Introducing Sweet Summertime...

Hey everyone, I'm very excited to announce my first class coming up with Gossamer Blue.  It's called Sweet Summertime and it's going to be jam packed full of Summer crafty goodness. 

Here's a peek at some of the items we'll be making in the class.  I've got an awesome double banner that will be perfect for displaying front and center in your home.  It's homespun and cute and just full of eye candy and unique crafty items.  Then I'll be showing you how to make some sweet cards, gift sacks and tags.  I know you all love to get new recipes so I'll be sharing some of my new favorites, packaged up with the packaging we create in class.  To top it all off, I'll be sharing some inspiring Pinterest finds for ideas on how to display your banner + you'll be the first to see the progression of my chalkboard wall which is where I plan to display my Sweet Summertime banner and Summer Bucket List. 

The concept for this class is so great, here's how the classroom works........

First, you will be able to purchase all the supplies needed for the class in the Complete Sweet Summertime Class Kit.  The kit is on sale now at this link. You can see a photo of the kit contents + there is a listing of the kit contents below the photo.  When I say jam packed, it's really jam packed full of goodies from Basic Grey, Crate Paper and some fun items from my shop + a few vintage finds.  The kits are in limited quantities so act quickly if you want the exact items that I'll be showing in class.  

Next you can purchase the Sweet Summertime Class at this link.  This gets you private access to  a special blog which becomes the classroom.  The class will open July 5th with a welcome message and full class syllabus.  Class begins on July 8th and will updated by me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with fresh content.  The class will run for 4 entire weeks so we will be able to have a lot of fun in July!  There will be detailed instructions on how to assemble the banner, the cards, the gift sacks and tags.  Plus there will be a message board and gallery so that participants can connect, ask questions and share creations and display ideas.  You can see the full course outline at this link. 

So you can purchase the class and the kit and you'll be all set for July.  If you think you'd rather use your own supplies but would love the ideas, you can certainly just purchase the class and have access to the private blog.  Or you can just purchase the kit and use the supplies as you'd like. It's all up to you.

I hope you'll join me in class.....I promise this won't be your typical Summer school. No math, no hot class rooms, no research papers....just pure fun!

But wait....I'm giving away 3 spots to just the classroom (no kit).  If you'd like a chance to join me in class in July, leave a comment at the end of this post telling me an item on your Summer to do list.  You must leave your name and email address so that I can contact you if you're a winner.  I'll select the 3 free class spots on Sunday evening at 6pm Central Time.  Winners will be announced on Monday, June 14th here on the blog.  

Project Life 2013.....Week 16

Today I'm skipping around a bit on sharing my Project Life pages.  I have Week 16 to show you today which uses the journaling cards I tweeked in this post.  Here's the 2 page spread which dates to a week in April.  

When I use journaling cards that I alter to suit my style my layouts seem to come together so quickly.  I just lay out my photos and then shuffle through my stack of journaling cards to see what coordinates with my photos. 

 I try to coordinate with colors in my layout but since I make an effort to keep the colors and patterns on my journaling cards all in a certain tone or color range I don't worry too much if the cards are mixy matchy.

Once the slots are all filled with photos and journaling cards, I just start working on one section at a time.  It may take me a couple of crafty sessions to finish a layout but usually 2 hours tops is my total average time to complete a weekly spread.  I just work on it 10 minutes here and there since our Summer is so busy. 

This is the insert that notes the calendar week and dates for this spread.  I love to use photos from nature because it sets the scene for the week and I can easily cover up parts of the photo with a journaling spot. 

 Here I used a photo and a 3 x 4 journaling card in a 4 x 6 slot.  I adhere both to a 4 x 6 bottom layer so that the pieces don't slide around.

 Here I used alphabet letters left over from the June Gossamer Blue kits to make note of a dodge ball tournament the girls participated in while at the school lock in.

On to the 3 x 4 inserts.  Most of my journaling cards now have photos filling up the slot totally or adhered to the journaling card.This is why I make my altered cards super simple to begin with.  I have lots of room to add a small Instagram photo + embellishments.  

 Same here...I added a photo and typewriter journaling to one journaling card and filled another slot with a weather photo.

 Here I used 2 of my altered journaling cards.  The one on the right is my favorite.  I just added the arrow with stapling, a stamped sentiment from the June Gossamer Blue kit and typewriter journaling. I added two events to one card to save on space.

 More of the same here...photos, a few stamps, journaling and the date stamp.

This is what I totally love about working with Project Life and using my own altered journaling cards.  When it comes time to work on a layout I feel like I've added that "scrappy" touch to my layout but by doing some work in advance the week comes together so quickly.  I was able to use 8 of my altered journaling cards in this spread.  And by using the base journaling cards from companies I love I'm really using up what I purchased.  That's a good thing.  

So tell me, what good things have happened while working on your Project Life pages?  I'm taking on a new attitude with my pages.....not like it's a chore to work on them because I'm behind, but rather that I love this process, I love looking at the photos of my family, I love documenting even the smallest little memory.  It's the entire process that is enjoyable but in the end....at the end of the year.....I have an album or two full of memories to treasure forever.  That's what it's all about & that's what keeps me going.  

I'm still working behind the scenes on some fun thing to come for my Project Life.  Some new calendar organization, a tour of my Project Life storage, some new topics....it's time to get rejuvenated again!

Altered Project Life journaling cards...

Whenever I'm finished working on my Gossamer Blue projects for the month I like to see what I can do to use up more of the kit contents.  This month I decided to alter some Project Life cards that I've collected from various companies.  I keep my cards sorted by company in old, wooden boxes and I use Large Manila Tags and clothespins as dividers.  

So here I have some papers that I love that are leftover from the June Gossamer Blue kits + some journaling cards.  I collect Project Life journaling cards from companies like Elle's Studio, Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday, Evalicious, Studio Calico and Banana Fish Studio.

So why do I want to alter the journaling cards anyway?  Sometimes it's just for the fun of it, sometimes it's to get a specific look that I want and many times there are cards that I love but they just never seem to make it into my Project Life pages.  Maybe the color is not working for me or maybe they just need to have a little bit more of my style added to them.  

Take the cards below.  Love them just the way they are but I decided to make them a bit more "Mishie". A simple circle punch of patterned paper....

And a strip of floral patterned paper.  That's all it took to give the cards a homespun look with colors and patterns that I love. 

Same here with a few more....

Simple strips of patterned paper add just enough of my style to the journaling cards. 

I altered about 30 cards using just patterned paper....okay and one doily.....but all the rest was simple patterned paper scraps.  I adhered the paper with a tiny but of adhesive then ran all the cards through my sewing machine.  I just kept feeding the cards through continuously without snipping the threads.  I ended up with one giant chain of journaling cards. 

I snipped all the threads at the end and was left with a huge pile of personalized, altered journaling cards.  

Here's the lineup.  When you see them all displayed you can see that all of these journaling cards are still mixy matchy in style but they just have a certain vibe to them that speaks my style.  

Another batch.  I've made journaling cards like this before but what I learned for this time is that I kept the cards very simple.  I didn't add any stamping or embellishments.  This way I can add photos, journaling and all that other good stuff when it's time to assemble a specific week of Project Life. 

Another little batch.  Very clean and simple.  

Here's a few of my faves up close.  

And a few more.  If you'll notice, I kept this whole batch of today's journaling cards similar in color tone.  You can do the squint trick.......squint your eyes and kind of blur the photo....all of the cards looks very similar in vibrancy.  This makes all of the cards work very well together when it comes time to work on a weekly spread.  

It was so nice to make a big dent in some of my journaling card stash.  I've given myself a limited amount of space to store my Project Life journaling cards so I have a "use it or lose it" motto.  If the box gets too full, some of the cards have to go. I know that many of these cards will be used up now because they are more suitable to my Project Life style.  Come back soon as my next Project Life spread uses 8 of these cards for one week.  

Gossamer Blue meets Lily Bee.....a notebook

Hey there, today I'm back to share a creation made from the June Gossamer Blue kits.  This month we teamed up with Lily Bee to create some fun filled kits.  Be sure to check the Gossamer Blue blog + the Lily Bee blog to see more team creations.  

I created this cheery notebook because I just love to make notebooks.  I saw this yellow one in my stash that I picked up from Target (I don't see them carrying this style anymore, boo!) and decided it would look great with the fun yellow accents from the Lily Bee products.  

My favorite part about my notebook is the whimsical brad and flair from the Lily Bee Sweet Shoppe pack that was in the GB June Main Add-on kit.  Such a fun little grouping and I added a little sequin from my shop as a finishing touch. For the layers on the notebook I used red stitching and Dainty Doily. 

 The pretty floral patterned paper that I created the notched piece with is from the June Add-on Kit #2.  I also used the exclusive "today" stamp from the June Main Add-on Kit, Washi tape and stickers from the kits.  The fun "hello love" fabric tab is from the June Bits & Pieces Kit & the Medium Manila Parcel Tag is from my shop.

 To coordinate with my notebook I also created a fun clothespin clip using leftover bits and pieces.  I like to use the clothespins to mark a page in the notebook or to clip other loose notes to my notebook.

Notebooks are great to have on hand and I keep mine in a basket.  I sometimes will pull out one to use when I want a fresh, new notebook to use.....and they make the best gifts for teachers, secretaries at the school, Christmas stocking stuffers, etc.  Everyone loves the notebooks!  I find the best notebooks to embellish at Target it seems.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Project Life 2013...Week 14

Today I'm sharing Week 14 of my Project Life 2013.  Here's the 2 page spread. 

This week had a lot of yellow tones so I picked out a polka dot patterned paper and used it for almost all of my journaling cards and photo backgrounds.  

 The inserts went together super fast and I kept things interesting by adding embellishments, sticker labels and stamping here and there.

 Here I used stickers to note the week then I added some stamping for the dates and some journaling.

 Here I used my Starburst Grid Paper Labels for typed journaling.

 A Medium Manila Parcel Tag ran through my typewriter made for a quick tag on this insert.

 Here I used stitching along the patterned paper + I added some stamping.

 For these 3 x 4 inserts I included a printed quote that came across that I liked + I added a fun Instagram photo of some recent kit projects.  I included some pieces of the kit like the glassine envelope, small tag and sequins.

Now, before you go back to the top and take a look.....guess at how many photos I used on this week's spread.  TWENTY PHOTOS!  I'm still amazed at how I can fit so many photos into a 2 page spread and it still looks nice and neat. There's simply no way that I would ever be able to keep up with scrapping all those photos the traditional page by page way.  Project Life is the perfect system for me.

Note:  After getting behind again in May....what is it with May and Project Life?......I was feeling a little burn out.  Feeling behind, maybe even a little bored with my Project Life process.  But knowing that I want to continue my Project Life albums at least while my girls are still in high school, I knew I needed to get pumped up again.  So I've got a few new things in the works that I'll be sharing over the next month of so.  A new system for keeping track of it all and some fun new things to come as far as products.  I'll be sharing it all over the next few months.  :)

Floral cards using Hero Arts Daubers...

Today I'm sharing some floral cards I made using some new Hero Arts products.  I experimented with a few different techniques using the new Daubers and stamps from the Stamp your Story lines.  

Here's the lineup of products I used from Hero Arts today:

Wet Cement Dauber

Tide Pool Dauber

Field Greens Dauber

Large Lotus Pattern Stencil

Remember Cling Stamp

Field Greens Mid-Tone  Shadow Ink

Tide Pool Mid-Tone Shadow Ink

Here's the trio of cards that I created. I used basically the same products on each card but each one turned out with totally different looks.

Let's take a look at the different techniques I used. On this first card I created a background on the base card using the floral stencil and a very dry paint brush.  I dabbed the Dauber colors onto my paint try and just painted over the stencil.  For the main floral image I applied the Dauber colors directly to the stamps.  You can see below that the Dauber colors are deeply saturated with color and are very vibrant.  I splattered some of the Dauber colors on with my paint brush along with some white spray ink.  I finished off the card with a stamped sentiment + some typewriter words.  Enamel dots and a few sequins from my Neutral Sequin Collection are the finishing touches. 

 I really loved using the notebook paper stamp along with the florals from the Remember Cling Stamp set.  Some machine stitching with the strings left long add a homespun feel to the card.

 Next up I created another stencil background but this time I loaded my paint brush with more of the Dauber inks.  The result was that the ink soaked under the stencil and gave more of a muted floral look.  Much more abstract and subtle.

Here's the paint palette I created using an enamel tray and the Daubers.  You can in the bottom corners how the Daubers go onto the tray (the small saturated circles of color).  By using my paint brush and clean water I was able to lighten the colors up thus giving me a more muted color palette to work with. 

Here's what my floral image looked like when first stamped.  I applied the Dauber ink to my stamp using my paint brush and watered down inks from my palette.  You'll notice that pooling of color sometimes happens.  You can leave this to try if you want that dark color.  I usually let it set for a bit then use a paper towel to soak up the color.  

Here's the finished look when all the ink is dry.  I added more splatters of the Daubers by using my paint brush and a flick of the wrist.  The white splatters are from a spray mist.  

This technique lends itself to a more abstract look but you still get the impression of florals because of the stems.  I used a water based olive marker (from Stampin' Up!) to color in all the stamps before stampings.

 I finished off the card with washi tape, stitching, enamel dots and more sequins from my shop.

 For my final card I used the ink pads with the stamps then added some more splatters of ink using my paint brush.  I colored in olive dots on the small flowers using that same marker I used for the floral stems.

 Washi tape, enamel dots, sentiment stamps and sequins finish off the card.

A very fun day of experimenting to just see what happens.  I give the new Hero Arts products a two thumbs up rating.  :)  Thank you for stopping by today. 

This Summer is keeping us hopping with sporting events and things we want to check off of our Summer Bucket List.  So don't worry if you see some time in between posts. I'm just busy livin' life.  

Gossamer Blue June Reveal Day!

Hello everyone, yep it's June already and that means it's reveal day at Gossamer Blue.  This month we've teamed up with Lily Bee for some crafty fun.  Be sure to check the Gossamer Blue website and blog all month for new creations.  The shop items and Design Team projects will be available at 10am PST.  I'll be sharing my Gossamer Blue projects all month long here on my blog.  I have lots to share and I'm still using up kit items so please visit often.

Today I'm kicking of my June Gossamer Blue projects with a set of cards. The kits are so full of goodies that I just love to pick out some products, spread them out on my work table and see what I can come up with.  Notice that I used the fun wooden stamps that are included in a few of this month's kits.  

There's of fun layers on my cards today.  Here I used a delightful little floral patterned paper by Lily Bee layered with oodles of tags and sticker words.  I started the base of my layers with a simple index card and red stitching + a Dainty Doily.  I stamped the quote bubble and a Small Manila Parcel Tag with the stamps.  Then I added the sticker words, some Washi from the kits, and a tied button

For this card I used more of the same kit items + I added one of the cute flair buttons from a kit.  I sprinkled on a few sequins and added some fun birthday themed stickers.  

On the inside of this card I embellished it with another Happy Birthday sentiment using a sticker and the exclusive Gossamer Blue stamp.  I love the pack of embellishments this month that includes a bunch of these labels.  I stitched over the label with red thread leaving the end strings long.  I love that they look like little streamers hanging down.  A portion of a Dainty Doily is peeking out from the patterned paper. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm off to do a little yard work then I can't wait to come back to see the Gossamer Blue gallery for this month.  :)