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

June Scraps of Elegance Kit!!!

Good morning!!!  Today I would like to share a layout I made with the gorgeous Scraps of Elegance June kit "Stephanie's Treasure Kit".  A while back my Mimi gave me tons of old pictures that she had laying around.  As I went through them this past weekend looking for something "cool" to work with, I came across the photos used in my next two blog posts.  I was thrilled with all of the gorgeous purple colors in this kit and even more thrilled when I came across this lavender themed picture of my cousin when she was a baby and another purple themed picture (that surprise is almost finished and right around the corner!)!!!

 

Above you can see the LO in its entirety!  Isn't that photo just precious???  I loved the soft purple hues in the papers with this kit, but also wanted to highlight some of the yellow colors as well.  That being said I decided to use some modeling paste highlighted it with Tim Holtz Crackle Paint in Antique Linen.  I layered lots of papers that were distressed and inked, used a couple of doilies that I spritzed with some color spray from the Color Add On, and several of the small tags that came with the kit. 

 

Below you can see a close up of the brick work along with some of the flower cluster and a few sweet bows that I added as well.

 



I used some metal pieces from a previous kit inside my flower cluster and added a small gemstone to give it a little extra character.  You can also see a little bit of the misting work on the doily.  As I mentioned, I used some of the small tags that came with the kit, but the colors of the tags didn't seem to quite fit in with my LO, so I covered them in gesso and used Tim Holtz alcohol ink to add subtle touches of color to them!  :)  I also used alcohol ink on the edges of the large flower below before touching the edges of most of the flowers with gesso.

Below you can see some the distress, ink and layer work along with some random splatters of mist and purple paint.  You can also see the alcohol ink work on the small tag to the right.

 

 

Thanks for looking at this sweet LO of my even sweeter cousin when she was a baby.  I can't wait to finish my other "purple" project so I can share it with you as well!!!

 

 

xoxo,

Mel

Love! Love! Love!

So here I go again stealing sweet little kiddos!  This time I swiped a super sweet picture of my friend Lisa's granddaughters.  I thought this photo was just too precious for words!  This project was made using a mixture of SOD/SOE kits that I had lying around my scrap room. 

I started with a layers of small pieces of paper that I eventually gesso'd over to remind me where my focal point and picture would be.  Then I did some random misting and painting all over the paper.  The paper was gorgeous to begin with so I stuck with mainly water colors and sheer mists to keep the integrity of the paper.  I took a Blue Fern Studios chipboard piece and gave it a soft green color followed with some iridescent medium for shimmer and a few touches of gesso.   

Below you can see where I started to layer some flowers and trinkets over the chipboard .  I used a Renea's Bouquet butterfly.  You can see just a hair smidge of a roman clock stamp and some sweet lace that I tucked in as well!  :)

 

 

Below is a close up of more stamping, more misting, more flowers, and some bling (just for fun)!  You can also catch a glimpse of mica flakes near the top of the picture! 

 



I loved the Blue Fern Studios paper pictured below with the pink toned wood grain.  I had some scraps of this paper left so I decided to cut the "planks" of wood out.  I distressed the pieces then "fit" them back together to create the base work for my picture "frame".  A resin butterfly and a chipboard butterfly (popped out from the other green piece) completed the sweetness of this LO!

 

 

One more quick close up of the misting and the pink wood "planks"!  

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for looking!  Till next time!

 

xoxo,

Mel

First Day!!!

After spending almost an entire month away from my scrap room (instead of retreating most weekends as I'm used to), I took the opportunity to dive HEAD FIRST into the Scraps of Darkness June Kit "Sindi's Summer Day".  During our recent two week "Army Summer Camp Adventure With All My Favorite Friends" I was showing this kit off to one of my pilots.  Bear in mind that this kind soul has ABSOLUTELY no interest in Scrapbooking, but just had the misfortune of being in my office when I checked the new stuff out at the online store.  At any rate, it prompted him to send me this sweet photo of his kiddos getting on the bus for the first day of school!  I thought the colors were great.  Although you can't see it too well in this picture, it's even sweeter than it looks since her big bro is already on the bus giving her the "come on for your first day of school"!  :)

I loved the colors in this kit.  I was inspired to add in some Heidi Swapp mists since so many of her vibrant colors looked great with this kit.  I went to town misting my paper and misting some of the wood arrows and hearts in various colors.  Below you can see some of the random misting, a wood veneer, and a sticker from the kit (green camera).  I used some glittery black and white paper trim from my stash to accent the bold colors found on the papers! 

I had planned to leave the sticks exposed on the yellow hearts that came in the Floral Add On, but I got carried away too creative with my flower cluster.  With the exception of the yellow mesh flower near the middle and some of the small rosebuds (from a previous kit) all of the flowers came from the kit and the floral add on!  Check out some more of those wood hearts with the Heidi Swapp spray!!! 

 



Below you can see some of the final touches I gave this LO.  I'd like to point out that the twine (top of the picture) is the pull-cord to a hidden journaling card that tucks in behind the picture.  I wanted to add this in just in case this baby's sweet Momma wants to add some notes from this day.  I also used one of the stencils from the Creativity Add-On to make the butterfly.  I kind of like how the paint bled around the stencil giving it a little bit of a girly feel.  To top off the girly feel I added a wide row of Prills down the center and the buttons on the butterfly antennae.  Spoiler alert!  Before I mailed Rhue her butterflies, I experimented with this type of butterly for her.  However, I went a little more into detail for that one!  ;)

 

 

So there you have it!  Thanks for looking and thanks to "Hank Thunder"s family for sharing precious pictures of your kids with me!!!

 

 

Love,

mel

 

 

Weekend fun!!!

Good morning!!!  Today I'd like to share a layout that I actually did a few weeks ago.  As most of you know, I am in the National Guard as a full time Soldier.  That being said, when this time of year comes around, my Monday through Friday job becomes almost a Monday through Monday job for several weeks!  It's okay though because I love what I do....however, I am a "little" behind with my blog!  So here we go! 

Several months ago I stole borrowed this picture from my buddy Grant's Facebook page.  The little blond haired girl in the middle and the sweet little boy to the far left hand side are his precious kiddos.  The other sweet faced kids are their cousins.  I loved the picture and knew that it would go perfectly with the Scraps of Elegance kit "Renea's Charm" from several months ago.  I actually held on doing the LO for a bit hoping that Grant would eventually get me a higher quality picture, but alas...I got tired of waiting and went ahead with the LO.

I loved all the papers that came with this kit.  I layered several together and used some of the lightweight paper with the script on it to add a little bit of flavor in a few places.  I took a piece of corrugated cardboard to be the "frame" for the picture.  I took the cardboard and coated it in gesso, then layered some Tim Holtz Distress Paint and Distress Stain in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo. 

 

 

 

While I was "waiting" to complete this LO I had been tucking several flowers and trinkets away to use with this LO.  Below you can see a close up of some of the flowers and buttons I used.  

Below is a close up of the corrugated cardboard.  You can see some of the stain and paint on it.  I love using cardboard because the texture can be so amazing.  For this piece I actually took off both sides of the cardboard leaving only the corrugated piece.  It made the corrugated part a little more flimsy and continued with the soft whimsical feeling I was going for in this LO.  

So there you have it!  Just a little fun on a weekend before the Army temporarily took over for a bit!  Thanks for looking!!!

Love,
Mel

SOD/SOE April Inspiration Board

Take a look at the fantastic mood board from Scraps of Darkness and Scraps of Elegance this month!!!  I loved this mood board, but the month got away from me and I'm still working on most of my projects!  Either way, here is a LO that I made using this board for inspiration!

 

Here is the LO:

I was inspired by the stacked books, the soft feel of the rose picture, and the ways that light was used in several of the pictures.  I wanted to tear some of my paper and make it looked like it was stacked up on the page.  I fussy cut the roman clock stop watch and layered another clock piece (Tim Holtz) along with a flower on top of it.  I took several pieces of cheese cloth and left some white, and colored the others with a soft pink and a strong golden yellow mist.  The mists were "Blush" and "Mustard" from Heidi Swapp.

Above you can see some of the trinkets from the SOD/SOE kit along with some bling that was include din the kit as well.  I used a flower from the kit and I believe the other one was from my stash.

Above you can see a (blurry) picture of some of the layers including the cheesecloth.  Check out that tiny clock hand (sans clock) that I threw in for good measure!

Thanks for looking!  Hopefully I'll get some of my other mood board creations out here pretty quickly!


Love,
mel

A Canvas for Katie and Kyle

A few weekends ago (on my anniversary weekend, no less!) I had the absolute pleasure of attending a wedding for my sweet cousin (Kyle) and his even sweeter bride (Katie).  These two are so amazingly in love with each other and two of the most wonderfully spirited, God-loving people you could ever think of meeting!  Although I also I went in on a more traditional gift for the two, I wanted to make something from my heart.  At some point when YouTube decides to cooperate with me, I'll post a start to finish tutorial of how I made this canvas, but I didn't want to hold off on posting it to the blog any longer!  :)  I started with a blank canvas and several Scraps of Darkness and Scraps of Elegance kits.  I'm pretty sure there are pieces from the Renea's Charm and Lisa's Love Letters SOE kits as well as a little bit of Karen's Valentine SOD kit and plenty of things from my stash!  :)  I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun I had making this project! 

I started with my blank canvas and used a Tim Holtz lace doily stencil to make the background on my canvas.  I gave it some color and sparkle with gelatoes, watered the color down a little bit and hit with some Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist in white in a few places.  I took the chipboard scrolling heart (Blue Fern Studios) from one of the kits, covered it in gesso, and used no shortage of inks, paint, glitter, embossing powder, and spray mists until I finally got the exact look I was going for.  I layered several romantic feeling papers from the kits (distressing and inking as I went) and added them to the canvas.  I used one of my favorite bible verses about love, printed it on plain cardstock, and colored the paper to match the rest of my theme. 

 

Below you can see some of the flower clusters that I used, as well as one of Renea's sweet butterflies in the lower left hand corner.  I used several flowers from the kits as well as PLENTY from my stash (I love flowers).  I used some of the key trinkets from the Renea's charm kit in a few places across the canvas (love those key charms).

 



And, below again you can see more of the flower clusters along with some metal pieces, a few resin pieces from Prima, and one of the fantastic vine hearts from the Renea's Charm kit.  Check out some of that texture on the chipboard too!!!  :)  Lots of flower layering on this project, I was literally grabbing flowers from all over my scrap room while my husband looked on with a bewildered look on his face!!! 

 

 

So there you have it!!!  Again, I can't even express how much I loved making this!  Thank you for looking, and Best Wishes for the happiest in life and love to Katie and Kyle!  :)

 

love,

mel