On a Studio Calico Kick.

Hi there! The last couple days, especially since the reveal of On the Easel (and the amazing Add On, Still Life), the kit for October, I've been obsessed with all things SC. It started with my card the other day and continued today when I made a few layouts to detox from my hectic week. I love Back 40 plus the Fresh Cut add on. So yummy! Here's a layout I made yesterday to share :)

I am in LOVE with the Guest Designer for SC this month- Kinsley Wilson. Seriously, she's amazing. I want to create things as beautiful as she does. Here's a link to her SC layouts for the month and the awesome tutorial that she did for her Sister, Sister layout (can't find the link right now- I'll edit to add it in when I find it). Love! She inspired me to add some circles + stitching to my layout:

And that mini date stamp. How can you not LOVE it?

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzil, Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket (Togetherness Collection) and Sassafras (Border Strip) , Chipboard Letters- Cosmo Cricket, Stamp- Studio Calico, Ink- Memento, Corner Rounder- WRMK, Pen- Copic, Thread- DMC, Circle Cutter- Making Memories, Paper Piercer- Tim Holtz for Advantus.

I hope that inspired you to pull out the supplies you've been ogling over and use them already! You know you want to! And don't forget to enter my giveaway. I'm drawing for the winner at 10 CST tonight. Off to go unwind from the day and watch some awesome Thursday night tv.

Love.

Brit

I'm Obsessed with Butterflies.

But really, who isn't? So I guess it's not so much of a problem as it is something fun to love. Yesterday, I realized I hadn't broken out my Studio Calico butterfly stamps that I got in my add-on last month, so I decided to use them on this birthday card for my design friend, Sarah, who turned 21 yesterday. Here's what I did:

Close-up on those fab stamped butterflies, punched out with the coordinating Martha Stewart Roayl Butterfly punch. Love!

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Kraft, Lavendar Moon, and Plum Pudding), Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket (Pixielicious 6 by 6 pad), Stamps- Studio Calico (Butterfly) and Hero Arts (CL340 Birthday Sayings), Ink- Tsukineko (Black Memento and Versamark, Embossing Powder- Ranger, White Pen- Signo, Corner Rounder- WRMK.

Hope you like this cute card and it inspires you to take out and play with your butterfly punches today. You know you have one! (Or two, or three, or four...) Don't forget to enter my giveaway here. I'm drawing a winner tomorrow. :) Have a great day and see you tomorrow for another bit of scrappy goodness.

Love.
Brit

Video Tutorial Monday #3 - Embossing Distress

Welcome back once again for another Monday video tutorial. I'm so excited about the card I've made to share with you today. Today it's all about embossing and making that embossed background really shine.

Here's a close-up of the embossing:

And the inside:

Now watch the video to learn about it :) You can watch it here or over on youtube.

Thanks for watching! Go here to subscribe to my channel so you can catch the video every Monday.

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Kraft and Smokey Shadow), Ink- Tsukineko (Black Memento) and Ranger (Distress ink by Tim Holtz in Vintage Photo and Antique Linen), Embossing Folder- Tim Holtz for Sizzix, Die Cutter- Sizzix Big Shot, Colored Pencils- Prisma, Stamps- Lawn Fawn (Bake Me a Cake and Petite Florals) and Hero Arts (CG125 Friend Definition), White Pen- Signo.

Happy start of a fresh week and hope to be back soon to share more pretty things.

Love.
Brit

Poppies and Pretty Links.

The Card.
As soon as I saw this awesome set from Hero Arts, I knew I needed to have it. How can you not love these poppies. So elegant and beautiful. :) Here's the card I made to highlight it:

This card was a blast to make. I just stamped the image, colored it with my favorite pinks from my Prisma colored pencils set, and then added some Crate Paper and Pearls to spruce it up. Love it!

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream and Raspberry Fizz), Patterned Paper- Crate Paper (Restoration 6 by 6 pad), Stamp- Hero Arts (CL449 Delicate Blossoms), Twine- Papertrey Ink, Pearls- Creative Imaginations, Colored Pencils- Prisma, Ink- Tsukineko (Memento Black) and Ranger (Vintage Photo Distress Ink), White Pen- Signo, Corner Rounder- WRMK.

The Links.
Heather P. made this breathtaking card from papertrey products. I love this color combo. Yum!
Maile Belles made this card for a good cause and it's beautiful. That's a double-win in my book.
The Studio Calico blog featured this layout by Sasha Farina the other day. Wow. It makes me realize that I still haven't broken out my September kit with those awesome butterflies yet. I must get on that!
This "A Shabby Hello" card by Tiffany Johnson is amazing. You just have to see it.
Everyone knows that Jill from "inspired by..." is one of the best stampers/cardmakers out there, but this one just blew me away.
Straight up, this card is pure genius from Lisa Spangler. The felt and Lawn Fawn stamps combo is perfect.
Kelly from Lawn Fawn is always coming up with the cutest creations. This one is breathtaking and simple elegance summed up in a card. I need to make a set of these, stat.
I've always admired Joy's cards, but this one is amazing. The coloring is sooo good!


Hope you enjoyed those fantastic creations. If you have anything that's inspiring you today, leave a comment with a link. I always love extra inspiration! All of your comments have be so sweet this week. I love it! Make sure to stop back tomorrow for video tutorial Monday, and don't forget to comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win some goodies.

Love.
Brit

September 2010 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

Hey all! I decided to participate in my second ever PTI blog hop this month, and I'm so excited. Hope over here to the Nichole's blog post to get started hopping! The challenge was to share a technique I've learned from someone else. Here's the card:

The technique I used was one I learned from Jennifer McGuire last weekend. I inked the background heavily with distress inks and then stamped my Polka Dot Basics II with Perfect Pearls mist on it. It makes this awesome, imperfect sparkly resist. I thought it would be a fun contrast to the very serious Autumn Abundance flowers and sentiment. Here's the close-up:

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream and Kraft), Ribbon- Papertrey Ink (1/4" Silk Ribbon with Vintage Photo Distress Ink on it), Pearls- Creative Imaginations, Stamps- Papertrey Ink (Autumn Abundance and Polka Dot Basics II), Ink- Tsukineko (Brown Memento) and Ranger (Distress Inks by Tim Holtz in Vintage Photo, Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, and Fired Brick), Marker- ZIG, Colored Pencils- Prisma.

Thanks for hopping by! Make sure to leave a comment on this post to be entered to win in my giveaway! See you tomorrow for my inspiring links and a pretty poppy card. :)

Love.
Brit

Scrapfest: The Projects.

Hi all! In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I would come back with another post with close-ups of the finished projects from the Hero Arts class and Tim Holtz class that I took last weekend at Scrapfest. Here, along with some other pictures from the event, is that recap.

(Picture from the fabulous Latrice.)

First up was Tim Holtz's Key to Creativity Class:

 Our little setup. So many goodies to play with!

Mario was the fastest tiny attacher-refiller I've ever seen. (Okay, so the only one I've ever seen... but he still was amazing.)

A work in progress.

 The final project- distressed, inked, and Tim Holtz-ified.

My overall opinion of the class: Fantastic. Tim is a wonderful teacher and got through the entire project with time to spare at the end. He's wonderfully charismatic and a blast to learn from. I'd take a class from him in a heartbeat! I look forward to adding my photos and journaling to the book. I'm still on the fence of what to make it about. Maybe my family back at home? We'll see.

Next up, it was the Hero Arts Color Your World Cards class. Here's a cute picture that my new friend Linda captured of me during the class:

Class Review: The class was super fast-paced, so I spent about another (leisurely) 45 minutes outside of class cutting things out, tying bows, and adhering them to the card bases, but the work was well worth it. Check out the final products for yourself:

 Embossing + Distress Ink + Lots of Perfect Pearls mist

 

 Clear resist embossing + distress ink + a unique front-open card

 Distress Inks + Perfect Pearl mist stamping + a fold-up front portion of the card

And one more for good measure from the Hero Arts Make and Take:

Yum. Isn't Hero Arts the best?

This post is getting quite long, so I'll just have to be back tomorrow with a new card + some inspiration links for ya. Oh, and don't forget to comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win some HA and TH goodies.

Love.
Brit

Sharing about Scrapfest 2010.

The Video.
I promised a post talking about scrapfest, and I thought just sharing a video would be a better idea. So here' some of the things I liked and picked up at Scrapfest this last weekend. As always, you can watch the video over at youtube (and make sure you subscribe to my channel to catch my weekly videos)

The Card.
Here's the card I made using a few things that I picked up this weekend:

I did the leaves by stamping them in Brown Memento Ink and then covering them with Ranger Gold paint (my new paint dauber) and Barn Door and Spiced Marmelade distress ink. I love this look!

I did the embossed background by running a piece of kraft cardstock through my big shot with my new Tim Holtz woodgrain texture fade and then going over the raised areas with vintage photo distress ink and more gold paint. Yum.

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Kraft, Vintage Cream, and Pure Poppy), Ink- Ranger (Distress Ink by Tim Holtz in Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, and Vintage Photo) and Tsukineko (Brown Memento), Paint- Ranger (Gold Paint Dauber), Stamps- Hero Arts (CL414 Classic Messages and CL457 Real Leaves), Embossing Folder- Tim Holtz for Sizzix, Twine- Papertrey Ink.


The Giveaway.

Here's what you will win:

A stamp set from Hero Arts, Tumbled Glass and Wild Honey Distress Ink, 5 yards each of three different May Arts ribbons, and two spools of American Crafts ribbon.

To enter, simply leave one comment. That's it! I'll do a drawing for the winner on September 30th at 10 PM CST to give you plenty of time to tell your friends. Thanks for stopping by today!

Love.

Brit

Dinner with the Hero Arts Ladies.

I wanted to pop in to show you about my favorite part of the weekend- Dinner with the Hero Arts ladies! We met up at the Twin City Grill in the mall on Saturday night and ate some great food, laughed a ton, and got to know each other. Here's our cute group shot at the end of the night:

That's (left to right, starting at the top): Kari, Jen, me, Barb, Shari, Anita, Sarah, Margret, Jen, Carol, Sophie, Liz, Linda, Natasha, Latrice, Anne, Shaune, Shirley, Richele, Marie, and Kate. We had such a fantastic time! I got to meet some really fantastic ladies and was amazed at how nice everyone was. Here are some shots of me and the others:

Me + Barb. She is outrageously nice. I love it! I was so happy to meet one of the famed Hero Arts Hostesses in person. Did you see her day on the HA blog yesterday? You go girl!

Latrice + me. The picture is a little bit at an awkward angle, but I Latrice is so darn photogenic that it doesn't matter. She is such a sweetheart and arranged the whole dinner; that took a ton of work. I can't wait to meet up with her again sometime in the future. :)

Me + Jennifer McGuire. Goodness, she's so funny and sweet! I loved hanging out with her and the Hero Arts crew. There was so much talent in one room. Amazing!


We also decided to do a fall and halloween-themed card swap. I wanted to share the cards that I brought to trade (and Latrice's mom and sister ended up going home with- they were so excited. Ha):

For this card, I inked the background with distress ink, stamped my leaves with clear embossing powder, then ink with some Fired Brick (dark red) distress ink over the top. Then I stamped the Friends Definition stamp over the top, wiped off the embossed areas, and embellished. I love the way this turned out. Here's the close-up:

The gorgeous lace ribbon is from Hero Arts with a little bit of vintage photo distress ink pounced on it to coordinate with the card better.


Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Cream and Kraft), Stamps- Hero Arts (CL414 Classic Messages, CG125 Friends Definition, CL457 Real Leaves), Ribbon- Hero Arts, Ink- Ranger (Distress Inks by Tim Holtz- Vintage photo, Antique Linen, Barn Door, Fired Brick, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmelade), Label Punch- EK Success, Embossing Ink- Versamark, Embossing Powder- Ranger.


Card number two:

I did the leaves by putting Distress inks right on to the stamp and them spritzing them with a mixture of Perfect Pearls and water. I love the watercolor effect- next time I'll make sure to spritz them even more.

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Cream and Kraft), Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket (Togetherness Collection), Twine- Papertrey Ink, Stamps- Hero Arts (CL457 Real Leaves and CL447 Beautiful Peacocks), Ink- Ranger (Distress Inks by Tim Holtz- Barn door, Wild honey, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, and Antique Linen), Marker- ZIG by EK Success, Label Punch- EK Success, Corner Rounder- WRMK.


I hope you enjoyed my little look into this fantastic dinner. I can't wait to do this again next year! Look for a full recap of the Scrapfest event in my next post. :) Trust me, you'll want to stop by for a chance to win. Thanks for stopping by today!


Love.
Brit

Video Tutorial Monday #2! Paper Piecing

Sorry I've been so absent lately, but school has officially kicked in full gear, and I only had time to craft for the HA Flickr group swap at Scrapfest this weekend. I promise I'll share those cards along with a review of the event here, though. It was an amazing experience this year, including some fanstic classes, make and takes, and meeting some new scrapbooking friends. Love it! Look for that on Thursday. :) HINT: There may be a giveaway involved ;)

So here is week two of my Monday video tutorials. I'm loving this set up right now. I'm still figuring things out with my new camera and the setup around my desk, so bear with me theses upcoming weeks as I find the best camera angle to do this from. It's definitely a huge learning experience- I've never had this much interaction with video before. Once I get something that works for me, I'll make sure to show you around the set up so maybe you can have some beginner hints for your own videos. I'm here to pass on my lessons from trial and error to you :)

You can watch the video here at youtube. Make sure you subscribe to my channel so you can catch my videos every week. As always, I would love to hear what you think about the video and ideas about subject matter for future ones.

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Kraft, Enchanted Evening, and Raspberry Fizz) , Patterned Paper- Crate Paper, Stamp- Unity Stamp Company, Ink- Tsukineko (Memento Brown) and Ranger (Vintage Photo and Wild Honey Distress Inks by Tim Holtz), Pen- Signo Uniball, Letter Stickers- Basic Grey (Origins Collection), Rhinestones- Queen & Co., Corner Rounder- WRMK.

Don't you love paper piecing? I hope you can give it a try sometime this week. I'll be back soon with a scrapfest recap and a few projects.

Thank you for stopping by. It's especially evident to me after the past couple days how great this industry is and how awesome the people are who craft, blog, and leave comments truly are. Thank you.

Love.

Brit

Video Tutorial #1 - Watercolor Distress Ink Stamping

Hey there! It's Monday, which means the start of another week of classes, projects, and random conversations with people I know from two years ago. That seems to be the theme around here on campus these days.

Anyways, yesterday I put together my first video tutorial, and I'm hoping to make this a consistent feature here on my blog. I have so many ideas, and I'm ready to start sharing them. :) So here's my first one! Watch it here or over at youtube, and make sure to subscribe to my channel so you can keep getting videos as I make them.

And the close-ups:

Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Smokey Shadow and Vintage Cream), Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket (Togetherness Collection 6 by 6 pad), Stamps- Hero Arts (S5317 Starburst Lace), Papertrey Ink (Butterfly Dreams Sentiment) and Studio Calico (Labels Stamp), Ribbon- Offray, Tape- Pretty Pastel Sheets Refill from PrettyTape, Ink- Tsukineko (Black Memento) and Ranger (Barn Door, Spiced Marmelade, and Wild Honey Distress Ink by Tim Holtz), Perfect Pearls- Ranger, Other- Staples.

Let me know what you think of the video. Do you have anything that you would like to see me create? Do you like seeing the whole card made? I would love to hear some feedback!

Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Love.

Brit