A Week With Springtime Doodles - Day 7

Here we are.  I'm glad you have made it to the end with me in "A Week with Springtime Doodles," the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.  Here it is:

  

  

Today's card might be my favorite.  It uses my favorite colors, some of my favorite patterned paper, and a few of my favorite images from Springtime Doodles.

Here it is:

This time, I decided to try out my watercolor pencils one more time with this set, and I'm glad I did.  The blending gave it just enough shading - love that! I stitched around all of the panels of patterned paper to give the card a little extra something.  The bee, left tulip and right yellow flower are popped up for some dimension, and the flowers and bee are all outlined with Sakura Stardust pen to give the card some sparkle.  I used the "thanks" sentiment as leaves today - thought that was something different.  Instead of matting the focal point on a solid piece of cardstock, I inked the edges with yellow and green. 

This was such a fun week, and I can't wait to try out even more images from this great set!  You'll be seeing some soon.  Here are all the cards together:

Did you catch Erin Lincoln's comment on the PTI forum about this set?  Last week she said she had just used Springtime Doodles on a release week project and that it goes perfectly with one of the new sets being released. 

I waited...

and waited...

and waited...

patiently...

to see her project and which set she was talking about. 

Then, yesterday - this appeared:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!  Wow - it blew me away.  The set she was highlighting was Happy Trails!  Guess I'll add it to my ongoing wish list.  Honestly, I just want to make this card.  So - very- cool!   I'm going to print it out to stare at.  It just makes me happy.  You can see Erin's post and other amazing projects here.

Well, there it is.  A Week With Springtime Doodles already over.  I hope I have enabled you a little this week.  I'll be back with another week of something or another soon.  In the meantime, I'll just post my random makings. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

P.S.  This will be one more for Jenny over at Wee Memories.  Have you played along yet?  Here's the link.

A Week with Springtime Doodles - Day 6

We are nearing the end, and I have to admit, I'm a little sad.  Here we are on Day 6 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles," the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.  Here it is:

  

  

Today's card is a little different.  I'm using Raspberry Fizz, which I have always been afraid of, but recently discovered to be an AWESOME color.  I'm also using a bit of a different design on the card base.

Here's my card:

Bright, huh?  I finally figured out how to use some Martha Stewart doilies I bought a few months ago.  I stamped the butterfly on separate cardstock, colored it with my Bic Mark It Markers, and added some glitter, Sakura Stardust pen and a trail of gems to give it some sparkle.  After cutting it out, I adhered it to the doily.  Here's a close-up: 

I lifted up the wings a bit to give it some dimension.

I mentioned above that the design of the base is a bit different.  That's because the left panel opens like this: 

And then finally the full opening is:

That's one of the tricks I learned in a class at the convention last week.   There is the typical scor-line in the center of the base, and then on the front cover, in the center is another scor-line to fold in the opposite direction.  It's something a little different and fun.  The sentiment, stamped on Hibiscus paper, is from Butterfly Dreams. 

Jenny, at Wee Memories, is going to get sick of me, but I'll submit this one too!  Here's the link if you want to play along. 

Well, I have one more card with this set to finish out my week.  It may be my favorite one of all of them.  Hope to see you here then. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

A Week With Springtime Doodles - Day 5

Have you stuck with me this long?   Here we are on Day 5 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles."
Have you found any favorite images from the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink?

  

  

There are a lot to choose from, that's for sure!  I'm afraid a week won't be long enough for me to use all of them, but I'll try. 

I'm using 3 images and a sentiment on today's card.  Here it is:

Do you recognize the cloud in the left corner?  It's the same image I used to create the flowers in yesterday's post!  Cool, huh?  I love that dragonfly image, and it was very easy to color.  The wings were highlighted with Stickles.  I accented the waves with some more and put down some rhinestones.  When I started this card, I had intended it to be a masculine card, but with the glitter and the rhinestones, I think I went the other direction.  The "hello" sentiment is also from this set.  I inked the edges with Spring Rain to give it a little more detail. 

Here's a close-up of the dragonfly:

And again, I was able to use some patterned paper that I bought a while ago and hoarded.  I just cut right into it and used it...just like that.  If I can do it, you can too!  Go on and give it a try!

And again, I'm submitting this card to the Wee Memories challenge.  Jenny has given us two-weeks to enter as many projects as we want to and with any theme, I'll enter it over there - again!  Here's the link.  

I have a couple of more days with this set and two of my favorite cards from the week still to share.  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  See you tomorrow!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 4

Today is Day 4 of  "A Week with Springtime Doodles,"  My new favorite set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.  Here it is:

  

  

Today's card is for this week's Make It Monday, hosted by Betsy Veldman.  You can see the video and link up your creation if you click here. Honestly, I didn't think I had any tissue paper, and then I went and dug around in the guest room closet, and found a lot.  Isn't everybody's tissue paper in the guest room closet?  That's not weird, right?

Here's my card:

I created all the flowers with tissue paper.  There are 2 layers of each color.  I glued them on some white paper and set them aside to let them dry.  I stamped the stem and leaves and then ran it through my Big Shot with the Woodgrain impression plate.  I used the medium scallop die on the two colors of blue to mimic the sky and added the green rhinestones on the bottom to mimic the grass.  When the flowers were dry, I adhered them down, some with pop dots to add dimension, and added the silver centers.  Then everything was mounted on a piece of Royal Velvet cardstock. 

Betsy put me a little out of my comfort zone with her technique this week, which is what Make It Monday is about, I suppose.  

And you know, I'm going to enter this in Jenny's challenge at Wee Memories.  With  two-weeks to enter as many projects as we want to and with any theme,why not?   Here's the link if you want to play along.

Three more days of highlighting this set!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 3

I'm back with Day 3 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles." I'm so glad to hear that I am enabling some of you all a little bit.  This set is turning out to be a lot of fun - A LOT - and if you passed it on before, you may want to take a second look. 

Here's the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.

  

  

Today's card is Clean and Simple (CAS) and I'm submitting it this week to the CAS-ual Fridays challenge blog.  I'll give you details about that below.  For now, here's my card:

 

 

I began with a piece of Lemon Tart and embossed the cute daisy image from the set in white Zing.  I colored in the daisy with my Bic Mark-It Markers, and then stamped the stem and leaves in my Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet ink.  The sentiment is from the set as well, and I stamped it on a piece of white cardstock cut with my Double Ended Banner die.  After matting it on some patterned paper (yay - I used some more!), I added the buttons at the bottom corner to give it some balance.  I matted the Lemon Tart on a piece of Summer Sunrise and then secured it to the Kraft card base.  Kraft + yellow = Yummy!

 

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is super fun, and the girls have given us a lot of options!

See what I mean? The pattern I chose is on the diagonal - Emboss, Dies or Punch, Buttons.  I may try to incorporate this challenge into another card this week. Fun time!  

And again, since Jenny has given us two-weeks to enter as many projects as we want to and with any theme, I'll enter it over there - again!  Here's the link.  

 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!  Come back tomorrow for Day 4 - already - time flies when you are having fun!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 2

I'm back with Day 2 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles." This is part of a summer-time event here on my blog.  Hopefully, I can highlight several sets before heading back to the classroom in August.

My first set for this summer is Springtime Doodles by Beth Silaika..   Here's the cute set that Beth designed.

  

  

Today, I'm using that cute dandelion stamp, with a technique that I have seen several times, and always wanted to try, but never did.  You know the feeling?

Here's my card:

So, what's the technique?  I used the back of the dandelion stamp to stamp the colored circles in Summer Sunrise, Hibiscus Burst and Hawaiian Shores.  After the colors dried, I turned it over and stamped the dandelion in Versa Mark and heat embossed with white Zing.  I stamped the stem and leaves in my new Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet ink I bought at the convention last week.  (That's the same ink I used on yesterday's card too.)

I recently did some cleaning out and organizing in my scrap room, so I knew that I also wanted to focus on using some patterned paper this week - which I failed to do yesterday.  The striped paper you see here is from Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection.  I cut a strip for the top and bottom and then stitched them to the flowered panel. 

The big task was deciding what color the base would be.  I finally settled on Hawaiian Shores - an awesome color for anything!

I'm entering this card in Jenny's Anything Goes at wee Memories.  This time it's a two-week challenge with unlimited entries - so why not?  Come play along!

I'll be back tomorrow to share more of this wonderful set!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 1

Last summer I spent a week highlighting two of my favorite stamp sets from Papertrey Ink, Flower Garden and Wishing You.  I wanted everyone to love these sets as much as I do, and it was fun to push myself to think of different ways to use the same set.  That was my motivation.  

Now, a year later, I thought I would highlight a few other sets this summer.  My first set is one that has been unloved in my stash for a long time.  It was a set I loved at first sight when it was released, but I just never seem to be able to make it work for me.  So, I wanted to concentrate on this set for a week and learn to love it.  

The set I'm highlighting for the next seven days is Springtime Doodles by Beth Silaika.

See what I mean?  Love at first sight!  I think my main problem in the beginning was that I didn't have the right tools for coloring.  I'm certainly not a Copic girl, but I love my water colored pencils.  Those don't seem right for these images though.  Last Fall, I found some Bic Mark-It Markers on another blogger's site and decided to try them out.  LOVE them!!  (But if you like to blend your colors, you may want to stick with Copics.)

Here's my first card using my new favorite set:

I stamped the lady-bug image in Staz-On and colored it in with my markers.  Then I added some Glossy Accents to the bugs to give them some dimension and glitter on the antennae to give the bugs some sparkle.   Then I had to walk away for awhile and let it dry.  That's hard to do.

Here's a close-up:

When the Glossy Accents had dried, I stamped the leaves and added the sentiment, which I printed from the computer.  Three little rhinestones and I was all finished.  My love for this set was returning!

I'm entering this card in Jenny's Anything Goes at wee Memories.  This time it's a two-week challenge - come play along!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  Come back tomorrow for a very Spring-y card using Springtime Doodles!

Special Delivery

This card is for two of my favorite challenge blogs.  This week Jenny at wee Memories made it easy on us and gave us an "Anything Goes" challenge.  I love it when she does that.  You can get the details and submit your project here.

CAS-ual Fridays gave us a sketch to use, and I love, love, love sketches.  All the details can be found here. 

As you know, I just returned from the Scrapbook Convention.  Having recently been pushed into single-parenthood, I was challenged to figure out what to do with my son while I was on my new adventure.  That's where aunts and uncles come in handy, don't you think.  My brother-in-law took him for the day on Saturday to Fossil Rim, which to hear my son describe it is "a grassland zoo."  He fed ostriches, saw zebras, cheetahs and lots of different animals that are not typical to the Texas grassland.  After, they went to the dinosaur park to experience the dinosaur fossils of Texas.  It was quite a full day of fun for him and I very much appreciate my brother-in-law taking him.  So, I made him a card - complete with a white truck like his.

Here's my card I created for both challenges:

Having my newest stamps from The Stamps of Life ready, this card was super simple to create.  Having great tools, like impression plates, make cards look so detailed, but you don't have to spend a lot of time to achieve that look.  I used the impression plate on the blue mat and inked the blue paper to resemble clouds so that it would follow the top part of the sketch.  The hills were cut and stamped to resemble the road, and all I had left to do was stamp and cut out the truck.  Super fun and super simple!

More later!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Great American Scrapbook Convention

I'm back from this weekend's Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington!  Wow!  It was pretty unbelievable.  The shopping was amazing, my classes were amazing and the time was amazing. 

I drove up on Thursday evening to prepare myself for the convention on Friday.  I enrolled in 3 different classes for Friday...we'll get to those in a minute. The shopping opened at 9:00, so I wanted to be there just in time for the doors to open.  Since my first class was at 9:30, I wanted to take a loop around to see what was out there and start making my list.  After a few minutes, it was a little overwhelming.  There was a lot of paper...a lot.  A lot of kits, a lot of ribbon, twine, card stock, dies.  I started my list and had to be on my way to class.

My first class was a little disappointing.  I did learn a little bit about misting, which I have never done before, but the layout that was created was a little blah for me.  Misting, however, was fun, and several other classes used the mists, so I'm wondering if  I need to bite the bullet and buy some.  That was one thing I resisted at the trade show portion.

After the first class I was able to take a little more time shopping and really looking at some supplies.  I recognized a company called Jenni Bowlin and browsed through it for a little bit, but couldn't figure out how I knew that name.  After leaving, I stopped at some other booth to look at ink and then it hit me - INK!!  Jenni Bowlin has ink that I want.  So, I rushed back to her booth and bought some ink:

The Vivid ink and two chalk inks are from different companies, and I'll get to that in a minute.  The Jenni Bowlin inks have been on my list and in my Amazon cart for a couple of months, but I didn't want to pay shipping.  I can't wait to try out the Malted Milk and Brown Sugar.  I heard they were supposed to be close to Kraft color, so I'm excited about that.

My second class was sponsored by an online company called The Whole Kit and Kaboodle.  Andrea Deer, the owner, was the class instructor and wow, her kits are awesome!  She uses her die-cutting system to cut everything you need for a 1 or 2 page layout.  All you have to do is put it all together.  We created 3 pages in the class, and there was an option to buy the companion pages - which I did.

I don't want to mess with copyright stuff, so I'm sending you to the links of the kits we used.
-The first one was titled "The Heat Is On".  In the class we created the left page, and I purchased the right.
-The second was titled "Just Beachy."  Again, we created the left page, and I bought the right.
-The last layout was titled "Summer...A Whale of a Good Time." We built the right page this time, and I bought the left.

Again - misting was a big thing in this class, and that whale is super cute!!  If you are going to the beach or expecting to spend a lot of time outside this summer, these kits will make for some quick and cute layouts! Also, remember those chalk inks in the first picture.  It's Andrea's fault that I bought those.  She chalks everything, and I love the look, but often forget to chalk my edges until the paper is already adhered.  These inks are great for that!  Love the colors too!  That blue is beautiful and the brown is a deep, earthy color.  I had to buy the brown because the pad on the brown ink pad I had fell off in the middle of a class. 

I had a few minutes to run through the trade show portion again and passed by a ribbon booth.  One of the racks at this booth was selling a baker's dozen of ribbon for $5.00.  So, I picked this:

I know...who needs more ribbon?  Everyone needs more ribbon!!!  Are you counting the pieces?  There are more than 13 there.  I bought the front ruler ribbon because I just loved it and the texture reminded me of my grandma's measuring tape in her sewing box.  It was cloth, not vinyl.  Loved it. 

I happened by a booth selling clear stamps.  Everyone needs more of those too.  And this girl's style is so up my alley.  The set that drew me in was a set of Easter eggs with different designs.  I don't really have an Easter set, so I loved this one.  As I went through the booth, I began writing down so many sets that I loved.  I knew I couldn't buy any of them until I really thought about which ones I really loved. So, I had to go to my next class and think about the stamps, and then go back after class was over. 

My third class was sponsored by SEI, and the class kit was HUGE and beautiful!  The paper was flowery, glittery and just beautiful and some of the techniques in this class were so different.  The two (out of six) layouts that we actually finished had elements of the layout on the outside of the page protector, which is so hard for me to wrap my brain around.  Aren't page protectors...used...to...protect...the...page?  So, between that and the fast pace of the class, I was a little exhausted when it was over. 

I left.  I didn't go back and buy stamps. :(

My second day began again with a stroll around the show floor.  I hadn't seen any twine on the day before, even though I was looking for it.  Finally, I saw some at the very top of a booth.  They were selling 8 packages of twine for $20.00.  So, after much deliberation, I bought this:

My Mind's Eye has some wonderful color choice, and 5-yards more in the package, so I tried to get as many as I could of theirs, but the three colors from The Twinery were too pretty to not get.  So, I did.  I also bought this paper pad, because I needed more patterned paper (like a hole in my head.)

I went back to the stamp booth I was at yesterday, and did another round of writing down and making decisions.  Still needed to think about things. 

My first class on Saturday was sponsored by Quick Quotes, which is also a company that has kits.  The line of paper that we used is called "My Michelle," and is awesome.  We created six pages with the line, and these are some of my favorite projects from the convention.  The picture below is from the GASC website and isn't my layout, but it just shows how awesome the projects can be.

I learned some tricks that I'm excited about for adhering vellum.  Again, the kits had everything already cut and I'm super excited about the layouts. 

My third class was sponsored by The Whole Kit and Kaboodle again.  I was excited when I realized that when I walked in.  I didn't even do that on purpose.  This was a card class.  I signed up for this one to give myself a change of pace, and I'm so glad I did.  The kits were all ready, everything cut, and all I had to do was adhere things down as Andrea was instructing.  The problem was that I ran out of adhesive runner in the middle of the second card and had to finish the 2nd, 3rd and 4th card with Scor-tape and glue dots.  I didn't even start the 5th card.  Not having adhesive is a burden.

Here are the cards we created.  The thing about Andrea's cards is that the pictures don't really show how cute they are.  Many of them have unexpected folds and don't use the traditional A2 fold.  Love that!

CUTE!  And again - misting was involved.

After class, I went and bought this:

They were on sale.  I bought a 5th one, but it's already in use.  The bummer part is I walked down a differnt aisle and found them $1 cheaper.  Grrrrrr...

I finally had time to sit at the stamp booth I had been stalking and made the Make and Take.  The prize for finishing their card was this cute thing:

The stamp company is called The Stamps of Life.  Apparently, I missed the announcement when this company started up 18 months ago.   The owner, Stephanie, is full of energy and has great ideas.  Her designs are beautiful, whimsy, fun and creative.  Some of the sets are images that I haven't seen on a stamp, and love how easy they look to cut out and paper piece - my favorite technique.  Stephanie was at the booth all day and talked to me every time I was there.  Here's her blog.  Lots of inspiration - lots of videos. 

Go...go now! 

No wait!  See what I bought first.

I finally made some decisions on the stamps and bought these:

banners4all

Been looking for a banner set I couldn't live without.  Love the different holidays in this one.

bunny4Easter:

Yeah, I didn't get the egg one; loved it, but thought this one would be more versatile.

cars2drive

 I have a boy.  No explanation needed.

dictionary4me

 Again, I've been looking for something like this.  This set has a lot of options!

scream4icecream

This one has a companion set I really want, but I resisted.  It was between this one and her cupcake set, but if you remember, I have several cupcake stamps already and had to go with something different. 

stamped4you

Wow!  I really liked this one and don't have anything like it.  Had to get it. 

I bought six sets.  I know.  I splurged.  I'm OK with that.  Because I bought 6 sets, I received 2 free ink pads from the booth.  That's the other ink you see in the first picture.  They love this ink at this booth, and I have to admit the two colors I chose are pretty "vivid!"  I guess that's why they named the ink what they did. 

I had one more class to attend.  I was not crazy about it - at - all, even though it involved misting, which apparently everyone is doing.  So, I'm going to go ahead and finish up this post.  It's a long one.

I loved the convention!  If there is a convention near you, I would try to make it.  So much to see, so much to do.   It was nice to be around thousands of people that share the same addiction as I do.  And scrapbookers are nice people.  That's for sure.

I'm still not buying mist. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Out of This World

My blog group, the Paper Dolls, has some pretty awesome challenges going on right now.  I'm a bit behind and hoping to play catch up in the next few days before I leave for my  

FIRST SCRAPBOOKING CONVENTION!! 

I have friends that don't scrapbook, giggling at me, wondering why I need to take classes to learn how to cut paper.  I just let them giggle.  I can't wait!!

I digress.

This card is for Suzanne's challenge which is to use patterned paper for everything but the base.  You can read all about it and share your cards if you click here.  Suzanne is the queen of patterned paper.  If we all used it the way she does, there would not be a world-wide epidemic of paper hoarding.  

Here's my submission to Suzanne's challenge. 

All the patterned paper is from Fancy Pants To the Moon collection.  ("One of these days, Alice...")  Name that program.

I die cut and paper-pieced the rocket from PTI's Out of This World set and heat embossed the sentiment in the corner with silver Zing.  It shows up better in real life.  

I have one more Dolls challenge to catch up.  You should come join us.  It's totally free of charge and free of stress.  Our challenges are open to anyone and open ended! 

Thanks for stopping by My Happy Place!