"Adoration"

Happy Thursday of a long weekend - and welcome to my blog! I've completed a new layout, which I'm calling "Adoration". The picture is of me and my son when he was just 3-days old!

I've done a lot of layering on this layout using a combination of Bo Bunny Gabrielle and DCWV The Mariposa Stack papers - these papers are so complementary! I cut all the layers (with the exception of the base page) with wavy edge scissors. All the layers have been tool distressed and inked with Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink; I also water distressed the peach-coloured page. On top of the patterned paper layers, I added a Gabrielle Cut-Out and small paper doily, which I inked with Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Inks. The final touches on the layering are the beautiful Gabrielle Trinket, which I think looks so pretty on top of the doily, and the mini crochet doily that I tucked under the water-distressed paper.

The title is a chipboard word by Maya Road that I painted with Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Antique Bronze. That wasn't quite crackle-y enough for me so I topped that off with some Ranger Crackle Accents. I did a lot of fussy-cutting of butterflies for this layout - I love the tiny butterflies from the DCWV paper!

I handmade all the flowers on this layout. The large flower was made with individual petals stitched together around a cluster of artificial flower stamens. (The stamens were surprisingly hard to find - I ended up ordering a bunch on ebay from Malaysia!) This is the first time I've made this type of flower and it took a LONG time. I'm pretty happy with the result - but hoping to improve my technique.

The smaller flowers were each made from a single piece of ribbon using a U-gathering stitch. They were then wrapped around and stitched to the small cluster of flower stamens and the petals were also stitched together. Don't they look pretty on the Zva pearl swirl? These flowers were super-easy to make and can be made in 3-5 petal varieties and in a lot of different sizes depending on the width of ribbon you use.

That's all for today. Have a great Holiday weekend!

TFL,
Sarah

Materials Used:
Patterned Papers - Bo Bunny Gabrielle Collection - Gabrielle Dot, Gabrielle Cut-Outs; DCWV The Mariposa Stack; Chipboard Title by Maya Road; Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Antique Bronze; Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tea Dye and Antique Linen; Ranger Inkssentials Crackle Accents; Recollections Boutique Fleur Mini Crochet Doily; Small Paper Doily by Wilton Enterprises; Bo Bunny Gabrielle Trinket; Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink in Tuxedo (used on the larger butterflies to accent the black areas); Michael's Special Value Ribbon; Artificial Flower Stamens; Zva Creative Adhesive Pearls; Glue Dots - Mini and Memory Book; American Crafts This to That Glue Runner.

My Layout is Featured on Scrapbook.com

Okay, so I know it is a little thing - but is very cool and I am thrilled that my "Time in a Bottle" is showing up as a featured layout on the Scrapbook.com homepage. If you head over there, you might have to refresh the homepage a few times - but it'll show up!

See that layout in the bottom right corner of the picture? That's mine! :)

It is also showing up as a "favourite" featured layout in the gallery!

TFL,
Sarah

My Crafty Space

I thought I would share with you a picture of my (very small) crafty space. I have a corner of our guest room set aside for my scrapbooking - it is pretty crowded but I have it fairly well organized so that I can find things when I need them (most of the time).

A Few Organizational Highlights:

Those three rolling drawer units are a lifesaver for organizing. I have everything categorized by drawer and stored in Ziploc bags so I can easily grab what I need. The crates under the table are the perfect size for 12x12 paper. There is also a large rolling bin under the table where I keep my empty and partially finished albums. 

I save the "pizza" boxes from my Monthly Kits to store "in progress" layouts -- I keep any papers, embellishments, ribbon, etc. I think I might use on the layout in the box so I'm not constantly rifling through my drawers.

The tiered dessert stand (you can sort of see it between the computer desk and table) is perfect for storing all my stickles, paints and mists. And I have a cutlery organizer to store markers, chalk pencils, etc. 

TFL,

Sarah

"Time in a Bottle"

I love the song "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce. Everytime I hear it, I think of my son - and how quickly time has passed since he was born. So, to save a little moment in time with my baby boy, I created this layout. It is a picture of me and William (he is two-weeks old here) that I took myself using my Blackberry (hence the graininess of the photo - but I kind of think that it works on this layout).

I used the Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection patterned papers for this layout. I love this collection and it was perfect for this layout. The background page has some simple tool-distressing and I inked the edge with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I also used Vintage Photo ink on the edge of the red paper and then water-distressed it.  The clocks are all fussy-cut from one sheet of paper. I used Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy on the faces of all the clocks to get an aged look and also inked all the edges of the clocks with Vintage Photo ink. The clocks were attached to the layout at different heights using foam adhesive to add some depth to the layout.

The "clock" in the centre of the layout was created using a circle of sheet-music paper layered on a circle of kraft paper. I then punched the 1" circles and stamped all the Roman numerals for the clock numbers. All the elements of the clock were tool-distressed and inked with Vintage Photo Ink. The doily behind the clock was originally white - so I inked it with Antique Linen Distress Ink to soften the colour.

I wanted the song-verse to look like an old letter - so I printed the verse on white cardstock, inked both sides of the note with Antique Linen ink and the edges with Vintage Photo ink and then water-distressed the edges. I added the folds to make it look like the note was taken out of the envelope on which it is resting (in fact - the note would fit perfectly in the envelope...).  I also inked the envelope with Vintage Photo ink. 

I added some flowers and the small key trinket to bring focus to the song-verse. The small vial on the note embellishment was originally clear glass. I painted it with Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy to get achieve this look.

TFL,

Sarah

Materials Used:

Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection - Unlocked, Tick Tock, Moments, Moxxie Noteworthy Collection - In the Band; Recollections Cardstock - Kraft and White;  Paper Doily by Wilton Enterprises; Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Vintage Photo and Antique Linen; Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint - Clear Rock Candy; Maya Road square kraft envelope; My Mind's Eye Bits & Pieces - Key trinket; Kaisercraft Paper Blooms - Honey; Tim Holtz Idea-ology corked vial; Hungarian Hemp twine; Memento Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black; Dollar Store letter stamps; Keepsakes Memories adhesive foam dots; Glue Dots - Memory Book; Memory Tape Runner XL.

"One Kiss"

Can you believe it? Another new layout! I've got a tonne of duplicate wedding photos - so I thought I would use this one to play along with a couple of challenges. The design of the layout is based on Creative Scrappers Sketch #150. I'm also using the layout for the Scrap That! April Challenge, which required that the layout contain only two main colours along with any neutrals (black, brown, white, cream). I chose pink and green as the two main colours for my layout. I also submitted it for the first "Get Your Glitz On" challenge at the Glitz Design Blog.

There is actually a cute story behind the title of this layout. My husband and I got married in the Dominican Republic and the resort provided a photographer for the wedding. Our photographer, Lucia, was such a sweetheart. Lucia didn't speak fluent English - and during our photo session she must have said a hundred times "One Kiss" - in a beautiful Spanish accent. To this day, I still say to my husband (in an abominable Spanish accent) "One Kiss". It is such a happy memory from our wedding day!

I used a few pieces from my Scrap That! February Kit on this layout - the background page and the "Love" Bingo Card, as well as the Chipboard corner flourish.  

I really wanted the corner flourish to blend with the background page. To get this look, I first painted it white and then covered it with Tattered Rose Distress Stickles; while the Stickles were still slightly wet, I misted the flourish with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Tattered Leather. 

The doily under the title was originally white - I misted it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Sweet Clover and then inked the edges with Colorbox Pigment in Moss Green. I love the Prima Sugar Alpha Chipboard Letters - I used 3D adhesive dots to make the title really stand out. The two paper border pieces are from the Basic Grey Porcelain Collection - the bottom (pink) border was fussy-cut out of a sheet of paper, the green border is from the element stickers; I then added a piece of ribbon to complete the layered border. Most of the flowers are by Prima or Recollections; however, if you look really closely, you can see that there are also some Sweet Clover misted Petaloo flowers underneath the larger flowers. 

TFL,

Sarah

Materials Used:
Patterned Paper: Glitz Design - Love Nest Collection - Damask, Basic Grey - Porcelain Collection - Chatsworth and element stickers; Glitz Design Love Nest Collection Whatnot - Love Bingo Card; Paper Doily by Wilton Enterprises; Michael's Special Value Ribbon; Prima Nursery Tales Collection Sugar Alpha Chipboard; Prima mini-roses in Fuschsia and Green Apple; Recollections Boutique Fleur Mulberry Paper Flowers; Petaloo Color Me Crazy Flower Layers; Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso in White; Distress Stickles in Tattered Rose; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Tattered Leather and Sweet Clover; Colorbox Pigment in Moss Green; Chipboard Corner Flourish by ???; Glue Dots Minis; EK Success 3D Dots; American Crafts This to That glue runner.

"Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Here is another new layout featuring (big surprise) my son. The picture was taken on his first Halloween and, as you have probably guessed from the title of this post, he was dressed up as a spider.

The design of the layout is based on a Page Maps sketch for the Scrap That! March Blog Hop; however, I flipped the sketch 180 degrees for my layout.

There are quite a few different papers in this layout but not a lot of techniques. I distressed all the papers and inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink. I used machine stitching on the black velvet ribbon and to create the spider-web strings on the left side of the layout.

Materials Used:
Patterened Paper: My Mind's Eye - The Spider's Web Collection - Spider's Silk, Cauldron Bubbles,  Haunted Parlor, Pumpkin Patch, and borders; Echo Park - Happy Halloween Collection - Spider Webs; and Making Memories - Spook Alley Paper Pad; Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Black Soot; Pink Paislee Chipboard Alphabets Expressions - Licorice; Creatology Halloween Felt Stickers; Dashes, Dots & Checks - Black Velvet Ribbon; Glue Dots - Mini and Memory Book; Memory Tape Runner XL.

TFL,
Sarah

"First Visit with Santa Claus"

Well, I got another layout finished! This is a picture of my son on his first visit with Santa Claus. I converted the colour picture to a sepia-tone because I wanted a vintage look to go with the fabulous Graphic 45 "Christmas Past" papers.

There is (clearly) a lot of distressing on this layout. I did simple tool-distressing around the outside edge on the base page and around the inside of the "frame" in the top page. I water distressed both the cut-out in the base page to frame the picture as well as the outside edge of the top page. I handmade the paper flowers, which I'm calling "distressed poinsettias".

I treated the chipboard swirls with both Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold Mist and Tattered Angels Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist....and just to get a bit more sparkle and texture I threw some Chocolate Glitter on it too.

I love how the title scroll turned out for this -- I printed the title on white cardstock (Anglican Text font if you're wondering - I love it on this layout) and then treated both sides of the paper with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I then distressed and inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Materials Used: 

Patterned Paper - Graphic 45 Christmas Past Collection - Visions of Sugarplums and Let it Snow; Recollections Cardstock - red, green and white; Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Vintage Photo and Antique Linen; Perfect Pearls Mists - Heirloom Gold; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Tattered Leather; Pink Paislee Pixee Stix Glitter - Chocolate; Chipboard and Brads from stash; Glue Dots - Memory Book and Mini; Keepsakes Memories Foam Adhesive; Memory Tape Runner XL.

TFL,

Sarah