Spinnin' Round and Round And Round

I am so punny but I couldn't help myself, the layout... full of circles, the topic... a spinning ride, the carnival theme...  Simon Says Stamp,  the sketch... Scrap Around the World.

Supplies: water colour paper (Canson), gelatos (Faber-Castell), ink (Tsukinenko), blk paint (Plaid)Blue chipboard letters (K and Company), blk chipboard letters and stars (Heidi Swapp), chevron cut file (Chic Tags), Silhouette cutter, marker (Sharpie), pen and liquid glass (CTMH)

I went a little freestyle with this one.  For my base, I  started with a 12' x 12' piece of watercolour paper because I knew I would be painting my background.  I used gelatos and paint with chipboards and chevron Silhouette cuts from Chic Tags.  You would not believe how easy it is to colour chipboard with gelatos.  Love, love , lovin' that medium.  I finished off the stars with a bit of liquid glass to add a little shine.

While I didn't enter this layout in either challenge, for inspiration I used the sketch from Scrap Around the World's August Challenge #4

 

and the carnival theme from Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

TTFN,

Love Birds

Just a quick post for today. I am sharing a wedding card I made for a friend.

 Lots of layering on this one.

Supplies: cardstock (CTMH), patterned paper (Fancy Pants), emboss folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix), stamp (K and Company), ink (Ranger), ribbon (Harmonie), wood veneer birds (Prima), thread (Aurifil Mako'ne), jewels (Dollarama)

TTFN,

This Makes Me Happy

Don't you just love it when you see a sketch and an idea instantly comes to mind?  The August Week #3 sketch at Let's Get Sketch by Ashley Horton had that affect on me.  When I saw it, I new I wanted to use a bright cheery collection of colours and which photo that I wanted to use.

Here is the result...

Supplies: patterned papers, cardstock stickers and overlay (Allison Kreft/Webster's Pages), cardstock(Bazzill and CTMH), ribbon (American Crafts), wood veneer camera (Studio Calico), tag (Maya Road), baker's twine (The Twinery), thread (Aurifil Mako'ne), jewels (Dollarama), marker (Sharpie), pen (Staedtler), Silhouette, Font (LD Glorious)


I used Allison Kreft's Sweet Notes collection from Webster's Pages. Great vibrant colours and the bookshelf image was apropos for the photo.

While not visible in this photo, my daughter was reading a book and that is what prompted me to grab my camera and take photos. Not because she was reading... LOL ... that is a constant occurrence with her... it was that she was so into her book and was clearly expressing the happenings on her face.  The layout is a bit about that but more that she is sweet and indulgent and humors me as I take photos of her which she knows I will end up scrapping.  The whole series of photos shows her reading, then a little perturbed with an eyebrow raising look but ultimately laughs at me.  Hence the photo.  I hide a large portion of the journaling for this one on the tag tucked in near the top of the page.

Also doing a little happy dance because I finally received the Silhouette that I ordered and got to incorporate my first ever cut as part of my title design. Love it!

Here is the sketch...

This all truly does make me happy!;)


TTFN,

AMMCC #5 with Gelatos

If you have been reading my blog over the last month or so, you will have seen that I have been having some fun learning and experimenting with Faber-Castell gelatos.  I started out with a pack of blues at the beginning of the year.  Next, I got a pack of reds.  Then I found an amazing starter kit of 10 at Michaels which came with a handy-dandy technique guide and 5x7 multi-surfaced swatch pages in it.  It is safe to say that I am hooked on them.  I have now gotten my hands on even more colours and I am creating a quote Art Journal, trying out various techniques, on the swatch pages.

I turned the canvas journal page into this....

Supplies: canvas journal page and gelatos (Faber-Castell), gesso and molding paste (Golden), damask stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), stamp (The Art Warehouse/Limited Edition), ink and Multi Media Gel (Ranger), Inktense watercolour pencil crayons (Derwent), fleur de lis image (K for Jesus), font (Viner Hand ITC), pen (CTMH)

I gessoed the background and coloured it with gelatos. Next, I used the damask stencil with molding paste and carried the colour onto it once dry. Then I stamped the diamonds on and did an image transfer for the very first time.  (That is such a cool technique.  I can see doing that some more.) I coloured the image a bit with watercolour pencil crayons and then gessoed the right side before image transferring the Serenity prayer.  Lastly, I went over the text with a very fine tip pen to make it darker so it would stand out more.

I used A Mixed Media Color Challenge #5 colour palette.

These are my favourite colour families so it was a natural fit for this journal page.  You should see the other splendid creations by others in this challenge.  Love the diversity of projects and media used.  Talk about inspiration!

TTFN,

PageMaps Prettiness

When I saw this sketch over at the PageMaps blog, I knew right off what paper collection I wanted to use.  The sketch looks like it could have been created with a MME collection in mind.  In this case, I wanted to use the Miss Caroline Dolled Up collection.





Supplies: patterned papers, die cut, cardstock stickers, layered sticker, rub ons, baker's twine (MME), border punch (EK Success), felt letter stickers and ink (CTMH), thread (Aurifil Mako' ne), pen (Staedtler), pearl jewels (Dollarama)

Here is the PageMaps sketch:

I even stuck with the floral border, woodgrain, journal spot, and gingham patterns within the sketch.  I switched up the hearts for dollies and butterflies that worked better with my theme. 
 

TTFN,

Swimmin' with Fish

What is summertime without swimming?  My little one loves to swim.  She has the long lean body for it too. Once the warm weather hits, she can be continually found in the water, whether at the lake or at the pool or at the cottage, that girl swims.

Today's layout that I am sharing is an ode to Alex's swimming. The title says it all.

Supplies: patterned paper, cardstock stickers, letter stickers, chipboard, flair badge (Simple Stories), kitchen twine and jewels(Dollarama), distress inks (Tim Holtz/Ranger), gelatos (Faber-Castell), letter stamps (Clear Dollar Stamps), blk ink (Ranger), pen (Staedtler)

I used the I Heart Summer Collection from Simple Stories and I played along with the August Week 2 sketch at Let's Get Sketchy.


I started the page knowing I wanted water-like droplets on the page.  To achieve this, I used gelatos.  I simply rubbed a blue gelato in the bottom of a plastic container, added some water and dissolved the gelato by mixing it with my finger.  To get the coordinating colour shade, I swiped the Margarita Mix chartreuse green along the side of the container and then mixed it in with the water.  It was ready to go.  I dipped the back end of a small paint brush handle into the tiny amount of gelato solution and splattered drops on the page.

Besides the droplets I knew I wanted a fishnet for under the photo.  I made the fish net by knotting a section of 12 strings by 10 strings of kitchen twine.  I coloured it by misting it with water and then applying two colours of distress ink to it.  Then letting it dry before adhering it to the cardstock.

Lots of little bits and dimension on this one as I used various thickness of foam pop ups.

Here is the very versatile sketch from Let's Get Sketchy that I used.  I changed up the flowers for a variety of different elements and embellishments.

There is still time until the end of the month to play along.  Check out any of their weekly sketches for oodles of inspiration.

 TTFN,

MME Summer Recap Challenge

Over at MME, this month's first challenge is to do a layout recapping your summer.  Well this posed a wee tad premature for my family as summer is still going strong here for us.  However, I most definitely can do a recap for the summer of 2012, so I went with that.

Supplies: patterned papers, stickers, stamps, rub-ons, flocked chipboard letters (MME), pigment ink (CTMH and Studio G), epoxy letter stickers (American Crafts), marker (Sharpie), pen (Staedtler), thread (Aurifil Mako'ne)

For this layout design idea, I used a mix of really old, old and relatively newer MME products.  I searched for just the right patterned paper with an A and B side that would achieve the look and sun colours that I was going for.  The best part is that I actually used up some old MME from my stash.  Yeah me! The patterned paper is from the Très Jolie collection from when I first started acquiring scrapbook pretties. Can you say... long time MME fan?:)
 

To achieve the sunray chevron technique, I simply cut 1 1/4 " squares from the patterned paper.  Then I folded them at roughly the inch mark, allowing both sides to show, thus creating a triangle and a chevron.

An angled detail photo shows the dimension of the layout. Some photos are popped up with foam, edges are distressed and the sunray triangle/squares are left with the folds slightly raised.

I really liked this recap idea because it challenged me to put a bunch of photos into one layout.  I actually got nine photos on this one and still had room with my design for white space.  I  was able to do this by having my photos developed on a standard 4x6" size paper with 4- 2x3" on each.  Then, I trimmed them down as I could, to fit the arrangement area.


TTFN,

Cooking Up a Fun Layout!

Scraptastic had a Birthday Virtual Crop and my friend Sherri Funk posted a Recipe Challenge.  You had to include a sticker, a wood veneer and a flair badge.

This is what I cooked up...

Supplies: patterned paper (Carta Bella), cardstock sticker (Bella Blvd.), chipboard letters (K & Company), chevron and seagull wood veneers (CTMH), paper flower (Heidi Swapp), banner stamp (Dear Lizzy /American Crafts), ink (Ranger and Tsukinenko), cloud stencil (Balzer Designs/The Crafter's Workshop), gesso (Golden), gelatos (Faber-Castell), pen (Staedtler), birch bark, bunny flair, felt flower and fabric leaves (misc.)

I created lots of dimension using birch bark, chipboard and layers of foam tape under the subtitle sticker, flower and the photo.

 

After I completed this layout I had a partially inked large white paper flower and a slightly coloured felt pink heart as left overs.  I turned them into a simple quick card.

 




Supplies: patterned paper(Fancy Pants), cardstock (CTMH),paper flower (Heidi Swapp), gelato (Faber-Castell), felt flower and wood letters (Dollarama), blue ribbon (Offray), orange ribbon (Michaels), wood veneer chevrons (Studio Calico), border punch (Stampin' Up), stickles (Ranger), marker Sharpie)

I coloured the flower with the same technique from the flower on the layout.  It is unbelievably easy to do with a gelato.  I used an Tangerine orange gelato to colour the edges by downward stroking the gelato crayon along all the edges of the flower.

 Then using a baby wipe on your finger, draw the colour from the edge to the depth that you desire into the flower petal.

You can add or remove colour as desired.  In this case, I added a bit more gelato colour as I wanted a bit more colour saturation.

Then I layered it up with the felt flower and attached it to the card. I finished the flower off with some stickles for the centre.

There you have it... a thank you card for that perpetually attached to their cell phone friend who can appreciate the texted message sentiment. LOL!

TTFN,

A Magenta Layout, Leftovers Turned Cards, and a Tutorial

I shared these projects over on the Magenta blog this week.  The first was a summery layout of my beautiful niece, that I made with fussy cut butterflies and gesso stencilled flowers.

Supplies: patterned papers, stencil, corrugated letters (Magenta), gesso (Golden), glimmer mist (Tattered Angels), border punch (Fiskars), pen (CTMH), glitter glue (Studio G), thread (Aurifil Mako'ne)

This detailed photo helps show the dimension created by rolling the frame that was cut from the page and folding and/or popping up the butterflies' wings at various angles and heights.

With my fussy cut butterfly leftovers, I made these two cards.

The larger one was created using gelatos and a stencil with a stamped sentiment.  You can see my tutorial on how to stencil using a blending of gelatos to create the flowers here.

The mini card just makes me smile.  I love these itty bitty jewels of cards.

Supplies: patterned paper (Magenta), cardstock, sentiment stamp, and blk ink (CTMH), damask stamp (Prima), pink ink (Martha Stewart), baker's twine (Jillibean Soup), button (Making Memories), wood veneer chevrons (Studio Calico), border punch (Fiskars), pen (Staedtler), thread (Aurifil mako'ne)

For this one, I used a variety of scraps, stitching, stamping, inking, doodling and new wood veneer chevrons.

I like the quickness and ease of making a card or two from leftover project scraps when they are still out on my scrap table before I them tidy up.  Less to clean and something else to show for it.

TTFN,

Mixed Media Mélange

I recently received my DT kit from Magenta containing some of the new release catalogue items.  I was really stoked about the new mixed media foam board as I have been venturing into more mixed media and find that even with 140lb cardstock, layouts warp.  I have been itching to play with it and see how it works. After creating this project, I can now say I am extremely pleased with how it performs.  No warp, no wrinkle... nada! However the engineering on this works, it is a wonderful thing.

Supplies: Mixed Media Foam Board, patterned papers and fiber mesh (Magenta), doily stencil (Christy Tomlinson/Pink Paislee), script stamp (Vicki Boutin/Stamping Bella), gesso and molding paste (Golden), distress inks and Multi Media Gel (Ranger), gelato (Faber-Castell), brown ink (Tsukineko), wood veneer hearts and pigment ink (CTMH), paint (Plaid), embroidery floss (DMC), glimmer mist (Tattered Angels), font (Pristina), pen (Staedtler), embroidered pillow case remnant, burlap, canvas and antique buttons (Misc.)

Some details of the bottom heart cluster...

and the top cluster with the stenciled doily with molding paste...

My design concept was inspired by the colour board over at AMMCC for their Challenge #4 and because the project is for my own home décor, I also went with a variety of textiles for Berry71Bleu's August Textile Challenge.



Berry71Blue - Get Creative With Textiles!!

 




I am loving experimenting and playing with mixed media of late.  It is so fun and freeing to get messy and just play with ideas and textures and see where they take me.  The end results have been well worth it.


 TTFN,

Magenta August Garden Party Challenge

The Magenta August challenge is up over on the Magenta blog.  This month's challenge is a little different.  It is based on an inspiration photo board and the theme is Garden Party.  I was inspired with by the greens, pinks and whites for colour and the greenery and flowers for elements.



Supplies: stencils, patterned paper, owl stamp, chipboard, and cork letter stickers (Magenta), cardstock (Canadian Scrapbooker and CTMH), gelatos (Faber-Castell), gesso (Golden), watercolour pencil crayons (Reeves), fabric letters (American Crafts), foam letters (Pink Paislee), ink and stickles (Ranger), border punch (Recollections), pen (Sharpie)

Magenta Products used: Polka Dot stencil from Geometric Trio, Nature's Elements stencil, Owls-Large stamp, Flowers chipboard, & Self-Adhesive Cork Alphabet

I am really proud and pleased with this layout.  I have not created anything like it before.  The base cardstock literally started out as a blank white canvas.  I used gelatos to create the background.  After I had blended and moved around the Snowcone blue and Margarita Mix green colours, I stencil with a Magenta Polka Dot stencil using gesso on the top blue sky portion and used Magenta floral stencils with gelatos and gesso on the bottom green portion.

You have until August 28th to participate and you only need to have one Magenta product on your project entry.  What could be easier?  Be sure to check out the challenge here.

TTFN,