CAS-ual Fridays Embossing Challenge!

Click here for the MSS SNEAK PEEK!!

Hi, everyone! Stopping by today with a card for the latest Cas-ual Fridays challenge! I haven't had a chance to play along in awhile and I was excited to do some embossing this past weekend!

Here's the challenge:

 

And here's my card:

LOVE the way this one came out! I pulled out my Echo Park For the Record 6 x 6 pad and chose this beautiful, warm teal paper to emboss. Ran it through the Cuttlebug with my PTI Tin Types impression plate! The text paper is also from that collection!

Finished it off with a sentiment from PTI's Mat Stack 2 Collection and a sweet Enchanted Evening bow!

Really love this color combo- can't wait to use it again soon!

Hope you enjoyed my card today! Don't forget- we're right in the middle of "Sneak Peeks" of the new Market Street Stamps August Release stamps! Make sure you check the MSS blog all week for more information!!

MSS Sketch Challenge!

Hello, hello! Hope everyone is having a fabulous week so far! I'm here today to share a card I made for the latest Market Street Stamps Sketch Challenge! The challenges on the Market Street Stamps blog are a great way to jumpstart your creativity and WIN stuff! Can't be better than that! The prize for this challenge is a Celebrate Cake stamp set and a Momento Tuxedo Black ink pad! Play along for your chance to win!

Here's the challenge:

And here's my card:

Hehe... LOVE those little birdies from the Cheep Talk set! SO cute! I stamped them on rustic cream cardstock and colored with Copics. Layered them on top of a piece of Echo Park A Walk in the Park patterned paper and a kraft layer that was stamped with the Woodgrain background. LOVE the little word bubbles in this set- thie so much fun and add so much interest to the card!

Make sure you visit the Market Street Stamps blog today to see oodles of inspiration by our FABULOUS design team! I pinch myself every day- so lucky to work with such amazing designers!! I hope you can play along!!

Echo Park Fresh Faces Campaign!!

Did you all hear about this monthly design team call from Echo Park Paper?? It's a wonderful competition that focuses on new and upcoming talent! LOVE the idea and LOVE Echo Park so I figured I'd take my chances and give it a try! What do I have to lose?

I've been concentrating on scrapbooking a lot more lately. While card making is my number one love, scrapbooking holds a big place in my heart because it centers around my family. Memory keeping is HUGE for me and I'm glad that I get to share my family memories with you!

My all time favorite collection from Echo Park is Little Boy. I have two little boys of my own and find myself reaching for the super cute patterns in this collection OFTEN! I have three projects to share with you today that all use elements from the Little Boy collection!

LOVE this first layout- encompasses all the fun of little babies... I miss those times every now and then! The little man in the green is my little Austin and the pretty girl in the blue is a dear friend's daughter. It was so fun to see them interact together!

All elements are from the Little Boy collection including this journaling card and the sticker letters. So easy to throw a page together when all of the elements coordinate so nicely!

Mixing and matching the patterns is one of my favorite things to do when I get a new collection and these patterns work together so well! I added a faux stitch border around the entire page with a black pen. The stamp on the bottom of the page is a SMASH stamp!

This next layout was another really fun one to create! It brought back so many fond memories! It's a series of pictures of my poor little baby boy being kissed by our puppy, Ellie! SO cute!

Again, I used the Little Boy collection a lot on this page! The buttons are perfect for punching out and using as embellishments. The title is layered on a hand cut journal tag I made with the Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger set from PTI. The lines I used for the journaling are also from that set!











I added some great green satin ribbon to really draw attention to the photos on the page. This is a fun ruffle technique that really adds a lot of punch!



And lastly, I would like to share a clean and simple birthday card!

The focal image of this card is actually cut straight from the front sheet of the collection kit! Couldn't get any easier than that! And that also means that NO piece of this kit will go to waste! Haha! I added a strip of the scalloped sticker from the Alpha Stickers sheet, tied a pretty white ribbon around, and adhered it to the card base! Easy peasy! Then, I stamped this fun birthday sentiment from PTI's Say It With Style set and added a little rhinestone accent! What a fun and QUICK card!

I hoped you enjoyed seeing a little more scrapbooking on the blog- I really am having a blast trying to catch up and document these memories! There will be much, much more to come!

Thanks for stopping by today!! 

How about a scrapbook layout?

Hi! I thought I'd share a little something I've been working on lately. As some of you know, I am a HUGE supporter of Digital Project Life- it's super easy, takes a lot of the "stress" away about keeping up with scrapbooking, and I LOVE the designs. But every now and then I get the scrapbooking itch and then I run to Archiver's and spend a ton of money on open stock 12 X 12 paper and a couple of collections, get them home, let them sit on my desk for a few months and then use finally use them.... haha! I'm trying very hard to get out of this vicious cycle and here's how I started:

Wow- it's been a while, but I think it's a little like riding a bike. This is my little man, Austin James, he's quite the character and a funny face expert. He makes me laugh every single day and I think I captured a little bit of that here.

Last time I was at Archiver's (ehem... 2 months ago...) I picked up some of this sweet Jillibean Soup paper from the open stock- it's from the Soup's Staples collection and it's called Gray Sugar. LOVE it. Could have bought this pattern in every color they have... lol!

I also used some of the fun stuff I found in my Little Boy collection from Echo Park. I bought the whole collection and I definitely think it's one of those collections that I'll turn to again and again- I DO have 2 little boys.... it's PERFECT!

I pulled out some fun Waltzingmouse Stamps for this layout, too! I recently won a stamp set over on the Waltzingmouse FB page and it took me a LONG time to decide on which stamp set I wanted! They have beautiful stamps and I'm so glad I finally got to try them out! Not only are they beautiful, but they are exceptionally good quality and they shipped super fast! Can't beat that! The rocket ship and the sentiments are from the Half Pint Heroes set!

A close up of my silly boy...

He's a little crazy...



Super cute stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps! Colored with Copics!


I hope you enjoyed seeing something a little different on the blog-o today! Expect more scrapbook layouts in the near future- everytime Eric goes away I get a little crazy about memory recording!

Oh yeah- I put it out there on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ but I thought I'd ask here, too! I'm SUPER interested in these scrapbook kit clubs I keep hearing about (Studio Calico, Scarlet Lime, Paper Posies, The Scrapbook Nook to name a few...) and while I'd love to order from each and compare- I'm not rich... haha! Which kit do you use and what do you love about it? I'd love to know!!


Thanks! See you again very soon!

MSS Color Cue #2

Hi, there! So nice of you to stop by for a visit today! Hope you are all doing well! I'm here today to share a card I made for the latest Color Cue challenge over at the Market Street Stamps blog! Here's the challenge:

Ooh.... love this color combo! Here's the card I made:

Love the colors- so perfect for spring! I started with a sheet of Summer Sunrise cardstock and stamped MSS Lost Garden with Fresh Snow ink. Then, I did some die cutting. Here I used Turning A New Leaf, Doily Details A, and Fillable Frames #7 dies (all from Papertrey Ink). Love these dies and I've been a little die-crazy lately! You can't blame me!

The birdy is from MSS Follow Your Heart and is paper pieced with a sheet from the Echo Park collection A Walk in the Park- beautiful paper! Finished it off with a sentiment from PTI's Birthday Bash Sentiments.

I'm also linking this card to the Wee Memories challenge this week! It's all about paper piecing- check it out! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I have one more thing to share- if you haven't already checked it out, I'm hosting a contest with Market Street Stamps called "Cream of the Crop!" All you have to do to participate is share your projects using Market Street Stamps- it's super easy!! Click the "Cream of the Crop" blinkie on my right sidebar for more information!!

Thanks!



Happy New Year!

Hey, hey everyone! Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a great holiday break. We spent some time just BEING rather than running all over the place and it was really great. Today started back to normal -- hubby back to work after over a week off and Aden is off to school tomorrow! I gotta say... I'm ready to get back into the routine of everyday life!

I'm here today to show you some quick thank you cards I whipped up right after Christmas. They were made with two of my favorite things: Snow Cute from My Cute Stamps and Echo Park Paper Co's Everybody Loves Christmas line! I LOVE this little penguin!

Here are the cards:

So, so cute! AND SOOOO easy! I colored these cuties in with my Copics - I did the black one first... super cute, but very traditional. So... I decided my next one had to be a little more out of the box! How about a purple and hot pink penguin! Out of the box, for sure! The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Fillable Frames #5.

Here are individual shots of each card! I love these and think they are super sweet!

One other BIG thing I want to share with you is that I am using Becky Higgins' PROJECT LIFE this year! YAY! I came across Project Life through Michelle Wooderson's blog and was floored! It is so stylish, organized, and EASY! I have chosen to use the digital version because nothing is easier than dropping in pictures and typing in journaling to me- there's zero stress involved! While I am a huge fan of scrapbooking and documenting memories, I am EXTREMELY behind and am way to stressed about it. I'm starting fresh! I'm almost finished an album using last years Project Life version for 2010 -- and I started it a week ago! YAY! Check it out! It's an awesome product and I am super excited to make Project Life part of MY LIFE!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Steph

It's an ECHO PARK Christmas!

Hey! How was everybody's weekend? I had a wonderful weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed the Saturday Crop at Archiver's- it was my first time and I was in love at first sight! HAHA! I met some very nice ladies and picked up a couple new products that I have had my eye on. First, and probably most important because I've been asked to make 100 wedding invitations for a friend, I picked up the Martha Stewart Score Board. I haven't had a chance to play with it too much yet, but I've only heard great things about it! Secondly, I picked up this awesome Echo Park kit collection Everybody Loves Christmas! Super cute and steers away from the traditional Christmas colors.

So today I have a couple of Echo Park cards I made:

So this first one has very little stamping on it- I simply trimmed a piece of one of the papers from the kit- stamped a Stampin' Up sentiment (borrowed from Amanda who was sitting next to me at the crop!) and tied a bow! Super easy! And I love how all the colors come together!



The second one has NO STAMPING! I know, I know..... But how cute is that little snowman? Haha! And I love how the Papertrey Ink Distressed Dots paper works so well with this Echo Park line!

What else is in store for this Echo Park kit collection, you ask? Hmmm.... I'm thinking banners! I'm going to work on it this weekend- I'll be sure to post when it's done!

Thanks for checking in with me today!

Steph