Marathon cards

Hi everyone:

Well, it's Sunday here and that means a day for me to relax and try to get some creating done :)  I did some things yesterday because the weather was horrible, but it was mainly brainstorming.  I have been thinking of ways to get my card business started up and after speaking with our marketing guru at the office, have come up with some great ideas.  I'm going to start off with getting specialty cards out to certain types of stores, i.e. bridal shops, running stores, baby boutiques  etc.  The first one I wanted to try is the running stores because Jim has run in 7 marathons and I do remember him getting cards wishing him luck and then sending him congratulations after finishing, so am trying that first.  I didn't, however, figure it would be so difficult to come up with something.  I found in my cricut stash the "sports mania" cartridge, which includes runners so off I went :)  This is a very simple card, but at least it's a way to start.  I feel it is missing something, but if I hear back from the store I send these to, will work on more creative ones.  What do you think?  Give me your ideas please.

I'm sorry for the poor photography, but I'm trying a new editing program and I'm not getting that touchy feely good feeling for it, so may go back to the one I have been using.

Thanks

Janet

Beauty Blooms From Within

Bo Bunny Country Garden collection

"Beauty Blooms From Within" layout

Created by Janet G. Bagnall

Ever since I joined The Hens' Den Design Team, I have been doing a lot of creative first :) I did a calendar page, faux postage technique and now another first, a layout of our beautiful daughter, Elizabeth. You say, are you serious? Well, embarrassingly yes. She is 25 years old and I have been scrapbooking for over 13 years now but this is her very first scrapbook page. I, however, am very happy with how it turned out. When Charlie asked us for ideas of what kit we wanted to create with this month, I knew I had to have the Bo Bunny Country Garden collection because it says Elizabeth all over the place. Her favorite colors are pink, purple and neon green and she loves butterflies. When I showed her the kit, she loved it and was very excited about getting her page :)

Now the hard part for me was trying to figure out what to use on the page because I wanted to use everything. I mean look at all the goodies I received. You can see why it was a difficult decision. I decided to use two sheets of cardstock as my base and work from there. When I saw the large butterfly on the corner of one of the patterned paper sheets, had to use it as a focal point, but wanted to do more with it. I took some Tim Holtz tattered rose and milled lavender distress powders to bring it out more (LOVE using Tim Holtz' powder - it looks so wonderful IRL).

But I didn't stop with that, the ribbon I received was just to beautiful not to include. I really struggled with where to put this because as hard as I tried, I couldn't get a bow made with it, but running it across the bottom and topping it off with the trinket worked out great. I also added several butterfly trinkets on her picture, which I thought brought it together so well.  

I could go on and on about the awesome items in this kit, but I'm going to stop here and let you take a look at my final layout so you can see for yourself just how wonderful they are. I hope you enjoy the layout of our "princess".

Bazzil pink, neon green and cream cardstock
Bo Bunny Country Garden Almanac paper

Bo Bunny Country Garden Weathered paper

Bo Bunny Country Garden Morning paper

BoBunny Country Garden Combo Stickers

Bo Bunny Country Garden brads

Bo Bunny Country Garden trinkets

Ranger Ink - distress ink - milled lavender

Ranger Ink - distress ink - stormy sky

Ranger Ink - distress powder - tattered rose

Ranger Ink - distress powder - milled lavender

May Arts crochet ribbon

Paula's birthday

My friend Paula's birthday is tomorrow and she loves to celebrate her birthday :)  She has talked about wanting cake this year and hope she gets it :)  Paula celebrates all month long and it is such a joy watching her do just that.  Her favorite color is green, so I just had to use color challenge over at Color Throwdown, which includes green in their color combo along with my favorite color combo, pink and brown, so it was the perfect one for me.  

While I was looking at other challenges, saw this adorable sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch blog and knew I had to use it.

Paula, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and I love you to pieces.

Janet

Supplies:
SU Old Olive, Blushing Bride, White and Chocolate Chip cardstock
Basic Grey Eva designer paper
SU Chocolate chip ink
SU Old Olive ribbon and button
SU Floral Frames die cuts
MME Lush Pink rhinestones

The Hens' Den Valentine's Day Blog Hop

Simple Stories Generations collection

"A Kiss for My Valentine" card

Created by Janet G. Bagnall

Faux Postage Technique

Hello everyone!  If you have come from Carolyn's blog, you are in the right place :) Today is an exciting day for me because it is my very first blog hop as part of a design team and am beyond excited. I sure hope you will join in on the fun.  When Charlie informed us about this hop, she wanted us to create something using our favorite technique.  I gave this a lot of thought, but couldn't come up with a favorite, so thought I would create a Valentine's Day card using a technique I haven't tried before.  When I first saw faux postage a few years ago, I loved it but just haven't been able to give it a try until now.  I am now kicking myself for not trying it earlier, because it was a lot of fun.  My process, however, was a little different than the standard way, but the end result came out great.

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Before I start with my tutorial, let's go over the blog hop details first:

• You need to start at The Hens' Den blog and visit all the team members' blogs, leaving comments along the way.  Each member will promote a portion of what is included in the BIG prize that will be given to one lucky winner who visited all the blogs and left a comment on each one.  This is what my blog is promoting - Graphic 45 Place in Time February Cutouts and Graphic 45 Place in Time February Foundation. This is a beautiful collection and can't wait to use it myself.
• You have until noon, February 17, 2013 to leave a comment on each blog and the lucky winner will be announced on The Hens' Den blog that evening.
• But most importantly, have fun !!!!

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Okay, now to my project.  After inking up the, what I call the "4 square", stamp with black ink, stamped it onto Bazzill cream cardstock.

I then printed off the image I wanted to use.  This is a very special image because in 1945, while my mother and father-in-law were walking down the Charleston Pier, Carew Rice, a silhouette artist from Charleston, asked them if he could make several silhouette designs for them.  This is one of the two he made - he wrote "Ain't love grand" on the bottom of the image, but didn't include it.  Dad was in the navy for a short period of time and I'm sure this is how happy they were to see each other when he came home from being out to sea.  It was a lot of fun using this photo and reliving their memories are very special.

After trimming the image down a bit, I took a clear plastic mask that I purchased when I bought the "4 square" stamp and laid it over my image.  Now, this is where the difference comes in from other faux postage techniques because since I am not actually stamping an image, I traced around the edges to determine where to use my scissors (move it around until you are happy with the position before tracing).

Once you have drawn your outlines, it is time to take your postage scissors and cut around those lines (make sure you cut as close as you can).  When you are finished cutting, you will have four postage sized squares.  Before adhering your pieces down, make sure you erase all the pencil marks.

Adhere your cut pieces onto the "4 square" creme cardstock you created earlier and once that has been completed, take your postage scissors and cut around the entire block.  This is how your finished postage stamp design should look.

Now, it's time to put it all together.  For this project, I used Simple Stories Generations collection and the key trinket is from Bo Bunny's Country Garden collection (I am giving this card to Jim for Valentine's Day, so I wanted to keep it as masculine as I could and knew these papers would be perfect - I also love the vintage feel it gives the image). 

Here is the finished card.  Cute, uh?

Now it's time to move on to see the fabulous creations the other design team members have prepared for you using their favorite techniques!  Be ready to be WOWed !!!

The Hens' Den
Anita Mulcahey

Carolyn Lontin

Janet Bagnall <----- YOU ARE HERE

Lori McClellan

Nicolle Kramer
Moriah Macdonald

Stephanie Wagner

Charlie LaBonte/The Hens' Den

Supplies:

Simple Stories Generations 2 x 12 Border

Simple Stories Generatoins 6 x 12 Page elements

Simple Stories Generatons 4 x 6 Vertical Journaling Card Elements

Bo Bunny Country Garden trinket set
Cream Bazzill cardstock

Getting back into it :)

Hey everyone:

It has been a very hard several months and I really haven't done much crafting lately, but things are getting back to normal (if there ever is such a thing), so thought I would start back up by participating in several challenges.  This makes my life so much easier when I have colors and a sketch in front of me :)

There are a lot of birthday on my calendar for the month of February and will start off with this one.  I am using the color challenge at The Paper Players and the sketch challenge from MFT.  They are both great and were fun to play with.

I'm going to keep this post short since I have so many other things I want to create - working on getting some cards made to send to some stores for possible distributions (wish me luck).

I hope you all have a great Sunday and I'll see you again soon.

Janet

Supplies:

cardstock - SU midnight muse, summer starfruit, primrose petal
designer paper - SU Tea for Two
ink - SU primrose petal
accessories - SU honeycomb embossing folder and Spellbinders classic
                    oval die cut

Blog Hop happening on February 14, 2013

Hey everyone:

I am participating in my very first blog hop and am so excited.  Please join me and my design team friends in The Hens' Den Blog Hop being held on February 14, 2013.  

We are all going to share a fun and different technique (be on the look out for what I am doing because it is something I have always wanted to try but haven't yet) and each blog is giving away a prize to those who leave a comment.  Winners will be announced on February 15th on The Hens' Den blog and Facebook.  I hope you will join in on the fun.

Janet