Luck O' the Irish

There's a quick little story behind this project.  Someone asked in one of the forums I read if we took lots of pictures of our family members or loved ones on Valentine's Day or if we made any Valentine-themed projects.  I didn't, and that made me feel a little sad because I wanted to.  I meant to.  But time just slipped away and Valentine's Day was over before you know it.  So - I looked on my calendar to see what the next holiday would be, and I saw St. Patrick's Day.  

Believe it or not, I'm Irish.  Well, my great-grandparents were.  I've even been to Ireland where I kissed the Blarney Stone!  So I thought this would be the PERFECT holiday to prepare for.  I am getting a jump on it and have already started creating my holiday decor.  And I have pictures in mind and WILL be taking them on St. Patty's Day (no matter how much my kids moan and groan about it)!

I've got to tell you, I am LOVING my wall decor:

Here's why I love it so much (besides the fact that it is pretty darned cute!):

1.  I upcycled an old wooden planked piece of wall decor that was destined for the trash pile because it was tired, old, and broken; and

2.  I challenged myself to use fabric and paper on my project.  Each wood plank is covered in brown polka-dotted fabric that I sprayed adhesive to.  I also used burlap remnants that had been sitting around forever on my four-leaf clover; and

3.  I scrapped my stash.  I used papers from my outrageously large Fancy Pants stash.  The papers on my wall hanging are mainly from the Road Show Collection.  Yes, they are that old!  I loved that collection so much I just kept buying it.  It's finally time to use it up and make way for something newer.

To add even more texture to my four leaf clover, I glued a lot of buttons to one of the burlap sections:

The hat and jar/cup decoration were cut out using my Silhouette.  I used primarily the Fancy Pants Park Bench Collection for these.  They were quick little projects but cute nonetheless!  

This little hat could be used as a cupcake holder, a party hat, or the cover to a jar full of goodies.  Isn't it adorable?

That's it for me this fine Monday.  As they say in Ireland - Slainte!

Project Life Week 6

I told myself back in December that I would give Project Life a try.  And I did try it, right on cue, the first week in January.  Annndddd...my layout, or whatever you want to call it, for the first week was just awful.  Nothing felt like it was coming together correctly.  So I shoved it to the side and tried to forget about it.  I tried very hard. But - I really like the idea of Project Life or Pocket Pages.  My "regular" scrapbooking tends to focus on my thoughts about a person or thing, or I create layouts simply because it makes me happy to do so; I stopped chronicling everyday events on my layouts quite awhile ago.  I wanted to find a way to still keep track of those events and this seemed like a good way to do that.

I tried again, and what you see is the end result.  And you know what?  I LOVE it!  It took me awhile to finish.  I am a slow scrapper anyway, and I could not resist embellishing.  The end result, though, was well worth it!  This is what I started doing to help me along.

1.  I keep a daily planner so that I can write down different appointments and design team deadlines.  I started writing a sentence or two each day in my planner about something (or some things) that stood out to me.  This takes less than a minute, and I can refer back to it when I am creating my weekly project.

2.  Whenever I take an Instagram or cellphone picture that I think I might want to use, I immediately email it to myself.  This not only gives me all the pictures I plan to use right in my inbox but I know by looking at my email exactly what day it was sent.  

3.   The first time I tried this back in January, I was using papers that had a weird beige cast to them rather than a true white.  The papers had no journaling cards and no solid patterns that would allow me to make good journaling spots.  For me, the color scheme and patterns made it very difficult to match anything up.  While my colors don't have to match perfectly, they shouldn't look "wrong" together - for lack of a better description.  This time, I used a collection that had lots of tags and cards; the colors weren't an off shade that made them clash with other collections either.  Things went much more quickly with significantly less muttering and gnashing of teeth!

I may backtrack and re-create the first five weeks later on, but right now I am just happy to be moving forward!

I primarily used FANCY PANTS Wonderful Day and Trendsetter collections to create my week's project.  Here are a few close-ups:

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the number six and the doily used on this:

I love big journaling spots like this that already contain a cute graphic.  Of course, I couldn't help layering an extra cloud sticker to the top of my card!

This tiny bag that is holding my journaling tag was simply glued to the top of my pocket.  The bag came with some scrapbook supplies I received in the mail, but it was so cute I couldn't throw it away.  I added a few gold rub-ons and tiny enamel dots to dress it up.  I love how the cheerful stripes of the tag show through the bag, don't you?

This is the right side:

It was important to me to include a few personal words of encouragement to myself as I am on a quest to start living a healthier life.  Because they were personal, I enclosed them in this sweet envelope that I embellished:

And that's my Week 6!  I have no idea if what I created was right or wrong or even if there IS a right or wrong with Project Life, but I am happy with the end result and that makes it right to me!

GIVING BACK SOME LOVE

This morning I wanted to quickly share a layout I worked on, off and on (well, more off than on) over the weekend.  I used Elle's Studio Love You More Collection that I got during a recent fantastic sale at the My Scraps and More Online STORE.  I also used a gold doily and a heart punch to make my gold hearts that are scattered across my layout.  Now, I gotta tell you, I am new to the Elle's Studio party.  My interest was piqued when I saw my friend HEATHER playing with this very line at our last ever Archiver's crop (still crying over the loss of that store).  But, in playing with these papers and all the coordinating journaling cards and strips that I can fussy cut to my heart's content and then use however I want - well, call me a fish because I am hooked!  This Elle's Studio collection is some awfully sweet bait, though!!!

Can you tell I had a lot of fun layering?  Repeat after me: layers are our friends...

Now, you are probably saying, "Yes yes your layout is pretty but who won the sweet Pretty Little Studio gift certificate?"  Using my fabulous random method of asking my youngest daughter to pick a number between 1-18, THE WINNER OF THE GIFT CERTIFICATE IS SUE DOWNEY!  Sue, I will order your gift certificate today and email the code to you once I receive it!

Thank you to everyone who played along and who left some love and kind words, not only for me but for others!  Words of kindness leave such an incredibly large impact on our lives.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

I hope you have a happy crafty week ahead of you.  And if YOU have created something you would like for ME to see and comment on, leave a link in the comment section.  I would love to leave YOU some love, too!!!

The Paper Bakery Sketch #20 Reveal

Happy Sunday folks!  I am up on The Paper Bakery's BLOG today showing my take on the latest sketch, by the wonderfully talented Juliana Michaels!  This is what the sketch looks like:

Sketches make me so happy!  They allow me to just sit down and get started without having to think overly long about a design.  They are invaluable and allow me to actually have time to get crafty, despite having children, cleaning, work, animals, cooking, and a husband all vying for my attention!  

As you can see, I stayed very true to Sketch 20, only changing a few minor things.  I really like this sketch and could see myself using it several times!

All my papers as well as my bits and pieces came from a couple of older Paper Bakery Kits that I purchased when they were having a huge sale at their SHOP.  I just put everything in a big pile on my desk and started crafting!  Here are a couple of close-ups:

Would you like to play along?  Just head to the PAPER BAKERY BLOG and link up your take on Sketch #20.  We would love to see you use Paper Bakery Kits, but it is not necessary.  And, if you are chosen as our random winner, you get a $10 gift certificate to the shop!  The deadline is March 1st at midnight!

Happy crafting!

PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS - SCRAPPING YOUR STASH BLOG HOP

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 

where we are Scrapping our Stash.

 If you want to see five darling, adorable notecards I made for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO, then click HERE.   If you want to see the latest coolio sketch, and my take on it, by MY SCRAPS AND MORE, click HERE. 

This month we are focusing on scrapping our Valentine's stash, or at least stash that has to do with love. We are thrilled to have Kiwi Lane Designs sponsoring this month!  

Kiwi Lane Designs creates templates that help take the frustration out of scrapbooking!  And one lucky winner will get a border set and an accessory set from Kiwi Lane.  We are big fans of Kiwi Lane Designs and in fact have several members of our design team who either currently or in the past have been a part of their design team!  Details on how you can win this prize are at the bottom of this post!

Here is my layout that I created for this blog hop:

Now, I have a confession to make.  I don't have any Valentine's paper left in my stash.  I used to hoard collect Valentine's paper along with all the holiday papers, but then I realized I had lots of cutesy papers that I probably wasn't going to use.  So I gave most of it to a certain 4 year old in my family who was most appreciative!  

That being said, I am on the design team for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO and have been very fortunate to get the new collections as soon as they come in.  And to make way for the new, I need to use up some of my older stash, including some appropriately-themed heart papers and lovely pastel papers.  I l-o-v-e these papers, which is why I held on to them.  But there is no better time to use them, I think, then on a layout about my youngest daughter and her daddy.  She is a Daddy's girl, through and through, and he has often said he would give her the world.  Unfortunately, he didn't realize "giving her the world" might include giving her his favorite Irish cap!

Here are a couple of close-ups.  I love the way the bright yellow hearts pop against the softer pastel papers, don't you?

I cut up my background paper and then layered it in angled strips, which I machine-stitched onto a piece of cardstock.  I added a little peek-a-boo strip of heart paper for fun.  I used rub-ons (also dug out of my stash), a label-maker, and alphas to create my extremely long title.

 Okay, back to the blog hop...we this is a huge list for the blog hop and would love for you to visit as many as you can...but we are not making that mandatory to qualify for the big prize.  BUT - many of the designers are offering prizes of their own so the more you hop, the more chances you have to win!

Here is the list if you are just joining in and want to hop along:

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List

PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS

Krissy Clark McKee (YOU ARE HERE!!!)

Christine Meyer
Kim Ryden
Patty Selah
Charity Hotrum

Lissa Mitchell
Jennifer Haggerty
Alison Day

Bobbi Smith
Michelle Johns
Kerri Yarus
Cathy Harper
Nicole Laha
Lanette Erickson
Majken Pullin

Erin Morehouse

Lisa Peeples
Claude Campeau
Wendy Coffman
Lee-Anne Thornton

This is what you need to do to win the big prize! You can do any or all of the following for up to three entries! 

1) Become a follower here; or

2) Become a fan on our facebook page; or

3) Become a fan on the Kiwi Lane facebook page, and make sure to tell them we sent ya!

WANT TO WIN A PRIZE WITH ME?  IN THE SPIRIT OF VALENTINE'S DAY, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO LEAVE A SWEET MESSAGE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOG ON THIS HOP.  THEN LEAVE ME A MESSAGE TO LET ME KNOW WHOSE BLOG YOU COMMENTED ON.  What's the prize?  How about a $15 gift certificate to my favorite store - Pretty Little Studio!

This contest will close at 11:59 pm CST on Sunday, the 16th.  

MY SCRAPS AND MORE SKETCHES - 2.14 REVEAL

Happy Day of Loooovvveee (typed in my very best Barry White voice).  This is turning out to be quite a busy day for me since I have not one, not two - but THREE projects all due today.  BUT - I absolutely loooovvvee crafting so I am definitely in my happy zone right now.  If you are joining in for the PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS SCRAP YOUR STASH BLOG HOP, click HERE.  If you want to see five darling, adorable notecards I made for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO, then click HERE.  Of course, I would love it if you would scroll down and check out this post, too!

This is my first take on a My Scraps and More sketch as an official design team member.  I am a sketch-a-holic so being part of this sketch design team pretty much has me in sketchy heaven!  To see the sketch, you are going to have to go to the blog, but that is super easy since all you have to do is click on the link HERE.

This is also the first time I have ever used ELLE'S STUDIO papers, and I've got to say, I really love them!  I am a sucker for simple graphic patterns.  They make layering, which I love to do, a piece of cake!  Of course, I purchased them at the My Scraps and More STORE, which just happens to be having a sale...hmmm....looks like it might be time to buy myself a little Valentine's present...just to show me how much I love...well, ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not always a journaling tag girl.  In fact, I often cut up my journaling tags and use them for something else on my layout.  But, this one was so cute that I couldn't resist!  I love the way it looks like it has a couple of layers of little tags added to it.

The top of my layout includes a mix of "real" layering on top of "faux layering" already on the paper.  Can you tell what is real and what isn't?

I also had fun fussy cutting these arrows and machine-stitching them over the outlines in the patterned paper:

That's it for me.  How do you think I did?  Now, it's YOUR turn to play along!  Make sure you link up your layout on the BLOG!

PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO - SPRINGTIME NOTECARDS

Happy Day of Loooovvveee (typed in my very best Barry White voice).  This is turning out to be quite a busy day for me since I have not one, not two - but THREE projects all due today.  BUT - I absolutely loooovvvee crafting so I am definitely in my happy zone right now.  If you are joining in for the PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS SCRAP YOUR STASH BLOG HOP, click HERE.  If you want to see the latest coolio sketch, and my take on it, by MY SCRAPS AND MORE, click HERE.  I would absolutely love it, though, if you would stay awhile and look at these adorable cards I made using PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO'S Lemon Sorbet 4x6 journaling cards from the Neapolitan Collection along with these super sweet vintage die cuts.

I used five of these six cards.  They are the perfect size for all you project-lifers and pocket-scrappers, but I wanted to do a little something different with them:

So, I mounted each one on cardstock that was just a little bit larger than the journaling card, folded it in half, and - voila! - insta-notecard!  I finished my notecards off by adding a diecut, which were just the right size; some sweet bunting flags; and ribbons and buttons.  These were quick and easy to make, and they are absolutely darling!  I cannot wait to send them out!!!

Here are close-ups of my notecards:

To see how I made these cards, please check out the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO BLOG.  Have you used any vintage die cuts on your recent projects?  If so, please share with use on our FACEBOOK PAGE!

Valentine's Cards

Today, we are sharing Valentines over at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS.  I decided to take the challenge to create a Valentine project literally and made a couple of cards using leftover papers and bits and pieces from my PAPER BAKERY LOVE POTION #9 SCRAPBOOK KIT.  Yep, so far I have made four layouts and three cards from one kit.  AND, I have enough left over to make another card or two.  That's a pretty awesome kit, if you ask me!

Here is the second Valentine I made with my kit (the third card is an everyday card that I will share later):

I do not consider myself a "card maker;" however, this kit contained so many cute design elements that even my simple cards turned out absolutely adorable.  I am sure they will put a smile on my Valentines' faces!

Have you made your Valentine Cards yet?  Better hurry!  Only 7 days left to V Day!!!

P.S. - did you know that both PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS and PAPER BAKERY have sketches posted each month?  If you like to use sketches to create your layouts and cards, you are going to love these!  Be sure to check them out (and tell them Krissy sent you).

Color Challenge with Pretty Little Studio

My crafty mojo has definitely been vacationing somewhere (probably warmer) these past few days, so PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO'S COLOR CHALLENGE was exactly what I needed to convince it to come back to me!  Can you tell what colors we were challenged to use together?  If you guessed pink and red, you are correct!  This is what I came up with, using a fabulous picture of some even more fabulous women that I am privileged to call my friends:

If you are like me, you bought a lot of Christmas papers and didn't touch nearly half of them.  Well, it's time to think outside the box - find ways to use all those wonderful papers for non-holiday layouts, which is exactly what I did with my leftover papers, stickers, and journaling tags from the WOODLAND CHRISTMAS COLLECTION.  (I have a confession to make - I love some of the papers, especially the vellum papers from this collection, that I have every intention of using them year round!)  They go perfectly with the pinks found on the flags, die cuts and papers in the BIRTHDAY CAKE COLLECTION and NEAPOLITAN COLLECTION.

I used lots of layering and lots of pop dots to help the different elements on my layout to stand out.

I absolutely love the way the bright pops of red look against the white background and softer pink hues of my patterned papers!

That's it for me today.  Want to play along?  Be sure to upload YOUR creation to Pretty Little Studio's FACEBOOK PAGE.  We would love to see what you create!!!