Little Dude {aflairforbuttons}

Popping in to share a page about the totally spoiled Canine in our home.

Wilson became a part of our family in April 2009.  I am a woman who learned almost promptly after having my first baby to "never say never".  I was never an animal person growing up, and never saw myself with a dog, but alas here we are.

He's smart, super cute, and totally loveable.  The fact that he allows us to dress him up, put props on him (especially at Christmas), and take pictures is just an added bonus.

As soon as I saw these woodgrain flair buttons in the {aflairforbuttons} Etsy shop, I knew I wanted to use them on a simple white background page so they'd pop.

I knew I needed to add a little more dimension to my page to balance out that of the flair buttons, so I used my Amy Tangerine stitching template, and my sewing machine to add a little tone on tone stitching, and voila, done.

I hope I've inspired you to create today.  Perhaps there's a pet layout in your near future.  Did you grow up with a four-legged love, or perhaps you're partial to another type of animal these days. Whatever it is I'd love to have a peek.  You can tag your projects on FB and/or Instagram with #aflairforbuttons and the team will be sure to see it.

Sets used on my layout:
Woodgrain 1
Here & Now

Thanks for popping in today friends! Pin It

Sketchy Thursday

It's that time once again at Scraptastic.  Susan created a fun sketch for us to work with, and the October Kit made it super easy and quick to create a layout for it.

I used a fun freebie cut file created by Juliana Michaels as my mat.  You can download the file here.

Here is the sketch that Susan created for us this month.

 Isn't that wood veneer card so cute?  It's actually from the This Life Noted Kit, I really wanted to save it to use in my Moments In Between Album, but it just looked so great on this layout, that I had to use it.

 Love these oversize letters from Fancy Pants.  I thought sanding them up a bit would be a nice touch to this layout.

The Never Tear Us Apart stamp set is awesome, I especially love the hearts.  I used gold embossing powder to create this one.

So many great products in this kit, I'm just itching to play with it some more.  You can check it out for yourself here.  Playing along with the sketch could win you a $20 gift certificate to the Scraptastic shop.  You can check out what the rest of the dt created, and link up your own creations here.

Pin It

I Still Do

It's the second Tuesday of the month which means it's time for another Challenge at Use It Tuesday.

This week, in the spirit of Father's Day we are challenging you to create something with a "masculine" feel to it.  I probably should have done Father's Day cards, since I need those anyway, but I opted instead to use up these gorgeous rich blue sheets of patterned paper by Teresa Collins, My Mind's Eye, and Studio Calico.

Took this photo this past New Year's Eve (aka: our 17th wedding anniversary)

Lots of hoarded goodies used up here, in addition to the papers, I have a couple of sets of alphas that I've had for quite a while, as well as the My Mind's Eye ticket tucked under the photo, and the Crate brad that is at least 3 years old, and the Studio Calico washi that is 2 years old.

The flair button is from Panda Eight Designs, and the label maker is by EK Success

I can't believe it's really been that long.  I still think we both look so young, that it just doesn't seem right that we've really been together for nearly two decades.

Love the way the lime green just pops off the page.  I also chose deliberately to print the image in black and white to add to the masculine feel of it, and allow that green to really pop.

I found that wooden star shape at Michael's and inked to with a little Prima chalk ink, then covered it with Glossy Accents to add a little shine (even though it doesn't show up so great in the pic

Even though it didn't turn out quite as nice as I had envisioned I took a close up of the hand stitching I did around the masked shapes   Because the masking wasn't as bold as I had hoped, I thought it would help add texture to them by outlining them with embroidery thread.  Next time I would use white pait rather than white Gesso to mask on such a dark background.

I am so lucky to have this man in my life.  He's not only a great husband, and father to our girls.  He is my best friend.  He's always in my corner, always supports me in all my endeavours (crafty and otherwise), picks me when he has a choice of who to go to football games with, never complains about a messy house, or breakfast for supper, and best of all love Jesus like I do.  I am so glad my girls get to see a fine example of how a spouse, and partner in life should be like

Are you feeling inspired to play along?  I sure hope so.  Check out the rest of the team's projects and find the link to add you own here on the blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  And a special thank you for your comments, they really do give me the energy I need to keep this blog up. Pin It

Seriously So Beautiful

This time of year is always full of Dance Competitions and Dance Recitals in our home.  That translates into a lot of money, driving, waiting, make up, and the best part costumes.

I caught a few pix of my girls and their good friend just before leaving to compete in the Manitoba Dance Festival.  Their costumes were so cute, and they looked so beautiful that I just had to take some photos before we left.

This bright and cheery paper collection provided the perfect amount of cheeriness to accommodate the photos.  Put them together with some equally cheery Chic Tags, and I've got one happy layout to remember this year's Tap costume, and how far the girls have come with their dancing over the past two years.

See that Love 2"Circle?  It's a free cut file.  Albert has been creating and releasing them every Friday for the past number of weeks.  You can download this one, and several other great designs for your Silhouette Cameo right here

The "celebrate" strip is from the Birthday Cake Snip'em Tags.  Such a great value that sheet is.

It can be hard to tell from straight on, but I've added quite a bit of dimension to this layout by having my photo and embellishments placed at different heights.  I find this method works really well when I have several items clustered into a small space.

Hope you're feeling inspired to create something great today!  Getting your hands on some Chic Tags would certainly be a great start.  Head over here to check out the Birthday Collection for yourself.

Have a wonderful weekend friends, and thanks for popping in today!  I'll be back next week with some big news I've been keeping secret for a while now. Pin It

Brads, Buttons, and Fasteners

This week's challenge over at Use It Tuesday is all about these.  I decided to stick with brads.  They were the perfect embellishment to use on this lifted layout of one I found on Pinterest by Kinsey Wilson.  You can see her original layout on Pinterest here.  I just loved the rainbow idea, and thought it would be great for this challenge.  I can't wait to try it again with a different design I've got floating around in my head.

Here's my finished layout

And here are some close ups

Gorgeous Cre8tive Cre8tions flair, and chevron stamp, and Studio Calico wood veneers 

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut into the 4x12 card stock then backed it with patterned paper

Tab:Chic Tags, #3:My Minds Eye, Star Maya Raod

I also had the chance to break open my brand new stamps from Cre8tive Cre8tions (they arrived that same afternoon).  I used Versamark, and American Crafts Zing to emboss the wood veneers, add a few embossed stamped chevrons right over top of the stitching.

Hope you feel inspired to pull out your brads, buttons, and eyelets to create something wonderful.  You can get more inspiration, and link up your own creation (using your hoarded stash) right here.

Thanks for stopping by friends.  Have a wonderful day! Pin It

Let's Create

Today I'd like to take you through my process of making a card with the focus on hand stitching.

Here's the card we're going to make

 Here are the supplies I used:

1 pc green cardstock paper, for card base
1 pc white carstock paper for decorated card front
1 pc MME Lime Twist  Fly A Kit 'Wish Ribbon' paper for inside of stitched heart

MME Lime Twist 'Spring' Accessory sheet
MME Lime Twist Fly A Kite 'Spring' Twine
Lillybee lime green alphabet stickers (any coordinating tiny size alphas will do)
Crafts - yellow rhinestone bling
Cosmo Cricket Social Club Butterfiles and Doilies (tiny yellow cardstock butterfly)
1 paper piercer and matt
1 chipboard shape for tracing.  I used the chipboard heart from the Crate Emma's Shop collection.
About 24 inches of DMC embroidery floss (I used Ecru, but any coordinating colour will do just fine)
1 sewing needle with a large eye, but this enough to keep the wholes in your stitching tiny and close together.

The first thing I did was cut out the card base.

Next I took the Crate Emma's Shop chipboard heart, and trace it in 2 places on the white cardstock at varying heights towards the left of the card.  I knew I wanted to add the sentiment to the right of the card, so I was sure to leave enough space.  Note: I often just draw my shapes freehand, tracing simply speeds up the process.

After I had the hearts where I wanted them, I added a line from the top of the paper to the top center of the heart.  I then, used my paper piercer, and pierce all the way around one heart.  You could do both hearts in this step.  I like to see success quickly so I finished off one heart completely with the stitching and the paper center, and and then moved on to the other heart.

Now for the sewing...
First you'll need to cut a 15" length of off white embroidery floss.  The project in it's entirely will require more thread than this, however working with shorter strands reduces the chances for knots in your thread as you are sewing.  It's very simple to add more thread to your project as you go.

Next you'll need to separate the thread (a skein of DMC thread has 6 ply).  We only need three ply for this project.  Separating the skein can be tricky if you pull too quickly.  It's best to pull slowly, holding your hands at eye level, and gradually moving them in opposite directions as you pull.

Thread your needle.  And sew through your pierced holes.  Simple regular sewing stitch - down up, down up

The half completed stitch heart from the back.

Once you have completed the heart one way, you need to go over it a second time.  This time you will stitch over the spaces in between each bit of thread filling up every hole, and every space where there is piercing. Your completed heart should look like this.

Completed heart view from the back

At this point is where I will trace and cut out the heart shape from the MME 'Wish Ribbon' paper.  You'll want to be sure to cut just inside the traced shape, making the shape just a tad smaller than it's original size.  This way the cut out will fit snugly inside the stitched heart.

Because the second heart will overlap the sentiment, you will need to add your lettering now, before stitching the second heart.  I just eyeballed the positioning of the letters.

Now stitch the second heart the same as you did the first.

Now remove the orange oval sticker from the MME 'Spring' Accessory sheet and place along the top right edge of the white cardstock, trimming off the top half of the sticker so it looks like this.

If you like the look, you may use your sewing machine to add more dimension to the card at this point by sewing a simple and/or zig zag stitch through the half cardstock sticker like this.  I did a little of both stitching styles.

 

At this point it is safe to mount the face of the card to the front of the green cardstock.  Doing it in this order allows you to hide all the the stitching that you've done, keeping it nice and clean looking all over.  Once you've mounted to front you may continue to add little details like a twine bow, and a tiny butterfly with the rhinestone center.  After that the only thing left is to add the rest of the sentiment to the inside of the card, and voilà you have a beautiful card that will make the day of someone you love. 

Here is my completed card

outside

inside

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, and that you found it easy to follow.  I welcome any feedback, suggestions, words of encouragement (hee hee) you have to send my way.  I hope to do more of these in the future so it would help greatly to know if you enjoy them.  Or perhaps you're curious about another technique you've seen me use on layouts and/or cards that you'd like me to outline for you.  Let me know in the comments sections and I'd be happy to oblige.

Enjoy your Wednesday friends.  You're halfway to the weekend!

♥ S.

Pin It