The Magic of Oz

I had hoped and prayed...and prayed and hoped...but BabyOfTheFamily refused to be ANY of the characters from Wizard of Oz for Halloween this year!  LOL!

Why was I hoping for this?  Because I wanted to put the photos of her (dressed up as Dorothy, no less) on my "Magic of Oz" layout! hee hee!

So I decided to scrap my photos of the musical "WICKED"...which my BFF Sandra treated me to in August.  I don't see a lot of live theatre, and this performance had a powerful impact on me.  In fact, I was inspired to design a layout about Oz with the wonderful Graphic 45 papers.

This 2-page layout is a class I taught at Scrap-A-Lot a couple of weeks ago.  I have another single page Oz layout still in my sketch book!  But some day soon (I hope) it will become a reality :)

A slightly crooked photo....it's hard to take a pic of a double pager!

I am kicking myself for cheaping out and not buying a program...which would have had wonderful photos of the cast and sets.  I could have cut those out for my layout since you cannot take pictures during the performance.  Instead, I downloaded the rather poor quality photos of Glinda (left page) and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West (far right page).  The middle photo is of Sandra and me posing in the foyer with a huge poster.  Don't you love the graphic of the two witches on the poster?!? Hey....I just noticed something...wait a minute....why is Sandra standing in front of "Glinda the GOOD Witch" and I am standing in front of the "WICKED witch"???

Why do BLONDES always end up being the "GOOD" witch????

The brick road was a feature technique for this class. I used my trusty Big Shot and the Tim Holtz brick embossing folder.  I inked the embossing folder with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink BEFORE I put the yellow cardstock inside and ran it through the Big Shot.

I used a 6" x 12" piece of yellow cardstock, and kept moving the folder to emboss the length.

Then I cut along the edges of the bricks to make the edges uneven....I wanted to create the perspective of the road from a distance. (And I did this twice for the road on both left and right pages.)

I added Yellow Stickles randomly and spread them with my finger for a little glimmer.

The other special element is Glinda on the bird cage, in the top left corner.

I hung the cage from the top gears die cut border using gold wire.

I created the antique "crackled" effect on the wings (which are Tim Holtz grunge paper die cuts) using Picket Fence (white) Distress Crackle Paint, then inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

Most of you have seen that Tim Holtz Die Cut bird cage before...and I cut it from Grunge Paper. To make that cage look metallic, I "pounced" my Adirondack Gold Metallic Paint Dabber all over it, giving it a hammered metal effect.

I really wanted Glinda to SHINE....so Stickles did their magic...

Glinda LOVES Stickles :)

A closer look...

I think I'm falling in love with Glinda :)

The other Tim Holtz Grunge Paper element I created is the Tin Man's Heart...

The "tools" for altering the grunge paper heart

The heart is coloured with Fired Brick Distress Stain.  Grunge paper really drinks up the Stain, so you have to apply lots of layers of it to get a rich dark colour.  Then I applied Clear Rock Candy Stickles to the red heart piece for some sugary shine.

I used almost half a bottle of yellow Stickles to get that bottom layer to look REALLY glittery.  First I coloured the raw grunge paper with Mustard Seed Distress Ink to give the Stickles a nice yellow base.

The oversized "postage stamp" edges of the layout are created with a 1/2 inch circle punch...easy peasy!

I made 1 inch markings on the blue background to space the punches...

With a Sharpie, I marked the halfway point on the back of my punch so I could easily measure and punch half a circle....

The top border of both pages is created with POW Micro Glitter paper (American Crafts)...LOVE that stuff....it's soooo thin and pliable and doesn't stink and cuts beautifully...and MOST important, the glitter does not rub off AT ALL.  It is miraculous paper!

I added a glittery red ribbon across the top of the gears to match Dorothy's shoes.

If you're wondering why I chose a rather "unusual" border along the top, it's because of the sets in the play Wicked....they are Steampunk!  If you're not familiar with this term, think "Sci-Fi" mechanical elements...or Timex watches on crack...ha ha!

I added Xmas Red Stickles to sparkle up Dorothy's shoes...

Sigh...don't we ALL wish we had a pair of these beauties?

I also Stickled the Witch's striped stockings/legs in Purple...

I fussy cut these lovely poppies along the bottom edges of both pages.

I also fussy cut the title banner from the same piece of paper the characters came from...

The frame is made of BoBunny double dot card stock "Chiffon" and I punched the edges with a small postage stamp border punch from Fiskars.

I added some poppies in the bottom corners of the photo mat/frame for some colour...

The characters are cut from one fabulous piece of Graphic 45 paper...

More Red Stickles to brighten Dorothy's shoes..

And now your trip along my yellow brick road has come to an end.

Thanks for joining me...and may the rest of your day be magical...OR "wicked."  hee hee!

Back-to-School Shopping Mall of Horrors

No, the title isn't misleading. Yes, I know it's October already and Back-To-School shopping is long gone....however, it has taken me this long to recover from one particular shopping trip with DramaQueen in early September. Thus, you are reading a belated post ;)

Shopping with a teenage daughter is tricky at best. A lot depends on mood.... not just her mood, but MY mood too. I was feeling extraordinarily patient one September day and agreed to go to the BIGGEST mall in the universe...located right here in my home town (lucky me).

Apparently these are the textbooks that fashionistas are studying.

I thought of comparing this shopping trip to an ocean cruise...sometimes feeling like I'm on a 5-star Princess cruise ship...and other times feeling like I'm in a deflating life raft without a paddle.

We "cruised" happily into the first store and ended up fairly soon in the change room. That's where things started to deteriorate.

Conversation in Fitting Room:

ME: That's cute!
DQ: No, it's not.

{next outfit}
ME: That's cute!
DQ: NO, it's NOT!

{14 outfits later}
ME: Ummmmm...isn't that shirt see-through??
DQ: That's the whole point!!

I wish I had photos for you from the Fitting room, but that would have been too creepy.

Instead, I took photos while waiting OUTSIDE the Fitting Room {mwaahaa...evil laughter}

Here's a lovely t-shirt....

The "feminist" in me really enjoys the nude images of women that form a skull.  How artistic!

And check out this delightful tag on a tank top....

Sorry for the poor quality photo.....all these teen stores have horrible lighting.

Let me type out what is printed on the tag:  "Keep out of Reach of Good Girls"  then below that: "Successful Loving Tablet"  "1 capsule" 

See that pink circle?  That is actually a pink tablet/pill in a plastic enclosed bubble.  Egads.  What the ??

After spending most of the day in dimly lit stores that have pounding music and are masquerading as nightclubs, we entered a happy place, all bright and colourful.

This store is Victoria Secret for teens...called "PINK"

I don't know about you, but all of my bras and panties when I was 14 years old were BEIGE.  Not even white.  And definitely NOT black (that colour was only for bad girls!)  Now the girls can buy RAINBOW underwear!

I had a devilish thought while she was trying on stuff in this Pink store....why not buy an extra large thong in neon pink for myself.  But no, I knew DQ wouldn't find the humour in that, and I could not put up with anymore eyerolling.

Instead, I sat quietly and watched all the other middle-aged moms stand in the check-out line with the same dazed and confused looks on their faces as me.

And that helped..a little...knowing that I'm not alone on this mothership that's being tossed about in the storm called "Hurricane Adolescence."

I can't wait til we come to port...in like 10 years or so??

October Sketchy Challenge

GULP!  It's October!! I quickly figured that out because BabyOfTheFamily started asking about her Halloween costume. Honestly...it will be VERY difficult to top last year's costume.  Take a look....

The Mad Hatter!

This year she's in Grade 6....and wants a costume with MAKE-UP that will make her look beautiful.  Don't we all??

Another reason I know it's October is because there is a new Sketchy Challenge over at Canadian Scrapbooker!  Woohoooo! 

Jill Sarginson designed a fabulous sketch once again...

 And here is my layout....

Every Halloween I take a photo of the Jack O'Lanterns my kids carve :)

The black background patterned paper and the pumpkin patch are from the new FancyPants "Oct 31" collection....

Confession time....I had this layout design sketched for last year's Halloween!  EEEEK!! Now that's scary!  I even had altered that Dusty Attic tree and printed out the vintage seed packet from Graphics Fairy.  Better late than never, I guess ;)

Vintage seed packet printed from Graphics Fairy, held with Tim Holtz Memo Pin.

Dusty Attic tree altered with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam in Stiletto (Black)

My sweet scrappy friend from Newfoundland had sent me that border punch awhile ago (edging the brown Basic Grey strip) and she very kindly gave me that gorgeous yellow moon paper, which is Basic Grey "Curio."  I barely had to ink the edges, it has such perfect shading on it...thanks Michelle!

The "Boo" chipboard title and bat is from an older Basic Grey Halloween collection, which I believe is called "Eerie."  I picked it up in a sale bin last year ...yay!

Love this set of Basic Grey chipboard stickers!

 I went a little nutso with my Big Shot and Sizzix dies to create that pumpkin patch!

 

I used 3 different dies for the leaves and vines, plus stamped more leaves with a Magenta stamp and cut them out...

I used 2 shades of Distress Ink:  Peeled Paint (dark) and Crushed Olive (yellow-green).

I die cut the "spooky fence" out of grunge paper, painted it with Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint, and finally inked it with Weathered Wood Distress ink....

I added a little shading to the pumpkins and leaves with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Now..."Trick or Treat" over to the Canadian Scrapbooker website and upload your layout for the October Sketch!

Speaking of "Treats", Sony has a special offer on right now for a VERY cool new Digital Frame...that doubles as a 4x6 photo printer!
 
It prints gorgeous 4X6 photos right at your scrapbooking station, and you can take it easily with you to crops!  What more can a scrapper ask for!!!!!


Sony is offering Canadian Scrapbooker Readers an awesome opportunity – take advantage of these coupons to get your Frame/Printer and printer paper today!

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