At-A-Glance Studio Calendar

For the past few years, I've made a calendar to put up in my studio so I can quickly glace at dates.  I like to see the whole year right in front of me, so I make the calendar as a 12x12 layout.   I use a 3-ring 12x12 page protector with the binding at the top and then just thread some ribbon through it to hang it from the shelf in front of my desk.  Then once the year is over, I simply slide the page out & put it in my scrapbook to use it as a cover page for that year.

My Twenty-thirteen calendar uses Kraft cardstock as the base, a free printable calendar from Finding Nana, and then punched out assorted shapes for each month using this great pattern paper from Pebbles, Inc called Seen & Noted ~ totally LOVE these papers!  I finished it off with chipboard numbers by American Crafts and gems by Kaiser Crafts.  EASY PEASY ~ I won't get tired of looking at this all year long!

Here are a few close-ups of the punched out embellishments I added to each month...

Oh ... I have some fun news today ~ Crafter's Companion is releasing 10 NEW Sheena Douglass stamp sets today.  I am so excited to get these sets inky... Go take a peek.

Ahhhhh...a finished project!

WOOHOOO!  This week I finally had time to sit down and finish my December Daily Album.  I'm not sure that I've ever finished an album that quickly, but with the help of the fabulous Simple Stories products, it went pretty quickly.  I also planned ahead and wrote down what each page would have on it & made sure I took photos for the planned pages.   For an album like this, it is very important to write things down as you go and put some effort into planning ~ otherwise, the project will never get finished.  And I have enough unfinished scrapbooking projects laying around my studio!

So here are the rest of my pages...

and here is the final page that recaps the whole month...

Hope you enjoyed seeing my busy December.
Lots of activities, family, and tons of fun!

Warm Fuzzies...

I just gotta say that this little guy gives me super warm fuzzies when I see him.  This adorable image is part of the Mulberry Woods Collection for Crafter's Companion and the set is called Birthday Wishes.  I stamped the image with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then colored him with my brand new Spectrum Noir markers.  Not too shabby for my first try with these new markers.  I'm just a beginner with these new alcohol ink markers so I'll be checking out out all of the fabulous tutorials on the Spectrum Noir website.

Have a Happy Weekend!

Supplies Used:
Stamps ~ Crafter's Companion (Mulberry Woods ~ Birthday Wishes)
Ink ~ Memento Tuxedo Black

Markers ~ Spectrum Noir (OR1, GB5, DG2, DG4, BT2, BT4, BT5, BT9, PP3, PP5, PL1, PL2, BG2, BG4, BG6, CR8
Pattern Paper ~ Pebbles Inc (Seen & Noted)

Elegant and a little bit Vintage

Hi there friends...what a week ~ has your's been crazy too?  The weekend is fast approaching & I hope you have some fun plans.  I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but I'm leaning toward including some scrapbooking in my plans!

Enough chit chat  ~ on with my crafty post ...  I've made a card with a bit of a vintage-feel to it today.  I used two of the new Stamp-It Australia Image Collection sets by Crafter's Companion (#67 & #61) along with some paper by My Mind's Eye and ribbon from May Arts.

Have a VERY special day!

GRS Truffles are so yummy!

Can you tell that I've been stamping  A LOT lately?  LOL!  It's been fun to get back into the swing of things on the blogging/crafting front and with so many great products out there, it's pretty easy to be inspired.  These new Truffles sets by Gourmet Rubber Stamps are a blast to work with.  My first card uses the Enjoy the Ride set...

And next up is one of my favorite little sets called Thinking of You...

Have a great day & thanks for buzzing by...

GRS Monthly Appetizer Release!

Today is the 15th and that means it's RELEASE DAY for Gourmet Rubber Stamps.  Each month we have two new Appetizer Sets which includes 4 images and/or sentiments.  I'm totally excited about this release because it could possibly be my most favorite Appetizer Release EVER!  I simply ADORE both sets.

The first set is called Just Wanted To Say... and it includes a great retro images of a typewriter, dial telephone, and a megaphone.  SO CUTE!  The card I made for this set uses the typewriter and is a fun valentine that typed up a little message that says... "{love}U" with a heart button & a die cut U.  I also colored in the typewriter keys to make a heart.  The bold sentiment is also part of this great set.

The next card uses the gorgeous new set called Rustic Flowers.  The images in this set are AMAZING!!!!  It's gonna be seeing a lot of ink ...that's for sure!  I used my markers to ink up this image...make sure you don't use alcohol markers (like Copic or Spectrum Noir) ...you must use water based when coloring directly on your stamps.  I have a feeling this might just be my next "go to" set ~ it's a MUST HAVE!  Also, the sentiment I used on this card is from the Perfect Phrases set.

Wanna see these lovely sets in full...check out the GRS Blog for the sets.  Hop over to Kelli Palmer and 

Jennifer Ingle's blogs and see what they came up with today.

Wonderful Birthday...

Happy MONDAY!  Yes, I know I am pretty much all alone in LOVING Mondays!  I just feel like it's a fresh new start each and every week.   It was an exciting weekend in the crafting world with CHA going on in California and TONS of new product releases from every craft company under the sun!  Crafter's Companion is no exception with their WONDERFUL Stamp-It Australia Image Collection.  I just can't ink up these babies fast enough!

Today I'm showing a card that I made using this great flower from Set #7 where I stamped it using Tuxedo Black Memento ink directly on pattern paper from October Afternoon.  Then I used one of the pretty sentiments from Set #61.  Such a quick and simple card and the splash of gold really makes it POP!

Check back in tomorrow because there's ANOTHER new release to share with you ~ and this includes two sets that I AM IN LOVE WITH ~ SERIOUSLY!

Saturday LOVE...

Hello LOVELY Peeps!  I'm in such a good mood today and thought I would share a sweet little card I put together this morning using some new goodies from the latest Taylored Expressions release.  I'm pretty much loving how it turned out!  Now my original intent was to do the Clean and Simple Postage Challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers; however, I think this card missed the mark on the "Clean & Simple" look...but that's ok.
 
I used the beautiful Hearts Cutting Plate for the bottom of the card & did a tone on tone look {saving one of the cute little hearts for the tag}.  Then I added some new Echo Park Love Story pattern paper on top ~ gorgeous huh?  The inside of the postage die is the Graphic Greeting Valentine stamped in Angel Pink Memento Ink.  I added a doily and ribbon then used a cute little tag from the Designer Mini Tags and added that red heart that I saved earlier.  Then the final touch are some stamped hearts from the Gourmet Rubber Stamps set called Sealed with a Kiss.  OK...enough chatter...here's my card!

OH ... I HAVE NEWS ~ I'm really excited to announce that I just started my own crafty Facebook page called Kendra's Paper Creations.  You will still see my work right here, as well as over there; but we'll also have some fun chats, answer questions, look at great products and maybe have a give away now and then.  Come on over and LIKE my new page!

Crafter's Companion...Day #3 Peek

Can you believe it...I blogged 5 days this week!  I guess I had lots of goodies to share with you.  Today's post includes another sneak peek from Crafter's Companion & another new image from the Stamp-It Australia collection ~ it's called the Image Collection.  This was a super simple card to make because the vine and the verse are all in the same stamp ~ so just stamp, cut, mat and boom!  I added the little embossed butterfly for some texture.  The pattern paper is from the Lost & Found Collection by My Mind's Eye.  They have such beautiful vintage patterns...perfect for all of my lovely new CC stamps!

No worries...you won't have to wait much longer to buy these new stamps ~ they will be up on the website very soon!

Have a great weekend ~ I know I'm gonna get super INKY & I hope you do too!

GRS Sketch January Challenge

Wow!  Today is the 10th of the month already & that means it's time for the GRS design team Sketch Challenge.  Each month we're given a "Recipe", and we just have to make it our own!  Here it is for this month...

 
I used the Happy Heart Day set which was one of the new Appetizer Sets for December.  I also used the new Polka-Dot Cookie Cutter Stencil on my pattern paper.

I know you'll want to see what the other designers came up with, so don't forget to hop around and take a look!

• Deb Felts

• Jeni Allen

• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here

Kelli Palmer

• Taylor Usry

• Jennifer Ingle 

• Stepanie Lee

You should totally play along with this sketch & don't forget to post your fab creation on the GRS Facebook page so we can make lovely comments about your amazing work!

Another little peek...

Ohhhhh....what do you think of this???  I just love this new border stamp that is coming out as part of the new Stamp It Australia Line from Crafter's Companion.  Cool huh?   I just stamped the image twice on Kraft cardstock with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink for the border of my card and then I added some gorgeous pattern paper scraps from My Mind's Eye.  A bit of ribbon and a tag with a sentiment {from another new set} ~ VOILÁ ~ quick and simple card finished!

These new sets will be on the website soon after CHA next week!  Enjoy!

Sneak Peek Day for Crafter's Companion!

OH MY GOODNESS!  I am so excited to share a sneak peek for the new Crafter's Companion CHA Release.  There's a bunch of new sets coming out this time around and it's all from the Stamp It Australia line...WHICH I LOVE!!!  These sets will be going up on the website pretty soon...but until then, here's a scrapbook page that I made using images from FIVE of the new sets!

As you can see, I had tons of fun using the new images to make this scrapbook page & they are perfect for my Italy photos.   These are photos are at one of our favorite spots ~ Trevi Fountain {in Italian ~ Fontana di Trevi}.  You toss a coin over your shoulder in hopes that you will return to the lovely city of Rome...I could toss about a million coins into that fountain ...that's how badly I'd love to go back!

Here are a few closeups for a few of the elements on my page...

Oh ... did you know that Crafter's Companion has a Challenge Blog?  The challenge this month is "Anything BUT A Card" ...so this is also my challenge project for this month!  Make sure you enter so you have a chance to WIN a gift certificate to the store!

Follow Your Heart...

Happy New Week Peeps!  The kids are back in school today and it's a fresh new week!  LOVE IT!!!  I've got lots on my TO DO list so it's time to be productive!!!

Today I'm sharing a new card using the brand new set by Gourmet Rubber Stamps called Compass.  This set is one of the new Truffles sets which is a new product line.  They are two image sets that run about $7 ~ gotta LOVE that price!  I stamped up my images using Cocoa Memento ink and dug out this cute paper from my stash by My Mind's Eye.  

You're gonna LOVE these new sets by GRS ~ go take a peek!

Fun with Crafters Companion Images!

I was able to get all inky over New Year's and had some fun with some images from Crafter's Companion.  This adorable fuzzy guy & sentiment are both from the Mulberry Woods Friend stamp set.  The ink is Tuxedo Black from Memento.  

Other Supplies:
Pattern Paper ~ Basic Grey (Max & Whiskers)
Ribbon ~ May Arts
Colored Pencils ~ Prisma
Cardstock ~ Bazzill
Sparkly Fluff ~ Brown Sugar