A White Christmas- My Version

 I live in a warm climate. So, technically speaking, there is not white Christmas here. We have palm trees, cooler sea breezes, and holiday lights. I have only seen snow a handful of times in my life. It's a beautiful thing, but something I am glad I don't have to deal with every year. So, where's the white Christmas? It's hidden in the photos and memories I have recently scrapped of a trip to Colorado. It's the magic of tiny snowmen, the falling snowflakes, and crunch of the snow under your feet.
   One of the most magical things I have ever done with my son is to build this little snowman.

Pencillines sketch #262
OA papers, recollections snowflake stickers, ATD title sticker, glass beads, glossy accents, Jolee's felt snowman, Crate paper sticker, Kaleidoscope slide with transparency by magic scraps,glimmer mist in silver sugar, viva pink and electric blue

He was the tiniest of snowmen. At 6 inches tall, he was largest snowman that my son and I had ever built. I think we shall always remember him. Building him was not just a first for my son, it was a first for me.
  The magic of falling snow may sometimes be lost on people who deal with it on a regular basis. For us, though, even the tiniest of flakes was the most amazing and wonderful thing.

Unknown papers, doodlebug snowflake brads(?),Inkadinkadoo stamp with colorbox lagoon ink,Martha Stewart snowflake punch,waterfall stickles, sequins, glass beads, i-roc jewels, unknown vellum flocked with white snowflakes,unknown quote,glimmer mist in frost,moonlight and electric blue
title block received in a swaplifted from a page called "June Faves" by Lynette Pancho

To mimic the look of the snow, I added some bits of leftover punched bits. The bits were from a sparkly Bazzil cardstock. So when I sprinkled it over the glue, some turned up on the matte side while others were sparkly.It added a nice bit of texture.

   Of course, after admiring the beauty and wonder of the falling snowflakes, children will then wonder about catching them on their tongues. I guess nothing tastes as sweet as a falling snowflake.

 Unknown papers( one of which is a vellum with white flocked snowflakes), martha Stewart snowflake punch, i-rock jewels, unknown snowflake button, glass beads, glossy accents,Karen Foster alphas outlined with an oceanview blue bic mark it,inkadinkadoo stamp with colorbox lagoon ink. Based on an Lo by Dina Wakely called "oh Fun."

Though I may not have the option for a white Christmas, making these pages sure got me into the holiday spirit. I hope your family enjoys the holidays and has a wonderful New year ahead of them!

A Tone on Tone Background

  I've been eyeing border punched backgrounds for awhile. Tone on Tone punched backgrounds always seem to make quite a statement. So when I saw the current pagerize this challenge at Scrap Our Stash, I felt the punched background would be a nice substitute for the stamped and painted background of La Vikinga's page.
Since this was a page for my wedding album, I chose to use some of Bazzil's pearlized cardstock. I only own three border punches and only one seemed to be appropriate for my wedding theme. This meant that  I had to get a little creative. I hand cut scallop borders from one inch strips. I then layered the leftovers from the punched edges and the hand cut borders in alternating patterns. Doing this made it seem as though I had more border patterns then I really did.

Pagerize this challenge#16-Scrap our Stash
Bazzill Cardstock
Apron Lace border punch- Martha Stewart
Bazzill paper flowers-white
other flowers-Prima
K and Co. brad
Webster's pages trims and lace
Little Yellow Bicycle hat pins with glass beads
Pink Paislee rhinestone button
Webster's pages sparkler's buttons

  I added an additional photo to the design and substituted flowers and embellishments for the title. I did not feel the page needed a title since it will be in the middle of my wedding album. I am happy to say that the lace I used was a scrap piece. There was just enough to make a second page with the same design.

I managed to use up the last of my Webster's pages sparkler buttons and several packages of flowers. I can say that I am happy to have used so much of my stash and I now have two more pages complete in my wedding album.

Now it's your turn!Head on over to Scrap our Stash so you can pagerize this!

Cookies For Santa

No...we did not bake them this year. At least not yet. I just finally got around to scrapping about last year's cookies. LOL. Nothing like being a bit behind, right? Months ago, I scrapped the photos of my son baking said cookies. As I was flipping through last December's album, I thought now might be a good time to use the scraps up. I must say, that when I saw that the Sketchy Thursday sketch really helped this page come together quickly.

Sketchy Thursday 12-8-11 sketch
Little Yellow Bicycle canvas border
Basic grey papers
Sassafrass alphas with glossy accents and glass beads
glimmer mist in Candy apple red and meadow
October afternoon stickers
I-rock gems
K and Co. brad
coffee filter

Perhaps soon, I shall get to baking this years cookies. Those photos sure make me hungry for some!

Scrap Our Stash Frugal Friday tip- buttons from packaging

We are all attracted to it in some way or another. Sometimes, it's part of what inspires us to make the purchase. Companies pay top dollar to design it. What am I talking about? Packaging, of course! Sometimes, I am loathe to throw it out. There has to be some way to use it.  Today, I am going to invite you to get out some of your punches the next time you open a new scrappy supply.
  Recently, I acquired a Martha Stewart embossing button punch. I have been searching high and low for things to punch( other than patterned papers) to make buttons with. I also happen to have a very messy drawer full of recycled items I hope to use in the near future. The problem with the messy drawer is that I hate to open it and look at the mess. Thus, I rarely use anything out of it. I merely pop it open as fast as I can to shove something else in. So I resolved to actually use some of that mess. I figured that if the item became an embellishment( as I had intended it too) than I might be more apt to reach for it the next time I was scrapping. Armed with my button punch, I opened the drawer and pulled out some package bits.

   In November, I had acquired the Melody Ross chip art tool. I set aside the clear packaging portion to make ghost letters and homemade acrylic style shapes. The backing is a nice thick piece of chipboard. From it, I cut the bracket shapes outlined in yellow. These will be filed into my journal spots box. I can use them as is with the quotes intact or I can paint or cover the quotes to adapt them to some future page.
  Now to punch some buttons from what's left. Parts of the packaging had lovely wooden patterns on it. That's where the buttons on the left came from. Other parts had flowers, birds and butterflies. Those would make some lovely buttons! However, the chipboard is too thick for my punch. So, I decided to peel away the chipboard layers. To loosen the layers, I took my paper piercer to a corner and separated the edges.

Once the corner is started, you can carefully peel away the layers. I did my best to peel it in half. This made thinner chipboard which my punch could handle and also allowed me to punch images from the front and back of the package.

Try to plan out where you want to punch. I cut away the unwanted  parts of the back which had wording and the sku number. This made it easier to punch the parts of the image I wanted.

As you can see, these made some nice embellishments. If you don't have a button punch, try using one of your own favourite punches.

Twelve Tags- Day 5

  Mine is not really a tag at all. As i have for the other days, Day 5 is an improvisation using what I have on hand. Some of you know that I am a mystery box addict. One of the things I get in the Maya Road mystery boxes are acrylic shapes and mini albums. I am not one to make mini albums, but I do love to take them apart. I find I can use them directly on a 12x12 scrapbook page. So with that in mind, I chose some acrylic mini albums pages to play with.

ranger alcohol inks in expresso, latte and caramel
Th inking tool
Maya road Acrylic house

In addition to the house, I also chose a butterfly and a small paisley. As Tim suggested, you could also use product packaging.
  I started by covering the acrylic shape with the ink.

The house was my first attempt. I made the mistake of not letting it dry all of the way before I stamped on it. I did however, get the gist of what I was supposed to do and got a decent looking effect.I also did not have an archival ink. I used a dark brown pigment ink instead.

After the partial success of the first shape, I was keen to try more. My next attempt was a butterfly and a paisley. I also chose more appealing ink colours. I am now questioning the wisdom of purchasing brown inks. This time, I chose eggplant and stream colour inks.

As you can see from the closeup, the effect is subtle but stunning. The key to getting the image to come off is to one, let it dry well before stamping and two, blot gently with a dry tissue or paper towel.

I now have added more alcohol inks to my wish list. I am really glad I tried this out.I think it's going to add a lot to my pages, as far as texture and dimension. Keep your eyes peeled...this butterfly just might pop up on a layout soon.

Twelve Tags of Christmas- Day 4

 As much as I liked the tag from Day 3, I decided to skip it...at least for now. The interesting techniques for the day 4 tag were beckoning. As usual, I lacked many of the supplies Tim used for his tag. What I did have was an embossing folder with the snowman. So I pulled out a thin piece of chipboard...the kind you can get from the top of a scrapbook paper pad. It was just the right thickness to emboss while at the same time thin enough so that I could cut out parts of the center. After embossing the chipboard, I cut the snowman out and carefully extracted the snowflakes with an exacto knife.

Once the cutting was complete, I applied a thin coat of white acrylic paint.After the paint dried, I added the rock candy crackle glaze.

While I waited for the glaze to dry and crack to perfection, I made the background sheet. I used a plain sheet of kraft paper as my base. Since I do not have all of the inks Tim used, I chose to stamp my blue ink pad onto wax paper. I stamped a square about the same size as the base paper. I then added a little bit of my homemade white mist. The white mist consists of watered down acrylic paint with a bit of perfect pearls powder.

Swirling the cardstock around on the wax paper created a wonderful sort of mottled effect. I set it aside to allow it time to dry. Now it was time to move back to the snowman. Once again, I did not have the inks Tim used. This time, I substituted glimmer mist. I opend the bottle and dabbed the dropper onto various sections of the snowman. I was pleased at how the mist seeped into the cracks. I applied the heat tool as Tim suggested and saw the white of the base coat become more apparent while the cracks kept the colour I had infused them with. I later noticed some of the glaze falling off.I am not sure why. Maybe it was the materials I used. To combat this, I applied a thin coat of glossy accents over the whole snowman.

Tim Holtz Embossing folder, Gauze from a first aide kit.glossy accents,
Ranger rock candy crackle glaze, Martha Stewart snowflake punch
clear packaging, Basic Grey Flourish stamp,
Technique Tuesday snowflake stamps
Colorbox ink in white and Blue Lagoon
Glimmer mist in electric blue, frost and spring violet

I raided the first aid kit for some gauze which I cut down and tied into a scarf. Thin clear packaging was punched into snowflake shapes. I am very pleased with the results. Most of all though, I am pleased with the new technique I learned for creating a unique background.

The Silly Rabbit

Yes, I know it may seem odd to scrap an Easter page during December. However, the photo wwas really begging me to scrap it. I was keeping current pretty well up until a few months ago. Now I am woefully behind. Aren't we all though!?!? Anyway, here's a little something spring during the cold months of winter. We had taken my son to an Easter carnival earlier this year.  When I saw the rabbit walking around, I knew I wanted a photo of my son with him. My son obliged and the rabbit added a little silliness to the whole thing which equaled the perfect photo!

Sketchy Thursday 12-1-11 sketch- Cosmo cricket papers-floral and bunnies, polka dot paper-sassafrass, sassafrass flowers, cosmo cricket border sticker, Sassafrass chipboard, pink paislee button, DMC floss, MM ribbon, American crafts rub on letters, Webster's pages alph stickers with glossy accents, glimmer mist in Electric blue and viva pink

update: on 12-8-11, this page was chosen as a Sketchy Thursday Fave! I am so excited. This is the first time I have been picked!

Becoming Mr. And Mrs.

    Every once in a while, it's good to follow the step by step instructions in the making of a layout. Why? It introduces you to a new technique without the stress and guesswork of what to do with the rest of the page. During November, I took a free class at Miss Arts Paper Crafting School. The class led me through a series of steps to add texture and dimension to my page. It was an enjoyable experience and led to the creation of a page that, while not my usual style, is truly wonderful.
   I did not have all of the materials suggested to complete the Layered Layouts class. Rather than purchase the supplies, I made a kit, attempting to match the supply list as much as I could from my stash. By doing so, the page became unique to me, despite the fact that I was following a series of step by step instructions.

Gesso
Pink Paislee glitter alphas
Glimmer mist in frost
Basic Grey paper clip
Tim Holtz metal tags
I-rock jewels
Basic Grey Wisteria paper
Making Memories shimmer flourishes-blue
My Mind's eye papers
Maya Road lace trim
Carboard
gauze from my first aide kit
Jenni Bowlin stick pins
Webster's Pages button sparkler
Maya Mist in Latte Metallic

 Though I may not use everything I learned in the making of this page, I will take parts of the process to incorporate into future pages.
  By completing the step by step instructions, I was able to learn the how and the why behind the page's design.I also learned that I love altering pre-made embellishments to meet my needs. I have always loved metal embellishments, for example, but never really liked the way they looked on many of my pages.They seemed to dominate aspects of the page. By altering them, I was able to give them a one-of-a-kind look and better able to blend them into my page's overall design.

The metal tags  have so much more character. I even think it's easier to read them now.
  This page will become the title page of my wedding album. Though it might not be my usual style, it's very special to me, both because of the amount of work I put into it and because of the end result.

Now it's your turn! Scrap Our Stash is celebrating it's birthday! Share a page or project you've made to help celebrate two wonderful years of using your stash in new ways!

The Twelve Tags of Christmas-Day 2

The tag for day two was simpler than day one. I think it's a good thing as it took me two days to make the first tag! LOL Once again, I did not have many of the materials, so I improvised.

Materials: Tim Holtz metal charm
Colorbox gold ink and Chestnut roan ink,
making memories snaps
Pink Paislee trim, twine, Bazzil cardstock
Holly  from K and Co. paper
diamond stickler

I used a printed kraft paper from the Paper Studio. To get the same effect as having the resist paper, I stamped the word Christmas with rusty pickle alphas and clear embossing powder. After I heat set the powder, I rubbed white acrylic paint across the paper. I quickly wiped it down to reveal the word. The holly was fussy cut from the k and co.paper. I hand cut the border on the bottom from chipboard. Inking it in cold achieved a nice, metal like appearance.
    I really liked how Tim had the indentations in his brads. I chose to use snaps. I did not attach them to the chipboard right away.Instead, I crimped the back of the snaps in my crop-o-dile. to do this, place the snap in the crop-o-dile without any paper. Then punch down. The result is a somewhat flattened back to the snap.

I then flipped the snap over and used the bump in the crop-o-dile to add the dent. Once I had five done, I used glossy accents to adhere them to the page. It's so much easier than trying to set the snap directly into the paper.
  I drew the dear by hand, then carefully cut it out. I inked the edges with the chestnut roan, then carefully edged it with Diamond stickles. My son says he likes it better than the day one tag! No kidding! LOL and this one was so much less work for me! Sometimes, simple really is best I guess!

The Twelve Tags of Christmas-day 1

   Last year, I was introduced to the Twelve Tags of Christmas event on Tim Holtz' Blog. While I did not participate, I did learn a thing or two. This year, I decided to try some of the tags myself. I must admit, that while I do like a lot of Tim Holtz' products, I do not own very many of them. Perhaps, at some point in the future, I will be able to acquire more.Meanwhile, I made due with the stash I had on hand.I decided to share some of what I did here along with my version of the tag...which is a bit more like a title block.
  First of all let me say that I do not have the same tag Tim used. Indeed, I do not even know the size measurements of said tag. I chose to use a piece of cardstock 4 1/4 inches x 4 inches. There is no special reason the tag is this size other than that, I decided to draw the title by hand to mimic the" Noel" used on Tim's tag. In doing so, My not so awesome skills of drawing meant the title was a certain size. So I had to make the cardstock base in an appropriate size to match the title and hold all of the elements. So yes, if you just did a double take, I did say that I hand drew the title. I pulled out a piece of grungeboard and did my very best to make my "Noel" look like Tim's.It need not be awesome or perfect for it will be covered with glitter. Glitter and paint can hide a lot of mess from erasing.

After drawing the title, I carefully cut it out using an exacto knife. Try to do it in small stretches, cutting small bits out at a time. Also, don't stress if you accidentally rip bits off, which happened to me. Remember, Paint and glitter can hide a lot of things.

Look carefully and you will see that the top of the N is missing part of what I drew. Also, the flourish under the L lost some of it's tip. Just to review, after I cut this, I then decided on the size Cardstock that I would use as a base.
  The first thing to really catch my eye were the paper pine cones. I wanted to make one so badly! Not having the die, I mulled over a few ideas.The following is what worked best for me.

materials for paper pinecone: scallop border, toothpick, adhesive like hot glue or glossy accents
White paint, brush and stickles( I used icicle.)

I took the guard off of my corner rounder and punched a scallop border. Small scallops seem to work best for this, since I wanted a small pine cone. You could even draw your own border, for the scallops need not be perfect. I initially cut a 12 inch long border. For the small pine cones on this project, I found that I only needed half of it to make one. Once the Scallop border was punched, I rolled and bent the edges a bit. You will do a bit more of this later when the pine cone is completely made,but doing this a little now is a huge help for later.

Next, I adhered a toothpick to the edge of the border. Note that I cut off the pointy end. That way, it does not show on the finished pine cone. After the glue is dry, cut slits at the intersection of each "v" in the border.

Be very careful not to cut all the way through the border strip. Cutting the slits helped me bend and shape the pine cone since the card stock I used was a heavy weight.Now, roll the border onto the toothpick in the same fashion that Tim demonstrated. When you come to the end, adhere the tip of the border. Once dry, begin shaping your pine cone. I found that my paper piercer helped me pull open the pine cone. Just be gentle so you do not tear it. Once that's done, dry brush some white paint on the tips of the pine cone. Then add smear some stickles on with your finger. Repeat to make the second pine cone.

   Honestly, I wasn't really liking my pine cone a whole lot at first. Adding the paint and the stickles is really what gave it that pine cone look.
  For the greenery, I hand drew various leaves in an attempt to match what Tim had cut with his dies. I used a lot of inking to make them look better. I did not have the distress embossing powder. So I chose Coredinations whitewashed cardstock with a blue core as my base. I did have Tim's snowflake embossing folder. I used it to emboss the card, then sanded it and inked it with a variety of colorbox inks in browns and greens.I chose to rub the ink on with my fingers so that I could apply it randomly, but with purpose, to the tops of the snowflakes. My distressing tool was my scissors.I rubbed the blade along the edge of the cardstock at intervals.

Materials: kaisercraft music paper, Colorbox chestnut roan ink, Colorbox ink in olive green
and moss green, paper scraps, Tim Holtx embossing folder. Coredinations whitewash cardstock,
hat pins, glass beads, silver acrylic paint, silver glitter, white acrylic paint, icicle stickles

Since I wanted to use this as a title block, I substituted handmade pins for the jewels and ribbon. As you can see, no one will notice the bits missing from the title. I painted the edges of the "noel" with silver acrylic paint and then added the glitter to the top...effectively hiding the parts that ripped off when I was cutting the title.
  So now, after a lot of work( that I did enjoy), I am off to tackle tag # 2. Here's hoping I am as happy with it as I am with Tag 1!