Back to Basics Part 1

Hi there friends. Lately I have been missing the good 'ol days of scrapbooking. I mean the part where I have a set of products (usually from a kit club) and have to crank out 4-5 layouts in one sitting (or two). I've missed picking out pictures, playing with products and diving into some memory keeping/documenting. Don't get me wrong, I've never stopped doing this but lately, I feel like it hasn't been that productive. That is why a few days ago, I decided to go "back to basics". I grabbed some items in my stash, made sure they all coordinated, pulled out photos and went to work. Here's two out of four layouts that I created for my personal challenge...

Candy Girl

I wanted to use a 6x6 paper pad from American Crafts as my main pattern paper stash for all of my projects. Because these are smaller in size, I punched them out in circles and added them as a border on the bottom of my page. I love how the small design fit perfectly with the circle shapes. 

I also had some butterfly chipboard in my stash and I added color to them by rubbing them on my ink pad.

My daughter is a "candy-holic" and I wanted to document that in my journaling. In this particular trip to the mall, she was super excited to use her money to get a bubble gum. Only my Maddie would be excited about spending her quarter for candy.

Decorating the cake

With this layout, I used the same patter papers as a border for my page. I had cut them into tiny 1/2" wide strips and laid them around my photos. I used a block style design for my images and filled it the empty spaces with pattern paper and a journaling block. 

I used some stamps from Pink Paislee to create some of my handmade elements like the banner with "stupendous" and arrow.

I love how quick I can add color to the butterflies just by rubbing them on my ink pad.

Supplies Used:
Cardstock- KI Memories; Pattern paper- 6x6 Pad, Ready Set Go, American Crafts; Journaling blocks-Lily Bee Design; Letter stickers- Thickers, American Crafts; Butterfly chipboards- Heidi Swapp; Stamps- Pink Paislee; Inks- Tsukineko, American Crafts, ColorBox; Epoxy dots- My Mind's Eye; Flourish black stickers- KI Memories; Pen- Millennium, Zig; Mist- Heidi Swapp; Thread- Coats and Clark, Sewing Machine- Kenmore; Adhesives- SEI, Thermoweb.

Thanks for stopping by and I will be sharing part 2 of this show and tell at the end of the week. Stay tuned.

Till next time,
Grace

Christmas Pinterest-Inspired cards *Epiphany Crafts*

Hi there, Grace here to share with you what I was inspired lately while browsing through Pinterest I think sometimes when we go through our boards or just browse through the recent uploads on Pinterest, we think that we need to do exactly what we saw there. But most of the time, I am finding myself gathering design ideas, new techniques and cool ways to use up what I already have. And that is exactly how these two cards made with Epiphany Crafts accents came about….

Happy Holidays card

Size: 5x5

Here’s my inspiration for the card….

Note ornament #5. I patterned my card design according to the way the Christmas tree was build and then added some bubble sticker stars for texture and dimension. Instead of using popsicle sticks, I used pattern paper for my tree. 

 Supplies Used:

Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Accessories Bubble Caps Star 25 SSA-43

Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Tool Star 25 SST-41

Cardstock- WorldWin Papers

Pattern papers- Bazzill

Die cut tab- Making Memories

Sentiment stamp- Inspired by Stamping

Ink- American Crafts

Adhesive- SEI, Thermoweb

 Instructions:

1. Create the card base with the shimmery white cardstock.

2. Cut a piece of black snowflake paper that is 4 ¾” square. Cut the inside of the piece ½” around to create a frame. Adhere to the card.

3. Cut ½” strips of different pattern papers and stack them to create the Christmas tree.  Adhere to the card.

4. Create the star bubble stickers using Epiphany Crafts star tool and star bubble sticker pack. Adhere to three different areas of the card.

5. Stamp the sentiment on the die cut tab. Adhere on the card using foam adhesive.

 Merry Christmas card

Size: 5x5

This card was inspired by this one found in Pinterest…

I just love how elegant it looked. I replicated the circle ornament accent but used Epiphany crafts bubble sticker and punched out papers instead of the pearls.

Supplies Used:

Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Tool Round 14 SST-02

Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Accessories Bubble Caps Round 14 SSA-08

Cardstock- WorldWin Papers

Pattern papers- Bazzill

Twine- Lawn Fawn

Sentiment stamp- Lawn Fawn

Ink- Tsukineko

Adhesive- SEI, Thermoweb

Instructions:

1. Create the card base with the shimmery white cardstock.

2. Cut a piece of red stripe paper that is 4 ¾” square. Cut the inside of the piece ½” around to create a frame. Adhere to the card.

3. Use a round object to trace the shape on the center of the card (use a pencil so it’s easy to erase later).

4. Punch out multiple circles from pattern papers using the Epiphany Crafts round 14 tool. Create bubble stickers as well using that same tool and papers.

5. Adhere the circles on the inside of your traced shape. Fill until you don’t see any more of the background cardstock. Erase the visible circle marks.

6. Add some twine on the top of the circle to make it look like an ornament.

7. Stamp the sentiment on the bottom of the card.

Thank you for joining me today and I hope you were inspired by my cards. Please check out the products used on these cards here. 

-Grace

Die Versions November Release projects

Hello there crafty friends. I know this is kinda late since we are already in November but it's always 'better late than never' right? Here are the projects I created for Die Versions for the month of November. We had "winter" dies and it was so fun incorporating them in my layout and cards...

Winter Wonderland layout

Size: 12x 24”

Featuring:

Snow Flurries- Wee Petites (DVP-004)

Let it snow- Fancy Sentiments (DVFS-001)

Snow Angel- Enhanced Spots (DVES-002

Wonderland- Express Edge (DVE-042)

Snowman- Sweet Petites (DVP-101)

One of my favorite ways to use the Express Edge word dies is to make them into titles for my pages. In this layout, I added some letter stickers to spell out “winter” which completed my title “winter wonderland”. I added the letter stickers over the white space of my photo to make it stand out better in the page.

I just so happen to have a stamp set called “build a snowman” by Inspired by Stamping and the snowman image stamps worked perfectly with the snowman die. I added the eyes and mouth with the stamp and then wrapped some twine over the body of the snowman to add more dimension. I adhered them with foam adhesive onto the page. 

 Let It Snow Card

Size: 5 ½ x 4 ¼”

Featuring:

Snow Flurries- Wee Petites (DVP-004)

Let it snow- Fancy Sentiments (DVFS-001)

I am in love with the fancy sentiments right now. This one in particular, is B-I-G and I love how it fits just right in a regular A2 card but it will also work really well as a title for a scrapbook page. I love the lettering as well. So cool, don’t you think?

Because the fancy sentiment took up most of my card space, I decided to just add some little elements on the side so I don’t take away from the beauty of the die cut title. I added three snow flurries in my card working as my visual triangle. I also added to strips of washi tape to give my card some balance. 

 You Are Wonderful card

Size: 4 ¼ x 5 ½”

Featuring:

Wonderland- Express Edge (DVE-042)

Made with Love- Enhanced Spots (DVES-003)

In this card, I cut out the hearts from the “made with love” die, added them to the card then with a liquid pearl medium, created the smooth pearl like dots on the inside edges of the shape. I even added it as a corner accent to the bottom right side of my card.

*Note: I also used the EE die “wonderland” in this card but cut out the word “land” from the image to make the title match my card’s theme better.

 Snow Angel

Size: 4 ½ x 5 ½”

Featuring:

Snow Flurries- Wee Petites (DVP-004)

Snow Angel- Enhanced Spots (DVES-002)

I added some glitter to the “angel” image on the snow angel die. I actually made two cuts of that image, one in blue and another in white. I then cut out the white one (I usually use the white/back part of a pattern paper so I don’t have to waste any paper in my stash) and then ran in through my Xyron sticker machine with the sticky side adhering to the front of the image. After that I sprinkled some white glitter over it, tap the excess off and then adhered the glittered angel right above the blue one using foam adhesive.

I also used some itty bitty foam adhesive in the centers of the snow flake cuts to make them pop out better against the busy background and finished them off with some rhinestones. 

I hope these projects gave you some ideas on how to incorporate dies in your next crafty project. 

Till next time,

Grace

You are my Sweetheart layout *Paper House*

I can't live without music. I rely on it to keep me company while I drive around. I have it plugged in when I'm working out. And sometimes I even have it in the background when I'm working. It's also a great way for me to grab inspiration for projects such as this one....

 I wanted to create a layout featuring some of my favorite pictures of me and my husband in the first 10 years of our marriage. The title of the layout comes from a popular song that I always hear on the radio. I used some of the bright and cheerful patterns from the Summer Fun pack as it denotes the fun and happy feeling I want to remember my first decade with hubby. I added the butterflies to reminds me of the “butterflies in my tummy” feeling whenever my I see my husband.

Supplies Used:

Papers- Summer Fun paper pack (PP-0034E)

Stickers- He Loves Me 3D Stickers (STDM-0132E)

Others- cardstock, heart punch, tag punch, die cut machine, pen, twine and adhesive)

 Instructions:

1. With your die cut machine, cut out the words (taken from a song) from the blue cloud paper. Cut the number tabs as well. Set aside.

2. Cut out the diagonal strips paper into an 11 ½” square. Adhere to the center of the pink cardstock.

3. Cut out a yellow plaid paper into a 1 ½” strip and adhere to the center of the page. Cut another strip of paper from the multi-colored paper strip into a ¾ x 12” piece. Cut the ends into notches and adhere on top of the yellow paper.

4. Add the negative portion of the cut out words on the bottom left side of the page.

5. Add the photos. Adhere the number tabs on a corner of each of the pictures using some dot adhesive. *for the 10^th photo, punch out a heart from paper and layer with die cut numbers #1 and 0.

6. Punch out a tag from the cloud paper and tuck parts of it behind a photo. Handwrite your journaling using a black pen.

7. Decorate the page with twine, dimensional butterfly stickers, epoxy bird sticker and handmade arrow.

What about you, how do you use music as an inspiration?

Till next time,
Grace

I hope to never forget layout *Inspired By Stamping*

Happy Monday. One of the things that I am going to really pay attention to during this season is to "be present". Be physically and mentally present with all of the holiday traditions that my family and I are going to be doing this month. The following layout made me realize that as much as it sounds redundant, time flies super fast and I don't ever want to forget the little moments that I share with my family. My children are growing up way too fast and before you know it, they will be off doing their own thing. So before that "dreaded" day, I'm going to take advantage of the time I still have with them. 

I hope to never forget layout

Inspired by Stamping is doing a blog candy this week and the "candy" are some of our popular birthday stamps along with pink flowers. I used the Birthday Wishes II stamp set on this layout. I didn't have pink flowers but the peach carnations blended well with the rest of my page, don't you think? 

One of my favorite things about stamps is how we can use them as is, or alter them a bit to make them fit better with our project. Since this layout is not about "birthdays", I used the phrases that denoted love. I also used the phrase "today and always" from the "best wishes" stamp. This just shows us that we definitely get more mileage from our tools, just with a few snips here and there.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great rest of the week.

Till next time,

Grace

House of Cards blog hop *Inspired By Stamping*

Happy Sunday friends. I don't normally post on a Sunday but today the entire Inspired By Stamping design team is joining the House of Cards team for an inspirational blog hop. 

Welcome to the House of Cards Term One Blog Hop!  If you've come here from Colleen's blog, then you are in the right place!  If you have just stumbled here and would like to participate, please hop over to the House of Cards challenge blog to get started!  We've got some fabulous sponsors that are providing prizes, so make sure to leave comments at each stop for a chance to win!

For this special hop, everyone was asked to use the image below for an inspiration for our project...

and here's my take on it...

I kept my cards' colors to white with some subtle hints of blue and other red. I added some texture by embossing my vellum strip (in the middle of the card) and adding some rhinestone corners. I used a birthday stamp and flower from the IBS store. 

Here's the full list of hoppers today...

Joanna Munster - http://joannamunster.com

Colleen Dietrich- http://www.colleendietrichdesigns.com/

Grace Tolman- YOU ARE HERE!!!

Leah Cornelius- http://paperblossoms.blogspot.com/

Irit Shalom- http://iritshalom.blogspot.com

Kendra Sand- http://luv2scrapnmakecards.blogspot.com

Nazeema Bastian- http://calypsocandycraft.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Deeprose- http://www.paperprimrose.com/

Rose Miller- http://roseshappyplace.blogspot.com/

Tina Hale- http://woodedviews.blogspot.com

Mynnette- http://www.mynnettekitchenonastampage.blogspot.com/

Ruth- http://flowersparkle.blogspot.com/

Gale- http://galesstampingcorner.blogspot.com/

Nonni- http://korttikarkuri.blogspot.fi/

Tammy- http://www.mycraftcentral.blogspot.com/

Vannessa- http://www.saffiresstamping.blogspot.co.uk/

Mia- http://miazaubert.blogspot.de/

Nancy- http://seedstlc.blogspot.ca/

Daen'Ys- http://daenys-creations.blogspot.fr/

Sue T.- http://thecre8tivestudio.blogspot.com/

Tara- http://craftilicious-yorkshire.blogspot.co.uk/

Vicki- http://allidoisstamp.blogspot.com/

Alica- http://aqyera.blogspot.ca/

Anita- http://www.happypapercrafthappenings.blogspot.com/

Donna- http://craftycolonel.blogspot.com/

John- http://johnnextdoor.blogspot.com.es/

Shauna- http://creatingwithpaper.wordpress.com/

Rudlis- http://papierowaobsesja.blogspot.com/

Jules- http://www.ovcrafts.com/

Macarena- http://macarena-creativa.blogspot.com/

Rocky- http://rockycraft.blogspot.co.uk/

Sue B.- http://scrumplescrunch.blogspot.co.nz/

Thanks for stopping by!  Please join in the fun of our hop and make your way over to Leah's blog!

till next time,

Grace

Sunday Family Walks

Hi there friends. I hope my American friends all had a great Thanksgiving day yesterday. I'm stuffed after having a wonderful turkey meal with friends and I have been eyeing all the deals for today. But before I go and "shop till I drop", I wanted to share with you an activity that our family recently started doing on Sundays.....family walk.

Because we believe that Sundays need to be a time for rest and worship, we do not allow the kids to watch TV or play video games. Apart from attending our church meetings, each member of the family also writes in our individual journals. As you can imagine, it's a bit of a challenge for the kids to enjoy the day because they get "stir crazy" not being able to do the same things they do on the other days of the week. This affects us, the parents as well because they play inside the house and it gets really loud that we can't feel the peace and it just makes everyone a bit on the edge. 

So to remedy the brewing contention (and also to get some exercise) we have been trying to go on afternoon walks with the kids. This has been a refreshing activity that the whole family seem to enjoy. Plus the time together makes it easy for us to catch up with each other. Here are some images I captured from one of our Sunday walks....

 The route we take is a trail that leads to one of the nearby parks. It takes us about an hour to leisurely walk the trail and I believe it's about 2 miles.

and here's the lovely view of Pikes Peak that we get to take in every time....

 I'm sure that we will need to find an alternative activity once the winter season hits. There might be days where there are snow on the ground and bitterly cold weather. We will see. But for now, we are enjoying our Sunday family walks.

What about you, what are your favorite family activities to do on Sundays?

Till next time,
Grace

Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to take a quick moment to greet everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

I hope you all have a great one. {insert smiley face}

till next time,

Grace

Happy Birthday card using scraps *Inspired by Stamping*

Hi there fellow crafters and blog friends. Today I'm sharing a card I was able to put together by rummaging through my scrap pile and a sentiment stamp from Inspired By Stamping...

I love using my scraps for card making. Don't you? I like how the sizes are small enough that I can have fun layering papers and patterns on top of each other. So how do I make it look cohesive? I always try to pull colors from one paper in the mix, in this case, I used the striped paper. You can notice that I took the purple, fuchsia pink, green and blue.

I incorporated the hearts in the "arrow and hearts" paper as my central accent, which is a chipboard heart that I happened to have painted that color a long time ago. This just shows you that sometimes, it's good to keep things and not throw them right away, even if you don't have any use for them at that very moment.

thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Faith and Courage Cards *Paper House*

Faith and Courage card set

Card sizes: (2) 4 ¼ x 5 ½” and (1) 5 ½ x 4 ¼”

Some of my favorite cards to create are ones that have some encouraging or faith based sentiment on it. I know personally, that I enjoy getting inspirational cards as much as making them. I am planning on giving some of these cards to friends and family that needs that little boost of inspiration and courage.

Supplies Used:

Papers- Summer Fun paper pack (PP-0034E); Faith (P-0670E); Crown of Thorns (P-0669E); Cross (P-0668E)

Stickers- Strong and Courageous (STDM-0137E); He Loves Me (STDM-0132E)

Others- Cardstock, Border punch, Pearls, Rhinestones, Tag punch, Twine, Adhesive

Be Strong and Courageous card

Instructions:

1. Create your card base from white cardstock.

2. Cut a piece from the Faith paper that is 1/8” smaller than the card base. Adhere to the center of the card front. Add machine stitching around the inside edge of the paper.

3. Cut a piece from the Cross paper that is 5 ½ x 2” in size. Adhere to the yellow/orange paper. Punch the edges into a scallop border and adhere to the center of the card, horizontally.

4. Cut out a piece of dot paper that is 5 ½ x ¾” in size. Cut the ends into notches and adhere to the center of the card. Add the “be strong and courageous” sticker over it.

5. Add strips of small pearls on the top and bottom parts of the sticker.

 The Lord your God will be with you card

Instructions:

1. Create the card base from the white cardstock.

2. Trim a piece of brown/green dot paper that is slightly smaller than the card base. Adhere to the card front.

3. Cut a 2” strip from the Crowns of Thorns paper and adhere to the center of the card, vertically. Cut a piece from the orange/yellow paper measuring 1 ¾” in width. Cut the top into a notch and adhere over the previous strip of paper.

4. Punch a tag shape from the Cross paper and adhere to the bottom of the card. Adhere the dimensional stickers.

5. Add some rhinestone accents on each of the four corners of the card.

 Believe in Him card

Instructions:

1. Create the card base from white cardstock.

2. cut a piece of Faith paper that is slightly smaller than the card base; Round the bottom corners. Adhere to the center of the card.

3. Cut a piece of Cross paper that measures about 2” x 5 1/3”, round the bottom corners and adhere to the bottom of the card.

4. Cut a piece of faith paper that is 2 ½” in width. Add a scallop punched border on the right side and adhere to the card, trimming off excess on the bottom. Cut a piece of striped multicolored paper that will fit over the piece with the scalloped edge and adhere over it.

5. Cut a strip of green plaid paper measuring about 5 ¾ x ½” in size. Cut the long ends into notches. Wrap the twine around it a couple of times, threading through the inside of the card and secure the ends into a bow.

6. Add the cross and sentiment sticker.

7. Add a cluster of three pearls on the top left and bottom right edges of the card.

To learn more about these and other Paper House products, please click here. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Grace