Love card

I made this card quite a while ago but never did anything with it.  I figure since it is Valentines week, it is time to share!

Happy Valentines Day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Leslii

Life is better...

Although I don't work outside of my home, my boys usually go to a sitter one day per week.  I am lucky enough to have a close friend that is able to watch them on that day.  My boys love her and she is amazing with them!  So, for Christmas, I wanted to make her a little something special  and this is what I ended up with...

First, I used a gray spray ink to add a little bit of color to the canvas so that it wasn't such a stark white.  I sprayed it in a couple of places and then rubbed the entire canvas down with a rag to spread it out and dry it off.  

The letters, birds, and branch were all cut out using my Cricut Expression and then glued on to the canvas. For the letters, I used the Alphalicious font.  I finished the wall hanging off with a thin layer of Mod Podge.

When the ModPodge dried, I used a fine tipped marker to draw on the music notes and birds' eyes.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Leslii

Christmas Canvas Decor

Hi everyone! I am here today to share a Christmas wall hanging I recently made to use as a decoration in my own home.

I had seen a sign on Pinterest that I loved using words to form a Christmas Tree and wanted to do this same sign, but with my own touches.

I started with a 12x12 canvas and then Mod Podged a 12x12 paper directly on to the canvas.  I tend to use Mod Podge quite often when making altered projects and I continue to get good results.

My next step was to cut out the words. I chose a red glitter paper and  I used my Cricut Expression and Type Candy Font cartridge.  With the Cricut set to 1 3/4", I cut the words using all capital letters.  The words then had to be placed on the canvas.  Unfortunately, due to the back of the glitter paper having such a smooth, non-absorbant back side, I couldn't use Mod Podge.  I chose to turn the letters into stickers instead using my Zyron sticker maker.  I found the center of my canvas, started with the word Christmas, and then worked my way up from there.

I wanted to do something a little special for the star so I cut another star 1/4" larger in a light gold glitter paper and then layered the red star on top.  I used the same gold paper to make a border.  I then finished my canvas by randomly adding green gems to the "tree".

I hope I am helping to get you into the Christmas spirit!

Thank you for stopping today!

Leslii

Bird Christmas Card

This time of year, I tend to make a lot of Christmas cards.  

This is one of a set that I made for a friend's silent auction to raise money for the adoption of their son.

I started with a kraft 5"x7" top fold card.  I then made a base of dark blue 4.5"x6.5".  The bird was made on my Cricut Expression and then I added a few details with marker.  The snow is simply a piece of cut cardstock, and some Stickles glitter paint.  I then added the Merry Christmas with a stamp and white pigment ink.

Thanks for looking!

Leslii

Ten Things - White Pen

Practical Scrapper's Ten Things challenge this week was to use a white pen.  

I use white pen fairly often but I almost always use it to faux stitch.  Today I used the white gel pen in a different way.  I chose to doodle on my layout.  I had a lot of fun with it and made a very busy layout of a very busy little couple.

I used the white ink to make designs on the background and to journal on the page.

I cut the title on my Cricut Expression and I added a few fun elements for dimension.  The paper is all from Simple Stories Smarty Pants collection, I bought it at The Scrapbooking Studio and it is all super cute!

This is my final product.  I have to admit, it was a bit of a reach for my comfort zone but I love the way it turned out, almost as much as I love these two kiddos!

Thanks for looking!

Leslii

Practical Scrappers/Paper Secrets Blog Hop

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers/Paper Secrets Blog Hop!  We are so excited to have you here today!
For this blog hop we are featuring the Ten Things Team from Practical Scrappers and members from the Design Team at Paper Secrets. Our topic for this hop is a fun, trendy one that will definitely catch your attention: wood! We have a collection of wood goodies from Paper Secrets to give away and you can get all the details on that below!

My project is based around some adorable wooden sentiments from Jilly Bean Soup.  I found them when I was shopping at my favorite scrappy store The Scrapbooking Studio in Bloomington.

I have had a thing with Studio Calico's Sundrifter Collection so once again, I am using paper from that line.

The argyle was cut using my Cricut and the Wild Card cartridge.  The brads are by Paper Studio.  I finished with some brown faux stitching and silver embellishments.

I hope this has inspired you to be on the look out for cute wood embellishments to try on your next project!

If you are going in order, your next stop will be Kelli Fortier -

Blog Hop List

Practical Scrappers

Charity Hotrum

Lisa Moen

Jessica Arrant

Kristi Biesel 

Stephanie U

Patty Selah 

Karen Sessions

Kelly Holfield

Wendy Coffman

Deborah Johnson

Krissy Clark

Rochelle Spears

Kerri Yarus  

Lee-Anne Thornton

Leslii Wagner *you are here*

Kelli Fortier

Kim Ryden 

Lucy Kelleher

Sue Kithcart 

Brenda Ragsdale

Charissa Miller

Christine Meyer

Sarah Clark

Kelly Jean Guzlas

Paper Secrets

Here's what you can win from Paper Secrets!

You can do any or all of the following to get entered:

1) Be a follower here at Practical Scrappers

2) Be a follower at the Paper Secrets Blog

3) Like our Practical Scrappers Facebook Page

4) Like the Paper Secrets Facebook Page

5) Leave us a comment here telling us which of those you did :)

You have until 11:59 PM CST on Sunday, August 25th to enter.  A winner will be announced early next week!

Thanks for stopping by!  
Leslii

Premade Flowers

The 10 things challenge on Practical Scrappers this week was using premade flowers.  

I made an 8x10 sign for my friend who was married last year and recently moved into a new house.

I started with a blank 8" by 10" canvas and used two different shades of brown ink to distress the edges of both the canvas and the paper I would be attaching to the canvas.  

The paper background is an adorable paper from Studio Calico's Sun Drifter Collection. 

The letters were cut on my Cricut using the Type Candy Font cartridge.

And then, of course is the flower.  I chose a natural canvas flower.  I then frayed the edges a bit and used the chocolate ink to add some brown to the canvas.  The flower was still plain so I used a small premade tule flower and a chocolate brown button to add a little interest to the center.  

I am loving the small block letters that are popular right now so I used them to add the family name and established year to the sign.

I am happy with how it turned out and my friend and her husband really seemed to like it too - that is what mattered most to me!

Thanks for checking out my blog today!

Leslii

Practical Scrapper's April Card Sketch

This month I was lucky to get to use a card sketch by Patty Selah for our Practical Scrappers April card sketch challenge.

This is my version.

The patterned papers were once again, My Girl by My Mind's Eye. (I love that line!!)  The flower was cut on my Cricut using the Flower Shoppe cartridge.  I then stitched around the flower to add some dimension.  I finished the flower with an epoxy sticker that I placed on pink cardstock and trimmed around.

Thanks for looking!

Leslii  

Hexagon Card

Hexagons are a popular trend in the scrapbooking world right now and Practical Scrappers challenged me to use them on a project this week.  

I chose to make a flower out of hexagons that I cut with my Cricut Expression and Accent Essentials cartridge.  The hexagons are actually cut with 5 hexagons inside one another but I only used two of the five pieces to create these flower petals.

I also used a hexagon embossing folder and my Cuttlebug to emboss the craft background.  I then added stitching to the design to make it stand out.

Thanks for looking!  I hope I have inspired you to use hexagons somewhere in one or two of your projects!

Sisters - Clear Embellishments

This week on Practical Scrappers, I was challenged to use clear embellishments or transparencies.  I had never used either one of these items so of course I had no clue what I was going to do.  I toyed with the idea of doing something with a transparency but came across these cute bottle cap embellishments at the store and thought of doing this instead.

The pictures are of my little girls who are now 12 and 9 years old.  I drew the flower freehand and then added small circles cut from black and white striped paper.  The bottle caps were placed on top of the larger circles and brightly colored gems were added to the smaller circles. I also added a black gem to the center of the flower to finish the look.

This challenge definitely pushed me out of my box and who knows, I may even try to use a transparency sometime soon.

Thank you for checking out my blog today!

I did this layout of Nice, France using this awesome sketch from Liz Wright Chidester for Practical Scrappers.  I was a little weary of my photo choices at first, but I am happy with the way it turned out.

Altered Paperclip - Carrousel

Today I am sharing a layout of a beautiful 2 story carousel.  For this layout, I added a small embellishment that I have never really played with - a paperclip.  I altered the paperclip by wrapping it in black embroidery floss, adding a flower that I cut with my Cricut, and then adding a fabric flower on top of that.

This is what I ended up with.  

I used a combination of products from several different manufacturers and this is my final product.

Layout Sketch 12/20

My take on this sketch by Krissy for Practical Scrappers.

These pictures are so old but I could never really figure out what I wanted to do with them.  Somehow this sketch seemed to work.  I wish the actual photos where a bit sharper but I do like the contrast of the bright pink and lime green with the craft.

Layout Sketch 12/14

My take on this gorgeous sketch by Liz Chidester for Practical Scrappers.

Aly must have been around 2 in this cute pic of her in coveralls.  She looks so much like Henry does now!

Cricut Invitations

This week on Practical Scrappers I was challenged to show something people can do with an electronic die cut machine. I decided to use my Cricut Expression and Wild Card Cartridge to make these fun invitations.

This is the closed envelope.

Open envelope.

Close up of closed invitation. The envelope is cut with slits to slide the card corners into. I added a little Stickles where the Cricut had already cut a small design.

The entire open envelope.  I added some gems for a little extra sparkle.

Close up of the open invitation.

This was fun to make but I will admit, I had to do it twice thanks to my 3 year old "helping".

SWEET

This background was made by using a jar lid to stamp the circles.  Close to My Heart's Purple Haze ink was used on lavender cardstock.  I used my Cricut to cut out the word Sweet and layered with Momenta papers.

Alyson Pre-K

This was already posted to Practical Scrappers and is my first official layout that I have done in ages!!!

The paper is mostly Fancy Pants Designs - Baby Mine Collection.  The flowers were cut using my Cricut and the leaves at the bottom are a felt piece that I have had in my stash for ages.

Miss Sassy Pants

This layout was done for Practical Scrappers.  The challenge for the week was using brads.

I cut the frame using my Cricut Expression and the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.  I cut the letters using the All Mixed Up cartridge.  I then used purple ribbon to make the words stand out. 

I used orange and copper brads around the inside of the picture frame.

I also used the ribbon and a brad to add a little flare to the corner.

Micaiah's True Love

This picture was taken of Micaiah in the petting zoo at our county fair. 

I used Daisy D's paper, I love the weathered appearance of it.  The branch and blossoms were cut using the Serenade Cartridge and my Cricut Expression.  The letters were cut using my Alphalicious Cartridge. 

I added chocolate brown brads to the center of each flower to add some dimension.

The picture was matted using color core card stock.  I added texture by using my Cuttlebug and the Paisley folder.  I finished the look by running some sand paper over the pattern.

Cousins

Micaiah and Baylee

This tree was cut using the Serenade Cartridge.  The circles were cut with the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge and then run through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder.

I also cut this "frame" using the parenthesis key on the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge and finished it off with a little sparkle via Stickles.