Loving' You is so Easy

Well, it's been a lazy Sunday for me.  We went to church this morning, followed by a quick trip to Walmart for some juice and dishwasher soap, then we came home put on our pajamas and vegged out in front of the TV.  I took a small cat nap, but I'm finally ready to get some stuff done.

This LO was for the November Leftovers challenge at Scrapbook.com.  Everything I used on this is leftover pieces of paper and leftover packages of embellies.  I took each background piece of paper, stictched twice around the edges with my machine then glued them together.  The flowers are all handmade by me out of scraps of paper.  I put some diamond dust and glimmer mist on some.  I'll try to get a tutorial up soon for them.  They are just another rose, but they are made a bit differently than the other tutorials I've seen.  No cutting out a petal or two. 

The title was printed and cut on my silhouette.  The outer frame on it I used pop dots to give it some dimension.  The journaling strips were printed in Microsoft Word and cut out and inked with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China.  The leaves are a stamp from Heartfelt Creations that I practiced my coloring pencils on.  I used just some cheap Roseart colored pencils, odorless paint thinner and cotton balls to color them in.  I'm really starting to like how that works and next on my list is some Prisma coloring pencils.

Here is the layout along with some close ups.  Journaling reads: Your little upturned nose & precious painted toes.  Your silken curls & twinkling eyes, a beautiful smile that lights up the skies.  All of this & so much more makes loving you so easy!  You bring such joy & happiness into my life & I am so blessed that God gave you to me!  Love, mom

 Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

DIY Background layout

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!  I hope it is a wonderful day and you have bunches of delicious food to eat!

My latest layout is for the Do-It-Yourself challenge at scrapbook.com hosted by Wendy G.  This is for the background paper category, and I tried some new techniques on it.

The background paper started out as white cardstock.  I first lightly sprayed with pink bubblegum glimmer mist to add a subtle color.  I then took a Prima Donna Downey large Stem Foam Stamp covered it thickly in FolkArt Baby Pink acrylic paint and stamped it on my background.  I poured clear UTEE over the stamped paint, shook off the excess and heated it up.  It came out really cool...some parts of it shiney and some raised and bubbly.  I then took the Heidi Swapp Mega Heart Mask and Heidi Swapp Mini Butterfly mask, along with some paper flourishes...layered them on the sheet and sprayed with Chalkboard strawberry shortcake glimmer mist.  I took the Tim Holtz Flourish mask, layered it on the upper corner and sprayed with Patina glimmer mist.  In the upper left corner, I stamped some flourishes and wet distressed the 2 bg pieces of patterned paper.

I took a doily and cut it apart and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Worn Lipstick Distress Ink to layer it under the pic and in the corner.  The PP is Basic Grey Two Scoops.  I cut apart a (gasp) store bought bling to layer along the edge.  Added some chipboard pieces, heart stickers, and white pearls to my cluster.   The flowers are all from Prima...trying to use up my old stash since I make my own now and prefer to just use them.

The picture is my DD when she was just about a month old.  Boy, how the time flies!!  Here are the pics and a few close-ups!

Thanks so much for looking & I hope you have a wonderful day!  Happy Thanksgiving again!

Find joy every day

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we actually did this.  To cast away the worries and the cares of life and to find the joy and pleasure in every single day!  Maybe I should begin to challenge myself to do this...even on the worst of days, to find joy in something!

I loved this picture I captured of Elias during our photo shoot.  He was actually showing us the sand mud that was on the bottom of his shoe, but he looked so happy and he was happy to be on the sand playing near the water.

For the background, I used the Heidi Swapp stars mask and used brown paint from Walmart to make the big star and the 6 stars in the bottom corner.  The bamboo was cut on my silhouette and inked with coffee archival ink.  The leaves are matching stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations. I used the bold falling leaves and open falling leaves stamp sets along with the falling leaves die.  I found it easier to cut and then stamp, so I'll be doing a tutorial soon on how I did it.  I shaped some of the leaves to add definition to the page. 
On the bottom, I sprayed the textured spray paint (acid free) to make it look like sand, then glued down some seashells and starfish with glossy accents.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

The real Uninhibited me! layout

WOW...it's a good thing I go to work to get things done...lol...I don't know how I'd finish them otherwise!  Posting tutorials and layouts is time consuming!! 

I created this LO for the My Creative Scrapper challenge of scrap the scrapper and for the Do-It-Yourself Challenge at scrapbook.com hosted by Wendy G.  I've made 2 new tutorials to go with this layout, the Ribbon & Rose Vine  and Tattered Rose.  The pic is one I just took...well, actually Shelby took...when we went to the lake for the family photo shoot.  I edited it in Photoshop Elements using Vintage blush that I downloaded for free from The Coffeeshop Blog.  If you have PSE, you should really check out this blog...its got some great actions and goodies and all of it is free! 

For the DIY challenge, we were supposed to use the Ribbon Rose and Pinched rose.  My black flower is the pinched rose and I have 3 ribbon roses, 2 in pink and 1 in white.  I also did the twist for both DIY projects by making my own original tutorials that go with both.  I decided to use a pink and black color scheme for this LO b/c it went beautifully with the vintage blush effect on the photo.  I added some white flourish rub-ons from KaiserCraft.  Cut some black flourishes with my bigkick.  The title and the title block was printed/cut with my silhouette. 

The leaves are the swirly leaf stamp set from Heartfelt creations.  I inked some glossy paper with the Tim Holtz tuscan Garden alcohol ink.  Then I stamped the leaves with jet black archival ink and cut them out.  The mini roses in the upper left hand corner are Mini Paper Rosettes, I bought the punch just so I could make the flowers.  They are cute little fill-in flowers.

 Here is a close up of the ribbon roses, leaves, and the tattered rose.

 The pink fancy bracket pulls out to reveal my journaling.  It says: The real me is who I want to be, but it isn't who I've become.  I want to enjoy life more & take pleasure in the everyday moments.  I want to relax more and realize that some things can be put off until tomorrow.  Life is busy with a job, husband, kids, and a home to take care of, but that doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable.  I need to quit stressing about losing weight, so what if I never get back to my pre-baby weight.  I should quit stressing over the trouble that may come and just deal with what happens today.  I used to be so fun, ready always to try something exciting and go somewhere new.  I want to be happy.  I want to be free.  I want to be uninhibited.  I want to be the real me!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!!!

Tattered Rose Tutorial

This rose tutorial is my take on the new Prima Roses of Spain Anais collection.

Supplies:

         * Tim Holtz Tattered florals die - 2 of the largest flower, 1 medium flower, and 3 small.  If I put a pre-made rose in the center, I skip the 3 small layers and add a 2nd medium layer.

         * Glue, Scissors, Mousepad, Embossing stylus, water spritzer, small skewer

For the tutorial, I spritzed my flowers with glimmer mist before I assembled.  You could also wait until you were done or leave them without any.

Step 1: 2 largest flowers, cut about 1/8" into the center between each petal.  Spritz lightly with water, then using an embossing stylus & mousepad, gently crinkle the backside of petals near the tip.

 Step 2: Flip the flower over and on the frontside, press down into the center of each petal.

 Step 3: Shorten the petals.  There are 2 ways to do this.  The first is what I call a "fan fold".  I place some quick dry glue at the base of each petal (where you cut the 1/8" between the petals), then I fold the fold into the center, then back out.  Below are 2 pictures of this showing the what the front and back will look like when you are finished.

 OR...you can cut each of the petals off from the layer, then gently cup the base that is left from the layer, then glue the petals back on it.

 Steps 4, 5, 6: (sorry, but I didn't take individual pics of these steps).  The medium flower layer, you will shape just like the largest layer, except don't do the fan fold.  So on the backside, emboss around the tip of each petal, flip over and press into the center of each petal and the base of the flower.

1st small flower, following Lisa Gregory's style, curl in one side of each petal, add a bit of glue to the curled edge, then fold the petals up and roll between your fingers to create the center bud.

2nd small flower, Curl one side of each petal in, add a bit of glue to the base of each petal on the inside and glue the 1st small flower into this one, folding the petals of the 2nd flower around the bud.  Then, take your tweezers and gently curl back the outer edge of the petals (see pic).

3rd small flower, Curl each petal back at an angle.  Glue the bud into this.

This is what each layer will look like when you have finished.  The top left flower is the fan fold technique, the top right is where I cut the petals off and then reattached.

 Layer and glue all the flowers together.  Once glued, shape the petals, gently folding back the tips of the largest ones.

I apologize for the bad pictures.  I will try to re-do them and get better ones to replace these.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Ribbon & Rose Tutorial

Supplies needed: repositionable adhesive, organza ribbon 1" - 1 1/2" width, small flowers or roses, heat gun, ink (optional).  

Step 1:  take a scrap piece of paper any length you want and lay down several strips of adhesive.  I used my ATG adhesive, it was permanent, but I was still able to remove my ribbon from it. 

 Step 2: Start gathering your ribbon on the adhesive bringing the sides up to be squished and crumpled.  When you have the starting length you want, add your rose/flower wrapping the wire around the ribbon to hold the first part of the ribbon in place.  If you don't have a rose with the wire, you can just take a piece of tape and wrap it around the ribbon to hold it, then attach your flower on top of the tape.

 Step 3:  Continue to gather your ribbon on the adhesive shaping it as you go and add a rose/flower about every inch.

 Step 4:  When you have the ribbon and roses to the length you want and all shaped to the adhesive, take your heat gun and heat the edges and the top of the ribbon LIGHTLY!  This will cause the ribbon to pull up and keep its shape once you remove it from the paper.

 Step 5:  Remove from the paper.  You can leave it as it is, or in the bottom picturee, I used Tim Holtz distress ink and lightly inked the edges of the ribbon.  Now, you can attach it to your layout or card or altered item and shape it however you want.  I used hot glue to attach it to my layout.

Pretty simple tutorial!  Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Serenity

Here is my first LO created from the photo shoot I did of the family a couple of weeks ago.  Of course, I had to scrap my favorite pic first!!  This is my daughter, Shelby.  After taking the photos, I had to go on a shopping trip (of course) to pick up supplies to use on all these LOs I'm going to be creating.  I got the starfish and seashells at Hobby Lobby and found the sand at Walmart.  I loved this texture paint though that I found at Hobby Lobby.  It was $8.99 for the can (but I used a 40% off coupon), but on the back it said acid free for scrapbooking!  Woohoo!!!  I love this stuff...just spray a light coat on and let it dry and you get this really cool texture that looks and feels like sand without the bulkiness of the actual sand. 

So, I inked the bottom half of the paper in walnut stain distress ink, then sprayed the paint on top of that.  The top of the paper I inked with chipped sapphire distress ink to make it look like sand and sky.  The blue water paper and the sand-like paper behind the photo was in a price pack I won from scrapbook.com.  When I got it, it was a kit for a Hawaii trip and I wondered what in the world would I ever do with it...b/c I knew Hawaii wasn't in my future!  Well...I'm glad I kept it, b/c it'll work great with these pics.

The waves were pink border strips that I inked in adirondack color wash in stream, then pop dotted the smaller top layer for dimension.  The leaves were cut on my silhouette.  I inked them with shabby shutters distress ink, the edges with fired brick and the tips with walnut stain.  I love the finished effect.  The flower is my new Glittered Peony.  I glued some sand to the bottom and added some starfish and seashells.  I'm going to put a coat of modge podge over it all to keep everything in place.  I'm not happy with the title letters, so I might re-do those.  I cut them with a sizzix die, but they just don't seem to sit well together...so I'll see what I can change them out with.

Thank you so much for stopping by and looking!  Hope you have a great Monday!!!

Glittered Peony Flower Tutorial

Good morning!  It's Monday again...the weekend always flies by sooo fast, but I did manage to finish a LO and a tutorial over the weekend.  I was inspired to try and create a flower to match the Prima Guava Peony.  Using what supplies that I had, this is the closest I could get, but I loved the finish product, so I'll stick with it!!

Supplies: Sizzix Bigz Die Flower Layers 3, mousepad, glue, 8 petal punch, scissors, scalloped circles, and embossing tools, flower center (pearl).  I love these embossing tools, they are double-ended with 6 different sizes and a cushioned finger grip.  I got mine at The artist club, which was the cheapest price I could find.  I highly recommend getting a set, if you love to make your own flowers.  They are wonderful in so many ways!

To make the flowers, you will need staggering sizes of layers.  For mine, I used 2 of the largest flower on the Bigz die, 1 med and 1 small flower also from the Bigz die.  I used a 2" and 1 1/2" scalloped circle, and 4 1" 8 petal daisies.

 Using your mousepad and the medium sized embossing tool, gently shape each petal of each layer.  Start at the tips and in a circular motion, work your way to the base of each petal.  On the smaller petals, just run the embosser down the center of each petal.  Make sure to cut between the scallops on the scallop circles to make those into flower layers. 

Once you have shaped each petal, then run your embosser around the middle of the flower layer to draw all the petals up slightly.

Here is what the layers will look like when finished.  On the 4 1", you will curl bring the petals up tighter on each one.

 Then, start layering and gluing your flowers, staggering the petals as you go.  Put your medium sized pearl in the smallest flower.

 After it is glue together, I put the flower in the palm of my hand, then gently cup and smoosh the petals together to make it all tighter.  Rotate the flower and continue to cup and smoosh the petals all around.  When finished, I fluff the petals and on the very bottom layer, slightly pull them down.

 Add a bit of glue to the tips of the inside petals and add some glitter or diamond dust.  You could also just use stickles.  Let it dry and use it on your LO or card or altered project!

 Here are some others that I have finished.  I tried different punches and sizes of layers to see what I liked best, so these are all a tad bit different in design.  I also use clear glitter on these rather than diamond dust.

Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!!