Zany Brainy Kids...

It is Monday and it is Letter of the Day over at My Cricut Craft Room. This week's letter is "Z". I had planned to do something with zebra or zoo until I can across these pics of my two "Zany Brainy Kids." So today "Z is for Zany." I love these pics of them playing in the kitchen with their fakes mustaches. Once your kids get to be teenagers, they sometimes forget to play. I was glad I captured this silliness.

 I love layouts that are quick and easy, but that I still love. This is one of those layouts.I started with basic kraft colored cardstock. I doubled matted my pics with white and red cardstock.

 I used sticker letters for the title. I hardly ever do this anymore. I was out of black cardstock though and didn't think I had enough scraps to cut them out on the Cricut.

 I love how this Zany little bird came out. He was cut at 4 1/2 inches from the 3 Birds on Parade cartridge. If you haven't checked this out look at it. Erica has it for only $15 and there are tons of fun cuts on this cartridge.

 

Since I had pics of both the kids doing the same thing, I made the same page for a scrapbook of each of them. This was the first time I had used this cartridge, but I see many layouts coming from this cart. I hope you enjoyed this. Now head on over to My Cricut Craft Room to see what my design team sisters have created for you to see.
Happy Crafting!
KathyJo

Just How Far Can One Set Go?

Have you see the Card Decor Sets at Globecraft Memories? These sets are fabulous. I have been playing with Card Decor Set #1  and am amazed. I am a frugal woman and love the bang for your buck you get with these sets. They are inexpensive; they are only $3.99 and when you can get four or five projects out of one set they are a bargain.


These are the pieces that come in set #1.  Of course they are bare book quality chipboard like all of the Piccolo pieces. I will let you know that the fine details in the vines make removing them a little harder than some of the pieces. I found a straight pin worked great for pushing them out.

I was wanting to make a card, but I hate to think of my work ending up in a drawer or worse yet in the trash. If you are like me, you are going to love this new item coming out soon. It is an easel card. You simply decorate the front like you would any other card front, but it has a built in easel to insure it ends up displayed by the recipient. I am telling you I love this.

 Of course when I see blank white cardstock I start to see visions of distress ink, so I inked up the front with Weathered Wood and Dusty Concord Distress inks. I made sure to ink the base flap too as it will show a bit when on display.

 Once I had the back ground inked, I stamped the sentiment. I love how whimsical this came out.

 The vines needed to be green. I started to pick up paint, but then I thought about the Mossy Glen Enamel Powder. I love the way it came out. It is such a gorgeous green. These enamel powders are so easy to use. I covered them with Enamel Adhesive which is a snap with the dauber top. I then sprinkled the mossy glen over it. I did a full heat set. I melted it until it was completely smooth. I glued it down using Matte Glastique. This is more than just an adhesive, but on projects like this I love that if I am messy in my gluing it doesn't show. It dries completely clear. You honestly can't see it.

 The butterflies were punched out of white cardstock. They were coated in enamel adhesive and then sprinkled with Enchanted Aubergine. I did a full heat making the enamel completely smooth again. The colors are just beautiful. I used the Glastique to adhere the butterflies too.

 The butterfly trails were ditted ion using Stickles. It was a fun little touch.

When I finished it still needed just a little something more, so I took my Versamark marker and ran it around the very edge of the card front. I then sprinkled Vintage Silver Embossing Enamel around the edge and then heat set it. It just finished it off perfectly.

This picture shows it lying flat to slide in an envelope and mail. This was project #1 from set #1. I apologize in advance for the reflections in the photos of project #2. We were experiencing what I call liquid sunshine. It was sunny out, but raining. It was just enough rain to keep me from being able to take photos outside. The lighting in my home is awful and reflected in the photograph on the layout.

 Just a quick scrapbook page I was making using Echo Park papers. It was pretty, but fell just a bit flat. The addition  of some pieces out of this set aids the eye in moving through the list of adjectives. The vines at the top us Mossy Glen, but the flourishes were cover in 24K Gold. The little heart anchors it all and is covered in Cranberry Wine Enamel Powder.

Here is a better picture showing how it moves your eye through the list. Okay, two projects down and I think three more to go in order to use this whole set. Make sure you head over  to Facebook and like our page there. I will make sure I link the next three cards there, so you can see just how far one set can go.

Now in order for you to see just how far it will go, you need to get your hands on one of these sets. Hobby Baby and Globecraft Memories are making this a little easier for you by offering 25% off your total order. Use coupon code TS25. I can't wait to see what you make...
Happy Crafting!
KathyJo 

Red-White-Blue Summer SteamPunk Celebration Blog Hop

Leslierahye is hostessing another one of her amazing blog hops. I tried to resist, but I couldn't; I had to get in on this Steampunky goodness. I decided to join the hop and designed a card I love. If that wasn't enough Erica over at Erica's Craft Room Store offered to sponsor my stop on the hop and I am giving away a $10 gift certificate to her store.

 When I was trying to decide what I wanted to create or achieve for this hop and started thinking about what Steampunk means to me. The images go along with a period in literature that explores the possibilities. Where peopled dreamed of what could be and how science and technology(somewhat primitive back then) could take us there. Then I needed to combine that with Red-White-Blue Summer which to me says Americana. I thought of the Statue of Liberty, because what says dreams and possibilities more than Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Also when I was younger I had this weird notion that she was a mechanical lady and had walked across the bottom of the ocean to get here. Where she stands was where she came out of the water and broke down. I know I was weird kid with a wild imagination. So even if the rest of the world doesn't think of the statue of liberty as steampunk, she is still steampunk to me.

An ever so slightly different angle to make sure you can see the texture and dimension of the torch. I started off with one of the white basic economy card bases from M's. I cut two pieces of white cardstock. One to fit the card front perfectly and one a quarter of an inch smaller, so i would have an eighth of an inch border. Most of the products I used can be found in Erica's Craft Room Store. If you click on the product the first time I list it, it will take you directly to that product. I inked the edges of the card base and my larger piece of white cardstock with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I took the smaller piece of cardstock and inked it with Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress Ink and what should have been Tim Holtz Faded Blue Jeans Distress Ink, but I can't find it so I used a different ink and it did not want to react as well as the distress inks. Once I had the red and blue splotches, I went back over the whole thing with the vintage photo. The flowers all started out as white. I pressed the flowers into the distress ink pads and then spritzed them with a mini mister, so the color would spread through the petals. I am not sure which ones are which, because I dump them all together in a container, but there are several different shapes to choose from and then you can layer them too.

The dream tag was inked in the same way and is one of the Tim Holtz Adage tags.I love these, because they add that little something my projects need. There are so many in a pack and different words that I get to spread them out over a lot of different projects. You get almost 100 of them for around four bucks. I love getting a lot of bang for my buck.

This picture is here to show what you can't see. I am the world's messiest gluer and you can not see it. Unfortunately, this glue and the embossing enamels are not something you can get from Erica, but if you decide to get some, use the code TS25 and Globecraft Memories will give you 25% off your entire order. This glue is Glastique matte. I didn't really believe it would be string enough to hold heavy metal embellishments, so I used a lot and it squished out, but it dried absolutely clear. You can not see it at all and it held the heavy metal. I also want you to see the metal piece. It is out of a multi pack of gears and sprockets from M's, but I changed the color by covering it with embossing powder adhesive and then coating it with Globecraft Memories Vintage Copper embossing enamel.  I love how it has that patina effect and the green is showing through. It is even more amazing in person.

This little metal embellishment is a Tim Holtz sprocket, but I covered it with the vintage copper also. It was copper to begin with, but not the patina copper I wanted.

The torch is a cricut cut. It is cut at 3 1/2 inches from the Stand and Salute cartridge. If you have a cricut and don't have this cartridge you will want to look at it. There is so much I use this cart for and not just military or patriotic pages. I have cut out pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness, planes for little boy pages, stars for all kinds of things, anchors for a cruise page. It really is a versatile cartridge and Ericas has it for only $34.99.

The torch is cut out of basic smooth cheap black cardstock, but covered with the vintage copper. Now when working with the embossing enamels, you can use the flash set or full heat set meaning you heat it linger with your heat tool. I completely heat set it and then after it cools, I come back and hit those areas again to really get the green patina to bubble up and show through. That is another one of the Tim Holtz gears up in the corner. Below is another closeup of the patina and aged metal effect.

Once again I would like to thank Erica's Craft Room for sponsoring my stop on this blog hop. In order to be eligible to win the gift certificate, leave me a little comment love and maybe tell me how you would spend your gift certificate. It is not required for you to follow me, but I would love it if you decided to follow.
Happy Crafting!
KathyJo

Demon Lady

Okay, I messed up! Wednesday is Would You Ever Guess Wednesday over at My Cricut Craft Room. That means we don't use the main images on our carts. We just use the feature or create keys on our machines. Well, when I was working on my project for this week I didn't realize on was working on a Wednesday project. I had written down the theme "On Fire" and not that it was a Wednesday project. I went with the "On Fire" and completely forgot about the special feature keys. I hope you like this as much as I do. I love how this project came out.

 This picture was taken after my daughter's performance in Legally Blonde the Musical. We were all in the lobby after the show and in  this pic it looks like my niece has a crown of flames. It was actually a naughty plant. When I saw are theme of "On Fire", I knew I was going to do something with this picture.

Obviously I started with a 12x12 sheet of basic black card stock. I used red and cut a 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 mat for my 5x7 pic.

 I cut the title from basic white cardstock using the San Serif Solution Cartridge at 2 inches. If you look closely there are some raggedy edges on some of the cuts. Normally this would be a problem for me, but I wasn't at home and was using someone else's machine. I am not sure if it was the quality of the paper or a dull blade, but I decided it was okay since it was supposed to look like flames and flames wouldn't have precise edges. Make sure you always have an extra blade on hand so you don't end up with raggedy edges. You can find them in Erica's Craft Room store here.

 I cut the fire balls from the solution cartridge Indie Art and 3 1/2 inches. These were cut from white cardstock also and then set "on fire" with Tim Holtz Distress inks. I used Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade. I started with the Fired Brick and a piece of felt on a blending handle. Most people use a foam pad with the distress inks. I used felt because the ink would have been more even and smooth with the foam. I wanted the scratchy look and variations like you would have in flames. I added the red and then came back over it with the orange.

 I did the same thing on the journaling. The white was just too stark so I inked it up.

 I also added a little ink around the edges of the photo mat to give it a little more depth.

 These shots let you see her crown better.

 This layout was a lot of fun to make. I hope you will take some time to play with distress inks and see what you come up with. Now head on over to My Cricut Craft Room to see what my design team sister have come up with for you to enjoy.
Happy Crafting!
KathyJo

Scrapbook Friday at My Cricut Craft Room

It is Scrapbook Friday at My Cricut Craft Room and this week's theme was cars, trucks, and bikes. I was planning to do some motocross pictures, but I am feeling really emotional lately about Courtney. I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that she is now 16 and driving. I changed a scrapbooked some pictures of her driving to the theater. In some ways she is so grown up and in others, she is still a little girl.

 

The title was cut from yellow card stock using Lyrical Letters Jumbo feature. The papers are Bo Bunny. The patterned paper is from the On the Go Collections you can find here. I just tore the strip to go across the page and then inked them up. I inked the papers with Tim Holtz Wild Honey Distress Ink you can find here. The stop sign was fussy cut from the paper. The journaling is hand written. This is a simple page, but if we really want to record all the events of our lives, both big and little moments we have to have balance between the elaborate pages and the quick and simple. The second project I was working on for today, was the more elaborate. I decided to save it for another day though. Here are a few more pictures of this layout. 

Now you have two more stops. Head over to Erica's store here. She has great deals and keeps adding products. You will find something you have to have at a great price. When you are done shopping there, head over to her blog to check out what the rest of the design team made to share.
Until next time.....
Happy Crafting!
KathyJo

Robin's Nest Audition Post

The Robin's Nest is looking for a new design team, and I decided it was time to throw my hat in the ring. The Robin's Nest is an incredible company. Their current design team is amazing. If you have not been to their blog recently, quit reading right now and head over to their blog by clicking here. I promise you will be amazed and will come away inspired. Anyway, I love the products The Robin's Nest has to offer and I think they will be good companion products  to complement the design teams I am already on now. The would make my projects for each company even better.

As I thought about what I wanted to do for this project, I decided I was going to do a home decor project. I wanted a nice huge 4th of July wreath for my door. I came up with an idea, but realized that there was no way my hands would hold up to the bending, folding, pinching, and holding of all those little pieces. My fingers were going numb and I knew that this idea would have to wait until a week when the hands were in good shape. I had some photos developed and was absolutely Wowed by the fact that my child is no longer a little girl. She is now a young woman. So the layout Wow came to be...

My first instinct with this layout was to layer tons of paper and make it very elaborate, but the whole point of the layout was to capture her. Not the Wow of piles of product, but the Wow of my child becoming a woman. Anyway, I decided to do what I do best and find balance. I needed balance between the photo and the products and using techniques to highlight rather than overwhelm the photo. I think this was a pretty good mix of all those things.

The title was cut from the darker side of a sheet of BoBunny Abbey Road Truffle. The letters were cut using the Lyrical Letters cartridge using the Loop Le Loo creative key at 3". The problem was the title was fading into the background. I wanted it to pop, so I broke out the enamel powders. I thought I was going to use vintage silver, but it still wasn't wowing me. I decided to go for the gold and covered the letters with enamel adhesive and then coated in 24K Gold embossing enamel. The shine and wow factor is amazing. I immediately knew I wanted some black mini dew drops on the letters, but I didn't have any. I subbed some small Prima Black pearls, but wouldn't these Classified Mini Dew Drops have been amazing? I outlined the letters with glossy accents to give it one more layer of shimmer. It didn't photograph as well as I would have liked, but it almost looks like they are floating.

 I wanted to add the date the layout. I pulled out this chipboard tile and the fleur-di-lis pieces and covered them in embossing enamel adhesive. I sprinkled them with Ranger Black Super Fine detail embossing powder and heat seat. Using the detail embossing powder allowed the pattern on the chipboard to show. I cut some small numbers and covered them with the 24K Gold powder as well. Although these chipboard pieces were some I had on hand, you could use one of the Robins Nest chipboard pieces to mount the date.

 The two flowers were made using the Tim Holtz tattered flowers die. The edges are inked and curled to give them more depth. I am not sure what paper these are made out of as I already had them made and in a drawer, but this paper would work beautifully. The swirls and flourishes were cut using the Cricut and then layered and tucked on the page. I accented the Swirls with dew drops which you can find here. There are so many uses for these little drops of goodness. They make centers for flowers, borders, feet for little boxes, and eye catching treats on a scrapbook page like this one.

 The dew drops above and below the quote make you eye stop and read the sentiment I wanted to share with my daughter. I hope one day she will read these words and know that I meant them.

I hope you enjoyed this layout. It has so many different elements, but I hope still keeps the balance. I don't want to the story lost, because that girl in the picture... she is the real story.  Good luck to all the applicants for the Robin's Nest Design team, be sure you go follow the Robin's Nest blog, so you will see who makes the team. In the meantime, head over to the store to check out all their wonderful offerings, so you will be ready to craft along when the new design team starts sharing their products. Until next time...

Happy Crafting!
KathyJo

Hello! Welcome to this stop of the Picnic Blog Hop. You should have started at Erica's Blog . If you didn't please click on the link and start there. If you came here from Tracy  you are in the right spot. If you are just visiting my blog, I hope you will make your way through this weekend's projects. I know that Erica has some fabulous blog candy at the end of the hop and you never know who else might have candy along the way...you might even find some at the end of this post.

When I sat down and started thinking about what I wanted to make for this hop I was overwhelmed with memories of my childhood and couldn't think of many picnics. There were a few from when I was very young, but I kept coming back to Aunt Lily. Let me start off by saying all of my Aunts have influenced me in different ways and given me legacies to carry with me, but the legacy Aunt Lily left me and my sister was to make everyday occurrences remarkable. When I would go to Aunt Lily's as a young child she would make me wonderful snacks of tea and cookies. She had a fancy little teapot (we didn't have anything like that at my house). She would make me tea in that teapot and serve tea and cookies on a tray. It was all in the presentation and I was made to feel like a princess.

My sister still does this for the little kids. One time when we went to visit, she decorated and had a luau for my kids at breakfast just so they could have fresh pineapple. We celebrated a year's worth of holidays in one week once. We had a bbq, Christmas party, Easter party, Valentine party, Halloween Party, and New Year's Eve Party all within a week. It was a blast. Anyway... I didn't take my kids on a lot of picnics either. Most of them were in our backyard and one of the things that made them special was wrapping the silverware. I know it is silly, but if we are eating outside my kids love for the silverware to be wrapped. I decided to make a quick little napkin wrapper for a picnic. 

I simply took a scrap of white paper and cut it 2 1/2 inches by about 6 inches. I cut a strip of patterned paper and cut a strip 1 x 6 and glued it on top of the white cardstock. For the little personalized monogram, I used A Child's Year Monogram key and cut the C at 1 1/2 inches. I then cut the monogram that is blank out of black at 1 3/4. I glued them together and then glued it to the center of the strip. I wrapped it around the silverware and glued where it overlaps with my ATG.

Look at the cute little ant on this paper. I don't remember where I got this paper. I have had it around for years. I think it may be out of one of the DCWV Summer Stacks.

The other side says Picnic Time. I love it. This took all of three minutes to make, but it sure to bring a smile to my kids' faces when we use them this weekend. They are so quick and easy I can do it at the last minute even if they invite a friend over.

I thought more about the picnic and thought what better place to have a picnic than at the beach or at least at a park with a big sand box. I grabbed a pail and threw some vinyl on it. I cut the Oh Happy Day from Don Juan. Quick easy and lots of fun. When cutting vinyl, you want to use a medium setting on pressure, speed, and blade depth. It will "Kiss" cut where it cuts through the vinyl, but not the paper backing. You then peel away the excess vinyl before transferring it to the item.

I had planned to do more elaborate projects, but my boss surprised us this week by announcing her retirement. That threw lots into my week that wasn't planned. Then everyone in the house had ten different things going on, so it has been a busy week. I didn't get near what I wanted to get done finished. Of course, you know me and I could add another project or two before morning. In the meantime, how bout a little blog candy to make up for the simple projects?

What do you need to do to win this blog candy?... Leave me a comment telling me what cartridges or themes you would like to see featured on my blog. Are you really looking for school layouts? Do you need birthday ideas? Home decor projects? What do you want to see? You never know, I might even be able to talk Erica into getting the whole design team working on the theme or featuring the cartridge. You don't have to follow to win, but if you would like to follow I would be honored to have you as a follower.

Okay it is morning and I have a layout for you. The colors aren't showing up well, because it was barely light outside as I was taking these. I used Echo Park's "A Walk in the Park" Collection. It is not one of their newer collections. It is an old collection, but all of the Echo Park Collections are wonderful. They just go together so well and are easy to work with. Check out the other Echo Park Collections Erica offers here.  The 12x12 collections are my favorites. They come with papers, three sets of alphabet stickers, shaped cardstock stickers, and border strips.

This was a fun layout to make. I pulled out one of my favorite go to cartridges Designer's Calendar. It is an often overlooked cart. I bought it to make calendars for my classroom. I have made one calendar with it for my husbands classroom, but I use it all the time. It has words and images for every holiday and most events. From playdates to sleepovers to Chinese New Year to Mardi Gras to a dentist visit.... it is all on this cart. Plus go to shapes like butterflies, flowers, Christmas trees, and pumpkins. I am telling you I use this cartridge all the time. Erica has this caret for only $23 right now. It is a steal. This is a direct link to this cart on her store.

 The title is cut from Designer's Calendar. I cut both the letter and the shadows at 2". It is a very versatile font. It is skinny, so you can still make the letters relatively large without taking up all the space.

You can see I added some of the cardstock stickers to enhance the layout.

I you enjoyed and that you will check out Echo Park's line and Designer's Calendar.

Now head on over to Haidee's Blog to see what she has created for the hop. I know it will wow you, as her projects always blow me away. Don't forget to leave some comment love along the way to be eligible for the blog candy Erica is giving away.

Here is the entire line up just  in case you get lost along the way.

Start http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/
Suzy's Crafts http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com/
Tracy http://Lovesbuggin.blogspot.com/
Kathy Jo http://skrappindiva.blogspot.com/
Haidee http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/
Cicily http://pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com/
Erica's Project http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com/
Lori http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/.
April http://curlsandgrins.blogspot.com/
Blog Candy http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com/

I am 99% sure that as soon as I have natural light in the morning, there will be a fun picnic layout for you to see with Echo Park Papers.
Happy Crafting!
KathyJo