Best Day Ever | Paper Issues Take 5 Challenge

Today's my turn to share a layout on the Paper Issues blog. Here's my post:

Hey, everyone! I'm here with a layout I created for the Take 5 challenge.

If you've never played in the Take 5 challenge, it's simple. Take a minimum of 5 items from the provided list or take more! Here, there is no limit! I chose 7 items: black, white, stamping, twine, enamel dots, stars, ephemera.

I wanted the black and white from the list to be prominent, so I looked through my photos and found these darling pictures of our great-niece's birthday party. When I looked back at the list and saw that twine and ephemera were items, I thought of using them to make a banner, which would make a perfectly festive page. I have some containers where I keep my miscellaneous ephemera pieces stored by color and just picked out pieces to work with the color scheme, set them with eyelets, and threaded the baker's twine to create my banner. Stars were an item on the list, and the Thickers I used had stars to match on the sheet.

That great big red bow was in the red ephemera container, and I knew I had to use it because it reminded me of the big bow Minnie mouse wears, and my great-niece is wearing a red bow.

I found a second bow in my black ephemera container. I had already added some stars that went with my title, but when I saw stamping as an item, I looked through my stamp inventory to find some stars and found this fun stamp with tiny stars that reminded me of confetti. Of course, I rounded out the layout with enamel dots, another item from the Take 5 list.

I had loads of fun digging through my ephemera to make this banner. I hope you'll join me in this challenge and share it in our Facebook group. You might even win a gift certificate to the Paper Issues store. Speaking of the store, please use my discount code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off of everything in the store, every time you shop!

Tractor--I Mean Tree--Shopping | Paper Issues Take 5 Challenge

Paper Issues has so many fun challenges, and a super-fun and easy challenges is called Take 5, where you get a list of items to include on your page, and you choose 5 (or more) things. I played this month and made this page:

Here is the list. I chose hearts, stars (asterisks), plaid, gold, stitching, and stickers.

Here are some details. The plaid paper is from Photoplay's Kringle & Co. I stitched it down (plaid and stitching were two of the items). The stickers have gold foiling (gold was another of the items I used). I added a heart to the tree (another item from the list).

Stickers were another item, and I used lots--regular stickers (the Christmas ones are from Pebbles Merry Little Christmas collection), alphabet stickers, and puffy stickers, by Elle's Studio.

And I used a couple of asterisks, which are stars, on my layout.

I hope you'll come play in this or one of the many other challenges at Paper Issues. You could win a gift certificate! And if you shop at the store, please use my code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off your entire purchase!

Lovely | Paper Issues Take 5 Challenge

I'm up on the Paper Issues blog today. Here's my post:

I'm sharing a layout today for the Take 5 challenge using the beautiful Happiness collection by Cocoa Vanilla. I actually Took 8.

The idea behind this challenge is that you create a layout using 5 (or more) of the items from the list.

I used patterned paper, orange, stickers, a punch, layers, a frame, tags, and leaves. I made my tags using patterned paper and a reinforcement punch. The butterflies were cut out of this beautiful paper.

I found a wood frame in my stash and a tiny tag that said blossom that is ancient--how could I not use it on this page?

I needed some leaves, and I found some on one of the floral papers.

I hope you'll play along--be sure to post your creation in the proper album in our Facebook group for a chance to win a gift certificate to the Paper Issues store. The Take 5 is a fun challenge that makes you dig through your stash. I love being able to combine old and new on a layout! Speaking of new, go check out the new goodies in the store. Please use my code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off your entire purchase!

Summer Smile | Paper Issues Take 5 Challenge

I love challenges that challenge me to use certain things on my layout because it gets me digging through my stash and I'll often use things I wouldn't have thought of using. Paper Issues has a challenge every month called Take 5, where they give you a list of about a dozen items and ask you to choose 5. I always try to use as many as possible. I took 10 from the list this month to create this layout for my friend:

Here's the Take 5 list. I used cardstock, aqua, a sun, stripes, the word fun, numbers, stamps, enamel dots, brads, and stickers.

Here are some details. Isn't that sun cut file awesome? It's totally FREE from Paper Issues, called Sun & Fun. Once I decided on my colors, I went to my paper scraps and found some papers to layer behind the photos and then I opened my box of diecuts that are organized by color and just dug through there to see what I could find. That bright pink tab is ancient--it's an old Ki Memories die cut that was just a plain square with rounded edges, and I just tucked it behind the layers to make it a tab and stamped on it. The "best ever" is also a stamp. Stamps were one of the items in the list to use, as were enamel dots, sun, the color aqua, numbers (the date) and the word fun.

The sunglasses were also a stamp. That pool water paper is super old. It's an old Paper Pizazz paper! I added a scrap of striped paper, which was also on the list, as were brads.

And finally, I used letter stickers and phrase stickers for the stickers in the list. Oh, and that awesome "Summer" word is also from a free Paper Issues cut file called "Summer Days."

While you're over at Paper Issues checking out the hundreds of free cut files, be sure to check out all the latest and greatest new stuff in the store. Please use my code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off your entire purchase!

I hope you'll play along with this or one of the tons of other challenges. Post your creation in the Facebook Group, and you might win a gift card to the shop!