My Favorite Things Goes Scrap-Tastic!!!

Greetings Friends!!!

For those of you who follow along - you'll know why I haven't been blogging in forever and for those of you who don't - here's WHY!  =)  But I'm heading into that really good stage where my energy is pretty high as is my motivation.  I can feel the nesting coming on!!  I'm trying very hard to dive back into the scrapbooking world as I have so many projects that have been waiting so patiently for me for many MANY...(gulp)...years! 

And really - you all know how much I ADORE all things My Favorite Things related and couldn't contain myself when THIS was posted on the MFT blog. 

And I must be honest with you - I have THE hardest time photographing 12x12 pages.  I have a light box that works wonders with my cards and other small projects but when it comes to large scale projects I struggle so I hope that I did my page justice!

I so adore the simple and classic elements of this sketch.

 This page is, as you can see, of my darling daughter from this past summer.  I chose four of my very favorite pictures from a family trip to Vermont to capture the essence of her fun, sweet and wonderful nature.

I kept my colors light, summery and breezy using cardstock from Bazzill.  The majority of my patterned paper is from Amy Tangerine.

I've used some of my very favorite MFT products including Behind The Camera Die and Stamp set, Tag You're It Die and Stamp Set, Mini Pennants, and Botanical Beauty.

 

I love the earthy use of sticky back cork combined with the fun summery colors.  As you can see above, I took a light blue button, colored it with a turquoise hued Copic to create just the color I needed.  I then coated it in Matte Multi Medium and dunked it into crystal glitter so that it added a hint of sparkle.  I backwards tied my bow behind my button and anchored it down with a drop of hot glue.

I am hoping to have some time to create with the Project Life version that the crafty gals at MFT provided as well!  We'll see what the rest of the week brings my way!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

DYSU Challenge #80 - Color Challenge

The Stamping Boutique

* Winner's Choice of 3 Digis

Copic Maker Scrapbooking

* 6 copic ciao marker (North/South America), Martha Stewart punch (rest of the world)

Scrapper's Delight

* $5 Gift Certificate

Greetings DYSU Friends and Fans!  Today starts another new challenge over at the DYSU Challenge Blog!! 

This week's challenge is the color theme that you see at the beginning of this post.  Today I'm not using a sponsored image but an image that I totally love from the Pure Innocence line called Cute-A-Tude from MFT.  I also used last week's MFT sketch as my muse. 

I inked the sweet Pure Innocence sweetie in Momento ink and colored her with my Copics.  I then paper pieced her dress.  I used papers from my scrap bin.  (yes...my scrap bin is large and bottomless!!) 

I used my MFT Flag STAX, Beautiful Botanical and Fringed Perennial dies to accent my project.  I will tell you that I did snip apart (gasp!!) the acrylic sentiment to make it fit my space better!  I love doing this as it makes any set so much more versatile!

I can't see what you create for us over at the DYSU Challenge Blog!!

Thanks so much for coming by today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Hero Arts March Challenge

Happy Monday Everyone!!  I'm here today to participating in this month's challenge over at the Hero Arts Blog.  There are multiple challenges that can be wrapped up into one or multiple creations.  I've chosen two pieces of the challenge, flowers and color to incorporate into this creation which happens to be a sympathy card.  I don't know about you, but I find certain creations come easier than others and bereavement cards are definitely in the not so easy category.  But with the colors in this challenge I was able to pull together something that I find serene and calming. 

Here are the colors issued in this challenge:

And here is my interpretation using the above colors and flowers that I made using MFT's Beautiful Botanical and Fringed Perennial Die-namics.  I used SU! Night of Navy cardstock combined with Heidi Grace - Moonlight Meadow 12x12 paper to create the flowers.  I cut multiple layers of both papers and combined them together to create super full and fabulous blossoms.  I used hot glue to keep them together and once they were dried, I used my Big Bite in order to place the matching brad in the centers.  

I started with a base of SU! Night Of Navy cardstock.  I then pulled patterned papers, all from MME Darling Dear, Be Amazing and Dilly Dally 6x6 paper packs.  I love to use corrugated cardboard in my creations and I use the Ouchless Cardboard from Gauche Alchemy.  It's fabulous as it comes in Kraft and White.  I ran the cardboard through my die cutting machine to soften it and flatten it a bit in order to stamp on it.  I used my VersaMagic Night Sky ink to stamp the Flower Bursts Pattern background cling stamp. 

 

Once I stamped I coated the image with clear embossing powder and heat set it to give it extra shine.   I used my Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink to distress the layers, flowers and edges of my card.  I added stitching and self-adhesive pearls as well as a bit of Tim Holtz decorative paper tape surrounding my sentiment, which is from MFT's Clearly Sentimental about Sympathy set. 

As you can see, I used a basic manila tag from my local office supply store to stamp my sentiment.  Once again, I used the Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink and my Distress Ink in Tea Dye to ink and distress the edges of my tag.  I added some PTI twill ribbon to embellish my tag. 

I adhered everything together and added my flowers using my hot glue gun just to ensure that they stay put.  I've finished the interior very simply using another sentiment from the same MFT set as well as a mini-rosette cut using my Tim Holtz mini-rosette die. 

I added a bit of Tim Holtz paper tape as well as a few of the extra centers that I had cut from my exterior flowers to the cardboard rosette.  

I'm entering this into the March Hero Arts Challenge here! 

Thanks so much for coming by today!!  

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

My Darling Valentine

I simply love to SWOON about Valentine's Day.  I love everything about it.  I don't care if it is a "Hallmark Holiday" I just love it.  The colors, the sweets, the decor, the fun gifts, and just another excuse to express my love to those around me which I LOVE LOVE LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE to do!!  My darling husband just moved into a new office where he works and it's really blank.  So I've been working on a few things to spruce up his space and make it warm and inviting. 

I found this wall hanging a long time ago in the clearance section at Homegoods.  I think it might have been $1 as whatever was on it originally had fallen off but the hanging was very sturdy.   

Not to mention that I LOVED the sentiment!!!

 I have had a picture of my husband and I from the summer that I absolutely adore so I knew I was going to use that.  I also purchased some of my new favorite acrylic paints from Martha Stewart.  I buy them at Michael's but I'm sure you can get them in lots of places.  They come in high gloss, pearl, matte, glitter and glow in the dark!  I also purchased some Sparkly Mod Podge.  Yes...I said SPARKLY Mod Podge.  The stuff ROCKS!!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and always keep it in my stash. 

I also just received in my newest purchases from MFT - one of which is the new Botanical Beauty Die-namic Flowers.  Talk about SWOON!!!??!?!  I cut a whole bunch using Ouchless Cardboard from Gauche Alchemy and PTI felt in Hawaiian Shores and Pure Poppy. 

Once I had all of my flowers cut I put the felt one together with twine from the Paper and Such store.  I punched a hole in all of the layers.  I doubled up on my twine and threaded it through one of the button holes on the button that I wanted to display on the front.  I then put it through every flower and threaded it through another button to anchor it in the back.  I threaded it through the other hole in the back button, up again through all of the felt flower layers and through the other hole in the button on the front.  I tied a sweet bow and set that flower aside so that I could work on my cardboard ones. 

I then set to working on my corrugated cardboard flowers.  I laid them all out on a sheet of aluminum foil and coated them generously with my sparkly Mod Podge.  Once they were dry I used a sponge applicator to literally plop the new Martha Stewart paint colors all over them.  I purposefully did this haphazardly as that is the look I was going for.

I don't have a lot of patience for the drying process so once I had the paint colors down I zapped everything with my heat gun and got it all bubbly and dry.  I then assembled them with the help of my glue gun.  For an added scrappy effect, I took a lot of the bits and pieces of beautiful designer papers that I've been using for the last few weeks and tore them, stitched them, pleated them and distressed them and placed them all over my piece. 

Once that was done I matted and arranged the photo of my hubby and me and adhered that in place.  I added the flowers and some bling as the last bits and pieces once I made sure I had everything where I wanted it. 

Here is my finished piece for my darling husband.

Here are some close ups as it's really hard to get the full piece in frame.  Although you'll see at the end how it looks when it's hanging as I created a space in my kitchen to hang it temporarily.

Thanks for hanging in with me for this long post!!  I hope you've enjoyed peeking at my Valentine's creation as much as I enjoyed making it!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

MFT Weekly Stamp Club

Greetings MFT Sketch Club fans!  I'm popping in today with my rendition of this week's amazing sketch MFTWSC58!

It's such a fantastic sketch and I purposefully waited for my new stamps that my darling hubby bought me for Valentine's Day to arrive so that I could play!!  I, unfortunately, had to make a condolence card (sad face) for a darling friend of mine who just lost a dear family member.  It's so hard to create when you know it's for a sad occasion but I'm hoping that it will bring a teensy bit of sunshine into her world.

I used papers from MME Fine and Dandy and a few scraps of Crate Paper (polka dots).  I have used the brand new released MFT Vertical Greetings Stamp and Die-namics set.  My sentiment is stamped on sticky back canvas using Hero Arts - Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink.  I have also used the new Botanical Beauty Die-namics combined with a button and two tiny brads for my flower embellishment.  I added two resin flowers for an added bundling effect.  

For my interior I used the new Finishing Flourishes set.  This is a MUST have and I know I'm going to get a TON of use out of the beautiful, versatile sentiments that are included in this pack along with the oh so many stunning flourishes that simply help finish any project!

The golden yellow color came in the form of my Muse for right now which is here at the Craft Marathon blog.  

Thanks for stopping by today!!  I'll be back tomorrow with another fabulous MFT sketch!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith