Life's Portrait Canvas

Happy Sunday fellow scrappers/bloggers! Also Happy Memorial Day! I can't deny that I'm greatly enjoying this 3-day long weekend--especially with the amazing weather we've been having lately here in the East coast.

Well, as promised--here's my very first canvas! This came about from a class I took at my local scrapbook store. The instructor was Sherri Caramico. With her, I learned a variety of new techniques & she gave us the basis for this canvas. I then took it home & made it my own.

There's lots of glimmer misting & distress inking involved with making the backgrounds of these two canvases. Glimmer mists used were Olive Vine, Patina, Pinecone & Frozen Lake. Distress inks used were Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint & Tumbled Glass. Other items or techniques found on this canvas are rub-ons, water coloring, glittering & tearing.

The patterned papers are from Webster's Pages collection titled 'Life's Portrait'. Embellishments include the Webster's Bloomers, Sparkles buttons & aqua Cameo Roses by Prima. I've also included a few of my aqua colored butterflies from my very own Etsy shop.

One of the best things about working with a canvas is the amount of dimension you get with them! I have things hanging off the edges all around & it gives the canvas a fabulous dimension.

Here's a closeup of one of my butterflies that I've previously sold in my Etsy shop. I stickled thier wings & then covered them in Tim Holtz Rock Candy crackle paint. That's how they got that old crackle look which fit the theme of this layout perfectly!

The large damask black flourishes in the corners are rub-ons by Creative Imaginations.

Here is a closeup of the spiral flowers that we learned to make in the class. I've recently posted a spiral flower tutorial in order to 'spread the luv'! For me, spreading the luv is equivalent to sharing! Sherri also gave us a unique idea which is to incorporate fortune cookie sayings into layouts/projects. I actually had a couple of them stashed away because sometimes I get one that just fits my life to a tee. I felt that this particular one was perfect for my layout. I inked it's edges with distress ink & then sprayed it with Patina glimmer mist.

This was also the first time that I worked with corrugated cardboard! I didn't think that corrugated cardboard could give a project such a cool effect! I tore the edges of the cardboard & then misted it with Olive Vine glimmer mist which gave it an amazing sheen.

The quotes were also provided by Sherri. All the edges to the quotes were torn. Then the quote was misted with Frozen Lake glimmer mist with emphasis on the torn edges in order to define them. Finally, the quotes were coated with Rock Candy crackle paint.

We also had a heart shaped corrugated cardboard cutout that I inked into Frozen Lake glimmer mist.

Both frames that hold the pictures were cut from the Webster's Pages Life's Portrait. The larger frame was stickled them misted with Patina & Olive Vine glimmer mists. I then colored in some of the frame decor by inking a thin paint brush into the droplets left behind by the Olive Vine & Patina glimmer mist. This to me was a form of water coloring except the 'water' were droplets of glimmer mist.

The peacock feathers were the final finishing touch which I absolutely loved. These were also provided by Sherri!

Here's a shot of the spiral flower found in the second bottom canvas. Once again, if you're interested in making these spiral flowers--feel free to check out the spiral flower tutorial I posted not too long ago. They're really easy to make.

Thanks for taking a look at my very first canvas! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Till my next post...

Spiral Flower Tutorial

Good evening fellow bloggers! Today I'm going to take a few minutes to post a quick tutorial on how to make spiral flowers. I recently learned how to do this in a class I took at my local scrapbook store. During this class I made my very first canvas! I'll be posting this soon because I'm very proud of how it came out! These spiral flowers were part of the canvas. They're so very simple to make but yet make such a great statement on layouts, canvases, cards etc...In addition, I found that making these flowers is an excellent way to get rid of scraps!

So let's get started.

First your supplies...you'll need scraps of patterned paper in various square sizes. I've cut scraps into 2 1/2" inches x 2 1/2" inches & 4" inches x 4" inches for this tutorial. The bigger the square, the bigger the flower will be. Next you'll need scissors & some glue dots. The rest of the supplies (pencil, glimmer mist & chalk ink) are optional. These extra supplies are simply to add more pizzazz to your spiral flowers if desired. I'll be using all of these for this tutorial.

This step is optional. Spray your paper with glimmer mist. You're not looking for perfection here--so just spritz away! I ended up using some Smooch as well on the yellow patterned cardstock.

Once the paper has dried--cut out circles from the square pieces of carstock. Once again, you're looking for imperfect circles--so don't worry if your circles come out a little lopsided--lopsided circles give the sprial flowers more personality. Here you can also use a pencil to hand draw your circle if you prefer & then proceed to cut out.

Starting from the outside of the circle start cutting in a spiral fashion all around the circle until you get to the center. Do not cut the center of the spiral out--you'll be needing this later in order to glue the flower together. Also, try not to cut the spiral too thin. I learned this the hard way! When you cut the spiral too thin you end up with a very tight coil when you start twirling the flower & then it takes extra work to loosen it.

In the end, this is what you should have. Notice that I did not cut the center of the flower out.

This step is optional. If you want to define your spiral flower some more--ink it's edges with the chalk ink as shown here.

Before beginning to twirl your flower make sure that the pattern you want to be the face of the flower is facing you. With a pair of tweezers take the outer tail of the spiral flower & begin rolling it towards you. This part is the only one that takes a bit of practice because you need to keep your thumb placed at the bottom of the spiral flower so it doesn't spring out of your grasp. Also, try not to coil it too tight or you'll end up with a very tight sprial--& then you'll have to work to un-coil it!

Here's a screen shot of the flower after I've coiled it completely. I also wanted to show how I positioned my thumb in order to keep the flower from uncoiling itself. It helps though that I have very flexible thumbs as you can see here! My mom always makes fun of my twisty thumbs!

Once you have coiled the flower completely, remove the tweezers.

This is what you'll end up with. As you can see, I still have issues with how tight I coil my flowers! They look awfully tight don't they!? :-) No worries though...you just need to take extra steps to loosen the flower up a bit.

First trick is to turn the flowers upside down & then press down on the flowers with the palm of your hand. Don't be afraid to mash them--coiled flowers don't mash--they just loosen up a bit when you do this. If your flowers are still too coiled after this step then go onto the next step...

This step is simply to un-coil the flowers a bit in order to loosen them up. You do this by twirling the flowers in the opposite direction--which would be away from you. Do this with both hands & use mostly your thumbs to uncoil the flower.

Uncoil the flower to your liking. Once you're satisfied with the flower it's time to glue them in place. Take your glue dots & place them at the bottom of the coil which would be the center of your flower as shown in the screen shot. Once the glue dot is in place adhere the center of the flower to the glue dot. No need to glue the outside layers of the flower--all you really need to adhere is the center of the flower--once the center is adhered the rest of the flower will stay in place.

Here you go--two spiral flowers in two different sizes.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'll be posting my very first canvas soon!

:-)

Till my next post...

To Catch a Thief Layout

Happy hump day fellow bloggers! I'm back to present my latest layout titled 'To Catch a Thief'. This is for the third challenge going on over at Scrap Yourself.

The challenge was to scrap something you hoard/collect. For me that something are pens. Pens, pens & more pens. All colors & types. I especially love the fine tipped pens. In addition to scrapping myself & my love for pens--I challenged myself to make a strictly black & white layout. Turns out that keeping the layout to only black & white turned out to be tougher than the challenge itself!

But first some info on this layout. So why the title 'To Catch a Thief'. Well, as it turns out my love for pens goes beyond me buying them. I also tend to swipe them from people although it's purely unintentional. The hidden journaling behind the photo (that would be the tab by the side of my pic) says it all.

Pens...I buy them, I collect them & yes, I unintentionally steal them. There isn't one cube in my office that I haven't hit. They are left carelessly thrown on top of desks & on shelves. When I visit, I tend to pick these pens up & play with them in my hands while I talk shop. When I walk out of the cube--the pen is still in my hand. It eventually lands into one of the 3 mugs I have on my desk that I use to hold all of my pens. Sometimes, the pen makes it's way back it's original owner--but most of the time it stays with me & added to my always-growing collection both in the office & at home.

Keep your pens locked up my friends, I come when unexpected & I'm a quiet thief unknown to most including myself. It's a habit I cannot break nor control. I strike by day or night, early or late...

Catch me, if you can...

This in essence explains the title 'To Catch a Thief'.

I used textured black & white cardstock from Bazzill--the only patterned paper which is the circle is from Bo-bunny. I adhered mulberry white star flowers around the circle with 2 white dew drops in between each one.

A crystal flourish from Prima decorates the left side of the picture.

With a white gel pen & a ruler I hand drew my version of a brick wall. With the white gel pen, I also drew the curvy border around the edges of the entire layout.

As mentioned, I have hidden journaling behind the picture visible by the pull tag on the right side of the picture. Just pull on the tab to reveal the journaling.

I used a Martha Stewart border punch to create the border on the white strip of cardstock. I then further dressed it up by adding crystal stickles to the inside holes made by the punch.

The flowers are made out of vellum paper. I printed the flower in three different sizes & then layered them with a pop-dot in between each layer in order to give the flower some dimension. I'll be posting an extra set of these flowers in my Etsy shop soon if anyone is interested. A clear rhinestones makes up the center of the flowers & stickles decorate the tips of the petals.

I hope you enjoyed my take on this weeks Scrap Yourself challenge. Please feel free to stop by the Scrap Yourself blog & take a look at the other's DT's interpretation of this challenge. By all means do also play along if you can!

Till my next post...

Diamond In the Rough Layout

Hello once again fellow bloggers! The closer I get to the summer the busier things seem to be getting for me...phew! Let's just say I had a loooong previous two weeks! I'm glad they're over...

Today I'm presenting my very first DT layout for Scrap Yourself. This week's challenge was High School pictures. You can imagine how 'thrilled' I was to get this assignment! lol I was THE queen of the dorks back in high school! It took me a bit to decide which exact picture(s) I wanted to scrap. I finally ended up scanning & then printing my high school ID from my Junior year for one simple reason--a comment my English teacher gave me that I never quite forgot. The journaling tells the story:

You were called a 'diamond in the rough' by your English teacher during your Junior year of high school. You had no idea what that really meant. I mean, look at you, with your guitar pick earrings & your failed attempts at 'teasing' your bangs. You were a quiet misfit with misfit friends & you were always one step behind on the latest fashion trend. But you were happy just being yourself. Eventually you realized that that's what your English teacher meant by that comment. You were happy with yourself, you just had to let the world know this. So you did just that, you embraced yourself imprefections included & the diamond in the rough became an actual diamond...

Why was I wearing guitar pick earrings!? I don't even play any kind of instrument--but hey, I was 17 & all I remember knowing was that I really didn't care about the 'latest' fashion trend or what others thought. I was my own person with my own style--and this is why, in the end, I really enjoyed this assignment. It reminded me of who I was back then & how that helped me become who I am today.

All the papers in this layout are from My Minds Eye. The first time I've ever used paper from this manufacturer. Those stones you see there are actual glass stones. They are decorative accents that I saw at my local Michaels and figured 'hey that could go on a layout' & I did just that...

The rainbow butterflies are from my Etsy shop. The pastel colors of the layout went along perfectly with the pastel colors of these rainbow butterflies.

Once again, I used stickles to dress up the edges of paper & the centers of the blue circle paper. I adhered a yellow pearl strand along the edge of the circle & added little tiny mulberry pink flowers from my stash all along the circle's border as well.

I printed the layout's title on a transparency & adhered it to the layout with a Tim Holtz memo pin. If you look closely you can see that I substituted the 'i' in Diamond with a clip art of an actual diamond.

I kept this layout fairly simple. I was concetrating more on the journaling, the picture & the story/memory behind the layout.

If you find the time, come on over to Scrap Yourself for some more high school picture inspiration. I'm finding this to be a very rewarding experience to actually document events & stages of my own life along with those of my loved ones.

Till my next post...