Orezonia

Upcycling--Part 2!

2012-01-21T11:29:00.000-08:00

I've been working on this Lazy Susan Utensil Caddy for the last couple of days.

I ripped out the funky little wood holders that wouldn't hold anything that didn't have a big square hole in it and then painted my favorite purply raisin color as you saw in the previous post.

Decided to get a little collage action going and have been cutting and gluing for 2 days now. It all started with a little french themed napkin my friend Paula gave me a few weeks ago. You really can't see much of the napkin anymore, but the Eiffel Tower is part of it.

I've been digging through scraps and looking through old scrapbook papers to find collage items to cut out. Even found some old Paper Pizzazz books that had realistic looking embellishments to cut and paste.

Added some sticker phrases and flowers that I thought would be inspirational when I'm creating.

Then, went through the bling drawer and added a little sparkle to each side, just because! And I hit the 10 cent sale at Michaels yesterday and really added to the bling supply.

Here's an overview of the bottom ledge at each side. I just kept finding things to cut out and glue on.

Here is the very top with some flowers and faux metal embellishments. A little Club Scrap Bistro in there too!

Here it is all loaded up with tools and a few hanging embellishments. I'm forever looking for my needle tool and non-stick tweezers so I'm hoping their new home will help me out a little.

And here are both my new toys in their spots on my desk. The jewelry box has all my wire and wire working tools. And now, I'll need another trip to the Goodwill as all my finds have now been repurposed into new items. Have a happy week end!

Upcycling!!

2012-01-18T07:01:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I found this old jewelry box at the Goodwill Store (a favorite place to find cool stuff). It was still in pretty good shape so I took all the hardware off and gave it a coat of raisin paint. While the hardware was off, I noticed it was looking pretty bad so I pounced some Alcohol Ink (citrus and silver) on all the knobs and hinges.

The insides of the drawers were in the worst shape so I picked out some pretty paper and covered them all with it.

The insides of the doors got the same treatment. I think this is going to become my center for wire working. It will be nice to have all my supplies in one place.

Jump Starting the New Year

2012-01-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

I signed up for the Jump Start emails to kick off the new year and have been dying to try this one with the toilet paper. Yes, I said toilet paper. So, this is how my day started out, which I think turned out very cool.

Well, while I was glimmer misting my TP samples I had this sheet of white card stock underneath and I thought that waste paper was kinda neat, so I set that aside to dry and went about making some of these cool watercolor pencil cards that I saw on Tricia Morris' blog over at Club Scrap.

I liked the little black matte around the watercolor panel. Really makes it pop.

Then, I was over at PAO and Sue had posted this really cool Queen Anne's Lace flower art she did an art journal page for and I just had to give that a try.

I thought that would look really nice in the square leftover in the waste paper from the glimmer misting on the jump start sample so I tried that.

All in all, it was a very artistic day at my house and I can definitely see where the jump start technique can get your creative juices flowing and take you in a completely different direction from where you began.

So, what did you create today?

Happy New Year! It's Mystery Quilt Day!

2012-01-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

I've been at it since 8 am this morning. (good thing I went to bed at 10 last night instead of staying up to ring in the new year). These are the fabrics I chose for the mystery quilt over at planetpatchwork.com . It's called Chips & Strips. I, of course, chose batiks. It's kind of a running theme with me.

Here are the first 2 installments of the quilt. Not much of a hint yet, lots of colorful squares so far.

Now, we're starting to add the light in and it looks like we're getting a stair step.

A couple of borders, cornerstones and a ninepatch corner to finish it off and the top is finished, Yeah!

Hopefully, I'll get it sandwiched up and quilted tomorrow. This one was really easy and fun. Love the jewel tones you get with the batiks. Have a wonderful New Year's Day!

Happy Holidays 2011

2011-12-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Loved making these little book trees this year. I'm absolutely covered with glitter, but well worth it.

I actually got a double bloom on my amarylis this year. First time in a long time, we'll have it through the new year I think. Some of my favorite holiday decorations too. I didn't put out very much though, as we have the master bath completely gutted to redo soon and stuff is piled everywhere.

A Wreath of Tags

2011-12-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

I decided I needed a place for all the tags I've done over the last 5 years and chose a foam wreath as my base. I covered it with holiday fabric and then poked wire through and made coiled up clips that I could put a brad through to hold the tags on. I haven't done every tag over the years, but I do have about 50 on there with room for next year's too! Have a very safe and happy Holiday!

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 12

2011-12-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh, day 12. It's been a fun journey through the 12 Tags of Christmas this year. Already looking forward to next year's journey.

12 Tags of Christmas, Day 11

2011-12-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

I just loved playing with the melting pot for this one. Wish I'd had a more whimsical Santa stamp, but I worked with what I had. Kind of a super easy technique for this one, but I like the vibrant colors you get.

The 12 Tags of Christmas, Day 10

2011-12-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

Day 10 brings us to those lovely little faceted charms. Love the look of putting the foil tape behind them. Genious! I used a Club Scrap Christmas tree stamp for my background and then trolled around in the bling box for the rest of the doodads.

The 12 Tags of Christmas, Day 9

2011-12-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

Just a little improvising for today's tag. I used a Club Scrap UM stamp from Written Word Remix for my back ground swirls. Pine Needles and Fired Brick Distress inks. I coated some grunge letters and swirl with black EP and added some bling. The lamppost and greenery were an RAK from my friend Monica which I stamped with some bg noise and embossed with Marcasite EP. Topped off with ribbon and pompom yarn from my stash.

The 12 Tags of Christmas, Day 8

2011-12-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite tags this year. I kind of changed the umbrella man into a bit of a santa. Not sure I like him yet, but he's growing on me. I used some ClubSscrap background stamps from Retro and Workbench kits and then just started looking through the stash for bits and baubles to jazz it up.

The 12 Tags of Christmas, Day 7

2011-12-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

My day 7 tag went so different that it turned 90 degrees and went horizontal! I had none of the supplies on the list for this one so just started rummaging through the stash for this one. The leaves are done with the the divider papers in my pastel sketch book. Kind of looks like unwaxed waxed paper and seemed to have the same properties of the glassine paper that Tim uses. Had some sparkly red mesh and pearl beads from a broken necklace, so those worked. The stamp is from a clearstamps sheet and polka dot sheer ribbon inked with Fired Brick Distress.

12 Tags of Christmas Day 6

2011-12-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

I'm catching up on my tags and really enjoyed this technique. I swear it looks like vintage enamel work. Definitely going to play around with this some more. I don't really have any holiday embossing folders so I went with the post card one again. Added a little 3-d sticker and a charm, but mostly wanted to leave the tag open to show that great technique.

Tribute to a Wonderful Lady

2011-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

My grandma passed away last week at the wonderful age of 91. I spent many week ends with her and my grandpa as a child and she taught me so much. I am in Washington for her memorial service today and thought I would put up a few pictures of her. This is me, my grandpa (who passed in 1985) and my grandma at Mowich Lake in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. I was 5.

Here she is with my 2 boys shortly after Will was born in 1991. My oldest is now 24 and happy he got to know her into his adult hood.

Here she is with a rare candid smile on her face. She was tough to photograph, always hiding from the camera.

And here is one of my favorite photos of me, my mom and her mom. We were always gabbing and drinking coffee when we were together and often went on spur of the moment shopping trips.

Goodbye grandma, I will miss you................

The 12 Tags of Christmas Day 5

2011-12-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

Day 5 brings us that fun alcohol ink technique with a negative image. Well, no reflection stamps here so I just used some fun snowflakes and a stocking. Punched some holly leaves out of dark green and sheet music for the wreath and colored some bling with red pepper AI for berries. The little treble clef clip just looked like it went.

The 12 Tags of Christmas Day 4

2011-12-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

So far, the tree theme is working for me. I used the big branch die to make an icy, wintry tree with some faded jeans and weathered wood distress stains. The flowers are K&Company and the snowflake is from Stickopotamus. I made the little bauble at the top with some jewelry beads and findings. I like that technique with the picket fence distress stain on the background. It really softens the colors. Head on over to Tim's blog and check out the inspiration.

The 12 Tags of Christmas Day 3

2011-12-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

After baking all day and mulling over what I was going to do, I ended up going in a totally different way today. I really didn't have a stamp I wanted to repeat the color stamping and I don't have any matching embossing folders and stamps, so I started with the postcard folder on some black pastel paper. After running through the Big Kick I colored various areas with perfect pearls. Then found a desert "yule" tree and tacked that on with a pretty little cardinal sitting in the crook of its arm. The "peace" is from some Kay & Company glitter rubons. And I just noticed I have a bit of a tree theme going on here for the first 3 days. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

12 Tags of Christmas--Day 2

2011-12-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh, day 2. More improvisation here since I don't have the seasonal kraft, but I do have the regular seasonal paper and that worked pretty well, with some of my own stamps and clear embossing powder. I'm kinda liking that picket fence distress stain (first time I've used that). I have the tree die and not the deer so I went with that version and then found these cute little bead strung gold and silver light bulbs that looked great with the tree. Some brocade trim and brads in place of the border strip and a little gold dove charm round out the tag.

The 12 Tags of Christmas Day 1

2011-12-01T13:51:00.000-08:00

The 12 Tags has arrived! Yeah! As you can see I've gone off on a little tangent as I didn't have many of the supplies for today's tag. If you want to see the inspiration head on over to Tim's blog and check out today's tutorial. I did the background on the tag following the tut, but using the cracked glass folder. I added some cut out snowy trees with a touch of glitter, a very glittery snowflake and a gold santa charm tinted with alcohol inks. The baubles are homemade from broken jewelry and the ho ho ho sticker is a K&Company from last year.

Hope you all are enjoying the kick off to the yule as much as I am.

Rosette Tree

2011-11-30T16:19:00.000-08:00

Just playing around getting ready for the 12 tags to start tomorrow. Made this cute little tree out of red and green rosettes.

Found some pretty blue strips in the scrap bin and made a couple of ornament blanks too. They are so pretty with that extra little bit of glitter on the edges.

Can hardly wait for the tags to start!!

Themed Swap Cards

2011-11-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

These are cards for our October and November themed swaps over at PAO. October's is Shoot for the Moon, Land on the stars. I used Club Scrap's Celestial stamp for the sun/moon with sunflower perfect pearls, Club Scrap and some handmade papers. The trees are a Rubber Stampede stamp with white ink and crystal embossing powder. The November theme is Under the Sea with a Distress stain background and ClearStamps scene, Club Scrap papers and harlequin fiber from my stash.

Almost time for the 12 Tags of Christmas. I'm ready! Are you?

A Wintry Lottery Piece

2011-11-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

Our November Lottery over at PAO is to create something with metal, so I created a little winter scene in a repurposed tuna can. I added one of those battery operated candles through a hole drilled through the back. I used some VERY old holiday paper that had these cute snow covered trees on it, some sparkly snowflakes in the background, cotton ball snow, a snowman button and some pretty green trim.

We've been to WAR!!!!!!

2011-11-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

So where the h-e- double toothpicks have I been? I noticed that it's been about 6 weeks since I posted on my blog. Well, alot happened in October. My dad had surgery to repair several abdominal aortic aneurysms so I was up in Washington helping out for a couple of weeks during that (surgery was successful and he's recovering slowly but surely). Then we had the long 2-day drive back to Arizona for the winter and had to prepare for the fall SCA event Southern Crusades, which we returned from just 2 days ago. To the left is our encampment with St. Felix, the chapter from UA that Will is the Seneschal for. You'll notice the 2 guard dogs in front of our tent. They had a good time too.

Here we have Will, center, fighting in one of the scenarios on Saturday. The fighting was really fun to watch and I believe Will's team was triumphant at the tournament. There was even a torchlight tournament on Friday night where Will came in 3rd and earned a very nice copper tankard as a prize.

Had a beautiful clear night with a full moon and Venus rising together the first night we were there. The weather also held and we had no rain until take down on Sunday. Gorgeous fighting weather.

I also took a couple of classes, one was how to make a viking hat (need to finish with some fur trim) and Egyptian Chain, which is in the picture above. We had a wonderful time and can hardly wait until the spring and Estrella!!!

We're starting to get the hang of this......

2011-09-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

We've been out on the River about 5 times now and have a 5lb King jack salmon and a 4lb Wild Coho to show for it. Not bad. Still looking for that big Chinook, but we're getting better.........

Pine Needle Baskets

2011-09-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

When we were camping at Lassen in August I bought a kit with instructions on how to make pine needle baskets. And we were camping right in the middle of hundreds of Ponderosa Pine trees. I collected up a grocery bag full of them and I've been making these cute little baskets while watching tv in the evenings. I've made 3 so far; these 2 here and 1 tiny one that sits on the dash of the car to hold change. They are so addicting and each one turns out unique. I scrapped this picture using several Club Scrap digi kits including: Adobe, Apothecary, Henna and Fossils.

Wing-ed Things

2011-09-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

Finishing up some swap commitments. I really was having a block on this Winged Things swap and then got linked up with some flower tutorials and was off to the races, finally. I started with a Citra Solv background and then did some flower stamping with acrylic paint; then cut apart more flowers to make butterflies with a bead body and wire antennae. Voila!

Happy 24! Paul

2011-09-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Paul! It's such a unique year as we were both born in the year of the Rabbit and that makes me twice as old as you. I dug up some great layouts featuring you as the star. The Inn at Spanish Bay uses Club Scrap's Gratitude kit; The layout with Gus in the snow is done with some digi freebies and CS Milestones; The trip to Florida is on CS Concrete Jungle and the one relaxing by the pool is on CS Anniversary Cruise. Hope you enjoy your day and all the College Football games.

The Mummy Strikes!

2011-09-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

It's getting to be that time of year, when the ghosts and ghoulies come out to play! Well, I know it's over a month away, but when you're swapping ATC's you kinda gotta get going a little early. This idea popped into my head at 3am the other day and I got a chance to put it into action today. I couldn't resist this Halloween themed tissue tape when I saw it at Michael's and I'd been mulling over how to make a mummy with it, when "make a wire form and wrap it" came to me in the wee hours. Some chain tie downs and a mica flake floor and it all came together.

And a big Happy Birthday (for real) to my son Paul! 24 years today! Ahhhhhhh, I can remember it like it was yesterday!

Transparent Tea Time Pendant

2011-09-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

I got some of those new faceted fragments to play with for the current Grungy Monday challenge (21 I think it is). I also wanted to do a necklace for the September lottery at paperartistsonline so I combined the two and came up with this piece. It's a mini collage with a teacup theme and I incorporated a couple of the techniques that Tim describes on his blog. I used the oval facet and some of my newly purchased beads from my visit to Shipwreck Beads last month. ( If you're in the Olympia, Washington area at all--a must see--bring your wallet). It was a little difficult to photograph the facet since it has faux-etching on the top, but you can see the little teacup at the bottom. Tomorrow we're going salmon fishing. Hope we get a big one!

A Puzzling Dilemma........

2011-09-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm hosting a swap over at paperartistsonline and I spent the week end finishing up my pieces for it. I decided to go for a Tim Holtz inspired theme on mine and I have fallen in love with that new resist paper of his. I used an entire sheet on each piece. I love how it takes the distress ink so well and the resist just POPS!

I also used some cutout images from the DCWV paper stack Tattered Time, another paper I'm finding I love to play with. When I was up visiting my crafty friends in Washington I got to use the big clock die and the tattered flowers die so I added some of those to some of the pieces too. They were cut from Club Scrap pops.

I also got to use a whole bunch of new ideology doodads that I've been dying to try. Those little light bulbs take alcohol ink beautifully and the little chain dangles remind me of pendulum clock chains.

And now for the dilemma--WHICH ONE DO I KEEP!!!!! In hosting this swap, I get to look at each and every one of these beautiful works of art (there are 48 in all), but I also have to decide which one's to swap out and which one's I get to keep. I only get 3 plus one of my own and I want them ALL!!!

A Wonderful Surprise!

2011-08-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

We decided to head for the beach this morning. The sun was out, the wind was nonexistent (a rarity for the Oregon Coast) so a nice walk on the beach sounded great. We just get down to where the surf line is when what to our amazement a whole pod of whales is putting on a show just beyond the breakers. We stood mesmerized for almost 2 hours watching them spout and turn in the water. I wasn't able to see them through the camera, but by zooming into where they were and then watching above the camera for the spouts, I was able to get about 6 fairly good pics. At least you can actually see the whales in them. Not sure what kind of whales they were, but we think maybe, sperm whales.

The digital layout was created with the new Club Scrap kit Versailles, with some Castaway and Milestones thrown into the mix. It was quite a spectacular day.

Grungy Monday 17 A Rockin' Altered Spice Rack

2011-07-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

It's time for Grungy Monday and I just happened to be using Rock Candy Stickles while I was altering this old spice rack I found at the GoodWill for a whole $1. Cool find heh? And I was using lots of Tim Holtz goodies so I'm getting a two-for with Grungy Monday and the PAO monthly cybercrop this week end. Whoo hoo!

First, I sanded the rack to rough it up a bit, then painted with white acrylic paint. Next, I started covering the various surfaces with DCWV new Tattered Time papers and started adding charms and tags made from some Tim Holtz ideology doodads, some Graphic 45 stuff and some things from my stash that have been lying around for awhile.

I used Rock Candy Stickles on all the paper flowers and the butterfly at the top, although it is very difficult to see in the photos. I just wanted a little shimmer, which is the absolute beauty of the stickles.

And here we have my new Art Medium Rack all loaded up with Embossing Powders, Twinkling H2Os, Perfect Pearls, Pearl Ex, and Distress Stains. Have a great week everyone! Get out there and create!

Veggie Box 6

2011-07-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Our first tomato of the season!!!!! And it sure is a yummy one. I've cut it into quarters and am enjoying a section on my nightly salad. Tonight we had the most delicious lettuce wraps with chicken, onion, ginger, carrot and water chestnut. The beets are incredible too! Looking forward to a steady crop of tomatoes now.

Layout done with Club Scrap's Sonoma and Artifacts kits.

Veg Box 4 & 5

2011-07-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I forgot to photo week 3, it was yummy though! and very similar to the first two boxes. We're still having one of the coldest, wettest July's here in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm amazed that the farm is even growing much at all. The veggies are still very tasty and we're starting to see a hint of those summer crops coming in. Best of all, the beets this week and a beautiful tomato. I think we may see blueberries soon and alot more tomatoes in the next few weeks.

Veg box 4 is scrapped with a mix of Club Scrap digi kits. Castaway, Destinations, Dream in Color and Papillon. Veg Box 5 is scrapped with a combination of Just Dandy and Natural Resources,

Grungy Monday 14 and a Summer Lottery

2011-07-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Grungy Monday 14 is upon me and I have some of the ingredients, but not all so there's quite a bit of improvising going on here. If you want to know exactly what to do then hop on over to Tim's locale and check out his really cool Perfect Pearly mist. First of all, my white paint seagulls did not turn into a good resist so I ended up stamping them on some oceany text weight paper and popping them up a little, using the white paint as a shadow. I don't have any reinkers with me or mists so I just used my blending tool to add color and then tried painting some Perfect Pearls on, but didn't really like that, so on came the water droplets, which I really did like. I really thought it needed a big sun so I tried the technique for making dandelions in the new supercool scraprap magazine at Club Scrap and I brushed on some Perfect Pearls. This will be my July Lottery piece for the summer themed lottery at PAO .

Veggie Box: Week 2

2011-06-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely array of veggies in the box this week. Some we've never even tried before and found delicious! Those beautiful strawberries were the crown jewel though. So sweet and luscious, we're already munching our way through the 2nd box and can hardly wait for more.

Layout made with Club Scrap's Common Threads digi kit.

Grungy Monday 12

2011-06-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to sit down and tackle the Grungy Monday challenge from Linda over at Studio L3, but I think we're settled in Oregon enough to do a little art. This week's challenge is a cool resist technique from our friend Tim Holtz. I don't have all my TH supplies with me, but I think I have enough to at least give my interpretation. This is going to be my mom's birthday card next month (shhhhh....don't tell her). I started with some K&Company paper and cut a tri-fold card, leaving the front a solid 4x5.5. I stamped some chinese lanterns on the front for the resist tech and then added some more paper, a doily, some Recollections bling and one of my favorite Happy Birthday stamps from Club Scrap's Be Wonderful UM sheet. On the inside panels of the trifold, I stamped some more lanterns; raised a little bird, added a rub on swirl and a torn panel from a scrap at the bottom.

Thought I'd add some quick and dirty instructions for the folds and cuts on this card for those of you interested:

Start with a 5.5" x 12" card base (this will fit in a regular A2 envelope when folded up)
score at 4", 6", 8" and 10"; make a cut with your craft knife and ruler 1 1/2" from the top and bottom edge starting at the 4" score line and ending at the 10" score line. Fold the score lines in opposite directions and decorate the panels.

Community Farm

2011-06-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

One of the first things we did upon arrival was join the Winter Green Farms Community Farm. For 19 weeks we will get a box of veggies every Friday, which is about the time we're going to be in Oregon, and our first box was this past Friday. It's been an unusually wet and cold spring here so we knew the first box was going to be a little sparse, but the taste is absolutely fantastic and the weather has warmed this week so we're expecting the boxes to be fuller and fuller. We're having big salads every night and last night we had lettuce wraps using that lovely green Boston lettuce you see on the right. Yummmmmmmmmy!

Scrapbook page uses Club Scrap digital kits: Sonoma, Arts & Crafts, and Gratitude.

Paula & Diana's Flat Adventure

2011-06-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

I brought my flat crafting buddies, Paula and Diana along with me to Oregon and boy have they been having fun. Here they are packed in with my knitting and crossword puzzles for the long drive.

We camped at Red Rock Canyon State Park in Southern California the first night.

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast of granola bars and coffee while we were treated to a spectacular sunrise.

A stop at our favorite fruit stand, Casa de Fruta had us making a fast getaway after the girls started climbing on the antiques.

We had a relaxing evening during our visit with friends in Los Altos

There always seems to be a plumbing or water leaking problem when we arrive in Oregon, so they donned their Hazmat suits and masks to help with the cleanup.

Yesterday, they put on their hard hats and helped with tree trimming so we could find a window for the satellite dish.

More adventures to come from Flat Paula and Flat Diana as the summer progresses.

These are all mostly QDDL's from various Club Scrap digi collections.

We're Almost There...........Oregon Bound!

2011-06-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to cool temperatures, walking along the beach and stuffing ourselves with seafood!

Digital scrapbook pages using the new Club Scrap kit Dream in Color. Isn't it Gorgeous?!

Club Scrap Die Cut BlogHop

2011-05-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's time for a Club Scrap Bloghop, Yeah!!!!! For my project, I used the Tim Holtz Ideology butterfly die with Milestones purple paper for the butterfly skeleton and Raku print for the filler of the butterfly wings. I also used a homemade polymer clay bead colored with Perfect Pearls and some beads and wire from my stash for the body of the butterfly.

Here is the order of the hop:

http://www.pagesofpictures.com
http://chrissiecreations.blogspot.com/
http://scraphappysistersink.blogspot.com/
http://www.capecodscrapper.blogspot.com/
http://www.creatingwithconnie.blogspot.com/
http://orezonia.blogspot.com/ (you are here)
http://squirrelyart.blogspot.com/
http://wbellino.blogspot.com/
http://craftchaos.blogspot.com/

Hop on over to Nancy's blog to see some more Club Scrap diecut creations.

GrungyMonday6

2011-05-15T08:08:00.001-07:00

Well, I put it off as long as I could and then decided to combine this challenge with our May Lottery challenge over at PAO. This week we're in the wayback machine and using one of Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas as our foundation. I used some white paint along with the Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks. I made a packing tape transfer of a vintage image and added a TH phrase stamp and tissue flower topped with one of my own handmade dictionary paper flowers. Hop on over to Studio L3 to check out all the cool entries this week. mmmm......I'm having trouble adding links today and will need to troubleshoot.....sorry for the bother.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T07:25:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to both my mom and my grandma. Love this picture of us standing around gabbing and drinking coffee together in my mom's kitchen.

And a Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Have a great day!

I am a Butterfly

2011-05-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

Club Scrap's new May kit Papillon is just spectacular. I was cruising the picture files and came across these favorites of me and my dad in Golden Gate Park in 1966. I immediately thought I looked like a butterfly flitting to all the flowers in the garden. What a perfect set of photos for this quick drop layout that came with the digi kit. Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!

GM5 Elements in a Niche

2011-04-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

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......

2011-04-07T07:56:00.001-07:00

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.

It's Grungy Monday (on a Wednesday)

2011-03-30T14:09:00.001-07:00

I'm just a couple days late. Busy getting ready for quilt retreat, tomorrow. Yeah!!!! and I needed a tag for my gift exchange bag so I thought I'd try out the Grungy Monday challenge from Linda over at Studio L3 which happens to be a lovely tag technique from our beloved Tim Holtz way back from 2008. I used some homemade misters with peeled paint and broken china reinkers and a swirly mini mask. Stamps from Club Scrap's Textiles and Notions kit. Rummaged around in my sewing box for a couple of snaps and rick rack for the finishing touches. You all have a great week end, I'm off to sew!

Hey Will!! You're 20!!

2011-03-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've been tripping through the way back machine, digitally scrapping picture of my youngest son, Will. Today is his 20th birthday. Really? 20? It seems like it was just yesterday, not 1994, when we hiked in the Sawtooth Mountains of southern Idaho and camped near a great sliding rock.

And didn't we just go see "Men In Black" last week end? Which prompted 2 little boys to demand their very own neuralizers so they could run around zapping everyone's memories for the next 2 months?

And I know it was just a summer ago, not 8 summers ago, that I captured a 12 year old Will with a bad headache from too much play and not enough water getting a hug from dad on the beach at Ocean Shores, Washington.

And here he is just last month (really!) at Estrella War just before the sandstorm from hell arrived to wipe out the rest of the week end. So, Happy Birthday, Will. May your next 20 be just as adventurous as the first 20.

Emergence

2011-03-20T08:40:00.001-07:00

Darwin, our 8 year old desert tortoise emerged from hibernation this week. It was a rough winter for her this year. We had above average rainfall and below average temps and at one point had to dig her out and put her in a basket in the garage due to flooding in her habitat. After this 3 minute drink (tortoises do everthing slowly) she found a nice warm rock and went back to sleep for awhile. She'll probably be cruising around eating everthing in sight within a couple of weeks.

This layout is done with the new Raku kit from Club Scrap.

Velvet Stamping Class

2011-03-14T09:09:00.001-07:00

Digital scrapbook page created with Club Scrap's Color in Black and White digital remix.

I had a blast last week teaching one of my quilt group's (Cactus Patchers of Tempe) how to use rubber stamps on velvet to create a quilt square or embellishment for cards. I just love how easy this is and it has a definite WOW factor when you pull up that piece of velvet and see the rubber stamp image impressed into it. It really is super easy and fun to do. Here's the quick lowdown on how it's done:

1. use polyester velvet (cut into manageable pieces that are bigger than your stamp)

2. set iron to cotton; steam is ok

3. lay rubber stamp, rubber side up on the ironing board, towel, etc.

4. center the velvet (velvet side down) on the stamp

5. spritz the back of the velvet with a few mists of water (do not saturate the velvet)

6. lay a pressing cloth gently over the velvet

7. set the iron onto the stack with gentle pressure for a count of 7-10 (do not slide the iron around, lift and move if your stamped area is bigger than the sole plate of the iron)

8. lift the velvet off and look. voila' the stamped image is impressed into the velvet.

9. use as you desire

Have fun trying your own velvet stamping!

CCC#35Design Details Drawer Front 11-Little Mary Sunshine

2011-03-13T11:21:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is the last Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from Linda over at Studio L3. This has been a fantastic art journey and I'm so happy I joined in. I did a Design Details Drawer Front using up bits and pieces of grunge board, ephemera, and hardware sitting around on my desk. And a necklace bauble for the drawer pull this time. This will probably end up being the catch all drawer of leftover bits and pieces from other projects. You know, those things you just can't bear to throw away. And, as you can see, I have another drawer front to do. I will be checking to see which CCC's I missed from the book so I can finish up. I don't have a flower drawer yet so it may be something along those lines. Hoping to get this all finished up by the end of next week.

CCC #34 Dimensional Fragment Drawer Front

2011-03-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

We're so close to the end now and I've only got 2 drawer fronts left. I'm really liking how this is turning out and glad I found a prominent place for it in my studio. I used the large square fragment and drilled a hole in it for a TH drawer pull. I'll use this drawer for ephemera. Head on over to Studio L3 to check out some awesome artwork for this week's challenge (and awesome artwork in general)

Alcohol Inks and Altered Metal

2011-02-25T09:48:00.000-08:00

This is what the tree looked like about halfway through coloring with the Alcohol Inks.

Here is the tree with all the colors on.

Detail view of the altered tree.

This week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from Studio L3 is the Altered Metal with Alcohol Inks technique on page 56. I actually aquired this little piece last night at my monthly quilt group meeting. We always bring items that are no longer wanted in our own stash to trade and share with someone who might have a use for them. It was originally a photo tree (I have all the little photo frames to alter at another time) and was all just a plain metal color. I added Rust, Ginger and Espresso AIs to the tree trunk and Lettuce and Bottle to all the leaves. The base is Butterscotch and Rust. Decided in the end it would be a good display for some of my handmade earrings. Hope you're all having fun with the CCC. Only a couple of weeks left I think and I still have 3 drawer fronts to go.

Finishing up those UFOs

2011-02-17T05:48:00.000-08:00

I love the start of the new year. I always make the resolution to finish up those Unfinished Objects (UFOs), some of which have been sitting around for YEARS! And, of course, once you get one finished you now have permission to start something new, right?

I started this mystery quilt in January of 2008, so in the scheme of things, 3 years isn't that bad. I have some that have made it to or past the 10 year mark and are still unfinished. Shhhhhhh......don't tell! Decided to digitally scrap the pics using the Club Scrap Color in Black and White kit elements for most of it and a Common Threads quilt block brush.

Have a great holiday week end! Will have pics of Estrella War next week!

Club Scrap Valentine Blog Hop

2011-02-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

My first ever blog hop. How fun! Here is my contribution. A digital layout featuring me and my Arizona crafting buddies. Most of the components are from Club Scrap's Love Ink digi kit, but there's a little Vogue, Gratitude and Bandanarama thrown in there too.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and I appreciate any comments. Now hop on over to Erin's blog and see some more cool Club Scrap art!

Here is the list in order of the blogs you will be hopping to. http://www.capecodscrapper.blogspot.com/ http://web.me.com/andrea_luhman/Craftin ... /Blog.html http://creatingwithconnie.blogspot.com/ http://crzymomstidbits.blogspot.com/ http://www.jujusfolly.blogspot.com/ http://liftbridge.blogspot.com/ http://chrissiecreations.blogspot.com/ http://tlscrap.blogspot.com/ http://orezonia.blogspot.com/ you are here

http://www.pagesofpictures.com/ http://scraphappysistersink.blogspot.com/ http://squirrelyart.blogspot.com/ http://wbellino.blogspot.com/

CCC #31 Rusted Enamel

2011-02-13T16:21:00.001-08:00

Talk about under the wire. I completely forgot about the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from Studio L3 this week. The PSL starting over at Club Scrap and trying to get some sewing projects done has taken all my spare time. And I decided to make a card for my card team with the background I made for the CCC so I get a 2for this week. I used Stormy Skies and Walnut Stain as my inks and then cut it up into slats. It reminded me of leathery reptile skin so that's where the frog came from and who doesn't love one of Kermit's most famous lines?

CCC #30 Altered Metal with Paint

2011-02-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

I love this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from Studio L3. This is going to be part of a book cover so it's only partially finished. I grabbed a TJ background I had laying around (I believe this one is an oil pastel technique) and some stamped lilies to go with my metal butterfly using the CCC technique with stream paint dauber and pearl violet Lumiere. paint. The butterfly is cut from a tin lantern that no longer works and I embellished with some wire and beads.

CCC29 Weathered Grunge

2011-01-30T15:37:00.000-08:00

Well, after a few fits and starts I came up with something for Weathered Grunge, the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from the lovely Linda at Studio L3. It's the book plate with the saying inside (in case you hadn't guessed) also tried Tim's technique of inking up the texture plate before running it through. Kinda like that!!!!

Colorful Layered Fragments Drawer Front

2011-01-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's both exciting and sad to think that the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from Studio L3 is winding down. I think we have 7 left. I should be able to get my last 3 drawer fronts finished within the challenges and I'm loving the way they're turning out. This week's is Colored Layered Fragments on page 57. I used one of my all time favorite Club Scrap stamps (Art Deco) to make a little fragment collage and then a clock with wings from Recollections clear stamps. Once again, an old earring colored with sailboat blue and wild plum AI functions as the drawer pull and I colored some epoxy letters with AIs as well. Looking forward to drawer #10.

Distress Misting Masks

2011-01-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy playing with masks so this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge from Studio L3 is right up my alley. Some of these are my own distress ink mists and some are Glimmer Mists, but I love the effect with either. The mask is from Club Scraps Arts & Crafts kit and the butterfly is one I made from a coffee filter and alcohol inks.

A Rusty Things Drawer (CCC # 26)

2011-01-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

This weeks Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at Studio L3 is right up my alley. I collect rusty things to create art with and so Rusted Grunge is perfect for drawer front #8. So, I settle in today to get started and I don't have the key ingredient, I did however, have EVERY OTHER COLOR available so I did a little mixing until I got what I wanted. I also searched through my rusty things and found a rusted coil to use for the butterfly body and base of the bead for the drawer pull. The "light" in the lantern is a yellow polished square from my scrapping supplies. Only 4 to go!!!

Lilyponds

2011-01-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

We've had a pond at every house we've lived in and the new Lotus Pond kit from Club Scrap is just perfect for all my pond pics. The first pond was the one we had in Idaho from 1993 till we moved, with a giant rock and waterfall, my favorite of all our ponds so far. The second was our pond here in Arizona from 2001 till this past summer when we decided to take it out. The maintenance in the summer was just too time consuming and it was a bit of a hazard for our desert tortoise.

Parts 4,5 and 6 Finished Top Diminutive Vessels

2011-01-01T14:05:00.001-08:00

part 4 was putting the basket handles onto the top light piece. I used a blanket stitch to outline.

part 5 we put the basket blocks together to get 16 postage stamp baskets.

part 5 continued to form 4 large blocks with oscillating postage stamp basket blocks.

part 6 put the inner light borders and center square; then the outer light borders all around.

And the final part was to put the outer border of medium fabric all around. Voila' a finished quilt top in just a few hours. Yeah! Now to get a backing, bat and quilt it. I'll post the finished quilt in a few days.

Part 3 Diminutive Vessels

2011-01-01T09:46:00.001-08:00

Starting to look like the bottoms of vessels! I told you it would start to get exciting this hour. Wonder what's coming next?!

Mystery Quilt Day!!!! Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

And we're off to the races! Part 2 was making some half square triangles with our already cut fabrics. Not alot happening yet, but it will start to get exciting in the next hour! Stay tuned!

I'm Ready for Diminutive Vessels

2010-12-30T09:58:00.000-08:00

It's almost here........the 2011 planetpatchwork.com New Year's Day mystery quilt. I've chosen my color palette and done my cutting. Now, to wait for Saturday morning when the fun begins.

Scribbled & Stained Vines

2010-12-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

These are for a swap I'm hosting at paperartistsonline and this month's theme is vines or leaves. I got a couple of TH dies for Christmas and decided to use the flourish as my vine and then did some punch art leaves and strawberries. I thought they looked just scrumptious on the backgrounds I had done for this week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at Studio L3 so I combined the two. Cool, huh? I used Stormy Skies, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss distress inks, some handmade green paper for the vines and scraps for my punch art. Bazzill ocean paper for the card base.

Happy Holidays!!!

2010-12-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

A safe and happy holiday season to all!!

On the Twelfth Day of........

2010-12-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

and I finally got it done!!! Whew!! I was afraid I wasn't going to make it before the end of the year. Boy did the time sneak up on me. Had to put my last tag on hold so I could get the baking done and packages shipped off on time, and finally got a little time last night to finish up my tags. Made a few substitutions, but it follows Tim's steps for the most part. The background collage are cutouts from K&Company holiday papers; the calendar is from Club Scrap's Academy kit; I hand cut the ornament and embossed some metal letters with gold EP.

On the Eleventh Day of.......

2010-12-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

only one to go........Well I started off drawing my own tree on grungeboard, then realized that I'd done a mirror image and then saw that my dictionary page had a cool picture on that side anyway so a mirror image was going to work well and then I went and did my border on the WRONG side. Arrrrrrrrrggggggggg! Oh well, I like how it turned out anyway. Used a Written Word (from Club Scrap) plastic word instead of a stamp and some rafia instead of jute.

On the Tenth Day of..........

2010-12-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

.....and I have caught up! Yeah!!!! I used the original holiday grunge snowman cut out of swirl grunge and the cracked glass embossing folder as I don't have a snowflake one. And just by chance I seem to have used a piece of plastic that got that frosty look. Cool, huh?

On the Ninth Day of.......

2010-12-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

still trying to catch up........Day 9 is soooooo elegant. I love the rich golden colors of this one. I had to pleat my own flower; went through the button stash; found some gold and red netting and epoxy letters. Also made a couple of baubles from broken necklaces.

On the Eighth Day of.......

2010-12-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

and I am catching up. My LSS did not have any of the holiday masks, but they did have the film for making your own so I thought I'd give it a bash. I'm not as happy with it as I'd like, but not bad for a first try at cutting my own. I'm much happier with my hand cut houses. LSS didn't have the die for that either :(. I'm definitely going to give that cute little lamp a try too. I've got one more to go to catch up for the day. Don't know if I'll finish tonight, but going to get started.

On the Seventh Day of....

2010-12-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

and I'm behind again. Isn't it amazing as we get closer and closer to the end, the tags get more and more elaborate and time to do them shrinks smaller and smaller. Oh well, part of the chaotic merriment, I guess. Here is my day 7. I found some sticky back canvas and hand cut my petals and leaves. Used a fragment for my charm and a dimensional sticker for my bird. Otherwise, it's pretty close to the original Tim Tag.

On the Sixth Day of.........

2010-12-06T17:00:00.001-08:00

Well, we're at the halfway point. The 12 Tags always goes way too fast. I don't have any of Tim's dies and I have a little Sidekick so not much to go with there. I cut out my reindeer from swirly grungeboard and used the embossed swirls as my raised effect. Embossed the Great Outdoors JR tree, which is my FAV!! with dark avocado embossing powder, then colored with the Forest Moss distress ink. I did acquire some tissue tape the other day and gotta say, LOVE IT!! I also used the greeting stamp from Club Scrap's Reflections kit and that beautiful swirl from Ivory Elegance.

On the Fifth Day of.......

2010-12-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

I know, I know.....it's day 6 and I'm behind. I actually got my day 5 99% done last night, but it needed to dry overnight. This tag had so many wonderful layers to it and I had most of the elements or a good substitution. My Santa stamp is by Inkadinkado, the holly stamp is from Club Scrap's Evergreen kit. I had a nice chipboard book plate to grunge up and even some metal letters, although I just used white embossing powder instead of the paint and UTEE.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2010-12-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Way back in June we started tearing apart our bedroom to get ready for paint and new flooring. I'm happy to say that the floor is in. Whoo Hoo!!!!!! We made the big push over the Thanksgiving holiday and layed all the tile; Roger finished up the moulding today and we got new slats for the vertical blinds (the Arizona sun was not kind to the one's we had). We also found a really gorgeous piece of redwood to mount over the window. We have another one to go over the slider......but that's tomorrow's job.

On the Fourth Day of....

2010-12-04T16:05:00.000-08:00

I thought this one was going to be easy peasy, but I couldn't for the life of me get that AI technique to work on my fragment. Gave up and just left the snowflakes black. Dug up lots of bling from the stash and I'm happy with the result.

On the third day of.........

2010-12-03T13:41:00.001-08:00

I really enjoyed making this tag. After I located a birdstamp I was off to the races. I had no tissue tape so I decopaged some sheet music onto my grungeboard, then stamped the bird with staz-on and cut him out. I used cranberry, red pepper and raisin alcohol inks to color the bird. My branch is a Stampscapes stamp. I created my own little collage with some very old stickers. My tissue tape flower is really masking tape that I stamped script on with stazon and then made the flower just like Tim showed us. The birds nest is some olive colored fluffy fiber hot glued on and the background script and snow are both done with Club Scrap stamps--the script is Earth and Herbs and the snow is both Winter Wonderland and Friendship stamps. Looking forward to day 4 tomorrow.

On the Second Day of........

2010-12-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhhh......day 2 of the 12 Tags of Christmas. I went a whole different color scheme with this one so hop on over to Tim's blog if you want to see the inspiration. I actually made 3 tags today. I started with the reindeer one and then decided that stamp wasn't bold enough so I dug out my holly leaf and berry stamps. I didn't have any cut 'n dry felt so just had to wing it. The deer is from ClearStamps; the holly and berry are JRL Designs; the swirls and Peace on Earth are Club Scrap Ivory Elegance and Evergreen kits. I used Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Victorian Velvet, Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain distress inks. The little gold charms have been in my stash a very, long time and I have no idea where they are from.

On The First Day of........

2010-12-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

It's that time again. For those of you who follow Tim Holtz and his 12 Tags of Christmas you know exactly what I'm talking about. Today is day 1 and it has quite the tag for the big kick off. I had to improvise a little since I don't have dies or a die-cutter, but I do have alot of grungeboard, so I made do with tracing and doing a bit of freehand cutting to get my house and picket fence. And for my tree, I used the tan twisties from Club Scrap's Friendship kit. I just love the fun art Tim creates for these 12 days. Just click on the Tim Holtz link to the right if you want to go check out this year and previous year's tags. The fun has begun!

A Blast of Alcohol

2010-11-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

After giving up on the challenge last week (I just didn't like anything I had created) I was overjoyed to see that this week's CCC from Studio L3 involved my favorite--Alcohol Inks!!!! Literally, this week's challenge is a BLAST! You'll have to get the book and turn to page 52 to find out what that's all about. The jellyfish card uses Wild Plum, Sailboat Blue, Bottle Green and Stream AI's and the sea turtle card uses Bottle, Stream, Meadow, Eggplant and Sailboat Blue AI's. Both use image stamps from Club Scrap's Castaway kit and sayings from By the Seashore Remix. The cardstock is mostly from CS as well, (Stratosphere, Haberdashery, Castaway).

All That Jazz

2010-11-06T09:37:00.001-07:00

The new Club Scrap kit (All That Jazz) is out and is it ever GORGEOUS!!! The versatility of the kit is incredible. I have yet to do one that has a music theme. It just goes with everything. This one is of my parents in 1987 on their 25th anniversary cruise.

This one is me, I'm thinking about 1997, just hanging out in my parents' backyard watching Paul and Will play.

And this one is a family pic we took in 2004, all wearing our U2 t-shirts; I tweaked the photo a little with a fresco filter. Isn't this a great kit?

Industrial Grunge Drawer Front

2010-11-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

The Compendium of Curiousities Challenge over at StudioL3 this week sent me back into drawer front mode. I love working with grungeboard and this is a great technique. I was going for a tarnished pewter look for my "Hardware" drawer. I used silver mixative and Weathered Wood distress ink. 5 more to go and then it will be finished.

Extreme Mask CCC #19

2010-10-30T19:47:00.001-07:00

This week's CCC from Studio L3 is called Extreme Masking. It was a really fun technique and I intend to try it many more times. In honor of my grandma's 90th birthday coming up in November I decided to make a special birthday card for her with the technique. She absolutely loves fall colors and I thought the combination of Wild Honey, Barn Red, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles was perfect with the Club Scrap Arts & Crafts mask. The quote "Let us dance in the sun with flowers in our hair" from the Nature's Retreat kit seemed appropriate as well. Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Halloween!

CCC Dauber Resist

2010-10-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm cutting it close. If you want to join in the fun, hop on over to Studio L3 and check out the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. You'll need the book (you need it anyway, hehehe). This is such a fun and quick technique. I really should do it more often. And I used my 3 new distress inks too. Barn Door, Victorian Velvet and Wild Honey. The brown matte is from Club Scrap's Bridges kit and the print bg is from K&Company.

A Fun, Fantastic Day with the SCA

2010-10-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

I We had a great time visiting Will and Brianna in Tucson a couple of weeks ago. Will had an SCA event that he was fighting in and this was our first chance to get to see him in action. It was FABULOUS!! I, of course, had to do some scrapping afterward. I still have a few more pages to do, but here's what I've got so far. I used alot of Ornamental and Concrete Jungle kit items from Club Scrap for these.

Musical Fragments

2010-10-15T12:56:00.001-07:00

I'm back in the swing of things. Just could not get my act together last week. I needed a vacation from getting back from vacation............huh? I decided to make a pair of earrings for the Fragment Charms CCC over at Studio L3 this week. Very simple, but I am very happy with them. They are a surprise for someone........and that's all I'm saying.

Heritage Photos on Scholarship

2010-10-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

The new Club Scrap kit came out last week. It's called Scholarship and has beautiful watercolor backgrounds and lovely school themed sketches. It just called to my heritage photos. The first 2 are of my grandfather and his older sister and their cousins in about 1917. The lower one is one of my mom's class pictures, I think 1952.

Have a great week, everyone!

We're Having So Much Fun

2010-09-29T08:33:00.001-07:00

We are having a blast on the Oregon Coast. Hard to believe vacation is almost over. We've caught 24 crabs and eaten handful after handful of huckleberries. It's poured buckets of rain and had beautiful sunny days, and a squirrel running across the roof that has driven us nuts!! We're keeping our fingers crossed that we've fixed the leak in the roof and we have new hardwood flooring in the back room and out to partway through the kitchen. We've also taken a couple of beautiful hikes, which I'll scrapbook this week and post as well. Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

CCC AI Agate

2010-09-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I was down for the count on this one. Thought I packed grungeboard, but couldn't find it, thought I had some fabric scraps along, but no dice. Tried it on some thick chipboard and it turned out like $#!@. Then I saw some hardwood flooring scraps leftover from our project in the back room and decided to give it a go on that. I may add a little to it when I get home to my plethora of supplies, but I'm happy with it so far. I used bottle, stream, lettuce and meadow on the bottom; red pepper, butterscotch and latte in the middle; and stream, stonehenge, denim and eggplant on the top. 2 new Stampscapes stamps for the image.

Crabbing Fun!

2010-09-22T20:29:00.001-07:00

We are having a blast at our little cove in Oregon. The crabbing on the Siuslaw has been fantastic. The weather has been off and on. A couple of beautiful sunny days and some knock down, drag out, frog stranglers too. Wouldn't trade it for anything though.

Happy B Day Paul

2010-09-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

What to do, what to do? I tried to anticipate what the challenges might be for the

CCC over at StudioL3 this week since I'm on vacation and have limited supplies. Completely forgot to bring ANY of my masks. However, I did want to make a card for my son's 23'd birthday yesterday and came up with a little improvise. I took my little stick man stamp from Club Scrap's Polynesian kit and stamped it on a double layer of packing tape, then cut out the mask. Unfortunately, it tore on the very last image I tried to create, but the card turned out kind of cute anyway. Have a great weekend everyone. And Happy Birthday, Paul!!

Grunge Rose

2010-09-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

This week we're making grunge flowers from our wonderful CCC books. You should hop on over to StudioL3 and see some of the gorgeous art being created for this challenge. I hunted and hunted for my grunge paper this week and couldn't find it, but I did find a rose all cut out from TH's 12 Days of Christmas tags from last year, so I went with it and decided to make a holiday brooch. The ribbon really brightened up with the flash, it is much more wine colored in real life. Have a great week everyone!

Hey, Hey......it's Adobe!

2010-09-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

This was just a stop for the night at Zion as we were driving from AZ to Washington one year. The colors were spectacular.

A beautiful sunrise at our property in Snowflake, AZ. One of the rare occasions it actually got snow, but it sure was pretty.

One of our favorite camping spots on the Oregon Coast is at aptly named Sunset Bay. You're almost guaranteed a gorgeous sunset every night. (well, that's if the sun is out, this is Oregon)

That's the name of Club Scrap's new kit and it's absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I've been looking through a ton of picture files the last few days and every few minutes I come across one that is perfect with these designs. Guess it helps that I live in the desert, but I find that it goes with just about anything.

Some Fall Magic

2010-09-04T10:09:00.001-07:00

Just finishing up my last ATCs for a swap using each month of the year as the theme. Only criteria being the intial letter or name of the month somewhere on the ATC. I used some Tim Holtz stamps and a little Club Scrap, the bases are all K&Company paper and then just some bling from my stash. Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday week end. Thanks for stopping by.

Chipped Enamel Drawer Front

2010-08-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I got my act together early this week and finished another drawer front. I'm halfway done and now I'm wishing I had more. This is for the Chipped Enamel Compendium of Curiosities Challenge posted over at StudioL3. And, lucky me, I have 18 colors of Distress Embossing Powder. I used Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Tattered Rose, Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Shabby Shutters, Pine Needles, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Weathered Wood, Tea Dye, and Antique Linen. I love this stuff! I used some TH metal foliage, some metal letters, an old metal token and book plates. This will be my metal doodad drawer. Hope you all have fun making chipped enamel this week!!!