24/7 Layout

Good morning fellow crafters!  Today's post is a page made for Berry71Bleu's May Challenge.  The Berry71Bleu DT had the honor of collaborating with Once Upon A...Sketch (OUAS) this month!  So to enter this month's challenge you must first use the sketch provided by Nadia from OUAS & incorporate their challenge of using numbers anywhere on your project.  The number can represent anything from your age, to birthdays to an anniversary--anything with numbers will work.  Second you'll need to incorporate chipboard into your project which is Berry71Bleu's challenge.

I decided to use numbers as part of the sentiment behind my page.  This would be my son at approximately 1 1/2 months of age giving me one of his more 'pensive' looks.  :-)  Part of my journaling states how he's in my heart '24/7'.

Here's the sketch provided by Nadia from OUAS that my page is based on.

I added much more texture to my background by combining several stamps & creating a sort of collage.  I used approximately 6 to 7 stamps & created the collage by overlapping the stamped images & by using different inks to do so.  I've used black, green, purple & gray inks just to name a few.

All papers are from Lucky7 Factory & all the chippies are from Scrap FX which are also a few of Berry71Bleu's sponsors for the month of May.

I created simple circular embellishments throughout my page by using a circle punch to punch out circles & adhere them to the center of my circular stamped images with a foam dot.  I inked all the edges of the circles to make them stand out more & added dots of acrylic paint to sections of the circle borders. 

The spiral tissue flowers were also sponsored by Lucky7 Factory.  The transparent butterfly is a new embellishment that will soon be available in my Etsy shop.

I'm a big fan of owls & love placing them in my pages whenever I can.

This lovely tag was handmade by Marivic & my journaling is stored in the scroll right next to the tag.  Storing my journaling in the form of scrolls has almost become my trademark.  I tend to use these on just about all of my pages.  I have a tutorial on how I make these scrolls here if interested.

Finally, my cluster of embellies consisting of a flocked black teddy bear, spiral tissue flower by Lucky7 Factory & ribbon flowers that are from my own stash.

Thanks for stopping by & do take the time to visit both the OUAS & Berry71Bleu blogs for more inspiration.  Play along with both if you can!  There are prizes to be won by a few lucky winners on both challenge blogs!

Daddy & Me Altered Picture Frame

Good evening fellow scrappers!  Spring is here--although it was barely 50 degrees here in the northern East Coast.  Ugh...Mother Nature is playing mind games it seems.  This is also when everybody seems to get sick.  Hot one day, cold the next.  I just got over a nasty chest cold that knocked me off my game for the past two weeks or so.  I haven't been able to Zumba in two weeks!!  GASP!  I'm in complete withdrawal...tomorrow I'm going back and with a vengeance!  Gonna shake it till I can't take it!

Before I do that though, I figured I'd drop a quick post & share this altered wooden mini album that I created for the April Berry71Bleu challenge.  Here's my husband & son.  I captured my son's beautiful bright smile in this one & felt it was very much 'frame-worthy'!

I'm a big fan of plain wooden square frames.  First because they're quite affordable.  I got this one at my local Michaels for $1.50.  Second, because they're plain it's a crafter's dream!  You can do just about anything to it.  Paint it, stain it, stencil it, apply loads of mixed media to it or keep it simple and just adhere a bit of designer paper to it--which is what I decided to do.

I used paper from Inkido which also happens to be one of our sponsors for the month of April!  This was my first time working with Inkido and I have to say--they have lovely pattern paper.

I've used a combination of felt, mulberry paper & organza ribbon flowers to satisfy Debbie's April challenge which is to use flowers on your project.

The large felt flower I purchased from an Etsy shop called Knock Knocking.  The light blue organza ribbon star flower are flowers from my stash.  I have several of these organza ribbon star flowers in various colors up for grabs now in my shop.  Feel free to take a look if interested!

This is why scrappers never throw anything out.  This is one of two mini peacocks that I've had in my stash since Eternity was in diapers!  After all this time--I discovered that they'd make quite a unique decoration for a wooden frame.  So here's the first of two peacocks strutting it's feathers on my wooden frame.

The butterflies were hand cut from one of Inkido's designer papers.  This collection has several images of lovely butterflies, flowers & birds that can be fussy cut & used as embellishments for your projects.  I further dressed up the butterflies by applying a bit of Black Diamond Stickles to the bodies.

Gotta love these metal trinkets!  They make for great embellies to masculine themed projects.

A side view of my frame.  I have yet to decide if I'm going to display this at my home or at my work desk at the office.  I'm leaning more towards work--we all need as many happy thoughts & distractions at work as we can get!

Make sure you stop by Berry71Bleu and play along with the April challenge!  There are a few fabulous prizes for some lucky players up for grabs.  You can see all the details of the challenge plus the rules & prizes here.

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!

You Color My World Layout & Challenge

Good morning fellow scrappers! It's actually my turn to host my very first challenge over at Berry71Bleu!  This is the first time I host any kind of challenge--so I'm quite excited & a bit nervous...

After a bit of deliberation, I decided to go with a 'You Color My World' theme.  The concept is to create a project based on a person(s) that adds 'color' to your world--that just brightens your day.  That one person(s) that just gives your life meaning.  It can be more than one person & it can even be a pet!  I have my own fur baby--so I'm very much aware of how much joy a pet can bring into someone's life.  So pets are included in this theme.  The challenge is to use paint in your project.  You can use paint in any shape or form...splash it onto your background, use it to color your embellishments such as chipboard or flowers--the possibilities are many, just let your creativity be your guide.

I provided this photo collage as inspiration for the challenge.  The projects don't necessarily have to have many colors or bright colors--the photos are more for inspiration since they're lively, happy & joyful.

At first I was going to scrap my newborn son--what can add more happiness & joy to someone's life than their first child right?  Then I thought...hmmm, can't leave Toby my fur baby out--he taught me the meaning of unconditional love!  Then after more thought I realized that I wouldn't have Toby or my son if it weren't for my husband.  So I based the page on him--the beginning of it all & the reason as to why I have the family that I'm part of today.

I'm a cautious person & take my time to make any life changing decisions.  If it weren't for my husband giving me those much needed nudges neither Toby or my newborn son would be here today.  How grateful I am today that he gave me those nudges--my two boys complete my world & are my two little rays of sunshine.  So this project is dedicated to my husband...with much love!

 The title was printed on a transparency, cut out & adhered with clear dry glue.  The light orange polka dots were made with a stencil provided by this month's challenge sponsor DecoArt.

The border seen here was made with a punch by Martha Stewart.  The large light brown flower is by Manor House Creations & the mulberry orange & yellow flowers are from I Am Roses & Wild Orchid Crafts.

In the upper corner of this screen shot you'll notice my usual scroll which holds my journaling.  Here I provided my husband with a heartfelt message.  You can find a tutorial on how I make these journaling scrolls here if interested.

All of the chipboard cogs seen here are by Dusty Attic.  To give them texture, they were all first primed with gesso.  Once dry, I colored them with blue frosted paint also sponsored by DecoArt.  After this layer dried I finished it off by using a bit of DecoArt purple & blue twinkle paint.   I especially liked working with the twinkle paint--as you can see, this paint gave my chipboard cogs a nice shimmery & glittery final touch.

The splatters seen in the background were made with the 'Splats' stamp set by Recollections.

The film strip is by Tim Holtz & all these really cute wooden tags & the wooden window shutter seen underneath the Manor House flower is by a shop found in Zibbet called SaCrafters.

Love my bright blue cogs!  :-)

I included these two paint brushes to be symbolic of having my husband 'color' my world.  These were actually the brushes I used to paint my chipboard cogs.  I just cleaned them a bit & adhered them to my page.

Make sure you head on over to the Berry71Bleu blog & play along!  You have until the end of March to play & this month's sponsor DecoArt has provided us with some of their fabulous products as the prize to the lucky winners!  Looking forward to seeing all of your lovely works of art.

No Ordinary Love Layout

Hello once again fellow scrappers!  Today I'm presenting my interpretation of Anupama's 'White Space' challenge going on over at Berry71Bleu.   'White Space' is defined as a portion of a page left unmarked in visual arts.

I decided to leave two sections of my page as white space--the upper right hand corner & lower left hand corner.

I've used papers & a few embellishments from Kaisercraft's Forget Me Not collection which coordinated quite well with Marivic's Berry71Bleu tag.

This would be me with my fur baby Toby.  I decided that Toby was due for a page.  Even though my first son has arrived to our home --I still see Toby as my eldest 'son'.  :-)  Yes, I know he's a dog--but to me he's simply a child trapped in a pup's body.  He taught me the meaning of unconditional love & he's still a very important member of the family.

It took Toby about 2 weeks for him to get used to this tiny little human in the house.  He's been an only child for five years & had never seen a baby.  So it was a big adjustment for him.  After 3 1/2 months, Toby has pretty much adopted his less furry younger brother & protects him as if he were his own.

What I have with Toby is 'No Ordinary Love'--hence the title.  It's the kind of unique love that can only be shared between man & his best friend or in this case, between a girl & her little fur baby.

I did much layering on this layout with foam dots & pop dots in between several of the layers in order to give my page a bit of dimension.

Of what has become a sort of tradition with my pages--here's my journaling stored in the form of a scroll.  As mentioned in previous posts--I love attaching lengthy journaling and/or story telling to my pages.  I used to always store them behind my pages because since they were so long--they would take up a lot of room on my layout.  However, ever since I started storing my journaling in the form of a scroll--it's become almost a habit of mine & a trademark on my pages.  Plus they also make for a really cute & unique type of embellishment!

If interested on how I go about making these scrolls--feel free to read up on a tutorial I made for them here.

I love this photo that my husband took of me & Toby.  As usual, he looks as if he's smiling at the camera!  Right next to my photo is a mini glass vial that I filled with seed beads from my stash.

This is my latest fave die!  I love, love, love this hot air balloon die by La-La Land Crafts!  Isn't it so very cute!  It adds a brilliant touch to my layouts.

Finally, here's a closeup of Marivic's Berry71Bleu tag.  These tags are like instant embellishments.  You don't have to dig around your stash for too many embellishments if you have one of these tags handy.  Just adhere them to your page & you're pretty much done!  You can find more of Marivic's tags in her Etsy shop here.

As always, a big thanks for those of you who stop by for a visit.  Make sure to play along with this month's Berry71Bleu WhiteSpace challenge if you can!  There are some fabulous prizes up for grabs by UHK Gallery & 7 Dots Studio!

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Berry71Bleu Love Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Berry71Bleu Love Blog Hop!!

Happy Valentines Day!  If you have arrived here from Debbie's blog then you're right on target.  If not, please make your way to Debbie's blog & then come on right back here.  

Here's the blog hop order:

Berry71Bleu

Anupama

Bellaidea

Debbie

Kay---> you are here

Marilyn

Marivic

Berry71Bleu

Today is a day dedicated to love . . . not just the love for that special someone in your life but all kinds of love.  Love for your family, friends, pets & yes even the love you have for where you live!  Here at Berry71Bleu we decided to share a bit about ourselves consisting primarily of where we each live & why we love to call it 'home'.This should be interesting since we have ladies from the USA, Poland, India and Puerto Rico.

So let's begin...I live in Northern New Jersey just 20 minutes away from New York City--the city that never sleeps!  Having this amazing city so very close by but not being right in the center of it is just one of the main reasons that makes New Jersey my kind of place to live!  We also have a good number of near by beaches towards the South of Jersey.  Many of them were hit hard by hurricane Sandy--but they have since been re-building & it looks like the Jersey Shore will end up better than ever.  For those that like to gamble there's Atlantic City about 3 hours away or if you want just a simple quiet getaway there's Cape May at the very bottom of New Jersey filled with historic bed & breakfasts & Victorian architecture.   

For this post I will concentrate on New York--my absolute favorite place & what I love the most!

The views!  I have to say that New York has some amazing views--both within the city and from afar.  This photo was taken from the top of the Empire State Building.  That would be the Chrysler Building & just a few of the many, many skyscrapers & buildings that make up NYC.

It almost looks like a puzzle doesn't it?  Or a miniature toy city where you can move the skyscrapers around with your hands!  Yep, that's how tiny the buildings look from the top of the Empire.  I've been to the Empire at all times of the day--morning, late afternoon & of course at night.  At all times of the day, the views are magnificent.  I can sit at the top of the Empire for hours & hours...

One of my absolute fave times of years to visit New York is Christmas...oh I love it!  Here is Rockefeller Center with the infamous Rockefeller Tree in the background.  As you can see, lights are everywhere at this time of the year.

My view from New Jersey.  This is one of the most famous spots from NJ to see this wonderful city from the outside.  This view is constantly visited and is even more spectacular at night.  This is of course the Empire & I even caught one of the many ferries that travel between NY & NJ in this photo.  Just another way to get into the city besides a bus or train.

Radio City Music Hall during Christmas.  If you're just not feeling the holiday spirit--hop on the nearest train & head into the city.  New York will put you into the Christmas spirit in no time.

Times Square at it's finest!  I took this from the 5th floor of an IMAX movie theater when I went to see the final Harry Potter movie.  (Yes folks--I'm a total Potterhead!)  Times Square is always hustling & bustling with so many things happening at the same time.  Sometimes I just like to stand in the very middle and just take it all in.

People, people, people & yes, more people.  Times Square can get very, very packed.

This post wouldn't be complete without Lady Liberty.  She's magnificent & means so very much to us.  I've had the privilege to climb all the way up to her crown.  Some 300+ steps via a very cramped spiral staircase--but worth every step.

Of course Times Square isn't complete without it's many Broadway shows.  Here's the Lion King theater.  We went in April of 2010 & thoroughly enjoyed it.

My husband!  LOL...this is what he usually looks like when I drag him into NYC.  Unlike me, he's a country boy & prefers quiet farms & lots of trees instead of this concrete jungle.

He tends to look like a tourist when he goes into NY...a bit lost & amazed--the back pack doesn't help!  :-)

Let's hear it for the city that never sleeps!  I enjoyed sharing a little bit of what I call 'my infamous backyard' & to show my favorite thing about living in New Jersey.

Now for the prizes & the rules...

We have a fabulous prize for one lucky person who completes all of the rules of the blog hop,  a 7 Dots Studio collection, Domestic Goddess:

To qualify for this month's FABULOUS Prize you must complete the following:

* Visit each blog listed on the hop to see what each designer has to share with you and leave a comment.

* Each designer's blog hop post will feature a word to make up a secret sentence, 

collect these words along the way.

* You must become a FOLLOWER of each blog along the way

 and LIKE us on our Facebook Page!

* For your last stop on our Blog Hop return here to the Berry71Bleu Blog.

Leave a comment letting us know you have

completed the hop.

(Please do NOT include the secret sentence in your comments.)

Now comes the hard part, you must take the words you have collected along the blog hop and  unscramble them to create a sentenence.

*Email the secret sentence to Debbie: mdjsburns@aol.com

The Blog Hop ends Sunday, February 17th at Midnight CST

My word is: LIFE  

Your next stop is Marilyn's blog!  Enjoy the rest of the hop & best of luck to you all...

Live Laugh Love Layout

Hello again fellow scrappers!  Today I bring you my very first DT page for Berry71Bleu.

The Berry71Bleu challenge for January is to scrap yourself--the owner of Berry71Bleu--Marivic--described the challenge as scrapping the 'queen' within us.    Scrapping ourselves can be a bit intimidating for many scrappers--I've done several challenges in the past where the subject was ourselves & I'm constantly hearing how this seems to be a tough one for us.  As scrappers, we will consistently document those around us--but we will hardly ever take the time to scrap ourselves.

However, I'm one of those few that actually very much enjoys scrapping myself.  I feel that the most wonderful gift, memory & legacy that we can leave our loved ones behind or pass onto them is ourselves.  Who we are, what we represent.  Our likes & dislikes, our guilty pleasures.  What makes us happy--what makes us sad.  What are our beliefs?  What mottos do we live by?  What defines us?

This layout is me on paper.  I carefully hand picked embellishments that represent me in some shape or form.  The papers I used which is the "Frosted" collection by 13 Arts & who are also sponsoring the winner for this challenge--worked perfectly with my approach.

My background was made with the use of one of Clear Scraps newest releases called Mascils.  It's a mask & stencil all in one.  For this layout, I've used the 12" Numbers Mascil.  All I did was place the mascil against my paper & spritzed a bit of Granite Glimmer Mist & voila!  Instant shimmery background...

I randomly placed words onto my page that define me.  Here you'll see 'imagine' & 'spirit'.

I love butterflies & therefore included them on my page.  Those who know a little about me are aware that butterflies are my fave of embellishments.  They represent change--the start of something new.  They are also so very beautiful & graceful.

The cameo seen here was included because I consider myself an 'old soul'.  I enjoy classic black & white movies...give me a good Humphrey Bogart or Bette Davis movie & I'm good.  When it comes to music--my passion is jazz & swing...we're talking Glenn Miller, Billie Holiday, Etta James etc...sure I enjoy music from today as well--but late at night while scrapping, nothing puts me more at ease than listening to Billie Holiday sing about her latest heart break...

The light bulb speaks for itself.  'CREATE'!  Create indeed!! How I love to create...anything involving art is so very much me!  Not only do I love to create myself--but I also enjoy seeing works of art by others.  Once in a while I'll hop on a train & take a ride into NYC simply because I want to spend the day strolling through the Metropolitan museum.  To me, that's a great way to spend the day.

This tag is just one of many by Berry71Bleu.  They are made with much TLC by Marivic herself.  She made this one with the concept of the 'queen' within us all.  As little girls we are all princesses right?  Well those princesses grow up to be queens!  As women we are someone's daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, mom or grandmother.  We are unique in our own way & touch the lives of those around us simply by being us.

You can find more of Marivic's lovely tags in her Etsy shop here.

Flowers!  What woman doesn't love flowers eh?  Well, I'm no exception...I love them & include them in just about all my work.  I also love the real thing & have a garden full of different flowers that I enjoy tending to--not to mention all the plants that I have inside my home--my home is my little jungle full of plants!  :-)

These bold flowers are actually stamps.  These are the 'Organic Fabric Flourish' stamps by Inkadinkado.  I stamped the images onto a transparency with black Staz On--cut the images out & then adhered them onto my page with clear dry adhesive.  Stamping images onto a transparency ensures that you can place your images anywhere on your page.

Birds is another pleasure of mine.   But I especially love & admire the wise owl.  Therefore, I have him perched right next to me.

The pen nib is there because I love to write.  I started writing short stories when I was in high school simply because I just felt like writing!  I got ideas in my head & put them to paper.  I still tend to write now-a-days although not as much as I'd like since I hardly ever find the time.  But I do enjoy it...

This tag that is part of the 13 Arts "Frosted" collection begged to be included on this page.  It's exactly what I believe in.  Life is indeed so very beautiful--look around, take it in--live, love & just be happy!

I included the 'smile' because those that are close to me know that I'm just a big goofy clown that consistently loves to laugh & is always looking to make others laugh as well.  Laughter is the cure for many things...hey--according to some doctors, laughing even helps you lose weight!  lol  I think we burn about 3 calories with every good hearty laugh.  So laugh it up guys!!

Thanks for visiting!  Do take the time to stop by the Berry71Bleu blog & participate in this month's challenge.  Document something about yourself that you'd enjoy passing down to your loved ones--they'll appreciate it more than you'll ever know...