Picture Perfect

I admit it.

I am not one of those people who are current in their scrapbooks. I have photos I took a few days ago that are done and ones I took 10 years ago that are not. I have found, through trial and error, that it is best if I create what I feel like and what I am inspired by. To force myself to work in chronological order just leads to frustration and less-than-acceptable pages.

So, despite the warm temperatures, flowers and sunlight, I just finished a page about winter.

These papers are new from Bo Bunny — Doubledot Vintage. They come in many different colors and are perfect for times when you don’t want to work on plain cardstock, but do not want a busy pattern to compete with your photos, either. For that reason, I kept this page really simple. I used chipboard letters by Maya Road and Grungeboard letters for the title and painted them with the Pearl Metallic Paint Dabber. Although you can’t see it in the photo, it leaves a bumpy texture that goes perfectly.

So you see, I couldn’t have completed this page last November when I took the photos … Bo Bunny just released the perfect paper! It really is best to wait for inspiration.

Fairy Art

Last May, at the Great Lakes Mega Meet, I discovered a new product and promptly fell in love … Globecraft Memories. The globes come in kits with chipboard frames that can be layered around a globe — which is perfect for 3-D items.

It’s taken me a while, but I finally put one together using some wonderful products from Art Glitter.

 

This one was particularly challenging to photograph because of the reflections in the globe, so I’ve included some close up photos to help you see all of the dimension and sparkle in this project.

First, I stamped the fairy (from JudiKins) three times on X-Press It Blending Card and colored each image with Copic Sketch Markers. Then, I cut the three images out and used foam adhesive to attach them together for dimension.

I thought her dress and hat should be really special. I imagined the dress as layers of beaded fringe, so using Designer Dries Clear Adhesive with the Ultrafine Metal Tip, I covered her dress and hat in Small Glass Beads in Clear (810) from Art Glitter.

Then, I added Microfine Winter White glitter (711) to the spots on the wings and her socks. Since this glitter is transparent, the color shows through underneath.

I wanted her to have a bit more sparkle, so I added Microfine in Poupon (717), which is also transparent, to the place where her wings come out from her body.

While that dried, I turned my attention to the frame.

I wasn’t in the mood to trace, cut and sand, so I decided to ink the frame instead of covering it with paper. I used Rusty Hinge Distress Ink to cover each piece. Then, I used stamps from Tim Holtz and Studio 490, along with Ranger Archival Ink, to create pattern.

Next, I used Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to adhere the fairy and the globe to the background, and then to attach each of the frames to the top.

For accents, I covered some Grungeboard flowers from Tim Holtz with Vintage Glass Glitter in Chocolatta (624). (you could use cardstock or chipboard to make your own, if you need to). I glued those to the frame and then found a few dried flowers in my garden and added them. Once the adhesive was dry, I added a bit of twine from May Arts and some additional glue underneath to make it all stay put.

I love the juxtaposition of the Vintage Glass Glitter with the dried flower pods …

(TIP: It takes a bit more time to adhere Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to glitter than it does to other surfaces. So, I took my time and watched television while I held each flower in place and waited for the glue to set. It does adhere beautifully, it just requires a bit more patience than we are used to.)

I covered some additional Grungeboard die cuts (of butterflies and dragonflies) in Ultrafine Halo (230), Ultrafine Sand (68) and Ultrafine Sage (122) and adhered them around the frame.

Finally, I added a few brads and pronounced it finished.

(I received Art Glitter products in exchange for this post)

 

The Cat Who …

I recently discovered The Cat Who series of murder-mystery novels.

The books, written by Lilian Jackson Braun, tell of the adventures of a semi-retired journalist, Qwill, and his smart Siamese cat, Koko. They take place in Moose County, a rural region 400 miles north of everywhere, in Michigan.

While I enjoy the basic mystery portions of the novels, I also like to read about the slow-paced small-town life, the quirks of Koko and other small tidbits in the stories. I am particularly intrigued with the creative license Braun uses in her fictional county. It appears she has taken the best of Michigan and combined it into one location. So taken by trying to figure out where Moose County is, I decided create a scrapbook page about the clues in the book.

As always, click on the photo for a larger view …

The paper and flower stickers are from Cloud 9 Design. The state die cut was a gift from my sister. I printed the journaling on vellum and the clues on cardstock. The cat is a digital stamp by Doodle Pantry, printed on X-Press It Blending Card and colored with Copic Sketch markers.

As a side note … Copic will not react with laser or toner from a copy machine. They may react with ink jet printers. I have an HP and it works fine. I haven’t tried it with my Epson photo printer yet. So, always check your printer before coloring. Trust me, you will not like it when the black bleeds into your images and you could damage your nibs.

Back to the layout … the large letters and question mark are Grunge Board from Ideaology. The question mark is painted with Adirondack Paint Dabber and then covered with Diamond Glaze. The small letters are chipboard from Maya Road. They are colored with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink … a lot of ink for a solid color, less ink for the spotty ones … and then covered in Diamond Glaze. The black is painted on, then glued to the top of the squares and then the entire image is covered in Diamond Glaze. I love the finished look … especially the way the Diamond Glaze puddles where the letters meet the blocks. Once dry, I used Black Soot Distress Ink to ink the edges and then adhered it to my page. My favorite adhesive for these is Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear. I used Removable Glue Dots to hold the letters to my Nonstick Craft Sheet while painting. Trust me. You will want to do this!!

Hippo Shadow Box

I have had this project finished for a while, but my photographer (my wonderful husband) has been sick, so I am just now getting to post this.

As you probably already know, I have an obsession with hippos. Since my husband won’t let me have a pet hippo, I collect figures of them, instead. I have quite a few little ones that get rather lost on a shelf, so I decided to turn one of the Tim Holtz Configurations boxes into a shadow box to hold some of them.

I covered the back and bottom of each box with paper from Tim Holtz, then used Tissue Tape to cover the edges of each box and to hold them all together. Since I wanted the hippos to shine and not the box, I painted the tissue tape with gold Paint Dabber to calm it down a bit. Then I added some ribbons in browns and golds from my stash to the edges.

I added a sticker by Rusty Pickle to the back of one box and a stamped image, colored with Copic Markers, to another. (I found the stamp on a scrapbook retreat. I told my husband it was a portrait of us!) They appear a bit cloudy in this photo … there was just something odd going on with the lighting.

On several of them, I added Grungeboard leaves and flowers from one of the Tim Holtz kits. I colored them with Distress Inks and then used a homemade Perfect Pearls mist to cover the flowers.

For the background and sides of the box, I used Adirondack Color Wash in Sailboat Blue and Denim. The final effect reminds me of water.

I used Removeable Glue Dots to hold the hippos in place and put the box together. Then, I added feet, corners and a label — all Tim Holtz products (all attached with Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear glue). I thought it needed just a little more, so I added a few Prima flowers to the plastic front.

And now it is ready to go on my shelf!

Stickles Shelf

When you get more than a few of any one thing, you need a way to store it.

My latest obsession has been with Stickles and Distress Stickles by Ranger. While I don’t have all of the colors, I had enough that they needed a permanent home.

This was my solution …

I started with the mini-album shelf from KaiserCraft. I used Paint Dabbers from Ranger to paint the edges and paper from K & Company to cover the shelf.

Then, I took inspiration from Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz and decorated it with stamps, Grungepaper, Distress Ink and other embellishments.

This side features a Grungeboard keyhole from Tim Holtz. I painted it with Mica Gloss from JudiKins and used a Glaze pen to fill in the hole.

When I hung it over my desk, it made some other shelves look sad, so I covered a portion of them in coordinating paper. It’s so easy for me to get carried away!