'Lovely As A Lullaby'...

...was Cath's Tuesday Trigger this week over at Moxie Fab World.

I love that grey polka dot fabric, the pop of aqua blue against the neutrals and the frayed edges. Here is my interpretation of this week's Tuesday Trigger...

A little bit of My Mind's Eye patterned paper from the adorable Stella and Rose 'Hattie' collection...a little bit of Sassafras (oh how I love those vintage looking metal flowers!) and a little bit of white linen from my fabric stash. For the sentiment, I stamped directly on the linen with black StayzOn ink - totally love how that worked!

Did you play along?
xoBC

Welcome Summer!

Just a few cards...

I feel like I should be posting Father's Day card ideas today...but here to confess...I actually bought cards at Target the other night for the dear dads in our life! I am such a slacker. LOL

So instead, here are a few other cards that I hope inspire you...

Love those Sassafras Paper Whimsies! I just never get tired of them. They're fabulous for adding extra dimension to projects...crinkle, snip, layer! They make such fun, whimsical flower embellishments.

Blossom Soup from Jillibean Soup is so, so sweet. Love the little bicycles and sweet sentiments. The stickers are perfect accents for cards...

This card was based on this sketch from Mojo Monday...

I turned it couterclockwise & voila!

All of the products I used for these cards can be found in the April Hip Kit from Hip 2B Square...Crate Paper goodness, American Crafts goodness, Jillibean Soup and Sassafras goodness!

Wishing you every happiness this Friday, friends.
Let the weekend begin!
xoBC

May Hip Kit Projects

Hello friends! Here today to share a few projects that I created using a super sweet kit from Hip 2B Square...the April Hip Kit. This kit was bursting with papers in yummy spring colors and such sweet embellishments!

This layout includes Crate Paper, My Mind's Eye and Jillibean Soup patterned papers, fabulous buttons & border stickers from the Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe collection, sweet ribbon from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy collection and cute stickers from the Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup collection.

To add dimension to the butterfly paper, I used my Martha Stewart 'Royal Butterfly' punch, stitched the punched piece to the background paper and lifted the little wings. 

I also added a bit of tone on tone interest in random spots of the background by stamping one of my favorite background stamps from Stampers Anonymous.

The design team was asked to use this super fun sketch from Page Maps for one of our layouts this month...

  

This layout includes papers from Crate Paper & American Crafts, Sassafras Lass Seamstress Bouquet Paper Whimsies, Crate Paper buttons, American Crafts ribbon, Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup stickers and a sweet little felt bird from Pebbles. I cut some of the Sassafras Paper Whimsies in half to create my garlands, used my border punch from EK Success and doodled around the word stickers for some added interest.

WARNING! Goofy layout ahead...

These photos of my crazy, beautiful family make me laugh out loud! My nephew got these goofy paper glasses at Red Robin and they were the perfect prop for some hilarious photos.

I love this polka dot paper from Crate Paper. The color combo is total yum and there is so much energy to it! But it was a little distracting for the smaller photos I wanted to use on this layout. I took some of my white acrylic paint & smeared it on really thin with the edge of an old Starbucks card (same technique I shared on my post about my A Little Birdie Told Me canvas). The white created a sort of canvas that helped ground my photos without completely covering up the fun background paper!

Thanks for stopping by my little blog, friends & letting me share!

Wishing you a very happy day...

xoBC

A Delicious Trigger

Hi friends! Happy Friday to you all. Don't know about you, but I'm soooooo ready for the weekend!
I had a teensy bit of creative time this morning and finally got to play with the Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger for this week.

Cosmopolitan Neopolitan

YUM, right?!? I haven't had a Neopolitan ice cream treat in a long, long time. Here's the card I created after being inspired by this delicious trigger...

If you have a sweet tooth for this trigger too, there's still time to play along! Find all the deets here.

Wishing you a very sweet weekend.
xoBC

A Little Birdie Told Me

As I mentioned back in March, I had the pleasure of taking Christy Tomlinson's online She Art Workshop. That girl is amazing! I completely admire her - she's uber talented & oh so sweet! I am so grateful to have experienced her online class & learned soooo much. Creating on canvas is such fun...and a fabulous stress reliever!

The March Hip Kit included some of this Pink Paislee tissue paper...
(Oh how I love the fresh spring green color and those happy polka dots!)

The March Hip Kit also included this awesome Pink Paislee Daily Junque paper...

With these supplies, I was completely inspired to create this little canvas...


A Little Birdie Told Me...

be positive.

be true.

be grateful.

be organized.

be on time.

be proactive.

be resolved.

be yourself.

be amazing.

be kind.

I started with matte finish Mod Podge and a blank 6x6 canvas (not the 4x12 that's in these first two photos) and covered the canvas with the Pink Paislee tissue paper. The beauty of the tissue is that it can be smoothed out for a nice flat background on the canvas or you can create some texture by leaving a few wrinkles in the paper, here and there. Plus, I love that a bit of the texture of the canvas can still be seen through the tissue...

While the Mod Podge dried, I cut out elements from the fabulous Daily Junque paper...

...and then 'auditioned' them on the canvas until I figured out how I wanted it arranged.

I selected my acrylic paints...

...and simply squirted a bit of paint directly on my canvas.

Rather than using brushes, I took an old handy dandy Starbucks card and spread the paint around. You can easily scrape paint off or add more with the edge of the card. (I use this technique to add paint to layouts & cards too...since you can get a super thin, almost transparent, layer of paint on a project this way, without any brush strokes showing.)

I started with a cream color paint & then added a bit of blue.

Here you can see the texture that the paint created over the top of the tissue...

Plus a bit on the edges...

Once the paint was dry I used the Mod Podge to attach the paper elements, gave the entire canvas a coat of Mod Podge to seal it all and then glued on the twig after wrapping a bit of twine around it.

I do love how it turned out! So simple. So fun. Wouldn't that make a sweet gift?

Cheers to getting paint under your nails and Mod Podge in your hair!
Wishing you a creatively messy day my friends...
xoBC

Party Time!

May and June are always busy months around here. May is the busiest birthday month in our family, followed by my mama's birthday this first week in June. This year there is even more to celebrate as we have two graduates in the family...one of our sweet nieces graduated from the 8th grade last week and one of our amazing nephews graduates from high school this week. I do love a good party, but most of all, I LOVE wrapping presents! Gift bags are handy...but there is nothing like wrapping up a pretty package for someone dear.

A while back my friends over at Little Birdie Secrets shared a very fun & clever scrap bow tutorial...and given that I have (ahem) just a little stash of scrap paper, I put some of those scraps to good use!

This festive bow is a combination of patterned paper (I found that the lighter weight paper is easier to work with as you can scrunch & manipulate it without it ripping so easily), some scraps of sheet music, Paper Source satin ribbon in Curry and Poppy, a couple other pieces of scrap ribbon and some fabulous glittery tulle that I bought at Impress.

Simply choose your materials & start layering! I scrunched the largest piece of paper into a bow tie shape, accordian pleated some sheet music and created some fringe with another piece of scrap paper. Added some layers of ribbon & then tied it all together with the tulle. So easy & so festive, eh?

And didn't I coordinate well with  her dress? :)

You can find the tutorial to make your own scrap bow and see Mandy's super cute version with a flower here.
Have fun using up some of your scraps!
xoBC

Happy Thursday!

Good day, friends!
Back today to share a couple more layouts that I created using the Hip 2B Square March Hip Kit. The design team was asked to use this Hip Sketch for one of our layouts...

Here's what I came up with...

For this layout, I had fun playing with mist & paint. I used the Mister Huey in Schoolhouse Red (again, on the Studio Calico wood veneer letters), AppleJack & Sunshine, plus some white acrylic paint. By dipping my paint brush directly in the Mister Huey Sunshine, I was able to create a golden wash in some areas of the background. With a touch of water added, it created an even softer glow. 

Then rather than spraying the mist I unscrewed the top & just flicked ink on the page. (Be sure you're not wearing a white t-shirt & that you have your work space protected when you do this...trust me!) Since I don't have any of the white or cream Mister Huey, I added water to some white acrylic paint until I had a nice fluid paint & then flicked that on the background too. The thicker acrylic paint added some fun texture!

I have soooo many photos from January's winter CHA...so much inspiration there that I couldn't resist trying to capture all the eye candy to be had. I printed out some of my favorites. Still too many to use on one layout, so I decided to make library card pockets that could hold multiple pictures. Each pocket holds about eight tags. On each tag I can journal 'I Spy...' and a little bit about each picture.

Here's a picture of what these layouts look like together as a two-pager. (Sorry for the crooked-y shot, but you can get the idea.) I think I'll use this same idea for one of our summer adventures this year!

Wishing you a very happy & creative day...

xoBC

Remember Me?

Hi friends! Happy June! June...Oh my...have I really been MIA for that long?!?
Blogging to me is sorta like exercise, if I get in a good routine it just becomes second nature...but boy, it is soooooo easy to slip and get out of the habit! So...THANK YOU, friends who have not forgot about me. Friends who have checked back continually, then nudged me and said 'what the heck are you up to?!?' and 'are you ever going to blog again?!?' For you I am so very, very grateful...thank you for your support & encouragement to share what goes on in my crafty world!

With that said...I've got some catch up sharing to do!
For today, going to share a few projects that I created using the March Hip Kit from Hip 2B Square. This was such a fun kit to work with...a perfect kit to kick-off spring. Colorful paper, fabulous embellishments...a kit sprinkled with products from Pink Paislee, Studio Calico, My Mind's Eye, Echo Park, Jillibean...some of my favorites!

I absolutely LOVE the Pink Paislee House of 3 'Daily Junque' collection (it was one of my favorite lines from CHA!). With the pretty colors & collage elements, this paper really does all the work for you!

I added some dimension by using some extra pieces I cut from other papers in the kit with a few pop dots, a few fun embellishments & some Studio Calico Mister Huey in 'AppleJack' and 'Lunch Tray' - which was part of the March Add-On Kit. I have a big crush on Mister Huey right now...it's by far my favorite misting ink!

For my journaling spot, I just stitched a few random lines...and left the thread tails to match the 'messy' style of the page. Totally love that old photo of my sis and I & the vintage vibe of the 'Daily Junque' paper is perfect!

Here are a few of the cards I created using elements from the Pink Paislee papers...

Did I mention that I have a crush on Mister Huey?? On this next layout, I used some 'School House' red Mister Huey to color the Studio Calico wood veneer hearts & to create the negative 'A'. The color saturation of this Studio Calico mist is fantastic...and it doesn't warp the paper like so many other mists do.

Tomorrow I'll share a couple more layouts & a couple more cards that I created with this March Hip Kit...plus a small canvas piece that I made with some of the new Pink Paislee tissue paper & Daily Junque line!

Wishing you a very happy & creative day...
xoBC