Princess Tiger Lily

Right after Thanksgiving, we went to see the Broadway production of Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby. We listened to the audio book weeks before to get her out of the Disney story and into the true story of how things are. The biggest lesson learned -- Tinkerbell has a foul mouth. Haha...she did in the production as well even though you don't see her. We didn't have to watch the Disney animated movie but we did watch the other Peter Pan movie.

Riley of course got a crazy idea that mom could make her into Tiger Lily for the night of the show. I dug through the closet and found a brown sweatshirt in Michael's closet that was too big. I cut the thing up and stitched together a fitted, Indian Princess dress. I even hand beaded the thing.

This layout you can't see her cute little dress but you do see two of the photos I shot. I had taken the photos on my Mark III but transferred them to my phone and used three different apps with various effects on the images. I then transferred them back in and used a grungy overlay on top of the photos...just around the edges. The same overlay is on the background sheet, photo mats and pictures. The beads and feathers were the same as on her costume. The red feathers were plucked from one of her Tahitian costumes off the hip belt. I added the Prima flowers only for dimension sake and I had yet to use any of them on layouts since purchasing them wholesale so many years ago. One of these days I will finally make a dent in my stash. was an amazingly quick and easy layout to complete. The paper is from My Little Shoebox.

Font downloaded from Dafont.com which was listed as the original Peter Pan font.

A little houndstooth never hurt anyone!

At TrueXOXO, we were presented with a challenge to use houndstooth paper on our layouts. Honestly, my first thought was if I even had any in my enormous stash. Well low and behold...haha if you only knew how much paper there actually is...I had 6" paper packs from Pink Paislee from warehouse packs I had purchased a while back.

I first had to put together a color scheme. These days I rarely ever start off with a photo I want to scrap. That is generally my last concern. It's the opposite of where I started. I think it comes from wanting to stash bust and more about the creative process. If I start with a photo already printed out, it would give me a bit of a block.

My main staples are My Mind's Eye cardstock. Back in 2008, I went to a retreat in Utah and MME was there. They also had a warehouse sale for us. I still have a lot of the paper because well... it was that cheap! So I inked the edges of the green paper with distress ink. Then I softened the look of the ink by applying Pan Pastels further into the base to create a vignette. That really is one of my favorite things to do in Lightroom, Photoshop or any app...to highlight Riley in photos. A few SEI brads and Melody Ross GCD chipboard elements later, I was almost done. Oh yes I added rubons...those little stamps.

I selected the photos based on the colors. These were taken as we were leaving for school on the day of the walkathon. They had a dancing theme. Riley chose to be a Warbler (Glee). I found a blue blazer at Goodwill over a year and a half before this. I used inkjet twill to create the emblem. Red bias tape was sewn on and I changed  out the buttons. The tie was made after she decided what she was going to dress up as before going to bed. Yes...I was there at 1am making a tie and doing the jacket.

Well visit the TrueXOXO blog and check out some of the other layouts. My houndstooth is small and somewhat blended in. There are some that really POP!

If It's Groovy Calendar Blog Hop

Today the TrueXOXO team has joined forces with If It's Groovy in a calendar blog hop. Each team member has created a layout for a specific month. I chose October since I had many opportunities to shoot photos of Riley.

I went really simple on this layout. I diecut the border from a printed piece of Halloween themed cardstock using the Pazzles.Then I sprayed adhesive on the entire frame and sprinkled Glitter Ritz on the entire piece. Although it has color, it is somewhat transparent. A few distressed rectangles later and some dew drops, I was done. Even though this layout is not in my usual over-embellishing style, it took me about the same amount of time creating this layout because of the glitter. It's a shame that glitter doesn't show well on a computer becasue just about every element sparkles.

By the way, I created the spider dress, headpiece and makeup Riley is wearing. What more could a girl want than a dress that is metallic purple!

Well I hope I captured the essence of October in my layout. Please stop by the other sites of my fellow XOXO girls and If It's Groovy team.

Representing January we have

Wendy 

Christa

Representing February we have

Michelle 

Michelle H

Representing March we have

Wendy

Miae

Representing April we have

Heather

Jaclyn

Representing May we have

Lindsey

Deborah

Representing June we have

Brenda

Khristen

Representing July we have

Jean

Tess

Representing August we have

Rochelle

Faye

Representing September we have

Kelly

Tiffany

Representing October we have

Kelly

ME!!!!

Representing November we have

Heather 

Kimmy

Representing December we have

Deborah

Queen Kat

Fabric Background Layout

Today on True XOXO, you'll find a layout where I used left over fabric for the base of my layout. I like to use every bit of fabric possible. This layout used 2-year old photos but as you know I do not scrap chronologically. Also I used up embellishments that have been hanging around for much longer.

True XOXO Days of Christmas

At the  True XOXO blog this month, we have 24 days full of Christmas inspiration. I created this layout to go with the costume I designed last year. If you have been trying to keep track of me, you know I haven't been creating too many layouts this year. Costumes, YES! Scrapbooking, NO!

For this layout I used a paper pack I got from Michael's. I have been anti-paper pack for some time but this one was so cute, I couldn't resist. I've found that the paper over the past say....four years or so, has pretty much looked the same. I guess that's why I have been getting bored with scrapbooking. The upside to this though is that I can use all the paper I already have without looking out of date.

The one step I wanted to touch on was to create your own spray paint. I have been collecting a lot of pump spray bottles from hair products. I put in a 50/50 fix of water and fluid acrylic paint, Cheap paint works best. I can't say that it would work with the same mixture if I were to use my Golden Brand paints. It's that easy. You just either have to wash out the bottles when done or only make colored spray paints in colors you want to use over and over. In this case, I made very little but I know white will be used again.