Happy Sunday!

Hope you all are having a nice weekend.  Life is busy here – as our high school track & field season is still going on.  Yesterday, Mackenzie, our youngest daughter, competed at the District Finals Meet.  She ran the very first event and the very last one – so we were there all day and into the evening.  :D  It was pretty exciting – both her 4x200 meter relay team and her 4x400 meter relay team finished 2nd and will be moving onto the State Meet next week.  So very proud of her!!!  With that said, I am running a bit behind getting our June Hip Kit images finished.  I am locking myself in my office today until the images are done and I get them posted on our blog and onto our website.  Thanks so much for being patient, as there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done.  As much as I love track season, I am glad it will be over next week, and life will get back to normal.  :D

In the meantime, I want to share a couple of awesome cards by Melanie Blackburn that were completed with our March Hip Kit.  Her cards have lots of layering, texture and little details.  If you aren’t a cardmaker, you can find some great ways to create embellishment clusters on your layouts from Mel’s cards.  Enjoy!!!

As you look around at different manufacturers blogs, you will see that many of the projects include custom die cuts created with Silhouettes.  These automated machines precisely cut very intricate shapes.  The downside, is that Silhouettes cost around $300.00.  Our March Hip Kit included an awesome Jillibean Soup Placemat 12x12 honeycomb die cut and a sheet of Wiseword stickers.  The great thing about these new products is that they enable you to add that custom die cut "look” to your projects without the big investment of a Silhouette machine.  I love the way Mel used the placemat to create this fabulous background for her card.  The “today” sticker perfectly finishes her sentiment.  Adding a bit of machine stitching throughout is a really nice detail.

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I hope Mel’s cards have inspired you to find some time to do something creative today.  We would love to see how you incorporate the Jillibean Placemat from your March Hip Kit into your projects!!!  You can share a photo of your finished project on our Facebook page.  Make sure to come back again tomorrow to check out our June Hip Kit debut!!!  It is absolutely FABULOUS!!!  Have a scrappy day!  xo – Kimberly -

Happy Tuesday!

I hope your week is off to a good start!  :D  Today I want to share a couple of amazing projects created by Bethany Crowell using our March 2013 Hip Kit.  I love the bright cheery colors.  They make me feel like summer is right around the corner.  I hope that Bethany’s projects give you lots of creative inspiration  and motivation to pull your March kit out and create something pretty with it.  Enjoy!!!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Tomorrow I will be announcing our awesome May Guest Designer and sharing a layout that she created using our fabulous April/May 2013 Hip Kit.  So, make sure to visit us again tomorrow.  You will definitely be so glad you did.  Have a scrappy day!  xo – Kimberly -

Happy Sunday!

I hope you are having a good weekend so far.  Here in the Seattle area it is almost 80 degrees and sunny.  Today I have a collection of great “sunny” projects created by our amazing designers using our March Hip Kit & Add-On Kits.  Enjoy!!!

Bethany Crowell created these two cheery cards.  She has a knack for cardmaking…  each and every one of her cards are have a perfect combination of papers and accents.  How happy would you be if you got one of these sweet cards in your mailbox?

This layout is by Cindy Stevens.  I love the bright cheery colors and the whimsical design.  Using a black and white photo is a great idea when you are using colorful products.  This little trick allows your photo to stand out and be the focus of your page.Notice how Cindy added the white Jillibean diecut Placemat to the white cardstock to create an interesting foundation for her page.  She also hand stitched around the inside perimeter of a few of the honeycomb shapes with white floss.  This is a nice detail that adds a little extra texture to her page.The Amy Tangerine Daybook (from our March Embellishment Add-On Kit) has lots of interesting pages that can easily be used as accent layers on your scrapbook layouts and cards.  The chevron stripe vellum page layered under the photo is one of the pages from that book.

Mel Blackburn created this next layout using another sweet photo of her baby girl.  Mel’s pages always have an artistic flair to them.  I love the patchwork background and the machine stitching gives it a nice finished look.

Thanks for visiting again today!  I hope you are feeling inspired to do some creating of your own today.  Tomorrow I will have another collection of projects created with our March Hip Kit to share with you.  So, make sure to stop by to check them out.  Have a scrappy day!  xo – Kimberly -

Happy Thursday!

Today I have a fabulous collection of cards to share with you that were created by Bethany Crowell using our February Hip Kit.  Regardless of whether you are a scrapbooker or a cardmaker, you are going to love these cards!!!  Really take a moment and look at the clusters of products on each card.  These combinations can easily be used as embellishment clusters on your scrapbook pages.  Enjoy!!!

Thank you for stopping by today!  I hope you are feeling inspired to create something wonderful this weekend.  :D  Make sure to check in again tomorrow because I have a great collection of projects created with our March 2013 Hip Kit to share with you.  You definitely won’t want to miss them.  Have a scrappy day!  xo – Kimberly

Happy Friday!

Today I have a few projects to share with you that were created by Bethany Crowell and Melanie Blackburn using our awesome February Hip Kit.  Their projects will give you inspiration to make something wonderful this weekend with your February kit.

These first two layouts were created by Bethany Crowell.  With the popularity of Instagram and improved cameras and fun camera apps on cell phones – scrappers are able to easily scrap photos of life’s little moments.  Both of Bethany’s pages showcase Instagram photos taken with her phone.Bethany hand cut the “I LIKE YOU” out of a notecard from the Color Me Happy die cut pack and combined that with the Pebbles Mini Alphabet (from our Embellishment Add-On Kit) to create an eye catching title.  Sometimes if you have an element in your kit that is big and bold, it is helpful to think of ways to alter it so that it will work on your project.  :DUsing arrows throughout her page helped draw the eye to the photo which was the focal point of her page.  The scalloped border at the bottom of her layout bridged the gap between the photo and her title and gave a flow to her page.
How many of you rarely end up in your photos?  How often do you take a photo that says something specific about you?  My guess is, not often enough.  :D  At least that is the case for me.  This next layout by Bethany is an inspiration to take photos of things that you love, and things that say something about you.  I love how she used this photo of some Kate Spade jewelry that she liked to design this layout.  How awesome is that die cut of the woman posing?!?!?  It is absolutely a perfect combination with this photo.I think she used a mask and some mist to create the large polka dots and paint splatters on the background of her layout.  You can easily create your own masks by using a punch and a scrap of cardstock.  I love how she kind of gave the polka dots an ombre effect by mixing the mist colors as she moved towards the lower polka dots. Using vellum on your projects is a really popular trend right now.  The printed vellums have more subtle patterns and are great for layering and calming the bright bold colors that are layered below.  (notice the vellum  from our February Embellishment Add-On Kit layered over the bright aqua paper).
Bethany added so many wonderful little details to this page.  You really need to look at it for awhile to take them all in.  I adore this page <3

Next, I want to share a couple of amazing cards that were created by Melanie Blackburn.  She used pieces from the Color Me Happy Bits & Pieces cut apart sheet for the sentiment on each card.  There are so many wonderful little elements on that paper that are perfect for cardmaking.  On the first card she combined the “hi there stranger” sentiment from that sheet with a couple of the great Fancy Pants Trend Setter stickers and two strips of washi tape.  The washi tape gave her card a nice little POP of color.  You can never have enough washi tape in your stash!  ;-)Mel’s second card includes another card from the Color Me Happy cut apart sheet, which she used for pattern and a sentiment.  I love those bright cheery hearts with the black accent.  She added texture and dimension to her card with the Studio Calico Snippets Chipboard Speech Bubbles (from our Project Life Add-On Kit) and the Chipboard Arrows from our main kit.  The addition of black and white washi tape at the top and bottom of her card gave it that little bit of contrast to balance the card.  Again…  washi tape is always a great finishing touch to any project.

I hope after seeing Bethany’s layouts and Melanie’s cards you are inspired to carve out some crafty time for yourself this weekend.  For me there is nothing more rejuvenating than a little creative time.  :D  Make sure to check back again tomorrow because I will have another collection of projects created with our February Hip Kit to share with you.  Have a scrappy day!  xo – Kimberly - 

Happy Thursday!

Boy, where has this week gone?  :)  Life here at the Hutchison house has been really busy.  As many of you already know – we celebrate our three daughters’ birthdays between March 19th & April 1st.  Yep, that is three birthdays in 12 days.  It is insane!!!  haha…  On March 19th our middle daughter turned 17, on Sunday our oldest daughter turned 20 and on Monday, April 1st our youngest daughter turned 15.  I will have some pages to share in the upcoming weeks with photos from each of their special days – which were a lot of fun.

Today I have an awesome layout and card created by Cindy Stevens using our February Hip Kit to share with you.  Cindy does an amazing job at clustering her embellishments and adding layers and lots of little details to her projects.  I love that about these two pieces.

There are so many little elements in the upper right hand corner of her layout.  Sometimes the smallest things make all the difference.  If you look closely you can see the little coral chevron tab at the top, and the staples that attach it and the “this is the life” label sticker.  The threaded button and stitching around the heart and along the edge of the white cardstock give nice texture to her page.I am not sure if she machine stitched around the heart… but if so, she did an amazing job.  There is no way I could machine stitch that precisely around the edge of a shape like that.  I would have to go around twice to have it look like I intentionally wanted it to look messy.  Great job, Cin!!!
I love how Cindy repeated the circles on her layout, subtly with the white on white punched circles, the “Happy Day” circle sticker and the star flair button.  :D
This is an awesome card!!!  I think it is a lot more difficult to make cards for men, and this is an excellent example of a card that could easily be given to a man.  :D  I love the contrast between the woodgrain, black and white and the bright yellow hearts.  The string tied around the top give it that perfect finishing touch.  So cute!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today to see our latest projects created with our February Hip Kit.  :D  I hope you are feeling inspired to do something crafty today.  Make sure to visit again tomorrow to see our next projects created with our amazing February kit.  Have a scrappy day!  xo – Kimberly -