Very Merry Strawberry CPS

When I saw the CPS sketch this week I thought of the red paper from Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety line and how it would work perfect with gems for the side of the sketch. I kept it simple because I think the die cut card from the line is pretty cute all on its own. I love that I got some crafting in this week but I need to also go get to that homework thats piling up done.

Pink Elephant Scrapbooking Challenge #2

The Pink Elephant Challenge has posted their second Scrapbook Challenge. The challenge is to give an old layout a makeover. Well I don't have pictures of all my older LOs and they're not stored with me here at school so I can't show you the original LO, but let me assure you its quite different. The first scrapbook I made was of my trip to Italy (in 2004) and the book is filled with maps and postcards and even table napkins. I was really interested in putting ephemera in my scrapbooks. Well then I found out that those things might ruin my pictures so I wasn't so keen on them anymore (though in the digital age I will always have the pics). So now my style is more streamlined and simple focusing on pictures and journaling and I printed these pictures a few months ago meaning to give them an updated LO. Well this Pink Elephant challenge was the perfect motivator.

I kind of wish I could update the pictures as well. I borrowed my sister's camera and could only take so many pictures because we didn't have a power adapter to charge it. So the picture of me and my grams isn't that flattering but it is the only picture of us from the whole trip because we were much more interested in taking pictures of the scenery and art.

Sketch and Theme Combo

I wanted to create a card for the Pink Elephant nature challenge in addition to the LO I made. I combined the nature challenge with the Card Patterns sketch. I knew I wanted to use Basic Grey Green at Heart, I love the bright colors and the 'bloom & grow' sentiment seemed to fit perfect with the sketch. I added the leaf in lieu of the circle detail. Remember you have until Wed to post your take on Sketch Girl 15 and on Thurs Sketch Girl 16 will go up, can't wait to show you my take and share our new sponsor.

BTW feel free to check me out the Monthly Challenge post at SEI where my card from last month was featured. It's the stitched flower card.

Moxie Fab Picking Up the Pieces

Over at Moxie Fab World, Cath has laid down a Picking Up the Pieces challenge. Basically any style of paper piecing goes, but my card is quite a traditional take on paper piecing. This time I came up with my own pattern for a pieced owl, but I also included a pieced flower. The flower is made by putting four folded circles together, fluffing them, then trimming a bit. A simple card for sure, but when you've got a cute owl as the centerpiece what more could you want (I'm an owl lover you see). I included the pieced flower for the Cupcake Crafts challenge to Make Your Own Flowers.

Nature LO for Pink Elephant Challenge

I enjoyed scrapping the pictures from hiking the other day so I kept at it and made this LO for the Pink Elephant nature challenge. Usually I make cards for the challenge, and I'll probably be back with a nature card this weekend because I have the new Green at Heart from Basic Grey, but I don't think a card is strictly required. I struggled with color in this LO because the pictures were very brown and I thought the pictures would get lost in a brown background so I went with this gray and burgundy look. For those of you lucky enough to have beautiful weather like we have in NJ enjoy it!

Pink Elephant Scrapbooking Challenge #1

The Pink Elephant Challenge now offers scrapbooking challenges! I'm so excited to see these challenges because I've loved their card challenges since the start and so this is one more way to play along. The first challenge is to show them your favorite technique. My favorite thing to put on any LO is handwritten journaling, but I also did many of my other favorite things on this LO like adding rub ons, a Thickers title, and keeping it clean and simple. I use elements from many different manufacturer's. We R Memory Keepers background pp, A Scarlet's Letter scrap and some rub-ons from Basic Grey, as well as some GCD Studios epoxy stickers.

This LO features some photos from a summer morning hike at Merrill Creek. It was really early but also really gorgeous. It was beautiful to see the reservoir lake change so much as the sun came up. These photos are shot in color so if you look closely you can see the green of the tress in the top photo but the scene and surrounding colors were so muted that morning that they appear to be black and white.

A Card and Candy Winner

Happy Easter! I haven't gotten a chance to play with my Kioshi papers yet so I took the opportunity to make a quick spring card today. This was made for the Pink Elephant use pastels challenge which this collection is prefect for.

Also I want to take this chance to announce the winner of my blog candy, congrats to Becky! Becky email me at jesmoyer gmail.com with your mailing address and I will get your prize out to you. I simply put all the names in a hat and did a draw. Thanks for everyone for all their lovely comments.