I love Halloween with all the black kitty goodness!

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When I saw last month's Close to My Heart stamp set I just knew I had to have it! The witch is a little on the sultry side and the sentiment is pretty cute. A little homage to 'Wicked', yea? However, there is a black kitty with a curly tail!! <3 I seriously love black cats. Isn't my kitty a beauty?

OK, I'll stop with flaunting my cat's beauty and get back to card making! The card base is Kraft and the background with the purple sky is Doodlebug. I edged the purple sky cardstock with Stamp'n Up's Rich Razzleberry ink. It's a very deep and rich purple and a perfect accent to the paper.

I paper pieced everything and that witch was one pain in the okole to cut out! I used a craft knife where my scissors couldn't go, it was pretty tedious! I didn't cut it perfectly though. A good trick to fix the little bits that you couldn't cut is to run a black Copic marker along the edges to fill in what you missed. I outlined the sentiment with an orange copic (YR07 Cadmium Orange) marker and also colored in bits of the witch's hat and her stockings.

The twine I used is a super cute Halloween baker's twine also from Doodlebug. It has black, orange, and white threads twisted together. I placed a Doodlebug dark purple gem on the center of the bow to draw the purple into the final accent to the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

This project was entered into:
Freshly Brewed Challenges

Products you love every which way, September.

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Here's another entry for the Products you love every which way class from Shannon Tidwell. This month's class at Two Peas In a Bucket focuses on tapes. There's tissue tapes, washi tapes, cotton tapes, canvas tapes, embossed masking tapes, and I'm sure many other decorative paper crafting tapes I didn't mention. For this layout I used Prima's Bare Canvas tape, Tim Holtz's Tissue Tape, and Amy Tangerine's by American Crafts Mixed tape (haha, get it? so cute!).

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First I cut down a piece of kraft cardstock by taking an inch off of two of the four sides. Then I took a ruler and made a crisscross pattern kind of like the top of a pie with a pencil. I misted the kraft with some Tattered Angels glimmer mist in Bahama Blue, then misted over that with a layer of Studio Calico Mr. Huey's Cream mist. After I let it dry I started adhering Tim Holtz's Tissue Tape diagonally up one side and back down the other to form that pie pattern crisscross I had sketched out in pencil. After that was all finished I inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and adhered it to a 12x12 sheet of plain Kraft.

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On my journaling tag is where I added the other two tapes. First I stamped out the lines on the tag with Lawn Fawn's Schoolhouse Backdrops. After that I used Amy Tangerine's Mixed Tape in the woodgrain pattern to the edges of the tag. Once I got that all stuck down how I liked it, I rolled out a piece of Prima's Bare Canvass Tape and stamped out Folly Beach using Lawn Fawn's Sally's ABC stamps and brown StayzOn ink. All I had to do after was peel off the backing and stick it on the tag as my title and fill in my journaling.

After all my tissue tape adventures I added some other embellishments and a title. The title is silly, I know. Ever since I heard that the storm was named Irene I couldn't get the song, 'Come on Eileen' out of my head. It probably doesn't help I was listening to Save Ferris (one of my favorite CDs from high school) the week before. I kept saying it sarcastically in my head, "Oh Come ON, Irene!" Hoping we wouldn't have to cut our vacation short to come home to NC to prepare. Sadly we did have to come home early, but luckily we had very little damage. So I'm not complaining!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Lawnscaping Challenge, embossing.

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The current Lawnscaping challenge is using either wet or dry embossing on a paper project. I chose to use wet heat embossing. I used black embossing powder on the fence, the bats, and the house. I used Distress walnut embossing powder for the tree. The Lawn Fawn stamp sets I used were: Happy Haunting, Harvest Season, and Heebie Jeebies.

I distressed the night sky on the card with Tim Holt'z foam applicator tool using four different Tim Holtz distress inks (concord grape, stormy sky, broken china, vintage photo) and two mists by Tattered Angles (sand and peacock). Everything but the fence and the tree trunk were stamped, cut, and paper pieced. The ghosts and the large bat have foam adhesive behind them.

Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to check out Lawnscaping Challenges if you're interested in all their awesome challenges that come with fabulous prizes!

Inky and glittery fingers for all,
Gaby

Products you love every which way, August

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Shannon Tidwell teaches this monthly class at Two Peas In a Bucket that focuses on one different scrapbooking product each month. For August's class it was stamping.

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I finally got my hands on the elusive Hero Art's woodgrain stamp and I was dying to use it! It's a humungo stamp that's about as big as a standard greeting card. I knew I wanted to use it on a die cut of some sort. I chose a heart (awww, so sappy) because the picture I used for the layout is of my husband and I on the beach after our friend's vow renewal on Folly beach in SC. Love was in the air, what can I say? I die cut the heart with my Cricut and stamped it with Versa Mark ink then poured sea foam embossing powder on it. After tapping off the excess embossing powder I heat embossed it. Lastly I edged it with my favorite ink of all time, Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo Distress ink. After this step I knew I wanted to do the whole page white washed Carolina beach style ....and that is how the page was born. To start of the white washed look I mixed Jenni Bowlin's Malted Milk acrylic paint with Parrot color glimmer mist and dry brushed a square on kraft cardstock. Then I cut down a piece of cardstock that had a mish mash of text on it that was white washed and misted it with both Peacock and Apricot glimmer mists and let dry.

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For another stamping technique I used Lawn Fawn's teeny tiny backdrop hearts and stamped it on Prima's canvas tape with brown Stayzon ink. After matting my two pictures with a Pink Paislee Orange Nantucket paper and adhering them to the page I put down the stamped canvas tape in the middle of the page. Then I decided to go hog wild with the sewing machine stitching over and over again to give it more of a worn feel. After I put down my woodgrain die cut heart and went from there. I distressed the Amy Tangerine die cut camera with some of the paint I used earlier and filled in the heart with the same paint. Then stamped Ali Edwards 2011 stamp on a sticker, cut it out and adhered it to the top of the heart.

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On the other side I used a Jenni Bowlin days of the month bingo card and thought it would be cute to dab on some blue distress ink on the 21 (the day of the month the picture was taken) as if it were those bingo dot paint things they use to mark the numbers. It took a while, but I decided on the yellow Nantucket die cut from Pink Paislee and distressed it like I did the camera and then adding some Vintage Photo (ha, what else is new?) distress inks to the very edge. I wanted to give it a lil more depth so I added a paper clip from Stamp'n up and a tin from October Afternoon to top it off. Lastly I added the chipboard letters.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

ETA: Yay this project won the challenge at Two Peas! :)

4x6 Photo Love, August.

Every month in 2011 on the 30th Shimelle Laine does a free class that uses 4x6 photos. Each month you add another 4x6 photo to the layouts. For example, in January we had one 4x6 photo on the layout and for August's layout we had eight. This is my layout for her challenge for August 30th's class which consisted of eight photos. My husband and I took a road trip down to Charleston, SC and this layout is from the day we spent at Boone Hall Plantation.

Here's the sketch. Basically it's one 12x12 page and two smaller pages (about two thirds smaller than a 12x12 depending on your positioning on your larger page), the smaller pages act as an interactive flap that works with your large page. It's best to sew the smaller page protector to the 12x12 along the binding. This was the first time I've sewn since home ech in intermediate school, so I was pretty nervous! I picked up a small sewing machine at a garage sale last month and I thought I would dive in and try it out. I practiced a little on some spare cloth and then just went for it. Luckily it went well! yay!

Pin ItHere's the layout all tucked into the sewn page protector with the smaller paper resting on top of the 12x12 page. I really like how it turned out! Shimelle is awesome!

Pin ItAnd this shows how it looks when the smaller page is open. Cute, yea?

Pin ItThe front of the smaller page with my adorable husband playing along with my nonsense for me. I asked him if he could grab the fence ala Ryan Gossling from "The Notebook". He loves me, he does. ;)

Pin ItThe back of the smaller page with a pretty opening of some trees down a road the tractor uses to get to the farms which are still in use today and a shot of the only member of the Boone family buried on the plantation. He was the son of Col. Boone that planted the avenue of oaks. They take 100 years to form and the son wanted to be buried by them to watch over the trees he planted.

Pin ItThe 12x12 page by itself. This has photos of the Boone Hall home, the front porch (Where they filmed "The Notebook", "Queen", and "North & South"), the original slave cabins from the 1700's, and the gorgeous Avenue of Oaks. Some pretty with some history that shouldn't be forgotten.

Pin ItI used my Amy Tangerine stamp set finally, yay! I stamped the camera from the set on green vinyl ribbon with brown StayzOn ink, cut and placed on some kraft cardstock, then inked the edges with Tim Holtz's distress ink in vintage photo. Stamped it again on some kraft and cut out the heart only. Then inked the edges again and paper pieced it to the camera. I thought this added a nice touch as the Avenue of Oaks is one of the most photographed driveways in the world.

Pin ItI also did the same technique to the camera from Lawn Fawn's say cheese two set and adhered it to an Ormolu button to match the woodgrain camera button of theirs I used.

Thanks so much for stopping by and looking at my projects, I really appreciate it!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
Gaby

My take on beach botanical ...

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My friend Tamra asked me to make a birthday card for her friend somewhat like the card I made for her birthday last year. That her friend liked the beach and flower gardens and that she wanted her friend's name, April, on the front of the card. This is what I came up with and I'm pretty happy with it. I used a mask from Prima and a bunch of acrylic paints to make the background. Then I misted over it with gold and apricot colored glimmer mists. I really like how it turned out. It was trial and error for me though! I first tried to use the masks with mists and it was a no-go as the mists just rain under the plastic mask. Then I tried using distress inks with a foam tool and that just bent the fine bits of the mask ....so that's when I thought gently dabbing on acrylic paints with a stiff brush would work best.

I first attempted to hand write the "happy birthday" on the card like I had done for Tamra's card last year. Sadly I messed up and had to cover it. I had received these canvas sticky back rolls from a Two Peas challenge win and thought I could save my card by stamping out the sentiment with Stayzon brown ink with Lawn Fawn's Smitty's ABCs. The only problem was that the canvas was a wee bit too transparent so I had to adhere it to a piece of paper first then cut it out and adhere to the card. In the end it looked really cool seeing the tiny white flowers on orange through the canvas. I added some Stamp'n Up corduroy brads to add a lil something extra to give it the look of it being tacked up by the brads.

For the bottom embellishment I used a die cut from the Paislee Nantucket collection, a wish ticket from Tim Holtz, and a metal butter fly from Close to My Heart.

The green outer border is washi tape from Amy Tangerine.

Every thing was edged in Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo before adhering and lastly I sprayed it ever so slightly with the Gold Glimmer Mist. Of course I felt it wasn't enough so I sprayed it once more, but this time with Sand Glimmer Mist.

I just sent the picture of the final product to my friend, I hope she likes it!

Inky and glitter fingers for all!
Gaby

We survived Hurricane Irene ...

We only lost a few shingles causing a couple roof leaks, thank goodness! I was really worried! Sometimes I really hate living on the coast! I got my new Amy Tangerine goodies yesterday and it was killing me (OK, mild exaggeration) that I couldn't play with them yet! Tomorrow I'm going to dive in! My husband and I went on a mini vacation to Charleston, SC last week for a friend's vow renewal and I can't wait to get the prints back and get to scrapping! I also plan on making some Autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving cards with the new Lawn Fawn sets I ordered last night out of boredom as the storm kept me awake all night! :) Stay safe everyone still in Irene's path!

Inky and glittery fingers for all,
Gaby

Stamp resist technique.

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I loosely followed Nichol Magouirk's class on stamp resist. By loosely, I mean that I did a small bit of the technique on my lay out, but didn't follow her sketch. Which is totally fine if you want to enter the contest for her class at Two Peas.
I'll start off with the products I used:
-Stampin' Up Calypso Cooler ink pad
-Stampin' Up mini clip
-Tim Holtz Vintage photo Distress Ink
-Versa Mark embossing pad
-Maya Road Kraft doilies
-Bo Bunny Gabrielle papers
-Ali Edwards' Awesome Days of Summer stamp
-Studio Calico cream Mr. Huey spray
-Tattered Angels sand Glimmer Mist
-Studio Calico cream cardstock
-Jenni Bowlin mini calendar bingo cards
-Rocket Age mini market stickers from October Afternoon
-Flower from CTMH Bliss Level 2 assortment
-CTMH Juniper Exclusive Inks® stamp pad
-Martha Stewart double edged scallop punch
-Kraft cardstock
-Mistables scalloped ribbons by Pink Paisley
-Embossing tool
-Ranger white embossing powder
-Ranger blending tool with foam applicator
-Post It notes

Stamp resist is a pretty easy way to bring a nice element to a layout. For this one I stamped Ali Edwards' sentiment on Jenni Bowlin's bingo card with Versa Mark. Then sprinkled on the Ranger white embossing power and tapped off the extra that didn't stick to the Vesa Mark. Starting on the back of the card I lightly heat embossed it and then turned it to the front and finished off the heat embossing. Let cool for two minutes and masked off the edges of the bingo card with post it notes. I dipped my blending tool in vintage Photo Distress Ink and blended it around the sentiment, making it the darkest around the embossed portion and lightly blending the ink outwards towards the Post Its. The embossing part will resist the ink or spray you blend or mist on it, just take a clean cloth and wipe off any that may be laying on top for an extra clean look. Lastly I took off the Post its and edged it with CTMH's Juniper ink.

If you'd like any more information on this LO, please don't hesitate to ask!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Summer double page layout featuring rub ons.

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I love Two Peas in a Bucket. It's so much more than an online scrap store. They have free classes and tutorials, challenges, members share their projects, there's a forum. Just heaps of fun for any paper crafter!

Each month there's different free classes. I did this layout for the "Products you Love Every Which Way" class which started on July 10th and will end on August 10th that featured rub ons. I'm typically not a fan of rub ons. I always get scared when rubbing them on with the included popsicle stick that I'll miss a part, causing it not to stick all the way and ruin the whole thing. I see rub ons like makeup application. My mom always said to blend your foundation till you think it's perfect, then keep blending more. Only then will it be properly applied and look natural on your face. As with the rub ons, I keep rubbing till I feel it's fully adhered, but then rub more to make sure it really is fully adhered.

These pictures were from a trip down to Myrtle Beach, SC to visit my husband's family while they were on vacation. It was an extra special trip just to finally meet our nephew Max! So this page is heavy on the Max pictures and not so much on the beach. :)

I used Kraft cardstock as my background. I've been using it on almost all my layouts and on a lot of cards, too. I just think it's so pretty, the way it's raw and uncolored. Plus it's awesome because it's made out of recycled paper. On top of the Kraft I put another layer of Kraft that had a black design printed on top of it. I cut an inch off of two sides of my paper and adhered it to the center of the plain Kraft cardstock. The next thing I did was matte all my pictures with Doodlebug's petite prints cardstock in five different colors. This helped bring the Carolina beachy feel to the LO and also matched the slipper (flip flops as most call them) pattern I used in blocks at the bottoms of both pages. All the edges of the papers besides the bottom most Kraft card stock were inked with Stamp'n Up's Calypso Coral. This helped tie all the papers together.

When all the papers were in place is when I adhered my pictures. I didn't really have room for too much of a title, but since the trip was really about seeing Max and I needed to add rub ons for the challenge, I did the title like I did. I cut out a piece of paper from a 6x6 paper pack I won a long time ago in a raffle. The paper had lines on it which made it perfect for adhering my "hello" lagoon rub ons from KI. I also used a friskars punch to punch out the top of the paper to make it look as if it were torn out of a notebook. I edged the paper in Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo Distressing ink and added one of Tim's mini paper clips to the top. I then added the blue Thickers letters to spell out Max! and lastly tied a hemp twine bow around the bottom. I adhered it very loosely so that it wasn't so flat and looked more like it was just hanging there slightly tucked into the slipper paper.

For embellishments I used Doodlebug boutique buttons, October Afternoon's Seaside stickers, American Craft tags, and Studio Calico cloud rub ons. I sewed the buttons on in groups of three with cream colored embroidery floss. I rubbed the cloud rub ons on the top of the second page as I needed more rub ons for this challenge. Plus well, I really like clouds. :) The round October Afternoon stickers were layered onto circles I had punched from the same Doodlebug petite prints paper I used before and adhered them to the page with foam adhesives. And of course, I lightly edged the doodlebug circles with Calypso Cooler ink. The tags I stamped Family Vacation on one with Ali Edward's Awesome Days of Summer stamp set and on the other tag I stamped July 2011 with Ali Edward's A Date with Ali stamps. Then edged the tags with that same Calypso Cooler ink to make them match everything. I later went back and outlined the tag that had the date on it with an orange Copic marker because I felt it wasn't popping enough. Then I looped a piece of hemp twine and tied a bow through the tag that had the date on it. I placed the tag that had "family vacation" stamped on it horizontally and the one with the date and hemp vertically with foam adhesives. After I just went through and added a couple word stickers. I especially liked the one that had an Erma Bombeck quote that read, "We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings." That pretty much described our whole time on the beach. :)

Thank you so much for dropping by and reading this super long post! If only there were virtual cookies, I'd be sure to give you one!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Distressing Challenge from Lawnscaping ...

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Well it's already August, can you believe it? My teacher friends in Hawaii are going back to work, I think school here in NC starts soon, and well, it's still hot as ever! Soon it will end, if I keep telling myself that sooner or later it'll be true! Hello, Autumn??! Are you there? It's me, Gaby!

Well back to the super awesome Lawnscaping Distressing Challenge. This challenge was to use a form of distressing on a paper craft project. I chose to make this cute card with a steaming fresh out of the oven pie flirting with a steaming bowl of soup! I used three different Lawn Fawn stamp sets to make this card. The stamp sets were On the Mend, Smitty's ABCs, and My Silly Valentine. I stamped the pie and soup bowl, Copic colored them, and paper pieced them onto the card and then added the "steam" stamping. Then I spelled out the sentiment with Smitty's ABCs and stamped that directly on the paper with black ink.

I cut out some green gingham paper and lightly sanded the edges and cut the Doodlebug yellow dots paper about a half an inch smaller than the green gingham paper. I lightly sanded the edges with Tim Holtz's sanding block and then went over the sanded edges with Tim's Vintage photo distress ink with his foam applicator tool. I laid down a single strip of tape from my tape runner and wrapped some lime colored baker's twine around till the tape strip was fully covered. I then punched a hole and added a heart shaped brad from Doodlebug and stamped three hearts from the My Silly Valentine stamp set. I then adhered the yellow paper to the green paper with some foam adhesive and attached the whole thing to a card base I had cut out earlier.

There you have it! If you love challenges (and prizes!) like I do, be sure to check out Lawnscaping's blog every Monday when they post a new challenge.

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby