My Sweet Little Boy Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers! Today's page is one based on my little Toby. He's my very first dog & he never ceases to amaze me. It's like he's a 2 year old little boy trapped in a furry body. You can always tell what he's feeling or trying to convey with his facial expressions. He understands everything you tell him & he even seems to be bilingual since my husband always speaks to him in English & both my mom & I speak to him in Spanish. Regardless, he understands what we're telling him! To me, he's my sweet little boy & always will be.

This is a DT project for Stamp Enjoy. Once again the entire background is stamped/misted or inked.

Here's a close up of one of the 2 large flowers seen on this page. I have a brief tutorial here on how to make these flowers if interested. They're very simple, but add a nice touch.

This page is also for the "Stick With Helmar September Challenge". My friend Natasha gave me the heads up about this site & I went simply to be nosy! :-) However, when I saw this sketch I absolutely LOVED it & found that these pictures of me & Toby that I've been wanting to scrap for a while were just right for this sketch. I was lucky enough to have a bottle of Helmar's 450 Quick Dry adhesive in my stash (sometimes it pays to just buy everything in sight) & decided to give this sketch challenge a try.

I used safety pins as embellies. I have tons of safety pins that I bought ages ago & never figured out how to incorporate them into my pages. Well, this is a very simple way to add a couple to a page. So I used about 8 pins out of my 800...it's a start! :-)

A close up of one of the stamps by Stamp Enjoy. This one is called Petit Rond 1. All of the splashes & splats seen in the background are made with stamps. I used a combination of Vintage Photo distress ink & Anchor's Away Coloringz by Shimmerz for my stamping.

The largest circle was cut out of corrugated cardboard. I spread some Midnight Blue Stickles all over it with my finger.

A close up of the 'Puppy Love' tag.

This large circle is a stamp by Stamp Enjoy. It's called Bordure Rond 3. TIP: I wanted this stamp to be in a very specific spot. So instead of stressing myself out on the exact placement of the stamp--I stamped it onto a transparency with black Staz On & cut the image out. This way I was able to position the image exactly where I wanted.

A close up of the title. The chippie is from A2Z Scraplets. I kept the texture of the title simple. I painted it with navy blue acrylic paint--once dry I inked it with embossing powder & heat embossed it with Kaleidoscope transparent embossing powder by Stampendous. In person the title has an amazing shimmer.

Thanks to all of you who take the time to drop by...

Water Color Paper Flowers

Good evening once again fellow scrappers! It's a Sunday evening & I'm clinging to it for dear life. I REALLY don't want to go back to work tomorrow...but what can you do? Just keep playing the lotto & hope that Lady Luck will one day pay me a visit...

I thought I'd share a brief tutorial on how I went about making these flowers. They're made out of water color paper. Water color paper is excellent for creating flowers or any kind of embellishment where you wish to use pigment powders such as Perfect Pearls for applying color & shimmer. For this particular flower I used Mandarin Perfect Pearls with a hint of Copper. Besides any kind of pigment powders & water color paper (I found water color paper at my local Michaels; this should be available in any arts & crafts store) you'll also need a water color pen which can also be found at your local Michaels or arts & crafts store. So let's get started!

Step 1: For the main flower I used Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die. I used 3 of the long petal flowers cut from water color paper. For the center I used the retro flower punch (I used the smallest punch). You'll need 6 retro flowers

Step 2: Take your water color pen & squeeze a drop of water from it. Once the tip of the pen is wet dip it into the pigment powder. The pigment powder will stick to the wet brush. Mix it up with your water color pen until you get the consistency you want. I tend to go for a thick consistency. Paint your flowers as desired with your water color pen

Step 3: Once done coloring your flowers--heat set them with a heat embossing tool. That's the other good thing about water color paper--it dries quickly

Ste4: Now to shape your flower. Bend all the petals up at the base

Step 5: Next curl each petal down with the end of a pencil or thin paint brush

Step 6: Finally adhere all three layers by off-setting the petals. You'll end up with a little cup in the middle which is where the center flower will go

Step 7: To make the center flower--first ink the edges to define them more. I used Sienna chalk ink pad by Color Box.

Step 8: Take 4 of the 6 flowers & bend the petals upward at the base as shown

Step 9: Take the two remaining flowers & pinch each petal in half. (This picture also made me realize that I'm in bad need of a manicure!)

Step 10: Take one of the pinched flowers, fold it up & pinch the entire flower

Step 11: Roll it back & forth between your fingers to get it as tight as possible. Add drops of glue inside in order to glue it together--you'll end up with a small bud

Step 12: Take the bud & glue it into the center of the second pinched petal flower. Wrap the second flower around the bud & pinch this as well. You'll end up with a thicker bud

Step 13: Take the bud & adhere it to the center of one of the other flowers. Keep layering your flower in this manner & remember to off set the petals of each layer. This is what your flower should look like when done. TIP: These would make cute little flowers by themselves too. Just shape it a bit more by squeezing all the petals up which is what we're doing in the next step

Step 14: Take the entire flower & squeeze all the petals up. Shape it as desired & then adhere to the center of your larger flower

Step 15: Here's your finished flower! I further decorated my flower by adding drops of Gold Stickles to the center bud

Enjoy--and thanks to all who stop by.

Ur Eyes (Say All) Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers! Today's page is one that I had absolutely no design mapped out in my head for--all I knew was that I wanted to scrap these two pictures of my husband. I just grabbed my stamps & stamped away & this was the end result.

This is a DT project for Stamp Enjoy.

My husband has these deep blue eyes. The complete opposite from my dark brown. At times, especially in the morning--they are crystal blue. I took these pics during one of these mornings. I told him to give me one of his 'sexy' poses. Well...this is a sexy as he gets folks! :-)

As mentioned, I did a lot of stamping & misting on this one. Just about the entire background is stamped. I used stamps from Stampin' Up, Tim Holtz & Stamp Enjoy.

In this close up you can see a combination of 3 stamps. Both round stamps are from Stamp Enjoy. They are Petit Rond 1 & Bordure Rond 3. The script stamp is by Tim Holtz.

Another close up of the same two stamps by Stamp Enjoy. The birds in flight stamp is by Tim Holtz. In the corners I punched multiple times with McGill hand punches of various round sizes. I think inked over the punched holes with yellow ink. Finally I filled the holes with Black Diamond Stickles.

A close up of the large chippie. This chipboard is by Dusty Attic. I painted the chippie with yellow acrylic paint. Once dry I dabbed embossing ink on it & then heat embossed it with Star Dust transparent embossing powder by Stampendous. This technique gives the chippie an amazing shimmer that is appreciated better in real life.

The metal flowers are by Prima.

This vintage car stamp is also by Stamp Enjoy called Voiture Ancienne. The stamp of the city skyline is by Tim Holtz.

Finally a close up of the 'bead stitching' I did. Basically these are just very large stitches & I thread multi-colored beads onto every other stitch.

Thanks to all of you who stop by--the visit is always very much appreciated.

Sketchabilities DT

I'm so very happy to announce that I've been asked to join the Sketchabilities design team! You can read the full announcement here.

I'm very grateful for the chance to work with these versatile sketches & am very much looking forward to working with all the other talented ladies that were given this fabulous opportunity!

Guest Designer For C'est Magnifique Kit Club

Am pleased to announce that I'll be guest designing for C'est Magnifique Kit Club in the month of December! They're a brand new scrapbooking kit club that primarily offers papers from international countries such as Poland, France, Sweden etc. They recently released thier first kit now in September & let's just say that I'm very much looking forward to December! :-) Not just because thier kits look so very pretty but because this will be my very first time guest designing for a kit club. I am very excited about this opportunity!

Do try & visit thier blog in order to find out more about them.

Mini Owl 'Love' Album

Good evening once again fellow scrappers! Today I bring you my first shaped mini album. I'm very happy how it came out! This tiny album measures about 3" inches in height. So when I say it's tiny--I mean it's tiny! :-) I used the Mini Owl Album by Clear Scraps.

I have to admit that I was very much inspired by Irene Tan (Scrapperlicious) when making this album. I took many of her tips & techniques to make this small little treasure. It's funny how something this small can utilize so many different techniques. I'll be highlighting a few of these techniques in this post.

This was also a DT project that I made for Stamp Enjoy.

I made the black & red beaded flower seen on the cover. I have these beaded flowers in a variety of colors available in my small Etsy shop. So if you like them--feel free to stop by.

First technique tip is the black flourish seen on the cover. I used Tim Holtz's Elegant Flourishes die with grunge board. I cut the flourishes in several pieces to use throughout the album.

TIP: To get that 'shimmery' look on chipboard or grunge board I first painted the flourish with black acrylic paint. I then heat embosssed it with Star Dust embossing power by Stampendous. In person this gives of a very shiny look!

The 'Love' stamp is by Stamp Enjoy. All the edges of the album's pages were inked with Tea Dye distress ink. I also randomly applied Silver Stickles along the edges of the pages to further dress them up.

Rub ons were also widely used throughout this mini album as well as flat flowers in order to avoid making the album too bulky.

The album is primarily about family & the love that is shared amongst family. I went online & found several quotes that went along nicely with the theme of my album. I then printed them onto cream colored cardstock, distressed the edges & inked them.

TIP: In this photo you'll notice that the page is see-through. This entire album is clear acrylic. I covered most of the pages with paper but I left a couple of them without paper. Instead I covered these pages with alcohol inks & ran them through my Big Shot in order to dry emboss them. This techniques gives off a completely different look.

I also randomly applied ribbon throughout the pages of the mini album. I punched holes through the acrylic with my Crop-a-Dile & then tied pieces of ribbon through these holes.











The floral stamp seen here is by Stamp Enjoy titled Balisier. TIP: If you don't have enough room for a specific stamp or if you want to place the stamp in a difficult spot try stamping the image on a transparency or acrylic & cut it out. This way you can place the image any where you wish. Just make sure you use glue that dries clear when adhering the transparency. Also to further dress up your images--add a bit of clear Stickles such as Crystal or Star Dust as shown in this screen shot.

Thanks to all of you who stop by. I truly appreciate your visit. I hope to have the time to make more mini albums. These make such wonderful keepsakes that can be passed down to many future generations.