Wonderland Box & SNR Exclusive Sneak Peek !!!

Happy Halloween Bloggers!!!!  Scrapbook News and Review's next issue is set to debut today!  In this post I've included a few projects that will be in this new issue from two other incredibly talented staffers!!!

This is my Wonderland Box.  It is only the second altered box I've ever done and I had a great time making this.  Who doesn't love the Halloween in Wonderland paper from Graphic 45?!  So whimsical and rich in color.  It really wasn't all that hard.  All you have to do is 1) find a box, 2) paint the box, and 3) embellish.  That's it!  Ok, I did lightly sand the box and cover it in gesso first, and ink, paint and mist the embellies, but that's it!  I promise!!! LOL

I went through Micheal's and found this cute little bat and that medallion was on sale in the jewelry section. I thought that the Dusty Attic iron gate and tree branch went really well with the paper.

 

This is my DD's eye that I cut out of another photo.  Don't stare at it for too long because it is enchanted and you will be hypnotized into thinking you are Sister Maria in The Sound of Music and you will go skipping through your neighborhood twirling and singing!!! ......Ask me how I know.... LOL!!  It fit perfectly inside the Tim Holtz Metal Frame Plate.  I glued it to the back and then filled it in with Glossy Accents.

  

Aren't those metal corners awesome!!!!  They are really heavy and just beautiful in real life. 

This is the inside of the box and you are looking at the top.  The paper is yummy.  It is flocked and feels all velvety.  I added a small mirror I also found in the jewelry isle.

 

This is the inside, bottom of the box.  I carried the flocked paper down to the bottom as well.  Since I am one of those people who doesn't like to have trinkety things just hanging around the house UNLESS they have a purpose, I decided to make this box "work" during Halloween.

I took the playing cards that came in the paper stack and made them sturdy by gluing a thin piece of cardboard to them and then glued black card stock to the back of that.  As you can see, I took some Halloween ATC cards and glued them on the back.  We are also using these cards for our favorite Halloween recipes as well as recipe cards for potions and spells!!!  Mwah-ah-ah!!!!!  My DD and I went foraging through the woods and took pine cones and pulled the "scales" off of the open pine cones.  We put them in a small velvet bag and these are now "Dragon Scales" to be used in one of the fake potions.  We also made unicorn horns out of baking clay, but they seemed to have disappeared....hmmmmm.  Anyway, this is now a really fun Halloween box that pulls double duty and holds all kinds of treasures inside!!!!

NOW, for the Scrapbook News and Review Sneak Peak......drum roll.........

This is a layout of a very dear friend, Mandy Harrell.  I love her to pieces and her work is nothing short of inspiring.  I am forever stalking her blog and her work and pouring over them inch by inch.  If I could just get inside her head, I would be rich indeed!!!  Here is a page that she submitted in the Masks and Stencils section of the magazine.  She does Steampunk like no one else!!!  Girlfriend has it going on.  Isn't it gorgeous?!

I love the Mixed Media section and I am such a fan of the staffers in this area.  They inspire me so much!!!  I've actually decided to jump in this area and learn and play.  They are so generous with their skills and talents.  Check out these little inchies from another incredibly talented staffer, Heidi Myers.  Aren't they awesome??!!!

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What are you waiting for?? Head on over to Scrapbook News and Review and get inspired!!!! 

All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.....I've got you humming that tune don't I?!  This is a pic I took of my DD a few years ago while we were ice skating at the park.  I used the Winter Joy collection from Bo Bunny.  I won it in a contest over at Swirlydoos.  This paper is prettier in person, trust me!

I have used three different papers from the collection to make this page. I fussy cut the bottom page to fit the squiggly vertical lines in behind the flowers.  Then I used the backside from another paper to use for the circle and slid that behind as well.  I used mini pom-pom lace to trim out the circle.  It made me think of little snowballs.

 

I love Dusty Attic, don't you?  I painted the flourish frame in brown paint first, then I went over it in Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint.  When that dried I used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink and rubbed it into the cracks.  I really wanted to give this a vintage yet shimmery Christmas look, so I added some Diamond Dust glitter in a few places.  That apparently wasn't enough because then I added some pearls to dress it up a bit more. The stamp in the middle is by Clear Art Stamps.  I used Diamond Stickles to color Santa's beard and hair.  I also used some green Liquid Pearls to give the holly in his hair some color.

These little dots were a lot of fun to make.  One of the girls over at Swirlydoos, Bonnie, reminded me about this cute little technique.  She used glue, and I used Glossy Accents.  Here is how you do it:

• Get out your handy non-stick craft mat
• Take your Glossy Accents and make random sized dots and let them dry and harden, thoroughly
• When you are sure that they are dry and hard, use your Alcohol Inks to give them color.  Put a few drops onto the mat and then using tweezers place the dots in the little puddles. You can use a Q-Tip and add some ink to the top if you think you need it.
• Let it dry and that is IT!!!  Aren't they cute?!

I made the Poinsettias using an SVG file.  I cut them out using my Cricut and then ran them through my Cuttlebug and embossed them.  I then used some Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans Distress Ink to highlight the embossed areas on the flowers.  I used Liquid Pearls to place a dot on the ends of the mini flowers in the middle and added Diamond Dust to the edges.  I think Diamond Dust can sometimes look like ice and that was the look I was going for.  I threw a pearl in the middle to finish them off.

The butterfly I made using a stamp from Layers of Color.  I used black Archival Ink and stamped it on a piece of scrap from the Bo Bunny collection.  I cut it out and then went over it in purple Stickles.

I had a lot of fun making this page and I hope that you have found something that inspires you!!!  TFL!!

Poison Apple

 

Poison Apple is a book series that my DD just started to read.  It is about a young girl who finds out that she has Vampires for family members and that she too, may be a Vampire!  She loves these books and I love anything that gets her to read.

This is a picture of her from a few years ago.  She wanted me to paint her face like a Vampire, so I did.  We also used colored hair spray and gave her a pink stripe in her hair.  Even though it was February outside, it was October inside.  She was far to cute and I couldn't help myself from snapping pics.

I used two different paper lines for this page. I used My Mind's Eye Haunted Collection (LOVE THIS), and I used Martha Stewart's Halloween Vampire collection.  These collections go so well together.  I really love that old, tea-dyed look to the paper. It also helped that the top line to the bottom page from MS says "Halloween Greetings...you're invited to a Vampire Ball".  Another thing I found was that Martha had this really great green paper in the stack with a polka-dotted back-side.  Green???  For Halloween???  Awesome!  That lovely diamond patterned paper is flocked and it is soooooooo pretty.  A scrapper that I admire, Tina (click here for her blog) is just a goddess when it comes to layers and layers of paper.  I keep trying to pull this off and stalk her work so that I can learn it.  I'm getting better, but I still have a long way to go.  I practiced that layering effect with this page.  I think I still have another 4 or 5 sheets of paper to add to this before I really get the effect she has on her pages, but I'm taking baby steps! LOL

I had some gorgeous purple Prima flowers in my stash and one purple spider mum that I made and had sitting in my stash as well.  I really love how all of these colors work so well together.  I had to add some bling and pulled out some prima flourishes.

I really enjoyed using some not-so-traditional colors on this page.  I hope this inspires you to do the same.   Happy Halloween and stay posted because I created an altered box that I will be revealing on 10/31.  Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Boldt Castle

 

****Swirlydoos October Kit***

This month's kit is simply stunning.  The Webster's paper and all of the embellishments are quite gorgeous.  I was having a hard time deciding what to do first.  This is my take on this month's sketch.  I flipped it and turned it upside down.  You know how I am with sketches LOL!

These are pictures I took at our recent day trip to Boldt Castle.  This was the first time my DD had been there.  It is on Heart Island all by itself up in the Thousand Islands Region on the St. Lawrence River.  It is simply stunning. A man's true love for his wife was the inspiration for building the castle at the turn of the 20th century.  My DD literally spent the day with her mouth wide opening gasping every time she turned a corner.  Good news...I found my scraproom LOL!  I took over 200 pics that day so I am sure I will be scrapping more.

I used some of the coordinating card stock to cut the circle out and decided to use another one of my Art Stencils from Layers of Color.  Love these things!!! I only used part of the natural flourish stencil on the circle.  I used Dew Drops ink in Platinum.  I added some pearls to dress it up a bit. 

I also took one of the Webster's papers and cut those big, lavender circles out.  I also cut out the half circles.  I lined the circles up along the edge and then layered them with the main circle.  The kit came with some Parisian Anthology decorative elements.  I used one for the title and one to go underneath the photo.  I sprayed some black velvet Smooch Spray onto a paper towel and lightly rubbed over the top of the elements so that just the higher edges got Smooched.

The beautiful branch and lace flower were in the kit.  I broke up the branch and spread it around the page.  I just can't seem to keep myself from using that awesome leaf stamp from Heartfelt Creations.  They are so pretty and easy to use. 

Thank you so very much for stopping by and taking a peek!!!

Bewitched Tag and Tutorial

Scrapbook News and Review had their annual 9 Tags of Fall.  Each day, for 9 days, a staffer at SNR created a tag with a fall theme and included a tutorial on how it was done. Click here to go and see all of the tags.  My tag was Day 9 and was sent out in their newsletter last night.  I had a lot of fun making this tag.  It has been nice to do something other than a page layout for a change.  I hope this inspires you to make a tag of your own.  Here is how I made this:

 
Supplies:(I know it looks like a lot, but it really isn't)

Tag
Thin cardboard
glossy accents
crackle accents
Glue
ribbon (Adornables & black ribbon)
Jeweled Ribbon
Bottle cap
Fabric leaf
black feather
Jolee's miniature leaves
Rock Candy Stickles
Diamond Dust
Black Distress Ink (or any black ink)
Instant Printables www.instantprintables.com/index.php: the following files: Altered Art Fairy Witch Collage: Circle with the "31" in it; Altered Art Halloween Witch Collage tags: pick any two; Altered Art Vintage Halloween Cabinet Cards: I cut a strip off of the card in the lower left; E.A. Poe Halloween Books Background paper; Gothic Halloween Stamps: I used the pretty lady in the bottom left corner, and the word Bewitched; Vintage Halloween Die Cut Bottle Caps: choose one

Step 1 - Cut out the pieces from the Instant Printables files. Then, trace the tag on the backside of the Poe Background paper file and cut it to size.

Step 2 - Glue the Poe paper to your tag.

Step 3 - trace the large circle (with the #31 on it) as well as the Gothic witch onto the thin cardboard. Glue these items to the cardboard. It will provide stability to the paper. I went over the edges with some black Distress Ink when the glue dried.

Step 4 - Cut out the bottle cap of choice from the Instant Printable and place it in your bottle cap. You really have to trim these down to fit. I used Glossy Accents to stick the paper inside the bottle cap and then I covered it up to the edge of the cap. This will give it a nice finish when it dries.

Step 5 - Add Crackle Accents over the circle with the #31 on it.

Step 6 - Add Rock Candy Stickles to the Gothic Witch only. Don't add it anywhere else on the cut out. This will make her stand out. While the Stickles is wet, sprinkle some Diamond Dust over it. This makes her very sparkly.  While this is drying glue a miniature leaf branch to the top left and bottom right corners of the witch. I added a few jewels to each corner to dress it up.

Step 7 - Glue the black feather to your fabric leaf

Step 8 - Glue your jeweled ribbon to the bottom back of the tag. I used an extra black piece of ribbon to glue over the back as well as the front. This secures the thread that holds the jewels.

Step 9 - Now for the fun part. Put it all together! Start by gluing the little strip that you cut from the cupboard tags along the top of the tag starting from the left. It won't go all the way across but that's ok because the bottle cap and leaf will be there. Cut a small piece of fringed string from Adornables and glue it along the top of this little strip.

Glue the two triangular pieces to your tag. The first one going on the left side just under the strip you just glued and the other going on the right side about half way down. Glue the word Bewitched to the bottom right.

Glue the leaf and feather to the top right of your tag and then glue the bottle cap over the top edge. Glue down the "31" circle on your tag and then with pop-up glue squares, glue your Gothic Witch at an angle at the bottom right of the card. Tie your black ribbon at the top and that's it!!