4.27.2012


Hello and welcome to my stop on The Sampler's Blog hop! Have you seen April2012's kit from The Sampler yet??? Well, along with a load of goodies, this month's kit included a little baggie of adorably teeny tiny brads. You know, those little ones we loose before we use? Yea, those! Well, have no fear, the design team is here to show you our best with brads.

I wanted to start off by sharing MY essential tools for working with brads. I MUST have the following when working with brads: a good number of brads (duh), an Xacto knife, metal ruler (or one of those fancy grid rulers from tim holtz! i keep loosing mine....), an awl (aka. hole pokie tool), and a self-healing mat....  oh and possibly a pencil...and maybe some band aids for good measure...


Now that I have my tools and materials I want to work with, I need to actually poke some holes for my brads. This means I have to  figure out where i want the brads to end up. On this layout i wanted to add some texture on top of existing layers and in a straight line. So, on top of my self-healing mat, using my metal ruler and hole pokie tool, i measured out my spacing. 


Often I will not poke all the way through when measuring, but instead just leave a mark. You can do this step with a pencil even. Once i have made my marks, i will pick up my layout and VERY CAREFULLY finish making my holes with the hole pokie tool. (if you fail to follow the VERY CAREFULLY part of the instruction, apply band aids...) The hole pokie tool is also good for separating the brads on the back of your project....


So now that my layout is full of holes, its time to put brads in. Why did I bother poking holes you ask? Well, these are teeny tiny brads and would never in a million years go through all my layers with out completely destroying the brads, my layout or both.


So pre-made holes give me control of where the brads are actually going and aid in a more polished finished project. actually, this goes for all types of brads... rulers are your friends...


Those few holes and brads give this layout a very interesting texture that meshes splendidly with the title which is popped up (although you cannot really tell in this photo... shoot.)



Another way i like to use brads is to make shapes and frames. On this layout I added hearts by simply making sketch marks/dots in a rough outline of my heart. Then poked my holes.



A very ordinary element on any layout, but totally jazzed up on this layout!



Now that you've stuck it out with me this long, I HAVE GOODIES TO GIVEAWAY! Follow me (there is a button on the right! no your other right... oops) and  leave a comment  on this post on or before Friday, May 4th, 2012! That's all you have to do to be entered to win amazing goodies from kits past, present and future!

ok, enough of me! head over to Shaunna's blog for a smashing good time!

thanks for stopping by!
sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

4.20.2012

sketchy in april!

its time for another sketch challenge hosted by the sampler! here's the sketch:


and here is my take on the challenge:

this challenge really got me to work outside my normal formula. with the negative space in the middle of the layout, this page turned out much differently than so many of the other pages in my album where the elements are all on the left or the right or smack dab in the middle... in other news from the sampler, there is a crazy fun blog hop in the works. projects to inspire and prizes to enable. looking very forward to participating!
sunshine&bunnies, holly*

4.11.2012

updates...

project update:

projects are going slow. there are too many of them. The Sampler's April2012 Kit is on my table (floor actually) right now and layouts are coming together like magic! this is about the only thing i've finished lately, but i'm proud of it none the less.


the shoulder straps that is. the baby has been done for a while...

squish update:
pip went to the pedi yesterday for her 1st round of vaccinations.. yuck. she's a sturdy 11lbs 7oz and a whooping 24-1/4inches tall and practically perfect in every way... duh!

easter update:
i made a bunny butt cake.



it was the fattest bunny ever!

other updates:
i may be late to the party, but instagram FINALLY has an app for droid users! finally! now if only pinterest would do the same...

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

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