Friday, October 21, 2016

Featuring Color Cast Designs │ September and October projects

Yesterday was launch day at Color Cast Designs and it was a BIG one! October is typically a really large launch because Jessica does fall and all of her December kits too. I was super excited about this launch when I saw all the products in advance and I really hope you check them out.

But before I get to October's release I wanted to share really quickly the two projects I made for September.

This first one is all about snap chat selfies and a fun way to document all of the super crazy and fun filters that the app has. Playing with all the filters is definitely our favorite thing to do when we are bored.

I used bits from the Strike a Pose set and the Oh Snap set. I love any set that is themed around taking photos so these really spoke to me. I used a simple offset grid to lay this page out and it came together really quickly. I think the part that took the longest was deciding what photos to use and print.


My next project was a pocket page spread. The photos are from last year but thankfully they hadn't been done yet so I had some great fall images to work with.

For this spread I used pieces from the Sweater Weather kit, Leaves by the tablespoon, and of course Pumpkin Spice Everything! I also mixed in a a few older items like the gold glitter star, the gold mirror currently, and the candy, candy, candy veneer from last years Halloween set.


I love how the wood veneer pieces really pair nicely to fall photos.


Not to mention all of the amazing dimension it adds.


Moving on to October projects, and even more dimension. I have officially exhausted my supply of pop dots, read on to see why.

My husband and I don't dress up a lot, in fact this was only the second time we had done it so it deserved a special layout of its own. I absolutely love the Wicked Awesome set and made sure to find a spot for the Wicked Awesome piece and the pumpkins and ghosts. I may or may not be hoarding the cute little tags that Jessica put in this kit, hello CUTE!


I knew I wanted the title to pop for this layout so I decided to cut it out with my Cameo. I layered a contrasting paper behind and added pop dots behind each letter. I made sure to offset the placement back down on the page ever so slightly off from the original cut so that the burgundy paper had a chance to pop out. It took some time but it was so worth it.


My next layout had even more pop dots than the other but the photos just looked so much better lifted off the page than they did flat. The dimension really does add so much to it, especially since Jessica's pieces are so dimensional.

When I saw the Hello Elf set I knew I wanted to make a layout of some of the fun Elf pictures from last year. I cover this pretty extensively in my December Daily but having a layout to slip in my daughters album sounded like a great idea.


I used my cameo and the sketch pens to draw the circle dividing lines. I had intended to fill them in after but I liked them without it so I opted to leave it. I think it adds a cool design element instead of having it just be a plain grid design. I also added in the Believe in the Magic piece from the Oh What Fun set because that is my favorite sentiment of the season as well as a few of the October Confetti Stars, because they are always the perfect little accent.


There are several other sets that I haven't had a chance to work with yet, but I do hope you'll head over to Jessica's shop to see everything. Its really quite magical and she did such a great job on this release.

See you soon,
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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Hero Arts 2016 Planner Release Blog Hop


I'm so happy to be participating today in the 2016 Hero Arts Planner Release Blog Hop! This hop is all about celebrating the launch of the 2016 Planner Product Catalog items arriving in the Hero Arts Store. If you are new here, I welcome you. If you don't know me I am part of Kelly Perkey's Design Team so I already love working with her products and stamps. I love all of her collaborations with Hero Arts and her planner stamps always have just what I need to help plan my days, weeks and even months.

I don't always decorate my planner each week but when I have some down time I love to spice things up a bit. For extra special months I even like to decorate my wall calendar that hangs above my desk. Its always there and it really helps get me in the seasonal mood. As you can see below I did just that for the month of October.


When planning out my month, the first and foremost thing that I need to make sure I'm on the ball about is all of my daughters soccer games. She plays at the competitive level so its a lot of games for sure. I don't bother putting all of the practice days on the calendar because lets be real, I wouldn't have any room for anything else. Her life is definitely way busier than mine. Luckily for me, Kelly's Sports Planner set is perfect for all the sports moms out there.


Once those key dates are listed I love adding in little touches from all of her stamp sets to help draw attention and have some fun with some of my appointments and tasks for the month. For this calendar page I added in little bits from the Doing my Best, Adventure, Shopping, Appointment, Occasions, Food, School and especially the Fall Planner set because its so perfect for October. The Holiday Wood Icons also helped add some extra Halloween touches to my calendar.

I also used a few of Kelly's sticky notes from the Everyday Sticky note set to help dress up my flags and cover a stamping boo boo. It happens to everyone, thankfully a good sticky note can help save the day!

One of my favorite things to add to my calendar are all the fun National Days. I added three to my calendar page this month, of course I picked the ones that really speak to me. The Doing my Best, Food and Fall planner sets really helped with that because lets be real, its all about the food and pumpkins!


I'm also a huge fan of the stamp and cut sets and I love using them whenever I can. I cut two banners from the Flags Stamp & Cut set as well as pieces from the Tape Stamp & Cut set and the Labels Stamp & Cut set.

The inks I used to stamp with were all Kelly's stamp cubes. I used colors from the new Palm Springs, Miami and Charleston sets as well as the Outdoor set. These inks give the best color payoff and are so easy to work with. I love the new additions to the color range for these ink cubes, Kelly really gave me just the colors I needed.


I hope that this project has inspired you to dress up your family's wall calendar like you would your planner. It definitely makes the month feel way more festive this way.

I hope that you also continue on the blog hop so you can see all of the other amazing projects. I've listed all of the blog contributors with links below.

Barbara Picinich -- This is me

And don't forget to leave a comment here on my blog as well as the other contributors because Hero Arts will be giving away three $25 shopping sprees, drawn from comments left across all blogs in the hop. Please comment by Wednesday, October 19 at 11:59pm PT and Hero Arts will be announcing the winners next week. Keep an eye on their blog for the announcement.

Thanks for stopping by!
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