Celebrating Spring!

 The sun was shining brightly enough for us to set up our lawn chairs and table with umbrella for an afternoon card making session this afternoon, huzzah!

Here's one of the messy cards we'll be creating in week two of my Seasonal Greeters cardmaking class at TCC's Gig Harbor campus. After embossing the Celebrate sentiment, we dragged it through a mix of Tim Holz Distress Inks misted with water. The watercolor effect around the edges is dreamy and I love how the raised image picks up those same variations in color. A spray inked back ground and washi tape borders and added punches of star shapes make this a fun and festive card just right for a summer birthday or wedding.

 

Vivid Art Journalling

Late this summer I began dabbling in the exploration of my messier feelings with a gifted set of Tsukineko inks. These first attempts are also helping me to accept the forgotten idea of it being ok for things not to look "pretty."
In fact, it seems these more visceral creations let loose within the pages of an uncompleted planner allowed me to express those "un-pretty" stressors in a way that I could then see as beautiful for their lessons... art at its core can be seen as an evolvment for both the artist and the viewer within me.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

Guesting on Shimelle.com with Washi Tape Tricks

I've always been drawn to washi tape. Ever since it's debut, I've enjoyed it's versatility, layering it beneath and over patterned and plain papers, using it to adhere or cover embellishments, adding a bit of grounding to a cluster or a pop of color to a corner with a tiny tear of fabulousness. You know how sometimes a bout of inspiration hits you so hard, you almost get a vision of how your layout might turn out? After a recent washi-swap, I came home with a clear but now colorful acetate sheet of shared strips, and it occurred to me; those punches and branding strips I hoard but rarely use could be used in a new fangled washi way to create some cool, custom embellishments and layers on this page documenting a recent road trip with my family. Lucky for me, all these little doo-dads came together just as I had envisioned it :-) 

Thanks a lot to Shimelle.com for asking me to guest artist on her blog today!  

P-p-p-punch it, punch it real good!

 I started by spritzing Mr. Huey's in Opaque White onto textured orange cardstock, and while that was drying, I cut a double photo mat for my photo from the A and B sides of Shimelle's Earhart and a square block that would be hidden by that photo grouping from the background. I'm a #papersaver; it'd be used later to customize an already cute chipboard shape with stamping and a layered die cut globe image by Tim Holz. I love to make my sheets go the distance, what can I say!? 

Cluster of Embellies at top right of page

Now for some more fun; alternating those branding strips from Simple Stories' I Am collection with WeR Memory Keepers aptly named Road Trip, and more left overs from Shimelle's first delightful line of papers. From among my new washi tape treasures, I tried punching some sentimentally appropriate hearts from a wide gold polka dot pattern of tape and the new We Are Family washi tape strips, also from Simple Stories. I ended up using a popular EK Success border punch with a thinner black and white polka. It's awesome when we can use those tried and true tools and still get excited, no?

 

So many details in such a small space

 In some places you can see the paper background peeking through- Love that look! However, when placing the photo block over all of those horizontal lines, I felt there wasn't the kind of balance going on that leaves me feeling satisfied, so I added weight to the photo by cutting into a photo strip printed overlay, also from Shimelle, and layered that into my photo mat block. To fulfill my visual triangle needs, there is a cluster at the bottom left and top right which echoes many of the sentiments expressed elsewhere in this page's embellishments. By the time I handwrote part of the title and laid down those gorgeous American Crafts Imprint Thickers, I knew this would be a treasured layout, even without a lot of details provided through journaling.  

In Tegan Skwiat's example, she used plain paper to back her tape before punching, and I'll be honest, the clear acetate sheet did not give me a clean look- and I'm okay with that. Just like using ephemera and products with brand names that relate to my story, having a bit of the imperfect represented on this layout reminds me more of my "why" for celebrating this fun day alongside my mom and brother with a place in my scrapbook. It was our first road trip together, just the three of us, in ages, and I enjoyed it so much. The creative energy we ended up sharing, the laughter, seeing my brother trying not to enjoy making greeting cards and shopping for scrapbooking supplies, the unwanted advice-giving, ... yep, these are the perfectly imperfect moments that I want to remember in my family's (many, many) albums. 

Sing it with me now, "We Are Fam-i-ly...:
Photo Credit: Kelsey Brown

 

 Pop over to Shimelle's site and take a look at my finished page. And, craft happy, friends!

 

 

 

April EmbellishKits.com Card Kit Completed and the Best Ever Bonus Projects!

Limitless Creative Optins enclosed
in the April 2015 card kit from EmbellishKits.com

 Oh Boy, when I opened my package from Shelby at Embellish It! and saw the April Kit Club inside, my heart skipped a beat at the amount of Spring colored happiness contained within. As I showed in this month's Review, the Wild Berry Jubilee collection from My Mind's Eye features a mix of soft coral reds, bright fuchsia pink, juniper and lime greens against a startling black.
Bold tribal patterns and delicate florals offer a contrast that I found easy to mix and match, and it wasn't long before all eight cards in my EmbellishKits.com April 2015 Card Kit were complete. The hardest part was not keeping them all as art! I could easily imagine a few of them in small black frames highlighting my entryway.

Today- Best Day Ever
Birthay

Let's start with card number one, "Today- Best Day Ever." As you could see in the video, there were definitely some die cuts that would change the look and sentiment of this card with minimal effort. And, if you make a boo-boo when following directions, a little washi can go a long way!

Graffiti Floral
Thank You

Next up was a card that I took a few more liberties with. The graffiti paper used in the "Graffiti Floral" card was speaking to my scrapbooking side. So many of the sentiments echoed the memories I brought back from my recent trip to Tenamaxtlan, Mexico. If you've been following along on my blog, or care to go back and read my musings, you'll now that my father accompanied  me and showed me a lot of the surrounding area, including different plots of cattle grazing land he owns. As I searched through the die cut ephemera pack included with this kit for those large tropical flowers, I happened upon those photo frames. One is empty and the other shows a prairie- like scene that was perfect for this thank you card I ended up creating.  I have found that men do enjoy receiving cards, but you know how a stoic man reacts when a little emotion is thrown at them, so I chose the slightly distressed soft coral solid to contrast with the Bazzil black cardstock base and tribal border. Now that "sweet" little die cut sentiment just blends right in. Don't you love how the black shows through behind the flowers, too? I continued the contrasting theme inside as well by using my white gel pen to express my gratefulness at such an emotionally impacting trip south.

Hello
Card for a Friend

On a brighter note, I've begun sending my cards via text and facebook messenger images! Sometimes you just want to say "Hello," and this 6x6" turquoise blue Bazzil backed card is a super-sized way to do so.
Take a closer look at that strip of green and you'll realize it's a little translucent. That's because it's not made with the suggested strip of paper, it's the same washi tape I used in the review video! Click on the word "washi" in the search column to the right for more ways to use this cool tool.
Since I'd used that "beautiful" die cut on my TeneMeme card, I chose the tribal diamond strip instead. A little snip on one side makes this small piece appear to stretch across the entire card front now. I put some foam adhesive under the hello square for some extra pop against that busy background. But I didn't stop there... oh no, I brought the party to the inside too! A card this big can be a little intimidating to fill, and this side piece will nicely contain a moderate amount of wording and still cover the card space.

So Cute
Birthday

You know, I used to write for an awesome magazine called DieCutCrazy, and working with all these die cuts, pulling them in and out of the package, and trying to keep all those tiny pieces together was making me feel a little reminiscent of those days, so I decided to go all out and create my own card front filling design based on the example photo for card number four, "So Cute."
It may be a little difficult for you to find my card at the bottom left here, just click on any of the images here on my blog and they will appear in a larger window. Go ahead, click and come back. Or, read, and then click, and then come back lol.
I used 15+ pieces! As if all that pattern wasn't busy enough, I added a sprinkle of green glitter ink splatters too. It was really liberating, playing with the shapes, and once I had my basic grid down, layering the hearts, circles, and that lovely flower on the top put me in such a festive mood that I decided this card could be for a birthday, or maybe for a gardener's baby!

Oh My
Thank You/Hello

I already shared a bit about my trip to Mexico, but maybe you didn't go and read that the reason for my trip was to visit my nearly 97 year old grandmother, Balvina. I have always wanted to see her again (last time was literally a life time ago- mine!) but it was mi Tia Natividad who sent me my grandmother's love in letter form so many times over the last couple of years. I know that she and her son read a lot of my postings here, but she needs a special thank you card. I grounded the typewriter on a piece of woodgrain washi tape, selected an Anna-appropriate sentiment and made it appear to be coming from the paper spool. My baker's twine travelled up to the top right and is also layered on a strip of leftover floral print. The addition of an airplane motif flair badge from Queen & Co. to card number 5, "Oh My!" makes this the perfect way to send a story of happiness and my thanks for her encouragement. The stickers, twine, and buttons you see embellishing these cards all came in this month's kit as well!
 Did you know that I have a second video cardmaking tutorial for this month's kit? Click on the Mr. and Mrs. card here and a new window will pop up for your viewing pleasure. On a side note/afterthought, this would be a great card for a Mr. & Mr. or Mrs. & Mrs. too :-) You know, I could have used that "Love" rub for the inside greeting on this card, but instead, it went on another project!
As I mentioned in the video, I try not to measure as much as possible when I'm in "the zone." I have to admit there are times when a ruler does come in handy, though, like when you are planning to use one piece of paper multiple ways. The first card and this card share that paint brush stroked background, and the instruction sheets included with each of embellish it's! kits contain all those hand cutting guides to let us know precisely where to cut. Score!



Card number seven, "You + Me," is so cute, the only change I made was to the orientation, from portrait to landscape. Well, I guess that wasn't the ONLY thing different, I also added those rub on heart shapes and an enamel dot to bring the focus to the sentiment. Here's a fun trick you can try; add some depth to your circular die cuts by punching the middle out and adding a pop dot to the back. POW! Now that's a blue ribbon embellishment!
By the time I got to the last card for this kit, I was feeling so much of that bright and cheery fun from all that color. This set of brightly colored greetings wouldn't be complete without a congratulatory "Awesome!" After all, what comes along before the traditional summer wedding season? Graduations!
These multi-colored shapes remind me of the Volcom logo, so I geared this card towards a skate boarding teen. If you're ever in a creative rut, try visualizing a stereotypical recipient or viewer, and then work on incorporating elements that that imaginary person would enjoy.
 Isn't this card rad, man? The rub on really does most of the work for me, it even included ink splatters, so my fingers stayed clean. Our full-color example shows the same button and black twine combo popping against all those angles in the background. I substituted an trimming of the turquoise blue Bazzill cardstock in place of the black triangles print, add some enamel dots in an assortment of the same colors shown in the background, and then dug into my alphabet stash for the canvas u, R, and the smooth white asterisk thicker. Then I messaged it over to a friend I made on my cruise last month, because, new friends are Awesome!
I'm going to make a judgment call here and say that this blog post didn't take long enough to load... in other words, here are some more pictures!
 

With just a few additional patterns pulled from my extensive paper stash, I used a lot of my left over kit pieces to capture the visual flavors of that family reunion I had just experienced. As mentioned above, the graffiti print paper held  many sentiments I could use, "on this day" for the morning my sister, grandmother, and I enjoyed prepping lunch together. It may have been a once in a life time opportunity (but I sure hope not)! "Having A Blast" for the afternoon my father and I watched a volcano erupt before our matching brown cattle-ropin' eyes. "Remember the Good Times" for another first- mi Tio Gonzalo y mi Tia Carmen embracing in la concina de mi abuela. And "You are the Best" for a gorgeous close up of my grandmother's ancient, wizened face.  She really was as sweet as could be!
Pocket pages can be a fun way to enclose a lot of pictures in just a pages. I have found that if I photo collage a few groupings, I can get an entire weeks worth of memories captured in just a few moments. But of course, coordinated papers and embellishments like the ones in this month's card kit from embellish it! make it all very easy as well.  Thanks for joining me for this month's card share post from the April 2015 card kit from EmbellishKits.com.
Watch the video version, and subscribe here on the blog if you're not doing so already...It's always a joy for me to have you stopping by to CraftWithAnna!

Anatomy of a Late Night Scrap Sesh

Late at night when the kids are in bed, I like to have Ray select a few photos for some "Scrapbook Starts." That's my little nickname for these pages I start and don't usually complete right away. You'll notice these examples are pretty basic... they'll be spruced up sometime today, but here's a peek into my late night creative process!

I generally start with the photo itself. Thinking of a basic title, or the story I want the photo to tell helps me get into the mood to gather my supplies. The chosen photo or story may also influence the colors or theme of papers I'm shopping my stash for. It really helps to take the photo to the paper stored in our craft room; you can pretty easily tell what "goes" (and doesn't ) by holding the photo up to a few selections. There can be surprise pairings of patterns that emerge as my creative engines begin to turn over!

Next, I reach for add-ons like stickers or die cuts that I may have thought of while looking at the photo or searching for a background. The way I have my embellishments stored makes this a really easy thought to page process. Check out this tour of my craft room for a glimpse at one of the ways I've had my space organized. I look for either matching colors, a theme that fits, a phrase to use as a title, or maybe just something shiny that needs to be used.

I recently overhauled my die cut storage system, and along with my August Product of the Month Challenge and wanting to use more of my old stuff up this year, I'm hereby announcing that my product of the month will be... Die Cuts! On August 15th my fellow contributors to DieCutCrazy and I will be hosting another Blog Hop, so watch for that! Last night I got into my circa 2009 Storytellers collections and chose this "Delightful" set that went well with the photos and papers I'd chosen. The great thing about their die cuts is that they already look layered and embellished, so sprucing them up is not actually needed, but very easy to do. See how I layered photo corners over those already on the background patterned paper above? And in the layout below, I simply added paper flowers, and used my exact-o knife to cut out a small part of the design to layer on top for added dimension. There were more than enough pieces to spread across two pages that will go side by side in my album, so I put the extras into a new kit, made from papers I'd thought of using but didn't. I  mean, why put them away when I can use them for another late night crop session?! 

So sometimes, on simple pages like those two, I can add a few finishing touches that bring them nearly to "enter the album" stage. Touches like the brads in the centers of the flowers, or the hand drawn blackberry vines with custom blended ink splatter berries. Touches like the eyelets on those punched circles, or inking the edges to make the white core disappear.

On the page to the right, I chose a package of Glitz Design's cardstock stickers to embellish my layout. You can see the page is still lacking- nothing is holding the banner together, there is no title or journaling, and frankly, it's hard to tell what the story behind my holding a large gun with a gleeful smile is. And guess what, it's totally okay that the page is incomplete! I fully intend to go back in and put those finishing touches on sometime today or later this week.

In the meantime, I may think of a much better title (although, "Annie Get Your Gun" will be hard tobeat), I may change the angle of the story I want to tell, or add variegated yarn instead of black twine as I intended... the choices are all still there, but I can make them in the my actual craft room,during daylight hours easier than late in front of the tv, on a card table set up by the sofa at night. On the other hand, I sometimes find that I'm really okay with how it looks and I just add a quick dash of fiber and journaling to get it in the album pronto. These simple pages add a different visual element to albums that can almost become monotonous in all their embellishments and details. As long as those pictures are getting printed and/or our stories are being told, there's no "wrong" way to scrapbook!

So theres a peek into my late night creative process... now you know why I'm posting photos of my work to facebook at 12:23 am! Let me know, how do you maximize your creative energy? Do you have a little routine that makes it easier to craft in a jiffy? Leave a comment below, mark your calendar for August 15th's DieCutCrazy blog hop, and as always, thanks for reading!

ATC Ready to Win!

Artist Trading Cards- or Prize Winning tickets?

If you got one of these paper gems from myself or from The Paper Wizard's booth at the Puyallup Scrapbook Expo, or saw my post through facebook, instagram, or Twitter, and wound up here, you're in luck! Simply leave a comment below before July's end, and you could be a winner! Drawn at random from a hat, the recipient may choose from either a card or scrapbook layout made by me, and I will mail it out pronto. As promised in my last post, your envelope will be beautifully decorated as well.
Your prize inside will feature a multi-layer die cut. Don't know what a die cut is? or perhaps looking for some inspiration on how to use them? Take a look at the latest edition of DieCutCrazy, a digital magazine full of terrific tutorials, product reviews, and tons of photos of projects from around the world. All for just 0.99! Search for it in your Apple store or just click here.
    The last giveaway I had was for a YouTube milestone, so if you want a bonus entry, subscribe there to my CraftWithAnna channel. Click on the Process Videos tab above for more of my 'tube-ular If you'd like to follow my blog I'd appreciate that as well.
I'm honored you dropped my blog today, and look forward to our drawings end!
-Anna