This Lovely Lady & Forever Friends

I guess these two titles could have been used on either of these pages today!  Of course, I use the new Crate Paper collections, which are MY FAVS!

About once a month, I am lucky to get to go out to dinner with some friends.  It's great because we each bring along other friends who may not know each other, and we ALWAYS have a good time.  But the friend I go out with all the time is my good friend Lisa.  She paid me the nicest compliment about being the type of person that is easy to go out to dinner with (in many more words than that), and I just love her humor, honesty, and her always open ears.

This isn't the best photo of us in the dimly lit restaurant, but we haven't taken a photo together in a while, so I changed it to black and white and upped the contrast a bit!

I used the new Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Styleboard collection, which you can see HERE in the My Scraps & More store!  At first, I wasn't too sure about this line, but when I saw it in person I was SOLD!  I love the colors and prints of the "ticket" looking paper, so I knew I wanted to use that on my page.

My page design is based on one of the weekly sketches at My Scraps & More Sketch blog, which you can find HERE!

The polka dot paper actually has gold foil dots on it that add a great shimmer.  I painted over it with some gesso and a dry brush.

For the circle on the sketch, I decided to stitch with white thread.  It wasn't showing up as much as I had hoped, so I added a few white lines with a white gel pen to help make the circle stand out more.

Next up I went all girly on this page!  Pink, doilies, butterflies, and hearts!  Another mix up of Crate Paper Styleboard and Oh Darling.

Charlotte has a couple close girl friends from school.  They are just all so cute together!  They always like to do "group hugs".  We were walking back to our cars after a lunch date at Red Robin, and they were all holding hands in the parking lot.  I snapped this picture with my phone.

I stuck with some light colors, and then added some color with the blues and pinks, inspired by the color combo at ScrapFriends/Kreative Koncepts.   ( I guess my teal is a bit darker than the combo....it is what I was thinking in my head at the time....oh well!)

To keep with the "lightness", I used some of the vellum doilies and other die cuts (like the hearts and butterfly). The ribbon embellishment is a piece of chipboard, and it had some writing on it that I didn't want for my page, so I just added another small doily chipboard piece and a chipboard heart, too, to cover it up.  

I LOVE all the gold foil accents in these collections!  It's on the chipboard, the vellum, and the die cuts.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Crate Paper goodness today!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Baby Buntings...

One of my favorite lullabyes to sing to the kiddos when they were babies was "Bye, Baby Bunting".  They still like to hear it every now and again!  Grandma came for a visit and we played "baby" and wrapped them up in "buntings".  Even though I just recently had a few years of practice doing "buntings", my mother is STILL better at it than I am!  :)

I haven't been using very many single photos on my layouts lately, so when I saw this sketch at Scrapfriends, I decided to give it a go with this photo.

I added a white wash and some "clay" mist splatters on the background, and then added a few splatters of some Heidi Swapp color shine in Coral, too.  I'm trying to use up my embellishments with this Crate Paper Close Knit line because I always run out of papers before embellies!  There are the stitched pieces, buttons, chipboard, and more!

I created a small banner with the chipboard pieces and just added some twine to the top.

I loved the cluster of frames in the sketch, so I used some chipboard ones to frame some fun brads from this collection, too.

Can't believe that it is almost the end of the month already!  But that just means it's closer to summer!  But I do like being "snowed" in so that I can spend more time scrapping!

Stay scrappy (and warm!) my friends!

Whoooo's CUTE??

A few years ago, my sweet friend Heather bought this adorable hat for Charlotte.  But her head is a bit too big for it now, and being blue and brown, someone else has inherited the hand me down, and he just looks as cute as can be in it!

The latest sketch at ScrapFriends had some feathers on it, and I recognized the design of the sketch to be similar to some Glitz papers I had from the new Finnley collection.  Feathers=owls=perfect!

I love how the Glitz papers already look artsy...like I painted them!  But all I did was layer them and splatter a bit of white mist on the background.

There are a bunch of papers layered behind the photo, and some die cuts and stickers layered on top.  The largest feather is from the Finnley What Nots, and the smallest one is a wood veneer one that I borrowed from Jen at the last crop we were at together!  I inked it blac and use a white pen for the spine.  The medium sized feather I simply cut free hand from paper and then used lots of little slits along the edges to create the feathery look.  I used a white pen down the middle of it, too!

I always try to balance my colors and elements on the page, so you will see the emerald green rhinestone in the top left, the same green "adorable" sticker on the photo, and the little green heart on the bottom right.

I added a bit of string behind the photo for some more texture and a little bit of machine stitching here and there.

Loving this collection and these papers (and this little boy).

OWL be back soon!  (comon, you KNEW that was coming.....)



Stay scrappy my friends!

Have you Hugged Your Mum??? October Scrapbook Circle

September is over!  Where did it go?  It has been a gorgeous fall so far...so nice and warm.  The trees are starting to show their true colors!  (Did you know that the colors are there all along?  In the summer, there is so much chlorophyll produced (which is green) that it covers up all the other colors?  Yup....former science teacher...)

Anyways, while decorating for fall, we got these gorgeous mums at the Farmer's Market.  The funny thing about these photos of Charlotte is that even though she looks so girly and cute with the flowers and the pink shirt, she was actually looking through the flowers and dirt for bugs!!  That's my girl!

I used the October Scrapbook Circle kit, which has the most gorgeous colors for fall!  I noticed that in the kit that many of the colors were part of the latest color challenge at ScrapFriends, too, so I focused on using those colors on my page.

For the background, I began by stamping with the exclusive Scrapbook Circle stamp with Versamark and heat embossing with white powder.  The I went over it with some Gelatos and used water to blend.  Finally, there are a few green splatters and a lightly stamped Dear Lizzy chevron stamp.

I also used the exclusive "You Are" stamp, too.  I tried covering it with the Gelatos, misting it with water, and then stamping.  It worked OK, but I think it would be better with less detailed designs.  I outlined it with a black pen to make it stand out better.

I used some free leaf svg files i found online and cut them with my cricut.  Then I stitched down the center of each.

Lots of fun layering with papers, die cuts, envelopes, stickers, and sequins!

Here is a peak at the October kit:

Want a chance to win one???  Visit the Scrapbook Circle blog and leave a comment HERE!

Can't wait to share the rest of my projects with you this month!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Too Rainy Today....GDT for ScrapFriends Yummy Scrap color challenge

I used to hate color combos, but now they are my favorite  type of challenge!  And I was so thrilled to stumble upon Scrap Friends a few months ago where they do a monthly color challenge and have awesome sketch challenges, too!  Plus the DT inspiration there is so incredible...the really artsy/mixed media kind of designs that I love to look at!

I was chosen as a Top 5 two months ago and therefore was asked to be a guest for this combo.

 When I saw the colors, the navy and grey remind me of a dreary day, so I used some rainy day photos.  These were taken at the beginning of the summer, when the kids were so ancy about going outside, but of course, there were a few rainy days when we couldn't go out to play.

As I was creating this page, I was thinking of rain and thunderstorms, so I tried to use things that remind me of that. I used a grey patterned paper for the background and a circle stencil with some gesso.

And the cloud paper from Lily Bee with the navy and grey clouds was perfect!  I used a strip of that with some additional clouds fussy cut out and pop dotted around the page.  I accidentally placed some grey washi on the page and saw that it looked pretty cool going along with the diagonals of the page, so there are some pieces of washi placed around and then I machine stitched over them.

So I needed to find a way to incorporate the orange into my page.  And again, by accident, a scrap of orange paper fell onto my page as I was cutting some other shapes that I was intially going to use.  I loved the way the little triangles looked, so I just cut a few and placed them around.  They remind me of lightning bolts!  :)

The word "today" is a rub on from American Crafts Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection, and I put it on a transparency from Maya Road.  I love that these transparencies look like the window the kids are looking through. I did my journaling underneath it.

Be sure to check out the Scrap Friends blog!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Happy Today...ScrapFriends GDT...color challenge #15.

I was super excited to have been chosen as a winner for the Yummy Scrap challenge #13 at ScrapFriends.  As a winner, you are offered a spot as a guest for the next color challenge.  So here are this month's colors!

When I saw the blue colors, it was the perfect match for the sash color of the flower girl dress that Charlotte recently wore.  Here she is, killing time during all the photos at the church.  Good thing the bride planned to have bubbles blown as they walked out of the church!  Charlotte was content for a good 15 minutes!  :)

I started by raiding my stash for colors to use to match the palette and then started adding some bits and layers here and there. A lot of the things came from some recent Scrapbook Circle Kits.  On the background, I laid down the patterned papers and then went over them with a mix of gesso and Art Anthology Sorbet in frost through a stencil.   I love the shimmer and the clear glaze the Art Anthology paints give to the gesso.  

Yes, I fussy cut the doily from from Maggie Holmes papers and the flowers from Basic Grey Mint Julep.  You can see a shipboard frame that I machine stitched with blue thread, too....And a little girliness with the pink bow from Maggie Holmes, too.

 A few more layers of frames, chipboard, stickers, and washi tape, plus this pre-cut title from American Crafts (Amy Tan Yes, Please).

I think I may be in the smaller percentage when I say that I LOVE color challenges!  So happy to have found a great blog that provides them every month.  The sad part is now I have to wait another month for a palette!  :)

Stay Scrappy My Friends!

Paper Issues *Pretty Little Studio* Blog Hop...

Welcome to the Paper Issues Blog Hop!  This weeks issue is sponsored by Pretty Little Studio and the theme is "Nature Walk".  PLS has a recent release called Nature Walk which features adorable elements like woodland animals, mushrooms, feathers, and elements like banner pieces and labels.

I used a sketch from Skissedilla and the June color combo from ScrapFriends for my page and also some goodies from PLS of course!

I immediately knew what papers I wanted to use for this color combo from ScrapFriends:  The colors in the "Acorn Ave" collection from Crate Paper were perfect!

I started by painting my background with a stencil and some mint/greenish-blue colored paint.  I had some white on my paint tray (aka....a piece of plastic wrapping) and as I mixed it, I was loving the ombre effect, so I went darker on the bottom and lighter towards the top.  Once dry, I went over some areas with the stencil and a thin black pen.

I fussy cut out a bunch of flowers and started laying them out on my page with a tag (which already had the "A" on it), a journal spot, and a few other bits.

I used the banner pieces from Pretty Little Studio at the top of the page with two different colors of twine.  I wanted a bit more green, so I covered one of the pennants with some green washi.  I also have a few of the feathers from the Nature Walk line tucked in here and there.

I even raided my stash and found some OLD flair from American Crafts. Some splatters, a few tiny chipboard circles here and there, and that's it!

Here is the order of the hop!  Be sure to hop along to each person's blog and then stop by the PLS blog and leave some love to all!

Ashley: http://www.ashleyhortondesigns.com/

Audrey: http://audreysreflection.blogspot.com/  <----YOU ARE HERE

Becki: http://beckiadams.blogspot.com/

Bente: http://paperandglueheaven.blogspot.com/

Carol: http://carolmonson.blogspot.com/

Caz: http://www.cazhancock.com/

Pretty Little Studio Blog: http://prettylittlestudio.com/blog/

Also make sure you:

1.      Like Pretty Little Studio on Facebook {tell them we sent you}

2.      Like Paper Issues on Facebook

3.      Leave a comment

TThanks for hopping with us today!  Stay Scrappy my Friends!

37...how did I get here already????

Wow...I can't believe I am this old already.  I feel like I just had my 21st birthday yesterday!  :)

I played with some new MME that I got a few weeks ago, and when I saw the color palette at ScrapFriends this month, I thought of this collection immediately!   I also used this weeks sketch from Skissedilla.  I started this page right after I had done a page in my art journal, so I was feeling kind "artsy".

Since the color palette had a "raspberry" color in it, but the papers didn't, I mixed up some mist colors to get the shade I wanted and then dripped them on the page.   Then I wanted to add a bit of a peachy pink, so I mixed some pink and yellow paint and mists and use a stencil on the background.

For my journaling, I decided to do a little pull out card to write some things on so that it wouldn't take up any space on the page.

I had laid everything out and felt like something was missing, so I went back and stitched the black circle on background.  I wanted a bit of girliness, so I used the chipboard floral bunch and a few other floral pieces here and there.  Some stamping, enamel dots, and flags, and I'm done!  :)

sketch at Skissedilla

color palette at ScrapFriends:

Stay Scrappy my Friends!