It is Spring, Right?

You'll notice that the last post I made was on March 11. Well, this is what happened on March 12. Now, we are 2 miles from the ocean and half an inch of snow is a once a year or so experience here. Imagine waking up at 1am when a tree glanced off the side of the house and then watching 8 inches of the white wet stuff accumulate over the next few hours. Talk about putting a damper on going fishing. Sheesh! And then, we got to do it all over again last Wednesday when another freak snowstorm dumped 10 inches in Eugene while we were driving to the train station. Really hoping all that stuff about March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb holds up. I'm ready for April!

Squirrel Girls Challenge: Layered Masking

After several fits and starts with this technique, I finally got something I liked. Of course, it would have helped if I'd brought all the supplies needed for this technique on vacation with me. But, alas I didn't and had to make do. Since I only brought distress inks, no Stazon and no glossy paper, I went with some sparkly white I had in the stash here. I decided that the black ink used for the script ended up just too busy, so went with a more subtle Milled Lavendrer for the more beachy looking cards.

 I like that faint background script much better and also came to the realization that I could make these cards using the 3 items of one color family required in the PSL challenge this week over at Club Scrap. Yeah, a twofor!

It is the start of spring break for me and we are spending it in Oregon. It has been pouring buckets here and we are expecting more of the same for the week, so pull on your galoshes and dust off the rain coat, it's gonna get wet!

Week 2 of the PSL

Well, we're deep into week 2 of the PSL over at Club Scrap and I've got the digi bug going this week. Doing some layouts of our hike up the Stuart Fork River last summer.  This one is of a beautiful mossy spring that is about 2 miles into the hike and a great place to stop for a drink and a snack. I used Written Word, Gratitude and Memoirs digi kits from Club Scrap.

 We were inundated with a butterfly hatch at our first campsite (about 5 miles in). This one uses Pure & Simple, Written Word, Papillon and the ribbon cluster was a prize in one of our earlier PSL events.

                                                                              I hiked in a sketch book and some watercolor pencils this time and had a great time capturing some of the wonderful images along the way. This one is of the rock in the middle of the river that Roger is sitting on in the layout below. The layout uses Lodge, Castaway and Fossils papers with a Castaway ribbon.

                                                                         Here is Roger, lounging on the rock and playing ball with Cinder. As you can see Gus, is nowhere to be seen as he is afraid of the water. I used Lodge papers and a Navajo ribbon frame cluster for this one and a quote from the Sonoma kit.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope your day is full of love and kindness! This is an all Club Scrap card done for the first week of the PSL (Pro Scrappers League) a fun contest over at Club Scrap to use up your stash!

Squirrel Girls Challenge: Pencil Resist

Nancy Young's Squirrely Art blog hosts a group called the Squirrel Girls. She graciously invited me to join the group this month and so I've jumped in with my first Squirrely challenge post. This week's challenge is the Pencil Resist technique from the December 2012 issue of Technique Junkies. Really fun and such cool results.

the first three use the beautiful Lotus stamp from Club Scrap's Lotus Pond kit, with different color schemes. This one uses pink and green pencil with Chipped Sapphire, Tattered Rose and Broken China distress inks.

this one uses a little brighter green pencil and pink for the lotus, plus Dusty Concord, Broken china and Tattered Rose distress inks.

This one is my favorite so far with teal fuschia pencils and Broken China, Tattered Rose and Wild Honey distress inks.

And last, I tried one of my favorite stamps from one of my first kits from Club Scrap, Art Deco. Love the bright colors in this one and the Peeled Paint, Broken China and Victorian Velvet inks.

Thanks for inviting me to join the Squirrel Girls, Nancy, this was fun!!!!

Upcycling--Part 2!

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!!

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.