:: mad hatter ::

It's Pinspire Me Monday on the Paper Issues blog and I love this challenge! Here's my take:

This photo shows off my daughters crazy personality. She's reading her assigned reading (which isn't always her favorite thing). She spiced it up a bit on this night -- she came out with two hats on, sunglasses, and a cape! Love these moments captured. 

Here is the Pinspiration that Leah came up with to inspire us this month.

Don't you love it!  I saw all that black and white with pops of aqua and red, and then boom!

Here are a couple of close ups:



I started with papers from Pink Paislee's Memorandum collection, added in some Crate Paper's After Dark.  Of course I used some watered down gelato in the back ground. :-)

These days a layout isn't complete without at least one (or two, or three) flair buttons from {a flair for buttons}.

Click here for a free cut file.

:: live in the moment ::

Pinspire me Monday over on the Paper Issues Blog!  Here's the inspiration:

And here is my take on it:

I'm using Shimelle's True Stories collection.



The colors in the collection were perfect for the (P)inspiration. Don't you love those alphas?



I also used a couple of die cuts and the wooden buttons from the collection. I cut one of the patterned papers (english breakfast) -- tons of stripes -- and placed it over the yellow patterned paper.  Then I machine stitched through each strip -- this is inspired by stripes on the quote part of the (p)inspiration piece.

And the story. The story is all about B. singing and dancing and jumping "in the rain" with her umbrella (I chose this story and photo because of the cutie with the umbrella in the (p)inspiration piece).


This was a fun one to make!  Want to play along?  Get the details here.

Pick up Shimelle's latest collection or just about anything else you can think of at the Paper Issues Store.  Use the code orangegearle and get 20% off your entire purchase!

See you soon!

:: wander :: July PINspire Me Monday

Looking for some inspiration?  How about some PINspiration?  It's PINspire Me Monday at Paper Issues!  Design team member Leah found this to inspire you:

There is so much here that I love. The colors are fab, the window, and…because flamingo. As soon as I saw this, though, I remembered a photo that we took of B. wandering down a path, spring flowers blooming and everything just beginning to 'green up'. So I used Leah's PinSpiration to scrap that photo! Here is what I came up with:

I also let the colors inspire me a bit, but certainly not exact. I have to admit, I am not super happy with the end result. I love the idea of this one. I don't completely hate it, but it pales in comparison to the inspiration piece. :-/  Does that ever happen to you?

The good news:  some of the other DT members created projects too.  You can find them here.

More good news: love it or not, I will always remember this day when I flip to this layout in my album. Story Documented.

See you soon!

:: it's a horse of a different color ::

It's Pinspire Me Monday over at the paper issues blog!  Corri found this great color palette on Pinterest, and asked us to use it as inspiration for a project!  I took on the challenge.

Not only do I love these colors together, I also love that water color look.  So I grabbed a white piece of card stock and my gelatos and got busy:

I started with the background.  First I slathered a bit of gesso on the white card stock to prep it a bit.  I only put it through the center of the page, where I knew the gelatos were going to go.  This helps the color move across the page a bit easier.  If you are interested I did do a video showing a few techniques I use often with gelatos (it also talks a bit about gesso).  I created a bit of texture by not smoothing the gesso out when applying. After it dried, I applied the gelatos, and moved and blended the colors with a water brush.

While that was drying, I grabbed some patterned papers from Heidi Swapp's September Skies collection (they go PERFECTLY with the color palette).

As you can see, this paper is a lovely blue, with white (and black) flowers of various sizes.  It's beautiful on it's own.  But I wanted to add a bit of color.  So I grabbed the above gelatos and painted some of them with a water brush!  I think you can see it in this photo (along with the texture created with the gesso under the color on the white card stock).

I was going for the look that Amy Tangerine has in some of her watercolor inspired patterned papers, so I didn't really "stay in the lines" while I was painting, I got a bit messy with it.

While that was drying, I grabbed another piece of white card stock and added some color with more gelatos and a water brush.  I used this piece of paper to cut out (freehand) the letters for the word "COLOR".

Finally I used a few more scraps of that same paper and made the triangles.  Of course I had to add some stitching and pop dots.  ;-)

If you'd like to play along with us over at the Paper Issues blog, click here for details.

If you are interested in gelatos, Heidi Swapp's September Skies, a water brush, or anything else that suits your fancy, check out the Paper Issues Store.  Don't forget to use the code 'orangegearle' to receive 20% off your order!

Did you see the Cut It Out Saturday link party????  It's a new feature at Paper Issues -- and Jennifer Chapin created an awesome FREE cut file!  AND if you participate and win -- you could snag the November Swag Bag!   I hope to be back soon with a layout to share that I made with this file, it's a great one!

See you again soon!