Jul 31, 2011

BEST Day Ever!

I am not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed watching the movie Tangled and I love that part...."BEST DAY EVER!!" lol, but here I am actually referring the Design Team announcement by Best Creation Inc!
woohoooo! You can see the announcement HERE. I am thrilled to be a part of this exciting team!
And after all my griping about now having any time to craft....well, I spent the entire day yesterday at a crop at Scrapbook Barn (the LSS that I design for) and I got TONS done, including 2 layouts and a card for Scrapbook Barn with the Barefoot & Bliss Bo Bunny line, 
a few Echo Park projects from the Country Drive line and 4 layouts done with the August Scrapbook Circle kit! The You are My Sunshine kit goes on sale tomorrow 
and you will definitely want to snap one up--it is gorgeous. Here is one layout, I did with it to whet your whistle. 
Be back to share more soon!

♥rebecca

Jul 28, 2011

Where to begin?

Seriously? Has it really been over a week since I blogged? Really? Is there really only one more week of summer left? Really? Where has the summer gone? Really? (Anybody else love the Really???!!! with Seth and Amy skits from Saturday Night Live?) Really it is no laughing matter that as much as I will miss my little crazies, it is TIME FOR THEM TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL. They are sucking my creative will to live. Really. Ok, it is not them per se, it is the fact that I have to moderate arguments about such weighty topics as whose big toe is bigger, who really went under water the most (really??), and who should get a stamp for cleaning up the mess that they just made themselves. Really???!!!! That and the fact that we haven't seen a temperature under 110 in...ummm... weeks now, is just exhausting me to the very core of my existence. Not that it won't be tiring to get back into the school schedule, because it most certainly will, but at least I will have a few fight free mornings to clear my head!
With all the afternoon heat we have been inside crafting a ton. I went through a ton of old 4x6's and pulled out the ones I know I'll never use and passed them on to the kids--they LOVE them. So while they are busy scrapbooking, I did get a few things done.
Here is a quick tutorial I did for GCD Studios:
Do you ♥ the GCD Studios Bottle Cap Pins from The Great Outdoors collection as much as I do?

I wanted to do something a bit different with them and decided to make them into a banner. But I wanted them to hang from the twine and rough the banner up a bit. I started by laying out the bottle caps on the Funhouse Garland to see how many I would need for my banner.
 Then I punched a hole at the top center of the bottle caps using my Cropadile.
 Next I looped some jute through the holes...
 and tied them onto the twine.
 And there you have it-- a quick and fun way to make a bottle cap banner! Now just add it to your layout,
pop some of the pennants up with a dimensional adhesive and add a chipboard star for a whimsical look!
And how about a layout I made for MyStampBOX, you can see the description on their blog HERE.
And a card for the MSB sketch challenge HERE.
Here is the sketch:
and here is my take where I rotated the sketch:
There is also a layout sketch challenge going on at Scrapbook Circle. DT member Nicole Nowosad created this fab sketch:
and here is my layout:
If you make a layout with the Scrapbook Circle sketch be sure to post it to the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page by August 3rd and you will be in the running for a $15 credit to the Scrapbook Circle store!
Ok that is enough deluge after the drought. Have a great end to the week!
♥ Rebecca

Jul 18, 2011

Scrapbook Circle's July Kit

Did you know I made a total of SIX layouts with Scrapbook Circle's July kit--Blast Off!? I love the fun October Afternoon and the goodies are just SO good! You can pick up your very own July kit HERE. I was challenged to use the Maya Road zipper trim and from watching a few videos on the Maya Road blog, I came up with this zipper swirl flower:
I figured it wasn't too "flowery" to use on this boy layout:
And just in case you were wondering, the Maya Road star pin is clear--I colored it with a Copic marker to make it yellow!
:) Rebecca 

Jul 16, 2011

Lift a Daisy

The Upsy Daisy design team was challenged this month to lift another Daisy team member. I love this layout by fellow design team member Marielle LeBlanc:
and here is my lift:
This layout came together lickity split using Marielle's fabulous design as the inspiration. I used the Upsy Daisy Vogue collection. I used the same collection on these mini thank yous:
Before I go, I have some fun information from GCD Studios to share:
That's all for now! Have a great night!
:) Rebecca

Jul 14, 2011

Getting Ready for CHA sale

I always love a sale lol!
Claudia & Company is taking 25-40% off to prepare for all the new CHA product! Check out the sale information HERE.
Happy Shopping!
:) Rebecca

Pop!

I know it has been quiet around here. I have been getting some things done, but most I can't share quite yet. Here is a tutorial I did for the GCD Studios blog. You can see it there...

I know, as all moms of small kids know, that bubbles always bring smiles. When someone is a bit cranky or you have to ask little ones to wait patiently for a bit, bring out a bottle of bubbles! For this layout, I wanted to recreate some bubbles and I used two embossing techniques to make them. I started with some GCD Studios chipboard circles and sprayed them with white mist to prep them for the Chip Art tool:
Next, I used the Chip Art tool Funky Circles to emboss a slight pattern onto the chipboard circles and resprayed white and blue mists.
Next I swiped the embossed circles on a glue pad and covered them with clear embossing powder.
After shaking off the excess powder, I used a heat gun to to melt the embossing powder. I wanted a thicker, shinier look, so I went through that part of the process again and ended up with these:
I added my "bubbles" to my layout...
I love all the texture the double embossing adds.
Next time you're outside blowing and popping bubbles, take a few shots and be sure to add your own bubbles to your layout!
Supplies Used:
Chip Art Chipboard Shapes: Chip Art tool Funky Circles, Basic Shapes Small, GCD Studios patterned paper from the Soulfood  collection, fabric brads from the Homespun Chic collection 

Jul 3, 2011

Half Way Point

I can't believe we are already half way through our summer. I was so worried about the three of us being home all day every day, but we have been so busy and we have been having a lot of fun. We made our own felt board the other day and today they are making sock puppets. We have been swimming every morning. Both kids are doing Karate once a week. Little Miss tested on Friday and got promoted to a Gold Belt! No pictures unfortunately because I was stuck at home with Little Man and his stomach ache. Sigh. This weekend Scott has been painting our bedroom. It was, of course, the last room upstairs to get painted and it will make a huge difference once it is done. I have been trying to keep the kids busy and out of his way. Not so easy when we got up to 117 yesterday. We are all going a little stir crazy. One picture I took recently was to mark Little Miss losing her second tooth!

Tomorrow we will be going to the summer movie pass movie, baking "fireworks cookies" and meeting friends tomorrow night to see the fireworks. This will be the first year we are going to go someplace and sit and watch them.So I should have lots of pictures to share soon. Until then, let me update some business here ;)
First of all, GCD Studios is giving away a kit of the month!
You can read all the details of the contest on THIS POST.
Next order of business....thank you to everyone who posted comments for the MyStampBOX blog hop. The winners were posted HERE. Also, on the MyStampBOX blog, we just featured a bunch of summer projects. This was my summer layout using Echo Park and MyStampBOX stamps:
You can see this layout and all the other designers takes on the summer challenge HERE.
In other news, the Scrapbook Circle July kit, called Blast Off! is available HERE and it is awesome! FUN papers and embellies. I love all the October Afternoon, of course, but additions like cork stars, Maya Road pins and a huge sticker sheet by Simple Stores make it spectacular. The downloadable printable is 2 pages and is awesome. Here is one layout I did with this kit:
 You can pick up Blast Off! HERE.
And speaking of Scrapbook Circle, it looks like there are still more Garden Party kits available HERE. After 4 layouts and a card, I still had more Garden Party left and here is the layouts I made with the last bits of it:
And, my final (and the other designers from this team's) Elle's Studio gallery was posted HERE. The post below this one has one layout from my June gallery. Here is the other and the Father's Day card I made:

Like I mentioned, I am so sad to be at the end of my term designing for Elle's Studio, but I adore their designs and will continue using them. In addition, Elle is a total gem and I feel so fortunate to have had the chance to work for her. I am excited about all the new blog features and love playing along with the sketch contests. If you haven't checked out Elle's Studio blog lately, you should! You will definitely continue to see LOTS of Elle's goodies around here. :) 
And last, but not least, check out one of my layouts in the Echo Park design gallery HERE.
Thanks for making it through! The one good thing about only one more month of summer is I will have more time to create and post! Until then, hope you're enjoying your summer too!
♥ Rebecca