LYB, Xyron & May Arts Blog Hop

I thought it would be fun to make an altered birdhouse for this exciting 3 Company Blog Hop since Little Yellow Bicycle's Poppy collection had birdhouses and birds as part of the design. And I was particularly inspired by the May Arts gingham, ruffled ribbon.

I found the little birdhouse below in the craft section of our local Walmart.  It was too cute and cheap to pass up.  So it has been sitting on my shelf for months, only to be rescued and used for this project.

It was a little tricky to attach the May Arts gingham ruffle trim to the house, but with a little Xyron Mega Runner and a lot of perseverance, I was able to make it stick.  The new Xyron adhesive dots are also a life saver and great on projects like these.

The ruffle trim made a fantastic statement and was easily blended into the Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper and embellishments.  Tip - for the gingham ribbon on the bottom of the birdhouse, you can actually run the ribbon through the smaller Xyron sticker makers and then easily attach to the project.

This little flower pot and flowers are just too cute for words.  I added a tiny bit of blue gingham ribbon to the bottom of the stained birdhouse to make the fun cluster of Little Yellow Bicycle Embellishments stand out more.

This is really a chipboard banner that made a fashionable chimney for the little birdhouse.  I added a clear cut swirl to create a smoke effect from the chimney and used the Xyron adhesive dots to attach both.

 

I love my 5" Creative Station and 2.5" Create-a-Sticker.  It makes it so easy to permanently adhere things to projects.  These were both great for attaching the patterned paper to the sides of the birdhouse.

Be sure to visit all three company blogs today for more inspiration and prize opportunities.

Little Yellow Bicycle

May Arts Ribbon

Xyron

Thank you so much for stopping by! 

Xyron and Bo Bunny Blog Swap

This week Xyron teamed up with Bo Bunny to showcase how well these manufacturers work together.  I was sent bits and pieces of the Bo Bunny Trail Mix collection and created this layout of my daughter from a recent camping trip.  My goal was to incorporate this highly graphic paper into a relatively clean design...

This is the Bo Bunny Trail Mix Noteworthy die cut pack.  I used this as the primary embellishment for my layout.  The tags and camping decor were especially fun.

 

The Xyron Create-a-Sticker machines are perfect for the Bo Bunny die cuts.  I was easily able to run the different sized die cuts through the machines and adhere them to my layout permanently.

I added a stamped sentiment to this Bo Bunny die cut tag and then ran the tag through my Xyron Create-a-Sticker to make sure it would stay in place permanently.  Then I added some of the Bo Bunny jewel stickers.

I thought a combination of Little Yellow Bicycle clear stamps and wood alphabets worked perfectly with the Bo Bunny outdoor collection.

LYB Clear Stamps

LYB Wood Alphabet Stickers

These die cut tags and border easily ran through my Create-a-Sticker.  I added a stamped sentiment and some chalk ink for a distressed look.

Please go to both the Xyron and Bo Bunny blogs for more inspiring projects and prize opportunities.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Take A Hike With Simple Stories

It's been a LONG winter in Colorado and we are actually still getting snow believe it or not.  However, my family loves to camp and hike so we had to head west on I-70 in search of sunshine and warmth.  We found it in Fruita, CO near the Colorado National Monument last weekend and actually got to spend a few days in 70 degree weather even though the night dropped to 30 degrees (not my ideal for sleeping outside, but still more fun than snow at my house).

I thought the Simple Stories Take a Hike collection was great fit for these photos.  It's almost as if the Simple Stories designers know exactly where the Qualmans like to camp and created the perfect sentiments and color palettes.   This collection was made for the National Park circuit if you KWIM.

The other thing that is so wonderful about this collection is that it is so thoughtful that I did not need to add anything more than my photos and journaling - simple right?  Just the way I like to get the memories of our trips documented.

It was so easy to make these pages that I don't have a lot of tips, except that I love to buy postcards from all of the national and state parks that we visit because then I have the perfect beauty shot of where we are staying with the title already added to the photo.  Makes it even easier to document the trip and the park service profits from my purchase.  Talk about good Karma...

I also cut off a piece of the map we were given at the park entrance to show the trail we hiked along the rim of the canyon and added a smaller photo of the hikers in our party to one of the Take a Hike 4 x 6 journal cards.  Makes a fun and easy compilation.  I used my Xyron Mega Runner to adhere the map and photo to the 4 x 6 journal card.

I cut out this little photo from the park brochure and added it and the fun footprints from the 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock Stickers to a 3 x 4 journal card.

The 12 x 12 Expression Cardstock Stickers are great for adding your own sentiment with the letters and journal spots.

My son discovered the water source at our campsite and washed himself off a bit.  He was very pleased with his work.

I love the spacing on the 4 x 6 journal cards because it allows me to write big loopy letters in my cursive.  I just added a couple of journal stickers to this card and called it good.


Thank you for stopping by!

Old to New Projects With Xyron

Each year the Xyron Team loves to do a fun promotion where the new design team selects a popular project from the past and uses it to inspire a new project.  We call it Something Old, Something New and you can check out each post this week on the Xyron Blog for more ideas. 

I selected the accordion project above by Elizabeth Bracco, which  inspired me to make this fun Summer Banner to celebrate summer.  Of course I used the Little Yellow Bicycle Splash collection along with my Xyron Mega Runner and 2.5" Create-a-Sticker.

Did you know that the LYB Chipboard Shapes and Clear Cuts easily run through the Xyron Create-a-Stickers?  It makes it so easy to attach them to a project and know that they are going to stay there.  I kinda wish I had a swimsuit like this one, the colors are so bright and fun.

I ran the clear cut flourish, chipboard sentiment and fish through the 2.5" Create-a-Sticker.  Made it super fast and easy to stick them to the banner.  Aren't the little calendar tickets adorable?

I cut up one of my LYB 6 x 6 mini albums into banners, punched some new holes and then covered them with paper.  The Xyron Mega Runner makes is super easy to adhere the paper to the chipboard.  Please ignore my super dirty craft mat.  Just know there is a lot of crafting and very little cleaning that goes on in my scrap space - LOL

The Flag kit in the Splash collection is so much fun to add to a project.  I just trimmed the sticks to fit the smaller size of my banner and then tied them together with some twine.  I also ran the chipboard sentiment "summer" through my Create-a-Sticker.

Have a wonderful day!

Family Fun with Simple Stories 24/7

 

I really enjoy this style of memory keeping.  It is really fun to work with the smaller sized journal cards, but still embellish them any way I want.  I also really appreciate the flat pages that easily fit into my scrapbook albums, plus it is a little faster than making single pages.  And, it's such a great way to incorporate something about everyone.   

Last spring my family and I made a point of visiting a different park each day of our break and each of these pages represents a park.  I thought it would be a great fit to document the memory with Simple Stories' new 24/7 collection.  The vibrant colors are a fun palette to go along with the beautiful spring photos.

I love to mix alphabets together - colors, sizes, texture.  These cork alphabets from Little Yellow Bicycle mix so well with the red and blue cardstock stickers from Simple Stories.

This calendar is a stamp from the Simple Stories Sn@p collection.  I used Ranger Ink to stamp it on to the grid patterned paper and then added that to the cork paper along with some cardstock sticker sentiments.  The Xyron Mega Runner is perfect for putting the journal cards together.

These journal cards make it sooooooo easy to add your memories in your own handwriting.  And the bright colors are really pretty.

These Little Yellow Bicycle Cork alphabets blended perfectly with this collection and added a nice dimension to the flatter cardstock sticker alphas without bulking up the page too much.  I used my Xyron Mega Runner to adhere the patterned paper together.

Love this old typewriter.  The journal card was already decorated this way, I just added the journaling and the sentiment "now" to the card with the Simple Stories cardstock alphabet stickers.

These cork scrabble tiles add some wonderful texture to the sentiment.


Thank you for stopping by today,

Xyron Imaginisce Blog Swap

This week Xyron and Imaginisce have teamed up for a fun blog swap.   I had a great time working with the Imaginisce Childhood Memories collection.  The bright colors and whimsical designs were really fun...

 

I particularly liked the Imaginisce bicycle stamp in this collection and thought it would make a great card center.  I also really loved the red striped paper and made sure I used some red Ranger Archival Ink to match.  I stamped the image of the bike on to plain white cardstock, then I used my circle cutter to cut around it.  I debated on whether I should color the bike, but in the end I like the simple image in red ink.  Finally, I backed the image with a Little Yellow Bicycle Naturals burlap circle and added some Maya Road Twine.

For the bicycle flag, I used a Little Yellow Bicycle stick pin and some jewel stickers so it looks like the Memories sentiment is part of the bike flag. I was able to run the whole burlap circle through my Xyron 2.5 Create-a-Sticker machine to give it a sticky back which made it a lot easier to adhere to the card.

These little clouds are really cute stickers.  I just added some handcut banners for a little added interest.

This home décor project was really easy to make.  I had an old 7 Gypsies Small Printer's Tray lying around, so I thought it would be fun to use the 4 x 6 journal cards in the Imaginsce Childhood Memories collection and some of the Sticker Stackers to make this project.   I used my Xyron Mega Runner to adhere the patterned paper to the tray.

For something a little out of the ordinary, I stuck some of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Memo Pins in the top of the tray and ran a little miniature clothesline.  Then I cut out some of the Polaroid sentiments and hung them up with the Little Yellow Bicycle Naturals mini clothespins.  I like how both the Polaroids and the pins have sentiments on them.

I stripped down some of the sticker stackers so I could add the little images to the Printer's Tray.  They were the perfect size without the rest of their backing and then I could customize the patterned papers.

Be sure to visit the other Xyron Team Member blogs and the Imaginisce blog for more inspiring projects.

Jen Goode

Sharon Callis

Ain't She Crafty

Imaginisce

Both Xyron and Imaginisce are giving away prizes this week so be sure to visit their blogs for details and how to enter.

Happy Crafting!