Sketch layout

Hi there!  Today I would like to share a quick layout that I started earlier this week, and finally finished this morning!

I am a part of a facebook group where a sketch is posted each week.  It's just a motivator and a way to get scrappin'!

I participated in last week's sketch, so here it is!  This week's was just posted yesterday, so I'm still ok!  LOL!

I am completely in love with the Bo Bunny line Country Garden!  I'm using the heck out of this paper!

I followed the sketch very closely, which I don't always do.  Sometimes I get an idea in my head and go off on a tangent.  But, I have more ideas for future pages, so I just wanted to get this one done!  Esp. since I had been looking at the pictures that I had chosen earlier in the week for a few days, ready to be placed on a page!

I doodled the date and title for this page.  I didn't feel like cutting letters out, or using stencils to create my lettering.  I'm pulling a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer!  I love how she can just start writing and it's considered art!  I want to be like her!  LOL!  My writing is very blocky and boring, but that's ok!

I used joint compound for the chevrons, and my Donna Downey chevron stencil.  It's bigger than what the sketch called for, but that's all I had, and it looks fine!  

In the sketch, it looks like there are mini dew drops on top of paper buttons.  Well, I have more buttons than I know what to do with, so I added real buttons and I can't believe my good luck, but I didn't throw out my dew drops that I got a zillion years ago!  Ok, maybe 4 years to be exact.  But, I still had them!  I added them all around the page to act like actual dew drops.  See, the picture is taken in front of the Aquarium at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach.  Plus, we're at the beach.  Sun, sand, and ......water!  Are you getting my line of reasoning???!!!!

So, that's it!  I'm off to start another page!

HOPE

 Hi there!  I FINALLY had time to photograph, albeit not very well, my HOPE project for the eP eTeams Picks challenge: HOPE!  My friend Andie is in charge of this challenge!  It was so awesome to be able to create a project that she challenged us with in her presence!  To see what this challenge entails, click on the eP link.

For my project, I decided to make a vertical banner using tags.

How was this created?  Well, all of the tags are the same except for the letters.  I pulled some Bo Bunny papers, and using Matte Medium, adhered the papers to the tags.  I sponged the edges w/ Black Soot.

I added strips of drywall tape along the R side.  I used a stencil and smeared some white embossing paste and sprayed w/ Dylusions sprays.  I used different stencils and more Dylusions sprays on the letters.  I used silver embossing paste on the edges of the butterflies.  For the honeycomb in the top corner, I sprayed Black Marble Dylusions spray onto my Tim Holtz Honeycomb stencil and then stamped onto the paper.

For the letters, I drew them, as I didn't have any stencils or anything large enough.  And I didn't bring my Cricut, so I had to draw them freehand.  Then, once I cut them out, they were really boring! So, I laid each letter down on black paper and drew the shadow layer.

I attached each tag to a ribbon and knotted each end.  I cheated and added red line tape to the backs of each tag to insure that the ribbon doesn't move as it hangs in my craft room.


If this was inspiring to you, you should definitely head over to the eP blog and create something!  Once you link your creation, you are entered to win a gift cert to the eP store!!!!!

Have a wonderful day!

My MI Swirly Girls Gathering Creations

Hi there!  Today I FINALLY took time to take pictures of my layouts and projects that I created while away this last weekend scrapbooking in MI w/ some of my Swirlydoos friends!  I only had met my friend Adriana Templeton, who is on the eclectic Paperie design team w/ me, in real life last fall when I invited her on a scrapbooking weekend in West Virginia!  What fun we had!  Anyway, this past weekend, I met some more Swirly girls that I chat w/ occasionally on the forums and 2 more that I just knew from the forums.  The most wonderful part of this weekend was that we all scrapped the same way!  No Creative Memories crap to be found!!!!  Call me a snob, but it is what it is!  I learned to scrap the Swirlydoos way, which is gaining fame everywhere I look, which is incredible!, and LOVE that I only need ONE picture to create a complete layout and along w/ embellishments, it becomes a stunning page!  I was in GREAT company this weekend!  I wish the weekend didn't have to end!  But, reality has to step in at some point and we all had to go back to our normal lives.  :(
I was really motivated this weekend and ended up making 5 layouts and 2 projects!  I taught an Inky Fingers class at Scrapbook Station this past Monday, and the main focus was Studio 490's Embossing Paste!  I actually got all of my pastes from eclectic Paperie, so I worked w/ the different colors on all of my creations.

Take a look!

To create this page, I started w/ a 7 Dots paper.  ( I have no idea which one it is!)  I sprayed it w/ Leather Tattered Angels spray.  Then, I went a little crazy w/ the texture!  I smeared some white embossing paste along the L side, and adhered a small lace doily.  I added more paste, and then sprayed w/ Dylusions Sprays.  I added some silver paste to the page w/ Tim Holtz's Honeycomb stencil.  Oh, and I added some drywall tape on the horizontal panel, smeared some white paste, sprayed w/ Dylusions, and then peeled off the tape.  I love that it took off some of the paper!!!!

I added the picture and embellishments, and that's it!

This is my least favorite textured page.  I love the picture, obviously, but the textures aren't really present in this page.  That's ok!
I used 7 Dots again for this page.  I used circle stencils and translucent embossing paste.  I got the shell at Jo's in the clearance section!  The clear buttons are from SU!.

This is the first page that I created this weekend.  It's fairly simple, with not a lot of height and dimension.  That's ok too!  I wanted to show off my fussy cutting w/ this paper!  I have no idea what paper I used.  It might be Bo Bunny, but I'm not entirely sure!

I used a bowl to cut out the circle layer.  I used Andie's large leafy flourish dies, and then I cut out the flowers w/ my exacto knife!  I added drywall tape, watered down white gesso, and gold embossing paste to the gate behind the picture.  added some lace and gold paper and my first page was done!

To create these pages, I used Bo Bunny's latest Winter pages.  I LOVE this paper!!!!  I am going to have to replenish before we run out of it!
I created my own large label shapes from a cutout I have in my stash.  The fence was chipboard from Blue Fern Studios.  I cut it to mirror each other and sprayed w/ Slate Tattered Angels spray.  Then, I applied the white embossing paste onto each fence to make it look like snow.  I smeared some along the bottoms of the pages as well as the tops of each picture to mimic snow piling up.

I'll have my HOPE project in my next post!

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a wonderful day!

PEACE

Hi there!  Today I would like to share a project that I created for one of the Swirlydoos challenges this month, to create a project using one word.  More points if we DON'T create a layout!

I got my thinking cap on, and suddenly remembered my goal that I have this year, to be at peace, especially when I drive on the roads.  I'm pretty impatient, and when people aren't driving as fast as I want them to, or are just annoying to me, I tend to fill up with rage.  And then my blood pressure skyrockets, and then I'm exhausted before I get to wherever I'm going!  Not good and not healthy. 

After praying about it and trying to figure out how to NOT be that way, I decided that as soon as I start to get hot, to just calm down immediately and think peaceful thoughts.  It's actually working!  YAY!  I'm a happier person when this happens too, so the results are positive!  :D

Ok, where am I going with this?  I decided to create a cross that I will hang somewhere in my car that I will see when I'm getting annoyed, or annoying others, a.k.a my husband! Ha!  Here's what I created!

The cross itself is made from 2 manilla tags.  I reinforced the main part of the cross by cutting a third piece of a manilla tag and gluing it to the bag.  That's why it can stand so tall without wanting to lean!

I used a stencil for the main letters, but then, I drew the halos around each letter myself.  I cut them out from Xpress it cardstock and then colored them with copics.  I used the dot technique that I found in a copic technique book.  I wanted the letters to be light where the halos hung, and then gradually go to stone.  The dot technique seemed to work the best to achieve this look.  I wanted the letters to look like stone, but softer.

Ingredients:
Paper: manilla tags, Mother Nature paper (2 types), Xpress It Cardstock
Ink: Y17, Y13, Y35, Y32, O, C1, C2, C3; Metallic Gold Embossing Paste
Embellishments and Other Things:  Chalkboard Letters Stencil, Resin crown, Swallows dies (Amuse);
Fancy Flourish (MFT); gold elastic ribbon (from a Christmas gift)

Have a great day!