Dream Valley Challenge 31: For A Special Lady

Good evening, posting late as I had to stand out in the cold and the wind with Patryk on the playground while Rileigh had softball practice. I know that the kids were running around playing, so of course I know was much colder than they...which is why it was hard to convince them to hurry back to the car. Patryk had a bit of a meltdown and continued throughout our travels all afternoon. Now, daddy took him out of the house so that he could run a couple of "man errands" and left me in peace, and it's now or never: the next Dream Valley Challenge!

I was able to get pictures this morning, but I've been gone all day so I'm glad I'm FINALLY able to post. Made this using an image from our sponsor, Saturated Canary. This time around, the theme is "For A Special Lady." I loved this image, thinking of a sisterly bond. Of course, I colored them to look like my daughters with my Spectrum Noir markers, using Glossy accents on the blonde's lips and the brunette's shoes. Matted them on burlap which I sprayed with Glimmer mist, adhering it with silver brads made to look a coppery orange color with my marker, the same one that colored orange in the image :) Picked up a discounted pack of Basic Grey's PB&J line, couldn't resist! Mounted the burlap to that after distressing the edges of the paper, attaching that to a piece of white paper I distressed by crumpling, inking, and spritzing with water. October Afternoon Mini Market alpha for "sisters" and Authentique alpha for "keepers of."

Head over to Dream Valley Challenges and enter your own special lady project, be it card, layout, altered item, jewelry, anything...for a chance to win a $10 voucher for Saturated Canary! Off I go now, they are back (of course) so it's off to do the dinner/bedtime thing. Have a great night!

xoxo

Khristen

MIA...and an announcement!

Well hello there, long time no blog! Things have been insane around here...planting, softball season, concerts, illnesses...but I'm happy to say I've spent some time in the craft room lately :) I've done a couple of DT creations, of course, but I also did these layouts I thought I would share using the upcoming May Scraptastic kit (which has been revealed over on their blog, go check it out!) I couldn't resist getting both kids this month. They are amazing, and coordinate with one another almost perfectly.

 Everything you see on this page is from the Faded Jeans kit. I especially love that blue circle at the bottom! So cool, and there are three of them :)

 See what I mean? The texture of the circle is what kills me here. LOVE.

 This was also made with the Faded Jeans kit. I decided to cut a sheet of the patterned paper into a giant banner to mat my photos on, and then I took a plain white tag included in the kit and cut it into a banner as well, altering the hell out of it.

 See the awesome tag-turned-banner? I started inking it with some Tim Holtz distress ink in Pumice, and proceeded to "screw it up" with some brown inkadinkadoo ink... I didn't like it at all. Never fear, Glimmer Mist to the rescue! Now it looks great! I added some MME Miss Caroline stamps from the April stamp kit from Scraptastic in subtle SEI charcoal chalk box ink. Can you see the diamond pattern there? love it all. tied that cute little star on top and it was good to go.

 Hard to make out the yellow Liquid Pearls down the sides of the banner, and there's the pretty yellow twine at the bottom, both in the kit.

 See the diamonds and sparkle?

It felt good to scrap again. It had been a while! I am finishing up the last of my DT assignments for the first of the month (one of them is a handpainted background cardstock, wait until you see it! I love how it turned out...makes me look like a pro painter :) )

As for my announcement...after much scrambling around and refusals from many family members and friends, I have procured a sitter for tomorrow as I was asked to help demonstrate Spectrum Noir markers for Crafter's Companion at CKC in Manchester on Friday and Saturday!! So exciting, can't wait! If you are in the Manchester, NH area and feel like swinging by to try out the best markers in quality and price, c'mon down and say hi :)

I will post again soon, probably pictures from CKC :) Hope to see you there!

xoxo
Khristen

CSI Case File #12

The deadline for this challenge is over, but I still needed to share as I just love how this layout turned out. I checked out a new challenge site, CSI (which stands for color, stories, and inspiration.) It's pretty neat...they give you a color scheme to work with, and the coolest part: they offer a group of digital elements that can be printed out. What's so cool about that? Well, it makes it a whole lot easier to choose papers to coordinate from your collection. We all know how computer screens can display color differently, and then when you try to translate it into papers in your own collection...well, it's just nice as these elements take the guesswork out of "does this shade go along with the color scheme?" Not only must you keep to the color scheme, you also must choose a few items from a list of embellies/techniques and include journaling on your layout (which is where I went wrong here, I forgot to include the journaling!! Can you say "disqualified?" Oh well. There's always the next challenge!)

Here's what I came up with. It was a monochromatic greenish blueish layout, and I loved putting it together! The awesome hot air balloon elements were included in those provided by CSI along with the words affixed to the corner/bottom of the photo. TCW chicken wire mask with Seven Seas Chalkboard Glimmer Mist. Carribean Twinery twine. Prima flower. October Afternoon Farmhouse banner/word stickers and a long strip of paper cut into a banner. Pencil doodles around the photo, a last minute addition I'm glad I thought of...it really completes the layout and brings the grey color that was in the color scheme into the layout nicely.

 The stars were elements from the provided digis, and I coated them with a thin layer of Icicle Glimmer Glaze.

That's it! I'm hoping to get into the craft room to create a couple of layouts (one of them being the next CSI Case File) but have a lot of work to do today...four articles due by tomorrow which I should get started on today, and craft club this afternoon. I decided the kids work better with a project that is involved, so we're weaving paper baskets for Easter. Yes, that means I must cut a bazillion strips of paper prior to heading to the school (which I'm sure will be so very much fun...there are roughly 25 kids in the club! That's a lot of strips!)

Hope you all can get crafty today :) Have a great day!

xx
Khristen

True XOXO: We Scraplift Ourselves!

Yes, XOXO is a scraplift challenge blog. So much fun and I love being a designer. All of the other designers are not only an amazing inspiration, but amazing people to get to know. I am sure any previous guest designers will tell you how fun it is in our private little Facebook group, a spot in which you can win by participating in our monthly challenges. It's fun because all of the ladies on the team are equally fun, but more importantly, seeing the projects they post on a monthly basis are so inspirational. The new ideas and techniques they implant into my creative brain can always pull me out of a mojo-less moment. I love being a Lipstick Chick!!

This month, we were asked to choose one of our fellow teammates to scraplift secretly. **I just said their techniques become implanted into my brain** I knew imMEDiately which layout I wanted to lift. I'd seen Kimmy Jaster post this layout:

 I couldn't get the image of this collection of patterned right triangles placed loosely all around the page out of my head. It was just so amazing. I was waiting for the right picture, the right paper collection, etc. This was it! I had received a deeply discounted American Crafts City Park complete paper collection (the kites, oh, the kites...) and had reached the point in Andraia's album where she was flying a kite at Hilton Park back in April 2008. The stars aligned when the challenge was named, and here she is, a thing of beauty:

 After arranging the triangles cut out of edges of different patterns on the cardstock (this was tough, City Park is a great collection!), I placed the 5X7 photo and added doodles with black Bic MarkIt around the edges. I loved the lines added on Kimmy's, but felt they should be more doodle-y as this is a fun child's layout.

 I decided the Sprinkles Thickers (hard to see the glitter, I know...) needed a doodle as well. "Let's" is K&Co alpha. With all of the patterns going on, I decided the three flowers (AC Beach House paper flowers) were quite enough. I also added a dot of Flamingo Liquid Pearls to the center of each flower.

I was so pleased with the look of this layout, and hope Kimmy is pleased with my interpretation of her amazing layout. Head on over to the XOXO blog and feast your eyes on all the eye candy provided by my fellow DT members. If you want a chance to hang with us in our Facebook group and be our guest designer, go ahead and lift any of the layouts for a chance to do just that. Hope to see your layout in the running!!

xoxo

Khristen

CCCB April Challenge: Mother's Day

Good morning! It's time for another Crafter's Companion Challenge Blog challenge, and this time we are looking for your Crafter's Companion images to be used on something for all the moms out there. Of course, as my mom checks out my blog, this won't be the card she receives. I hate spoiling surprises! I'll probably end up giving this to someone else to give to their mom. Were you a winner in our Going Green challenge? Head over to this post to find out.

This month, you're playing along to win your choice of either a Peter Rabbit Paper Craft Collection or the Tiggy Winkle Paper Craft Bundle. Head over to the blog to see all of the amazing things contained in this kit. Which will you choose?

                

Ok, for this challenge I chose the Art Kure - Sunflower stamp. I have always loved sunflowers (my entire bedroom was sunflower decor in high school), so naturally this is the image I was drawn to. After coloring it with my Spectrum Noir markers, I went to choosing my papers. I thought the American Crafts City Park line had the best colors. A piece of cappuccino Twinery twine wrapped around the edge and some MME alpha stickers finish it off perfectly, letting the image take center stage.

There you have it, my creation for this month's challenge. Show us something special for the mom in your life for your chance to win one of these new papercrafting collections. Can't wait to see the entries :)

I hope you all have a fantastic day, more posts soon to follow, and a busy day ahead of me.

xx

Khristen