Best. Day. Ever.

Okay, so it really was one of my best days ever because I have a few days off between ending one job and starting another and I spent the day at the zoo with my littlest gal and my mom.

We had lunch in the new African Exhibit and the giraffes were eating right next to us.

So ya, that was a pretty fun day.  Wanna know how one of my Best. Days. Ever. ties into my scrappy blog??? Well let me tell you.  The Scrapbook Circle March kit, aptly named Best. Day. Ever. is now available in the store and it's packed with some of the latest swoon-worthy CHA collections.  It seriously has me oohing and ahhing over it.  Here's a couple of sneaks.

Lisa is also offering a couple of great add-ons - Scatter Sunshine add-on - loads of wonderful embellies - and a cardstock add-on.  Her kits have been selling out fast so make sure to get yours before they are gone!

A sneak of the Scatter Sunshine add-on:

Also, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  You'll find fun challenges and special offers posted on these connection points and we encourage you to share your fabulous creations made from Scrapbook Circle kits (past or present)!!!

I'll be sharing a few of my projects made from this wonderful kit VERY soon!

Butterfly Mini Album - SEI Guest Blogger

I can't believe my week of hogging the SEI blog has come to an end.  I have one last project to share with you today.  Several years ago, my mom and I found a bunch of flower and butterfly chipboard mini albums at Michael's for $1. I bought several of them and gave them to friends.  When SEI sent me their new CHA collections, I remembered I the albums so I went into my stash of alterable items hoping I didn't give away all of them when I cleaned out my scrap room.  Of course, it was there because I keep everything. 

Here's a few peeks of the mini. 

To see each page, visit the SEI blog today.  And make sure to leave a comment for your chance to win the Field Notes collection.  

xoxo Heather

LYB Girly Girl & SEI Butterfly Cards

I have one more Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise scrappiness to show you.  Liz asked me if I would create a layout based on the new sketch challenge and of course I obliged. :) Visit the Little Yellow Bicycle blog to see the sketch and play along.  Here's my take on it.

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 A few close-ups:

 I love the tear out tickets, especially this one:

I can’t believe my week at SEI is going by so fast. Did you get a chance to check out my Pinterest post yesterday? There's soo much out there in Pinterest-land that I want to do and try so be prepared to see a little bit of that here on my blog in the future. How about we start with something today?  I ran across this collage while looking for inspiration for my projects below. I love how they are spreading their wings and taking flight in all sorts of different directions.

Source

Today, I am sharing 2 cards I made using the gorgeous Field Notes collection again because the colors are so striking and I just love the dimension I got from the butterflies. 

Spread Your Wings Card

For this first card, I used the perforated 12x12 sheet, Curated, and fussy cut the butterflies from the Butterfly sheet.  I machine stitched the background and banner and then laid the sentiment across the top.

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Tip: When I want to stitch on a card I like to stitch each piece before I adhere it to the card so that you can’t see the stitching on the inside of the card.

I used pop dots to raise the sentiment and to keep the butterflies from flattening out once I put the card in the envelope.

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 Just Be You Card

Looking back at the inspiration piece above, the center photo shows butterflies going in various directions and I wanted to do something to highlight those gorgeous butterflies. What better than a spinning card???  It really all came together because of the Vignettes 12x12 paper. When I got the collection, this paper really stood out. I immediately started cutting out the beautiful frames and I kept going back to the rectangular frame. At this point, everything just kind of came together. Here is the result…

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I double layered the butterflies and added another smaller frame up at the top right. I stamped the sentiment in orange and blue ink, using silver embossing powder to accent the word “BE” so that it would match the silvery foiling on the frames.  I can’t stop picking up the card and tilting it back and forth. It’s a bit addicting to watch the butterfly spin around.

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Interested in making your own spinning card?   How about a quick & easy 6-step photo tutorial?

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Thanks so much for visiting today. Make sure to head over to the SEI blog and leave a comment for a chance to win your own Field Notes collection.  Post a comment on each day's post for up to 5 chances to win!

Nature's Adventure - SEI Guest Blogger

I am soooo excited to be guest blogging for SEI all week.  It actually started with an introduction post over there yesterday.  

They sent me their 3 new collections to play with and I've been having a blast creating with them this past week.  I immediately dug into the Field Notes collection because the butterflies and the foiling on the papers are gorgeous! 


My project today is actually a sketch and layout.  And it's not just any layout...if you know my history you know I love my single page layouts. I made it a goal this year to do more double pagers so I figured this would be a good time to start. 


I started out by drawing up this sketch and choosing this color combo:

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Here's a couple of sneak peeks of my layout.  Visit the SEI blog to see my layout in it's entirety as well as read my design notes. 

There's one more reason to head over to the SEI blog every day this week. By commenting on each day's post, you are entered to win a Field Notes collection. That's up to 5 entries for this!

So that’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy the sketch. If you use it please post a link to it here so I can visit your site and admire your work, even if it's several months from now!!!

Check back in tomorrow for some Pinterest inspiration.

xoxo Heather

DIY Chevron Card

This week at Imaginisce we are teaming up with Scrapbook Adhesive and I am so impressed with their products.  They sent us a ton of great products from photo corners to adhesive sheets to tape runners and more.  I couldn't decide what I wanted to do that would best showcase their adhesive so I pulled everything out of their packaging and just stared at them for a few moments in hopes something would hit me. 

It worked.  As I was looking at the photo corners sheets, which come 42 on a sheet, I saw a potential pattern. With chevrons being all the rage, I created this cool, dimensional card.

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This really did happen by pure experiment. Like I said, I saw potential so I started stacking the photo corners on top of each other in a pattern. It took me a few tries to figure out how to position the photo corners to get the look I was going for but once I had it, it was easy peasy.  What's cool about these photo corners is that there's a very subtle line that's about an 1/8th of an inch from the top of each side of the photo corner so it made lining/stacking them evenly a breeze.

The start of my experiment. See the little indentions that helped me line them up evenly?

 I just kept stacking and my pattern was finally starting to

look like it would not just work but actually look good.

 I'm about halfway through each sheet here.......

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I used an entire sheet of each color to make the card.

Check out the dimension...and it actually looks very even and cool when looking at the card because the 3 strips that look flat are raised from the top instead of the bottom like the 2 you see below. View from bottom of card.
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Side View

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Here's the end result again. I hope you enjoyed my little experiment. Make sure to head over to the Imaginisce blog and leave a comment over there for a chance to win some Scrapbook Adhesive and Imaginisce goodies!

Supplies:
Cardstock card base
Imaginisce Happy Camper paper & chipboard adhesive
Scrapbook Adhesive tape runner
Scrapbook Adhesive Foam Squares in black
Scrapbook Adhesive Photo corners in white, black and kraft
Imaginisce i-rock and glam rocks
Imaginisce Lighted Tweezers
Imaginisce Pink Jewel Tray
My handy dandy sewing machine

Two Toots! Ha ha, that just makes me giggle!!!

I don't think I have ever blogged here without a crafty reveal but there's a first time for everything especially when it benefits my readers, right? 

First, I'm excited to say that I have joined the Creative Team at Paper Issues.

New themes are posted every month and all you have to do is link up your projects, which will help drive more traffic to your blog!!!  This is all about networking and getting your projects out to people who may not otherwise see them AND you can see other people's projects too. The next theme will be announced tomorrow so make sure to check the Paper Issues blog and link anything up (old or new) that matches the theme.

In addition, Cassie has a scrapbooking shop that she keeps filled with the latest and greatest scrappy products and she's offering all my friends a 20% discount each and everytime you shop her store with my code HEATHER. You can use it on an ongoing basis to get 20% off your order and I get credit for everything you purchase!  She is always adding new goodies, including new CHA releases, so check back often as your needs arise. 

Okay, my second news is that my Snuggle Bug layout was featured in the February Bella Buzz (by Bella Blvd) newsletter.  I earned the title of Fan Favorite.  You can view and download the February 2012 issue HERE.

What I Love About My Family Mini Album

We are celebrating "Love" over on the Imaginisce blog this week.  They asked me to create a mini album and at first I was going to do a hubby love album, then a coupon book for the hubs, then a coupon book for the kids but I finally landed on creating something that I could use to capture what I love about each family member. 

Apparently I am on a kick right now of re-purposing packaging materials. First it was the red packaging that I used on the Friends Make the Best Accessories card for Imaginisce, then it was the die-cut packaging from the Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise Cycling Team loot and now I am using the packaging from the Imaginisce Sole Sisters chipboard stickers.  I used the same technique as I did for the LYB mini I posted HERE on Tuesday but this time I added a journaling prompt - "what i love about you".

I've made a FREE DOWNLOADABLE TEMPLATE for you to use if you wish to use my journaling prompt on a layout, mini or anything else.  Here's what I created with it.

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 Supplies: Imaginisce Sole Sisters Collection; Imaginisce i-rock and black glam rocks; Journaling Prompt by Me - Yours Truly.

Here's a couple of the girl pages up close

Here's how I created this mini:

1. I printed my journaling template on 8.5x12 white cardstock.
2. I stacked my 5 pages on top of each other and trimmed away each edge so that the last page would cover the length of the packaging (approx 11") and each one that I laid on top of the other would be shorter so I could easily flip through the pages.
3. Once I lined them up how I wanted them, I added a cover (black houndstooth) and then folded over the top flap of the packaging, covered it with the pretty flower stem paper and stitched it all together with my sewing machine.
4. Next, I added my photos and used papers that best suited the personality of each family member. 
5. Now all I have to do is figure out what I love about them. I'll just make something up if I can't think of anything.  Just kidding. They are my world and I am sure I will run out of room with all I will want to write.

Okay, so click HERE to download of my journaling template. I hope you enjoy creating with it.  Oh and make sure to visit the Imaginisce blog. They have a couple of giveaways going on this week. Thanks for stopping by today.

My Slice of {Little Yellow Bicycle} Paradise

I am soo honored to be designing as a member of the Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise Cycling team.  When I saw the Paradise collection online all sorts of ideas came to mind and I was delighted to see how much more gorgeous it is in real life. Today I'm going to share a few layouts and a mini album, which I hope will inspire you. Beware, I've included lots of photos!

Sooo, the first thing I noticed when I pulled everything out were the die-cuts and I instantly realized how great they would be as a mini album.  I'll get to that in just a sec.  First, let me show you a few layouts I made.

For my first layout, I chose to use a photo of my daughter that is several years old. I'm not sure why I never scrapped it before but I'm glad because this is the perfect collection for it. Pin It


Supplies: American Crafts cardstock, Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise collection: PD-106 Happy Dots/All Natural, PD-108 Blissful Dots/Teal Tapestry, PD-133 6" x 6" Decorative Edge Double-sided Textured Cardstock - with glitter accents, PD-279 Chipboard Shapes - with glitter accents, PD-222 Felt Stickers - with glass beads, PD-305 Paper Flower Kit, PD-135 Cardstock Stickers - Favorite Pieces - with glitter accents, PD-140 Cardstock Stickers - Fresh Verse™ - with thermography and embossing, PD-1100 Tear Out Ticket Book - with thermography and embossing, Imaginisce i-top 2.0 and medium brad daddies, The Twinery twine, Zig Marker in Chocolate



I love to layer whenever possible.  I decided to triple layer my background but of course, I cut out the insides from the papers where they would be covered up so I could use them on another project. I distressed the edges just a bit and then machine stitched around the border.

Banners are still in-style and the "HAPPY" cardstock stickers did not dissapoint.

The paper flower kit is incredible.  I love the DIY rosettes, which come in 2 different sizes.  They add just the right touch to the layout.

My 2nd layout featured more banners, this time I cut them myself, using random widths and lengths and layering them over each other.  I also fussy cut a few of the papers, added some punch-work and then added a top and bottom "frame" to bring the layout together.

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Supplies:
American Crafts cardstock, American Crafts knock out border punch set, Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise collection: PD-109 Pleasant Plaid/Earthy Dots, PD-108 Blissful Dots/Teal Tapestry, PD-101 Paradise/Petite Pom Poms, PD-103 Simple Pleasures/Teal Too, PD-104 Splendid Stripe/Olive Leaves, PD-309 Confetti Garland - 30" long, Zig Marker in Chocolate



I did a zig-zag machine stitch over the banners at the top as well as on the main photo below to adhere them to the page and then topped them with garland for a litle bit of added flair. It's hard to tell in these photos but the circles are folded up randomly and I added a few smaller circles on top of the larger ones to make them even more interesting than they already are.

My last layout was taken last week as I caught my youngest daughter stopping to smell the roses.  She had  a very large velvet pen in her hand and she kept trying to smell it.  It was too adorable! This layout was made using leftover scraps after completing the other layouts and mini album.  I love that it pushed me to find creative uses for those odd shaped scraps.

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As promised, let's get back to the mini album.  Like I said, I saw the dies in their packaging and it just hit me how perfect they would work as-is for a mini.  Here's what they looked like in the packaging:

            

So the first thing I did was take them out of the packaging and cover the front and back of the actual packaging with pattern paper.  Here's how I started with the cover:

I then decorated the cover with cardstock stickers, DIY rosettes and Glossy Accents

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Next I added coordinating paper to the dies, making sure to use a smaller width of paper for the first page, while adding more width to the next page and the next and so on so that the lengths of each page would get longer as they are added. Once I had all the base pages made, I stitched them together with my sewing machine, added mist and gesso and then added pictures and embellishments.  Here are the end result pages:

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 I just LOVE the little journaling pockets!

Supplies:

Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise collection: PD-133 6" x 6" Decorative Edge Double-sided Textured Cardstock - with glitter accents, PD-222 Felt Stickers - with glass beads, PD-230 Clear Cut Shapes, PD-308 5 Things Envelopes - self adhesive with embossing, PD-309 Confetti Garland, PD-140 Cardstock Stickers - Fresh Verse™ - with thermography and embossing, PD-279 Chipboard Shapes - with glitter accents  


Well I guess I hogged your time long enough. I hope you enjoyed browsing through my creations as much as I enjoyed playing with this new collection.  Be sure to stop by the Little Yellow Bicycle blog today and leave me some love over there too! xoxo Heather