My first CARDS publication

I am thrilled today! My first CARDS publication is finally here (well, actually not here here, but on the way). I had the sweet Stephanie at Crafty Steals check to see if my card was in it (what if it wasn't????), especially because all the buttons I used were part of a bundle I got from her shop - and because I just couldn't wait!!!! I can tell you the poor guy who delivers my packages from the skybox will have a hard time these days!

In the meantime, I am getting my first Art Studio class ready to go! It is so exciting to be working on every single detail, making sure everything is just right for every student to enjoy the experience. I will be giving away a free seat and some stash you will need for the class soon, and I will have a discount code for any of my readers who wants to join the class, so keep checking!

A card with a white background and International Scrapbooking Month!!!

The latest feature at Practical Scrappers is cards with a white background. I had so much fun creating this card!

I mostly used bits and pieces from My Mind's Eye's Follow your Heart collection, which is my favourite from last month's Scraproom kit. I love the colours, the design, it is all striking. The paper ribbon is SC, just a few pieces I had left. I loved that ribbon, so easy to crumple. The white background is embossed, but you cannot see it in that picture, so here is a close-up:

Don't miss the rest of the cards at Practical Scrappers. And if you are feeling like having some fun, check International Scrapbooking Month at Let's Scrap HERE.

See you soon card

Hi, my friends, it has been some time since I posted something in my blog, and I am sorry to have taken so long, but I have been getting ready for my Art Studio classes so, though I have been scrapping a lot, I don't have anything to share with you.

Today, I would like to share a card I made for Practical Scrappers' embossing feature.  

I really love this card in real life, though it was quite hard to take a good pic. I used ultra thick embossing enamel instead of regular embossing powder, as I love the enamel's bumpy look. It is a trifold card, as we are giving it to a friend who is moving, and lots of people will sign it, so we needed extra space. The envelope is embossed with white enamel, too. There are some fabulous embossed cards at Practical Scrappers today, click HERE to have a look at them.

This month, the Art Studio is preparing to launch. There's not much I can share with you yet, but I know there are great things coming! I'm sure you'll love the variety and quality of classes to be offered, and I have heard there will be contests and prizes coming, so if you don't want to miss a thing, go to SNR and click on Log In to register. It won't take much time but I can promise you it will be worth it!

March cards for Scrapbook Supplies Online

If you are here for the March giveaway, 

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80.

please click HERE.

I have already created layouts and a handbag box with my box of supplies from Scrapbook Supplies Online, so now it was time for cards. I had a neck spasm last Friday and couldn't get the meds I needed till Monday, so it took long to feel better. I had a great massage yesterday and now I feel like new, but I haven't scrapped much, as I couldn't sit for long without feeling my head weighed a ton!

For my first card I wanted to use a "flourish with a bling" that I got with my design materials. It is made by an Australian company, and it looks so lovely I had to make it the centre of my card. I had just seen a fabulous long and thin card created by my very talented friend Cathy Harper, and decided to give my card the same kind of look. If you want to take a look at some other Flourish with a bling products carried by Scrapbook Supplies Online, you can click HERE. 

The second card is a very clean one, with a focus on the banner with the word GIRL. I really like how this one turned out!

Remember, the March challenge is still on at Scrapbook Supplies Online, and you can get one of two 25$ gift certificates!

Cupcake wars!

If you are here for the March giveaway, 

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80.

please click HERE.

Well, no, not a war, but I couldn't resist the temptation to call my post so! My daughter loves Cupcake Wars, she says it is a "mommy and little daughter" show, and we watch it together if we ever find it earlier in the day. What I created is simply a shaped cupcake card. I was going to buy a cupcake shape from the Silhouette store (they have the cutest shaped cards) but I am working in my living room these days so I can be closer to my daughter (you should see the mess!) and as I didn't want to bring my Silhouette all the way here, I ended up drawing it myself:

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I used My Little Shoebox paper, chipboard letters and flowers, some trim, and lots of glitter+pearlescent embossing powder. This card was created for Practical Scrappers' shaped cards feature; there are some fabulous shaped cards created by the DT and readers, go and have a look!

As I said in my previous post, I have signed up for Pinerly this weekend. To be honest, I am not really sure what it is, but it sounds interesting and I'd like to check it out. The only way to do it at the moment is to have friends click on your link, so if you are interested and have a few minutes to spare, please click HERE. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a very productive week!

Scrapbook Supplies Online's March challenge

If you are here for the March giveaway, 

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80.

please click HERE.

If you saw this post yesterday and then came back and couldn't find it, it was not a trick of your imagination, but rather a trick of my iPad. I saw a typo in the title last night, and while I corrected it I somehow erased the whole post! So here I go again.

It was a scary week in our house, as our little daughter caught dengue fever, which you get byt being bitten by an infected mosquito. It is a disease we are not used to,it is dangerous, though not the first time you catch it, and she had so much fever for so many days we didn't know what to do. In fact, all we could do was sit next to her and try to comfort her. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. Anyway, she is feeling better now, she's not going to school yet to make sure she's strong enough to fight any bugs in the air, but she is having a great time at home!

Today I'd like to share with you the projects I created for this month's challenge at Scrapbook Supplies Online. The first one is a very simple layout, I flipped the sketch and converted some of the photos to sepia to match the page next to it in the album. 

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The second project is a card. This month's sketch had weaved paper strips, and I decided it would be a good idea to stitch the strips instead. It was very time consuming but it was something I could do while sitting next to my daughter watching yet another episode of My Little Pony! I really love how the stitching turned out.

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Now I am back to scrapping I will soon have more projects to share with you, I am working with the This and That collection by Echo Park for Scrapbook Supplies Online and it is totally yummy, so I can't wait to share my projects with you. If you want a chance to win one of two 25$ gift certificates, upload your projects based on this month's sketches to the gallery.

I have signed up for Pinerly this weekend. To be honest, I am not really sure what it is, but it sounds interesting and I'd like to check it out. The only way to do it at the moment is to have friends click on your link, so if you are interested and have a few minutes to spare, please click HERE. Hope you have a very productive week!

Pinterest challenge and Happy Go Lucky card

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

I have a couple of projects to share with you today. The first one is a card I created using Let's Scrap's sketch from last week. I have been meaning to create a crowded and layered banner for some time, and this was the right sketch for it:

The second project is a double layout. Oh, I find double pagers soooooo hard, but I need to finish my sister's album; I've been working on it for too long and I have just a few pages left, so I started going through my favourite sites for some mojo. I ended up playing with Club CK's February Pinterest Challenge, using this image for inspiration:

Here is my layout, I'm not sure if I love it or hate it, it changes every time I look at it (does that happen to you, too?), but at least it is done! 

I tried to re-create the frames using cardboard, gesso and inks. There is some journalling space for my sister to complete, and a couple of tiny frames add an extra touch to the title. And only 8 pages to finish now!

Remember I am sponsoring this week's challenge at Sketch Inspiration, and giving away this lovely prize to a randomly picked winner. You need to go and play!!!!

Also, I will be having a big giveaway in March to celebrate my blog's new look with this fantastic prize so don't forget to come back once the contest starts and leave a comment for a chance to win!!!

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80. 

Candy wrappers?

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

This week Practical Scrappers challenged designers and readers to create a project using candy wrappers. Perfect for this month, right? Who doesn't have candy wrappers after Valentine's day? The fact is we don't have any candy at home as my daughter suffers from acid reflux and candy is a big acid trigger for her. So I had to go and buy some candy just for this project (yummy!!!!). Can you guess where the wrappers are in this card?

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Yes, you've guessed correctly, I used the wrapper to cover the heart on this tag I got from the Silhouette store. I then used some leftover ribbon and metal embellies to decorate the rest of the card. Love the way it turned up, so I may have to buy more candy for other projects in the future!

Remember I will be having a big giveaway in March to celebrate my blog's new look with this fantastic prize so don't forget to come back once the contest starts and leave a comment for a chance to win!!!

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80. 

February sketches - Scrapbook Supplies Online

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

I promised yesterday I would take pics of my projects as soon as the sun started to shine, and here they are. I like the card picture better than the one I took last night because it shows the card's real colours. I'm not very happy with the layout pics. Every once in a while I have a photography crisis with layouts and cards, and then things seem to get better, so I'm just waiting for this one to pass and for me to feel better about the pictures I take of my projects!!! 

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I got the sketches for the card and layout on Tuesday night. On that day, my wonderful grandfather turned 90. I rarely miss home as I keep in touch with the people I love and I accept that moving, changing, and being away from home is part of the lifestyle we've chosen, but I really wished I could have been home to give my grandpa a big hug on that night. So when I got the sketch, I looked at the papers on my rack and saw the empty chairs, and I immediately knew what I wanted to do! I am really happy with how the grey and yellow work in this card.

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I promise you this layout looks much better in real life!!! These are pictures of my daughter in Stockholm chasing some "ducks". They were not actually ducks, as you can see in the pictures, but that is what they were for her, and she loved it. I thought this Amy Tangerine paper was perfect for the sketch:

However, there was a problem.... the heart was not pointing the right way for my layout! I just cut it, sewed a circle of patterned paper on top of the hole, and then re-placed the heart and camera on top!

Instead of the butterflies in the sketch I used hearts, and I remembered I had a little duck left from some October Afternoon patterned paper, and it was the perfect touch for this page!

And remember, one random winner will be picked from among all the people who post their projects made using these sketches, and will get a 25$ GC to spend in the shop! You can post your layouts and cards by going to the GALLERY, registering, and uploading to this month's challenge folder. Hope you are the lucky winner!

Punched squares

This week's challenge at the Create:Blog is to use punched squares. It was a very easy card to create and it didn't take me long to make it, but boy has it been hard to take a picture of it. I got my new light box yesterday, finished a layout for Practical Scrappers, and the picture looked so great and was so easy to take it was love at first sight. Then, I got this card ready and took a picture, ten pictures, fifty pictures.... none looked right!!!! I tried positioning the lights differently, changing backgrounds, shooting in JPEG and RAW, checking internet sites for tips... nothing worked. This morning I woke up and it was sunny so I decided to just take the card outside and do it the usual way. Not good, either! By then, I started to go &%^%*$)#)# and went back and played with the light box a little longer. This is the best I could do, not totally like the real life version, still not clear enough, the colours still off, but I have spent enough time taking that picture and it is time to move on. Not sure I will make the Create:Blog's deadline, but at least I'll give it a try!

Love birds - Rolled paper heart

Hi! Today I have a card to share, which I've just made for the Create: blog's challenge for this week: using rolled paper on your cards. I've loved those beautiful rolled paper Christmas tree cards we've seen this year, but I didn't feel like creating a Christmas card right now, so I decided to go for a different shape and made a rolled paper heart. I used all scraps from my "tiny scraps box" so I am VERY happy.

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After I created the heart (and it took me several attempts), I used my Silhouette to cut the beautiful Lori Whitlock birds that I then pieced and embellished, and finally added some very, very old American Crafts ribbon with the word LOVE as a sentiment. 

I have several projects that I have finished these days but cannot be posted yet because of DT reveal deadlines and such, so there will be lots of new projects in the following weeks if you'd like to come and have a look.

Brrrrr... winter's here!!!

Well, winter is actually NOT here. It is about 30°C, or 86°F, as every other day!!!! When I moved, I thought I would not like this unchanging weather, but it really makes life oh so easy, I have changed my mind. I do miss a little bit of winter, though, so today's feature at Practical Scrappers was my chance to bring some snow this way! It is an acrylic card, so it was extremely difficult to photograph, something else I need to learn how to do...

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Another project I'd like to share is one I created using the left side of this week's sketch at Let's Scrap. It is another wedding layout, including family pics. The pics were quite grainy and I couldn't make them look the way I wanted, so I finally went for a vintage look using picnik, and I think it was really the right choice, as the photos now look great.

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I love the fact that I could finally use those feathers I had had for ages!!!! Here is a list of supplies for this layout:

Paper: K&Memories

Paper Flowers: they came in a kit, but I think they are Prima

Ribbon flower: Maya Road

Feathers: Little Yellow Bicycle

Doilies: from a kit

Rick Rack: from a haberdashery in Tripoli

Tag: from a kit

Stickers: My Mind's Eye, Amy Tangerine

Clip: Amy Tangerine

Letter stickers: American Crafts for Studio Calico

Glue: Glue Glider Pro

Finally, a little piece of news. Somebody in this house is finally learning to ride without training wheels (and somebody else is getting fit just by running behind to make sure she does not fall!!!). Little big moments of life. Love them all.

Have a happy new year and kiss the cook!!!!

I have been cooking so much lately with this 5 day Christmas holiday and 4 day New Year's holiday we've had that I really deserve to be kissed, and hugged, and, especially, taken to a fabulous restaurant to enjoy somebody else's cooking! I have had lots of hugs and kisses so I cannot complain about that part, and I will be lying on a hotel beach chair pretty soon and I will just have to ask for a waiter to bring me something yummy when I get hungry, so I can't complain about that either. So, instead of complaining, I will share with you the projects I have created using Freehand Scrap's A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y S-C-R-U-M-P-T-I-O-U-S January kit: Kiss the cook!

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I got inspired for this one with those yummy Ormolu day swatches, after that it was just a matter of printing the tiny pics and sewing the grid. Easy peasy!

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One of DD's favourite activities at the moment is taking her dolls for a ride in her car. I thought the cute boy, girl and animal figures in the October Afternoon paper were just right for the playful tone I wanted to give this layout.

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Lots of paper strips on this layout, and I love the effect. The kit included a long denim strip that I used in different ways in several projects, and there will be a feature on it at Freehand Scraps' blog coming soon!

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I used part of the denim to create this banner, too. And I also used some more cute little boy and girl figures, I think they make a pretty birthday card.

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These little metal elements are some of the cutest things I've seen in a long time. The funny thing, I would never have bought them myself. First of all, they do not look too good in the online store's picture. And also, I tend to think  lot about whether I am going to use the stuff or not before I buy it, and I'm not sure they would have passed the usefulness test considering the pictures I need to scrap right now. But they are SO BEAUTIFUL once I saw them I knew I had to use them up!!!! And I am seriously thinking of buying a second pack. Don't think I can live without them!!!!Oh, and I forgot to say this card is based on a Let's Scrap sketch.

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This little booklet is meant to hold just a few recipes. Sometimes you have a friend over who likes some of your recipes and will ask you for them, I think it would be so nice to include them in this little booklet instead of just printing them out!!!! The fabulous digi stamp is actually a little tennis player I got for free here and modified a little to turn her into a cook. This is my favourite project from this month, I just love the way it turned out and it was so simple, too! I hope you have enjoyed these projects, check Freehand Scraps if you want a Kiss the Cook kit of your own!

I hope you have a fabulous 2012, full of projects, hugs, and dreams come true.

Pop-up trees

Today I'd like to share with you a couple of pop-up trees I created for the fabulous a-Christmas-project-a-day feature at Practical Scrappers, one using the Sizzix die, and a simpler one you can print and make without any machines. 

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Pin It If you'd like to have a look at tutorials and printable templates, please visit my Practical Scrappers' post. Merry Christmas to you all!

Chubby Penguins

The beginning of the month always brings with it a reveal! This month I am happy to share with you the projects I have created using Chubby Penguins, the absolutely fabulous December kit. 

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I love this picture we took when we were staying at the Disneyland hotel in Disneyland Paris. The rooms were not as good as we expected, they lacked that Disney feel, but the Hotel Lobby was magical. It was also a very cold holiday, so these papers were just right for the picture.  I created a tree using the tags in the kit and my sewing machine. It is one of my faves from this month. Those glitter photo corners were a great addition to the kit, too!

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And what can be better than starting Christmas morning by hugging Mickey Mouse? This was a very easy layout to create using the die cut strips that came with the kit, but I felt it needed a special touch, so I doodled a string of Christmas lights all around the page using my white marker.

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For this layout I fussy cut the ornaments in one of the patterned papers in the kit, and made shaker boxes with them. They were a very easy way to make the layout stand out.

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This folded tree card was very easy to make using this folded tree template: http://inkspiredtreasures.com/cards/stamping-411-folded-christmas-tree/. And the Christmas lights in the kit can make any tree look fab!

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Love, love, love the extra touches that always come in Freehand Scraps kits. This month's included this textured paper that brought a ton of possibilities to my mind. In the end I decided to leave it unaltered and use it as a snowy background, but I sure wish I had had more to experiment with!

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Last, but not least, Christmas tags. These are double tags, they have one of the kit's tags in the background and a patterned paper tag with a punched out (actually hand cut, my tree punch was not big enough) Christmas tree on the front. They were an immediate success with my daughter, who asked to have them for the Christmas gifts she is preparing. I haven't seen them since.

Hope you enjoyed looking at these projects, you can visit Freehand Scraps to have a look at all the projects in the gallery and get yourself one of these fantastic Chubby Penguins kits!