The Weekend Is Here...Time For A Blog Hop

Lots of business to conduct on this post, so let's get to it shall we? Paper Issues has a new link party...are you a Tree Hugger? Link up your projects related in any way to trees, wood grain, family tree, recycled paper pretties, etc.

By the way, Paper Issues is sponsoring the current Scrap Fit and Sketchy Thursday challenges. Go check them out, have some fun and possibly win some scrappy stuff.

And without further ado, welcome to PI's Blog Hop. If you're following along you hopped here from Hilary's blog. We've got a lot of contributors for this hop so we've divided it into three groups; layout/art journal, altered project, and cards. Follow all or not its totally up to you. Most of us are giving personal RAKs. Everyone will announce the winners at the same time.

Leave me a comment (or better yet, become a follower) for a random draw to win a $10 gift certificate to Paper Issues shop. The cut off time is Sunday, October 18th at 11:00pm EST. Also as a little extra incentive, Cassie is offering 25% off in the store all weekend until Sunday night, just use the code HOP25.

Time to play!

My cat's name is Baby. She's spoiled rotten. End of story. I made a little something to hang over her "area", you know what I mean? My inspiration came from a project made by Shannon Sawyer in the current issue of Stampers' Sampler magazine. The base of her hanger is a WOODEN ruler...perfect for Tree Hugger, huh?

Step 1
I used an old wooden yard stick and was able to score it with an exacto knife to a desired length (12 inches). There were some jagged bits left when I snapped it off, but I just sanded it a little.

Step 2
This is optional, I wanted to add a little color to the wood so I spritzed some ink and added blending solution directly to the craft mat. Then applied it with a blending tool.

Step 3
"Sketch" out your design because you're going to punch some holes for frou-frou kitty stuff and for hanger. X marks the spot for hole placement using a Crop-A-Dile. I'm lazy, didn't want to dig out my drill, it was a tight squeeze (just like my Spanx) but it worked.

Step 4
Get your paper, ink, bling, or whatever and get busy decorating this sucker. I won't bore you with any more details but here's the end result.

Baby's gray, so I kept that chippie raw, I just added tiny green rhinestones and wire for her whiskers. Because she's got awesome whiskers. Here's a list of....

Products used - paper (Jillibean Soup), corrugated alphas (Jillibean), chip die cuts (Maya Road), chip border (Technique Tuesday), brad (BoBunny), stamp (Tim Holtz), distress ink (Ranger), color wash (Ranger), blending solution & tool (Ranger), acrylic paint, black pen, paint pen (Uchida), tiny rhinestone, jump rings, wire, old yard stick or wooden ruler

Thanks so much for stopping by, don't forget to leave me a comment, and your next hop is...
Cassie Box (our fearless leader, yay!)

I'm A Punky Rebel!

I've been invited to join the fun bunch of cool gals at Punky Scraps! This is a great challenge blog and I'm very excited. Thank you to all the PS Design Team for such a warm welcome.


I thought I'd play along with the current challenge, #27 Tartan, Anyone.

Here's what I came up with....

I think I pulled out everything but the kitchen sink for this one, but it sure was fun to make.

Products used:
Paper (Prima, Graphic 45), Alpha stickers (Doodlebug, American Crafts), Mini alphas (My Little Shoebox, Making Memories), Chip sticker (American Crafts), brad (BoBunny), cardstock stickers (Basic Grey), trinket pins (Maya Road), ribbon (May Art), stamp (Tim Holtz), border punch (Martha Stewart), Stickles, pens (Uniball, American Craft, Uchida), chalk ink, twine, staples

Come on by and play along with us and thanks for stopping by

Sketch Inspiration + Paper Issues = Creative Fun

A good sketch is a scrapper's best friend. Such a good jump start if you've been on a creative hiatus. And its my favorite type of challenge to take on. I couldn't resist this week's prompt at Sketch Inspiration.

Paper Issues is the prize sponsor this week. Cassie has put together some really nice goodies from the PI etsy store. So go check it out, go on, ya know ya wanna.

Recently, my husband uncovered a box of old family photos and mementos. Lots of new material for me to work with, hurrah! His maternal grandfather was a locomotive engineer. I've heard Tom's train stories countless times. He adored his Granddad and was very pleased when I showed him this layout.

No special techniques here. I made a template with a die cut frame and punchinella for the base. And I crackle painted another smaller die cut in the same shape for dimension. The rest is pretty straightforward. I like how the film strip transparency evokes a train track image. Well, at least it does to me, lol. The manufacturers' products used: Webster's Pages (pp), Technique Tuesday, Tim Holtz, Ranger, Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey.

On this special day take time out to give thanks and remember, always remember. Thank you so much for visiting my little blog, it truly means a lot to me.