Trick or Treat Mon Amour

Trick or Treat Mon Amour is the name of my Witch's hat.  I was just playing with paper yesterday and thought it would be fun to try making a Witch's hat.  I love this time of year!!  The smell of the leaves on the ground, the cooler air, the deep blue skies up against the colored trees and we can't forget HALLOWEEN!!!!  I love Halloween.  I have a collection of glamor witches, and old worn grandma-like witches that make their way out of storage to show their lovely faces for a month.  I saw the Broadway show Wicked and if you did, you know that Elpheba was anything but a wicked witch!  Love her!!!  I had a hard time getting a picture that does the hat justice.  At times I would look at the pic and say "that doesn't even look like a hat".  Hopefully you can tell it's a hat.

I'll get back to the hat LOL!  I used some paper from my September Swirlydoos kit.  This paper is from My Mind's Eye.  I don't have any formal instructions or a tutorial for you because I made it up as I went along.  I had no idea if it was going to work so I didn't take pics.  I'm sorry, but I will try to explain what I did.  I know that you can find patterns online if you search for them.  I decided to just wing it and was having too much fun to follow directions!!!

The first thing I did was grab a 12x12 of patterned paper.  I love the damask page from MME.  It's very glamorous :-)  I twisted it into a cone shape (about a billion times) until I was happy with it.  I used a glue dot to secure the bottom and then cut off the excess.  It wasn't a perfect cut and the cone sat a little lopsided , but who cares!  This is about having fun, and who wants a perfect hat anyway...boo!   Then I guesstimated what size the brim should be.  I cut an 11" circle with my Cricut on a coordinating piece of MME.  I also decided to cut a circle out of thin cardboard (the kind that comes with the paper you order) to glue the brim to in order to give it some strength and stability.

I used a wet distress technique on the top of the hat.  I worked the water in gently on the inside and outside of the hat.  I dipped my fingers in the water and worked both sides at the same time.  I did this to about 80% of the hat top.  I wanted to keep the bottom stiff so that it would be more stable.  The wet distress gives it an old, worn look which is what I was going for.  Then I took some Black Soot Distress Ink and lightly went over the creases.

I used Glimmer Mist on the bottom of the brim so that it matched the top and to give it some sparkle.  I used some more Distress Ink around the edges to cover the card board and then over the top to grunge it up just a bit more.  I started working the card board so that it was more flexible and added an up-curl to one side of the brim and a bit more of a wavy edge around the rest of the brim. I also distressed the edge.  My new October kit from Swirlydoos came with these really neat transparency doilies.  I liked the way they looked on my hat, so arranged them on the brim and glued them down.

Then I took little strips of scrap paper to affix the top of the hat to the brim.  This is where online instructions and patterns would have you cut a little extra on the hat and bend it out so you could glue it.  Not me!  I did this one the hard way.  LOL  It still worked out.  I took some gorgeous Webster's Bloomers Trim and went around the bottom of the hat where it meets the brim.  My dear friend Wendy made me some flowers and I used the big black one.  Isn't it pretty!!!  I had a feather spray in my stash that was perfect as well as some little flowers, doo-dads, and rhinestone flourishes. I had this spider web butterfly that I got at Micheal's and glued that to the top along with another feather.  The last thing I did was add a potion to an ATC card and glue that onto the hat.  In case you are interested the potion is how to get rid of smelly feet LOL!!!!

 

Well, I hope in some small way this has inspired you to throw out the directions and just play and figure it out as you go.  I had a great time trying and I'm sure that the hats I make going forward will get better each time.  TFL!!!

Memories

Swirlydoos Spotlight Kit - Prima Annalee

I know, I know....you thought Annalee was all pink didn't you?  NOT~  LOL  There is a lot of beautiful blues and greens and this pretty mustard-ochre .  I used a photo of my DD I took over the summer and gave it an antique finish.  It looked so pretty with the paper.  The paper line came with this border strip that says "memories like a fresh breeze wisp through my mind warming my heart and refreshing my soul".  It is so true and goes so well with her hair blowing in the breeze.

I used an art stencil from Layers of Color called Belle Brocade.  It is really lovely and very sturdy.  I love what it brings to a page.  I used Vintage Photo Distress ink and then placed little brown jewels on some of the points.

The leaves are one of my new faves.  It's Lisa Gregory's fault really.  She posted this phenomenal page over at Swirlydoos and we all went crazy asking about the stamp and where she got it.  She gladly pointed us in the direction of Heartfelt Creations.  The name of the stamp is Leafy swirls.  I used a random brown archival ink.  I then used Bundled Sage, Mustard Seed and Pine Needle Distress Ink.  I used Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Tattered Flowers die and cut the daisy out of white card stock.  Then I used Burnt Umber Moon Shadow Mist from Lindy's Stamp Gang.  If you've never seen this mist IRL, you really should.  It has a gorgeous iridescence that you don't get with the other mists.

 The yummy blue photo frame is the flip side to another paper in the Annalee line.  I ran it through my Cuttlebug with a random embossing folder (sorry I can't remember the name).  It's filled with flourishes if that helps. I finger curled the corners and the edges and then placed a scrap piece of brown card stock behind it.  I used a water distress finish on it.

Thank you so much for looking!!!!

She's Country

This is a page I did for a challenge over at Swirlydoos.  It is the No Paper Challenge.  We couldn't use any patterned paper.  I titled it She's Country because my daughter loves that song by Jason Aldean, and well, I just love Jason LOL!

I had a LOT of fun with this page.  First, I have to give props to the Photoshop Wonder Twins over at Swirlydoos, Lisa G. and Lisa N.  Yah, I know a lot of Lisa'a on this blog.  That's cuz Lisa's ROCK!  LOL  Anyway, I'm a beginner with PS and I worked with this photo of my DD.  I did a pencil sketch and then couldn't figure out how to get some other effects to work so I uploaded it to the forum.  Between the two of them and the ideas bouncing all over the place, this is what Lisa G. ended up with.  The other one from Lisa N is equally as gorgeous and I am going to have to scrap them both.  BTW, click here to go to Lisa G's blog, and here to go to Lisa N's blog (she has some great PS tutorials).

Ok, back to the page.  As I mentioned this was a no paper challenge.  So, the first thing I did was break out my distress inks and a white piece of card stock.  I used Bundled Sage and Stormy Sky for the page.  Then I took one of my favorite stamps from Donna Salazar and stamped it along the bottom in two different colors.

Next, I used my Faux Metal technique (click here to go to the tut).  This time I used a Cuttlebug Embossing folder and 2 different paint dabbers.  I went over the whole thing using brown and then with a paper towel lightly went over the raised areas with some green.  I LOVE the way this looks IRL.  I love it so much that I had a hard time deciding whether or not I wanted my entire page made out of this or only a part.  Then I edged it with some Prima Lace I had in my stash from a past kit.

The photo frame is made out of 3 pieces of Dusty Attic.  The main horizontal piece is a frame by itself and the top and bottom are flourishes that I bought from CraftySprinkles' ETSY (clik here to go there).  I actually had to redo this entire frame.  I wanted there to be a contrast between the frame and the photo but boy-oh-boy was it just awful!  I had to flip it over and just use Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.  I added the little pearls for some interest because I was afraid to try anything else and it looked blah otherwise LOL.

The flourish is a Prima Say It with Pearls that I cut into two pieces and all of the flowers are Prima as well.  The leaves are cut using an svg file.  Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look!!!!

Always - Mon Amour

**Swirlydoos September Kit - Mon Amour**

I am really loving this kit.  So many ways to use it!  I did this for the monthly kit sketch challenge as well as Angelica's Butterfly challenge.  I love a page that multi-tasks LOL!!

My DD is wearing one of my DH's old hats and I couldn't resist making her sit and model it for me.   I wanted this page to have an 1930's-ish feel to it.  So I went with a black and white photo and tried using elements from the kit that would give it that tea-dyed, old world traveler feel.  My journal reads: "Look at you.  It's so hard to believe that you are 8 years old.  I look at you and wonder where life will take you and who you will become.  You love life so much, laugh from your toes and look for adventure around every corner.  Where ever life takes you please remember that about yourself, and remember that I am incredibly proud of you.  Life will take many turns, and there will be bumps along the way, but I will always be here for you.  No matter where you go or who you become, you will always be my baby girl.  I love you to the ends of the universe and back. ~Mom 9/2010"

I started with gorgeous paper from My Mind's Eye.  It is their Lost and Found collection. I used coordinating card stock and the flip side of the same paper for the polka dots.  I cut the photo brackets out of coordinating card stock and I fussy cut the Eiffel Tower and the tag from another one of the pages from this collection. Those gorgeous little red roses came in my kit.  I used my Cuttlebug and Tim Holtz's tattered flowers die for the daisy looking flower.  I cut this out of white card stock and then sprayed it with Moon Mist Burnt Umber and used a vintage accent, that also came in the kit, for the center of the flower.

The butterflies are from Lisa Gregory.  She creates a file of coordinating butterflies for every kit.  How awesome is she?!  I printed and cut them out and then used Opal Perfect Pearls on the tips of the wings and then added Rock Candy Stickles and Diamond Dust.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and check out my latest page.  I appreciate it more than you know!!!