Thursday, October 31, 2013

Woohoo!

Happy Halloween! 

I'm a little late in posting this...but I am very excited to say I am part of the Fall/Winter Design Team at Scrapbook Steals!  Melodee & and crew over there have picked an amazing group of ladies to be part of this team.  Check them out here

As many of you know, I love Scrapbook Steals.  It is because of them that I started this fun journey of scrapping.  Now I feel like life has come full circle, and I'm excited to be designing for them.  My first post will be up next Tuesday.

I hope everyone has a safe (and dry) Halloween. 

Cheers!
Kristy

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Simple Sketches: Sketch 9

Happy Tuesday!  I wanted to share my page done with Sketch 9 from Simple Sketches

Here is the sketch:



And here is my page.  I actually took this sketch with me to the Scrapbook Steals crop in Salt Lake City and decided to use it on a page about the girls I sat with at the crop.  I loved all the strips behind the pictures.  I thought it would be fun to use all the cut-offs from the bottom of the papers we were working with.  So I had all the girls (my #mustachedogs!) give me theirs and stacked them behind the photo.  The sprays in the background were the colors were kept passing around the table. Even the "#" stitched in the title represents all the stitching we did on our projects while we were there.  It is fun to have all the little things that remind me of our amazing group on one page. 

 
 
Cheers!
Kristy

Monday, October 28, 2013

SSI: Layered Punches

I'm up today on Stylin' Stampin' Inkspiration with a quick technique that adds a lot of punch (no pun intended) to a card - layering punched elements. 
 
I love using punches.  In fact, I have a wall full of them.  While dies are great, with punches, I don't have pull out my Big Shot and hope I line everything up correctly.  I can sit down, stamp and punch to quickly create the image I want.
 
Here are 3 cards that I used at least 3 punches layered on top of each other to create a focal point.  Each card includes the 1-3/4" Circle, Decorative Label Punch, and the Extra Large Oval.
 

For my first card, I used my Versamark ink pad to stamp the leaf stamp from the Best of Autumn stamp set on my card base.  The sentiment is also from the same set, but I colored "Give" first and stamped it and followed with the "Thanks", to create a stacked sentiment that would fit in the Extra Large Oval.


On this card, I punched 2 Word Window strips.  They are layered on top of each other behind the Extra Large Oval to create a longer strip and help anchor probably my favorite sentiment from Yippee-Skippee.


For my last card, I wanted to create a more masculine card.  I used Gorgeous Grunge to create the background.  I actually hand cut "You're The Best" from a larger stamp on Hello, Lovely stamp set.  Using Stampin' Dimensionals helps add an extra pop to the card.



Don't forget, all the stamps from this post (except Best of Autumn) are 25% off on the Stampin' Up site today.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Scrapbook Steal Blog Hop Winner!

Hi All!

I just realized I forgot to post the winner for the Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop.  My mom has been visiting and it threw me off a little.  So...without further ado, the winner of some My Mind's Eye titles and die cuts are:

LOVE your layout & the unique way you used the title die cuts to make a banner...very clever!!
 
Scrappy Mama: Please send me your address to kmackeen1 at gmail dot com by the end of the month so I can send you your prize!
 
Cheers!
Kristy

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Simple Sketches #7

Happy Saturday!  Today is Simple Sketches 7th sketch.  This is a fun sketch if you do Project Life style scrapping - or like me have some fun little photos you want to highlight.  I actually stayed pretty true to the sketch for my project...

Let's look at the sketch first:

 
And here is my layout:
 
 
I know what you are going to say...wait, there are no pictures here.  And that's true.  What will be there are some of the photos I took of the wonderful food I ate in Florida this summer.  Unfortunately, my printer took a nosedive on me and I have a hard time getting mini-photos printed the way I want them at retail stores.  But I promise, the photos and what we ate will be there!  (My new printer will be here soon!)
 
If you liked this sketch as much as I did, make sure you link up your project on the Simple Sketches page.  We'd love to see your take on it!!!
 

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great weekend!
Kristy

Monday, October 7, 2013

PGCB: Stitch it up!

Hi! 

Happy Monday to everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I've had a whirlwind couple weeks.  Two weekends ago, I was in Salt Lake City for the Scrapbook Steals Retreat.  I had a total blast, and got to hang out with 4 other Paper Girls.  This weekend, we picked up my mom at the airport for visit.  :-)

As I was thinking about Jessica's challenge for The Paper Girls today, I thought it would be fun do to a page about meeting her and the other girls at the retreat.  So I used my Amy Tangerine stitching templates to stitch a "photo corner" on my layout.  (The paper is also from the American Crafts class we attended at the Retreat.)


One day I hope we can get a picture with ALL The Paper Girls in it.  Thanks for visiting! 

Cheers!
Kristy

Friday, October 4, 2013

Scrapbook Steals October Blog Hop

If you are looking for the PGCB Hop, click here.



Welcome to the October Blog Hop for Scrapbook Steals.  I was so happy when Melodee asked me to be a part of the hop.  I was even more excited when I was at their Retreat last weekend, and she handed me the steal to work with...My Mind's Eye Titles, Quotes & Die Cuts Mega Pack.  Let me tell you, when they say mega, they mean MEGA.  There was probably a stack more than 1" thick of tags, quotes and die cuts from some of my favorite My Mind's Eye collections, including The Sweetest Thing, Collectable, and Indie Chic.

I can't wait for you to hop along with some insanely creative designers.  Make sure you leave a comment on all the blogs for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate to the Scrapbook Steals store.  Comments must be left by October 6th at 11:59 pm MDT.  Here is the order of the hop:

ScrapbookSteals.com - http://scrapbook.steals.com/ <- Did you start here?  If not, hop back!
Kristina MacKeen- http://mamasanity.blogspot.com/ <- You are here!
Charissa Miller
http://www.akihasmommascraps.com <- Hop here next.
Staci Jones
http://scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/
Heather Conklin http://goldiecar.blogspot.com/
Erin Shultz http://trailofscraps.blogspot.com

And now, here is my project:


As I was looking through the all the tags, I thought it would be fun to make kind of a banner style hanging of all the titles.  After I laid out the ones I liked and thought would be good together, I glued them down and gave them a light whitewashing of gesso.  These tags are actually from all 3 of the collections.  Adding the gesso toned down the colors, and made them flow together nicely.  I added a light coat of Frost White Shimmer Paint from Stampin' Up over the gesso.  It is hard to see in the picture, but it added just a touch of shine to the background and tags.  I loved how you can still see the colors, yet they flow together nicely.  Instead of using the frame (also part of the Mega Pack!) in front of my photo, I added it behind.  This way you are able to see all my daughter's (and son's) animals, yet the pop of color is still there.  A quick trip to the sewing machine and some journaling around the edge, and I was done. 

I hope you enjoyed my layout!  Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the gift certificate to the Scrapbook Steals store. 

And since it is almost my birthday, I feel like sharing a few presents with you!  I will choose one comment to win some of these fun My Mind's Eye titles, quotes, and die cuts.  Make sure you are a follower to win!  I will announce the winner on Oct 10th.

Cheers!
Kristy