Some Fall Crafts

Wow, Bloglanders, it's been forever since I've posted. I hit a little bit of a slump for a while where I didn't feel much like crafting, so I haven't had anything to blog. But I just finished up some really inspiring classes this weekend, and also got caught up on my blog reading, which inspired me to get going again. I'm actually going to combine two projects in this post because....well, because I'm too lazy to write two posts, honestly. =P Anyway, the first one is my Grungy Monday entry for this week, hosted as always over on the Studio L3 blog. This week's challenge is to use Tim's Perfect Distress technique, which I have to admit I've never done before. I love Perfect Pearls mists, but every time I try to use the loose powder I just end up making a mess. However, after a refesher from the video, I was ready to give it another go. Here's what I made:

It's not too late for some Halloween crafts, right? =) I made a background just like Tim does in the video but I used TWO colors, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon. I also have been dying to break out the Seedless Preserves, because I LOVE purple, so I used it on the edges of the tag, for the "sentiment" stamping, and to color the '31' (made with Grungeboard Minis). All of the stamps are from Tim's Halloween Minis set and the technique was done on the cobwebs, with Black Soot and the "Pearl" Perfect Pearls. Despite my history with Perfect Pearls I have to say it turned out fairly well, although I did make a mental note-to-self to do this technique with a less detailed stamp in future. It got pretty runny in places (places that are now cleverly covered up with those rosettes). Here's some close-ups:

I almost forgot to mention, I will also be entering this in the monthly challenge over at the Inspiration Emporium blog. It's a color challenge this month, and if you get a chance you should head over and give them some love. They have fun challenges each month and a great prize! (And no, I am not being paid to say that. =P )

My second project is a little ATC I did, inspired by the Sunday Stamper challenge over at Hels Sheridan's blog. I've been a long time stalker reader of Hels' blog, and I love her work and her posts are always hilarious, but I have never participated in her challenges before. However I couldn't resist one using fall colors, especially when I have new fall Distress Inks to play with! I was going to make a tag and then found these pre-cut ATCs made of watercolor paper that I forgot I purchased =P so I decided to give those a whirl:

I colored the background with Scattered Straw, Ripe Persimmon, and Spiced Marmalade, edged the whole thing with Scattered Twigs and then sprayed the bejeezus out of it with water and a couple sprays of Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist. The colors moved around on the paper and made the coolest blended background. Will definitely be trying that trick again! =) Here's a couple close-ups...one is a goof where the flash went off but is the only photo that actually shows the Perfect Pearls!

I think that about covers it. Sorry for the horrifically long post, and if you got this far, thanks for sticking it out to the end! Hopefully I will post again soon without another long break.

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*







Feelin' Spooky

Hello all! Today I have a layout to share that was inspired by Shimelle's Sketch of the Week. Ever since I realized that scrapping is so much easier for me with a sketch I have really been enjoying participating in these weekly sketch challenges. I also had a hankering to do some Halloween-type crafting, and when I found this pumpkin photo from last Halloween I just had to scrap it. Here is the finished layout:

All the patterned paper on this layout it from the new DCWV Halloween line, "Ghosts and Goblins"...and I actually used a matstack for this! I just cut the papers and then layered the photo over them so they magically look 12 inches long. Here's proof:

I actually bought this little stack for cardmaking so it was fun to get another use out of it. The solid gray and orange cardstock is from the matching cardstock stack...12x12 this time. =) I really liked the colors in this stack and I feel like they could work well for non-Halloween projects, especially some of the grays. In Shimelle's layout she used a border punch on the solid strip for this sketch, but I did not have an appropriate border punch so I used....wait for it.....decorative scissors! Talk about getting out the old school tools. =) I have a whole collection of decorative scissors I haven't used in ages and I was actually comtemplating getting rid of them, so it was kind of funny to be using them on this layout. Border punches are SOOO much easier, but I think I managed to get a fairly straight border here. The title for this layout is brought to you courtesy of Tim Holtz: the die-cut behind it is from the Hanging Sign die, the "spooky" sticker is from the Seasonal Salvage stickers (popped up on foam dots), and the letters are Alphabet Soup grungeboard letters colored with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. All the paper pieces were edged with Black Soot ink as well. Here's a couple close-ups of the details:

Thanks for looking! I just got my order that I had been not-so-patiently waiting for from Simon Says Stamp, and I am now the proud owner of some of Tim's new fall dies as well as the new fall Distress Inks! Hopefully I will have some projects using those to share soon. I can't wait to play! =) Yay for fall weather and fall crafting!

*~M~*

Playing with Resist

Hello Bloglanders! Just have another quick card today. This one was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's Inspiration Showcase class. This is the first class I have taken from Jennifer and it is really amazing. I will definitely be signing up for her classes in the future. On one of her bonus cards she used a great color combo with Tattered Rose and Antique Linen Distress Ink. I hadn't realized how beautiful these were together and couldn't wait to use this combo on a card of my own. I also just recently purchased this stamp from the Hero Arts for Basic Grey collection and wanted to make a background with it. When I was done I realized it would be a perfect card to enter into the Lily Pad Cards resist challenge, so I will be posting it over there. Here's the card:

I simply stamped the background and then heat embossed with some white embossing powder, then Distress Inked to my heart's content. I think it looks a little like old wallpaper. =) The sentiment was stamped with coffee Archival Ink, then cut out using the Tim Holtz mini label die. I colored some white cardstock with the Tattered Rose ink then punched the butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch. I inked the edges of the butterflies with Vintage Photo to make them pop off the background. Some pearls and ribbon finished off the card. Here's a few close-ups:

Sorry about the dark photos....I was losing daylight. =/

I hope everyone finds something that inspires them this week, like these fantastic colors did for me. =) Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Mother LOAD, Days 12 and 13

Hello blog readers! I've got a couple scrapbook layouts to post today. I have to admit I haven't been doing that great of a job keeping up with the scrapbook marathon. I've been skipping every other day or every third day. But I think I'm okay with that. Considering that I wasn't really doing ANY scrapbooking before I started this class, I think that what I have accomplished has been a great improvement in productivity! =) Here's the first layout:

This is a photo of my parents and I at my pharmacy school graduation party. My mom made me get all decked out in my robes again. I hope it's not presumptuous of me to assume that my parents are feeling pretty proud in this photo. =P The design of this layout was inspired by Shimelle's scrapbook starting point, which is a really cool challenge she started on her blog recently. Oh, and speaking of being proud, there are a couple of embellishments on this layout I'm fairly proud of. The first is the flower medallion in the embellishment cluster. It was made using a resist technique I just learned in Jennifer McGuire's Inspiration Showcase class. This has only been going on for two days and it's already been really awesome. It's kind of hard to see but here's an attempt at a close up:

Also I'm pretty proud of this silver flourish:

I cut this out of Grungepaper using the Elegant Flourishes Alterations die. I knew I wanted it to be silver, but then discovered to my horror that I don't have any silver paint! I don't how this is possible, but I will be fixing it as soon as I can. For this, however, I had to improvise. I managed to get a pretty awesome metallic effect by first painting with a Jenni Bowlin Weathervane paint dabber and then spraying with Perfect Pearls mist in Perfect Pearl. I feel like the MacGyver of scrapbooking. =)

Here's a quick close-up of my little butterfly:

He was cut out of paper from the Out of Print 6x6 paper pad, to match the large papers from the same collection on the rest of the layout (except for the top left corner, which is from Basic Grey Basics). The large butterflies are embellishments from that collection as well.

On to the second layout:

This one was quite simple. You can't really see it, but I drew a grid first using a green pen, then cut out 6 photos and 6 squares of paper (from Basic Grey's Sweet Threads) and then inserted them into the grid. Fairly quick and simple. I comtemplated more embellishments but decided I liked this clean look. =)

I think that's all for today. As always, thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Lawnscaping Embossing Challenge

Hello everyone! I just have a fairly quick card today to enter into the Lawnscaping Embossing Challenge. I wanted to do some dry embossing for this and I thought my Tim Holtz woodgrain Texture Fade would work nicely with the tree and sentiment from the Critters in the Forest set. Here's my card:

I included the close ups so you can see the inking I did a little bit better. After embossing the cardstock I used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to make the raised portions stand out a little better. The tree was stamped on Grungepaper, colored with Vintage Photo, Bundled Sage, and Forest Moss inks and then cut out. I got a very nice compliment on this tree....I was showing the finished card to my boyfriend and when I told him how I made the tree he was really surprised. He told me he thought it was a pre-made embellishment. I guess that means it looks pretty good! =) The twine is from The Twinery. (I'm loving this stuff! So fun to play with!)

I think that's all for this card. Check out the Lawnscaping blog if you haven't already, it's very fun. Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Lawnscaping Holiday Blog Hop!

Hello Bloglandians! Welcome to my post for the Lawnscaping Blog Hop. As you can see from the badge, we're getting in the holiday spirit! You should have come here from Melania's blog. If not, head on over to the Lawnscaping blog to get started on the hop.

For my card I wanted to try out the Lawn Fawn Cozy Christmas set. I've been eyeing it forever...it is so stinkin' cute! Even my boyfriend thinks that little smiley fire guy is kinda cute. My personal favorite is the smiley Christmas lights. Christmas lights are probably my favorite thing about Christmas....I love having them all over my house, I love seeing them on other people's houses....and I have a weakness for any product with Christmas lights on it! So I wanted to try and stamp these guys out and make them as sparkly and cheery as possible. Here's what I came up with:

Hopefully these guys look like they're hanging down from some snowy eaves. =) Here's a close-up:

I stamped out the lights on some white cardstock, colored them with just a couple shades of Copics on each light, then added silver Stickles to the screw part of the bulb and Stardust Stickles to the tip of each bulb to make them sparkle. I was insane to ever think fussy cutting these guys would be a good idea, but I did it! And I think it may have been worth it. =) The sentiment was from the same set. That's another thing I love about this set, and many Lawn Fawn sets for that matter....the way you can build different sentiments with all the different words. I used "merry" again on the inside to make a different sentiment, plus I had a couple extra lights which didn't make it onto the front:

I think that's all from me! The next stop on the hop is Patricia's blog. Be sure to stop at everyone's blog and leave some comment love...there are some great prizes to be had!

Have fun, and thanks for looking!

*~M~*



Mother LOAD, Day 7

Hello Bloglanders! Here we are on Day 7 of the Mother LOAD scrapbook marathon and I'm up quite late to write this post. Our prompt today was to do some "retro scrapbooking", ie, do a page using all the trends from the late '90s. I have to admit this sounded pretty fun/hilarious, especially since I was just looking at some pages I did back in 2000/2001 and they had ALL of the things listed in the prompt: matted photos, photos cut into silly shapes, sticker sneezes, decorative edge scissors....hee hee hee.... =) Anyway, I couldn't find any photos I wanted to scrap like this, and then I was wandering Blogland and saw Shimelle's Sketch of the Week post today, and decided to do that instead. =P So here's today's layout:

I guess I better explain about rally caps, in case anyone doesn't know about them: in baseball, when your team is losing, if you turn your baseball cap inside out and wear it that way it's supposed to help your team "rally". It's a very silly fan superstition, and an excuse to wear your hat inside out and look goofy. =) Actually when I was younger my dad taught me that you wore a rally cap by pushing the back of the cap into the front and then sticking it on the side of your head so that the bill stuck straight up, kinda like a mohawk. I kind of  like that way better since it's sillier, but this inside out thing is what they do at Safeco Field, so we were going with the flow. It's also easier to keep on your head this way. =P

Anyway, enough about silly baseball stuff and on to my favorite things on this layout (other than the silly picture). Number one, the rosette. I had this baseball patterned paper that I wanted to use here, but it just wasn't working with anything else so I had to abandon it. Then when I was at a loss as to what to use for a large embellishment on this page, I thought, "I could make a rosette with the baseball paper!" I know, I know, I'm getting a little obsessed with the rosettes. It's so funny because when the die first came out I thought it was silly and that I'd never have any use for rosettes. Ha! Famous last words. =) Here's a close-up:



The other thing that makes me giggle is my tag, covered with hat tags, since the layout is about hats...hee hee hee... I'm such a sucker for silly scrapbooking puns. =P Oh, and number 3, I'm totally in love with the twine. I just got it yesterday in the mail from The Twinery and could not wait to play with it. I was worried about gluing it down, but then I remembered I have this awesome Quickie Glue pen, which worked really well. The twine has kept it's shape and hasn't fallen off the layout. Can't ask for much more than that. =)

Well I better sign off since I obviously get much more silly when I blog late at night. Thanks for looking!

*~M~*