scrappassion

SHE

loved life and it loved her back!

This is one of Kobi Yamada's beautiful She-quotes and I used it on this layout that I created for Scrap the Girls March challenge. 

A Special Bond

This week's color palette at The Color Room was not one of my fave when I first saw it, but as soon as I found the photo and started playing, I fell in love with the colors and I love how the layout turned out. It just screams spring to me (even though the photo was taken in September three years ago)

I glued book pages, gessoed, painted with acrylics, stamped with bubble wrap and stamped with inks. I also used Tattered Angels stencils and mists which are really hard to see.  I then added some old Fancy Pants rub-ons here and there for the final touch.

Today's Gallery Fave - Yo! Yo!

THIS LAYOUT WAS CHOSEN TODAY'S GALLERY FAVE AT COLOR COMBOS GALORE!!!!

The color palette #185 at Color Combos Galore was kinda girly but I went for a boy page instead:) This photo is of Andrea who was goofing around last September when I took this picture. He's growing and changing so fast.

Anyway here's the layout:

Misting, paint splatters, stitching and journaling around the borders.

FEATURED

in The Color Room this week with this layout of mine

by Emma Stafrace whose fabulous work you can find here.

Aren't I ever so happy:))))

A spring-y layout...

... for Color Combos Galore. I've been a member there for ages but this is the first time I've participated in one of their challenges. Here is the CCG#184 and this is my interpretation.

 

Then some challenge blogs news:

Nadia Cannizzo from Australia has started a new sketch challenge blog called Once Upon A ...Sketch which will provide a sketch and the only other requirement is to include journaling.

The first sponsor on the challenge blog is  MY SCRAPBOOK NOOK  and this is the first giveaway.

This is the blog's badge 

 

 

And you can learn more here

Doris

 

I will introduce you to Doris, my new sewing machine :) I have a habit of naming my machines/computers. My tread mill is Johnny and my first ever laptop was called Leopoldo. I know I'm weird. 

Doris is a Bernette 15 of the great Bernina family. It's advertised as "young design at an affordable price". I think the word "young" appealed to me:) Just kiddin'. I went to a Bernina retailer here in Rome and that was what they recommended after having failed to lure me to buy one of those fancy AND expensive models with a touch screen. Not for me. I'm a "mechanical-press-the-pedal" kind of girl.

So here is Doris in all its splendor:

All these yummy stitches of which I will probably use only half but at least they are all now available for me should I ever need them.

Why all this blabbing about my sewing machine?

Because I'm taking Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's It's Sew Easy online workshop which starts on this coming Monday. I met Julie at Pacs Paris (where I met also Nathalie and other talented teachers and old and new friends but more of that in another post) and got more and more into mixed media after taking her classes and after starting to follow her blog.

 

So I'm ready for this new adventure with Doris.

I actually do have a perfectly functioning sewing machine: it's a Singer Melody 50 from 20 years back for which I couldn't even find the manual on the internet (I've lost mine. I mean I know I have not LOST it, it's just buried somewhere here in the house and for the life of me I can't think where). I will need the manual and a couple of extra feet for it to be able to follow Julie's workshop so I thought "what the heck. After 20 years I really can buy a new sewing machine." The thing is that even though Doris came with 6 extra feet, the other two I will need I still had to order. So I guess I could have found those for my Melodie 50, but then again, I like Doris better:)))) 

I hope that I will gain confidence during the class to actually USE Doris to sew on paper and fabric and on my layouts! For now I'm still using my old sewing machine... which strangely enough does NOT have a name.

Nat

If you don't know Nathalie Kalbach, you've missed out on some fabulous talent and a great personality. She is a riot to be with. Why am I talking about Nathalie? Because I get to see her in a couple of weeks' time in Athens!!!! My best Greek friend Elina has organized a fabulous event (Google translation because it's all Greek to me!) where she invited Nat and I'm going! Did you have any doubts? LOL

Here you can read all about the workshops Nat will be teaching and these are the logos.

 

      
 

I met Nat at Pacs Paris last November and took all her 3 workshops filled with new techniques (for me) and  luscious products. At the time I didn't have time to photograph the projects I made - I even finished two of them right then and there - but here they are in all their glory.

Two canvases and one layout. Even though that was a sad and difficult period for me, I chose, maybe unconsciously, bright and spring-y colors which reflect my usual state of mind which is pretty optimistic.

One more thing: I was featured in Nat's monthly newsletter  Scrapbook-Trends (March issue) to which you can subscribe on her website.

March 2011

This layout is for Sketchy Thursday's challenge. It's about me and dear hubs. We've been married for 29 years and it just keeps getting better and better. I feel so blessed.

A lot of paints, stamping, misting and stitching + handmade flowers.

some details

multiple layers of paint, stamping, misting and stitching

About a boy - and me

Two layouts for two challenges. The first one is for Sketchalicious #15 

Here's my interpretation:

The background paper is Basic Grey which is already somewhat distressed but I created more layers and texture by adding paint, mist, ink (both with bubble wrap and with stamps), rub-ons and stitching. Love how this turned out. The title is cut from the acetate backing sheets of various stamps.

some details:

  

The second is about me @ 53. It's for The Studio's challenge.

I used a fun technique for the background: I tore open a brown paper bag, the thin type, and glued it on my background paper (you can use cardstock or a sheet of a patterned paper that you don't like). I used Mod Podge but any découpage glue or even a glue stick will do.  

Then I started playing with acrylic paints. First I spread the cream color with an old credit card. When that was dry (I put a sheet of wax paper and 2-3 albums on top as soon as the paint is somewhat dry to avoid the warping of the paper) I added a layer of the "ancient" Lil Davis metallic copper paint. It's yummy. I felt it needed another color, so I put just a little bit of the tan paint.

Then I stamped randomly on the background with Sepia Archival Ink using Sir Tim's stamps. I added a recent photo of me, some book paper, the tickets, the envelope (inside are some thoughts about how I feel right now), rub-ons, the title, two strips of lace which I had sprayed partially with Coffee Shop Glimmer mist and then I sewed the whole layout on a second (unused and ugly) cardstock since it kept warping a little bit on the corners.

A couple of details:

  

"Pagerize This Challenge" + other goodies

Among other fun challenges, at Scrap Our Stash there is a Pagerize This Challenge which is a sort of scraplifting challenge. 

I won Joni's Pagerize This Challenge with this layout.

It's a layout in grid form about my American sisters and Mom who came to visit us in 2004. I used Glimmer mists, Glimmer Glaze (on the birdie) and Glimmer Glam (on the leaves die-cut) and Wendy Vecchi's background stamps. I also made my first Rosette with Tim's alteration die. Loved that! The journaling is written on a Prima Marketing packaging.

And now it's my turn to provide a page for the other readers to "pagerize". Here is the one I've chosen.

I submitted my page for Joni's challenge last weekend while I was watching the news on Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Many of you may not know that my daughter Valentina was living and studying in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. By Monday we were convinced that it was best that she returned home. She arrived on Wednesday after having spent long and exhausting hours first at Narita airport and then on the plane. To make a long story short, we are just enormously grateful that she's back home. The previous post was about a layout I made after she got home.

Now that we can breathe again, and life is returning normal here in our household, I've done some layouts for various challenges.

 

This is for The Color Room's color palette #50. There's also a blog hop going on there. So many beautiful projects for everyone to enjoy and take inspiration from.

Loved playing with gesso and paints and stamps and inks and mists (used everything I had to get the right colors!). And of course I used my sewing machine.

 

This next layout is for Cocoa Daisy's March sketch/lift challenge.

Also here I played with mists and Distress inks + my sewing machine. And with some paint.

 

On the Italian blog Scrappando Carta e Ricordi the challenge for March is to do a layout with a big title, using a border punch and hand written journaling. The theme is Food and/or Beverages. This is my page.

I really don't get Fried chicken and Waffles for breakfast but maybe it's just me:)