My vegetarian dog & the January Flying Unicorn KOM

I really loved working with the January Flying Unicorn KOM, it is so fun and playful, its perfect to pull you out of the winter blues!

 

 

Here we have the silly Chena picking cherry tomatos! If you look closely in the first photo you can see a tomato in her mouth.  We have to fence our garden to keep the dogs out or they would completely strip the vines!

 

Journal:

I’ve never seen a dog that loved vegetables as much as Chena!  The 1st year we had a garden, Chena learned to take her snout and root through the bean vines and pull off the mature beans. Tomatoes?  Well just like me, she only picked the ripe ones! I’m not sure which is her favorite, green beans or tomatoes.  Then there was time I planted sugar snaps on the fence.  I’d see Chena running across the yard with a long pea vine stringing out behind her; then she would stop and eat the whole thing!  We had to fence the garden to keep her out; so then, she would sit at the edge of the garden, whine and look at me with those sad puppy dog eyes!

 

 

 

 

Supplies from the kit:

Patterned paper:  BasicGrey Serenade collection:  Base-york, orange circle-Parlor, beige circle-avalon, circle under small photo-chemise, sweet robin from the BasicGrey packaging

Flowers:    BasicGrey diecut flowers, Bo Bunny Natural Earth Daisy,

 

Supplies from my stash:

Diecuts and punches: DA0395 Birdbath, DA0640 Cherry Blossoms, Martha Stewart Laurel Leaf & Deco Flower punch around the page

Flowers:   Petaloo Florettes (I think Sept kit), Prima Bel Canto (Dec KOM)

Ink: Distress frayed burlap, pumice stone

Mist: TA Glimmer Mist Bronze, Tattered Leather, Lindy’s Cattail Copper Brown

Paint: Liquid pearls bisque, white gesso

Unknown: Burlap

 

January KOM - Carpe Diem, is now available!!

My mojo left town sometime in October and I've been searching for it frantically ever since!  Well I finally found it all wrapped up in the Flying Unicorn January KOM, Carpe Diem!  I love this kit, it is fun and playful and different from the papers I usually turn to.  It was just what I needed to get my creative thoughts flowing!  The kit features papers from the collections of BasicGrey Serenade, Pink Paislee Portfolio, and Fancy Pants Country Boutique.

The summer of 2010 my husband and I spent in Alaska which is my favorite place in the whole world!  On our way home we stopped in the tiny Alaskan town of Hyder to view bears at Fish Creek.  Hyder is completely surrounded by Canada and if you don't fly or boat in, the only way you can get there is by driving through Canada.  There the Forest Service operates the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site where one can stand on a platform overlooking the creek and observe black and brown bears fishing for salmon that are spawning.  It was just magical to be able to observe the bears in their own habitat so up close and personal!

The bear and tree silouettes and cheesecloth are from my stash as are the totem pole and Alaska stickers.  The letters are Thickers and are from a previous kit.  Everything else is from the January kit.

One of the fun things that came in this kit was a Tattered Angels mask and I just happened to have the stamp that goes with it so I have masked the flourish there under Fish Creek and then stamped and embossed inside the masking.  I used clear embossing powder which brings out the stamped image.

 

Journal:

August 2010 – Being “up close and personal” with this Mama Bear and her cub was so thrilling! She was teaching her cub to fish but poor little guy, the fish were nearly as big as he was and they kept getting away.  She even caught one and gave it to him but he couldn’t hold on to it.  She would spot a fish in the water, give chase, and if she caught it, she’d haul it out on shore they would feast on it together.  I think the cub was feeling playful and he smacked his Mom on the snout, oooohhh, that was not smart, she really bitched him out, growling and such!  I think he got a bear spanking!

 

Supplies:

Patterned paper:  BasicGrey Serenade collection: Base-half penny, light brown pp-riding habit, chevron stripe & black polka dots-shilling, circles-bustle, black/brown stripe-riding habit

Letters:  Thickers shoebox

Chipboard:  Kaisercraft wooden flourish

Flowers:    Bo Bunny Natural Earth Daisy

Ink:  Mixed Media Inx peridot; Prima black coal

Mist:  Lindy’s Blazing Sun

Masks:  Tattered Angels Glimmer Screen bold borders,

Stamps:  Tattered Angels Screen Prints Architectural Trims

Paint:  white gesso

Other:  Stampendous clear embossing powder; cheesecloth; Darice metal accents bear and tree; Pink Paislee epherma pack; Stampendous clear embossing powder

Unknown:  Totem, salmon and I love Alaska stickers

On this next layout I did some  masking on the background using a Studio Calico hexagon mask that came in the kit.  I sprayed the background with Dylusions and sponged on some Viva Inka Gold (be sure to see my video on this product).  I added some Dusty Attic grass clusters that are colored with Lindys and gold Inka Gold.  The papers under the photo have been heavily inked with Mixed Media Inx to mimic the colors in the water.  I dabbed gesso on the Bo Bunny flowers in the corner so they would look similar to the flowers on the Prima vine.

 



 

Bo Bunny flowers painted with gesso and stickled

 

Prima Vine

 

Supplies:

Cardstock:      Bazzill peach glow (from my stash)

Patterned paper:  BasicGrey Serenade collection:  Green-biustle, orange-parlor, base page-peacock; Pink Paislee Portfolio ephermaa

Letters:  Crafty Secrets Alpha Buttons; Kaisercraft tiny alpha stickers

Chipboard:  DA0660 grass clusters #1(from my stash)

Flowers:    Bo Bunny Natural Earth Daisy; Prima Bretton vine Alyssa

Ink:  Mixed Media Inx- vintage, honey; Inka-gold steel blue, gold; Prima English ivy (from my stash)

Mist:  Lindy’s Gator Gumbo Olive, Ponderosa Pine Olive; Dylusions London Blue (all from my stash)

Stickles:  Crystal (from my stash)

Paint:      Ranger dabbers Lake Mist, Snowcap, white gesso (from my stash)

Masks:  Studio Calico Elongated hexagon mask; TCW paint lids (from my stash);

One of the fun things in this kit was this Fancy Pants corrugated sheet.  I painted it, misted, masked, really I just kept putting media on it until I was satisfied.  At one point I sprayed it too heavily with Dylusions at which point I kinda freaked out, LOL, but I let it dry and they painted other colors over it.  The floral leaves have been painted with Viva Inka-gold and the fish net has been embossed with Stampendous aged gold embossing enamel.



 

Supplies:

Cardstock:      Fancy Pants Corrugated sheet

Patterned paper:  BasicGrey Serenade collection:  behind photo-bowler hat, zig zag-shilling, green-bustle, orange- parlor, Pink Paislee Portfolio collection: Outstanding (best day ever cutout), Epherma pack

Chipboard:  DA flourish #8, DA 0654 fish net (from my stash)

Flowers:  Prima Del Canto from Dec KOM; Petaloo Cantebury vine(from my stash) , Kaisercraft sepia paper flowers from a previous kit

Ink:  Mixed Media Inx -  Jasmine, Leather, honey, peridot, mossy (from my stash)

Mist:  Glimmer Mist olvie vine, moonlight, Dylusions London Blue (from my stash)

Paint:      Ranger dabber lake mist Jan KOM, snowcap (from my stash)

Other:  Kaisercraft lace, Studio Calico mask, Stampendous aged gold embossing enamel (from my stash), Golden crackle paste(from my stash) , 

 

Lets get organized with an activity journal

Happy Saturday!  Hopefully today is a scrappy day for you and your mojo is flowing strong!  I shared a little of my journal with you earlier and today I want to show it all to you in its finished state.
 I am using this journal to keep my scrappy world organized.  Yeah, I’m a organization freak, I make lists and more lists, my scraproom is never a total mess, I have to be in control of these things at all time!  Being on a Creative Team sounds all glamorous and fun, and it TOTALLY is, but with all that fun goes a lot of work.  We have projects to complete, deadlines to meet, and always plans to make to keep our awesome members, interested and excited about the happenings at the Flying Unicorn!  To help keep me organized, Ialtered a standard 3 ring binder.  The one   I chose is a 1” 3 ring binder that has a clear plastic overlay on the front and back of the binder so that I can slip a page under the plastic.   Let’s begin with the front and back covers.

Front:  I used Creative Imaginations IOD Devotion to make this page, this is one of my most favorite ever paper lines, well of course it is, its red, black and ivory!!  The image is an awesome greeting card for Anne Taintor Inc that I found while on a scrappy retreat in Ohio.  I just love the inscription on her dress!  I stickled some ScrapFX chippy flowers and added black centers and scattered them amongst the printed flowers.  I fussy cut the left side of this LO from Devotion wave and layered in other papers from the Devotion collection.


The back again features a greeting card image from Anne Taintor Inc.  I thought the inscription was appropriate for scrapping.  It sums up my thoughts on having a scrappy budget!!!  I used a mix of  Creative Imaginations IOD Prevencial and Devotion papers, that yummy yellow and purple flowers are Manor House Taneisha and Country Lane Charm, and the small wine colored flowers are Petaloo.  I also used ScrapFX Funky Flowers, they are the dark red chippies on the Dusty Attic corner flourishes that I painted white.

I also used some floral stickers from the IOD Devotion collection. I love the look of the stickers combined with the Manor House flowers and ScrapFX chippies. Here’s a closeup:

Now for the divider pages, I purchased standard notebook dividers that have tabs on them.  I made my layouts so that they were the exact same size as the divider pages.  Then I decided that I really wanted the layouts to be protected so I bought some 8 1/5 x 11 scrapbook page covers at Michaels.  They are really inexpensive if you catch them on sale or use a coupon.  You will need to trim the left side off the page covers, this is the side that has the punched holes.  Then you will need to carefully line up your divider with the page cover and mark where the tab will be on the page cover. Using your craft knife, cut a slit large enough to slip the tab through.  In this picture you can see that I have trimmed off the left side and lined up the tab.

I found that it was not necessary to adhere my layout to the tabbed divider page, just slip it down into the page protector.  If you decide not to use the page protectors then you will need to adhere your layout to the divider page.  I also found that it works better to punch holes in your layout AFTER you have slipped it into the page protector, that way your holes will be lined up perfectly.

Here are some of the layouts I used in my divider pages.  I used the March KOM for these pages, it’s a mix of Inkido, Kanban and BasicGrey papers



This page features Kanban with some BasicGrey and Inkido mixed in – all from the March KOM.  The dressform chippy is from Fabscraps.

This page was done with Scrapcake One Moment in Time collection.  That gorgeous butterfly is from Donna, thank you so much, it was perfect for this page.  The image again is from from Anne Taintor Inc.  The Dusty Attic is colored with Glimmer Mist in walnut gold.  The flowers are layered hydrangeas from the April kit.



If you need a journal, give this a try.  It would make a great gift for a student or a friend.  I love that its so versatile and organized!  You can have as many or as few tabbed pages as you need.  Right now I have four, To do list, challenges, calendar and SHOPPING LIST (most important!!) and I have room to add more dividers if I need them.

More from the Flying Unicorn March KOM!

I have lots to share with you today, I've been busy these last few days!

First I want to show you this card I made.  It is special for two reasons, the most important of which is that it was for my Mom's 90th birthday!!  And not so important, but really, I seldom make cards so this is a milestone, LOL!!

The March kit included some wonderful Kanban papers that had this divine image on it, what luck for me that it had the Happy Birthday tag also!   I combined the Kanban with a sheet a Bazzill cardstock and BasicGrey Little Black Dress - Foxy Posh.  The large flower is a fabulous bloom from Manor House.  Their flowers are divine!!  The smaller roses are no name from my stash.  The bloom above the tag is from the kit and is a Petaloo Color Me Crazy orchid stained with Lindy's Alpine Rose.

The Kanban and BasicGrey papers in the kit are so elegant that I had this vision of a layout featuring a true beauty, this photo of Elizabeth Taylor fit my vision perfectly!  I mixed BasicGrey Little Black Dress - Vogue and Foxy Posh with Kanban Couture Chic-white and added Bo Bunny Enchanted Noteworthy journal spots as accents for this layout.  The Dusty Attic (DA0542) corners are from my stash and are painted with oyster Luminarte.  The cameo is something I've been hoarding forever and thought it was perfect for this LO, and of course I had to add lots and lots of bling for a Liz LO, ZVA and Recollections.

This layout was also done with the March KOM.  I combined papers from BG Little Black Dress (Black and White) and Inkido Rosebuds & Vintage Love for this.  I also added a sheet of cardstock and the tan diecut (CI) from my stash.  the DA corner, bird and cage are also from my stash.  The large bloom is from the store, Manor House, I am loving their flowers!!  The heart and wine rosebuds are from the Feb KOM.  This was a fun project that I did for a challenge that Alda is hosting at the Flying Unicorn this month, it was quite the challenge, come join us, there's a great RAK up for grabs.

We are having so much fun this month making fun fashions, come join in the fun. This week our challenge is to create a hat so I made this fun little garden hat.  Here in the south its past time to be thinking about the garden so I thought I'd better get myself a hat to wear, LOL!  I used a little hat form for the crown and then cut a large brim that I cut on the edge with a Martha Stewart punch.  I added two ribbons and the flowers, the large one is a Flying Unicorn brand flower, new in the store, I love them!!!

And finally I made this simple little shoe last week during shoe week.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, hope to see you at the Flying Unicorn some time!

March Flying Unicorn KOM - Putting on the Ritz!

I am thrilled to share these layouts with you that I did using the March KOM and addons.  We are all about fashion this month and this kit is great for fashion inspired projects but its also versatile so that you can make any kind of project.  The mix of papers is really outstanding, I loved the Kanban paper that I used on this layout - perfect for this wedding layout.  Note that the butterflies and flowers are actually silver foil and they picked up reflected colors when I photographed.  The silver is so pretty, but it acted a bit like a mirror in this photo.

The Flying Unicorn takes great pride in bringing you beautiful papers from all over the world and this month we are so excited to introduce you to Inkido papers from Sweden.  I really loved working with these soft pink colors, so perfect for this layout of my grand-daughters!

I love this picture of my brother and me, it was taken in Verdun, France where my Dad was stationed in 1951-1954 witht he US Army.  The base paper is Inkido that I masked with Prima masks and Glack Magic Glimmer Mist.  The scalloped paper is BasicGrey Little Black Dress collection that I fussy cut.  I diecut the swirls using a Sizzix die.   The flowers are a mix of felt and fabric flowers.  I love the Eiffel Tower chippie, its a Pink Paislee House of 3 design.

I've saved my favorite thing from the kit for the last, and its the Off the Page project!!  This is a 17" tall wooden dress manequin that has a stand so that your beautiful creation will stand on its on.  Isn't this just soooo sooo fun?  I dressed my mannequin in papers from the BasicGrey Little Black Dress collection and black tulle from my stash. 

My design was inspired by this gown created by Christian Dior.  He is the designer that I decided to use as my fashion muse this month.  I think this gown is divine!!

 I hope that you will join us at the Flying Unicorn this month.  We have so many fun challenges going on!  In addition to the monthly challenges we always have, we're having our Haute Couture at the Flying Unicorn challenges too.  We're designing fashion collections, making shoes, purses, all kinds of great accessories.  Come join us and maybe you'll win one of our fabulous RAKS! 

Mojo Monday sketch - Flying Unicorn

Check out this fabulous Mojo Monday sketch posted this morning at the Flying UnicoTrn.  Give it a try and be sure to post it in the gallery and Mojo Monday thread!

Here's my take on the sketch. Its a great sketch for multiple photos. 

I used the February kit for this layout and added the 12 x12  pink BasicGrey doilie over Core'dinations cardstock that came in the kit.  The other papers are all from the kit, Fabscraps and Kaisercraft.  The largest flower is a Prima from my stash, the others are from the kit. The black accents and tag are Creaqtive Imaginations Narratives cardstock stickers, also from the kit.  I used a Sizzix die to cut the leaves, "branch with leaves", it is definitely one of my favorite dies. 

Thanks for visiting, I really appreciate your comments so much!

Red Fox - Sketches Creatively Yours

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.

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!

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?

Canis Lupus

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!

Pioneer Park

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