May Events

Wow!  I cannot believe how fast time flies!  This week, my son finishes up his 3^rd year of college at Texas A&M University and will become officially a Senior!  Kids grow up so fast and it all just goes by in a blur, especially this time of year when there is so much going on.  I was just talking to him on the phone and realizing how much we have going on over the next couple of weeks.  I hope we can get it all done!

Thankfully, we won’t be dealing with graduation this year, but I know many of you are, so you are going to be thrilled to see that our topic for this month’s blog hop is “ConGRADuation”!  That starts on Friday, May 2, and I have three really cute projects for you, so I hope you’ll stop by to check them out!  If you do, please leave a note to let me know you were here!  I’d love to know what you think!

One big project I am dealing with this month is LOAD 514.  I’ve mentioned it before, and I hope you’ll take the time to check it out.  LOAD stands for Layout A Day, and it is one of the most fun and challenging online classes I have ever taken.  Founder Lain Ehman brings us a super fun and inspirational approach to scrapbooking with 31 days of layouts, prompts, and ideas.  Join hundreds of other scrappers in a private gallery where you can show off your work and get inspired by others.  This will be my 6^th LOAD, and I just can’t wait!  It all starts on May 1^st, but it’s not too late for you to join, too!  Just click the link below, and get ready to create lots of layouts in the month of May!

LAYOUT A DAY 514

Look for lots of page layouts this month as I share with you some of my LOAD creations.  I am especially excited that LOAD is kicking off right around National Scrapbook Day, which is Saturday, May 3^rd.  Normally, I would go to a crop or retreat somewhere, but I have family commitments this year, so if I can’t crop with everyone in person, at least I will get to participate online with all the LOADsters!  If you’re in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and you haven't made plans for National Scrapbook Day, then check out the navigation tab above.  There are some really great events going on this weekend!

And speaking of events…many people have been asking, and we finally have a date for our semi-annual Scrapbook Garage Sale!  Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 19!  We’ll be at the Girl Scout office again, Joann Fogg Service Center, 6001 Summerside Drive, Dallas, 75252.  The sale starts at 9AM and ends at 3PM.  Anyone interested in setting up a table to sell can find more information here: 

Scrapbook Garage Sale

That’s it for now!  Come back May 2 for the start of our blog hop!

Chalk Talk

As I was getting my posts ready for the next Craft Squad blog hop, I realized that I have not posted anything on my blog since the last Craft Squad blog hop.  So I figured I needed to sit my bad little self down here at the computer and jot off something quick.  But what should I show you?  If I wanted to make this a truly quick post, it would have to be some project I’ve already made and photographed so I can just upload it real quick. And nothing would fit that bill better than a cute card we made a while back during our monthly 3^rd Wednesday Stamp Club meeting.

Sharon Armstrong, our wonderful Stampin’ Up demonstrator, came up with this chalkboard-style cutie that also happens to be the inspiration for one of my May blog hop projects.

To get this simple chalkboard look on the card, we stamped the sentiment with white pigment ink.  Then we used a sponge to lightly rub a bit of the ink into the black cardstock to make it look like it has been erased.  We also used a white Uniball Signo gel pen to draw some funky lines around the edge of the chalkboard.

That’s it for now.  Be sure to come back for the May hop and see if you can figure out which project this card inspired!

Hoppity Hop Hop

Welcome to The Craft Squad blog hop!  If you hopped in from Stampin’ Inferno, then you are in the right place!  If you just wound up here on your own, then “Howdy”, and welcome to the Crafty Neighbor blog!  For the next few days, this blog will be participating in The Craft Squad blog hop – a little something we do once every month.  This month, our theme is “Hoppity Hop Hop”, and all the participating blogs will be posting projects around that theme.

I had a bit of paper left over from a scrapbook layout I did a while back, and I thought it would be perfect for some Easter cards. I found an egg image on my Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and cut out a few hearts.  I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with them, but I thought I might do something where I used some different techniques.  So I stamped on some of the eggs, I put a few through some embossing folders using my Big Shot, and I even blinged a couple.  I wound up with three cards that are all very different from each other. 

For the first card, I knew that I wanted a bunny of some sort because of the title of our theme, so I found this cutie on the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge.  Rather than cut him in multiple layers, I actually only used two.  I used my Copic markers to color the under-layer so that the colors came through the opening of the top layer.  The grass is a Quickutz die, as is the dragonfly.  The egg was embossed using the Stampin’ Up Decorative Dots embossing folder.  I accented the dots by brushing on some Stampin’ Up Shimmer Paint in Frost White.

The second card I made used the same grass die cut, but I decided it needed some fancy eggs.  I stamped one egg with the floral spray from Stampin’ Up’s Bliss stamp set and then traced lightly over the image with a Gelly Roll glitter pen.  It doesn’t show up well in the picture, but the image has a nice glittery sheen.  I ran the white egg through the Big Shot with a chevron embossing folder and then used Stickles to accent the chevron stripes.  If you notice a little color-wash on it, it’s because I tried to do a light water-coloring technique on it, but it didn’t turn out as I’d planned.  The egg in the center is decorated with some little bling accents I found at Office Depot.

I find scrapbooking supplies in all kinds of crazy places, so I’m always on the lookout for something new.  These were perfect for this egg.  I put one of the larger pieces in the center of the egg, and then used two of the smaller clusters by letting the piece hang off the edge of the egg.  I then cut off the excess and used it on the opposite side of the egg.  “Happy Easter” was from a stamp set I’ve had hanging around for a while.  I punched it out using Stampin’ Up punches.

This last card was my biggest challenge.  I needed to make one more card and I knew I wanted to use the same scraps over again.  I already had several eggs left and I had cut the scalloped circle for the project from yesterday and then decided not to use it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any patterned paper left – I had used it all up!  All I could find were two tiny little strips.  But I was determined to have all three cards come from the same supplies, so after a lot of thought, I decided to cut the two strips into two pieces and use them as a border trim.  I used my Stampin’ Up Very Vintage Stampin’ Around Wheel and some white craft ink, which I then embossed with clear embossing powder.  The effect was this slightly opaque pattern that eliminated the need for patterned paper. 

The bunny also stumped me.  I knew I wanted a bunny peaking over the top of the eggs, but my bunny stamp was just a head and the ears stamp solid on it.  I wanted the bunny outline to be black, but the ears to be shaded pink.  I could do it with a marker directly on the stamp, but I wanted the inside of the ears to have a bit of the black outline, too.  So I stamped the image twice, once in black and once in pink.  I cut the inside of the ear out and glued it down.  Just enough of the black peaks through to give the look of the black outline that I was looking for.  I cut the rest of the head out, flipped it upside down, and used it for the bunny’s body. 

Well that’s it for my cards.  I hope you enjoyed my “Hoppity” projects!  If you like what you see, please subscribe to my blog by using the “Subscribe” buttons on the left and feel free to browse some of my older posts in the Archives and the Topics sections.  Your next stop is the beginning of our hop at Treasure Chest of Memories by Laura Wilkinson.  Be sure to check out all the blogs in our hop and let us know what you think!