Hello Sunshine

Hello! Happy Tuesday! Hope you are having a fabulous week so far— it’s pretty quiet around here at the moment. I’m trying to keep busy, but some days seem to drag by while Kevin is at work. I have been laid off form my job since December 8th, and I’m going back soon, so there won’t be too many more super quiet days like this. So I suppose I should just enjoy them, right? :) 

I’ve been sketching out different plans for my cut flower garden that I want to plant once it gets warm enough. I need to probably pre-sprout some of my seeds soon! It’s so exciting to think about having my own flowers. I will have to post on that later, because lately I’ve been obsessed with anything flower garden related, so I could fill up this whole post with flower talk! Haha! By the way, what flowers are your favorites to grow that aren’t hard to take care of? I’d love to know!

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Anyways, here’s a card that I made for my sister. I was sending her a little happy package and while I was making this card, I thought it was perfect to send to her. 

I used the older Bella Blvd/ Illustrated Faith “She Blooms” collection for this card. I had bought a collection kit from Hobby Lobby from this line and hadn’t touched much of it, so I got it out and played with it a bit. Lately, I’ve been trying to revitalize my older stash and use it up because hey— I bought it for a reason: I liked it! :)

I used a couple of different sized circle punches to make some circles to sprinkle across my card and then used some images trimmed out of the cut-apart journaling cards to embellish the card. 

I’m still into ink splatters and machine stitching, so I finished off the card with those two things. This card is so FLAT, but I still love it! 

What's your go-to technique that you do on all of your projects? 

You're My Favorite

I haven't played along in a scrapbook challenge in a while. Way back when, I basically created to enter challenges. I think it was the novelty of winning things and getting free happy scrappy mail that made me want to enter challenges. Then I went through a phase of creating basically for design team projects. Now, I create for my Pretty Little Studio design team, but everything else is free and just-for-me. 

When I saw this mood board challenge that Clique Kits is hosting, I was immediately inspired by all of the images! I believe all of these photos were taken at Creativation this year by one of the Clique Kits ladies. So basically I think of this challenge as a "trend" challenge. 

Here's the mood board:

And here's the traveler's notebook spread that I made for the challenge. 

The picture that stood out to me most in the mood board was the watercolor palette. I loved all of the colors, so I got out my Jane Davenport watercolor set and swatched out all of the colors in the exact order of the inspiration photo (I used watercolor paper so it didn't warp.). Next, I took lots of different alphabet stickers and made a "ransom note" title. I'm not usually a fan of this look, but I think it looks very cute and whimsical on this page. I think using only black and white alphas helped it not look too crazy. :) I love cacti, so I added a sticker from a Crate Paper sticker sheet. Lastly, I layered some tissue paper fringe behind my title in lieu of the layered tassels in the mood board. And that's basically it! I added a few extra touches, but that is it!   

Do you like playing along with scrapbooking challenges? If you want to play along with this particular challenge, click HERE to view the Clique Kits Facebook page. :)

Scrapbook Layout || Today

Hello! 

The layout that I'm sharing today is one that I made probably over a month ago. I was just ITCHING to do something creative, so I got out my newest products (the Dear Lizzy Stargazer collection) and got to playing. I hadn't even touched these products because I bought them right before we moved to our current house and when we moved, we were busy for a while after that. We have remodeled and fixed up a lot of the house and so we had a lot on our plate for a couple of months. I didn't start with any sort of plan for this page-- I just made it up as I went along. 

I bought those GIANT chipboard phrases, not knowing that they were that huge! But, come to find out, I really love the large impact that they give to a page! I mean, look at this! That chipboard word is such an awesome title!

If you think you're seeing a little haze of pink around the layout, it's because I watercolored some light pink around the white background. I thought it needed some more color. :)  You can definitely see the watercolor better in person. 

I did something else very different for this layout-- I journaled AROUND the page! Can't say I've done that in a loooooong time (I've probably done it once or twice before, but not often.). I really love how it turned out! It helped border the page, and I didn't want to put the journaling in one of the blocks on the page because there really wasn't much room for it! 

When is the last time you did something totally different on a project? Using this giant title and journaling around the page were both two very different things for me to try. :)

Stamping on Cards

I've been wanting to get better at using stamps on my cards. As you can see in my latest haul (click HERE to visit the post), I have lots and lots of new stamps to get inky.

Today I'm sharing a few cards that I've made recently that utilize my stamp collection. 

This first one is my favorite. I stamped the strawberries from the Fruity stamp set by Studio Calico + One Little Bird I bought recently. I LOVE puns and berry puns always get me! :) I'm learning that I like several "layers" to my stamping, meaning they can't just be one image in one color repeated over and over. Here on this card, I made some of the leaves different colors for a little bit of a twist, added some small light pink flowers around the card design, and then topped it off with some gold splatters. I really love how this one turned out, and even though it's a one layer card, there's so much prettiness going on on it. 

This next one is a card that I made just because I needed some creative time that particular day. I got out my Studio Calico Confidant 6x8 stamp set that I won last year in an Instagram giveaway and used some new images that I have never inked up before! I used some Studio Calico dye ink for this card and blended some of the color after I stamped the images. I LOVE Studio Calico ink. It is water based, so when you use a water brush on it, it will blend and mix beautifully. 

You can see some of my water brushing here. 

This last card is a sweet and simple card. I wanted to make a masculine birthday card to have on hand, and hopefully these blues aren't too girly! ;P The sentiment is a super old stamp I had my stash (I believe it's from Kaisercraft) and the brush stroke is from a Gossamer Blue stamp set. 

Do you like stamping on your cards? I'm learning to love it! :)

Love You {pls}

The last part of 2017, I was super bad about posting any projects-- even my design team projects (would you like me to share my older projects here?). So, I am going to try and start being better about sharing what I'm making. This layout went up on the Pretty Little Studio blog the other day. 

I used my Feels Like Fall collection along with bits and pieces of my Beautiful Day collection and Marie Pierre-Capistran's Potpourri line. Although my Feels Like Fall collection is, well, autumn inspired, there are a lot of patterns and elements that will transition over into everyday themed projects. I didn't realize it when I was designing, but the peach and yellow colors that I used in Feels Like Fall match the peach and yellow in Beautiful Day almost exactly! 

I am trying to make an effort to use my stamps more this year. I have a ton of them, so I need to use them! I loved using three different label stamps on this page. I think the variety adds so much interest! Are you a stamper?

Alright, that's it for today. I'll try to be back soon! 

If you want to read more about this page, visit the post on the Pretty Little Studio blog HERE. 

Haul: Studio Calico

On Saturday I got a big box of happy scrappiness from Studio Calico and I thought I'd share a peek of what was in my box!

Right after Christmas, Studio Calico had a Clearance Clear-Out sale with SUPER LOW prices. I mean, there were stamp sets and FULL scrapbook kits for $1.99 and $2.99 each. Whaaaaa??? I had some money from Christmas, so I had fun doing some shopping. ;)

Here's a photo of all of my goodies piled together. I got five 4x6 stamp sets, one 3x4 stamp set, four scrapbook kits, two documenter kits, and miscellaneous other items like cards and stickers. Total I spend $45. And that is including $10 shipping. Talk about some good deals! 

I wanted some more stamp sets that had sentiments for card-making, and I LOVE these ones I bought. Be on the look-out for these to pop up on my cards soon!

Just a few cards. I thought this one was GORGEOUS. 

I have wanted these little instax sized christmas journaling cards since they came out from A Beautiful Mess probably two years ago. And I finally got them!! I just think they're so fun and whimsical. 

Here are the little intro cards to all of the scrapbook kits I got. There are some awesome pieces in these kits. I love all of the gorgeous colors! 

Ok so that's it! Just a peek into what I'll be using in my projects soon-- I'm REALLY pleased with what I bought from the sale. I love good deals, and these were some crazy awesome ones! 

Also, just to let you know, this sale is no longer going on. Hope I didn't get your hopes up!

Now Available for Pre-Order: XOXO

I know, it's been a while. I'll try to remember to post a life update sometime soon, but for now, I wanted to let you know that I have a brand NEW collection up for pre-order! It's a Valentine's Day line! This has to be my favorite collection that I have designed yet. I really love Beautiful Day as well, but this one has my heart.

Valentine's Day collections have ALWAYS been my favorite paper collections. I don't know if it's because I love LOVE or the reason that most valentine collections are turquoise and pink (which are my two favorite colors) or maybe because there are always cute, whimsical images in these kinds of lines. Whatever the reason, I am SO excited to share my newest collection collection with you entitled XOXO.

"Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day with the new XOXO collection from Hello Heather! This collection brings together the usual pinks and reds, but with a twist. A mixture of rich, berry tones and adorable sayings create the perfect combination for a valentine to your sweetheart. Check out the new products in the Pretty Little Studio shop today!"

Check out all of the products HERE in the NEW Pretty Little Studio shop! I'd love to know what you like best! :)