Forever

 My youngest daughter Jessie often has formal portraits done of her self and my gorgeous grandson Jaxon. This makes me very happy!! A constant supply of professional photos is heaven for me!! So I dug into my new Courtship Lane papers from Blue Fern Studios and whipped up this page.

I was in the mood for some stamping and coloring so I made the flowers for this page with stamps from Heartfelt Creations. Delightful Daisies I think they're called. The heart frame is also from Blue Fern Studios and I added some Recollections embossing powder and heat set it. The background was done with Tim Holtz Concord distress inks and a stencil from TCW.

I took the opportunity to finally use some of the foil rubons from Prima that I've been hoarding! Love how they turned out. A simple bloom finished this element of the layout!

The final photo is of my title. A chippie from Recollections. I used Tim Holtz' Shabby White embossing enamel and heat set for this worn effect. That's it! Simple layout. That's it for me today. I've been busy playing catch up with many things this week and still have much to do but for now it's bed!! Take care! As always all the best! :)

Fun in the Sun

 This month's challenge at More Than Words was a lot of fun! It involved a "recipe" so to speak. You had the choice of either scrapping about your favourite recipe or follow an ingredient recipe for elements on your page. I chose the later ant this is what I came up with!

 I used the absolutely gorgeous Seaside Cottage papers from Blue Fern Studios. Like everyone else I am totally in love with this line and can see myself buying a few more sets of the papers and chippies!! 

This is the recipe we had to work with. The Delight aspect of the challenge is seen in my granddaughter's face as she plays in the water at the beach by our home.

Some of the recipe elements included a spray of mist, a flair or button, tags etc. . . I included them all! I used this gorgeous chippie also from Blue Fern studios. I initially primed it with gesso then painted the different elements with watercolors to give it a base. I sometimes find that embossing powder doesn't always stick in certain spots and by adding the watercolor I make sure the white of the gesso doesn't show thru! But once I added the embossing powder I felt the chippie was too bold in color so I white washed it with gesso to tone it down. 

 I used a stencil from Dusty Attic for my background and lightly misted with a blue, yellow and pink spray. Some of the other elements of the recipe (diecut, flair, tag) are seen here. 

I added a little stamping and went over the stencil areas with a marker to give the layout more depth and texture. I love this photo of my granddaughter enjoying the beach this summer. She keeps asking me if she can return for the entire summer next year!! I guess it's fun to have a grandma who lives in a tourist town!

We have some awesome prizes for you this month!! 

All our prizes include free international postage!

MAIN CHALLENGE WINNER

a $50 USD prize package from 7 DOTS STUDIO

(image below is for illustration purposes only)

Here is more information about our 1st place sponsor this month:

"7 Dots Studio is a European manufacture specializing in scrapbooking collections, owned by Tusia Lech whose passion for paper crafts knows no bounds. Tusia's dream is to support and inspire her fellow scrapbookers' creativity and 7 Dots Studio achieves that perfectly. Our paper collections as well as our stickers, stamps, chipboard and stencils are designed by renowned and very talented artists and inspire people around the world to create beautiful projects of all kinds."

Next, 4 runners up will be each awarded a prize, as follows:

1st RUNNER UP

a $25 USD prize package from STUDIO 75

2nd RUNNER UP

a $25 USD store credit from THE DUSTY ATTIC

3rd RUNNER UP

a $25 USD prize package from COLOUR BLAST

(as shown below)

4th RUNNER UP

a $25 USD prize package from COUTURE CREATIONS

In addition, we will draw one random winner from all eligible entries.

RANDOM WINNER

a $25 USD gift certificate from THE SCRAPBOOK DIARIES

Each month, we hand pick a winner who has not made it into our Top 5, but who has captured our attention someway, somehow. We might pick a project due to its original use of a certain product, the cleverest title, most beautiful photo, etc. Who knows what we will be looking for?! We call this our...

MYSTERY WINNER

$25 USD prize package from FABRIKA DECORU

And lastly, we will randomly award a prize to one lucky blog follower who has commented on any of our September blog posts.

LUCKY COMMENTER

a $25 USD prize package from GRAPHIC 45

(as shown below)

Head on over to our blog and enter your submission!! I can't wait to see what you create!! 

All the best! :)

Love Completely Swirlydoos Sketch Challenge-July

 So playing catch up these days. Sadly I haven't been present on my blog much this summer. It's been a very busy time with visits from grandkids as well as working and health issues but I am back! It is my hope to have more time to scrap now that the hustle and bustle of tourist season is almost over. What better way to start than with a sketch? I really liked the July sketch on the Swirlydoos site so I gave it a try.

I enjoy sketches that involve more than one photo and this certainly fit the bill!

 I used Swirlydoos' July kit "Moments Captured". The kit had these lovely papers from Pion Design. Love the subtle blue in this line. The title is a chippie from Dusty Attic.

 

Another close-up of my flower cluster. I used mainly Petaloo flowers for this layout. I also diecut a couple of doilies to add behind my photos.

A final close-up of the floral corner. I fussy cut out some butterflys to add in among the flowers for more interest. I had fun doing this and look forward to the next sketch! That's it for now. I will see you soon!! 

All the best! :)

Cousins are friends for Life

 Greetings! I am here today with the latest challenge from More Than Words. This month's challenge involved two components circles and the word friends. This is my interpretation.  

And this is the wonderful Mood Board from More Than Words!

I used papers from a variety of Maja Design collections. I love that they are so inter changeable! I backed my photo with a calendar cutout (Vintage Spring line) to mark the month this photo was taken, Easter which was March this year.

To bring in the circle element I did two things one was to gesso my background. I then used molding paste and a Prima stencil and added a layer of circles. I then went over the circles  with a light misting of Lindy's Stamp Gang -Bachelor Button Blue. I then went back and used a Tim Holtz marker-Stormy Sky to bring out the stenciling more.

My second use of circles came in the form of chipboard. I used two circles from the Blue Fern Studios Splattered Circles package. I used embossing ink and completely covered the circles with it then sprinkled Vintage Pink Embossing Tinsel all over it. It dried beautifully with a gorgeous glitter to it! The Embossing Tinsel is from Stampendous. I also fussy cut some butterflies for an additional element of interest on my page.

I decided to cut the title so that I would have two sections for balance. 

I used the same process for treating this chipboard. Only difference was that this embossing powder was from Recollections at Michaels. The flowers are from Petaloo and Prima.

We are offering some awesome prizes this month so please come visit our blog and check it out!!

Take care and all the best! :)

Girls just want to have fin!

This month at More Than Words our Mini Challenge revolved around the word fun. I could only think of one avenue to take with this!! I give you my tag!

The challenge asks you to make a mini, ATC, card, Tags etc. . . using the word fun. My tag now serves as a bookmark! I need to make a few more of these as I read more than one book at a time!

I so enjoy checking out what everyone has come up with!! Hope to see you there!! 

All the best! :)