Featuring Kelly Purkey │ October Release

Hello everyone, I cannot believe we are days away from Halloween! Its so busy right now but I wanted to share that Kelly's October release went live today and I managed to get two layouts done yesterday.

This first layout is something I have had on my mind for years. I was just waiting for the right moment and the right kit to make it happen. Luckily for me when I saw Kelly's Dream Come True mini kit this month I knew it could finally happen.

Years and years ago I found this old Disneyland ticket book in a parking lot and it brought back so many memories of our early trips to the park when it was all about the E Tickets. I dug thru my old family photos for just the right picture to pair with the tickets and with the stamps and cards from this kit. This image of my and my brother on our very first trip to the park was a clear winner.

I love the 6x4 postcard journaling cards that come in the kit and it was the perfect focal point for the layout. 

I was also super partial to the outline ears stamp, super, super cute. The rest of the layout was made by just layering my favorite cards to help frame the 6x4 postcard. Layering journaling cards is one of my favorite ways to start a layout. Once I have the layers in the look I like the rest always seems to fall into place.

The second layout that I made came together really quickly. I used one of the 6x4 cards from the Dream Come True kit and paired it with stamps from the Made with Love stamp set. Its and 8 1/2 x 11 layout, which is something I don't typically do but because it was going to be just one photo and one journaling card I thought the smaller size was a better choice.

I love how versatile this stamp set is. I wanted to share an image of the full stamp set because I think its so cool. I think it would be so cool to document a favorite family recipe by typing it up and adding the stamps and pairing it with a picture.  I know in my family we have some very specific family favorites that this would be perfect for.

The ink colors I used are all Hero Arts Shadow inks and I used Pumpkin Pie and Cup of Joe.

I think the spatula and whisk stamps are my favorite in this set.

There was also a really cute alpha stamp set in this release called Henry. Its super whimsical and would pair wonderfully with the Dream Comes True set.

I hope you found lots of new favorites in this release, I know that I did.

See you soon,

December Memories featuring Color Cast Designs

Its release day over at Color Cast Designs and I wanted to share a layout I made with some of the latest kits. This release is huge and its full of Christmas items but also still covers Thanksgiving and Halloween. I adore the red and aqua color combos of some of the Christmas items so I made a layout featuring some of my favorite photos from last Christmas.

I knew I wanted my layout to feature a lot of photos but since I've done a few grid style layouts lately I wanted to do something different. I took a look thru my digital templates for inspiration and found one that featured this strip of photos. I cut just the photo strip element from that digital template on my Silhouette Cameo and went from there. I printed my photos out onto one 4x6 piece of photo paper and placed them under the photo strip piece. Then I had fun mixing in the fun elements from the Merry & Bright set, the Wonky Hearts set with a few of the silver stars from the Silver Glitter Accents to add some sparkle. This layout went together really quickly, I think it really helps when elements just work so cohesively together like these sets do.

I adore the newer style of hearts that Jessica made for the Wonky Hearts set. They nest inside each other if you want that look but I love how they look open, especially that tiny little red heart.

Here are some images of the sets so you can see what comes with each set, they are all really full sets. Jessica really packs in the elements which makes them all such great values.

Merry & Bright

Wonky Hearts

Silver Glitter Accents

There are also a few sets that are pink and aqua so if you are looking for some pink there are a few options for you. I just love the Twinkling Lights set and cannot wait to use this for my upcoming December Daily® album.

Twinkling Lights

I also wanted to share the items Jessica made for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I adore the black bats of the Halloween set and the turkey in the Grateful set is super, super cute.

Be Scary

Grateful

One other item I wanted to share with you that are making a December Daily® album, there is a really great set of half circle numbers that are perfect for numbering your album.

Number It

You can see all of the other items in the release right here, there are many more than I have shown so I hope you check them out. Remember to use the code 'barbara' (in lower case without the quotes) for 10% off your order. 

Take care,

Hero Arts + Clearly Kelly Planner Blog Hop

Hello everyone, today I am thrilled to be participating in a Blog Hop for Hero Arts! You should be arriving from Suzanne Dahlber's blog and I welcome you if you are a first time visitor here. I'm very excited to be celebrating along with these amazing ladies the launch of the Clearly Kelly Planner Stamps officially hitting the Hero Arts online store today! Kelly's range of planner stamps is fantastic and I'm looking forward to sharing what I have made with them. Because at their heart they are planner stamps I used them to dress up my October Monthly Calendar and I love how festive it looks.

Below you can see the stamps in action up close. I think my favorite stamp is the Taco from the Food Planner Set, what's not to love about Taco Tuesday! I also really love the School Planner set, it covers all of my needs for my daughter and also for my volunteering jobs. I used both of the list stamps to fill in some space at the bottom of my calendar, the square check boxes are from the To Do List set and in this case I just inked one of the little boxes and stamped them on the lines that were already printed on the calendar. This allowed me to get them spaced just the way I needed them to be. The other check list stamp is from the Work Planner set. I love the circles that can be checked off as each task is completed. The other sets I used to create this calendar are; Planner Icons, Home Planner, Work Planner and the Special Occasion Planner. These are all super versatile sets that I mixed and matched to help make exactly what I needed.

One of my other favorite sets is the Planner Banners, I love this set because I love cutting out the little banner dies to help dress up my planner pages. For these tabs I just laid down strips of washi tape onto a scrap piece of cardstock and then ran the die thru the machine. It cuts thru both layers with no problem and I love that I can make banners to match any theme I might want just by using different washi tapes or cardstock. The little circle clip is a die from the Everyday Clips set and I love that it was the perfect size for the black cat stamp from the Planner Icons set.

You can also see here how I changed up the days of the week on the calendar. I covered the banner of the days of the week on this calendar with a thin piece of washi tape and then stamped the days of the week in the order I prefer using with the stamps from the Planner Clips Stamp & Cuts. This is a really simple fix for your monthly calendars if you are like me and prefer a certain order.

To continue with my Halloween theme I added in some orange and black shipping tags to my front pockets. The printed tag was made by cutting up a note card that I purchased at Target. The paper clips were made by gluing the resin pieces that I found at Hobby Lobby directly to the top of the paperclips. I love how these seasonal clips can be used all month and fit in perfectly with the theme.

There are so many amazing stamp sets in Kelly's Planner line so I know you will have fun shopping for stamps today and the Hero Arts online store offers FREE shipping on US orders of $50 or more! No code needed.

Hero Arts is also hosting a giveaway for a selection of Clearly Kelly planner products. The winner will be randomly chosen from all of the blog hop comments received by 11:59pm PST on Monday, October 12th. So if you want to enter, make sure you leave a comment below sharing what your favorite new Planner Stamp set is and then check the Hero Arts blog for the announcement of the winner on Wednesday, October 14th.

So make sure you keep going on the hop and add comments for the giveaway.  Your next stop is to Amy Tsuruta's blog but here is the complete list in case you are starting out of order.

Kelly Purkey

Lisa Spangler

Nicole Reaves

Krista Wells

Suzanne Dahlberg

Barbara Picinich ← this is me

Amy Tsuruta

Libby Hickson

Thank you to Hero Arts for having me on this hop and I hope you find lots and lots of inspiration today for all of the new Kelly Purkey Clearly Kelly Planner Stamps.

See you soon, 

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ September Release

Today Kelly Purkey updated her shop with her new releases for September. It is a smaller release this month but its still super awesome as always. There are three new stamp sets and one mini kit called #Hangry that was designed by Peppermint Granberg. The kit is food related which is always something near and dear to my heart but I haven't had a chance to make anything with it yet. I did make two projects featuring her new stamp sets that I want to share with you.

I think my favorite stamp set this month was the My Daily Grind set. Its the perfect stamp set for the seasonal coffee lover so I made this layout showcasing my love of the Starbucks Red Cups from over the years.

I went thru my photo stream from the past few years and pulled any photo of a red cup that I had. It was so much fun looking at all of them again. Clearly I favor a certain photography style when shooting them because they all look like they are from the same day. I used a shipping tag to hold my title and journaling and stamped the title with the new Rio Alpha Set. I love the boldness of this alpha and the cute whimsy that some of the letters have.

I had a few of the star clips leftover from my Holiday Planner so I scattered them throughout. They were cut with the Everyday Clips set from Clearly Kelly. The red glitter paper really picks up the shimmer in my red sequin Starbucks sleeve that I got back in 2011. I carry that sleeve around with me daily but it really gets used a lot in December. I really love the circular stamp that Kelly designed to mimic the bottom of the coffee cup, so clever!

I really cannot wait for the red cups to come out this year, I wonder if they will be as cool as the fall cups this year? I have a feeling they will be.

My next project features the stamps from the Fall Favorites mini kit. I really loved the feather stamps and thought they would add a cool dimensional element to my layout and they really did. It was super convenient that we had just visited Apple Hill so I had some people perfect fall-ish photos to work with. Its still pretty hot here and doesn't quite feel like fall yet but a trip to Apple Hill always puts me in the fall mood. My husband commented that people will think he wore that shirt on purpose but he didn't it was just a random perfect choice. Mine however was planned ;-).

I stamped the feather stamps in black ink and scanned the images to create an offset cut on my Cameo. I then stamped the feathers on the paper prior to removing them from my cutting mat. I find this really helps to keep the paper from shifting while I do the stamping. I then cut along the cut lines and folded them lightly in half to add some more dimension.

I stamped a few little flags to add to two of the photos, the word Pumpkin comes from the My Daily Grind set.

I cut the title the same way as the feathers by stamping, scanning and creating the offset shape. I did weld the two words together before creating the offset so that they would be connected when it was cut.

These feathers can be stamped with any color ink to totally change up the look and I think they would be equally cool stamped on pattered paper for more dimension and texture.

I hope you love the new releases as much as I do, you can see all the new stuff by clicking right here. And make sure you sign up for Kelly's newsletter, she always puts a promo code in it prior to the release which is awesome.

See you soon,