Blue Fern Studios December Sketch Challenge

 

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!  This is the first layout I completed in my newly redesigned scraproom!  (Pictures to come as soon as I get everything into place!)

 

This LO is for the Blue Fern Studios December Sketch and it looks like I got it done JUST IN TIME!  :)

 

Here is the sketch!

 

 

And here is my finished LO!

 

I used some great BFS papers and some of their chipboard as well.  As always, one of my favorite subjects is myself and my girl, Kara!  Isn't she just too photogenic?  (Not to mention my bright smiling face as well!)  Below you can see some Prima flowers that I layered onto a lacy doily that I inked and sprayed.  I like using darker flowers in my LOs that have Army pictures in them because it adds a feminine touch while still keeping a little bit of Army grunginess to the LOs.  On the chipboard I used gesso, texture paste, glitter, and embossing powders to create a ton of different textures.  This picture shows some of the texture paste and glitter!

I also used plenty of paper layers, distressed and inked, along with some neutral colored flowers, the clock piece and a feather piece that had been hanging out in my scrap room for a few years.

 

I did some random stamping and misting all across the page and tucked in a wide piece of crocheted lace behind the picture (still trying to be a little feminine!)

 



Below is a close up of some more flowers, glitter, misting, and the doily. 

I tend to have a little more fun with my layouts when there is a good story behind the picture.  This particular picture was taken before Kara and I went into AR Children's Hospital to see our boss's little girl who had been pretty sick.  She's one of the sweetest kiddos ever and we just couldn't pass up a chance to brighten her day!

Thanks for looking!  Have a safe and fantastic night and a spectacular 2016!!!

xoxo,
mel

Just Playing Around

Whenever I get a "scrapbook block" and can't seem to decide what to scrap, I go digging through the piles upon piles of pictures that family members have given me over the years as they clean out drawers or what not.  This picture I used for this LO was in a stack my Mimi gave me when she cleaned out her scraproom a few years back.  This is my sweet cousin (and only boy cousin on that side of the family) from way back in the day...he's quite a bit bigger now!  This particular stack of pictures also has some other mementos (cards, etc.) that I hope to someday integrate into the scrapbooks for both of these (much more grown up now) kids!  This picture actually makes me chuckle quite a bit because even though he's so small here, he's got same determined look on his face that he still uses today!!!  :)

I made this LO using a variety of scraps and parts and pieces of kits that were laying around my scraproom in my mad rush to "clean" it up before our Christmas party this weekend.  Some of the extras came in a swag bag swap courtesy of my wonderful friend Claudia!

I love getting to do masculine LOs since it seems that most of my work is a little more feminine most of the time.  I took advantage of the dark colors in the photo and grunged this page up quite a bit!

I'd like to point out that the strip with the "Because when you stop and look around.." saying was actually the border of a piece of paper that I cut off.  I really liked how the papers had usable edges that would normally be discarded to make the page 12 x 12...

Below is a close up of some layering work with a Tim Holtz ephemera kit.  There is also some paper layering in the back ground with some extra papers I had laying around.  The light bulb was a gift from Claudia in the above mentioned Swag Bag!

Down below you can see some more paper layers, and some splattering with some Lindy's Stamp Gang mist.  I absolutely love how Lindy's mists can give you several different shades of splatter with one color.  The bigger splotches were actually sprayed while the smaller ones were made with a very fine point paintbrush. 

I took a little bit of corrugated cardboard and hosed it down with Tim Holtz distress spray stain and Lindy's Stamp Gang mists before layering on some Lindy's embossing powder (Cleopatra Copper) as well as a some "leftover" embossing powder in gold tones.  When I get low on a certain shade of embossing powder, I try to mix it with other like colors to get a little more usage out of it!  :)  I added some glitter just for fun since I can't seem to make a masculine LO without a little bit of girlyness! 

 

 

Behind the cardboard you can see where I tucked in a few more pieces of paper.  I wish I could remember what project I had them sitting on my scrap table to be used in, but they worked out pretty great with this LO, so I went ahead and tucked them in!  Isn't that little fist just the cutest thing in the world???  (Okay, I'm a little biased)

 

 

There you have it!  Thanks for checking in with me this Tuesday!!!

 

love,

Mel

Date Night!

Hey, y'all!  I just wanted to get a quick blog in before I head out of town for the weekend!  This is the latest LO I have made with my Scraps of Darkness/Elegance kits.  This was not the original picture I had chosen for this LO, but as I got further into the project I realized that my original photo choice just wasn't going to work.  I'm toying with the idea of going back to this LO and doing some journaling on the page as well.  We'll see!

 

I started by going back to a technique I used "back in the day" where I would take part of a piece of paper and line it up on the edges to make a "new" piece of paper.  Here lately though, I've been modifying that by ripping the paper instead of making a clean cut.  In this case I lined up the right edge with the brighter striped paper.  Before I glued it down, however, I distress (gently) all of the edges and added a little ink. 

 

Below you can see a little of the layered papers under the flower cluster..  I also used a stencil to add some extra fluer de lis and used some Perfect Pearls mists to color them.  The flowers were from Petaloo if I'm not mistaken!

 

 

 

There were some journaling cards in the kit, so I layered a few of them together along with some random scraps from the kit that I tore, distressed and inked.  I also added in a few of the brads(included with the kit and same line as the Bo Bunny papers) for a nice touch before I went to town inking, spraying, and splattering with almost one of everything blue in my collection.

 



One more close up below of some more splattering and brad work.  You can see more of the paper layers here along with some ribbon fun.  The yellow ribbon was once white.  I hand dyed it for another project, but the color turned out wrong.  Jokes on me though 'cause the color is perfect for this LO!  :)

 

 

Thanks for looking!  Sorry to keep it short and sweet, but I'm ready for a mini vacation!!!

 

 

xoxo,

Mel



SOD/SOE Scraplift Round Robin

Good morning!!!  As I was looking through my blog posts I realized I had yet to blog about the Round Robin Scraplift that Scraps of Darkness/Scraps of Elegance hosted a little over a month ago.  The general idea was teams of four people each one scraplifting the layout of the team member before them.  Here was the original from Kathy Mosher that I lifted...

 

 

 

And here is my scraplift!!!

 

I tried to keep the manly theme that Kathy had captured so well in her layout.  I used a selfie I had taken of myself during our recent helicopter door gunnery exercise.  Yes, that's me...and that's my machine gun!  :)  But in keeping with my desire to feel a little girly...I used plenty of flowers and a few girly-ish colors...albeit in a slightly darker form...

Below you can see some teal around the distressed edges of my paper layers.  I also felt that the green colors added a soft touch to all of the browns and neutrals. 

Below you can see some more touches of masculinity mixed in with a few sweeter more feminine touches.  I loved the tassel!  I used some Heidi Swapp color shine mist in Bronze to darken up the cheescloth in the background. 

Below is another clock piece I've been hoarding saving for a rainy day.  I used some patina coloring from Ranger Ink to give it a little bit of color.  I thought the gears fit in well with the helicopter picture!  :)

Just one more picture of the layering on this piece.  You can also see some stamp work and some gold spray that I used to keep this LO from getting too masculine!!!

 

 

Thanks for looking!  I'll have more to share this week!!! 

 

xoxo,

Mel

Fall fun!!!

Sometimes I hoard tuck things away that I know will go well with a certain picture.  Well over a year ago I started tucking some of the flowers and papers away that I used in this project...along with the picture.  The picture is one of my friend Bettye with her nephew way back when we still had Huey helicopters in our Army unit.  I loved the beautiful soft glow of the picture and I just knew that I went I got around to it I would be using a lot of fall colors.  And here it is!!!

 

Below you can see some of the more predominant fall colors with the gold hues and glitter, but I also wanted to mix some blue and green colors in.  I used a Tim Holtz harlequin stencil and applied modeling paste over it before using several different shades of blue, green, and teal mists to get the color I was going for.  At the last minute I decided to use a brownish red mist from Lindy's Stamp Gang (sorry, posting away from home so I can't look at the color) with a small paintbrush around the edges of the harlequin diamonds. 

 



Below you can check out one of my flower clusters along with some paper layering and splatter painting.   The cream colored rose is hard resin and I love the way that it gives the LO a little bit of a throwback "days lost/days gone" feel.

Below is part of my other flower cluster.  As you can see I was able to use some teal in this one to give a splash of color!  (LOVE teal!)  Don't you just love all the clear "sparklies" on some of these flowers from Petaloo?!

And finally, here is a closeup of the stencil work with flowers in the background.  The fibers came from my stash and I think they give just the perfect touch of softness to this project!

There you have it!  The leaves are changing and I'm so glad I had a chance to make this fabulous fall colored LO.  Thanks for looking!!!

xoxo,
Mel

Just the two of us!

Hey, y'all!!!  I've taken some time away from the blog for awhile (sorry!) but I'm back and I'd like to share a few projects that I've created over the past few weeks!  I've spread these out so that I have some blogging material for the next little bit while I continue to get my life back into order after a crazy hectic couple of months!  Here is a layout with a picture of me and my super duper awesome husband!  This photo was actually taken back in March at my cousin's wedding, and has been sitting on my desk for quite some time now!  I loved the feel of this kit when I opened it so I thought I'd give the picture a new home!

 

 

I started working on the chipboard piece first...and actually spent a good day on it (lots of layers of ink, paint, and what nots).  Here is a picture of the first two layers of color on it...gesso and some gelatos that I blended and blended...and then blended (just for good measure).

 

Here is another close up of the chipboard after I finished and put it on the page.  After using gelatos I used some Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays and some Lindy's magicals before applying some shimmery embossing powders and some chunky pink glitter!  :)

Most of this project was done with the August Scraps of Elegance kit (yes, I am behind on using my kits...and if we're really going to be honest here I actually have 3 unopened kits at the house.  *sigh*)
I loved the birdhouse and flowers that came with this kit.  Behind the chipboard I layered some cheesecloth.  Some of it was left white while I dyed some of the other pieces in a Tim Holtz Reinker/water mix to get a light fluffy color and some added layers.

Below you can a close up of some more flowers, more cheesecloth and a super cool mini frame.  The square frame actually came in the very first Scraps of Darkness kit that I purchased (over a year ago) that I have been hoarding saving for a rainy day.  I used some of the patina that came in a kit to give it super cool color and sprayed a little water on the patina before it dried to create the muddled look in the top lefthand corner.  The purple flowers were originally white, but I used the same technique of mixing Tim Holtz reinkers with water to give them a gorgeous purple-ly hue!

Below is the last close up of this project, more flowers, more layers, more cheesecloth, an artist tile, etc.  You can also see some of the random splattering, a little bit of stamping and texture work, and some of mica flakes that came in the kit.

 

There you have it!  I'm eager to get back in my scraproom and keep this blog up to date!  Thanks for looking!!!

 

xoxo,

Mel

Life's Little Moments!

So, I recently blogged about how awesome my cousin's kiddos are...(not to mention two of the cutest boys around)!!!  Today I'm here to share one more LO I did with some pictures I found of these two cutie pies on FB.  The background paper for this LO was super bright with lots of pinks and pinkish reds.  I didn't feel like it fit the boyish feel I was going for (even though I wanted to use plenty of brights from a leftover Scraps of Darkness kit) so I muted the colors down with some watered down gesso (almost makes a whitewash type medium). 

 
I then picked through my scraps from and found some bright, fun, but still little boyish-ish scraps and colors.  The arrows were basically already "formed" into arrows on the papers, so I just cut them out.  The buttons were a leftover from the same SOD kit that many of the brighter papers came from.  (Sorry, I can't remember which one...I refuse to store them after I use them up...so they eventually get all bundled together, sometimes with notes about what month they came from.  *sigh*)
I used some Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist on the papers (turquoise) and made some splatters with other Color Shine Mists (pinks and reds) and Tim Holtz Distress Stain Sprays (Antique Linen, Wild Honey, and Peacock Feathers).

Since I was using pieces of kits and didn't have many, if any, of the flowers left...most of the flowers came from my stash.  Below you can see a close up of the cluster.  I loved the bright feel the yellow colors gave this LO!

 

Most of my layers that weren't cut into specific shapes were distressed and inked.  I love this little wood arrows.  Normally I prefer to color them, but I thought the bare wood made this project just a little more "manly" for these two boys!

 

 

That's it for this LO!  Thanks for taking a look!!!

 

love,

Mel

Sweet Baby...Sweet Layout...

So here we are once again with this sweet little "stolen" baby of some friends of mine!!!!  Isn't she precious?!  This time the picture was given to me...so I suppose "stealing babies" is a bit of a stretch for this on!  This is a past Scraps of Elegance kit and some other "what nots" I had hanging around my scrap room.  I have been exceptionally busy and stressed in the past couple of months, so my kits have been stacking up and I haven't really had the chance to use my creative outlet for stress relief.  Luckily I took some time off this past week and I'm mostly caught up.  Sadly, most of the layouts I completed were already in progress, but finishing them up gave me some closure.  Here is the part 2 of the "Stealing Baby" project!

 

I love soft feel of the Blue Fern Studios papers.  They always seem to put me at ease and make me feel a little relaxed.  I had mostly completed this layout, but had been tossing flowers to the side to use on it when I had a chance to finish for weeks.  Below you can see one of the flower clusters!  The monogram charm is from Prima and I used some dainty ribbon to tie a bow on top of it! 

Below you can see some of the paper layering.  I did some punching and distressing to the papers and used some ink to give the LO a special aged look!  You can see some more of the flowers here as well...

These tags came with the kit.  I used some of the same dainty ribbon to tie them up as well.  I originally planned to write or stencil some design or sentiment on the tags, but they were a little small and I loved the way they looked "as is"!

Below is one more view of some of my flower clusters, punching, stamping, and layering!  I used a little bit of gesso on some of the flowers (the tan one came speckled and I liked the look of it!)

I hope you enjoyed checking this out!!!  Have a great week!

xoxo,
Mel

Summer Days!

My cousin is kind of a Triple Threat...she has super cute kiddos, takes great pictures, and has a super eye for color and filters.  So, it should come as no surprise that sometimes I like to stalk browse her Facebook feed for pictures when I'm looking for something to work with...And that is where I came up with the photo in this little gem!!!

As usual, I was trying to use up some of the scraps I had laying around and working with a Scraps of (I believe) Darkness kit.  I loved the bright colors and I knew I had some other brightly colored things around that were just DYING to be a part of this LO...like that fabulous number paper in the layers!!!

 

The kit came with the awesome Shimmerz "Dazzlerz Paint" in Sour Apple.  The bright green color completely matched my mood for the day and gave an overall "happy" vibe to this LO.  The "old school" view master die cut is a throwback to the days when my cousins, sister, and I would spend hours playing with one at our Mimi's house.  I tore several pieces of paper to finish my background and used some red and yellow mists to stencil and splatter color on the background.  You can't see it too well, but the stencil I used was a playful mustache stencil...perfect for boys!!!

 



Below you can see more of the Sour Apple Paint and splatters along with some bright brads and random stamping.  I used some of my more brightly colored Tim Holtz Distress ink pads for the stamping!  Love his colors!  Check out the awesome Project Life elements that I used as well!  A perfect fit for this color scheme!

Below are some more close ups of layering and elements.  I used a bright red paint to paint over the frame that came with the kit.  It was already a reddish color but I wanted to make it a little brighter!  :)

And some close ups of the background paper, a die cut that I sprayed with some Color Shine mist, and some splatters. 

 

 

Thanks for looking!  Aren't these boys the cutest????

 

 

Love,

mel

Continuing a project...

So, trucking right along with my project to capture from some moments of a friend's life for her parents (and in keeping with the finest tradition of valiantly trying to use supplies up to clear my work area) I made this fun LO of Amber on the lake.  I loved the colors from this Scraps of Elegance kit and had been saving a few color elements, flowers and what nots from other kits that went well with the colors in the picture.  The end result is: 

I started out by layering several Blue Fern Studios Papers.  I loved the softer watercolored feel to them and added a few scrap pieces of paper as well.  I got (a little) "mist happy" in a few places, but overall I think the misting turned out pretty great. 

Below you can see one of the great flower clusters, ranging from several months worth of kits.  I keep flowers that I think will coordinate well together for a project separate from my normal kit stash.  Sometimes I'm even a little surprised when I open the bag (or box) and see what I've hoarded stashed away. 

 

The flower cluster below was layered over a piece of trim leftover from a DECEMBER kit!  Yes, that's how long I sometimes hold on to stuff waiting to use it on a special project.  I'm lying...I'll hoard it for years...ask my husband!  :)



 

Here is where some of my spraying and misting for this LO.  I wanted to make sure I had stayed with the general nostalgic feel of the LO and I think I managed to capture that by using several different mists.  I was surprised that I was able to use the card stock cutout on this LO since the fairly muted colors wouldn't normally seem to match the brights I was going with in this piece.

 

 

And there it is!!!  Thanks for looking and come back soon!

 

 

xoxo,

Mel

My Little Sister...

As promised!  Here is my next LO using the Scraps of Elegance June Kit "Stephanie's Treasure".  This kit was so completely yummylicious and feminine...and once again as I was looking over pictures that my Mimi had given me I found this delightful gem (already purple/lavender themed) of my sister back in her younger years!!! 

I started by going through the patterned papers and was surprised to see that despite my love for Blue Fern Studios Papers, the Craft and You Designs papers were catching my eyes a little more.  They also seemed to fit the background of the photo a little better as well.  I cut and tore a few layers, did some stamping with black archival ink, added some punching and even used the leftover punch parts for my back ground.  I used some of the alcohol ink included the kit to add a little bit of color.  My sis is pretty musically inclined so I used several of the Tim Holtz rubons with music notes (and some of the birds and butterflies) to add even more fun to my background. The stamp was a Prima stamp from a previous kit, I believe.

Below you can see a close up of some of the flower clusters as well as some chipboard work with the Blue Fern Studios chipboard that came with the kit (iron work, I believe).  For the chipboard I started with some of the Vibez spray that was included in the color add on, embossed a floral image over the chipboard with clear embossing powders, and rubbed the Cremeez and Inklingz purple colors over the clear embossed image until I achieved the color I was looking for. 

 

I used a stencil and modeling paste to add a little bit of texture in places around the LO and messily painted and finger rubbed color from the Color add on in places.  I liked the messy look with these [mostly] sheer colors. 



 

 

Below you can see just a few more closeups of the color work, layering work, and punching work.  Behind the bottom layer is just a hint of stencil work peaking out.  Unfortunately, most of the stencil work was covered up by my layers!  :(

 

 

So there you have it!  Another LO with the fabulous June SOE kit.  This is also my entry for the July Blue Fern Studios Sketch Challenge.  You can check the challenge out here. 

 

Thanks for looking!!!!  xoxo

 

Love,

mel