scrappassion

REMEMBER THAT...

 

is  my latest creation for CSI.

The color palette #20 was fantastic.

I used once again Solange's fusion technique. I mixed acrylic paints, gesso, modeling paste and stamps to create the background. I especially love the texture the modeling paste gave me.

As for my evidence I used stitching, white space and paint drops (the black drops are watered down acrylic paint)
My journaling is some word of advice to my daughter Valentina. Even though our kids grow up and become adults, I guess we mammas never cease to give them advice.

4 important things to remember:

Attitude is the little things that make a big difference.
If you don't enjoy what you have, how could you be happier with more?
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Of all the things you wear your expression is the most important.

 

Childhood pictures...

of my children for this week's challenges.

The first is for CSI #19. A lovely color palette with soft light blues and greens. I decided to do a layout with a baby picture of Andrea.

I created the background mod podging (I know it's not a word!) book papers and then gessoing over them. Stamping, stitching and splashing glimmer mist completed the work.
I used a couple of strips of Michelle's beautiful downloadable papers and tags.
For my evidence I used book papers, circles in design, circular accents, bird (cut out from one of Andrea's baby books. We got quite a few of them as presents since I had Andrea quite late in life - I was 40 and most of our friends had already older kids so Andrea was "everybody's baby" so to speak). I also used gesso and multiple small patterns.

My journaling is in a circle and tells about what a great 40th birthday present Andrea was for both Hubs and me: I told my Hubs I was pregnant on his 40th b-day in May and I gave birth to Andrea next January only a couple of weeks after my 40th b-day.

here are some close ups

the tiny circles are punched out from Michelle's downloadable printouts and glued onto the page

 

The bird is from one of Andrea's baby books

 

 

 

 

Come and play with us at CSI

 

 

 

The second layout is for TCR #110. This time I made a page of the girls when they were about 6 and 4.

 

The background is created attaching book papers with mod podge, gessoing over them, then painting with acrylic paint (the yellow), stamping the butterflies with Archival Inks and stitching in circles which are connected to each other.

The flowers are from an old Scenic Route paper which I loved when it came out years ago and which I still love. I fussy cut the leaves and the blooms curling the petals with a pencil to give more dimension.

some close ups

 

 

 

 

CSI #18

A new case file is open at CSI.

Here's my layout

I absolutely loved this week's color scheme. I scrapped once again Valentina and journaled on the back of the layout (which is white, believe it or not!) about how she's blooming this year.

I went mixed media "crazy" with lots and lots of layering: I découpaged tissue paper (the orange with tiny red flowers) different book papers and patterned paper. Then I gessoed the doilies into the background, lightly misted everything with Tattered Angels Dreamsickle glimmer mist. I also added modeling paste with a stencil and then stenciled in some Pan Pastel (Hansa Yellow Shade which is the pea green) with the same stencil positioned on top of the stenciled modeling paste (I could have also colored the modeling paste with Pan Pastel had I thought about it beforehand!). The green around the corners is acrylic paint.Then it was time to add the photo and stitch around and the final touch was to splatter some Glimmer mist, this time Silver Sugar.

My evidence include tissue paper, oversized flower which is a formely white Prima flower colored around the petals with some orange Pan Pastel and in the center with Coffee shop Glimmer mist. I think my stitching could safely be described as "twisted", lol, but I also added some paper twine and twisted it around a pencil and then stapled it in place. There's bling on the flower (see detailed shot) and in Glimmer mist even though that is really hard to detect other than IRL.

My testimony is about growth and I used the word "bloom" in my title and in my journaling.

Background with gesso, modeling paste and Pan Pastel

 

Découpaged tissue paper and patterned paper

 

Stitching and glimmer mist

Crazy "twisted stitching and acrylic paint

painted petals and glimmer misted pistil and some glimmer mist shining on the background

 

COME INVESTIGATE WITH US!!

There are also downloadable coordinates every week.

 

Anna Finnabair's workshop part 2

Sunday we had Creative Grunge workshop and here's my masterpiece:

Luv, luv, luv!!!

I never knew I had hidden grungy-steampunk love in me;) Thank you Anna for showing me that. My dear hubby's comment after seeing my layout and this canvas: "Aha, NOW I understand why you needed all those metal pieces you kept asking me."

Here's a shot of Anna and Barbara 

and one of me with Anna

Anna (Finnabair)'s workshops in Rome

I had the pleasure and privilege to attend one of Anna's workshops today and I will be attending the second one tomorrow.

She is as sweet as she is talented. We made a layout today and I'm extremely happy with mine.

 

This is it in its early stages:

 

And this is how it turned out.

Love it!

Here are a couple of shots of Anna and one of Barbara, the host of this event and the owner of Timbroscrapmania, the best online store in Italy. A million thanks to Barbara for having invited Anna to Italy and given us the opportunity to learn from one of the BEST in the industry.

The mojo is back, part 3

And on we go.

This is my take on Amy Tangerine's Stitched Words challenge:

Just love how this turned out.  I hand stitched the title and around the 2 stars. The light blue star has faux stitching. I used a brick stencil, splashed some cobalt and dark grey ink, stamped yet another star with Dina Wakley's new stamps (yummy!!!) and added some paper and text strips. Love this shot of Andrea which I took in early October.

 

Sharmaine's Jams & Jellies challenge was based on different color palettes. I chose this one:

 

We had to use at leas 4 of the colors + we were allowed to use white, kraft or black.

Here's my page about my splendid sandals. They are so comfy I can wear them all day.

My background paper is off white but it looks almost cream...

 

And then to Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Hand written challenge which I absolutely loved.

I've wanted to try the wire flower ever since I first saw Donna Downey use it. This was the perfect time: I wrote inside the petal in Italian "m'ama, non m'ama" which means "he loves me, he loves me not" and luckily for me, there was an uneven number of petals so the result was that he loves me  

I made this on heavy watercolor paper which takes well different media without warping. I used gesso, book paper, watered down acrylic paint and mists, a stencil with Distress Ink, a background stamp with Archival Ink (love the new Plum) and some washi tape, random rub-ons and Jenni Bowlin's cute little butterflies.

 

The mojo is back, part 2

The next challenge I tackled was Alissa's decoupage challenge. I mod podged (it's not a verb, I know) some phone book papers on my background paper, painted, used a Crafter's Wordshop stencil with Distress Ink, splashed some color, attached my photo, stitched through my title and around the edges and broke into tears doing the journaling.

The photo is of Andrea taken a year ago right before I flew to Finland to be with my mom for the week that turned out to be her last one. The journaling says: "We took this photo of you right before I left. You wanted Mummu (Grandma) to see a happy picture of you. Actually you look a little bit like an elf with that red and grey sweater of yours. Mummu was happy to see your photo and longed to embrace you once more before she left. Know that she loved you to pieces."

 

Danielle's Clothing challenge consisted in using a piece of clothing (she gave 3 options) as your inspiration and make a holiday card.

I was inspired by this garment:

 

and this is my card:

I made a template and used various shades of green of Distress Inks applied with a blending tool. I thought this was quite a cool challenge because I hardly ever do cards.

Lisa's Home Baked challenge was next. 

You need to add the following ingredients to your LO:

FLOUR - Something white
SUGAR - Something that sparkles
BERRIES - Something red or pink
AND LET IT RISE - Add some texture

and we had to answer at least three different questions about us (she gave a list).

white: gesso

sparkle: on the rim of the round stamp and at the center of my home made paper flower there's some sparkle. Below some detailed shots.

red or pink: the background paper

texture: gesso, gauze, some punched out paper gessoed onto the background, random stitching

journaling: a list of things about me and my faves

So far this is my favorite layout. 

   

 

I used one of the graffiti backgrounds for Emily's Knit and Crocher challenge. The requirements were to use holes, a grid and some yarn or twine on the layout.

Here's mine:

I used a stencil for the grid and the circles (and added some modeling paste with another stencil) and then stapled some yellow and orange twine onto the background. I love how this turned out.

 

to be continued...

 

 

7 DOTS STUDIO

A new company 7 DOTS STUDIO is born! It's a Polish company owned by Tusia. The designers of the beautiful new lines of papers are Anna Iwanowska-Pietkiewicz and Anna Dabrowska-Pekocka also known as Finnabair on the internet and in the scrapbooking/mixed media world.

 

Elise Rebel designed by Anna Iwanowska-Pietkiewicz

 

Dreamer designed by Anna Dąbrowska-Pękocka

I'll be one of the lucky ones to be able to participate in Finnabair's scrapbooking/mixed media classes organized by Barbara - Timbroscrapmania in Rome at the beginning of December (there might be a couple of spots left) and I really hope that Barbara will have these beautiful papers in her store by then.

Just head to the 7 DOTS STUDIO's blog to participate in their blog candy!

Altered album cover

I'm back! I took a long break from blogging due to a vacation, having all my kids at home at the same time and a lovely crafting cruise in the Caribbean.

I haven't scrapped or done any kind of crafting for a loooong time (other than during the cruise but I'll get to that in the next post) but last night I altered my stencil/mask album. Got the idea of putting my stencils in a 12" x 12" album inside page protectors from Julie Balzer . Thanks Julie ;)

I played with my new stencils from Crafter's Workshop and with some gesso, acrylic paint, Colorwash, Distress inks and Faber-Castell's Gelatos (yummy!).

In my next post I'll post some pictures of our cruise and then I guess I'll go backwards with the photos: family together Aug-Sept and then from our vacation in Finland in July.

But here's the altered cover of my new stencil album.

PS. It's good to be back :)

 

 

When...

I just finished this layout for OUAS (Once Upon A... Sketch) challenge blog where the sketch was this

When did my lil boy become a teenager?

The photos were taken in April. I swear in January Andrea was still shorter than me. It's almost as if he changed overnight. Incredible...

 

I started the layout using stencils and modeling paste on blue cardstock to give it some texture and roughness and then I painted strokes of red acrylic paint. I made the bracket and put some twine around it and a couple of eyelets for a masculine touch.

 

I added the washer and a piece of a measuring tape.

 

The clock is Tim Holtz's stamp. I used Distress Ink Black Soot and put clear embossing powder on it (it doesn't show in the pictures, not even in the closeup). The measuring tape and the clock of course show the time and the growth.

I mounted the photos on a piece of Fancy Pants pink paper with flowers to show that Andrea also has a softer and more affectionate side to him. It's not all  Mom-you-don't-get-it. LOL.

I stitched around the various papers and across the title. Finally I added my printed journaling