Apple Picking

Time for another CCEE challenge. Today (Sept. 26) is Johnny Appleseed Day so let’s make a card using some kind of fruit… extra points for apples.

I signed the twins (that I babysit) up for Storytime this year as they go to afternoon Preschool and storytime is in the mornings. Yesterday’s storytime was held at a local apple orchard so of course I had to make a scrapbook page……… using tons of apples of course!

I used A-Manda Creations Apple Pickin’ set for my digi scrapbook page.

Make sure you stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog to see everyone else’s cards and to enter yours!

        Thanks for stopping by!

                      Amber

OCL Challenge–National Scrapbook Day!

Wanted to share today’s Our Craft Lounge challenge over at The Lounge. I haven’t done it yet, hope to this weekend but wanted to share it with you anyways. Since tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day, we had to do a challenge for it and here it is:

Are you a scrapbooker?  Well no worries if you aren't ~ make a project with a photo included & enter your challenge link to the OCL Blog for your chance to win a gift certificate!

Our Craft Lounge is having a sale for National Scrapbooking Day!!!  

$10 off order $30 or more {in stock items only/no backorders}.  This sale will run today & tomorrow {Friday/Saturday ~ May 4th & 5th}.  Coupon Code required: NSD2012


           Thanks for stopping by!

                          Amber

A few Digi Scrap pages

I’m catching up on my blog posts while I sit at Braden’s Café and Sweets enjoying a cinnamon roll. Hoping that we get internet this weekend at our house!

Today I have some Digi Scrap pages to show you. I used Glad You’re My Dad by A-manda Creations.

Love how all the pieces in the kit fit for any picture. I was able to make this look masculine by using the “steel” embellishments and frame.



Yes, Carmen got a puppy! Love how the papers in this set worked so well to do a puppy page.

Don’t forget to check out A-Manda Creation’s store. Lots of yummy kits that are a joy to work with.


             Thanks for stopping by!

                         Amber

It’s a Tea Party!

Happy Friday!! Time for another challenge over at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge Blog. This week we were challenged to make a non card item!!

I made a scrapbook page using the Tea Time Digital set. I colored the images with copics, cut them out and layered them on top of one another to make my own dimensional embellishments. I wanted a design on the teapot so I stamped flowers from Birds & Roses , colored them and cut them out and attached them to the tea pot and cup. Attached the “embellishments” to my page with glue dots.

a close up of the “embellishments”



Layout comes from Pencil Lines Sketch 240.

           Thanks for stopping by!

                       Amber

Start of something new

Well I did it! I’ve made a Digital Scrapbooking Team, A-Manda Creations! And today I can show you two pages using her newest kit that was just released today!

Boo Boo’s and Bandaids is now available at A-Manda Creations! This set is perfecto for those boo boo pictures you have and have always wanted to scrap OR think totally out of the box as I am going to show you.

I used pictures from our recent 6th grade field trip to the Henry Ford Museum with the Boo Boo’s and Bandaids kit!!



Here is page two with some different elements.

Don’t forget to stop by A-Manda Creations to see what the rest of the team did with the kit.

          Thanks for stopping by!

                       Amber

It’s National Scrapbooking Day!

Hello! Today is National Scrapbooking Day. Are you scrapbooking? If not you should because Our Craft Lounge has a fun Scrapbooking blog hop going on today and invites you to scrap along with us. Hopefully you just came from Kendra Wietstock, if not, head back to The Lounge and start from the beginning.

So what kind of scrapbooker are you? I consider myself (for right now at least) a clean and simple one. I don’t like much on my pages to take away from my pictures because to me that should be my focal point. I’m not big on journaling or titles unless a page really calls for it. I like my pictures to tell the story as you will see from my two pages I created.

This is a 12x12 page. First we have Daddy and Benjamin working on their first ever Pinewood Derby Car and I used the set Nailed It by Our Craft Lounge. I colored the tools with copics and cut them out and attached them with glue dots.


I embossed the nuts in sliver in the corners of the page. Sprayed some green Glimmer Mist on the background for some texture. This page I would like to put a title but have no clue what. Any suggestions would be welcomed!



I will admit I’m not that happy with this page.(That glimmer mist really looks bad in the picture but believe me, it isn’t that bad in real life, that’s what I get for taking pictures late at night!)  I had a major sinus headache while trying to do the layout and once I started it..well I had to finish it and this is the results. I’m really embarrassed to have even put it up but if we can’t show our “nasty” work, how would we ever survive? But never fear as I love how my second page turned out!

For my second 12x12 page I used the stamp set Butterfly Kisses by Our Craft Lounge. The picture I used is of my daughter (all in blue) and a group of friends on a field trip to Marmon Valley Farm last spring. The lady in the middle was our tour guide. This is one of my favorite pictures from that day. I changed the picture to black and white and brought back only the blue color. I wanted the block wording in the set as my background so I tore a piece of paper to use as my mask and stamped the wording in distress ink just in the middle of the page.


Used two different Spellbinders to cut my pattern paper, border punch for my strip and just a small single strip cut to lay across the border.



I stamped the dandelions right onto the picture and off on to the paper. Colored the butterfly with copics and added some Brown Sugar Sparkly Fluff to it here and there. Attached it using glue dots just down the middle of it’s body and added some bling underneath for motion.

Now head on over to Latrice Murphy to see her scrapbook page.

And don’t forget:

*that anyone who creates and leaves a link (using inlinkz.com at the bottom of the OCL post) on The Lounge blog post will have a chance to win a free stamp set
*DT girls will vote on which creation will win
*everyone who leaves a comment on The Lounge blog post will be entered to win a stamp set
*winners will be posted on Monday, May 9th


           Thanks for stopping by!

                          Amber

MyGrafico #77 Anything goes

So for the MyGrafico challenge, it was anything goes. We got to play with Christmasy Stamps and Let it Snow Digital Paper.  Once again I did a digi layout. My layout came from JessicaSprague.com, Photoshop Friday #26. I even used her tutorial, that comes along with the layout, on how to create soft glow photos.

Both photos were taken last year at little one’s storytime. The first one is with the Children’s librarian, Bev, that does the storytime with the kids. We made Bev the hat she is wearing as a Christmas gift.  The second one is of the head librarian, Nancy, dressed as Mrs.Claus. The kids always get a coloring book and a candy cane.

Here the same layout but using Traditional Damask digi papers.

 

         Thanks for stopping by!

                     Amber

MyGrafico #75– Color Challenge

If you are looking for my sneak peek Our Craft Lounge post, You can find it here as you DON’T want to miss it!

So this week at MyGrafico we got to play with Cupcake Cuties - Autumn Tags and Borders & the Give Thanks Autumn Elements. Our challenge was a Color challenge in of course Autumn Colors.

My layout came from JessicaSprague.com. I used digi paper Falling for Autumn Paper Pack by Cupcake Cuties and the Autumn Tags (the leaf borders).

Obviously these pictures are from a while back as my baby is now 4 yrs old! lol  I left the area under Grateful blank for now as I don’t know what journaling if any I want to put there.

So have you enjoyed seeing what I have made using MyGrafico’s images? How would you like to be on the team? Now is your chance!

        
            Thanks for stopping by!

                    Amber

MyGrafico #74 - Sketch

So this week at MyGrafico we used the following Lilly Bimble, 'Tis' the Season' digital background papers and 'Christmas' Clip Art by Stockberry Studio.  Our challenge is the following sketch:

  I’m really liking MyGrafico for digital scrapping. So I did another layout. It was really easy this time since we had the sketch to follow. I made this layout a 8x8.



Don’t forget about MyGrafcio’s Christmas Challenge. You can find all the details here.

         
           Thanks for stopping by!

                     Amber

MyGrafico #73 – Autumn colors

We used digital stamp set Sketchy Leaves by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff and Aspen Digital Papers by Lilly Bimble. Our Challenge was a color challenge of using Autumn colors.

I went with another digi scrap page using pictures from hubby’s and I’s mini anniversary get away last fall. Enjoy:

        
           Thanks for stopping by!

                   Amber

MyGrafico #72 – Make it Sparkle

So this week at MyGrafico we were challenged to “Make it Sparkle”. We used JW Illustrations Digi Clip Art Halloween Owls/Digi Paper.

I decided to try my hand at digital scrapbooking again. Since we had to have sparkles of some sort on our projects, I googled how to make “glitter in Photoshop”. And used this Animated Glitter Image Tutorial but didn’t make mine animated of course. (I also made mine a little stronger in the percentage in the amount area in the Noise section.)  I glittered the owl’s wings, branch and the hanging stars. Made some sparkly brads and even added a scalloped frame to the picture. All the paper (but the frame) comes from the Digi Paper. I took the color from the purple paper to make my frame and the orange paper to the alphabets. Even digital embossed the black paper! I’m afraid to say it but I’m starting to like digital scrapbooking!

This picture is from 2006, Allie’s 2nd grade teacher and obviously this is from their Halloween party. We were playing a game where the kids had to wrap the teacher in toilet paper to look like a mummy. Allie is the one wrapping Mrs.Maurice in the picture (you can see her wings). Teachers are always great sports at the school parties.

Alphabets and frame came from the freebie section of Free Digital Scrapbooking.com.

          Thanks for stopping by!

                     Amber

Our Craft Lounge Sketch X 2 & HYCCT Hostess

So this week’s sketch over at The Lounge is just a tad different. It is a layout for a scrapbook page…BUT… you can use it to make a card too if you don’t scrapbook.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my scrapbook page:

I didn’t stamp much but a few pumpkins from On The Fence. With the top one being clear embossed. I also used the lined image from The Journey as I wanted to write down how old the kids were. (While we don’t celebrate “Halloween”, we do have a Harvest Party for the kids where they can dress up in non scary costumes and have a fun time.)

Supplies used: My Mind’s Eye design paper, Black cardstock, The Journey &  On the Fence stamps, bat wing decorative scissors, clear embossing powder, distress inks

I liked the sketch so much that I wanted to show how easy it is to take a scrapbook layout and make a card instead.

I am also the hostess over at SCS today for the Hope You Can Cling To challenge. My challenge is 3..2..1,  use 3 design papers, 2 embellishments and 1 ribbon to make a card. Please come join us in making cards for a great cause.

Supplies used: Under the MistleToad, My Mind’s Eye paper, black cardstock, copics, prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, snowflake brad, Spellbinders, ribbon, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, sparkly fluff, crafty sparkle glitter

       
         thanks for stopping by!

                    Amber

MyGrafico #69 – Send in the Clowns

This week’s challenge at MyGrafico is to pop it up. Joyful clowns and Circus paper is what we were to use.

We have a Harvest party every year at our church were the kids dress up and sometimes the adults get into it too. In 2005, my husband decided to dress up as a clown. He did his own face painting and even decorated his own shirt.

I  colored the clowns with copics, added stickles to them and used Helmar Liquid ScrapDots to pop up the clowns with ever other one popped up just a little more. Used three of the digi Circus papers for behind my clown. 

Layout comes from Stickers ‘n Fun, Sept.2008.  I’ve left my layout blank as I haven’t figured out if I want a title or any wording of any kind. I kinda like the clean look. What do you think?

                  Thanks for stopping by!

                             Amber

MyGrafico Challenge #66 - Metal

So this week we were challenged to use Metal over at MyGrafico. We were also asked to use (digital) Wild West Quotes by Tainted Sweets and were also given Western Bandana Digital Paper Pack by Cupcake Cuties to use if we could.

I had an idea but wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted to do it so I decided I’d try to do it completely DIGITAL! Now I’ve never done anything completely digital so I figured I had better Google my idea first. So what did I Google?  “How to make a Wanted Poster” and found this great site. It even included links to download the tileable wood texture (by ftourini isis on deviantArt) and Paper (by Andrew C.). In step by step details from the site and using Photoshop, I was able to create my poster. There were a few steps that I didn’t follow as I knew how to do them and I do them just a little differently. But I did learn how to “tear” and “burn” my paper.

Added WANTED from Wild West Quotes till it fit my paper. I completely cut out my son from a picture and positioned him on my page, making him appear “behind” the word WANTED. I then added “Little Buckaroo” also from the Wild West Quotes at the bottom of the poster.  For my metal, I made “nails” using the Crumble Metal Styles.

Look how great the Wild West Quotes work on a digital Poster: 

WANTED … “LITTLE BUCKAROO”

I love how it turned out and that I didn’t need to ask my hubby for help at all (as he works with Photoshop all day long)!  Now this doesn’t mean I’m turning complete digital for scrapbooking etc but it’s nice to know that I can do it if I have the desire to one day. (which after this I just might have to start!)

So what about you? Have you ever tried making a digital layout or page? Do you have a favorite site that gives great step by step directions? Anything you’d be willing to share with a newbie digital scrapbooker?

             Thanks for stopping by!

                       Amber

Our Craft Lounge Sneak Peeks Day #1

Welcome to day #1 of Our Craft Lounge sneak peeks.  So without further ado, here is the set I am sneaking to you today: Football All-Star.

I was so excited to see this set as my son is a huge football fan and is in his second year of playing Flag Football. I just know I will be getting tons of use out of this set.

I made a sample card for the Sketch Challenge 294 over at SCS using this set. I had to go with OHIO Buckeye colors of course! I didn’t have the right shade of red in cardstock so I distressed white cardstock with fired brick distress ink to make “red” cardstock.  Stamped the “word block” on the gray with fired brick distress ink multiple times to make my own background paper. Colored the football player with copics and stamped “Go*For*It” in fired brick distress ink. Stamped the football on shrinky dink paper and made my own charm attached to the ribbon with a wire and “brads” that I placed on the side.

 

I had to make a scrapbook page using pictures from his first year of Flag Football games. I used 5 images from the set for my page and SU alphabets for my title. Prismacolor pencils were used on the football player images and the little football at the top was attached with a glue dot. The sentiment “Touchdown” was also colored with a prismacolor pencil.

OK - here's the details of the Sneak Peeks and Hop.
**Leave a comment each day on the peeks, August 18th & 19th and the hop on August 20th, 1 winner will be chosen from all 3 posts for a stamp set I'll be giving away.
**The winner will be chosen Sunday August 22nd.
**Leave your email address with your post so I can contact you.

You can find a list of retailers here that carry OCL products. And here is a list of the girls that are showing OCL sneaks today:

Amber Hillman – That’s ME!!
Beth Silaika
Bev Gerard
Broni Holcombe
Cambria Turnbow
Charmaine Ikach
Cindy Lawrence
Deb Felts
Debbie Corbari
Deborah Anton
Denise Marzec
Heather McNally
Holly McMillen
Jeanne Streiff
Joy Kennedy
Kendra Wietstock
Kisa Peters
Lori McAree
Michelle Fowler
Pam Hooten
Terri Thill


          Thanks for stopping by!

                    Amber

MyGrafico Challenge #61 - Pastels

If you are looking for the Paper Cupcake Blog Hop post, You can find it here or scroll down a post.

Today’s MyGrafico.com challenge is a color challenge: Pastels.  This week we worked with the Hunny Bunny Stamp set by Sanqunetti Designs. You could be a winner of this super cute set if you play along with us. See the rules over at the MyGrafico challenge blog.

When I saw this set I automatically thought of a scrapbook page. I pulled out a picture of my youngest when she was only 3 weeks old posed on her “Baby Girl” blanket. The story goes like this: when Jorden was born we didn’t have a girl name picked out at all. So for 9 days we called her “Baby Girl”. When I saw this blanket at the store, I had to get it for her as her “first” name she was ever called by was on it! We finally decided on Jorden but she will always be our Baby Girl!

I enlarged the frame to fit the picture and paper pieced the bows. Also paper pieced the bunny and colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits.

  Added some rub ons at the top that fit perfectly: Baby Girl and some hearts all in white. I made the picture a little darker so you could see the rub ons better:

And here is the completed scrapbook page:

I used papers from DCWV Baby Girl matstack. The main paper is from the Whitewash collection by ColorCore Cardstock and is really a pale pink which is hard to pick up here.

Layout is from Sketches by tamara – Challenge #130

Don’t forget to check out what the rest of the DT girls did with this set. You can find their links at the MyGrafico blog.

     
         Thank you for stopping by!

                  Amber

Blog Hop with Creative Cuts n More

 
Welcome to Creative Cuts & More Blog Hop. You should have just come from Becky Voth’s, You don't want to miss what our designers have in store for you! I’m delighted to have been asked to help celebrate the launch of Creative Cuts and More’s brand NEW website! The Celebration Blog Hop starts at http://die-cut-diva.blogspot.com/ incase you didn’t start from the beginning.

If for some reason one of the links is broken along the way do not worry, HOP back over to Die Cut Diva where the complete list will be.

For my first project, I decided to use the Multiple Oval Frame – Super Large (8x10) in Mocha Texture. I printed off pictures of my little girl and my niece at a Tea Party that they attended at our library. I cut the pictures with an oval coluzzle to fit the smaller oval frames. Using Flourishes Flourished Elements set, I embossed the flourish with clear embossing powder in the corners. Used Spellbinders to cut out the computer generated title. After the two layers were attached together, I embossed another flourish in clear embossing powder on the side. Clear Zapdots by Helmar were used to attach the layers. Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots was used to attach the tea pot charm in the bottom corner.


For my second project, I used the Tuck Top Cube Box with Layers set in textured red with 2” smooth watermelon and 1 3/4” smooth guava sensation layers. Using Our Craft Lounge set, Flower Power, I stamped the 1 3/4” piece in black. Used copics to color them and added sparkle with clear stickles.   On the front, I used Spellbinders to cut out the sentiment. Restamped the word “Friend” in red and cut it out. Attached it with clear ZapDots.

Here is the box starting at the front and going around to the right:

  

Here is the box with the lid open:
 
For my last project, I used the Square Window A7 Scallop card in Amethyst Metallic. I stamped a floral print in gold on the front and added ribbon with a bow. The picture is actually attached on the inside of the card. It is Vintage Roses from Our Craft Lounge. I used copics to color the image and Sparkly Fluff on her hat.

Here is another look at the card where you can see the gold stamping a little better. The above shows the shimmer of the cardstock that Terri has.

Well I hope you have enjoyed my projects.  Now HOP on over to Noelle Reese’s to see what delightful projects she has in store for you.

Also there will be 5 prizes in the form of Gift Certificates.

1 - $25.00 Gift Certificate, 1 - $20.00 Gift Certificate, 1 - $15.00 Gift Certificate, 1- $10.00 Gift Certificate, 1- $5.00 Gift Certificate

Ways to win ONE of the gift certificates (one per winner!):
(A) Leave a comment on Diecut Diva. (This is limited to one per person unless you meet the criteria of B, C, and/or D below.)
(B) Leave one extra comment if you've posted a link to this Diecut Diva’s blog candy on your own blog. Make sure to include a link to your specific post in your comment.
(C) Leave one extra comment if you become one of Diecut Diva’s blog followers. See the right-hand navigation column to follow us.
(D) Leave one extra comment if you click over to our new page on Facebook and become a fan.
(E) Leave one extra comment by commenting on ALL of our talented Designers in our Blog Hop!
(F) Go to the store website and subscribe to the mailing list gives you another opportunity to win.

         Thanks for stopping by!

                   Amber