Sketchy Thursday layout

Hmmm ... I just realized that I forgot to put a title on this layout for Sketchy Thursday. Oh well.

Here is the sketch:

And my take on it.

The background paper is from the Flirtatious Specialty DSP line - a gorgeous girly line! I inked the edges in Concord Crush ink for a slightly distressed look. I used a piece of Basic Grey card stock to mat the larger photo of my youngest daughter and then put that on top of a large piece of Concord Crush card stock. I ran my Scallop Trim Border Punch along the bottom of this for a bit more detail.

I mounted this small black and white photo onto a piece of Concord Crush card stock and Silver Glimmer Paper that I cut out using the Hearts Collection Framelits Dies. Onto the card stock I stamped  the wood grain heart image from I {Heart} Hearts in Whisper White Craft ink. I love the subtle pattern it gives.

For the journalling block I used the Labels Collection Framelits Dies and sandwiched a piece of grey patterned paper from the new Twitterpated DSP line between two pieces of Whisper White card stock. (The stamped lines are a non-Stampin' Up! stamp that I've had for ages.)

My embellishments were made with more of the grey patterned paper and Silver Glimmer paper which I used both the Hearts Framelits dies and the Heart-to-Heart Punch to cut out several sizes and shapes of hearts.  

In lieu of the banner detail on the sketch I used a row of hearts. I tried adding a banner here but it just didn't seem to work with what I already had so ... Sketches are really just a jumping off point anyway!

Oh, and you may be wondering about the rather glaring yellow-green apple in the middle of the journalling. Well, I am participating in an on-line class over at Big Picture Classes called Twelve. In it we were given 12 topics to scrap book about and we assigned one of (you guessed it) 12 colours to represent each topic. We were then asked to gather 12 or 13 small embellishments from our stash in each of the 12 colours. Every time we complete a layout from one of our topics we add one of these embellishments as a visual reminder to ourselves that it is a) for Twelve and b) for a particular topic. This layout is for my PEOPLE topic which I have designated as yellow-green. So ... I went hunting in my yellow-green embellishment cup and found this punched out apple and knew I could use it in place of the word 'apple' in my journalling. Clever, no?

Well, must get this entered into the Sketchy Thursday challenge. It's their last sketch challenge which I'm rather sad about. I've entered a few in the past and always enjoyed the process. I wish the design team over there all the best. Thanks for all the fun!

Birthday card and notepad gift set

Okay, I promised a view of the gift I made for my aunt. Here it is ...

I covered a piece of thin card board (actually, a cut down cereal box) with some Cheerful Treat DSP  and then added a note pad and a pocket to contain some cards.  

Here are the cards I made. I had some fun with the products and techniques for each card.

These first two may seem occasion/gender specific but I truly believe they can be used for any number of occasions. Graduation, marriage/engagement, new job, baby, etc.

I embossed the background paper then inked the edges with Soft Suede. The sentiment was cut out using the new Framelits Label Collection and stamped with the Elementary Elegance stamp set (available soon - it's in the Sale-a-Bration catty!) Believe it or not, the two pieces of striped patterned paper are from the same sheet of paper! See how where you cut out your label shape changes the entire look of the paper? Makes Stampin' Up!'s DSPs so versatile.

For this card I embossed the Melon Mambo card stock and then used my 2 1/2" circle punch to punch out the circle and half circles. The background image was created using various stamps from the Circle Circus stamp set in Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride and Concord Crush. For a little bit of sparkle I added some rhinestones. (I see that one has gone wandering ... oh well, too late to fix it now!)

For this one I used my Scalloped Trim Border punch all around a piece of Lucky Limeade card stock which I then stamped in Lucky Limeade with an image from the Take It To Heart stamp set. A banner in Melon Mambo and a few pearls finished it off.

This one may be my favourite. The butterflies are cut and embossed using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit die. I added the little antenae with a Stampin' Write marker. The curvy sentiment is from the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set.

And last but not least, I embossed the Concord Crush card stock and then rubbed some Whisper White Craft ink over the embossed image. Love that effect! The middle cut out was inked (liberally) with Lucky Limeade and an image from the Posy Punch stamp set was stamped in the middle. The Happy Birthday is popped up with Dimensionals.

To help keep things closed, I added these buttons and used some Bakers Twine to join them together.

Some Lucky Limeade Ruffled edge ribbon along the spine finishes things off.

Hope she likes it! Clicking on any of the links above will take you to my on-line store in case you want to purchase any of the products or check out pricing information. To see the new Occasions Mini, please click here.