Travelers Notebook - Shaker card

Love this sentiment and figured it belonged in my notebook.

It's so cool because photos are not needed all the time.

 And on the flip side, I found this card.

Almost ready made to add sequins.

 Which I did.

First time Ever.

I think I'll figure out how to do it again.

No clue who the mfg is. 

White thread and splatters

I have used my sewing machine before

but this is the first time I just ran it around on the

pages making out of control circles.

Me and Nick - another throwback photo.
(it's not that dark in real life)

Love how it turned out - really simple and fun

with the circles.

Using the chipboard as a title next to some

Tim Holtz words.

Studio Calico.

Haven't used Primas in awhile

And I love Primas, however, I've had grandsons

and while I'm okay with flowers on their pages, then

there was flowers.

 Thanks to my pal Holli with whom I scrapped with yesterday

and got to shop again at her place.

She has the coolest stuff.

 I actually packed really light in going over to her house

which is very unusual for me-sort of doing a "grab 5."

And in all honestly I did use 4 of them - the stamps I grabbed

just couldn't be worked in.

So I grabbed her flowers and watercolors (that you can barely see)

and commenced to gluing.

She also has an abundance of buttons that I got

to pour through and though using

different ones on the flowers was kind of fun and funky.

I'm really pleased with the page and thinking about

maybe I neeeeeed some primas.

Studio Calico on the rest.

The perfect background paper

Happens to be an older collection of Shimelle

and its perfect for a mermaid.

And it turned out perfectly to go

with the photos.

Yesss...another multi-photo page.

This page is a loose take on one I saw from Eyoung.

She does such clean pages.

That I didn't copy LOL.

 Layers upon layers and no specific title really

and not a lot of journaling.

 And sequins because every mermaid needs sequins.

 I even layered the journaling tags - which

I can tell you I played around with for awhile.

For some reason and I don't need a reason - it just wasn't flowing right.

 It's too adorable however, that gap in the

middle is testing me.

I feel there needs to be some sort of connection

but since I can't think of one I'm

going to stick it in the album real quick before

the madness takes hold.

This is mostly Shimelle, with some Studio Calico

thrown in.

Bustin' that stash.

It was all about the heart cutout

The moment I saw this Recollections chipboard onesie hanging 

in Michaels that had the heart cutout

it became about making a shaker box with it.

In full disclosure it took a couple of times to get

the heart on the right side of the right side of the papers.

Right?

LOL.

What's a project without some issue.

I managed to have several.

 Anyhoo,
I am also not the best fussy cutter

nor a cleaner upper with a craft knife either

so getting the edges right was a real challenge.

 Then I dithered about with the pages flipping up.

Do I do the page where its read from 

that direction or do I want people to keep flipping it about.

I decided to roll with the flow however, now that upside

down shaker box was making me nuts.

Always something but I rolled through it.

 Then without thinking it all the way through

I decided a pocket page with tags would be the key.

Surprisingly, they haven't fell out.

Yet.

 So it was odd with all this space as I always

have done my baby albums 6x6 size.

 This is really nicer because bigger photos

can be used. The mats are 3.5 x 5 or 3x5.

 How freakin' adorable is that frog and again

with the tags. This time I put them on the right side. LOL.

 And the back, the end. 

The duck.

So this is the Echo Park Bundle of Joy kit and

I love this kit.

I have used it before but what was cool is that

not all kits are the same- similar though and I was

able to use old/new together.

Hopefully the giftee does not follow my blog.

Diecut branches and sequins

I started out with this page with the branches

and sequins at the top.

And I just couldn't work in the photo.

The branches are a sissix die that I

totally love and you'll be seeing more of.

The squins were tossed on there by a handful and

I glued where they landed.

That's when I turned the page sideways.

 The cardstock actually works really well IRL.

I brought some branches to the right side to cluster on the

journaling card. 

Left some blank spaces because not all the folks

could be ID'd.

 As there was no information on the back.

Loving this one too.

I have a crop on Saturday, which means I'll be preparing

for it over the next couple of days as I usually

kit and print everything ahead of time

so I shall be regaling you with that.

I know your eager to see.

LOL.

Sequin Sneeze

Love this paper from Studio Calico and just in time

for Father's day.

And I have the perfect photo for this paper.

My favorite eldest son and his beautiful family.

 So I added all my fun embellies and layers and

decided that the page needed something-something.

 The wooden hearts, little stars and arrows are prefect touches

and go with the title.

And the stamping in clusters. 

I have embraced stamping and it does add a bit

more texture and depth to a page as well as help to tell the story of 

your photo/page.

 I decided to toss some sequins about.

And then decided that more was better.

And then more was really really better and

when viewing in real life it looked pretty good.

I'm thinking a photo prior to gluing would be in good order

in the future.

However, I think the page does rock. Yunk Yunk.

I did some freehanded drawing around the edges with some swirlies.

Some Echo Park with the Studio Calico and some

Sissix die cuts.

The kidlets in their rock climbing gear because snowboarding

isn't hair-raising enough.

Hope all the Fathers out there had a wonderful day.

Less is more like the little black dress

I love this paper from Studio Calico and

when I laid this photo on it,

the photo just exploded off of it.

 I knew that a mat and bunch of layers behind the photo

would pull the photo away from

this gorgeous paper.

So......I decided to not mat the photo.

I know!!!
It's a really different look for me.

 I also decided to keep all embellishments to a minimum.

Until I tossed some of this sew easy copper 

thread around - I wanted some movement and the stars

on the paper are sort of a coppery gold.

Well I used some glossy accents to hold some of thread

in place and it left blots. (FYI...)

Well to cover up the blots I used some gold sequins wherever
 those blots were because you couldn't miss them.

A couple feathers, a tag from HL Spare parts some

paper issues swag bag stars and a Studio Calico phrase made

it all come together.

Lil Miss Annie at 3 years old - tying on her ballet shoes.

Pastel watercolor palette.

And there it is - watercolors on watercolor paper.

Although in full disclosure - the yellow is some yellow from

the excess I squirted out when I was doing my bible

journaling page.

I muted it a tad with some gesso.

 Not knowing what to do with it I took some inspiration from

Ashli over at Purple Mailbox and whacked some up into pieces.

I did have to ponder it some on where to go from there.

 I lined the strips up and on the square ones I punched out

a butterfly and flower and used the positive and negative space.

I also decided to highlight some areas with watercolor because Ashli made 

it look really easy. And I can honestly say - her easy is very deceiving.

I tried the coral and found it looked welll....

dumb.

So I decided grey - Ashli highlights quite a using a soft grey.

Well my grey was anything but soft.

And wasn't I baffled.

 Therefore I got a mess going on and there's really no going back since

I used so much water the paper was tearing and I needed an emergency fix.

Therefore, I punched more flowers and glued them over the
rips and tears and

that sort of worked, I also decided that some

gelatoes were needed and I grabbed my onion bag for some texture.

WELL...the gelato picked up the excess from the onion bag

and that lovely teal I was using turned dark - because that's what happens

when you don't clean your onion bag.

It was exciting that the texture hid the rips and tears quite well.

 I do have to admit the darker version works and I totally embraced it,

because the alternative was to start all over again.

 I did splatter the watercolors around the page and that helped

hide some of the other sins going on.

 Tossing in some sequins helped hide quite a few sins

by putting them out there so to speak.

And it all came together rather nicely. There's a piece of

light pink toile behind the bow that's casting all sorts of shadows.

It perfectly reflects Annie's sturdy but dainty little legs doing ballerina moves.

And those tiny feet - ya just want to bite them.

Love how it turned out - I have more of that pastel paper leftover

so I'll need to think of more ways to use it.
I also have a huge pack of watercolor paper ready to go.

I used recollections 8.5x11 cardstock with some punches,
studio calico alphas and sequins

and gelato and watercolors.

I've been getting my snow on

and its especially odd since I live in a subtropical area.

But the grands don't and aren't

they all having a blast outside.

I remember when I was a kid - it was fun.

Sortof.

There were times it was tough to move when

dressed like the Michelin tire man.

For some odd reason I ended up with a snowflake die 

and its been getting a work out.

Fancy that.

Of course why not then have a flurry of flakes.

Flurry of flakes - say that 3x's fast :)

I flung the sequins around because I wanted them to have that flung look

with the flurry look so

I glued each and every one down.

One.by.one.

Thought of mod podge way later.

The Studio Calico word stamp that came in

last month's kit - that has also been getting a workout - its hard

to read though so basically you have to stamp around

to find the word you want.

Oh look, more flung and flurried snowflakes and sequins.

And the Shimelle stamp, I still need to learn how to use that one.

 A sweet little cluster off to the side.

With some mists.

 Added the February card from my Paper Issues Swag bag.

Love those little bags.

A variety of scrap paper that was laying around in my box

and I have no idea the mfg became the mats.

Another page that has snow in the title.
So now I'm going to have to find another word for snow.

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.