Guest Designer for Tresors de Luxe: Part 2

Good morning :) 

I'm finally getting around to sharing my second project created as a guest designer for Tresors de Luxe last month. I hope you've had a chance to check out their store- if not, you can find them HERE.

This time around, I created a card:

"Love"

I really love a vintage, shabby look and the Tresors de Luxe trims are perfect for such a style! I've applied gesso, watercolors, acrylic paint, and mist to the trims on my card and I'm so impressed how they can take such treatment! And because they are so beautiful in themselves, I was allowed to minimize the amount of "stuff" I added to my card. Simple and pretty!

Tresors de Luxe Products Used:

 Ivory Lace Trim with Pearl Drop Edging (LA-005) 

Ivory Venice Lace Trim (LA-018) 

 I hope you have a great day. So happy you came by :)...Hopefully life slows down a bit for me here so I can get back to you all. Thanks for your patience :)

Guest Designer for Tresors de Luxe

Good morning and welcome to the weekend! I'm here with you today because I am a guest designer for Tresors de Luxe, and I've created my first art journal page using some of their gorgeous lace trims. 

Now, I must admit- though my first page turned out much like a layout (hey, it's what I'm used to!), I can tell you I created two more pages immediately after this one and am loving this whole art journaling thing. I plan to use mine as a way to record some of the things about myself that I normally don't cover in my layouts, as well as documenting quotes or ideas that inspire me, and even maybe get back into drawing and painting. Back when I was younger, I was pretty darn good at drawing. So I'd really like to get into that. We'll see!

The biggest challenge for me is keeping these pages flat- so that means pretty much no flowers. For me, that's about unheard of. But it's a good challenge and is forcing me to rely on mediums, stamps, and other things to bring my pages together.

So here's my first attempt:

"Harvest"

After just saying the other day how i never use red or orange (while talking with the girls in the C'est Magnifique forum), here I go and use both. AND purple! But I love the autumn feel to this page as unfortunately that is what we're heading into. Obviously blueberry picking is my latest obsession- in fact, I just went out with a friend yesterday afternoon and we picked about another 4 gallons each- way out in the woods up on a cliff. It was awesome. Didn't drag ourselves out of there until about 7:30 last night when we heard something crashing around in the woods and felt we'd better get out of there :).

I had lots of fun playing with mists, watercolors, modeling paste, etc. The purple splotch here reminds me of blueberry juice, lol! In fact, after a day of picking, my hands are just completely stained purple :)

What I especially love about these Tresors de Luxe trims is they are so durable and just full of textures, which makes altering them so much fun! I've used a combination of mists, watercolors, and chalk inks to give these a bit of color. Oh, and some microbeads too.

I must admit, the flower and bow were a final addition to this page. It's tough- because otherwise, it just doesn't look like ME, if you know what I mean? I feel very conscious of that. But I need to get over it because if I'm going to create a full art journal book- my pages need to be flat. And in my next two pages that you'll be seeing over the next few weeks, you can be assured that no flowers or bulky things are present. Super weird.

I felt that the gorgeous "Dreamer" collection from 7 Dots Studio, with just a hint of "Domestic Goddess" {forefont tag} was perfect for this autumn-inspired project.

Products Used:

Ivory Venice (LA-003)

Ivory Venice Lace Heart Trim (LA-004)

Ivory Cotton Trim (LA-036)

Other Products Used:

Dreamer Collection- Drive All Night

Dreamer Collection- Daydreaming

Domestic Goddess Collection- Tags

571115- La Tela- Woodsy Floral

561048- 7x7 Stencil Garden Gate

961015- Big Doily #20 stamp- Vintage Vanity- Finnabair

570514- Stitch Stamps- Lines

 

Thanks for coming over this weekend!- and for bearing with me through my first art journal project. It's a work in progress- I'm slowly "getting" it ;)...take care and see you soon.

Guest Designer for Ingvild Bolme!

I'm SO incredibly honored to be a guest designer at Ingvild Bolme's blog this month! A little secret I've had to hold for a while ;) but it's been worth it. I've long been a fan of Ingvild for her incredible artistic talent both in papercrafting as well as her amazing products. I've had the privilege of communicating with her a bit through this process, and so I'm also honored to know her as a person- and she is just the sweetest thing! Just a truly genuine, great person. Isn't it cool knowing that the products you love come from a really awesome individual? I think that's super neat :).

 

I would love it if you would stop by her blog and check out the post HERE. I know that she was hoping to show ME support, but I would like to do the same for her :)- so take a look at her site if you haven't yet- so much inspiration and amazing products :).

Here are a few close-ups of just a small number of my projects using products designed by Ingvild...

 

 

Thank-you so much for stopping by! It truly means a lot to me :)~ I've had another busy weekend here and so I'm hoping to catch up with you all this week...until then, take care of yourselves and I will be back once again tomorrow :)...

Guest Designer @ Scrap & Music~!

Hi there everybody :). I hope you all had/are having a great weekend! 

I'm happy to share with you that I was invited to guest design for the brand new sketch challenge site "Scrap & Music"~! They provide not only a fabulous sketch for your creative pleasure, but also feature a song from which you must derive your title. You can pick out any word/words from the entire song that reaches out to you. 

For Sketch Challenge #2, we are given the song "La Vie En Rose" (Édith Piaf):

Des yeux qui font baisser les miens,
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche,
Voilà le portrait sans retouche
De l'homme auquel j'appartiens
[Refrain]
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas,
Je vois la vie en rose.
Il me dit des mots d'amour,
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ça me fait quelque chose.
Il est entré dans mon coeur
Une part de bonheur
Donc je connais la cause.
C'est lui pour moi,
Moi pour lui dans la vie,
Il me l'a dit, l'a juré
Pour la vie.
Et dès que je l'aperçois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat
Des nuits d'amour à plus finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Des ennuis des chagrins s'effacent
Heureux, heureux à mourir.
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas,
Je vois la vie en rose.
Il me dit des mots d'amour,
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ça me fait quelque chose.
Il est entré dans mon coeur
Une part de bonheur
Donc je connais la cause.
C'est toi pour moi,
Moi pour toi dans la vie,
Il me l'a dit, l'a juré
Pour la vie.
Et dès que je l'aperçois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat.

  For those of you who do not speak French (like myself)- Google Translate is a beautiful thing! And so is this song- gorgeous, gorgeous words. I decided to use the very last line in the song, which says "my heart beat" in English. Since the song is about love, I was going to do a layout about my husband. But as much as I love him to pieces- he is not the only one who makes up MY heart beat. And that is why I chose to scrap the 3 other most important people in my life :)

"My Heart Beat"

I don't even care that this is not a perfect photo- a little blurry, the kids not really paying attention (lol)...it's perfect to me because of who is in it :). They truly do make up the contents of my heart :).

Here is the sketch you get to work with:

Gorgeous, yes?? 

Here's a quick, closer look:

Lots of Prima layers going on...stamps, flowers, and embellishments :) I've used papers from the Fairy Belle, Lyric, and Fairy Rhymes collections, as well as paper from Pink Paislee's "Hope Chest" collection.

I'd love it if you'd show your support to this fun new challenge blog! Check them out HERE and add them to your list :) You have the next two weeks to complete this challenge.

Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful day~!

Selected Scrapper @ Skissedilla: Week 4~!

Good morning, my friends~! Sunday is again upon us (well, "us" to whom it applies- I know you ahead-of-it-all-other-side-of-the-worlders have already {or soon will} said good-night to Sunday)~ and what that means is it's reveal day at Skissedilla~! Today's sketch is my last for the month as the Selected Scrapper there, and I just wanted to thank them so much for having me :). It's been a pleasure creating with their wonderful sketches~!

I have a super sweet story behind the layout I created for this challenge. I tell a lot of stories about my kids, and some day I hope to print a book of my blog (I've heard you can do this- should probably check into the validity of it)- and then I will have one place in which all of these stories are documented. But I also like to share them because I think we all find some enjoyment in learning about eachother's lives. I do, anyway. It makes us all seem a bit more "real", if you know what I mean. And being a parent, I understand that most parents never tire of talking about their kids- or at least their kids' stories :)...

"Don't Cry, Mom"

My little Gunner. If you've followed my blog, you know about my little Gunner. He's just as sweet as they come- a wild child too- but inside, he's just a sweetie. I've seen more of this from him as time goes on, and this particular layout was inspired by something I discovered a few weeks back.

But first, here's the sketch, #195:

Of course we need some closeups...and the story :)...

 So one night I'm sitting on the couch and I just wanted Gunner to come and sit with me. When he decides he'd rather continue playing instead, I pretend to start crying- you know, burying your face in your hands and doing your best (obnoxious) crying sounds, body shaking and all...

 (yeah, I was that desperate)...Little Gunners drops his toy, comes on over, pulls my hands from my face and with the most concerned, big brown eyes he says, "Don't cry, Mom."

 My heart seriously melted. And then he took it a step further, climbed into my lap, and wrapped his arms around my neck before burying his face against me. And then he stayed like that for about five minutes. I seriously held him for every moment of that five minutes!

Since then, any time I have any look of concern on my face he will come right up to me, look me directly in the eyes as if trying to read my emotions, and ask, "What's wrong, Mom?" Or- if I'm pretending to be sad again- he tells me not to cry, and won't leave my side until he knows I'm okay. It's incredible. And I hope he never changes :).

Thanks for letting me share my little story with you :). 

I'd love to hear yours! So won't you play along with this week's sketch? When the challenge closes in a week, I'll be reviewing every entry from this month and choosing one lucky duck to win this from me:

Sure hope to see you there :). Enjoy the rest of your weekend~ take care!!

Selected Scrapper @ Skissedilla: Week 3~!

Good morning! Another Sunday has come which means a new sketch from Skissedilla :). As you know, I'm guest designing there this month and have had such a great time creating with their sketches~! Today we reveal to you Sketch #194. It's always interesting to see where a sketch will take me- I never know if I will follow it closely or stray, but usually it ends up being a little bit of both- if that makes ANY sense~!

I've been trying to get some of my "older" photos scrapped- mainly those from this past year. I was happy to finally create a layout for this special photo of my husband and our daughter, taken last Easter (her first!)...

"Thank Heaven for Little Girls"

I wanted my color palette to be as soft and sweet as this moment between father & daughter :). I've used paper from Riddersholm Design (Denmark), which I actually received in my very first C'est Magnifique kit back in February 2011. I LOVE this paper, so I've been hoarding it ever since! But I figured it was "time"...

Sketch #194, designed by Nabon:

And of course a closer peek:

I keep waiting for my bead obsession to subside...but it's just not going anywhere. So you're going to have to put up with seeing more of this madness until I either find something else to love this much, or just plain get sick of it! ;)

Products Used:

Fancy Birdcage

And as a reminder, the RAK I'm going to be giving away to one lucky participant! I'm sure it will be no easy task, but I get to take a look at each and every entry from the month and choose my winner :D~!

I sure hope you can play along with this week's sketch! Hope to see you linked up over there~ I'm excited to see what you create! 

Thanks SO much for stopping by- hope your weekend has been awesome :)

Take care,

Selected Scrapper @ Skissedilla: Week 2~!

Hey there everyone! As you might recall, I am the "Selected Scrapper" this month at Skissedilla, which means I have the pleasure of being able to play along with their talented team all month long :)~! Today we reveal Sketch #193 and this one I definitely made my own!

"My Boys"

I love this picture of my boys. Perhaps I love it because I actually got both of them in the same shot- without Gunner running away, lol. But nonetheless- I love it :).

Here is Sketch #193:

I've rotated the sketch one turn to the right to compliment my photo. I then stuck to the sketch by keeping everything to the left side of my layout, and replacing the house/tree image with a quote. 

 Products Used:

"Park Drive" Paper Collection

Vintage Locks

You've got a whole week to play along with this sketch- and I will be checking in to see what you've created :)~ don't forget, I'm offering up a RAK to one lucky winner who plays along this month:

So don't wait~! Go have some scrappy fun- and I'll be seeing you SOON :)...