Adventure Layout February Berry71Bleu Challenge

The Spring of 2013 was a memorable one.  For the first time EVER I was lucky enough to have family visit me from my homeland of Chile.  It was a first for the both of us.  My cousin had never been to the USA & was very eager to see New York first hand & I had never had the pleasure of playing tour guide to family.  Needless to say we went all over the City & I can't say I ever walked as much as I did while she was here.

For this picture we were on top of the Empire State Building taking 'selfies'.  You can see the majestic city of New York in the background. Thanks to her I also got to do things I've never done before in the City.  Isn't it crazy!?  When we live so close to something like New York we never seem to take the time to actually enjoy it!

 **Esta es para ti prima--ojala que te guste y que te traiga lindos recuerdos!**

This page was created for the February Berry71Bleu challenge hosted by fellow DT member Mandy where we are supposed to incorporate at least two forms of mixed media. 

Here's this months inspiration board.  When I see the term 'mixed media' I immediately think 'messy fun'.  I ended up going into the office for two days with blue fingers because of this page.  My co-workers thought I had maybe manhandled a smurf or something along those lines.  Tsk, tsk, tsk...but that's what you get when you play with different types of mediums!

Oh how I love to layer!  The more layers & bits & bobs I can tuck here n' there...the happier I get!  Leave it up to a scrapper to get excited over such small things.  I gave several of my embellishments a bit of a lift with the use of pop/foam dots & strips.

Let's see here, I incorporated modeling paste, mists, inks, stamping & a bit of gesso onto my page.  Some may not consider stamping a form of mixed media but in my little world--I do.  I think it's amazing the different effects you can get with just a bit of stamping--especially if you use mediums other than inks to stamp with.  I actually did a bit of stamping with mists on this page which made for messier splats & splatters & gave me exactly the look I was searching for.

The 'Bird Branch' chippie is by Molossi which is also one of our permanent sponsors this year for Berry71Bleu.  I kept the chipboard in it's natural state since it went pretty well with my page.  I just ended up highlighting the leaves with a white gel pen & then heat embossing the entire chippie with Star Dust Translucent Embossing Powder by Stampendous.  This gave the chipboard a shimmery effect that really pops from the page.

See that really cute yellow flair button?  These are my latest craze & I'm loving the subtle touches these flairs give a page.  I found a wonderful shop on Etsy called Panda Eight Designs that makes a variety of really adorable flairs.  This is where I purchased this particular flair button & many more!

This page was actually made with the use of a kit that I purchased from The Scrapbook Diaries.  I'm loving the concept behind this site.  The mixed media kits are designed by some very well known & talented scrappers--the kits come complete with a video tutorial showing you the genius that goes on behind the scenes in creating a page.  This kit in particular was created by Kasia Krzyminska (aka. Czekoczyna).  Now, me being the rebel that I am--my page didn't end up looking at all like the example that came with the kit--however I did take some tips & tricks from Kasia's video & the best part was having a kit complete with coordinating stamps & mediums to work with--it made my scrapping much easier. 

So I like the flexibility of these kits...you can create your project based on the example provided or you can just take the tips & tricks from the video tutorials & create your own page with the contents of the kit.  Love!!

The flower seen here was actually all white--I colored it in with dark blue mists & then randomly added a bit of gesso to it.

I tucked a kraft paper bag underneath my trio of photos & created a tag to tuck in it & to store my journaling. 

Supplies: Paper - Basic Grey, Echo Paper, Stamps - Recollections, Stamping Bella, Pebbles, Prima, Mists - Tattered Angels, Flair - Panda Eight Designs, Flowers - Prima, Kays Kreative Korner, Chipboard - Molossi, Stencil - Crafters Workshop, Other - modeling paste, gesso

For details of this month's challenge go here.  Don't forget to visit the Berry71Bleu & see the other DT's take on this months challenge.  Play along for the chance to win some fabulous prizes.

Take care & enjoy the rest of the week!

'Precious' Altered Clock

So this is a first for me.  I finally decided to alter a Tim Holtz clock.  I think it came out OK for my very first try.  I ended up playing around with it for two evenings--but I finally got it to look how I had 'envisioned' it in my head.

I made this project for the CHA Authentique booth since I've used Authentique's 'Precious' line to make all the embellishments that decorate the clock.  I wanted to use it as a frame for a photo taken at my son's first birthday photo session.  I love this picture of my son--he looks just like a 'little man' in this one!

The clock ended up having a really cool 'frosty' looking texture.  I achieved this by first priming the entire clock with gesso.  TIP: if you decide to completely paint your clock, I suggest you take it apart.  I ended up 'borrowing' some of my husbands tools to remove the front glass & the bells.  This made it much easier to cover the clock completely with my mediums.

Once the gesso dried I applied a thick coat of Martha Stewart's Terra Cotta paint in White.  This paint has a sand-like texture to it that I really liked.  Next to give it a bit of color, I took a medium sized paint brush & randomly applied Mint Julip Pearlz from Shimmerz on it.  Finally once it was all dry I applied a coat of Martha Stewart's Frost Paint which is a sort of sealant with a touch of glimmer to it.  I love the effect the combination of all these mediums gave me!

From the start I knew I wanted something hanging from the clock's bells.  Charms, ribbons, tags...I just didn't know what I wanted.  In the end I took some of the sticker elements from the 'Precious' collection & with Glossy Accents adhered them to a couple of Tim Holtz Fragments that I've had in my stash for an eternity plus one.  I then attached the charms with jump rings onto a Tim Holtz swivel clasp--added a little teddy bear charm on top & hooked it from one of the clock's bells and ta-da!  My vision became a reality! 

Three different dies were used to make the hot air balloon, spiral flowers & butterfly.  Aren't those spiral flowers cute!  Note to Self:  I really need to make more of these for my projects in the future! 

With hot glue I adhered a string of mint green pearls around the front of my clock.

Tim Holtz is all over my clock it seems.  I've used his Tattered Floral die to create this large flower.  I combined acrylic, vellum & designer paper onto my flower.  I love adding acrylic/transparencies into my flowers--it gives them a different effect/look.  I have a tutorial on my blog showing how I decorated the edges of the acrylic petal so that it stands out more & how to create flowers with the use of transparencies.  You can find the tutorial here if interested. 

The inside of the clock is decorated with some frosty netting that I had in my stash.  I believe I bought this netting around Christmas--the netting is frosty & covered in glitter--half of the glitter is still sitting on the floor of my scrap room!  I scrunched up a bit of the netting & adhered it with some double sided sticky tape to the bottom of the clock.  My photo is matted with papers from the 'Precious' line & I've added more spiral flowers along the bottom side of the photo to decorate it.

Supplies: Clock - Tim Holtz, Dies - La-La Land Crafts, Die-namics, Memory Box, Tim Holtz, Paint - Martha Stewart, Shimmerz, Ribbon - May Arts, Hardware - Tim Holtz, Embellishments - Tim Holtz, Other: Mini Wooden Frame, Flocked Teddy Bear

Hope this inspires some of you to experiment with different elements.  Take care & enjoy the rest of the week!

A Dog's Point of View Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers!  Hope you're all having a wonderful Valentine's Day.  It's the day of 'Love' so make sure you give all your loved one a big hug & kiss.  Let's not forget that love encompasses much more than just the love between you & your sweetie.  There's the love shared between parents & children, the love between you & your parents, the love shared amongst friends & I can't leave our four legged companions behind--there's also the unconditional love that our pets provide.

This layout just so happens to be based on our family dog Toby.  I 'made' time to play along with CSI's Case No. 110.  First of all, I once again loved the theme & second Emma provided one of her fabulous sketches!  I couldn't resist.  Her sketches cut down my scrap time practically in half since I don't have to sit there for hours trying to figure out a design that I'm happy with.

One of the options for the testimony is to journal from a pet's point of view--which is what I did...but I also took the pictures from Toby's point of view.  So in all the photos you'll see my husband's oh-so-sexy legs!  lol

Here's Case No. 110.  I incorporated all of the colors & Em's sketch.  For my evidence I have: crown, flowers, pearls, jewels & a somewhat solid background (I added my own design--it originally was a solid piece of cream colored card stock.

For the testimony, I wrote my journaling from Toby's point of view--or at least what I believe he may be thinking.

As mentioned, I started off with a solid piece of cream colored card stock for my background.  I added all the designs & texture with the use of masks, stamps & embellishments. 

Once again I did some coloring on this page.  With a white gel pen I 'colored' in the splats & splatters that I traced with the use of a Crafter's Workshop stencil. 

I used molding paste to add a bit of texture along with a Prima Marketing stencil.

To mat my large circular photo I used a 5" inch gold doily.  I applied some stamping & tissue tape along the right bottom of my page.  Wow, so I've recently discovered the wonders of tissue/washi tape!  As usual I'm eons behind everybody else.  I just never had any in my stash until recently & I'm enjoying the different effects & things you can do with these tapes.

Here's my journaling stored in one of my fave ways which is in a scroll.  I include journaling/story/thoughts in every one of my layouts.  So I've experimented with different ways to store my journaling besides writing onto the back of my pages.  If interested how I make these scrolls--feel free to check out a tutorial I made for these here.

I wrote the journaling based on how I feel Toby thinks just by observing his personality through all these years.

Journaling reads:  I've seen many legs in my lifetime & after 6 years (that would be human years--I've lost count as to how much that would be in dog years) I'm pretty sure that I'll be seeing many more legs in the future.  To me, seeing legs is about as common of a view as faces are to you humans.  How you balance yourselves on just two legs is beyond me--I personally need all four of mine.  

However, none of this matters--you are my family & though I may not be able to talk, I do listen & communicate my thoughts through my eyes & tail. I do not have a shoulder for you to cry on but I do my best to comfort you by lightly laying my head on your lap.  I may not be able to hug you but I will stand by you when you are lonely.  I feel that I should always try my best to make you laugh--even when you're feeling sad & I know that I love you unconditionally & have pledged my everlasting loyalty to you. 

To my sweet Toby--the best dog in the world!

These felt flowers are items that I bought off an Etsy shop called The Felt Shoppe--they are so well made & the felt adds a soft touch to my page. The owner has several items all made with--you guessed it...lots of felt!

Once again I used my Dymo label maker to make my title.  I'm loving this little gadget!

Don't forget to pay CSI a visit.  Don't forget that I'm one of the sponsors for February & one lucky person will win a voucher to my shop.  

Supplies: Paper - American Crafts Card Stock, Authentique, Stencils - Prima & Crafters Workshop, Embellishments - Um Wow Studio, Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn, Scrap Désirs, Flowers - The Felt Shoppe, I Am Roses, Stamps - Tim Holtz, Prima, Hampton Art & Stamping Bella, Inks: Ranger Distress Ink, Archival Ink

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit--enjoy the rest of the week!

Knowledge Is Power Layout

I'm so very happy to be one of CSI's (Color, Stories, Inspiration...) main sponsor for February!  I'm offering a voucher to my Etsy shop to one lucky winner!

In addition to being CSI's main sponsor--I also get to be one of their guest detectives.  How fun!  I've been a fan of CSI since their very first case file was revealed.  In fact, if interested--feel free to check out my entry for their first case file here!

I fell completely in love with Case File No. 109.  First of all--I'm such a book worm myself.  Anything involving books is a good thing in my opinion.  One of  my biggest aspirations for my son is that he'll love books just as much as I do.  Which is why I started buying him books before he was even born!  Yes--by the time he came into this world he had a reasonable collection of Dr. Seuss, several fairy tales that I myself grew up with, educational books, picture books & much more in his always-growing book collection.  Also since I'm fluent in both English & Spanish--many of these books are bilingual which absolutely thrilled me to no end to find books printed like this!

So when I received this case file--I took a few of my son's books out & spread them around him & snapped these photos.

The colors for this case file are excellent for boy themed pages--they worked just right for my overall theme.  They're a combination of colors that I don't usually work with & I loved the challenge this brought.

For my evidence I have: book pages, silver accents, birds & frames

For my testimony I've created a mini book to hold my thoughts & journaling.  I have a tutorial available on how I make these mini books--you can find it here if interested.  All of my layouts include journaling.  So I'm always trying new ways to store my journaling onto my page.

Layers, layers & more layers was how I tackled this page.  I have many little bits & bobs, papers & embellishments layered one on top of the other.  I also did a bit of masking, painting & even included some mixed media & stamping onto my background.

Here's my booklet that holds my journaling.  I love creating these little booklets--they make for really cute unique embellishments for my pages as well.

Here you can see a bit of the mixed media & stamping.  The word 'Books' was done with a fine tipped Sharpie marker & the use of 1" letter stencils that I bought at my local craft store.  TIP:  Go back to your childhood & color!  With a couple of Prismacolor pencils I 'colored' in the letters for the word 'Book'.  I then took a metallic gel point pen & randomly highlighted the letters.  You can do this technique for anything...designs on paper, letters, titles etc.  Use pencils, markers & even crayons!  Color them in for a different effect or look.

The title was made with my Dymo label maker & adhered onto my page with pop dots.

The bright red organza star flower & small yellow ribbon flower are items from my own personal stash.  I have both of these in more colors available in my shop.  They make for excellent fillers to clusters & are really cute embellishments.

Here's what my journaling book looks like when opened.  The main point in my long list of thoughts is that I hope to inspire my son to find the wonders of books regardless of all this technology available in this day & age.  Cell phones, Face Book, the Internet & who knows what else will be invented in the future--I know there's no way to avoid that & that's OK but, I hope that he'll still pick up an old-fashioned book once in a while & read.

Primary Supplies: Paper - 7 Dots Studio, Stamps - Tim Holtz, Prima, Mask - Crafters Workshop, Paints/Mists - Shimmerz, Tattered Angels, Embellishments - Prima, Kay's Kreative Korner, Tim Holtz

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!