C.R.A.F.T. Challenge--Ribbon, Sparkle, Shine

Happy Thursday and welcome back for another C.R.A.F.T. Challenge! I loved seeing all of the Christmas creations last week and this week's theme could be used to continue creating with your Christmas projects or to create something entirely different. This week, we are working with adding ribbon, sparkle, or shine to our projects. As always, quick and easy are the two main factors that I am thinking about as I approach my card designs. This week, I tried out some Jillibean Soup Card Sets where you can purchase the cards with an opening that fits a plastic shaker pocket. Everything coordinates in the sets already and they really do save a lot of time.

In order to create this look, I filled the plastic cloud piece with sequins and beads and then attached it to the interior of the card. I then inked the edges of the opening that would show on the front of the card and added a couple of felt clouds (and a heart) from the SpiegelMom Scraps store which is my favorite place to go to pick up sequins, felt pieces, Shimmerz products, and little embellishments. (Hint, Hint: Make sure to use the code Khristina15 if you are going to do any fun shopping over there!!)

Next, I hand stitched some rows of sequins to look like rain drops falling from my shaker box cloud. I used some letter stickers on the bottom to create a sediment and I was done. Quick...easy...fun...just my favorite way to create cards! I hope that you will hop back over and check out the projects from the rest of the design team this week and that you are will create your own project using ribbon, sparkle, or shine and share it with us over there! Happy Crafting!!!

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge--Christmas

Happy Thursday and welcome back to another C.R.A.F.T. Challenge of the week! This week, we have been challenged to create with a Christmas theme. Are you making your Christmas cards this year? Have you started creating them yet? I love to make my own Christmas cards but it always seems like such a daunting task. Today, I am sharing a quick and easy design that is sure to make your family and friends think that you put in hours of work!

The key...I am using a cut file. I took a cut file from The Cut Shoppe and decreased it in size so that it would be perfect for the front panel of a card. I then backed it with different Christmas themed patterned papers from Prima's collection called Sweet Peppermint. I then added some gold thread behind a sediment out of the Carta Bella Christmas Delivery ephemera pack. I used my distress ink in Vintage Photo to tie all of the pieces together and add to the vintage charm feel of the patterned papers. Using that cut file, this was actually a quick and easy look to create and I just love how it turned out. Make sure to visit the C.R.A.F.T. blog to check out the cards that the rest of the design team created this week. Also, make sure to share your Christmas creation with us! Happy Crafting!!

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge--Trifold Card with Tag Insert

Happy Thursday and welcome back to another week of C.R.A.F.T. Challenges! This week, we have been challenged to create a trifold card with a tag insert. There are several different ways and styles to create a trifold card so you have lots of fun choices this week! Below, you will see the project that I have created for this week.

As always, I love cards that quick, easy, and impactful! This week, I worked with some black cardstock for my card base. I then used the Pink Paislee C'est La Vie collection to embellishment my card. I wanted to create a fun pocket card that would hold not only the tag on the inside but also a gift card. I used some washi tape with an "xoxo" pattern to emphasize my folds and then added a Maggie Holmes chipboard "Hello Love" sentiment to the front. The cork and gold glitter heart embellishments are also from the C'est La Vie collection as is the patterned paper pocket on the inside of the card. This card was pretty quick to put together and I can't wait to send it off to a friend!

I hope that you feel inspired to create a trifold card with a tag insert this week. Make sure to click back over to the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge blog to check out the amazing work from the rest of the design team and to link us up a project of your own so we can send you some love! Happy Crafting!!

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge--Inspiration Picture

Happy Thursday and welcome to another week of C.R.A.F.T. Challenges. This week, we have been challenged with an inspiration picture to guide our project creations. The picture below is the one that we were challenged to use this week:

As is my typical, I want my card creations to be quick, easy, and impactful! I pulled out a 6x6 paper pad and cut six different squares of patterned papers in colors that went well with the inspiration photo above. I then inked all of the edges with my Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink.

I pulled out a die cut leaf from the Maggie Holmes Gather ephemera pack and also inked the edge of it with the same distress ink. Lastly, I grabbed a sentiment sticker from Simple Stories and inked the edges. I placed 3D adhesive behind the leaf and sediment in order to make them dimensional and I was done!

Quick, simple, and impactful. My favorite! I hope that you will visit the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge blog to check out the projects from the rest of the design team and to leave us a link to a project that you create based upon the inspiration photo. Happy Crafting!

Stick It Down--October Sketch Challenge

Welcome back to another month of sketches at Stick It Down! This month, I am working with another single page sketch from the amazingly talented Laura Rumble. Below, is the sketch which is a perfect one if you want to experiment and play with a little bit of mixed media this month. It would also work great with cut files, sequins, or lots of little details.

I decided that I wanted to work in some hand stitching and mixed media with this layout. Here is what I came up with...

I have been working on finishing up some summer layouts and collections as we finally move into fall here in Arizona. Below, is the layout that I came up with off of this sketch. I used mostly the Sunny Days Collection from Elle's Studio along with a triangle stencil and texture paste, a load of hand-stitched circles, and some tags.

I also just had to incorporate that beautiful blue bold puffy sticker alphabet from Pink Fresh Studios new Indigo Hills collection.

I hope that you enjoy seeing my interpretation of this sketch and feel inspired to create a layout based upon it for your album. Make sure to check out the Stick It Down Blog to see the incredible work from the rest of the talented team as well as to leave us a link to a project you create with this sketch this month. Happy Crafting!!

For the Love of Homemade Kits: October Kit Reveal

Happy Sunday! I am so excited to be participating again this month in the For the Love of Homemade Kits Series with Hannah Lemieux, Crafty Meggy, Sara Scraps and Felicia Young over on You Tube for another round of creating. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, this series uses a recipe of items to create a kit from our stash that is based around an inspiration piece. Then, each of us spends four weeks creating layouts and process videos from the ingredients in our kits. The idea is to start digging in our stash and use a combination of both new and old products to create some amazing layouts. Each week, you will be able to see a process video and layout from each of us on our You Tube channels using our individual kits. YAY! Click here to check out my kit share for week one of the For the Love of Homemade Kits Series: October.  The first process video will be posted on Tuesday, October 4th,  so you don't even have to wait a whole week this time! 

For this round, we decided to include quite a few different things but we really enjoyed starting with an embellishment based inspiration piece so we kept that idea the same. We chose to work with Maggie Holmes Fringe Hearts from the Bloom collection and created kits that are styled after Maggie Holmes and her numerous collections. 

The paper portion of this recipe includes:
1. a text
2. a floral
3. a dot or circle
4. a specialty paper
5. a freebie pattern
6. two 6x6 pieces of patterned paper

Now, for my choices....

1. Text: Maggie Holmes Bloom--Spring
2. Floral: Maggie Holmes Gather--So Sweet 

3. Texture: Maggie Holmes Bloom--Lizzy
4. Circle/Dot: Felicity Jane--Maggie Exclusive
5. Freebie: Felicity Jane--Maggie Exclusive 

6. I chose to include the Maggie Holmes Bloom 6x6 paper pad (partially used)  

The embellishment portion of this recipe includes:
1. Fringe Hearts (Inspiration Piece)
2. Tiny Word Stickers
3. Embossing Folder (I didn't have this and substituted with tags and a stamp set)
4. Texture Paste
5. Ephemera Pack
6. Buttons
7. Washi Tape
8. One freebie
9. 3x4 cards

10. 2 alphabets  

Here are my choices....

1. Fringe Hearts--Maggie Holmes Bloom
2. Tiny Word Stickers: Maggie Holmes Gather and Tim Holtz Small Talk
3. Embossing Folder--substituted with Kelly Purkey for Hero Arts: Kelly's New 

               Adventures Stamp Set and Maggie Holmes Open Book Layered Tags 

4. Texture Paste: Ranger
5. Ephemera Pack: Kaiser Craft Boho Dreams Collectibles
6. Buttons--various sources
7.Washi Tape--Maggie Holmes Gather Metallic Tapes
8. Freebie: Paislee Paperie Confetti; Maggie Holmes Bloom Accent & Puffy Stickers
9. 3x4 cards: My Mind's Eye--On Trend--"Cool" Journal Cards 

10. Alphabets: Dear Lizzy Desktop Gold Thickers 

                        C'est La Vie Black Acetate Letters 

 

Here is my complete kit....

        

As you can see, I followed the recipe pretty closely this month but I included a bit more paper and a few additional embellishments. I am also giving myself the freedom and permission to add some mixed media elements like mists and texture paste if needed in order to complete the looks or use the elements that I chose. I find that I need to include enough variety so that I don't get sick of my kit but also limit myself enough that I am productive and focused. It's a balance, right?! 

I hope that you will use this recipe to put together your own kit and I would love to see what you create if you are playing along with us. Make sure to stop by and check out my You Tube video showing my kit and then head on over to see the kits that Hannah, Felicia, Sara, and Megan put together as well. It is going to be a really fun month! Happy Crafting!!

SpiegelMom Scraps--World Card Making Day Blog Hop

Welcome to October and this month's SpiegelMom Scraps Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Hannah's incredible collection of cards. It is going to be hard to follow up behind all of the great ideas that she shared.

Today is World Card Making Day so we have all taken the challenge to create a card or two for today's blog hop. I am not super confident in my card-making skills so this was a challenge that put me to the test but I'm happy with how the final product turned out and I hope that you like it as well.

If you haven't yet, make sure you head over to the SpiegelMom Scraps Store where there is a HUGE October sale going on right now. I placed a large order already and I am sure you will find lots of goodies to add to your stash as well.

Without further ado, here is my card creation. I love creating lots of layers on my scrapbook pages so I thought that I would apply the same ideas to my card creation.

I started with a black cardstock base and then added some pink distressed patterned paper from the Dear Lizzy Documentary paper pad. Next, I grabbed a small glassine bag from the SpiegelMom Scraps store and placed two tags inside. One is just a plain white tag (also from the store) and the green constellation one came from an older Dear Lizzy collection. I tied them both off with some Maya Road twine (the store again!)

Next, I added a white Normandy doily wrapped around the edge of the glassine bag. I pulled out a black arrow paperclip from my stash and then I found this pink card with the heart cut-out of the center from the Maggie Holmes Bloom ephemera pack. I backed it with a piece of transparency and then placed a whole lot of sequins from the Mocha Mint Dream mix (from SpiegelMom Scraps) behind it on sticker paper. This gave the look of a shaker card and allowed the sequins to stay in place. I love that!

I added a little tab and some quick and simple hand stitching. The sediment is from an old Studio Calico stamp set and is one of my favorites. I added a Teresa Collins basic black label sticker and a row of Corkfetti hearts as well as a large Corkfetti heart peeking out of the glassine bag. A few scattered sequins also from the Mocha Mint Dream mix finished off this card.

I am really happy with the final product and I am SO glad to be celebrating World Card Making Day with SpiegelMom Scraps and all of you! If you want to see more of my work please come visit me on Instagram @redefinedkreative or on my You Tube channel. You are now off to the next stop in the blog hop which is to check out the amazing work of Sara. Wait until you see her card....wow! Happy Crafting!!