So Awesome - Pink and Main & Xyron Blog Hop

Hello, crafty Friends!

Welcome to day 2 of the Pink and Main & Xyron Blog Hop! I am so excited to get to share with you another inspirational project featuring awesomely cute Pink and Main Stamps paired with fabulous Xyron adhesive!

We hope to inspire you all week with fantastic projects from both design teams! 

Please visit each of Pink and Main's DT member's blogs for a chance to win a $25 Pink and Main gift certificate AND a Xyron Mega Runner. More details below.

Supplies Used

  

Too Cool (Pink and Main)

Stitched Rounded Rectangle Dies (Pink and Main)

      

Take Flight (Pink and Main)

Take Flight 2 (Pink and Main)

Mega Runner (Xyron) 

Big Shot Machine (Sizzix)

Tim Holtz Cityscape, Skyline (Sizzix) 

Chalkboard paper (DCWV)  

140 lb Mixed Media Paper

Versafine Onyx Black Ink Pad (Tsukineko/ Imagine Crafts)

Tim Holtz Distress Markers (Ranger)

Waterbrush

Acrylic Block

I started by stamping my image from the Too Cool set onto mixed media paper. I like to water color my images and this type of paper holds up to moisture really well with minimal buckling. I colored my image using distress markers then blended out with a waterbrush till I got the desired look.

I die cut 2 large Stitched Rounded Rectangle Dies for my card base one from clouds paper and the other I cut a 1-1/2" strip from gray striped paper.

Then I die cut out 2 cityscape silhouettes. One from a fun deep red chevron paper and the other from chalkboard paper.

I love this little dude on his skateboard! How cool is he in his tiny shades?! And of course, he has to skateboarding somewhere equally as awesome! So why not the city, right?!

I used my Xyron Mega Runner and attached the strip of gray at the bottom of my card creating pavement. This was perfect to set my cityscape on top.

Then I propped him up with foam adhesive and mounted him at tilt to make it look his doing cool trick on his skateboard.

Then I stamped my sentiment in the lower right corner with black ink.

Here is my finished card...

How awesome is he?!

SO AWESOME!! Sorry, I couldn't help myself!

You have to admit, he is pretty awesome though. Makes me almost want to take up skateboarding... almost! With my luck and lack of coordination, I'd end up flat on my face!

I think I better stick to crafting!

I hope you enjoyed my project for today!!

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win the $25 Pink and Main Certificate and Xyron Mega Runner Prize Package!

All you have to do is visit each participating Pink and Main Design Team Member's blog and leave a comment on the blog hop posts.

Easy Peasy Mac and Cheesy!!

But wait!!

The Xyron Team is also giving away a prize package!!

Make sure you visit the Xyron Facebook Page and comment on any of the Pink and Main & Xyron Blog hop posts throughout the week.

There will be tons of inspiration from both teams! So keep coming back!!

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Boys Rule!

Hey Crafty Friends...

I am so excited to show you today's project for Xyron. They have partnered up with the an awesome company... Simple Stories, which are known for the way their products come together effortlessly to make beautiful scrapbook pages. 

And I am am over the moon, thrilled!! Because I got to play with their new SO RAD Collection

Supplies Used 

Simple Stories So Rad Collection Kit

Simple Stories So Rad Simple Basics Kit

Simple Stories So Rad Bits &  Pieces

Xyron Creative Station with 9" Permanent Adhesive Refill

Xyron 3" Sticker Maker

Teresa Collins Cut'n'Boss (Craftwell)

Teresa Collins Pocket Dies Memory Collection (Craftwell)

Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Grand Labels One

EK Success Corner Punch 

Tim Holtz Paper Distresser (Tonic Studios)

Diamond Glaze by Judikins

Corrugated Cardboard

VersaMagic Chalk Ink Pads (Tea Leaves, Jumbo Java, Midnight Black)

Ink Sweeper (Tsukineko)

Faber-Castell Artist PITT pen (XS, M, B)

I just love how these papers can be used as is... elements on the page are designed in a way that you can easily just strap on your pictures and be done or you can take them apart and use the separately... um, yeah ... can you guess which option I chose?!!

This page had both 2x2 elements and 6x8 elements. They can be used as page accents and photo mats... awesome!! I love it when products serve a dual purpose. Besides, I just had to use that wood grain in a layout... just had to!

I started off by cutting that corner panel I was just dying to use. I set that aside. This was going to be a "boy" themed layout.  And then it hit me... Boy. Dirt. Grunge...

CARDBOARD!!

I love the look of naked corrugated cardboard but didn't have the urge to go out and buy a specialty stack of paper just for it... especially when I have tons of mailing boxes laying around. I just removed the top layer and presto just like the store bought ones without the hefty price tag!! And besides you all know how I love to recycle... I love going green wherever I can! Yay!! Win-win!

And how awesome is this I used my wafer thin dies to cut thick cardboard... I just ran it through a couple times to make sure it cut all the way through. But look how awesome my cardboard looks!!

One of the things I love about these Simple Stories papers is that they are double-sided!! EEkk!! The down side ... the patterns on both sides are so awesome it's hard to choose which side to use.

But in this case I got to use both!! I use one side for a mat and the other side I drew a curvy slope and presto I have an accent piece that compliments my mat but looks like an entirely different piece of paper!

I cut out my slope and inked my edges with some chalk inks... and while I'm at it I inked the edges of some elements from the So Rad Bits & Pieces Collection of die cuts.

I rounded my corners then gave the edges a bit of distressing to make them look tattered and worn. Then inked along the edges to make py paper a bit more grungy... gotta love GRUNGE!!

Then, I ran all my distressed pieces through my Xyron Creative Station. From the start I knew my layout was going to have lots of layers and I needed adhesive that was going to stay put and hold op to all the added weight. So especially on big projects like this I always tend to use my Xyron machines and once they're stuck down I know they're not going anywhere.

I cut out these awesome quotes. I quickly just rounded the corners, and inked the edges. Then did the same to a couple photos and ran everything through my Xyron 3"  Sticker Maker.

The pictures I chose were of my boys wrestling on my kitchen floor one morning. I think Sean was 2 going on 3, and Jordan had just turned a year. They were hugging on each other and rolling around. Just boys being boys... and being so adorable at the same time! Why do kids gotta be so darn CUTE at that age?!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Pocket Dies from Teresa Collins and they went perfectly with the entire So Rad Collection!! The pocket dies I used are from Teresa Collins' Memory Collection. The are GORGEOUS!! And my favorite out of all my TC dies! Just gave them a quick run through with more yummy paper.

Now, that all my pieces were prepped and ready, it's time for my favorite part!! Time to peel and stick!!! It is so super fast and easy!! Love seeing everything instantly come together!!

I wanted some of the elements to really stand out... I usually reach for a glitter but thought I'd go for some shine instead. So I added Diamond glaze on top certain elements around the page.

So, I added glaze to all my little aliens.

And on my stars and numbers...

 maybe a gear and some arrows...

What a way to add some bling without any of the frou-frou! It is a "boy" layout after all.

And, WOW, what a huge difference!! I like dimension... oops, strike that! I meant to say, I LOVE dimension!! I seriously think I maybe allergic to anything flat!

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!! LOL

And here is my finished layout.

I hope you enjoyed today's project!! I loved making this so much that I think I'll be doing

 more boy layouts really soon!!

I hope you all have a CRAFTASTIC day!!

~ Mitsy

Spider-Man Birthday Party

Hi Crafty Friends! I haven't posted in a while. I was recovering from my now 3 year old's birthday party.  As you can see he is a Spider-Man enthusiast. He loves all things Spider-Man. So, it was a no brainer that when I asked  him what kind of birthday party he wanted he jumped up and screamed "SPIDER-MAN"!!

An, like any other crafty mother on a budget, I opted to make as much of the party decorations as possible. My job was somewhat simple... Sean had only two requests. 1) Pizza & 2) A  candy buffet. 

I think I accomplished both. Yay, two points for Mom!! Pizza was easily taken care of . We easily phoned ahead and went to pick up our pizzas right before the party. 

The candy buffet on the other hand was a little more work. I want a little more than candy in containers. I wanted the theme to his birthday incorporated into the set up.

I think I did a pretty good job!

I even handmade these Spider-Man masks to pas out to the children!

And, believe it or not, I already had the materials to make them.

For the masks I used fun foam sheets that I bought tons of years ago and had like 8 packs hiding in my craft stash. I am a craft hoarder so when things go on sale for a really good deal I don't hesitate at scooping it up. I can always figure out what to do with it later!!

Here is my uber cute 1 year old helping mommy to size the masks... they are so stinkin' cute at this age!!

And here I made table tent labels for my glass jars.

 I opted for table tents instead of labels because the last time I hung the labels arount the jars and hung them around the lids they seemed to get in the way and I ended up removing them and placing them besides the jars anyway.

 To get this look I used Accucut's Table Tent #2 (3-D) for the base. And Design On Cloud 9's Journal Tags and Haunted Halloween Party.

Also from Designs cutting files I made this:

 which I also had in yet another previous post. Found here.

Then I backed the candy buffet with this awesome handmade cityscape skyline... also handmade and I also already had the materials for. Yay, for saving money! I did a previous post about it here. 

The thing is I try to only buy stuff only on sale. And these matboards I bought at Hobby Lobby at 50% off. I try to buy a variety of colors and just stick it in my stash because who knows when you'll need it! LOL 

This is another good reason to hoard... am I right or am I right??!! Buy when you can because sometimes things get tight and budgets get tight. And in doing so it always looks like you've spent tons of money and went all out on your child. When in reality it just took a little bit of time and elbow grease to throw your child a super fab birthday.

Hope you enjoyed my little birthday projects! And check back real soon!

Happy Crafting Everyone!! 

Cityscape Backdrop

Hello Crafty Friends!! I have another "SPIDEY" project to share with you all. This is a cityscape skyline backdrop for my son's upcoming birthday party. If you read the previous post about his birthday banner you already know that he absolutely wanted a Spider-Man themed birthday party. And, I was more than thrilled to take up the challenge.

For those of you who have read my post about with the Giant Cupcakes

you know I love to use mat-board for my over-sized party decorations. I do this for 2 reasons. 1) I do not possess the necessary tools or skills to make it out of wood. And, 2) Mat board is so much easier and lighter to handle and craft with.  

For the action signs I used Design on Cloud 9's Superboy & Supergirl cutting files and I slightly enlarged the backgrounds behind the wording.

 The BOOM is from the Supergirl file.

 Pow is from the Superboy file

Wham also came from the Supergirl file.

Each file has two sets of action words in addition to various superhero themed designs.

This picture is to show how HUGE this backdrop is. This is my 5 year old and my 1 year old in the picture hamming it up.

As you can see it is taller than she is!

And my 1 year old is barely peeking through the buildings. 

This scene is great on the floor but thankfully it's not going to stay here for long... I'm afraid my children will do some Godzilla action on this city and it'll be mangled before it's used for the party. So, back up and away it goes till later.

That's all I got for today. But this is the last week before the party and I'm going for one last push before then to crank out more Spider-Man/ Super hero themed party decorations. 

I'm hoping to get a little more done before the big day. Check back soon for more updates and progress!

And, Happy Crafting Everyone!!