Coffin Break

Wow! Halloween is just a few days away! I scrapped these photos of my son from LAST Halloween using the sketch for the 2 Page Sketch Challenge at Scrapbook.com. I'm also entering this into the October Fall Challenge at Funtoolas. At first I was fighting the colors and pp's out of my Halloween stash, but once I went  with the Fall colors and leaves, it started to come together.

Here's the sketch I used.

Here's a close-up of the title and journaling. I cut the tombstone and arm using my Cricut (October 31st cartridge).

I drew the spider web and then stitched over it, before adding some spider stickers to it.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween!!!

Salvador Dali

I couldn't pass up on the art challenge at Flying Unicorn this month. I've always been into art and studied it at home and school growing up. The hardest part of this challenge for me was picking a favorite artist, but I went with Salvador Dali, the Spanish surrealist, since he's also my husband's favorite, and we have some of  his prints on our walls.

I choose this work of art, The Disintegration of Persistence of Memory, because it's one I don't have, and I love all the clocks and bricks. While working on this I found out that this was Dali's recreation of his famous Persistence of Memory, which I also printed out to scrap in the future. In this version the landscape has been flooded with water. I love the way Dali's crazy mind worked, and the hidden images that can be found in his art! He was eccentric and highly imaginative! I found the melting clocks on-line and printed them out, and stamped and masked the other clocks.

I drew and cut out the tree.

I used my Prima brick stencil to make the outside border, which I drew and cut. Then I used it with gesso and paints to make the bricks coming up from the photo. I've also used brick stamps on here.

I made all the flowers using my Clock Tower Flower Tutorial. I had so much fun working on this piece, that I can't wait to do another!!Thanks for stopping by!!

Something Wicked

I've always wanted to make an all black layout, so when I saw that one of the colors for the October Monochrome Challenge at Scrapbook.com was black, I got right on it. I even did the twist and used feathers. I took this photo last Halloween while trick or treating with my son. I used Bo Bunny's Enchanted line and dyed some cheesecloth black to cover it all.

This page was inspired by the Mojo Monday Sketch at Flying Unicorn.

I made all the flowers using Gabrielle Pollacco's 3D Rose Tutorial, and my Wild Fire Flower Tutorial using black cardstock and spraying with Dazzling Diamond Glimmer Mist.

It's probably hard to tell, but there's 4 bats on here which I fussy cut and covered with black stickles. The skull was stamped and embossed. Thanks for stopping by!

Jack Jack-O-Lantern for the Paper Mixing Bowl

I had SO much fun with the October recipe for the Paper Mixing Bowl!! Here's my interpretation of pumpkin pie, using pumpkin (orange) as the main ingredient.

I started by drawing the white lines on the black background paper. Most of the papers are older Basic Grey from different collections. I couldn't help but think of my good  friend Jon while working on this, since he's OBSESSED with this movie! Lol! I hope I did it justice.

Here's a look at the recipe.

This is how I used the utensils:

*Carve something (I fussy-cut the purple hill)

*Disguise something ( I inked the flowers which I made myself  using my Beachy Green Flower Tutorial. By experimenting with different colors of inks you can get such different results.)

*Catch something in a web ( I masked mine)

*Go batty (I stamped them, and used a pp with bats)

For the directions I used Halloween in my journaling. 

Here's a close-up of the masking and the little bottle of poison that I made using my Cricut (October 31st cartridge). I covered the bottle with Glossy Accents, and used some green ink to create smoke coming from it. 

Thanks for visiting me!!!

Woodland Flower and Leaf Tutorial

This is the first photo that I've scrapped of our cat Spaz since she died almost 2 years ago. She lived a long 15 years, and was my husbands cat before we met. It felt good to scrap this photo of her for C.S.I. #38 and Once Upon a Sketch. I even managed to do another flower tutorial.

Here's a look at the case file and sketch.

Evidence I used:

*trees/branches which I cut with my Cricut (Serenade cartridge)

*Birds (I stamped the bird on the branch)

*Flowers 

*Newprint pattern (I used newsprint mixed with gesso, fibers, and mists behind the photo.)

*border ( I sewed around 3 layers of papers)

*Pet accent (Photo of my pet)

*Misting (The same paper with the newsprint and gesso was misted.)

Testimony I used:

*Document a pet

*Inspiration word daily

Here's a close-up of the flower and leaves I'll be showing you how to make.

I used the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge for the Cricut to cut these out, but you can try this with almost any shape of flower or leaves. 

I started with white cardstock cutting flower #8 at 3 1/2", 3", 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2", and 1".

Then using Distress ink (gathered twigs) and my blending tool I inked the edges front and back of all the flowers. You can use any color you'd like. 

Then quickly dip your flower in water and curl your petals up, using the heat gun to dry them.

Now just glue all your flowers together starting with the largest one on bottom.

You can use whatever you want for the middle, but I cut out the centers from the white flowers that I used on this page to give it a more natural look.
To make the leaves I cut out leaf #7 at 2 1/2" and 2 1/4".

Use your blending tool and whatever green Distress inks you'd like. I used bundled sage, peeled paint, and crushed olive.

Now turn your leaf over and use a stylus to create the vines.I started by making a straight line down the middle of the leaf using the ruler on my paper trimmer.

When you're done it should look like this.

Now use brown ink (I used gathered twigs) to ink the edges and lightly go over the vines.

Spray with water and heat with your heat gun to get the finished result. The heat gun will help curl your leaves a little.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!

Mom's Birthday Card

I made this card for my Mom's birthday which was the 18th. Happy Birthday Mom!!!My inspiration for the colors came from sapphire, which is the birthstone for September.

I used this sketch from Cardabilities which is being sponsored by Flying Unicorn.

I cut out the perfume bottle using my Cricut (Summer in Paris cartridge). I embossed the top layer with gold. The bottom layer was cut with a clear transparency which I inked with alcohol ink. I made the blue roses using Gabrielle Pollaco's Rose Tutorial.I painted all the gold edges around the roses and pp's.The round chipboard image is an old vintage perfume label which I got from  Magic Moonlight.

Here's a close-up of the lacing and some of the misting and stamping I did on the lavender paper.

Thanks for visiting!

Fall Train Ride

I'm already anticipating the start of the Fall season, which is my absolute FAVORITE time of year, as I've said many times before! So I created this Fall 2 Pager for a few challenges at Scrapbook.com.

 This was based off of this sketch for the September 2 Page Sketch Challenge.

I'm also entering this into the Feeling a Fall Trip Challenge, where I used the word Fall, some acorns, cranberries, and leaves. I used a ruler and ink to make the journaling lines, and stamped the leaf border for this Stamping Challenge.

Here's a close-up of some of the embellies and stamping.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tattered and Torn Flower Tutorial

I knew as soon as I saw these adorable photos of my cousin Regina's baby girl Callaia,  that they would be perfect for these new Kaisercraft papers (Charlotte's Dream Collection) that I won last month from Flying Unicorn! Besides being a new mommy, Regina's also a professional photographer, and her little model is just too cute!

I started with this beautiful sketch by my friend Amy (Amarilys) for Scrapthat.

I used 3 different border punches for a challenge at Funtoolas hosted by another scrappy friend Anna. I masked a doily with different mists, and hand stitched around it before adding Callaia's picture to it. I also hand stitched around the whole page using 4 different colors, as an example for the Sewing Challenge that I host at Scrapbook.com, with the twist to use lacing. I'm also entering this into the ABC Challenge at Scrapbook.com for the letters J (Jewels,my pearls) K (Keepsake, I used me and Regina's late Grandma's buttons), and L (lace, under the lacing.)

The flowers I made were inspired by the flowers on the paper. To make them you'll need white cardstock, distress inks (tattered rose and spun sugar), a blending tool, Glimmer Mist (Dazzling diamonds), and glue.

Directions:
Start by using your blending tool and covering your white cardstock with Distress inks in tattered rose and spun sugar. Then make a small dot with a pencil to mark the center of your flower. Now carefully tear petals around that dot. I tried to make 2 of the same size, but it's up to you how many layers you want and how big to make them.

Now spray each flower with Glimmer Mist ( I used Dazzling Diamonds), and lightly crumble them from the centers.

Open them up and shape however you want. I curled the petals of  my 2 largest flowers upwards, and the rest inwards.The smallest flower I left closed, but  curled one or two of the petals.

Now just layer and glue all of your flowers together. If you don't like the look, you can always reshape your petals until your satisfied. Here's a close-up of how I did mine. To make the cream flowers I used my blending tool and Distress inks in Antique linen and old paper.

They were a little time consuming, but I think they're worth it!  Thanks for visiting my blog!

Spongebob Monopoly

I have to admit that when I first saw the recipe for September's recipe at the Paper Mixing Bowl, I was a little intimidated because of the main ingredient: popcorn (yellow). I'm such a color person, but yellow is definately at the bottom of my list. It's a good thing my son is such a Spongebob fan! I ended up having a lot of fun with this 2 pager I created!

Here's a look at the recipe.

Utensils:
Game related items or pieces- I think I got that covered. I scanned the board and cards from the game.
Splatters-It's hard to tell, but I made the yellow paper by inking 2 different yellow distress inks onto white cardstock and then splattering it with water. I wanted it to look like a sponge.
Repetitive shapes-I used squares and rectangles.
Doodling-I doodled the black wavy border.
Yellow+neutral- I used black as an accent color.
Mimic a game board-I scanned each corner of the game board and printed it out on photo paper at 4x6. Some of the edges didn't print out so I trimmed them just a bit and backed it with black cardstock. It left a small square in the center of my board, so I added my husbands picture there, since he was the winner.

Directions:
I journaled about a game. Here's what it says along the bottom, since it's probably hard to tell in the photo.

We have many different editions of Monopoly, including the Spongebob one, which was a Christmas gift for Logan. No matter what version we're playing, Trey always wins, like he did here.

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

The Golden Gate Bridge

I took this photo on a quick trip to San Francisco, CA with my dad to pick up his uncle at the airport when I was just 15. We were visiting my late Uncle Bob at the time who lived right outside of the city. This photo worked out perfectly for C.S.I.'s Case File #33!

Here's a look at it!

This is how I used the evidence:

*liquid medium-I used paint and glimmer mists.

*wood/woodgrain-The red and grey frames

*sand-like stuff-I embossed a sand like pattern onto the misted paper, and used actual sand inside the red frame.

*something shiny-I cut and embossed the silver anchor inside the frame.

*white background-My misted paper started out white.

*metal-The anchor

*create shadows-I used black soot distress ink and my blending tool around the frames, and to mask the compass.

*transparent-I used a clear plastic, which I stitched around the edges, to make a pouch for the sand and shells inside the red frame.
*triangles-I angled the red frame like a triangle.
*nautical elements-I cut the sailboat, ship wheel, and anchor with my Cricut (life's a beach cartridge).

This is how I used the testimony:
*document a landmark you've seen
*journaling strips
*I used the inspiration word light.

Thanks for looking!

Wild Fire Flower Tutorial

I finally got a chance to play at Once Upon A Sketch for the first time! Even though I love their sketches, and even have some saved, I never actually played until now. We had to journal about a season, so of course, I picked fall, my absolute favorite!

I started by making my background paper with Glimmer Mists. I made the fence using my Cricut (Songbird cartridge). It came with a bird on top, which I cut off along with all the vertical pieces. I then cut 2 strips of brown paper for the horizontal  backing of the fence. I added a strand of beads, and masked the pumpkin along the left side. I also made the tree with my Cricut (October 31st cartridge), and the leaves and flowers were made using the (Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge). Here's the beautiful sketch I had to work with!

Here's a closer look at my tree.

I have hidden journaling on a tag behind the smaller flower.

I'm also entering this into the August Monochrome challenge at Scrapbook.com to use Wild Fire Orange, which was my inspiration for these flowers. They remind me of flames. Here's a close-up.

Supplies:
White cardstock, Cricut (Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge), distress inks, blending tool, glue, and water.

Directions:
Cut your flowers out of white cardstock using your Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge. I used flower #32 and cut 2 each at 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2", and 1".

Now use your blending tool and distress inks starting with mustard seed, since its the lightest color. Then randomly add some spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, and fired brick.

Spray with water and crumble them up from the center. Carefully open them and let dry or use a heat gun.

Now layer and glue your flower starting with the largest ones on bottom. Thanks so much for stopping by and all your sweet comments!