Ribbon-A-Holic!

Hello, everyone! I've got a bit of a long post for you today. As many of you know, I have been fortunate to be a Cameo Ribbonista Designer for the May Arts Design Team for the past year. Well, I'm auditioning to join the team once again so I have a post today about my ribbon addiction!

First I'd like to show you a little book I created for myself to keep track of my ribbons. Here's a look at the book when it's closed...


I used some beautiful October Afternoon papers to decorate my cover and then added some of the new May Art's Red Baker's Twine wrapped around the cover. Next I added some of the Zebra Grosgrain ribbon to the ring that holds the book together. I didn't want it all to be white so I used a little Glimmer Mist to spray a few pieces red and green to co-ordinate with my cover.


Now I have a beautiful, neat and organized system to keep track of all of my different ribbons so I know which ones to re-order!

The next project that I'd like to share with you is my beautiful mermaid card!


I used a rubber stamp from The Greeting Farm for the mermaid image on my card. I pulled some Heidi Grace paper from my massive paper stash and got to work! I colored the mermaid's hair and body with my Copic Markers. Then I used my patterned papers and stamped the parts of the mermaid I wanted to cut out and paper piece into my stamped image. Then I glued them to the corresponding place on my colored image. Then I cut her out and used some fairly thin foam adhesive to adhere her to my card.


You may have noticed the waves along the bottom of the card... I started with some plain White 1/2" May Arts Ric Rac and used my Copics and some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Glaze and Glam to color my ribbon and then adhered it to the lower part of my card to look like waves.

Finally I'd like to tell you about how much I like to add ribbon to layouts.


I like to find ways to add texture to my layouts and I feel that ribbon adds a wonderful texture to almost any project! For this layout, I used White Satin Pleat Ribbon and then adhered Pink Baker's Twine to the center of it.


Then to add a little more texture to my sticker, I used a 1/2" Glue Dot and created a spiral on it. I then stuck this to the center of my flower and now I have a completely custom look!


For my Zoo Layout, I wanted more of an earthy texture so I grabbed some Burlap Cording to add to the bottom of my layout. I cut small, triangular slits on each side of my layout to disguise the ribbon's bulk.


I needed a custom flower to add to my layout so I pulled out my Copic Markers and some White Frayed Flowers Ribbon and altered one of the rosettes to co-ordinate with my layout. It takes only a minute to color and you have yet another custom embellishment to add to your layout!


My last layout shows the simplest way to add ribbon to a layout. In the sketch I was using they showed patterned paper strips running vertically down the layout. I decided to grab my 1/2" Ric Rac again and add that to my layout instead!

Well, there's my Ribbon-A-Holic post for today! Wish me luck!

Super Dad Father's Day Card

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I just *had* to make two cards with my new Amazing Duo stamps and here's the other one!

I wanted to make a special card for my Super husband to let him know how much I appreciate him for Father's Day. Everyone else seems to be making the Shirt and Tie cards or a Fishing themed one so I went the other direction, Super Dad! Really, he's a great Daddy for my girls and a very supportive husband to me with all of my crazy craft endeavors, so I think Super Dad is the right way to describe him. Enough gushing now, LOL!


I knew I wanted to use this amazing plaid from the Echo Park Paper Mini Line called The Great Outdoors. I bought just one kit and then ended up buying several more of just the papers because I LOVE the papers so much! The reverse of the plaid is wood grain so I just used that for a little contrast and then added a custom colored piece 1/2 " May Arts White Ric Rac. I have been buying mostly white trims lately since I have discovered my new love of coloring things to match my project exactly. I'm saving my pennies for the Copic Airbrush and Compressor so I will be able to custom color things even faster! I inked everything with Cornflower Blue Close to My Heart Ink and stamped an argyle pattern on my blue cardstock. It's subtle but that's what I was going for. I used my Copics to color my "Boy" from the fabulous Amazing Duo set from The Greeting Farm and then used the "you're SUPER" sentiment from the same set. Then I added a little faux stitching to both pieces and mounted them with a bit of foam tape to the base of my card. I think my husband with like this one!

You Are AWESOME Card

So I was recently shopping in an amazing scrapbook store in Bloomington, IL called The Scrapbooking Studio and it was my first time into the store. I was delighted to see that they not only carry LOTS of my favorite Echo Park Paper, but they also have The Greeting Farm Stamps too! I picked out several stamps, including a set called "Dynamic Duo"


Of course, I had to make a card right away (ok, two, but that's tomorrow's post) so I made this for my AWESOME friend, Lori! She is a Close to My Heart consultant also, so if you need any great CTMH goodies they have a wide variety available, including the alphabet stamps I used here! I decided that this cute little Super Hero Girl looked a bit like Wonder Woman so I decided that I was going to use that as my inspiration. I added a few lines here and there with a Copic Liner pen for more accuracy and then I colored her with Copics but didn't do a ton of shading and blending, except for the hair (which I'm still learning how to do). Then to make the white stars on her skirt, I used a little Liquid Applique so it would just puff up and be opaque when I heated it. I used Echo Park Paper's Playground line for the Red and Blue and Country Drive for the Yellow and just added a little "stitching" around all of the edges to give it a little something extra. Finally I stamped "you are" in Sunflower Ink on my Yellow and "AWESOME" in Cranberry on the Red and used a little foam tape to adhere my colored image to the card! Now to drop by Lori's house with it before this posts to my blog...

Hat's Off to Ribbon Tutorial

Every year the Manhattan Woman's Club has a Reciprocity Meeting where we invite guests from other clubs. This year's theme was "Hat's Off to Women" and we were all asked to wear a hat to the meeting. It was held at the BEAUTIFUL Jacob Henry Mansion in Joliet so I wanted to be a bit fancy. I found this very plain hat at K-Mart and I really liked the silver around the edges.


Well, those who know me know I can't just wear a plain hat. So I got out a bunch of my spring colored flowers and started playing with different combinations. I kind of knew I wanted pink and purple because those are my favorite colors at the moment but...


...let's just say I had a variety of flowers to choose from. Yes, that's my inner hoarder peeking out again!


Of course, I had to replace that goofy string tied around the hat with a beautiful ribbon. I recently discovered that you can color just about ANYTHING with Copic Markers so I grabbed this White Stitched Grosgrain May Arts Ribbon (WA01) and blended my pinks and purples in a sort of random way, just going from light to dark and then back again. And you will notice, you can still see the "stitching" on the ribbon too!


I tied my beautiful ribbon around my hat and left the ends long to dangle from the back of the hat. Then I hot glued my chosen flowers and leaves to the hat and sat back and realized something was still missing...


So I pulled my Copics back out and colored the brim of the hat too! This time I paid attention to make sure that I didn't have the colors in the same places on the ribbon and the brim. The whole time I was coloring I felt like a "bad" kid who was coloring something I wasn't supposed too, LOL! But when I was finished, I knew it was the right move, the hat looked fantastic!


Here's my very fancy 3 year old modeling Mommy's new hat! I think it looked pretty great and I got a lot of compliments on it too. Hat's off to you!

Our New Baby!

That's right, we have a new.... FUR BABY!!!!



This is little Lacey our new 7 week old Australian Sheppard puppy! Yes, we are nuts. The basement flooded a couple weeks ago so we had to clean it out and our new couches are being delivered tomorrow, so in the midst of all this chaos... we decided to add a puppy to the mix!

Well, at least I have an excuse to use more of the DCWV Pet Stack that I bought.....

Echo Park Paper Beach Baby Layout

Today I'd like to share a layout I created with some of the gorgeous paper from the Echo Park Paper This & That Graceful Collection. I took these photos of my daughter building her first sandcastle in WI a couple years ago. I used a bit of Bakers Twine to tie up my banner which I cut with my Cricut using the Country Life Cartridge. I also used my Cricut to cut the word "Beach" from the Ashlyn's Alphabet Cartridge. I used my Tim Holtz Distress Inks to ink... everything and of course I used my Pink ATG to stick everything down. Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

Never-ending Card Fun!

 I recently learned how to make Never-ending Cards and was talking about how much fun they are with a friend and she asked me to create one for her. She was going to surprise her daughter with a Disney Vacation for her birthday and wanted to let the card do the talking so this is what I came up with!

This is the first view of the card, I used my Memento Tuxedo Black Ink to stamp my Snow White (her favorite princess) and then colored her in with my Copic Markers. The "5" is cut with my Cricut and I stamped the background on the white pieces with a variety of clear stamps and Close to My Heart Baby Pink Ink. I inked alllllll of my edges with the ink, on the whole card. Then I used my Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen to add the glittery swirls to the 5. To get to the 2nd "page" of  the card you simply open it from the center to reveal...

...Page 2! The princess here are cut from a sheet of patterned paper and I used some vellum stickers as an accent. I used my Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen to add glitter to my stickers and to my stamped phrase that reads "Where does a Princess say 'Dreams really do come true'?" To reveal the answer you fold back from the center again and the answer is....

...Disney World (of course)!If you'll notice that one page 3 your side images stay the same. It's one thing you will want to remember if you decide to try one of these yourself! I used more stamps and of course that amazing Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen for more - GLITTER - really, you can't have too much glitter, ever! From here you simply open the card out from the center again to reveal...

...the final page! I spent a long time coloring in these beautiful princesses. I used my Copic Cardstock and Copic Markers and practiced the techniques I recently learned. The images are all stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, of course. I left the 2 center squares blank so that my friend could write her own personal message to her little girl because I'm sure this card will be a treasured possession for a long time!

I even created a custom envelope with my Scor Pal, with a Velcro closure (I cut it into the shape of a heart) for the little girl to be able to keep her card in! I stamped all of my images in pink on pink cardstock and again used my Stardust Gelly Roll Pure Glitter Pen to add a touch more glitter. As I side note, you will want to make sure you are using a STRONG adhesive for this project. I would recommend either your Pink ATG or my favorite - Scor Tape! I hope you will give making a fun, interactive card a try soon!