GM5 Elements in a Niche

I am both tickled and honored to be a guest designer, along with Helen for this week's Grungy Monday Challenge. And the odd thing was, when Linda asked me to do this particular technique, I had already been planning on trying this for a unique way to display an atc swap. I guess we were on the same wave length. It all started when my friend Diana linked me up with this cute little book you can make from one sheet of 12x12 double sided paper. I thought, what a great way to hold all the atc's from a particular swap......and then I thought, how about putting 2 together and getting it to fan out and then mount on something so you could display it on the wall. I immediately thought of foam core and a niche and then I got Linda's email and I was off and running or crafting as the case may be. The 2 books I made are with some very old (10 years old, I think) text weight scrapbook paper and then glued (my first choice when gluing paper is Best Test Paper Cement--when they say it won't curl or shrink they mean it!) together in the middle. And, of course, I didn't measure that paper first and wouldn't you know one side was only 11.75 inches long so I ended up with 3 pages that were a little short on the outside edge. These are the edges I punched holes in and laced some fuzzy fibers through. After I got my niche made as per Tim's instructions, I covered all with Ideology paper and glued my book in. Now, it was time for the bling.

I edged the whole frame with some denim edging from Trims & Trinkets, not even glued, just pinned in with white headed straight pins directly into the foam core. The butterfly is from K&Company and the sparkly butterfly trail is pieced together from Recollections bling.

And finally, I used the letters from Club Scrap's Refresh collection to spell the word breathe in between the alphabet beads that spell out Elements (the title of the atc swap). These were all strung on a very thin bamboo stick taken from a placemat. All of the atcs loaded into the little book have an Elemental theme--Fire, Water, Air or Earth.

I hope you all are enjoying the Grungy Monday Challenges and don't forget to visit Helen my co-guest designer and the folks at All Things Tim. As always, I love it when you share your thoughts with me here.

Quilting in the Desert

About 3 weeks ago I went on a 4 day quilt retreat with my friend Maryann and did we ever have fun. I don't think I've ever sewn quite this much nor laughed so hard for so long in my life. I stayed up waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late, I mean 9 o'clock is my bedtime and I was up till midnight at least 2 nights. The theme for this retreat was "Life's a Beach", so we started off making beachy little name tags and drink holders and thinking about what we might like to make for the silent auction. I had already made a beach raggy bag, but I spent some time wandering around getting ideas for other lovely beach themed items.

I took along my Aloha Shirts and Bowties quilt to hopefully finish and I did! yeah! Just need to layer and quilt now and it will be complete. Roger has already claimed for his Oregon quilt so I guess I better get on it before we leave for the summer.

And then there was the entertainment.....................Three of our quilt members dressed up in bikini t-shirts and regaled us with little beach ditties every evening. I told you I never laughed so hard or so long.

And on a run into Oracle (very cute, quaint, desert town) for lunch we spotted this beautiful old stone church and stopped to take pics. Even the cemetary behind the church was beautiful.

I still have a few more pictures to scrap, but this was a good start. All the layouts are done with Club Scrap digi kits. The first is with the new Welcome kit, second with Expressions, third with Blossom and the last with Adobe. Enjoy your Easter week end everyone!

Grungy Monday 3 Colorwash

Ahhhhh week 3......I was going to skip this week because I didn't have the product and then my friend, Paula loaned me her one and only color so I gave it a shot today. (This after working Friday and Saturday at the Mesa, CKC Scrapbook Convention in the PK Glitz booth, but I'll tell that whole story in another post. I'll say this though, It was FUN!) On to my Grungy Monday post for the week. I used Terra Cotta Colorwash and the Tim Holtz musical notes mask on a plain tag. Prima flowers and sparkly brads created with a technique I learned at the convention. One of my favorite quotes from a Club Scrap kit from way back when....Musical Interlude. Not sure where I got that sparkly bling at the bottom and the fibers are from my extensive fiber stash. Enjoy your week everyone!

Grungy Monday Week 2 Resist

It's Grungy Monday, Week 2. If you want to have some fun hop on over to Linda Ledbetter's blog at Studio L3 and join us each week as we try another wonderful Tim Holtz technique. You will have a blast.

I had to improvise a little this week and after taking about 25 pictures from different angles this was the best I could get and you still can't see the technique very well. Sigh....... I tried matte gel medium on the left and embossing powder on the right. Both came out a little different, but I do like them. Still need to get some liquid medium and try again though.

I started with the little town on the edge TH die cut out of craft foam. After stamping on dictionary paper and drying I doodled around the little houses with a fine black pen. Then I shuffled through my Citra Solv backgrounds (another fun technique using Citra Solv cleaner and National Geographic Magazines--AWESOME!) and found one I wanted to use my resist towns on. I added some swirly Broken China stickles in the sky and my Van Gogh title. This is a journal page in one of my PAO sister's journal.

Enjoy the week end all!

O What a Beautiful Morning......

We had a refreshing light rain last night and this is what greeted me when I went out to the back yard. The Claret Cup cactus in the top layout is such a beautiful red. It doesn't bloom every year, but when it does it is spectacular. I used a Club Scrap quick drop from Gratitude for this layout. And once in awhile I get a really nice Tall Bearded Iris. I guess this overly wet spring is doing wonders for the garden. Another CS quick drop from Blossom for this one.

Enjoy your day everyone. It's a beautiful morning.