Week 4- Tuesday: Recipe Challenge #3

This months recipe challenge is a fun one. While I (Katie) was deciding what the recipe would be this time, I was staring at my supplies and my eye fell on my stash of markers. I knew I had to add those into the challenge, everyone has markers. They could be scrapbooking markers like Stamping Pens, or permanent markers like Sharpies.

The recipe: Markers, Ribbon, a Tag and the color Green.

Katie's Layout: For my layout I trimmed a bit off of each side of my white cardstock and mounted it on a fun patterned paper. That way I get the pattern, but it's not overwhelming. I doodled my title and then colored in my letters in varying shades of yellow making them "ombre", which I think is a cool look.

Emily's Layout: 

I decided to go digital for this layout, because I wanted to use a photo I haven't had printed yet (and I wasn't feeling well one night but wanted to get some scrapping done anyway - I can do digi in bed!). I had a lot of fun re-creating markers and ribbon in a digital format. I used a font called Instant Marker for the title. The velvet texture on the ribbon came from here and the tags are freebies from Pugly Pixel.

Week 3 - Freebie Friday #7

We offer free downloads every other Friday, which you can find here.

Today's freebie is by Emily.
We've been doing a lot of templates and worksheets here lately, but I just find things like these so useful on the less crafty side of scrapbooking! Last week, I found myself wishing I had a chart I could write each completed layout on, so that I could keep track of what I finished and whether or not I had blogged about each one. I thought that might be useful for our readers, too!


DOWNLOAD THE CHECK LIST HERE

Week 3 - Thursday: Scraplift Challenge #4

For our 4th scraplift challenge, we're switching it up a little. Katie and I (Emily) decided to have some fun and scraplift each other! Take a look at the layouts we chose and then pick either one to scraplift yourself to enter the challenge.

Emily's choice: I chose this layout of Katie's because I loved what she did with the patterned paper behind her photo and I wanted to try something similar.



Emily's layout: I had a perfect photo for this layout, but then I had to make a quick trip to Michaels for a single sheet of patterned paper because I had absolutely nothing in a dark enough shade of blue or black to work with! Once I got the paper, though, this layout came together pretty easily. I decided to add stitching to the sunburst, which took awhile to do but was totally worth it for the extra detail and texture it added.



Katie's Layout: After looking through Emily's blog, I decided to scraplift this layout. Emily's layout was actually inspired by Shimelle's Starting Point. (Which if you've never been to Shimelle's blog, you totally should!)

I really loved the square photo, as well as the layering of papers behind it. I chose to use a picture of my Minion shoes, and then also used "minion colors" for my layout, which just meant bright blues and yellows. I also threw in a few pops of red washi tape.

We hope you're inspired by our layouts this week and we can't wait to see your take on one of our layouts!

Week 3 - Tuesday: Technique Challenge #3 - Stamp Masking

Time for another technique challenge! This time, we'll be doing some masking with stamps to create a completely flat card that still has some dimension to it.

Here's what you'll need:

• a sentiment stamp
• a background stamp
• accent stamps
• Versamark ink
• black ink
• scrap paper
• removable adhesive

1. Stamp your sentiment on a piece of scrap paper and cut it out.


2. Place the cut-out on your card front where you want it to be and stick it down with removable adhesive.


3. Stamp your background stamp across the whole card front using Versamark ink.


4. Add accent stamps in black ink.


5. Peel off the scrap paper and stamp your sentiment in black ink in the space it left, and that's it!

This technique can be used to create simple but dimensional cards and many other projects! Masking is an easy way to get even more versatility out of your stamp stash.

Katie's card: I love Emily's masking technique, so for my card I used a sentiment stamp (by American Crafts) and Hexagon Stamps (by Inspired By Stamping) to create my card. I love these hexagon stamps,there is the outline stamp and also designs you can stamp inside. I chose to stamp a few in color to add a bit more eye candy. :)

Featured Projects

Happy Friday, paper lovers! Here's a bit of inspiration from our wonderful challenge-takers:

Featured layout from the Recipe Challenge:



by Julie Thibodeau

Featured layout from the Bonus Challenge:



by Laura

Featured layout from the Layout Sketch Challenge:



by Saskia

Featured layout from the Color Scheme Challenge:



by Probyte

And here's the winner of the Find Your Voice prize pack giveaway included in the Bonus Challenge: a Rafflecopter giveaway Congratulations to the winner and thank you to everyone who entered! We hope to have more awesome giveaways like this in the future. Please keep supporting us by entering our challenges and telling your creative friends about us!

Week 2 - Thursday: Card Sketch Challenge #4

When I (Emily) designed this sketch and sent it to Katie, we agreed that it's a very versatile one. I think it can be a great use of scraps, and Katie suggested that it might be fun to create the stripes using washi tape.

Emily's card: I created this card with 7 1x6 inch papers from My Mind's Eye and a border punch I've been wanting to try out since I found it at a resale shop for $3. It's quite simple but I love the color combinations and the dimension that comes from the punched edges.



Katie's Card: I love the little borders that American Crafts has along the bottom edge of their papers. I've been trimming them off and saving them for a fun project. I thought about using washi tape, but then I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use these little strips of paper.

 Link up your project using this sketch by August 1st!

Week 2- Tuesday: Inspired By... Challenge #4

This weeks Inspired By... image was chosen by Katie. I've actually had this image pinned for years. I love reading and books and things organized by color, so of course I love this bookcase. I decided to use it for today's inspiration post. Whether you're inspired by the books, the colors or something else I hope you join us!

 via pinterest.

Katie's Layout: My mom just finished working on a quilt that was rainbow, which meant that there were these nice rainbow fabric scraps laying around. I decided to use them as part of my background. I stitched the fabric down and then my photo as well. When I was sewing down my photo is shifted so it's a bit crooked but it doesn't bother me too much. ;)

Emily's Art Journal Page: I loved the piece Katie chose to inspire us this week, but I found myself with a bad case of scrapper's block when I sat down to make a layout for this challenge. So I changed course a little bit and decided to pull out my art journal and do a simple page to try out some new paints and work on my painted script.

Week 1- Freebie Friday #6

We offer free downloads every other Friday, which you can find here.

Today's freebie is designed by Katie:

A couple of weeks ago I shared a free download for Layout Sketch Templates. Today I decided to create a similar template only for cards.

I made one with horizontal templates and one with vertical. (I didn't do any square cards, but you could always use the 12"x12" layout template for those if you wanted.)

Here's a peek at my card sketches so far:

Download the Horizontal Sketches here.
Download the Vertical Sketches here.

Week 1- Thursday: Color Challenge #4

Emily is on vacation this week, so it's just me (Katie) today! I was super inspired when making this layout.

For this challenge, I looked through my color pinterest board to see if I'd pinned anything I wanted to use. I found this color scheme "Frosted Brights" by Design-Seeds. I love the hot pink + blue combo. 

Katie's Layout- I started with a navy blue background and a bunch of small pink scraps which I just collaged onto my page. I stamped the spirographs with gesso to get the lightest shade on the color scheme. I didn't add as many light blue/aqua embellishments as I planned to, but I added a few from Amy Tangerine and Basic Grey.

Link up your projects (layouts, cards, etc!) using this color scheme below by July 18th for a chance to be featured!

Week 1- Tuesday: Layout Sketch #4

Our challenge schedule is back to week 1, which means a layout sketch! If you want to see the schedule for the month, take a peek at our challenge schedule page. It should clear things up if you get confused.

Emily designed the layout sketch for todays challenge.

 Katie's Layout: I loved Emily's sketch, but what I really liked about it was the journaling along the edges. I kept the 8.5x11 format, but I placed that onto a 12x12 and spread things out a bit. I added stripes of gesso around the edges of my 8.5x11 paper, and once it was dry, journaled on top of that.

Link up your projects by July 18th for a chance to be featured!

Featured Projects!

We love seeing your projects and as a thank you for joining our challenges we feature some of our favorites in a post! We hope you like our new schedule and if you're wondering what challenges are next, be sure to take a peek at the challenge schedule, here.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway from Rukristin, here. There's a great prize up for grabs!
Now for a bit of inspiration from our readers:

Featured layout from the Sewing Technique Challenge:

by Kate Blue

Featured card from the Card Sketch Challenge #2:

by Julie T.

Featured layout from the Scraplift Challenge #3:

by Laura Turcotte

Week 4 - Thursday: Bonus Challenge + Giveaway!

As you can see on our schedule, Thursday of Week 4 will always be a "bonus challenge" - that is, it'll be something random that we choose each month, to add a bit of freedom and variety to the schedule.

This time, we're pleased to issuing a challenge inspired by Kristin Tweedale's free summer storytelling workshop, Find Your Voice. Both of us are currently participating in Find Your Voice (and I, Emily, am on the contribution team), which is a workshop aimed at developing storytelling skills through crafting, prose, and photography (or any other method you choose). You can join in any time - it's an 8-week course and week 3 begins on Monday.

To get you going, though, our challenge this week is to create a scrapbook layout without photos! (Crazy, right? But it's easier than you think, and a lot of fun!)

Emily's Layout: The easiest way to go about this challenge, I think, is to grab a large piece of ephemera and treat that as your photo. I took this advertisement card from 35 Denton, a music fest I attended in March, and paired it with a 4x6 journaling card, then built my layout as usual. I love that Amy Tangerine's older Sketchbook collection had papers that matched the ad almost perfectly! (And yes, I used that sequin stamp from my Studio Calico kit again. I can't get enough of it right now!)



Katie's Layout:
I don't scrapbook without photos much, so it's definitely a challenge for me! I decided to treat my layout a bit more like I would an art journal page. I used gelli prints and cardstock, and I attached my little card on one edge with washi tape, so that it flips open and my journaling is on the inside.

And now, thanks to Kristin's generosity, we have a GIVEAWAY! There are a couple of different ways to earn entries, but we would highly encourage you to create a project for this challenge and link it up below the giveaway widget for the highest chance of winning this great Find Your Voice prize pack, which includes a Find Your Voice stamp, some flair, and a 3x4 card!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Week 4 - Tuesday: Recipe Challenge #2

In the recipe challenge, we give you a list of "ingredients" to work with to create your layout or project. Today, the ingredients are: twine, sequins, solid card stock, and bubble wrap!

Emily's Layout: On this layout, I did some stamping with bubble wrap and white paint on a background of solid red card stock. I used some black and white bakers twine to add dimension to the clusters of embellishment, and then topped it off with some stamped sequins.



Katie's Layout: For my page, I started off with a piece of white 12x12 cardstock and a 8.5x11 blue cardstock. I realized that by putting the blue cardstock near the top of the page, it makes a big faux polaroid.
I did a bit of bubble wrap stamping and wrapped twine around my layout, but I dug through my stash and couldn't find any sequins, so I just doodled a few. I love the look.

Link up your projects by July 18th for a chance to be featured. Come back Thursday for a fun challenge and a giveaway! :)