Mother's Day Round Layout

Hi guys,
I wanted to share a round layout I made (out of a cardboard cake circle!) for my design team post for Scrapping4FunChallenges. Here is the challenge info:

Challenge #16

Happy Mother's day / Mother's day / Mother

Please use a "sentiment" with Happy Mother's day / Mother's day / Mother - using your native language for your creation. AFTER you linked up, PLEASE leave a COMMENT plus tell us what "native" Language you used for your sentiment.

1. You can create a - Layout, Card, Canvas, Mini Album, "Off the Page" creations.
2. Must be newly created as of 2nd of May 2014.
3. Enter a direct link to your crations into the link tool, not to the main page of your blog. This makes it easy for the Design Team to find your creations to leave comments.
4. Please, leave a comment - we love comments!!!!
5. MUST be a FOLLOWER!!

This challenge is due Thursday 15th of May 2014, 23:55pm European Time.

Please, be aware of the time zone differences - on the top left you will find the Date and Clock on the blog. 

And here is my layout:

I started out by mod podging a napkin onto a cake circle because I am not great at cutting neat circles and I wanted to make a round layout for a challenge at the Flying Unicorn.  I then glued lace around the perimeter and added some paper layers and my photo.  I had these embossed swirls laying around and they matched so I added them, as well as the embossed gold piece on the top.  Then I glued on a few flowers and added "Happy Mother's Day" in stickers.  I made this for me, to display...to celebrate Mother's Day (the photo is my beautiful daughters). They really are the best thing that ever happened to me and my greatest gift.  I hope all you moms out there have a wonderful Mother's day doing something fun with the ones you love!

tI hope you guys can join in our challenge at Scrapping4FunChallenges! I can't wait to see what you create.

Sarah xoxo

Happy Easter!

Hi friends, Easter is almost here and I have finally got the nerve make up a few quick cards...I don't know why they are so hard for me but I will keep trying! I planned to send these to my nana and my mom so I didn't want to make them to dimensional in fear they would get squished.  Our theme for the design team at Scrapping4FunChallenges was "anything goes but you must use a stamped image or sentiment (or digi)." Hope you will play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter weekend!
Sarah

Inspire Box

Hey peeps, I wanted to share a box I created based on a tutorial over at the Flying Unicorn by Bex.  This was not the easiest for me to complete, but I'm pretty happy with the way it came out and I can't wait to try it again with different colors! Her tut is in the "challenges" section of the forum and it was from last month.  She is amazing at this kind of work and I was so thrilled that she shared her process on how to make this.  I was thinking of my nephew who likes keys when I created this and I hope he likes it!!

As you can see it started out as a plain wood box I picked up at the thrift store and I glued the keys on the top.

Next I ripped off a large piece of foil, crumpled it, then smoothed it out....then glued it over the whole box cover using mod podge.

Next I used acrylic paint and painted over the cover.

OK then you have to cover the whole box with black paint (MAKE SURE THE BLUE IS DRY FIRST) then wait until its slightly dry.  Then you will use a ton of baby wipes or towel etc. to rub a bunch of the paint off, exposing the blue underneath.

I apologize that I don't have pics of the last steps, I was covered in paint! Once I wiped off some black, I used Rub N Buff to highlight some of the keys and then added back in a little blue paint.  I painted the rest of the box black, then dry brushed some blue all around the sides then glued on the front embellishments.  Here is the result:

I made some mistakes and kept ripping the tin foil, but it was really fun to try something I had never done before and I'm sure with some practice I will get better! Please leave me a comment or link if you try or have tried this technique, I would love to see!
Thanks to Eclectric Paperie for the inspiration to use wood (their month's challenge) and I am also going to enter into the Inspiration Emporium challenge for using your "favorite things" (keys and Silks!)

Have a great day!!
Sarah

Those who don't believe in magic...

Hey guys, I wanted to share the  second page of my wood pear inspiration book from GJS.  I decided a few months ago to alter each page with an inspirational quote that I could display in my studio and make me smile.   In case you didn't see it, here is my first page from a few months ago:

This time I decided to use a mauve/purple combo which not everyone loves, but I do! I painted the pear after priming, with acrylic paint from 13 Arts, then added some texture through a stencil using Art Anthology velvets. I added a resin butterfly, metal key and a ribbon from my stash.  Looking at this makes me happy. I can't wait to make page #3.

I added some Prima roses and tried to get the stem to sparkle using some glitter glue but it's not showing up great in the photos.

I am a huge fan of the Eclectic Paperie blog so I would like to enter this into the challenge for this month that is all about "wood."
I would also like to link up with another favorite site, Frilly and Funky where the challenge is "flights of fancy" and must include a winged thing...in this case it would be the resin butterfly. 

Thanks for joining me today, I hope you have a fabulous week!
Sarah xoxo

Good morning,
 I'm here to share my canvas for Scrapping4FunChallenges where this time around the challenge is "anything goes."

1. You can create a - Layout, Card, Canvas, Mini Album, "Off the Page" creations.
2. Must be newly created as of 4th of April 2014.
3. Enter a direct link to your creations into the link tool, not to the main page of your blog. This makes it easy for the Design Team to find your creations to leave comments.
4. Please, leave a comment - we love comments!!!
5. MUST be a FOLLOWER!!

This challenge is due Thursday 17th of April 2014, 23:55pm European Time.

Please, be aware of the time zone differences - on the top left you will find the Date and Clock on the blog.

 

 I hope you will join us this month, I can't wait to see what you guys create! Also Scrpping4Fun is having a design team call, head over to the blog to check it out!

Sarah

Today I Feel Lucky

Hi peeps, St. Pats Day was a week and a half ago but I'm sharing a "luck" inspired page filled with green...I'm Irish, I can do that whenever I want. LOL> I was inspired by Berry7Bleu's challenge to use the word "Luck/y," green and some lace.  I love this photo of my daughter's trip to Disney World.  She was dressed in her "princess dress and tiara," eating a Mickey ice cream and waiting for the 3:00 parade to start.  This is one of my favorite memories of her, she is almost 8 and Disney does not hold the same magic, so you gotta grab those moments and cherish them. 
I love using the green punchinealla on the page, it really pops in the photo.  I also really love these papers and have been hoarding them for a few months (what else is new?). So here is my layout~ Thanks for visiting me today! Sarah xoxox

And a close one:

Who's ready for Spring?

Good morning crafty friends!  Yes my bad pun was intended...I (Sarah) am here today to share my latest project with you for Genuinely Jane Studios.  I started off with the owl book and decided to paint the front cover to resemble an actual owl, despite my daughters' repeated requests to paint it purple and pink!
I didn't really have a plan when I started, just knew I wanted the owl to look somewhat realistic.  I found a box of Target vase filler that I had bought on clearance and was just sitting around so I decided to use up that. I am trying to get creative and use up the ridiculous amount of stuff I have accumulated already. The box was filled with grass and dried flowers...everything needed to make a perfect nest.   Here is my owl:

I started out with the owl wood book from the store.  I first gessoed it then added acrylic paint to the owl.  I used a 12x12 shadowbox from Graphic 45 (the inside box) then added a piece of Prima Sunrise/sunset paper. I wanted the owl to appear three dimensional so I propped it up by adding wooden spools. I then added all my dried grass, flowers, etc with hot glue. The bird was a cut out from a magazine.  I thought it would make a nice decoration for my living room and it was really fun to make! Here are some close ups:

 

Here you can see that it's three dimensional:

 

It's so easy to grab one of these fab books and make something for your house or a gift, that is totally unique and personal.
Have a great day!~

My first altered book

Good morning! I would love to share my first ever book that I have altered the inside of! I have altered several journal and book covers, but have never done anything with the pages. I was so inspired by this month's challenge at Eclectic Paperie.   I am first sharing my cover as part of my design team project for Scrapping4FunChallenges.  This time, we would like you to use some lace and buttons on your creation. Here is my cover:

This is how the book started out:

I first covered it in gesso, then added some rubber stamps for texture (Not with ink but just for the impression).

I then added some fussy cut paper, lace, buttons etc.  I made a bookmark out of twine and metal embellishments. I watched the video on the EP blog and it was very helpful! I tore out some pages of the book and glued the remaining into bunches of 3 or 4, then gessoed.  The book has some really cool images that I wanted to keep, so I glued/gessoed around them, working them into my first two altered pages.

 Here is the first page:

II already posted these two altered pages in previous blog posts, so this is just kind of a reminder of what they looked like.  I am creating my own book of fairy tales, each page will tell a different story.  Here is a look at the second page:

I had so much fun creating this book and I'm really looking forward to creating more pages. It really was much easier than I thought to get started, I can't wait to alter to more books in different sizes! You should try it too! Have a great day!
Sarah

Counting Stars

Hi everyone! I would like to share my second project for the challenge at 7 Dots Studio featuring "Magic and wonder." I just love their papers and can't wait to check out their 3 new lines! It is hard to find them locally so I must by them online.  For this 6X8 canvas I have used a piece of paper from the "messy head" collection, under the chipboard tree with the stars.  I am lately enjoying making whimsical pages and canvases, and I really enjoyed this challenge! 

 

I used lace and Lindy's Stamp gang sprays, along with some mesh tape, fussy cut images, cheese cloth, stamping and flowers from Manor House.  For the chippy, it started out magenta, then I put Ferro paste, didn't like the way it looked so I gessoed it then crackled painted it and added some purple Inka Gold.  It went through a lot! Then I glued some wooden stars on it and ran over them with the Inka Gold as well.  

Thank you for visiting, I would love for you to leave a comment :)
Sarah

Dreams altered book page

Hey guys, just wanted to share another page in my newly altered book.  I am having a blast doing this, I wish I had started sooner! I was inspired by 13 Arts of course, by their create your own background challenge.  I used a lot of gesso, paint, ink, stamping, some resin and little bling.  My book is going to be a collection of my own little "fairy tales" and this one involves a young girl and her dreams of becoming a ballerina...will she? I'm not sure yet, but it is her dream and her passion.  Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog, it is really hard for me to get followers so I appreciate every one of you that is reading this right now!! Thanks!  Here it is:

And some close ups:

Love,

Sarah

Sadness

Good morning friends, I am sharing today a page I made in my altered book.  The challenge this month at Mixed Media Place they are having a challenge that's all about sadness and how that reflects in your artwork.  This challenge resonated with me, as I often feel a range of emotions when I create.  Lots of people say that they feel just happy when they are creating and I wondered if I was the strange one who feels (not only) happy, but oftentimes other, darker emotions...anger, solitude and yes sadness.  Creating art is a form of therapy for me, and I feel better after a session with ink and paint. 
I decided to alter this old book that was once a favorite of my 9 year old, but she decided to get rid of it.  It's full of really magical drawings and I've had a blast playing with it! My first time altering a book on the inside and I don't know what took me so long!

I was also inspired by the challenge at 13 Arts which included making your own background on a scap page, canvas, art journal etc. For my background I used acrylic paint along with pearl pink and pearl violet Ayeeda Mists by 13 Arts.  To add to the texture, I used tons of Ayeeda Powder 3D glass filler.  I had so much fun making this background, it was hard to stop! I just kept adding layers until I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see the image any more. 

This image conveys sadness to me...the whole time I was creating, I was thinking of the The Cure song "Homesick." On the page next to this I have written lyrics from the song: "inspire in me, the desire in me, to never go home." I am still working on that page and will show it later.

And a close up of the texture....

Thank you for stopping by today!
Sarah
P.S. Here is the link to the 13 Arts Store.

You Are My Whole World

Hello crafty friends, I am sharing today one of my favorite layouts that I have made so far.  When you see the picture you will see why. I cannot look at this without smiling.  This is my now 9 year old daughter and this is a picture of her in a ballet leotard/tutu when she was about 10 months old and just happy all the time.  I remember this time of her life when I look at this page, and it was such a magical time! 

I have made this page for the 7 Dots Studio Challenge "magic and wonder" using papers from the 7th wave collection.  I have also used Art Anthology paint for the shiny, dimensional look which you can see better in the next photo. 

Thanks for looking and have a great day~
Sarah

Almost Spring

Hello and happy almost Spring! I would like to share a canvas I made with Spring in mind. Hopefully it will be warming up soon where you are! This month the challenge over at Scrapping 4 Fun Challenges is to use flowers. I have used a wood pail (shovel and pail album) from Genuinely Jane Studios as the "planter."  I tried to give it a weathered, rusty look.  Then I adhered a piece of Prima Sunrise/Sunset paper on a 12X12 canvas, then I filled with gorgeous Prima flowers.

Here is the info:

Challenge #12 - Flowers

We would love to see some Flowers in Challenge #12.

Flowers are very popular for scrapbook pages or cards.

You may use more than one Flower, purchased flowers, self-made flowers,

stamps, Stencils.........

1. You can create a - Layout, Card, Canvas, "Off the Page" creations.
2. Must be newly created as of 7th March 2014.
3. Enter a direct link to your creations into the link tool, not to the main page of your blog. This makes it easy for the Design Team to find your creations to leave comments.
4. Please, leave a comment - we love comments!!!
5. Follow us!

This challenge is due Thursday 20th March 2014, 23:55pm European Time.

Please, be aware of the time zone differences - on the top left you will find the Date and Clock on the blog.

I just had to use my little bee embellishment that I've been hoarding for months, I love it!

I was inspired by the mood board at Life Paper Scrapbook, the roses and the colors.

Have a great day,
Sarah