Thursday, February 28, 2013

Inkido Blog Hop coming soon....March 2-4


Join us for our first blog hop of 2013!

Great way to meet the design team and get to know the wide variety of products Inkido has to offer.  We'll just call it 
"InkiDrool Fest 2013   hahahaha.  Seriously - great gorgeous products.

March 2-4

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Lazy Day in the Garden -Kaisercraft Sketch Sat - week 3


Lazy day in the Garden
Here is my take on Kaisercraft Sketch week 3 using the gorgeous Marigold collection. 
The sketch was inspired by Hetty Hall's "Never Forget that moment" 



The image was from Magic Moonlight Free Images -where I tend to find the most wonderful vintage photos.
Thanks so much for your time.  I value that!

Here are the supplies I used:
Kaisercraft paper blooms: Terra cotta  F635 and Coconut F627
Kaisercraft Marigold Paper Collection: Buttercup PS256/Honey P1026
Kaisercraft La Chateau paper Collection - Voliere P527
Kaisercraft wood flourishes Iron Gate FL337
EK Success Punches - Abstract Flower
Martha Stewart Punches - Large Wild Flowers Edge/ Skyland Snowflake
Lace


Kaisercraft Sat Sketch Challenge week 2






Butterfly Daydreamer
Here is my entry for the Kaisercraft Sat Sketch challenge for week 2.  He is Escape Kitty's cat brother - his name is StayBehind Cat.  He is not adventurous and is not brave at all.  In fact, I call him my butterfly daydreamer because he would be happy sitting and watching bugs and spiders and butterflies all day long.  He is a happy and content in his surroundings.

He has no need for Escape Kitty's foolish endeavors to run about the world.  For him, home is where the heart is.  Apparently all the best bugs too.

So how did I get him to pose?   I think he was staring at a spider way up on the ceiling.  Now, I could not see the spider, just so you don't think my house is a giant trap for all kinds of spiders (hahaha) -but he is usually not wrong when it comes to crawling and fluttering things.  So I have to 'fess up and say there must have been something moving on my ceiling that caught sweet darling StayBehind Cat's attention.  

"Cheeky Smile" by Hetty Hall


Sometimes when the patterned paper is more "robust" than I want it to be, I'll paint some gesso onto the paper and then immediately spray a light mist of water on the gesso.  I use my fingers then to rub the gesso around  to blend in the gesso and soften down the pattern.   Just a little twist to white washing paper.

I just love the light on his whiskers.  He did not even care that I was inches from his face - he has so much intense focus on the matter at hand.


Thanks for looking.



Here are the supplies I used:
Kaisercraft paper blooms: Olive F633 and Buttercream F629
Kaisercraft Marigold Paper Collection: Buttercup PS256/Amber P1015 as the background paper
Kaisercraft La Chateau paper Collection - Voliere P527
Kaisercraft wood flourishes Bird Branch FL430
Donna Salazar Mixd media Inx - Vintage
Lace
Gesso
Tim Holtz Inks - Tumbled Glass/Rusty Hinge
Tim Holtz Alterations Folders - Damask 656994

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Prima PPP - Angels Guarding the Pearly Gates of Heaven Canvas





This month I created two Prima PPP pieces.  This is my second.  You can find the first one here.  Why did I create two?  Because I find reds to be a bit challenging for me.  I wanted to show red who is boss and conquer it.  It's my way of overachieving when I had a nemesis.   ( update - this was featured at Prima)


Here is my piece created using the Prima PPP for February.

I found this cool chicken wire stuff in the floral department of a large chain hobby store.  So it goes with hoarders, I had to have it. Not sure what to do with it, but at the moment, it was a "must have" purchase.

It's fairly heavy so it needed to go on something with more support than a 12x12 piece of paper can offer. This is a canvas.  Little moulding paste here and there -some yarn fibers, some masking tape and Prima cotton tape.








Thanks for visiting.

Supplies:
Prima Gate Mask #550042
Prima Mask  Static 12x12 #922146
Prima Ledger Paper pack #844424
Prima Cotton Tape #550790
Prima Resin Cherubs #891404
Prima Metal Heart Trinket Embelishment #930042
Prima Madeline Paper Collection - Pistashio/ Ste. Marie
Prima Backstage stamp Mix 1
Moulding Paste
Misc Fibers
Sting pearls/ pink feather

Monday, February 25, 2013

Zva Creative February Blog Hop!


Happy Monday to you! Zva Creative and our talented Design Team welcome you to our February blog hop! We are very excited about month's hop and are excited to share our new work with you!

Today's Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's blog! Be sure head on over to check it out! Since many of us live in different time zones around the world, you will find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way). 

As you know, Zva offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals.  If you like what you see along the hop you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE




Love Birds
Each month, the design team tries to showcase the many different colors of crystals and pearls that ZVA Creative produces.  This month, I am working with champagne/chocolates....gosh how lucky am I to be combining a few really great things - chocolate, champagne, ZVA bling and pretty papers.

I had to keep the champagne and chocolates strictly related to the ZVA flourish colors I selected lest I get some silly/crazy results on my scrap page.  Scrapping with champagne does sound interesting - BUT I had just as much fun with the champagne colors below.

My Robins are resting on Blue Fern Chipboard stained with Tim Holtz Walnut photo stain and topped with Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder.






ZVA CRB-04CB-104 Triumph - Champagne/Chocolate crystals and ZVA CRB-05CB-117 Flourish -Champagne/Chocolate crystals
ZVA FL-04CA-111 Leaves #1 1.5" and ZVA FL-04CA-135  1.5" Graceful Rose - Taupe



If you would like to play along with our design team, just follow along the blog path.  I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!
The Blog Hop starts today, February 25th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, February 26th.
***Prizes***
Hidden on FIVE of the designer's blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post... you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, the more chances you will have to win.

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 27th on Zva Creative's blog. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to Zva's blog on Wednesday to see if you are a winner!

We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize!  To increase your chances of winning:
* Comment to let us know that you posted on your Facebook page about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)
* Comment to let us know that you "tweeted" about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)
* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products.  If they already do, that's fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don't carry.
*Hop over to Zva's facebook page and "like" our page or leave a comment there to tell us that you stopped by.

 The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative's blog. Your next stop is Nicole Martel

Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on March 25th for our next Zva blog hop! 



Supplies Used:
ZVA CRB-04CB-104 Triumph - Champagne/Chocolate crystals
ZVA CRB-05CB-117 Flourish -Champagne/Chocolate crystals
ZVA FL-04CA-111 Leaves #1 1.5"
ZVA FL-04CA-135  1.5" Graceful Rose - Taupe
Blue Fern Studios Chipboard- Royal Bird Frame #074592
Donna Salazar Vine Stamp
Stampendous Boss Gloss Clear Embossing Ink
Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Embossing powder
Mixd Media Inx - Vintage/School house/ Leather/Peaches
Tim Holtz - Walnut Stain
Memory Ink - Brown
Kaisercraft 'Just Believe Collection - Magic P957

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Vintage Canvas 2 - Inkido



Two More Vintage Canvas Projects
Here is my second project for Inkido - it's actually a continuation of a canvas set I created using the new collection, Inkido Beautiful Memories Collection.    This post shows number two and three to complete the mini canvas set. 

These all started off as white canvas, but after adding a layer of gesso, and some ink around the edges, it started to take shape as the vintage style piece I had envisioned.  

The top decorative piece is a Christmas ornament that I bought from clearance. 

I used the Inkido Beautiful Memories Collection, Beige Flowers paper as my inspiration for colors and style. It was really hard to pick with tag to use form the beautiful  Beige Flowers paper, because they are all so pretty.


In the photo below, you can see that I embellished the Inkido tag by adding some mini floral berries and  some flowers cut from the Inkido Butterflies and Borders


I used the Copper Metal Ornament and cut it in half to use as a vase.  I rubbed a little gold leaf wax over it to give it a nice rich golden glow to match my canvas topper.  I also wanted  to bring out the gold tones in the paper.  I wove some gold fibers around the piece to jazz it up a bit. 


Look at these gorgeous butterflies and borders?  This is the Butterflies  Borders.



Here are some of the other wonderful Inkido pieces I used.    

Vintage Canvas Three
This is the third Canvas of the set.  
Here are some of the wonderful Inkido products I used on this canvas:



I also used some little bronze Inkido butterfly charms and rubbed them with Rub N' Buff - Gold leaf, then topped with Inkido  rhinestones with Rub N Buff on them.


 Canvas Two Inkido  Products:

Inkido Beautiful Memories Collection - Beige Flowers
Inkido Beautiful Memories Collection -Butterflies Border
Inkido Mulberry Rose Mini Vanilla
Inkido Mulberry Cherry Blossoms - Green
Inkido Metal Ornament -Copper 1214
Canvas 4"x4"
Gesso
Rub N' Buff -gold leaf
Floral berry spray
Mixd Media Inx  - Peaches, Mossy. Vintage, Christmas Ornament for the top
Assorted Gold fibers

Canvas Three Inkido Products:

Inkido Beautiful Memories Collection -Butterflies Border
Inkido Beautiful Memories Collection - Beige Flowers
Inkido Mulberry Rose mini vanilla
Inkido Mulberry Cherry Blossom - Burgandy
Inkido Metal Ornament -Butterflies
Inkido Rhinstones - Light Green
Canvas 4"x4"
Gesso
Rub N' Buff -gold leaf
Mixd Media Inx  - Peaches, Mossy. Vintage

Assorted Gold fibers

Prima PPP - Wish Hope Dream in the Poppy Field



Here is my piece created using the Prima PPP for February.   I find reds a bit challenging for me.  ( update - this was featured at Prima





In the photo below, you can see I used a little piece of Prima packaging in my work because the colors and floral theme matched wonderfully.  Thanks Prima, for making such pretty packaging.

I had a lot of carefree fun making this piece.



Thanks for looking.

Prima Soprano Pink Flowers #561666
Prima Ledger Paper Pad 12x12
Packaging from Prima Blossom Branches Pistachio #543174
Prima Rondelle Wooden Buttons #559281
Prima - Leeza Gibbons Wish & Dreams Stamps #970185
Prima -Poppies and Peonies Large Foam Stamp
Prima Mask Static 12x12 #564797
Prima Lyric Collection Flowers #564452
Fireworks Mist- Angel Pink
Moulding Paste
Claudine Hellmuth Studios Acrylic Paint - Dash of Red/Painterly Pink
Faber Castell Gelatos - Black/blush pink
Miscellaneous Eggplant fibers
Zig Painty FX fine tip Black  paint marker




Saturday, February 23, 2013

ZVA Creative - Escape Kitty Walks with the Angels



Escape Kitty Walks with Angels (update featured at Once Upon a Sketch)
shhhhh please do not tell Escape Kitty that I borrowed her photo to use on my blog.  The photo was so sweet and puuuuuurfect ( as she would say) for my paper selection and ZVA Creative bling. 

If you don't know who Escape Kitty is, she's my adventurous cat who leads quite an interesting life.   Heck, she has angels playing harp for her.  Now that's really something. Kitty prefers to do her own scrapping and fancies herself a master at all she touches, so that is why I'll get in toruble with the cat if she finds out I used her image. Shhhhhhh.

I created this with the sketch from  Once Upon A Sketch By Nadia Cannizzo.  She always does as exquisite job with her sketches. 

Anyway, the challenge for February is to use the theme of love.  Kitty has no problem in that area.  She's a cat with a ton of love to dish out.  The journaling  reads:

To walk with the love of your family is to walk with the angels. 

I also paired this with the wonderful ZVA Creative and Authentique's new spring collection, "Hope".


ZVA Creative Products Used:
 ZVA CR-05CA-125 - Imposing    Taupe/Chocolate Pearl
ZVA FL-04CA-114 36 piece Leaves #II 1.5"
ZVA FL-04CA-135 1.5" Graceful Rose - Taupe
ZVA FL-04CA-127 3" Dual Frosty Flowers in Olive and Kiwi 





  Once Upon A Sketch By Nadia Cannizzo


 Products Used:
 ZVA CR-05CA-125 - Imposing    Taupe/Chocolate Pearl
ZVA FL-04CA-114 36 piece Leaves #II 1.5"
ZVA FL-04CA-135 1.5" Graceful Rose - Taupe
ZVA FL-04CA-127 3" Dual Frosty Flowers in Olive and Kiwi 
Authentique - Hope Collection - Faith (Background)/Promise ( blue outside border)/Await ( butterflies)
Donna Salazar Mixd Media Inx -Pewter/Mossy/Vintage
Martha Stewart - Butterfly punch/ Wild Flowers edge punch
Tim Holtz Distress Marker - Brushed Corduroy
Gesso
Wild Orchid paper flowers



Thursday, February 21, 2013

Maja Design: Romantic Date at the Beach


Romantic and flirty Evening Date on the Beach
This set provides the inspiration for a flirty romantic evening at the beach to watch the sunset….sparkling water, peanuts or crackers,  then a canister to save your shells and sea glass that you collect while the sun is setting. 

What could be more unforgettable?  A perfect evening and  then a fun way to save your beach  treasures and  memories.    (as a little note - glass and alcoholic beverages are not allowed on the beaches near me.  This project is very mindful of that and uses sparkling water for the "bubbly" and plastic wine glasses. 

This was created using a peanut can – I decided to use my can for fish crackers .  The matching  plastic wine glasses are beach safe for toasting with sparkling water ( also beach safe).

Best part of this?  The decorative trims on the plastic wine glasses slip off so they can be washed. 

The jute around the stem of the wine glass is both decorative and purposeful.  I placed it there for a nautical/beachy look however it has functionality as well.  When your hands are sandy or wet, the jute will provide more grip so that you do not spill your beverage.   No one wants to be on a date and have a beverage spill ( smile).  

This was created using the Life by the Sea collection by Maja Design.  You can see the whole collection here.
I love this collection and really enjoy using it.  It's clean feeling and classic nautical theme makes me think summer and vacation and special times.  Just what I need at a time when snow is all around me. 


This project was created using a peanut can.  



Here I am serving some peanuts from a clam shell.  





This shows my set with some gold fish crackers - in keeping with the seaside theme.



Below are photos of the wine glasses.  The base strip is punched from Life by the Sea Collection – Nautic paper and glued tightly around the glass with the bead trim glued on top.
If you scroll down, you will find directions to this project as well as close ups of the wine glass so you can see the punched strip of Maja paper around the glass.
As I mentioned above, I selected jute to decorate the wine glasses to help add a little grip to the glasses when hands are wet and sandy.  I also wanted something earthy to tone down the bling of the beaded trim and coordinate with the the jute used on the canister.  


 See the Maja paper peeking under the beaded trim?  The paper and bead embellishment is not glued to the plastic wine glass.  It is glued like a paper ring and fits snugly around the glasses.  The whole decoration slips right off so you can wash the glass.   


See the crazy, wild beaded spray I added to the top of the lid?  I picked that because it reminded me of seaweed or sea grass.  That's why I added it.  Just a fun little touch to bling up the can and match my beaded glasses.
I bought that floral beaded spray at a craft store in the floral department - just in case you were wondering.  You can easily make your own by adding some beads to wire and simply twist the ends to secure the beads.  That works as well.




If you love Maja Design papers like I do, then contact your favorite on-line store and ask if they will consider carrying them so you can buy them at your convenience. 


Here are some directions for the project:   
Directions for Canister Body:
1.       Using a peanut canister, apply gesso to the can with a paintbrush or foam brush.  Gesso is needed to provide a rough surface for you to easily adhere a paper layer.  Let dry.
2.       Cut patterned paper and glue to can with tacky glue. (Life by the Sea Collection – Sailing)
3.       Punch decorative strip with your favorite punch and glue to top and bottom edges of the can. (Life by the Sea Collection – Nautic)
4.       Wrap decorative fibers and jute around top of can and tie to secure.
5.       Decorate with chipboard as follows:
·         Apply embossing ink and then sprinkle your choice of embossing powder on chipboard.  Set with heat gun. 
·         Hot glue completed chipboard to canister with generous amount of glue.
6.       Complete by hot gluing shells in place.

Directions for Canister Lid:
1.       Cut a circle from your patterned paper and  glue to the plastic top. (Life by the Sea Collection – Sailing)
2.       Using hot glue, secure lace or ribbon to the edges of the lid.
3.       Hot glue a floral beaded spray in place. 
4.       Attach shells or your choice of decorations to the top with hot glue. 

Directions for Plastic Wine Glasses:
1.       Tightly wind jute around the stem of the wine glass, hot gluing the ends to secure. 
2.       Punch decorative strip with your favorite punch making sure it will easily fit around your wine glass. (Life by the Sea Collection – Nautic)
3.       Glue paper strip around glass so that it fits snugly around glass.  Make sure to only glue the paper end together and do not glue the strip to the glass.  You want to be able to slip off the decorative strip to wash the glass.
4.       Remove the paper strip after it is glued.  Using hot glue gun, glue decorative beaded trim to your paper punch strip.  NOTE : Do not hot glue beaded trim while the paper punch strip is on the wine glass or it will stick to your wine glass and not be removable for cleaning.
5.       Finish off by hot gluing shell on top of the beaded trim. 

 Thanks a million for looking and have a wonderful Friday Night!

Supplies
Maja Design Life by the Sea Collection – Sailing (background paper)
Maja Design Life by the Sea Collection – Nautic (punched edges)
Martha Stewart punch – Doily Lace Trim
Blue Fern Studios chipboard - Nested Circles 074455
Tim Holtz Ink – Pumice
bead  sprays/shells/jute
beaded trim
Stampendous Big Boss Embossing ink
Lindy’s Stamp Gang Embossing Powder
Gesso and foam brush for application of gesso
Plastic wine glasses
Hot glue and tacky glue
Ribbon
Heat gun