Bird Chaser Layout

Good evening once again fellow bloggers & scrappers. It's time for another Toby page! I saw the idea for this page in last months Creative Keepsakes magazine. I fail to remember by who it was--but the theme of the page dealt with her pup being a 'bird chaser'. That hit home run right away with my very own pup. Toby is a relentless bird chaser himself. Feathered friends? Not his apparently! No bird can invade his territory--he'll run after it like the wind!

Journaling reads as follows: Isn't this puppy cute? He's a little angel right? Well, photo 1 shows Toby's adorable & innocent face. Photo 2 is Toby after I've scolded him for chasing away the many birds that love hanging out in the backyard. It's not his fault really--he can't help himself! Thier endearing wings & that exhilirating chirping calls to him. He only wishes to play with them...is that really such a sin? My sweet little Toby, will you & birds ever be able to live together in harmony?



The design is based on sketch #151 from Creative Scrappers. I flipped it around to work with my photos & embellies. Lately, thier sketches have really been inspiring me...



As always I did some stamping on this page. I used a combination of Inkadinkado (Dots & Flourishes), Clear Art Stamps (Birdies), Tim Holtz (Birds on a Wire), Hero Arts (Old French Writing) & Prima. I also did some masking & stitching. In this screen shot you can see the zig-zag stitching along the border of both sides of the page.


I printed the journaling on plain white vellum. I inked the edges to make it stand out a little bit on the page.

The large tree branch & bird chippie is by Maxines Melange. The chippie went through a few steps to get the final texture I wanted. It was first inked in Vintage Photo distress ink. Then with my finger I spread some Vintage Photo distress stickles & a bit of Paprika stickles on it. Finally I put a bit of Frosted Lace stickles on the tips of some of the tree branches. The bird was painted in white acrylic paint, inked in Rusty Hinge distress ink, coated in copper perfect pearls & then embossed with clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel).

Finally this pretty transparent black flower is also a stamp. This is a unique hand crafted petal stamp made by the talented Jessica. She's a fellow Etsy-er & I find her handcrafted stamps just fabulous for making my very own unique flowers. Here's the link to her shop--Green Garden Stamps & her blog: Garden Green Stamps Blog.

I stamped the petal stamp with Staz-On ink on a transparency, cut it out & then with a white gel pen I added white dots along the inside flower design. I then cut the petals in a bit more & bent them upwards for added dimension. I finalized the flower by adding a black Sultan Gem by Prima in the center.

I also tucked a bit of dried copper baby's breath--also known as gyp underneath my flower embellies.

Thanks to all of you who stop by my blog for a visit. I appreciate your time!

Brick Texture Tutorial

I've gotten a couple of inquiries on how I go about achieving that 'brick' look on the brick wall chipboard. Dusty Attic chippies that I've used on both my 'Frankie' & 'Brothers' pages.

I got this technique from Mr. Tim Holtz himself. I slightly altered his technique--but it's his idea that I used in order to achieve this particular texture.

Let's get started!

Frankie Layout

Hello once again fellow scrappers! Today's page is one that I've been meaning to do for quite some time. It's simply titled 'Frankie'. Frankie happens to be my best friend. Sure, it may seem odd that my best friend happens to be a man--but I guess that's what life had in store for me. Sometimes, you don't pick your friends--they pick you! That's exactly how it was w/me & Frankie. I have journaling on the back of this page--it tells how our friendship began: “Why are you eating lunch in your cube like a dork?” Believe it or not, this one question asked by Frankie on my first day of work, started a friendship that is going onto 12 years now.

Meet Frankie—my best friend. I met him in my first real job out of college back in 2000; good ol’ UPS. We’ve shared more laughs than I can even begin to remember & we’ve had our share of arguments as well. Through the years he’s become my ‘unofficial brother’. He brought me out of my shell at UPS, was there on my wedding day & nobody else has taught me so many useless phrases & terminology as he has!

He’s a great guy with a big heart though he doesn’t like to admit it. He can’t stand mustard or pickles & he can’t mix too many toppings on pizza or hotdogs—he’s a simple ‘meat & potatoes’ guy. He eats his candy bars with a fork & knife & is probably THE neatest guy I’ve ever met!?

He’s the Iceman (a nickname he gave himself), he’s Frank the Tank (his drinking nickname), he’s Frankie G. & don’t you forget it…

But to me, he’s simply Frankie—my brotha’ from another motha’ as he would say—my best friend as I would say…

The small quote in the metal trinket reads: "A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out". He's single by the way--so if you knows of anybody that's into George Lopez look-a-likes--give me a shout! :-)


The page was based on Creative Scrappers sketch #150 shown here.  As usual, I did a lot of inking & stamping in the background. I used several stamps on the background by two manufacturers--Stamp Enjoy & Stampers Anonymous.

This fabulous tree chipboard is by Dusty Attic. I inked it in Aged Mahagony distress ink & then spread a combination of distress Stickles & regular Stickles to give it a variety of effects based on the lighting. It has Frosted Lace, Vintage Photo, Paprika & Diamond Stickles.



Here you can see some of the stamping in the background & of the net stitching that makes up the circle. I first saw this net stitching on one of Irene Tan's pages (Scrapperlicous). For this page, I did what I consider half of a net stitch since I only went one way & didn't come back the other way to create a criss cross pattern.



I've used some leftover brick chippies from my 'Brothers' page here. This chipboard is also by Dusty Attic. Here, the chipboard has been inked & embossed in Vintage Photo. I further decorated the bricks by adding Vintage Photo Distressed stickles with my finger.  I have a tutorial on how I gave the brick chipboard it's texture here.


Finally, a close-up of the large flower. The sanded cardstock is by Core'dinations.

Thanks to all who take the time to stop by--I appreciate your stopping by. I also hope this page inspires some of you to scrap your friends along with your family. Sometimes we concentrate so much on family--that we oversee our friends. I believe true friends come in very small numbers--if you're lucky enough to find one, make sure you make the time to pay them a small tribute. It'll be just one more memory to smile about in the years to come.

New York Layout

Hello again fellow scrappers! Today's page is one that I've been meaning to scrap for ages--yeah--none of us knows what that's like right? :-) When I saw sketch #149 over at Creative Scrappers; that light bulb just went off! It was perfect to showcase this trip my husband & I took back in 2006 to NYC. He had never been to the top of the Empire State building--meanwhile I had been there about 20 times--so I was the one to take him for the very first time. The picture is us at the very top of the Empire--you can see New York behind us. Gorgeous view! I absolutely LOVE the city--all the small pics you see were all taken by me during different trips into the city or from New Jersey.

Once again I did a lot of stamping. The script you see in the background is part of the paper but everything else was stamped. I take much of my stamping inspiration from Irene also known as Scrapperlicious. I love her stamping--to me she creates works of art with her stamping. I did some stitching & misting. I also finally got to use those fragments by Tim Holtz that I've had in my stash forever. I thought they would showcase my NYC pictures really well.

This is the Creative Scrappers sketch I based this page on.

This flourish is actually not chipboard--it's made out of wood. I found this small company over in France called Scrap Désirs that sells all sorts of very cute wooden embellishments! I found them to be very unique. For this flourish I simply covered it in three colors of fine glitter--dark brown, light & dark turquoise.

A close-up of the large transparent flower. This is actually a different take on the glass flowers I displayed here in my blog not too long ago. If interested in making this flower please go here. The only difference is that I alcohol inked the flower in Butterscotch & a touch of Bronze & then stamped on it with a script stamp with black StazOn ink. Whenever stamping on transparencies--always use permanent ink such as StazOn. Any other ink will smear.

A close up of the Tim Holtz fragments. I also stamped on some of the fragments. The stitched dark brown frame was made with a Martha Stewart punch around the page titled Cherish. This punch begs to be stitched. It takes two seconds before eternity to do--but it's worth it for the effect. I thank my scrap buddy Natasha for being a stitching fanatic! She always stitches around the border whenever she uses this punch & it's so very much worth it!

Finally, a closeup of the stamped city & title. This city stamp is by Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection titled Cityscape. I used a combination of Stampers Anonymous stamps (mainly from the Tim Holtz collection) & Stamp Enjoy.

Thanks to all of you who take the time to stop by my blog. I appreciate your visit so very much!

Brothers Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers & bloggers! Today I bring you a page titled 'Brothers'. This is my husband (far left) along with his two older brothers. Yep, he's the baby--in more ways than one! Shhhh, don't tell him I said that!

This was taken on Thanksgiving 2010. This was truly a monumental event! These three haven't been under the same roof since when they were teenagers...the very next day we got about 24" inches of snow (no kidding) so that's how miraculous it was to have these three together again! Them being together even seemed to disrupt Mother Nature. They all live in different states--which is why it's hard to get them together.

Needless to say my in-laws were ecstatic to have the three brothers together again & I went photo crazy. Luckily they posed for me for not just one but several pictures--this one being my favorite. I plan on giving this page framed to my mother-in-law. I think she deserves it! :-)

This is a very 'manly' page. It had to be! My brothers-in-law would drop kick me if I made anything dainty with thier pictures in it. So I went all out with the grunge look!

I used papers from the February "Things Remembered" Swirlydoos kit & did a whole lot of stamping, masking & inking. I've come to the conclusion that I'm a stamper. I LOVED making my own background on this page & have been stamping on my pages more & more. So I think I finally found my calling. :-)

I also did this page for Creative Scrappers. I based this page on thier Sketch #146. Here's the sketch:

Besides stamping the background I also stamped on the burlap. You can see a little bit of it here in this picture. I did the woven stitch around my title. For a tut on this woven stitch, please go here.

The quote I found on the internet & found it to be just right for this page. It reads: "A brother shares childhood memories and grown-up dreams"

A closeup of some of the stamping, misting & masking I did for my background.

I'm starting to upload small 'stamping tips' here on my blog. For a quick tip on how to make your own shaped stamped collages like this one, feel free to go here.

I also have a tip on how to get that streaked, distressed look you see on my background page--please refer here for that quick tip.

I used a Tim Holtz mask for the clock. I then did a zig-zag stitch all around the border of the clock.

I cut out a circle that was larger than the clock & used that circle as a mask for the inked orange circle going around the clock.
This page wouldn't be complete without a 'man flower'...so here's my version of it. I made this flower from burlap. For a tutorial on how this flower was made--please feel free to go here.

The other two smaller burlap flowers are by Prima. They were white burlap--I misted them with Tuscan Sun glimmer mist.

The brick chipboard is from Dusty Attic. I inked it with Vintage Photo distress ink, then heat embossed it with Vintage Photo embossing powder. I removed some of the bricks out from the 'wall' & adhered them with pop dots in order to make them stand out from the rest of the bricks. For the bricks that are standing out, I then spread some Walnut Ink distress stickles on them.

I hope I did my brothers-in-law justice & made for them a very 'manly' page.

Thanks to all who stop by--I truly appreciate your visit.

Burlap Flower Tutorial

Good evening fellow bloggers! Today I bring you a tutorial on how to make burlap flowers for those 'man' pages.

Having primarily men to scrap--I'm constantly trying to come up with masculine flowers for my pages. A hard task since obviously most flowers are geared towards feminine pages. For a while I had this idea of making a burlap flower. However, I wanted it to have dimension--I didn't want it to be flat. It finally dawned on me how I could achieve this look. I modeled these flowers after the Grunge Flowers that Tim Holtz made so very popular. In fact, to get a more detailed step-by-step tut on how to make this kind of flower in general, please refer to his tutorial here.

You can find these burlap flowers in full action on my page titled 'Brothers'.

Here are your basic list of supplies: Big Shot or any other compatible die cut machine, flower die (I used Sizzix Original Die - Flower Layers #5 in my example) although you can use any flower die as long as it has petals, burlap, white puffy paint, distress ink, pencil or thin paint brush for rolling/shaping petals & a heat gun.

So let's get started!

Swipe Technique For Distressed Background

Here's another quick stamping tip. Want to get a streaked, distressed look on your page?

Simply take a distress ink pad & just swipe it down your page from top to bottom.

NOTE: Only swipe from top to bottom--not up & down.

Keep swiping from top to bottom until you get the distressed 'streaky' look you desire!

If you're nervous about trying this out on your project--practice on some scrap paper first...after all, practice makes perfect...

Have fun!

Using Masks for Stamping

Time for a quick stamping tip...if you want to get a collage of stamped images shaped into a particular shape--try paper masks!

This circle collage you can find on my 'Brothers' page.

Here's how I went about creating this circular stamped collage.

Love Layout

Good evening fellow bloggers & scrappers! Today's page is titled simply 'Love'. It's a lovey-dovey page based on my husband & myself. It's been a while since my husband & I took pictures of just us so I decided to do a brief photo shoot in our bedroom--that's why you see my spider plant & drawers in the background!? :-) No professional photo sessions for us as of yet...let's just say that I'm in love with my tri-pod & the timer on my camera!

The light turquoise background is paper from Tim Holz's Lost & Found line. All the images you see were either stamped or masked by me. I really like adding stamps to my pages & making my own backgrounds.

A big shout out to my scrap-buddy partner in crime Natasha for giving me these fabulous bamboo sticks! So far they've helped me complete 2 layouts! Thank you girl!

Besides the stamping, I've done lots of hand stitching, some masking & loads of inking.

I did this page for the Dusty Attic sketch challenge going on right now. Here's the sketch.

A closeup of the corrugated cardboard. I did everything under the sun to this cardboard! It was painted in bronze acrylic paint & a bit of glimmer glam. I then spread some Aged Mahogany & Vintage Photo Distress Stickles & then smeared it with Walnut Distress ink.

The title is glued onto one side of the bamboo sticks & dressed up with turquoise stickles.

A closeup of some of my stamping & bling flourishes. The harlequin stamp is by Purple Onion Designs. The bling flourish is all from one Prima flourish--it was simply cut up & placed where I needed it.

Here you can also see a closeup of the staggered zig-zag stitching at the bottom of the page. Thanks again Natasha for the fabulous tip on using the EK Success Dots & Lines Edger punch to make this zig-zag stitch tons easier...I have less grey hairs now!

These 'glass' flowers add such a subtle touch to any page.  I have a tutorial on how I made this flower--if you're interested on making these glass flowers--feel free to refer to the tutorial here.

Like the corrugated cardboard, this Dusty Attic branch chipboard went through major alterations! It was inked in Vintage Photo distress ink, then it was embossed with Vintage Photo Distressed embossing powder. With my finger I rubbed off some of the embossing powder to give it a more grungy look. Then I spread some Perfect Pearls all over it with a fine brush. The two birds & leaves were further embellished by coloring them with a Versamark pen & then heat embossing them with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). That's how the leaves & birds got that extra glossy sheen on them.

I used the Martha Stewart Lace punch along the one border of my page. I then hand stitched along the edge of the punch. This punch already comes with the holes--all I did was stitch along them.

Thanks to all of you who stop by my blog & pay me a visit--I greatly appreciate you all taking the time to look & spread some luv!

Glass Flower Tutorial

Hello once again fellow scrappers. Today's brief tutorial is one I've been meaning to post for a long time--let's just say I finally found the time to do so! Experimenting with transparencies is something I really like to do. These flowers were inspired by Irene Tan (Scrapperlicious). She loves to experiment with acrylic & transparencies & she's made a couple of transparent flowers that really add a fabulous touch to her pages--this is my take on these see-through flowers. This particular flower that I'm demonstrating can be seen in my 'Love' page.

You'll need the following supplies: Flower punch and/or flower die cut--I'm using a combination of the medium sized Retro Flower punch by EK Success & the Tattered Flowers die by Tim Holtz--white gel pen, Sharpie Paint marker, transparency or acrylic, decorative scissors.
Onto the tutorial!