My July Challenge Examples and a Giveaway!

Hello, everyone! Today I am uploading my examples for the challenges I host on scrapbook.com; The Darker Side Challenge, which I've been hosting for a few months now, and the Steampunk Challenge, which debuting this month! Each month I give a new topic for the participants to base their projects and I always post an example for them to see. I will be posting my examples here at the beginning of each month as well. This will also be the first month that I offer RAK's (random acts of kindness/prizes) in my challenges! Enjoy!

Cemetary Gates layout. This is my example for my The Darker Side Challenge. The topic for July is Your Favorite Song. As you can guess, mine is Cemetary Gates by Pantera. The photo was taken in a beautiful old graveyard. I used Stickles in Christmas Red and Black Diamond to trace many of the elements and I used a Tim Holtz crow stamp. I used my cricut to cut the scroll work in the middle and for the title.

Close-up of the center. The colors look better in the top photo.

Dance Like There's Nobody Watching layout. This is for my first official Steampunk Challenge. The topic is Music. I printed a vintage photo, cut the woman out, colored her clothes with Watermelon alcohol ink, and gave her boots, a belt, and a real tutu! The frame and grears were embossed with Ranger Gold Embossing Powder. The music paper is from Tim Holtz's Lost and Found paper pack.

A close-up of the woman in the red tutu!

Some big news (at least for me)!!! I wanted to have my first giveaway here at my blog to celebrate my birthday coming July 8! I've decided to have a giveaway at least once a month to give my blog a more festive feel! lol! The winner will be chosen on my birthday! So everyone has a week to participate!

The rules for the giveaway are simple. Leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for a prize. If you're a follower or become a follower, let me know in your comment, and I'll enter your name twice! The picture below is the prize I'll be sending to one lucky winner!

Included: Paislee Papers, Recollections Papers, a set of Thickers, among other treats!

Whew, Finally Back from Wonderland!

Hello, everyone! I just finished blog hopping through Wonderland for the Mad Tea Party 2010 hosted by Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist. There were over 250 blogs! But oh, it was lovely to see all those beautiful blogs! So many interesting people and things! I am definitely returning next year! And this time I will go all out for my tea party!

Compendium of Curiosities Week 3 at  was posted yesterday!

The Challenge for week three is the Alcohol Ink Monoprint. Here is how Linda tells it:

Please open your Compendium of Curiosities to page 51, where you'll find the Alcohol Ink Monoprint technique. This is one of my all-time favorites! Alcohol inks are a blast to use, and you get such clean, clear tones with them. Plus, a little bit goes such a long way!



I hope you guys have as much fun making your project this week as I had with mine. The monoprint technique just naturally brings out the kid in me (yes, the messy, disorganized kid, but still...).

Would You Like More Tea?

Hello, all! I want to thank you all in advance for visiting my blog! I know many of you are blog hopping for the Mad Tea Party and I wish you a wonderful adventure through cyberland! I would like to thank Vanessa over at A Fanciful Twist for letting me join in the fun. I can't wait to hop on through the blogs listed on her site. I know I will come across many interesting finds!

And since I am a scrapper by nature, I created a layout with an Alice in Wonderland theme for the occassion. I created the background paper in the layout using a tutorial my friend Wendy introduced me to. The fabric paper tutorial is  from Shimmerz Paints. I used some saved glittered tissue paper from a long ago-gift, stamped clocks, tea pots and cups on it and sprayed shimmer on it in a few colors. I used Aleene's decoupage glue. I dusted it with Perfect Pearls in Pearl and let it dry for 24 hours. I trimmed the fabric paper to use in the layout and added photos of my favorite show as a kid, Disney's Adventures in Wonderland. I matted the photos and added them to the layout. I also added flowers and hand made ribbon roses! Below are photos of the fabric paper before I used it in the layout, the layout, and some close-ups! I hope you enjoy it and the rest of your Mad Tea Party!

Mad Tea Party Fabric Paper. This is the paper I created for the layout especially for today's Mad Tea Party.

Wonderland Memories layout. This is the layout I created especially for today! I wanted to add a layout that showed my love for Wonderland. Disney's Adventures in Wonderland was my first experience with Alice in Wonderland! I know most kids see the Disney movie or read the book first but my first look at this wonderful world was in this show. After I watched this, I couldn't get enough of Wonderland! Thank you for looking!

Close-up of top right of layout. I cut and decorated the tea cups and teapot for this myself! The boders are punched with EK Success's Card Suits Edger Punch and I used a vaious array of American Crafts' Thickers for the title. The red letters started off pink but I covered them with Christmas Red Stickles.

Close-up of Bottom Left of layout. The roses were so much fun to make. The purple and turqouise flowers are store-bought and I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the black flourishes.

If you like what you see, please become a follower! Thanks for stopping by!

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 2

Hello, everybody! We're on week 2 of the Compendium of Curiousities Challenge over at Studio L3! This week the challenge is to complete the Fragments Basics technique! I love using fragments for embellishments and jewelry! It's so much fun to make little "windows" to showcase a design!

This is how Linda puts the second challenge:

"Right now, we're on to Challenge #2! Please open your Compendium to page 62, where you'll find Tim's tutorial for his Fragments Basics technique. I love this one!



You can use any of the Fragment styles you wish, and get as creative as you dare (ooh, I like that idea!) but do keep in mind that "Dimensional Collage Fragments" and "Fragment Charms" are both techniques that we'll be exploring later, so you might want to stick with the more basic theme this time. Of course, that's totally up to you! Please remember, though: Don't post the actual technique instructions on your blog. (Everyone was great about that last week, by the way. Thank you!)".

And this is my entry for week 2:

Love card. This card was created with fragments glued over Tim Holtz Lost and Found paper with Glossy Accents then glued onto a larger piece of paper from the same stack which was stamped and inked on the edges. Simple but I think it packs an impact!

Mad Tea Party 2010!

Hi, everyone! I just found out about the Mad Tea Party 2010 blog hop hosted by Vanessa over at A Fanciful Twist. It's on June 26th!This is a yearly event that celebrates Wonderland and should be lots of fun! So many partiers have signed up (I'm late, I'm late...). Please make sure to visit at least some of the blogs listed; there are so many interesting ones out there! Here is the poster and button to post on your blog if you're interested, along with instructions on how to participate!

Mad Tea Party 2010 Invite and Poster.

Mad Tea Party 2010 Blog Button.

Wondering what to do if you sign up?

1) Share the flyer or the button on your blog as soon as possible. Link to this blog post, and I will add your name to the "Mad Tea Partier" list in my left hand side bar.

2) On the day of the tea party, June 26th 2010, please make sure to post a Mad Tea Party post of your own, on your blog, linking to me. Other partiers will be visiting you on that date.

3) Blog hop with the other partiers on the day of the event and have a mad blast!! Again, the list of Mad Tea Party Participants will be in my left hand sidebar.

Note: Please make sure you post a tea party post on June 26th if you signed up. Last year several people did not do this, and lots of partiers e-mailed me to ask why they were finding some blogs without a Mad Tea Party post. I didn't have an answer.

Compedium of Curiousities Entry - Week 1

So I finally got to sit down and complete my entry for the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at Studio L3. The first challenge was to use Tim Hotlz's Water Stamping technique on a project of our choice. Now, I am a scrapbooker, through and through, so I applied the technique to a layout. I inked a white piece of cardstock with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink then water stamped stars all over it. The photos below show the paper piece I water stamped and how it was used in my layout. The layout will be entered in the Monochromatic, D.I.Y., and Scraplifting 101 challenges over at scrapbook.com.

Here is my example of TH's water stamping technique.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star layout. As you can see, I used the water stamped paper as a background layer for this layout. The layout was created for the Monochromatic challenge - Week 4 Burgandy/Maroon; the D.I.Y. challenge - Layered Flowers by Angelica; and the Scraplifting 101 - Lift of He Makes Me Proud by Tonyadirk.

Who's Got the Time?

Hello, crafters! Just wanted to pop in real quick and share an altering project! I altered a clock to put in my scraproom and of course, it's based on Alice in Wonderland. What's more perfect that the White Rabbit chasing his watch for a clock project? So here are the before and after photos for you to enjoy!

This is an IKEA clock I purchased for only $3! When I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for an altering project!

Who's Got the Time? Clock. I took the clock apart and cut out templates for each layer from plain paper. I traced the templates on white cardstock, stampes a check pattern on it and cut out the pieces. I stamped TH rabbit and colored him in and added him, stamped letters, sticker numbers, flowers, and paper mushrooms I drew. I also added a small glass bottle full of blue glitter and a tiny keyhole and key. The seconds hand has a watch glued to it, so that it moves all around the clock.

Close-up of top part of clock.

Close-up of bottom of clock.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge!

I've been so excited to start this challenge over at Studio L3. Linda has created a wonderful 35 week challenge based on techniques listed in Tim Holtz's book Compendium of Curiosities. Every week will bring a different challenge to use one of the techniques. Prizes will be given to winners chosen randomly from the participants. I will be sticking around for all 35 weeks that's for sure! I hope you all will join the challenge; it looks like it will be a lot of fun! Here is a link to the introduction to the challenge.

Challenge 1: Water Stamping. This is a wonderful technique to get a bleached look without using bleach. Remember to keep designs simple so that the effect has center stage! Distress Inks are wonderful for this because they are water-soluable and not permanent.

Have an awesome time creating!

Giveaway at Much Ado About Nothing

I found this great scrapping blog by Pinkee called Much Ado About Nothing. She has an awesome style and I love looking at her work. I just wanted to let you know that Pinkee is having a giveaway on her blog and you should definitely go over to take a look. Here is the link to Pinkee's Giveaway! Take a look around. I think you'll like what you see!

Scrapping Blitz!

I know I've been M.I.A. for a few days. Sorry about that. I had relatives visiting this week and between cleaning before and after their visit and catching up with homework, I have been busy....But just yesterday and today I had that scrapping itch and finished five layouts. All for vaious challenges I've signed up for this month at scrapbook.com. Enjoy!

Fun, Fun, Fun layout. This layout is for the June Lyric Challenge which had to be from a Beach Boys Song. I've been wanting to scrap these photos for a long time and I finally had an excuse to create a summery beach layout. I used border punches and the cricut for the embellishments. It clean and simple and lots of fun!

 

GASC layout. I created this layout for the Distressed Challenge. I used photos from my trip to the Great American Scrapbook Convention and my meeting Tim Holtz. I used Distress Inks, Distress Stickles, Tim Holtz paper, the mini attacher, and tons of other TH embellishments. Nothing says distressed like Tim Holtz products!

 

Lawm Mowing layout. I did this one for the Scrap Your Faves Challenge and once again I scraplifted a layout of Kaye222's. She has such a way with color and pattern coordination! Here I used the cricut a bunch and coordinating papers from a The Paper Studio paper pack. I paper-pieced the lawn mower ased Thickers letters.

 

Swim layout. This one's for the Monochromatic Challenge Week 1 - Lime Green with a beach theme for the twist. I thought this color was going to be difficult but the only thing I had trouble with was finding what types of embellishments to use. I used my cricut for most of this. I also used stickles and strung up the letters on white ribbon.

 

Wedding Guests layout. This one is for the Monochromatic Challenge Week 2 - Cream and Scraplifting 101 Challenge. I scraplifted annavalentin's Me at 41 layout. This is my sister-in-law and niece at my husband's cousins's wedding. I hand cut the background papers and made the flowers. I used my cricut for the butterflies and punches for the borders. I covered the surrounding rhinestones with some Antique Linen Distress Stickles to tone them down some.

A Dream Come True...

Good morning! I have gotten back from the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington and it was a blast! My family ended up coming with me since my best friend was not able to make it and even they got into the spirit of scrapping! The shopping was plentiful, the people were friendly, and the demos were incredible! And most importantly, I got a dream come true for me... I have wanted to meet Tim Holtz for some time now and not only did I do that but I got my picure taken with him as well! So exciting! Tim and all of the people there at the Stampers Annonymous booth were so genuinely kind and sweet. It was a pleasure to meet them all!

We arrived about half an hour before the convention opened on Saturday and the line was already long. the ladies in line were so nice; everyone spoke to everyone else as if they'd known each other forever. The line moved quickly once the doors were opened and I was instantly in heaven.

The booths were numerous and they were all jam-packed with eye-catching scrapbook supplies. My favorite booths were Stampers Annonymous (of course), Ten Second Studios, Tattered Angels, and ScrapMart.com, just to name a few!

Here is my son sitting in at a demo at the Scrapperz Outlet booth! He really loved seeing the demonstrators create the different things they did.

 

Tim Holtz did an amazing job at the Stampers Annoymous booth. The demos he did were amazing to watch in real life and he in infinitely patient and kind to all his fans. One older woman asked him about one hundred questions, interupting him almost continuously through one of his demos, and he just smiled and answered everything calmly. He never put on a face of frustration and I know I would have!

I want to thank all the wonderful people at the Stampers Annonymous booth for taking the time to help me and my family with our shopping experience and for the interesting conversations. I also want to thank Tim for taking the time to speak to me and my family and take photos with us. You all made my day!

And now I am broke! Lol!

Great Amercian Scrapbook Convention!

Good morning, everyone! I am just getting ready for my trip to Arlington tomorrow for the GASC. This will be my first time at any type of convention/retreat and I am so excited! I hope to get some shopping in and a visit to the Stampers Annonymous booth to see Tim Holtz. I will make sure to tell you all about it when I get back and post photos, too! Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and weekend!