Sunday, November 30

Creative Scrappers | Sketch 283 Reveal

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday! I spent the day at my brother and sister in law's home and had a lovely day with family and friends. The food was fantastic - my favorite meal of the year!! You can't go wrong with wonderful company, delicious food and then a nap later!!!
Instead of shopping on Black Friday I had a lovely day crafting with a few great friends - I did snag a bargain or two online though! Saturday was back with the family making cookies for an upcoming cookie swap.
That brings us to today. I'm teaching a canvas class this afternoon over at
Right at Home Scrapbooking. We are close to sold out but you check with the store to see if there's any availability.  To check on the details for the class, including a supply list, go to "Upcoming Classes" under my blog header for more info. If there are enough people interested we can have another class, so stop by the RAH Blog and let them know or email me and I will pass the info on!!
Today is also reveal day over at Creative Scrappers. The latest sketch was a bit of a challenge for me - I struggled with the triangles in the design. After playing with paper placement I finally came up with a layout I really like. Here's my finished layout ...
 
 
I used Noel Mignon's November Kit "Maple Creek". Sorry, this kit is sold out but please check the Noel Mignon Website for info on a kit subscription - it's worth every penny. The kits are LOADED with current product and you will love them!!! Here's sketch 283 ...
 
 
I shrunk the sketch a bit but and rotated the orientation of the photo. There was lots of white space on my page so a splattering of Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold really helped. Here's a few close-ups ...
 

 
I can't get enough of Maggie Holmes Vellum Dictionary Paper from the Open Book Collection - I had to buy more!!
Our Creative Scrappers sponsor for December is 17 Turtles a Digital Cut Files Shop for the Silhouette. 17 Turtles is owned by Juliana Michaels and you need to stop by her website to check out all the fun cut files available. To win the December prize from 17 Turtles create a layout and enter the challenges using out inlinkz widget at the end of the reveals for Sketch 283-284. Deadline to submit your layout is December 31st at Midnight EST. Please visit 17 Turtles on Facebook / Shop / Blog.

Saturday, November 22

Celebrating a New Arrival!

Hello Bloggers! Hope you are all doing well and getting ready to enjoy the weekend.
I wanted to share a project I recently created for one of our Design Team members at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog. The very talented Lalo Ik recently had a baby boy so the design team decided to create projects to help celebrate the family's new arrival. We are continuing with our challenge theme this month which is using stamps on your project. I decided to FINALLY decorate a 7Gypsies shadow box I have had in my stash for years! I grabbed a My Mind's Eye Lost and Found "Sunshine" 6x6 paper pad, also from my stash, and used some burnt orange and soft blue papers to decorate the shadow box. Here's the finished project ...

 
I stamped the corrugated alpha letters with a script stamp and Wendy Vecchi's "Orange Blossom" Archival ink. I inked all paper edges and the sentiment with the same ink.

 
I wanted to use lots of balloons and did NOT want to hand cut them so I went to Michael's and grabbed a Martha Stewart Balloon punch which saved the day. Punches are expensive but I don't mind the investment if I will use it often.

 
Congratulation Lalo and family and Welcome Little One!! Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon with more craftiness!!

Monday, November 17

Upcoming Classes

Hi everyone! I wanted to let you know that I've added an Upcoming Classes feature to my blog. You can find it just under my header in the categories section. This provides a direct link to Right at Home Scrapbooking's class calendar which is where I'm currently teaching. I have a few classes coming up starting with a Rolled Tree Canvas class this Saturday November 22, 2014 and again on November 30, 2014. Here's what we will be creating ...

 
There are lots of fun techniques and mixed media products that we will be using so join us this Saturday for some Holiday fun!! Please call the store to reserve your spot  508-695-9290. Thanks and have a great week!!


Sunday, November 16

Creative Scrappers | Sketch 282 Reveal

Hello Bloggers Hope you are all doing well! I have to say that our very first Craft Fair was a success! We had absolutely no idea how we would do and for the first hour and a half nothing sold. Then things picked up and we ended up doing well for newbies! Thanks to all who supported us and we are definitely moving forward to another show.
I have a layout to share with you today based on the latest Creative Scrappers Sketch. I love the design of this sketch. Here's my page ...
 
 
Initially I printed both my photos on sticky back canvas but they looked a bit dull so I added one regular photo over the canvas and it pops more. Here is Sketch 282 ...
 
I used Noel Mignon's November "Maple Creek Kit" for my page. Included in the kit was gold foil vellum paper from Maggie Holmes Open Road collection. I punched out various sized circles from the vellum paper and added them to the side of the layout. I substituted Lawn Fawn Wood Veneer Leaves for the circles on the sketch that surround the photo.
 


I'm into seed beads lately so I added some of them under one of my photos for some dimension and interest ...
 
 
Our sponsor this month is Paper Camellia. For a chance to win the November Main Kit from Paper Camellia, create a layout using this months sketches and enter the challenge by using the inlinkz widget at the end of the reveals for Sketches 281 and 282. The deasline to enter is November 30, 2014.
 Enjoy your Sunday and I will be back soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, November 15

A Craft Fair and a Thanksgiving Blog Hop!

Hello to all! I am hopping on my blog today to share a project before I head out to my first ever Craft Fair as a seller. I have been to many fairs over the years and one day as I was trying to find a place for all my canvases and mixed media projects, I decided to look into selling my art at a craft fair. A co-worker of mine told me about her Church Fair and the table price was reasonable so I talked a crafty friend of mine into joining me. We are on our way to our first adventure as sellers! Wish us luck!!
The project I'm sharing is for the Holiday Inspirations Group. We are a group of crafty blog friends who like to get together and share crafty ideas. We're using products we like to make projects we enjoy creating. Our theme this month is Thanksgiving, so Welcome to our Thanksgiving Blog Hop!

I created a Thanksgiving tag using lots of Ranger goodies. I started with the
Tim Holtz Alterations|Sizzix Big Dies Tattered Leaves Die. I had borrowed this die from a friend to use for a class and had to own one! I die cut three leaves from patterned paper and inked the edges with coordinating Distress Inks. I then painted them with Distress Crackle Paint Clear Rock Candy. While the leaves were wet I sprinkled matching Distress Glitter on them. The crackles are subtle but noticeable. The glitter added such dimension and turned a flat looking leaf into something that pops!! Here's my tag ...


For the tag background I used a scrap of patterned paper and inked the edges. Next, I grabbed some leftover Maggie Holmes Open Book Specialty Vellum Paper (I have already ordered more of this paper - it's AWESOME) and used my Sizzix Frameworks Honeycomb Border Die by Tim Holtz. I glued this to the base of the tag and attached the leaves to the upper left corner. I replaced a few of the punched out hexagons shapes around the sentiment ...  



I finished off the tag by splattering some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold onto the tag and adding a Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chit Chat sentiment to the inside of a metal frame that I toned down with gesso.




Please be sure to visit the blogs of the other ladies participating in our Thanksgiving Blog Hop today - I've listed their names and links to their blogs at the bottom of this post. Have a great weekend and I'll be back with a new layout using another AWESOME sketch by Creative Scrappers!!!

Sunday, November 2

Creative Scrappers Sketch #281

Hello Peeps! I'm back with another layout using a new sketch from Creative Scrappers. This sketch is so unique with tons of white space and open to many different interpretations. I decided to make my photo a bit bigger but otherwise I stuck to the sketch. Here's my layout ...
 
 
I am in love with my friends dog "Peanut" who is anything but a peanut. She is the sweetest Bull Mastiff I've ever met. She loves to cuddle and snuggle and is such a leaner that if you are not prepared you will get knocked over. I took a sweet picture of her over the summer and I've been anxious to use it! When I excitedly rummaged through my Noel Mignon "Tea for Two" kit I saw a piece of paper perfect for the background of this sketch. I layered several other pieces of patterned papers, a doily, of course, and then added my photo.


For the title, I painted a Heidi Swapp chipboard word with white paint.


Here's sketch #281. I rotated the sketch and enlarged the photo.

 
Our fabulous sponsor for November is Paper Camellia.

Check out this GORGEOUS November Main Kit from Paper Camellia ...
 
 
For a chance to win this amazing kit
create a layout and enter in our sketch challenges using the inlinkz widget at the end of the reveals for Sketch #281 and #282. You have until November 30th at Midnight EST. We hope you join us this month - we would love to see how you interpret the sketches.

Saturday, November 1

Gotta Love a Challenge!

Hello bloggers! Happy November! I hope you had a spooktacular Halloween.
 I'm signing on today to share November's fun challenge on the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog.


 Our fabulous sponsor this month is Unity Stamps so our challenge is to use stamps on any project. Now, how fun and easy is that! We crafters all have stamps of some variety so dig them out and join us in this challenge. I decided to create a card this month. I used a few Unity Stamps from several collections to create the scene on my card. The ADORABLE owl is from the September 2014 - Happy, Thankful & Blessed SMAK Kit and the leaves and branch the little owl is perched on came from the April 2014 - Wildflowers & Wings SMAK kit.  Here's the card ...


The base of the card is Distress Watercolor paper from Ranger - LOVE this paper. It's already cut to card size and ready to get inky! I embossed the owl onto the watercolor paper and then used a variety of distress inks, water and a brush to color in the owl. The distress inks work so well with the watercolor paper - they practically do the job for you. The sky and grass background was so easy - I brushed water on the paper and then added ink and let the water do the work. I stamped the leaves on a separate piece of watercolor paper, colored them in with the same method and cut them out.

 
So let's see what you come up with! Please join us in this month's challenge and you will have an opportunity to win a prize from Unity Stamps!!

 
Thanks so much for stopping by and we hope to see your project over on the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge

BLOG CREDITS