Curious Hudson

 Today I have something different for you. Part of my New Years Resolution was to use up more of my stash. My shelves are overflowing with papers that I hoarded partly because they were beautiful and I didn't want to ruin them or simply because another line came out before I had a chance to use the papers and they were pushed back in the line. So today I give you one of my favorites from Basic Grey called Oliver. This line is absolutely fantastic for scrapping little boy or even big boy photos for that matter. 

Look at those sweet baby blues! This is Hudson my youngest grandson. He is absolutely scrumptious and quite the character. 

I backed my photo with several different papers. Then I used the little train sticker

 as a pop-up embellishment. When you bought Basic Grey papers in a kit format they came with a sheet of thick stickers and a matching sheet of Alphas. These work perfectly for embellishing your page.

This line has adorable little monkeys throughout which was perfect as I always call Hudson my little monkey.I fussy cut this little guy from one of the papers.

For my blooms I used Prima flowers and customized one of the burlap ones with a brad from the Oliver line. I used a Blue Fern chipboard frame which I heat embossed then cut up to surround my photo to add more dimension.

My background is done with a Prima mask and some Lindy's Stamp Gang mists matching the colors of the papers. I tried to outline the stenciling but my hands are not what they used to be with my neck difficulties.Sadly it did not come out the way I wanted but learn from your mistakes I guess.

I used some Prima Art Stones (misted in red) to add more texture to my page.

A little photo tag added to the picture was a cute little touch. Basic Grey always had wonderful embellishments to compliment their paper lines from printed chipboard rubons, brads to stickers and photo tags. My title is partly a rubon! 

I have quite a few lines from Basic Grey so be ready for some more "vintage" reveals!

All the best! :)

An Epic Life

Good morning and welcome to my blog. Today I have a layout done with this month's Limited Edition Kit from My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club. This month's kit featured the gorgeous Lavender Frost Collection from Prima.

Meet Meet Mervyne Greene, my former father-in-law. Now well into his eighties he has led an extraordinary life. Having fought in two wars (consequently being shot in one of them) he is a well travelled man. After the army he settled into civilian life where he raised his four children with a disciplined hand. He lost his wife to cancer at the age of 33 and was left to raise his four children alone. He later remarried and added two more children to his brood. He has a very dry and somewhat warped sense of humor and we are forever bound to each other by our love and grief over the loss of the same man, his son James who we lost at the age of 42 to cancer. He now battles yet another insidious enemy Alzheimer's Disease.This page is for his granddaughter Jessie who has a deep and profound bound with her grandfather.

I used the gorgeous stamp set that came with the kit and stamped some white cardstock with embossing ink. I then heat embossed two frames with Ginger from Blue Fern Studios to get that old goldy look to it and then fussy cut the frames out. I used several layers of different papers to back my photo.

I inked my background with Iced Spruce Distress Oxide Ink from Tim Holtz. I then used a lace stencil from Finnibar to add some texture with molding paste. I went over the masked areas with my ink pad directly to get a darker pigment of ink. A little stamping with black Archival Ink and I was done.

I used some Art Stones for some extra texture on the page.

I used the Prima blooms that came with the kit. I just loved the little flower spray! I also love that Prima now includes little vellum sheets with their flower packs which you can easily use on your project. All the blooms in the kit are matched to the paper making embellishing your page a breeze!

I printed out my title and backed it with some leftover paper from the bottom of one of the pages. I also stamped a few goldy leaves with the stamp set that came in the kit. I love this photo. I see so many things in his face I could go on forever. It saddens me to see such a larger than life person succumb to this horrible illness. I can only pray for him and take comfort in the fact that his legacy will live on in his granddaughter.

Hope you are having a great day and I hope to see you soon with some great news!!

All the best! :)

Believe in the Magic of Christmas

I am a paper junkie it's true. I have an addiction to pretty papers and my overflowing scrapbook shelves can attest to this! I promised myself no more until I started using more of my stash. And then I saw the gorgeous new papers from Karola Witczak. I folded like a deck of cards at a casino poker game. I gave in. I bought Christmas Stories and amd Dear Diary from Mintay Papers. Although Christmas is over I had to share my first creaton with the Christmas Stories line.

 You know my daughter Jessie. If you don't you will. She lives closet to me so I often get more photos of her than anyone. This photo is old tho. Taken in 2012 this is Jessie with her beloved pitbull Rufus. I am making her a special album for her Birthday this year  commemorating Rufus and their time together. Sadly she had to put Rufus down in 2015.

 My flower cluster.

 This copper plate from Tim Holtz was how I decided to title this piece. I really wanted the focal point to be the photo and not too many blooms or Alphas.

 I had a blast fussy cutting these papers! I find fussy cutting so relaxing it's like therapy for me. I popped in a movie and went at it. I love how an entire sheet on the back of the cover page in these papers is dedicated to fussy cutting elements. I even cut extra and popped them up with foam dots to give it a 3D look. I used a TCW stencil and some snowflake paste to add a background to the page. I tried to keep it relatively simple and let the photo and the papers speak for themselves.

That's it for today just a quickie!  I'll be back tomorrow with something new. I hope!

All the best! :)

With You

My youngest daughter Jessie is a true dog whisperer. Her love of dogs and cats and birds lol goes far beyond the norm. She makes unique connections with almost every animal she has met. She had adopted a pitbull or rescued is a better term from a bad situation. She loved this dog beyond words. Rufus was quite the character. Never would you find a more timid dog who gave back as much love as you gave him. Sadly Jessie had to put Rufus down and has felt the loss since that day almost 2 years ago. I've decided to make Jess an album mostly of Rufus but also of my two labs whom she also adored and who we also lost. This is one of my favorite pics of Jess and Roo.

 The papers from the November kit from My Creative Scrapbook Kit Club were a perfect match. I have fallen in love with Georgia Blues from Prima and think i'll be using these papers over and over again!

I wanted to keep the layout simple mostly because these papers are too gorgeous to clutter up! I did some background coloring a little stenciling and heat embossing to get my desired effect.

I used a Prima die to cut a doily for my backing as well as a few pieces from the paper line. I didn't want to use too much as the gorgeous Dusty Attic frame would cover most of it. I primed the frame with Gesso then painted it using Art Alchemy Opal Magic paint in Blue-Gold. I then brushed it lightly with some Artisan Powder in a clay color then as a final touch covered it with Crackle Accents to get that "old" look. I really like how it turned out.

I didn't want the page to be too bulky so I fussy cut some elements to frame the photo and used just a few matching flowers from the Georgia Blues line to finish it off.

I used a piece from the Emphemera pack as my title. "With You" says it all and was the perfect finish. I expect to have quite a few layouts in this album so keeping it to a minimum with embellishments is a must but oh so hard to do!

Well that's it for me today. It is a very bad pain day so I must keep sitting to a minimum. I hope you like my project and plan on seeing you soon! One of my New Year's Resolutions was to do more layouts without feeling guilty about spending time in my scrap room! Let's see how I do over the next few months!

All the best! :)

Believe in the magic

I am here today with a winter layout done with the December Limited Edition Kit from My Creative Scrapbooking Kit Club. This kit featured the beautiful Jolly & Merry Christmas papers designed by Frank Garcia from Prima Marketing.

 This is one of my favorite photos of my oldest granddaughter Lilly taken over ten years ago. These papers were the perfect match to finally scrap this photo.

 I used two different stencils on the background. One from Prima that came in the kit and the other from Heidi Swapp that came in last months kit. I used some Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays in Merci Beacoup Mint and Cotton Candy to add color to the background. I also heat embossed some drywall tape with matching colors for added texture. The smaller circles were done with Snowflake Paste from Finnibar.

 I also added some Seedlings from Blue Fern Studios called Tickle on my white flowers and random spots on the page. The white flowers are from 49 & Market and also came in one of my kits.

I used several printed chipboard pieces from the kit as well as the matching diecuts to add layers to my page. The snowflake chippies are from Blue Fern studios and I simply embossed them in white then Tinsel for added sparkle.

Another close-up.

I loved the little boots chippie in the kit it matched my theme of playing outside in the snow perfectly. Also adore that little banner. It is a joy to embellish a page when you have all the matching elements. The gorgeous pink bloom is from the Merry & Jolly Collection as well.

I used one of the sayings from the diecuts as my title for the page.

Last close-up giving you a better view of the snowflake chippies. The green blooms are also from Prima. I hoped you enjoyed today's layout. I plan on spending the rest of the day relaxing and scrapping seeing as it is freezing outside! I hope to see you soon!

 I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy New Year! May it bring you all that you long for and good luck with those New Year's Resolutions! All the best! :)

T

Memories

  Between all the Christmas preparations and full time baking I was able to pull off a couple of layouts! This layout was done using the absolutely stunning November Limited Edition Kit from My Creative Scrapbooking Kit Club!It featured the Georgia Blues Collection from Prima! I loved this kit so much I ordered 2! 

 My beautiful girls Lilly and Emily posing on the beach. Getting these two in a photo is challenging enough but to have them both smiling is nothing short of a miracle!

I kept this layout really simple. I did a little background work with the Heidi Swapp stencil that was in the kit and some heat embossing.

This kit came with matching chipboard, emphera and flowers so it was easy peasy to embellish!

I used one sheet of paper and cut it up to layer my background behind the photo.

I always like to do a close-up of the photo so you can see it better. There was no great challenge to this page. It was easy to do and because I had so much on my plate this month I went for simple! I will most definitely be doing more layouts with this kit so stay tuned! I hope you enjoyed!

All the best! :)

Home for the holidays

Hello everyone! I am here today to bring you a wintery layout to help inspire you (more like myself) to get into the holiday season!

  I was inspired by the uber talented Tartine Peluche when I did this layout. I love how she creates layer upon layer it looks so amazing! And while I will never have her talent I really enjoyed putting this one together. I plan to put it in a shadow box and hang it for the holidays! I used mostly Blue Fern products. The papers are Vintage Christmas and Vintage Christmas 2. 

 Top left corner we have an adorable reindeer flair from Cuts2luv (they have so many adorable flairs for every occasion). The white flowers are both from Blue Fern collections and the red and green are from 49 & Market.

 I used some chipboard on this layout all from Blue Fern. The berries are called berry stems and I backed my photo with the snowflake frame. I heat embossed them with a glitter embossing powder then used Perfect Pearls in red and Stickles in red to give the berries more texture. You can also see a piece of printed chipboard frame peeking out here.

 For my background I did some heat embossing with stamps to give the page more glitter as well as used Blue Fern stamps with black archival ink to give it more depth. I then went over it all with a stencil and some snow paste. The snowflake also Blue Fern from the Shabby flakes pack. A gem in the middle was the perfect finishing touch. I also heat embossed drywall tape to match my papers. This was another great trick I learned from Tartine Peluche!

 Another close-up different vantage point. You can also see another piece of printed chipboard beside my photo. These pieces make great embellishments!

 My title. Here you can also see that I used seedlings in Flaming Red as well as some Art Stones from Prima Marketing. 

 More blooms 

Last close-up the flower cluster on the bottom right. Again a mix of flowers and another adorable flair from Cuts2luv. I added the lacey teal bloom from Petaloo to bring more color to the cluster as well as a berry from my stash. I'll be honest I am not a fan of winter but I so enjoyed doing this wintery layout. 

That's it for now. Hope to see you soon!

All the best! :)