Summer swimming layout

It's stash busting time without scrap clutter. I used two sheets of cardstock (one patterned and one solid) for this layout and cut a circle from an existing piece of scrap. The strips of paper are from Echo Park. It's one of the sheets with strips of different patterns. The embellishments are random epoxy stickers from Creative Imaginations that I get from Scrapbuck.com at the scrapbook show.

Canvas luggage tag & layout

You know I love canvas. So here's another fun adaption I made for the Big Picture class I'm taking. I used more from the October The Sampler kit for the layout.

I really wasn't too happy with the tree because I stamped it while the canvas was wet. It gave a water color look. But this next one I love.

Now I am only kicking myself because I am not more organized keeping my stamps together. They are together but the Tinkerbell set is truly missing in action. I sit here looking at the birthday party invitation from a year and three months ago where I used the stamp. Okay but where is it?! So long story short is I used what I could find. I covered up the stamping mess of a blurred image with an applique style where I ran Fray Check along the edges of the fairy and butterfly. I colored it with Sharpies and no running whatsoever. I also colored this with watercolor instead of acrylic paints. I selected the colors to go with a new rolling Tinkerbell backpack I got Riley. Yes we are off to Disneyland again, So yes a girl needs a matching luggage tag,

Canvas layout

You know I've taken a few classes from Donna Downey and haven't done a ton with what I learned. So here I am again taking her class at Big Picture Classes.  I took a piece of duck cloth I purchased from Joann's at 50% (can't help but love coupons) and a sheet of diecut paper and created the shape. I wet the canvas and blended three colors of paint. Next I impatiently dried the piece with a heat gun which I felt took forever to dry. I stitched around the sheet (which did shrink by the way) with brown thread around the edges and then created the stitching for the banner. Next I took a scrap from October's The Sampler kit (Echo Park) and cut out the little banner pieces and glued them to the canvas. From there it was a decision on what to do with the piece. I contemplated using an iron on, a mask, flocking and glitter. I hadn't yet scrapbooked riley's birthday party photos (probably didn't do last year's party either. . .hmmm and quite possibly the year before) so I was checking to see if I had balloon brads. Well I didn't have that but I had a few button embellishments which I have probably had for 4 years now. So I got to gluing. I tried to take a bit of the crazy color-ness (I know not a word) out of it so I added a black and white photo underneath the popped color image. Anyways, here is what I ended up with. I think really what took the most time was waiting for my canvas to dry.

The first project for the class was to paint a point and shoot camera bag. If you've seen my every day setup, you'd know that even the Prima DSLR camera bag is too small. So I opted to make a quick coffee cozy because I had Halloween iron ons from SEI.

I probably would make it differently the next time around. But who knows, I may not make another because I don't drink coffee. It was a shame that the end result was so small because there were some awesome iron ons from the same sheet. Riley gave the cozy to her teacher. . . I don't think she liked it. Plus when I made her a "Back to school" tin with cookies. . . I don't think she appreciates much. So I guess we'll stick to making teacher gifts for her dance and swimming teachers who LOVE Riley's gifts.

Altered book from The Sampler October

I altered a book a little different than I normally do for this month's The Sampler kit. I like to think of this as more of a big greeting card. This was actually really quick and fun. My nephews would tell me about books the library would give away. Riley started reading over the summer and I've collected quite a few hard covered books to experiment with. This little baby I actually folded all the pages in half. Once that was done it looked a little like this from the side.

I inked it a bit to add some color. Then measured the book cover slightly larger than the folded pages and cut them with a knife. I didn't cut it all the way through and then folded them back onto itself. I didn't feel like painting so I made a cover out of left over fabric.

As you can see I decorated both sides. And the tag that is under "Happy Day" is actually a gift card. So this makes a nice little decorate "card" of sorts to leave for your coworker on his/her birthday. And how about adding a cupcake in front of it with a flag made from the same paper? Oh that would definitely get the office buzzing about your creativity!

The Sampler Giveaway!

Holly has just put up a giveaway at The Crop Spot for some goodies. You have until August 15 to leave a comment. Plus if you tell a friend and post a link, you'll get an extra entry. Enter here!


Today I have another layout from this month's kit.

 I used a clear plastic sheet from Clear Scraps for the background and edged it with a gold Krylon pen. Some of the elements are placed on the backside of the sheet to give a little bit of depth such as the sun and tree. I've wanted to use Echo Park for a while now and well. . .this month was lucky enough to receive it in the kit.

I made the tree by punching small circles from the patterned patter (Pinwheels) and then I sprayed the back side with Glimmer Mist to make it appear a little more green vs. turquoise.  Next I bent the circles from the center to curl up the edges. No two circles were really alike and it gave real dimension to the piece. It's at the store right now but you may see it at the Scrapbook Expo this weekend.

August is here!

And so is the new Sampler kit. Here was the first project I created from the kit. I had a bracelet bender and blanks from years ago when I did polymer clay. I recently found all the blanks so I decide I would make Riley a bracelet. The thing I liked least about the blanks is that it's a 1" rectangular shape with sharp corners so I decided I was putting the Chomper up to a challenge to round the corners. It took a little muscle but I got all four corners done. At first I thought it was going to break but after I did one, I had to do the other three whether it was going to break the tool or not. It's kind of like a haircut. . . you start it so you really have to finish it.

I next colored the sides and back with the alcohol pen that came in last month's kit. It wasn't the coverage I got so as you can see I covered that with fabric. Then I bent the bracelet into shape. I took a tiny piece of Echo Park paper and layered it with the diagonal stripe. Using Diamond Glaze instead of resin because of the time involved, I painted four layers on and dried each with the heat gun. Yes. . . impatient but it was QUICK. Then I took a little more Diamond Glaze and mixed in Perfect Pearls. Probably two more layers later, I was ready to glue on the bling. The final part was the white ribbon (again, July kit) and cut it in half and glued it to the bracelet. Then I took a scrap of the left over Dorothy costume fabric and glued it to the inside of the blank. And now I have a 5 year old that will not part with her bracelet. All in all, this took me less than a half hour and I just may make a few more.