My New Favorite Things

Hello! It's a rainy day here in Wisconsin, and I'm enjoying just relaxing, cozying up under some blankets, and scrapping. Here are my new favorite things:

1. This layout. I made it using mostly American Crafts products- I wanted to feature their cardstock on a layout like this layout did but in a different way. I looove my American Crafts cardstock, so I knew I wanted to do something really cool. Remember this comforter that I made? I used it for inspiration for this layout. Here's the final result:

Close-up of my favorite details :)

Close-up of the texture- love it!

Supplies: Cardstock- American Crafts (Black, Grape, Blossom, Lipgloss, Cherry, Apricot, Lemon, Leaf, Emerald, and Aqua), Letter Stickers- American Crafts Thickers, Border Stamp- Hero Arts, Letter Rub-Ons- American Crafts, Thread- DMC, Ink- Colorbox Chalk and Stazon by Tsukineko, Embossing Powder and Ink- Ranger, Other- Buttons and Pen.

2. Everything that came in my Two Peas order yesterday. It's all even more than I thought it would be. Seriously, Cherry Hill is more gorgeous in real life than I imagined. Early Bird is absolutely fantastic as well. Now, I just need to get over my fear of "ruining" the paper. Ha. Here are some pictures of my order- LOVES.

I love Cherry Hill by October Afternoon. (Plus the letter stickers from Ducks in a Row.) [Do you see the second Cherry Hill pad? Hmmmm I smell a giveaway soon!]

I also love Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird. It's gorgeous in real life.

Here are some other random things- Sassafras, a Panda Stamp, some Jenni Bowlin, Lime Rickey (I can't wait to do something with that crazy- patterned paper. Oh boy!), and Doodlebug. Yum!

3. Flowers. This is my recent goal- I want to get a job as a florist this summer. If I learn now, that skill would be so useful later in life.

4. Amy Butler's Website. It's inspiring- check out these patterns. Fabulous!

5. Playing with stitching and knitting. Here's an indespensible website that someone shared with me the other day- it's wonderful for embroidery. I've also started knitting again. I want to knit a sweater or something. Like this owl one that I've talked about before. Ohhhh.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I'm glad you liked the tutorial yesterday. Now I'm coming up with ideas to do next. :) Have a happy, cozy day!

Love.

Brit

The tale of two cards and a piercing

These last few days have been interesting in a totally good way.

First of all, I made two cards. One for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge #51:


Here's my take:

Not going to brag, but how close are those colors? I'm pretty happy about the way it turned out, but I'm more happy about that Swiss dot texture from Bazzill. Yum!

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzill (brown and white Swiss dot) and Archiver's (mustard and rose), Embroidery Thread- DMC, Flowers- Prima, Paper Piercer- Making Memories, Corner Rounder- The Paper Studio, Stamp- Hero Arts, Embossing Powder and Ink- Ranger, Foam Square Adhesive- 3L.

Secondly, here's a really quick card I made the other day when helping Greg and Joe make cards for their mom for Mother's day. It was adorable- I should've taken pictures, but I know they wouldn't want an actual record of that event. :)

(<3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qjJPfBJdNQWSPBsvWZyRZpic3v4ejSMn-4pbiVQhrIyrgitRGj05KGK4UEXDCa7PvaqOEU-JWbmZCboHXGgUDqSEpHRLEhg3_VGgRpgQhQsrpbU1nwrWqouZPRTEnPBqqZHHwydlcB9w/s1600-h/05-09-09+Mwah+Card+3.jpg">A close-up of the tone-on-tone glittery letters. Like I said, super simple.

Supplies: Patterned Paper- K & Company (Amy Butler Lotus Faded China), Cardstock- Bazzill, Brads- Making Memories, Ribbon- Offray, Clear Shape- Making Memories, Letter Stickers- Making Memories, Foam Square Adhesive- 3L.

A few other things happened, too.

1. I'm done with classes for the semester, now only two finals to go until I'm done. :)

2. Today is my last Saturday in Minnesota before going back to Wisconsin. I have mixed feelings about that...

3. At about 9:07 p.m. on Thursday night, I was eating dinner with eight of my friends and blurted out, "Do you think I would look good with a nose piercing?" Twenty minutes later I was sitting here:
In a piercing parlor down the street, waiting for Evan, the tatooed- covered piercing guy, to pierce my nose. Would I do it again? No. It hurts. (Actually not a whole lot more than a tetnus shot, though...) Am I happy I did it? Yes. Is my mom going to kill me? Probably.

I love you mom. :)

Here's an after picture. (By the way, no other picture from Axis Piercing will ever make it onto the internet besides the one above- I look so icky in all of them. Who knew your eyes water like crazy when you get your nose pierced?)

I like it. What do you think? Here's one of me and my boyfriend- the only two in our group of friends who have facial piercings. Ha. We're really not as rebellious as we might seem.

Thank you for stopping by! Off to another whirlwind few days. So much to pack, such a little car to fit it in...

Love.

Brit

Another Monday, another to-do list:

It's okay, though, because I had a really exciting weekend. Not only did I celebrate National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday, but I went out to dinner with some fun girls and even experienced my first Twins game. First, here are the two projects I finished yesterday. I started them on Saturday, but I wasn't feeling the mojo. I'm planning on finishing a couple cards today to show you tomorrow. :)

1. A layout about this last fall's homecoming. I love this layout more each time I look at it. Maybe that's just because yellow makes me happy.
close-up of the title using various letter stickers (in order to qualify for a Two Peas challenge) it's nice to use up some of that stash:
My beloved butterflies- I covered them with adhesive using my Xyron "X" and pressed the glitter onto them. That technique worked surprisingly well. <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMflyuYLCrvgVspual4iKR7q6apKc6iht9LlcoLqvmdMSQ2hZaO6w2flo88XuCwTIWU44PeQLDcp4v2oJX2Y2li9VXCj6hXDdTZWDMEOLnLioQUoEVRMxFZo2Io-ZmORGrkRYyXrljLhmw/s1600-h/05-03-09+Homecoming+2.jpg">Steps:
1. Mount scalloped cardstock on yellow background, making sure that it is centered.
2. Crop photos and arange on background in an "L" fashion, making sure the spacing matches on the top and right as well on the bottom and left sides. Adhere to page. Add silver photo corners to the top left, bottom left, and bottom right corners of the photo block.
3. Draw lines for journaling using a T-Square (a ruler that keeps everything perpendicular to the side- check out the drawing or architecture section in your craft store to buy one). Pencil in the desired journaling to get an idea of spacing.
4. Arrange various letter stickers on a clear ruler to fit in the space about the journaling. When the stickers have placement to your liking, push down on the tops of the stickers and carefully remove the ruler.
5. Make any adjustments to the journaling needed as you trace over the pencil in a journaling pen or marker. Erase all pencil lines when the ink is dry.
6. On grey cardstock, stamp the Hero Arts border stamp of your choice using StazOn ink. Make sure to keep the lines perfectly straight, as you have to stamp multiple times across the 12" width of the paper. Make two sections of border- a 12" section and a section using one stamp (about 5.5"). Cut out the border strips very carefully with scissors, leaving a slight border around each edge.
7. Adhere the scallops across the top and to the right of the bottommost photo, trimming off all excess.
8. Punch out butterflies using a punch, run them through a xyron filled with Permanent adhesive, and pour glitter onto the tops of them. Press glitter into the adhesive, and shake off excess. Adhere the butterflies to the layout by applying adhesive to only the middle section of the butterfly for dimension.
9. Using a ruler, punch evenly-spaced holes under the title and then hand-stitch through them using black thread.

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzill (Yellow and White Scallops) and American Crafts (Grey), Border Stamp- Hero Arts, Thread- DMC, Marker- ZIG, Butterfly Punch- EK Success, Glitter- Crafts, Etc., Letter stickers- American Crafts ("h", "c", "o", and "g"), Scenic Route ("M", "e", "m"), and The Paper Studio (all others), Photo Corners- 3L.

2. 52Q Week 6:
I hand- doodled the "do it all over" for an extra handmade touch. This was really just an experiment with placement and handlettering...
Supplies: Cardstock- The Paper Studio, Patterned Paper- Sassafras Lass (grey) and My Mind's Eye (flowers), Border Strip- Sassafras Lass, Stickers- American Crafts, Pen (used for "do it all over ..." and the star)- ZIG, Thread- DMC, Ink- Tsukineko

This from the weekend: :)

This arrive from Moxie Fab- thank you for the awesome prizes!
We five girls devoured this big-as-your-head burrito at Chino Latino's downtown :)

The Twins game was a blast- and we were even more stoked because we got free hats, hot dogs, and a soda. It's almost like we saw the game for free :)
Cute group shot. This needs some photo editing, but I'm lazy this morning (and might be late for class if I don't post this soon...)

Thank you for stopping by today! Hope you all had wonderful weekends and feel inspired to create something today.

Love.

Brit

My Life = Crazy

I've drawn for over 50 hours in the last five days, and I've never been so glad to be done with something in my ENTIRE life. Let me share:

This is my McNeal Hall drawing. Every design student has to complete one before gaining admitance to their respective major. I added it up- I spent 120 hours on this. Ohhh boy. That's 5 days. Without stopping. Nevertheless, here it is. (sorry about the less-than-quality photo- I promise that the lines are actually straight in real life, I was just in a rush to get to class)

The floor is a "magical object" and is a reflective pool. Since the drawing had been being produced for more than 30 years, every professor now has their students add some element of magic or themselves.

Second, remember this rose?

Here's what I did with the drawings:


Each one has a different style and viewpoint. Some of the drawings are not as strong as I would like, but they are what they are for now.

Next, I would like to show you what I drew for 3 hours yesterday- cows and sheep. Aren't they cute?

(Me and my best drawing buddy Megan being excited about cows... obviously we didn't get much actual drawing done. Ha.)

And then, my friends Sara and Patrice and I did some birthday preparation (their birthday is today... :) ) for my boyfriend, Greg, and his identical twin, Joe. We made cupcakes and made posters to put on their door (totally old school style with just scraps, scissors, crayons, and glue):

And here are a couple cards that I made using the Making Memories Just Chillin' Boy collection:

Greg's:

Supplies: cs- Archiver's (green) and Bazzill (blue), pp- Making Memories Just Chillin' Boy, Letter stickers- American Crafts, white pen- Sakura, and Stamp- Hero Arts.

Joe's:

Supplies: cs- Archiver's (blue) and The Paper Studio (white), pp- Making Memories Just Chillin' Boy, Letter Stickers- Making Memories, Thread- DMC, White Pen- Sakura, Black Ink- Tsukineko.

And also, I decorated a Moleskin notebook for Greg, who likes to write. I love how this turned out! (Plus it's perfect for Hero Art's distressing challenge this week. :))

Supplies: Notebook- Moleskin (purchased at Barnes and Noble), pp- Making Memories Just Chillin' Boy, Black Ink- Tsukineko, Ribbon- Offray, Chipboard "G"- Pressed Petals, Stamps- Hero Arts, Other- Sandpaper.

That's about all I have for now- hope you're still with me after this super-long post. See you soon! Let me know what you like on here :)

Love.

Brit

Wow.

Time flies. I didn't even post for the entire month of February, but I made a ton of cards and have been insanely busy with my new classes. Everything's going alright, though. A couple things:

You can follow me on twitter now... over to the right-hand side of my blog main page or using this link. Cute.

Here are just a couple of the cards I did last month (I think I made about 20, but I can't really remember- no time to edit all the pictures!):

Birthday card for my roommate next year, Alex:
Supplies: pp- DCWV, cs- Bazzill, Letter Stickers- Making Memories, Rubon- Hambly, other- silver ink and pink eyelets

One of my favorite Valentine's day cards:
supplies: cs- The Paper Studio (kraft) and Archiver's (red), pp- Sassafrass Lass, thread- DMC, Chipboard letters- Pressed Petals, other- Puffy Paint

Valentine's day was like this:

Pretty shades of pink and red in roses and my dress. {The guy wasn't bad either. ;-) Thanks, Greg, for making my Valentine's Day amazing!}

That reminds me, I really need to go make a card for him in the next few minutes. Yay for three months of "official"-ness and happiness.

Two more things really quickly--- I get to see two very special people next weekend, and I couldn't be more thrilled:

1.
The man who always has been and always will be my best friend. Jeb is coming to visit me from Madison.... finally! I'm so excited! Together (along with my boyfriend, his twin, and my friends Sara and Patrice), we are going to see person:

2. Oh. em. gee. It's BJ Novak: a.k.a. Ryan from The Office, a.k.a. one of the writers of The Office, a.k.a. one of the executive producers of The Office. He's coming here to our student union to do standup and but be his awesome self. I get to see him! OMG. This weekend is going to be awwwwesome.

Alright, I'll stop geeking out now and get to what really needs to be done: a card, cleaning, and endless mountains of homework. I hope to be back soon.

Love.

Brit