New Layout

I finally dug into one of those DCWV paper packs that I brought back from vacation a few weeks ago. I love the bright colours in the Fun in the Sun Glitter pack. They were perfect for this photo of my daughter from a trip that we took to the beach in July.

One thing I love to do is to cut out various elements from the pattern paper and layer them and interweave them. I think that it has become the one technique that I use over and over in all my layouts and this layout is no different. The pink pattern paper was originally a square 12x12 sheet with a glitter accent circle. I took an exacto knife and cut out the circle. The flowers and the white swirly leaves are from another piece of pattern paper from the same stack. You don't really notice it much in this photo but they are all glittery as well.

When I started to layer everything, it look a little blah...it needed something more. I have been seeing lots of layouts around the web using the distressed interior circle and I really liked the effect. With distressing and ink the edge and then hand stitching around the circles, it gave it just enough visual interest to reduce the blah but not distract from the photo.

Materials used: Die Cuts With a View pattern paper, Tim Holtz flourish stamp, Ranger Distress Ink, Versacolour ink, Prima stars, Kaisercraft bling, dollar store bling and butterfly, EKSuccess Bookman letter stickers, & pop dots.

What layout would be complete with out some bling? Certainly not one of mine.

I am also loving these new Tim Holtz Flourish stamps. They are fantastic. I can see them becoming a staple in my layouts and cards as well. It is not often that I have used the same stamp twice in less than a week. It is such a versatile stamp set.

New Card

I am just about to head out the door to head to my local scrapbooking store -- The Scrapbox. I am going to drop off my most recent card that I have made.

I occasionally make demo cards to help Jenn up sell some of her products or to demonstrate a new technique that I have found surfing all the blogs that I follow. The last time I picked up the new Tim Holtz flourish stamps and Steph and I plotted to surprise her with this card. Something coloured and layered to show off what you can do with the stamps and show case as much of the new product as I could. She knows that I am planning to do another card for her but she doesn't have an idea of when or with what. I like being sneaky.


Materials used: Prism Simply Smooth cardstock, Bazzil cardstock, Tim Holtz Fabulous Flourishes stamps, Copic Makers (Y06, Y13, Y15, Y17, YR04, YR07, YR09, R27), Memento Tuxedo black ink, Ranger Distress ink (Fired Brick), Glimmer Mist (Pumpkin pie, Scarlet), Prima flowers and leaves, Kaiser Craft bling, pop dots, Cuttlebug Morrocan Screen embossing folder.

I stamped the image 4 times and coloured it in with the Copic makers, I cut out the image and pop dotted various sections to give more dimension to the flourish. I love using dimension on my cards and layouts. I think I am addicted to pop dots.



I sprayed the Prima flower with Glimmer mist and inked the edges of the petals to match the flower to the theme of the card. The flower was originally ivory. These are the new Trellis Roses. I love them. They are so pretty. I love that you can easily alter them to whatever colour you need for a card or layout using Glimmer Mist, inks, alcohol inks, paints...whatever you can think up.

Off I go....

What to do with Cork?

The design team at ScrapCentral was challenged to come up with a project using 2 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of cork. We could do anything with it. I stared at this stuff for a couple of weeks trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it. I thought about stamping on it, embossing it, painting on it, die cutting it, using it on cards and layouts. Basically, I couldn't seem to decide what I want to make with it.

As usual, it came down to the wire and I basically had two nights to get this done before the dead line. I ended up making a woven basket which I filled with floral grass. I die cut some flowers which I painted with Radiant Rain paints. I, then, used distress Stickles to accent the flowers and leaves.

I am going to make more of these flowers to use on layouts. I really like them and they were fun to make. Spellbinder dies cut the cork reasonably well in the Cuttlebug. I thought the dies might be too shallow but with a little extra shim there was enough pressure.

Back to the Grind

Well, we are back to our normal routine this week -- work, daycare, all the normal stuff. We had a good visit to the Grandparents. The kids were spoilt rotten. I am in the process of unpacking a pile of stuff that we accumulated over the past week.

Love going home since I get to go shopping in the US while I am there. I scored nicely at Joann's. I was able to get 4 DCWV paper packs for $9.99 each. They were the lovely 12x12 glitter packs that I love using for cards and for cutting elements out of for layouts.

Another score was from Fabricland. They were selling lots of Olfray ribbon flowers packs Buy 1 and get 3 Free. I picked up 40 different packages of those little beauties. I also picked up lots of 1 inch ribbon for cards as well. That wasn't on sale but I got to use my mother's discount.

I don't have any projects to post today. I did manage to finish off my ATCs for the ScrapCentral ATC swap this month but I am afraid that I did not take any pics of them. I completely forgot before I mailed them out. This month's theme was transportation. I found a great deck of cards with the San Francisco trolley on them when we were cleaning out my Grandfather's house. They were perfect. Another score!

I am hoping to have something to post tomorrow. I have the day off of work and I have a project that is partially completed for ScrapCentral. I need to have it posted tomorrow...so guess what I am working on tonight.