My Fav 14 pages in the year 2014

in no particular order....

Fun Halloween page.........

Sam's first Halloween. And I got to use my monkey die cut.

Not much call for it ordinarily. LOL.

 Love that I completed this printer tray collage

it was a lot of fun to do - scary at first.

But I went wayback through some old scrapbook magazines

and this was a page that I dogeared.

I always looked at the mags for inspiration and

its kinda of a bummer there are hardly any remaining.

 Used a handwritten title which is unusual for me.

Which is dumb because while I use those premade EK Success

word thingys which aren't perfect, why do I obsess over my handwriting.

 Worked in that straw..........

and on a beach page.

This was a color challenge for OTR.

 Another page out of the ashes  (or garbage can) LOL!

Again, a goofy disconnect that once thought about was taken

care of with the smearing of watercolors.

 Baseball fans.......

Doesn't ledger paper make you swoon.

Especially for a baseball page.

 One of my tutorials over at OTR.

It was the banners - noticing ordinary things AND

writing them in a notebook.

To use later when you're braindead for ideas.

 This was a lot of fun...5 photos on an 8x8.

I love that the photos told a story.

A collaboration of brothers on an important project.

Which was top secret.

 A page using one of those prebuilt tags I made.

I really had a great time making and using all those tags.

It took awhile and an awareness to purposely use them.

I find tags with stuff on them hard to incorporate in pages.

However, they worked out really well.

So well, I may do it again.

 My entry for Avacado DT - didn't make it but love the page.

I had a lot of fun and used their stamps which were

perfect for the page.

I find it difficult to get some stamps on a page and cards

which was probably why I wasn't picked.

 Finally used that bingo card I have forEVER.

I had played around with it with some tea dye paint and

it sat around for a long time before I figured things out.

 Love girly.........

and used stencils, watercolors and everything.

Love the picture of my grown boy painting his kidlet's toes.

 Fun camping with my favorite youngest son.

We had a great visit just hanging out.

 Challenged myself to make an all white page.

Because I could.

Do you know how many shades of white there are....

A HAPPY AND BLESSED NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

Went to see my favorite youngest son

We camped in Ochlockonee State Park.

(pronounced Oh Clock Knee)

 Views around the campsite.

 Setting up camp..

 A visitor in the campsite.

 Not an albino.

 My favorite youngest son...

who is also a goof.

 We took a short hike.

 And I got this one of my favorite youngest son SOOC. 

Swoon.

He's grown up so much and is quite an awesome young man.

Daddy long legs poser.

We had a most excellent time.

And you'll be seeing some of these on scrapbook pages.

My tutorial take on non-traditional Christmas colors

I decided to go with the nontraditional color palatte

because well....

it was a challenge.

 I had to dig through way too much stuff

to find papers.

 And accessories.

I used watercolors to make up for lack

of some colors and to enhance others.

I have wanted to use that bow and my flamingo

die cut.

Because grammy lives in Florida - get it? LOL.
Both provide a bit of whimsey especially the flamingo because as you 

can see some of the kidlets are dressed for winter.

Finally used that flower soft stuff I've had for
a million years!
The title placement drove me crazy - 

short trip I know -

I put it everywhere on the page,

and it finally found a home.

Whew....

Ta-da!

Hope you have as much fun as I did with this

beautiful color palatte.

Merry Christmas!!!

Getting crafty with pinecones

We have a lot of pine trees in the backyard.

That bear lots of pine cones.

And every year I say I'm going to do something.

So this year I did.

I have a TON of supplies 

and I know that surprises you - so I dug out a variety

because I wasn't sure which way I'd roll.

 I started with paint.

And some glitter.

I must say that the deck looks lovely in glitter.

As did my hands, pants and hair.

 And the paint made a happy little pine cone and I love that color blue.

Or Turquoise or blue green.

I have lots of blue, turquoise pine cones.

 Next I broke out the stickles and it looked very pretty.

However squeezing it out bit by bit was annoying and time consuming.

So...I dumped the entire bottle out and commenced to painting it on.

 Painting worked out well for both Stickles and Liquid Pearl.

 I did make a variety until I ran out of something.

I used up a lot of supplies that had been sitting in the drawer

for a long, long, long time.

 The Stickles made it blingy.

 And the glitter made it sugary.

I really love both looks.

I also kept some of the pinecones pure.

Love that rustic look.

I used jute as the hanger and made it extra long.

And used hot glue.

Hot glue is like eating French Onion Soup.

And it ain't pretty.

I'm still pulling strings off of things.

 The beautiful bows were from ribbon from grandson Lou's shower.

I still have some left if you're interested.

However, its down to the colors yellow and blue.

So this is the case of about 40 pine cones all done up....

ready for our Christmas party that all my pals

can pick and choose whichever ones they like.

I did keep some for my trees and they look amazing as you can see above.

Anyway I used about 20 bottles of stickles

and 3 bottles of glitter.

I still have paint remaining

 (big bottles).

And you thought I was slacking off.

A tutorial in using a nontraditional color palette For Christmas

Still working on the time zone visual.

Still having issues.

Still under the weather.

among other things - over at Off the Rails scrapbooking.

Here's a glimpse of my take.

I finally got to use that stupid flower soft I had laying around

for centuries.

Enter at your own risk....

Welcome to my world of creating a page....

It started with this beautiful Crate Paper.

 I decided that some texture might be in order so

I broke out the modeling cream, gel medium and some Mist.

I threw in the gel medium because it has a shiney almost enamel texture.

 I smooshed them all together and was kind of

disappointed that the gold did not come out as gold.

 I persevered because I figured I could change it up later

if it didn't turn out the way I liked.

 I broke out my 6x6 stencil from The Crafters Workshop of 

bird cages hanging from a tree.

I love this stencil and I do use it quite a bit.

Its good for girly and heritage pages.

 I put the an abbreviated version of the stencil in the bottom left corner.

 Doesn't that dimension rock and the gel medium gives it that shiney look.

 I also decided I loved the color as it matched grey color on the page 

which was a total accident.

And that is mostly how I roll.

As you will see.

 Pulled out a bunch of papers.

And pink washi tape.

 Pulled out a bunch of Kaiser craft and Studio Calico

embellishments and patiently plowed through them all.

 Laid it out and decided......

 to chuck it all and start again - especially after I 

pulled this photo from the wayback box.

It seriously needed saving and I have scrapped this one before

many times.

I decided a simpler approach was needed.

 I took all the flowers away and fell in love with bikes only

the white was kind of stark - so I broke

out my watercolors.

 and attempted to make them similar to the other

elements from that pack.

It wasn't until I completed the page that I decided that

a border was required - the page just seemed too plain without it.

 Tossed some sequins and thread about.

 Stuck some birds in a cage.

Added some washi and butterflies and went with

the tag as the title.

I really really love how it came out and its way different

from anything I've done.

Was that painful or what. LOL!!

Thankfully it doesn't happen often - but enough for

me to not even try to video my approach.

It would make us both nuts.

On an ancestry note - that is my great grandmother and there

about 5 kids piled on the horse.

There are 4 sets of legs, 3 heads and one popped up in the back.

I have tried to blow it up and identify said kidlets.
I think its my uncle albert, aunt Toot, aunt Ruthie,

and aunt Sue.

I adore this photo.

I adore heritage pages.

Would you like to see the other page???

Me too - as its been awhile.

Wow have styles changed or what.