She Art Canvas

I made another She Art canvas. This time around I was really hesitant on making a "She" and creating a background. I actually had to tear my first attempt to use patterned paper off the canvas. I didn't feel quite the same creative freedom as I had just using acrylic paint.

My girl really goes more with my fun, (going to label myself now) whimsical tendencies. These canvases are really fun to create and I get to use stash that I wouldn't normally. I grabbed a 6" paper pad I received in a Pink Paislee warehouse sale box, used bead caps that have been around since my polymer clay days, and rubons (BoBunny, Cosmo Cricket, We R Memory Keepers) that were left over from other projects. Even stamps. . . rarely do I ever use stamps but I managed to dig out different stamps.

I really went through  bling withdrawl the last time so I worked it in to create texture.  What appears as white spots in the photo are actually silver foil. These are really fun to create but what am I going to do with them? Next time I think I will need to add Riley's face to the pictures.

What's the deal?

I am seriously at a loss for words today. As you know and I've said many times, I build layouts and wait for the time when I actually print photos. I have one of the best printers on the market and I just hate to go through the motions of printing them. So I finally got off my end this morning and put photos on. You can tell I didn't make these layouts today because the photos aren't the sizes that I probably would have made them if I had.

Blue inspirations: Fancy Pants papers. I actually took a glitter class with my mom last week (merely there to drive and keep her company) but got sucked into the product BIG TIME! Anyhow I made the flowers. . .and yes there's glitter everywhere but I am in love with this glitter. You get full, even coverage and use very little of it.  Maybe I'll even show you some tips on coloring the glitter with Copic Markers. I also used Prima flower packaging.

Green inspiration: here I used Basic Grey, We R Memory Keepers, Urban Lily papers.  Then I  have Creative Imaginations butterfly brads, Prima flowers, Making Memories stickers


Anyhow, I hope I have given you some inspiration today to do a few layouts this weekend. I will see you after I come up for air from a six hour sewing class to learn how to use the new Janome machine my mommy bought me for Christmas and my birthday. Yes I've used it and we know that Christmas is weeks away and my birthday isn't until February!

Today's green craft

I decided to upcycle an old t-shirt (Angry Little Asian Girl circa 2002) because gees it's so obvious I wouldn't fit into this shirt again. It was an XS so there was very little I needed to do to it. I cut the arms off  at the seams then cut it straight beneath the neck line. Next I gathered and basted the top with a 1/4" seam in the front and back. Then added the seam binding, which was a good match in the package. . . not in the photo, to the front and back in a straight line. Then I used the rest of the package to stitch around the arm holes. I think the straps probably could be trimmed down. Riley says that it's her and her friend Arthur on the shirt vs. mommy and daddy. It's probably still more us. . . even though Arthur had to shower and put gel in his hair because Riley was coming over to play the other day. Oh . . .her arm. . . it's dirty because she had tattoos which are wearing off. Gees I hate those things!

Here is another layout which I did for the Sampler. The grey-ish BoBunny polkadot paper has the Rock Candy crackle medium on it so all the edges are curled and raised off the page. The photo I desaturated but not to the point of black and white. The green in her headband was so strong, that I left it with a slight green tint. In PSE, all you need to do is CTRL+U and slide the Saturation bar to your left. Plus I used the glitter in the kit and lined the photos with a Sakura glue pen.

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.

Back to scrapping!

Yeh! Now that the puppy is getting use to us and we're getting used to him, I've found out that he leaves my scrapbook supplies alone. So now I can have him lay in his bed I made him in the room and get back to what I love doing.

So to get back into the swing of things I did some quick layouts. I found this photo of Riley from when she was about 20 months old. I used Making Memories paper (got 25 sheets for $2 at the sale so I need to use a lot of it) and various embellishments from Colorbok, Oriental Trading and of course Distress Inks.

Here's a layout I did really about my stepping on these Littlest Pet Shoppe toys. We R Memory Keepers, Basic Grey, Maya Road and Sandy Lion.

And an ode to Buster. . . This I think is Prima, Making Memories, Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, and Creative Imaginations. He's had a hard week whether he knows it or not. We've contemplated keeping him and well think we've worked through Riley not being the only one getting attention in the house. So for now, he's here to stay. Don't worry though. . . if he goes, he will go to a friend with all the stuff we've spoiled him with. He went from living in dirt (although he still likes laying in it in the backyard) to being inside on his fluffy beds and sleeping bags.

Feeling scrappy

I've been on a kick lately to use up scraps. I think it's because I have so much more stuff now that fabric has come into play. I actually have two projects I will show you tomorrow which I completed this weekend.  But the layout below was using the pieces I had left over from the last layout I posted.

I used the heart I had cut out as the mask on the previous layout. Then I used the back side as a mask again to spray Glimmer Mist on the background sheet. I blotted with tissue the wet spots. Then I zigzag stitched around the patterned paper and heart. Popped the all of the stickers and placed flowers behind the sticker flowers. There are three layers of foam tape behind each element. Lastly, I added a rubon around the curve of the heart inside of the masked area. 

Whoopsie Daisy metal flashing embossing

I've had this design waiting around for about two months. The time had come to finally make a decision on what to do with it. I had cut copper metal flashing down to 12x12 and put it into the Pazzles. I embossed the floral design. Then I took some alcohol ink and let it dry. Then with some solution I would pick up the dried ink with the brush to give a watercolor effect. After I sanded it to clean the image up a bit. It's aged since making it so I decided to cut up the design because I thought it was a bit much metal. I softened up the look of things by adding felt flower accents. It was a quick page to do (if you don't take into consideration how much time it took to paint).  The background sheet is We R Memory Keepers. My mom had gotten a wholesale pack of it at Marshall's (of all places) for $1.

Let's use up the brad and eyelet stash!

I am taking the Something for Almost Nothing class which started yesterday at Shimelle.com in an attempt to use up that old stash that keeps getting buried underneath all the new stuff. So the prompt yesterday was to use metal in a layout. I think I do best when there's some sort of challenge issued to me (like at work) than to just pull something out of the air. 

For this I stitched on a piece of wide ribbon (should have been longer) but we all know I don't measure anything. Then I used one sheet of Sassafras Bungle Jungle and a scrap of K&Co.  from the Valentine's collection I had laying on my table from making those little mailboxes. Then from there I used brads from BoBunny and eyelets from Oriental Trading and Making Memories. The metal letters are from We R Memory Keepers and the little "chick" is Meri Meri accents.

As for the SEI challenge this month, so far I made a simple bracelet out of twill and an acrylic heart from Prima. The line from SEI is Doodle Girl and I used Zip Dry glue and the iron ons from SEI as well that belong to the same collection.

And now for giant cupcakes. . . my favorite gluten free HoHos with lots of butter! Secret to my taking over the world, is that I feed them one cupcake but it's actually the size of two! Bwhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha!

Not loving embossing powders

First off I know what you're going to say when I say I hate glitter. Yes the blog's name is glue dots and Glitter. That's when I like glitter. . . on glue dots! Not embossing powders (especially glittered ones) all over the place. Sometimes I make such a mess with very little effort on whatever I'm doing. I know I'll feel differently when I can't see the glitter all over the place in a week.

Here's what I did with this newest layout. I used the Ranger Perfect Medium to emboss that comes with the Perfect Pearls. Let's just say they don't age well. The pad sunk as soon as it touched the paper. It was mushy and just BAD. Anyhow. . . I used a digital bracket, printed and cut out on We R Memory Keepers paper. Then trimmed around and edged with the yucky pad. I put a glittery embossing powder around the edge. It looks good in person and goes with the glitter paper from WRMK. The stamp is Unity Stamp Company and I hand cut the envelope with orange twine from Daiso. If you have a Daiso store by you. . . go in and check out all the different goodies you can find.

Full photo bracket layout

Here's another brainstorm. I printed a photo on 12" Epson paper and cut the picture on the Pazzles. We R Memory Keepers stickers and die cuts plus Oriental Trading snaps with Little Davis chipboard.

Another layout

This is for Mother May I at Debbie Hodge. Challenge was to use clear elements. Thought I would go kind of flat since all my stuff is a mess downstairs. Used We R Memory Keepers paper.

No April Fool's joke

I just got back after 5 hours in the ER with Riley who decided to swallow 2 (together) We R Memory Keepers Magnetic Posts for the Ultimate Cutting Mat. Don't ask why. She has never put stuff in her mouth that she shouldn't even as a baby. All should be good should she not have a fever, stomach pain or pass them in 2 days. I'll post the pics and the xray. . .doctor must have known I was going to scrap this because she printed it out for me without knowing I had a camera on hand. Michael of course, was embarrassed that I took pictures during the xray. The radiologist even posed long enough for me to take the pictures of the screen. I know. . . I know. . .

LOAW 3 layout

I managed to spin out a quick layout for this week's layout of the week. Theme was to create a questionnaire. Well it's difficult with a 3 year old but here was my take. I used We R Memory Keeper's Tiffany paper again. Yeah I bought the paper at a LSS first then went to the new Michael's store and got a stack for 50%. I think my four sheets I originally bought plus stickers were just as much if not more. It's my turn for the theme of next week's layout and I'm going to throw in a product challenge.

Day in the Life of. . . altered book

I've been MIA again trying to get all my homework done for classes. Now I just started a new Big Picture class on journalling. Hopefully story telling will come easier after all is said and done. For my photography class last week, we had to do a "day in the life of" project. Of course I did Riley. Here's my altered book using We R Memory Keeper's Tiffany line. I was the only one that scrapped my photos even though the instructions said to collage, put in a book, etc. Not happy with the cover but I procrastinated too long. Oh and of course a bit of bling and Prima flowers.

There are over 30 photos on the ring that go into the side drawer of the book. Thanks for peeking.

Altered We R Memory Keepers book

So the past few days I've been working on an altered book. I used We R Memory Keepers Nonsense papers, ribbons and rubons. Yes you've seen me use bits and pieces in the layouts recently. I told you I'm horrible at putting stuff away. And rather than do that, I just use it then. Also I used Glimmer Mist to color the sides, Golden acrylic, Tsukineko chalk ink, Maya Road rubons and the tin it came in on the cover and as the drawer, SEI left over rubons from a class, 7 Gypsies handle and knob.

Can't wait to start the next one. I'm using old text books that my mother-in-law never threw out from Michael's courses. This next one is a huge literature book. Going to put several tiny drawers to try to lighten up the weight. Oh and I used Fancy Pants ribbon. Also added a bunch of photos from that same morning into the drawer.

Day 27 LOAD

One more day of LOAD postings after this. . . sad to say it's over. I actually thought it would be more of a challenge such as use at least three patterned papers, lace, and a clear element more so than just a simple topic. Oh well it was fun and only $6. No biggie. Today's layout prompt was to layer. I have been I think at least for the entire time. I feel I've become more of a random (look at least) layer-er over the past month. With a bit of thought I have attributed this new style to my digital scrapbooking. I've seen so much more potential and freedom away from blocky sketches (not that I've used them really). I really do have a hard time picturing things to do with sketches. Ok so much for my issues. Here's the layout.

You recognize the paper? It's the rest of the We R Memory Keepers Nonsense paper I used to make the interactive mini album in January. I put a scrap of Pink Paislee and used Stickles and Dew Drops. I wanted to do something different so I desaturated the photo so it wouldn't compete so much with the wild papers. Enjoy.

New LOAD layouts

Ok so I have to go to work in the morning and take Riley to school. It's going to be hard for me since I haven't had to get up to go to work in over 2 months. I'm dreading waking up in the morning which means I have to get up early enough to get Riley to Spanish class on time. BTW I'm not just crazy to do these layouts at midnight. I have to wait for the laundry to dry.So on my birthday I did nothing but taxes all day. If you only knew how much we had to pay in 2007. . . geesh a nightmare. So to avoid paying someone's IRS salary for the year, I sat down and played with numbers all day. But to think back at my day 19 layout (My Mind's Eye papers). . . I did have a Fruitista! Day 20 was to have a winter layout. Yeah everyone knows we don't have snow in San Fancisco. But we did go up to Tahoe about two weeks ago. Here's some We R Memory Keepers for ya!

Here I think is my favorite of the three. It was a resolution layout. And as you may recall, I said that I would use up scraps. I still have to post the Pink Paislee mini album (which I did feel I over paid for) but I used scraps. Almost three months and I'm still keeping with the resolution. Used some Prima flowers as well as Fancy Pants ribbon on this and the Fruitisa layout.

I took what?!?

I went to the dentist last week to get a crown on a tooth that had a small crack that was an accident waiting to happen (supposedly). So my appointment for the crown was going to be this Friday. Well it hurt me the entire time but I said nothing. This morning before I had to go to a doctor's appointment, my temporary fell out. First time that's ever happened. So it's been hurting ever since and I can't take Motrin right now. I've been in pain for about seven hours. I finally give in and there's no Tylenol around. What do I do? I took Children's Tylenol. I sure don't know why Riley resists sometimes taking it. If anything it's way too sweet but my pain is gone after about 15 minutes so I'm happy now.

I did a two layouts in addition to a clear house-shaped album. The pink layout started off being stamped in only the corners using Fancy Pants stamps and rubons with Daisy Bucket paper I had left over from a heart album I did a year ago. You'll get to see that because I'm going to print those pictures up and finish it. I stuck my inital background in the Pazzles and it really slipped. So that was either scrap or I had to make do. So here's my analysis of this layout. . . it reminds me of Daisy from Rock of Love on VH1 because you don't know what to focus on. Stamps = tattoos, buttons = fake boobs, and the rest her big collagen lips.

The Sassafras layout was using three lines of their papers. The picture totally was the wrong size and not landscape. I couldn't make it work. That's what I get for forming the layout before I downloaded the pictures.

The house album is from Clear Scrap. I found the pictures of our house being built in 2004 while cleaning and finished it all in under 2 hours while Riley napped.

New mini album

I finished this mini yesterday. I started it Monday afternoon. Anyways, it was made from scratch. I have a huge box of mega-sized, heavy weight cardstock which allowed me to create the accordion. The dimensions are 5x7 for the cover.

Wrapped double weight book board with craft cardstock. Then I moved on with my We R Memory Keepers Nonsense line of papers, ribbons, etc. I haven't started to journal yet or make my journalling cards/shapes. It'll be about the things I adore most about Riley. So you can see. . . the first opening contains a slider card where two tags pop out of a card on the right side. The next pages contain three inserts of a star card and each has an opening in the middle where a scalloped oval danges. The last pages of the front size has a waterfall where I'll put inchie photos. . .guess the new hot term for the 1".

Let's flip it over and you'll see a pop up where a photo will go. And last is the pop up sliding tag. I used Tsukineko chalk ink to distress. Anyways. . . hope you like it. Now onto my next experiment.

Signing off. . . unemployed and tortured by paper. (ok technically not unemployed. still have a month and then some on payroll.)

No shopping for me!

Riley has decided that since I've been sick with a sinus infection for over two weeks that I needed to stay home. I really think it's because she wants to play with scissors but that's fine as long as she doesn't cut into another pair of my pants. Oh by the way, I had serious reactions to Augmentin and it has set me back probably a week's time of recovery. Riley and Michael had to pick up my new prescription of Amoxicillin today.

Anyways, here's a few layouts Riley and I did last night. It's been a while since I've produced a layout with more than one picture. Pretty quick and easy. I've been longing to do something intricate but it just isn't coming to me. I'm actually thinking the one in the middle isn't quite done. But at least I got Riley's first recital scrapped in two pages.