Sunshine & Bluebonnets

Hi there, everyone! I sure have missed blogging the last 10 days but I've been making memories with the family, Spring cleaning and creating lots of goodies for upcoming assignments and publications! I wanted to show you this layout I did of my daughter a couple of weeks ago. We ventured out to the country for a huge craft/thrift festival and on the way home we stopped and snapped some photos in the bluebonnets fields. We snapped a gazillion of our own photos but there was a photographer there and she snapped a few photos of my girls while we were out there. Thanks to Crystal D Photography for the photo in this layout!

I used the new American Crafts Mayberry collection! I LOVE, love, love it! To create the border, I drew triangles in Silhouette Studio around the outer perimeter of the design software. I was able to measure how big to make them in the actual software. I just placed 6x6" sheets from the 6x6" paper pad and cut them out. The hardest part was deciding which pieces to put where!

I just love the new Thickers that came with the Mayberry collection. They look like they are covered in sugar crystals!

Rheagan saw that they had a chalkboard and wanted me to write Peace, Love, Lions (her school mascot and their slogan this year) but she also liked the idea of Peace, Love Bluebonnets so we went with that! There's also a peek at my journaling. The back just tells the rest of the story about how much fun we had in the bluebonnets fields and closes with how beautiful I think she is. I tell her a lot but I also want it documented!

Thanks for visiting me today!

Hello Beautiful

I made a page last week using the Fern & Forest Girl collection Little Yellow Bicycle sent me. At first, even though I liked the collection, something about the purply color that I saw online was throwing me off (I don't scrap purple) but after seeing it in person, it's the perfect shade of pink and purple and I just love it. I seriously can't stop playing with this collection. I think I said that about the Just Because collection too. I thought it'd be fun to create a 2nd page to last week's layout.

I love to layer and this layout is no exception. One of the big trends in scrapbooking right now is to add strips to the top and bottom (or the sides) of layouts. It usually consists of unevenly cut paper strips with labels or embellishments anchoring the page together but today, I decided to put a twist on that trend. I used the Fresh Verse cardstock stickers and added banner sticker and wooden button.  

I carried the wooden elements throughout the layout, adding the stick pins to the layering and the "Happy" clothespin to the pull out journaling card. The mix of the various word elements (wood embellishments and stickers) just tells such a great little story and ties everything together.

The clear cut embellishments that I used on my layout have a nice iridescent glitter look and feel but without the mess of glitter, by the way. I added a little Stickles iridescent glitter to the wood elements as well. You can see it on the stick pins above and the clothespin holding my journaling above.

Oh and see that photo, I had them printed from Origrami. The prints are incredible and they come with all the details printed on the back, like when the photo was taken, how many likes it got, where it was taken. And it comes in the coolest Instagram box. Find out how you can win free prints from Origrami on the Paper Issues blog. You have until April 20 to submit for your chance to win.

Supplies from Little Yellow Bicycle Fern & Forest Girl collection: FNG-101 Blooming Bands/Brown Woodgrain, FNG-102 Multi Wood Rings/Light Pink Dots, FNG-103 Fairy Flight/Teal Woodgrain, FNG-104 Twinkling Stripe/Green Chevron, FNG-105 Pixie Dust/Pink Geometric, FNG-106 Field of Flowers/Teal Dots, FNG-108 Fanciful Forest/Tan Chevron, FNG-134 Journaling Cards - with thermography (10 pieces), FNG-140 Cardstock Stickers - Fresh Verse - with glitter and debossing (43 pieces), FNG-135 Cardstock Stickers - Favorite Pieces - with glitter and embossing (31pieces), FNG-279 Chipboard Shapes - with glitter accents (28 pieces), Fern & Forest Boy Collection: FNB-577 Wood Stick Pins (6 pieces), Naturals Collection: NA-WB20 Wood Buttons - Etched, NA-TC20 Tiny Clothespins - Words

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Let Your Light Shine

I snapped several photos of my girls at the park the other day and I just love this one. My daughter was playing with a bowl of sand on a wooden play set and I snapped this through the wooden slats. Isn't she just the cutest?

When I pulled out the Fern & Forest Girl papers that Little Yellow Bicycle sent me, I was immediately drawn to the woodgrain paper and the wood ring circles. And I just love the wishful words paper. I knew I wanted the wood rings and words to dominate my design. 

A little fussy cutting, distressing, and layering topped with the chipboard shapes and my layout was complete. 

Supplies from Fern & Forest Girl collection: FNG-102 Multi Wood Rings/Light Pink Dots, FNG-104 Twinkling Stripe/Green Chevron, FNG-105 Pixie Dust/Pink Geometric, FNG-107 Fairytale Journal/Dark Pink Chevron, FNG-108 Fanciful Forest/Tan Chevron, FNG-109 Wishful Words/Green Dots, FNG-134 Journaling Cards - with thermography (10 pieces), FNG-279 Chipboard Shapes - with glitter accents (28 pieces)

Head over to the Little Yellow Bicycle blog to see what Liz and Robbie created (and leave me a little scrappy love if you so choose).

Happy Silly Smiles

When my youngest sweetie isn't picking flowers or talking about picking flowers, she's picking berries from the bushes outside our house. She packs as many as she can into her tiny little palms of her hands until their overflowing. Anyway, I snapped these photos of her one day as she was picking those berries. The American Crafts My Girl collection was perfect for this moment!

American Crafts My Girl collection: Cute Chloe paper, Sunny Savannah paper, Precious Penny Paper, Marvelous Madeline Paper, Adorable Abby Paper, Tender Tessa Paper, Dress Up Bits, Swing Details, Noteworthy Stamp, Summersault Details, Amy Tangerine "Authentic Roller Stamp, Amy Tangerine Aspire Stamp, Gesso mixed with Mr. Huey's Bonny Blue mist, Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam "Lipstick Pink", Mr. Hueys Barnwood mist, Close to My Heart Grey Wool ink, 

I kept my layering a bit more simple than I usually do. I was focusing more on the photos of course but also the the My Girl Stamps. I started out with 2x3 photos a tag and a card that I cut from a 12x12 sheet of paper.

I wanted to add paint to give it a pop of color so I added pink Glimmer Glam to the stencil and then laid it down on the paper. I then mixed a batch of Gesso and blue mist to create a thicker paint. I applied it sparingly over the mask and laid it down over the paper again, alternating it over the pink. Then last but not least, I sponge painted grey mist from the center and outlined the mask.

My favorite part of the painted elements is the simple little Cloud 9 stamp. I painted the blue Gesso on the stamp and applied it to the card. It was a bit "gloppy", which is what I was hoping for. It make the perfect background for the inked image that I eventually stamped over it. I repeated these techniques for the arrow and the diamond stamped image at the top.

I'll be back tomorrow with a fun layout using the new Little Yellow Bicycle Fern & Forest Girl.

Well, Hello There NEW Little Yellow Bicycle Design Team!

Hi everyone! I am soo flippin' excited to finally be able to tell the world that I've been invited to return to the Little Yellow Bicycle Biker team for another year! Thanks so much for having me back, MyLYB! And of course this also means we're announcing the rest of the amazing new team!

I am so proud to be a part of this incredible team! To celebrate, we're doing a blog hop today and giving away prizes so make sure to visit all of the blogs listed below!

Mitchell Kraft

Eva Pizarro

Melinda Spinks

Mou Saha

Tamara Tripodi

Shellye McDaniel

Audrey Pettit

Suzanne Sergi

Jen Chesnick

Heather Leopard - That's ME!

Robbie Herring

Vicki Boutin

Liz Qualman

A Card and a Giveaway!

I created this card to welcome all the new and returning team members AND to welcome you to the NEW Little Yellow Bicycle blog. Leave me a comment for a chance to win the brand new Fern and Forest collection.

Make sure to make your final stop over there because LYB is giving away even more amazing prizes. The blog hop ends on Thursday, April 4, 2013, and you don't want to miss out!!!

 Supplies: Little Yellow Bicycle Just Because collection (6x6 Paper Pad, Clear Cuts, Paper Crafting Kit, Stick Pins, Fresh Verse stickers, Chipboard).

Before you go, April is Autism Awareness Month and tomorrow is World Autism Awareness Day. By reading this blog, you know a family who is affected by autism. I'm Lighting it Up Blue to help raise awareness for those affected by autism each and everyday throughout the year!! Please sign the petition to ask President Obama and Congress to develop and implement a comprehensive national plan to address autism! It literally took me all of two seconds to sign the petition! This request is not affiliated with Little Yellow Bicycle in any way, shape or form. This is a personal request from me.

Thanks for stopping by today! Now head on over to Robbie Herring to see the beautiful card she created.

Smiles to Brighten Your Day & a Lily Bee Blog Hop

Hi there, friends!  We're having a blog hop to celebrate the NEW Lily Bee Design Creative Team!

We've been focusing on Spring and/or Easter projects all week so I thought I'd share this layout with you! The warmer weather and flowers definitely bring about a nice Spring feeling.

Supplies: Lily Bee Design Pinwheel Collection, ABC Letter Stickers. Photography by Allison Avenue.

I just love all the new embellishments Kristen created for this new collection, from the chipboard to the stickers, the embellishment bundle and the buttons, flair and tags.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. My two girls just adore each other. They make each other smile and brighten each other's day like no one else can. I am so lucky to be their mom.

Now for the hop...each of these designers were hand picked and invited to join the Lily Bee team. I am soo beyond thrilled to be working with Kristen and the entire Lily Bee team! Someone pinch me!

The new team has created many inspirational projects using the new collections, so make sure you stop by each of their blogs to see their work and leave them some love!
Adrienne Alvis
Becky Williams
Christine Newman
Cindy Liebel
Diana Fisher
Diane Payne
Heather Leopard  **YOU ARE HERE**
Leslie Ashe
Nicole Nowosad
Patricia Roebuck
Stacey Michaud
Summer Fullerton
Wendy Sue Anderson
Once you've completed the hop, head back over to the Lily Bee Design blog to enter to win a Sweet Shoppe paper pack!

While you're on the Lily Bee blog, make sure to FOLLOW it! And, we're on Facebook page so go ahead and like  that page

Did you know? We have a newsletter and if you sign up, you'll find out all about the fun things we have in store for you this year!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Hello Sunshine

Since yesterday was the official first day of Spring here, it got me in the mood for warmer sunny days. With it's bright, cheerful color palette, the new Pinwheel collection is perfect for scrapping your Spring and Summer photos, like this one.

Supplies: Pinwheel Collection (Lemonade Stand-PWP302, Cherry Blossom-PWP303, Picnic Basket-PWP305, Kite Strings-PWP306, Sprinklers-PWP307, Jump Rope-PWP308, Lime Rickey-PWP309, Ice Cream Truck-PWP310, Cart Wheels-PWP312, Chipboard Stickers-PWC314, Label Stickers-PWS316, Chit Chat Stickers-PWS318, Circle & Tag Stickers-PWS341)

I topped it all off with a little fussy cut triangle circle looking sun-like embellishment. After stitching over it, I left the fly away strings to help resemble sun rays.  I topped it off with a circle sticker.

I'm a girl who loves her layers and these patterns mesh so great together, it was easy to create the dimension I was looking for. I hope this helped you get more in the mood for warmer days!

Before you go, head over to the Lily Bee Design blog and check out the all the March challenges, posted in the upper left corner of the blog.  We'd love to have you play along with us! Oh and feel free to leave me some love over there while you're visiting! wink wink...

Happy Little Bunch

I was up on the American Crafts blog last week with a couple of layouts featuring confetti. They actually had a whole week dedicated to confetti so make sure to pop over there to see all the projects.

One of the layouts I did featured my youngest daughter at a local farm, checking out the ducks by the pond. Once she spotted them, she wandered over to check them out and got really close. Luckily someone walked up and offered us some bread to feed them. Wasn't that nice? Anyway, Reese looked so sweet and the whole scene just seemed so serene.

Supplies: Lucky You Paper (35967) - Lucky Charm, Pretty Poppies Paper (35966) - Lucky Charm, Starlight Paper (35981) - Lucky Charm, Bright Bauble Paper (35970) - Lucky Charm, Large Tags (85656) - Bits, Adhesive Badges (85658) - Flair, Adhesive Backed Flowers (85651) - Embellishments, Rub On Transfer Sheets (42395) - MiniMarks, Die Cut Cards (85649) - Bits, Printed Chipboard Shapes (85655) - House, Treasure Vanilla (42392) - Thickers

To create my page, I added a heavy dose of cream paint for the foundation. I then layered some of the papers and stitched over them in a circle. HINT: draw 1 circle lightly with a pencil so you can "follow" the line when you're stitching. I did that for my first stitch and then went loosy goosy on the other stitches.

I just love my layers! To give them a good, chunky feel, I sometimes add foam squares under them.

Journaling? It's on the "Remember Today" card tucked in all that layering.
Lastly, I did the title. I used a combination of a die cut, chipboard and super frosty, glistening Thickers. The little letters were popped out of the chipboard elements and I LOVE THEM!

Okay, thanks for stopping by today. Oh, one more thing. Here's your...

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!

I'm drawing a winner for the Scrapbook Circle Charmed Life kit in the next day or two so check out that blog post HERE to see how you can have a chance at winning it!!!

Lucky Cascarones and Heather Leopard Scrapbook Sketch

Created for the American Crafts blog for the confetti challenge.  One thing I love about my Mexican heritage are all the traditions and cascarones at Easter is most definitely one of them.

It makes a huge mess but we have so much fun cracking confetti eggs on each other and I love passing this tradition down to my girls.



Scrapbooking Sketch by Heather Leopard:



To create this, I used a confetti punch gifted to me by my friend Diana Fisher.  I punched and punched and punched away at pattern paper while I was scrapping with her, Audrey Yeager and Sara Zenger.

Once all the confetti was punched, I pressed it down over cardstock covered in liquid adhesive.  Once dry, I added twine and stitched vellum over part of it to help my photos pop.  The I added clouds raining confetti at the top.

Meet the New Lily Bee Design Creative Team!

I'm just a few followers away from 600! I can't believe it! When I hit that magical number, I'm giving away a Scrapbook Circle kit. Read how you can win it at the end of this post!

I'm soo thrilled to announce the new Lily Bee Design Creative team! Though I'm sad to be saying goodbye to the outgoing team members, I'm also super excited about this new team! And in case you hadn't heard, I have been chosen to lead this incredible team, along with the marketing aspects of Lily Bee (thank you, Kristen)!!!

Adrienne Alvis

Becky Williams

Christine Newman

Cindy Liebel

Diana Fisher

Diane Payne  

Heather Leopard

Leslie Ashe

Lisa Dickinson

Nicole Nowosad

Patricia Roebuck

Stacey Michaud

Summer Fullerton

Wendy Sue Anderson

Wow, right? We'll be sharing our new projects on the Lily Bee Design blog starting next week.

Make sure to follow Lily Bee on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. We offer unique promos/giveaways, sneak peeks and more on each of these social platforms!

You can also sign up for our e-newsletter, so you can be one of the first "In the Know", get the skinny on current challenges, tutorials, new products and more. Click HERE to sign up.

Lastly, did you know that Lily Bee posts challenges for you every Tuesday? We'd love to have you play along with us each month!

GIVEAWAY

Oh, don't forget about my 600 follower Scrapbook Circle kit giveaway. Read how you can win it HERE!