Scrap Your Story - sketch

You know how I love a good sketch, so let me tell you how excited I was when the rotation at Scrap Your Story brought us back to "sketch." Sweet. 

Remember our challenge schedule is: 

Week 1: Use it

Week 2: Theme

Week 3: Sketch (yay!)

Week 4: Technique

Here's our sketch this week:

And my interpretation:

The boys call rolling up in blankets "being a burrito" hence the title. 

The background was created with a few techniques. First I painted on watered-down gesso, when it was almost dry I flicked on some October Afternoon Sprinklers which bled nicely with just a little help. Once it was dry I adhered the scalloped trim that I'd had left in my scraps (from a 12x12 WRMK die cut paper). I'd glued it at 12x12, so I crumbled up the edge of the painted cardstock to show the scallops in the back. 

The circles and banners were also made from WRMK Hall Pass. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the circles in a variety of sizes. Behind the smaller photo is a piece of Amy Tangerine paper. The brads are 7Gypsies. Alphas are October Afternoon and Jenni Bowlin. All stitching was done on my sewing machine. The dream bubble was done with Ranger Enamel Accents in white and black. 

So now that you're nice and inspired, I hope you take the weekend and play along with us! And don't forget to link up. I can't wait to see what you all make. 

It's my birthday, I'll get messy if I want to, messy if I want to...

Kudos to all of you who sang that title. You're welcome. ;)

So here's how I had a messy-rriffic birthday:

Okay, that's actually where I started,  I whitewashed some gesso onto this MME Good Day Sunshine paper. 

And the next step takes some explaining. My desktop is made from particle board that I painted before I set it up in my space. When things get messy I don't worry about keeping the board clean - I can always repaint it after all! So I took the damp paper and rubbed it on the desktop which pulled up some of the dried on mist projects AND tore up the paper quite nicely.

Now, I don't normally design on double pagers but I happened to have two of that bicycle paper and was wanting to use them up since they are the last of their kit. To help me, I pulled out some of my Kiwi Lane Templates. 

Part of why I wanted to use up that paper was S.W.A.T. asked us to dig deep into our stashes and use hoarded items. Things that I used that have been in my stash for over a year: MME Andrea Victoria (gold paper), Paper Studios Affinity ribbons (Family and stripes), brads (I bought on Scrapbooksteals so long ago that I can't tell you which company they're from!), Fancy Pants Rough & Tough (trees), BasicGrey Origins (star).

Other supplies used:
sewing machine
Amy Tangerine Thickers
AC chipboard Thickers
Girl's Paperie brown ribbon
WRMK Sew Easy Twine
WRMK sparkly eyelets
MME Indie Chic and Kraft Funday
Ranger Distress Rusty Hinge
Kiwi Lane Templates Adventure 2, Tags 5, Clara Lane 3B, Holiday 8T

Spring altered projects

With the snow outside, days after the official first day of spring, I felt a need to make a very spring colored craft. 

I started with this little birdhouse that I'd picked up at Joann's for $1. I covered it with a bunch of washi, I can't tell you individual lines but I know that most of my stash is My Mind's Eye and that the black dot and blue houndstooth are We R Memory Keepers.

Then, feeling in a more festive mood I took up the Use It Tuesday challenge to make something springy with hoarded products.

I had these canvas covered chipboard pieces dying to be used, but there were only four so that presented a word play challenge. I chose "grow" because in spring that obviously happens, but it's sort of been an unofficial "one word" for me this year. Grow my craft, as a parent/spouse/employee, as a runner, just grow. 

Realizing that it held a little more meaning than just "spring" I decided to use bright papers that would match the color scheme around my craft area. That meant pulling out some oldie but goodies - American Crafts Classics Collection. 

The doilies and letters were cut from Silhouette store files on my Cameo. Each letter has some form of accordion folded paper to give it extra depth. 

The brown behind the letters got a quick swipe with watered down gesso. The letters were stamped with a swirly background stamp from Stampabilities using clear ink and heat embossed with Zing! Aqua embossing powder.

Some of the edges were inked with Ranger Distress Walnut Stain.

Two letters have flower clusters.

All letters have some pink grosgrain ribbon (American Crafts, I think) and ribbon edging with various interesting ribbons that have all been in my stash for at least a year. There's ribbon from MME Lush, Crate Paper Random, Girl's Paperie Toil and Trouble, and MME Laundry Line (misted with two colors to get it to almost match the Crate Paper).

Now to hang the first banner I've ever made. YAY!

Scrap Your Story - embossing

Heat embossing, dry embossing either way you see them a lot on cards and at Scrap Your Story we wanted to see how well we could implement those techniques in our layouts.

I ended up using both processes. The dry embossing was done using two different Lifestyle Crafts embossing folders. A doily folder that I inked blue before running through my Big Shot, which gave just a bit of depth and texture and sort of cooled off the white white of the paper. Then the other was a small flower pattern that I ran the paper through in two positions to fill up the banner, I was going for a snowfall look there and a different folder may have done better but I still like the texture it gave.

My heat embossing comes in on the top of the page and then on the photos. I used white Martha Stewart pigment ink and white Zing! embossing powder for both the Martha Stewart snowflakes and the Unity Stamp Co. lace border.


I'm also linking this up with a couple of challenges:
S.W.A.T. - use 4+ pictures on a single page layout
About a Boy - use hoarded (1 year or more) product. My hoarded items are the brads, white ink and embossing powder, and the Echo Park for the Record paper

Pattern Play day 4 - altering

I can't believe that this class is almost over, I'll definitely be looking for a sequel to Pattern Play!

Today was all about altering papers - sewing, enamel, glitter were all familiar to me to some degree. The thing that really stood out was whitewashing. I've of course read that someone had done it to a page or a card but never seen the process and what a dramatic effect it can have on a project.

Or in the case of mine, a slight dramatic effect. I think I watered down my gesso to much (50/50) because it looked awesome and dramatic while wet but now that it dried it's not as dramatic. It worked out for this card though so it's A-OKAY. I might have to buy some of the Distress Stains that Jennifer used in the video, but this is what I had available during naptime. ;)

Those visiting who also took the class will notice that I not only whitewashed, but also created a vignette, used glitter glue in spots, and sewed on lines. Each of which added just a little something extra. 

For comparison's sake, here's the original paper and the altered side by side. It's cloudy out so I had problems capturing it, but the altered is muted even in this poor picture.

And, for kicks, a close up of the card.

All the paper is My Mind's Eye - Follow Your Heart, Lost and Found, Good Day Sunshine, Miss Caroline Howdy Doody 6x6,  Lost and Found 2 Sunshine 6x6. 

Twine is MME All Is Bright

Stamp and clear and blue glitter glue are Studio G 

Color Box Chalk Ink Ocean

Ranger Distress Ink Broken China

Grey Cardstock

Helmar Foam Dots, ATG

Sewing Machine

Amber 2 layout and a shout-out

Okay kids, here's the deal. I had a life changing experience when my friend, Misty, explained on her blog how to DIY enamel dots. I may already be amassing a large stash and I only just watched the tutorial. 

The video was perfectly timed for this layout. The page is based on the Mid Week Mojo Amber 2 sketch at Scrapbooksteals and I was really wanting something in the elephant's spray that would resemble air bubbles/texture.

I used MME's new Collectable "Memorable" line for the papers, the washi also MME though don't ask me which lines. The elephant and spray were cut from Silhouette Studio files. To make the bigger spray "puddle" I rubbed gesso on the page and then added blue acrylic paint when the gesso was nearly dry and then swirled the two together for texture. Interspersed with my new enamel dots are some periods from the AC Dear Lizzy Thickers pack that I used for the title.

Joy-flake

Joy-flake. Sometimes my own humor kills me. *sigh*

I made this card for three purposes.
1. To include a fun greeting in my sister's Christmas package.
2. For the Cameo Creations Challenge Blog - using the theme "White Christmas"with my Silhouette.
3. For Scrapbooksteals.com's MCM challenge of creating any sort of project as long as you mix two or more collections.

Look at me getting all my multi-tasking going on.

Needless to say, the snowflake is from the Silhouette Studio store. I cut it out of a 6x6 MME Signature Christmas pad. The base of the card is American Crafts Kraft cardstock. I traced the word part of the snowflake with Studio G glitter glue and inked the card base with Alabaster ColorBox ink to make it a little lighter.

Now I just need to mail that package to my sister!

And don't forget to checkout the Christmas present (aka giveaway) I have for one of my followers.

Covering the month

If you're here to check out the Second Page 

of my Scrapbooksteals.com MWM sketch, head here.

_________________________________________________

I've sort of gone about this whole December Daily thing in a mismatched order. Most people start with the cover, I've started with interior pages. But here's my thing. It doesn't matter. In the end, there'll be days that I don't journal or photograph or anything. That's just how it is. 

That being said, my whole mini album will probably be filled with pages from various challenges. Because those challenges are what's going to keep me sane in this craziness! Bwahahahaha.

Which brings us to the cover of my album. The colors are inspired by the Paper Secrets team's color palette.

So how fun is that? I made the cover from a piece of cardboard (thanks to Scrapbooksteals.com for always including a nice large sheet in paper packages!). 

• I covered it with some Lily Bee Design paper, 
• gessoed on a tree, spritzing October Afternoon mists into the pattern, 
• then added some iRock gems, 
• glittered some pop dots, 
• added the rub on and Thickers and word stickers, 
• and finally, wrapped the edge of the board with WRMK washi.

Pearl 9a - Orca

Seriously. Why is it that when I go to pack up scrappy stuff for a weekend at mom's that I always end up making something first? It's sort of obnoxious that I'm that easily distracted by pretty paper. 

For your viewing pleasure I bring you my interpretation of Pearl 9a from Scrapbooksteals.com. The sketch was created by the fabulous Erica Bass (one of my scrappy idols, and let's be honest, I have a lot of them!).

I also tied this into the CSI: color, stories, inspiration challenge 35.

The background paper is Authentique Gathering. The doily is a Silhouette file from MME Oooh La La, as are the brown polka dots, the hexagons, tickets, photo corners, and journaling die cut. The mini alphas are Jenni Bowlin. The Thickers are Amy Tangerine. I used Ranger Distress Inks. The rhinestones and shell stickers are stash. The book page is from the viewing guide that all the tourists got, I coated it with gesso and then applied a mixture of gesso and Zing Butter Embossing Powder and then heated it before stitching the Thickers on. Some of the shells have Crackle Accents applied.

Close up of the "sand:"

Just for fun - What did I ever do before you?

It's not often that the mood to create strikes when I don't have a challenge to work on. No rules to follow is a bit intimidating. For me at least. Rules girl that I am. Ha! But I had this piece of doily left from doing Pearl 8 for Scrapbooksteals' MWM challenge and I had fallen asleep thinking about how to use it. When I got home today I started working on my idea.

I spray misted the doily on the BasicGrey paper, creating a square center as well as coloring the hot pink doily and using it as a mask (three tasks in one! Now that's using your scrap stash effectively.) Two colors later I liked the center's color and depth so I shook a little bit of ink out on the page to get some nice splatters. I inked up the edges of the page and the square with some Distress Inks.

Then I used gesso to adhere the Goodwill doily to the page and to the picture. Added the MME decorative tapes, the brads, and the buttons.

Not happy with how flat it still is, I continued adding depth via Thickers. Good, now add journaling. Add in the faux stitching.

Still flat and lacking, it needed something because that doily was really stealing the show. I crumbled the edges of the paper, letting it tear and smash while doing so.

Then I took that paper doily that I'd misted and layered it piece of solid Bazzill and under the rest of the project. And then it was just right.

Have a great weekend!

Guess-o it's gesso time

Before, during, and after completing my first "case" over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration (a scrapbooking recipe challenge site) I was in awe of some of the techniques the ladies used. I randomly clicked on a tutorial that had Prima paper in the title, and learned that some of what I was liking had been created with gesso. For any who don't know, gesso is traditionally used with canvas as a primer, but these ladies were using it to create awesome textures and mixing it for soft colors. Which took me on a Google Search.

My first completed "case."

I took the plunge. I bought gesso. Here's the first project I made on the day I bought it:

And here's how I cracked the case for Case 33:

You'll notice that this time the gesso is on thick, and has more texture. Much of the texture I created by swirling spray inks into it, one layer at a time, and then squishing it outward from the center. I really like the effect!

I'm still deciding if this is going to be a regular part of my style, or just a random artistic element I use sometimes.