Fussy cut flowers and stitching

And thread that of course

goes along with stitching only different.

Love these flowers - they were on beautiful paper 

but I really wanted to use them as an accent

as they were really overwhelming on the paper.

And those wooden hearts make me swoon with the pearls.

 The flowers matched this lovely lined paper that I backed to

some polka dotted paper that I used somewhere else and cut the back out of.

So..... it needed to be a big mat.

Love this photo of my gram and I have no idea why she

has a drum stick in her hand (at least that's what it looks like to me). LOL. 

Her and grandpop came down 2 years in a row for

me and my brother's graduations.

She was my favorite.

I was her favorite.

I miss her.

She was a lot of fun and quirky and
gave good advice.

Studio Calico, doily, pearls.

Birds of a feather

I had to highlight this photo as its two grandkids

in 2 different states wearing similar

shirts on back to school day.

How fun is that.

 A new Studio Calico kit fit the bill for a title

I already had picked out - I know!!!!

Love the bird and star transparencies and I wanted

them to have dimension so I used Zots

that you can see but I think it looks cool.

 Loooovvvveee the paper too so I didn't mess

with it too much - added a circle

and then put everything around it.

 It's sort of a different look for me. 

I love it.

And of course how adorable are them two.

ALL Studio Calico except for the thread & LillyBee alphas.

Chronicles of a driveby page - Day 4, 5 & 6

In case you don't remember.

Day 1

Day 2

I also thought to spare you individual posts.

Even I couldn't take it. LOL.

Day 3

DAY 4

And here we are making some progress now that I liked the "base".

I keep a box of precut diecuts  and orphans laying around to pick through

at times like this.

Its also a great way to jumpstart the mojo by just randomly

picking out papers and diecut shapes and commencing to whacking.

IN that box 

I found a black circle, a 1" circle, a star and feather.

I quite like that little cluster but.......I'm not married to it.

I then decided that some red was necessary and added some washi

tape barely peeking through
under the photo bottom left and right under the notebook punch along

with a bit of burlap for texture.

DAY 5

Concentrating on the bottom half - I decided that I wasn't crazy

about the star and changed it to a heart and

found the stamped "hello" in the box from another

project where it didn't work out.

So that brought the white and black from the circle down.

The heart also brought the red down.

Of course the white and black needed to be repeated at the top
and I found a photo corner - another project reject and tucked it in

and then curled the thread around to make it more

threadier.

Broke out some red homemade enamel dots.

I used some vintage photo ink around all the edges to give

the different embellishments some cohesiveness.

And I let that sit as company came a-calling.

DAY 6

As I happened by my desk I found I wasn't buying the red heart thing.

It was then I remembered I had some 7 Gypsies

hardware - Why did that take so long you ask? Well....

its been awhile since those type of embellishments were called

for I actually forgot I had them.

I used to use the 7G's stuff on almost every page.

And then I moved on-more or less.

I dug into the bag and found some bronzey 

"cogs" and placed them around -
highlighting them with my homemade enamel dots

Nothing has been glued down as yet - but its getting closer.

Shocking I know.

And as you know - titles do not come easily - so........

I'll be pondering that - 
I appreciate you staying tuned.
:)

From the crop - fifth kit to page

I've taken this photo three times and still blurry.

Sigh.

I completed this page at home because I thought it needed sewing.

And to my shock nobody dragged a sewing machine to the crop.

LOL.

There are actually two thread colors - I first used a grey - and

it just didn't show up - so I went back over it with white.

Love the simple cluster with the bow and die cut.

 Added some thread just because I thought it looked cool there.

And wa-la.

I did different sewing things in different corners.

It helped I think.

I love the Studio Calico paper - it fits.

Love the Dear Lizzy stamp its a favorite.

A dog and his girl.

Doesn't get any better than that.

I think I'll stop here.....

It all started innocently enough with watercolors.

 And splatters.

Then along came some stamps and gesso

adding more and more layers.

And another tag bites the dust - only 3 remaining.

 And wa-la the background which came together nicely

as I didn't have a plan or picture in mind.

 So I started out with the photo over to the right on the smaller area.

And nothing worked.

It looked well.... stupid.

 Therefore, I shifted everything around and added a few more touches.

And does't that tag rock or what.

 Love the clusters and layers going on.

Lots more layers.

And then the hunt for the photo - I actually had 2 other photos in mind,

but they really didn't work with 

A. the tag

and, 

B. the design

I also felt black and white worked better.

And in this design.

Shimelle's line, Studio Calico and my tag.

And I think I'll stop here.

Going back old school

Can you spot it?

Remember when titles were not only used on the photos but

all those lovely EK Success words were the title.
And that was cutting edge, back in the day of course.
As with all popular things, they go by the wayside when another
clever innovative idea is introduced.

These word strips are Tim Holtz - and I have always loved using them and

they seemed just perfect for this page.
(the separate letters are Cosmo Cricket)

And I'm loving my Evalicious arrows -  as mentioned previously,
you'll be seeing alot of them until I run out.
Which will take awhile.

Back to the K&Co coastal paper because it just works

with this histogram pix and the scene.

I used a scallop punch to make the shells look snappy and

deckle scissors *gasp* on the stamps.

I have also been breaking out the ole albums and tripping down memory lane

and wow, have some things jumped out at me.

More to come on that soon.

AND another sneaky peek of my tutorial over at Off the Rails Scrapbooking.

Leaving busy paper - well busy

I wanted the numbers because its a birthday page and grandpop really

 needed more candles on his cupcakes.

However, because anticipation was high and the wait was long, its probably best

not setting the house on fire and making 2 littles wait.

It was the second celebration of grandpop's birthday while visiting in NJ.

And how fun was that.

Liz rocks the cupcakes and they didn't last long.

The page is busy but I feel those beigie/white arrows actually 

bring it down to a mild roar along with the matting

and border strips and washi tape.

The B&W photo also tends to bring in your focus as well

calming down all the busy-ness around it.

I'm totally impressed and you should be too that I worked in a journaling

sticker with a cupcake on it. 

I tend to have a hard time with stuff like that.

All Basic Grey except for the Studio Calico wooden arrows, word strips, the

recollections washi tape and

 I got to use some really really OLD BG alphas.

Hanging by a thread

The Studio Calico paper was totally cool and came that way.

It was perfect for the photo.

I wanted to use something a bit more ethereal than twine.

I saw this somewhere, but for the life of me can't remember who or where

but the artist used thread and scattered and curled it about the page and it looked amazing.

 Therefore I decided to use thread being the copy cat that I am.

It was easy to adhere it behind the title that I have wanted to use forlikeever.

The thread  was put at the top left corner because it needed something.

So I adhered the thread behind the photo corner.

I tossed the thread upwards defying gravity and popped on some gold enamel dots

to help with the gravity thing.

I had the prima foliage with butterflies forlikeever and yay!!! Finally used it.

Love the photo.

 Ms. Amelia entranced by water.

Studio Calico for everything except: the doily, foliage, bow, tag and noteworthy paper.

I thought I saw the thread artist on google + and I've looked and looked.

If you know who it might be, please put her name in the comments so I give her credit.