Hope

I usually follow the same approach when I am scrapbooking. I start with one or several photos, choose my color palette from them and then proceed to arrange them on the page, usually in a more or less linear fashion. The other day, I was feeling inspired and decided to break with my usual creative process. I did a scrapbook page without photos to convey an idea. This is the result:

I was thinking about planting hope. The text in the signs is a poem from Christina Rosetti, Hope:


Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth,
Love is like a rose the joy of all the earth;
Faith is like a lily lifted high and white,
Love is like a lovely rose the world's delight;
Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,
But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.


To make the page, I used assorted CTMH patterned papers, CTMH stamps, SU! cardstock, SU! craft inks and SU! white embossing powder. The tree is a Hero Arts background stamp.

Washi Tape Love

Washi tape is my new obsession. Lately, I have been using these beautiful tapes, not only for papercrafting, but for many other uses. I have been decorating my planner, covering my pens with them, and today, I decided to beautify a plain, pharmacy-bought notebook. 

I started by covering the spine with some woodgrain Studio Calico FabRips. 

 Then, I proceeded to adhere strips of washi tapes and a block of grey and white FabRips. I finished by adding the title of my notebook using DIY thickers covered with red glitter, a diecut label and some stamps.

Now, I feel more motivated to work!

My Favorite Things:Summer

These are my favorite things for crafting this summer:

1. Labels: These were diecut with Papertrey Ink's label die and stamped with the coordinating stamp set.

2. Studio Calico Stamps: I have been using them frequently in both my journal and scrapbook projects. I love the designs.

3. Washi tape: What can I say, besides being totally in love with these? I discovered them some months ago and I am hooked. They are so versatile and easy to use!

4. Copic markers: I use them for all types of projects. Lately, I have been coloring with them the American Crafts DIY Fabric Thickers and Studio Calico Wood Veneer Shapes.

Mother's Day Cards

Wow! I can't believe it is already May. It seems like every year goes faster. This last weekend I recaptured my inspiration and started making Mother's Day cards.  For the first one, I used PTI Blooming Button Bits stamp (sentiment) and Beautiful Blooms 2 die and stamp. The flowers were first die cut and then stamped with CTMH bubblegum, creme brulee and holiday red inks. I love when a company design stamps that coordinate with punches and/or dies. It makes life so much easier and cardmaking much faster not having to cut the images. The leaves were stamped with CTMH sweet leaf ink and hand cut.

I put dimensionals between each layer to create depth. The strip of patterned paper is from a 6x6 Basic Grey pad. I stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black and placed some tiny CTMH gems besides it. I added a third gem to the center of the flower (Bo Bunny).

This is the small 3x3 version. It used the same stamp sets and inks.

 

For the last one I only used the Blooming Buttons Bits stamp set. The edge was done with the SU! lace border punch.

Wishing for Spring

After a looooong month of absence, I think my inspiration is back. My creativity works in cycles. There are periods in which I am constantly creating cards, scrapbook pages, altered objects and all kinds of stuff. Then suddenly I enter a dry spell in which I only read blogs, browse papercrafts magazines and maybe buy some stuff (which is left untouched). Then one day I feel inspired again, and the cycle starts over. It is a bit like the sea tides: sometimes high, sometimes low.
I had bought the Papertrey Ink Blooming Button Bits more than a month ago. After seeing Splitcoaststampers CAS challenge 54 Wishing for Spring, I decided it was time to ink it up. I stamped the stems with CTMH Clover Meadow ink on PTI white cardstock. I then sponged some PTI Spring Rain and CTMH Clover Meadow to simulate the sky and the grass, respectively. The buttons are from my stash of Basic Grey embellishments. I matted the image with some coral cardstock (either PTI Berry Sorbet or SU! cameo coral, I'm not sure.) The green patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection, and the yellow and purple ones are from PTI Bitty Box Basics. The border was made with Fiskars apron lace punch. I added three Hero Arts gemstones to balance the design.
Making this cheery card lifted my spirits and now I have been able to do some scrapbook pages. It looks like the creativity tide is rising again!

CAS 50 Challenge: Using Teal

I made this card for the Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge #50 at Splitcoaststampers. The challenge consists of using teal, white and an additional color in a card. While at the mall yesterday, I saw some teal, white and black dresses. I immediately knew that I wanted to use that color combo in my card. I stamped the butterfly (CTMH Butterfly Kisses) with Versamark and embossed it with black embossing powder. I colored it with a SU! Bermuda Bay marker. Then I added some details with an Uniball Signo white pen. The butterfly is placed on a PTI white cardstock square stamped with the Hero Arts Woodgrain Background stamp. I matted it with SU! Bermuda Bay and black cardstock. The patterned paper is from PTI Polkadot Basics pad (I love it!). The decorative strip was punched using the new SU! scallop punch. I wrapped PTI satin ribbon around the strip. The sentiment (CTMH) was stamped in CTMH Ocean. It means "Thinking of you" in spanish.

When I fall in love with a SU! In-Color, I try to find a similar color in another company. I found that SU! Bermuda Bay is very similar to CTMH Ocean. The good thing is that I am not left with "orphan" products (eg. ribbon, cardstock, etc) when the color is discontinued at the end of the SU! year at the end of June. Other similar colors are PTI Blush and SU! Pink Piroutte. I still have not found an adequate substitution  for SU! Baja Breeze, which is sad since I loved that color.

Baby Scrapbook Kit

It has been raining nonstop for three days. We have been inside since Wednesday. I have taken advantage of the weather, and dedicated myself to my crafty endeavors. Today I made a baby scrapbook kit for my baby niece. My sister has mentioned a couple of times that she would like to place the all the baby photos in a scrapbook, but she feels intimidated by the whole idea of scrapbooking. So I made her journaling cards and number embellishments (for the months) so she could slip the photos in a photo album and record her memories without the pressure of actually making a scrapbook from scratch. After all, the important thing is to preserve the histories behind the photos.

I used the Basic Grey Sugared Collection. The rest of the materials were taken from my stash. I used CTMH stamps with CTMH Creme Brulee, CTMH Mellow Moss and SU! Pretty in Pink inks. The edges were inked with Creme Brulee ink. All the journaling cards measure 4x6 inches, so they can be slipped easily in a photo album sleeve.

I packaged all the journaling cards in a box made using the template of the memory keeper featured this week on Gina K's Stamp TV. I used PTI Sweet Blush CS, SU! So Saffron CS and Basic Grey Sugared DP. "My Baby" was spelled with CTMH alphabet stamps.

Here is a closer look of some of the mats I made. They could be used to mat the journaling cards, titles, photo mats or as journaling cards. I added glitter using the Nicole Heady's technique of placing a sticky strip and then adding glitter.

I packaged the number embellisments in a bag made with the Big Shot and the SU! Fancy Favor die. I think the kit turned out pretty cute. I hope my sister likes it.