May SFTIO Sneaks

Since I already have my May Scrapbooking from the Inside Out projects done, I though I'd share some sneaks. I love getting a new kit every month and getting to create NEW projects with it! Just makes my heart happy. :) Can't wait to reveal these May 1st! 

Today is Your Day!

So excited to share my last layout for this month at SFTIO! 

Ok, so this was the first page I made this month. My brain always goes a little crazy starting out… I get all these crazy ideas for projects. Sometimes they translate well onto layouts. Sometimes they're a little too far out there. LOL

I handwote several different versions of the word "today" on a piece of paper and then traced them all in my Silhouette software. I was originally planning on picking the one I liked best and cutting lots of only that one, but then I decided that it would look cool with all the different kinds of "today." I ended up cutting 3 full 8.5"x11" pieces of paper that were filled with these "today" diecuts. Talk about taking a while to carefully remove each diecut! And adhere them onto my page! Told you I had some crazy ideas! :P This one just happened to be very time-consuming.

The piece of paper I used for the background originally had a party table printed on one corner of it, so I painted over it with the Tumbled Glass paint (included in the kit) and added some messy drops to the page before placing down the "today" diecuts. I think the painted part looks cool! That background paper has a light damask pattern on it, if you can't tell. It's really pretty.

I tried adding some arrows to the page with gesso and the template included in the kit, but, umm… that didn't work. I guess my gesso is too liquid-y or something. They just looked like big blobs. Grainy, painty blobs. So, I scraped off most of the gesso before it dried and then added watercolored arrows (using the same template) after the gesso dried. Then I outlined the arrows with a scrapbook pen. So glad something else worked out for that… because the original gesso arrows looked terrible! 

Ok, so that's a little behind the scenes peek at layout #4 for this month! Be sure to read more on this page by going to the SFTIO blog. :)

-Heather

Simple, But Effective

Vellum is so cool. I was browsing Pinterest for card ideas, and I came upon a card by Maggie Holmes where she had used a piece of vellum layered on top of a very busy pattern. I LOVED the way it toned down the pattern. So, I got out my Amy Tangerine "Plus One" mini pad (lots of very bold prints in there!) and chose this black and white chevron design. It's so bold. I love it, but I just wasn't sure about actually using it. But with vellum on top of it, it makes it easier to work with. 

I went simple on this card because, well, lately I have been really into simplicity. Use a few embellishments and throw in a technique like machine stitching, and you have one fabulous and easy card. :)

And since I was on the vellum kick, I used it as a background also, all on its own. Just think how sad and empty this card would look without it as a background layer?

-Heather

Currently

Right now... at this moment...

Anticipating my brother's wedding. One week to go! :) I'm excited about being off of work for 4 consecutive days!

Really digging my curly hair that Laura did for me last week:

Excited that I got a full scholarship to college this fall! :) :) :) :) 

Needing to finish a layout I started the other day. Didn't like how it was turning out, so I changed it almost completely. I'm determined to only make layouts that I LOVE. 

Still feeling like traveling. I've got the travel bug. I was talking to a customer at work the other day about traveling. She was buying some shoes to wear on a 2-week Europe trip. Ahhh, wouldn't that be fun?! 

And just because, here's some quotes I've pinned on my Pinterest board. <3

Celebrate Life

Yay! It's another "Behind the Art" Thursday! 

First of all, I want to point out that I am sharing more about this page on the SFTIO blog. Sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself here on my personal blog, and to try to cut down on some of that (LOL), be sure to check out my post on the other blog as well. I would love to know if you read the post. I put a lot of work into these posts! :)

Ok, so these photos on this page are, like, my absolute favorite photos ever. Laura took them in a little photoshoot after she curled my hair. I was dancing around and being silly while I had some music on, so these expressions are totally "I'm having fun!" 

I really love using lots of different patterns on one layout, so I cut strips from different papers in the kit and layered them as a border above and below my photos. 

I also fussy-cut the flower clusters out of one of the Party Time pieces of paper and used those on this page. I love the elegant look they give the layout!

Something kinda cool I did on this layout was I used the Tumbled Glass distress paint included in the kit along with a paint brush to make mist-looking drops around the flower clusters. I was determined to use that paint on every single one of my projects this month! :)

So that is just a *little bit about this layout… Only one more layout for this month!

-Heather

Mixed Media Card

I really love mixed media. I have finally figured out that you can't do a mixed media project all in one sitting. You have to add a layer, then add a layer, then add another layer. That's what I did with this card:

I'm linking this card up to the Paper Wings Productions April challenge to use INKS on a project. Well, I used a lot of inky things on this card. First, I poured -- yes, poured-- some different colors of mists on my cardstock. Some from October Afternoon, some from Studio Calico. I moved the card around to make the ink/paint run. So I had to wait overnight for that to dry. Then I stenciled on some arrows with lime green paint and drew some on with a white artist pen from Faber-Castell. I added some blue and pink ink inbetween the mist-blobs with a little sponge before I stenciled on the arrows. 

Then I stamped my piecharts (that stamp is from Paper Bakery Kits) and embellished my card. I really like how it turned out!! Practice makes mixed media perfect! LOL

Smile and Be Happy! :) 

-Heather

Friday, Friday

So happy it's Friday. :) Fridays are bound to be good, right?! Today I was off work, so that totally made my day. I am scheduled to work this weekend… :/ I don't like working weekends… I'm enjoying my day off by just staying at home today. Cleaning, doing projects with Mom, etc. I need to brainstorm some SFTIO projects.

So what better way to start off the weekend than with a lovely card?! I love Paper Bakery Kits' sketch challenges, and so I had to play along. :)

I may or may not have cheated and got that Carpe Diem card from May's SFTIO kit… :) 

I loved the simplicity of the sketch. A recent favorite product of mine is india ink. I used white india ink on this card, along with regular Mister Huey white mist to make the paint drops. I love that the india ink stays dimensional! It doesn't soak into the paper. Very cool, if I do say so myself.

Hope you have a great weekend! Carpe diem! Seize the day!

xoxo, 

Heather  

Special

I'm back to share a 'special' page with you!

I love this page because it has a huge confetti pocket on it! I mean, what's more fun than that?! To make the pocket, I cut a piece of clear plastic (from the packaging of one of my older sheets of Crate Paper die cuts… back when they were in a big 12x12 sheet) and washi taped it to the background paper. Then I added my punched circles (I used 1 5/8 inch and 1 inch circle punches) and sequins underneath the plastic (I used sequins from the kit and then added some more from my stash). Then I stitched around the border of the plastic, careful not to let the confetti get caught in the way of my stitching. After I stitched it, I added some brads randomly around the plastic pocket to make sure the confetti did not go all the way to the bottom of the pocket. The brads kind of catch the confetti. 

And that's it! I added the rest of the page like I normally would have. I used the Tumbled Glass distress paint dauber to add some distressing to the edges of the page and I even got a paint brush and dropped a few dots of paint for a faux-mist look along the top left and bottom right corners. 

I handcut my title. I didn't even draw the letters before I cut them… so they are definitely handmade-looking. ;) 

This was very much a labor-intensive page, but I think it was worth it! I enjoyed making it and I loved documenting this part of "celebration."

Be sure to check out more about this page on the SFTIO blog today!  

-Heather

Kittens

Oh goodness… I was looking through my pictures the other night and found some pictures of our kitties and I realized that I miss our cats. :'-( It seemed like we always had kittens and I just have a soft spot in my heart for kittens. They're so small and precious. I don't know if we'll be able to have a cat where we live now because we're in a subdivision and I don't think it'd stay in our yard. But then again the neighbors' dogs don't stay in their yards, so…

I thought I'd share some favorite cat pics that I had on my computer. :)

This is Cuddles, our miracle cat. When she was a kitten, she got stuck in one of our cars' motors and we really didn't think she'd make it. But, she rebounded and the only little quirk she had was a little crook at the end of her tail... cute. :)  We had her FOREVER and then I think she drank some antifreeze back last fall and died. :( But she was the sweetest lil' thing. 

Kitties... <3

SFTIO: An Art Journaling Page

 Yay! I kinda love Thursdays. I love sharing my SFTIO projects with you! :)

So here's my favorite project I made this month (I always like sharing my favorite projects first). It's an art journal page. My lovely friend Katie made me an art journal for Christmas and I am SO enjoying creating pages now and then to put in my journal! 

I'm still not quite sure how to photograph my art journal pages, but anywho…

Creating art journal pages are so fun for me because it's a time that I kinda let myself go. If I don't like my page, I just keep doing stuff to it until I do. On this page, I watercolored the arrows with the stencil included in the kit and I noticed that there was a lot of white space. I didn't like it. So… I used the Tumbled Glass distress paint (also in the kit) and a small paint brush to paint around the arrows. It added some beautiful color to the page and solved my problem of too much white space! That blue color is so pretty. I used it on every single one of my pages this month. :)

Art makes me so happy. I'm not saying that I know everything about it or that I'm the best artist, but that's just it. I am an artist. I can create whatever I want and it's ok. :) It's all about celebrating my maybe not-so artistic talents, right? I'm going along with the kit this month: CELEBRATE. ;)

Hope you enjoyed my art page! Check out more about this particular project on the SFTIO blog today! :)

-Heather

For No Reason

Lately I have really enjoyed making cards. Currently, I have a lot of layouts that are in need of being put in albums and that makes me feel so unorganized. So until I fix that problem, I don't want to add any pages to that "homeless" stack. Since we've moved, I haven't even looked at my scrapbook albums, so I don't know how many empty page protectors I have. I do know where my albums are though, which is a good start. :) 

I sorted through my scrapbook albums before we moved and, literally, I threw away probably 100 pages. Either I didn't like the page (maybe I did it for a challenge and did it in a hurry just to make the deadline) or the page really didn't mean anything to me. Like, oh hey, here's some random photos of some flower pictures with the title "pretty flowers." Yeah, those got thrown away. At first I felt bad, but I like de-cluttering. So it didn't bother me long enough to make me stop sorting. LOL I'm like that. I usually get over my sentimentality and throw stuff out without contemplating too much.

So, I said all that to make this point. I like making stuff that I can give away. I love letting it cheer up someone's day. I try to send some happy mail every week. Of course that doesn't happen alllll of the time, but hey. It's a good goal. I'm always on the lookout when shopping for cute little things I can send to my friends. Or of course, I make something. 

These cards went to some of my friends. Really, I didn't have anything specific to say in these cards except, "Hey- have a nice day!" I used to send letters all the time, but now the internet is so much more effective for communication. So now I just send happy mail. No-reason mail. :)

Have a great day! I'm off to go make some more happy mail! ;)

-Heather

Hello, Life is Good

Post #2 for today comin' right up…

I wanted so bad to play along with the Just Two Midwest Girls Challenge this month. The challenge was a sketch challenge and I have literally kept it on my iPad all month, meaning to make a layout! I've been brainstorming about how to make this sketch my own, and last night I finally put my ideas on a page.

 

I promise I used the sketch for this layout! I know it doesn't look like it! LOL First I rotated the sketch. Then I made a few adjustments. Can ya tell?! I don't really know what happened. It kinda took a mind of its own. 

-Heather

April SFTIO Kit Reveal

I've heard it said time flies when you're having fun. Well, life must be fun right now, because I personally think it's absolutely cray-cray that today is the first day of April. My brother is getting married the end of this month! That's so crazy! 

So, just like the last 3 months of this year, it's time for a new SFTIO kit! This month it's time to "CELEBRATE"!

 This kit has lots of fun fresh products for you to document your reasons to celebrate in life. Included in this kit are papers from the Birthday Bisque line from Jillibean Soup and the Party Time line from Webster's Pages. 

Probably my favorite product in this month's kit is the "Tumbled Glass" distress paint from Tim Holtz. It's the most beautiful color of blue. And it's so easy to use! Just dab it on with the little attached sponge dauber. Or just unscrew the top and use it like paint! I used it both ways! 

Always in the kits are some alphas. This time it's some white Kal Barteski Thickers from the new "Plus One" line from Amy Tangerine and some awesome mini birthday bisque stickers from Jillibean. 

Embellishments included this month: Dear Lizzy die cuts and wood veneer, a Freckled Fawn paper clip, metal heart banner accents, kraft frames from May Road, sequins, and glittery star stickers! Plus more! 

And here are my projects I made for this month! Lots of fun on these this month! They're all so happy! :) :)

So many of these projects were inspired by the Pinterest board this month. Can you tell which pieces I used as inspiration? I'll let you know throughout this month when I share my pages!

So be sure to check out the April CELEBRATE kit available at SFTIO! 

-Heather