Skissedilla 230 - A Dad and His Girl

Its a new month and that means a new sketch up at Skissedilla for December.  This month the lovely Laetitia gave us a cool sketch to use, check it out:

Really rather cool and funky, right?

I wasn't quite sure what I'd do with my take at first but once I slapped some paste down through my new Circles and Squares ScrapFX stencil and had my picture it all just kind of came together through some picking over of bits my stash.  

I've been waiting to scrap this photo for a couple years now and I'm so glad its finally done.  This ScrapFX wordlet was perfect for it and adding some Amy Tangerine vellum stickers as a subtitle was a fun addition to lead in to some simple and quick journaling about the day. 

I do hope you take a quick time out from your festivities this month and join us at Skissedilla to play along with the sketch.  You could get some of those Christmas past memories scrapped while you're feeling festive or get a jump start on the present ones being captured - or like me just scrap the everyday.  Regardless I'd love to see you there!!

Give Thanks Canvas

I'm ever thankful for the many blessings in life and with Thanksgiving soon upon us here in America I thought it would be fitting to share how thankful I am for each and every one of you, my creative friends, that come here and visit.  

For you I.....

for all the encouraging words, sweet notes, laughs, and hugs sent through cyberspace.  For cards, packages, tags, and happy mail sent.  For friendships built and prayers uplifted, I give thanks to you.  These are things I cherish and could have never expected when I dived on in to the online world of scrapbooking/blogging some years ago.  It never ceases to amaze the kind hearts of papercrafters near and far.  

As you head in to Thanksgiving I wish you a blessed day with your family, and the same even if you won't be celebrating this feast.  May you be reminded what a treasure you truly are.

May you have time to just be still and thankful for all the wonderful blessings you have right here, right now.

Take good care and Happy Thanksgiving!

ScrapFX Product Used:

Random Dots Stencil (2013172)

Leaves, mixed (2008106)

Leaf Buttons, mini (2010007)

Flourish 05 Curl Border (2013204)

A Work in Progress Canvas & a New ScrapFX Challenge for You!

Its been a lot of fun (and work ;) ) creating things I hope people will find delight in looking at and perhaps purchasing for market.  The super thing is I can do this while knocking out some assignments at the same time - bonus!!

This month we have another Mood Board Challenge going at ScrapFX for fans to join in on.  There isn't a need to have ScrapFX product to participate - super cool if you do though!!  The Designers all partake in the challenge as well and post their take on the board as well as the twist given by the board creator - gotta have a twist to make it more interesting, right?  This month's twist is to use stencils, easy peasy except there are so many splendid ScrapFX stencils its hard to narrow down which to choose. 

For my take I was inspired by the rainbow colors, of course, I mean how could I not be??!!  This blog oozes color - ha!  Then I was also inspired by the eye on the board and that spun in to the creation of the girlie on this canvas - from there I let my imagination go wild giving her a little scene.   Since I don't live near the ocean, like the board image shows I went with the country life instead. :D

* I will share this piece isn't fully finished.  Its about 95% done and there are still some finishing details I want to fuss around with to complete it.  Not wanting to force and be unhappy with the finished result I left it as it was for now and will have it complete by the end of the month when I post my personal reveal.

I created my girlie's afro by using the ScrapFX Cogs Stamp with some colored heavy gesso and stamping it onto the canvas.  I then went back in with watercolor once this was completely dry to fill in the rest of the color.  In the background I used the Random Dots stencil to give the sky some texture and I went around the girl's head with some glitter glue to help it stand out against it.  I wish this showed up better....arrrgghh!!

Here you can see the Crosswords Stencil in action.  This was the first time I'd used it and I really am diggin' the effect it gave and the ease of use - I thought perhaps I'd have a struggle controlling where I put the paste, but nope.  Maybe my circle obsession will be shared with squares now - teehee!!  I adore those little chippie apples and kind of wish they were sold on their own....hmmm... maybe I shall suggest that. Some stamping and lots of paint layers make up the grassy areas along with some pen work.  

And that is where I've left off.  Still not exactly sure what details I'm going to add but have been playing with a few things here and there.  Any suggestions of what you think miht just absolutely make this?  I'm thinking I may want to add text or a quote or a ScrapFX wordlet - just can't decide what will fit yet.  The grassy areas need to be broken up more......sky too..... so holla' if you have ideas I'd love to hear them.  :)  I'd also love to see you playing along with the challenge!!!  This is the last one we'll be having for a couple months as we head in to the Christmas and holiday season so get in while you can for your chance to win some great goodies!!!

Until next time, take good care and thanks so much for stopping by!

Merry Christmas - Preparing for Market

Hi Friends!  I know, I know we haven't even hit Halloween or Thanksgiving and here I am titling a post Merry Christmas.  Alas that is how one must roll when you're preparing for market (I love that my international peeps call it market - much better than craft fairs, etc that we use here so I'm rolling with that too). 

Its especially super when I can double up my creations with DT assignments as was the case with this little hanging decor piece or ornament.  It was created for the new Mood Board Challenge that just went live over at ScrapFX.  What is funny is that upon looking at the board I'd never thought at first I'd wind up with this as my final project - ha!  Really amazing how inspiration can strike at any moment.

These Christmas chippies make it quick and fun to make a variety of joyous projects.  I'm seriously delighting over all I'm making - particularly the process - and love that with just a few alterations I have one of kind creations I hope people will love.  And how about that Instaframe??!  I must admit I was totally tickled when it dawned on me it could be decked out in red and white to mimic a candy cane.  Prior to choosing it I had one with polka dots picked out - this is much better dont'cha think?

 

I do hope you hop on over to the ScrapFX blog here to check out the Mood Board Challenge and join on in with us!!  You have the chance to win a guest spot on the blog and a nice little package of goodies too.  Woot!!  Oh and before you ask, you don't have to use ScrapFX products to participate.  If you have them, fantastic, but we do realize not everyone has access to get these fabulous goodies just yet.  So what are you waiting for??  Head on over to the ScrapFX and play along!  I'd love to see some of peeps there. :D

 

Have great Saturdays and see you soon, Take good care!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!  Yes I know this is coming a day late, but for some reason my blog doesn't like when I schedule posts.  I should know this by now.  The posts either go live late or don't go live at all.  When I try to manually pub them well that is a whole different beast, haha!  Such is life but I've important and beautiful things to share so on we go...

This card is also part of the first ever ScrapFX challenge!!  To check out the details and see how you can win the chance to be featured on the ScrapFX blog see the group post here.  You'll be inspired by plenty of card creations to get your mojo flowing!!

This is the Father's Day card I created for my best friend - my hubs.  He is truly all I could ever ask for and more in a dad for my children.  He has been there through and through and ever will be.  He is a man who knows and loves the Lord, is kind, gentle, compassionate, tough when needed, hard-working, and so much more.  I'm blessed to have him in my life on the daily and so are our teens.

On this day I also wish three other amazing men in my life a Happy Father's Day, yes I said three.  I have quite the unique life story:

This man gave me life.  What a blessing and gift to be here on this Earth instead of other options that could have been chosen.  It took me a long time to find him and he has embraced me with all his heart. I am his daughter.

This man raised me up from the time I was hours old to the time I was a grown woman.  I was his adoptive daughter but never did I feel different than his own - he embraced me with all his heart. I am his daughter.

This man is my biological mom's husband.  From the time he met me he welcomed me in to his family with loving, open arms and treated me like his own - he embraced me with all his heart.  I am his daughter.

I sit and look at these pictures and think how blessed am I?  I feel so grateful knowing that each one of these men has touched my life in someway.  Some people never get the chance to have a father in their lives and I've been given the gift of three. I may not get to connect with them all the way I'd like to but again they've all touched my life, made memories in it that I will cherish forever.  For that I thank each of them.  

No matter how much time passes, I'll always know they love me and I'll always love them!

Thanks for letting me share a piece of my story along with some craft creations today.  I hope your Monday is marvelous one!!  

Valentine ATC Tutorial

Hey Friends, Happy Monday to you!  Its been rather busy around my homestead these days.  Nothing exciting, just lots of chores around the kennel now that Winter finally arrived in WI.  Not that I'm pleased with that at all, but hey it is WI.  I also took a slight break due to a nasty burn on my inner arm.  Our cats:

Culprit #1

Culprit #2

They look sweet enough during the daytime, huh?  All curled up snoozin'. But lemme tell ya' by night its a whole nother story.  They love to romp, play, and chase each other - Okay, no biggie.  They love to find little snibbles of stuff in my space and bat it around - Eh, not as okay but I guess.  They often knock completed projects I've got on a drying rack down and each project somehow makes it behind our pellet burner - TOTALLY not happy about this at all.  So it was on one of my ventures behind the ol' pellet burner that I nailed my arm ever so quickly on the back pipe. Not cool.  Pain, swelling, and redness instantly.  Blisters came very quickly after that.  My story does end happily as I'm just fine thanks to some good tips from friends, but I'm still ticked off at the cats, LOL!

Alrighty moving right along to the tut!  This is what I'm going to show you how to make:

The supplies you need are as follows: 

Cardboard, mini buttons, chipboard and metal numbers, glitter (two different types if you have it), glass beads (regular beads would work fine too), paint, coarse pumice gel (any texture paste could be used), heart shaped cookie cutter

Step One: Mix pumice gel and paint together.  Spread on cardboard base.

Step Two: Press cookie cutter onto wet pumice gel.  This will serve as a shape holder.

Step Three: Pour glass beads inside of cookie cutter.  Gently press down to help them stick.  Sprinkle glitter around the outside edges of the cookie cutter.

Step Four: Remove cookie cutter and place mini buttons along the impression to create a heart.  Using tweezers, add the numbers to the middle of the heart.  Sprinkle extra glass beads on any bare areas.

There you have a quick and easy Valentine ATC, but wait you might be asking yourself what good does this do me?  I don't make ATCs.  Well I challenge you to think about how any of these techniques could transfer to your cards or LOs.  Using pastes and gels to embed things on LOs and cards is just as cool. ;0)

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and find something useful from it. I originally did this tutorial for Scrapbook News and Review Magazine last year.  I'll be back again soon, until next time -  take care and be blessed and a blessing to others. 

ATC Lovin'

Happy Saturday! It is a gorgeous day here and I am hoping the temps will get a bit higher so we could actually get outside and enjoy it!

I am totally hooked on ATCs and enjoy the creative freedom you have when making them. I love using all sorts of goop on them and figuring out how to place everything I want on them. They become tiny little pieces of art and my collection is growing rapidly!

Here are a few I have done recently:

House of Blues


This one was created for the January issue of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine. The call was for music themed ATCs and I went with a Blues theme. The chipboard piece is from Maya Road. I stamped it with a music stamp from The Girls' Paperie and painted it with some Luminiere.

The background was made using Black Lava texture paste. Then I used a stamp from Glitz with some paint on it to get the small dots and a recycled tape roll for the larger circles. The rubon is from Hambly and I was super happy it went on so well over the Black Lava.

Soul Sistah


This is another one for the music call at Scrapbook News and Review Magazine's January issue. I love all sorts of music and thought it would be fun to represent that I am truly a soul sistah when it comes to my choices.

The background is a sticky back canvas ATC base made by Ranger. I used some paint on it and then stamped some of my fav genres onto it. I drew the silhouette onto some watercolor paper, painted it, adhered it to the base with some gel medium, and then outlined it with a silver paint marker. The edges were created with silver UTEE.

Pray


Luck has nothing to do with it, Pray! I love this saying and happened upon it when I was blog surfing. I wish I could remember where I saw it to give credit back, but the only thing that stuck with me was the saying, LOL! I just find this saying to be so true. We often depend on luck or wish we were lucky like so and so, but the truth is nothing in life is brought about by luck. If we want or need something we should turn to our good Lord and pray on it.

I have a tutorial up on the SNR front page blog on how to create the background you see. It's so quick and easy, but opens a ton of possibilities for all your crafty projects. I used a 7 Gypsies flashcard and cut of the Y for the word luck, misted it, and added the border with some markers. The letters are some really old Making Memories ones that I love so I was happy to use them.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I am hoping to be back tomorrow with some LOs I have had in my stash to share for awhile. Enjoy your day and may God Bless you with Happiness today!

For the Love of Puddin'

I am just in LOVE with October Afternoon and am in hopes I can continue to get it without ordering online!!! This LOs title was created by using some paint over chipboard letters I placed down..... I guess maybe something along he lines of a mask?? Not sure, because I really am not totally clear all the time on what a mask is!!! LOL! I created this for the Use Your Stash challenge between Dixie Pieces and MSW..... this is a DP challenge to use paint in your title. Had fun with the glitter on this one too.... FYI no stickles were used..... I am an old fashioned glitter girl! I also used Twisted Sketches #25 for this and the twist this week was to use ruffles in some way!