Graphic45 2012 Design Team Audition

The following projects are what I consider to be some of my best work!

Thanks for looking!

Our Beach Adventures









I used a distressing tool to distress the edges of the papers.

Supplies: patterned paper - Graphic 45, Kesi Art, My Mind's Eye, American Krafts; stickers - Graphic 45, October Afternoon, Dear Lizzy for American Crafts; other - twine, fiber, kraft paper

All My Valentines



Supplies: patterned paper - Crate Paper, Lily Bee Designs; cardstock embellisments - Crate Paper; stickers - Crate Paper, Sticko, Lily Bee Designs, American Crafts, Pebbles; twine - My Mind's Eye; red lace flower - Prima


Wicked - London








Supplies: patterned paper - Graphic 45, Basic Grey; stickers - Basic Grey, American Crafts, October Afternoon; journaling card - Lily Bee Designs; brads - My Mind's Eye

First Fair








Supplies: patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket, American Crafts, My Mind's Eye; flags - October Afternoon; chipboard - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts, other - unknown; washi tape - Hambly; letter stickers - American Crafts; stickers - October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye; wood veneer letters - Studio Calico; other - tickets, thread, embroidery floss


Selections from My 2011 December Daily







Supplies: patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket; tabs - SEI, October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket; doily flowers - Jenni Bowlin; stickers - October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket, Echo Park




First Christmas Eve







Supplies: patterned paper - Graphic 45; stickers - Graphic 45, American Crafts; lace - Crate Paper; tin pin - October Afternoon

SKETCH ADVENTURE SATURDAY

Hey all I'm back with last week's winner and this week's sketch!

The winner of the Pebbles kraft letter stickers and envelopes is....Becky! My random number generator came up with 3 and she was the third post. I'll be having more giveaways in the near future! Thanks everyone for playing! Becky, shoot me an email with your mailing address and I'll get these in the mail to you ASAP. :)

Now for this week's sketch! Again, I am sometimes technologically defunct, so I drew a picture of the sketch, snapped a picture, sent it to Lisa, and she whipped up the digital version in 2.3 seconds because she's a rockstar like that!




Coke Break

Lisa's face finally makes its debut in my sketch layout this week! She was here over Christmas and New Year's and we took a few days to travel to Houston, Galveston, and Austin as a little road trip. We had a really nice time. We stopped in Salado on the way back from Austin, which is a quaint little touristy town with lots of shops featuring clothing I would never in a million years wear as it's completely NOT me, but we had a fun time walking along and stopping in the occasional store. They even have a fun little stamp store, which was an excellent diversion!




I got to use a lot of October Afternoon's Sasparilla Collection and some of the brand new Miss Caroline papers from My Mind's Eye. I think this is one of my favorite layouts ever. Just love how it turned out!

Supplies: patterned paper - October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye, paper embellishments - October Afternoon; letter stickers - Pebbles; twine - My Mind's Eye; tab punch - Jenni Bowlin; border punch - docrafts Xcut; other - bottle cap embellishment, vintage card (both from Studio Calico kits)

Round My Hometown by Lisa Carroll
This is Lisa's take on the sketch! She made all the papers herself. Marisa Lerin gets credit for the button and the stitching.




My lady is freakishly talented.

I'll be back later tonight or early tomorrow with my Graphic 45 DT audition post! Please check back and leave me some love! I'm super nerve!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

London

Hey all! Just a quick little post with a couple of layouts from our (fairly) recent trip to London.

A Harry Potter Place



I used a lot of Studio Calico kit products for this one. I'm pretty sure they are from November's kit, but I'll have to double check on that!

Supplies: cardstock - Bazzill; patterned paper - Studio Calico, My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper; corrugated letters - Jillibean; letter stickers - October Afternoon, American Crafts; leaves - Amy Tangerine; button - Basic Grey; twine - Doodlebug; tape - 7Gyspies; date stickers - Jenni Bowlin

Big Ben

This one was LOTS of October Afternoon's Boarding Pass. I also attempted some machine stitching along the top.



Supplies: patterned paper - October Afternoon, Lily Bee Designs; stickers, tin pin - October Afternoon, twine - My Mind's Eye

Remember to check back on Saturday for this week's sketch!

Sketch Adventure Saturday

Okay so I'm trying to branch out there in my blogdom. So, I present to you "SKETCH ADVENTURE SATURDAY"! If I'm stepping on any toes by using this name, please let me know because it's entirely unintentional.

So, the idea here is to use the following sketch (my creation, but digitally drawn by my AMAZING girlfriend, Lisa Carroll!) as inspiration and design a layout, card, piece of wall art, or whatever! Send an attachment of your creation to me (my email addy is in the upper right hand corner by that silly little picture of me). I will then pick a handful of projects I think best used the sketch (though I know it's going to be hard, because they'll all be amazing) and post them the following Saturday on my blog (with the designers' blog links), along with a new sketch. So Saturdays will be Sketch Adventure Saturdays from here on out to the best of my ability! All layouts must be received by 11:59 PM (CST) Friday, February 24

And in celebration of this new announcement, I'm having a giveaway! Leave a comment by 11:59 (CST) NEXT Friday, February 24 to enter. I will pick a winner at random. I have some great kraft mini envelopes and letter stickers from Pebbles to give out:



And now for our first sketch!




And here's my take on this sketch:

Future Photographer



Supplies: patterned paper - October Afternoon, Pebbles, American Crafts, Crate Paper, My Mind's Eye; chipboard - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts; sequins - Pebbles; tab punch - Jenni Bowlin; ink - Ranger, Colorbox; pens - Zig, Uniball; stamps & spray ink - Studio Calico

And here's another layout using the sketch. This time a digital layout - again by the lovely Lisa Carroll. :)

Pretty in Pink



Digital Supplies: patterned paper and elements by Marisa Lerin; heart border by Lisa Carroll

Remember, all layouts and comments must be entered by 11:59 Central Time on Friday, February 24! Thanks so much for reading!

First Fair

Last October, my parents, sister, niece and I went to the Texas State Fair in Dallas. This was a first for Parrish, Ellie, and I. I got lots of great pictures and we had a nice time (despite the fact that it was raining).

I have been working on this layout for over 2 months. It was one that I had to start and stop a lot, because I wanted to do some stitching, but wastn't sure how or where and I found myself putting it on the back burner time and time again.

Finally, I've finished it. I started by crumpling the yellow Cosmo Cricket paper and distressing it a bit. I folded some edges up and stitched all over it with the sewing machine. I printed out some little photos of Ellie enjoying the sights, added a few embellishments and journaling and finally called it done.

First Fair




Supplies: patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket, American Crafts, My Mind's Eye; flags - October Afternoon; chipboard - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts, other - unknown; washi tape - Hambly; letter stickers - American Crafts; stickers - October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye; wood veneer letters - Studio Calico; other - tickets, thread, embroidery floss

Please stop by tomorrow for a new weekly feature that I'm really excited about!

My First Momenta D-Lite Team Post!

Hey everyone! I had intended to put some Valentine's cards up on the blog yesterday morning, but didn't have them done in time! So I'm going to leave V-Day behind me and move forward. Today, I have my first two Momenta layouts to share with you! Super excited (and nervous!) about this!

I really had fun playing around with all the gorgeous papers from the Chloe's Garden Pyramid Paper Pad.

Little Sweetie



I cut various sized strips and pieces of paper and layered them as a background for the photos of my niece. I added a couple of their Puffy Title Stickers to create my title "Little Sweetie". A little chalk ink around the journaling block, some brads and twine from my stash and I was pretty pleased with how it all came together!

Supplies: Paper - Momenta Chloe's Garden Pyramid Paper Pack (PA-2384); stickers - Momenta Puffy Title Stickers (ST-3003); Twine - Doodlebug; brads - Basic Grey & other; chalk ink - Prima

London Calling

First of all, I couldn't get the lyrics to the Clash's "London Calling" out of my brain, so it only made sense to use that as my title!



I used the papers from another AWESOME pyramid pack from Momenta - this time the Vacation Pyramid Pack. Such cool papers! I used some spray ink on the background paper before building the page. I cut around the bottom curve of the dotted paper to create some visual interest and layered some of the smaller papers on top of that as a background for the photo. I also had fun cutting some smaller strips of paper into banner shapes and used several of the stickers from the travel-themed Momenta sticker kit to complete the page.

To make the title, I cut some circles from paper and added letter stickers. One of the chipboard buttons from the sticker kit worked well with the twine and I used a punch and a foam stamp to accent the journaling block, which I also dressed up with some chalk ink.




Supplies: paper - Momenta Vacation Paper Pyramid Pack (PA-2389); stickers - Momenta Sticker Kit (ST-2328); "Calling" letters - Momenta Family Ties Super Paper Pad (PA-1839); spray ink - Mr. Huey's; chalk ink - Prima; stamp and tab punch - Jenni Bowlin; twine - Doodlebug

Thanks so much for reading and all your supportive comments! Please come back Saturday, when I'll be launching a new weekly feature that I'm super excited about!

Valentine's Goodies!

Hey all! Here's another Valentine's Day layout for your viewing pleasure!

I'm a 3rd grade teacher and my students every year know I'm a HUGE Mickey Mouse fan, so they gift me accordingly at Christmas and Valentine's Day. This layout features a picture of just a sampling of the Valentine's Goodies I'm receieved from my sweet kiddos last year.

For this layout I used a bunch of Crate Paper's Paper Heart Collection and Lily Bee's Head Over Heals Collection. I loved playing around with both of these! So girly, so pink, so romantical!

All My Valentines



Supplies: patterned paper - Crate Paper, Lily Bee Designs; cardstock embellisments - Crate Paper; stickers - Crate Paper, Sticko, Lily Bee Designs, American Crafts, Pebbles; twine - My Mind's Eye; red lace flower - Prima

Next up - Valentine's Cards....a very scary concept for me as I consider myself a full-fledged scrapbooker and not at all a card maker....so we'll see how it goes!

Family Valentine's Day

Hey everyone! I'm back with another Valentine's layout. This one featuring my amazing family! Mom, Dad, Sister, and Niece! I'm thrown into the mix too just for kicks.

Horton Family Valentine

I did all kinds of crazy stuff on this layout. I attempted a sort of flower with some Fabrips from Studio Calico. I misted those cute chipboard hearts from Jenni Bowlin with some October Afternoon sprinklers, and added some little pearl buttons to the center of each heart on the border sticker along the left side of the page. I also incorporated some stamp images along the border and behind and around the title. I had a lot of fun with this layout.



Supplies: patterned paper - Crate Paper, My Mind's Eye, Lily Bee Designs, Jillibean; tag - Pebbles; stickers - American Crafts, October Afternoon, Crate Paper twine - Doodlebug; fabrips (flower)and stamps - Studio Calico; button - October Afternoon; ink - Jenni Bowlin, Colorbox, October Afternoon; pearls - Recollections; chipboard hearts - Jenni Bowlin

Back soon with more! Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Special Delivery

Well, I'd intended to get my Valentine's projects up starting on the first, but sometimes life gets too busy and gets in the way despite our best plans!

My wonderful girlfriend, Lisa, sent me these gorgeous flowers for our first Valentine's Day last year. That meant so much to me! So, of course, I had to feature them on a layout.

Special Delivery

I used one of the cool envelopes and one of the stationary papers from Studio Calico's January "Kissing Booth" kit. I also added some splatters of spray ink to the background, which made me happy. You can also see a photo peeking out from behind the envelope. This was the close up of the card addressed to me at my place of business, so for obvious reasons, thought that information was best kept private! ;)



Supplies: Several items are from the Studio Calico January kits and I don't know their specific origin, but I will research it and update when I fing out. stickers - Sticko, October Afternoon; spray ink - October Afternoon; Wood Veneer Alpha, stamps - Studio Calico; ink - Stampin' Up, Colorbox

Overall, this was a pretty simple page, but I like the overall soft feel of it.

Stayed tuned for more Valentine's Day layouts and things between now the 14th!

Thanks again for reading and all your positive comments and support!