21st Century Pillow Book

Greetings! I don't have a project to share with you today, but rather, an announcement. I have decided to completely revamp my blog, and move it to a new site. I've been blogging at 21st Century Pillow Book for over 10 years now, and it's been wonderful. But the "Pillow Book" aspect got lost somewhere along the way. If you don't know what that is, read my description in the blog header, or do a quick search. They are really very cool. Anyway, I thought it was due time for me to work on a new blog, more of a brand, etc. So, I invite you to now join me over at alisonheikkila.com . I've still got some polishing up to do, and a whole lot of learning, as WordPress is completely different from Blogger, but I am really excited for this new site. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and I am happy to finally be getting it done. Bear with me as I figure out the best way to make it all look and flow. I thankfully have some help with that. But I think you...

Hello! Today I have a card that features the Mediterranean Dreams Subscription Kit from White Rose Crafts.  This fabulous Subscription Kit brings together sparkling, azure Mediterranean seas, sun-bleached shores and the rich colors of vibrant Mediterranean cultures in a carefully curated kit. I knew I just had to try the Jillibean Soup shaker card and I chose to use one of the stamps (from Kaisercraft) to make my background. I stamped the seashell with Tea Dye Distress Oxide all over the background of the card. Then I applied some Walnut Stain Distress Oxide to my craft mat, spritzed it with some water, and splattered it on to my card base. Last, I inked the edges with Salty Ocean Distress Oxide with a Mini Blending Brush. For my sentiment, I die cut a stitched rectangle from my stash, out of the pearly yellow cardstock that came in the kit and stamped it with "Wish You Were Here" stamp from the same "Summer Splash" stamp set, with StazOn Pigment ink. And ...

Hello! I've got a new shaker card to share with you today and it features the " Storm Cloud " Sparkle Blend from Doodles Paper Playground . I think the Caffeinated Shark from The Rabbit Hole Designs is just hilarious, and I knew that having a cloudy sky would just add to the bad morning this guy is clearly having. I had the Small Stitched Cloud die from Rubbernecker Stamps that I used to cut out my shaker panels. Then I used the Go with the Flow stencil from Taylored Expressions for my water. I inked it with Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress Oxides. I then covered most of the stenciling with some vellum, to help it appear that the shark was actually in the water. Awww, look at him.....he's so sad. I hope he's got coffee in the pot! I colored the shark with Zig Clean Color Markers. You can see the Storm Cloud Sparkle Blend here. It's got deep blues, grays, dusty purples, silver, and opalescent whites. It's really lovely. I happen to l...

Hello! Have you seen the latest Stampendous stamps? The July catalog is out and the stamps have been loaded to the web site! Trust me, if you love Christmas and Halloween, you will not want to miss this release. We are going to begin by celebrating Christmas in July. My card today is one of my favorites that I made for this release. I live on Long Island, so the beach is never far away. I thought this image was really lovely, and although I wouldn't want to spend Christmas on a Long Island beach (it is waaaay too cold!), I do think it would be fun somewhere tropical. My full instructions are below. Supplies: Stampendous : P340 : Seaside Christmas EP211 : Golden Sand Embossing Powder Other : My Colors Cardstock: Ocean Side, Atlantic Shore Neenah: Desert Storm Cardstock Imagine: VersaFine Clair Ink in Nocturne, VersaMark Ink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: 021, 024, 029, 031, 037, 042, 044, 064, 070, 072, 075, 092, 098, 220, 222, 302, 303, 900, 901 Ranger: Distress...

Greetings, Friends. This post today is part of a very special blog hop. We are celebrating the life of an amazingly talented artist and friend. The crafting community lost Aletha Jane Williams on May 5, 2019. Those of us that worked with her on Design Teams or on Challenge Blogs all agree that she was one of the sweetest and most talented women we knew. We are not here to mourn her loss though. This hop is happening in conjunction with a very special celebration of her life and her art that her husband Bob is holding in her home city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Please join us in honoring our incredibly creative friend Aletha . My card features the "Remembering Aletha" Sprite, which Mitzi (owner and artist of Aurora Wings ) created specifically for this hop. She is generously giving the digi away to all, over on her blog. This sweet Sprite looks so much like Aletha, and I know she would have been honored. If you download this digi for yourself, please be sure to give a huge "...

Hello! Today and occasionally going forward I will have a special guest designer (or two!) on my blog. My daughter Rhiannon is now a Designing Mini Diva for Doodles Paper Playground , and she is beyond thrilled. Rhiannon is 10, and if you've been a follower of mine, you'll know that I love to craft with my kids. Rhiannon has become quite the talented artist, and Amber asked her to join our Design Team to help encourage kids to get crafty. So, here is her very first post, written by her (and overseen by me). She created this card completely on her own, and it's even more beautiful in person. Hi, I'm Rhiannon. I started this card because I love the Unicorn Dreams Sparkle Blend from Doodles Paper Playground. I love the unicorns and the beads in it. I like that the colors are pink, purple, and blue, which are my unicorn colors. I stamped and die cut the unicorn, and then colored it with Arteza markers.  Then I die cut a window for my shaker out of black cardstock and pai...

Hello! I have a fun, summery shaker card featuring three Sparkle Blends from Doodles Paper Playground to share with you today. I love ice cream, especially in the summer, and the Lawn Fawn Sweetest Flavor stamps are just perfect for what I wanted to create. I started off by stamping my 3 focal ice cream cones with VersaFine Clair ink in Nocturne . Then, I stamped the rest of my cones all over the background with Gray Flannel Memento Ink. I filled in the empty spaces with hearts, and gave all of the background ice cream happy faces. I also added my sentiments with Nocturne ink from the Lawn Fawn Reveal Wheel Sentiments (the original set). Next, I carefully lined up the Sweetest Flavor Reveal Wheel Add-On Die that cuts out the center of the ice cream, on each of my three focal cones. I adhered some acetate to the back, and then foam tape from Brutus Monroe to the entire back of my shaker panel. I decided to go with a patriotic color scheme, because it just added to that summer...

Hello! I love House Mouse Designs, so I was excited that the Stampendous team was sharing projects featuring these little sweeties this week. I decided to work with Dragonfly Ride , and have them flying through the air with a Meadow's Edge backgrounds. I am entering this card into the House Mouse & Friends Challenge #293 , which is "Summer Fun." Supplies: Stampendous : HMM24 : House Mouse Dragonfly Ride SSC1294 : Meadows Edge Perfectly Clear Stamps SSCM5004 : House Mouse So Sweet Perfectly Clear Stamps MPW811 : Mixed Media White Paper Other : My Colors Cardstock: Madras Blue Imagine: VersaFine Clair Ink in Nocturne Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: 026, 028, 033, 049, 064, 071, 065, 068, 072, 091, 094, 097, 099, 303, 400, 803 Scrapbook Adhesives: EZ Runner, Foam Squares Canson Mixed Media Paper Artist's Chalk and applicators (you can use Q-Tips) Directions: 1. Stamp Dragonfly Ride on Canson Mixed Media Paper with VersaFine Clair Ink in No...

Greetings! It's time for the June Doodles Paper Playground Sparkle Blends Release Hop! There are 6 glorious new Sparkle Blends, and the Designer Divas are going to be sharing projects using them. Be sure to head over to the Doodles Paper Playground Blog to get all of the details on the new Sparkle Blends and the hop info. My card today uses the gorgeous and seriously magical Unicorn Dreams . I started off with a scrap piece of Rainbow Shattered Glass DecoFoil from Therm O Web. I had already applied it to a piece of cardstock with double sided sheet tape. I stamped my butterfly (from Stampendous' Cling Lilac stamp set) with StazOn Pigment ink in Piano Black and then used the coordinating die cut on it. Because the butterfly was all turquoise, Unicorn Dreams was really the perfect Blend for my shaker. Look at those fabulous colors in Unicorn Dreams! There's pinks, purples, turquoise, plus unicorn heads and full unicorns! Ooh, and I can't forget to mention the sta...

Hello! This week, the White Rose Crafts Team is sharing projects made with products from ScrapBerry. ScrapBerry has a lot of lovely, feminine items, but I decided to go with a more masculine vibe for my card today. Though to be perfectly honest, I know a lot of ladies that would love this card and style, including my mom. I started off by choosing one of the papers from the Edge of Town paper pack. This particular paper has subtle circuitry and gears on it. I thought it paired perfectly with the gears stencil from Kaisercraft's Grunge stencil set. For the stencil,  I applied Nuvo Expanding Mousse in Worn Linen with a palette knife. I heated the Mousse to give it some texture. Next, I applied some of ScrapBerry's Stains ink in Blue to my media mat, spritzed it with some water, and splattered it on to my background with a brush. After it dried completely, I inked up a stamp from Kaisercraft's Greenhouse stamp set with the Stains ink in Black , I needed to let the Blue ...

Greetings! Today I am sharing a scrapbook page that I made with the June Sketch Challenge from White Rose Crafts. I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to do each of the sketches as a scrapbook page, and so far, I've accomplished that. I turned this month's sketch on it's side to make it work with my photos. These pictures are back from 2014 when we first gave my son a wood burning tool. His first creation was a phoenix, and he did a really fantastic job. So that's what this page is about. To make the page, I used a piece of purple cardstock that matched his shirt nicely. Then I chose a piece of patterned paper from Kaisercraft's Kaleidoscope paper pad to go behind the smaller photo and the journaling box. For the journaling box, I used an old piece of platinum metallic vellum that I had in my stash. I thought it went really well with the Nuvo Expanding Mousse in Worn Linen . I used the Studio Light " Circles & Pluses " stencil wit...

Hello! I've got a shaker card to share with you today that has a brand-spankin' new Sparkle Blend from Doodles Paper Playground in it. I am featuring "Ruby" which is part of the Birthstone Collection. July babies rejoice! Your Sparkle Blend has arrived! This card was inspired by a few things. Of course, the Ruby Blend started the process. I also recently watched one of Mary Polanco's latest YouTube videos, where she admits to being stuck in a crafty rut, but she pushed through and made some spectacular cards. Her cards featured the May My Monthly Hero Kit from Hero Arts . I have that kit, and I was really loving her all green card. You can check out Mary's YouTube Video HERE , and the corresponding blog post HERE . She has a ton of wonderful ideas. Also, if I am being totally honest, "The Red" from Chevelle was also an inspiration here. I love that band, and that song, so as soon as I saw this Blend, my mind immediately went there. I started off ...

Hello! It's officially June and that means there are NEW Sparkle Blends! Six new Blends are getting released this month, and they are total stunners! I am sharing one of them with you today, and I can't wait for you to see the rest. My card today was inspired by the new Mermazing Sparkle Blend. I love the watery colors, the pearl-like beads, and of course the mermaid sequins! Here's a closer look at what's in this Blend. On top of my shaker window, I used an older stamp and die set from Stampendous . I colored the images with Zig Clean Color Markers. My sentiment is from Stampendous' Ocean Wisdom stamp set. Outside of my window, I lightly inked some Salty Ocean Distress Oxide to pull the colors in the shaker forward. The Mermazing Sparkle Blend has a lot of room to move, not only because of my large window, but also because I used 1/8" thick Foam Tape from Brutus Monroe . It's super flexible and goes around curves quite nicely. I inked the edge o...

Hello! I've got a new project for White Rose Crafts today. If you visited my blog yesterday, you may realize that this card uses the exact same color palette as yesterday's card, but the design is very different. I love these colors together, and I have been super inspired by Therm O Web's Rainbow Shattered Glass Deco Foil, so this card was inspired by that. I started off with the Gina K Designs Sweet Expressions Foil Mates . These are black toner-printed sentiments that you run through a hot laminator with the Deco Foil of your choosing. It's a very quick process with very impactful results. Here you can really see the vibrant colors of the foil. I matted the sentiment with some deep purple cardstock. For my background, I used the Argyle Embossing Folder from Darice, but with a letterpress feel. I inked one side of the folder with Broken China , Wilted Violet , Worn Lipstick , and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide before I ran it through my die cut machine. I wa...