Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Joyful Stars December Blog Hop- Paper Pinecones

Welcome to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop for December.  If you came from Helen's blog you are on the right path.  I am busy working on holiday cards and crafts this month.  I started by making this card box and cards using the Snowhaven Card kit.  I love the fun look of these cards and sayings and I changed them a little from the original design. I embossed the sentiment and frame with silver embossing powder rather than just stamp it with ink. I really like the way the embossing looks especially with the silver shimmer trim.






My next project was inspired by some super cute pinecones I saw on Pinterest.  These pinecones were not real but instead, handmade out of paper!  I found a great tutorial from Catherine Nowak online and went out to buy some necessary supplies.  I used a styrofoam egg, Close To My Heart paper, a lot of sequin pins and some Liquid Glass.   Sequin pins are shorter than a traditional pin and easier to use for this craft.  I started by cutting a sheet of 12x12 paper into 1 inch squares. Fold two of the ends of one square over to meet in the middle so the square now looks like a house.  Pin the bottom of the paper to the styrofoam moving in a circular pattern, layering and overlapping the pieces until the whole styrofoam egg is covered.  At the bottom I used liquid glass instead of pins to secure the last couple pieces of paper so that those last pins would not show.  You will use one 12x12 piece of paper for each pinecone. Here are some of the ones I have made so far.



I also want to try this with ribbon instead of paper. Another neat option is to use different patterns of paper on one pinecone.  Plus you can also attach a loop of ribbon or hook and use them as ornaments on your Christmas tree.  

These pinecones are now one of my new holiday craft traditions.  My only piece of advice is to use a metal thimble to protect your pointer finger because pushing in all of those pins gets a little painful after fifty or so.  But, as with most painful activities, the pain is worth it in the end.  :) 

Now, hop on over to Andrea's blog and continue the hop with us! If you liked my artwork please comment below and check out some of my other posts below. Thanks! 

Happy Crafting!

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Joyful Stars November Blog Hop

Welcome to the November hop! If you came from my friend Jolene's blog you are on the right path :)  This month I have been designing a lot with the Pathfinding paper packet and accessories from Close To My Heart.  I am having a blast this weekend at Scrap-a-Way Retreats in Mystic, Connecticut.  All of my classes I am teaching here feature the Pathfinding collection.  I am really happy with the way these layouts turned out and I appreciate all of the ladies that took my classes and had fun creating with me this weekend.  Please scroll down to my older posts to see more of my classes.






I have to get back to creating my Snowhaven kits now but please continue on with the blog hop by visiting Nancy's blog. Nancy makes the most beautiful cards you ever saw so I know you will be 'wow'ed with what she has to show you!  Next month I will be at Sterling House in Stratford, scrapping and having a great time!  I hope to see you there or at a scrapping event soon!

Happy Crafting! :)

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Scaredy Cat EEK Layout

EEK!! It's almost Halloween! One of my favorite times of the year.  I have had a busy month with my son's 7th Birthday party kicking it off.  October is just the best month ever in my opinion.  The weather is cool and breezy kind of like baby bears porridge not too hot and not too cold.

This weekend I will be in Glastonbury for the Picture Perfect Weekend retreat.  I look forward to this every year.  It is close to home and I get to see many of my scrapbooking friends who dress up in amazing costumes and make me feel like a kid again.

I will post more pictures of the event later but for now, here is the layout I will be teaching in one of my classes this weekend.  I used the CTMH Scaredy Cat paper packet and My Stickease.  Dressed it up with some 3D black epoxy stars and of course black ink to distress everything.  The title is a fun way to use up scraps of paper and highlight your title.  All that's left is to fill it with my pictures from our costume contest this weekend! :)






5x7 Shadow box frame with Candy Corn $5 with purchase of EEK Layout

Sunday, August 10, 2014

August - Joyful Stars Blog Hop


Welcome to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop for the month of August.  If you are coming from Elizabeth's blog you are on the right track.

Wow August has been one busy month for me! I have been having lots of fun with Josh and working hard on the lab manual I am writing.  I was just given a deadline to edit my whole book by Monday! Yikes!

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Adventure Park in Bridgeport. It was challenging and rewarding. I never thought I would be able to complete not one but two courses of zip lines, bridges and other obstacles high up in the trees!  Here is a few pics of the fun we had there.  We are planning to go back next week, just in time for getting more exercise before my next trip to Florida later this month.



Well enough about me I know you want to see some of my artwork from the new Annual Inspirations idea book by CTMH! In this layout I used the new Wanderful collection.  I love this collection because it is perfect for all kinds of trips.  Just this past summer we have been on so many trips including the Statue of Liberty, Disney World, Lego Land, Adventure Park and the list is still growing!  As you can see I will be using this collection a lot!

Recently I had my downline over for a team meeting.  This is the layout we created with Wanderful and the Here We Go stamp set.  We used the technique of heat embossing on the globe stand to make the gold shine.  To create the real globe look we stamped with desert sand ink onto crystal blue cardstock.  I just love the way this globe came out.  I also used one of the Base and Bling charm arrows on the compass to give it more of a lifelike look.  To me it is little touches like this that really make your layouts pop! Arrow washi tape was also used to add some more whimsy fun.  Now I just need to add my photos from our upcoming trip to Florida and this layout is all set to be placed in our Vacation album.


I love my downline!!! Here is Laura, Helen, Margherita and me showing off our layouts :)

I hope you enjoyed my layout.  Now hop on over to my CTMH BFF Jolene's blog to see what beautiful artwork she has to share.  Thanks for hopping over!

Happy Crafting! :)

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

July Joyful Stars Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars blog hop this sunny and hot month of July!  This month we have 18 people in the hop so grab a cold glass of iced tea and relax with us for a while.  

If you came here from Lori's blog you are on the right path.  If you want a complete list of bloggers visit Joyce's blog.

Boy do I have a lot to share with you today!  First,  I had the most amazing time in June with all my CTMH BFFs in Pennsylvania at our Hideaway House Retreat.  I got so many pages done I even surprised myself!  Of course we girls had some extra fun times too!  Nine girls in one house for three days with nothing to do but scrap; this was the best CTMH retreat ever!  During the retreat, I spent the whole time scrapping my Disney World vacation from a few weeks earlier.

My family and I love Disney.  It is such a happy, carefree place.  Every time we go we are pleasantly surprised with the new rides, places and sights to see. We all love the Magic Kingdom best so naturally most of my layouts are from there. But this year we also spent a day in Epcot as well which I am still scrapping.   Here are a few of my favorite layouts from the Magic Kingdom...

I have to give a shout out to my downline Laura for helping me learn and use the Cameo to cut out the bears and title on this layout.  I am a big fan of Merida and my most recent Facebook profile picture is definitely evidence of that!
My son loves Winnie the Pooh so taking him to the Crystal Palace for breakfast with the Hundred Acre Wood gang was a no-brainer!  I have to admit, I had fun too! 

My son also loves Buzz Lightyear as you can see from his Mickey Ears.  On this layout, I used one of our flip flaps to add an interactive element to my page (and hide my journaling too).  Did you know in the new CTMH Annual Inspirations Idea Book we will be unveiling a new size flip flap package? Yep! I am so excited! :)


The second selection of crafting I wanted to share with you today is from my Intermediate Level Copic class.  I had the opportunity to take this class with Cindy Lawrence.  She is so sweet and a very patient teacher, plus she colors the most beautiful images and makes the cutest cards ever! In this class I made a handful of new pieces to showcase shadowing and shading techniques and I earned  my Intermediate Level Copic Certification.  Here are two of my finished pieces:

Lilacs: our final exam.  Note the shadowing on the flowers and leaves and the highlights on the leaves from the sun. 

Beary Sweet Sleepover.  Note the light face of little girl bear because of the flashlight and also boy bear's shadow because he is more in the dark. 

My diploma!!!



The third thing I have to share with you today is a painting I did last week at the Art Plus Studio in New Haven.  Poppies are one of my favorite flowers and also very significant to me because of my late Grandpa Bernie.   I painted these poppies in remembrance of him and am so proud to have done a pretty decent job (I think!) on my first "real" painting.  I love you and miss you so much Poppy!

Me and my friend and Stella & Dot uplink, Gina, had a blast at Art Plus Studio painting poppies.
Poppies for Poppy.  My painting took about 2 hours to complete.  My next painting class is on the 19th.  I can't wait!


Lastly, I want to wish myself a Happy Anniversary! This month marks the 5th year I have been a consultant for CTMH.  I am blessed to be a part of this family and for how it has changed my life.  This is the charm CTMH sent to me to mark this happy milestone.  Love it!


Love my heart key charm. Adding it to my silver Stella & Dot chain and wearing it to all my scrapbooking crops.


This past month not only reinforced my love for paper crafting, coloring, painting and creating art but also expanded my desire to create even more memories to preserve forever in art!  I will be traveling to the Statue of Liberty this weekend and am already planning how to document this trip.  I hope you will check back next month to see!


To continue with the Blog hope please click here to visit my BFF Crystal's blog.  I know you will love what she has to show you!

Happy Crafting! :)

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Joyful Stars Blog Hop- June- Disney World Vacation

Welcome to the Joyful Stars blog hop for June!  If you have come here from Meg's blog you are hopping on the right track!

Between grading exams, calculating final grades for the semester, writing a lab book for my Biology course, taking a trip to Disney World, doing a Stella & Dot show and getting ready to spend four days scrapbooking with my CTMH BFFs in Pennsylvania, I have not had any time for paper crafting this past month.   I do however, have some awesome Disney pics to show you and I thought I would show you some of the layouts I have been admiring on Pinterest that I plan to use for Disney inspiration.  Here is a link to my Pinterest site if you want to see my whole Disney :) pinboard or any of my other boards.

My mom, sister,  son and I were so excited and lucky to spend a week chill-axin in the hot Florida sun!  We went to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot.   My son (and I think everyone in my family) like the Magic Kingdom the best.

Princess Merida and my Prince Joshua

Me, Josh, Mom and Lisa

Lisa, Mom, Josh and me at the Animal Kingdom

 So these are a couple layouts that I found on Pinterest and plan to scrap-lift :)


I love the uniform and structured look of this Project Life style layout.  Plus the creator used lots of pictures on one page without making the page look too crowded.  This layout was found on sweetshoppecommunity.com
I like the squares and the pattern paper mixed with the architecture photos from Epcot.  This layout reminds me that every page in my scrapbook does not have to have a person's picture in it.  This layout is from mousescrappers.com
This layout was also found on mouse scrappers.com  I was so excited to see the Electrical Parade at the Magic Kingdom and I have many of the same photos that are in this layout.  Plus I loved the way the creator used the sparkle letters and glitter paper to further accentuate the beautiful twinkling colored lights.

Well, I hope you have been inspired to create something fabulous for yourself based on many the ideas you find on Pinterest.  When you know you are dealing with a very popular theme it can be hard to decide what to do and where to begin, but by doing a little Pinterest research, you can get lots of great ideas in a very short amount of time and even organize them nicely all in one place!  Now that is a time saver for sure!

Check back next month to see my completed Disney layouts and my Disney scrapbook album for 2014!

Now hop on over to Joyce's blog  and see what she has created for you.  Thanks for stopping by and come by again soon!

Happy Crafting! :)

  

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Joyful Stars Blog Hop - May - Paper Flowers Shadow Box Frame

Welcome to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop for May!  The full list of participants in this hop is located on Joyce's blog.  If you are following the blog hop in order you are coming here from Janice's blog and you are on the right track!

This month is special to me.  It is my birthday on May 9th and also on Sunday is Mother's Day.  My mom and I are very close and I wanted to make her something she could display of the two of us.  I chose to make a 12x12 shadow box frame.  I used the exclusive CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the paper flowers.  I love making these flowers. I also love how easy they are to roll (especially with the quilling tool) and how intricate they look. Many people are intimidated by the complex appearance but really they are EASY! You need to try it!




I taught this shadow box frame as a class at Scrap-a-Way Retreats last weekend.  Everyone was impressed with how simple the flowers were and how pretty they are.  I hope Mo


I hope Mom likes it! Now I have to find the perfect picture to place inside.  Happy Mother's Day!!!



Now hop on over to Joyce's blog and see what creative project she has for you.





Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Joyful Stars Blog Hop - Skylark Mini Album using Artbooking Cricut Cartridge


Even though I have the flu right now, I wanted to still participate with the talented ladies in the Joyful Stars blog hop. This is a monthly hop started by my uplink Joyce Houck from Pennsylvania.  I first met Joyce at the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo in Hartford, CT in 2008.  I was introduced to Close To My Heart and my life has literally been changed.  Not only did I find the best scrapbooking products out there, but more importantly, I met many amazingly talented women that I am so happy and proud to call my friends.  

Close To My Heart changed the way I created and ultimately helped me to preserve my memories in a more beautiful, creative way with the best quality materials out there.  


There are 12 of us participating in the hop this month and the theme is Spring.  If you get lost or dizzy doing the "bunny hop" the full list of participants is located on Joyce's blog.  If you are following the blog in order you are coming here from Krista's blog and you are on the right track!  
One of my favorite new paper packets is Skylark. I love the earthy colors and patterned B&T papers.  As soon as I saw the beautiful bluebird and cage I knew I wanted to make a mini album.  This album is similar to the one taught at the Close To My Heart Convention last year.  I used the exclusive CTMH Artbooking Cricut cartridge to cut the pages and inserts.

I love mini albums. These smaller projects, with a specific theme or focus, can be finished in a short amount of time are so impressive.  Plus they are the perfect size to show off to your family and friends and even to use as a centerpiece on the holiday table.  I plan on putting my Easter pictures in my album and showing it off all spring! 












I am also teaching this album as a class and selling it as a kit at my next Scrap-a-Way event in Warwick, Rhode Island May 2nd-4th.  If you would like to preorder your kit please send me an email at stephanielovesscrapbooking@gmail.com. Pre-ordered kits include precut pages, papers and the embellishments shown.


To continue with the Joyful Stars blog hop you will be heading on over to Joyce's blog.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will leave a comment for me below and visit again soon!

Happy Crafting! :)