Color Me Monday: Flying the Flag for Pennants!

Welcome, September! Today’s artwork features a September calendar page great for your scrapbook, as well as two stylin’ cards for a brilliant birthday invitation or a back-to-school wish. In addition to a cheery color scheme featuring some of my favorite brand new hues from our updated Summer palette in Sky, Smoothie, Pear, and classic Desert Sand, you’ll also see another commonality on some of the artwork: my passion for pennants!

Pennants and flags are a huge trend right now. You’re seeing them everywhere—in home décor, on cards, as party favors, and even on scrapbook layouts. Dressing up your artwork with this adorable and easy trend is a piece of cake to do and it’s also a lot of fun. Here are a couple of tricks to turn simple triangles into the perfect pennant.

First, how to get that ideal “swoop”: Your pennant should look relaxed, as if hanging suspended by two points. Before you begin attaching triangles and fiber, use a light pencil line to sketch the arc of your pennant (the floss/hemp will cover it later). Then, use your piercing tool to place small holes equal distances apart on your arc and use thread, embroidery floss, hemp or your choice of fiber to stitch the pennant string.

Next, make terrific triangles. Use the Party Pennants stamp set (C1429, page 62 in the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book) to create your ideal triangle shapes—this set includes solid, striped, and spotted triangles for plenty of variety. When stamping several triangles, there are plenty of great ways to do it. Here’s an easy way that I like: stamp the points of the triangles fitted together, so that a series of them “zipper together” like teeth, with just a small space in between each image. You’ll create a strip of “zippered teeth” that’s very easy to trim out, because you can use a paper trimmer to neatly cut the straight outside edges of your “zipper,” and then it’s just a quick snip, snip, to cut each triangle apart.

Finally, add your sentiments or distressing to the triangles and attach. You can freehand lettering inside your pennant shapes, or use a small alphabet stamp set (like the Tiny Typewriter Alphabet, D1222) or rub-on letters to add a statement. Attach each triangle just below the stitching line with your favorite adhesive—if you like the look of a pennant flying in the breeze, just attach the adhesive at the top of the triangle, instead of the entire triangle. It really is a breeze to fly your own flag—made even more gorgeous with brand new colors from our glorious Summer palette!

A Tale of Two Fashionistas

This week, Rachel and Aubrey went back to school. What an exciting time of year! New beginnings, new friends, new classes, and of course, new clothes. In anticipation of the new school year, the girls and I went shopping. Once again, this shopping trip pointed out to me how different my girls are—yet how very delightful and extraordinary to me.

First, we headed to the mall. Each girl had the exact same budget but chose to spend it completely differently. Rachel headed straight for The Buckle, where she loves the high-end jeans. She’d much rather spend her money on just a few pieces that are “must haves” despite the price tag. Aubrey prefers the casual, layered look of Pac-Sun (or better yet: a vintage clothier!), which happily for me, was just down the hall from the Buckle. I spent my time shuttling between the stores’ dressing rooms!

By the time the girls were finished, Rachel had chosen a few ready-for-the runway pieces from exclusive department stores. She looked like a cover girl! Aubrey would much rather spend an afternoon culling through consignment shops for vintage chic items that are one-of-a-kind. She had chosen a lot more clothes than Rachel, but hers all had that cool retro vibe. She is absolutely beautiful and unique: interesting, smart, and able to “own” that retro style. Looking at their selections had me grinning: can you imagine two more different approaches to fashion?

Each of my daughters had a little leftover wardrobe money, and they both decided to do something special. True to form, Aubrey headed down to a local thrift store where she fell in love with a used guitar. It’s a perfect fit for her style, and she’s really becoming quite the musician. Rachel, on the other hand, took her surplus budget and went straight to the salon. She opted for "eyelash extensions", which if you’ve never seen one done, is quite the process—four and a half hours sitting in a chair while a stylist painstakingly attaches an eyelash into your lashes one at a time! I don’t know that I’d have the patience for the process, but the results were pretty eye-opening: she looked great!

Both girls headed off to school—books, bags, and signature style in tow. (And yes, I still tear up a little each year watching my children grow and go. I love you, my two fashionistas!)

Color Me Monday: Neutral Nirvana!

Today’s artwork and color combination prove that neutral doesn’t need to be boring—far from it! Today’s rich and earthy palette of Black, Colonial White, Desert Sand and Bamboo is the perfect companion to just about any photo on a layout, any design element in home décor, or any style of card. It’s a guest that’s welcome just about anywhere!

A few insider tricks on making artwork like that shown today: our White Daisy and Colonial White inks are pigment-based instead of our classic dye-based, so they behave just a little differently. Pigment will give you a great “pop” of white, because it works a little more like paint than ink. For my cards today, I used the “Hit the Spot” stamp set (C1406), which is full of all sizes of dots and spots that repeat easily for great backgrounds. After stamping the spots in White Daisy, I made sure to heat set the design—pigment inks will dry more slowly than dye-based inks, so heat setting will keep your project moving along. And because pigment ink is just a little more tenacious, you’ll want to clean your stamp vigorously after using it—the Double Scrubber and Spritz Cleaner work great; just add a little extra elbow grease!

To make a beautiful Silhouette canvas of your own, start by printing a photo with a good profile in it (enlarged appropriately to showcase the profile). Then trim out the silhouette image—use the microtip scissors to make your image as smooth as possible. Trace it on black cardstock, trim it, and apply to your painted or stamped canvas. (On my canvas, I painted first with acrylic paint, then stamped a background in Desert Sand ink using the “Damask Tiles” set (C1342).

Dashing, daring, and comfortable just about anywhere—that’s the beauty of neutrals!

Burgers as big as your head!

Thursday at Close To My Heart, we started what I hope will become a fun summer tradition—Lynton Burger! You’re stunned, right? You already knew that Close To My Heart is an amazing scrapbooking and stamping company, but a burger restaurant, too? You bet, at least for a day!

Here’s how it started: in January, we traveled to New Zealand’s gorgeous south island for our incentive trip. While in Queenstown, the locals encouraged us to visit a wildly popular street restaurant called “FergBurger.” The storefront of the restaurant was modest, the space was small, but you could smell the delicious food from down the block—which was as long as the waiting line was! After I took my first bite of my FergBurger, I turned to David and Monica and said, “This is SOOOO good. We HAVE to do our own big burger for Close To My Heart!" And the little seed for Lynton Burger was planted.

This week, that seed bloomed. We set up grills, purchased hundreds of half-pound top-quality angus steak burgers, sliced condiments, spun cotton candy, filled buckets with ice and bottled soda, bagged candy, sliced watermelon, and then grilled, grilled, grilled! (And when I say “we,” I mean our incredible Events staff and Executive Team—thank you so much for making this little vision of mine into a fun reality. You did a wonderful job that exceeded everyone’s expectations.)

We ate in shifts of about 30 people or so, so it was a cozy and relaxed restaurant experience for each staffer. The signage and the hats (everyone wore them!) boasted “Burgers as big as your head,” and it was true! I enjoyed every single bite of mine and have to admit that a Lynton Burger beats a FergBurger any day!

The weather was balmy and mercifully overcast and the conversation bubbled like our bottled root beer... Until, with just 15 minutes remaining in the event, the sky literally ripped open and a torrent poured down so fat and heavy it rained sideways. Cotton candy blew out of its bins. Wind gusted at the tents and whipped at the tablecloths. Bags of chips rolled across the lawn. Thunder cracked in the distance. Thunder! Suddenly, our leisurely picnic was transformed into a rescue mission—which was perfect, because everyone pitched in to carry in bins and food and dismantle tents in a jiffy. Our cleanup was scheduled to take an hour, but thanks to the wake-up from Mother Nature and our responsive staff, the majority of the work was done in minutes.

Success, all around, I’d say. I can’t wait for the next Lynton Burger day!