Friday, December 25, 2015

He's Making a List - Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday filled with family, friends, fun, and food...and add the fifth "F" - fizzy - if you so choose!

I wanted to share this sweet layout of my son with Santa taken last weekend.  He was chosen one day to bring "Jingles" home from school as reward for his good behavior, and he decided he was going to ask Santa for one!  (Mrs. Claus then went on a crusade to find the make and model of Jingles through his teacher, a local store, and then the Internet to ensure his own Jingles would appear Christmas morning!).  Anyway, we printed out a photo of Jingles and he added a few other things to tell Santa what he wanted, and he got to do a show and tell with him.

Here is my layout using Simple Stories Cozy Christmas and the pretty Tree Trio cut file from Just Nick Studio.




I decided to use the Tree Trio cut file to create a border for the bottom of my layout, and used my Cameo to cut on the bottom of the Ledger side of the Sparkle Flurries/Ledger Cozy Christmas paper.  I trimmed various rectangles from the rest of the collection and adhered to the back of the paper. I stitched around and through the trees for some fun texture. There's just something about stitching that looks so lovely on paper projects!



For the main center area, I put three photos along a piece of the Sparkle Flurries paper.  I love the bokeh effect on that paper!  Real snow flurries are a rarity down here in South Texas.  :)  I also used some of the plaid paper. I stitched along the top and bottom and included my journaling as well.



How cute is that Merry Merry Christmas sticker?  It reminded me of Santa's belt buckle on top of the plaid paper.



For my title, I decided to go with the He's Making a List because of Santa and also because of Paxton's cute list.



My Cameo cut the "He's" and "list", and I used the Simple Stories stickers for the "making a".  I used a red gem for the dot on the "i"...how cute that it remind's me of Rudolph's nose!

For the top, I kept it simple with a strip of brown paper from the collection, snipped the ends to create a banner.  I stuck 3 heart stickers together and stitched them.  I added the "wonder and magic" sticker and another of the red gems.



Well, that's it for me.  It's a wrap on 2015!  I hope you have a very merry Christmas.  See you all in 2016!  

Chocolate hugs and kisses,
Majken

Monday, December 7, 2015

Quilted Snowman - Winter Wishes card

Hi everyone!  Popping in to share a card that I hope you find as adorable as I do...this little quilted snowman was so fun to create.  I know many have already finished their Christmas cards, but if you haven't or if you have more to create, this is a fun one to do.



I first used the We R Memory Keepers Next Level Quilted Embossing Folder on top of white textured cardstock - the texture is amazing!  I used my 3 Fiskars circle hole punches to create each segment of the snowman, and then I lightly inked the edges using Salty Ocean Distress Ink.  I trimmed a piece of CTMH Sky cardstock and stamped asterisks in two sizes, a period, and a colon from CTMH's Tiny Typewriter Alpha set using the Salty Ocean and Pumice Stone Distress Inks.  I lightly touched each asterisk with a Wink of Stella clear marker to create a touch of shine.  



After distressing the edges, I layered it on top of white textured cardstock, silver glitter cardstock, another Sky piece, and a 5x7 white textured piece.  I layered my snowman pieces, used two enamel dots for his eyes and trimmed an orange checkmark enamel piece (cutting off the bottom of the checkmark) to create his nose (the checkmark comes from Echo Park Creative Agenda enamel shapes).  I used CTMH Tulip velvet ribbon for his scarf.  

Finally, I stamped the title in Salty Ocean ink...from two different CTMH stamp sets.  I used the Wink of Stella marker to create shine in the "Winter" to finish the card - it's hard to see in the photo, though.



I hope this post finds you staying warm this winter!  

Hot chocolate hugs,
Majken




Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Friends - A Million Little Things

Hi there!  I'm back after a hiatus to share a new layout with you.  I'm using some new BasicGrey Sun Kissed collection, which is so beautiful!  Well, you all know I love me some BasicGrey, and when I saw the photo my daughter captured of me and my dear friend Lisa, I knew I wanted to put the two together.



I started with my favorite white textured cardstock from American Crafts and spritzed some Heidi Swapp Patina Color Shine over a ColorBox Splatter Art Screen with a few additional spatters on the bottom right for good measure.  While that dried, I created the photo area by matting a couple of Sun Kissed papers and outlining with black textured cardstock to define the photo.



You can't go wrong when you stitch on textured cardstock - there's just something about creating additional texture with it!

Next I wanted to focus on the title.  I recently purchased the Outline Alpha cut file from JustNicks...I love her designs!  So I pulled the letters together to make "FRIENDS" and cut them out twice on my Cameo - once using the houndstooth pattern paper from Sun Kissed and once using black textured cardstock, which I used to create a shadow effect.



My title is a take on the quote "Friendship is not a big thing - it's a million little things".  I took some wooden Studio Calico letters and misted them with the Patina spray.  I chose the BasicGrey Typepad epoxy letters to spell "million" and finished the title area with some black stitching to mimic the stitching in the photo area.  Underneath, I placed a strip for a journal spot.

To finish the layout, I fussycut the butterfly from the journal card paper from the Sun Kissed collection and popped it up with 3D foam tape.  More dimension!  I don't think you can easily tell from the photo, but I used some clear Wink of Stella marker on its wings. I also sprinkled some sequins from Sun Kissed around the layout.  Such fun embellishments!


I hope this inspires you to get your inks and cutting tools out to create something pretty.  

Have a super week!

Majken