Show Me Sunday tutorial - Repurposed Ribbon

Hi friends! I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

I've got a new tutorial posted on Frosted Designs today, all on how to repurpose your ribbon scraps into beautiful flowers like these:

Using materials like this:

To use on a layout like this:

These fancy flowers also make great jewelry and hair accessories, too! Just sayin' ;)

For full instructions, please be sure to head on over to Frosted Designs!

Fancy that...

It's Frosted Designs time again!

This week's challenge prompt was to use 3 or more pictures, which was perfect since I just got in a huge order in from Snapfish. Among the piles of pictures I received was this grouping from the mini-vacation my hubby and I took for our 11th anniversary last year.


I won a getaway to this great little B&B in the middle of the Colorado mountains called Fresh & Wyld. They had a delicious gourmet dinner featuring local meats, veggies and wines. Though the little town didn't have much in the way of entertainment, the people were sweet, the scenery was amazing and it was a neat treat for us. I'd definitely go back.

I used part of the brochure for both my sub-title and title block. The name of the B&B is featured in metal frame, and the deceptive part was my main title block. this layout features nearly all products from the January Lucky Girl Crafts kit (or what's left of it - I've gotten so much out of it!). The white script letters from the kit were colored in with Bic permanent marker so it'd actually show up against the busy background.

For the center of the flower, I popped a circle photo out of one of the many chickens that were found on the property, then added a dimensional glaze and chunky glitter for extra emphasis. Check it out:

Be sure to stop by the best of the rest of the Frosted Designers (not to mention for your chance to win this month's awesome prize!!!) We hope to see you soon!

Thankful for you...

This week's theme at Frosted Designs is none other than Thankful (of course!) but we could use the theme however we wanted. I chose to spotlight a very special picture and moments that I will be forever thankful for...

This picture was taken last spring, with my grandfather surrounded by his great-grandchildren - my daughter Sophia, my niece Kaelee, my son Andrew, and my nephew Ashton. Not only is it special because few children have a chance to bond with their great grandparents, but it's special for so many more reasons. This was the one and only time he had been surrounded by all of his great grandchildren. He was such a special man with a huge heart, and he loved spoiling these kiddos.

Knowing how ill he was, we made it a point to visit as often as possible. I will be forever grateful for the time we spent with him, for listening to his stories about growing up in rural Georgia to meeting my grandmother, a petite Italian spitfire at the Air Force base in Florida, to his exploits with his years in the military. It was wonderful.

I hope you take some time this long holiday weekend to create in honor of gratitude!

Felt Fun with Frosted Designs

This week at Frosted Designs we're exploring ways to incorporate felt into our projects. I was so excited to finally have an excuse to use some Kaiser Kraft Fozz Felt self-adhesive border that I've had in my stash for a while, especially since I used it in a way that I wasn't quite expecting.

My layout inspiration this week came from the latest sketch at Creative Scrappers, where Lucky Girl Crafts is sponsoring this week's giveaway. I used Sketch #111 - seen below - and realigned the design to where it fell mainly on the left hand side.


I played with some of my favorite papers from My Mind's Eye and created this fun layout of my *now* nearly 11-year-old son's baby pics. One day, maybe his baby album will actually be complete!!!

Cardstock: Bazzil (kraft) and Colorbok (orange)
Patterned Papers: My Mind's Eye
Embellies: Kaiser Kraft Felt Fozz Border; Doodlebug alpha stickers (which were traced and colored in for the title); Close To My Heart chipboard; misc. buttons

Thanks so much for visiting me today. If you're new here, I hope you sit back and stay awhile - I'd love to hear what you think. Be sure to pop on over to Frosted Designs for a chance to win our monthly challenge candy and for a good dose of inspiration!

Rockin' rainbow fun!

Hello my friends!

This week's challenge from Frosted Designs brings you bright and sunny colors, er... I mean, bright and RAINBOW colors!

We were challenged to use embellishments in rainbow colors... though when I read it, I thought it said to just use rainbow colors, period. Here's to fully reading the directions! LOL!
After all of the rain and cold, crummy weather we've been experiencing in my little corner of Colorado, I was needing something bright to lift my spirits, so alas, here came the inspiration for this fun layout.

I used three sheets of patterned paper for this layout - Making Memories (the stars), Glitz Designs (for the blue distressed photo mat) and We R Memory Keepers for the swirls, yellow scalloped accents, orange distressed journaling block and striped accent to the journaling block (which were all from one sheet of double-sided patterned paper). I also used a Stampin' Up paper clip-thing, self-adhesive patterned metal dots from Heidi Swapp and ribbon and journaling pens from Close To My Heart.

Be sure to check out the rest of the talented crew at Frosted Designs... I love what they've come up with this week!

Oh, and today's the last day for my Lucky Girl DT call! Get your entries to me by tonight at midnight MST!!!

Baby, get your groove on...

This week's challenge at Frosted Designs is sanding!

For my layout, I created a faux-linen look by sanding first horizontally, then vertically on the white-core cardstock. All products on this layout are old-school Close To My Heart.

Thanks for popping in! Be sure to check out my first-ever Lucky Girl DT Call by clicking here.

It's color challenge week at Frosted Designs!

This week we were challenged to use three colors in our projects:

Teal Brown Lime Green

I used a scrap patterned paper in the challenge color palette from my stash; flowers from Bazzill Basics (large brown daisy) and Prima (pearly flowers); sparkly teal brads from Reminisce and stamped brown swirls from Close To My Heart. The title stickers are puffy Thickers from American Crafts.

Be sure to stop by Frosted Designs for more inspiration in this charming color bracket!

The masked crusader...

Frosted Designs challenge this week is to mask something... either with tape, ink, paint, glimmer

mists, etc. I was excited about this challenge because, though I don't often use masking, it's one of my favorite techniques.

For this layout - once again made with my April Magpie kit, I arranged chipboard flourishes on my white cardstock before spraying on some home-made glimmer mist. I distressed my edges with pearly blue paint. Papers are from Little Yellow Bicycle, stickers are Prima, and cardstock is from Bazzill. The rest is from my scrap stash.

*HINT* To keep the masking parts from flying around when you spray your mist, attach a small bit of repositionable adhesive to the backside. This will keep your pieces in place for nice, clear masked images.

A little tree-hugging love...

Happy Earth Day - OK, a little early, but still...

This mini-wall hanging that I created for the Frosted Designs challenge was created using a recycled tag from a pair of jeans. It already had the big eyelet and twine, so it was already halfway done!!!

I stamped a tree on the canvas tag and colored it in with Bic Mark*It pens. I added some funky florals and a button to the top for the leaves. The sentiment was also handwritten with Bic Mark*It pens. Finally, I added a little 1/4" grosgrain bow to the top to finish it off. A super quick & easy way to make a little creation with some recycled goodness! Seriously... this took me 10 minutes to create. Love that!!!

Don't forget to stop by the Frosted Designs site today to see what other tree projects our amazing DT has come up with! Oh - and from my home page, scroll down for my Practical Scrappers post and enter a survey for your chance to win!!!!

Keep on dreamin'

Happy spring, friends! We finally saw our first sunny and somewhat warm day this week, so I've been inspired to work with bright colors, like on the card above.

Our challenge this week at Frosted Designs was to incorporate the word 'Dream' into our project. Since it's getting close to gradation season, I thought the rub-on sentiment would be perfect.

This unique card uses so much randomness from my stash that I can't credit anything by the flower - Prima - and the Kaiser Craft bling. Oh - and the ink that I used to distress everything, which is from Close To My Heart.


Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out all of the other work from the talented team at Frosted Designs - I for one can't wait to see what they've come up with this week.

Fun & Funky Colors to Welcome Warmer Weather! FD Color Challenge

Frosted Designs has a color challenge this week to get us all in the mood for spring. We challenge you to use BLACK, LIME GREEN & HOT PINK as your primary colors on your project.

Here's what I came up with:

This whimsical card was created with papers from Colorbok, cardstock from Bazzill, die stickers, hot pink cardstock and white flower from Close To My Heart, glitter embossed cardstock from Doodlebug Designs, patterned flwoers from Making Memories, bling from K&Co., brad from Target Dollar Spot and ribbon from Offray.

Be sure to stop by the Frosted Designs site to check out how the DT used this challenge on all of their awesome projects this week!

Clearly, it's (almost) spring in Colorado! Transparency Challenge for Frosted Designs

Here's another delayed challenge post... This time from last week's transparency challenge at Frosted Designs.

First, a close up:

And finally, the whole shebang:

For this card, I {carefully} embossed a Close To My Heart butterfly stamp using Versamark and black embossing powder from Stampin' Up on a heavy-duty 3M transparency film, then I carefully cut the butterfly out and used it as a template for the bottom part of the butterfly. For the bottom part, I used a variety of Twinkling H20s iridescent water color paints to make kind of sunburst of colors. Once this was dry, I cut it out and popped it up to place in the center of the distressed circle. I added double-sided sticky tape from Stampin' Up to the body of the butterfly, then bent the wings outward slightly to make it appear that the butterfly was in flight. I added a few color-coordinated brads from Basic Grey and a big black bow to finish the card off.

Sometime's it's OK to raid your hubbys tools for scrapping... really!

It's technique week at Frosted Designs! This week we were instructed to create a layout featuring our favorite technique, so mine features sanding - talk about a great stress reliever!

I must admit, I have been known to raid the hubby's tool box in search of sandpaper from time to time, just for the sake of a good layout. I now have several sanding tools - the Tim Holtz mini grip sander and my Precision Files from Close To My Heart (which are amazing for detailed objects, like chipboard letters or frames or for getting into tiny nooks and crannies like scallop corners); but the rest of the time I stick to plain old sandpaper and even, an emery board! Emery boards (or nail files - whatever) are great for smaller items, like the letters here.


For this layout, I primarily sanded the edges of my papers, but here are some other techniques to try:

* Sanding in different directions across the width of your paper (like up and down then side to side) to create a faux-fabric look

* Sanding in circles across your paper

* Place objects under your paper - like flowers, chipboard elements, stamps, etc., to get a subtle outline of the image

* Sand your embellishments, like I did here, for a fun take on distressing

This layout was created with Close To My Heart papers and a mish-mash of tons of small embellies.

Thanks so much for looking! Be sure to stop by Frosted Designs to check out all of the amazing techniques, tips & tutorials from the talented group, too!

Spring Fling - bring on the flowers! (Frosted Designs challenge)

Spring is in the air - or at least teasing us as it usually does here in the Colorado mountains. This week has been super warm, so we've busted out shorts, skirts, sandals and my fave - ballet flats. Yesterday I was able to wear a short sleeve shrug over a cami, and guess what's forecasted for today? Up to 8" of snow!!! I'll enjoy the warm when I can.


This week's challenge at Frosted Designs was to incorporate flowers into our project. For this layout, I have stamped flowers, used a variety of paper flowers, and stamped, cut out and popped yet more flowers.

I've actually had the base of this layout - bare naked (sans pictures & embellies) for almost two years because it was for a class I taught while I was still with Close To My Heart. I pulled out the layout at my crop a few weeks ago and finally had the perfect pictures, along with a fab assortment of magically coordinated flowers - so I was so jazzed to finally get it done!!!

All papers, stamps & inks are from Close To My Heart; flowers are an assortment of Close To My Heart, Prima, Imaginesce & Making Memories, and brads are again - Close To My Heart, plus some K&Co. epoxy brads.

Be sure to pop on over to Frosted Designs to check out all the other amazing work those awesome girls have in store! Have a great week!

Oh how I love your smile.... Frosted Designs challenge

I'm one of those people who really love their own handwriting. When our challenge- which is to use our own handwriting on our project - was announced this week at Frosted Designs - I rejoiced!

Here's my layout:

I used Close To My Heart's Perfect Pearls paint to write my title, then outlined it in dark brown pen. I used the same dark brown pen for all of my journaling and to trace around the heart accent, which was done with American Crafts paper, layered on chipboard, then covered in Close To My Heart's liquid glass. I used all American Crafts patterned paper (and the solid peachy color, which was the reverse of the green flourish paper), a sheet of brown Bazzill, as well as some to-die-for American Crafts pearl brads. LOVE THOSE! Now, I just need them in every color and triple the amount in brown pearl brads, and I'd be one happy camper. =) This layout also uses pearl flourishes from Prima and some fancy pants layered flowers I created using my flower stash and several 2" circles of tulle.

You also know how much of a sucker I am for a great sketch, which worked well with this week's Sketch Challenge on the American Crafts blog. We had to use one of their sketches they featured last week and at least two American Crafts products. This layout was my inspiration - I just topsy-turveyed it since I didn't have a horizontal picture.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Be sure to check out the rest of the amazing work at Frosted Designs this week, too!

Polka Dots & Plaids birthday card (Frosted Designs)

Polka dots and plaids are kind of a funny combination... it reminds me of an old fashioned golf outfit or something. So when this week's challenge was annouced for Frosted Designs, I was a little worried! Until I came across some really fun, not-too-bright polka dot paper from Deja Views and some coordinating papers from Close To My Heart.

I knew immediately that a wild pattern combo could only be paired with one of my favorite "wild" stamps - my party giraffe (also from Close To My Heart). I added some funky Prima flowers and coordinating buttons, and a little sentiment on a die cut piece from Stampin' Up.

Be sure to check out how the rest of the uber-talented design team took on this challenge this week on the Frosted Designs blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Star Crossed

Hi friends!

Our challenge this week at Frosted Designs was to create a project with stars. Minus Fourth of July layouts, I don't usually do a whole lot with stars, so this was a fun take on such a standard shape. Here's what I came up with:

I used some rock star papers from DCWV, some Making Memories star brads and some rock star from Close To My Heart to create a masculine birthday card. I trimmed one of the silver foiled stars from the patterned paper and popped it up; plus used some silver ink for the saying. The cardstock is all Bazzill and it was distressed to go with the theme.

Thanks for looking & be sure to check the rest of the amazing work from the Frosted Designs DT by clicking here.

Tale of the good knight... (Frosted Designs challenge)

Once upon a time, in a land called Vegas, there lived a handsome knight Andrew who loved to defend his kingdom... the kingdom of Excalibur.

There was a time when Vegas was marketing the "family experience" which is good for us, because we love Vegas anyway. When I was a few months pregnant with Sophia, we took a family vacation to Vegas. Andrew got to be part of the family experiece and he got chances to pet dolphins & check out the tigers at Mirage; watch a kid-friendly pirate attack at Treasure Island (which it is definitly NOT that way now!); play in the endless arcade at New York New York and pretend to be a knight at Excalibur.

He made a pretty cute knight, don't you think? =)

Anywho, off to the crafty stuff...

This week's challenge at Frosted Designs was to emboss. I've had some fantasy die cuts from Stampin' Up forever, and most of them have a whimsical design and bright colors. Though the colors are fun, some (like for the castle) were way too girlie for what I needed them to be, so I embossed the heck out of them. Seriously.

For the dragon, I "distressed" his back & wings with Versamark and added a little gold embossing powder.


Each piece of the castle (minus the back wall) was embossed 3-4 times to get a smooth effect. The backwall only got a once-over to add a little texture to it. Finally, I added pop dots to the entrance piece of the castle for a bit of dimension.

All papers & stickers were Close To My Heart. I also used Stampin' Up ribbon and Bo Bunny brads.

Thanks for stopping by & checking everything out!

Crazy for chipboard!

Our challenge this week at the newly-amped Frosted Designs was to incorporate chipboard into our projects. Digging through my stash, I found blue and orange chipboard alphas and flowers - a favorite color combo in our family - and knew immediately what to do!


We are huge Broncos fans. Andrew's first words were "Go Elway!" (no kidding!) and Soph's been throwing her "touchdown arms" up in the air since before she could crawl. Even through the dismal seasons we're rooting for the home team. Like, for instance, the end of this past season.

*cough*

To send some good juju to the team, Soph dolled up with rally hair - a special do topped with blue glitter and orange bows. Even though it didn't work, she still looked pretty stinkin' cute!

This layout is such an eclectic mix of supplies - cardstock, ink and dark blue swirly paper from Close To My Heart; orange polka dot paper from My Mind's Eye; and scraps of orange stripy paper from whoknowswhere. The blue chipboard is from K&Co., orange chipboard alpha from Target Dollar Spot; the orange chipboard flowers are Making Memories, and bling from Stuido 18. The pen is a Slick Writer from American Crafts.

Thanks so much for visiting and don't forget to stop by and say hi to all the new team at Frosted Designs, including my blogging buddy Kim Sparks from Practical Scrappers!

Get Inked!

And no, I'm not talking about tattoos! ; )

Our challenge this week at Frosted Designs was to use ink on our project or layout. I used this sketch from the Get Sketchy challenge blog to help with my card layout:

For my FD challenge, I stamped the bird & saying, colored the bird in using a blending pen and the direct-to-pad technique, and ink distressed all of my paper pieces.

This card was created using a $1 stamp from Michael's, Stampin' Up buttons, Powder Puff Mocha Mama ink; and Close To My Heart papers and inks for the rest of the card, plus a little scrap of Bazzill cardstock and a chipboard circle from my stash.