Devil's night

With Halloween less than a week away now, I decided to scrap my photos from last year. I struggled a bit with choosing what papers to pick, since my son's red devil costume kept throwing me off. But I finally settled on some old Basic Grey (Indian Summer) and some red papers from even older lines, and this is what I came up with.

My starting point was this AWESOME sketch for the October 2 page Sketch Challenge @ Scrapbook.com. Isn't it cool? I'm sure I'll use it again!

I also wanted some flames on here, so I drew and cut out my own flame stencils, and used them with some Glimmer Mists on white cardstock. The tree on the left was cut out with my Cricut Expression (October 31st) and masked with some black Glimmer Mist. I inked the title with  Distress Inks (festive berries, spiced marmalade, and mustard seed) after cutting it out with my Cricut (Storybook) cartridge.

I used the same Martha Stewart border punch (Garden rail) on both pages, and finished it off with some hand stitching along the right.

Thanks for looking!

Spider Web Tutorial

Jeepers Creepers!!! I had a blast working on this Halloween page!

I took this beautiful sketch by Tammy for Flying Unicorn's Mojo Monday, and took it to the dark side.

This is my entry for quite a few challenges, including the Stencil me different challenge where we had to use a stencil in a different way. I used my Tim Holtz spider web mask to make the large spider web by spraying it like normal with some Glimmer Mists. Then after it dried I used a white pen to go over the whole mask. All of the spiders, the title, arm bone, and ghosts are stickers, used for the 4 Categories Challenge for category 1. To do something different with my stickers I used some mini alpha stickers by Lily Bee and masked them with some Distress Inks to make "creepers". Speaking of Jeepers Creepers, that's my song title for the October Music Challenge @ Scrapbook.com, with the twist of using orange and black. 

I love to recycle stuff on my pages, and used some old cardboard to cut a circle, and embossed it with Distress Embossing powders in vintage photo and brushed corduroy. Then I applied some moss that my Mom gathered for me in her backyard a few years ago. I finished the edge off with some yarn that was dyed orange with some Glimmer Mists that I already had in my stash. I added some orange bling to some cork from a wine bottle to make the skull eyes for this month's challenge at Scrap for help.

I made my fence with my Cricut Expression (October 31st) cartridge, cutting it out of black cardstock, and covering it with Distress Stickles in black soot. I also cut out the little tombstones to create a graveyard behind the fence.To mimic a foggy, spooky night, I used Pebbles Inc. white chalk coming up from behind the tombstones. The little spider web here was made in the same way as the larger one, except it only has 2 layers, and I used black soot Distress ink, instead of dusty concord.

To make the larger spider web you'll need some white cardstock, scissors, glue, a black brad, Distress inks, blending tool, and a white pen. I started by cutting these web shapes by hand in small, medium, and large. You're basically making a reverse scallop around a circle. 

Then I used my blending tool and Distress inks (peeled paint, spiced marmalade, and dusty concord) to color them. 

Now wet them and scrunch them up from the centers.

They should look like this after they're dried.

At this point you can darken your colors with some more ink, or leave it as it is like I did. Using my white   pen, I outlined the edges first. Then make lines coming from each point towards the center.

Now make connecting lines from all of your points, and continue down, but don't worry about making lines in the middle since it's not going to show anyway, since this is the largest web.

Only make your lines meet in the middle on your smallest web. They should now look like this.

Glue your webs together starting with the largest one on the bottom. I used my spider stickers for the legs, but you can use a black Sharpie to make your own. Then I added a sparkly black brad through the center, and finished if off by adding two dots for eyes with my white pen.

Thanks for stopping by!
Drea

Berry Blossom Tutorial

"Grow" is the theme this month at Once Upon A Sketch,  and what better way to show growth than with the beauty of new blossoms on the trees, like the ones I captured here, while on a walk around my neighborhood a few Springs ago.

I was instantly inspired by this sketch and will probably use it again.

This also my entry for the Photo Inspiration Challenge at BOAF. I have so many paint swatches and used strips of them behind the photo. The red rose below the journaling and the circles in the centers of the larger pink flowers are rub-ons that I've had for years, making this my entry for the Four Categories Challenge. I started this page by masking the doily on the upper left, and using the actual mask as a stamp for the doily on the bottom right.

I used a real doily which I inked, cut a circle from the center with scallop scissors, and then cut it in half. The largest flower was stamped, embossed, inked, and fussy cut from white cardstock.

I used a light pink vellum to print my journaling on, and glued it behind this scallop wood veneer, which like the rest, were sprayed with Lindy Stamp Gang mist. The doily behind that was stamped just like the one in the upper right corner, but with different colored inks.

Now to make the Berry Blossoms! I used my Cricut (Serenade cartridge) to cut my flowers from white cardstock. Cut 2 flower 5's at 2" and 2 plant 3's at 1 1/2".

I used Distress Ink (picked raspberry) and my blending tool to color the flowers pink.

Then I dipped my flower into water and starting in the center I folded and crumbled it. I opened it up and while it was still wet I used my Distress Ink (aged mahogany) to go over the edges and the lines that I just made by crumbling it.

Once it's dry, layer your 2 flowers together with some glue. I use Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue.

To make the centers, use Distress Ink (seedless preserves) and your blending tool to color the tips leaving the middle white.

Now curl your tips up and over using the end of a paintbrush or some tool to help curl your petals.I used a rub-on tool.

Then glue your centers together like this.

For the center I used this circle rub-on that I've had forever, but you could use bling, buttons, brads, or whatever you'd like.

For my smaller blossoms I used pink puffy paint for the centers. Here's a close-up of them both finished on my page.

Thanks for looking!

Backyard BBQ

Hello and happy Tuesday! I'm back to share my latest with you. I scrapped these photos of me and my husband enjoying a BBQ at my parents house, using Prima's "firefly" collection.

I took my inspiration from this month's Design Seeds Challenge at Scrapbook.com. I really love this color combo, and whatever that drink is, it sure looks refreshing!

I started by masking the left side of my LO with a Prima floral mask and some mists. I cut the title from white cardstock on my Cricut, and then used my blending tool and 3 different Distress Inks to color it in. The grass was also cut with my Cricut (plantin schoolbook cartridge) and then covered with lime stickles.

I misted the flowers with the bling in the centers, and made the rest using my wild fire flower tutorial. Of course I used different inks to match my page, but I also curled my flower petals more inwards instead of out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!