Inkin' & Thinkin'

A Little Creativity Bug Bit Me!

I actually made some cards.  I know.  Pick your jaw up!  LOL!  Wanna see?

And I also scrapbooked!  This first page was part of a challenge over at 9th & Bloom.  The challenge was to create a page with an oversized title.

Kit:  Gone Fishing by Creations by Rachael B

This layout was also part of a challenge, this time at Stuff To Scrap.  We were given a mini kit and had to use every piece of the kit on a layout.

Kit:  Peace Add On by Designs by Snowlady

These next two layouts are part of the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race I'm participating in.  The first layout had to be about an activity our family enjoys.  The layout had to be in the form of the activity and had to really encompass the theme of the activity.  So I chose gaming.  We all love to play games whether it be cards, dice, board games, computer games, or wii.  So I created my layout around that theme.

I used bits and pieces from so many kits to create this layout so there's not really a kit I can refer you back to. 

The last layout challenge was that one of the team members would send their travel photos and journaling to the other to create a layout.  I was more than happy to scrap Joy's photos and journaling.  The requirements were that we had to incorporate some kind of transportation into the layout as a main element.  You can't imagine the pressure and the excitement of scrapbooking someone else's photos.  I really did enjoy it so much!

This was another layout that I used pieces from a ton of different kits so no kit credits here either. 

Have a great day and go create something!

A Card

It's been a long while since I sat down and designed and created a card so when I was asked to make some invitations for our church's Valentine dinner, I had some reservations.  At first I thought I'd just create them digitally to save myself some sanity.  Then I thought about how awesome it feels to receive a handmade card from someone and decided to create them the real way...you know...glue and scissors,  LOL!  So I headed to the craft house and started tossing around papers and ideas.  I wanted something really special but I needed to make 25 of them so it had to be doable in 2 days as well.  Hmmm...

This is what I came up with...

I used up the rest of my beautiful Bazzill Bling in black and embossed a flourish on it in silver.  Then I used my cricut to cut out the word love as well as the hearts.  The red heart was stamped with a saying about the strength of a woman (I was making these for the men to give to their wives).  The white heart was stamped with a flourish and then I embossed the edges with silver embossing powder and popped them up with some foam tape.  I layered all of that onto a piece of grey cardstock that I had embossed the edges in silver as well.  Once that was all put together, I popped it on a piece of red cardstock to make it really pop.

On the inside, I stamped some flourishes as well as a sweet saying.  I printed out the information on grey cardstock and then punched the edge and inked everything up.  Then we added a little red heart to the flourish to make it all prettier.

And finally, since my mom always taught me that the back should be pretty too, I stamped a little saying there and edged it all out with ink. 

I have to admit...it felt pretty dang good to have ink on my fingers and glue in my hands again!

Monday Morning ... Grab A Cup & A Freebie!

Let's see if I can get you all caught up aka me all caught up!  LOL! 

I spent 9 days at my mom's while the kids were on spring break...that meant lots of scanning, cards, food and family!  LOVED IT!

Before I left, I stopped and grabbed the mail and took my netflix movies with me.  One of them was Twilight...this was a bad thing!  I still have not returned it to Netflix 2 weeks later!  I am hooked!  I have watched this movie at least 15 times already and I read the first book in 3 days...well, really, 3 nights and early mornings.  LOL!  I passed up stopping to buy the second book on my way home because I thought I could just get it at the library (budget conscious there).  Well, I was wrong.  When I asked the librarian if I could reserve it and she giggled, I knew I was in trouble!  LOL!  So I did a search online for an inter-library loan and the closest one available was very far away.  I reserved it anyway.  Then my sister picked up the second book for me when she was out of town last week.  Now if only it would come in the mail, I could refuse to get out of bed again until it's finished!  But alas, I sit and wait for it to arrive and torture myself by watching the movie over and over again.  It's so hard to watch Edward...so hard.

While I'm sitting in front of the tv with my feet up, I'm attempting to finish sorting my digi kits and even getting a few pages finished here and there.  Here are a few of them...

Does that not make you hungry and ready for the sunshine?!

If not the food...does this?  These two pages were made with Teri's new kit Are We There Yet?  It's so fun!  LOVE IT!  Check out her blog for a coupon...you know you want it!

I also finished out the March Challenges at Pretty Scrappy which included making a birthday card, a page using certain colors, and a quote challenge.  I love doing challenges.  It really makes me think of new ways to use my kits and definitely makes me get more use out of them!

I used the PS Collab It's My Party for all 3 of these projects.  Don't you just love my parents?  They are awesome!

I tried some new photo editing techniques while working with Stacey's kit The Sugar Shack.  I think I like it.  It's completely different from any look I've done in the past but it's kind of fun and funky.  So I'm keeping it in my notes so I can do it again.

I also got to work with a new-to-me designer this week.  I really like the bright funkiness of her kits so I tried one on for size and I'm happy with the results!  I even won Pick Of The Day at Divine Digital with one of them!  YEAH ME (YILM)!

This kit is called For Henry and the new-to-me designer is Wetfish Designs. 

Can you believe that goose egg?  Makes me cringe!

Scrappin Freestyle released a new MegaKit the other day so I made a couple of layout with it as well.  It's called Just Peachy and just those words brought back a lot of memories.  I remember when my bedroom was peach...I had the coolest peach bedspread and Ranger Tails wallpaper.  I had a frilly pillow sham and the world was hunky dorey!

I also remember when I got my beloved Peaches N' Cream Barbie.  It was the Christmas my brother and I snuck upstairs while my parents were sleeping and checked out our stash from Santa.  I had to go to the bathroom and as soon as he was out of my protective eyesight, he had to fire up his remote control monster truck.  Well, it didn't take long for my dad to flip on the bathroom light and send us promptly to bed with a very stern warning.  We snuck back up again and slept on the stairs until he officially let us out for Christmas morning.  LOL!

But I didn't have pictures of those memories so I used this kit for some new memories.

If you ask me, those two girls are much cuter than any Barbie!

And finally, I'm getting to the freebie...are you still with me?  Or did you skip to the end already and I'm typing for nothing?  LOL! 

Jodi is releasing her newest kit today called Funky Time and that's exactly what it is!  First I'll show you a couple of layouts that I made with it and then you can pick up your freebie.  And if you want to pick up the kit, check out Jodi's blog for an awesome discount!

Now if that face isn't funky I don't know what is?!  She positively scared me with this make up job!  Guess she had a lot to learn at that point!  LOL!

And finally...you can download your freebie QP here.

Enjoy!

I can still stamp! LOL!

Believe it or not, I can still stamp.  LOL!  These are the cards I made for last month's card class.  I really enjoy this class a lot.  If you know me well, you know that I don't particularly enjoy making cards but since it comes with the territory, I do it.  However, I have discovered recently that I actually enjoy making cards.  Who knew?

Here are the 4  made for that class.

Credits:  Maya Road (cupcake) & CTMH (Sentiment)

Credits:  CTMH

Credits:  CTMH

Credits:  CTMH

Now pick yourself up off the floor.  I promise to show more of these in the future.  LOL!

If you'd ever like to join us for this class, it's on the last Thursday of each month and you just need to bring your bag of scraps and a few sheets of neutral CS with you to make at least 4 cards of your own. 

Everyone's cards turn out differently since we bring our own paper...it makes for some fun experimentation too!

A Glamour Girl Card

When I first saw this stamp from Rubbernecker Stamps, I knew I had to own it someday.  I'm so glad I caved last year and picked it up.  It was just what I needed for this thank you card.

A Few Christmas Gifts...

These are a few of the projects I made as gifts this year.  I was a procrastinator and seriously put these off until the week before Christmas...I so suck!  But hopefully everyone liked them (they seemed to ... unless they are all good liars!  LOL!).

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

A Week of Emporium - Day 7 - A Card

This brings our week of Emporium to a close.  Rest assured...I'll be back with more from this beautiful paper pack because it still has my heart thumping!

A Week of Emporium - Day 6 - A Card

A Week of Emporium - Day 5 - A Card

A Christmas Card

This is a card that took me a while to create.  I was going through some page kits and saw this paper and decided it couldn't be cut up and used on a layout.  I thought for sure that bird was meant to be on a card. 

So I sat down with my exacto knife and began to cut.  And then I cut some more.  And a little more.  Then it was done and I had to figure out how to use it! 

This is what I came up with...hope you like it!