October leftovers challenge

I love the October leftovers challenge that Pat hosts over at scrapbook.com!  Its great motivation to use up all the little left over pieces of paper, not to mention stretching my creativity to use those papers! 

The LO that I created this month is title "When I see you, I see Love".  Its of my daughter, Shelby.  The journaling reads: You are the definition of love.  You have such a giving nature and a kind heart.  You give of your time, your belongings and yourself.  You are fiercely loyal and kind to your friends, no matter how badly they treat you.  You will stand up for what is right, and you believe in what is Godly.  You love the unlovable and that is why I love you!

Here is what Shelby said about the LO. The title wasn't true, because I don't even like her.  Saying that the journaling was wrong b/c I tell her she is selfish and the world doesn't revolve around her.  She doesn't understand that while the rampaging teenage hormones and defiance sometimes make me want to choke her, that I still love her unconditionally and that I feel and think so many wonderful things about her!  I told her I would quit doing layouts of her because she is always very critical of me and the finished layout, and she says, do you think I care.  Do you think it will bother me if you don't do any layouts of me.  OMG...and she wonders why I want to choke her?  Lord...help me get through the next 6 years with my sanity!!!

Anyway...on to the layout.  This layout was made 100% of scraps of Basic Grey paper.  I gather all the scraps of several different paper packs and put them in a pile, then just started mixing and matching.

The heart was a piece that I had cut out for a different layout, but didn't end up using it.  I saved it of course and it worked perfectly for this layout.  I inked it with T.H. worn lipstick distress ink, the edges with black soot, then I covered it in diamond dust.  The 3 flowers on the heart are from a beautiful tutorial I came across yesterday as I was surfing the web.  It's the Prima style flower by Rachel.  She used the T.H. Tattered florals, but I just used the retro style flower punch.  The outer two flowers in the corner are the Swirly Sweetheart Daisy by Lisa Gregory.  The middle flower is a twist on the Low Profile flower by Natasha.  Instead of using the tattered florals die (b/c I was too lazy to cut the flowers), I used my daisy punch in extra large and med (1").  On the 2 back flowers, I cut off the tips jaggedly.  On the 3 flower (middle layer), I cut off about 1/4" in a jaggedy cut (because I like my flowers a tad bit fuller).  Then I made the flower just like Natasha does.  I added some puffy paint to the tips and puffed it up once dry like Lisa Gregory does on her Sweetheart Daisy.

The journaling I printed on Microsoft Word.  I made the frame for the journaling following another tutorial by Natasha, Distressed fold back frame tutorial.  I am thrilled that I came across her blog yesterday, she has some really amazing tutorials and techniques...and she shares them all!!!  All the flowers were made out of left-over scraps as well.  The bling was a left-over piece that I bought back before I started making my own, and I just cut it apart to use it in multiple places. 

The title letters are stickers from a used Basic Grey Porcelain alpha sticker sheet.  I cut 'Love' on my silhouette (on a scrap piece of BG cardstock). 

Well...I think that is all!  LOL  I used up 6 pieces of scrap paper on this, and 1 left-over bling...all of those count as twists in the challenge!

Here are some close-ups of the flowers and journaling frame.

 Here is the backside of my page using up the scraps.



Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Stephanie!

Memorial page for my father-in-law - Remember Me

I finally finished my memorial page for my father-in-law.  We are going to frame this and then put it on the wall with the framed flag that was presented to Paul at the funeral.

For those who may not know, Dale was diagnosed with cancer in March of 2009.  The doctors didn't think it would be any problem to fight it and beat it, but in a little over a year, he was gone.  I've already done one page of him "Safely Home" that I gave to my mother-in-law that she has framed on her wall.

 I used the two pieces of background paper that I created myself and explained in an earlier post.  I used paper by Cloud9 Design for the mats behind the photo.  The flowers and bling are handmade by me.  The lighter blue ones were made out of the background paper, I cut out the middle of the bottom piece so that I could use it.  The leaves were a stamp from heartfelt creations, I stamped the largest leaf set with forest moss distress ink, colored them in with chalk, then cut them out and shaped them for dimension. 

The journaling block and name and date block were printed using my Silhouettte, then I cut the background mats for them on my Silhouette using Sizzix texture pad assorted metals.  The title letters are Sizzix alphabet die cut "Monde de Blonde". 

Poem: We wanted so much to keep you by Unknown
We wanted so much to keep you, we watched you day by day.
Until with breaking hearts, we saw you slip away.

God watched you as you suffered and knew you had your share.
He gently closed your weary eyes and took you in his care.

Your memory is our keepsake, with that we'll never part.
God has you in His keeping, we have you in our hearts.

Nothing can be more beautiful, than the memories we have of you
To us you were someone special, God must have thought so too.

The dark blue flower to the left is by Lisa Gregory Retro Camelot Flower

When I first did my clusters, I only had the bling and flowers and thought it looked soo boring!  This morning I started searching and found some goodies to stick in there.  The key and lock are brads.  I just recently bought some feathers and I love the effect they add.  I have some dew drops and Prima bling scatterred around.  I'm much happier with my clusters now!

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!!

Background effects

WOW...2 posts in one day!  LOL  Actually, just need to catch up on some posting I should've done throughout the week, but this takes time to do, so I'm adding several in one day.

Wendy G. at sb.com inspired me to start getting creative making background paper for my layouts.  She did a really cool layout using several coats of UTEE piled on the corners of her paper.  So, this week for my latest layout, I tried my hand at doing some creative stuff with UTEE.

Both of the following papers started out as white cardstock. 

 The first thing I did was take a large faded text background stamp and stamp the entire piece with versamark embossing ink.  Covered that with platinum UTEE and heated it up.  Then I took the embossing pad and randomly ink the CS and the edges, added more UTEE and heated, then as it was hot, added more UTEE and heated again. Then, I inked all over the cardstock with Black Soot distress ink, spritzed it with water and wiped it off, so that the UTEE would show better.  I wet distressed the edges just spritzing a little at a time, shaping it, then drying it.  I took antique silver pearl ex powder and made some glimmer spray mixing it with water and gum arabic, then sprayed my paper with it.  Using a toothpick, I randomly put small bits of glue around the distressed edges, then added the antique silver pearl ex powder with a dry paintbrush to give the edges some extra shimmer.  Everyone who sees this in person thinks it is tenfoil...lol.

 On this sheet, I again stamped with Versamark embossing ink and my large faded text background stamp all over the paper.  Then I applied Platinum UTEE and heated it up.  As I was heating it, I randomly added more UTEE to some parts of the stamping for a thicker raised effect.  I just kept adding more UTEE and heating until I got the look that I wanted.  I then folded the paper randomly to make some creases, which would cause the ink to be darker on those spots.  I inked the paper randomly with distress ink in stormy sky, chipped sapphire, walnut stain, frayed burlap, and weathered wood.  I ran a baby wipe lightly across the top to remove the ink from the embossed areas.  I distressed the edges with a pair of scissors, then inked them with black soot.  Shelby told me the finished paper looks like the earth.

I had so much fun making these 2 sheets and can't wait to try my hand at some more custom backgrounds!  Thanks for looking!

Picture Effects

Good morning!  I was playing around with my Adobe Photoshop Elements and the new pics I just took to see what kind of cool effects I could put on them for display on our family room wall.  I found that my program will do some really cool things. 

This was one of my favorites that I just happened to capture without them even realizing I was taking a picture.  I cropped in the original and then changed it to black and white scenic landscape. I printed this as an 8 X 10 for the wall.

 Thanks to the suggestion of a friend of mine, Jill, I cropped in on the picture of Dakota in the tree and then changed it to black and white.  I will be making several 4 X 6 to put in a collage frame I got for Christmas several years ago and have never used.  This is the perfect time to fill it up and hang it on the wall!

 I thought this one turned out really cool.  I chose colorful center first as an effect, which makes the top and bottom a black and white scale and leaves the center colorful.  Then, I did color burn, which just darkened the natural colors of the pic.  I loved how it turned out and printed it as an 8 x 10 for the wall.

 Of course, had to use my favorite picture of Shelby for an 8 X 10 for the wall.  On this one, I chose sun faded photo as the effect and really loved the printed effect!  It is a beautiful picture!

Now...I just have to get them framed and put on the wall!  That'll probably only take me a month!  LOL

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

My first photo shoot

Paul, me and the kids headed down to the lake this afternoon to try my hand at taking our own family photos.  Today was a learning day...I learned do not go when the 3 year old needs a nap, do not go when the sun is setting, and do not go when it is windy, LOL.   But...despite all that, I did get to capture quite a few good shots.  Thanks for taking a look!

My hair was wacky crazy in the following one!  Definitely need to re-do a family pic!

 This family one would've been pretty good had I stood straight and if Elias would've kept his eyes open!

 I would love to be this skinny!

 This is my most favorite shot of Shelby!  The pose is good, the background is good, and her smile is beautiful!

 I do not like my bangs being blown back from my forehead...but I love the idea of this shot with just me and Shelby.

 Well, despite Elias' crankiness, I was able to sneak in a couple of good shots of him!

 and of course a silly one!

 This shot made me feel really good.  I had Shelby posing against the tree and Dakota just ran up on the other side to pose with her!  Usually these two can't get along for nothing, so I was thrilled to see them willing to pose together!

 Shelby refused to leave until I let her take a pic of just me!  (I'll delete it later LOL)

 Yes, of course...I made them climb a tree for the perfect shot!

 Dakota had to help Shelby up...but he was going to leave her there rather than help her down. LOL

I love this picture of the guys. 

 I like this one of me, because you can't really see me....lol

I was really thrilled with how well Shelby and Dakota got into posing!  Every time I looked at Dakota...he was striking a new pose!  I hope to get another chance to go out and take some more without all the shadows, but for my first photo shoot, I'm pretty happy!! 

Have a great day!!