Getting Messy with Mixed Media

Wow, this was such a fun layout to make!! I just finished this page and had to put it on the blog - my 2nd post of the day! I found this photo of my daughter and it inspired me to grab inks and gelatos and stencils and.... Let me tell you how I put this page together.

I worked on the background first. I started with white cardstock, a Tim Holtz stencil (Bubbles) and Aged Mahogany distress ink which I added to a few areas. Then I stamped the large circles using Spiced Marmalade distress ink and a foam stamp and made small gold circles with an Adirondack gold paint dabber. Next I sprayed Heidi Swapp gold color shine mist. I went around the edges with Gelatos in Mango, Banana, Tangerine, Guava and Cotton Candy, scribbling a small strip of color and then blending it out with a slightly damp paintbrush. For the last step, I used a mask by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (Pomegranate Flower Bit) and Salty Ocean distress ink to make the flower in the corner.

The photo went on next and I put the overlay (Simple Stories) on with vellum tape. I completed the layout by adding a piece of a gold doily with the Tim Holtz tiny attacher, Heidi Swapp word "today", Freckled Fawn wood veneer "noted", three punched gold vellum stars and the camera sticker. I backed the layout with black cardstock.

I am definitely going to create more layouts in the mixed media style. It's a great way to spend an afternoon!

By the Sea

June's theme for the Reader Art Quest at Unruly Paper Arts is "By the Sea". I love all things beach related and I knew right away what I wanted to create! But before I tell you about my project, I want to let you know that if you link up a beach project of your own, you may win the fabulous prize shown below!

The image I used on my project is from Gecko Galz and has long been a favorite of mine. She is from a collage sheet called Sea Side Beauties. I began with this image, which led me to a blue and orange color combo.

I sized the image in Photoshop to 3.25" x 5", fussy cut it and then inked the edges. She was pop dotted to a 6" x 8" burlap canvas. Next I stamped a shell (Stampin' Up) in Salty Ocean distress ink and a starfish (Stampin' Up) in Ripe Persimmon distress ink onto white cardstock and cut them out. Now I was ready to add my embellishments. I swirled some blue and green twine onto the canvas, pop dotted my stamped images and another shell and seahorse (K & Co.). Finally, I sprinkled on teal, green and gold sequins (Lawn Fawn) and a small bottle filled with sand.

I found the word "Story" in my stash and added it. The metal letters that I used to spell the word "her" were a dark gold color and didn't show well on the burlap so I painted them with acrylic paint (Beach Glass by Martha Stewart).

Join us "By the Sea" this month at Unruly Paper Arts!

Make My Monday

This week's theme at Make My Monday is "Nature". I made a little shadowbox with a girl from Character Constructions. I stamped her and then stamped her dress onto patterned paper, cut it out and layered it over the original dress. Her hair and cheeks were chalked. I painted the wooden egg in the center of the shadowbox. The rest of the things were from my stash.

Please join us this week at MMM. There are so many ways to interpret the nature theme. Check out the rest of the design team's creations and then play along!

Make My Monday!

I am a new design team member at Make My Monday! I am very happy to be joining this team of awesome designers! MMM is a weekly challenge blog. The challenge this week is "Owls".

I made a card - it uses an AC card background, blue paper from BoBunny, kraft cardstock which I textured with a Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, Studio Calico wood veneer Hello and a chipboard owl from my stash. I inked the kraft cardstock after embossing it.

Check out Make My Monday - see what the rest of the dt have made and link up your owl creations!

Exciting News!!!!!!

I am now a Moxxie Muse!! I am so honored to be on the Moxxie design team and work with their amazing products!! You can see the announcement on the Moxxie blog and Facebook page. Some of my fellow design team members and I have Moxxie projects to share with you today.

My first project is a scrapbook page featuring my niece and her newborn baby boy. Isn't this cute paper? It's from an older Moxxie collection called Baby Mine.

Next is a scrapbook page using paper from Moxxie's Chillin' Out collection. The circle shapes at the bottom are Moxxie Skateboard rub ons which I put on white cardstock and then punched out.

Can you see why I'm excited?!! Being a Moxxie Muse makes my papercrafting heart very happy!

Reader's Art Quest - May

May's RAQ theme on Unruly Arts is "Home". My project is a collage I made. It is titled Home Sweet Home and features a picture of a vintage lady and the words "my mother's love makes me very happy". Join us and create an art piece for our May RAQ.

Today I am sharing two projects I made with products from Gecko Galz. The first is a printer's tray. I combined two popular trends to make this tray – mustaches and steampunk!

The images from “Who’s the Man” collage sheets were perfect for this. I sized all the images and background papers to 2.75” by 3.75” in Photoshop. I mounted everything onto cardstock and then I added my embellishments. Two of the men I used (top left and bottom right) didn’t have mustaches, so I added one to each from my stash. The Gecko Galz clock and top hat were also sized in Photoshop. The "Who's the Man" images were glued to Scrabble tiles and the others were pop dotted in each section.

Gecko Galz supplies used: Who’s the Man sheets #1 and 2 Digital images – top hat & man (top left opening) from Gentlemans Club stamp set Clock (Time Flies) Background papers – Houndstooth (from Dapper Dan papers), Letters to Juliet (Star Crossed papers), Fair Verona (Star Crossed papers), Garden Trellis (The Secret Garden papers)

My second project is a tag featuring a Gecko Galz image. I used a manila tag and inked it with two colors of distress inks. I then misted the tag lightly with water. When it was dry, I stenciled it with Tim Holtz's doily stencil. I sized the image in Photoshop and then applied it and my embellishments to the tag. The image is from Nature's Bliss Jewel It.