Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Best Friends - More Practical Scrappers


Our challenge today over at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS was to find 10 different ways to use ribbon.  Because I am obsessed with banners, I decided to make a small one using ribbon in place of twine to hold my banner together.  The "pennants" of my banner (along with every other piece of paper on this layout) are from TERESA COLLINS' gorgeous Everyday Moments Collection.  This line of papers was perfect for this snapshot of my two oldest daughters at the younger one's recent wedding shower.

Here's a close-up of my ribbon banner:


I loved using all the whites, light blues, and pale grays in this collection, but I wanted to make sure the layers stood out, so I decided to machine stitch my border and my ribbon in contrasting black and I outlined each piece of paper in black marker.  I love the added dimension the black outlines give everything.


I also added pop dots behind several pieces like this one to help them stand out a little more.

 
Can you tell how much I love layers on my layouts???
 
That's all for me today.  Want more inspiration for that ribbon stash you've been hoarding - be sure to check out all the other wonderful ideas at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Halloween Fun with Practical Scrappers

 
I love Halloween - it's probably my second favorite holidayof the year.  Because of that, I have lots and lots of Halloween-themed papers (in fact, I would almost go so far as to say I have too much - I know, that's preposterous, right?!)  So, it was pretty much a no-brainer that I was going to sign up when I saw PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS was doing a feature on Halloween cards and layouts. 
 
I decided it would be fun to make a few easy Halloween cards.  I will NEVER be a cardmaker, but I do enjoy making cards.  And these cards ended up looking pretty sweet, don't you think?
 
I discovered - after purchasing lots and lots (and lots) of stamps (and all the supplies that go with them) - that while I love the look of stamped images, I don't so much enjoy stamping and coloring.  In fact, I don't enjoy it even a little bit.  So I pretty much work with whatever papers and embellishments I have on hand - and that seems to work out just fine - especially when the papers are as cute as these!

 
I used papers from MY MINDS EYE's Blackbird Collection.  I only had a few pieces of paper left, one of which included these cute little kids.  So, I did what I always do when I really like an image on a piece of paper - I cut it out and put it on my card.  I included the Boo phrase from MME's Haunted Collection; added some twine, a border punched accent piece, a couple of bats, and a tiny button; and I was done.
 

For my next card, I mostly used papers from ECHO PARK's Apothecary Emporium; however, my tag and October 31st piece are both from MME's Haunted Collection.  I sewed several of my borders, as well as a small square of burlap behind my October 31st tag to add a little visual interest.  Although this card was super quick and easy to make, I love the final result!
 
That's it for me today, but stay tuned - I have more Practical Scrappers projects coming up this week!