Reveal Day!

Today's the big day...the full reveal of the new Front Porch Kit from The Little Blue House!


As usual, there are tons of creative papers, embellishments and other materials to inspire you. Check out the Little Blue House blog to see all the fabulous goodies that are packed into this kit and leave a comment to win a FREE kit!

Ready to see what I made?

First off, a double layout with lots of photos. I don't do that many double layouts, so they're kind of a challenge for me. But the colors in the kit papers all just really worked together...


I loved the Scrabble tiles and wanted to find a way to incorporate them, so I added our initials inside the slide frames.


There are also some chalkboard embellishments in this kit, including chalk tape, which I used to handwrite part of my title.



The surface in this kit is a fun little clipboard from Pebbles (we're calling him Chip!), and I turned it into a wall hanging to show off one of my favorite photos.



I added a poker chip and some ribbon to the metal part, and I tore a strip of the fabric in the kit to tie around the bottom.



Next up is another layout. Just a silly photo Avery and I took one day in the car when we were waiting for Cecily to arrive.


One of the things I loved about working with this kit is that it really works with any photos you want to use. You don't have to make them all about games! And here you'll see another bit of chalk paper that I doodled some arrows onto. (I'm not much of a doodler, but I can handle arrows!)



There's some really cool foil tape that I punched the flower shapes out of. Fun to play with! And shiny, too!



Finally, here's my bonus project. I wanted to do something fun with the deck of cards in the kit. As I was looking at the box, I thought "Hey, I could make this box into a book cover and use the cards as the pages!" So it became a little bit of a personal challenge to see if I could really do it, but it actually worked pretty well.


Since it was a package of "Bicycle" cards (and also because of the red, white and blue color scheme), I decided to use photos of my kids riding their bikes in the 4th of July Parade. See, I'm tricky like that!


I used scraps of papers from the kit, along with chalk tape to finish it off. It's one of those projects that looks super-complicated, but it's actually pretty easy to whip out.






For more ideas and project photos, be sure to check out the Inspiration Gallery at The Little Blue House website, where you can also order your own Game On kit!

A great escape

A piece of advice: when your kitchen is a dirty, empty shell of a room awaiting renovations, the best possible thing you can do is get out of town! Bonus points if you can work out a way to do your favorite thing while you're away.

Several months ago, I was invited to a craft retreat for this weekend and, not having any idea what stage our renovation would be in, I accepted. Fast forward to August 9. As I was packing my bags to leave my construction-in-progress house, I thought: could we have timed this any better?

I'm kind of amazed at all the pages/projects I've gotten done, all while enjoying home-cooked meals and a snack table that's overflowing with all the treats I never allow myself to eat. Yeah. It's heaven.

My count for the weekend:
  • 9 scrapbook pages (probably more like 11 by the time I leave today)
  • 1 mini book
  • 1 altered clipboard
I won't share my calorie count. Besides, I lost count of that somewhere around 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Oops.

So I'll be sharing photos of the project I created over the next week, but for today, here's another peek of one of my projects with the new Front Porch Kit that will be released on Tuesday.


Be sure to visit the Little Blue House blog where you can see more sneak peeks of the kit as we count down to the full reveal on Tuesday, Aug. 13. You can also enter to win a FREE kit by commenting on the sneak posts there!


Sneak Peek!

It's time for a new Front Porch Kit from The Little Blue House!


Today starts all the fun, with sneak peeks of some projects we've created. Here's my sneak for the day:


So many fun things to play with in this kit. You are going to LOVE IT!
 
Ready to see some more peeks and maybe even win your own kit? 

Visit the LBH blog and post a comment on any of the three Sneak Peek dates, and you'll be entered into a drawing for a FREE Game On Kit!

And please come back tomorrow for a few more peeks before the BIG reveal on Tuesday, Aug. 13!

Upcoming Classes...in Texas AND Charlotte, NC!

It's been a busy summer, to say the least. Yes, I've been crafting away in my little upstairs nook. Meanwhile, our downstairs is undergoing a pretty major renovation to create a new master bath and updated kitchen. But that's a whole other post...

Today, I'm super excited to share some upcoming class news!

First, I've been working with Tracy at The Little Blue House to create my own series of classes. It's called Fab Five and each class will feature five brand-new techniques that you can incorporate into your future projects. Of course, we'll be playing with some tools, including the best and latest from We R Memory Keepers. But we'll also be creating a great piece to take home with you...from mini books and layouts to cards and home decor.

Here's a peek at the class that's coming up on August 20:


 The class features a 6x8 mini book with a fold-over magnetic closure and spiral binding.


Inside, there are tons of layers and textures to keep things interesting. You might even spot a few of the techniques I'm sharing...



We'll be using the Beautiful Life line from Echo Park Paper (so pretty!), along with some goodies from Maya Road, May Arts, Queen and Company and Canvas Corp. This kit is FULL of fun stuff!

The class is on August 20 at The Little Blue House, and registration is open now. Stop by the shop or call 817-431-7930 to reserve your spot!

Also, registration for Stitch Craft Create Live in Charlotte, North Carolina, opened this week! I'm teaching three classes on Oct. 25-26. You can see photos of all of them on the SCCL website, but here's a peek at my current favorite that I developed just for this event:


The covers are made from cork, which is so easy and fun to work with and adds such great texture. This class features the Photo Freedom Volume 2 collection from Echo Park Paper.

If you're in the Charlotte area (or are up for a little road trip!), check out all the details here.

Hope to see you in class!