Always use your imagination!

After a baby shower for my niece, I took a break to play with my grandson, Easton.  My sister and brother in law have an elf house in their front yard.  Story has it that elves only set up house at good boys and girls' homes.  So no surprise that we found one in their front yard!!! Easton was so curious!!! Of course, the elves must have just left right before we arrived!!! We were soo close!! I'm sure next time we'll be able to see them!! I hope he never loses his sense of wonder and amazement!! Everything I used on this layout was from Webster's Pages.  (One of my favorite companies!) I used the 'girl land" line, including the journaling tag, velvet ribbon, and paper line.

Cooper-Young Arts Festival

September is one of my favorite months of the year!! Not only is the weather getting cooler and the trees are changing colors, and college football is back on, but all of the arts and crafts shows are popping up here in Memphis!!! And each one is different from the other!! Cooper-Young Festival is one of my favorite!! The Cooper Young area in Memphis is very eclectic, therefore offers a very eclectic array of booths, vendors, and of course people!!! I wanted to show off the vendors, as well as the people walking around.  I had fun layering and mixing different embellishments!

 From the original art work/graffiti on the walls, to the vendors, to the restaurants,there's always so much to take in and see!!!

 I die cut a fence from an old pair of jeans, using Tim Holtz's fence die and my Big Shot!! What a fun way to use those old jeans and add a little bit of flare (get it??) to your layout!!! I used Prima architecture corners and tiles, Tim Holtz's fragment tiles, Ranger Alcohol inks (blue, green, purple), the Paper Studio's spare parts flowers, Maya Road denim trim, recollections adhesive backed ribbon, Tim Holtz calendar tabs, Basic Grey paper ("June Bug" collection), Tim Holtz clock, Recollection pointing finger embellishment and October Afternoon tiny type alphabet stickers.  

Beautiful butterfly

My dog, Chloe was barking like crazy the other day, so I got up to see what all of the commotion was about.  What I saw when I reached the door was such a beautiful black butterfly! And big too. He was so neat looking! He was black with blue areas on the bottom of his wings, then underneath, he was black with orange areas!! Of course my dog chased him all over the back yard, but he continued to come back and dine on our verbenas!! 

 

This was such a fun layout to work on! It seems as of late, all I do is create layouts for my grandson, so I miss using gemstones, flowers, etc.! So naturally, I used them a ton on this page! I used the EK large banner punch and butterfly punch here.  

Other supplies used were Maya Road chipboard flourishes, Prima tiles, Colorbox ink (black), October Afternoon spray paint (All Aboard), The Paper Studio (Spare Parts) Bright 3D flowers, Websters Pages calendar journaling cards, Basic Gray's Lucky Line (Karma), Basic Gray's 6 x 6 Kioshi paper pack, and Heidi Swapp Specialty cardstock (background).  

Birthday Mania

After getting away to my parents' lake house in Heber Springs, AR with several of my wonderful and creative friends for the weekend, I am feeling so rejuvenated and ready to create!! After finishing up my Christmas cards (wahoo) I began working on birthday cards... I just never ever seem to have enough of them when I need them! Especially for all of the men in my life! Here is one of the cards I created with a few color variations.

My new favorite stamp sets these days has to be the Birthday Blue prints from the Tim Holtz Collection and Stampers Anonymous.  There are so many uses for the stamps.... (I'm already thinking Christmas cards 2014 using the present stamp!!)

Once again my Copic markers came through for me! (They rarely let me down!!) For these cards, I used YR07, R27 and B69.  And I used Basic Grey's offbeat paper line for the backgrounds.

Have you discovered Glossy Accents yet?? Love this!! Once dried, it give your image an epoxy feel and look.  It just adds a bit of dimension to it as well.  You can even use it as adhesive, especially when you want that adhesive to be invisible... picture acetate, vellum, clear buttons, etc.  Sprinkle a bit of glitter on top, and voila.... instant bling!! And who doesn't love that?

An ink that is a must around herein Studio M is Memento dye ink.  I stamp with this on almost every project. It's quick drying of course, but I always get a very clear image when using this.  Actually it's recommended when using Copic markers, because it doesn't react to the alcohol used in the markers... so no bleeding!! 

Christmas in July!!

Okay, cal me a dork, but I just can't help it! I'm seriously a Christmas junkie.. really!! I'm the first one to want to put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving!!! It just makes me happy!! So no surprise, I love to get my Christmas cards early... really early!! I used to be that person who waited and waited to make my cards, December 1st and I had no clue what I was going to do!! I even had in my shopping cart one year those "hand made" cards from Costco.... that would have made my life at that time so much easier... but I had a serious guilt trip!! So the following January I had a friend who had a weekend crop, so I decided that was going to be the year I was going to be ahead, way ahead.. an entire year actually!! And I have continued that for several years!! It's so nice to focus on all the other things now!!! And breathe!! I used Copic Markers (YG13, G14, R35, T1, E02, E00 and E57).  This was my first time using these markers.. and I can honestly say I'm HOOKED!! What did I do before these??

Other supplies I used were Doodle Bug (North Pole) paper line/"Jolly Lollies", "Christmas Cheer", and "Sweet Tweets", EK large banner punch (a definite favorite these days!), Stickles/"Frosted Lace", EK snowflake punch, Bazzill cardstock/"Coconut Swirl", My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Clear Stamp/"Flurry of Love", Memento Dye Ink/"Tuxedo Black", and Doodlebug glitter paper/"White"

I really love my Crative Memories Circle cutters!! I know there are soo many circle cutters out there and I have tried them all! But CM cutters just move easier and smoother (for me) and are so convenient!

Whoo loves you Baby!!

Since my monsters tray turned out so well I decided to make a tray for my niece who is having a baby boy in September!!! (It sure is all about the boys around here as of late!!) She said his nursery is all owls and squirrels!!! So I used softer more subtle colors for this tray.  I used Heidi Swapp  "Make pretty stuff" banner embellishment, Colorbox "friendly forest" epoxy chipboard embellishments, Maya Road chipboard flourishes.

 The "Z" which I painted was Tim Holtz's idea-ology harlequin chipboard alphabets.  (Little guy's name is Zeb!) I also used Tim Hotlz's adage tickets, and Pebbles Phrase cards.  Once again my Silhouette Cameo saved the day with this adorable chubby squirrel!! (Have you ever tried to find squirrel embellishments?? Not out there, anywhere!!) My cute owl ("The owl says hoo-oo..) came from October Afternoon's "Science Fair".

Crazy About Monsters!!

My daughter is having a baby (yeah!! another grandson!!) due in October and his nursery is all monsters so I made her a 7gypsies tray full of monsters to display!!  

Using the Fancy Pants "To the Moon" paper collection , I was able to create bright and fun backgrounds that went perfectly with the boy and monsters theme I was going for! Of course I used by Silhouette Cameo (Love) for all of the monsters!! The "I adore you" stickers were from Deja Views clear word sticker collections...another one of my favorite embellishments!! The "It's a Boy Thing" was from the Pebbles "I love you more than you'll ever know" journaling and quote cards.  

I just love the way this cute little monster turned out!! Not too scary!!