Color, Stories, Inspiration Case File #60 and Once Upon a Sketch Latest Entry

Hi!

Now I am reasonably caught up with my blog, I decided to enter this month for Once Upon a Sketch and CSI... I did one layout for both sites using the color criteria from CSI....

 

and the sketch provided by OUAS....

 

 

The theme for OUAS was... love....!

 

So, based on both of those guidelines, here is what I came up with:

 

    This is a picture I took at Christmas of my beautiful sister Shannon,

 and her awesome hubby, Diego.

           I used all of the colors for the CSI challenge, plus as my Evidence, I did the big flowers, hearts, layering, "icing" (modeling paste), and white background.  For the Testimony, I used some words from the Valentine's Day word list, and in my journaling, I used an inspiration word "admire". For both challenges, my journaling is hidden under the "happy" pennant.

 

I loved this sketch, and for my interpretation, I used a shape frame instead of a circle, and used hidden journaling.. I made the red roses myself, and squeezed a bunch of beautiful techniques and embellishments onto this page... I am not really a Valentine's kind of girl, but I really love the way this layout turned out... not to Valentine-y, but still fulfilling the challenges.

 

Here are some more details:

 

I wanted to give my plain white background some "oomph", so I decided to

use modeling paste and a stencil to give it some texture...

 

Like the little white heart? So easy to do with a silicone mold (Martha Stewart) and polymer clay.

 

Here is where my journaling is located, and a small picture of the actual journaling...

 

I really enjoyed making this layout, and I hope you enjoy it as well!

 

                                       Shelley



 



The Fate of my Swirlydoos Journey.... (Shabby Altered Jewelry Box, Just Because Mixed Media Canvas, Art Journal)

Hi!

So I am very far behind in posting my Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Competition entries.... I swore when I started this blog I wouldn't fall behind, and here I am.... behind!  But no worries, I am about to catch up....

I left off with my Week #2 entry....  the Swirlydoos UDC is a contest sposored by Swirlydoos Kit Club to find their ultimate designer... lots of prizes and a possible spot on their design team.  The challenge is set up as a six week contest with a different challenge criteria each week.  So far, I had made it through week #2....

Week #3's challenge was a fun one... make a project using metal tape or metal sheets... metal tape can be found in your local hardware store and is inexpensive.  It looks like duck tape on a roll, and has a peel off adhesive backing.  I had never used it before, and after watching the tutorial design team at Swirlydoos provided (on YouTube.com, by the talented Miranda Edney) I thought this challenge would be lots of fun...it was, but I sure struggled with it!  I decided to do an altered project....

 

 

I used a plain wooden jewel box with drawers from Michael's and painted the whole

box white.  Then I decoupaged my various printed papers onto the outside of it.  Then I took the knows off of the drawers and cut my metal tape to size.  Run the pieces through your embossing machine, color with some Tim Holtz alcohol ink, rub with some with gesso, and "voila", such a cute box!  I made the flower arrangement on top by making some embossed metal tape flowers mixed in with regular paper flowers.  I threw in a little metal butterfly, a cute frame, a small Tim Holtz bottle, attached some pearl flourishes to the front and sides, and my project was done... and it was good enough to get me to week #4 in the challenge!

 

Week #4 was particularly fun for me... I really enjoy being a "dirty girl"... that is, being up to my elbows in ink, paint, paste and any other sort of art medium you can think of.  The topic was to do a mixed media canvas in which we were to create a background, and use modeling paste, gel beads and/or other art mediums (Swirlydoos Imagination Lab, Part 1) (Swirlydoos Imagination Lab, Part 2).  I went crazy with this one.... it was definitely my favorite challenge of all!

 

 



 

This canvas was one of my favorite picture I ever took of my beautiful son, Miles.  I printed

a lovely quote called "Just Because..." directly on the picture, which is printed on canvas, and I included another quote in the bottom right that reads, "Disability is the inability to see ability..."

I just love that!  And so, my journey with the Swirlydoos UDC continued to Week #5....

 

The Week #5 challenge was something new for.... Art Journaling.  I have seen many examples

art journals, and I was excited to try one myself.  I looked at many more examples, and even looked up the definition, to make sure I knew exactly what was expected of me...

"a notebook kept by an artist as a personal record of images and sometimes words; also called artist's journal"   I thought this was right up my alley..  I watched to tutorial video (this time a very short video at the Swirlydoos site) and eagerly jumped into my task...         I was really happy with my pages, and I included every thing that was on the list to create... paper layering using only scraps from other projects, clustering, creating a background,  a spot for journaling (I just did my journaling, instead of leaving a blank space...), doodling, and various art mediums such as misting, paste etc. ...  it was at this week that my journey in the quest for Swirlydoos UDC came to a close... I was voted off!  Very disappointiing to be sure, but not my last shot at finding a design team to work with!   I know this was a really long post, but I just wanted to share my journey with Swirlydoos with you! I hope you enjoyed my projects!                                          Shelley

 

 

"Lovely" Layout (UDC #2) and Scrap Retreat!

     Hi!  It's been an eventful couple of weeks for me, not the least of which my son was ill, my mother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital since before Christmas, and then I was sick with the same thing my son had.  But in the midst of all of that, I am still in the running with the Swirlydoos Ultimate Design Challenge, and I am so happy for that!

     I have been attending a scrap retreat in my area (Scraptacular Getaways) and had three days and nights of scrapping bliss... it was in beautiful Napa Valley, California, and it really was a getaway for me.  No husband, no child, no pets, and no distractions!  I was tons of fun!

     I was pretty productive while I was there... Swirlydoos had issued their next challenge in their UDC contest, and I had made it to week #2 (only 4 more to go!).  The challenge for the week was to create a project with lots of layers, paper and otherwise.  So, that was the first project I tackled

 at the retreat.

 

 

This is my very beautiful niece, Jessika.  I wanted to do a layout that was reminiscent of

old Hollywood glam... I had this paper from Webster's Pages (Hollywood Vogue), and thought it was perfect... plus, one of the papers is in purple tones, which is Jessika's favorite color!

 

I started the layout by distressing my base paper, and all the layers I wanted to use...there are 4 base layers in all, each about a 1/2 inch smaller then the one below it.  Then, I distressed and matted each of the pictures I used.  Notice on the upper left picture, I used two different sized of the same picture layered over each other.  This helps to bring the photo "up" and make it more of a focus picture.  Then I tore some old bridal hat netting I found at a thrift store, placed it on my page, and mounted my pictures on top of it.

 

The netting adds a vintage Hollywood touch, huh? Lots of fun!

After the pics were mounted (here's a hint... I used one stripe of glue down the center of the mats and photos so I can tuck things under them when I am embellishing) I started tucking in bits and pieces of things I fussy cut from the papers.. when I had an arrangement I likes, I started gluing them down.

 

A gray rhinestone and pearl flourish sets it all off, and adds another touch of glam.

 

For the flowers, I used a feather and pearl piece I found in the mask making section at Michael's. I cut it in half, and mounted it toward the bottom left corner of the layout, and them placed my flowers over it.  The diamond border was fussy cut from one of the papers, mounted and then I used some rhinestone embellishments by Recollections (Michael's) for some more blingage.

 

Here's a closeup of the torn edges of the bottom layers.. after I had everything laid out and glued down, I went back around the whole layout tearing and crumpling up the edges of pieces until I was happy with it.

 

I was really happy with this layout, and apprantly the Swirlydoos design team was too, because I

was able to progress to week #3...

 

I made two other layouts at the retreat, and I will post those tomorrow!  Hope you enjoy this one!

 

 

                                     Shelley