Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

It's a few days into it and I hope everyone is having a good beginning! We just returned from our fabulous trip some days ago and it's been busy, busy, busy since! I haven't had any time to sit down and be creative....NOT the way I want to start the new year!  However, I wanted to share some great news which I'm uber excited about!

I've become a DT member for True XOXO Scrapbooking!! If you haven't checked True XOXO out yet, come on by! It's a super fun place to get your creative juices going!  I'm really looking forward to being a Lipstick Chick :) !!!! And this month's challenge is:

1

That's right, Uno, Un, Eins, One!  Come over and be inspired by all the fabulous creations the ladies have made!!

O Christmas Tree

In a few days I'll be heading out to Australia for the month! We're going to see the "rellies" as my husband would say..my mum-in-law, sis-in-law, etc to celebrate Christmas and introduce little baby girl to everyone too:)  I'm very excited and a bit anxious at the same time as this is a very long flight and now we have two kiddies instead of one..BUT I keeping reminding myself that no matter how difficult (or not) the flight might be, it will end and 16 hrs is but a quick blink in time.....well at least I'm going to keep telling myself that!!

It's been hectic and busy around here getting ready for the trip but I've managed to get a little creative time in and I made this little canvas to leave up at the house in place of the real tree we will not be putting up here this year:

I saw this totally awesome video here by Christy Tomlinson (whose work I love!) and I then saw the color palette over at TCR and came up with the idea of my Christmas tree!  Here's a few close ups:

I picked up the frame from the $1 store (a buck can you believe it!!) and sprayed it white..it was originally grey. Next I cut and painted the background canvas. Then I used all manner of scrap paper and fabric to make my tree, cut the star from my roll of ducting tape (not to be confused to duct tape) and voila! my tree was born! Super easy, festive project if you want to give it a try! If you do end up making this, please send me a link in the comments, I'd love to see them all!

OK, in case I don't get a chance to get back onto my blog before the year's end I would just like to wish everyone a HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Cheers!

I Spy

I made this layout for the challenge over at Punky Scraps called Get Picky where you have to use at least 3 items out of a list on your page. This time they were Stars, No Patterned Paper, Masking, Staples, Exposed cardboard, Book page, Bottle cap and Washi tape. I managed to use 5 items (if you count homemade washi tape).

I started with white CS, masked and misted the background, added gesso and misted some more.  The heart and chevron masks I cut out with my Silhouette. I would recommend using a heavier paper so that there won't be as much warping and/or cover the paper with mod podge to waterproof! 

I don’t have any washi tape so I made my own using masking tape, paint and stamps. There's an endless amount of combinations!

After the layers I stamped around, drew some doodles, and added india ink and liquid acrylic here and there.

 Hope everyone has a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping by!

J'adore

Hi everyone! This week I'm playing along with the Bird is the Word challenge blog using TCR palette #85. The word I needed to use was "adore" and the idea that came to mind was to use the French phrase "J'adore" (I think I'm on a French kick lately...hmmm must be that need to go to Paris I was talking about earlier..). Well I have these 'oh so cute' pics of my baby girl wearing this sun hat that is much too big for her head and because we flip up the brim, every time I see her wearing it I feel like calling her "ma cherie"!

I kept it simple, more shabby chic and let me tell you it was tough to do! I wanted to splatter and fling paint here and there but this page wasn't calling for that so I reigned it in;)  I used thread a little differently..completely inspired by Naomi Capps who does amazing things with thread!! The photo frame was a fabulous find in the $1 bins at Michaels..oh I wish I'd bought more!

Here's the color palette I used:

Thank you so much for your visits and comments! They are like little bits of sunshine in my day:) Cheers!

I {heart} Mud

Actually I'm not a huge fan of mud but my daughter is :) so my layout could aptly be considered an ode to my oldest! We'd gone on an impromptu visit to the beach  (meaning: not dressed for the beach) and it was low tide (meaning: lots of muddy sand) which resulted in soaking jeanes covered in mud (meaning: oodles of fun!).

I made this page using color palette #84 over at TCR and borrowing this weeks sketch over at Punky Scraps.

The result:

My favorite part of this layout has to be the painted sand! I look craft sand and mixed it with gel medium...looked a bit like sugar cookie mix..then applied randomly with a palette knife..talk about texture!  Hope everyone has a great week..tfl!!

Noir

This layout is different from the ones I've been making lately. I was inspired by a challenge I saw over at True XOXO Scrapbooking. The word of the month is "black"..nothing more, nothing less and we were to take inspiration from the DT's work. Well I'd never done a "dark" layout before..most of mine are fairly bright and lighthearted since I'm usually scrapping my kids so I liked the push that this gave me. I was also inspired by Cheryl's LO which had different textures and mediums to make the different elements stand out.  Here's my take:

I pulled out my arsenal of black and dark grey anything that I had and went to work. My silhouette came in super handy..got my Eiffel Tower, cat, bicycle, title and lampost from it. Then I took each item and altered it with paints, embossing powders, crackle paints, mists, stickles..seriously so much fun!! I especially love how the lampost turned out looking so antique :D  This page represents a goal of mine...to someday visit Paris with my hubby...because although he and I have already been to Paris, we've somehow managed to never be there together! Tfl!!

PS if anyone is interested in how I altered any of my embellies, I'd be more than happy to explain:)

Cheeky Little Cherub

Hello! Hope everyone had a fun weekend:)  We were busy with Halloween festivities and my oldest daughter has amassed enough sugar to last the rest of the year!!  Time to subtly deplete the pile while she's not looking...shhhh...

In my world of scrap, I've just finished a layout that took me FOREVER! Some LOs come together easier and some LOs don't. Well this fell into that last category. This was for the new palette over at TCR and I loved the colors, especially the silver, but making it translate on paper into something I liked was tough!  Here's the palette:

Here's my page:

So my new favorite medium is ducting tape! It's metallic and very malleable:)  I hand drew the clouds on the tape and cut them out, then heat embossed the checkered pattern on..fun!  The hot air balloons, cherubs and fairies I got from the fabulous Graphics Fairy. I made the flower from some lovely ribbon I had. And of course the pics are of my baby girl with her kissable cheeks just before her fifth month <3  Tfl!