blue skies and summer days

This month’s theme is all about blue skies and summer
days.

I immediately thought of my very favorite flower photograph with a big
bright blue sky background. I love this photo so much, I
keep it posted on an inspiration board in my studio.

To create the layout, I brainstormed for words describing all the
things that come to mind when I see this sunflower photo. Then I used
those words to make a word collage instead of using just one title.

I started by adding Sunflower Mist to the background, created a matte
for my photo and word collage, threw in some borders and sprinkled
with a few embellishments. To me, it looks like sunshine on a
scrapbook page!

Supplies List:
Papers: Ava Collection by Melody Ross
Embellishments: Die Cut Boarders, Epoxy Stickers, Clear Stickers,
Crochet Flowers, Metal Rimmed Glass Brads all from the Arsty Urban
Collection by Melody Ross
Letter Stickers: Thickers by American Crafts, Mini Market
Stickers by October Afternoon, Making Memories and Sassafrass
Gems: Basic Grey and The Beadery
Punches: Ek Success
Ink: Maya Mist- Sunflower Metallic & Turquoise Metallic

I hope you have some beautiful, bright-blue skies where you are today!
Leslie

Get out your bling ladies!

Today I am going to challenge you to do something that might not come quite naturally. I often get comments from people about how adventurous I am when it comes to adding items feminine in nature to my masculine themed cards. While I welcome the title of "risk taker"...I don't necessarily think that items like jewels and ribbon are feminine in nature. Big frilly bows, pink hearts and flourishes of jewels everywhere....those are very feminine.

The key to using these items on a masculine card is to first pick colors and shapes that are suitable for the male receiving your card. Colors and shapes like these work out great:

Shades of green, orange, and yellow would also be great color choices.

The other thing to remember when using items like these on a masculine card.....less is more. Crisp and clean lines, and simple rows of jewels work best when trying to keep the card from leaning towards the feminine side.

I know...I am totally teasing you by showing two little clips from my cards!! So, without further ado....here are my father's day themed cards using jewels (& ribbon!!). Notice that they are completely appropriate to give to a man, jewels and all.

So, go ahead and add some jewels to your masculine themed cards!

Until later,
~Lea

Go wild with butterflies

I think this layout created by our June Guest Designer( Jacquie Dean ) is ADORABLE! She brings something new and beautiful each new week.

I would normally post about our GD on Monday, but I had a few family things going on and couldn't get to it.

I want to point out a few things.

1) I love the paw prints boarder to the left. SO SMART for a pet layout :)

2) I love that the green butterflies match the grass in the photo! It's a great way to tie in color!

3)I love that Jacquie used black letters. They jump off the layout

4) I LOVE...LOVE all the different sized butterflies. What a great way to use punches.

I hope these butterflies inspire you

~H

PS

The June news letter went out (It's a GOOD ISSUE). If you want to still get it, simple email

Inthestudio@gcdstudios.com

and let me know :)

Sail Away

Hi Everyone!

Today's is my turn to show you my take on this month's theme:

When I first saw these images I was drawn to the boats. Summer time for me is all about water, water sports and nice lazy vacations. There is something (for me anyway) just magical about a sail boat. I think on a nice day there is nothing more beautiful then watching a sail boat sail off until you can no longer see it.

Recently, I was at my local craft store and I stumbled across this little unfinished boat I was drawn to it and knew I had to take it home. After painting my little boat white, I paired it with some yummy GCD papers to make the sails.

Here's my little Sail Boat:

Well I wish you each smooth "sailing" today! Have a happy day!

chipboard shapes

Hi, it's Emeline and i'm here to share with you some ideas to use the wonderful GCD Studio's chipboard shapes.



i used a scallop chipboard from this awesome pack and used it to embellish my layout.



First, i de-bossed the chipboard with the chipboard art tool, painted and halved it.



Then, choose your desired pattern paper, (or you can print your own journaling), trace the shape of the halved scallop chipboard and adhere to the back.
In this case, i used pattern paper from GCD Studios Artsy Urban (#875-Book Page)



here, i find the binder clips (Homespun Chic) SO useful !


i hope you have fun playing around with your chipboards too ! :)
emeline

Try some misting today!

A quick & easy way to create a fun background is through misting. It is so much fun to work with and so very addicting! To create my "summer" clouds. I simply handcut some fluffy clouds out of scrap pieces of thin chipboard...

Placed them randomly on the cardstock...

{I use a cardboard box to contain the mist from going everywhere!}

And mist away...

Next, the grass... I used a trim from the Artsy Urban - Felt Die Cut Borders...

I cut the piece of trim in half and layered them to even it out a bit...

I fluffed it up and tore it a bit to make it look a bit more "real"...

add embellishments...

do some inking on the clouds to make them "pop"...

and your layouts complete!

Try some misting today!

Sweet Daddy Kisses

The theme this month is to scrap those special men in our lives and my girls LOVE their daddy and he happens to be an AMAZING father! These pictures of our youngest giving her daddy kisses melts my heart that I just had to scrap them!

Since I have two daughters who are the stars of my pages, I am not used to doing masculine pages and I tend to have to keep them simple since the more I add, the "girlier" it becomes! So to add a little fun to my layout, I decided to sew part of my title. It is easier to do, here's how:

Step 1: Use chipboard alpha's to trace out the word.

Step 2: Pierce holes along the pencil lines.

Step 3: Erase pencil lines.

Step 4: Hand stitch through holes.

For this layout I used the Artsy Urban and the Lydia collections. I also used the Chip Art Tool for my hearts (I am SO addicted to that tool). Have a GREAT day!

A Challenge with Kim...oh and there's a prize involved! WOOT

Most of you have seen this image by now. It's our June inspiration photo. Each month I give the girls an image to help them have a jumping point. I love to see how each girl can create something totally different from the same photo.

When you look at this photo... what inspiration do you find?

Right now Kim is hosting this very theme over at Two peas in a Bucket.com

There is a yummy prize for the winner :)

so click here to play along.

Hi, Kim here with my take on this month's inspirational image ...

I loved this image and had no problems drawing inspiration from it to create this layout ...

Obviously I was inspired by the yellows and blues in the image, but I also drew inspiration from the image for my title.

I hope you are equally inspired by this great image!

Cheers
Kim

From a soda can...to a robot!

I'm excited to bring you my technique today. I guess you could say I was inspired by the bright and shiny necklace in the photo. And of course, I can't leave out the vibrant blue skies.

A light bulb came on when I was digging out possibilities for this month's challenge. I believe I was working on another project and had these two pieces of chipboard laying out on the table. For some reason they caught my eye and all I could see using them for was a robot. I could just envision his cute little boxy face. Almost immediately I went to work spray painting the little dude.

After mulling the idea around for a bit. I started thinking of supplies I already had on hand that I could use. Like pop cans. I washed a couple out before bed that night so they could be drying. Then the idea to use hardware came into play. So I dug around and found some in a kitchen drawer. All I had to do was dab some acrylic paint on them with tiny piece of a sponge.

Without further ado....Meet Ramsey the robot. I think he's such a cutie! He was so much fun to create. Hmmmm, maybe he needs a Mrs.?

Supplies: 2 pieces of medium plaques chip art chipboard (#551), blue redwork homespun chic paper, red and white card stock, 2 pop cans, silver metallic spray paint, 7 silver nuts (hardware), silver wire, 1/2 in. circle punch, rhinestone, stickers, blue acrylic paint, pen, hot glue gun, kid paintbrush, foam tape

Spray paint chipboard. Allow to dry (approx.15 min)

Cut two 1 in. strips from one can for legs. Accordion fold and adhere.

Cut two 3/4 in. strips from 2nd can for arms. Accordion fold and adhere.

Create two rectangles from a piece of scrap aluminum.

One will be cut for the eyes. The other will remain uncut for the neck.

Cut one rectangle in half. Fold to create eyes. Make a small square

out of scrap aluminum. Fold to create a triangle for nose.

Also cut small rectangle for mouth.

Wrap wire around end of paint brush to create antennae.

Complete instructions:

1. spray paint chipboard. allow to dry approx. 15 min. cut pop cans to create arms and legs
2. accordion fold arms and legs. adhere.
3. cut neck from scrap. adhere to head and body to connect. create eyes, nose and mouth. adhere.
4. paint nuts. allow to dry approx. 15 min. once dry adhere.
5. trace and cut middle panel. hand draw hearts, hands and feet. cut and adhere.
6. affix stickers to card stock. cut and adhere.
7. wrap wire around paintbrush. remove. punch out circle affix rhinestone. adhere to wire. adhere wire to robot.
8. cut card stock to create card base. cut patterned paper slightly smaller than card stock and adhere. Adhere robot to card base using foam tape.

~lori

Go Fly a Kite!!!

We had a fabulous inspiration piece for this month! Don't you agree? I was most definitely inspired by the blue skies and the fluffy white clouds!

Here is my take...

...on this photo collage!

I just love the dimensional feel to the kites and the clouds!

I started by sketching out my design and then drawing out the clouds on the patterned paper. I cut the kites out of the patterned paper and folded them to create the creases. I then popped them up using double sided foam adhesive.

But what about those fluffy clouds you ask?!

To create the fluffy clouds I cut out 2 of the same shape for each cloud. I used my sewing machine to straight stitch around the edges leaving a small opening on one end. I then stuffed pillow stuffing inside the paper cloud pillow and then sewed that end closed. I adhere them with a small amount of hot glue from my hot glue gun! Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Lydia Collection Petit Floral Glitter, Lydia Collection Sky Brocade, Smoothie Shoppe Collection Ice Cubes

Happy Hugs!

Juliana

WINNERS + White tissue paper and mod podge

The winner of the butterfly stickers is....

Janine Rachau said...

Lovely cards! And, awesome dimensional stickers! Fingers crossed. :)

MAY 22, 2010 5:43 AM

The Winner on FB for the boarder strips is....

Kelly Massman: "That is gorgeous! I'm heading over there to see more of her work!"

The winner of the Chipboard letters is....

Tanya said...

Beautiful layout! I have never heard of the Chip Art Collection tools, so cool. Love that "D", have never seen such an amazing chip board letter.Thanks for the chance. :)

Send me your info at hsonboul@gcdstudios.com AND place your prize info in the subject line :)

CONGRATS girls!

~H

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Hi, Kim here! It is my turn to share a technique with you and since in the northern hemisphere you are heading into summer, I thought I would share a great technique with you to create your own embellishments perfect for outdoor / summer pages - clouds.

This is the layout that I created with the clouds I made using this technique ...

Step 1 - Gather your supplies: white cardstock, white tissue paper and mod podge

Step 2 - Using mod podge, crinkle and paste the tissue paper onto the cardstock

Step 3 - cover whole piece of cardstock using this technique and it will end up looking like this ...

Step 4 - set aside to dry. I left mine overnight.

Step 5 - I found it was creamer than I wanted when it dried, so I painted it with white paint and again set it aside to dry.

Step 6 - I then sprayed it with a pearl Glimmermist to make it shiny and again set it aside to dry.

Step 7 - once it is dry, cut cloud shapes from it ...

Step 8 - Cut the number of clouds that you want for your project and you are ready to go ...

I simply glued my clouds down, but you could also use foam tape to add even more dimension.

All products used for this layout are from the Artsy Urban range by Melody Ross for GCD Studios except for the letters which are American Crafts.

Cheers
Kim