Happy V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!
Today I'd like to share a few Valentine's Day cards with you.

This card was made using Pretty Little Studio's  Love notes collection as well as the fun heart doily die from Cheery Lynn Designs.
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Today on Practical Scrappers we are getting inspired by Pinterest for our "pinspiration". I found this beautiful home decor piece originally posted on Chase The star. I love the color combination and the unique sunburst.

I decided to make a similar looking card with my window die. In her decor piece she used red and white striped straws, I chose to use baker's twine. To make them stiff, I used Helmar's fabric stiffener. Worked like a charm!

You can see more Pinterest inspired projects today on the Practical Scrappers BLOG.

Love For You

The Love Notes collection from Pretty Little Studio has been a joy to play with over the last month. I love the fun, bright pinks and reds in this collection and of courses Pretty Little Studio is known for their adorable vintage cut outs.

After making several projects with the collection I had a lot of scraps left over. I used them to make banner strips for my layout. I cut out a few doilies from my die machine and the whole look came together in no time.

Bundle Up Kids...Its Cold Out There!

I went "home" to visit my family in Utah about a month ago and I really enjoyed the real snow out there.
Here in Virginia, it snowed less than an inch and they cancelled school...too funny!!
My little niece was so cute exploring the new fallen snow with my dad's big coat on.

 

The large snowflake was made with plastic fork prongs. I simply broke off the prongs and glued them all together with Helmar's 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

These cute papers and ADORABLE images are from Pretty Little Studio's Winter Wonderland and Christmas At Home collections.

Enjoy your weekend!

Carousels and Sketches...what could be better?

Hey there! so glad you stopped by to see today's sketch!

Here is my take on the sketch using some fabulous papers and embellies from Pretty Little Studio.

We found this fun carousel ride at our nearby theme park. As if the adorable carousel didn't look vintage enough, I gave my photos more of a vintage look using my Instagram app.

If you try the sketch, leave me a link in the comments below. I would love to see it!

Star Inspiration Oranaments

I love the inspiration pieces we are given on the Pretty Little Studio blog. It allows  me to stretch my imagination to try new things.
This week's technique challenge is to use stars.
I made a few fun star ornaments using Pretty Little Studio's "Christmas At Home" collection and Pretty Little Studio's "Jingle Bells" collection.

I cut out each star with my electronic die cut machine and scored them to look 3 dimensional. I then cut out the smaller images from a few Christmas journaling cards and decorated my stars.
 When you’re making home made ornaments, be sure to add glitter or glitter glue. The lights from the tree will make them sparkle beautifully.

To secure all of my elements, I used Helmar's 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

Christmas Kisses

If you haven't checked out Pretty Little Studio's Christmas At Home collection, you simply must.
It is adorably whimsical and festive.
My youngest is such a lover, he is my baby and even though he's 5, I'll admit it, I treat him like he is my baby. I will kiss him and hold his hand for as long as he will let me. All of you mothers know just what I'm talking about.;)

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Journey and a Sketch

Good Monday morning! I thought we'd start off this week with a sketch.

Here is my take on the sketch. I used the popular Sandcastle collection from Pretty Little Studio.

                           

If you try the sketch, leave me a link in the comments, I'd love to see it!

Many Blessings

Every month on the Pretty Little Studio blog we have great challenges and sketches from the talented, Keri Babbitt. I love to play along and get creative.  For this particular sketch I strayed a little to make it work for me but I love the outcome.

For the flowers, I cut several sizes of circles. I got them wet in the ink, scrunched them up and let them dry overnight. The next day they are dried hard and have great texture for dimensional stacked flowers.

I love my beautiful girls and they are very lucky to have a dad who loves them and teaches them how a girl should be treated.

Everything here was glued down with Helmar's Acid Free Glue and Helmar's 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

Turkey Place Card with Pretty Little Studio and Helmar

Gobble Gobble!
I am really looking forward to our Thanksgiving feast this year. The side dishes are my favorite...sweet potatoes, green bean casserole....YUM!
This year I made cute, little simple Thanksgiving place cards and I'm going to show you how.

You will need to large scalloped dies and 2 small circle dies. (dies are Cheery Lynn Designs and Spellbinders.)

Cut the 2 large scallop circle dies into Pretty Little Studio's Apple Cider collection. Cut out plain brown paper with the smaller dies.

Cut the large scalloped circles about 2/3 the way down. Using the larger half arrange them using Helmar Foam Adhesive. Cut out the turkey’s face using scraps of paper and the eyes out of round foam adhesive. Write down the name on the banner which is being held by a toothpick.

To make the little guy stand up I folded a scrap paper and glued it to the back.

Happy Halloween!

Boo to you!
We are celebrating Halloween two days in a row in my family. Last night we had our church Halloween party / Trunk-or-Treat and tonight,...well...you know its all about the candy.
These were my kids' costumes from last year. They are a handsome bunch if I do say so myself. :)
Pretty Little Studio has the cutest Halloween papers called Scaredy Cat. I love the fun patterns and great vintage Halloween images to cut out.

I drew on the spider webs with black Stickles.

You can find more Halloween layouts and project ideas on the Pretty Little Studio blog.

Everything here was glued down with Helmar's Acid Free Glue.

Have a fun, safe Halloween!!

Where Are Your Whiskers?

Halloween is approaching fast, just one more week to go.
Pretty Little Studio has the cutest Halloween papers called Scaredy Cat. The cute little vintage cut outs and great patterns are to "die" for.
 The layout is based on an Ad Challenge from the Pretty Little Studio blog.

See how perfect the b&w plates and patterned paper match? I kept the gray background the same and added a few touches of orange and black.

 

My son adores his baby cousin!

I used the following sketch for inspiration which I posted over a week ago.
                     
Everything here was glued down safely with Helmar Acid Free glue.
Thanks stopping by today!

Getting banner-happy!

Hola chicas! Today on Practical Scrappers we are featuring cards and layouts using the banners and garlands. I discovered how much I love to bunch up banner strips below my flower clusters. I have two layouts to show you using this technique.

I used Pretty Little Studio's ever-so-popular Sandcastle collection. One look at these papers and you'll see why they are so popular.

This is a day we'll always remember -going to the National Zoo with our little man. We got to spend about 5 days alone with my youngest son while we spent the week in VA and DC looking for a house. He loved the one-on-one attention and I loved babying him as much as he'd let me.

The following layout was made from my October kit from Memorable Seasons using papers from Simple Stories. -Gosh I love the prints in this one!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!!

Girls...no... Boys Just Wanna Have Fun!

I have been having so much fun making scrappy pages using my new Pretty Little Studio papers and embellies.

This was based on a sketch from Kerri Babbitt on the Pretty Little Studio blog.

These bright primary colors from the Clowing Around collection is great for little boys at play. My little Parker is a very active, athletic, fun kid. I am so proud of him.

And finally,... my girls. Gosh, I just them!

This was also based on an Ad Challenge from the Pretty Little Studio blog.

Have a lovely day!

Getting Ready For Halloween with cards

Halloween mode is in full swing here at the Chidester house. The decorations are out and the kids are making up their minds (and then changing their minds) about what they're going to "be" for Halloween. I think we nailed it down to the idea that the whole family will be super heroes as long as my husband cooperates and lets me dress his as the Hulk. We will see.

Today on Practical Scrappers we are featuring cards and layouts all about Halloween -just to help get you in the mood.
An old friend of mine, Pamela Young is holding a sketch contest in celebration of World Card Making Day. She's got some great card sketches on her blog that you must check out. I made the following cards using 2 of her fabulous sketches.

 

Aren't these papers cute? They are a part of Pretty Little Studio's Scaredy Cat collection. -Which I am excited to show you more of in the next couple of weeks.

The black and white paper and the premade "Magical" pennant is also part of the Scaredy Cat collection. I opted not to go for a Halloween theme here so I stamped the word "you" right on top.

I hope you were able to celebrate Card Making Day. And if not, I've heard it said that its actually Card Making Month!