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!

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!!!

Shaking Off Those Winter Blues

Even here in the southern part of Texas we have not been able to escape freezing "arctic" temperatures.  So, to warm things up a little, I put on a pot of hot coffee and decided to use one of my favorite pictures taken this past summer in a layout.  PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO has the perfect papers to create a summery layout, too, with its dreamy NEAPOLITAN COLLECTION.  My inner girly-girl will always love hearts and butterflies and flowers, which is what this collection has in abundance!  

And this - this was the end result:

 

I've got to tell you that I am quite proud of it - proud of the subjects, proud of the moment that I captured with my camera, and pretty darned proud of my layout.  It's got a lot of white in it but doesn't look too empty at all.  (I love my tone-on-tone white sunburst that I started off with!)  It's got a lot of layers, but it's not too crowded.  It's got a lot of little pieces, but it's not too busy.  In fact, I would say it is j-u-s-t right!!!

Here are a few close-ups:

See?  Hearts, butterflies, and flair - all the things I love.  *sigh*

Yes, I did use journaling cards on my layout that don't have one single word of journaling on them.  They were used - gasp - purely for decorative purposes.  Don't judge.

Want to find out more?  Just check out the Pretty Little Studio BLOG!  

What are you doing to stay warm this winter???  Do you love the snow and cold temps or are you, too, dreaming of summertime and balmy weather?

It's Pretty Little Studio Sketch Challenge Time!

I love sketches, and the Pretty Little Studio SKETCHES are some of my very favorite!  This week's sketch got my crafty mojo revved up in high gear as soon as I saw it, and I could not wait to be able to share it with you!

I have been l-o-v-i-n-g all of the negative space layouts I have seen, so I decided the circles shown in the background of these week's sketch would be a great way to use this technique.  I turned to my trusty Silhouette (because I know I can't freehand draw a good circle, much less cut one out by hand!) and added a few randomly placed circles in different sizes which were then cut out of my white cardstock.  The cardstock was then cut down to an 11 x 11 size. I placed my white cardstock over my pretty heart paper, from the Pretty Little Studio Birthday Cake Collection, which allowed the patterned paper to show as the border and in the holes left from the circles.

Next, I created clusters around my negative space circles.

I was definitely raised by a depression baby grandmother because I am a firm believer in using every single scrap of paper.  I had a few leftover hearts from my previous project, which I put to good use by layering over circle garland tags from the NEAPOLITAN COLLECTION (My little banner pieces in the lower left hand corner were also created from left over scraps left out from my last project - my grandmama would be so proud!)

I turned to my Silhouette again to create this little arrow which anchors the lower left corner of my layout.  More hearts and garland tags were added - because they were so crazy cute together, I had to make just ONE.MORE.CLUSTER.

Can you tell I have a little obsession with hearts?  I guess it's a good thing hearts are one of the new scrapbooking trends...

To play along with this week's sketch, please check out the Pretty Little Studio BLOG.  I would love to see what YOU create!

Sweeter Than Ice Cream - Pretty Little Studio

I am up today at the all new PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO BLOG featuring this layout of my Sweet Lula and using the scrumptious new Neapolitan Collection!  This collection features an assortment of ephemera and journaling cards in lavender, peach, pink, and mint green.  My last PLS LAYOUT was supposed to be themed around the pink items and today's layout is primarily lavender - or, at least, it started that way.  But, because I am who I am, I couldn't resist adding touches of pink and (more than a few) touches of mint green, too.  That's still monochromatic, right?  Maybe if you squint really hard and hold the layout sideways?  No????  Oh well, at least it's still cute! 

This is a simple layout in which I mainly used journaling cards to create my pattern.  I even made a pocket out of one journaling card so it could hold...wait for it...another journaling card.  That's right, why use only one when you can use two!

I also layered a couple of fabulous butterfly stickers on top of butterfly-punched paper to create these sweet dimensional butterflies on top of my pocket. (Want to know how I kept the stickers from sticking?  Head to the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO BLOG for the answer!) And, of course, I couldn't resist adding a couple of bunting flags complete with sequins and a button sewn across them!

I love layering, especially with small, random bits and pieces - and this collection has so many wonderful bits and pieces!

So, there you have it - my not so "monochromatic" lavender layout.  Do you like to create monochromatic layouts or do you also find yourself sneaking in other colors, too?