Spanish Eyes

Gabbi has graciously shared her first sketch with us that she made for a Bo Bunny challenge. Isn’t it a beauty? She has incorporated many layers and suggested embellishments to ensure our end results would be richly layered and beautifully adorned. Thank you Gabbi!

This is a pic of my niece who has said to me on many occasions that I’m obsessed with her because I have taken many pictures of her and have scrapped them also. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the eldest in my family, and I have four brothers who then went on to produce even more boys. So, when one of them finally got it right and produced this girl child, of course, I was going to take pictures of her and want to scrap them too. She’ll appreciate it when she’s older…I hope.

I’ve used the following products to create Spanish Eyes:

Bo Bunny Papers:
1. Gabrielle Cameo
2. Gabrielle Dot
3. Island Mist Double Dot

4. Elegance

Bo Bunny Gabrielle Brads:
Two of the aqua colored brads are in two of the flowers

Bo Bunny Timepiece Trinkets:
Time Piece keyhole trinket was painted with several colors, and inked a little on the filigree edges to blend in with my color scheme.

Dusty Attic Chipboard
1. Dusty Attic Baroque Frame was cut in half, painted with white crackle paint, shaded with watercolor pencils, Tide Pool and Espresso Bean Glimmer Glam, Martha Stewart glitter, dimensional paint, liquid pearls and pearls (some pearls were colored with alcohol mists)
2. Dusty Attic Vintage Key was treated with Gesso, stamped in aqua, added Martha Stewart glitter, and liquid pearls.

Handmade the larger flower and a few of the small flowers out of Bo Bunny Papers.

Hand sewed some of the edges of the papers with embroidery thread and added beads. I’m a lazy sewer and refuse to thread the sewing machine with different colored threads every time I scrap so I’ve enlisted the help of my mini craft sewing machine. The thread on these little mini craft sewing machines continuously break so I don’t thread it at all anymore. I primarily use it to perforate my paper, then I hand sew with embroidery threads because I love the pretty sheen that materializes. And, since I’m hand sewing, it’s easy to add beads, and that helps me to use up the beads I’ve accumulated from an old beading hobby.

Check out Gabbi's blog to see the beauty she created.

http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

875 Watts (Featured at Once Upon A Page)

This period at Once Upon a Sketch challenged us to journal something about an embarrassing, and/or uncomfortable moment. I journaled about my first hair dryer that was a gift to me by a high school teacher for my high school graduation. Hair dryers were a new thing back then and all my friends had one but me so I was terribly excited to have one also. Upon reading the instructions on how to operate the hair dryer, I immediately noticed that there was something wrong with the instructions on how to use the device. You see, it was labeled “875 Watts” in a large bold font on the first page of the instructions and that meant something of significance to me. One day, my boyfriend came over to my house and noticed that my hair was damp, and asked why I had not used my new hair dryer. I told him that the hair dryer was only good for 875 Watts, and because the instructions were not clear on how to keep track of the used watts, I could not figure out how many watts I had used, or what my watt balance was, so I thought it was best to just use it on special occasions. An incredulous look of disbelief appeared on his face, and I interpreted that look to mean that he was being sympathetic to my dilemma, but then uproarious laughter followed. After he calmed down and caught his breath, he explained to me what watts meant. I was embarrassed by my ignorance, but the feeling of embarrassment was short lived when I realized that I could use my hair dryer anytime I wanted.

Here's my take on the sketch. I had to turn the sketch a little to accommodate my size picture, and if you pull the journal section up and out, the remaining part of journal appears.

Stop by Once Upon A Sketch to see what the other members created at http://onceuponasketchblog.blogspot.com/

Home Alone II

This is the inspiration picture for the Let's Get Shabby's #28 Challenge. I adore the frosting like colors in this picture, the worn aged wood, and the elegance of the chandelier with the draped strings of crystals. This picture inspired me to go through my boxes and books looking for the perfect picture to work with, and rummage through my scrapbooking stash to see what I had to create with too. I found a picture of me wearing a dress my mom made for me for my college sorority Presents. I call this Home Alone II because during my late teens and early 20's if I were home alone with a loaded 35mm camera, I'd dress up and pose in front of my camera to kill time (I've noticed 20 years olds still do this too). I was almost always the one behind the camera taking pictures of friends and family during this period so there are few pictures of me during that time. I'm happy that I did take these pictures because no one would know that I was once young and thin. LOL. I have several of those photo shoots and have already created a Home Alone I, and have added this one to the series. I used an embossing folder and added pink glimmer paint and Ingvild Bolme's lovely fluid brown chalk ink on the large semi-circle; I painted the Dusty Attic large leaf with white crackle paint and stamped it with a script scamp and inked and applied pink liquid pearls on the boarder. And, of course, I can't do anything without adding beads, so I embellished the Dusty Attic key and added a key chain made out of hemp cord and strung some pearls and beads. Here's my take on the challenge, and thanks for stopping by.

Stop by Let's Get Shabby at http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com to see what the other members have been working on.

Watching The World Go By (Featured at The Color Room)

Created this for The Color Room, Palette #79. Primarily used one color mist and two color ink pads. Lots of misting, masking, stamping and ink embossing here. Embellished the Dusty Attic key with a stamp, glitter, dimensional paint, and added some hemp cord and strung some beads on it as well. Used pages from an old law pamphlet book and made the large flower. The pages are like rice paper and are so yummy to create with. Thanks for stopping by.

Who Hoo! I just learned that this layout won Featured Layout of the Week at The Color Room.
I'm doing the happy dance. :)

Tom Sawyer for The Color Room

This weeks color palette at The Color Room inspired me to create this boy layout. I used the DA chicken wire as a mask for the background, and an embossing folder for the pipe, and inked it up a little.