A home at last!

Hi everyone!  I want to share with you all something I made to store my many ink blending foams! Now I didn't come up with this idea,  my scrappy friend  Lisa made one of these first so I will give her the credit!  Take a look!

I used the cover of a book, and covered it with Basic Grey 's 'Green at Heart'.  I wanted my book to be colorful.  On my last layout I used a paper doily on it, and I had a few "practice" doilies left over and I thought it would be cool to use it on the cover as well.  I used a tape runner to tape all the paper down, and then gave it 2 generous  coats of Mod Podge, inside and out.  I knew that the book had great potential to get inked up [knowing me]and thought it would good to protect it.

Now, in my defense, I must say that I realize I put the foams on the 'wrong' side.  I am left handed and it is my time to rebel against society and mount them in a way that is comfortable for this lefty! lol!  I used 3 sheets of transiencies and put 9 foams with velcro circles per page.  I then made labels for each color [even the ones I don't have yet] all 36 of them!  I only need 5 more!!! 

If you look closely at the opening of the book you can see that the book doesn't close nice and flat. I needed a way to secure it so as not to wreck it going to crops etc.  I have this folder that I keep my sketches in and it is closed with an elastic that is attached to the back.  Seeing that got me thinking and looking, and sure enough, I found some elastic, colored it with Alcohol ink, attached the elastic with eyelets and TADA!  I now can close my book properly!

This is what the whole cover looks like from behind, and you can really see what the doily looks like.  I'm pretty proud of myself, venturing into uncharted waters for me!  Thanks for taking a look, and hopefully leave inspired to make a home for your foams too!

Tried something new!

Friends

Hi everyone! Its hard to believe that its December already, but by looking outside at all the snow we have you'd think it was the end of January!  I've made a good start on my Christmas shopping, and for me, that is amazing!


I want to share this canvas I just finished with you all.  This is the first one I've ever done, so it was rather exciting for me!  I have a great friend who's 40th is coming up on the weekend so I thought it would be the perfect gift for her.


I got the canvas at the MCC store [thrift store] for .30 cents. Now that I look at the canvas,  I realize that I've used a number of the items on the canvas that I purchased at MCC!  The background is ripped up pages from a vintage book I bought there, and the fibers I've used as a border was also purchased there!


I made the Gerber daisies from cardstock and my Gypsy/Cricut and Picturesque cartridge.  I will be doing a tutorial on how I made them in the near future.  I used Tim Holtz  rusted grunge technique on the chipboard flourish.  I used Tim's flourish mask and a few of his distress inks on the background.


Thanks for taking a look, and thank you all for your support!

Heaven Sent

Hi everyone! I'd like to share with you my latest l/o!  It is about my Great Niece, who was born 6 hrs after her Great Grandfather passed away.  He was my hubbies Dad.  It was a bittersweet day.  The Lord giveth and the Good Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

 For a long time now, I have been wanting to sew on a layout with my sewing machine.  I thought I would wait till my scrap room was set up in the basement, but since that doesn't seem to happening fast enough for my liking,  I took it out and plopped it on the kitchen table.  It had been years since I used that thing!  Once I got the kinks worked out and it sewing smoothly on a scrap piece of paper,  I took the the plunge and sewed!  I really like the way it adds to a layout!  I used some crocheted lace ribbon under the photo and accented it with pink rhinestones. 

I took a 10" white paper doily and inked it with Distress Inks. I used a flourish frame from Dusty Attics that I had gotten in one of my Swirlydoos kits and painted it with Antique Linen Distress Crackle Paint. I fussy cut the bird cage and the bird from some of my Webster's Pages paper, used my Heartfelt leaves stamp to make the leaves.  I used some green distress ink as water color, with a paint brush.  I created some curly tendrils with floral wire and tape.  I made the flowers from white card stock using the flower tutorial I posted earlier.

In the top left hand corner I used some silk flowers I collect from some of my mom's flower arrangements after she passed away.  Pink Paislee has these amazing embellishments called Artisan Elements, and I used 2 different pieces on my layout.  Here, I used one under the the flower cluster and inked it with distess ink in Broken China and Vintage Photo.

In the top right corner I used a mask from Prima. I sprayed re-positional adhesive on the back and placed it on the paper and then used Distress ink in Antique Linen , with my blending tool.  I placed white half pearls in the scallops of the doily. 

I had photo copied a part of the background paper where the butterfly was and used Rock Candy Distress Stickles on it, giving it a nice aged look. I then glued on the body part over the butterfly in the background paper and adjusted the wings so it looks 3 demensional.  I used another Artisan Elements ornaments and inked it in Aged Mahogany distress ink, and put the title in mini letters in the center.


Thank you for looking, and please leave a comment as I love to hear from you!

Flower Tutorial!!!

Hi everyone!  I've had some requests for a tutorial on some of my latest flowers,That I used on my 'Lean on Me' l/o, so I thought I would get on it!  First off, I want to say that these are not a "Bonnie original", and the idea for part of the flowers came for a good friend of mine from Swirlydoos by the name of Lisa Gregory.  You can find her here. She does amazing work and loves to share her ideas with everyone!

Here are the tools that I used, and can be substituted.  I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Die, and cut 2 of large and medium, 3 for of the small, leaving out the flower with the long slender petals.  I used  2 colors of distress ink in the same color family, a blending tool, water, Zipdry glue and Tulip Puffy paint in white.  You also need a heat gun.  You could use glimmer mist in place of the ink and water.

I inked the larger petals along the outer edges, the medium petals totally with the same color.  For the 3 small petals I used a darker color.  The aim is to go from darker to light from the center out.

Next I spritzed the petals generously with water, as I am using a thicker cardstock.  The water softens the paper and makes the ink bleed for a softer look, but you must be gentle as the paper can rip.

Now I gently crumple up the petals and give them a bit of a twist, and hit them a bit with my heat gun.

Gently open the petals, leaving one closed up of the small ones, as this will be the center bud.  Take your heat gun and dry the petals.  Air drying works too, I'm just to impatient to see the results!

I like to assemble the flowers in separate layers ones they are dry, according to size.  Make sure you stagger the petals, and use your glue to glue them together.

Here is a close up of what the center flower looks like.  I put some glue in the folds of the center bud, and once it dries I snip the bottom off so it doesn't sit too tall.  Again, stagger the petals as you glue them together.

Now comes the fun part that sets these flowers apart!  You need white puffy paint and carefully put it along the edges of the petals

When that part is done the flower will look like this.  Let it dry for 10-15 minutes and then take your heat gun or blow dryer [haven't tried this] and heat up the flower.

This is what the finished product looks like after its puffed up and the edges have been hit with a bit of ink!  I just LOVE this technique!

Here are a few more flowers that I've done with this technique.  You imagination is your only limit on what you can do!  

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and that you find a passion for making these flowers the way I have!  Thanks for looking!

My Little Sketch Book - 3rd times a charm!

Once again, I have been given the privilege to be Guest Designer over at My Little Sketch Book.  This is my 3rd and final layout for this year.

On this layout called 'lean on me',  I used left overs from one of my Swirlydoos kits.  The photo is of my sister and her best friends daughter.  I thought it was so cute I just had to scrap it, and I think it is one of my favs!  I love the way it turned out!

This is the sketch I had to work with, designed by Liz Qualman.  I really like it, as it is a simple sketch that has huge potential to be interpreted in unlimited ways. 

In this close up you can see the sugared letters I made.  I started with plain white letters, stamped them with black Stazon ink and a script stamp. Then I  used Diamond Glaze as an adhesive, and sprinkled Diamond Dust over the letters.  Once they were dry I then inked the edges with distress ink to give them more definition.  I also took a sanding block to the edges of my photo to distress them and then inked the edges with walnut stain distress ink to make it pop off the page.

I hand made these flowers using Tim Holtz's die called Tattered Florals.  I just got a new stamp from Heartfelt Creations called 'Leafy Swirls' that a lot of the girls over at Swirlydoos have been using.  I stamped it on green cardstock using a dark green distress ink and then fussy cut it out.  I then used the same ink on the edges to give more depth.

I used some of the bloomers I'd been hoarding from Websters Pages in place of plain ribbon below the title. 

In this photo, you can see the masking I did on the pink pattern paper I used for the base of my layout.  I used a new mask by Prima and distress ink.  I printed off some butterflies that Lisa Gregory from Swirlydoos is so kind to find for us and post on the forum.  I fussy cut them out, then used Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy, and once it was dry I rubbed some brown distress ink into the cracks.  You can also see on the brown cardstock and the inner pattern paper the water distressing I did to give it character.  I love that technique!

Here is another angle of the flowers I made with the leaves I stamped and cut out.

I hope you enjoy looking at this layout as much as I had making it, and please be sure to check out My Little Sketch Book, and leave some love for the other 2 designers as well!  Thank you my faithful followers!!!

Harvest Ball Crop at Love Is In The Details!

Hi all!  This past weekend I went to an all day crop in Miami Manitoba, Canada, put on by Lori, who is the owner of Love Is In The Details.  She puts on these totally amazing crops, with great prizes, awesome food and lots of shopping! We made a sweet make an take of a little canvas with easel, taught by the amazing Lisa Tottle which was tons of fun! 

We covered the canvas with old Reader's Digest pages, and then took masking tape and put it on the front of the canvas and pulled it off, removing some of the words and distressing the paper.  We then made the flowers with one of the dies from Tim Holtz Tattered floral dies and but Distress Stickles in Rock Candy to give it a sugared effect.  Then we stamped some swirls  on the canvas, distressed the edges with ink and glued the leaf, flower and the word on it. Viola! It is finished!

I made this layout with a  leftover My Creative Scrapbook kit, using a sketch by one of the design team members at LIITD.  I love Webster's Pages paper! It takes a bit of getting used to -fussy cutting  the beautiful papers, but well worth the effort!  This is photo of Jerica and I on Christmas day last year, during a blizzard.  It was good to be inside where it was nice and warm with family!

The flower and the bling flourish is from Prima, the tiny flowers are from a new site i found. I ordered them in white, and then I color them whatever color I want.  I made the leaves with my beloved Gypsy/Cricut.

I used my distress tool on all the edges and then inked them with distress ink.

This sweet little bird came with the My Creative Scrapbook kit and I just love it!

Thanks for taking a look! I look forward to hearing from you all!

"Isn't She Lovely? " Lavender Escape Oct Swirlydoos kit!

This latest Swirlydoos kit is full of beautiful Webster Pages paper! Its hard to believe that I only used one of them for this layout!

My sister, Cheryl Wolfe, is the amazing photographer who took this captivating photo of my daughter Jerica, last October.  I love how the sunlight is filtering through from behind and you can actually see the rays come right across her  just under her face! Check out Cheryl's blog  Aphrodite's Boudoir Photography  for more of her stunning work!  

For this layout,  I used the sketch that came with the Swirlydoos kit, made by Beggahuna. This time I wanted to try and keep my layout less detailed and cluttered [very hard for me to do!]  I used a stencil of cherry blossoms with a light pink distress ink on the pattern paper to fill in some of the empty space, and for subtle detail.  The really cute peacock feather came with the kit too!

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I hand made all the flowers, minus the purple/green one in the corner, w hich is a Prima flowers.  I made a couple variations of the flower that Lisa Gregory recently put on her blog. I used the basic idea, but made my own centers in various ways.  I am sooo in love with this idea of using Tulip's Puffy paint around the edges of the blooms. You can count on seeing alot more of that technique! 

I used a Dusty Attics chipboard gate that I had been saving for just the right layout.  I used Moon Shadow Mist in Treasure Island Aqua, and then used some Distress Embossing powder in various areas to give it a adged patina.  If you look at the picture above this you will be able to see the aqua patina that shows through at different angles.

If you look closely you can see some purple and blue dewdrops that I made using a hot glue gun, appling the glue in droplets onto  my TH nonstick mat and then coloring with alcohol ink.  Very fast and easy to make, and you can make all kinds of different sizes!  If the glue is hot enough it form the droplet pretty much on its own.

On the outside of the purple circle I added some gathered lace I got from my Mother-In-Law and then I added a string of turquoise frosted pearl I bought at Wal Mart on the inside edge of the lace.

I wanted to keep the title simple, but still noticeable, so I used some MM mini letters and made the words on cream cardstock, cut out the words and then inked around the edges.  Pretty simple.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Littlest Angel Swirlydoos Mon Amour sketch and kit

Hi everyone!  Sorry for taking so long to post this layout! Thanks for being patient! For some reason I tend to put off updating my blog!  Not good!

This is the sketch by Beggahuna that we got with the Sept kit from Swirlydoos. She always has such beautiful sketches!

Here is my take on the sketch.  This layout, ' Littlest Angel' features my great niece Nila, she is a few years older now, but still just as adorable.  Her mom did a photo shoot with her in Angel wings.  It is hard to see in these photos, so you will have to take my word for it! ;) 

In the kit we got a sweet paper doily.  I decided to use the backside of it as a mask, and used a number of Shimmer spritz's, and some distress ink. It was a neat way to incorporate the circle from the sketch.  I cut down the background paper that I misted and water distressed it and inked it as well. For some added detail, I ripped the corner of the paper and curled the edges and put some pattern paper behind it and used some brads to accentuate it.  For the black cardstock underneath, I used one of my MS Punch around The Border punches along the top and down the right hand side.

I used a large red Prima flower from a previous kit as the base for my zipper flower and stuck a black feather behind it.

I made some red butterflies.  I had cut these ones out with my Crciut/Gypsy a while back from white card stock but hadn't used them yet.  I took some red Distress Ink and inked them and them embossed them with clear embossing powder and added some cyrstals for the bodies.

Here you can see that I heavily distressed the photos.  First, I took sandpaper to them, then added a very light touch of red distress ink, a bit more sanding and then Vintage Photo distress ink on the edges.

I also hand made these other flowers, using my daisy punches, and took a hole punch  to the red ones to add more detail and help with the destressed look.  The black rose buds I made using my small daisy punch.

This gorgeous black scroll came from Nicole Lombardo.  Make sure you check out her Etsy store  as she as lovely stuff and very resonable priced, and shipping too!

Thank you so much for dropping in! Please leave your comments as I always loving hearing what you  have to say!  Be blessed!

Zipper Flower Tutorial

            

Supplies needed:

Scissors                             button or pearl embellishment for flower center.

Needle

Thread

Zipper- size varies on the size of flower you want to make.  This zipper is approx 26”. The metal teeth zippers work the best as they are stiffer, but the nylon ones work as well for smaller or less structured looking flowers.

Cut the Top Stop and the Bottom Stop off the zipper and slide off the zipper Pull, separating the zipper into 2 parts. Set aside on half for a different project.

Keep in mind that I am left handed, so, if you are right handed you will probably be folding your zipper the opposite direction.

Take one end of the zipper in your hand and make a loop/petal, making sure that the teeth of the zipper is always on the outside of the loop. The size of the loop will depend on how big you want your entire flower to be, and the length of your zipper.  Take your needle and thread [double for added strength] and come up from underneath through all layers and back down to secure.

Continue making loops/petals and securing until you have completed 5 loops.

This is what it should look like when all five petals are done.  You should have a tail of zipper left over that is approximately 4 inches long.

Now take the remaining zipper and from the open end, roll it up like shown in the photo and set it into the middle of the loops/petals.

Take your needle up through the bottom of flower and through the side of the rolled up center and out the other side, and back down to the underside of the flower.  Do this several times to secure.

Now you have completed the main structure of the flower and you can leave as is, or embellish it the way you like!

Here are some that I made, and embellished.  The flower I made for my layout “simple pleasures” is embellished with lace,  Diamond Dust on the teeth, and glittered pearls for the center.  This Tutorial is for sharing and everyone to try!  If you make one, I'd sure like to see it!