Scrap, Travel, and Bark!

PARTY TIME AT THE FLYING UNICORN!!!!!!!!

2012-01-20T15:47:00.000-05:00

6pm EST tonight the Polar Bear and Pajama Party crop starts!! Be there, fun and games, challenges, prizes, wooo hooooo!!!!!!!!

Ruby Rock-it from Australia - Flying Unicorn

2012-01-17T07:35:00.001-05:00

One of the things that I really love about Flying Unicorn is the unique products that the owner, Alda, tries to stock in the store. She is always scouring the globe looking for the next great paper line. This week we are featuring Ruby Rock-it papers from Australia and they are 10% off through January 22nd.

I did three layouts using the fabulous Avalon collection from Ruby Rock-it.These are a great heavy weight paper perfect for misting, distressing and inking, all those things we like to do to our paper. This first layout is a vintage picture of my grandparents probably taken in the 50's or maybe even earlier. I have so many wonderful vintage photos, unfortunately, most of them are not labeled as to the who or the when.

I started with a white paper, Celestial, from the collection and gave it a quick spritz with Cadillac pink Glimmer Mist. Then I cut a 10" square from Fantasy and used my Wild Flowers Martha Stewart punch to punch all around the page. Since the photo and Dusty Attic bracket frame cover the center of the paper, I fussy cut some of the flowers from the center of the page and tucked them behind on the upper left and right side of my layout. Behind the photo and filling to the edges of the DA frame is a green paper, Illusion.

The Dusty Attic frame is painted with Distress picket fence Crackle paint and then lightly inked with Distress pumice stone.

I used two rubons verses on the left and right, the butterflies are also rubons, all from Ruby Rock-it. From my stash I added the Prima canvas resist floral spray and birdcage. These are resist treated so you just ink with Distress in to bring out the details. The flowers are mostly Primas .

To finish off this layout, I added two special pieces that were given to me by a couple of our Unicorn members! The beautiful white butterfly was crocheted by our Cathi and is really perfect for this layout as it reminds me of the crocheted pieces that my grandmother did. That fabulous cameo was made for me by Tammy and I so appreciate it!!

Well I had that string of beads laying around and, I don't know, it just looked good tossed onto the layout so there you go, not alot of careful thought there, LOL!!

This next layout is of me and my sweetheart. I used Ruby Rock-it's diecut Stitch, Daydream in the center, and the base page is Noble. The tattered green under the diecut is Illusion.

I used a Dusty Attic Holly Flourish on this that I misted with Lindy's Starburst Yellow Rose of Texas.

I also used some Ruby Rock-it rubons here, the flowers and butterflies. The two larger flowers are handmade using McGill's Floriano and EK Success Retro Flower punches. The pearl accents are Ruby Rock-it embellies.

I wanted to mimic the circle pattern in the diecut so I used molding paste and a mask to dress up my center paper. You can see this technique in my tutorial here.

The title Always is a Making Memories Eclectic Metal that I mounted on a Tattered Banner diecut from Alterations as is the hand written sentiment under the photo.

And finally I leave you with these two cuties, Nika and Jen (aka Jrabs, Escape Kitty's Mom). Jen and some of othre favorite scrappy friends visited us last September and she and Nika fell in love!! I just adore this picture of them, it is soooo sweet!!

The papers I used are all from Ruby Rock-it Avalon, Melody-pink frame, Mysterious - floral (my favorite sheet in the collection!), and Illusion- green border strip. The flower is a Petaloo velvet and the greenery is a Sizzix diecut. Again I used Prima Resistant canvas for the chair inked with Distress Bundled Sage.

There's some Dusty Attic Fancy Trim #3 peaking out from under the lacy flowers trim from Hobby Lobby that I painted with Shimmerz pink paint. I added some heart lace from Hobby Lobby and Pink Paislee Mistable letters inked with Victorian Velvet.

Thanks for visiting! Be sure to check out all the Ruby Rock-it lines!

Puppy Love - Flying Unicorn

2012-01-14T21:19:00.001-05:00

My sweet babies snuggling together on the couch in the RV while we were driving down the road this past fall. I used Fabscraps Shabby Chic pps for this, I love these papers and they should soon be available at the Flying Unicorn store.

The chipboard is a Dusty Attic piece, Vine Flourish, DA0485, its one of my favorite DA pieces. For a fun and different look paint your chippy and then stamp on it. I painted this vintage white and then stamped using a script stamp and pattern stamp with archival ink coffee. I love this effect. The letters are Jillibean Soup corrugated that I slopped some white paint on and then inked with Distress walnut stain.

Around the circle I gathered some Tattered Angels Mistable Crepe Ribbon that I inked with Prima teal damask.

The flowers are handmade from the same Fabscraps paper. They are just a simple 2 layer flower with sunburst centers and a Prima crystal. I inked and added a couple Prima resin corners and that's it!

Graphic 45 at the Flying Unicorn

2012-01-13T09:27:00.001-05:00

we are featuring Graphic 45 and all their wonderful papers at the Flying Unicorn store this week. I love their papers with their rich colors!! Here's a couple I did for the feature using the new G45 Tropical Travelogue collection.

Here I am - "Enjoy the Moments that Make You Smile" and yes I was enjoying myself!! I went with a vintage style on this layout employing a sepia toned photo with an oval fade frame applied to give it that old look. I used lots of layers that I distressed and inked with Distress Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo. The title is a Dusty Attic piece that I have painted with gold Smooch paint, it really is gold although it looks orange in this photo. The 2 bird images are from the Tropical Travelogue Botanica paper, I just love them!! I think the net and shells adds the perfect touch to this tropical layout, they were included in the January KOM!! I really love the unusual things that Alda always adds to the kits!

The largest flower is handmade using the Alterationgs Tattered Floral die, I have a tutorial for it here. The other flowers ar some older Prima flowers from my stash. The two black swirls are printed on a transparency, then I cut them out and added to my layout. The butterfly came from LisaG, I simply added some black diamond Stickles.

Here's another layout, again using Tropical Travelogue. I lived in Florida for 14 years and of course these G45 papers really remind me of my time there. I took this picture many years ago while I was taking a nature photography course at Blowing Rocks Nature Preserve. I thought the colors in the stump and surrounding flowers went great with these papers. And Laura is hosting a challenge to make your own flowers so I did this as inspiration for her challenge.

I used Spellbinders Sunflower 2 die to make the sunflowers and misted them with yellow daisy Glimmer Mist. The centers are micro beads and because I only have silver microbeads I had to dye them with black alcohol ink, that was kind of interesting!!

In addition to Tropical Travelogue papers, I used Bo Bunny Back to Basics Clover Dot for the base paper and cut the black swirls with a Sizzix die from some very old black patterned paper from All My Memories. The leaves are fussy cut from Tropical Travelogue Rainforest. I just have a hard time with peach colors so I used Distress ink Scattered Straw on the G45 Hibiscus paper to turn the peach more orange, Distress inks are great for those kind of problems!! I water distressed the inner edge of the frame that has been punch with Martha's Stewart's wildflower punches and also water distressed the peach dotted layer.

Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks for leaving your comments!

Flying Unicorn round robin!

2012-01-13T09:17:00.000-05:00

We've got a fabulous Round Robin going on at Flying Unicorn with SEVEN teams! Each week in January 7 new layouts will be revealed that are lifts of their team member's previous weeks layout. The competition is fierce and the sneak peeks during the week have been great!

Here's the layout I did for my team, the Scrapping Divas!

This is a LO I did for a dear friend, this is her Dad on the occasion of his last flight for Eastern Airlines - the day he retired.

I used Core'dinations vintage collection for the base pp and the diecut is Bo Bunny Et Cetera, in the center of the diecut I layered a circle cut from Printery Love Ledger. I also masked the circle using distress ink in pumice stone. The clock face is Prima resistant canvas, above itis a Prima Vintage Trinket (memories), the beaded lace is from Hobby Lobby. Underneath the diecut I have layered tattered newsprint. TFL!

Flying Unicorn adds Shona to the Creative Team!

2012-01-11T10:52:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to tell you that Shona has joined the Flying Unicorn Creative Team!! Shona and I have been scrappy friends for a year or two now and she is just the best!! Shona's style is shabby and vintage and sometimes grungy, in short her style is fabulous!! Please stop by the Flying Unicorn Forums and give Shona big welcome!

Polar Bear & Pajama Party Online Crop at the Flying Unicorn!!

2012-01-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

We're having an online crop, all weekend so go mark your calendars now!! The party starts at 6 pm EST Friday, January 20 and ends at 6 pm EST, Sunday, January 22nd. There will be some special challenges for the crop and each challenge will have a RAK for the challenge winner. All of our winners are chosen by Random.org so everyone has a chance to win! We'll have live chat going on and games galore, posting prizes (that's kinda like a door prize!) and who knows what else! So make sure you send everyone in your household off for the weekend, make sure you've got pizza delivery on speed dial and come join us! Just click on the badge below to link to our Polar Bear Pajama Party!! Be there!!

Papa a Paris - Sketches: Creatively Yours

2012-01-06T07:42:00.000-05:00

Ali at Sketches: Creatively Yours has designed a great new sketch up to start off the new year! I t was the perfect sketcch for the Kaisercraft Bonjour papers that I chose to use with my vintage picture of my Dad taken, where else, but in Paris at the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. The photo was taken shortly after the end of WW II and is signed by my Dad simply, Love, Carl. He must have sent it home to my Mother.

The picture frame does most of the embellishment work for me with its beautiful image of the Eiffel tower. I just added a few blooms to add some dimension. I also added Dusty Attic baroque corners to the picture and a name plate. I used Tim Holtz glassine paper to make a paper lace frame around the photo and added green and blue Perfect Pearls to give it a touch of color. I painted the outside of the bookplate and the baroque corners with Shimmerz mossy stone. I painted the inside of the bookplate with Perfect Pearls in biscotti. Then I added a ZVA pearl swirl to finish it off.

At the Flying Unicorn this month, we've got some GREAT challenges and I will also post this layout as inspiration for Tammy's distressing and lace challenge. My "lace" is paper, hope it counts!

Did you know that Flying Unicorn has 10 GREAT challenges every month AND we have great RAKS every month too!! I'm hosting a round robin this month and we have 7 teams! We're having a blast and you know what, I need one more player to fill the Jan 30th spot on team 7, it could be YOU. Come on over to the Flying Unicorn forums and join in the fun!!

I Can't Stop Loving You! Flying Unicorn challenge

2012-01-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

Come join us at Flying Unicorn for our version of American Idol! there's a $100 gift certficate to be won!! Hurry, auditions for Hollywood week are going on now!

So here's my entry for the challenge, I chose Houston and Roy Orbison for my "audition" piece. We had to use a song by our chose artist and I am using I Can't Stop Loving You. Those of you that know me know that red and black are my favorite colors to wear and this also carries over to scrapbooking, add a little cream or white and you've got me! These IOD Devotion papers from Creative Imaginations suit me to a T and I love the added green in the paper line to give it some pop!!

This is probably my favorite picture ever of Dick and I! I love the big smile on his face! I think the picture really defines our relationship, fun and loving!

Reveal - Flying Unicorn January kit - Wishing and Hoping

2012-01-01T08:32:00.001-05:00

I am so happy that I can finally show you the January KOM from Flying Unicorn. Its filled with papers from one of my favorite manufacturers, the Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue collection. The colors are so bright and cheerful, love the tropical imagery, perfect for the cold winter blues! Click here to purchase and learn more about the kit. But do hurry, they sell out fast.

I lived in Florida for 14 years and took this picture early one morning at sunrise. During the winter months it was really fun to be in sunny south Florida!!

On this LO I started out with a sheet of plain ivory cardstock, I used a Prima mask on the left and sprayed with Starburst Mist in Hagsworth orange and then inked around the edges heavily with Distress ink ripe persimmon (frm the 2011 fall issue). The swirls on the right were stamped with Perfect Medium and then brushed with Perfect Pearls in several colors. (all of these supplies came from my stash) Then I added a blast of Starburst mist in bachelor button blue. I cut a circle from Tropical Travelogue pp, then I layered another circle cut from Bazzill Red Rocks (from my stash) under the Tropical Travelogue circle and layered a circle punch cut from orange CS (from my stash) over top the Tropical Travelogue circle. Lots of fussy cutting here from the Island Jewel pp., all those flowers around the circle. The 3-D flowers I made to mimic the Island Jewel pp and these flowers are from the Tattered Flowers tute that I did recently. I used an image from G45 papers and stickled it up on the left. The letters are from my stash and are Pink Paislee Hocus Pocus.

Here's another from the kit. Photo is my morther when she was about 16. Lots of fussy cutting going on here, all those leaves are fussy cut from the Rain Forest pp. I made the flowers (with stuff from my stash) using a McGill Floriana punch and cut them from Tim Holtz glassine paper. Then I brushed gold Perfect Pearls on the flowers and heated with my heat gun. The heating sets the Perfect Pearls, really a neat effect. On the right under the flowers is a Petaloo rose leaf spray from mystash. The black pearl swirls are a Prima SIIP that I cut apart, also from my stash, Flying Unicorn has some great bling swirls from ZVA in the store!

This might be my favorite LO that I did using this kit. This is a photo of my Mom taken back in the 40's, probably 1944. I love the netting that came in the kit this month and chose to use that to represent the sea along with the blue papers. You can see some fish swimming around up there! I fussy cut some flowers from the Garden Isle pp, the frame is Seaside Holiday, stripes Tropical Travelogue, fish Oceania. The 3D flower is from my stash and is from ZVA. Behine the photo I've used Lindy's Stampgang fusible webbing (here's a tute that my good scrapping buddy Joyce did) and used two different colors of embossing powder, its representative of seaweed and then I added some silver microbeads indicative of bubbles you see in the water. Oh you can't really see it, but there is a pearl in the upturned shell. TFL!

The January kit also contains a really fun Off the Page Project - glass painting. The kit includes 3 glass bottles, a glass plate, candles and glass paint to really get your creative mind working. Here's what I came up with.

Where have I been??

2011-12-30T17:58:00.000-05:00

Wow, this month has FLOWN by, I just realized that I have several things thatI haven't shared with you yet and they are some of my faves!!

I did this LO a while ago using a great sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours. We've been on vacation at S:CY but we'll be back the first week of January! Here's the great sketch I used:

And here is my LO that I did using the wonderful Pion Christmas papers, I so love these papers that came from the Flying Unicorn store. The images came from the Once Upon a Picture group at Flying Unicorn, we have lots of great vintage images that you can download there.

Here's another favorite LO that I've done lately. This was a Winter Wonderland layout posted in Enchanting Creations magazine. I love this picture of Nika that I took the day after Christmas, 2010, when we had an unheard of 12" of snow here in eastern NC. Everything on the LO is a shade of "white" with the addition of some silver Glimmer Mist and platinum stickles.

Thanks for stopping by, I will be sharing the January Flying Unicorn kit on New Year's Day, you don't want to miss that! Here's a few sneak peeks to get you interested!

You don't want to miss this great kit!!

Paper Tearing Techniques - Flying Unicorn

2011-12-06T08:04:00.000-05:00

Tammy, one of our December guest designers, is hosting a challenge this month to use paper tearing techniques on your layout. She also posted 3 different ways of doing so. One where she uses a paintbrush to paint water where she wants to tear, I had never tried, definitely going to give a try though! Joyce, our other December guest designer, is hosting a challenge to do a layout about your childhood "heart throb" I sort of combined the two challenges and came up with this layout.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, great movie, sweet eye candy!! I had alot of fun with this and maybe the reason it took me all to do this LO is 'cause I kept drooling on the photo, LOL!! The frame is an interesting piece, it's the Dusty Attic chipboard that you usually throw away after removing the laser cut frame. I thought it worked perfect here. I inked it first with distress stain, then inked with Distress black soot, covered with Crackle Accents and finally, rubbed with gold rubon ink.

Be sure to stop by the challenges at the Flying Unicorn, you could win a great RAK just fo rentering your work.

Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it!

Winter Song - Flying Unicorn Santa's Workshop

2011-12-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

The CT at the Flying Unicorn is hosting Santa's workshop this month with a new tutorial every day up to Christmas Day, be sure to come visit and check out the tutorials.

I posted a molding paste tutorial for Santa's Workshop and this is the layout that I did. The molding paste is subtle but adds an extra layer of dimension to the layout.

I love these Creative Imaginations Winter Song papers! Photo was taken in Fairbanks, AK in March when it was -35º F! Those sweet little birdies were chirping up a storm, hard to believe something so small could surive those harsh winters! The journal says:

Sweet bird! thy bow'r is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.
- John Logan, 1748 - 1788

Here's a closeup:

I used a Crafters Workshop template/mask for applying my molding paste, here's what it looked like before I added the photo etc.

See my tutorial at Flying Unicorn for more pictures and details. Molding paste is fun to use, give it a try!!

What's happening at Flying Unicorn in December?

2011-12-01T10:49:00.001-05:00

Oh there is so much going on at the Flying Unicorn this month!!! First let me tell you about Santa's workshop. Alda and her CT elves have been very busy writing tutorials for you. Everyday through December 24th there will be a new tutorial for you to try, some are easy, some a little more complicated but there's surely something for everyone. There's a great flower tute today and more flowers to come. How about quilling? That's on the schedule for tomorrow. Just visit the Santa's Workshop thread to learn all about it! Oh, and there are some great prizes that will be awarded to 9 lucky winners selected at random. You'll get one entry for each tutorial you complete. Sweet!!

Wow, I have so much to tell you about!! We have not one, but two fabulous guest designers this month, Tammy Henderson and Joyce Lawrence. Both of these gals are so very talented. I can't wait to see what they show us this month. Both have posted awesome challenges, keep reading to learn about those!

Tammy Henderson

Joyce Lawrence

In addition to al those great tutorials, we have 13 challenges lined up for you, all with fabulous RAKS for the randomly selected players of each challenge.

Play it Again Sam

Extreme Christmas Trims
Picture This
The Christmas Wrap

Glam it Up!

Let Them Eat Fruitcake

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Tis the season to be Tearing (Tammy's challenge)

First Childhood Idol Crush

Christmas Ornament(Joyce's challenge)

Challenge of challenges

Silver Bells

Artist of the Week Challenge

My challenge this month is Glam it Up! The challenge is easy, just create a project using at leat 3 kinds of glimmer, glam and sparkle!! Go here, to learn more about my challenge.

Here's my example - it's an 8 x8 layout with lots of glam and sparkle!

And here's the great RAK up for grabs!

Come visit us at the Flying Unicorn, its a happening kind of place!!

December Kit - Flying Unicorn

2011-12-01T01:00:00.084-05:00

The beautiful Flying Unicorn December kit is here!!! The kit features Kaisercraft's December 25th collection along with a great Off the Page project - a paper mache Rudolph!!The kit is jam packed with goodies, be sure to check it out!

Here are some of the projects I created using the kit.

Santa I’ve been very good.

All the papers on this layout are from the beautiful December KOM . I added the two Petaloo berry picks under the beige roses and some Prima holly leaves that I painted with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist. Everything else is from the kit. I dyed the rocheted lace using Burnt Red Glimmer Mist. The large rose has also been sprayed with Burnt Red GM. I printed the title on an overhead transparency and glued to the LO using Glossy accents.

Only his hairdresser knows for sure

For this layout I combined a few things from my stash with the December kit. From my stash: olive and tan cardstock, flower centers, green poinsettias, Dusty Attic chippy, tiny gold roses, letters, Tim Holtz tissue tape, #8 craft tag, red and green smooch paint, everything else is from the kit. I distressed the edges of all the patterned papers with my Prima Ingvild Bohme tool (available in the store and it is a great tool!! You need to have this, trust me!!) and then wet distressed.

Blessings

On this layout, I layered 3 papers, distressed the edges and inked with Distress Gathered Twig ink (from the 2011 fall release). Everything is from the kit except that the gold trim is from Michael’s Christmas ribbon dept. The angel and star are fussy cut from paper included in the kit, the letters are painted with paint in the kit.

Santa’s Helper

All the papers are from the KOM.. The two poinsettieas I cut using a Sizzix die and painted with Big Apple Glimmer Glam. The other red flowers came in the kit – I painted them with Big Apple Glimmer Glam (they were beige) and layered them. The flower centers are from my stash. The swirly leaves under the flowers were cut with the Spellbinders (HC) Bella Rose die. The holly leave were cut with an older Sizzix die. All the leaves were painted with olive vine Glimmer mist and inked with Prima English Ivy (available in the store). The letters are painted with Big Apple Glimmer Glam. The thing that I like about Glimmer Glam is that it adds sparkle as well as a glaze to whatever you are painting. It also really made the flowers stiff so that they will hold their shape. The gold flower near the top is several flowers layered that were sprayed with Smooch Spritz in Candle Glow- it’s a perfect color for this kit! The lace under the large diecut is from my stash.

Off the Page Project-

I adore this project, it was so fun watching Rudolph come to life as I decorated him. I used, what is one of my very favorite papers of the season, Creative Imaginations Winter Song. I just thought Rudolph needed a different look. And you know what, he matches my bathroom perfectly and I didn't even think about that. So he is perched on a shelf in the bath spreading Christmas cheer with his purple nose!!

Off the page project - paper mache ornament - painted with gold paint included in the kit, the jewels also came in the kit. I add the the Tim Holtz fragments, ribbon and flowers from my stash.

Joy - Scrapcake papers from The Flying Unicorn

2011-11-29T07:53:00.000-05:00

CT work for the Flying Unicorn. Ohhhh I just love these Scrapcake papers that we are carrying in the store at the Flying Unicorn. I love that they are traditional Christmas colors with a twist. The background of this layout is a piece of white Bazzill cardstock, heavily sprayed with Timberline Glimmer Mist. I used a MS punch to cut the snowflakes from blue cardstock that had been sprayed with Pearl Glimmer Mist. I inked with the new winter collection of Distress inks. Love those colors!!

Santa's Workshop at the Flying Uniconr!

2011-11-29T06:34:00.000-05:00

The Creative Team, aka Alda and her elves, at the FlyingUnicorn has been hard at work behind the scenes, getting ready for the month of December. We’re bringing you a technique loaded, fun-filled, December!! Everyday, through December 24^th, there will be a new technique tutorial posted for you to try. Some will be simple, others a little more complex, but there will be something for everyone! Look for the Santa’s Workshop thread in the forum to find the daily tutorials. Be sure to post a picture of your creations using any of the tutorials to be eligble for a prize drawing on December 31^st. There will be 9 different prizes awarded, one from each of Santa’s reindeer!

2011-11-21T19:58:00.002-05:00

Please join us November 26^th through November 28^th for Flying Unicorn’s First Annual Silent Auction of all things scrapbook, all from the private stashes of the Flying Unicorn Creative Team. All proceeds from the auction will go to benefit Women in Distress. Some of us are putting together kits, some of us are destashing. There’s bound to be something you’ll want; place your bid, and it might be yours. Bids will be accepted until midnight November 28^th and auction winners will be notified the next day.

As the month draws to a close, we want to thank all of you who posted your lovely work in the gallery, sent in your donations and made purchases in the store. We met our goal of 1,000 uploads to the gallery on November 16^th, thereby earning a $1,000 donation from the Flying Unicorn store to Women in Distress. Remember that throughout November 5% of all sales will be donated to Women in Distress.

The Silent Auction is our last fundraiser for Women in Distress this year; we hope you’ll help us help our sisters who have suffered so much by placing a bid. You can peruse the items up for auction by visiting here, at the Flying Unicorn. The auction items will be posted for your viewing, Wednesday, November 23rd.

Flying Unicorn - The Scrap Cake Cozy Xmas

2011-11-18T18:28:00.000-05:00

I have lots to share with you today. I've been working on so many Christmas LOs that it feels like christmas has come and gone!!

One of my favorite Christmas lines is from Scrap Cake - Cozy Xmas. I just love the soft colors contrasted with the rich red. It is just my thing!! You can't see it so well on this picture but the leaf has a beautiful shimmer like icicles. First I stained the chipboard with Distress stain in picket fence. Then I added both crystal and icicle stickels on part of the leaves to imitate ice. IRL its really sparkly and icey looking. The DA nameplate is painted with white acryic paint and then edged wtih red Smooch.

Photographically speaking, this is not the best picture in the world, but I still love the big smiles on my parents' faces. The photo captured them soooo well, I really cherish this picture, even with its flaws. I kind of went crazy with the flowers!! They all came from the Flying Unicorn store!

Exploding box - Flying Unicorn

2011-11-14T19:01:00.000-05:00

OOOH need a fun way to wrap a small special present? Try this, make an exploding box. They are super fun to make and so pretty. I made mine using G45's Christmas Emporium. I used images from the Emporium collection and some images from the Flying Unicorn's Once Upon a Picture group where we have collected a lot of images of all themes.

There's a tutorial up at Flying Unicorn if you want to make an Exploding Box. When you take the lid off, the inside "explodes"!!

Box "exploded"

The Flying Unicorn has some great collections of Christmas papers, I so love this one, Winter Song, from Creative Imaginations. I love the colors that are a bit outside the ordinary for Christmas. Add lots of bling and gold to this collection and it shines!!

Do you wantto be published?

2011-11-07T17:52:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone!

If you haven't heard, Enchanting Creations, is becoming one of the best online scrapbooking magazine out there! Hundreds of submissions are sent in every month, and you could be in the next issue! I like to blog to remind others of this fabulous opportunity to get published.
Enchanting Creations is looking for submissions for their Winter Issue. Themes that are being accepted for the upcoming issue are:
Gift tags Galore

Whiter than Snow

Christmas Handmade

Hannuakah

Christmas Layouts

Christmas cards

All submissions must be emailed separately to ecmagllc@gmail.com Even if you have an older project, you can submit it!! An email will be sent to you if you're project is accepted for publication.

Get those entries in...the deadline is November 11th!

You may submit as many projects as you like, but, ONE EMAIL PER SUBMISSION PLEASE.

YOU MUST ALSO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING :

Title of the project

Product Use List

any other information that you would like to include

Also your name. address & telephone number

Good luck Scrappers!!!

Flying Unicorn Gives Back

2011-11-06T09:46:00.001-05:00

WOW, I am so grateful to everyone at Flying Unicorn and to my friends who have dropped by the gallery to post their beautiful creations. It's only November 6th and we have already uploaded more than 400 projects to the gallery!! That's $400 for Women in Distress!! Thank you everyone!

While you're at Flying Unicorn, be sure to check out the challenges thread, there are 13 challenges this month and each one has a RAK for some lucky winner!! My challenge is Heavy Metal and I'm asking you to make a project featuring a handmade metal embellishment of some sort. I haven't yet had the opportunity to do a new project but here are a couple that I've done in the past.

This one has a journal that I made by embossing aluminum foil and aging with alcohol ink.

I made a frame for this one by embossing metal paper.

Come join me for my challenge and you could win this great RAK. I have instructions there for making metal embellies from aluminum foil.

Flying Unicorn and Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-11-04T12:26:00.000-04:00

I did this LO using the beautiful Riddersholm papers made in Denmark. They are a nice heavyweight and so very pretty! You can get these papers at the Flying Unicorn store. There are two Christmas lines and several other lines that are great for vintage and shabby chic projects, really good for ANY project!

I used this week's sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours. There are lots of great interpretations of this sketch posted at S:CY, be sure to check them out. We'd love to see your interpretations of this sketch so give it a try and leave us a link to your LO.

Here's my interpretation. I made the ginormous poinsettia using a Sizzix die, kind of over powers the photo but it was fun to make. The picture is of NIka, Christmas 2010 when she was 8 months old. The snowflakes are Dusty Attic covered with Stickles crystal and icicles. The letters are Pink Paislee sugared with Diamond Dust.

Thanks for visiting, I really appreciate it!

POST YOUR WORK AT FLYING UNICORN!

2011-11-01T09:42:00.001-04:00

This month Flying Unicorn is donating up to $1,000 to Women in Distress. You can help and here's how. For each project uploaded to the Flying Unicorn gallery, Flying Unicorn will donate $1. Help us get $1,000 for Women in Distress. We need 1,000 uploads to reach our goal. Come on everyone, load up the gallery!!

If you have never suffered abuse at the hands of your partner, count your blessings. So many of our sisters have had to endure abuse, both physical and mental. Some of the Flying Unicorn members have lived these nightmares but somehow found the strength to remove themselves from these situations. They have shared their horrific stories, not for your sympathy, but to inspire other woman and give courage and strength to those in need. Their stories are purposeful examples meant to empower. Women in Distress is ready and waiting to aid those women who so desperately need hel

Please help us help Women in Distress by uploading your creations to the Flying Unicorn Gallery.

November Flying Unicorn kit - Remember the Days. Now available!!

2011-11-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

Remember the Days - Flying Unicorn's beautiful November kit filled with papers from Glitz - Dancing in the Sunshine and Riddersholm - Chantilly, Prima, Kaisercraft, and Flying Unicorn flowers, Dusty Attic, vintage fun and more. Order your kit and see the complete list of contents here at the Flying Unicorn store. Every month the kit includes a really fun Off the Page project. I love this month's project, its a Melissa Frances Mini Calendar Book.

Here are soem of the creations of the CT done with the November kit.

I didn't get my kit until Monday since we were on vacation so I've had little time to do anything. However, yesterday, I did get the cover to my mini calendar book done. Here it is, I used the Riddersholm papers from the kit for this along with Pink Paislee letters included in the kit.

Please help Women in Distress

2011-10-31T07:30:00.000-04:00

A very special time at Flying Unicorn

Many of us know women who have had to live with the fear and reality of abuse. Flying Unicorn needs your help to empower these women to find the courage to take control of their lives and leave the nightmares they are living.

You can help and here’s how. For each purchase that you make during the month of November, Flying Unicorn will donate 5% of the sales proceeds to Women in Distress. In addition, you can help by uploading your projects to the Flying Unicorn gallery. A donation of $1 will go to Women in Distress for each and every project that you upload to a maximum of $1,000.

If you would like to make a cash contribution to Women in Distress, Flying Unicorn is collecting donations on behalf of Women in Distress from November 1 through November 30, 2011. Your PAYPAL donation can be made by simply sending money to cs@flyingunicornllc.com. Please add WID In the note section. You can also mail a check, made payable to WOMAN IN DISTRESS, to:

Flying Unicorn

201 SE 19^th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

Please help Flying Unicorn empower these women to change their lives. We can all help our sisters by offering our prayers and financial support.

Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-10-28T10:00:00.033-04:00

Here's another great handdrawn sketch from Ali at Sketches: Creatively Yours. My good friend Jennifer aka Jrabs visited with us recently along with some other scrappy gals and took these pictures for me. My sweet sweet Chena and Nika, my girls, my loves! I love both pictures but I am especially crazy about the photo with Chena (the black poodle) because I have so few pictures of her that are good.

I used G45 Botanicabella along with a sheet of Romantique (stripes) and a sheet of Domestic Goddess (polka dots) for this layout. Yep, older G45 papers but they are so gorgeous, I confess to hoarding them. I so love G45 papers. I think they were designed with me in mind 'cause I just love the blacks, reds, and ivories so often predominant in G45 pps. I made the sunflowers using a Spellbinders diecut and Heartfelt Creations stamps. I used Distress Stickles in Vintage photo for the centers. The leaves are cut out stamped Heartfelt Creations stamps colored with a little glimmer mist.

Thanks for visiting!!!!

A very special Time at Flying Unicorn

2011-10-22T11:04:00.001-04:00

Gratitude. Pure and Simple.

FLYING UNICORN GIVES BACK.

It is with humbleness and honor that we dedicate the month of November to helping our “sister” our “neighbor” our “friend” and donating proceeds to WOMAN IN DISTRESS.

November 01 – November 30^th 2011 all completed projects that are uploaded into our gallery; we will donate $1.00 to a maximum of $1,000.00.

Every purchase made from the store from November 01- November 30^th 2011, Flying Unicorn will donate 5% to Woman in Distress.

Contributions and donations will be accepted throughout the month of November. You can PAYPAL your donation by sending money to cs@flyingunicornllc.com . Please add WID In the note section. You may also send a check, made payable to WOMAN IN DISTRESS and mail it to:

Flying Unicorn

201 SE 19^th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

Tel. 954.283.8243 Toll Free 888.266.5184

Checks that are printed with a name and address will receive a tax deduction receipt from WID .

Together, we will make a difference.FLYING UNICORN GIVES BACK.

November issue Enchanting Creations from the Flying Unicorn

2011-10-22T10:09:00.000-04:00

The Flying Unicorn is excited to bring you the November issue of Enchanting Creations. Here's the link to the November issue don't miss it!

New sketch at Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-10-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

It's sketchy Friday at Sketches: Creatively Yours! Do go over and check out this great card sketch. We'd love to see your interpretation of this sketch so be sure to leave us a link to your creation.

Ann drew this sketch, and here's her really great card that she did using this sketch. This is such a cute Christmas card!

Father Christmas - Pion papers from the Flying Unicorn Store

2011-10-20T18:50:00.000-04:00

I was flipping through some photos at my parents' house one day and came upon this photo and I knew just exactly what I was going to do with it! The Pion Waiting for Santa II papers were calling to me! Pion papers are truely gorgeous, very soft, embracing colors and designs. Check out the wonderful Pion collections at the Flying Unicorn store.

The photo was taken in the early 1950's in Verdun, France. The little girl was our landlord's daughter. You can see my supplies list and a tut on this layout in the Tutorial group at Flying Unicorn..

Thanks for visiting!

Weekly Sketch from Sketches Creatively Yours # 18-11

2011-10-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the great sketch #18-11 I used from Sketches Creatively Yours drawn by Ali McDonald. It was a challenge for me to get the three photos onto this layout, probably would have been easier if the photos had been smaller!

I used the Kaisercraft Chapter One papers and Kaisercraft Gypsy Sisters. The blues/blacks are from the Chapter One collection and are so pretty. You can get these at the Flying Unicorn store. Gorgeous papers!!

And here's my LO:

Hyder is a really interesting little place. Here's my journal:

Hyder, Alaska sits at the head of the Portland Canal and although it is in Alaska, it identifies more with Canada as Stewart, BC (pop. 700) is just across the border. Hyder has no connection to the USA, you can only get to Hyder by driving through Canada, by air or sea. It is notable for being the only place in Alaska not to use the statewide 907 area code, instead using the area code of 250 allocated for British Columbia. Tourists will also find that Hyder uses Pacific Time Zone, the common currency is Canadian (with the exception of the US Post Office, which only accepts American currency), they observe Canadian holidays, send their children to Canadian schools, and when there is trouble, the famed Canadian Mounties step in. (From Wikipedia)

We traveled to Hyder for one reason and that was for bear viewing at the US Forest Service Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area. We watched a brown bear and her spring cub fish for salmon in the creek. She didn’t seem to be at all disturbed by the people on the viewing platform but she did keep a watchful eye out for other bears, particularly males, as they will kill cubs so that the females will mate with them.
There’s not much in Hyder, the streets are gravel, many of the buildings are rather derelict in appearance and many are closed.

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it!

It's the Flying Unicorn Store's first Birthday!!!

2011-10-08T22:03:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow, Sunday, October 9th, is the first birthday of the Flying Unicorn Store!! Let the good times begin. To celebrate there will be free shipping on all purchases tomorrow!!! How sweet is that? Just enter the code ONE when you check out to get free shipping on all purchases, but just tomorrow. Lots of new items are arriving daily and if you're looking for those GORGEOUS Pion Christmas papers, look no further. They're in stock!

You really need to play this game at Flying Unicorn....

2011-10-04T07:34:00.000-04:00

Why? Cause you could win a $113 gift certificate to the Flying Unicorn store. This is so so much fun!! Every day Mr. Hal O'Ween will give you some directions for making a project that you must follow to the T, at the end you will end up with....well, something, LOL!! Check it out here, 'cause its a ho

Jean and Warren - Challenge at Flying Unicorn

2011-10-03T17:58:00.000-04:00

Oh yeah, we're having a blast at Flying Unicorn with Scrap-o-Ween. Today's contest will really get ya going. Check it out and see if you can guess what's in the cauldron! But better hurry cause this contest is just for today. If you don't make it over today, no worries, there will be a new contest with a prize every single day this month!!

I did this layout as inspriation for the Pursuit of Happiness challenge at Flying Unicorn. The prize is the KOM, whoo hoo! Go and check it out, there are other challenges too.

So I've been playing in the molding paste and this is what I came up with. You ought to give it a try. Get some molding paste (available at M's or HL or any art store) and a palette knife. The molding paste I used was white and I added alcohol ink and liquid pearls to get this color - you can use acrylic paint too. Lay the mask down on your paper and use the palette knife to spread the paste over and just beyond the edges of the mask. Then carefully lift the mask and let it dry and it does take quite a while to dry. Its really quite easy and really fun, especially if you like to make a big mess like I do!

So my base paper is a piece of Bazzill CS that was not the right color so I sprayed it with Timberline and Snowy Pine Glimmer Mist. After that dried is when I applied to molding paste.

The pp is a mix of Bo Bunny Et Cetera (circle and photo mat) and the tage and dark scrap are Prima Printery. I made the flowers from the Et Cetera collection. The leaves are new Dusty Attic that I stained with Distress Antique linen and then highlighted with Bundled Twigs and Tea Dye. The other chippies are from the Et Cetera collection. The leaves behind the flower on the left are Prima Resist Canvas - cool stuff! Lace from my good friend Jen aka Jrabs.
The photo is of my dh's parents and their travel trailor. Photo was taken prior to 1950 as my FIL was killed in the Korean War in 1950. I really love this photo. My dh and I have a motorhome, we love to travel, my parents had a motorhome too, guess we know where we got that love from!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big sale at Flying Unicorn!

2011-10-01T09:51:00.000-04:00

I love a sale!! Check this out! Yep, get 13% off your order all month long! And you know what, my birthday is on the 13th and I'm not telling which birthday it is, LOL!!! Visit the Flying Unicorn store and save some big $$!!

Flying Unicorn announcement!

2011-10-01T09:31:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to share my good news with you that I am the newest member of the Flying Unicorn Creative Team! Woo-hoo!!! I love being part of a team that works for such a great store.

Today is reveal day for the new kit, Pursuit of Happiness, and it's a beauty featuring Bo Bunny's new collection Et Cetera which is totally divine, in my eyes anyway! Be sure to get yours quick before they sell out, here. You can see some the CT's wonderful creations here, here.

Do you like to win, win, win????? Alrighty then, you need to hop on over to the Flying Unicorn forum and enter some or even all of the fabulous challenges that the CT designs for you each month. All the challenges have fabulous RAKS for the monthly challenge winners. And the best part? The winners are chosen by random draw so that everyone has an equal chance of winning!

Here are some of the fabulous RAK's you can win:

Here's the one I covet, I so love G45!!!

There are 9 challenges in all and 9 RAKS up for grabs!!

And now for the special part!!! We're having SCRAP-O-WEEN and Mr. Halloween is giving away a $113 gift certificate to the Flying Unicorn store, plus there are daily contests with fun prizes and, well you just need to check it out for yourself!!

Hope to see you all at the Flying Unicorn!!!

SCRAP-O-WEEN at Flying Unicorn!

2011-09-30T17:34:00.001-04:00

From ghoulies and ghosties
and long leggety beasties
and things that go bump
in the night

the Celebrations will last all month long

From October 01 October 31

Haunted Forum Fun

Daily Spook-tacular Give-aways

Fang-tastic Challenges

Hollywood Horror

FLYING UNICORN FORUMS

Come join the fun at Flying Unicorn, there will be lots of great give away RAKS, contests, challenges, it's a month long even! Be there or the ghoulies will get ya!!

Flying Unicorn and Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-09-30T14:06:00.003-04:00

Yay, its Friday reveal day at Sketches" Creatively Yours! I used the gorgeous FabScraps papers available at the Flying Unicorn store to do this LO. FabScraps papers are special, well because they are beautiful and because they come all the way from Africa!
I am sad because today is my last day as the guest September Creative team member for Flying Unicorn! :-( I've had a great time there and if you haven't visited Flying Unicorn, then you are missing out! The store carries awesome products, including those much coveted Pion papers, as well as everything else in the latest and greatest category! Each month there are great challenges put on by the CT with AWESOME RAKS from the Flying Unicorn store. Hope to see you over there!

Here's the great sketch I used from Sketches: Creatively Yours designed by Ann Seleshanko. While the sketch itself is simple in its design, it lends itself to so many wonderful creations. Take a look at what the DT did with this sketch.

Here is my design:

I really love how this came together. I cut both sides of a strip of paper with the Martha Stewart scrolled hearts punch, its one of my faves, and then painted it with Glimmer Glam in Tutu Pink just for some extra sparkle. The swirly leaves are cut with a Spellbinders die made for Heartfelt Creations and I inked it with Distress Forest Moss and Bundled Sage. Then I added some Peeled Paint Distress Stickles. The flowers at the right are Petaloos that I sprayed with Creme de Rouge Glimmer Mist and inked the edges with Timmy's new Distress ink, Gathered Twigs. The flower on the left is a flower I made from a Lisa Gregory tut. The wonderful numerals are Pink Paislee Mist-a-bles, also from the store.

Do give this sketch a try and leave us a link to your design here.

As always, I really appreciate you visiting my blog and thanks for your comments!

Good times, good friends! Swirlydoos Sept kit

2011-09-28T16:10:00.001-04:00

Last weekend four of my Swirly girlfriends came for a weekend of scrapping, drinking and eating! LOL! We turned our upstairs into a big scrappy haven and had such a great time making a big mess! The poodles especially loved it because they had so many swirly aunties to pet and spoil them. Every morning they run to the top of the stairs hoping to see their swirly aunties, girls you are missed!! We all worked on paper bag minis and some of us dug into our Sept Swirly kits. Dick and I took everyone on a drive through the countryside so they could see our southern lifestyle and tobacco heritage.

I really love the Prima Printery papers that are in the Swirlydoos September kit. Someone kept telling me that less is better so I think my two LO's have a bit more blank space than normal! I loved using this Dusty Attic frame that I first painted with suede acrylic paint. Then I covered with Crackle Accents. When that dried, I rubbed pewter perfect pearls into all the cracks. The dress form is one of Primas new canvas resists that I inked with Distress antique linen ink - it was the perfect color for the dress form. The spool of thread is an Alterations diecut which I heat embossed to make it look like the dress form. First I painted the spool, then I stamped swirls and then heat-embossed the swirls with clear embossing powder. My Mother was an awesome seamstress so this LO is a nod to her talents.

I was really excited and really challenged when I came upon this photo of my great great grandparents, their daughter, SIL, probably a son and we don't know who the other person is. The original photo was badly faded and I did not imagine that I'd be able to bring as much detail out as I did. I was really ecstatic about the results that I managed to achieve. I'm really hooked on photo restoration and think I'm going to have a look at some new tools to make the job a tad easier. The Dusty Attic pieces are painted with white gesso and then sprayed with Glimmer mist in Timberline and Snowy Pine. The canvas resist piece is also sprayed with Timberline. Oh my, those are some GORGEOUS colors, moost haves!! Thank you Jen (jrabs) for the gorgeous buttons above and the trim below, both were perfect for my LOs!

Steam Punk and Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-09-16T05:36:00.000-04:00

I did this layout about 10 days ago for Sketches: Creatively Yours and have been anxious to share it with you. The fun part about this Steampunk layout is that the picture shows a REAL steampowered shovel. Isn't that cool!? I worked this LO for 2 days before it came together.

Here 's the great sketch drawn by Ali MacDonald:

And here is my interpretation:

I took the pictures at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, Alaska where they have several old pieces of equipment around that were used during the gold rush. This piece of machinery helped build the Panama Canal before it came to work in Alaska!

I used Core'dinations G45 Timeless Collection for the base page . The rest of the papers are from Graphic 45 Steampunk Collection. The frame is a Dusty Attic piece popped up for dimension that I stained with Distress stain in picket fence. Then I used a tiny script stamp to stamp over it using coffee archival ink. The various metal pieces are either Tim Holtz or 7 Gypsies. The brown flowers were made using the Alterations Tattered Floral die and were cut from Kraft Glassine paper. I added some pewter Perfect Pearls to give them a nice shimmer. The sunflower is made from a Spellbinders die with vintage photo distress stickles in the center. Oh yes, there's also some brown lace underneath the edge punched paper. I covered the letters with Crackle Accents and popped them up.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I really appreciate it. I hope you'll give this sketch a try and post a link at Sketches: Creatively Yours so that we can see your interpretation of the sketch!

Hollyhocks floral tutorial

2011-09-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

When I did my layout featuring a photo of hollyhocks I thought nothing but hollyhocks would do for floral embellishments so I decided to make my own. I really like how they turned out!

My supplies list for this flower:

Spellbinders Nestabilities Blossom Three - cut 2 the same size
McGill starburst punch - cut 3
Glimmer Mist - for these I used Cadillac Pink and Tattered Rose
Liquid Pearls in Bisque or Perfect Pearls in Biscotti
Glue - I use hot glue
Paintbrush

Ok let's get started. For my large bloom I used the 2nd largest die and cut two. For the smaller blooms I used the 3rd largest die and cut two. Cut between the petals so that you can better manipulate the petals.

Spray the cutouts with the two colors of Glimmer Mist heavily but don't spray the colors over top of each other, rather you want to achieve a varied color effect.

Then place the end of paintbrush handle or something similar in the center of the flower and scrunch the flower around the paintbrush handle. Then use a heat gun to semi dry the flowers. I find it easier to open the flowers if I leave them just a tad damp. Then using the paintbrush handle, curl the flower tips under just slightly.

Now we will paint the center of the flowers. You can either use liquid pearls slightly watered down or Perfect Pearls. Paint from the center of the flower towards the outside. Also paint your starbursts so that everything is sparkly. Hollyhocks have an iridescent glow to them, at least my fuschia colored ones did. I used Liquid Pearls on the large bloom and Perfect Pearls on the two smaller. The effect is nearly identical but I think I liked the Perfect Pearls just a tad more. Dry the blooms completely after painting the center.

Now glue the bloom with the painted center onto the 2nd bloom alternating the leaf pattern.

Hollyhock blooms are bowl shaped so cup the blooms in the palm of your hand to shape them. I sprayed a little water on the back of the blloms to aid in shaping. Curl the petals under a little while lifting and making the bowl impression in the center.

Glue the three starbursts on top of each other alternating so that the "stamen" are not lined up and then glue the assembled starbursts in the center of the bowl impression. Take your tweezers and lift the "stamen" from the starbursts to resemble the center of a holyhock.

And here are the finished flowers. One note, the glimmer mist I had was not quite as dark as I wanted so I ended up painting the petals with iridescent pearl water color paint.

If you make some of these hollyhocks, please leave me a link, I'd love to see what you did!!

Thanks for visiting!

Fabscraps pp and Flying Unicorn

2011-09-10T16:07:00.000-04:00

I've been having so much fun being the guest designer at Flying Unicorn this month. Alda sent me the greatest box of goodies to play with and I did this LO using some of the things she sent me.

The photo is of hollyhocks growing by our house when we lived in Denver. They are such gorgeous flowers! The large flowers I made and be sure to see my tutorial for making these hollyhocks. Tutorials are listed on the sidebar.

The gorgeous papers are from Fabscraps, they were perfect or this photo. The ruffle along the bottom is Pink Paislee Mist-a-bles, but for this I left in it's natural white color. The round chippie is Dusty Attic sprayed with Glimmer Mist in timberline and then I inked the edges with Distress bundled sage. My letters are Authentique and you can find all of these items as well as the tiny roses at the Flying Unicorn store. I added the cheesecloth and pearl trim from my stash as well as the leaves which I cut with Marvy Uchida punch.

There are some great challenges with RAKS that you should check out too. I'm going to put this LO in the Fabulous Flowers and Extreme Layering challenges.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Hope you're having a scrappy happy weekend!!

Swirlydoos LO - July kit

2011-09-07T17:21:00.002-04:00

Wow, I am sooooooooooooooo far behind in my posting and commenting! I did this LO about a month ago for a challenge at Swirlydoos to use misting, masking & Gesso on a layout. I don't know what I've been doing all month but it hasn't had much to do with SBing much to my chagrin!!

The July Swirlydoos kit had some of my favorite papers in it, Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden.

For the mask, I used the DA piece and olive vine glimmer mist. I used clear gesso on the hearts border strip and then painted with Shimmerz and Glimmer mist. The clear gesso acts a little like a resist and gave the mottled color look.

The photo is of my Mom, two of her sisters and a cousin. All of the girls lived together in Washington DC during the war. I call it spirit b/c I think it took alot of spirit for 4 country bumpkins to move to the big city like that! I can imagine that my Grandparents were having a fit! Thanks for visiting my blog and I always appreciate your comments!!

Mesa Verde - Flying Unicorn

2011-09-07T16:45:00.004-04:00

As the September guest CT member, Alda, owner of the Flying Unicorn, sent me a lovely box of goodies from the Flying Unicorn Store that included Fabscraps and Authentique papers. I used the beautiful Authentique Journal papers for this layout that I did for Frank's extreme layers challenge. The Authentique papers are so nice and are such a nice weight. I wanted to add some contrast to the blue so added the yellow CS. I made the large sunflowers on the left and the vine on the right is Petaloo. Those wonderful letters are Pink Paislee mist-a-bles, they are so fun as they have a resist finish on them, also in the store. I know you NEED some of them!!! I inked the mistable letters and did the masking with Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass distress ink.

September Flying Unicorn forum challenges!

2011-09-02T05:46:00.001-04:00

As a guest CT member this month I am hosting a challenge, "It's all about techniques." I hope you'll check it out and join in the fun. For my challenge I've listed 10 different techniques and I challenge you to use them all on a single layout. One enty point is awarded for using each technique (max of 10). At the end of the month a winner will be chosen using random.org and the winner will receive a fabulous RAK from the Flying Unicorn store!

Here's my example layout that I did for the challenge:

The techniques I used:

I made the large flowers on my layout using a tutorial from member Lisa Gregory. Check out her blog for some fabulous flower tuts. http://what-a-beautiful-mess.blogspot.com/

Heat embossing – I embossed the swirls using marcasite embossing powder

My edges are inked and then distressed using water distressing. To do this, first distress the edges, I use my Zutter Distrezz-it-all. Then, dampen the edges of your paper a bit with your fingers and then wrinkle, fold, curl, and push the paper edges in so that the effect is 3-.D.

I used a Prima mask and distress ink in the lower left corner

On the upper left, I spread some gesso over my paper and then stamped it with that famous brick stamp!! I let that dry and then wiped over the stamped image with pumice distress ink so that the image of the brick stands out. I’ve also done this with molding paste and I think I like that effect a little better. Here’s a link to a tut on my blog for this technique. http://scraptravelbark.blogspot.com/2011/07/red-fox-sketches-creatively-yours.html

I used a Martha Stewart corner punch to punch around my circle. That’s a great technique that I learned from Lisa Gregory! (tut http://what-a-beautiful-mess.blogspot.com/2010/10/paper-corner-punch-decorative-circles.html).It’s easy, just turn your punch over so that you can see where you are punching and punch around the circle. You can also use the technique described in this tut: http://scraptravelbark.blogspot.com/2011/07/red-fox-sketches-creatively-yours.html

I made my cluster from two Petaloo picks, Prima leaves and my handmade flowers.

The letters for “France” in the lower left have been stamped with a Prima stamp featuring tiny script writing.

Everyone on the Creative Team has posted a great challenge, there's sure to be a challenge or two that you'll want to try. There are great RAKs to be won for each challenge too. Come visit!

Flying Unicorn!

2011-08-31T21:06:00.000-04:00

I am so honored to have been chosen as the September guest CT member at Flying Unicorn! Alda sent me a wonderful package full of goodies so that I could create some special things for the Flying Unicorn gallery. I hope you take a few minutes and check out the forum and gallery at Flying Unicorn. There will be new September challenges posted tomorrow and the challenge winners get great RAKS from the store. I have a fun challenge planned too, hope you'll check it out!

So here are a couple of layouts that I did using my Flying Unicorn goodies featuring the Authetique Journey collection and Fabscraps. I made the brown flowers using Tim Holtz glassine paper. I painted on some dry Perfect Pearls and then set the powder by heating with my heat gun. It works perfectly and adds such a lovely metallic sheen to the flowers. I love metallic accents and use it alot on my LOs.

I love this photo of my Uncle, he looks so suave! I think you'll be seeing this photo again as I haven't quite captured the essence of this photo that was taken in France during WW II.

My challenge LO at Flying Unicorn features Fabscraps paper. Be sure to check it out tomorrow!!

Fun in the Sun

2011-08-22T10:02:00.001-04:00

I haven't felt really inspired lately but had to get this done for the Swirlydoos round robin. The photo is of my brother, two cousins and me taken at a lake in the Pocono mountains where we lived when I was a small child. The other two images are from G45 On the Boardwalk. I really love that Dusty Attic piece as it evokes the feeling of waves and water to me. I painted it with Smooch pearl aqua and then applied Stickles in Eucalytus, Frosted Lace and Diamond. The blue pearls are MM. Love the pp, from Kaisercraft, part of the August Swirlydoos kit. The other embellies are from past swirlydoos kit except for the clock face which my dear friend jrabs diecut for me using the Tim Holtz Alterations die. I did the masking using a Tattered Angels mask and Distress ink in sage and tumbled glass.

Thanks for visiting!!

Sketchs: Creatively Yours and Swirlydoos July Kit

2011-08-18T08:22:00.002-04:00

Really, here is it past the midpoint of August and what do I have to show for it? Not much. What the heck have I been doing, not much scrapping, unfortunately!! I did manage to get this one done last week for the Friday Sketches: Creatively Yours sketch. Here's sketch 13-11 created by Ali MacDonald. Be sure to check out the Sketches Creatively Yours to see all the great LOs created from this sketch.

And my layout, I flipped the sketch as I thought it worked better this way with my photos.

I used my July Swirlydoos kit that features the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden and G45 Once Upon a Springtime collections. I added the Dusty Attic gate, heart doily and letters (from an earlier SDs kit). I used distress ink to color the flowers on the top picture - it worked amazingly well. I was just feeling lazy and didn't want to take the time to learn how to do that in PSE.

Peaceful Waters - Flying Unicorn July kit

2011-08-05T07:57:00.000-04:00

Oh this layout was a challenge for me as this is a color combo that I can't remember ever using. I really "dinked" with this LO for a long time before I decided I liked it! And finally what brought the whole thing together was the beautiful multicolored fabric flower from Flying Unicorn and the ferns. Everything on this pages is from the July Flying Unicorn kit with the exception of the pearls, fern leaves and Moonshadow Mist (Aqua) spray behind the photos - they are from my stash.

This is my first Flying Unicorn kit and have to say that I love it! Its a great value and comes packed with different things than one usually finds in a kit at this price. Along with papers and embellies, there was a nice sized canvas, at least 10 x 10, and mini tubes of acrylic paint. I haven't tackled that yet, I'm not sure what I want to do with it. If you are interested in great kits, be sure to check out the Flying Unicorn store.

The photos are of me in the Florida keys in 1978. I added 3 different PSE photo effects to the pictures just for fun.

Another Chena and Escape Kitty escapade! Sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-08-05T06:34:00.001-04:00

Wow, its been a long time since I posted. Right after I got back from CHA, I came down with a nasty case of bronchitis that totally took the wind out of my sail and I'm just back on my feet! I spent the better part of the last two weeks sleeping and reading. I haven't counted, but I bet I read somewhere between 8 - 10 books. It's just so easy to order another book on my Nook, yikes my credit card is yelling at me!

So here we go again....That dog and That cat are out traipsing the world again and now they're in Morocco!!! And how did they get there you ask, obviously they didn't drive the motorhome!! Well if you can believe it, they found a Magic Carpet and off they flew. Yeah, right you say, well we have pictures and you can see them here, in jrabs gallery. Jennifer (jrabs) is Kitty's Mom. Take a trip through her gallery and you'll find out all about Kitty and Chena. In a nutshell, poor Kitty has to stay indoors because a coyote has moved into her neighborhood and Jennifer fears for dear Kitty's life. Now Kitty is not too happy about this so she has been trying to escape ever since. Now Chena, being a particularly resourceful and smart dog, learned of Kitty's plight (pet ESP I guess) and took our motorhome to New York, rescued Kitty, and the two of them headed for a grand vacation in Alaska. After a couple of months of frolicing there, Chena finally brought the RV home and took off again for Niagara Falls where she and Kitty took a barrel over the falls!! That little adventure got them arrested but oh don't you know, they were resting on a little carpet in their jail cell that turned out to be magical and now they are in Morocco riding camels and who knows what else!! And I might add that Chena still has my credit card!!!!! Ha-ha, I am going to cancel that sucker and hopefully that will force Chena and EK to hop that magic carpet and come home!!

So Chena, being the loving dog that she is and not wanting her dear parents to worry, pee-mails home frequently and sent us this photo. Can you believe it? Yeah, EK's up there on the camel with her, she is sitting right behind Chena.

I used this week's great sketch drawn by Ali at Sketches: Creatively Yours to create this layout. Please check out the other layouts from the rest of the design team, they are great!! And if you decide to try the sketch, be sure to link it so we can all see and admire your work!

Thanks to Jennifer for allowing me to play along with the Escape Kitty adventures!

Chicago - CHA

2011-07-17T13:31:00.000-04:00

Yippee!!! Off to CHA (Craft Hobby Assoc.) show today in Chicago and I'll be there all week. I am excited about that. I'm meeting up with some gals from Swirlydoos and I know we're going to have a grand time!

So I've been really busy with my garden and getting my stuff together for CHA and all the classes I will be attending. Swirlydoos is having a very special class with Ingvild Bolme & Trish Ladouceur on Friday and then a crop afterwards.

My garden has been wonderful this year, getting lots of field peas (sort of like black eyed peas) butter beans, tomatos, squash, cucumbers, peppers. Yummy, there is nothing in this world like fresh produce straight from the garden! It has kept me busy freezing and canning for the last couple of weeks.

So with all this going on, I've had no scrappy time, but that's ok, I will get lots of scrapping in this week. I think I'll be making alot of mini books and I do love those!

I'm leaving my computer behind, decided I didn't want to have to keep up with it. So, see ya when I get back!

The continuing sage of Chena and Escape Kitty

2011-07-11T18:32:00.001-04:00

So when I last heard from Chena she had lost Escape Kitty when she stopped at Uncle Willie's. Poor Chena she watned EK to meet her dear sweet favorite person (besides me of course) and EK jumped out of the motorhome and ran away. Well now, finally that dog is home and it certainly is time. As I suspected, she had been swilling champagne with her Uncle Willie as you can see in this picture. I sent her an email and told her that EK was home with jrabs and everything was A_OK so she finally decided to bring the rolling doghouse home!! She was quite elated to hear that EK was home as she really was worried about her dear kitty friend. They are indeed the odd couple but I think they had a grand old time in Alaska! But OMG, that motorhome sure does smell. What's up with that cat that she can't clean out her littler box? Me thinks that Miss Kitty just might be spoiled. I believe she might be a little princess!! I just have a feeling those two ar eup to something. Chena is sneaking around, using my computer when I'm not watching, I don't know what the heck she's searhcing for but I keep seeing addresses to far away places. And then the other night, she was watching I Dream of Jeannie online. What's up with that? You know, why can't she lay around and chew on a bone like a normal dog??

I did this layout for a challenge at Flying Unicorn to use punched or cut paper. See the challenge here. I used 3 different items that I cut on my Vagabond, the Umbrella Man, gear, and the rosettes. I also cut the trim using a Martha Stewart deep edge punch - scrolled hearts. The papers I used are Webster's Ladies and Gents and I won this pack of papers from Flying Unicorn. Sweet!!

I love layers and layers and I love patterned paper. You don't usually see much cardstock on my layouts other than buried deep in the background or maybe used to make flowers. Some of my scrappy friends tell me that they have trouble with layers so I thought I'd tell you how I approach layers. First of all, as you begin to use layers, it is easier to work with a collection of papers because then all you don't have to worry about your colors coordinationg. When selecting your layers you want to pick things that work together. Generally a large print and a small print will work better together than two large or two small prints. A stripe is always a nice mix into your collection of patterns. Look for contrast in the colors you select too. That helps each paper stand apart for the others. Contrasting patterns look good together, i.e. a stripe, a check, circles, large print, small print.

Here's my selection of papers and in the order that they will be layered. I chose the light green paper to cut a circle from. This is where I will place my photo. Although this paper has a pattern it is a "quiet" pattern and won't distract from my photo. If you are layering your photo onto busy paper, it is a good idea to mat your photo with a solid color. I chose that very lively striped paper to go behind the circle, after that the Webster's diecut that has some will reside mostly in the background and finally the blue as a bottom frame. Notice I have cut the center out of the blue paper. It wouldn't show so why waste that paper? I used in on another LO. The brown and white stripe I cut using Martha Stewart scrolled hearts border punch. In the next frame you will notice that the blue is different and that's because I fliiped it over. I liked the green colors in it and it sort of pulled all the colors together.

Next I put all the pieces togehter to see if it pleased me. I decided I liked the arangement so next I thought about embellishments that might work. I like this trim with fuzzy balls on it, I think it works well on a guy layout. But when I put the trim on the border cut, the border cut got lost on the layout.

I thought maybe a piece of solid cardstock under the border cut would bring it out so I chose a green piece of cardstock the color of the leaves on the Websters die cut.

Yes, I think that helps alot! I love paper rosettes, they work well on guy layouts, so I used my Alterations paper rosette die to cut these two rosettes. I always ink the edges of those too. Ink adds dimension, I use it on everything. And one of my favorite things is the Umbrella Man so if I can work him into a layout, even better!! I cut this one using Timmy's glassine paper. Then I brushed on some cappucino Perfect Pearls and set that with my heat gun to give the Umbrella Man a little shimmer.

At this point I am happy with my over design so I start putting my layout together. BUT, before I adhere anything, I have to distress and ink all the edges. I used a little water on the circle and striped paper edges so that I could curl the paper a little to give my layout some added dimension.

You can see that after I got my papers adhered I added some extra embellishments and a title. I outlined the letters with a brown pen after I put them down. They needed a little extra emphasis as they were getting lost on that busy striped paper. I added buttons to the rosettes to liven them up a bit, some journaling and the large gear which has been coated with bronze Perfect Pearls. Willie is a car guy so I added the Tattered Angel car Glimmer chip. Added the burlap and brown lace as those are always on the EK and Chena LOs.

I hope this gives you some ideas on layering and helps you get started using layers on your layouts! Thanks for visiting, I really appreciate it!!

Glitz Designs - Beautiful Dreamer

2011-07-10T09:33:00.000-04:00

Here's another fabulous collection from Glitz Designs. I think we're going to be seeing and using alot of Glitz this fall!! All 3 collections are just incredibly yummy! For your chance to win, be sure to head over to the Glitz Designs blog and follow the instructions!

Sketches Creatively Yours - What will you be?

2011-07-08T07:16:00.002-04:00

And here's another great sketch at Sketches: Creatively Yours. We have a guest Sketch Artist over at the Sketches: Creatively Yours Blog this month! Her name is Charlotte AKA Suepup and she creates beautiful Sketches! This is a wonderful sketch and could be used with so many photos! Why don't you give it a try? and be sure to leave us a link at the S:CY blog so we can admire your work.

Here's my interpretation of the sketch. I also did this layout for two challenges at Flying Unicorn. The first challenge is hosted by my good friend Denise and is an "Out of the Box" challenge to use a photo in a different way. I chose to add a mosaic tile effect to my photo to signify the varying components of our personalities that eventually combine to make us the adults that we turn out to be. I was 19 or 20 when this photo was taken and very much conflicted about what I wanted to be "when I grow up". I used older papers from Graphic 45, Fashionista, Domestic Goddess and Curtain Call. Oh do I ever love these papers!! They are my colors, reds, blacks, ivories. You may have noticed a recurring theme of red in my LOs!! I used some Magical Micas from Lindy's stamp gang to color the gown of the fussy cut lady. Those vines are Petaloo and I wish I had a couple dozen paks of them!!

The other challenge was to used polka dots and I've got that covered with the dotted base paper and the red dotted doily cutout.

Thanks for stopping by, I love reading you comments and thank you so much for leaving them. I hope everyone has a great weekend and has a chance to scrap. No scrapping for me this w/e, company coming to spend Saturday night with us. AND you know what that means? Time to clean house, YUCK!!

Glitz Designs - Dance in Sunshine, new papers

2011-07-06T08:38:00.000-04:00

I really love what Glitz has been doing lately and they've got some awesome new papers coming out this summer. Look at these gorgeous colors! I can't wait to get my hands on this collection!

And best of all, Glitz is giving away the entire collection to some lucky person!! For your chance to win, go to the Glitz blog and find out how you can have a chance to win this fabulous collection.

Sketch challenge - Glitz Designs

2011-07-05T13:01:00.000-04:00

I love this pretty sketch at the Glitz Designs blog and who wouldn't want to win some of their fabulous papers? So I did this layout to enter in the sketch challenge. The photo is of me when I was 3 or 4 years old, taken outside our home in Verdun, France, where my father was stationed in the US Army. That is my very first dog, Mary Jane, a life long love affair with canines must have been born there in France!

I used the gorgeous Laced with Grace collection from Glitz for this LO. It is one of my very favorite paper lines ever followed closely by Love Games. I misted and inked the masked images using Tattered Angels branches mask on the circle and Prima mask on the plaid pp. I used a Martha Stewart leafy corner punch to punch around the circle.

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it and a special thanks for when you leave comments. I love reading the comments and am humbled by your kindness and appreciation of my work.

Genuine Grace

2011-07-04T07:33:00.000-04:00

I love this photo of my Mother, not because its a good picture of her, its not, but it's such an artistic photo from the perspective of standing in the door frame. It really conveys a look. I know I've seen a painting of a woman in a door frame but can't remember the artist. The photo was a black and white that I converted to a sepia tone to better match the mood I wanted to capture.

I did this for the July round robin at Swirlydoos which, is always so fun, using one of my favorite kits, the Bo Bunny spotlight kit. I added the laces and fan from my stash and a few other bits from other SDs kits. I made the flowers from Tim Holtz glassine paper and achieved the glittery look by brushing with Perfect Pearls and then heating the flowers with my heat gun. The glassine paper coating then sets the Perfect Pearls. The flowers are so pretty and shimmery IRL. Its kind of hard to capture in a photo.

Painting the lamp post was fun. I started by misting with graphite Glimmer Mist, then painted on some tattered leather Glimmer Mist, and finished by brushing the edges with walnut stain Distress ink. I still wasn't satisfied so I added some bronze rubon. I don't see that much anymore, but it is a metallic cream that you rub on, its fun messy stuff!! I used scraps of white handmade pp stained with Distress antique linen to make the globes in the lamps.

The letters were first covered with Distress walnut stain and then I used gold rubonsto bring out the embossed areas. I used gold UTEE embossing powder on the watch casing.

I have to change the journaling a little as I got some additional information from my Mom yesterday but it will read:

1953 Verdun, France – Dad had already gone to his duty station in Verdun, so you had to fly to France with a baby, Margaret, and Craig, almost 5 at the time. The plane was struck by lightening and caught fire so the plane made an emergency landing in Newfoundland. By that time, you must have been scared out of your mind and wondering why on earth you were traveling to this foreign land.

But there you were, in France, living in a house with a bullet holes from WWII in the front door. Our french landlady & her son had hidden in a cabinet in the kitchen when the Germans forced their way into her home. Fortunately they didn’t look there and she was ok.

You and Dad lived on the French economy and with the grace that you’ve had all your life, you accepted the situation and set about learning to speak French. You and our landlady, Madam Gaillard, sat with the French/English dictionary and learned to communicate. By the time we came home from France, you were speaking fluent French.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate it!

Red Fox - Sketches Creatively Yours

2011-07-03T06:38:00.001-04:00

Here's another great sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours. chose to flip the sketch on its side and it really works well with that orientation. Charlotte, aka Suepup, is the guest designer at S: CY this month and her sketches are a treat. Please check them out!

Here's my take on the sketch. I flipped the sketch to the side. I took these pictures last summer in Alaska at Denali National Park.

I recently bought some molding paste and have been playing around with it. On this layout I took a piece of screening and adhered to my layout using just a little hot glue. Then I smeared on some molding paste and used a popsickle stick to smooth it out over the screen. Then I stamped my brick wall stamp into the molding pasted creating a brick pattern. After it dried I sprayed with Moonshadow mist in Bucket O'Blood Red.. You can speed up the drying process with your heat gun but be aware that the top drys but underneath it will still be pliable.

Next, I prepared the 2 piece Dusty Attic Scroll #1. I used Distress Stain in Peeled Paint to cover the chippy and then heavily inked the edges with Distress Walnut Stain. The top piece I painted with acrylic antique white paint. After that dried I randomly brushed some bronze ink along the edges and top to give it an aged appearance and then coated with Crackle accents. After that was dried, I rubbed distress ink into the cracks .

While the chippies were drying, I started assembling my LO. I cut one 5" circle and two 3.75" circles from the BasicGrey Curio collection, General Store, and adhered them to my base pp, which is also BasicGrey Curio, Needle Lace.

I cut my letters from cork paper and inked the edges with Distress walnut stain. Next I adhered the bottom Dusty Attic piece, that is the one stained green. Then I attached the two smaller photos. Next I added the white Dusty Attic chippie placing part of it over top the center photo, and part underneath the center photo. Next to the top photo I placed a piece of Dusty Attic chicken wire. I mean, afterall, you have to have chicken wire when you've got a fox on the loose!

I made the gingham ribbon loops by cutting a 6" length of ribbon and folding then and adhering each fold with a sticky dot. I love ribbon loops, they just add a sweet feminine touch. It was a female fox, I'm betting she was out hunting to feed her kits. Then the branches are felt which I brushed with a little bronze ink and the flowers are some layered Primas. Finally I added a small journal tag and that's all there is to it!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a great holiday weekend.

Your Beautiful Life - Dusty Attic June sketch challenge

2011-06-28T22:02:00.000-04:00

My Mother, unfortunately the early photos aren't dated, but I think the one on the left is circa 1930, the middle 1946-1948. I imagine the center photo was taken at Easter since she is wearing a corsage, they did that back then and there are a number of EAster photos. The other thing is to look at the lovely suit she is wearing. I am sure that she sewed it. My mother was an incredible seamstress and made all my clothes when I was growing up. She tailored sports jackets for my Dad, what a talent she had, I did not inherit her love of sewing!!

I used the the beautiful Glitz Love Games for this LO. I love the poppy red in these papers. I made the red poppies, see my poppy tut, link on my sidebar. The wonderful swirly leaves are cut with a Heartfelt Creations/Spellbinders die. The black swirls are stamped images. They are Inkadinkadoo and I got them at Michaels. I like them, I bet you will see them again!

Oh the Dusty Attic chipboard colum and pot with the ferns. They are so lovely and add the perfect touch fo class to a layout. I painted the column first with a whitewash of acrylic antique white. Then I used biscotti perfect pearls to paint inside the column and the accents on the column. The pot was painted first with a good coat of biscotti perfect pearls. After that dried I took a very find paintbrush and lightly painted random lines with capuccino perfect pearls to imitate marbling. After that dried I added a coat of Crackle Accents which i discovered does not stick very well to perfect pearls so I painted over it all with Diamond Glaze and it seems to be holding just fine. I also added some gold perfect pearls to accentuate the design on the pot.
Ther fern leaves are also Dusty Attic and they have been coated with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope all your days are stellar!!

Scrappy Giveaway!!!

2011-06-25T17:28:00.000-04:00

Unfortuantely, Kirilee never claimed her prize so I have picked a new winner using Random.org and that person is Georgie Horn!! Congrats Georgie!! Please leave me a message on this post to claim your prize by Wednesday, June 29th midnight! I will pick another winner if the prize is unclaimed.

Fly - Bella Creations challenge

2011-06-25T17:19:00.001-04:00

I did this LO for the Bella CreationsTake Flight Transformation group. This is a bit different from my typical LO, but I sure had fun creating it! I used the BasicGrey Curio collection which I am finding is just perfect for nature LOs - you really wouldn't think so but I've done several nature themed pages with it and love the results. Anyway, I started out with the solid sheet, Cabriole, and put a Crafters Workshop template over it and using distress ink in Tattered Rose and Tumbled Glass, creatied the floral and bird background image. The Dusty Attic column, bowl and wings were painted with Liquid Pearls in Bisque. On the column, I used a little antique white acrylic paint under the Liquid Pearls. I fussy cut the two floral patterns from the Gouache pp. I used a journal stamp to create my journaling card. I cut the birdcage using the Alterations large cage die and I cut the pp over it from some very very old pp, Michaels Slab V I think it was. Whew, never thought I'd use that again but I like the woven basket pattern. I painted some Dusty Attic leaves with Olive Vine glimmer mist. I used the BG letters in green that came with this paper pack but I painted them with glimmer mist olive vine to darket the color a bit.I added the strip of paper at the bottom and fussy cut along the top to give the illusion of grass. Then I clustered my flowers and that's all there is to it!

Puppy Love

2011-06-24T05:56:00.001-04:00

I made this Puppy Love tag over a year ago and haven't had the right LO to use it with. Ah, but the papers and the tag came together perfectly for the LO that I did for the DT sketch at Sketches: Creatively Yours where Ali hand draws these great sketches.

Here's this week's sketch, why don't you give it a try? Be sure to post a link to your LO at S: CY.

And here's my take on the sketch. Yeah, I went wild, I just can't seem to stop until all the usable space is crammed full!!

These are K & Co papers designed by Susan Winget, I love the bright floral colors. Just perfect for scrappy my girly poodles!!

My good scrapping buddy, Jennifer (jrrabs) hosts a Friends and Family Showcase challenge at Scrapbook.com every month and I'm going to enter this LO in the challenge. Well really, Escape Kitty is the host, Jennifer is Kitty's admin assistant and thus handles all of Kitty's correspondence and postings. If you don't know who Escape Kitty is, well you are missing out on a great story! Click on the Escape Kitty and Chena label to find out more about this dynamic duo.

Escape Kitty and Chena saga - Where is that cat?

2011-06-23T21:43:00.000-04:00

Poor Chena, here she sits looking out the back window of the RV, she is shaking in her poodle boots (sort of like white go-go boots, ha- ha if you remembe those you are my age!) 'cause Escape Kitty has disappeared. Oh no Chena!! What are you going to tell Jennifer (Jrabs)? You know she is expecting Kitty to be home very soon.

So Chena and Kitty were on their way home from Alaska when Chena decided it would be fun to take Kitty to her old "stomping grounds" in Denver. She wanted to introduce Kitty to her Uncle Willie, her mostest favorite person in the world besides me and dh, of course. Technically Chena, along with us, lived in Lakewood which is a western suburb of Denver and wouldn't you know, not all that far from Bailey, CO where Swirlydoos was having their annual scrapfest, camp, whatever....

So when Chena and EK arrived at Uncle Willie's, and got out of the motorhome, EK bolted, like she was gone in a flash, Chena called and called after her, but alas EK was gone and now Chena is afraid to come home. Chena knows that there are coyotes in the area because she had a barkfest at 2 am with one in our backyard. (I was not happy that I had to get up and drag her back in the house by the way. In fact I had to stomp through a foot of snow to get her) So she is really afraid for EK. We know that EK is not allowed outdoors unless supervised because of the coyotes.

What Chena doesn't know is that EK ran away to go find her human, jrabs in Bailey, CO at the Swirlydoos camp.

Now what you dont' know is that Uncle Willie just turned 60 and he is kinda depressed. I'm guessing he and Chena are hanging out swilling champagne 'cause that's what Uncle Willie does.

Meanwhile I've been trying email Chena and tell her that EK is ok and that she can come home. In fact, she'd better get her poodle butt home 'cause i want my motorhome back!! No more joyrideing Chena!! Jrabs is not mad at her, in fact she appreciated that Chena brought EK to Denver so that EK could go home with her in the big skybird! But Chena is not answering her email, she is probably passed out in Uncle Willie's guest room....snoring in her sleep and dreaming about EK...oh where, oh where has my little cat gone, oh where or where can she be?

Youth Song

2011-06-22T18:53:00.001-04:00

I did this LO for the Bo Bunny sketch challenge using the Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection. Picture was taken on the intercoastal waterway in Dania, FL in 1978. Painted the Dusty Attic chipboard with Liquid Pearls in bisque and added a touch of peacock.

I love what this quotes says, "Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth, to some good angel leave the rest; For Time will teach thee soon the truth, there are no birds in last year’s nest! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow." I can honestly say that I enjoyed my Spring of Love and Youth!!

Blog candy winner!!

2011-06-18T08:34:00.000-04:00

Using Random. org, Kirilee is the winner of my Glitz LoveGames blog candy!! Congrats! You have until midnight Friday, June 24 to claim your prize!!

Night Blooming Cactus

2011-06-17T13:20:00.000-04:00

When I lived in Florida, many years ago, we had a huge night blooming cactus in our yard. The blossoms would open up at night and closed before morning. I took this photo using time lapse and multiple flashes. I also took the picture using slide film so this is a scan from a slide. The scan wasn't all that great so I played around in PS and added some special effects.

The papers are from the May Swirlydoos kit, Grandma's Garden, featuring Glitz Laced with Grace collection. I think this is one of my favorite paper lines ever. sure am glad I ordered an extra pp and CS !

I started with a sheet of pale yellow Bazzill, I wantedt o add some white elements to tie in to the blooms so I stamped flourishes on the Bazzill and heat embossed with white embossing powder. The black flourishes at the bottom are printed on a transparency (thank you Robin @ Swirlydoos for the images!). The flowers are layered Petaloo Color Me Crazy sprayed with a pearly whie Smooch. I love the Petaloo vines that are accented with gold. I also printed the title on a transparency and glued it to the Websters journal card.

Sunshine Bliss

2011-06-17T07:01:00.000-04:00

One of the design elements I consider when I put together a page is color. I often pick colors from my photograph for my paper layers. With this photo, I especially wanted to pickup the beautiful colors of the Florida tropical waters and the sandy beach. The striped pp from MME was the perfect paper as it had all the colors I wanted. I painted the Dusty Attic frame with green smooch and turquoise liquid pearls which works great as a paint if you water it down just a tad. I usually put a few drops of liquid pearls on my craft sheet, dip my brush first in water and then in the liquid pearls and paint away, works great. I like the shimmery effect of the two together.

The papers are a combination of My Mind's Eye Stella and Dora and K & Co Ancestry and hiding underneath the wild flower punched page is Glitz Laced with Grace Butterflies. All of the papers are from the May Swirlydoos kit except for the MME papers.

Scrappy Giveaway to my followers

2011-06-13T07:25:00.000-04:00

Oh blogger has not been very cooperative ever since I put up my blog candy, there have been times when I could not see my followers, time when you couldn't become a follower, all very frustrating!! So I am going to pick a winner on Saturday, June 18th. Right now I can see my followers after about 2 weeks of not being to see them! I think its an issue between blogger and Internet Explorer as I recently installed Google Chrome and have no problems using Chrome.

Thanks to everyone who has become a follower, I really appreciate you taking the time to visit and please, don't be a stranger!!

Artist Trading Card (ATC) - The Flower 1/1

2011-06-13T07:05:00.003-04:00

I made this ATC fir a challenge at Swirlydoos. I often use ATC's as "practice" for a new technique. On this ATC, I covered the background with molding paste and then stamped it with a brick stamp. I used my heat gun to dry the molding paste, and then I sprayed liberally with Moonshadow mist Bucket o'blood red. The large flower I cut using my Alterations Tattered Flower die, used the two small flowers. I rad the flowers through using an embossing folder to give them a bit of texture. They are sprayed with Moonshadow mist and then touched with silver ink although that isn't showing much in the photo. I used a silver gel pin to add silver highlites to the leafy vine and the largeer Tattered Angels glimmer glass leaves. I drew the vine and leaves near the bottom using a glue pen and then sprinkled with glitter. This was my first use of molding paste, I like the end result!

Oops, Swirlydoos June Kit

2011-06-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

I've had alot of fun with this June manly kit from Swirlydoos!! I just lovet this photo of my Dad taken in 1941 after he had a "little" accident. Ooops, I think he rolled the car, lucky he didn't get hurt really bad! Love the bandage around his head and his shoes. Check out the shoes!! I've got to get the story straight from Dad and then I will add it to the journal tag.

I used TPC Studios, MME and Bo Bunny pps on this LO, all in the June kit! I love the Alterations paper rosette flower that I have used on all my LOs lately. Its the perfect touch for the guy pages where you need a little something but don't want to add foofy flower!!

I'm also working on a travel mini - we got a Tattered Angels round travel mini in the June kit. who knows how long it'll take me to get that completed but I do have a little done. Its one of those projects you work on a little at the time!

Then this is probably my last LO using the June kit, there's not much left, a few scrap and one paper that I'm saving to use in my travel mini. This photo is from 1978, geez that was a long time ago. I still feel like that girl, why don't I still look like her??!

WAR - Swirlydoos June kit

2011-06-06T08:15:00.000-04:00

A while back I challenged Krissy, our wonderful Swirly leader, to create a manly kit and WOW, did she deliver! This month we got an eclectic collection of pps from Bo Bunny Timepiece, TPC Studios and My Minds Eye along with aawesome chippies, glimmer glass, and stamps! Thanks Krissy! I made this layout as my entry for the Round Robin challenge that we have at Swirlydoos every month and I also used it as my example LO to the gals at SOS to challenge them to try some different techniques.

I love this picture of my Dad with the rifle slung over his shoulder. He was lucky in thta he was not on the front and was safely tucked away in England for most of his time during the war.

Journal: Lady Luck sure was with Dad during WW II. The Army sent Dad to teletype school after he got out of basic training. That kept him out of the infantry. After completing teletype school he joined with a unit scheduled to go to Africa. For whatever reason, his unit never made the ship to Africa. Again, Lady Luck smiled on him as that ship sank on its way to Africa! Dad ended up in England where he stayed until just after VE day when he went to Paris and stayed until he came home in January 1946.

I embossed the gear with gold UTEE, I think it resembles a ship's wheel and that is what it is representing on this LO. I love the paper rosettes cut with Alterations die. I think they add a nice touch to manly LOs without being overly feminine as some flowers can be. Love the little Making Memories dog tag I found in the $1 bin at Michaels - perfect for military LOs as all the soldiers had dog tags. As an army dependent, I even had dog tags!

The circle is actually a plain piece of off white cardstock that I stamped with a screen print stamp from Tattered Angels and a Bo Bunny clock face stamp. This is a great way to "dress up" your plain cardstock and give it some texture and dimension.

Here's a close up of the embellie cluster:

Thanks for visiting, I really appreciate your comments!

Life Lessons - Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-06-04T10:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a bust! My wireless went wonky so I spent the day without the internet, GASP!! You have no idea how hard that was! Thankfully, everything is again functional.

I wanted to share this layout with you that I made using the May Swirlydoos kit, Grandmas's Garden, and a sketch from Ali at Sketches: Creatively Yours.

The May kit is so awesome, it features Glitz Laced with Grace as well as papers from Crafters Workshop and K & Co Ancestry. I've done everything from heritage LOs to nature LOs. On this layout I've used paper from all three lines as well as some Bazzill cardstock. There are PRima flowers and a couple handmade flowers too.

But on to Ali's sketch. I must admit that when I first looked at it, I thought, eek, 5 pictures? But then I said, oh I can do that and off I went and found this great series of photos of bison that we saw along the road on our drive to Alaska last summer. I love the resulting LO and thank you Ali for the great sketch!!

Arthur Strickland

2011-05-31T21:55:00.000-04:00

Arthur Strickland, my grandfather that I never knew. I won a great paper prize pak from Flying Unicorn and this is the first LO I made with it, Webster's Pages, Ladies and Gents. These guy LOs are more difficult because I don't like to add a lot of flowers and bling to them. Let's face it, its relatively easy to make a LO look great when you put pretty flowers and sparkly bling - not so easy otherwise!

Let's make a journal!

2011-05-28T09:27:00.003-04:00

Journal - why do you need a journal? Well, I find that it helps keep me organized and it's a good way to keep up with challenges, to do lists, shopping list, whatever. I have a journal devoted to scrapbooking. I keep a shopping list in it so that as my supplies diminish I remember to replace BEFORE I run out. When I see a challenge or sketch that I want to do, I print it off the 'net and put in in my journal. I also have a page devoted to layout ideas, sometimes they pop in my head while I'm cruisin' the net and if I don't write them down right then and there, I totally forget about it.

Many journals that I have seen are made using composition books of some sort. For my journal, I chose a 3 ring binder. I like that I can add pages that I print off the web, can throw away a page when I no longer need it etc. Here's a journal that I made for a swap at Sisterhood of Scrap. I had just gotten my Umbrella Man die so I decided to do a Tim Holtz inspired journal.

Supplies:

3 ring binder - any size will do, I chose a 1" binder. Look for one that has a cover where you can slide your front and back covers into a clear sleeve. That way your covers are protected and you can change them when you want to redo your journal. I also like a binderthat has pockets in the front and back.
Dividers - I used 5 tabbed
Tim Holtz Lost and Found paper collection
Tim Holtz Visual Artistry clear stamps

Alterations Umbrella Man die

Alterations Paper Rosette die
Spellbinders blossom 2 die
Bits and pieces from my stash

A tool that I find useful for using with my journal is a 3 hole punch. That way I can quickly punch pages that I print off the web and put into my journal.

Here's the front cover of the journal I made. Be sure that you cut your base paper small enough that it easily slides into plastic sleeve. Leave a little room so that those bulky embellies will work.

And here's the back cover.

I bought a set of 5 tabbed dividers and decorated the front of each. You can't see the tabs in these photos.

It was great fun making this journal. I hope you'll give it a try. If you make one, be sure to leave me a link to yours so I can see!!

Be sure that you are "signed up" for a chance to win my blog candy! See my side bar at the top.

Sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-05-28T08:23:00.000-04:00

Here's the great new sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours hand drawn by Ali McDonald. I used groups of pictures for the horizontal photos in the sketch and placed my journaling underneath the photo rather than beside.

I used the G45 A Proper Gentleman collection for this LO. I don't really love the blue papers in this collection but thought they worked well for the older vintage photos and with the ocean in the color photos. That is a very skinny me in the top right photo at about 23 I'd guess. Sigh, I wouldn't mind being that size again!!

Family Tree - Glitz Laced with Grace

2011-05-27T12:16:00.001-04:00

Glitz totally has my number with their Laced with Grace collection and our May Swirlydoos kit featured this fabulous line! I used our May sketch provided in our kit by Beggahuna for this layout. After I finished it, I had that bright orange circle cutout left from something and I just picked it up and laid in on the LO, well it was perfect to draw the eye to this wonderful heritage photo so added it to my LO.

The colors and the papers are just so vibrant and rich in this line. They are just perfect for the heritage LOs that I have been working on. These are my mother's father's parents, that makes them my great grandparents. Those awesome swirly vines on the right are a new Spellbinders die made for Heartfelt Creations. There is also a matching stamp that I must get. The gold key and leafy vines are Dusty Attic, oh how I love Dusty Attic!!

Thank you everyone who is following my blog!! I appreciate it more than you'll ever know. Only 35 more followers to go until I give away that wonderful Love Games blog candy! Tell your friends to come over, I need to give that away before I dive into it, LOL~!!

Artic Ocean - Chena and Escape Kitty

2011-05-24T07:41:00.000-04:00

When we last saw Escape Kitty and Chena they were romping it up with their bear friends and look at them now! Chena!! What are you doing all the way up there in Tuktoyaktuk??? Please tell me you didn't charter a flight using my credit card!!! You can't drive there and I know you don't have wings...yet. You need to get your little poodle butt in that Rolling Doghouse and get yourself and Miss Kitty home!! Kitty doesn't like water, Jennifer will never forgive you if Kitty runs off.
Who is that weird looking lady standing beside you? I see you are carrying your tennis ball, are you playing fetch in the Arctic Ocean with her? Geez, Chena the water is about 40º, you're going to freeze to death!!
A note of historical significance - Tuktoyaktuk aka Tuk is in Canada's Northwest Territories on the Arctic Ocean. You can drive as far as Inuvik (scene of some Ice Road Truckers episodes several years ago) on a dirt/gravel highway that is oh, 400 miles or so, I can't remember. From Inuvik you take a 20 minute flight in a 4-6 passenger airplane to Tuk.
Back in the 90's Molsen Beer was running a Beach Party promotion and one of the beach parties was held in Tuk and Metallica played at the party. Now imagine a Native American village and Metallica. Doesn't quite compute does it?? LOL, well the village elders came out for the concert and apparently evryone enjoyed themselves! It was alcohol free as Tuk is dry as are many native villages. Our guide in Tuk told us all about it!

The crazy lady in the photo is me, note how bundled up I look. It ws the end of June, the water was really cold as and the air wasn't much warmer! This photo is from our 1999 vacation when we lived in Alaska and drove up the Dempster Highway. Chena and Kitty have been photoshoped into the picture of course!

Burlap for Escape Kitty and a touch of lace for Chena. Thanks to Jennifer, Jrabs, for inviting me to share in Escape Kitty's escapades. Be sure to visit Jrabs gallery at SB.com to get the "rest of the story" and see Jen's awesome fantastic creations!

Thanks for visiting and be sure to check out my giveaway at the top of my sidebar if you haven't already!

Korea - 59

2011-05-21T20:01:00.001-04:00

~~I believe that this weekend in Canada is like our Memorial Day, next weekend in the US~~.

Oops, thank your for the correction, Jasmine. We have several holidays that seem to happen at about the same time, I was thinking this was another. Oh well, my mistake! Yeah, and in the US Memorial Day is the kick-off to summer also.

Anyway, I wanted to pay tribute to my favorite veteran who served in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam, 28 years in all, my Dad, my hero. I am so fortuante that my Dad came home from all the wars. So many did not. My husband hardly remembers his Dad as he was just 4 years old when his Dad was killed in Korea. His Dad was a pilot and his plane went down, not from enemy fire, most likely due to ice on the wings. My husband served 24 years in the Navy. so yeah, I am all about waving the flag and shouting for the red, white and blue. And that makes me think that I just have to say that I think it is deplorable what is being told about our Navy Seals and the operation that took Osama bin Laden. It is not information that needs to be devulged to the publice IMHO.

OK, this blog is not about politics etc, sorry for the little digression. I have so many WONDERFUL pps to work with right now. Bo Bunny Gabrielle and Time Piece, Glitz Lace and Grace and Love Games. WOW, all these papers are soooooooo gorgeous that when I sit down to scrap, I don't quite know which line to go to!!

But about this layout - the red circle layer in the back is a new paperpad from Tim Holtz that I love. It is a resist kraft paper. Here I have used fired brick Distress Stain to color the pp. The rest of the layers are all from Bo Bunny Time Piece. he gears and hinges are Timmy Grungeboard that I heat embossed with gold UTEE and walnut stain distress embossing powder. The wings are Dusty Attic and I have outlined them with a Pinpoint Roller Quickie Glue pen that I got at Archivers - it is way cool, just draw, outline etc, sprinkle with glitter and you're done. Makes a nice job of laying down glitter. It's mfg by Sakura. I added the cheesecloth around the photo to mimic the camoflage netting over the tent in the photo. I just look at this photo and think MASH, you know? LOL!!

The heart is sprayed with Moomshadow Mist Bucket of Blood Red, IRL it has a very cool shimmering effect.

Not much else to say about this LO, thanks for visiting. A VERY BIG thank you to everyone who has become a follower of my blog, I really appreciate it!! I am trying to visit your blogs and become a follower if I can. Blogger is not being nice right now and on some blogs I am not able to Follow, hope they get things straightened out SOON!!

How DID I get that journaling on that little journaling ticket?

2011-05-19T17:38:00.001-04:00

Since Lindy asked in one of her comments, I thought I'd answer. It's really easy, measure your journaling spot and set your magins appropriately in your Word Processor and type out your journal. Then print out your journaling on an overhead transparency, cut it out and adhere to your journal ticket. It looks great on a layout and the transparency is hardly noticable. Sometime I cut the transparency exactly the same size as the journal ticket so that the transparency is invisible. I use vellum tape to attach my transparency to the journal ticket and it is almost not visible depending on how the light is shining on it. I see that in my photo the camera definitely picked up the vellum tape. I have used other glues etc and you know, I'm a slob when it comes to glue so I much prefer tapes etc. over liquid glues.

When printing on transparencies, I use the print "mirror image" function of my printer so that I can still put the shiny side of the transparency up. If you don't do this, you will have the rougher side of the transparency facing up and that 's not a big deal but the perfectionist in me likes that side to be down.

I used to use vellum paper for this purpose and sometimes I still do, but I really like the totally transparent look of printing on a transparency.

Canis Lupus

2011-05-18T18:23:00.001-04:00

I used the Get Picky sketch #8 for this layout. Get Picky has two challenges each month, an inspiration challenge and a sketch challenge. Check it out, lots of great work going on there!

Wolves fascinate me and my top priority while we were at Denali was to observe this creature in his home. I had high hopes, so many of our campers were going out during the day and coming back with wonderful stories of their wolf sightings. I don't know how many times I got on that bus in Denali to ride through the park to see wolves but it was mostly a bust for us, everytime!

The photo at the bottom is the only one I took from the bus. That was fun, we were actually observing a lone bear and off in the distance we see this wolf. Well the bear had been lazing in the grass until he spied to wolf. Then the bear gets up like he's going to chase the wolf; the wolf sees the bear and starts running while looking back over his shoulder. It really was quite comical. The bus driver said that the bear was probably bored and just wanted to play with the wolf. I don't know about that!

The top right wolf pictures I took from the car through the front window of the car and the other two I shot from the motorhome on the day we were driving out of Denali to go home.

I used the BasicGrey Curio papers for this, they seem to work well with my nature photos. On the right behind the photos I've used a piece of Core'dinations black magic that I embossed using a Cuttlebug Victoria folder.

I love the Dusty Attic ferns and Tribal Design that I sprayed with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist.

I see I need 1 more follower to make 100, yipee. Only 50 more to go to give away my blog candy. Check out my blog candy at the top of my sidebar. If you're not a follower, please become one. If you are, please tell your friends! I appreciate it!! Thanks for stopping by!

Youth - Bo Bunny TimePiece sketch challenge

2011-05-17T17:54:00.001-04:00

The more I work with this collection, the more I love it!! I just love the brown with the touches of dark red and subtle ivories. It is perfect for scrapping the plethora of vintage photos that I have on hand! I did this layout from the beautiful Tara Orr sketch at the Bo Bunny blog.

The picture is of my Mother taken circa 1945. The little note say "Remember when you were young. Could you have imagined all the places you would live - France, Japan, Germany?"

The chipboard at the top is Dusty Attic that I painted with vintage white and then "gold leafed" with Perfect Pearls. After that dried I painted it with Crackle Accents to give it that aged look. Finally I rubbed distress ink, frayed burlap, into the cracks.

Swirlydoos had this collection as a spotlight kit recently and that's where the papers, trinkets, pearl spray, pearl flower centers, and tags came from. I add a lot of bits and pieces from my stash. That lacy bit behind the photo was actually a "hanky" that was tucked into the breast pocket of some outfit long gone! The paper flowers are Primas that I have layered and inked. The crocheted flower is from Petaloo-Chantilly. Oh that striped ribbon I have hoarded for years. I don't know why I like it so much, but I do. Finally it is time to use it. Seriously I've had it since probably Christmas 2005 or 2006. It came in a page kit that my SIL gave me for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by! If you follow me on my blog, you will be entered to win some great blog candy. See the details at the top of my sidebar.

Glitz Love Games - Love Birds

2011-05-16T19:49:00.000-04:00

I REALLY love this line from Glitz, Love Games!!! Red is my favorite color anyway so this line just "speaks" to me! Its a red with a hint of orange to it, but oh so pretty!! Be sure to be a follower of my blog if you are not already, for a chance to win a RAK of Love Games. Details of my giveaway HERE.

This is a picture of my parents, they have always been so crazy about each other that Love Birds just seemed like a good title. The photo was taken on an Easter Sunday back in the 40's. I made the flowers and I have a tut posted (look on the sidebar) if you are interested. The birdcage was diecut with the Alterations die, painted with Distress Bronze crackle paint and then inked with distress black soot.

The vine on the right is Dusty Attic Vine Flourish DA0485 (there's one just like it in my Giveaway) painted with acrylic paints, then glimmer mist (Tattered Leather on the stems) and finally a coat of Diamond Glaze.
The title is also on a Dusty Attic piece, Vintage Nameplate DA0463 that I painted with vintage white acrylic paint and Diamond Glaze.

At the top I have stamped with a brick wall stamp. Thanks to Denise for turning us on to that awesome stamp!!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to become a follower for a chance to win my RAK!

Red Poppy Flower Tutorial

2011-05-16T19:31:00.002-04:00

Oh this is my first flower tutorial and let me just say that I learned everything I know about making flowers at Swirlydoos.com and in particular, from LisaG, (starsailorscrapper). Lisa has a really pretty poppy tutorial at Swirlydoos using different punches than these so you might want to check that out here.

OK, I made this flower specifically to go with my Glitz Love Games papers. I used Bazzill Red Rock cardstock which goes really great with Love Games. The flower centers are punched from an olive colored cardstock scrap that I had. You will need:

Cardstock for your flower and for your centers
Alterations Tattered Floral die or something similar
McGill starburst punch
McGill sun punch
Glimmer mist - I used Vanilla Breeze on the red Cardstock and Olive vine on the olive cardstock
Distress ink - pumice stone
water spritzer (not pictured)
Glue - I use Diamond glaze and hot glue

For the large flower cut 2 large flowers, 3 sunbursts and 4 suns.

For the small flower cut 2 small flowers and 4 sunbursts.

Spritz the flowers and the suns with a little water. Don't get them soaked, it isn't necessary and makes them harder to work with.

For the large flower:

Take the 3 sunbursts and glue them one on top of the other staggering thestarbursts so they don't exactly line up with each other. Spray with a little olive vine glimmer mist and set aside to dry.

Scrunch the petals of the two large flowers with your fingers. I place my fingers on either side of the petal and push towards the center.

Take something thin like the handle of a paint brush and place in the center of the sun and then wrap the sun around the paint brush handle. Do this to four of the suns.

Now dry the flowers, the suns and the starburst. I use my heat gun to dry them but you can leave them to airdry. After you have dried the flowers, ink the tips of the petals with distress ink.

TIP: I keep a box lid with 3" sides handy and I put my damp flowers in the box lid to dry. That way they don't blow all over the place.

Assembly: Take one of the suns and carefully spread it out enough so that you can glue another sun inside. Glue these two suns inside a third sun and then glue the three inside the 4th sun. I paint a little glimmer mist on the suns at this point and then dry them. If you have used hot glue to glue the suns together, be careful when heating as the glue will melt.

Glue the two flowers together staggering the petals and spray with glimmer mist for a nice shimmering effect. (You can also spritz your flowers with glimmer mist when you are scrunching the petals instead of water but since I am using red cardstock I don't really need to soak the cardstock with color so I just give a spray at this point.) Use a paintbrush handle to curl the petals inward. Now you are ready to assemble the flower. Be sure everything is dry before assembling! Glue the starbursts to the flower and then glue the 4 assembled suns to the starbursts.

Now take your tweezers and spread the suns out a little. Pick up the individual "stamens" from the starburst and lift so that the overall effect is "fluffed" And that's all there is to it!

The procedue for the small flower is exactly the same except that I omit the starbursts underneath the 4 suns. You can also cut between the petals so that you have more "petal" to scrunch.

Be sure to become a follower of my blog for a chance to win my blog candy of a Glitz Love Games kit that I put together! Check at the top of my sidebar for details!

Silence

2011-05-16T06:11:00.000-04:00

This is my entry for the round robin that we have every month at Swirlydoos! The image came from a challenge posted at Sisterhood of Scrap.

This was a lot of fun as I used a new mist, Moonshadow, on the layered piece behind the photo. Moonshadow mists have a dark tone but iridescent color when the light hits it "just right". You can see the effect of the mist in the detail photo. I love the Moonshadows, not right for everything, but perfect for some things!

The metal frame is a piece of silver metal from Ten Second Studios that I embossed with the Damask Cuttlebug folder. Then I used Pitch Black alcohol ink to darken the metal. Its such a pretty effect I think.

The flowers are just layered Primas and the leaves were punched from black cardstock with a McGill leaf punch. Then I edged the leaves with silver ink to pull them into the layout by mimicing the color of the frame.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm working on a LO with the gorgeous Glitz Love Games collection and I'm goingto have a flower tut so be sure to visit again!!

Rocky Mtn High - new sketch at Sketches: Creatively Yours

2011-05-14T07:03:00.000-04:00

This was a quick and easy page and I used Ali's great sketch 06-11 from Sketches: Creatively Yours. The floral pp from GCD STudios Artsy Urban collection just matched so nicely with this sketch that all I did was fussy cut the interior of the page out, added another paper behind the floral, some journaling, a title, some Prima flowers, lace, and bam! All done!

I diecut the letters using the Alterations die, Vintage Market. I struggle with titles, I'll find some letters I want to use from my stash and of course, there aren't enough vowels to make the title, nothing else "goes with" the chosen font...this drives me crazy. And I hate cranking up the Cricket in the middle of a project - I don't know why, that's just me. SO to solve this problem, one day I got out a pack of border cardstock I bot years ago and I diecut a lot of letters!! The precut borders are just the right width for the Alterations Vintage Market die. I also had puchased a plastic divided storage container that had 32 little compartments, just perfect for sorting my letters! Mostly I cut the letters in common colors like black, brown, beige, greens, white (easy to change the color of these!) etc. Now when I need letters, I just reach for my box and this works well for me. Cuts out a layer of frustration, KWIM?

Thanks for your visit!!

My Scrappy Giveaway!!

2011-05-13T13:07:00.002-04:00

Hi friends!

I have two BFFs, going all the way back to college and the very first scrappy pages I ever did (2005) were for them. I decided to make them each a scrapbook with photos and stories of the many years that we have been friends. Oh my, that trip down memory lane ran through a couple husbands, college, work and now retirement. So both of these gals have had birthdays this week, one on the 7th and the other today! Now they are the same age as me and next year we'll be crossing over into what I think of as senior citizen land, LOL. So last year, we decided to stop sending gifts to each other as we don't need anything and it was just getting to be a hassle.

Since I'm not sending them gifts I'm going to give away this great Love Games paper collection from Glitz in their honor. There are 12 sheets of Love Games pp along with Paper Layers. Then I've added some flowers, Dusty Attic (who doesn't want Dusty Attic!), some trims. I diecut a couple Umbrella men just because he is so cute, LOL! I also added some diecut Alterations grungeboard gears and birdcages too. All you have to do for a chance to win my blog candy is be a follower of my blog and leave me a message anywhere on my blog! When I get to 150 followers, I will use Random.org to pick a winner from all 150 followers. You'll need to check back here to see if you are a winner. You will have 7 days from the winner announcement to claim your prize. If you are already a follower, thank you, you are already entered. Easy enough, right? I'd love you to leave me a link to your blog so I can check out your scrappy home too. (Sorry open to US and Canada scrappers only, can't afford the postage otherwise!)

I hope everyone has a super weekend, and now I must call my BFF and wish her a Happy Birthday!!

Fall at Denali National Park

2011-05-09T19:20:00.000-04:00

Well I really loved the Swirlydoo's April kit that showcased Bo Bunny's Gabrielle but I think I love this May kit with Glitz Laced with Grace at least as much!! The oranges and olives so perfectly offset each other and the colors are so vibrant, I really love it!!

This is a picture I took in 1997 of a grizzly bear fattening up on berries for the coming winter. I took these pictures in September on a beautiful fall day. In September, winter is just around the corner and it can snow anyday. In fact, I have been at Denali in September when there was snow on the ground.

I really had fun making the flowers and leaves on this layout as I tried out my new Moonshadow mists on the leaves. It really does give them a beautiful patina look. AND something new I have discovered, I bought a set of 16 pearl watercolors at Michael's for a whopping $5 and used it to paint my flowers. Really gives an effect similar to Glimmer mist but it's easier and a lot cheaper!! I used the paints on the orange flowers. The green flowers were sprayed with olive glimmer mist. The Dusty Attic vine is painted with acrylics and then glazed with Diamond Glaze. I like Diamond Glaze better than Glossy Accents, its a little thinner and therefore brushes on nicer. It seems to have the same glue qualities as Glossy Accents too.

I used the May sketch at Dusty Attic for this layout and I'm entering it in their sketch challenge. Also made the layout for Glitz Challenge #2.

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I appreciate the time it takes and I'd love you to leave a comment so I'll know that you were here!

My Aunt

2011-05-06T08:34:00.001-04:00

Oh the May Swirlydoos kit is just fabulous!!! I love the rich colors!! This is my dear Aunt Margaret for whom I was named. She was the most amazing woman and I have so many wonderful memories of time spent with her. I remember as if it were yesterday shopping at a fabric store when she and my grandmother taught me to sew. We often played cribbage in the evenings when she came home from work and sometimes I would win. Wonder if she just let me win?

Journal: I was named after Aunt Margaret but she always called me Princess. It really made me smile when looking through some of her photos of me and I found that she had labeled them on the back as “Princess.”

I think of Aunt Margaret as one of the pioneers of women’s liberation, not that she was involved in the movement; she just lived a liberated life. Throughout her life, she traveled the globe, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.

She chose not to marry but in no way was she an “old maid.” She was engaged once but she found out that he was a two timing Mama’s boy so she sent him packing!

Aunt Margaret had a great job with NASA and attained a high pay grade for a female civil servant back in those days. Her NASA career began with NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) which was the precursor agency to NASA. One of my prized possessions gifted to me at her death is a large footed silver tray that is inscribed “from your friends at NASA 1973.”

My Grandmother lived with her in Hampton, VA, and I loved visiting them and helping to care for her beautiful rose garden. There were roses everywhere and in the evenings, we would clip them just as they started to open and fill the house with their fragrant beauty. They taught me to cook, sew, knit, and crochet.

I say she was liberated because she did so many things that woman just didn’t do back in her day. She achieved so much in her job and it speaks volumes that several of her male co-workers at NASA made a one-way 3-hour trip to attend her funeral, 30 years after she retired.

I used the beautiful May Swirlydoos kit for this layout that features Glitz Designs Laced with Grace collection. The venetian lace at the top is from my stash that I sprayed with Olive Vine Glimmer Mist and the tiny bloomers around the photo are Tim Holtz sprayed with Yellow Daisy and Sunkissed Peach Glimmer Mist. I also added the Prima SIIP. Aunt Margaret had a large and beautiful rose garden so I thought these papers were just a perfect match for her photo. TFL!! I really appreciate your visit!

all our Yesterdays

2011-05-04T10:19:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of my paternal great grand parents. It is an odd feeling to look at two strangers and realize that their genes contributed to the person that I am. I didn't even know my grandfather on my father's side as he died just a month after I was born.

I made this as an example LO for a challenge that I am hosting at Swirlydoos. I love love love this line of paper from Bo Bunny! I used fabric mess, cheesecloth and cork on this layout - love natural elements like this. The metal flower is Prima and the large wine ones are handmade. The leaves were done with a Heartfelt Creations stamp, the swirls with Alterations die, everything else is Bo Bunny Timepiece and from Swirlydoos Spotlight kit.

The continuing saga of Escape Kitty and Chena

2011-05-04T10:09:00.001-04:00

Got another photo from Chena the other day. Seems the girls are having a lot fun in Alaska playing with bear cubs. Jrabs at Scrapbook.com posted a great LO of EK and Chena frolicing in the water with a bear cub. Seems they had caught a BIG salmon. I'm betting that the cub caught the bear. Chena does not know how to fish and that fish was way bigger than EK!!

So now EK and Chena are playing with a pair of inland cubs at Denali National Park. Look at our FEARLESS kitty standing inbetween those cubs.
I am thinking that poodle coat is getting pretty long by now and a BIG matted mess. Oh dear, I'll have to shave her down when she gets home, IF she ever gets home. Chena, your Dad and I would really like our motorhome back, July 15th at the latest so you and EK need to turn that rig around and head for home. Ha-ha, I think they are having way too much fun!!

Here's a closeup of the birdcage:

Thanks to jrabs for letting me share in her Escape Kitty story and for the pictures of Escape Kitty. Do check out jrabs gallery for more stories of this crazy cat and dog!

My Father, my hero

2011-05-02T13:42:00.000-04:00

I love this Swirlydoos spotlight kit Bo Bunny Timepiece collection just about better than any I've ever had!! I love the color combo, it just speaks to me! The passport and bicycle embellies are nods to some things that I know about my Dad. He was in the Army so the passport represents his travels around the world. The bicycle is a laughing memory that my Mom talks about. When Dad was a young teen he used to ride by my Mom's house on his bike showing off. LOL, I love it!!

My Dad reckoned the photo was taken 1947 or 1948. The building in the back was my grandfather's country store that had a bedroom in the back and that is where my parents lived for a while after Dad came home from the war. Dad knows this picture was taken after he came home from the war because the little room you see in the corner of the bldg is a bathroom that was added when he returned. Don't you love how we clue in on things to remember them? To have running water & indoor plumbing in rural NC in 1947 was pretty special. I remember when my Mother's parents got indoor plumbing and it was around 1960 give or take a year. I also remember when they got a telephone, and a party line at that. My grandmother's entertainment was to listen in on the party line sometimes, LOL!! Secretly of course....

Cardstock: photo mat Bazzill Bitter chocolate
Patterned paper: Bo Bunny TimePiece collection – bg page Timepiece; Timepiece Stripe; Timepiece moments
Stickers: Bo Bunny TimePiece collection
Chipboard: Bo Bunny TimePiece collection; Dusty Attic french flourish #2 DA0274; Tattered Angels Glimmer Chips Traveler (passport)
Ink: Distress black soot, frayed burlap, brushed corduroy, pumice stone, Colorbox chestnut roan, Glimmer Mist Tattered Leather, Ranger Archival ink jet black
Other: Bicycle Tattered Angels Glimmer chip; brads cameos, Bo Bunny TimePiece collection, cheesecloth

Pioneer Park

2011-04-29T17:52:00.000-04:00

Pioneer Park, in Fairbanks, AK, is a municipal park that is frequented by locals and tourists alike. The locals take their kids on a nice sunny day and enjoy the playgrounds with their children. The tourists enjoy visiting the old log homesteads that have been moved to the park and offer a glimpse of life in the far north during the very early 1900's. There's a great air museum that Dick and I always enjoy.

The day these pictures were taken turned out to be a rare warm sunny day for the summer. When we arrived in Fairbanks a couple of days earlier, it was cold and raining. We were delighted when the sun greeted us on this day! I am calling home to let everyone know we arrived safely in the photo below.

Below is the sketch I used for this DT project for Sketches: Creatively Yours . It's sketch 04-11, all I did was flip it from left to right. There are other examples of this great sketch on the S:CY blog and I hope you'll visit, try the sketch and link it so we can see your work!

Patterned paper: BasicGrey Curio Camelia, Upholstery,
Letter stickers: Curio collection
Stickers: Curio Collection
Flowers: pink flower is layered stickers from Curio, white flower is cut out from the Camelia pp and layered
Ink: ColorBox black, distress black soot
Other: beige lace from Lace Heaven, velvet pleated ribbon Recollections

Home; Wilderness

2011-04-28T09:39:00.001-04:00

These pictures sure brought back some memories as these are pictures of the first house that
Dick and I bought in the Washington DC metro area. We got married while living there and it was from this house that we moved to Alaska. We remodeled our first kitchen in this house and went on to remodel 2 more kitchens in other houses that we have owned. Dick is quite the handyman and there's nothing he can't do, well, except cook.

Journal: February 1992

Dick and I spent a lot of time searching for our first home. He wanted a nice garage, I wanted a nice kitchen. “They” wanted a lot of money! We were making our home in the Washington DC area where real estate was just so expensive. After much searching, we found this home that met our needs and our budget.

Dick signed all the necessary paperwork at closing for me as I gave him a power of attorney. I was in Florida packing and finalizing everything with my office. I was changing jobs but not employer.

We were moving from Florida, me from Pompano Beach and Dick from Palm Bay. After a very long drive, I got to our new home first and discovered a really sweet note from Dick welcoming me home. Next to the note were two new champagne glasses. I looked in the refrigerator and there was champagne for us to celebrate our love, our new house, and our new life.

I ordered a pizza for delivery and Dick arrived around the same time as the pizza. By this time it was probably 9 pm and there was no way we were going to start unpacking. So we sat on the floor in the dining room, ate our pizza and toasted our new beginning.

We still have the champagne glasses and they are very special to us. In fact, I got them out last year when we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.

I used bits and pieces of left over Swirlydoos kits for this layout and a few things from my stash.

Cardstock: Cricut Greens and Black
Patterned paper: Webster’s pages - Life’s Potrait and Hollywood (vellum over pp), Prima matting, 7 Gypsies burgundy piece, MME small brown patterned strips
Letter stickers: Pink Paislee Expressions Licorice
Chipboard: Dusty Attic corner scrolls #2 DA0464, vintage key DA0392, vine DA0459
Flowers: Prima large flowers, small unknown
Ink: Distress black soot, Glimmer Glam Tinsel Town, Bronze UTEE, Glimmer Mist Tattered Rose, Distress stain vintage photo

Chipboard scrolls were first covered with bronze UTEE but I left areas uncovered. Then stained with Distress vintage photo and then coated with Glimmer Glam Tinsel Town. Key is coated with bronze UTEE
*****************************************************************************

Here's a layout that I did for the Words and Perspectives at the Just Perspective blog. This is a picture I took on our honeymoon in Alaska in Denali National Park. It was already fall there and in fact it snowed a couple days after we left and they had to bring people camped in the park out in a convoy led by snow plows. It was a freak storm that dumped 2' of snow at the park and caught everyone by surprise.

Journal: I love the wilderness of Alaska, it feeds my imagination and its vistas are a feast for my eyes. I love to drive the few roads that pass through this scenic wonder, for who knows what I may see? In the spring, I keep a watchful eye for a moose with her newborn calf or perhaps a goose or duck shepherding her flock across the road. If she is frightened, she will shoo her flock into the brush and she will feint injury by dragging her wing, hoping to divert my attention from her babies. In the fall, I keep watch for the majestic Bull Moose with the velvet rubbed from his antlers; he is searching for a mate.

I have seen the beautiful trumpeter swan with her mate and cygnets gently floating in a pristine lake with water as clear as glass. Once I sat for hours and watched two beavers hard at work engineering a dam so that they would have a pond where they could build a lodge and store their winter food supply. I have seen bear cubs playing with each other as only children do. Their mother was watching from a nearby post and when she called them with a quiet woof, they responded immediately. Ah, but then, there was the time I saw Mama bear smack her cub “upside the head” because he was being a bit too rambunctious! I guess kids will be kids, no matter the species.

There are places I go in the wilderness that were once covered by glaciers, and even today, receding glaciers are visible in the distance. I wonder what it was like in the glacial age, how did any living creature survive the constant cold? I wonder what lies under the glacier and as the glacier continues to recede, what secrets will unfold for scientists to study.
More than anything, the wilderness is God’s country. It is there that I see and feel the wonder of our earth and experience the simple pleasures of observing so many creatures quietly going about the business of living in the wild. My eyes feast upon the wide-open vistas and the dark forests, the glacial valleys, the snow covered peaks, all this natural beauty that surrounds me and my heart just sings.
***

You can probably tell that I really love Alaska, if there is anywhere else like it on the earth, I haven't been there yet but I'd like to go!
Supplies:

BasicGrey Curio Collection

• Linen – base pp
• Textile – solid yellow
• Ophelia – yellow print
• Victoria – Orange square
• Chiffonier – small print circle
• Diecut stickers & letters

Core’dinations green cardstock
Tattered Angels
• Glimer Chips Tattered Traveler – compass
• Bingo Card Travel

Prima metal flower mix #4
Prima e. black pearls and crystals
Distress ink – wild honey and black soot

Thanks for visiting! I really appreciate the comments that you leave!

Time Passes

2011-04-22T07:17:00.001-04:00

Here's the newest sketch at Sketches: Creatively Yours and I used it to do this layout for the DT. There are some great interpretations of this sketch, hope you'll check it out!

I used the gorgeous Bo Bunny Gabrielle papers and the clock and leafy vine are Dusty Attic. The vine is painted with acrylic paints and then glazed with Diamond Glaze. The circle part of the clock is inked with Distress brushed corduroy. The outer swirls are painted with gold Perfect Pearls. The pink flowers are some that I made and the other 3 are Prima. I also used a new Prima mask on the inner square. TFL!!

Supplies:
Patterned paper: Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection -Base paper - Stripe
Fairest, Unwritten, cutouts for journal card and picture frame
Letter stickers: Thickers – Salutations fabric
Chipboard: Dusty AtticVines DA 0486; Vintage Clock DA0261
Flowers: Prima The Roosevelt Collection Deland
Ribbons/Lace: Lace Heaven stretch lace
Ink: Distress Brushed Corduroy,black soot, Victorian velvet; ColorBox Chestnut Roan
Glimmer mist – Crème de Rouge
Other: Clock painted with Perfect Pearls perfect gold and inked with Brushed Corduroy
Unknown: Acrylic paints to paint chipboard, leaves covered with Diamond Glaze

Being 40

2011-04-21T21:39:00.000-04:00

My RR entry for the Swirly Divas at Swirlydoos is a scraplift of Denise who scraplifted Rae. This page goes along with the other page I did of my 40th birthday. In so many ways, it seems that was just yesterday but in realtiy it was nearly 20 yrs ago. WOW. Dick's daughter just had her 40th birthday, that kind of puts it in perspective! Again, I used the Prima Moulin Rouge pps for this, I made the purple flowers. The spray is from Prima. TFL!!

Family - Get Picky Sketch #7 Challenge

2011-04-18T21:31:00.002-04:00

I did this LO for the sketch challenge at Get Picky using my April Swirlydoos kit. It's a great sketch and easy to work with! Check it out here.

The April Swirlydoos kit was full of the Bo Bunny Gabrielle line of papers and they are so perfect for vintage LOs. Loved doing this page as I love the pictures, the girls all look so pretty. Its kind of fun to see everyone so dressed up and just knowing that this is how they always looked for the most part!

I was out in my yard today and saw that the camelias were blooming so I thought I'd try to replicate them. This is my first attempt, I think I can do better ! I need a different center - I feel a major shopping trip coming on!

I so love Dusty Attic chipboard. Those aqua swirly leaves are Dusty Attic that I have painted with acrylic paints and then with Diamond Glaze.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Birchtone Dark; Bazzill coral medium

Patterned paper: Bo Bunny Gabrielle Collection Promenade, Romance; Crafter’s Workshop Enchanted Compliments Moonlight Aqua
Letter stickers: Thickers Salutation
Chipboard: Dusty Attic DA0506 Foliage
Flowers: handmade from CS
Ink: Colorbox chestnut roan
Other: MM aqua oval pearls; Bo Bunny Gabrielle Trinkets; Prima Lace; pearlescent water color paint, acrylic paints, Diamond Glaze on chopboard
Unknown: Swirlydoos acrylic spray & pink flowers

Thanks for stopping by!

Escape Kitty and Chena - the continuing saga...

2011-04-15T17:40:00.001-04:00

When last we saw Kitty and Chena they were literally nose to nose with Mr Moose and in the snow. See this great page that my friend Jennifer, Jrabs, did. (You really should visit her gallery, she is incredibly talented!!) But now the snows have melted and the girls have made it to Alaska!!! Chena peemailed this photo recently and I just had to scrap it. Don't they look soo cute?!! I think Chena must have stopped somewhere and had her hair done 'cause look at that cute little bow in her hair. Wonder if Kitty put it there for her?

I made all the flowers using the Tattered Floral Alterations die and a tiny daisy die for the centers. The paper is a mix of Bo Bunny Gabrielle and Websters Life Story. I did this layout for a challenge at Swirlydoos to use unusual papers and mine are the travel journal which is embossed and inked aluminum foil and next to it, the brown with lace is dampened paper towels embossed and then dried. Thanks to my friend Colleen for that idea. It was a fun challenge!!

When I turned 40....

2011-04-15T17:29:00.001-04:00

Ah, here I am, a very youthful 40, divorced, very much in love with my current husband. Life couldn't have been much better than it was on my 40th birthday and I'm happy to say that it still is wonderful. Oh, I have a few more aches and pains but still life is good!

I really worked the Dusty Attic chipboard on this layout. We are having a chipboard contest at Swirlydoos. I may enter this one, I just haven't decided yet!! The frame chipboard is painted black and then painted over with silver translucent glass paint and then a thick coat of Crackle Accents. Then the swirls on the frame are heat-embossed with marcasite embossing powder. The swirls on either side of the frame are really neat, they are two piece. The bottom layer has been painted with Shimmerz pearl grammie berry . Then the top layer has also been heat embossed with marcasite powder. I guess I was in a blingy mood as I also added alot of burgundy stickles and bisque liquid pearls as well as lots of rhinestones. I made the light pink flowers and actually made my own mist for the first time by using 2 colors of alcohol ink mixed with water and some perfect pearls. I think it turned out rather well for the first time! The papers are from Prima's Moulin Rouge line - I have found them hard to work with but I am pleased with this result.

Dusty Attic shout out!!

2011-04-15T17:20:00.000-04:00

I was so honored that I won the sketch challenge at Dusty Attic with this LO, that I wanted to show you the wonderful prize package I got in the mail the other day from Dusty Attic.

Just look at all that awesome chipboard and that frame in the back!! Dusty Attic has the best chipboard, it is laser cut and has the most perfect details!! Thank you Dusty Attic!!