Sister Friends Fixed

I really enjoyed scrapping these older photos of Grace and Elizabeth at Memorial Garden in North Carolina.  They are just so precious.  I "finished" up this layout Thanksgiving morning in order to enter it in the Bo Bunny Sketch Challenge, but I wasn't thrilled with the way the title came out, so I did a retake on it:

Here is a close-up of the flowers I created:

 

If anyone would like a tutorial on the flowers or leaves, leave a comment and I will be glad to post one.

And here is a close-up of the woven circle stitching and tulips I created.  I have included free templates for both the stitching guide and tulip pieces you can download at the end of this post.

 

Tulip Template:

Woven Circle Stitching Template:

To download full at full resolution, click on image, then click on image again.  Right click and select "Save Image As . . ." to bring up the window asking where to save it on your computer ~ enjoy!

~ BLESSINGS ~

Sister Friends Bo Bunny Layout Challenge Friday Entry

I created this layout for Bo Bunny Layout Challenge Friday using a beautiful sketch by Sketchabilities:

I enjoyed using these older photos of Grace and Elizabeth.  They were taken at Memorial Garden from when we lived in North Carolina. 

 

I used:

-Bo Bunny Love Shack Baby, Love Shack Party, Love Shack Shake, and Orange Citrus Dot papers

-Bo Bunny ICandy Jewels

-Bo Bunny ribbon

I drew inspiration from Mich's fabulous layout featured in Scrap-Friendzy's Scraplift "This" or "That" Challenge #7.  I love the circles and stitching she used, so instead of stitching on the circles, I created a woven circle around the photos by hand stitching with 2 strands of embroidery floss using a template that I created for this layout.  I have uploaded the file at the end of this post in a PNG format that can be sized for your particular layout.  

Then in place of the circles, I found a tulip design that I liked and created a template used to hand cut the flower pieces which were then inked and pieced together.  

Mich's layout:

I tried out a new flower design by cutting three nine petal flowers and stamens with my Gazelle.  Using water distressing, I crumpled the flower petals and when dried shaped them, then added the stamens topped by an ICandy Jewel.  I hope to shoot some close-ups of these and post them tomorrow.

To download full at full resolution, click on image, then click on image again.  Right click and select "Save Image As . . ." to bring up the window asking where to save it on your computer ~ enjoy!

~ BLESSINGS ~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Praying that each of you have a blessed Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for a wonderful family and the opportunity to gather with my husband's extended family this afternoon.

~ BLESSINGS ~

A Wonderful Day

Today has been a wonderful day.  First of all I got to go out to Amish country shopping with my good friend, Lonnie.  We had such a lovely time!  We started the day with my first visit to P. Graham Dunn, a company that manufactures and sells Christian home decor.  They make amazing things - if only I could afford it all - lol!  Then we went over to Lehman's Hardware, which sells anything you can imagine for simple (or not so simple) living.  Everything from seeds and garden tools, to tractors ,to kitchen wares ,to kerosene lamps, and old fashioned toys.  Quite a place. 

When I got home, I discovered that the design team over at ScrapFit had chosen my Barrel of Laughs layout as the winner of their shape and color challenge.  

Then, I went over to Scrap-Friendzy to discover that my Surprised page had been selected as the Pick of the Day by the talented and very sweet Judy.  I guess the time spent in my re-do on that page was worth it.  (Even if it had not been selected for anything - I am pleased with the way it turned out.)

What an honor to be recognized by both of these wonderful sites.

~ BLESSINGS ~

Bo Bunny Something from Nature Card Challenge

Here is my first attempt at creating a card.  I made it for the Nature Card Challenge at Bo Bunny.

I used Bo Bunny's fabulous Noel Cheer paper for this card.  The tree and gold swirl/star blocks were heat embossed on coordinating green card stock, and my item from nature is the bundle of pine needles tied with twine.   I picked them up at a Georgia rest stop on our vacation earlier this year to use for my scrapbooking and thought they would be perfect on this card.

~ BLESSINGS ~

Surprised Before and After

Grace found some older photos in her closet a couple weeks ago, and these gems were in the stash.  I just had to scrap Mom's reaction as we revealed her Christmas gift!

Have you ever created a LO that you feel fell flat?  That's what happened to me with this LO, and here is what I came up with on try number two using the number challenge (#32) over at ScrapFIT, the Scraplift "This" or "That" Challenge #3 at Scrap- Friendzy, and a stunning sketch by Ingeborg Dijkstra-Verbeek.  (My first stab is in the previous post.)

See what you think.  I am much happier with the new LO!  Crazy me to do it all over again.  :-)

ScrapFIT number challenge:
1 piece of cardstock - black to mat the photo and journal box 
2 types of alpha's - Title and journaling use different fonts 
3 different embellies - Flower with rhinestone swirls, Rhinestone Dragonfly, and nearly 40 rhinestones adhered to the punched borders and flower. 
4 patterened papers - Green, blue, flowered, and striped. 
5 pictures - 4 photos of my mom and her new cat in the center and another of Coco at the bottom left.

Here is the LO I used for the lift from Scrap-Friendzy by the very talented Cheryl:

I like how Cheryl made the thin punched border across the page and then the partial thicker one below.  I adore the circle distressed flower.  I also water distressed and scrunched the one I created.  Thanks for the inspiration, Cheryl!

Ingborg's Sketch:

I tried something new in making the pleated paper around the bracket frame cut paper.  I appreciate the inspiration from the oh so talented Michelle Van Wyk.  As  soon as I saw this technique on one of her layouts, I knew I had to try it and really like the way it turned out!

~ BLESSINGS ~

Surprised

This is a page that I threw together this afternoon for the Hippity Hop Blog Hop.

For Christmas in 2000, we gave Mom Coco, a Maine Coon Cat, and this is her reaction.

For the hop I used
Sassy Sketch's beautiful Sketch
Scrapfit - three items are the flowers
Crop Suey and Cuttle Bug - I mixed water color paint into flexible texture paste and applied over mesh to add both color and texture at the bottom of the page.
Scrap Tiffany - I used blue lace over the red paper lace that I fussy cut from coordinating paper.

The fish at the top were fussy cut from coordinating paper as well.

I made a couple of minor changes and got them done before the deadline.  I added some cording at the top with the fish and grouped the flowers together.  Boy, I wish I had more time on this one.  LOL  :-)

Sorry about the photo quality.  I took it after dark with a flash.  I'll take it again in the morning with natural sunlight.

~ BLESSINGS ~

Barrel of Fun - Scrapfit Color and Shape Challenge #31/Scrap-Friendzy Inspiration Challenge #5

I love this older photo of Joseph balancing on a barrel and wanted to keep the page fun.  I really enjoyed the challenge given by Scrapfit to use shapes not normally used in scrapping.  To embrace this challenge I cut hexagons and octagons, inked the edges and then pieced them into the fun border and flowers, and if you look closely, the background paper has a honeycomb design in it as well.  I freehand cut the flower stems and found the fun stone octagon shape for the journaling.  I also enjoyed using Brandi's quirky and fun LO from Scrap-Friendzy as inspiration.

~ BLESSINGS ~

Justin - First Day of School

Scrap-Friendzy keeps me hopping with their wonderful challenges.  November's challenges involve scraplifting.  This layout of Justin's first day at Carroll Hills School is for scraplift #1.

~ BLESSINGS~

Pick of the Day

Over at Scrap-Friendzy this layout of Justin was selected by one of the design team members as her Pick of the Day - Thanks Jean!  I am so honored!

This is Justin at the Butterfly House holding a butterfly.

Here are a couple close-ups of some details on this page.

Fabric flower created from a vintage scarf and the other flowers colored with chalk and Stickles, leaves fussy cut from coordinating paper

Butterflies fussy cut from matching paper and brushed with Stickles

Hand-cut and inked scallop with ribbon and rhinestone border

~ BLESSINGS ~

Cotton Candy Girl - BoBunny: Layout Challenge Friday

Here is a layout I created of my niece, Abby, for the BoBunny Layout Challenge Friday.
(Click on the photo and then click again to enlarge to see details.)

One of the things I enjoy about BoBunny products is that they can easily be mixed and matched between lines.  For this layout I used:
BoBunny paper: Mama-Razzi Word; Paradise Batik; Paradise Pier; Delilah You and Me
Cardstock - dark blue
Blue swirl - BoBunny Chunky Charms - Clear Swirls & Brackets - Alcohol inked with Ranger denim and latte, then backed with Paradise Pier paper.
Gemstone Swirls - One large swirl from Recollections (Michaels) cut into smaller pieces
Flowers and leaves punched from BoBunny paper, inked, wet and crinkled, dried, then finished off with BoBunny iCandy Jewels in the center.
Rhinestones in the ribbon scallop BoBunnyiCandy Jewels
Scalloped ribbon and lace from local craft stores
Inking - Versa Magic Jumbo Java chalk ink
Distressing - Tim Holtz distress tool
Stitching - done on my sewing machine with Guttermann 554 thread

Close-Up of flowers

Swirl Close-Up

~ BLESSINGS ~