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Two of A Kind - February Crop Chocolate Design Team Project

For a twist on Valentine's Day, the Crop Chocolate February Design Team Challenge was "Fur Babies". Of course, I knew exactly what (or should I say who) I was going to feature in my layout -- our darling Border Collies, Dublin and Kona.

My challenge with layouts is always the same -- how do I get lots of photos on a page without it looking junky. So, for this challenge I decided to use lots of photos of our fur babies and create a custom file folder to hold them on the page. I ended up getting six 4x6 photos on one 12 x 12 page and kept it clean and fun. I also customized an embellishment sticker to fit my subject matter. Here's how I did it:

I started by gathering all my supplies:  Echo Park This and That Charming paper, brads, chipboard and stickers, Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circle Dies, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and Black Soot and Snake Tape adhesive -- all purchased from cropchocolate.com.  Coredinations  Foundations Card Stock in Caspian and Olive Green, Creative Imaginations Word Stickers, Marvy Uchida heart punch, Scor-Tape, Therm-o-Web large Zots adhesive, Glue dots, Fiskars Adhesive Foam Squares, October Afternoon Washi Tape, Hero Arts Stamp, Spellbinders Grand Cailber Die Cutting Machine and a Zig Writer in Pure Black.  Buttons and twine from my stash.

Step 1:  Create the folder to hold the photos.  I cut designer cardstock to 6 1/2" x 10", scored and folded it in 1/2 so it folds to 6 1/2" x 5".  I figured out how wide and deep I wanted my tab, traced it and cut so my final folder (not counting the tab) measures 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" when folded.  I decorated the inside with a journaling mat on the top flap, a mat to go behind the photos on the bottom flap and then stapled a strip of paper across bottom to tuck my photos behind and hold them in place.  Lastly, I used a generous amount of Scor-Tape on the back of the folder to adhere it to the page.

Step 2:  Customize the embellishments.  The sticker sheet for this paper collection had a sticker I wanted to use but the saying just wasn't right for my theme so instead of searching for something else, I decided to customize it.  I die cut a little circle, matted the sticker with coordinating card stock, inked the edges and added a number sticker, adhered it with a pop dot and voila, it went from saying One of a Kind to 2 of a Kind.

Step 3:  Decorate the inside of the folder and add photos and journaling.  I wanted to record the date we got the puppies and tell the funny story of how we tell them apart.  I used the letter stickers from the collection for their names, cut out a little tag from the patterned paper and stamped the paw prints across the bottom.  Then, just slipped the photos behind the stapled strip of paper and finished decorating my page with other circle cuts, buttons and washi tape.

Here's a close up of the journaling:

Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed my post for today.

Vroom...

Today's post makes me smile. I created this card for a challenge on the Play Date Cafe blog that featured the following prompt:

Make a project using black, white and a splash of emerald green.  With this challenge I riffled around my ever-growing stash of lovely paper and found the perfect collection  -- Happy Days from Echo Park.  I love the bright, retro imagery and have been wanting to use this car sticker ever since I got the collection last year from Crop Chocolate.  So, here's my happy card:

As I mentioned I used Echo Park paper and car sticker, SRM sentiment sticker, Queen and Co. rhinestones, foam adhesive from Recollections, Silhouette label die and Grand Calibur die cutting machine.

I hope you like it.

October Happenings

Well, October is coming to a close and I can honestly say it has flown by.  This month has brought a mixture of sadness (with the passing of my dear Dad) and happiness (with my being selected to join the design team at Crop Chocolate).  So much going on and not enough crafty time!

I did manage to finish a couple of projects both for fun and for challenges.  My favorite of these is the following altered notebook I made using a 50 cent notebook I found in the dollar bin at Michael's.

I free-handed the owl design and made the project with paper, stickers and alphas from Echo Park This & That Charming, burlap and felt from JoAnn's, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye and buttons from SEI.  I was going to give this away as a gift but I liked it so much I decided to keep it.  You can find instructions on how to make this on Instructagram by following this link:  http://instructagram.com/igrams?id=219

In the spirit of Halloween, I also made this card for my husband.  I have a ton of Halloween papers and used last year's Echo Park release, Apothecary Emporium paper and stickers to make it extra spooky!

Happy Halloween -- Be Safe.

Use Your Scraps -- Operation Write Home Challenge

I know you've seen some of these in earlier posts, but they fit Brit's challenge to a tee!  I used scraps from my Echo Park Times & Seasons 6 x 6 and 12 x 12 paper packs to make all these cards.  I still have some paper left but these really made a dent.