Polka Dot Challenge at The Twinery

Hi Everyone, feels like forever since I last posted!  Today I'm here with the "Let's Polka-dot" Challenge from The Twinery!  Today is the last day to link up your projects!  Make sure you get yours in on time!  You can see all the details and link up here.

 

I thought since it is almost March, and I am VERY Irish...(I know Skou doesn't sound Irish...I come from a long line of Barrett's, Kelley's, Hickey's, Doyle's, McDonough's....the list goes on....) that I would skip on ahead to St. Patrick's Day with my project...here it is...

 

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I started with the Polka Dot Shamrock Silhouette file.  I cut it from some new yummy Studio Calico Snippits Paper and filled in the dots with some Seaweed Twinery Twine.

Almost everything I used had some "polka-dot" factor, from the papers, to all the way to the letter stickers I used for my sentiment!

 

Head on over to The Twinery to see all of the details and the other entries!  Be sure to link up your project by 11:59pm EST tonight to be entered to win these fabby prizes....

 

The Rainbow Sampler, a $39 value!

Stamps of Life Back to Basics Stamp Set

That's it for today..thanks for stopping by, and I hope you get a chance to play along with The Twinery!  As always I appreciate your comments!

 

Products Used:  Twine:  Seaweed from The Twinery; Papers:  Snippits from Studio Calico; Washi:  Bella Blvd.; Alpha:  Lily Bee; Other:  Polka Dot Shamrock - Silhouette.

The Twinery and The Play Date Cafe

The Twinery is sponsoring the challenge this week over at The Play Date Cafe...and the color combo is just fabulous!  Check it out...

 

  

As soon as I saw this, I thought of Pink Paislee's Portfolio Collection along with some Stone, Denim and Buttercream Twinery Twine.  I combined them all into a cute little mini album created from a Lori Whitlock cut file on my Silhouette.  The album contains a whole bunch of the funny pictures of my daughter from my cell phone. 

 

Each page of the album has a pocket and a tag.  This gave me plenty of things to embellish and add pictures to!

 

Since most of the pictures are silly ones, I used the first tag to describe the contents... embellished with a little Denim Twine.

 

Since the colors were grey and yellow as well, All I could think of is the song, "You are my Sunshine", so I used some of the verses on the pages.

The Portfolio tags and arrows, coordinated perfectly with the crazy photos.

 

 

 

I also used a bunch of the Pink Paislee Artisan pieces...and inked them with some Distress inks...I love the resist factor!

   

It was such a fun and easy album to put together since the Twine colors coordinated so perfectly with the Portfolio collection.  Make sure to stop by The Play Date Cafe to see the other creations, you won't be disappointed.  Be sure to link up your creation to win a fun prize pack from The Twinery. Thanks for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments!

Creating with Sketches Vol. 2

Just a quick post to let you know that you can now pre-order Kristine Davidson's Creating With Sketches vol. 2!

 

 

Her first book was beyond awesome, and I know this one will be even better.  Don't miss out!

Creative Scrappers Sketch #248

Hi Everyone,
I'm back today with a really fun sketch by Nicole Nowosad for Creative Scrappers.  Here's the sketch:

 

Don't you just love the speech bubbles?  They're one of my favorite trends these days!  Here's my take on the sketch:

This picture just cracks me up.  It's of my two troublemakers...Daisy and Rosie... acting as siblings do.  This is actually the calm before the storm, seconds after this was taken, they were chasing each other around the house fighting.  I used Pebbles Seen and Noted again...I can't get enough of the fun colors and patterns!

I cut the speech bubbles from one of the patterned papers in the collection and stamped them with some very old, but wonderful Making Memories stamps.  They're magnetic and you can spell out what you want. 

I also added some fun Evalicious goodies...the Photo Love tag and the Keep Calm and Enjoy the Catnip badge.  Perfect for my layout!  And...to complete the look some Paw Print Washi from Queen and Co.!

Make sure to stop by Creative Scrappers to see what the rest of the DT has created, you'll be so happy you did!  And if you'd like to play along, link up your layouts and you could win a great prize from Scrapbook and Cards Today!

Oh Snap!

Again, I will sing my praises to cell phone cameras and social networking sites like Facebook.  They truly are the only reason I'm able to get pictures of my daughter and her friends these days.  Case in point.... my daughter's gymnastics team holds a holiday party every year, and I actually have pictures! (stolen from her friend's Facebook page of course.... thank you Brooke)  I used Theresa Collins Now and Then collection to pull together a fun page.  Take a peek:

 

These pics make me laugh...so goofy!  I cut the little camera and the title using my Silhouette.

 And I love the punch outs in the collection, the words are fun and they're double-sided!

Just a fun layout to create.  Of course I had good subjects to work with. 

And now for some other fun news... I have a layout featured in this month's Bella Buzz!!!

There's a sneak peek of the layout shown in the bottom left corner!!! It's another one featuring silly girlies with a cell phone camera!  Be sure to go check it out here!  I'll be back Sunday with a Creative Scrappers reveal!

Layout Workshop Peek

Just a quick post to show you the layout I created for this month's Layout Workshop at Right at Home Scrapbooking.  It's another Doodlebug Lovebirds project! (such a fun line).  Here it is:

This is my sweet kitty Daisy in her usual position on the couch.  I'm definitely coming back as a pampered house cat in my next life.  The background "arrow" is a shape I created using my Silhouette. (I'm a little proud of myself...) The title was also cut using my Silhouette.

 

 

I used MFT's new Pie chart and Rustic Hearts as accents along with a heart shaped doily from my stash.

 I also used the Layered Heart border from MFT.  A little doodling, a few zig-zag stitches and done!

This month's Layout Workshop is this Friday, February 15th at 7:00pm... if you're local and interested call Lisa at Right at Home to reserve your spot.

Twinery Valentine's Blog Celebration Winner

Just wanted to draw the winner of the Valentine's Blog Celebration with The Twinery.  I had 23 people comment and follow my blog between the 2 days of posts.  And the winner is....

 

Adrienne Peach February 6, 2013 at 3:37 PM

Love the banner, it's so stinkin' cute!! Happy to be a follower of this blog!

 

Congrats Adrienne!!!  If you could e-mail your mailing address to ekskou@comcast.net, I'll get your sampler mailed out to you A.S.A.P.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

 

Some Doodlebug Subway Art

Over on the Right at Home Scrapbooking blog we have "The Fourteen Days of Love" going on.  The DT has come up with some really fun Valentine-themed projects!  I was assigned a home decor project and decided to create a Subway Art frame.  As part of my post I tried to find a definition of Subway art, but really was at a loss...I finally combined a couple of different descriptions I found on line and came up with:

Subway Art, n.  1.  Placing and arranging related words, in random fonts to form art. 2. A collage of words.

Whatever you want to call it, here's my first attempt at creating it!

 

I started with a plain white 9" x 12" frame I purchased at Michael's and papers and stickers from Doodlebug's Lovebirds Collection.   I then used my Silhouette to cut the words from the background.  I wanted some dimension, so I used the negative space from the words, and backed them with some of the more colorful papers.  For some of the words, I re-cut the word itself and popped it up using foam tape. 

To jazz up the frame, I outlined it in some Stone and Strawberry Twinery Twine and added a couple of the stickers from the Lovebirds Collection.

 

I was very happy with the results!  It's really was a fun project to create!  Make sure to stop by the Right at Home Scrapbooking blog to check out the other Valentine's projects!  I'll be back soon with a peek of the Layout for RAH's Layout Workshop.

Seriously?



It's been such a busy week creatively, that I almost forgot to post the layout I created for this month's MFT and Friends club at Right at Home Scrapbooking.  Take a peek...

 

 

I LOVE these new papers from the Echo Park Winter Wishes collection, the colors are gorgeous!  As for the title, I guess it needs some explanation...these two crazies insisted on ice cream after track practice on the absolute coldest day in 2 years...

 

I cut the snowflakes from my background paper using my Silhouette and backed them with some of the solid papers from the collection.  I love the dimension it adds!

I used the MFT Instaframes to frame my pics and also created a "fake" picture using the paper from my hidden journalling pocket and one of the snowflakes cut from the background.

The pocket and card are a Lori Whitlock file I found in the Silhouette store.  I embellished them with some tabs and stamps from MFT.  That's it for today...I'll be back this weekend with another project for Right at Home!

The Twinery Valentine's Blog Celebration - Day 6!

Welcome back to the 6th day of the Twinery's  "Be Our Valentine" Blog celebration ! 

 

 

Today, just like the sign says, we're bringing you banners and garlands...here's my Valentine's Banner:

 

 

I had a lot of fun creating this!   I cut the double sided shapes using my Silhouette and hung them along a clothesline of Strawberry and Stone Twinery Twine with some little clothespins!  Here are some close -ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to do a little something to each of the main banner pieces involving twine. On the first piece, I created a dangling heart in the cut out portion of the pennant using some Stone Twine.  

 

Such a simple thing, but I love how it looks!!  On the center banner piece, I created a "plaid" center by adhering Maraschino, Stone, Blossom and Sorbet Twine in a grid pattern between the two layers of the banner.  It's actually such an easy technique, but it looks like you spent hours!

On the remaining pieces, I used some Maraschino Twine to outline the lips, created a wrap with some Stone Twine and added a little bow of Stone Twine to my hearts. 

It really was a fun and pretty easy project to put together, and I love how it looks on my fireplace mantle!

Now for a giveaway!!!!  Each day The Twinery will be giving away a prize.  Today's prize is a banner punch!   I am also giving away a prize to one lucky commenter on my blog this week... our largest Twine Sampler, The Rainbow Sampler Pack!  This Sampler Pack contains 15 yards each of 22 colors, and is a $39 value!

 

To be entered in to win this prize you must do 2 things.  First, you must follow my blog.  Then, you must leave a comment on either this post or yesterday's card post letting me know you are a follower. All comments must be left by 11:59 pm on Friday, February 8th.  I will select one random winner from both posts combined.

 

That's all for today, be sure to check back over at The Twinery each day this week to see what inspiring projects the team has created!  Thanks for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments!

 

(Products Used:  Papers:  Doodlebug Lovebirds; Twine:  Maraschino, Stone, Blossom and Strawberry from The Twinery; Shapes:  Silhouette Store; Clothespins:  Canvas Corp)

The Twinery Valentine's Blog Celebration - Day 5!

Hi!  Today I'm taking part in the nine day "Be Our Valentine" Celebration over at The Twinery.  Every day from February 1st through February 8th the members of the Twinery Design Team will be bringing you Valentine Inspiration.  There's free printables, and tons of give aways so be sure to stop by The Twinery Blog daily to see what's new.   

Today the designers are featuring Valentine themed cards and scrapbook pages.  I thought I'd mix things up (for me) and create a card!  I know...it's rare!  Here's my Valentine's card:

 

It was really a simple card to put together.  I used mostly items from the Pink Paislee Secret Crush collection including the instaframe and tab.  The words in the frame were cut directly from one of the patterned papers.  A little stitching and done!

 

 

My favorite part of the card is my Celtic Heart Knot I tied using some Strawberry Twinery Twine.  I've used this knot before...I just love it.  I've tried to create a tutorial, but my video skills are limited.  I thought it best to send you to the source of my inspiration, Fusion Knots.  This is a fun site I discovered on Pinterest.  Here is their YouTube Video on how to create the knot:  Fusion Knots Tutorial.

 

Now for a giveaway!!!! Each day The Twinery will be giving away a prize. Today's prize is some cardstock and a Martha Stewart Punch! I am also giving away a prize to one lucky commenter on my blog this week... our largest Twine Sampler, The Rainbow Sampler Pack! This Sampler Pack contains 15 yards each of 22 colors, and is a $39 value!

To be entered in to win this prize you must do 2 things. First, you must follow my blog. Then, you must leave a comment on either this post or tomorrow's banner post letting me know you are a follower. All comments must be left by 11:59 pm on Friday, February 8th. I will select one random winner from both posts combined.

 

That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with a Valentine's inspired banner.  Be sure to check back over at The Twinery each day this week to see what inspiring projects the team has created! Thanks for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments!

 

(Products Used:  Patterned Papers, frame, tab:  Pink Paislee Secret Crush; Twine:  Strawberry from The Twinery; Cardstock:  Bazzill)