Day 349: Love You Frog Card

I think I am in love with this teensy colorful polka dot print in the Penelope paper packet. And this adorable little frog in the coordinating pocket scrapbooking cards...swoon! 

This card was inspired by the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I trimmed the PML card to fit the card sketch, then matted it with the green pattern from the reverse of the polka dot print. I added a fussy cut Thistle heart onto his cute little tummy. The stamp set is called Share the Love, and it's an Operation Smile special available only this month.

I topped off my little frog with a couple of wiggly eyes. Now it's back to unpacking for me!

Day 348: Penelope WYW Pocket Scrapbook Layout

Oh my golly, I wish I had already unpacked my Shot Box. Or even knew where it was. I could not get rid of the glare on these cute Penelope pocket scrapbook pages. 

I love that the new Workshops Your Way kits come with these Pocket cards to cut apart - though I do often opt to use them in card making instead of the Pocket Scrapbook layouts as intended.

I think this adorable frog is my favorite of the Penelope cards. The cards are all printed with one orientation on one side, and the other orientation on the back so you can mix them and use them in any direction your pictures require.

I take a lot of square photos, so I just cheated out the rest of the 4x6 pocket using pieces of other cards, scraps of Penelope paper, and washi tape to hold it all together!

Day 329: So Happy Birthday to You Card

I've decided that I love cleaning out my studio. As I discover bits and pieces of beloved past lines I'm feeling inspired to craft anew and use it up!

First I found this 1/2 inch BIRTHDAY strip trimmed from a PML pocket scrapbooking card that apparently I just couldn't throw away. then I ran across my Simple Stories I AM 6x6 pad, and I realized the colors worked together pretty well. Next thing I knew, I had a card!

I used bits and pieces from Crazy Good to fill in my sentiment. Then I added some gold sequins topped with pale grey enamel dots.finally I went back and added the stitch detail, which would have been easier to do before adding the sentiment...sometimes you gotta step back in to define the edges, you know?  The packing is going on in earnest now with the movers coming a week from Tuesday, so who knows what I'll find this week! I'm linking this card up to the Seize the Birthday Clean and Simple challenge. 

Day 323: Charlotte Workshops Your Way Layout 3

Here's the third layout we completed from the Charlotte Kit. Look how cute that title sticker treatment is!

There's also a bunch of PML cards to make pocket scrapbooking pages! I couldn't believe how many projects we made out of just the one kit. Don't forget, you can download the free instructions and cutting guides for this kit HERE by clicking "Download Guide"!

Day 312: Planners Gonna Plan

Can you say, "Squee!!"? My new CTMH Planner bundle arrived today, with a few goodies from the new Seasonal Expressions, and I couldn't wait to dive in!

The beautiful planner cover is a bit bigger than 9x8 and features this pretty gold foil design.

The planner pages include 12 monthly tabs, a pocket folder with gold foil designs, a pretty bookmark, and 4 sheets of planner stickers. I love the variety of different designs they used for the monthly dividers. 

Each month includes a two page spread for the monthly calendar as well as two page weekly spreads. 

I also got the January special Live Your Day PML cards (sneak peek) that coordinate and the sweet washi tape and roller stamp. Just until the end of December 31st you can get the CTMH Planner Bundle for a nice discount! 

I just started working on my January layout today. I added a few bits from the Penelope Complements (which goes live January 1), plus some extra washi tapes. I'm going to use my planner as an actual planner plus I'll be adding stamping, quotes, life planning, and more to the monthly pages. I plan to use the weekly pages to organize my blog posts and ongoing CTMH projects. I just LOVE my pretty new planner!

Day 306: Celebrate Love Card

Tonight I filled my little mason jar with love!

The sketch is from the current Freshly Made Sketches. I was inspired by the teacher mason jar gifts we gave this December. I adhered a Through the Year PML card to my card base. I outlines it with a shimmer gel pen and then dotted all around it with a fine tipped journaling marker.

I added some strips of Simple Stories I Am paper and a water colored mason jar.  A few glitter hearts floating our of the jar finished off this quick and simple design. I'm linking this card up to the Seize the Birthday challenge.

Day 274: Life is a Journey Album Retreat Layout

This layout is also one of my favorites from the Album Retreat. I love the bold Lagoon against the soft Canary with the strong black accents.

This was my favorite watercolor splatter too. I used the blue at first, then added a bit of black. I also added actual black hand stitching around the background.

This is my last layout to share from the CTMH Album Retreat. I had such a good time, not just making these lovely projects, but hanging out with my CTMH peeps and enjoying some much needed girl time. I give this Album Retreat a five (right, Amanda?) and I can't wait until I can be lucky enough to attend another!  

Day 267: Creating Me Album Retreat Layout

This was one of my favorite layouts that we made at Album Retreat. 

The pink, green, grey and black color combo is so cheerful! Even with the journaling on that cute PML card this page came together very quickly.  I'm just waiting on my 5x7 print to come in to switch out with the 4x6 that I had inadvertently printed.

That watercolor splatter is so pretty. I built the layout except for pics and title, then went to town with the splatter. I usually splatter before I start adhering the paper layers, so this was a fun change of pace!

Day 266: Inspired By Album Retreat Layout

So tonight's Album Retreat Layout was definitely the fastest layout we put together. It's made mostly from PML cards!  

In the end I like the idea of the layout, but putting everything on an angle like that was making me nutty. I knew as I was laying it out that I wasn't feeling this, but I figured I came to Album Retreat to learn something new, so I decided to embrace the challenge. I'm glad I tried it out, but maybe next time I think I'd line everything up neatly with no slant. Try as I might I couldn't get the lines to match up across the break. While it looks fine in my album (I have the Lagoon Chevron D Ring for this project), the way it's all slightly off just bugs me. It's interesting how different techniques work for different people, right?  Ask me to slop watercolor drips all over a perfectly tidy layout and I'm all like, "No prob!", but add a slant to some PML cards and I can't even... Funny what scrapbooking can teach you about yourself.

Day 265: Sharing the Story Album Retreat Layout

This was one of the simpler layouts we put together, but it had two really cool techniques.

First the title. We painted blue ombre watercolors onto a panel of watercolor paper, which then went behind the Cricut title cut into the base page. My friend Linnea used score tape to really stick down her title, and I think it looked a lot neater than my finished title. It was fun to freehand that ombre color panel though!

Secondly, we used these hexagon stamps in a fun way. Instead of stamping and fussy cutting six hexagons, we just snipped three of them, not really in half, more like 2/3 - 1/3 but the bottom line is we used the same three hexagons as embellishments on both pages, which I thought was really smart.

Also, here's my tip for cutting shimmer trim in half the long way with no fuss and bother. First snip your trim to any length up to twelve inches. Then use washi tape to hold the shimmer trim in place on your paper trimmer, centered with 1/4" on each side of the trimmer track. Trim down through the center, cutting right through the washi tape for perfect 1/4" strips of shimmer trim!

Day 244: Joy to the World Card

When I saw this week's Mojo Monday sketch, I immediately thought that it would be a great sketch to use with pocket scrapbooking cards. 

Now, I'm usually an A2 sized card maker, but to make my White Pines PML card fit the card design perfectly I needed to move up to a 5x7 card. I started with a base of Cashmere cardstock, and added some green shimmer trim and a panel of Cranberry cardstock that I embossed with a chevron embossing folder. Then I hand-stitched around the edge with gold sewing thread.

I added some red flower stickers and detailed those with clear shimmer gel pen and red glitter gel. I topped off the JOY card with a hand tied gold string bow and a gold paper fundamentals bow. It was fun to make a bigger card with a bit more room to stretch out!

Day 239: Seasons Greetings Raccoon Card

This adorable raccoon is one of the images in the White Pines Picture My Life pocket scrapbooking card set. He WAS holding a sign with a December date on it...but that wasn't going to do! 

So I stamped a sentiment banner using Seasons Greetings and popped it up with thin foam tape. I layered that over the trimmed down PML card, which is mounted over some retired timberline Woodgrain B&T and  a strip of green shimmer trim. 

I was working from the new Freshly Made Sketches challenge, so I added the presents around the bottom right of the raccoon in place of the extra rectangle. I added bitty sparkles, red enamel gems, and a bit of clear glitter gel to finish off this festive greeting card!

Day 236: Christmas Love Card

I've got another White Pines Picture My Life card project today. I love all the varied coordinating patterns in this card set.

I based this card on the new Retrosketches challenge. I cut the background from a White Pines PML card, and the blue banner from a scrap of White Pines paper. Then I added the pen detail and the sentiment from Seasons Greetings.

Then I layered a clear acrylic printed White Pines Complement onto a black scalloped circle, and topped it with the Christmas Love circle from the October SOTM. A few red enamel gems finished off this quick holiday card!

Day 233: Noel Moose Christmas Card

I loved this week's sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge so much I had to hop in and join in the fun!

I cut some 1 1/4" strips of patterned bits out of a 4x6 White Pines Picture My Life Card. Then I trimmed the NOEL sentiment out of another PML card.

I added the stitching, then layered on the Moose sticker from the White Pines Complements to help hold up the banner. I can never resist adding wiggly eyes to sweet cartoon animals. Hope you'll hop over to Atlantic Hearts to try out this week's challenge too!

Day 229: Happy Christmas Card

Tonight I'm sharing a quick and easy holiday card made using Picture My Life pocket scrapbooking cards.

I used one 4x6 card (trimmed down to 5 1/4 inches) and one 3x4 card from the White Pines Collection. My card was inspired by the new Mojo Monday Sketch. I really loved the bow on the sketch, so I made mine using the last bit of my gold stitching thread. Guess I'll be off to Hobby Lobby to get more soon! I topped my bow off with a red enamel gem.

I couldn't resist popping some wiggly eyes onto the cute owl from this card. I also glittered up his package bow with some shimmer gel pen, and added ornament stickers down the side. A few more enamel gems and some bitty sparkles finished off this festive quick card!

Day 216: Ellie's Adventure Book

So you may remember that the CTMH convention this year had a Up! theme, and that's like one of my all time favorite movies. I know I was supposed to keep it simple, but COME ON, y'all know simple isn't really my bag. Jill did say I could do a little something if I had time after I finished the pocket pages. So I knew that I HAD to make Ellie's Adventure book. This project was my destiny!

So I got me a Kraft Mini Album that hold either 4x6 or (2) 3x4 Picture My Life cards. I wet some Chocolate Cardstock, then carefully crumpled it up, smoothed it back out and hit it with my iron (which basically only irons craft projects...you know, perler beads, cricut iron on vinyl, paper, etc...). Then I trimmed my panel to the correct size for the front cover of my book and sanded my already distressed cardstock gently but heavily to get the right look. I hand stitched the gold detailing on the "cover" using 2 strands and then 8 strands of gold sewing thread. The letters are cut on my cricut (Art Philosophy font at 1/2 inch...can I just take a moment to say thank goodness I got an explore last spring?) and colored with alcohol markers and coated with layers of Liquid Glass. I got the little globe from one of the Going Places Picture My Life cards and added some gold shimmer trim to "tape" it on. I added a sanded and embossed strip of Sorbet Cardstock on the left edge to simulate the cover of Ellie's Adventure Book. 

Just keeping it simple, right? Ok, the cover was a lotbit of funwork...but it wasn't too insane, and I was totally a good kid on the inside, sliding in the cards and pics without any fuss at all. I got to work with my friend's photos from her trip to Europe (Thanks, Bonnie!), so with amazing pics like that, who needs more embellishments? Me, ok, me, but I was still creatively fulfilled from making the cover so it was all good. 

I have GOT to go somewhere cool so I can make my own adventure book, because these Going Places cards need to be going someplace... This was one of my favorite projects I've made all year, and I hope y'all love it as much as I loved making it!