Baby Faces

So it's time for another sketch at Little Shop of Sketches!! This week is another from the fabulous Anne Pennington. Here is my take

I used the July Scraps of Darkness kit. That gorgeous baby is my niece Shea. I altered the color of the photos to fit with the page. The background was created with a prima mask and shimmerz mists.

I colored this dusty attic frame with smooch accent ink.

I doodled around the page with stickles.

These are some metal accents that came with the kit. I actually had two small ones instead of the small one and the big one and when I went to go take a picture I realized I was missing one of them. I tried so hard to find it but I couldn't (it's probably a sign that I should clean my scrap area). I think it turned out to be a good thing though because I really love how it turned out with the big one. I also did my string of pearls frame for two of the pictures. It's my new favorite way to frame pictures =)

I hope to see you ladies play along over at the ning site for Little Shop of Sketches!!

Sweet Baby Girl

I am on a roll scrapping my baby niece lately. Maybe she won't actually be a toddler when I finish her baby album. I did this page for the August Doodle challenge and the August Scraplift The Person Before You challenge. I lifted Penny Lane's layout. It felt like fate because I had been wanting to do zentangle on a page for a while now. The page is titled 'Sweet Baby Girl'.

You can see that I didn't do an obvious scraplift. I was more inspired than anything else. I pulled some of the doodles, the fact that there are doodles, the pic in the middle, and the black and white colors from Penny Lane's page. I drew everything on here. If it's not apparent the overall image is a butterfly. This took me so so long and I think I lost all feeling in my hand for a good 6 hours afterward. However it was crazy calming and when I was finished I was actually sad that I was no longer doodling. I know that I am crazy. I drew this on white cardstock and I was going to leave it like that originally but I went crazy with the border and it just didn't look right to me so I cut out the butterfly and put it on black cardstock and I just love how it came out.

When God Closes A Door He Opens A Window.

So I have never been a particularly religious person but I do consider myself to have a lot of faith in God (I believe that there is a difference between faith and religion). Lately life has been particularly hard for my boyfriend and I. However because of my faith I always believe that no matter how hard things can get something good is either just around the corner or has already happened even if I do not recognize it at first. Therefore I strongly believe in the saying 'When God closes a door He opens a window', which basically says to me that there is always hope for life to get better even in the darkest of times. I have witnessed this being true many times. When the current bi-monthly skeletons in the closet challenge over at Scraps of Darkness came out, the topic was to scrap a saying that people would be familiar with and you couldn't use a photo of people. So I chose the door/window saying and it could not be more perfect as I felt that things were reaching a breaking point in my life and I needed to reaffirm my faith. Since this page bloomed into my head things have improved, I finally got an answer and solution to my health issues, my boyfriend has a very good job lead, and if he gets it I could finally go back to school. Here is the page:  

I used the July Scraps of Darkness kit. I also used Sketchy Thursdays 8.4 Sketch. I have been salivating over their sketches for a while now and I am so excited that I actually found the time to participate in this weeks sketch challenge. I hope that I will be able to continue to do so.

These flowers were blue originally. I used Sarah Hurley's black mist which works so amazingly. I used it on the background and the Dusty Attic frame as well. Here are some more close ups of the page:

I found this picture online after a lot (A LOT) of searching. I wasn't big on the original colors and so I changed it to b&w. I framed the pic using one of my favorite techniques which is to create dots with stickles or liquid pearls but instead of just making a dot I continually squeeze the bottle so they all connect together. Almost like a string of beads.

Thanks for looking! I hope you guys like it. The best part of my page is that when I showed it to my boyfriend he liked it so much he wants to hang it on our wall and he never suggests that we display my pages :)

Timeless

I have done another mixed media project. I am seriously addicted to them now. Only I just used the last canvas that I have so until my budget allows this will be my last one for a little bit. Oh life and budgets how inconvenient you can be. This one is for the Steampunk Challenge over at scrapbook.com. This month's topic was The Fae.

I drew the faerie myself. I used the zentangle technique for the wings. It really is a relaxing exercise. I am thinking of incorporating it on a future layout.

I colored the faerie in with markers, distress ink, and stickles. A really cool technique I saw on a blog somewhere shows how you can use distress inks to paint. Basically you just press the ink pad on a hard surface like a piece of glass or plastic, and spritz with water. Then you just use a paint brush and paint!

I used Teresa Collins chipboard embellishments and a Heidi Swapp overlay. I inked and stickled the chipboard.

I created a whimsical like frame around the canvas with black paint and added crystals to glam it up.

My most favorite thing about this piece though is the texture of the background. I started with brown and green paint mixed with some gesso. I blended it all together and then used a paper towel to give it that sponge like look. I then added some smooch spritz and mister huey's on top for added color and to create the more whimsical feel.

Well I hope you guys like it!! I am really excited that I have the next three days off, I am hoping to get a couple of pages done. We'll see how it goes.

You Make Me Smile

It's August!! This is my favorite month out of the whole year because it also happens to be my birthday month!! Also there are no major event to compete with it so it is usually a very chill month. I have decided that I need to start crafting more. I haven't been able to recently because work went crazy, family was in town visiting, and I had so health issues. So since work has slowed down and the family visit is over (I think anyways ... watch them show up at my door tomorrow to prove me wrong) I can finally get back to scrapbooking. The health issues are still around but apparently they always will be now (nothing serious thank God, but very uncomfortable) and I am on medication that should ease it almost completely. I can't wait till next week when I will have tons of time to dedicate to my crafts, and I am just bursting with ideas which is fantastic!! I did get a page done this week though and its for the July Scraps of Darkness sketch challenge. The sketch if from Charlotte Jenkins (who is crazy talented) and she also hosts this challenge over at scrapbook.com where you don't need to have the kit in order to participate. My page is called 'You Make Me Smile'

Fun fact (for me) is that this picture was taken a year ago almost to the day. I like coincidences like that :) I am so much more in love with the few punches that I have since I started converting them to cover circles and other shapes besides a straight line. It's really not hard, just cut the punch strip after each loop, design, etc. and glue it down one piece at a time. It is pretty time consuming but so worth it in my opinion.

Most everything on this page came from the Scraps of Darkness kit, isn't it just gorgeous? I added some dimension the the photo and the die cuts to give the page depth.

You can't really tell from these pictures though. It adds a lot in real life. The last two close-ups show that I cannot go without a stickle, liquid pearls, or a combination of both, border. I swear I am obsessed.

I used a prima mask on the background paper and the circle as a stamp. I really like how it blends in until you look closer. Makes it seem like you see something new everything you see the page.

Well thanks for looking!! Hopefully I will start posting more often this month :D