It is the second day of August and I am sitting here wondering where July went. I have no idea how last month flew by so fast…
Design Team Assignment for July:
For the month of July I was assigned to work with The Sunny Side from My Mind’s Eye and KONNICHIWA by Basic Grey. I had a lot of fun working with both of the lines; as well as incorporating the Limited Edition Summer colors of Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Let’s take a look at what I came up with.
Summer Fun with The Sunny Side from My Mind’s Eye:
I love everything about this line. The colors were fabulous for summer pictures, including this shot of my niece and nephew playing at the water park last summer. I really loved all the little details of the collection and wanted to incorporate those to the best of my ability. I trimmed a piece of chevron patterned paper paper so that it would really stand out. I also applied my fussy-cutting skills by cutting out the little houses and popping them in various placed throughout the layout with foam tape. I also applied stickles to the roofs so those houses had some extra sparkle.
My favorite thing about this layout is the way my title treatment ended up looking. I took white foam alpha stickers and a piece of die cut grunge board and applied a blended layer of distress inks to them. A coat of stickles and they looked like I had purchased some fabulously funky letter. My advice: never be afraid to alter products to turn them into what you want them to look like. Everything can be customized.
My Sunshine on a Cloudy Day with My Mind’s Eye The Sunny Side
I loved the bicycle paper in this line, and KNEW I had to use it. I kept hoping I would get a picture of the big kids on their bikes; but when that fell through I knew the yellow and red in this line would be a perfect match for this picture of Calen in his rain jacket and carrying a red balloon.
I layered several patterns from this line (distressing them with Tim Holtz distress inks) and added some element stickers to complete the layered look.
I really liked the punch-out elements that came with this line. The birds were super cute, so I naturally had to to incorporate them. I also used the banner punch-outs and used the Tiny Attacher from Tim Holtz to add some twine to the top of them. I nestled to birds above the banner, giving the birds a place to rest their feetless bodies. My love of brads is always encourage be MME (they make some of the best brads out there), so I incorporated a few of the ones that came with this line in my grouping.
There was a pinwheel in the punch-outs, but alone it looked a little flat. Instead of using it as is, I cut it apart and layered it, coming up with a much more realistic pinwheel.
I added the title to the page using some Thickers from American Crafts. I especially love the “do it yourself” Thickers, which I added some flocking powder to. I used up some alpha stickers from Bo Bunny to finish the title.
Do Not Wish the Sunshine Away, Play All Day Instead with My Mind’s Eye Sunny Day
Finally, my favorite layout the I did with this line.
I had these great pictures of Averie and Carter playing in a giant ball pit at the Children’s Museum in St. Louis. The colors automatically lent themselves to being used with this line. The amazing thing about this layout, however, was that it was completely done with scraps I had left over from the other two layouts.
I have recently become obsessed with Ranger’s new line, Dylusions. I use these stamps on everything. After spritzing and distressing the back ground with inks, I stamped some circles with Dylusion stamps and colored them in with Copics. I then trimmed them out and placed them strategically on the page to echo the balls in the pictures.
I added some ribbon that came with my design team stash and tied a bow,
I used a sun from the punch-outs and trimmed the excess paper away. Then I added stickles and doodling before adding foam mounting tape and adhering it to my page.
Finally, for my title I used some October Afternoon and Bo Bunny stickers I had in my stash to flesh out the wood veneer words I had from Studio Calico. I inked the wood veneer with distress inks and placed some more stamped “balls” around the title.
A Hanging Card with Basic Grey Konnichiwa
Cards have never been my forte, I will admit. I struggle with nearly every single one I make… I always put so much pressure on myself to do “something different,” that I feel like I choke. So, I kept this card very simple.
I used a piece of paper from the Konnichiwa line and mounted it to blue card stock after inking it with Chipped Sapphire distress ink. I then borrowed an element from Basic Grey’s PB&J line and added that to the top with some more inky edges. I then took a tiny piece of felt elements that came with this line and added it to the front (alone with a single piece of bling)
As I said before, I always want my cards to be different, so I took a piece of baker’s twine and created a hanger that would allow the card to hang. I love it as a door hanger!!!
Keeping things simple, I just repeated the color scheme inside, leaving a place to write a little note to the recipient.
Altered Tags with Basic Grey Konnichiwa
I have always been obsessed with Distress Inks and this obsession has only grown since I started teaching a distressing class at Michaels. I have been playing with all sorts of techniques with distress inks this summer, and one of my favorites has to be using it with Gesso. I went a little crazy playing with this technique on these tags, which also incorporate more Dylusion stamps (I told you I loved these things) and Konnichiwa paper. I think the tags speak for themselves (honestly, I love the sayings in the Dylusion line as much as I love the girls). What do you think?
Change for no one, believe in who you are.
You can’t skip and be unhappy at the same time.
I was cleansed, forgiven, and would never bitch again.
I don’t like you. You’re very ugly and have no manners at all.
Of course, I like all of you very much!!!! I look forward to hearing all your comments.
Happy Crafting and don’t forget to stop into The Scrapbooking Studio in Bloomington, lL or Moline, IL for all your scrappy needs!
