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 Valentine (Practical Scrappers)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!  Today at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS we are sharing our Pinterest inspired Valentine Projects.  I have been saving so many cool layouts that inspire me on Pinterest that this was the perfect opportunity to do something I haven't had the fun of doing in a long time - a lift!  And not just any lift but a lift by an artist that I L-O-V-E, MAGGIE HOLMES!  I lifted this fantastic layout (did I mention I love, love, love it?):

Like the original artist, I used STUDIO CALICO papers - although I am not a member of their kit club and bought mine from a scrapbook store.

 

My layout is about my honey-bunny, who is my very favorite valentine.  I thought the travel papers were perfect for my Maya Angelou quote, and I loved creating a layout that did not use the traditional Valentine pinks and reds.  Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against the traditional colors, but my unique guy deserved something a little less...ordinary, for lack of a better word.

 

Here are some close-ups (oohing and aahing not required but always appreciated!):

My hearts were cut out using my Silhouette (of course), and I outlined them all with a black fine-tip marker.

I only glued the middle section of some of my hearts so the edges could be lifted up to add more dimension.

 

Got to have a cluster around the picture - got ta'!

 

Annnddd, I stitched all around my "earth" and added tiny brads and the stars from my punched background.

That's it for me, but head on over to PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS to see how the rest of the girls were inspired on this Day of Love!

Happy Girls Layout - Using Crate Paper

Happy Monday morning everyone!  With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I have really been focused on the people and things I love - and scrapbooking all about them, of course!  And some of my favorite papers to use have been from CRATE PAPER'S 14 COLLECTION, which is defintely on my TOP 5 Paper Collections List right now.  The papers are saturated with color and a little bit vintage-y and absolutely perfect for layouts such as this one featuring my sweet, lovely daughters! 

 

As my starting point, I used this fantastic sketch from CREATIVE SCRAPPERS.  Seriously, Kristine's crew comes up with so many awesome sketches, I don't know when I will have time to get to them all!

 

Let me tell you a little bit about this layout - because I had so much fun making it!

 

First, this banner was fussy cut directly from a page of - you guessed it - banners!  I just cut a few out and zig zag stitched around my pieces, then sewed them across the top directly onto my layout.  I initially had a second, different banner making a larger swoop below this one but decided it made my layout too busy - after I had already glued it down to my papers, of course!  So, I ripped the second banner off, sewed these little hearts on top of a few of the ripped areas, and decided that the other visible tears in my papers were extra distressing that I MEANT to have on my layout - hahahahaha!  Besides, they compliment my white paint spatters that really were put there on purpose.  (Yes, I am the Queen of Rationalization - that's how I am able to continue buying new scrapbook papers when I will never use up all the ones I already have.)  I left the threads at the end of my hearts long and uncut because I liked the way they looked.
 

I used one of the polaroid frames from a newer MAGGIE HOLMES' Collection (I LOVE her work!)  Obviously, my picture is not square-shaped and not meant to fit in a polaroid frame.  But I wanted to use it so I just angled it across the top as an accent.  The number blocks were originally part of a border strip on one of the 14 Collection papers that I simply cut up, outlined, and pop-dotted on my frame. 
 

Here is another view of the center of my layout and one of the reasons why I chose the Creative Scrappers sketch that I used - LAYERS!!!!!!  I love the layers!  And look how scrumptious these papers look together - almost good enough to eat!  Okay, not really, but these papers ARE perfect for layering...and for sewing on!
 

 

My title, "Happy Girls are the Prettiest Girls" is part of a fabulous quote by Audrey Hepburn.  It's overused now, but I still love it anyway!  And, like my papers, it was perfect for this layout.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out those small letters.  I also cut out a few of the negative outlines left over and used those in place of the letters.
 

And speaking of my Silhouette, I love using it and my small scraps of leftover paper to make little extra things like this tab that I added to my layout. "Waste not, want not," as my Grandmama used to say.  And what a super cute way to make sure my paper isn't wasted!

Last, but not least, is the bottom of my layout.  I didn't have quite enough of the green and white striped paper I wanted to use and I didn't like my picture just hanging off the bottom of my layered papers, so I took some of the thin cut-out strips and placed those under my picture to give the "suggestion" of a continued background paper. 

That's it for me today.  Hope you are staying dry and warm whereever you are!

Lori Whitlock Valentine's Blog Hop!

Happy Blog Hop Thursday everyone! Isn't this a great way to get ready for the weekend? I am the last stop on this hop, on which I am absolutely positive you have seen (and maybe even pinned)all sorts of great ideas from the rest of Lori's team for THE DAY OF LOVE (did you read that in the Barry White voice I typed it in?). If you are hopping with us, you should have arrived from Corri's BLOG.

If you are just joining in and want to start from the beginning, head on over to Lori's BLOG to get started.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE to give out little gifts to the people who are special in my life, especially on Valentine's Day. But I am often plagued by what to get that isn't the standard box of Whitman's Candy that you buy at the grocery store. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Whitman's - I just want something a little more personal. And if I can use my Silhouette to make it, that is even better!

When I saw Lori's 3D PURSE, I knew it fit the bill perfectly.

I would love to tell you that I sweated and labored over these for hours and hours but, truthfully, they were so easy to put together that my youngest child could have done it! The hardest thing I had to do was pick out which cute embellishments I wanted to use after the purses were assembled!

The little purses are the perfect size for holding gift cards and treats - which is exactly what I plan to do with these that I made for my daughters. I am going to make more for my co-workers and fill each purse with a couple of cookies and small candies. And, one will go to my mom filled with homemade Valentine's cards from my kids (and me) to her.

Don't forget, all items in Lori's STORE are 25% off through the weekend!

AND...she is giving away a free shape each day!

What a nice way to say she loves us!!!

Building a "Library" of Book Boxes with Lori Whitlock

I'm going to tell you a little secret. When I am not scrapbooking, I am reading. All.The.Time. I read in the morning, on the days when I take the commuter bus to work. I read at lunchtime. I read in the evening, to relax before bedtime. You get the picture, right? So, when I saw that Lori Whitlock designed boxes that look like books, I was hooked! I mean, making something that looks like my favorite non-scrapbooking activity is pretty much a no-brainer for me.

And let me tell you, these BOOK BOXES designed by Lori Whitlock pretty much have everything going for them. First, they are super cute. Second, they can be used for more than one thing, which is always a plus. Third, they are wonderfully easy and fast to make. For someone who failed making construction paper houses in grade school, even I can make these!!! I spent more time picking out papers and decorating my book boxes than actually assembling them! Of course, Lori Whitlock thinks of everything, and she has a VIDEO TUTORIAL for putting together the box, just in case you want to make sure you are making it correctly.

My original intent was to make one box to show you, but I had so many ideas popping into my head (and did I mention they were so easy to make???), that before I knew it, I had made three!

My first book box holds a notepad and a pen and is sitting out right next to my house phone. Now (hopefully) when someone calls and I need to take a message, I won't be frantically searching for a piece of paper (or a pen that works)!

The bird on a branch is from Lori's SPRING COLLECTION; and the label and the font used for the alphas on my book box are cutting files created by Lori at the SILHOUETTE STORE.

My second book box is a gift for my older daughter and her fiance because they are in luurrrvvveee and they enjoy writing little love notes to each other. This box is completely filled with (lots and lots of) heart-shaped pieces of paper so they can easily pull one out and jot down a few sweet words to each other whenever the mood strikes.

I used the Block Love for the letters on the cover of my book box and the Nested Hearts for the blank notes inside the box, both from Lori's VALENTINE'S COLLECTION.

I especially love my third box, which is used to hold a collection of old family photographs that my mother recently gave to me. I used mod-podge on my papers to make my book box sturdier, and I sewed decorative trim in between the inner and outer layers of my book cover. I also made this book box about an inch larger than the other two boxes so it could hold a few larger photos in my newly acquired collection.

I used Lori's banner set found with her decorative items HERE and these wonderful layered hearts, from her Valentine's Collection.

If you are thinking you are ready to start your own library of Book Boxes, you are in luck because...drum roll please...Lori is having a sale! Woot-Woot!

But wait, that's not all! To give you extra inspiration, we are also having a whirlwind, fun, crazy BLOG HOP to kick off Lori's sale and to help you come up with some fabulous Valentine's ideas!

But wait! There's more! In addition to the blog hop and the sale...

...that's right, Lori will be giving away a free shape each day! Now THAT is love...true love...

Be sure to check back on the 2nd. I can't WAIT to show you what I've made. You're going to like it, I just know you are!