Heck with California Girls — check out these Island Girls!

My sister’s summer visits are always fun-filled, especially when we get time to spend at the beach or in the pool. This photo was from a couple years ago during a visit to Ron Jons Resort in Cape Canaveral. The girls had their hair braided. Just loved this photo of Kai and Lauren stopping for a quick pic taken between hopping into the pool and floating on the lazy river!

I loved the dimension the flocking and chipboard added to this layout. I will share with you some cool things to try with your Glue Arts Ribbon Adhesive and Wall Art Decor Adhesive.

This is a close up view showing how I directly applied Ribbon Adhesive to the layout with glitter on top to create this shimmery line. These Me and My Big Ideas Sassy Icons chipboard elements were pre-glittered, but if you have some basic chipboard and want to glitz it up, try covering it with cardstock or painting it and using rub-ons, then apply Glue Arts’ Wall Art Decor Adhesive on top and sprinkle with glitter to add shimmer to your project!

Wall Art Decor Adhesive is also great for applying to the back of papers and cardstock before cutting on your Cricuit, Silhouette or other diecutting machine. It makes applying titles and delicate cuts so much easier (as you see in this detail shot above).

This flocked design accent was created using a new product I found called Design Adhesives by Clear Snap. The designs are sold in packs of 4. I found it at Michaels Craft Store. I used Summer Lovin’ Flock by Stampendous. How it works is you apply the design to your project, then remove the protective sheet to expose the adhesive design. Add glitter, flocking or even sand to create a great design accent. Keep in mind that the background color you are applying it to can alter the color of your flock, glitter, etc. I liked the stark contrast of using this summery palette of colors against the rich chocolate brown cardstock. I printed all the journaling out on my color printer onto some colored cardstock. I cut into strips using my Fiskars trimmer and used my Glue Glider™ Pro with high tac adhesive to apply to the scrapbook layout.

Give these tips and products a try on your next creation!

Mother’s Day Stitchery

Yesterday I finished up on some Mother’s Day cards I made using my newest digi stamp set called “Sew” Long Flowers. I am providing a link to my sample album for this set and samples of the Mom Stitched Verse freebie that I told you about in yesterday’s post. If you click on the card photo you can read a description of what I used and how I created these. They are also in the photo gallery on MyGrafico so be sure to check them out and leave me comments. Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek. Be sure to check out the other samples! These cards, below, use the cute patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket’s Earth Love Mini Deck papers. I also posted some tips in my photo descriptions on using Glue Arts adhesives for attaching some of the 3-D elements.

It’s Still Spring, Isn’t It?

With temps expected to reach 90’s this weekend, I had to check that it is still Springtime!???

This card was created using some beautiful papers from Karen Foster Design. I love the muted tones on this, which made it extra fun to use with my new Stampin’ Up!® Sizzlits die. It is so fun to use to create mini butterflies, and since it is also an embossing die, I love the textures, too. Don’t you? I used a scrap of white card stock embossed with my mini dot cuttlebug die and used my scallop border punch in succession to create the bottom detail. I often forget to use my little clips from SU, but I paired with a ribbon on this Thank You card. To assemble this card, I used my Glue Glider Pro with high tac adhesive and some mini adhesive squares to attach the smaller items to my card. Here is close shot to show you more detail on the layered elements...

Leave me a note to let me know what you think!

A Card for A Craft Idol

American Idol is in full swing and it got me to thinking about how I actually got to meet and eventually become friends with one of my crafting idols, Susan Stringfellow. You see as I go go through my scrap and stamp magazines and find projects I REALLY like, I always check out who the designer is. More often than not the name was Susan Stringfellow. I was a huge, anonymous fan of her work so imagine my surprise when our worlds collided when designing for Inque Boutique. Susan and I have kept in touch and share projects and inspiration whenever we can via email and our blogs. Now the real dilmena...I wanted to send her a surprise along with a card. Talk about intimidating! I finally let go of trying to create the most fantastic Susan worthy card and sent one that reflected my style. Here is the card. I used papers from Me & My Big Ideas Sassy specialty CS pad, fiskars scallop heart punch an old hostess set of occasions verses for the greeting, flourish set from Autumn Leaves and this cool new wood mounted rubber stamp flourish from Inkadinkado that I used over top of the two side hearts. I used black and pixie pink ink from SU.

P.S. She liked the valentine surprise and the card!