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!

Vintage Ring Box

Hi friends! I'm stopping in today with a quick post before I have to get dinner on the table and then hopefully some scrappy time later this evening. The community that we live in in Southeast Portland is pretty awesome! We have a community garden, basketball court, our own laundry facilities and a 'free' donation space near it. We are still living in an apartment but it's much bigger and more renovated than our old place. The best part is the neighborhood and how small it is- only 12 units total. So I was rummaging through the 

free pile the other day and I found a cute little all wood ring box. It was kinda dirty on top, but I decided I could do something with it!

I sanded the top first, then I modge podged some paper to it and some other little things, one of them is a boquet charm I made for my wedding day with a vintage picture of my mom. I wanted to add that so that everytime I put something in or take something out of the box, I could see her face. I sure do miss her, can't believe it has been 18 years. I sure don't feel 18 years older.

Here are some photos:

a close up of the buttons, pearls, and rose I added to the top.

My favorite part is the little saying it has on the front I really like how it turned out and I am keeping it on a side table near where I always sit at the end of the day. It was fun making this into something cute with something I got for free!!

Well, it's time to help hubby finish up dinner, eat good, then maybe some scrap time. I am mid-way through a layout I started a few days ago for the Punky Scraps Challenge. I hope I still have time to finish and submit it!! Here's to a glass of iced tea, some good tunes, and studio time :) hoping you get yours in this week too! until next time yall~ peace VV

Stars and Stripes

happy independence day friends! I am thankful to be off today and hope to enjoy some fireworks this evening on the river. Just have to start packing the picnic basket and do a few little things around the house then we will head out in a few hours.

I wanted to pop in and share a little door decor that I made last week using a pre-painted heart that I found at dollar tree. It was already decked out in stars and stripes. I just added some pod modge with some paper I had with vintage freedom stamps. I also used my Tim Holtz distress ink in vintage photo to 'antique' it a bit. All that was left to do is add a burlap bow and hang it on the door!

Here are a few pictures:

Other than that, I am officially done with designing for Frosted Designs for the next 6 months at least. I have really enjoyed the past year with this team and it was a hard decision for me to make. I have made many scrappy friends from all over the world, and have been so inspired by their work. I just felt like it was the best decision, I just got a promotion at work, we are trying to help get Jimmys mom moved out here by the end of the year and we are also starting the process of looking for a home ourselves to purchase in Portland...so needless to say alot going on. In the midst of that I would really like to enjoy the awesomness that is an Oregon summer and get my Etsy shop back up and running. I have lots of ideas of things I would like to do, just have to get a few of them going and listed!! So that means I hope to have lots of crafty fun stuff to share with you for the rest of the year! Stay tuned for off the page projects, wall decor, layouts, mini albums, cards, and art journal pages! I can't wait to get started.

Have a safe and happy 4th!

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!

Tuesday Night Music Club & The Monday Blues

Hi friends! The page I am sharing today was inspired by the mood  board challenge we have going on right now over at Frosted Designs. The challenge was to use the colors, photos or overall theme from our mood board to inspire your project! Here's a a peak at the board, entitled " winter blues"

I was mostly inspired by the overall color scheme of the board, the dark blues, the greenish blues, the teal-greenish blues in the blue bird and leaves, the brown from the branches, the warm pinkish hue from the latern, and the white for my background from the snow. I also really don't have alot of 'snow' pictures yet since we really haven't gotten any this year and I took the idea of the coffee cup and was inspired to use a pic of another type of drink. You could pretty much say I loosely intrpreted the mood board but it immediatley made me think of these very funny pictures that bring back alot of memories for me from August 2013. Here is a little sneak of me in mid-process... cup of cammomile tea on my desk! I took this one on instagram last night, I would love it if you'd follow me @khhollister

So here is a pic of how the overall layout turned out. I didnt originally intend to be so 'messy' last night but I was feeling inspired and had fun with some inks, mists, gelatos, and masks. I also didnt want to cover up my 'white' background too much so I ended up cutting up the other paper I wanted to use into hexagons and distressing all the edges.

I also covered the Um wow chipboards with dylusions spray in white linen. After I had them in place I doodled my rain drops. I added a few random embellies from my stash and to finish off my clusters some mini pearls and Prima Everyday Vintage Sugar Dots.

This lovely little lady was made with modge- podgeable shapes and some G45 paper. Ive had her in my stash for a while along with about 40 other shapes I decorated to sell at a convention I was working 2 years ago. I thought she was just perfect for this page & fit my blueish-green color scheme.

Well everyone, that is it for today! I hope you have enjoyed my messy page. It was alot of fun to make, sometimes going into something without a plan is actually better. I can't wait to get back in the studio and start a new art journal page as well as some other projects. I hope to have another share for you soon, maybe some birthday cards!!! Enjoy your day & don't forget you have plenty of time to join in our 'winter blues' challenge over at frosted designs. Link up your layout, project or card for a chance to be in our Top 3 or win a fabulous prize from our sponsor, which is a gift card to the fabulous frosted designs store!!!. Until next time, peace y'all~ VV

Products Used from the Frosted Designs Store: Fab Scraps 'shabby chairs' striped background paper, Bella Blvd Snapshots- dark blue cloud paper, Um Wow Chipboard layered clouds, Dylusions ink spray- white linen & calypso teal, Faber Castel Gelatos- teal & white, Faber Castel Gesso, Heidi Swapp Honeycomb stencil, Mini misters, Prima Everyday Vintage Sugar Dots, stickers from Carte Bella Wildflower collection pack.

Other: Tim Holtz distress ink in broken china, Crate paper- blue scalloped paper, mod podgeable shapes, mini crochet doilies Michael's, mini pearls Michaels 2 styles of Thickers by American Crafts, Tim Holtz distress stickles faded jeans.

Word of the Year! my first venture into art journaling..

Hi everyone! I am very excited to be here today to share my very first ever art journal page! I have been influenced, awed, and inspired by fellow Frosted Designs team member, Sandee to take a leap of faith and try it out! I had no idea how much fun it would be! If you haven't been following her Sundays with Sandee series on the Frosted Designs blog, you should stop what you're doing and go check out some of her videos right now!! You can find them all here: http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/p/sundays-with-sandee.html

So one of the posts that really inspired me was her 'word of the year' page. I spent several days researching this new idea of using one word for your new year's resolution instead of a list of several things. Obviously, its alot simpler and easier to remember, but it's more than that. After much thinking, I tried to pick a word that would help me in every aspect of my life, health wise, work wise, etc. When I ask myself about a decision Im about to make I will use this word to help me make the right decision. The word I chose is THRIVE.

I think it's a perfect fit for what I want to accomplish this year. I want to get healthier, become more active, advance in my career, and accomplish more creatively. I want to stand up for my life, and do what's best for me and my husband, instead of taking on tasks or volunteering for things when I could have better spent my time doing something else.I want to ultimatley look back on this year in 2015 and say that it was a time of determination and strength for me to push forward to something better. I think so far it hasnt been too bad of a start. Yesterday was the perfect kick-off to what i hope will be a better routine for Jimmy and I.

Ok, enough chat, now to share some pics of my page. The first thing I did was take some gesso with a mask I have (not sure the brand) and put it over several parts of my page. As you will see, thru pencil drawings, water misting, and using my gelatos it created kind of a 'resist' effect which was a happy accident. I was expecting to be able to color over it and was really only using it for the texture. This is a photo of the first step, after I gesso'd then drew my base which was a 'rock wall. Originally I was going to make it solid but in hand drawing all the stones I found a natural place where a hole should go so I added it.

The next photo is after I colored in the rock wall using some gelatos, grey and yellow, misted over with water, smudged with my fingers, and then dried it. I also took out some of my grungeboard letters in this step and started to figure out placement.

The last picture I took before the finishing touches was when I began to draw in the vines. I drew them in with pencil, then used several gelly roll pens to re trace them in the later step. I also had already glued down my letters that were colored with gelatos then inked over with Tim Holtz distress stain in vintage photo. The sun behind the wall is also pencil drawn then colored using sharpies, then gelatos blended in.

And this is the finished product. I added the 2014 in grungeboard letters at the bottom which I covered in Dylusions spray white linen and stickles in Tiara. The quote off to the side is from a song and I did some more journaling in very small letters on the tails of my hearts. Mostly affirmations to myself about the individual ways I want to THRIVE in 2014.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I really love reading all your blogs and getting comments. I hope to give you some bloggy love soon! Maybe later today after I tackle this laundry pile and go for our walk. Then it's back to the studio for more creative time!!!! I hope you have a great week & can get some creative therapy time in for yourself. Peace~ VV

Supply List from the Frosted Designs store: Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray - melted chocolate, Ranger Dylusions Creative Journal, Faber Castel Gesso, Faber Castel 50's Diner gelatos, water brush, Gelly roll pens

Other: Stickles 'tiara' Tim Holtz grunge board letters, Tim Holtz distress stain 'vintage photo' epoxy heart stickers, bird stamp from stash, Tim Holtz distress markers-bundled sage, spun sugar, broken china, antique linen, pencil

Tim Holtz: 12 Tags of 2013: November

This month, we were challenged to copy Tim's unique 'chalkboard' technique for our tag. It was a lot of fun playing around and trying to get the same effect. This was Tim's tag, our inspiration:

I didn't have a black tag, so I cut one from cardstock. I also didn't have timestamps or chalk so I tried to recreate the effect using my picket fence distress marker and some black distress embossing powder. In the end I found that it wasn't 'chalky' enough so I went over some of the leaves with clear tinsel glitter. Overall I like it, but I definitely want some new Tim Holtz stuff for Christmas!!

Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving! Last thing I'll share is some fun stamping I did on cork pieces while I was experimenting with my tag. Until next time, keep scrapping friends!! ~VV