Delight in the little things

Here is my entry into Prima Product Picks as well as the sketch for January, although the stencil is not a Prima one, everything else is, even the molding paste is prima coloured with sprays and Finn mica powders, bar one or two thins like the lace little metal buttons.

This is my Granddaughter Lilly, I love this photo because its not staged its just natural, she is pretending to drink from a little cup from a teaset for kids.

Here are a few close ups:

I am crazy about the Prima dies, I think I use them in just about everything at the moment!  I have taken some older Prima flowers and given them a facelift, the grey ones are them.  Another thing I love using is the Crackle Paste and micro beads

You can see here where I used Heavy Gesso to cover up a harsh ending of a stamp, it was blatantly the end of a stamp which just did not flow with the rest of the look of the layout.

 

 

CSI Challenge 189

 

Come and join us a CSI  and take part in our Challenge there are great prizes to be won.

Here is my DT entry for the Challenge.

Another of my passions besides Scrapbooking is cooking!  Before you go thinking I cook mind blowing meals everyday, think again, my everyday cooking is not! 😉 I love cooking for family and guests.

I have the perfect home for entertaining, 2 years ago we renovated/and extended and made the house the home of my dreams.  I can cook and entertain guests in the same room, its wonderful, because I am part of all that is going on.  My daughter Paige was instrumental in implementing the changes, and my other daughter’s (Tammy) boyfriend built the extensions.  How lucky am I to have these talented people in my family!

Now to the layout!

I first used clear gesso to prime my page for all the inks that I used.

The stencil of the flower is Prima, and the Circle is TCW.

I used gelattos (black) to enhance the stems of the flower on the left.  The dies are from prima doilies and filigree leaves, the leaves, I am not sure, because I threw away the envelope it arrived in and the wispy leaves are a die that came in a kit from Flying Unicorn.

I buy most of my supplies from either our SA Store Scrapbook Studio in Jeffreys Bay, or from Flying Unicorn in the US.

Close ups of the top left corner, showing the splatters which are 13arts gold, and black is Winsor Newton, had it for years.  Notice that the stencilled flower has a slight sheen of gold on it, that is from Lindys Sprays Crème Brulee which I sprayed on just before removing the stencil.

Close ups of the lovely ladies in my book club, which is the best in Eshowe, Kangella Book Club, who have  been together for 33 years this year, I’ve been a member for 21 years.  We have our own recipe book which was produced and printed to raise funds for a member who was attacked and severely injured.

I love the spoon and fork, they are light weight and great for using on a layout.  Flowers are from Prima and Petaloo (just the velvety ones)  Beads and microbeads  are from my stash  along with the metals.

Please note the concentration on my face, (and the double chin)

YOu can see that crackle paint was used for the stencil, I love the aged look it gives.

Thanks for dropping by and enjoy your weekend.

 

 

 

7 Dots Studio Dec/Jan Challenge

This is my entry for 7Dots Studio Dec/Jan challenge.

The background was prepared with Gel Medium to give it a slight gloss, then the stencils and mists were applied, some stamping in silver pigment ink and whilst the stencil paste was still wet glass beads of 2 different sizes were applied.

 

I think I am getting this in by the skin of my teeth!

Some close ups

the glass beads can be seen here, and the blistered stencil paste, because I heat dried it.  I have at last found a use for those pearly string of beads.

 

Its not really that noticeable on the overall project but I have used silver foil in some areas.  I actually love this technique.

I have to dash off now to make dinner for my husband, but I just had to get this done to make the deadline! 😉

 

 

Lindy’s Stamp Gang January 2016 challenge

 

Here is my entry to Lindy’s Stamp Gang January 2016 Challenge.  The sprays I used are

Jazzy Jivin’Purple ( I love this colour)

Bodacious Blush (such a versatile spray which adapts to every colour scheme0

Clam Bake Beige (the first spray I had to replace cos it was used so fast!)

Shabby Turbine Teal (very much watered down to get the subtle pale green)

Embossing Powders

Reindeer Moss Green

and

Midnight Ruby (definitely one of my favourite powders)

 

You can see the Reindeer Moss EP very clearly here on the leaf but not so much the Midnight Ruby on the Swirly chippie.

I used matte gel, mixed with lilac glitter, small sequins and transparent micro beads.

The ribbon was also dyed with a mixture of Clam Bake Beige and Shabby Turbine Teal.

I first thing I did was put a coat of Gesso on my tag, then using Texture Paste with a fine grit, I used 2 different Tim Holtz stencils, the stripes and the lacy one.  When that was dried I started layering my different coloured sprays until I was happy with the result.  The lace doily is from Prima, as are the flowers.  The background paper is DP from Prima too, its the Princess range.

 

This shows the sprays and the texture paste a little better. I used Golden’s Crackle Paste and when it was dried I brushed gel and micro beads, beads and chunky glitter (from Prima).

 

New Year – 2016 and a Wedding

This is the cover of a guest book I made for a dear friend’s daughter.  It was a labour of love and a treat for me to make this.  My friend is a Wedding Planner and has done two of  my children who are married, weddings.  This is a small way to repay her for all the magical work she did for their weddings.

The inspiration came from the leftover fabric from the bridesmaids dresses, which were made also by my friend.  The theme of the dresses were metallics, ranging from pale gold, gold, coppers to the darkest of silvers.  I never know quite where I am going when I embark on a project, it kind of just evolves, however I knew that I wanted to make the album like the ones that Elena Morgun  makes.  I just love her work!

I decided to make  a 8×8 album, and made a box for the album to fit into.  I measured very well, but did not take into account the bulk of the fabric cover and batting, so the book fits VERY snuggly into the box.

The box is beautiful, I love how it turned out, each of the 8 corners are decorated differently, and again the fabrics from the bridesmaids dresses have been used.

I started by gessoeing the whole box giving it two coats.  Then I stuck a few die cuts around the box with gel medium.  After that another coat of gesso, and then I applied the words with Texture Paste, stamped images and started to build the corner designs with colour.  I used mostly Lindy’s Stamp Gang  and Prima sprays, if you would like to know the colours let me know.

Here are the four sides of the box.

I used chunky glitters from Finnabair/Prima, beads  and other glitters from my stash.

On embarking on this project, I told myself that I had to use my best stuff, you know how us scrappers are always saving stuff for that special project?  Well this was the special project!

 

Here are the inside pages of the album

First Page

Second Page

Third Page

Fourth Page

Fifth Page

Sixth

Seventh

Eighth

The fabrics were glued down with gel medium matte, oh how I love that stuff!  Its been around for yonks, but I have only discovered it in the past say 2/3 years.  It has changed my life!  Yes very dramatic, but you know, so true!

Front cover centre

Front cover right hand side

Front cover right hand bottom

Front cover left hand bottom

Front cover centre taken in the sun to show the glitz!

The cover was lightly gessoed, mists, micas  and crackle paste were also used.  A lot of my trinkets are from Flying Unicorn who are by far my most favorite USA store to buy from. I like buying from them because they have a lot of brands that are not that common elsewhere.  The free shipping over a certain amount also helps 😉  Thanks Alda.

The flowers are from Prima, the black stamens were a bit stark, so they were dusted with Gold Mica from Finnabair/Prima.  The stencil is from The Crafters Workshop and the gold paste is Wendy Vecchi gold paste.

As you can no doubt see the fabrics were such a wonderful springboard for my project.  Its not every day you get to work with such beautiful luxurious fabrics.

Hope you have enjoyed my post, as you can no doubt see, I am still very new to blogging, slap on my hand, I need to post more often!  Please leave some comments so that you can help to inspire me to blog more often.

 

 

Memory Lane

 

 

Here is my submission for 7 Dots Studio challenge for Nov/Dec.  In this layout I used 2 sheets of paper Yuletide Figgy Pudding and Dreamer Collection Sleeper.  I cut the middle of the Figgy Pudding paper out leaving a 1″border, turned the sheet over and used it as the centre bit to the layout adhering it to the Sleeper paper as a backing which I inked with Crushed Olive DI. Then the edges of the centre papers were distressed and torn on the edges.

I used gel medium to adhere a  square doily again in the centre of the centre!  Mesh,  stencils, stamps guaze, beads, metal findings and flowers.  Here are some close ups.

Bottom right hand corner

 

Bottom left hand corner.  Note hand cut out butterflies, these butterflies I got online and printed them out in different sizes on vellum, whenever I am travelling far I carry this baggie around and cut butterflies, I have hundreds now and use them on many of my layouts.  I know you can buy them from certain suppliers but you are limited to the size they produce.  I even cut these butterflies in the airport at Milan whilst we had a 9 hour wait for our flight.  I used jewellery findings from my bead collection.  I am a beader too.  prima lace, a flower from unknown manufacturer, and doily stencil from prima too.

 

 

This is a treasured photo of myself, my mother, grandmother and grandfather.  Please note that my mother and I are wearing dresses made from same material by my mother.

Its not very evident in this photo, but the frame is treated with 2 different colours of Silks and was then sanded and then used some rose gold foil to highlight certain spots on the frame.

I used fine gold machine embroidery thread underneath the frame.

 

I thought I was quite clever here when I used a key as the sign holder for the lamppost. 😉

Back to the first image again.  I had such fun with this layout, when do I not?  However this is one of the first layouts ever that I have made in under 3 hours!  I usually take forever to complete a layout.  I spent about 1 and a quarter hours just making my own custom made spray, the yellowy colour to match the yellow/lime in the Yuletime Collection.  I made it with a mixture of DI and Primary Elements, I don’t know the recipe, so I wont be able to repeat it, you could call it a limited edition.  The other sprays are LSG sprays.

Hope you enjoyed my post today.  Please leave some love!

 

 

 

CSI 183 – True Story

Come over to CSI for the latest challenge no 183, you have until December 11 to get your entry in and put yourself in line to win some fabulous prizes.

 

A few close ups

The icons represent my family and their spouses starting from right to left, and the smaller icons represent their children.  You will notice that Sofie is the odd one out for the grandchildren, as all the others names start with L.  Strange coincidence.

 

Close up of frame made for the picture with negative space, love the way the technique turned out with 3d gloss gel and LSG sprays used.

 

 

A close up of the journaling. To add to this many of their friends from Eshowe have also made longlasting friends and some are married too.

Notice that I have used very old stash from KI Memories, ……. at last!

 

 

 

Words & Paintery

Miss Lilly – with attitude!

I have just come back from a weeks holiday to the Drakensberg with my family.  How wonderful it was to spend the first four days with all my children and their chicks.  I am so incredibly blessed to have raised such amazing children.

I had quite a bit of time to myself, when my youngest grandson Luke had his daily 2-3 hour sleep during the day, (Lucky Mum that he sleeps that long, although Lord knows that when he is awake he is like greased lightening and fearless) I “volunteered” to let everyone else go out and enjoy an activity whilst I stayed with Luke.

I decided to take part in a few challenges, so, here is my first one. Words & Paintery these colours were just up my alley and I knew immediately which photos I wanted to use.  “Miss” Lilly my youngest grand-daughter who displays such attitude, and always has a naughty glint in her eye.  She is so entertaining.  These photos were taken this year in July at Shu-Shu hot springs which for my son-in-law Jason’s family has been a yearly camping retreat for over 30years.

Submission for 7Dots Studio – Sofie’s 3rd Birthday

 

 

 

 

I decided to take part of the Challenge at 7 Dots Studio this month.  I am up to date on my DT assignments on CSI and so can freely take part.

Sofie had her 3rd Birthday party this past Saturday and she had such fun with all the children there playing on a waterslide.  This photograph taken by Candice Woodburne is one of my favourites of the day, besides being quite whimsical, if you look closely you will see that she is wearing a pair of gumboots which are brightly coloured with her beautiful beaded dress which is pale peach!  Love the individuality.

I primed the substrate first with clear Gesso,  then used LSG sprays and embossing powder, the papers, stamps and stickers used are all 7Dots Studio.  The layout is very bright and sparkly which isn’t all that evident in these photos, lots of glitter, sequins and glass beads were used with a white glittery tulle/netting framing the photo.  What fun I had creating this layout hope you enjoy looking.

 

Be Free

Here is my latest submission for CSI challenge number 172

I just love this photo of my dgs, such a well timed photo with his shadow almost becoming the focal point of the photo with such symbolicism of him being bigger than the world.

I am also going to enter this into the 7dots studio challenge which is on animals this month.  My choice of an animal is one of my favourites, a seahorse, such elusive animals in the sea world, almost etherical.  For me they conjour the images of fairy tale type creatures.

Close ups of the embossed globe using 4 different powderts.  The twine has been sprayed with Cest la vie Cerise from Lindys Stamp Gang.

These seahorses are embossed with Lindys Midnight Teal and glitter from Doodlebug.  I addd three coats of embossing powder to achieve this lush look.  The gauze was sprayed with Lindys Steampunk Sepia.  And of course the gems are from Prima.

Tags from 7Dots studio, clock face from Tim Holtz.  The crackle paste is Golden’s white crackle paste

I mixed glitter and bugle beads in Golden soft gel, such fun to mix your own concoction.  The embossing powder is Stampendous Frantage Aged Wine.