Scraps of Darkness July Release & 12 Layouts of Alice #5 & Punky Scraps Challenge 22

Hello, all! It's the 15th of the month today and you know what that means! The release of this month's Scraps of Darkness Kit. This month's kit takes us to an exotic destination and is called Marrakesh Express. The kit is full of Christine Adolph papers and rich jewel tones. The kit is filled with luscious colors and textures. It will certainly inspire creative pages. The second layout that I completed for this release is also number 5 in my 12 Layouts of Alice series (I know it's taking me a long time to finish these up but I have a lot more on my plate this year than I did last year). Here is Marrakesh Express, including all of the optional add-ons and this month's sketch:

Scraps of Darkness July Kit - Marrakesh Express.

Marrakesh Express Paper Add On.

Marrakesh Express Card stock Add On.

Marrakesh Express Romance Add On.

Marrakesh Express Color Add On.

Marrakesh Express Flora and Fauna Add On.

Marrakesh Express Sketch by Suepup aka Charlotte.

Natural Beauty. Here is my take on July's Scraps of Darkness Sketch. This photo is one I was lucky enough to shoot from my backyard. I love the way the sunset plays off the shadows of the tree branches. Everything but the Thickers title, gold embossing, and the liquid pearls are from the Marrakesh Express Kit.

Natural Beauty Close Up 1. This is a close up of what will be my journaling spot on this layout. I wanted to show how the liquid pearls look close up.

Natural Beauty Close Up 2. Here is a close up of some of the gold embossing I did on the background paper with Lindy's Stamp Gang gold embossing powder.

Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas Tag #5.

2 Sides 2 Everything - 12 Layouts of Alice #5. When I saw these exotic papers the Caterpillar's Hookah came to mind. So I used the Caterpillar for my inspiration for this page. I used the Sparkling H2O watercolors from the Color Add On to add color to a stamp that I used on a die cut tag. I used Distress Inks in Dusty Concord and Broken China. I also used some Ranger Gold Embossing Powder on the edges of the page and on the numerals. The die cut shape behind the photos and the title letters are grunge board coated with Broken China Distress Crackle Paint. The photos are of my dog before and after he had a run in with a major amount of burrs and had to be shaved.

The leaves are covered in Lime Green Stickles and the tag is edged with Adirondack Gold Paint.

Paradise Found Layout. This page was inspired by the beach. I tried to simulate the sand, water, and sun with the shapes I cut out of the Marrakesh Express Kit papers. I also added some Thickers and Liquid Pearls to this page. I fussy cut some flowers and the bottom border, and used my Cricut Expression and the Mother's Day Bouquet Cartridge to cut out the sun.

Punky Scraps Challenge 22: Use the above sketch.

Spice of Life Layout. Okay, I went a little crazy with the stitching on this one! Lol! I even stitched the title. I created this page with the Scraps of Darkness Marrakesh Express July Kit and using the sketch for Punk Scraps Challenge #22. This has to be my favorite paper from this kit! The photos are of my kids playing around. I host a challenge over at Scraps of Darkness  called the Darkest Side Challenge and this month the topic is to scrap what puts spice in your life. My family are what do it for me!

Tea Time Tuesday 2-8-2011

Hello, all! I have something really fun to share with you! At least it was really fun to create! Over at The Altered Alice Blog they are running their first monthly challenge since taking over for the Oh! Alice Blog. Here is the challenge in there words:

To reflect all these puzzling changes, the challenge is to make something that features a dress form, OR to make something that changes in form! While it is not required that your project include Alice in Wonderland, we do encourage it. If your project does feature Wonderland you will get two chances in the prize drawing instead of one!


I thought about doing a dress form on my project but I'm not really into the dress form craze that is going on right now and so I began thinking of something that changes form. What better thing than a caterpillar changing into a butterfly?! So I took that idea and used a fabulous sketch over at the Pages In Time Blog and designed this page below. Look carefully because the caterpillar changes into a butterfly in the next picture. Following the photo of the page, I'll show you how I did it.

Sketch for Thursday Sketch at the Pages in Time blog. 

Metamorphosis (caterpillar) layout. Using the beautiful sketch from Thursday Sketches at the Pages in Time Blog, I created a base for my design. This is the caterpillar part.

Metamorphosis (In Between) layout. There is a "wheel" underneath the striped green paper on which both the caterpillar and the butterfly are on and as you turn it, the charachter "changes".

Metamorphosis (butterfly) layout. Here is my version of the butterfly the Disney Caterpillar turned into in the movie. I used many flowers from my stash, The Paper Studios Basics papers, Thickers, and a whole lot of stickles. (Sorry my watermark navigated itself onto the photo, lol).

So this is where I started with this idea. I used a regular little eyelet to fasten my "wheel" to the background.

Here is where I realized that if I kept the wheel where it was, my characters would bever fit. So I moved the circle over some.

This is the green striped paper strip for over the wheel. I added quite a few layers of mounting tape to make sure it was raised enough.

This is me arranging things and testing the wheel mechanism. 

Here you can see that I love using Stickles! Lol! The butterfly wings are stamped and cut out and glued on a different color of caterpillar.

This is a close-up of the face on the flower. I made it with a push mold and modeling clay and painted it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze in Northern Lights