The sky is blue!

Yesterday a customer told me that her daughter looked out the window the day before and yelled out, "Mom, the sky is blue!"  That's pretty much how we have all felt around here for the past few months.  Even though our winters are long and cold, we usually have sunny skies quite a bit(sunny Alberta!).  But this winter has been gloomy, which I find harder to take.  Last week, I think, the weather was getting to everybody, we were all grouchy!  For me, I just bought more scrapbook supplies, to get over the weather blues!  It's not good for the wallet, to work in a scrapbook store, especially when all the new product from CHA is coming in every week.  My favorite two, Pink Paislee and Glitz Designs arrived, and they did not disappoint!
I did another layout for Little Black Dress March kit:

Their March kits are sold out, but most of the papers and embellishments used were from Glitz's new collection, "Love Games".  Love their  packages of "Paper Layers", which are like small book pages.  This is one of them, the paper with the banner.  I extended the banner by drawing on my background paper with felt pen, coloring in with diluted distress ink, and cutting out a few triangles from pieces of paper.  There was a string of pearl beaded ribbon in the kit, which I pulled through cut out flowers from the patterned paper.  To adhere the end swirled part, I just stitched  it in a couple of places instead of glueing it.  This photo is of my husband's grandmother and her cousin in the early 1900's, ready to play tennis!  Not exactly the same attire, women wear now!

Well, it's already April and time for Urban Scrapbook's April Challenge kit of the month.  This month we were given the challenge of using stamps on our layouts.  The paper and stamps are from Glitz's new line,"Laced with Grace."  I love the colors in this line, the oranges and greens are gorgeous!

I was in a dilemma, (does this sound familiar?) I loved the green striped paper, but I really wanted to use the other side; distressed cream with a bit of words on the edges.  So I decided to make my own distressed cream background with the plain cream cardstock in the kit.  I inked the edges with forest moss, honey, and a bit of photo distress ink.  The best way, I find, to get that soft look, is to use my Tim Holtz blending tool, and non-stick craft sheet.  Place your paper on the sheet and with your inked blending tool start swirling on the craft sheet, close to the paper, and lightly work your way onto the paper.  This way, you don't get starting lines from your tool, and it looks softer.  Next, I inked the words stamp from the Glitz stamp package (included in the kit), dab a bit off parts of the stamp with a piece of paper towel, and lightly stamp on a piece of scrap paper.  Then stamp your cardstock.  Your stamped image is lighter this way.  The top stamped image in the right corner was stamped and embossed(with Ranger's antique gold), then I ironed the paper(place paper between brown paper) which removes the embossed powder, leaving an interesting texture on your paper.  It's hard to explain, but the color of the embossing powder is still there, it's just not raised anymore.  My layout is in the store, if you want to check out how it looks.  I also stamped on my collection card with clear ink and clear embossing powder, and covered the card with forest moss distress stain.  The embossed part works like a relief.    When I saw the card "collection", in my kit, I thought perfect for me, I'm a collector!  I have collected over the years, a few birdhouses; but last week I started a new collection, birds!  I saw these Jim Mullan birds a couple of years ago, while visiting my daughter in New York and fell in love.   I was ready to bring one home for myself and my sister Pat, but when I saw the price, those birds stayed there!  My favorite store, Wellington Gardens, opened back up last week and what did they have, but those birds!  I have been hoarding a gift certificate for over a year that my husband gave me, and this was the perfect time to use it!  I love my bird!  I don't know if I'll ever get another one like this, but I'm on the lookout for birds now.  Oh, and Pat, you'll have to buy your own bird, sorry!
The Design Team layouts are on display at the store (and eventually on Urban's website), check them out to see what everyone has come up with! We were late getting our product in this month so most of the girls just got their kits on Wednesday, so not all of them have finished yet. I'm always amazed at the different ideas and layouts we all end up with from the same kit!
Have a great weekend!