First Altered Canvas

So I've been wanting to do an altered canvas for some time now. My son is graduating this year and wanted to give the school band directors a gift. I decided this was the perfect time to try an altered canvas. Michael's had a 2 pack of 12x12 canvases for $10 (expect number 2 soon).  I used 3 colors of paint--metalic blue, brown and black to give some depth to the background. Then after it dried I added Paper Studio papers in a music theme, torn and inked with Tim Holtz distress ink. I used a rub-on that said, "Encore!" in the corner and a piece of ribbon left over from an old homecoming mum  that said "Pride" Our band is called, "The Pride of West Texas Winters Blizzard Marching Band" (yeah, it's a mouthful!) so the word pride fits. I used some Tim Holtz tissue tape with a music motif and some tickets that say, "Play" Then I added a metalic flower and some pearl ribbon embellishments. The picture is printed on matte photo paper to keep it from being shiny (sorry for the flash glare, I got impatient and couldn't wait for daylight). Arch will give this to our directors at the band banquet later this week. Hope they enjoy it.

Catching Up

With Archie's graduation fast approaching, I decided to get things in gear and get Kat's senior album finished. So several layouts later, IT'S COMPLETE! Here are the last several layouts in her album. Most pictures are by the wonderful Christa Holland. So here we go:

This is the album's opening page. The handmade paper with the roses is one Kat made for me just before her senior year. The other is one I've had in my stash for years. I loved these pictures, they capture her personality so well. And they go with the ones that I've used for the last layout. More on that later.

This layout uses some inking and is based on a layout I found on Pinterest. I love all the pearl and jeweled flourishes I found. In fact, they seem to be a running theme in this album. The saying is "Simiple moments make great memories."

These pictures were taken in the back of an old pickup-turned-trailer. The flowers were wildflowers growing nearby. I loved these prima flowers, especially the bottom ones. They have music notes on them. The saying is, "Joy is the feeling of grinning on the inside."

I love the look of layered papers and in a recent challenge had a layout to follow that used the layers like this and I loved the look. The quotation says, "Sometimes it's good to sit quietly and let happiness come to you."

This is a happy accident. I was trying for a spattered paint background I saw on Pinterest and got blobs, I folded the paper and make a "blotto" type picture and then before it dried sprinkled on Martha Stewart glitter. Then I used my heat gun to dry it giving it the slightly bubbled texture.I added two journaling pages, some flowers, a bit of ribbon and the quotation, "Happiness is reflective like the light of heaven."

I love this metalic paper. So beautiful! I gathered the ribbon to make the curve and added the flowers and butterfly. I used scraps for the four squares. The quotation on this one is "The years tell us much that the days never know."

These are the only pictures in this set that Christa didn't take. It was just about sunset and I was far enough away that my poor camera had a hard time getting a good picture. Kat was third in her class and led the pledge of allegience. Then the music for the national anthem wouldn't work, so she ended up leading everyone in singing it accapella. I've had these Jolee's items since Kat was in 6th grade and I just had to use them.

And the last layout. As promised the pictures just after the opening page. If you know her, on those opening pictures, you can see that she's thinking about jumping. This series of pictures just seemed symbolic of jumping off into the world and growing. I've always loved Mark Harris' song "Find Your Wings" so I used the lyrics with this layout. Again, I love the layered, textured look of so many current layouts so I used folded ribbon, beaded flourishes, flowers and a butterfly. And so after two years in production this album is finished. I can't wait to give it to her.

Now, Arch graduates in four weeks, guess I should get busy on his...

Card Time

We had two events on one day today, so it's divide and conquer time. My husband has gone to a wedding of a dear friend who was one of his mentors when he started teaching and I'm headed out to a baby shower for the granddaughter of a friend. So I made two cards this morning. I only got a picture of the baby card, since Jeff had to drive 3 hours to get to the wedding and needed to take off. For both cards I used Juliane Tags from K and Company, ribbons and for the baby card a cute butterfly and flower. For the baby card, I had a ribbon tag that I wanted to use with the word "precious" and I used a clear sticker that said "Love and Laughter" and instead of the flower and butterfly, I used a organza bow. For that one I used one single white grosgrain ribbon across the front.  For the baby, I had 3 narrow ribbons using colors the mom used for the baby room.

Christmas Projects

I found a wonderful idea on Pinterest not too long ago. A lady had taken picture frames, put nice scrapbook paper behind them and made dry-erase memo boards. She had a big multi-frame piece for a menu board and 8x10 frames for individual boards.

So, I copied and added some embellishments (cause we all know it's all about the embellies, right?) and had elf-pack gifts for the ladies of the family. What is an elf-pack you ask? Well, several years ago, my creative sister-in-law decided we all needed some fun little goodies at Christmas. And instead of going the stocking route, she made little packs for each person and the "elves" help fill them. This elf tries to make something fun for each of the ladies in the family. (The guys get food and weird tools and slinkies and playdough and legos.)

So, here's what the ladies are getting:

And here is what the head elf (whose name my daughter drew in the family gift-giving drawing) is getting.

I saved the box for this one to make wrapping easier.

Lessons learned, the other frames came from Dollar Tree and aren't the best. 3 D elements aren't a good choice if you have a cheap frame that doesn't have all the little tabs that hold the back in place. A frame with a little more depth to it would work better. The multi-frame came from Big Lots and was much easier to work with.

Excting Challenges

I've been wanting to do more challenges this year and I'm excited to share a few. The first is of course the Scrapwhisper challenges that you've seen me do. The next is from Triple the Scraps. I did one of the first Scripture Challenges that Patter led several years ago and it sure was a wonderful way to combine Bible Study and scrapping. I'm looking forward to this one since it adds wonderful old hymns into the mix.

Check out Scrapwhispers at: http://www.http//scrapwhispers.blogspot.com/

And look in on Patter at: http://triplethescraps.blogspot.com/2011/11/announcing-hymn-scripture-challenge-for.html

I hope some of you will join in on the fun and let us see what you create in the upcoming year.

Back to Work

This has been a hectic year so far. No time to scrap. So today I had an afternoon and a Scrapwhisper Challenge and got a couple done. The first I can't show, it's part of the main whisper at Scrapwhispers. This challenge was a great sketch.



This is my take on it. I used a flower I'd held onto for a long time waiting for just the right layout. This one was it! The pictures were of course part of the set taken by Christa Holland.

Page Maps Freehand Scraps Contest

This layout is another Page Maps Blog Contest Entry. http://pagemaps.blogspot.com/2011/07/freehand-scraps-sketch-contest.html

It used the following sketch.

Again, I'm using some of Christa Holland's incredible photos to continue Kat's album. (There's just so many awesome ones to use!) I love the glimpses of the old tin ceiling at the top of the stairs and the hexagonal tile at the bottom in these. With Kat's outfit it becomes and old meets new. So I kept to clean lines in the layout and added some distressing and antique buttons to match that feel.  The background is textured cardstock by Best Occasions. The patterned paper is by Life Stories and the strip is a scrap from K&Company's Life's Journey collection. The felt ribbon and gold ribbons were from my stash. The chipboard ribbon slide came from Bazzil and the paper I covered it with is a scrap. I inked everything with Tim Holtz's Brushed Corduroy distress ink (Kat insisted!) and added antique buttons from my stash. The quotation is, "To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice." Marcus Valerius Martial