SSINKIC29: Lots of Hearts

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card inspired by the picture below.

I decided to play off of the multiple colored chocolate covered strawberries. I layered some similarly colored hearts. A few of the hearts I added a stamped flower for added visual appeal. Two of them were covered in Wink of Stella. From there, I layered on some neutral DSP, a Rose Red flag, and a sentiment. As a finishing touch, I added a few candy dots. Super cute Valentine's Day themed card.

Detail of the Wink of Stella:

• Stamps: Hello Life; A Whole Lot of Lovely (flower)
• Inks: Rose Red; Blushing Bride
• Cardstock: Neutrals DSP; Rose Red; Blushing Bride; Gold; Sahara Suede
• Accessories: Candy Dots; Wink of Stella Clear
• Tools: Sweetheart Punch

Sunday Haul #2

A quick pop into Target for detergent and other house items and I came out with a calendar and some page flags. There were a ton of other One Spot items that I thought about getting, but I settled on just these two things.

My Stampin' Up order arrived this week. I picked up some club gifts and supplies for a few specific cards (they'll be highlighted on the blog in the next month or so).

• Blushing Bride Marker
• Bermuda Bay Reinker
• Pear Pizzazz Reinker
• 3 packs Extra Large Gift Box (not pictured)
• 5 packs 2014-2016 In Color Printed Clothespins (club gifts)
• 3 packs Kraft Grid Journal
• Another Thank You Stamp Set
• Wink of Stella
• Botanicals for You Stamp Set
• White Embossing Powder

Project Life December 2015

For December's PL pages, I used mainly cards and accessories from Simple Stories. The first two pages are pictures and events from our time in California.

Of course I had to do a page highlighting our traveling. I caught some great photos at the O'Hare airport. 

From this page on, all our photos and events are from Indiana. 

Now I just need to do the pages for Arthur and the twins' albums.

SSINK January 2016 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration blog hop! This month we are creating cards using some of our favorite Occasions Catalog items.  As you hop along, please be sure to comment and show some love on every blog! We are always excited to hear from our followers! You should have just left stop number 1 on the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration Blog Hop - Dj's Stampin Place. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn't work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

For this month's blog hop, I had to use items from the Botanical Gardens Suite. I love every bit of this suite! I started my card with the idea to use the Botanical Garden Washi tape. I do so love my washi tape. From there I did a bit of layering with the cardstock and added a sentiment. To finish off the card, I die cut a few flower pieces and layered them onto the card. The last piece was the addition of a candy dot.

• Stamps: Friendly Wishes; Botanical Blooms
• Inks: Mossy Meadow
• Cardstock: Botanical Gardens DSP; Mossy Meadow; Old Olive; Crushed Curry
• Accessories: Botanical Gardens Washi Tape; Candy Dots
• Tools: Botanical Builder Framelits

Blog Hop Participant List:

1. Darcy at Dj's Stampin Place
2. Tobe at The Craft Sea
3. Jennifer at Jenny G's Paper Crafts
4. Diana at Stampin' Fun with Diana
5. Kim at Stamping with Kim
6. Leanne at Literally My Joy
7. Heidi at Stuck on Stampin'

Colored Flowers

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card using our favorite Sale-a-bration item. Hands down my favorite item is the Flowering Fields Stamp Set. I always love to color and this stamp is the perfect choice. I started with randomly stamping some of the floral images. Then, I did a bit of messy coloring with my markers to create this image. I love how the color is not quite inside the lines. From there I layered my piece on top of some DSP and coordinating cardstock. As a finishing touch, I added a strip of washi tape.

• Stamps: Flowering Fields
• Inks: Basic Black; Old Olive; Lost Lagoon; Calypso Coral
• Cardstock: Wildflower Fields DSP; Mossy Meadow; Blackberry Bliss; Whisper White
• Accessories: Botanical Gardens Washi Tape
• Tools:

SSINKCS29: Layered Flowers

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card using the sketch below.

Once again I decided to use the Botanical Gardens Suite. I love the play of patterns on this card. I layered two different pieces of DSP to create the middle layers. The top layer is a piece of Whisper White paper that I stamped onto. As final touches, I added a sentiment from Happy Happenings and some washi tape from the suite.

• Stamps: Happy Happenings
• Inks: Cajun Craze; Hello Honey; Mint Macaron
• Cardstock: Botanical Gardens DSP; Cajun Craze; Whisper White
• Accessories: Botanical Gardens Washi Tape
• Tools:

Sunday Haul #1

December's Messy Box came while I was away. Really digging the color scheme on this one, but I still think I'll be canceling this subscription in March when my year is up.

A Wildly Patterned Birthday

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a birthday card. I bought the Botanical Gardens suite and dove right in playing with color and pattern. I love this background DSP, but feel like it is a very busy. Whatever is layered with it needs to temper the pattern a bit. I layered some cardstock and looked around my stash for some accessories. Enter elements from the Tin of Cards Kit. I had bought the kit for my grandmother, but ended up using just the tin. That left me with all the card pieces. I layered a few pieces and completed this birthday card!

A bit of detail...

• Stamps:
• Inks: Old Olive
• Cardstock: Botanical Gardens DSP; Cajun Craze; Crushed Curry; Polka Dot Overlay (Tin of Cards Kit); Happy Birthday (Tin of Cards Kit); Strip of Gold (Tin of Cards Kit)
• Accessories: Regal Candy Dots
• Tools:

2016 Project Life Plans

I started Project Life in 2013 with the birth of my youngest son.  It was a lifesaver.  I wanted to have scrapbooks for all three of my kids, but I just didn’t have the time to really sit down and create full page spreads from scratch.  I needed some help.  Enter Project Life.  This scrapbooking system gives me the direction to create nice weekly spreads without a huge amount of time or brain power.  I love it!  Over the past two years, I have made four albums (family, Arthur, N, and A) filled with pictures, journaling, and embellishments.

As the year progressed, I have started to think about what works and what doesn’t.  After taking some time off my spreads, I have come up with my 2016 plan…

What I’m keeping the same:

• Page Protector Size — I really love 12×12 size. It helps me get all the photos that I want in my spreads. I've been able to do a year's worth of family spreads in two volumes. Arthur's one album holds one year of his life. The twins' albums are holding 2-3 years in one. I love 12x12 albums!
• Daily Journaling — I am trying to once again keep a simple daily journal. A lovely friend Pam bought me a 5-year one line journal that I'm going to put to good use this coming year.
• Page Protector Design — I've stuck to mostly Design A page protectors. I do occasionally throw in a D or L or even a C, but I love that I can usually count of Design A to work for my spreads.
• Monthly instead of Weekly -- I really enjoyed focusing on Monthly pages instead of weekly pages. I love the freedom to have 2 spreads or 8 spreads depending on the month.
• Week in the Life in August -- I loved completing my first ever Week in the Life. Hoping to be as successful in 2016.

What I’m changing:

• Over-abundance of pictures vs. Stories -- Most of my spreads are full of pictures with maybe one journalling card. I would like to include more written out stories.
• Monthly Card Inserts — I used some Simple Stories monthly cards last year. It was nice, but I need a change. This year I am using some September Skies title cards for each month. It's much more feminine than my usual style, but I'm really digging it.

Aspects to work on:

• Using my supplies — I have so many Project Life cards. I do not need anymore! Instead, I really need to work in using things from my stash. I did a decent job in 2015, but I really need to amp it up next year.
• Day in the Life — I want to do this at least once a quarter.
• My random items -- I've started including my TBR piles and Currently cards as album ending pages. I want to include more of them.
• New ideas from Pinterest — I have an entire board of PL ideas and never use any of them.  I want to challenge myself to start using these great ideas. Maybe a monthly challenge to myself. (Look familiar? I've copied this goal from last year as I need to keep working on it.)

Top Ten 2015 Crafts

In no particular order, my favorite ten crafts from 2015:

1. 30 Days of Lists March 2015 -- My base cards for March were a rainbow of colors. I love how they turned out! I used a variety of Project Life kits to create the effect.

2. Sarah's Bridal Shower favors -- I loved using these simple white berry baskets and dressing them up. They turned out really well!

3. Herringbone Technique cards -- These cards look so complicated, but are actually fairly easy to make. I love the outcome.

4. Fun with Decorative Masks -- This card was inspired by some fun rainbow cards I saw on Pinterest. I changed up the techniques and tools to make this fun masked card.

5. My favorite Christmas card this season -- I love the mix of patterns and colors on this one!

6. Project Life Thanksgiving Card -- I challenged myself to use SU's PL Seasonal Snapshot set to make a Thanksgiving card. I love the results.

7. Find Your Voice Pages -- I participated in an awesome free storytelling class from rukristin. The six traditional scrapbook pages I created were a nice change of pace.

8. Week in the Life -- I finished my first ever Week in the Life album and loved doing it! I'm definitely going to try again next year.

9. Sailboat Baby Card -- Such a cute little design!

10. Blue and Gold Butterfly Card -- I made this card using a photo inspiration challenge. I love the result!