My Sweet Girls...

Hi, happy Sunday! I'm popping in to share an oldie but goodie pic of my girls...one of my fav pics I just think they are so cute I had to scrap it! I was inspired by the Berry 71 bleu sketch which is beautiful and called for some mixed media. I have used stamping, modeling paste, mists and paint. Also I embossed some of the flowers.

I am also linking to the Twisted Tuesday challenge blog, where they required some misting and at least 2 words on the layout, and Use Your Words where the word is "Sweet."  I have been having so much fun playing around with all these mediums and creating a whole design for my pictures using such beautiful embellishments. Thanks for visiting...hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

Splash!

I really thought this sketch was cute from SWAT:

The twist is to use twine on the layout somewhere.  I have been wanting to scrap this pic of my girls jumping into a pool with their friends for a while.  It was such a fun day! We were in MA on vacation and they got to spend the whole day with two of their besties...they miss them so much! Here is what I came up with (I flipped the sketch) Have a good one!

A layout of my beautiful grandmother

Happy Wednesday everyone, I'm stopping by to add my recently completed layout of my grandmother taken when she was a teenager (she is now 87) She has lived through the depression, her father's death when she was a child, caring for her sick mother and raising her siblings.  After she married my grandfather, he was sent off to WW2 leaving her to struggle to care for her young family, sometimes going ages without any contact.  He did eventually come home, but one of his brothers did not.  Times were tough but through it all my grandmother remained strong and loving for her family. As an adult I love to hear her stories, memories, and thoughts and have been encouraging her to start writing them down for us to cherish.  I came across a challenge on the Use Your Words blog where you had to use the world "tough." I stole my quote from my daughters wall poster that reads "tough times don't last, tough people do." and it immediately made my nana come to mind.  I used this month's Shabby chic sketch from Scraps of Elegance as inspiration for the design.  I can't wait to show her, I hope she likes it!

Hope, Dream Believe Mixed Media Canvas

I have recently been checking out the Flying Unicorn Forums and this month there is a challenge to complete a layout or canvas that has no photos.  I love creating on canvas and getting messy...not thinking too much about what I'm doing, just doing what feels right.  I find there's a voice in my head that is always guiding me and telling me when something works or when it's just wrong. Sounds crazy I bet but I know some of you understand.  The projects that give me the most grief are the ones I find myself second guessing and worrying about what others will think.  I am so new to creating art, I'm still sometimes afraid of doing something "wrong" and have to remind myself to just enjoy the process.  I have found such a wonderful, supportive group of ladies (mostly) from all over the world who just want to create and inspire one another.  It is so refreshing! Ok, enough rambling....

 

 

Thanks for looking and have a great day! Sarah

You Make Me Smile

I just fell in love this mood board from Scrap Around The World this month.

I'm hopefully going to do another layout in this color palette but for now, here is my take:

This is our dog Prince, my 95 pound lapdog boxer, sweetie pie! Thanks for looking!

Life Paper Scrapbook Challenge

Hi all ~ just here to post a layout that was inspired by the Life.Paper.Scrapbook September sketch.

These are pictures of my girls' first fishies they caught in Captiva...they were instantly hooked (haha) on fishing and wanted to fish with daddy every day we were there!

Thanks for looking, Sarah

Third blog post this week!

Hi all, today I am sharing a layout I made for the Once Upon A Sketch blog, which is really popular and has amazing prizes up for grabs every month.  Limor Webber is also having a challenge on her Facebook page where she would like us to create something out of our comfort zone, based on OUAS or another challenge blog.

  I went waaaaay out of my comfort zone trying to create a grungy, textured layout...not sure I succeeded but it was fun!  Last month in Captiva, some my family went with our friends to this restaurant where they had "Crab races." Basically you pay to pick a crab and half the money goes to charity (of the placing crabs!) and the other half goes to the winning customers.  The guy hosting it was hilarious and the kids all had a blast! So when I saw the theme of the OUAS was "lucky" I immediately thought of one of the pictures in the layout where the girls are all holding a dollar.  One of my daughter's friends won third place (well, her crab, you know) and she so generously split her winnings with the other girls. So cute! I think I am also going to submit the layout for the challenge at the new blog creative embellishments where they have really unique chip board.  The theme is "nautical" so I think this layout applies, kinda? Anyway thanks for letting me share my latest, super-chaotic layout, it was fun to make! I hope you go and check out these fun blogs...fab prizes to be won. Please consider following my blog if you are able. Thanks!

Challenge for the Frilly and Funkie Blog

Here is a mixed media canvas I just finished for the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog where this month's theme is "anything goes." The creations must be on the vintage side however.  I started off mod podging used Bingo cards I got from a friend to a canvas panel.  I then stenciled with gel medium through a stencil in the left corner...I wanted this design to be vibrant, but it was a little tricky.  I am still new to all these mixed media techniques, I enjoy playing but get frustrated when the idea in my head doesn't translate onto canvas/paper. I added distress paint and mists and gesso.
Thanks for looking!

Challenge for Frosted Designs

Hi everyone, just sharing a layout today that I'm entering in a challenge for Frosted Designs where there has to be numbers somewhere in your layout.  This picture was of my daughters and their 2 friends eating ice cream at yummy Kimball's in MA when we were up there on vacation in July.  They were so happy to see their friends they hadn't seen in almost a year! I'm trying to get some fun summer layouts done before it's fall and the Halloween spirit takes over! Have a great day!

Challenge for 1-2-3 challenge blg

Hello...sharing a layout I made for 123 challenge blog where you had to use the color pink, flowers and the word "sweet." I absolutely love Prima and their papers, flowers and masks. These papers, elements and resin (and packaging!) are all from them.  I used this crackle mask along with Shimmerz Texturez to achieve the look on the corners

 This is a picture of my youngest daughter from a father/daughter dance a few years ago.  I think this picture is so sweet. I love the flower in her hair and her big smile!  I think it's interesting how different the layout looks, depending on where I take the picture.  I am still trying to get the hang of all elements relating to blogging.  Creating is much more fun I must admit!

Thanks for visiting me, please leave me a comment!

Time To Dance

Happy Labor Day to everyone! I wanted to share a mixed media canvas I made this week for a challenge site called "Let's Get Shabby." We had to pick a season from this picture as inspiration:

And then create a layout, card or off the page project.  I made a mixed media canvas based on the Spring photo, I loved the image of the ballerina and the flowers. 
First I picked out some papers I thought I may want to use on the canvas:

Then I used mod podge to adhere the papers/elements.  Gel medium would work great too! I also brushed a layer on top to seal in the images and also to ensure any paint or mist I used wouldn't just sink into the papers.

I then added this lovely chipboard picture of the dancing girls and some random corregated cardboard and other chipboard pieces, as well as some cheesecloth.  Trying to build up some texture, I continued by scraping some modelling paste through a stencil on the right top and left bottom corners. I also gessosed the images to tone them down and to make them blend together more.

The fun part! I added various colors of Lindy's Stamp Gang mists, glass bead gel, some stamping and some flowers.  I found some pink sparkly alpha stickers so added "time to" with them.

These giant chipboard alphas were kinda white so I added 3 different colors of distress ink to give them some color.  I then embossed them with white sparkly embossing powder that's hard to see in the picture. 

I just added more color and blended til I was happy, then threw on some rub ons and a lace border and I was done.  So much fun, it came together pretty quickly once I had the idea in my head. It's so fun to get messy and experiment with the different colors/mediums, you just have to go for it!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! Please consider subscribing as I'm really trying to get this off the ground! 
Sarah