Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Distress Paints

Tonight I went to an art journal class and we were working with Distress paints. I had a lot of fun putting together some really bright colors and using water to move them around. Once I had the background, I decided that maybe it needed to be softened up a bit (I know - me? softening up colors?). I used some white distress paint to make some faded circles, which I really liked. I made a sun with bristol paper, stamps and paint (and then layered some glitter paste on it). I took a stamp to add a saying to the page. Then I felt like I needed to use the "dead" space in some of the circles - faces! I used a stencil of different faces to fill 3 of the orbs. Then I added some glass bead gel to a few circles, did some stamping around the edges and this is the final piece:
I love it! Bright and happy colors - that's me :)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Mother's Day!

The first thing I have to do is wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day - especially my own! May you all have a lovely day and be showered with lots of love.

On my Mother's Day weekend, I got to go cropping. I took my 5 year-old with me for a few hours (she painted 2 canvases and did a collage on a third). Once I brought her home for her nap and returned, I got down to business ;)

I started out with this layout. The pictures may seem familiar because one of them was on another recent one I posted (the fairy princess page), but these are the pictures of my youngest and I had a slightly different spin on the look. Erica's page was light and airy because she tends to be my more dainty girl, while Alexis is not a girl you would use the word "dainty" for - lol. So, here is my page "Lady (?) Alexis":
All the papers are from the line Daydream by First Edition Papers (a pad I picked up a few years ago). I wanted the soft colors of the dresses to be picked up, but needed a bit of dark to ground it all and make it fit the personality of my youngest. I was having a hard time figuring out how to split the 5 pictures over 2 pages, so to keep it feeling balance, I split the middle picture between the girls (really easy to do since they had a slight gap between them). I then fussy cut some flowers from one of the patterned papers in the line and backed them with the darker patterned paper to allow them to stand out against the soft colors. Thickers for the title finished it off and a bit of journaling in the corner. I love these pictures because they really show what Alexis is like. A strong character? You don't know the half of it - lol.

I then decided to pull out some selfies I did with Erica. She came up to me one day and just asked if we could take some pictures while making funny faces. I was more than happy to oblige because the giggles that came out of it made my cheeks hurt! She comes by her silliness honestly:
So, it has been a while since I dove into some of my My Mind's Eye line The Sweetest Thing (tangerine). I wanted something fun and bold because these pictures are pure goofiness. I kept within the same colors so that the bold patterns did not compete with each other or detract from the pictures. I used my Cricut to cut the letters for the title, using the Storybook font. I also used some of the embellishments in the kit for some dimension (I even put some Stickles in the button holes for some subtle sparkle):

I used Thickers to make an arrow to point out the choice of "silly", since that was the ones I wanted to highlight:

Then I managed to get a third layout done. I took Erica to her first "Mom & Me" crop back in January at Scrapbook Centrale. I used the Glam Gal papers from DCWV and some black cardstock to make the papers pop. Some magenta colored Thickers for the title and it was done in no time at all (it literally came together within 20-30 minutes):
I also started a birthday card for a colleague, but it is not finished (I need one more item before I post it). I then decided I wanted to make something decorative for a shelf or mantel. I have seen lots of posts of banners and things with the seasons, so I decided to make something for spring and summer:


These will be the flip side of each other. I will also look for some papers to use to do this for autumn and winter (all 6-letter words). I think it will be nice to use these throughout the year as decorations. I plan to use chipboard or cardboard behind the letters to give them a stiffer back. Then I will probably make an accordion with them either using ribbon or hoops. Once I finish them, I will post them.

Not bad for about 5 hours worth of time, eh? I am pleased with how productive I was yesterday :)

Saturday, May 3, 2014

And I am Rock Star Rose!

I just finished the last layout of the Rose series! Woo hoo! Sketch #10 from Scrapbook Steals inspired this:
These are some pictures I took at an all-day crop a couple of months ago. I, unfortunately, did not partake in the crop, but stopped by with the girls to say hi to everyone. Alexis is my less social daughter, but she LOVES my friend, Karin. Here she was looking through Karin's supplies and just enjoying hanging around with her.

Being a Bo Bunny fan, I did the whole layout with just their papers and embellishments. I love how vibrant these colors are and am happy that there were some light spaces in the pictures to offset that. I really like how this turned out!

I also did a layout using Daisy #1:
I used papers from different lines (Crate Paper, America Crafts and MME). I used the flower garland sticker from Bo Bunny and then some Thickers (and stamping) for the title. These pictures male me smile because they are of my girls and their 2 cousins all piled in a box together. This is much more muted and subtle (not something I do often). I am really happy with how this turned out as well.

And the last thing I made tonight:
A birthday card for someone I know who has a sarcastic sense of humor. Again, I used Bo Bunny papers. The stamp is from the Dylusions line with Dyan Reavely. Love that saying! It makes me giggle.

So there you have it! Another productive Friday night!