You Me Us - Donna Salazar July Challenge

July has come to an end. I hope you had a wonderful month and have lots of wonderful memory making days in August!!

As you know, I enjoy using non-scrapbook items on my layouts, so I was so excited to see the Donna Salazar July Challenge to create a project using an item not make for scrapbooking. Mistra's fabulous sketch was optional, but it was such a fabulous sketch, that I had to use it and of course lots and lots of Donna's amazing products.

I used more of our daughter, Elizabeth, and Andrew's engagement photos. These shots were taken in our backyard.

Here's Mistra's lovely sketch:

Techniques:

I used Donna's Spellbinder Rose Creations Die to created the two smaller flowers and her Grand Peony Die for the larger. The center of the flower is a flea market find - a piece of an earring. Behind the flowers is a cloud of denim threads from an old pair of jeans. The edges of the flowers were brushed with a bit of acrylic paint. The white bits of lace flowers above the larger paper flower were cut from a piece of gorgeous bridal lace.

You can see a bit of the flexible texture paste stencil below the flowers. I tinted the paste with a combination of Smooch Spritz and Distress Ink to coordinate with the Botanique paper. I spread it over two different Martha Stewart stencils - the flourishes on the left and the scalloped, flourished circle in the upper right corner. After removing the stencils while the paste was still wet, I used a paint brush to add additional texture.

Another of my hand-crafted flowers surrounded by another piece of fussy cut bridal lace. The flower petals were cut from a pink sheet of Donna's Botanique collection. I spritzed it with her Sea Breeze Smooch Spritz and then with water to get this lovely shade of purple.

The crystal links and chain on the bottom photo is a fragment from a necklace that I used on another page.

I worked on this LO while we were on our anniversary trip. I was trying to figure out how I wanted to treat this gorgeous piece of Want 2 Scrap chipboard when Gary unwrapped a new golf shirt, tossing the tissue paper into the trash. Yes, you guessed it. I grabbed the tissue paper and used it on this chipboard piece, then misted with two shades of Donna's gorgeous Smooch Spritz - Mixed Berries and Smooch Spritz.

I hand stitched a straight stitch around the page and one mat layer while using a hand drawn swirled border around the other mat.

The drippy spot behing this Chipboard was created with Donna's Smooch Spritz.

This sweet butterfly was created with Donna's Zutter Corrugated Board. I painted the edges with acrylic paint, inked with some Distress Ink and added the antennae created with brown wrapped floral wire. I won this gorgeous Zva swirl in the Zva Creations blog hop last month and the color and size were perfect for my butterfly trail.

There are two layers of stamping. I used Donna's Vine stamp with Archival ink first. Then over this, I used some bubble wrap with small bubbles to stamp a background with distress ink and heat embossed holographic embossing powder on the stamped dots. Additionally at the botton of the page, I used Donna's Crackle stamp below the chicken wire. The wire was a gift from my friends Barb and Mandy. It had actually been used and was being stored in the barn, so there is a bit of natural patina here. LOL

No particular technique here, but I thought I'd share a close-up for you to see the sweet Scripture on these jewelry charms by Darice.

I used the Distrezz-It-All on my paper edges and photos.

The blue "lace" pieces tucked into my distressed openings are actually denim from old jeans that I cut with a Spellbinder die.

Products Used:

Donna Salazar Products:
Botanique paper collection
Zutter Distrezz-It-All
Zutter Corrugated Board
Spellbinder Rose Creations Dies
Spellbinder Grand Peony Dies
Art Gone Wild Crackle Stamp
Art Gone Wild Vine Stamp
Smooch Spritz - Mixed Berries
Smooch Spritz - Sea Breeze

Non Scrapbooking Items:
Denim from old pair of Jeans
Tissue paper rescued from the trash
Chicken Wire
Vintage Earring piece
DMC Embroidery Floss #931
Crystal Necklace Fragment
Martha Stewart Crafts Stencils from the Flourish Collection
Liquitex Flexible Modeling Paste
DecoArt Crafters Acrylic Paint - Antique White
Michaels Wine Charm (hanging from Prima flower)
Bubble Wrap
Darice Signed Sealed, Remembered Altered Art Jewelry Charms
Darice Covered Floral Wire
Darice Jewelry Spacers (bottom right corner)

Other Embellishments:
Heidi Grace Epoxy Stickers - Sentiments 2
Darice Rhinestones
Want 2 Scrap Chipboard Shape Style A
Want 2 Scrap Fancy Tags 2
Prima Flowers Whisper Collection Moulin # 548667
K & Company Brenda Walton Adhesive Rhinestones
Zva Creations Pearl/Crystal Flourish # CRW-04CB-120

Other Technique Products:
Spellbinders Iron Work Accents Dies
Tim Holtz Alterations Movers and Shapers Mini Butterflies Die and Base Tray
Distress Ink
Ranger Holographic Embossing Powder
Ranger Archival Ink

Adhesives
Helmar Professional Acid Free Glue
Helmar Zap Dots 3D 1/4" Square
Scotch ATG and Quick Dry Acid Free Adhesive
Hercules Tape

Tools
Big Shot
Ranger Craft Mat
Darice Heat Tool
Tonic Studios Piercing Tool
Bazzil In Stitch'z Mat
Fiskars Craft Mat and Craft Knife
Martha Stewart Ruler

I have also entered this at:
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #38 - Use an encouraging sentiment **

Thanks for stopping by! I Treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Beautiful Life - Bo Bunny July Layout Challenge and Scrapping Stamper July Sketch

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I'm busy getting ready to go on a trip to the New Jersey Shore and Baltimore with my husband. He has a business trip scheduled and asked me to come along. I've never traveled on one of his business trips before, so thought I'd give it a try. Besides we'll be celebrating our 30th anniversary on Monday. Of course, I'll be taking some scrapping supplies with me for the down time while he's working.

Our precious Ellie left this world earlier this year. The Lord gave us nearly 13 wonderful years with her. My brother gave her to Grace as a 4-H project back in 2000 when we moved back to Ohio. Ellie was 15 months old with no training, and Grace was a mere 11 years old. What a team they made. Grace ended up capturing every UKC obedience title with her. She also captured 2 National Junior wins and was nationally ranked among the adults for several years. In their final year of competition, they placed third in the county at the UKC National Invitational among some of the best dog handler teams in the country. 

I don't normally create many white space pages, but when I saw the challenge to use White Space for the July Bo Bunny challenge, I knew this Beautiful Life paper would be so perfect for this photo and for a white space design. I glittered up the letters on the word beautiful by painting some stickles on certain parts of the letters. It doesn't show up real well in the photo, but adds so much sparkle in person. I also highlighted the flower on the left side of the paper by stitching around the printed image. 

I used Shannon's gorgeous July sketch for design inspiration.

Here is Shannon's amazing sketch:

Be sure to stop by The Scrapping Stamper (Shannon) to see what her talented DT created with this beautiful sketch.

Techniques:

Stacked Trinkets ~ for my large flower I Misted a Petaloo flower for the base, removed the center, then layered on one of my twine flowers. For the center, I glued the Forever Fall oval trinket piece over top of the square piece. 

Leaves ~ The leaves where cut with my Donna Salazar Rose Creations Die, then shaped and inked. 

Misting ~ I misted several of the flower pieces and the larger chipboard border with Donna Salazar Smooch Spritz in Caramel Latte, and for the rust colored flower I also used her Woodgrain Smooch. 

Inking ~ I used several chipboard pieces from the Bo Bunny Et Cetera collection. I modified the colors to go with the Beautiful Life papers by inking them with several colors of distress ink. Isn't my butterfly so pretty resting atop this Et Cetera chippie!! 

Corrugated Butterfly ~ I've created this butterfly using Donna Salazar Corrugated Board, distress ink, and lots of luscious Caramel Latte Smooch!! I really inked this one up more than I normally do to give a more distressed look to go with these gorgeous papers. 

Stitching ~ These delicate flowers got lost into the background, so I decided to accent them with some hand stitching. Yes, I know, quite time consuming but worth the effort, don't you think? 

Bling ~ The chipboard border needed just a touch of sparkle, so I added the Bo Bunny icandy rhinestones across the top, and the Smooch Spritz gives a bit of shimmer as well. 

Twine Frame ~ I've seen these twine frame starting to pop up and knew that this photo would be a perfect one to frame up this way. 

Doily ~ The gorgeous doily was cut from the Beautiful Life Dots paper using my Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. 

Distressing ~ Of course I used my DSD Distrezz-It-All for all of the straight edges, and my Prima Distressing tool for the little flags. 

Products Used

Paper

Bo Bunny Beautiful Life, Beautiful Life Dots, Olivia Dot

Embellishments

Bo Bunny Et Cetera Chipboard

Bo Bunny Trinkets Forever Fall

Bo Bunny Cardstock Stickers Country Garden Tiny Type

Bo Bunny iCandy Jewels Touch of Spice

Queen & Company Adhesive Pearls - Chocolate Delight

Donna Salazar Zutter Corrugated Board

Petaloo Floral Embelishments: Canterbury Rose - Paprika; Darjeling Collection - Poppy Mix, Mini Mix Black/Cream/Brown

Technique Products

DMC Embroidery Floss #3776

Donna Salazar Smooch Spritz - Caramel Latte; Woodgrain

Distress Ink - multiple colors

Ranger Stickles Diamond

Adhesives

Helmar V2 Vellum Adhesive (spray)

Helmar Zap Dots 1/4" clear squares

Hercules Tape

Scotch ATG

Scotch Acid Free Quick Dry Adhesive

Tools

Donna Salazar Distrezz-It-All

Donna Salazar Rose Creations Die Set

Art Philosophy Cartridge

Cricut Expression 2

Tonic Studios Piercing Tool

Prima Distressing Tool

Bazzill In Stitch'z Foam Mat

I also entered this at:

Stampin' Sisters in Christ as a second entry in Challenge #148 to add sparkle to your project - Rhinestones and Smooch Spritz. **

Word Art Wednesday - Use an encouraging sentiment. **

Scrapping Everyday Miracles - Challenge #18 Created Beauty/twist - use stitching - This LO celebrates the beautiful life our Lord gave us with Ellie - friend and companion to our daughter, Grace. I stitched around the flowers. **

Scrapbook Sisters - Spring or Summer challenge - Spring photo of Ellie. (July 31)

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~ 

Amazing Prima Giveaway by Invlild Bolm

Ingvild Bolme is celebrating her new blog design with this amazing Prima giveaway. Just look at all the  scrappy goodies in this package:

Be sure to hop on over to her blog by August 31 to check out her new blog design and for the details on entering her giveaway.

~ Blessings ~

Friendship ~ ScrapFIT Workout #72 - Color Inspiration

It is always a joy and blessing to scrap pages about our children. Maria entered public school this year as a junior after being home educated for the previous years. One of the things she looked forward to is being in Choir. She was selected to sing a solo at the spring concert shown here. The lighting was less than ideal, but with a bit of Photoshop, I was able to fix up this photo. 

This is my final project as a FITgirl. I have spent two amazing terms working with Sara's fabulous challenges and can hardly believe a year has passed so quickly. The new team is full of talented scrap artists who will continue to inspire you. The new challenge at ScrapFIT is to use the gorgeous colors in the inspiration photo found below my layout.

ScrapFIT Workout #72 ~ Color Inspiration

Diana, our Creative Trainer is at it again! She created another color inspiration Workout that is sure to leave you breathless! Let this color inspiration direct your Layout/Card/Paper Craft Project! Have fun with it!!

Here is my layout based on these fabulous colors: brown, sage, and coral:

Here is the inspiration photo provided by Diane

This workout is being sponsored by:

$15.00 Gift Certificate to the Paper Issues Store!

Be sure to head on over to ScrapFIT to be inspired by the talented Design Team and to link up your brown, coral, and sage project by July 31.

Along with these amazing colors, I used the July sketch from Once Upon a Sketch for inspiration:

To join along in the challenge there, I journaled about the wonderful friendships Maria has developed through her choir experience: "Friendship .  .  .  found among those who share our passions." 

A Close-Up of the flower cluster:

I also thought I'd join in on the Helmar July Challenge this month to take inspiration from this image:

If you look very carefully, you will see that under the the Perfect Date Night section there is a lovely doily under the heart boxes so I decided to use a doily layer under my photo. I used three different Helmar adhesive products on my layout. Some of the flowers were placed in uneven territory and the Scrap Dots were the perfect adhesive to pop them up on the uneven surfaces. I love the V2 Vellum adhesive with it's low odor - so much more pleasant than the other spray adhesives I've used. Here I used it to adhere the doily and scalloped circles. Then I had an issue of certain layers like my photo having layers under one part and not under other parts, so I used the Zap Dots to adhere the sections that needed just a bit more space underneath to keep them nice and flat on top. 

Products Used:

Bo Bunny Gabrielle papers, chipboard, stickers, and trinkets

Prima Flowers, Leaves and Distressing Tool

Zva Crystal Flourish

Donna Salazar Distrezz-It-All

Martha Stewart/EK Success Punches

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

Smooch Spritz

Doily and Lace from my stash
Helmar Scrap Dots, V2 Vellum Adhesive, and Zap Dots

Yesterday I posted the card I created for my husband for our 30th anniversary coming up later this month. If you missed it, you can find it here.

I have entered this layout in:
Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #148 Based on Matthew 5:13 ~ "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." The challenge is to use sparkle on your project. ~ I used a crystal flourish, shiny pearls, and sparkly glimmer mist. **
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #36 ~ Use the Word Art of the week or an encouraging sentiment. The verse this week is Isaiah 54:13 ~ "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." Although I did not use this verse on my layout, I did create a page about one of our daughters, Maria, making friends through her involvement in choir. **
Scrapbook Sisters July Challenge - Spring or Summer ~ Maria's Spring Choir Concert. (July 31)

Thanks for dropping by! I Treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~ 

Anniversary Card ~ Bo Bunny July Card Challenge ~ Handmade Flowers

I hope each of you is having a wonderful weekend with family and friends. Our daughter, Maria, had some girls over for a sleep-over, movie marathon. Her friend, Anna, will be leaving with her family for the mission field later this month, and won't be able to take the VCR and movie videos with her, so this was one last movie night for her for a while. They had such a lovely time, and the house is now quiet again. 

You know how much I enjoy making hand crafted flowers, so when I saw the card challenge at Bo Bunny this month to create a card with a hand crafted flower and wonderful Bo Bunny goodies, I had to join in. On the 24th of this month, Gary and I will be celebrating 30 wonderful years of marriage. Here is the card I have created to give him for this special anniversary. (No worries about him seeing this, he never looks at my blog. LOL) I also used the "plan" at Stampin' Sisters in Christ to use at least 1 circle/oval, 2 or more different papers, and 1 or more embellishments. 

Here is a close-up of the flower:

Techniques:

Flower ~ I used the Donna Salazar Grand Peony Die to cut the petals for this flower, dampened, scrunched, and pleated the petals, and when dry - spritzed with brown and blue mist, then rubbed soem blue ink on the ends fo the petals. I misted a scrap of cheese cloth with the same mists and scrunched it behind the flower. 

Leaves ~ I folded, molde, and inked leaves cut from the Donna Salazar Rose Creations die set. 

Sentiment ~ The oval piece in the Note Worthy pack was a bit too large so I trimmed it down and distressed lightly with my Prima Distress too. I added the Bo Bunny cardstock sticker and hand stitched the rays on he ends for some added texture and dimension. The heart embellished key from the Bo Bunny County Garden Trinkets was perfect for an anniversary card. 

Distressing ~ I used the Donna Salazar Distrezz-It-All to distrezz the straight edges before stitching. What a huge time saver and gorgeous distressing.

Stitching ~ I machine stitched around the edge of the card and hand stitched the rays at the ends of the sentiment.

Supplies Used

Paper:

Bo Bunny Weekend Market ~ Tapestry

Bo Bunny Weekend Market ~ Dot

Bazzill Card Stock

Embellishments:

Bo Bunny Trinkets ~ Country Garden

Bo Bunny icandy Jewels ~ Touch of Spice

Bo Bunny Note Worthy ~ Weekend Market

Bo Bunny Cardstock Stickers ~ Weekend Market, Priceless

Zva Pearl Flourish - Dark Blue

Fabric Scrap - My Stash

DMC Thread - #632

Cheese Cloth - My Stash

Technique Products:

Smooch Spritz ~ Log Cabin

Inkadinkado Spray Ink ~ Coffee, Royal Blue

Distress Ink ~ Weathered Wood, Chipped Sapphire, Vintage Photo

Donna Salazar, Spellbinder Grand Peony Die Set

Donna Salazar, Spellbinder Rose Creations Die Set

Tools:

Donna Salazar, Zutter Distrezz-It-All

Prima Invild Bolme ~ Distressing Tool

Fiskars Self-healing Craft Mat

Fiskars Craft Knife, 

EK Success Color Bee Scissors

Tonic Studios Piercing Tool

Bazzill In Stitchez ~ Foam Mat

Sizzix Big Shot

Sewing Machine

I have also entered this at:

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #147 ~ Use at least 1 circle or oval element, at least 2 different papers, and at least one embellishment. Jeremiah 29:11~ "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." **

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #36 ~ Use an encouraging sentiment**

Thanks for dropping by! I treasure your comments

~ Blessings ~ 

Flea-Market Treasures

I had such a wonderful day yesterday with my good friend, Jesse. We had a girls day and went to a flea-market. So many treasures to be found, but I only got a select few. Here are my finds that you can be watching for in my altered projects and scrapbook pages in the weeks and months to come. I just love to discover vintage treasures to include on my pages. 

Here's the collection including these vintage thimble racks, which were a mere $1 for the pair. I didn't realize when they caught my eye that they were for thimbles. I just saw the filmstrip shaped openings and thought what a wonderful altered project these would make with some special photos. 

Here are close-ups of the two pairs of vintage earrings I found for $1 a pair. The first 

is definitely my favorite, but the second is so scrapbook worthy as well. 

I would have walked right past the table with the vintage post cards, but Jesse stopped to

browse and discovered this lovely gem that I just couldn't live without. I may just have to

scan these lovely sisters and use them more than once. Another dollar well spent. 

Be sure to check back on Sunday for my ScrapFIT DT reveal.

I think you'll enjoy this new Workout!! 

Thanks for dropping by. I treasure your comments! 

~ Blessings ~

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Shining Star Winner

I was so excited and honored to see that my "As for Me and My House" Shadow Box was selected as a winner at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. To be selected as one of the three winners out of 109 beautiful entries added some wonderful sunshine to my week. 

Here is the project I entered to use something new based on the verse, John 13:34-35 " A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." ~ One of my favorite verses!! 

Details and close-ups can be found at my original post.

Thanks for stoppin by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~ 

Happy 4th and Exciting News

Wishing all of my USA followers a happy and blessed 4th of July with family and friends. We're spending the day with my husband's family for a cook-out, games, and fun, then later in the day heading to my parents' home for more of the same with my family.

Now for the exciting news. Imagine my surprise and delight when I stopped by Donna Salazar's Girlie Grunge site yesterday afternoon and at the top left side bar saw Featured Artist of the Month - Congratulations Tracey and saw my layout below. What an amazing honor to have been selected for this feature.

Here is my layout:

For details and close-ups see my original blog post for this layout. 

If you have not discovered Donna's Girlie Grunge Site and her amazing products, I hope you'll head over there and check it out. The July Challenge has been posted. Each month there is a challenge winner and a featured artist selected from the gallery. She has been posting her new CHA reveals on her blog, so be sure to head over there and scroll down to check out her fabulous new paper lines, stamps, and dies!! I can't wait till they get to market to start working with these lovely new goodies!! 

Have a blessed and happy 4th!

~ Blessings ~

As for Me and My House ~ ScrapFIT Workout #71 Reveal

Welcome to July!! ScrapFIT Has a wonderful challenge to kick off the month:

#71 - Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home! We spend many hours at home so let's be sure to surround ourselves with things we love. This Workout is challenging you to create a paper craft to be displayed in your home! This can be a banner, a unique way to display a photo, anything you can create with paper to be displayed in your Home Sweet Home.

I bought this house shaped shadow box at a thrift store for under a dollar about a year ago with intentions to alter it for a home decor project. This challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to dig it out and brush off the dust to transform this ugly duckling to a pretty inspiration piece. One of the Bible verses that has been a theme for our family over the years is Joshua 24:15 ~ As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

This workout is being sponsored by:

$15.00 Gift Certificate to the Paper Issues Store!

Be sure to hop on over to ScrapFIT to see the amazing inspiration by the talented FITgirls and link up your paper crafted home decor project by July 31.

Techniques:

Flowers ~ These flowers were hand crafted from scraps of white cardstock using the Donna Salazar Grand Peony die. I have gotten a lot of mileage from this die set. For color, I mixed several mists to pull the color from the background paper from my Donna Salazar Botanique stack. I also mixed in some iridescent Medium to give a bit of sparkle.

Bricks and Shingles ~ I added sand and paint to texture paste to get a brick-like consistency and color, then used a brick mask to apply it to the sides of my house. The shingles were created from a roll of bark paper that's been in my stash from a JoAnn's purchase a couple years back. 

Crackle ~ With all the texture going on the sides and roof of my house, the front was looking a little flat, and found that my new Donna Salazar Crackle stamp was perfect to give the visual dimension and texture I was looking for.

Verse ~ This is a favorite verse in our family, so I printed it out on some transparency paper and used Helmar V2 Vellum Adhesive to apply it to my rooftop section. I have to say, it was wonderful to use a spray adhesive with low odor that got the job done so well. 

Chipboard ~ I have a tutorial for this technique you can find HERE. Just use the first part of the tutorial through step 6. No misting on these chipboard pieces. 

Home Theme ~ Because my shadow box was house shaped, I used a home theme throughout, from the verse, to boxes including kitchen and sewing items, and I even found the dictionary page entry for house, tied it into a scroll and placed it into a little bottle. 

I hope you have been inspired to create a home decor project!! Be sure to add your project at ScrapFIT during July. 

I have entered this at 

Word Art Wednesday - use an uplifting sentiment. **

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Use something new ~ I used my new Donna Salazar paper and crackle stamp, along with my new bottles, metal clock, key, and lock. **

Thanks for dropping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~