"Life Is Art" Graduation Card for RRR

It's official, we're empty nesters!! Maria found a job and has moved in with her sister to be close to work. While aspects of this are just a little crazy for me, I've been preparing and must say that we have been so blessed with our children making wise decisions for their futures. 

Maria graduated just over a week ago, and I'd like to share the card I created for her featuring Really Reasonable Ribbon. 

"Life Is Art"

Graduation Card

Maria is an artist. She has played piano for 10 years and started taking art lessons about 5 years ago. She is quite accomplished. I've been known to say, if I had her talent I wouldn't scrap; I'd draw and paint. She's won several art contests this year and really has the heart of an artist. This may not be a typical sentiment for a graduate, but it just fit Maria perfectly. I hope she embraces the life ahead of her and enjoys the journey. 

Really Reasonable Ribbon Products:

Hand-dyed Silk ~ 1 inch

Iridescent White String

Kaisercraft Pearls

Scor-Tape 6" x 6" Sheet

Tips and Techniques:

Double Loop Bow ~ Bonnie carries the most gorgeous and luxurious hand-died silk ribbon in her store. You really should try some of this fabulous ribbon. This particular color is not currently in stock, but she has some amazing color combinations that are sure to fit your needs. The tutorial by our RRR DT, Ginny, for these sweet bows can be found here. She shows how to tie them right on your fingers. So easy!! 

Mixed Media Background ~ I started by stamping my sentiment with Donna Salazar's Jasmine Mix'd Media Inx, then sprinkled with opaline embossing powder and heat set. 

Then I laid punchinella next to the sentiment and "inked" through the holes with Perfect Medium. Any kind of clear embossing pad should work. I sprinkled with Fran-Tage Shabby White Embossing powder and shaved ice mica then heat set. 

I've had Faber-Castell Gelatos in my stash for some time, but just never have gotten around to trying them out. Let's just say, I'll be using them a lot more now that I've broken the ice. What gorgeous colors and so easy to work with. I scribbled the colors across my nonstick craft mat using similar colors to the ribbon, spritzed with water, then laid my paper into the liquified color. Just like the ribbon colors blend, gradating into each other, the Gelato colors did the same. I just love the effect!!  I colored two pieces - the white cardstock background and then the stamped and heat embossed sentiment on water color paper. 

Once the water color paper was dry, I hand sketched the heart shape around the sentiment, cut it out and hand distressed. The background paper was distressed with my Donna Salazar Distrezz-It-All. 

On the background I took some bubble wrap and painted it with gesso and used as a stamp in places. This is very subtle, but adds great visual texture. I also "stamped" some circles of gesso using a small bottle cap. 

Oh, and wouldn't you know, the sentiment got a little muddied by the mixed media, so I took a white Glaze pen and carefully went over the letters to make them pop again. 

What I love about this technique is that you can really create a custom background to go with any of the hand-dyed silks. 

Pearl Accents ~ I added Kaisercraft pearls from the RRR Store. There are a wide variety of colors to choose from. 

Ribbon ~ I adhered a strip of the hand-dyed silk ribbon across the card using Scor-Tape. I wrapped the Iridescent White String around the ribbon three times, crossing in the center. This string is one of my favorite items in the RRR Store. I already had to order more!! LOL It shimmers so beautifully in the light. Finally, I attached the bow to overlap the heart. 

Other products:

White Cardstock 

Strathmore 140lb Mixed Media Vellum Surface

Bienfang PH Neutral 140lb Watercolor Paper

Faber-Castell Gelatos ~ Metalllic Melon, Metallic Blueberry, Butter Cream, Lemon, Boysenberry, Tangerine

Donna Salazar Mix'd Media Inx ~ Jasmine

Ranger Perfect Medium

Punchinella

Sparkle N Sprinkle Embossing Powder ~ Opaline

Stampendous Fran-Tage Embossing Powder ~ Shabby White

Stampendous Fran-Tage Shaved Ice Mica

Sakura Glaze Pen ~ White

Liquitex Gesso

Bubble Wrap

Bottle Cap

Stampendous Cling ~ Life Is Art Stamp

Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive

Donna Salazar Distrezz-It-All

Tim Holtz Distress Tool

Tim Holtz Grid Blocks

Ranger Mini Mister

Ranger Craft Mat

EK Cutter Bee Scissors

Martha Stewart Mini Score Board

I've entered this at:

Word Art Wednesday ~ Challenge #82 anything goes or Proverbs 14:26 Word Art

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Christmas Morning - The Scrapping Stamper/Bo Bunny

Today, I'm sharing a Christmas layout with photos going back about 15 years. At that time we lived in North Carolina and made a trip Ohio to spend the holidays with our families. This is Elizabeth who was married in October and Maria who just turned 18 yesterday. Happy birthday, Maria!! I created this page with inspiration from Shannon, The Scrapping Stamper's, beautiful November sketch. If you are in the mood for Christmas and winter layouts be sure to return Friday for the ScrapThat! December Reveal and Blog Hop. 

"Christmas Morning"

Shannon's delightful November Sketch:

Stop by The Scrapping Stamper to see the other inspiring pages created by Shannon's Design Team. 

I won the Mistletoe Collection from Bo Bunny last month. Such sweet cheerful paper, but not my normal style/color pallet. I was determined to created a layout featuring this fun line and combined some inking, punching and fussy cutting to create this page. I couldn't resist cutting out the oh so sweet little quirky, crooked tree and presents which were so perfect for these Christmas morning shots of our girls. I'm entering this page in the November Bo Bunny Layout Challenge to use two separate clusters, each containing a photo. If you aren't familiar with the fun Mistletoe line, here is a shot of the collection pack:

Tips and Techniques:

Layering ~ I fussy cut strips of the green hexagon print, and punched strips of blue and red to layer with doilies and lace to create the background. 

Hand Crafted Fabric Flowers ~ I made the cream fabric flowers a while back when our local craft store demoed the Clover Kanzashi Flower Maker Templates. I spend some crop time creating them, and they've been sitting in my stash until now. I played with several of the templates, but the Pointed Flower template seemed the the best suited for scrapbook flowers. They were quite quick and easy to create. 

Found Objects ~ I recently found a bag of vintage buttons at a thrift store for a mere $2. Most of the buttons you see tucked into my clusters came from that bag of goodness. Don't you just adore the blue flower button next to the cream flower? 

Transparencies ~ I fussy cut my photos to fit the transparencies and hid little bits of red-lined tape under the printed edge to adhere the photos to the transparencies. 

Fussy Cutting ~ I fussy cut the Christmas tree and presents. The gifts were raised with different thicknesses of pop dots and strips for dimension, and I added the Bo Bunny rhinestones to decorate the tree. 

Bo Bunny Products Used:

Mistletoe ~ Mistletoe

Mistletoe ~ Boxes

Mistletoe ~ Greetings

Mistletoe ~ Pucker Up

Mistletoe ~ Santa's List

Mistletoe ~ Twas the Night

Jewels ~ Mistletoe

Buttons ~ Mistletoe

Other Products Used:

Peltaloo Canterbury Magnolia Blossoms ~ Burgandy

Heidi Grace Rhinestone Flourish ~ Aqua

Darice Acrylic Teardrop Ornament

Darice Tonal Duets Chandelier Earring

Prima Alphabet Stickers ~ Craftsman

Basic Grey Pins and Tags ~ MET-3685

Color Bok Transparency Overlays - Flea Market

Jolee's Botique ~ Pearl and Gem Clusters

Darice ~ Gold Wire

Spare Parts ~ Gemstone Antique Buttons

Clover Pointed Flower Template

Distress Ink ~ Frayed Burlap

Keren Tamar ~ Red Lace Flowers

EK Success Scallop Diamond Border Punch

Martha Stewart ~ Doily Lace Border Punch

Scrap Locker Handcrafted goodies:

Bead Cluster

Red flowers

Stash:

Vintage Buttons

Fabric

Paper Doilies

Lace

Adhesives:

Hemar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Helmar Zap Dots Clear 1/4" Square

Scotch ATG

Red-lined Tape ~ Hercules

Darice Foam Dots and Lines

I have entered this at:

Word Art Wednesday ~ Challenge #55 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Forever ~ Tips and Techniques: ScrapThat! October Kit

I hope you're having a lovely weekend!!

Thanks for joining me today for Tips and Techniques from my Forever layout, the third and final page created with the gorgeous ScrapThat! October Kit.

Tips and Techniques:

Handcrafted Flower ~ I created the large pink flower with Donna Salazar's Grand Peony die set and added pearls from the kit to create the lovely center. I lightly inked the petals with the handy Prima ink included in this kit.

Misting ~ I glimmer misted slightly above where my photo was to be placed and then misted lightly with water to encourage the drips that you see below the photo dripping into the flower cluster.

Title ~ The felt letters were a bit grey so I inked them with distress ink to coordinate with my page. I do NOT recommend doing this. Because the letters are felt, they did not dry. I kept patting with paper towels until they no longer removed ink when patting. :-)

Fussy Cut Flowers ~ I added some flowers fussy cut from paper scraps to the edges of this cluster.

Scrunched Ribbon ~ I put some strong double sided adhesive onto my paper where I wanted the scrunched ribbon, then starting on one side with a long ribbon, started scrunching and randomly laying the ribbon onto the adhesive, then when I was finished, trimmed the other end. In a couple places where the ribbon wanted to pop up, I went back and added a bit more adhesive.

Wet Paper Scrunching ~ I wanted a depression in the top of my mat to set this lovely wood Prima clock. I wet the paper and pushed it down with my fingers and let it sit to dry before tucking the clock behind the little depression I created. I sanded the edges of the clock for a more distressed look.

Hand Stitching ~ the edge of the center mat was hand stitched with crochet thread. I have discovered that a single strand of crochet thread looks gorgeous and is easier to stitch with than several strands of embroidery floss.

ScrapThat! is currently accepting subscriptions

and this October Kit is available for sale in the store. 

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ 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 ~