Monday, August 8, 2016

Thoughtful Branches and beautiful ballerinas!

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Stampin' Up! has released a limited, exclusive bundle called "Thoughtful Branches", that is only available in August, while supplies last.  It is an amazing bundle that works well for so many applications -- floral, Christmas, Halloween, Fall, etc.  I haven't had a lot of time to play, but I have made several things with the Hydrangea flower (which can also be a tree topper).  All I can say is it is beautiful and elegant!  I love hydrangeas, and have a big white one blooming in my back yard.  They are elegant flowers that last a long time, so you get to enjoy them for a good, long while!

I had these lovely ballet photographs of my sweet little Sabina's first ballet recital, and I love how I was able to make these little hydrangeas match their little pink dresses perfectly!  The awesome thing about this layout, is that you could make the flowers any color you wanted to match whatever dresses they were wearing.  The background is neutral, so the flowers would be lovely in purple or blue -- more gorgeous hydrangea colors.  Anyways, it was fun creating this little girly layout.  The hostess of scrap club this month, also has a dancer, and I thought she would love having a layout to scrap some of those pictures with.  The fun thing about this set, is that you can make trees with that same flower topper, so for the club members wanting to scrap pictures of their boys, they can make a border with trees and a little picket fence!  A perfect solution for everyone!

My title says "DANCE like there's no tomorrow", but if you didn't have ballet pictures, you could make it say "LIVE" as the song actually says, and it would work for any pictures you had.  The background is white, and the borders are Kraft card stock that I embossed with the new Seaside embossing folder.  It creates a wavy pattern that adds a nice touch of texture.  I also used the long border die and the tiny flower accent from the Flourishing Phrases bundle to add that darling little pink border and flowers.  It is an easy die to cut with, surprisingly, and adds that girly touch I was going for.  The stems and leaves are cut from Pear Pizzazz card stock -- a nice soft green.  I used Pink Pirouette for the hydrangeas, and then spritzed them with a glittery spray to make them sparkly.

I recently got the Letters for You bundle, so wanted to use it in my title.  I love that the letters are big enough to make a statement without overpowering your page.  It's a bit of a spendy bundle, but not too bad if you earn it as a half price item, like I did.  I can see lots of ideas using it -- banners, name frames, scrap booking, etc.

I recently heard this idea for adhering intricate die cuts that I am really loving!  Get out your little silicone craft sheet, and take some Mulitpurpous liquid glue and scribble some glue randomly over your craft sheet -- creating an area of glue streaks about 4x4" -- then simply lay your die cut down on the scribbled glue, lift and stick.  It works best if you have all your die cuts ready in a pile, and glue them down all at once.  It works so well and doesn't require all that fussy applying of glue to the backs, or using up all your expensive Xyron refills.  This is my new go-to way to apply intricate dies. And once the glue dries on the sheet, you can just rub your finger over it and the dried glue balls up and comes off easily.  Whoever thought of this is genius -- Just Sayin'! and THANKS whoever you are! :)







Ok!  I'm off to do the things I do on Mondays! :)  Swimming lessons for the kids, a "puppy training" class for our little "Buddy", and gosh! do I ever need to clean up this house!  Somehow the weekends always turn the house into a disaster.  Not quite sure how that happens, but it does.