Houndstooth:

Dear Houndsooth,

I love you. In every size, every shape, in every color, you will always be my first true background stamp love. Especially this one from Hero Arts, which is awesome. Please continue to be awesome. Thank you.

Love,
Brit.

I think I have a problem. It's a really good one, though. Here's another card I made yesterday using my beloved houndstooth stamp:


That's a closeup of my true love. :) Trying something new today...

Steps:

1. Cut standard size card (8.5 by 5.5 unfolded, 4.25 by 5.5 folded) from black cardstock. Score and fold. Trim about .75" off the "front" layer's right edge and then punch the border using Fiskar's Threading Water punch (also one of my loves).

2. Clear emboss the light pink paper with the Hero Art's Houndstooth stamp, being careful to line up the pattern each time- I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for precision.

3. Stamp the "Live in the Moment" stamp onto fuchsia paper with clear embossing ink and emboss with white embossing powder. Cut the image out with a slight border around the edge.

4. Cut the Making Memories polka dot paper (from the Just Chillin' Girl Collection) into a strip about 1.5" wide and 5.5" tall. Using the back part of the card as a guide, adhere the patterned paper to the back of the scalloped edge (put adhesive on the left edge of the patterned paper as well as right next to the scallops on the underside to insure proper adhesion).

5. Cut a strip of White paper slightly larger than the height of the stamped "Live in the Moment" stamped image. Also, cut a piece of pattern paper that coordinates with the Fuschia to fit comfortably in the middle of the white strip. Adhere white ribbon on top of the two layers, making sure everything is centered.

6. Ink the edges of the white cardstock, the fushcia stamped image, and the polka dotted patterned paper for extra emphasis.

7. Adhere everything to the card, making sure to page the houndstooth with a border on both the left and right edge, trimming as necessary. Adhere the white band next to the bottom third of the card, and then, finally, add the "Live in the Moment" stamped image using foam adhesive for extra texture and dimension.

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzil (Light pink, Dark pink) and The Paper Studio (Black and White), Patterned Paper- American Crafts (pink woodgrain) and Making Memories (Pink Dot- Just Chillin' Girl Collection), Border Punch- Fiskars, Ribbon- Offray, Stamps- Hero Arts (Houndstooth and I Care Frame), Ink- Tsukineko (Black StazOn) and Ranger (Embossing Ink), Embossing Powder- Ranger, Foam Squares- EK Success.

I made this for Kelly Jo's Color Chef Challenge #4 using her colors of baby pink, bubblegum, watermelon, black, and white as my inspiration. Go over there and check out the other awesome entries. :)

Another thing- there's an AWESOME giveaway going on here at Passion for Crafts. You really need to see it for yourself! Good luck.

I decided this morning that I'm going to spend National Scrapbooking Day (a.k.a. NSD) this Saturday scrapbooking the entire day. Who else is doing the same? I could use a weekend like that. Now, I just need to choose what online forum to spend it in. What's your forum of choice?

See you soon! (wow, two posts in two days... I'm on a roll.)

Love.

Brit

Party time?

It's the weirdest feeling in the world when you've constantly exherted all of your energy on classes trying to stay caught up, trying to catch up, and then trying to get good grades. Oh, the all-nighters, the late-nighters, and many, many energy drinks (rockstar is my personal drink of choice). Then, one day, you're caught up. On everything.

Seriously, I don't even have one of my classes this entire week. I have one assignment left in Graphic Design, one test next week for American Indian Studies, and nothing due for drawing ever again. We're literally going to the zoo during class tomorrow.

Needless to say, I have no idea what to do. I guess that means more things for you to look at. :)

A project I did last night for this challenge:

Altered Moleskin notebook using my absolute favorite paper:

A close-up of the dimension I used (which reminds me that I really need to buy another package of foam squares- I'm almost out):

The pendant I made to go with it. I'm not completely satisfied yet with it- I think I need to add paint and another layer of Diamond Glaze before it's done. Oh, and a real jewerly finding and chain:

The two together:

Supplies: Moleskine Notebook (purchased from Barnes and Noble), Cardstock- The Paper Studio, PP- Basic Grey (purpple and green dots) and Hambly (gold), Transparency- Hambly, Rubon- Hambly, Gemstones- The Paper Studio, Stamp- Hero Arts, Marker- ZIG, Chipboard Heart- Basic Grey , Colored Pencils- Crayola, Border Punch- Fiskars, Diamond Glaze- Judikins, Ribbon- Offray.

And since it's Tuesday, here are some important links for you:

1. Ali Edwards helped design this kit from Songbird Avenue. It's only $8.00, and not only does the purchase of the kit itself donate money to the Autism Speaks Foundation, but Ali Edwards (some things she did with the kit here) AND Jessica Sprague are also donating $2.00 each per kit sold. That's a HUGE donation for such an adorable kit. More than $2,000 has already been raised, so if you like the kit or just want to do a good thing today, I highly recommend taking part in this. :) Here's a layout I did with a couple things from the kit (I, ahem, I am by no means a digi scrapper, I was just messing around...)

Supplies: Background- Crystal Jeffrey Rieger, Buttons, "grow" frame, and buttons- SongbirdAvenue.com "Bloom & Grow" kit, Flowers and label from ShabbyPrincess.com "Happy Go Lucky" collection, Frame- own design, Font- "B-Swizzle"- own design.

2. Stacy Julian's post on color theory in scrapbooking. This quiz that she links to in her post is really fun. I scored almost completely Yellow, and that totally fits me (even though I don't scrap with yellow very often). She also asks what your "happy colors" are right now. Here are mine:

What are your happy colors?

3. This article at Creativity Prompt makes me want to buy every Tim Holtz ink made. Seriously.

4. Mac users- did you know that when you minimize or click on a window that has been minimized in the dock and hold shift, it moves in slow-motion? (Learned that from Kristina Werner on twitter the other day.) Here are some more fun Mac tricks. Go ahead, let the geek out. :)
If you have a cool link to share, leave a comment and I'll add it in to next week's post along with a link to your blog.

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to go make something. Maybe a layout? Who knows.

Love.

Brit

Cards <3

Two cards to share with you today... Enjoy!

1. Happy #50, Color Inspiration Challenges! Kristina Werner is awesome :)

Here's mine:

Love it! Supplies: CS- Bazzill (brown and turquoise), American Crafts (Yellow), and Archiver's (red), ribbon- Offray, Thread- DMC, White Pen- Sakura, Letters- American Crafts.

2. Cute card for the Cupcake Challenge #65


Supplies: Stamps- Hero Arts, Colored Pencils- Crayola, Patterned Paper- Making Memories, Ink- StazOn by Tsukineko, Diamond Glaze- Judikins, Chipboard Bird- Maya Road, Pop dots- EK Success, Cardstock- Archiver's.

3. 52Q Week 5

Supplies: pp- Making Memories Just Chilin' Girl, cs- The Paper Studio (white) and Bazzill (yellow), Embossing Ink- Ranger, Embossing Powder- Ranger, Scallop stamp- Hero Arts, Pearl- Hero Arts, Clear Glitter Diecut- Making Memories Noteworthy, Marker- ZIG, Paint- Rheotech, and Thread- DMC

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you like them or if you want to know about some of the techniques I used. :)

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

How many times do I have to tell you?

Time: please slow down. I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

And yes, I know. I'm sitting here making a blog post when I could be working on the seven hundred million things I have to do, but I need my creative time, darn it!

So yesterday on my way back to Minnesota from Wisconsin, my mom took a wrong turn and we ending up going by a Tuesday Morning. Thanks to this post, I knew they sold scrapbooking stuff, so I asked if we could stop. We did, and I spent tooooo much money. Disclaimer: If you know what's good for you, don't go to Tuesday Morning.

Regardless, here's what I got- I was pretty impressed with the great bargains I got:

An AMM Tote 3 Shoulder bag: Sooooo many pockets, the sides are sturdy- this is going to be wonderful for crops and just bringing scrapbooking stuff places where I want to work on a project. My mom loved it, too- she said she was going to steal it. :)

Original Price: 44.99
Tuesday Morning Price: 17.99

AC Pattern Paper Celebrate Collection (because I need more paper... ha.) Well, I already have lots of AC cardstock in these types of carriers, why not have more?

Original Price: 19.99
Tueday Morning Price: 5.99

AC Cardstock in Blueberry- 25 8.5 by 11 sheets. Any ideas for how to use this? I'm thinking mini album...

Original Price: 5.99
Tuesday Morning Price: 1.99

Scenic Route Salem Product Kit- 20 Patterned Papers, 1 sheet of diecuts, 1 sheet of Alpha stickers (the real reason I bought the kit, admittedly), 1 sheet of accent stickers, 2 sheets of printed chipboard, 20 paper leaves, and 20 black brads. Of course, it's halloween-themed, but what sold me is the paper that doesn't have a theme- mostly stars and circles. Oh, and the price.

Original Price: 34.99
Tueday Morning Price: 2.99

Okay, so maybe I wasn't that bad... I got some really great deals.

A couple other things:

I got a Hero Arts order in the mail yesterday- yum! And I love the arrow stamp they included as an extra gift. I can't stand behind Hero Arts enough- their customer service is top notch, and so is the quailty of their products. I would buy every single one of their stamps if I had the money just to support such a great company.

By the way, I wanted to again mention how much in love with the BG Wisteria line I am. Give me a million packs of that, and I'll never buy patterned paper again. Seriously. (Okay, maybe not...)

Here's another 52Q card that I finished this morning- I really like it.

Supplies: CS- Bazzill (blue and white) and The Paper Studio (Black), PP- Basic Grey, Vellum- The Paper Studio, Markers- ZIG

That reminds me- one of my goals this week (or soon) is to go through all of my posts and add tags so that you can see all of my like projects in one place. I think that would be nice.

Now, for some links that have been open in my browser forever that I can't just seem to close:
1.This dress from Anthropologie... I hadn't really looked around the site until yesterday, and now I'm seriously considering only buying clothes from Anthropolgie for the rest of my life. Seriously.
2. Label Tulip's blog... I've noticed lots of postings from the Label Tulip DT on various websites, and I'm so impressed. Very inspiring!
3. This sketch website... absolutely to die for- even though I have no idea what they're saying.
4. Another sketch website... this one's in English, but the amazing inspiration just as high-quality. I love how they incorporate many different ways of using a single sketch.
5. I would love to do this... I'm really going to start applying to design teams soon. It's my personal goal to be on one- I think they would be super fun.
6. A year in cards- April... Kristina Werner rocks my socks off. Enough said.

That's all for now- thank you very much for stopping by! Leave a comment with your favorite link that inspires you and I'll add it to my next Links post along with a link to your blog. :)

Love.

Brit

Giveaway winner!

Congratulations to Courtney Baker! (You should check out her blog, too- it's super adorable!)


You're the winner of the giveaway! Please e-mail me (at reflectionofme00@yahoo.com) your address so I can send you your package of scrappy goodness!

This was fun- I'll have to do it again soooon. ;)

Love.

Brit

P.S.- I went to Archiver's today and found the Basic Grey Wisteria line... OMG it's amazing! I'm in love. Thank you, tax refund. :)

Home again.

This reminds me of a song off the Juno Soundtrack, "Tire Swing" by Kimya Dawson

"Now I'm home for less than twenty-four hours. That's hardly time to take a shower, Hug my family and take your picture off the wall, Check my email write a song and make a few phone calls. Before it's time to leave again, I've got one hand on the steering wheel One waving out the window."

Esta es mi vida. :)

Reminder- 12 Hours until I pick the winner for the giveaway! Leave a comment here. Oh, and BONUS- leave a comment on this post for an extra entry. Tell your friends!

A couple pictures from the last couple hours:

1. My mom bought me a very pretty rose. Not only is it gorgeous, but now I can use it for my drawing project that I have to do this morning. Score! Thanks, Mom. :)


2. I met this princess last night. Mika is super cute. I like the newest addition to our family, even if she has quite the attitude. (Maybe that's why I like her? Ha.) :)


3. Blue's a little jealous, though. It's fun to see them interact. Oh, the competition. Feeding time, which was never a big deal before, is now a frenzy around here. It's Craaazy.


4. Sneak peak of another 52Q I've been working on. It's not done yet, but I think it'll be my favorite yet. :)


See you back later tonight with a winner for the giveaway! Thanks for visiting!

Love.

Brit

P.S.- Remember to leave a comment on this post for an extra entry. :) Good luck!

Happy.

I'm happy today. Want to know why? A list of top ten things why I'm happy:

1. It's supposed to get up to 68 degrees today. And sunny. :)

2. I didn't wear a jacket or a sweatshirt allllll day yesterday.

3. I drew outside for three hours in drawing class. I even got a little sunburnt, but it's more a novelty than a pain.


4. Those cell phone pictures turned out pretty nicely. :)

5. I got my first sunburn of the year. Ohhh pale me (I'm seriously practically albino.)

6. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my McNeal Hall drawing- the drawing that every design student need to complete before they pass portfolio review. A 100+ drawing... pretty much my life lately.

7. I had a goal to wake up before 8:30 every day this week and have been sucessful thus far. I get so much done when I wake up and hour and a half before I have to leave!

8. I'm going hooooome this weekend!!!

9. I still have 40 minutes before I have to leave for class.

10. I have things to share with you. :)

First, a layout. I wrote this poem after eating lunch in the university mall last Thursday afternoon, and I really wanted to make this layout. Now that I'm done, I realize that this might have been better as a 6 by 12 layout, but it is what it is. Scrapbooking is about process, right? :)

Close-up of the journaling that I wrote: (click to enlarge)
Supplies: Cardstock- The Paper Studio (white) and Bazzil (Green), Patterned Paper- Deja Views (multicolored stripes) an American Crafts (pink lines), Ribbon- The Paper Studio, Flowers- Prima, Brads- Queen & Co., Border Punch- Threading Water by Fiskars, Letter Stickers- American Crafts, and Staples- Unknown.

Second, I have two more cards from the 52Q project by Emily Falconbridge. I love this, because it's all about playing. For example, I never would've paired all of those patterned papers together on my week 2 card on a layout, but I wanted to try it on this smaller scale. There's really no failure when it comes to this, just learning. Love it!

Week 2:
Supplies: Cardstock- The Paper Studio, Patterned Paper- Scenic Route (multicolored arrows), American Crafts (pink and orange scallops and Pink Lines), and KI Memories Love, Elsie (embossed arrows background) and Basic Grey (blue), Chipboard- Making Memories, Paint- Liquitex, Brad- The Paper Studio, Flower- Prima, Marker- ZIG, Ink- StazOn by Tsukineko, Dimensionals- EK Sucess.

Week 3:
Cardstock- The Paper Studio (white and vellum) and unknown (gold butterfly and purple), Glitter Paper- Doodlebug (second layer of butterfly), Pattern Paper- Basic Grey, Butterfly Punch- EK Sucess, Corner Rounder- The Paper Studio, Chipboard Frame- Scenic Route, Heart Ghost Shape- Heidi Swapp, Puffy Paint- Duncan Crafts, Pearls- Hero Arts, Rhinestones- The Paper Studio, Fairy- Own Design, Colored Pencils- Crayola.

Oh, and a few more happy things:

11. The fact that I was a winner on the Moxie Fab Blog yesterday for my card with stitching on it. :) (Toot!)

12. Did I mention that it's gorgeous outside?

Love.

Brit

P.S.- Make sure to ENTER THE GIVEAWAY below!