Practical Scrappers Wednesday

(Note:  If you are here for the Lori Whitlock Blog Hop, click HERE - or just scroll down to the entry right before this one.)

Today is water-themed layout day over at Practical Scrappers.  And because I am currently vacationing on a beach in sunny Florida, I thought it only appropriate that my layout should include a beach picture.  I love this picture of Sweet Little Lula and her friend running into the waves at the beach.  Although you can't see their faces, you can just feel the excitement they were experiencing!

I used American Crafts and Pebbles papers for this layout.  And even though I didn't use beach-themed papers, I primarily used blues and browns and other soft, faded colors to help provide my beach feel.  I think it works, don't you?

A close-up  of the cluster in the corner of my layout.  And simple, handwritten journaling was all that was needed.

Of course, I just HAD to add a banner.  And I really enjoyed cutting out a few of the hexagons and adding popdots behind them to add a little subtle dimension to my layout!

I am loving using these Mister Huey's masks!!!  Have you tried them yet?  They are so much fun, and I love the look they give my layouts!

That's it for me today.  Hope this has inspired you to celebrate summer and create your own water-themed layout! 

It's a Lori Whitlock Blog Hop!

Greetings from sunny Florida where I am on vacation!  Yep, we gathered up the youngest two in our brood, stuffed  loaded them into our overpacked vehicle and headed east on I-10 for about 10 hours to get to the land of sunshine, endless beaches, and white sand.  Even on vacation, though, I like to send out cards with a personal touch - a post card of Big Al's Gator Farm just isn't for me.  So...(insert sound of record screeching to a stop)...

Wait a minute!  First, let's talk about Lori's wonderful blog hop.  She has been up to some super exciting stuff lately, and we are celebrating - yippee!  Now, you should have arrived from JOY'S BLOG. Don't you love her condiment caddy?  If I could have fit one more thing in our car, I probably would have asked Joy to let me borrow it for our trip - it looks perfect for a little picnic!  If you are just arriving and want to start at the very beginning, click HERE.

Lori has had so much wonderful news to share with us lately - she has launched her new and improved shop, she has terrific new cutting files almost every day it seems, and she has teamed up with Jessica Sprague to offer us digital designs, too!  And to celebrate all this funliness - that's right, I said funliness - Lori is offering YOU this awesome free file available for download today only.  I love it when people celebrate something by giving US free goodies, don't you?

Now, back to my project - instead of sending those postcards of Big Al's Gator Farm, I like to send quick personalized cards.  Lori has quite a few suh-weet summer files out to choose from, but I really fell in love with her bathing suits on a clothesline - it's simple, it's cute, and it's FUN. 

I initially started just making the first card using Lori's clotheline swim suits file (I layered my twine over her clothes line) - my card was quick and easy to make, so I "mass-produced" it and plan to insert a few vacation pictures before sending to a few family members and friends.

As I was cutting my bathing suits, I realized I also had the perfect card idea for a dear friend of mine who is having a birthday.  She marches to the beat of her own drum, no doubt about it, and a ordinary card simply would not work!  So, I came up with this quick, fun card - the inside says, "Happy Birthday to a true original!"  Pretty clever, huh? 

That's it for me today - the beach is calling my name and I can't stay inside a second longer.  Don't worry though, Lori is having a sale on her new shapes in the SHOP, and there are so many fabulous new files for you to check out! I can't wait to play with them when I get back!

Your last stop is LISA! I know you are going to love what she made!  Happy crafting!

Funky Mixed Media (using Lori Whitlock)

Happy Monday everybody!  I was looking at Lori Whitlock's cutting files, which are all so wonderful and perfect for everyday home decor and projects.  But, this time, rather than doing the "usual thing" I decided to challenge myself and do something a little different (that I have been wanting to do for a LONG time) - a mixed media canvas.

First, since I didn't have a clue where to start (other than by looking at all the great projects on Pinterest), I let my fingers take me over to Youtube where I found a very helpful TUTORIAL on how to make a background on my Canvas. 

Next, I headed over to Lori's STORE, where I found her Summer Icons and Water Titles files, which were exactly what I needed for my mermaid art.

After I Gessoed and painted my background, I applied a Gel Medium to the backs of my shapes and stuck them in place.  I then brushed more Gel Medium over the tops of my shapes; it dries clear so I didn't have to worry about the vibrant colors of my papers getting diminished one little bit.    I used American Crafts papers this time because I wanted something super bright that would match my daughter's room.

My mermaid was a LOT of fun to make!  First, because I DO NOT DRAW WELL AT ALL, I found a simple image of a mermaid that I converted to black and white and printed out.  Next, I cut out a picture of my youngest child's head, and I simply glued it on top of the mermaid.  I wanted her tail to have scales so I used my paper hole punch and punched and punched and...punched some more.  Then I layered and layered and layered until I got just the right look I wanted.  I painted in spots around the body to help blend it into the painting.  The crown was hand-drawn (about the extent of my drawing skills) and added last.  Here's another close-up of the tale - because it took me for-ev-er to do...

And here are some close-ups of Lori's files that were used on my canvas...

And that's it for today.  Now it's your turn.  Go ahead - take a chance - do something you've never done before!  Go on!  I dare you!

A New Handmade Mini-Album!

Friday is almost here, and with it (hopefully) free time to get crafty!  A couple of weeks ago, I made this easy, simple little mini that I want to share with you.  It's up on the PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS BLOG today, complete with a VIDEO TUTORIAL that I would love for you to check out.

You know I love capturing everyday moments, and this mini was just the right size for a series of photos, and accompanying journaling, from a recent walk with my youngest.  It's only three pages, but each page holds three tags - so there is lots and lots of room for pictures, decorations, journaling - whatever you want to create!

My mini was simply made from folding and stiching 6x6 papers together to create pockets.  My cover is an old piece of cardboard that I painted, misted and decorated after cutting it down to size.  Here's how it turned out:

These are the tags pulled out of the front pocket and the side pocket. 

The next page...

The next page, where my child added her own journaling...

There's so much space for journaling and pictures with these wonderful tags!

And the last page...

That's it for today...but be sure to stay tuned.  I will be back this weekend with a Lori Whitlock project and more...

Now go forth and be crafty!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today, the baby of my little brood turns 12.  Hard to believe it's been that long since she made her impatient entry into the world at the crack of dawn - two weeks before her due date because she couldn't stand to wait a moment longer.  She had things to do!  And she hasn't slowed down even once ever since.

I have a fun project that I will be sharing with you on Thursday, the 14th, featuring this child on one of our recent walks.  It has a quick video tutorial, and I can't wait to show it to you!  Until then, I will leave you with a few of my favorite photos from our walk which will be making a re-appearance in my project.

Happy Sunday everyone!  Hope it's a good one!

Practical Scrappers - Summer Layouts and Cards

I have so much fun with PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS- especially when the challenge is to design a layout and card about one of my favorite seasons - summer! I created this using a recent CREATIVE SCRAPPERS sketch from its Sunshine Crop along with a favorite pic of one of my daughters and her guy taken last year when they were at the beach surfing

The sketch really caught my eye because of all the layering, and I am very happy with the end result!

I think muted papers are just about perfect for beach layouts.  And I really, really like the messy ink-splattered effect on these lovely patterned papers by We R Memory Keepers.  As far as I am concerned, a little messiness is always a good thing!

I thought the "name" of this paper - Down by the Sea - was perfect for my title.  So I cut it out and added it to my layout, on my picture.  See?  Some may call it laziness; I prefer to call it ingenuity.

I love summer SO MUCH that I also created a summer-themed card for Practical Scrappers two days ago.  Of course, it was a piece of cake.  I simply used the bright papers and the adorable stickers from my Echo Park Hello Summer Collection.  I added a few buttons and a little bit of baker's twine and I was done.  Quick and cute!

And that's it for the day!  Hope you are having a lovely start to YOUR summer!

Playing Along with October Afternoon

I spent the better part of my day creating layouts for calendar pages for one of my daughters, so after I had that all wrapped up, I was more than ready to try something fun for myself.  A quick perusal of the World Wide Web took me to October Afternoon's BLOG which is full of fun challenges, including a 9 to 5 Sketch Challenge (using a sketch made by Jill Sprott).

I didn't have any pictures of my family members that I wanted to use for this challenge, and my kids flat out refused weren't available for me to take some quick photos, so I decided to create a layout about something I enjoy doing in my spare time (when I am not scrapbooking).  What is that, you ask?  I'll tell you.  It's reading on my Kindle, in my favorite comfy chair, with a hot cup of coffee by my side.  It's one of my favorite ways to relax in the evening.

I followed the sketch pretty closely, but I decided to layer my photos and random embellishments on top of the grid pattern - something that seems to be pretty popular right now.  I placed pop dots under all three of my photos and a few of my embellies to add dimension.

Journaling was kept simple.  A little handwriting that incorporated my title into what I had to say.

And that's it.  I am really liking all these "office collections" that are coming out lately.  I think for a "real challenge" I may bring a few items back from my office and try to incorporate those into my next layout!  How do you feel about these collections?  Love them, hate them, or indifferent?