Just a few thoughts and what has been going on..

I've been working on this one lay-out for more than a week.  I made some new, what I guess I'll call page elements, and I so want to work them into a page.  I was finally able to get one of them onto a page last night, but it is a work in progress.  I will often draw out a sketch for the photo I have in my mind and because of my busy schedule Monday-Friday, I don't often get the change to start working on a layout.  Instead I will sketch and re-sketch the page in my head, and on paper, over the course of the week and will put things out on my work table and shift things around.  I can't leave too many things out because my cats will have a blast when we're not home....those little darlings. 

Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day!  Woo Hoo~  I will be going to my next door neighbors house and we will be scrapping the day away.  I'm not sure how I am going to get everything over there so this should be interesting.  If you are anything like I am, I start out with a plan and then watch it morph 90 times before I finish a page and then when I look up all I see are stacks of every paper I have that I've managed to paw through, paper scraps in a little pile, a pile of hand made embellishments that I spent so much time on and then never ended up using, etc.  I think you know what I mean.  So, I am hopeful that I will have at least one, if not two pages to post here over the weekend as well as a tutorial for a new technique I am working on....maybe two tutorials...stay tuned!!!!

You and Me.

This is a layout I did for the Beat the Rush Crop over at Pages in Time.  We were given a sketch to work with.  I have to say that this is the fastest layout I've ever done and I actually had a hard time with it.  I'm not one for working off of a sketch.  As a matter of fact, I draw my own page sketches and my layout never ends up looking like my own sketch LOL!  Most of the elements on their sketch are represented here, but not all of them. 

This is a picture of my DH and DD back about 4 years ago.  It is one of my favorite pics of all time.  We were at a friend's camp on Lake Ontario.  It is a few hours from home and about 20 minutes from Canada (near Kingston).  My DD was playing in the lake and found herself really cold. 

What I did on this page was go for some texture with my paper.  The blue and gold paper is more like a paper/fabric hybrid.  The gold is very shiny and is actually quite beautiful in person.  Very rich.  I found the paper that is behind the pic one day pawing through all of the papers at AC Moore.  It's kind of like tree bark.  I finally got to use that brown scroll that is along the side.  That thing has been hanging around for ever now.  As usual I handmade the flowers and leaves.  Here is how I did them and then the finished product:

 I use a program called Sure Cuts a Lot.  This program allows you to import SVG files and then cut them with your cricut.  So I cut out  Impatiens and their leaves on manila paper.  I love using manilla or white paper because then I make these flowers all my own.  The next thing I did was choose my Distress Inks.  One thing to note; card stock or even regular paper need to have their fibers broken down a bit.  You do this simply by crumpling the paper and then bending it all over the place.  This makes the paper pliable and will ultimately give it a worn look.  The other thing it does is create creases and high spots that will grab more ink than other parts of the paper. Another thing to remember with Distress Inks is that it is best to work in layers. I started the flowers with a very light, all-over base of Weathered Wood.  Then I took Faded Jeans and starting from the outside of the petals I worked my blending tool in and over the paper.  The edges will grab more ink and it will fade as you move toward the center, giving you that really nice gradient of shades.  Then I went over the edges and slightly in a little bit father on the petals with Walnut Stain.  Each time the new color builds off of the one before it sometimes creating a color all its own and other times creating these beautiful subtle shades that you see in nature.  Once I finished inking these then I took out a sheet of foam and placed my flower on it.  Using the ball end of my stylus I "drew" a circle over and over right in the middle of the flower.  This makes the paper begin to fold up into a cup shape.  The paper will relax unless you glue it like this so don't panic.  Then I took fabric paint and placed a dot in the center and then little lines going up the middle of the petal.  Last, I used Distress Crackle and just placed it on the tips of the flowers.  This gives the ink a nice rich look and also stiffens up the paper.  Please remember that the paper will begin to come out of that cup shape but once it is dry you can begin working the paper again to give it shape.  I did the same thing with the leaves but used greens and the walnut stain.  I also used the ball end of my stylus to create a center vain. Something to think about is that when you do this, your ink will be darker over this area, so if you don't want every ink shade that you use to pick up on this high spot, then don't create it until you are ready to use the ink that you want to stand out.  I also crumpled and worked over the paper to make it pliable and bendy.  Here is the finished product:

 If you have any questions or don't think I explained it well enough, please leave me a comment and let me know.  Thanks for looking and happy inking!!!

Butterfly Kisses

For those of you who don't know what a butterfly kiss is, the best way to describe it is to tell you how to do it.  You simply place your eye really close to someone's cheek and then blink really fast so that they feel only your eyelashes "flutter".  It tickles and always makes the kids giggle.  That is what I thought of when I took this picture.  I used a lens attachment on my Canon Rebel called a Muse and it is made by a company called Lensbaby.  If you have a digital SLR camera I highly suggest you check out their site.  This lens is AWESOME!!!!  You can squeeze it, bend it...all sorts of things.  Go check it out.....

Ok, so I pretty much made everything by hand on this and tried to keep it light with a breezy feeling.  I started with a blue, swirley and glittery paper (which doesn't really translate well in this photo) and then cut the bottom of it with a slight wave design.  I glued it to the top of plain white 12x12 card stock.  I then took one of my new favorite stamps by Donna Salazar and stamped it along the bottom of the white page.  Then I remembered a great idea posted by Wendy on sb.com.  She made this braid circle and wove flowers into it.  Well, I didn't weave the flowers in or make a circle, but I did use 3 different colors of ribbon and made a braid. Thanks for the idea Wendy!!  I attached it to the blue paper and followed the wave pattern.

Then I made the roses using plain white copy paper and a flower punch.  I use Stormy Sky Distress Re-inker and a Mini-Mister. I sprayed the paper flowers lightly, let them dry then sprayed them again.  If you spray them too much they become saturated and loose their shape.  It is best to do a few light coats.  Then when this was dry I added copper Perfect Pearls to a mini-mister with water and lightly sprayed the flowers again.  When this was dry I took some Purple Distress Ink and then lightly went over the flowers again.  Kind of my take on the Prima Alchemy Flowers.  Here is a close up:

Next I downloaded free svg files of butterflies and used my Cricut to cut them out.  I cut them out on manila card stock and then used Distress Inks to color them.  The bottom of this butterfly is solid black (using black soot ink) and then I blended purple distress ink to the top layer by working my way from the outside in so that the edges take on more ink and it gets lighter the farther in you go.  I glued the two pieces together and then took Black Stickles and filled in the spaces.

Here again I made the butterflies using the technique above.  Under the butterflies is a handmade flourish.  I made this by photo copying an actual bling flourish I bought.  Then I placed the photocopy underneath some transparency paper and used Opal Liquid Pearls and "traced" the image below. I took some liberties in a few places.  After all it wouldn't really be mine if I didn't give it my own twist.  Easy-Peasy-Lemon-Squeezie!

If you have any questions be sure to post a comment on this blog and I will do my best to respond.  Thanks for looking!

Kayuta Lake 2009

Ok, so the pic of this lay out isn't all that great.  I'm going to try to get a better one later on.  This is a pic of my DD at one of our camping trips last year.  It is called Kayuta Lake and it is just inside the Adirondack State Park a little over an hour from home.  This is quintessential Sydney.  She just cracks me up.  What a funny kid.

There are a bunch of hand made goodies going on with this page and pretty much all of it has been touched by distress ink.  I think I need a 12 step group for this LOL!  The flowers were made using a 6 petal flower punch.  The leaves, grass and dragonfly were cut using my cricut and downloaded FREE SVG files.  Gotta love those SVGs.  I also handmade the crystal bling at the top.  Something different for this page is the addition of Sculpey Clay.  I rolled it out and used a template of lace and the baked it.  When it was done I used some paint to antique it so that the detail showed up and then kind of broke off pieces so that it looked tattered.  Kind of works for me.  I think I might try to add some more clay elements to future pages.  Below is a close up of the handmade goodies:

All of the leaves and grass were cut out on cream colored paper and I used distress ink to color them.  I also used a stylus on the small leaves to emboss a center line on the leaves.  I went over this (front and back) a few times so that when I finally inked it, this part was popped up and took more ink then the rest.  You can kind of see it in the pic. 

This is a page I did for a DIY challenge at scrapbook.com.  There were a few challenges added if you wanted to earn extra votes.  I decided to make the handmade flourishes and the recycle flowers from my stash to make new flowers with. 

We were provided a link to a tutorial for the flourishes on the Swirlydoos website.  I used patina stickles and opal liquid pearls.  I was pretty happy with the end result although with a little more practice I think I can eliminate the "peaks" at the top of some of the dots.  I think this is something I may do more of.  I like the creative freedom of choosing my own colors and making it my own.

As far as the flowers go, we were provided a tutorial for those as well.  I didn't really have the right type of flower to follow the tutorial, so I felt a little frustrated and decided to make my own type of flower using what I had in my own stash.  I took some flat, sunflower-like flowers and smooshed them up, inked them and used some perfect pearls powder.  I then used some of my Prima leaves and used distress ink on those as well.

Overall I like the colors I used and the easy, somewhat uncluttered look of the page.  I think that with every page I do I am learning and getting closer to what will ultimately be my "Style".  I like to try new and different techniques and with each new venture I am getting closer to something....... Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with this page, I feel good about it.  Here are one of my flourishes close up.

So far I am enjoying my journey and even more happy that I have been true to my creative self and making sure to do something creative everyday.  I still haven't found a way to work in a few more hours into my day to exercise,  and I don't think I have lost more than a few pounds....BUT I am doing something that I enjoy, when I can and that is what matters.  I'm also lucky enough to have my DD want to join me when I head to the work table.  I guess as long as I keep going, everything will work out, right?  I just hate that the warm weather is coming because that means less clothing.  It also means that camping season is close and I like to camp so I think that is what I will focus on. 

For the next week I only have my day job to deal with; no Board meetings, no Troop meetings.  This gives me time to catch up around the house and go be creative.