Daddy Daughter Layout

Hi all!

Woohoo - TWO posts in ONE week!  Now don't get excited y'all because I am not making any promises that this will continue but I AM happy to be getting some scrapping done and I do love playing with my Cricut.  Who knows, maybe I will even get a few art journal pages or mixed media pieces going too!  But I am getting ahead of myself.

Pez and I still have some work to do in the gardens.  Apparently Mother Nature has decided this year's Spring will last exactly 1 3/4 days and *poof* right into summer. And now it's just hot, hot with bees and wasps.  Pez declared that I can't possibly expect her to play outside in this "bee-infested hotness."

As always, we have a batch of spring foster kittens - winter had so many mild days this batch was born March 17 - really early for kittens.  I picked up the momma cat and her sister from a local shelter and they were both pregnant.  The sister gave birth to 5 kittens on March 1 just 4 hours after I got her settled in at my house.  That's really early for kittens!  That family went to another foster home and we kept the other mom and she is now proudly taking care of 3 teeny babies and holy smokes are they cute!

Happy girl when she has an armload of kittens!

Now onto the papercrafting!  Last year Pez and daddy went to their first daddy daughter dance and I decided to make that layout next:

*I am going completely out of order at this point and I find it makes me more motivated to get layouts done.*

I laid this out in a Project Life type grid making it easier to fit a lot of pictures in fairly good size on just 2 pages.

I used to love card making but found I did not really have a use for the huge amount of cards I was making.  Now I often lay out my pages so that I can use 1 or more of the various grids as a sort of card base but fit it into my layout:

I used one for the title piece.

And the second one as just another decorative piece for the layout.  Both were done using card sketch challenges from Pinterest and I laid them out in Design Studio so I could size all of the elements just right.  The thin vertical border on this one was done using a border punch.  The stamp is a Studio G $1 stamp and I finished off both with a few red glittered *skittles* - anyone remember those from the old days???  Just like the Pezabling - I still find them to be a perfect finishing touch for my paper projects.

The scalloped circle embellishments are all from Design Space - type in circle in the search box and you will get HUNDREDS of perfect little circle embellishments with a design in them for nearly any subject matter you can think of.  Or do a solid one and stamp on it.

I added Stickles in the cut out portions and a few layered flowers with a red skittle in the center.

Well that's all from me for today!  Here's to hoping for some more play time this week!

BBTB - Springtime Birds!

Hi all!

I think it just may finally be spring here in the DC area!  Mother Nature seemed a bit uncertain as to what season she wanted to do.  Pez and I spent the morning doing our best to weed the front flower beds - we are being over-run by some kind of insistent ground cover UGH!  Hoping to mulch tomorrow to see if I can keep it at bay.  I have been thoroughly enjoying being able to hang out with friends and neighbors on the front porch in the afternoons after school.  I have been extremely lucky - there are several other neighbors with girls the same age as Hollyn and the kids all love each other and so do the moms!  Yesterday school was out for a teacher work day so we gathered the girls (5 in all) got ice cream and then did homemade avocado face masks - so cute!

I am posting my first OFFICIAL Bitten By the Bug challenge project.  The challenge is perfectly timed - in celebration of Spring we are asking you to make something using birds.  I have a second gift tag for you to add to my stash:

Once again I designed the whole thing in Design Space, once I was happy with it I picked my papers and hit cut!  Another Studio G stamp sentiment finished it off.  (Anyone here still remember the Pezabling from my old store?  That's the 3 pink flecked square embellishments at the top.)

Isn't the little bird and banner sweet?  I used the following cartridges:

• Banner/bird - Birthday Bash
• Tag base - Christmas Kitsch
• Border - Elegant Edges

As always, I inked my edges with Tsukineko tear drop inks - it really gives everything a "finished" look.

I hope you join us and submit a bird project!  Just CLICK HERE for BBTB.

Party chick and a new announcement!

Hi all!

Poor poor neglected old blog!  But I am hoping to resuscitate it and hope there are a few people who might still read it or perhaps new people may come upon it and stick around.  Why you might ask?  A couple of things came together and the timing was just right.

Life has thrown me a slew of curveballs recently and in addition I went back to work part time in September.  Needless to say there has not been alot of crafting going on BUT I quit my job last week, cleaned and organized my craft room and had been getting back to using my Cricut to get some layouts done and try to begin catching up on all my pictures.  Imagine my excitement when my old friend Susan (from the original Cricut message board days) contacted me and asked me to be a part of the design team over at Bitten By The Bug!

I won't "officially" join the team until next weeks challenge but I thought I would play along with this weeks - "music to my ears" challenge.  I have been an avid Cricut user since the first machine came out and now use a Cricut Explore which I LOVE.  I really like making gift tags to use when my daughter, Hollyn (Pezza for those of you who may be reading from the old days) has a birthday party to go to.  I began by going into Design Space and simply typing Music into the search box and a cute tag came up with a music note cut out at the bottom.  You can also find it on the Winter Frolic cartridge.

I thought it would be just the thing if I added a little party chick singing Happy Birthday To You.  You can find the little chick on the Once Upon A Princess cartridge.  I used the musical note cut out as an additional embellishment - bonus!  Design Space makes it so easy to layout the whole project, cut it quickly and then put it all together.  This way I can play with the design (while watching tv with the hubby - we're going through all the X-Files seasons) until I am pleased with the whole thing and everything is sized right.

The tag itself is about 5".  The sentiment is from an old Studio G stamp set from back in the day when I was the Studio G $1 stamp queen (anyone here remember those?!)  I still love them!

One thing I love to do with the tags is use foam tape to "pop out" some portion of the tag.  I did this with the little chick.  I really hope some of you play along with the challenges!

Welcome Home

Hi all!

Come check out the owl wall art I made to welcome my 2nd grandbaby home next month.  It is featured on the ColourArte blog!  As always there is a full tutorial for you too!

Blog hop winner!

Hi all!

Hi everyone!

I am super late with this post but the winner of the Altered shoe blog hop gift certificate is Linda Simpson of Crafty Pieces of Heaven.  You will need to head to the ColourArte website and register an account to receive your gift certificate!

Doodling Fun...

Hi all!

I hope y'all have been having a fun-filled summer!  I have an art journal page up on the ColourArte page - come check it out!

Doodling Fun

I have not been doing as much art & scrapbooking as I have miniature making - if anyone would like to see what I have been up to let me know!

Pumped Up Kicks...

Hi all!

The ColourArte Design Team is having a blog hop and altering shoes!  When you are done here head back to the CoulourArte blog and check out the links to everyone else's projects!  Here is my Pumped Up Converse:

I started out by heading to the Thrift Shop here in town to see what I could find.  I was hoping for work boots but settled on a pair of bright purple Converse.

The fact that they were purple dictated my color scheme and made for a great base for my layers.  I began by giving the whole shoe a thin, rough coat of Gesso to knock the bright purple back a little.

Next I treated the shoe canvas just like an art canvas and began layering.  I glued bits if torn book page in a few spots then gave it a thin, random wash of cream acrylic paint - not on the entire shoe but here and there.

I continued layering - some acrylic paint in pale green and aqua blue, some stamping with waterproof Archival ink and then a full misting with shimmering mist made from Almond Beige Primary Elements Pigment Powder, water and Gum Arabic in a mister.  The rose trim for the back of my shoe was white and I wanted all my trim off-white so I soaked it with the same Almond Beige mist.  Next I misted Fern Radiant Rain through a diamond stencil and then sponged on Fern Silks (for a darker look) through some sequin waste.  I finished my layering up with Radiant Gel in African Jade through a honeycomb stencil - I love adding that bit of raised texture.

I wanted to take advantage of the cool texture on the front of the shoe so I patted it real well with VersaMark Ink and lightly rubbed several colors of Primary Elements powder over it catching only the raised portions.

I added some lace across the toe and did the same thing with the VersaMark and Primary Elements.  Finally I glued on all of my trims.  I found that extra thick Gel Medium works really well for heavier trims (Along with a little painter's tape until they dry!)

Now want to know how to win a $25 gift certificate to the ColourArte store?

1) Comment on each of the blogs

2)  Comment on the main ColourArte blog

A winner will be posted on each of the designer blogs on August 7th, so make sure you stop back by to see if you are one of them!

Head back to the main blog to see everyone else's shoes!

ColourArte Blog Hop