it's okay my way-Once Upon A Sketch

This month at Once Upon a Sketch the topic was lesson learnt. . .I immediately knew what my lesson was. . .

This is my layout and this was the sketch we had to work with

The biggest lesson I've learned as of late is that I need to be myself when it comes to scrapbooking! I see all these designers with their gorgeous pages and I think I want to do that! Then some new technique comes out and I think I want to do that. Then I overwhelm myself and sit at my desk and just stare! I need to find my own way and accept what ever talent I have. 

I liked this technique I saw where you stamp with  acrylic silks so I gave it a try and I liked the outcome.

I used a Tim Holtz stencil and some Liquitex glass beads then went over it with red brick ink. The effect is thinner and you can see the glass beads. I love this look but unless you ink it, it doesn't stand out.

Using the same stencil I used moulding paste and did this border which you can see stands out quite a bit better. Probably used too much moulding paste but oh well. :)

Another stencil and inked with a Tim Holtz marker in worn lipstick. I used the 7Dots Domestic Goddess papers. I love the colors and you can bring in reds, pinks and oranges. I did a canvas border from Prima with a Lindys Stamp Gang mist in Black Orchid Silver. I love the sparkle of these mists and the way they spray (a new favourite for sure!). I used black to break up all the warm colors. I did my journalling on the back.

Last close up is the flower cluster. Mostly Prima flowers with a sprig from a Dusty Attic piece that I cut up primed, inked and then painted. That's it! Lesson learned be yourself. It's okay my way! :)

All the best!

timeless : Scrap Around the World

This is my layout submission for the Scrap Around the World Mood Board challenge.

What struck me the most about the mood board was the soft pastel colors in pinks, neutral tones and even a little green. This is the Mood Board at SATW.

The photos themselves made me think of only one thing and that was romance. To me the greatest story in that department was my parent's 50 years of marriage. The photo is of them as newlyweds in 1956! 

The title timeless speaks volumes and I believe even now they are together somewhere. The clock from Prima and the Hourglass from Dusty Attic are scene setters for the images of time. I made most of the flowers on the layout because this one was special to me. I miss them both so very much.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the hearts. What a fun job that was! I had just bought a new needle and sticky sheet and still it didn't cut the image right through so I had to do it with an exacto knife. I know I had my settings right. Arg the frustration of it all. The embossed rectangles I cut using my new Bigshot and wow I love this machine!! Time to collect some dies!

A close-up of the flowers on the opposite side. Prima bling and stick pins here as well. I tired the balanced approach to this layout. I want to try each style of layout presented in the Big Mixed media Bloghop by Scrap 365.

Papers are from Maja Design's Vintage Summer line. 

Vintage Summer 1903,1904, 1908, 1910. 

 I also used a Prima mask and some moudling paste and did a little masking here. Aren't they a great looking couple?

Hourglass from Dusty Attic as are the Baroque corners. The title is made with DIY Thickers and misted with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Blackberry Cordial (my favourite)!

I painted the chipboard first then inked it with Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet ink. Once dried I went over it with gloss to make it shine a bit. I hand stitched around the page and on two of the hearts.

I also submitted this layout for the January Mood Board Challenge over at Maja Design! This was their mood board this month.

 I thought both mood boards were close in color and both brought the thought of romance to me so this is a different shot of the same layout. I had difficulty shooting this. It is -21 outside and with all our snow I had a heck of a time trying to get a good shot with shaking hands and snow blowing past me! My apologies for the shadows :( Ah the joys of scrapping.

I hope you like this layout as much as I did making it. It invokes some pretty strong memories for me and will go into the family heritage album I am making. Thanks for dropping by and I will see you soon with a Kisses for Keaton layout! I am finally getting the flash drive today with all the photos minus the photographers logo! Yeah!!!Take care and all the best!

Imaginarium Designs Design Team Call

This is my submission for the Imaginarium Designs Design Team call. I have posted 10 of my favorite layouts using chipboard. I love that chipboard is so versatile and you can do so many things with it! You can leave it plain, paint it, add glitter or stickles, mask on it you name it!I love how it helps enhance a layout and is in my eyes one of the more important embellishments used next to flowers.

I have not yet had the pleasure of serving on a design team but would love the opportunity to be part of a community focused on offering a product and showing all the various ways it can be used. I may be a newbie in the arena of design teams but know that anywhere I was asked to design I would give it a 100%! 

Well here is hoping! All the best.

Magical -My Creative Sketches

 The most magical time of year for children, the most magical time of the year for me is Christmas. All the glitter, the beautiful decorations, the bright lights on the Christmas tree. This is my granddaughter Isla Skye decorating the tree. The look of enthrallment on her face is so endearing! I did this layout for the sketch challenge at MCS.

 This is the sketch. I used the Main Kit from MCS for this layout featuring Echo Park Tis the Season papers.

I love these glitter letters from Thickers! I chose this title based on the look on Isla's face. She is almost in awe of the tree.

Rather than put a second picture here I put a frame filled with glittering ornaments! Somewhat symbolic of the colors and glitter on the tree. The frame is obviously Prima as are a few glitter ornaments. The rest are bits and bobs from my stash.

I painted the chipboard chevrons from Scrapmatts with LuminArte silk glaze in white then went over them again with Ice Stickles.

I love these textured flowers from Petaloo! These were included in the kit. The square bling is leftover from a Christmas kit from MCS from years ago! I hope you enjoyed! I am waiting on a USB drive from Toronto from Kiki's mom to start more layouts for the Kisses for Keaton album so keep an eye out! A full report and new photos will be forthcoming this month! Take care and all the best! :)

JOY Sketchabilities #106

 This is my daughter Jessie with her fiancee Jeremy and their son my first grandson Jaxon taken on Christmas Eve.I used My Creative Scrapbook Kit club's Limited Edition kit featuring Pink Paislee's Snow Village.

This is the sketch from sketchabilities.

I used the wooden embellishment Joy that came with the kit (made by Prima) and made it the title. I painted it gold then added some gold glitter and when it dried some gloss to hold the glitter in place.

Flowers from Prima & Petaloo and the bling is fromm ZVA. Snow Village also comes with a fantastic package of chipboard pieces which you can see in the lower left corner. I stamped the white background with a stamp from my stash in gold.

An experiment gone awry. I Used moulding paste and glass beads and stenciled the word Adorable onto the layout. I let it dry and went over it with red ink. It didn't really come out the way I wanted it to but I guess practice makes perfect. I saw this technique in a mixed media magazine featuring a layout by Iris Uy and it looked amazing! I will try it again soon. 

More chipboard elements from the kit. Loved these papers! Well that's it for tonight hope you have a great weekend! All the best! :)

Christmas Morning Swilrydoos Sketch Challenge

 This is a layout I did for the Swirlydoos Sketch Challenge. The picture was taken at dawn on Christmas Morning by my daughter when she got up to feed my grandson. It just gorgeous here after a fresh snowfall! 

This was the sketch I worked with.

 I couldn't help playing with the background colors a bit but the biggest pic is the actual true dawn shot! I used the December kit Joyeux Noel from Swirlydoos with its gorgeous mix of Kaisercraft & Bo Bunny papers. I used Dusty Attic Christmas Trees #2 for this layout. First I painted the trees gold then added Gold Ferro also purchased from Swrilydoos last year when I was trying to do my advent calendar. I love Ferro it gives such texture and life to the chipboard. I didn't have any flocking left so I used moulding paste to add snow to my trees. The green trees were stamped out onto the Coredinations cardstock that came with the kit and just cut out.

Here is another close-up of the trees. I also used a Prima stencil and added two clocks to the page mostly to keep up with both the time of year and the time of morning. Love this mask!!

I used the ribbon on the kit to outline my circle. To the left I did some stencilling work with moulding paste and the Art is stencil from Crafter's Workshop. I stamped out the two birds also using the Viva stamps that came with the embellishment kit and fussy cut them. The little sprig is from Petaloo and also a part of the add-ons.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the title and then went over it with stickles to make it sparkle.

 

It has been some time since I've blogged anything.The holidays this year overtook me! I baked cookies for days almost a full week from morning until midnight to fill the numerous tins I had to fill. Every family member gets one and now friends and colleagues are asking so my list grows each year! I make six different cookies with one "cookie try out of the year". If they like it the cookie is added to the list for the following year.

 

 I've had company for almost three solid weeks and have cooked my brains out! And then it was just the little ones and trust me they can be just as much work lol! We were forced to stay in due to the bitter cold weather -37 during the day really?! So we built a lego house, played monster barbies, watched movies, made cookies and at times needed time outs. Today is my first day alone! Shsh! Hear that? No? Good that's my solitude returning!

 

 I have goals for this year one of them being to blog more often and get more layouts done. (I have the tendency to take on things that distract me from scrapping). I want to really get out there this year! Do more, try more and be seen more! lol So expect to see more! I hope that this year is an awesome one for all of you as well. All the best! :)