Sneak Peeks and final day of Leaky Shed Studio and Authentique Blog Hop

Today is the final day of the Leaky Shed Studio and Authentique Blog Hop

and your last chance to enter for the fabulous prize packages. 

New inspiration has been provided each day, and my projects along with Juliana Michaels are featured at Leaky Shed Studio today. 

Here are a couple more sneak peeks from my Family Love Mini Album.

Leaky Shed Studios Watch Parts & Heart #2

Leaky Shed Studio Ornate Corder

Thanks for heading over to Leaky Shed Studio for the hop, and if you've already entered, I'd appreciate you leaving some love for my projects over there!!

You will want to be sure to enter for this amazing Leaky Shed Studio prize package.

~ Blessings ~

Leaky Shed Studio & Authentique Blog Hop

January is winding down, and love is in the air with Valentine's Day just around the corner. Leaky Shed Studio has teamed up with Authentique for a blog hop sure to inspire you for those Valentine's projects and a chance for some amazing prizes. 

There will be new inspiration each day starting today through Friday, and there are only two stops each day, so head on over to the Leaky Shed Studio blog to get started and to learn all the details. 

Here are a couple sneak peeks from my projects which will be showcased on Friday. 

From my grungy Family Love Mini Album:

(Oh yes, I managed to transform the pretty Authentique Valentine's paper into a grungy, masculine album with a bit of a steam punk edge with the help of Leaky Shed chippies.)

From my Valentine's Card:

Check out this amazing chipboard prize package from Leaky Shed Studio.

So what are you waiting for?

Head on over to the Leaky Shed Studio blog to be inspired and to enter for this fabulous prize. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

~ Blessings ~

Masculine Birthday Card for Donna Salazar Designs

I'm back to share another birthday card with you today, but this time I've taken a masculine approach. My husband's birthday is coming up, and I wanted to create a guy card for him without going too dark and grungy. What do you think? 

Birthday Card

Tips and Techniques

I used Donna's Spellbinders Pockets and Swirls dies to created this fun pocket. First, I die cut and embossed the two smaller pockets. I distressed the pocket edges just a little with the Zutter Distrezz-it-All, then lightly inked with Clearsnap Denim Mix'd Media Inx. The small pocket die pierces stitching holes, and I hand stitched through those holes. I also used one of Donna's Creative Page Tabs dies for the tag and hand wrote my Love You sentiment there. 

I've layered several of Donna's papers and distressed the edges with her Distrezz-it-All - my absolute favorite distressing tool. I also die cut a flourish from the Pockets and Swirls die set and inked with Denim MMI. The Happy Birthday sentiment was printed onto the flag piece before distressing. The metal pieces are trinkets from Michaels. I softened them by dabbing on some gesso. 

I've layered more of the die cut flourishes across the top of the page, tucking them into my layers.

One last shot of my card. I assembled all the background layers and misted lightly with Donna's Clearsnap Sea Breeze Smooch Spritz before adding the pocket and other elements. 

Thanks for stopping by today!
I hope you've been inspired to grab some of your Donna Salazar products and create!!

Don't forget about Donna's January sketch/color challenge.
You have until the end of the month to create and link up you're project.
Challenge details can be found here. 

Donna Salazar Products

GCD Studios ~ 6 x 6" pads - Fun and Funky, Natural Beauty

GCD Studios ~ Natural Beauty - Wall Vines B

Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx - Denim

Clearsnap ~ Smooch Spritz - Sea Breeze

Spellbinders ~ Pockets and Swirls

Spellbinders ~ Creative Page Tabs

Zutter ~ Distrezz-it-All

Other Products

Bead Landing ~ Found Objects - Clock Faces, Clock Keys (Michaels)

DMC Embroidery Floss - 3747

Pigma ~ Micron 005 Marker - black

Liquitex Gesso

Buy More Font - from the internet

Helmar Premium Craft Glue

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Spellbinders ~ Artisan X-plorer

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments. 

~ Blessings ~

Birthday Card featuring Leaky Shed Studio Chipboard

Birthday's are special days to celebrate, and I enjoy creating handcrafted cards for my family for their special days. Here's one I created featuring lots of gorgeous Leaky Shed Studio Chipboard. 

"Birthday Wishes"

Tips and Techniques

I took the one of the small butterflies and soaked it in warm water until it was soft and wet through. Then I pulled each of the wings apart into three layers, leaving the body and antennae intact. I curled up and shaped the layers with my fingers and heat set. I painted with gold metallic paint, then dry brushed with metallic blue paint. 

The Blowing Leaves Frame was painted using a fine tip paintbrush. One of the things I like to do is to swirl two or three colors of paint together, but not mix thoroughly. Then, when I paint, I get variations in the colors.

Here's another angle of the butterfly corner.

I stamped the sentiment onto a flag shape I had cut and inked, then added a resin piece and flower to the base.

I cut a Flower Corner into two pieces to layer under the sentiment. I treated it with a quick coat of metallic paint.

I've used another chipboard piece to frame my sentiment inside the card, the medium Victorian Oval Frame. I folded and tucked a piece of ombre organza ribbon on each side.

Here's the card at another angle. Behind the sentiment, I have misted then over the mist, stenciled a crackle design. Each of the layers is inked and distressed.

Leaky Shed Studio Products

Blowing Leaves Frame

Spring Butterfly Small (Set of 3)

Flower Corner

Victorian Oval Frame (Set of 3 - medium frame used)

Other Products
Prima ~ Ledger Pad 12 x 12
Prima ~ Printery - Pressman
White Cardstock - stash
Prima ~ Resin - Old Church Window
Prima Flower ~ Melisse, Belle
May Arts ~ Sheer Ombre Turquoise/Brown (Really Reasonable Ribbon)
Mesh Ribbon 1.5 in - Cream (Really Reasonable Ribbon)
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Acrylic ~ Splendid Gold, Champagne Gold
Lumiere Paint ~ Pearl Turquoise, Pearlescent Blue, Pearlescent White, Halo Blue Gold
Ranger ~ Distress Ink - Weathered Wood, Chipped Sapphire, Frayed Burlap
Donna Salazar ~ Mix'd Media Inx - Denim
Prima Stencil ~ Crackle 12 x 12 in
Scrappy Cat ~ Birthday Clear Stamps
Stampabilities ~ May Your Birthday Be Filled . . .
Helmar ~450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Helmar ~ Premium Craft Glue
Helmar ~ Liquid Scrapdots
Martha Stewart ~ Mini Scoring Board
Ranger ~ Heat It Tool
Prima ~ Distressing Tool
Tim Holtz ~ Grid Blocks

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Leaky Shed Birthday Card Sneak Peek

Cold temperatures are back again here in Ohio making perfect days to stay inside. Yes, a nice chance to scrapbook and paper craft.

I have a new project up on the Leaky Shed Blog, a birthday card layered with lots of gorgeous leaky shed chipboard. Here's a sneak peek.

I hope you'll have the chance to stop by the Leaky Shed Studio blog for all the details.

~ Blessings ~

Tracey

Beautiful Reef Mixed Media Layout for Helmar and Prima BAP

Vacation trips are always fun to remember. In 2012 Gary and I took a trip for our 30th anniversary to Baltimore Inner Harbor. We spent a day at the National Aquarium where I took this shot of the coral reef exhibit. The coral and fish are so colorful and vibrant. I enjoyed extending the feel of the reef onto the layout and have featured Helmar Liquid Scrapdots. I've used primarily Prima products with the January Prima BAP challenge for inspiration.

"Beautiful Reef"

Prima BAP Sketch

Tips and Techniques

When adding flowers over mixed media and layers, sometimes it's a challenge to get them positioned the way I like. A great solution is to use Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. Often we think of this great product for adding dimension, but it's perfect for getting just the right placement over uneven surfaces as well. Here I've put a nice dot of Liquid Scrap Dots on the back of my focal flower. As you can see I've adhered it over several distressed paper layers which would normally tilt it away from the photo, but the Liquid Scrap Dots allowed me to position all of my flowers properly as you can see in the following photo. 

Here you can see how nicely the Prima flowers are positioned using Liquid Scrap Dots, despite the uneven base. 

Often, I look at my chipboard pieces "outside the box." Here the coral pieces are cut from the branches of a Leaky Shed Studio chipboard Christmas tree, painted with Lumiere gold and green metallic paint. I painted and then bubbled the paint with a heat tool in several layers to build up the paint to achieve a coral-like appearance. I adhered these pieces with 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

A close-up of the background which was stenciled with molding paste using the Prima Scales stencil then misted, stamped, splattered with thinned gesso, and doodled. I've also scattered some Prima crystals around the page.

More flowers Prima flowers and Leaky Shed chipboard "coral" adhered with Liquid Scrap Dots.

The photo was adhered to the photo mats using Premium Craft Glue, and then to adhere the mat to the mixed media background, my go to adhesive is Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive which adheres well to mixed media surfaces. 

Leaving you with one final photo.

Helmar Products
Liquid Scrap Dots
450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Premium Craft Glue

Other Products
Prima ~ Sunrise Sunset - Collection
Prima ~ Sunrise Sunset - Alphabet Stickers
Prima Flowers ~ Cottage Blossoms, Soubrette - Blue/Green, Metallic Iron, Divine Vine - Yellow, Guava Peony Brahms, Calypso Tin - Teal
Prima ~ Say It in Crystals - Circles Iridescent, 560577
Leaky Shed Studio ~ 9" Christmas Tree
Prima ~ Clear Stamp Script, Build-A-Frame Collections 1 & 2
Prima ~ Stencils - Static, Scales
Ranger ~ Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain
Ranger ~ Archival Ink - Jet Black
Golden ~ Light Molding Paste
Liquitex ~ Gesso
Heidi Swapp ~ Color Shine - Mustard, Chartreuse
Tattered Angels ~ Glimmer Mist - Cork, Dragonfly
Lumiere Paint ~ Bright Gold, Halo Blue Gold
Pigma ~ Micron 05 Black
Prima ~ Distress Tool
Ranger ~ Heat It Craft Tool
Darice ~ Heat Tool

I hope you've been inspired to try out some Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots on your next project!

Thanks for stopping by today! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Mixed Media Sneak

It's dreary and gray outside, but I have a sneak peek from tomorrow's project for Helmar and the January Prima BAP to brighten the day.

I hope you'll stop back tomorrow for all the details.

~ Blessings ~

She Is Beauty Unrefined Layout and Girlie Grunge Corrugated Board Tutorial for Donna Salazar

2014 is here. I hope you are enjoying the new year and that my US friends stayed toasty during the freezing conditions this week. 

Donna Salazar is now hosting a monthly sketch and color challenge and is offering a wonderful prize package to the winner who will be selected by her design team. I hope you'll take the opportunity to grab some of her products and join us. Just let us know which DSD product(s) you have used. I decided to play along with the challenge to offer some inspiration. All the details can be found here.

Yes, it's winter outside, but with the uber cold temperatures this week, I decided to go with a warm weather photo from Elizabeth and Andrew's wedding. I had so much fun creating this layout. This photo of our daughter, Elizabeth, was a perfect fit for Mistra's color palette of Honey, Sage, and Truffle. I love adding grungy elements to girlie pages and have included a step by step tutorial on how I grunged up my corrugated board photo mat.

"She Is Beauty Unrefined"

January Challenge Sketch and Color Palette

Tips and Techniques

Handcrafted flowers and grungy gear using Donna's Spellbinders dies with GCD Natural Beauty and Mix'd Media Stax 2 papers and vintage pattern tissue paper from my stash. I've also torn bits of dictionary paper from the Mix'd Media Stax 2 and inked with Clearsnap Mix'd Media Inx in Honey to layer around the edge of my layout. 

Donna's 12 x 12 paper pads each include an image sheet I've cut the title, flourish and some of the flowers from that sheet. I've also done additional fussy cutting like this lace border strip. 

I've used my all-time favorite scrappy tool, the Zutter Distrezz-it-All to achieve the gorgeous grungy paper edges. 

Don't forget you have a chance to win your own Distrezz-it-All V3.0
by liking the Distrezz-it-All Facebook page.
For other ways to enter go here.
Donna's Youtube video demonstrating the Distrezz-it-All can be viewed here.

Flowers and leaves handcrafted using Donna's Bitty Blossom Dies by Spellbinders. More fussy cutting and the grungy flourish is Donna's Want2Scrap Card Sized Hand Drawn Swirls ~ inked with MMI Truffle. Donna's products coordinate so beautifully as you can see here how her Want2Scrap Build Your Own Bling pieces fit the Bitty Blossoms leaves perfectly.

The scalloped circle was inked and then stamped with Donna's Art Gone Wild Branch stamp using Sage MMI CHOX. I've shared the details on how I created the girlie grunge texture on the corrugated board in my tutorial below. 

Girlie Grunge Corrugated Board Tutorial

Supply List
Corrugated Board by Zutter or Want2Scrap
Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx - Truffle
Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx CHOX - Sage
Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx Embossing Powder - Truffle
Heat Tool

Step 1. I've used some of Donna's Zutter Corrugated board. Cut out a piece a little larger than the mat you want to create. 

You might ask the question, "Why should I buy corrugated board when I have cardboard from other packaging?" First of all, Donna's corrugated board is archival, so you don't have to worry about a damaged layout down the road. Second her Want2Scrap Corrugate Board already has the corrugation showing - no work or mess and her Zutter corrugated board is much easier to peel off the top layer. You will notice that the corrugated ridges are more noticeable on one side - that's the layer you want to peel off. 

**Note ~ if you have Donna's Want2Scrap Corrugated board, you can start at step 3. 

Step 2. Peel the top layer off of the corrugated board to reveal the ridges. I like to leave some bits and pieces on my board for an extra touch of grunginess. 

Step 3. Roughly tear the edges to size for your photo mat.

Here you can see the size compared to my photo.

Step 4. Ink the edges with Truffle Mixed Media Inx.

Step 5. Add additional inking with Sage MMI CHOX. Then go back and brush more Truffle MMI onto the edges, getting down into the valleys of the corrugated board. 

**Note ~ you want to go back with the truffle on the edges after inking with sage so it will be good and wet to hold the embossing powder we will be adding for the next step. 

Step 6. Dip the edges of the corrugated board into Truffle Mix'd Media Inx.

Step 7. A lot of embossing powder will stick to the edges, so to get a more textured and grungy edge, brush off some of the embossing powder. You can see in this photo on the right side and bottom where I have removed some of the powder. The top and left side show what it looks like before the extra embossing powder has been brushed away. As you are brushing it, some if the powder will move around and go towards the center of the corrugated board - that's just the effect I was looking for. 

Step 8. Heat set

Here's a close-up of how it looks on my layout.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I hope you've been inspired to create a project for our January Sketch Challenge

and a chance for a fabulous prize.

Challenge details can be found here.

Donna Salazar Products

GCD ~ Natural Beauty 12 x 12 Pad

GCD ~ Family Jeans 12 x 12 Pad

GCD ~ Mix'd Media Stax 2

Zutter ~ Corrugated Board

Want2Scrap ~ Build Your Own Bling 1

Want2Scrap ~ Hand Drawn Swirls, Card Sized Corrugated

Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx - Truffle, Honey

Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx CHOX - Sage

Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx Embossing Powder - Truffle

Clearsnap ~ Fairy Dust Glitter

Spellbinders ~ Bitty Blossoms

Spellbinders ~ Grand Peony

Spellbinders ~ Rose Creations

Spellbinders ~ Carnation Creations

Spellbinders ~ Sprightly Sprockets

Art Gone Wild ~ Branch Stamp

Zutter ~ Distrezz-it-All

Other Products

Smooth Black Cardstock

Vintage Pattern Tissue Paper

Spare Parts ~ Gemstones Antique Buttons

Recollections ~ Rhinestone Brads

Viva Inka Gold

Martha Stewart ~ Circle Edge Punch - Fronds & Dots

Helmar ~ 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, Premium Craft Glue, Crystal Kote Gloss Spray, Gemstone Glue

Darice Heat Tool

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Published at Scrapbooking.com

I'm so excited to share that Scrapbooking.com Magazine has featured one of my layouts in their January Issue. I hope you'll stop by to check it out and take a look at some of the other inspiring work while you're there. 

A Snowy Day ~ Winter Department Featured Layout

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings

On Target Mixed Media Layout for Once Upon A..Sketch Featuring Leaky Shed Studio Chipboard

Happy New Year!!

May 2014 bring you and yours many sweet blessings.

It's reveal day at Once Upon A..Sketch.

There are a couple changes for our 2014 Challenges. First, we will be having two reveals each month with half of our amazing DT revealing their inspiration on the 1st with the rest revealed on the 15th. Second, you will have until the end of each month to enter your projects!! 

Our son issued a challenge to me a while back when he asked if it was possible to create a page without any flowers. So, I took a decidedly masculine approach for this layout and gasp - no flowers.

Now, here's my take on the January OUAS challenge.

"On Target"

Journaling Theme ~ "Lesson Learnt' . . ."

You are free to interpret our theme any way you like, but please make sure your layout is based on the sketch below and includes some journaling (hidden journaling is fine ~ please tell us where it is located).

I flipped the sketch for my layout.

Tips and Techniques

I used gorgeous Kaisercraft Basecoat paper and Leaky Shed Studio Chipboard Gears. I painted the gears black and used my heat tool while wet to bubble and distress. I rubbed Grecian Gold Rub'n Buff then copper metallic pant over the bubbled raised areas to took like rusty metal. 

This paper has such a gorgeous distressed look, but I added a bit more by splattering black paint across the page. To embellish, I chopped up May Arts Black Webbing, vinyl screening, punchinella, and chicken wire. The title is handwritten, and I've doodled arrows around my journaling. 

I have to thank my friend, Mandy who gave me the punchinella, vinyl screening (below the photo), and chicken wire (next to the photo).

One of my Christmas presents was a fabulous fountain pen (thanks, mom!!). I used it for my handwritten journaling which reads: Inspiration comes from many places. For your high school science fair projects it came from archery. How fun to learn lessons from a sport you still continue to enjoy. 

The photo mat is stenciled with more of the copper metallic paint as well as roughly painting the photo edges. I've also used this paint on the punchinella to edge the top and bottom of my layout. A bit of black paint was rubbed lightly onto the painted punchinella. 

Products

Kaisercraft ~ Base Coat - Concrete

Authentique ~ Foundations PFF004

Leaky Shed Studio ~ Gear Set

Punchinella

Chicken Wire

Vinyl Screening

May Arts ~ Webbing, Black (Really Reasonable Ribbon)

Thread Scraps

Monteverde Fountain Pen

FolkArt Metallic - Sequin Black

Lumiere ~ Metallic Bronze

Rub'n Buff ~ Grecian Gold

Stampers Anonymous ~ Burlap Stencil

Helmar ~ 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Helmar ~ Zapdots - 1/2" Round, black 

Darice ~ Heat Tool

I look forward to seeing your projects inspired by the January OUAS Challenge!! 

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~