Scrapping in different sizes

Mostly I scrap in a 12x12 format.

I like the size, there is plenty of space to work and it fits neatly into my albums.

That being said everyone once in a while I like to try a different size; my favorite being a 6x12" page.

Room to work but the different size really gives you pause. 

I don't do many but slowly I am filling up an album of just this sized layouts.

Both of these pages have been featured in Scrapbook News and Review.

On Spread Your Wings I used Prima paper and Washi tape.

The page size really lets me showcase the happy look on my daughter's face without needing to add a lot of extras.

On Smile I used a bunch of scraps, again the size lets you use up even the smallest bits of paper.

The girls were so goofy this day, we were down in Disney World for a soccer tournament.

Florida should be warm...right?

WRONG!!!

It was 29 degrees on the first day.

BRRRRR!

Next time you are trying to jump start your mojo why not try scrapping a 6x12 format, you may get hooked.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Revisiting Paris

I've spent the whole day filming and editing video for my new Art Journal class coming next week (check out The Art Studio June 7th) so I don't have anything I can share today.

So...

I decided to go back to how I celebrated my 40th birthday.

My husband took me AND NO KIDS to Paris for 4 days.

We hopped off the plane, dropped off our luggage and immediately headed over to Sacre Couer.

We've been to the city several times but somehow had never made it to the church.

The sky was absolutely brilliant in it's blue without a cloud in the sky.

I made the decision we'd walk up. I'm in good shape but I was seriously sucking wind by the time we got to the top.

Absolutely stunning, the white against the blue.

See, we are actually there. Sometimes I have to remind myself to jump in the pictures as well.

This is a truly Parisian scene at a cafe in Montmatre. It was decidedly chilly outside but nothing was going to stop this couple from enjoying cafe & the sun.

I love the yellow boots.

After we left Sacre Couer we still had time before we could check in to our hotel.

Off we went to my most favorite museum in the world...

The Musee D'Orsay.

No matter how short our visit is we always make time to stop by here.

The museum is in an old train station. Through one of the clock faces we could look out over the city back where we had been earlier in the day.

Just a shot when you walk in the entrance. The light here is amazing.

I could sit in here for hours.

That's it for today...

Maybe soon I'll share what we did on day 2 (hint it involved several champagne houses ).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Everything has beauty...

So here I am in the middle of writing up a product review for Scrapbook News and Review.

I was talking about Silks Acrylic Glaze and figured the best way to show what I meant was to put a bunch on a piece of paper.

Now I just took a hodge podge of colors and started slapping them down over an old dictionary page.

Great, I had my sample for the review but now what. Some of the colors went together fantastically, others eh.

So I began to play.

First I rubbed some Old Road ink from Prima through a Crafter's Workshop stencil.

I pulled out a stamp set from Unity Stamps and stamped the large flower.

My black StazOn is drying up so the image wasn't that great. Out came my Sharpie where I traced over the stamped image, then it was colored in with Faber Castell Big Brush Pitt Pens.

Finally went over it with a white gel pen.

closeup of my flower

                                         Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

   Oh; and if you are interested in what I have to say about the Silks...check out the June isse of Scrapbook News & Review, coming soon.

Flashback Sunday...to San Gimignano Italy

This time last year we were getting ready to head over to Italy for my oldest daughter's graduation present.

I thought today I'd share some pictures from one of the stops we made as we traveled the country.

Here we are in San Gimignano, found in the province of Siena, Tuscany.

The town was a short bus ride from Florence. Situated on a hilltop is still is home to 14 medieval towers.

You have to walk up a the side of a tall hill to get to the town from the parking area.

As you stop to look over your shoulder this is what you see...

In front of you as you walk are tall stone buildings with the multiple flags hanging.

A shot of 2 of the towers.

They are amazingly well preserved.

                                           
           On top of some of the towers as well as throughout the town were these statutes of men.
               They did cause you to take a second look. From a distance they looked almost real.

Closeup of one of the statues.

Now the other thing we found in the town was this Gelato place. It claimed to be home of the best gelato in the world.

Now I'm not sure if it was the best but it definitely was YUMMY.

And it had the ordinary to the extraordinary in terms of flavor combinations

(me I stuck with coffee)

The girls liked it, they ate it all. The little one even got seconds when her Daddy & Grandmother made it up the hill to get some.

Thanks for taking a quick trip down memory lane.

Have a great day!

Use Your Stash!!!

Over at the Flying Unicorn forums this month there is a challenge to USE YOU STASH...

need extra incentive?

The winner will get a $25 gift certificate to the store.

WHOO HOO

I pulled pout some old papers from Bobunny & Simple Stories.

The photo is matted on some paper layers by Glitz Design (which I apparently love so much I had bought 5 packages)

The wood brackets are from Kaisercraft

Just a close up of the brackets.

I first painted with copper paint then misted with Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow mist and heated with my heat gun until everything bubbled.

Just made it look older ;)

Want to try and win?
   Head on over to Flying Unicorn, you have until the end of the month.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Round Robin's are plenty this month...

I'm a huge fan of participating in Scrapbooking Round Robins.

It's like a childhood game of telephone but grown up and artsy.

This month I was able to participate in 2 different ones.

Lucky me though, as the fates decided I got week 3 for both; so here they are.

The first one is for the round robin at Flying Unicorn. I am on TEAM 8 which is the best of the bunch lol.

The paper is all by BoBunny. Prima flowers and Crafter''s Workshop stencil.

The number die cut was sent to me by a friend. It worked perfect here (I might need to ask for some more).

Little bit of Washi tape and Faded Jeans Distress ink rubbed randomly.

The next layout is for the round robin over at Swirlydoos.

I used the May kit from them to create this layout. The twist this month was NATURE.

Lucky me last year for my 40th birthday my husband took me to Paris with a side trip to Champagne country. 

Those are Moet & Chandon's grape fields in the background.

The paper is Pink Paislee. I used Distress ink & a Crafter's Workshop stencil to overlay a second pattern on it.

Flowers are from Petaloo and chipboard from Dusty Attic (colored with Heidi Swapp Chartreuse mist).

Bit of vintage lace, Pink Paislee die cuts & a rub on.

More flourishes...

Feel free to head over to both forums to see what came before and what comes after...

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Scrapping Everyday Miracles MAY Sketch Challenge

                 It's time for another sketch challenge at Scrapping Everyday Miracles!

  We're so excited to celebrate the National Scrapbooking Month with you and we're gonna have fun creating scrapbook layout and card. We  have a LAYOUT SKETCH and a CARD SKETCH for you to choose what you want to create. You can do both of sketches, or just one. You will get 1 entry in the PRIZE drawing for each sketch you complete.

The SCRAP TWIST that needs to be included on your project is CIRCLE ELEMENTS, for example flowers, doilies, circles, etc.

Here are the sketches:

This was my take on the card sketch.

I wanted to show how sketches can be used not just for their intended purposes. Here I used it in creating my tag.

The background was created by putting a fairly heavy layer of Gesso onto a tag and stamping into it with a large flourish stamp (make sure to wash the stamp IMMEDIATELY after).

When it as dry I sprayed a heavy coat of Glimmer mist.

Instead of a banner piece I stamped flourishes with StazOn ink.

I outlined the quote pieces with a white gel pen to make them pop a bit.

My circle elements are resin flowers.

All Sketch entries must be linked HERE by May 31st, 11:59pm PST.

**You may submit the project you create for Scrapping Everyday Miracles  to other challenge blogs but your project must be mainly created for the Scrapping Everyday Miracles challenge in order to win the sponsor prize and/or be one of the Top 3**

*Important: Make sure your link is to the blog post with your project & not just your blog in general...and be sure to remember the SCRAP TWIST!

Thanks for stopping by.

I can't wait to see what you create with these sketches.

Possibility....

Messing around today with a friend's art journal.

This isn't my typical creation, both the colors which are super bright and the actual hand doodling are not my normal.

I started out by laying down color on the background with my NeoColor II water soluble crayons.

I then drew in the border with a Sharpie and added more color.

Along the inside I used up a bunch of number rub ons from 7 Gypsies, then misted with Vibrant Turquoise & Squeezed Orange ink sprays by Dylusions. I lifted u the book before drying to get some good drips.

Then white ink through sequin waste.

The hearts were cut out from various papers and layered together then machine stitched down the center. I only glued the bottom heart to the page. The rest can be flipped through and written on if you want to add more journaling. 

I outlined the hearts with a Sharpie.

Super thin layer of Gesso and then a Rub on.

I doodled around it a bit to draw focus to it.

Lastly I took a white gel pen and Crafter's Workshop stencil and created some diamonds across my page.

This page is making me very happy, guess it's good to step out of the normal every once in a while.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Tag inspired

Did up a quick tag this morning using bits and pieces from the 

Coffee & Muse kit from Flying Unicorn.

The base is a large Prima tag which came in the kit.

I misted it with 2 different Lindy's Stamp Gang mists. Prima ink was rubbed through 2 stencils to create some pattern.

Layers of muslin, torn brown paper bag, and a butterfly sticker from My Mind's Eye.

Metal zipper pull from Prima.

I  found these little crocheted flowers in the dollar bin at Michaels.

Buttons from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

3 Amigos & Mojo Monday

It is time for another Mojo Monday challenge at 

Flying Unicorn.

(ok I know it's Thursday but it took me a bit)

This week's totally fun sketch came from Shona. Anyone who puts WEEEEEE on their sketch gets big smiles from me lol.

And yes it was a WEEEEE working on it.

I had fun this week.

This is my take on the sketch. The main background paper is a subtly patterned piece by Pion.

I dragged Gesso through a dirty stencil randomly. The Gesso picked up some of the color previously on the stencil so bits and pieces got colored.

Misted with Glimmer Mist & Lindy's Stamp Gang.

Ink through another stencil.

Splattered some watered down Gelato and finally stamped a few stars using StazOn.

Here is a close up of part of the background and the layers.

More of the background, you can see the colored Gesso and dripping mist.

I machined stitched a bunch of circles and then using Gel Medium added random extra thread over the page.

The title is made with cork letters from Little Yellow Bicycle.

They were too brown so I lightly dabbed Lake Mist paint onto each letter.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Joy in the Journey

A Layout created using the May kit Coffee & Muse from 

Flying Unicorn

I used a photo of little bit taken when we were in Italy last summer.

She most definitely found Joy in the Journey.

The papers are from 7 Dots Studio.

On the background I used Spiced Marmalade Distress ink through a Crafter's Workshop stencil.

Misted with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and then stamped randomly with a Prima stamp and Stone Grey StazOn.

The chipboard pieces are from Prima Divine collection.

Flowers from Flying Unicorn, metal bits from Prima.

The banner is resist canvas from Prima colored with Mustard Seed Distress ink.

I used a rub on to create some faux stitching.

You can also see a closeup of the stenciling, misting and stamping.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Be so Happy....

That when others look at you they become happy too.

This is another art journal entry in a friend's AJ.

The pages are watercolor paper. 

The background is Caran D'arche Neocolor II crayons.

Once dry is was stamped with a Club Scrap script stamp.

The die cuts were sent to me by a friend.

I used a white gel pen to outline the plants a bit to give some definition. The quote was printed on Prima paper.

Time to send this one on in the mail.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.