Sometimes you just have to smile!

Here's a quicky post for the transparency and die cut challenges over at Practical Scrappers.

This card took less than 5 minutes!

I used "lace" cardstock, which is essentially diecut cardstock typically sold in 12x12 sheets. I trimmed mine to fit in a band across my card and used spray adhesive to get a nice, even coat of glue on the back of the lace cardstock. This also makes it look much better on the reverse side of the transparency - not so goopy and messy. Once that was done, I wrapped a big fat happy bow in this awesome pink polka dot ribbon that my friend Juanita gave me for my birthday (she's the best!); and added a hand-written sentiment.

For the base of the card, I just used half of a sheet of 8-1/2"x11" standard office transparency sheets. Not the world's most stable medium - it's a little flimsy - and there is definitely stuff out there that is thicker. But alas, I live in a small town and options are slim.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Wowee! I got layout of the week!

Wowee! I just found out that I won Layout of the Week for my Made with Love page from AC Bailey Designs.

To celebrate my good fortune and for getting more than 2100 hits, I'll be announcing a blog candy package later this week!!

Thanks for all of your kind words of kudos & following my blog! =)

Always - for the All About Me blog hop challenge

All About Me Challenges - one of the Challenge Blog Hop participants, challenged their readers to submit a layout based on any one of their design team's layouts. It's no surprise that I chose Mette's layout (below):

I loved the die cut paper and mix of many different patterns and embellies. What fun!

Here's my take on Mette's layout:

I used a bunch of products from many different lines, and I am really pleased with how it turned out. The background paper is Stampin' Up, as is the ribbon and the light purple hearts; the rest of the patterned paper is an old Making Memories line, so is the brown polkadot flower. The ink is Powder Puff. The title is from Me & My Big Ideas (also old) and the flowers are a mix of Prima, Bazzill and Oriental Trading Co. The pearls are from Close To My Heart. I used myJenni Bowlin die cut paper as my template.

Die Cut Mini Album - Challenge Blog Hop

My! this has been such a busy weekend! I've been cropping away at the Fall into Scrapping on-line crop at AC Bailey Designs' forum, plus there's been an exciting challenge blog hop that I'm participating for with Practical Scrappers.

There are lots of prizes out there in cyber land to be won, my friends! Be sure to visit the fun sites to get a little mojo moving and a chance to win!

The hop is hosted by Scrapsketch - if you haven't checked it out yet, definitely do it soon! Each of the 10 or so sites is hosting their own challenge and giving away TONS of sweet prizes!

The challenge over at Practical Scrappers is to use die cuts, so I broke out my Journaling Spots from Close To My Heart to create a fun and quick little album. I've had this project in mind ever since I got these spots, but it wasn't until I got back the pictures from my kiddos old-time photo shoot this summer that everything fell into place.

The journaling spots I used varied in sizes and shapes ovals, circles and squares ranging in size from 2"x2", 2-1/2"x3", 3"x4" and everywhere in between.


I traced some fun chipboard shapes onto regular transparency sheets (I purchased 100 8-1/2"x11"sheets at Office Depot for something like $25) and trimmed them out for a few accent pieces as the cover and on the inside of my album.

The first transparency was cut into a heart shape for my cover page. I adorned this with rub-ons for my title, a tiny flower and a little bit of bling.

Next, I trimmed the edge of the oval journal spot so it was easier to bind together cleanly in the finished project:

Next I left one of the journaling spots plain because it was just too cute - it worked great just as it was left open for journaling. I added another little flower and bling to jazz it up a bit:

I had a few clear acrylic shapes lying around, including a little photo clip that I tied to the front, and this little flower that I used on the inside. Again, I used some rub-ons and bling.

The last transparency I cut into a brackety shape and added a bling circle, rub-on word and flower.

The album ends with a picture of old-timey Sophia.

Once everything was complete, I punched holes to the album using my Crop-o-Dile and added 3/4" binder rings to hold it all together, then added scraps of ribbon around the rings to add a little pizazz.

Thanks for visiting!

ACB Card Challenge #10

The only other challenge last night was the card sketch challenge (challenge #10 in the ACB Fall On-line Crop Forum). Here is the sketch:


And here's my take:

This clear card was made with a transparency sheet, Imaginesce Twitterpated papers & brads, Stampin' Up rub-on & stamp sentiment and random ribbon & flowers. Thanks for stopping by!

ACB On-Line Fall Crop Challenge #6

Here's my first project for the AC Bailey Designs Fall On-Line crop, going on now! I had big plans to get a lot done last night, but Michael & I were watching last season's Grey's Anatomy - what a tear jerker! So, needless to say, not a whole lot of scrapping happened!

Challenge #6 over at ACB forum is to create a layout following this sketch to the T! It's supposed to be about an everyday moment, which mine is not. That's what happens when I read the directions on the fly!



And here's my take on it:


My layout uses Close To My Heart papers, cardstock, stickers, flower & button, a strip of Jenni Bowlin paper, Stampin' Up rubon and Thickers for the title.

A new take on old die cuts

This is such a busy weekend! I'm participating in the on-line crop over at AC Bailey Designs, and they've announced that the one and only Jenni Bowlin herself will be having a chat in the forum tomorrow at 8 pm MST (cool!), plus there's a huge challenge blog hop hosted by Scrapsketch that Practical Scrappers is participating in. Both of these exciting events are giving away tons of prizes - if you have a second, check them out! Hopefully I'll get TONS done this weekend - let's see what real life brings, though!

This is my first challenge entry of the weekend. Practical Scrappers has challenged the blog hop followers to use die cuts of any shape, size or kind in a project. At first, I've got to admit that I was a little nervous about this. I don't have a Cricut or Cuttlebug, or any other kind of cool and trendy die cut machine (just friends who love me and let me play with theirs!), so I was a little stuck. After a little digging, I came across these die cuts that I purchased when a scrapbook store opened in our little town... 6 years ago! Oops....

The fancy girl and flowers are from My Minds Eye *I think?!* and the polka dot frame die cut is from Making Memories - also purchased many years ago. I added a little bling and sparkly Making Memories letter stickers, plus a little bit of satiny ribbon to wrap around my card. The papers are from Close To My Heart.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see more of you later this weekend!

Ink it Up.... Frosted Designs Challenge #1

It's the debut challenge over at Frosted Designs!

The design team over there was challenged to ink (or chalk) up our projects. This was a great challenge. I used to ink distress everything and to this day it's one of my favorite things to do, but lately I haven't been doing it very often.

For this layout, I used the direct-to-paper method of ink distressing of swiping my papers (and in this instance, the chipboard title) directly onto an ink pad. I used black on everything here, but it also looks great when you do tone-on-tone distressing (using a similar color ink as your paper).

Another method of ink distressing is using a sponge, sponge dauber or distressing tool to transfer the ink to create a softer look. Close To My Heart and Tim Holtz have some great distressing tools - I recommend checking them out. This method also helps eliminate the messy fingers you get by direct-to-paper distressing.

This layout uses cardstock and papers from Close To My Heart and Making Memories (the large dotty paper at the bottom). There are also Close To My Heart inks, chipboard, pearls and white flower; Making Memories metal charm and pink & red flowers; and Sandylion swirl stickers.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check out the rest of the work from the DT over at Frosted Designs!

Challenge Blog Hop starts tomorrow!

Scrapsketch is hosting an awesome blog hop starting tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 25 and running through October 1st, featuring a bunch of awesome crafty challenge blogs starting tomorrow! Each site in the hop will be hosting it's own challenge and set of prizes - be sure to check it out!

Here are the official details:

Scrapsketch is sponsoring a "Challenge Blog" themed blog hop! We have some TERRIFIC challenge blogs on the roster for the blog hop. Here's the official list:

scrapsketch
All About Me Challenges
Whimsical Scraps & Bugs
SP Color Combos
Sewn Together/Sew Many Cards
The Chirper Challenge
Peachy Keen Stamps
Practical Scrappers
Just Buggin'
Creative Twist
ScrapFIT
The Crafting Pot
Scrapbooks & Stuff

The blog hop starts FRIDAY, SEPT. 25th! You will start at scrapsketch. You will then be directed to each blog participating in the blog hop. Each challenge blog will have it's own special challenge for you, and a chance to win prizes if you participate. The blog hop will last until midnight, October 1. Be sure to visit on Friday to get started!

A little birdie told me that Practical Scrappers has some awesome prizes to be given away all week long - be sure to check us out daily over there for your chance to WIN!!!

Lovin' the die cut papers!

My latest layout is a take off of The Scrappiest sketch challenge #31. If you haven't visited that site yet, make it a point to go this week! The work from the Design Team over there is awesome - I will definitely be using Arlene's technique with the lace cardstock sometime very soon!


Anywho, here's my take on it:

Die cut papers are so much fun to use (my faves are the bracket-y sorts, like on this layout), but I have two problems with using the decorative designed paper:

1) I have a hard time figuring out how to actually use it as a layout. Which is strange, really, because it's just the same, in most instances. I guess I get a little nervous.

and

2) Its so dang expensive! I have a hard time justifying the extra cost for a fancy edge (most of the time), so I use my favorite shapes as templates over and over again.

On this layout I used a die cut sheet from Jenni Bowlin as my template and traced it onto my Twitterpated paper from Imaginece. The Twitterpated papers are great - double-sided designs that are embossed on one side. I cut out the little fox and bird from one of my scraps from the Daddy's Girl layout a few weeks ago, and crafted a tree to "match" the Twitterpated line. Since all of the Twitterpated trees have the cute flowers in them, I used the matching rub-ons in my tree to tie it in. Everything got ink distressed in coordinating colors before I glued anything down. I topped it off with some puffy Thickers and a little office clipy-thing with a bow.

Fall Into Scrapping Online Crop this weekend!

Join us this weekend over at the AC Bailey Designs Forum starting Friday night to join us for our weekend long online crop! There will tons of games, prizes and challenges to keep you busy all weekend! PLUS - there are two very special guests... I am not going to tell you who yet, but one's initials are JB... Log on to sign up TODAY!! If you're new to the forum, just follow these simple steps for creating a new account: - Click on "Register" in the top tool bar to create your account - After your account is created, click on "Board Index" in the upper(ish) left corner of the screen - Click on "Online Crop Info" (under Store News) - Click on the top topic - "Sign Up for the Fall Into Scrapping Crop" and post a reply to the thread to enter into the crop and be entered to win prizes! I'll see you there!

Felt Fancy

I'm one of those scrappers who buys things that look great in the store, thinks that I'll be able to use said product everywhere, but once I get home I have no idea what to actually do with it.
That's how it is with felt - our challenge product for Practical Scrappers this week. Surprisingly, I have A LOT of it. Everything from leaves to flower to brads - really, I'm not quite sure where it all came from!

As I was digging through my pics I came across this one of Michael & I at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It wasn't quite fall, but the beautiful red rocks of the Kissing Camels would tie in beautifully with fall, so I pulled out some felt leaves that I picked up from Target's Dollar Spot ages ago. They looked too plain, though, so I decided to jazz them up a bit.

I used one of my flourish stamps from Stampin' Up's Priceless set, and using a pearly acrylic paint and a cheapy sponge paint brush, painted on a thin layer of paint directly onto the stamp. It's important that it's only a thin layer because if you put too much paint onto the stamp, you'll lose the details that you're trying to transfer onto whatever it is that you are painting. Anyhow, from there, I just stamped like I normally would in random locations onto my leaves and let them dry while I completed the rest of my layout. I really loved how this one turned out!

This layout also uses Close To My Heart papers, Just Blooms paper flower (white one), brad and the large flourish stamp, my new favorite, Powder Puff ink (it's so creamy!), a Stampin' Up felt flower, Dotted Swiss cardstock, Jenni Bowlin memo journaling block (that I trimmed from a plain rectangle into a cute little brackety shape) and some recycled ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketch challenge @ Practical Scrappers

Practical Scrappers is having a great new Weekend Challenge and the winner will receive a template from Crafters Workshop!

Mr. Linky goes up today (to upload your layout to). Just use any products in your layout based on the above super-cute sketch and upload it to the Practical Scrappers blog by Sunday night for your chance to win.

I'm heading out of town this afternoon, so I'll try to upload my layout sometime this weekend. I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with!

New DT post!

This has been one awesome week!

I just got accepted to the Design Team over at a fantabulous new scrapbooking/paper crafting blog called Frosted Designs!

*happy dance* silly little jig *happy dance*

This site is a collaboration by two of my Practical Scrappers DT sisters, Jamie Lane & Meg Beauchamp. I am so honored to have even been considered for their design team. They are both incredibly talented and I'm really looking forward to working with them and the uber creative team they have put together.

Be sure to visit the new blog next week at www.frosteddesigns.blogspot.com. The first challenge premiers next week - Friday, September 25th!

I won my first challenge!

It's been a good Monday! I found out that I won my first challenge at the AC Bailey Designs forum. They had a stamping challenge the same week Practical Scrappers was hosting thier stamping challenge - how convenient! They host a bunch of fun challenges over there - go check it out!

I won for Sophia's kindergarten layout - it's always great to hear when someone else thinks I did a good job.

Have a great week!

Daddy's Girl

I got to play a lot this weekend with the new goodies I got from AC Bailey Designs. This was one of my hands-down favorite paper packets (and flower border rub-on, and cute brad for the flower center) - Twitterpated, by Imaginisce. Love those little foxes and skunks and birds. Too cute! It was perfect for a layout of baby Sophia and her Daddy, don't you think?

This also uses a little Bazzill cardstock and "naked" chipboard swirls that I painted in some pearly acrylic paint. The white flower is also Bazzill and the teal flower is from Petaloo. Those yummy letter stickers are American Crafts "Lullaby" Thickers in teal glitter. Definitely one of my new faves.

Lovin' the letter stickers!

Our challenge this week at Practical Scrappers was to use letter stickers in a creative way - not just for our title. I've got to admit, this one kind of stumped me. I mean, what else are letter stickers good for, really?

Then I came across this picture of Andrew and his still best friend Madalyn from when they were two. I love this picture of these sweet, chubby little babies and can't believe that they're already ten!

Since this was such a time of learning and growing for them, I decided to use some Making Memories letter stickers to form a border around my picture. I also used some vinyl Thickers from American Crafts for my title (I know, not terribly original, but I LOVE these letters!). The patterned paper is all Basic Grey's Lime Rickey line. I cut out the bird from one of the sheets and popped him up and added googly eyes for a little more fun.and the cardstock is from my massive stash.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

ACB Kick Off Crop Projects

In between dinner and getting the kiddos into bed, I managed to get everything cut and the examples prepped for tomorrow night's ACB Kick Off Crop in Silt. Those drop by will have a choice between a scrapbook layout and a card project.

Both were created with Pink Paislee's Captivating papers, Bazzill Cardstock, October Afternoon Stamps and creamy-dreamy Powder Puffs ink in Mocha Mama. The layout features puffy Thickers (chit chat) from American Crafts and Flora Doodle flowers.
The butterfly on this card was trimmed from an edge strip from Bazzill's Just the Edge die cut strip pack. It also uses Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock and Close To My Heart Ribbon, plus miscellaneous button and twine.

I'm pretty jazzed with how these both turned out. I can't wait to share thes projects in person tomorrow with all of my crafty friends - plus a few new ones who are joining me too. Now I'm off to create more fun-ness.

I think I'm in scrap love! Falling into fun with ACB!

Look what I got today!

It's my new consultant kit goodies from AC Bailey Designs. I'm in love! I'm so excited to get to play with all this greatness - and excited to share it with my friends! I'm getting ready for my ACB Kick Off Party tomorrow night at the Silt Fire Station, so this is just a quicky post but I had to share!

AC Bailey has so many amazing product lines and 24/7 shopping, free shipping with orders over $35 on the first of every month, plus AWESOME deals (be sure to check out their While Supplies Last section!) and a great "Goodies Kit of the Month" club for under $30 ($28 for 6 months or $25 for 1 year plus free shipping - woohoo!!!)

They also have a HUGE customer incentive program. EARN $25 in FREE PRODUCTS OF YOUR CHOICE when you spend $200 (pre tax/shipping). It's super easy to do and there's no need to keep track of numbers or frequent buyer cards. Just check yes in the FBC box at check out and everything is automatically kept track of for you!

Here are a few close-up pics of what I got today. Careful - don't drool too much on the keyboard. LOL!

The new Jenni Bowlin Front Porch line - don't you just love those diecut papers?!



The super-stinkin'-cute Twitterpated line with teal glitter Lullaby Thickers:

The super fun Lime Rickey line from Basic Grey with lime vinyl Poolside Thickers, plus the fun Bo Bunny album, Maya Road Chipboard and October Afternoon stamps:

And finally, here's what we'll be creating with at my Kick-Off Party tomorrow, the fun and chic
Pink Paislee Captivating papers with October Afternoon stamps:

Want to join the fun tomorrow night? There's still room! Visit my AC Bailey consultant page for further details and your chance to win! I hope to see you there!

Love the fun products shown above? Click on the hot links to get to the AC Bailey store and shop from home. Make sure you put my name - Jessica Stott - in as your consultant and I'll send a little goody your way!

Hey Chick! Quickie Card!

Here's a card that took about 10 minutes or so to create. Gotta love those ones, right?
This was my second challenge for Practical Scrappers this week, where we had to create layouts or cards using standard shape punches (cirlces, squares, etc.)
I scalloped my scrap of green dotty paper with my Stampin' Up slit punch - being careful to line up the corners to get a clean effect. The cute little chic was made with all circle punches from Creative Memories - old stand-bys that I have had for years.
The body and wing of the chick were made with the largest circle, then I cut the curved back out by re-punching the large circle back through, but slightly off center, the large circle punch again. I cut out the wing using the left over piece. Once that was done, I ink distressed the pieces in coordinating ink and added two Close To My Heart bitty brads for the eyes.
The beak and feet were put together using the smallest of the CM circles punch. I cut that piece in quarters. One quarter of this was for the beak - I scored the quarter piece from the pointy corner directly down the middle to make it look more like a beak. Then I took another quarter of the circle and cut that in half again to make the feet.
Once everything was done, I put her all together and used a pop dot for the wing and beak. I used my Stampin' Up piercing guide to create the evenly spaced piercings on three sides of the card front.
All supplies were Close To My Heart, minus the punches noted above and the little blue flower, which is from Making Memories. Oh - and the writing, which is with my trusty Bic Mark It pen.
Thanks for looking!

Practical Scrappers Shape Punch Challenge

This week's challenge at Practical Scrappers was to break out our kindergarten-inspired shape punches, like squares, circles, and triangles, to create our layouts and cards. I've known what I have wanted to do for quite some time by making paper posies with my circle punches, but just not the exact layout that I wanted to do.

Here's a close-up of the paper posies. These are super-easy to create - just layer a whole bunch of different sized circles up and you're done. These would look really neat scissor distressed, but I wanted it to match the layout, so I just ink distressed the edges and added a little coordinating button to the center.

I also used the circle punch to create the outline for my butterfly:

This took a few tries, but once I finally got it down, it was easy-peasy. Fold your circle in half and trim a V at the top, a smaller v at the bottom and a rounded v shape in the middle. I hid the crease in the circle by covering it up with some bling - but I've seen them stitched, and hidden with pearls and buttons, too.

I came across this awesome Rockabilly Specialty paper packet from Stampin' Up as I was digging through my stash that ended up working great with this pic. I originally bought the papers for my Disney album, that still, 3 years later, sits undone. Ah the life of an unchronololgical scrapper! LOL! Turns out, the papers will also work great for Andrew's rock star layout - he got a guitar for his big 1-0 birthday recently. Since I don't scrap in order, you'll probably be seeing that layout soon. ; )

The glitter paper was from a birthday present from my dear friend Christine - it's from Marcella by K, as is the red bling for the butterfly and the title stickers. The fun swirl stickers are Sandylion. The distressing ink was Close To My Heart.

Pictures - kind of a big deal!

As promised, here's the finished version of my kindergarten layout from earlier in the week!

Scraplifted Challenge

Practical Scrappers had a weekend scraplift challenge and I knew just what to do! Ever since I saw the talented Meg's baby girl card that she submitted for this week's stamping challenge at Practical Scrappers, I was totally inspired!

I loved everything about it - the fun bracket on the side, the ribbon, the scallop and of course, the cute giraffe.

What are you inspired by?