More December Memories

Hello, everyone!  As I mentioned earlier this month, I have finished my December Memories album.  Today I want to share with you a few more pages from that album.

Supplies: plaid & damask papers from Fancy Pants; all other paper from Simple Stories; stickers from Echo Park; pen from Zig.

First up, since today is Tuesday (T-Day), and I'll be linking up with Elizabeth and Bleubeard's tea party, I wanted to show a beverage-related spread.

Supplies: paper from Simple Stories; alphabet stickers from Echo Park; decorative stickers from Basic Grey.

Next up is a collage-style page that documents gift opening on Christmas Eve.  (I know some people wait until Christmas Day to open gifts, but my family has always opened some of our gifts on Christmas Eve.)

Supplies: paper from Simple Stories; pens from Zig.

And here is a clean-and-simple (CAS) page about something that I always do on Christmas Day: eat an apple!

Supplies: arrow paper from Lily Bee; all other paper from Simple Stories; stickers from Bella Blvd; pens from Zig; Candi dots from Craftwork; photo collage created at walgreens.com.

Finally, here is a two-page spread that is unrelated to Christmas but still documents something that took place in December.

I hope that you have enjoyed this round of December Memories pages.  These little pages are fun to make and come together quickly.  I also enjoy using different styles on different pages, depending on my mood.  There are still a few more album pages that I want to show you, but I'll save those for another post, so that this one doesn't get to long.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Hi, everyone!  Thanks for all your kind comments on my last post.  A few people even said that they liked the shirt I was wearing in my photo, which was a nice surprise.  I realized that I had not yet scrapped that photo, so I got to work on it, and this is the result...

Supplies: background paper from Carolee's Creations; vellum from Studio Calico; button, die cut arrow, spray mist, rubber frame, & all other paper from October Afternoon; tulle from Wyla; thread from DMC; sticker from My Mind's Eye; rubber stamp & paper rosebud from We Call Her Happydaks etsy; stamping ink from Stampology; Candi dots from Craftwork; rhinestones from Beads by Dee; household paper clips and pencil.

I'm entering this page in the April Berry71Bleu challenge, since I made the big tulle flower myself.
 

~April Berry71Bleu mood board~

My hand-sewn flower is frilly, pouffy, and dimensional, but it will still flatten out enough to slide into a page protector.

As far as other details on my page go, I used a lot of camera imagery...
 

...and I combined embellishments with a variety of textures, including thread, rubber, vellum, metal, plastic, cardstock, etc.
 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Q & A with Me

Denise Price (aka Green Denise)

I recently had the honor of being featured on my friend Elizabeth's blog.  A kindred spirit when it comes to "living green," Elizabeth is posting daily about eco-friendly art this month, and one of those posts is an interview with me.  If you would like to get to know me better, as both an artist and a person, head on over to Elizabeth's blog (alteredbooklover.blogspot.com) to read the interview.

Pond Life: A New Perspective

Supplies: watercolor paint from Angora; cardstock from Bazzill; patterned paper from Elle's Studio; stamps & green ink from Hero Arts; grey ink from Stampology; mushroom stickers & border sticker negatives (upcycled as stencils) from Doodlebug Design; label stickers from October Afternoon; alphabet stickers from Echo Park; spiderweb trim from We Call Her Happydaks etsy; chipboard from Scrapmatts; rhinestones from Beads by Dee; Liquid Pearls paint from Ranger; pens from Zig.

This page started with an idea from Once Upon A Sketch.  I like their multi-photo sketch this month (since I rarely do single-photo pages), and I also like their prompt: "An event that changed my life..." 

My albums are already full of pages that document the bigger events in life, so I knew that I wanted to do something different this time: I wanted to create a page about one of those little learning experiences in life that changes your perspective.  Life is full of such moments, and I wasn't sure about which one to choose for my page, until I saw this inspiration image at Cupcake Inspirations:

We had a rainy spring last year, and I remember seeing lots of toadstools at the nature center when my family took a class there.  The topic of the class was "Pond Life," and I decided to make this the subject of my page. 
 

{detail shot}

When we scooped up some pond water at the nature center, we found lots of tiny creatures living in it!  At first I thought they would be icky, but then I became fascinated by these tiny lifeforms.
 

{detail shot}

My perspective changed, and here is what I wrote about it:
 

{detail shot--stamping with the edge of a piece of corrugated cardboard, making a thicker line of paint under a key phrase}

To mimic the look of the pond, I used green watercolor paint, lots of tiny animal stamps, toadstool stickers, botanical chipboard, "water droplet" rhinestones, and shiny Liquid Pearls paint.  I kept the design loose, organic, and flowing.
 

{detail shot}

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I hope you enjoyed today's visit to the pond.  :)  Thanks for dropping by my blog.

Tea & a Card

Hello all, it's Tuesday--time for a T-Day post!  I have Earl Grey in my cup today.  I don't have many tea cups, and I'm afraid you all must be getting tired of seeing this plain white one time after time.  So, I jazzed up the photo by also including a card a I made recently and a doll from my collection.  This is an unusual Russian doll in that she is one solid piece of wood.  That is, she doesn't open.  She's hand painted (artist unknown) in an unusual earth-tone color scheme, and, appropriately for today, she's holding a tea tray.

Supplies: patterned papers from KaiserCraft; ribbon from Scrapbook Fantasies; Candi dot from Craftwork; corner punch from Creative Memories; ink from Hero Arts.

My simple little card also sports a Russian doll image, which I fussy-cut from KaiserCraft paper.  I sent this card to my cousin for her birthday, but I'm thinking of making some more cards like this as Mother's Day cards.  The Russian name for this sort of doll is Matryoshka, which means "little mommy."  So you see that this would be nice symbolism for a Mother's Day card.

To tell the truth, I feel a little sad thinking about Russia right now, because I'm worried about the current situation with Ukraine.  What's going on there is complicated, and even though I read the news reports every morning, I don't feel that I totally understand all aspects of the conflict.  All I know is that I want my friends in both countries to be safe.  I think that the average person, whether Russian or Ukrainian, wants the same thing: to forget about politics and live in peace.  To close out this post, I'm directing you toward a collection of peace-themed scrapbook pages on a Russian blog.  Some are in English, some are not, but you will understand the imagery.  Here's the link: http://scrapberrys.blogspot.ru/2014/03/blog-post_12.html  I hope you'll take a look.  Thanks.

Monochromatic Mother's Day Card {Cupcake Inspirations}

Supplies: cardstock from Bazzill; patterned paper from Vintage Street Market; Candi from Craftwork; resin roses from We Call Her Happydaks etsy; mouse stamp from PSX; sentiment stamps from Lawn Fawn; ink from Clearsnap; chalk from Stampin' Up.

Good morning!  I just have a quick card share today.  It's a monochromatic card, inspired by this week's challenge at Cupcake Inspirations.  I tried to capture the effect from the photo, with each layer of the cake/card getting progressively lighter.  And of course the lightest layer had to be roses.  :)

I didn't have many supplies in this pinkish-purple color scheme, so I improvised, stamping my background cardstock with a cardboard tube and making stars with an old punch card.

This image is a combination of five stamps: the mouse, "happy," "mother's," "day," and "!"  It was a fun challenge to get all the stamps lined up just right, and I'll admit that it took me a few tries to get it right.  Once I was happy with the stamped image, I highlighted key areas with chalk.

That's all for today.  See you again soon!

 ETA: I made "Sweet Six" (Top 6) again.  Thanks, CI!

10 on the 10th: Spring Colors

Hello folks, welcome to the latest edition of "Ten on the Tenth," my monthly de-stashing series.  This month I created with supplies whose colors reminded me of spring.  Before I show you what I made, let me show you the supplies that I used.  All ten items appear in the pair of photos below.

Item 1 (base): teal cardstock from Bazzill; item 2 (base): green cardstock from Wausau Paper; item 3 (patterned paper): white paper with clustered motifs from American Crafts; item 4 (patterned paper): rainbow/cloud paper from Bella Blvd; item 5 (embellishments): set of journaling cards from Crate Paper; item 6 (embellishments): pair of chipboard butterflies from DCWV.

Item 7 (throwaway item): small paper treat bag; item 8 (throwaway item): negative portion of used sticker sheet from Hallmark; item 9 (nonconusmable item): butterfly stamp from Hero Arts; item 10 (nonconsumable item): bird stamp from Hero Arts.

Now, onto the three items that I made with these supplies.  First of all I made a 12x12" scrapbook layout called "Cookie Day."  I have already blogged about it in my last post.

I had a ball making that colorful, happy layout.  However, I used both sheets of cardstock and a significant portion of of both sheets of patterned paper...which left me with very little paper for the following two projects!  Luckily, I was up for the challenge.  :)

Additional supplies: brown ink from Tsukineko; spray inks & round alphabet stickers from October Afternoon; number & punctuation stickers from Lily Bee.

I decided to use a scrap of the white American Crafts paper to make a birthday card.  I used the large chipboard butterfly as a mask and created a misted design.  The chipboard held up surprisingly well, and I was able to save it for future use.

I accidentally let a mist droplet fall in the middle of the butterfly--eek!  But then my husband suggested that I cover the mistake with stickers.  The crisis was averted, thanks to my hubby.  :)

I fussy-cut the little yellow flag from the American Crafts paper.  The homespun white heart coordinates with the white masked butterfly.

Additional supplies: corner rounder from Creative Memories; ink from Hero Arts.

In contrast to the light, airy outside of the card, the inside is a riot of intense greens and blues.  I added one more white scrap of paper, so that I would have space to write a birthday message for the card recipient.

Additional supplies: 4x6" card from Fancy Pants; pens from Zig; flower from my stash; ink from Tsukineko.

For my final project, I just had a few scraps to use.  I decided to make a page in my "December Memories" album.  The little treat bag functions as an envelope to hold a Christmas letter from my husband's great-aunt, Millie.  Although the pastel colors and butterfly motifs of this page are not typical for December, they perfectly reflect Millie's personality.  Despite her age and health issues, she is positive and upbeat--a real breath of fresh air.

As you can see, it's easy to slide Millie's letter out of the bag to read.

And here is one last photo, this time with the page outside of the album (the colors appear more true-to-life when there is no interference from the plastic page protector).

Speaking of my December Memories album--I finished it!  Hooray!!!  I'll have to show you a few of the other pages from the album soon.  But that's a different post.  Until then, take care.  :)

Something to Smile About (CPC Crossover Challenge)

I have a big smile on my face, because I have some news that I think will interest you.  We have something new going on at Child's Play Challenges this month.  It's a crossover event with ScrapStuffz "Inspired by" Challenges, and prizes are up for grabs!

~inspiration image from Child's Play Challenges~

As usual, Child's Play is providing you with an inspiration image.  This time it is the photo you see above, which depicts sand art.

~sketch from ScrapStuffz~

In addition to using the "sand art" inspiration photo as a jumping off point, challenge participants also must use this lovely sketch from ScrapStuffz.  If you take part in this challenge, you can link your layout up to both Child's Play and ScrapStuffz, which will double your chances of winning!

Supplies: green cardstock from Wausau paper; blue cardstock from Bazzill; chevron paper from American Crafts; text-print paper from Crate; all other paper from Bella Blvd; bookplate & circular frame stickers from Basic Grey; heart sticker & chevron border sticker from Bo Bunny; shamrock sticker negatives from Hallmark; all other stickers from Echo Park; "Stickles" glitter from Ranger; ink from Hero Arts; pen from Zig; rhinestones from Dee's Place; chipboard trefoil upcycled from a box of Girl Scout cookies.

Above, you see my interpretation of the challenge.  It's a light-hearted page documenting my happiness at receiving the gift of Girl Scout cookies from my family.  I loved the sketch, and I followed it pretty faithfully.

The "sand art" image made me think of glitter, since glitter and sand both have a similar grainy quality.  I recycled the negative portion of a St. Patrick's Day sticker sheet to make shamrock stencils, which I used to apply green "Stickles" glitter here and there on my layout.

Well, I guess that with this post I've either made you hungry for cookies or inspired to play along with the Child's Play/ScrapStuffz challenge.  Maybe both.  :)  If you upload your challenge entry to the Child's Play blog, you'll be eligible to win the two packs of October Afternoon flair badges pictured below.  Man, I wish I could enter...OA is one of my favorite manufacturers, and I'd love to win those "Tin Pins!"  Alas, the winner shall not be me...but it could be you.  :)

ScrapStuffz also has a prize to offer.  If you upload your challenge entry to the ScrapStuffz blog, you could win a 6x6" paper pad (pictured below) from Simple Stories.  This is another great prize that I wish I could win.  But since I know that's not possible, I'll simply wish you good luck, instead.  Happy crafting!  :)