MOTHER'S WEDDING PORTRAIT

This layout was created for my mother's ninetieth birthday celebration  this past  August. Paper used includes  Creative Imaginations Devotion Collection and 7 Gypsies Paddington Collection. The flourish was first masked and sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Graphite, then hand stitched. The edges of the Creative Imaginations paper was fussy cut, then lined with black cardstock and popped up using a solid piece of foam. Flowers are by Prima and Petaloo. Lace is by Prima

Thanks, everyone, for taking a peek! 

CHRISTMAS COTTAGE

As a project for THE CRAFTY SCRAPPER design team, each designer is making a  little holiday cottage by the  HEART OF TEXAS STUDIO. There are five little houses in this set called, "The Village", that are each a different size and design. This one is 5" tall and 4"X 4".  For paper, I chose the "Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas" Collection by MEMORY WORKS, and loved the way it can be an excellent background for showing off details. 

The little balls decorating this cottage are "Vintage Raspberry Beads" (clear) by MAYA ROAD, and are hung with cranberry and white baker's twine by THE TWINERY. The two white trims are by WEBSTERS PAGES and were perfect for this little project! Don't they give a lovely, snowy look? For the roof I used a flat white acrylic paint by CRAFTSMART over the paper, then sprinkled "Diamond Dust" by TWINKLETS for an icy finish. Inside the tiny house is an artificial tea light that is battery operated. These can be found in most stores that sell Christmas ornaments. 

Thoughts of my childhood days, playing with dolls in their doll house inspired me to decorate the inside of this little house. Not attaching the roof permanently allows the viewer to look inside the house easily. Most of the "decor" incorporates the Cardstock Stickers of the "Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas" Collection by Memory Works. For just a little additional home-like comfort I added a chair and a grandfather clock using my Cricut by PROVO CRAFT and the "Heritage" cartridge. Both were cut from Advantus Ideology TIM HOLTZ Grungeboard (plain). They were both painted black with Ranger Ink Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint (Black Soot).

The hearth was created by building up layers of foam from a craft store, then adhering the hand drawn brick surface. Cardstock used for this was BAZZILL BASICS PAPER (Rosey/ canvas texture). The white opaque pen is by INKSSENTIALS. 

The sweet holly trim is by MAY ARTS and the tiny rose trim is "Organza Roses" (red) by Maya Road. Topping off this lovely little cottage is the gorgeous "Vintage Lace Mum" (Apple), also by Maya Road. The depth of the layers is strikingly rich and draw plenty of attention to whatever this poinsettia adorns! 

Thanks, everyone for taking a peek at my latest creation. If you're in the area, be sure to stop by THE CRAFTY SCRAPPER in Waxahachie, Texas to see all of the little houses on display for the holiday season! 

DREAM

This is a layout that I did for a BOBUNNY Challenge. The sketch, (below) was created by their designer, Gabrielle Pollacco, and can be seen at the  BOBUNNY Blog:  http://bobunny.blogspot.com/  To honor Gabi, I created the layout using the lovely "Gabrielle Collection", which is named for her. My layout titled, "Dream" features a photo of my daughter, Elizabeth, that I took a few months ago. She is a recent college graduate and is a young woman who lives life to the fullest. 

For the circular frame, I tore and curled the paper to bring dimension to the layout. 

Using only BOBUNNY paper, trim and stamps, I made flowers with the lovely "Gabrielle Wraps". The center of the small  paper flowers consists of the little turquoise string of beads from this package of lace, beads and tulle trims. After curling each petal, I used Color Box's Fluid Chalk Petal Point in tangerine to bring out more of the lovely colors in the paper. Behind the photo, can be seen the "Gabrielle" Clear Stamps that I inked with Tim Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger in "Vintage Photo" and embossed it with Ranger Embossing Powder (clear). The die cut used for the flowers is by Sizzix/Tim Holtz (Alterations Collection) called "Tattered Florals".  For a bit of texture, I ran the flower pieces through my Cuttlebug using the Cuttlebug embossing folder "Love Language Combo" and then sanded over the texture.  Last, I applied "Diamond Dust" by Twinklets, for a bit of sparkle. Also used is  a Trinket from the lovely "Gabrielle"  collection by BOBUNNY! 

For the large flower I also used the "Gabrielle Wraps". I chose the lovely tulle trim and gathered , then sewed the two ends together. Then, I glued it to a one inch circular piece of chipboard. Taking another piece of the tulle, I cut it a tiny bit shorter and gathered it just as I did the first piece and glued it in the center. Next, I added the large rhinestone from the "Gabrielle Wraps" that I first colored with Alcohol Ink by Tim Holtz/Adirondack in Terra Cotta . Last, I used a small bit of the pearl strand from the "Gabrielle Wraps" around the rhinestone.

Thanks, everyone for taking a peek at my latest creation....I appreciate your comments! 

THANKS DAD!

At Christmas each year, I give to my son and daughter, all the layouts that I have done about them in the previous year. This layout is for our son's album. The people in the photo are dear friends of both Lee and Liz. They both endearingly call  the gentleman "Dad". So, as a present for Lee. He hasn't seen it yet....but I guess by Christmas, it won't be a surprise....LOL...Oh, WELL.....what else could I do, right? 

Supplies used are: 

BO BUNNY PRESS Timepiece Collection Papers

TIM HOLTZ  Grunge Board Elements

TIM HOLTZ - RANGER Crackle Paint (Metalic Brushed Pewter and Picket Fence)

TIM HOLTZ-RANGER Distress Ink (Walnut Stain)

SIZZIX-TIM HOLTZ Texture Fades- Alterations Collection- Embossing Folder Bingo and Patchwork Set

STAZON INK (Jet Black)

TEN SECOND STUDIO Metal Sheet (Black)

MAYA ROAD Mini Alphabet (Caroline)

BAZZIL BASICS Cardstock (Black)

7GYPSIES Industrial Gears and Foldover Sticker Book

STAMPENDOUS: Aged Black Embossing Enamel

From my stash: 

Brads and chipboard gear (unknown origin)

corrugated cardboard

Bringing out the gear theme from the Bo Bunny Timepiece patterned paper to the embellies!!!!

A little grunge work close up!

Thanks, everyone, for taking a peek.....and.....shhhhh, don't tell Lee!!!

OCTOBERFEST IN FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS

It's October and that means Octoberfest in many towns across America. We went to Fredericksburg for their Ocotberfest this year and had and enjoyable weekend. Fredericksburg is a small central Texas town in what we call "The Hill Country". It is an area cloce to our state capital, Austin. Many of the small towns in this area were originally inhabited by German immigrants more than a century ago and their descendants who live there today keep alive everything that is good about the German culture. 

Fall is finally in the air, after one of the hottest summers in Texas history. 

The children had a great time on the bungee jump and were so much fun to watch.

Mother and me having a little fun. 

The Monarchs were on their annual  flight from Canada to Mexico! 

A little "Oom-pa-pa" was in order! 

The food at The Peach Tree Tea Room was so delicious that we went there all three days for lunch! Their gift shop has nice gifts that anyone would enjoy having. 

Who could resist gazing into a beautiful garden scene?

Check out the lovely and peaceful coy pond with waterfalls. There were gumball machines that had fish food in them so people could feed the fish and everyone wanted to do their part. 

This is a typical building of the nineteenth century in the Texas Hill Country. The pioneers used stone from local  lime quarries in their architecture. 

About thirty minutes outside of Fredericksburg is "Enchanted Rock" . This unique pink granite dome rises 425 feet above the surrounding countryside and is one of the largest batholiths in the U.S..

We spotted a group of deer grazing at the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

Hope you enjoyed going along on our weekend get-away! 

WINTER MEMORIES

I love snow days! They are such rare treats here in  north centeral Texas and I enjoy driving around and taking in the beauty. My wonderful husband did the driving for me this day in early 2011 and it was so very nice to get out of the house! These two young ladies were building their snowman just about a block away from were I grew up and it seemed that they were having a grand time. Rolling down the window, I asked them if I could take their picture and they were happy to pose for me. It reminded me of times gone by when my friends and I spent a chilly afternoon building our own "Frosty"! 

I always enjoy doing something with the paper other than cutting and pasting, and I experiment with different ways to make a layout interesting. This time, I used concentric circles and tore, rolled and stitched around them to add interest. 

The BO BUNNY "Blitzen" collection was perfect for the layout, as the colors bring out the colors in the picture.

MAYA ROAD'S snowflakes (chipboard and paper) seemed a perfect way to bring out the browns in the picture, as well. Also from MAYA ROAD, I used "Snapshot Words" and "Seasons Keychain Set" and "Trinket Pins". The paper snowflakes were ready to use and I decided to paint the chipboard flakes and then doodle in black for additional detail.

Other supplies used are EK SUCCESS Edger Punch "Snowflake", MAY ARTS ribbon, STAZON Ink "Jet Black", ZIG WRITER (black), ADIRONDACK Acrylic Paint Dabbler "Snow Cap" and little red pearls by BO BUNNY. 

Thanks, everyone, for looking at my latest creation for THE CRAFTY SCRAPPER Design Team! You can see it displayed in the store in Waxahachie, Texas.

HAPPY HOLIDAY

Those of you who are cat lovers understand why this layout is so dear to me. This precious little kitty was just as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside. Seven years ago we lost our precious Hercules. For a long time, I could not do any scrapbook pages about him, but I finally conquered my emotions and much to my surprise, found that doing layouts about "Herkie" actually helped me deal with our loss. 

The Merry Christmas Collection by BEST CREATIONS INC. was deligntful to work with. It gives a bit of a vintage look to any project using traditional Christmas colors. Other papers included are BASIC GREY'S Basic Manilla Paper Pack and BAZILL BASICS cardstock "Jade". Embellishments used are PRIMA's "Medley Spray" (Midas), MAYA ROAD "Organza Roses" ribbon, COSMO CRICKET's "Dear Mr. Claus" collection's cardstock stickers, canvas fabric from my "stash" and MAYA ROAD's "Snowflake Chipboard Set". 

Paints, inks and stencils used here are KRYLON 18kt. Gold Leaf Pen, MAYA ROAD'S Maya Mist, RANGER INK- INKSSENTIALS Crackle Accents, TATTERED ANGELS Glimmer Mist and  glimmer screen "Fanciful Stencils" and TIM HOLTZ mask "Seasonal". Other products used are MARTHA STEWART Punch Around The Page "Holly Leaves" and ZIG writer "Hunter Green". 

Thanks, everyone, for taking a peek at my latest creation!