It's A Dog's Life Layout

Yes, it's a Toby page today fellow bloggers & scrappers! It's been a while since I've done a page on my little boy. He's long overdue.

I've had this picture for some time now & I wanted just the right layout for that look he's giving me in this photo. He's got this 'sigh...what a hard knock life I lead' look. Meanwhile, he couldn't be more spoiled!

The paper is by Heidi Swapp. It's one of her Invisibles papers--"Circle Frame" to be exact. The black houndstooth paper is by Webster's Pages.

I used a lot of distress & alcohol inks on this page. The background is a mix of Broken China, Dusty Concord & Weathered Wood distress inks. Once I was done inking the background I used a mini-mister & misted it with water.

A close-up of the title. I decorated it with stickles, pearls & rhinestones. The title itself I printed on a transparency & adhered it with clear dry adhesive.

You can also see some of my stitching in this photo. I hand-stitched around the circle & along the scallop border found inside the circle. By the way, I created those inner scallops with a Martha Stewart punch. Instead of punching around the outside of the circle--I cut the inner piece of the circle out first & punched along the inner edge of the circle.

A close-up of the flowers. These little guys were stamped on a transparency & then alcohol inked. Finally I used a white gel pen to add some highlights to the petals. I've seen this technique used by Irene Tan--also known as Scrapperlicious. I have a slightly different way of applying the inks to the stamped images but in the end it's same result.

In this photo you can also tell that this layout has dimension. I adhered each layer of the circle with pop dots--so this created dimension on the page.

This is a close-up of the stitched circle. This actually is a form of stitching--just a very enlarged form of stitching! I took inspiration to create this 'woven stitch' by Natasha & by my late grandmother. For a tutorial on this stitch & for a brief explanation on how these two ladies inspired me--feel free to go here.

A close-up of another set of alcohol inked flowers.

Well, I think that pretty much wraps this page up. Thank you for taking the time to stop by & I appreciate your time & comments.

Till my next post...

Woven Stitch Tutorial

This tutorial was used in my 'It's a Dog's Life' layout--but in the form of a circle. I think this is what makes this fairly large stitch unique--it can be used in a variety of ways. In a circle, straight at a slant--the choice is yours.

This woven stitch came about by taking inspiration from two very talented women. One would be my scrap buddy Natasha who's love for lacing has made me look at this unique form of embellishing a layout with new eyes & who has also encouraged me to simply carry out the ideas that have been in my head for a very long time now. Thank you Natasha for the 'push' that I needed.

The second inspiration is from my late grandmother. She was a seamstress & as a child she used to teach me all sorts of stitching designs. I thought back to one of those many lessons & decided to simply enlarge & widen one of the stitches she taught me. So in reality I'm not inventing anything spectacular here. I'm sure this has been done elsewhere. I'm simply taking something that already exists & enlarging it to work with a layout. It's what they call 'thinking outside of the box' in the corporate world. :-)

Ok, let's get started. Your basic list of supplies consists of: a paper piercer, twine, ribbon, yarn, floss--anything you can use for weaving really--in my example I'm using twine-ruler & a pencil.

With your ruler measure out an odd number of holes--as many as you need to complete your design. I found that odd numbers work best for this design. In my example I made the holes 1 inch apart. Take your pencil & make your marks.

Next make two more sets of holes below the first set. The other 2 sets of holes are 1/2 an inch apart from the first set. When done, you should have 3 sets of holes as shown in the screen shot.
Now take your paper piercer & puncture your holes.

NOTE: From this step forward the red arrows represents the twine above the paper & the blue arrow represents the twine behind the paper.

Start with the first hole & stitch diagonally. Go under the paper & come out in the next diagonal hole. I think my screen shot explains this better than me! Keep going until you reach the end.

When you reach the end, simply backtrack & go in reverse. You'll know you're on the right track when you end up with a very wide v-shaped stitch as shown in my screen shot.

When done with the first stitch--start the second one. You're going to begin with the second hole & repeat the steps from the first stitch.

When doen with the second stitch--you'll end up with two parallel wide v-shaped stitches as shown in the screen shot.

Finally you have your third stitch. It's the same process used as the first two except it's an even larger stitch & inversed. If you notice, you'll be creating an upside down v-shape. I used red floss here in order to make it stand out more. Start with your bottom third hole & stitch all the way to the top. For the first round of the stitch go under the first two stitches as shown in my screen shot.

When done, go in reverse & go over the existing two stitches.

Here you go! Simple as that. Now you can get very creative with this. You can use eyelets or you can use different colors for each stitch, you can combine different strings like I did in my 'It's a Dog's Life' page where I used twine & ribbon.

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial & that you have fun creating!
Till my next post...

Opposites Really Do Attract Layout

Hello again from a very icy North East. Mother Nature seems to be angry for some reason--it's been a rough winter in my book...can you say Spring?

My latest layout all began with the discovery of one picture--a picture of my husband when he was 12 sporting one very goofy smile! He still has that goofy smile--it's one of the many little things that I loved about him...

When I found this picture of him while helping him organize his boxes & boxes of junk (e-hem--I mean 'valuables' as he puts it) I knew I had to scrap it. But I didn't want to just scrap that one photo...I wanted a then & now of both him & myself & I also wanted to convey how different we are but yet, we were still drawn together.

I'm a full blown city girl. My husband is a hardcore country boy. He grew up surrounded with trees, quietness & all sorts of animals like bears, bull frogs, deer & rabbits. I grew up in the city where I could count the trees in my town on one hand, it was always loud & the only animals I remember seeing growing up were the dogs that people took out for their daily walks! Our up bringing affects us up till now. I'm very loud & you can hear my big mouth miles away. My husband is very quiet & tends to blend into the wall paper! But I think that's why we connected. He tones me down & I add tend to turn his usual quiet life upside down!

I did some distressing & stitching on this page--but what I did the most of was stamping. The entire background you see here was made with stamps & some masking.

I used a couple of metal flowers by Tim Holtz to decorate the corners. You can see some bling peeking out from the tear in my paper.

The flourishes you see all along the border of the layout is a flourish stamp by Tim Holtz.

Here you see a closeup of the masking, stitching, more stamping & the texture of the heart chipboard. I used the leaf glitter with UTEE technique to give the heart this texture. It looks amazing in person! If interested in this technique, feel free to find the tutorial here.

On my husband's side I wanted items that identified with him. So I have a picket fence, a rabbit (to represent nature) & a branch. The branch is actually a Prima felt vine that I covered in Copper Stickles & then with Broken China Distress Stickles. Here you can also see the stamping on the fence & the grass I stamped right below the fence.
On my side I stamped a brick wall background & used a stamp of the city of course what else! The stamp is by Tim Holtz & was perfect for this page.

I finished up the page by adding Star Dust stickles on all the flourishes & on the majority of my stamping. It's something I tend to do on all my pages but you can hardly tell from these pictures.

Hope you all enjoyed this page & that it serves as some proof that opposites really do attract!

Till my next post...

Year 3 Layout

Greetings from a very cold, icy & snowy East Coast! It's because of this weather that I decided to do a tropical themed page. In addition to the fact that I haven't yet scrapped about my three year wedding anniversary trip which happened in early October 2010. I have the tradition of at least doing one page of where we go or do for our wedding anniversary. Well here's the one for year three.

I primarily used the papers that came with the Swirlydoos January kit. The bright colors of this kit was just right for this tropical, warm page.

The flourish chipboard is covered in leaft glitter. For a tutorial on how to embellish your chippies with leaf glitter & UTEE, feel free to go here.
The majority of the edges are distressed & inked. I completely ripped apart a prima songbird vine that came with this kit. You'll find pieces of it all over my page. Here's one of the birds from the vine.

Oh & here's the second bird tucked in the corner along with more flowers. I used my Sew Easy tool by We R Memory Keepers to pierce scalloped shaped stitching holes. This tool allowed me to stitch scallops without too much of a hassle! I then inserted eyelets along the scallops.

The tropical vine pictured here is an item found in my Etsy shop. If you like it--feel free to check it out.

A big shout out & thank you to Natasha for giving me the bamboo sticks that allowed me to make the bamboo frame. Scrap buddies are the best! :-)

Ooops, there goes more of that prima vine. I wrapped some flowers & parts of the vine all around the bamboo frame.

I printed the journaling on vellum. The journaling tells the story of how we didn't even know where to go for our anniversary. Let's just say that these are just some of the places that were thrown: Aruba, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, cruise to who knows where, Virgin Islands, Fiji Islands (this was when I was getting impatient) & Brazil...

A closeup of the leaf glittered 3. For a tutorial on this, please find it here. You can also see part of my stitched frame here & my flower masking.

Finally, one of the latest additions to my growing butterflies in my Etsy shop...Madagascar Sunset. This little beauty was based on an existing butterfly from Madagascar. However it actually isn't a butterfly--it's a moth. But for the simplicity of my shop--it fell under the butterfly category. Just some butterfly/moth tid bit for your knowledge. Either way, this little guy was just right for my page.

Hope you enjoyed my 'tropical' page--especially if you're in cold weather just like me! May it bring you many warm thoughts!

Till my next post...

Leaf Glitter & UTEE Chipboard Tutorial

Hello once again! This tutorial shows how to embellish chipboard with leaf glitter & Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). I used this technique on my 'Year 3' layout. The leaf glitter gives chipboard an amazing sheen but if you top that off with UTEE--wow! It's an amazing effect in person. I tried my hardest to capture it with my camera--but it was so shiny & reflective that it took many tries & a lot of tweaking with my camera settings--but I think I got it!

Let's get started...

Here's the basic supplies that you'll need: Leaf Glitter--I used Martha Stewart Vintage Leaf Glitter in Verdalite & Florentine Gold--Clear UTEE, heat tool, VersaMark or some other kind of embossing ink, glue stick, distress ink--in this example I used Forest Moss--and grunge board or chipboard. For this example I made my own chippie which is why I used grungeboard.

Ink up your chipboard with the distress ink of your choice. Try to keep the ink in the same family as the leaf glitter you have chosen. As you can see, I use makeup sponges to apply these inks. They work like a charm!

Also, ever find yourself needing a title or part of a title & you just don't have it in your 30 ton stash? Well, that happened to me for this page. I wanted a number 3, but it had to be a certain size. So I printed a 3 on my computer, cut out the 3, traced it onto grungeboard, cut it out once again & ta-da...instead chippie!

Once you ink your chippie you'll need to cover it with the leaf glitter. I mixed my two leaf glitters for this project. You can mix your colors too or keep them solid--it's all based on what you need for your page. The Scotch glue stick works perfectly for applying an even coat of glue on your chipboard. Once you apply your glue, start dipping it into your leaf glitter.

Completely cover all areas of your chipboard. Ensure the leaf glitter sticks by gently pressing down on the leaf glitter with your fingers. Yes, you'll get messy--but what would scrapbooking be without sticky or inky fingers!?

Here's my chippie all covered in leaf glitter. Doesn't it look cool? Oh, but it's about to get even cooler!

You'll most likely have to trim your chipboard after applying the leaf glitter. It's chunky glitter & therefore will stick out along the edges. Just take a pair of small scissors & trim along the border of your chipboard to tidy it up. This picture was taken after I trimmed my chippie.

You'll know when the leaf glitter has dried onto your chipboard when you press your fingers down on the chipboard & hardly any pieces of the glitter get stuck on your finger. At this point you're ready for the next step.

Ink up your chipboard with the embossing ink pad. I literally press the chipboard into the ink pad. I do this several times to ensure that the chipboard gets completely covered with the embossing ink.

When done, apply the UTEE & heat it up with your heat tool. You'll see the UTEE melt right onto your chipboard & work itself within the leaf glitter.

Here you go! Can you say bling, bling!! It's an amazing texture in person. The heat tool crinkles the leaf glitter while melting the UTEE into it. The end result is one amazing embellished chipboard.

You can do this with any chipboard--I have a few sitting in my shop that would look fantastic with this technique.

A closeup...at least an attempt of a closeup. Please excuse my inky fingers!

Hope this tutorial was helpful for some of you!

Till my next post...

Happy New Year & Etsy Updates!

Happy 2011 fellow scrappers & bloggers! I thought I'd start my 2011 posts with this wonderful picture. This is my little Toby ringing in the New Year! Hmmmm, I'll have to cut down his beer intake a bit I think. :-)
My whole family pretty much rec'd the New Year like this. Although it wasn't the alcohol--we were all simply tired! So on midnight we were all in our PJ's watching the ball drop in NYC. Except for Toby who was wiped out since it was way past his bed time. This is him sleeping at the foot of our bed. How he can sleep like that is beyond me--but he does & dreams & everything while he's doing it!

I figured I'd take the time to greet everybody in the New Year & to show just a few of the newest items added to my small Etsy shop. I rarely take the time to actually post about my shop. But lately I've been adding a variety of new things so I figured I'd take the time to display some of them.

First up are these beaded flower stick pins. I've been experimenting with beaded flowers & so far I have beaded flower vines & I've recently started to add stick pins with beaded flowers attached to them.

These stick pins measure 5" inches in length & come with 2 beaded flowers. I use Delica Japanese beads that are very consistent in shape, size & color. I'm very pleased with these beads. The flowers are about 1 1/4" inches in diameter & are attached to the stick pin with wire.

I've added a touch of baby's breath also known as gyp behind each flower.

I just started adding these to my shop & have many more colors that will be added in the near future. So keep an eye out for them! I also plan on having 3" inch stick pins with one beaded flower for those that like the smaller pins.

Corner floral vines are not a new concept in my shop. These have been in out of my shop since July of 2010. However, I've slightly re-designed them. I'm starting to combine different types of flowers & am adding touches of glitter to the leaves & flowers. I'm also combining different colors for different looks.

These are my two-sided beaded flower vines. They measure between 7 1/2" to 8" inches in length. They can be gently bent to your liking & can be added just about anywhere on your pages or projects.

Just like the stick pins I've been slowly adding a variety of colors to my shop & plan on adding more. All the leaves & flowers (except for the two center beaded ones) are made out of mulberry paper. The leaves are dipped in Diamond Dust. These look very nice & sparkly in person.

Finally here are just a few of the many new butterflies I've added to my shop. Just about all of these butterflies are based on existing ones. It's amazing to see just how many colors & designs of butterflies there are around the world! I've researched many of them & have learned much about them. If I learn particular things about them I actually add this 'tid-bit' of knowledge to the listings in my shop. So you get a butterfly lesson while you shop!

These are 'A Touch of Teal'...a predominantly black butterfly with teal accents in thier bottom wings.

'Mint Delight'...a black butterfly with mint green accents on all it's wings.

The 'Peacock Blue' butterfly--a butterfly in a rich blue color.

This is part of the new glass butterflies that I've added. This is the G4.

These are the 'Peppermint Twist' butterflies. I can be very original with naming my butterflies or I can be downright corny. To be honest I name them based on the first thought that comes to my mind when I look at them. It can be an object, a place or even a song. For this one a candy cane popped in my head...& that's how the 'Peppermint Twist' came about.

I'll be adding many more designs in the near future.

Vines are also not a new concept in my shop. They've also been in & out of my shop continuously. These are new to my shop--just like the corner vines, I've re-designed them a bit & have added a variety of flower combinations & accents.
These are a bit smaller than the other vines in my shop measuring about 6 1/2" inches in length. They can be gently bent to your liking & add a nice touch to any project.

These vines aren't even in my shop yet! I'll be adding them either by tonight or by tomorrow. But they'll be there, I promise. Like everything else they'll be made in a variety of colors!
That's it for now. I plan on wrapping this post & sitting down to scrap for a bit. Something I haven't been able to do in a while.
I hope everybody is having a fabulous start to the New Year!
Till my next post...