Halloween Crafts

Hi friends! It has been a while since I've checked in here. I have been working on alot of Halloween decor for my house. Some of the things i made last year and i just added to them. I hope you enjoy my share today & feel free to comment with questions!

 Steampunk skeleton guy with orange lights for guts!

Hand painted with pencil then paint pens plaster sugar skull.

Happy Haunting!

Classroom Wall Hanging

Hi friends! I hope you are having a fabulous day! I know things have been pretty good here, I just love summertime and I have been really trying to allow myself more and more time to create on my off days. It really feeds my soul and helps me zone out from stress- work stress, money stress, etc. It's my own little place in the world where I can be for hours by myself and come out feeling like I'm in a much better mood than before.

Today I am sharing a wall hanging I did for my sister's classroom. She just recieved her graduate degree in English Literature Education from the University of Alabama. She was an undergrad at Birmingham Southern before that, and even though she is my younger sister, I really look up to her in so many ways. This will be her first year teaching and along with helping her build a classroom library, I wanted to make her a little something special. She and her hubby were visiting me in Portland back at the end of March for Spring Break and we went to Powell's Books of course...famous bookstore one entire city block! I found this quote on a card and it inspired me, I thought I could take that quote and do something with it.

So I started off with a piece of scrapwood from Hubby's work, I did a thin layer of gesso over it first. Then I started laying down some paper pieces with modge podge. I used alot of pieces from a Tim Holtz set that looked like an old book page, an old library card, and layered them. I did another layer of modgepodge.

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Then I went to work making the 'girl' I traced the shape of a girl I had from scrapbook paper, then seperatley cut out her dress and hair with different paper. I glued them together then went over them with a marker and then a white gelly roll pen for the polka dots on her dress. I used some mini pearls for her earrings, braclet and barette. I went back over her hair with a few different markers, then I let her dry. 

After she was dry I cut out some random scrap pieces for 'books' and I had to redraw her hand from the original pose to make it look more realistic. I modge podged her to the right side of the wood and then finished coloring in the lamppost and sign.

For the finishing touches, I used a piece of metal tape for one side of the lamp post and I went back over it several times with a wet brush and  a black gelato. I also glued down one of my vintage trinkets from prima- the lightbulb!  Last I laid down the letters. A mix of glitter thickers that I went over with Tim Holtz distress ink in barn door, and sticker letters that I traced with a white gelly roll pen. I went back with more stickles in christmas red and copper, then added a few enamel dots. I went back over the white areas with another coat of gesso just to make the image look cleaner, then heated well to dry! 

Well that's about it for today. I hope you have enjoyed my share. It took me several evenings to get it done but I am very pleased with the outcome and I'm off to mail it to my sis tomorrow morning!! I have several more ideas and projects in the works...I hope to be able to share them with you soon! I am looking forward to more creative time this week in between work, cooking, cleaning, and walks with hubby. Enjoy your week & until next time, Peace Yall~

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you are enjoying your summer thus far. I know I have really enjoyed the warmer weather and I am trying to get outside as much as possible! Here in the Pacific Northwest we have to grab the sunshine while we can!

My layout today is using the Carte Bella Wildflower collection that is ON SALE right now in the Frosted Designs store. I have used just about every last scrap of this collection and I keep coming back to it! You can get the ENTIRE collection including 12 12x12 double sided papers and matching cardstock sticker sheet for only $11.24!!!! This is a steal, especially considering that the quality of this paper is super thick and it can take alot of ink! As you will see in my layout today.

I started with some light gold cardstock as my base and then started building my layers. I actually used some packaging from some Prima stuff to be the base layer. Over that I put several of the different patterned papers, distressed them first, then added the sentiment block which I also distressed and inked. After those were laid down I went over with my Lindy's Stamp gang starburst spray in Tiffanylou Blu using a mask, I used both sides and smudged with my finger to make sure I didn't waste any ink. I went over that a second time with the same mask in a few spots using the Dylusions Spray in white linen. My all time favorite!! It really makes the sparkle of the Lindys stand out because it's such a contrast.

I laid down my pictures, some fussy cut elements from more of the paper, wood veneers, and had fun embellishing. 

It was alot of fun putting this together and I highly suggest buying this collection before it sells out! It's such a great deal and is perfect for those outdoor photos!! I hope you enjoyed my layout today! 

Products used:

Carte Bella Wildflower Collection

Steampunk Gold Trendy Tape

Lindy's Stamp Gang Try me Set Tiff Blue

Dylusions Ink Spray white linen

Prima Everyday Vintage Sugar Dots

Studio Calico wood veneer hearts & Arrows

Tim Holtz Distress ink Antique Linen & Tea Dye

Ingvild Blome Distressing Tool by Prima

flowers, buttons, cardboard-from my stash

Sandy's Cards

Hi blogland buddies! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I only had Sunday off but hubby & I sure made the most of it. Went out to lunch, then shopping and coffee on Hawthorne, then an evening walk about 2.5 miles...then home for dinner & a movie all in all yesterday was a pretty good day. I am back at work today, but I wanted to share some pics of a few little things Ive been working on latley. First up are a few mother's day cards that hubby helped me make for his mom. I did mail them out late but at least they are on their way to her!

Here is my card:

I recycled some old stationary that has my maiden name printed on it, I think I have had these since senior year of high school! They are just plain white but I rather like the embossed /framed looking edge so I decided to work with that and just cut my paper to fit the middle. I am really happy with how it turned out and after I added the 'countertop' it looks more realistic too! I also decorated the envelope.

I let my hubby decorate a card I've had in my stash for a while and it was easy, all he had to do was add stickles, which was fun to watch him do! He added his msg to the inside and I got them popped in the mail..

I have lots of new projects in the works for this month,  custom guest book for my best friends wedding, 2 wood canvases, and of course more scrapboooking! I am hoping to spend most of this afternoon crafting after I run up the the grocery store and finish cleaning the house. Its my last day off until Sunday so I've got to make the most of it! Unti l next time scrappy friends, peace y'all!

"Gutsy Lady" -All About Mom Challenge at Frosted Designs

Happy Friday Friends and Followers! Katie here to share the details of our brand new challenge that starts today! Our challenge this week is all about Mom! Whether you are a mom, stepmom. grandmother, or just hope to become a mother one day, sooner or later we all quote our mothers and we all hold them dear to our heart as fabulous women in our lives. Using inspiration from our mood board create any project, layout, card, or art journal page for this challenge! Link up to the blog no later than 12:00 midnight, Wednesday, May 21st to be entered to win Top 3 or the grand prize generously sponsored by Close to My Heart/ Amanda Baird. You will win a fabulous CMTH stamp set with block & a coupon for a future CTMH purchase! Please visit Amanda's website here.

Here is our lovely, yummy mood board to get your creative juices flowing :

Here are a few pictures of the layout I have created. Most of the items I used can be found in the Frosted Designs store!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I love getting & reading all your comments! I hope to be popping by to all your blogs soon to leave some comment love! Until next time Peace Y'all~

All about Mountains!

Hi friends! I hope you've had a good start to your week. I have been off for the last 2 days and have been super busy...cleaning house, getting ready for showings, going to check on our new place that we get to move into in less than 2 weeks! I did get a little time to myself too, yesterday I went for my first solo hike since we've been in Oregon, just a short easy one in Mt Tabor park, but it was very refreshing and renewing, felt good to get some sunshine on my face! It has been super wet here latley. I also got a little free time today to start my next art journaling page. I was once again inspired by Sundays with Sandee over on the FD blog, if you haven't had the chance yet to watch her videos, you have to check them out! As soon as I saw  her pipette painting tutorial I knew I had to try it. I ordered a few more supplies from the Frosted Designs store, and in less than a week I was on my way! I also challenged my Aunt Vicki, who is my lifelong creative inspiration (very much like my mom!) to try it out. We are supposed to share our creations next week when we do our monthly facetime chat. I couldnt wait till then to share cause I was so proud of how it turned out, so here it is:

Also it doesn't hurt that this is probably my favorite Dr. Seuss quote of all time....

"Today is YOUR Day, Your Mountain is waiting, so GET on Your WAY!"

I used basically the same technique as Sandee did for my rough lines. I didn't remember to gesso the paper first or anything though so intial ink colors spread a little more than I hoped. At first I didn't think I would like it, it took a long time to try and I think I used too much water, but after I went back over the lines several times with a fine tip marker it grew on me. I also gesso'd the back of the pages cause they were worn so thin from me painting and smearing..that also took a while to dry and i tried my heat gun...needless to say I'm not a super patient person! LOL! I had to cover over a few places on the back too with tissue tape just to make sure the front wouldn't tear through....not really sure what I will end up doing with those pages, but I will know next time to gesso first!!

This is what the back of the page looks like, the inks bled through even after I gesso'd. It kind of made a need look but for functuatlity purposes I had to add the tissue tape.

It was good to experiment and try a new technique. It really gets your mind going. I have a few more projects to finish before I can start packing up my scrapping stuff. So excited for a bigger place where I will actually have an entire room to myself again instead of a dedicated corner of the laundry room. Plus I will have a large window above my desk!!! I am soooo excited for that, I just hate packing. The only good thing is that we hardly have any stuff compared to what we had in Alabama, we did a major purge before our 3000 mile trek so it should be easier this time. We get the keys on March 14th. Guess I better get going since I'm under a deadline.... see you next time! Thanks so much for stopping by todayI love all your comments!!!

Here are just a few pics I took on instagram during my hike, it was absolutley gorgeous yesterday and I am glad I got to enjoy it for a few hours outside!!! These are all from the base heading up to the 'summit' of Mt Tabor which is just a few miles from my house. It probaby took me about 1.5 hours to get to the top and back down on the easy trail which has partial stairs. It was alot of fun and I can't wait to go again on my next day off if i am not up to my ears in packing!!!

Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Couch-gating and Crafty fun times!

I had so much fun on my day off! I got to invite 2 new friends over to scrapbook and we got to spend a little time crafting altogether in my makeshift studio. It was 3 of us sharing a 6ft table but it was fun. I showed them my cool little neighborhood and we walked to the coffee shop before we got going on projects. I made a non-DT layout but I did still use a few items from the Frosted Designs store. I spent slot of time showing them techniques by to still managed to finish a layout. Still it was a lot of fun and I was able to finish this layout. I think it got my mojo going, I hope I can finish a few more projects and work ahead for all TH  holiday stuff I want to make!! The best part is, with the holiday I've got some more time off and I think we are going to get our Xmas tree on Sunday :)

Here are a few pics of my layout:

That's about it for today...I'm off to the studio again to create, create, create! I will be back tomorrow to share my first "workdesk Wednesday" post an  then a special thanksgiving share of some things I've been thankful for this year! I hope everyone has a great holiday week!!! Until next time, keep scrapping friends~VV