Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze!

No I'm not riding on last week's Glee episode's coat tails. We've been in full Grinch mode for months practicing for the WSPA holiday show hosted by Riley's musical theater group. The junior company is doing Grinch while the senior company is singing Nightmare Before Christmas. I'm wishing right now that I took a picture of Cindy Lou Who's hair the other day from dress rehearsal. Here's my first practice run. . . to see if the hair was even possible a few months ago. It is a bad mess but it'll give you a good laugh.

And now onto The Sampler business. Here's more Grinch inspiration for you. It's a canvas door hanger. It was a fun little project I did this morning with all the bits of scrap I had left over from the kit. By the way, if you have a  digital cutter that can cut any font and does not need a cartridge, you can find the Grinch font at dafont.com. As you can see, I cut up some of the canvas tags in the kit and even hung bells from the one with the metal eyelet. Super fun but yes. . . I'm covered in micro glitter again.

The Sampler September

This month for The Sampler I created another canvas shadow box. I will be teaching this class at Memories Live On in Cupertino next week on the 30th. Feel free to bring papers of your choice if you attend. I cleared it with the store and will work with you on the design.

I managed to use scraps for the following layout. Can you tell where the scalloped circle came from?

I will see you tomorrow with more layouts! I've been on a roll constructing mini albums but of course they have no photos and are not fully embellished because the photos have not been taken. I've completed Fall and Halloween albums, 2 Pink Paislee albums and a Summer album I just haven't gotten around to editing photos.

MIA again

I know I've been MIA but not in Craftland or Scrappy Central. I've been working. Yes, you read that right. I did want to bring you a few layouts.

This one I amazingly did just for fun. It's a combo of BoBunny and Creative Cafe.

This is full of The Sampler goodness! August's kit. . . can't help but love it.

And finally. . . I don't know if and when this will really hit the blog but last I checked, XOXO's design team's layouts never got published for August. As you can see it's left overs from Bobunny, a bit of lace and Making Memories.

Winnie the Pooh flies with a real fairy

Riley found a photo of herself with Pooh and wanted me to scrapbook it. I know that I've done a page with her and Pooh in this costume but I figured I would appease her and do it again. It really was cute, I have a series of shots that the two of them are "flapping their wings." Even Tigger did it. Oh maybe it should have been a Tigger page. Oh well . . . it's done.

I used products from the June The Sampler kit as well as the tag from May's kit. I used the printed side of the transparency and trimmed it out because I am not a fan of the glare it creates. I also debossed the book board which comes with the kit with the Melody Ross chipboard stamps. I haven't yet perfected my leather look but the chipboard matches the background of the photo. I really like the embossed, fabric like paper that comes in the kit. It adds enough blue to tie in the colors but not too much that it takes away from the Pooh colored background.  Riley gave the page two thumbs up so I think I'll be saved from doing another.

I decided to do something different with the scraps of paper I had left from the other pages I had made from The Sampler. Here I utilized the "Journey" title in the upper left corner to read, "Taylor's Journey into Adulthood." Yes, little Taylor just turned 18 and graduated from high school a week ago. I say little but that was when she was 3 years old. She is taller than I am.

June -- The Sampler + Tutorial

I've been still busy running around with all sorts of end of year activities and trying to figure out what I'll do for Riley's birthday party. If I would have realized it were June yesterday, I probably would have posted this adorable framed piece I made for The Sampler this month. I guess I haven't officially said but I am on the design team now. Here is the first project I had made.

If I would have known how it could have turned out, I probably would have taken more photos during the painting process. But here's a run down with what I had done.

Michael stretches canvas for me and this frame was one that was turned the wrong way for a profile piece. But I kept it anyhow. It was just plain, unfinished wood and I coated it with Golden  Titan Buff acrylic paint. It's an off-white color.  I had Delta's crackle medium but I never can get a crackle. Maybe it's because I'm impatient. But I continued to try to get a crackle. I used my heat gun to dry between layers. Yes even partially through the crackle medium. Probably why it will never crackle. I recently read that you can use Elmer's to get your paint to crackle too.

I added another layer of Titan Buff then another layer of crackle medium. I sometimes would leave the heat directed onto one spot and the paint would bubble. Once dried, I took a paper towel and used my nails on the other side to scrape some of the paint off. Where the bubbles were created a nice uneven texture in the wood. The parts I scraped off would create grooves. Next, I grabbed Golden's Interference Blue which is a white pearl like paint with blue metallic mica. I painted that on and the crackle medium again. The final layer was Golden's Turquois (Phthalo) which was a perfect match for the Webster's Paper that comes in the kit. I heated all that and again let the bubbles happen. I scraped a few more spots of paint off and it looked like a real antiqued piece just in a happy color.

There doesn't look like there was much done to the Webster's Pages  Seaside Retreat diecut paper; however, I did coat it with Pearl Glimmer Mist. Up in the top, left corner is a lighter circular pattern that resembles a compass. I placed the largest Tim Holtz Time Works mask in the kit within the compass. Then I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist Seafoam. The paper looks a bit yellow in the image above, but it's actually a nice blue match for Seafoam. You can see where I sprayed it above in the photo that goes around Riley's face.

I loved the paper so much that I didn't want to cover it up so I printed the photo on a transparency, which also gave it a look like there is glass in the frame. I grabbed a hibiscus flower I had purchased at dollar tree and added vintage glass glitter to the edges. Then added the Prima roses to the frame. I had some pearl beads in my stash so I used those around the flowers.

This really needed some seashells, so I cut the remainder of shells from the diecut paper then I bent and curved the edges to give it a real shell look. And the trim was left over from last month's Sampler kit. Now you may not have a Tahitian costume or the ocean near you but you sure can get the beach look by printing your photo onto a transparency and using up the natural goodness of the paper.

Sneak peek @ The Sampler

Hi, I know I've been away for a while. I've been busy running around fixing costumes, jazzing them up for the entire class, interviewing, and getting ready for a craft show (past Sunday). Now I am free to design away -- for now at least. So I wanted to provide you with a sneak peek at June's The Sampler kit.

I can't wait to show you this painting technique. Well, back to the craft room!

Scrapbooking Supplies R Us

Hi everyone! I survived the long drive across Nevada to Utah and made it through two days of the Making Memories warehouse sale.  I came back to a great honor. Holly, the Design Team leader with Scrapbooking Supplies R Us, had chosen me to be the guest designer for the month of May. I picked up The Sampler May kit yesterday afternoon and am excited to share with you the first project I made with the kit.

When I saw the gorgeous TPC Studio Boho Blooms Floral Border paper and sticker sheet, I knew it screamed canvas shadow box. I thought about it as I feel asleep last night. The paper paired with the wonderful Orchestra paper from 7gypies was screaming to be used. The inside of the box is where I used the Coredinations cardstock. I sanded it to bring down the yellow tone a bit and then spritzed it with Pineapple Glimmer Mist.  Oh and I adored the trim included in the kit where I used a bit on the outside scalloped frame.
I added the Prima flowers (which were spritzed with Pearl Glimmer Mist) and placed the vintage buttons from the kit as the center. I almost wanted to hoard versus use the buttons!

It really is difficult to do a shadow box justice in a photograph. So if you have some time next week, (assuming you live in the area), please do stop by the Memories Live On store in Cupertino to have a peek at my work in person and shop all the wonderful goodies that are constantly coming into the store.