August in the PNW

While you may hear a lot about the rainy, Seattle weather, August is historically the “best” month weather-wise. For the most part, August brings warm and sunny days; it’s our only real “summer” month.

This past week we had family in town and took the opportunity to get out and about in Seattle and its environs.

Our first destination was a ferry trip to Bainbridge Island. Before the ferry departed, I took a photo of the new Seattle ferris wheel, technically called Seattle Great Wheel, which I mockingly call the Seattle Eye.

SeattleFerrisWheel

On Bainbridge, we toured The Bloedel Reserve, a 150-acre forest garden created by the son of a prominent lumber company owner. He and his wife lived in a French Chateau-style home, which had been built by the property’s previous owner. Unfortunately, I didn’t snap any interesting photos of the beautiful, immaculately-maintained gardens.

Bloedel

Our final stop was Kerry Park on the south slope of Queen Anne Hill. The park affords views of  Seattle, Elliott Bay, West Seattle, and Mount Rainier.

SpaceNeedleRainier

Neat & Tangled Release Week – Just Hello

The Just Hello stamp set is extremely versatile. For my first card, I took a chalk-on-chalkboard approach by white embossing the stamp set’s graphics and sentiments (in Danielle Walls’ adorable handwriting) onto black cardstock.
JMJustHello-blog
Supplies: Neat & Tangled Just Hello stamp set; black cardstock; Fancy Pants patterned paper; Bo Bunny paper (teal); Versamark ink; Hero Arts embossing powder; Basic Grey button; Divine twine

For my second Just Hello card, I created a square card with a similar set of colors. I happen to really like the turquoise, black and white color combination.

JMJustHello2-blog

Supplies: Neat & Tangled Just Hello stamp set; Neenah cardstock (white); Hero Arts cardstock (turquoise); black cardstock; Versamark ink; Hero Arts embossing powder; MFT conversation die; Basic Grey button; Divine twine

Don’t forget to head over to the Neat & Tangled Blog to enter today’s giveaway – the winner will receive a Neat & Tangled stamp set of their choice. This week’s featured stamp sets will be available for purchase at the Neat & Tangled store tomorrow, Friday, August 10.

CAS-ual Fridays – On Cloud 9

This week the CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to create a Clean And Simple project featuring things you’d see in the sky.

My mind went wild imagining a variety of scenes from many different viewpoints. But alas, given that I needed to craft my image from stamps, there were some limitations! We had amazing weather this past weekend in the Pacific Northwest, and my husband and I took a long walk with our golden retriever on Whidbey Island. I snapped this photo of two evergreens against the clear sky as my inspiration for the challenge.

PNWCloud9

For my card, I white embossed the tree from the Lawn Fawn Critters in the Forest set a couple of times and colored the trees with distress inks. I white embossed the set’s dragonfly, (there are dozens of dragonflies buzzing around when the sun shines), colored the sky with distress ink, and then used markers to color the dragonfly.

CASCloud9-blog

Supplies: Lawn Fawn Say Cheese stamp set; Lawn Fawn Critters in the Forest stamp set; Sizzix embossing folder; Versamark ink; Hero Arts white embossing powder; Distress inks; Memento markers

Neat & Tangled Release Week

I’m so excited to be part of the design team for Neat & Tangled Stamps, featuring hand-drawn, heart-warming images and sentiments by Danielle Walls. The stamps are made from high-quality, clear photopolymer.

I had a lot of fun working with the Hey Cookie and Sweet Home stamp sets. I didn’t actually bake gingerbread as I prepared my cards, but I did buy gingerbread cookies to get into a holiday frame of mind!

For my first card, I envisioned a cup of hot cocoa and a peppermint stick with my color choices of cocoa brown, red and white. The white embossed images stand out crisply on the cardstock. I put a grommet through the top of the stamped house and added silver cord.

JMSweetHome2-blog

Supplies: Neat & Tangled Hey Cookie and Sweet Home stamp sets; Stampin’ Up cardstock; Versamark ink; Hero Arts white embossing powder; Making Memories grommet; silver cord

I enjoy paper piecing, and for my second card using the Sweet Home set, I created a scene primarily using Echo Park patterned papers. I love this house so much I want to move in!

JMSweetHome1-blog

Supplies: Neat & Tangled Sweet Home stamp set; Echo Park patterned paper; Stampin’ Up and Neenah cardstock; Versamark ink; Hero Arts white embossing powder; Hero Arts midtone ink; Distress ink; machine stitching

The Hey Cookie people are simply adorable. I stamped and embossed the pair onto cocoa cardstock and added them to a die cut tag. Those are Pepperidge Farm gingerbread people inside the box, wink.

JMHeyCookie-blog

Supplies: Neat & Tangled Hey Cookie stamp set; Echo Park patterned paper; MFT tag die; Stampin’ Up and Neenah cardstock; Versamark ink; Hero Arts white embossing powder; Hero Arts midtone ink; Doodlebug twine; Michaels treat box

Head over to the Neat & Tangled Blog to enter today’s giveaway – the winner will receive a Neat & Tangled stamp set of their choice. And be sure to visit there all week to see the rest of the releases, enter additional giveaways, as well as check out the inspiration from the design team and guest artists. This week’s featured stamp sets will be available for purchase at the Neat & Tangled store on Friday, August 10.

Simple Scrapper August Premium Membership Blog Hop

I particularly enjoyed scrapping with this month’s Simple Scrapper Premium Membership templates. I prefer to scrap seasonally, so I used photos and memories from previous summer vacations in my layouts. (We’re having a stay-vacation this year.)

For the single-photo template, I chose a photo from a 2003 vacation to Maui. We met up with photographer Rick Larsen in Kaanapali at sunset for a family photo shoot.

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Supplies: Template from Simple Scrapper Premium Membership; Echo Park Paradise Beach; Everyday Storytelling: Summer by Kristin Cronin Barrow and Jenn Barrette (chevron paper); Katie Pertiet kraft; photo by Ric Larsen; Pacifico (title) and Futura (journaling)

With the two-photo template, I scrapped photos from a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard in 1999. To be honest, it’s hard for me to tell if these photos are from 1998 or 1999, but Paul happens to be wearing a hat in the photo that he received from my aunt in April 1999. Thank goodness for clothing clues!

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Supplies: Template from Simple Scrapper Premium Membership; Pink Paislee; Designs by Dani; Echo Park; Katie Pertiet; Fonts: Lobster (title), Traveling Typewriter (journaling)

For the multi-photo template, I scrapped our tour of the Eiffel Tower in 2007. The photo of the tower worked well in the tall photo spot.

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Supplies: Template from Simple Scrapper Premium Membership; Echo Park Note to Self; Patti Knox brads; Fonts: Gloucester MT (title) and Futura (journaling)

Check out the inspiration from the rest of the Simple Scrapper Design Team and be sure to enter this month’s giveaway for a one-month trial subscription to Simple Scrapper.

Julie Aldridge
Sue Althouse
Lisa Corbin-Polak
Ronnie Crowley
Jess Forster
Michele Holcomb
Margrethe Aas Johnsen
Aimee Maddern
Valerie Mangan
Amy Kingsford
Pam Lozano
Kat Tankersley

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.