rose tattoo

I recently got one of Papertrey's stamp sets called The Sweet Life.  And it has quickly become one of my new favourites.  What I love most about it is that the layers are pretty easy to line up but the results are really awesome with lots of lovely details.  And one of the reasons why I bought this set is because of this layout by Dawn McVey, one of PTI's design team members.  Love the way she layered those roses!

I CASE'd Dawn's layout for the photos I took from this summer's Ribfest.  This is our second year of attending rib festivals in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).  Despite the long line ups, we come back for the ribs, kid's zone and lots of fun in the sun with friends. 

And here is my layout. This was taken after Frances got her spray tattoo from the kid's craft area.  She insisted on getting one and chose the colour and image of her tattoo herself (no coaching from  Mommy, I promise!).  I was secretly happy when she chose the rose image and even happier when she asked that it be in a blue colour. 

My layout is straight in real life.  I just need photography lessons!

I used Papertrey's stamps (sweet life, label basics), dies (sweet life, fabulous frames), cardstock (enchanted evening), inks (simply chartreuse, ripe avocado) and patterned paper (bitty dots).  I also used Fancy Pants patterned paper, Martha Stewart  cardstock, Quickcutz alpha dies, Amuse inks and my Smash date stamp.

Some close ups...

Happy weekend!

pages with papertrey sketch #11

I am back with another layout for Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey challenge.  This time, it is a sketch challenge.

Whenever I do my nightly facial routine, Frances loves to hang out by the bathroom door and wait for me to finish so she can do the same. I was lucky since at this particular time, I had my camera nearby so I seized the chance to capture this moment. I have been lagging behind on our everyday photos (the last Slice of Life layout I have done was in June!) so I just decided to make a full layout out of it.

I used Papertrey dies (fancy flourishes, notched flowers, heart border, circle limitless labels) and patterned paper (summer sunrise gingham and bitty dots, pure poppy bitty dots, smokey shadow stripes).  I also used Fancy Pants patterned paper (loving my first Fancy Pants paper pack!), Stampin' Up brad and buttons from my stash.

Close up of the journaling and embellishments.

Hope you are having a fabulous week!

More ATCs

I currently have a lot of sewing projects lined up but have lost the mojo to sew. I seem to be spending more time making ATCs than sewing. Anyway, here's a couple of recent ATCs that I made for a swap. 

Turtle ATC

Starbucks ATC

My sewing machine is gathering dust and is sitting neglected in the corner. I need to focus my attention back to sewing. Yes, I think it's time to buckle down and finally finish the pirate costume that I need to sew for a boy's 7th birthday. 

Till next time!

sandcastle

A quick post from me on a busy week... We enjoyed our last beach outing for the summer last weekend.  And this week, we start winding down as we get ready for  the start of school after the Labour Day holiday next week.  So in an attempt to hold onto the last bits of summer, here is another layout of one of my DD's favourite things to do under the sun, building sandcastles.  This was taken at one of our visits to the Toronto Zoo.

I used Papertrey dies (double-ended banners,  heart-to-heart #3 and 6) and patterned paper.  I also used Michael's white cardstock, patterned papers from  Cosmo Cricket and Lily Bee Double Dutch collection and a couple of toothpicks from the kitchen :)

And a close up of the photos and my handmade banner embellishment.

  Have a great week ahead!

A "Twist" to Jewellery

Wire jewellery incorporating beads is a fun yet challenging craft.  Thick wire is stronger but it is also tougher to form.  Thinner wire, on the other hand, is easier to handle but without proper caution, it can break easily.   This is exactly what I experienced with twisted wire jewellery.

Like any craft project, expect a lot of wastage during practice.  Overtwisting can lead to snapping the wire and undertwisting results to "loose" beads.  But as soon as you perfect the craft, the designs are infinite.  Here are some of my projects.

 Purple and green Czech glass beads twisted to form grapevines

Tiny red flowers made of Czech glass beads

Inspired by Southestern US, Gold wire and Turquoise chips form tendrils

Pearls and crystals twisted into a delicate bracelet

Enjoy your Sunday!

papertrey august blog hop

It's that time of the month again... Papertrey's monthly blog hop.

 And here are this month's inspiration photos.  This month's inspiration is all about autumn colours, patterns and textures. With summer coming to an end, this is a great way to get us all in the mood for fall.

For my card, I used the same colour palette as the inspiration photos (love the creams and the browns). I was also instantly attracted to the wreath and the blue flower so I knew I had to incorporate that somewhere.  The only thing was that I did not have a base I can use for my wreath.  So imagine my delight when a couple of days later, I ran out of tape and had to replace my ATG gun tape early this week.  And that left me with this empty tape roll, ha! 

So here is what I came up with.  I used Papertrey cardstock (kraft, rustic cream), die (beautiful blooms II #3), button, ink (dark chocolate), Simple Stripes impression plate  and stamp (birthday basics).  I also used Memory Box' Small Madison Window  and flower box die, Market Street's Bit of Burlap stamp and some hemp twine.

Here is a close up of the wreath.  Love its rustic look and texture. 

Thanks for stopping by and have fun hopping!

you are my sunshine

I am back with another summer layout.  This one came together very quickly as I used one of my current favourite collections, Simple Stories' Summer Fresh line.  Just adhere the pre designed blocks of patterns, add the photos and journaling and finish off with a few embellishments, done!

I also used Papertrey die (love lives here).  The washi tape is actually a sticker from the Summer Fresh collection.

Close up of the embellies...

Thanks for stopping by!  I will be back tomorrow for Papertrey's monthly blog hop.  It's gonna be exciting seeing PTI peeps' lovely creations.  Have a great weekend!

lazy days of summer

With the summer season slowly winding down, I find myself wanting to finish scrapbooking all our summer photos right away. This way, I have something to enjoy looking at during the cool nights of the coming months.  I am almost there! 

Here is one of the clean layouts I did of her numerous trips to Canada's Wonderland.  Since I have done multi photo layouts of our visits to her happy place before, I thought I'd change things up a bit by just focusing on a single photo this time. 

I used Papertrey's Up, Up and Away stamp and dies, script alpha dies and patterned papers.  The sticker letters are from Cosmo Cricket's Tiny Type.

Here is a close up of the photo and journaling. It was taken on one of her many carousel rides which is her all-time favourite ride as of the moment.

Thanks for stopping by!

ATC

In a recent post, I mentioned that I have been joining some ATC swaps over at swap-bot. 

Here are some of the new ATC's that I have created: 

 This one is for an owl-themed swap. My swap partner's favourite color is purple so I used two shades of purple for this ATC. 

Sorry for the blurry photo

These two are for a profile based swap that I am doing with someone from Denmark. My swap partner's favourite city is London, hence the "I love London" ATC. She also loves woodland theme so I decided to make a mushroom card. 

For the London ATC, I used my recently purchased Dymo label maker - I just love its retro style. For the mushroom one, I used modge podge to glue and seal the paper cut-outs. 

Since joining swap-bot, I have really enjoyed making ATCs. They are fun, quick to make, and satisfies my urge to create. The only downside is that my craft area is such a mess.

Till next time!