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!!!