Layouts from the Embellish It! Play All Day Event

Both Brandy and I had the great pleasure of attending Embellish It!'s Play All Day Event in Mesa, Arizona this past October.  I can't believe a month has gone by.  Our lack of posting about the event doesn't represent our enthusiasm for the fun we had and/or the quality of the activities provided.  Shelby Dredge, Embellish It!'s owner was our host. 

As an aside- I am notoriously naive regarding websites.  As I was trying to locate Embellish It!'s website, imagine my chagrin when I realized how in appropriate that particular website name would be (i.e., http://www.embellish**.com/).  They can be found at http://www.embellishonline.com/!

We spent eleven glorious hours paper crafting, chatting, snacking and generally enjoying each other's company.  The day was set up to revel in friendship while inking our papers (and our fingers, and the table cloths, oh my!), gluing down strips and trying to finish our Christmas card projects.  In the meantime, Shelby had some fun planned for us.  The first activity started just before lunch when we were given a layout kit.  Shelby walked us through the layout and gave some real handy tips.  I don't consider myself a paper crafting expert (that's Brandy's role in our friendship), but Shelby had a few things to teach me too.  Here's our first two-page layout using Basic Grey papers:

All page embellishments (except the ribbon) came from a sticker page or a cardstock sticker page provided with the kit.  This isn't my natural scrapbooking style, so I find it interesting how a few sheets of patterned paper and some stickers can turn out to be such a wonderful product.   

I have plans to add a couple of pictures of Katie to this beautiful layout.  Brandy finished her pages that day with pictures of family for inclusion in her mom's scrapbook (Brandy adds pages throughout the year to this scrapbook to keep her mom up to date on pictures of her, her son, her niece and nephew, etc.). 

What do you think?  We first really became enamoured of Embellish It! at this year's Creating Keepsakes scrapbooking convention in Mesa.  Ultimately, it was their selection of Basic Grey product that drew us in.  Now, we will be looking for their next Play All Day Event here in sunny Arizona.  Don't be surprised if we go again and consider this an endorsement for you as well.

Andie

Textured to Perfection Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

                                                 During our recent short trip to Newport Beach, I had an opportunity to paper craft.  We typically spend every waking hour taking trips to the beach and relaxing back at the condo.  My idea of relaxing is some ink on my fingers, paper scraps clinging to my pants, and a beautiful card as the outcome.  These three cards were made for the Textured to Perfection Challenge that is currently being sponsored at the Moxie Fab World blog. 

The first is a Thank You card.  The light green cardstock card was spritzed with yellow, green and blue Glimmer Mist to match the stensiled butterfly image that was spritzed onto some cream linen.  I frayed the edges of the linen and used some blue twine create an accent.  The Thank You comes from a foil rub-on and I'm not sure I'm pleased with the picture, but I think it works in person. 

The next card is a Happiness card.  For this card I used a cream cardstock to make the actual card.   Using a Close to My Heart boarder stamp and the Cranbury Close to My Heart pigment ink, I stamped the board and immediately smudged the edges with a sponge dauber. The linen was once again spritzed with pink Glimmer Mist.  The Happiness stamp was inked with the same cranbury pigment ink and stamped onto a piece of linen adhered with a foam square.  The pink twine is adhered with a glue dot.  The picture of this card does not do it justice by making the image look crooked.  In person, I think this might be the best of the three.

Green being my favorite color, I do like this last Thank You card.  The green cardstock card was once again spritzed with Glimmer mist, this time only using the golden yellow and the green mist. I think this stenciled image turned out the best of the three. As I have worked with the linen and the Glimmer Mist I find there is a tension between the amount of mist applied and the distance from the linen.  Different images and different cards demand different looks.  Additionally, the mist itself seems to have varying intensities with the lighter colors creating less drama, but sometimes requiring less mist to acheive a look.  The butterfly embellishment comes from the K & Company Adrianna collection I recently posted about.  The pink patterned paper was sanded on the edges and a silver Thank You rub-on was added.  The twine is wrapped around this handmade sentiment and adhered using a couple of foam squares.   

I plan to enter these cards in the Moxie Fab World contest.  We'll see how it goes, but it certainly does a body good to take time, relax, and do something that is enjoyable.  My bonus is getting to hold the outcome of that time and send these cards to deserving folks who are really quite helpful.

Andie

i-rock... OK, Not Me But My Bling Does

Brandy and I recently signed up to attend Embellish It!'s Play All Day Event here in Mesa, Arizona.  We hope to share more on our fun filled 14 hour day of paper crafting at some point (much of it is a secret as we were both working on our Christmas cards).  Even so, a fun off shoot of signing up for the event was to get Embellish It!'s spam emails.  I know that doesn't rightly sound good, but trust me, everything turned out good.  Embellish It! recently teamed with other providers to launch a new blog called My Craft Channel.  They feature daily webisodes of tips and tricks for paper crafting and more along with what they are calling the Featured Buy.  Normally, I am not a sucker for these types of tricks.  However, I've been secretly longing to join the ranks of those that i-rock.  Brandy i-rocks.  I, sadly, had not ever i-rock'ed.  Until now that is...

 

This fabulous i-rock kit was a steal at $20 plus shipping and contains all that you see in the picture- the i-rock tool, crystal bling in 16 different assortments with over 3000 individual pieces, patterned bling and even a denim tote to make your first project out of.  If you are interested in the inspiration, the tips and tricks, or an excuse to sort through amazing deals on supplies, I'd recommend you check them out.  I image myself bling-ing everything from here on out.  It's now official, i-rock!

Andie

Quick Joann's Paper Pack Scored Some Easy Cards

Since I need additional scrapbook supplies (NOT!), I found myself browsing through the clearance piles at Joann's and came across a 4 x 6 paper pad from K & Company- the Adrianna collection.  For $2.29 eighteen sheets of beautiful floral paper was at my fingertips.  The matching icon/die cut set was sitting there for only $1.79.  You mean to tell me I can have embellishments and beautiful paper for card making for less than $5?  Couldn't pass that up- It's a sickness.  I'm telling you, it's a sickness without cure as using the supplies spurs more creative juices...  I'll stop there.

Here's my first card-

The card is made using a basic olive green cardstock that I had on hand.  The printed papers were layered on top of each other to add depth.  The "I am Thankful" stamp comes from my stash- so old I forget from whence it came.  The bottom border with the green medallions is actually one of the K & Company papers that I fussy cut out to make it look like a border.  The purple medallion flower comes from the die cut pack and is actually an overlay backed by plain white paper to make the intricate design shine through. 

I used a pop dot to raise the purple flower medallion off the card- nice touch without too much height.  Everything is edged in brown chalk ink- adds to the muted tones of the papers and the overall shabby chic design.  A piece of left over satin ribbon and we're done.

With that fresh infusion of the disease (I was pretty pleased with my first concoction), I thought I might try a new technique suggested in the recent Paper Crafts magazine.  They described using a misting ink on linen fabric and then using the fabric as an embellishment.  I stalled a little here getting the technique right.  Your image needs to be detailed, your misting needs to be even handed and not too heavy.  After playing for a while, surprise (o.k. for

those who know me- no surprise) I ended up really liking the green on cream result.  Darker colors were much more tricky.  I actually used Glimmer Mist and one of my Tattered Angels stencils to create the background for this Gratitude card.  I pulled some of the linen apart at the edges.  The embellishment came from the Adrianna die cut pack- all glittered for me.  I layered a couple of different flower pieces and the green leaves behind.  The blue twine came from my Boxer Scrapbooks supplies purchased at the Scrapbook convention earlier this year.  Having had such success with the Glimmer Mist on the fabric, I decided to use my Distress Ink as well and stamped the Close to My Heart "Gratitude" on a piece of linen with green Glimmer Mist sprayed behind.  After fussy cutting out the image slightly larger than the edge of the stamp, I frayed the edges and adhered to the card.  All in all, I really like my two cards made with my "cheap" find at Joann's.  It was the next day that I discovered my Shingles infection and so, I haven't made more cards yet.  I do plan to get back in the saddle soon though.  Even writing this post makes my fingers itchy for some inky, sticky action.

Andie

Latency in viral infections and other non-crafty subjects

It has been a while on the posting front for both Brandy and I.  We've both been suddenly inundated with work including both traveling to the East coast the first week of September for very separate reasons.  Man, traveling can seriously cut down on the craft time with all the preparing to go, being gone for several days and the recovering (with laundry, grocery shopping, etc.) upon your return.  Let's not even talk about all the work that didn't get done while out of the office which now needs to be done (some of it urgent).

Additionally, I've battled a bout of shingles in the past month.  I had my first occurrence of shingles as a 12 year old.  I wasn't unfamiliar with the consequences, but I didn't consider how my 42 year body would react differently.  I fairly lost about 10 days in a sea of treatments (acupuncture really works folks!) and a haze of pain (they can be quite painful).  Needless to say, I'm feeling the loss of my crafting mojo and looking for a fresh source of infection of the crafty kind. 

I have been able to keep track of the Project Project Runway series (we've got their button right on this page) and NotMartha's ongoing participation in the Fantasy Project Runway sponsored by HP TouchSmart technology.  Megan's recent design mimicking Project 7's Make Your Own Fabric challenge was super slick (o.k.- who wants a pair of the brown heels she picked for her model to wear?) and definitely injected a little of the crafty inspiration.  If you haven't browsed (and dreamed) about the accessories on the Piperlime accessories wall, check it out.

Here's hoping for a fresh infection of the crafty kind.  I've got a few exciting opportunities to craft in the next few weeks and I am looking forward to sharing the results of a brand new crafting bug infection.

Andie