Lens

WOYWW 356

Happy Wednesday and happy WOYWW (click link for more on the creative blog hop that's sweeping the globe.)

Here's a view of my work table last evening -- so nice to have more daylight. This was about 7:30 in the evening. 

This is the layout I just completed. I wanted to use the pieces of paper that I had cut the swirling botanical designs out of and eagle-eyed visitors will notice that I stuck some of the fiddly remainders from the die-cutting session back into the design on the right side of the page. I thought it helped to bring the darker color from the left side onto the right side. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura 
 

12 Tags of 2016: March, take two

I decided to make a another run at Tim Holtz's March tag and here is the result:

I had made some additional top layers when I made the first tag. This one, with the butterfly motif, is closer to Tim's tag. My top layer is again Core'dinations cardstock instead of corrugated cardboard (since I was using punches instead of dies) and this time I sanded the embossed design and then inked over it. The bottom layer is texture paste heat embossed with pink embossing powder and I added Distress paint. The metal flowers were painted with Distress paint and topped with Distress Stickles. 

 

WOYWW 354: If it's messy, you know fun was had

Happy WOYWW to all who are visiting virtually today! Visit Julia's blog for more on this lovely Wednesday party.

Here is my table as it stands at bedtime Tuesday night. I took a wide shot and you can see all my mess. Could you avert your eyes from the messiest bits and look just at the nicer parts? Thanks! :-)

I bought one of the Tim Holtz mixed media die sets and am playing around with them. I plan to use these pieces on a layout soon.



Here's a bird's eye view of the table:

My previous blog post shows my first March tag based on TH's inspiration, following his example more closely. But I made some extra tag toppers in the process, including the butterfly version (the closest I could match with punches instead of the Bigz die) and figured I'd go ahead and make another tag. 

12 Tags of 2016: March

Tim Holtz is continuing the "remix" theme by combining techniques from two prior tags to inspire a new one. While I never have all of the products used in any given month, this time around I treated myself to the mixed media dies and Distress crayons used on the March tag. 

I don't have the butterfly die, so used floral dies in its stead to make the cutouts. Thinlet dies don't cut through thick material like corrugated cardboard, so I used woodgrain embossed Core'dinations cardstock instead. I used the back side of the cardstock so I'd have a solid color. I used a TH stencil to make the speckles with distress ink and added some Tarnished Brass distress spray stain. 

I'm pleased with how it came out. :)

Shimelle's Online Scrapbooking Weekend: Last Challenge: Choose an element from the comments

My second, and final, layout for Shimelle's weekend of challenges (at least for now) is this layout below. Shimelle suggested choosing one or more elements from the comments to her final challenge post. Someone mentioned chevrons, and my layout has chevron paper, so I say it counts! In full disclosure, this was just the next thing I wanted to scrapbook and was hoping something I'd chosen would fit -- ha, ha. Yes, this does probably make me a giant cheater-pants. So be it. :)

I had a lot of photos I wanted to use, so the design of this two page spread really began with that choice. Then I had the ever-popular two vertical, one horizontal photo situation and some ephemera I wanted to use. I'm most pleased with my final decision, which was to add multi-colored jewels as embellishments. They look the most like glass of anything I have and really add a lot of visual interest, but not, I feel, in an overwhelming fashion. 

[Editor's note: After taking the picture, I noticed an extra word in the journaling and printed the whole thing out again and readhered everything. I tried repairing it first, but knew it would bug the heck out of me if I left it.]

Shimelle's Online Scrapbooking Weekend: Challenge #1 | Monochromatic

Shimelle is sponsoring a weekend of scrapbooking challenges over at her blog and the first one, as a warm-up, was to choose one of the following: selfies, hearts, mixing old with new, monochromatic, or maps and globes. This layout is monochromatic, uses a selfie, and even has a map-themed brad, so it definitely hits the mark, I think. 

This layout may not be fancy, but I'm pleased with it and glad to have made it. :)

 

WOYWW 351: A layout and a card

Happy WOYWW! (Click here to find out what on earth that acronym means.)

Here's my desk as it stood last night (and still looks now):

And here's a close-up of the layout I just finished:

In the picture of the whole table, you can see that I've got another picture of her with the flower in a small page protector and underneath that, a copy of the program. I always get at least two copies so I can put them back-to-back in a page protector. #scrapbookingMom

I've been following along with a cardmaking challenge called "Merry Monday," which has a Christmas card prompt each week. Most weeks I'm making one or two cards based on the challenge, but never get my act together to join in the link up. Last week's prompt was to use berries. I dug through my folder of scraps and found this piece of a gift bag  -- I simply cut the paper to the size of a premade card, adhered it, stamped a sentiment inside, and added enamel berries and holly leaves (from Shimelle's holiday line). I noticed after I took the picture that one berry got pushed off its spot -- I'll probably glue the embellishments down with Glossy Accents before it's mailed. 

Thanks for visiting! 

WOYWW 348: Time to make some Valentines

This was my desk last night (Tuesday) when I decided to quit for the night. I've got small cards covered in patterned paper to the left, hedgehogs stamped on card stock just above -- that's the project in progress.

 

I made this over the weekend. I "painted" the circle with Blush Color Shine and don't adore the outcome, but it's ok.

I'm trying to make some Christmas cards throughout the year this year -- so far so good. I like the all silver better than the gold + silver, but both came out nicely with the doily stamp.

This may be the last time I put ink to this stamp. It's wood-mounted and for whatever reason I can never get it completely inked and/or completely stamped. Ah, well.

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016: January | Simon Says Stamp: Love is in the Air

Our creative muse Tim Holtz is putting a spin on his 12 Tags inspiration project this year -- he's mixing techniques from the past. This month he used the chalkboard technique and the industrious metal technique.

I have to say that I almost didn't participate, not because I don't enjoy Tim's techniques, but because just coming off all the color of Christmas, I couldn't handle all the black! So, I decided that if there can be green chalkboards, maybe there can also be red ones and went with an entirely different color for my monochromatic tag below.

I substituted red alcohol ink for the distress paint Tim used in his metal technique -- I only have three colors of distress paint at the moment and red isn't one of them. I did have the foil tape and used a heart embossing folder. I only have the mini blueprint stamps, so chose the globe. I used regular white embossing powder (don't have the frosted kind) and used a piece of chalk and my fingers to add a bit of chalky background. 

To join in or check out all the creations, just click the image at the top of this post!

Additionally, the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week is "Love is in the Air," and we are asked to include the color red. So, I'm submitting this tag for that challenge!

Thanks for visiting.

~ Laura 

Plaid Christmas cards

Inspired by Merry Monday Christmas Challenge #187, I made two cards with plaid backgrounds. I don't use plaid often, so it was nice to use this Pink Paislee paper from my stash. The next layer is a shimmery cream cardstock on which I stamped and gold-embossed the focal point image and sentiment (both Hero Arts stamps.) Clean and simple all the way! [Well, apparently the link up closed, so I can't participate on their blog this week, but I'm still glad I made the cards. :-) ]