Pixels and Paper June Challenge; rainy day memories

As soon as I saw this image on the Pixels and Paper blog (which can be found here:
http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.ca/2014_06_01_archive.html )
I knew I had the perfect photo to work with, from a photoshoot I'd done with my daughter a few years ago just after a rainstorm.

I created a mixed-media project with my beloved homemade texture paste, some mist and paint, and bits and pieces from my stash, including Maya Road butterflies, metal pieces and flowers from Prima and Flying Unicorn. I've had that red lace paper for ages and love how eyecatching it is! I painted all the metal, chippies, and flowers grey to match the corrugate efore misting (what a great way to use up weird-coloured or mismatched embellies!!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Life's a Beach!

This project was inspired by Agnieszka's beautiful May mood board at Inkido:

I'm excited to play along with this challenge, and you can find more about it on the Inkido blog:
http://inkido.blogspot.ca/2014/05/may-challenge-by-agnieszka-bellaidea.html

The photo I used is my daughter on a beach vacation in Northern Ontario last year; she had a great time and brought back several photos but this one was my favourite!



I used the Love is in the Air collection from 13 Arts as well as Dusty Attic chipboard and a Prima stencil. I made my own texture paste with baby powder, white glue and acrylic paint.The diecut shells above the photo were cut with a Memory Box die. The blue paper and the flowers are by Recollections, and the inks are Donna Salazar. The punchwork is Martha Stewart Swirling Lace.

 
I used real seashells and real sand to create a natural feel and add texture.

 The whale was spongepainted with acrylic paint and I used punchinella and ink to create the circle design.



The title was painted with acrylic paint, and the "netting" it's mounted on is something I found at Big Lots at Halloween...it was called "Creepy Cloth" but used like this I don't think it's creepy at all!

Thanks a bunch for stopping by, and I hope wherever you are you're enjoying beautiful beach-worthy weather!

Butterflies and freedom and creating...oh my!

Hi! Seems this layout was meant to be...I looked at the beautiful April mood board for Scrap Around the World's April challenge at the beginning of the month and loved it:



The butterflies and the freedom concept especially caught my eye, but I had other projects going and put it on the back burner. Then withing a few days of each other, I received some lovely butterfly images in the mail from my lovely scrappy friend Elizabeth and found a fabulous quote on Facebook that really spoke to me. Thus my layout and April challenge entry was born!


 Believe it or not, I didn't use texture paste on this page at all!In keeping with the airy, free feeling I wanted to capture, I added a little stamping/stenciling with ink, a few brushes of blue-white acrylic paint to create the butterflies' flight path, then some hand-stitching to accentuate that feeling of movement.

You can view Scrap Around the World's April Challenge information here:http://scraparoundtheworld.blogspot.ca/2014/04/april-2014-challenge-12-light-modern.html

Can you tell I love my dog??

I came across this photo of our pug/Boston mix Toby when he was a baby and decided it was perfect for these beautiful Kaisercraft Marigold papers and for the April Challenge at Scrap our Stash-this is my first time doing one of their challenges, and I loved the guidelines; spring colours, one or more paperclips, journaling card and at least one 3-D embellishment!

I found this cute Maya Road chipboard paper clip in my stash and painted it to coordinate with my page. The stencilling with texture paste shows up a lot more IRL

There's a journalling card tucked behind the photo, and another small round one in the tear containing Toby's name and the year the photo was taken.

Love these big roses; they are definitely 3-D...guess this page isn't going to fit into one of my albums...hello shadowbox!!

  Check the challenge out here: http://scrapourstash.blogspot.ca/p/current-challenges.html

                                       
                                     

Have a great day and thanks so much for your visit!!

my beautiful great-nieces; for Creative Embellishments February Challenge

When I saw this inspiration photo for the new challenge on the Creative Embellishments blog; the colours of the central word immediately brought to mind the photo my niece had sent at Christmas of her little girls.

I loved the photo but hadn't gotten around to looking for papers to scrap it til this image got me thinking...then I realized that the vibrant, feminine Kaisercraft Secret Admirer papers I'd recently received in some "happy mail" would be perfect!




I added a little stencilling with homemade texture paste, handstitching and lace, and let the lovely collection do the rest. See how the vibrant fuschia and electric blue echo the colours in the inspiration photo??

Check out the information about the challenge at Creative Embellishments on their blog HERE

All you need is LOVE...

Well, here I am, alive and recuperating from a nasty bout of the flu over the holidays! Between that and getting ready for Christmas, I've been a delinquent blogger...hope that doesn't get me on next year's naughty list!!

I have NOT however been a delinquent crafter! I created this as a Christmas present for my favourite aunt who happens to be a huge Beatles fan...

This was created Finnabair style, with lots of metal, chipboard, paint and mist. After attaching the letters and a few embellishments,I covered the canvas with tissue paper attached with Mod Podge, then stenciled a bitwith homemade texture paste. The area around the photo was done with a mixture of sand and gesso to both create a frame and make the photo become a part of the background. After the other embellishments were added I gessoed then painted the entire surface before misting with pewter and black mists. The hearts and the "love"words were rubbed with brick red stenciling paste, and the metal music notes were added last.

My aunt loved it, and it fits  in perfectly with her wall of black and white Beatles-themed prints and memorabilia! I love doing projects like this once in a while, so different than my usual feminine, lacy layouts.Thanks a bunch for stopping by...happy New Year to you and yours!

Amazing Giveaway at Cést Magnifique!

My fingers, toes and eyes are crossed for this one....which makes typing a wee bit of a challenge! Nevertheless, I'm sharing the link with you to give you a chance at these fabulous goodies...
http://cestmagnifiquekits.blogspot.ca/2013/11/november-bits-pieces-giveaway.html