Exciting News to Share!

I'm beyond excited to share with you that I've been selected to be on the Little Yellow Bicycle first ever Cycling Team!

It was announced over on their Facebook page:

Little Yellow Bicycle
Time to announce our first ever Cycling Team. We were thrilled with the interest and have plans to go for the long tour with many of you! Announcing Team Head of the Class and Team Get your Game on today.

Team Hello Fall will be announced next Wednesday. Next try outs will be for Wonder and Wishes and Winter Twig. All teams, Please be sure to send your addresses to lori@cthruruler.com.

Cycling Team Head of the Class:

• Kat Blue
• Cari Locken
• Rhonda Van Ginkel  (<-- That's me!!) 
• Amanda Johnson
• Shelley McDaniel

Cycling Team Get Your Game On:

• Nancy Doren
• Carol Monson
• Ashley Stephens
• Samantha Taylor
• Kimberly Rae Forde

21 September at 17:08

I am honored to be listed along with these amazingly talented ladies!  Thank you to Little Yellow Bicycle and congratulations to the rest of the Cycling Team too!

Have a super scrappity day!
~ Rhonda

Destination - Play!

Happy Wednesday my blogging friends! 

I'm so excited to share with you a fun project that I created with the new Imaginisce line "Bon Voyage"!  It's a collection that is near and dear to my heart with its elegant vintage vibe and very classic appeal!!! 

I always like to put a bit of a twist on things, so of course I didn't use the collection for a travel themed page.  Instead, I used it with some playful photos.  Without further delay here it is:

I love the mix of patterns and colors in this line so I tried to use as much as possible in my layering.  These are photos of our oldest rolling down the hay bale pile at the Apple Orchard last fall.  I just loved the sequence of the action and the look ok his face.  The colors were a perfect match for the line too!

I used the Snag 'em Compass stamp on my kraft envelope with Quick Quotes Powder Puff chalk ink in Amaretto, then colored an i-rock gem with my Copic marker for the center.

I opted to create a bit of a collage with a variety of the die-cuts and sticker stackers. I used my i-Top and a 28mm brad for the large compass. Here is a detail image for you:

I've also added some very tiny i-Rock crystal gems to the background compass paper for a little extra interest as well. There are additional glam rocks in the upper left of my layering too.  The kraft envelope and mini tickets on here are Maya Road, the acetate heart is K&Co.  Twine is from Martha Stewart.  The mini words on the Destination Chipboard plaque are Authentique.

Be sure to stop on by the Imaginisce blog today to see all of the inspiration from the Design Team using this beautiful line!  There is also a chance for you to win a collection of your own!!!

Thanks for stopping on by, have a super scrappity day!

~ Rhonda

Bon Voyage! It's a Release Party Week!!!

It's a very exciting week for us at Imaginisce!  We're celebrating the release of our newest line "Bon Voyage"!  You definitely want to stop over at the Imaginisce blog and check this out, it is nothing less than stunningly beautiful!

If you visited us at ScrapFest, you were fortunate to get a hands on super sneak peek!  I had a blast hosting the make 'n takes using this wonderful line.

You'll want to see the amazing projects that our uber talented design team has for you as well!  Word has it there is also a chance for you to win a collection of your very own!

I'll be back tomorrow to share a project with you.

Have a super scrappity day!
~ Rhonda

Peachy Keen + Quick Quotes Blog Hop!!!

Thank you so much for joining us for the Peachy Keen Stamps and Quick Quotes Blog Hop!

If you've just come from Nikki Foraker's blog, then you have hopped to just the right spot!  

If you don't know what on earth I'm talking about, start here at Peachy Keen Stamps!   You don't want to miss a chance to win one of two fun prizes up for grabs! 

Peachy Keen Stamps PRIZE:

Basic Paper Doll Face Assortment
Faceless Fruit Stamp Set

Quick Quotes PRIZE:

Family Canvas Kit (All inclusive)
Glitter Chipboard (2 sets)
PVC Frosted Embellishments (flowers)

You'll have until Sunday night to complete the hop!

Peachy Keen Stamps and Quick Quotes have partnered this weekend to bring you incredible creations from both of their Design Teams. You'll see how versatile our products truly are!

Here's my card using the super adorable "Happy Turtle" stamp from Peachy Keen and Savvy Davvy papers from Quick Quotes!

I received the sweet little turtle to work with. Isn't he just the cutest with his little arms wide open?  Before this partnership, I had never had the pleasure of working with Peachy Keen stamps.  I have to tell you, these stamps are amazing quality!  They are really firm and create such a crisp and beautiful impression!!!

Techniques Used:

- Stamped my Peachy Keen happy turtle using Powder Puff Chalk Ink in Green with Envy

- Colored my stamped turtle using Crayola metallic coloring pencils

- Used Black metallic Chomas Creations glitter pen for the shadow layer of my frame

- Assembled frame using pop dots to add dimension

- Stapled some x shapes on right side of card for interest

Ingredients:

Savvy Davvy papers by Quick Quotes

Chomas Metallic Pens

Crayola Metallic Color Pencils

Powder Puff Chalk Inks: Tahiti, Marischino Cherry, Limeade, Green with Envy

Cricut Expression

Fiskars Punch "Grass"

Cardstock: Green

Mini Tag Punch: Martha Stewart
Mini Heart Punch: Marvy Uchida

Tiny Attacher: Tim Holtz for Ranger

Other: Sewing Machine, Black Thread, White Sheer Ribbon, Natural Hemp, Alpha Rub-Ons and Foam Dots

Thanks again for stopping by!  I hope you're inspired and ready to create!

Don't forget to leave a comment on each designers' blog for a chance to win either a Quick Quotes prize package or two stamp sets from Peachy Keen! 

The deadline for commenting is 11:59pm EDT, Sunday, September 18th.  Thanks so much for stopping on over and have a super scrappity Day!!!

Your next stop on the hop is Ruthie Nixon!

Happy Thursday to you!

When I received the September Club Q kits from Quick Quotes, I immediately fell in love with the Canvas kit! There are so many fun little elements and details included for the mini, it’s just all over yummy with so many ways to make it your own.  Here's an image of the original project so you can see how I switched mine up:

 

To begin, I took all of my laser cut chipboard frames and painted them with an acrylic cream paint. While soothing and therapeutic, I’ll be honest, it does take more than two coats, so, if you embark on this journey too, trust me it will be worth it!!! To prepare the book, I used Amaretto Powder Puff Chalking ink on all of the edges of my canvas. Each of the pages have been dry brushed with some cream, light yellow and barn red acrylic paints along the edges to give a bit of a shabby vintage feel to match the elegant frame shapes.

Some details about the cover:

• I pressure embossed my white frames and they embossed wonderfully!
• The acrylic bracket frame is from a good friend, she sent it home with me last year and it finally found a perfect spot here! I dry brushed some barn red paint behind it to give it some interest.
• The black and white argyle print doily is one of many doily’s that I cut from a die.
• My sentiment has glossy accents put over the top. I wouldn’t recommend applying it over vellum as you can see, it did wrinkle mine some.
• After much debate, I chose to leave it as is because it makes the sentiment more profound in my opinion. It’s not always about being super perfect, it’s about simply making a project your own.

Once the prep work was done, all I had to do was pick out my favorite photos and mount them to my frames. 

I stamped my accent mats with some doily stamps using Amaretto Powder Puff chalking ink and added a coordinating Epiphany Crafts round 14 epoxy button.  Another cream doily with a sentiment from our Vintage Alphabet Quote Sets, French Quarter.  I loved these so much and used them on several pages here. 

I added a little fine hemp and tied it around the frame, then curled my ends.

The photo on the left is a little washed out, but I loved it anyhow so I used it.  You can tell that it was one of those “no one wants to sit still moments”!  Who doesn’t just love those Frosted Butterflies, they are such soft and beautiful accents!?!

I just loved the feel that the yellow gingham adds to this color scheme!  You'll see another Vintage Alphabet Sentiment and an Epiphany Crafts Heart 14 epoxy button on the right.

I slid the remaining bit of yellow gingham doily die underneath my frame here.  Some of the Vintage Alphabet Sentiment packaging was used for my butterflies also on this page.  The next page I used a bit of crochet trim to balance my white space of the sentiment block.  I finally found the perfect page to use my Black Gem Frosted Butterfly!!!

I just loved this photo to go along with the sentiment on opposite page.

For the back cover, I added the burlap, die cut my sentiment and inked with Midnight Confessions Powder Puff Chalk Ink. I’ve also added an Epiphany Crafts 25 round epoxy, round 14 and 20 buttons.  

 

Other Ingredients:

• Powderpuff Chalking Inks: Midnight Confessions, Amaretto, Maraschino Cherry
• Cherry Truffle *100* - yellow gingham from August Club Q kit
• Cream Cardstock from previous Club Q kit.
• Vintage Alphabet Quotes: Cherry Truffle and French Quarter
• Frosted Butterflies by Quick Quotes
• Cream, Light Yellow and Barn Red acrylic paint
• Doily Stamps by My Mind’s Eye Stella & Rose collection
• Spellbinders Deckled Rectangle die for back cover sentiment
• Doily Die by MFT
• Epiphany crafts Round 14 and 25, Heart 14, Round Button 14 and 20.
• Fine cream hemp by Darico
• Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and Glossy Accents
• Acrylic heart, tag and photo corner overlays by K&Co.
• Other: Crochet trim, acrylic bracket, glue dots and foam brushes

Thanks for hanging in there with me for this large project!  I had fun with it!!  Be sure to stop on over to the Quick Quotes Blog to see what other inspiration they have to share with you too!

 

Have yourself a super scrappity day!!! 

 

~ Rhonda

Snag 'em Stamps and American Crafts Ink!

Hello my happy blogging friends! 

This week over at Imaginisce we are featuring our Snag Em' stamps along with American Crafts Pigment Ink.  They were so gracious as to share some of their wonderful inks with us to showcase.

I received Cherry and Mustard, which are such beautiful vibrant colors!  I immediately knew that I wanted to use the Happy Harvest collection for my project.  Here's my mini album:

I used the swirling leaves and fox stamps on here.  On the upper part of the cover I used the swirling leaves, stamped it in mustard and then heat embossed it with a little shimmer.  The fox was stamped using Cherry Ink, but I added some bronze embossing powder to it, then cut him out.  A few little googley eyes bring him a little more to life. 

I used some of our canvas stickers, the owl and the fallen leaves.  My i-rock and heart gems came out for adding the heart in the beaver's hands.

For the next page I decided to use my silicone mat and I pressed down each of my colors in different areas, then stamped into each of the colors to create a variegated orange/fall palette.  I was really pleased with the effect!  I used my small maple leaf punch by Martha Stewart to decorate the middle tab of the book. 

I used the same color blending technique on the "I Love Fall" page.  I also included a few orange gems for fun.

You'll see several of our sticker stackers that were used for this mini as well.  I cut the one with the swirling leaves and used it for an accent here along with more of the punched maple leaves.  I kept this very basic and bound it simply with some bakers twine.

Thanks so much for stopping on over today!  Be sure to visit the Imaginisce blog as well for much more inspiration and clever ideas for using our Snag 'Em stamps from the other Designers! 

Have a super scrappity day!
~ Rhonda

In Ten Years Time... Remembering 9-11

Ten years ago today, a horrible act of terrorism shook this country to its very core.  Our hearts ache today as much as they did ten years ago, if not even more for the victims of this horrible act.  

Today, I send prayers of healing, love and support to all of those families and for everyone who in remembering those moments is transported back to the feelings of anxiety, fear and uncertainty that we all felt on that day.  I remember vividly every detail of that day and the following days just being glued to the television along with most of my friends and family.

Prayers and thanks also go out to all of our troops and service people who so bravely serve to protect us all and keep our freedoms in place.  We are so blessed in this country.  We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

I am proud to be an American and I promise you, I will never ever forget!

Blessed be their memories.

Halloween Fun!

Happy Friday all!

I have another fun project to share with you today!  The Doodlebug Blog challenged us to use their Halloween line, no matter old or new, so of course I had to play along!!!  My kids dressed up last year as their very favorite characters from Toy Story, Buzz and Woody. 

Fortunately, I have the Toy Story Cricut cartridge, and that came in very handy for the titlework here!

I cut the spider webs from Paper Doll Dress Up and of course, I had to add a little spider web action by weaving my thread through the web and under the spider.

A little paper pleating and velvet ribbon under the right photo and Mr. Toad gets a bit of jumparoo flourish for fun as well.  I used my "new-to-me" trusty typewriter to do the journaling, love that thing!!!  All of the products on here are Doodlebug with the exception of a little coredinations for photo matting and a bit of trim and string.  I snuck a little orange "create-a-base" card on here too because I just LOVE them!!!

Thanks for letting me share my "not so spooky" Halloween page with you! 

Have a super scrappity day!!!
~ Rhonda

Back to School!

Happy Friday bloggers!  Aren't those some of the sweetest words ever? 

I’ve got a fun little school inspired card to share with you today. How can we head into the month of September without thinking “Back to School”?!! The moment I looked through our September Club Q kits, those rich beautiful colors of the Cherry Truffle line made me think apple!

Tips and Techniques
- Used my Cricut Expression 2 to create my die-cut images.
- Use the relief of the border laser cut from the kit and attached under the ribbon.
- A bit of cream burlap trimmed to fit and fringed a bit, along with some cream ric-rak provided an anchoring point for my apple collage.

Non-Kit Items Used
Burlap
Ric-rak
Kraft cardstock
Coredinations Jenni Bowlin cream ruler cardstock
Ruler Ribbon
Martha Stewart mini tag punch
Cream Hemp
Powder Puff Chalking Inks: Marischino Cherry, Midnight Confessions and Amaretto
Cream cardstock from August Club Q Kit

What does the Cherry Truffle line inspire you to create? We can’t wait to see! We would love it if you share your creations with us using your Club Q kits in the Idea Gallery link on the blog!!!

Have a super scrappity day! 
~ Rhonda

Happy Labor Day!

Hi there my blog loving friends!  Happy Labor Day to those of you here in the United States!

I was putting away some of my layouts into albums the other night and came across one that I had not yet shared with you, it was just for fun.  The memory for me on this page is the main photo of our "baby" from last year at just around this time at the local Renaissance Festival.  It stunned me how big he looks here!

It's amazing to me how very quickly babies grow from completely helpless little beings into fiercely independent little children. The title: Watch out! Ready or not... here I grow!!!

I loved the bright colors of these GCD Studios papers and wanted to challenge myself to use those pink florals for a boys page. Did it work? Here are some details:

I used my i-Top brad maker from Imaginisce for the pink burlap floral center in 22mm and to anchor the bakers twine in 28mm.  Isn't that fun?  The Grand Calibur was used for my focal photo and matting. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a moment with me here today!  Have a super scrappity day!!!
~ Rhonda

Just for fun!

Good morning to you and Happy September!!  

I have a sweet little card to share with you today using the adorable create-a-card base from Doodlebug!  Have you seen them?  Our local Archiver's has the entire line of them and the colors are amazing, as are the variety of styles. 

Their blog had the cutest ever little sketch that they call a "Doodle".  I used it as my starting point for inspiration. 

Here's my interpretation of their Doodle:

A closer image for detail:

The stick pins here are Little Yellow Bicycle but they matched so well I had to use them!  I dressed them up a bit further with some mini jewels.  I used my Cricut Expression 2 to cut the scallop layer underneath the cute cut cake.

It seems like I always need a fun birthday card and this one went together so quickly.  It's fit for almost any age, so that also makes me happy!  I can't wait to play with my other colors and shapes that I bought in the create-a-base line!

Thanks so much for stopping on over to spend a moment with me!  Have a super scrappity day!!!

~ Rhonda