Winter is Here │ Game of Thrones

Sometimes we're a bit slow to rally around TV shows and I knew for awhile we were probably missing out on this one. I know that bingeing has its benefits so in early June my husband and I decided to start watching so we would be caught up for the return tonight. In a little less than three weeks we watched the first six seasons, that's 60 episodes if you're keeping track. Thankfully there are only 10 episodes per season so it made catching up easier. Which also kept me from feeling like a giant sloth at the end. The added benefit of everything being super fresh in our minds has us very excited to watch the return tonight.

I took a little break from my day to stamp out a sentiment so I would have something to document the day in my scrapbook. I used Kelly Purkey Shop alpha stamps in Kent and Roebling and added in some snowflakes from an older Clearly Kelly release.

Enjoy the show tonight. We'll be glued to our TV for sure.

Winter is Here!

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ June Release

Happy Summer! This is my second favorite season to scrapbook besides Christmas, I really think its the bright and happy colors. And, OMG wait until you see the Endless Summer stamp set that Kelly designed, its probably the cutest thing I've seen this summer. This June release is amazing! I know I say that every month, but damn if it doesn't just keep getting better and better.

Lets get down to it. Last summer I made a Travelers Notebook type album for all of our summer adventures and it was so much fun to work on. You can see all the posts right here. I loved the smaller space and I loved how quick the pages came together which was awesome in the summer. I decided to do it again this year and when I heard that Kelly was adding a Travelers Notebook sized kit to her shop each month I was super excited.

The kit is called Here's the Story and I was swooning over the paper designs when I saw them. This grid square ended up being the perfect cover option for my first journal. I added in some stamping using the Roebling Alpha stamp set. This set is the perfect companion to the Kent Alpha Stamp set. Roebling fits inside the Kent outlines perfectly. I love the dot pattern she added into the Roebling for the solid letters.

Here's a look at the full Here's the Story kit it's full of awesome papers, paper strips, stickers, an alpha sticker and a stamp set.

My first entry in my journal is our Summer Bucket List. This list is a combination of things my daughter wanted to do and things that I wanted to do. This is definitely not the sum total of the fun we plan to have this summer but its the high points that we both want to make sure to cover.

The blue book paper from the kit was the perfect place to add in my list entries and because the papers are always offered digitally it makes it so easy to do that in advance and just print it out.

I dressed up the spread using the Endless Summer Stamp set. That sunbather stamp is seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen. The sunnies and the ponytail, OMG so cute! The sentiments in general on this set are super versatile and I know it will get used a lot this summer.

One thing I decided to do differently in my journal this year was add in table of contents sheets for each month. I wanted to break up the entries just a little bit so they didn't all run together. I knew the stamp set and the cards from the main Document the Days kit would be perfect for that. 

I used on of the Here's the Story background sheets cut down into a smaller strip to ground my photos toward the center of the binding. I really like the white space edge this creates by grounding everything toward the middle. I added in two journal cards one with text and one with my photo printed directly on it. One tip I want to share is, if I know I'm going to want to stamp with white ink I always print the items I want to stamp onto on photo paper instead of cardstock. The white ink adheres better and really pops on the glossy surface. The stamps I used are from the Here's the Story kit and they fit perfectly in the blocks of this background paper.

I also really love that Kelly created a companion stamp set for the Document the Days stamp set. The companion stamp set is the same elements but in a different font so you have both the Serif and Sans Serif options for your stamping.

The last stamp set that I'm super excited about is the Girls Night Out stamp set. I cannot wait for some cocktail time with my friends so I can use this one. Those cocktails are super cute!

I hope you enjoyed the release, I have some more projects coming that will include these stamps and cards so I'll be back to share more soon.

See you soon,

Featuring Color Cast Designs │ my last projects

Its been long overdue that I share some of my work using products from Color Cast Designs. These projects were from the April release and I cannot believe I haven't shared them before now. I didn't realize at the time that I made these that they would be my last projects as part of the Color Cast Design team but due to various circumstances it ended up being that way.  I have enjoyed the past two years as part of this team and I will miss being part of it a lot. I decided to step down because it was just time for me to move on to focus on new projects and new responsibilities. I know Jessica will be announcing her new team very soon and I know they will have as much fun on the team as I have. Working for small business owners, especially women small business owners is a pretty wonderful experience. Watching her grow her businesses in a kind and upfront and honest way is so inspiriting. I'm a better person for working with Jessica and I will forever be a fan and customer of her products.

This first project was a travelers notebook spread that I made completely inspired by the floral set that Jessica designed. I made one flower into a paper clip just by gluing it on top of a paperclip and backing the glue with a small piece of paper. I created a stamped image of flowers leaving space so that I could add in the actual acrylic pieces. The colors of the acrylic really popped and I just love how bright and happy this is.

My second project was a mix of two sets, the Weekdays acrylic set, which sadly is sold out, but she may just bring it back since she hasn't removed it from the shop just yet. This set is so ingenious because you can stamp on the space or add little Highlights wood veneer pieces that are sized perfectly to match. So Cool!  I also added in a piece from the Ate This acrylic set which is still available. The rest of the pieces I used on this spread are pretty old but that's the beauty of Jessica's sets. Hang on to what you don't use because you can usually find a place for them on something else down the road.

I wish the new team at Color Cast Designs all the best and the same for Jessica, she and her company will always have a very special place in my heart and within my scrapbook pages.

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ May Release

Hello, hello, hello! So excited to share my Kelly Purkey Shop projects for May. This release was big, the main kit and four additional stamp sets. I loved the theme of the kit, its called Celebrate and its not just good for birthday's, you can totally use it to celebrate all kinds of good things in life.

Here is my first project that I made with the main kit.

Its a simple half page pocket page that I plan on adding into my daughters album. I loved all the pink tones but also loved the vibrant cards too and there were plenty of them.

I stamped the Celebrate using a silver ink right onto my photo and then added in the nine using the new Kent alpha. Its a really cool outline alpha stamp. Its similar to Shoreditch if you have that one, this one is just a bit taller and skinnier and more sharp edges in case you were wondering about the difference.

I love stamping on the lined cards that Kelly makes, the Hey, Hey Party People fit perfecting in the lines. In the image below I pulled the pink candle out of the multi colored candle card using Photoshop Elements and repeated it nine times on top of the eat cake card that I cut in half.

My second project was a mix of a large 9x12 page and a small 6x8 page. I love mixing page sizes in my albums so I'm looking forward to slipping this into my 2017 album. I love how the kit cards have multiple color ways making the main kit cards coordinate really well with all of the stamp sets. These green cards were begging for some outdoor photos and the Garden Girl stamp set. I love that this set covers so many topics of plant love since I'm not much of an in home plant lover. We do love the outdoors a lot so it totally works for me.

I decided to cut the leaf stamp apart from the work this so I could use it separately. I can still put it back together if needed so snipping stamps apart is totally okay to do. I hand drew the branch which for someone who can barely draw stick people was kind of huge for me. I varied the tones of green ink to give it some variety. I printed my main photo on Claudine Helmuth canvas paper and I love the texture it gives this photo. It really does look like a painting in person. This is one of the products I love to play with on occasion. I even printed patches for a Halloween costume once and they looked so realistic.

I used the Kent alpha again and a few of the other outdoor themed stamps from the stamp set. I used Brilliance Moonlight White ink directly onto my photos.

There were two other stamp sets this month, Papa Bear which coordinates with the Mama Bear set if you picked that one up and Bride & Groom, perfect for wedding season.

I hope you enjoy this months release, I just love the variety of the themes this month, I hope you did too.

See you soon,