Crafty Maven Mix it Up Monday

Today I'm up with a 9x12 canvas that I created with my inspiration from Wilna and all of her lovely layouts. She is the Queen of mixed media and her pages are always gorgeous. I chose a 9x12 canvas instead of a 12x12 canvas because the size is different than I'm used to, and most importantly it was on sale at Michael's for $4...and it included TWO canvases. I took it up to the register completely expecting them to say that it was marked wrong, but it wasn't...so hello to cheap art!!  Since it was so cheap, I felt a bit more comfortable playing around knowing that if I completely messed it up, I only wasted $2.

I prepped the surface with a coat of gesso even though it stated that it came with gesso already on the canvas. I knew that the gesso wouldn't take long to dry and I could be sure that it was covered well giving me plenty of room to add water without warping the canvas. I pulled out four shades of pink gelatos to use on my background. It only takes a little bit of water on your brush to blend the gelatos out. I added too much in the beginning but since I applied gesso to the canvas it was an easy fix. I blotted up the excess water and reapplied the gelatos and used a damp brush to blend the colors. I love these colors together.  After the gelatos dried, I applied a tiny amount of gel medium through a heart stencil and then sprinkled some glitter on top of the hearts. It did make a bit of a mess, but I love the way it turned out so it was completely worth it.

I do have some of her beautiful cut files and chose a few flourishes to cut out on my silhouette. If you don't have a silhouette, I know that Prima makes some flourish bling that would also look lovely. Wilna loves Valentine's themed products and uses them quite frequently on her projects. I pulled out my Kiss Kiss chipboard from last year and found a couple of pieces to place on the canvas. I pulled out some Amy Tangerine Thickers for a pop of black with the title. I found that I didn't need much in the way of embellishments and loved how it came together in the end. I did use a hot glue gun to adhere everything including my photo to the canvas. 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave me a comment. I love hearing from my readers. If you'd like to take a closer peek at the layout, I've included a link to my channel.

We're back with another challenge layout!

This week Mari and I decided to use embossing folders on our layout. I was telling a scrappy friend about our next challenge when she offered up the use of her Teresa Collins embossing machine and plates. Once I saw the musical notes background I knew exactly which picture I wanted to scrap. I have had this picture of my son's marching band group on my desk for a few months just waiting for inspiration.

                    

Originally, I was going to cut the paper in strips or perhaps make a banner with it. I really liked the way that it looked though as a large focal point on the layout. There is a lot of texture and I feel that it gives the layout a clean feel as well. I pulled out different shades of blue papers for my layers, and thought that these blue Thickers were perfect for this page.

I decided to pull out some silver American Crafts glitter paper as another bold accent piece. I also used it as corners on two edges of the layout. I like the extra bling that it gives to the page. I decided to put the year under the photo for a couple of reasons. First, it brings the blue glitter to another area on the page, and it uses numbers. I always have numbers left on my Thickers pack so any opportunity to use them on a page I will do so.

I added these small stars from a Jolee's sticker pack that I have had in my stash. I played around with a few embellishments and felt like they just didn't work with the page. I have quite a bit of bling on this page, and I think that sometimes clean and simple is the way to go. I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek at my process. Be sure and check out Mari's video as well. I will link it below. 

Here is Mari's video:

We love to hear from our subscribers! If there is something that you want us to try, let us know. Have a great scrappy day! 

My Sweet Little Girl

I love to scrapbook. I love every little bit from the paper selection, to the page design. So when I have a photo that is one of my all-time favorite photos, I don't feel the need to get it on a page right away. I wait until inspiration hits and after almost 14 years it finally arrived! This Felicity Jane kit was a gift and as soon as I saw these papers I knew exactly which photos I'd be using. I fussy cut the roses out of the paper and placed them in the corner slightly overlapping one another with the edges popped up for dimension.

 Puffy alpha stickers are some of my favorite alphas to use. Both of these are by Seven, and I am so sad that this company will no longer be producing scrapbook products. The white alphas came with the kit and the gold were in my stash. The swirly font combined with the block makes for an interesting title. I did sew through the labels for extra dimension. The enamel shapes are from my stash and are an older MME collection.

The stamp is a Felicity Jane stamp that I don't think is available at the present time. These stamps are high quality and I love the font of this particular one.

I have a process video if you'd like to take a closer peek at how the page came together. Thanks for stopping by and if you have questions please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Maggie Homes Shine....

I love all of her collections, and I keep saying that each one is my favorite. I have quite a stash of her papers and embellishments so when I saw her new line Bloom I decided that I must take action. I want to make a few layouts using her older collections before ordering any of her new collection. Y'all this is killing me, but the only thing that is saving me now from buying it is that no online site has everything that I want in stock. As I was going through the Shine papers I realized that I had the perfect photo to go with the yellow and cream ombre paper, so I set out to make this page.

The photo is one I took in a local park and used it for our Christmas card. I knew that I just wanted to make this layout because I loved the photo and love her products. There really isn't any journaling that I felt I needed to add so there was a certain bit of freedom that came with designing the page.

I love birds, and in our back yard we have several feeders, birdbaths and homes for our birds. I am slowly but surely making our yard into a bird and butterfly sanctuary. I love a beautiful garden and while mine is not yet worthy of a magazine, one day it will be. So when I see birds in a collection, I have to get them and her birds are so sweet. I love them all and would get a chipboard sheet full of birds if she ever were to come out with one. 

The gold Thickers that came with this collection are beautiful. Actually I don't think that I've seen a gold glitter Thicker that I don't like.

I ultimately decided on a monochromatic look to the page and I love the end result. Everything on the layout is by Maggie Holmes, although I have no idea which collection the fabric tape is from. Of course a layout wouldn't be complete without a few sprinkles of Heidi Swapp's gold color shine. I love that mist and have a spare bottle in the event of a mist emergency.

I have a process video up and would love for you to take a peek. 

Exciting News...

I'm thrilled to be continuing on as a contributor to the Crafty Maven Getaway YouTube channel. Hannah has done a wonderful job with this channel and the ideas behind it since we have lost 2 Peas as a resource. There are also a couple of new faces and I can't wait to meet them. 

I also have another layout share using the October Hip Kit. I made this before Christmas and it has been on my To Do list for a very long time. This layout features our kitty Juliet, and the awkward position that she sits in on this stool. How on earth can that be comfortable?!

I fussy cut the flowers and added them to two of my clusters. I didn't mind this at all because the flowers are not hard to cut out and they really make a statement. I also used the Baxter kitty word stickers in each of the clusters and they most certainly pertained to my crazy kitty.

I have had these wood grain enamel dots in my stash for a very long time and was finally able to get them on a page. I love it when that happens because I hate to have things hanging around in my stash. 

This kraft doily I found at JoAnn's in the cake decorating section. They are made by SEI, and if you've been scrapping for a while you will recognize the name.  

If you'd like to take a closer peek at my process, the video is below. Most of the products came from my Hip Kit, and I've tried to name everything else. If you have a question, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Scrap the Challenge #3

This week's challenge Mari and I decided to use the color wheel to help select our papers and the colors that we used on our layout. I knew right away that I wanted to use a picture of Emily in her travel softball uniform. I have been putting these photos off for a very long time because the orange color is definitely not a color that I want to work with. Why couldn't the uniforms be red or blue? Don't they know that they need to help a scrapbooker out with their color choices?

I decided to use a pale aqua blue as my background paper and having that be my primary color. I pulled out my October Hip Kit and my Pink Paislee Cedar Lane collection and found several patterns that worked will with aqua and the orange, and two of the patterns had both of those colors.

I pulled out the printables that were available to download with the October Hip Kit. I chose the blues since that was the primary color that I wanted on my layout. I feel like the grey is a neutral and worked well with the shades of blue. I love Thicker words and the Cedar Lane Thickers are incredible! I love the font and the fact that they include gold and silver which make them extremely versatile. I love buying a product that makes me feel like I got my money's worth :)

I pulled some Freckled Fawn embellishments from my stash. They have an awesome embellishment club, and I took advantage of a great sale and purchased a few of their older kits. I'm making it a habit to pull products from my stash when I'm working with my kits, and I love the way that they worked on this page.

I decided to use these round MME letter stickers from my stash (2011 to be exact) for a couple of reasons. First, there is a repetition of the circles which I have in the other embellishment clusters, and it also brings another pop of a darker neutral to balance out the title. Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist in tinsel and mint green finished off the layout.

I love the way that this process came together and I will definitely use the color wheel when I am challenged by a photograph. Mari and I are having a blast with these challenges! If you want to give us a challenge, leave a comment. We are open to suggestions :) Here's a link to my process video if you'd like to take a closer peek.

Little One

This is a page that I made late last year and just never had a chance to get to the voice over for the video! Too many things to do and not enough scrappy time in the day, and I'm sure that you all understand that dilemma! I used the Wonder collection by Crate paper for this layout. I don't have the entire collection, but enough to get a good sampling of the collection.  This layout was made for Emily's album with one of the only pictures that I have of her and her great-grandmother. The picture was a bit difficult to work with because of the greens in the photo, but I think that I really made it work with this layout. I may eventually scan this photo and reprint it in black and white, but for now I am going to leave it as it is.

One of my favorite elements is this little bird! I love how sweet it looks on top of the die cut. I went with a simple title and feel like I cheated by using the die cut, but it makes for an easy title.  I will add a little bit of journaling on strips, but I am waiting for my printer ink to arrive and wanted to get this layout up and done! I plan on placing the journaling on the pink and yellow patterned paper tucked around the cluster.

The final touch was a bit of Heidi Swapp gold color shine because just about every layout needs a little bit of gold.  I hope this trend lasts for a long time because I love it so much.

Everything that I used on this page is from the Wonder collection with the exception of the doily and the color shine. I do have a process video if you'd like to take a peek.

Final layout as a CK guest designer

I really had a lot of fun being a guest designer for Clique Kits in January. I made five layouts with the kit and some add-ons and still have quite a bit left over that I will incorporate in my stash. My last layout may be one of my favorites made with this kit simply because of the story told.  I had this layout in mind but couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted to arrange the photos until I saw a sketch by Ashley Horton. It was the perfect way to get all of my photos on one page while keeping the layout clean. I can't find the picture of the sketch at the moment, but I do show the sketch in the beginning of the process video.

 I used quite a bit of the labels, ephemera, and puffy stickers to make this page. My goal though was to maintain a clean look on the layout even though I was using quite a bit of the ephemera.  The yellow doilies are by Doodlebug and add the perfect pop of yellow to the layout.

I used a combination of alpha stickers for the title. The small tile are Teresa Collins, the yellow are some old Basic Grey that have been in my stash for a very long time, and the red are by Seven.

I love the acrylic origami elephant (a Clique Kits exclusive) and thought he made the perfect addition to one of the clusters. Since there are so many different words and font styles, I decided to print my journaling out with a typewriter font. I did not want to introduce my handwriting on to this page, and honestly most of my journaling is hand written so I don't feel the need to do so on this page. 

Here is a link to my process video: