Happy Earth Day

Welcome to Thursday!  This Thursday is extra special because not only do I have this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch to share, but I'm also participating in an Earth Day blog hop with the Torendi team!!!   I'll start with the Sketchy Thursdays stuff so that when you get to the end of the Torendi blog hop part you can immediately hop off to your next destination!

Update - The I ~heart~ San Fran layout can be currently seen in its entirety in the July 2010 Scrapbook News and Review magazine. 

I can see myself using this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch over and over again for multi-picture layouts:

I incorporated the current These Are a Few of My Favorite Things challenge into this one:  favorite city. 

I love everything about San Fran.  The food, the weather, the food, the various cultural areas, the food, the fun attractions, did I mention the food?  Interestingly, all of these pics were taken on our trip that began August 31, 1997 - the day Princess Diana died.  Needless to say, the beginning of that trip was pretty surreal. 

With the exception of the "San Francisco" base paper, all the other embellishments and papers on here are from the Crop Suey "Gelato" kit I won a few months back.  I felt like the mist in the upper corner didn't quite stand out enough so I drew in a little flourish. 

This week's Sketchy Thursdays challenge is sponsored by Crop Chocolate.  The prize up for grabs for this week's winner is a 36" Ribbon Organizer by Simply Renee!!

Isn't that AWESOME???!!!!! 

Please check out the Sketchy Thursdays blog to see what the Design Team made for your inspiration and to play along with us!!!  Entries are due by 10pm EST next Wednesday, 4/28.

**  OH!  Don't forget!  The May Guest Design Team Challenge is still open until Saturday night!!!  You know you wanna play with us! **

OK, now on to the Torendi Earth Day Blog Hop!

If you've arrived here by any means other than BR-T's blog, please CLICK HERE to hop back to the Torendi blog to start the hop from the beginning. 

Be sure to check out each of the Torendi Design Team's blogs and COMMENT on each one for a chance to win an awesome prize.  (See the Torendi blog for official details.) 

I'm sure you'll all agree that when you get scrap kits, you invariably end up with a few extra things.  I had some solid cardstocks left over from various Torendi kits, as well as a bit of the Cosmo Cricket paper from this month's "Fresh Mix" kit.  In the spirit of Earth Day, I dove into my leftovers rather starting up on some new paper. 

I also used a couple of papers from the 6x6 Sassafrass Wee Bundles Apple Jack and Nerdy Bird from the Torendi store.

The base of the layout as well as the trunk of the tree are made from the shipping box my current kit arrived in.  I tried to give the whole thing a bit of dimensional interest so I used many different colors of Delta Texture Magic which have been sitting in my craft room for years.  Truthfully I was surprised they were still usable.  I expected them to be all dried up.  (Texture Magic is basically colored spackle.) 

I hope you enjoyed my little ode to Earth Day.  CLICK HERE to hop on off to Jenn's blog for your next bit of Torendi Earth Day goodness!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Earth Day!!!

- Heidi

Sometimes They Actually Like Each Other

This week's Design Dollie's elements challenge, brought to you by the birthday girl Adina, is to lift something of Adina's!!  Hop on over to her blog to check out her cool creations and wish her a happy bday while you're there!  (AND she's giving out birthday candy!!!)

HERE is the gorgeous layout that I chose to lift of Adina's.  And here's where I went with it...

Oct/Nov 2010 issue - Sibling Love

Everything but the letter stickers are from the Torendi store.  The paper (which includes the scalloped smiley face border), the frame, and the ribbon are from this month's Torendi kit "Framed Cuteness":

The bot and the thought cloud are from Bam Pop!'s Vol. 2 Collection (as well as the blue paper I made the hearts from and the scissors image...they were the leftovers from the same page).  The pennant is new Sassafras Lass Nerdy Bird. 

This is one of the 2-1/2 layouts I made at the crop with Julie this past weekend!  I had so much fun that night!  And 2-1/2 layouts in one night is good for me.  I'm definitely going to have to subject those poor girls to ME again soon!  LOL.

We'd love for you to come play along with us on Design Dollies!!!!  If you've never checked it out, they have some of the best prizes!!!!  Check it out!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Heidi

Details:  Torendi kit Framed Cuteness - paper, frame, ribbon; Torendi Store - Sassafras Lass border, robot & thought bubble from Bam Pop! Vol. 2 collection; Making Memories alpha stickers; Dymo labeler; thread.

P.S.  Be sure to stop by Sketchy Thursdays tomorrow to check out our new DT announcement!!!!  We're so excited!

Nerdy Birthday

I am so loving my Sassafras Lass Nerdy Bird Wee Bundle I got from the Torendi store!!!!  It's so versatile.  It's got the right blend of cute, funky, and pretty.  You may remember the cute card I made a couple days ago.  Here's a pretty one:

This card was inspired by one made by Kim Hughes in the March/April 2010 Papercrafts magazine. 

I made this for a very sweet friend's birthday.  Happy Birthday again, Davina, if you are reading this!!

Check out the Torendi store for all the new products including Sassafras Lass, Cosmo Cricket, and BamPop!  And be sure to stop by the Torendi blog...there's an ongoing giveaway worth checking out. 

We're having some weird weather here today, which is fun considering we usually have sun, heat, and more sun.  One minute it's sunny, the next minute low, dark, whispy clouds are rolling in with great gusts of wind, torrential rain, and hail!!!  And then, poof!  It's sunny again.  Weird. 

Hope you're having a good day!

Heidi

Details:  PP from Sassafras Lass Nerdy Bird Wee Bundle, pearl swirl by Zva Creative, individual pearls by Prima Marketing, tiny alpha stickers by Making Memories. 

Art You Glad It's Your Birthday?

My son went to an art-themed birthday party today so of course I had to make an art-themed card for birthday girl!

Absolutely loving the new Nerdy Bird line from Sassafras and I got the "wee bundle", which is a stack of all the Nerdy Bird papers in 6x6, from the Torendi store. 

Had to get my Martha microbead fix!!

Check out the many NEW! Sassafras products now offered over on the Torendi blog.

Have another little girl birthday party to go to tomorrow.  Hmmmmm...wonder what I'll make for that card?  We'll just have to wait and see! (Including me...I have no idea yet, LOL!)

Heidi

Details - Nerdy Bird papers by Sassafras (find it in the Torendi store HERE), Cricut diecut, Martha Stewart microbeads, Colorbox ink, Making Memories tiny alpha stickers, thread.

Perspective

Yea!  It's Thursday!!!!  This week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch:

Check out what the Design Team made for your inspiration!!!  Here's mine:

I love this pic...it seemed rather ordinary at first, actually almost delete-able.  My daughter had gotten ahold of my camera again and went papparazzi on us.   Here's the original:

Leave it to my husband to notice you can see my daughter's reflection in my sunglasses!

Everything is perspective.

Notice that YUMMY text flower????  That is a gen-u-ine Sketchy Thursdays' Diana original creation!!!!!  How stinkin cute is that??  Check out her etsy store...it's chock-full of yumminess!

The base paper, ponchello, yellow heart and pink button, and beaded and ball trims are from the Pink Ninja Addicts' Don't Get It Twisted kit.

And how about those NEW Sassafras Lass Nerdy Bird flag banner, border from the journal tags, and glitter alpha?  New arrivals over in the Torendi store along with some other new Sass stuff!!!

Come play along with us this week on Sketchy Thursdays.  Hook up your creation to Mr. Linky in the sidebar by next Wednesday for a chance to win some goodies from Your Memories Here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heidi

My Guilty Pleasure

You know I love a challenge...and even better is the challenge to combine multiple challenges!!

June 2011 issue

This little baby is inspired by this week's prompt over on The Pink Ninjas (what's your guilty pleasure?)...contains a fan fold flower from a tutorial over on Candy Shoppe Designs...AND is based on this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch created by my oh-so-talented friend Diana over on Design by Diana:




Whew!

They all blended together really well, though, don't you think?
And, how serendipitous! I just discovered this week's Vintage Plum Weekly Contest is "What's Cooking?" to create a LO using food or cooking as your subject!

After making the layout I realized that my favorite guilty pleasure also comes packaged in my favorite color combo!! (Coincidence or destiny?? LOL!)

I love the way my still life picture came out. Of course, I HAD to take a big bite out of one of the cupcakes in the pursuit of art. I gave the picture a color boost with a Maggie Holmes Photoshop Color Action (Extreme Color).

I made my sweet fan fold flower out of a strip of the actual Hostess CupCakes box! Let me tell you I think I've found a new favorite embellishment. I'm sure you'll be seeing a few more of these puppies in days to come. I am definitely going to be cutting up more of this box since the colors are so gorgeous! Like the little flower center? It's a robot brad...not that robots exactly go with this layout per se but he goes with the flip side of the Sassafras Lass paper. That works, right?



That adorable red circles trim was part of the prize pack I received from my Sketchy Thursday win a couple weeks ago. Cute, huh?

The text block is a Quickutz Silhouette die cut. It's cool but quite tedious getting the darn thing off the cutting mat and poking out all the negative pieces. (Whine, whine, whine.)

Here's a little tip for adhering transparencies like the "exhibit" one I have over one of the cupcakes: If you want it to appear to be just laid over, without adhering it with obvious staples or brads or what have you, find a solid image to adhere a glue dot behind. In this case, I applied a rather substantial "1" rub on.



Man, I got so hungry making the layout I took a bite out of the page! Ha ha. I'm so funny.


There's still time to get in on all these challenges I covered here:

Sketchy Thursday on Design by Diana (I'm tellin' ya...you HAVE to go check this out!! The sketches are amazing and so approachable.) (Current sketch due Wednesday 7/8. New sketches every Thursday.)

What's Your Guilty Pleasure prompt over on The Pink Ninjas. (New prompts every Wednesday.)

Vintage Plum Weekly Layout Challenge "What's Cooking". (Due Sunday, 7/12. New challenges up each Monday.)
Fan fold flowers a la Candy Shoppe Designs. (Due Wednesday 7/8.) (Which, incidentally, is holding a Design Team call currently. They're going to be called the Lollipop Girls. Who wouldn't want to be a "Lollipop Girl"??!!) (Be sure to let them know you found their site through my blog!)

Details: Paper - Sassafras Lass, The Paper Co.; Stamps - Autumn Leaves (barcode), Scrappy Cat (alpha), Heidi Swapp (crown), Stampin' Up!(Ephemera = background "noise" on naughty tag); Ink - StazOn, VersaMark, Stampin' Up!; Die Cuts - Quickutz Silhouette, Cricut (tag); Embossing Powder - Stampendous, Tsukineko, Creative Beginnings; Pens - Zig Millenium, American Craft; 7 Gypsies transparency; Lil' Davis rub on; Stampin' Up! scalloped punch; Making Memories trim; Diamond Glaze; Around the Block brad; Fancy Pants chipboard (parentheses); Hostess CupCakes box; Photoshop Elements; Maggie Holmes Photoshop Color Action; unknown trim (black and white) and chipboard asterisk.

Hope you have a great Tuesday!! Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Heidi

You Light Up My Life wall hanging

The weekly challenge over on Vintage Plum is to make a wall or door hanging.

This little cutie is full of gorgeous Sassafras Lass and Unity Stamp Company goodness.

OK, I'm sure this is no big feat for some of you but I am so impressed with the turquoise fringe that I made for this. (Yea, I'm a dork. LOL.)

The frame is a Cricut Storybook diecut. It's first cut in chipboard (frozen pizza box) with my deep blade housing.

Details: Paper - Sassafras Lass, K & Company, The Paper Company; Stamps - Unity Stamp Co. June KOTM & Shine On!, Technique Tuesday; SU! ink; Cricut diecut; SEI brads & buttons; beads; floss; ribbon; thread.

TFL!

Heidi