Flying Unicorn!

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

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

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

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

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

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.