Big Ideas Page

I promised I would share some more pages from my Studio Calico Big Ideas class.  I am really enjoying all the challenges from this class.  Here is one:

There are 3 challenges rolled into 1 here: Sewn Title (Candles), Stencil It (the clouds), and Get Moving (both the 2012 banner and my daughter blowing out the candles). 

You will notice a few Kiwi Lane templates on here too.  I used Tiny Wildflowers 4T and Floral 2 (shhhh...these might JUST be on sale starting March 1st).  Don't they make a fun matte under the pictures.

Enjoy!  Stay tuned.  I am hoping to sneak a few more challenge pages today!  :-)

Cheers!
Kristy

New Winner and Layout

Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope you are having a great day.  I am hoping my daughter wants to go down for a nap, here shortly, so I can work on a couple pages I have sitting on my desk...errr...dining room table.

First item of business...the winner from my Kiwi Lane Blog Hop didn't contact me for her set of Sweetheart templates.  Therefore, Random.org picked lucky #47 as the new winner.

 

Mommy in Wonderland

 

Congrats to Mommy in Wonderland!  Please email your address to kmackeen1@gmail.com to claim your prize. SandiB, I will be mailing your prize out shortly as well.

 

Want to see a layout I worked on over the weekend?  I'm loving the colors and grid pattern of this one.

 

 

This layout started from ScrapbookSteals.com's Amber 1 sketch.  This is the first sketch in their 10 week "Amber" series.  Now is a good time to jump in on the fun.  Everything has polka dots on it, including the photo mattes.  I didn't care if they matched too much because that was kind of the point of my sketch - my daughter's mix-matched polka dot clothes (that she picked out herself).  I even made my own "polka dot paper" as part of my Bright Ideas class at Studio Calico.

 

More layouts based on my Bright Ideas class will be coming soon.  :-)

 

Only 2 more followers until I hit 100!  Woohoo!  Thanks to each and everyone of you.  Once I hit that magic 100 mark, I'll choose one follower to win a little blog candy.

 

Cheers!
Kristy

Weekend Whimsy at Kiwi Lane

HI!  Happy Friday everyone!   I hope you are staying warm wherever you are.  We are on day 2 of "Snow Days" here in the St. Louis area.  Very different for this California girl, who had never experienced a snow day until yesterday.  :-)

Today I am featured on Kiwi Lane's blog with my Weekend Whimsy project…a bouquet of beautiful flowers to bright up anyone’s day...and maybe brush away a little of the winter blues.

 

We were given We R Memory Keepers Crazy for You collection to work with.  Its thick texture made making my flowers easy.  It really held up to being rolled and played with.  That is the key to these flowers – just keep using your fingers to give it the look you want.  The colors from the Crazy for You papers are perfect for the girls in my family.  We are definitely pink and purple girly girls here.  :-)  I decided to the shapes of the Sweetheart and Tiny Sweetheart templates were perfect to make some flowers.  So grab a few sheets of papers, your Kiwi Lane templates (of course), some leftover Chinese food take-out chopsticks and a little ink and glue, and follow along:

 

Flower 1

For this flower, I used Tiny Sweetheart 2T to create petals using the XOXO paper.  

This is actually a border strip paper, but by taking the heart petals and rolling them against a chopstick and my fingers to create the curve you see in the picture, you never seen the print on the back side. 

I took each petal and stuck each petal to the previous petal with a Glue Dot, making a cone shape.   I pushed a chopstick “stem” through the middle.

I made the middle from Tiny Sweetheart 3T and a scrap of yellow paper.  I inked the edges and then pinched the paper in the middle of each petal and curved them at the end by wrapping them around my finger.  Then it was a matter of adding a little glue to the back of the yellow and sticking it down to the petal cone (after punching a hole in the middle).  The center was made by wrapping some We R Memory Keeper twine in the center.  I used some Modge Podge to hold it in place and hide the chopstick tip.

Flower 2

I love the layers in this flower.  For this one, I started from the inside out. 

 

I cut 2 Tiny Sweetheart 3T from the Adore paper and poked a hole in the center.  After cutting a slit down the middle, I made a “roly poly” type flower by wrapping it around itself, securing it with Glue Dots in intervals along the way.  Once it was all stuck together, I GENTLY pushed the flower cone onto my table to curl the edges.

The second layer was made with 2 cuts of Sweetheart 3 from Light Pink cardstock.  I inked the edges and cut to the center, as done in the previous layer.  I used Rings 1 to cut the center out and then I folded flower at each petal to make it easier to wrap around layer 1.  Once this was secured, I attached them to the stem.  It turns out, I had to break out the glue gun to make this work.

The third layer is a repeat of the individual petal procedure from Flower 1, but I used Sweetheart 2 on the Adore paper.  I distressed the edges before I attached them with a little hot glue to the stem. 

Flower 3

This flower is made from the Adore and XOXO paper and Light Pink cardstock and a lot of the same steps from the other flowers.

The outside layer is Sweetheart 3, inked and pinched like the yellow layer on Flower 1.  The middle layer is Tiny Sweetheart 3T, using the same technique as the outside layer.  The center of the flower is from Tiny Accents 2T simply cut out, inked and attached to the other layers.  Again, I finished the center with some twine to hide the chopstick.  I brushed all the layers and twine with Modge Podge to give it alittle more shine and texture.

Stems

To cover the chopstick, I wrapped it in washi, all the way up the stick and about ½” of the flowers.  The key to this is to be careful and not pull too hard on the washi – it isn’t as stretchy as Floral Tape, and can tear easily.  Luckily, you can just start where it tore and keep wrapping.  Can you tell this happened to me?  ;-)

 I put the flowers in a little vase, and tied a little more twine around it, and viola! A beautiful bouquet.  When I originally made these flowers, I was going to send them to my mom for her birthday.  What could be better than flowers that don’t wilt (I have a seriously black thumb, so I’m all for flowers that don’t die)?!?  I even made a card to match using a little more WRMK paper and Tiny Tags 1, but my daughter decided the flowers had to go to her room – and I’m not sure how they would have shipped to California anyways.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of spring, and seeing how Valentine’s paper doesn’t have to just be for Valentine’s Day!  I hope you try your hand at making some flowers.  If you, leave me a link to go check them out!

 

Cheers!
Kristy

 

Unity {Be Inspired} Challenge - Card

I love Unity Stamps.  They have so many different designs.  In 2013, they started their {Be Inspired} Challenges.  They had some great sketches & challenges.  I decided to start with their card challenge.  I will be doing the other challenges as well. 

This is the sketch...

And here is the card I made with their sketch using some WRMK Crazy in Love paper and Kiwi Lane's Tiny Tags 1...

Come back tomorrow to see some flowers I made that coordinate with this card!

Cheers!
Kristy

Paper Girls Challenge #26 - WASHI

Ahhh...washi!  One of my favorite go to items in my arsenal right now.  When Erica posted washi as a challenge on The Paper Girls Challenge, I knew I was in Heaven. I mean, I have a HUGE jar full of it and I still collect more.  I love how it is repositionable - you can adjust it if you don't get it in a straight line (shhh...that happens to me a lot).  One other great trick I'm seeing a lot lately with washi is to use it as a mask for stamping.  That is something I will show you another time.

You have seen me use washi before on Challenge #22.  That entire card was made out of washi.  If you want a refresher on it, click here.

For this challenge, I used washi in varying sizes and colors to create the borders on my layout.

I used just a few Kiwi Lane templates (Clara Lane 1A, 2B and 3B; Rings 2 and 3; Sweetheart 2; Accent 6; Tiny Accent 6T).  I curled over the top of one of my cuts to show the pink chevron on the reverse, because Hailey deserved a little pink on this layout too.  ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this layout.  Don't forget, you have until March 2nd to get your washi layouts linked to the Paper Girls blog for a chance to win a fun prize.

Cheers!
Kristy

Happy Valentine's Day

As Valentine's Day is winding down in our house, I thought I would share the cards I made for my family. 

 

First off, my son's card:

I used Kiwi Lane's Sentiments 2A to create the road by drawing the curves once, then moving it down a bit and tracing the curve again.  The stamps are all from Stampin' Up.

 

 

 

Now my husband's card:
I used Kiwi Lane's Ring 1 & 2 to make the moon, and Sentiment 2 for the heart in the background.  The stars are from an old punch I had in my stash.  I misted the background with 2 shades - a blue and a purply/black color.  (I wish they came out better in this picture.)  The paper is from my Studio Calico monthly card kits.  

 

 

And last, but not least, my daughter's card:
I am loving the white on white tone that is popular right now, so I used an embossed piece of white background, popped off a white card base.  I used a lot of scraps for making the skirt on this card.  I punched the patterned paper and adhered it to a dress I cut with my Cricut.  The hanger is from Stampin' Up's new Hung Up Cute Clips. 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed a peek at my cards from today. 

 

I have one more piece of business to address.  If anyone knows Mrs. Flaherty, please let her know she won on my blog for the Kiwi Lane Designs Blog Hop, and she has until tomorrow claim her prize or I will be picking another name.

 

Cheers!

Kristy

 

Kiwi Lane DT Doodles

Happy Monday Everyone!

I'm excited to have a DT Doodle up over at Kiwi Lane Designs today.  I have had this picture of Hailey on my phone since we drove back from Florida last year.  My silly girl was just laying in our bed like she was the queen. 

I knew I wanted to work with some "royal" papers for this pictures - and of course, my Kiwi Lane templates.  As an added touch, I pulled out my sewing machine and went to town to help accent the curves of the Clara Lane templates.  For this layout, I used Clara Lane 1A, 3A and 3B, along with Tiny Sweetheart 4T and Tiny Accents 4T.  (Psst...did you know these are on sale this month at the Kiwi Lane store?)  The paper and accents are Teresa Collins Sweet Afternoon and Chic Bebe Girl.

Cheers!
Kristy

PS - Don't forget, I still have a little blog candy here to give away when I hit 100 followers!

 

Winners!

Happy Wednesday!  By my calculations, I can say that for the next 15 minutes to those of you on the East Coast (and I'm holding true to announcing my blog hop winners on Wednesday!).

I am so excited to have so many new followers to my blog.  Thank you for joining me in my crafty adventure/Mama's Sanity.  And without further ado, here are the winners, courtesy of Random.org:

ScrapbookSteals.com's Hop:

 

Congratulations SandiB!

 

Kiwi Lane Designs' Hop:

 

Congratulations Mrs.Flaherty!

If you ladies would send me your mailing address to kmackeen1 at gmail dot com, I will get your prizes out to you soon.  Please respond by Feb. 14, or I will choose another winner.

And guess what, I have more blog candy here to give away when I hit 100 followers.  We are almost there!  Keep spreading the word so I can keep sharing some prizes. 

Cheers!
Kristy

PGCB #25: Twine

Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend.  We've been in California all week.  I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to my mom, but I am ready for my own bed.  ;-)

The Paper Girls Challenge Blog is kicking off its 1 YEAR anniversary this month.  I can not believe it has been a year already.  Hard to believe that it started as a group of 9 friends starting a challenge blog by chance...and now we have more than 250 followers.  I can only hope we continue to grow and grow over time.  We have a lot of wonderful surprises in store for February.  Make sure you check out (and follow) our blog for more information.

The challenge this time was my challenge: using twine on your project.  I love to grab twine and add accents to my layouts.  All the projects from our team and guest designers were simply amazing. 

Here is my layout.  I used my January Studio Calico Scrapbook kit for the papers and many of the accents.  I loved the spotted paper I used behind the actual photos.  It reminded me of the bubbles in the beer.  I used American Craft's Jute in Carmel to wrap around the green paper as my twine.

I want to say THANK YOU! to everyone who joined my blog during the Scrapbook Steals and Kiwi Lane Design's Blog Hops over the weekend.  I will announce the winners on my blog on Wednesday.  As soon as I get 4 more followers I will give away MORE blog candy.  Please share with your friends.  :-)

Cheers!
Kristy

Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop

Hi!

Welcome to the February Scrapbook Steals blog hop. If you are looking for the Kiwi Lane Design's Blog Hop, please click here.

Welcome to my blog, Mama's Sanity. You should be joining me from Abbey Colbert's blog.

Here is the order for the Scrapbook Steal's hop. If you didn't start at the beginning, please jump back to Scrapbook Steals and follow along from the start. There is so much inspiration on everyone's posts!!!

ScrapbookSteals: http://scrapbooksteals.stealnetwork.com/wp/
Charissa Miller - www.akihasmommascraps.com
Catherine Povec - http://tybearsmom.blogspot.com/
Brenda Ragsdale - http://granddivasscrappyplace.blogspot.com/
Abigail Stoops - www.scrapbookista.com
Candice Elliott - http://truedivinehand.blogspot.com/
Abbey Colbert - http://www.theothersink.blogspot.com
Kristy MacKeen - http://mamasanity.blogspot.com/  <--- You are here!

Remember to hop through all the blogs.  Scrapbook Steals will pick one comment from all the blogs to win a $20 gift certificate.  Comments need to be made by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb 3rd.Comments need to be made by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb 3rd.


If you have been a follower of my blog for a while, you know how much I love Scrapbook Steals.  They have some great deals on product, and I have met a lot of WONDERFUL crafty sistahs through their "community".  When Kerys' asked for someone to help fill in a spot on the February Blog Hop, I was happy to help out.  It was a bonus when she said we would be working with Prima Flowers for the hop.  Double Bonus - I received pink flowers to work with.  And I had the perfect picture in mind to work with.

This picture of my daughter was taken on Mother's Day last year.  I thought these flowers complimented her dress.

I used Echo Park's Holly Jolly Christmas papers to create this layout.  Hard to tell it is Christmas paper, huh!  But it isn't the paper that makes this layout for me, it is the cluster of green rose trim and pink hydrangea flowers weaved together to create the focal point in the lower corner of this layout.

Here is a little closer look at the cluster.  I started by adhering the green trim with Glue Dots and winding it around and adding more glue dots as I went.  I wish I had snapped a picture of just the green portion, but I was so excited about how it came out, that I just plain forgot!  ;-)  I layered two flowers together and put a yellow brad through the middle and used that to attach the flowers to the page.  I love how the green roses in the middle forced the pink flowers to close a little.  I also tucked a few Pebbles hat pins in the cluster for a little more "bling", because, what girl layout isn't complete without a little bling?!?

Finally I framed the layout and scattered a few more flowers in the bottom of the frame.  I was hoping I would have a little more gap between the layout and the frame's glass, so the flowers would "float" a little more behind the glass.  But I still like how they scattered out.

Here's a little surprise bonus for you. I have a little blog candy to give away to one lucky commenter on my blog. In order to win, you must be a blog follower, so make sure you click Join This Site over on the right hand side of this blog!

Thank you for stopping by. Hop back to Scrapbook Steals @ http://scrapbooksteals.stealnetwork.com/wp/ if you haven't shared the love there yet.

Cheers!
Kristy

Kiwi Lane Blog Hop

Hi!

Welcome to the February Kiwi Lane Designs blog hop.  If you are looking for the Scrapbook Steal's Blog Hop, please click here.

Welcome to my blog, Mama's Sanity.  You should be joining me from Sherri Thompson's blog. 

Here is the order for the Kiwi Lane Design's hop.  If you didn't start at the beginning, please jump back to Kiwi Lane and follow along.  There is so much inspiration on everyone's posts!!!

1. Kiwi Lane http://kiwilane.com/here/blog/
2. Cathryn Hanson http://www.catscrapcreations.blogspot.ca
3. Staci Jones http://www.scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/
4. Rebecca Keppel http://www.myclutteredcorner.com/
5. Melissa Dehne http://abitofscrappygoodness.blogspot.com/
6. Jessica Arrant http://errantscraps.blogspot.com
7. Charissa Miller http://www.akihasmommascraps.com
8. Sherri Thompson http://www.sherrithompson.blogspot.com
9. Kristy MacKeen http://www.mamasanity.blogspot.com <---You are here!
10. Sherri Funk http://faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.ca
11. Roselyn Riley http://prettylittlepackages.blogspot.com/
12. Lisa Anderson http://scrappingobsessions.blogspot.com
13. Leslie Prinkki http://www.scrapsofmine.blogspot.com

Remember to hop through all the blogs.  Kiwi Lane will pick one comment from all the blogs to win a $25 gift certificate to their store (http://www.kiwilane.com/kld_shop.html).  Comments need to be made by 11:59 pm, Sunday, Feb 3rd.

If you haven't worked with Kiwi Lane templates before, I hope this hop inspires you to try some of their templates.  I began scrapping about 3 years ago, but find my pages come together so much faster with my KLD templates.

I thought it would be fun to show you what inspired me for today's layout:

This is actually the cut off from a piece of MME Lucky in Love paper.  I had used Clara Lane 1A facing one direction and then another on a previous layout, and this is what I had left.  It reminded me of a fish, so I decided to grab some of my ocean pictures from last year's summer vacation to make my layout.  I was hoping to incorporate this "fish" in my layout, but it didn't end up working in the end..

The Accent 3 template (star) and Tiny Accent 3T reminded me of starfish (more inspiration here!), with their rounded points, so I cut them out and ran them through the Cuddlebug Tiny Bubbles embossing folders to give them a starfish texture.  I also folded the arms just a little, then added a thick pop dot in the middle and thin glue dots at the ends of the arms to give it a little height and definition on the page.

 

 

The final layout was made using Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook and Trinity paper, some My Mind's Eye trim ands, as well as some Basic Grey tidbits.  I created an 8.5"x11" collage from some of my favorite beach pictures, then split the picture at a natural "spot" to create this two page layout.  The "splashes" of color were made with Heidi Swapp Color Shine.  I used the following templates on this page:

Accent 3 & 5

Tiny Accent 3T

Clara Lane 1A and 3A

Abbie Road 1B

Sweetheart 4

Tiny Tags 1

 

 

Here's a little surprise bonus for you.  I have a set Sweetheart templates to give away to one lucky commenter on my blog.  In order to win, you must be a blog follower, so make sure you click Join This Site over on the right hand side!

Thank you for stopping by.  Hop on over to Sherri Funk @ http://faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.ca and share the love.

Cheers!
Kristy