Use Your Stash Blog Hop!!

Hi! Welcome to the first blog on the Use Your Stash Blog Hop! I'm glad you've joined in, and I hope you'll hop with us all the way to the end- and end up at Kathy's blog! If you get lost along the way, just head back to Kathy's blog- she'll have a list of all the blogs participating there.

Do you ever have number stickers left over from your alphabet sets that you don't know what to do with? Ooh- I see a lot of head-nods. Well, I'm the same way. I personally don't like using them for dates on my layouts (because they're too big) and I don't do a lot of titles with numbers in them. So I have a TON of numbers that I never use up!

One good way to use up number stickers is to collage different fonts together on a Birthday card! I mean, the person you'll be giving it to is turning a year older, right? I found that when I used only white numbers on my white background, they *almost* looked elegant! I embossed the background with my Cuttlebug so it would add a bit more visual interest to my card.

There are so many other ways you can use number stickers- another idea I came up with is to use them as a mask and spray mist over them and then take them off.  But that's another card for another time!

Patterned Paper: Pretty Little Studio
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
Number Stickers: American Crafts
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots"
Sentiment Stamp: The Paper Company
Ink: Tim Holtz

Oh- and by the way! I'm giving away a RAK from my stash! I don't even know what it is, but I'll try to make it good. :) To enter, become a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me. If you are already a follower, then put that in your comment. You do not have to comment twice- just include in your comment whether you're an "old" follower or a NEW follower. :) All comments must be received by 8:00 am CST on Sunday January 8, 2012. I will announce the winner on Sunday, along with another tip to use up your stash!

Now head on to Andrea's Blog and see what ideas she's sharing to help use up your stash!

"Sweetie Pie"

Surprise! I am autoposting a layout!

I finised this one yesterday (I'm typing this on Thursday) and I just love it so much! I finally broke out my Crate Paper "Farmhouse" paper and I just love it, love it, LOVE IT!!!

I have had these photos of Laura printed for, oh, about a month now, and just haven't scrapped them! I have pictures of me from this same photoshoot, so keeps an eye out for a layout about me... I thought the colors of the Farmhouse collection were so fallish, which were perfect for these fall pictures! (oops- just realized I need to date this page- I forgot to!)

I started out with a Scrapbook Generation sketch for the background, and then I placed the photos whereever I felt like they went ok. Just so ya know, I'm not a two pager kind of gal. They take way too long to do, and after a while, I feel guilty for using so much time on just ONE layout. So, I don't do that many. Anyway, I'm not too fond of my photo placement, but it'll do. I really liked the tag "pull" technique that Megan Hoeppner used in the Nov./Dec. Creating Keepsakes magazine (I think that was the issue) and I wanted to use that on this layout. Instead of using Thickers for the title like I would normally do, I used one of the journaling card/tags that came on one of the Farmhouse pages. I'm so glad I have my LSS "The Scrapbook Princess" to go to now (it's not new... I just discovered it!) I bought the papers there.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper
Cardstock: Bazzill
Brad: American Crafts
Mist: Tim Holtz
Yellow Ribbon Embellishment: Jenni Bowlin
Metal Flower Embellishment: BoBunny
Jounaling Spot: Pretty Little Studio

Hope you enjoyed my "surprise"! Thanks for stopping by!

A Ticketed Card

I have finally done another Frosted Designs challenge! :) I haven't participated in them lately because I FORGET about them till the day before the deadline! This Friday's challenge was to use tickets, envelopes, or stamps on a projects. I chose to use tickets. I have this awesome stamp from Tim Holtz that I LOVE and I thought it was perfect for this challenge! Paper is from K&Company and the twine is from Etsy.

My Mind's Eye August Sketch Challenges

I've always wanted to participate in My Mind's Eye Sketch Challenges, but just haven't ever gotten the chance to do it! Well, the sketches were so awesome this time that I jsut HAD to! (Plus I got some new Stella & Rose paper that I am loving using...) The projects have to be 80% MME products, and I HOPE I used that much on this first layout! The stuff that isn't MME is the buttons and mist. (basically the embellishments) I don't have any My Mind's Eye embellies so I just had to use something else. (how sad- Jenni Bowlin and Tim Holtz buttons- haha!)


Supplies: Patterned Paper: MME; Chipboard Letters: MME; Buttons: Basic Grey, Tim Holtz, Jenni Bowlin; Other: pom pom trim; Mist: Tim Holtz

And here's my card made with Stella & Rose paper also! Buttons are various ones from my stash. I am really loving my new Lush felt chipboard letters! They're AMAZING! (and they stick so well, too!) 

Supplies: Patterned Paper: MME; Chipboard Letters: MME; Punch: Fiskars; Baker's Twine: Etsy

Grid Layouts

In this past Creating Keepsakes magazine, there was a whole article on using grids on your layouts. Well, I really didn’t think about actually USING grids till this week when CK came out with a challenge to use a grid on your layout over at Club CK! (for premium members only) So I did one. And another one. And I found out that grids are really fun to use!!  It’s a lot easier to use grids if you draw one on your page first so then you can tell where to put your pictures and elements!

By the way, can I just say I LOVE My Mind's Eye's Stella & Rose line? I love the colors and they're really fun to use. Come back tomorrow for another layout made with this gorgamous paper!

For this next layout, I used my PJ pants for inspiration! I used the navy as a background, just like my pants, and then added spots of different colors!