A Trail Mix card for Dad!

Hi everyone,

It's a beautiful, hot day today, and I'm hiding out in the cool basement crafting!  (I'm going to get out and enjoy the weather in just a bit.)  I hope you're all enjoying this wonderful last day of June.

I've made a card today that not only fits my dad, and the way he has lived his life, but also fits a couple of challenges.  One is a nature challenge at Flying Unicorn and the other is a challenge from Bo Bunny to make a masculine card.  They both end today, but tomorrow a whole slate of NEW challenges will go up at Flying Unicorn, and another one at Bo Bunny as well, so check them out!

My dad has always loved nature, and instilled that love in me also.  My happiest memories of childhood were tromping through meadows, forests, sand dunes, river valleys, etc.  You name it, and dad took us hiking through it!  We moved a lot due to the type of work Dad was doing at the time and so we got to see many different landscapes.  He would show us bird nests, all the different types of eggs and birds, and the most exciting part ... footprints in the dirt!  He taught us about beavers and showed us trees they had chewed and pulled into the creeks.  He was always up for a quick canoe trip and it was so lovely and peaceful travelling down the little streams he would find.

This is why when I saw Bo Bunny's Trail Mix paper line, it was instant love.  It took me back to my childhood in a flash and I knew it would be the perfect paper for a card for my dad.

For Shona's challenge at the Flying Unicorn, she wanted us to make something that used a piece of nature.  If you look closely at the photo below, you will see 3 big petals that were cut from a large pinecone, then for "fill" in my cluster, I used spanish moss.

I distressed the edges of the ripped paper with Antique Linen and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.  The flower was quite white when I started, and looked too "girly" so I grunged it up by spraying with Art Anthology "Warm" mist and Tattered Angels "Decadence" Chalkboard mist.

On the inside of the card, I used one of the cut outs from the Trail Mix collection.  In order to make my stamped image stand out, I painted a section with gesso and then sprayed it with the Art Anthology "Warm" mist.  A little bit of burlap behind made it look a bit more rustic.  

If you've have some wonderful memories of the "great outdoors", you will love documenting them with this paper line!

Ok, now I'm off to get some sunshine, listen to the birds, and maybe take some photos as all the gardens are so beautiful right now.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Linda

Supplies used:

Bo Bunny Trail Mix

Flower from my stash

Piece of music ribbon from stash

Spanish Moss

Piece of Pinecone

Burlap

Kaisercraft Wooden Pine Cones

Little Yellow Bicycle Wood Stick Pins

Antique Linen Distress Ink

Rusty Hinge Distress Ink

Art Anthology "Warm" Mist 

TA "Decadence" Chalkboard Mist

Gesso

"Happy Birthday" stamp from Fiskars "Birthday Cheer"

I have a project to share today, but first I would like to express support for my fellow Albertans in the Southwest who are presently dealing with floods of epic proportion.  My thoughts and best wishes are with you at this challenging time. 

“Encourage yourself by encouraging others. It’s tough to encourage others without lifting your own spirits up.”

~Kevin Ngo~

My granddaughter will be having her first Dance Recital soon.  It is traditional to bring flowers for the dancers after the recital is over, so I decided that instead of fresh flowers, I would make a handmade bouquet.

Tammy, at Flying Unicorn, has issued a challenge this month asking us to turn trash into treasure!  I got to thinking that a toilet paper roll would make a good handle for a bouquet, so I made the bouquet with this challenge in mind.  In order for the bouquet to stand on its own, I glued the roll to a chipboard bottom that was covered with embossed paper.

I also covered the roll itself with embossed paper.

I added embellishments by gluing flowers to 1/8" wooden dowels, butterflies to pieces of floral wire, and added bits of ribbon, netting and other bling here and there. 

The focal piece is a beautiful digital image from AuroraWings, a wonderful artist that I stumbled upon on Etsy.

My finished gift for Emily!

Check out the challenges that Flying Unicorn is hosting this month.  There are all sorts to choose from, and they are all a lot of fun.  Give it a try.  You will find a wonderful group of people on the Flying Unicorn forums!

And if you love ballerinas, fairies, kittens, and beautiful girls surrounded by flowers, go to Mitzi's Etsy shop - they are a treat to behold!

Hope this upcoming week floods you with SUNSHINE!!

Linda

I'm hosting the Swirly Girls' Challenge!

I wanted to let you all know that I'm hosting a challenge over at Swirlydoos this month.  The theme is "Friendship" and I used this layout that I designed for Scrapbooker's Paradise here for inspiration to get everyone started.

Here's an explanation of the challenge and all the rules.  I had a lot going on in the month of June, and forgot to post about this at the start of the month; as you will see in the rules, you get points which accumulated week by week.  So if any of you decide to join this challenge (and I'd love to see you do it!!) I will give you 6 bonus points to make up for the lost time.  There's alot of reading but really the challenge itself is VERY simple and you only need to do the "twist" if you want to.  

Here's the challenge copied from Swirlydoos:

With all the happy chatter going on in the threads about getting together for Camp Swirlydoos and Andie’s Swirly Getaway, I started thinking about all the fun everyone is going to have and the celebration of friendship. So this month’s theme is: Friendship. You can make a layout, a card, an OTP… it’s up to you!

Twists: For extra points add: 1) 4 Layers of paper 2) Chipboard 3) Punching
But I don’t want to stop with just completing a project this month, I’d like to try having an online “Camp”. Let’s get to know each other better and have some fun, just like we do when we go to crops and camps! Each week, I’ll have a theme, and as you’re working on your project, you can join in and share with us. Every time you share something, you will earn a point. Share as often, or as little as you like, on every topic.

Week 1: (June 2-8) We all know each other fairly well from the forums, but let’s learn more. Share something about where you live, your family, your pets, your work, activities you like to do aside from scrapping, etc. Pictures would be a wonderful bonus!

Week 2: (June 9 – 15) What makes you smile? We are all blessed everyday with things that make us smile, no matter what trials or tribulations we are going through. Share things that make you smile … even if it’s through tears.

Week 3: (June 16 – 22) Jokes! Any scrap or quilting retreat that I’ve ever gone to has been filled with laughter and fun, so we MUST have jokes or funny cartoons this week.

Week 4: (June 23 – 30) Oh no, “camp” is almost over. We all have to leave having learned something new … share a new technique that you’re anxious to try, a wonderful tutorial that you’ve seen, something that you’ve “pinned” that is totally cool, or something that you’ve made that you’re very proud of. 

10 Bonus points: If you live close to another Swirly Sister (or two), and you get together sometime during this month – post a picture!!

At the end of the month, I will tally up everyone’s points. Each one will be like a raffle ticket, and they will all go into a random draw. The more “tickets” you have, the better chance you have of winning! 

The prize will be goodies from my craftroom: masks, lace, bling, stamps, etc. I will post a picture in a couple of days.

RULES:
1) Because we also want to make NEW friends at “Camp”, Krissy has given me permission to allow non-members to play along also! You don’t have to use kits for this challenge – use what you have on hand and as you get to know us, you might decide you’d like to try out some of the beautiful kits Krissy puts together and join in on some of the other awesome challenges! (Of course the Swirly Girls will want to use their Swirly stuff because it is just SO gorgeous!) 
2) Your projects need to be posted by midnight, June 30th. MST. Please post them in the Gallery (label it June SGC), as well as on this thread. (I will make sure that all projects are also shown on the first page of the thread.)
3) This challenge can be entered into other challenges.
4) Share your enjoyment of your friends’ projects with us all by leaving your comments in the gallery. Comments on the thread are nice too! 
5) If you have friends that you want to bring along to “Camp”, now is the time. Invite them by word of mouth, on your blogs, facebook, etc. 

So that’s it, if you have any problems with the gallery, or questions about “Camp”, just let me know.
I’m working on a layout today for “inspiration” and will post it as soon as it’s finished!
I’m really looking forward to this month of “Camp” and hope you all have a lot of fun with it!!

After looking around in my craftroom, I found a few things that I have duplicates of. (It's a long story...LOL) So here is the RAK I have put together for the winner. (The paper pad is the 8x8 size.) Good luck everyone!

So I hope I have inspired some of my "following" friends to take a look at this challenge and maybe give it a try!

Linda

Join me for Technique Tuesday at Scrapbooker's Paradise!

Hi everyone,

Last week I promised to show you how I created the tag for the layout I did for Playing in Paradise's Sketch Challenge.  

For all the details and a supply list, please go to the Scrapbooker's Paradise Technique Tuesday blog here.

Thank you to everyone who follows my blog and leaves me comments.  It is so nice to hear from you and I really appreciate the time you spend here!

Linda

New Sketch Challenge at Scrapbooker's Paradise!

Hi everyone!  It's the second Friday of the month, which means Scrapbooker's Paradise is starting a new sketch challenge.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the last one!  I hope you will give this one a go as well.  Selena was the creator of this sketch and, as usual, it doesn't have to be a layout; it can also be a card or off-the-page project.

This month, I decided to do a layout.  I've had this picture of my niece for awhile, and as it is a favorite of mine, so I wanted to scrap it!

I did a LOT of distressing on this layout: inking, painting, and rasping.  Below you can see where I used a sponge and pounced Honey Amber Silks acrylic glaze all over one of my background sheets.

Started distressing some of the edges of the paper.  (It's kind of a shame that most of my careful inking, ends up being covered, but you do see little glimpses of it on the final page!!)

Painted white gesso and Honey Amber Silks on a piece of torn cardboard, then inked edges with Black Soot Distress ink.

Painted chipboard with Olive Vine Silks, then inked edges with Black Soot Distress Ink, and then stamped over top with script stamp.

Inked edges and centers of floral border with Black Soot Distress Ink, then carefully crumpled to give texture.

Making the flower cluster was a lot of fun.  The cute little paper flowers are from a Kaisercraft stamp set called "Doodled Flowers". 

Took this white Prima flower, cut off the stamens, carefully dry-brushed some Black Ice Silks on the petals to grunge it up, and then created a flower center out of the Prima metal flowers that are shown below.

Some of the pieces I played with!  Some I stacked together and held them in place with brads from my stash, others only need a brad in the center.

I also created the tag from scratch and if you check back to the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog on June 18th for Technique Tuesday, I will take you through the steps for that!

Do please check out our Sketch Challenge here and think about giving it a try.  We ALWAYS enjoy seeing what you create!!  Plus you're going to see some STUNNING creations from the other Design Team members!!

Linda

Supplies used:

Prima "Lyric" paper

Pink Paislee "Hope Chest" paper

Black cardstock

Cog chipboard from my stash.  Kaisercraft has some nice wooden ones that are in the store.

Prima "Gear" stencil from my stash.  You can see all kinds of cool "gear" stuff here.

Martha Stewart punches:  Large Monarch Butterfly, Scallop 3 Dot Punch around the Page, the floral border one (can't find the name of it.)

Prima Firebird white flower from stash

Prima Vintage Mechanism Mini Flowers

Prima Medium Vintage Mechanism Flowers

Prima Roses Vintage Mechanism

Prima Large Vintage Clock Face

Tim Holtz Mini Gears

Brads from my stash

Kaisercraft "Doodled Flowers" stamp set

Script stamp set

Olive Vine Silks Acrylic Glaze

Honey Amber Silks Acrylic Glaze

Gesso

Black Soot Distress Ink

A Father's Day Card

Hi everyone!

I got busy and created a Father's Day card for my dad!

All the details (plus more pics) can be found on my post over at Scrapbooker's Paradise.  Just click "here" and you'll be able to see it!

See you there!
Linda