Colors of Fall

"Autumn truly is what summer pretends to be: the best of all seasons. It is as glorious as summer is tedious; as subtle as summer is obvious; as refreshing as summer is wearying. Autumn seems like paradise."
--Gregg Easterbrook

I love Autumn-- it is by miles my absolute favorite time of the year, from the chill in the air to going back to school, harvest time and football games, to the BEAUTIFUL Autumn colors and enjoying those last precious rays of sunshine, appreciating them ever so much more than the summer sun because you know it won't last. So, when I learned the colors for this week's projects-- Ivory , Gold and __________-- I immediately thought of this time of year and a lovely autumn gold. My layout this week uses the colors Ivory, Gold and Brown (with a tad of blue) and showcases one of those golden Autumn afternoons that makes me want it to just be September forever.


I had so much fun with these colors and so many ideas for what to do, I couldn't pick just one or two things to include and so I have many different things on this one layout! I started with Bo Bunny Double Dot Cardstock-- which is quickly becoming my favorite paper for a layout base, the colors are so awesome! I added just a bit of Cosmo Cricket's Gretel line along the edge to give it a touch of that pretty dark turquoise blue and some fall leaves, then decided it needed even more leaves so I stamped the bottom third of the page. I only used a tiny bit of the Cosmo Cricket paper, but make sure to check out this whole collection, it is gorgeous and perfect for fall creations!

Then I layered some large squares of gold, brown and ivory in the middle to mat my large (8x8) sepia photo on and this is where it really got fun! Have you seen this?
It's the new Zutter Distress-It-All and it is seriously my new favorite scrapbook tool! You push the button, stick in your paper and zippity quick! you have perfect distressed edges. Hopefully the angle of this photo will show you a little of what this cool machine can do:


I LOVE it!!! I really thought about die cutting some leaves and distressing their edges too but I decided I had enough stuff already but I can see using this for all kinds of shapes-- flowers, stars, and yes, leaves! Now, Kimm is currently out of stock (I do believe I got the last one!) but hopefully she'll have some back in the store soon because YOU HAVE TO GET ONE!

Enough about that-- I also included machine stitching around my distressed mat, a hand pieced sun with rickrack rays and some clouds cut out of My Little Shoebox's Sky's the Limit paper. I popped up some of the clouds with foam squares and edged everything with Chestnut Roan Colorbox ink. Here's a side view of my sun and clouds:


And now, the finale! I made Kimm's brand new tear critter, Owen the Owl, as he fits an autumn page just perfectly. He is adorable! I made his beak and feet out of yellow gold Bazzill cardstock to match my ivory and gold theme. Then hand cut a little branch from some more of the Bo Bunny Double Dot for him to perch on and attached some gold Bo Bunny All-Stuck-Up flowers (these are a great deal right now!) I love him! Make sure to check out the other new Tear Critters-- Sidney the Skunk and Salem the Cat.


Wow! That was quite an explanation, I know, as I said, I just love Autumn and this was such a fun page to make. I hope I gave you an idea or two and I hope you get out and enjoy the beautiful Autumn days, colors and activities before they are gone!

Save a little time, though, to enter our current Beary Sweet Sketch Challenge-- you have until Sept. 15th at 11:59 EST to enter your take on the sketch and you just might be the lucky one who wins a $20.00 voucher to The Beary Scrap-- perfect for getting some of those awesome Tear Critter Patterns or other fabulous scrapbook supplies!

The Beary Scrap Color Challenge

Hello My Beary Sweet Friends.

This week at The Beary Scrap Design Team we have a color challenge.

Gold, Cream plus one and I choose Pink.

Thank you Susan for choosing our color challenge this week at first I was like how am I going to use such light colors seeing how I always lean towards bold bright colors but I think I pulled this one off, they don't call it a challenge for nothing. 

My card recipe:

Beary Sweet Templates - Tear Bear

Mulberry Paper

Beary Scrap Creative Tool

Brush2O Water Barrel Pen

Fluff Me Tear Bear Brush

Sakura Gelly Roll Pen

Sakura Pigma Micron Pen

Pearls

EK Success Punches - for flowers.

Martha Stewart Leaf Punch

Pearls

Spellbinders

Card Stock

Hot Off The Press

Bazzill Piercing Mat - Now on clearance.

Now for a little hint:

When you have to add some really thin ribbon or lace to a card and don't want to have glue go everywhere. You can try this:

 Now the lace I used is very thin and braided so there is hole in it I used the Bazzill Piercing Mat and Kimm's Beary Creative Tool to punch holes in the paper and hand thread it the card stock. I punched about 2 inches and threaded it and then did another 2 inches till I went all the way around so it would stay even.

 Thanks so much for looking.

~Patricia~

DT Color Challenge Week!

Happy birthday Kimm! ::smooches::

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Hello friends! Happy Labor Day to everyone celebrating, and happy Monday to *everyone*! This week the design team is taking on a color challenge:

Gold and Ivory + One Color

My "plus one" is green. :) Ok, so here's the scoop - the delicious SEI Windsor gold and ivory paper and Kaisercraft wood die-cut are available at the store. As of this writing, I don't think it's on the website yet, so give Kimm a call to add to your order. 

Kaisercraft Wood Flourishes are raw wood and ready for your finishing. I painted this flourish gold, used dark brown chalk ink to age it a bit, then layered with Diamond Stickles. Remember a few weeks back when I waxed on about my white Stickles exploration (every white is different!)? Well, the gold flecks in Diamond Stickles were perfect for this project. The shine is more subtle than gold glitter and really tasteful... if glitter glue can be "tasteful".

The only thing I regret is the little bit of white-ness to the glue in places, especially the numbers - the layering was thicker and resulted in a messier finish. I should have stuck with the "less-is-more" approach. (Oh, the numbers are cardboard-type die cuts that I painted the same as the Kaisercraft.)

The holly sprigs are leftovers from last year's Christmas cards - I don't throw anything away! I think they were cut on the Cricut.

Card Recipe

• Image: Vintage, printed twice and layered
• Paper: Bazzill Basics in Truffle, Guacamole, French Vanilla; SEI Windsor (available at the store - call!)
• Medium: Glimmer Mist Diamond; Stickles Diamond and Frosted Lace; ColorBox Fluid Chalk on edges and used to distress the flourish and numbers - Chestnut Roan and Dark Brown
• Embellishments: Kaisercraft Wood Flourishes (available at the store); Kaisercraft Pearls; sheer ribbon, lace, holly, die cuts and numbers all from stash.
• Adhesive: Scor-Tape

Thanks for stopping in to visit today! Our Beary Sweet Sketch Challenge #9 is going on through the 14th - we'd love to have you join in! 

Cheers,

Susan

Farewell Elise Blog Candy Winner!

Hello hello! What a great send-off for Elise - thanks so much to each and every one of you for playing along!

Our random winner, as chosen by Finnegan as he was sniffing his way through a bowl of names with a treat on the bottom, is none other than the Sassy Lassy herself -

Bonnie!

(This is Finn, patiently waiting for that treat!)

Congratulations Bonnie! Please email me with your mailing address and I'll get the goodie pack off to you ASAP!

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In other news, don't forget we have our BSC #9 Sketch Challenge going on now through September 14th:

Cheers,

Susan

It's a Sketch, but which one?

Do you ever feel like you are running around like a chicken with it's head cut off? This has been one more crazy week! I finally got my computer back this afternoon, but after I got it all hooked up, I realized that I don't have a clue where my digital camera is! So, this is the scanned version of my card for the Beary Scrap. As soon as I figure out what I did with my camera, I'll add a better pic for you!

We have a great sketch to play with this week - and we would love for you to play along with us! Now please don't look at my sketch for the inspiration! I apparently printed out the wrong sketch to use (I told you - it's been crazy!) I used some Cosmo Cricket papers (Jack's World). I love how great they looked with this little topper from Flower Soft. These toppers are a real time saver. They are printed designs (you get several of each design,) so you can cut them out and layer them rather quickly. We don't have this particular one in stock, but we have some others that are just adorable. I especially like all of the Hedgerow Friends series. I added some of the Citrus Crush Ultra Fine FS for the pillows and rug. The velvet flower and leaves are from Prima.

I am off all of next week, so hopefully, I can get my studio back in order!

hugs,
Gini

It's Sketch Week at The Beary Scrap

Please scroll down for our Beary Sweet Challenge #8 winner and Top 3!!

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How many people are happy it's Friday!

ME!! It's been a very busy week and I'm so glad it's over.

Our new Beary Sweet Challenge for you at The Beary Scrap is a sketch.

Now blogland seems to have a lot of Halloween cards and I'm right there with them. I love Halloween. Kimm has got some really cute new Halloween goodies by Echo Park Paper Co in the store and your going to want to jump on them before they are all gone. I know I will be placing and order for some.

Now I didn't use the Echo Park Paper but I used some Halloween paper by Little Yellow Bicycle-Halloween Haunt.

My card recipe:

Gurlee Girl Stamp Cat Girl

Copics--Still on sale for a great price

Stickles

Little Yellow Bicycle

Martha Stewart Punches-Branch,
Gate

Sugar Coated Card Stock

Lace

Brads

Prima Chatres Lace Flowers

Petaloo Flowers

Spellbinders

Card Stock

There is also some new Tear Critters for September in the store and they are so cute.

Check out the Store for all the details on these cuties.

Thanks so much for looking.

~Patricia~

BSC #8 Winners and Top 3!

Hello friends! We want to extend a heartfelt "Thank You!" to everyone who played along with our last challenge! We really enjoyed visiting your blogs and definitely appreciate your support.

Our winner of the $20 gift voucher to The Beary Scrap is...

# 22: Leanne Garner!

Congratulations, Leanne! Please email Kimm and she'll set you up with a voucher to go shoppin'!

We would also like to congratulate our Beary Sweet Top 3:

#19 - Irit
#23 - Lisa @ Dreamtime
#8 - Trisha

Ladies - thank you so much for joining us! Here's a fun badge to display on your blogs:

...And more ways to win fabulous prizes:

We hope everyone can join our Farewell Elise Blog Hop and Candy going on now through the end of Saturday 9/4. Click HERE for all the details to join us in saying farewell to Elise as she moves on. 

Don't forget our BSC #9 Sketch Challenge going on now!

Cheers,
Susan, Gini, Elise, Jamie, Patricia and Kimm

A Quick Sketch with a Few Tears

Growing up hurts, right? Well, in the case of my little girl it did literally hurt when she turned 6 years old last September and I took her on a shopping trip to get her ears pierced for her birthday. She was so excited, couldn't wait to go, loved picking out that first pair of studs (blue gems for September's birthstone) and was excited right up until the minute they put her up in the chair and started getting out the tools. Then she got nervous and wasn't sure about this decision! But 5 minutes and a few tears later, she had pretty sparkly ears and thought she was pretty grown up!


I've had these pictures sitting on my scrap table for awhile now (obviously, since this happened almost a year ago) and I haven't found just the right paper, idea, etc. to get me going on a page. So last week when I printed out our sketch and paired it up with some paper from Cosmo Cricket, I thought, "Yes! This is perfect for Lindsey's ear piercing pictures." And here is my result:


First, I want to give you a little insight to how I transposed Susan's great card sketch into something for my 12 x 12 layout. I've noticed that sometimes it can be hard to see beyond a sketch or pattern or layout example and adapt it to fit your own style, supplies and project. So, first I studied the sketch for just a bit:

Then I started sketching my own idea right next to it. I wanted to leave the basic elements-- background, than a scalloped edged mat, then another mat with slightly rounded corners. But I wanted a rectangle for my main shape instead of an oval since it fits pictures more easily so I changed that basic shape, drew it as containing 3 photos and then shifted it to the left instead of having it in the center. The strip of paper going underneath the oval in the sketch looked to me like the perfect place to put a page title and so I sketched in my title going there and shifted it down instead of in the center of the page. I left the tag element behind my rectangle shape, just as it is behind the oval shape in the sketch and left the flower element in the bottom left hand corner the same. Ta-da! Using Susan's sketch as a starting point, I now have a sketch for a 12 x 12 layout.


Once I had my plan, I went to work! Using the Hello Sunshine line from Cosmo Cricket, some mint Double Dot cardstock from Bo Bunny and green Chatres Lace Prima flowers I constructed my layout. I love the bright colors in the Hello Sunshine papers and make sure you get the striptease paper to go with the collection-- one of the strips contains the quote "Happiness is getting up in the morning, going to bed at night and doing what you want in between" which totally made me smile!

A quick technique idea for letter stickers-- place your letters on a separate sheet of plastic, wax paper, or other surface they can peel off easily and then apply some rubons right over the letters. When you pick them up, they will off cool patterns and give more dimension to your title. Here is my letters while I was working on them (though I ended up only using one of these words on the layout):


And here is what they looked like after I took them off with their rubons over the top and put them on the layout:



We would love to see your take on our sketch so make sure to join us in our BSC#9 and turn that sketch into your own beautiful card or layout! You have from now until September 15th at 11:59 pm EST to enter your project for the chance to win a $20.00 voucher from The Beary Scrap where there are always lots of fabulous goodies to choose from (like Kimm's brand new Tear Bear critter patterns-- Sidney the Skunk, Owen the Owl and Salem the Cat, oh! they are so cute!)

And don't forget, you still have a couple more days to join us in our Farewell Blog Hop to our dear DT member, Elise!

Beary Sweet Challenge #9: Sketch

Welcome to our Beary Sweet Challenge #9

The design team sends out HUGE WHOPPING BIG thanks to everyone who joined our BSC #8 - we are so thrilled to see each and every one of you! We'll announce winners on Friday, September 3rd. Thank you!

It's the 1st of the month, which means it's SKETCH Challenge time! Any of the elements can be moved, flipped or rotated, as long as they're all there in some form or another. See, we're easy!

This challenge runs through September 14th at 11:59pm EDT. The prize winner will be chosen by random.org and will be announced along with our "Beary Sweet Top 3" on September 17th.

Once again the random winner will receive a $20 voucher for The Beary Scrap! Whoo hoo!

Here are the "rules" to play - PLEASE READ:

• Become a follower if you aren't already (don't forget this one - it's disqualified a few folks already!);
• Link your blog post (not your blog "home page") or your online gallery submission with our Inlinkz frog below.
• Link back to this posting on your blog; tag your online gallery post with BSC#9;
• Please, only one (1) entry per person. Links to projects/cards posted before September 1st will not be eligible for the prize draw.

Additional information:

• Feel free to combine with other challenges;
• All NEW project types are welcome as long as they follow this technique challenge (cards, scrapbook layouts, etc.);
• International crafters can play, too!

Thanks for playing along with our challenges - we really appreciate you!

Cheers and smooches,

Susan, Gini, Patricia, Jamie and our fearless leader Kimm