Mini Wildflowers

Hello! Here's the new Thursday sketch (week of July 28th)  from Pages in Time, designed by Traci Thiel. I really LOVE this sketch, and had a lot of fun using it!

Here's my take. I decided to flip the sketch to suit my photos better.

I made all the flowers myself. The larger flowers were inspired by Lisa Gregory's Peeled Paper Poppies.http://what-a-beautiful-mess.blogspot.com/2011/01/peeled-paper-poppies-tutorial.html I didn't have the punches that she used, so I hand cut all the petals out of cardstock, which was first glimmer misted. I also didn't peel my petals, but chose to make 10 instead of  5 gluing the petals together near the stems. For the centers I used my Cricut (Mother's Day bouquet) and some orange felt flower brads.
To make the mini wildflowers you'll need this Martha Stewart punch. I'm not sure what it's called though. You'll also need some yellow cardstock, glue, Wild Honey Distress Ink, blending tool, a stylus, foam pad or old mouse pad, and a small bead for the center. I used a brown one.

You'll need to punch 2 large flowers and 2 small ones out of yellow cardstock.

Then use your blending tool to ink the edges with your distress ink.

Then with your foam pad underneath, use your stylus on each petal starting from the center and working out. Just keep going back and forth until your petals naturally shape themselves.

Now you can glue your layers together. For the larger flowers I stacked them directly on top of eachother, and for the smaller ones I alternated the petals.

To finish it off just add your bead in the center. Here's a close-up.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!Thanks for visiting!

Beach Babe

I made this for the July 2 page sketch challenge at Scrapbook.com. Here's the sketch from 2 peas in a bucket.

Here's my take.

I made the flowers from fabric which I got from this tutorial.They're very easy and simple to make.
http://pinksuedeshoe.com/2010/06/25/scrap-flower-tutorial/

Dictionary Flowers

I've been playing in the Color Room again! Here's palette #67.

Here's what I did. I edited this photo of my sister in black and white, but left her eye color.

Trust me. The colors look much better in real life! I made all the flowers myself. I thought I'd show you how to make the largest dictionary flower.

Here's what you'll need.
1. Retro flower die ( I used the Mother's Day cartridge for my Cricut).
2. Black soot distress ink
3. Chalks or Glimmer mist
4. Glue
5. Spray bottle with water
6. Pearl or rhinestone for the center

First I cut my flowers with my Cricut using paper I tore from a dictionary.
2 at 2 1/2", 2 at 2", 2 at 1 1/2", and 3 at 1".

Then I inked around them with my black soot distress ink.

Then I applied chalk. I wanted a more subtle look, but this would also look great sprayed with some glimmer mists.

Then spray each flower with your water bottle and shape your flowers to curve up. I like to use my heat gun.

Then just glue all your petals together starting with the largest one on the bottom.

Finally add your pearl.I made the smaller flowers using the same flower die. I just crunched and tightened the middle petals more to form a bud.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday card!

I hope everyone's having a great weekend! I'm getting ready for a hike at one of my favorite trails, and then off to my brother's house to celebrate his birthday. I'm planning on getting lots of great photos today. The weather should be perfect too. Not too hot, and not too cold. Just the way I like it. Here's the card I made for my brother.

Distress Embossing Flowers

Hello! I finally finished this LO I've been working on for the July Monochrome challenge at Scrapbook.com. We had to use turquoise with silver as a twist. While working on this page I came up with these flowers that I wanted to share with you.

Here's my finished LO. It's a photo of me and my mom on Easter Eve getting things ready for the holiday.

First I want to thank Gabrielle Pollacco for the awesome tutorial on making these faux turquoise stones! I had to throw many stones away before getting the right look, so don't be intimidated to try. Here's a link to her tutorial. http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorial-how-to-make-faux-polished.html
Now on to mine. Here's what you'll need to make these distress embossed flowers.
1. White and Black cardstock
2. Distress Embossing Ink
3. Distress Embossing Powder in Broken China
4. Silver Embossing Powder
5. Heat Gun
6.Turquoise Stickles
7. Bling or something for the center.
8. Crochet hook or small paintbrush to help shape the flowers

First cut out your flower dies. I used my Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet to cut these. For the large flower I cut 3 flowers from white cardstock at 3 1/2", 2 1/2", and 1 1/2". From the black cardstock I cut 3 at 1" for the center of my flower.

Then I pressed my white flowers into the Distress embossing ink, and used  Broken China Embossing powder on it. Don't forget to use your heat gun. You can get different looks depending on how heavy you want the embossing. For my large flower I went lightly so you can still see alot of the white cardstock. For the smaller flower I used more embossing powder.

Then shape your flower petals. I used a small paintbrush in the middle of the petals and curled them up. Then I used the crochet hook to curl the edges down. Then you pinch the petal together trying not to crease it. Your flowers should look like this.

I love the way they look just like this, but for my project I wanted alot of shimmer so I added stickles to the edges of the flowers in turquoise.

Now for the centers. Use your silver embossing powder on the black flowers. I used tweezers to hold down the centers while heating it, so it won't fly away.

Curl all your petals and glue together alternating your petals so they're not directly on top of eachother. Then add your bling.

Now glue your white embossed flowers together in the same fashion adding your center. There's so many looks you can get with this technique. I'd love to see your version.

Blog Hop Winners announced

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Pages in Time Interactive Blog Hop! There was alot of good entries, but the winner is Amarilys!!She wins this awesome prize!

And the random winner for commenting and following my blog is Genagirl! Please email me your address so I can send you some of my hand made embellies.

PIT Sketch of the week July 7th-13th

It's Thursday again! That means the new sketch is up at Pages in Time. Here it is.

Here's my take.

Sorry for the bad scan! I tried taking a photo and still couldn't get the colors right. The red felt star border is much brighter in real life. I did a lot of doodled stitches on here, and made the cupcake in a cone for my journaling.
I'll be announcing the winners later on today for the Pages in Time Blog Hop, and for following my blog. There's still time if you want to leave me a comment anywhere on here and follow me.

Playing in the Color Room

I recently discovered the Color Room and decided to play for the first time. Here's the color palette that I worked with.

I was drawn to these soothing colors, but especially the soft terra cotta color. When I saw this photo that my mother-in-law sent me of Morro Bay, I knew it was the perfect photo for this. The colors of the rock, ocean, and sky were already these colors. I used this as an example for the July Landscape challenge that I'm hosting at Pages in Time with masking as the twist. Come join me to play along and for a chance to win some of my hand made embellies.
http://pagesintimestoresite.ning.com/forum/topics/july-landscape-challenge

I made the large light blue flower and green flower. Here's a close-up of the blue one.

Pages in Time Interactive Blog Hop

Pages In Time Interactive Blog Hop
Welcome to the Pages In Time Interactive Blog Hop! We call it an “Interactive Blog Hop” because you do more than read a blog, you actually get to create a layout along the way! At each stop you will collect steps for completing a layout!
The Interactive Blog Stop starts at the Pages In Time blog http://fablady.blogspot.com/ with the Pages In Time Weekly Sketch. From there, you will hop from blog to blog to collect the steps to create your layout! You should have arrived here from Stacey's blog http://ohschwietscrap.blogspot.com/.  If you stumbled upon the hop by accident, please play along (just make sure you hit all the blogs)!
The step you are collecting from me is stitching. First let me show you my take of the sketch.

 I chose to do machine stitching (the black stitching around the yellow pp) and hand stitching (around the title).
You can do any kind of stitching you want, machine or hand, but here's a really easy stitch I'd like to share with you that I call a twisted stitch. Here's what you'll need.
1. 2 different colors of embroidery floss
2. needle
3. scissors
4. Mat to poke holes (you can also you an old mouse pad)
5. Piercing tool (you can also use a needle or small nail)

The first and most important step when sewing by hand on paper is to pierce your holes. Then just do a basic stitch in one of your colors. I did the darker green first. For a skinnier stitch you can divide your embroidery floss into 3 strands. I didn't do that on this page because I liked the bulkier stitch to bring out the title more.

Then thread your needle with your other color making a knot at the end. Bring your needle up from the back of your page starting at one end of your previous stitching. Then pull your needle through the very first stitch along the front page.

Continue doing this with all your stitches bringing your stitches through each previous stitch going in the same direction. See how my needle is facing out. After I pull the thread through, I put my needle through the next stitch the same exact way never going through the back of the page until your done. As you can see, your threads will start twisting making a great outline or rope effect.

Because I used 2 different shades of the same color it's more subtle. But try it with black and white, or red and white, which gives you a candy cane look. Once you get to the end just pull your needle through the hole in your last stitch and knot it in the back. Here's what it looks like all done.

Be certain to write down the steps along the way, because you will need to incorporate them into your layout to be eligible for the overall prize! Speaking of prizes, take a peek at the grand prize:

To be eligible for the prize you must incorporate the sketch and five additional steps from the hop. The order of the hop is as follows:

Karen: http://fablady.blogspot.com (sketch)
Becky: http://manyminimemories.blogspot.com/ (distressing & inking)
Lisa: http://theshabbyhorse.blogspot.com/ (Pictures: Mat picture and doodle on the edges)
Anna C: http://picturesnpapers.blogspot.com/ (Border Punch)
Jessie: http://disasterouscrafting.blogspot.com/ (Flowers-plans tutorial)
Stacey: http://ohschwietscrap.blogspot.com/ (Faux Flourish)
Me: http://dreasscrapsofinspiration.blogspot.com/ (Stitching)
Traci: http://scrapsofwhimsy.blogspot.com/ (Title - Stamping or doodling on the letters)
Lili:http://pagesintimestoresite.ning.com/profiles/blogs/pages-in-time-interactive-blog (Journaling) 

Finally, you will need to upload your completed layout at Pages In Time. If you are not already a member, you will need to become one. Once you are there, you will find a Forum entitled “June 30 – July 6 Thursday Sketch”. You will have until midnight on July 6th to upload your layout. All layouts that are based upon the sketch and have incorporated at least five of the steps from the blog hop will be eligible for the prize. A winner will be chosen by the Pages In Time Design Team.

You can earn two extra votes!!! If you follow all the blogs listed in the hop and leave a comment on each blog, you will be eligible for an extra vote. You can also earn an extra vote if you incorporate the step listed at each stop in your layout. That means, if you do your layout based on the sketch and include all of the steps, you get an extra vote!

One more surprise!!! I am offering a personal RAK of some of my homemade embellies to a random person that is a follower of my blog and leaves a comment!

Now hop on over to Traci’s blog http://scrapsofwhimsy.blogspot.com/ and have fun!!

Interactive Blog Hop Coming soon!

Please join us on June 30th at Pages in Time for an Interactive Blog hop. You'll be directed to different DT blogs for each step to create your page. There's going to be prizes too!

PIT Sketch of the Week for June 23rd

Here's the new Thursday sketch at Pages in Time designed by Becky Neemann.

 

Here's my take.

I just love this photo of my sister-in-law, nephew, and niece. I doodled a serged stitch all over the scalloped border, around the squares, and some of the flowers. I did a zigzag stitch along the orange pp. Here's how I made the yellow flowers. First I cut out 3 flowers with my cricut (Serenade cartridge). I wanted to use a 5 petal flower. I cut out a 1 1/2", 2" and 2 1/1" flower.

Then I used a dark blue pen to outline the flowers in a squiggly line. 

After that just curl all your petals and stack on top of eachother with the largest flower on the bottom.

For the center I used a punch to cut out a 3/4" circle out of white cardstock. Then I used the same blue pen to make short lines all around the circle. Then I outlined the circle. Finally add a button, brad, or whatever you want for the center.