Chicago - CHA

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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!!