Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Wednesday, August 29, 2018

"Make Pulvoron" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month Kit)

I love the colors in this Simple Stories collection. They pop out really well against the black background. All of these products are from the latest Flavor of the Month kit from The ScrapRoom kit club. 

Title: Make Pulvoron
Products used: Simple Stories- Little Dude
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad; Black letter stickers; white gel pen
Notes:  The background piece (black and white, multi color strip) is actually one piece of paper. It is double sided and I wanted to show off both images. To do that, I cut it just exactly where I want the separation to be. Then I adhered them, making sure to flip one of them to show the other side and then covered the seam with a strip of diagonal striped paper. 
I added some puffy stickers to add dimension to my page. 




Till next time,
Grace

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

"Trying Something New" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month kit)

I love using white cardstock as my base but I have to admit that the blue cardstock that I used here made the whole page pop. Don't you think so? Here's an extra project I created with the latest Flavor of the Month kit from The Scrap Room kit club

Title: Trying Something New
Products used: Fancy Pants Design- On our Way + Embellishment Add-on
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad; Black letter stickers; white gel pen
Notes:  Since I only had a few pieces of papers left, I decided to go with a simple paper strip design behind my photos. Some of these were originally shorter than others so I just placed one strip on top of the other and covered the seam with my photos and you’d never know that it wasn’t a long strip.  



Till next time,
Grace

Monday, August 27, 2018

“Dream Big Little Mermaid” card and matching envelope (Whimsy Stamps AND Glue Dots blog hop)


Hello friends and Happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend and that creating was part of that. Today I'm joining in on the Glue Dots and Whimsy Stamps blog hop. As part of the Glue Dots design team, I got the privilege of working with the Whimsy stamps for the first time and I have to say that I'm now a fan. I love the design of the stamps and the cool dies that was sent to me. 

Whimsy Stamps and Glue Dots Inspirations HopJoin us from August 27h through August 31st for a fun joint blog hop between Whimsy Stamps and Glue Dots. Our teams will be sharing lots of beautiful projects featuring products from both of these companies. And we will have lots of prizes hidden along the hop as well as a grand prize valued at $100! To enter into the giveaways, you just need to comment on EACH blog throughout the hop. Then for the grand prize after you have commented on all stops along the hop, enter your name and email in the linky tool at the last stop. Winners will be randomly selected and announced on Monday, September 3rd. Good luck and have fun!

Here's a card and envelope that I created for the blog hop.....


“Dream Big Little Mermaid” card and matching envelope
Designed by: Grace Tolman
Time: Approximately 1 hour
Level: Intermediate
Size:  A2 card size (4 ¼ x 5 ½), Envelope (4 1/3 x 5 ¾)


Notes:  When I saw the mermaid image on the “Let’s Be Mermaids” stamp set, I knew I had to do an underwater card. It just called for it. And with some ink blending technique and marker coloring, I was able to add various layers of coloring to this card using only white cardstock.

Materials
White Cardstock- Earth Tone Cardstock Pack, The Paper Studio
Stamp set- Let’s be Mermaids, CWSD 227, Clearly Whimsy Stamps
Markers- Bold set (1122 BL-6N) and Natural set (1122 BL-6M), Brush lettering, Marvy Uchida
Envelope- Source unknown


Tools:
Ultra Thin, Glue Dots®
Pop Up, Glue Dots®
Removable glue tape, Glue Dots®
Mini dot, Glue Dots®
Ink- Black, Hybrid, My Favorite Things; Embossing,  VersaMark, Tsukineko; Pewter, Mix’d Media, ColorBox; (Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Tumbled Glass, Fossilized Amber, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive) Distressed Mini Ink cubes, Ranger
Ink Blending tool- Ranger
Stamp Positioning Tool- Tonic Studios
Glimmer mist- Maya Mist, Maya Road
Embossing Powder- Gold, Hampton Arts
Glitter pen- Shimmer pen, Nuvo, Tonic Studios
Die cuts- Card Builder Window Set (WSD 423), Whimsy Stamps; Leaf foliage 1 Die Set (WSD410) Whimsy Stamps
Manual die cut machine- CuttleBug, Provo Craft
1 ¾” punch, EK Success
Paper Trimmer
Scissors

Directions:
1. Cut the 8 ½ x 11 white cardstock piece into two 5 ½ x 8 ½ pieces. Fold one into an A2 card size and set aside.

2. Use the other piece to cut out the frame and the leaf shapes using the respective dies.


3. Using another piece of white scrap cardstock, stamp the mermaid image using the black ink. The stamp positioning tool is best for these kinds of projects so you can get a clear impression by stamping the image 3-4 times without worrying about alignment issues.


4. Color the image with the Marvy Uchida markers. Cut out the image using some scissors. Add some shimmer to the mermaid with the Nuvo shimmer pen. Set aside.


5. Grab the rectangle die cut piece and create a water background. Blend the 3 blue distress ink pads together (Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint sketch, Tumbled glass) using the blending tool and some sponge pads onto the white paper.


6. Spray some glitter mist using the Maya mist and set aside to dry.


7. Place some Removable Glue Tap, Glue Dots® adhesive onto a white scrap of paper. Temporarily adhere the leaves on it and add color to it using the rest of the distress ink cubes and the blending tool. Spray some more glimmer mist if desired.
8. Heat emboss the sentiment on a white scrap of cardstock using some gold embossing powder. Punch out the shape with a 1 3/4 “punch.


9. Assemble the card- Place the “underwater” panel onto the center of the card using some Ultra Thin, Glue Dots® adhesive.


10. Add the underwater foliage on the bottom of the panel using some Mini Dot, Glue Dots® adhesive.


11. Place the mermaid onto the top left side of the card. Adhere with some Pop-Up, Glue Dots® adhesive.


12. Place the sentiment onto the underwater panel using some more Ultra Thin, Glue Dots® adhesive.
13. Stamp the mermaid image onto the front left edge of the envelope with Versamark ink. Heat emboss with gold powder.

So there you have it. I hope this post inspired you to create today.

Full Hop Link List
Sue 
Grace >>>> You are here

Make sure you check out the rest of the blogs that are participating in this blog hop. There are some fun prizes to be had if you do so. Check out the Glue Dots and the Whimsy Stamps blogs for more details.

Till next time,
Grace

Friday, August 24, 2018

"Everything is Better Together" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month Kit)

I love stretching my FOTM kits every month. I'm always so surprised at the amount of projects I'm able to accomplish. This double page layout is one one of them. 

Title: Everything is Better Together
Designer: Grace Tolman
Products used: Photoplay- Stuck On You
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad; White Cardstock; Black pen
Notes: Two page layouts are not hard to create, especially when you only have scraps, if you have large photos. I used 4-4x6 photos here and it occupied much of my page. I added some strips of pattern paper around to make a frame plus some more blocks on the bottom to fill the bottom part. Adding some large stickers also made this page easy to finish. 




Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Floral Card Trio (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month kit)

Here is a card set that I was able to create using the latest Flavor of the Month kit from The ScrapRoom kit club. 

Title: Floral Card Set
Products used: Pebbles- My Bright Life + Embellishment Add-on
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Card bases; Scallop border punch
Notes:  This was inspired by the Pebbles dimensional sticker sheet. It had three beautiful circle accents with some generic sentiments plus some clusters of flowers. Those sticker sheets along with some scraps of papers were all I needed to create these floral themed cards.



Make sure to stop by again tomorrow when I share a layout using the latest Flavor of the Month kit.

Till next time,
Grace

Thursday, August 16, 2018

"Love Her So Much" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month kit)

Every month, the ScrapRoom kit club shared a sketch and a challenge. It is always fun to play along with it. Here's my version for this month's sketch. 


Title: Love Her So Much
Products used: Pebbles- My Bright Life + Embellishment Add On
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad; Scallop border punch; Scallop scissor; Circle Cutter; White Gel Pen
Notes:  This page was inspired by the sketch for this month. I flipped it 90 degrees since my photos are vertical and not horizontal like on the sketch. The “love” part of my title was cut out from my electronic die cut machine using some glittered cardstock. 
I love all of the “kitchen” stickers in this mini kit and I made sure to incorporate them here since my page has a “food” theme. 






Wednesday, August 15, 2018

"YM Triathlon" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month kit)

Double page layouts are my "jam" and this one was made with the latest Flavor of the Month kit from the Scrap Room kit club. 

Title: YM Triathlon
Products used: Simple Stories Little Dude
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad; Circle punch; Star punch; Black letter stickers
Notes:  When I create a double page layout, I always start with the photos. This way I know exactly which part of my cardstock base needs to be covered up with pattern paper. I did a grid design with this layout and mixed blocks of photos and papers together. I also hand cut some banners from one of the pattern papers and added that to the top of my page for a more festive look.
One of the papers had a bunch of circle accents so I punched them out as circles and stars to add as embellishments to my page. I love how we can create our own accents from matching papers. 








Wednesday, August 8, 2018

"It's a Lovely Day to Plant" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month Kit)

I'm here with another page featuring the latest kit from The ScrapRoom kit club. 

Title: it’s a Lovely Day to Plant
Products used: Photoplay- Stuck On You
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad; Green Thickers Alphabet Stickers
Notes:  This page was inspired by all of the potted plants that were in the sticker sheet. It reminded of a “tree planting” activity that my family and I did last spring. The title blocks within the sticker sheet didn’t really complete my title so I added some other alphabet stickers from my stash. I decided to go with green to match the theme of planting theme of the page. 
I didn’t like the thick frame around my block design. To create an extra ‘frame’ around my page, I cut out some pieces of paper into triangles like a photo corner, inked them up, and then added it to the corners of my white cardstock. 





Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Friday, August 3, 2018

"Fatherhood Adventure" (The ScrapRoom Flavor of the Month kit)

Happy Friday friends. How's it going? Today I'm sharing my first layout using the Fancy Pants Designs collection called "On Our Way". This one was created for the latest Freaky Fast Friday challenge at The ScrapRoom kit club blog. 


Title: Fatherhood Adventure
Products used: Fancy Pants Designs- On Our Way + Embellishment Add-on
Stash items used: Brown ink for edge distressing; Date Stamp; Black Ink pad
Notes:  This page was created with this month’s Freaky Fast Friday formula. I really like how this set of specific paper cuts helps me complete a page in record time. Since you only have specific pieces of paper to work with, the design process takes little time to accomplish. 
The title was inspired by the “adventure” die cut that was in this mini kit. I completed my title by adding some of the smaller circle letter stickers from the Embellishment Add-on. They matched the colors perfectly. 





Thank you for stopping by and try to play along with the challenge.

Till next time,
Grace