Monday, September 22

Such a Doll ...

Hello Monday Morning!
This past weekend was a busy one. We celebrated my Mom's 80th Birthday Saturday and had a great time with family! I posted pics on Facebook. Then I taught a class at Right at Home Scrapbooking on Sunday. We created two tags using Julie Nutting's fun doll stamps.  Here's the tags ...
 

 
Thanks to the fun Ladies that came to the class - you all made it so fun!! I'll be back soon with more craftiness!! Have a great week everyone!!
 

Thursday, September 18

Happy Birthday Blog Hop!!

Hi everyone! I wanted to hop on today to share a Birthday card I created for a good friend of mine. I met her recently this year and she quickly became a good friend!! We are on the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog team together and as a birthday surprise to her the team decided to each send her a card in the form of a blog hop! So without further ado ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rachel Kleinman!!! Here's my card for you!

 
I used Crate Paper's "Notes and Things" for the card base. The collection is so pretty and includes some fun accent stickers. The sequins and gold/white paper on top of the doily are from Teresa Collins "Nine & Co." collection. Here's a close-up on the card's center. I added some gold thread under the stickers...
 
 
You have probably arrived here from Lynn Adam's blog. Next stop Melanie's blog. (Here's the list of the "Birthday Wishes" team)
 
Donna Bowman
Lynn Kopas <<<you are here
Lalo Ik
 
Happy Birthday Rachel!! Hope you have an extra special day!!! See you soon!!


Monday, September 15

This Monday is a Special Day!!

Hello Bloggers! It's Monday - and we're all back to our daily routines. This particular Monday is special to me for several reasons! It's my Mom's 80th Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Mom! My Mom is a very special person ... she is giving, loving and selfless - she puts everyone else first! She was an awesome caregiver to my Grandmother and now my Dad. She has become a great friend over the years, listens to me venting and always has great advice! Love you Mom!!
The other reason today is so special is that I can finally share some exciting news!!!!  I'm proud to say that I'm a part of the Design Team at Creative Scrappers.
make sure everything is ok. spelling, your name on the list ;-) this will be posted tomorrow at 7am 
http://creative-scrappers.com/banners/cs/dtOCT2014.png

 I'm in LOVE with the new logo!! I want to thank Kristine Davidson for the opportunity to be a part of a great team and I'm eagerly looking forward to creating pages from the fun sketches. I have always loved sketches and I especially love how the same sketch is uniquely interpreted by each designer! The DT is crazy talented and I'm so humbled to be a part of this group.
Thanks for letting me share my Monday and I hope you all have a great week!!!! I'll be back soon with more crafty projects!!

Friday, September 5

Project Life: Week 30

T.G.I.F. Although this was a short work week, I'm glad it's almost "ovah"!!
I'm hopping on this morning to share my Project Life page for Week 30! I used Heidi Swapp's Favorite Things Edition Core Kit again this week. The pocket page is Design A. Here's the whole page ... I added more gold this week, just cuz!


The embellishments I used this week include chipboard pieces from
The Overlay Value Kit and The Gold Foil Value Kit as well as the
Favorite Things Puffy Stickers.




Max is sitting pretty on my new deck chair. The above photo frame is from one of the coordinating Instaframe Cards.



 

Enjoy the day and EMBRACE the weekend!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Wednesday, September 3

Project Life: Week 29

The Routine ... a necessary evil. I've have had the past week off and it was MUCH needed! I hung out with friends, hung out at my LSS, hung out by the pool and hung out in my studio. However, the daily routine awaits, so starting today, I'm back to it ... up EARLY, travel, work, travel, home. Am I ready - heck no, but it's reality! When is the next Holiday? LOL!!
While in the studio I caught up with another Project Life Week - #29 to be exact! Last PL week I used the lovely, soft teals and golds of Heidi Swapp's new Project Life Gold Foil Value Kit. This week I switched gears and used the bright, bold colors from Heidi's new Favorite Things Core Kit. All of these new collections are available at Michael's. I used Page Design F. Here's the entire page ...
 

Heidi's Roller Date Stamp is also part of the collection - I'm a sucker for date stamps!!
 
 
The ADORABLE  Favorite Things Puffy Stickers add such a pop of color to the tags! The chipboard pieces on the tags come from the new Project Life Clear Value Kit. Here's the title card ...
 
 
Some close-ups of the rest of the cards ...
 

 
 

 
 
Thanks for stopping by today and I hope your Routine goes well!!

Monday, September 1

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge # 4 is LIVE!!

Welcome September! It's hard to type that but it's a reality! Although it's still warm, the inevitability is ... Summer is winding down, Fall is around the corner and ... I'm going to stop right there!! There are still pool/beach days ahead and warm nights and cookouts and corn on the cob! It's still flip flop weather too!! So let's embrace the season for as long as we can!!
A new month means a new challenge! Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog has been more and more successful each month! As I type this we have 116 entries in our gallery! How cool is that! Thanks to each and everyone who has participated and if you haven't yet, come join us this month! I have to say again that I'm so happy to be a part of this adventure from the start!
September's theme is a photo inspiration challenge!
 
 
This is such a pretty and summery color scheme! Please stop by the blog and check out what the DT did with this challenge - there are a variety of mixed media ideas to be inspired by! Our guest designer this month is the talented Julia Stainton - check out her blog for some amazing work!!  I decided to create a layout based on the colors of the photo. I started by building a mixed media background using Distress Inks and Tim Holtz Layering Stencils. For my first layer I used Picked Raspberry and Tim's Hearts stencil. I applied the ink with a makeup sponge - easy to use and disposable!
 
  
 
Next I used Spiced Marmalade with the Bubble stencil ...
 
 
To pick up the yellow in the color challenge I added Mustard Seed through the Chevron stencil ... I'm not worried about covering the center as my photo will go there.
 
 
Next I wanted to add a pop of black - I LOVE how black makes a project come to life! I used Black Soot and the Arrows stencil here and there ...
 
 
and the added some more black with a script stamp and Ranger's Archival Ink ...
 
 
...why stop there, a bit more stamping with Black Archival Ink and Tim's Reflections stamp set with Stamper's Anonymous ...

 
To tie in the blue from the challenge I added Salty Ocean Distress ink. This time I splattered the ink on the page by smooshing the ink pad onto my craft sheet, adding water and picking up the ink with small paint brush and flicking it onto my background ...
 
 
So I was pretty happy with the background but wanted to tone it down a bit so my photo wouldn't be overshadowed by the background. This was tricky because adding anything wet over the background will cause the distress inks to react. So, I added some modeling paste through Tim's Bubble stencil. Now, this worked and it didn't. The modeling paste picked up the ink color, especially the Spiced Marmalade but it didn't look too bad. I then lightly applied some gesso over the stenciled modeling paste once it was dry and that toned it down a bit more. It was time to stop!! So I added some layers of patterned papers, a doily and my photo with embellishments and here's the end result ...
 
 
Here's a close-up of the texture. I added some blue thread under the embellishments ...
 
 
We are so lucky to have Ellen Hutson as our sponsor for this month!!
 
 
 
The prize is a $25.00 gift certificate to a random winner!! Looking forward to seeing all the entries and we hope we have inspired you to join us in this month's challenge!! Thanks for your continued support!!  

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