Steampunk Bird Card :)

Hi blogland friends! I am stopping in for a quick post today to share a card I did yesterday morning for my sister. I have a care package I'm sending to her with her wall hanging for her classroom, a card, and some other goodies. I love putting together a box to send. The excitement of getting real mail, especially a box, will always entertain me!

I used a blank card I already had and covered it with scrap paper, then I stamped by steampunk bird stamp by Deep Red Stamps and colored him in using distress markers and stickles. I love how it turned out!

I added a chipboard circle and some enamel dots then washi tape and my alphas. I hope my sis likes it. I can't wait for her to open her box!!

Until next time, I hope you have a crafty day! I'm off to the bank, post office, and goodwill, then iced coffee and studio time ;)

Love in Bloom with Basic Grey's Fresh Cut Collection

Hi everyone! I'm here to share a layout today I did using some of the new fabulous 'Fresh Cut' collection by Basic Grey. I have been dreaming of spring colors, warmer days, and this collection has it all! I think we can all agree that spring can't get here soon enough in the US. Its been a cold one, especially being my first winter in Oregon! We got snow!!

Here are a few close ups:

I started my layout without a picture in mind this time....I picked 2 of the geometric patterns with shades of green and anchored my layout at the bottom with some flowers- all fussy cut from one of the other papers. For dimension, I pop dotted some of them over top of the others. I had the perfect hot pink ric-rac the add to the bottom with staples for some more texture.

As I have been doing on alot of my projects lately, I used some more of the Studio Calico wood veneers, These were colored with a regular colorbox inkpad this time, an older one that I re-wetted and the wood seemed to soak the color right up. 

I enjoyed doodling around the wood hearts and bee stamps to create some movement up from my flower cluster at the bottom. I used stickles from the FD store as well as a white gelly roll pen. One last look:

That is all for today! I hope you enjoyed my share and are able to get your hands on some of this wonderful collection before it sells out!! I like the mix of geometric and floral patterns, it makes it very versatile for any occasion like most BG papers are, that's w:hy they are my fav!! Have a great weekend and I hope you get some time to get crafty :)

Products used from the Frosted Designs Store:

Basic Grey 'fresh cut' 12x12 collection pack

Ranger Dylusions ink spray 'white linen'

Maya Road metal trinkets- heart bubble

Studio Calico wood veneer hearts

Gelly Roll pen white

Stickles- frosted lace & fruit punch

Be as a Bird...

Hi friends! Happy Hump-day! I hope you are enjoying your week so far. I just had 2 days off so I was able to get in a little bit of crafty time. I had hoped we would also get to visit the park again one afternoon but it's been really windy here and rainstorms coming thru. Better comparativley to the snow we had about a week ago, but still yucky out. I did enjoy some time in my studio, the more time I spend back there I realize even though its small it's a place that makes me so totally and completly happy, surrounded by all my fun stuff, usually a cup of hot tea or iced coffee depending on the time of day, my pandora blasting away and plenty of inspiration from friends and fellow DT members. Today I wanted to share my 2nd ever art journal page that I did last night. I haven't tackled all of them and the million ideas that I have yet, but I am going to make it a goal to do one layout + one art journal page per week for the rest of the year. I think I can do it. I think it's nice too to go between the two, art journaling loosens up your mind and helps your creativity flow better, which in turn helps you scrap a page faster when you have good ideas!!! So the one I worked on last night was inspired by Sandee's " Out On A Limb" post on the FD blog a while back, like I said I am still catching up, hopping around here and there, I don't have as much free time as some, but this page probably only took me like 2.5 hours. That's about how long it takes me to do a layout too, I'm not sure if that makes me a slow scrapper!

Here is the inspiration photo:

And if you want to read more about how Sandee created her page, you can visit the FD archives here: sundays-with-sandee-is-out-on-limb. She has a great video & pictures.

Here is my page:

I did use the understamping for my page like she did, however I stamped directly on to my art journal then used some tissue paper that I misted with inks & water then dried. I found a great quote that I did on the side after drawing straight lines, then I started coloring in behind it with gelatos. I wanted some texture so I later added the chipboard flowers and washi tape.

The birds in the tree actually came from some old Basic Grey paper, I fussy cut them then decoupaged it onto my page. I went back over it with various pens and markers then stamped my other musical notes and did some doodles around those. I went back in with 3 different colors of stickles: christmas red, fruit punch, and tiara.

I dont know why but I felt like I needed something else at the top of my page, so I stamped this decorative frame and stuck a puffy sticker inside it. It's kind of random but I feel like it gives visual balance to the page, so much for WHITE SPACE, ha!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. i hope to have at least one more layout and art journal page to share this time with you next week! Maybe even some stuff for challenges coming up....who knows. The crafty bug has bit again and I am so glad!! It makes me happy to share and get feedback! I would love it if you followed my fb page here. Also on instagram @khhollister. Peace Yall! ~VV

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

11 items challenge at Frosted Designs!

It's Friday again and you know what that means, there's a new challenge up over at the Frosted Designs blog! This time we are challenging you to use at least 1 item from this list of 11: tags, paper layering, Washi tape, flags, banners, patchwork, circles, stitching, stars, flowers, buttons, or arrows. We can't wait to see what you create. Don't forget to link up your project on the FD blog no later than Thursday, Dec 5th to be entered to win Top 3 Honors or the grand prize!! Our sponsor is Heartfelt Creations.

Here are a few pics of the layout I created:

It was a lot of fun doing this layout. I am finally starting to feel my mojo coming back! I have 2 girlfriends coming over Monday for coffee and a full day of scrapping :) they will be the first scrapping buddies I've made in Portland. I'm excited!! Just have to get my scrap space cleaned up a bit. It should be fun! I hope to have some new projects to share this next week from that and a special thanksgiving post. Until then friends, keep scrapping!!

Creativity with Texture: FD challenge

Hi friends and followers! I am popping in today to share my latest project for the new challenge over at Frosted Designs! This time we are challenging you to create any off the page project, mini album, layout or canvas using texture as part of your background elements. Mixed media is so hot right now in scrapbooking, and we wanted to inspire you to get messy with inks, mists, paints, molding  paste, or gesso! So break out your tools and join us this week, the lucky winner chosen by the DT gets a $30 voucher for chipboard and bling from our lovely sponsor, Molossi. We can't wait to see what you create!

Here is my project ( excuse the unedited photos, my laptop died last week and I'm still getting used to this tablet :)

I really enjoyed creating lots of texture on my project background using stamping, a gesso layer first, then mists, and leftover product packaging as well as heat embossing some areas and stamping/ doodling. It's always fun to get messy! We hope you will join us and link up your project to the Frosted Designs blog no later than Oct 10th for a chance to win our fabulous prize from Molossi !!!

Wishing you happy scrapping and a great weekend~ VV


Products used from the New Frosted Designs store:
Melissa Frances paper- Bits and Pieces
Fab Scraps- shabby chairs and shabby mix
MME Cut n Paste chipboard stickers
Faber Castel Gesso
Dylusions Inks by Ranger- Calypso Teal, White Linen

Other product used:
Tim Holtz- distress ink antique linen, distress stickies bundled sage, tumbled glass; distress markers broken China, antique linen, bundled sage, paper distress tool
 Product packaging, prima flowers, Patina metal inks by Ranger, UTEE, heat embossing ink, jet black ink, Hero Arts shadow ink in apricot, Tattered angels glimmering chalkboard inks in apricot nectar and London fog, black doodle pen, vintage button, resin roses, Thickets chipboard stickers alphas and Amy Tangerine thickets, misc stamps, mint lace and tags from stash.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013: June catch up

So I'm a little late sharing my take on Tim's tag for June.but I did get to play around for a bit in the studio last week and finally got to create this tag. Better late than never right? I know I won't be able to win anything since I'm months behind but this gets me up to date with all of the tags for 2013! Can you believe there are only a few months left in the year?  So here's my share, take a look:

Products used:
Watercolor paper
#8 manila tag
Distress ink- broken China, antique linen
staz on jet black ink
Distress markers- broken China, spun sugar, bundled sage, antique linen, & picket fence
Recollections paper roses
prima stamp set- flourish, birds, shabby chair, spoon, teapot, perfume bottle
Mini mister with water
Mini pearls, paper distresser
Turquoise tulle, gem, jump ring, vintage button from stash
Stickler glitz in platinum, fruit punch and distress bundled Dave
Smooch spritz in candle glow and river mossy

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013: September

Hi everyone! I am popping in quickly this morning to share my take on Tim's tag for September. I finally got a few minutes to sit down and give it a try the other morning before a closing shift at work- it was nice to get a little mini crafty session in before work and I found that it really put me in a better mood for the rest of the day...thinking about all the stuff I want to try when I get back home! I tried to mimic his tag by using gesso instead of embossing paste on my background, then I stamped several images in layers of different distress ink colors. I am pretty happy with how it turned out! Here's our inspiration, Tim's September tag:

And this is my take:

I used distress inks to create my rainbow background after my gesso'd layer had dried. Over that I stamped in jet black archival ink several ornate squares, then reinked the same stamp with embossing ink and covered with UTEE. I heated with my heat tool and then started adding embellishments.

I used a piece of film strip ribbon, a vintage button, resin rose, staples, distress stickles, chit chat stickers and some flowers to bring the bottom of the tag together.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I debated about adding something else to the top but I left it as is. I still have to go back and do the tag for June but after that I will be up to date for the tags of 2013!! So proud of myself for playing along all year! 

Ok, well I am lucky enough to be off this Sunday. I'm going to grab some hot tea, as it's low 60s and misty rain here today- the perfect stay inside scrappy weather! We are expecting thunderstorms this afternoon, but I will be happily tucked away in my downstairs studio...tunes cranked, hoping to get some stuff done! Hubby is working until 6pm then it's Sunday night football and homemade burgers!! Looking forward to creative time today, it's been much needed and far and few between these last few weeks. Hope to back soon with more scrappy creations and goodies to share :)

until next time y'all~ VV

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