Round Robin at Swirlydoo's

Swirlydoo's has a Round Robin challenge every month; they are so much fun and a great way to learn new techniques.  Here's what I did for my team 3, week 4 entry.  I used Swirlydoo's March kit to craft my layout featuring a photo of Tisha and Nika snuggling in Tisha's crate.  Silly dogs, it is not a crate meant for 2 but they both loved to get in there together.   If they are not playing together, they are usually cuddled up somewhere, together.

I really love this Prima collection, Stationer's Desk, you know red is my "thing".  I love the tags and tickets that come in this collection and used them as a basis for my cluster on the left and as accents on the right.

More creations with the Swirlydoos April KOM!

  I am so excited to share with you some of my creations with my first kit as a designer for Swirlydoos!

First up is a very special layout for me because it is a photo of me with my beautiful Chena who I miss so much.  Chena crossed over the bridge Sept 5, 2013 and there is not a day that goes by that I don't miss her and think about her sweet soul.  Ah, but such is the nature of pet ownership, their time on our earth is much too short.  I have to thank my dear friend, Jen aka jrabs, for taking this beautiful photo of me and Chena conversing in our own special way.  AND I must note that my hair is not red, its just the beautiful late afternoon soon making it look that way.

Ok so let me tell you a little about this layout.  The base paper was a beautiful black/white sheet but I thought it would be fun to color it so I used Silks paint from my stash to paint the flowers and leaves.  Then I sprayed on a little of the Luminarte Radiant Rain Bashful Blue included in the mediums add-on kit. I also popped up the layers to give my layout more dimension.  All the flowers are from the kit and add-ons except for the silver flower and the tiny black and silver rolled roses which are handmade.

Oooh I really love the mediums add-on, that gorgeous turquoise embossing powder that I used on my chippies is Ranger Antiquities turquoise embossing powder.  LOVE this stuff!!!  And the silver paint on the chippy?  Yep, that's from the mediums add-on too!  The chippies are from my stash but all the other embellies are from the kit and add-ons or are handmade.  

I first painted this swirled chippy with Viva Precious Metal Color - silver (in the mediums add-on) and then painted on a little embossing ink, sprinkled with embossing powder and this is the effect.  I love this two toned effect!

Supplies - from the April kit and addons:

Cardstock: Core'dinations Bluebell
Patterned paper: Authentique Classique - Elegant collection: black dotted - Twelve, white floral print - Six, fussy cut header - Two
Embossing powder: Ranger Antiquities Turquoise
Flowers: Prima Vermont leaves black 553623, Prima Audrey Rose blue ice 546700, Prima Plume black 575526

Mist:  Luminarte Radiant Rain Bashful Blue

Ink: Prima turquoise stone
Paint: Viva Precious Metal silver

Other: Prima SIIC 573218

Other Supplies from my stash:
Chipboard: Leaky Shed Chipboard Live Love and Laugh 8072, Leaky Shed flourish

Diecuts and punches: Martha Stewart Swirling Lace, WRNK Lucky 8 Frilly Lace, McGill Floriano

Paint:  Silks african jade

I love love love the frame that came in the main kit this month!!  WOW, I just love the piece I made with this.  I decided to frame our wedding picture.  OMG that picture is nearly 22 years old.  It's hard to believe that it's been that long!

I pulled out one of my favorite products to do the frame, Stampendous Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel to coat the wooden frame.   Then I thought that the only thing this needed was a simple floral cluster so I made the flowers using Authentique papers from the kit.  I diecut some vines using Memory Box's Caserta Bloom die and added a few pine sprigs (cut with a McGill's punch)  to my cluster.   I finished it off  with a couple crystals from the embellishment add-on.

Ok, this is the year of the card for me!  Card making has never been my "thing" but I decided that this is the year that Maggi masters card making!  So here is my effort.  I've used papers from the kit with the addition of a piece of Core'dinations cardstock.  I used a Spellbinders die to die cut the white frame.  That awesome resin telephone is included in the embellishment add-on.  The flowers are bits and pieces from my stash left over from assorted manufacturer's packages.

 Thanks so much for stopping by our blog today!!  Be sure and check out our kit subscriptions and available kits!

Swirlygirl's challenge with Prima Stationer's Desk!

The March KOM from Swirlydoo's Kit Club has Prima's Stationer's Desk collection.  Mmmm, have I ever told you how much I love red, black and ivory?  Probably, LOL, I love this paper so much!  So when Kimberly posed a challenge to all the Swirlygals to do a layout "All About Me"  I knew I would be using this collection for her challenge.  The challenge required us to use mixed media on our layout and I have done that with some masking and painting.  I used a Prima stencil to do the lettering on the top right and then I used a TCW mask, mini tiles, to add the small black tiles.

I used the wood frames from the Prima Wood Embellishments to frame some of the tickets in the kit.

Here you can see that I've painted one of the paintable cards.  I used Silks for painting the flower and watercolors for the leaves.

Supplies from the March Swirlydoos kit, Salutations:

Prima Stationer's Desk collection:  base - Captured Drama 813796, Prima Paintables 3 813987, Stationer's Desk ATC pad 814069, Chipboard 813703, Tags and Tickets 573256

Prima Wood Embellishments 572877

Wood frames and butterfly -  Prima Wood Embellishment 572877

Tim Holtz pen nibs; 

 Other supplies:

Ink:  Distress black soot, Ranger Maroon archival ink

Masks:  Floral Rose 572198; TCW mini tiles

Masking paste: Viva Ferro Special Effects paste - graphite

Paint:      Silks love struck, watercolors

EK Success Aged Typewriter numbers

Petaloo textured red flowers 1256212
bark butterflies Prima 569310;
Stamper's Anonymous Ultimate Grunge stamp

The March KOM is sold out but there are still some April KOM's available and that is one gorgeous and elegant kit featuring Authentique's Classique - Elegance papers.

Swirlydoos Design Team Call!

Swirlydoos Kit Club - Design Team Call

Are you passionate about Scrapbooking? Do you enjoy teaching and inspiring other crafters? Can you gab with the best of us? Swirlydoos Kit Club is looking to add amazing talent to our outstanding Design Team for a 6 month term that will run from our June, 2014 kit to our November, 2014 kit. We will be adding 2-3 fabulously creative Designers who are energetic, outgoing, talented, versatile individuals and who are committed to the beautiful art of scrapbooking.

 Our designers must be able to devote the time necessary to our community, to our members, and to their artwork. We are especially interested in designers who make awesome video tutorials!

This DT call will close at midnight MST on April 25th, 2014. 

This call is open to talented scrapbook designers all around the globe

Design Team Requirements:

1. You will create a minimum of 4-5 layouts/projects, and as many cards, tags etc as you can per main kit sent to you.
2. Create at least one tutorial of your choosing during your 6 month term, and add content to our tips, tricks and techniques area in the forum.
3. Create a minimum of 3 “blank” cards during your 6 month term to send in to the home office.
4. You must upload your projects to all major scrapbook galleries and blogs you are affiliated with, along with Facebook and Pinterest.
5. Advertise for Swirlydoos kit club with Blinkies, blog banners, badges and other social media tools.
6. BE EXCITED about being on the team! Be very ACTIVE on the forum and in our gallery!
7. You will participate in our monthly blog hops.
8. You will occasionally be asked to send us some of your completed projects for display at trade shows that Swirlydoos is participating in.

An ideal candidate for being on the design team will:

 -Have the ability to take excellent, clear pictures of projects

 -Be dedicated to promoting the kits and personal projects to social media on reveal day,      including Facebook  

 -Already have an active blog, Facebook and scrapbook.com accounts

 -Be an active member of our community on the forums and commenting in the gallery at  least four times a week

 -Be willing to partake in design team duties and help with any other promotions or contests we  may have

If you are interested in joining the DESIGN TEAM - Send an email to "DesignTeam@swirlydoos.com" with "DESIGN TEAM CALL" in the subject line. Include all of the following information:

• Your name
• address
• telephone number
• email address
• blog address
• any online galleries where we might see more of your work
• YouTube address and or UStream Channel link,  if you have one
• 3 samples of your current work that best reflect your style
• a list of all design teams you have been on, past and current (prior experience is not necessary)
• Please tell us what you consider your strengths (where you excel) and why you would make a good designer for the Swirlydoos community.

What you can expect from Swirlydoos:

An honest, fun, dedicated team who supports you and your art and encourages you at every turn.

A FABULOUS tight knit community of smart assed, super talented scrapbookers from around the world

CHA invitations and passes

Free monthly main kit for Design Team

Free monthly main kit
50% discount on all other kits and store purchases during your term

The new design team will be announced April 30th on our blog

Swirlydoos Kit Club April kit reveal and blog hop!

Welcome to:

Swirlydoos Kit Club 

April Scrapbook Kit Reveal & Blog Hop!

If you came here from Swirlydoo's blog, then you are on the right track. If not, go back to Swirlydoos' blog and start from there. We have some amazing projects for you to see today !! Make sure to leave a comment on all of the blogs for a chance to win!!! Make sure you have LIKED & FOLLOWED Swirlydoos on Facebook!!!

Swirlydoos is proud to bring you our beautiful April collection:

Tiffany's

And check out these coordinating add ons that perfectly compliment our April scrapbook kit!

Are you a subscriber? If so, your kit is on it's way! If not, check out the Swirlydoos store to see if there are any April kits or add ons in the store!

***All of our monthly scrapbook kits are available in our store while supplies last!***

Has it sold out? - become a subscriber and not only will you never miss a kit again, but you'll also pay less for your monthly scrapbook kits!

*Mention this blog hop and save 10% on your first kit!

We have some absolutely beautiful scrapbook projects for you to see today !!  

Tiffany's is a gorgeous kit filled with Authentique's Classique: Elegant papers, creamy whites, soft turquoises and mysterious deep dark shades.  I love it!

On my first layout I used several layers to make a shabby frame and then used the stencil in last month's media kit to mask the entire background.  I used Luminarte Radiant Rain Shimmering Mist in bashful blue from the April mixed media add-on to give my background some blue tints and lots of sparkle.  I die cut vines using a Memory Box Caserta Bloom die from the store and then layered flowers from the kit and flower addon over top.  The photo is of my parents shortly after they were married;

I sprayed the black flowers with the Luminarte Radiant Rain bashful blue to give it some shimmer!  This is the first time I've used Luminarte Radiant Rain mists and they are AWESOME.  I just love the sparkle they add to a project.

The monthly sketch was my inspiration for this layout of my great niece.

The main kit includes some great Prima Ingveld Bohme resins and I've used one here on the right.  I did a little masking on the background with a mask from my stash and also used the Radient Rain bashful blue mist to add a blue tint to my layout.  I cut a few of the rhinestone pieces from the bling in the main kit and added the black Prima swirls from the embellishment addon and of course,  flowers to complete the look.

When you see this kit, you  probably won't think of a snowy layout but the cardstock addon has a glittery white sheet that just screamed snow to me!  I had this pictures of my spoos that were begging to be scrapped and they worked perfectly with the colors in this kit.  I really love the lace and rhinestone trim that I've used on the left, its just perfect to bling up my poodles and you know poodles need to be all blinged out, LOL!!  The circle &snowflake chippies and the letters are from my stash, everything else is from the kit and addons.  I used the Viva silver paint and turquoise embossing powder from the mixed media addon to color the circle chippy, white gesso and stickles on the snowflakes.

For extra sparkle I added some crystal stickles from my stash around the edges of the flowers.

So, let's get started! Make sure to leave a comment on all of the blogs for a chance to win!!! 

You have until midnight, eastern time, on Sunday 4/13 to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on Monday 4/14. In order to qualify to win here is what you need to do:
1: Visit all of the blogs and leave a comment on each. This way we know you were there. Take your time. There are REALLY beautiful things to see along the way.
2: Before you leave each blog, look for the “special” words and write it down. 
Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, they will create a sentence. 
3: Finally, go back to the Swirlydoos blog and leave a comment letting us know how much fun you had, tell us the sentence that was created with all of the special words you collected. Can't wait to hear from you.

My special word is : Nothing
The party continues over at Angelica's blog. Have fun!

Graphic 45 Round 2!

Ohhhhh I was so super excited when I saw my name on the list of 30 finalists for the Graphic 45 2014 design team!  That sure put a HUGE smile on my face! Now it's onward to Round 2 and my video.

Spring is finally in the air here in the south.  We don't usually have much of a winter but wow, this year we had snow, ice, and really cold temperatures and I'm really glad to see spring flowers poking their sweet heads above the ground!  I live about 2 1/2 hours from the ocean and I know that waves and sand will soon be calling out to all of us eastern NC folks.  As I was reflecting on our winter,    inspiration suddenly popped into my mind and I thought, oh what I need to make is a bright and colorful beach hat!

What could be more colorful than Bohemian Bazaar?  This hat is really simple to make and oh so fun.  Below is a video link  that will take you through the process step by step and below is a link to a template for making the hat.

I also show you how to make this big orange flower in my video!

You Tube link

Link to pdf files for hat template (2 pages)

These are the templates for the hat I made in the above video.  Just click on the above link to print them on 8.5" x 11" paper.

I want to share a couple other projects that I made especially for Round 2 and this is my favorite of them all!  I've managed to collect 3 different G45 buttons over the last several years and I thought it would be so fun to make a shadow box for my craft room featuring these buttons!  Here's the result.  I used bits and pieces from several different Graphic 45 paper collections for this, Ladies' Diary, Curtain Call, Couture, Typography and A Proper Gentleman.  The shadowbox is a Graphic 45 8 x 8 Matchbook Box 4500543.

I  particularly enjoy writing tutorials and I'd like to provide you with links to several recent ones that I've done.

Here's a tag, no wait, it's a card!  Well it's a little bit of both and so I have named it a targ, LOL!!  I made this with the so sweet and feminine Botanical Tea 8 x 8 collection.  You can view my tutorial here along with additional photos.

I made this card and the above tag both with a tag from Graphic 45's new large tag album, 4500849.  Here I've fold the tag in half and turned it into a sweet little card with a tag envelope on the front and again, I've used Botanical Tea.  Here's a link to this card tutorial.

And finally a special build-a-page tutorial using Sweet Sentiments.  It is special because the photo is of my parents celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary this past November!  My Mom just turned 92 and my Dad will be 92 next month. They still live on their own and are doing well for their age.  Click here for my BAP tutorial.

Thank you to all my my blog followers and visitors!  I really appreciate the kind comments and encouragement that you have left.  Best wishes to all the finalists, the talent you all have truly amazes me and I am left wondering how I managed to be counted amongst you!

Botanical Tea card tutorial!

Hi everyone!  I've been having fun making a few cards lately with Graphic 45's Botanical Tea collection.  It really is the perfect collection for cards and tags!

For this card you will need the following:
1 tag from the Graphic 45 ivory large tag album
From the Botanical Tea 8 x 8 paper pad 4500888:
  Field of Flowers
  Fauna (both sides)
  Robin's Egg
  Flora
  Botanical Tea Tags & Pockets 4500892

Spellbinders Floral Ovals Nestabilities frames die
Memory Box Tiffany Frame
Corner rounder punch
Ribbon
Clear Embossing powder
Dark brown ink such as Distress Gathered Twigs

Step 1:
Cut a 3 3/4" square from Field of Flowers, round the corners
Cut a rectangle 2 7/8 x 3 1/2 from Fauna and round the corners
Diecut an oval frame from the dark brown side of Fauna using the 2nd largest Spellbinders die, if you don't have a die just cut an oval shape about 3 1/2 x 2 3/4.
Diecut another oval frame using Memory Box's Tiffany Frame.  (Omit this is you don't have a frame similar to this one)
Locate the shown tag and pocket in the Tags and Pockets
Ink the edges of everything except the Memory Box frame
Take a tag from the ivory tag album and fold it in half so that the rounded corners meet up.

Step 2:

 The Memory Box frame is quite fragile so to give it some strength, heat emboss it with clear embossing enamel.  You could also paint it with Glossy Accents, Diamond Glaze or Mod Podge.

Step 3:

Adhere the small rectangle to the floral square as shown with the light side up.  

Adhere foam squares or something similar to the oval frame.

Insert the tag into the pocket

Step 4:

Use the inside of the folded tag as a template to trace (on the floral side) and then cut a piece of Flora such that it fits neatly inside the card.  Punch a hole in the same position as is on the tag.

Step 5:

Make a small snip through to the tag hole as shown.  This will help you position the paper around the eyelet on the tag.  The hole on the tag is slightly larger than a standard paper punch hole so you may have to make a couple extra punches to get the hole large enough.

Take something sharp like a paper piercer and fit the paper around the eyelet on the tag.

Step 6:

Adhere the Field of Flowers square to the tag centering so that there is a small border all around  as shown.

Step 7:
Adhere the   Memory Box diecut frame to the Spellbinders diecut oval frame as shown and then adhere both to the card as shown.  Tie a bow onto the tag through the eyelet.

Step 8:  

Add the tag and pocket centering on the frame. Embellish with flowers of your choice.   Add a couple rhinestones at the sides of the Memory Box frame. That's it, the outside is done!

Cut a 3 3/8 x 3 1/2" rectangle from cream cardstock and corner punch the two corners to the outside of the card.  Complete the inside with a couple of flowers.

If you make a card from this tutorial, I would love to see it so please leave me a link!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, I really appreciate it.  The weekend is coming, hang in there, it'll be Friday soon!