April 15, 2020 Technique Hop – “Heat It Up!”

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Welcome to the technique log pop! Today you should have arrived from Lauren’s blog, however if you started here no worries, it’s a big circle and you will make it back there.

Today in the Let’s Flock Together Facebook group, we played with heat embossing. I have a number of samples that I show you how to do on video, and it was a lot of fun!

Today’s card uses just one of the examples of how you can use heat embossing in different ways. And this one was a crafting oops! (But I LOVE how it turned out!)

I used the silver embossing powder and did 3 layers, and tried stamping the hello, to press it into the heated powder, however, it wasn’t thick enough yet. So, I added a few more layers, and it half worked. I had more pressure on the O than I did the H, so I heated it up, and was going to stamp it again, and when I did that, the powder became smooth, and the stamped Hello turned black! I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this turned out! Crafting oopses are fun sometimes, right?

I used pattern 20 from the MIFYH Volume 4 book, and this card came together in no time at all! (It’s taken longer to type the blog post than it did to make the card! LOVE that!)

I hope you like my little discovery! I would love it if you left a note below, before you hopped along to Miss Carrie’s blog!

Oh, and by the way, this is what it was SUPPOSED to look like! LOL!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

~Michelle

These are My People Blog Hop

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Thanks for joining us on the These are my People blog hop! Today you should have arrived from Becca’s blog. If you started here, don’t worry, it’s a big circle, so you will get back to Becca’s blog!

This fun layout is created with the These are my People papers and sticker sheet! It was super easy to put together, with the use of the free sketch on the Make it from your Heart blog! This page came from Moondoggie, so many years ago, and was re-shared a few years ago for NAM, and we used it this weekend for a zoom Virtual Crop over in the Let’s Flock Together FB group! All of the ladies used this same page, and everyone used a different paper, and the pages all turned out BEAUTIFULLY!!

These stickers made putting the extras on this two page layout a cinch!

Like I said, the page was EASY to put together! I know you could do something similar with this paper pack or any other! I would love to hear what you think about it! Leave me a quick note, and then head over to Valerie’s blog to see what she has for you!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Can’t get enough of this Music!

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Happy Wednesday! Today Danielle and I used inspiration from the CTMH blog, Make it from your Heart. This layout (and the cards on the blog post as well) has a shaker bit on it. I did not do that part, but had fun with taking the rest of it into play!

If you remember, the layouts are going towards a mini album for the trip we had to NYC. This page is going to be about the concert we went to at Irving Plaza. I probably should have gone with red instead of glacier, but I liked this color! LOL!! I plan on printing out a nice copy of the logo for them, and putting it onto the left page as part of my title. (that’s why there is a big space there!)

I used the stamp set Can’t Get Enough for every bit of stamping on this mini layout! It has a little bit of everything in it, and I am LOVING it!

I even stamped lines (also from the stamp set) in linen ink on the right page for the journaling! I love that they will essentially disappear when I get the journaling down!

There are three different watercolor swooshes in this stamp set, and I used the smallest one, and ‘tucked’ it under the photo and mat, so that it only emphasized the word MUSIC.

All in all, I am super happy with how this layout turned out! It only uses cardstock, which is fun to do sometimes!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! What else would YOU add? After you leave a comment, hop on over to Danielle’s blog to see what SHE did with this inspiration!

CTMH Items used:
Black cardstock
Glacier Cardstock
White Daisy Cardstock
Can’t Get Enough Stamp Set
Archival Black Ink
Glacier Ink
Linen Ink
Tombow Tape Runner
Fiskars Paper Trimmer

Spring time Mini Layout

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So, as you know, my mini layouts have been geared towards the trip that hubby and I did to NYC. Sometimes that becomes a bit difficult, but other times not so much. This time, Danielle and I chose this layout to be inspired by. It’s in a Traveler’s notebook, which is a different size than our mini albums. So, I was looking at the colors, the layout, all the little pieces.

When we were there, we happened upon the Easter Bonnet Parade! Totally unexpected event! Neither of us had ever heard of an Easter Bonnet Parade before! (and we had come upon people after the parade, as they were slowly dispersing, so it was a hat here and a hat there, and then more and more, and then found out what was going on!)

I don’t know if/what we got photos of (I didn’t consult the photo folder before making this page!) but I am hoping that we got at least a few! If nothing else, we will have something to journal on! LOL!!

I know it’s plain, kind of, at this point, but I want to get the photo on here before I add the title or embellishments (just in case I don’t have any photos that will work for what I want!)

Oh, that photo size, looks weird, right? I was going to do a 3×4, but then decided I wanted to have more space, so it’s a 3×6! I’m sure I can find something that I can chop off 1″ on the long end!

I would love to know what you think! Will you be playing along? Can you name the papers in this page? Leave me a note below, I would love to hear what you have to say! Then make sure to hop over to Danielle’s blog to see what she came up with for this page!

April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop – O-fish-ally Awesome

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Welcome one, welcome all! Ok, so that sounds like it’s a circus today, but it’s just time to jump into the pond with the rest of us! Since we can’t do that right now in person, let’s do it virtually! This is going to be O-Fish-ally Awesome!! (hahaha!) So, you should have gotten here via Becca’s blog, but if not, that’s ok! You can start here and follow the fishy tails! If you get lost along the way, Melinda has the whole blog hop list up here.

So, let’s get swimming, shall we? I went crazy pinning a BUNCH of ideas for this set, because it’s just adorable! And with so many fish options, who couldn’t find a good reason for using it?? So, I picked this one to be inspired by, and just started coloring!

I used a handful of the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color everything in, after stamping it in intense black ink. Then I cut them all out by hand using our micro tip scissors! (they give some great fine line details!)

Next, I did some ink blending. I started with bluebird ink and then moved to sapphire ink. I just LOVE how much depth there is to this coloring! (I truly am amazed!!) Then I needed to add in the bubbles. At first I was thinking of using water drops, but then I decided that I wanted to actually use the bubbles in the stamp set. So, I loaded them onto three different 1×1 blocks, and stamped them with linen ink! (There really is a use for this ink color, I promise!!) It is very light, but it looks like it lifted some of the blue color, but still also stamped in the linen color where it was white (or mostly white)! I did swipe the stamps after every press with the shammy, so that I didn’t transfer any of the blue ink to the linen ink pad!

I stamped one of the coral pieces in evergreen ink at the bottom. I also stamped one of the seaweed pieces with the linen ink, so that I would know how to place it, and it wouldn’t ruin anything if I wasn’t perfect in placing it! Then I used the tombow glue to add my seaweed pieces to the bottom of the card, and also the fishes that are flat on the card front. I used some thin 3-D foam tape for a few of the fishes, to give some dimension to this not so many layer card! (I can’t and won’t call it a CAS (Clean and Simple) card, since it does have things attached to it, whereas a CAS card does not.)

I got everything glued on, and realized I hadn’t done my sentiment yet! OH NO!! I was terrified! I know you know how that felt! I didn’t want to do it, I was debating just leaving it blank, and maybe putting something on the inside! I didn’t want to mess it up! LOL!! So, I consulted hubby (who really liked the card!) and we came up with something fun. So, first I grabbed a ruler and made a SUPER light line on my card, in pencil. Then I worked backwards with my sentiment, since I wanted it on the right side of the card. I used the Simply Said alphabet to stamp the word “OLD!”, and then I used some tape and masked off the word ‘awesome’ from the sentiment. (I did test it on a scrap piece first, just so that I knew it would look good!) Success!! It worked! The only little annoying part, is there was a hair on the stamp! (or ink pad, not sure, but darn cats!) If that’s the only ‘ooo-bo’, I’m ok with it! LOL!

I would LOVE to hear what you think of this card! Who would you send it to? What might you have done differently? After you leave me a comment, please hop over to Miss. Carrie’s Creations, because (a) she’s next and (b) she ALWAYS has fantastic things to share!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

10 things mini

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So, Danielle and I decided to do a 10 things layout. And, we both . . . kind of . . . have pockets on our pages. . . sort of. . . LOL!! I designed mine in design space, and then ended up not using that at all, but I wanted to keep some of the feel of it! We went off of this page as our inspiration.

I went ‘old school’ and every stamp on this page is retired. (sorry, not sorry!) I started with some sapphire cardstock, and stamped my NYC in Rustic Alphabet with versamark so that I could use the gold glitter embossing powder! It really does shimmer when it moves! Then I used Jennifer’s Hand with the versamark and white embossing powder. The little heart came from the Share the Love set, and I used the versamark and white embossing powder on it too. (The camera image comes from that same set)

To add some “stars” to the background, I used the Ink Blot set and the versamark ink with the gold glitter embossing powder.

I used one flip flap that was 3×4 and 5 that were the 2×2 size. I cut my cardstock to the right sizes and added the numbers. I haven’t decided if I am going to stick with just words for the numbers, or try to do some photos too!

Now, hop on over to Danielle‘s blog and see what fun stuff she has come up with! (I know she has a video for you too!)

Have you torn any paper recently?

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So, last week, when I was looking for inspiration for the Vintage Vibe challenge over at H2H, and I came across this Pin, and I KNEW that I wanted to use it as inspiration for this week’s challenge, Tearing Paper!

So, I am again using the Yesterday & Today Paper packet and the Dreams Take Flight stamp and die set for this card. I cut some white daisy cardstock to be 5 1/4″ long, and tore it to pieces, well, strips! Then I inked the sides and top of each piece with Espresso Ink. I cut a piece of printer paper to 3 3/4 x 5 1/4 (so that my card base would be 4 x 5 1/2 once closed, saving some cardstock for later!) I glued each piece to the printer paper, creating my background piece. I used Espresso cardstock as my card base today, because I wanted this slightly different fold.

I used foam tape to pop the plane off of the band, and glued the clouds directly to the card base, making sure that the cloud that hung off the edge did not have any glue on that part. I used the frame and sentiment from the same set, and glued that inside. I decided last second to add those little wooden arrows that I colored with the Earth Brown Blend Marker.

I really like how this card turned out! Hopefully you do as well! I would love to hear what you think! Please leave me a comment below, and let me know!

Until next time, make sure you go and play along with some of the challenges over at H2H!

CTMH Items used:

Yesterday & Today Paper packet
Dreams Take Flight stamp and die set
Into the Wild Scrapbooking & Die set
Shaker Window & Confetti Thin Cuts
Card Front Spinner Thin Cuts
White Daisy Cardstock
Espresso Cardstock
Toffee Ink
Espresso Ink
Earth Brown Blend
wooden arrows

Bubbling fun with a Mini Layout!

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Ok, that may sound silly, but it’s what I see everytime I look at the sketch that Danielle and I are using today! Originally I think it was designed for a card, but I thought it could EASILY be made into a mini layout! So, that’s what we did!

Now, this could EASILY be done with my cricut, but I didn’t want to have to pull it out and do all that, I just wanted to sit at my desk and make it happen. So, I grabbed a few different dies! I used the large scallped circle from the card spinner set, and the three smaller circles from the Basic Circles thin cut set, and the large circle from the Shaker Window set!

The journal box comes from the New Beginnings set, which includes a die, too! I masked off “word of the year” on the journal spot, so I could have enough room for hubby to write Brooklyn Bridge, since that is what I will be putting on this page!

All of the papers are from the Mix In paper packet, it’s so versatile! Originally I had used glacier ink to put the color behind, but that just kind of vanished in the few hours that I had put it onto the paper! ACK! So, then I tore it apart, I know none of you have ever done that before, right? hahaha!! So, then I grabbed my lagoon ink and redid the sponging to get that color behind there.

Take a look at the difference! (I made a couple of other changes too, but essentially the same) WOW!

I really like how this turned out! I used the lines on the different papers to go with all of the cables of the bridge, I thought it tied it all together, really well!

I would love to know what you think! Leave me a message below, and then hop over to Danielle’s blog to see what she came up with! (it’s adorbs, btw, in case you didn’t already know that!)

Mini Layout – choose your own adventure!

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Do you remember the choose your own adventure books from when you were a kid? I always loved them. Sometimes I would cheat, but not always! LOL Well, today Danielle & I have a “choose your own adventure” type of layout, again! So, we chose this page as our inspo page. The thinking is, you could use any 4 blocks either together, or not, to create your own little mini layout page. You could do it as one single page or you could do it as one of the 3×4 page protector pages.

I chose to use the 3×4 page protector, and go from there. I don’t know if I told you my theory last week (I could go back and check, but who has time for that??), but that I had decided that I was going to try to create a mini album for the trip that Hubs and I went to NYC on. So, I am going to use all of the prompts, and I will have a finished book (and probably more than one) by the end of the year! I think I will get some journaling throughout the process from hubs too, so that it isn’t just “my” book. I will have to incorporate some pics from him, too! (yaay! more pages!) LOL

So, I started with stamping the city scape from the “Fly-by Greetings” stamp set in intense black ink. It just screams NYC to me! Then I colored it with the tri-tip markers. I didn’t get the banner ropes quite masked off, but I still am very happy with it! (excuse the cat hair! I didn’t notice until after I posted!)

Then I needed the pocket for the top right, that will hold a 2×2 photo on top, then I can put some journaling on the little tag. I did cut the page protector so that the tag will pop out easily! I used a little 1/8″ punch for the hole and a bit of mink twine.

The bottom right will be for a photo that is either 3×4, or maybe slightly smaller, so that I can have the white border.

Then, the bottom left is a little pocket card. You can see the blue/white circles (it’s the same paper from the last page!) sticks out over the photo spot. It’s tucked in a vellum pocket! I know you can’t tell very well just yet, but when the journaling/photos are on there, you will be able to see the difference! The heart stamp is from the Love These People stamp set! I thought it fit perfectly!

I am so happy with how this turned out! (Even if I did have to remake the vellum pocket and tag, because I didn’t pay attention to how my page protector was laid out…) I hope you like it too, and that you are a bit inspired by it! Make sure to hop over to Danielle’s blog to see what she came up with! (A little birdie told me she used the same stamp set that I did!)

CTMH Items used:
White Daisy Cardstock
Mix In paper packet
Vellum
Fly-by Greetings Stamp Set
Love These People Stamp Set
Intense Black Ink
Spectrum Noir Tri-Tip Markers
Raspberry Ink
Stitched Rectangle Thin Cuts
Mink Twine
Foam Tape
Non stick Micro-tip Scissors
Paper Trimmer