What we love about Lucas - Shimelle

Hello! Anyone out there? I took a bit of a break from blogging and only posted my projects on Instagram or Facebook, but wonder if that works for people? It's a tricky slope for me, wondering if people do read blogs anymore.. or are we saturating our social media "feeds" too much with scrappy stuff? I don't know.. what do you think?

At any rate, I have a project to share with you today as part of my catch up that I made for the as one of the contributing designers for the Shimelle blog. Our topic was all about embossing... and this is what I came up with!

I used one of the papers in the True Stories collection for most of this layout. Well, I ended up with more, but the intention was to use that one sheet - it's a multi color thicker striped paper  green/blue - and that  was it. In the end, I usually add more! HA!

As you can see, I trimmed that paper up into strips and then embossed the different colors with two different embossing folders - both polka dots to they work well together, but different sizes to make it a little more interesting. I added in some polka dot papers with other colors in there, to bring in a little of that red from my photo. I added some simple journaling strips to each of my embossed strips and then added some small embellishments throughout.

I added a really simple title along the top of my strips and LOVE those black thickers. Foam thickers are my favorite alpha by far. Chipboard is nice, but always falls off :(

That's it for me today! I hope you are a little inspired to add a little embossing to your next project !

Fancy Pants Joy Parade sneak!

I have a project up on the Fancy Pants Designs blog today using the bright and vibrant Joy Parade collection.




Here is a quick sneak peek for you since you were kind enough to stop by the blog today:

You can head over to the Fancy Pants Designs blog HERE to see the entire post. I will be back soon with the full project and process video for this page!




Have a great day!

Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine winter issue

The winter issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine was released on December 9 - have you had a chance to check it out yet?

Each issue this year, a different designer created mini books for a special article in the magazine. This issue, it was my turn.

I used the Pink Paislee collection Take Me Away for this valentine themed album. I cut all the pages on my Silhouette Cameo and added some thinner chipboard between the paper layers to create the book. I like making my own albums from scratch, and sewing them together on my sewing machine. A lot less adhesive and the stitching adds a fun texture.

Throughout the album, I added in some tags and ephemera from the collection and attached onto the jump ring that I used to hold the album together.

I diecut some vellum leaves from JustNick studio and tucked those in amongst the photos and ephemera.

Since there was not a lot of room for journaling in the album, I ran some vellum hearts in my typewriter and added my journaling on them. It gets the job done without adding bulk.

For the cover, I added a little red glitter to the bottom edge of the Thickers that come with the Take Me Away collection. Adds a nice little sparkle and pop of color to the cover of the book

To watch me flip though the album, I created little video! Check it out:

That's it for me today! Thanks for stopping by!

SCT Jan freebie

Happy New Year! I am way behind on blogging this week but didn't want to forget to post about this month's cut file freebie over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog!

Here is the January freebie:

I simply chose to use the 2017 for my title along with the "right now" and a few stars to my page. A cut file is simply a good starting point, and doesn't always need to fill in a complete page right!

I used the Dear Lizzy Saturday collection for this page. I love the pretty yellow, navy and green colors in the collection!

Here is a close up of the cut file portions on the page:

That's it for me today! Here is a link to grab this download for FREE link

I have a few more projects to share, so I will be back later this week :)

Holiday Centerpiece - Fancy Pants Designs

Well, Christmas is over and New Year's Eve is around the corner. I have one last DIY project to share with you from our holiday season that I created for the Fancy Pants Designs blog this month.

I started with a plain Jane candleholder. Pretty basic, fine... but totally boring! I really love the gold foil star vellum in the Merry & Bright collection and had a bit of an idea.... and got to work.

I measured the height of my candleholder and then trimmed my vellum down so it fit that height. I wrapped it around and luckily for me, there was a very small 1/8" overlap. This was good, as I did need some of the vellum to overlap so I could adhere it together.

I used some Ranger Glossy Accents to that overlap and held in in place a few minutes until it was stuck together. This took maybe 2-3 mins, so not too long.   I added some gold glitter washi tape from the Millie & June collection along the bottom edge.

Next, was to cover up that overlap! I added a swag of craftiness I had in my stash, and tied it all together with some ribbon. I glued that to the vellum and then tied on a tag from the Merry & Bright collection tag pack. I love the pop of red it gave and that gold foil embossing is just so pretty!

You can see that the vellum actually slides off the candleholder, so when I want to use it post-holiday, I can simply remove it and carefully store it away!

I really love how quickly and easily this came together. I am thinking I could either remove the tag or switch it for another to keep this up a little longer, over new years! Happy New Year!

Joy to the World

Happy Holidays! December is here and I am all ready for Christmas in our house. The tree us up and even most of the gifts are wrapped. I have been working on some holiday themed projects for some DT assignments and wanted to share this one with you today that I created for Jillibean Soup this month.

I started with lots of the Holly Berry Borscht collection by Jillibean Soup. I also used a cut file from my digital cut file store - JustNick studio. This is the Holly Background 2. I cut the background from a white brick paper in the Soup Staples III collection and then popped the whole thing to my background with foam adhesive. I had intended to fill those empty holly berry holes with red paper, but I like the way they are open and the background popping through, so I went with it!

I die cut some holly leaves and berries from more Jillibean Soup papers and added them to my page, after I added my photo and the journaling card. I LOVE using holly and berries in my holiday projects - something different than the standard trees I see on a lot of pages.

I added some sparkly Jillibean Soup adhesive sequins and wood sprinkles to the mix and the page is complete!

I really love how this one came out! The background really pops with those fun holly leaves in the patterned papers! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate!

Quick and Easy ornaments - Fancy Pants Designs

Hello hello! I had a project hit the Fancy Pants Designs blog the other day, and thought I would share it with  you!

Fancy Pants has come out with some fantastic rub-ons to co-ordinate with their Merry & Bright collection, and I thought that they would look great on some clear ornaments I picked up from the local craft store.

Check 'em out:

The rub-ons made for a super easy project - quite simply. I placed the design over the clear ornament and used my rub on tool to stick it all together! This one here is my favorite - it's using one of the rub on titles in the Merry & Bright collection:

Sorry for the glaring photo - hard to do with gold foil and clear ornaments! I some other sentiment rub ons on a few other ornaments and then on the last one, instead of rub-ons, I attempted to add some bottle brush trees to the inside of the ornament.

It was quite easy really. The trick is to have to correct size of bottle brush trees that will fit down the neck of the ornament. These ones in the Merry & Bright collection are the smallest and fit the best! I simply added a glue dot or two to the bottom of the wood tree base and then stuck them inside! I added some fluffed cotton and a few gold glitter balls I had in my stash to add some sparkle.

I am pretty happy with how they turned out ! A really quick craft to do when you are feeling crafty, but are short on time this holiday season!