Simply Create Too Challenge #106 Purple and Green

Good morning friends

Today is another challenge over at Simply Create Too and we are going all Purple and Green.

I love to look on pinterest for ideas and when I saw those wonderful pallet ideas I knew I wanted to make some for myself.



But you know me, I can never duplicate, I need to add my own twist and this is what I made.



You can view the instructions over at the Amazing Casting Products page HERE

Remember, the Simply Create Too challenge blog has a challenge every 2 weeks and we would love for you to join us.  Head on over and see what all the designers have created for your viewing pleasure.

I'll be seeing you in a month again for our next challenge, so until then

Happy creating!

Wall Hanging - Anything But a Card challenge #33

Good morning,

I have been so busy creating lately and have just had an awesome time doing it.  I decided to take on a few more challenges and today I am going to be adding my creation over at Anything But a Card Challenge 33: Sparkle.  I really need to get back into doing some scrapbooking and I think this will be the perfect avenue for me to pursue.  While I did not make a scrapbook layout per say this time around, I did do a layout wall hanging.

I started with some plain beer coasters and  I covered the first coaster with glittered card stock in purple.  I am seriously trying to use up as many scraps as I can so I have no idea where this paper comes from.  I cut "It's a Girl" from scraps with my cricut.  Then I added some fake flowers with some rhinestones and of course some butterflies.  Each of my grandbabies have an animal associated with their name and Alexis is butterflies.  You will be seeing more of my grandbabies and their "animal" personalities in the future.  The butterflies are made with my Amazing Crafting Products.  When I pour my molds I usually create multiples of them and I happened to have 4 butterflies; love it when I have the perfect embellishment on hand.  I painted them with Terri Sproul Mixers by Sakura.  Isn't that just the sweetest sleeping picture?

The second coaster was also covered with pink glittered cardstock paper.  I printed her date of birth, weight and length from my computer on some scraps and tore the edges and layered it.  Again the same fake flowers with some more rhinestone embellishments and I also made 2 pins with her name.  The big butterfly was also created with my ACP and you can see here how I did it originally.  I added some glitter to the butterfly for more "sparkle" affect.

The third coaster was covered with another purple glitter card stock.  The same fake flowers, another butterfly and I cut a "dress" trying to mimic her outfit in the picture.

Before adding paper to the back of the coaster I added "ribbon" to hold them all together.

Now for the most "sparkly" part.  I created the "hanger" for this lovely wall hanging.  I had a picture frame that broke and it had this awesome metal hanger.  I thought I could probably mimic the hanger by molding and casting it and manipulating it however I wanted.

Here is a step by step tutorial on how I did this:

here is my hanger molding with Amazing Crafting Resin mixed with Alumilite Metallic Silver. 

Before the hanger was completely cured I demolded it and while it was still plyable I 

taped it down to create the shape that would fit my coaster and let it cure the rest of the way. 

Then I painted it with some pink acrylic paint and while the paint was drying I sprinkled some glitter all over it for that "sparkle" affect I was going for. 

Once that was completely dry I hot glued it to the back of my coaster.  

The backside isn't the prettiest, but who is gonna see that?

and now I finally have Alexis' birth layout done! 

Very SPARKLY for this "sparkly" little girl! 

It's pretty sad that she just turned 2 and this is one of the first things I've done of her.  

Things are about to change!  

Stay tuned because I may be sharing some exciting news pretty soon!

I hope I've inspired you with this out of the "scrapbook" layout and can't wait to hear what you think.  

Leave me a comment and let me know if I've inspired you to do a layout for a non scrapbook.

Special Girl sign SimonSays

Happy Sunny Day to you all,

It's so beautiful out today.  I cannot wait to finish this post and get outdoors.  It's been a very, very long winter.  I believe the high today should be around 60 degrees.  YEAH!

So, I've been entering some challenges over at Simon Says Stamp Blog.  They have a Monday and Wednesday challenge and this week's Wednesday challenge is "Mother's Day/Special Girl"  My granddaughter will turn 2 on Sunday and since she's pretty special I thought I'd make her something for her room.  I had purchased these foam signs a LONG time ago at my favorite store...The Dollar Tree and had planned on making something for the girls but never got around to it.  Going through my stash of "stuff" I came across this one and knew it was time for Alexis to get her own room sign.  

I started out with my cricut and cut Alexis in a basic block font and then again as a Shadow Black Out Round to give it some depth.  I also created the butterfly and flower from my Amazing Crafting Products.  You can go here and see how I originally did the butterfly.  This time I used my Casting Resin instead of the Paperclay (less drying time) to create my pieces and painted them both with my Terri Sproul mixers from Sakura Craft.  It's super easy to mix the mixers with some 3d crystal lacquer and it paints onto the resin fabulously.  I also created Alexis' name in resin, but the letters were just too small for the sign.  I will just have to make her another project :)

I glued all my pieces to the foam sign after "stamping" some flourishes directly onto the foam sign.  I tried it on the back first to make sure it would work and it was fabulous.  Then I highlighted the edged flourishes with some purple glitter glue. 

a few glitter glue dots to the letters 

more glitter glue to the rhinestones 

more glitter glue dots as butterfly's flight pattern

and now she has her own room sign.  

I just love how this turned out...now I should make one for Miss Bella also.

I hope you've enjoyed my post today and as always,

have a great day and God Bless.

Lasting Memories #55 Sketch and fall colors

Good morning ... today is another Sunday filled with Lasting Memories. Karen really knows how to challenge me somedays.  This week she gave us a sketch to do and challenged us to use fall colors...now I know I've said I like doing sketches, but with my printer still not having any ink, it's hard for me to just run and print a few pictures, so I have been relying on some very OLD pictures.  I found these 2 in my boxes of pictures...actually this part has been very fun, going through old pictures...at least I am getting some older stuff scrapped.  Anyway, these pictures screamed FALL to me...so here goes.

The football, flower and tag were all cut with my E-Craft and I used my 

peachykeen faces to give the football some pop.  The flower was left over 

from a project I did last week and you can find the tutorial here.

I used my Dymo buddy to punch out the title and 

I hand dyed my ribbon to match the papers.

So I hope I've inspired you to do a layout with this sketch and use some fall colors and head on over to Lasting Memories and enter the challenge...they are so much fun.  If you are new to scrapbooking or lost on how to start, Lasting Memories is a great place to start.  There is so much talent over there and the ladies are so inspirational.  See you next week...

Lasting Memories #50 Sketch w a Twist and DT call

Good morning scrapbookers and friends

today is another Sunday filled with Lasting Memories.  Not only is there a new challenge, but Karen is also looking for new Design Team members.  So if you are interested in getting on the DT, all you have to do is play along EVERY week in August.  That's how I got on the DT and I've been having a blast doing it.  Karen and the other ladies are so inspirational and encouraging.  So, if you have thought about it, get that layout done and join in the fun.

Today I am showing you a layout we needed to do following a sketch.  I am actually getting better at these types of challenges.  In fact, I think these are my best layouts now.  Our challenge this week was not only to follow a sketch but to also add buttons...well that's no problem for me until I finished my layout and forgot to use them...hahaha.  

Here is the sketch

 and here is what I did

 The title was cut with my E-Craft out of butterfly pattern paper to match my background.  It was great having the challenge as the "title" two weeks ago, now I incorporated that into this week also.  I also inked around the edges to soften it a bit.

 We were supposed to "cluster" the bottom with embellishments and ribbon and buttons... 

Yes, they are there now, I had to trade them out with the rhinestones I originally had in the center of the flowers...LOL  The rattle, ducky and bottle were wood cut outs I had gotten at the dollar store.  I used my sharpies to color them and then used my blending pen to pull the color off the main part and highlight the background.  The flowers were from my stash and were completely white.  I added some homemade glimmer mist and turned them a soft pink.  The ribbon was from my "baby" stash and I layered it??? to form the ripple affect...each piece shows the c and 3, hidden secret, C3 of us???  LOL  my bad.  I also used the same ribbon on the left edge of my layout to tie it all together.  I didn't quite like my two mats of green and pink because they were so bold, but I edged them with ink and then distressed a bit over the top.  I also used my white gel pen to "stitch" around both the papers and added some butterflies and flowers to the pink and it works beautifully now.

Now I hope I've inspired you to use this sketch and some buttons, don't forget the buttons and head on over to Lasting Memories and join in the fun.  Remember also, if you want to get on the DT all you need to do is enter each week in August to be eligible.  Have fun and enjoy!!!

Hats off to You

Good morning,


well hopefully we found our campsite alright.  From past years we've learned that you paddle all the way to where you want to go as quickly as you are able to and remember where open campsites are in case the one you want is already occupied.  Boundary waters only allows so many people in per day, but can leave whenever you want.  Therefore, you don't know if a campsite is being used until you get to the one you want.  This year we are hoping for the "island".  I've never been there, but the boys have and they say it's an awesome campsite and the fishing is really good.  There are no motorboats allowed anywhere in Boundary waters so we canoe every where and to get to the island we will be paddling and portaging for about 3 hours.  Keep your fingers crossed!  I will be wearing a hat to keep the sun off, but it won't be as glamorous as the one you are about to see...


Today I made a simple but elegant card for you. 

The hat is from Scrapping Table's Glamour Girl set and the tag is cut using a border punch for the edges.  I added a little flower with a bling center and some ribbon.  I inked around all the edges for some drama and of course the stamp is from Getting Cricky's Fashionable Friends set.  I have no idea where the background paper is from because it's from my stash, but the card was easy, peasy to make, but oh so cute.

Kristal's  NEWEST Stamp PREORDERS--for a limited time, you can get them at a discount 

and reserve yours before they sell out!!! 

Coffee & Tea Mix & Match  

Sympathetic Sayings (Larger set)

Winged Things: Mix & Match

(Bonus frame & images)

Paper Secrets 11

Good morning,


here's my layout I did for the challenge over at PaperSecrets.  Each week we are given an assignment for a layout. I really don't care if I win the contest, it's just helping me to do more layouts that I should have done a long time ago (or some new ones in this case). If you participate and follow the guidelines you advance to the next week. We started with 27 and 11 moved onto this week.  I will keep updating you as I go along. Who knows, I might not be able to participate one week and then I am out, but until then, I am scrapping my butt off, (they used a different word, but my blog is family friendly...hehehe
Here is the sketch:

Here is what I did:

This is what I needed to use for the challenge and 

what is in red is is what I used.

hand or machine stitiching
mist Flower
flowers/leaves
bling Flower center
fabric/felt
border punch
journaling embellishment
altered or raw chipboard
stamped image(s) tree
ribbon/lace

I also used up some pictures that didn't turn out to cut out the "The House" with my E-craft and it cut like butter.  Another super simple layout, but I love it.


I also wanted to remind you that Lisa over at A Mermaid's Crafts is giving away this:

for her 500 follower giveaway.  She will leave this open until August 6th and choose a winner August 7th...so hurry on over there and check out her awesome creations.  She is one creative lady.

This coming week I will be on vacation in Northern Minnesota on our family canoeing trip so I have preposted most of my stuff.  Keep your fingers crossed that they all go up without a hitch.  I will not be able to moderate comments as of Sunday evening as I will have no internet access, but look forward to reading what you all think of my projects when I get back.  My email will probably be locked out too...hehehehe.  Thanks so much for supporting my blog...see you in 10 days.