Stealing Babies!!!

Okay, so despite what the title of the post suggests, I didn't steal the whole baby...and really not even the picture.  It was sent to me by this little cutie pie's parents.  (No children were harmed and no laws were broken in the making of this project)!!!


The bulk of the materials for this project came from the Scraps of Elegance "Lisa's Love Letters".  It's been a few blog posts since I talked about how much I love the papers from Blue Fern Studios...but I FLIPPING LOVE THEM!  They're so heavy and have absolutely gorgeous designs.  Also included in this kit were some great papers from the Prima "Epiphany" collection (one of my favorite collections, even though I say that every time I discover a new collection from Prima).  I had a few scraps leftover from my previous project, I started with those to match them up. 

I knew I wanted to use an actual frame piece rather than layering the photo onto paper, but I didn't have any frames that I thought matched the look I was going for.  Never fear...way back in my hoard stash I had this super thin super cheap paper frame that perfectly matched the size of picture I had printed.  Since I knew I was going to use a lot of medium to color it, I wanted to "toughen" the thin frame up.  So I experimented by covering the backside of the frame with gel medium.  Once it had dried, the frame felt sturdy enough for what I wanted to do with it.  After some mist, paint, distress stain, and a quick white wash with watered down gesso, I used a Heidi Swapp stamp and covered with another coat of the gesso white wash.  The finishing touch was to tie some Fiber in knots around the corners of the frame.  You can see a close up below.  The awesome butterfly was from a previous SOE kit, but as always from the super talented Renea. 

 

 

Here is another close up of another corner of the frame, along with a little texture work on the background, some lace, and some of my paper layers.

Finally, for my flower clusters/close ups.  The jeweled flower came from "bling" hoard drawers, but most of the actual flowers came in the kit.  I also used one of Renea's butterflies that was included in this kit.  The little silver key can be found at her Etsy shop as well.  The "LOVE" resin piece is from Prima.  The vine heart is from the previous SOE kit, "Renea's Charm".  :)

 



 

 

 So there you have it!!!  Thanks for letting me "borrow" your kid for the day, Jacob and Loni!!! 

 

Love,

mel

Happy Birthday, Susan!!!

So, I'm hoping that girl, Susan, doesn't see this blog post before I get to give her the gift.  I used the Blue Fern Studios February sketch (pictured below) for a variety of projects this month.  Hopefully I can get them all blogged and submitted before the 28th!  :) 

 

For this project, I took a circle canvas included in the Creativity add on from the Scraps of Elegance February kit, Lisa's Love Letters.  I saw a tutorial by Lizzy Wurman where she covered a canvas in some Tim Holtz tissue paper.  Interestingly enough, I had already started covering this canvas with almost the exact same tissue paper when I saw the video.  (Good thinking, Lizzie!)  I loved this picture of Susan, her husband, and their sweet little boy.  I knew I wanted to use some of the soft colored papers from Blue Fern Studios from the kit, but I also wanted to include some blue (to remind everyone that the sweet little kiddo is a boy) so I used some blue embossing powder on a piece of Blue Fern Studios chipboard then randomly swabbed some gesso over it for a more distressed look.  I layered several pieces of paper behind the Prima frame (which I also added some pink paint to) before adding my picture and the frame!

 

After I covered the canvas, I used a variety of spray mists and paints, but couldn't get the rose pink color I was going for, so I toned the color down with a layer of gesso.  Then I used a Tim Holtz stencil with a doily pattern and covered the canvas randomly with the pinkish modeling paste that came in the creativity kit as well. 

In the picture below you can see where I used some of the gelatoes from the kit to add some additional color to the canvas:  

Below are some close ups of the flowers, chipboard, and a piece of Prima "Epiphany" paper that I fussy cut the butterflies and dragonflies from:



 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!  (And if you know Susan, don't tell her about this post until I give her the gift)!!!

 

Love,

Mel

L-O-V-E

Okay, so this is a little late for Valentine's Day!  I took some time off for my annual "Girls Valentine's Day" (which took me out of state this year) so I am a little behind.  I made this LO prior to leaving and showed it to my husband...he "loved" it just like he "loves" all of my other "pretties"!  ;)

I made this LO using the fabulous "Karen's Valentine" kit from Scraps of Darkness.  As always, you can find their amazing blog here.  This group is such a source of inspiration for me...not to mention the fabulous kits they come up with!!!  Below I used one of my favorite stencils from Teresa Collins but used only the "love" portion of the stencil.  (Again, having trouble uploading certain photos...but this particular stencil is the 8x10 stencil pack titled "Dream").  I used modeling paste through the stencil and applied several red and pink mists to the paste before removing the stencil.  I love the places where the mist "ran" a little! 

Last week I posed the question on the SOD/SOE Facebook page seeing how other people used microbeads.  I did this because it seems that every time I try to use them they get everywhere...except for on my project.  However, this SOD kit came with black modeling paste and black microbeads, so I used the two together.  And while I still managed to get quite a few microbeads all over my scraproom, many of them stayed with the project!!!

 

Below you can see some of the finishing elements of the LO.  I used some of the black roses that came in the kit along with a few red ones from my stash.  The black resin piece and the compass both hail from Prima.  You can also see a little bit of red paint splatter that i used for extra effect.  For the awesome Blue Fern Studios chipboard heart with wings, I added red embossing powder to the heart and Tim Holtz Rock Candy glitter to the wings.  

 

 

So there you have my lovely Valentine about the man who stole my heart!!! 

 

Thanks for looking around!!!

 

Love,

mel

Just a quick card...

So...with some friends getting married and the Scraps of Elegance kit, Renea's Charm, I came up with this quick little wedding card.  I have to say that my favorite part about making this card was knowing ahead of time that I didn't have enough white feathers to make the dress.  Luckily for me, we (my work crew) had a frame that needed to be picked up from Hobby Lobby.  Unfortunately, once we got to Hobby Lobby I realized that I had forgotten my wallet, and one of my more "manly-man" friends offered to pick up the "oh-so-girly" feathers...Army uniform and all! 

 

This card was relatively simple.  I used thick plain card stock and a stencil from my stash.  I used the pink Inka Gold paint that came with the kit to create a romantic, yet, simple background for my "wedding dress".  The dress is Blue Fern Studio chipboard (the clutch comes in the same package).  I covered the chipboard in gesso and some pearly white paint (which I believe was also included in the kit).  After the paint layers had dried, I used adhesive pearls to establish the horizontal lines of my dress.  I glittered the top of the dress and lined the neckline with glass seed beads that came in the SOE kit.  Using the "horizontal line guides) I had made with the pears I layered several types of ribbon, fiber, and lace over the skirt of the dress to enhance the look of it.  Two tiny pearls on the clutch, as well as some glitter, finished the overall look of the wedding outfit!  :)

 

 

The look I was going for with the dress was flowing and romantic.  I feel like I got pretty close.  I began with a base layer of the white feathers.  I had to clip some of them, and shape a few others, but the end result was fairly close to the softness I was looking for.  Most of the feathers were glued down to the card itself, but I attached a few others to the back of the dress as well.   Here you can see a close up of some of the ribbon and lace I used for the skirt as well as the pearls.  



Below is a short of the inside of the card.  I used some of the paper from the kit to cover all of the insides, then used various scraps of paper from the kit to layer the right side of the inside of the card.  After distressing and inking the papers to create a timeless and aged look, I glued them down randomly.  I have to admit...I forgot to remember the size of my card and had already distressed and dyed some of the papers before I had to "randomize" them a little more.  LOL.  I then cut the "Laughter and Love" phrase from one of the papers as a final touch to the inside. 

 

Here is a top view showing some of the distressing, dying, and layering.  

 

And that's that!!!  This kit was absolutely perfect for the overall motif I was looking for with this wedding card!!!  :)  Thanks for looking in!

 

Love,

mel

Take it to the limit...

 

Yes, just sing some Eagles in the back of your head while you read this post. Some time back I blogged about how shocked I was to be able to use Scraps of Elegance on a layout JUST FOR ME!!! I figured when I began buying these kits that I would find much more personal use with the Scraps of Darkness and use the Elegance kits more for LOs for other folks and what not. But now, not only have I used SOE for myself, but I made my HUSBAND a gift with the SOE kit from December!!! I actually started this project with every intention of giving it to him as a Christmas gift, but finished somewhere around New Year's Eve...given my difficulties with my blog the past month or so, I'm just now getting caught up to the point where I can tell you all about it! 

 

The December SOE kit "Ever True" featured lots of Prima and Graphic 45 elements to play with!  Included in the Creativity Add On was the above pictured FANTASTIC Cigar Box.  I had done some things with the Prima Cigar Box Secrets prior to getting this kit, and I was absolutely beyond excited to see what was coming in my kit.  Here are a few quick notes about my most wonderful husband:  he smokes the occasional cigar, he takes his watch off every night before bed (I can't...I forget it the next morning...every.single.time.), and he almost never wears his wedding ring (don't worry, he still loves me...it's more job related).  So I thought, what better to give him than a cigar box to keep next to the bed and store things in, such as his wedding ring?

 

 

I started by cutting some of the Prima paper to fit the inside of the cigar box.  Although you can't see it very well, there are wooden "inserts" in the bottom part of the cigar box that reinforce the sides.  I pulled all four pieces out and colored with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink.  Even though I love the smell of the cedar wood inside the cigar box, the color wasn't quite going to mesh with the Prima papers exactly like I wanted it to!  Then I took a stamp, included with the kit I believe, and "dirtied up" my main background paper with a Houndstooth pattern.  

The kit also included some awesome ATCs from the Cigar Box Secrets collection.  I already knew that I wanted to include a picture of me and my husband in the bottom of the box, so I cut the card in half so that all of the wording and most of the vintage-looking style of the ATC would show from behind the photo. 

 

Below you can see the work I did on the inside of the lid of the cigar box.  I love the brickwork looking chipboard, but I have yet to purchase any, so instead I cut some off of a Blue Fern Studios chipboard flourish.  I used a little gesso on the pieces of gesso and then coated them in some Lumiere paint (Metallic Rust).  I smudged a little bit of gesso back onto the top of the Lumiere paint once it had dried.  I used another small scrap of Cigar Box Secrets paper in the bottom left hand corner and applied some flowers.  Please note...this may be the ONE and ONLY time my husband lets me make him something with flowers on/in it.  :)

 



 

 

For the finishing touches, I add the picture of us from my husband's police academy graduation and added another Prima flower from my stash.  Also check out the small piece of Tim Holtz vellum paper I applied to the back inside of the box.  I had thought about using all around the inside, but wanted to keep quite a bit of the wood visible. 

 

So there you have it!!!  Flowers and SOE on my HUSBAND!!!  Thanks, Scraps of Elegance for creating such versatile kits!!!  Thanks for looking, friends! 

Love,
mel