A couple of new layouts...

I had managed to get this one done for the last Color Room palette.  The main reason I love this site, is that you actually go through your old stash of papers, to find matching colors.  There's papers I totally forgot about, and still love.  It feels good to use them finally!

Some of these papers are newer though, mostly October Afternoon.  The flowers were cut out from some old My Mind's Eye paper.  I wanted the photos to stand out a little more, so I used some metal ribbon (I think it's the stuff that's left over from making sequins?) as a mask and painted over it.  The little orange rub-on dots are from some old Hambly rub-ons and the letters are American Crafts foam thickers.  Just a quick simple layout of the kids playing with a neighbor friend(her name was Lana but they always called her Nana).  I think they were only 4 and 2 here, boy does time fly!

I haven't had a chance to use some of my Webster's Pages new paper yet, so I decided to do this layout.
I love this paper, it's so beautiful (Garden Gala) but at first it's a little hard to envision making a layout with it.  I never know where to start, it's so gorgeous, you don't want to cut it up or cover anything!  But after awhile, I just dig in and start cutting, I don't think you can go wrong with their papers!

This layout is of my husband's great-grandmother.  He never got to meet her, but I've heard lots of stories from his mom and grandmother.  They had a big farm in Wales, which is still in the family, and she loved gardening.  It appears that she also loved this dog, which is in a lot of photos with her!  I used Garden Gala paper, small diecut, journaling notes, sparklers and one of their silhouettes.  I also cut out the flowers and leaves with my Slice machine using paper and also their printed vellum.  I love using the vellum paper for flowers, it has a softer look to it.  I also used a metal dragonfly embellishment from Making Memories (it was copper, but I alcohol inked it turquoise.

Well, that's it for me today.  I'm trying to get a few things done before the effects of my chemo treatment (I had it on Monday) start to hit me.  I hope it's not as bad as last time, I have a couple of new drugs to help me with the mouth sores and pain in my joints, hope it helps!
Have a great week and enjoy this wonderful summer weather!

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Little Black Dress July Kit

Well, I managed to get my projects done for the Little Black Dress July kit.  It was a fun kit to work with, lots of different elements!

My first project is this layout of my husband and son.  I'm sure in this photo, the only thing my husband is reflecting about is; I wish I had a boat right now(he loves fishing)! :

For the background paper, I lifted this idea from a gal (pea name - Fevvers) on Two Peas in a Bucket.
Fold your paper in sections, first in half, then in half again, both ways, until you have a three inch square.    Sand all the edges and then either ink, paint or glimmer mist.  I inked the edges here in a green.  Unfold, and lay flat, ready for the rest of your layering.  A Glitz stamp was in this kit and I decided to make an embellishment with it.  Take a small square of fun foam(the kind you buy in sheets in the kids craft section) and heat it with your heat gun.  I placed it on my non-stick craft mat and waved the heat gun back and forth until the foam curled up on the edges and then back down flat again.  Quickly take your stamp and press firmly down on the foam.  It took me a few tries to get it done properly, so don't give up!  I then trimmed it and inked it with green and brown ink.  There was a package of acrylic "Thicker"
letters in this kit which I used for the title, but I wanted some numbers in a different color, so I alcohol inked the 2 and 3.  Just a few drops on the acrylic pieces and they are stained a different color!

For this next layout, I pretty much cut up one whole flowered sheet of paper.  For those of you who know me, you know I love hand cutting paper! I don't know what it is, once I start, I just keep going!  After my shape is cut out, I usually shape the edges a bit, curving them with the blunt end of my exacto knife and then ink.  I loved this piece of yellow ledger type paper included in the kit too.

I had a bunch of photos of my youngest son, Devin's first time at the exhibition (summer fair) with his big brother and sister.  Most of them weren't the greatest photos, they are over 20 years old. Yikes, when I say that, it seems so long ago, Devin is now 24 and he was 3 1/2 in in these!  Anyways, I decided to make a mini album with these photos.  I haven't done my journaling yet.

  I started making  accordion flowers, but instead just curved them into half circles.

I alcohol inked the acrylic letters here
with black alcohol ink.

I used the Bingo card like a piece of paper.

I had a flash card with the word get, so
I tried to think of something to say, including that word on the card.

I used one of the stickers as a frame for the photo on the right.

I  like to use embellishments, a smaller photo or sticker to cover up things you don't need or want to see on a photo.


With the leftover paper and embellishments, I made these two easel cards.

To make an easel card, I take a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock (I usually make two at a time) and score the paper at 4", 6" and 8".  I then cut the paper in half.  Here, you can decide how wide you would like your card, I trim the 6" width to 5 1/2".  Fold along the score lines. Take adhesive and apply to the 2" section directly below the large 4" section.  This section will be adhered to the back of the top panel (the one that will be standing upright). Decorate your card.  You will need to place something about 1 - 1 1/2" away from the top edge of the bottom 4" section.  I usually place ribbon, or a strip of paper with buttons, brads, anything that will allow the card to stand upright.

I used a Tim Holtz diecut to cut  the piece of corrugated cardboard.  Painted the edges with crackle paint and inked.  I diecut the butterflies using the ledger paper and stamped them with the Glitz stamp.  I used my Slice for the flowers also.  I punched a strip of paper for the bottom strip.

I used one of the stickers for the background and covered the lines with plain white cardstock. I cut out various sizes of the same flower using my Slice, glimmer misted them and used that for the center of my plain white flowers.  I hand cut some leaves and florals from patterned paper and placed them underneath the flower, along with the Making Memories vintage foil ephemera.  I cut out the Happy Birthday with my slice.

And that's everything I made with this kit.  Actually, it was quite a bit, considering the only things I added were, a blank Basic Grey chipboard album, one piece of white cardstock, the white flowers, white fun foam and a small piece of dark brown cardstock for happy birthday.  I probably have enough left over for a couple of cards or one more layout.  Check out Little Black Dresses' blog for some great ideas and inspiration!

Have a great week!

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I spoke too soon..

on my last post.  I said everything was o.k. so far (from my treatment).  Well, two days later it hit me and it was not pretty.  I'm still not feeling great, but at least my joints are less painful, my fingertips don't feel like I took a hammer to them and my eardrums don't feel like they are going to pop.  I wasn't prepared for all that, in addition to the other side effects, so next time I will know that I won't be able to do much of anything.  There was no scrapbooking for me, but I did do this layout before I started feeling crappy.  I haven't been on the computer much, so I haven't had a chance to post it.  It's another one for The Color Room, palette #12.

When my husband and I took his mom to Wales, we stayed in London for three days before we left for home.  The day we arrived, we checked into our hotel, across from Hyde Park, and immediately went for a walk in the park.  We came upon the Royal Albert Hall and mom was so excited, it was her dream to go there one day and watch a performance.  So we decided to check out if there was anything the following night, that we could see. Well, there wasn't, but the lady at the ticket counter said there was three tickets available for that night's performance (there was a cancellation) and would we be interested.  It was going to start in 45 minutes so there was no time to go and change, but we said o.k. why not.  Well, it turned out to be a big gala for the Queen's birthday, and everyone there were dressed in ball gowns and tuxedos!  Did we ever feel out of place!  But our seats were amazing, something like tenth row, right of the stage.  It was a spectacular show, mom was in heaven and even at the end, balloons from the ceiling dropped and everyone started singing and waving flags.  We still laugh about us in our blue jeans among all those fancy dressed people!

I did include journaling  about our evening on a large tag and tucked it behind the large photo.  I used some really old Daisy D's paper on the background and edges(where I've cut the paper in small squares)

and some Die Cuts with a View-Mariposa paper (the butterflies were cut out from this paper).  Pink Paislee Artisan frame and Fancy Pants letter stickers.

I've been trying to get my projects done for the "Little Black Dress Kit club" so hopefully I will have those posted soon.  That's it for me today!

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