Your Beautiful Life - Dusty Attic June sketch challenge

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!!!

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

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

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?

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!