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~

Ladies Own the Night*******

Hello everyone!! I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend & are looking forward to summer! I know I am!!! I'm here today to share a fun layout I did using lots of goodies you can find in the Frosted Designs store! If you know me at all, you know I like to mix and match collections, and that is what I did today!! I used pieces from Basic Grey, Carte Bella, and Bo Bunny to come up with this  layout! Here are some pictures:

  

 Here are a few close ups:

 I used the creme brûlée dauber from my Lindy's stamp gang try me set to pearlize my background for the 'night sky' . 

For the title & other elements on my page I used stickers from the Bo Bunny Zip-a- Dee-doodle combo sticker sheet. I also anchored some of the elements to my page with some Trendy Tape in black chevron & the steampunk gold one. I love how they look together!

I colored the Um Wow layered clouds with a combo of Faber Castel gelato in gold & some more creme brûlée. The tiny stars are wood veneer by Studio Calico, also colored with gelato & a wet brush. I love how it turned out against the pink! 

I hope you have enjoyed this whimsical layout. Here is the list of products I used that can be found in the Frosted Designs store. Happy shopping!!!

Product Used:

( background paper) Wildflower collection by Carte Bella

Bo Bunny Zip a Dee Doodle combo sticker sheet

Studio Calico tiny stars wood veneer

Um Wow layered clouds

Faber Castel gelatos gold & silver

Lindy's stamp gang Creme Brûlée 

Prima everyday vintage sugardots

Trendy tape- black chevron

Trendy tape- steampunk gold

Thataway travel stickers 

Bama Girls...are wild at Heart

Hi friends!! This is Katie and I am back again today to share a layout I did using the new 'Wildower' range by Carta Bella. I love  this line, the Aztec-influence patterns are so hot right now coupled with some pretty florals and woodgrains, this line so versatile! If you haven't had a chance yet to check out some of the new store items...go now and make you Christmas list!! Here's the  link: http://frosted-designs.com

I started my page by using some poppy colored cardstock to ground my photos and another strip of the patterned paper over the floral. Then I cut off all the mini strips that come on the bottoms of the pages an  glued those down as accents. This is what it looked like before I embellished:

After that I had fun embellishing with some of the stickers that came with the pack, along with a mix of wood veneer hearts that I colored, flowers, buttons, and ribbon.

 For my title, I mixed a bunch of different thickers and alphas.

I love the love you wild, love you dearly block cut from.one of the papers.

I hope you enjoyed my share today! I had a lot of fun making it and can't wait to play more with this range. You can find the supplies I used at the Frosted Designs store! Have a great week! Until next time scrappy friends-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

CSI Case File #85 + PP August Sketch Challenge

Hi lovelies! I am popping by today to show you a non-DT related layout that I finished last night. I have really been trying to get alot of creative things done so I was able to do 2 pages on 2 different nights, which isn't that bad considering I had a lot else to do. I cleaned the whole house back to front, and had a few errands to run. The only thing that's left for hubby to finish today is laundry (which is my least favorite house chore). I am hoping I can keep the creative juices following this weekend as I have all late work shifts so I can stay up later and sleep in later the next day. Then I have Monday/Tuesday off with hubby and we have a fun pizza pub/ bingo date planned for Monday night. I'm excited!! Ok, enough blabber, on with the pictures!

I used the color palette and inspiration from CSI Case File #85. For my evidence I used labels/tags/something clear/decorative buttons/string/frame and for Testimony I used journal on a tag/ handwrite a story.

I also used this month's sketch from Purple Pumpkin. I rotated the sketch and used twine and some buttons from PP.

Here is what I came up with: 

I apologize for the not so great photos. I took these this morning on our coffee table cause the light was pretty bright in there but they turned out kinda weird once I tried to edit them. Only light on half of the photo! So sorry about that!

 Here are some close ups of my clusters. 

 This one is my favorite!

I have to get going, back to work for a few days...I will be back later to add my supply list and stuff. Hope you enjoyed my share today! Have a good one! ~VV

O.B.A.

Good evenin' bloggers! I have enjoyed a day off from work and since I completed my task of deep cleaning the carpet in the living room and dining room today, along with some other household chores, I am here to share a new layout! I did this one a few weeks ago before we left for Costa Rica. I had my favorite scrapping ladies over, Crystal, Carmen and Leanne and we also got to make a fun eggshell necklace that Carmen showed us the technique!! It was alot of fun, afterwards we went to the 'Taste of Mobile' for some good food. I was kinda disappointed that they didn't have any vino though!! 

These pics are from this past summer on a Sunday afternoon trip to the beach, all 3 of us were off, it was great weather, so we decided to take the 45 min drive to enjoy the sun, sand, seafood and bushwackers at Tacky Jack's in Orange Beach, AL better known as O.B.A. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon!!

Here is an overview of the whole layout:

I started off with my background paper, not sure what line it is, I originally bought it thinking I would use it on a wedding project but I didn't. It looks like faded wood really rustic which is why I was so drawn to it in the first place! On top of the background, I used a large strip of paper, I think maybe American Crafts? It was a border paper that had different sized ones with a nautical theme, I cut out the crawfish one and distressed it then inked the edges. On top of that, I started laying out my photos.They were already a perfect size, prints of my instagrams that I ordered off of Kanvas.com! I decided to round the edges for a retro look. I also layered 2 more pieces of wood looking paper and a brown paper bag. The strips of wood paper are from Crate paper I think. Here are some close ups:

I also made a banner using some little flags from Elle's studio and also some baker's twine. I cut out all the flags and inked them, then folded them over and secured them to the twine with double stick tape. On top of my brown paper bag, I built one of my clusters, starting with a purple pumpkin button and a few tickets that i inked.  I added a large flower, a few of my favorite vintage buttons, and some small white flowers by Prima. For the centers of the flowers I used mini pearls, a large pearl, and stickles in Xmas Red and True Blue for the larger flower.

For my title, I used some Amy Tangerine Thickers that I lightly ran over with a brown marker to make them match my wood background paper. I also used some red checkered washi tape and a cut out sentiment from the same Crate Paper line to highlight a photo of my handsome man!!

 For my other cluster, I used half of a purple pumpkin crochet doily, some tickets, more vintage buttons, large flower and small flowers by Prima. Then I added the pearls and stickles to match the other centers I did on the bottom of the page. A little washi tape off to the side completes the look! For my journaling I used one of my favorite manila tags!

 And another view of my layout...near the window it was very chilly here today! About 10 degrees below normal!! Tried to get some pics while the sun was still peaking it's head out this afternoon!

Ok friends, well that is all I have to share with you today! I hope I have inspired you to get creative again and break out all those goodies in your stash!! I know I am looking forward to another day off, staying home and since I did most of my chores and running around yesterday and today, I will have an all-day crafty day tomorrow!! YAY! The perfect thing to do on those really chilly days, sweatpants, socks, hot cider, pandora and my scrap room await me.....until next time, peace y'all~ VV

love.of.rock.....out.of.print. by BG

Hi friends! I am here today again to share another layout I did the week after the wedding. I was so excited to get to scrap some girl's weekend photos and do an LO that was not for the design team. I say that now and yet I have been away from my DT girls for a little over a month and I am totally missing them!!! I can't wait for the next meeting and to get our kit and blog assignments..ready to get creative this month!! Check back with me daily as I challenging myself to post at least 2 times a week for November! I totally think I can do it!!! Ok, onto the photos:

Here is a view of the whole thing, photo I took on instagram :) my love!!

 Here a few close ups. I used several different things from my stash for my clusters. Retro wooden buttons from my Purple Pumpkin lucky dip, twine, felt borders, resin flowers, fussy cut camera, a film strip that i inked and heat embossed, flowers and bling o' course!!

this photo shows the larger cluster that i started layering first by using the heat embossed film strip cutout, then felt border, then flowers, then some smaller elements, wooden button and another Tim Holtz fragment that I made with Monica at convention. Off to the side of my cluster I stuck some tiny white apoxy heart stickers and doodled around them with my Tim Holtz distress marker in picket fence. I also used a large dew drop that I modge podged some chevron paper to the back of. The other paper I used is Echo Park note to self from the 6x6 pad.

I really like how the bright colors I chose pop off this page with the black background...really goes well with our Hard Rock Casino photos too that I took and printed all with instagram!!!!

Again I used a basic manila tag for my journaling... guess I need to spice things up when it comes to my journaling blocks but I am totally obsessed with these little tags lately!! LOL

Sorry, this photo didn't rotate! It's the title using Thickers Dear Lizzy- Serendipity. I guess that is it for today! I hope I have inspired some of you to get snapping with your phone and use those instagrams for your layouts...they are always the perfect size and you can get so many on a page which I love! Also another tip from today: use a black background to really make your photos and embellishment colors POP off your page! Until next time friends, Peace Y'all~ VV

Supplies Used:

Basic Grey 'Out of Print'

manila shipping tag by The Paper Studio

cream and black cardstock by Bazzil

Echo Park 'Note to Self' 6x6 paper pad

retro wood buttons, black resin rose, teal and white twine- Purple Pumpkin

hot pink stars felt border-Michael's

large dew drops- The Robin's Nest

pink chevron paper, fussy cut camera from Amy Tangerine ' Sketchbook' paper by AC

flowers and brads- Oriental Trading Co.

Tim Holtz distress marker picket fence

Tim Holtz fragments- decorated at convention

Smooch Spritz by  Clearsnap in 'river mossy' and 'pralines and cream'

Colorbox chalk ink by Clearsnap in 'blush rose' and black

Stickles by Ranger in Aqua

Thickers by American Crafts Dear Lizzy 'serendipity'

crown mini stamp- Prima Marketing