Joy ~ Little Yellow Bicycle (Once Upon A Christmas Collection)

Joy is the theme this month at Berry71bleu, so I decided to scrap this old photo of me and my husband on Christmas Eve. I finally broke into my Little Yellow Bicycle (Once Upon a Christmas Collection) that I won from them last year. Lucky me! It really is a beautiful Christmas line!

I got my inspiration from this awesome sketch #104 from Sketchabilities.

I used some Glimmer Mists (Scarlet and Forest Green) to splatter and drip down my page. Then I used my Crafter's Workshop Template (Mini Houndstoooth) with my Distress Inks (Festive Berries, Pine Needles, and Black Soot).I hung the sticker ornaments with some handstitching that I did with silver thread.

I love all of the silver accents that are in this collection, which is the twist  for category 2,  to add silver or gold with red and green for the December Four Categories Challenge @ Scrapbook.com. I made the flowers and leaves from LYB Papercrafting kit. I used silver paint around the edges and then some Smooch and Stickles on top. I also used silver paint around the papers. This is my example for the monthly stamping challenge that I host @ Scrapbook.com, with the twist to use any type of holiday stamp. Here I stamped the North Pole postage in red, but in real life it's straight across the page and not skewed like it is in the photo. I also stamped the reindeer and "magical" in black, and the pine branches were embossed using Ranger Embossing Antiquities in Topiary.

I used vellum tape strips in the background, and vellum for the journaling. Here's a closer look.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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!

Fishville Flower Tutorial

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!! Before searching out some sales and spending time with family, I wanted to share my latest work with you, including another flower tutorial.

These gorgeous colors were inspired by the August Design Seeds Challenge at Scrapbook.com.I did the twist with my distressed sharp corners. It's also my entry for the August 5 Ingredients Challenge to use
1.teal
2.patterned paper background
3.buttons
4.2 photos
5.paper strips

I used foam Thicker's for the title and shaded the bottom alphas with Distress Ink (peacock feathers and spiced marmalade).

To make my paper strips I started with a sheet of white cardstock, which I misted with Glimmer Mists (Bahama blue, Valencia, It's black,  and dark purple), and Lindy's Stamp Gang Mist (Tibetan Poppy Teal). After it dried, I tore the strips and used water to curl the edges over. Then I applied Stickles (mermaid) over the strips to make them sparkle. After layering them together I glued down some fibers and yarns to give them even more texture.

While going through my stash of handmade flowers, I found the perfect one with the top smaller one next to the title. There's so many fun color choices you can make with these, that I decided to make some more to share with you!

I started by cutting some flowers out of white cardstock using my Cricut (Storybook cartridge). Make sure to use the shadow feature and the shift button before pressing S, which will say hibiscus. Cut one at 3", 2", 1 1/2", and 2 at 1".

Using some scissors, cut the stems off.

Pick 3 different inks and use your blending tool to apply them to your flowers. I used spiced marmalade, peacock feathers, and evergreen bough).

Then wet your flowers and scrunch them from the centers.

After opening them up I shaped the petals towards the middle. For the bud I scrunched my smallest 1" flower and opened up a petal or 2 to fold over. It's kinda hard to explain so I hope you can tell from the photo.

Starting with the largest flower on the bottom, layer and glue the rest of your flowers. Cut the middle bud a little at the end, before gluing in the center of your flower.

Your flower should now look like this. If you want to give it some shimmer like I did, then just add some Glimmer Mist (dazzling diamond).

The flower on top was made the same way, except I switched the orange marmalade out for dusty concord instead. I'm sure you can come up with a color combo that'll be just right for your page!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Technique Tuesday for BOAF "Mixed with Glitz"

Mixed media that is. I had so much fun using a mix of  techniques on this page that I made, using the Color me happy collection from Glitz design that came in the new August kit at BOAF! I  just found this photo of my son when he was just 2 years old a couple of weeks ago, and thought it would be perfect with all of the rainbow of  colors. He lays with his elbows out just like his dad. Lol!

I was inspired by this sketch used for the August Sketch Challenge at Scrapbook.com.

After choosing black cardstock for my background, I rounded the corners and distressed the other side of the "color me happy hearts" paper. Then I lightly used some of my mists, most of which I've gotten from past kits. Starting on the left is Mister Huey's sunshine, which actually comes out more of an orange, which is why I also used marigold Glimmer mist. The chalkboard Glimmer mists are mantis and cornflower daze. I tried to keep most of the misting in the center of the page and made a huge boo boo on the left side. Thankfully the striped paper covered it right up.

After that dried I applied some gesso onto this polka dotted stencil from the Crafter's Workshop. I placed the stencil along the top right and bottom left of the page. 

Once it dried, I broke out my Distress inks and my grid stamp from Tim Holtz, using it along the bottom and right side edges of where I knew I wanted to place my photo. Then I used it again on the light blue cardstock I matted my photo on. I used a zigzag stamp for the yellow circle and a dotted one for the green circle. The light blue cardstock comes with the main kit, but the yellow and green are extras that you can buy here.

To finish off this page I decided to use the transparent heart peek-a-boo as a pattern for my hand stitching, poking holes all around it. I also added some buttons from my own stash to go over the circles that I cut out from the Glitz polka paper, which is also an extra. 

Here's a closer look at some of the misting, gesso, and stitch work. 

I hope you enjoyed the different techniques that I shared with you, and that you'll try them for yourself! 

More Summer Fun with the BOAF July Kit

I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer so far, and taking lots of great photos! Then you can use them with this fun July Kit from BOAF. For this first page I was inspired by this photo and challenge.

I started with the kraft cardstock from Bazzill and misted it with 3 different mists, including the cornflower chalkboard Glimmer Mist that I got as an extra with the April Kit. I also misted the beautiful burlap flowers by Pink Paislee.

The We R Memory Keepers patterned papers that I used can by bought here.I cut and rolled the chevron paper to create a frame for this page. The starfish and seagulls were cut with my Cricut using the Life is a Beach cartridge. I stamped and embossed the title. I finished it up with the chipboard shell stickers from Bo Bunny that you can buy with the extras.

For this next page I wanted to use the bright and fun colors that are in the kit.  I just love this photo that I scrapped of my brother and his son!

As much as I love all of the cardstock that comes with the kit, including all of the extras, I had to use my own blue cardstock for the background because I wanted to mimic the water in the pool. The patterned papers are Bo Bunny's "Key Lime" collection. The chipboard sun that comes in the main kit was painted first, before adding some yellow stickles to it.

Under the sun I used my Tim Holtz Mixed Media stamp with some paints to create the dots. Then I used bubble wrap for the rest, making this my entry for the Scrap for Help challenge this month. The splashes were cut from the Bo bunny pp.

I masked part of my title with Distress Inks, and used the Bo Bunny chipboard "swim" letters for the rest. I finished this page off by gluing some of the Queen and Co. twine that came in the kit, across my page.

Thanks so much for looking!

More of the BOAF June Kit

The June Kit at BOAF is still available and filled with lots of happy colors and papers. I knew when I saw the "Gabbie" collection by Anna Griffin that I wanted to create a fun and funky page with it. So here's what I came up with.

I scrapped this photo of my younger cousins, and started by masking the background. I used the extra patterned paper to cut out all of the letters, covering up some to change the title on the bottom from "memories" to "cousins". Here's a close up of the masking.

I also did a lot of stamping on here, and used the plain cardstock that came in the kit to stamp on 3 of the squares. I used a stitching stamp to go around all of the squares that I layered behind the photo. I just LOVE the large blue flower that came in the kit! I also added the rest of my 3D sticker flowers that you can get in the extra embellishment 1.

For this next page I scrapped this photo of me, my brother, and our cousins. We have LOTS of cousins in our familly!! I just wish I didn't live so far from all of them.

This was based on the June Sketch Challenge at BOAF. I just LOVE this sketch!

I started by misting some white cardstock for my circle and used Dear Lizzy paper around it. I used the diecut cards for part of my title and the stickers for the rest, and for the banner pieces, and journaling.

Here's the journaling sticker. I added the blue Prima flowers from my May kit.

The dark blue flower comes in the main kit, and the pink ones can bought with the extras. The buttons are from my own stash.

Thanks so much for looking!!