Featuring Color Cast Designs │ September and October projects

Yesterday was launch day at Color Cast Designs and it was a BIG one! October is typically a really large launch because Jessica does fall and all of her December kits too. I was super excited about this launch when I saw all the products in advance and I really hope you check them out.

But before I get to October's release I wanted to share really quickly the two projects I made for September.

This first one is all about snap chat selfies and a fun way to document all of the super crazy and fun filters that the app has. Playing with all the filters is definitely our favorite thing to do when we are bored.

I used bits from the Strike a Pose set and the Oh Snap set. I love any set that is themed around taking photos so these really spoke to me. I used a simple offset grid to lay this page out and it came together really quickly. I think the part that took the longest was deciding what photos to use and print.

My next project was a pocket page spread. The photos are from last year but thankfully they hadn't been done yet so I had some great fall images to work with.

For this spread I used pieces from the Sweater Weather kit, Leaves by the tablespoon, and of course Pumpkin Spice Everything! I also mixed in a a few older items like the gold glitter star, the gold mirror currently, and the candy, candy, candy veneer from last years Halloween set.

I love how the wood veneer pieces really pair nicely to fall photos.

Not to mention all of the amazing dimension it adds.

Moving on to October projects, and even more dimension. I have officially exhausted my supply of pop dots, read on to see why.

My husband and I don't dress up a lot, in fact this was only the second time we had done it so it deserved a special layout of its own. I absolutely love the Wicked Awesome set and made sure to find a spot for the Wicked Awesome piece and the pumpkins and ghosts. I may or may not be hoarding the cute little tags that Jessica put in this kit, hello CUTE!

I knew I wanted the title to pop for this layout so I decided to cut it out with my Cameo. I layered a contrasting paper behind and added pop dots behind each letter. I made sure to offset the placement back down on the page ever so slightly off from the original cut so that the burgundy paper had a chance to pop out. It took some time but it was so worth it.

My next layout had even more pop dots than the other but the photos just looked so much better lifted off the page than they did flat. The dimension really does add so much to it, especially since Jessica's pieces are so dimensional.

When I saw the Hello Elf set I knew I wanted to make a layout of some of the fun Elf pictures from last year. I cover this pretty extensively in my December Daily but having a layout to slip in my daughters album sounded like a great idea.

I used my cameo and the sketch pens to draw the circle dividing lines. I had intended to fill them in after but I liked them without it so I opted to leave it. I think it adds a cool design element instead of having it just be a plain grid design. I also added in the Believe in the Magic piece from the Oh What Fun set because that is my favorite sentiment of the season as well as a few of the October Confetti Stars, because they are always the perfect little accent.

There are several other sets that I haven't had a chance to work with yet, but I do hope you'll head over to Jessica's shop to see everything. Its really quite magical and she did such a great job on this release.

See you soon,

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ December Release

Its release day over at Kelly Purkey's shop and its a great one! The reason its so great is she is now offering subscriptions to her monthly kits!!! How exciting is that! You never have to worry about things selling out before you have a change to order. You can sign up for a three ($24.50 per month), six ($22.50 per month), or twelve ($20.50 per month) month membership at a discounted price. Each kit contains a limited edition 4x6 stamp set, set of sixteen 3x4 double sided cards, set of four 4x6 double sided cards, one 4x6 sheet of printed labels, two 1" badges, and one 6x8 alphabet sticker sheet. You can read all about the new subscriptions right here.

The kit this month is called Today, and I used it in the above Project Life® spread and it was so fun to work with. Here are some more detailed images.

I love the little circle stamps and had fun layering them on the cards and my photos.

Here is a closer look at the stamp set in this kit.

My next projects featured the new Metropolitan Alpha set. I love a good bold and graphic font, especially one that can stand so well on its own.

My first project is for my December Daily® album, specifically Day 22. I desperately needed to see some snow so we set off to find some and it was perfect. I stamped the word Snow three times and then embossed it with white and a little silver glitter mixed it and I love how this turned out. The song lyrics were typed first and printed right on to the cardstock prior to stamping and embossing.

I used the Metropolitan number stamps to add in my day number.

My next project was a little throw back to the summer and the best concert I have seen in a really long time. I haven't been to New York in a really long time but I really wanted to use the I Love New York stamp set so this layout was born. Welcome to New York! My little homage to Taylor Swift and the opening number of her 1989 concert and the best capture of a really surprised and amazed little girl.

I used the Metropolitan Alpha to create the title stamping it in Brilliance White Moonlight ink adding in little bits from the stamp set to help set the tone. I scattered gold glitter starts around for some dimension.

Here is a close up image of the stamp set so you can see all that it includes. I love that she added in the subway letters, how cool are those. It sure makes me want to jet off to NYC really soon.

I hope you love the new subscription plans, I know that its been hard with things selling out really fast sometimes so I think this is a brilliant way for you to ensure that you get everything that you want going forward.

See you soon,

Featuring Color Cast Designs │ July releases

I wanted to make sure to share the two projects I made with Color Cast Designs July releases before the August product hits the shelves next week. The first project I made was a layout documenting a recent trip to Lake Tahoe. I was heavily influenced by the colors of the sand and the blue tones of the water and the sky so I got out my watercolors and just started laying down some paint to mimic the two distinct areas of the photo. Lake Tahoe is my daughters favorite place so I knew when we got there I wanted a photo so I could document her love of the lake. I used the white Right Now piece from the Currently set and mixed in some of the blue sea glass stars from the Twinkling Stars set because the color was just right. After the paint was dry I taped my photo right on top with a plain piece of masking tape.

I used the Peerless Watercolor Papers in Warm Sepia and Robin Eggs Blue for the background. The journaling was typed on vellum and adhered with my tiny attacher.

I love the sea glass accent against the blue.

My second project was a Project Life® spread for July 3rd and 4th. I loved the new items Jessica made for the fourth so I used the 4th of July set and the Stars, No Stripes set and I also added the 'this moment' circle is from the Currently Set to complete this half spread.  The flag card I used is from Studio Calico's July 2014 addon, the diagonal text card is from this years July 2015 addon. I sprinkled in some gold and silver glitter stars along with a blue star from Jessica's store. The gold glitter Lucky is from the Lucky Me set that is sold out.

I just loved the interchangeable circles and stars and had fun playing with different combos to dress up my cards.

Jessica has already shared some sneaks of what is coming for August you can check out her Instagram feed here for more of those.

Remember when you shop to use the code barbara (all lowercase) for 10% off your order.

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,

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.

Featuring Clearly Kelly │ June 2015

We are heading back out of town soon and as you know I take documenting my travels fairly seriously. This won't be a super long trip and its not really a road trip like we have taken in the past so it won't be days in the car like before. I knew I still needed something to hold all my notes and I also had quite a list of places to go to while we are in Portland which lead me to making my own travel planner per say just for this trip.

I used one of Kelly Purkey's Wallet Album that she designed for the Clearly Kelly Line and I think these things are totally genius. You can use them for so many different things. I dressed up the album cover using stamps from the PNW is Best set and one from the Destination stamp set. The lable on the front was cut using the Documented Stamp & Die set.

For the inside I decided to make two separate books for myself. The front book would hold all of the places that I hoped to visit so I made the sheets inside the book a little smaller so I could add the tabs for each section. I love the dies in the Stamp & Cut set and laid out the text first in Photoshop Elements and printing it out onto cardstock and then I ran them thru my die cut machine to cut the tab shape. I layered two of the tabs for each section just to make them stronger since it was just cardstock that I was using. I love the pop of green that carries over from the cover. I used stamps to dress up each divider and the coffee and donut are from the PNW is Best set. I also made up a few journaling cards to tuck into the front pockets of the wallet to jot down some stories as they come up. The stamps I used on these came from the 100% Me stamp set.

Here is a glimpse inside the To Eat section. I just made simple lists of all of the places I have heard about online and in my research. I don't plan to hit them all but at least all the ones I would like to hit are in one place and I can check them off if we go there.

For the second book which would hold all of my notes from the trip I just added the simple frame and noted stamps from the Documented Stamp & Cut set, More pops of green from the layered green cardstock underneath to keep things cohesive. The stamp I used on the card on the left is also from the 100% Me stamp set.

Here is what the inside of the notebooks look like. I made the inserts myself in Photoshop Elements. They are just simple dotted grey lines spaced about 1/4" apart. I printed them out myself at home on 32lb. paper so they had enough weight to hold up to lots of writing and wouldn't have a lot of bleed thru. I recently purchased a long arm stapler from Amazon and I love this thing. I know I'll be making little booklets a lot more now that I have figured it all out. For reference this book is 15 sheets of the 32lb paper and the cardstock cover and it stapled easily. As you can see here it was just about all the regular staples could handle. I think the limit on the stapler is 20 sheets but this is a bit thicker than standard copy paper so it worked out. I can't wait to fill up this section with all of our travel notes!

Because I was on a roll using the tab dies I decided to make a Project Life® spread about our camping trip. I wanted to pair one spread up with the layout I had already made and since a mini album will also be made I didn't need to worry too much about getting it all in.

I used all three of the tab dies in the Stamp & Cuts set and one from the Scored Tabs set and love how these look. I added text to one and the top and the others were stamped on using stamps from the 100% Me set and the Get it Done stamp set. I love how the flag die looks layered on top of each other and wanted to mimic what I had done on the layout. Adding in that simple layer of flags on my journaling card makes me all kinds of happy. I love when just a simple touch can make a card sing.

Here you can see some of the tabs a bit closer and in more detail.

I hope you have fun playing with these tab dies too. They really are super versatile and can be used for more than just a tab or a label.

Because of our trip I'll be taking a bit of a blog break and will be back after the July 4th holiday to share some more stuff with you all. I'll be posting to Instagram as always so if you don't already follow you can find my feed here.