Capturing Mountains

I recently did a swap on a non-crafting related message board that I belong to.  The swap was to exchange local goodies to help someone learn about your area of the country.  Most people were sending food related items in their swap, but I was having some difficulty coming up with anything for Colorado.  We don't really have a local food unless you want to count Rocky Mountain Oysters and I wasn't too keen on sending those to my unsuspecting swap buddy.  That would just be kind of cruel.  I did end up sending some food from local all natural food companies here in Colorado, but I didn't think that was enough.  One thing that Colorado is really know for is our gorgeous mountains.  We are VERY proud of our mountains and pretty much think that they make Colorado on of the prettiest places on Earth.  So I wanted to send something that represented the mountains, but not just a photo or a rock.  What's a girl to do?  I finally figured it out... Why not make a set of blank cards with a mountain theme and some natural hand made papers.  So I set to work.  I had some hand made paper that I have had sitting around for years that I broke out and I also broke out my Bosskut Gazelle to cut out some leaves and mountain shapes.  I decided the best thing to do to make the mountains was to create a stencil with my Gazzelle and spray them on with Glimmer Mist.  I am really happy with how they turned out and I hope my swap buddy enjoys the cards.

Bursting into Song

This week at Frosted Designs the challenge is super awesome!  Why is it so awesome you ask...well because I am hosting it and I came up with it.  So this week I challenge you to use some song lyrics on your layout card or project.  Let us know the artist too so we can get to know some great new music.

For my layout I used Sarah Mclachlan's song "Loving You is Easy".  The lyrics say "loving you is easy, loving you is wonderous, shout it from the rooftops"  I have really been enjoying this song on her new album so when I went to scrap this photo of my husband I felt it was a perfect fit.

Border Punches

Border Punches are so much fun and add a really great element to a layout, card or project.  I only have two right now, but I sure do use the heck out of them.  This week at Frosted Designs we are challenging you to bust out those border punches for your project this week.  Head on over and see what the rest of the design team has done.

For my layout I used the Fiskars Effervescence punch.  This is a layout about my grandma's 80th birthday party.  We threw her a surprise party and had a weekend full of celebration with family from out of state.  Notice the banner in the picture on the left....I made that for her.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

Felt

This week at Frosted Designs our challenge for you is to use felt on a layout, card or project.  I have had tons of felt ribbon laying around and this gave me a great excuse to actually use some!  Head over to Frosted Designs to check out the other projects from the design team.

I used the Little Red Scrapbook June Kit for this layout.  I am loving this kit.  It's colors are just beautiful and all the papers fit so well with my style. 

Color Challenge

This week at Frosted Designs we had another color challenge.  So far I have been loving the color combos that they have given us and this week's is no exception.  The colors are Turquoise, orange, yellow and green.  All great colors that work so well together.  Head over to Frosted Designs to check out all the great projects by the rest of the design team. 

I had a lot of fun making this layout.  Especially the "Springs" portion of the title.  I wanted some more turquoise for the title, but didn't really have any turquoise alphas that I liked.  Rather than using my cuttlebug or Gazelle I had an idea to use my New Grungepaper by Tim Holtz and Glimmer Mist.  Two things that I totally love.  I cut the Grungepaper into 1.5"x1" rectangles and then inked them with Broken China Distress Ink.  Then I got out an old set of alpha stencils that I have and Sprayed the Graphite Glimmer Mist through the desired letter.  I loved the kinda messy quality it gave the letters.  I decided to help people actually be able to read it I would outline the letters with a black marker.  Ta-Da!  Fun and different alphas in the exact colors I wanted.  I have to say I was really pleased with how they turned out.

This week I was also doing some scrapping for fun and I really liked how this layout turned out so I thought I would share.  I gave my sister a half completed album of layouts of her kids for her birthday in March and told her that if she provided me the pictures I would happily make more layouts for her.  I created this layout using the June Little Red Scrapbook Kit.  I was so excited when I got the kit last week and I couldn't wait to bust it open.  This layout is of my niece and nephew last September.  We were in a park that has a stream running through it.  They were told to stay out of the water because Colorado streams are no where near warm in September (or at anytime really).  Well a few minutes later my niece came running up soaked.  She said the dog pulled them in.  A likely story.  Anyway they ended up playing in the stream.  I titled it "Didn't Fall Far" because it reminds me of something my siblings and I would have done when we were kids.  The apples didn't fall far from the tree.

Unexpected items

This week's challenge at Frosted Designs is to use an unexpected item on your project.  Check out the really cool projects created by the rest of the design team.  I didn't get this one done on time to have it up on the blog with all the other design teams layouts,  but at least I can get it up on my site during the week the challenge is running and link it to Frosted Designs' blog, right?

So...What was my unexpected item?  The green leaf shaped button on the bottom of the layout was actually a piece of one of my shoes that fell off awhile back.  I had kept it forever because I thought it would look great on a scrapbook layout and this challenge finally gave me a great excuse to use it!

 
Also you should DEFINITELY participate in some of the challenges going on this month at Frosted Designs.  There is an amazing prize pack being offered for one lucky participant at the end of June.  Really fun stuff.  You won't be sorry. 

Finally back in the swing of things

My wonderful husband and I got to go on our first vacation in over two years at the beginning of June.  It was such a wonderful trip and we had a great time.  I was VERY needed and really helped both of us get away and feel refreshed.  We were gone for almost 2 weeks and between getting ready for vacation, being on vacation, and then catching up now that I am back it seems like I haven't had any time for crafting or blogging in a LONG time.  I am finally feeling like things are settling down and I have time to devote back to my wonderful blog and blog followers.  So how about some catching up!  We have had two projects posted over at Frosted Designs these last few weeks that I haven't blogged about.  I usually like to make layouts if possible, but May and June are chocked FULL of birthdays, anniversary, holidays, etc. for my family so I made some cards these weeks.

First we were supposed to use at least 5 buttons on a project.  Some of my friends just had a new baby and I was sending them a gift so I figured that the "Cute as a Button" theme went well with our challenge for the week.  I used the Little Red Scrapbook April kit for the majority of this card.

Second we had to make a project using glitter!  I love using little accents of glitter on my projects, but I wanted to really showcase the glitter on this one.  I covered the thickers I used on this anniversary card (for my husband) with Icicle Stickles.  I love the look it gave them.  I also used Waterfall Stickles to add the blue dots along the edges of the orange patterned paper.