I love feathers!  So when Lifestyle Crafts came out with the NEW Feathers die it made me very happy!

I just couldn't wait to get started using this die! I made a tag...

For the tag I die cut some water color paper and then sprayed the feathers with water.

Then painted them with various water colors...

Then I just took a colored tag I've had in my stash for a really long time along with a chipboard circle piece (that I've also had for awhile) and used it as a mask/stencil while I sprayed some Mister Huey Warm Calico on it.

Then I just added a bit of white acrylic paint to a few of the circles, some doodling, twine, book paper, and my wonderful feather!

I also die-cut some feathers out of some leftover scrapbook paper that I had...it had a very light chevron pattern on it so it was great to add some doodling and Smooch to it.

I actually did the pen work first and then adhered them to my art journal page with some gel medium.  After it dried I added the Smooch.

So many options with this die!!  I can't wait to use it with Thanksgiving stuff!

I've mentioned it before that I don't usually post every project I create here on my blog, especially my art journaling.  It's mostly because I create stuff just about daily and I'd need a personal assistant to take photos, edit them, & help me blog about them...she could also do some laundry.  :)  Well, since I don't have that assistant, you're getting a "catch up" post today of just a few of my recent art journaling pages!

This first one was inspired by a photo Margie posted on Instagram.  I saved it to my phone when I saw it since I wanted to do this with it:

I used my favorite ampersand mask with some Glimmer Mist for the background.  I wanted the ampersand to stand out a bit more so I thought I'd hand stitch around it...but after I poked all the holes I liked it just like that, so I left it.  Less is more.  :)

This next one is a bit abstract for me...which I love.  It's one of the ones I did after watching Dina's class at 21 Secrets.  I did it in my 11" x 15" journal.

Here's a closer look...it looks like the start of a hug to me.  :)

This one is also done at 11" x15"...it's not 100% done, but I thought I'd share it anyways.  

 That's it for today!!  Happy creating!

It's been three years since my spine surgery and I'm so thankful for the journey God has taken me on.  While I'm by no means "cured" I am overwhelmingly grateful for the improvement and function that I do have since surgery...and of course I wanted to document my thankfulness, so I created this scrapbook page.

The photo I used was just a random photo my husband took around the time of my "back-aversary" (as it's known in my home LOL).  It's not my favorite photo of myself, but it's real life.  

For the background I used a piece of white cardstock and some old book pages.  I took some watercolors and randomly painted the book pages and then I die-cut them with one of my new favorite dies, the NEW Scallop Doilies die, which is part of the NEW Bloom & Grow product release for Lifestyle Crafts.

I also added some Washi tape to my layout...the turquoise striped one I used was from Target.  I used the Weave boarder die to add some character to the tape by ripping off a strip of it, sticking it directly onto the die, and then running it through my die cut machine. -And in case you have a different die-cutter, it's good to know that these dies work in most the popular brands of die cut machines....can I get an amen! :)

The tape peeled easily off of the die, thankfully! I then played around with layering it with other pieces of Washi tape.  

And eventually I decided I wanted it like this...

I then took a piece of packaging tape and applied it to the die to remove the small bits of tape that were left on the die.

I also added a bit more to the corner...

While I had all my die-cutting stuff out I wanted to use the NEW Bouquet die so I made a card with some Studio Calico papers.

Don't you just love those dies!  It comes with two dies for all those flowers:

It was really fun to add a bit of zentangle doodles to the cut out parts of the larger flowers...and of course I did a quick doodle on the other flowers as well.

Get 20% off your Lifestyle Crafts products when you enter coupon code "ERIN" at checkout!

Have a "blooming" good week! 

sponsor: Lifestyle Crafts

I believe everyday should be celebrated!  Which is one reason why I tend to scrapbook way more everyday moments then holidays!  But, today I'm not sharing a scrapbook layout, I'm sharing a simple framed piece of wall decor that I made to go along with the "celebrate today" theme.

I used some pretty background papers by Studio Calico and sewed them together with my sewing machine.  Then I cut out the “celebrate today” text twice using my Silhouette Cameo…once on brown cardstock and once on black cardstock.  When I glued to two layers together I let the black peek out a tiny bit behind the brown to give it a bit of a shadow.

And then I was ready to make the cupcake using the Basically Bare Stack-A-Bellies Cupcakes.  I love that the pack has pieces that are felt, chipboard, and cardboard…I used the felt frosting (there's two different styles in the package!), the cardboard cake, and the chipboard wrapper.  They looked so cute all stacked up that I really didn’t have to do too much to them.  I just “wallpapered” the chipboard wrapper and added a few embellishments.

I love that they are so dimensional when stacked up!!  It looks so cool,  especially when I added the glass back into the frame.  (I removed the glass from the frame to take photos with out a glare.)

And here is the final piece!

 sponsor: Basically Bare

This scrapbook layout was done with another sketch from Simple Scrapper so it came together really easily using a Studio Calico kit and some other doo-dads I had. 

It's from that same trip we took with my brother-in-law's family to Coronado Island that I posted about the other day.  While it was pretty foggy most of the day, it was still awesome to be able to sit outside, eat breakfast, and watch the seagulls.  As you can see from the photo, my niece really loved her watermelon!

Here's some close ups of the layout:



Sponsor: Simple Scrapper