Sunday, December 18, 2011

Dear Santa....Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium

The Christmas Emporium collection by Graphic 45 has really inspired me to create!

Here is a layout I designed for the Winter 2011 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine using this amazing collection of papers...

I haven't scrapped many photos from my childhood and knew it was time to use this precious pic of my brother and I on Santa's knee when I saw the gorgeous G45 papers.

I dearly love this photo...it captures that innocence of the Christmas season, the belief in Santa Claus and all the magic of waking up Christmas morning to find presents under the tree.

I remember that blue jacket and fuzzy white hood trim, and especially those white galoshes.  Do those kind of winter boots exist anymore?  You know the ones...you wear your shoes INSIDE of them! And there is a rubber buckle at the top to tighten? Ahhhhh...memories of simpler times....

But I want to make clear that I am NOT labelling this design as a heritage page or vintage layout...ha ha!  I'm not that old, am I??

The edges are punched by Martha Stewart, the cream ribbon running along the bottom is Harmonie, the fabric stars are  KI Memories, the sticker alpha is Fancy Pants, the chipboard scroll corners and tree are Dusty Attic, and the chipboard ticket border is Graphic 45.

Here are some close ups....
I created a quilted background by stitching squares of patterned paper.
This Dusty Attic tree is painted with Gold Metallic Adirondack paint and backed onto black Bazzill cardstock.
I "pounced" the gold paint dabber onto the chipboard to give it a more metallic appearance.
This scroll corner is also backed onto black Bazzill cardstock.  The square bling is Recollections (from Michaels).
The base of the wreath is made from 2 Tim Holtz medium rosette strips (Sizzix die).
The holly leaves are fussy cut from the Graphic 45 patterned paper and covered with Ranger Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  After they were dry, I layered them onto the rosette wreath base, using Fabri-Tac as my adhesive (fast-drying liquid glue).....an essential for me!  To finish off, I added Stickles in "Xmas Red" to the holly berries and a red bow.  I coloured white seam binding ribbon with Fired Brick Distress Stain, crumpled and let dry. 

Here is a closer look....
The leaves curl as the Rock Candy Stickles dries.
My wonderful Christmas Emporium paper pack from Graphic 45 is almost empty...boo hoo!  But I will enjoy looking at them on this layout for many years to come :)

Wishing you all a joyous Christmas and wonderful holiday season!

Monday, December 12, 2011

December Sketchy Challenge

Is it mid-December?  Really?

And I haven't posted my Canadian Scrapbooker December Sketchy Challenge layout yet...oops! 

Here is Jill Sarginson's wonderful December sketch...

And here is my layout, using the TaDa Creative Studios "Frozen Tozen" collection...
The photos are BoyGenius skating for the first time on an outdoor lake at Jasper Park Lodge.


Those wonderful large white snowflakes are Ezee Pzee chipboard elements that I painted white....love their chipboard designs!

 I added Harmonie tile mosaics to the top and bottom borders for some dimension.
This collection comes with a super cute sticker sheet and journaling spots....
I did some paper piercing along the journalling spot and the round tag to coordinate with my Martha Stewart round the page border punch....
Even though I'm not a big fan of winter weather, I do love creating winter and Christmas pages!  As long as I'm indoors :)

If you have a moment, check out all the amazing offers and Giveaways over at Canadian Scrapbooker.  They are doing a daily Giveaway "16 Days of Sharing" AND a "Webisode 24" prize of a Sony Digital Frame/Printer!  PLUS...there are weekly prizes offered for "Why Not Win Wednesdays"!!

Yep, Canadian Scrapbooker has the Christmas Spirit!  Find them on Facebook too! 

Friday, December 9, 2011

GIVEAWAY WINNER....My Mind's Eye "Sunshine" Kit

Who knew Giveaways could be so much fun!

I love sharing my ideas and techniques with everyone here, and I so appreciate all the wonderful comments.

I just wish I could give EVERYONE a prize...but that would drastically reduce my Christmas shopping budget :)

Without further delay....I shall announce the winner of my 3rd Giveaway to celebrate the Christmas season, which I promise was chosen randomly....

Congratulations to......


RENEE!!

Renee and I met online awhile back on Scrapbook.com, and her blog LuvThisScrap is also an inspiration to me.  She will receive all the papers and products I used to created my layout "Adore."


I'm so happy to tell Renee that I'll be sending some "Sunshine" her way :)

Wishing you all a weekend filled with scrappy happiness!


Friday, December 2, 2011

I "Adore" My Mind's Eye

I tend to jump around a bit and use a variety of paper collections in the vast world of scrapbooking.  But lately I've been gravitating towards My Mind's Eye, the Lost & Found collections.

The papers are so versatile...elegant, classic, yet can suit almost any type of photo...

...even a photo of a teenager!  And that ranks high with me :)

Here is a layout I taught as a class at The Urban Scrapbook last month, created with the beautiful My Mind's Eye "Sunshine" collection.  This gorgeous distressed Prima wood frame was included in the class kit.
I "Adore" my daughter!
Here sits the lovely DramaQueen (DQ) ...and I snapped this during my annual fall photo shoot with the kids in front of our house in October.  Miraculously, she approved ONE photo from the many many that I shot.  And this was it!

I should add that this is probably the only photo she has given me permission to scrapbook in the past six months.

The feature technique for this layout is working with canvas, mainly the Prima Resistant Canvas (the clock, bird, foliage, and corner scrolls).  I coloured them in two ways:  Distress Stain and Distress Ink. (If you're not familiar with Prima Resistant canvas, they are sold in packages, and all these pieces and MORE came in one package! This particular set is called "Printery"...but there are about 5 other sets)
Here are some of the individual pieces out of the Printery set...a little hard to see the white embossed details on them.
A closer look...the butterfly is so beautiful with an embossed resistant script on it.

The tree trunk and branches are cut from Sticky Back canvas (Claudine Hellmuth) ....

 These pieces are inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, embossed, then inked again and backed onto chipboard.   I wrapped the tree in black tulle as well.
Canvas pieces on left are then attached to identical chipboard tree on right.
 The tree and branches are in pieces because I wanted to emboss them at the same time in the embossing folder (which is called "Burlap" by Tim Holtz).

 Here are some more close ups and details...
I handmade the spiral roses.  Just cut a small circle into a spiral, from the outside in, and roll around a skewer.
 The white details on the bird and clock are the "resist"....they will remain white when you ink the canvas.

The bird is painted with Broken China Distress ink.  This is a technique often used by Tim Holtz and Jennifer McGuire. Stamp the ink pad onto a piece of plastic or your splat mat and mist with water.  It becomes a watercolour.....then I painted the canvas bird with a fine tipped paint brush.  The legs and beak are painted with Frayed Burlap Distress ink.  Keep in mind that the watercolour bleeds...and will spread easily, so take care in painting the ink colour where you want it.

The canvas clock is altered with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.  The stains are a more concentrated colour and you just rub them onto the canvas pieces directly.
This corner flourish originally was white!
I coloured this canvas corner flourish with Black Soot Distress Stain.  Now, I should tell you that all these canvas pieces are adhesive backed....however, I learned that when I stained and inked them, the adhesive backing wasn't easily removed.  So I left the backing on and just adhered them to my layout with Fabri-Tac (a fast-drying liquid adhesive).

Leaves and foliage ....with some gold Stickles.
I coloured the flower/foliage canvas piece by painting it (the watercolour method described above) with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.

The dark brown polka dot leaves are coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Stain....see the difference?  Same colour...different application. 

The second technique I used on this layout are the tulle and wire elements:  the flower and the knotted border.  Super easy!

I discovered this tulle flower in a book called "Scrapbook Workshop"(edited by May Flaum) which was just published, and features a number of fantastic techniques by some very talented crafters.


This tulle flower is the handiwork of Iris Babao Uy...she is an artistic genius!
Tulle flower close up....with wire and beads centre.
 Simply gather about four pieces of tulle, 3 inches long and bind them in the middle with a piece of wire.  Leave one end of the wire longer for the front of the flower to make the beaded centre.  Add a few beads, bend the wire, add a few more, bend the wire...and so on.  Then fluff out the tulle into a round flower shape.
Knotted tulle and wire border.
The knotted border is also really simple to make.  Take any length of tulle (mine was about 12 inches) and tie it into knots at 2 inch intervals.  Then wrap small pieces of wire around the knots, securing the wire behind the knot.  When I tied the knots, I left the tulle in between the knots a little loose, not pulled tightly.
These leaves/branches are cut with a Sizzix die and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
Some of you might know that I have a thing for trees.  This is one of my favourites I've designed....with the textured canvas trunk and branches....and I love the leaves cut from the MME music sheet paper.

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!
Because I ADORE all of you and your comments, I'm offering my 3rd GIVEAWAY....in the spirit of giving during this wonderful Christmas season.  If your name is drawn, you will receive a kit that has everything I used to make this layout (The frame, stains and inks are not included).

To be eligible to win, become a Follower and leave a comment.......the winner will be announced next week!