Mr. & Mrs. Egghead - Decorating Plastic Eggs

On the agenda for the weekend is to dye Easter eggs with my preschooler. But before we tackle real eggs, I thought it might be fun to decorate some plastic ones. I saw a feature in Disney’s Family Fun magazine of plastic eggs sporting a variety of hats and thought I’d follow suit.

May I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Egghead? These two are obviously Southerners, maybe Texans, given their headgear.

I made Mr. Egghead’s cowboy hat using a paper egg carton, a small piece of cardstock and a bit of twine. I made Mrs. Egghead’s Easter bonnet from a cupcake wrapper, felt trim and small paper flowers.

The couple is sporting border stickers from Echo Park’s This and That collection. I thought the red triangle border sticker looked a bit like a bandana and suited our cowboy. I used a scallop border sticker for Mrs. Egghead to mimic a dress collar. I also used stickers and paper from This and That to build the house. The roof and door are Cosmo Cricket.

They’re just about ready for Easter, I’d say. Have you decorated eggs yet this year? If so, feel free to link them in the comments here or on the Paper Issues blog. Our current theme is Candy Shop. We’d love to see your projects. Paper Issues also has a great giveaway on its blog.  Saturday is the last day to enter.

Fun With Burlap: A Pair Of Cards

I was so excited to finally get a box of October Afternoon’s Sasparilla in the mail. It’s such a fun and engaging line and I dug in the box right away to make something. I love the journaling cards that come with every OA line and as I fanned through them, the card that read, “Country Roads” struck me immediately. I believe that may be due to my childhood love of John Denver.

Way back when, kids had portable record players and LPs and the first album I remember spinning on my red, plastic record player was by John Denver and in particular, the song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads," which I played over and over.

So, armed with the Country Roads journaling card, some mini market alphas and a cute chipboard sticker of a pigtailed cowgirl strumming a tune, I had the basis for a card. Underneath, I added a kraft die cut and some burlap for a bit of texture and sewed it all together.

For my second card, I again used burlap as the base for a card front. This time, I paired the burlap with yellow and teal for a pop of color against the warm brown cardstock and patterned paper. Burlap makes me think of Autumn and I went with a Fall theme here. The patterned paper and teal button are Little Yellow Bicycle, the “enjoy” sticker is October Afternoon and the chipboard pumpkin is Bella Blvd.

This was my first time using burlap on cards and I found it really fun to use. Burlap’s a great neutral base and I love the texture it gives. If you’ve made cards or projects with burlap, feel free to link them in your comments. I’d so love to see what you’ve done.

Spring Cards

We’re having the most beautiful spring here in North Carolina. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming and all over the neighborhood, I hear the hum of lawn movers. On days like this, it’s impossible not to find myself wanting to create something bright and sunshiney.

The first card, "Let The Fun Begin," is a hodge podge of stuff laying on my desk and things I eyed on my Clip-it-up. This project started life as a color challenge to use yellow and pink. That’s where I got the yellow base (Pink Paislee’s Hometown Summer) and large pink scallop (Making Memories journal book).

　

Then I started poking around my desk, adding this and that. I had just gotten a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper‘s new Storyteller and I pulled the blue ledger from there. On top, I added a scallop border sticker from Studio Calico, a bit of twine from The Twinery and a trio of Crate chipboard birds. The sentiment sticker is from Amercan Crafts's new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. Love that collection! I nearly stopped there, but then decided the sun and kite stickers from My Little Shoebox would add just the right touch of whimsy. There, now the card feels complete.

The second card, "I Really Bike You," features Echo Park’s paper and stickers. I love orange and blue together and took advantage of that combination here. To make the bicycle pop against the background, I whitewashed the paper with thin white acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top, then added my own sentiment with alphas under the bicycle.

　

I submitted this card to Scrapbook & Cards Today, the terrific quarterly Canadian magazine, and was delighted to see my card featured on its blog here.  I hope you're having a beautiful spring day wherever you are.

Pair of Summer Cards

The East Coast has been hit with an early heat wave and it feels like summer. It's been sunny and in the 80s for the past week. It's beautiful, perfect weather. When I wasn't outside enjoying the sunshine, I was inside dreaming of it. In that spirit, I made a couple of summer cards.

I used Simple Stories' 100 Days of Summer, which was one of my favorite finds last year. It's a terrific summer line and the sheet of journaling cards was my favorite piece in the collection.  The journaling spots are just the right accent for cards.

To make the cards, I layered the journaling spots on 4x6 cards, then added stickers and stitching to complete the look. 

I had two sheets of the journaling cards, so to build the clothes line on the "Let's Hang Out" card, I cut the bathing suits from one card and pop dotted them over the same image on the extra sheet to give some dimension. I added a line of twine between the pop dotted suits to form a colorful clothesline.

On "Ahhh Summer" I added handstitching to the umbrella and sun chair for a little added dimension and a pop of color. I love this little scene. It looks so inviting and has me ready for the glory days of summer. 

Supply List:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Simple Stories, Echo Park Paper
Stickers: Simple Stories, October Afternoon
Die Cuts: October Afteroon
Chipboard: October Afternoon
Gems: Close To My Heart
Floss: DMC
Thread: Coats & Clark
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Boys Will Be Boys: Authentique

I’m back today with another layout using Authentique’s Genuine line from my GDT stint with the Birds of a Feather Kit Co. This collection is so versatile. I love the cozy denim theme. For my first layout, I paired the line with kraft and white for a winter feel. Today, I've paired the collection with yellow and brown for a Fall look.

The stars on the the background paper made me think of the American flag, which I thought perfectly suited our all American boys. In these photos, my son and his cousin, both age 2, are at the lake shore, picking up rocks and throwing them into the water. I can't tell you how enthralled they were by this simple activity!

The element sheet in this collection had a sticker that said: Genuine through and through.  I added the word "boys" to make a title block: Genuine Boys Through and Through. There was just enough room to squeeze the letters in. The letter stickers above the block are from October Afternoon, Sasparilla, and I inked them darker to give a more distressed look.  The tag under the photo is from Little Yellow Bicycle's Hello, Fall! 

I love the big, bold chevron paper that was part of the Genuine line and I used the chevron as a mat under the photo block. I like the way the chevron pattern forms arrows to draw attention to the pictures. I added a bit of yellow cardstock under the chevron for a pop of color then stitched the two together with a denim thread. To finish the page, I stitched a brown frame around the page using heavy duty thread.

If you'd like to know more about the Birds of a Feather Kit Co, click here.  Amy, the owner, puts together a terrific kit each month.  You'll also find great inspiration in the gallery and friendly folks on the forum.  It's my favorite place to hang out!

We Called You Cheeks: GDT work

I’m so excited this month to be a guest designer for Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I had designed for BOAF last year and was thrilled when Amy, the owner, invited me back to work with the March kit. I tell you: I was given a great month for my stint because this kit is jam packed with beauties from Authentique and My Mind’s Eye.

I hadn’t worked with Authentique before. I was so impressed with the beautiful papers. Not only did they look good, but they felt great too. The kit included the Genuine collection and the denim themed papers were easy to mix and match. The nice heavy weight of this paper made me think of winter and I had this photo of my son as a baby in a knit hat, all cozy in his stroller, for an afternoon at the park. So I played on the winter theme. Just pretend those little flowers on the white paper are snowflakes, will ya?

　

The background is one sheet of paper, Dependable. I used the A side (navy side) of Dependable for the outer frame, then carefully cut out the inner frame and flipped it to the B side (white side). I used a square of cardstock in between to hide where I had cut the paper, then stitched it all back together. I loved that the stiped paper in the kit (used as a banner here) mimicked the stripe in my son's stroller. Perfect! The Webster's trim is from a previous kit. It looked so cozy and was perfect here.

When my son was a baby, we nicknamed him, "Cheeks." I think you can see why, lol.

The March Birds of a Feather kit proved to be the most popular kit in the history of the club, selling out in less than 48 hours. This is a photo collage of the kit that BOAF sent me.

　

I can hardly wait to see what Amy has in store for the April kit. If you are interested in a kit club, check out Birds of a Feather here. The site also has a terrific forum with super friendly paper crafters and lots of great inspiration. You can find the Hen House here.

Going Green: A St. Patty's Day Treat

I’m super excited to have joined the Creative Team at Paper Issues, an Etsy store and challenge blog. There's such a variety of paper crafters on the team and you'll find tons of fun and inspiration on the PI blog and often prizes, too. We post a different theme every other week and everyone can play along. We hope you'll join us!

Our current theme is “ Go Green or Go Home.” For this you can use the color green, something recycled or something home inspired. Since St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner, I decided to upcycle a treat box - green, of course - for the holiday and include a coordinating card.

　

To make the treat bag, I recycled a Martha Stewart paper container. The box was 3 inches on each side, the perfect dimensions for a 12-inch sheet of patterned paper. I used the Lucky Me line from Little Yellow Bicycle. I cut a strip of patterned paper 2 inches high by 12 inches long and scored it every 3 inches.

　

I adhered the scored strip to the Martha Stewart box, then used a 12-inch border sticker around the top of the patterned paper. I added a cellophane bag into the base, filling it with green Hershey’s kisses. Then I folded the cellophane bag over and added a simple topper made from patterned paper. To complete the project, I used a cropadile to punch holes in the topper and threaded through a bit of ribbon.

To make the card, I used a Doodlebug die cut as my base, adding some Lucky Me patterned paper, an accordion flower from LYB's Paradise collection and a round journaling spot for the sentiment.

We’d love to have you play along in this challenge. Just link up to the Paper Issues blog by March 17.

A little more about my new team:  The Paper Issues creative team includes a wide variety of paper crafters including: traditional scrapbookers, card makers, altered art artists, art journal keepers,  Project Lifers, SMASHers, crazy junk pilers, mist flickers and those who have mastered a cutting machine. The newest members of the creative team are: Aimee Maddern, Amy Tsuruta, Audrey Yeager, Christine Heeren, Cristin Drewes, Heather Leopard, Izzy Anderson (that's me), Kate Vickers, Leah Farquharson, Lizzie Oakley, Lori Wilbanks, Marlene Gomez, Missy Gener, Nina Yang, Patricia Roebuck and Sarah Andreotti.  You can find the announcement here.

If you’d like to take a peek in Paper Issues' Etsy shop, you can get 20 percent off your total order by using the code IZZYB20 at checkout. The shop stocks all the top paper manufacturers and gets new merchandise in each week. You can use the discount code as many times as you like. It doesn’t expire and there’s lots of new CHA merchandise in the shop. :)

The Cure for the Winter Blues

I love trend-watching at CHA, oohing and ahhhing over all the new releases, and waiting for a few of the products to show up on my doorstep.  There's nothing better at the end of the day than driving home to find happy mail on my front porch!

Cath Edvalson of Paper Crafts Magazine is always on top of the new trends and she loves the new color trend of navy.  I do too. It's the new black, I tell you. It goes with everything. 

Cath issued a challenge on the Moxie Fab World blog to make a project featuring navy and to link it back the blog.

I decided to play along and I used the new Genuine line from Authentique that was part of this month's kit at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. 

My friend made the terrific zipper flower and sent it to me in a swap. I got the better end of that deal!  I thought the flower worked perfectly here with the denim feel of this paper line.

I used Authentique's March sketch to guide my card design, flipping the sketch on its side (as shown below) and eliminating the banner. 

If you'd like to play along in the the Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge at Moxie Fab World, you can find the link here.   The deadline to enter is Sunday, March 11.  Click here to play along in the Authentique sketch challenge. That challenge ends April 4. 

Card Supplies:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Authentique Genuine (Natural)
Stickers: Authentique Genuine (12x12 Details)
Punch: Martha Stewart
Gems: Close To My Heart
Thread: Coats & Clark
Sewing Machine: Bernina

You Make Me Smile

Cosmo Cricket has a challenge on its blog this week to make something happy and sunshiney using the color yellow. For every project made and linked to its blog or Facebook page, Cosmo Cricket will donate $5 and a can of food to their local food bank. How awesome is that? I think we should load them up with all things yellow!

I really love the new Cosmo Cricket collections from Winter CHA, which feature wonderful shades of yellow. But those lines haven’t made it yet to a store near me. Instead, I pulled out some patterned paper and chipboard from Delovely, one of my favorite happy CC lines, and made a sunny card.

The sun is a doily from Martha Stewart that I inked and misted and the little die cut butterfly is from Cosmo Cricket’s awesome “butterflies and doilies” that coordinated with its Social Club, Salt Air and Upcycle lines. The stickers that spell “smile” are Echo Park. The yellow alphas are CC Tiny Type, which I have in every color. They are so handy!

If you have a chance this weekend, rustle up your own yellow creation and send it over to Cosmo Cricket. The local food bank will be awfully glad you did.