hear from Christine by then, I will do another giveaway soon!

Thanks!

Just Because Cards

Yes, these cards are my Just Because cards for my hubby (I did give him the box set for Valentine's Day) and I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful the Just Because collection that Little Yellow Bicycle sent me is in person. From the paper crafting kit to the stick pins, journaling tags and 6x6 pad, and the yummy papers, making these card was a breeze! 

I Love You Card

I just adore the journaling tags and I wanted showcase this one on the card so I wrapped it in a small doily with twine and stick pins and added a pretty paper rosette. The base of the card is quite simple to re-create - just adhere two pieces of pattern paper together and add vellum tape to the seam where they meet. Add your sentiment and embellishments and your card is complete.

Supplies:

JB-304 6x6 Paper Pad

JB-161 Vellum Tape - Love (15 pieces)

JB-305 Paper Crafting Kit

JB-134 Journaling Cards
JB-277 Stick Pins

Love Card

I wanted to keep this card simple. To create it, I simply cut out three hearts, faux stitched around them and then using foam dots, I added different pattern papers behind them. Lastly, I adhered vellum tapes to the square card, added a strip of pattern paper and then overlayed the "LOVE" stickers. 

Supplies:

JB-304 6x6 Paper Pad

JB-161 Vellum Tape - Love (15 pieces)

JB-136 Cardstock Stickers - Favorite Pieces/Love

I decided that this card needed something more so I used my CAMEO to cut this box. I filled the negative portion of the box with different pieces of pattern paper and then embellished the lid. The card is a perfect fit. You can't see it in the photo but I actually shredded some pattern paper, for the card and some candy to rest on. I'm really excited to give this to my someone special.

Supplies:

JB-108 Pretty Paisley/String of Beads 12x12 paper

JB-103 Linen & Lace - Aqua/Tiny Stripes Aqua 12x12 Paper

JB-304 6x6 Paper Pad

JB-279 Chipboard Shapes

Thanks for stopping by today. I will be announcing the winner of my giveaway from the American Crafts blog hop this week so stay tuned!

But before you go, make sure to Like the Little Yellow Bicycle Facebook page and share the graphic below for a chance to win some of the new Naturals collection goodies!!! Get the details from the Facebook page or the Little Yellow Bicycle blog.

Be Mine...American Crafts Blog Hop

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Welcome to my little piece of the scrappy world! I'm excited about today for soo many reasons...celebrating the love for my one & only and of course enjoying Valentine festivities with my girls but also because we get to have a BLOG HOP with all the talented ladies on the American Crafts design team!

There's lots of inspiration to be discovered and prizes to be won so I hope you are having fun so far!  For my project, I decided to pull out this cute little mailbox I found at Target. I layered strips of pattern paper over each other and then embellished it with journaling cards, chipboard stickers, die cuts, stickers and more.

I wrote notes to each family member on the journaling cards, so that they know how much I love, adore and respect them. Of course, I try to demonstrate it every day but sometimes it's nice to write it down! I stuffed the notes and candy in the mailbox so they have something fun to open today!

I hope you've enjoyed this fun little project and that I've inspired you in some way!

GIVEAWAY!!!

I'll be giving away a RAK of some American Crafts XOXO collection goodies. I like to reward all my followers with a chance to win so just "Join" my blog to become my newest follower and leave me a comment and you'll be automatically entered! You have until 2/18 at Midnight CST to enter to win.

It'll be a little bit of this and a little bit of that along with bits & pieces from other elements of the XOXO collection ...

 

Now, enjoy the rest of your hop and head over to Carina's blog to see what she created! Of course, if you're just starting the hop at my blog, make sure to go to the beginning by visiting the American Crafts blog!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hello There Winter {Beauty}

It's a big hard to write this post when we're having such a warm January winter here in Texas but, we had some down-right freezing cold days earlier in the month, when I snapped this photo of my youngest daughter in her new princess jacket.

Pin this layout to Pinterest:

My sweetie looked so beautiful and snuggly in her fur trimmed jacket hoodie. I couldn't resist snapping a few pics. This one was my favorite of the bunch, with her brilliant blue eyes, golden hair and the slighest of smiles. Sometimes, I just can't stand it; she's so full of sweet!

I used polka dots on polka dots because it just felt right, the contrast between the two. I also cut a large snowflake on, using it both the snowflake and the negative as part of the design, along with layers of pattern paper, tags, stickers and more...

Supplies: Dreamy Drive Paper (35820) - 5th & Frolic, Stitched Ruffle Paper (35823) - 5th & Frolic, Sweet Street Paper (25845) - 5th & Frolic, Foxy Fairview Paper (35805) - 5th & Frolic, Treasured Terrace Paper (35822) - 5th & Frolic, Simplicity Circle Paper (35801) - 5th & Frolic, Printed Chipboard Shapes (85601) - 5th & Frolic Bits, Accent & Phrase Stickers (42266) - 5th & Frolic Remarks, Buttons & Accents (85598) - 5th & Frolic Embellishments, Decorative Flowers (77292) - 5th & Frolic Flower Shoppe, Brads (85597) - 5th & Frolic Elements, Die Cut Cardstock Shapes (85600) - 5th & Frolic Bits, 5th & Frolic Acrylic Stamps (59163) - Stamps, Accent & Phrase Stickers (42265) - 5th & Frolic Remarks, Ribbon Spools (89427) - 5th & Frolic Ribbon, Large Tags (85599) - 5th & Frolic Bits, Fox Gold (53414) - Thickers

Thanks for stopping by today!

Family Fun Activity Jar

HOLY SCRAP! Where in the world have I been? Well certainly not here posting on my blog. It's been crazy busy coming off from the holidays. First it was all the fun projects from CHA. I forgot to snap photos of some of them but I will when I get them back. Then there's something exciting that I've been working on in the background that I can't tell you about until Saturday and then there's all the projects I've been working on that I can't post yet.  But I can now so stay tuned in here...

Today let me show you something I made with the new Little Yellow Bicycle collection they sent me called Just Because. The colors are soo fun and I just love the vellum tape, canvas banners, and especially the stick pins. Liz asked me to create something unique to showcase the stick pins so after wracking my brain for something other than a scrapbook layout, I came up with this...

Family Fun Activity Jar

My hubby and I always talk about all the fun things we want to do with the kids and then the weekend comes and we can't decide what to do or we didn't plan well enough or something just gets in the way. Sooo, we decided we're going to change that. We're going to dedicate time EVERY weekend to a family fun activity. It could be something we do at home or it might involve a little field trip. Either way, it's planned family time (apart from the regular play time we do with the kids) and it's a reward for good behavior, grades or whatever we feel that deserve to be rewarded for. 

I used the stick pins from the Just Because collection as the foundation for creating the activity strips. I simply adhering them between two strips of paper and then decorated them with chipboard, twine and bits from the paper crafting kit. Each strip has a different activity that I know all of the family members will enjoy.  I randomly laid the strips down and I noticed after the fact that both showing are movie activities but we also made some for the park, the zoo, family bike ride, miniature golf, board game night, lunch at the tea room, bowling, feed ducks at the pond, go to a play or make up a play at home, go to the book store, cook a meal together (homemade pizzas are a fave of ours), go on a picnic, the list goes on...and that doesn't include all the fun activities I've pinned on Pinterest and still need to try.

Of course, we need a cute jar to hold the pin strips in so I decorated a mason jar using paper, chipboard, and more bits from the paper crafting kit. Of course, the smaller "happiness" jar on the front had to be filled with faux flowers, made from the stick pins.  

Now I just need to make more activity pins that can be switched out each month so that we have different options of things to do, while creating new memories together. 

Little Yellow Bicycle Just Because Supplies used for this project:

JB-277 Stick Pins

JB-304 6x6 Paper Pad

JB-305 Paper Crafting Kit

JB-160 Vellum Tape

JB-201 Canvas Stickers

JB-140 Cardstock Stickers - Fresh Verse

JB-279 Chipboard Shapes


Thanks for stopping by today. Make sure to visit the Little Yellow Bicycle blog for more ideas on what you can do with these fun stick pins.

2013 Family Memories Album

I was contacted through email last fall by Melinda from Scrapkit Studio asking if I'd be interested in guest designing. I took one look at her kits, and said YES! I really like the concept she has going. She pre-cuts all the paper to fit the album so you don't have to, everything coordinated beautifully and all you have to do is assemble it. It's really great for all levels of scrapbooking - you can assemble yours using the instructions she includes in the kit so it's easy breezy to whip up OR you can do what I did and just create your own album from scratch.

She sent me the My Everyday Life 2013 chipboard album. It's filled with Pebbles Seen & Noted goodies. I just love the rich colors. The kit includes chipboard, cardstock, pattern paper, Simple Stories Snap sheet protectors and tons of embellishments.  Take a look at what I created:

Family Memories 2013 Cover

I covered the front of the chipboard album with the grey chevron paper. I like how the rest of the colors pop on the grey. I also added some Mr. Hueys white mist to grunge it up just a tad. The grey and the red twine were also added from my stash.

Inside Cover and Front Page

 These first pages are really an introduction to the family as of today. I plan to add a note about our family and possibly my hopes for the coming year. A you can see, I'll be adding a family photo. The hello 2013 is something I added to the kit, it can be downloaded for free from Simple Stories.

 I thought I'd share a close-up of my front cover. I had so much fun creating this word collage. It kind of, sort of reminds me of subway art. The only downfall is that it used up all my words from the sticker sheet but I think the reward is worth it.

Right now, I am planning on using our highlights each month and making this a 12 month book. I've set it up that way but I didn't add any months to it yet. That way, I can see how it plays out. You'll see empty spaces for photos or more empty spaces on cards. I plan to embellish it even more once I have my photos. 

Here are the rest of the pages:

 These are set up to be my January pages. The top right says to do today. I will be adding a photo of myself, maybe by myself or maybe with the hubby & kids. I'll add the Celebrate sticker from the sticker sheet to the photo because it's my birthday. It will then read, To Do Today: Celebrate!

My hubby secured backstage meet n greet passes to go see my favorite band, Matchbox Twenty, in January, so I set these pages up like this to document the whole thing.

This spread is for February. The front pages will talk about my love for our kids.

The back pages will be about my hubby & I!

In March, we start to get to warmer weather, more time spent outside, lots of memories to be made:

April showers bring May Flowers

June, July, August are HOT! September starts to cool off but just a tad!

Then comes October!!!

We're celebrating our girl's birthdays in October. One on the 1st and the other on the 27th!

Lastly is November and December!

And of course, the final page and the back cover. 

I'll be wishing my family a great life in 2014 & beyond as we prepare to welcome the brand new year.

I even have pages, stickers and embellishments leftover that I'm holding on to because I know I will need them as I begin to fill in this book with all our photos.

I hope you enjoyed what I did with the kit! You can see the Melinda's version of the kit on the Scrapkit Studio blog. My supplies are listed below (I added additional elements that I had already in my stash - twine, washi tape, foam pop dots, ribbon, additional sentiment papers, etc.)

Supplies from My Everyday Life 2013 kit:

• 3 - die-cut chipboard pages, 7" x 9"
• 6 - sheets of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' patterned papers, die-cut to match the chipboard pages
• 12 - sheets of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' color cardstock, die-cut to match the chipboard pages
• 2 - packages of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' accent & phrase sticker sheets
• 1 - pad of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' 4x6 cardstock journaling cards
• 1 - package of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' cards & pockets
• 1 - package of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' adhesive labels
• 1 - package of Pebbles' 'Seen & Noted' masking tape stickers
• 12 - Simple Stories acrylic page protectors
• 12 - acrylic page edge strips to protect cardstock binder ring holes
• 12 - page edges to cover the acrylic page edges strips
• 1 - die-cut paper pocket
• assorted grograin ribbon, bakers' twine, plastic button, cardstock flowers, die-cut numbers for title, 1 binder clip
• 2 - 1-1/2" binder rings

Supplies from my personal scrap stash:

• Washi tape from My Mind's Eye & Freckled Fawn 
• Foam Pop Dots
• May Arts ribbon & other misc ribbon
• Mr. Hueys mist in calico white
• Twine from The Twinery
• Black pen for doodling & for when I journal
• Button from My Mind's Eye
• Free Sn@p printable from Simple Stories - download HERE

Melinda mentioned that these are selling fast so if you want one you better hop over and get yours today!