"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul."

   The ocean has always spoken to my soul and I've been missing it very much, being born and raised in Southern CA. Even though these photos are from Northern CA in Monterey, they're still from the very same beautiful Pacific Ocean!

   I knew right away that I wanted to scrap these photos when I saw this awesome sketch #111 from Sketchabilities.

I also took my inspiration from this image used for the March challenge @ Artastic Challenge Blog.

   I started this page with kraft cardstock, which I applied gesso to in the center and sprayed it with some Glimmer Mists.Then I did some stamping and more gesso work, with more misting. The edges have been randomly embossed with Ranger Distress Embossing Powders  (Walnut stain and Brushed Corduroy) and finished with a touch of real sand. Here's a closer look at some of the texture and colors.

  The quote was typed in Photoshop and printed onto light blue vellum, and glued over the little file folder which was stamped first. The quote was the twist for the March Four Categories Challenge @ Scrapbook.com for Category 4 to create a LO about an animal.

   I used strips of packing paper which I crumpled and misted before stitching over the netting. Then I just added my flowers which I lightly covered with gesso, and sprinkled some sea shells. Thanks for looking!

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!