Mist and paints an excellent combination

I love mixing the two mostly because what I 

lack in color in say oh, the mists, I

totally have in paint and vice versa.

And I wanted more texture than mist so squirting

paint directly on the page does that.

However, it does take awhile to dry especially when the humidity is high.

 I built the page without photos basing the 

rest of the papers on the the red, yellow, smokey mists

and paints. 

And then found the photos. 

These are older ones of Amelia I may have done before.

Do they look blurry to you??

I'm really having a hard time with that lately.

And I just got new glasses.
Or maybe its the camera. I can go with that.
Now to figure out how to fix that.

The title is "she is sunshine". 

Like totally.

The rest is studio calico, authentique, martha stewart doilies.

Bahia Honda State Park

Seemed to be the park of the birds. I know this is a woodpecker - that was in the Butterfly garden. He was sharing a bath with a mourning dove in these rocks.

Intricate spider webs also adorned the Butterfly garden with spiders just hanging around.

And the beautiful cardinal - followed us when we moved camps. I'm going with that. He came by and sang to us late in the evening.

Also a beautiful sunset by the old tressel bridge.

I have to look in my birdbook which is MIA on what type of bird this fellow is. He was quite bold and inquisitive landing in our campsite.

An onlooker from the trees - not quite so bold but lovely all the same.

And this guy was guarding the entrance of the Butterfly garden.

And this little dude was the greeter at the entrance and/or exit at the other end of the Butterfly gardens.

What you will not see is any Butterflies in the Butterfly Garden. Obviously

they didn't get the memo that that's where they're supposed to hang.

Its another lovely state park surrounded by water and beautiful sandy beaches. It's 

a lovely place to bike around and the campsites are nicely sized and somewhat private.

I love rick rack

Well honestly, who doesn't. I found a piece of white from back in the Creative Cafe days and had enough for the 8" circle and for anchoring the two hearts at each corner of the page. I also surprised myself and didn't use ink around the edges. I wanted a fresh, crisp look. Baby Sam looks fresh and crisp.

What an adorable face - you just wanna smoosh his cheeks.

I also need to get my grubby lil mitts on more rick racks.

All Studio Calico except for patterned paper circle Kaiser Crafts, rick rack-Creative Cafe, 

and the alphas - Jillybean Soup.

Cyber scrapping rocks

Especially when its with a pal that loves a challenge.
April chose the lift - upper right corner in a 2008 Simple Scrapbooks Jan/Feb issue. It was a fun challenge. My page as you will recognize my favorite eldest son and my amazing granddaughter. I used patterned paper (studio calico) vellum, washi, and cutout card with some mist going on. I kept the title because it fit. Didn't do alot of journaling because it really doesn't need it.

April kept to the spirit of the page changing up the title and location of the heart.  We both kept to the 8.5x11 size.

The challenge of it was fun and I find it amazing that pages that were created "back in the day" still resonate today. They have a classic look, like the little black dress. Trends come and go but that little gem somehow continues to rule the day. The same in scrapbooking. I love the trends, but I feel it sometimes "dates" my pages. (Think 80's hairdos).

However, in 100 years from now, I'm hoping those next generations prize and cherish the pages I created and they will never know that A. The latest and greatest products weren't used, and B. Trends may or may not have been followed.

More reveals happening at Off The Rails

Here's the page I made for my tutorial over at OTR. It was fun to do.  I picked the fun colors out of the photo. 

Of course I used my Studio Calico kit for the majority of it.

There's also a reveal going on the free for all

over at OTR here and here.

Had a lovely semi-unplugged weekend at the state parks in the keys.

I already posted some shots but there's more.

 Got more great shots that I need to edit and post.

So stay tuned.

And my gorgeous male's mate came a-calling

On the morning we were breaking came - the little woman popped in to  check out who her man was flirting with.

She was a lot shyer than he was and I had to work for these pix.

And maybe downright snooty.

Made herself at home on the Mister's bike. Hitching a ride.

Duck and cover. Remember that? And doesn't that quite date those of us who do. 

This is a female cardinal and while she is pretty - she can't outdo the male who is positively gorgeous.

It's her job to protect the nest and blend in.

Met a friendly, gorgeous male this weekend

at Curry Hammock State Park. He started his courtship way out there.

And decided to come for dinner and bring a dish.

Fortunately he chose not to share.

He checked out the grill although I'm not sure why since he ate his dish raw.

And then he posed for me about a foot away.

And we became best buds.

Free For All Reveal at Off the Rails Scrapbooking

You need to check it out here!

And you will see the DT's interpretation.

I decided to go with this.

Scrapping on an 8.5x11 and its a lighthouse.

I love lighthouses.

And this lighthouse is what took my eyes of the parking

lot and where I fell and broke my lens.

Because the camera naturally 

broke my fall. 

I was so NOT a happy camper that day.

However, all was fixed and life is

awesome!

Another fun girly page

And isn't fun just rocking the girly stuff.

And I'm plowing through my new Studio Calico kit.

wooo hooo!!!

Not quite as blingy but girly none-the-less.

And just how girly over the top when daddy is painting her nails.

And it looks like both have their jobs down.

She is being so careful with the other hand. So adorable.

This was another page I built without a photo 

in mind and I changed things up by making the mats

portrait and that made finding a photo

an adventure because everyone mostly shoots in landscape.

However, instagram to the rescue and 4x4 rocked it.

Studio Calico and leftovers from my "I don't know what to do with"

dodad basket. Love that. 

Some Sassfrass Lass alphas and

the confetti courtesy of Studio Calico as well

and adhered with some gesso.

Which is why there are some blobs.

I left them and decided not to stress about them.

They're supposed to be FUN.

More girly girl!

Check out my tutorial over at Off the Rails Scrapbooking!

Repurposing household goodies.

And here's my page that has nothing to do with that. LOL.

Which is a shocker I know.

I'm so diggin' the girly.

Well I have 2 adorable girly girls to be girly with.

I designed the page without a photo or in this case photo in mind.

I really need to pay attention to the size of the

mats I make. This one turned out to be 5x4 or thereabouts.

Well of course the photo was designed with

3 pix on a 4x6.

Which worked out perfectly because I could whack them up.

A really adorable series so I really couldn't 

omit any.

It was cool as I used a bunch of stuff my "don't know what 

to do with and no other place to put them" 

do-dad basket 

that is totally out of control.

So Studio Calico rocks the day with some Basic Grey and thickers

and Martha Stewart doilies. Muted a bit with some gesso

and a bit of Heidi Swapp mists.

Who doesn't love the minions.

YMCA its a classic and It's Tuesday.

Going girly

Finally, the great thing about having granddaughters 

is being able to go girly. 

Love the boys but there is something about pearls,

bows and flowers.

Although I must admit I love boys, I love girly too.

So here we have new Studio Calico paper, my go-to doily heart,

October Afternoon card, Paper Studio pearls, prima flowers

of which I have an entire super satchel full.

(I've been slowly working my way through and not purchasing

any more flowers). Yay!

And those adorable little bows with pearls I found in the

wedding aisle at Michael's.

I did mist with my new Heidi Swapp and Mr. Huey and

it appears I managed to cover some of it up.

Ms. Amelia is at the beach, but since the background is artfully

blurred out, I went with the paper since it works

with the artfully blurred background.

Stay tuned for my tutorial on using household goods in scrapbooking.
Coming March 19th at Off the Rails Scrapbooking!

Vellum paper

I tend to forget about vellum. 

It became somewhat of a trend midway in the scrapbooking phenomenom

and of course I and everyone else jumped on that bandwagon.

And then like all trends it tended to fall away.

Well I happen to have some leftover from that trend and am 

bringing it back. Why? 

Because it is very versatile with its sheer, opaque quality. 

It can add elegance, soften patterns and mute colors.

It also can be a pain to adhere because the adhesive can be seen.

Unless your very stealthy in applying it.

 For instance, the only adhesive on the vellum is hidden behind the photo 

with a couple pieces of the washi tape. 

The top is being held in place by the tag and cloud. 

Stamping and writing on it can be tricky.

I used Stazon ink which will dry quickly without smearing.

Everything Studio Calico except for the tag- old Basic Grey that worked perfectly.

I love their face masks and I'd pretend to snowboard just so I could wear one.

Or maybe for Halloween - that would work for me.

Lessens the capacity for impending disaster.

Join in the fun over at Off the Rails Scrapbooking's first blog hop.

Click here to begin.

Less is sometimes More

As in the little black dress sometimes a page is created

with just the pearls as an accent.

I started this page and was way over thinking it. I had

lots of stuff going on.

I wanted to use the background paper just as it is because it 

makes the photo pop.

Or the photo makes the paper pop.

Either way its a win.

Since I used part of the paper I whacked it down to 8.5x11.

Then I started packing on the stuff.

And it made me crazy.

I let it sit for a day and then approached it once again

with a different attitude.

I swished everything off and put most of it away and began again.

In wanting mostly the photo to shine and then the paper

because the sayings on it worked perfect with the photo.

I decided to keep the embellishments to a minimum

and I love it so much better.

K& Company which is probably older than I think 

with some old Basic Grey paper and new negative slide,

 prima, Creative Imaginations and Authentique.

With some new Studio Calico and twine.

Layers and layers

I love layers. 

There are times you wouldn't know it though.

Probably because I become baffled by layers.

Because you have to cover stuff up in order to layer and I have trouble covering

stuff up. Especially if its really cool stuff.

My mind just doesn't get it.

So now I try to layer things that aren't that cute if there going

to be on the bottom layer and/or covered up.

Problem semi-solved.

What you won't see is that I used modeling paste for

some honeycombs and the photo entirely covered it up.

The watercolors made it through. Sort of.

Heavy sigh.

The majority is studio calico - March kit with some old stuff.

Kaiser kraft, recollections, simple stories and twine.

Little Miss Amelia with her rosy cheeks and red nose and of course,

the princess wave - even in the midst of a snow flurry.

And doesn't she have a ton of layers going on.

Faux stitch stamping

Say that 3 times fast. lol!!!

I did some stamping because I didn't want to break out the

ole sewing machine. And seriously why stamp 'm 

if you have them. And I have way too many.

I like how it looks - it ain't perfect but there's a lot of messy

stitching going on - so why not stamping.

Love the studio calico going on mixing new and old. 

And its all of it except

the stamp which I believe may be Technique Tuesday from back in the day.

I love Amelia cutting her teeth on a kettle ball.

She's a total crossfit baby.

Continuing in the snow theme

because I think its cool - no pun intended - though

I live in Florida and am slightly baffled that

people actually live in snow. 

Although I'm a PA girl I've been in Florida a long time.

I love this photo, Cavin's face. 

Determined.

The unknown rider that I think is Quintin

because of the clothes.

And it was a lot of snow. 

I have photos of that too and they're coming soon.

Studio Calico and Simple Stories layered.

I love layers.

Couldn't help the snowflakes.

And hearts.

And its colorful.

Snowboarding terms.....perfect title

And that's how I got the title.

CREW.

Defined as the people you shred with.

And it fit perfectly.

Literrally and figuratively.

I love it when a plan comes through.

Which means you actually have to have a plan and normally I don't.

However, you can't ever go wrong with a great family photo.

So this is mostly Studio Calico stuff

except for LYB and the bottlecap that I purchased at this

cool antique mall and I only have a few left.

I'm gonna be so bummed when I run out.

So this time I used the cardstock as a b

igger than normal mat

because again, it popped the photo out.

But I loved the pink striped paper that I felt worked for

snow because it was well pepperminty looking which just screams winter 

right?

Some snowboarding terms for your viewing pleasure and you never know

when you can impress kidlets with your knowledge.

CRATER

A term used to describe a crash or fall.

DEATH COOKIE

a big snowball in the middle of a run frozen to the ground.

EAT SNOW

Same as face plant.

KRUNKED

Someone that gets so messed up they cant move for like 45 seconds.

SHRED

To tear up the terrain.

Using cardstock as a base

I have to admit that with all the amazing, gorgeous and awesome pattern papers available, I forget that cardstock can be used as a base and will absolutely be the perfect fit in assembling your page. 

I remembered that for this page.

 I had chosen a blue/turquoise pattern paper that matched the dots in the October Afternoon paper. And it didn't quite work. 

And I just so happened across the same color in cardstock. 

The reason I loved October Afternoon PP is that it made my photos pop and I wanted that paper

to be the mat rather than the blue/turquoise pattern paper.

 The blues in my photos were just jarring against any other paper but the taupe/blue/green.

Therefore, CARDSTOCK as a base and a bigger mat for the photos.

The rest of the embellishments worked out well, however, I'm so not feeling the splats I made.

It just looked so BARE. Oh well. Too late now. LOL.

I did break out the sewing machine and did some stitching.

We stopped at St. Mark's wildlife refuge that also had a lighthouse.

A total win-win. Love them both. Wildlife and lighthouses.

This was a slight detour on our way home from Tallahassee and I got to take

photos, admire a lighthouse (they make me swoon) and critters. 

The critters actually stood still long enough for me to snap them, even the lighthouse.

Scrapping yesterday's news

It's been quite awhile since I ran home and scrapped what happened a few days ago.

I must admit that after the day rolled I had a page in my head

and it needed to get out.

Like NOW.

And I love it because its fresh, and the mojo was there, not to mention all

the really cool papers and embellishments.

And honestly it was more about the story than the photos.

*gasp*

It's true. It was a few months since I hung out with Shane. Due to technology we

of course stayed in touch - but its different hanging together.

We hiked, we talked - or rather  he talked and for a change I shut up

and listened. Really listened AND DIDN'T lecture.

And not only is he getting it so did I.

We had a great time.

Can't wait to do it again.

Used papers, badges, 4x3 card, and tabs from Studio Calico, textured the paper up with my avacado bag and some versafine smokey grey ink, my triangle punch and some twine. The paper that matched my tablecloth is from KaiserCraft.

Torreya State Park

Yay!!! The RV is finally fixed so we headed north to see our favorite youngest son. That is the view from our campsite. It was beautiful and peaceful. This is on our list to return. The only downside was that the sites were kinda tight and there was no privacy. However, we did scope out a couple of primo sites that will fit that bill for next time.

Tom and Shane watching orange peel sizzle when touched by a flame. Like that needed to be shared. Males.

Beautiful dogwood flowers. It was startling amongst the brown and dead leaves and wood.

Me & Tom enjoying the shade.

Shane and I went on a nature hike. This is the only flower we saw except for a bird that was too fast to be identified; the rest was woods.

Males tending the fire and I'm good with that as I was inside nuking some potatoes and mac and cheese. LOL. The modern joys of camping colliding with a charcol campfire. The smells were amazing. 

Twas a great day!

It was great to be off-line - there was no internet service and extremely dicey cell.