Friday, July 31, 2015

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ July Release

This past week has been a whirlwind of getting projects done and I have several things to share with you but first up are two projects featuring Kelly Purkey's July release that just went live today.

The first is a Project Life® spread that I made using her new Out in the Sunshine Kit. I love the tones of colors of this kit. It totally reminded me of a beautiful sunset.


The great thing about this kit is that it comes with two distinct color ways for the cards. The golden shades I used here and a really pretty blue/green option too. You can easily go in either direction but the golden toned cards just worked with my photos for this week. I loved the large Every Summer Has a Story card and knew that was going up in the title slot. And that 7 card had to have a moment as well and I didn't want to write on it so I just printed a photo small enough to fill the space but still leave the 7 exposed enough. The stamp set was so much fun to stamp on my photos. I used it several times throughout the spread.


The postcard that was passed out at the event we went to was the exact size for the other 4x6 slot so it in went. I added as much text to the cards as I could by running them thru my printer. I always struggle with fitting in enough journaling and if there is ever a question of leaving out a photo to add in some text, the photos usually win over the text. So it's nice when filler cards have enough space to add a little text to them so the serve two purposes.




I loved the new alpha stamp set called Mercer. It worked so well with the outline text already used on these cards. I loved stamping it in white on the grass picture and I was lucky enough to have just the right ink pad to stamp on the title card so it matched. Its Hero Arts Pumpkin Pie shadow ink if you are curious.


My next project was all about donuts. Its a well known fact that Kelly loves donuts and so do I. So the I Love You More Than Donuts stamp set was one of my favorite things this release. I wasn't sure how I wanted to use them, I mean I had a photo of a donut on the spread above but using them just for one card didn't seem like enough. I felt these stamps needed to have a larger moment to shine. I thought it would be super cute to make a book cover for my daughter since she is starting back to school soon but I remembered I had a really cute composition book laying around that had a really pretty yellow spine instead of a black one. I decided it was the perfect thing to dress up with a few donuts. I stamped an all over pattern using the large donut shape and the smaller one and just had fun with colors making it as bright and cheery as I could.


I really loved the Sprinkled with Love sentiment that's included in the set so I made a card using just the larger sprinkle stamp and just stamped it over and over again making sure not to overlap each color too much. Even though it was round it still worked to create this background.


I also decided to make a few bookmarks or planner clips too. I stamped the circle stamp and scanned it and brought it into my Silhouette Cameo program. I traced it and added a tiny internal and external offset so I had the same shape cut. After it was cut and before I removed the circles from the cutting mat I did all of my stamping. This made it so much easier to line up the stamps and not have to keep the circles from moving around. I stamped circles for the backs too so they look good from both sides and just glued the two of them with the large gold paper clip sandwiched in between. They look so cute peaking out from the top of the notebook.


 Makes you want a donut right!


The cool thing about this months release is that Kelly has put up digital files of the stamps and the cards in this months kits. So if you like to type right on the cards like I do then I would suggest you check out her digital offerings this month. You can see them all here. There are even some from past kits too.

I also made two Project Life® spreads using the new Clearly Kelly Holiday stamps and I'll be back to share those with you on Monday.

Have a great weekend,
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Friday, July 17, 2015

Project Life® spreads featuring Color Cast Designs

I wanted to share real quickly two Project Life® spreads that I made using product from Color Cast Designs June release.


The first spread I made was for some recent June photos. I love the new summer set called Solstice. Blue and Yellow is one of my favorite summer color combos so this set was a total no brainer for me. Paired with the Here and Now wood veneer set that was a colab with Kellie Winnell gave me just what I needed to help tell this spreads story.  If you haven't checked out Kellie you can find all her amazing work and a link to her stamp store on her site here. The phrases she picked for this set were new and fresh and very on trend which I love.


I really loved the new iridescent acrylic that Jessica used this month in the Solstice set and you can see it up close above. It's really amazing person. I also loved the mirror acrylic that she put in the set as well. You can see it below it's the blue today piece.


My second spread was from back in April and it was a half spread. It pairs up with the spread I shared awhile back for Easter. It only covers four days so its really simple. I just embellished the photos with a few more of the veneer from the Here and Now and also included a few items from previous launches like the Coffee Lovers, the Basically Basics Gold shapes and the Confetti Stars. The gold glitter Right Now that I used on the title card was new for June and I loved that piece.


I love the way the title card turned out. I'm super partial to anything white on white embossed these days so I love how this kind of mimics that look.


I had just the right colors of the confetti stars to make a little rainbow, I love this tiny accent.


The July releases went up yesterday so I hope you check them out. I'll have projects to share with some of them very soon. You can see all of the new stuff right here and if you use the code 'barbara' (lower case without the quotes) you can save 10% off your order.

See you soon.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Sew Simple │ Typewriter Cover


This past weekend we went to a local Antique Fair and I picked up the coolest little typewriter table for $20. Normally my typewriter was kept on a shelf out of the way so it got very little use. We recently removed a piece of furniture in the bonus room adjacent to my office so I knew this piece would fit perfectly. I love that I can now keep it out so it will get more use, but it definitely needed a cover or something to keep the dust out of the inside. I thought it would be super cute to make one out of fabric and a quick google search lead me to a great blog post on The Magic Margin. Their pattern was super simple and the instructions were well laid out and I was pretty confident I could tackle this project in a few hours.


I stopped first at Joann's for some fabric but wasn't finding anything that I loved. I was hoping to find a decorator weight fabric so I didn't have to do the interfacing step but all of the patterns of those seemed too bold for the size of my cover. I decided to try Hobby Lobby because my store usually has some pretty on trend fabric choices and was pleased to find several that would work for my needs. I ended up picking this grey and cream Woodgrain print and because it was 100% cotton I decided it was best to do the interfacing step. The fabric is from Brother Sister Designs and the code on the fabric is B52-OWR-P46 and its stamped 2013 if you are interested in tracking it down. Using the pattern from The Magic Margins as my guide I measured and adjusted the pattern to fit my typewriters dimensions. I determined that 1 yard would also be enough for my machine and I purchased the same amount of interfacing. For the interfacing I picked up Pellon mid weight fusible interfacing because I wanted to add a little bit of weight to the fabric. This ended up being just enough to give it some rigidity so it would stand up correctly when placed over my typewriter.


My typewriter is a pretty standard Smith Corona Coronet Super 12 that I understand is pretty easy to find. I purchased this a few years ago from someone on Craig's List and I only paid $10 for it. The only thing I have done to it is blow it out with some air and replace the ribbon and its works great. If you happen to have a similar model and want to make a cover for yourself here are the measurements I used for my pattern pieces.



It was lots of fun sitting down and sewing something again and I have enough of the woodgrain fabric left over to make something else, maybe a pouch or a book cover or something. Another positive is this typewriter has gotten some serious use in the past few days, my daughter is loving it and sits down often to write stories and play office. That's a total win win!

Until next time,

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