Precious, Once Upon A Sketch

Addendum - this piece has been hiding for the months of July and August 2014 since it was featured in Scrap n Art online mag :)

Happy Sunday friends!  How is your weekend going?  I'm back with a layout I did for Once Upon A Sketch, another of my favorite challenge sites.  Have you visited them yet?  Click on their title to check it out.  Great inspiration and awesome sketches by Nadia :)

This month's prompt is "An event that changed my life."  I love the thought provoking journaling prompts that Nadia gives.  I know some of us hate to journal, but this challenge says you have to, and it has to be at least 3 lines.  Of course a sketch is always the star.  If you play along, remember to follow the rules, they're pretty lenient, but you have to be in the ball park, especially if you put the same project in more than one challenge.  If you don't get close, you can't be chosen.  Here's the sketch -

I did a few techniques in my take, and I did step out pics so you can see each layer.  The paper is from Blue Fern's new line, simply gorgeous!  Hope you like -

Many things change our lives forever. Marriages, deaths, a new job, the loss of a job, I chose to write about becoming a mom for the first time.  I know for most of us mothers, this changes us forever.  The birth of a child is life altering like nothing else.  My journaling is on the white tag tucked behind this precious pic of my Victoria who was maybe a week old here.  It says -

"On a winter day in January of 81 my life changed forever.  At 10:18 am my beautiful daughter Victoria was born.   People tell you how it will be, but your don't really know till you experience it yourself. Being a mother is like nothing else."

So true is this.  No one ever imagines what holding that precious gift for the first time will do to you. Your heart fills up with this immense love that comes pouring out. Victoria, my first, a wonderful treasure that God blessed me with at 16, and 33 years later, she is a beautiful mom herself.  I'm proud of my daughter and I think we have reached the point where I can say she is my friend :)


Products Used

Bazzil- Fussy
Blue Fern - Boudoir, Calling Cards
White Scalloped Border
Lattice Stencil, homemade
Lindy Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays, Cockle Bells Coral, Cotton Candy Pink, Mad Hatter Mint, Rusty Lantern Lime
Distress Ink, Walnut Stain
Studio G Ink, Green, Olive
Prima Flowers, large and small
White Foam adhesive squares
Michael's foliage
Chipboard leaves,vine Cricut and Gypsy cuts
Creative Embellishments Chipboard, Flourish Set 10
Silhouette Stickers, Precious, Clock Face
Tags, two sizes
Tissue Paper
White Lace

Thanks for stopping by!  Give Once Upon A Sketch a go, it's a lot of fun!

Let Go, Scrap Around The World

Hi friends, how are you doing on the end of this lovely hump day?  I've been enjoying the fabulous sunshine we've been having here in so Cali.  Hopefully all those in the colder areas are finally seeing spring!

Today I have a lo I did for Scrap Around The World's April challenge.  Please give their name a click and check them out!  You won't be disappointed.  Lots of inspo of all kinds. Here's the mood board -

I am loving these colors.  I really have been feeling the mints and turquoises as of late.  Oh well we change our tastes and then go back to the beginning again.  It's almost cyclic.  I can really relate to the quote.  This is a constant battle with myself.  Try as I might I can't just create.  It never flows, I always fret and worry if it looks good, am I
doing it right, should this go here, should I stamp that there.  I watch videos of gals creating and the process is such a smooth thing.  Bing bang boom and they're finished, me it's a two to three day event, moving, staring wondering.  I need to work on just letting go.

I am very happy with how this lo came and hope you like it.  I am employing more and more new techniques at every turn!  I had fun using my bubble wrap and painting it with some white tinted with Lindy's and stamping around the lo.  Getting braver every time. Take a look -

Products Used -

Hollywood and Vine striped paper
Pattern Paper
Homemade texture paste
Homemade butterfly stencil
Gesso
Folk Art Acrylic Paint, white
Lindy Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays, Time Travel Teal, Shabby Turbine Teal, Tiffany Lou Blue, Frolic in the Forest Black, Frozen Jack Frost
Stickles
Recollection Flowers
Want to Scrap Donna Salazar Build Your Own Bling
Flat Back Pearls, large
Queen and Co Flat Back Pearls, black self adhesive
Kaiser Craft Clear Stamp, flutter
Celebrate It Ribbon, black glitter
Wilton Doily, small
Clear Acrylic Stamp, vine border
Bubble Wrap
Chipboard frames cut with cricut
Butterfly printables

As you can see, I pulled the colors, and the butterflies, my faves!  I based my title off of the quote. Once again I used paper I've had for at least 4 years in my stash and wasn't going to be used, so I gesso'd it up and went Lindy's crazy with my mists.  I really like being able to use paper that I've outgrown for whatever reason :)

Hope you all like it, have a great upcoming weekend!

Pick A Stamp, Any Stamp!

Hi friends!  Hope you had a fun weekend.  I'll tell ya, they go way to fast!  I love my weekends and am counting the days to summer break.  I am so blessed to be a stay at home mom and not have to be at a nine to five job, because I love being home with my kids.  I should say I just love being home.  I truly am a homebody.  Always have and always will. We aren't ones to be out and about doing lots of things away from the home. When the summer weather kicks in, I'd be wanting to play hookie if I worked outside the house.  Notice I said work outside the house, you know the pharse, "Man may work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done."  And with a bunch of kids that is the truth!

Ok, nuff of that, on to fun stuff!  This challenge for Craft Hoarders Anonymous is a fun one!  Please go check them out, as papercrafters we hoard stuff up the wazoo, so this is a great way to use your hoard.  The challenge was use those stamps.  Now, I really don't stamp so much, but boy you wouldn't know it from my darn stash!  I got me tons of stamps!  All kinds my friends, from everywhere, Stampin' Up!, Rubbernecker Stamps, Recollections, the dollar bin at Michael's, my lss, gosh I don't even know where some came from I've had em so long!

What I did here on this card is a first for me.  I stamped onto patterned paper, Graphic 45's Secret Garden line, and then on white cardstock.  I cut the dress and hat out, colored the gal, her hair, the shawl and her shoes and bracelet, then I glued the dress and hat onto the image. Some stickles around the dress and hat of course.  I also stamped some teeny tiny butterflies, cut them out and glued them then hit them with some stickles.  On the bottom I used a border stamp from a set that I've had since the stoneage :D flat back pearls and voila!  I like it :)  I used my G45 scraps, made a pretty Easter card and tried something for the first time.  Not too bad. What do you think -

As you can see I popped her up with some foam squares.  I distressed the edge of the matting paper and did some distress ink around the edge. The quote is a pretty one," Easter spells beauty, the rare beauty of new life."  Inside I wrote, "May the beauty of Easter's promise be with you always."

Product List

Graphic 45 Secret Garden
White cardstock
Rubbernecker Stamp, Lady
Butterfly Stamp
Border Stamp
Blue Stickles
Flat Back Pearls, baby blue, medium and small
Water Color Pencils, flesh, pink, baby blue, brown

My forte isn't card-making.  My passion lies in altering and layouts, but I do like to make them for special occasions and give them to my family.  Plus learning and trying new things is awesome, and this was fun.  I hope you like it.

Have a great week friends, till next time!